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Lunchtime pop quiz


What is this?

.285/.353/.454

Answer after lunch.

UPDATE -- Matt Holliday's career road slash line.  Before we get too worked up about whether he'd be worth signing, or whether he's a difference-maker for an A.L. rival, let's remember that he's spent most of his career at Coors Field, and hasn't exactly mashed on the road, even playing in the weaker league.

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I'm going out on a limb but I'm guessing

Someone’s batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage?

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 12:12 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

Wilkerson's slash line before the trade to Texas

(a guess based on context of the discussions)

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 12:16 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

That BA looks too high

By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.

"I am one of the biggest Texas Ranger fans out there but I'm also one of the smartest. Deal with it."
-The Outlaw

by Gdawg on Oct 22, 2009 12:18 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

what is a slash line for $300

HH is that a sock in your puppet or are you happy to see me?

by BigGuns on Oct 22, 2009 12:15 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

Could be that

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 12:52 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

I'll guess it is the

average rate stats for a DH this year.

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 12:20 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

my guess is wrong

but I found this surprising, the average DH production was .255/.337/.443 this season. That seems pretty shitty, an average DH with a .780 OPS?

Link.

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 12:27 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

I think that's because

many teams use their DH slot as a rotating way to get guys some rest, and because most of the best hitters right now are playing in the field.

G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....

by t ball on Oct 22, 2009 12:50 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

lol

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 12:22 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Well played

"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates

by slc ranger on Oct 22, 2009 7:00 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

is that windows 7 success rate

on the initial release

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.

by NothinG on Oct 22, 2009 12:21 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

Nope

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 12:32 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

OPS is ultimately too high, if I'm correct.

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 12:36 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Semi-related question...Is there a web site that I can find out batting stats for first pitch swung at?

I’ve been curious about it since the Rudy drama started. His mantra evidently is “when you see a pitch you like, hit it.” I want to see if the Rangers were more successful hitting the first pitch they liked compared to other clubs with more plate discipline.

by 3hacks on Oct 22, 2009 12:45 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

baseball reference dot com

but only swung at and put in play, i believe..

usa

by Longhorn on Oct 22, 2009 12:47 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Anyone willing to find...

the entire major leagues home/away splits? It would be nice to compare the difference spread out across the entire league against an individual player. I think it is fair to assume that the majority of major league players might see a drop in production on the road versus home.

by Heebs on Oct 22, 2009 1:09 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

Statistically Significant?

I suppose so. Holliday has a scary 244 OPS difference across his career (1.052 compared to 808) and a 152 point difference in 2009 (982 to 830). It is interesting to note that he still had a .982 home OPS in 2009, although most of that damage was aided by his insane 1.119 home OPS with the Cardinals.

Coors Field definitely aided Holliday but how much difference between that and the TBiA would be interesting to project.

by Heebs on Oct 22, 2009 2:53 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Thought that the other day myself

I’m not going to automatically assume it means what I assume it means, but it certainly is questionable.

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 7:24 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yah, I thought about it it when I changed my name to this

But…a las I’m not concerned. My last name is Heber. Heebs has been my nickname for well over a decade.

by Heebs on Oct 23, 2009 9:33 AM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Soriano?

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 1:12 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Kinsler?

my better is better than your better.

by rangerjake on Oct 22, 2009 1:21 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

oh, road line

misread.

well ok, could be definitely.

the preceding post was a great success.

by DSheppard on Oct 22, 2009 1:39 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

yup, that's his road line

I really hope our new hitting coach is able to get through to him. I’m not optimistic.

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 1:42 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

MY?

The 2009 Texas Rangers offense: sigh...

by Kinslerhomer on Oct 22, 2009 1:34 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

2009

.297/.337/.511

by tyd3311 on Oct 22, 2009 1:45 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Outlier! Outlier!

"Nothing we do here has a point" - Czar Morris

by Chase Irwin on Oct 22, 2009 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Its funny,

but our offense may be the teams biggest problem for the forseeable future, especially if Hamilton doesn’t revert to ’08 form.

"I don't condone steroids or any other type of growth hormones or anything else, but I could care less, and, for the most part, I don't think the fans give a (bleep). The people that care about it are the people that probably don't like baseball," - Jim Leyland

by DJCahill on Oct 22, 2009 1:41 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

How is that "funny"?

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 1:47 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Because our offense is typically why we win?

