Advanced Run Celebrations @arcjays-blog - Tumblr Blog

The black cartridges always make me feel like I’m breaking the Nintendo Law by putting them in my Nintendo machine. This game is pretty fun, especially for two players. The characters are cartoony looking and they never seem to run fast enough or throw the ball where you want it to go, but it’s all good.

arcjays-blog

Dingers. Dingers, everywhere.

tompeyer

Seventeen months.

mode7

Ouch.

phreakattack

Go To http://us.akinator.com/ ... Say "yes" to all the questions that apply to you... Say "no" to "does your character really exist" and "yes" to "is your character from a video game?" ... See which video character you are.

jasper-rolls

PIT FROM KID ICARUS FUCK

cosmyk

sure

barrymanilowswinternightmar-blog

hey

nidokingu

at least im cute

photophorez-blog

dr-valkyrie-old

LYDIA

GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY LIFE

phemiec

YES

grandpafucker-deactivated202310

Betty boop.

ok then

repede-deactivated20140816

I HAD

ONE

JOB

AND I STILL FUCKED IT UP

onceiwashere

at least you’re not a fucking sim

kuzupekos

HELL YES.

autobot-skids

apperantly I’m a Sim. >…<

reducedittodueces

Welp.

arcjays-blog

AKINATOR, DID YOU KILL RITA?

flipflopflying

arcjays-blog

flipflopflyball:

For some reason, I hear this song in my head when I see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQNUeOOqMyU

Neat choice, but I was thinking maybe something more along the lines of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie_R1H9L4eI

#Carl Crawford

This one goes out to the members of the 2011 Toronto Blue Jays that are either on the DFA bubble as we speak or have already been let go. I know it's tough for you guys, having to play for your lives in the bigs day in and day out. While the ARC machine likes to poke fun at the struggles and hardships of some of the more troubled Jays, it also has a deep profound respect for how hard it can be to go through a long funk.

So, here's some advice from awesome singer and former CKDJ artist Janelle Monae:

"Cause baby whether you're high or low Whether you're high or low You gotta tip on the tightrope T-t-t-tip on the tightrope."

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, good days and bad, you're still going to be walking that fine line moving forward. Just relax and have some fun out there. Corey Patterson, especially. I know you're quickly losing both playing time and trade value, but panicking on plays during the few times you do get to play isn't helping your cause. Calm down and work on your routes to flyballs. Edwin Encarnacion. Eddie. You're starting to look like your old, run producing self. Don't let that turri-horri-god awful call at home plate get you down. Be proud... and stay away from the roman candles.

Octavio Dotel. Just keep working away and keep leaving post-its on Farrel's desk about keeping you away from lefties. Jo-Jo Reyes, you have won me over this season. You made me care about your development by being a very challenging enigma. Groundballs will always be your friend. Pitch for the groundout.

Jayson Nix, David Purcey and Juan Rivera. You were under appreciated for what you brought to the team and overlooked for not always producing when it mattered. But you all at least tried, and sometimes you came through for us. Stay golden.

#Toronto Blue Jays #Octavio Dotel #Jo-Jo Reyes #Jayson Nix #Juan Rivera #Edwin Encarnacion #Corey Patterson #David Purcey #DFA

Rethinking Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventure

So, I've been doing some thinking.

In an attempt to work out why Jo-Jo Reyes seems to look better on the mound when he keeps his fly ball total under or around his ground ball total, I went stat hunting. What I found, for reference sake, looked like this:

Nothing that really busts or confirms my thoughts in the group. Since posting it last night, I've been left with a kind of an itch that I haven't been able to scratch. This is in-part due to the wise words of super-cool-bro 1 Blue Jays Way, who reminded me how stats are best used: to backup a theory. Not as the support.

So, where does that leave my notion about Jo-Jo and his fly balls?

One factor that I didn't take into effect is the fact that he's working in in Toronto about half of the time. SkyRogers CentreDome seems to be a hitters park and fly balls do tend to carry deeper than in a more neutral park. So, in that sense, Jo-Jo would be playing with fire if he continues to let opponents take him to the sky most of the time. Eventually, all those outfield hits are going to catch up with him and, like we saw last night with the inside-the-park-homer, the mistakes that are made in the outfield can have far more impact on the game than a bad throw from third by senior DFA Pool lifeguard Edwin Encarnacion.

I like Jo-Jo Reyes. He's shown us glimpses of being a reliable arm in the back of rotation that could move up a bit if he keeps improving. But the ball has to stay on the ground, especially in hitters parks like Rogers Centre and the Great American Ball Park, or he's going to joining said Encarnacion in also said DFA pool.

#Toronto Blue Jays #Sober Second Thought #Jo-Jo Reyes

Then There's the Times Where an Idea Blows Up in Your Face...

Trying to find stats to prove or disprove a theory can be a difficult and frustrating task. This is doubly so in baseball.

During tonight's game between the Jays and the Cincinnati Reds, I thought I recognized a correlation between the success of Jo-Jo Reyes and the number of fly balls that he put up. Going into the seventh inning (before the Rolen HR where the wheels started to come off), Jo-Jo had pitched well, garnering only one inside the park homer that really wasn't his fault. He had ten (10) ground balls compared to his seven (7) fly balls along with five (5) strike outs before he got run off the mound.

This got me to thinking if the amount of balls that he puts in play for his fielders and where they end up have any direct dictation over how well or poorly he ends up pitching. So, I start scouring fangraphs for some good old stats... and right about here is where the theory done blew up in my face like a firecracker at the Encarnacion residence.

