Ask Rotoman

Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

The new one’s out, written before Jose Contreras gave himself over to Jorge Posada’s charms and kicked some Oakland butt. If there is something I left out it’s the concept of nibbling and confidence. Pitchers who are able to throw strikes and get guys out have the confidence that they’ll be able to do that always, or at least much of the time. They throw strikes and use the natural advantage pitchers have over hitters to do well.

Guys who worry about that nibble, don’t throw strikes, and end up pitching at a disadvantage.

Supposedly that’s Contreras’s problem. And Posada calling his game for him is supposedly the solution. We’ll see what happens when he pitches against a team that actually has hitters in the lineup, but in general I buy it.

Yahoo! News – Gore Pledges Over $6 Million to Democrats

Grammatically expressed, of course, Gore would have pledged more than $6 million to democrats.

In my lifetime no Democrat screwed the pooch more grandly than Al Gore did. Embracing him seems problemmatic on a number of levels. As my good friend Beck might say, You’re a loser, baby. Is anybody arguing?

But of course the Dems in the race shouldn’t not take the money of this year’s most prolific Howard Dean endorser. The bottom line is that Al Gore is a loser, but we have to beat the guy who won last time.

And Gore’s book on the environment is pretty cool. We’ll be way better off with someone who agees with Al Gore than we are with the oil-sucking creep who has the job now.

And that’s what really scares me.
Rotoman

ESPN.com – MLB – Reds’ Kearns hit by pitch, sustains arm fracture

He has been slow recovering from last year’s shoulder messes, and now this. Remember that while he was once considered a better prospect than Adam Dunn, he arrived after him because of two years of bad hands (if I’m remembering correctly). These have been injuries of commission, he isn’t jaking it, but it sure looks like some guys just get hurt a lot, and one of those is Kearns.

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Yahoo! News – Half-Naked Couple Cause Stir Up a Tree

I wasn’t paying that close attention, but my read of the NY Times story today about this incident neglected to mention that the older of the two was a transexual and that they sexed it up in the tree.

The Times, however, mentioned things that AP did not. That Mayor Bloomberg used this escapade as an example that NY wasn’t boring, and that the police/fire department had laid inflatable mats at the base of the tree in case the lovers fell from their nest.

ESPN.com – MLB – BROOKSSCORE

Yesterday a homer, today an honestly deserved win. Might it soon be a problem (in deep leagues, of course) to figure out where to slot this guy in?

ESPN.com: Brandon Inge

He has always been a dreadful hitter, but earned his PT because of a good glove. Now he’s pushed into the outfield by Pudge and he’s on fire. It’s a small sample size, of course, but the interesting thing is that his strikeout rate is the same as last year. The HR rate and the 2B rate aren’t that much improved, but his walk rate thus far has doubled and that projects to twice as many Hits, Runs and RBI. Approximately.

He’s not going to keep this up, but if catching is such a burden there could be a little bit of a butterfly buried underneath the cocoonish tools of ignorance. A little bit.

And if not, well, it’s a heckuva nice start anyway.

Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

The new one is up. Lots of numbers this time, about Vulture wins, closers in waiting, and ways to deal with maximum innings limits.

ESPN.com – MLB – MLB GAME LOG:

“MILWAUKEE 7TH
-Bottom of the 7th inning
-K Ginter doubled to deep left.
-B Clark hit by pitch.
-W Helms struck out looking.
-K Ginter to third, B Clark to second on wild pitch by R Johnson.
-C Moeller walked.
-B Hall hit for B Ford.
-B Hall grounded out to third, K Ginter scored, B Clark to third, C Moeller to second.
-S Podsednik tripled to deep right, B Clark and C Moeller scored.
-R Choate relieved R Johnson.
-C Counsell walked.
-O Villarreal relieved R Choate.
-J Spivey singled to left center, S Podsednik scored, C Counsell to third.
-G Jenkins doubled to deep left center, C Counsell and J Spivey scored.
-K Ginter homered to left, G Jenkins scored.
-B Clark singled to center.
-W Helms singled to center, B Clark to second.
-C Moeller lined out to shortstop.”

At first glance the box score looks ugly for the Big Unit, but then it becomes obvious that he ran out of gas. The good news is that this should be containable. If he really loses it after 100 pitchers or so he becomes a lesser pitcher, but still a very good pitcher if this game is any indication.

The bad news is that he ended up throwing 125 pitches. All indications are we should be more worried about his knees than his arm, but in either case it seems like a good idea to ration his use in an attempt to find out what works. It isn’t like he’s getting any younger.