Game 24, Orioles at Mariners
(the real game, obviously, is Mariners at Orioles @ 4:05 — we don’t play 4:05 games, this is a road trip, etc)
Saturday, 4-29-2006
I feel responsible. I know it’s impossible, that my part in this was insignificant, but I can’t escape it. I got out of work early to go catch the game, and there was almost no one on the streets. A guy in a suit sold us two amazing box seats up the third base line, only a couple of rows back, for half face. Half face! Said he was tired of seeing Meche pitch while I was fishing out the money.
Dammit. I hadn’t checked the starters before I headed down. No big deal, though, it’s a beautiful night to see a game, and it beats working, anyway.
I buy some kettle corn and we head in. The usher gives our tickets the twice-over at the gate and on the aisle, but whatever. These are the best tickets I’ve ever had at Safeco, I don’t care if the average per-seat income level took a kidney punch for it to happen. Come focus group me. Please.
Good beer’s $8 a cup now. For $8 a cup I should be able to tell Beltre to just bunt at every pitch for all the good swinging does him.
Being far away, you don’t realize that the game’s not silent on the field. A few rows away, you can hear them talk about where they want to get dinner, or which guys on the other team they played with in the minors, and which ballgirl they find more attractive that night. The ball cracks into gloves as players tossing the ball back and forth in along the baseline.
So there’s the Ceremonial First Pitch, the Safeco Field Welcome Pitch, the Sponsor of the Night First Pitch, and all of them: the banker, the kids, the relief worker, they all throw horrible pitches to random Mariners, way out of the strike zone, short of the plate, and I mention this because the dozen people who came on and off the mound to throw fake first pitches, all of those people threw better first pitches than the professional did when he finally got up there. It was a fastball thrown up and way behind the batter, and Johjima, having reacted instantly to jump out of his stance and watch if sail, seemed to sigh behind all that equipment. Just above the background noise of people chatting happily and yapping into their cell phones there were boos. On the first pitch. These smaller crowds have a lot sharper edge to them, and it suits me.
Four balls in a row and Roberts was on first. Then Meche plunked some guy I’ve never heard of with a curve ball that doesn’t break. He got a strike when Mora watched a 3-0 fastball, hold the fast, came right down the pipe. Mora stepped out of the box and looked back at the dugout with an expression on his face that said “the next time you tell me to take, I’m missing that sign”. Meche puts a fastball low and away for ball four.
Three men on, and only one strike thrown in what, fifteen pitches. The boos rain down under the clear blue sky.
Johjima jogged to the mound for a word with Meche, which I like to imagine was “Boooooooo.” No one got up in the pen. My eight dollar beer had a weird aftertaste and I started to wonder how well the volunteers really clean the tubes and taps.
Chavez came out from the dugout and Bloomquist walked in from second. If he was so scappy and versatile, why wasn’t he pitching? The ump took his time sauntering out to break up their chat. No signal from Chaves, still no bullpen action. What could Meche have possibly said to the coach to convince him not to get someone ready? “Sorry about that, coach, but it turns out knowledge is power and now that I know that I don’t have control or stuff or speed tonight, I’ll be able to figure out Tejeda, no problem.”
Meche dropped something weak a foot ahead of the plate that bounces and Tejeda twitched, as if considering hitting it off the bounce, Ichiro-style. Meche stepped off the mound, took off his hat, wiping sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. The anger bubbled inside me.
“Throw strikes, you moron!” I yelled.
Meche looked at me, turned the ball over in his hand, and stepped on the rubber.
The pitch was a 90-mile-an-hour fastball right down the plate, and Tejeda hit it so hard it sounded like lightning had struck the batboy. The ball hit the center-field scoreboard in an instant, and I’d swear it was still rising.
The boos came in waves, washing over Meche. In the bullpen, I see movement, a jacket being taken off.
Meatball to Gibbons, and Gibbons yanks it into the left-field bleachers, a monster shot. The boos were louder than the announcement of Lopez, louder than the piped noise to accompany scoreboard instructions to do anything but keep booing Meche. Everyone was booing. My throat hurt. Lopez took two balls and doubled past Ibanez. The boos got louder. First pitch to Millar was the third home run of the inning, left-center, banging off the head of Woods, who was warming up. Woods went down. There would be no relief.
