This Week in Baseball 7/13 - 7/19

[treble]

Vernon Wells is apparently the worst fielding CF in baseball by far, as his UZR/150 is -31.9, while no one else is worse than -12ish. Someone get Dayton Moore on the phone.

 

[zio]

I love the Phillies signing Pedro and then putting him in the 15 day DL.

Not sure if that was a shot or not, but they simply did it so he can go to the minors and get a couple starts in there. There is no injury.

 

[KingPK]

So the Red Sox designated Julio Lugo for assignment today, and reports say that the Mets and Cubs are among those interested in him. Good luck, fellas.

 

[Czech]

Julio Lugo and B.J. Ryan are better than Jeff Baker and any number of Cub relievers. I fully support amassing AL East castoffs.

 

[Cheech]

Playing shortstop for the Red Sox is like being the drummer for Spinal Tap.

 

[alkeiper]

So the Red Sox designated Julio Lugo for assignment today, and reports say that the Mets and Cubs are among those interested in him. Good luck, fellas.

Have you seen the dreck masquerading as the New York Mets' starting lineup? They could use Lugo.

 

[alkeiper]

Vernon Wells is apparently the worst fielding CF in baseball by far, as his UZR/150 is -31.9, while no one else is worse than -12ish. Someone get Dayton Moore on the phone.

Checking Bill James' +/-. Worst center fielders.

Vernon Wells -26
Shane Victorino -14
Nate McLouth -8
Brian Anderson -8
Jacoby Ellsbury -7
B.J. Upton -7

A lot of flukish results and not much deviation from the average. Franklin Gutierrez scores +17 and Chris Young scores +16.

 

[strummer]

well Gary Sheffield probably tore his hamstring to shreds tonight. That should about do it for his career.

Fits right in with this shitty season

I mean can't they just cancel the rest of the games?

 

[alkeiper]

well Gary Sheffield probably tore his hamstring to shreds tonight. That should about do it for his career.

Fits right in with this shitty season

I mean can't they just cancel the rest of the games?

Mets.com says it's a cramp. Which means he's probably done for the season.

If the Phillies hold on to win tonight, their lead is up to six games. The Mets are now 8.5 back.

 

[jimmy no nose]

Who is Garrett Jones? Somehow he's homered in his last 4 games, 3 against the Phillies, now today against Tim Lincecum, giving him 6 in 12 games this year. It feels like it has to be a fluke since this is his first real time in the majors at age 28, but I always love when random dudes show up and just start crushing balls for a few weeks.

 

[JHawk]

Anybody else having trouble with the Extra Innings preview? Time Warner is giving the the "currently unavailable message" and I want to see the end of the Giants-Pirates game, damn it!

 

[alkeiper]

Who is Garrett Jones? Somehow he's homered in his last 4 games, 3 against the Phillies, now today against Tim Lincecum, giving him 6 in 12 games this year. It feels like it has to be a fluke since this is his first real time in the majors at age 28, but I always love when random dudes show up and just start crushing balls for a few weeks.

It's a fluke. I've seen him play in the International League every year. Decent hitter with pop, but probably has some holes in his swing. He'll come back to earth when the scouting reports roll in on him.

 

[strummer]

Mike "Ken Tremendous" Schur on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/KentRemendous

 

[jimmy no nose]

Who is Garrett Jones? Somehow he's homered in his last 4 games, 3 against the Phillies, now today against Tim Lincecum, giving him 6 in 12 games this year. It feels like it has to be a fluke since this is his first real time in the majors at age 28, but I always love when random dudes show up and just start crushing balls for a few weeks.

It's a fluke. I've seen him play in the International League every year. Decent hitter with pop, but probably has some holes in his swing. He'll come back to earth when the scouting reports roll in on him.

At least dude looks like he's going to ride it out for all it's worth. He makes it 7 in 12 games with a walkoff homer in the 14th inning.

 

[treble]

Vernon Wells is apparently the worst fielding CF in baseball by far, as his UZR/150 is -31.9, while no one else is worse than -12ish. Someone get Dayton Moore on the phone.

Checking Bill James' +/-. Worst center fielders.

Vernon Wells -26
Shane Victorino -14
Nate McLouth -8
Brian Anderson -8
Jacoby Ellsbury -7
B.J. Upton -7

A lot of flukish results and not much deviation from the average. Franklin Gutierrez scores +17 and Chris Young scores +16.

