Friday, June 10, 2011

I've Seen This Fish Before

This is certainly not to say that I expect to see an epic 37-65 collapse a la the 2005 30-30 Bucs. Nope, I just want to know what the Bucs record is in games they can either reach or eclipse .500 beyond April? Like the great Marvin Lee Aday said " Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". That's probably the 8th time I've quoted Meat Loaf during the less than one whole month's existence of The Mutiny, but it still holds true. In pro sports, 2 out of  3 ain't bad, especially when it comes to winning. Ironically, 2/3 will likely get you a failing grade on a majority of exams you take during your life, but I digress.

Last night, the Battlin' Bucs had a chance to propel themselves over .500. They failed to do so. The game was actually quite boring, scoreless heading into the top of the 8th inning. Jeff Karstens, who has had to prove himself time and time again as a MLB starter, pitched 7 scoreless innings for the Bucs, but he exited with the game tied 0-0 as the Bucs had trouble getting a runner past second base, amassing 5 hits, all of which were singles. Actually, they didn't just have trouble getting a single runner past second base, they didn't get one. All night. You won't find that anywhere in the PG write up, just that the Bucs couldn't get o Josh Collmenter but they did manage to chip away at his pitch count. When the part of a game summary article dedicated to your offense talks only about your pitcher's 11 pitch at-bat against his mound opponent, you probably didn't do much.

In the Top of the 8th, All-Star Candidate Chris Resop gave up a 2-run bomb for the only scoring of the game. The Bucs couldn't come back from the dead this time, losing by a final of 2-0 and falling back below .500 to 30-31. Who cares, Jake Taylor isn't concerned with .500 and he hates the fans who are, he is focused on winning a championship! Putting the cart before the horse much?

Player of the Game: Josh Collmenter
HeadScratcher of the Night: I only watched sparingly after 6 innings of 0-0 baseball. But Walker GIDP with Cutch on and nobody out wasn't awesome. It's no secret I am a huge fan of Cutch and Walker, but they both do things that drive me nuts. Cutch's Evelyn Gardner impression ( not hitting the cutoff man) drives me up a wall. So does Walker's penchant for hitting into double plays at a Ripken like pace.
Face Palm of the Night: Not getting a runner past second base all night. WOW.

 SmizBlog posted yesterday that the Bucs offense was the best in the NL  in June. The Bucs were first in the NL in runs heading into last night's game as well as first in slugging and OPS. They are also first in total hits, but are middle of the pack in extra base hits and 12th out of 16 in home runs. However, they were first in Sac Flies, because that is one of their main sources of runs. These stats also cover the enormous sample size of 7 games, therefore it was easy to deduce the offensive juggernaut Cutch had predicted before the season was finally starting to show up. 3 runs in the last 21 innings should be enough to quell some of those prematurely celebrating, such as the Bucs broadcasting team, who are all ready to place a nice shiny ribbon around this season.

Unfortunately, to determine the quality of a baseball team, 7 games worth of stats isn't very telling. We still sit at 23rd in MLB in runs scored, 25th in batting average, 22nd in OBP, and 26th in slugging. The June stats might be a bit inflated, as well. Since scoring 17 runs combined on June 1st and 2nd, the team has scored 22 runs in the last 6 games, which isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. But 43.5% of the runs scored in June came in the first 2 games, 56.5% in the next 6. Consistency is a major issue for any ballclub trying to maintain long term success and the Bus have been lacking  in terms of consistently hitting. That's not to say the June numbers aren't a positive sign, but we should put them in perspective before getting overly excited. SmizBlog also pointed out that the Bucs were 6th in the NL  runs per game in May, which is encouraging, but they  were 11th in total runs, DEAD LAST in batting average, 9/16 in .OBP, 13/16 in SLG %, 12/16 in OPS, 9/16 in HR, DEAD LAST in total hits, and 14/16 in XBH.

This is why pointing to a single stat for proof of anything regarding a team's overall performance is virtually pointless. But nothing surprises me anymore. I saw a guy on SmizBlog yesterday suggest that we could get a good return for Xavier Paul because he could lead off for a lot of teams! They suggested this 2011 30-30 squad won't collapse like the 2005 squad simply because the 2005 squad had McClatchy at the helm. Smiz loved that, noting it as a compliment to Big Bob! In reality, that 2005 team had the SAME CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD BOB NUTTING, but we will ignore those facts. Facts, after all, are a stubborn thing.

 Someone also patted Opie on the back for bringing in Tabata, Karstens,Correia, Morton, Overbay, Resop, Hanrahan, and Cedeno. Morton is money this year but he was 2-12 with 7+ ERA last season, Overpaid has been marginal at best, and I don't see how Cedeno is considered to be very good or at the least consistent. Correia has been excellent thus far but his career numbers show that he is prone to tailing off big time between June and August. Last season, he had a strong July between a dismal June and August. But that strong july was 5 starts against 4 teams with losing records, the Bucs being one, and in that one start against a team with a winning record he gave up 5ER in 5IP. Tabata, Resop, Karstens, and Hanrahan have all been good pickups by Opie. BUT, let's not forget Andy LaRoche, Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, Dana Eveland, Jeff Clement, Tim Alderson, Aki Iwamura, Latings Milledge, Raul Chavez, Ryan Church, Bobby Crosby, Kevin Hart, etc., etc. etc. Neal has made some good deals, he's made some bad deals, he's done NOTHING to prove he is any type of genius. After all, Cutch and Walker are our 2 best offensive players. They were drafted by Littlefield, who was AWFUL. Someone pointed out that while Littlefield drafted them, Opie should get credit for their performance because he brought them up. Right, he brought them up? Didn't he basically refuse to bring up Walker at one point?


