In a season that has mostly sucked it seems appropriate to pay tribute to those who helped them suck even more than they would have otherwise. I haven't looked this over so I'm doing the work as I write along. We'll start with the position players and if I feel like I'll do one for the pitchers tomorrow.
Joe Mather has had a spectacular season. His .210/.257/.326 batting line is good for a .255 wOBA. Thanks to -9 UZR and below average baserunner he's been worth -1.5 fWAR and has had only 242 plate appearances. Mathers has an even more impressive -2.0 rWAR though BPro's WARP has him at a measly -0.9.
Josh Vitters career is off to a fabulous start. It's been so good the Cubs are likely to shut it down for good. Yes, we're back to that. Vitters has opposite-of-hit .113/.171/.196 and that's good for a wOBA of .170. His fWAR is -1.4. Consider this, Mather has had 242 plate appearances and has been worth -1.5 fWAR. Vitters has 105 PA and has been worth -1.4.Although Mather has been horrible at the plate, his wRC+ is a solid 57 points higher than that of Josh Vitters (-5). Josh's rWAR is -1.3 and his WARP is a team worst -1.4. Mike Trout is 11.7 rWAJV.
Although he only played in 13 games for the Cubs, Marlon Byrd has the 3rd worst fWAR at -0.8. His rWAR is 4th worst at -0.4 and his WARP is 5th worst at -0.5.
Then there's Steve Clevenger who can't even be close to replacement even though he has the advantage of being a catcher. His fWAR is -0.7, rWAR -1.0 and his WARP is -1.3.
Honorable mention: Blake. The Cubs would have been nearly a win better if they didn't have any player named Blake. Blake Lalli and Blake DeWitt combined had -.8 fWAR, -.6 rWAR and -.4 WARP in 46 plate appearances.
The average of the 3 WAR's barely gives Joe Mather (-1.5 WAR) the lead over Josh Vitters (-1.4). It's actually -1.46 for Mather and -1.43 for Vitters so these next 4 games are critical. Then again, Mather has more than twice as many PA as Vitters so it's really not at all close. If Vitters had the playing time that Mather has, he might have -3.3 WAR.
But Joe Mather feeds the Hope Monster…
Rusin actually doing fairly well despite that fail earlier.
Pirates ————> losing record
That Zagurski does not look like an athlete. At all.
More like FAILbuena.
The Cubs have stumbled into a lead.
@ Rice Cube:
They keep giving away outs, too.
All-Star TOOTBLAN
I just hope that the O’s win AL East crown over the Yanks. That would be awesome.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
This team is good at that.
Muskat doesn’t even know how much longer Soriano’s contracts lasts: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120930&content_id=39252386¬ebook_id=39269774&vkey=notebook_chc&c_id=chc&partnerId=rss_chc
So…many…TOOTBLANs…
@ mb21:
At least she gets the quotes, amirite?
mb21 wrote:
so close. at least they’re poised to dominate next season.
Rice Cube wrote:
and apparently really fucking hated quade. that’s news to me…did i miss something? did everyone else know about this?
I think Aaron Rodgers just got his eye ripped out. And then his replacement came in and fumbled on the goal line on his first career snap (dying laughing)
Rizzo the Rat wrote:
i live in baltimore and i was out walking around today and this is the first day all season that everyone is wearing o’s gear. people have been saying all season that “they’ll shit the bed at some point”. i’m not even sure they’ve been selling out recently with the exception of the special cal ripken night they had a few weeks ago. no one here gives a shit about baseball anymore…kind of annoying considering how much fun their team has been this year.
but yeah, it would be really cool if they won the division. i’ve got tix for the first round of the playoffs…can’t wait.
@ WaLi:
Ugh. This game fucking blows :/
@ EnricoPallazzo:
They loved Quade in 2011 and hated him in 2012. Here’s how many fucks I give about how players feel about their manager: 0. (dying laughing)
Len: If you keep track of assists, Darwin Barney gets one.
