I have been absolutely pathetic about blogging lately, and even if I have good reasons/excuses, I don't like it. So, I am just going to put some random thoughts together here, to make myself feel better, even if no one reads them!
Is there any sort of bipolar medication available for baseball teams? The Twins are about to head out on the road for a 10 game road trip. They have a league leading 21 wins at home (with 12 losses), but also have the basement all to themselves for road games, winning only 6 & losing 16. Only the NL Washington Nationals are worse on the road, but they are just as bad when they play at home. For people who like numbers, the Twins have won 64% of their games at home, and just 27% on the road. I thought perhaps they are just scared of playing outside (which they'd need to get over by next year), but they only claimed 1 of the 3 indoor games at Tampa Bay last weekend, so that's not it either.
I dug a little deeper into the stats (but only about as deep as I could dig in my old sandbox...which wasn't too deep), and still remain confused. Twins pitchers have a 4.59 ERA at home and a 5.16 ERA on the road. That half a run or so is not a huge disparity considering the staggering difference in the final results. Twins pitchers do give up many more walks on the road than at home (3.3/gm on the road, 2.4/gm at the Dome), but that hasn't translated into more earned runs. Opponents hit .275 against Twins pitchers at the Dome, and .272 in their own parks. Huh? No issue there. As for the Twins hitters, they bat .278 under the white baggy roof, and .263 when exposed to the outdoor elements (or the St. Pete catwalks & sting rays in the outfield).
So how can the team essentially have the same overall hitting no matter where they play, but have seemingly no clutch hitting when away from the friendly confines of home? (No, I don't actually expect that anyone will have the answer, but if you think you do, feel free to share!)
Is there any sort of bipolar medication available for baseball teams? The Twins are about to head out on the road for a 10 game road trip. They have a league leading 21 wins at home (with 12 losses), but also have the basement all to themselves for road games, winning only 6 & losing 16. Only the NL Washington Nationals are worse on the road, but they are just as bad when they play at home. For people who like numbers, the Twins have won 64% of their games at home, and just 27% on the road. I thought perhaps they are just scared of playing outside (which they'd need to get over by next year), but they only claimed 1 of the 3 indoor games at Tampa Bay last weekend, so that's not it either.
I dug a little deeper into the stats (but only about as deep as I could dig in my old sandbox...which wasn't too deep), and still remain confused. Twins pitchers have a 4.59 ERA at home and a 5.16 ERA on the road. That half a run or so is not a huge disparity considering the staggering difference in the final results. Twins pitchers do give up many more walks on the road than at home (3.3/gm on the road, 2.4/gm at the Dome), but that hasn't translated into more earned runs. Opponents hit .275 against Twins pitchers at the Dome, and .272 in their own parks. Huh? No issue there. As for the Twins hitters, they bat .278 under the white baggy roof, and .263 when exposed to the outdoor elements (or the St. Pete catwalks & sting rays in the outfield).
So how can the team essentially have the same overall hitting no matter where they play, but have seemingly no clutch hitting when away from the friendly confines of home? (No, I don't actually expect that anyone will have the answer, but if you think you do, feel free to share!)
And now for the random thoughts:
- First thought is something I shared on Twitter a few days back, but I wanted more than 140 characters to elaborate. When it comes to the actual flavor of the food, I have always preferred Burger King to McDonald's, for burgers or breakfast options (although not for the fries). However, I so deeply despise their last few years worth of ads, that I might just decide to never eat there again. Guys dressed up as a burger & a chicken sandwich going after McDonald's, Wendy's & Subway? And while Ronald McDonald inspires smiles & thoughts of "his" charity work and the Ronald McDonald Houses, the Burger King King is, well, creepy at best!
