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Saturday July 12th, 2003

Where I've been, #33, Kevin "is on the DL, again" Brown, & Josh Barfield Part I

1:30pm

Ok, I know, I didn't post the last two days...here's what's been going on in my world...

Thursday, I basically spent all day studying for my Physics test...Friday, I went to class at about 10:30, took my test (11:40-1:15ish), went to eat with my gal, went to work at 3pm, we were remodeling our store so I didn't get home 'til 4am. Needless to say, I didn't have time to type anything, let alone feed the dog (thank goodness Pat was here).

So now to why you're even looking at the page...

Oakland signed the #33 pick in the draft yesterday, and normally I'd be happy but this time I'm torn. The player is "Lucifer's Son" (aka. Omar Quintanilla), the former longhorn SS. This is great for aTm b/c we'll now never have to see him again, and it's nice to see their dynasty have a big chunk taken out of it. The place where I'm torn is b/c Oakland signed him and I don't think I can root for him b/c of our past together (basically I think he's a cheating no good chump for playing pro-ball in Mexico and still being able to play NCAA ball, so I like to yell at him on the TV). On a good note...Oakland has signed 16 of their first 17 picks w/ University of Houston pitcher, Brad Sullivan, being the only one not to sign yet.

Not sure what the deal is, but my boy Steve Stanley sat out the last 2 games, I hope it's not an injury...

Kevin Brown finally went on the DL...We all know it was inevitable, didn't we? I was starting to think he might make it a full year, but nope...I've decided that "Is on the DL, again" should be his middlename, b/c you hear it so often...

Up-and-Comer, Josh Barfield, will be making an appearance in this year's Future's Game during All-Star Weekend. Josh went to my High School for his freshman year, then transferred to Klien HS for the rest of his education...He's a really cool kid, and it's kind of neat to see a teammate start to make it (Brad Halsey also played at Westfield HS with me for 2 years, he's currently in the Yankee's ML system and he won the Championship w/ t.u. last year). I've been planning on doing a big post on Josh for awhile, just waiting for a slow day...maybe tomorrow...

I'll be back later today to give ya some more of whatcha like...

Thursday July 10th, 2003

Test Tomorrow

12:24am

I want to appologize for not posting today, I have a test already in Physics II, and I'm studying every waking moment I'm awake today...sorry yall, I'll hit you up every day this weekend to make up for it (normally I take off one weekend day, incase you didn't notice)...Wish me luck..

Wednesday July 9th, 2003

In Your Face & Some Other Stuff

12:41pm

I was looking at league leaders today on espn.com, and Juan Pierre's stolen base total just jumped out at me. He has 41 SBs in 91 games, leading the next closest competitor (Alfonso Soriano) by 16. 16 stolen bases would put you in 12th place in the majors, tied with Corey Patterson, Kenny Lofton, & phenom Rocco Baldelli. Pierre's career high in SBs is his 47 from last year, which at his current rate, will be tied in 13 games. I think it's kind of funny that everyone wrote Juan off after he left Colorado, b/c he wouldn't be playing 1/2 his games in Coors Field. Keep in mind that he only hit .287 last year there, and is only .005 pts. off his career average this year in Miami (he's hitting .301 now compared to .305 career with the Rockies). Also, as a lead-off hitter, he's on pace to score a hundred runs which would also better last year's totals by 10. I'd just like to congratulate Juan Pierre for showing the critics wrong and for rewarding those who had faith by drafting him in their fantasy leagues (i.e. my roommate, Pat).

For those of you from the Houston area or those Baylor fans out there, Baseball America did a nice little thing on David Murphy today, so check that out...

Here's a quote from Bill James that pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly...

"I didn't care about the statistics in anything else. I didn't, and don't pay any attention to the statistics of the stock market, the weather, the crime rate, the gross national product, the circulation of magazines, the ebb and flow of literacy among football fans and how many people are going to starve to death before the year 2050 if I don't start adopting them for $3.69 a month; just baseball. Now why is that? It is because baseball statistics, unlike the statistics in any other area, have acquired the powers of language."---Bill James, 1985 Baseball Abstract

I think Bill and I are maybe the same person, but he's older, wiser, much, much richer and has a job with the Red Sox...

