in for 4,000th post.

^^^^
My biggest accomplishment thus far in life.

we'll have to figure out just how realistic the playoffs are in late June and decide if we're buyers or sellers. We're still obviously in it now, but we could crater again in May.

Rally killer!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Congratz to Pujols for killing 500 rallies</p>&mdash; 610 Sports Radio- KC (@610SportsKC) <a href="https://twitter.com/610SportsKC/statuses/458768239518949376">April 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mike Moustakas: &quot;Home runs, they're nice.&quot;</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/458806351943057408">April 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
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:hmmm:

He's the como of, well, just about everything.

Wasn't Hosmer 4 for 5 tonight? Isn't he hitting like .315 or something like that?


Good God, you make como and bambi look smart sometimes.

Alright ladies, I'm back after a week+ vacation. I did manage to watch last nights 8-2 win in one of the most unique sports bars in the United States....
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/user/lewdog_5/media/KalapakiJoe.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg251/lewdog_5/KalapakiJoe.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo KalapakiJoe.jpg"/></a>

Nice try, dildo. Hosmer has as many HR as you and I do in 80AB, with a .392 slug. That ranks him 29th among all 1B with more than 20 plate appearnances. (There are 30 teams).
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.asp...rs=0&sort=15,d


Take 30 seconds to pull up the actual facts before you embarrass yourself.

What part of his post was wrong? The avg was a hair off

I think he's just mad about his lack of homers.

Welcome back Lewdog

There goes Esky's awesome hitting.

Why are you setting it for 20 PA? That includes part-time and platoon guys. Just curious. If you want to talk about there being 30 teams and rank things that way, you should limit the discussion to actual starting 1B.

Eric Hosmer currently has a higher slugging percentage than Chris Davis, Prince Fielder, Edwin Encarnacion and Joe Mauer. He's just 20 points behind Miguel Cabrera, who's currently slugging .412.

My point: None of these numbers are guaranteed or even likely to stay where they are. It's a small sample size.

Hosmer needs to hit the ball with more authority. But calling him out as a problem when there are many more glaring problems seems odd to me.

Its too bad the mods don't lay the ban hammer down on PB like they did in the Jayhawks thread. That thread was nothing but idiocy and trolling, and was being abandoned by the regulars. Now actually has decent, meaningful conversation.

I eliminated guys with <20 PA because they're not regulars, he was 29/44 in that list. 60 PA gets you to 29 guys so we can go with that. He is 22/29 there. He and Yonder Alonso are the only ones without a HR. Indisputably he is not hitting with any power. That was my only point.

You said he was back and swinging like a girl. You obviously don't watch, because if anything he is swinging too hard. Same problem he has had in years past. When he's short and compact to the ball, he mashes. His swing seems a little long to me.

Also, duncan put you in your place with actual numbers. Not that it was surprising. I just can't figure out how you get any joy out of being made to look a fool constantly.

Overall though, I realize you're just being you. Your life must be miserable for you to always be such an whiny and pompous prick. Is there anything that you enjoy other than trolling?

Welcome home son

No he didn't, he agreed with me: Hosmer needs to hit the ball with more authority. He just pointed out it's a small sample size so far.

It is ok to have different opinions. I think Hosmer needs to hit with more power as an AL first baseman. I respect your opinion if you disagree with my statement.

This is the Royals. A franchise steeped in an illustrious tradition of homerless lineups. Sure, it may be the new craze for some clubs caught up in this fandangled "longball" hysteria.

But, by George, the Royals earn their runs the way baseball's meant to be played, and won't stoop to join the masses of mouthbreathers and neanderthals fixated by some "Back, back, back, GONE!" shill polluting our national pastime.

I blame the Negro League!

Lewdog go back on vacation!! :)

I've been called up from the minors to start today's game thread.

Can any of you spare a widget?

Sorry! I didn't see this. I have a good reason to start it since I have had good luck with Chen this season.

Looked like an ok week for the boys while I was gone!

Thanks lewdog! :cuss:

Lol.

I hope my return doesn't coincide with shit play now. But that would be just my luck. I returned yesterday and they lost a very win-able game. Nice play Jarrod! :cuss:

Don't unpack just yet...

:)

The Royals haven't won a playoff game since they got rid of the bright green astroturf & the bright orange seats.

Ok, so first we all chip in to send some money to send Lewdog back on vacation. Then we petition to have the blue seats and grass taken out and replaced with Orange seats and turf.


I, with the help of teedubya of course, have fixed the season.

Better idea. Start cloning a bunch of Bo Jackson babies. I've waited this long- what's another 20 to 24 years.

Some of us don't have another 20 to 24 years left dawg

That's complete bullshit. If Schilling wants to pitch a no-hitter, he needs to ****ing earn it. You don't change the rules just because it's late in the game and somebody is getting close to pitching a no-hitter. What if the hitter is Jarrod Dyson and his best chance of EVER getting a hit is to lay down a bunt? Should you just make him walk up there without a bat?

Even if it's NOT Dyson, it doesn't change anything. A bunt single is a legitimate hit. If you don't want the other team getting bunt singles, STOP THEM FROM GETTING BUNT SINGLES. Don't cry like a bitch about it.

That's like Brett Favre laying down so that Michael Strahan could break the sack record. It's bullshit, and it makes the accomplishment meaningless.

Or what if the guy up to bat is sitting on 2,999 hits and the pitcher has a no-no through 8 and 2/3?

Which milestone supercedes the other?

And it's the last day of the season, neither team is making the playoffs, and they're both retiring tomorrow.

3,000 hits is more important than a perfect game. So clearly, the pitcher should lob a BP fastball in the middle of the plate.

