HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dave@snitor.UUCP (Dave Till)
Subject: Re: Blue Jays vs. Red Sox
Organization: Jays Fans Happy With Game #1
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:05:01 GMT

In article <1992Apr5.164309.4694@cs.cornell.edu> tedward@cs.cornell.edu (Edward [Ted] Fischer) writes:
>
>The biggest reason why the Blue Jays are overrated: They have good
>defense.  People give them credit once for their pitching (which has
>an artificially low ERA due to the defense), and *again* for the
>defense.  Yet those runs are only prevented once!

Who is giving credit twice?  Of course the team ERA is lower because of
the team's defense.  Who cares who gets credit?  The Jays are allowing
fewer runs than the other teams are, and that's what counts.

>Of course, their offense is overrated too.  Position by position:
>[lineup comparison deleted]

As an exercise, I performed your comparison by fielding position rather
than lineup position:

C  Borders/Myers vs. Pena	Advantage Toronto
1B Olerud vs. Vaughn		Advantage Toronto (until Vaughn proves himself)
2B Alomar vs. Reed		Advantage Toronto
SS Lee vs. Rivera		Advantage Boston
3B Gruber vs. Boggs		Advantage Boston
LF Carter vs. Greenwell		Advantage Toronto
CF White vs. Burks		Advantage Toronto (unless White crashes and
						Burks rebounds)
RF Plantier vs. Bell/Maldonado	Advantage Boston
DH Winfield vs. Clark		Advantage Boston

When you do it *this* way, it's much closer.

However, neither of our Expert Analyses (tm) are worth a bucket of warm spit.
There's too many factors to consider.  At least we can finally
gather data on the subject now (play ball!).
-- 
--Dave Till, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Sietec Open Systems Division,
2235 Sheppard Ave. E. #1800, Willowdale, Ont. (dave@sni.CA or dave@snitor.uucp)
"Whatever you do, Jerry Lee Lewis has already done it.  Probably better, too."
  --Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell
From: v_siede@pavo.concordia.ca (KALDIS, BILL)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Expos-Mets Series - Some Random Thoughts
Date: 12 Apr 92 23:02:00 GMT
Organization: Concordia University
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


     Just finished watching the Expos-Mets games this weekend, and here is 
an observation about the 1992 Expos.

     After six games, the Expos have a team ERA of about 2.00.  Now I know 
its early in the season, but I had noticed a pattern in the way GM Dan 
Duquette put together his off-season deals to improve the catching 
situation.  Both Gary Carter and Darrin Fletcher seem to improve the ERA of 
their pitchers.

                               With him       With someone
                               catching       else catching    ERA Improves

      Carter   1989  NY          2.97             3.41            0.44
      Carter   1990  SF          3.64             4.33            0.69
      Carter   1991  LA          2.80             3.20            0.40

      Fletcher 1991  PHI         2.96             4.13            1.17

     Wow, has Duquette found an edge here?  On four different teams, a 
collective group of pitchers with an ERA of 3.78 (average for the NL) turns 
into a very respectable group with an ERA of 3.09 with Carter/Fletcher.  If 
this is something more than random error, this is a huge effect.  Even if I 
take the lower end of the range = 0.40 improvement it would have an 
astounding impact on the Expos won-lost record, even more than if they 
signed, say, a Barry Bonds as a free-agent.
     Let's wade through a little arithmetic.  The 1990 Expos had a team ERA 
of 3.64.  If we assume that Carter/Fletcher's impact on team ERA is to 
reduce it by 0.40, then the Expos would have had a team ERA of 3.24 last 
year.  This would take them from 583 earned runs to 518, an improvement of 
65 runs (wow!).  To simplify matters, let's also assume that the runs given 
up would also fall by 65 runs.  Thus, the 1990 Expos would give up only 590 
runs vs. the 655 they gave up last year.  Using the Pythogorean Theorem (
developed by Bill James) and plugging in their 579 offensive runs, they 
would be projected to win 79 games, AN IMPROVEMENT OF EIGHT GAMES!
     I think James once estimated that a Mike Schmidt vs. a replacement 
level 3B was worth 5-6 games in the standings.  If this is true, Dan 
Duquette has done the equivalent of signing a Mike Schmidt plus a Tug 
McGraw.
     I'm sure this can't be right, no player can have that a big an impact 
without it being noticeable.  Or, maybe Duquette is really onto something 
here.  So far, the pitching staff has responded to Fletcher/Carter.  You 
can bet I'm going to be watching this phenomenon closely.

