Now I realize that my ranting and raving seems kind of ridiclous, after all its an all-star game and I've written here numerous times about not coming down too hard on steroid users. After all, its a game, a pretty meaningless game that is meant to promote the stars of the game, spotlight some nice stories like Josh Hamilton and just be some fun, but that's missing the point. Sure Manny is a star of the game, his "Manny being Manny" antics have made him beloved by many in Boston and now Los Angeles, but the bottom line is HE BROKE THE RULES. It's pretty simple and I don't see why people think this is perticularly difficult, there are a very concrete set of rules and regulations for baseball and indeed in life, if you break one of those, perticularly one of the more serious ones that has you miss fifty games in a season it just doesn't make sense that you can be simulateously praised as well, its asinine. It's like someone getting arrested for breaking and entering and being put in jail and the next week he's elected to be mayor or given the keys to the city, you don't do something like that to a criminal because well they're not deserving of commendation, they broke the rules! The combination of the two is just completely incompatible by their very nature, making this development all the more puzzling.
Further, the All-Star game is reserved for the "all-stars" of the league, how can manny be recognized as one of the best in the game when he played maybe 25 games so far this year! Is he leading the league in any statisical category? Is he making any big plays for his team? No, because he's not playing! Why make him an all-star when there are plenty of worthy candidates of players who are bona fide stars or guys on the verge of stardom? How about Jay Bruce with 14 home runs already, Adam Dunn having a career year with his best batting average ever and already 42RBIs? There are countless guys out there who are plenty deserving of the honor who didn't get caught breaking one of the more publicized laws of baseball.
Maybe I should be happy about this development, after all I believe that Manny and many of the other steroid users should be recognized for their achievements, perticularly in the hall of fame and it seems that the fans are on my side. They more than anyone shape the game and they have pretty unanmously said that we don't care that they used steriods, these are the guys we love, we still think they're great and we're going to promote them and they have every right to according to the rules as they stand, but I say these rules need to be changed. The fact that that such hypocrisy is running rampant in baseball is shameful and Bud Selig should be calling an emergency meeting of the owners to fix this immediately and its not that hard, its pretty simple: Any player suspended, due to violation of Major League Baseball's drug policy, shall be ineligible for the next All-Star Game! Is that so hard? Because for all the work Bud is supposedly doing, he's allowing a lack of regulation to truly undermine the effects of suspension. After all, if you were a baseball player and you were considering taking steroids or continuing to take steroids the example of manny is a pleasant one, you can get caught punished, but ultimately you'll still be the good guy! It sickens me and I hope I don't have to watch that baggy pants bastard trotting around the outfield in Saint Louis, he broke the rules and should be punished, not praised.
I was watching the yankees-rangers game last night and the first place rangers (yes that's right) featured a young left handed pitcher who if you didn't watch you'd figure he's not that good, but in truth the stat line doesn't tell the whole story. Indeed, a final line of 5 innings, ten hits 6 runs (five earned) two walks and five strikeouts doesn't really scream dominance or even effective, but in truth between the lines I saw a dominant pitcher. For sure Holland is far from polished and has a long way to go before he becomes a really good starter, but the combination of his minor league numbers and the presense he has on the mound the bravado he exudes I could not help but feel like I was watching the beginning of a great careerfor this hard throwing lefty.
I had heard about the young Holland before here and there prior to yesterday and from what I heard there was little not to like. Ranked the number two pitcher in the Rangers farm system, Holland has the build at 6'2 190 pounds, and the stuff scouts love, throwing in the mid 90s and great secondary stuff (he even has a great pitchers name, come on tell me Derek Holland doesn't sound like a guy who's a nasty pitcher). But probably more importantly he has the pedigree in the minors to back up his rep. In only two years and change Holland shot through the system through 221.12 innings he dominated with a 2.68 ERA sriking out 245 while only walking an insanely low 64 and a tidy WHIP of 1.064, and he's not even their best pitching prospect! Of course he's playing in Texas and not a big market like New York or Boston so he came up to the majors a few weeks ago without more much a notice from a few fantasy baseball addicts so nobody really took notice, that is until he played the yankees.
After spending a few weeks in the bullpen where he pitched fairly well and a first start against the lowly Houston Astros where he pitched okay, 5 2/3 innings three earned his second start came up against the red-hot yankees where he decided to get pretty ballsy. I don't have the exact quote here but he basically told the press the day of his start well I haven't thrown a curveball since high school but I've been working on it here and there and I'm going to start throwing it tonight, I'm confident in it, and I was a little shocked to hear it. Here he is a kid up from the minors, one start in the majors and he's just telling the new york yankees I've never thrown this pitch before in professional ball but I'm going to tonight and I dare you to hit it. I mean there's a fine line between being ballsy and just being stupid and its very possible he crossed it, but to hear a young kid go up against the yankees and not even bat an eye is quite impressive.
Unfortunately for Holland his uncomprising bravado did not exactly translate to the field of play against the hard hitting yankees. Indeed, as his line will show you he was at times tattooed leaving his stuff over the plate too much, but at least for me I was impressed by the little moments. The way he stood confidently on the mound his demeanor and the stuff that he tossed so effortlessly past guys. I think in perticular of Hideki Matusi's first at-bat against the lefty which perticularly impressed me in the second inning. Matsui, a left handed hitter which would make you think the odds are against him actually crushes lefties and despite his slowing down recently he still can turn on the inside fastball with an incredible ferocity, but against Holland he just looked plain silly. He gave it his best hack on the high and tight gas but Matsui couldn't catch up to it, it was remarkable. Of course the next time he was up Holland left that same pitch over the middle and Matsui crushed it, when he was hitting his spots he was nasty and unrelenting.
Of course this is just my perception of the performance and I'm sure that there are lot of fans out there who saw him and would say the exact opposite. After all, he got crushed at times, Matsui's homer, Texiera crushed one into deep left, even the incomprable fourth catcher Kevin Cash got a big double off of him, but he never let it get to him. Holland knew his stuff was good he knew he was good, it just wasn't his day and even as he left the mound he did not appear to be defeated. For me that combination of great makeup and stuff and a healthy amount of confidence is the recipe for success for a pitcher. At 22 he's young enough where he'll have time to work out these difficulties locate better and trust his secondary stuff that he didn't need to use in the minors and become every bit the pitcher I see in him. All he needs to do now is do it.
To say that things haven't gone to plan thus far in the Queens would be a gross understatement in the eyes of many Mets fans. Indeed, after being given the dubious honor of being Sports Illustrated's pick to win the world series this year a lot of things have gone arwy. First Oliver Perez with his new 30 million dollar contract all of sudden forgets how to pitch completely (as opposed to how he usually pitches, great one day awful the next) then catcher Brian Schneider goes down, Daniel Murphy looks lost in left field, Delgado goes down for ten weeks, Reyes is afflicted with some mystery injury and now Beltran is down too. Damn now that's a long sentence, at least a run on or two, but if you were told all of those things happen, plus add in some other injuries or bouts of ineffectiveness by guys like JJ Putz, you'd think that Mets would be languishing in last place right now, but in fact that is not the case only a hair away from the first place Phillies a half game back with a record at 25-20. For sure, all these obstacles considered the mets could be a lot worse off, but yet when right fielder Ryan Church went to the DL two days ago desperation set in in the Mets front office and they brought up the still 20 year old super-prospect Fernando Martinez to fill his place and I find the move quite puzzling. Considered one of the top five prospects in all of baseball by many, his talents are numerous but at an age where he's still learning the game I question the mets sacrificing his development for the sake of unwarranted desperation.
