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8-6, 3.46 |
5-2, 5.08 |
Maroth's 3rd start w/ the Cards - 1 good one and 1 bad one - he's due for another good one tonight. Against lefties, the Giants are 5th worst in the NL in OPS. Unfortunately, Lowry's also a lefty and the Cards are 2nd worst vs. lefties. Oh well, I like a pitcher's duel.
As for the other Giants, it would be disingenuous to have a game thread that didn't have some mention of Barry Bonds' coming to town, hoping soon to break Hank Aaron's record. As of Thursday, he needed just 5 homers to break the record and, though it's unlikely to happen this weekend, it's possible.
A lot of stuff on the p-d site re: Bonds, if you're interested. Clay Davenport of Baseball Prospectus has it at 1 in a million that he breaks the record tonight, 184 out of a million that he does it tomorrow, and 1410 that it happens on Sunday. See here: "I'm betting he sits one of the 3 out. No word on lineups yet but it wouldn't surprise me if he sits tonight w/ Maroth on the mound."
I'm tired of the Bonds is a cheating jerk stuff and I didn't want to get into another discussion of McGwire so I decided to devote this game thread to Hank Aaron. When he played his final game, I was just 6 years old so, clearly, I missed out on one of the (maybe, the?) greatest player(s) ever.
About Hammerin' Hank:
His career OPS+ was 155! He had 19 consecutive years with an OPS+ of 140! He hit 755 homers w/o ever hitting as many as 50 in a season. His peak was 47 in 1971. Certainly a tribute to his longevity! He was 30-30 (actually, 40-30) in 1963 before anyone ever knew what 30-30 was. According to baseball prospectus, compared to players throughout history translated to a 162 game season, his translated homers are 971! His career EQA is .326. From 1956-1968, his WARP3 was over 10 every year except 1, in 1966 when it was 9.9. It was 9.4 in 1955 and 9.9 again in 1969. He played, at various times and with varying success, 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, CF, and RF. He played in 2 World Series and the NLCS in 1969. Career postseason #'s -- .362 avg, 6 HR's in 69 AB's, OPS of 1.115! Talk about getting it done at crunch time!
Below are some links to some articles about Aaron and one to a great book about him. One of my favorite quotes is from Bud Selig who says, "I never saw a guy hit so many line drives all over the ballpark." Let's see, line drives everywhere, never hits 50 homers in a season, tremendous career - sound like anyone we know?
Below are links to 2 articles about Hank and the book link as well as a rather strange tribute by Delta Airlines.
Again, thanks a bunch to erik and azruavatar for all the help here.
Link to msnbc article
Link to article from Columbus Dispatch.
Hank on Delta Airlines
Hank Aaron and the Home Run that Changed America
Aaron's Baseball-reference page
Aaron's Baseball Prospectus page
BTW, I hope when Bonds comes to the plate tonight, Cardinal fans give some thought to Ryan Franklin and Troy Cate! To err is human. To forgive, divine.