Baseball 2012

[MadBurgerMaker]

It would have been funny if they had gotten mowed down by the community college pitchers, but the CC team had O's pitchers and a catcher, so meh it's just a cool charity thing instead of LOLOLOL or whatever

[CountDeMoney]

I almost forgot, in celebration of Opening Day.  I mean, celebración!

[derspiess]

Speaking of Castro, it seems like Ozzie Guillen still can't keep his mouth shut

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/04/07/miami-marlins-manager-apologizes-for-saying-he-loves-fidel-castro/

[sbr]

That's some funny stuff, especially for the Miami manager.

[sbr]

Random unconfirmed Twitter fact.  No guarantees on fun.

Jamie Moyer has faced 8.9% off all batters.  Ever.

[jimmy olsen]

Random unconfirmed Twitter fact.  No guarantees on fun.

Jamie Moyer has faced 8.9% off all batters.  Ever.

If true, that's fucking mind blowing!

Also, the Red Sox bullpen sucks!!! 

[sbr]

I just did some quick googleing and math but then my pc crashed right ad I was going to hit post.

Assuming some reasonable numbers I think it is very likely true.  I may repost it after dinner.

[sbr]

Ooh Firefox saved my post. 

According to this baseball-reference.com says 16,187 had played MLB Baseball as of 2007.  Let's make it an even 17,000 now, even though I think that is too high (assuming the original number is correct), almost 1,000 new players over the last 5 years?  No way but it has lots of zeros.

Now what percentage of those players are pitchers only?  A pretty small percentage, I think.  The DH had only been around for a couple of decades and most teams only carried 8-9 pitchers up until recently.  Maybe 80% of that 17,000 could be classified as "hitters"?

17,000*.8*.089=1210.4

Moyer has pitched 4025 innings over 25 years.  That would mean he would need to face just under 50 new and unique hitters each year.

Seems feasable to my basic math and research.

[derspiess]

I just did some quick googleing and math but then my pc crashed right ad I was going to hit post.

Assuming some reasonable numbers I think it is very likely true.  I may repost it after dinner.

You watching the Cards game?  It's a good 'in.

[sbr]

I just did some quick googleing and math but then my pc crashed right ad I was going to hit post.

Assuming some reasonable numbers I think it is very likely true.  I may repost it after dinner.

You watching the Cards game?  It's a good 'in.

Nope, the only games I have here are Cubs/Brewers on ESPN and Mariners/Rangers on the local FoxSports channel. 

I saw the cards were off to a 4-0 start with a bunch more HRs.

[dps]

According to this baseball-reference.com says 16,187 had played MLB Baseball as of 2007.  Let's make it an even 17,000 now, even though I think that is too high (assuming the original number is correct), almost 1,000 new players over the last 5 years?  No way but it has lots of zeros.

Now what percentage of those players are pitchers only?  A pretty small percentage, I think.  The DH had only been around for a couple of decades and most teams only carried 8-9 pitchers up until recently.  Maybe 80% of that 17,000 could be classified as "hitters"?

1000 new players in the last 5 years is too high.  I don't know what the number is, but it's not that many.

And keep in mind that even some of the non-pitchers had no plate appearances (they had Moonlight Graham-type "careers" in the majors that consisted of an inning as a defensive replacement or as a pinch-runner).

When I first heard that 8.9% figure, I thought it was too high.  But in thinking about it, consider that Moyer has pitched for 24 seasons (not counting this year).  All of major league history is 137 seasons, so he's been active during 17.5% of all major league seasons.  Of course, there are 2 major leagues, and he's only been active in 1 of them in any given season (he doesn't have any seasons in which he changed leagues during the season), so 8.9% is probably about right.

[derspiess]

Nope, the only games I have here are Cubs/Brewers on ESPN and Mariners/Rangers on the local FoxSports channel. 

I saw the cards were off to a 4-0 start with a bunch more HRs.

A 7-1 final took some wind out of the Reds' sails from their walk-off 9th inning win they had Sunday.  Westbrook pitched an amazing game and Yadi was on fire.  Plus $251 million dollar boy Votto is batting .154 in his first 4 games

I was going to take my kid to tonight's game, but it's going to be as cold as an early April night game would typicallly be, so I decided to take tomorrow off, pull him out of pre-school and hit the 12:35 game.

[CountDeMoney]

Speaking of Castro, it seems like Ozzie Guillen still can't keep his mouth shut

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/04/07/miami-marlins-manager-apologizes-for-saying-he-loves-fidel-castro/

And now he's suspended.    MLB should be ashamed of itself.

[derspiess]

Speaking of Castro, it seems like Ozzie Guillen still can't keep his mouth shut

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/04/07/miami-marlins-manager-apologizes-for-saying-he-loves-fidel-castro/

And now he's suspended.    MLB should be ashamed of itself.

For letting him manage in the first place

But seriously, I like Ozzie.  We need a little crazy in baseball sometimes.

[derspiess]

Interesting article about the guy who pioneered baseball computer simulations:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7793059/john-burgeson-ibm-computer-start-baseball-video-games

I remember listening to an "all-time greats" simulated game in the early 80s that was broadcast over the radio as if it were a live game.  Not long after that, Dad got us a computer game called "Baseball's Best" that let you do it yourself (you could even enter and save additional players, which was a cool feature), and had cheesy animations for the plays.

Then MicroLeague came out, which was the gold standard for a few years, even though the version we had lacked any kind of editor and we had to buy years/teams if we wanted to stay current.  I have several teams' 1985 rosters still emblazoned in my memory thanks to playing that game over & over.

Good times...