I looked around and everyone in the stadium, all twenty thousand and change of us, are yelling at Meche now. The bandwagon fans, the players’ wives, the guys in the press box, the ushers, everyone. There was a little girl, maybe seven, eight, standing on her seat yelling the craziest playground obscenities at Meche in this piercing scream that made my ears feel like they would burst. I heard curses so hazardous they’re normally restricted to members of the armed forces who are trained in their use.
Then we lost the roof. I don’t know what happened, I’ve been watching CNN and they’ve been running experts through on a conveyor belt talking about strutural harmonics and single points of failure, but there was a groan louder than the world heckling Meche and I looked up to see the whole north support structure accordian into itself and the whole thing dropped.
We’ve got a better idea of what happened then. Seattle’s on a fault, we all live like we don’t know it, but just because it’s not named San Andreas and doesn’t have movies made about it doesn’t mean it’s any less dangerous, and it turns out dropping something as heavy as the roof in one spot, right on the glacial silt over a tectonic fault makes things happen. Seattle’s sinking into the sea, and soon Elliot Bay and Lake Washington aren’t going to need locks, and that downtown we could never get right’s going to be under fifty, a hundred feet of salt water.
Seattle’s gone. Bellevue is the new Seattle. Or West Seattle’s the new San Francisco, and Bellevue’s Oakland, and Renton’s San Jose, and the U District’s what — San Rafael? I don’t know what to think. The team’s going on the road indefinately, and I was one of the last people to ever see live baseball in Seattle proper.
I’ll never complain about Gil Meche again.
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Gil Meche, not only the end of baseball in Seattle but the end of Seattle.
Uh, except it’s an away game. Or in this alternate (near) future, that’s what would have happened but thanks to whomever it is that creates the MLB schedules, we dodged that bullet.
Uh, or what?
(Frankly, when the Seattle fault lets go and Safeco gets trashed along with the entire downtown, making Katrina’s economic aftermath look like minor urban renewal, I expect the team will end up as the Las Vegas Mariners, or the Portland Mariners, or something. They’ll make noises about it being temporary, but under those circumstances getting a major league team back will be way down on anybody’s priority list).
FWIW, it’s the Seattle Fault
man, I want a beer.
Uh, except it’s an away game. Or in this alternate (near) future, that’s what would have happened but thanks to whomever it is that creates the MLB schedules, we dodged that bullet.
Ding! Give yourself a prize of some sort.
Conveyor belts conveyor schmelts, it was that Tejada blast off the scoreboard that did it – sent vibrations throughout the entire building.
Great piece, but, as a wise poster once said, man, I want a beer
Myself, I was trying to figure out what Robinson Tejeda was doing on the Orioles and hitting at that, but was still amused nonetheless.
Im confused by this thread. Are you trying to say Jarrod Washburn really didn’t have an ERA of 3.20 last season?
“A 4-by-6-foot, 3-inch tile came crashing down about 20 rows up from the Mariners’ on-deck circle. The tile – made of wood fiber encased in rubber and weighing up to 25 pounds – fell 180 feet and landed in Section 109 behind home plate.
Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina turned around after hearing the tile crash. “It was huge, at least as big as this table,” Mussina said, pointing to a long table in front of him in the clubhouse. “It probably would have killed somebody.”
Mussina was skeptical about the chances of playing today.
“What are they going to do, super-glue the whole roof?” he said.”
Bellevue is the new Seattle
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Don’t worry about the Seattle Fault. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a much bigger threat to us.
“And if Seattle slides in to the ocean, like the mystics and statistics say it will.. I believe that Safeco will be standing, even built on glacial till” – Warren Zevon (modified)
Derek, Nice bit of writing. Sounds like a piece out of Omni magazine.
I have a rejection letter from Omni…
Why are the all-star ballots available? The season’s barely begun.
Anybody remember listening to Dave Neihaus during the earthquake when the M’s were still in the Kingdome? I thought he was going to have another heart attack!
This is completely unrealistic. The press box would never jeer Gil Meche.
Recently there was a former player chastised for cheering for his old team while in the press box, but I don’t remember who.. (Hammerin’ Hank maybe?)
Hmm. Okay, I may be going out on a limb here, but it sounds to me like Hargrove must have been sent back in time to ensure the destruction of Seattle by Meche-induced boos. It’s the only logical explanation for why Meche continues to be a starter.
