The games threads this year, for as long as we do them anyway, are going to be abbreviated compared to the past. Stephen Strasburg gets the ball for the Nationals and Ryan Dempster gets his 2nd consecutive opening day start. Let's hope it goes better than the last one. Opening Day hasn't gone well for Cubs starters since 2005. They've thrown 35 innings, allowed 40 hits and 25 runs (all earned). They've walked 24, struckout 33 and allowed 9 home runs.
Pretty sure that kind of performance will get a loss against Strasburg.
Most of the games this year we're just going to be using the comments for game threads, but once in awhile we'll be using the chat room. Today is one of them. You can still use the comments here of course. Or the forum. You can find the chat room here.
EDIT: That chat room was crashing our server. Let's try this instead
I was thinking this year it might be fun to record the hits that an individual batter makes compared to his at-bats and develop some ratios based on his batting performance. I will call it the Batting Performance Ratio Number, or Baper-Ratnum.
Newt Gingrich goes broke. No more US States will be banished. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/05/11036798-gingrich-group-files-for-bankruptcy
I like that chat.
Same chat room, but not in an iframe: http://www.obstructedview.net/ovchat/
We’re discredited again.
Well that was fun.
Maybe we can look into using one of those coveritlive chats like fangraphs uses
Haha is there a real chance Soriano could be our best offensive player this year? (dying laughing)
@ Berselius:
That’s a good idea, b. You got time to look into that? If not I can do it later on.
I’m out for a few hours.
TOOTBLAN!
(dying laughing)
ugh
I thought he made it.
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
Byrd!
damn, that was nearly 2 more runs
Did we give up on the chat?
@ Berselius:
Stealing 3rd. Is it ever a good idea?
CUBS SCORE, WORLD IMPLODES.
@ josh:
Yeah, it’s donezo. I’m looking for another chat optoin
Did anyone else notice Pat double-clutch on his opening day CCBIOTA?
@ Berselius:
I was still on for some reason.
Another nice inning by Demp.
@ josh:
It’s like flirting with your friend’s mom. Damn, you better be sure.
I set up a new chat, embedded in the main post
@ oog:
I didn’t think I would like that when I first saw it, but then I really REALLY did.
is bill murray drunk?
Holy shit, Dempster. What a start.
I guess we see why Theo didn’t want to resign Wood before RIcketts went over his head.
Nice pointless slide by DeRosa.
Next year is here, right guys???
It’s a way of (L)ife.
I don’t think I like this new “pitch to contact” Marmol.
I’m not bothered by the Mather TOOTBLAN. I think he was out either way, that ball was hit pretty hard right at the 3b
@ ACT:
No, that’s not going to work.
To be fair, Marm looked (to my eyes) to have good stuff. His velocity was good, his control was decent, and his slider had a lot of movement. He just didn’t get those swinging strikes.
@ Berselius:
Couldn’t see it, but I’ll take your word. Still a disappointing ending all around.
@ Berselius:
Ditto. There’s nothing wrong with having the runner go on contact in that situation. I suspect most managers would do the same. That was just plain bad luck.
That said, the play looked ugly as sin.
Yeah I don’t really consider that a TOOTBLAN. He’s going on contact, and it was a laser right at a drawn in 3rd basemen. Maybe he was thrown out like a nincompoop, but the decision to go wasn’t.
Not a lot of runs being scored today.
I guess that’s what happens when teams use their best pitchers in weather not conducive to hitting.
If Sori doesn’t get caught stealing 3rd, Bryd’s hit might have been worth 2.
Your 2012 Chicago Cubs
TOOTBLANS > Runs
Can you feel it?
Also, replays showed Sori was safe at third.
@ Berselius:
I’m not particularly bothered it by it just like I wasn’t bothered by Soriano’s either. Most of the time I don’t mind the baserunning mistakes the Cubs have made. Some of them you can’t help. Some of them were dumb. That happens for all teams. The problem I have is that it just happens all the time.
There have been zero home runs hit so far in the National League.
@ mb21:
Yeah, I’m not upset if that happens once in a while, but the carryover from Spring obviously makes it seem more important/acute. I guess what more bothers me about Soriano stealing is the chance to reinjure his legs.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/05/and-now-the-top-20-jerseys-sold/
*starts reading through list, nodding head*
@ ACT:
Have there been any hit in America yet?
Nevermind, I see Hannahan and Bautista have gone yard.
@ Mish:
Or on Earth?
It’s obvious there is a power outage in the National League. Teams will be scrambling to make trades.
@ Mish:
Jose Bautista hit one. So did Jack Hannahan.
Wanna see if this works…
Source: FanGraphs
@ Rice Cube:
Darn, it didn’t embed.
Ian Stewart murdered that ball.
So mad. Demps was awesome. Kerry was worse then hanie. Marmol got unlucky.
@ Berselius:
Weird. I’m wondering if more Phillies jerseys have been sold overall. 3 of the top 11 are Phillies jerseys.
4 of the top 11. Can’t count.
Well, that was a giant kick in the nuts.
@ Rice Cube:
Does that make I-Stu the WPA all-star for the day?
