A Mid-Season Baseball Report

I meant to do a half-season update around the all-star break, but, well, didn't.

Speaking of the all-star break, Uggla's performance was really something. His three errors, three strikeouts, and a GIDP were not only unprecedented in All-Star history, but, according to Elias, has never happened in a regular-season or post-season game, either.

Back on the game, I wasn't able to watch it as I was working that night, but I do have a radio at work and was able to listen to part of it. I listened starting in the bottom of the second, heard several innings, stopping shortly before the American League scored their first run. fter attending to other matters, I turned it back on in the bottom of the eleventh and listened through to the end. It was quite an amazing game; I only wish it had gone on a bit longer, as another inning or two would have brought position players in to pitch. On the radio, the announcers had started to mention the possibility of another tie, which, while very unpleasant, at least would have been more defensible than the 12-inning one from a few years ago. In some post-game write-up, I read that Bud Selig was basically ordering them not to let it end in a tie, but as that was not widely reported, and not sourced in the article, it might have been merely conjecture.

On the ever-exciting strikeout front, Ryan Howard has slowed down his pace, but should still pass 200, with a current projection of 212. However, he might not even lead the majors with that figure, as Jack Cust has picked up his pace, and is currently projected to wiff 206 times. They might not even be the only players joining a newly-minted 200-strikeout club, as Mark Reynolds is on pace for 197. Three players passing the single-season strikeout record would be pretty amazing, but it actually would not be unprecedented. My notes on the matter are currently at work, but there was one season, I think in the early 1950's, which saw three or four players surpass the previous record. The strikeout record also seems to be broken in spurts, with several consecutive or near-consecutive seasons seeing it broken followed by the record laying dormant for a decade or three. Again, my notes on the matter are at work. Perhaps I shall retrieve them and make a post on the history of the strikeout record. The Diamondbacks were on pace to become the first team with three players to each strikeout 160 times or more, but the injury to Justin Upton will hurt their chances, unless he's activated very soon (Chris Young has also fallen a rounding error behind the pace).

My beloved Cubs still have the best record in the National League, though not the majors anymore. However, they're only one game ahead of the Brewers in the division, with the Cardinals not far behind. As they've played better at home than on the road, I'm hoping they can pull it out and win the division, though, failing that, I'm confident they can hold off the Cardinals (and other also-rans) for the wild card.

The Diamondbacks have unsurprisingly fallen back to Earth. That entire division is an unbelievable mess, especially considering that it was considered one of the strongest in baseball entering the year. The Dodgers would have an easier time winning if they dumped Andruw Jones. They need to sign a new center fielder this offseason -- third time's the charm. One of the biggest surprises in the division is that Greg Maddux only has three wins. He's nowhere near his old self, true, but he hasn't pitched that poorly this year, he's just received poor run support.

In the NL East, the race between the Mets and Phillies has been good; I think the Marlins aren't really legitimate contenders, and the Braves have been very unlucky. Johan Santana has not rebounded from what was, for him, a subpar year last year, but he's still been very good; unfortunately, too many people look at won-loss to determine how good he's been, without realizing that he's received atrocious run support.

In the AL East, we've gone through the annual ritual of all the pundits, and many fans, considering the Yankees out of the race by Memorial Day. Currently, however, they're three games back of the Rays for the division, and two games behind the Red Sox for the wild card. They've had more than their share of injury problems (Matsui, Posada, and Hughes being the most notable long-term injuries, plus a slew of shorter ones), and players giving subpar performances (most notably their double-play combination of Jeter and Cano, and their two rookie starting pitchers in their opening day rotation, Hughes and Kennedy), but they're quite in it, and just picked up Nady and Marte from the Pirates, which should be a boost. The bird teams aren't really worth talking about, except perhaps to note that Halladay has been awesome, with seven first-half complete games, which ties his second-best single-season performance, and gives him a good chance at his first 10 CG season.

The AL Central has been one of the screwiest divisions (along with the NL West; I can't quite decide which is screwier). The White Sox have played well above their level, and the Indians well below theirs (though bad luck has factored in the latter team's performance). The Tigers have fallen short of the expectations of even those who knew their pitching wasn't good enough to match the pre-season hype surrounding the team. The Twins have played better than most people predicted, but they seem to have a habit of doing that.

