World Series Game 1 Velocity Charts

Thanks to the magic of MS Paint and Microsoft Excel (Starter Edition), here are the velocity charts of Justin Verlander and Barry Zito in Game One of the 2012 World Series.

First, Verlander:

Pandoval'd (click to enlarge)

and now, Zito:

it's like, y'know, whatever (like, click to enlarge, man)

Joe Carter and the World Series

As game one of the World Series is underway, let's turn back the clock.

On October 23, 1993, Joe Carter hit his now famous "Touch 'em all Joe" home run off of Mitch Williams to win the second world series in a row for the Toronto Blue Jays. It would be the first and only World Series to be won on foreign soil, as the 1992 Series was decided in Atlanta.

On this date, October 24th, twenty years ago today, Atlanta was down by one run in the bottom of the eleventh inning. With two out and a runner on third, Otis Nixon bunted an oh-one offering back to Mike Timlin. Timlin tossed the ball to Joe Carter who squeezed his mitt and secured the first World Series win for the Blue Jays.

To commemorate the events, here is Joe Carter's face.

And because halloween's around the corner, here's Joe Carter without eyes.

Truth be told this is a rewrite from last night, and these pictures are part of a larger project. I just felt it was timely to share.

Untitled Baseball Card Series: Jeff Reardon

I've got a stack of baseball cards on the shelf. These are their stories. 

Jeff Reardon, 1992 Upper Deck

What in God's name is Jeff Reardon doing in this picture? Did he get an itch on his inner thigh after throwing a four-seamer? Did someone from the photographers' well yell something at him?

"Hey Jeff, your epidermis is showing!"

Someone at Upper Deck must not have liked him. Did he fool around with someone's wife? Look at the way he's staring right at the photographer. It's a look of "Uh oh, you got me". The person putting the card together must have thought "That'll learn him to bust my tomater" or something dirty like that.

More fictional speculation after the jump.

Farrell's Farewell (or not)

(source: Getty Images)

This is too long for Twitter, and a little disjointed.

Update: Not long after I published this piece, this happened:

Updated: Red Sox hire John Farrell as manager, send Mike Aviles to the Blue Jays fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/… via @weei
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) October 21, 2012

If you're a Blue Jays fan, you know that there is a ton of speculation in Toronto (and Boston) as to whether or not John Farrell will return as manager next season, or if he will (wait for it...) be shippin' down to Boston (GROAN) to take over the vacant position with the Red Sox.

My short reaction is I hope John Farrell gets to go to Boston, I hope Toronto gets something back (maybe a starting pitcher?), and I hope that's the end of it. No sniping in the media, no hand-wringing to distract from bigger issues, just a clean trade.

Here's the long reaction.

In my opinion, Toronto's fans should not be upset with the possible departure of John Farrell, and if they are, the anger should be directed at the front office - if the rumors surrounding this situation are to be believed.

If there is any truth to what Bob Elliott put forth in Friday's Toronto Sun, then I wouldn't be surprised that Farrell is ready to hitch his wagon to the Red Sox as soon as yesterday. Elliott wrote:

Farrell wanted to release backup infielder Omar Vizquel in July, but the GM did not want to cut loose a future Hall of Famer, according to someone familiar with Jays management.

And the manager was not pleased at the July 31 trade deadline that the Jays added relief help rather than dealing prospects for starting pitching.

Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun , October 19 2012

If that is true, and the need to have an aging infielder occupy one of the very few spots on the bench was just a stubborn decision made by the front office out of loyalty to a player that has no previous ties to the organization, well then I've got no problem with John Farrell being pissed off.

Starting pitching was iffy at best this season, whether it was due to injury, bad luck, or just plain inexperience. Because of that, the Blue Jays had to carry a deeper bullpen than anyone would have liked. All season it felt like every roster move was to send one position player to Las Vegas (or the DL) and bring up two pitchers. Due to the deeper 'pen, the bench was short, much shorter than it should have been.

Two moves could have been made to remedy the short bench to give the manager more late-game options:

1. Release Omar Vizquel to make room for such heavyweights as Yan 'The Thrillin' Brazilian' Gomes , 'Mighty' Mike McCoy, or David 'David Cooper' Cooper.

2. Acquire starting pitching at the deadline to lighten the load of the bullpen. Less work for the relievers means fewer bodies in the 'pen. Less relievers means another bench spot.

Asking Farrell to win with that situation is like asking him to clean the windows of his house with a footstool and a napkin. It could be done, but it wasn't going to be easy, and it had to be as frustrating as all get out.

While his hands were tied with pinch-hitting choices, he had full reign over who to bring in from the pen and who to run on the basepaths and when. More often than not, those decisions were met with WTFs, and not FTWs, and I will not miss those.

What I'm getting at is, most managers make those calls that make you go "ugh", so switching out Farrell for any one else at this point is irrelevant. A manager is a manager is a manager. (Unless it's Valentine, in which case, no thanks.)

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Toronto is ready to move on without him. If the organization really wanted him to stay, they would enforce the rule they put in place last season that they would not entertain any lateral movement by coaching staff to another organization, no? They could quash the rumors, and move forward. Their silence suggests otherwise.

If Farrell does go to Boston and Toronto gets a major league-ready starting pitcher in return, that's bloody fantastic. Even if they get a minor leaguer, that's not bad.

If Farrell goes to Boston and Toronto gets nothing in return, then that's fine, too. The Blue Jays will have some 'splainin' to do to certain corners of the market, but they'll find another manager, and move on. All talk points to a manager compensation deal, so it's unlikely Toronto will walk away empty handed.

If Boston hires another manager, like Brad Ausmus, and Toronto out-and-out fires John Farrell, freezing him out of any job in the immediate future, well then I'm going to switch my allegiance to Baltimore or Oakland or anybody else, because that's just low. I'll come back when the front office gets shown the door (or the Jays make the postseason).

The latest tweet from Peter Gammons is intriguing. Not as much as his pocket tweets, but intriguing nonetheless:

Will Farrell end up in Boston? Likely. Has it been decided between him and Ausmus? No. Has it been ceded to Cherington? Yes.big day Sunday
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) October 21, 2012

AND OF COURSE

As soon as I finish writing this, MLB Trade Rumors posts this tweet.

Red Sox Hire John Farrell bit.ly/VpmevV #mlb
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) October 21, 2012

EPILOGUE

In regards to Omar, he was a terrific defensive player at one point in his career, and I'm sure he was a nice guy, but to have Toronto usher him around the majors for a year-long retirement party was detrimental to the success of the team.

His bat was nonexistent, as was his leadership. When Yunel took the field wearing his now-famous eye black, where was he to say "That`s probably not a good idea"? Nowhere, until afterwards whereupon he practically asked the public to lighten up, because he "it's no big deal, it's something we say all the time".

In the last week of the regular season, he criticized the coaching staff for not giving enough direction to younger players. If the issue was so glaring, why talk to a reporter and not the manager himself - and why wait until the end of the season?

I read a tweet that Vizquel was brought on the team at the insistence of older season ticket holders who spend money and "write letters". 30-somethings who have vivid memories of the glory days of the Blue Jays spend money too, and a lot of them don't give a fart in a wind tunnel about near-retirement future-hall-of-famers. Instead of letters, they write analysis and tweets and blogs about the team, about up-and-coming prospects and the fan experience in the city. They are the future season ticket holders, and they should not be ignored.

So long, Omar. I'll always remember you as one of the low-lights of the 2012 Blue Jays.

Barry Cito

To honor tonight Barry Zito's start in game 5 of the NLCS, my hometown of Toronto and most importantly, my seemingly boundless immaturity, here's Barry Cito. Or Zito Gaston.

Oh. Oh my.

What does Cito think of all this?

(thanks to Getting Blanked for this glorious GIF)

Go Giants!

ALL OF THE BRANDONS

You've often wondered to yourself "Who would make the cut if all of the currently active professional baseball players with MLB experience named Brandon were to start their own team?". Wonder no more, dear reader, for I have taken the liberty of assembling such a 25-man roster.

Click to enlarge so's you can read it, buddy.

"BUT WAIT, THEY AREN'T ALL BRANDONS"

Very astute of you to notice that, yes, they don't all have the first name Brandon. To get this roster to twenty five names, exceptions were made. Three of the players have the middle name Brandon, and as much as I would love to leave Luke Scott off every roster on the face of the earth, I'm kind of stuck here.

Hey, at least they're not in the starting line up.

Let`s take a quick look at some of the stand-outs, based on information from 2012. Well, mostly from 2012, after the jump.

Snapguide: Thanksgiving "Pie"

Here's a Snapguide I put together for what to do with all those leftovers from Canuckian Thanksgiving that have been staring you down every time you open the fridge.

Check out How to Make Individual Thanksgiving "Pies" by Brendan McKnight on Snapguide.

Tony Danza's dream ALCS matchup

I finished this up just moments before Raul Ibanez drove a stake through the heart of all of us YOLOrioles band-wagoners by hitting his game-tying home run in the 9th - only to upstage himself by hitting a game-winning shot in the 12th. I figure I'd better post it now before the A's (who are currently down 2-0 to the Detroit Scherzers) have something equally heartbreaking happen to them.

Tony Danza and I want the same ALCS match up.

Click to bask in Danza's vector graphic glory

That is all.

Mr. Red, 1992

I picked the Reds to win the NLCS this year, and I've got a stack of old baseball cards on one of our bookcases.

Yazzle

In honour of Miguel Cabrera's triple crown, here is the last player to win the achievement, Carl Yastrzemski. In three (or nine) not-so-easy pieces.

It's a Yazzle. A puzzle of The Yaz.

The March to 160

Kelly Johnson struck out for the 159th time in the 2012 season on Tuesday, October 2nd. That strikeout tied a franchise record that was set back in 1998 by Jose Canseco. Here's a head-to-head of their, for lack of a better term, mutual accomplishment.

Jose Canseco set the level of futility in a season that featured an extra game on the calendar due to a rain-out in Chicago, and he did so in 583 at bats. Kelly Johnson matched Jose's 'effort' with one game left on the schedule, and in 75 fewer at bats. Not only that, he reached the century mark in 18 fewer games, hitting 100 strikeouts (see what I did there? Hitting? Ha!) in his 91st game played. Impressive.

While Canseco and Johnson were both saddled with the Golden Sombrero, (Canseco once and Johnson three times), only Jose four strikeouts in four at-bats. Kelly had five at-bats in each of his four-strikeout games.

One final comparison between the two: Jose Canseco finished the season with a slash line of .237/.318/.518, 46 HR and 1.6 fWAR. Kelly Johnson? .224/.313/.359, with 16 HR and 0.6 fWAR. That 16th home run was hit in the same game he reached 159 strikeouts. Good job, good effort.

One has to wonder, with one game left and John Farrell giving the ol' bag'o'bones overpaid bench coach one last kick at the can, will Mr. Johnson have an opportunity to take sole possession of the record? Probably not, but I'll be rooting for a pinch-hit strikeout in the seventh inning, believe you me.

Speaking of Omar Vizquel: if he doesn't hit a home run on Wednesday night, he will be one of eleven players to not homer in a season with the Jays, with a minimum of 160 plate appearances. Yes, I know that's the number of PAs he has going into the game, but hey. How else can I articulate his futility without setting my own endpoints?

Interesting to note: two players had multiple non-homer seasons, Luis Gomez in '78 & '79, and Alfredo Griffin in '81 & '92

Updated: #yolorioles

I've updated my #yolorioles graphic to honor their postseason clinch, in-flight fire, and Jim Thome, American. Click to see it in all it's poorly-color-managed glory.

now with more possible copyright infringement!

Troutman!

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout catches a Baltimore Orioles batter J.J. Hardy (not pictured) home run in the first inning during their MLB American League baseball game in Baltimore, Maryland, June 27, 2012.
REUTERS/Patrick Smith

Jon Paul Morosi wrote an article that suggests there is no contest in the race for AL MVP, that the winner should be Miguel Cabrera, hands down. To me, the article had a defensive tone and came across as a preemptive strike against anyone who would consider he did not look closely at his miscues on defense or more in-depth stats.

