Kenny Rogers gets a second shot at the Jays tonight. Cory Lidle, as I post this, has already thrown two perfect innings so the Twins' offensive struggles might be continuing.
Hey, are there any other major league regulars who haven't hit a single yet, other than Hinske?
Defining "regular" as more than 25 at-bats this season...
No. Mark Bellhorn and Matt Lawton also have none.
No. Mark Bellhorn and Matt Lawton also have none.
I'm listening to the game on MLB game day, or whatever it's called, and do the announcers always say "You're listening to Rogers Blue Jays baseball on the Fan?"
Well, my fantasy squad would like Hinske to pick up the pace a little...
I know this is a really dumb question, but why doesn't Delgado just hit it down the line and/or bunt when we put that giant shift on him?
Aaron, I've wondered the very same thing when teams do that to Bonds. If Barry wanted to hit .400 -- hell, .500 -- he could do it with no problem.
There's that ego thing, though, plus do you really want your $17 million guy laying down bunts???
There's that ego thing, though, plus do you really want your $17 million guy laying down bunts???
He did foul off a bunt during the last series with the Twins - against Santana iirc.
That was the first time I could ever remember noticing Carlos make a shift-related adjustment to his hitting.
That was the first time I could ever remember noticing Carlos make a shift-related adjustment to his hitting.
Yes they always say you are listening to Blue Jays baseball on the Fan
Mark Bellhorn is now batting a robust .038 (1 for 26) with a triple.
Against the Sox, Delgado lined a couple base hits between the SS and 2B with the shift.
Against the Sox, Delgado lined a couple base hits between the SS and 2B with the shift.
Since I can't watch or listen to the game (I guess I'll spring for the Gameday thing soon, but I'm broke now), I'm only seeing it on MLB gamecast. The thing I keep noticing about this year's Jays is how deep they take the pitcher in almost every AB. If they're doing this against strong pitching like Boston and Min, it seems like they're going to devour KC, Detroit, Texas, Cleveland, and especially Tampa Bay and the O's. If they can pound the hell out of the weaker teams, then they have a shot at hanging close all year. Until Tosca took over last year, they lost a lot of games to teams with clearly inferior talent. Winning those games this year will make a huge difference.
Lidle, as of this moment, has 23 K's and 1 BB! (He's already surpassed his personal best of 8 K's in a game, with 9 so far tonight)
23:1 WOW!
23:1 WOW!
Seven Quality Starts in a row (against the Twins and Sox) ain't bad!
It was "ROGERS Blue Jays baseball," not just "Blue Jays baseball." At least the Dodgers don't do "Welcome to Fox Dodger Baseball."
I had the pleasure of attending tonight's game with Coach.
It was a game that either team could have won. The Twins bullpen did the job and the Twins batters bunched their hits effectively. Carlos Delgado has made a number of outstanding defensive plays this year (one of those being the first AB of the night), but in the ninth he fielded a chopper that was clearly going to go foul. On another chopper, Tam failed to cover first and Carlos was left with nothing to do but hold the ball. Those 2 lapses eventually resulted in an insurance run. Despite this, Jays fans can take heart that Tam's sinker was working wonders, as hitter after hitter pounded it into the turf. Coach noted that Tam has to pitch almost every day to be effective.
Shannon Stewart drove a ball to the rightcentre gap, while Hunter had him shaded to pull. The next trip up, Hunter shaded him the other way and Stu drove one to the leftcentre gap. He also tripled to deep centre.
Vernon Wells had a tough day at the plate. He nearly made a spectacular catch on a drive to the CF wall. It was the hardest hit ball of the night and Wells came within a foot and a half of catching it. Wells was later charged an error when he bobbled a hot shot single, allowing the runner to just get in at 2nd.
O-Dog was benched and Bordick did a fine job at second. With the infield in and men on 1st and 3rd, he came close to making a spectacular 4-2-5 double play on a chopper (he was just a little too far from the runner going 1st to 2nd to make the tag) that he threw home - Wilson then threw to third to get the runner trying to return to the bag.
