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Find A Relationship Between These Points And Win A Prize! By Jeff

Posted on Wed Feb 02, 2005 at 09:32:36 PM EST

Wed Feb 02, 2005 at 09:32:36 PM EST (Hint: they're unrelated.) ESPN2 was presumably launched to supplement ESPN1, showing showing important games when time conflicts would prevent them from being broadcast on the primary channel. And it was good. Between additional baseball broadcasts to more hockey games and NHL2Nite, I enjoyed ESPN2 for quite a while. Gradually, things began to go downhill. I was (and remain) comfortable with poker, but it got worse. Magic tournaments. Cheerleading. Jump rope. Activities that don't belong on television were finding their way to a major sports network, aired for all the world to see. And just recently came the news that ESPN2 would be launching a new series, entitled ESPN Hollywood, which documents the lives of popular sports celebrities. However, it wasn't until today - just fifteen minutes ago - that the channel really jumped the shark. There, flashing on the screen in front of me, was a display of what appeared to be competitive juggling. Followed by more displays of competitive juggling. Evidently, there exists a World Juggling Federation, complete with official equipment and a handful of well-known superstars (who could forget such names as Scotty Cavanaugh or Ivan Pecel?). Needless to say, it took me by surprise. How this stuff deserves to be more readily available to viewers than, say, college baseball or hockey is beyond me. ---------- A universal truth: first-round draft picks flame out. It happens to everyone, because players that young are often impossible to project. Another universal truth: organizations get upset when high selections don't pan out, because the team will have spent a bunch of money and passed over other tremendous talents in order to choose that particular player. (This doesn't apply to the Mariners, who like to collect failed first-rounders like trading cards.) Occasionally, two teams can grow frustrated with two different former first-rounders at the same time and consummate a deal. To the team that drafted him, a failed pick will usually look worse than he really is, whereas to another team, he'll look like a guy with enough physical ability to have been a first-round selection at one point. Such a transaction went down today, with the Padres sending Jake Gautreau (#14, 2001) to Cleveland in exchange for Corey Smith (#26, 2000). What's interesting is that, while Gautreau has the better chance of contributing a little something to an ML team down the road, Smith has a lot more breakout potential, by virtue of being 2.5 years younger. Given a choice between a disappointing 25 year old infielder and a 22 year old disappointing infielder, you'll always go for the latter - Gautreau could become a decent bench player down the road, but those guys are available everywhere. Smith, on the other hand, has an incredibly quick swing, which enables him to wait on the pitch for a split-second longer than most hitters can afford. This has translated into improvements across the board offensively over the past few seasons. While Smith doesn't really have a position - he's a miserable defensive third baseman - he's beginning to realize some of his offensive potential, which makes him a worthwhile gamble. Gautreau, on the other hand, will have to work hard just to become Cleveland's very own Justin Leone. ---------- As soon as Magglio Ordonez signs a bloated contract with Detroit, I'll write my final winter market analysis post. The content is going to be new and improved! At least I hope so, after spending several hours editing the spreadsheet last night. ---------- Where once there were two, there is now one, albeit one almost overstuffed with good things. As you've probably read by now, Peter White and Jeff Shaw (who had already moved once) will be joining the USS Mariner crew, the latest stage of the latter's brazen policy of neo-Manifest Destiny. All right, that didn't come off sounding the way I wanted, but the terminology is neat. Anyway, it's interesting to look over the evolution of the Mariners' blogosphere: Stage 1) A few, isolated blogs.

An upper-echelon blog develops, and others gather around it in forming a more cohesive community.

Main blog sparks several offshoots, and the community grows to enormous size.

Where some new blogs succeed, others wither away, leaving a handful of quality sites run by individuals.

Sites combine, resulting in more content in fewer places. Blogosphere shrinks, but suffers no decline in value. I'm not entirely sure what to expect from Stage 6; I don't see many likely candidates for further combination, so the continued evolution will likely follow an unprecedented path. I'm looking forward to it. News :: Entry Link :: 15 Comments Diaries By Jeff

Posted on Tue Feb 01, 2005 at 07:22:42 PM EST

Tue Feb 01, 2005 at 07:22:42 PM EST The bug that required people to add text to both the Intro and Extended boxes has been resolved. Aside from your standard guidelines (no cursing, personal attacks, et al.), the only rule for the diaries is that your entry must be 300+ words long. The thinking behind this stipulation is that anything shorter probably belongs as a comment to a post or open thread. The word limit may be reduced in the future, but we're going to gauge how things are going before making that kind of decision. So, once again, enjoy! News :: Entry Link :: 1 Comment Fun With Unconventional Numbers By Jeff

