iamshack

The point is that 1 player in baseball or hockey can dramatically render an overall talent disparity irrelevant. Additionally, lesser quality baseball teams beat higher quality ones all the time. It's a game where the most talented team does not always win, but rather, one where the team that is playing better at the time often does. Additionally, the team with the better SP often wins. In fact, the team with the better pitcher wins 59 % of the time, according to Bill James. In 2009, the Seattle Mariners were 24-9 in Felix Hernandez's starts. In games he did not start, they were 61-68. You explain that disparity, Milk. In 2008, the Blue Jays were 21-13 in Roy Halladay's starts, and 65-63 when he did not start. In 2008, the Giants were 22-12 when Tim Lincecum started, and 50-78 when he did not start. During the last three seasons, the Giants have won 64.7 percent of the time with Lincecum on the mound. The Blue Jays/Phillies have won 60.3 percent of the time with Halladay. And the Mariners have won 61.4 percent of the time when Hernandez starts. Link

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 01:48 AM) That's the series that it became obvious that Contreras as the best pitcher in baseball was about to end....that hip injury caught up with him. Yeah, I think he was 9-0 at that time and he gave up 5 or 6 earned and we bailed him out.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 12:11 AM) To be fair, the Sox and Tigers were also much better teams up to that point in the season than the Twins and Tigers are now. On that date, the Tigers were 48-25, and the Sox were 46-25 as opposed to the current records of 40-29 for the Twins and 38-30 for the Tigers. They will certainly need to have the other 7 players of our offense to start hitting better, but they won't need as much of those ridiculously fluky numbers just by virtue of only needing to make up half the games as the twins did. Outstanding point.

Just watched Invictus. Solid movie. Amazed at how goofy Matt Damon could make himself sound. Just got Avatar in the mail. Will be interested to see how it compares on Blu Ray in my pad compared to on IMax in the theater.

My iPhone4 will be arriving Wednesday morning, ahead of schedule....woot!

I can't make fun of him. I do the same thing. I just double space my sentences, while he single spaces them. I find that in paragraph form people glaze over things and I NEED people to read what I post! Here's to you, Greg775!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 05:15 PM) 4 mile run in the books. 7:45 pace Good work, my brother. I am in my rest week, but since this is my second time through, I don't think I need to do the lame yoga and stretch nonsense. Back and Chest for me today, Plyo tomorrow, Core Wednesday. Really kicking some ass lately. Where is everyone else besides me and Rock?

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) He's on pace for 22 RBI and 14 doubles, not to mention he's batting a boastful .250 with an OPS below .600 and well below average defense... he better pull off some serious magic if he wants his season to be anywhere remotely near decent. DeJesus is leaps and bounds better. That's not true. His defense has been outstanding in left. He certainly has not been Rickey Henderson, but he's doing a reasonably decent job stealing bases and an outstanding job of playing LF. He's the least of our problems right now.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 06:06 PM) That Twins team got some absurd 2nd half numbers (mostly batting average) out of EVERYONE in their lineup including some seemingly mediocre players. 5 starters (Morneau, White, Mauer, Hunter and Cuddyer) put up .850+ OPS's, Morneau hit .342, White .321 and Mauer .311. Then the absurd: their backup catcher (Redmond) hit .321 in 21 starts, Luis Castillo hit .314 with a .375 OBP at the top, Jason Bartlett hit .309, Nick "no bat" Punto hit .285 with a .332 OBP as their everyday 3B and Jason f***ing Tyner hit .312 in 321 PA. The team as a whole hit .316/.363/.474/.838 in July. When you have THAT many fluky performances and throw in the MVP of the league, Cy Young award winner, a catcher who wins the f***ing batting title, a rookie stater with a 208 ERA+ and a closer with a 0.79 WHIP and 12.5 K/9 you're going to win a s*** ton of games. Yeah but at the same time, Kal, would you be shocked if we caught a run like that on offense? With the way Gordon, AJ and Q hit in the first 50 games, I wouldn't be shocked if we had an overcorrection and put up some pretty insane numbers for a month or 45 games.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 04:41 PM) That's a s***ty ass fact. Makes the 2006 debacle even harder to swallow. I honestly remember being in Cincinnati playing the Reds in the midst of our ass-kicking of just about everyone, and it was right when the Twins were beginning to put a streak together. It was right around this time (probably this last weekend), and I knew they were going to make a run. They had Santana, Liriano was coming into his own, and you just could feel that they were going to get back into the race. I hope that they are thinking the same thing right now. We can do this....Just need to keep the arms going.

