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Originally Posted by Bigmike23
what the *#@# i turned the game off and went to the gym it was 6-1 and i come home and its in the 13th inning
Originally Posted by bright nikes
oh yeah, don't forget:
[h3]All-Star Selection Day[/h3]
Coverage starts at 10:00 PCT on TBS - Billingsley, Broxton, Blake, and Kemp would seem to be possibilities.
Giants are tryna make moves, so many rumors going around: Vic Martinez, Dye, Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche.
Yo 562:
>
Suzanne Marques > Christine Devine, yes? (left side with flower dress)
Originally Posted by In Yo Nostril
sharon tay > all these old skeezers you guys are posting
2009 Power Rankings: July 6 | ||||
RK (LW) | TEAM | REC | COMMENT | |
1 (1) | Dodgers | 52-30 | The Dodgers have the best MLB record since May 4, when they were 18-8. | |
2 (2) | Red Sox | 49-32 | David Ortiz has at least one hit in 24 of his past 29 games, raising his average from .185 to .225. | |
3 (3) | Yankees | 48-33 | Mariano Rivera has six saves during the Yankees' current run, winning 10 of their past 11 games. | |
4 (6) | Angels | 45-35 | Vladimir Guerrero hit twice as many home runs over the weekend (2) as he did in the entire month of June (1). | |
5 (10) | Rangers | 45-35 | Since losing three in a row, the Rangers have won five straight games, averaging nearly eight runs a game. | |
6 (5) | Tigers | 44-37 | The Tigers have led the AL Central every day since May 16. | |
7 (4) | Rays | 44-39 | The Rays have scored a total of seven runs over their past four games, all losses. | |
8 (7) | Cardinals | 45-39 | Albert Pujols leads MLB with 29 intentional walks, five fewer than he had for the entire 2008 season. | |
9 (9) | Giants | 44-37 | All-Stars Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain have combined to go 18-4 with a 2.35 ERA. | |
10 (10) | Phillies | 42-37 | Despite their poor home record (16-22), the Phillies have maintained their NL East lead. | |
11 ( | Brewers | 43-39 | The Brewers are 6-10 since June 19, when they led the NL Central by 1.5 games. | |
12 (14) | Twins | 43-40 | The Twins have won seven of their past 10, moving to three games over .500 for the first time this season. | |
13 (13) | Rockies | 42-39 | The Rockies have lost three of four in July, after finishing with an MLB-best 21-7 record in June. | |
14 (20) | White Sox | 42-40 | The White Sox finished the first half of their schedule with the AL's second-best ERA (3.94). | |
15 (1 | Marlins | 43-40 | The Marlins have won four straight home series to move within one game of the first-place Phillies in the NL East. | |
16 (15) | Mariners | 42-39 | Felix Hernandez (8-3, 2.62, 114 K), who secured his first All-Star berth, has gone eight straight games without a loss. | |
17 (17) | Cubs | 40-39 | Ted Lilly, the Cubs' only representative in the All-Star Game, got his 99th career victory Sunday. | |
18 (12) | Blue Jays | 42-41 | The Blue Jays are 15-27 since May 18, when they were 27-14 and led the AL East by 3.5 games. | |
19 (19) | Reds | 40-40 | Edwin Encarnacion has gone 1-for-9 since his return to the lineup July 3 and is now hitting .125 (9-for-72) for the season. | |
20 (21) | Braves | 39-42 | The Braves have not been over .500 since June 12, when they were 30-30. | |
21 (16) | Mets | 39-42 | David Wright has gone 5-for-40 (.125) and the Mets have scored a total of 25 runs in losing eight of their past 10 games. | |
22 (22) | Astros | 39-41 | RHP Roy Oswalt is 3-1 and 2.13 ERA in his past five outings. | |
23 (23) | Orioles | 36-46 | The Orioles (12-26) have the worst road record in the American League. | |
24 (24) | Pirates | 37-45 | Freddy Sanchez, who leads NL second basemen with a .316 BA, will be in the All-Star Game for the third time in four years. | |
25 (25) | Royals | 35-46 | Miguel Olivo, who leads the Royals with 13 home runs, is only three away from his personal record (16 in 2006 and 2007). | |
26 (27) | Padres | 35-46 | Since their 10-game winning streak (May 15-25), the Padres are 12-24. | |
27 (26) | Athletics | 34-46 | Closer Andrew Bailey, the only rookie selected to the All-Star Game, has not allowed a run in 10.1 innings. | |
28 (2 | Indians | 33-50 | The Indians have lost 14 of their past 18 to become the first AL club with 50 losses. | |
29 (29) | Diamondbacks | 33-49 | Dan Haren, who leads the NL in ERA (2.16), has lost only one of his past nine outings. | |
30 (30) | Nationals | 24-55 | The Nationals are the only major league team with a run differential of minus-100 or lower (-101). |
[h1]Joe Beimel longs to make his home in L.A.[/h1]
Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press
Washington Nationals closer Joe Beimel pitches against the Cincinnati Reds on June 11.