I'll write a little more later on today...

Giambi Home and Away & Updates

4:38pm

Jason Giambi leads the big leagues with home runs on the road (17 of his 23). That seems really strange to me b/c he plays his home games at Yankee Stadium which is known as a left-handed hitter's park. Last season his split was 19 home and 22 away. I used to love Jason...that was until he became a Yankee, and lost his "Joe Cool" public persona. I'm sure he's the same guy now, but I don't see the long hair, goatee and tattoo hanging out of his sleeve anymore. I honestly don't understand this discrepancy in HRs though. Here's a look at Tino Martinez, the previous left-handed Yankee first baseman's, splits for during his last season he was a Yankee (2001) compared to Jason:

Tino Martinez 2001 Splits

Park	BA	HR	OBP	Slug	OPS
Home	.305	22	.357	.587	.944
Away	.254	12	.300	.412	.713

Jason Giambi 2002 Splits

Park	BA	HR	OBP	Slug	OPS
Home	.333	19	.449	.601	1.050
Away	.296	22	.422	.596	1.018

Jason Giambi 2003 Splits

Park	BA	HR	OBP	Slug	OPS
Home	.253	6	.423	.433	.857
Away	.282	17	.415	.631	1.046

Please keep in mind, that I'm not showing these numbers to compare Tino to Jason or even to compare Jason 2002 to Jason 2003, but to show that Jason's power numbers seem to be worse at home than away...more so than previous player's numbers would lead you to believe. I just think this is really strange. Here are Jason's numbers at home in Oakland's Coliseum from his last year there (2001; his MVP season):

Jason Giambi 2001 Splits

Park	BA	HR	OBP	Slug	OPS
Home	.349	27	.474	.729	1.202
Away	.336	11	.480	.592	1.071

God, I just love to look at those numbers...what a year that was!

Change to the site
I have added a daily update on Steve Stanley & Brooks Kieschnick...if you hold your mouse over their pictures in the "Links" column, it will tell you how each did in their previous game. Also, when you click on Steve, it will bring up the Excel worksheet that I have made to record his career game-by-game. If anyone knows how to get Excel to work as an HTML, instead of having to open it every time in Excel, please let me know. When you click on Kiesch, it will bring up his game log as a pitcher for the year...I'm still searching for a game log that includes his batting stats as well...I checked the status of Aggies who were drafted, and updated that page (no one else signed, so it's really the same as it's been)...

That's about it, I'm off to class to buy my book and get a parking pass...Holla...

Tuesday July 8th, 2003

Reason this is so late and short & Responsible Voters

9:19pm

Today...well, it was a crazy day. I've been trying to get into my Physics 202 class at Blinn (the local Junior College) since May, with little success. Today class started, and needless to say, since I didn't have a roster spot, I was up a creek without a paddle. I have spoken with the department head several times, most of them during the last week, and I didn't recieve much help there, so I decided to try my luck with the professor and just show up for the class. He told me that he didn't have a problem with me being in there, except that there were 34 chairs and 34 roster spots. I sat on the floor...for 2 hours of solid physics lecture. It sucked. Because of the chair situation, he couldn't force me into the class, so I still had to wait for someone to drop the course (which isn't guaranteed). After lecture was finally over, we went into lab and he gave us a quiz over what we should have learned in Phys. 201 (which I took in the Fall of '02). We could however look at old notes (like I brought my binder of Phys 201 notes with me) and we could work in partners. Well, apparently I got the dumb girl b/c we didn't leave for an hour and five minutes. I'm sure my partner said the same thing about me. Keep in mind this was a 6 Q "Reveiw" of an entire semester. Anyways, when I get home I check the internet for an opening in the class, and there are none, so I sat clicking the "refresh" button for about 2 hours solid...waiting...waiting...waiting...And then...a spot opened up in another section (from 5:55-9:55pm), and I got it. So now I have class all night long, but I have to take this course, b/c it's the pre-req. for 2 of my classes that I'm signed up for in the fall (and I'll get to order my ring with the 4 hours it will earn me). So that's that, sorry today's post sucks.