QUOTE (35thstreetswarm @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 04:29 PM) Fun fact: The Twins were .500 on this date in 2006 -- 11.5 games out of first, 10.5 games behind the second place Sox -- before riding a couple hot starting pitchers to a 96 win season and division championship. I know, I know, they're the mighty Twins, they of the 5 division titles in the '00s to the Sox measly 3 (and a World Series ring). But a kid can dream. That Twins team is the team I have been pointing to for the last 2 months in anticipation of this very run. We can do this. We have 94 games left!

QUOTE (onedude @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 07:59 PM) So you're telling us there's a chance..... I've been staring at your avatar for 3 minutes now...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 12:17 PM) Very true, but the power and the walks are still there. I think, looking at his stats, the difference between him being useful and useless is going to be whether he's a 25 HR guy in the big leagues or a 40+ home run guy. With his strikeout rate, if he's hitting 40+ home runs, he's still taking walks and has a high OPS, so he's basically the catching version of Mark Reynolds, and his HR will carry his batting average. If he's only hitting 20-25 home runs, he's striking out so much that he'll be hitting in the low .200's and he'll look like Nick Swisher did when he was with us. Yeah, we don't want him to be John Buck or Miguel Olivo (although Olivo has one hell of a first half this year in Colorado).

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 11:08 AM) I would love Kemp and would trade Floyd for him in an instant. An outfield of Kemp Rios and Q would be one of the best in the league. Berkman hasnt hit for 2 years, maybe he is done. I know Colletti is sort of down on Kemp and his baserunning and attitude, but if they were going to move him, they would hold a leaguewide auction and probably get one hell of an offer. In my mind, it would take not only Floyd, but probably a Viciedo and a guy like Mitchell to get it done. Kemp is a burgeoning superstar player. I'm just pretty happy that Rios is putting up numbers very similar to Kemp's awesome season from a year ago...

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 09:30 PM) They're not going to fool me. They need to beat good teams and get into 1st place before I'm in. They have to be in 1st place before you're in? Good grief.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 10:34 AM) Have you seen Alonso's numbers this year? He's got a lower OPS than Jordan Danks does in the International League? He's far from a sure thing and right now it's doubtful he'll be ready at the start of 2011. Notwithstanding the fact that the Reds will probably use Alonso themselves as a piece to fill one of their own holes. If you haven't noticed, they're kind of in the thick of things themselves...

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 11:37 PM) I haven't been that impressed with Brazil, at least compared to some of their other teams. Argentina is probably better. They're beatable with their lack of care for defense. I'll be interested to see how they dial it up a notch in the knockout round. Argentina is awfully good though right now... Just ask Kobe

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 08:51 PM) You cite a single game to support your theory? Come on, basketball is easily the most obvious sport where a single great player can make a nobody team into a contender. In baseball, a player can carry a team for a stretch, but they cannot single-handedly make a team a contender. I'm not writing a term paper, Milk.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 07:47 PM) LeBron James & Peyton Manning say hello. Yeah, and do you remember Michael Jordan's game against Boston in the playoffs at the beginning of his career, when he put up 63 and we still lost? You've got to have players around you in basketball and football...but in baseball, as in hockey, if you've got a stud arm or a stud goalie, you can win games you've got no business winning...

I understand the hesitancy because we are beating weak NL teams here, but I think this is more a coincidence than you guys are willing to admit. Baseball is not a game like football or basketball. It is a game where 1 or 2 players can heavily influence the outcome of the game and render the talent disparity between the teams as a whole almost entirely irrelevant. I don't really care who you play, winning 10 of 11 baseball in the major leagues is a hell of an accomplishment, and it's a great sign that this team has things back on the right track. I wouldn't be shocked if the starting pitching continues this run and we continue winning series from solid teams, whether that be the Braves, or solid AL teams. I can understand the skepticism, but this wasn't just a few series' wins we put together. This is a genuine damn good streak of baseball and I tend to think we'd be beating just about whomever we would have run up against right now.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 03:20 PM) This is easily a 90 win team in the NL. This next series against Atlanta will be big. If we can win this series, Kenny should really think about getting some pieces. Atlanta is 18-21 on the road. If we continue pitching the ball, we can take the series.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 03:18 PM) Those teams were 2 of the best in baseball. The Pirates and Nats are 2 of the worst. Tough crowd!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 02:06 PM) And until this May, his power game was the thing that he was missing. So...there's lots of room for improvement on it. That ball he hit in his first PA would have been a home run in the Cell...

Way to make quick work of them in the 5th Freddy! Watching Brasil and Ivory Coast here as well and I like when I flip back and we are already walking off the field after putting up the 4-spot in the top of the frame...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 02:01 PM) He keeps hitting the ball this hard, he won't be looking for long. Yeah, I am really loving what I've seen of Dayan so far...dude is pure power