Thanks, Len. I’m sitting here right now tracking assists. I have a folder on my computer going back to 1988 and sometimes when I’m bored I glance through the assists leaders. It’s so much fun.
@ Berselius:
I’m enjoying it
@ EnricoPallazzo:
They have a tougher schedule ahead of them than the Yankees (they are on the road against the Rays; Yanks are at home against the Sox).
Also, there’s the whole thing about the Yankees being the better team.
Rice Cube wrote:
I thought we were all just a little squirt.
@ SVB:
Depends on the dispenser, I suppose.
@ EnricoPallazzo:
At the end of Muscat’s article about Garza’s bromance with Sveum there is this gem:
Com’on. This has been linked here for >1 threads and none of you has given Carrie some love yet?
@ Rice Cube:
A teaspoon is a teaspoon, no matter what size magnifying glass you are looking through, amigo.
@ Berselius:
The referees hate GB
@ SVB:
False. Depends on grain size, surface tension, leveling, packing, etc.
We’re about to see Wisconsin go Thermohooligan, methinks.
Here’s hoping the Cubs sweep the Astros at home to avoid 100 losses.
@ josh:
False.
@ josh:
Or maybe correct. I don’t know what Green Bay residents do after a win.
@ josh:
(dying laughing)
I figured the response would be about exit velocity and viscosity. Pretty sure surface tension only would slow the little guys down.
As for the dispenser, it doesn’t matter if you pour a teaspoon out of this:
or this:
It is still a teaspoon.
@ SVB:
I’d respond to this line of discussion but I fear this might get into TMI territory.
I think I need a beer or ten
Berselius wrote:
@ SVB:
You’re assuming some sort of ideal concept of “teaspoon.” I disagree.
@ SVB:
Wtf are you guys arguing about (dying laughing)
@ WaLi:
I was going to ask this question. Thanks. (dying laughing)
Dunn needs 5 strikeouts in 3 games to tie the record. If anyone can do it he can (well, him and BJax).
1 US teaspoon (tsp) = 4.92892159 milliliters (ml)
Rice Cube wrote:
Yeah, ol’ Vin Scully is probably tut-tutting us right now. Considering how healthy he apparently is at his age, he must have been one of those large-grained teaspoons-full that Josh was talking about.
@ SVB:
I apologize to everyone here for this line of discussion that I may have inadvertently started and perpetuated.
I think Jackass did this once.
SVB is endorsing a Platonic reality, I’m denying the truth of this. Also, boredom.
@ SVB:
That’s just avoiding the central issue.
@ WaLi:
Ah, WaLi, that’s what you get for not reading every word, I guess. I’m just being a jerk and perpetuating a ridiculous line of commentary. But I did think the Big Gulp picture was funny.
From last thread:
Rizzo the Rat wrote:
SVB wrote:
Rice Cube wrote:
@ josh:
What was the central issue, again? Let me see if I can get back to it.
I’m discussing weights and measures which have standard values, Josh is debating what the meaning of “is” is. Also, boredom.
I apologize that as a good scientist, I didn’t just give all the guys here the benefit of the doubt with the metric system and round up to 5 mL. Using tsp is poor form.
@ SVB:
No, you said no matter how powerful the microscope, a teaspoon is a teaspoon, but that’s not the case. If you look close enough, two teaspoons of matter won’t have exactly the same weight. It maybe an extremely small difference and practically insignificant (until you get down to quantum levels). It sounds like BS, but it’s a significant problem in dynamic systems because of sensitive dependence on initial conditions (i.e., chaos).
@ SVB:
Sometimes small differences matter a whole lot. Believe me, there are entire books devoted to the problem of those tiny differences that are dependent on how fine your system of measure.
All declaring 1tsp = x mL does is establish a standard, it says nothing about actual matter and achieving that “1 tsp/x mL” standard we are comparing the quantity to.
