Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Various & Sundry Bonerdom


I don't care how soft their schedule's been; how bad the various pitching staffs they've faced are: the Jays will worsening the fuck out of you and everything you hold dear. Some bullpen hiccups, some luck (some bad but mostly overwhelmingly good), games both given and taken away, it all adds up to an entertaining first week of May. Some thoughts from all over.

Brett Cecil: Heaven Sent


Soooo, Brett Cecil is pretty good, I'd say. Some strangely poor defense behind him and the ridiculous offensive strategy the Indians went with "Hey, let's see what happens if I stick my arm in front of this curveball!" Fuck them. Cecil was much bigger than I expected, wore more jewelery on the mound than Mr. T, and changed speeds better than a drunk through a radar trap. Brooks Baseball's Pitch fx tells us he brings the heat (topped out at 95!) and threw all his pitches for strikes. Very impressive. He wasn't afraid to pitch inside and generally impressed more 10 to 15 times more than I thought he would. I wonder if he's up for the duration? He'll certainly be given a chance to pitch himself out of a job.

One last thing we will note now and forever more: Vegas stats mean less than nothing.

Life Above Replacement


The always excellent Yankees Replacement Level Blog calculated the WAR (wins above replacement) for each team at each position in the American League. Unsurprisingly, the Jays are at or above replacement level at every single position around the diamond. Somewhat surprisingly, thanks to poor defense (!?), the Jays outfield has barely played above replacement level. The amazing infield play is manifested in a first place ranking for shortstops, third place for third basemen (fuck you, haters), surprising seventh for second basemen (negative defense, what gives?) and second place WAR for first basemen. Really interesting stuff, I highly recommend clicking on through.

More Crap

5 comments:

  1. It's funny that right now everyone is saying it's because of the schedule the Jays are in first place. Toronto has the third-toughest schedule in baseball this season. People are fucked.

    Cecil is fucking hype. I hate to bust this out, but it's way too apt: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

    Should be able to make tonight's live blog. I love west coast games.

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  2. Link to the liveblog's been updated. Come yuck it up.

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  3. We said it before, but we'll reiterate it here to make ourselves look extra clever: PCL stats are impossible to take seriously.

    And for proof, let's all get in the time machine, go back to 2006 and marvel at the offensive output of Howie Kendrick in the PCL. "That dude's gonna be huge!" we'll all say. "How could he not be with a 1.039 OPS? He's going to make Ryan Sandberg his bitch!"

    And not that we're bitter against Howie Kendrick, or the way his mediocre performance over the past two years fucked us over with a bunch of our roto teams.

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  4. Man Ram suspended for 50 games!

    http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2009/05/07/ramirez_manny_suspended/

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  5. Scutaro #1 in WAR for all hitters in the league!

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