Game 4 was riddled with "A-Rod is 1-11", "A-Rod is 1-12" and "A-Rod is 1-13" in the world series talk. It's too bad that 0-8 of A-Rod's "slump" came in consecutive games, one of which was pitched by Cliff Lee, who shut down everyone except Derek Jeter in Game 1. How come nobody is ragging on Teixeira, who is hitting almost as bad as Nick Swisher? Can't we lay off A-Rod, who has been an absolute beast in the post season outside of two games? No one has ever had 8 bad at bats in a row before, right?
I wonder if it does any good to mention that A-Rod had an "unclutch" 2-R HR in game 3 and game winning double in the top of the 9th today. I guess hitting in the clutch doesn't count as being clutch. It's all about being David Eckstein and hitting .400 with a .390 OBP and .400 SLG.
Cause you know, WPA is a bullshit stat made up by nerds in their mother's basements, right?
(also, how is this the first use of the unclutch tag?)
____
For the record, here is A-Rod's WPA by game in the WS:
1: -.096 (Teixeira and Damon weren't much better and Cliff Lee pitched an amazing game)
2: -.090 (Pedro, Howard, Damon and Utley were all worse; Werth had a -.087 WPA in game 2)
3: +.165 (third best amongst all players in game 4)
4: +.280 (second to only Pedro Feliz in game 4)
That's a cumulative +.259 WPA in the World Series. Four of those = 1 win; by proxy, A-Rod's .259 WPA showing over four games means that he's helped the Yankees win one of them. Please Tim McCarver. Keep complaining.
Showing posts with label Tim McCarver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim McCarver. Show all posts
Baseball umpires have hit an all-time low...again
Today's Yankees/Angles game could not have had more drastic umpire errors. You would think these veteran umpires need a lesson on baseball from Tim McCarver; thats how elementary these mistakes are. Fuck, scooter the talking baseball was embarrassed by these calls. Deadspin has the screen shots of the plays
Groundball back to the pitcher. Posada takes off for home and Cano heads to 3rd. Posada gets caught in a run down but cant return to 3rd base because it is now occupied by cano. But as Napoli gets to 3rd base, Cano steps off the bag for some reason, maybe to let Posada take the base, such that both Yankees are off the bad. Napoli tags Cano(out) then he tags Posada(out). Not so much. Tim McClellen calls Posada out but Cano safe. Clearly a mistake of drastic proportions, yet there is no discussion outside of Mike Scoscia shouting at an umpire perplexed for about the 20th time this series. My problem is this. Obviously a mistake was made on the call. Why is an umpire not allowed to change his mind. Is there a rule that the initial, reflex decision is final? Maybe this is why woman should be umpires. They would actually discuss the play with each other and reach an accurate conclusion. Of course, they cannot be trusted because of "that time of the month" hence they cannot be umpires.
Two more plays shown above. A Yankee baserunner(Swisher?) is clearly thrown out at 2nd on a pick off move, yet the play is called safe. Why even have these retards out there. This is not that difficult. Anyone watching on HD could see what happened, why cant these people see in real life. The second play is Nick Swisher scoring on a sac fly in the same inning as the blown pick off call. The Angels protest that Swisher left 3rd before the catch was made, Tim McClellen agrees and calls Swisher out. Replay shows that Swisher actually left after the catch was made, but that wasnt even the worst part. The worst part was replay showing that McClellen was not even looking at Swishers or his feet as the catch was made, but was looking at the outfielder, which is the 2nd base umpires job anyway. So how could McClellen call Swisher out for leaving too soon, if he was not looking at the play? I dont think it even in his peripheral vision. Fucker has some explaining to do. The Yanks are going to win this whole thing cause Arod is god, yeah you heard me McCarver, but sometimes it feels like i'm watching the refs umpire more than the teams play baseball.
Also, last night's baseball games were just horribly officiated behind the plate. The strike zone and the umpires calls were off all the time. Chip Caray even felt the need state that the automated strike zone is an approximation of what the strike zone should be. If by approximation, he actually means completely accurate, then yes it is an approximation. It's still better than what the umpire is doing, which is guessing. And all this goes back to Bud Selig. In 10 years when the games history has been tarnished by horrible calls in playoff games, Selig will hire some dude to run an investigation, purge some clubhouse attendants, and write a 400 page memorandum concluding that Selig is a moron who was specifically hired for his stupidity to maintain the moronic traditions of baseball.
Groundball back to the pitcher. Posada takes off for home and Cano heads to 3rd. Posada gets caught in a run down but cant return to 3rd base because it is now occupied by cano. But as Napoli gets to 3rd base, Cano steps off the bag for some reason, maybe to let Posada take the base, such that both Yankees are off the bad. Napoli tags Cano(out) then he tags Posada(out). Not so much. Tim McClellen calls Posada out but Cano safe. Clearly a mistake of drastic proportions, yet there is no discussion outside of Mike Scoscia shouting at an umpire perplexed for about the 20th time this series. My problem is this. Obviously a mistake was made on the call. Why is an umpire not allowed to change his mind. Is there a rule that the initial, reflex decision is final? Maybe this is why woman should be umpires. They would actually discuss the play with each other and reach an accurate conclusion. Of course, they cannot be trusted because of "that time of the month" hence they cannot be umpires.
Two more plays shown above. A Yankee baserunner(Swisher?) is clearly thrown out at 2nd on a pick off move, yet the play is called safe. Why even have these retards out there. This is not that difficult. Anyone watching on HD could see what happened, why cant these people see in real life. The second play is Nick Swisher scoring on a sac fly in the same inning as the blown pick off call. The Angels protest that Swisher left 3rd before the catch was made, Tim McClellen agrees and calls Swisher out. Replay shows that Swisher actually left after the catch was made, but that wasnt even the worst part. The worst part was replay showing that McClellen was not even looking at Swishers or his feet as the catch was made, but was looking at the outfielder, which is the 2nd base umpires job anyway. So how could McClellen call Swisher out for leaving too soon, if he was not looking at the play? I dont think it even in his peripheral vision. Fucker has some explaining to do. The Yanks are going to win this whole thing cause Arod is god, yeah you heard me McCarver, but sometimes it feels like i'm watching the refs umpire more than the teams play baseball.
Also, last night's baseball games were just horribly officiated behind the plate. The strike zone and the umpires calls were off all the time. Chip Caray even felt the need state that the automated strike zone is an approximation of what the strike zone should be. If by approximation, he actually means completely accurate, then yes it is an approximation. It's still better than what the umpire is doing, which is guessing. And all this goes back to Bud Selig. In 10 years when the games history has been tarnished by horrible calls in playoff games, Selig will hire some dude to run an investigation, purge some clubhouse attendants, and write a 400 page memorandum concluding that Selig is a moron who was specifically hired for his stupidity to maintain the moronic traditions of baseball.
Quick Rant, then more law homework
TBO and I have been talking about how underrated A-Roid is over the past few weeks, but both of us have been too lazy to do the leg work. Despite a owning a .289/.377/.524 [.901 OPS, .384 wOBA] career postseason slash line with 10 HR, 26 R, 25 RBI in 166 post season AB's (which extrapolates to an incredibly unclutch 36 HR, 94 R, 91 RBI season over the course of 600 ABs), Alex Rodriguez is terrible and unclutch. It doesn't matter that, as Fangraphs pointed out the other day (I have updated the stats), Alex Rodriguez has +0.79 Clutch* rating in the post season since 2002, while Mr. November has a -1.00 Clutch* rating over that same time frame.
God, life is strange.
Also, if Joe Buck mentioned Reggie Willits one more time in last night's Yankees-Angels broadcast, I think I would have thrown a shoe at the TV.
