April 2006
I don’t like the Padres or the Dodgers, but I can’t pass this up
Alright, here’s the setup. Bottom of the 9th, the Padres are down 5-0. I’m tuned in because I wanted to see Trevor Hoffman pitch in the top of 9th, (which he did – when else is he gonna get any work in?) And here’s how the Bottom of the 9th goes:
- Dodgers send Lance Carter to the mound to pitch.
- Mike Cameron singles.
- Brian Giles rips a liner to right field. Mike Cameron advances to third.
- Mike Piazza walks. Bases are now "clogged," Cameron on 3rd, Giles on 2nd, Piazza on 1st.
- Danys Baez replaces Lance Carter on the mound for LA. Carter’s Line: 2H, 1BB. And it’ll get worse.
- Mark Bellhorn singles on a grounder to right. Cameron scores; Giles to 3rd, Piazza at 2nd.
- Khalil Green walks. Giles scores, Piazza at 3rd, Bellhorn at 2nd, Green on 1st.
- Eric Young pinch hits for Trevor Hoffman. Eric Young walks. Piazza scores, Bellhorn to 3rd, Green to 2nd, Young on 1st.
- Josh Barfield hits a sac fly to center. Bellhorn scores, Green to 3rd, Young remains on 1st.
- Eric Young steals 2nd.
- Geoff Blum hits a sac fly to right. Green scores.
- Pitcher Change: Tim Hamulack replaces Danys Baez.
Baez’s line: 0.2IP, 1H, 2BB, 2ER.
Carter’s new line: 0IP, 2H, 1BB, 3ER. 1 Blown Save.
New Score: 5-5. - Doug Mirabelli pinch hits for Dave Roberts and strikes out, end of inning.
So, to recap. In one half inning, the Dodgers went from sending out former All-Star (but only because you need to send at least one player from every team, in his case, the D-Rays,) to close out a 5-0 lead to heading into the 10th, with the score tied 5-5. Now, here’s something interesting. We all know the Padres are probably my least favorite team. #29, actually. I’ll let you guess at #30. Anyway, in the 6 days and 5 games prior to today’s game, (and including today’s game, with the exception of the 9th inning,) do you know how many runs the Padres had scored? Five. In other words, their run total in the bottom of the 9th today was the same amount of runs that they had scored all week. In other words, you give up five runs to the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th, that’s bad news. But it isn’t too hard to do. You give it up to the Padres, you have serious issues. And that’s where this Dodger’s team is. If this isn’t solid evidence that the NL West is the biggest joke in all of sports, I’m not sure what else you need. Oh yeah, this right here.
I’ll update live-blogging style when the game ends, but I’m going to predict a Dodgers win, even though we’re in the bottom of the 10th now with the Padres up. Because, as previously mentioned, at the current pace the Padres won’t score another run for 9 more innings.
Update: Bottom of the 10th, 5-5.
Oh man. If you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. Let me explain.
- Dodgers send Tim Hamulack back to the mound.
- Mike Cameron strikes out.
- Brian Giles walks on five pitches.
- Mike Piazza walks on six pitches.
- Mark Bellhorn comes to the plate, ready to do his usual strikeout. And we’re off to a good start with a called strike in the lower inside part of the plate. But wait! Tim Hamulack has other plans! He feeds Bellhorn 3 straight balls, each at least one foot off the plate. Just when it looks like the Dodgers might walk 9 guys in one game, Bellhorn singles to left! Giles comes around to score! The Padres win!… for the first time since last Sunday! Yay!
Hamulack’s Line: .2IP, 1ER, 2BB. 1 Loss.
Big day if you’re a Padres fan. That is, if those kind of people really do exist; I’ve only heard rumors, never actually seen one. Finally, thanks to Deadspin for the link to the Washington Nationals story. In case you’re looking for a follow-up on that… still no word on an owner yet.
Yankees v. Blue Jays
Alright, so I’ve been watching the whole game but as I start this, we’re tied 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth. On back to back plays, Bernie screwed up. First, he missed a ball bouncing off the wall and allowed Alex Rios to score. But really, Rios might’ve scored anyway. But still, you can’t play a ball of the wall if you let it bounce past you. This resulted in a Frank Catalanotto RBI double. Next pitch is out to right field, (where Bernie is in for Sheffield,) and Bernie throws it to third in an attempt to hold Frank at 2nd. But Frank knows what he’s doing and makes a run for 3rd, and Bernie’s throw is seriously about 10 feet off. Again, even if it was perfectly on, it might not have made a difference. Bernie’s a great Yankee. I’m just saying, he’s getting old and it isn’t pretty. But would you rather have Bernie’s throw miss the bag by 10 feet, or Bubba Crosby overshoot the bag by 10 feet? Tough call. Recall when Bernie played a 20-second game the other night.
Ok. Bases juiced, 2 outs, A-Rod up. Now, some background information on the strike zone today – it’s pretty much non-existent. As I’ve said before, I’m a baseball fan before I’m a Yankee fan, (but not by much.) So I’ve got to be fair here. The truth is that this strike zone has been all over the place, even the broadcasters are admitting as much. Now, this isn’t a case of a couple bad calls. This has turned into the kind of game where you can’t really tell if a pitch is gonna be a ball or a strike until the ump calls it. Anyway, Chacin ends up walking A-Rod, which forces Damon home. And Jays manager John Gibbons just goes nuts. Not fair, he says. And of course, he gets thrown out, which followed Torre’s ejection just a couple innings earlier. In any case, it’s 2-1 Yankees.
Update: Bottom of the 6th, 2-1.
