6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: I'm Not A Pitcher, But I Play One On TV -- Blue Jays 6, Angels 5

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Monday, May 24, 2004

I'm Not A Pitcher, But I Play One On TV -- Blue Jays 6, Angels 5

I'm generally not too hard on Ben Weber because guys like him don't get strikeouts; he lives on the kindesses of strangers, or, um, the reliability of his getting GIDPs. Weber's presence on the team -- in the presence of obvious and superior alternatives (Shields, Frankie, Gregg) -- is pretty much a function of things I can't control.

But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Weber, for a few games, at least, looked like he might have turned things around, but tonight wasn't one of those times. Tonight's game was full of needless errors. For instance, Chone Figgins' bobble that cost us an out and at least one run. Scioscia yelling at the umpires after the warning. (That was just dumb, Mike.) Weber's "Plate? Wazzat?" fielding. Frankie and Gregg again showing signs of craptitude -- and possibly overwork -- on the mound. Figgins running himself out of the sixth. Or heck, installing Weber on the mound in the first place in an Astroturf park. Groundball pitchers in a Turf park are a sure way to generate runs for the other team.

The homers were nice and all, but we just weren't getting anybody on base ahead of those guys; Kotch GIDP'd out of an inning. Let's face facts, kids, we lost this one more than they won it.

As a footnote: at one point one of Terry or Rory declared that it's not possible for a player's OBP to be lower than their batting average. As Tyler pointed out, this is indeed possible because sacrifice flies appear in the denominator of OBP but not in average. The more often you sacrifice, the worse your OBP.

Recap

Update: yes, of course HBP appears in the numerator and denominator. Duh.

// posted by Rob @ 7:18 PM link // 1 comments

Comments:

As Tyler pointed out, this is indeed possible because hit-by-pitch and sacrifice flies appear in the denominator of OBP but not in average. The more often you take a beating or sacrifice, the worse your OBP.True enough about sac bunts and sac flies, but HBP's appear in both the denominator and numerator (since getting beaned actually gets you on base). So, HBP actually helps OBP - just ask Eckstein and his .363 OBP in 2002 w/ IIRC, 22 HBP.

Jim

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