It sparked a rather lively debate online between those who agree with Morosi and consider Cabrera's potential to win the elusive Triple Crown (league leader in AVG/RBI/HR) as enough to secure the MVP award, and those who back the young outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels of LA Anaheingels, Mike "The Millville Meteor" Trout. It looked to me that it quickly became an argument between The Old School (RBIs and batting average) vs. The New School (WAR and wOBA) with clear lines drawn in the sand.

Old School, you back Cabrera. New School, you're a Trout man. (Troutman! I like that.)

I consider myself a Troutman.

Dustin Parkes at Getting Blanked took Morosi to task to a degree, and Dave Cameron at Fangraphs made an airtight case for Trout for MVP. Everything's there in both pieces, I don't need to reiterate their statements. I definitely suggest you take a moment and read all three articles to see what I mean.

Now, no one is suggesting that a vote for Cabrera is a vote wasted. If he does in fact win the Triple Crown, that would be a fantastic accomplishment that no one can take away from him. I understand that members of the BBWAA are going to vote based on that, and that alone. I just don't think that the metrics involved, batting average, RBIs and home runs are enough to determine a player's true value. Unless Cabrera put those runners on base himself, RBIs aren't a good measure.

Take a look at these numbers:

	wOBA	wRC+	fWAR	R	TB	DRS
Cabrera	.420	169	6.6	100	347	-5
Trout	.420	174	9.4	118	283	25

With the exception of total bases, Mike Trout is the clear winner. Had Trout been with the Angels from the beginning of the season, the gap in total bases would be considerably smaller, and in the other categories, the divide would probably be wider. I know this could be construed as cherry-picking stats, but the same can be said for the Triple Crown, no?

In his piece, Morosi suggests that Cabrera has two weeks to hit two home runs and lock up the Triple Crown. To me, that reads as if no one else in the league is going to hit another home run for the rest of the season. Miggy's the only one allowed to do it because gosh darn it, he's the MVP. Such a world does not exist.

I think what I'm getting at is the MVP award, along with the rest of the awards handed out at the end of the year seem at best, awash in narrative and at worst, devoid of analysis and a royal screw job for the truly deserving. OK, that's a little harsh, but I think you see what I mean. These awards have to be taken with a grain of salt. The Gold Glove, a defensive award, is sometimes handed out based on reputation or offensive output, not actual defense *ahemderekjeterahem*.

Another reason why I feel strongly about this debate in particular might lie in the fact that I'm learning more about advanced statistics and I'm starting to see where real value is found on the playing field.

Or maybe I'm a horrible person and I still hold Cabrera's off the field indiscretions against him.

Maybe the real reason I'm a Troutman is the fact that I sat at my aunt's kitchen table this past June - in Mike Trout's home state of New Jersey, no less - and declared that he would win both Rookie of the Year and AL MVP, and I don't want to look like a liar.

Ah well. Troutman!

Reaction to a reaction

Yunel Escobar's eye-black incident has been investigated and a punishment has been handed down. He will serve a three game suspension and the money he would have earned over that time is being donated to GLAAD and You Can Play. According to the press release issued by the Blue Jays;

Yunel will participate in an outreach initiative to help educate society about sensitivity and tolerance to others based on their sexual orientation.  His participation will be conducted in consultation with all parties involved. Escobar will also participate in a sensitivity training program in accordance with the Toronto Blue Jays and Major League Baseball.

-- Blue Jays Press Release 09/18/2012 

The suspension was to be expected, and Yunel's participation in an an outreach program is promising. What left me cold was the press conference to discuss the outcome of the investigation, and the comments from teammates afterwards. From glib stereotyping by Yunel Escobar, to contradictory statements by Alex Anthopoulos (homophobia's a problem) and John Farrell (not in our clubhouse), and  apologists who still insist that "it doesn't mean the same thing in Latin circles", it feels like the message hasn't sunk in.

The only voice in the clubhouse I'm inclined to believe is that of Carlos Villanueva. Chris Toman, Blue Jays beat writer who wrote an excellent piece on Villanueva and the importance of education, tweeted the following:

Villaneuva said being from Latin America is no excuse to use the word.
— Chris Toman (@Chris_Toman) September 18, 2012

Villanueva on Yunel: "He could be suspended for 20 games, and if he doesn't really care, it doesn't matter." #Bluejays
— Chris Toman (@Chris_Toman) September 18, 2012

I still feel that the clubhouse it partly responsible for the incident, and that it's not enough for Yunel Escobar to be the only part of the organization to take part in any sort of outreach program. The rest of the team should, at the very least, go through a sensitivity training program, especially after some still believe that since the term doesn't mean the same in Spanish speaking circles it's not that big a deal. If the Blue Jays were to announce an awareness or fundraising partnership with either You Can Play or GLAAD, that would be a step in the right direction.

If today's press conference is the last we hear of the organization's efforts to move themselves towards being a more tolerant environment in the realm professional sports, and Yunel doesn't learn anything from this, then Villanueva is right. It won't matter, and this will go down as one of the darkest times in Blue Jays history.

Yunel Escobar did something stupid

I can't imagine that I can bring any news to this issue, as it's been covered very well. From the beginning - by @james_in_to who broke the story via his flickr feed, to the official Blue Jays website, where it has been confirmed that Alex Anthopoulos will hold a press conference with Escobar, John Farrell and coach Luis Rivera in attendance. There are plenty of reaction pieces out there, including the blog post that took most of the words out of my mouth by The Tao of Stieb. This is my reaction.

Yunel Escobar did something really stupid.

There is chatter on Twitter as to whether or not we the fans, and to a certain extent, the media,  understand what context Yunel's eye-black was meant to be taken in. It's not as though it was a vague statement. It did not read "2.9% APR Financing" or "Raspberry Jelly on Toast", to which we would blurt out a collective "buh?". It read "Tu ere maricon", and roughly translated from Spanish, that reads "You are a faggot". That does not need a heaping helping of context, if you ask me.

Further to the context argument, there are some saying that the word "maricon" can mean "pussy" or "pansy", as if that downgrades the severity of the term. Other comments say that gay men in Spanish speaking countries call each other that all the time, so it's no big deal. To me, hate is hate, and it is not right. Whether it's Mike Milbury decrying the "pansification" of fighting in the NHL three years ago, or an elected official requesting a team silence a player because he supports same-sex marriage, there is no place for intolerance, degradation or ignorance in sport.

Even if the original Spanish phrase carries a different connotation than the English translation, one can not be shocked at the outrage this has sparked. Wouldn't someone in the organization who speaks both languages conclude that the English speaking media and fan base would not 'get the joke' and stop it in its tracks?

That is the biggest issue I have with this incident. The fact that no one stopped Yunel from taking the field. It's been widely regarded that professional athletes are not the most sensitive people on the face of the earth (Remember John Rocker?), so it's no shock that someone wrote something so ignorant on the eye-black, whether it was Yunel himself, or a teammate or staff member. What I don't understand, and I hope it is clarified to some extent in the upcoming press conference, is how they - the players, managers, coaches, staff - could see the offending phrase on his face, and let him go on to the field in front of thousands of fans and plenty of cameras, James' included.

The optimist in me wishes that it was seen by the staff, documented, and they let him take the field in the hopes that the umps would see it and wring him up, leading to his "flu-like symptoms" on Sunday afternoon.

The pessimist in me sees a clubhouse full of jocks joking around with each other, daring him to take the field with a slur on his cheeks, because, you know, that's what it's like in a clubhouse, bro.

Major League Baseball is investigating (as reported by Jerry Crasnick), and hopefully this is not dismissed as a 'boys will be boys' case. MLB has a history of letting more egregious things slide (see Young, Delmon and Cabrera, Miguel), and while an outright suspension will be drastic, I don't think it is the right course of action. The team - not just Yunel - needs to partake in some sort of an education program, and these insensitive comments and actions need to be worked out of the clubhouse.

And there you have it, my admittedly disjointed take on Yunel Escobar and the very stupid thing he did. I'll probably post a follow up after the press conference.

