McClendon's Folly

2007-05-13T07:56:00.000-05:00

Hook, Line and Stinker

If the Nats faced Jorge Julio every night, we'd have the start of a dynasty on our hands. Dunno what Freddi Gonzalez sees in Julio, but he's obviously overvaluing "veteran presence" in the Marlins closer juggling game; five arms have recorded saves for the Fish this year and any of them would be superior options to Julio or overhyped arm Taylor Tankersley. Gonzalez should've left Tankersley in the game to pitch himself out of a jam, but better judgement doesn't always prevail at one o'clock in the morning when you're racing to finish a six hour game that should've been over three hours ago. Stars of the game in order:

1) Divine Providence
2) 3 Hour Rain Delay
3) Ryan Zimmerman

Bump Zimmerman up to 1st if you're feeling generous. His 9th inning walk-off grand slam is the reason the Nats put together back-to-back victories for the first time all season. Zimmerman has not been seeing good pitches this season with no protection in the line-up, but he crushed it in dramatic fashion. Time to add RFK to the list of venues for the Shakespeare in Washington Festival? Maybe not, but it feels good to get a break from The Comedy of Errors once in awhile. Some of the team's moms are purportedly appearing in a pre-game ceremony to commemorate Mother's Day this afternoon. They have a legit chance of sweeping the Marlins and taking the entire series. Unbelievable. And if not, they'll have plenty of shoulders to cry on.

2007-04-27T20:03:00.000-05:00

We Will Rebuild Them, and Make Them Stronger

Time to clean house and send the veterans to the glue factory. The Nats can't win much, but they can't win at all with Brian Schneider in the line-up. The guy had a dreadful season behind the plate in '06, but a catching upgrade apparently wasn't in the plans for '07: the Nats went into the year with Schneider as the undisputed starter and Rule 5 pick Jesus Flores as the back-up. I want to see more of Flores and less of Schneider and much, much less of his butt-ugly catcher's mask. Who does this dude think he is - Olaf Kolzig? If history repeats itself, Schneider will rejuvinate himself with some other team in '08. Hey, it worked for Michael Barrett.

Having Schneider catch games while the team eats bad contracts isn't hurting the Nats, though. Handing the ball to Chad Cordero in the 9th, when the Nats actually find themselves with a save opportunity, might be. More specifically, it isn't helping Cordero's trade value. The Nats totally should have sold high (does no one in management have a fantasy league team on the side?) when the Red Sox were swinging on Cordero's nuts. Cordero looks shaky out there right now; he's not getting enough chances to practice his art -- and mowing 'em down in the 9th is definitely an art. My gut says not to trust him at all; the problem is that the team doesn't have a hot hand to pass the ball to. Yikes. What happens when the team trades Cordero for pennies and pocket lint after All-Star Break? Maybe Jon Rauch is better suited to a set-up role; maybe they're waiting for the return of Luis Ayala.

2007-04-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

It's Only Funny Until Someone Loses An Eye

There's losing and there's losing with dignity; one of these things is reflected in the standings, and the other stays in the hearts and the minds of fans. To the Nats credit, they managed to hang in there for 4 innings before sinking into a predictable rut -- Matt Chico escaped with one earned run on his line thanks to some appaling defense by Dmitri Young and Ron Belliard. Not that tossing 100 pitches in less than 5 innings is anything to take great pride in, but the shit didn't hit the proverbial fan until journeyman reliever Ray King entered in the 8th.

I think his name is Ray King 'cause the other team starts raking when he's on the mound. 2/3 of an inning, 3 walks and 4 earned runs eanred King last night's "King Goat" award. Prize: an inflamed shoulder. Anything to escape another nightmare like that. Here's the deal with King: he seems like he has actually been a pretty reliable presence over the course of his career, but the stats don't tell the full story:

1) The guy gives up way too many free trips to first base
2) Dude blew 6 saves in 0 save opportunities for St. Louis in '05
3) King averaged 80 games, but less than 60 innings during his best years

He's the very definition of a "situational lefty," which, with the sad state of the Nats rotation, is a luxury the team can't afford right now. That set-up works great if you can guarantee 5-6 innings from each of your starters, but the Nats need to dump this guy in favor of a swingman or someone who can throw heat for more than 1/3 of an inning without worrying about boo-boos. And now Acta's letting him take up space on the active roster instead of sending him to the DL -- at least the Phillies have been active on the waiver wire to combat early season blahs.

2007-04-09T17:04:00.000-05:00

They Don't Know...

For better or worse, I moved to DC in June 2005. During the height of Washington Nationals mania, I wandered into a falafel shop and the guy behind the counter started ribbing me incessantly for wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap and inciting the rest of the patrons in line to talk trash. It was as if I wandered into a Bronx pizza joint decked out in Red Sox gear. The Nats team cast such a strange spell on the entire city, at least until mid-August; still, baseball returning to Washington was the story in MLB that year.

Nats fans, if there are any left, don't know what it's like to lose. Pirates fans know what it's like to lose; 14 years of watching terrible teams take the field is, in a word, sobering. For the Nationals, 2006 was pretty much a smoke screen: Alfonso Soriano carried that team on his back. This year will be the true test of patience. Of course, the team's already averaging about 40% capacity so far, but the hypothetical ceiling's low and the hypothetical bottom is sort of like an endless pit. After this weekend's humiliating series, there's no doubt the Nats know what it's like to lose in a spectacular fashion. Acta's squad went 0-30 with runners in scoring position until Austin Kearns stemmed the bleeding in the 8th inning of Sunday's game. Back-to-back 7-1 losses against the low end of Arizona's rotation, followed by Livan Hernandez disgracing his former teammates by taking a no-hitter into the 6th innings.

Philly is phucking things up in spectacular fashion to start the season, too; the Nats actually have competition for the honor of worst team in the division. Expect Philadelphia to heat up somewhat when it doesn't count. The team has averaged 85 wins over the last six seasons. It's what they do. As Philadelphia arches towards mediocrity, the Nats are on a fast track towards ignominious immortality. This, my friends, is destiny...rewritten as a cosmic joke.

2007-04-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

Me and Julio Down By Navy Yard

3 shortstops in 3 games, and D'Angelo Jimenez receiving a quickie call-up from AAA: guess the Josh Wilson experiment was an abject failure. Yesterday, Manny Acta fielded a line-up with Felipe Lopez playing his natural position and Ron Belliard shifting back to his natural position as 2B. Felipe's fuss over manning short during the spring was the mustard on the shit sandwich of this offseason: let's not forget the other guy who threated a kindler, gentler "Operation Shutdown" during the '06 season. Washington's streak of consecutive innings of running behind was snapped at 26...barely. There'll be plenty of time for more Herculean feats of ineptitude as the season drags on, but for now, Jorge Julio -- the worst closer in baseball -- gave the Washington NoNotNows the thrill of a hollow victory with 1/3 of a disastrous inning. The Marlins traded Yusmero Petit for this dude? Wow. He sucks. Back to Acta, who keeps using the term "experimenting" to describe his lineup cards. The Reds are 2-1 with a team hobbled by injuries; Acta needs to get better about thinking creatively. Or, uh, thinking.

2007-04-04T08:51:00.000-05:00

Lost and Naked in the City Again

See Screech. See Screech about to get slapped on the nuts after another dismal Nationals loss. See Screech hawking a homemade porno online to avoid foreclosure during the Nats 2008 season. Someone will have to take the fall, and Screech is the only Nationals mascot who doesn't have his picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

So maybe I was being a little hyperbolic in predicting a 0-162 season. That's Cleveland Spiders bad. The 2007 Washington Nationals are more like 1962 Mets bad. Ok, that's still too harsh: this year's Nats are, like, '63-65 Mets bad. This team will be lucky to take 60 games. The season's still young; after all, the Cardinals now sport the same 0-2 record and the Pirates are 2-0. But you know things are fucked when your star player (Ryan Zimmerman) is already giving interviews where he politely cautions fans to expect a whole lot o' losing going on. But what can you expect when your GM spent the entire offseason making sure that the minor league affiliates were fully-stocked with AAAA players?

Disheartening stat, courtesy ESPN.Com: Nats have been behind in every single inning they've played this season. Shawn Hill's crackerjack Livan Hernandez impression (spotting the other team 4 earned runs in the first inning) and the Keystone Kops defense didn't help. But that's actually Washington Generals bad.

2007-04-03T06:19:00.000-05:00

First in war, first in peace, last in place

Well, let's put it this way: everything was over with the ceremonial home opener pitch last season. At least Mark Lerner had the good sense to bar members of the Bush administration from getting on the field yesterday afternoon. This time out, the Nats waited five innings before declaring the 2007 season a lost cause: local boy done good Ryan Zimmerman made a spectacular play to retire Dontrelle Willis early on, which was overshadowed by a routine warning track grab center fielder Nook Logan made before exiting the game -- the kind of catch that kept Jim Edmonds on Baseball Tonight highlight reels. The Running Man's got guts -- and a knack for freaky injuries. Logan's trip to the DL opens up two distinct scenarios: either spring over-achiever Chris Snelling gets a fighting chance as an everyday player, or final 25-man roster cut Kory Castro's stay in the minors will be mercifully short.

I dunno, I was sort of looking forward to seeing what Manny Acta sees in Logan, but he'll be back before April turns into May. As for Cristian Guzman, possibly gone for the rest of season: that 4-year/ $16.8 million contract looks REALLY bad right about now. Also: John Patterson really needs a month or so in long relief to get his groove back, especially after throwing batting practice for 3 2/3 innings. With this starting rotation (time to place bets on when Pedro Astacio gets the call up from AAA), the Nats just don't have that luxury. Still interested in finding out whether Shawn Hill and Matt Chico can build on promising spring stats and eager to see whether Felipe Lopez can swipe 40 bases, but the Nats current record projects to a 0-162 finish. That sounds about right.

2006-10-21T06:52:00.000-05:00

No Time For Losers

Where's Pete Mackanin? The Tigers coaching staff is seeminly comprised of everyone else associated with 14 years of losing baseball in the 'burgh, including 3 of the last 4 skippers (Jim Leyland, Gene Lamont, this blog's namesake Lloyd McClendon) and a couple of guys who stuck around after the glow from the Bonds era wore off (Andy Van Slyke and Don Slaught). Likeable fellows, all. Throw in a resurgent Sean Casey and the spectral presence of an infamous Rule 5 loss (Chris Shelton), and you've got a whole lot of unhappy Pirates fans playing a game of "What If?"

But what works in Detroit -- excuse me: what makes the Tigers amazing in '06 -- would've amounted to another 66 win season in Pittsburgh. The key to this team, as has already been written everywhere and become a part of its mythology, is Mike Illitch's bold move with signing Pudge to a fat 4-year contract. The Tigers took a couple of players labeled as damaged goods (Ivan Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez), burned off some terrible contracts and got really lucky as the aging cornerstones (Dmitri Young) held value and some long-in-development prospects (Marcus Thames) finally found a groove. Plus, you can't touch that pitching staff: Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya on the 1-2, vaporizing memories of the Adam Bernero dark ages.

Won't be around to watch the first game of this World Series (in fact, I'll probably miss the whole thing), which sucks. It usually takes a few weeks for me to pull of the Pirates fan hat and trade up for the MLB fan hat after the regular season has ended. Which is to say: I never pay much attention to the respective League Championship Series but turn on a dime and bark like a rabid dog when its World Series time. Props to the Cardinals for going the distance against the hated Mets, but the Mets were smoke and mirrors after the All-Star Break. Detroit looks invinvible this year. 4-2 seems like a reasonable prediction. And fellas, send me some YouTube links for all of the highlight reel-worthy plays, a'ight?

2006-03-15T14:56:00.000-06:00

What's wrong with this picture?

I'm back. Sort of. Real-world commitments are nipping at my heels and I haven't really been moved to pontificate on the subject of baseball this off-season. The World Baseball Classic has not put me in the mood, nor has Frank DeFord's usually reliable Wednesday-morning commentary on NPR's Morning Edition. DeFord's back to beating the drum on Barry Bonds and steroids -- his latest report calls for MLB to expel Bonds and cast out all cheaters. I was onyl on my first cup of coffee this morning, but I swear DeFord was invoking Lady MacBeth's "out, out damn spot" monologue on this morning's thinkpiece. Total histrionics.

Anyway, here's the new stadium design that the Washington Nationals unveiled during a press conference yesterday afternoon. At first glance, I don't like it -- for $611 million dollars, I'd think a firm could envision something a little more creative than this rehash of Milwaukee's ballpark. The idea here is that patrons will get a distinct view of the Washington Monument, with outfield sightlines penetrating towards the West of the city. But why not reorient it for a better view of the riverfront, which is one of the main calling cards of the parks in San Francisco and Pittsburgh? Basically, the Nationals will go from having the ugliest stadium (RFK, not really their fault) in MLB to having the ugliest new-school park in MLB (the White Sox can breathe a heavy sigh of relief). I feel a little bad for Anthony Williams and the city council, but the ownership situation needs to get squared away soon before the goodwill from '05 is erased. Because Jim Bowden just engineered the worst off-season of any team and the prospects of even a middle-of-the-pack finish look dreadful with that pitching staff.

Big ups to DMZ at U.S.S. Mariner for his recent scientific/ sabermetric study of the classic "Baseball Bugs" cartoon. He discussed Richard Feynman and wormholes and suggests probable causes for all of the myriad improbabilities in the cartoon world. The entire staff of that blog is currently writing circles around any of the baseball hobbyists, but that post is firing on all cylinders. Read it and weep.

2006-01-14T06:33:00.000-06:00

Hallitosis

Langstaff has a pretty neat wrap-up of this year's Hall of Fame class over at Corsairs Affairs (formerly One Man Band). I'm pretty much in agreement with his ambivalent feelings towards Bruce Sutter and his picks for more deserving candidates (Goose Gossage, Bert Blyleven and Alan Trammell). I really wanted to see those three make the cut; I wouldn't be upset if Jim Rice was in the mix, too. None of the other folks on the ballot did much for me as HOF candidates. As Lang suggests, it's all about the split-finger fastball, which may or may not be asignificant enough innovation to merit includsion to the Hall. Sutter's Cy Young season is a nice line item on his resume, though by no means an arbiter of a reliever's ultimate worth: Hoyt Willhelm didn't have one, and he's in the Hall. Whereas fellow closer Mark Davis did get the hardware in his 1989 season, the only standout in an otherwise unremarkable career.

Maybe 8 excellent seasons (1976-82, 1984) is enough: Sutter tossed between 80-100 innings and had ERAs way below league average (his career ERA is a full point below league average, too). All this compares favoravly to, say, Mariano Rivera (who will still a better choice when all is said and done). On raw numbers alone, why not Lee Smith with 178 more saves over his career? I dunno. Over at Hardball Times, Aaron Gleeman takes a much more defiant stance and says "no way." I'd ignore the portion where he compares Sutter and Blyleven because it gets a little goofy: "Broken down to the most simplistic terms possible, would you rather have 4,970 innings of a 3.31 ERA [Blyleven] or 1,042 innings of a 2.83 ERA [Sutter]? Would you rather have 300 saves and 68 wins [Sutter] or 287 wins [Blyleven]?"

Gleeman's completely on point here, but his argument is strongest in the Sutter-to-Gossage comparison. Gossage has more saves, more innings, more wins, more win shares. It's a travesty that he's not already in the Hall. Goose could certainly help his cause by not being a total fucking douchebag about it, but maybe the incessant bitching and moaning about wussy modern-era closers is what saw his vote tally increase from 55% to 65% on this year's ballot. He'll make it in sooner rather than later. As will Jim Rice. Blyleven and Andre Dawson have decent shots if they can stay on the ballot long enough. Isn't this pretty much the M.O. with the hall voters: first- or second-ballot induction or you rot for 8-12 years? As for Alan Trammell, the bedrock of some terrible Tigers teams throughout the 1980s and 90s, I dunno what the voting committee is doing, but I'll try to talk about it at length in the next post. I'm still shaking cobwebs off.

2005-12-13T20:19:00.000-06:00

Freakonomics

I haven't looked over the archive of posts from last December-January, but this is normally the time of year where I rant uncontrollably about the fallout from the Winter Meetings. Part of the reason I haven't updated this blog in six weeks is that I post all mapped out in my head about B.J. Ryan signing the richest deal ever for a closer and how that intersected with Jim Hendry's nuckin' futs middle relief acquisitions for the Cubs (Bobby Howry and Scott Eyre). The market for pitching, particularly relief, is disgusting this offseason.

But the free agent market always makes my wallet burn; I think I've been blowing the same sour notes since I was a baseball columnist in college over a decade ago. It doesn't really matter what's going on, whether Albert Belle is making $10 million a season or whatever, this kind of stuff has never sat well with me. And I've usually ended up taking an entirely reactionary, hot-button viewpoint of the inflated contracts and lauded teams for deals that never panned out, all of which gives me a sinking feeling that I'm not a particularly good judge of understanding the intersection of statistics and economics in the free market.

I'm better off explaining why Jeff Weaver and Matt Clement are exactly the same pitcher, and I may do just that in a subsequent post. It's weird how people keep drawing an analogy with the bullish market for housing: don't worry, people will come to their senses and things will level off. I can look out my window and see houses on my street, across from dark alleys where thugs work on their cars all day, with million dollar price tags. So what's an extra million or five in the realm of backloaded contracts and bonuses? And yet, the math doesn't quite work in my head, not when the Cardinals won't budge over $1 million a season for a second baseman or the Great Satan reports a loss of between $50-85 million in 2005.

Which is it: boom or bust?

2005-10-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

Don't Stop Believin'

I'm still totally gay for the White Sox.

2005-10-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

Black coat, white shoes, black hat, Cadillac

Hats off to Brandon Backe. I thought he was toast heading into Game 4, but he pitched the game of his life with seven shut-out innings. Textbook dominance -- he really seems to turn it on when the situation calls for it. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Astros squad, who never really got into the game. Freddy Garcia and the Sox relievers kept painting the outside corners with two types of junk: high and low. And the Astros anemic line-up kept swinging and missing. Whiff, whiff, whiff.

It's tough to turn it on in the postseason. Just ask Barry Bonds. And it sorta sucks that Clemens, Bagwell and Biggio -- the latter two cornerstones of this humble franchise -- have to go out like this. If you're an Astros fan, you have no right to be pissed at Brad Lidge. I'm not even second guessing Garner's decision to pull Backe after 100 pitches and throw Lidge (now 0-3 in the 2005 postseason) into the bonfire, because the 'Stros got killed by their Achilles heel: too little depth on the bench and bullpen.

I'd like to say that I predicted this from the onset; the late-season White Sox slide left a few doubts about momentum in the playoffs, but they destroyed the Red Sox and Angels. None of the starters pitched a bad game in the postseason. And after that, there shouldn't have been any doubt as to who the World Champs were. And yet, all of the ESPN braintrust either picked the Astros or (in the case of wunderkinds Neyer and Gammons) the Sox in six or seven. Even the poll on ESPN currently favors the Astros as winners. I guess it's hard finding someone to identify with on a team with 2/5 of a Yankees rotation and one of the most hated men in baseball (catcher AJ Pierzinski). Big Frank? Nah. Paul Konerko? For the week or so before he hits free agency, yeah. Ultra-humble MVP Jermaine Dye? Uhhh....

Oh wait, here's the true MVP: Ozzie Guillen. The only thing more fun than watching Barbara Bush repeatedly making the O-face when the camera panned on her in the stands was seeing Guillen writhe and contort and -- ultimately errupt into paroxysms of joy -- in one nail-biter of a contest. Fox didn't even know how to market this, with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver reading off the neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side that support the Sox (Hyde Park? Not) and zero mention of Nellie Fox during the post-game highlight reel. Here's to the 2005 World Champion White Sox: one of the most dominant postseasons on record and still, regrettably, nobody's team.

2005-10-08T08:34:00.000-05:00

Dewey Defeats Truman

You're a Red Sox fan, and I pity you. Boomer got spanked and the blood on Curt Schilling's sock formed the shape of three straight losses. This is the postseason, where excellence is rewarded and dynasties are formed and shattered. There's isn't a lot of luck, Arizona Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins, be damned. Now it's my turn to gloat. The Red Sux faithful have a World Series ring to brag about and a giant payroll to reconcile for next year and beyond. This one is for the Chi-town massive. Imagine: the White Sox spent an entire season trying to find a closer, Takatsu and Hermanson tanked, and one Bobby Jenks suddenly materialized to nail the door shut on two postseason victories. Is he for real? Who cares? Look at Adrian Hernandez dropping a load in his pants in the picture -- it doesn't matter! While the remnants of Hurricane Rita pummel the Eastern Seabord, it's all clear skies in the Windy City. Want a reminder of how bad the White Sox need this? Ok, now slap on the wraparound shades and prepare to be blinded.

2005-10-04T22:16:00.000-05:00

Carpenter's in, let the games begin

Boo.
Boo yaa!
No duh.

I walked into a job interview this afternoon and saw a young girl at the receptionist's desk, sniffling. She was wearing a Red Sox cap. Then I looked up at the Plasma screen above her head and watched the White Sox pound it out in a 4-run 6th inning. Wow. Coulda, woulda, shoulda been there -- here's to hoping Chi-town's finest didn't blow through all their heavy ammo in the first game.

The St. Louis game was -- as everyone predicted -- a dud-o. Watch the Cards coast on auto-pilot through the series with Carpenter, Mulder and Morris on the mound serving up tasty treats and the St. Louis playing leapfrog with the meatiest part of their batting order. C'mon, the Padres are pushing Pedro Astacio out on the mound for Game 2. Seriously, that shit will not fly when the NL's best team meets the NL's most dangerous team. I may just skip this series and tune in later to soak in the greatness that is the Clemens-Pettitte-Oswalt rotation. Jayson Stark predicts Houston goes all the way.

Gimme an Astros-White Sox series for Hanukkah, yo.

2005-09-18T08:06:00.000-05:00

Hair Club for Men

Season's almost over and Chris Carpenter has been clearing room for the Cy Young award on his mantle for months. I don't buy the argument -- as the Washington Post recently devoted several column inches to -- that Dontrelle Willis and Roger Clemens deserve more than passing consideration. The former has shown flashes of mortality this season; the latter's low win total is too big of a strike -- I just can't see someone collecting hardware with 13 or so wins. Besides, how great has Andy Pettite been down the stretch? What about Chad Cordero, who's been the backbone of the Nationals' inagural season?

Bill James loves thinking about this stuff, too, apparently: ESPN has been hosting a Cy Young Predictor on its site and it's all very fascinating. it's not a slam-dunk metric by any strecth (I'll explain in a second -- mostly because the voting committee has prejudices that don't necessarily match up with the data), but it does a really good job of parsing out who's been particularly valuable to their teams, etc. Here's the formula:

Cy Young Points (CYP) = ((5*IP/9)-ER) + (SO/12) + (SV*2.5) + Shutouts + ((W*6)-(L*2)) + VB

"VB" is defined as "Victory Bonus," pro-rated and awarded for leading your team to a division championship. [Chris Carpenter scores well here]

The math works out well. Not sure why blown saves didn't have a statistical value, but I suppose the idea here is that loses are weighted heavily enough and it's not fair to charge something twice. Cincinnati's de facto closer David Weathers (7-3, 13 svs, 3.59 era) comes back with a score of 84.7 -- not even close to the leader board. No odd anomalies on the board either, though the AL leaders are split down the middle with 5 closers (including Hudston Street!) and 5 starters.

