Twins Slowey on DL with strained wrist (AP)

Minnesota Twins right-hander Kevin Slowey was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained wrist following his start against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night. Slowey, who was trying to become the majors' first 11-game winner, gave up a season-worst six runs on five hits in three innings in Minnesota's 11-9 loss in 16 [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/07/04/twins-slowey-on-dl-with-strained-wrist-ap/

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Polanco lifts Tigers over Twins in 16 (AP)

Placido Polanco hit a pair of extra-inning RBI singles, the second giving the Detroit Tigers the lead for good in an 11-9 victory over the Minnesota Twins in 16 innings Friday night. Polanco drove in a run in the top of the 14th inning off R.A. Dickey, but Michael Cuddyer's RBI single in the bottom [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/07/04/polanco-lifts-tigers-over-twins-in-16-ap/

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Why it Matters: Umpires, Computers, Wins, and
Dollars

 Today, I am not very happy.  I'm not happy because my team, the Milwaukee Brewers, lost a game to the Chicago Cubs, our hated rivals, on a walk-off walk.  I'm not happy, because my team lost on this pitch, ball 4 to Jake Fox.via[...]

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http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/7/3/937376/why-it-matters-umpires-computers

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Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants, Jul 3,
2009 9:15 PM CDT

More photos » by David J. Phillip - AP

Paulino's on the bump tonight, folks.

Browse more photos »

 

Current Series

3 game series vs Giants @ AT&T Park

Houston Astros The Crawfish Boxes
@ San Francisco Giants McCovey Chronicles

Friday, Jul 3, 2009, 9:15 PM CDT
AT&T Park

Felipe Paulino vs Ryan Sadowski

Mostly clear. Game time temperature around 65.

 

Complete Coverage >

Sat 07/043:05 PM CDTSun 07/053:05 PM CDT

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Felipe Paulino

#52 / Houston Astros

Height: 6-2

Weight: 180

Born: Oct 05, 1983

 

W-LGGSCGSHOSVBSIPHRERHRBBKERAWHIP2009 - Felipe Paulino2-4129000150.2613431817465.511.54

 

Ryan Sadowski

#56 / Pitcher / San Francisco Giants

Height: 6-4

Weight: 195

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Oct 04, 1982

 

W-LGGSCGSHOSVBSIPHRERHRBBKERAWHIP2009 - Ryan Sadowski1-01100006.04000320.001.17

 McCovey Chronicles

Here's a picture of the Giants' starting pitcher tonight, Ryan Sadowski:

 Looks like your average, ordinary youngster who has made one career major league start, and a fine one at that.

Nope. First of all, Sadowski is a lucky man. Not only to be a professional baseball player, but to be alive, after having brain surgery in 2003. At 26, I'm sure that he appreciates his time in the bigs more than most guys his age.

This is a nice story, and obviously it's awesome that Sadowski recoupperated to the point where he is healthy enough not only to resume a normal life, but to be able to pitch.

For three hours tonight though, the Astros are going to do everything they can to make his life miserable. I guess it's all relative- someone who's gone through what Sadowski has probably has a different perspective on "miserable".

Our own youngster, Felipe Paulino, will take the hill tonight. Backing him will be this lineup (per Alyson Footer's Twitter page):

Bourn

Tejada

Berkman

Lee

Blum

Pence

Matsui

Quintero

Paulino

How many times this season have the Astros been at/above .500? If you answered once, grab a gold star/piece of chocolate/handfull of goldfish crackers.

I wanted to give props to Joe in Birmingham for coming through with a gamethread yesterday. DQ wasn't able to post one, and I was not near a computer, nor was my cell phone with me so I could respond to DQ's text asking for help posting one. My bad, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get a win tonight!  - Evan

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2009/7/3/937397/houston-astros-at-san-francisco

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Atlanta Braves Plate Discipline

Much has been said about the Braves' inability to score runs this season to back up what has been one of the best pitching staffs in baseball this season; The Braves rank 23rd in baseball in runs scored, but a stellar 5th in runs allowed and the best FIP of any staff in baseball. Much of the blame for their offensive troubles can be placed on an inability to hit for power (6th worst isolated power in baseball).Lost in this doom and gloom about the offense has been a surprisingly good season for the Braves in the plate discipline department; they are doing a very solid job at walking and avoiding strikeouts with the major's 7th best BB/K ratio, right behind offensive powerhouses like the Red Sox, Yankees, and Blue Jays.

