Blangraphs

We Blangraphs editors have to admit something, and it might come as a surprise: we don't write for this blog full time. Over the past few years, we have spent the hours between posts here as educators and scientists, furthering knowledge and helping people.

Finally, we can leave that dead-end gig behind and win our living on Blanduel™, the convenient alternative to those annoying, time consuming daily fantasy games!

We are going to get to coverage of the MLB postseason in a second, but we need to tell you more about Blanduel first. You won't regret reading a single word.

Besting our buddies in fantasy sports was always close to our hearts. We reveled in weekends of reaping cash harvests from daily fantasy games. But all the picking and clicking became tiring and overwhelming. The weekend-long commitment started to feel less like a freewheeling rush, and more like a dull chore. If only we could be unchained from this monotony that we used to call fun.

Along came Blanduel™.

If the big weekend fantasy sites were a jolt of epinephrine, then Blanduel™ is a 200,000 volts of an electrical plasma made of pure excitement. Instead of doing all the tedious work of picking the best players and filling out a "roster" (what are we, stats nerds?), you just pick a Blanduel Certified Genius™ who can make all the picks for you. Then you join one of our game lobbies and get ready to win!

Instead of waiting days to find out whether you have won, new games start every few minutes and some are over in seconds. We use our skill to predict everything from pitch location to the number of times a batter will tap his bat. And needless to say, winners are crowned constantly.

News outlets are raving about Blanduel™!!! Come deposit your  and make your own "blatant cash grab" (Wall Street Journal), and have so much fun that "[i]t's just really, really unfair." (Consumer Reports).

 HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

1) SEND BLANDUEL YOUR MONEY (unmarked, non-sequential bills should be sent to Blanduel™ in an ordinary white envelope addressed "Dear Grandma") 

2) EXPERTS PICK WINNERS FOR YOU (No need to do all the annoying picks yourself. Don't worry, you'll still have bragging rights over your bros when you win!) 

3) WE LET YOU KNOW WHEN YOU WIN (Heck yeah!)



... Anyway, we have been spending a lot of our time on that fun activity lately. But I think we made our point.

On to our postseason coverage!

Obviously, the big story from yesterday is Chase Utley. All of the major media sites, the twitter galaxy, and folks at just about every bus stop in the country were debating and deliberating over the same question: is he a good pick for Blanduel™ Postseason Platinum™? This may be controversial, or "old school", but we say yes. Utley is a sneaky play for some Blantasy Points™ that can give you the edge over your friends.

Another hot topic is the Chicago Cubs. Jake Arrieta has been absolutely unreal, as his Blanduel™ owners know, and his leadership might be just enough to get the Cubbies past the Official Blanduel™ Goat Curse. Maybe there's magic in the Blanduel™ Get Some Green™ Ivy in Wrigley Field!

 And a special thank you to all of our international viewers!
 Baseball Lovers And New Dabblers Unite Every Land!
  

By our count, there are 11 players left in the big leagues who won a World Series ring with the Phillies in 2008.

Jayson Werth's chances for a second ring were destroyed by Papelbon and Matt Williams.

Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard remained on the Phillies, teaching Odubel and Franco how to play, generously giving other teams the chance to win, and saving valuable finger space for ring pops.

Shane Victorino nearly made it to the postseason, but the Angels lost to Hamels on the last game of the season. Afterwards, he told reporters "fly, you fools!" before disappearing from sight.

As everyone knows, Kyle Kendrick won the opening-day starter job for the Colorado Rockies. He pitched a great game on opening day and also ended the season with a dominant win. So he's doing great.

For six others, the race for another championship, seven years later, is on!

Best Single-Season K/BB Ratios for Selected Pitchers

Dan Haren, 2009: 5.87
 
Peek-A-Boo Veach, 1884: 6.20

Walter Johnson, 1913: 6.39

Cy Young, 1905: 7.00

Roy Halladay, 2010: 7.30

Clayton Kershaw, 2014: 7.71

Carlos Silva, 2005: 7.89  

Joe Blanton, 2015: 8.00 (15th all time)

 After his second win of the season, Blanton is seeing his bandwagon grow crowded. Newspapers everywhere, from the Kansas City Star, to the Topeka Capital Journal, to NBC Sports, are picking up on Joe's historic victory over Félix Hernández. JB "outdueled" and "outshined" the Cy Young winning Hernández, according to reports.

 Astonishingly, after only two spot starts and a few scattered relief appearances, Blanton leads the league in bgWAR.

A lot of our readers have been intimidated by bgWAR, our measure of a player's overall value, and asked us about how it works. We had the same questions when we first heard about advanced stats. "How," we asked, "could some computer guys plug a bunch of mathematical numbers into some kind of mechanical Turk and find out how good players are?"

