Sunday, May 02, 2004
In an effort to lower my bloodpressure and overall mood of crapulence, I am instituting The Cubs Embargo as of yesterday. TCE means trying to avoid watching any Cubs game from start to finish, the idea being that since my standards for the Cubs are so freaking high, it will be better if I can just see the results of their games, which objective reason tells me should largely be positive. If I trap myself into thinking that "a good fan" should watch every inning of every game, this season will surely drive me insane. And I need the Cubs to still be enjoyable, you know? Hence, the Embargo.
With that said, I did wind up watching 2 or 3 innings of the game yesterday, in which:
1) Clement was again dominating, much to my surprise,
2) Aramis Ramirez reminded me of why I like him so much,
3) Joe Borowski made me want to kill him for the six or seventh time this season, remarkable for a man who has converted 6 straight save opps (but unremarkable for a man whose opponents' BAA is .295!) I'm frankly stunned that JoBo hasn't given up a home run this year. Feel free to direct hate mail to pkowalsk@indiana.edu when this happens tonight.
Partial disclosure: I am, as you should already know, a stathead, and as such I like making up my own stats. Readers of Moneyball should be familiar with Voros McCracken's argument that the only important stats for pitchers are home runs, walks, and strikeouts. To that end, I have invented the "Stat," (great name) which follows the following incredibly crude but effective formula:
"Stat" = (SO/IP*250)-(BB/IP*250)-((HR*4)/IP*250)
As you can see it's normed for a 250-inning season, to make comparisons between relievers and starters easier. Of course this suffers from sample size problems among many others, but it's still fun and somewhat useful. Some examples: the average of Pedro Martinez's Stats from his best seasons ('97-'03) is 196. Wood's this year is 163. Maddux's is -213. Very good seems to be about 100, conveniently. The highest Stat I've ever calculated was Eric Gagne's 331 in 2003, which sample size but c'mon. I'm going to go be nerdy in private now.
With that said, I did wind up watching 2 or 3 innings of the game yesterday, in which:
1) Clement was again dominating, much to my surprise,
2) Aramis Ramirez reminded me of why I like him so much,
3) Joe Borowski made me want to kill him for the six or seventh time this season, remarkable for a man who has converted 6 straight save opps (but unremarkable for a man whose opponents' BAA is .295!) I'm frankly stunned that JoBo hasn't given up a home run this year. Feel free to direct hate mail to pkowalsk@indiana.edu when this happens tonight.
Partial disclosure: I am, as you should already know, a stathead, and as such I like making up my own stats. Readers of Moneyball should be familiar with Voros McCracken's argument that the only important stats for pitchers are home runs, walks, and strikeouts. To that end, I have invented the "Stat," (great name) which follows the following incredibly crude but effective formula:
"Stat" = (SO/IP*250)-(BB/IP*250)-((HR*4)/IP*250)
As you can see it's normed for a 250-inning season, to make comparisons between relievers and starters easier. Of course this suffers from sample size problems among many others, but it's still fun and somewhat useful. Some examples: the average of Pedro Martinez's Stats from his best seasons ('97-'03) is 196. Wood's this year is 163. Maddux's is -213. Very good seems to be about 100, conveniently. The highest Stat I've ever calculated was Eric Gagne's 331 in 2003, which sample size but c'mon. I'm going to go be nerdy in private now.
