Beyond the Boxscore hosting live chat at 2pm ET

by SC on Feb 3, 2009 4:43 AM EST in News Comment 17 comments

The SB Nation sabermetrics blog Beyond the Boxscore will be hosting a live chat today at 2pm ET, so if you're a numbers dork, are bored and wanna talk some baseball, or just want to spam them with questions about Rich Hill's command problems or Felix Pie's offensive upside, totally feel free to do that. In fact, someone go over there and ask them over and over about Rich Hill. They might point you to Driveline Mechanics.

Comments

Rich Hill

Looks like I need to dig up some video.

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by Kyle Boddy on Feb 3, 2009 8:38 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

“He led the league in ^5/TRS. (High five per teammate run scored.)”

I have always been of the opinion that this is the most under appreciated statistic in all of baseball.

by VB O's Guy on Feb 3, 2009 8:42 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Last question revised for O's fans-- "Wins: Just a standings statistic or totally meaningless?"

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.

by Titov on Feb 3, 2009 10:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Great questions, especially this one:

Bug them about “consistency.” It doesn’t matter the player.

As a pre-emptive strike, I don’t know much about Rich Hill. Pretty sure I like him for a PTBNL, though. Even with a 50% chance of crashing and burning, he’s worth the risk given the upside.

Ok, so maybe that’s my answer for later.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Feb 3, 2009 10:40 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Remember how everyone here thinks Luke's D suxxxxx?

Sky thinks that Luke’s D is better than Markakis’s D. Huh.

by PhilR8 on Feb 3, 2009 2:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

well

I don’t think:

1. Scott’s defense is as bad as some of the loonies here make it out to be. (I say loonies with love.) The way the Scott glove haters talk, you’d think Luke tripped over his own feet five times a game and threw the ball into the stands when he meant to hit the cutoff man.

2. Scott’s defense is anywhere near Markakis’.

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"Well to be honest it sounds like it's all your fault."

by SC on Feb 3, 2009 2:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It's easy to hate on Luke's D

because he’s uh, not graceful when he plays D. I think an appropriate word would be “ugly”. And if you ignore the numbers, you’d think he’s overmatched out there when it might just be how he plays D.

by PhilR8 on Feb 3, 2009 2:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think I feel poorly

about Luke on D due to his outfield playmates Nick and Adam…they could make most anyone look inadequate!

The blues have always been American, as American as apple pie. The question is...why?

by sickuvitall on Feb 3, 2009 3:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Kinda like

how everyone thought Eric Byrnes was a great fielder when in reality he was just really good at running into walls. But he tried hard! Look at that effort! What a gamer!

Duck Around - a progressive blog about the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And getting off my lawn.

by duck on Feb 3, 2009 9:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I was reading the chat that I was amazed that anyone would say that Luke is even close to Nick defensively. And I think Luke is good at defense. I mean, it’s not like Luke ever got a ball stuck up his sleeve.

[Guthrie's] president of my heart. ~PhilR8

by Stacey on Feb 3, 2009 3:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Of course, I don't judge with my eyes. Just going off UZR from Fangraphs:

2008: Scott insignificantly better.

Scott’s 7 and 9 runs above average per 150 in his two seasons full time in a corner OF spot. Markakis is 4, 0, and 3 above average per 150 in his three seasons full time in a corner OF spot.

Just for reference. We should look up PMR and Dewan…

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Feb 3, 2009 7:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If stats say Luke is even a slightly better fielder

than Nick Markakis, then Mark Twain was right.

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

AND

Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.

Duck Around - a progressive blog about the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And getting off my lawn.

by duck on Feb 3, 2009 9:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

As you know I am one

of the loonies who say Luke is not graceful.

So when a pretty reliable source in James says he is and a pretty subjective unreliable source in me questions it the next thing I would do if I was part of the O’s FO is review all his game film using our lovely video equimpment and watch him in fielding practice take fungos and the like, watch his cutoffs, throwing accuracy etc.

I guess I need to know how James compiles his data. I would also like to know what the median point for a left fielder is versus a right fielder. I suspect there are better players in right field then left but that is a subjective guess.

We dont need to get into this I just still have many questions especially when people start throwing out Luke is better then Nick….now I know I am going blind.

by sanders833 on Feb 4, 2009 9:18 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think

those stats mean he is graceful by any means. I think he is an adequate fielder that goes about it in an ugly fashion. He’s not that fast and he labors a lot more running stuff down than either Markakis or Jones.

Always trust your cape. -Guy Clark

by BPinOK on Feb 4, 2009 12:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I hate that point of view.

I full admit there are reasonably large error bars on these defensive statistics. My quote from the chat was something like “I’m not even convinced Markakis should be playing ahead of Scott.” Given the data, that’s a pretty fair claim, no?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Feb 4, 2009 6:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs