Nate Burleson on Browns-Lions preseason game: “I’m going to get a fine.”
June 8, 2014Cavs will offer Kyrie Irving max deal per report
June 9, 2014Are you in tune with DiamondView? Well if you’re a Tribe fan, you should be. It’s been discussed in the past, but given a recent post by Cleveland’s Alex Kaufmann over at ESPN’s Sweetspot Blog, it’s worth bringing up again. DiamondView is the team’s proprietary analytical tool that has led to decisions from not extending Jim Thome as as he was approaching his mid-30s all the way to the power surge recently shown by All-Star hopeful Michael Brantley. Naturally, not all moves have been greatâDiamondView loved Matt LaPorta (along with every minor league scout in the game), and it’s “inability to contextualize” the statistics of draft hopefuls, leading to a largely suspect farm system.
DiamondView is the Tribe’s. It’s a tool that is largely mysterious, was revolutionary when it was created, and continues to evolve as the analytical world does the same. But in what is perhaps the most interesting note, former Indians scouting directorâand current GM of the San Diego PadresâJosh Byrnes once offered top prospect Carlos Quentin in a trade for a copy of the program. The Indians said no.
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Should Lonnie Chisenhall be in the All-Star discussion? As of this publication, the Tribe third baseman is 20 plate appearances shy of qualifying for any rewardable batting statistics. Presently, if you set the bar at 175 plate appearances, he leads all of major league baseball in hitting with a .365 average (his .951 OPS is nothing to be ashamed of either). The Indians have 32 games between today and the All-Star game, meaning that Chisenhall would have to play in roughly every contest between now and then to get his minimum appearancesâthe bar is set at 3.1 per gameâto a qualifiable level. He’s hitting righties and lefties at a clip no one saw comingâthe latter at a .542 mark. IF he would get there, is this turnaround worthy of a nod? We are talking about a guy who was on the fence once the team was waddling things down to 40 men this past spring. But man, what a story this kid has been thus far.
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Those of you who know me know that I’m a big fan of all things technology. I’m a big fan of magazinesâI dig long form writing, and the editorial care and design is something that allows them to still have value today. And I appreciate late-night television, specifically the work done by everyone involved with Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Alas, it goes without saying that Joshua Topolskyâlong-time tech journalist, visionary and Editor in Chief of The Verge, one of the best tech sites on the web todayâgetting the nod as Late Night’s Tech Expert is pretty damn cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-hhMCMTU_Q
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Oh, heyâŠLook. Scott Kazmir threw seven shutout innings and the Athletics pounded the Orioles 11-1 on Sunday. Kazmir, who has been almost unhittable, allowed just four hits and two walks, striking out seven. The strong outing was a continuation of what’s been a terrific first half for the former Indian lefty, as he’s 7-2 with a 2.20 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 70/17 K/BB ratio in 82 innings. The Tribe rotation has been decent for much of the season, but manâŠ
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A big congrats goes out to the QTV team over at Quicken Loans Arena as their trophy case just welcomed another addition. The hard-working folks behind the scenes took home another Regional Emmy this weekend, winning Best Promotion (Sports) for their intro video. This is as good of a time as any to remind you all of the feature I wrote about this very group a couple seasons ago.
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And just because: D-Wade being D-Wade.
35 Comments
Was there a foul called on that one? Does that count as flopping for a fine?
Wade has become a disgrace. Miami either whines every call or flops. The Spurs weren’t much better last night.
It’s never good to waddle things down. (Got a chuckle out of that).
Basketball is an embarassment.
More like D-Wade being D-bag, amirite?
Wade will not get fined for that flop – book it.
And if you want to talk about Kazmir’s success this year, you can’t fail to mention the other side of the coin, who also happened to face Kazmir yesterday.
Ubaldo: 2-7, 5.01 ERA
Lonnie Baseball may not deserve to be an allstar (PA do matter), but he has been the offensive Tribe MVP this season.
and it’s hilarious that Ginobli is defending him. Manu brought much of the dramatic performances to the NBA even when not touched.
http://www.thefumble.com/sites/captainwag.com/files/Fumble_Flop_01.gif
In other former-Tribesmen news, Chris Perez is stinking it up in L.A. Wonder if he’ll start popping off again.
