Our move to the new TWISNY headquarters took longer than expected but we are back in business this week! Check back later today for part two.
Sunday, May 13th
If this is what Mother's Day at the ballpark looks like for this aspiring Father Of The Year, we can't wait for Father's Day:
Tuesday, May 15th
Prince Fielder took a day off to scout Citi Field in preparation for the 2013 Home Run Derby. He misses the Brewers:
Wednesday, May 16th
May was a month for Gary, Keith & Ron to explore the space at Citi Field. First, Keith spent some time right behind home plate, a true man of the people:
Keith analyzed pitch movement, player positioning, and the best spots to rest one's feet while sitting in the front row:
On Wednesday, May 30th, GKR continued a practice started at Shea Stadium by broadcasting from Citi Field seats. They set up shop in the Pepsi Porch:
We love this tradition and hope to see it continue in the future. Stamp of approval.
The Legendary Johan Santana may do whatever he pleases, including wear his batting helmet backwards:
Thank you to reader Spencer S. for the tip.
Sunday, May 20th
"Don't let your OPS bring you down, Ike. The right side of the infield is still way cooler than the left side."
Tuesday, May 22nd
Let's check in with Kevin! It was the return of Professor Kevin as he lectured on the Pirates' analytics department. Also, he wasn't ready for his close-up:
Kevin: Sabermetrics obviously becomes more prevalent in the game, day by day. And every team in Major League Baseball has some sort of department dedicated to that. Some teams outsource all of it, some teams outsource some of it, some teams have a separate department for analytics. I talked to the Pirates about that. Dan Fox is their guy. His official title is Director of Baseball Systems Development, he’s been here since 2008. He’s got a background in a couple different areas, computer science for one, and also he was a writer for Baseball Prospectus.
He said his goal was to develop a system and also to develop their own analytics. His job depends on the calendar. Right now they’re heavy into draft stuff. They’re trying to look at numbers and predict what guys will do in the future. They combine that with scouts and subjective tape.
A big part of their job is coming up with advance scouting reports. They talk with the advance scouts and they crunch all the numbers. He said their goal is to put numbers into pictures. A spray chart, for example. It’s easier to look at a picture rather than just looking at a bunch of numbers. That’s the main goal when it comes down to it.
He’s got five people in his department. They’ve actually developed their own metrics, so while you can go on a website like Baseball-Reference, they have a bunch of stats, the Pirates actually have their own metrics that they won’t unveil to the public. The Mets obviously have it too. Ben Baumer is the main guy and it all gets channeled through John Ricco, but it’s a fascinating part of this game.
Thank you Professor Kevin!
Wednesday, May 24th
Here is a splendid parody/parity typo from an SNY yell-fest program starring a pair of doofuses with no more sports expertise than Joey Balls, counter guy at the corner deli:
Trey Parker and Matt Stone once said that before creating their comedy film Team America: World Police they considered simply making a scene-for-scene remake of Armageddon with puppets because few things are more ridiculous than Carlos Beltran's favorite flick. Parody was unnecessary. That's exactly how we feel about SNY programming shown above. No jokes are needed to convey the absurdity that is Marc Malusis and Sal Licata (who?) discussing which Mets players are mentally weak, who should be traided, etc. It is beyond parody.
Hat tip to Randy from The Apple for spotting this.
Part two of TWISNY will run this afternoon.