Here’s what’s been piling up on the old plate of late (some of these have been sitting out there a while; my apologies)…
- Padres’ rotation in flux (Padres.com). Woody Williams to the DL with a strained oblique, Randy Williams up from Portland to take his spot on the roster, Darrell May in from the mopup role to take Woody’s place in the rotation.
- Greene back on familiar ground (NC Times). Khalil Greene is rehabbing at Elsinore and expected to rejoin the big club Monday in Cincy. In two games so far with the Storm, Greene has two singles in five at-bats; he’s also drawn a walk and been hit by a pitch.
- Rocking the Rox, Moneyball (So) Misunderstood (davidlizerblog). David gives a brief recap of the recently completed sweep of the Rox. He also offers an interesting take on something I wrote in Tuesday’s In-Game Discussion. I hadn’t considered comparing the relatively lousy but relatively inexpensive Padres with the really lousy but really expensive Yankees to somehow make us feel better about the Pads, but I can see how it could be interpreted that way. (Language is a funny thing.) Anyway, the point is that money doesn’t guarantee success and it sucks to be the Yankees right now.
David observes another good point, which is that there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about Moneyball. But that’s a whole other can of worms.
- What I’ve learned after watching the Padres for one month (Gaslamp Ball). Dex’s take on April in Padreland. Gotta love analysis that includes the sentence “Big League Hair does not constitute consistent production.”
- April Wrapup (Friar Faithful). And Richard chimes in with his thoughts.
- NL West Graphs (Hardball Times). I haven’t really studied this one, but it looks cool.
- MLB.com introduces MLBlogs. I’m drawing a blank. Looking for something clever to say (or even stupid; it’s such a fine line), but I’ve got nada.
Finally, my band Chin Waggers is playing at Danky’s in Carlsbad this Saturday night (May 7), from 7 to 10:30 p.m. They have good grub and a giant screen TV (I was hoping to lure you with a Padres game, but wouldn’t you know – they play during the day; so I dunno, maybe the Angels/Indians game will be on). Swing by if you’re in the area…
I thought the Padres/Yankees comparison was amusing. I didn’t think you meant anything by it.
Speaking of dollars per win (which the guy did), wouldn’t it make more sense to look at marginal dollars to marginal wins? Padres paid the fewest marginal dollars per marginal win of all the NL West teams last year, btw ($1.56 M).
If anyone’s wondering: SF/1.93, LA/2.12, COL/7.98 & ARI/32.08. You have to love that 32.08 M marginal dollars per marginal win by the D’Backs.
Why not:
MLB.com introduces MLBlogs. Because who the hell wants to blog for free?
Geoff – I hope you don’t think I was coming down on you too hard. I think we can all agree that marginal dollars per marginal win is cool and all, but it’s only worthwhile if you end up with enough _actual_ wins to get to the playoffs (at which point your shit may or may not work). The same goes for every other aspect of baseball analysis. Sometimes I think this can be a forest-for-the-trees issue in the world of baseball watchers.
Thanks for the link – looking at my stats, a bunch of your readers were intrigued enough to check out my blog. I’m sure they clicked back to Ducksnorts as fast as their fingers would let them.
David: No, I didn’t think that at all. I was genuinely surprised by your interpretation because I hadn’t considered it from that angle. Which is why I’m glad you mentioned it. We all learned something.
Geez, when did this turn into Full House?
P.S. I keep meaning to add your site to my links on the right. If I don’t do that by Monday, would you shoot me an email and tell me to get on it already?
I’ll do that. Thanks again.
I don’t get the Full House reference though. Never watched the show.
Have a good show at Danky’s – that’s in the restaurant complex near my work, where I eat every day. However, since I live 35 miles away, and the thought of essentially driving to work on a Saturday night chills me to the bone, I don’t think I’ll be able to make the show.
Re: Full House, you didn’t miss much. Basically it was 20 minutes of bad jokes, followed by 2 minutes of moralizing, punctuated by 8 minutes of ads.
It was in reference to my “We all learned something” comment, which is something that would have been said at the end of the show.
The purpose of marginal dollars per marginal win is to show how (in)efficient a team has been. It has no bearing on the actual games played, it’s more a reflection on the GM.