Posts Tagged ‘Johnny G’

Letting The Machine Make The Lineup

March 6th, 2012 by Johnny G | 11 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

A couple of years ago, I discovered a pretty fascinating tool for putting together baseball lineups. I’m already envisioning most of the reactions from the “baseball purists” and the “anti sabermetrics” crowd. Just relax, guys. There MAY be a better way to approach building a lineup than what your grandfather told you on the front porch while you were listening to Harry Kalas (R.I.P, we miss you).

We’ve all heard all the “rules” of building a line up; You need speed at the top of the order, you need a contact hitter who can bunt in the two-hole, your best hitter hits third, and your best power guy hits clean up, and so on and so forth. Well, maybe that’s all wrong. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say at least some of it is. For me, the easiest one to get on board with debunking is, you need speed at the top of the line up. I don’t agree. Speed is way down on my list of priorities when choosing a lead-off man. First of all, by simple logic and mathematics, your lead-off man, over the course of a game and a season, will accumulate more at-bats than anyone else in the line up. That’s usually something you would leave to your best hitter. Besides, the lead-off man is only the lead-off man in the first inning. After that, he’s just the guy after the pitcher, and he’s probably the guy who got his 4th or 5th at-bat when the rest of the lineup didn’t. Call me crazy, but I don’t want Jimmy Rollins to have the most at-bats over the course of 162 games on this Phillies roster. That alone is enough for me to give some credence to this tool on baseballmusings.com.

Their lineup analysis tool takes the statistics of the players involved and creates the best lineup possible as far as run expectancy goes. The findings are always very interesting and usually quite unorthodox, which I can appreciate. Here’s what the computers had to say:

  1. Carlos Ruiz
  2. Hunter Pence
  3. Jimmy Rollins
  4. John Mayberry Jr.
  5. Shane Victorino
  6. Ty Wigginton
  7. Chase Utley
  8. Pitcher
  9. Placido Polanco

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Missanelli Won’t Leave Us Alone

March 4th, 2012 by Johnny G | 7 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, MLB, Phillies, TSP Radio

Well, Mikey Miss is back at it again. I really tried to put this issue to bed. I listened to a lot of opinions from our readers on facebook and via e-mail; They all had the same idea in mind. Be the bigger person and just walk away. I thought that was pretty good advice, so after Missanelli’s last e-mail which basically called me a “bad guy” for posting his ridiculous rants, I didn’t even respond. That was three days ago and I finally thought this whole little feud was over. Turns out I was wrong. I am apparently very much in the mind of Mike Missanelli, so much so that he is trying to pinpoint exactly who I am from previous encounters. Here’s what Missanelli said to me after three days of no contact:

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Missanelli: “You’re Just a Fan”- That’s a Violation

February 27th, 2012 by Johnny G | 28 Comments | Filed in General, Phillies, TSP Radio, Wings

Last night, when I sent my article to Mike Missanelli’s e-mail address, which basically tore his latest article on Philly.com to shreds, I never expected a reply.  It turns out I got much more than that. Mikey Miss went absolutely bat shit crazy. I don’t know if he hit the sauce too hard last night or he just has some type of anger management problem, but Mikey does not like when his mistakes are pointed out to him. He sent e-mail after e-mail of pure nonsense through the mid-evening hours that reeked of arrogance. As I traded replies with Missanelli, I started to get e-mails from other fans that were hearing about this story through TalkSportsPhilly’s Facebook page. It turns out others were receiving vicious replies as well, sometimes just for asking a simple question about the latest article. Thankfully, we have all the e-mail exchanges and we’re going to share them with you. The exchanges listed are with me, Christian Klemash (author at TSP), and a Phillies fan who wishes to remain anonymous. Let’s get this started:

I started off by sending Missanelli a link to the article and asking him if he’d like to explain himself for the unprofessional errors and fabrications he made in his article. His response was classy:

 Mikey Miss: Fuck off. Douche bag. My facts and figures are correct. But I guess you would know better since you’re NOT in business. Idiot.

Ahhh, fuck off, douche bag? Nice. I guess I need to be “in the business”, to know basic factual information about players. Carlos Ruiz’ salary in 2013 is real inside info. (more…)

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Carlos Beltran Agrees To Pay For Former Teammate’s Nose Job

February 25th, 2012 by Johnny G | Comments Off on Carlos Beltran Agrees To Pay For Former Teammate’s Nose Job | Filed in Baseball, General, MLB, Phillies

This story is about as strange as it gets. Jon Niese, starting pitcher for the New York Mets, got a nose job last October to apparently relieve some breathing issues he was having. Never mind that his nose looks like Passyunk Avenue, this is strictly for breathing purposes. Niese apparently has a deviated septum and the issues with his nose were making it difficult for him to work out.

The strange part of the story is, Carlos Beltran, former teammate of Niese, has agreed to foot the bill for the procedure. While Beltran is throwing around money for plastic surgery for others, you’d think he’d stop in and get that mammoth mole removed from the side of his face. I wouldn’t be surprised if that thing is breathing on it’s own. Picture after the jump:

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Positional Rankings: Third Base

February 13th, 2012 by Johnny G | 49 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General

After a brief hiatus from the rankings, Mike H. and I are back at it again. This time, we’ll take a look at the top 10 third basemen in the MLB. As usual, please take into consideration the criteria that each writer is using to evaluate the players. It would be pretty boring to go right down the list ranking the best third basemen on pure talent. Besides, there is a lot more out there to be thought about in front offices besides talent. There’s not a team in the league that is not working off of a budget.

We encourage you to leave your comments, whether positive or negative, below in the comments section. We will respond to every one. Once again, thanks for reading.

Mike H. Criteria:

  • DRS
  • UZR/150
  • wRC+
  • OBP
  • ISO

Johnny G Criteria: (more…)

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Sixers Lose Tough One To Clippers; CEO Adam Aron Gets It Right Again

February 11th, 2012 by Johnny G | Comments Off on Sixers Lose Tough One To Clippers; CEO Adam Aron Gets It Right Again | Filed in General

The Sixers lost a tight one to the Los Angeles Clippers last night at the Wells Fargo Center. I happened to be in attendance for this contest, and was once again pleased at the effort of this young Sixers squad. The Sixers’ free throw struggles finally came back to bite them last in an eventual one point loss. Once again, they played phenomenal defense, limiting the Clippers to just 78 points on 39% shooting. The difference in the game was an uncharacteristically high number of turnovers by the Sixers and 8 missed free throws. That is a painful way to lose a one point game. Overall, this loss does not worry me. The Sixers were without Spencer Hawes again and I thought they dealt with Blake Griffin as best they could. The absence of Hawes was felt in the final minutes as Reggie Evans seemingly took over the game with offensive rebound after offensive rebound. This Sixers team is built for the long haul. You just have to hope Hawes comes back healthy and stays healthy once he does get back in the lineup.

This was my third game of the year at the Wells Fargo Center, and each time, including last night, I have been impressed by the overall entertainment of the festivities. Last night kind of took things to another level. CEO Adam Aron took a fan’s suggestion via twitter and implemented a half-time, half-court shooting contest. Three lucky fans are chosen to take a half court shot; if they make it, they win $7,676 (get it? Very clever marketing here), and their entire section wins a free ticket to a future Sixers game. Pretty cool. This automatically drew me in and kept me in my seat during half-time. A couple of the “flight squad” members or whatever they call themselves, held a red ribbon across the half court line to ensure that one of the shooters did not go across the line. If they did go across the line, they’d be disqualified. The first guy missed by a couple of feet, the second did not even reach the free throw line with his shot, and third guy absolutely drained it. Nothing but net. As the kid that made the shot is running around the court going nuts as the fans cheer, PA annoucer Tom Lamaine comes over the address system and says “I’m sorry, folks. It appears he stepped over the line. The shot is no good.” Obviously the fans did not take that news too well. At this point, Sixers’ CEO Adam Aron came on to the court and over to the scorer’s table to speak to the PA announcer. They replayed the shot over and over again on the jumbo-tron as Mr. Aron reviewed the footage. It was clear from the footage that the contestants foot was clearly behind the line when he released the shot, but when he landed, his momentum took him forward over the half-court line. This was against the written rules of the contest, it turns out. Adam Aron leaned over the scorer’s table, spoke to PA announcer Tom Lamaine, and then Lamaine came back onto the microphone…

“Upon further review from Sixers’ CEO Adam Aron, the shot is good!!!!!”. The crowd went ballistic, the contestant went crazy, and it was just an all around feel good story.

I thought the same thing you are thinking right now. That had to be scripted, right? According to Adam Aron’s twitter account, he has emphatically said it was very real and technically the kid should not have been paid due to the rule violation. This is just another example of CEO Adam Aron doing everything right in his short time as the head man of the Sixers. It was a nice feel good story.

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Jerry Sandusky is Delusional

February 10th, 2012 by Johnny G | Comments Off on Jerry Sandusky is Delusional | Filed in General

Jerry Sandusky was in Bellefonte, PA today for his court hearing.

According to basically every one who was in attendance at Jerry Sanusky’s court hearing today, Mr. Sandusky could not control his laughter in the court room in Bellefonte, Pa. Most of the accounts are here. The court hearing took place to discuss the use of an out-of-county jury and to dicuss modifications to Sandusky’s bail. The prosecutor would like for Sandusky’s privilege to go out onto the deck of his home, which borders an elementary school,  be revoked. A teacher from the elementary school testified today that children have seen Sandusky from inside the classroom and at recess on the playground (troubling and strange). Sandusky and his lawyer would like additional privileges to be added, such as visitation for his grandchildren.

After the court hearing, Sandusky once again addressed the media. Why he continues to do this when he is so awkward and strange is beyond my comprehension. These appearances and statements only make the general public feel more anger toward this man. Here is one of Sandusky’s odd statements:

Finally, to address their concerns for me being on my deck. Our home has been open for 27 years to all kinds of people, people who have stayed there, hundreds of people who have stayed there. More than that who have visited there. I’ve associated with thousands of young people over years, and now, all of a sudden, because of allegations and perceptions that have been tried to be created of me, now I can’t take my dog on our deck and throw out biscuits to him.

Now all of a sudden, these people turn on me when they’ve been in my home, with their kids. When they’ve attended birthday parties, when they’ve been on that deck. When their kids have been playing in my yard. And when they’re kids have been sled riding when they’ve asked to sled ride at our home. It’s difficult for me to understand, to be honest.

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