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I want to shout out to James Dunne who posted basically the same article I was about to write after watching part of the Red Sox vs. Rays last night. I saw the graphic and the only thing I could think was "Well that was a fun an interesting way to illustrate how random and unimportant counting stats can be."

Vacation is fun. I get to watch a ton of baseball.

Because as Much as I Dig the Longball, I Still Think Speed is Totally Awesome...

...I have to throw up a quick link to Carl Crawford's record-tying six stolen base performance against Boston this afternoon. Crawford went 4-for-4 with a walk while running Jason Varitek and the Boston pitching staff ragged in a 5-3 win for the Rays. Admittedly, I was initially a bit surprised that, despite Crawford's baserunning antics, his Tampa Bay teammates had only driven him in twice. But then I remembered that even though the last time I saw a player swipe six bags in a game he also scored six runs, that game was in MVP Baseball 2004 for the Playstation 2; this was a real game.

Poor Jason Varitek.

Gabe Kapler Would Hate Me For This

Addendum: Beyond the Box Score posted a series of hilarious graphs of Swisher-as-pitcher. Gameday classified 21 of Swisher's 22 pitches as changeups. Baseball-Reference.com is now rife with Swisher-related pitching statistics. It was a hell of a night at the ballpark!