Pretty Girl 08.06.11 - Rainey Qualley

Pretty girls have pretty daughters. This is Andie MacDowell's eldest.

Clowns Are Only Funny When They Swing Away

From Season 3, Episode 16 of Futurama.  I nearly laughed myself a coma.

I'm Like FIP You And FIP Him Too

As submitted to CloserNews.com -

As you dissect your fantasy bullpen and consider possible upgrades, one often suggested metric is FIP (Fielder Independent Pitching).  The formula used to calculate the value is fairly simple [(13*HR + 3*(BB+HBP - IBB) - 2*K)/IP  +  C] with C being a constant that averages FIP (by league and by year) at the same level as ERA.  Basically, FIP takes the same number of earned runs and assigns them out based on what should have happened rather than what did happen.  Take a second and wrap your mind around that.

Statistical anylses agree that FIP is useful, reporting that it is around 20% more accurate in predicting future ERA than ERA itself.  Even so, the role of the relief corps on any fantasy team is to deliver in just a select few categories, with FIP being poorly predictive thereof.  Most obvious of these is saves, which, like wins, has much more to do with the team around the reliever than the player himself.  While it is certainly helpful to a reliever's success, a strong FIP does not directly lead to the compilation of saves.  Given the huge disparity in innings pitched between starters and reliever's, the ERA category will certainly be dominated by the starters.  Your relief corps will likely make a solid impact on the K category, given the penchant to put big strikeout guys at the back end.  FIP takes strikeouts into account, but it is much more efficient to evaluate K/9.  The only tossup is the WHIP column and, in that case, the BABIP line is a much more appropriate defense independent statistics to examine.

To tie on a pretty bow, take a gander at the FIP, but dig into other, more useful stats.  Above all, do not blindly rely on FIP as a complete or dominating evaluation of relief pitchers for your team.

A Quest Called Tribe

OOOOOH!  A win!  Unfortunately, my crappy off-brand cable was out beginning in the 4th inning, so I saw very little.  I will still tell you what I loved.  How about a list today?

- Justin Masterson's 4 strikeout second inning.  The man is filthy.
- Finally, a little bit of GD luck!  Both Eric Bedard's failure to cover first on Matt LaPorta's 2nd inning RBI "single" and Carlos Santana's rib-eye blooper in the 3rd were gifts that that baseball gods have been awfully stringy with lately.
- How about that 4-9?  12-for-26 (.462) with 6 RBI.  Strange how that equals a win, huh?  We will go back to analyzing 5-8 tomorrow, assuming the medical reports on Michael Brantley are accurate.
- All of these facts about Jason Kipnis' home run binge, which, sadly, ended tonight.  Grazie to Elias.

• Kipnis is the first player in major-league history to homer in four consecutive games within two weeks of his debut.
• Kipnis is the first Indians second baseman in franchise history to homer in four straight games.
• Kipnis' fourth homer in as many games came in his 10th career game. The last player to do that was Minnesota's Graig Nettles, who homered in four straight games within his first 10 big-league games of his career.

All of that and Luis Medina's legacy remains safe. ;-j

Here's to Ubaldo Jimenez pitching a no-no in his Tribe debut.

Cheers.

P.s. Word on the street (literally this time) is that Mr Perfect, Justin Germano, has signed a big fat contract to play in Taiwan.  It is very possible that I am breaking this story on all of the inter-web.

Pretty Girl 08.05.11 - Kaylee Defer

Sign me up. I need to find this chick.

Jade Bile

I wrestle with the concept of a soul.   Being the staunch agnostic that I am, I cannot accept the soul as the ethereal image that ascends to heaven or plummets to Hell.  Still, there must be something that accounts for individuality.  Identical twins with identical DNA (raised is the same home, going to the same school and so on) can grown to lead dramatically different lives.  Perhaps there is a biological explanation, lost in the 4/5 of our brain that is not in active use.  Maybe the lightning that dances across our synapses carries some lingering residual of its journey from the big bang to our bodies.  We simply have yet to develop a method of discerning such a thing.  Regardless, human beings are as the proverbial snowflakes: no two have ever been the same, nor shall ever two be.  This is how I envision the soul and I have simply given too much of mine away.  Whether it was to make a dollar, spare a feeling or obey the rules as written; the grains of myself have slid carelessly from my hand in the desert of modern life.  Do I possess certain utterly useless skills as a result?  Indubitably.  I can make small talk with idiots and show respect to cretins.  For the most part, I am able to hold in my cries of anguish and rage.  Only now, with such a threadbare blanket of myself remaining, do I recognize that not one among us has any duty to world at large.  If I do not make my unique values, my happiness paramount, then no one will.  We must all do what we must do.  Society will respond however it may, yet always, to quote the bard, to thine own self be true.  Having little to show for an adulthood spent in truth to others, this course on which I must embark will be in the certain veracity of self.  Damn me, if you will.