- How does Serena Williams keep matching up with "cheaters" on the red clay of Roland Garros (otherwise known as the French Open, but they want to be cool like Wimbledon, which is not known as the British or English Open). In most sports, players will try to get away with whatever they can. NBA players act as if they have never fouled anyone...ever, when they know it was their elbow in someone else's gut. NFL offensive lineman try to hold their defensive match without the refs noticing. MLB fielders are happy to act as if they caught the ball on the fly, when they know it has grass stains on it from the short-hop it took before finding their glove. Golf & Tennis are different. In golf, players keep their own scorecard and have to be honest. In tennis, if the ball hits your arm rather than your racquet, and ends up being a winner, and the ump doesn't notice, you admit it, you don't turn away, smirk, and claim the point. Sort of like what Serena ran into with Justine Henin a few back, when Justine asked for "time" and Serena saw this and held up on her serving motion hitting the ball out. The Ump did not see this, and ruled it as being out, and Justine never said a word, even though replay clearly showed her hand asking Serena to wait (which Serena did not need to do, as the game is supposed to move at the server's pace, but she was being the good sport that tennis players are supposed to be on the court). The worst example may have been in men's tennis though, in last year's Olympics, the event built on good sportsmanship, when James Blake hit a shot to Fernando Gonzalez, which nicked the top of his racquet before flying past the baseline, which should've made it Blake's point. Once again, the ump didn't see it, and Gonzo just kept his mouth shut, which disturbed Blake, one of the nicest guys in sports - it takes a lot to irritate him!
- Is it my imagination, or have the Minnesota Twins had an awful lot of great games on days they aren't televised? I am quite thankful for the FS North Squeeze Play, so I can at least see those hits & runs, and add them to my little highlight videos that I keep for myself (because I listen to Bert's announcement each game about what I can't disseminate), but in this day & age, I should be able to catch every game on TV. I have MLB Extra Innings. If the local station doesn't want to show it, then the Cleveland broadcast shouldn't be a blackout! I also technically live far away enough from the Dome that it shouldn't be a blackout anyway, but because parts of my city are close enough, I fall under that blanket. But I digress...my point was that they've had some great games not on TV! Kubel's two 3-run homers in the first 2 innings today, Twins big comeback after Scott Baker collapsed in the 6th vs. the Tigers, Game 1 of the absurdly high scoring doubleheader in Chicago 2 years ago (which didn't even have a Squeeze Play!!), and these are just the ones off the top of my head.
- On Wednesday (June 3), Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee yet again jawed at Carlos Gomez for bunting. I like what Jim Souhan said during the FS North broadcast; something along the lines of "Telling Carlos Gomez to not bunt is like telling Johan Santana not to throw a change-up." Why is there an appropriate & inappropriate time to bunt? Considering the Indians came back from a 10-run deficit earlier this season, they should know better than any team that no lead is safe, and when there is no clock, no team is ever out of a game. So why is there a time that bunting is not ok? (Well, other than with 2 strikes, when you haven't done it successfully ever, or almost ever). Then after the game, Lee says he doesn't want to discuss it with the media. If you don't want to talk about it after the game, how about not running your mouth about it during the game either? Just a thought...
- Last week, thanks to DirecTV, I could watch live French Open tennis matches from 6 different courts. As long as my favorite players were not relegated to an obscure court with no cameras, I could watch the match of my choice at any time. However, if I wanted to watch Rafael Nadal battling Robin Soderling in the 4th round, eventually losing for the first time ever on Paris' red clay, I had to wait until the match had been over a couple hours, before being allowed to watch it on NBC. Now, as I write this, it is just a few hours until the Men's semifinal matches begin, but they are not available to watch live either, because NBC couldn't possibly shorten or cancel the Today show for a day. If they don't think the tennis ratings will outweigh the Today show, then why don't they let the real tennis fans watch it live on the Tennis Channel, and then they can show the replay to people who don't care if they know the results before watching the match. In the age of the internet, text messages, twittering, etc., having the semifinal of one of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments available only on tape delay, is simply unacceptable. Imagine how football fans would revolt if the NFL did that with a Saturday playoff game. Don't buy the exclusive rights to the match if you don't intend to show it live. (Thank you to ESPN2 for pushing ESPN First Take back a few hours on Thursday, so the Women's semis could actually be seen live!) Of course, those of you on the Pacific Coast (and perhaps the Mountain time zone too) experienced this frustration last year with each and every Michael Phelps "live" race from China, as NBC couldn't be bothered with showing it before prime time...except that by the time his races started, it actually was prime time on the West Coast too. Also unacceptable...and also NBC...but I'm guessing they don't care about my opinion!
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I read a few articles where everyone says they do worse on the road becasue they don't have the fan base there...I don't buy it, but if it makes everyone else feel better we can go with it.
ReplyDeleteCliff Lee is just a loser and I hate him. One day he's going to run his mouth to the wrong guy. GoGo quite possibly could have been it, if not for Martinez.