The 2011 Major League Baseball Thread

And to all MoFos who don't give a crap about Baseball...sorry. Scroll onward!

bull-puckey. Jeter is done.

he'll retire at the end of this season.

book it.

I can't think of any reason to dislike Derek Jeter, on and off the field.

I hate sabermetrics. I hate that they minimize stats like batting average or wins and losses. Sorry, but wins and losses are the only thing that matters.

I don't have to, everyone else already does.

The Sabermetricians are right: for a number of years, his defense was pretty terrible, but casual fans (which apparently includes Gold Glove voters) continued to think he was awesome. A headline from "The Onion" probably sums it up best: "Derek Jeter Probably Didn't Need To Jump To Throw That Guy Out."

As for his hit total, well, like many players you only need to be pretty good for awhile and then just keep playing long after you've stopped being good. That's one of the reason Pete Rose has a metric ton of hits: he was a player-manager who kept running himself out there when he really ought to have taken himself out of the game.

You obviously can't reach these totals without being good at some point in your career. But it's sometimes enough to just be pretty good for awhile and play a long time.

Which is precisely why sabermetrics is valuable: because it isolates which things actually lead to wins and losses. Wins and losses are team stats, not individual stats, because pitchers can pitch well in losses or poorly in wins. They can be screwed by a lack of run support, or bailed out by an abundance of it. It's a useless stat unless you think they have a degree of metaphysical control over how well their offenses perform when they pitch.

Buccos up 5-1! If this holds they'll be 47-43 heading into the All-Star Break!

I'm pretty sure that's one of the signs of the Apocalypse, though...

We'll be as many games over .500 as there are Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Fine by me.

it would be awesome if the Bucs met the Jays in the World series....

Bautista hitten homers in Pittsburgh would be fun

As much as I would have to temporarily hate the Blue Jays (and by extension, your entire country) if that happened, I'd be delirious with happiness even to make the playoffs, let alone make it to the World Series, even if we ultimately lost.

as much as i would have to temporarily hate Yoda, DexterRiley, and Holden Pike, (and by extension, anyone else in the shoutbox participating) if that happened, I'd be delirious with happiness to even make it to the next non-sport topic, let alone make it to the next philosophical-driven topic, even if we ultimately lost.

You cannot take my sunshine away today, Ash. It's shooting out of me in all directions, like the end of Beauty and the Beast. Yes, even the toes.

on behalf of the nation, we accept your terms

Ha ha haa!

I always hated that toes thing in that movie. Always seemed a little creepy.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that the presence of Laser Toes takes something away from the ending.

Then why are there are only 28 players with 3000 hits?

Because it's still really hard to be really good and play for a long time.

Here's a good illustration: Jesse Orosco is the only pitcher in baseball history to throw in over 1,200 games. That's a single player who's done it. But is that really more impressive than getting 3,000 hits, or 500 home runs because far more players have done those things? Certainly not.

Amassing 3,000 hits is very impressive, but there's not a direct correlation between how rare something is and how impressive it is. Jeter's milestone is a combination of his hitting ability and his longevity. And it's a stat that doesn't take into account the weakest parts of his game. He is a very, very good player, to be sure, but his contribution to his team actually winning is consistently overstated, without even getting into the precipitous decline in his hitting the last couple of years.