Hmmm. Interesting.
PL takes Radke, a contact pitcher that doesn't K anyone, against the ML's #1 hitting team.

And I take Schmidt against the hottest team in baseball.

I actually wish you well with that pick...

I checked Schmidt's numbers against the Dodgers, and they're hitting about .190 against him. Plus they're playing in pitcher friendly Dodger Stadium, so I think he'll do fine.
....maybe.

How do you figure Toronto as the #1 hitting team in the majors?

I don't put much stock in batting average, if that's your basis - I go by runs scored.

Today was a tough day to pick a PS - one of the toughest of the season, I thought.

But Radke's been excellent over his last 10-12 starts, the Twins have been hot and Toronto's been cold, and the only other pitcher I seriously considered was Wang.

(EDIT: I just checked....Toronto leads the majors in batting average, but they're 7th in runs scored. And they hit considerably better at home than they do on the road)

The Blue Jays have a team batting average of .288, and a team SLG% of .473. Both tops in the Major Leagues. They are 7th in runs scored, and 3rd in HR's.

That doesn't make them the best hitting team in the majors, IMO.

I'm not saying they're not a good hitting team, and if you look at my past picks, I seldom if ever go against them at home, one of the better hitting parks in the majors (which accounts for, in large part, their good hitting records. Check their splits for home games vs. road games. That, IMO, is one of the most significant splits to look at as there is - not something like "a team's record on Saturdays" )

It's all about runs...that's how teams win games, and in this games the runs that a pitcher allows are the largest basis for deductions.

Just two quick examples - there are loads more: Colorado and the Cubs both have higher team batting averages than the Mets - would you say that they're better hitting teams than the Mets are?

As far as Radke vs. Schmidt goes....

Minnesota, in Radke's last 13 starts, has gone 10-3 with Radke pitching 81.2 innings with an E.R.A. of 2.87

The Giants, in Schmidt's last 10 starts, are 4-6 with Schmidt pitching 62 innings with an E.R.A. of 4.21

Radke at home, Schmidt on the road.....Minny and the Dodgers hot teams, Toronto and San Fran not.....Radke the hotter pitcher recently......

Not to say that Schmidt won't go out there and pitch a shutout while Radke gets bombed, but that's how I figured it.

BTW....when you talk about which team is the best hitting team in the majors, you have to throw in some kind of adjustment for the AL vs. the NL because of the designated hitter.

When you do, I'm sure a few NL teams move past Toronto.

Or, you can just look at the AL separately....

We'll see. Radke's been winning, and not allowing too many runs. Teams are hitting .314 against him for the season, and .321 in the last 7 games though. I don't like those numbers against the team with the highest batting average.

Fair point, but what's more significant is Toronto's batting average on the road.

Can't seem to find it, though....

Also, this game pays off a lot more on runs allowed than it does on hits allowed, so I consider Radke's E.R.A. to be a lot more important than his batting average against.

In any case, if you look at the AL separately, Toronto is 6th in runs scored in a 14-team league.

To me, that does not make them one of the best hitting teams in the majors, and that's a lot more realistic than saying they're a better hitting team than 16 others who play in a league without a designated hitter.

Now I gotta go root for JG's old Wang in the Yahoo game

There's a thought to make your blood run cold.....

Toronto has one of the most hitter friendly parks in the AL, but I'd have to assume that the Metrodome stil is too.

I can not believe I picked the Yankees PS.

this sentence was already about to be said before Fuckin' Wang allowed 6 hits and 3 runs in the first inning.

I'm really in a major PS slump. maybe Feliz Hernandez was the pick today..

It's a good thing nobody picked Luke Hudson. 11 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning!

Looks like PL made the right choice.

Lets see what Schmidt does. Who knows? Maybe a 40-pointer tonight.

And if you wind up with a few less pitching points, you could make it up on offense with the cap room you saved on Schmidt.

My offense was pretty quiet today. I can't complain though. No matter what Schmidt does tonight, I had a great week and got back into the game.

Damn. I had visions of a 14 inning, 1-0, 50 point game for the Giants.

JL, I wouldn't have cared which of us got the win - I wanted them to go on forever, considering the way they were playing!

What a great game, though, regardless of fantasy. Baseball at its best.

On a bright note, it got me 9 points for Saito and my Yahoo team.

yeah, great game.

on another note, Grady Little is an idiot.

why did he take Maddux off with 68 pitches thrown? this could've easily fucked the Dodgers.

Sunday (unofficial)

On an even brighter note, it got me 28 pts from Schmidt. :p

Didn't do shit for me

Look at it this way, if I would have told you this morning that the Giants' pitching staff would throw 9 shutout innings, could you have imagined that you would still score more than me?

Absolutely not.

I ain't complaining.

If anyone has the right to whine it's you guys, for not getting the additional points for the win.

Sunday Scores & Monday's Probables

(Just one point added to SC make scores official)

I'll be damned if Zito pitch another shutout of the Mariners.

I did poorly several times picking against teams in a hot streak, and now I'm in the hot streak with the Dodgers. come on BLowe!!

You're talking about if Zito pitches a shutout tonight, right?

Oakland is 3-0 vs. Seattle this year with Zito pitching, who has given up only 1 run in 20 IPs against them.

But in his last start he gave up one run in 7 IPs, and he hasn't pitched a shutout against them (you need to pitch a complete game to officially get credit for a shutout against a team) - at least not this year.

He looked like a good pick tonight, though. I also considered Oswalt or Zambrano, but I never thought of taking Lowe, who I don't trust at all.

Since Lowe's complete game shutout against Seattle on June 22, which ran the Dodgers record to 10-6 with him starting and lowered his E.R.A. to 2.90...

Lowe has made 9 more starts.

The Dodgers are 3-6 in those 9 games, and Lowe's E.R.A. over that span has been 6.49

And that includes his last two starts, in which he's pitched well (15.2 IPs, 2.30 E.R.A).

Throw out those two games, and his E.R.A. for the 7 games was 8.27

Of course on the other hand you could throw out the 7 bad games he had in a row, and the Dodgers are 11-7 with him starting, and his E.R.A. is only 2.82

See? With fancy math you can make any point!

Well, in this particular case it depends on which stats you choose to value and which you don't.

But there are some situations in which any way you look at it the conclusions are inescapable.