All-Star Game Live Blog / Open Thread
Update: Looks like Dave’s Internet isn’t doing so well. While he gets that all sorted out, consider this an open thread on the All-Star Game.
I’m hanging out at Angels Stadium today, and will be liveblogging the game. Join me at 7 eastern as we chat all night long.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
“Join me at 7 eastern as we chat all night long.”
Sounds like something I’d have to pay $1.69 a minute for
If “Dave” starts asking what you’re wearing and writing “Oooh, that sounds nice, baby”, you’re not on fangraphs. Although maybe that goes on after dark around here.
haha… “FanGraphs After Dark” sorta has a nice ring to it!
@filihok Sounds like a good fundraising idea! Raise enough and you might be able to do this again from a similar lofty perch come October, Dave.
… ewww. All of you, just ew. Dave is a CYBORG!
It’s a shame Len Kasper wasn’t mentioned among the most saber-analysts. Len rocks.
Dave, please tell us more about either Mike Trout or Dayton Moore 🙂
I can’t tell everyone how much I am looking forward to the broadcasting crew on TV.
Who wants Jason Kendall ?
Never let fucking kids announce the starting lineups again. Never.
Guys, I don’t think Dave made it.
I think the heat must have fried Dave’s circuit board…
I think it also fried the radar gun.
Someone asked about Bautista and the HR Derby, he didn’t turn it down, he wasn’t invited. Some MLB hack decided people wanted to see Nick Swisher more than the HR leader.
That’s our only M and he is MVP so far!
The Nat’l League doesn’t have a chance!
Price was throwing 100? Sure didn’t look it
they must’ve re-calibrated the radar gun after 1/2 inning…
Brandon Morrow: FIP – 3.42 xFIP – 3.93 WAR 2.3
David Price(ALL STAR STARTER): FIP – 3.59 xFIP – 3.95 WAR 2.4
Just how overrated is David Price?
and why is Brandon Morrow not being recognized as one of the best young pitchers in our game right now?
Because Morrow’s ERA is over twice as high.
that would explain why the casual fan thinks David Price is the best thing since sliced bread and Brandon Morrow is a scrub. But why do relatively knowledgeable baseball fans ignore such blatant evidence
Someone sounds bitter. Price is not overrated in the least. Unless, of course, you think lefties that can hit 99 MPH are overrated (and yes, he can hit 99 MPH, the FOX gun is not juiced- he did it several times in Minnesota a couple weeks ago).
Price is not a finished product in the least and I can’t wait to see how good he ends up once he refines everything.
Morrow throws just as hard as Price.
Because Brandon Morrow is NOT a star?
That Spankee 2nd-baseman CanoT field. Get him out of there!
I believe they prefer being called Bankees.
Is it just me or is Cano really lazy?
How am i being bitter? Price is most definately overrated and not deserving of his an all star starting position.
In the AL alone, he’s 13th in FIP, 14th in xFIP and 13th in WAR and half of the pitchers above him on those lists aren’t even in the all star game and yet Price gets to start?
So Price shouldn’t even be All-Star just because of what certain stats say he SHOULD be doing? Ultimately, when you have a guy with an arm like Price, you can throw certain saber stats out the window. He can get away with things others can’t because, quite frankly, his fastball is that good.
how anyone who claims to like Sabermetrics can make a statement like this is beyond me.
“Price can get away with a lot of things other pitchers can’t because he has an awesome fastball.”
in fairness, fip and war are pretty closely correlated (since innings would be the other big factor)
you cant totally blame price for having a nasty defense behind him and hence a gaudier era than usual. i’d also say there is a penalty for being in the AL east that suppresses his FIP and xFIP
maybe he shouldnt start, but hes a worthy all star
But the Jays have 2 pitchers who have put up a better FIP(Romero and Morrow) and two others who are just behind Price while also pitching in the AL East and theoretically facing tougher competencies than Price because he doesn’t have to pitch against the Rays.