Posted on Tue Feb 01, 2005 at 07:14:37 PM EST

Tue Feb 01, 2005 at 07:14:37 PM EST After cruising through Grant's latest, I was inspired to flip through my own copy of The Bill James Handbook to see if any Mariners showed up on the leaderboards. Surely, if someone like Brett Tomko is found to have the ninth-fastest average fastball in the NL, then there must be some similar rankings for Mariners, right? This is what I found: Ron Villone: best AL OBP against for the first batter faced in relief (.130)

Julio Mateo: #7 in the AL in the same category (.244)

Ryan Franklin: #7 in the AL in stolen base percentage against (43.8%)

Ryan Franklin: #7 in the AL in runners caught stealing (9)

Eddie Guardado: #1 in the AL in Tough Saves (entering the game with the tying run on base) On to some numbers that deal with the pitches, rather than the results: Ryan Franklin: #8 in the AL in lowest percentage of fastballs thrown (48.3%)

Ryan Franklin: #10 in the AL in percentage of changeups thrown (15.6%)

Ryan Franklin: #9 in the AL in percentage of sliders thrown (16.6%)

Jamie Moyer: #2 in the AL in pitches slower than 80 mph (1448)

Jamie Moyer: #2 in the AL in slowest average fastball (81.6 mph)

Jamie Moyer: #4 in the AL in lowest percentage of fastballs thrown (45.7%)

Jamie Moyer: #1 in the AL in percentage of changeups thrown (31.0%) In case you're curious, Rich Harden registered the fastest average fastball in baseball at 94.3 mph, and Kyle Farnsworth led all arms with 30 pitches of 100+ mph (tied for second were Jesus Colome and Billy Wagner, with 8 apiece). There are some interesting numbers for hitters, too. Observe: Randy Winn: #4 in the AL in steals of third base (8)

Raul Ibanez:#4 in the AL in OPS against curveballs (.966)

Adrian Beltre: #4 in the NL in OPS against fastballs (1.159)

Ichiro: #1 in the AL in BA in close & late situations (.393)

Ichiro: #5 in the AL in BA with the bases loaded (.583) However, my favorite stat of all has to be this one: Ichiro: #7 in the AL in BPS on OutZ (.482) Confused? Of course you are. The explanation is actually quite simple, though. "OutZ" refers to pitches that aren't in the strike zone; "BPS" stands for "Batting average Plus Slugging." The stat is intended to show who are the best and worst hitters on balls out of the zone. That Ichiro checked in at #7 in the AL just further displays his incredible bat control and hitting ability. Edgar Martinez, on the other hand, shows up fourth-worst in the AL in the same statistic, at .123. While he remained a terrific hitter of strikes until the day he retired, he began losing his ability to judge many of those pitches off the outer half of the plate, and it made for some ugly swings. News :: Entry Link :: 12 Comments Welcome! By Jeff

Posted on Mon Jan 31, 2005 at 09:32:43 PM EST

Mon Jan 31, 2005 at 09:32:43 PM EST As several people have pointed out in the past month or two, LeoneForThird needed a name change. So, with the help of Blez and many others, we did those people one better - we got a whole new site. We realize that it's inconvenient to completely change gears again for the second time since November, but we promise that this will be the last major change. So, if you would, please update your bookmarks and favorites. You'll notice that there are three italicized links in the "Other Baseball Blogs" section. They are: Athletics Nation

McCovey Chronicles

Red Reporter You'll also notice that all these sites have a similar layout. What you're seeing is the birth of a new community of interactive sports websites, of which the four of us are pilot members. Of course, the community doesn't really change anything - layout aside, the content will remain the same. The main thing I want to draw your attention to is a little link in the upper right - "Diaries." I think you'll come to love these. A diary is a place for you (that is, any reader) to post his or her thoughts on a certain topic and gather reader responses. Think of them as threads on a message board. This way, the site isn't all about reading what Trent and I have to say. Again, I need to direct your attention to Athletics Nation as an example - go give it a look and see what some of the diaries look like. If there's something you want to talk about, or a question you want to ask, post a diary entry! You don't need to sit and wait around for one of us to get to the topic. And hey, if we really like a reader-submitted diary entry, we'll move it to the main page so that everyone can see it. The only thing that stands between you, the reader, and posting a diary or comment is registration. If you haven't already guessed, the purpose is to prevent spammers from bombing the site. The one-time process is quick and painless; enter your desired username and password, and click the confirmation link that gets sent to your email. Something new to the site will be open threads - places for you to write about pretty much anything that doesn't justify its own diary entry. There will be open threads from time to time during the offseason, along with every gameday - for readers who are watching or listening to the game to chat about play-by-play action with other readers. Completely informal. Just, y'know, keep it respectable. I'm sure there are a million other things to mention, but I can't think of them right now. So, welcome aboard! We hope you enjoy the new site name and design, and we apologize for the inconvenience caused by moving the site. We appreciate any feedback or criticism of Lookout Landing; leave those remarks as comments underneath this post (or, if you want, as a diary!). Site archives are available at the old addresses, located in the right-hand menu. News :: Entry Link :: 27 Comments