The Washington Nationals pitcher says he likes the way his new team uses him, but he hopes to one day be a Dodger again.
By Ben Bolch
7:47 PM PDT, July 5, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Joe Beimel has a plush terry-cloth robe in his locker. Leather sofas to stretch out on in a spacious, wood-paneled clubhouse. A $611-million ballpark that's become his own eighth-inning playground.
None of it can match the comforts of the home Beimel wanted to make in Los Angeles with the Dodgers.
"I wanted to go back," the former Dodgers reliever said Sunday before his new team, the Washington Nationals, pulled out a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park.
Beimel loved L.A. so much he spent his first off-season anywhere outside of his native Pennsylvania there last winter and has put in a bid on a home in Playa del Rey.
But the Dodgers didn't love him back, not after the way the left-hander struggled against left-handed hitters last season. After hitting .188 off him in 2007, left-handers batted .278 against him in 2008.
And so Beimel never received an offer from the Dodgers and had to sign a one-year, $2-million deal with the dreadful Nationals. There is an upside, however, to playing for the team with the worst record in baseball.
"I like the way I'm being used here," Beimel said. "If we have a lead going into the eighth, I'm usually in there. The only problem is, we haven't had a lot of leads going into the eighth."
Would Beimel, primarily used as a situational reliever with the Dodgers, prefer to play for a winning team or a losing one that used him in a more prominent role?
"Winning's always the best thing," he said. "That's why you want to play the game."
There hasn't been much of that with the Nationals, the only team in the majors not to crack the 25-victory plateau three months into the season.
Washington's bullpen has been so beleaguered that Beimel and Julian Tavarez are the only relievers who have been with the team since opening day. Beimel has been a steadying influence, allowing only two earned runs in his last 18 appearances.
"He comes in and he never seems like he's under pressure," pitching coach Steve McCatty said of Beimel, who's holding left-handers to a .255 average. "He's done a great job."
The robe in Beimel's locker looks a lot like the one he had with the Dodgers, the main difference being the No. 97 across the back is in red numerals as opposed to blue ones. Cincinnati left fielder Johnny Gomes has given Beimel one as a gift at every stop Beimel has made since they were teammates with Tampa Bay in 2005.
The robes will accompany Beimel to his new home in Southern California after the season and some day, he hopes, one will make another stop at Dodger Stadium.
"I love the organization," he said of the Dodgers. " . . . If I could, I'd go back."
Originally Posted by Bigmike23
what the *#@# i turned the game off and went to the gym it was 6-1 and i come home and its in the 13th inning
You should have taken Broxton with you.
Just catching up.
Would you guys bring back Beimel for a player to be named later?
The robes will accompany Beimel to his new home in Southern California after the season and some day, he hopes, one will make another stop at Dodger Stadium.
"I love the organization," he said of the Dodgers. " . . . If I could, I'd go back."
Make it happen Ned.
Roy Halladay's Potential Suitors
By Ben Nicholson-Smith [July 7 at 8:54am CST]
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that the Jays are open to offers for Roy Halladay. This doesn't mean the Jays will deal heir ace; it just means they'll consider moving him for the right group of players. Here is Rosenthal's "largely speculative" list of possible destinations for the Jays righty:
* Yankees - Rosenthal says the Jays will not hesitate to dangle Halladay to the Yankees and Red Sox. Phil Hughes could head an offer.
* Red Sox - The Red Sox could start an offer with Clay Buchholz, but they may prefer to hold onto Buchholz or use him as a trade chip to try and lure Victor Martinez away from the Indians.
* Phillies - Rosenthal hears they've asked about Halladay repeatedly in recent years. The Phillies have an appealing group of prospects, but they could have trouble taking on the $7MM remaining on Doc's deal.
* White Sox - The White Sox were in on Jake Peavy, so they could make a play for Halladay. As Rosenthal says, Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda wouldn't be enough, but they also have Gordon Beckham.
* Dodgers - They'd likely have to part with Chad Billingsley or Clayton Kershaw to obtain Halladay.
* Rangers - The Rangers have the prospects, but not the money.
* Cubs - Until Jim Hendry gets the go-ahead to add payroll the Cubs are an unlikely destination, especially because they don't have big-name prospects to tempt the Jays.
* Angels - Probably lack the premium pieces the Jays would seek.
* Brewers - Alcides Escobar would appeal to the Jays, who don't have an answer at short after Marco Scutaro becomes a free agent this year. But Escobar's untouchable, and probably wouldn't net Halladay on his own.
* Mets - Omar Minaya would have to empty the farm system to acquire Halladay.
