It would be nice to see some serious run support for the guy too. Yanks score 4.0 runs for him, league avg is 4.5, and Yanks score better than league avg for everybody else. (4.6 for Andy, 5.1 for Freddy and Nova, 5.2 for Phil, 6.1 for CC).

Eric the Great and Raul the Cool!

1-0

raOOOOOOOL!

wallup! nice hit by ibanez there.

Damn you, thelarmis, you beat me.

Raul tripled?

(But wait, I thought you told me you were "Eric the Great".)

and ichiro!

iiiiiiiiichiro!!!

2-0 Highlanders!

Ichiro with the easy rbi!

RBIchiro?

[5] HA!

[7] oh yeah, silly me!

[8] a seamus sighting! : )

[11] i'm on vacation! :)

What team has better 5-9 hitters than us? Can't be many.

[12] good for yins!

i'm in the middle of exam week. actually, at the tail end. today/tonite is the end of midterms. i have a ton to administer, then grade. they're all performance exams, of course, so they take awhile and every student is different...

enjoy!

By the way, I think A-Jax might have run down the Ibañez triple. Not for sure, but I think so.

[6] i'm guessing the spacious comerica had something to do with it?!

[14] damn sounds busy. at least it should be over soon right?

[16] It was deeeeeep to CF, and went over the berry guy's head, just.

[18] nice, thanks.

[17] oh yeah, very busy. but no, not over soon. exams, yes, by late tonite. but open house this saturday, finishing 2nd cd and preparing for a big fusion concert next weekend. plus, 2nd half of the quarter starts next week and there's a lot of difficult material to teach (and re-learn!). it never ends... : )

[19] oh well i was hopeful for you. i just went through a multiple month gauntlet of work. This is my short reprieve before the next one.

[13] Hard to argue with that today. Save for Granderson, they all have hits.

[20] ah, it's all good. it's music, ya know - so i *love* it! and i'm quite thankful for the work.

Music is the BEST!!!

[22] true that.

Half way through the cycle.

I'm off to watch soccer. Kind of nervous about it!
You guys take care of the Score Truck, please.

um...

FUCK!

i had a bad feeling when i got outta the shower and saw they had a man on 2nd w/ no outs.

now we're losing...

[2] uh oh. weren't you holding down the fort in riyank's absence :)

So, didn't the Yankees get Ichiro so that Ibanez would *not* have to play in the field?

Ibanez should have had that, it was a high fly, but i think he did slow down when Welke called it foul then fair. That was utter BS. Must come back...

US up on Japan 1-0 with 10 minutes left in the first half.

[28] late for work!

your job now! ; )

Tim Welke sucks.

Where's my Score Truck???

Maybe Carli Lloyd is driving it on the wrong side of the road...

Go Go Stewart. Doubles are nice.

1-0 at half time, by the way. US scored early, Japan is looking very good since then but no goals.

Nick "caught looking" Swisher. sigh...

It will feel like winning these types of games is an impossibility until they actually do. Then it won't seem like such a big deal. But until then... the sky will continue to fall.

Teix!

Chavy!

[36] Strike 3 was well below the knees.

C'MON!

[40] Maybe so. I had been keeping track of the times he had been caught looking for about 2 weeks but I lost track. It was more than a ten. 2 key balks in one series. Fuck!

US women's soccer beats Japan 2-1

Dang, just foul.

Air mail

For. Fuck's. Sake. Leadoff double. Dammit!

[43] And I'm back! Just in time for the W... knock on wood.

Hold it together, Sori...

Ooh, maybe I better shut up.

Why is Ibanez in LF?

Oy.

Oh you've got to be kidding me.

Ruh roh.

Reeeeeeallllly need a K here.

Oh, boy. Get a double play now!

Double play now to end it.

Double play, pretty please.

I accept that line out.

2 out. One more baby.

I accept that pop out.

I don't know why Infante isn't stealing.

Yikes! Sweet win. Untuck it.

I'll take that. Scary W.

Whew!

I accept that W!!!!

Sori with a page out of the Jose Valverde Ass Sweat Book of Saves.

Yes, now I see that it's possible.

[65] Man, it really was a Valverde type Save.

[66] Good, Jon, good. This will be good for your mental health. And your ulcer.

[67] I was into the soccer. Then Soriano was in trouble and I realized I'd trade 100 Soccer Gold Medals for a double play. Nice to know my priorities are still in line.

[68] Funny (and I agree)! Nice win. Mo is cool, Soriano is ice.

Ichiro must play LF from now on.

I'm guessing Swisher is NOT 100%. He is running poorly, didn't even attempt beating the rundown, and has not looked as good is RF. I'm think Joe is giving his as much time as possible.

Good Sox game, OYF, are you watching? Boston by one, bases juiced, Devadip digs in at the plate...

Count goes to 2-2...

It's a Supernatural single! Tied up, bases still loaded...

Sac fly for Bradley, brings Asdrubal home, and the Spiders lead.
Good Ol' Shelly Duncan to bat with two on and two out.

Shel ass-dribbles it back to the mound.
Fun game.

[73] Duncan!

Hey RIYank, you sticking round awhile? I got a question on "park effects" and how they are calculated, figure you would know about this..

Hey, I'm kind of still around.

[75] http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/parkadjust.shtml
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/btf/scholars/furtado/articles/parkeffects.htm
I like this one (simple) as it shows basehits, doubles, triples and HRs.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor

Park Effects vary from year to year, as do individual player performances. However, many Parks (especially Fenway and Yankee Stadium) are radically different for RH vs LH Batters. Park Effects really should be calcualed based on Handedness (Ie: 2 PFs for each Park).

Yes RI, I'm watching.

Well, the basic idea, Mr OK, is that you just look at, say, how many runs the Red Sox score at Fenway compared to how many they score on the road. That (after you correct for the fact that you bat more on the road, since you always bat in the ninth when you're on the road) tells you the Fenway park adjustment.

That's how BR does it. There is a bit of a problem with this method, in that it just ignores the fact that the Red Sox are 'built for Fenway', and that probably makes a bigger different when they work out the adjustment for YS.

I could look at how The Book does it; I think it's different.

[77] Thanks, that makes sense but..what if for the season your pitchig staff is awful but your O is great. Then your home stadium stats will be unnaturally skewed toward high offensive numbers for both you and the opponent..which is not the stadium but your awful pitching staff...

These new stats are great but they make the boulders roll around my brain a lot of the time..

But that's also kind of assuming that your opponent has the same issues with their staff or to a lesser extent; if the offense is fairly consistent on the road as they are at home (assuming that both are considerably above league average to be great), that probably would render the park effect to a nominal (if not 'trivial') issue. Doesn't park effect take into consideration both teams' offense when all other things are equal (or am I wrong?) My point being that if another team came in with great pitching, it would in theory neutralize the park factor to a considerable degree to render it moot in the final outcome, especially if their pitching is not up to par.

Thus a .500 record or below... I think >;)

Park factor is a considerable advantage if the home team has better than average pitching to reign in the opponent's offense, but nominal if they don't. The Yanks at least preach this much in their value of strikeout and ground ball pitchers who can eat innings; doesn't always work out that way, but that's why they want them. I just wish they went back to the high on-base, grind em out offense that won in 2009. I like homers, but I wish they came more often with runners in scoring position.

Mr OK and Will, the way BR calculates the park factor, the Red Sox' pitching is irrelevant to the calculation of the Fenway adjustment. Only the Sox' runs scored go into it.

I checked and The Book does not have a park factor stat. Maybe their blog does.

'kay...