The only flaw in this theory is it would make Bud Selig the Kyle Reese-esque hero to Grover’s Terminator, as proven by his rescheduling of the game on the road.
I’m really not sure of the motivations behind all this, but the facts don’t lie.
Is watching the tail end of Gil Meche worse than watching the tail end of Dave Fleming was?
Well, I guess, because those M’s got paid about a tenth of these ones….
If Derek had any REAL imagination, he’d have written a story about a 2-0 shutout tonight, with Meche going eight scoreless, Eddie pitching a 1-2-3 ninth, and two solo HRs from Belte making the difference.
So, I had MLB.TV the last couple weeks and didn’t even realize it. Gah!
Wow, what the hell happened? Signal cut out as Lopez was coming up…
Ok, so here’s a question to kick around: what will the rotation look like next year? What should the rotation look like next year? Felix will be back (hurrah!), Washburn will be back (alas), and I’ve got to assume Joel will be back too (and if he keeps up his junkballing ways — and more importantly his groundball outs — I won’t even mind). Suppose Meche gets hit by a bus or falls into a rift in the earth or something. And Moyer retires to spend more time with his family (or perhaps continuing to expand it — his wife apparently is something of an athlete in her own right) and maybe doing a little pitching instruction on the side. That leaves two openings in the rotation. Who fills those slots? Of course there’s the player you’d like in some perfect world, and the player the M’s might actually sign in this far less perfect one. (Bonus: here’s a list of free agents).
My hope would be that Livingston, Foppert or Naggotte (did I spell that correctly?) would be ready and able to fill those spots.
In a dream world, there are some free agents I would love to see, or I would love to see Soriano get a shot at a starting spot, but he has been so dominant out of the pen, that I’d hate to lose him in that role..
Get Bloomquist a glove
That was kind to give only one error on that play. I thought I had seen two outfield errors on the same ball (for the first time).
Ok, so here’s a question to kick around: what will the rotation look like next year?
Felix
Washburn
Matsuzaka
Soriano
Livingston/Foppert/Nageotte
But I can see Moyer coming back, and I can see the M’s signing a LHP like Ted Lilly. And in all likelihood Soriano will become the closer later this year.
Man, I am still laughing at Ibanez falling down. I love my Tivo
Matsuzaka! I hadn’t even thought about him! I’d love to see that, especially after watching him in the WBC!
Look at Meche’s body language. No wonder he walked the next guy on four pitches.
#26
Add jason Schmidt, Barry Zito, or Mark Mulder to the rotation (not that it is the wisest choice).
Fun listening to Niehaus complaining during the commercial brake about how pathetic Meche is after something happens in the field.
I managed to break MLB.TV’s regional blackouts over the weekend. It took MLB 13 minutes to close the loophole after I’d done it.
#30 – Where can you “listen in” between innings? I’m guessing you have to pay to subscribe to something…
MLB-TV feed.
It has to be the live audio feed. The video feed goes silent between innings.
Really? Huh.
I’m stuck with Gameday from the M’s website.
I’m actually using Gameday to follow the Jays-Yanks game. I’m hoping I’ll glean enough from this thread to follow the action in both games.
I have the mlb gameday audio and the only thing I hear between innings is silence, and the occasional national commercial…I must be doing something wrong. On the non-komo feeds, I usually just hear random fan noise…I must be on something different…
The Louisiana Lightning strikes again!!!
Why are we supposed to like Jeremy Reed again?
Opposite field for Corey Patterson? I mean, really . . . . .
You are a baseball nut! Are you follwing a third game on your internet-capable cell phone at the same time? LOL!
I’m also watching ESPN Gameday, and I find it strange the ball animation made it look 50 feet foul the entire time
ESPN gameday – I’ll use that for the second game.
BRILLIANT!
Add jason Schmidt, Barry Zito, or Mark Mulder to the rotation (not that it is the wisest choice).
Didn’t Schmidt sign a big deal this year with the Giants?
If they sign Matsuzaka, they won’t have the money to sign Zito or Mulder. All the better, considering that Zito couldn’t hit Sexson’s strike zone right now, and Mulder is clearly breaking down.
So, I see them going after Lilly. He’ll be relatively cheap ($5-6M/year) and has pitched well in Safeco in the past.
Or, they could draft Andrew Miller and rush him through the minors….
