Comments on: Umpires reach agreement with MLB

By: George

George — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:51:39 +0000

The ‘Regular Season Total Save Stat’ is used as a marketing vehicle by some teams to sell tickets, jazz up fans, and get a fake award for a reliever. A recent example is Frankie Rodriguez in 2008 with the Angels. He had more ‘Regular Season Save Opportunities’ and ‘Regular Season Saves’ than everyone else, but his performance lagged greatly in other meaningful stats. First you have to have a team with the luxury of giving a reliever nothing but one inning “opportunities” hopefully with no one on base and a nice lead. Then it helps if the team has the division sewn up or has no hope, so you can put your cookie reliever in there to pad his stats. It helps too if Bud Selig wants to change baseball culture to elevate the ‘Regular Season Total Save Stat’ making it available for manipulation for or against a particular player. In so doing, the modern player whose greater accomplishments it can marginalize the most is of course Rivera. They come up with bits like, will Rivera ever catch Hoffman? The Hoffman camp is obsessed with Rivera and imagines their guy has some relevance to baseball in New York. Of course, he doesn’t, no one cares about him and his over hyped stat. Howard Bryant on 10/23/09 wrote about Rivera after one of the Angels ALCS games. As an ESPN employee, he has to measure his words, but he did say, “Of all the positions in all of professional sports, there is no greater gap than the best closer of all time to the second best. He is that good.” The media have already put Hoffman in the Hall, fine. Selig, who to a great extent controls certain baseball awards voting, wants to grease the skids for Hoffman and has put his advocacy in an MLB.com article on Hall of Fame stationery.

By: CR9

CR9 — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:37:51 +0000

test – >

By: Erica - always OPPC - Bring Johnny Back!!!

Erica - always OPPC - Bring Johnny Back!!! — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:19:27 +0000

new thread

By: blake

blake — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:18:20 +0000

Vinny b, I think they said he was steping down for medical reasons..

Nick put your powder blue on and go cheer for the heels.

By: vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!)

vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:10:30 +0000

does it mean Brian Kelly never coaches his first game?

By: Nick in SF in Charlotte, NC

Nick in SF in Charlotte, NC — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:09:11 +0000

I’ve seen a bunch of UNF fans and zero Pitt fans around town for this crapfest…I’ve been quite close to the stadium several times in recent days…the stakes could not be lower, but at least it’s a close game.

By: it's a stretch

it's a stretch — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:04:45 +0000

the crickets stopped chirping

that is pretty big news as far as college football is concerned

By: Nick in SF in Charlotte, NC

Nick in SF in Charlotte, NC — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:03:40 +0000

Urban Meyer shocker!

By: vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!)

vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:53:33 +0000

pick up a backup for LF, and the team is covered

By: vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!)

vinny-b (NJ and Granderson - thank you Cashman!) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:51:36 +0000

everyone who complaining

don’t forget: http://yankees.lhblogs.com/200.....vin-russo/