CDog

Willinghomer?

I was there. It was cold. I'm from Minnesota, lived here my whole life, rarely get cold outside. Gettin' all tough guy about it doesn't change it. I also looked around during some breaks in the action and actually laughed out loud at the overwhelming sea of cold body language around me. Obviously being the lowest attendance ever isn't good, but it's been the pattern in the short history that early in the year isn't as well attended as later on.

I was at home watching on TV (over lunch) and they were both borderline on the black. The first I thought looked slightly more outside, the second they showed on Fox-tracker or whatever they call it and the very inside of the ball nicked the outside corner at just above the knees.

"Seems like" alert! Good thing everything anybody does on a major league baseball field is recorded and things like that can be checked. (Spoiler alert: The "seems like" in this case doesn't hold up.)

I'm not an expert on it by any means, but I have always thought I've heard pitching again in 12 months and usually taking another few to really be back. I remember being very...leery?...of Nathan being the closer at the start of last year because of my impression that it usually took more than a year. Looking at what they're projecting for Gibson as another anectdotal piece of evidence, they're talking about him getting back into game action late this year, which will be a year after surgery, but I don't think they're talking about him being truly ready or back to full strength. Strasburg is another one that seemed to follow that path. Anyone have better than "seems to" or "thoughts" on TJ-recovery?

Not exactly the main point of this thread, but did you see where he was positioned? He had like a mile (all distances approximate) to get over there, and in fact did. I can't say for sure I noticed if he sprinted the whole way or not, but he had a long way to go and he was the one to field the ball and throw it in.

I'll also throw in my two cents to agree that the inside-the-park home run while technically "catchable" would have been a great play, not standard. He certainly gave it a full-on effort. Whether the route he took or the jump he got were ideal I don't know, but I don't think they were awful, were they? I don't think it adds anything to the opinion, but I will add that he hit the wall a couple feet from me, and that made for a pretty exciting moment! Probably should have played it off the wall, but in the split second moment that's a pretty tough call to make. Because of that, I agree that the bigger mis-play was on the Pujols RBI. He sure didn't get to it in much of a hurry.

The reaction(s) to the scoreboard replay were what amused me. The first time, it was more of a gasp of concern and general "Oh no!" There was a pitching change, so there was a chance for them to show it several more times, and each time the reaction moved a little more from that concern to giggling and laughter. By the final time, there was a bit of a buzz as he approached the ball as it seemed almost everyone was watching and getting ready for the wipeout. Good stuff....as long as nothing comes up where he actually injured himself. That's never fun.

I've said it a few other places, but Doumit was the one most greatly affected by Morneau shifting to DH. I liked the signing a lot because he could DH and give very similar output to Kubel AND give some flexibility by being able to backup Mauer while also being able to fill a spot in various other spots....sometimes. Taking DH away from him for the most part changed his circumstances an awful lot.

I can see spots where he could (not sure that means would) hit for Valencia. Or Hughes if he were in the game. Basically places where you go lefty over righty.

It was c-o-l-d! I'm rarely affected by cooler temps, but last night was pretty darn chilly. In general, their low attendances have come early in the year, rather than late. I think there was even a non-sellout in the opening series of Year 1.

The one thing I've found that actually feels like a decent value is the noodle meals from the Asian Wok (first level, down the the left field foul pole). I know this year it's been "re-branded" with Leanne Chin, and I wonder if it's the same food/amount/price. But in the past, you at least feel like you're getting a close-to-meal-sized portion for about the price you'd pay for something similar and Noodles and Co. or something like that.

I hope not...since they play a day game. Hehe. I picture him standing out there aimlessly in an empty park, lights off, looking confused.

Came into tie game in the 9th and gave up solo home run. I think.

I cut out the parts in the quote above that I'm not going to respond to. Except I will mention that I appreciate and agree with your opening conclusion, especially the part that said how smart you thought I was. Wait...what? 1) I feel like I'm largely the one (in this thread) carrying the torch for the advanced stats. I should say that I think they have limitations, too. In my original post (in this thread) mentioning WAR, I used only that. The reason for that was I was disputing a claim that on the page given by the link there was evidence of a far superior career to Mauer's. For a variety of reasons, in that particular case and that particular claim, I'd say that it's not such a bad place to use a summary stat that's WAY in one player's favor as enough evidence that he's not FAR inferior. But since folks didn't like that, I should point out again that I then went back and found a bunch of other stats, too. As to your comments about the intricacies of the calculations. I think for those that are new to them, the basics are not all that imposing. Wins are based on runs. Runs are based on hitting the ball, running the bases, and preventing the other team from doing that. All the advanced stats do is measure those abilities to create and prevent runs (and thus win games). 2) I know what you mean and I at least partially agree. When I would talk to people about Mauer (or having the inner dialogue with myelf....we all do that...right? right?), I always said or thought or noticed how often he hit the ball right on the button. It felt like every time. He squared up the ball over and over and over, and hardly anybody can do that. The first time I felt like that wasn't the case was the start of last year. There were some stretches where it was back last year, but for the most part it stayed gone. In the bit of Spring Training I got to see (on TV), it looked like it was mostly there again. In four games since Friday, it hasn't been always like it once was. But....it's four games. I'll be shocked and disappointed if he doesn't get back to that where "every" at bat ends with him whislting the ball somewhere after blistering it right on the screws. And just to keep being "that guy"...I'll point out that most of his groundouts go to 2nd, not short. Hehe.

