Strat Pitcher Hitting Cards

A beef I’ve always had with SOM is that the pitcher hitting cards are offered in basic format only. If you use them with the advanced game, then you’ve got a monochromatic, portrait-orientation pitcher card mixed in with the black/blue/red, landscape-orientation position-player cards. Yuck.

So, as a little Photoshop exercise, I created some pitcher hitting cards in the advanced style.

pitcher3a.png

Right now the results are identical against left- and right-handed pitchers, but I may add some differences later and produce separate cards for RHB & LHB pitchers.

Titusville: ranking changes from last season

Ranking figures for 2010 keeps.

For batters, a positive change is an improvement.

          2009   2010   change
          ====   ====   ======
Howard     144    165    +21
Ramirez    122    133    +10
Zobrist    136    144    + 8
Hawpe      123    123      0
Victorino  105    105      0
Utley      134    128    - 6
Rollins    101     84    -17
Soto       113     68    -45

Rollins & Soto will ride the bench this season and hope for a return to form.

For pitchers, a negative change is an improvement.

          2009   2010   change
          ====   ====   ======
Jimenez    124    101    -23
Lilly      122    106    -16
Garza      126    122    - 4
Hamels     100    131    +31

Street     117     63    -54
Rhodes     155    120    -35

Cole will probably cool his heels on the taxi team. Not sure what to do with Garza.

C*t* Field Panoramas

Pictures from the Sunday September 5, 2009 game against the Cubs.

The exterior around the rotunda is attractive. The rest of the exterior looks like a generic college administration building.

citiexteriorpano.jpg

The seats in right field were not bad, considering they’re about the worst you can buy. The extra-baseball areas were nice, especially the food court behind center field.

citipano.jpg

The rotunda was underwhelming. The Great Hall at Yankee Stadium was much more impressive. Also, Jackie Robinson was a great player and an important pioneer, but am I the only one a bit weary of MLB’s 42-glorification program? Exactly when did Jackie play for the Mets?

rotundapano2.jpg

rotundapano.jpg

BOX SCORE

Earned Runs

I’ve been reading up on earned run rules and came across a strange situation.

Can a substitute pitcher face one batter who hits a home run, and have no errors committed, without that pitcher being charged with an earned run? Surprisingly to me, the answer is ‘yes.’ Here’s the sequence of an entire inning:

  1. Pitcher 1 starts the inning.
  2. Batter A singles.
  3. Pitcher 2 replaces Pitcher 1.
  4. Batter B singles, and A is forced at second.
  5. Pitcher 3 replaces Pitcher 2.
  6. Batter C homers, scoring B & C.
  7. Pitcher 4 replaces Pitcher 3.
  8. Batter D strikes out.
  9. Batter E strikes out.
  10. Batter F strikes out.

One earned run is charged to Pitcher 1, one earned run is charged to Pitcher 2, and no earned runs are charged to Pitcher 3!

Pitcher 1 is responsible for one runner when he leaves the game. Because A is out as the result of a batted ball (as opposed to being caught stealing or picked off), it does not reduce the number of runners for which Pitcher 1 has responsibility. Pitcher 2 allowed a single, so he’s responsible for one. When the home run scores two, those runs go to Pitchers 1 & 2, one apiece.

This might not be the only way it could happen, but I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.

The funky part of the sequence is #4, where there’s a single and a force out on the same play. How can this happen? The batter sends a line drive to shallow center. The runner on first believes it will be caught, so he stays close to first. The center fielder plays it on one hop and fires to second to get the force out. It’s rare, but it happens.

Now, if Batter B had grounded into a normal force play, Pitcher 2 would not be responsible for any runners, and when Batter C homered, the two earned runs would have been charged to Pitchers 1 & 3.

* * * * * *

If you allow an error, then it’s easy for a pitcher to give up a homer to the only batter faced and not be charged with an earned run. You just need a muffed foul ball error with two outs before the home run.

Incidentally, it doesn’t matter how many times the third out should have occurred but for errors before Pitcher 3 entered the game. Rule 10.16(i):

When pitchers are changed during an inning, the relief pitcher shall not have the benefit of previous chances for outs not accepted in determining earned runs.

Runs that score under such conditions will be earned for the substitute pitcher but not for the team.