Baseball scorekeepers use the letter "K" to signify a batter struckout. We want to know why the letter "K" was chosen. Thank you in advance.
132767
S was used for sacrifice.  K is the last letter of "struck."
199652
I think you're getting at the 'staturation' (my term, or?) of baseball. I think the whole Moneyball analysis is hyper-rational, questionable in its practicality and downright dismissive of the tempo, traditions, and feel of the game. As far as pitch counts, I absolutely agree with you. More on that in a bit. However, as long as pitch counts are relied upon by managers to aid in deciding their pitching changes, I think it's necessary to include in box scores. In fact, I get annoyed when newspapers fail to include pitch counts in their roundups. \n\nBut I have to wonder about the whole notion of pitch counts. I feel like the media often hype high pitch counts  as indicative of a.)a gutsy performance, if the P gets a W or b.)a poor use of a pitcher, if the P gets a L. In the former, you have hero-hyping, which makes good copy. In the latter case you have a classic case of double-guessing, which I'm sure managers hate to no end. In the end, I think managers are cowed into keeping pitch counts relatively low not for fear of hurting their pitchers, but for fear of being deemed my management or media as unable to responsibly harness the talents of the team's "poor, fragile" pitchers (I definitely have wee Pedro Martinez in mind here). \n\nFrankly, SPs should be insulted by this. Any SP worth his cleats wants to hang onto the ball, and it is always a good thing to hear of private spats between P and MGR about a quick hook. At the same time, SPs should protect theit MGR if he is called to task for allowing a high pitch count, if he can attest that he was, indeed, feeling good. \n\nAnd that's the thing about baseball, and the stats therefrom. It's all relative. There is no arbitrary safe pitch limit across pitchers, or even for one pitcher. Factors such as pitch selection, temperature, and field conditions all come into play. One day a P may be spent at 100, the next game he's still pumping at 125. \n\nBut for newbie's information, it seems to me that 120 is often an upper pitch limit. Occasionally you'll see a pitcher crack 130. Livan Hernandez, at least once a year, will hit 150. A lot of times, a manager with a history with a certain pitcher can sometimes get away with using him a little bit more than another might be comfortable with. Interestingly, everyone knows knuckleballers can pitch all day, but for some reason quality knucklers like Wakefield seem to be coddled like any other SP. \n\nI don't buy the 'insurance' or 'fragile arm' arguments. Baseball players today are the strongest, healthiest, most athletic ballplayers in history. This goes for pitchers as much as for hitters. Yet if you analyzed innings pitched, CGs, GS, and pitch counts over the last several decades, you might conclude that within the last 20 years SPs have become spindly weaklings. The hyper-reliance on pitch counts, which might be partly due to the unfortunate development of the professional reliever definitely feeds this trend (that is, trained as such in the minor leagues and before). It is undeniable that pitchers are coddled even more so in the minor leagues, and it is possible that they just don't have the stamina that they once did. If this is the case, then I think we can point blame at the farm systems. Today's pitchers are, however, physically still capable of hard workloads if they are just given the opportunity to work up to that level. \n\nEither way, I would argue that the decline in pitching quality has several factors, chief of which is the expansion of the pitching pool. Teams employ more pitchers now than they ever have in history. 12-man squads are now typical; 10 years ago it was 11-man squads; and that was an expansion from ten. If SPs were allowed (or were capable) to last longer, there would be fewer pitchers needed, and thus you'd have a richer pool. If, at the same time, baseball's best pitchers were groomed as starters exclusively, there would
671938
what the heck does this have to do with baseball?
139134
What? Never heard that rule. I was of the understanding that if the ball hit the top of the wall/fence and went out, it was a home run. I guess there could be a different rule for softball.
589685
If a batter comes to the plate with runners already on base, hits the ball and runners score, he is credited with an RBI for each run scored or (Run Batted In)\n\nhttp://bestsportsdirect.com  Baseball hitting sticks on sale now!
