hi guys how ya been?
by PHIGHTINPHILS on May 22, 2009 2:34 PM EDT
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we are about a third of the way through this 2009 baseball season.
i remember comin to this site during the series and (inevitably) got into some heated debates with some of you guys. first, i can tell already that tampa is becoming one of the better baseball towns in all of the MLB. you guys are committed with passion, but more importantly, knowledge. it seems as though u guys educated yourselves quickly, or simply flew under the radar as a fanbase. either way, kudos to all of you for changing the landscape of baseball fans across the country.
now to the brass tacks...
i remember (but am unable to find the exact article(s)) that most of our 'debates' revolved around two players.
raul ibanez & pat burrell...
uhh, i told u so? jk!!! (i actually agreed w/all of u and was incredibly skeptical of ibanez heading into this season, lets just say i'm very pleasantly surprised...)
in this early season i think it's safe to say that ibanez was the better offseason pickup... he leads the NL in homers w/15... and also RBI's with 40...
burrell is currently on the DL, and is performing w/a .250 average, 1 hr and 17 ribbies...
we all know that you guys will turn your record around and contend for the playoffs... although the phils are currently above .500, 7 of those wins are against the lowly nationals, so i think they are really playing like a .500 team. we'll see how they fare against the yanks tonight...
This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.
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Thanks
For such an interesting and insightful post.
Would you like a cookie or perhaps a lead pipe to the forehead?
Go away and don’t come back Troll.
He's not a troll.
"Where we all wait in earnest with pudding in hand for the Upton comet to sail through the roofed skies, so that we may meet Him."
This post is essentially a philly's fan thumbing his nose at this site.
If he’s not a Troll than he’s an Ogre.
by BigBadBossman on May 22, 2009 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Why?
Because he said our fans were some of the best in baseball? Or because of the “we all know that you will turn your record around and contend for the playoffs” at the end to cover his tracks?
This post says essentially:
1. “Hi Guys How Ya Been?” ….you know perfectly well how we’ve been dipstick.
(Paraphrasing)
2. “Man you have great fans now, some of the best in baseball (Um, what?)”
…. I’m going to build up some support here so they don’t think I’m a total jack off, which I am.
3. We’re about a third of the way through the season and boy did I piss off some of you all last your during the playoffs, but I wanted to come back and say this: The Phills are over .500 and you guys aren’t! Oh and remember that guy that we signed that you all didn’t want, Raul Ibanez. Ya, well he’s mashing the ball and the guy you got is on the DL and lost all is power. SUCKERS.
4. OH, its O.K. though, cuz EVERYONE knows you’re going to turn it around cough cough
and everyone knows that we’re not as good as our record…even if it is better than your record.
by BigBadBossman on May 22, 2009 3:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Helluva Drug
Plus I hate all Northerners. All of them, and the Irish.
by BigBadBossman on May 22, 2009 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Shut up and eat your taters.
"Where we all wait in earnest with pudding in hand for the Upton comet to sail through the roofed skies, so that we may meet Him."
I know what you're talking about, but remember this: Phillyfan has a very similar baseball mentality to Cubfan, they feel that winning chamionships is an entitlement, not an award.
"Where we all wait in earnest with pudding in hand for the Upton comet to sail through the roofed skies, so that we may meet Him."
The Yankees are scalding right now.
Buncha roided out freaks. Burrell’s lack of production hasn’t hurt the team, since they’re still getting completely decimated by LHPs, Burrell’s production alone wouldn’t have made a difference.
"Where we all wait in earnest with pudding in hand for the Upton comet to sail through the roofed skies, so that we may meet Him."
The Phils had the Nationals
But the Rays have had probably the easiest schedule in the AL so far. We’ve faced nearly all bottom fielders and failed against them.
Yankees are in third place, silly.
That means the Royals, Angels, Rangers, etc. are better than them. We’re really screwed once we play those teams.
Today, we are all Honkballers.
The Natinals are the worst team in MLB, and it's not even close.
"Where we all wait in earnest with pudding in hand for the Upton comet to sail through the roofed skies, so that we may meet Him."
So basically every team in MLB is "good" except the Nats
That kind of screws up the definition. To determine good, bad, average you have to compare records. Or at least something close to it (pythag etc).
The A’s, Indians, and O’s are EASILY the worst three teams in the AL this year. If you want to call them good then so be it. This is the MLB so every team is “good”. Relatively speaking they suck. The worst in the league.
Here are the AL standings. If you want to call the worst teams good then so be it. Please note there are 7 teams currently ahead 6 teams below us.
