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Game 44 Open Thread: May 23, 2005

movin' on: from town to town / lots of places / i haven't been .... and a free viva el birdos iron-on patch to the first caller who can identify that hoary tune. am posting from the road, hence was mercifully spared exposure to yesterday's game, of which less said better. . . . . . . next up the pirates, who have won 11 of 17 to pull themselves into a 2d-place tie in the nl central. they stand last in the league in batting avg, 15th in runs scored.

useless stat alert: if you're a fan of either a) win shares or b) misspent time, then go to town at hardball times, which has posted its first in-season win-shares update in a megasortable database. if you wanna cut to the chase, the cards ws are at this link. a few idle observations from an idly passed half-hour:


  • among nl pitchers, stl's starters rank: marquis 14th, mulder 17th, morris 32 carp 35, suppan 52

  • eckstein ties for 1st among nl ss in total win shares (this before sunday's three-error outing); grud'k 4th among 2b; albt 2d among 1b (behind derek lee); rolen 10th among 3b; edmonds 9th among of (sanders 22 walker 25)

  • albert ranks 6th overall in nl win shares (all positions)

  • yadi molina, with 1.5 defensive ws, is the cards' win-sharingest defender

  • jason marquis has 0.9 win shares as a hitter, by far the most among mlb pitchers

they're still around: al yellon of bleed cubbie blue and cubfan will carroll of baseball prospectusgroped for answers in a cubs roundtable posted a few days back at beyond the boxscore. much good insight, speculation, and (always a treat for the card fan) sniping at the cub front office and dugout brass . . . . . in case it escaped ev'ybody else's notice (as it did mine), carlos zambrano's elbow appears to have survived its 136-pitch punishment from two starts ago. ensuing start (on saturday) he yielded just one hit in 7 ip. . . . .

useless stat bonus: per today's baseball prospectus, eckstein (again, pre-trifecta) ranks 3d among nl ss in value over replacement player, or VORP. he remains last, though, in height over replacement player . . . .

nilly string: birdblogger cardnilly has a new cyberrig and a new url; looks nice, give him a shout. . . . also, if you're a cap'tl letter nazi, please do register in the "interests of capital" diary at right. strict confidentiality maintained . . . .

and finally . . . . here's your open thread for the ballgame tonight. have a good day friends


carp dave williams
6-2, 4.07 4-3, 3.73