Below is a graph showing a breakdown of each batter's performance in the batter's box this season by breaking data down based on whether a pitch was in or out of the strike zone, swung on or watched, and hit or missed. Hopefully we can discover what has made certain hitters contribute positively or negatively towards the Braves's solid plate discipline this season. (click picture to see a larger view)

Z-Contact: Contact made on balls in the strike zone

Z-Whiff: Swinging strikes on balls in the strike zone

Called Strikes/Balls: Nothing complicated here

O-Whiff: Swinging strikes on balls outside the zone

O-Contact: Contact made on balls outside the strike zone

These six categories can be split into two groups - positive and negative - based on what the hitter should've done; ie, balls outside the zone should be taken, balls in the zone should be swung at, etc. Obviously this is not air tight, for example a hitter will take a pitch if the pitcher has shown wildness, or as the lead-off man, or if a runner on is stealing, but in a general sense it works. Z-Contact, Balls, and Z-Whiff can be classed as positive decisions, despite Z-Whiff being a negative outcome, and O-Contact, O-Whiff, and Called Strikes can be classed as negative decisions.

Below is a chart showing the data, with the addition of columns for overall Whiff (swinging strike percentage), Ball/Called Strike ratio, Quality of Swing ratio (Z-Contact+Z-Whiff/O-Contact+O-Whiff), and "Positive" and "Negative" decisions.

(Click to see a larger view)

A sortable spreadsheet is available.

We can take a number of observations from the data presented.

1. Jeff Francoeur sees the fewest number of balls on the team with less than a third of the pitches he sees resulting in balls. Chipper is unsurprisingly the team leader in balls seen with 45%.

2. Using ball/called strike ratio to see what hitters make the best decisions on pitches to take, we find strange bedfellows at the top in Chipper and Francoeur. The worst in this regard are our backup infielders, Prado and Infante who take an awful lot of called strikes. To their credit, they whiff less than anyone else on the team.

3. Your whiff leaders are unsurprising - Schafer, Diaz, Ross, and Francoeur all have a reputation for swinging and missing.

4. Using Quality of Swing we can find out which batters are swinging at the best pitches, assuming that balls are more difficult to hit than strikes. Greg Norton comes out looking the best here, swinging at nearly 5 strikes for every ball he swings at. The presence of Chipper at the top is unsurprising. At the bottom of the list is "professional hitter" Garret Anderson and free-swingers Diaz, Francoeur, and Schafer.

5. Using the "positive" and "negative" categories that I created, Chipper and Norton come out looking very good, as neither swings much outside the zone nor do they take many called strikes. Prado comes out at the bottom, which is a product of his taking a lot of called strikes. There are two explanations for this; either his high contact rate is a product of him only swinging at pitches he can hit, which means he will take a lot of pitches in the zone, or he is simply not swinging enough at balls in the zone because he isn't recognizing that they are strikes. His poor Quality of Swing ratio may hint towards the latter explanation as he is below average at swinging at good pitches.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.talkingchop.com/2009/7/3/937407/plate-discipline

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Is Ryan Church The Mets Unsung Hero

It?s funny how things have changed. A little over two months ago Mets skipper Jerry Manuel had all but officially denounced Ryan Church as an everyday player. There were rumblings that Church would eventually be traded. For the next month or so Church fell out of the limelight, rarely earning a start in right field.

However, the team began to drop like flies to the injury bug. First it was Carlos Delgado. And then others, including outfielders Carlos Beltran and reserve Angel Pagan that went onto the disabled list as well. At first Jerry tried to install rookie phenom, Fernando Martinez in center field.

When Martinez showed he was not yet ready for the task of everyday centerfielder Manuel had no choice but to put Ryan Church in the lineup everyday. Rather than, dwell on his lack of playing time earlier in the season, Church has proved Manuel wrong on the field.

Since June 22nd, which is the day Carlos Beltran went down with a knee injury Church has a .359 average (14 hits in 39 AB) and has driven in 6 runs.  This includes two game winning hits in the past two games against the Pirates and Brewers respectively.

As a matter of fact, excluding his dreadful campaign in May where he hit .224, Ryan has hit well over .300 in both April and June.