*Clutch is a mathematical formula that determines "[h]ow much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment." (I feel like Lexis Nexus, posting footnotes in the middle of my documents...)Fuck that fact that Mr. October had a .278/.358/.527 (.885 OPS) career postseason triple slash line. Double fuck the fact that Tim McCarver bases his view of life on Batting Average, which only makes the unclutchiness argument even more bizarre.
God, life is strange.
Also, if Joe Buck mentioned Reggie Willits one more time in last night's Yankees-Angels broadcast, I think I would have thrown a shoe at the TV.
Tim McCarver hates statisctics...statisticians
Tim McCarver and Joe Buck were back at it again, making sure the baseball enthused youth of America know that statistics are evil. And no conversation about the overratedness of numbers can exclude the underratedness of Derek Jeter. McCarver points out that by every statistical measurement, Jeter rates out as the worst defensive shortstop in the major leagues.
*Update* Derek Jeter committed an error in the 8th inning of a playoff game and followed that with a strike out in the bottom of the same inning. But it wasnt the 7th game of the world series so it doesnt really count.
*Update* Since I initially finished this post, there have been 2 more interesting Derek Jeter references. On a single to right, Jeter went from 1st to 3rd. McCarver mentioned that Abreu got the ball back into the infield fast because he knew Jeter was running the bases. Yep, cause if it was anyone else, Abreu would have jerked off first, and then got the ball back into the infield, cause no one would have the inclination to score outside of Derek Jeter. Second reference was on a ground ball to shortstop. Slo-mo showed that Jeter looked at the runner going to 3rd on the play before throwing to first to make sure he didnt try to score. Because of that, McCarver compared Jeter's vision to that of Larry Bird. Bird is a top 5 basketball player of all time. Possibly the best shooter ever. Jeter is neither, but he has won 4 rings! Yogi Berra won 10 championships, whats your fucking point
I hate you Tim McCarver. Could you please go away and never come back
Love,
TBO
You wont find a single person to say that now. All those people with the numbers are hiding in a cave, under a rock, somewhere.He forgot to mention their mothers basement, too. Then Joe Buck added on, saying any scout that watches Jeter play a single game wouldnt pick any other shortstop to get a ball hit to them in the 7th game of a world series. Huh, let us just forget that the season is 162 games long, plus another 15 or so in the playoffs. Defense in those game does not matter. Only the 7th game of the WS matters. Yeah Joe Buck, these novel baseball fans are retards. Lets set them straight!
*Update* Derek Jeter committed an error in the 8th inning of a playoff game and followed that with a strike out in the bottom of the same inning. But it wasnt the 7th game of the world series so it doesnt really count.
*Update* Since I initially finished this post, there have been 2 more interesting Derek Jeter references. On a single to right, Jeter went from 1st to 3rd. McCarver mentioned that Abreu got the ball back into the infield fast because he knew Jeter was running the bases. Yep, cause if it was anyone else, Abreu would have jerked off first, and then got the ball back into the infield, cause no one would have the inclination to score outside of Derek Jeter. Second reference was on a ground ball to shortstop. Slo-mo showed that Jeter looked at the runner going to 3rd on the play before throwing to first to make sure he didnt try to score. Because of that, McCarver compared Jeter's vision to that of Larry Bird. Bird is a top 5 basketball player of all time. Possibly the best shooter ever. Jeter is neither, but he has won 4 rings! Yogi Berra won 10 championships, whats your fucking point
I hate you Tim McCarver. Could you please go away and never come back
Love,
TBO
Tim McCarver is back
Watching the Yanks Sox game on Fox being forced to endure Joe Buck and Tim McCarver for the first time in a long time. Tim has something you should know about Clay Buchholz
"Confidence and stuff are one of the same thing"All you kiddies out there who hope to pitch in the major leagues, just know that all you need is confidence. Forget height, weight, elbow, shoulder, strength, or practice. All it takes is confidence to have major league stuff. I bet Dustin Pedroia could throw 100MPH if given the chance