As I mentioned above, Martinez has displayed a great deal of talent and baseball skill since the get go. Signing as a 16 year old with the mets, the outfielder has showed himself to be the coveted five tool player, hitting for power and average while displaying great speed on the basepaths. This combination has enabled the youngster to rocket through the mets system in three years to AAA and now the majors while still only the age of 20, but I fear it is too much too soon for the prodigously talented outfielder. Indeed if we look at his numbers thus far we see a player who's clearly talented, but there is concerns with his plate disiclpine and whether he will be able to handle major league pitching. Consider this year in AAA Buffalo Martinez hit .291/.337/.552, not a terrible line especially for 20 year old in AAA, but a .337 OBP is not exactly a great walk rate. Add in the fact that this number will only go down when he gets to the big show as he faces better competition, you have to wonder whether he'll actually be any help to the Mets. Compare that to let's say David Wright's minor league numbers where he displayed a great deal of patience having an on-base percentage of .385 in his one year in AAA and never OBPing less than .360, Wright epitomizes a guy who deserved to come up early and possessed the skills to excel as a major leaguer. In sharp contrast Martinez has never even approached that number and for this reason I fear bringing him up now will only embarass the kid and disrupt his necessary development.
The decision to potentially rupture Martinez's development is even more puzzling when you consider the Mets immdiate schedule and how ridiclously easy it is. Having come back from a perticularly difficult part of the schedule where they went west to face the giants and dodgers, the latter whom swept them, the hobbled mets went into Fenway Park to face the Red Sox, where they had only lost four times this year and took two out of three, not bad for a team that was missing Delgado and Reyes and Beltran was relegated to DHing duties. But now the schedule for the next few weeks gets really easy, a series against the nationals, then florida who has not played well recently, the pirates and then the nationals again before going to philly on June 9th. that's eleven games, 13 if you include the two wins against the nats already that the mets can breeze through, the absolute dregs of the national league who are all playing poorly and are emminently winnable games. Half game out of first, 13 winnable games against bad teams, what exactly is the desperation again? It would be one thing if they were facing a tough schedule and they were sliding out of contention, they've played well despite all the problems, so why hurt Martinez' development and possibly sacrifice his future when its not a dire situation?
Lastly, while it is a loss to not have Ryan Church out there for the next two weeks its not like they're going to be exactly missing his production. Through 39 games Church has hit a pretty atrocious .272/.328/.352, your right fielder is slugging less than .400! I'll bet a lot of pitchers have higher slugging percentages than that! My point is that the mets could find pretty much anyone out there to stand out in right field and get similiar production, but the truth of it is it hasn't hurt them to this point. The mets have managed just fine with Church holding a toothpick in his hands and played that into a tight race in the NL east, so why all of sudden do you NEED production from right field?
I think Martinez can and will be a good player for the Mets, permitted that he's allowed to refine his baseball skills in the minor leagues. he's got undeniable talents, but if the mets really think he's going to come up and hit .300 and 8 home runs in a month they're mistaken, he's a kid still and is still learning to play it at its highest level. Of course who knows he could hit right away, become a sensation and never go back down to the minors and be every bit as good as the mets believe he is, but I dont see it, not yet at least.
Well like I said this trade to the White Sox was no done deal, and Peavy eventually decided that this wasn't the right choice for him and its hard to blame him. Indeed, Peavy could have signed a deal more lucrative than the one he's got now elsewhere, but he wanted to be a Padre and he took less money to do it and an air-tight no-trade clause to make it stay that way. Sure the Padres are lousy right now, but in a very winnable NL West, who knows what will happen a year or two from now, a few good drafts maybe a trade or two and they're right back into the mix, you never know. Aside from that, he's in a great situation, he's in the ideal pitchers park where as I showed yesterday he excells at, he plays in San Diego, easily one of the nicest cities around and that probably makes him happy.
In contrast to that, its not hard to believe that Jake wouldn't see Chicago as a step upwards. Indeed, as a 20-1 drubbing by the hands of the Minnesota Twins last night showed, they're not looking that much better than the Padres thus far in pretty much every facet, pitching, hitting (White sox have the weakest hitting infield in baseball), fielding and every other thing you can imagine. All of these uncertainties make it unclear that Peavy would really be enough to get them over the hump, especially when you consider that Jake may even may not be as advertised when he moves away from the National League. It's impossible to project how good he would be, but it doesn't really matter because its not happening. Give Ken Williams credit for swinging the trade, he did everything he could to land one of the best pitchers in baseball, some things are just out of his control.
Well it seemed a little early for a blockbuster trade this season, but the Chicago White Sox General manager Ken Williams has rarely done things according to convention, as he traded today for the ultra-talented Jake Peavy from the middling Padres, probably. I say probably because well Jake hasn't approved it, and every indiciation he's given is that he's real real picky about where he wants to go,. First you hear he wants to stay in the National League, next he wants to go to the south where he's from, then it's "Middle America' whatever the hell that means, so who knows if he'll actually accept, but if does it is quite a coup de grace for the South Siders. Indeed, after being pursued all winter by the Cubs but to no avail, its the White Sox who land the talented right hander and they need him. At 17-22 the sox pitching has been pretty awful outside of Mark Buerle thus far thanks to some very slow starts to Danks and Gavin Floyd, but suddenly they made themselves a very serious contender in the wide open AL Central. Whether the deal goes through and Peavy lives up to his billing on the other hand, is an entirely different story.
While only 28, it seems like Peavy has been around for quite some time and in fact he has done a great deal to cement his reputation as one of the league's best pitchers. Having already won 89 games and a Cy Young, Peavy has anchored the Padres staff since he came up full time in 2002 through varying degrees of success that includes two division titles. Although not a big guy at 6'1 and 180 pounds, Peavy is mesmerizing to watch, throwing his whole body into every pitch pumping fastballs and sliders past national league hitters in devastating and effecient fashion, most notably in his Cy Young season two years ago where he struck out 240 in 223 innings while only walking 68. Yet despite such a long string of success for the hurler, Peavy is not without his concerns. As many around baseball know, Peavy has pitched all of his career at home at the cavernous Petco Park, one of the best pitchers parks out there and he has taken advantage of this. Indeed, his home ERA is a whole run lower 2.81 to 3.83 his WHIP considerably higher on the road at 1.298 to 1.085. For certain, not only is he giving up more runs and hits, he's not nearly as effective in the strikezone away from the pitcher friendly confines of Petco and this does not bode well for Jake, as last time I checked U.S. Celluar Field, the home of the White Sox has been notoriously a home run hitters park, and the rest of the league isn't much better.
This brings me to my other concern with Peavy is that a move from the National League with no DH to the American League where lineups are generally better across the board. Of course there is the matter of his stats in interleague play which actually is pretty good, 3.29 ERA over 120 innings with a 1.172 WHIP which is pretty close to his career line of 3.27ERA and 1.18 respectively, but this number is misleading because a good half of them had to be at home where the AL teams were not able to employ the DH and were forced to hit in the cavernous Petco and in fact the numbers show this fact. Of course these are small sample sizes but in some of the AL Central stadiums like Kaufman Stadium, Comerica Park and Jacobs field, Peavy fared considerably worse than career average with ERAs of 12.00, 4.50 and 4.76 respectively, not exactly ace numbers. Again,these are small sizes and you can't take too much from them, but there are no crooked numbers like those in any of the national league parks and its something to at least consider.
