We're Gonna Need a Bigger Shovel
Ramblings of a cranky sports fan
Greatest sport ever despite its current problems.
Well tonight is Game 5 of the 2019 World Series and we are all tied at 2. Every game so far has been won by the visiting team. That has not happened since 1996. Hopefully the Nationals will put a stop to that tonight. Should be quite the show with the President attending the game. […]
Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash It is getting very tiresome to see writers saying that modern pitchers are better in the postseason than pitchers from baseball’s past. You can NOT compare the two. Until 1969, there was only the World Series. No wildcard games, no division series and no league championship series. Pitchers got two, sometimes three […]
I was a fan of this franchise back when it was the Montreal Expos. It feels good to see the team reach the World Series in its 50th year of operation. And extra sweet to see them do it without Bryce Harper. I don’t think they have much chance of winning the World Series, but […]
It will be a great day when Justin Verlander receives his 2019 Cy Young Award. I can hear the sabermetric “experts” crying now. The man may be the last 20 game winner for a long time. You don’t need to look any farther than the sub 3 ERA, 21 wins, 300 strikeouts and first in […]
Has anyone made any fuss about Nick Castellanos hitting 58 doubles in 2019? That is the 10th most doubles in one season in MLB EVER!!! The media is so in love with advanced metrics they are missing a really historic event. This man is a doubles machine! Tried and true stats like doubles (and total […]
The more I read about the methods used to calculate WAR (Wins Above Replacement), the more I shake my head. Even the sites that explain it admit that the calculation is very subjective (which means suspicious). I imagine the people who come up with calculation sit in front of a spreadsheet on their computer and […]
Today I want to vent about MLB’s replay. The sports media pushed long and hard for this. And as soon as it was implemented, they moaned long and hard about its faults. The simple answer to that is that replay was NOT needed and should never have come to pass. I very rarely heard any […]
Wins Above Replacement is defined as a number that shows the wins a player adds to his team above what a replacement player would contribute. For a single-season 8 or more is MVP quality, 5-8 is All-Star quality, 2-5 is a starter, 0-2 is a bench player, less than 0 is replacement level. This stat […]
Welcome to my blog on sports and why all sports can be better for fans. My main sports interests are MLB and NASCAR, although I really enjoy NFL fantasy football. I have been watching sports on TV and live since the 1980s (yes I am that old!) and lately have noticed two disturbing trends – […]