Anyways, obviously, this was supposed to be a recap of last night's game, but when you lose 2-0, there isn't much to talk about. I figured, after being shut out and scoring 3 runs in the last 21 innings, it was a good time to point out that using numbers from 7 games of a 162 game season pretty much don't tell the entire story and stats can't always be taken at face value.SmizBlog chalked up last night's loss to the Bucs not being able to catch a break. You have to create a chance to catch a break in the first place, right?

 Bottom line is this: Bucs are 5-3 so far in June. Those are some pretty awesome numbers for them and they are also 12-8 since The Mutiny launched! Therefore, Pucks_and_Pols and myself deserve all of the credit for the recent up turn in performance!  The Mets are hobbling into town and they are just not a very good baseball team despite taking 2 of 3 from the Braves and Brew Crew espectively. Winning 2/3 from them should be doable. That would pit the Bucs at 32-32 halfway through June. Luckily, the manager isn't concerned with playing .500 baseball.

17 comments:

  1. I am pretty much done commenting on Smizik's blog. I am tired of all of the Dog's profiles talking to and patting each other on the back.

    Your blog here is so much better anyway. I stop in several times a day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is pretty sad what's going on over at Community voices. I've seen that kind of trollism before on other blogs, most notably the old MSNBC sports blogs and it ain't pretty. The crazies take over and the good people go away, then the whole format gets scrapped in order to clean it up.

    I like this blog better too, not sure why more Anti's haven't warmed up to it. Although, I'm guessing that once the salary dumps come and the season officially goes down the crapper more Yinzer's will join us here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The only problem I have on this site the fact that the commenting process sometimes doesn't work and it is a little more involved than on the PG site.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BurresswithButterflyWingsJune 10, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    I have had numerous issues trying to comment on here and I think it is a result of the cookie settings. I cannot toy with those at work. I am trying to find a way to make the commenting for user friendly.

    BwBW

    ReplyDelete
  5. BurressWithButterflyWingsJune 10, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    I adjusted the commenting settings so anybody, not strictly registered users, can comment. You just need to select the Name/URL comment option and you can type in your handle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That might be why it seems to be easier lately.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Every time I brought up that Boy Genius soured on Walker I was crushed for it.

    NH truly applied the Blind Squirrell theory here.

    I think UPMC will se an huge upturn in sprained shoulders with all the back-slapping that is going on with the Pro-Nutters.

    ReplyDelete
  8. BurressWithButterflyWingsJune 10, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    Yeah, Bob also gets pissed off whenever I point out that he basically hates Walker. He never has anything nice to say about him and if he goes there is ALWAYS a negative thrown in. I wish I could go back and dig up some of the old comments I have where I called him on it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeah Sharky.

    Why go from Smizik's blog, which has a mix of pro's and anti's and has both sides of the discussion, and where anti's do a whole lot of backslapping of their own, to here, which is basically an anti circle jerk of 8 people and is nothing but patting on the back of like minded people.

    Hypocritical zombie...

    ReplyDelete
  10. BurressWithButterflyWingsJune 10, 2011 at 3:19 PM

    Well, for starters, we don't delete the Anti's comments on here nor have we gone from " The Pirates need to be federally investigaed" to " Finally some praise for Nutting and Coonelly" in a matter of 2 months........

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice job with the fake name. You don't have the balls to sign in under the name you use on Smizik's blog so I know who you really are?

    But to counter you point, there are plenty of sites that are just a big Pro circle jerk. Here are a few: WHYGAVS, Bucs Dugout, and my personal favorite, Kipper's Pirate Tavern. So I guess those sites are perfectly fine with you but Anti sites are not allowed? Could you BE more of a douchebag?

    Come back on using your Smizik blog name and quit being such a pussy.

    I have a feeling I already know who you are.

    ReplyDelete
  12. To any Pro-Nutting Folks who want to jump in here: Please feel free. As long as you do not get to the point of threatening violence we will not edit nor delete you.

    I can't speak for any of the rest of the Mutiny, but I won't even get personal. I’ll just continue to point out my laundry list of reasons why I feel the Nuttings and their minions have been, still are, and most probably always will be terrible stewards of a once proud professional baseball franchise that I care deeply about.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "I have a feeling I already know who you are."

    Oh, Belvedere...Come here boy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. So. Dogsnakephilchip has a new name for this blog ..... What an a-hole
    As far as backslapping goes.... How bout your circle jerking on the tavern & sucksdugout

    ReplyDelete
  15. What kind of loser insults by calling someone a zombie? Wow. Pathetic, nutting apologist. Go hump a leg loser

    ReplyDelete
  16. Guess that guy doesn't have the balls to come back and post under his usual name. But then again if it's Dog, what would be his usual name? He has posted with probably upwards of 30 names.

    ReplyDelete