Via the WSJ, it seems that Derek Jeter has a pretty small strike zone in relation to his height when compared to a few other Yankees and Mets. The zones are based on just one year of data and without looking at a wide cross section of the league we can't tell where they fit in, exactly, but it's interesting anecdotally.Today, Mark Teixeira donated $100,000 to Harlem RBI. Much of the money will be used to provide tuition assistance, SAT prep and counseling for kids who want to go to college. He said:I started talking to them during spring training and I was blown away. One thing I'm passionate about is education and this is allowing kids to get an opportunity to go to college and use every tool at their disposal.Carlos Beltran has also donated $255,000 to the program since 2005.Joe from River Ave. Blues examines Nick Johnson's quest to start hitting.Guess what, Jason Gay... I'm not going to start rooting for Boston because "a Yankee championship means more when Boston is competitive". The Rays aren't going anywhere so the sooner the Sox are dead and buried, the better. And while you claim to have come up with "Schillingfreude", but we've been celebrating Papenfreude and Soxenfreude for a long time around these parts. You've been placed on notice, sir.However, I will acknowledge that Dave Roberts is suffering from lymphoma and wish him a full and speedy recovery. In his honor, Joe Posnanski put together the 10 most famous steals of all time.In addition to catching up with their top 30 preseason prospects, Pending Pinstripes highlights some of the better offensive performances throughout the system in April.John Sterling's home run call for Randy Winn is a loser.If you scroll down to #5 here, you'll see that the Yankees were not the first team to use Kate Smith for inspiration. But at least she was still alive when the Fliers did it.Speaking of Philly, while the baseball blogosphere was briefly titillated and entertained by the dude who got tased at Citizen's Bank Park last night, Tim Marchman puts the use of that kind of force into proper perspective. Craig Calcaterra agrees.Larry from Wezen-ball's Tater Trot Tracker was featured in USA Today, just a mere step along his path to world domination.In case you've had your head in the sand for the past 24 hours, the Yankees are skipping Javier Vazquez's turn in the rotation in Boston. It seems like a good move to give the guy some time to collect himself and save him from the hostile environment of fackin' Fenway Paaahhk. If that doesn't cure what ails him, I don't know what will.Tom Verducci pines for "the crack of the bat". That was almost an awesome pun but I don't know of any bats made of evergreen wood.Think the NBA Playoffs are less random than the MLB's? Tango says think again.Also over at The Book Blog, Tango tries to clear up some misconceptions about Win Probability Added and Win Expectancy. David Pinto points out a flaw in the kind of WPA charts we use in that they all start at with 50/50 odds despite the fact that one team usually has a better chance of winning. Sure, but that opens up a Pandora's Box of other variables that could be taken into account on a batter-by-batter basis.Rob Neyer answers some questions from his mailbag and while debunking the idea that a certain rule that was was said created for Jackie Robinson, talks about how much intuitive sense the regulations of the game make. If only the original statistics were as logical.Here's a nice piece about the 12 year old girl who threw back-to-back no-hitters in Little League and was taught how to throw a knuckleball by Joe Neikro. We linked to the story about the no-no's when they happened but this is a more complete profile of Chelsea Baker.Blue Jays fan Navin Vaswami - he of the "baseball road trip of a lifetime" - stops in Philly and admits that Roy Halladay is probably in a better place now.Theo Epstein had some strong words for the play of the Red Sox thus far, calling it"unintelligent, undisciplined, uninspired" and threatening changes if it doesn't turn around. That's pretty much like the principal coming into the class room and telling the kids that the all have detention if they don't shape up. It probably won't happen, but it might get them to sit up straight.Oh you thought you know how much of a slimeball Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was based on how he runs the Redskins? Look at what he did to Six Flags."First Basemens"? Yeah that's Nada Word.
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C'mon, just because you don't like what that guy wrote about rooting for the Sox doesn't mean you have to resort to petty name-calling.
ReplyDelete...oh, nevermind.
My nephew and I, both out of range of John Sterling last night, speculated on his call. I went with, "That's a Winn-er, Randy" while he chose, "A dandy from Randy." I hate his stupid catch phrases anyway ("oh, you're on the Mark, Teixeira" is the worst), but either one of ours would have been preferable to his lame-ass choice for Winn.
ReplyDeleteTimmy only got his answer after he conferred with me. My second guess was what Sterling actually went with. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteRe: Dan Snyder. That Slate article missed how Snyder mismanaged the Six Flags commercials. When he came in, virtually the first thing he did was nix Mr. Six (the old man dancing in the commercials.) For that alone, Snyder's name ought to life in infamy!
ReplyDeleteFortunately, years later Six Flags finally did bring back Mr. Six to the commercials.