By the way, Eckersley and Hal Reynolds really need to have their own baseball show. It was great to see them both screwing around during a national telecast.

I know more about baseball than Gwyneth Paltrow does.

BJ Upton
Matt Garza
Carlos Pena
JP Howell
Gabe Gross

All played at McCoy Stadium. Perhaps Rocco Baldelli attended a PawSox game or two in his youth, I don't know. Or Dan Wheeler, I guess.

Eric Hinske
Carlos Pena
Chad Bradford
Cliff Floyd

All played for the Boston Red Sox. Cliff Floyd hated it here and Boston fans hated him back, but I didn't know better and I thought he was so cool...

On April 19th, 2007, I stated that Matt Garza was a superstar and that he was awesome. Normally I'd point out how prescient I was, but I tend to say that about a lot of people. I do know that he was exciting to watch in those days.

By the way, Almost Everybody: Terry Francona did not lose this series. How thick-skulled can you get?

It's going to be a really great WS. Happy Halloween and such.

OH! We signed Dewon Day! Remember how I called him Dewon 'Fine' Day? I'm sure I'm not the first person to call him that, but guess what?

Who wants to go bowling? You wanna go?

Is all this really necessary?

"Here are Excel formulas using the pitch/fx fields, which are in [brackets]

Left Strike location:

=IF([px]<0, 10 + 12*[px]+MAX(0,([vx0]*(85/176/[end_speed])+0.5*[ax]*((85/176/[end_speed])^2+2*(85/176/[end_speed])*((-SQRT([vy0]^2-2*[ay]*([y0]-17/12))-[vy0])/[ay])))*12),"")

Right Strike Location:

=IF([px]>0, 10 - 12*[px]+MIN(0,([vx0]*(85/176/[end_speed])+0.5*[ax]*((85/176/[end_speed])^2+2*(85/176/[end_speed])*((-SQRT([vy0]^2-2*[ay]*([y0]-17/12))-[vy0])/[ay])))*12),"")

These formulas yields a null value if the pitch is on the other side of the strike zone, and give you a positive number if the pitch was a strike and a negative number if it was a ball, according to the rulebook rather than any de facto average strike zone. The formula after the MAX or MIN calculates the additional horizontal movement while the pitch passes over the strike zone, based on the horizontal velocity and acceleration parameters (the part that looks like a quadratic equation is figuring out the average velocity and hence time to home plate; it turns out that this is only infinitesimally more accurate than using the average of [start_speed] and [end_speed]).

Low Strike Location:

=([pz]-[sz_bot])*12-1.5

According to the rules, the - 1.5 should be +1.5. Saying -1.5 is saying that the umps in practice require all of the ball rather than any part of the ball to be above the bottom of the kneecaps. After looking at the data, it seems just as likely that they're requiring any part of the ball to above the top of the kneecaps; if you went with that, you would use -2 instead of -1.5. There is no need for an extra clause because the pitch always drops further as it passes over the plate.

Approximate High Strike Location:

=([sz_top]-[pz])*12+1.5+192*((82.5/([start_speed]+[end_speed])+((17-MIN(8.5,12*ABS(ax)))/12)/([end_speed]*22/15))^2-((82.5/([start_speed]+[end_speed]))^2))-(17-MIN(8.5,12*ABS([ax])))/600*[pfx_z]"

link

"Thakns you very much Chris Carter"

In the 2007 off-season, Chris Carter played winter ball in Venezuela for Los Tiburones de La Guaira. You can read about his experiences there, if you're so inclined.

Carter lost about 30 lbs down there, thanks to a parasite. Those pesky parasites!

Side note: Many people think Chris Carter is a great guy. This is because he's warm and friendly and acts like he's your pal. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS. He's like one of the biggest phonies you'll ever meet. I think I'll leave it at that.

Gil V.

I read an article about Gil Velazquez in a RI newspaper which mentioned the murder of his father in 2001. I had no idea.

I have no words of wisdom or any baseball insight. I might go back and read some old posts so I can find inspiration. I currently have near-zero interest in this blog, so there.

Okay, talk to you later.