Fair enough. I misinterpreted that completely then.

I took your reluctance to use WAR into account with my following post that did the same thing using a whole bunch of other statistics. Using OPS (again), Mauer's second best season (since you want to disregard his best) is still higher than Martinez's best. If you rank order all of their OPS's, not only are the two best Mauer's, but so are 4 of the top 6. I'm throwing out, as I did/said before, Mauer's first partial season and Martinez's first two as they're all quite small. Yes, it's obvious that Martinez has hit more home runs. Yes, it's obvious that Mauer has hit for higher average. Everything that tries to combine those in a meaningful way to get at "runs" (isn't that what offense is about?) shows an advantage for Mauer, including OPS, which skews to the power numbers. Even with your own subsequent arguments, I don't see where you could ever stick with the claim of Martinez being "far superior" (I don't even see how "better hitter" would be accurate, but I haven't tried to make that point). That's a quote, THE quote, that I called laughable to begin with and I don't see how I missed the point when that was the phrase you used.

I don't know if they keep it out there, and it wouldn't be direct, but since it's so few games you could likely go through the game summary on ESPN or mlb that gives the results of each batter. (Go to espn's twins' page, their schedule, and click the score of the game and in there you can find the Play-by-Play tab.) Again, not a one-stop exercise, but you could get at it if you'd like.

First, a recap of how we got here... In a discussion about Mauer, someone referenced and provided a link to Victor Martinez's baseball reference page with the claim that this would show Martinez's "far superior" career. I used the information on that page to refute that claim based on WAR. Chief added a comment, including nothing about the topic of the thread, that WAR is useless. These were echoed by the person who had first made the claim about Martinez. I replied with some comments about some of their specific reservations about WAR, but then quoted some other stats from the very same baseball reference page. Chief then made an absolutely false statement that WAR is not objective. And that led to my sarcastic comment about the conclusion that made it difficult for you to keep things civil. A short aside on your comments on WAR since this isn't the place (but yet this is the thread where it exists): I've been to fangraphs plenty. No need for you to encourage me to visit their site. And the information there is quite clear to me as far as what it means and how it's calculated. Your follow-up comments indicate that it's not clear to you. That seems to be the end of that road, so I don't know what reason we have to be upset with anyone. I'm not attempting to make you believe in the value of a statistic. If there were a thread on that topic, maybe I would. This was about Mauer. I used facts to make a point, you (and the original claimant) didn't like the facts I picked, so I picked others. I don't see what's not civil about that.

Agree with Bark's response that had Morneau been ready to go at 1B even half the time, Parmalee starts in Rochester. This situation has been my biggest disappointment of the spring and season. Morneau healthy was huge. And it's not that I think badly of Parmalee so much as it has the domino effect of not having DH for Doumit and having to fight a bit to get him in. Not to mention, it just was a good feelling to have Morneau better to the point of doing it all. I am still holding out hope that he'll start taking a game a week in the field at some point. Then maybe two, etc.

Have you seen him with a compass or something? Kid's played twice.

This was pretty well covered at the end of March on all the media outlets as to why he's DH'ing over playing 1B for the most part. Also, I'll be in Las Vegas in May if you'd like to meet to place a legal wager on that 120 loss prediction.

Span CF Mauer C Morneau DH Willingham LF Doumit RF Valencia 3B Parmalee 1B Carroll SS Casilla 2B The change there from the "norm" would have nothing to do with shaking anything up, though, as that would have been my Opening Day lineup.

You've concluded that the formula for WAR takes subjective views??? That's some formula! Do people calculate it by hand with different inputs for different players, or is the subjectivity somehow cooked into the math?

Oops. I did miss your point, which you've now stated clearly was to ignore an answer to your question that wasn't the one you were already decided on. I went and answered it with my thoughts and not yours. Clearly I missed the point. My apologies.