It would be nice to have 8th and 9th inning pitchers who have control for those days when that’s all you need.
Audio of Williams telling Saints defenders to injure players by hitting their heads: http://theusof.com/
Jays are making a nice comeback.
@ josh:
I think Ian Desmond was. Dempster was the best pitcher in the game by WPA.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Holy Samardzija. One of the players just decided to record that at random? Or he’d heard it enough times that he was sick of it?
@ Rice Cube:
I meant of the Cubs. Going just by single plays though, Ian Stewart definitely had the biggest hit. Too bad it missed the basket.
@ josh:
A documentary filmmaker who was given access to the team meetings to film a documentary about the NFL made the recording because he realized that even after the NFL warned the Saints to stop the bounty program in 2010, that Williams was still running it. The Saints have known all along he had the tape, but they expected he would not release it.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Ah okay.
1st game and all so I doubt it means much, but Marmol’s max velocity today was 93.6. In 2010 his average fastball was 94.1. Last year it dropped to 91.8. Last year in his first appearance his max speed was similar to today, but in 2010 it was over 97.
As I said though, I wouldn’t put any weight in these numbers. It’s one game and it’s the first one of the season. Just noticed it.
I’d almost want to hear a recording of another random team’s defensive meeting, for comparison. I bet there is some talk about putting the hurt on specific guys. But the “work the head when you’re in the pile” comment was pretty shocking. I’m really glad I was a shitty athlete about now.
Sveum told Kasper that he’s not going to play double-play depth or position guys at the corners to “guard the lines” because he feels they leave to defense too vulnerable to big innings.
@ josh:
Yeah, that and telling his guys to tear Crabtree’s ACL and to hit Gore even when he’s not on the field.
@ Suburban kid:
Cubs can’t have nice things.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Good stuff. And the “We thought we saw in you a certain type of player” or whatever he said at the beginning.
@ josh:
Yeah. Gregg Williams is a piece of shit.
@ mb21:
You sure about that? I remember watching his opening-day start last year and wondering why his fastball was only 90 and his slider 80 (I also remember he struck out the side and the Pirates were hitting, I think).
Kasper just used “smallball” to describe the Cubs offense. I want to stab that term.
OVBlog guys, I think I posted a picture on your facebook wall but I don’t see it. Wanna check?
@ Rice Cube:
I see it. (dying laughing)
@ ACT:
Last year he had an average of 91.6 so it was down considerably from the year before. Max of 92.2.
I don’t know what any of this means and I’m tempted to say it means absolutely nothing. Here’s the pfx game in question from 2011: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/pfx.php?s_type=3&sp_type=1&batterX=0&year=2011&month=4&day=2&pitchSel=461791.xml&game=gid_2011_04_02_pitmlb_chnmlb_1%2f&prevGame=gid_2011_04_02_pitmlb_chnmlb_1%2f
@ Rice Cube:
It looks like it’s showing up
mb, can you make a TOOTBLAN counter or something?
Holy shit, Charlie Hough.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
He’s just trying to rationalize how bad the team will be and help set expectations. He knows as well as most people that this is going to be a long season. If you can pretend sucking is a strategy, you lend some excitement to it.
I will go on record as saying that I will be extremely disappointed if you do not work this into the game thread on Sunday.
josh wrote:
(dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing)
mb21 wrote:
Marmol’s throwing a 2-seamer instead of a 4-seamer this year, from the sounds of it. There was a link in a facepalm the other day that he was working on it, and I know at one point Zonk mentioned that Marmol was throwing a 2-seamer today as well.
@ jtsunami:
Like this?
@ mb21:
This is nice. I also would have suggested The Count from Sesame Street.
Sad
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/4/5/2928781/stephen-gant-high-school-pitcher-found-dead
@ Berselius:
According to pfx he threw 8 4-seamers and 7 sliders today.
@ mb21:
FWIW, their algorithm does a shitty job of recognizing new pitches since it does AI learning based on past history of that pitcher. I wonder what hp’s classifier gives.
@ Berselius:
According to this he hadn’t thrown one in a game before March 21st: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/print.jsp?ymd=20120321&content_id=27473030&vkey=perspectives&c_id=mlb
I obviously don’t know, but I doubt he’s become comfortable enough with it since then to use it exclusively today. I don’t really don’t what a 2 seamer is going to accomplish anyway. He already keeps the ball in the park. Throwing more strikes would be nice, but he’ll lose some velocity too. The difference in the velocity between the fastball and slider would be smaller and presumably make it less effective.
The argument for the move to the two-seamer was that it had more movement than his four-seamer
Nice of the Jays and Indians to kill their bullpens in the first game of the season.
@ Rice Cube:
At least they have an off-day tomorrow
@ Berselius:
Aren’t 4-seamers thrown for strikes more often than 2-seamers? Maybe I’m imagining that.
Is anyone else not able to view the TOR-CLE as the free game? They keep trying to get me to pay for their “free game of the day”
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
Works fine for me.
Speaking of which, Rajai Davis is going to bed without dinner tonight.
Arencibia!
Sean Marshall 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
Man, I wish the Cubs had a guy like this.
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/news-and-rumors/cubs-start-season-on-left-foot.html