THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Here’s something to root for.  Among guys with 0 extra base hits, and at least 20 singles, the MLB leader with most walks is… Willie Bloomquist!  Congratulations Willie!

With at least 15 singles, he’s #2, behind Dwain Anderson in 1973, just one walk from tying him.  Go for it Willie!

And among guys with at least 10 singles (and no extra base hits), he’s #3, just two walks from tying the leader, Ellie Rodriguez in 1976.

Haha, yes the Mariners and their obsession with giving some of the most damaging hitters in the game at bats is quite funny.

Vidro over Bonds...I don’t know if I can ever get over that one

It is hard to focus on Willie Bloomquist when a major league team tied for first place uses *Angel Berroa* as its late-innings defensive replacement at shortstop.

And just hours later, he doubles in the ninth.  Amazing.

Beat me to it Vegas Watch. This is a funny game

The worthless bum just got his first extra base hit. A double that could have been caught if the A’s had Emil Brown gotten a better jump in left. Brown, by the way, has to be one of the worst regular starters in the league. A rough projection has him as a -12 hitter, a -10 for being a corner outfielder and average as a fielder. That makes him about 0 WAR. It’s surprising to see Billy Beane associated with this guy.

BTW, here’s a rules question.  On that Bloomquist double, it looked to me like the ball may have tipped of outfielder Brown’s glove on the way down, before it landed and bounced out of play for a ground-rule double. 

If the ball HAD hit the glove, then bounced off the ground and over the fence, would it have been a home run?  Or is it a double regardless of whether the fielder touches it first?

And then, after Phil D’s post, Emil hits a walk-off homerun.

I love baseball.

The thing I really don’t get about Emil Brown is that the A’s just traded away Rich Harden for Matt Murton and Eric Patterson… whom they immediately demoted to AAA. I don’t get it.