Sorry, but life has been throwing me curveballs lately, so this is going to be a short GOG. Hopefully this series will turn out like the last two, right?

Links

• Probable pitchers
• Rangers stats
• Grades are up for GOGs #47 and #48

GOG #49 :: Ranger Revenge? (21 points possible)

Four game series vs Texas Rangers -- September 21-24

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

1. Series outcome [3 points] 2-2 split
2. Though Brad Ziegler doesn't have the same magic as he did last season, when he set the record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a major league career, he has actually been a better pitcher. The groundballs are still there, and the ridiculously low HR rate to go with it, plus he is striking out more hitters while walking fewer. The fact that his ERA is up to 3.15 in 2009 can be explained by his BABIP, which went from .246 in 2008 to .355 in 2009. And that is really a comment on Oakland's infield defense (and a dash of luck), not anything wrong with Ziggy. Predict his IP/K/BB for these four games [2 points each] 2.1 IP, 2 K, 3 BB
3. Ian Kinsler is proving himself to be a star player, with his second consecutive season at 4 WAR. Comparing this year to the last one, there are some significant differences, however. His BABIP is way way down, falling from .339 in 2008 to .246 this year. Ordinarily we might chalk that all up to bad luck (and I'm sure there is some luck component in there), but part of it seems to be a real change. While Kinsler's HR per fly ball ratio is up a bit this year, the main reason that he is about to break the 30 HR mark is because he is hitting a lot more fly balls than he did in the past. His fly ball rate is up from his previous norm of 43-45% to almost 55%, and the batted ball category that has declined is line drives. A big reduction in the number of line drives he is hitting surely accounts for part of the drop in BABIP, and his batting line has suffered as a result. It will be interesting to see if this is a one year fluctuation, or if it really represents the new Ian Kinsler. Anyway, the question is to predict his hits, home runs, and line drives for the series [2 points each] 1 H, 0 HR, 1 line drive (for a game ending double play)
4. How many plate appearance for Travis Buck in the series? Does he record a hit? [3 points for the first question, +-1 for the second question] 6 plate appearances and he did get a hit
5. Which Gonzalez posts a better game score, Edgar or Gio? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] Gio's start was moved back a day, so he didn't pitch and this question doesn't count. But even Gio could have probably done better than Edgar Gonzalez's game score of 21.
6. As a team, the Rangers have almost identical numbers hitting against righties (.770 OPS) and lefties (.771 OPS). In this series, do they score more runs against the A's righties or lefties (counting starters and relievers)? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] Waaaay more runs scored off of right handed pitchers, which isn't surprising because the righties threw waaaay more innings.

Game 1 starts at 7:05 pm. Don't swing and miss!

Results

Just catching up on some grading...

Overall scoring statistics

• mean = 4.41667 points
• standard deviation = 3.17543 points
• mode = 5 points

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

The big winner is Rated-R Superstar! The big loser? That would be me.