All this said, and without knowing who the white sox are giving up, you have to like the bold move on the part of Williams acquiring Peavy. Although there is concerns about the right hander, namely the fact that last year he was a fairly average pitcher with a 99ERA+, he is still young, in the prime of his career and probably most importantly he's under control for a fairly reasonably contract for the next two years, 15million and 16million the next. He's a competitive guy who will thrive in the wide open AL Central where his team stands a pretty reasonable chance to win it despite the fact they've played pretty poorly thus far, getting only a 17-22 start thanks to some poor starting pitching, but Peavy's presence can change that. For sure, you have a rotation headed by Peavy with Buerle, Gavin Floyd and Josh Danks that's a pretty good rotation right there, still in its prime and ready to win now. Whether that happens and as I mentioned earlier whether Peavy actually agrees to the deal is another story, but at the very least the White Sox have a good shot of reclaiming their former glory of 2005 with that staff.
To give you an idea of just how crazy I am, I've been asking myself for weeks this question, wanting to write this article but I hadn't made my mind up. I still haven't totally made my mind on the matter, but the fact that I can't wrap my mind around it pretty much explains the Blue Jay season so far, they're good they're hitting well and pitching great, but how? Indeed, if you were to look at this team on paper, there's no way this happens, they should be WORSE than last year, they lost AJ Burnett, their closer BJ Ryan has been hurt and throwing in the mid 80s, Dustin McGowan and Shawn Marcum are both out for good chunks of the season if not the whole season to start out of the season. Then Jesse Litsch hurts his forearm in his first start and promptly goes on the DL, only to have Rickey Romero their hard throwing lefty joins him there ater hurting his oblique, who the hell is left? After Halladay who's been amazing as usual, Brett Cecil a 22 year old lefty drafted two years ago, Brian Tallet, the old long reliever, Soctt Richmond, and Robert Ray a guy who's never pitched above AA and what's that gottent them? Why only 1st place in the AL east, 2nd in ERA, 1st in batting average against and OPS against, not to mention 1st in batting average and runs, and 3rd in OPS and slugging, you know just one of the best teams in baseball through nearly a quarter of the season, but how? Indeed, its impossible to argue that the Blue Jays have played very well despite losing players left and right, and they clearly are a much improved team from last year, I am still unconvinced that they can stay atop the dog-eat-dog AL East.
One of the most suspect aspects of Toronto's tear thus far is the quality of teams they've played. Indeed, it is no easy task to win more games than the Red Sox, Rays and the Yankees for nearly a quarter of a season regardless, the quality of the teams they have played makes me wonder if they're legit. Thanks to to some screwy scheduling the Jays have played a grand total of seven games against the AL east, three against baltimore which they swept (because hey, its baltimore), three against the yankees at home which they lost two out of three and one against the Sox which they lost. That's not so great for a team that is supposedly the class of the division, albeit in a small sample size. Aside from them their tough road games were against the struggling A's and Angels, Twins and the Indians twice, all of whom have losing records. What's more their strength of schedule is the third lowest in the majors right now, compred to the yankees who have had the third highest. Granted, you could make the arguement that those teams have bad records because they got beat up by the Jays, but they clearly lost to other teams too.
In addition to the scheduling, the pitching has been extremely lucky up this point as well. As I mentioned they Jays have been forced to use whatever pitchers they can get their hands on to pitch for them, and for some reason it keeps working, but a closer look shows they've been more lucky than good. Indeed, Scott Richmond whos 3.77 era is really unsustainable thanks to a very fluky .247 BAiP and Tallet's similarly lucky .227 say to me that they're getting by smoke and mirrors and this can't keep up forever. Additionally, Robert Ray has an ERA over 6 and Brett Cecil while very good thus far 1.80 ERA striking out 15 and walking 4 in 20 innings, he is very young and unproven, and as a consquence is prone to the ups and downs all rookies deal with it. Of course there is always Roy Halladay, arguably the best pitcher in the game and as long as you have him you have a chance to win every fifth day and this year is no different. In nine starts he's won eight times, a league high, striking out 57 in 68 innings to the tune of a 165ERA+, the guy is fucking money. That said, unless something happens and they get healthier, aside from Halladay this is not a playoff rotation and will be exposed sooner rather than later.
Although perhaps not as fluky as an independent league pitcher coming in and pitching to a 3 ERA, the hitting as been similarly fluky thus far into the season. Indeed, to go from fourth place in the AL east to first in runs scored in the entire AL without adding a few big bats a few guys had to come back with numbers that are career best that are not really sustainable. Guys like Rod Barajas, a career .245/.292/.413 are having unbelievably hot starts tearing the cover off the ball at a clip of .313/.346/.487 that really aren't sustainable or believable in the long run. Additionally you have guys like Scott Rolen, a guy who's been a great player, but has played more than 115 games only once in the last six years is also off to a hot start .312/.377/.452 but at 34 it seems highly unlikely that he will all of a sudden become the picture of health on the wrong side of 30. However there are some bright spots in the lineup that should be taken seriously, like the emergence of Adam Lind. A masher in the minor leagues who gets on base and hits for power, at 25 he has finally been given regular at-bats and is showing his prowess with the stick to the tune of a 125 OPS+, a guy like this is here to stay for awhile. Similarly the re-emergence of Aaron Hill is legit, although he probably is going to be sustaining that .343 average, he's not walking all that much as seen by the eerily close .370OBP. Throw in a healthy Vernon Wells a slumping but still dangers Alex Rios and a career year from Lyle Overbay, this is a lineup that should not be taken lightly.
In truth this is not a bad team by any strech, nor was it last year with the best run differential in the bigs that theoretically should have given the Jays a 93 win season, but it is clearly not as good as advertised as they sit comfortably atop the AL East. Of course, you bring back some more consistent major league pitching like McGowan and Marcum, a little more ABs from Lind and Travis Snider a promising young rookie hitter who can mash with the best of them, you're talking about a team that is loaded with talent to win, but not right now. For certain, it is a testament to the rest of the team to be succesful despite such bad luck with injuries and to just keep winning and scoring runs and pitching well no matter who's on the mound, but baseball is a sport about the long run, the 162 game season, and the pitching is not built to sustain the rigors of it. Of course, I could be totally wrong and they could just keep beating the odds all the way to October just as the Rays did, after all its not the first week of the season anymore. Still, even with the best pitcher in baseball, they're better, clearly not a fourth place team anymore but not quite ready to take on the big guys yet for supremacy of the best division in baseball.
It seems like a long long time ago at this point, but there was a time when Dontrelle Willis and Barry Zito were considered among the elite left handed starters in the game. Zito the 2002 Cy Young Winner with a stunning 23-5 record was seen as one of the great starting pitchers in the American League part of the vaunted Oakland Big Three. Zito dazzled hitters with his big 12 -6 curveball and change and deserving a reputation of one of the games best. Dontrelle too in Florida was making a name for himself as one of the games best young talents after being spotlighted in the 2003 world series and winning the Rookie of the Year. With his funky windup and lovable personality he baffled the national league for a few years, culminating in a 22 win season, but those days of the early 2000s seem like a long time ago. Indeed, both on new teams and new leagues the bloom is gone off the proverbial rose for a few years now much to the dismay of baseball fans and lefties everywhere, but last night brought a glimmer of hope for both. Stellar performances by both Willis and Zito unlike anything they've done in probably years give hope that perhaps they can recapture that former greatness and more importantly become a blessing instead of a burden to their respective teams.
