The first place Dodgers and their MLB leading 32-15 record are also in the bottom 10 in HR's in the NL. The longball is overrated.

:toocool:

I suspect that mfy would disagree with you,its a nice weapon to have and id be curious as to where they were pre manny fiasco.Is it overated perhaps,but players and fans love em

But courtesy of Buster Onley...getting on base is not over rated :thumbup:


8. You knew the Dodgers' offense would be good because of the depth of their lineup, but L.A. has posted a staggering .374 on-base percentage as a team, which would be the highest OBP posted by this franchise since 1894.

Strange numbers and potential trades

Getting on base is definitely not overrated. Do it enough times, and runs are scored that way. :thumbup: :thumbup: :cheers:

Not just that but when you get on base you also do not create an out... and you create a higher leverage batting position for the next batter.

(Which is why lineups don't matter; the leverage of the at-bat is far more important than the differences between major league batters, who are going to make an out about 65% of the time regardless of their differing prowesses).

Back to the NL, it's nice to see Olney point out that it ain't HR's that have given the Dodgers the best record in baseball.

SSA - I understand your point, but I still haven't see any statistical evidence that says lineups don't matter at all. The 2 articles Thin pointed out suggest a delta of at least 1-4 games per season, based on lineups.

And BTW, it is this very concept of leveraged at bats that is in play. While 65% are failures on average, the range is predictably volatile from 70% for bad hitters down to 58% for good ones. The extent to which you can increase the probability of a better hitter getting more of the high leverage ABs is the difference between good lineups and bad.

We can talk about relative importance compared to other factors, but IMO, tacking on 1-2 wins does matter. In the last 6 years, the Red Sox finishes in the Wild Card or AL East was determined by 2 games or less in every season except 2004 and 2006.

Out here in the mountains, the Rockies have won eleven straight.

Edit: And SFINYC, sorry I missed your post.

Aww...that's cute! Didn't they do something like that in 2007? ...before we dashed their hopes and dreams, that is... :raspberry:

No worries. It seemed the topic had faded to the background anyways. I think the 2009 lineup question appears for the moment to have been answered by Tito.

I'll agree that there MAY be a delta of a game or two based on lineups over an entire season. But so much randomness is thrown into that cauldron that I still think that lineups are infinitesmally significant. Nearing insignificance.

Psychologically, they are important and hence Tito has made the right move.

now 16 out of 17 climbing to 3 games over .500 and a game and half back of the wild card lead (which only underscores how terrible they were through april and may)....

a true test looms: a road trip to anaheim, oakland and los angeles.

anybody know what the score is between the 2 leagues?

last i saw it was 89-80 AL...

Old friend Alan Embree had an interesting night.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12773583

sadly he was smitten by the gods on his next outing...broken leg, out for the season.

after starting the season 20-32 the Rockies are now 9 games over .500 (51-42) and leading the NL wildcard race...the interesting part is that nobody outside of Denver seems to have noticed....certainly not the fine folks in Bristol, Connecticut.

I've noticed, of course.

Was supposed to go see the game yesterday at Coors, but we decided to have a couple Margaritas and see "The Hangover" instead.

But I've noticed.

sorry...i should have said nobody has taken notice outside the state of Colorado...

The Tomahawk Chop is stupid. That is all. :raspberry:

it is fine for Florida State football but i agree it looks really stupid in MLB.

I live in NC where there are alot of CHerokee. I thought it was funny a few years ago when the local Georgia natives were picketting the stadium. A reporter reminded them that the tomahawks were made by Native Americans. The picketting native said, "Yeah, but that's the Cherokee. They always were camp around the fort types." :VBG:
I don't bring it up too often around CHerokee, they didn't find it as funny as I did. :confused:

greetings from the mile high city...

here is a quick update on the National League's Wild Card leader: the mighty, mighty Rockies finished the week winning 4 and losing 2....yesterday's game was rained out leading to a rare, yet traditional one-ticket doubleheader (remember those?) today against the Marlins (first game 1135a, the second starts 30 minutes after the first game ends)...the washout, combined with LA blowing one late against the D-Backs and the Giants 10 inning victory versus the Mets, left the Rox a mere 4.5 games out of the division lead and 1 game up on the Giants in the WC race.

after today Colorado travels to DC to take on the Natinals for three games before heading home for a HUGE "wrap around" weekend series and 4 games against those Giants.

should be fun. stay tuned. drink beer.

