this post of two Sundays ago. It’s funny. I wrote about my Dad in the first couple of paragraphs and he just called this morning and told me he read that post so I went back and read it just before reading this. LB’s post today re: our pitchers and hitters does verify the conclusion I reached—that both us and the Cubs have faced relatively easy schedules so far and that it’s going to get tougher. It’s difficult to keep up w/ LB’s good work so I’m always happy when he verifies some of the stuff I’ve posted before.

I am happy with the theme behind LB’s post yesterday. Just keep faking it for 91 more games fellas (plus like the playoffs and stuff)

so it is hard to say whether a team is bad offensively b/c they are facing good pitching or because they are actually bad offensively

the other teams have played 70 games but only a few are against us. While our good pitchers may be able to lower their OPS some, the other 60+ games will weigh much more heavily than the few they’ve played against us.

1996 was pretty magical, until Game 5 of the NLCS anyways (shudder)

Each of our schedules gets tougher because of all the remaining games against one another. We have only played 3 games to date with many more on the horizon. It’s going to be a very entertaining pennant chase.

I’ve put on the back-burner till October. Right now there just another foe, as I think there’s little chance of us beating them for the division. I’m keeping a closer watch on what the top four teams in the NL East and the top two teams in the West are doing, cause these are the teams that will keep us out of the playoffs…don’t want to ignore the Brewcrew either.

And that’s Mo. Clearly, more should (I’m talking to you Walter), since it has a tremendously positive effect on the results for the Redbirds. ;)

Willie Randolph is not the cause of Delgado hitting .242. Randolph is not the cause of Pedro Martinez being injury prone.

Yeah, the collapse last year was monumental. But the Mets decided to retain him. Why fire him now simply because they had some injury problems, and that Delgado’s declined faster than anyone expected. It’s not like the Braves are doing much better than the Mets, and the Braves set the standard for quality in the NL East.

Idiocy!

And why not at least wait until the All Star Break. It’s like the team is being run by an adolescent.

and I tend to agree w/ you re: Randolph but I think that Minaya is MORE responsible for the Mets current problems than Randolph is. They sold their soul to win two years ago and it didn’t work.

While this was perhaps the worst possible way to fire Randolph, from what the sportstalk shows are sayng this morning, Minaya was outvoted by basically everyone else in the Mets front office.

If Minaya hadn’t fired him, he might have lost HIS job, and then of course, the replacement’s first task would be to fire Willie Randolph. It still should have been done in New York, rather than making him fly across the country for one game before getting fired. It also should have been done about 3 weeks ago.

was a starter for the Orioles, I went to 5 games at Camden Yards. Towers started All. Five. Games. What a treat!

Humans and especially pro athletes are so complex that stats only provide insight, but never tell a story.

that is currently injured?

and it was the first thing I thought of when I read that Springer hit Howard when we were down by 16 or something the other day. I don’t know if Springer hit Howard on purpose but, if he did, it was the 2nd most gutless thing he’s ever done.

I’ve never been a Bonds fan but that PA in 2004 was nothing but gutless. He used Bonds as target practice and finally, after failing time after time, was able to hit him. Not only was it gutless, but it was tremendously incompetent as he couldn’t even get it right until the 3rd or 4th try. Had Bonds done anything to show up Springer or any other Astro? No. Was this payback for Berkman or someone on the Astros getting drilled by some Giants pitcher? No. It was a carnival act and the way the ignorant Astros’ fans treated Springer was abominable.

Springer was a coward. There was no reason to do what he did and Springer, hiding behind a baseball thrown 90 MPH, used Bonds as target practice in order to make some sort of asinine statement. And… he didn’t even do it well.

I believe Springer to be, basically, a good guy. Anybody can act like a jackass at times but his behavior then was atrocious. He should have been ashamed of himself and the fans who cheered him should be ashamed of themselves as well. It was one of the ugliest displays I’ve ever witnessed on a baseball field.

Bonds, as big an ass as he is, took it like a man, too. He went down to first rather than going out and beating the shit out of Springer, which is exactly what Springer deserved.

whether it’s the reason for the plunking or not, i wouldn’t blame springer for holding a grudge for bonds showing him up in this manner much more demonstrative than a bat flip or lingering at the plate to watch a hr.

as far as the friday night incident, i wanted to believe him, but color me a bit pessimistic. that being said, his post-game denial seemed extremely genuine.

Springer should’ve been suspended for MANY games. Like I said, it was a carnival. He should’ve been ejected when the first or 2nd went past Bonds but everybody just sat there waiting to see if he could hit Bonds. It was like watching the boy at the carnival try over and over again to hit the target on the dunking booth. Finally that child was able to hit the target and the crowd cheered lustily as they would when that 6 year old was finally able to dunk the person in the booth.

As I said…abominable!

Tom Nieto and bring up Oberkfell. So like they think changing their cards is good luck.

Next I looked at the NL records against teams with a >=.500 record since that is what today’s post was about. There are a total of 4 NL teams that have a winning record against other winning clubs. 3 are in the NL East and then the Cards. While it is only 18 games our 10-8 record smashes the DBacks 2-11 record and is better then the Phillies 10-9 record (only because we won the series this weekend) yet it falls short of the Mets and 15-11 and Marlins 12-6

The A’s and Yanks have gotten above .500. Not long ago there were only three teams above .500.

for 2008

Can anyone help with my request? Is my hypothesis even worth looking into?

has some of this stuff though you’re dealing w/ really small sample sizes. For instance, here is Wainwright’s page . Search by pitcher and go to their splits for this year. You could then compile them and look at the staff as a whole—at least you’d have a good number of PA’s.

For example, this year, on a 2-2 count batters have a .128/.128/.179 line against Wainwright w/ 21 K’s in 39 PA’s. That means, of course, that 39 PA’s have ended on the pitch following a 2-2 count. On a 3-2 count, batters have a .111/.294/.185 line w/ 7 BB’s and 7 K’s in 34 PA’s. Small sample sizes but, so far, Wainwright’s been deadly w/ a 2-2 count. What you don’t get from this is that maybe Wainwright is more careful w/ good hitters & 2-2 counts so that maybe his 2-2 count numbers are against weak hitters and his 3-2 count numbers are against better hitters.

Sorry, I didn’t see that you excluded Wainwright. Still, you could do this for the other pitchers and see what you come up w/. Use baseball-reference’s splits page for each pitcher. I’d be interested in your conclusions.

Let’s try again…

Houston Astros 101: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/ballz/2008/06/hot_time_summer_in_the_city_ha.php

when the cheese ferments?

he has been on fire since being called up.

I thought his name was Avales, though.