In San Francisco its been a tough go at it for Barry Zito from the get-go. Hoodwinking the Giants ownership into giving him a then record-breaking 126million dollar deal, then a record for a pitcher, it was clear that he was not deserving of such a salary bump even before he signed. Indeed, following his amazing 2002 season there was a clear decline in Zito's performance, his ERA+ dropping from 158 to 134 and then down to 101, 113 and 116 respectively cluminating in no more than 14 wins a season except for one 16 game season, not surpisingly his contract year. Yet despite his seemingly neglible decline, Zito's reputation around the league was still sterling. Indeed, having never been on the DL, logging 200+ above average innings every year he was regarded as one of the most durable ptichers in the game. Additionally he was precieved by many to be the so-called "big game pitcher" pitching well in the postseason with a 3.25 ERA most notably out-dueling Johan Santana in Minneapolis for eight innings in 2006. For sure, he was not exactly worthy of the richest pitcher salary, but he was hardly a stiff, but that's exactly what he was for the first two years in San Francisco. Brought in to be the staff ace, Zito wasn't even rotation worthy for the last place team by the end of last year posting a career worst 5.15ERA and 17 losses to go with it. In short he was just plain awful, worse than league average while the young Tim Lincecum who made less than a fraction he made managed to win 18 and the Cy Young. But it seems to be a new day for Barry, startin out slow and looking very much like the pitcher who lost 17 games, Zito has turned it on as of late, lowering his ERA from 10.00 to 3.82 thanks to several very productive and effective starts, most notably last night where he threw a complete game five hitter (which he still lost thanks the anemic san fran offense) his first since 2003 and is suddendly looking like the dangerous lefty he once was with a very impressive 124ERA+ .
Is this the Barry Zito renaissance? Time will tell on this one, but if he can maintain a level of performance somewhat near this, the Giants are suddenly a pretty dangerous team in the horrible NL west, a team that maybe won't score a lot of runs, but with a rotation of Lincecum, Matt Cain who's been quietly very impressive with his 170ERA+, a hall of famer in Randy Johnson and Johnathan Sanchez, this team has the pitching to shut down a pretty lousy division to a division title.
Dontrelle Wills and his fall from grace was similarly somewhat easily forseen, but the depth of his collapse is similarly shocking. Indeed, in the seasons following his stellar 23 win season his effectiveness seemed to wane as his peripherals diminshed, with his walks jumping from 55 in 2005 to 83 in 2006 that included an insanely high 19 HBP. Additionally his strikouts went down and his homerun rate jumped from a very respectable .4 per nine innings to an astronomical 1.3 in 2007. In short, Dontrelle was losing it and and showing signs that he was no longer the dominant lefty he once was, but the fall that followed his trade to Detroit was sudden and indeed quite sad. Logging only 24 major league innings Willis wasn't even a passable major league pitcher anymore with a 47 ERA+ giving up home runs like it was going out of style and when he wasn't doing that he could never find the strike zone, walking an unacceptable 35 in those 24 innings. So as a result they sent him to the minors, to single A where he was similarly horrible; it was clear something was terribly wrong with Dontrelle Willis, and soon we found out there was. Early this season he was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a form of depression much like the one Zach Grienke suffered two years prior, but it seems now that he is on the track back to being a solid major league pitcher, having pitched 6 1/3 of one hit ball. What's more this wasn't against a bunch of stiffs, this was the red hot Texas Rangers, a team that is currently in first in the AL west and is carving up pitching, but the D-Train shut them down in dominating fashion.
Of course for the Tigers, a team paying Dontrelle a whole lot of money for a guy who finally got his first win with the club after two years is nothing but good for the club. A team last year that finished in the cellar of the AL central has leaped to the front of the division thanks to a change of emphasis onto pitching and defense, in which they are now in the top two in the American League effiency, and a healthy and effective dontrelle will only help them stay at the top. It's far too early to get excited about his rebound at this point, as its only one good start, compared to Zito who has several good starts under his belt this year to bring it down over seven runs, but the early results are very promising.
In truth, despite their recent surges there is not a lot of hope for their of these guys to regain their former glory, but at least now there is a glimmer of hope. Both have a great deal of work to do before we start declaring the resurgence of the D-Train and Zito, but for the first time in a long time they gave baseball a reason to believe that they still have something in the tank. Both are still young enough, Zito 32 and Willis 27 where a comeback is not out of the question and both possess the stuff to create the swings and misses necessary to be a good major league starter. It may lead to nothing for either or one or both but at least for one night these two formerly fantastic lefties gave us a taste of what once was.
This probably is not the most apporiate time to wax poetic about the Minnesota Twins, as they have just been swept by my Yankees in somewhat painful fashion, but I don't think enough is said about how good this team and has been for a long time. Indeed, while Billy Beene and the Oakland A's have gotten all the credit for being the small market wonder, but its the Twins who have being doing it for years in quiet obsurity in Minnesota. While other teams were allowed to make big signings and splashy trades, the Twins have been eternally hampered by their famously cheap owner Carl Pohlad, who has since passed, but they have not let it get in the way of their winning. Two wold series in the last twenty years, four division titles this decade while never finishing below third place, an MVP, two batting titles and two cy youngs, all this decade. Damn, I don't even think I realized how impressive that is until I typed it, I wouldn't feel too bad about that as a yankee fan, and they do it with a payroll a fraction the size of ours! For certain, despite their seemingly perpetual success the genius of the Twins seems to forever be in obsurity, taken for granted and its easy to see why, they're boring! There's no big headlines, no superstars in the tabolids (cough cough A-Rod cough) no clubhouse controversies, they're just a bunch of guys who play baseball and win. Well this writer has noticed, having picked them to win the division, and after seeing their vast depth of talent and consistency I maintain the Twins will be the last man standing in the AL Central.
I'm sure it seems strange to be showering a team that was just swept in a four game series with praise, but in truth they played much better than the results indiciate this weekend. Indeed, top to bottom this is a solid and dangerous team, most notably in their lineup. For sure none of these guys scream all world talent but as they showed this weekend they are talented and can put up runs, and it all begins with their 3 and 4 hitters, the M&M Boys Mauer and Morneau. Mauer, only back for a handful of games and 56ABs thus far is already crushing pitching hitting at a .417/.521/.767 clip with 6 home runs and 17 RBIs and Morneau is no slouch either hitting a brisk .340/.414/.653, both in the top ten in the majors for OPS+, just ridiclous. But its the rest of the lineup that really makes this lineup so dangerous starting with Denard Span getting on base at very rspectable .383 clip as the leadoff man, or the little known Jason Kubel whos mashing at a .326/.366/.538 level just to name a few. Indeed they've been grooving pitching all season, and thats without Mauer for most of the season, without Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer getting into a groove yet either. Not too shabby for a small market team.