* Braves - Rosenthal says they're a longshot, especially since they have pitching depth already.
* I see the Phillies and Brewers as the best fits, since they crave pitching, have young talent and play in another league.
Is The All-Star Game The Biggest Remaining Game for Dodgers?
By Sky Andrecheck
A week from today, the Major League All-Star Game will be be played between the American and National leagues. Traditionally the greatest exhibition in all of sports, the game changed in 2003 when Bud Selig decreed that the winner of the All-Star game would have home field advantage during the World Series. While the move (which I love) has largely accomplished its purpose of rejuvinating the game and inspiring competitive instincts in the players, the game is still somewhat treated as an exhibition. Players still occasionally beg out of the game and the managers still try to get everybody in the game, even if it means taking some of the best players out. Terry Francona actually said he was hoping for a game ending NL homer last year as the game went to extra-innings. For him, the All-Star game was secondary to regular season games.
The All-Star game's slogan is "This Time It Counts", but how much does it really count? Obviously Francona and company don't think it counts for very much. Is home field advantage in the World Series really worth playing for? Or are players better off focusing on the regular season?
Earlier this season, I debuted Championship Leverage Index, an attempt to measure the impact and importance of a game on a team's chances of winning the World Series. We can apply this same methodology to the All-Star game. Of course, during the regular season, an additional win adds to the probability of winning the World Series by increasing the team's chances of making the playoffs and thus winning a championship. In the case of the All-Star game, winning the game helps only if the team makes it to the World Series.
How Much Is An All-Star Game Win Worth?
Assuming that a team does make it to the Fall Classic, how much does having the home field help? Historically, having home field in an individual game adds about 4% to a team's probability of victory. This number has been larger during the playoffs, but this likely has something to do with the best teams playing more home games, so it's a misleading guide. Taking this 4% mark and assuming the teams are even, a World Series team would have a 54% chance of victory in its home games and a 46% chance of victory in its road games. How does this translate during an entire 7-game series? Turns out that the mathematics show that a team which has the home field advantage in the series as a whole will win 51.26% of series.
Overall, the extra 1.26% is pretty small - there's probably a reason that MLB doesn't tout this number in its "This Time It Counts" promos for the All-Star game - but in something as big as the World Series, it helps to have every advantage possible. Of course, the game only adds 1.26% for a team actually playing in the World Series - to other teams, the game is worthless. Apportioning this advantage blindly among an average of 15 teams per league, an All-Star win adds 0.084% to each team's chances of winning the World Series. Thus, if you were oblivious to the standings, and your league won the All-Star game, you could rejoice that your team's chances had just gone up by 8 one hundredths of one percent. This time it counts, eh?
Indeed, 0.08% sounds impossibly small, until you consider that the average regular season win doesn't help you much more, clocking in at a mere 0.28% according to my prior work linked to above. Dividing these figures, we find that the All-Star game has a Championship Leverage Index of .30, meaning that the game is about 30% as meaningful as the average regular season game.
You can be the judge of whether 30% of an average regular season game is more or less than you might have thought. I suspect it's more. 30% of an average game is not a lot, but it's more meaningul than any Nationals game has been since May, and it's more meaningful than many teams' regular season games will be in about a month's time. What's more, I doubt that Francona would be willing to wish away even 30% of a regular season Sox game.
All-Star Championship Leverage Index by Individual Team
Of course, while on average the All-Star game is worth about 30% of an average regular season game, we can calculate this separately for individual teams, with dramatically differing results. Teams which are far back in the race need every win they can get their hands on, and home field advantage in the World Series means little. The chance that one regular season win will prove decisive is low, but the chance that home field advantage in the World Series will make a whit of difference is even lower. For teams in the thick of a pennant race, the World Series advantage is useful, however each regular season win has a fairly high chance of being crucial, rendering a regular season win far more valuable than an All-Star game win.
However, the All-Star game takes on the most importance to teams which are far ahead in the standings and have a high likelihood of making it to the Fall Classic. For these teams, a regular season game also means relatively little, since a playoff birth is all but locked up. In this scenario, is the All-Star game actually more important than a regular season game?
Looking at this year's Dodgers, let's aim to find out. As of Sunday night, the Dodgers were sitting at 52-30 with a 7.5 game lead in the NL West and a 9 game lead in the NL Wild Card. When I previously calculated Leverage Index, I assumed each team had a 50% chance to win each game and that each team had a 50% chance to win each playoff series. Here I used a more refined method, using Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA-adjusted winning percentages as the probability of victory and playing out the play-off series according to baseball's home field advantage rules.
Using this methodology and simulating 10 million seasons, I calculated that the Dodgers have a 39.0923% chance of advancing to the World Series. After a regular season win, this chance increased to 39.2781%, while after a regular season loss, this chance decreased to 38.8368%. On average, this resulted in a change of 0.215% in probability to advance to the World Series and hence, a 0.108% change in probability of winning the World Series (0.215% times 50%). Thus, a regular season game is worth about 0.108% in championship probability to the Dodgers (only about 39% as important as an average game). An All-Star win, however, will increase their chances of winning the World Series from 19.5462% (39.0923*.5) to 20.0387% (39.0923*.5126), a difference of 0.4925%. Comparing this mark to 0.108% for a regular season game and we find that the All-Star game is not only worth more than a regular season game to Los Angeles, it is worth vastly more than than a regular season game. In fact, the All-Star game is worth somewhere on the order of 4 to 5 times more than a current regular season Dodgers game.
A fuss was made over Chad Billingsley bowling over the catcher during a Dodgers-Padres game this past weekend. Would Billingsley have done so at the All-Star game? Likely not. But this analysis shows that if there is one game the rest of the season in which LA players should sacrifice life and limb, it is Tuesday night's "exhibition" contest.
The following chart shows a few other teams, and the All-Star game vs. regular season game impact on the team's chances of winning the World Series. The Championship Leverage Index for each was computed relative to the baseline of the average game (0.28%).
As you can see, only the Dodger players have more incentive in the All-Star game than in their next regular season game. With an All-Star game Championship Leverage Index of 1.76, the All-Star game is not only more important than their next regular season game, but is likely the most important game of the entire season. Regular season Champ LI's don't usually get that high until at around mid-season, and considering the way that the Dodgers have run away with the NL West, they likely have not had a game this important during the entire year.
However, the game also means a great deal to Boston and other AL East contenders who expect to be playing October baseball. For these teams the game is not merely an exhibition, but a game nearly as important as any other on the schedule. For the Red Sox, the All-Star game is about 66% more important than the average game, although not as important as the key games they are playing now. Still, for Francona's Sox, the All-Star game is about 85% as important as their next regular season game. For the other teams listed, the All-Star game is not nearly as important as their next regular season game, drifting to nearly meaningless for fringe teams like the Astros.
For baseball fans, the All-Star game is must-see TV because it's the one chance to see baseball's stars compete against each other. For fans of the Dodgers, it's must-see TV because it's by far the most important game LA will play until October.
Originally Posted by bright nikes
I didn't read that Ken Rosenthal article, but isn't it weird that an all-star game determines who gets home field advantage for the World Series? I know they want to make it competitive and such ... but its stupid.
It's a travesty.Originally Posted by bright nikes
I didn't read that Ken Rosenthal article, but isn't it weird that an all-star game determines who gets home field advantage for the World Series? I know they want to make it competitive and such ... but its stupid.
possibly have Schmidt make a return sometime soon
Yeah, there's no room for him.
We have: Ohman, Kuo, Leach, Elbert.
Ohman has not been reliable.
I would not trade Kershaw or Bills for Halladay. No way in hell, they should just settle for a middle of the rotation type starter - a teams demand for an ACE is gonna be absurd.
I agree.
[h1]Belisario to have MRI[/h1]
First concrete development indicating that I might have been on the wrong side of the bullpen debate. From Dylan Hernandez of The Times:
Dodgers pitcher Ronald Belisario has left the team and is flying back to Los Angeles to have an MRI on his elbow. Cory Wade is being recalled from triple-A Albuquerque to take Belisario's place.
Belisario, who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and then released last week, has already pitched 48 innings. He threw 57 last year, and that was in the minors. He is 1-3 with a 2.42 earned-run average in 43 appearances. ...
Belisario's pitch counts the past two weeks:
From June 9-July 4, Belisario pitched 13 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings while stranding all five inherited runners.[th=""]Date[/th] [th=""]6/20[/th] [th=""]6/21[/th] [th=""]6/22[/th] [th=""]6/23[/th] [th=""]6/24[/th] [th=""]6/25[/th] [th=""]6/26[/th] [th=""]6/27[/th] [th=""]6/28[/th] [th=""]6/29[/th] [th=""]6/30[/th] [th=""]7/1[/th] [th=""]7/2[/th] [th=""]7/3[/th] [th=""]7/4[/th] [th=""]7/5[/th] [th=""]7/6[/th]
Pitches 35 0 0 0 0 18 13 0 8 11 0 33 0 0 22 8 0
To be fair to myself, I did point out when Jonathan Broxton was resting his injured toe, Belisario pitched on three consecutive days, throwing 52 pitches. That was when I got nervous. I wonder if he was hiding any soreness in the ensuing days, even though he pitched well -- or whether it was a delayed reaction.
and it #@#%#$% starts. Belli has had a couple HORRIBLE outings, withhis past Tommy John surgery ... I wouldn't be surprised if there was something bothering him in there.