Bill James's tool suggests the following as the 10 most likely candidates for a 2004 Cy Young in the AL:

1 Johan Santana, Min 203.8 34 34 228.0 66 265 0 1 20-6 2.61 12
2 Mariano Rivera, NYY 196.3 74 0 78.2 17 66 53 0 4-2 1.94 12
3 Curt Schilling, Bos 174.5 32 32 226.2 82 203 0 0 21-6 3.26 0
4 Francisco Cordero, Tex 161.5 67 0 71.2 17 79 49 0 3-4 2.13 0
5 Joe Nathan, Min 158.4 73 0 72.1 13 89 44 0 1-2 1.62 12
6 Keith Foulke, Bos 136.7 72 0 83.0 20 79 32 0 5-3 2.17 0
7 Pedro Martinez, NYM 124.5 33 33 217.0 94 227 0 1 16-9 3.90 0
8 Mark Buehrle, CWS 120.9 35 35 245.1 106 165 0 1 16-10 3.89 0
9 Jake Westbrook, Cle 115.1 33 30 215.2 81 116 0 1 14-9 3.38 0
10 Troy Percival, Det 114.5 52 0 49.2 16 33 33 0 2-3 2.90 12

And here's how that years voting actually went:

1 Johan Santana MIN 28 140 140 1.00 | 20-6 228 2.61 0.92 265
2 Curt Schilling BOS 0 82 140 0.59 | 21-6 227 3.26 1.06 203
3 Mariano Rivera NYY 0 27 140 0.19 | 4-2 79 1.94 1.08 66 53
4 Pedro Martinez BOS 0 1 140 0.01 | 16-9 217 3.90 1.17 227
4 Joe Nathan MIN 0 1 140 0.01 | 1-2 72 1.62 0.98 89 44
4 F. Rodriguez ANA 0 1 140 0.01 | 4-1 84 1.82 1.00 123 12

Think the voting committee has a boner for Win-Loss records? For sure. So while Mariano Rivera's at the top of the Cy Young Predictor list again this year, there's no way that Bartolo Colon (currently 19-7) doesn't collect. Incidentally, the best pitcher in the AL is still Johan Santana...but, once again, the record (13-7) doesn't help.

2005-09-07T23:01:00.000-05:00

We Thank You For Your Support

So long, Lloyd McClendon. More ruminations here and here. Bench coach Pete Mackanin is filling the skipper's shoes on an interim basis until the end of the season, when a bigger name -- probably one associated with the area like Ken Macha or Art Howe -- will be courted to manage the redheaded stepchild of the NL East. Please let it be Ken Macha. I have the utmost respect for what Lloyd McClendon did with the Pirates -- I even sponsor his Baseball Reference page as a tribute. I don't think he made the best of a bad situation -- I constantly questioned his abaility to fill out a line-up card and he toyed endlessly with the batting order to no real, discernable effect. McClendon did help to develop a really solid nucleus of talent, but failed as a motivator (if you discount those epic turf wars with the St. Louis coaching staff).

Still, dude stole more bases as a manager than a player. I've got to tip my hat. And let's examine the records, ok? McClendon goes out the door with a .430 win percentage (336-446). His predecessor, Gene Lamont, compiled a .456 record (295-352) in four seasons. And during Jim Leyland's dark years with the Pirates ('93-'96), he compiled a .445 win percentage. This tells me that: a) Lamont was underrated (check his record as White Sox manager first if you want to disagree), b) no amount of resourcefulness or cleverness will help a manager to win if the talent isn't in place and c) the next guy is going to have as hard of a time if ownership still wants to pinch pennies. Rest easy, Lloyd, you are not to blame. We all good now, right?

Confidential to Sean: I've gone 100 posts with McClendon in the driver's seat. I'll go 100 more before the Bucs put together a respectable season. Maybe I'll think about changing the blog's name then.

2005-08-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

Brother, can you spare a dime?

A movement is breweing over at Fire Dusty Baker, where they're calling for the Cubs manager's toothpick-munching wristband-wearing butt to get shipped right out of town. I'm all about it. I really feel like Dusty Baker is the worst thing to happen to the Cubs since Ryne Sandberg's first retirement. He doesn't agree, of course, and was quoted in the Sun-Times as saying "I still look at six or seven more years. There are things I need and want to accomplish. I'm still here. I plan on being here." Oh god, I hope not.

Baker's an ok tactician, in terms of putting a competitive squad on the field, but I wonder if he's really able to make the most of what he's got when the Cubs are currently 5 games under .500 on the season. Yes, injuries to Wood and Prior and Nomar killed some of the buzz. But St. Louis has Walker, Rolen and Sanders out of the line-up (and lost Isringhausen for half of the season) and is still in cruise control. Atlanta? Worst outfield in MLB until Cox ditched the old-timers in favor of an all-rookie LF-CF-RF combo. The Braves still have the goods.

That's the rub. Baker is notoriously terrible dealing with youg players. Just awful. Any success through the minor league pipeline should be attributed entirely to Jim Hendry and Andy McPhail. Where's Corey Patterson? What happened to Matt Murton and Jason Dubois? Will Zambrano recover from over-use and abuse? Will Felix Pie ever see a Cubs uniform? I like a little bit of flash and arrogance. It gets the fans riled up, and Tony LaRussa is the master of this. But have you ever seen a worse press conference interview than Dusty Baker? It's like a giant homework assignment where points are assigned by not answering the questions posed by the reporters. Boo.

2005-08-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Pride of the Yankees

Just got back from New York, where my gracious hosts Duncan and Molly helped me to continue my personal winning streak of seeing single games at different ballparks this season (White Sox-Pittsburgh-Washington-Philly) with a trip to see the Yankees' Single A club on Staten Island. I was hoping for a long-awaited visit to Shea Stadium, but then again, I'd never seen a minor league baseball game before last week. It was pretty great. The park is one of those new-school old-school constructions, with a lovely view of the waterfront and Ellis Island and the Manhattan skyline.

The team's so popular it has three mascots and an unofficial fourth -- some obese guy named King Henry who roams the stands with a crown and a bat-and-ball scepter. The official mascot of the Staten Island Yankees is Scooter the Holy Cow, a freckled, halo-wearing cow. He also has two female bovine acolytes. I know this is in tribute to Yanks great/sportscaster extrordinaire Phil Rizzuto, but I wonder how long the fun will last in light of MLB handing down the longest milk-related suspension ever. Also, the team store sells Yankees yarmulkes. That kinda rules.

2005-07-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

That Championship Season

Right now, Oakland and Houston are running at full court press. Both teams' records rested right around the .500 mark earlier this month, but after several months of win-lose-win-lose leapfrogging, the As and the 'Stros have gone 9-1 in their last ten games. This is what we expect from these franchises, both of which underperformed at the start of the season -- Billy Beane and Ken Macha love the underdog status and Phil Garner can't resist a good fight.

Head over to the NL East and the Nationals just can't keep it together. You may recall the Expos late-season identity crisis and attendant implosion after acquiring Bartolo Colon and Cliff Floyd a few years back. That's what's going on in Washington now as momentum has drained and Omar Minaya and Frank Robinson attempt to keep the ship from sinking with some spare parts. Nothing against Preston Wilson, Ryan Drese, Junior Spivey et al, but any team where Vinny Castilla and turdbox Cristian Guzman have soaked up that much playing time is bound to fail. These moves should have come a month or two into the season. It might be strange to talk about a team that's currently 55-48 in these terms, but a 2-8 record in the last 10 games speaks for itself. Everything Washington does, Atlanta does better.

Still, the worst best team in the majors right now is the Padres -- a drubbing last night at the hands of the Reds pushed the Pads' record to under .500. The Padres are the first team to lead their division with a losing record this late in the season since 1994. 18 teams in baseball have a superior record. And this team is 18-33 since June 1st. How do you keep losing like that and remain at the top of your division? The whole NL West is genuinely terrible; AZ, LA, SF and Colorado aren't putting up a threat. The dominance of St. Louis at the White Sox might play a role in skewing the standings, but the Padres really can't win outside of Petco. Right now, they can't win at all -- they'd have better odds of deciding the outcome of a game with a coin toss.

2005-07-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

Keeping Up With the Joneses

ESPN so hired the wrong guy. Todd Jones (in the midst of his best season ever) has been chronicling the Marlins' fortunes in a blog for The Palm Beach Post and he definitely has the idea of writing for the web down pat. His posts are eloquent and witty and he's quick to put his intentions and thoughts right out there. Amen to the post about the lack of fan support at Turner Field: "I'd rather go to see the game marketed well than just sit around and wait for a no-hitter." And, if you dig far enough back in the archives, you'll find Jones giving some love to former Tigers (and current Marlins) 'pen mate Brian Moehler -- which is reciprocated in the comments section by Moehler's father-in-law!

2005-07-08T08:29:00.000-05:00

Small Wonder

Earlier this week, Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagisawa brought a 2 foot tall robot named QRIO to RFK Stadium to throw out the first pitch. The Nationals dropped the game to the Mets, but QRIO made a distinct impression with a clean fastball straight to the catcher's mitt. QRIO knows how to dance and has a vocabulary of 65,000 Japanese words. He also knows how to talk smack. Here's a portion of an interview I was able to conduct before the game through a Japanese translator:

Hey, great arm -- President Bush couldn't even land it over the plate.
HA HA. BZZAP! LAURA'S WIFE CAN EAT A BAG OF DICKS.

If the opposing pitcher was beaning your teammates, how would you respond?
I WOULD REPLACE JOSE GUILLEN'S RITALIN WITH NO-DOZ AND WATCH HIM RIP THE PANELS OFF THE CENTER FIELD WALL AND TURN HIM INTO A HUMAN TWINKIE.

What's wrong with Cristian Guzman anyway?
BZZAP! I FEEL BAD FOR MY HOMIE. IT ISN'T EASY BEING THE WORST PLAYER IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL. ACTUALLY, IT IS EASY -- WHICH IS THE PROBLEM. DUDE NEEDS TO QUIT AND JOIN A PROFESSIONAL T-BALL LEAGUE.

What's your favorite part of the new (old) stadium experience?
ALEXANDER HAMILTON HAS SKILLZ. HE CAN DRIVE HIS CAR AND STOP AT AN ATM TO COUNT HIS MONEY AND STILL WIN THE RACE. WHEN MY AGENT SCOTT BORAS GETS ME OUT OF MY CONTRACT WITH SONY, I'LL BE GETTING MAD LOOT, HA HA HA.

Wait-you've retained Scott Boras as your agent?
GEORGE STEINBRENNER WILL PAY FOR ANYTHING. LOOK AT HOW MUCH MONEY HIDEKI IRABU GOT FOR TAKING A BREAK FROM THE BUFFET LINE. BZZAP! I MAINTAIN CONSTANT PITCH LOCATION AND VELOCITY THROUGH MY SUPERIOR PROGRAMMING. OTHER ATHELETES NEED TO GIVE 110%; I AM CAPABLE OF PERFORMING WELL AT 50%, WHICH LEAVES 60% FOR ME TO TEACH CRISTIAN GUZMAN HOW TO PLAY, TOO.

I suppose you've got a point...
I'M TAKING IT STRAIGHT TO THE MEIKYUKAI, MUTHAFUCKA.

2005-07-01T07:51:00.000-05:00

My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Third game of the season for me in three different cities -- this time, in the cavernous environs of RFK Stadium. Messiah scored some sweet tickets on the first base line through his firm and I met up with the Blogroll All-Stars (Sean, Dan, Rachel) to see the Nationals continue their home-field dominance. First stop: Bill Cosby's favorite D.C. haunt, Ben's Chili Bowl, for chili-covered things and a pina colada milkshake. Great place to eat if you don't mind waiting (what seems like) hours to pay your check. So, anyway, the game: Esteban Loaiza carried a no-hitter through the 5th and the Nationals finished the month of June with a 20-6 record.

Still waiting for Dan to join the fray on his tract of internet real estate, but Sean has some deep thoughts and random musings about RFK's lack of ambiance up already. Not sure the Nationals are doing everything they could be doing to enrich fan relations with a winning team in town; everything -- from the dull banners draped over the outfield walls to the preternaturally mincing mascot Screech -- seems like an afterthought. Still, there are worse places to see a game: like the sixth circle of hell, where every seat has an enormous wad of chewing gum stuck to it (like mine) and the blue raspberry sno cones dye your teeth forever. See, Three Rivers Stadium wasn't so bad.

2005-06-29T08:20:00.000-05:00

One-Run Wonders

On the opposite end of the Keystone State, the Pirates' record (34-41) also stands on the wrong side of .500. After an early season run of getting blown out of the park (the Brewers destroyed the team in back-to-back starts to open the season on an auspicious note), the Pirates are rediscovering what it means to lose ugly and sharing a little bit of the Phillies' pain. In back-to-back games against the Cardinals, the Bucs' offense vacationed in Cabo while the team lost 8-1 and 8-0. Painful.

The team's Pythagorean winning percentage (an estimate of a team's winning percentage given their runs scored and runs allowed) doesn't offer a ton of insight. Using the following formula, developed by Bill James:

(Runs Scored)^1.83
---------------------------------------------------------
(Runs Scored)^1.83 + (Runs Allowed)^1.83

We get a winning percentage of .471:

(316)^1.83
---------------------------------------------------------
(316)^1.83 + (337)^1.83

Which suggests that the Pirates have been slightly unlucky. The team's actual winning percentage is .453 (derived more easily by dividing the total games by team wins). At the midpoint of the month, before a series against the Yankees, the split was even larger -- though those two successive blowouts against the Cards erased a bit of the debt.

Still, last night's bummer of a loss against a surging Ryan Drese and the Nationals makes me think that the Pirates are even more unlucky that the stats suggest: 17 of the team's 41 losses -- a full third -- have been by a margin of exactly one run. Only 6 of the teams 31 wins have been by a margin of one run. Subtract the squeaky wins (this is NOT scientific) from the one-run losses, split the remaining number (the equivalent of a coin toss), award the Pirates 5 more wins -- and suddenly, we're looking at a 39-36 team...in the thick of the wild card race.

Somehow, it seems more noble to keep things tight and lose by smaller margins -- the whole "we almost got 'em!" principle in action. It does suggest that the Pirates are a better team than even Dave Littlefield would give them credit for. Pythagorean karmic discount or no, the true measure of a team's abilities rest in the W-L column. Either they're winning, or -- in the case of this year's Pirates -- they're simply handing games away.

2005-06-25T08:50:00.000-05:00

Irrestible Force Meets Immovable Object

The Phillies' 2005 season is shaping up to be as good as the Philly faithful hoped, and probably much better than expected -- given the team's uncanny ability to play itself out of contention and into mediocrity in May. As of this writing, the team's 39-35 with a win percentage of .527, with a sharper overall record than twenty clubs in MLB. The Phillies are better than the team that's 0.5 games above them in the standings (Atlanta) and have less holes than the team that's 1 game behind them (Florida). And Manuel's militia is in serious contention for a Wild Card spot, since the Cubs and Diamondbacks are mostly smoke and mirrors, freak injuries and career years.

Yet phenom Ryan Howard is languishing in the minors; everyone's ready to anoint him the next Ricky Jordan. Can't believe that the Pirates passed on him as booty for Kris Benson in a proposed trade last season, or that the Phillies were so hot on giving him a bus ticket out of town. And considering the imbroglio earlier this season with Howard and his agent attempting to force a trade, NBA-style, for lack of playtime -- the kid needs to come up.

Howard murdered rookie league and A pitching and tore the cover off the ball in AA, before slackening his pace somewhat in a promotion to AAA Scranton last year. Still, he averaged a HR every 11 at-bats or so and the power and walks stayed constant. And, barring an early season call-up as Thome's replacement this year, he's on fire in 2005. Spring stats (.537 slugging/ 940 OPS in 50 at-bats) have given way to HUGE numbers in AAA: he's leading the International League with a .390 average/ .481 on-base percentage/ .738 slugging. The OBP/slugging split is ridiculous.

So my friend Albert preaches moderation on this one: dump Chavez or Jason Michaels, give Howard 100 or so more major league at-bats in left field. Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily-News, perhaps forgetting the team's decent record with handling young talent, advocates a trade elsewhere: "Set the Prisoner of Thome free. A Ryan is a terrible thing to waste."

Here's an alternate plan: give 3B David Bell the boot, and eat the rest of this year's contract. He is, by far, the worst everyday regular on the Phillies and an offensive cipher. His OPS (total offensive production) mark of .650 in 250 at-bats is dreadful. What have you done for me lately? Next, move Jim Thome from 1B to 3B for the rest of the season, while he's shaking off the early-season injuries and dust. In his six seasons as a 3B for the Indians, between 1991-96, Thome's fielding stats were below league average -- but not by a significant margin. And Bell -- who committed 24 errors at the position in 2004 -- is no whiz, either. Third is a harder position than first from a defensive perspective; an average fielder with pop will win more games than a slightly better than average fielder with lesser offensive statistics.

And there's, what, three years to go on Thome's massive contract? Of course he won't want to do this -- he signed with Philly, at a discount, to stay installed at first base. But Thome will also be 38 at the end of his contract and is too valuable to move to a payroll sponge like the Yankees or a division contender. And he's slightly better than league average as a defender at 1st. But again: what have you done for me lately? Given the paucity of quality 3B around the league, coupled with the fact that the Phillies just shipped out their best 3B (Polanco) in this year's version of the annual hey-let's-get-another-middling-middle-reliever shuffle, production from that slot seems to address a far greater need than replacing Chavez or Michaels.

And, whoa, now there's room for Howard to collect some quality at-bats at first base, even though he seemed overmatched in his 28 at-at this point in the season. If the Phillies could stay patient with his predilection towards striking out (a prime source of tension with Byrd, Burrell, Rollins, etc), they might be rewarded with a significant power boost. Howard's piling up extra-base hits in AAA. One might question the wisdom of rocking the boat before the All-Star break, but the Phillies should consider being proactive for a change. A surgical strike might make the difference between another looks-great-on-paper 85-77 season (no playoffs) and a chance for a "Phillies!" chant during football season.

2005-06-16T21:55:00.000-05:00

No Rest for the Wicked

Carl Everett has apparently used up every last ounce of remaining goodwill with his recent comments to Maxim Magazine. I'm with him on his Wrigley Field sentiments -- imploding the stadium, in the wake off Mayor Daley's ridiculous new parking regulations in the Belmont-Clark area, is the best thing that could happen to the city of Chicago, short of the Cubs moving to Iowa. But no way do I endorse Mr. Everett's Rocker-like sentiments on homosexuality. Here's a guy who rips into Jose Canseco for being "ignorant" and simultaneously uses the lowest common denominator platform of a skin-mag interview for not-even-thinly-veiled hate speech: "Gays being gay is wrong. Two women can't produce a baby, two men can't produce a baby, so it's not how it's supposed to be. ... I don't believe in gay marriages. I don't believe in being gay." Yuck, that's all kinds of reprehensible. Have we learned nothing from Julian Tavarez's Chi-town missteps of a few years ago? Dude, buy a ticket to see Richard Greenburg's Take Me Out next time you're in New York and learn something. Until then, kindly shut the fuck up. And if any reps from the commissioner's office happen to be reading this, please avail yourselves of the opportunity to place a gag order on Jose Guillen and Anna Benson, as well.

2005-06-14T07:13:00.000-05:00

Less Than Zero

First White Sox game of the year was a total dud. Jose Contreras had his ass handed to him on a platter by an streaky Diamondbacks line-up in the first two innings and the game was a dismal 7-0 before I had finished my first drink. I find Contreras to be underwhelming and I guess the Sox brass does, too -- rumor has it that Orlando Hernandez is here to help ease Contreras' development and soothe his fragile psyche. Ozzie Guillen must feel that he needs some toughening, because he left him in there to sort things out for four more (scoreless) innings before going to the 'pen. Sox couldn't get it started offensively against Shawn Estes, either, save the Big Hurt's best Roy Hobbs/ Kirk Gibson impression with a line-drive solo shot to left field in the 4th -- a sort of weak reminder of what great things the team's capable of.

Still, this is a team built on the front of the rotation, a consistent bench and great coaching. The big weakness, outside of Dustin Hermansen, is a leaky bullpen. Last year's closing tandem of Luis Vizcaino (8th) and Shingo Takatsu (9th) came on to relieve Contreras and put together three solid innings between them. Neither has been particularly effective up to this point in the season, but I can't recall any reliever outside of Mike Jackson getting booed in a Sox uniform in the last few years. And the fans go nuts when Mr. Zero takes the mound: the jumbotron plays this ridiculous quick-cut anime style intro during his warm-ups and all of the other displays boast "Shingo Time!" Must be that awesome (and punishing) sidearm delivery. Why do so many Asian pitchers throw sidearm? I get the sense that it's something that's frowned upon in high school-college ball because of the damage it can do to yer elbow. Love watching it in action, though: Takatsu's arm has this ridiculous bull-whip motion where it snaps back into place after the ball has left his hand.

I'm not sold on the team as a contender yet, either -- though the team's working overtime to erase any lingering debt left over from the 1997 dump trade with the Giants. I think people are still steamed about that. Also, the team's division rivals Minnesota are, as always, dangerous and the Orioles and Angels look tough. I won't be around for the playoff run, either way; as I type this, all of our stuff has been packed neatly in boxes in preparation for the moving company to haul it out this afternoon. Of course, we'll be heading from one first-place town to the next. Actually, two: by the time next week, we'll be between Baltimore and D.C. in the Maryland suburbs. But no more games with my go-to guy Will, who I've seen, like, dozens of Sox and Cubs games with over the last 8 summers. In a sense, what happens on the field is almost irrelevant -- I'll probably remember our conversations long after the box scores have faded away.

2005-05-24T22:22:00.000-05:00

The QT on OT

Great night for baseball if you're a fan of overtime games. Minnestota and Cleveland duked it out before the Twins thumped Riske in the 11th. Florida over Philly 4-3 in a 10 inning groaner. As I type this Pittsburgh and St. Louis are tied in the middle of the 11th inning (awesome game so far!) and Luis Ayala is facing Austin Kearns in the bottom of the 14th for a Cincy-Washington marathon. Wow. Was considering generating some statistics on the most cumulative innings played in an evening, but that might not be too telling in the expansion era. Now I could average it out to see the highest average of innings in any given baseball day, but that's a little to precious and geeky.

For our purposes, I'm more interested in something else: the longest baseball game ever played. Innings-wise, the longest was actually 26, but the game in question was played over a longer period: 8 hours 6 mins, 25 innings. Brewers (during the AL era) squaring off against my beloved Chicago White Sox on May 9, 1984. Interestingly enough, both teams were awful that year with sub-.500 records.

The game was so long that it had to be divided over two consecutive days: 17 innings were played on May 8th before play resumed on May 9th. Harold Baines hit a solo homer off of Chuck Porter in the 25th inning to give the Sox the victory; Tom Seaver was the pitcher of record after pitching a single inning and got the Win. Then he collected a win in the regularly-scheduled game that followed! Awesome. Also a record from that game: Tom Paciorek, a career .282 hitter, entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the 4th and came to the plate 9 times.

Now here's my question: does anyone know what the greatest number of overtime baseball games played in one single day is? Holla.

2005-05-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

Snootchie Bootchies!!

John Rocker or Jason Mewes? I'm just sayin'.

2005-04-28T22:14:00.000-05:00

Decoration Day

Heading off to D.C. for a week to hang out with my dear friend Messiah, look for some new living arrangements, and research initiating a discrimination lawsuit against my-soon-to-be hometown team the Washington Nationals. I see some excellent dinners at Ethiopian restaurants in my immediate future. While we wait for me to pull my head out of my ass and resume regular posting (er, in about two months), might I strongly encourage you to catch up on the latest installments of Paul Lukas' excellent Uni Watch column? Lukas, author of the essential Beer Frame 'zine, also has his own website and it totally rules!

2005-04-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

Draft Day

Here's some advice for anyone entering the working world: always make friends with the security guard in your building first. He/she's the one who's gonna get your back when you do something stupid like stretch a 30 minute lunch-break into an hour-and-a-half. Or rush into your place of employment on a Saturday with 8 of your friends to trash a conference room during your annual rotisserie (that's the term, since I prefer my fantasies to involve something other than sports) league baseball draft.

As drafts go, this one was fairly uneventful. The meat flinging incident of '91 or '92 is still fresh in everyone's minds as an example of what not to do when you're locked in a room with a group of similarly cranky people. These days, we're just aging disgracefully and acting out in completely passive-aggressive ways -- and maybe not as invested in baseball as we should be. Still, Some of us, like Gobo, always take the time and effort to concoct a draft plan that takes statistics and permutations and general auction strategies into account. That's him above, either right before or right after one of his epic staredowns with the League Commissioner Marc, figuring out who to add to his team of creaky-kneed 1997 All-Stars.

My draft plan this year involved drafting breakout candidate Odalis Perez (despite his utter lack of run support last year) and making sure my partner Messiah -- who's been burning the candle at both ends in prep for a series of trials -- actually stayed awake during the draft. Also: not ending up the draft with either Joe Randa or Cristian Guzman in our infield. We now have Joe Randa and Cristian Guzman in our infield. Oh well. Guzman's his usual terrible can't-get-on-first-base-if-his-life-depended-on-it self and Randa's leading the NL in home runs. WTF? I guess that's how these things shake out. In fifteen years (!) of drafting, I've certainly seen stranger things happen. Brady Clark, we kiss you.

2005-03-12T07:48:00.000-06:00

Barry Bonds and Eugenics

I'm going to take a short break from the in-joke of picking whatever's playing on iTunes at the moment as a title and molding a post around it. Did anyone pick up on that? I feel like I've been given a gift, people, and it would be irresponsible not to get sidetracked and sort it out. See, Barry Bonds wants you to know that steroids are no big deal. [The original link for the story on the MSN home page was even funnier, something like: "Barry Bonds on head, testicles -- OK!"]

Say...what? No, really: Barry Bonds called a press conference last week during spring training to tell people that his head size has not grown and his testicles haven't shriveled into little pits. Stephen Jay Gould would be so proud -- after all, large chunks of The Mismeasure of Man deal with the late 19th/ early 20th century pseudo-science of Eugenics and the metric of head size as a measure of intelligence. So we now that Bonds isn't any smarter, but credit him for being almost completely to the point in his observations, especially when you compare it to Jason Giambi's fruitless impression of Ronald Reagan at the Iran-Contra hearings at his own press conference. Two very different approaches to the same problem, which can be summarized as thus:

Bonds: I may have done these things that are associated with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, but it was in the service of the greater good.

Giambi: I may or may not have done some things, but I can't tell you right now, so you'll just have to trust me to never tell you the truth.

To be fair, Giambi was already behind the 8-ball and Bonds initiated his own press conference as a preventative measure. Garry Sheffield thinks Bonds is full of shit, and it's a foregone conclusion for anyone who's kept even a passive eye on the sport of baseball over the past decade, but we'll pay good money to see Frankenstein lumber past Hank Aaron -- and hey, why not Josh Gibson or Saddaharu Oh, if his body can hold up -- for the home run title. Bonds recognizes his role as an "entertainer," which is what that press conference was all about.

Should be interesting to see what comes out of next week's congressional hearings on steroids, where both Bonds and Giambi have been subpoenaed to testify. Curt Schilling has already RSVP'd for the event -- which is sort of like placing John Denver in the same room as Dee Snider and Frank Zappa, but that's how it goes with a kangaroo court. And Bonds? Definitely on the 'roids. Wife knows it, kids know it, even his dog knows it. And the fact of the matter is that we can't rewrite history when it's convenient and, say, pull Ty Cobb out of the Hall because he was a douchebag. Bonds, like Cobb, is simply a product of his environment.

2005-03-04T13:26:00.000-06:00

Get In or Get Out

The powers that be were really afraid that the Hall of Fame would become littered with plaques for a whole ton of undeserving Yankees, so they went ahead and revamped the credentials for the Veterans Committee. With the old Veteran's Committee, you always had to duck and wonder where the next Dom DiMaggio was coming from; a handful of undeserving candidates got inducted on the main ballot and the Hall suffers from bloat in general. But there was a fear that the Vet's Committee would stand in opposition of the dominant voting ideology and sneak a Roger Maris or a Thurman Munson through the back door.

Ron Santo and Gil Hodges picked up a few votes in this year's election, while Tony Oliva lost a few and Jim Kaat (fourth in overall voting) appeared on the ballot for the first time. Tony Oliva took it pretty hard during a spring training press conference and blamed geography/ playing in Minnesota for lack of exposure; the guy was a really great pure hitter (and led the AL in hits five times between 1964-1970) but not a HOFer by the magic standards. Hodges is probably even less interesting, though he has the Brooklyn Dodgers dynasty working in his favor. I can't believe Santo isn't in the Hall already -- extremely durable and he was probably the best 3B in the league during his prime. And one more thing about Jim Kaat, who has a lot of wins and a career ERA that compares favorably to the league average ERA: the guy won sixteen straight Gold Gloves at his position. Surely, that's some kind of record. Take that, Ozzie Smith!

What we've learned from the new Veterans Committee, which has now expanded to include everyone in the Hall of Fame: the passionate defense of Joe Torre's playing career will never approach a critical consensus. It's a red herring. Which is funny, because that was the whole reason for revamping the Veterans Committee in the first place. Turns out these guys are even more fiercely protective of the Hall's legacy than the Baseball Writers Association. Here's Tom Seaver on this year's deadlock, the second straight election with no new old-timers: ``I'm of the opinion it's going to be awfully hard [to elect additional members], and maybe that's how it should be.''

Yup.

2005-02-19T09:41:00.000-06:00

I Used to Love H.E.R.

Yeah, I still visit this piece of internet real estate from time to time. Not as much as I'd like. I held out on the blogging cliche of apologizing for my shoddy lack of effort as long as possible -- who hasn't had an acute case of writer's block or a mountain of impediments to dance around, you know? But winter in Chicago is a harsh mistress. I always forget how dire everything gets when the world outside your window is blanketed in 12 inches of snow, how life suddenly becomes about holding on to your very last bit of energy until the eventual thaw -- and the deep feelings of remorse that accompany that action when the first signs of spring emerge.

You get a little crazy and sometimes, you go the other direction entirely and start to feel invincible. And maybe you sniff at the idea of giving $75 million to an injury prone Magglio Ordonez and watch him catch the bus to Detroit. And you take a long, hard look at Kyle Farnsworth and decide that he's the projection of all of your failures and give him the boot, too. Sometimes nice people -- like Moises Alou -- get hurt, because we live in a society where ageism is an ugly fact of life. And sometimes the culpable get what they deserve, like Sammy Sosa, even though his foul attitude is rooted in your own team's sliding fortunes. It's not even spring yet, but the realization that the Cubs and White Sox will be going at it without Sammy and Magglio in 2005 -- even though they weren't ever my favorite players -- is powerful and hard to shake. Because they've been in Chicago longer than I've been here. We can win without them -- management thinks so, at least -- by remaking ourselves into the Braves and the A's. But we've never felt so mortal.

2005-01-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

Somebody to Love

Three cheers for the brain trust at Dan Nation for sponsoring a player page at the baseball site-to-end-all-sites Baseball Reference. Dan gave his love to commemorate Archi Chianfrocco, who rode the pine for Montreal and San Diego in the 90s. Dan's heartfelt dedication can be viewed here . Now I will gladly follow in his footsteps and present to you -- drum roll, please -- my Baseball Reference sponsorship . This may be the best $10 I've ever spent.

2005-01-04T14:47:00.000-06:00

Wade Bloggs

Never really had a personal connection with Wade Boggs -- and this takedown by ESPN's Bill Simmons illustrates why there wasn't a whole lot to get excited about. I don't agree that Jim Rice is more deserving of Hall of Fame enshrinement -- as this piece suggests -- but I'm in 100% percent agreement with the rest of his sentiments on Citizen Wade. Awesome career stats, less interesting personality than Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy or Keith Hernandez. In a word: boring.

Ryne Sandberg, on the other hand, was (in my mind) the best position player on the ballot and I'm thrilled to see him get into the Hall of Fame. I don't even like the Cubs, but Sandberg defined '80's baseball for me. He held the career home run mark for a second baseman until Jeff Kent pulled ahead recently with his best Ryno impression, and his stellar MVP season was only his 3rd or 4th best from an offensive standpoint. It's shocking how his accomplishments have diminished in the eyes of the Chi-town faithful -- he left us at the altar with an early retirement, of course, and came back when he probably shouldn't of, sure. But the fact that Sandberg got in isn't -- as one of my customers in a (get this) Cubs jersey alleged today -- due to a weak ballot this year but a minor disturbance in pattern in the general head-up-assery that prevails amongst the voting committee.

Next up: Ron Santo, Veterans Ballot. That would be the poetic icing on the cake of justice, wouldn't it?

2004-12-13T07:15:00.000-06:00

Writ Large

Peter Gammons wins the J.G. Taylor Spink Award and joins fellow luminary Ring Lardner in Baseball Hall of Fame. Throw ya hands up!

So, will Flogging Molly be playing the induction ceremony?

2004-12-11T08:22:00.000-06:00

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

Marlins spokesman Bruce Rubin on owner Jeff Loria recent meeting with Las Vegas officials: "These were social discussions, a get-to-know-each-other meeting. Simply, Vegas wants a baseball team and the Marlins are a baseball team. It was decided that the two sides should get together."

I think I threw up in my mouth a little when I read this published report. It's not the sentiment, it's the phrasing. You know, peanut butter tastes good on sandwiches and chocolate is a delicious treat -- why not put the two together and make something even more delicious? No one who witnessed Art Modell's dismantling of the Browns and overnight move to Baltimore will buy this line, and Jeff Loria's Machiavellian maneuvering as owner of Les Expos assures us that it's all about the dollar for him.

Sure, sure, the only thing more cliche than an owner crying poverty is a fan complaining that an owner is a greedy pig. But Loria is truly a piece of work. Is Montreal a bad town for baseball? Yes. Is Miami a bad town for baseball? Maybe. But for the same reasons that the White Sox struggle to fill the stands in the third largest market in baseball. If you build a good team, the fans will come. And if you dismantle a team, the fans respond in the only way they know how. That's the simple economics of a 162-game schedule. People support the Marlins -- inclement weather and tropical rainstorms aside -- when the team is good. And the team has won two World Series rings in the last seven years, which is pretty terrific.

By all accounts, Pro Player Stadium is an awful place to see a game. And what team hasn't tried to strongarm its host city into financing a new park in the post-Camden Yards/ Jacobs Field era? Loria's timing is terrible, though: the threat of a move is appalling when used as a negotiation tactic. Is all hope truly lost in Miami? Have the Marlins explored all their options for financing a new ballpark? Why do teams feel like they bear no responsibility in making capital improvements? It's not that Miami is lucky to have the Marlins; the Marlins are lucky to have Miami.

2004-12-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

Into the Void

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My girlfriend used to work about a block away from a plaque commemorating the Haymarket Riots. Here in Chi-town, we've got public parks in the middle of nowhere dedicated to Eugene V. Debs. The City of Chicago built itself on the spirit of labor reform; the city's rise as a financial center is a natural outgrowth of a massive population explosion, but it still bleeds blue like Gary, Indiana or Kalamazoo, Michigan. I'll save my thoughts on labor unions for another day and another blog, but as someone who's paid dues for a union in the past (United Auto Workers) and has found himself employed a variety of mixed/ union/ non-union locations, all I can say is that the MLB Players Union is its own worst enemy right now.

MLB doesn't have a deep history of voided contracts -- Aaron Boone's basketball injury springs to mind immediately and a series of contracts were voided during some strange administrative reshuffling in the strike shortened 1994 season. And of course, Denny Neagle -- a poster-boy for salary bloat -- is all over the news wire right now for (literally) getting caught with his pants down. Forget about Boone, who was in obvious violation of the terms of his contract. And let's also not consider the aberration of '94, because so much of it flew under the radar. Neagle, though, is a warning sign for what happens when baseball half-heartedly attempts to enforce morals.

Let's set the record straight here: despite defaming him in the press, the Yankees did not terminate Kevin Brown's contract last season after a self-inflicted injury. Jason Giambi's job with the Yankees is probably safe, as is Barry Bonds' continued employment with the Giants; it's rough going from here on out for both, but their respective value to their teams is tied inextricably to their ability to place butts in seats. But what happens when you move on down the line to someone like Benito Santiago, who's been rumored to be on the 'roids and has a comparatively modest 2.5 million left on his contract with the Royals? Or The Neck that Ate Chicago? His trade value is less than nil in the wake of steroid allegations and the Cubs would love to take his contract and drop it like it's hot.

The MLB Players Union has zero leverage until it adopts a steroid testing policy. In the face of sharp criticism from bulldog Sen. John McCain, the Union is saying that it would be "open" to adopt a more stringent testing policy. Union boss Don Fehr has defended the current policy, wherein players were tested once between spring training and the end of the regular season. Once. So where's the statistical sample? And if everyone and their mom and their dog knew that Bonds and Giambi were on 'roids, then everyone knew about the prevalence of doping agents -- you could sleepwalk through the Summer Olympics and catch a fucking clue.

What the Players Union needs to understand is that its in their best interest to adopt aggressive testing measures, whether or not their interests fall in line with the "moral good" of baseball. Not because John Mc Cain or President Bush wants it or Bud Selig peeks out from under his desk to sheepishly agree, but because it's the only leg the players have to stand on when protecting their bloated contracts. What we'd definitely see is an impediment to owners/teams voiding player contracts, since all the Union reps would have to say is that Player A admits he has a problem, he will accept the attendant penalties and he will seek treatment and counseling to resolve the problems. Will testing drastically reduce the frequency of steroid use within the league? Hell no, baseball's too soft on crime and it'd take the threat of something like a salary cap to sort that one out.

2004-12-04T08:15:00.000-06:00

Jason and the Argue-Nots

Seems like everytime I go visit my parents, Dave Littlefield dismantles the Pittsburgh Pirates. Folks, if you want to know what to get me for Christmas (er, Hanukkah) this year, it's really easy: make the bleeding stop! I spent 12 hours pacing nervously in O'Hare airport on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, wondering if I should just resign myself to camping out there over the entire weekend a la Tom Hanks. Heard the Jason Kendall-to-Oakland rumors swirling all week (with Mark Mulder possibly coming in return, yeah right!) and then -- boom! -- cracked open the paper on Saturday morning to read all about the twin salary dump the teams orchestrated.

If you scroll down a few posts to early November, you'll see that I feel pretty strongly about Kendall. Mark Redman was a decent catch -- in light on Kris Benson's $8 million contract with the Mets, he'll provide similar production with no illusions of being anything other than a #4-5 starter. His lone season in the NL was his best (Florida, 2003), so his numbers should roll back a little in the less hitting-friendly league. And if the Bucs can trade for Prentice Redman and get an endorsement from Red Man Chewing Tobacco, they'll have a monopoly on all the major league Redmen. Arthur Rhodes, the other guy involved in the deal, was a major dud for Oakland last season -- though the Pittsburgh front office knows they're dealing from a position of strength in terms of the bullpen, and they'll try to spin him for some hitting (one rumor has him being flipped to L.A. for Milton Bradley, yeah right!) or, more likely, release him during Spring Training. So no thanks there.

In short, they made out as best as they could. Just like the Brian Giles deal, which, given some distance to reflect, turned out amazingly for the Pirates. You won't see the same kind of returns here, because of the strict major league talent ratio. Oakland obviously felt than Rhodes and Redman have nowhere to go but down, and no surprise that the Pirates felt the same way about Kendall. Last time out, I took the high road discussing Kendall -- trying to get into Billy Beane's head to figure out Kendall's present-day value as an OBP and defensive threat. Right here and now, he seems like an awfully good fit for the A's.

And present value is what you think of when the wounds are still raw. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ed Cook slammed the deal in a front-page piece the morning after, and who could blame him? It's painful anytime a player with a modicum of talent gets shipped out of town. My esteemed colleague One Man Band pretty much encapsulates my feelings on the trade: bad deal, leaves the Pirates vulnerable at catcher, doesn't really provide the financial flexibility that you'd assume, and the Pirates won't do anything with the few million dollars in savings except pad the war chest. Totally on the mark!

Cook's colleague at the PG, The Stats Geek, took another tack and tried to calm nerves by weighing Kendall's injury history and future durability against the examples of Johnny Bench and the major drop-off in service time most catchers experience after age 30. Of the top 20 catchers who caught the most games up through age 30, only 2 rank in the top 20 of games caught after 30. Offensive production is a corollary to health behind the plate, too Johnny Bench caught 539 games from ages 27-30 and 415 from 31-34; his OPS dipped from .836 to .794 in the same interval. How about Carlton Fisk? 522 games from 27-30 and 453 from 31-34 with an OPS slide from .853 to .761. Mike Piazza? 592 games from 27-30, 438 (541 games total -- he also played a lot of first base in '04) from 31-34 with a huge OPS slide.

Folks like Gary Carter and Roy Campanella held up pretty well, of course, but Kendall has already caught 1252 games through age 30 and the major drop-off begins after 1300 games. I still think he has a lot of life left in him; save his gruesome injury in '99, he's been very durable. And he has three years left on his contract, not coincidentally the age 31-34 period discussed above. Can Kendall catch a lot of games in that interval and hit for a high average? History says no for catchers with an extreme workload. Kendall has only caught 442 games over the least three seasons, though; he'll have no problem equaling that production.

2004-11-21T08:13:00.000-06:00

On the money

Jayson Stark unpacks the mysteries of collusion in his recent column. Didn't realize that MLB offered "recommendations" for suggested "salary ranges," but that certainly explains the spate of 2 yr/$6 million OF contracts in 2004. Great piece. So are the MLB elders the true villains here? No no, it's still Scott Boras who's still taking his cues from Dr. Doom and the Red Skull.

2004-11-20T09:15:00.000-06:00

He Hate Me

Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune said everything there is to say about agent Scott Boras: "He is a very, very bad man. Exquisitely bad, in a foreclose-on-the-farm sort of way." Bryan Miller, in a thinkpiece on Slate, offered a more even-tempered assessment of the agent in 2001: "Scott Boras is the Marvin Miller of his agethe man the owners claim they can't afford, but the players can't afford to live without." Either way you cut it, no one likes the guy -- owners and GMs hate him with a passion, fans treat him like a human pinata, and I doubt highly that any player who has reaped the benefits on Boras' predatory tactics is inviting him to their next Christmas party.

But shit, Boras gets results. Look at the A-Rod, Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort contracts he engineered a few years ago. Woah. And then look at his cream-of-the-crop client list for this year's free agent class: Adrian Beltre, Carlos Beltran, Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, Kevin Millwood, J.D. Drew and Magglio Ordonez. GMs and owners have already balked at his demands for Beltran (10 years, backloaded) and Jason Varitek, but those guys will get signed. Above market value. Because Scott Boras never loses. He's like Wile E. Coyote if the super-genius managed to get the better of the Road Runner and drop an anvil on his head every time.

Word out of Chicago is that White Sox GM Kenny Williams doesn't like the way negotiations with franchise cornerstone Magglio Ordonez have been going; Williams called a press conference to tell reporters that the White Sox "would not be signing any Scott Boras clients this year." Well, no shit, Sherlock -- isn't that why the Washington franchise pulled the trigger on deals with Christian Guzman and Vinny Castilla so quickly? No one wants to get stuck negotiating with Scott Boras as an act of desperation.

Still, what's going on here? Is this Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's legendary cheapness rearing its head once again? The White Sox franchise has a nasty track-record of blackballing its highest-paid players as a way of keeping salaries at a manageable limit -- Big Frank Thomas got treated pretty badly in the midst of a prolonged slump and he just redeemed himself in the eyes of the fans last season. People were booing the guy at every at-bat because of Reinsdorf's carefully-orchestrated smear campaign. What Kenny Williams said should ring true in the hearts and minds of every baseball observer from the top of an organization to the fan sitting in the nosebleed section, sure.

But you don't owe it to anyone to tell them the truth unless you're sleeping with them -- Boras is a terrible bed-fellow of course, but imagine the whispers of collusion that might circulate if all teams took a stand against the Boras clients this year. Kenny Williams would be Exhibit A in that trial. So what you do is shut the fuck up and keep it behind the scenes. You don't need mommy and daddy to tell you that they're getting divorced after years of bitter arguments...you knew it all along.

2004-11-17T14:09:00.000-06:00

Bump and grind

I'm pretty sure that I've already seen a movie or three about the Jayson Werth stalker case -- wife dumps high school sweetheart for guy who makes the big leagues, jilted lover blackmails the couple -- fifteen times. Seems like a cross between The Fan and Unforgettable and that one with Marky Mark carving Reese Witherspoon's name on his chest . Like, 4 eva. Not to make too much light of it -- the Werths seem like they just want to be left alone.

Here's an even more absurd story involving the wife of Gary Sheffield and R. Kelly and -- oh, what's that you say? -- a guy-on-girl-and-girl sex-video. I'm sorry. I just can't leave it alone. Tapes of Kelly making the beast with two backs with Sheffield's wife originated from Chicago, where community activist/ huckster Derrick Mosley attempted to give Sheff the shakedown for $20,000 in blackmail money. Here's the kicker: Sheffield's wife is 28. The tape is said to be at least 10 years old. R. Kelly has a predilection towards humping his proteges (Sheff's wife is a gospel singer), especially his underage ones. Bad timing for R. Kelly as it relates to his pending child pornography case, these days, it seems like he might as well take up permanent residence in a courthouse . I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this movie yet, but when art eventually decides to imitate life, it's going to be great.

Update: Is it a Yankee curse? Sheffield's stay in New York has been plagued with all sorts of difficulties . Read the article, it'll put hair on your chest.

2004-11-14T15:11:00.000-06:00

Devil's Bargain/ Devil's Advocacy

Best part of checking in on the Hot Stove action for me has always been seeing who falls into disfavor/ is labeled as damaged goods/ lands in the Pittsburgh Pirates lap. And I suspect that it's the same way for everyone who still roots for the Pirates against the odds: the entire city of Pittsburgh practically got an erection when rumors of Travis Lee signing with the team surfaced last spring. Travis Lee, people. The worst part of it all isn't the whiskey dick sensation that goes along with watching a collection of rotten apples and turds thumb their collective noses at the Bucs, though.

No, it's seeing some variant on the "the team's gotta trade Jason Kendall in order to keep pace in today's market" cliche in every single off-season (and pre-season, and well, mid-season) report on the team's future. Because there's two things -- actually, four now that Torres and Mesa have been inked to deals -- that are absolutely certain about the Pirates next year. First, GM Dave Littlefield won't be increasing the payroll without an additional revenue stream; this team is almost at a point where adding a Troy Glaus would pay verifiable dividends, but nowhere near the bank-breaking bump it would take to wallow in mid-market mediocrity.

And more importantly, Jason Kendall isn't going anywhere this year. Dude's still owed $34 million/ 3 years on his contract and exactly one team (the Dodgers) are in the market for a catcher. The Bucs would get majorly rooked in any trade involving Kendall -- they'd have to fork over at least a 1/3 of the money owed over the length of the contract for any team to even listen to trade talks and probably a bit more to acquire anything beyond journeymen/AAA fodder. Say what you want about Littlefield, but he has too much pride in the organization to suffer the humiliation of letting Kendall go like that.

And I like Kendall. You like Kendall. Everyone likes Kendall. His OPS ranked fourth (behind Bay and the Wilsons) amongst team regulars and he's a marvel of consistency any way you slice-and-dice his stats (home vs. away, month by month). No more ink needs to be spilled on his offensive attributes; let's talk about his talent behind the plate. Here's Kendall measured against highly-regarded defensive types Ivan Rodriguez and Jorge Posada in some select fielding stats:

Kendall .991 FP/ 7.69 RF/ 1.000 ZR/ .363 CS%
Rodriguez .987 FP/ 7.04 RF/ .933 ZR/ .322 CS%
Posada .990 FP/ 7.25 RF/ 1.000 ZR/ .272 CS%

"FP" is Fielding Percentage (put-outs + assists divided by put-outs + assists + errors), a pretty solid statistical measurement of a player's defensive ability. "RF" is Range Factor (put-outs + assists divided by innings) and its fraternal twin "ZR" is Zone Rating, which measures how well a player performs in his "assigned" zone. "CS%" is the percentage of runners caught while attempting to steal. As you can see, Kendall's tops Rodriguez and Posada in all of these categories -- I haven't checked how he stacks up against the rest of the league's battery partners yet. But if the team ain't gonna dump any more money into the payroll and the mission of 2005 remains youth development, you want Kendall in there to make Kip Wells look good, guide Oliver Perez along the way and help to fix whatever's wrong with Ryan Vogelsong.

With apologies to the amazin' Jason Bay, Kendall's still the Pirates' best player. The contract hasn't gotten any less silly over the last three years, but I'd much rather have him on the team than the extra cash the Pirates would flush down the toilet trying to sign enough warm bodies to create a bargain-basement version of the Phillies.

2004-11-09T21:11:00.000-06:00

Stonewalled

Long time readers (yeah, all four of you) know that I'd be the first guy to pull out a fiddle and dance a drunken jig if Wrigley Field burned to the ground, but news of veteran Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone's resignation at the end of October has still got me down. Steve Stone wasn't half bad as a player -- check out his amazing 25-7 season in 1980 for further reference. Note, as well, that it was enhanced by the four-man rotation Baltimore had in place during the season, but Stone was like the 70's equivalent of Woody Williams in his day.

I'm way too young to remember Stone as a player, though I can remember hearing the first game he called really well. It was in May 2004, before the players up and quit during the strike-shortened season. For my first trip to Wrigley, I tagged along with a guy who lived on the same floor of my dorm who just happened to be...Steve Stone's cousin. We sat underneath the broadcasting booth, within Budweiser-spilling distance of Harry Caray and Stone came out and greeted us during the 7th inning stretch. Quite an experience. The only other ballplayers I've ever that close were the 1995 Pirates (entire team) and this guy (also a relative of a friend), neither of which are anything to tell the future kids about.

I'm convinced that Steve Stone is one of the great unheralded geniuses of sports broadcasting and that time will unveil his 27-year run with the Cubs (with and without Caray) as deserving of Hall of fame consideration. Really, I apologize for the hyperbole -- the wounds are still raw -- but Stone got a raw deal. Apparently, Dusty Baker took issue with some of Stone's critical comments during a late-September game and that this year's team felt Stone wasn't really on their side.

The situation with the Cubs -- a team controlled by a monolithic media company, the parent organization of The Chicago Tribune -- is pretty complicated as it stands. The Chicago Sun-Times, despite its award-winning sports section, is engaged in a giant pissing contest with its competitor, and can't really be trusted to tell the truth about the Cubs. Stone was the guy I trusted to tell it to me straight -- he handled an ungainly, larger-than-life presence like Caray with ease and his commentaries were a perfect mix of erudition and regular-guy charm, unlike that obsequious boot-licker Chip Caray.

It's not a broadcaster's job to be a team booster when the team sucks. I had the opportunity to listen to all-time great Ernie Harwell call a late-summer Tigers game in his final season during an otherwise feverishly dull trip from Chicago to Pittsburgh. And it was great, no knocks on Harwell, but he was so good at masking his frustration with decades of sucky teams. The Cubs' freak pennant run in 2002 aside, Stone had the burden of witnessing the mishaps of a series of serially-underachieving teams. You have to bow to the party line to keep a job, though, and Stone ultimately realized this and drew his line in the sand. Stone's letter of resignation can be viewed in full here. The Trib didn't even have the guts to print it.

In case you're wondering, Chip Caray already left to take a job with the Braves and the booth remains open for next season and beyond. When asked if he'd be interested in assuming the mantle, Bob Costas politely demurred and said that he wouldn't be up to the challenge of -- get this -- "the greatest job in baseball." That, my friends, is the biggest lie in all of professional sports -- rivaled only by the idea that next year, any year, will hold more promise for the Cubs.

2004-10-30T08:06:00.000-05:00

End of the line

A few days late and dollar short with the analysis of the World Series here at McClendon's Folly, but the truth is that I sort of lost interest after the drubbing St. Louis got in Game Two. Everything after the first game was, well, pretty dull. Manny Ramirez was one of the most boring MVPs in recent memory, too -- he hit for the highest average in the series (.429) but didn't do anything spectacular at the plate or on the field. Curt Schilling emerged as a hero after his airtight start, surgically-repaired ankle and all, but then he turned Judas and endorsed the wrong candidate.

From The Girlfriend: "The Wrigley Curse makes sense, because it involves a goat, and goats are evil. But Boston has a curse because they sold a player in 1918? That candy bar sucks, anyway." Sing it, sister. That's the main reason I'm glad that Boston pasted the Cards in the final three games of the series and finally put the skeletons of The Babe, Bill Buckner and the longest history of institutional racism in MLB behind itself. And that's about it. It's good for the Red Sox. It's good for baseball. It wasn't the Yankees.

The New York Times picked up on the whole root-against-the-Yankees vibe the following day with four solid pages of coverage on the final game of the Series. All stories and headlines basically pointed to the same conclusion: where was the drama? Extract the buffet lunch of sour grapes and humble pie and you can't argue with the writers' tack. The main story here was Boston's perfect 8-game win streak from the ALCS through the World Series and how the Yankees and Cards wilted under the spotlight.

Still, even the Cardinals-Houston NLCS run would've been more intriguing as a coda: high and lows, ebbs and flows, rookies and veterans, one swirling mix. The Cardinals just couldn't bring it against the Sox; St. Louis was the best team in baseball this season, but the Red Sox were the best team in baseball in October. In the advent of a 162-game season, that month makes all the difference.

2004-10-26T21:06:00.000-05:00

Big in Japan

Here's Diamondbacks washout Alex Cabrera celebrating after launching a two-run blast during Game 3 of the Fall Classic. No, not that championship series. The other series...in Japan, where the Seibu Lions just sealed up a championship in a tense series against the Chunichi Dragons. Would that fly in America? Only in the NFL, but Cabrera can still claim full jackass rights after a monster series which saw him knock two home runs (including a grand slam) in Game 3 and a pivotal two-run shot in Game 7 to rally the Lions in the final game of the series.

What's cool is that the Lions became the first Japanese baseball team to win the Japan Series by besting their opponents in the final two games on the road. So there's some hope for the Cardinals in all this, I suppose, if they could only win a goddamn game. Team's MVP was starter Takashi Ishii, who finished the series with a sterling 0.00 era after going 1-5 during the regular season.

I don't pretend to know a lot about Japanese baseball, short of what I've read in Robert Whiting's excellent and informative chronicle You've Gotta Have Wa. I'd like to know more, mind you, but Japanese baseball remains woefully underexposed here in the U.S. Just think: Hideki Matsui has a team of journalists following him around and waiting for him to squeeze out a fart so it can make top headlines in Japan. And then Alex Cabrera goes over to Japan, does his best impression of David Ortiz, and no one seems to care.

I'm not concerned with that particular inequity, because Japanese leagues have been employing foreign (mot just U.S., but Korea and Taiwan) players with a much greater frequency for a much longer period of time. But with seventeen different ESPN channels on the dish, there's no room to air this series? C'mon: less teams, parity between the teams and a smaller talent pool to draw from -- the seven-game stretch sounds like it was a lot more intriguing than what's going on here right now.

Boston's up 4-0 as I write this. Go Lions!

2004-10-24T08:10:00.000-05:00

Pretty ugly

The Las Vegas bookmakers called it right before Game 1 -- I can't see Boston steamrolling St. Louis in four games (or 3 1/2 as our man Bill "Spaceman" Lee might hope), but it may be the safest best to throw money on the Sox on the basis of momentum and a (slightly) deeper pitching staff and bench. I mean, La Russa had to start So Taguchi in left field last night in order to cover the DH slot. And while the move worked out fine -- Taguchi's ok defensively and went 1-for-3 at the plate -- Boston has the distinct advantage of being able to play the unflappable David Ortiz and Kevin Millar on home turf.

Peter Gammons says that the Cardinals outplayed the Red Sox last night, but I'm not sure that's true. Yes, the Sox were a mess defensively. Manny Ramirez continues to be his own worst enemy with some terrible plays. Did you see him dive for that ball and miss? Yikes. But Trot Nixon was the only Sox starter who failed to collect a hit, whereas the deepest part of the St. Louis order -- Pujols, Rolen and Sanders -- went a combined 0-11 and a 1/3 of the Cardinals' runs came courtesy of their opponent's errors. So offensively -- edge to the Red Sox. The old saw about pitching separating the contenders from the pretenders in the post season hasn't held true during the entire run of the playoffs, so why start now? Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for some smashmouth baseball; Vinny Testaverde couldn't score this many runs with a Philadelphia offense behind him.

2004-10-22T07:53:00.000-05:00

Back to the Future

From now on, I only want to hear Bill "Spaceman" Lee commenting on the postseason. During last year's Red Sox-Yankees match-up, Lee went on NPR and offered this gem:

"Uranus is in an 84-year cycle, and the last time Uranus was in this position after a loop around the sun was in 1918" -- the Sox' last World Series victory, beating (who else?) the Cubs -- "so the moons are positioned that, you know, in -- they're suspending all weddings in India right now in the Hindu religion because of the proximity of Mars and the way things are going. You know, things are really agitated."

Last night, NPR brought Lee back to discuss Boston's triumphant Game 7 victory, breaking the curse of the Bambino and the possibility of meeting the Cardinals again in the World Series. Lee went on to unpack a sensible theory about how the Yankees owe all of their historical postseason success to the Red Sox. But it wouldn't be a Lee commentary without some flighty nonsense, as he weighed in on karma and how the Red Sox and Cardinals are destined to meet each other in preordained intervals. And the inevitable outcome of the series? "The Red Sox will finish them off in 3 1/2 games. We'll beat them so badly they'll forfeit the last 4 innings."

This man could win you the election, Senator Kerry.

2004-10-19T21:11:00.000-05:00

The Tigers Have Spoken

A friend in Detroit sent me a link to the following article about Cecil Fielder's recent struggles with a gambling addiction and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The guy's destitute, his family hasn't really heard from him, and he's had this outrageous fall from fortune that makes MC Hammer's Behind the Music reveal look trivial.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a poem about the dual nature of greatness and fall from grace around 200 years ago and it's stuck with me since I first encountered it in 9th grade. Even those who have a weak stomach for poetry (as I do) would be hard pressed to argue that "Ozymandias" isn't lyrical perfection -- 14 lines that say everything that needs to be said on the subject with unflinching beauty and masterful economy. I think the author of the Detroit News postmortem must've had Shelley trapped in the recesses of his mind, too, particularly in the way he describes how Fielder's Florida mansion has suffered from neglect in the intervening years. Here's that poem for reference:

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

You could stick those lines in a post about, say, Pete Rose or any other fallen idol for that matter -- but we're constantly reminded of Rose's greatness on the field. It's amazing how well the poem fits Fielder's legacy, though, especially since the memory of his 1990-93 run with the Tigers has fallen into a state of disrepair and neglect. Fielder's 1990 season, in particular, was electric -- he became the first major leaguer to bash 50 home runs since Big Red Machine cog George Foster in '77 and led the league in rbi, slugging percentage and total bases. Only Rickey Henderson did more damage at the plate.

Fielder's biggest impact on baseball, I think, remains unrecognized. His success in 1990 was directly responsible in motivating big league execs to look towards Japan as a viable source of talent for the major leagues. Before Fielder came back to the States, Japan was the place to go for the twilight of your career. Leon Lee played there. Bob Horner, too. But no one ever came back from the Land of the Rising Sun and kicked ass like Fielder. The Marlins took a cue and signed reclamation project Orestes Destrade to a plum contract in the immediate aftermath; a few years later, Hideo Nomo came to the Dodgers and busted the seal wide open. For me, Fielder's one of those guys -- like Curt Flood, I guess -- where his big contribution came from kicking off a chain reaction of important events. Pity it had to end up like this.

2004-10-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

The fat lady has been muzzled

Over in the Lone Star state, Brandon Backe and Woody Williams flirted with perfection. Backe ran a no-hitter 'til the 6th and and both pitchers rang up goose eggs on the ol' scoreboard in 15 combined innings of work before Jason Isringhausen coughed up three runs in the bottom of the ninth. This is what we usually expect from a championship game -- two competitors running neck-and-neck, challenging each other inning after inning. This was postseason perfection.

And back under the shadow of the Green Monster, there was imperfection. Loads of it. Longest ALCS game ever, as a matter of fact -- took 14 innings and 14 pitchers just to sort this mess out. Moose came out triumphant over Pedro to kick it all off, but the game belonged to the Red Sox after the 6th inning...even if these guys couldn't catch a break until Tim McCarver exhausted every last one of his shot-calling aphorisms.

There was Bronson Arroyo, he of the golden cornrows, stepping to the mound after a disastrous Game 3 start and fooling the best part of the Yankees' order with filthy stuff. And Mike Myers, whose sidearm delivery moves s-l-o-w-e-r than a lady of leisure unfolding an Chinese fan, rattling off four pitches of molasses. And Alan Embree finishing off the inning by striking out two straight batters. And Tim Wakefield scaring the bejeesus out of everyone but the Red Sox Nation hopefuls with what seemed like at least sixteen straight passed balls. Varitek couldn't even restrain Wakefield's knuckle.

Don't doubt for a second that David Ortiz said what you thought he said after the ump called him out on a what-game-were-you-watching checked swing, though. Ortiz clearly turned to the camera and mouthed "That's bullshit!" before returning to the dugout and finding himself at the receiving end of a series of bad calls that deserved far greater expletives. Who could blame him? Dude was so enraged that he ripped a soft Esteban Loaiza pitch right into center with two outs in the 14th to bring Johnny Damon home and send the Yankees back to New York licking their wounds.

Best way to combat indifference and doubt? If you're the Braves, you fold and regroup. But in Boston and Houston, you stay hungry. I don't think there's every been a postseason performance to match what Carlos Beltran is doing for the Astros. He's en fuego, with a home run in, like, every third at-bat -- he is the team. And Ortiz? He keeps saving the day, too. He's not going to carry Boston like Beltran with the Astros, but he's doing collateral damage with that .500 postseason average. And he's pissed off. Walk him, pitch around him, trick him into a ground ball out, whatever -- just stay the fuck out of his way.

2004-10-16T07:40:00.000-05:00

The Tide is High

I don't get it. But look at the guy in the picture with his shit-eating grin, ready to prostrate himself for George Costanza's longtime employer. I mean, it makes no sense -- maybe we've moved from the usual hyper-misogynist depictions of the "other" team and its fans as "ladies" and on to forced infantilization. What a slap in the face to all those adults I've seen strolling around in Huggies and bonnets on the Jenny Jones show? Seriously, what would Vice magazine say about this? Yikes.

Game 3 of the ALCS moves to tonight after Bud Selig canceled last night's contest for fear of inclement weather. What a drag for Houston and Stl, who can't catch a break with the scheduling when there's a Yankees or Red Sox around to grab a larger network share. And the Red Sox? Still in the fetal position, no matter what the Boston-area message boards would lead you to believe about momentum, changing heart, et al. Boston's irresistible force can't knock the Yankees' immovable object out of the way. Brown vs. Arroyo tonight and Hernandez vs. Wakefield tomorrow; both games are at Fenway, but both pitching match-ups favor the Yankees. Or do they?

Brown has no decisions against the Red Soc this year, and hasn't pitched against the division rivals since April, when he faced Boston in two unimpressive starts. And Hernandez, who had an otherwise fine last half, only faced Boston once in September and got knocked out after 3 innings. Arroyo has four no decisions in four starts against the Yankees, though the Red Sox cruised to victory in all of the games he started with not much help from him. Wakefield moves to the top of the leader board in wins, because unlike the other three, he actually nailed down a win against the Yankees.

The crystal ball is as cloudy as the Boston skyline, though, and I'm going to have to go with my gut. I'll guess that the Yankees show Boston who's their Yankee Daddy in tonight's game, while Boston fearing the humiliation of being swept, turns on the juice and takes game four. Key to this weekend's contests = Manny Ramirez, doing a marvelous impression of Barry Bonds in the postseason. Wake up, dude.

2004-10-14T18:41:00.000-05:00

Babies Got Backe

The Astros deserve so much more. Here's a team that was six games under .500 at the All-Star break and waffled over trading Carlos Beltran to a contender like our man John K on America's continuing involvement in Iraq. But it's a war, man, and the 'Stros soldiered on through the second half of the season, against their better judgment -- against anyone's better judgment -- and came up with a wild-card berth.

And now? Andy Petitte's on the shelf and Roger Clemens and Wade Miller have to wait 'til games #3 and #4 to make a mark. So the Astros are throwing out two guys named Pete Munro (who starts the big game tonight) and Brandon Backe (whose success has a pitcher has been so waaaaayyyy out of leftfield that he, uh, actually started in that position). Didn't work well in the first game as Backe went backe to the clubhouse, but maybe Munro can pull a Tim Wakefield and make some noise in the big postseason start.

I don't like his team's chances, though. And that's a no-brainer. My god, can the Cardinals rake. It doesn't even matter how many times Carlos Beltran can go yard. It doesn't matter that year's comeback kid Chris Carpenter went down for the rest of the season. It doesn't matter that Scott Rolen's performance against L.A. was worthy of a Mr. Yuk sticker. St. Louis is so good off the bench and in the bullpen than all of the puzzle pieces are right there. And this team's cauldron bubbles over with personality like the '93 Phillies or the '87 Twins -- you can't root for the Astros without feeling a little sorry for them, but you can get right behind the Cardinals.

And either way -- though a World Series berth for the Cardinals has been written in stone since May -- this'll be the first time a NL Central team will advance to the World Series since the introduction of the wild card. And that feels electric, considering how much pride people have taken on hating on the NL Central over the last couple of years. St. Louis has angels in the outfield and divine right on its side. Watch Edmonds-Pujols-Walker destroy the Yankees for their fallen Astros comrades. Watch them do it for the also-rans and never-weres in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee and Cincinnati. And watch them do it for the good of baseball.

2004-10-13T10:04:00.000-05:00

Frying pan or fire?

Hadn't watched a lick of baseball for a month preceding last night's Yankees-Red Sox match-up. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that from my lack of posts at the end of the season. Is it mid-October already? The last month has seemed like an out-of-body experience as I've been doing my best impression of my father-as-burgeoning-workaholic, burning the candle at both ends. And something had to go and it looks like I missed out on a lot of fun games, as well as the Astros remarkable half-season sprint towards the playoffs (more on this next time).

Baseball's not basketball and it sure as hell ain't hockey; only a choice few teams make the playoffs, teams with mediocre attributes never advance on to the postseason and the disconnect between the regular season and the post-season is much less than in any other professional sports league. Which is to say: there's a purpose to actually watching regular season games, whereas there's no reason to watch hockey until all but two teams make the playoffs and duke it out for what seems like two solid months of contests. I dunno; up until the introduction of the wild card a few years ago, I actually never even saw a point to getting down with the playoffs until the World Series -- even with a personal stake in the proceedings during The Pirates' near-miss runs between 1990-1992.

So: last night. Not a bad game. 6 innings of what seemed like an analog for the regular season, with the Yankees chasing Schilling out of the game early and asserting dominance in every way (though the BoSox retain their slight edge in moral superiority and a massive lead in stupid haircuts). Then: a spark, a fire, a full-on blaze as the Sox pound out 5 runs in the 7th and 2 more in the 8th to pull within one run of the Evil Empire before Bernie Williams knocked two more runs in to widen the gap.

And this, my friends, is what Joseph Campbell was talking about with the power of myth. Bill Mueller -- who the Fox commentators delighted in reminding us has made Mariano Rivera his bitch this season -- up at the plate with two men on and a chance for some more of his regular season heroics. One long ball is all it takes to tie the game and shift the dynamics of the game. Ball, whiff, ball, foul...and Mueller hits into a double-play to end the game. Mueller's no goat, but Rivera's back to being top dog. NY fans rejoice, Boston fans head to the nearest Irish pub. And it ain't over by a long shot.

2004-09-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

Howe now, brown cow

Rob Neyer got a lesson in ethics this week. Texas Rangers reliever Frank Francisco now has more time for those inevitable anger management classes. I'm thinking Jim Duquette might want to consider sensitivity training during the offseason, as his plan for firing Mets manager Art Howe at the end of the season leaked early and he had to put the spin control in motion in order to worm out of yet another PR disaster. Art Howe seems like a stand-up guy, though; he agreed to stay on for the remaining 17 games of the season after meeting with Duquette. A generous move, I'd say, as the inconvenience of replacing Howe for the last couple of weeks of the season is the last thing the Mets need to cap off a dreadful season.

And to be fair, it's not Howe's fault. I mean, in his two seasons of managing the Mets, he has barely cracked a .400 win percentage, which means he might as well have been managing the Brewers. Actually, I'll bet he wishes he had inked a deal to manage the Brewers two years ago -- there's promise for the future with a nice core of young talent on that team, while the Mets don't have anything to look forward to without massive restructuring.

Ultimately, it's all about the talent. A great team (like Howe's A's teams) can succeed without a great manager (and Moneyball would have you believe that Howe is not one, though I'm not sure I agree with that assessment). A great, or good or even competent, manager can't do much without a team that has the tools to succeed: here's Lloyd McClendon, patron saint of this here blog, floundering year after year with the Pirates. So what role does a manager play? Filling out those line-up cards, for one, and giving a team a reason to believe and motivating them when they need a swift kick in the ass (Jack McKeon to the Marlins '03; Phil Garner to the Astros '04).

Also, it should be mentioned that the only thing worse than Mets management is the team's luck this year. Jose Reyes and Kaz Matsui did impressions of Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable and forced Jeff Keppinger and Wilson Delgado into the starting line-up. Piazza waffled about playing first base, so now Todd Zeile is there. Trades -- Hidalgo, Benson, Zambrano -- did absolutely nothing and seemed like profligate excuses for spending money better served in a roth IRA or stuffed inside a mattress. Starters dropped like flies, and then their replacements dropped like flies, and then the 3rd string replacements couldn't keep healthy.

And Art Howe? He'll still have his dignity at the end of the season. No one else affiliated with the Mets can say the same.

2004-09-15T20:48:00.000-05:00

Fresh meat

The NL Rookie of the Year race just got interesting. No one's come close to having a season like Henry Rowengartner had for the Cubs in, oh, '93. But this season, it has been neck-and-neck between Pirates OF Jason Bay (The Outfielder Formerly Known As The Brian Giles Trade Throw In) and Padres SS Khalil Greene (The Only MLB Player Who Practices The Bah'ai Faith). Jason Bay missed nearly two months to open the season -- but collected Rookie of the Month honors in June and July -- which some pundits decided was enough to disqualify him from consideration. But, oh wait -- Khalil Greene broke a finger on Monday night and now he's out for the rest of the season. So injuries took their toll on both seasons.

Here's Khalil Greene's season numbers:
484ab /66r/ 132h/ 15hr/ 65bi/ 4sb/ .273ba/ .349obp/ .446slg/ .795ops

And here's Jason Bay through Wednesday 9/14/04:
350ab/ 55r/ 103h/ 23hr/ 72bi/ 3sb/ .294ba/ .372obp/ .571slg/ .943ops

I don't think we even need to consider the 50 or so at-bats (and handful of home runs and rbi) Bay will have over the rest of the season to do a point-by-point comparison. 300 abs is all that should be needed to qualify for consideration -- that's plenty to make a mark. And isn't it odd to see the same folks who rushed to anoint Dontrelle Willis (who came up later in the season than Brandon Webb) last year's NL ROY using the same criteria to argue that Greene would be a better choice?

Bay's not flawless, mind you: he strikes out at a much greater clip than Greene, has been thrown out stealing more, and has hit into more double-plays. Fair enough. Defense gets thrown out there a lot as a reason why Greene's the superior candidate, and of course he's playing a much harder defensive position, and he's made some Sports Center highlight reel plays this season, but check it out: Greene has 20 errors on the season and a fielding percentage of .965. Mr. Bay (in half of the "chances") has exactly one error and a fielding percentage of .995. Translation: he does not suck in the field.

Beyond that, the leads in all power categories should nail the door shut. Especially that .943 ops -- not Barry Bonds ungodly, but amazing. Hammer says: u can't touch that. I mean, that's it. End of story. Jason Bay has been the most consistent performer on the Pirates this year; Greene is...playing a role. Better than Ramon Vasquez, sure. But he's no Jason Bay.

2004-09-12T01:01:00.000-05:00

Don't Worry, Lo Duca

Montreal's all tied up for a motocross racing event, so it's the Marlins vs. Expos at a neutral location on Monday and Tuesday. I'm soooo there. Is this a first? I mean, the Expos have obviously played a large number of games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium over the past couple of years, Las Vegas has hosted regular season games, and season openers have occurred in Monterey and Japan -- but has inclement weather or some other hardship, in combination with a lack of availability at either "home" or "away" fields, ever forced a neutral-location game(s) between two opponents during the regular season?

P.S. Carl Pavano will be robbed if he doesn't collect the NL Cy Young this year. I'm still sad he broke the engagement with Alyssa Milano off, ending all hopes for a hyphenated Milano-Pavano married name.

Update 9/12/04: Both games start at 1:05, and *sniff* I'll be chained to my desk at work. Tickets are $15, the whole stadium will be general admission, and a third of the gate receipts go to disaster relief. Kudos to MLB.

Also, the answer to the question I posed above is that the Yanks played the Angels in Shea Stadium for one game in '98 while Yankee Stadium was undergoing mandatory repairs. Also, Oakland played 6 games in Las Vegas to open the '96 season -- but what I was really searching for was something like the Yankees-Angels-Shea Stadium example.

2004-09-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

Chi-town follies

While the whole world waited for Barry to join the 700 club (it'll happen this season, and he'll surpass Ruth the next and then Aaron the next because of a little thing called T-E-N-A-C-I-T-Y), Gobo rolled into town for a conference and we headed over to Wrigley Field to watch a Cubs-Expos game from the (sorta) cheapie section. Big fun -- hanging out with Gobo, at least. He came prepared for the party with a Cubs jersey with his own name imprinted on the back of it, probably because he shares a name with a certain obsessive-compulsive relieverwho likes to chew on, like, bark and trace circles on the pitcher's mound. When I see this guy pitch, all I can think of is Tony Shaloub in Monk.

And the game itself? To quote Iggy and the Stooges: no fun, no fun, no fun. Greg Maddux kept it on lockdown through 7 innings before everything went boom and the Expos pounded out 5 runs in the 8th. Wasn't Maddux's fault, though -- he only ended up with two earned runs on his line, due in part to Derrek Lee booting a throw to first and catcher Paul Bako wildly misplaying a shouldn't-have-done-it-under-any-circumstance throw to second base.

And the Cubs could not put together the hits against Montreal starter Scott Downs (once traded from the Cubs to the Expos for Henry Rodriguez, a hero in Montreal back when folks cared enough to throw O Henry! candy bars onto the field), who came into the game with a 7.00+ era. Sammy Sosa looked mortal for the first time since he donned a Cubs uniform in 1992 and just hacked, hacked, hacked away at the pitches. Nomar Garciaparra (back in a Cubs uniform in '05? We couldn't decide) grounded into two double-plays and stranded four runners on base. And Mike Remlinger came in to relieve Maddux for a third of an inning and coughed up another run, prompting a huge Bronx cheer from the largely disinterested crowd.

On the plus side, a few fans walked away with Ryne Sandberg autographed baseballs. On the other side, this was the game where the Astros overtook the Cubs for the Wild Card lead...and then lost it again. So we've got the Cubs tied with the Astros and the Giants, with Florida and Philly within spitting distance, at this writing. Florida has more games to make up (including some which may be moved to the South Side of Chicago because of Hurricane Ivan -- how strange is that?). That's my pick. Philly's not fooling anyone and the Marlins are the only team that has the pitching to compete in the playoffs. Watch the Cubs take a dirt nap in October and please be sure to congratulate me on the fact that my commute time coming home from work is sure to reduce by 50%.

2004-09-05T08:12:00.000-05:00

Stinkees

How therapeutic is this? Very. For one, it gives me an opportunity to figure out how to post images to this here blog. Beyond that, though, it gives me a chance to relive the glory of the Evil Empire's worst defeat...EVER. How bad was it? To find a shutout as lopsided as Cleveland's crushing victory on Wednesday evening, you'd have to hop on the time machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and go all the way back to 1900, a Pittsburgh team comprised of folks with curly mustaches and sissy knickers pounded the pepper out their Cubs competitors.

The press seemed to be really concerned with A-Rod and Babyface Jeter's reactions after the game. But what about Kevin Brown, all 10-4 up in this bitch, breaking his hand in a fit of frustration two nights ago and jeopardizing the rest of his season? It's as hard to comprehend as Steinbrenner's post-game motivational schtick where he likened the plight of the Yankees to the plight of New York after the events of September 11, 2001.

Barring a spectacular collapse, the Yankees will at least qualify for a Wild Card spot. Minnesota and Oakland appear to have it locked up in the other divisions, but the Yankees-Red Sox dogfight is the only race that matters in the AL right now. As of this writing, the Yankees are 5-5 in their last 10 games, while Ben Affleck's team has cruised to a 9-1 record. What part does momentum play? It's huge if you've ever played Def Jam Vendetta. The Yanks lead has crumbled to 2.5 games in the AL East; similar records over the next 10 could flip-flop the standings and have the Sox pull ahead.

My pal Albert likes to say that rooting for the Red Sox is a vain and hopeless pursuit because the Red Sox try to parry and thrust along with all of the Yankees' moves and they're still not good enough to beat the Yankees. Steinbrenner was right, though: the Yankees are the City of New York's problem. Boston's 8-5 record against the team that broke Scrooge MacDuck's bank vault? 8-5. No problem.

2004-08-27T07:41:00.000-05:00

Indie rock and baseball

Had hoped to post more this month -- I've had a post on what the Dodgers' deadline moves mean for the pitching staff for the rest of the season floating around my head for the past week -- but you know how it goes in the world of blogging. Personal life always gets in the way. Rough week. Anyway, this is what folks in the "industry" like to call "filler" -- a little stop-gap post to keep the juices flowing until I can sit down and get, like, thoughtful and shit.

Since I've spent the past week doing nothing but listening to CDs (it's a job and a lifestyle, I guess), I've been thinking a lot about a 7" record I picked up in college by Barbara Manning called The Baseball Trilogy. I think it's out of print at the moment, which is a pity. Manning is a huge baseball fan: the cover of her record One Perfect Green Blanket depicts and refers to a baseball diamond and Manning named her longtime band SF Seals in honor of Joltin' Joe DiMaggios very first pro team. The Baseball Trilogy, in particular, is a real treat: I have a soft spot for it because she devotes one of the songs to my favorite ball player of all time.

Just got word from my "sources" that noted crank Steve Albini (the guy that produced, er, recorded Nirvana and the Pixies and...everything) TiVos "Baseball Tonight" while he's in the studio and watches it obsessively. That didn't surprise me too much, when I recalled the Albini's band Shellac did a baseball-themed tour in support of their 1994 record At Action Park. This one got me, though: Gerard Cosloy, proprietor of Matador Records, has been working incognito on a sports blog with a heavy baseball emphasis. Interesting in hearing what the guy who signed Liz Phair and Pavement and Cat Power has to say about Steve Kline or the latest foibles of the Mets? You betcha.

2004-08-20T01:14:00.000-05:00

More fun with the OBR

Nothing more to add to the topic of OBR 9.01(c), but no discussion of the Official Baseball Rulebook would be complete without digging into OBR 8.02( b) -- especially after Julian Tavarez got booted from a game for his very dirty hat. Hey, what's on that hat anyway? Could it be pine tar...? Tavarez denies it, of course, and says that it's simply dirt from him touching the cap after each pitch. But the article I linked to has umpire crew chief Joe West saying that Tavarez and Tony LaRussa "admitting" that it was pine tar. Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon is no bad guy for calling him out on it -- Bobby Cox and Larry Bowa have made the same complaints this season -- and it ain't like he's the first guy to fuck with his pitches.

OBR 8.02 (b) doesn't get employed that much either, but it sure breeds controversy when it does. Here's the full 8.02 rule for context:

The pitcher shall not(a) (6) deliver what is called the "shine" ball, "spit" ball, "mud" ball or "emery" ball. The pitcher, of course, is allowed to rub the ball between his bare hands. PENALTY: For violation of any part of this rule 8.02 (a) (2 to 6) the umpire shall: (a) Call the pitch a ball, warn the pitcher and have announced on the public address system the reason for the action. (b) In the case of a second offense by the same pitcher in the same game, the pitcher shall be disqualified from the game(e) The umpire shall be sole judge on whether any portion of this rule has been violated.

And the billowy structure of the rule extends to anything a pitcher might have on his person or in his possession -- basically, any foreign substance is cause for immediate ejection. Consider Expos starter Zach Day, who got booted from a game last year after it was discovered that he had used krazy glue to cover a blister on his pitching hand. The bone of contention with the Day example last year was whether he was actually trying to put anything on his pitches with a substance that's sold on the basis of his quick-drying properties. Probably not; pitchers putting glue on their fingers/hands to cover sores/cuts is a common enough practice. But someone on the field complained, prompting a decision from the umpire crew, forcing the invocation of OBR 8.02(b). And if you don't agree with that decision, our old phantom friend OBR 9.01(c), justifies the ruling just as well.

In Julian Tavarez's case, the fact that he's such a sensitive guy probably doesn't help.

2004-08-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

Five-finger discount, man

I missed it the first time around on the ESPN homepage, but just discovered that Tim Kurkijan wrote a fine overview on the art of stealing signs, including interviews with Jimmy Leyland and Paul Molitor and yet another hilarious Rickey Henderson anecdote. Tom Candiotti wrote a companion piece from the pitcher's perspective, but I haven't had a chance to compare and contrast; if anyone has ESPN Insider access, lemme know.

This article from the August 2002 issue of Baseball Digest delves more deeply into the ethics of stealing signs. And Paul Dickson wrote a whole book on the subject called The Hidden Language of Baseball, which looks like a must-read. So: legal or no? Hadn't considered it much before, though I know there's nothing specific in the Official Baseball Rulebook that covers this area. The only red flag the rulebook raises is OBR 9.01(c): Each umpire has authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in these rules. I'm guessing that this rule hasn't been enforced in regards to stealing signs, but I think it's so strange in principle: it offers umpires an opportunity to be the moral arbiters on anything that isn't explicitly covered within the rulebook AND a perfect escape clause should they run into any trouble.

2004-08-15T07:53:00.000-05:00

All Greek to me

Haven't watched a lick of the Olympics yet, though I was already aware that the American team got downed by Mexico in a qualifying tournament in November and won't be participating in Athens -- the reason Roger Clemens is in an Astros uniform right now. You can't count Cuba out, but Japan ought to be the favorite for the gold medal after narrowly failing to capture a Bronze in 2000: Japanese professional baseball is on virtual hiatus this month and the Olympic team's now stocked with the best of the best with an all-pro line-up. Remember, the Japanese national team destroyed the Americans during the last MLB goodwill tour of Japan. Canada has a fair shot at something shiny, too.

Former Mets manager Davy Johnson (who's helping coach the Dutch team this year) was pretty upset about the exclusion of the U.S. team during this CNN/SI interview: "We're the leaders in pro baseball and you'd love have the U.S. players in it...It's kind of sad."

Fair enough, but them's the breaks. And the Greek team (who gained an automatic berth as the Olympic host) might as well be the American team. Organized baseball in Greece is a reasonably new development, and the country's still toying with an amateur league; in a funky twist, U.S. players claiming Greek ancestry were invited to join the team as ringers and only two members of the final squad are Greeks actually living in Greece. Of course, invite the Americans to join your squad and you've got to be prepared for a doping scandal: two members of the team have already tested positive for banned substances. And there was some danger that the Greek team wouldn't be able to make it back to Greece from a shortage of funds. And don't forget that the team's original manager died and had to be replaced.

And baseball doesn't exactly breed the fanatical devotion of, say, soccer: you're not going to see people waking up early or staying out late to go to the local sports bar and go to work all bleary-eyed and mealy-mouthed just to catch a match. You might tune in to the final medal match on August 25th and the respectable time of 1:00pm eastern, but after a series of tournament games at 3:30am and 4:30am, why bother?

Looks like our swim teams are pretty decent, though.

2004-08-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Ken Griffey, Jr. Timeline

2/6/05: Kicked in groin by enraged fantasy baseball team owner who fell out of the money during the 2004 season resulting in minor bruising and loss of dignity.

3/1/05: Strains right hamstring in charity kickball event, misses all of spring training.

3/6/05: Allergic reaction to cortisone shot.

6/1/05: Chafes skin from overly starched uniform in first game back.

7/15/05: Tears right hamstring once again after All-Star break, out for season.

9/27/05: Hamstring replaced in world's first human hamstring transplant.

12/24/05: Gets food poisoning from fruitcake that Davy Concepcion gave to father on Christmas Day, 1975.

6/1/06: Long-rumored trade for Phil Nevin is completed during Cincinnati-San Diego match. Both players lost for season after game after simultaneously tearing rotator cuffs by giving each other a hi-five on the walk to the other dugout.

9/7/06: Accidentally sits on piping hot churro while watching NLCS from stands, sears left thigh

1/15/07: Takes son to offseason vacation at Disneyland. Enters Hall of Presidents and is actually shot with animatronic bullet by Alexander Hamilton statue.

6/1/07: Leads all players in home runs during months of April + May. Excessive praise from the press requires Joe Morgan's lips to be surgically removed from his butthole.

7/8/07: Late-night meal at Jack-in-the-Box requires quarantine for smallpox, ends season.

10/1/07: Begins to feel violent, irrepressible impulses. Sealed records reveal hamstring donor to have been serial murderer convicted to death in 2005.

11/1/07: Team physicians concoct plan to "rebuild him and make him stronger," replace evil hamstring with bionic hamstring.

2/06/08: Gets fitted for orthotics to compensate for limp from bionic hamstring.

4/9/08: Imbalance from orthotics and bionic hamstring aggravate vertigo.

7/1/08: Spirits from Native American burial ground under house angered by poor fantasy league baseball team position, curse him with insomnia.

8/30/08: Finishes season leading league in HBP after getting beaned approximately 117 times after falling asleep at plate.

10/22/08: Officially retires from MLB

7/23/13: Hoists Cooperstown plaque high in the air while exclaiming "Holy shit, I can't believe I held on this long!" during first-ballot Hall of Fame induction, placed on disabled list for entire body sprain.

....welcome back, kid.

2004-08-11T09:38:00.000-05:00

J'accuse!

I want to recant something I wrote way back in May when I was lightly sparring with a non-plussed post my homey Gobo wrote on the proposed MLB/ Spider-Man tie-in that got squashed after much public outcry. Gobo's point was that stuff like this might make economic sense as a way of keeping ticket prices down -- and that it's already happening in other professional leagues throughout the world anyway. Here's what I wrote then:

But there's a huge, huge disconnect between what happens off and on the field within the microcosm of the professional sports area -- you could (with some effort) tune out the advertising that's all around you and simply concentrate on what's happening on the field, though that's an impossibility if your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has left his sticky fingers all over 1st, 2nd and 3rd base...I don't like the idea of paying 20 bucks to see a game and having to be subjected to MLB teams padding their coffers in such an overt and repellent way.

Here I was two months ago, accusing Gobo of making a reductive argument -- and then something happened at the White Sox game last night that totally blew my argument out of the water. See, I'm totally inured to stuff like the "Cingular Wireless Call to the Pen" -- before US Cellular grabbed the naming rights to the stadium, Cingular actually paid money to have an annoying cell phone ring pipe through the speakers whenever a pitcher got the hook. Fine. And the Connie's Pizza race (which, I should point out, is always more popular than the game on the field)? Yeah, ok.

But they actually projected a fucking advertisement for Frosted Flakes on the jumbotron last night, in which Tony the Tiger led a group of young children on a training regimen, set to a jingle with a throbbing, hypnotic pulse. Nevermind the fact that the phrase "You can be a Tiger!" should never be uttered outside of Commerica Park -- Tony the Tiger is assembling his own Hitler Youth Brigade! An advertisement on the jumbotron? Not even tangentially related to baseball? Boo. Forget what I said -- bring on the advertising on the bases.

On the other hand, my companions Mark A. and Shawn (well, mostly Mark) were surprised to find out that US Cellular leads all parks in home runs this season. Yep, US Cellular even has a slight edge on Coors Field: teams have combined for 178 home runs on Chicago's South Side, as opposed to 176 in the oxygen-deprived Colorado air. Dunno what's doing it -- though air seems to circulate strangely in US Cellular -- but balls are leaping off bats at an amazing rate. Joe Crede, Carlos Lee and Paul Konerko all hit commanding blasts into the outfield stands last night; Da Sox now have six regulars (not including monsters Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez, mind you) with 14+ home runs on the season, a line-up that compares very favorably to the Yanks' $200 million albatross.

2004-08-07T18:42:00.000-05:00

Ham 'n' eggs

Celebrated Greg Maddux's 300th career victory with a late lunch of ham and eggs at the local diner, or maybe it was the other way around and Mr. Maddux just wanted to make my lunch special. Either way, the win and the lunch were one and the same: a workmanlike creation that sits ok and gets the job done. Nothing special. No frills. 83 pitches and a couple of close calls -- Maddux had a little too much grease on pitches thrown to Edgardo Alfonzo and A.J. Pierzynski in the 3rd inning.

But Maddux gets the notch in his belt; he's now the first National League pitcher to reach the milestone since Steve Carlton did in 1983. Did it almost as fast as Roger Clemens, too -- in his 594th career start -- and it'll be a long time before we see another 300 game winner in the bigs. The next-closest pitcher, Tom Glavine, has 259 career victories -- but he's 38 and has only won a combined 17 games in his last two seasons. Glavine has won 20 or more games in a season 5 times in his career; he'd have to do it twice in a row to go the distance. Randy Johnson's 40 and still has 241 career victories -- and is also coming off a career-low 2003 win total.

Sure, plenty of 300-gamer Hall of Famers -- Sutton, Seaver, Niekro, Perry -- have pitched reasonably effectively beyond 40, but Maddux's career is pretty special. Of course, no one's preparing a ticker-tape parade through the city or anything like that because everyone expected him to get there and the Cooperstone plaque was etched years ago. But I'd be awed to see anyone reach 300 again in my lifetime, not that more careers in the vein of Jim Palmer are anything to sneeze at. S'ok, too.

2004-08-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

No scrubs

Generally speaking, it's just like Left Eye, Chili and T-Boz said: I don't want no Cubs, a Cub is a guy that can't get no love from me. Don't like 'em, never will -- and the longer I stay in Chi-town, the more tired I get of constantly looking at their dead-beat pinstriped asses. But I'm genuinely feeling sorry for Todd Wellemeyer this week, because he got demoted to AAA Iowa to open a roster spot for rehabbing n'er-do-well Ryan Dempster. Wellemeyer hurt his chances this year by going on the DL with a right groin strain, but did everything right since his return. In limited work this season, he has shown flashes of brilliance:

12 g/ 16ip/ 11h/ 4r/ 14bb/ 18k/ 10.13 k/9 /1-0 W-L/ .196 BAA/ 1.56 WHIP/ 2.25 ERA

I've highighted the trouble spots -- walks and ratio -- but everything else is solid for the small sample size. And I'd like to add the caveat that he pitched a lot of junk innings, because sparing work didn't let him get into a groove and he just wasn't Dusty Baker's go-to guy. Tough call, but the guy Baker kept in his place, Jon Leicester endeared himself as the Cubs best middle reliever in July with 2 wins and 2 holds. His seasonal stats in limited work are pretty good, too:

14 g/ 19.2ip/ 14h/ 4r/ 3bb/ 16k/ 7.32 k/9 / 3-0 W-L/ .194 BAA/ 0.86 WHIP/ 1.83 ERA

And besides the obvious edge in walks and ratio and wins, what the stats (at least the ones I've picked out to showcase) don't tell you is that Leicester has been a much more economical pitcher so far. Wellemeyer tossed 338 pitches in 16 innings for an average of 21.1 pitches per inning. Leicester threw 299 pitches over 19 2/3 innings for an average of 15.2 pitches per inning. It's a substantial enough difference that I don't doubt Baker's move. Wellemeyer does all his shopping at K-Mart, but Leicester comes correct with the pitch location.

There are, however, two-million reasons Ryan Dempster's back up in the majors. No idea how he'll work out -- he served up a hit and a walk in 2/3 of an inning in his first appearance since coming off the DL -- but the Cubs brass seems to think he'll be able to sub for LaTroy Hawkins to close out games. Well, actually: Dempster has a 5.00+ ERA in 964 career innings -- enough of a sample size to determine, unequivocally, that he absolutely blows. And Dempster fancies himself to be a lot better than he has proven to be so far, mouthing off in the press about how he's not interested in pitching in that role. So yes, I'd much rather see Wellemeyer pitching in middle relief until he falls flat -- even if the rookie doesn't have the intangible of veteran hoo-doo mystique in his favor.

2004-08-02T18:49:00.000-05:00

Fuzzy Math

I was planning on withholding comment on the flurry of late-July deadline deals entirely, since I played with matches and got burned by pronouncing Richard Hidalgo a turd. All the guy did in July was hit at a .294 clip (with an excellent 1.017 OPS!) with a home run every 10 at-bats. Of course, Hidalgo decided to turn it on and impress his suitors at a time where nearly everyone else on the team switched off the lights to take a long nap. It's not Hidalgo's fault that the team has gone 18-20 since his acquisition and hasn't moved an inch in the standings.

I wasn't off the mark, I think, with questioning the direction of the Mets in making this move -- especially when a significant payroll boost is concerned with a guy who isn't exactly Carlos Beltran. But I already said my piece on that, which is why I'll refrain from commenting on the Benson and Zambrano deals, except to say that a) the Mets didn't improve their team a lick, and b) gosh, I hope they loose money hand over fist this season.

The thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is all of the Dodgers moves at the deadline. There's no doubt that the Marlins improved themselves with their moves. Jayson Stark anoints The Fish as the biggest winners in his latest column, and I'm in complete agreement with his sentiment. They addressed their two biggest needs with catcher Paul LoDuca (replacing fast-starter Mike Redmond) and top-notch reliever Guillermo Mota, a guy who has the tools to fill in for Benitez while he's on the disabled list. Ismael Valdez doesn't offset the lost of Brad Penny, but Heep Sop Choi for Juan Encarnacion (who might turn it around in the familiar confines of Pro Player) is mostly a wash, and the Marlins can go far enough with the front four in their rotation. Plus, the Dodgers gave them money to take LoDuca off their hands. Wha....?

I'm going to side with Stark's view -- that GM Paul DePodesta tried to fit too many puzzle pieces into place at the deadline -- of the Dodgers as the deadline's biggest belly-floppers, as well. No Randy Johnson, no Charles Johnson, Howard Johnson isn't coming out of retirement...DePodesta got his johnson caught in his own zipper. The Beane school of three-way trades really only works when you get all parties together with a conditional agreement, and there was no way L.A. would give up what it needed to get to maybe kinda sorta get The Big Unit in Dodger Blue. Steve Finley's an upgrade over Encarnacion, no doubt, and Penny's playoff experience will be great if the Dodgers hold on until October.

But any team that's trotting out Hideo Nomo (3-10, 8.06 era, 14 starts) and/or Kazuhisa Ishii (1.50 whip, 21 starts) on a regular basis needs someone to pitch the 8th. And if Peter Gammons could stop for a second to wipe that brown spot off his nose, he'd realize how scary it is that the Dodgers just sent situational lefty Tom Martin and unhittable flamethrower Guillermo Mota (who led all Dodgers relievers in innings pitched) packing.

So Darren Dreifort stepped into the role on Saturday...and blew the save. He acquitted himself yesterday by picking up the save after Eric Gagne tossed three scoreless innings, but damn, it's a leap of faith to put so much trust in a guy with a bionic elbow. I like Duaner Sanchez a lot, but it's not like the Dodgers have a deep well of live arms like, say, the Cubs (more on them later this week) to throw out there. Gagne hasn't pitched 3 innings since 2002; if he's Superman, the Dodgers rotation is green kryptonite.

2004-07-29T21:55:00.000-05:00

Mea maxima culpa

We've slashed prices on everything at the end of the month! Get a gently-worn 2004 blog at a discount price before the new 2005 model rolls in! This blog is worth $1.15 per share on the open market! No serious offer will be refused! Act now and you can have my 7th place rotisserie team thrown in as an extra bonus! I'll send you a fabulous set of steak knives! You can have the Omar Moreno commemorative statue that my father just gave me! The 'fro sculpt would make Oscar Gamble green with envy!

And if you act right now, Mr. Anthony Darrell Womack, I will even throw in an apology. Because after watching Braves SS Rafael Furcal misplay two more grounders (pushing his error total for the season to 18!), I know understand that I willfully underestimated what you've done for the Cardinals this season. I know that shortstop is a much harder position defensively (Jack Wilson, who consistently makes amazing plays, has 10 errors this year), but your 8 errors on the season isn't terrible. All that shit I said about hyperbole when I dissected that AP Wire profile line-by-line? I was straight up hating. And I clearly owe you the aforementioned Omar Moreno statue, because I just realized the strangest thing: you and he are exactly the same player.

2004-07-27T23:11:00.000-05:00

We believe

Mr. Clutch Rob Mackowiak shined as the Pirates rolled to a 8-4 victory over the Braves tonight, proof that his wife doesn't need to be delivering babies for him to come up big at the plate. Still, Atlanta catcher Johnny Estrada -- who was his usual monster self in the batting box -- ought to have been voted the game's #1 star for a series of teeth-clenching gaffes that sealed the victory for the Pirates. The seventh inning, in particular, was one of the strangest baseball things I've ever had the opportunity to see in person:

Paul Byrd gives up two singles to Bobby Hill and Abraham Nunez and gets yanked in favor of reliever Kevin Gryboski. Kendall gets on base with a clean single. Jack Wilson comes up next with a dismal grounder, but SS Rafael Furcal bungles the play (and gets charged with the inning's first error) as Hill scores and the bases are loaded. Up next: Rob Mackowiak. A chorus of fans chanting "grand slam! grand slam!," praying for some of his patented late-inning heroics. And then Mackowiak drives a fastball to left field. It's on the warning track! It could be his third slam of the season! But...it drops down for what looks like a double. Nunez scores, Kendall scores. Then Wilson slides across the plate and Mackowiak moves to third while Estrada mishandles the relay throw, and then -- miraculously -- the ball pops out of Estrada's hands towards the Pirates' dugout and Mackowiak scores.

Final damage: Estrada gets charged with one error (he also allows a run to score on a passed ball later in the 8th) and Mackowiak gets three rbi with his not-really-an-inside-the-park-home-run-but-too-strange-to-be-an-average-double trip to the plate. To quote Family Guy Peter Griffin: "It was freakin' sweet." I should also mention that the Pirates are now 48-50 for the season, hovering around the marks of "wild-card contenders" like Houston, the Mets and the Marlins. All this after falling to 15 games under .500 just a month ago. July has totally been Pittsburgh's bitch.

2004-07-24T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hate the players, love the game

Hmm. Three posts that reference the Astros, Cubs and the Cardinals all in a row, and my Pirates bias has been exercised more than I'd care to admit. I'm in a NL Central kinda mood with a trip to the eighth wonder of the world in my near future. Should I tune into WKRP and try to make a clean sweep? Nah...wouldn't want to spill a precious drop of virtual ink on the Big Red Boredom Machine.

In the meantime, meet my new favorite writer. So: working for peanuts or selling peanuts for work?

2004-07-24T07:41:00.000-05:00

Slow news day

You may have missed it yesterday, sandwiched in between workmanlike headlines that read "Ruth's Historic Bat on Display in Cleveland" [about an upcoming auction of one of the Babe's bats] and "Big Tex: Not an All-Star, but huge for the Rangers," [about Mark Texiera's fine season] but occasionally something interesting seeps through the ESPN news wire that doesn't get any play on the front page of the site. In this case, I'm thinking about this AP News Wire softball, which discusses how valuable free agent pick-up Tony Womack has been to the Cardinals this season.

The unattributed author goes to great lengths to rationalize and explain -- and at times, offer apologies for -- Womack's stats this season. This isn't a criticism of Womack per se; in truth, he's been a lucky pick-up, a bargain, and probably LaRussa's best option in the lead-off slot. But the language in the piece is a little loaded:

Despite a 2-for-26 slump since the All-Star break, he is batting .299 with a slap stroke and a patient eye that has produced an on-base percentage of .351.

Uh oh. Is Womack falling apart? Like a lot of speedy guys, he always catches fire before the All-Star break and trails off after. The OBP is wayyyyy better than career average (and better than a lot of the guys who bat behind him), but I'd be nervous if the Cardinals' ultimate fate was tied into Womack's, ahem, patient eye.

Womack got off to a blazing start with three steals in the opener and seven by April 20. He said his modest count since is irrelevant, blaming the decline on pitchers' quicker moves to the plate.

Ok, well, Womack has only had 7 steals in the last three months. No one on the Cards is stealing all that much -- it's not the game they're playing now, though LaRussa could revert to a traditional hit-and-run if he chose. His success rate is around .800, which is fine, but "quicker moves to the plate"? That's strange. Womack is on pace for 24 steals, which is consistent with the numbers he put up in his last two seasons with Arizona, and what he might've amassed in a full-time role last season. The guy's also 34, which is past prime for a break-out season, suggesting his fastest days are behind him.

Womack said [he's] getting stronger "by the week" and he's determined not to let it affect his game, even though he's bounced a lot of double-play relays to first.

Defense is a concern, which is why the Pirates dumped him on Arizona for next to nothing, and why Womack found himself in three unis last season. Womack's fielding percentage has always been below league average, and he has 8 errors on the season -- not so good. I'm also willing to bet that some of Albert Pujols' 7 errors relate to Womack's misplays in the field.

Cardinals fans seem to have eased off of Womack's case since the start of the season, because Womack has played a huge role in keep the House of Cards together. Still, he's a part-time player exceeding expectations in a full-time role. I see "Cecil Espy," while Tony LaRussa sees "The ESPYs." Dusty Baker, take note: he could've been yours. Watch out for falling concrete.

2004-07-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

New boss = same as old boss

The folks in Chicago are almost ready to give up on the Cubs; Mark Prior's protracted -- and very mysterious -- arm fatigue is a (no pun intended) sore point, and no one on the team seems to be able to stay healthy for long. Barring an acquisition of Nomar Garciaparra or, more likely, Orlando Cabrera (rumored, but he's been awful this season) to shore up the middle infield, it's not looking like the Cubbies will have a repeat of last season's excitement. Oh, the ballpark is still crowded as hell and tensions run high whenever the Cardinals are in town, but as of this writing, they're 10 games behind St. Louis in the enigmatic NL Central, playing a game of one steps forward, one step back while sandwiched between surprise teams Milwaukee and Cincinnati. And maybe it's just the native Pittsburgher in me talking here, but the Bucs have been the best team in the NL Central in the month of July and, well, the Cubs are the only team in the division who don't look like they're trying.

Over on the other side of the city, just south of Chinatown and west of Mayor Daley's palatal manor, the city's red-headed stepchildren the White Sox are in the midst of a pennant race. The AL Central's pretty mediocre, too: here in the Midwest, we don't get excited about anything too easily. It's frustrating pinning your allegiances on the Sox sometimes; no one expects the Cubs to do anything in this lifetime as long as the ghost goat is reinforcing the curse and braying behind the ivy. But the Sox -- well, they've had three 1st place finishes since 1993 (compared to the Cubs only one last year) and -- though looks can be deceiving -- have finished in second place six other times. So the talent has always been there to, at least, tease.

This year, though, it's a great pennant race -- and I'd implore anyone reading this in Chicago to forget about the Scrubs (they also have beer in U.S. Cellular Field) and throw support to the White Stockings. They need it, and they're actually in a dog fight with Minnesota for the lead. As of the current writing, the Twins are 0.5 games up in the standings; no doubt, next week's Mon-Tue-Wed series in Chi will have a leveling effect. Still, some problems: Magglio Ordonez is still out and Big Frank's down for two months with a foot injury -- that's the two biggest guns out of the line-up and you've got problems. Chicago's 9-9 since acquiring Freddy Garcia (who's 2-1 with a 3.38 era for July so far), too -- an indicator that they've got the pitching for the playoffs, but need a hitting boost to float through August and September.

To that end, Kenny Williams recently dipped into his endless bag of (generally mediocre) pitching prospects and reacquired gloomy gus Carl Everett (who hasn't reacquired his stroke) for some dude named Gary Majewski and the tallest player in major league history, Jon Rauch. Montreal needed to clear Everett's $7.5 mil/ 2 yr contract off the books, and all of the Sox players seem to be excited about the acquisition -- but what to realistically think about the team's chances from here on out? Three factors seem to be in Chicago's favor: first, Minnesota has a surplus of talent to reconfigure the team with trades, but the front office has zero balls. Next, the White Sox have the best W-L record in their division (16-8 to Minnesota's 25-22). And the other intangible? Scheduling.

ESPN's Buster Olney on the White Sox: "Twenty-six of their last 74 games are against sub-.500 teams, and eight of their last 11 games are against the Royals -- a chance for a late-season feast."

ESPN's Buster Olney on the Twins: "They have 35 games left against teams with records of .500 or better, second most in AL, and fewest home games remaining among AL contenders."

I love me some Minnesota, too. Ron Gardenhire is the most underrated manager in MLB, and the team has an impressive talent pipeline from the minors. Still, this year it's the first round of the playoffs for the Sox. I think. I hope. Crack open the magic Old Style and make it happen, Ozzie.

2004-07-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

Smackdown!

Jimmy Williams became the second MLB manager to get the ax this season, after Arizona skipper Bob Brenly got the boot earlier in July. In both cases, additional changes were made to support and justify the moves: pitching coach Chuck Kniffin and bench coach Robin Yount (who resigned out of loyalty) joined Brenly on his extended vacation, while the Astros gave pitching coach Burt Hooton and hitting coach Harry Spilman their walking papers, too. It's a step up from the drastic purge last year, when 6 guys faced the firing squad before the All-Star break -- leading to Jack McKeon's appointment and magnificent finish with the Marlins...and not a whole lot else. Unsatisfactory records prompted the Williams and Brenly moves, though I think impatience and unreasonable expectations had a lot more to do with it than managerial incompetence.

In the case of Brenly, he compiled a 303-262 record (and tell me that doesn't bear an eerie resemblance to knuckleballer Phil Niekro's career numbers) in 3 1/2 seasons with the Diamondbacks, including a World Series victory in 2001 and a playoff run in 2002. Brenly didn't do much in 2003 with a 3rd place finish and seemed to get called on the carpet for a series of questionable calls, but success spoils you, doesn't it? Richie Sexson's season-ending injury (after the D-backs traded a handful of major-league level players to Milwaukee) really signaled the death knell for Brenly: the team just couldn't put it together this year and puttered to a 29-50 record at the time of his dismissal. Really quite bad. And managers almost never have the luxury of working through a slump. Well, actually, there is an exception to that rule -- but we'll get there in a second.

In the case of Williams, he replaced Larry Dierker, whose Houston teams made the playoffs in 4 of his 5 seasons as manager and got dumped in a year (2001) the team went 93-69, simply because he couldn't light a fire under his players' asses to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. Williams was not the guy to replace Dierker, especially if the agenda in Houston was to go out and grab the jewel-crusted World Series ring. His Toronto (1986-88) and Boston (1997-2001) put together respectable enough records, but never made it past 2nd place in their respective divisions. Except, of course, when Williams was fired mid-season in 1989 and Cito Gaston engineered a turn-around and top finish for the Jays. Williams isn't the guy to take you to the playoffs -- he's the guy you fire to motivate the players to get there.

Back to the exception to the rule -- which I like to call the Phil Garner Rule: managers will have the luxury of working through a slump if there is an awareness that they don't have the resources to succeed. Garner, a universally well-liked guy, went 563 -617 in eight seasons with the Brewers between 1992-1999, with only one season (his first) above .500. Add two more in Detroit in 2000 and 2001 when -- this is very important, so I'm going to italicize it -- the teams had no reasonable expectation of contending and Garner cruised to 3rd and 4th place finishes. I love Lloyd McClendon so much that his name's the subject of this blog, but do you ever wonder why he's been allowed to continue to manage the Pirates this long? The Phil Garner Rule, of course. The same rule has just been invoked by Arizona; Brenly's replacement Al Pedrique is 2-9 since taking over the job and it would take a minor miracle for the Diamondbacks not to punt on the season entirely and move into rapid rebuilding mode. At the very least, Randy Johnson and Steve Finley will be gone -- so we know Pedrique's job will be safe for awhile.

Oddly enough, the Phil Garner Rule even applies to the hiring of Phil Garner as the interim manager in Houston -- even though there's an emphasis on winning NOW, a ton of older players on 1 year contracts on the team and Drayton McLane rented Carlos Beltran expressly for a pennant drive. See, if Garner can't lead the slumping Astros to the playoffs, it's not his fault. He won't be back as the Astros manager, but it certainly won't be his fault. And if he puts it all together and kicks the Astros in the high gear, he's a light version of Jack McKeon; the media is beating the "Garner was saddled with bad teams before, lets see what he can do with talent" drum an uncomfortable amount. Not sure what's up in Houston; between the Killer Bs -- Biggio, Beltran, Bagwell and Berkman -- and the Clemens/Miller/Pettite/Oswalt rotation, they should be able to stomp on the competition. I think people certainly want Garner to succeed -- we feel sorry for his Milwaukee-Detroit experiences because he's a likeable guy and a player's manager (as is Pedrique, who was well loved in AAA Tuscon). And maybe, if Prior's elbow doesn't heal and Milwaukee and Cincy stop surprising and the Cardinals stop snorting fancy pixie dust to get that high in the standings, Phil Garner might even be an exception to his own rule.

2004-07-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

Non-Thinking Fellers Union Local #282

Dear Bob, your greatness is undeniable, but would you please take a cue from Dick Cheney and kindly shut the fuck up?

2004-07-10T19:45:00.000-05:00

Hey pervert!

Yes, you. As in: The one who came to this site after doing a web search for "wife of MLB player with tits." Don't you know it's wrong to objectify women based solely on their physical attributes? Anyway, since I can't finger the culprit by doing a web search for "random time-waster with limp penis," I might as well give you what you want. You might be talking about Kris Benson's wife, a model who's been in the news lately for making the Yankees front office wary of trading for her husband because of fears that she'll continue to discuss her wonderful sex life (and that of other players' wives) on the radio. But, nah, you're dirty. You're looking for images to fill out your virtual stroke book. You, my callous reader, hunger for a shot of Jose Lima's wife, who was later cropped out of this image on MLB's website after a spike in network traffic. There. And wipe the keyboard down when you're done, ok, pal?

2004-07-09T19:01:00.000-05:00

And it don't stop...

One Man Band takes a break from studying for the bar exam to kick out his AL and NL All-Star Roster predictions. Scroll down to the 7/3 and 7/4 posts and see how he did. Damn well, I think -- he certainly got into a Joe Torre mindset by nailing all the Yankees and fingering all the (at that point) probable exclusions. I admire this, because I'm terrible at these kinds of predictions; I'm pretty psyched to read his take on the All-Star game. Pretty soon, his word will be legal, you know.

ESPN Classic is offering a nice warm-up for the upcoming festivities with this list of All-Star contests from 1933-2003. I know I'm not being fair towards expansion and all that, but it strikes me that things have become very bloated with the mid-season classic in the modern era. The rosters have practically doubled since the game's inception. Teams of 18 squared off in 1933, while teams of 34 duked it out last year. Even with the surplus of players, everyone didn't make it into the game in 2002, the year of the infamous overtime tie in Miller Park.

For more comprehensive coverage, definitely check out what's cookin' on mlb.com. Rosters are there, as well as box scores for every contest, mini-recaps, detailed information on injury replacements, and all manner of assorted esoterica-- like this list of all the All-Star rookie starters, as well as the answer to the following question: how many countries have been represented in the All-Star game? Hint: it's more than you'd think (answer posted in comments section).

I have two requests for this year's game. First, please please please let the NL All-Stars win. Yet another AL victory does nothing to promote the world outside of the Yankess and Red Sox, and the NL has the pitching this year to do it. Next, please consider a return to using pitching more judiciously. No more 2 inning starts followed by seven tense innings of sloppy relief. Both sides got through with three pitchers pitching 3 innings each way back in '33. All the NL needs is Clemens, Schmidt and Johnson to throw heat. I'm not holding my breath for either; Christmas (i.e. how everyone else spells "Hanukkah") doesn't come in July.

2004-07-07T20:43:00.000-05:00

Now, not never

Bobby Abreu finally made it to the All-Star Game in his ninth season as internet voting closed on the final two All-Star selections this evening. 2 million people wanted to see Abreu represent the NL for the first time in his career, and there's at least 2 million reasons why Abreu's the right choice. Hell, I voted for Abreu six times, one for every year he's been snubbed so far -- though I did have some misgivings. Aramis Ramirez, currently batting .326 with 15hr and 56rbi, might've been a strong choice for this year, too; his contributions to the Cubs' offense this year (Dusty Baker has called him the "cornerstone" of the club) are undeniable, and he murdered the ball during the team's pennant run last year. In a just world, he would have made the roster, too (he was neck-and-neck with Abreu in voting yesterday). But in a just world, Barry Larkin wouldn't have been voted in as the starting shortstop this year and Abreu would've gotten his propers long ago.

So back to the man of the hour. Beginning in 1998, when Abreu established himself as a starter in his first season with the Phillies, any of his seasons could've been considered All-Star worthy. He's hit at a .300 clip or better in 5 of those 6 seasons, and has never missed more than 11 games in any of those seasons. In 2001, when his average dipped to .289, he played in all 162 games of the season and ranked top-10 in runs, walks, stolen bases, extra base hits, doubles and sacrifice flies. He got on base less (the only time his OBP has dipped below .400), but compensated with better power numbers.

Before today, Bobby Abreu had the distinction of being the best baseball player never to be included on an All-Star roster. I'm sure he's happy to not have that albatross hanging around his neck anymore. But despite his monstrous stats, Abreu also has the misfortune of being a mercurial player. He always finishes strong at the end of the season, but has a reputation for being frustratingly streaky. A choker. A difficult presence on the field. Undisciplined. Every year, there's a report out of Philly that proclaims that the fans are "tiring of his slack attitude." Sure, the Philly fans give their stars no quarter -- a friend of mine took issue with Scott Rolen in 2001 (in the midst of a fine season) for "only hitting home runs when it doesn't count." Pat Burrell's gotta be happy that he's not the locus of frustrations this year. The only guy who gets it worse than Larry Bowa year in, year out is Abreu. He isa slow starter, but so is Jim Thome.

In the end, it's not sentiment that prevails with the Abreu selection. He's in the midst of his greatest campaign yet with a .301 average, 17hr and 57rbi -- putting him on pace to eclipse previous highs for home runs and driving runs in. His OPS is the highest it has ever been (1.010 -- compare to Moises Alou's .850 this season) and he's getting on base at a torrid pace, suggesting he'll trump his highest runs scored total, as well. Even more importantly, he's 17-for-18 in stolen base attempts. Abreu is lighting on the base paths, but he also gets thrown out a lot and his efficiency rate in that department has traditionally hovered between 50-75%. But he's getting on and staying on...and now he's in. And to all the fans in Houston who stuffed the ballot box to make this happen, the check's in the mail.

2004-07-06T18:01:00.000-05:00

Simply the best/ Simplement le meilleur

Tim Kurkjian weighed in with his thoughts on Eric Gagne's save streak last week and I couldn't have disagreed more. I was with Kurkjian when he was comparing and contrasting with Orel Hershiser's herculean 59 consecutive scoreless inning streak in '88, but got soured on the piece when he drew Joe DiMaggio and Cal Ripken's respective streaks into it. Not valid as comparison points, and I don't put much stock in his assertion (seconded by As GM Billy Beane -- sort of) that Gagne's numbers were vastly inflated by the luxury of entering a game with a runner on base in only 17 of 84 opportunities. And the problematic and hotly-contested modern definition of the save shouldn't take anything away from Gagne's accomplishments. I guess Kurkijan was taking a preemptive strike against the hype accompanying the streak, though I do think it's up there with the greatest pitching feats of all time. That's all said and done now, as Kurkjian jinxed the streak with his poopy-pants mojo and Gagne blew his first save in almost two years in a 6-5 loss to the struggling Diamondbacks. Jayson Stark puts things into proper focus in this week's edition of his "Useless Info" column (dedicated entirely to Gagne), simply by showing that everyone else in the league combined to blow 969 saves during the same interval. Stark also reports that Gagne "allowed one hit or none in 92 percent of his saves (77 of 84) -- and gave up zero hits in an amazing 60 percent of them (50 of 84)." End of story. Thank you for setting it right, ESPN.

***

Tim Kurkjian a pesé dedans avec ses pensées sur Eric Gagne's économiser la strie la semaine dernière et je ne pourrais pas être en désaccord davantage. J'étais avec Kurkjian quand il était rivalisant et contrastant avec la strie scoreless consécutive du tour de batte de Orel Hershiser's 59 herculéens dans '88, mais devenu aigri sur le morceau quand il a dessiné les stries respectives de Joe DiMaggio et de calorie Ripken's dans lui. L'invalide comme points de comparaison, et je ne crois pas son affirmation(secondée près comme Dodgers GM Billy Beane -- peut-être) que ce Gagne's des nombres ont été énormément gonflés par le luxe d'écrire un jeu avec un coureur sur la base dans seulement 17 de 84 occasions. Et la définition moderne problématique et chaud-contestée de l'économiser ne devrait prendre rien loin des accomplissements de Gagne's. Je devine que Kurkijan prenait une grève de préemption contre l'exagération accompagnant la strie, bien que j'imagine it's là avec les plus grands exploits de tangage de toute l'heure. C'est tout dit et fait maintenant, car Kurkjian jinxed la strie avec son poopy-pantalon mojo et Gagne a soufflé son premier économiser en presque deux ansdans une perte 6-5 à la lutte Diamondbacks. Jayson Stark rigide met des choses dans le foyer approprié en cette édition de week's de son "Information Inutile" colonne (consacrée entièrement à Gagne), simplement en prouvant que chacun autrement dans la ligue combinée pour souffler 969 économise pendant le même intervalle. Rigide également rapporte que Gagne "a laissé un frappé ou absent en 92 pour cent à lui économise (77 de 84) -- et a donné vers le haut les coups zéro en 60 pour cent stupéfiant d'eux (50 de 84)." Fin d'histoire. Merci de la placer la droite, ESPN.

2004-07-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

Odalis or Oliver?

Oliver Perez pitched a hell of a game tonight, a 7 inning, 11 strikeout gem, as the Pirates crushed the surging Brewers 8-1 (knocking Doug Davis, the subject of an earlier post, out after 4 innings). Like JT scanning the papers for news of Britney's impending nuptials, I'm lovin' it. I consider myself to be firmly on the bandwagon after his awesome first half, though I'm too cynical to muster the kind of enthusiasm Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriter Ron Cook displays in this hyperbolic column where he namechecks Bonds, Clemente, Kiner, Stargell and Dave Parker and appears all but ready to retire the young lefty's #48 jersey. His stats haven't set off the four-alarm mania surrounding Dontrelle Willis yet; I'd put the hype somewhere around the level that Odalis Perez started getting in his third season.

And maybe that's not such a bad reference point. At this point in the season, Oliver's ERA, WHIP and BAA (Batting Average Against) are pretty much interchangeable with the numbers for LA starter Odalis. Oliver has a good 40 lbs on his rival, while Odalis has a lankier frame reminiscent of Pedro Martinez. Oliver is having a career year in his 4th season; Odalis was enjoying a good start to his 7th season before a trip to the DL last week. Here's a quiz to gauge your knowledge of the 6'0" lefties. (Answers will be posted in the comments section)

1. Faster fastball?
2. Throws a slider?
3. Best career ERA and WHIP marks?
4. Best career BAA mark?
5. Most complete games since 2003?
6. Career fielding percentage better than league average?
7. Most holds?
8. Lowest career mark in Pitches per Game Started?
9. Highest career batting average?
10. Highest career OBP?

Bonus: Most innings pitched as a rookie?

2004-06-30T12:48:00.000-05:00

A Hill of Beanes, Part II

But, wait...there's more.

Orioles get Jason Grimsley on 6/22

The Orioles need everything. Funny how everyone's advocating that the D-backs and Royals get an early start on next season, but the Os have been mostly immune to the same criticism. They're 16.5 games out of first right now, running neck-and-neck with Toronto for last place in the Al East. But no one really expected the Orioles to contend in the war games between the Yanks and Red Sox. So I'm throwing all of my support to the Devil Rays to stop the madness. As far as Grimsley goes, he's desirable because of his limited experience as a starter (72 starts in 13 seasons) and the Orioles need all the help they can get if BJ Ryan gets dangled as trade bait. The Royals got minor leaguer Denny Bautista in return, who could be good a few years down the line, though he may be tipping his pitches and there's some concern over his awkward delivery.

Beltran to Astros, Dotel to As, prospects to Royals on 6/25

Oakland GM Billy Beane must be involved in any trade involving a Royals outfielder. It's actually in the major league rulebook, and it's a necessary condition for his continued membership in this powerful organization. This time out, though, the Royals OF went to the Astros -- fella by the name of Carlos Beltran, formerly the American League's equivalent of Bobby Abreu. Beane got his man with Octavio Dotel, who got his first win of the season with Oakland after giving up 4 runs. Dotel brings the heat, though, and let's face it: even Billy Koch would be a step up from the failed Arthur Rhodes closer experiment. Royals GM Allan Baird spun Beltran into three prospects: catcher John Buck (from Houston) and Mark Teahen and Mike Wood (from Oakland). Buck has been inserted into the starting line-up since the deal and is apparently strong with the glove. Mike Wood got shelled in 3 major league starts last season, but is ready for another trial after two strong seasons in AAA. And Mark Teahen has advanced pretty quickly since the Moneyball draft; like a lot of Beane's draftees, he's thin on power but gets on base...A LOT.

Freddy Garcia to White Sox on 6/28

Back-to-back lackluster seasons have made Garcia's stock fall considerably -- Eric Neel doesn't even rate him in his top go-to guys. Recent struggles aside, Garcia reminds me a lot of Bartolo Colon, who was 65-69 at the same point in his career and on the verge of a breakout 20-8 season. Opponents are hitting just .236 off him this year -- the second lowest figure of his career -- and he ranks 5th in league ERA. Sox GM Kenny Williams has a history of getting spanked on trades, but he never hesitates to pull the trigger on big deals, and this one's a no-brainer. Seattle doesn't get any younger with this deal, but they managed to unload Ben Davis and net a handful of pretty good prospects in return. Catcher Miguel Olivo turned it on this season and has a rocket for an arm. OF Jeremy Reed is considered to be one of the top prospects in the loaded Sox system, but will probably take some time to develop at the major league level a la Aaron Rowand. I don't know anything about AA SS Michael Morse, but the Ms could use added depth at that position, so it makes sense.

Most traded active major leaguer update: Todd Zeile has also been traded five times in his career, tying him with David Weathers and Brad Ausmus. But Terry Mulholland, currently pitching with the Twins, has been traded 6 times in his career. Is there a topper, anyone?

2004-06-29T20:17:00.000-05:00

A Hill of Beanes, Part I

Wherein I attempt to provide an overview of this month's MLB trades in the most cursory and self-indulgent fashion possible. Sue me -- it's the end of the month, and I've got a quota to fill.

Expos deal Peter Bergeron on 6/13

The Expos have given Peter Bergeron a very long leash. The no-hit, no-field CF has had 1100 at-bats (over parts of five seasons) to prove himself and wouldn't have had a job if the rest of MLB baseball cared enough to grant the Expos a permanent home. And now he doesn't. It's hard to see Bergeron advancing beyond AAA with the Brewers; Scott Posednick is entrenched in center field and the Brew Crew have a host of prospects (Richie Weeks, Prince Fielder) making a credible case for a one-way trip to the Big Show. I actually don't even see Bergeron wearing a major league uniform at any point in the future unless he's willing to stand in for the Bratwurst in the Sausage Races. That's harsh, but no, really: his talent lies with his speed on the basepaths, and he's been thrown out 25 times in 55 career attempts, so no volume discount can be applied. Three other prospects changed hands in the deal, including two guys named Jason, none of whom figure in to their respective teams' long-term plans.

Richard Hidalgo to Mets, David Weathers to Astros on 6/17

This is a classic example of two teams exchanging their problems. Weathers was brilliant with Milwaukee, the Cubs and the Mets in a four-season stretch between 2000 and 2003, but he's been a sub-average innings eater in his other 10 seasons. Middle relief help is always at a premium mid-season, but the Astros didn't really need it with Brad Lidge motoring along and Dan Miceli enjoying a career year -- and not when other, superior arms are reportedly available. Plus, the guy's set to make $4 million this season. Which is not as bloated as Hidalgo $12.5 million contract. A lot of money changed hands in this deal, too, but the Mets bumped their payroll up by at least $4 million this season (plus another $2 million for a buy-out). The idea that has been floated around recently that Hidalgo's a decent gamble for the Mets is, frankly, laughable: he's hitting .260 in 9 games in his new uniform, with 4 multi-hit games and 4 games where he couldn't get on base at all. Watch that average dance back and forth between .250 and .260 for the rest of the season. Hidalgo finished strong last season, but he really hasn't been the same player since his 2000 campaign.

Marlins acquire Billy Koch on 6/17

Billy Koch was the worst reliever in baseball not named Jose Mesa or Mike Williams last year. He is the worst reliever in baseball not named Arthur Rhodes this year, and has been making a credible case to overtake Rhodes in the futility department. A lack of innings and opportunities with the Marlins may hamper this quest, though he's still a wonderful candidate for a pick-up in CNN/SI reporter James Quintong's reverse fantasy league. By the way, he has choked in 4 of his last 5 appearances with the Fish; the team could've waited to pick C.J. Nitkowski off the waiver wire or dealt for Jason Grimsley just a few days later. The White Sox sent $2 million along to cover costs, and basically bought AAA SS Wilson Valdez, who's a little old but has great tools.

Yanks dump Gabe White on Reds on 6/18

I love this. This reminds me of the Red Sox and Pirates swapping Anastacio Martinez for Mike Gonzalez and back again last year, which is basically what this deal amounts to since the Yankees traded White to the Reds for minor-leaguer Charlie Manning, reversing the same trade from last season. What, Brad Ausmus wasn't available? Like Ausmus, White has been traded five times in his career -- I think the two are tied for the top spot on the most-traded list among active major leaguers. Neither have a shot of breaking the mark set by pitcher Bobo Newsom, though: he was traded 16 times in 20 seasons between 1929-1953. Pretty decent pitcher, too. Gabe White, on the other hand, is a lefty -- he doesn't need to be.

2004-06-27T10:23:00.000-05:00

What the Butler Saw

Interesting piece in the July/August issue of Mother Jones magazine: a list of ambassadorships George W. Bush has granted to his biggest financial supporters since he assumed the presidentiary. 5 of the 19 new ambassadors have baseball ownership connections, including 3 with Bush's home state Texas Rangers: George Argyos (former Mariners owner, ambassador to Spain); Mercer Reynolds III (part of the ownership group for the Rangers and Cardinals, ambassador to Switzerland); Stephen Brauser (co-owner of the Cardinals, ambassador to Belgium); Jeffrey Marcus (Rangers co-owner, lasted just 4 days as ambassador to Belgium); Craig Stapleton (former Rangers co-owner, ambassador to Czech Republic).

Argyos got the best return on his $123,000 investment -- he's still serving in Spain. Reynolds, Brauser and Marcus spent in excess of $275,000 to get their cushy positions in Europe and are back to baseball. And Stapleton grabbed his two-year appointment for only $60,500, though he's married to Dubya's cousin Dorothy. Mother Jones writer Benjamin Leslie also points out that none of the five were fluent in their country's native tongues. Why bother flushing $50,000 down the toilet with a graduate degree in public policy, sweating out the foreign service exam and busting your hump to achieve competency in one or more foreign languages? Even with a distinguished service record, you'll still find yourself building transistor radios out of coconuts somewhere in Bumfuckistan. Just buy an ownership share in a baseball team and pucker up. Who knew it was that easy?

2004-06-24T16:52:00.000-05:00

Top of the 8th

Things were not looking good for my first White Sox game of the season. A loss was inevitable. Unofficial Cubs mascot/ drum-banging superfan Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers almost ran over me with his bicycle as I was crossing the street the evening before. I knew it was him, too, because the guy wears his specially-tailored Cubs outfit (it even says "Woo Woo" on the back in block lettering) everywhere. He probably sleeps in it. And with the Cubs-Sox crosstown series coming up in a few days, tensions are running high enough in the city that I took it as a warning shot from the Wrigleyville Lush Mafia: watch your back, bra. We don't like your kind.

Still, even with the hit out, I wasn't going to stay in hiding for the rest of the summer like a Windy City Salman Rushide. I needed to get my game on with some of those lower deck reserved outfield seats I love so much, where the fashion of choice among the fashion-conscious is a t-shirt with the word "Chokes" in place of the Cubs logo. I must've seen at least 20 people rocking these tees, along with another half-dozen wearing last year's Cub-baiting model -- where the Cubs logo has been replaced with "Cork." Despite this, I witnessed no overt hostility towards the few souls brave enough to wear actual Cubs gear in the stands. Maybe Sox fans have more Clintonian empathy: we both root for slumping teams, and we feel your pain. Or maybe the Wrigleyville Lush Mafia has sent its undercover spies to infiltrate the White Sox Nation and destroy it from within. I saw something I've never witnessed in 10 years of Sox games: a fan tossing the opposing team's home run ball back on to the field. It's such a chump move -- no wonder they invented it at Wrigley Field.

The game itself featured seven -- count 'em, seven -- jacks, including two Paul Konerko solo blasts and a sweet Ronnie Belliard shot to left field. Of course, the pitching sucked moose tit, and I was so looking forward to getting a chance to see newly-appointed closer Shingo "Mr. Zero" Takatsu baffle hitters. Instead, Mark Buehrle pitched seven maddeningly inconsistent innings: he got lit up for five earned runs, but somehow made it to the 8th with something like 65 pitches. Buehrle is a huge tease: sometimes he looks absolutely dominating (like when he woke up in the 7th inning and retired the Cleveland batting order 1-2-3) and sometimes you can't even trust him to get out of the inning (like in the 6th, when he gave up a pair of home runs and became preoccupied with Jody Gerut's attempts to steal a base).

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen brought Buehrle back for the 8th after a rally in the bottom of the 7th knocked Indians starter Cliff Lee out of the game and pulled the Sox within one run of tying the game. Classic case of devil you know being preferable to devil you don't, but Guillen should have taken him out. Still, Buehrle took the mound and served up a line drive single to Indians catcher Victor Martinez. Give him the hook, Ozzie! Next up: 3rd baseman Casey Blake. Line drive single to exactly the same spot in center. Give him the hook, Ozzie! Travis Hafner comes up to the plate next and makes Buehrle pay for a weak fastball, loading the bases. Give him the hook, Ozzie! Guillen comes out to the pitchers mound to stall for awhile and the bullpen gates swing open. Finally! But it's Mike Jackson, owner of a belly-itching 5.00+ era. Dear god, noooooooooo!

The rest of the story was written when Ronnie Woo Woo tried to leave his track marks on my face. Indians manager Eric Wedge counters the move by pinch-hitting Ben Broussard for fan-favorite Lou Merloni and...Broussard takes Jackson's very first pitch deep for a grand slam. Awful. Game over, man, game over.

2004-06-23T11:50:00.000-05:00

Rocky Mountain Low

I've been thinking for awhile that I really ought to change this blog's subhead from "I've got mad hits like I was Rod Carew" to "I've got no hits like I was Kit Pellow." But then Pellow got sent back down the minors as Larry Walker was activated from the DL, and like the rest of the Rockies' farm system, he's got no game. What's up with Colorado's pitiful record in producing position players, anyway? Everyone writes about how tough it is to find the right arms to pitch in that thin air and talks about how great Jeff Francis and Chin Hui-Tsao (who Baseball America named the team's top prospect in 3 of the past 4 years -- suspect) are gonna be, but they've only produced 5 position players in 11 drafts that are in a starting line-up in 2004. In no particular order (but with their current teams in parentheses):

Todd Helton, Neifi Perez(SF), Juan Pierre(FLA), Craig Counsell(MIL), Juan Uribe(CWS)

There's also Quinton McCracken and spare parts like Jason Bates, Trenidad Hubbard, Angel Echevarria et al. And you could argue that Colorado played a formative role in Eric Young's career, though his rookie season was with the Dodgers and he never spent any time in Colorado's farm system. It's besides the point, when you take a look at what the Florida Marlins' scouting department came up with in the same number of drafts:

Charles Johnson(COL), Edgar Reinteria(STL), Luis Castillo, Mark Kotsay(OAK), Alex Gonzalez, Kevin Millar(BOS), Mike Redmond, Randy Winn(SEA), Miguel Cabrera

Wow. I may even be missing a couple. Note that this list includes a couple of players who went undrafted and were signed first by the Marlins. Oh, and that's not even counting two of the biggest names: Derrek Lee (Cubs) and Mike Lowell, both highly-touted prospects who broke out with the Marlins. Hmm...so let's take a look at the two newer expansion teams, both of whom have had 7 drafts to make a mark. Arizona Diamondbacks first:

Travis Lee(NYY), Erubiel Durazo(OAK), Junior Spivey(MIL), Lyle Overbay(MIL), Alex Cintron, Rod Barajas(TEX)

Although he started last year, Matt Kata's not on this list because he's not starting now. And Scott Hairston's not here because I'm only considering players who made a major league debut before 2004. As far as Travis Lee goes, he's a funny case because he actually got drafted by another team and got out of his contract with a loophole that hasn't been exploited since -- BUT he started out in the AZ minors, so he's on the list. I never said this was scientific, it's just an excuse to make fun of the Rockies. Anyway, how about those Devil Rays?

Aubrey Huff, Toby Hall, Damian Rolls, Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli

Tampa Bay's ownership has had notoriously deep pockets when it comes to the draft/amateur signings thusfar, including throwing wads of $$$ at Matt White (last seen working at Wal Mart, according to Peter Gammons) and Josh Hamilton (struggling with cocaine addiction), two guys who may never wear a Devil Rays uniform. Damian Rolls hasn't had much of an opportunity to showcase his stuff because of injuries this season. But Aubrey Huff, Toby Hall, Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli? That's 50% of the offensive starting line-up right there -- and it demonstrates what you can get with great scouting and a fair bit of luck.

I think this article sorta sums up a lot of problems with the Rockies' scouting system. It's overly generous (or rather, expectant) when it comes to folks like Brad Hawpe and Choo Freeman and Matt Holliday (he's looked great this season, though), but the author gets straight to the point when writing "the more comfortable Colorado is with its prospects, the less likely it will trade them before they arrive." I haven't gone back to take a look at scouting director Bill Schmidt's drafts since he took over five years ago, but the article pegs him as a good egg -- and I'm inclined to believe it, since it sounds like he actually has a full-system plan in place.

Take a peek at the team's history in the standings, though. Not good. No one seems to be able to figure out this franchise, and the fans are getting tired of losing teams. Maybe Bill Schmidt's the guy. But if not, I know exactly how to fix things right: move to Northern Virginia.

2004-06-21T18:45:00.000-05:00

Dusty Trails, A Blizzard of Oz

Subway is running a month-long promotion in Chicago wherein managers Ozzie Guillen and Dusty Baker (Sox and Cubs, respectively) were asked to design their own sub sandwiches for a contest. The winning manager (with most sandwiches sold by July 4th, 2004) will receive $5000 towards his charity of choice. Baker's sandwich is more my speed: pepperoni, ham, lettuce, tomato, onion and brown mustard. Tasty. But Guillen's Atkins-friendly atomic pile -- roast beef, turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and Ranch dressing -- is just crushing the competition. Ozzie Guillen's unbridled imagination vs. Dusty Baker's icy pragmatism = a battle of epic proportions.

All this was lost on the girlfriend upon seeing the television commercial for the first time, though. Her allergy to baseball ("Will everybody please stop talking about Barry Bonds?") is notorious (at least in this household), and often quite funny as she distills everything to its bluntest essence. Her observation: "'Dusty' is a pretty dumb name. But who actually names their kid 'Ozzie' anyway? What's it short for? Do parents do that to ensure their child has a successful major league career?"

In the case of Ozzie Guillen and Ozzie Smith, sure. Hell, we'll even throw in two-time All-Star Ozzie Virgil Jr. to balance things out. But with everyone else, not so much. There's Ozzie Virgil Sr., who has the distinction of going undrafted to start his career, but later selected in both the Rule V and minor league drafts (and traded as part of a package for Matty Alou). And two modern era mega-scrubs that I forgot about when trying to recall all of the MLB Ozzies: Jose Canseco's brother Ozzie and Ozzie Timmons. Also, two guys I've never heard of: Ozzie Van Brabant (who tossed 28 2/3 innings from 1954-1955 and weathered the Athletics' move from Philly to Kansas City) and Ozzie Osborn (who pitched in 24 games for the '75 White Sox before a similarly-named guy stole his thunder by biting the heads off of live bats).

And as a point of interest, Ozzie Guillen and Ozzie Timmons were teammates on the 2000 Tampa Bay Devil Rays, probably the only time two guys named Ozzie will ever sit on the same bench. As far as the name game goes, the list of Ozzies yields the following proper names: Osbourne (twice), Osvaldo (three), Oswaldo, Danny (Ozzie Osbourn) and Camille (Ozzie Van Brabant). Even with the influx of Latin talent and rapid development on Central America scouting in the last 30 years, we're unlikely to see a dramatic increase of Ozzies in our lifetime.

Unlike Guillen, though, Dusty Baker has the distinction of being the best player with his nickname. And there's even less Dustys than Ozzies. Turn-of-the-century player Dusty Miller leads the pack with 7 seasons where he racked up 421 rbi, 206 steals and a tidy .301 average, (including a remarkable season in 1895 when he piled up 10hr, 112 rbi, 43 stolen bases and a .335 batting average). There's also Dusty Cooke, who played parts of 8 seasons with the Yankees, Red Sox and Reds from 1930-8 with a short stint as Philly's manager a decade later; Dusty Rhodes, an unremarkable Giants OF from 1952-59; and three guys (another Dusty Miller, Dusty Allen and Dusty Watham) with 220 abs between them. At least Dusty Allen's real name was Dusty.

In a historical series, the Ozzies (with their SS-SS double-play combo of Guillen and Smith) would clearly trounce the Dustys (zero pitching, plus several players actually taking the field in knickers). Doesn't even matter that the Dustys have the tastier sandwich; the secret weapon in the Ozzies' arsenal isn't ranch dressing -- it's history.

2004-06-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Alors! C'est super-bon!

Well, Eric Gagne gave up a solo shot to Jason Giambi (the spell checker suggests "gimpy" as an alternative to "Giambi" -- hah!) in the 9th inning of tonight's Dodgers-Yankees game before retiring the rest to nail the contest. One more run or one more man on base and Gagne would've cut the link in his consecutive saves streak. Instead, Gagne held it together for his 18th save of the season and 81st consecutive save (only regular-season games count in the streak, so getting lit up in the 2003 All-Star game doesn't count). Amazing. The season's about 40% over and the guy hasn't blown a save since 2002. Barring a late season upswing in opportunities, Gagne will probably fail to rack up 50 saves for a third consecutive season, but the guy has the best stuff of any closer I've seen by a wide margin. His fastball is almost as unhittable as Billy Wagner (though Philly fans have lately taken to booing him when his fastball tops out at 98mph) and he mixes in a slick change-up and a better-than-average curveball, to boot. Throw in that Cy Young and his distinction as the fastest pitcher to record 100 saves in MLB history, and we're witnessing the makings of a Hall of Fame career.

Or are we? Baseball Reference doesn't shed much light on Gagne's potential, yet because the comparison points are almost non-existent. It's hard to put too much stock in the site's Hall of Fame monitor, which does a great job of evaluating dead locks (Barry Bonds) or players on-the-verge (Sammy Sosa) but not folks like James Howard Thome. There's really no historical perspective for the closer. Eckersley's in the Hall, of course, but he spent half of his career as a starter. And then there's guys like Goose Gossage (shoulda been inducted as a first ballot) and Bruce Sutter (invaluable in redefining the role of the closer, but iffy) and Lee Smith (most saves ever by a mile, but few dominating seasons also make him iffy) knocking at the door.

The standards for the specialist who pitches in (at best) half the games in a season have been set sensibly high, but Gagne's numbers speak well of his talent -- one Cy Young and another top 5 finish, two All-Star appearances, and 1-2 finishes in the saves and games finished leaders boards in 2003 and 2002. Robb Nen, the best analogue in terms of age and make-up, racked up 314 saves by age 32 with the Marlins and Giants...and then his arm fell-off. Nen hasn't pitched since 2002 and may not see any action in 2004; by the time he comes back, he could be a totally different pitcher. Arm injuries seriously derailed Matt Mantei's career, too, and it's the one thing (knock on wood) that could hamper Gagne's chances. Gagne is way better than either of those guys, though -- his last two seasons were more dominating than any of Nen's best (1996; 1998; 2000). If Gagne can make it to 400 saves (an average of about 35/season through age 35 -- not unreasonable at all) with a few more high Cy Young voting finishes, a few more high appearances towards the top of the saves leaders board and a lengthening of that already exciting consecutive save streak, he's a mortal lock. Hall of Fame voters won't be able to deny his (comparatively) brief, brilliant career.

2004-06-18T20:29:00.000-05:00

Starr struck

Man, this Matt Starr thing refuses to die. Starr -- or someone purporting to be him -- called in to Mancow's Morning Madhouse (which I will sheepishly admit to listening to on the hellish drives to work whenever the NPR monotone threatens my road safety) this morning for the FM radio equivalent of a hair shirt. And the callers were, to put it bluntly, merciless, watering down the notions of "good" and "evil" in a way that would make Joe Morgan green with envy. Except one guy playing devil's advocate (for shits-n-grins) who brought up the valid point of how commonplace this is in major league sports. So if we're going to go there, I think it's not too far-fetched to suggest that professional sports promotes this culture of collectibility by building up the mystique of the superstar athlete. People act like assholes because professional baseball players, by and large, act like assholes. People scramble for memorabilia because Mark Prior leaves a line of autograph-seekers high-and-dry at a scheduled signing appearance. One of the coolest things I've ever seen as a fan was the entire Pittsburgh Pirates major league squad come out for a free signing in Point State Park in 1997, the year the payroll barely scratched $9 million (less than what Albert Belle made that year alone). Still display that ball proudly on my mantle.

More of that and lower ticket prices and a more fan-friendly atmosphere would amount to a swift reduction of what Gobo has described as "royal buttmunchitude" as Matt Starr gets punk'd in a hilarious post. Still, I feel even worse for that poor bastard now that his nuts have been caught in a vice grip. Do we, as a nation, have nothing better to do than play armchair Torquemada and continue to make the guy so anxious that he can't even leave his house to collect his mail? I read about this total affront to decency and all I can say is that when the ball rockets towards me in the stands, my elbows will be flying faster than Bill Lambeer at a Specials concert. And, having proven that I have nothing better to do by admitting to listening to the lowest common denominator of drive time radio, I'm gonna steal that little kid's Cracker Jacks, too.

2004-06-17T20:38:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Judy Blume

Are you there God? It's me, Doug Davis. I'm starting to thrive in Milwaukee. I'm so scared God. I've never been successful anywhere but here. Suppose no one notices me behind that handsome bitch Ben Sheets? Suppose I never get as much recognition as the Italian Sausage? Please help me God. Don't let this season end.

Yes. I'm talking about that Doug Davis, a total washout in Texas and owner of a not-so-special career 4.57 era and 1.55 whip. If you think Kip Wells is hot shit, please direct your attention to Davis. Dude's never gonna win a Sausage Race, but he has put together quite a run since joining the Brew Crew after getting the boot from Toronto at the end of the last season. Davis is still getting the job done, too -- after 8 strong starts at the end of 2003, there was some speculation that his numbers were inflated somewhat by a move to the (slightly) more pitcher-friendly National League. Here's Davis in the Senior Circuit:

2003 8 G / 8 GS / 52.1 IP / 49 H / 18 R / 15 ER / 21 BB / 35 K / 3-2 W-L / 2.58 ERA
2004 15 G/15 GS/ 91.2 IP / 90 H / 40 R / 35 ER / 31 BB / 60 K / 6-5 W-L / 3.44 ERA

Davis has cut down on the walks and hits this season, though his K/9 ratio isn't as good and he's given up a few more long balls -- hence the ERA inflation. Ben Sheets, who awoke from his career-long slumber this season to record 2 of the 10 most dominating games in MLB this season (including his masterful 18 k start and a 9 inning no-decision), is the top dog in Milwaukee. But Davis's numbers as a #2 starter are better than anyone's in half the rotations in baseball. Why, put together the tail end of 2003 with his starts this season and you've got All-Star worthy numbers: 23 starts, 144 innings, 9-7 W-L record and a 3.15 era. Did I mention that 11 of his 15 outings have been quality starts? That's more than Ben Sheets. And that wicked facial hair throws it over the top: it looks like some bored 6 year old defaced a team photo and drew an upside down Brewers logo on his chin. The guy is fo'real.

2004-06-15T10:49:00.000-05:00

Do the Bartman

I love the mob rule mentality in the stands. I suppose I should rephrase that: I don't love it, but I'm completely fascinated by it from a sociological perspective. What makes your company's computer guy (not me) scream obscenities (maybe me) at the asshat wearing Cubs gear (definitely not me) in the U.S. Cellular outfield? Is there a hypnotic pattern in the Jumbotron that commands you to kiss the person next to you or flash your tits (these are the only two choices, sorry) when the camera squares on you for approximately 10 seconds of fame? Ever seen someone leap onto the field during the game and get flying tackled by a half-dozen clearly out-of-shape security guards? Don't even front like it's not fucking awesome.

And then there's the whole ball-chaser archetype. This person is always male, always gets portrayed as an overgrown man-child (because only true villains or mental midgets would want to deny a child a chance at catching a ball) and is always overweight. If you see this infantile fat man lunging for a fly ball at a baseball game within a 10 foot radius of a small child, mob rule commands you to hate him like you've never hated anyone outside of Daryl Strawberry. This may seem like a crass generalization, but this is how Baron von Ball Thief always gets portrayed in the media; here's an excerpt from the AP news wire account of Sunday's Cardinals-Rangers game:

In the ensuing scramble, a husky man jumped over a row of seats and pinned a 4-year-old boy against the seats with his legs while diving to get the ball. To no avail, fans started chanting "Give him the ball! Give him the ball!"

What happens next, of course, is that someone always comes forward to testify that the overeager fan is really not such a bad quy. Usually, it's an elderly relative or an upstanding member of the community. The man in the harsh glare of the spotlight is Matt Starr, a 28 year old landscaper who has (sensibly) refused comment -- but his pastor is right there on the frontlines reminding everyone that he's "not the bad guy he's been made out to be." The video of the catch ain't pretty, but you have to feel sorry for the poor dipshit who won't be able to risk the embarrassment of attending another game this season. It's not like he attacked a first base coach or anything. And the young boy's family should be thanking him -- that 4 year old kid walked away with two game-used bats, a signed Nolan Ryan baseball, free tickets and enough gear to equip a Dominican youth team. Starr would've received something pretty cool, too -- a t-shirt that Cards reliever Steve Kline personalized with the epithets "Tough Guy" and "Ball Stealer" -- if he hadn't been escorted out of the stands two innings earlier. No shame, man, no shame. I'd bid on that shirt on E-Bay.

2004-06-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

Judas Iscariot Superstar

Big League Chew didn't save me from riding the pine for my high school junior varisty baseball team, though I still have a soft spot for the stuff. And I was surprised to learn recently that Jim Bouton -- whose account of the 1969 season in "Ball Four" made him a persona non grata, baseball's answer to Elia Kazan -- is credited as one of the inventors of the product. Bouton's a really fascinating guy for all sorts of reasons. Apparently, he and pitcher Rob Nelson came up with the idea while teammates on the Class A Portland Mavericks in 1977, designed the packaging and formula together, and pitched it successfully to a candy company in 1980. Too late to save Lenny Dykstra (ever seen those old photos where he looks like he's got a wad of dog shit stuffed into his cheek?) from a lifetime of oral cancer, but enough to give sunflower seeds a run for the money as an alternative opiate.

Oddly enough, the website advertised on current packages -- www.bigleaguechew.com -- hasn't even been registered as a domain. But you can glean a bit of information from Jim Bouton's website, where there's a nifty image of early 80s-era Big League Chew that looks exactly like a package of Red Man Chewing Tobacco. No, really: it even bills itself as "the original tobacco style chewing gum," a tagline which was quickly dropped and replaced with "the ballplayer's bubble gum." How could they get away with that in the Just Say No era? I suspect that Bouton and Nelson didn't even begin to realize the product's potential appeal to the youth market.

By the mid-80s, though, almost all marketing was done directly to kids. You couldn't sit through 10 minutes of cartoons on a Saturday morning without seeing this completely homoerotic commerical, which adheres to the central fallacy of all 1980s advertising: stick this in your mouth and it will turn you into a completely different person! Damn if the jingle wasn't insanely catchy, though. Oh, and props to these enterprising 6th graders for blinding us with science and proving that Big League Chew blows the biggest bubbles. Now how much do I have to stuff in my mouth to turn into Don Mattingly?

2004-06-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

No shirt, no shoes

Bob Brenly got a little punch-drunk during yesterday's D'backs-Dodgers game after starter Steve Sparks couldn't record the final out of the 5th inning. Mike Koplove finished it out with a strikeout, while a combination of 5 pitchers worked the last 4 innings. Melvin's 7th inning strategy was especially fun: Brandon Villafuerte (who pitched the whole of the 6th) got the first out, gave up a single to Cesar Izturis, and got yanked. Randy Choate came on for the next 1/3 of an inning and got Shawn Green to ground into a fielder's choice. And then Scott Service trotted out for the final 1/3 and retired Adrian Beltre with a single pitch.

At the bottom of the 7th, the D'Backs were losing 4-2, but brittle reliever Darren Dreifort got lit up for three runs and the inning ended with the D'backs ahead 5-4. Which made Scott Service -- who was out of baseball for three years before last season and hadn't recorded a victory since the 2000 season -- the pitcher of record in the eventual Diamondbacks victory. One pitch, one out, one win -- not a first (Kyle Farnsworth pulled off the same feat last season), but cool all the same. You know what's even cooler? Last year, Orioles reliever BJ Ryan got a win without throwing a single pitch, when Tigers infielder Omar Infante got caught stealing. Nice.

2004-06-05T15:31:00.000-05:00

The chase for .406

Spent some time wandering around the Printers Row Book Fair in downtown Chicago this morning, and discovered that Leigh Montville, former Boston Globe columnist and one of my favorite Sports Illustrated writers of all time, was appearing in a lecture hall to discuss his new book Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero. Haven't had a chance to pick the book up yet (I'm a paperback kinda guy, and I just got around to reading Moneyball), but one of the things I remembered about Montville as a writer is how excellent he is when it comes to breaking down the barriers professional athletes tend to erect for themselves and approaching his subjects in very human (and humane) terms.

Montville's talk and subsequent Q&A session were pretty illuminating. Despite having one of the worst 1970s era porn star mustaches this side of Jayson Stark, Montville comes off as a pretty regular fella -- he opened by joking about being obsessed with his own Amazon sales rank and detailing some of the critiques he's received of the book (mostly dealing with how he has chosen to order and present some of its facts and information). But his research seems exhaustive: Montville came to know Williams in the 1970s, when he was working as a hitting instructor for the Red Sox, and supplemented his brief interviews with the subject by interviewing all of his wives and a number of his ex-teammates.

Also, Montville's summary of his own book made me realize that I know nothing about Ted Williams, which is consistent with the book's observation that Williams didn't have a chance to shape a lasting public persona in the era before television. Some eye-opening factoids that interested me:

* Williams' mother was Mexican. Williams made no pains to hide or promote his ethnic identity, and it generally wasn't discussed.

* Williams had serious anger management issues. His third wife seems to think he would've been an excellent candidate for Prozac. Montville suggests that personal anger was the single most determining factor in Williams' success as a player.

* Williams served in the armed forces in WWII and, later, the Korean War. I knew this, but what I didn't know was that a) Williams sought a deferment during WWII and was rejected and b) served most of his time stateside as a flight instructor, only briefly reporting to Pearl Harbor after the bomb was dropped in Nagasaki. A point of interest considering how differently this has come to be portrayed in hindsight.

Montville didn't comment much on the huge legal struggle that ensured after Williams death, when his estranged son John Henry opted to have his body cryogenically frozen at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation at a cost of $120,000. It supplies the ugly coda for Montville's book, though the story is far from over: John Henry Williams died earlier this year and his body was committed to the same storage facility, where bodies of the deceased are placed in multi-person units and frozen at 328 degrees below zero. Williams' daughter Bobby Jo Ferrell lost her first appeal to have Williams' body removed from the facility, and if you read this interview with Williams' close friend Buzz Hamon, it's easy to see why she's dead set on fulfilling her father's reported wish for cremation. Mike Piazza recently pledged support of the case, and backed off quickly for fear of a lawsuit, though the additional publicity couldn't have hurt the cause. At this point, the greatest pure hitter in baseball is hanging upside down in a tank, naked, in a strip mall around the corner from a Ponderosa. Sorry, it just can't get any worse than that.

2004-06-03T13:38:00.000-05:00

Four on the floor

The great Colorado four-man rotation experiement ended in mid-May with a dull thud -- not enough empirical evidence could be amassesd to judge whether it was a success or a failure. Clint Hurdle talked some smack about limiting innings pitched and pitch counts and getting the most out of his starters and using his relief corps to better effect, but when all was said and done, the Rockies' four-man lasted about 10 days. Shawn Estes didn't even get an opportunity to pitch on "short" rest; mostly, it was confusing, akin to Cincinnati and Toronto's brief flirtations with the four-man last year.

Everybody thinks this a champion idea, mind you. Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus took a pretty nuanced approach and discovered that it was a nonsensical idea in Colorado, but wrote a three-part series of articles (scroll down to the third paragraph of the article in the previous link, and view his thoughts on the matter) on why it's an exciting notion to entertain overall. Redbird Nation (give this guy a Pulitzer or a Ford Frick Award or a Bloggie or something, seriously) did a really great job of summarizing and analyzing Jazayerli's findings as it might pertain to the Cardinals' rotation this year, basically breaking down the argument to show that the five-man rotation doesn't keep starters any healthier and that there's enough data to suggest that pitchers have better command on three day's rest than four.

My thoughts on PAP and PAP^3 notwithstanding, Jazayerli has taken Craig Wright's assumptions and crafted a really convincing case here. I mean, what's not to like? At this point, MLB teams are saying all the right things when the topic turns to reinstating the four-man rotation, but balking when it comes to walking the walk for practical/ logistical reasons or the purpose of satisfying fragile egos. The weight of the five-man rotation culture is proving a little more difficult to lift than previously expected.

Speaking of, the White Sox had the four-man rotation going in early May for about...four days. Most of us here in Chi-town didn't even notice. But Ozzie Guillen is flirting publicly with the idea of bringing it back for a longer trial run, and looking at the stats for everyone who's started for the pride of the South Side this season, it's easy to see why:

E. Loaiza 11 G / 11 GS / 6-3 W-L / 78.2 IP / 110.5 P/GS / 1.23 WHIP / 3.78 ERA
M. Buehrle 11 G / 11 GS / 5-1 W-L / 76.1 IP / 105.0 P/GS / 1.35 WHIP / 3.30 ERA
Schoeneweis 10 G / 10 GS / 5-2 W-L / 64.1 IP / 104.7 P/GS / 1.37 WHIP / 3.64 ERA
Jon Garland 10 G / 10 GS / 4-2 W-L / 68.2 IP / 105.9 P/GS / 1.38 WHIP / 3.93 ERA

Dan Wright 4 G / 4 GS / 0-4 W-L / 17.2 IP / 88.0 P/GS / 1.98 WHIP / 8.15 ERA
Felix Diaz 2 G / 2 GS / 0-1 W-L / 8.2 IP / 85.5 P/GS / 2.19 WHIP / 11.42 ERA
Jon Rauch 1 G / 1 GS / 0-1 W-L / 3.2 IP / 64.0 P/GS / 3.00 WHIP / 12.27 ERA
Neal Cotts 15 G /1 GS / 0-3 W-L / 19.1 IP / 54.0 P/GS / 1.40 WHIP / 4.66 ERA

Top four speak for themselves. Buehrle's having a great season, Garland had a terrific May, and all four have ERAs under the league average. Everyone in the fifth slot = terrible. Dan Wright's back in AAA after getting battered in 4 starts, while Felix Diaz and Jon Rauch got smoked in limited duty. Now reliever Neal Cotts is the latest to get thrown into the fray. Think he'll be any better? Well, White Sox fifth starters are 0-8 in 2004, and -- as reported by Peter Gammons -- the Sox haven't had a win from a fifth starter since 2002. Ouch.

Across town, the Cubs have a great fifth starter -- fella goes by the name of Greg Maddux. Every other team in MLB is not so blessed. Jazayerli and Rob Neyer and every blog author in the whole damn universe seems to think that the best way to dust off the four-man rotation might be to use a control group of some shitty baseball team. I say the Sox are in perfect position to implement it -- they're obviously getting nothing from the #5 spot (actually, worse than nothing -- a guaranteed loss) and they've got a winning team with momentum (the loss of Magglio smarts, though). Going four-man for the rest of the season would give Loaiza and Buehrle 6 more starts and Schoeneweis and Garland 5 more starts, maybe 30-40 extra innings for each. I believe that the projection I saw for Loaiza had him topping the list with 250 innings on the season, assuming no trips to the DL. Plus, Guillen seems to be regulating their pitch counts. That's not bad. The kids, as the marketing campaign from a few years back should remind us, can play.

2004-05-30T06:21:00.000-05:00

Spinning around the bowl

What's wrong with Derek Jeter? He's been in a season-long slump ever since his buddy A-Rod donned a Yankees uniform. Maybe the Boss went after the wrong Jeter. Babyface's average is sagging faster than Mariah's boobies, though he's come alive over the last three days with a series of multi-hit games that have dragged his average above the Mendoza line. Assuming a couple more nights like last, he'll probably end the month of May batting around .225 -- predictable numbers if your name (god forbid) is Neifi Perez, heresy for a career .313 hitter. Still, if Jeter hits at his career clip over the rest of the season, he'll pull that average back up to a more-than-respectable .285, mirroring Marvin Benard's 2001 huge May-September shift of +.066 average points. Aaron Gleeman crunches the numbers in his excellent analysis and explains why it's safe to assume that Jeter will take a defibrillator to his average in June. Mike Cameron's season is totally in the toilet, though.

2004-05-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

Operation Shutdown 2: Electric Boogaloo

What a fucking jerk! How long did it take for him to retract his statement that he was going to sit out the entire season? Sorry, MLB needs to step in and bar this guy from playing this season. At least these rabid Dodger fans are having a change of heart about Mondesi's replacement. By the way, www.raulmondesisucks.com has not been registered as a domain...yet.

2004-05-26T20:31:00.000-05:00

If the glove doesn't fit...

Fans of the River City Rascals (of the independent Frontier League) shed a collective tear when a "Sports Criminals Night" promotion scheduled to take place on June 2nd got shut down less than two days after it was announced. You say: shockingly poor taste. I say: genius marketing. Broadcast announcer Phil Giubileo, who came up with the idea as part of the team's "Wacky Wednesdays" decided to mark the 10th anniversary of OJ Simpson's arrest on double-homicide charges with a special $1 "jailhouse" meal consisting of bread and water. Mmmm, sounds tasty! Though a bit overpriced, since I recall reading a statistic that suggested it only cost around $0.40 each day to feed an inmate. But that's pretty close to the meal (add a glass of milk and a rotten lemon, and you're right there) that prompted a group of Arizona inmates to stage a jail-wide hunger strike in 2001. Apparently, prisoners in Indiana don't get to eat anything that isn't made with a cornmeal base, so gimme the bread and water any day. There was a trivia contest and a grand prize trip to Jamaica (with Al Cowlings at the wheel and 100 lbs of marijuana in the car trunk) planned, too, but the upstanding citizens of O'Fallon, Missouri will now have to go elsewhere to find their fun.

2004-05-25T22:05:00.000-05:00

An arm and a leg

I've been haunted by a huge cardboard cut-out of Sammy Sosa and his incredible shrinking neck for the last two weeks while stopping at the local convenience store for coffee to keep myself awake on the drive to work. Some company is running a promotion to meet the man, the myth, the legend in person and the timing's all wrong with his recent trip to the DL. Two sneezes, and suddenly Todd Hollandsworth is a starting outfielder. And the same scenario keeps running through my sleep-addled brain with a lucky contest winner fighting off the urge to woof cookies with the acrid stench of Ben Gay and liniments running through the clubhouse. Worst...prize...ever. Sosa's allergies are nothing to sneeze at, though: baseball has had a long, very colorful history of freak injuries. Some personal favorites include Marlins infielder Bret Barbarie burning his eyes with jalapeno juice while making nachos and arachnophobe Glenallen Hill's lacerations from falling through a glass table after a nightmare about being eaten by giant spiders. How the hell do you top that? You can't, but Rickey Henderson getting frostbite in the middle of the summer and Steve Sparks dislocating his shoulder while trying to emulate a motivational speaker by tearing a phone book in half come mighty close. There's even more schadenfreude-inducing goodies here and here.

2004-05-22T07:53:00.000-05:00

The dead horse has been flogged

More on pitch counts: John Kruk -- who Langstaff describes as Mark Madden without the intellect in one of his recent posts -- dropped the hammer on pitch counts in this Page 2 commentary. Kruk won my heart over as a sharp Letterman guest during his tenure as a player, though his everyman analysis seems better suited for commenting on monster truck racing and professional wrestling. Kruk seems to enjoy playing the role of the provacateur, spewing verbal diahrrea with the intent of creating controversy -- and while he's totally right in saying that pitch location and guile matters much more than speed (ever seen Jamie Moyer in action?), his thought on pitch counts don't quite hold.

Kruk: "The other day everyone was talking about Mike Stanton pitching in his 900th game -- same as Cy Young. One small difference: Mike has about 800 innings under his belt while Cy had 7,500."

Translation: "Mike Stanton is a pussy."

And maybe Stanton is a pussy, though you can't fault him for his specialized, albeit limited, role. I do (and anyone who thinks Grady Little made the right choice in keeping Pedro on the mound in that champion ship series will) appreciate Kruk's reactionary stance on pitch counts, though, especially when he says that "you can't respect a manager for taking out a guy just because some computer printout says after a certain pitch count he's a sitting duck."

More on the Phillies: I started this blog by calling for manager Larry Bowa's dismissal after a 3-6 start. The Phillies have since cruised to a 20-11 record on the hot bats of Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu and the return of David Bell. The record now stands at a not-so-shabby 23-17, though it's early enough in the season that the Dodgers losing 6 straight has been cause to sound the alarm. The Phils' middle relief has been really great (even in the absence of Billy Wagner), a welcome *ahem* relief from the make-it-to-the-sixth-and-pray-for-rain mode of last year. I should've also pointed out that the Phillies have been notorious slow-starters for the past few years, so a more thoughtful analysis should've waited until May. The 1-2 part of the order scares me, though: Marlon Byrd has yet to find his form and Jimmy Rollins has been dreadful. I'll stand by my pre-season analysis that this is a good team that needs one more big bat. Lou Pinella yielded Randy Winn in trade a couple of years ago; I wonder what might come of dangling Bowa on the waiver wire.

2004-05-20T10:50:00.000-05:00

Pitching a fit

Gobo's fun thinkpiece on falling in love with Randy Johnson and his related fears of what high pitch counts will do to Jason Schmidt's arm got me to thinking about the relationship between pitch counts and injuries. Higher pitch counts would seem to suggest a higher rate of arm fatigue, and therefore a higher potential for serious arm (elbow, rotator cuff, etc) injuries. I still think there's some sense in this; the problem becomes how to divine the magic number of pitch counts and get a sense of where pitchers traditionally run into trouble if you assume equal access to conditioning methods, etc.

Bobby Cox usually gets pegged as a guy who protects his pitchers. Here's where the Braves rotation falls in P/GS (pitches per game started) with their ERAs following in parentheses.

Mike Hampton: 95.4 (6.36 era)
John Thompson: 96.0 (5.01 era)
Russ Ortiz: 95.4 (5.18 era)
Jaret Wright: 94.4 (3.55 era)
Horacio Ramirez: 103.3 (2.25 era)

Dusty Baker usually gets pegged as a guy who abuses his pitchers. Here's where the Cubs rotation falls in P/GS with their ERAs following in parentheses:

Greg Maddux: 84.0 (4.44 era)
Matt Clement: 103.9 (2.53 era)
Carlos Zambrano: 105.1 (2.08 era)
Kerry Wood: 100.9 (2.82 era)
Sergio Mitre: 86.1 (4.93 era)

Let's leave Greg Maddux out of this for now, because he's an anomaly. And Jaret Wright isn't so interesting from a statistical perspective. Looking at everyone else, the guys with the highest pitch counts (Ramirez, Clement, Zambrano, Wood) are also averaging the highest number of innings per start. Ramirez, for example, has tossed more innings than Hampton in less starts. The other half (Hampton, Thompson, Ortiz, Mitre) have lower P/GS averages because they aren't going as deep into games because they simply haven't been as effective. Verdict: inconclusive evidence. One might suggest that both Cox and Baker are within the bounds of fair use on their rotation's arms.

Historical data on pitch counts is notoriously hard to come by, though we know that the 100-pitch benchmark is an invention of the candy-ass modern era because it held no place in the era of the 4-man rotation. So the difference between John Thompson's 96.0 P/GS and Carlos Zambrano's 105.1 isn't of much concern -- it's reflective right now of how successfully they've pitched. And that only amounts to a +/- differential of 5%. It's more about extremes. What excites and scares us is what happens when Kerry Wood throws, say, 120 pitches in a game. And then what happens when he throws, say, another 120 pitches in the following start. And what effect a certain amount of stress might have on his arm when he's averaging only about 100 pitches per start.

Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus used the 100-pitch benchmark as the basis for his Pitcher Abuse Points (PAP) study in the late 1990s. Rob Neyer (a frequent collaborator) hyped PAP considerably upon arrival and maintains his virulent distaste for high pitch counts; Jazayerli issued a retraction in 2001 and Baseball Prospectus has since removed the initial study from their website. No knocks against the brilliant Jazayerli, but he definitely bit off more than he could chew. You may recall this point-by-point evisceration of PAP done by Don Malcolm; if not, it's definitely worth following the link and reading up on the historical problems associated with developing a formula for weighing pitch counts.

One of the more interesting ideas that came out of Malcolm's response was the notion that multi-start windows were a better way of divining the injury risk that comes with high pitch counts. Malcolm and company settle upon 350 pitches / 3 starts (or an average of 115 pitches per start) as the cut-off, citing Jim Leyland's use of Alex Fernandez (397 pitches / 3 starts = career-ending injury) as an example of the effects of high pitch counts. Watch the magic number creep from "100" to "115" just like that!

Those guys at Baseball Prospectus sure are tenacious, though. Keith Woolner picked up where Jazayerli left off with using pitch counts to predict stress and issued his own revision called PAP^3. Woolner assumes that "all pitchers have the same physical reaction to a given number of pitches" and comes up with a lovely polynomial curve to illustrate his findings. It does not, however, draw a distinction between the types of pitches thrown or make any provisions for delivery/mechanics. Which is problematic.

What's interesting about the study is his consideration of "high endurance" pitchers -- a class which might currently include folks like Kerry Wood, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Jason Schmidt. Here's the shocker: the difference between a 90 pitch start and a 129 pitch start with a well-traveled arm is imperceptible. As the fine folks at Baseball Reference point out in their analysis of Woolner's work, this class of pitcher actually sees a slight improvement from pitch 120-129, pushing the "danger zone" to 130 pitches and above. So under that logic, Jason Schmidt's 144 pitch outing of a couple nights back could be dangerous in a broader context.

PAP^3 earns higher marks than PAP, but even Woolner is quick to point out that his theories are begging for refinement. There's enough to like from all of the work done so far on pitch counts:

* Nothing has disproved the long-held supposition that high pitch counts ruin young arms. What would be intriguing is a specific study on exactly how high pitch counts affect young pitchers, perhaps by pulling a nice sample of rookies and comparing their progress/degradation by comparing what transpires, say, before the first 150 career innings pitched and after. Step two might be to get a sense of when to keep young pitchers to a strict pitch count and when to relax the restrictions.

* "100" is a nice, clean number -- but a misleading choice for a benchmark. Research done thusfar supports a higher total, perhaps with a +/- differential to account for some/all other mitigating factors.

* And the move from considering a pitcher's workload on a start-by-start basis to weighing workload in larger clusters or over a 30 start period is sensible.

It's telling that the saaviest sabermetric theories from the Baseball Prospectus camp over the course of the past decade have centered on offensive production/ defensive range/ how individual contributions relate to team contributions. Pitching is not so easy to consider. Then again, pitch counts have only been recorded on the books for about 15 years, less than the lifespan of some of this generation's finest arms. More accrued data can only help, though I also get the sense that this is one problem that even the great Bill James couldn't crack.