Mora sits? I like the sounds of that.

Granted, it won't truly produce a sound. But I like it anyway.

Here's to breaking the Sabbath streak

I was having an interesting conversation with a friend last night, and it really got me thinking about baseball statistics in general.

Allow me to vent here for a second... I know this is going to be long winded, but I'd like to make a point about some things. In particular, I'd like to point out how a significantly high batting average does not equate to a big difference in hits overall.

If there's any other stat geeks out there, I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Here are some really cool things to take a look at...

2008 A-Rod vs. A-Huff:

2008 A-Rod
Avg 320
Hits 80
HR 17
AT BATS 250
Total Plate Appearences 290

2008 A-Huff
Avg 279
Hits 90
HR 17
AT BATS 323
Total Plate Appearences 355

Seriously!? These are pretty freakin' close stats! A-Rod was hurt for a while, so I'll roughly project his stats as if he had the same total plate appearences as Aubrey:

Avg 320
Hits 99
HR 21
AT BATS 306
Total Plate Appearences 355

That's it?! Only 9 more hits?! Only 4 more home runs?!?! For the money, I'll take Huff over A-Rod this year if I'm the owner...

Now here's a really interesting breakdown of 2 everyday players... 2007 Nick Markakis versus 2007 Ryan Zimmerman. I chose this matchup because it's a great example of someone who played almost everyday and batted .300 (which is regarded as a very good average) versus someone who played almost everyday and only batted .266 (which I would regard as slightly below a respectable average):

2007 Markakis
Avg .300
Hits 191
HR 23
At Bats 637
Total Plate Appearences 710

2007 Ryan Zimmerman
Avg. 266
Hits 174
HR 24
At Bats 653
Total Plate Appearences 722

Look at this! Markakis batted 34 points higher in average, but only had 17 more hits?! That's 1 extra hit every 10 games or so... it's practically indiscernible! Doesn't that seem odd to anyone else?

It's amazing to me. I get so worked up over a player's average, but in reality there isn't a huge difference. Thanks for allowing me to vent Roch... sorry to take up the space everyone!

Roch, Where can we purchase the band that Brian Roberts has created to help fund the Shannon O'Baker fund and as a legacy to her memory? Anyone who has had dealings with Shannon will always remember her.
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Agreed. Shannon was very special. I'll be writing a blog entry with more information on the fund. You can purchase the bracelet by going to briansbracelet.com. They're also on sale at the team store - Roch

It might be a guess but giving Ramon the day off yesterday and starting him today for a little extra offense might signal Trembley really wants to win on a Sunday...

If ESPN.com is correct, two Orioles should be on the AL All Star roster. According to the website's Player Rankings, Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis are deserving of the trip to New York.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playerrating?type=allstarprojections&league=mlb&position=all

Is it true if the Os win today and you are at the game you get a free ticket to any future game and if they lose you get tickets to the next two Sunday games?

Patio - the difference between hitting .250 and .300 in a season (with 500 AB's) is 25 hits. That's it. It's one more dying quail/seeing eye grounder/ducksnort a week. It's what you do with those hits that counts. That is why OPS is becoming used more to measure a player's value, because using the batting average just doesn't make that much sense.

By the way, I'm in total agreement with you between Huff and A-Rod. Huff is the much better value for the money.

Hurrah! Payton is not hitting second!

"It's amazing to me. I get so worked up over a player's average"

Nice to see the light turned on for you, and also nice you didn't bother quoting RBI.

However keep in mind that Huff has a 322 OBA and a 435 slugging, Arod has a 396 OBA and a 589 slugging for an OPS difference of 757 vs 985. That would be a significant difference.

T-Mac - You're saying exactly what I'm thinking... that the total number of hits isn't as important as what's done with those hits.

But isn't it strange that the total number of hits is so close that it just comes down to a few seeing-eye ground balls? I mean... you can almost attribute 25 extra hits to LUCK. Is it really possible that '07 Markakis batted 34 points higher than '07 Zimmerman because of LUCK? I don't know... that's just hilarious to me.

It's becoming more clear to me that you're absolutely right - average is a horrible indicator of how well a player hits, but it's the standard measure for baseball fans everywhere!

patio, Didn't you see Bull Durham? It's discussed at the end in the bar by the pool table.