You only live once... every 15 years

On April 10th 2012, the Blue Jays were hosting the Boston Red Sox for game 2 of their home opening series at the Rogers Centre. Play was interrupted when a young fan burst on to the field wearing nothing but a Speedo and a pair of Chuck Taylors, with the acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once) scrawled across his chest. No one was sure how he arrived on the field, until now.

Photoshop is really fun

The Baltimore Orioles have harnessed the powers of time travel and sent a representative back to warn the rest of the division that this is their year. They are the YOLOrioles.

Drake was there to help get them over the border or protect his brand or something.

Seriously though, after a 14-inning 5 plus hour affair with the Rays, the Orioles secured at the very least, a .500 season. Their next win guarantees a winning season, their first in 15 years. Back then in 1997, they went all the way to the ALCS, only to lose to the Cleveland Indians in 6 games. Not bad.

(I'm going to run this damned thing into the ground, I am.)

Outcomes: First Batter Faced

(Brian Kersey/Getty Images)

I've often wondered what hurts more to a pitcher, giving up a home run to lead off an inning or giving up a walk and then seeing that batter come around to score. Thoughts on the matter really started to bubble as this Blue Jays season trundled along, and Ricky Romero piled up the walks. To me, it felt like he was issuing free passes early in innings, leading to trouble.

To determine if my eyes were deceiving me, or worse, I was falling prey to the chatter of the Jays' commentators, I looked through Romero's game logs going back to 2009 and pulled the outcome of the first at bat of every inning in which he pitched. The results amounted to a pretty unwieldy workbook which I have pared down to the following:

	2009	2010	2011	2012
1st Batters Faced	185	215	232	166
Reached Base	84	70	79	66
BB	29	22	21	24
Ball in Play	48	42	41	32
HR	3	4	12	6
HBP	4	2	5	4
Out	101	145	153	100
Strikeout	28	35	47	17
In play, Out	73	110	106	83
1st Batter OBP	0.454	0.326	0.341	0.398
LOB%	75.5%	70.2%	79.2%	64.6%
FIP	4.33	3.64	4.20	5.09
WAR	2.8	4.1	2.9	0.5

To put those results in context, I pulled the same data for David Price, as he was suggested by both Baseball Reference and Brooks Baseball as the closest comparable pitcher for Romero. Here is his 1st batter table:

	2009	2010	2011	2012
1st Batters Faced	134	214	230	179
Reached Base	48	67	67	51
BB	15	21	11	8
Ball in Play	29	40	47	36
HR	4	5	7	5
HBP	0	1	2	2
Out	86	147	163	128
Strikeout	18	42	53	31
In play, Out	68	105	110	97
1st Batter OBP	0.358	0.313	0.291	0.285
LOB%	68.5%	78.5%	73.3%	82.2%
FIP	4.59	3.83	3.32	3.21
WAR	1.3	4.1	4.7	4.1

As expected, Romero's 2009 numbers aren't spectacular, but it was his rookie season. What is troubling -- glaring, actually -- are the K/BB rate and OBP for first batters faced, and the LOB% for the current season. Price's numbers are trending towards excellent, as a young pitcher's numbers should as they progress through their career, but when it comes to Romero, it seems as though the bottom just fell out.

Gettin' on
Out of the 166 batters Romero has faced to lead off an inning so far this season, almost 40% of them have reached base. Out of that group, just over half did so by way of an outcome under the pitchers' control: BB, HR & HBP. David Price on the other hand, has only allowed 29% of the first batters he has faced on base, and only 29% of those batters (15 out of 51) reached by way of walk, home run or HBP.

Strollin' along
It has been well documented that Ricky Romero's K/BB is a league worst 1.22 this season, but that drops to an abysmal 0.71 with no outs and no one on. Compare that to the 2.23 for the season and 2.24 against first batters that he posted in 2011, and well, you just shake your dang head. Again, if you look at David Price, he has a sparkling K/BB of 3.88 against the first batter in an inning, and 3.24 for the season.

Bringin' them around
Roll that up with a left on base percentage that is second worst in the league at 64.6% and you have to wonder if early inning control issues have lead to the mess he is mired in. So far this season, David Price has a LOB% of 82.2, so when batters do manage to get on base, very few of them come around to score.

