Odds and Ends

I made my first itunes purchase this weekend. I added “I’m Shipping up to Boston” to my collection. It’s easily one of the best closer songs out there. It would be even better if it were more like a WWE entrance music, where you didn’t know Pap was on his way. Imagine being at the TokyoDome, where you can’t see the bullpens, so you don’t know for sure who’s warming up. Suddenly, the first few notes sound through the stadium, and you know it’s over. Perfect. I will say, though, that the rest of the song is just bad. I really wish the Dropkick Murphys would stop being the official band of the Red Sox. Tessie was bad enough. Now, I have to be sure and stop Shipping before the screaming starts. Oh well. Still glad to have the song.

There’s been some debate all season about the Coco/Jacoby issue. Obviously, Jacoby is very exciting, and people want him to play as often as he can. There was a stat floated about recently, that in games Jacoby starts, the Sox are scoring something like three more runs per game than in Coco starts. The airheads at EEI are using this as proof that Ellsbury should be the man. But, the stat begs the question…after 40 games, can one player make a 3 run difference? I don’t have the actual stats in front of me, but let’s try some things. Let’s say each player bats 4 times in a game they start. And, just for fun, let’s say Jacoby has a .500 OBP, and Coco’s .250. So, Jacoby reaches base twice a game, and Coco once. So, even if Jacoby then scores every time he’s on base, and Coco never does…that’s only two extra runs by Jacoby. Plus, that had more to do with the batters behind them, since it’s not Coco’s fault nobody drove him in all the time. There’s no three-run difference there. So, what if every time they’re at bat, there was a man in scoring position? (every time after the first inning, at least) Jacoby would get on base twice a game in that instance, and Coco once. So, Jacoby could drive in the man twice, and Coco once. So, that would get you the three runs. If they both came to the plate every time they could with a man in scoring position, and they had those fictitious OBP’s, and were both driven in every time they reached base, then Jacoby would account for three extra runs. Did any of that happen? Of course not.

The real explanation? Jacoby has played in more high scoring games thus far into the season. It’s as simple as that.