Thinking of Boston today, of course. And spent a few minutes trying to find a relevant video online to convey something about that. I don’t know that I have anything profound to say, but the Boston Pops performing the National Anthem at Fenway seemed like a reasonably appropriate thing for me to spend a minute watching this morning. (Apologies that it requires a click-through to MLB.com.)
[From April 13, 2012.]
HIROKI KURODA
Complete game shutout for Kuroda. This definitely means he is over his injury concerns. Well, it probably means that. We don’t actually know. Use him next time out, definitely, unless you have a reason not to.
JOSH HAMILTON
A 3-for-4 day from Hamilton, with a home run. Does this mean he is over his slump? Yes. Yes it does. Unless it doesn’t. Hopefully he can carry this one-game hot streak forward to the next game, and then the game after that.
JARROD PARKER
Parker struggled mightily again. Will he turn it around? He didn’t yesterday. So the signs are pointing in a negative direction. Unless they aren’t. There are other pitchers in the Oakland system, so he should watch out, because one of them may be chosen to start instead of him, at some point. We’re on top of this developing story.
ANIBAL SANCHEZ
Sanchez did it again. He hasn’t permitted more than two runs in any start this season. Will that continue? It might. Will it continue forever? It may. It may not. Is he a pitcher? He is. Can we read box scores? We can.
JUSTIN SMOAK
One-for-three with a double. Any hit for Smoak is something worth noting, as we note every hit by everyone. Does it mean anything? It means his batting average went up. Will it mean anything in the future? It might.
STEPHEN PRYOR
Pryor left Sunday’s game with an injury. He will be evaluated by the people who evaluate those things, and then we will report the news to you, at exactly the same time as everyone else will report that news. Look out for our update, which will come as soon as we have one.
MIKE TROUT
Trout hit his first home run. Will it be his last? Not if other games are like this one. But yes, if other games are like the ones before this one. This will either be the start of something big for Trout, the exception to a disappointing season, or something in between. Thank our investigative reporter for that scintillating analysis.
TIM LINCECUM
Lincecum left the game. Was it because of performance or injury? We’re looking into it. Does anyone have an MLB.TV account we can borrow? Did you know Lincecum’s first name is Tim? This means something for your fantasy team, unless it doesn’t. You should drop Lincecum if there are better players on the free agent list, but you should keep him if there aren’t.
JOHNNY CUETO
Our insiders at the Associated Press are telling us that Johnny Cueto is being placed on the disabled list. Fantasy owners, this means you can put him on your disabled list, if your league has one. He will be back the next time he pitches, and not before that. Will he be fully recovered? You would hope so.
More breaking news and analysis as it happens.
Fenway Park’s 820 game sellout streak ended yesterday. The sellout streak on my couch, capacity two, ended after one inning on opening day, when my wife remembered that she doesn’t derive any pleasure from watching Mets games on TV, and asked if I could mute the volume while she read The New York Times on her computer.
The one-inning sellout marked a breakthrough in couch attendance, which has held steady at 1 ever since last June, when I insisted that certainly watching the end of Johan Santana’s potential no-hitter — the first in Mets history — would be interesting even to a non-baseball fan.
The couch was at capacity for approximately three minutes until it was decided that using the bathroom would be a more interesting way for one of the two people in attendance to spend her time. She did not return to the couch. The short, three-minute sellout streak was over.
And while the occupant of row one, seat left, has allowed the couch’s Mad Men Watching Sellout Streak to reach [however many episodes there have been of Mad Men] despite his initial lack of interest and propensity to fall asleep while watching, somehow the Mets game never seems to be given that same chance. Yes, now I realize Mad Men is good, and, no, I admit the Mets will never be good, but still…
A new sellout streak is expected to start (and end) this Sunday, and last approximately the length of one Mad Men commercial break, unless we don’t start watching Mad Men until late, and then we’ll just fast forward through the breaks. The “following the game on the ESPN app on my iPhone while we watch something else” streak will remain strong.
This is a rant.
Until someone shows that getting injured is a skill, I give up.
Until someone proves that they can do better than the projection systems, I give up.
I’ve won my share of fantasy leagues. I’ve won partly through luck, and partly by being in leagues where some people didn’t know stuff. If you’re in leagues where people don’t know stuff, you can win. That’s not meant to be an insult. Maybe not knowing stuff is merely a result of someone having more important things to do than read about backup shortstops and third-in-line-to-be-closers. Who in the world is Jim Henderson, incidentally? Does even asking the question mean I’m one of the people who doesn’t know stuff, and so I deserve to lose?
Catcher Carlos Santana takes a Chris Perez fastball off his left wrist, just above the glove. Being attended to by a trainer & Francona.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) April 8, 2013
#Indians catcher Carlos Santana exits game in 9th after taking Chris Perez fastball to left wrist, just above the glove, reports @mlbastian.
— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2013
Wouldn’t be surprised if Carlos Santana broke his wrist/thumb today when he got crossed up #catcherprobs @mlb @realmichaelkay
— Scott Hovell (@goldglovedsj11) April 9, 2013
Nothing like a rogue ball off his thumb to make me realize I have Carlos Santana in every single freaking #fantasybaseball league I’m in.
— Chris Patterson(@c_patt11) April 9, 2013
Carlos Santana better no have a broken thumb, he’s my guy #c‘monman
— Roscoe (@roscoe___) April 9, 2013
X-rays on #Indians C Carlos Santana’s thumb were negative. That’s good news for the club. Yes, injury was to thumb not wrist.
— Nick Camino (@CaminoTribe) April 9, 2013
X-rays negative on Carlos Santana’s thumb. Fantasy baseball owners rejoice!
— AngryYankee1 (@AngryYankee1) April 9, 2013
It has not been a fun week.
Not that any of my weeks are particularly fun, but this time I had hope. Which is hard for me to have, but I did, I think. It was either hope or constipation. It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. I mean, thought I came through my fantasy draft with a great team. Wasn’t sure if I could win every category in my modified 5×5* but I thought I’d at least be competitive. And the last time I was competitive in anything was my third grade girls’ dodgeball league. (My parents wanted a girl. Fooled everyone, including me, until about two years into puberty. I was Hopeless Jo back then.)
So… first round, Albert Pujols. Can’t go wrong. Second round, Josh Hamilton. Third round, David Price. Off to a great start, right? Brian Roberts, Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Howard, Jeff Keppinger filled out my infield. Rookie of the Year candidate Aaron Hicks as my third outfielder. Chris Carter in the utility spot. No catcher. My league doesn’t have catchers.
Carlos Marmol and Greg Holland would give me a lights-out bullpen. Tim Lincecum, Brett Myers, Mark Buehrle, Hiroki Kuroda. Jake McGee and Joba Chamberlain.
Of course, as prone to overreaction as I am, I’ve already traded my entire team for J.A. Happ, Travis Wood, Gerardo Parra, and Franklin Gutierrez. And a couple of football players. This year will be my year.
*Batting average, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, wins, saves, ERA, WHIP, drug suspensions, and felony convictions.
Has there really not been a NotGraphs post dedicated to Cole Hamels and his mustache?
It’s almost Bobby Valentine-esque.
Crashburn Alley has a great piece about it too.
In this column, I will look on Twitter for baseball-related questions that no one is asking me to answer, and I will answer them.
@etling_25 Would’ve I have gotten a million fantasy points if Yu Darvish would’ve thrown a perfect game last night?
— Daniel Grote (@dangrote) April 3, 2013
Probably not, although I suppose it does depend on the points system in your league. If you get 25,000 points per out recorded by a pitcher, and an additional 25,000 points per strikeout, then you indeed would have earned 1,000,000 fantasy points from Darvish’s start last night– and that’s even though he missed the perfect game! If he had succeeded, you would have earned 1,025,000 points, or 1,050,000 if Marwin Gonzalez had struck out. In most leagues, however, you would not have earned a million fantasy points even if Darvish succeeded in throwing a perfect game. In a points league I am in, Darvish’s owner earned 79 points. Which is 999,921 points less than a million.
How funny is Yu Darvish’s 98% perfect game? #YuLose #YuSoClose
— Dustin Rich (@DRich_17) April 3, 2013
Actually, it was a 96% perfect game.
Did darvish throw a perfect game last night?? I fell asleep in the 8th.
— Lightning ⚡ (@U_Webby) April 3, 2013
Good question, Twitter user. I think the people who run Twitter should be pretty excited that their application is so relied upon that someone would sooner think to post such a question on Twitter than to type it into Google and instantly find out the answer from any of 50,000 websites that might be reporting on such news. For someone to think that the most efficient way to find out if Darvish threw a perfect game is to Tweet the question and hope than one of his followers will reply with an answer makes me think I do not appreciate the power of Twitter nearly enough.
Anyone know if Yu Darvish got that perfect game or not last night? That’s my team!
— Nick Milligan (@FyeBuckeye) April 3, 2013
Anyone? Anyone at all? My only friend fell asleep in the 8th and so he doesn’t know either!
Wtf why did they wrap up Darvish’s arm so much?
— Matt LaMartina ✌ (@MyNiggaMatt) April 3, 2013
Pitching is a stressful activity for the arm. By applying ice to the arm after pitching, swelling is minimized. The ice reduces pain and soreness. Also, they were trying to prevent it from falling off.
A terrific read to start continue your week: Michael J. Mooney’s profile of Brandon McCarthy over at Buzzfeed.
[T]he Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, who will begin his eighth season with his fourth different organization when he takes the ball Opening Day, comes across as genuine and unaffected, whether it’s to his 100,000+ Twitter followers or in his living room….
“I became addicted to Fangraphs,” he says, referring to a popular stat-head website. “If I wanted to stop sucking, I knew I needed to change something.” He looked at which pitches lead to more runs. At the end of his stretch with the Rangers, he made the conscious decision to remake himself as a pitcher….
“After the injury, trying to be funny was one of the things that helped me clarify my thoughts,” he says, still sitting on the same couch where he came up with most of his ideas. “I always liked the idea of writing, but actually writing is harder than hell. Having an idea is one thing, but creating characters and a universe and then giving them words and all that is completely another idea all together.”
The entire piece is a must-read.
I know that NotGraphs probably isn’t the right place for this, but BREAKING NEWS from Citi Field — Jonathan Niese is a last-minute scratch from his opening day start, and Johan Santana will be taking the mound after all. Buzz is that he sought a third opinion on his shoulder before undergoing surgery, and it turns out that there was a smudge on the previous x-ray that had gone unnoticed. His shoulder is actually in pristine condition, and the Mets rushed him to the clubhouse this morning. These are actual photos taken right now at Citi Field, as Johan takes his warmups.
Oh, wait, that last one — apparently Johan has just been traded back to the Twins. Like, just now. And he’s going to be taking Vance Worley’s place as their Opening Day starter, he just switched into the uniform in between warmup pitches and transported himself to Minnesota. Still waiting on word as far as why the Twins have decided to go with the gray road jerseys for the home opener. NotGraphs about to grab an exclusive with Chuck Knoblauch, who’s starting at second base this afternoon…. More to come.
#aprilfools
#noonefooled