And now when the problem the team has had for years gets corrected, the offense begins to suck?

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

It's just like the Ravens

They finally get a good young quarterback to lead a prolific offense and all of the sudden their defense cant stop nobody

by tyd3311 on Oct 22, 2009 1:52 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

You don't know

what the Rangers reputation as a team is?

"I don't condone steroids or any other type of growth hormones or anything else, but I could care less, and, for the most part, I don't think the fans give a (bleep). The people that care about it are the people that probably don't like baseball," - Jim Leyland

by DJCahill on Oct 22, 2009 2:06 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Oh - I thought you were talking about "ha ha" funny

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

by WyoRanger on Oct 22, 2009 4:18 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

I'm pretty sure Holliday would mash the ball in Arlington.

But I knew he wouldn’t with the A’s. Those two ballparks have completely different personalities.

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 1:12 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

agreed

I think he’d be a great fit here. That slash line isn’t terrible. I could deal w/ it if he’s killing it at home. It would also free up Cruz to be packaged to fill other holes.

by Sherman McCoy on Oct 22, 2009 2:24 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

The problem is

Hes going to get paid insanely well for his time, and probably longer than he is going to be productive. A 4-5 year deal even at approaching 20 million a year would be one thing, but when you expand it out to 6 or 7 years he’s pretty likely to be in a major decline at the end of it, if not sooner.

What do voluntary mean?

by JKolar on Oct 22, 2009 2:31 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

He's a very good player

But he’s not a great player, and he’s probably not going to be worth $17-18 million per year through his age 35 or 36 season, which is what his contract is likely going to be.

by Adam J. Morris on Oct 22, 2009 2:47 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Well, if you believe

Boras, he is gonna be looking for 22+ million.

"I don't condone steroids or any other type of growth hormones or anything else, but I could care less, and, for the most part, I don't think the fans give a (bleep). The people that care about it are the people that probably don't like baseball," - Jim Leyland

by DJCahill on Oct 22, 2009 3:08 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Even Boras

Will not get 22+ million for Holliday. Boras, like any agent, will of course greatly overproject in an effort to get more money for his client (and himself). I would be willing to bet that he doesn’t go over 20 million a season or over 5 years.

by Heebs on Oct 22, 2009 3:15 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

He'll re-sign with St Louis

He’s the perfect protection for Pujols, he seemed to like St. Louis well enough, and though it may be tough negotiating, I think the re-sign him in the end.

by MikeEl on Oct 22, 2009 3:26 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

doubt it

I think St. Louis top priority is to get Pujols signed to an extension (he’s under contract next year, then has a 2011 club option). Signing Holliday right now for $20M+ would put them in a bad negotiating spot with Pujols. He would have every right to expect a bigger, longer contract than Holliday, and I don’t think St. Louis would be able to have 2 of those type contracts on the books.

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 3:32 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

maybe not

but my point was that I think it will be hard for the Cards to give him even 17-18 on a long term deal, knowing that Pujols is a much better player and is going to need a $20M+ contract before 2011.

I don’t know that the Cards can afford $40M+ for two players and I don’t think breaking the bank for Holliday would do anything but hurt their negotiating position with Pujols.

"You can probably stick a fork in the Rangers' playoff chances for 2009." - AJM on 7/26 with the team 4.5 games out

by tricer on Oct 22, 2009 4:33 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Sounds eerily similar ..

"Nothing we do here has a point" - Czar Morris

by Chase Irwin on Oct 22, 2009 3:43 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

He's an Inner Circle guy, dumbass

"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.

by Rodney on Oct 22, 2009 3:46 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

completely OT: encountered one of the most annoying internet ads of all time...

This thing has 4 advertisements for the same ad on the page, top, left bar, right bar, and also another box in between the page and the right sidebar ad.

Each of these ads is setup so that if your mouse merely rolls over them, they expand to take up literally 2/3 the screen with a usable website window.

To close these, you hit the x in the top right. The problem is that you then naturally drag the mouse to the center of the screen to be able to click on links and such. And of course, this drags you back over the ads and you have to close it agian. Its like a maze, you have to carefully drag the mouse through this like 20 pixel line without the advertisement, or go all away the round it at the bottom of the screen.

At least there was no sound.