I highlighted the number of flyballs and the Win Probability Added for each start in red. Any start where he had a high number of fly balls in comparison to his ground ball total and he suffered because of it is in green. Any time where the results deviate from my theory (either due to pooping the bed with more/equal ground balls or where he did well in spite of them) are in blue. Jo-Jo's complete game victory is in yellow. Pretty even ratio of GB/FB in that game. I highlighted it just because.

What does it tell us? Inconclusive. He's shown the ability to get around skying balls for the outfielders some of the time. However, he's also been punished for doing it, too. I don't know guys. Thought I had something, but it looks like this turned into a thirty minute statistical wank-fest with no real satisfaction at the end. I think I just figuratively blueballed myself with pitching stats.

I don't like this feeling.

#Toronto Blue Jays #Statistical Wankery #ugh #Jo-Jo Reyes

Jon Rauch uses his super secret chameleon powers and freaks out Jose Molina for a while during tonight's win against the Royals by taking a few swings for him. #GiantRauch

(Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

#Blue Jays #Jon Rauch #jose molina #Jays #Toronto Blue Jays #Giant Rauch

Game Reaction: May 30th, 2011

Jays 11 - Indians 1

Complete Game victory for P Jo Jo Reyes.

Chilling, Totally Not Shilling: Eephus League Scorebook

Hey, guys! Roll's actually doing some blogging again! (wooo.)

Getting down to brass tacks, I think it's of no surprise that I am a bit of a baseball fanatic. I'm always looking for something to do in or around baseball to fill up my spare time. (This blog comes to mind.) So, when given the opportunity to do something as intricate and vital to the game of baseball as keeping score, I jumped right on it. Hell, if anything I'd get a bit of amusement/stress trying to split hairs between errors and fielders choices for a while and get some stats to remember a few evenings by.

Of course, a big non-starter for getting into score keeping is...

You really don't get many scorecards that are tailored to the guy coming into the tradition of score keeping. So, I did what anyone in my position would do: sulked for a minute and then forgot about it.

That is, until I came by a link to the Eephus League score book. It's a small project started up by Bethany Heck, recent graphic design graduate from Auburn University and an avid baseball fan in her own right. She designed the Eephus League book with capturing not only stats, but of getting the pure extract from a gameday experience into your scorecard, in mind.

What she came up with is a small, easy to carry book that gives up a bit of space and robust stat-urbation (Apologies, but I couldn't think of a better way to put it.) while adding more to the quirkiness and special nature of each and every ball game.

What You Get:

The Book itself is small, about a little less width and length then that of a standard DVD case. It's perfect for carrying around in your pocket while on the move and for using without taking out the scalp of the person in front of you.

The design is solid: good paper used, pages stapled evenly, nothing over the top. Little details like the cut out diamonds on the cover are a nice touch. Everything plays together in a way that's not holding your hand through scorekeeping, but is also accessible enough for the new statboys and statgirls.

That being said, don't think you're getting space for every little stat that Tango and the SABR-tooth Tigers come up with. Conventional stats are the name of the Eephus League's game so you won't get to update your starting pitchers WAR between innings.

One book has enough score sheets for 20 games, as well as a quick reference for abbreviations and fold-out poster on getting started with scorekeeping. Each game record starts off with a general page for game details, weather, what you ate, who sang the anthems, etc,. It offers you a chance to record some of your time at the game, which falls in line with Heck's attempts to make score keeping more about the experience.The book even comes with some stickers in a back pouch that offer you a chance to mark outcomes and such in a far more respectable manner than just writing "WE WON" over and over on the first page.

The actual scoring part of the sheets won't blow you away with anything innovative. That being said, they're meant to keep score. They do that pretty well, all things considered. Again, conventional stats rule here. Hits, runs, strikeouts, walks, and the like are your worry. Not dealing with too many numbers at once actually offered me more focus on the game itself when I used it. Some people may see the streamlined design to be a non-starter, but sometimes the best way to add is to subtract.

If I need to come up with something negative about the book (and I'm really nitpicking here), it's that it's a bit too small for me personally. Being ham-handed, my hands are somewhat big and unwieldy at times, the basepath section of the score sheets were a little difficult to work with due to the size. I got used to the finesse needed after a couple of innings, but my penmanship did not work well with that section for a while.

Bang For Buck: For $15 USD, you're essentially paying a little more than what you could be paying for if you shopped around for one of the mass-produced books. This is a single person project, though, and I'm all for supporting little enterprises trying to build something. The effort that has been put into the book can be seen in it's quality and attention to detail.

Pro stat keepers probably won't be looking for something like this, but they aren't the target for this book. That being said, if you're looking into score keeping as a hobby Eephus League is a good place to start.

Check out the Eephus League site, if you're interested. She's got something really neat going on right here. Eephus League posters, buttons, and hats are also for sale if your looking for something else. Although, be warned that if you have a gigantor head like mine (7 7/8) there probably won't be a hat in your size.

The project got it's funding from Kickstarter, a site dedicated to bringing small projects from around the world in one spot and getting donations from interested parties. She got almost three times her donation goal from the site, so we should be seeing some more from the Eephus League soon.

I'm Roll Fizzlebeef, we're done here.

#Chill #Eephus League #Score #Scorebook #Shill #baseball #Tango and the SABR-Toothed Tigers