Sunday, August 14, 2005

Rainy day notes

Bummer of a day to be rained out. A Sunday, Maine Day, etc. Was really hoping for the sweep too. Yanks have closed the gap to 4.5 games, by playing two more games than the Sox in the last four days. Some random notes...
  • I want to feel bad for Pedro, but I just can't. I mean, he signed with the Mets. It's surprising this sort of thing hasn't happened more often.
  • From an SI poll ("of 450 MLB players") taken in the preseason: 29% of players think 10% or more of major leaguers use steroids. However, almost the same amount (27%) think more than half of all players use amphetamines. Which is pretty amazing. The mlb doesn't test for amphetamine use.
  • Corey Hart just got his first career hit today, a 3-run homer in the Brewers' win over the Rockies. There's a joke in there somewhere, I'm just too tired to figure it out.
  • Scott Podsednik leads MLB in steals, with 54 (2nd place: 41). He also leads in caught stealing, with 18 (2nd place: 12). That's a 75% success rate. Hm. Couple that with his Bellhorn-esque .685 OPS, and compare that to the OPS of the guy he was traded for (0.843), and you've got to wonder just how good the White Sox would be had they not made that trade.
  • On a related note, the Red Sox still lead MLB in stolen base success rate, at 83%. Half of MLB teams (including the White Sox) are under 70%; the Nationals are actually under 50%. The full list is here.
  • David Wells has a web page. It's called boomer16. You can get there by going to "www.boomer3.com", or "www.boomer33.com". However, "www.boomer16.com" doesn't seem to work. The picture of Wells and a shirtless Steven Tyler will give you nightmares for weeks.

7 comments:

  1. Ykies. Steven Tyler looks like a woman.

    Pedro - well I can't really feel bad for him. I'm looking forward to when he finally cracks and starts griping about how many wins he should have, etc.

    We earlier had written about the CY in the NL and Pedro's name was not mentioned - but with a little luck he could also have 16 (or more) wins and if he brought the ERA down a tad, his name would be right in the middle of it.

    Cory Hart. Was it a night game? was he wearing sunglasses?

    I'm sure if we asked Guillen he would say that the white sox could not win with Scotty Pod.

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  2. I was following the radar closely, and after 2 hours I knew it just would not stop. That's what I was hoping for, because the Sox were NOT going to win that game. Just a feeling, but when it comes to the Sox, those feelings are accurate. 4 hours of concession sales is too long to wait, though. Greedy greedy.I won't even mention RSN plastic cards. That's been done. We're in a good place.

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  3. I'm not sure the motivation for pusing the cancellation was extra concession sales. There really are not many options to make this game up. Next Monday - the sox would have to fly back from LA (after a night game) and if they make it up on sept 5, it would take the Red Sox and White Sox players rare home off day away from them - and put the Red Sox in a 30 days/30 games situation - not to mention that the White Sox would have to fly from CHI for one game. I would bet the Red Sox players appreciated the efforts to get the game in and keep their off day.

    So this game will likely fall into the only if needed at the end of the season. Now if you want to say the Sox held out to avoid that situation and the likely loss of 35,000 ticket sales, then you may be on to something.

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  4. Plus it was Maine Day, and a Sunday. A lot of out-of-staters, with families. Labor Day is a possible makeup date, but a really horrible option for those people.

    I'm sure the schedulemakers at MLB are now hoping the Red Sox win (or lose) the division by a few games, and that home-team advantage isn't decided by 1 game.

    Of course, if home-team advantage (but not a playoff spot) were to be decided by that one game, it'd be pretty wild. Managers would have to decide how important such a game would be -- esp. the Red Sox, who are far better at home than on the road. I guess a 5-game series is so scary that issues like home-team advantage don't matter.

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  5. From boomer3/33/16:

    Any update on the suspension?

    Not yet, im still waiting, but after all this steroid shit they might not get to it. I hear that there is about 58 more guys that have tested positive and if that's true, this game is screwed! Congress will have a field day with it, but I dont have to worry about that I'm fat remember? So, I amm looking good! Holla!

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  6. 35,000 seats is a hefty price to pay for a half a game in the loss column. I don't like those economics.

    That being said, I am a fan so I don't give a crap.

    Oh, and Cory Hart's motto is "Never Surrender".

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  7. Hey the rain may actually turn out to help the team. A little more rest for the pen. A little more rest for Clement. Assuming of course that the game does not get made up on Sept. 5.

    Something that is bothering me that I have not seen mentioned much is what the hell are they doing using Schilling (our supposed closer) in all these 7-2 games? Are they just trying to get him some work?

    And when is the Mike Remlinger experiment officially called off? Considering he has faced 6 batters and gotten exactly ZERO of them out.

    Nice to see the Yanks are looking for Jaret Wright to be their savior tonight. If only they were facing a major league team.

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