In case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance you haven’t, the Indians have managed to win a few here and there, and have climbed into 2nd place just 3 games back of the Tigers and 1.5 games back of the Wild Card.
Harry Doyle shoutouts make Monday morning better
http://24.media.tumblr.com/fdd799d8131dffd5d3323269f9960a66/tumblr_mo9fhi2Uz01sqm8oho1_500.gif
Thank you Joba the Hutt!
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3624/3707512239_a32053d061.jpg
(the A-Rod photobomb is just the cherry on top)
Those DiamondView pieces are fascinating.
and, the most fascinating portion to me is that they are so tight-lipped about everything except are willing to talk about it to a game-theory class.
Can we replace Wade with NBA?
That works too.
Yup, and it wasn’t called until the ref turned and saw the reaction.
There needs to be an app that alerts me to the last 5 minutes of a playoff game in which each team has a real chance to win.
so, if Miami is within 20pts when Joey Crawford is the ref?
and, it’s about time for an attendance discussion again, isn’t it?
Best home record in AL (3rd best in MLB)
Above .500 on the year
3 games out of division
Team coming off playoff season w/ 92 wins
30th (last) in attendance
3000 less per game than 29th place TB
Attendance discussions are not fun, but they are necessary as I do not want the San Antonio Armadillos to be the former Indians.
The Yahoo Sportacular app lets you set alerts, one of which is a “close game” alert (and for basketball, I think that triggers <5min left). You can either set them for "favorite" teams, or for individual games. So unfortunately, if you wanted just playoff games, you would either have to turn them on for each team in the playoffs, or each individual game. With only 2 teams left now, you could just set them for the Spurs (since you obviously wouldn't risk Yahoo thinking the Heat are one of your favorite teams).
This confuses the crap out of me because every game that I check for tickets the lack of availability is appalling. For example if I want to go to Fireworks on the 21st it is $50 a ticket to sit in the bleachers and every where else in the ballpark just has single seats, no pairs.
I know that they only “release” certain sections for availability as they sell other sections, but it surprises me that they wouldn’t auto-setup to always have pairs (and more) available here.
of course, the game you picked is a Saturday night game, it’s Omar Vizquel Day, and it’s the Tigers. Maybe we just are selling that game well?
Upon checking myself:
section 304 & 316 have pairs
most upper deck sections have pairs
if you want to spend serious $$, then section 151($104/ticket) and 157($92/ticket) have pairs
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05004C3EA93EE66E?tfl=Cleveland_Indians-Schedule-Indians_Schedule-na-x0
There are promotional reasons to go. Do fireworks and 500 Omar Vizquel t-shirts quantify a quadrupling of the ticket prices? Not to me, but other people are more than welcome to shell out for that.
I will wait it out and see if prices drop. But if the Indian’s were smarter they’d start out by offering super-cheap tickets and increasing price as supply dwindles rather than starting astronomically high and slashing them the week before.
http://www.tiqiq.com
That day is the Omar Vizquel HOF Jersey promo night
use Tiqiq when looking for tickets, it pulls ticket opportunities from “thousands” of locations.
Yes, apparently you have never gotten one of the promo “jerseys” before. It is a T-shirt.
http://mlb.mlb.com/cle/images/promotions/y2014/0621_vizquel_full.jpg
ha, yeah free is nice though
I’d agree if the ticket prices weren’t 4x normal face-value đ
Basketball has become like Futbol. A lot of flash, flopping and begging for calls. The problem is that the refs reward the behavior.
do they slash them the week before? the marketing, at least, was that you needed to buy them in March/April to get the lowest price and that they would cost more the closer it got to gameday.
I’m not sure that is the best strategy either (I would always have a handful of super-cheap tickets to offer day of game, but in short supply), but they have marketing guys whose job it is to figure that out.
Ticket prices always seem to fall as the event approaches. (Bad example since we are on the road) but you can see it on the WFNY homepage:
that is from secondary sources, not the team itself. from your initial post, I thought you were referring to the team sold tickets, which is how I have responded. apologies if I misread.
He’ll have more than enough PAs by the time the all star game rolls around. Unless he falls way off, he’ll be leading the AL in batting average.