It's easy to say "Don't let them on early and you won't worry about them coming around", but we all know pitching is not easy - it is by far one of the most difficult tasks in all of sports, and I have the utmost respect for Ricky Romero for what he does. It's just so strange, so intriguing and flat-out frustrating to see the numbers fall off a cliff for no apparent reason, and to dive in to try and figure out what's going on is part of what makes baseball so interesting.

Time to extract the LOL from Orioles

At some point last night, after the rain came down inside the SkyDome, and the Orioles put the screws to the Triple-A Blue Jays, Matthew Kory from Baseball Prospectus and Over the Monster tweeted the following:

Time to extract the LOL from Orioles.
— Matthew Kory (@mattymatty2000) September 5, 2012

T-Shirts available here

It reminded me of a very appropriate graphic from a Getting Blanked post early in the year, when the OriLOLes were lulzing it up by getting kicked out of South Korea and firing their entire scouting staff. The graphic, created by Matt English, was perfect for the laugh-a-minute Marylanders.

That was before the season started.

Going into tonight`s game, the Baltimore Orioles were tied for first in the AL East. Sure, they gave up three runs on an error by Adam Jones tonight, and fell one game behind the Yankees. Yeah, their run differential is -21, they carry a below average wRC+ (93), and their team has committed the most errors in the American League. Good lord, though, they are 16 games above .500, they are winning close games, and they stand to make the playoffs for the first time since 1997 - 15 years ago. So I think Matthew Kory is right.

It`s time to extract the LOL from the Orioles:

Photoshop is fun

...and then next season, when they fall back to earth, we can go right back to making fun of them. I promise, we`ll jam the LOL right back in there and everything will be back to normal.

Footbaw!

Most NFL teams haven't finalized their rosters. Why, just today, the Arizona Cardinals decided on a starting quarterback for the season. I don't know that much about football, having only started really watching last season, but I'm pretty sure that no one in their right mind should even consider making picks on next week's games, let alone who's going to make it into the playoffs.

Having said that, here are my picks for every game in the upcoming NFL season and my playoff predictions, all the way to the Super Bowl.

These are the picks I'm going to use on the ESPN Pigskin Pick'em game, and I won't stray from them, I promise. I'm going to keep tabs on the season as it progresses on this page, filling up the lovely blank grid you see below.

How do I know this is a silly endeavor? I've got Denver in the Super Bowl.

Another fWAR comparison

We've got another fWAR comparison for giggles here. My wife told me that Yunel Escobar has been put on the paternity leave list and will be unavailable until Saturday. I figured that besides Encarnacion, the average fWAR would be well below 1 - I forgot about Rasmus. I pressed on and for your amusement, here's tonight's lineup and corresponding fWAR value, the value of the players on the DL and unavailable list, and what an ideal lineup might look like:

August 22 2012 Lineup			DL/Unavailable			Ideal Lineup
Player	fWAR		Player	fWAR		Player	fWAR
Davis	1.3		Arencibia	1.7		Davis	1.3
Rasmus	2		Bautista	3.2		Rasmus	2
Encarnacion	3.7		Coello	-0.1		Encarnacion	3.7
Cooper	-0.1		Drabek	0		Cooper	-0.1
Sierra	0		Frasor	0.2		Bautista	3.2
Torrealba	0		Hutchison	0		Arencibia	1.7
Johnson	0.7		Lawrie	2.6		Johnson	0.7
McCoy	0		Lind	-0.2		Lawrie	2.6
Hech	-0.1		Litsch	--		Escobar	1.5
Laffey	0		McGowan	--		Morrow	1.6
	7.5		Morrow	1.6			18.2
			Perez	0.4
			Santos	-0.2
			Escobar	1.5
				10.7

Considering Romero threw some balls last night, Morrow would probably get the start today, and the team would post an accumulative fWAR of 18.2. For comparison's sake, Mike Trout's current fWAR? 7.5 - the same as tonight's ENTIRE BLUE JAYS STARTING LINE UP PLUS THEIR PITCHER.

Trout the best. I'm going home now.