I just don't know how he got so bad, so fast. He doesn't SEEM that bad.

 

[Red Baron]

Vernon Wells is apparently the worst fielding CF in baseball by far, as his UZR/150 is -31.9, while no one else is worse than -12ish. Someone get Dayton Moore on the phone.

Checking Bill James' +/-. Worst center fielders.

Vernon Wells -26
Shane Victorino -14
Nate McLouth -8
Brian Anderson -8
Jacoby Ellsbury -7
B.J. Upton -7

A lot of flukish results and not much deviation from the average. Franklin Gutierrez scores +17 and Chris Young scores +16.

I just don't know how he got so bad, so fast. He doesn't SEEM that bad.

He's off the juice.

 

[jimmy no nose]

Nate McLouth is climbing his way back down the charts since moving to the Braves. For a while it seemed like the Pirates somehow managed to find a way to hide him in center field as he was rating out right around 0 for a while. Probably had something to do with Nyjer Morgan and Brandon Moss being the highest rated left and right fielders at the time.

 

[the pinjockey]

Where can I send the thank you card for the brilliant decision to walk Paul Bako to get to Jayson Werth last night? I know Werth isn't great against righties and was in a funk, but seriously it's Paul fucking Bako.

 

[Dobbs3K]

So, is Halladay going to the Phillies a forgone conclusion at this point? Personally I'm still not convinced Toronto will actually trade him, even though they probably should.

 

[jimmy no nose]

CNBC ran an article on attendance changes this year, I thought it was interesting to see which teams saw increases and decreases. Some teams have seen some very significant drops.

Most of the teams with increases were bottom third of the league in attendance last year. Milwaukee were actually 9th and have seen a nice increase, while Boston and the Angels were top 10 and stayed about the same. The Yankees stay in first despite the drop, but the Mets fall from 2nd to 7th.

 

[Smues]

So how much of that 13.5% drop for the Yankees is the new stadium being smaller and how much of it is the ticket prices in the new place?

 

[jimmy no nose]

Giants-Pirates just went through a rain delay without even going to a commercial break. The ran the tarp on the field, the announcers complained about how it wasn't really raining, it stopped raining, they took the tarp off, prepared the field and started up again. Never seen that before.

 

[KingPK]

So how much of that 13.5% drop for the Yankees is the new stadium being smaller and how much of it is the ticket prices in the new place?

I'd say a combination of both, but the people that do go are paying out the ass for it, so they aren't losing much money over it.

 

[Vitamin X]

Good to see people are finally coming out to Marlins games.

 

[alkeiper]

This time last year the Marlins were drawing 15,125 per game. This year it's 17,778. Good, but not quite time for dancing in the streets.

The Yankees lost 4500 seats with the new ballpark, but attendance is down 6,954 per game. Shouldn't really be cause for alarm, their attendance spiked last year on a wave of old stadium nostalgia. The Mets' decrease is certainly entirely due to their ballpark. Citi Field actually has over 15000 less seats than did Shea Stadium.

 

[jimmy no nose]

The Padres have Mat Latos starting Sunday's game. He's thrown a total of 47 innings above class A. Not really sure what the point is when your team is 20 games out of first, but I guess there's a chance he's actually ready.

 

[Dobbs3K]

This time last year the Marlins were drawing 15,125 per game. This year it's 17,778. Good, but not quite time for dancing in the streets.

And as always, that's paid attendance and not the number through the turnstiles at good ol' Landshark Stadium.

The new stadium should really help the Marlins in a couple years.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

This time last year the Marlins were drawing 15,125 per game. This year it's 17,778. Good, but not quite time for dancing in the streets.

The Yankees lost 4500 seats with the new ballpark, but attendance is down 6,954 per game. Shouldn't really be cause for alarm, their attendance spiked last year on a wave of old stadium nostalgia. The Mets' decrease is certainly entirely due to their ballpark. Citi Field actually has over 15000 less seats than did Shea Stadium.

And then add to the fact that the Mets are playing horribly right now with a pretty much AAA-like team. Fans of a major league team aren't going to pay the prices the Mets are asking for to see a team that isn't doing well.

 

[MFer]

Pathetic showing by the Tigers' offense at Yankee Stadium this weekend. Hopefully this isn't the start of another 2nd-half collapse.

 

[Dobbs3K]

Brewers traded for Felipe Lopez from the D-Backs for two minor leaguers. I like the move, as he should be a nice leadoff hitter for the team in the short term.