Bill Kaldis
Concordia University.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)
Subject: Re: Glove errors v. throwing errors
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 22:02:00 GMT

snichols@adobe.com (Sherri Nichols) writes:

>So, about 7% of the time, errors will result in a worse scenario than a
>hit.  This is a very small effect.

How often, though, does a runner on 1st advance to 3rd, or a runner on second
score, on an error that leaves the batter at first.  I suspect that 7% of
the time errors will result in a worse scenario than a single, but that about
50% of the time or more they will result in a "better" situation in that
baserunners will advance only one base.  (Figuring in the advancement rate to
3rd from 1st or home from 2nd on a single.)
-- 
ami silberman - janitor of lunacy
	silber@cs.uiuc.edu
From: srobson@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Seth I Robson)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Juan Samuel--who pays.
Date: 15 Apr 92 22:45:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: darkstar.33025
Organization: CMD: Criminal Minded Drunks.


In article <1992Apr15.192124.29053@leland.Stanford.EDU> claudius@leland.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu) writes:
> In article <1992Apr15.190939.10062@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> ncovey@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (neil covey) writes:
>> I'm a Dodger fan, but sometimes I wonder:
>> Do the Dodgers pay Juan Samuel or does the rest of the National League
>> pay them to keep him on their roster?
>
> Come on.  Samuel's not *that* bad!  At least he's better offensively than
> Mark Lemke, Jose Lind, and Mickey Morandini...

Defensively, he's not even close to those guys.  Offensively, yeah, well,
he's somewhat better then they.  Salary-wise, he makes at least double
what any of them make (I assume Lind is the highest paid of that trio) and
let's face it, the Dodgers could probably find more use for a good defense,
less hit second baseman than they could with Samuel.

--
Seth I. Robson: srobson@ucscb.ucsc.edu  "The only alternative to the Spectacle
                 srobson@cats.ucsc.edu   becomes the Spectacle of the
  University of California, Santa Cruz   alternative."  
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)
Subject: Re: why righty-righty match-up?
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Distribution: rec.sport.baseball
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 14:56:41 GMT

gmkumar@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (G. Mahinthakumar) writes:

>Hi Netters,
>This is my first posting to rsb although I've been following
>it for the past 6 months. This could be something very obvious,
>but I cannot hold this question any longer. Here it goes..

>Is it true that right handed batters hit better against
>right handed pitchers?  or is it the other way around?

>If so, why?

>-Kumar

>PS:
>My office mate is a little league coach and he says that
>it is just statistical evidence

Right handed batters hit better against left handed pitchers, left handed
batters better against right handed pitchers.  Switch hitters generaly hit
best when batting from their natural side.  (Nearly all switch hitters were
taught, or taught themselves, to switch hit.  Few are totally ambedextrous).
There are very, very few (about the same number as might be attributed to 
random chance) hitters with a reverse platoon difference.  (The platoon
difference is the effect above, righties hitting vs. lefties better etc.)
When you look at players with 1000 or more plate appearances in the majors,
you almost never find a reverse platoon difference.  The platoon difference
affects batting average, slugging, and usually walk rates as well.

Now, why, you may ask, does this occur.  The best explanation I've seen is
that a) It is harder to hit the opposite corner of the plate, so it is
harder for a right handed pitcher to pitch inside to a lefty than to a righty,
and b) The curve ball of a righty looks, to another righty, like an inside
pitch that breaks outside, this is harder to hit than an outside pitch
breaking inside, which is what it looks like to a lefty.
In general, those pitchers with an inverse platoon differential (righties
pitching better to lefties than to righties etc.) over the course of
several seasons are those who throw many split-finger fastballs etc, or
knuckle balls.
-- 
ami silberman - janitor of lunacy
	silber@cs.uiuc.edu
From: srobson@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Seth I Robson)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: '92 edition of Giants
Date: 10 Apr 92 09:38:40 GMT
Organization: Waffle.


In article <8psjh4f.mzimmers@netcom.com> mzimmers@netcom.com (Michael Zimmers) writes:
>
>After watching the Giants knock around the Braves' pitching staff
>tonight, a couple of thoughts crossed my fertile mind...
>
>1)  This season's edition of the team has significantly more speed
>    than any other in quite awhile (early '70s, perhaps).  Fielding
>    a lineup that includes Lewis, Felder, McGee and Clayton gives
>    them team speed that is, well, almost acceptable, and *much*
>    better than the stone-laden teams of late.  I realize that an
>    outfield of Felder, Lewis and McGee is a bit light on punch (OK,
>    so it's very light on punch), but it's fun to see the team run a
>    bit.

