Monday, June 8, 2009

Over the Moon


Leave it to the Tao to take the ideas right out of my head and get them down much better than I ever could. The ever-popular Cito v. The Lineup debate rages on; with the Tao coming down on the side of "get Lyle Overbay more at bats." And with good reason. Look no further than the missile he struck to centerfield yesterday. Hit Tracker Online has the facts, and a link to the video: 451 feet to just right of centerfield, leaving the bat at a mindbending 108 mph. Look at the pretty picture:

Good thing that restaurant is always empty

Just in case you've been asleep: Lyle Overbay's been killing it of late. .572 weighted on base over the past two weeks (!), good for a 1.381 OPS. Wow. Unlike other Jays (Hill, Aaron) I wouldn't categorize Overbay as a streak hitter. Looking at Fangraph's day-by-day charting of his wOBA we see, outside his disastrous 2007, he's very consistent. Slowly building throughout the year. Compare those graphs to those of The Streak himself Aaron Hill. Wild swings like your mother during a hot flash. Double to left! Clean out the garage! 0-22! My exhausted ovaries invalidate me as a person!

Overbay won't consistently ricochet 108 mph bombs off dusty chicken parm factories; but there is nothing to suggest him falling off the planet. So let's get him some more at bats, no? Nothing crazy, just a few more trips to the dish a week.

Strength of Schedule - House of Cards


Well shit. The Yankees are first in the division and first in the world's hearts. Ole Griff moves them up to third in his inanity rankings and I'm sure they'll be slotted similarly in any number of listicles of this sort. One question: why don't we hear questions of their soft schedule and inability to win within their division? The Yanks are two games under .500 against the mighty East, feasting on the weaker sisters of the Central and West. Conveniently they're outperforming their Pythag by a cool 2/3 wins also. WORSHIP NOT THE FALSE IDOLS!

6 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if I got those thoughts posted better than you could. Just quicker.

    But like I said in my post (which you so kindly linked to), looking at the scoreboard, and seeing Overbay hit seventh against a righty, BEHIND Kevin Millar seemed just so beyond the pale that I nearly threw myself over the railing and down onto the folks in the 100s.

    There are some guys that Cito just never seems to love, and Overbay seems to be following into the same shithole that John Olerud and Shawn Green fell into under Gaston in his last turn at the helm.

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  2. Dare I go there?

    Cito's slightly racist and favors toolsy ethnic dudes (especially righties) over laconic white lefties with sweet swings. CONSPIRACY!

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  3. How about Cito knew they weren't going to face a lefty for a week so he got Millar some at bats?

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  4. How about: Cito hates lefties?

    Does anyone remember him parking Shawn Green on the bench in favour of Reuben Sierra?

    Green had a couple of great seasons with the Jays, but only after he got out from under Cito's thumb.

    The Jays traded Olerud, who went on to have a few great years with the Mets, including a couple of 100 RBI campaigns.

    Whatever any of this means.

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  5. Cito does love him some Adam Lind, though.

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  6. If the Angels and Jays have taught us anything, it's that Pythag don't mean shit.

    HOMERISM.

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