It did look like out of the 3, Duncan had the longest run to the ball. It isn’t his fault that the cameraman lost the ball in the lights too. If the camera would have been on Ank instead of Dunc, this conversation probably wouldn’t be happening.

it’s simple math. His defense may cost 10 runs a season vs an average defender but his offense gains 30 runs over an average hitter…that’s certainly better then a league average defender that’s league average hitter.

30 – 10 > 0 + 0

for a LF for 2007 (source baseball-reference.com RF9 = 1.96 RF9lg = 2.00). For comparison Brynes had an RF9 of 2.30 and Burrell had an RF9 of 1.61

IMHO, CDunc is a case of an average defender with a serious lack of style going up against above average fan expectactions. He ends up making the plays an average outfielder makes, he just looks like crap as he does it.

“subliminarily” = subliminally . . . .

Which is a problem when your entire pitching philosophy is predicated on keeping the ball down to induce groundballs. He was peppering the bottom border of the zone early on and not getting calls. It looked to me like he adjusted to the strike zone but it makes it much harder to get good hitters out if you have to elevate the ball.

This is also a pet peeve of mine when watching games on TV. Al Hrabosky and Rick Horton frequently point out that pitches that were hit were not down in the strike zone but they fail to point out the fact that the umpire is not calling that low pitch a strike. And if that is the case, the pitcher is forced to either elevate the pitches and hope that the balls in play can be caught or serve up walks. The former makes more sense to me and I’m not surprised when major league hitters hit the ball hard.

Someone touched on the strike zone issue yesterday in the main thread (in reference to elevated pitch counts). It has gotten rediculously small from top to bottom and I too think it should be expanded somewhat. It seems like the strike zone is the size of a dinner plate these days.

what’s wrong with the offense? why can’t they get those risp in? I said this a while ago, but I still think with this team that they need a more regular lineup. ludwick leading off is crazy when you have Barton and Schu

The state of KY not VEB named him a Col.

It is a game in April, if you want to give your closer some confidence don’t have him walk someone he MAY have to get out in a key situation in the future.

but it was Pedro Cerrano who couldn’t get a curveball…..sorry, bit of a Major League junkie (as the signature will attest).

on the broadcast tonight (referring to Ankiel’s slide into 3rd in the 1st almost coming up short)

First day in at least 10 years that WMH has come up twice (unless I’m watching the movie of course)

he’s trying to get extended on inside pitches, but there pounding him inside even in relation to where he is set up. And he has such freakish long arms, I think he thinks he can connect with outside corner pitches as well (and he might be right).

He is small and has a small strike zone.

Izturis is a left handed.

Again. Im not trying to say we lost because of the ump. Im just trying to illustrate how wide of a strike zone Arroyo was getting.

Hit his double off of the third pitch thrown. I believe you are thinking of the first pitch thrown. Which was called a ball. It was thrown right down the middle but a little on the low side. And was called for being low. Not to the left or the right. The second pitch he fouled off. The third pitch was his double. The ump was a lot more consisent with calling balls at the knees. As someone pointed out else in this blog the was wasn’t giving the low strikes. Which is why Welly was throwing up in the zone.

In my “Road to the Show” franchise (in which I am only controlling my namesake player, not making any GM/managerial decisions or controlling any players other than my own created guy,) now well into the year 2011, Hancock is in my rotation and is the frontrunner for the Cy Young. Makes me a little sad every fifth game…

look at how many fastballs out of the zone were called strikes that were not strikes… duncan got brutalized by the umpires last year.

Not really, but I could hear him saying it.

I think there are some possible misconceptions with the use of the phrase "small sample sizes." I think it is almost used exclusively as negative. But I think sample size is a trade off among various aspects: availability of data, accuracy required for analysis/hypothesis testing, variability in the data (e.g. if there is no variability, then N=1 is quite alright), and detail needed vs. aggregation (i.e. aggregation increases sample size at the expense of controlling for factors). I know that some often make fun of TLR with his "tea leaves reading" (maybe TLR graduated from Hogwarts before passing the bar) for using very small sample sizes of individual batter vs. pitcher matchups. To me, that is not totally useless because that is the most specific data concerning a particular matchup. I think that data should be combined with more aggregated data, e.g. batter versus similar types of pitchers (left/right, flyball/groundball) or career numbers… So I think small sample sizes does serve some purpose. On the one end of the spectrum we have anecdotal evidence and on the other very aggregated non-specific data.

your call sign to “yer dog second” ?

But I like Hoff at 2nd (granted, no power shown from him so far).

I don’t think that’s as easy a transition as people sometimes think it is. His bat plays best as a C. It plays well at 2B too, but not as much. Of course it would fill the greater short term need for the club.

The only way I’d like him to move to 2B is if it is determined that he’s too much of a detriment defensively at catcher. I don’t think we’re close to there at this point. Even if he is close to league average, that bat could make him very valuable.

Let’s be patient with him. Catchers get hurt often. Even if they don’t they need days off. And even if we don’t ever want to bring him up for spot duty, he’ll have great value in a deal if we just leave him at catcher and let him progress.

I like the idea as a fallback plan, but for right now personally I’d just assume the club stays patient and see how it plays out. He’s increasing his value every year. If not to us directly, then by trade to someone else.

I think only american league teams should look into offensive voids at short and catcher because of the DH firepower, however for a NL team to give away 1/3 of their outs is suicide.

And I’m all for getting power bats away from the plate and into the OF/1B. As a catcher myself I can tell you it really does effect your ABs, especially late in the game. Last year I was trying to see the life cycle of power hitting catchers but I got distracted by a shiny object.

Ha! And why would he? He plays with such grit.

would only be on a t-shirt.

I figure it would be a good way to signal to VEBers at the game. We need to develop a secret society nod so that nobody is the wiser.

I am totally serious about “Wagonmaker” as a valid option.

...whose car actually broke down en route to the Saturday Cards vs. Nats game with Wainwright starting. Never used my hotel reservation, never used the tickets, and got stuck paying for repair work. While we often trash the organization (i.e. not spending enough and expensive concessions and tickets), they sent me two vouchers for our tickets with a handwritten note, “Hope this takes the sting out of the weekend and to see you at Busch soon.”

Word to the wise: Use the internet to pick out your seats and call the Cardinals box office directly. Do not use tickets.com since they won’t allow transfers. Also, make your hotel reservations directly with a St. Louis hotel. And always use a credit card so you can dispute charges against weasels.

I have an “O. Smith” jersey t-shirt (since the mass-produced ones have merely “Smith”). I covet both a Willie McGee and Vince Coleman jersey t-shirt. I have tickets to one of the San Diego games at Busch, which were a birthday present. To that game, I am wearing my Edmonds jersey t-shirt with a “Thanks for the memories, Jimmy” sign that I will hold up when he is on-deck.

The pitch counts for Wainwright concern me, but I did watch the guy pitch a few times when the Redbirds came to Des Moines and I have a bit of an allegiance to him (closing out the NLCS and World Series with such grit!, the fall of trust off the dugout wall to the ‘pen on Opening Day of this year, his overall attitude, etc.). I also thought about a Rasmus t-shirt (since I can wear it to I-Cubs vs. Redbirds games and then continue to wear it to St. Louis games.

The official stlcardinals.com store has no markdown for Edmonds or Rolen jersey t-shirts. What the heck?

I meant to insinuate the Cooperstown logo that is customize-able. Even if it stopped being used in 1955, 4 years before Gibson buttoned up the ol’ birds-on-bat.

But those MItchell Ness numbers are EXPENSIVE.