FanPost

GOG 2009 #31

The Twins have been slowly creeping up on the Tigers in the AL Central (though they will need to pass the White Sox as well to take that division). The A's have been doing you-know-what in the AL West. Any meeting between these two teams always inspires a discussion about how they both succeed based on their cheap homegrown talent. In Minnesota's case, that talent consists of their two monster bats (Mauer and Morneau), plus a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Brad Radke clones (i.e. pitchers who don't walk anyone, but don't get many Ks either). Oakland's farm system has provided two of their three starting pitchers (you could claim all three, since we acquired Gio for Oakland draftee Swisher), but the lineup is full of underperforming veterans, as we all know.

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GOG #31 :: A Triplet Against the Twins (31 points possible)

Three game series vs Minnesota Twins -- July 20-22

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

  1. Series outcome [3 points] 2-1 Oakland
  2. So far in Joe Mauer's jaw-dropping season, 22 percent of his fly balls are going over the fence. This is not quite Custian (I'm talking about vintage 07/08 Cust), but pretty remarkable for someone with a line drive swing. How many of Mauer's at-bats result in fly balls? Do any of those go for home runs? [3 points for the first question, +-1 for the second] 3 fly balls (includes one popup), no HR
  3. Let's not be too hard on Gio Gonzalez. It's really hard to get through many innings with a BABIP of .441 (on the other hand, he deserves plenty of criticism for walking 5.18 per 9 innings). Predict his hits allowed, strikeouts, and walks against the Twins [2 points each] 10 hits, 1 strikeout, 3 walks
  4. Gio's opponent, Nick Blackburn, is exactly the opposite type of pitcher. Blackburn's K/9 has dropped below 4 this season, but he hardly walks anybody. All that pitching to contact has led to three complete games so far this season. Predict Blackburn's IP/K/BB [2 points each] 5 IP, 0 K, 0 BB
  5. Delmon Young's 2009 season has been a disaster so far. He is striking out 30% of the time, drawing a walk only 3% of the time, and hitting for very little power. Somehow, in only 57 games, he has managed to accumulate 1.3 wins *below* replacement. How many times does Young strike out against Oakland pitching? [3 points] zero strikeouts for Young, in 8 AB
  6. Sweeney is still looking for his first walk since coming back from the DL on June 18. Will he score a free pass from the Twins arsenal of control pitchers? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] nope
  7. How many swinging strikes for Wuertz's spectacular slider? [3 points] 7 swinging strikes in 2 IP, all from sliders... at least I'm pretty sure they were all on sliders, but I'm not really someone who knows his way around pitch-fx, so there is a small possibility that one of those was a changeup.
  8. Who steals more bases, Rajai or Denard Span? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] neither of them stole a base, so it's a tie. Those of you who were guessing Span can thank Powell for that, since Denard was caught stealing in his one attempt.
  9. Do the A's manage to score in every inning where they have a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] yes, they did score in each of those innings. However, our very own Daric Barton, fresh and clean from triple-A, did come up twice in one out, bases loaded situations and fail to produce a run. Fortunately Landon, Kurt, and Rajai picked up his slack.
  10. How many earned runs for Breslow, against his former team? [3 points] 0 ER in 1 IP

We've got Gio starting game 1 at 7:05. Cross your fingers, grab your rabbit's foot, and post your GOG entry...

Results

So swatnick predicted that this would be a low scoring GOG, and it definitely is. I was pretty worried in the middle of grading it, that the scores would be even lower, after no one managed to get a single point on the question about Blackburn's line score and then Delmon Young went and didn't strike out. So I guess what I'm saying is that you all did better than I hoped!

Overall scoring statistics

  • mean = 3.90000 points
  • standard deviation = 3.14392 points
  • mode = 1 or 3 points
Gog2009_31_medium

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

Woohoo! I'm the big wiener!

name place (this GOG) score (this GOG) # of GOGs place (all GOG) score (all GOG) place (by AVG) score by AVG
colin 1 9 30 4 198 16 0.199
mikeA 2 8 29 3 218 6 0.227
Rated-R Superstar 8 25 9 164 13 0.202
stranahanahan 8 3 67 15 N/E 0.152
zaniac75 5 6 29 2 226 5 0.234
Kimberly 6 20 19 125 21 0.190
nevermoor 6 29 1 241 4 0.251
micdog2001 8 5 26 8 172 18 0.198
Blicks 5 14 31 82 27 0.174
swatnick 10 4 20 7 174 1 0.262
doctorK 11 3 31 12 149 34 0.145
train80 3 27 10 160 25 0.179
muffinpryde 3 27 12 149 29 0.165
adragon 3 21 23 110 30 0.160
oblique 15 1 24 15 144 24 0.180
Angry Sean 1 29 16 142 32 0.147
robbo650 1 2 80 8 N/E 0.123
Steve in Napa 1 1 95 1 N/E 0.032
roscoe 19 -1 27 12 149 28 0.167
streetfan 20 -2 31 11 150 33 0.146
Mantecan As Fan DNP -- 1 95 1 N/E 0.024
SoCal As Fan DNP -- 14 28 93 15 0.200
NateHST DNP -- 15 22 112 7 0.225
DCinWC DNP -- 16 30 84 31 0.158
GoAs DNP -- 26 6 175 17 0.198
ZeroIndulgence DNP -- 19 21 115 23 0.183
gigglingone DNP -- 16 20 117 8 0.225
vegAN ryAN DNP -- 4 51 27 N/E 0.185
diehardoaklandfan22 DNP -- 16 24 106 12 0.202
Walton711 DNP -- 1 77 9 N/E 0.214
JLeverenz DNP -- 19 17 130 11 0.208
travdog6 DNP -- 2 95 1 N/E 0.013
Boonee DNP -- 3 56 19 N/E 0.174
RayJEdd DNP -- 12 25 104 3 0.252
A'sBowlingLeague DNP -- 2 56 19 N/E 0.244
elephantbaseball DNP -- 19 18 126 14 0.200
brian.only DNP -- 4 68 14 N/E 0.096
robertmelvin DNP -- 6 42 41 N/E 0.188
OaktownPower DNP -- 15 26 101 20 0.196
Flashfire DNP -- 1 87 6 N/E 0.143
designatedforassignment DNP -- 3 66 16 N/E 0.145
tresselfan DNP -- 4 84 7 N/E 0.046
KMoAsFan DNP -- 4 55 20 N/E 0.137
Gallagher's Watermelons DNP -- 1 73 10 N/E 0.238
GreenOctober69 DNP -- 1 80 8 N/E 0.190
SLOtown DNP -- 10 36 60 26 0.174
baseballnut020 DNP -- 9 40 51 N/E 0.173
MaineAthletic DNP -- 12 32 73 22 0.187
j_rich36 DNP -- 1 84 7 N/E 0.167
scutaroknowstheway DNP -- 1 91 3 N/E 0.071
FormerHuntsvilleStar DNP -- 9 33 71 N/E 0.247
jay_sensei DNP -- 6 41 44 N/E 0.227
easyraider DNP -- 12 29 89 10 0.213
Athletix Man DNP -- 9 37 59 N/E 0.199
A'sfaninNC DNP -- 25 5 183 9 0.222
Athletics fan and runner DNP -- 6 51 27 N/E 0.133
Holy Toledo! DNP -- 1 91 3 N/E 0.083
Nico DNP -- 1 73 10 N/E 0.278
EddieVegas_NRAF DNP -- 1 99 -1 N/E -0.028
JLaff DNP -- 1 90 4 N/E 0.111
WaddellCanseco DNP -- 5 50 28 N/E 0.164
crb29 DNP -- 11 34 70 19 0.196
eastcoasta'sfan DNP -- 4 54 23 N/E 0.161
Oaktownflav DNP -- 3 62 17 N/E 0.156
Future Ed DNP -- 6 42 41 N/E 0.197
JediLeroy DNP -- 1 80 8 N/E 0.222
Dalesman DNP -- 2 87 6 N/E 0.083
nateh37 DNP -- 7 44 39 N/E 0.174
anomaly_kat DNP -- 3 59 18 N/E 0.173
sprtsnwyn DNP -- 2 62 17 N/E 0.250
VORP is too nerdy DNP -- 4 46 32 N/E 0.234
asyouwish33 DNP -- 1 80 8 N/E 0.250
jeffro DNP -- 4 59 18 N/E 0.150
Cutthemullet DNP -- 3 53 24 N/E 0.238
stabbin_mcadams DNP -- 1 73 10 N/E 0.312
jasonthea DNP -- 4 48 30 N/E 0.219
fruitattack DNP -- 11 47 31 36 0.086
Helloooo 1st DNP -- 6 45 34 N/E 0.165
King Richard DNP -- 2 70 13 N/E 0.203
jpl DNP -- 8 39 55 N/E 0.222
baseballgirl DNP -- 1 73 10 N/E 0.286
whiteshoes40 DNP -- 18 35 68 35 0.116
walkoff baltimore chop DNP -- 1 84 7 N/E 0.200
spiffyjwc DNP -- 2 70 13 N/E 0.194
samljm DNP -- 1 77 9 N/E 0.265
pam5981 DNP -- 7 37 59 N/E 0.276
Gaijin_Suketto DNP -- 1 68 14 N/E 0.424
harenshair DNP -- 11 27 97 2 0.258
tosk DNP -- 5 49 29 N/E 0.179
mikev DNP -- 1 62 17 N/E 0.515
Leopold Bloom DNP -- 1 95 1 N/E 0.029
ElQuesoCapitan DNP -- 3 59 18 N/E 0.194
Trainman DNP -- 2 91 3 N/E 0.049
OptimistPrime DNP -- 1 89 5 N/E 0.179
dtownmbrown DNP -- 3 62 17 N/E 0.167
chillicothe20 DNP -- 1 77 9 N/E 0.265
ChadGod DNP -- 1 70 13 N/E 0.382
SamYam DNP -- 3 56 19 N/E 0.186
JLopez DNP -- 1 91 3 N/E 0.088