Since when are xFIP or WAR the deciding stats for playing in the all star game?
First, it’s a popularity contest and they’re objectively not popular metrics.
Second, even if they were – I’m not sure predictive stats should carry more weight than actual results when you’re talking about rewarding someone for first half performance. If this year’s Ryan Ludwick goes off for the first half and hits 25 home runs by the all star break, throw him a bone for a great first half. Who cares if everyone knows he’s unlikely to do it again.
If Morrow’s ERA catches up to his xFIP, he can pitch in the ASG next year.
Which was my point, in a nutshell. Actual results should matter for the All-Star game, not theoretical stats and end of season predictors. I like sabermetrics; hell, I wouldn’t be on this site posting if I didn’t, but the fact of the matter is you can’t base an All-Star game on FIP and other sabermetrics, because what matters at the halfway point is actual results ultimately.
And again, Price can get away with a lot of things other pitchers can’t because he has an awesome fastball.
I agree, For instance say a guy is batting .350 with 20HRs but it is due to an extremely lucky BABIP and HR/FB%, should he not make the team just because it is clear that he has gotten pretty lucky and is probably going to regress?
Do these guys have somewhere else to be tonight? This game is flying by.
I’m holding off the urge to say something about Miguel Cabrera getting to happy hour before it ends. Also, how nervous were Brewer fans just now when Braun’s wrist bent under?
Yeah you’re hilarious. Alcoholism. LOZL
Yeah, alcoholism’s pretty funny. Hey, would Brett Myers have been here if he wasn’t so busy beating his wife? See? Priceless!
Because clearly, as a baseball fan, all of my comments about players must be meant with vitriol and an absence of comprension about the issues they deal with. Get out of your parent’s basement, understand that I meant no offense and call the internet police if it offended you that much. Or better yet, ignore it.
I agree. It would be funny if the all star game was full of back of the rotation or below replacement level starters.
Does Verlander hit 100 here? And how hard does he get hit?
Probably. And very.
It doesn’t appear possible to hit 100 tonight…strange.
Is Corey Hart Amish?
http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=8700&position=P Everyone count the total amount of pitches that this pitcher has. Fastball-1 Curveball-2 Changeup-3 Slider-4 2-Seamer-5. 1+1+1+1+1 ?2 but don’t let the facts get in the way of a stupid comment.
What comment are we talking about here?
Not to mention his FB, CB, SL and CH all have positive pitch values according to this site too and all are ranked in the top 35 among qualified starters despite him not having his best season. But yeah he’s only a two pitch pitcher. Definitely a dumb comment.
Seriously Kuo?
F Charlie Manual. Why Kuo wasn’t the LAST pitcher off the bench is beyond me. He’s by far the worst pitcher on the staff. Manual deserves to lose the game just for being so damn stupid.
I wonder what the people who scoff at run prevention take from a game like this?
five full innings and it is 1-0 with line-ups stacked in ways no team’s line-up ever could be.
It has nothing to do with what you said about Verlander. It’s how you said it like a douche.
standup2cancer.org and Dave Cameron makes a lame joke and cherry picks something about it. Way to take it to those money grabbers who want to cure cancer.
I hate to bring this up but imagine if Dallas Braden was in the all star game and pitched to A-Rod in the 9th inning with the winning run on second.
Price got voted in by the player, that’s called they respect his stuff (ie 100mph fastball you saw tonight). When you can get away with throwing 95% fastballs, you’ve got something special. In addition the manager named him as the starter over his own pitchers, enough said. Stop crying since your pitchers weren’t honored.
oh, so we’ve established he got in because of his fastball velocity and not because he really deserved it. Good, isn’t that i’ve been saying the whole time?
I am not defending the selection of Price as the AL stater but you know what, even if Price started today, it will feel even better I’m sure if Morrow and/or the Jays destroy Price the next time the Jays meet the Rays. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though Price got his two innings of fame today, in the long term it will feel even better for you if Morrow matches or exceeds Price one of these next couple of years.
