strawbossisevil

Those often apply to both teams, home and away. Just because the game is in Milwaukee doesn´t mean the Milwaukee players didn´t have to fly in the night before. The whole season is a big long roadtrip for the MLB player. I could see time zone changes of 2+ hours potentially having an impact. Less than that, not so much. I suppose you could prove your theory by looking into how teams do in the final three games of a homestand versus the first three games of a homestand. Is there a sizeable difference between the two? The difference would account for the average advantage gained by not having to travel.

Except the only difference in traveling is whether you sleep on a hotel bed or your own bed at home. I really don´t think one´s tiredness would be all that different. Home teams have to travel too, since they have series on the road. The argument would hold a lot more weight if one team always played at home, and never traveled while the other team traveled. That isn´t the case. Both teams often have late flights before a given series. I´ve traveled quite a bit myself, and I´ve never found my nights in hotels to be any less restful than nights in my own bed. I think, if anything, spending your night in your house rather than a hotel is more emotionally satisfying, going back to emotions. There have been plenty of studies that have shown the positive results of receiving encouragement, versus the negative results of receiving criticism. Are we to say that players are immune? Or that it is some small thing? No. I think it is the biggest explanation as to why teams do better at home than on the road, and a far better explanation than...people sleep better in their bedroom versus on that king size bed in the hotel suite.

I don´t buy that staying in a hotel versus staying at home is capable of accounting for homefield advantage. I believe there is something in the emotions of the players that is influenced by having the fans on your side cheering you on. A few examples would be in international competition, such as international soccer. When two teams play, the home team is often heavily favored. Both teams spend the night in a hotel, so that can´t be it. What is it then...emotions. I think you have to be absolutely cynical to outright deny that the emotions of a player don´t play a role in giving them a home-field advantage.

Except it happens in every sport. Football, soccer, basketball, hockey. Is staying in a posh hotel all that more tiring than staying in your posh home? I doubt it, the whole season is essentially one long sustained road trip. I think it most definitely is an issue of emotions.

A player's mental state certainly goes into how well the player plays. For a simple example of this, look at the principle of home field advantage. Why do players play better at home than they do on the road? It almost certainly has to do with the mental state of the players. I hoped I made it clear that I am not suggesting that emotions play no role in performance. There is no question that it can. My question was whether we should automatically ASSUME that a slumping batter who throws his bat after a bad AB, negatively impacts his expected performance going forward? My stance is simply that it could vary from "a lot" to "not to any meaningful degree" depending on the player and situation. Assuming "a lot" is just as bad as assuming "not at all". Fans too often use the slump as evidence that emotions are affecting the batter, so it just becomes a chicken-egg situation. Give a robot a 25% chance of getting a hit for 600 consecutive AB's and he will also show clear evidence of being "locked in and confident" one second and "frustrated" the next.I get what you are saying now. It probably is somewhere on the continuum of "a lot" and "not to any meaningful degree" for Craig. Although as this stretch goes on for longer, I imagine the needle has to begin to point more toward "a lot". He's human just like the rest of us. It is one thing to go on a 0-10 slide. Every player in the game expects those types of slumps to come around. But as his slump has gone on now for over a month, just the embarrassment of it all has to have an ever increasing impact on his game and his confidence at the plate. He is 6 ABs from being the laughing stock of all of Major League Baseball, and I imagine that he is aware of it and that it has greatly impacted his confidence. That's a guess, but I think it is a fair guess to make.

Could you stop repeating this as if it is some confirmed fact. It isn't. In fact it goes against every indication given by Doug Melvin to this point.

Counsell has often shown disappointment through his body language after a poor AB, especially with runners on and he's the third out. Since he hasn't had a hit in forever, he's certainly increased how often he has shown disappointment. The more important question is, do we HAVE to automatically assume that when a batter shows disappointment during a cold streak, it serves only to proliferate that poor performance? I mean, it's completely fair to assume that it could be, but it's quite possible that Counsell is completely focused during the AB's, so whatever he does after is irrelevant. Do I lose my baseball-fan card for even posing the question? A player's mental state certainly goes into how well the player plays. For a simple example of this, look at the principle of home field advantage. Why do players play better at home than they do on the road? It almost certainly has to do with the mental state of the players. The power of positive thinking is a very real thing in sports. I don't know how exactly it can represented in statistics, but it certainly exists and is a factor that needs to be considered. This is why simply looking into the stats as if they were produced by some robots will always fail to give a completely accurate picture of a player. They aren't robots, they are human beings who are on the same emotional rollercoasters that the rest of us are. We often don't know what is going on behind the scenes that may be effecting their moods, and their resulting performance.

I think this is exactly right. For a short-term fix, Farris is the right guy to bring up. If we aren´t able to pick up anyone in a trade, then you add Green to the 40 man roster and bring him up. The other logical possibility is that Green is a building block for an upcoming trade, and the team trading for Green would prefer that he not be added to the 40 man roster. There are so many possibilities that don´t amount to Green being one of the PTBNL in the K-Rod deal, that just saying otherwise is taking a rather large leap. In fact, given all we know, and Melvin´s statement that it wasn´t a top prospect, I would be genuinely surprised if Green was the PTBNL.

Which player is likely to play at his full potential, the tired player or the well rested player. It may not be the magic cure to ending a cold streak, but it certainly allows the player to play at his peak. Agreed on the baserunning, although can we guarantee that the Brewers would actually be winning if they made all the right moves on the basepaths? I'm not sure we can say that much.

Right, but if you've been watching the game. That hasn't been called a strike all night. In fact, the Giants pitching coach was tossed for arguing over a called ball that was even closer to the strike zone than that last one to Braun.I know, but it was infact too close to take since it was a strikeBut it wasn't a strike...it wasn't a strike all game. If the umpire hasn't given the lower outside corner all game, you would be a fool to swing at a lower outside corner pitch when your team needs baserunners. That strikeout was on West for not calling a consistent strike zone, and not Braun in my opinion.

Gameday had in on the corner for a strikeFox had it 2 inches outside. The point is if its a 50/50 call between a walk and a K that's better odds than putting the ball in play.Or you could just foul it off until you get a pitch that is a 100% walk.

Gameday had in on the corner for a strikeRight, but if you've been watching the game. That hasn't been called a strike all night. In fact, the Giants pitching coach was tossed for arguing over a called ball that was even closer to the strike zone than that last one to Braun.

Just spitballing a reason why someone might suggest that. A walk usually happens when a pitcher´s control is not as fine tuned as it should be. Therefore...a pitcher who begins an inning with a walk is potentially more likely to miss his locations to the hitter in ways that could lead to more runs. I don´t actually believe that to be the case...but it might be the reasoning that is being followed by Bill. I would be curious, over the history of the game, if there is any quantifiable difference in the percentage of time a single to lead off an inning scores, and a walk to lead an inning scores. In order to make it mean anything, I would add that we should solely focus on situations where the same pitcher who gave up the walk/single to begin the inning is the one who pitching when either the third out is made or the runner on first scores.

So that makes this the worst loss of the year? Oh the melodrama.

The worst lose of the season? Really?!? You do realize the season has been going on since April, right?

Morgan wasn´t safe. They showed a close up on the Giants network. He was clearly out on the replay.

He´s given up 2 ER over 5 innings while striking out 6 and walking 0. I would say that this is a pretty good outing that I would gladly take from any of our starting pitchers on any given night. Over the long run, I still think some of these HR and BABIP totals will normalize, as they remain at historically unsustainable levels. Either you have to admit that Greinke is far different from any other pitcher in the history of baseball. Or you have to agree that he won´t continue to be hit like he has to this point in the season.

Link?

I thought the standard line of the "stat experts" on UZR was that you needed three years of data to prove anything. Furcal has been injured almost the entire season. Now I´m willing to agree that it may mean he hasn´t gotten to a few balls he normally would get to. But it seems no one was willing to concede the opposite when Betancourts defensive UZR numbers were fairly respectable after a month of play. So...point being, you can´t have it one way and not the other. Personally I think Furcal is just shaking off some rust from being on and off the DL twice this season. I think he´ll be fine for the rest of the season and will likely provide a nice top of the order bat.

Yes, but he made the pitches to get himself out of the jam. It was a play that just about every 3b makes. He botched it.

I agree that I like Bill better than Cirillo as well. Bill is a bit more of a polished speaker, even if I do find myself disagreeing with him.

Greinke with 7Ks already through 3 innings. He certainly knows how to finish off hitters. Now if only he would have luck go a bit more his way along with some better defense.

Those two runs are on Gamel, not on Greinke. The defense hasn't exactly helped Greinke all that much this year.

How many games has Loe cost us to this point? It has to be bordering on double digits at this point. At some point Roenike needs to get a clue and realize this guy should not be our setup man. And then you have Hawkins who has been lights out, and he doesn´t see the light of day in these tight and close situations.

At this point, who cares where his ERA ends up at the end of the season. All I care about is what he does going forward, and I still believe he´ll be a guy whose ERA is in the low to mid 3s going forward. All this slow start did, is make him far more affordable in a contract extension.