MLB has fixed the transfer rule nonsense, starting with today's games it will be called pretty much the same way its always been called for generations.

You only have to secure the ball in the glove for it to be a catch. If you are trying to transfer the ball to your throwing hand and drop it, its still a catch.

edit: I can't remember, have we ever been burned by/helped by this situation where for a little while these were ruled as no catch?

Fun fact of the day: when arranged a certain way, the AL West team logos spell out "asshat"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmFYr9bIEAAQpwh.jpg:large

We lost 1-0 earlier in the year and we were helped by it. The guys in the booth and I either didn't know about the rule. It was crazy.

ROFL

Large chance the game tonight gets rained out.

Andy put on twitter that it's 70% chance on storms and its supposed to stay like that until at least midnight.

@McCulloughStar: If the game gets banged tonight, Yost believes there will be a split DH tomorrow. Guthrie would start Game 1, Ventura in Game 2.

Filter evasion? :)

For a moment there, I thought I'd clicked on the Lindsey Lohan thread.

No rainout!

Busy busy night. I've got Royals, Blackhawks, and Blazers games tonight!

Looking like a rain delay, but I think they can get the game in.

Go Hawks!

How long this thing gonna be?

Hey if we get game in, who is doing the game thread?

If nobody, I could try some rookie game thread starter mojo.

Still no word on first pitch time. I haven't checked the radar to see if there is any window where this game can get in.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Tarp coming off...tonight&#39;s game will start at 6:55 pm CT (7:55 locally). <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a> <a href="http://t.co/7ZnZSlZhI5">pic.twitter.com/7ZnZSlZhI5</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/statuses/459835207076814848">April 25, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Game thread is all yours, Simplicity.

Take it away high school balla!

Is Chiefsanddouchefan going to show up in game thread???

I've not seen him around in awhile.

Twitter banned him so he has nothing to post.

Lehhh do it!

RIP.

ROFL

Isn't it really "A SHAT?" It's funny either way.

No, the A's hat has an "S" on it, too.

Carlos Martinez is breaking 100 against the Pirates tonight, dude usually throws 93-94.

Someone needs to remind Tegu that Gordo broke another bat tonight.

It is Tegu that has the count, correct?

Don't worry I was watching it. :) it's just that the tapatalk app doesn't have a way to access your user functions. At least not that I know of.

Ya, I never got why some other sites have way more integration and features available through tapatalk and some are plain jane basic??

Great win tonight, and another positive from the next Latin America signing I expect to burst onto the MLB scene and be an instant star for the Royals: RA Mondesi

It's only about 20 games, but he's got an .820 OPS at Wilmington. Wilmington/the Carolina League are the toughest places to put up offensive numbers in the Royals system, for sure, and one of the toughest in the minors, period.

That he is doing this at age 18 makes it even more special.

You usually can't tell much from stat watching guys in Wilmington, but when a guy is crushing the ball, that's a huge positive.

Keep it up, RA. Keep it up.

(Bold prediction: At the end of this season, Mondesi will be just as highly regarded as Lindor and maybe even broach Profar territory. Top 10-15 prospect in baseball)

Wow! that is absolutely brilliant to read.

Seems Latin America is the GMDM's greatest achievement as a GM, thus far.

Ok, I lied... Maybe ESPN will notice Ventura...

Already on the front page of the MLB tab.

I'm sure this has been asked but why was Ventura out for the 8th? I don't think his pitch count should ever go above 100 given his (1) age and (2) power style, but he went 112 pitches or something and I don't get it. We were up 4-0. We should be nervous extending a young power arm that long into the game esp watching all the young pitchers who are getting hurt all over baseball right nwo.

I agree. Even though I don't believe on putting limits on pitchers all the time. When the game is 4-0 and if you already know you're not going to get him into the 9th for a CG shutout, then take him out.

I'd love to do the game thread again today but I'll be out due to prom so good luck tonight dudes ;)

What do you do with Escobar?

I haven't done a game thread this year. Want me to give it a shot today?

A) The bullpen has been inconsistent this year, especially in the 8th inning.
B) Ventura is a badass.

I was puzzled by this at first, too. But, he was still gassing it in the mid- to high-90s in the 8th. He didn't look too fatigued, either.

We are all accustomed to the 100 pitch rule of thumb. But, that is just an arbitrary number. Paying attention to body language/mechanics/velocity is more important in the end.

He wasn't really laboring in the 8th, so I didn't mind.

You're in. I'll be at Dbacks game tonight so I won't be watching.

Take it.

Fangraphs has 1 WAR=$5.5m of value. Ventura is already up to 0.8 WAR and it's not even May. Let's assume he ends up at 2.0 WAR and an implied value of $11.0m. He's being paid league miniumum of $0.5m so his "surplus value" is well north of $10.0m. Guys like this are valuable even to the Yankees or Dodgers, but to small markets their value is amplified greatly.


If we look at other small market successes we see them generating massive surplus with young pitchers (Tampa, Oakland, even Florida). Teams like St Louis and Atlanta continually hit on young pitchers so even bigger spenders gain huge advantages with it.


We know that young pitchers are getting hurt repeatedly and research tends to show the younger the pitcher, the more prone they are to injury. Chris Sale just went on the DL with elbow soreness after his idiot manager let him go 127 pitches last week. If I were Kenny Williams, I'd have one helluva closed door tongue lashing for that. Prospectus has a "Pitcher Abuse Points" ranking and Sale is #2 on this list and #5 last year:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/so...hp?cid=1657933

It's not. Research shows it's a legit number. While it was a cool evening that may have helped him with fatigue, the stress on the elbow and shoulder is still the same. It's all about "incremental stress" anyway. Pitches 101-110 are more dangerous than pitches 21-30.