But more than the lineup its the stability of the rotation that really makes this Twins team. For sure, since Johan Santana has left they haven't had anyone yet reached his level of dominance, but they are remarkable for their ability to find reliable and consisent starters time and time again. Whether that be Scott Baker who's first full season gave the Twins a respectable ERA+ 118 for 172 innings, Nick Blackburn with his 193 innings and 4.05ERA or the ace in waiting Francisco Liriano who has stumbled early this year while recovering tommy john surgery his still quite young and has shown an ability to embarass hitters to the tune of striking out 144 in 121 innings with a 2.16 ERA and an ERA+ of 207. Combine this with a superb bullpen headed by arguably the best closer in baseball Joe Nathan who since taking the closer job has only had an ERA over 2 once and had at least 35 saves every year, its a very balanced and deep team.
To use a baseball cliche this team won't win many style points but what they will do is win, just as they always do. I'm probably coming off like a Roman historian who praised the likes of Hannibal and Carthage up and down to make their victory all the more glorious, but to be perfectly honest, the yankees got very very lucky all four game and this series could have easily gone the exact opposite way if it were not for a few good breaks going the Bombers way. This is a team that should not be taken lightly, a team that may not get a lot of highlights on Baseball Tonight, but they will win, early and often, and that's how the Twins do it, no flash, no pomp and circumstance just good, smart baseball, regardless whether the baseball world cares or not.
It's no secret that I've been less than pleased with the Yankees play thus far this season. Indeed, floating around .500 thanks to a five game pasting by the Red Sox and a 5 game losing streak they've been all around shitty. As my brother will tell you, I've complained they've been just a mess, if they're hitting well their starting pitching sucks, if their starting pitching does its job, the bullpen blows it, if they don't we don't get the timely hit or play defense, and so on and so forth. Throw in having like half of the opening day starters out for significant time, I've been generally miserable about the Yanks' chances these days. But it seems the bad fortune and bad play couldn't go on forever, as all of a sudden the old and rickety yankees are the comeback kids, winning three in a row in walk off fashion (I was fortunate enough to be there for the third) winning five in a row, but is it legit? Have they turned the corner and are finally coming along and realizing their potential as a world series contender? Time will tell.
Despite the myriad of injuries it seems clear that the yankees are a better team then they were say a week ago, thanks to return of the Lightning Rod himself, A-Rod. Say what you will about the guy, but the guy produces a great deal, and when you have him in the lineup its a dangerous lineup. Instead of Texiera hitting in front of such fiersome hitters like the hobbled Matsui he's got the 3 time MVP there for pitchers to worry about. While it is true that lineup positions have not proven statisically that important, just having him in there instead of stiffs like my favorite Cody Ransom or Ramiro Pena making virtual automatic outs makes a world of a difference.
In addition to presence to our favorite PED enhanced third baseman, I feel like the addition of the younger catchers perticuarly Francisco Cervelli have been a big help. Now I'm in the minority on this one and Cervelli's numbers thus far have not been great, but in posada's absence he seems to be a more servicable everyday catcher than Jose Molina. Indeed, as last year showed, while an excellent backup, if Molina is used over a long sterech his weaknesses offensively are exposed and he's an automatic out. At the very least Cervelli is used the to rigors of playing the position everyday and has shown improvement at the plate and a great deal of strength defensively. Even moreso, Cervelli isn't a 100 years old like Jorgie is and he brings a degree of athleticism that neither Molina or Posada have. Indeed, I've seen Cervelli run out a few infield hits already that neither of those two stood at a chance. He's not my pick to successor for Posada, but it could be a lot worse for a third catcher.
Probably most importantly though is the improved performance of the pitching staff all around. Indeed, as the adage goes pitching and defense win championships and at least the much ballyhooed staff is starting to look the part. With Sabbathia coming off back to back dominant outings, Joba overcoming his first inning woes while still havning the second best ERA on the staff, Burnett looking better despite not registering a win since early April, and Hughes not looking quite as shitty last time around, its a whole lot easier to not be horrible when your starter gives you a chance.
You add all of these things up and you have a team that's starting to look a lot better, but ultimately I am not convinced. To use another baseball cliche, baseball is a game of averages, and as far as I can see they're definely as bad as they played, but they're also not as good as they played this week, how much better or how much worse is the part I'm not sure about but there are some red flags. For one that bullpen is still pretty atrocious with the likes of Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez stinking up the joint and two its a old team, that as the first few weeks of the season have shown, old players break down. Indeed, you don't see the Rays having a rash of injuries like this because they're all young and young guys are much less injury prone than older guys. It's been an exciting few days in the Yankee Universe, especially to be at the new stadium and not have my heart ripped out like I did last week, but I'm not getting carried away. Last time I checked the Sox and Rays are still around and they're pretty good from what I hear.
This game, the 1960 World Series game 7 where Bill Mazeroski famously hit a walk-off home run to beat the unbeatable Yankee team was a day game, can you imagine that today? Nowadays, FOX in all its inifinite wisedom has decided that baseball's most important series and their greatest moments ought to occur after 8pm the coveted "prime time" slot, if that game were to happen this year, that moment woul have probably happened around 1:30 in the morning and there'd be no one rushing the field like that because they'd all have work later that day, imagine what history would have lost! Well it seems that someone with a semblance of a brain is a FOX executive now because they decided that games should start before 8pm for some crazy reason and I couldn't be happier, well maybe if they made a few of them some day games, but its a start.
I know a lot of people don't really love day games, but I think they're the best, the way baseball should be played. Sure I myself and most other people have jobs that occupy their days which kind of hurts the market for the game on television, but I think that this fact makes it all the more desirable and romantic. Indeed, what's a better day than giving your best fake sick voice to call the boss and head out to see a day baseball game? While all your miserable co-workers are stuck in their cubicles wallowing away in under the bright floresent lights for a day you're out in nature, taking in the fresh air, eating greasy food, drinking some beers and enjoying the great game of baseball. Even if you aren't fortunate enough to get out and you're stuck at work, at least in my experience its hardly "work" following the game. Whether its on the radio or gameday audio on your computer or gamecast, nothing beats undermining the system by sneaking in on what's going on in the game.
Of course this relatively small gesture doesn't mean that world series day games are on their way back too, but its nice to see that the powers that be are slightly taking their heads out of their asses on this one. Sure maybe the games won't start in "prime time" but maybe a good trade off will be that the real crucial parts of the game will be instead of at 12:25am! They haven't said how much earlier, but I say the earlier the better.
As many of you know, especially those Red Sox fans, the picture above has become an all-too-familiar sight when David Ortiz has come to plate this year, and as somone who's used to seeing this guy clobber my team its very hard to believe. Of course knowing my luck, I'm jinxing the whole thing and Ortiz will start hitting balls out like its going out of style, but as April has turned into Mid May without a home run people are starting to wonder is this the end of "Big Papi"? (by the way, gayest nickname ever, how grown men can call another man Papi and think nothing of it is beyond me) While it is too early to start throwing dirt on his grave, it seems more and more clear that this is not the same guy who only two years ago was one of the most feared hitters in the game.