I think that incident alone has convinced me to finally set up chrome with the adblocking workarounds.

the preceding post was a great success.

by DSheppard on Oct 22, 2009 4:41 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

nah just some random news site from a digg link

SBNation can get kind of ugly when they do the everywhere on the page ads but nothing that ever actually messes with browsing.

the preceding post was a great success.

by DSheppard on Oct 22, 2009 4:50 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

that stupid jeep ad here was really freakin' annoying

with the soap and dirt was. VERY annoying

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.

by NothinG on Oct 22, 2009 5:26 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, that was a mistake

The ad people put there on the SBN sites erroneously.

by Adam J. Morris on Oct 22, 2009 5:31 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Is that the DMN page?

They have lots of shit like that. Along with piss-poor designing, it really makes it a struggle to go there.

by brettgardner on Oct 22, 2009 7:04 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

DMN

I think their goal is to make the website so awful that people will decide to subscribe to the paper. Wonder how thats working out for them.

"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg

by rentz on Oct 23, 2009 8:49 AM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Fangraphs

has one of those adds at the top of their pages. It makes me so mad. I want to sign up just so I can tell them how freaking annoying that thing is.

"Blister please, with those wings in your spine.
Love to be with a brother of mine.
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth,
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep,
Wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep." ~Jeff Magnum; Neutral Milk Hotel

by jdh90 on Oct 22, 2009 11:55 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Why is the NL the weaker league for the purposes of interpreting hitters' stats?

I get why it’s weaker for the same purposes regarding pitchers, since they get to face the pitcher every game rather than a big bad burly DH, but what makes it so much weaker for hitters?

Someone help a dirkabrother out here…

The 40 Trumps All!!!

Beware 2011: The Fortypocalypse is Nigh...

by thedirkatron on Oct 23, 2009 9:22 AM CDT reply actions   0 recs

Gay

I had a post almost done but for some reason my computer refreshed LSB. Basically go look up Brad Penny, John Smoltz, and Vinny Padilla’s stats post AL apocalypse. Vinny Padilla started an elimination game in the NLCS for god sakes! Not to mention multiple other playoff starts for Padilla and Smoltz. The #‘s these guys put up when going to the weaker league make me thing it’s not just the pitcher that makes it the weaker league but the way AL lineups tore these guys apart and they go to the NL and become rejuvenated makes me think even the hitters are weaker.

I know he’s not a great example but just off the top of my head what about Holliday from Oakland to St. Louis?

All these are small sample size worthy but just crap that has happened this year.

This is the Texas Rangers, professional destroyers of hope, we're talking about. - BAC

by nikpin on Oct 23, 2009 10:32 AM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Those pitchers' stories are nice, but I don't agree with the way you go about using those to draw your conclusion.

Padilla can be really good when he wants to be, Smoltz was a weird situation cause I’m not entirely sure he ever got a full shake in Boston + the injury return thing, and Penny is a Padilla-esque case of a guy who is really good… when he cares. Reports right after him going to the NL had him clocking FB’s at 3 or 4mph faster in his first game in SF than he ever did in Boston.

As for Holliday in Oakland vs. Oakland… Oakland’s a terrible hitters park and all (at least by rep), but there’s some merit there.

But there are examples of the opposite as well.

Milton Bradley had his career year after coming over from the NL.

Marlon Byrd could hack in the NL but now he’s in line for a big contract after kicking around those crumb-bumb townies the AL calls pitchers.

Russel Branyan can’t crack an NL roster, then pwnrshps AL pitching in Seattle.

There are other examples too, I’m sure.

I’m just not buying this theory.

I don’t think NL hitters should be penalized for playing in a “weaker” league. Pitchers, sure. They get to face DH’less lineups. But I don’t think the hitters in the NL face a significantly weaker product than their AL counterparts. The overall quality right now might be higher in the AL (don’t know, just sayin’) but not enough that I think we should look at NL hitters’ stats and go all “P’Shaw! Why not try doin’ it a REAL baseball league, ya loser!”

The 40 Trumps All!!!

Beware 2011: The Fortypocalypse is Nigh...

by thedirkatron on Oct 23, 2009 11:14 AM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Good points.

Agreed.

Hank is 7 runs below a zombie replacement at first base. Do you realize how terrible that is? Zombie’s can’t think, they’re slow, and they’re often ejected from the game for eating opposing baserunners’ brains. - Ben quantifies Hank Blalock

by lonestarJon on Oct 23, 2009 6:28 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs


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