195584
That is why. Everyone thinks that baseball pitchers can't hit and that is not always true. I can't think of their names right now but I know that there are quite a few pitchers who can hit a baseball and some who have hit home runs. A few have even hit game winning home runs in the past. I think we need to give the pitchers a little more credit when it comes to hitting a baseball.
570579
Here's a link to some very informative fast pitch material which, in chart form, nicely presents situations for a pitcher and recommended pitch types and placement. I'm sorry, it is much too detailed to recap for you here, but I recommend that if you are serious about being an effective fast pitch chucker, you place the link in your favourites or print it out. ty.
649209
Ian M was close.  Popups are batter mistakes. They can be caused by good pitching or bad hitting or a combination. Line drives are normally hits that just happened to be right at somebody or were snared by good defense. Fly outs are usually also hitter mistakes. Though some well hit balls wind up in this catagory as well. Ones that didn't quite make it out of the park or that happened to be right at an outfielder. So a fly out is not a negitive against a hitter unless they are struggling and they are seeing a large number of lazy flyouts. \n\nThe reason they are called different things is it effects the play of the game. A good flyball pitcher for example is one that gets hitters under the ball thus a nice lazy flyout. If the hitter isn't fooled then flyball pitchers tend to produce quite a few home runs. Why is this important. Well you don't want a fly ball pitcher if you are the GM for teams like the Rockies, Cubs, Redsox. So it is signifcant in what kind of pitcher you are. Groundball pitchers are usually guys with good stuff who fool the batters consistantly into being on top of the ball, thus driving it into the dirt for normally easy outs.  Pitchers that give up line drives are going to get hurt. They can get lucky for a time but those line drives are going to start falling in for hits sooner or later. So it is a diagnostic stat for pitching coaches and managers. They can watch how many line drives a pitcher is giving up and see warning signs even if the pitcher is still doing well at the time. \n\nIt is also a diagnostic for hitters. For example you have two hitters both hitting .260 who are not skilled posisition players. Anybody hitting below .270 who plays 1st, 3rd, LF, RF or DH is not doing thier job. Doesn't matter how many HRs they have. One player is hitting .260 but has hit alot of line drives that were snared. That's a player who will see thier BA improve because those line drives will start dropping in for hits sooner or later. It means the hitter is getting a good bead on the ball and driving it. The other hitter is KOing alot, when not KOing is hitting lazy fly balls, pop ups and such. That is a hitter who is in a serious funk or one that's going back to the minors very soon. \n\nThe types of outs are also distinguished because of the level of difficulty for the defenders. A defender who drops a fly out is probably going to get an error. One who drops a line drive might be ruled a hit because of the velocity of the ball. Popups also signify the infield fly rule if they qualify. So you have to distinguish a popup in the infield to denote the effects on existing baserunners. \n\nGround outs are the other significant catagory you left out. Those are typically hitter mistakes as well. On top of the ball means a ground out, under the ball fly out, partial contact equal foul ball or pop up. Dead on with the meat of the bat means line drives, hits and well hit balls.
571077
its stat accumulation basically. Depends on the settings of your league...or which style roto or h2h. so if u have a 5x5 league... the catagories are hits,runs,home runs,stolen bases and batting average offensively. Its wins, saves, K's era and whip for pitchers. so offensively you want the most hits,runs etc and pitching you want most wins saves k's but lowest era and whip.
278827
You betcha, my friend--sitting in upper reserved, section 327, with a perfect view.  Beautiful day by the bay, not much wind, and every other hard-hit ball to center died before it got anywhere today--which is why we knew Barry's shot was heading out: it was still rising over right-center.  But as with everything in baseball, you need context: Byung-Yung Kim owned the Giants today.  It was 6-0 Rockies when Bonds came up, and there were already 2 out, with Steve Finley on first.  Kim had walked Bonds his first AB, but with a 6 run lead he looked like he was going after him.  Count went full, and we all thought, here comes another walk....The other remarkable thing was that during each pitch there was almost total silence in the yard--nobody was cheering, everybody went quiet, like they didn't want any distractions.  Never heard anything like it...And then of course all hell broke loose when he hit it.  Some guy in the right-center bleachers had a glove on it and misplayed it, and the ball dropped over the side of the section onto the concessions below.  And some other guy who was in line for a beer saw it rolling his way and picked it up.  (True!)\n\nI know there's going to be a lot of screaming about steroids, and cheating, and racism, and asterisks, and who was better, and why, and bla bla bla....You know what?  I don't think there's a sports record you couldn't taint if you looked close enough.  To me, it's about the drama of the moment, and this one had it.  Lucky to be there.  (But glad it's over....oh, and the Rockies won anyway....)\n\nP.S.: I'm with you on the steroids thing.  Strength is fine, but as anyone who's ever hit a baseball knows, a half inch either way on the bat, and you have either a very strong popup or a very strong ground ball.  The reason hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports is because the hitter has exactly half a second from the time the ball is released to decide where it's going, and whether to swing or not--and if you do swing, you're as likely to miss as to hit, and if you do hit, 7 out of 10 times you'll be out.  Steroids may give you bulk, but they don't give you eyesight or bat speed.  Not that I'm saying Bonds--or anyone else who ever played the game--is totally clean.  But I just think the effect of steroids on home runs is overrated.\n\nAs for unfair comparisons: how many home runs would Babe Ruth have hit if he'd had to play against pitchers like Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Dave Stewart, Pedro Martinez, Dontrelle Willis...?\n\nP.P.S:  Aaron's record is safe.  Watched Bonds' play in left decline enough to know: his knees won't carry him the 3 seasons he'd need now to reach 755.
298390
Pitcher - 1\nCatcher - 2\nFirst Base - 3\nSecond Base - 4\nThird Base - 5\nShortstop - 6\nLeft Field - 7\nCenter Field - 8\nRight Field - 9\n\nWhen announcers say 4-6-3 double play, it means second baseman to shortstop to first baseman and they got two outs. These numbers are meant for keeping score in a scorebook. That's why the announcers say it. If you're listening on the radio, it's much easier for you to keep score if they say the numbers for you.\n\nSome common double plays are:\n6-4-3 (SS-2B-1B)\n4-6-3 (2B-SS-1B)\n5-4-3 (3B-2B-1B)\n1-2-3 (bases loaded) (P-C-1B)\n3-6-3 (1B-SS-1B)\n3-6-1 (assuming the first baseman is going towards second when he fields it) (1B-SS-P)
304909
Terrance Long had a pitiful year last year for the Royals. He started the season on there minor league team but was released. The Yankees signed him after Sheffield and Matsui got hurt and brought him up from Columbus, the Yankees triple-A team, for the Red Sox series. Long spent most of his career with the Oakland A's
315929
wow guinevere kate, i didn't know you were proud of me. lol. see you at practice!\n\nfor those who didn't understand:\ni made the batter walk so by doing this, he can only go to the first base. if you have to take the walk, you are only allowed to go to the next base...nowhere else. the game doesn't and with him taking the walk...there are a lot of oppurtunities to tag him throughout the game.
670929
They do this in order for their closer to pursue stats. Being the closer on a team means racking up saves and if you don't give them the opportunity they may become dissatisfied. It really is kind of a dumb reason but then again so are many of the decisions managers and coaches make.
259101
Who's on First, What's on Second, I Don't Know is on third. Why is in left. Because is in center. Tomorrow is the pitcher. Today is catcher. I Don't give a Darn is at short.
463634
Base hit (single for batter).\nThe closest defensive player gets credit for an unassisted putout.
640285
I don't remember the reasoning for the stat being taken away, think it was in the late 80's or early 90's. The only reason i can think of is that it was a meaningless stat if you think about it. Hit a solo HR in the first and win 1-0, you got the GWRBI. Kinda goofy.