Saturday, May 04, 2013
Jack O’Connell: Yanks’ bats silent against Athletics
(cutoffman.mlblogs.com)
It’s one thing for Michael the Kay and Sen. Al Leiter to screw this up last night…but the BBWAA high muckety-muck? “Rookie shortstop Adam Rosales smoked a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his first career home run.”
Read More...Sabathia was taken deep on the first pitch of the game. Rookie shortstop Adam Rosales smoked a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his first career home run. Sabathis settled down nicely but needed major help from second baseman Robinson Cano to get out of a fifth-inning ...
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1. Shooty is in the Trust TreeIt's somewhat counterproductive - if you want people to think about how great Yoenis Cespedes is, reminding them that Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera are way better isn't necessarily the best move.
The thing I think is amazing about Cespedes is the way he's adjusted on the fly to a far higher level of competition than he'd ever faced in his life. Cespedes started the season with an awful strikeout rate - 24 in 96 PA in March and April, including 13 in his first 32 PA. Just about every month since, Cespedes has struck out less and walked more. His defensive numbers have also improved as the season went on. It's a pretty cool story, and I think there's good reason to think Cespedes is going to be even better next year.
Which Ratto says so I don't know what his point is. I think Cespedes has been plenty appreciated this year around baseball. If he's looking for an unsung hero he might have talked about Sean Doolittle or Coco Crisp or Josh Donaldson(since he came back up) or the four-headed monster of Johnny Gomes/Chris Carter/Brandon Moss/Seth Smith. The A's don't have an MVP candidate at all, in the traditional sense. In fact, I'd be surprised if any Athletic even gets a vote, which is kind of cool in its own way. They probably won't get a Cy Young vote, either, for a team that's second in the AL in ERA. What a nutty team this is.
Though I'm cheating a bit as I can't find a meaning for "Koabel" beyond "cable", which is a tad unsatisfying. So I went with "kapel".
Yes, he concedes Trout and Cabrera were better. But he does say this: The MVP you have to watch play to understand.
He's so fortunate that out of 30 teams, he just happens to watch the one that has the "MVP you have to watch to understand."
I think the writer's name mang-lates to "Heavy Solipsism"
It's less creepy than "Guy who lives near a kindergarten and watches".
The Fab Five?
A's record without Cespedes in the starting lineup: 12-22 (.353, 57-105 pace)
(signed)
Warrior of the Rose-bush
Blackley's a rookie for the same reason Trout is--MLB decided that service time you get while not actually on the active roster doesn't count against your ROY eligibility. Without that rule change, Yo would actually be a reasonable candidate for an award and the accompanying attention Ratto thinks he deserves.
But it's not just the A's current rotation that's rookielicious; their staff has been mostly rookies all year:
Name IP ERATommy Milone 190.0 3.74
Jarrod Parker 175.1 3.44
Travis Blackley 96.2 3.91
A.J. Griffin 79.2 2.71
Ryan Cook 70.1 2.18
Jim Miller 48.2 2.59
Sean Doolittle 44.1 3.25
Dan Straily 39.1 3.89
Evan Scribner 32.1 2.78
Pedro Figueroa 21.2 3.32
Graham Godfrey 21.0 6.43
Andrew Carignan 9.2 4.66
Fautino DLS 3.0 3.00
Total 832.0 3.41
Best,
Want to horse
Though I'm cheating a bit as I can't find a meaning for "Koabel" beyond "cable", which is a tad unsatisfying. So I went with "kapel".
"Guy who lives near cable and watches" would be someone who steals his neighbor's TV feed.
Brandon Moss has been the best hitter in baseball over the past month (by wRC+):
1) Moss, 200
2) Headley, 194
3) Davis, 186
4) Beltre, 185
5) Harper, 184
Who is this Harper fellow? It's too bad we haven't heard anything about him.
Apparently they buy into the whole islander/voodoo/shrunken head thing.
Its hard to get rid of unfair stereotypes... but we must persist.
#### you Jobu, I do it myself
A) Triple crown stats matter most!
B) WAR what is it good for? Everything!
C) Neither of those is best you need to watch the games and ignore the stats? I think...
We would be having the arguments about war in Harper threads instead of in Trout threads.
Is it going to be evenly split between Darvish and Cespedes?
Any writers thinking about not giving a vote to those two and throwing one at Diamond/Parker?
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