The AL West is the only division with four teams that are off their run-differential expected won-loss records by at least four games -- a fact made more impressive by it being the only division with only four teams. The Angels exceed theirs by eight games, the Rangers by five, while the Athletics fall short by five games and the Mariners by four. While the Mariners, like the Tigers, were overhyped entering the year, they, like the Tigers, have greatly underperformed even the more level-headed predictions of their performance. It looks like Thigpen's save record is finally falling, as Francisco Rodriguez already has 43 saves and is on pace for 68, which would shatter the current mark of 57. I've always been amazed that the record hasn't fallen sooner. Thigpen was always sort of an odd holder for that record, too, as his career save total (off the top of my head) was only 201. Actually, I decided to go look him up; I was right on his career saves total, but as for single-season totals, he only had three other 25-save seasons, which came in at 34, 34, and 30. The fifty save mrk has been reached nine other times (including twice each of Mariano Rivera and Eric Gagne), and the closest anyone has come is 55 (Gagne in 2003 and Smoltz in 2002). For all practical purposes, save records began in 1990, and that's when Thigpen set the record (shattering the previous record of 46). A quick glance over the leaderboard shows only Jeff Reardon, Dave Righetti, Dennis Eckersley, Dan Quissenberry, Bruce Sutter, Steve Bedrosian, and Mark Davis (who wins the "one of these things doesn't belong" prize, as he had less than 10 career saves) reaching the 40-save mark before 1990, with twice each for Quisenberry and Reardon, for a total of nine. The years 1990-2007 saw 101 40-save seasons, plus nine players are on pace for 40 saves this season alone (including Rodriguez).

In other news, I've heard that a sticking point in trade talks to acquire Brian Roberts is the Cubs don't want to give up Jason Marquis; if true, I only have this to say: "Give him away! Give him away now!" Marquis is ... not good. Roberts, on the other hand, is good. The only problem I really see in acquiring Roberts would be where to put all the players, but I see the most likely solution being keeping Theriot at short, Soriano in left, moving Fukudome to center, and DeRosa to right, with Lee, Roberts, Ramirez, and Soto occupying first, second, third, and catcher, respectively and obviously.

The Diamondbacks seemed to get Rauch pretty cheaply from the Nationals, and the Yankees did likewise with Nady and Marte from the Pirates. While the return was low, at least the teams seemed smart enough to trade them for something. The Nationals have been hanging onto their players at the deadline recently, and signing some to unwise contract extensions (the trend has continued this year with Christian Guzman). The Pirates ... well, they're just a mess in every which way.

The Astros are delusional and decided to add Randy Wolf.

The Phillies got Joe Blanton, who is terribly overrated. An improvement over Adam Eaton, sure, but that's really all the team can say it did: improve their fifth starter.

The Brewers acquired Ray Durham while they were playing the Giants. I'd like to see a repeat of an event that's previously happened -- though I can't recall when, what teams, or what players -- with two teams trading players between games of a doubleheader against each other.

Dress Up As a Cow and Other Links

Dress up as a cow today, and Chik-Fil-A will give you a free meal. I'm sure you've all been looking for an excuse to bring your cow costume out of storage.

A court in the United Kingdom has ruled that Pringles are not potato chips. Potato chips are subject to a steep tax there (17.5%), so Proctor & Gamble is happy with this ruling. In other news across the pond, toddlers who dislike ethnic food are racist. If you know a toddler that complains about such food, turn him over to the thought police immediately. The United Kingdom's top judge says that Sharia law should be used there. Also, the moon was mistaken for a UFO. It was not flying, it was orbiting, so I guess that made it, for a time, a UOO.

The definitive ruling is out: toilet paper should be hung in the overhand fashion.

Some Germans plan to give the vote to babies. Given how seriously they seem to be taking the vote, babies could not take it any less seriously.

We have yet another example of the incompetence of state-run health care, this time from Canada.

