I was hoping to have the next installment of our Operation Center Field series ready, but I’m still hacking through the data jungle. Instead, I’ll share a few items I found along the way that might help you win a bar bet or three:
MLB Road Home Runs in 2007
- Brewers: 110
- Padres: 99
- Phillies: 97
- Yankees/A’s/Braves/Mets: 94
Source: ESPN.
MLB Road Doubles in 2007
- Padres: 196
- Braves: 194
- Tigers: 188
- Phillies: 180
- Yankees: 176
Source: ESPN.
MLB Road Extra Base Hits in 2007
- Padres: 307
- Braves: 302
- Phillies: 297
- Yankees: 291
- Tigers: 284
Source: ESPN.
Don’t feel bad; everyone gets these wrong. And even if you don’t win any bets, at least you can feel better knowing that a lack of power wasn’t the problem with the Padres offense this season.
Winter Leagues
- Saguaros 11, Surprise 7 (box). Will Venable, batting fourth again, singled twice and walked in six trips to the plate. He also saw his first action in the field, getting the start in left and committing a throwing error in his only chance. Matt Antonelli, in the #8 hole, went 1-for-5 and turned two double plays on defense. Nick Hundley followed Antonelli, going 2-for-5 with a solo homer and two strikeouts. Right-hander John Hudgins, acquired with Vince Sinisi in May 2006 for Freddy Guzman and coming back from Tommy John surgery, saw his first action of 2007, giving up three runs on three hits and a walk in the sixth inning. Baseball America ranked Hudgins as the Rangers’ #6 prospect before the 2005 season. He’s another once highly regarded pitcher from Stanford (Stan Spencer, Jason Middlebrook) who has seen injuries stall his career. The results on Wednesday weren’t great, but the fact that Hudgins threw 21 pitches in an actual game has to be encouraging. As a side note, four of the Rangers’ Top 10 prospects from ’05 are now Padres (Chris Young, #5; Hudgins; Adrian Gonzalez, #8; Sinisi, #10).
- Obregon 10, Navojoa 4 (box). Oscar Robles, in his familiar #2 spot, went 1-for-3 with a solo homer and two walks. Luis Cruz, batting seventh and playing third base, went 0-for-4.
Dominican League scores were not in as of this writing.
On a completely unrelated note… But if any of you out there are Radiohead fans they have a new album available for download from there website. It’s up to you how much you want to pay for it. You can enter any amount you want to pay even 0. It’s a cool idea and the album isn’t bad either. Not their best but still a decent album from a great band. Anyways just an FYI for anyone that cares.
This comment sent to me by a friend who’s a Rox fan …
I was *very* glad to see Beckett pitch seven innings. If I were in Francona’s shoes, I would have lifted him after five innings with the big lead so I could bring him back for two more starts on one less day’s rest.
… reminded me of some of the comments here in September about Peavy …
Well if the Red Sox can keep hitting like they did last night they will not need to bring Beckett back on short rest.
It will be interesting to see what the Red Sox do at Cooers with Big Papi and Youk. I’ve heard that they may move Youk to LF, Manny to RF and Ortiz to 1B or Move Youk to 3B, Lowell to SS and Ortiz to 1B. Both would be a serious blow to their defience.
2: Oh, but Dusty Baker defended it. I think he said it would help to maintain a comparable workload to a possible 100+ pitch effort later in the series.
Re: 5 right cause Baker does not have a track record of over using pitchers.
Just thought of something (hey, it happens): Do folks want a World Series IGD? Take me 2 minutes to set up if y’all will use it…
4.
I was thinking the exact same thing. How do you take Papi, Youk or Lowell out on offense and how do you fit all of them in on the field?
Have I mentioned that I freaking hate the DH?
Re: 8 I think most NL fans do!
2, 5: If teams made managers take even a community college level course in exercise physiology, that kind of mistake wouldn’t happen. Any human body’s ability to produce physical work in a restricted is a capital sum reduced by expenditure. Sometimes the withdrawals are so small they don’t add up to much; not the case with Beckett or Peavy. Sometimes the body recovers faster than average between efforts, which may be true of Beckett but doesn’t seem to be true of Peavy. But every pitch you throw today increases the recovery time needed before you can throw well in the immediate future. And this isn’t some new cutting-edge theory, people who study exercise and the human body have known about it for decades.
I wish Baker had been hired by the Dodgers, even though that would mean several young pitchers at risk. Does he really think this is spring training and pitchers need to develop arm strength?
9.
It would be one thing if both leagues had the DH (Not my preference) but for the rules of the game to be different boggles my mind. You don’t see the AFC playing 12 men on the field while the NFC goes with 11 or the NBA East not Having a 3 point shot when the West has one. It seems silly to me. How did the whole thing get started anyone know? It’s been like that all my life.
Re: 11 You have to remember that at one point they were two completely separate leagues and the world series was the only thing that connected them, much like the AFL and NFL. Also before interleague play started (which I don’t like) the only time the two leagues would play against each other was the all-star game and the WS. Its not like the NFL, NBA or NHL where it is standard practice to play the other league.
#11: It was an “experiment” begun in ’73:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20050904/ai_n15331864
11: I am pretty sure it was started to generate more offense and bring more fans out to the field.