The rise of David Ortiz has always struck me to be a curious one. Wallowing in obsurity with the Minnesota Twins for years he was finally released, not traded released at 26 he was picked up by the red sox and you'd be hard pressed to peg him as being a future star. Never hitting more than 20 home runs, never posting an OBP over .350, never slugging over .500, he seemed like a very one dimensional guy, hitter who'd hit you some dingers and do very little else for you. But then all of a sudden at age 27 he had a year to remember hitting 31 home runs, driving in 101, slugging .592 and he just got better from there, hitting more home runs every year until reaching his zenith of 54 in 2006. And yet somehow 2006 seems so long ago while he still put up productive years, last year he put good numbers until last year and his fall as been dramatic and sudden. A bit suspect how he just become really good late in his career and and all of a sudden looks pretty forgettable now that steroid testing has become more rigorous no? I hate to go there, but it seems pretty plain that something was going afoul there and for me it's a shame that it seems clear that Ortiz is yet another among the many guilty parties of the Steroid Era.
Who knows, I could be totally wrong and probably Ortiz, who has been benched this week, could come back gangbusters and hit 4 home runs in two games or something, but its looking more and more likely that its not true and part of me is sad to see him fall. Sure, the worse the Red Sox are, the less difficult they are to beat, but its an empty victory when you beat Ortiz on a high fastball these days because frankly it happens all the time. Congratulations you're one of twenty other pitchers this year to embarass the big guy, and it doesn't mean as much anymore. Not that the Sox really need his help these days, thanks to the likes of Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia, but it seemed a lot more gratifying when we could shut down that fat bastard.
The Hardball Times, easily the best free resource of Sabermetric studies ran a very interesting and thoughtful article about the much discussed Micah Ownings that got me thinking this morning. If you haven't heard about this young man, he's a pitcher originally with the Diamondbacks now with the Reds, but that's not really why people talk about him. Indeed, if you were to look at his very pedestrian numbers thus far, an ERA+ of 95, a WHIP of 1.336 you'd think there isn't much to say about the guy. But it is his batting numbers that are so fascinating, absolutely crushing the ball at a .314/.345/.569 clip, as a pitcher! The guy has an OPS+ of 127! As you can imagine, there has been a great deal written about the guy, a guy who clearly has such talents with the stick who can pitch a little is a rare commodity indeed, and as Colin Wyers in the article so deftly asks, should they just make him into a hitter? Is it even worth him pitching so-so when that's taking away from his clear skills at the plate? Its a fascinating read and it has a whole lot more real good staticial analysis that anything I'll throw up here, but the whole question got me thinking; why change anything at all about Micah? Isn't he infintely more fascinating as he is?
Now the article doesn't precisely that something must be "done" about Micah, but the inferrence is clear and for good reason. Certainly if Micah is such a prolific hitter, imagine what he would do with 500ABs, what kind of hitter would he be? Now while I profess to be a great appreciator of sabermetrics and I can't say I have the same grasp of it the way these guys do, but I think its just not enough data to make a reasoned position on the matter and no clear cut solutions either, perticularly on where do you play him? Say you make him an outfielder, where does he play on the Reds? Dickerson is in left, Bruce is in right field, can you expect a pitcher play a competant centerfield? Do you take a chance putting him in the infield? For sure there is no clear cut answer to where you could even feasibly put him in everyday.
But for me at least I hope Micah stays as a pitcher because he's great just the way he is. Indeed, as I have stated before I love the idea of a guy who can throw it and hit it darn well, a guy who can dominate every facet of the game because he is in a unique position to do. Sure a fielder can make some nice plays in the field and get some big hits, but that's only a few sparse plays of the game, a pitcher is involved with all the important action throughout the game. Especially today as the game is so specialized and pitchers just routinely never take batting pratice and look like it when they're at the plate it's refreshing to see someone to come in at the nine hole and just crush the ball, there's nothing like it. So while he's not a great pitcher, league average is still good enough for the back end of the rotation in most NL rotations, enough to justify giving him the ABs to keep up our fascination. Because if he is converted to an outfielder I fear we'll never hear from Micah Ownings again, he's better in this small sample, apart from the scrutiny of 500+ ABs where pitchers can find his holes and make him look average. Indeed just look at the not so big separation from his batting average and on-base percentage, if he's not hitting he's not going to be that productive of a hitter. Keep Micah as the exception of the rule because its more fun that way.
It's a shame that steriods seem to be the news of the day everyday these days for baseball, but these guys just won't go away, bad news just keeps popping up every opportunity you get, and one of the reasons for that is this guy, the Rocket Roger Clemens. I just really don't get this guy, I can't say I've ever been a huge fan of the guy even as a yankee, his surly and haughty demeanor always rubbed me the wrong way, but when he ended up on the Mitchell Report I was a little surprised (even if I really shouldn't have). But while everyone else eventually came around and admitted it, including his buddy Andy Pettitte, Clemens has just dug himself deeper and deeper. He's marched to Washington over it, been on every talk show and anyone else willing to listen to him spew bullshit and where has it gotten him? He's lost friends, like Andy, disrespected his wife by blaming her for the steroids and revealing his less than faithful ways and pretty much ruined his reputation in the eyes of everyone who respected him. And whats worse is as John Heyman so astutely observed, he's probably more likely going to jail than Barry Bonds is now, the cheater of cheaters and rightly so. It's one thing that he did steroids, it was wrong it cheated the game, and so on and so forth, but as we have seen in recent years he's far from alone, but its an entirely other thing to go grandstanding and showing his utter comtempt for the accusation even though he has no real hard facts to disprove their accusations. Seriously, what has he brought to the discussion other than saying essentially "I'm the Rocket, how dare you accuse me of being anything less being god-like!"
All of this has been done to death by everyone with a computer and every sports writer worth the ink, but the whole enterprise seems so counter-intuitive. Just think of all the other admitted PED users like Pettitte and Giambi and the rest of them, they admitted it, they apologized and eventually people got over it. Were their careers forever slightly tainted? Sure, but at the very least they fessed up when they had to, and as fans have shown in the past they're willing to forgive if you can go back and perform as many have. Instead of that and possibly going into the Hall of Fame, Clemens doesn't stand a chance to and for good reason; he's an asshole. Instead of doing any of those things he has revealed his true nature to the public, a coninving, back-stabbing, arrogant prick who would throw anyone under the bus to attempt to revive and reputation, and a lot good that did. Indeed, after a year plus of this nonsense it almost seems sad in this pathetic tale of self-deception. Clemens was on the Mike and Mike show earlier this week and it hardly got a blip of press, and why should it? His lies are plain to everyone at this point, the evidence against him is so damning and clear, and any attempt to dispell them seems a bit ridiclous. For sure, who was Clemens fooling when he said he could never take steroids because of a family history of heart problems because his STEP FATHER had heart problems. Really Roger? That's the best you've got? In case you didn't know this, but STEP FATHER means they're NOT related to you dude.
Part of me is sad to see him or any great athlete fall from grace, but as they say pride comes before the fall. Clemens has only himself to blame for this fiasco and it will never get better so long as he pretends that these pesky facts don't exist. Give it up dude, maybe over time people will forgive you if you go up there and say "you know what i screwed up, I made a bad decision and I handled it poorly, I'm sorry" eventually people would not think he's a total douche, but th way things are going right now that will never happen.
There it is, my first glimpse of the New Yankee Stadium and what a view it is. As many of you probably know there's been a decidely mixed bag of reviews of this controversial new home of the yankees. Aside from the alledged home run problem, critics have claimed it to be too big, too extravagant too much designed to take your money and less to watch a baseball game. Indeed, these claims certainly have their merit and there is some truth to them, but while it is a stadium with flaws, I can say without hesistation that it is an amazing park. As the Yankees always do, ownership has always sought to one up the competition and be recognized as the biggest and best, and they did not disappoint with their new home.