It’s like saying there’s an objective measure of beauty. I have to disagree on principle.
@ josh:
I hope, for Rice Cube’s sake, no one is looking at his dispenser with a microscope, a magnifying glass is bad enough.
(dying laughing), (dying laughing)
@ Rice Cube:
@ SVB:
@ josh:
(dying laughing), (dying laughing), (dying laughing)
of course, Kim DeJesus is still miffed by that!
This took a weird turn (dying laughing)
@ josh:
I don’t really want to get involved in this discussion, but I assume what you’re saying is, for example (a simple one), a teaspoon of floor will weigh more than a teaspoon of sifted floor. Or that a teaspoon of water would weigh more than a teaspoon of oil.
@ Rice Cube:
I’m not even drinking…
@ SVB:
@ Rice Cube:
@ josh:
.
Out of all the sidetracked conversations on this blog, this is probably the strangest.
the fact that this discussion is taking place on what is ostensibly a cubs blog is a great testament to how shitty this team truly is.
@ Berselius:
perfect.
@ EnricoPallazzo:
…but NOT TODAY!!!!
@ Rice Cube:
http://www.WasThereACubsGameToday?.com
@ WaLi:
Yes@theyactuallywon.com
O’s season almost went down in flames:
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/30/fire-aboard-orioles-plane-results-in-emergency-landing/
Not really, but still scary. Glad all were okay.
@ WaLi:
I think it all got started by Mish and Rizzo equating RBI to fossils. In Gotham, Batman is always responsible.
@ SVB:
@ Rice Cube:
@ Rice Cube:
Commissioner Gordon: Batman!
Batman: I only slapped him a little
Gordon: No matter how large the hand, or how hard the impact, a slap is still a slap.
Josh: Whoa, wait a minute here.
@ SVB:
I see what you did there.
Dexter was really good tonight. I heard Sepinwall and Feinstein talking about how much better it is this year. It is.
@ Rice Cube:
I wouldn’t want to derail the discussion any more than I already have, so I thought we should point back to Josh’s comments, because I’m dying to hear about a teaspoon of floor.
@ SVB:
Is the floor hardwood, carpet or marble/granite?
@ SVB:
Which, by the way, will be my OV-inspired band name: Teaspoon of Floor. I’m thinking a harmonica (me), 2 pipers, a steel drum, and a ukelele.
@ mb21:
Great. I forgot about it. I’ll have to watch it tomorrow night.
@ Rice Cube:
Beats me, that was MB’s contribution.
@ mb21:
I figure he meant “flour” but he was probably inputting this on the iPhone rather than the iPad with the attached keyboard
@ Rice Cube:
(dying laughing). Probably, but floor seems to fit this sidetracked thread better than flour, which would kind of make sense.
So I met Dolis today. I guess he dates this girl I work with. No one I work with knows shit about baseball so people were asking me “Why is she still working if she’s dating a baseball player? He must terrible”
…they have no idea.
@ Akabari:
He’ll be seasoning cast iron skillets with teaspoons of floor before he knows it.
Texas, NYY, O’s —-> October
@ Rice Cube:
(dying laughing), that was on my iPad though my keyboard was charging. I have no idea why autocorrect changed flour to floor. (dying laughing)
@ Akabari:
Yeah, it’s not like Dolis is rich. Or ever will be.
@ Rice Cube:
Yes, and the White Sox E number is 1.
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
SVB wrote:
I went to two games this weekend and got to witness this epic turd they’re laying first hand. My favorite moment though has to be eavesdropping on a conversation between a man and his toddler son sitting behind me on Saturday. The White Sox were down something like 6-0 at the time and had only managed a single hit. With the season quickly fading, the father offered up this sage advice to his young impressionable offspring:
White Sox baseball!!
@ GBTS:
I thought they were banned from the Cell after beating up that base coach.
New Comic Up: http://www.obstructedview.net/comics/night-musings-17.html
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