The Chantastic Blog

Yet again, the Blue Jays broadcast team is making nonsensical statements. This time, it was Blue Jays color commentator Pat Tabler who decided to make random assertions that sounded like it made sense, but were blatantly wrong.

After Jon Lester walked a batter in the top of the first inning against the Jays, Tabler said something along the lines of, “Walks have been a problem all year for Lester. He’s struggled with his control.”

Interesting. Going into today’s start, he had only walked 21 batters in 59.1 IP. That’s not an outrageous walk rate by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh, but it gets better.

“Last year, Lester only walked 66 batters in 210 innings.” (pause) “That was already his 22nd walk, and he’s only made 10 starts, not including today.” He then went on to talk about how he was a young pitcher and might be tired from the long season that included a playoff run last year, which is why he’s showing poor control this year.

The best part was the pause between sentences. It was absolutely because Tabler realized none of the stats backed him up, but he couldn’t backtrack because he’d sound like an idiot, so he made sure to leave out the most important number of his stats comparison.

Let’s go back to what he was saying. 66 walks in 210.1 innings last year. That works out to a rate of 2.8 walks per nine innings pitched last season. Everybody would agree that that is a good walk rate.

Compare that to what he was saying about this year. Going into today’s start, he had 21 walks in 59.1 innings. You know what rate that works out to? 3.2 walks/9 IP.

So yes. Walks have been a problem all year for Lester, but only if you think an extra 0.4 walks per 9 innings is a problem. Or roughly one extra walk every three starts. That’s why his ERA has nearly doubled from last year. Yes, that must be it. It has nothing to do with his home run rate going from 0.6 HR/9 IP to 1.7 HR/9 IP. None at all.

These are the reasons why I’ve been known to put my baseball broadcasts on mute.

I was on the subway after dinner with my extended family a few nights ago. I was taking the subway from Finch station, so I was expecting a calm ride with few people given that it was 10:30 PM. Few people, yes. Non-eventful ride, no. (more…)

Matt Holliday is a great buy low candidate right now. His overall numbers are still below average, but that’s due to horrendous numbers in April. Take a look at the huge difference in his BB/K splits: 4/12 in April to 16/16 in May. Similarly, his OPS splits have gone from 648 to 894. Try to trade for him while his numbers still look below average.

As has been previously established, my love for The Hills knows no bounds. So when word came out that Lauren was leaving the show earlier this year, I was obviously saddened. But then my friend phoned me last week telling me that Jessi from The Hills Aftershow had just tweeted about Lauren visiting The Aftershow in person one final time. Seriously, someone phoned me about a tweet regarding The Hills Aftershow. That tells you all you need to know about how people perceive The Hills’ importance to me. Anyway, I immediately e-mailed the show for tickets before Jessi even announced it on air. Just to be safe, I contacted a friend of a friend of a friend who has a roommate that works for MTV to see if I could get tickets. I’ve never even met the friend of a friend, let alone the friend of a friend of a friend, and I don’t even know the name of the roommate. But that didn’t stop me from asking. I’ve got priorities, you know.

Alas, there were no tickets to be had from either source. On the inside, I was crying with a single tear, LC-style.

As I was going to get some groceries, I was walking behind a couple of Asians down an escalator when they passed by someone who looked like one of those sketchy people I see all the time around my grocery store.

Just as I was walking by, I could hear the sketchy-looking person mutter to herself, “F—ing Asians.”

Um, hello. I’m right here.

You can never really tell if you’re passing by a guy that’s gay (and no, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being gay). But when a guy is in public wearing a tight purple shirt, very short shorts, and orange sandals, and throws in a haircut that can be best described as a fashionable mullet, I think it’s reasonable to say that he’s gay.

After watching the NBA playoffs on TV, I couldn’t help but notice how sweaty everybody gets. That got me to wondering - couldn’t players use that as a weapon by not wearing any deodorant? This would be most effective for big, physical players who bang bodies for rebounds, but it’d also have to be someone who wasn’t above playing little dirty tricks like this to get an edge. For example, Kenyon Martin would be the type of player who would benefit from doing something like this because of the physical style that he plays. However, does this look like a man who would compromise his street cred by doing that? I don’t think so. It’d have to be one of those scrappy, annoying guys who gets under the skin of opponents while grabbing rebounds, like Sideshow Bob Anderson Varejao. And then near the end of his career, he could become the spokesman of Right Guard by describing how it changed him from one of the most hated players in the NBA - even by his own teammates - to a beloved role player. I’m convinced this could work.