The New Yorker has a story on itching. What interested me most was not the story so much as the last paragraph of the first section (right before the second oversized I): a woman scratched through her skull and into her brain.

For those of you tired of nudist squirrels, Archie McPhee sells squirrel underpants. They sell some interesting things there. I must admit, on a past visit to their site, I was very intrigued by the idea of purchasing a set from the Cubes collection and setting it up in my cubicle at work.

A woman was found in her home in Croatia recently -- 42 years after she died.

The Virginian-Pilot will publish a list of "dumb laws" one year from now (check the copyright date at the top). However, some of the laws strike me as reasonable. There's a law against driving your car on sidewalks, for example. There's apparently a law in Tallahassee allowing sex with porcupines (though I wonder if that was a typo); personally, I think anyone who does is likely to get what they deserve.

If any pro-abortion person tries to argue that nobody uses abortion as birth control, show them this table from the Centers for Disease Control showing that 8% of abortions are performed on women who have had at least three previous ones. More surprising are other tables showing that nearly a fifth of abortions are performed on married women (for those whose race was listed as "other", this rises to over one third), over 12% are performed on women who have had at least three kids (from live births), and over 10,000 were performed after some level of viability had been attained.

Chess boxing has become popular. Well, okay, not popular, but some people are doing it.

One link I've had sitting around for quite awhile: The Omaha Royals are threatening to move if the city builds a new stadium. Yes, that's right -- if they do build a new stadium.

Cubs Acquire Harden

I have some mixed feelings about the Harden acquisition. On the one hand, he can be quite dominant. On the other, he's often injured. As a Cubs fan, I've seen this a lot recently with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. After both being reasonably healthy in 2003 (healthy enough to only narrowly avoid a trip to the World Series), the last four years have seen plenty of injuries to those two, and Prior hasn't thrown a pitch this year, and won't -- but he's not our problem anymore.

I like Matt Murton, and because of that, I was actually glad to see him go. I know that sounds odd, but the Cubs have misused him and he deserves a shot to play regularly, which I think he'll get in Oakland.

Sean Gallagher is the one player I have some regrets about giving up. He's pitched fine in ten starts this year (not great -- don't misunderstand me), and he's only 22. In fact, compare the season he's had so far with Harden's season when he was 22: 58 2/3 innings with 58 hits, 6 homers, 22 walks, and 49 strikeouts to 189 2/3 innings with 171 hits, 16 homers, 81 walks, and 167 strikeouts. Also, Oakland's park is pitcher-friendly, while Wrigley Field is hitter-friendly. Gallagher has a much smaller sample size, of course, but his rates compare pretty well with Harden's from the same age. I'd also like to point out that Harden's age-22 season was his only, as yet, "full" season, when he made 31 starts (he has yet to make 20 in any other season). I've seen the Mulder trade mentioned, in which Oakland traded the big-name pitcher and got Dan Haren back (who has since made his own name big). Gallagher is the one player who could make the Cubs regret this trade. The Cubs should have tried some sleight of hand to get Billy Beane to take Jason Marquis instead.

Eric Patterson had only very limited major league playing time with the Cubs. He didn't hit particularly well (.239 AVG, .348 SLG in 46AB over the last two years) but did draw five walks this year, which makes him better qualified to bat leadoff than Alfonso Soriano.

I don't have much to say about Josh Donaldson, the minor-league catcher the Cubs gave up; I heard that he wasn't performing up to expectations, but he was only drafted last year (I think), so we'll see.

As for Chad Gaudin, the reliever the Cubs also acquired in the deal, he doesn't seem particularly special. He's not a bad reliever, certainly, but not someone who has me particularly excited, either. He was used as a starter earlier in the year, and had four quality starts (three of which were good) and two starts in which he fared ... less well. He wasn't severely pounded in either of those two starts, though.

As a side note, I noticed that ESPN has already changed their picture for Harden to reflect his new team, but has not done so for any of the other players.

Lots of Links

I haven't posted in awhile, so here are some of the various links that I've collected since last time.

Researchers have discovered George Washington's boyhood home. It turns out that it was on the farm he had lived on.

