CC Sabathia continues to dominate on the mound. Even though he scuffled a bit he made up for it with some slick glove work and by knocking in a few runs to boot. The crew keeps giving their rented Ace plenty of run support and they've already made Astros' manager Cecil Cooper look stupid. Yeah, they're not saying Cooooop, this time, they're saying stuuuuupid.
On the downside, Ryan Braun sure looked like he was in pain after his last at-bat. This could be a big problem.
NFC North Note
Yesterday Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith declared that Kyle Orton would be his starting QB. Then, after the snickering subsided he said "No, really, Kyle is our quarterback." Some in the local media continue to assert that the Packers' QB situation is as bad as the Bears' QB situation. This is simply not true. It is better the have quarterbacks who might be bad than it is to have quarterbacks who are bad.
Mike Cameron > Corey Hart
I love Corey Hart, but despite his heroic efforts last night he is having a bit of a down year due to his low on base percentage. Simultaneously, Mike Cameron has been getting all kinds of scorn (particularly from fans of Tony Gwynn Jr.) from the locals. This is unjustified. Cameron plays better defense than Hart at a tougher position than Hart, and has an OPS+ of 116 compared to Hart's 114.
VORP-wise Corey has put up 25.3 runs over a replacement player, while Mike has put up 18.6, but Mike has done so in 140 fewer plate appearances.
Corey's played pretty well, don't get me wrong, but people have been way too down on Mike Cameron this year. He has definitely been a positive addition. By the way, Brewed Sports favorite Russell Branyan is still 7th on the team in VORP despite having only 3.1% of all Brewer plate appearances.
Fantasy Football Note
Cleveland starting QB Derek Anderson played poorly against the Giants last night, and then was knocked out with a concussion. Brady Quinn came in and played well. Let the controversy begin again!
Big Ben Goes Today
at 7:05 against 36-year-old Brian Merritt Moehler, who is actually having one of his best seasons.
Let's continue to make Coooop look stuuuupid.
Today's Hair of the Dog is brought to you by Flying Dog In Heat Wheat, Hefe Weizen Ale, a summery beer that tastes slightly too much of bananas. Of course, any beer that tastes anything like bananas tastes slightly too much of bananas.
I've been saying the Cameron thing for a while now. I was looking at stats about a month ago and I think Corey and Cameron had identical OPS's. Cameron's is a little higher now (838 to 830).
ReplyDeleteAlso, let's hope Dr. CC can continue to throw 130-pitch games.
Yeah, he's run out of gas before.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, for anyone that's curious, the "sponsor" is whatever I drank last night.
I don't know, none of those numbers definitively put Cameron above Hart.
ReplyDeleteI see your point, but >/= (unless you have a greater than or equal to key) would be more appropriate.
Well, it's close, but what data could you use to argue that Hart is better? Or equal?
ReplyDeleteI suppose VORP, but I don't like counting stats for something like this.
ReplyDeletetheir on-base and power stats are almost identical, Hart has a distinct VORP edge. Cameron has a distinct defensive edge.
ReplyDeleteSeems bout equal to me.
Also, Hart is younger and sexier.
VORP is a counting stat though. Their rates are almost the same.
ReplyDeleteyeah, and it also does not account for defense.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you're wrong, but in order to contrast misconceptions the public (Urinal sports blogs) you may be overstating with the definitive Cameron is better than Hart
Also, you don't account for sexiness
You are right about the sexiness component. Someone needs to develop a stat for that.
ReplyDeleteyou've obviously never seen The Last Boyscout. It's called the finger scale.
ReplyDelete