Well Moose has been lighting it up lately. Over 6 innings, he’s allowed 7 hits and struck out 7 while only walking 1. His seasons ERA is now sitting at a solid 2.31. Doin good, Moose. So good that I just picked him up in my 5×5, 7-team Roto league in exchange for the struggling Jake Westbrook. I’ve always thought Westbrook was just lucky to get the wins he got. I’m last place in ERA and WHIP, and Westbrook is doing all he can to keep me there. Another thing, this game has been exceptionally hard to follow without being totally focused. This is because MLB.TV is broadcasting the YES feed, but without the graphics, and using the radiomen as the audio feed. So there’s no scoreboard, nothing. What would I do without Gameday?
Update: Top of the 7th, 2-1.
Mussina just got pulled for my man Kyle Farnsworth. You can read that post right there for more info. And by the way, the 2nd most popular search that leads people to this site, (behind the "Manny cutoff throw" of course,) is "Kyle Farnsworth fight." Now, Posada just gunned down Alex Rios. And then we’re waiting for about 5 seconds before we get a call. And of course, by ‘call’ I mean Rios just leaves the field. Apparently the ump said something, like, "you’re out." And then Blue Jays replacement manager comes out to make a scene but thought better of it. And Farnsworth just struck out Frank The Cat. Vernon Wells up, 2 outs, bases empty. And Wells is down on 3 straight strikes. Yikes.
Some quick notes during the commercial break: the Tigers just beat the Twins, 6-0. Kenny Rogers, first-half star, pitched 8 innings, giving up 2 hits and 1 walk. How nuts would that be if Rogers threw another Perfect Game, and for the Tigers? Anyone who has seen "For the Love of the Game" knows what I’m talking about. But in any case, can you imagine throwing two Perfect Games in one career? Nuts. Of course, the best part is that we just swept the Twins, and outscored them 33-1. That’s really, really bad if you’re the Twins. We all know that their pitching is struggling, and we all know that they’ve never been famous for their offense. But 33-1? No way.
Update: Bottom of the 7th, 4-1.
Jeter doubles, and while the broadcasters are talking about Giambi being 0-12 against Jay’s reliever Pete Walker, Giambi takes him deep for a huge 2-run shot. And I mean deep. Walker left a pitch way over and Jason deposited it in the right field bleachers. Good job.
Update: Top of the 8th, 4-1.
Farnsworth just struck Troy Glaus again. Now he’s got 3 K’s in 1.2IP. And now they’re bring in Mo. Mo’s doing the old 1.1IP thing again, which reminds me that I forgot to ask you guys about why B.J. Ryan has been pitching 2IP every game. Why? Anyone have an answer for me? Thanks. And Greg just told me that, "Guess how long a pencil can draw, one line. Guess. 35 miles. One pencil, 400,000-some thousand. Think about how many miles you’ve written in your lifetime." I don’t use pencils though, I hate them. And Rivera just got Zaun to fly out to Phillips at first. Here comes the bottom of the 8th.
Update: Bottom of the 8th, 4-1.
So Matsui just got caught in a rundown, out between 3rd and 2nd. But he got Posada to 2nd, so it was ok. In any case, we’re still up by 3.
Update: Top of the 9th, 4-1.
So Rivera is doing his thing. And the Yankees win, thhaaaaaaa Yankees win! Alright, I hate hearing that. And the Red Sox just lost to – who else – the Devil Rays. Which means that we’re even on the standings now, finally. It wasn’t enough to better in nearly ever statistical category, we had to have to be better in W-L too, because, of course, that’s all that really matters.
PS:
Thanks for the comments Mike. Everyone should check out Mike’s Tiger’s podcast at www.dailyfungo.com. Again, this is similar to what Kevin and I hope to have up in a couple weeks. I know it seems like it’s always been a "couple weeks," but it’s always been "sometime after May 10th," because that’s when I’m done with school.
Anyway, as you all know, yesterday (April 29th,) was BHGM’s birthday. I plan on making a post sometime in the future that will be a little smattering of all the good posts we’ve seen. And I want your suggestions. So, if you had a favorite post or topic, email me or leave a comment at this post and I’ll try to include it. You can ask for Manny’s Greatest Play of All Time, but I’m already including it. You can jog your memory by clicking on the Classic Posts link on the left sidebar. Anyway, you don’t need to give me a post, just give me a topic.
Oswalt and the Reds; some Team Records
I started working on this post on Saturday Morning, but I just finished it up, cuz I spent about 8 of the last 30 hours driving.
Someone finally pulled Roy Oswalt off the Reds. Before Friday night, Oswalt was 15-0 lifetime against the Reds. 15-0. Never lost a game against them. Now, the Reds haven’t exactly been the Big Red Machine for the last few years. But to lose 15 games against the same pitcher? That takes something special. According to Reds Starter Brandon Claussen,
You would have to live in another world not to know [Oswalt] was 15-0
against us. That’s all everybody was talking about.
But, it feels good to beat a good baseball team, and to be in first
place.
Pretty much. Which made it all the more exciting when we found out that former NL Player of the Week, Red’s 2B Brandon Phillips, was completely in the dark about the whole thing. Phillips, who had been receiving very limited playing time with the Indians since 2002, had his highest batting average in 2002 with a .258 in 11 games. Now he’s hitting .356 with the Reds over his first 16 games.