Josh Phelps had some good PAs, going deep into the count. He managed to smoke a single to leftcentre which would have gone to the wall against 90% of the league's leftfielders.
It was a game that either team could have won. The Twins bullpen did the job and the Twins batters bunched their hits effectively. Carlos Delgado has made a number of outstanding defensive plays this year (one of those being the first AB of the night), but in the ninth he fielded a chopper that was clearly going to go foul. On another chopper, Tam failed to cover first and Carlos was left with nothing to do but hold the ball. Those 2 lapses eventually resulted in an insurance run. Despite this, Jays fans can take heart that Tam's sinker was working wonders, as hitter after hitter pounded it into the turf. Coach noted that Tam has to pitch almost every day to be effective.
Shannon Stewart drove a ball to the rightcentre gap, while Hunter had him shaded to pull. The next trip up, Hunter shaded him the other way and Stu drove one to the leftcentre gap. He also tripled to deep centre.
Vernon Wells had a tough day at the plate. He nearly made a spectacular catch on a drive to the CF wall. It was the hardest hit ball of the night and Wells came within a foot and a half of catching it. Wells was later charged an error when he bobbled a hot shot single, allowing the runner to just get in at 2nd.
O-Dog was benched and Bordick did a fine job at second. With the infield in and men on 1st and 3rd, he came close to making a spectacular 4-2-5 double play on a chopper (he was just a little too far from the runner going 1st to 2nd to make the tag) that he threw home - Wilson then threw to third to get the runner trying to return to the bag.
Josh Phelps had some good PAs, going deep into the count. He managed to smoke a single to leftcentre which would have gone to the wall against 90% of the league's leftfielders.
Correection:
Stewart did not triple; he had 2 doubles and a single in tonight's game.
Stewart did not triple; he had 2 doubles and a single in tonight's game.
Robert's great to watch a game with. I was never more conscious of straddling the line between sabrmetrics and "traditional wisdom", because his analytical skills are amazing, while I sometimes (right or wrong) let instinct and experience overrule what the numbers tell me. For a "stathead" (note to Richard Griffin: it's a compliment) Robert also has a terrific grasp of coachly stuff like hitting mechanics and pitch selection. I'm sure that was a Stewart triple, though.
In the ninth, I was reminded again of a pet peeve, a stat nobody but me keeps -- the team error. Delgado made a mistake in fielding a ball that was 99% certain to spin foul. Not an E-3 according to the rules, so official scorer Lou Cauz has to call it a hit, and unfortunately, it counts "against" the pitcher. Nonsense. It was an E-10. In the same inning, Jeff Tam had a massive brain cramp and failed to cover first on a bouncer to the right side. Delgado sheepishly held the ball while everyone was safe. I don't mind that one being called an E-1 ("plays not made" is another category worth discussing) but it simply should not be scored a hit, so in my book, it was another E-10. If that was an "earned" run, I'm Bud Selig.
S.K., I think you're looking for play-by-play in these game threads, but you're getting colour commentary. If people want to note inning and score when they check in here during games, maybe we can please everyone. I have this image (OK, it's a vision) of scribes on press row clicking on Batter's Box between innings to see what the real fans are thinking. If I could get a laptop and an Internet connection at the games, I'd happily keep everyone posted on the subtleties (fair or foul?) that elude Rob Faulds. Just wondering: how many hits/day will Batter's Box need to be recognized as a "legitimate" medium?
