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MLB 2013 II - I Shin-soo Choose You!

Lightning Lord

By Lightning Lord,
in Entertainment

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Lightning Lord Council Member

Lightning Lord

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Twins got a win at Milwaukee today, with Chairman Mao-uer getting his fourth dinger of the year. Guy's got warning track power and sometimes a stiff breeze puts one over for him. I'll take it. Also, thread's namesake knocked out his tenth of the year. Choo's been slumping a bit, good to see him get a couple hits today.

Final note, as of writing...both Yankees and Braves losing. Happy days!! :D

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wolverine Council Member

wolverine

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Twins got a win at Milwaukee today, with Chairman Mao-uer getting his fourth dinger of the year. Guy's got warning track power and sometimes a stiff breeze puts one over for him. I'll take it. Also, thread's namesake knocked out his tenth of the year. Choo's been slumping a bit, good to see him get a couple hits today.

Final note, as of writing...both Yankees and Braves losing. Happy days!! :D

Noticed Carlos Gomez hit two bombs and now has 10 on the season while batting .330.

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Ser Greguh Council Member

Ser Greguh

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That's as many as he hit in 270 games for MN. How/why??? Our pitchers are so bad that going against them increases one's home run rate by 500%?

Gomez started his career as a pure contact hitter that relied almost purely on his speed (and he was always kind of a defensive specialist), but about mid last season he started swinging harder and pulling heavily. His average dropped but he proved he had HR power. Now this season he seems to have put it together and has emerged as a damn scary hitter, particularly in Miller Park's shallow left field.

I think this is about the first time in his career he's been an everyday starter, too, which appears to have helped him tremendously. Two seasons ago he was a pinch hitter/runner that occasionally subbed for Nyjer Morgan's day off. Morgan went in a downward spiral last year (I think he's now playing in Japan) and Gomez took over Milwaukee's everyday CF role.

Milwaukee has underperformed horribly so far this season. We have like 3 of the top 10 hitters in the NL and our bullpen has been very good for the past month, but our starting rotation has been abysmal, and we can't seem to get that many hits with RISP.

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balefired-ed Council Member

balefired-ed

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Does inter-league play always have weekends like this, or is this new? It seems like every "pair" is playing at the same time. I certainly know the pairs. I just don't recall it happening in every possible incidence on the same weekend.

Baltimore v. Washington.

NYM v. NYY

St. Louis v. Kansas City

LAD v. LAA

Oakland v. San Francisco

Florida v. Tampa Bay

CHC v. CHW

Seattle v. San Diego (this has sort of been a default west coast match-up on top of the bay area and LA area teams)

Texas v. Arizona is like some kind of old west matchup

And of course the obligatory Toronto v. Atlanta matchup.

By the way, this is totally random, but it only just hit me the other day that the Atlanta Braves are the only team in the American south. And that seems kind of crazy when you compare it to the other big sports. Does anyone know if there's a story to this?

In the NFL you have the Atlanta Falcons but also the Carolina Panthers, the Tennessee Titans, and the New Orleans Saints in the region. In the NBA you have the Charlotte Bobcats (soon to be Hornets) the New Orleans Hornets (soon to be Pelicans) and the Memphis Grizzlies in addition to the Atlanta Hawks.

But in MLB there is no team in North Carolina, no team in Louisiana, and no team in Tennessee. That makes it seem strange that baseball, with all of its years of history, would have just one team in the region. Must be good for Atlanta's TV ratings though, neh?

1. Yes, the MLB has all of the local rivals play each other around the same time. It's been that way for a few years.

2. The difference between the MLB, NFL, and NBA having teams in the south is pretty simple. Population density + number of games. A smaller area can get away with only needing to fill 8 or 41 dates, but 81 is just too much, you need a bigger base.

Add in to the fact that in the South college is king and professional sports usually struggle, you've got your answer.

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Jaime L Council Member

Jaime L

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Why, why are the Twins so bad?

Ooh, let me take a stab. From HardballTalk:

Yu Darvish is on track to become just the third 26-year-old in baseball history to reach 300 strikeouts, joining Nolan Ryan with 383 in 1973 and Rube Waddell with 302 in 1903.

And as a Minnesotan, this is the most painful stat: Darvish has 105 strikeouts in 11 starts this season. Minnesota’s entire starting rotation has a grand total of 122 strikeouts in 48 starts.

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Ser Greguh Council Member

Ser Greguh

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Kind of emblematic of the Brewers season so far: Segura ties a franchise record going 6-for-7, jumping his average up eighteen points in the process (and regaining the NL batting lead over Votto), all in a losing 14-inning effort against the Twins. Gomez also had a HR totally robbed by a phenomenal defensive play.

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Lightning Lord Council Member

Lightning Lord

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1) Love extra innings baseball - 6/7! Seven tries in one game, such fun.

2) The top three winning percentages (with #3 in a tie) and the top two RDs are in the NL Central. Ye gods I hope that continues into the second half.

Winning streak!

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Jaime L Council Member

Jaime L

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ETA: Jaime - I think that you should write an essay on why you felt compelled to come in here with so few MLB posts and do LL that way. And share it with the group.

My general rule of thumb is that every time a Minnesota Twins starter K's a batter I celebrate by posting in the MLB thread.

JL

What the hell are you even doing in here? GET OUT!! GET OUT OF MY THREAD!!

Look on the bright side, LL. Your team could still be paying Bobby Bonilla for the next 25 years.

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Lightning Lord Council Member

Lightning Lord

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I'm sorry, my good ape. I'm touchy. The real story is that in MN, we're simply too nice to strike people out. The batters feel such shame... we just can't do it to them. We like them to feel they put in a good effort, give them every chance so they have a positive experience. It's not the best strategy to win games, but we prefer to think we win in Life.

Again, I am sorry for my outburst. It was the panda side of me. Very hot-tempered. You should see me go after a decent denim jacket. It's like a red cape for a bull.

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balefired-ed Council Member

balefired-ed

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Thanks on #1. I just didn't remember it all happening in such a coordinated way.

On the next two points, do you have any research to back it up? I'm not saying it's wrong. It seems very intuitive. I just hate assuming.

North American Sports Markets arranged by size and noted which of the major four have franchises there.

It seems to support my post.

Cliffs:

Average market size for each of the big four leagues:

5,293,083 Major League Baseball average market size

4,736,169 National Basketball Association average market size

4,681,258 National Hockey League average market size

4,073,346 National Football League average market size

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balefired-ed Council Member

balefired-ed

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By the by, you forgot the most interesting local rivalry just by what's happened in the series, Cincy vs. Cleveland.

After Roldy's shenanigan's on Monday, both Phillips and Choo got plunked today. I'm just happy they didn't go after Votto.

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wolverine Council Member

wolverine

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My general rule of thumb is that every time a Minnesota Twins starter K's a batter I celebrate by posting in the MLB thread.

I think the limited success of Brad Radke, possibly the immense success of Johan Santana's change-up, and being a small market changed Twins managements philosophy forever. They thought they could get by with a rotation of starters where none tops 91, like ever, and knew this would be an affordable route to take. It is really getting annoying to see other teams with a couple starters and several relievers throwing mid to high 90's when the twins basically have one guy who can dial up 95.

Also, what did they ever get for those 4 center fielders? I know J.J. Hardy for Gomez, who suffered through an injury plagued season, was let go, and has become a power hitting solid fielding shortstop again.

Anyhow, Mariano blew his first save. No matter how much I hate the Yankees I can't help but love Rivera.

EDIT: Doesn't help that the Twins team BA is .240 :ack:

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