In honor of my purchase of Reds tickets this morning, I have come up with some good baseball statistics.
San Francisco has the 6th best road record, which is an even .500 at 20-20. They have the 5th worst record overall, however.
Despite being 8 games below .500, the Indians have scored 11 more runs than their opponents. On the contrary, the Angels are 17 games over .500 with only 18 more runs than their opponents.
The Tigers, thankfully, now rank 18th overall in record. They are 15-8 so far in the month of June. It took 35 games for them to achieve their 15th win this season.
Fernando Rodney’s ERA currently is 33.75, although he has only 1.1 IP.
The Atlanta Braves are an anomaly. They are a wretched 4-20 in one run games with an overall record of 39-41. Bill James, the father of baseball stats, uses the following formula to predict a team’s record:
Runs scored [squared] / (Runs scored [squared] + runs allowed [squared]).
According to this formula, their record should be 45-35.
Great American Ballpark will be my 9th ballpark - not bad for someone who only really began to be a baseball fan in 2000. Two of those stadiums, Fenway and Skydome, I visited without seeing a game. In the seven stadiums that I will have visited, I have seen 13 MLB teams, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, White Sox, Twins, Indians, Tigers, Athletics, Rangers, Phillies, Nationals, Pirates, and Reds. I have not seen an NL West team play in person.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Opera Man 2
There's another guy who sang opera on America's Got Talent. I don't think he is as good as the British guy and he kinda over did it with the drama.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Sunday, June 08, 2008
I Wasted 2 Minutes Watching the Belmont Stakes
Google Earth is my new friend. I know I am about 2-3 years behind on this one, but I spent about an hour today locating various places. I found my apartment, my parents house, Knob Hill, etc. The best part is finding baseball and football stadiums. I even toured Iraq and Afghanistan a little. I think it is remarkable, and a little scary, that you can focus so closely on different parts of the world.
At some point after Big Brown lost the Belmont Stakes today, one of the announcers claimed "...and that's why the Triple Crown is the most difficult achievement in sports". Fist of all, many would argue that horse racing is not a sport. I'm going to argue that it is not the most difficult achievement.
Achieving the title has got to be ruled out, because someone will win it every year. Looking at it statistically, each of the 30 teams in MLB have a 3.3% chance of winning the title in any given year, assuming the winner is randomly chosen.
Compare those odds to horse racing. There are usually around 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby, but that field thins out by the Belmont to only around 10 - let's say the average for the 3 is 15 horses in each race. If the winner was randomly selected, you've got a .0296% chance of picking the same horse to win the three races (assuming I've remembered enough of my statistics course). There have been 11 Triple Crown winners over the 100 plus years of the racing trifecta, which shows the winners aren't random.
Here's my list of in rank of difficulty. Keep in mind, you have to ignore anything superhuman, like kicking a 70+ yard field goal.
8. Unassisted Triple Play - this is more based on circumstance and luck than skill. Just because it is extremely rare, doesn't mean it is difficult. Between 1927 and 1992, there has only been one. Since then, there have been 5, including Asdrubal Cabrera's play this year for the Indians.
7. Bowling 300
6. Hitting a hole in one - I was tempted to move this higher, but it takes one lucky shot. The other feats must be repeated over time.
5. Triple Crown of horseracing - It may be difficult, but it's not the most difficult.
4. Grand Slam of golf - with such a huge pool of participants, almost any of them can have a good weekend and steal one. Nobody's done it, not even Tiger. (yet)
3. Pitching a perfect game - I love the romanticism that is associated with a no-hitter or a perfect game. It's unlike any other experience in sports because the team game suddenly becomes focused on just one player. Part of the beauty is that it comes unexpectedly - it could happen at any moment.
2. Batting .400+ in a season - Sorry Chipper, it's not going to happen.
1. Triple crown of baseball - It requires you to be the best power hitter and the best contact hitter - for 140 or so games.
I will leave you with this: the Tigers currently have the 26th worst record in baseball.
At some point after Big Brown lost the Belmont Stakes today, one of the announcers claimed "...and that's why the Triple Crown is the most difficult achievement in sports". Fist of all, many would argue that horse racing is not a sport. I'm going to argue that it is not the most difficult achievement.
Achieving the title has got to be ruled out, because someone will win it every year. Looking at it statistically, each of the 30 teams in MLB have a 3.3% chance of winning the title in any given year, assuming the winner is randomly chosen.
Compare those odds to horse racing. There are usually around 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby, but that field thins out by the Belmont to only around 10 - let's say the average for the 3 is 15 horses in each race. If the winner was randomly selected, you've got a .0296% chance of picking the same horse to win the three races (assuming I've remembered enough of my statistics course). There have been 11 Triple Crown winners over the 100 plus years of the racing trifecta, which shows the winners aren't random.
