Archive for Discovery

Ted Williams didn’t play during the Heat Map Era. He also didn’t play during the Internet, Grunge, Civil Rights, Designated Hitter, or David Bowie Era. But Mr. Williams still understood the idea behind heat maps. The above (embiggenable) image is of a display at the Hall of Fame museum, in which Williams estimates his batting average based on pitch location.

I have yet to visit the Hall of Fame, but when I do, I will certainly seek this display out. I’ve tried to come up with something humorous or insightful to say about this, but everything I come up with pales in comparison to just how cool this thing is. Just imagining Ted Williams dictating a batting average for 77 different balls — splitting some vertically, some horizontally, because that inch and half matters — delights me. We don’t have Pitch F/X data with which to compare this, and I honestly don’t care. Comparing it to facts would ruin it somehow. This isn’t so much a factual chart as it is a peek inside the head of one of the smartest hitters the game has ever seen.

It’s a glorious thing, and it will be my misshapen computer wallpaper for a while.

(image via the digital mind meld known as Reddit)

Kauffman Stadium is a tough park. Sure, it has those nice fountains and that massive scoreboard, but have you ever tried to put together a winning team there? Earlier this season, then-Royals hitting coach Jack Maloof noted that since the Royals’ home stadium deflates home run rates, there was no point in trying. That is obviously the main why the Royals are tied with the AAA-and-a-half Marlins for last in baseball in home runs.

[In an unrelated event, Maloof was shortly thereafter relieved of his duties and replaced with (interim) hitting coach George Brett. Maloof and co-coach Andre David were sent back down to coach in the minors, where they can work their magic again with young Royals hitters, just like they did with Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas.]

The K is not just responsible for the Royals’ relative inability to hit the ball out of the park. It also is responsible for their longstanding problems drawing walks, according to General Manager Dayton Moore.

[Both of these stories were written by former Kansas City Star employee Jeffrey Flanagan, who now writes for FOX Sports Kansas City, which, and you aren’t going to believe this, broadcasts Royals games! You might remember Flanagan from this.]

You might be expecting me to make points about component park factors, what other teams do in Kauffman or in their own parks given those factors, player development, or something else. But Moore and Maloof got me thinking. What other difficulties has Kauffman imposed upon the Royals over the years? I did some research, and lo-and-behold, I found a whole different set of park factors for The K.

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Whilst perusing the gentleman’s Internet, I came across the above picture. It features baseball, but it also features a depiction of an antiquated piece of technology. I thought people might find that funny. I also thought people might see it as a pointed commentary on our society’s relationship with technology — i.e. how we can barely learn and become comfortable with something before another newer, better thing is thrust upon us. The second group would probably be reading too much into it, I continued thinking, but that’s OK because discussion is vital for growth.

I was kicking around a couple of ideas for an article. One involved Murphy’s internal dialog as he played a text-based computer game. Another had him hacking into the stadium’s scoreboard.

But then I did a little research on Mr. Murphy, trying to figure out what set of circumstances would cause him to bring a portable computer anywhere near a baseball field. Rob Murphy isn’t just dicking around here. Rob Murphy is a legit geek.

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The baseball landscape is littered with harmonic carcasses of side projects gone bad. Baseball players — perhaps out of boredom or ill-advised thought — have made numerous attempts at expressing themselves through music.

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The Dodgers 1970 scouting report of Dick Allen:

Dick Allen doesn’t need a country. Doesn’t need a position. His country is his steely gaze. His position is that you should go to hell with your judgments.

He’ll fill those holes in his bat when he God-damn feels like it. Dick Allen is tired of you reporting on his potential, too. Go to the next man, see if he cares. (Author’s note: Allen was traded to the Dodgers the year after this report was written.)

You don’t win Rookie of the Year and become an All-Star by pushing cars downhill, dickweed. Cars need to go up. Dick Allen is the man to make that happen.

(Report provided by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.)

Talented surgeon and nearly irrepressible lothario, Nicasio Beckett.

Frequently in this life, we do things for reasons that are mysterious. Like marry a woman despite her open contempt for us, for example. Or remain married to her, for example, despite her continued and unwaveringly open contempt for us.

