Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Thanks, Tim.

As if this Fox baseball broadcast weren't painful enough, Tim McCarver has to chime in with nuggets like this one:

I'm watching Game 4 of the ALCS right now, and after the Indians led off the 5th inning with a home run, Tim McCarver said something along these lines:

"We did some research, and it's kind of surprising: a team is more likely to have a multi-run inning when they lead off with a home run than when they lead off with a walk."

In no way is that surprising. And this isn't even the first time he's pointed this out on air.

Here's the handy 2007 expected runs matrix. A team can expect to score 0.93 runs on average when it has a man on first with no outs. With none on and no outs following a solo homer, the run expectancy is 1.54 runs.