On the audio between innings, I don’t know what to tell you. I think I only get the press box mike between innings when there is no FSN broadcast. I am watching it via the MLB.com website.
Why do I have a craving for a pint of Guinness now?
Lilly’s a lefty, pitch-to-contact, flyball pitcher.
He’s exactly the sort of pitcher the M’s like.
Lilly’s a lefty, pitch-to-contact, flyball pitcher.
He’s exactly the sort of pitcher the M’s like.
Makes you wonder if Bavasi hasn’t been calling Ricciardi three times a day wondering if Lilly’s available.
*praying* Please, please can we have Matsuzaka?!?
He probably has.
The Jays aren’t exactly in a position to give up pitchers right now. They haven’t had both Halladay and Burnett on the active roster a tthe same time yet this season.
For the ninetieth time, Matsuzaka’s not a free agent until after the 2007 season. As usual, I highly suggest not counting him until Seibu decides whether to post him.
To be fair to Lilly, he’s has a pretty good K-rate this season.
Mulder’s not breaking down (he’s a horse). He’s just missing fewer bats– there’s a differnece
Sorry, I missed the first eighteen! I just loved watching him pitch in the WBC…
Even if he’s posted, we’d still have to win the bidding to even negotiate with him, correct?
I think Schmidt just had a one-year option exercised, and so will be a free agent after this year.
Livingstoe, Foppert, and Nageotte are not an improvement on Meche at this point. Livingston and Nageotte have been lousy in the bigs and Foppert is looking terrible at AAA.
We could use a 3-hitter though. Someone with the same skillset as Hafner would be swell
Ryan Franklin’s on that list. Did he only sign a one-year deal with the Fillies? We could get him back.
That’s why I was saying I hoped they’d be ready and able to be in the rotation. But believe me, I’m NOT holding my breath!
Hey, Beltre just got the first Mariners hit of the game. That’s a change.
Is anyone else embarrased that Spiezio is out-slugging Beltre by 400 points?
Given the off day yesterday, they could have skipped Meche and had Felix pitch today.
Come on Ichiro! Get us on the board!
Yes, ONE relief appearance conclusively proves that Livingston will never be a decent major-league pitcher.
62, I have lost my ability to feel embarrassed by anything this team does
Or not.
62 – I saw Spiezio playing when I was in Pittsburgh last week. He hit a foul ball into someone’s lunch. Food went splattering everywhere. It was pretty funny.
Remember, Kenji was testing the scouting reports when Livingston was pitching! Plus, he was making his first relief appearance after being almost exclusively a starter in the minors.
57 – But Livingstone’s minor numbers aren’t bad.
At least he has an upside. Meche has no upside (which is a shame, because he never lived up to the Gil-ga-Meche nickname).
I was being sarcastic.
Past a diving Boone…
#72
But, but, but, he won the gold glove!!!
As usual, I highly suggest not counting him until Seibu decides whether to post him.
He’s what now, 26? His value has never been higher. I can see Seibu posting him this year because they’re going to get $10-12M they won’t get if they keep him through 2007.
So, I’m assuming that he’ll come over this winter. Of course, he may not. But one can dream.
Livingston and Nageotte have been lousy in the bigs
You’re judging Livingston on one appearance. He’s better than that. And he’s young. And we’re talking about a #5 starter spot, which for everyone else in this league consists of a fungible set of pitchers.
Nageotte, though, is just not showing any improvement over what he had in 2004. I think he may not be any better than right now.
Foppert is baffling. Everyone else is back from TJS two years after getting cut open. Why isn’t he?
The Good Cabrera showed up tonight. We’re screwed.
Or are we just screwing ourselves?
I took a few games off from watching the team, hoping to come back refreshed and renewed. I’ve been watching for an inning and a half and I’ve already sighed, “The things I do for my entertainment.”
Doubtful. That implies we have a screw. And so many of them are loose in M’s management I think we’ve lost them all already.
Time for NCAA football on the PS2…
At least Gil is averaging just 17 pitches per inning…so far.
In the category of useless information, I was right about my off-the-cuff guess that Beltre has led off an inning more than anyone on the team but Ichiro. Kind of interesting.
81 – HitTrackerOnline has that sort of data in sortable tables.
Cool stuff.
And now the girl is bitching because she hates the O’s black jerseys (not to mention the “O’s” hat) and wants them to wear the outfits she remembers from her youth in Baltimore.
During the break, both Daves were commenting on how crappy Meche looks on the mound. Also “the kid’s got it tonight” re Cabrera.
82 – oh, man, really?
I could have saved myself a lot of time. I’m gonna be embarassed if their math is different than mine. When I did it a couple days ago, Beltre was leading off 12.8% of the innings. Ichiro was 20-something, I believe.
WOO! Beltre with both our hits!
Only Beltre can hit this guy.
Beltre owns Cabrera.
RAUUUUUUL!
Beyoootiful
Saved again
Ibanez nails him at the plate!
Meche seems less Rockheadish this year. Still throwing waaay too many pitches, but just not such a spacecasse.
The fact that Beltre has led off so much may be in part attributable to the fact that he followed Sexson for much of the month and Sexson has made a lot of last outs.
Reed has hit the Mendoza line.
Rick, Raul did not start as a catcher. The M’s spent years trying to convert him to one, but finally gave up. I read that years ago in an article that quoted Raul himself.
Thanks for not being ‘aggressive’.
#94 –
I didn’t break it down by who he followed or what slot he was it, but I can say that the reason it struck me at all was when Beltre was following Everett. It seemed to me that Everett was responsible for a disproportionate number of third outs.
I only noticed because I am keen to watch all of Beltre’s at bats both because I am rooting for him and because I want to see if his approach changes. And it seemed like they were never getting to him because Everett was always out three – out of proportion even to his OBP.
Lopez ties it!!!! He’s been a pleasant surprise this year.
Lopez!!!!! *Man-Crush*
Holey moley!
Was Lopez supposed to have that power?
Are we sure he should be starting at second?
We should have had Ichiro try to stretch into a triple then pinch hit WFB for Lopez.
98. Right. When they moved him from batting fifth behind Sexson, they put him behind C-Rex. The result is a lot of lead off bats.
102. It was projected by a bunch of people, but most thought it would develop in several years.
This could be trouble…
They have had two beautiful bunts.
Do not put Moonshot in at this point.
Here comes their newly manufactured lefty specialist…… he sure has a big butt.
110- ?
This happens EVERY GAME. When Meche begins to lose it, we leave him in there 1, 2, up to 5 batters too long. Grover is like one of those lab rats that continues pushing the button to get the cheese, even though there is no cheese and he’s getting shocked to death. Operant Conditioning — why are you immune to it, Grover?
Dammit…that one hurts.
Rivera?
Does Beltre get an increase in on-base percentage for that strikeout?
Is Reed’s wrist still bothering him? He has it wrapped up with tape.
Why the hell are we stealing with a guy on second with 2 outs????
Man, this is a catching clinic here tonight.
Beltre is being scrappy!
Yuni looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid
115: Yes, Beltre gets an increase in OBP
Was that really a passed ball?
121. Really? Does that mean you get an increase in OBP if you reach on an error?
I don’t see how Beltre’s OBP would go up with a wild pitch or a passed ball. It would go down.
Down by two in the late innings…..lets play for one!
Moonshot lives up to his nickname
Seriously, holy shit, why is Mateo still pitching?
I sure hope you guys are right about Livingston and that his 21.6 ERA is just a fluke. We need lots of help in the pitching department.
gound out then and strikeout…Julio baby, I dont even know you anymore!
walk then single….ahhh…there ya are…….
123: Yes. On-base percentage counts anytime a player reaches base. The only exception to this rule is that a sac bunt does not count as a plate appearance, so if a batter reaches base (or doesn’t, for that matter) on a sac bunt it does not count for or against him.
I’m not watching–how did sherrill look? Mateo got out of the sixth inning (sort of), but shouldn’t sherrill have stayed in for the last out? I mean, screw the lefty/righty; keep the better pitcher in for the trouble spots.
127 – Obviously, because we don’t have enough bull pen pitchers.
Rally coming.
130 – I thought the formula for OBP was:
(Hits + Walks + Hit-By-Pitch) divided by (At Bats + Walks+ Hit-By-Pitch + Sac Flys)
How do you count that WP as both a strikeout and either a hit or a walk or a HBP?
131. Sherrill looked sharp.
Sigh, Rizzs and Valle together… I need another beer…
133: You’re right, I’m an idiot. I just looked it up on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_base_percentage
That is the last time I ask my dad about baseball statistics.
Oh well, tomorrow is Felix day.
In response to my own comment, it seems to me that errors ought to count towards OBP. A player who puts the ball in play more will reach base on errors more often, therefore better reflecting the likelihood of a player reaching base.
Geez, I just read that Francisco Cruceta struck out ten in five innings last night. And lost. Shades of Felix. Maybe he is hope for the future.
Woods is looking pretty good tonight.
We should have traded Guardado to the Orioles in the off season. Then we would have a chance here.
I was just robbed out of a Beltre at bat. Boo.
136 – It’s counter-intuitive, you’re right. He is on-base, after all.
Is tomorrows game on FSN?
143 – no idea… but it’s one of the few games I wouldn’t be watching anyway… tomorrow’s the draft, baby! I love me my baseball… but I take a day off for the draft.
Ah, what am I saying… Felix is pitching… thank god for Tivo.
Yeah, Ill be watching the draft but with Felix pitching Im hoping its on FSN so I can tune in to see the last three innings of the no-no
Well, that was highly depressing. It wasn’t so much that the team couldn’t hit, it was that even coming off a rest day, we saw Sherrill, Mateo, and Woods before Putz (surprisingly solid) and Soriano. The only good I took from the game was that I finally got to see the M’s live for the first time this season, and I went to a game at Camden Yards for the first time. The only bad thing I could say about Camden is that the fans were drunk so fast, the wave was starting by the third inning.
Way late for the discussion going on earlier about next year’s rotation and potential free agent acquisitions, but:
Kelvim Escobar, Kelvim Escobar, Kelvim Escobar.
Great, and consistently increasing, K rate, decreasing BB rate, decent GB rate. If he can cut his walks down just a little more he’d be a stud.
In response to my own comment, it seems to me that errors ought to count towards OBP. A player who puts the ball in play more will reach base on errors more often, therefore better reflecting the likelihood of a player reaching base.
I agree. Also, it takes the rather subjective element of what counts or doesn’t count as an error out of the equation. Plus, a good hitter would conceivably give fielders tougher plays to make. It would be kind of interesting to see how well ROE/AB correlates for players from year-to-year.
on the postgame, Drayer mentioned that there was a little chat with the team from Hargrove before he allowed them to hit the showers, and that Hargrove was actually a liitle crabby going into the game, apparently unusual for him coming off an off-day… She also talked about how Chaves had said before the season that this year they were going to set a game plan for Meche and stick with it, even if it wasn’t successful at first, because he’d been tinkered with (or had himself tinkered) far too much in the past, and that she thinks Meche is very uncomfortable with doing that.
Meche didn’t actually pitch that badly. He only gave up 2 earned runs in five innings. He threw slightly more than half his pitches for strikes. When you only score two runs, you will lose more often than not.
150 – Uh yeah, but 11 (legitimate) baserunners for 15 outs is pretty crappy no matter how you slice it.
OBP NEEDS REFORMING (See # 148) – OBP is not an accurate On-Base Percentage. Not only does it not count reaching on an error, but it does not count reaching on a fielder’s choice (such as not being doubled up). *
If these two factors were considered in determining OBP–and these factors are considered by thoughtful managers–then OBP would give us an accurate representation of a player’s worth.
Until it’s reformed, we should regard OBP as if it had quotes around it.
_________
*A few years ago, Rich Becker was the hardest player to double up. (IIRC, he hit fifty-seven (57) grounders that season that could have been double plays; but none of them were. He beat the relay.) His OBP certainly didn’t tell how often he got on base, or his actual value to his team.
[It's similar with Ichiro. (And the infielder who bobbles a ball had best eat it.)]
How does an infielder on the opposing team making a mistake on a play serve as an objective measure of the value of a batter to their team?
Should we add errors to SLG, too? Hey, if you hit a deep fly ball that gets dropped and you end up on second or third base…
As for Becker, most sophisticated measures of offensive value like Runs Created penalize players who hit into DPs, thus Becker doesn’t get penalized for that. And to be blunt, a runner on 1B with no out > runner on 1B with one out in terms of run scoring. I find it hard to buy that we should score someone who hits into a fielder’s choice better than one who K’s in the same scenario, since the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENS- you lose an out, but you keep a runner on 1st.