The Daily Grind: Batting Around
Some days, I have things to say above the fold. Some days, I don’t. Guess what kind day this is?
AGENDA
- Batting Around
- Weather Reports
- Pitchers to Use and Abuse
- SaberSim Says…
- TDG Invitational Returns!
1. Batting Around
Baseball twitter recent debated whether “batting around” meant sending nine or 10 hitters to the plate in one inning. We won’t waste time debating such here. Well…
It does seem there’s a correct answer. The accepted meaning over the last hundred thousand years is that all nine hitters had a plate appearance. The argument for 10 hitters revolves around english semantics. But here’s the thing, even if “around” implies the first batter hit twice, the phrase “batting around” is jargon. The rules of english are irrelevant. In the language of baseball, batting around means nine batters. Case closed. Don’t @ me.
Because I’m curious how many of you are wrong, a poll:
How many hitters are required to “bat around”
— Brad Johnson (@BaseballATeam) September 13, 2017
2. Weather Reports
The weather should be fine. A couple venues could see passing sprinkles. Check again closer to game time.
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
Main Slate: Twelve of 15 games will be played this evening. Max Scherzer is the king of the action versus the Braves offense. Who wants to bet on them supplying firepower two nights in a row? Not me. Scherzer’s last two outings have been uninspiring. He’s battled some minor injuries lately – most recently a strained calf.
Can you believe Ervin Santana is the second most expensive pitcher on a day that include Yu Darvish, Jon Lester, Aaron Nola, Lance McCullers, and Marcus Stroman? Santana has been a steady contributor, and he leads the league in complete games. More importantly, he’s opposed by the Padres – a team that just rolled over for Kyle Gibson.
I expect owners to be wary of Darvish this evening. Despite his recent slump, his peripherals say he’ll probably be alright going forward. A visit to AT&T Park and the Giants crumbling lineup should help.
Speaking of crumbling lineups, Lester is hosting the Mets. He’ll usually supply 20 DK points.
Dan Straily at Nola gives us two interesting choices in the upper-mid price range ($8,600 and $9,100 respectively). Both pitchers often throw six innings with about a strikeout per inning. They just need to avoid Rhys Hoskins and Giancarlo Stanton.
Doug Fister is running hot. He has four straight starts of seven or more innings. He also has nice matchup against a highly inconsistent Athletics offense.
Kevin Gausman is visiting Stroman. Gausman has been mixing complete duds with gems. Definitely a risky pick. Stroman is far more consistent, and he’ll occasionally work deep into an outing.
Plenty of alternatives are available today. Dinelson Lamet, Chase Anderson, McCullers, Pat Corbin, Mike Leake, german Marquez, and Tyler Glasnow all offer value at their prices.
Stack Targets: Luiz Gohara, Matt Harvey, Jharel Cotton, Martin Perez, Tyler Skaggs, Jack Flaherty, Matt Moore
4. SaberSim Says…
Scherzer, Lester, Darvish, Stroman, and Nola are the preferred arms this evening. Looks like a fine list to me. Stanton, Mike Trout, Nelson Cruz, Kris Bryant, and Starling Marte are the top rated bats. Values include Matt Chapman, Tyler Naquin, Marte, and Hanley Ramirez.
5. The Daily Grind Invitational
Congrats to travisbecker. Corey Kluber, Eduardo Rodriguez, Freddie Freeman, and Ozzie Albies combined for 129.15 of his 184.15 points. Pretty heroic to select a semi-injured Freeman against a lefty – good going. Leaderboard.
We’ll be sticking to DraftKings for the rest of the season. We’ll do 15 entrants tonight.
You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
Aaand McCullers scratched with arm soreness, despite having 7 days of rest from his last start
I’m with the nine batters camp, though I’m obviously in the minority.
Let’s say that 10th batter is at bat and a runner on one of the bases gets picked off or thrown out trying to steal a base, and that ends the inning.
All nine batters will have batted around. Whether or not the 10th batter actually gets a chance to do something is irrelevant.
Cant complete a circle (to go around) without rejoining the beginning, its 10.
That’s in English. This is Baseball. It means nine because that’s what it means. That’s how jargon works, it’s a redefinition of existing language to serve a specific group. There is all sorts of unquestioned baseball jargon that doesn’t map cleanly to everyday English.
Most importantly, everybody who plays baseball will tell you it’s 9. Although the poll says the majority believe it’s 10, that’s because we’re asking a really weird subgroup of baseball fans.
In all my baseball years, batting around meant the first batter comes up to bat again, not necessarily that he completes a PA/AB. “We’re about to bat around” was said countless times when the 9th batter was up. “We batted around” was said when the first batter went up to bat again. “We almost batter around” was said when the last out was the 8th or 9th batter. Reference: 27 years of playing baseball.
Weird, maybe there’s some regionalism involved. I didn’t consider that. Everybody I’ve ever played with (25 years, NJ/MN/AZ/NC) has gone with the nine definition. The focus is on who will start the next inning.
FWIW – LL through HS in Connecticut then college in FL transfer midway to VA. Post college summer leagues in VA for a few years then Houston starting a few ago.
Definitely plausible it evolved regionally. Majority of “batting around” instances, to my recollection, were pre-college and then it became more rare. So maybe consider my experience to be primarily North Eastern.
Same for me (NJ). Went to college in MN and played mens league in AZ/NC.
Miggy v Clevinger or Cron v Fiers?
Freeman always hits the Nats pretty well – career .938 OPS vs the Nats against an overall .874 OPS. But that’s for his career. He’s been even better than that against the current Nats staff with a career 1.011 against the current Nats pitching staff in 219 PA.
Career numbers against current Nats starters (all 19 to 48 PA):
Strasburg 1.213 OPS
Gio .945
Roark .826
Edwin Jackson 1.444
Scherzer 1.154
He even has pretty good numbers against LOOGYS Perez (.855) and Grace (.929). He hasn’t faced the back end of the pen much (Madson, Solis, Albers, Cole, Kintzler, Romero, Kelley – only 18 PA combined).
Joe Blanton (.690) is about the only guy he has scuffled against.
None of those numbers means anything, except maybe that Freeman can be used against good pitchers when he’s healthy. Which he isn’t.
This is the definition of SSS.
Hey Brad – who would your preferred SB streams be this weekend?
E. Rosario – 4 gms v TOR (Anderson, Happ, Estrada, Biagini)
J. Polanco – 4 gms v TOR (same)
T. Anderson – 3 gms (Sanchez, Jaye, Boyd)
thanks!
Anderson has stolen 30% of his total (10) in the last week. Seems he’s feeling frisky. He’s also hitting well. Those are 3 really bad pitchers and James McCann is prone to swipes. I think he’d be my target. Jays catchers are also SB prone, but I have less faith in those guys running.
Does the two lefties thing dissuade you from Rosario/Polanco even further?
Not sure of their performance vs LHP off hand, but Rosario has the look of platoon hitter. Doesn’t help.
Rosario .281/.293/.403 – not inspiring
I edited this – you posted the OPS in the SLG column which makes it look a LOT better.
bahahaha. dummy me. thx!
for someone who often mentions that they play baseball, I am genuinely surprised you think batting around means only 9 hitters come up to the plate.