The Phillies aren't doing so well. It's time for a new strategy. If we're going to lose, why not do it in spectacular fashion? I have no ideas for what we can do as far as scoring runs- so let's focus on the pitching.
Yesterday the Phillies used Papelbon and Giles, their two best relievers, in a game they trailed by 5 runs and had essentially no chance of winnings. This was "to get them work". My idea is to ensure that they get work in useful opportunities by letting them start games. Teams are more likely to score runs in the first inning than in the second inning, this is due to a team trotting out their best hitters 1,2,3,4. In games we send out pitchers such as O'Sullivan, we should give them a head start by erasing their best hitters before they get a chance to tee off on our starters. There is an excellent chart which shows when runs are most often scored.



If we can reduce the % of runs scored in the first by using either Papelbon or Giles, and save one for the 9th inning we can maybe expect to reduce total scoring by 10% or so. Possibly saving the O'Sullivans from being seen more than once can increase the likelihood of them being more effective, also they will be less tired and can pitch later into the game. This may reduce the % of runs scored in the middle innings. The only position in which we will suffer is in the 8th inning. At this point we will have lost Giles or Papelbon, so we may see an increase in runs scored here. With our crop of young relievers (Diekman, DeFratus, Araujo, etc.) I'd take my chances with this strategy. I would even consider starting the game with Giles, and bringing in Papelbon the next time the 1,2,3,4 hitters arrive, completely flipping the order of our pitching.
I don't endorse this idea when we have pitchers like Hamels out there, and obviously we couldn't pitch this way every night or else or relievers would get over worked. But as of now they aren't getting enough work and are receiving worthless opportunities. Let's get our pitchers in there while the game is guaranteed to still matter!  Who knows, we might just take a few of them with us.

Watch this awesome flip by Howard, I thought for sure this one was going to go over Hamels' head but it ended up being basically a perfect throw.

Here is a video of Ben Revere doing a back flip. Remember to enjoy watching the P's today!

In a piece published on mlbtraderumors.com, Jerome Williams talks about his gloves.

"Williams’ top choice is pink in recognition of his mother, but he’ll also be mixing it up with four different colors to put the spotlight on prostate, pancreatic, liver, and childhood cancers."

Our experts at BG have predicted in their prediction series "Jerome Williams will use 4 different colors of gloves..." as well as some other things.

Go blangraphs! Also, if anybody can mail us $20 we can buy www.blangraphs.com and the busy internet traveler will no longer have to go the hassle of typing that wearisome blogger bit in the URL bar.

We asked our friend, huge baseball fan and sometime writer Albert Camus, to provide some commentary on The Good Phight's recent contention that "it doesn't really matter at this point" whether Cliff gets better from his latest injury, which "doesn't mean anything."

It is probably true that a man remains forever unknown to us by and that there is in him something irreducible that escapes us. But practically I know men and recognize them by their behavior, by the totality of their deeds, by the consequences caused in life by their presence. To know oneself, one should assert oneself. I impose meaning on what I do. No one else can impose meaning for me.

KANSAS CITY - April 6, 2015
Yordano Ventura is tired. The young ace has thrown 161 pitches, preserving a scoreless game into the 10th inning. Unfortunately, his opponent, Chris Sale of the White Sox, has not allowed a run either. With two out in the top of the 10th inning, before a raucous sea of blue-bedecked fans, Ventura's worst pitch of the night heads towards the plate, where Jose Abreu stands waiting.

One meatball coming up, extra mustard. Sounds disgusting, but to Ventura, the food metaphor is even worse with a side of Tater.

One swing of the bat and the shutout is off.

Ventura shakes his head and sweat pours down his face. He sees manager Ned Yost slowly ambling towards the mound and knows that the rest of the night will be spent watching helplessly, hoping that his incredible pitching performance is not wasted. Who could relieve him at a time like this? What pitcher could come in and salvage the rest of this game, making a crucial final out and giving the Royals a fighting chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 10th?

Wade Davis, of course. That was a weird question to ask, since Davis had been the Royals' go-to reliever all of 2014, helping get them to the World Series with his incredible 0.847 WHIP.

Davis easily retires Emilio Bonifacio to bring the game to the bottom of the 10th, the Royals down 0-1.


Now on to the bottom of the 10th.

 The mood in the stadium is tense as Omar Infante grounds out and Mike Moustakas is caught looking. Two quick outs and the Royals still need a run. Hope comes in the form of Lorenzo Cain's bloop single to left field. Due up next is Alex Gordon... or is it? Gordon is 0-5 in the game, with four strikeouts. A great player, and undoubtedly the best hitter on the team, he just can't seem to figure out Chris Sale's approach. Ned Yost makes a drastic decision- he removes Gordon from the game.

There is uproar in the stands, as the loud, angry fans who can't believe that the star of the offense could leave at a time like this greatly outnumber those who trust the coach's judgment.




 They're even more outraged when they see how is walking into the batter's box. Could it be? No. It makes no sense. Nobody thought that this guy was going to make the roster, and those who did thought he would be a mop up innings eater pitching in games that were far out of reach. With one man on base, the unlikely batter goes up against Chris Sale. It is the unlikeliest of matchups, a fringe roster member hitting against "The Condor." Some fans shift in their seats and wonder if they should try to beat the crowds who will soon make the slow, sad walk to their cars. And then the pitch comes.

Look forward to a new feature on BG upcoming this season. We know you can't wait, dear reader.