trwi7

Absolutely. That's much more difficult. Another thing that wasn't noticed is that Howard took off from just behind the free throw line with two feet. You can find lots of guys in the NBA who can make it from a step inside the free throw line to the hoop on one foot. On two feet? Not so much. Howard is just an athletic freak.

I'm just hoping that's tape over what should be his mouth to prevent him from saying anything stupid.

The definition of a dunk is the person's hand(s) and the ball being above the rim. It's a common misconception that the player has to have his hand(s) on the rim for the shot to be considered a dunk. Here are the Slam Dunk Contest highlights And here

I know it's not about the all-star game but Dwight Howard was absolutely incredible at the dunk contest last night. The best I've ever seen. As for the all-star game itself. It's a little ridiculous that the NBA made Kobe start. There's some stupid rule that if you played in your teams last game before the all-star break and you're a starter then you have to play. Kobe has a finger injury that will probably require surgery at some point and if he jams it it will require surgery so they are going to make him play a meaningless exhibition game when he should rest it for his team? Screw you David Stern.

That's the way I feel. They keep harping on the old uniforms 25 years ago from the last time the team was good. I don't even think the uniforms are all that great anyways.

Here's the video of it. Even more hilarious than the story. http://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/Brett_Myers_is_the_new_Ashton_Kootcher_with_video/147559

How do you figure? If they find out he needs surgery then they'll get it done ASAP. We're still 6 weeks away from opening day. You think he's going to miss until late April early May?

If it's only 3-4 weeks then it's not that bad and thank God it has nothing to do with his arm.

I read this yesterday. Brilliant.

1.300 OPS? We're screwed. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Link

Maybe he just sees the ball extremely well out of a lefties hand. I remember an article saying that when he was a kid his dad would always pitch to him and he was left handed so maybe he just sees the ball exceptionally well out of a lefties hand.

I don't think there's any way he hits 60 HR's in a season although I wouldn't complain if he did. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Hey! He only lost 12 games that year. I mean, who cares if he had a 4.94 ERA, 1.56 WHIP and walked 4.77 per 9 innings? He won bottom line.

Okay here's my recap. Anybody can feel free to add anything on that I might have missed. -It all started when Bill James was circumspect about the emphasis scouts put on the visible performance of players saying that approach alone is too subjective. -James and other statisticians looking at the biggest possible picture. -James got started with developing Sabermetrics working as a night watchman. He said he would go around the plant once an hour and the rest of the time he would be looking at box scores out of Sporting News. -James' theories were shunned at first until the general managers of the Oakland A's and Boston Red Sox noticed them and started to use them. -Sandy Alderson, now the CEO of the Padres but formerly of the Oakland A's starter using Sabermetrics back in the 1980's. He was a lawyer that was involved in contract negotiations before a front office shake up gave him the GM job. Alderson said something along the lines of he was glad he wasn't involved in baseball at the time because he might have been influenced by the old school theories and then may have never used Sabermetrics. -James estimates that managers make 11,000 decisions in a season. -Doesn't like the sacrifice. He belives that the out you lose may be three times as valuable as the base you gain. -They were showing run expectancy per inning. If you have a runner on 1st with 0 outs you average .953 runs per inning, if the next batter sacrifices the runner to 2nd the run expectancy drops to .725 runs per inning, if he bunts into a double play the run expectancy drops to .117, however, if the batter gets a hit the run expectancy would jump to at least 1.573 runs per inning. -When talking about stolen bases James said if a team hits 10 more doubles, draws 10 more walks or hit two points higher in batting average those all connect to winning except stealing bases. -He uses linear weights formula for trying to see how much stealing bases matters. -It studies the cost of making an out stealing bases when you don't need to. Shows that stealing bases is a "worthless strategy" even at the average of 70% success rate. -James doesn't like intentional walks, even to the best hitters in baseball. He said any batter who gets on base, no matter how has a higher percentage chance of scoring. -They then go on to talk about closers. Alan Schwartz I believe his name is said that if you're winning by two runs in the 9th inning you already have 95% chance of winning no matter what. They went on to say your best reliever would most likely be best used in the 7th inning. -Talked about "similarity scores" which is used to compare players. They compare them by using whatever factor(s) are relevant to the study. That could include batting average, games played, runs, at-bats etc. If the comparison player's score was 850 points or greater they are similar to the benchmark player. Anything below 800 the players are not similar. -As more teams begin to use Sabermetrics advantages are lost and teams are always looking for new ideas (this leads to the new fielding statistics.) -James believes that fielding statistics are the last bastion of Sabermetrics. -James says fielding statistics are so primitive and badly organized that we don't know how many runs a players defense might have cost the team. -They went to Baseball Info Solutions to interview a few of their analysts and to uncover how they determine their fielding statistics. They track every pitch, the location, speed, and trajectory of every hit and fielding play and assess individual responsibility for the results. -The information is coded on specifically developed software that can instantly break out all relationships and averages between balls hit and fielded. -The idea is once each fielder's misplays, errors and successes are calculated, then averaged in comparison to league standards, they would be able to say who was better than the norm and who was worse. Bill James also gave his all-time team. This is what it was. C- Yogi Berra- Because of his consistency in offensive contribution. He also noted that Josh Gibson could have been the best catcher of all-time but they don't have enough data to see. 1B- Lou Gehrig- Because he was a better hitter than anybody else. 2B- Joe Morgan- Because he had a ton of power and walks. Called Morgan te best percentage player baseball ever had. 3B- Mike Schmidt- Because of his power and walks. Also because he was the best defensive 3rd baseman ever. SS- Honus Wagner- "Extremely obvious." LF- Ted Williams- "Extraordinary offense outweighs his shortcomings as a left fielder, base-runner and human being." CF- Willie Mays- Tremendous power, speed and defense. RF- Babe Ruth- Because of his power and walks and his .348 batting average created more run per game, per at-bat than anybody else who ever played the game. SP- Roger Clemens- In his opinion what he accomplished on the mound is more impressive than what anybody else in history has accomplished.

Okay here's my recap. Anybody can feel free to add anything on that I might have missed. -It all started when Bill James was circumspect about the emphasis scouts put on the visible performance of players saying that approach alone is too subjective. -James and other statisticians looking at the biggest possible picture. -James got started with developing Sabermetrics working as a night watchman. He said he would go around the plant once an hour and the rest of the time he would be looking at box scores out of Sporting News. -James' theories were shunned at first until the general managers of the Oakland A's and Boston Red Sox noticed them and started to use them. -Sandy Alderson, now the CEO of the Padres but formerly of the Oakland A's starter using Sabermetrics back in the 1980's. He was a lawyer that was involved in contract negotiations before a front office shake up gave him the GM job. Alderson said something along the lines of he was glad he wasn't involved in baseball at the time because he might have been influenced by the old school theories and then may have never used Sabermetrics. -James estimates that managers make 11,000 decisions in a season. -Doesn't like the sacrifice. He belives that the out you lose may be three times as valuable as the base you gain. -They were showing run expectancy per inning. If you have a runner on 1st with 0 outs you average .953 runs per inning, if the next batter sacrifices the runner to 2nd the run expectancy drops to .725 runs per inning, if he bunts into a double play the run expectancy drops to .117, however, if the batter gets a hit the run expectancy would jump to at least 1.573 runs per inning. -When talking about stolen bases James said if a team hits 10 more doubles, draws 10 more walks or hit two points higher in batting average those all connect to winning except stealing bases. -He uses linear weights formula for trying to see how much stealing bases matters. -It studies the cost of making an out stealing bases when you don't need to. Shows that stealing bases is a "worthless strategy" even at the average of 70% success rate. -James doesn't like intentional walks, even to the best hitters in baseball. He said any batter who gets on base, no matter how has a higher percentage chance of scoring. -They then go on to talk about closers. Alan Schwartz I believe his name is said that if you're winning by two runs in the 9th inning you already have 95% chance of winning no matter what. They went on to say your best reliever would most likely be best used in the 7th inning. -Talked about "similarity scores" which is used to compare players. They compare them by using whatever factor(s) are relevant to the study. That could include batting average, games played, runs, at-bats etc. If the comparison player's score was 850 points or greater they are similar to the benchmark player. Anything below 800 the players are not similar. -As more teams begin to use Sabermetrics advantages are lost and teams are always looking for new ideas (this leads to the new fielding statistics.) -James believes that fielding statistics are the last bastion of Sabermetrics. -James says fielding statistics are so primitive and badly organized that we don't know how many runs a players defense might have cost the team. -They went to Baseball Info Solutions to interview a few of their analysts and to uncover how they determine their fielding statistics. They track every pitch, the location, speed, and trajectory of every hit and fielding play and assess individual responsibility for the results. -The information is coded on specifically developed software that can instantly break out all relationships and averages between balls hit and fielded. -The idea is once each fielder's misplays, errors and successes are calculated, then averaged in comparison to league standards, they would be able to say who was better than the norm and who was worse. Bill James also gave his all-time team. This is what it was. C- Yogi Berra- Because of his consistency in offensive contribution. He also noted that Josh Gibson could have been the best catcher of all-time but they don't have enough data to see. 1B- Lou Gehrig- Because he was a better hitter than anybody else. 2B- Joe Morgan- Because he had a ton of power and walks. Called Morgan te best percentage player baseball ever had. 3B- Mike Schmidt- Because of his power and walks. Also because he was the best defensive 3rd baseman ever. SS- Honus Wagner- "Extremely obvious." LF- Ted Williams- "Extraordinary offense outweighs his shortcomings as a left fielder, base-runner and human being." CF- Willie Mays- Tremendous power, speed and defense. RF- Babe Ruth- Because of his power and walks and his .348 batting average created more run per game, per at-bat than anybody else who ever played the game. SP- Roger Clemens- In his opinion what he accomplished on the mound is more impressive than what anybody else in history has accomplished.

Try this.

Quick! Everybody act surprised!

I'll try to stay up until 2 this morning but if I can't just hope that it records. If it does record then I'll post a recap sometime tomorrow. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I'll try to stay up until 2 this morning but if I can't just hope that it records. If it does record then I'll post a recap sometime tomorrow. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thanks for the heads up. I'll record it and post a recap if anybody wants one.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll record it and post a recap if anybody wants one.

I believe you're talking about the game on June 30th. It was the 1st inning Fontenot had just tripled in Soriano, nobody was out. He threw an 83 mph changeup in the dirt on a full count that Lee flailed at.

Three people are dead including the gunman.

From the front page of Northern Illinois University's website. http://www.niu.edu/alert/images/safety_alert.jpg