My roomate, Pat, brought this to my attention, so I'm going to write about it. He and I are extremley impressed with the responsibility of the people voting in the 32nd man. Here are the results:

• National League
  1. Geoff Jenkins
  2. Benito Santiago
  3. Luis Castillo
  4. Jose Cabrera
  5. Kenny Lofton
• American League
1. Jason Veritek
2. Frank Thomas
3. Eric Byrnes
4. Jason Giambi
5. Ben Molina

Basically, we're just shocked that Giambi isn't running away with this thing due to his "Yankee" status. I know that the other day I said that I voted for Byrnes and Castillo, and that's true, but Jenkins is definately haveing a good year, as are Veritek and Thomas. They, from the other choices, are probably the best selections. Well done America (and Japan).

I promise a better post for tomorrow...I'll have all day to write it b/c I don't have class 'til the sun goes down...Holla...

Monday July 7th, 2003

Glorious Kyle Field, All-Star Mistakes, & Hudson's Lack of Help

1:54pm

Yeah, I know, you're tired of hearing about who made it and who got left off, so I'm just going to give you a quick recap and drop a couple of links to Jayson Stark's thoughts on the game, and his ideas for future games (which I agree with).

But first...

I've been following Sportsline.com's ranking of the top college football stadiums since #9 of the countdown, and I'm pleased to announce that Kyle Field took the #1 ranking in all the land! I honestly got shivers today after reading the article and thinking back to some of my favorite moments up there in the 3rd deck (and second deck last year). I just really can't wait 'til Aug. 30th when we take the field for the first time next season.

Ok, here are my All-Star corrections...

These don't take into consideration of the player for every team thing or anything like that, just players that shouldn't be there and players that should be.

National League

Pitchers
Should be there: Dontrelle Willis (2.13 era; 8-1 record; 2 complete games), & Octavio Dotel (1.99 era; 6 wins as set-up man--that's as many as Tim Hudson has; 56K in 49.2IP)
Shouldn't be there: Armando Benitez (6 blown saves; gets booed by home crowd every time he comes out of the 'pen...you think they're telling us something?), Mike Williams (6.29 era!!!; 4 blown saves)

First Base
Should be there: Jim Thome (22 Hrs, 62 RBI)
Shouldn't be there: Richie Sexson (Brewer's don’t deserve a roster spot)

American League

Pitchers
Should be there: Pedro Martinez (2.53 era, 93Ks), Roger Clemens (I hate him, but he's leading the league in Ks, just won his 300th game, & had his 4000th K...& it's his "last" season)
Shouldn't be there: Lance Carter (4.17 era; 6 blown saves)

Catchers
Should be there: Jason Veritek (.297 BA, 15 HRs, 50 RBIs)
Shouldn’t be there: Ramon Hernandez (.270 BA, 11 HRs, 37 RBIs)

Outfield
Should be there: Rocco Baldelli (.309 BA, 40 Rbi, 16 SBs--especially since you have to take a D-Ray, don't take L.Carter)
Shouldn't be there: Hideki Matsui (see here, also this guy voted for himself, who does that?)

32nd Man Ballot
Should be there: Rocco Baldelli (see above), Frank Thomas (.283 BA, 20 Hrs, 48 RBI)
Shouldn’t be there: Jason Giambi (just b/c you don't get to start, you shouldn't get put on this list only b/c you're a Yankee)

Other thoughts on the All-Star selections...I just voted on-line for the 32nd Man (Byrnes and Castillo were my choices), and after I entered my selections I was asked if I'd like to vote again. Does this not seem strange to others? I think this encourages ballot-stuffing and totally eliminates the true appeal of fan-vote. If I had 6 hours on my hands, then I could single handedly get any player in that I wanted. And if that happened, then I wouldn't have had to write the above complaints about the selections though, huh?