I think Roger Craig would have to agree with that assertation.  In
spring training, he was much more prone to having guys like MeGee run
than he was last season.  The rationale is that the Giants don't have that
much power anymore or some such.  With Will Clark and Matt Williams, you
can't say they're some sort of punchless singles-hitters' team now.  Adding
in Robby Thompson's 15 or so HR and whatever guys like Cory Synder (yes,
seriously!), Mark Leonard, and whomever else gets to play in the outfield can
contribute...  The only thing missing is another good left-handed bat lower
in the order (unless McGee bats fifth a lot, as he did tonight against the
Braves)--which leaves a trail of right-handed bats from 4 through 8 in the
lineup.  I've been saying it for years: they need to put Mark Leonard out
there, dammit!

>2)  I didn't get much chance to watch Clayton in the spring, but he's
>    been a dazzler in the early going.  Two plays that are sure to 
>    make the highlight film, including one tonight that immediately
>    evoked images of the Wizard.  I am aware that it's a bit early
>    to make such comparisons, but it looks to be a safe bet that
>    the Giants didn't lose anything in the field by benching Uribe.

Yep, I think he's the real McCoy.  He made a really spectacular play against
the Dodgers the other night, twisting around to get at a sharp grounder that
took some insane hop behind him, raced to second and threw on to first to
complete a 6-3 double play.  He still needs to improve his consistency, but
he's made great strides since that season in San Jose two years ago where he
made a bushelful of errors.  And, of course, I like his bat.  If he can
draw walks and exhibit some bat control, then perhaps he should hit second,
leaving Robby Thompson's all-or-nothing approach at the plate for the
seventh slot.

--
Seth I. Robson; srobson@ucscb.ucsc.edu  [ humm-baby! ]
University of California, Santa Cruz
"There's something kind of EUUUUUUUGH about a kid that doesn't like
 to play baseball..."  -- Foghorn Leghorn.
From: jlhaferman@l_eld01.icaen.uiowa.edu (Jeff Haferman)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: dates wanted for EXPOS in mid-may
Date: 13 Apr 92 21:46:40 GMT


I am planning on being in Montreal from May 12 - May 18.  Will the
Expos be in town then?  Could someone mail me their schedule for
that time period, and perhaps ticket info?

Thanks!  
Jeff

Jeff Haferman                            internet: jlhaferman@icaen.uiowa.edu
Department of Mechanical Engineering     DoD 0186  BMWMOA 44469  AMA 460140
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA  52242                                 '76 R90S
From: clmn@ellis.uchicago.edu (Bill Coleman)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: MATT YOUNG TOSSES NO-HITTER, LOSES 2-1
Date: 12 Apr 92 21:31:36 GMT
Reply-To: clmn@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Department of Economics

In article <1992Apr12.210321.28874@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler) writes:
>
>     Now, Matt Young just tossed a no-hitter and lost, 2-1.  Lofton looks good
>for the Tribe.  His walk and steal helped lead to the first run for the Tribe,
>and Mark Lewis scored the second, after he and Lofton walked.

Unfortunately, this was NOT a no-hitter under the new "improved" rules.  Since
the home team (Indians) did not have to bat in the bottom of the ninth, Young
only pitched eight innings.  Not enough to qualify as a no-hitter any more.

Personally, I think this stinks.



-- 
Bill Coleman
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
From: dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler)
Subject: Re: baseball quiz #1
Reply-To: dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 16:12:44 GMT


In a previous article, sw36+@andrew.cmu.edu (Scott Michael White) says:

>BASEBALL QUIZ #1
>
     And all these answers without my stats books - I hope some of them are
right!

>1.    WHO IS THE ONLY PLAYER TO HAVE PLAYED 500 GAMES FOR A TEAM IN EACH
>DIVISION?
     This is a stumper.  Dave Parker has played in all 4, but not long enough
in the A.L. East - 500 games is 3+ seasons.  Joe Morgan played in all 4, but
only a year in Oakland. (Or was it Tony Perez who was in the A.L. East?)  The
question says "played in," so that rules out a pitcher.  I don't think Bill
Madlock was with the Tigers long enough for 500 games....
     Okay, the only name I can possibly think of is Bill Buckner, but I don't
really think he played that long in K.C.  Still, I've got to guess someone,
so I'll guess Billy Buck.

>2.     WHO WAS THE 1983 AMERICAN LEAGUE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR?
     How about Ron Kittle

>3.      WHO PLAYED THE LONGEST TIME (MOST YEARS) IN A METS UNIFORM?
     How about Tom Seaver?  Except, it almost seems too easy.

