TedWilliams101

So now we know why Beckett has sucked this season. He's too busy putting down 2lb burgers. Stop hanging out with David Wells.

Wow, a quadruple post! Yeah, Wells is pretty awesome. I'd take him too.

Bay is the man.

.227 is his career 2-strike hitting, he hit .197 with 2 strikes in 2005, .38 points lower.

I still don't understand what that proves. He hit .197 with 2-strikes, maybe a bit above the NL average for that year, I don't know. However one: it is still bellow his career numbers with 2-strikes, and two: he isn't the average NL hitter, he was above average. I think you aren't quite understanding exactly what I was saying. I've never said that it was normal to "sustain success" with 2 strikes. I was saying that if a player is struggling, they will also be struggling with 2 strikes. Not the other way around. I never said that "when a player struggles or doesn't have success with 2 strikes, they are having a slump." I said "If a player is struggling, they won't be having success with 2 strikes. It isn't because they are a (career) s***** 2-strike hitter, it's because they are struggling.". I also never said that it is impossible for a struggling hitter to be hitting the MLB average with 2-strikes. I said that 2-strike hitting is correlated to BA. 2-strike hitting is generally about 60 points lower that BA. Obviously it still deviates a bit hitter to hitter, but you won't see things like a s***** hitter with great 2-strike abilities or vice verse. I honestly don't think we are in much of a disagreement, I think you are misinterpreting what I am saying.

I started talking about BAbip because you are the one who brought it up. I personally don't think it's a meaningful stat. Sure, if you take into account a plethora of different factors, then sure, it is more meaningful... but then again, the other factors are what is giving you full picture, not that BAbip stat. On 2-strike hitting, I do believe that occasionally a hitter will have a little more success in 2-strike situations than other situtations, but it is rare, and still has more to do with the type of hitter. Guys who rarely strike out (or just swing and miss) will generally have more success in 2-strike hitting situations than the league average. However, I still don't think that crappy hitters have success with 2-strikes. I'm sure you could find a couple of crappy hitters that had some success in one season with 2-strikes, but i'm sure it's extremely rare, and you couldn't find anyone who sustained that over their career. I think my overall point is that a great hitter will have more success than average in 2-strike situations, because they are good hitters. Great hitters that don't strike out often will have even greater success. But crappy hitters simply don't have success with 2-strikes. It just doesn't happen. If you can find some statistical evidence (more than just a couple of outlier single-seasons), I'll gladly eat crow. Also, I didn't know you weren't just reffering to Ortiz with that 2-strike comment... because you were just talking about Ortiz. Oh and with C. , where exactly did you "prove" that struggling hitters could have success with 2-strikes (and please, don't give me examples of guys like Polanco and Eckstein. 2-strike situations mean far less (short term) with guys who only swing and miss 7% of the time).

I wouldn't be surprised to see a reverse-Sabathia scenario happen. I like Peavy, I like his stuff, but I'm very unsure of how successful he can be in the AL.

Where do you come up thinking that I believe 2 strike hitting should be anywhere equal to overall batting average? Rico Blast already posted the stats on the MLB .BA in 2-strike situations. They are low, really low. AND they are correlated to overall .BA. BABIP is really best used with respect to pitchers. For hitters, there are just so many variables that effect BABIP that I find it's pretty useless. For instance, Albert Pujols is clearly the best hitter in baseball, yet his BAbip is much lower than his .BA. What does that mean? Not much, really. Contact guys generally have a lower BAbip than others because they don't strike out much. I looked through many many players stats and BAbip I really didn't find anything useful about it. Ichiro has a high BAbip because he beats out so many balls. Manny Ramirez has a high BAbip because he strikes out 100+ times a season. Pujols has a low BAbip because he doesn't strike out often, but doesn't have great speed either. The point? We were discussing Ortiz struggling in 2-strike situations. In many of those situations he was striking out. His BAbip really wouldn't reveal much at all. Just to show you what I mean, Ortiz has a .316 BAbip in 2-strike situations this season... yet is only hitting .179 overall in that situation. Why? Because he is striking out so much. Heck, even in respect to pitchers, I still think it isn't all that meaningful of a stat. Take Josh Beckett for example. In 2007, clearly his best year yet, he posted his best strikeout numbers, wins, 2nd most inning pitched, 2nd lowest era, 2nd fewest walks, yet he had a BAbip over .300. Why? Because he struck out almost a person an inning and gave up very few HRs.

What does that have to do with 2 strike hitting? We aren't talking about him getting robbed every night, he simply couldn't dive a ball. I don't see the relevance. On another note, I'm glad Papi finally got the elusive first HR of the season, but I'm still fairly skeptical. He didn't exactly kill the pitch and still looked off all night. I just chock the HR up to pure luck, statistically irrelevant. I'm still waiting for him to put together better at-bats and really start driving the ball.

That was fun. I wouldn't mind seeing more games like this.

Can Tek get 3??? Lol

Lol, Baldelli triples. This is fun.

Is this the New Yankee Stadium or somethiing? Lowell goes deep.

Bay. Of course. Smoked.

WHAT? WHAT?? HE DID IT!!! HE DID IT!!!!! FINALLY!!!

TEK AGAIN!!!! WOW!!! 2 HRs so far... You know its sad when Tek has a 2 HR game before Papi has a SINGLE HR on the season.

TEK!

Ugh. I hate double plays.

I don't know why, because it isn't actually the case. So far this year, wake has been given an average of 8.72 runs per 9 innings. In 2008: 7.51, 2007: 7.62, 2006: 6.88. It's just a myth.

Damn it Ellsbury. He'd be unstoppable if he only knew when to run...

Pathetic game, pathetic road trip, pathetic road team.

And here comes the walkoff...

And here comes the DP...

Now that is more like the Aardvark we had last year.

Interesting team stat: Homes Games: .308 BA .391 OBP .527 SLG .918 OPS Road Games: .248 BA .342 OBP .389 SLG .731 OPS Um, WOW. They are near inept on the road so far.