Amazing. Sox lose two to the Tigers (could have easily been swept), with the Yanks playing the D-Rays, and yet lose no ground. Man, I never thought 1st place -- with a 4 1/2 game lead -- would feel so stressful. Still, both the Sox and the Yanks seem to be in serious trouble, pretty much always, and yet somehow both keep rolling along.
Remlinger continues to be on fire, pitching 1 2/3 scoreless (!) innings, bringing his Sox ERA down to 20.25.
White Sox have lost five in a row, and no longer have the Best Record in Baseball. Red Sox are somehow only 5 games behind them in overall record. Pretty interesting.
Royals are only 3 losses from the AL record of 21 in a row (88 Orioles). Problem is, they now face the A's. Then the Red Sox. Then the Yankees. Then the Twins. Then the Rangers. Then the White Sox. Wow.
A couple weeks ago in my fantasy league I traded away David Ortiz. So you have me to thank for his latest tear (OPS of 1.319 in August).
Recent article in the NYT about the lower HR totals this year (6-8% lower than 2004). Remember all those players' apologists saying back in May it was the cold weather? Yeah, um, this is turning out to be one of the hottest summers on record. So what do they have to say now? It's also worth noting that ESPN used to have a HR tracker (comparing 2005 to 2004 and 2003) on their main page -- it's gone now. Were they strongarmed by MLB?
Finally: I think I've figured out the problem with SportsCenter. Not enough Terrell Owens coverage.
6% is really not a massive drop. Between 1987 and 1988, homer totals dropped 28.67%. In 2002, they were down 7.31% from 2001. In 1997 there was a 6.49% drop from 1996. Homers fluctute inherently. SLG% is probably a better tool, but even that obviously fluctuates. Simple fact is, whatever the impact of stroids - and I doubt there's been much of one, really - it'stough to find it in legue-wide numbers which are inherently unstable.
ReplyDeleteoh, and between 1991 and 1992, homer totals dropped 10.81%.
ReplyDeleteOf course 6-8% isn't that much, and may not be statistically significant. My point was that Gammons et al were quick to blame the weather for the initial dropoff. By their logic, then, HR should actually be way up this year -- or at least catching up quickly to last year's totals. But they're not. And no one's talking about the weather now.
ReplyDeleteThe 96-97 dropoff was more a result of '96 being a spike, not '97 being a dip. Something similar can be said about 87-88. There's been no such spike recently -- unless you count 1995-2004 as a "spike", but that's sort of the whole point of this discussion.
It should also be mentioned that if the 8% drop occurs, it'll be the largest in the Juiced Era.
If Wells was so sick yesterday and Francona knew about it before the game. Why was there noone in the bullpen as Andrew pointed out.
ReplyDeleteAnd does anything smack more of desparation than Torre's use of his starters in the bullpen?
ReplyDelete