Talkin' Baseball: Brawls, Trolls, & Surging Pirates

49er16: So what do we think of this Padres-Dodgers brouhaha  Kemp vs. Quintin? Greinke vs. Quintin? I believe Quintin was basically acting like a jerk for no reason other than he believes Greinke is out there to get him. Goes back to their Chicago-Kansas City days.

The Colonel: The fact that Quintin stands atop of the plate is what pisses me off about last night. If you're going to stand on the plate, you're going to get drilled which Quintin has his entire career. Yes Greinke has plunked you before, you're going to get plunked again. That's life where you stand when you're standing that close to the plate.

49er16: Somehow during that whole thing, Matt Kemp was the one who came off the craziest. Meeting Quintin in the parking lot. Calling him a "bitch". It's always some axillary player that comes off more crazier. Remember Stephen Jackson wailing at people in the stands at Detroit?


The Colonel: Seems like that's how it usually goes. There's someone else that comes off crazier. Now here's the thing, these two teams play each other again starting on Monday. I hope Scully uses the phrase "that's fertilizer? again.

49er16: I hate how the Dodgers get to play the Padres like 80 games this season. For whatever the reason those games last forever and the Dodgers get to feast on this week team.

The Colonel: I hate the unbalanced schedule period. Every division has that weak team that the other teams get to feast on. The Marlins in the NL East. The Astros and Mariners in the AL West. The unbalanced schedule is terrible and it's unfair league wide.

49er16: I see the low hanging fruit of the Blue Jays slow start was too much for Jon Troll Morosi to resist. Still though the Jays slow start at the same time is startling and at the same time not all that surprising. Even the "super team" Angels have started slowly.

The Colonel: The Angels don't surprise me. Pujols and Hamilton are old. Weaver is injured. And that pitching staff is terrible. The Blue Jays I would say surprised me about their start until I remember that both Johnson and Buehrle struggled last year. I still like the Blue Jays more, but I don't have the confidence in them like I do with the Rays or Orioles.

49er16: The Angels bullpen ain't all great either. I'm not all that worried about the Blue Jays either except if they become more injured besides Jose Reyes.

The Colonel: How about your Pirates? They looked good this weekend sweeping the Reds. The only thing that is stopping them is that dreadful offense that did look good this weekend. They even had a nice comeback against the Reds on Sunday afternoon.

49er16: In fairness though the Reds have imploded since leaving the friendly confines of their ballpark. Destroyed in St. Louis for two games and now swept by the Pirates. Still though I liked what I saw from the Pirates. They look like they can really pitch besides Jonathan Sanchez.

The Colonel: Plus they have those two great pitchers sitting in the minors. I believe they'll be competitive all year unlike the Rays who still can't score runs. Speaking of Sabermetric teams, I have to say I kinda of agreed with Hawk Harrelson which made Brian Kenny explode. I'm a fan of Sabermetrics and use them when looking at who's playing well and not playing well, but they have been overrated to an extent and have gotten people fired in Los Angeles and Toronto and will eventually get that Mariners GM fired.

49er16: I think down the line PitchF/X will tell us more about players than raw hard data. With PitchF/X you have the combination of data and visualization.

The Colonel: If you read those posts about basketball visualization posts at Grantland, you'll see basketball is moving towards data/visualization metrics. I'm with you I think baseball sabermetric writers will start writing more and more about visualizations.

49er16: With PitchF/X and spray charts you can see why a pitcher/batter is either good or bad. When I see someone write about BABIP but hardly explain why someone is lucky or unlucky. With these charts you can see where they are hitting or missing. I love graphs.

The Colonel: I still can't believe I kinda agree with Hawk Harrelson.