On the David Price theme of the night: I think it’s a valid point to reward a player for what he’s actually done this season, versus what we project he will do. I think it is still unknown why a pitcher can maintain a low BABIP one year, and a high one the next year, so how can we take anything away from what a pitcher has done just because his BABIP is low. We can be fairly certain of regression to the mean, but we still can’t be sure why exactly he maintain the low BABIP in the first place (or low HR/FB, or high LOB%, whatever). If your answer is randomness, then my response would be that randomness is defined as unpredictability, NOT that there is no cause. Sure Price is likely to record a 3.8 to 4.0 ish ERA the rest of the season, but without knowing for certain exactly why his luck indicators were on his side, we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.
What is the deal with these huge batting helmets?
Apparently designed to prevent concussions. They make players look like the Great Gazoo.
New design, they are suppose to take a huge percentage of the amount of pressure from a ball. One guy said he did not even really feel a ball hit him. They will be mandatory soon.
No I’m not saying he got in just because of his velocity. Please understand baseball more than the simplicstic ignorant fan mindset. Price definately has other dominating pitches (curve, slider, change are all plus plus). Howerver untill others can prove they can hit his fastball (his era is there for a reason) he doesn’t have to throw anything else. When you know what the pitch is that’s coming as hitter, and still can hit it, as a player you respect that (& that’s why he got voted in by the players and selected to start by the manager) /facepalm
“his era is there for a reason”
his era is as low as it is because of the spectacular tampa bay defence behind him
This definitely helps clear up the All star starter selections for me. Thanks.
can you believe you’re actually on fangraphs and reading this nonsense?
I also don’t know why you keep bringing up his fastball or how often he throws it. Its irrelevent to what i’m talking about. Never mind the fact that David Price is only 14th in the AL in strikeouts per 9, so clearly his fastball is more hittable than you think.
I know people continue to classify FIP as a predictive stat to dismiss its validity for these kinds of things but is it really? Does it not just measure a pitchers ability on things that are actually in his control?
Jose Bautista on deck! My hero!
Oh shoot!
The main deciding factor to a pitchers era is the defense behind him? Wow… Lol… Has nothing to do with stuff/talent.
The main deciding factor(there are others) to a pitchers era versus where it actually should be is the defence behind him, YES. Glad i cleared that up for you.
A good defense absolutely helps, without a doubt. However, Price can get away with more than most pitchers because his stuff is better than most.
Why is the best pitchers always tend to have low ERA’s? The defense only plays well when they pitch?
There are A LOT of factors that go into ERA, pitchers have more influence on some of them than others.
Actually, no, defense is not a huge factor in ERA – Expected ERA. The best defense ever per UZR is like +80 runs. If you figure the 200 inning pitcher get’s 11 of those (80/(162*9/200)), that’s the difference between a 4.5 ERA pitcher and a 5.0 ERA pitcher. And that’s best. defense. ever. Most defenses are in the +/- 30 range.
The biggest factors contributing to the ERA – FIP differences are where the ball is hit on the field (IE, grounders going through the hole, which isn’t a defensive failure, but simply bad luck) and sequencing of events.
Hell, the main factor of a pitcher’s ERA is the quality of opposition facing him.
Lol terrible
So the players who voted price in over your average jays pitchers are wrong and Giradi was wrong For understanding baseball & selecting him over the other potential starters? You clearly understand baseball more than all of them by simply looking at one of the many different saber #s a pitcher possess. Lol dude your embarassing
Yay! The world is back to normal!
Oh my god! I just discovered Fangraphs!
Well, aren’t we lucky. Please pay attention.
I’ve been preparing for this day. Please introduce me to these delightful stats!
Congrats: National League:
I’m an LA fan and I never leave early, unfortunately I’m an endangered species.
Win probability can be kind of silly. How is it that Joe Mauer can go 0/2, and make throwing and baserunning errors, yet still post the highest WPA of any AL hitter?
Good job, Matt Thornton