One of the first improvements over the old stadium experience I noticed immediately was the parking. Now this sounds like a silly thing to be impressed by, as most stadiums just have a big parking lot you enter, but as most Yankee fans know that's not the case in the Bronx. Indeed, even if I got to the game on time, I spent the better part of a half an hour driving in the very shitty area of the Bronx that surrounds the stadium looking in vain for a parking lot or garage. This is a major pain in the ass and an incredible time and money waster, as I know many times I was forced to park in private lots that charged ridiclous fees like 40 bucks, or lots that were essentially back alleys that I was lead into by guys who looked like they were homeless. In short, it really fucking blew to park in Yankee Stadium, but now that all changed. Just within sight of the stadium you're directed into a shiny new parking garage that is adjacent to the stadium across the street. Its pretty big so you can get lost in it, but instead of showing up in the second inning I was at the game on time because parking was a sinch. Throw in the fact that it was only 19 bucks (if you've ever parked in New York you know you could do a lot worse) my viewing experience was already exponentially better before I even walked into the damn place.
The Stadium itself continues exceed expectations after situating yourself and your car. Just across the street from the old stadium and the parking lot, you can't help but be amazed how much bigger the new Stadium is from the outside and in. When you finally get in the place, which is also very easy as there are enterances all around the building and the lines move rather quickly, you enter the Great Hall and the name does not disappoint. Well lit with sunlight coming through the large window panes the cathedral high ceilings give a feeling of vastness that no stadium I've ever been to comes close. Indeed the sum of all these parts feels more like a cathedral or a palace than some place where they play baseball.
As I was admiring the splendor of the new park and its imposing entrance, I was quickly approached by one of the gazillion stadium workers there to ensure everything goes right. She was polite and curteous but deliberate, quickly determining where my seats were to send me in the direction I needed to go to keep the masses moving. For certain, her and all of the other stadium employees holding those stupid "How can I help you?" signs were in fact very helpful and informative. I have heard that these same people told a bunch of fans a game was postoned causing the mini riot outside the game, but at least from my experience they were really great.
From there I made my way to the concessions and then to my seat and much like Citi Field I was impressed by the quality and quantity. They had several stands all with different kinds of food like cheesteaks, garlic fries, pulled pork standwiches, as well as standard ballpark food and everything I had (which was a lot) was great, fresh, awesome tasting and they gave it to me in a timely and effecient manner. All that said, the prices were fairly outrageous for food at a ballpark, souveneir beers were ten bucks, cheesteakes were ten pulled pork sanwiches were ten, pretty much everything was really expensive and I spent a small fortune. But for the money I did get a very high level of quality but perhaps not as much of choice as they did in Citi Field, the new yankee stadium was hardly lacking.
Finally, after all that the experience when you finally get to your seats is one to remember. I was lucky enough to get some free field level seats in right field so I got a good look at everything and its quite a ballpark to say the least. From the ridiclously large high def screen in center, the comfortable seats that are pratically like sitting on your couch, the sight lines and everythng else made my experience a memorable one. This however, does not mean I am not without my criticisms of the layout. Like many others I have an issue of the closeness of most of the seats, perticularly the bleacher seats. If you've ever been to old yankee stadium you know the bleacher creatures are one of the strengths of the park, the most racoucus and beligerent fans the yankees have cram together on bleachers and just give the opposition hell , while being pratically on top of them and thus unavoidable. But now, the bleachers (which was one of the few totally packed areas I might add) is practically on an island apart from the rest of the seats. The right field ones especially are behind the bullpen so they hardly get a chance to do any damage, they're hardly even in the park! Indeed, like they always do the creatures were causing some serious havoc up there with fights and everything you'd expect from the fanbase's biggest group of assholes, but if you were anywhere else than where I was sitting you hardly knew it was going on! For sure, this is easily the biggest weakness of the stadium, as the designers seemed to have willingly removed one of the teams biggest strengths.
Overall, it was a great experience, despite the fact that Yankees sucked some serious cock most of the game (I'll leave my comments about the team's best attempt to ruin my experience another time). Despite what some critics have said, when there came a big moment, at least in my section the place was rocking and it was an exciting time all around. I would not consider myself one who waxed poetic about the "old" stadium, mainly because it wasn't really the stadium of Mantle and Ruth, it a stadium built in the 1970s that took all the old stadium's best traits and shit on them, so I was glad to see improvements made and they did not disapoint one bit. The Yankees made a great and wonderful stadium and at least from my experience they ran very well. The prices of course are ridiclous and need to be adjusted but you're not paying for a cut rate stadium, its worth every bit the 1.5billion they spent. The issue of the empty seats clearly needs to be addressed and hopefully with some price adjustments they will fix it but when they do it will be a suitable heir to the house that ruth built.
Its sad that's its becoming almost routine to hear about the heroes of the game becoming linking to steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, that even the guys you were sure weren't doing it were are all falling by the wayside. It seems now that it is Manny Ramirez's turn to be exposed as a cheater and a defilier of the game joinin the ranks of countless stars who have come to embody the steroid era and it is a shame indeed. Despite his recent controversey with the messy divorce from Boston Manny has been regarded as among the best and brightest, one of the all time great hitters this game has ever seen and a wacky and carefree personality to go along with it. Anyone who ever watched any baseball had heard about Manny being Manny doing bizzare and funny stuff like going behind the scoreboard at Fenway to take a leak, jumping for a catch and giving a fan a high five, and so on and so forth, he gave the impression that he was a guy who just loved the game and loved having a good time. But beneath this flip exterior lay the heart of a warrior, a man obsessed with his craft of hitting who tirelessly worked to be one of the game's most feared hitters. In short, Manny seemed to epitmoize what was good and right in baseball, boundless talent that allowed him to acheieve unbelievable feats, but still being a kid at heart and loving the game of baseball (and that's coming from a yankee fan). But now it seems beneath the surface lied a dark and sinister secret, that those amazing feats were not so natural, that it was somehow tainted. Yet despite this overwhelming sentiment, I feel that more than anything this is not about Manny but yet another example of how rampant steroid use has been. Indeed, it wasn't just the Giambi's and Bonds' of the world but even the natural looking Manny and A-Rod, that everyone was in on the take, to get the edge to be the best, and who can blame them?
Although it is not entirely clear yet what Manny took or tested positive the prevailing view is that it was a woman's fertility drug, a drug that is used by steroid users after they cylce off of steroids to regain their natural production of testosterone in their bodies. If that is the case like A-Rod and all the users before him his credibility seems to have vanished. How can we know he hasn't been juicing all these years? He's been caught in a time of new tougher testing, and its pretty easy to deduce that if he was doing it now when it was harder to do, he probably was doing it when there was no testing, namely his time in boston. Indeed, Bill Simmons laments this point and whether their titles are now tainted, that he and Ortiz who also seems like a likely candidate for juicing although nothing has been discovered or proven, that they are less legitimate because they were won by ill-gotten means and I don't blame his concern. After 86 years of futility the Sox exercised their collective demons, but they did it by cheating, by dishonoring the game, but I do not agree. As so many positive tests have shown and so many have said like the incomprable Jose Canesco this was not just a few isolated players, practically everyone doing it, hitters pitchers everyone, and why not? Sure it was illegal, but it was easily gotten and there was no testing and no repurcussions for doing it, it was a win-win, you get better baseball through chemistry and the fans are the none the wiser, everyone wins! Of course, the reality is that in the end the game of baseball's integrity is the real loser, tarnishing the accomplishments of the players who did it without any of that and played the game the right way and thats the shame of it.