Back to Oswalt’s 15-0. According to Red’s Manager Jerry Narron, "He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. He could run
off 15 in a row against anyone. I love watching him pitch." Clearly, Narron is in denial regarding the organization’s quality of play over the last several years. Oswalt’s good, but he isn’t that good – nobody is. Well, the Reds went over the Astros last night and Oswalt was handed the loss. For his part, Oswalt didn’t really do that bad. 6IP, 3ER, 8 hits, 3 BB, and only 3K’s. Clearly not very Oswalt-esque, but not Jeff Suppan-destruction style either. In fact, the final score was only 5-4, Reds. Either way, Oswalt is now 15-1 lifetime against the Reds. Still Reds Kryptonite? Yeah.
Soifer and I were talking about games this summer. Right now we’re looking at the May 20th Reds game at Detroit. And of course, Soifer brought up an interesting point – who would’ve thought that the Reds and Tigers would have two of the best records in the league at this point? Indeed, he’s correct. The Reds have the best record in the League right now, at 17-7. It gets a little more confusing because teams have different amounts of losses, but the Tigers are tied for the 3rd most wins in the all of MLB with 15. Now, we all know that April/May standings mean next to nothing, but let’s indulge ourselves. Right now, the MLB standing leaderboard goes something like this:
Reds (17-7), White Sox and Mets (16-7), Cardinals (16-8), Astros (15-8), and Tigers (15-9).
I knew the Tigers would be good. I didn’t think they’d be this good this far into the season. I also knew that SI was full of it when they called the Reds the "3rd-worst team in the League," but I didn’t expect them to be this far up. Either way, the "3rd-worst team" isn’t the "1st best team" 25 games into the season. I’m not saying the Reds win the Series this year. They were underachieving for the last few years and they’ve got a new manager now, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if they slowly fall back. The Mets will slide back a little too, of course, but they’re by no means a fluke at the top of this list; I’m 90% certain that Atlanta or New York will take the NL East, but that doesn’t take a lot to figure out. The Astros start also baffles me. What have they really done since getting off to a terrible start last year? They couldn’t start off this hot when Willy Tavaras was stealing bags every day and Rocket was going out and giving up about one run a month. I think this a simple case of picking up where you left off. The team is essentially the same (minus Roger, of course,) as it was when it went to the Series last year. The Cardinals are quietly going about business as usual, and the Tigers are probably playing a little bit above their level. But not much. And of course, another reason why the NL West is a joke: the Rockies are sitting on top of the division right now with a 14-10 record, while the Padres are on the bottom at 8-15. Only in a division that bad can the worst team become the best, while the former ‘best’ team becomes the worst, all without either making any high-impact moves.
As for the Yankees, we’ll catch up shortly – as it is we’re only a game back of the Sox right now. Not that April/May standings mean much, but at least we can finally stop hearing about how the Yankees are superior to the Sox in every category, only to hear Sox Fan jump out with, "expect in W-L!!!!" It happens every year. And now Beckett, Schilling, Wakefield, Clement, and DiNardo are returning to form. Well, DiNardo never really left his form. In fact, he’s the definition of a guy that simply should not be pitching in the Major Leagues. It takes a special kind of bad to go 18.1 innings, give up 15 ER and 31 hits. His ERA is 7.36 and he’s 0-1. Of course, if you don’t have anyone else to plug into your rotation, that’s what you’re stuck with. I mean, you can’t exactly plug in "Boomer" and his 15.75 ERA in his only day off the DL. Matt Clement has never been, well, good this season. His ERA is standing at 6.14, giving up 20 ER in 29IP. And Wakefield, to be honest, has a 1-4 record that really doesn’t look as bad as it is. In any case, we’ll be settling this all on the field tomorrow, so get ready.
I’m watching the Yankees game now, and as soon as this gets posted I’ll start live-blogging that game. Also, big ups to everyone who left a comment to the last post. Kellia, your thoughts make that metaphor all that more powerful. Dave, thanks for the kind words. I haven’t had a chance to check out either of your sites at length yet but I’ll get to it soon. For everyone else out there, Kellia runs "Down the Left Field Line: Life, Baseball, and Eric Byrnes," and Dave has another Yankee blog, "Mad Dog Reports." As always, anyone who comments on this site deserves ample run from here.
Happy Birthdays and Nationals ‘War’
First off, Happy Birthday to BHGM (1 year old tomorrow,) and my Mother (not telling.) I’ve got a great Mom who supports most of the stuff I do. But she thinks I’m wasting my money on anything baseball related. Oh well. In the next week or so I’m hoping to put up a post that will highlight the last year’s worth of blogging here on BHGM, so look for that soon. It should be pretty funny.
Do the Nationals have an owner yet? Well, no. Now, here is where it gets confusing, which is actually normal when you’re talking about the Nationals. See, on Wednesday, rumors were circulating that MLB was about to name a new owner. The rumors were apparently started by Jeffrey Smulyan’s "people." Smulyan is one of the three groups expected to receive the bid. The other two groups in contention are the family of Theodore Lerner, and a "syndicate" led by Fred Malek and Jeffrey Zients. Anyway, on Wednesday, (or was it Tuesday?) Smulyan’s people were telling everyone that the Lerner’s had just won the bid.
And this is where it gets really, really weird. See, Smulyan’s "people" were all over it too; according to one reporter, Smulyan’s "people" called him and told him that Ken Griffey Jr. would like to meet with him at RFK Stadium (where the Reds were playing the Nats,) and talk to about Smulyan as an owner, since he owned the Mariners when Griffey played there. Now, forget for a minute that Smulyan’s ownership tactics are absolutely irrelevant, and that it really doesn’t matter what Ken Griffey Jr. thinks about them anyway. In any case, Griffey never showed, and so the reporter asks one of the club’s PR managers where he is. Of course, he replies that Griffey is rehabbing a knee injury back in Cincinnati. So Smulyan’s people say that Griffey will call this reporter in the afternoon, but the call never came. Meanwhile, Smulyan himself is denying the reports, as are Selig and Bob Dupuy, MLB President.
But here’s where we climb deeper into the rabbit hole. Now, Bud Selig is saying that they are close to selecting an owner. In fact, the owner will be present at Thursday’s groundbreaking for the new Stadium that the city is building for the Nationals. Now I realize that you can deny that you’ve selected an owner, yet say that you’re close to doing so without bending any laws of logic. However, isn’t it just weird – not stupid, and not crazy – that a day after a story breaks saying they’ve found a new owner, MLB says they’re close to finding an owner after spending the entire previous day denying it? But whatever, that can be justified, even if the reasoning is standing on very shaky ground.
What can’t be justified is the $450 million price tag for the team. Yeah. Apparently, eight groups are asking MLB if they’ll take $450 million off their hands in exchange for the Washington Nationals. This is what’s really crazy. Ever see a house on your block for sale, and you decide you’ll check it out at the open house just to see what it’s like? You’re thinking, ‘compared to my house, this thing is probably worth $150,000.’ Then you see the owners are asking $300,000. And then the house sells in its third day on the market. You pretty much feel like you’re the only sane person left in the world. This is how I feel about the Nationals. Now, don’t get me wrong – like any real baseball fan, my dream is to own a baseball team. But not the Nationals. No one is going to the games anymore, they’re not winning games anymore, and their general manager has all but demolished the team. In short, off all the bad teams in the league, (with the possible exception of the Royals and Pirates,) they probably have the smallest upside. Oh yeah, and the oft-hated Padres. And you’re gonna give up money – almost half a million, no less – to get in on that?
Whatever. These guys must have made their money somehow, so they must know what they’re doing. They can probably pull an Angels marketing trick, (lest we forget that the name change was intended to make LA fans feel more included and draw them away from the stinky Dodgers,) and find some way to draw from the Orioles. Which won’t be too hard, seeing as they’re really bad. No doubt, that will make Peter Angelos go ballistic. Recall that he didn’t want the Expos coming to DC because they would draw from his fan base, and he made some outrageous claim along the lines of a $1 billion loss or something. It’s good to see that Angelos is more concerned with a competing team than he is about the fact that his team is getting worse and worse every year. Here’s a hint, Pete – if your team wins, you’ll sell more tickets. However, if you’re really bad, you won’t draw fans to the yard. I think Selig gave him a television network and he shut up.
Bottom line: Jim Bowden can get in the unemployment line now, because he’s about to be out of a job. The fact that the new owners are willing to pay for the Nationals makes me doubt their reasoning skills. But even the most rudimentary rules of business that even the most basic businessman knows dictates that what Bowden is doing to the team – destroying it – is a big no-no. He’ll be fired. Maybe at the end of the season, at the latest.
Strong showing on the comments, guys. Three for all of yesterday. We’re getting there. As far as the posting schedule goes, we’re looking at hopefully seeing something Saturday night or Sunday morning. Then we’ll be back to a daily format until Thursday or Friday, (4th/5th.) After that, we might see short posts like yesterday’s that aren’t too extensive and don’t have a lot to do with specific games until the 10th. I head home from school the night of the 10th (Wednesday,) and after that it won’t be long before the podcasts and website starting coming online. The website can be found at www.baseballradioshow.com. Anyway, I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to think that the next 10 days are gonna be the "new" BHGM – it’s just a short break.
Bonds won’t be celebrated; Griffey could be here now
Barry Bonds is just about to lay out the record books with a giant haymaker to the jaw. And this is what Selig has to say, regarding the fact that MLB will not ‘celebrate’ when Bonds hits #715 to blow by Ruth:
We celebrate new records, that’s what we do. We’re being consistent. There’s nothing to read into that.
Well that’s good. Because when Barry hits #715 – and I wish that he wouldn’t, but he will – this is what it’s going to sound like if you’re watching/listening to the game:
Here comes the 1-2 pitch… and this one looks like it’s.. gone! Barry Bonds hits home run number 715, Giants up 1-0. Moises Alou, first pitch swinging, ground out to short, that’s the inning. Giants are leading 1-0. We’ll be back after this break.
And rightfully so. Do you know why I don’t want an official celebration? It’s not just because Bonds cheated, and he did, it’s because he’s an a-hole. I don’t like him, and neither does 94% of America. So I don’t want him to feel special and accomplished when he hits out the Babe – my childhood hero, along with Ken Griffey Jr. – with number 715. And that’s the big reason I don’t want to see him hit #715. Of course, the official ‘non-celebration’ stance that Selig is referring to is because there is technically no record at 714, but rather one at 755. But here’s the thing – the media won’t be celebrating for the aforementioned reasons. MLB doesn’t wanna **** off the media, so they won’t celebrate either, and ‘no record’ is their pre-emptive excuse.
If it was Pujols, you bet they’d throw a huge bash. Did you know that if Ken Griffey Jr. hadn’t been injured for the last 15 years or so, this could be him? He’s 12th All-time with 538 home runs. When he moved to the Reds for the 2000 season, he had just hit 48 home runs in 1999. Check it out, but by my calculations, if he had been healthy he would have had an additional 80 HR, at least, by now. That puts him at about 620, 5th all-time, and at only 36 years of age. If he had discovered The Fountain that Bonds had, (and I do mean, played till his 40′s, not found a syringe,) he would only need to hit 20 home runs for 5 seasons to break Ruth’s record. Now he needs about 36 for each of the next 5 seasons, but with his health he’ll be out of the game by then anyway. Too bad.
Thanks for the comments, Jason. And what were you thinking, calling the Pirates a .500 team before the season? Yeah. The Pirates will be .500, and the Marlins win the World Series. Right.
Nats and Pirates
Right now I’m really pushing at the end of school. My last finals, (Calc and Bio) are on May 10th, but I also have a Chem and Calc exam tomorrow. I’m going to be really busy for the majority of the next two weeks. I still plan on making posts, obviously, but I don’t know how regular or of what quality they’ll be. Today is one of those days where, sadly, I don’t have time to write much. Here goes. If any of you non-MLBloggers out there have something you would like to say, email me (link is on the left,) and I might just throw you in as a guest writer.
The Nats are still looking for an owner. They want $450 million. Meanwhile, they’re getting swept by the Reds, recording record (low) attendance numbers, and basically being a downright awful team. According to one of the 19,000 fans that attended Monday’s game, "There was more excitement at Olympic Stadium when Expos fans used to bang the empty seats up and down as noisemakers."
The Pirates have lost 7 games in a row. And they’ve held a lead for exactly 1/2 of an inning, when they scored 3 runs against the Cardinals on Tuesday in the 3rd inning to go up 3-2, only to have 2 runs dropped on them in the bottom of the same inning. They’re now 5-18. They’ve lost 9 of their last 10, have allowed the most runs in all of MLB, and have scored the 6th-fewest as well. They’re ahead of terrible teams like Kansas City (74), San Diego (80), Florida (84) and Oakland (92), with 94 runs scored. With the exception of Oakland (but not really, unless you’re SI, who called them the 2nd best team in MLB,) there really aren’t any shocks there. If you continue up that list, Washington has scored 95 runs, Minnesota has 96, and Boston has 99. Again, no real surprises.
Also, in one of the stupidest acts ever committed on a baseball diamond, Devil Rays minor leaguer Delmon Young flipped his bat after striking out. At the umpire. The bat connected with the ump in the chest. Are you kidding me? That’s assault, bro. Heck, you can get a lengthy suspension for bumping an ump, let alone chucking bats at them. What a psycho.
That’s all for now. Geoff is right, this no comments deal is bs. We’re now at one comment since Tuesday morning, and if Geoff hadn’t stepped up we’d be at 0. That’s really pathetic. I might be back with something on Saturday night, otherwise sometime on Sunday. Tomorrow is my Mother’s birthday, as well as BHGM’s first Birthday. As I’ve said before, I suspect that this is one of the oldest blogs in the Blogosphere, just, no one really knows it.
Maroth, Dusty Baker v. BB, and Marlins
Tonight we’re gonna focus on Maroths (un)earned run, Dusty Baker wanting to do away with the Base on Balls, why the Cubs and Marlins are sad, upcoming games I’ll be attending, and tonight’s Yankees game.
Maroth came off the ERA leader board today, just as everyone was starting to cash in on him. He allowed 9 hits, giving up 4 runs and 3 walks while striking out 2 in 6 innings against the Angels today. Typical Mike Maroth, really. Now, I obviously didn’t see the game, but one of the runs scored when Chone Figgins stole third and continued home on Brandon Inge’s fielding error. For the rest of the inning, we had a ground out to short, a ground out to third, two walks, and then a fly out to right. So, in order for a run to be termed ‘unearned,’ a reconstruction of the inning without the error would have showed that the run hadn’t scored if the error hadn’t been committed. I’m going to assume that the scorer decided Figgins would have scored on the ground out to short. But still, isn’t a run scored on an error the definition of an unearned run? Scoring can be pretty interesting sometimes, huh. In any case, the Tigers finished the game with 2 hits, 5 walks, 8 K’s, and 2 errors. And no runs. John Lackey pitched the 8 solid innings for the Angels, accounting for the 8 K’s and 5 walks, as well as 1 hit.
It’s possible that the above game is the only case where Dusty Baker is right about any in-game tactic. A couple weeks ago Baker said,
I think walks are overrated unless you can run. If you
get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy
who walks and can’t run, most of the time they’re clogging up the bases
for somebody who can run.
Oh, alright. Well, like I said, this could be the only case where Baker is actually right. If you get 5 walks and only manage one hit in that time, those walks are basically no help to you. Of course, that’s the only tiny part of Baker’s statement that’s correct, and even that’s a one in a million shot. The day Baker made the above statement, the Cubs had just lost to the Cardinals 4-1. In the second inning of that game, the bases were "clogged" after two singles and one of those annoying walks, with Aramis Ramirez up. Ramirez grounded out but managed to knock in the Cub’s only run on the play. The Cubs had 6 hits and 4 walks through the whole game, yet only mustered that one run. See, it’s not that walks are useless, it’s that Dusty Baker is probably the worst in-game manager in the league, and he can’t take advantage of walks. He can’t honestly believe that walks are worthless. He’s gotta be saying that to prove to everyone that he really is "old school," or whatever.
In related news, the Florida Marlins won a game today against… the Cubs. Final score, 7-5. The Cubs and Marlins are two of the saddest teams in the league, but for different reasons. The Marlins are sad because they simply can’t produce anything, and when they do make a play, you’re surprised that they actually pulled it off. But, as much I rag on the Marlins, it’s not their fault. They’re not underachieving. It’s Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins’ owner, who should be held 100% responsible for the disaster that is the 2006 Marlins. Of course, it’s easy to argue that after 2005, when the Marlins were widely predicted as taking the NL East but didn’t come anywhere near the top for the entire season, that he decided to break up the team that wasn’t working and start over. And I guess that works. It’d be more believable if they had brought in just one quality veteran to help rebuild, but oh well. As for the Cubs, they’re sad because every day you look at the box score and you’re disappointed. It never adds up. For example, the Cubs drew 6 of those darned walks today against the Marlins, but managed only 4 hits and struck out 9 times. See, that should never happen. You just can’t see that many pitches and not put up more production, it’s just not possible. And 9 strikeouts? Lord. Look at some Cubs box scores for the next week, and I promise you that you’ll find at least one thing every day that just doesn’t add up.
Additionally, it’s official – Kevin and I, along with another friend of ours, Matt Soifer, will be attending the May 16th Tigers game against the Twins at 7.05pm. This is the first Tiger’s home game after the three of us get back from our respective institutes of higher education. We’ll likely be at the section you see on your right. We’ll also be in Section 103, Row G, in the Bleachers – sorry, the Pepsi Bleachers – on Wednesday, May 31st… for the Yankees; those tickets have already been purchased. We’ll probably make it to another Yankee game and a few games other games between the Yanks and aforementioned Twins.
Albert Pujols is currently the best baseball player in the game. More on him later in the week, or next week.
I’m currently watching the Yankees – Devil Rays game. First off, I’m getting really tired of hearing every broadcaster tell me about how dangerous Gary Sheffield is, and how hard he hits foul balls down the third base line. Now Jeter just singled to juice the bases. We’re down by 2, bottom of the 10th, 2 outs, Gary Sheffield up. 0-1. Sheffield takes 3 time outs, and they meet at the mound. 1-1. 2-1… Sheff grounds right to Wiggington at third, who bobbles it. I yell. Wiggington recovers, throws to 1st. The throw looks high… but it’s not. Game over. No big deal, really. You’re not gonna beat the Devil Rays, Royals, Mariners, etc, every time. And it was an extra inning loss, it’s not like we were never in it.
I was watching Law and Order earlier. Basically the cops busted into this place and found about 60 guns sitting around on the table. What do the inhabitants say? "I understand all those guns laying around doesn’t look good." No, they really don’t.
Well now I’m upset. No comments, from 10a Tuesday until now. That’s probably the worst performance I’ve ever seen. I mean, I don’t know what else to say. Are you freaking kidding me? I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual.
Midday Quick Shots
Today’s not a big baseball day for me. You regular readers know that Wednesday is my 9hr workday. And in between classes today, I had to write a 5pg math paper. That’s not fun at all. I have a calc and chem exam (9a and 10a, respectively,) on Friday as well, then a Bio focus group, and then home for the Mom’s Birthday. It might get lonely here. That said, a couple interesting things. Some short shots, if you will.
Albion College is nearby to an elementary school. Every day you see little kids walking around the campus in groups of about 60. I don’t know why this happens. Today I got to see them cross the street, military style. Anyone who has seen Black Hawk Down or Band of Brothers knows what I’m talking about. Proper military technique dictates that one soldier cross the road at a time; when he reaches the opposite side, the next soldier does his thing. That’s akin to what I saw today. A whole bunch of 6 year olds, all crossing the street two at a time. Really weird.
If you thought you were going to use the bathroom in my building today, think again. The bathroom is closed, to fix a water problem that I didn’t know existed. Well, that’s not entirely true. I know that there are only two showers with hot water. I know that one of the showers has water pressure. I also know that one shower, (which coincidentally has the hot water and pressure,) went out of commission about two weeks ago because the handle fell off. I also know that none of the water in all of Calhoun County tastes like water. So maybe there is a problem.
There are whispers that the Nationals are about to announce their new owner. MLB has denied the report. Nonetheless, Theodore Lerner’s bid is said to have beat out all others. The Nationals are his, if he wants them. Seeing as All-Star GM Jim Bowden is in the front office, they just got swept by the Reds, and the manager is already taking shots at the team’s record, I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned down the franchise. That would hurt.
I’ll try to make another post tonight. I got back from chem lab early today, and tried to watch a baseball game – only to get the slideshow effect from MLB.TV. It’s important to note that this is not MLB.TV’s fault, but Albion College’s fault. The entire 2000-student college has about the same bandwidth as my home network… no joke. There is no segment on comments today because no one left any comments. You guys should be ashamed.
David Wright stays, C. Young, Rocket, and Chi Sox
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David Wright won’t be traded
Good news. Turns out, David Wright won’t be traded after all. I know, you thought the "next Jeter" (which he isn’t,) was as good as gone, right? Again, maybe I’m the one living under the rock, but I had no idea that such a rumor was circulating. Apparently the Marlins were going to trade Dontrelle Willis to the Mets for our man David Wright. Why? Well, forget for a second that Marlin’s owner Jeffrey Loria says the rumor was "the invention of some irresponsible reporter," and "never happened." Frankly, I’m inclined to believe him, but lets pretend that someone in either organization wanted this trade to go down. If so, they’re the greatest Saboteur this side of Scott Eyre. Think about it. The money-starved Marlins trade away one of the best pitching values in exchange for a power-hitting 3rd baseman. The Mets get to replace Victor Zambrano in the rotation with Willis, thereby nullifying every aspect of the infamous Scott Kazmir trade, and further enraging their fans. Miguel "Runs like a Bus" Cabrera gets to head back out to the outfield to make room for Wright… no, I’m sorry. Nothing about this trade discussion that "never happened" makes any sense at all. The Marlins trade away the future and bedrock of their franchise for the future and "next Jeter" of the Met’s franchise. No way. Never. I’d give up Jason Schmidt for Ryan Vogelsong before I do Willis-Wright from either side of the table, and that really happened.
Chris Young
More good news – I’m even more scared now than I was yesterday. Now I’m terrified. See, Young has some pain in his pitching thumb. When I first heard this a few days ago, my first reaction was a ‘not good but probably temporary.’ But I’ll admit, I was scared he would turn around and pull a small-scale Kip Wells on me. From what I gathered, there was not only pain but a slight loss of control in the thumb, which made me suspect a circulation problem. Apparently I was right, as Young is now going on medication to correct the "decreased blood flow" to his thumb. All this after jamming a finger? That’s no good. I’m currently searching for a replacement for Young for my pay league Fantasy Team. If the medication doesn’t work, Young will take a trip to the DL. I’m gonna go way out on a medical limb and suggest that he’s taking something like Coumadin, a sort of blood thinner. I’m no doctor, but I thought it’d be fun to take a stab. In any case, the medication is obviously not a long term solution to the problem. If it’s serious enough that it doesn’t fix itself, Young will probably get an extended DL stint. Something more minor, (C’mon, who hasn’t jammed their finger like 10 times playing ball?) and he’ll do a couple weeks.
Rick Monday
I want to talk about Rick Monday’s 30-year anniversary of the Flag Saving. However, my writing style precludes such discussion. It’s hard to offer an opinion on situations like these without offending or alienating someone. Obviously I’m the first guy to take a shot at someone’s actions if they do something stupid, but I’m not here to bash people’s personal views and beliefs, regardless of whether or not I agree. That said – Monday was a stand-up guy for what he did. Even more, he describes it as somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction. Good to know that Monday, a former member of the Marine Reserves at the time, had his head in the right place.
The Rocket
And how about the Rocket Race? Is he coming back? I’m 100% positive that even he doesn’t know yet. Think about it – would there be anything more un-Rocket-like to keep the media hype going when he knows it’s unwarranted? If he knew he wasn’t coming back, he would’ve told us a long time ago. If he knew he was coming back, he wouldn’t be saying things like, "It’s very flattering [but] it would be a mental challenge [to come back]." We also have some other variables to consider. For example, why did Rocket take a short term contract last year in Houston? It wasn’t because that was all they would give him, it was because that was all he wanted. He knew then that he wasn’t sure whether he’d be back in 2006. Furthermore, recall that Rocket retired once already, but returned to active duty for Houston, saying that being close to his family was a primary reason. Meanwhile, the Rangers, Yankees, and Red Sox are currently the front-runners for bringing him back. That said, why would he sign with the Yankees or Red Sox? I’m also assuming Clemens doesn’t want his time to go to waste, so why would he go back to Texas? I’ll bet good money that if Rocket does come back, he’ll be back in Houston. I won’t hazard a guess as to whether or not he’ll be back, but I would say he’s more likely to stay in retirement, but not by much. 45/55 maybe?
Mark Buehrle and Ozzie Guillen
Ozzie Guillen labeled Mark Buehrle as ‘underrated’ after going 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA in his last 3 starts. Guillen claims that, "every day he has done the same thing for three years and nobody talks about him. The only time they talk about him was last year when he threw like a one-hour game." Uh, that’s not true. Sure, Buehrle is the most underrated pitcher in the game. It’s been that way for the last two years, which is why he’s been a member of four of my last five fantasy teams over the last three years. Frankly, I was convinced that would change after all the attention he would get from the World Series, but it hasn’t. Buehrle has always been one of my favorite pitchers because he’s fun to watch (quick) and he’s downright consistent. I suppose the only other time people were talking about him last year was when he snapped his 48 (or something) consecutive 6 inning start streak by intentionally beaning a batter, (I plan on talking about the League’s phantom beaning rules in a subsequent post). In fact, on April 30th, 2005, I said, "Mark Buehrle is the most underrated pitcher in the
Big Leagues. He has amazing control and makes batters look foolish when
he’s on." And no, Ozzie, that wasn’t the only time they talked about him last year. I’m sick of Ozzie Guillen lying and exaggerating, but I’m even sicker of everyone subscribing to his worldview. It’s tired, it’s old, he’s an *ss, and I don’t like him. Does it work? Getting on your players for playing bad baseball works, a little. Swearing at kids for asking for an autograph, or swearing at the media for asking a question, or swearing at the general public for doing whatever they do – that doesn’t win baseball games.
Carl Everett
Turns out, Chicago wasn’t big enough for two A-Holes, (three if you count Frank, which I’m not willing to do.) So, one of them had to go. GM Ken Williams opted to send off Carl "Fan is short for fanatic – he’s crazy about something he doesn’t know
about. And it’s proven that 99 percent of baseball fans have no idea
what they’re watching" Everett instead of Guillen. And yes, Carl Everett did say this. Then again, he also believes that we should implode Wrigley, and that if "everybody in the world" got on steroids, we’d still lose more kids to a war than steroids. Anyway, getting run out of town didn’t sit too well with Everett, who claims that the White Sox lack leadership with him gone and will finish third in the AL Central because of it. He now plays for the Mariners, and claims that Ken Williams broke up the White Sox chemistry. When asked before Monday’s game against the White Sox if he would say hello to his "buds," Everett launched the following shot:
What buds? All my buds got traded. They’ve still got some cool people
- Jermaine (Dye) and I are still cool. But I’m not here to talk about
them.
Nice class, Carl. When asked about this, Guillen replied, "He didn’t mention me. He mentioned Kenny. Ask Kenny." Luckily, ‘Kenny’ Williams was able to douse the flames by saying he had not and likely would not talk to Carl. Good to hear that they’re taking steps to prevent another Frank Thomas-like disaster in Chi-Town.
Jason isn’t gonna let you forget that Brandon Phillips did win the NL Player of the Week. And as for Julien, hailing from France, I can’t agree with you more, and I encourage you guys to check out his comment. Not surprising that you ended up here googling for "baseball athletically." Keep the comments coming guys. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much game coverage until at least Thursday. Finals are coming. I also remade the sidebar over the last couple of days, check it out.
Bruce Bochy, Burnett, and Games
Bruce Bochy – Word Inventor
The more I learn about Chris Young’s ‘injury,’ the scarier it gets. When I first heard about it, I was led to believe that he merely had some pain in his thumb that had been bothering him. Next, I thought there might be some structural damage done, because I heard he was gonna get an MRI today. But now I’m scared. Padres Manager Bruce Bochy said,
I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It is hard to figure out what is going on. It has us buffaloed.
Buffaloed? What does that mean? Stumped? Are you left guessing as to the nature of the injury? According to urbandictionary.com, ‘Buffaloed’ means "to have your spirit broken." Does that mean your chances of finishing on top of the worst division in the history of sports have decreased from 0 to 0, and now you’re depressed? Now, it’s possible that I’m the one under the rock here. Maybe people walk around saying buffaloed to each other all day, and it’s a regular in the American lexicon. Maybe. Why do I bring it up? Because it will probably end up being the most exciting thing that happens to San Diego all season, as they continue to duke it out in their mile-long park and crappy division.
A.J. Burnett and the Info Mask
According to "noted orthopedic surgeon" (Medical Note: these guys tend to be real jerks,) Dr. James Andrews, A.J. Burnett has no structural damage in his arm. Instead, he’s suffered a ‘reoccurrence’ of his Spring Training injury – the whole scar tissue thing, the one that, with some rest, would be good for another two years or so. Interesting. You see, there’s nothing wrong with him. It’s normal to make just two short starts between DL stints. Is this the same Dr. James Andrews that works for Cubs Pitching and Co.? I can understand Roy Halladay being "fine" but still missing two of three scheduled starts, but I don’t understand Burnett having "no structural damage" yet not being able to pitch. Of course, that’s not as bad as Prior having "no elbow injury" but being unable to throw a baseball. Or Kerry Wood being "right on track" but with no timetable for a return. This is why the Cubs will always be my favorite team to take shots at – they make it so easy. In case you haven’t been paying attention, I’ve probably beat up Larry Rothschild and Dusty Baker in each of my last 20 posts.
Bank of America Presents the National League Player of the Week Brandon Phillips
That’s commercial he11 right there. But it gets better. The last sentence of this ‘article,’ or advertisement, was so crowded I had to re-read twice to understand it. And even then, I knew something was wrong, so I read it a couple more times and then finally deciphered it. Here, it’s your turn, codebreaker:
In recognition of this honor, Tourneau, the world’s largest watch
store, is proud to award the Bank of America Presents the National
League Player of the Week Brandon Phillips with a Tourneau luxury Swiss
timepiece.
Ok? Is Brandon Phillips a dude or a corporation? And did you know that Bank of America – one of the largest banks in the world – started out as an immigrants "Bank of Italy," and took off after the Great San Francisco Earthquake, somewhere around 1911?
Boring…
When I got back from a long, hard day playing Butcher and dissecting little pigs, I decided to flip to The MLB.TV and see what was on. Turns out, jokes’ on me! No games on. I mean, unless you count Cincinnati v. Washington, Colorado v. Philadelphia, and Florida v. Chicago. If you watched or went to any of those games, you’re a real fan. Not to take another shot at Bobby’s Fish, but especially the Florida v. Chicago game. Is there a worse matchup then the undisputed worst team in the league (Florida,) minus their DL-riding "Rookie of the Year" v. the Prior-Wood-Miller-Lee-less Chicago Cubs? Probably not. The only exciting thing about this is Carlos "I’m about to lose control" Zambrano. Despite the fact that he managed to give up 3 runs to the Marlins in 7 innings, he has 12 K’s. This is not as cool as it seems, as one half (yes, .5, or 1/2) of the Marlins 8 starters in the lineup are hitting below the Mendoza line. For those of you unfamiliar with the Mendoza line, it’s .200.
It’s generally accepted that if you hit below the Mendoza Line, you shouldn’t be in the Major Leagues. Then again, that’s irrelevant as the Marlins don’t really seem to be in the Major Leagues anyway. Oh well. And Zambrano has only thrown 116 pitches through those 7 innings. At this rate, he’ll still have enough bullets left at the end of the game to pitch two innings tomorrow. At least, that’s what Dusty tells me. Meanwhile, Marlins starter Jason Vargas held the Cubbies to just one hit, walking four in 6.1IP.
Justin; I don’t really think the Tigers will put it all together this year. They need at least one winning season before they make it to the Big Time. But, if by ‘put it together’ you mean, ‘get above .500,’ then yes, I do believe this is their year. I think their offense is a lot more set than the pitching, however. We could use one more #3-caliber starter, but I’m not gonna push it. One more thing for all you commenters out there – leave your website address at the end of your posts. I want to be able to check out your sites as well, (I really do mean this.)
If I see any games tonight I might be back. But it’s gonna be a busy next two weeks, culminating in a Calculus and Biology final on May 10th. Post May 10th, I’m headed back home. A couple weeks after that, I’ll hope to have to podcast up and running on www.baseballradioshow.com. Until then, check out Mike’s Tiger’s Podcast at http://dailyfungo.mlblogs.com.
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