Woke up thinking about last night’s Guardians vs Tigers game stats buzzing in my head. Needed to break down the key players properly, see who really made the difference besides the scoreboard. Grabbed my coffee, extra strong, knowing the usual stats sites would be a pain.
The Early Mess Around
First things first, hit the official MLB site for the raw numbers. Man, it’s slow today! Page took forever to load. Then, the stats tables? Pure chaos. Columns overlapping, fonts all weird sizes, looked like a toddler designed it. Seriously, how do they make it this bad? Had to scroll up and down like ten times just to find Aaron Civale’s pitch count. Annoying!
Switched to the game recap highlights next. Needed to see when stuff happened, not just the what. That Javy Baez double play saving the Tigers early? Found a clip, but it was potato quality – like filmed on a flip phone. Almost missed how slick his footwork was turning it. Then later, Naylor’s homer. Stats said exit velocity 109 mph, but seeing him crush it? That swing looked different, heavier somehow.
Digging Into the Numbers Guts
Alright, time to get my hands dirty. Copied all the messy player stats into a text file – total spaghetti code situation:
- Shane Bieber: Kept seeing that WHIP (walks+hits per inning) was super low, under 1.00 for the game. Shows he was grinding, keeping guys off base even without crazy Ks.
- Akil Baddoo: Dude stole two bases! Looked back at his sprint speed metrics – consistently top tier. Explains how he pressured the Guards’ catcher so much.
- José Ramirez: The RBIs were obvious, but checked his advanced stats after. His launch angle on that sac fly? Textbook. Knew exactly how to lift it deep enough.
This stuff took hours! Website timeouts, browser tabs crashing twice. Tried using a fancy stats aggregator tool, but the interface? Needed a PhD just to find the simple slash line.
Trying to Make Sense (and Why My Cat Hates Stats)
Started writing the analysis part. Wanted to connect the highlight plays with the deeper numbers. Like pointing out that Baez’s defensive gem directly saved two runs early, which gave their pitching breathing room. But translating between game feed timestamps and the stats logs? Nightmare.
My code looked like alphabet soup trying to match timings. Left my desk to think, tripped over Mittens (my cat) camped out under the desk chair again. Gave me the death stare. Probably thinks baseball stats smell funny, or maybe just hates my yelling at the screen.
Refocused. Saw the key moment people missed: Zach McKinstry late walk. Didn’t get a hit, but worked the count full against a tired Bieber. That plate discipline set up the next guy perfectly. Small stats, big impact. That’s the juice!
Wrapping Up (Sort Of)
Finally hammered out the key takeaways: Civale battled control issues but limited damage, Baez defense was huge, Ramirez clutch factor remains insane. Posted it. Looks decent? Mostly just glad it’s done. Those sites owe me a new keyboard and an apology for melting my brain.
Mittens is still judging me from the couch. Probably thinks Bieber’s WHIP is a cat toy. Whatever. Tomorrow’s another game. Ugh.
