Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
Erubiel Durazo has the hardest name to type in MLB history. I think the correct spelling actually contains backspaces.
Susan Slusser has an interesting article about him in today's SF Chronicle. Last year, he was the perfect example of taking the walks-are-good philosophy too far. He was
drawing a tremendous number of walks, but doing little else and leading A's statistics expert David Feldman to coin the terms "good on-base percentage and bad good on-base percentage.''
This year Dra^H^Hurza^H^Hazo is actually doing what Billy Beane expected when he traded for him. He's hitting. Money quote:
"It kind of works together,'' A's hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. "Sometimes last year, guys were working for a walk, when what you want to do is work for your pitch (to hit). You want to be aggressive, and walks come as a byproduct. That's why I think Ruby's walk total will be up next year, because on-base percentage comes from respect.''It's an amazingly fine line that batters have to balance between aggression and patience, isn't it?
The same goes for typists.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.