Flick yo Click: In Time

10:28:11 ;-j

Pretty Girl 08.04.11 - Sophie Simmons

Let's take a poll.  Do we think the pic on the right is really her?  I sure hope it is.  Either way, Gene's daughter is a looker.

A Quest Called Tribe

Let us take a minute to discuss the play that ended Tuesday night's game.  First, that on which we are not going to chat.  We are not going to cover how Jason Kipnis should have made a dive at Josh Reddick's dying quail.  We will spend no time lamenting the Bullpen Mafia with their 4.98 ERA and 4 losses in the second half.  We are going to focus on Ezequiel Carrera's throw to the plate.  Obviously, the kid has a strong arm.  What he and the Tribe encountered last night was the fact that it was his 22nd big league game.  Caught up in the heat of the moment, Zeke simply overthrew the ball and it carried well up the first base line.  As Manning quipped this evening, had Carrera just relied on his skill and not tried to throw the ball to Back Bay, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is likely out and the Indians live to see another hitter.

On to tonight's contest and the Brobdingnagian antics of Jason Kipnis.  Kip has now gone yard in four consecutive games, the first Indians rookie do so since Al Rosen in 1950 and the first Indian period since Travis Hafner in 2006.  He is also the first Indians rookie to pile up four dongs in his first 10 games since Luis Medina in 1988.  Louie jacked his 5th in game 11, so the pressure is on for Jason tomorrow.  That is not the best part though.  Kipnis is the first player ever to go deep in his first 3 games at Fenway.  Ever.

Great outing from Carlos Carrasco tonight (7 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K).  The more that I think about it, there is a way that the Ubaldo Jimenez trade makes sense (nice to see him in the dugout).  Seemingly the Indians' organization has made the command decision to push hard in the 2011-2013 window.  Think about the starting rotation that they will sport during that period -- #1 Jimenez, #2 Justin Masterson, #3 Carrasco, #4 Josh Tomlin, #5 Fausto Carmona/David Huff/Scott Barnes/Zack McAllister/Austin Adams with, as you can see, quite a bit a depth should anyone falter or encounter injury.  That is flat out wicked.  And Car-Square was the guy who prompted this.  As he scattered hits and escaped trouble all night, I though "man, this guy is going to make one fine middle of the rotation starter."  It is absolutely true and his ceiling is even higher as he certainly has the stuff.  If he can learn command over the next season or so (he is only 24), the Tribe will sure be sitting pretty.

Again, though, the issue has been the offense.  I made the statement (not here) the other day that the Indians need their 5-8 guys to provide a lot more production.  With Michael Brantley out for two games nursing a right wrist sprain, the lineup shifts some, but the problem remains the same.  I dig EzC in the 9 hole and he is just as productive at the top.  No issue there, once Brantley gets back.  Also, Acta has made the call to flip Pronk into the cleanup spot, despite his struggles over the past month (.184 since July 7th).  Although I was assuming Hafner at five, it does not really matter.  Consider 4-9 in the order tonight, they were 2-23 with 8 punch-outs.  Think it is just an abberation due to the knuckleballer?  Last night, 4-8 batted a robust 4-19 with 5 K's.  Monday was the true outlier with the team putting up 9 runs after just 15 in an 8 game homestand.  They finished Wednesday's game hitting .202 (83-for-411) with 35 runs (2.7 per game) over the last 13 games, 10 of them losses.

No need to dwell on the back-to-back walk-off losses.  The Indians now sit at 54-54.

Here's to a 31-23 finish.  And my 85 wins.

Cheers.

Can You Dig It?

Now as long as that rule change where excellent pitching results in extra runs goes through, we're golden.