>4.       WHAT TEAM HAD THE BEST NATIONAL LEAGUE  REGULAR SEASON WINNING
>PERCENTAGE IN 1981?
     Cincinnati Reds

>5.       NAME 4 PLAYERS THAT HAVE BEEN ROOKIE OF THE YEAR UNDER MANAGER
>TONY LA RUSSA.
     This question helped me recall the answer to question #2.  Ron Kittle,
Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and, I believe, Walt Weiss.
-- 
Doug Fowler: dxf12@po.CWRU.edu      :    "Every baby born into the world is
Real home: Canton, Ohio             :  finer than the last."--Charles Dickens
 Trying to follow in the path of our :     "A baby is an inestimable
Lord;anything close will be a success:  blessing and bother."--Mark Twain
From: colaluca@cs.utexas.edu (Mark Colaluca)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: What's up with the Rangers?
Date: 10 Apr 1992 14:39:04 -0500
Organization: U Texas Dept of Computer Sciences, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: dimebox.cs.utexas.edu

In article <1992Apr10.141542.12463@news.nd.edu> dmeier@bashful.helios.nd.edu (daniel meier) writes:
>If the Rangers *do* have decent pitching this year, they will win it all.
>I don't know what the score was in the final game, and I know that three
>games don't make a season, but they have already scored over 20 runs this
>season.  Their offense is still there.
>
>By the way, how did Sierra do in the opening series, and how many of the R
>Rangers hit Home runs?

Well, total for the series was 38 runs in 4 games.  Also, pitching staff gave
up 2 runs in the last 3 games (gave up 10 in the opener).  That makes an
offensive average of 9.5 runs/game, and a team ERA of around 2.50 (in the first
game a few runs were unearned).  Not a bad way to start!

For the home runs, the ones I saw (I watched 3 out of 4 games)

Dean Palmer: 3
John Cangelosi,Juan Gonzalez,Gino Petralli, Ruben Sierra: 1

There may be more, but these are the ones I remember.  Sierra's was a 3 run
blast last nite.  Team batting average is around .400.

Go Rangers!

-- 
|  Mark Colaluca	Internet:   colaluca@cs.utexas.edu |
|  			Compuserve: 72230,1221 AOL: MC99   |
|        "A Pittsburgh native, and proud of it. "          | 
|----------------------------------------------------------|
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Oakland A's Dream Team
From: guilford@otago.ac.nz
Date: 9 Apr 92 11:59:09 +1300
Organization: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

In article <1992Apr8.170109.1848@adobe.com>, snichols@adobe.com (Sherri Nichols) writes:

> In conjunction with their celebration of 25 years in Oakland, the A's held
> fan balloting last year for the Oakland A's dream team, for fans to pick
> the best players who had worn the green and gold of the Oakland A's.  The

> 3B	Carney Lansford		Sal Bando
> 
> Actually pretty similar.  Lansford hits for higher average, Bando walks
> more, about the same power.

Not even close.  Bando probably had at least 4 years (`69, `70, `71 and
`73) that smoke Carney's best year for the A's (which, throwing out
1989, or merging 1989 with the year before and after, is probably
1984: OBP .342 and SP .439).  Bando averaged .275, 100 walks and 25 homers
over those 4 years.

Make that not even remotely close.

> DH	Dave Parker		Dave Kingman
> 
> Yes, he was obnoxious, but he did hit better than Parker did in Oakland.

Kingman had the one good year in `84, but he was worse than Parker
in `85 and bad beyond the power of human understanding in `86.  Edge
to Parker.  I'd vote for Billy Williams.

Bill Guilford
From: dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: More on errors/hits
Date: 7 Apr 92 13:13:36 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Apr6.154250.16137@panix.com> spira@panix.com (Greg "Sarcasm Is A Way Of Life" Spira) writes:
>
>Can you tell if the infield position played makes a difference?  I think
>most of us would suspect that the grounball hits that are going for extra
>bases are almost all going down the line, by the first and third baseman, and
>not in the middle by the shortstop and second baseman.
>
>Granted, the difference, if it exists, isn't very important, but it would be
>interesting to know.

I think it would be important, too.  For example, it might demonstrate that
first base and third base are rather more important defensively than was
previously thought, simply because unfielded balls past those positions lead
to more opponents' bases, in general, than balls that get past the SS and 2B.

Pete DeCoursey looked at this a bit in '89, if I remember correctly, and
computed a "defensive slugging average" which was to DA as SLG is to BA.  It
showed that there is often a tradeoff between, say, preventing doubles and
initiating double plays.