In the ninth, I was reminded again of a pet peeve, a stat nobody but me keeps -- the team error. Delgado made a mistake in fielding a ball that was 99% certain to spin foul. Not an E-3 according to the rules, so official scorer Lou Cauz has to call it a hit, and unfortunately, it counts "against" the pitcher. Nonsense. It was an E-10. In the same inning, Jeff Tam had a massive brain cramp and failed to cover first on a bouncer to the right side. Delgado sheepishly held the ball while everyone was safe. I don't mind that one being called an E-1 ("plays not made" is another category worth discussing) but it simply should not be scored a hit, so in my book, it was another E-10. If that was an "earned" run, I'm Bud Selig.
S.K., I think you're looking for play-by-play in these game threads, but you're getting colour commentary. If people want to note inning and score when they check in here during games, maybe we can please everyone. I have this image (OK, it's a vision) of scribes on press row clicking on Batter's Box between innings to see what the real fans are thinking. If I could get a laptop and an Internet connection at the games, I'd happily keep everyone posted on the subtleties (fair or foul?) that elude Rob Faulds. Just wondering: how many hits/day will Batter's Box need to be recognized as a "legitimate" medium?
Well, Lawton got a single yesterday, so Bellhorn and Hinske are the only MLB regulars not to have hit a single.
http://economics.about.com
I hope the day comes where Batter's Box becomes recognized as a "legitimate" medium. Obviously I think quite highly of this website. I spend much more time here than I do at my own website.
If you'd like to increase traffic to the website, have you considered trying to get linked on:
About Baseball : http://baseball.about.com
(Ask Mike at baseball.guide@about.com for a link.. he'd probably give one to you)
Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org
Zeal: http://www.zeal.com
Zeal is *really* easy to get a link on.. and it's fast. I can help you out with this one, because I'm one of the "Zealots" who volunteer at Zeal. Zeal's directory feeds the MSN search engine. I've got a ton of articles linked on Zeal and I get almost as many referrers from MSN as I do from Google. This one is a *must* link.
I'm sure there are others you may consider linking to.
The *other* thing you might want to consider is handing out "Batter's Box Site of the Week" (or month or whatever) to sites you like along with a little award graphic that links back to this page. That will help your ranking on search engines greatly and will help foster relationships between this site and others you like.
As you can probably tell, I spend a *lot* of time working on Search Engine Optimization. :)
I hope the day comes where Batter's Box becomes recognized as a "legitimate" medium. Obviously I think quite highly of this website. I spend much more time here than I do at my own website.
If you'd like to increase traffic to the website, have you considered trying to get linked on:
About Baseball : http://baseball.about.com
(Ask Mike at baseball.guide@about.com for a link.. he'd probably give one to you)
Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org
Zeal: http://www.zeal.com
Zeal is *really* easy to get a link on.. and it's fast. I can help you out with this one, because I'm one of the "Zealots" who volunteer at Zeal. Zeal's directory feeds the MSN search engine. I've got a ton of articles linked on Zeal and I get almost as many referrers from MSN as I do from Google. This one is a *must* link.
I'm sure there are others you may consider linking to.
The *other* thing you might want to consider is handing out "Batter's Box Site of the Week" (or month or whatever) to sites you like along with a little award graphic that links back to this page. That will help your ranking on search engines greatly and will help foster relationships between this site and others you like.
As you can probably tell, I spend a *lot* of time working on Search Engine Optimization. :)
Speaking of players who don't hit singles -- call it the McGwire effect -- here's a great trivia question from last night's Rangers/Mariners telecast, in which Chan Ho Park threw seven thousand pitches in the first three innings and held on for a win ...
Who is the only active major leaguer with a career slugging percentage of 4.000?
(Yes ... one at-bat, one home run.)
Batters Box Bonus Points -- trade them with your friends! -- to anyone other than Scott Lucas who can answer this.
Who is the only active major leaguer with a career slugging percentage of 4.000?
(Yes ... one at-bat, one home run.)
Batters Box Bonus Points -- trade them with your friends! -- to anyone other than Scott Lucas who can answer this.
http://economics.about.com
Without looking it up, I believe it's Esteban Yan.
MP
Without looking it up, I believe it's Esteban Yan.
MP