Toronto 27 17
Boston 25 16
Detroit 23 16
NY Yankees 24 17
Texas 23 17
LA Angels 21 19
Kansas City 21 20
Tampa Bay 21 22
Minnesota 19 23
Seattle 19 23
Chicago Sox 17 23
Oakland 15 23
Baltimore 16 25
Cleveland 16 26
We’ve played 2 of the 7 teams ahead of us. We’ve played 7 of the 7 teams below us. If I recall correctly we have a losing record against 6 of the 6 teams below us. Which means their records are boosted up by playing the Rays and the teams above us are beating them.
We’ve played the last two teams in the ALW and none of the top two teams
We’ve played the last three teams in the ALC and none of the top two teams
We’ve haven’t played the leader of the ALE but we’ve played a lot vs the last place team
What happens when we start playing the top two in the ALW instead of the lowly A’s? What happens when we start facing the top two teams in the Central instead of the White Sox and the Indians? What happens when we start playing the Jays instead of the no pitching O’s?
oops 5 of the 6 teams below us
Literally 5 of the 6 crappiest teams in the AL have a winning record vs us.
If we can’t beat the worst in the league what are we going to do vs the best teams in the league?
If you guys cannot see a big reason to worry based upon that data then I dunno what to say
In order to make the playoffs you have to beat the crappiest teams in the league. Right now the crappiest teams in the league are kicking our butt.
it is a scary thought that we have to make up ground against the top teams in the league.
Which one of the "crappy" teams kicked our butt?
We’ve been in virtually every game this year. IMO we have run into bad luck/bounces at times. How good is Toronto? They were awesome before playing BOS/NYY and they lost what 5/6 of those?
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Word.
We have a positive run differential.
We are a couple roster moves away from being exceedingly improved.
It’s May.
Take a deep breath, y’all…. AND GET PURP GUY.
this
Purp guy is going to turn our season around
also Built to Spill fucking rocks
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions
I am just way too busy with a life outside of my mom's basement to look this up
but I’m pretty sure we haven’t been outscored in a series all year. Si o no?
Toronto is certainly tougher than Oakland, Seattle, Baltimore etc. I understand we’ve lost a lot of close games. However now we have to turn it around and win those games vs the best teams. That is a tough task.
No matter how you slice it we are sucking vs the bottom feeders in the AL
Opponent aside,
do you think we will play better the rest of the year than we have, or worse?
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions
I think we play better
But I think the quality of our competition is going to get far tougher. In order for us to turn these L’s into W’s we have to improve a faster rate than the talent of our opponents.
I only say this because the bullpen issues can be corrected, Kazmir has given us nothing so far
Sonny and Niemann have been mostly in the same boat, and as the hot bats start to cool off you have to think Beej and Navi will get going. Getting Price will be a shot in the arm even if he can only go 5 every game.
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions
We've also had some miracle games
Late inning grand slams. 7 run comebacks. Last night etc. It works both ways too.
Good point
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions
This is what concerns me
Okay against the 6 worst teams by record in the AL (Balt, Chisox, Seattle, Oakland, Minnesota, and Cleveland). It is hard to argue that these are not the 6 worst teams in the league. Perhaps Minnesota jumps ahead of KC. That is pretty much the only one up for debate.
Against those 6 teams the Rays are:
13-16 for a winning percentage of .448
Currently those 6 teams hold a combined record of:
102-148 for a winning percentage of .416
Vs the rest of the league (minus the Rays) those teams have a record of:
86-130 for a winning percentage of .398
Basically the rest of the leagues have beaten these teams to a pulp…at a .600 winning percentage. The Rays have beaten these teams at a .448 clip.
If we were beating these teams at the same clip as our opponents
We would have won between 4 or 5 more games against those 6 teams. That is a lot of extra games. Yes there were games we should have won, but also games where we should have lost.
Even more data
29 of our 43 games have been against the worst teams in the AL. The teams that the rest of the league have beaten at a .602 clip whereas we’ve beaten at a .448 clip.
Only 14 of our 43 games have been against teams with winning records.
If the Rays have beaten those 6 teams at the same pace as the rest of the league our record would be:
(ignoring rounding)
25.46-17.54 with a winning percentage of .592 which would put us 3rd in the AL
If we stripped out the games the bottom 6 played against each other the discrepancy would get even larger. As in if we only examined the games in which the top 7 played a team in the bottom 6.
My hypothesis is the top 7 would have a winning percentage somewhere in the .675-.700 range against the bottom 6.
So if we play at the level of our opponent I like our chances against the better teams
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it's business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You'll be an old man before you know it.
-Al Lopez
by Sandy Kazmir on May 22, 2009 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions
No one's disagreeing with you that we've underperformed.
It is fact.
But, it’s still too early to freak out, especially now that we’ve made some moves.
If we’re just under .500 through July, then it will be time to get pissed.
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