Game 158, Mariners at Rangers
Vargas vs Harden, 11:05 am.
As Jason Vargas takes the mound for the final time this year, lets take a quick look at his “breakout” year compared to last year.
2009 – 2.36 BB/9, 5.30 K/9, 36.6% GB%, 12.7% HR/FB%, .286 BABIP, 70.2% LOB%
2010 – 2.56 BB/9, 5.50 K/9, 36.3% GB%, 6.4% HR/FB%, .285 BABIP, 71.6% LOB%
In the three main areas that a pitcher can control, Vargas was nearly identical in both years. He even got the same amount of outs on balls in play, which often fluctuates quite a bit from year to year. The only difference between last year’s Vargas and this year’s Vargas in terms of results? How often his flyballs went over the wall. He gave up just two additional home runs while allowing an extra 157 flyballs.
He was better than his ERA indicated last year. He’s not as good as it indicates this year. He’s a solid back-end starter who benefits greatly from Safeco Field, but don’t take any comments about his breakout too seriously. He’s the same guy he was a year ago, just with better luck.
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That altercation was pretty well covered during spring training – Wak was talking about it in a story by Geoff Baker IIRC.
Can’t live or play in fear of injury. If the arm goes, it goes, and it won’t be necessarily because he went 255.2 IP instead of 249.2, it’ll be because it gave out at that moment rather than another. (I fully realize this is not the most statistically sound argument.)
That being said, if he gets rocked Sunday, I’m blaming you, MZD. Keep that in mind. 🙂
Sorry, wake me up and I’ll care when he rapes an unconscious woman. Someone wants to live a self-destructive life and flush their gifts down a toilet, it’s their business. It’s when they hurt other people in the process that I care.
I’m a bit confused how people are missing the difference between a barroom brawl kind guy and a sexual predator.
That being said… if Felix calls it a year and still wins the Cy, I’ll breathe a huge sigh of relief.
And if he bows out (yeah right) and loses the Cy to Price by 1 point, a point he could have garnered with another win, then I will not be held responsible for my actions.
The elder (read: talented) Mr. Buck once proclaimed, “I don’t believe what I just saw!”
I said about the same thing with some colorful metaphor. I swear I have never seen a team lose on a strikeout, and I’ve been watching this game at many levels for a LONG time.
Jeff from LoL posted a link to this place, which chronicles games lost when a batter reaches base on what should have been the game-ending strikeout.
The Mariners today became the first team in baseball history, apparently, to lose when the winning run scored from FIRST BASE on a throwing error resulting from the batter trying to advance on a mishandled third strike.
Baseball!
Juneau-
It seems odd to me to downplay an assault that leads to murder as a simple “barroom brawl”, yet view a single instance of drunken debauchery (definitely a crime if she wasn’t in a state to consent, I’m not downplaying it) as the work of a sexual predator (Implying a history of that sort of behavior by Lueke, and a deviant personality, above and beyond alcohol’s role… y’know, whereas Cortes actually HAS a repeated history of “disorderly conduct”, and illegal drug use to boot).
[Some people’s take on the whole Lueke situation reaks of the same righteousness I once heard Bill Maher ridicule, regarding statutory rape: “Of course men wanna have sex with 16 year old girls… Don’t say you don’t… That’s why there are laws against it. You don’t need laws against things people DON’T want to do.” I mean, why do young people congregate and get drunk at pickup joints in the first place? Or how many porn sites out there are making millions of $$$ off suburban dads and frat boys, using faked “sex with drunken women” scenarios? It’s not like this doesn’t come across a large group of people’s radar… Drunk men and women end up having poorly consented/non-consented sex every day at any college campus, or military base, in our morally righteous nation… I’ve seen it happen at both those places. Average, everyday people, both men and women. Nice people fall victim to it, of both sexes. And again, I’m not downplaying it. It’s a crime. And deserves punishment. Yet the idea that behavior that leads to someone’s death is less morally reprehensible than sexual assault bothers me. Sorry for that. I’m weird that way.]
For the record– I don’t mind either of them being Mariners, either. I just wanna watch good baseball.
Just like I don’t mind Kobe Bryant being a Laker.
Or R.Kelly’s music.
Or Michael Jackson’s music.
Or Roman Polanski’s films.
I can still appreciate their talents without feeling the need to slap them on the back and say “what a great guy you are!” (Which who knows in how many instances really comes down to– “there’s so much about you I’m really glad I don’t know”, if you had REAL insight into many of your own friends and family…)
I made my statement off of what you posted. So Cortes didn’t kill his friend, right? Since, as so many defenders of Lueke like to evoke, we were not there to truly know what happened, I don’t think I’ll slap murderer on him quite yet.
I’ll let that 1000 words ‘well, when you get drunk anything can happen what’s a guy to do?’ argument lie there. This has been beaten to a pulp in plenty of threads here, so obviously no one will change anyone’s mind.
And as a matter of fact, I wouldn’t cheer for Bryant, I don’t listen to R. Kelly/Jackson’s music and I’d love to see Roman Polanski spend at least a year in jail.
Juneau,
You seem to enjoy shoving things over the edge of context… Which is a weak way to make a point.
For the record, I never said–
I never WOULD say that. I don’t believe that. I don’t accept that. But it doesn’t make him a “sexual predator”, it makes him a drunk young man who made possibly the worst mistake you can make, other than killing someone.
What he did is disturbing, and reprehensible.
I said it was a crime and he should be punished. Oh wait, he was punished.
And like the rest of our community, an organization as large as the Mariners has some individuals within it with some unsavory history. Some both known and punished, and others not so much. (Ever been around Norm Charlton when he wasn’t in uniform– now there’s a sexual predator.)
But yeah, thanks for admitting you’re not open to looking at it in any way other than “he’s a sexual predator”… (See, doesn’t it suck when someone takes what you said out of context, replacing it with their own personal assumptions about you?)
But anyways, yeah thanks. Now I know our discussion is pointless. I didn’t assume that until you told me. Much obliged.
I know! I was shouting “Red!” just like I did/do when watching an M’s game. That’s pretty cool — imagine having your fandom eternally preserved in what will probably always be the defining documentary about the game. (That said, I have some quibbles with this latest addition to the series.)
Me too. IMO the “10th inning” wasn’t as good as innings 1-9 plus the “extra innings” throw-in they did in 1994. It’s probably because we already lived through the events of the past 16 years – with all of the desensitization that it provided – in real time.
The best part about Burns’ original series (again IMO) was all the history of the game that I did not have a chance to experience. The past 16 years … meh! But what it showed was that there is a lot of linkage between yesterday – today – and inevitably tomorrow. There have always been idiots in and around the game, there have always been bad events occur to the game and the world aroudn the game – and all along the way, there has always been great baseball played. I feel a James Earl Jones quote eminating from within.
If I ever do go back and watch the “10th inning” again, I will probably like it more than the first time I saw it. Burns’ stuff is kind of like that. BTW, I have seen innings 1-9 a number of times.
Overall though … nice effort on the 10th inning production, but I feel no reason to go out and purchase the DVD to complete the set. The Ichiro piece was very good. Donald Fehr came across as disingenous as ever. Barry Bonds’ head grew another inch during the taping … I saw it all occur in real time already. 50 years from now, Junior Junior may appreciat it more.