This post represents such a mystery, as well. Whilst composing today’s diamond-encrusted edition of the Daily Notes, the author discovered that, by pairing the surname of a visiting pitcher with the surname of that same contest’s home pitcher, that the resulting name — in really almost every case — resembled those such as are frequently encountered within the confines of America’s most popular soap operas.

What follows, then, is the result of the author not only identifying that phenomenon, but also following through on it in such a way so as to make any reasonable person question the value of this life.

Names listed in order of today’s first-pitch times.

Gee LeBlanc
Of unclear, but decidedly nefarious, French-speaking origin. CEO of corrupt and profitable LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals. Irrepressible lothario.

Diamond Sanchez
Wealthy and brilliant Mexican heiress who suffers amnesia and becomes exotic dancer.

Gomez Burgos
Priest who is constantly tempted by Diamond Sanchez. Also, CIA secret agent.

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Friends, relations, and especially baseball fans: For all your informational quick-fixes, please disregard Wikipedia or any other websource. Henceforth, consult only Rickeypedia: The Rickey Encyclopedia.

Please embiggen so as not to strain your eyes.

Precise.

Jered Weaver – 15-day DL – Elbow

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Magna Carta, the Constitution, and the Brewers dessert policy.

It is not a question of if, but how hard, the present author will defame both himself and his entire family line during his debut on Monday, at Miller Park, as a Proper Baseball Writer.

With a view to softening the inevitable blow, however, that same author has spent some portion of the weekend within the pages of the Milwaukee Brewers media guide.

From this document I’ve learned, for example, both that right-handed reliever Burke Badenhop graduated magna cum laude from Bowling Green State University with a degree in economics and also that the Brewers, as an organization, haven’t conducted a trade with the Miami (née Florida) Marlins since a November 1996 deal for left-hander Joel Adamson (in exchange for right-hander Eddie Collins).

I’ve also learned that the media interview room is located across from the home clubhouse and that attempting to purloin from Ryan Braun a lock of his hair is grounds for revocation of one’s credential*.

*Not expressly stated, this point about Braun’s hair, but certainly implied.

The most important lesson to be derived from the media guide, however, is that the Brewers organization is for (and not against) the people — and that, yes, while they’ll be charging a certain number of American dollars for a full meal, that they’re also not monsters — and that the consumption of certain popular dessert treats is not a privilege among the residents of the Bob Betts Press Box, but a right — and that, therefore, frozen yogurt and milkshakes shall be complimentary for credentialed media for now and for ever and amen.

Never having visited the state of Arizona for Spring Training, I was initially unsure of what to/what not to wear. Actually, that’s not true. I had 99% of my clothing decided, with one large omission; which hat to wear. As I do not have what one would describe as a rooting interest in any team that plays their Spring Training games in Arizona, I was left in a bit of a pickle. I had the option of wearing a Minnesota Twins hat, but that seemed a little gauche — as the Twins don’t play a game there. I might as well wear a hat stating “I’d rather be in Florida,” which is a hat hopefully nobody owns. My other options were hats bearing either the logos of basketball teams, or golf equipment companies, neither of which seemed appropriate either. So I settled — though “settled” seems perhaps like a word that invokes displeasure in the ultimate outcome — on a hat bearing the logo of the Saint Paul Saints (seen on the right), my local representative of the Northern League of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Though they don’t do Spring Training, wearing their signifier seemed less assuming, a little curious perhaps, but not aggressive. Look at me. I’m just a baseball fan enjoying baseball wearing a baseball hat.

This decision took about three days to complete, and I was happy with it. Imagine my surprise then — no, seriously, imagine it — when I arrived this morning at my hotel in Arizona to find fellow Patrick Dubuque, mostly of NotGraphs fame, wearing a very similar hat (left). Let me assure you that this, while delightfully whimsical, was not planned nor intended.

Details are sketchy as to why Dubuque, who hails from the Seattle area, would wear a hat of an independent team from the middle-west. I have been informed by the subject himself, however, that his decision proved to be less irksome than mine, as he apparently owns only one hat.