Admission: When Joe Mauer was about to step into the box for the at-bat that ended with him picking up his 2,000th career hit, I was angrily mashing portions of my iPhone screen in a fruitless attempt to make MLBtv load faster. I didn’t make it, and my phone almost didn’t either. Shame. Despite recent [...]
After Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo triggered Yadier Molina by directing a rather distasteful obscenity at him during yesterday’s game, the rush to judgment was predictably swift and brutal. Lovullo earned an ejection the moment he started arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire, and he earned the wrath of Yadi as well as [...]
If you haven’t read Jack Dickey’s article in Sports Illustrated about Tommy Pham, then I highly recommend you click here and check it out. To some, Pham probably comes across as refreshingly honest, bold, and confident in himself. To others, he probably comes across as arrogant, foul-mouthed, and brazen. Two reasonably good debate teams could [...]
It’s apropos that Citi Field is located in Flushing, because Carlos Martinez just dropped a deuce there on Opening Day. His underwhelming performance combined with the team’s “swinging-at-air” offensive approach made game 1 of the 2018 season feel more like game 163 of the 2017 season. Same dookie, different season. While you may be tempted [...]
As I stood out just behind the right field bleachers at Busch Stadium talking to my friend Andy a few years ago, I asked him his thoughts on the Jason Heyward deal. Andy’s quick-witted remark? “Welcome to Baseball Purgatory, Mr. Heyward. You’ll do fine here, but we all know you are looking at much bigger [...]
I’m absolutely fascinated by the physics of baseball. Talk about spin rate, multi-axis movement, and moment-of-inertia, and I’m here for it. I’m equally fascinated by how easily the physics of baseball can become distorted or misrepresented by people who don’t actually understand much about them. The Statcast era provides ample data for both intelligent [...]
When the Cardinals aren’t clearly the best team in baseball, the BFiB quickly regress into a petulant child resolutely demanding the return of a favorite toy they’ve accidentally tossed through a second story window. Much like that child can only focus on the assured destruction of that toy due to the incomprehensibility of object constancy, [...]
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to find a meaningful baseball statistic related to team performance that indicates the Cardinals aren’t doomed to mediocrity this season. You may have to ignore small sample size issues and suspend disbelief to do this. We’re talking about data mining a mountain of data with a [...]
When someone gets traded for a bucket of baseballs and proceeds to blow up bigger than Cee-Lo Green on The Voice, it raises a few eyebrows. With no consideration for circumstance, it’s hard to blame the Cardinals for handing Matt Adams to the Braves for a player whose name probably escapes you. But after you [...]
Mo: “Mike? It’s Mo. Saw that Volquez no-hitter the other night. Looked like a good time. We haven’t had one of those since Bud Smith. Haven’t even seen one recently. The stat nerds tell me the last one against us was some pudgy guy for the Dodgers back in 1990. Heck, I didn’t even know [...]
When the Cardinals signed Dexter Fowler to 5 year / $82.5M deal, he was presented as a lasting solution to a myriad of deficiencies. In theory, he checked several boxes for a team that needed a CF, a lead-off man, and a big name free agent signing to silence the Ballpark Village People clamoring for [...]
I blame Brett Cecil for pretty much everything now. Stub my toe? Blame Cecil. Accidentally trip the house alarm? Stupid reliever. Diaz strikes out? It’s somehow Cecil’s fault. Yet another long Tim McCarver tale about Tim McCarver? Yeah, that’s Cecil too. The bullpen seems to be in shambles, and Cecil deserves no less than 104% [...]
