Cleaning Up the Reader (Vol. 2)

Another sprint through the links of the last week:

The Good Phight thinks the Phils have a prospect brewing down on the farm.

PhilliesNation reflects on the late Robin Roberts and his pitching style. 

Are the Sox of Red in a must-win situation tonight?  Perhaps, think their fans.

Andy McPhail is unpleased.  Do you blame him?

Courtesy of The Book and TangoTiger, via the WSJ: the size of the strike zone for different batters.  This is a must read.

Beyond the Box Score names the least valuable players in baseball right, sabermetrically speaking, of course.

Also from BTBS: ten players with whom to start your franchise.

And finally, Tim Lincecum strikes many batters out.  He does it consistently too.  Don’t believe me?  Check the graph.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Andy McPhail, Beyond the Box Score, orioles, Phillies, Red Sox, The Book, Tim Lincecum, wall street journal

Jorge Cantu: Sarcastic Genius?

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Matthew Futterman speculated that due to an extremely large sample size, baseball may be running out of new milestones.*

*One of the drawbacks of the WSJ is that articles only remain free for a day or two — as of this morning the link was still active, but I can give no guarantees for the future. 

Futterman began by pointing out an obscure achievement of Florida’s Jorge Cantu in this young season.  I’ll let Futterman explain:

The ink was barely dry on the scorecards after the Florida Marlins’ 5-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night when the memo went out to baseball historians: Marlins third-baseman Jorge Cantu had made his mark, becoming the first player to have at least one hit and one RBI in each of his team’s first nine games.

Alright, fair enough.  What really caught my attention, however, was Cantu’s response to his “milestone”:

“It hit me when I was rounding the bases,” a reverent Mr. Cantu told reporters after the game. “It’s a little bit surreal. It’s like, ‘Wow I’ve accomplished something very big.’ “

Was Cantu serious? 

If he was serious, then I’m left scratching my head. 

But, if Cantu answered reporters faceitiously, two points spring to mind: 1) Futterman was desperate for a lede to this story and did not actually notice Cantu’s sarcasm; 2) Good for Cantu for answering what likely was a foolish question (How does it feel to set this record?) with a deadpan answer.

Filed under: Uncategorized, florida marlins, jorge cantu, matthew futterman, records, snark, wall street journal