I just thought I’d begin by saying Angel Pagan rules.
Single: In his column Rumblings and Grumblings for ESPN, Jayson Stark goes through the five biggest injuries in the MLB this year. As the fifth biggest, he places Pedro Martinez/El Duque.
Sometimes I look at things and say, why do two of our starters have to get hurt? Why us, why now? Sometimes it’s nice to remember that the Angels are missing their top two starters and the Mariners are missing their closer, just as a reminder that we’re not the only team getting screwed via injury.
Double: Throughout this week, the Mets have been trying out new sing-a-long tunes during the 8th inning, in an attempt to replace Sweet Caroline.
I was there Wednesday night, and they played Livin’ on a Prayer. It was fantastic. I’m not sure about the rest of the stadium, but my whole section was singing the whole thing, and I think that’s what supposed to be happening during a sing-a-long.
Also, one more note about the music at Shea: there’s too much of it. They played the techno song Sandstorm in the 3rd inning, which is all too early for it. Last night they played three different techno songs, only one of them at an appropriate time, that might have called for some pump up music.
One more note about last nights game: too early to bring out rally towels? It turned out to be an intense, extra-inning game, but I thought it was too early in the year to bring out the rally towels.
Triple: For AOL Sports, Jim Armstrong wrote an article criticizing fans for our obsession with statistics and numbers. He writes:
Have you seen some of the quote, unquote stats out there? When I was a kid hustling autographs at Wrigley Field, the game was all about W’s and L’s. Now it’s about WHIP and VORP and OPS and BABIP
Yes, we understand that in the end all that counts is whether or not we get the win. Yet, we’re trying to analyze how to get the win, and which players are most likely to give us that win.
For Fire Joe Morgan, Ken Tremendous went to town in a rant criticizing Jim Armstrong’s article.
In response to Armstrong writing, “Have you seen some of the quote, unquote stats out there?” Ken writes:
My man: when you are talking you say “quote-unquote” to indicate sarcasm. When you are writing you can just put things in quotes. As in: Jim Armstrong is a “journalist.” He is also “funny” and “smart” and I “want to hang out with him” because he seems to have a lot of “good” “points.”
Too funny. You must read the whole thing, I guarantee that you will not stop laughing the whole post.
Hat tip to Vines on FJM link
Home Run: As has become routine for the Cardinals, Tony La Russa had the pitcher bat 8th for the Cardinals last night.
I was thinking about it, and it makes loads of sense to me. Frankly, I think Luis Castillo should bat last. He brings no pop in the 2-hole. There are two main reasons to me that the SP should bat 8th. The first being, when you have a catalyst like Jose Reyes batting 1st, its rare that guys are on base for Reyes. Since Reyes can be such a great hitter, having someone with a high OBP like Castillo would allow for Reyes to produce more runs.
The second reason is that in a given game, we’ll pinch hit in the pitcher’s slot once or twice. Usually that pinch hitter is a better hitter then whomever the 8th hitter is (like how Marlon Anderson is a better hitter than Brian Schneider). So, it would allow for more production for Reyes and the pitcher only bats in that 8th hole a couple times, before a better hitter takes his place.