BEAT LA!

BEAT LA!

this week's Rockies happenings...

Colorado, after going 6-2 on their road trip, returned around 4a friday morning then stunk up Coors Field later that night. matching their season high for errors in a game (3) the Rox look lethargic at the plate as well.

last night, in the 6th inning, they finally woke up, plating 7 runs. they then tacked on 4 more in the 7th to put the game out of reach although the Giants certainly were game.

the series with the Giants continues today with Tim Lincecum, he of the 12-3 record, 2.34 ERA and 1.04 WHIP, taking on Ubaldo Jimenez (11-9, 3.41, 1.23 respectively). Jimenz has been particularly hot his past three starts going 3-0 with and ERA of 1.19 and a WHIP of 1.06. ....looks like a good one....well, on paper at least.

Colorado finishes the series with San Francisco monday night before entertaining the Dodgers for 3 games at Coors starting tuesday they end the week by going back to San Francisco for the weekend.

one might call this a big week for our heroes. let's see what happens.

Anyone who wonders about NL vs. AL disparities would have had an interesting case study with John Smoltz who debuted for the Cardinals with 5 innings of shutout baseball against the Pads (at PETCO, a friendly pitching park) with 7 Ks. This is the same John Smoltz who never made it more than once through an AL lineup. :confused:

one down, two to go....

here's a look at tonight's matchup from the L.A. Times.

Wolf is due for a dip.

Go Rockies!

The real gap isn't between the Dodgers and Rox, but between the Rox and the Giants and Braves. The NL West is very likely to send 2 teams to the playoffs this year. Who woulda thunk? :blink:

right down to the wire with the Rockies and, from nowhere, the Braves.....these last six games should be a lot of fun.

The Colorado Rockies completed their remarkable turnaround yesterday and cliched a playoff birth.

Now the truly remarkable part: the Rockies have a chance, a slim chance mind you, to finish the season with the best record in the National league.

The Rox are tied with St Louis with 91 wins, trail the Phillies by a game and play the Dodgers, whom they trail by two games, in the last three games of the season.

Granted it is unlikely that they get past all three teams but baseball is a wacky, wacky sport.

And that's why we love it! :thumbup: :cheers:

it certainly does hold one's interest....

It's amazing! Ooops, the Rockies hats are coming out of the woodwork again here...

The Rox are my NL hobby team, a result of my misspent time in the Front Range. I wish them all the success short of beating the Red Sox.

The best part is that The Dodgers and Rockies are playing these games against each other - who wrote this script?

Go Rox!

Sad to see Kevin Towers gone as GM of my second favorite team, the Padres.

KT had a great run. He was a regular every year at short-season Eugene for a series or two, munching a hot dog behind home plate and mingling with the local hoi polloi. He was also responsible for ripping off Theo for Bard and Meredith in exchange for Mirabelli

And the cash-poor Padres are loaded with young players who moved up from short season within the last 2 or 3 years to leapfrog new majority owner Jeff Moorad's former Diamondbacks crew in the NL West. Gotta give Towers and Padres minor league coordinator Grady Fuson lots of credit for that

(Moorad was also Manny's original agent)

Moorad took Josh Byrnes from under Theo's tutelage at Arizona. Could Jed Hoyer be his next snatch?

Well, watched it all end here in Colorado tonight... but the Rox are in the playoffs and are hot.

Rox/Sox again? While I'm in Colorado? That'd be nice!

:thumbup:

Denver is a 2 hour flight from here. I'm just saying. :rolleyes:

Perhaps someone here, much smarter than I, can explain how after 162 games played by each team the Rockies and Dodgers can not end tied?

This puzzles me.

It's just like the Red Sox and Yankees in 2005. Because they both go to the playoffs regardless, if both the Rox and Dodgers finish with equal W-L records, the team that won the season series between them becomes division champs and the other team gets the WC.