A man saved a bear from drowning. That headline might go beyond "man bites dog" territory.

Fred Thompson has an excellent take on the lousiness of the recent Boumediene v. Bush Supreme Court ruling (the recent Gitmo case). Are we sure that it's too late to make him our presidential nominee?

Will Smith believes that Barack Obama has made it good to be an American again. For those of us that remember some of the inane racial commentary from a few episodes of his tv show, this is hardly surprising.

Peder Zane documents the joys of biking to work, in video form.

It turns out that wind power is unreliable, pricier, and emits more carbon dioxide than promoters would have you believe. It's less surprising to those of us who have been following the matter. Money quote: "Windfarm output is never zero. Sometimes it's less."

A UK muslim man is outraged that his wife's driving instructor was a man undergoing a sex change instead of a woman. In other UK sex change news, the procedure was approved for a 12-year-old girl. I would say that the girl should see a psychiatrist instead, but their profession actually supports such procedures. Honestly, how many more obvious indicators of psychological problems are there than not being able to cope with your own gender?

Leftist wacko -- err, Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters threatened to nationalize America's oil industry.

The search for the Titanic was actually a cover-up for the search for sunken nuclear submarines.

Christians are not welcome in certain areas of Britain. Police there would rather roll over and die than do their job.

For those who have a National Journal subscription, or, much more likely, access to computers that do (e.g., ASU's computing commons), you can see that the much-hyped claims that one quarter of teenage girls have an STD are false.

The music video that's taking the world by storm: I Will Derive (to the tune of I Will Survive).

A Frenchman spent fifteen years creating a miniature version of Paris in his backyard.

Cracked takes a look at five strange holidays.

A video showing how to balance seventeen dominos on a single domino, for all those times in your life when you need that skill.

Scientists are hard at work trying to harness the energy of breast motion. At least, that's what they claim they're doing.

A car that runs on water.

Human ovulation caught on film, and tests for new moon rovers, in this video from New Scientist.

Someone built a LEGO Kennedy Space Center with 750,000 bricks. It includes a space shuttle that's over six feet long, and the entire complex is over 1,500 sqare feet. Lower on the page is a 1,300,000-brick soccer stadium, complete with 30,000 mini-figs. A group of British LEGO employees assembled a group of 35,310 Star Wars Clone Troopers that somehow raised money to benefit the National Autistic Society. Also in the UK, a record for tallest LEGO tower was set, at approximately 100ft. Back stateside, a LEGO boulder was produced, a la Indiana Jones, and rolled down a hill in San Francisco ... into a car.

The results of all mythbusters episodes in one handy location. It's not quite as fun as watching the show.

High-tech Japanese toilets consume 4% of household energy there, and other neat facts.

You can use a 9-volt battery to up your brain power. I can't wait for the first person who realizes that it doesn't up their brain power enough, with tragedy ensuing.

A city council has decided to dye dog poo pink in an effort to shame the owners into cleaning up after their dogs. This does not strike me as a successful policy, but it does strike me as an amusing one.

A video knife safety guide. The fourth video really does make me want a knife.

A bar graph of tooth loss by state. Unsurprisingly, southern and border states lead the way. The most tooth loss outside that region is in Kansas. Most-toothed state is Connecticut, followed by Utah.

Italian soldiers are being beaten up by a 77-year-old Japanese woman. I'm not sure if it says more about the soldiers or the woman.

Photographs showing change in New York City skyline c.1883 and 1930.

An overview of New Jersey Governor Corzine's efforts to use fiscal pressure to get small towns in his state to merge, under the rationale that small towns are fiscally inefficient. He wants to see minimum populations of 10,000, but the cost per capita only goes up for much smaller towns (under 2,000 population), and the lowest cost per capita is in towns of 6,000-15,000. Perhaps he should force larger towns to break up as well, while he's at it.

An old story about an attorney who accidentally sued himself.

The out-of-control parent trend has hit Japan, where one school play had 25 Snow Whites because selecting only one girl for the title role would be "unfair".

German nursing homes are using fake bus stops to stop Alzheimer's patients from wondering off.