Zambrano has walked SIX times... in his CAREER! (click for full)

That's 1 walk every 102 plate appearances. My buddy claims that this is normal for pitchers. That the opposing pitcher tends to pound the strikezone considering that batting pitchers tend to suck at the plate. This is incorrect. First of all, the NL average for pitchers is 1 walk in 27 plate appearances. Thar's four times higher than Zambrano's. Secondly, Zambrano hit .337 (THREE THIRTY SEVEN!) in 2008. (funny enough, his OBP was also exactly .337 - I wonder if that's ever happened before) The point being, he far from sucks at the plate (Bill Mueller won the 2003 batting champion award with .326)

What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. I just think it's hilarious. Swing away Carlos!

It's also cool to see just how hot Z was in 2008. And interesting that he only laid down TWO bunts that season (Dempster has 5 already THIS YEAR - in 12 Plate Appearances).

MLB.com has added the above feature to each of its game recaps. Thank god. Now I have a metric to tell me what moments I should have been the most excited about. It even comes with a handy "what is this" link at the bottom (because, really, what the hell is it). They describe it as:

Yeah.

It even gives you a random tweet when you mouse over an event.

Somebody told me today that all I do all day is "call things". For instance, I had a picture of the Danish curling team as my wallpaper weeks before it was discovered that Madeline did soft core pornography.

I've had some unique experiences in my life. Given those experiences, I feel like I can predict this:

Homosexuals will not be 11B.

What does that mean? Our current president has made a big deal about rescinding/eliminating the don't ask don't tell policy instituted during the Clinton administration. He (and even GEN George Casey) are on the record. They feel that homosexuals should be able to serve openly side by side with the other men and women in our Army.

Cool.

Here's something you don't know.

Certain MOSs (Military Occupational Specialty) are not open to women. Period. If you are a woman, you can't - CAN NOT - be an Eleven Bravo. Furthermore, you can't serve in certain units that are primarily the "tooth" of our military. See 1/503 IN (AASLT) and 1/22 LIGHT IN for examples. This is done quietly. We and the media love stories about women "on the front lines". Frankly, they aren't.

So, the real question is: Will openly homosexual men be allowed to serve in such units?

When the inevitable headline comes out (no pun intended) next month that proudly declares "Gay men now allowed to serve" ask yourself - and the General of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Are they really?

I'm calling it now. They won't.

Oh. And since I'm on the issue of calling things... both David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez will be playing baseball in 2011. You heard it here first.

Brooklyn based graphic designer, Sean Engelhardt came up with this beautiful Tufte-esque, albeit sad display of Mets' injuries this season.

According to his website, he's considering creating the same graphic for other teams. I don't want to look at the Cubs if he does.

Click here for the full effect

Well, maybe he doesn't suck, but he's not the same pitcher he was in '07 - '08.

I think the most telling stat is BF/(IP3) (batters faced / (innings pitched). Effectively, 3 - how many people get on base each inning.

Generally speaking, a BF/IP of 4.00 is considered good (one baserunner per inning pitched). Pap is at 4.39.

It gets more disturbing when we consider that it's not a very big sample size (due to the fact that Pap is a closer he has only averaged about 11 or 12 innings a month this year). So it makes sense to look at the statistically outlying games within the totals.

Of the 38 games in which Pap has appeared this year, 10 (26.32%) are better (less) than 4.00*, 11 (28.95%) are exactly 4.00, and 17 (44.74%) are worse (higher) than 4.00.

That means Papelbon is just a "good" pitcher or WORSE than a "good" pitcher 74% of the time!

Hardly a "lights-out" closer that he is made out to be. At least this year. BTW, his lifetime average is 3.98.

[don't you love how you can irresponsibly make stats say whatever you want?]

*These are games in which Pap had a clean [read: 1, 2, 3] inning, or pitched more than three outs while allowing less than two baserunners... EXACTLY what a great closer should do EVERY GAME. Unfortunately, Pap only does it about once out every four games.

With the Bradford Campeau-Laurion lawsuit ruling Monday, the conversation at the bar turned to whether or not a person has the right to not stand (with cap removed) during the National Anthem - or to otherwise "disrespect" America during one of it's many defacto anthems.

The general consensus was that no... one doesn't. That is: you don't have the right, as an American, to get up during, or otherwise protest the singing of, our National Anthem or God Bless America. (Kind of makes you wonder where the line is drawn... Sousa? Yankee Doodle Dandy?)

One guy (who works for the DoHS) summed it up with, "Fucking go in the sixth [inning]!. You know it's coming!" Thereby implying that Campeau-Laurion should have relieved himself earlier in the game - knowing that Yankee Stadium ALWAYS sings God Bless America in the middle of the seventh inning (or at least has since 9/11). Somebody else semi-rhetorically asked what one should do if he had uncontrollable diarrhea during the song. Hmmm...

Anyway, in my opinion, this stance is seriously flawed - if not entirely un-American/patriotic. I can think of nothing less democratic than Government enforced observance of an anthem - especially a non-secular one (remember, the song in question was God Bless America).

Imagine, our constables having the right to arrest, or otherwise punish/detain, those who exercise their First Amendment rights? "You don't have the right to watch a baseball game because you disagree with something a non-transparent body deemed as correct." Very un-American and unpatriotic. Communist if you ask me.

During the time in my life when I felt the strongest nationalism [read: when I was in the Army] I liked the response I was taught to give if I came across protesters burning an American flag (I realize this was/is a highly unlikely scenario):

Step 1) Salute the burning flag
Step 2) Say "you're welcome for defending your right to do that"

The Weekly Dig had a great article on Campeau-Laurion incident when it first happened back in '08. The Death of Patriotism. A really good read. My favorite excerpt:
If being a sports fan means chronically renewing a loyalty oath, I'll pass.

What do you think?

As R Kelly would say, "I got the package!"

MLB.com allows you to watch every out-of-market game online for under 100 bucks. I've wanted to do it forever, but never pulled the trigger. You don't get post-season games, but it doesn't look like that's going to be a problem for me... since the Cubs seems plenty comfortable as a .500 team.

Anyway, the cubs home games are, for the most part, at 2:20 in the afternoon. Which means this is my new work setup: