Oops

Boy, is there egg on my face. Hardboiled, methinks.

See, there's a problem with assuming a win, especially in baseball. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but with Matt Morris making the start against one of the worst teams in the National League, I was thinking he could right his ship and the Giants could get going back in a positive direction at the Marlins' expense.

That was a pretty dumb assumption on my part. Makes my wanna put on my invisibility cloak and hide from public view for a while. 5-1, Marlins win.

While Morris did pitch a decent game statwise, this is a time where I...gasp!...throw the stats outta da window. This is the Marlins, after all, so I hesitate to think that this will jumpstart Morris towards pitching to his ability.

Brian Wilson also took one on the chin in this game, but there's insufficient data here. Not worried 'bout the kid at all at this point.

Isn't it amazing that even with all of his problems at the plate, Barry Bonds is still running a .965 OPS? Looking at his pedestrian .483 SLG percentage makes many people look to his lack of home runs, but for me, I also look at his doubles. It's one thing to not have the power anymore to hit as many home runs, but it's another to have your knees turning your doubles into singles. Bonds has lost some power, yes, but now needing to launch a ball into the gap or corner and past the outfielders just to get a double is making that seem a tad more drastic than it is...

Bonds hit 45 home runs in 614 plate appearances in 2004 to average a home run every 13.6 plate appearances (and one for every 8.3 at-bats, for those who like prefer that slant on the stat). In 2006, that has dropped to 7 home runs in 170 plate apperances, for an average of a homer every 24.3 plate appearances (one every 16.9 at-bats). So, in effect, it's taking him about twice as long to hit a home run.

It took Bonds an average of 22.7 plate appearances to hit a double in 2004, a number which has climbed to a double every 28.3 plate appearances in 2006.

And we'll just skip over the triples. He hit only three in 2004, but he will hit none this year. If Bonds ends up with a triple this year, it'll have to be because an outfielder misjudges a carom off of the right field wall at Mays Field, sending the ball towards the right field foul line. If Barry happens to be running...check that, ambitiously jogging the entire time, he might be able to slide...check that, dance his way into 3rd base ahead of a throw.

Sidenote: I've added two links to that thar sidebar under the Giants Blogs: Giants Win is one I've linked in a previous entry, but neglected to mention that Big D's site was permanently linked up on the sidebar, and Sour Grapes, written by a gentleman going by the name of PEFACommish. I've read his latest entries and found them entertaining, thus I have caused the link to that site to come into being...doesn't hurt that he was kind enough to link me up, too.

And oh, by the way, that invisibility cloak thing wasn't a joke. It's estimated the darn things could be operational in as little as 18 months. It'll start with military applications, but you know how these things work...