Tuesday, April 13, 2004
BLATHERRIFIC
I know Dave Boling might only be half-serious, but this has to be the stupidest argument for the Mariners' 1-5 start. I'll cite David Locke's very short counterargument for this -- it would defy their age. Sucking brutally followed by going on a late-season tear simply defies their age, while the reverse of that fits quite nicely for a bunch of over-30s.
And from the LaRue article...
"This was a good team a week ago, it's a good team now. You've just been through a period where nothing went right." -- Bill Bavasi
If you didn't do it already while reading that quote, I'll do it for you -- BULLSH!+, Buzzie Spawn. If you can count the number of positive things that happened with your team (over a six-game stretch) on one hand, you might have a bad team (Foxworthy logic, but it works here).
"Players aren't showing now what they've shown in the past. I believe it's there ... They believe it's there. So do you judge on one week or what they've done throughout their careers?" -- Bavasi
Around August of last year, I remember hearing a heated argument on KJR between David Locke and Mike Gastineau during their crosstalk segment (one of many). This one was based on how either of them thought John Olerud would finish the season, and he had been struggling up to that point. Locke didn't paint a rosy picture for Olerud, saying he'd either keep struggling, or get marginally better, something like that. Mike Gastineau thought Olerud would get a lot better toward the end of the season. Why? In Gastineau's words: "he's a career .300 hitter." Gastineau thought the Law of Averages would play into Olerud's favor. We all know how that turned out. Anyway, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this "argument" that Bavasi put forth.
"We're 1-5, but do we feel like a last-place club? No, and I don't believe this is indicative of our team," he said. "We're built on pitching and defense, and in one week we've given up two three-run innings, two four-run innings, two five-run innings.
"You do that, you're not going to win." -- Price
Whoa, Brian, Mister Contradiction Machine. You should know better than to say that the club is built around defense if you've watched the last week of baseball, and I have the feeling that the places where the defense was subtracted in the offseason are not going to experience too much of a better fate than what we've seen in the last week.
Amd now, your Willie Bloomquist Slam of the Day (TM) (Times provides material) --
How un-Willie-like was wrapped up in one fact: he was among the league leaders in the most unlikely category for him — strikeouts.
Although he had gotten on base in the first four games and had hits in three of them, he had fanned seven times, tied for third in the American League.
"I couldn't believe I was striking out as much as I was," he said. "My swing feels great. I couldn't figure out how or why I was missing pitches I shouldn't be missing."
I've asked statistical experts about this, and they've all concluded that strikeouts in Willie's case are directly proportional to getting pitches blown past him and stupidly waving at balls out of the strike zone. And when I say statistical experts, it'd probably be more accurate to say "myself." I am by no means a statistical expert.
(Rimshot!!) Thanks, folks, I'll be here all year except for the latter half of June and early July (damn geology field course).
And from the LaRue article...
"This was a good team a week ago, it's a good team now. You've just been through a period where nothing went right." -- Bill Bavasi
If you didn't do it already while reading that quote, I'll do it for you -- BULLSH!+, Buzzie Spawn. If you can count the number of positive things that happened with your team (over a six-game stretch) on one hand, you might have a bad team (Foxworthy logic, but it works here).
"Players aren't showing now what they've shown in the past. I believe it's there ... They believe it's there. So do you judge on one week or what they've done throughout their careers?" -- Bavasi
Around August of last year, I remember hearing a heated argument on KJR between David Locke and Mike Gastineau during their crosstalk segment (one of many). This one was based on how either of them thought John Olerud would finish the season, and he had been struggling up to that point. Locke didn't paint a rosy picture for Olerud, saying he'd either keep struggling, or get marginally better, something like that. Mike Gastineau thought Olerud would get a lot better toward the end of the season. Why? In Gastineau's words: "he's a career .300 hitter." Gastineau thought the Law of Averages would play into Olerud's favor. We all know how that turned out. Anyway, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this "argument" that Bavasi put forth.
"We're 1-5, but do we feel like a last-place club? No, and I don't believe this is indicative of our team," he said. "We're built on pitching and defense, and in one week we've given up two three-run innings, two four-run innings, two five-run innings.
"You do that, you're not going to win." -- Price
Whoa, Brian, Mister Contradiction Machine. You should know better than to say that the club is built around defense if you've watched the last week of baseball, and I have the feeling that the places where the defense was subtracted in the offseason are not going to experience too much of a better fate than what we've seen in the last week.
Amd now, your Willie Bloomquist Slam of the Day (TM) (Times provides material) --
How un-Willie-like was wrapped up in one fact: he was among the league leaders in the most unlikely category for him — strikeouts.
Although he had gotten on base in the first four games and had hits in three of them, he had fanned seven times, tied for third in the American League.
"I couldn't believe I was striking out as much as I was," he said. "My swing feels great. I couldn't figure out how or why I was missing pitches I shouldn't be missing."
I've asked statistical experts about this, and they've all concluded that strikeouts in Willie's case are directly proportional to getting pitches blown past him and stupidly waving at balls out of the strike zone. And when I say statistical experts, it'd probably be more accurate to say "myself." I am by no means a statistical expert.
(Rimshot!!) Thanks, folks, I'll be here all year except for the latter half of June and early July (damn geology field course).
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