For a team that has struggled recently offensively these numbers are very impressive.

In the field Church has been no slouch defensively either. In his natural position, right field, Church has a solid 0.990 fielding percentage. Recently, in order to accommodate the club?s needs, Church has moved into the more challenging center field. Although he has only played a handful of games there, Church looks rather comfortable.

While only sporting a .292 average and 21 RBIs, Church may not be the glamorous hitter, like Matt Holliday or Aubrey Huff that fans have been seeking, however he is getting the job done and deserves a little bit of recognition.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.ddmetsfanblog.com/2009/07/is-ryan-church-mets-unsung-hero.html

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Giants start quick, rout Astros 13-0 (AP)

Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run homer to boost his bid for an All-Star spot and stake rookie Ryan Sadowski to an early lead, and the San Francisco Giants routed the Houston Astros 13-0 on Friday night. Travis Ishikawa added a three-run homer that was initially ruled a double before the umpire crew went to the [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/07/04/giants-start-quick-rout-astros-13-0-ap/

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Angels Recall Howard (Hopefully, Howie) Kendrick

Bill Plunkett informs us that Howie, or Howard, Kendrick is returning to the Angels. Sean Rodriguez was sent back down to make room, and playing time apparently is to come at Erick Aybar's expense, as Izturis will move to short. "No word yet on how this move will affect those godawful Howard?s commercials." A-freaking-men, Bill.

Read The Full Article:
http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2009/07/angels-recall-howard-hopefully-howie.html

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Texas Hamilton not ready to return yet (AP)

Josh Hamilton's return to the Texas Rangers has been put on hold. Rangers manager Ron Washington said Friday night that the All-Star center fielder will play at least one more rehab game for Triple-A Oklahoma City as he attempts to come back from abdominal surgery. Hamilton was supposed to play the outfield Friday night at [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/07/04/texas-hamilton-not-ready-to-return-yet-ap/

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Why I'm Not Furious At Either Ervin Santana Or
The Angels For His Crappy Performance Tonight: Orioles 6, Angels 4

Oh, how I yelled fury at Ervin Santana in the first couple of innings of this game; his command was absolute garbage, and he was giving up longballs like batting practice. But by the time the game was over, I had an entirely different view of things.

1. What else were the Angels gonna do? Matt Palmer was the obvious other choice, but he had been hammered in his last two starts; following his craptacular appearance in Arizona, his most recent and possibly final start with the Angels for a while, Mike Scioscia said

   "If he was making pitches and guys were hitting them, we'd be more concerned," Scioscia said of Palmer, who is 2-1 in his past four starts, despite yielding 18 earned runs in 22 innings. "What's happening is he's not making pitches as consistently as early in the year.

   "Matty's inability to control the count has caught up with him the last few games. He can pitch better than he's shown the last couple starts."

   And indeed, Palmer, used in relief tonight, showed once again that he is capable of pitching well, but it's also worth mentioning that he pitched backwards to many of his opponents. It didn't catch up to him, though, so that was a good thing.
2. Santana's velocity is back. That's key, because without it, Ervin's a two-pitch pitcher, and meat on the mound. He dialed it up as high as 97, staying around 94-96 on his fastball for the most part (from memory and the stadium radar gun).
3. Two of the runs against him were unearned thanks to an Erick Aybar error in the first.

The overall point, though, is that for the Angels, it was Palmer or Santana. Even if the good news was that Ervin's velocity was back but his control wasn't, what could they reasonably do? Leave him in AAA for another couple starts while Palmer flailed in the rotation (again)? Pick your poison, and if the Angels knew that Santana's velocity was back (a reasonable assumption), better to take some chances there with a guy who has more upside.

The bullpen did a decent job, pitching scoreless ball for four innings, including a creditable job by Rich Thompson. Had the Angels gotten their act together against the never-before-seen (by them) David Hernandez, the outcome might have been more interesting while the game was in progress. Kendry Morales hit a nice little two-run shot in the sixth to cut the deficit to three, and Vlad made himself useful in the eighth by punching a scoring groundout, but that is not why you have Vlad on the roster. Indeed, I've been wondering for some time now why Vlad hasn't been benched or moved out of the four hole; he's not quite the automatic out Howard Kendrick was, but getting there.

Yahoo box • Angels recap

Read The Full Article:
http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-im-not-furious-at-either-ervin.html

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