Jolt Country

Agreed on all points. For some reason my appreciation for baseball has increased over the years, whereas with football the constant goddamn ads and fact that you can't cheer ANYTHING (because of the inevitable replay) has sucked out a lot of what I liked about that game.

While I think Trout is the MVP, I have a real hard time giving so much value to defensive metrics, when the study of defense is soooooooo young. Did you see who was second in WAR for much of the season next to Trout, according to one way of determining it? It was Brett Lawrie of the Fighting Jays: on some left-handed batters, he was being moved from third to the other side of the field. He would get "out of zone" credit for each play he made over there. This completely blew up defensive metrics.

(I guess if he really could start at third and run clear across the diamond while the ball was in play then it would have measured him correctly.)

Trout stealing bases at 92% is incredible, though. I just can't take anything seriously that is saying that Trout is at an overall 10.7 WAR and Cabrera at 6.9. I mean, Alex Gordon is tenth in WAR on baseball-reference because of his fielding *and he can't hit left-handed pitching*. That's a little screwed up.

Selected scenes from Moneyball 2.

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/10/4/34529 ... -moneyball

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-o ... -finalized

FUCK BASEBALL.

Yeah, I think we need a new thread here. There is much to discuss. I'll say this, though - D'Arnaud and Syndergaard were the two Jays prospects I was looking forward to watching. This trade HURT.

If I had a vote, I'd vote for these guys for the Hall of Fame in baseball this year:

Jeff Bagwell
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Mark McGwire
Edgar Martinez
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines

I honestly don't care one way or the other if Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire and whoever else do or do not get in. Who gives a shit. I actually think it would be great to let them wait 15 years. (Though Sosa's case is pretty borderline.)

And God, I believe in a small hall of fame. I really do. That's why the 40 Detroit Tigers that seem to come up each year are not on my list. That's why Schilling isn't there, and Larry Walker. But by not putting fucking guys like Edgar and Bagwell in, these shitty real voters make the fans look like we are just waving player after player in.

None of this is my fault. None of it ever is.

I don't get it. What are you, and by extension Stewie, saying "What?" to?

Can we just talk about baseball? You and me, please?

Can we do that?

Ben, as a marginal fan, who's on your ballot this year?