Poor Tim Hudson. He left yesterday's game with a 4-1 lead...and sure enough the 'pen blew it giving Tim his 10th no-decision of the year keeping him stuck on 6 wins (the team is now 15-4 when he starts though). I wrote about this last week, but he's had two starts since then, both resulting in no-decisions. Why did Keith Foulke make the All-Star team? Could his 6 wins be a factor? He has those 6 wins b/c he can't keep the lead for Hudson (he's blown 4 saves this year and all have been Hudson starts). He does, however, feel badly about it (read his quote here). Here's an update of Tim's no-decision starts:

Date	IP	R	ER	Lead*
4/6	5	4	4	T
4/22	7.2	3	3	T
4/27	7	3	3	T
5/3	8	1	1	2
5/14	8	1	1	T
5/25	7	3	2	-2
6/4	6	5	3	T
6/10	8	2	2	1
7/1	8	1	1	T
7/6	6.2	1	1	3

*the lead he left the game with (if losing, then # is negative; T indicates tie)

Tim is currently sporting a 6-3 record and a 2.89 ERA...that's a good ERA and a bad record. This isn't really the 'pens fault, and I shouldn't blame it on them...it's the terrible offense. The only 2 games he left with a lead, he had only given up 1 run. Oakland needs to pull the trigger and make a trade this month (like a Carlos Beltran) b/c they need offense like a fish needs water.

Sunday July 6th, 2003

Steve Stanley

3:43pm

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I went to work at 9:30am and didn't get home 'til 5:30ish...Then I just researched for today’s post...I compiled all these numbers and statistics myself from the box scores I get online...it took a loooong time, but I enjoyed it and found out a lot...hope you enjoy...

First of all, I should probably start this by telling you why I've become so interested in Steve. It pretty much started in the 2002 College World Series, when I was watching Notre Dame play Rice in Game 7. Steve made this amazing play in CF, diving to catch a ball that Chris Kolkhorst hit:

Then in the 9th inning, down by a run, and Steve comes up, has an 8-pitch at-bat, and hits a triple to lead off the inning. He scored on a single and celebrated minutes later when Brian Stavinsky HRed to end the game. He had peaked my interest, so I did a bit of research and started to like what I was seeing. I followed him the rest of the CWS and really enjoyed the way he played the game with his all out excitement and enthusiasm.

Needless to say, I was excited when I found out that Steve was drafted by Oakland in the supplemental first round. Here's the way his draft selection was explained in Moneyball:

"Sparky has just finished a conversation with Steve Stanley, a center fielder from Notre Dame, and he's pleased. Steve Stanley was yet another example of the strange results you obtained when you ceased to prejudge a player by his appearance, and his less meaningful statistics, and simply looked at what he had accomplished according to his meaningful stats. The Major League Scouting Bureau lists Stanley at five foot seven and 155 pounds, but that's wildly generous. Despite his size--or perhaps because of it--Stanley has a gift for getting on base. To judge crudely, with the naked eye, he already plays better center field than Terrence Long, the A's big league center fielder. And yet the scouts long ago decided Stanley wasn't big enough to play.

Stanley has told Sparky that he expected to go after the fifteenth round of the draft. In other words, he expects to be taken by a team simply to fill out its minor league roster, not because the team thinks he has a chance of making it to the big leagues. Sparky has just informed Stanley that the A's are willing to make him a second-round draft pick--and a genuine big league prospect--on the condition that he agree to sign for $200,000, or about half a million dollars less than every other second-round pick will sign for.
...
"Sparky, we all right?" asks Billy.

"Yeah, sure," says Sparky. "I thought he was going to jump through the phone when I told him."

Billy laughs. "Pumped, are we?"

"I think he'd play for free," says Sparky."

--Moneyball by Michael Lewis pgs. 100-101

After meeting Steve two times this season, I could honestly see him playing for nothing.

After starting his collegiate career 0-17, Steve left Notre Dame with many school, conference & NCAA records. Here are some of them:

• School
• All-time Games played (256)
• All-time Runs scored (256)
• All-time Hits (385)
• All-time Stolen Bases (116)
• Conference (Big East)
• All-time Hits
• All-time Runs
• Only repeat winner of Big East Player of the Year Award (2001, 2002)
• NCAA
• 2nd All-time in consecutive starts (256; trails only Khalil Greene who was also drafted in the '02 draft)
• 3rd All-time Hits (385)
• 2nd All-time Total Bases (461)

Other feats during college:

• Hit .400 his Jr. year with a .963 OPS & followed that up his Sr. year with a .439 BA and a 1.048 OPS
• Hit safely in 57 of his 68 games his Sr. year
• Career 116 steals in 151 chances (77%)
• 2000 Cape Cod Batting Title
• 2000 Summer All-American
• 2000 Cape Cod All-Star
• 2002 All-College World Series Team
• 2002 1st Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Magazine
• 2002 1st Team All-American by Baseball Weekly
• 2002 1st Team All-American by Baseball America

After signing with Oakland, Steve was sent to Modesto (A) to start his pro career. He played in 63 games, hit .286, scored 48 times and had an OPS of .729.

This season, the Midland Rockhounds were his destination (AA; Texas League) and because of this, I'm trying to take advantage of Steve playing here in the Lone Star State, so I've driven out to see him play two times. The first game was on April 29th up in Frisco, Tx (Ranger's AA team). I blew up a picture that I found on the Internet, and took it, along with my camera, to batting practice. Steve was hitting off a tee over by the fence, so I went over and waited til he was finished and asked him to sign. He is truly the most genuinely nice player I've met since Luis Gonzalez. I told him about watching the CWS and how I used to play against some of the guys from Rice and we talked about that for maybe 5 min. He signed a ball and the picture I blew up and then THANKED ME. I just about fell over. In high school I played against Beckett, and some other great players, but man, were they arrogant. Here I am a college kid talking to a 1st round draft pick (supplemental pick, actually) who is only a couple years older than me and he thanks me for coming up to watch the game and for watching the College World Series. In the game he made 2 great catches in CF and drag bunted his way onto first in the 8th inning off of Jay Powell of the Rangers, who was rehabbing at the time.

The second game I went to was May 27th in Round Rock, Tx (Astro's AA team). As before, I went early to the game for BP, and this time I brought along doubles of the pictures I had taken at the Frisco game. Steve hit off the tee again and I once again waited 'til he finished and then gave him the pictures. A couple of his teammates came over and they all looked at them, and we talked a little about college baseball and he asked how the Aggies were doing and said he always wanted to play a game at Olsen. We talked for a couple more minutes and then he went and put the pictures in the club house. Steve went 1-3 with a sac bunt, a BB and two runs scored (one of them being the go-ahead run in the 9th inning). It was a really good game with the final being 11-9 in Midland's favor.

You're probably wondering at this point, "What took him all day yesterday to research and compile?" Well it's all on done on Excel and I don't know how to convert it to html, so here it is, but you're going to have to view it in Excel, sorry (just hit open when the box comes up and when you x it out, just hit no when it asks if you want to save changes). The first worksheet is his 2002 stats in A-ball and the second sheet has his stats this year with Midland (thru last night). The third sheet is what took all the thinking...it's a breakdown of his season by position, by spot in the batting order, and then even more by a before-and-after look at his stats since the arrival of Nick Swisher.

For those of you who don't know who Nick Swisher is, he was Oakland's #1 pick overall last year in the '02 draft. A converted 1B, he now plays CF, which poses a problem since Steve also plays CF. Obviously, Oakland, being the money savvy team they are, wants their high $ pick to get as much playing time and ABs as possible. I'm all for that, but it's starting to cut into Steve's P.T. and that...I don't like too much. On the statistical breakdown sheet, I have broken down Steve's season into before and after the arrival of Swisher. I've documented his po. in the OF, as well as his success at the plate when he plays at any of these. Keep in mind that Steve had played every single game of his career at CF when he was at N.D., last year in Modesto, and up until June 8th this year. To many, a position switch doesn’t seem like a big deal, especially in the OF, but it really can effect a player's performance. In HS, I personally enjoyed LF over CF, but my roommate was the opposite. In baseball, comfort, confidence and being relaxed are very important, and it may take a while for Steve to get comfortable and confident playing LF (or DH, which by the numbers seems to be a bad idea).

Anyways, that's a recap of my boy, Steve Stanley...now I need to study for my final in Info209 tomorrow...peace...

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