Here's my list of in rank of difficulty. Keep in mind, you have to ignore anything superhuman, like kicking a 70+ yard field goal.
8. Unassisted Triple Play - this is more based on circumstance and luck than skill. Just because it is extremely rare, doesn't mean it is difficult. Between 1927 and 1992, there has only been one. Since then, there have been 5, including Asdrubal Cabrera's play this year for the Indians.
7. Bowling 300
6. Hitting a hole in one - I was tempted to move this higher, but it takes one lucky shot. The other feats must be repeated over time.
5. Triple Crown of horseracing - It may be difficult, but it's not the most difficult.
4. Grand Slam of golf - with such a huge pool of participants, almost any of them can have a good weekend and steal one. Nobody's done it, not even Tiger. (yet)
3. Pitching a perfect game - I love the romanticism that is associated with a no-hitter or a perfect game. It's unlike any other experience in sports because the team game suddenly becomes focused on just one player. Part of the beauty is that it comes unexpectedly - it could happen at any moment.
2. Batting .400+ in a season - Sorry Chipper, it's not going to happen.
1. Triple crown of baseball - It requires you to be the best power hitter and the best contact hitter - for 140 or so games.
I will leave you with this: the Tigers currently have the 26th worst record in baseball.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
By The Way
...is it ok if I invite my friend Roger to go golfing with us? He's about the same level as us and I'd like to see him, but I don't want to just take off.
Game 5.5
Things uttered by me last night during the Redwings game:
"They really can't afford to go down by two goals. It's over if they do."
-A few mins after the Penguins scored their first.
"The Penguins have absolutely given up on this game. They're playing like they're down 3 goals with a minute left."
-8 mins left in the game
"Crap, the Penguins all of a sudden are playing hard again. They (Redwings) have gotta keep the puck out of their zone."
-1 min left in the game
Various combinations of profanity
-30 sec left in the game
"The Wings need to stop shooting the puck from the sideboards so much. They need to get in front of the net and cause some disruption. That's what the Penguins are doing and they should've scored one of these by now."
-2nd OT
"I know the refs want to 'let them play' but they have got to start calling penalties. That's the only thing that is going to end this thing."
-3rd OT, 12 min left.
That was an extremely disappointing game. The Penguins quit on the game, so the Redwings were lulled into a false sense of security. One they started playing tough again late in the 3rd, the Wings didn't match their urgency. The silver lining is that they still have 2 chances to win.
NBC needs to learn from the way the NBA does playoffs. I would love to see the player intros rather than two people I don't know preview the game. If the NHL wants to grow its fanbase, you need to introduce them to the players. I know a lot of teams do exciting things with their intros (Oiler's oil derrick, the giant Shark head, etc.) - lets see them! Two things they have added that have improved the broadcast are more camera angles from behind the net and the mid-ice broadcaster.
ESPN's reluctance to show anything more than highlights of the playoffs is ridiculous. On the morning of what could be the championship game and the following morning after an exciting 3 OT game, what are Mike and Mike discussing? The NBA Finals, which doesn't even start for 3 days! But of course, those games are on ABC. What does the "family of networks" expect us to watch - two hours of the Bachelorette and College Softball??
"They really can't afford to go down by two goals. It's over if they do."
-A few mins after the Penguins scored their first.
"The Penguins have absolutely given up on this game. They're playing like they're down 3 goals with a minute left."
-8 mins left in the game
"Crap, the Penguins all of a sudden are playing hard again. They (Redwings) have gotta keep the puck out of their zone."
-1 min left in the game
Various combinations of profanity
-30 sec left in the game
"The Wings need to stop shooting the puck from the sideboards so much. They need to get in front of the net and cause some disruption. That's what the Penguins are doing and they should've scored one of these by now."
-2nd OT
"I know the refs want to 'let them play' but they have got to start calling penalties. That's the only thing that is going to end this thing."
-3rd OT, 12 min left.
That was an extremely disappointing game. The Penguins quit on the game, so the Redwings were lulled into a false sense of security. One they started playing tough again late in the 3rd, the Wings didn't match their urgency. The silver lining is that they still have 2 chances to win.
NBC needs to learn from the way the NBA does playoffs. I would love to see the player intros rather than two people I don't know preview the game. If the NHL wants to grow its fanbase, you need to introduce them to the players. I know a lot of teams do exciting things with their intros (Oiler's oil derrick, the giant Shark head, etc.) - lets see them! Two things they have added that have improved the broadcast are more camera angles from behind the net and the mid-ice broadcaster.
ESPN's reluctance to show anything more than highlights of the playoffs is ridiculous. On the morning of what could be the championship game and the following morning after an exciting 3 OT game, what are Mike and Mike discussing? The NBA Finals, which doesn't even start for 3 days! But of course, those games are on ABC. What does the "family of networks" expect us to watch - two hours of the Bachelorette and College Softball??
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