Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Baseball: - Mark Buehrie, Orioles, Seven-game Series, Mark Schlemmer, Michael Choice


Mark Buehrle assembled another very Mark Buehrle season, beating his FIP, beating his xFIP, beating his SIERA, and doing it for 200+ innings. Buehrle, one of the few defensive-dependent pitchers in history (as in, his defense is crazy good, enabling him yearly to obfuscate DIPS stats), has been a dependable, inning-eating stud of a pitcher. He should do fine this off-season - http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/free-agent-market-starting-pitcher

The Orioles have a front office position open and the Red Hose will keep their in-house admin together with Ben C calling some shots. But how does a club lose control of the club house? Is it the Manager’s fault? Doesn’t the man at the top have any control of what goes on in the club house? Especially home games? Is that the culture the Cubs are going to bring to their club? The Padres, if they do in fact lose Hoyer, should bring in Jerry DiPoto from AZ, the Orioles have already talked to him, the Astros have new ownership and likely will put their own guy in the front office and Ben Wade gets the short end of the stick again.. http://xmlbscout.angelfire.com

John T. Brush died 99 years ago, en route to a sanatorium in Southern California to recuperate from a car crash. Unless you harbor a fetish for the dead-ball era or the history of Midwestern textile operations, you have almost certainly never heard of him. And neither had I, until one night, in the midst of yet another protracted postseason series, I thought of a simple question that seems to have no definitive answer. What I wanted to know was how the idea for a seven-game series had begun, and why it became the conventional wisdom among three of the four major professional sports in America, and why this format has come to feel so inherently equitable. And what I realized is that, as much as we would like to think that we have evolved over the course of the century since John T. Brush expired on that cross-country train, and as much as we believe that we've found new and better ways to quantify information, the structure of determining a champion in professional sports is still based as much on superstition as it is on rational thought.  http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7142964/who-invented-seven-game-series

Next Saturday, October 22nd, there will be a fundraiser at Brixx Ice Company across from Fifth Third Field in Dayton Ohio. The recipients of the funds will be former University of Dayton baseball coach and later popular Ohio sports radio personality Mark Schlemmer. In the story link below, Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton Daily News gives an in-depth look at how Schlemmer, ended up falling on hard times. The one time household name of the Dayton radio airwaves on 980 WONE-AM found himself out of a job this summer, living out of his car and sleeping in 24 hour store and random apartment parking lots, and to make matters worse later would have his car impounded. In the story, Schlemmer talks about the events that led to his current situation including the loss of his daughter nine years ago, and his day to day battle to survive and get back on his feet. It’s a very good read and just goes to show how nothing in life is guaranteed. http://topprospectalert.com/2011/10/15/dayton-baseball-coach-talk-show-host-mark-schlemmer-homeless

Michael Choice, OF, Athletics - Choice has been among the best hitters in the league, going 13-for-35 (.371) with five home runs. With some of the best raw power around, the 2010 first-round pick slugged 30 home runs for High-A Stockton in his full-season debut as part of a .285/.376/.542 season. However, the more important number for many is the one in the strikeout column. While Choice whiffed 134 times this year in 467 at-bats, his swing-and-miss rate declined throughout the season, and with just five strikeouts so far in Arizona, he's continuing to show the ability to make more contact without sacrificing the natural strength in his swing. Choice is lined up to begin the 2012 season at Double-A, and a September callup is very much in the cards should he continue to progress. Choice could finally be the savior a team desperate for power threats has been looking for. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15358

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