He would have fit in perfectly with those late 90's Astros teams.
Even though Houston crushed my soul for the third year in a row, I gotta admit I will be rooting for the Pirates. I can't imagine how shitty 20 consecutive losing seasons must feel.
MLB 2013 season
- Thread starter supertouch_sl
- Start date
Even though Houston crushed my soul for the third year in a row, I gotta admit I will be rooting for the Pirates. I can't imagine how shitty 20 consecutive losing seasons must feel.
I'll be driving 14 hours tomorrow to St. Louis to attend games 1 and 2. I for one will not be bandwagon jumping to the Pirates. They looked good tonight, or was it that the Reds were so bad? They looked like they had no business being in the postseason. Hopefully will be a good series, certainly has the potential to be so.
Burnem Wizfyre
Log Wizard
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Congratulations to the Pirate fans, may your football team (who the fuck else would be a pirate fan other than Steeler fans?) suck as long as your baseball team did.
SimSimSalabim
Molten Core Raider
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Its actually 8 for 32 now, my error on the stats. And while .250 isn't end-of-the-world bad by any means, the 1 RBI in 32 at bats is. Especially for a guy who won an MVP just 3 years ago. It kind of reminds me of Evan Longoria, who seems to be unbelievably clutch in every "must win" game until the playoffs start, and then he disappears (along with the entirety of Rays offense).
Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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There's so much more to a player than RBIs. I mean, how many of his ABs even had RISP? I agree that this was a down season - offensively and defensively - for Votto, but the guy is an All Star. Dusty's just a fucking retard and places him in the #3 hole when he should be #1 or #2. His OBP is off the charts - by far the best in the NL. And 135 walks? That's outrageous. He's very picky about the balls he swings at and prefers to be on-base than getting an out by attempting to swing for the fences. It worked out for the most part considering Phillips and Bruce hit behind him and each drove in over 100 runs.
I think with not only the loss occurring, but with the way it happened, will be the nail in the coffin for Dusty's time in Cincinnati. Time for him to go to another success-starved city, get them postseason births consistently, and then lose in elimination games.
I think with not only the loss occurring, but with the way it happened, will be the nail in the coffin for Dusty's time in Cincinnati. Time for him to go to another success-starved city, get them postseason births consistently, and then lose in elimination games.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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SimSimSalabim
Molten Core Raider
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So you can't understand that players aren't robots, and being able to perform in "clutch" situations when "things are on the line" is actually a real thing and varies from athlete to athlete?
You can attribute some stat drop offs to the fact that in the playoffs you're going to go against the best teams and better players. And sure, you have to consider that a stat like RBIs is, in part, a function of things the player can't control. However, no xtra base hits and 1 RBI in 32 at bats is enough of a sample size to be able to say, even with variance in the uncontrollable things, that Votto does not perform in the playoffs. He still has plenty of time to change that part of the narrative for that part of his career, but what it is now for me.
And I shouldn't have singled him out, he was by far not the only reason or the main reason the Reds lost, and yeah he should be batting at the top of the lineup. But I targeted him and that's that and I'll drop it now because I know nobody actually gives much of a shit.
You can attribute some stat drop offs to the fact that in the playoffs you're going to go against the best teams and better players. And sure, you have to consider that a stat like RBIs is, in part, a function of things the player can't control. However, no xtra base hits and 1 RBI in 32 at bats is enough of a sample size to be able to say, even with variance in the uncontrollable things, that Votto does not perform in the playoffs. He still has plenty of time to change that part of the narrative for that part of his career, but what it is now for me.
And I shouldn't have singled him out, he was by far not the only reason or the main reason the Reds lost, and yeah he should be batting at the top of the lineup. But I targeted him and that's that and I'll drop it now because I know nobody actually gives much of a shit.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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It has been proven that RBI's are completely random and there is no such thing as clutch hitting. There is zero statistical evidence it exists and anything you interpret as clutch hitting is nothing more than random variance. Head over to Fangraphs and learn a thing or two.
I don't know if I'd say RBIs are "completely random". They are, however, so context-dependent that the outcome is basically the same.
Tango did a piece on clutch hitting a while back that I can't find for some reason (he's working for a club now so maybe some of his stuff got taken offline?) that clutch hitting actually does exist, but its impact is so small as to basically be insignificant. There certainly isn't some huge extra gear that some guys can turn on; if there were, wouldn't you want them to have it on all the time?
Tango did a piece on clutch hitting a while back that I can't find for some reason (he's working for a club now so maybe some of his stuff got taken offline?) that clutch hitting actually does exist, but its impact is so small as to basically be insignificant. There certainly isn't some huge extra gear that some guys can turn on; if there were, wouldn't you want them to have it on all the time?
Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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I don't know about that. Some players actually are that way. Some of the stats you see can't be ignored. BA with RISP is a good metric. Some guys are ridiculous in that regard - look at Allen Craig. Shit, look at almost the entire Cardinals lineup. Some players tend to have weird quirks and the sample size is large enough that it can't be ignored. Weren't they just talking about how Evan Longoria's BA is over .350 in away stadiums? That's a lot of ABs.
I want to see a GIF of bubble gum blowing up in David Price's face. That was awesome. I would be so frustrated if I was a Cleveland fan. So many scoring opportunities squandered.
I want to see a GIF of bubble gum blowing up in David Price's face. That was awesome. I would be so frustrated if I was a Cleveland fan. So many scoring opportunities squandered.
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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The thing is, there are a lot of factors going into the outcome of any play in baseball. You can't just look at results-based stats and decide that 100% of those outcomes are due to some skill that one player involved has. Something as simple as an RBI is affected by:
-what pitch did the pitcher throw?
-where was it located?
-how good was the contact?
-was it a fly ball or a ground ball?
-where was the defense positioned?
-was the wind blowing in or out?
I've bolded the one that the batter can have an effect on. It's probably the largest of the listed factors (and there are others, that wasn't meant to be exhaustive) but how do we know how large it is, especially in relation to the others?
Athletes are human beings, and I'm sure they get excited about high leverage situations (this includes the pitcher too though, so there's probably some canceling out that happens). But these guys are also the product of playing baseball professionally through multiple levels of minor leagues, possibly college, possibly high school. The ones that can't perform under stressful situations have been weeded out.