-- 
          David M. Tate            |"The man who hath no music in himself
     dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu       | Nor is not moved by concord of sweet sound
  A poem should be dumb, / As old  | Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils
 medallions to the thumb.-MacLeish | 	Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice", A.V
Organization: Senior, IM - MCS/CIT Track, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 19:07:02 -0400 
From: Pravin Devineni Ratnam <pr0i+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: For METS FANS only: re Bonilla

Henning writes:
**********************************
Today, in the 3-2 loss to the Phillies, he hit what he thought 
would be the game-tieing HR in the 9th. He then hot-dogged around 
instead of running all out, which might have gotten him to third 
instead of to second (not that it mattered, however).
 
My question is: Do you think this kind of attitude is in order for 
a man being paid what Bonilla is being paid? (Or for anyone, for 
that matter.) 
 
IMO the first incidence above is inexcusable. If I were the 
manager he would have been fined or at least dressed down 
severely. 
The second incident shows me that Bonilla lacks maturity. After 
all, even if he had hit a HR in the situation, what was all the 
celebrating about? It would have merely tied the game and given 
the Mets a _chance_ to go to 3 and 5 instead of 2 and 6. Is this 
"important" enough for a $5 million man to throw his bat, jump 
around and hot dog it? He should have taken a homer in that spot 
matter of factly, I think.
**************************************


I am a Pirates fan. But hey,  here goes.

Does anyone remember one of the crucial games in the 1990 NLCS against
Cincinnati? In that game Bonilla was throiwn out by Eric Davis at third.
Bonilla thought he hjit a ahome run and paused for a few seconds to look
at the ball go. It hit the wall, and Hatcher fell down in the process of
trying to catch the ball. Bonilla was eventually thrown out at thirtd by
a great throw. If Bonilla went all out from the beginning, he could have
reached third safely. I know there are time when a player would like to
admire his homerun. But such thiungs should be done only if 
1) it is at a non-crucial juncture of a regular season game.
AND
2) if the guy is pretty sure that it wuld be a home run.

Bonilla had no excuse for staying that lonmg when you have to consider
that it was a series in which the OPIrates were struggling.
From: bking@umiami.ir.miami.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Red Sox Revolution Repeat
Date: 5 Apr 92 22:03:30 EDT
Organization: Univ of Miami IR

Yo Red Sox fans, and other less important people,


	Do you know who won the world series the year after the last
	Russain revolution?

	That's right: The Boston Red Sox

	Well hey, give me a break. You try finding a trend that says 
	the Red Sox have a chance.

Hack On,
Kingsta
From: skitchen@pica.army.mil (D. Scott Kitchen (CCAC) <skitchen>)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Foreign objects on the field
Date: 14 Apr 92 03:51:22 GMT
Organization: U.S. Army ARDEC, Dover NJ

>>In article <1992Apr11.211423.16635@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
>>dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler) writes:
>> 
>>>     What's the goofiest thing you've seen people throw onto a baseball
>>>diamond?  I remember seeing about 10,000 yellow seat cushions come out on
>>>a nationally televised (I think it was ESPN) game last year, but don't recall
>>>which park it was

Unfortunately, mine's kind of boring, but a beach ball went out of
the bleachers in Fenway into Boston's bullpen.  What was most
interesting, though, was what happened after the ball went into the
pen.

This was back in '87 when Bob Stanley was still with the Red Sox.
He grabbed one of the rakes belonging to the groundskeepers, made
sure the beach ball was correctly placed, and popped it with the
rake.  A resounding boo went up from the local bleacher crowd around
me...and no, I didn't put the ball out on the field :).
-- 
Scott Kitchen           | GM, Kitchen Sinkers       | ICBM: 40.88 N|
skitchen@pilot.njin.net | GM, Picatinny Mad Bombers |       74.56 W|
--------------------------------------------------------------------     
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
From: daves@meaddata.com (Dave Spencer)
Subject: Felix Jose, Where are you???
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 19:47:14 GMT
Distribution: na


Where was Felix Jose in the Cardinals lineup yesterday?

Is he hurt?  He had a poor spring, is he sitting or what??


-- 
Dave Spencer                |      ___      ___     __________    
Mead Data Central           |     /\__\    /\__\   /_________/\        C B     
9393 Springboro Pike        |    / /  /   / /  /   \   ______\/        o e
Maimisburg, Oh. 45342       |   / /  /___/ /  /     \  \ \______       n a
daves@meaddata.com          |  / /  /____\/  /  _    \  \/_____/\  _   g rcats!
                            |  \/___________/  |_|    \________\/ |_|  rats 
                                


Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball