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Your Portland Beavers 6, Reno 4

Inning One: Socrates Johnson

Greek philosopher Socrates – aka Father of the Western Intellectual Tradition – is famous for many reasons, such as appearing in a number of Plato’s Dialogues, his more-than-neighborly interest in Greek youth, and also for his prominent role in 1989’s genre-smashing hit Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.*

He’s also famous for developing the Socratic Method, which is different from the Crystal Method in that the Crystal Method is a Grammy-award-winning duo in the genre called electronica, while the Socratic Method is a form of inquiry in which (usually) opposing viewpoints are taken by one speaker each, with a view to reaching insight by means of dialectic.

*I also vaguely remember him as member of the celebrity chorus in “We Are the World”, but I’m unable to substantiate this.

Inning Two: The Rhetorical Device of Compare and Contrast

Jerry Seinfeld is sorta like a modern day Socrates.

But also not so much.

Inning Three: Not That William James

Kansan philosopher Bill James – aka Baby Daddy of the Sabermetric Revolution – is famous for mostly one reason: as the man who introduced all manner of statistical analysis to baseball, thus spawning an entire new pastime for young men everywhere living in their mothers’ basements.

Of course, that’s why he’s famous, which is different than what he ought to be famous for. It’s the latter of those that a new-ish book How Bill James Changed Our View of Baseball, edited by Gregory F. Augustine Pierce, attempts to examine. How Bill James is a collection of twelve essays by people either professionally or personally linked to James, featuring such luminaries as ESPN blogicator Rob Neyer; Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey; author of the excellent Fantasyland, Sam Walker; and Bill James’s own ladyfriend, Susan McCarthy.

As Pierce writes in his introduction:

I must admit that I was surprised and even a little skeptical when Time magazine named Bill James one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” in April of 2006. James was included on a list with world political, religious, business, educational, art, and entertainment leaders. Give me a break, I thought. He’s an interesting person, but one of the hundred most influential people in the WORLD? Up there with people looking for a cure for cancer or ways to bring about world peace?

So I started asking people why Bill James would ever be included on a list like that, and I began to get some interesting answers. It turns out that what he was doing with baseball has all kinds of applications in other walks of life. It is not just that he had changed how people think about baseball; he has changed how a whole generation of people think about a lot of things.

Inning Four: And That’s Relevant How, Exactly?

Recently, yours truly, entirely smitten with the aforementioned book, turned immediately to my humble bookcase and pulled from it James’s The Baseball Book 1991. The Baseball Books represented, to James, a departure from the work he’d done in the Abstracts, aimed less at inventing new metrics for understanding baseball and more at sorting through the many that now existed (many created by James himself) for meaning.

What’s particularly cool about the 1991 edition is the first section, entitled Basic Questions. About this section, James writes in the Introduction:

What I’ve tried to do in the first section of this book this year is talk about, write about, as many of the things which are on the minds of the average baseball fan … I tried to find the basic questions about each major league player. The basic questions about Daryl Strawberry: How’s he going to do in Los Angeles? How will he hit in Dodger Stadium? How much will his loss hurt the Mets? How much will he help in LA? What are his career totals going to be? Is he going to hist 500 home runs in his career? 600? How many?

He then proceeds, for 180 giant, three-columned pages, to do just that. The method, if not exactly Socratic in execution, is certainly Socratic in spirit, using inquiry as a means to gain greater insight – into the players, specifically, and the truth, more generally.

The product is excellent, vintage James, whether he’s warning us to appreciate Eric Davis, almost pinky-swearing us that Lance Dickson will be a star (he pitched 14 innings in the majors), or referring to Luis Encarnacion of Kansas City as “the Rodney Dangerfield of the Royals’ organization.”

There are also kinda mean entries, such as this, in re Jerry Kutzler of the White Sox:

Who is he?

Right-handed starting pitcher, pitched well for Tampa in 1988. I don’t expect him to be a major league starting pitcher, ever.

Never was there a more biting “ever,” I’d say.

And then there’s this in re Baltimore’s Jose Mesa, which is just awesome:

Can he pitch in the major leagues?

Can a bear perform heart surgery? I guess you never know unless you give him a scalpel and stand back.

Anywho, I bring all this up by way of creating the giantest anti-climax in Ecstatic Truth Journalism history. Partially in homage to James, partially to keep you and I awake, I will be writing the remainder of the present Report in the style of Basic Questions section from The Baseball Book 1991.

One note before I begin: where James writes that he is attempting to address questions that the “average baseball fan” might have, I have attempted, in what follows, to anticipate and answer questions that an average Portland Sportsman reader might have. On account of I have zero idea who reads the Sportsman, besides all of our mothers, then this gives me great freedom, I think.

Okay. Ready? Here goes:

BASIC QUESTIONS:

YOUR PORTLAND BEAVERS v RENO ACES

JUNE 07, 2009

Mike Baxter, the guy who batted second and played right for Portland today: who is he?

Baxter was recently (as in, yesterday) promoted from Double-A San Antonio, where he was Texas League Player of the Month in May. He put up a 376/441/559 line (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 23 doubles in 202 AB. That’s pretty good, except for two caveats, one giant and one slightly less giant:

1. He sported a .471 average on balls in play at San Antonio, and, less giant:

2. He only hit 4 HR.

If you adjust Baxter’s BA to reflect something like a .300 BABIP (around major league average), it drops to something around .230 – much different than the .376 he actually posted.

Baseball Prospectus offers a slightly more encouraging major league translation: 274/317/438, with a .338 BABIP. That’s not so bad for a 24-year-old.

As for the lack of dongers – well, Baxter has hit those 23 doubles, and I know I’ve heard people talk about how, as a player gets older and stronger, those doubles “turn into home runs.” I’ve heard elsewhere that doubles are just as much about speed as power, so … so where does that leave us?

The answer is, I don’t know exactly. One thing to note is this: in the bottom of the seventh of today’s game, Baxter hit a ball to right field that was, by no means, a sure-thing double, but he legged it out. So that’s an example of a double that will not be “turning into a home run” anytime soon.

The third baseman for Reno, Ruben Gotay – is there a reason I recognize his name?

Well, if you watched Kansas City games in 2004-05 or New York Mets’ games in 2007 or Atlanta games last year, then yes, there is a reason, because he played for those teams.

That’s impossible. That Ruben Gotay was a kinda anonymous slap hitter. This one is hitting .288 with a .416 OBP. He has 40 BB versus only 20 K in 177 AB.

I don’t know what you want me to say. There are three (or maybe more) explanations:

1. Gotay’s improvement is not an improvement at all, but merely a statistical fluke, or

2. This is a skill that Gotay has developed because he’s playing at Triple-A for the fourth time, but not something that he would necessarily bring with him to the majors, or

3. Over the winter, Gotay underwent experimental surgery during which his eyes were removed and replaced with the eyes of the Tawny Owl, which can see for miles in the dark.

The most likely of these is the second – that Gotay is 26 and playing in Triple-A for the fourth time.

Also, if I could add: for an average reader of the Sportsman, you sure have a lot of information about, and interest in, minor league baseball. Ever think about writing for us?

Do Gotay’s slash stats kinda make you have a crush on him?

N’doy. And the same is true basically for any player who throws up a BA below .300 and an OBP above .400.

Reno’s entire team has kinda crazy numbers. What’s the deal?

They do have crazy numbers. Behold them, in something that I bet will look nothing like a chart:

Player	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Carlin, Luke	118	305	393	424
Gotay, Ruben	177	282	416	418
Murillo, Augustin	101	317	388	475
Nunez, Abraham	65	308	408	415
Romero, Alex	219	361	425	484

Small sample size warnings abound here, but that’s pretty impressive. It’s the first year of baseball in Aces Ballpark, but my guess is that it’s a hitter’s park, both because of the sorts of numbers that the Reno hitters are putting up and also for the fact that Las Vegas (which is also in Nevada) is a crazy hitter’s park (with a park factor of 1091). Consider also that, while Las Vegas has an elevation of ca. 2000 feet, Reno’s is over twice that – ca. 4500 feet.

That said, Reno might not be a hitter’s park at all. I looked on the internets a little and no one seems to’ve published the information yet.

Also, another thing to note: none of those guys are really slugging all that much – none of them are over .500, even. Nor are the batting averages all that crazy (although Luke Carlin won’t be a .305 hitter at the major league level). What’s interesting is the OBPs relative to the averages. Carlin has an almost 90 point difference, Gotay’s is huge, Nunez’s is 100 points even. Some ballparks can create more walks – because of lighting, maybe, or the threat of a home run – but not to this degree, I’m thinking.

What was the deal with the weather today? Weather.com said it’d be, like, 73 and sunny at game time, when it was actually more like 65 and cloudy as all frig?

Unfortunately, I’m not a meteorologist.

And I mean “unfortunately” on so many levels.

Actually, no I don’t.

Hector Ambriz (Reno): five strikeouts in the first two innings. What gives?

It’s hard to say exactly what gives. Ambriz has had good, not great strikeout numbers for his age and level. Last year, as a 24-year-old at Double-A Mobile, he put up rates of 6.96 K and 2.77 BB per 9 IP, which is eh-worthy material. This year, however, repeating at Mobile, he put up rates of 9.93 K/9 and 1.86 BB/9 in 29 IP. He’s youngish, still, although he was also repeating, so it’s hard to say if that improvement in numbers equals improvement in skill.

So far, in 41 and 2/3 Triple-A innings, he’s put up a 7.78 K/9 and 3.67 BB/9.

More on this absolutely never.

Are you ready for a “taste explosion”?

There are two ways to answer this. First is, were I ready for a “taste explosion,” I would most definitely try Frosty Bites, available at PGE Park. Second is, in case no one noticed, the phrase “taste explosion” is disgusting.

Eulogio de la Cruz: how bout that guy, hm?

“Frankie” threw the ball so hard and so straight tonight. The first thing is good to do, the second one not so much.

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