But is it fair to just say well no one gets in the hall of fame now, all the cheaters can forget it? I don't think so. Yes these men were cheaters, but they were a product of their era, caught up in the demands of the time. That doesn't make their misdeeds any less wrong, but more understandable. These are men of extraordinary ability and drive, men whos livlihood relies on their ability to throw or hit a ball, and they sought to get the edge, to stay on top as long as they could. Indeed if you want to blame anyone or anything you must blame the whole of Major League Baseball and the culture that allowed this to go on and in fact encourage it, an era that baseball sought to save itself from the lockout, but in the end it seems to be a phyrric victory. So do I think any less of Manny now? No, it just means he's just what I thought he was, human, just like everyone else.
The famous Sports Illustrated Article by George Plimpton recalls the story of a mythical pitcher for both his pitching prowess and eccentricity named Sidd Finch signed by the Mets. Endowed with unbelievable arm reaching other-worldly speeds in the high 150s and an even more other-worldy demeanor it seemed to good to be true. Of course the story is a hoax famously published on April 1st, but it seems there are those in the baseball community to believe we have found him in our midst, the real Sidd Finch in the flesh, and he pitches in San Diego. Blessed with an unbelievable fastball reaching 102 reguarly and an unhittable slider that comes in at 91 on average he has decimated the college ranks like never before. Striking out an unbelievable 147 in 57 innings while only walking 15 this year, which includes a 23 strikeout game, he has descended onto the baseball scene like a revelation, embarassing the best hitters out there like never before. Indeed, his feats are so unbelievable and so unprecdented, and his story so unlikely, undrafted out of high school, nearly run off of his team for being out of shape, that it is almost too much to believe too much to fathom. Is this real? Is he as Scott Boras so aptly put "fucking Sidd Finch come to life?" or is it merely an mirage, vanishing before you get too close.
To be sure, as a no doubt first pick for the Washington Nationals, the odds are surely not stacked in his favor to become a great pitcher. Tom Boswell of the Washington Post puts its succintly
In the entire history of the June draft since 1965, NO PITCHER who was taken in the Top 10-overall picks has ever had a Hall of Fame career. Zero. None. Zilch. And none close.
The closest, and they aren't even remotely close, are Kevin Brown (211-144), Dwight Gooden (194-112) and J.R. Richard (107-71). No one else has more than 169 career wins; and of all pitchers drafted since '65, only 14 have won 125 games.
Among active pitchers, Josh Beckett (91-64) may have a chance to be a Hall of Famer someday. Or we can dream about young Tim Lincecum. But the pickings are very slim.
The closest, and they aren't even remotely close, are Kevin Brown (211-144), Dwight Gooden (194-112) and J.R. Richard (107-71). No one else has more than 169 career wins; and of all pitchers drafted since '65, only 14 have won 125 games.
Among active pitchers, Josh Beckett (91-64) may have a chance to be a Hall of Famer someday. Or we can dream about young Tim Lincecum. But the pickings are very slim.
For certain, if Strasburg is as great as he is billed to be, he'll be one of the few if not the only to ever live up to the billing of the next great phenom, and its not hard to see why they fail so often. Especially in todays world of sports where everything is so scrutinized these players are under the microscope from the very start, expected to come out of the draft and be everything that the teams paid for, dominate major leaguers the same way they did with high schoolers and college kids, but its not that easy. These guys are professionals who take their jobs very seriously and if you aren't going to be smart and just throw in there even if you do have great stuff its going to be a hard adjustment. You put all of that together and dump it all on a kid who has been told how great he is and had his ego stroked for years about what a revelation he is, its easy to see why all too often phenoms fizzle under the pressure.
But as so many say, this guy is different. Indeed, as it has been re-told countless times already, Steven has worked very hard to realize his unbelievable talent. Coming out of high school he was by his own admission a fat piece of crap not even hitting 90 on the gun and looking very unspectactular. And whats worse is he lacked the fire and desire to become a star, opting to hit up taco bell instead of the weights and even telling scouts "don't draft me, I'm not worth it" which they in turn obliged going barely noticed to San Diego State of all places. Here he continued to wallow in obsurity and not taking his career seriously until one day the light went on and everything changed. He lost the weight, got in shape and seemingly out of nowhere his boundless talent emerged. His fastball improved as he became stronger 90, 95, 98, and now he lives in the 100s, and become a wonder like no one had seen before. What a turnaround for sure.
With the first pick in the June the much maligned Washington Nationals are expected to draft him, along with his allegedly borderline insane contract demands of 50 million thanks to his agent, the much viriled Scott Boras, but is it worth it? Especially for a franchise that has been just god awful for a long time, making dumb move after dumb move this is a move that could make or break them, crippling their franchise with a horible contract that will keep them from making other moves in the future and stuck with a lemon or immediately vaunted to the top of the league with the world's most unhittable pitcher, is it a risk worth taking? This of course is the decision for the Nationals to make to decide whether he's worth the risk if he is really every bit as talented as they say he is, but if it were my decision I would say yes. Sure, the odds are against him and he's no sure bet, but in truth which prospect is? As anyone who has followed baseball for any length of the time there's a hundred "next big thing" guys who never pan out for everyone one who does, its a crapshoot. Even if a guy dominates high school, college and minors theres no promise that he'll be every bit as good in the majors, so even the most conservative drafts or sure thing is never a sure thing.
All that said, if every draftee is a risk, why not take the big risk, take the leap and shoot for the moon? If you've ever suffered through a Washington National game you know that they might be the biggest collection of stiffs ever assembled on a ball field, what are they going to do, suck more? Who knows, despite their extreme indeptitude the Nationals may have stumbled upon a revelation, a phenom like we've never seen before, our real Sidd Finch.
If you were to look at the pitching lines of some of the dodgers staff for the last month you'd be hard pressed to believe that they are the team to beat. With Kiroda down for a few months the staff has been shaky at best, relying on james mcdonald sporting a 8.16ERA and never lasting more than 5 innings, a feat he accomplished only once. After him it doesn't get a whole lot better, with the much ballyhooed Clayton Kershaw who has been dazzling at times, striking out 13 in seven innings agains the giants, but has been spotty, lasting less than five innings three times already and with a none too impressive 5.46ERA otherwise. Eric Stults has similiarly been unreliable, averaging barely 5 innings with an ERA of 5 as well. Now you take all of that, three of your five starters giving you less than five innings a game, and those innings being some pretty shitty innings, how are they possibly so good?
I don't have an answer for the question entirely but it seems the rest of the dodger team is playing at a very high level, with Torre getting spectacular performances from Orlando Hudson, who's smacking the ball with a line .311/.411/526, an improved Matt kemp hitting of .289/.369/.515 which has his on base and slugging going up considerable, and Andre Ethier smacking the ball at .327/.439/.574 coupled with manny's typically spectacular .348/.491/.641. Wow just collecting those stats is starting to make the reason for their success very clear, they're just obliterating the ball i mean to have all of those guys in the same lineup hitting at such a high level thats insane, wow. Add in some stellar bullpen performances despite Torre's best efforts you've got a team that despite some serious pitching fallings are off too an insanely hot start.
All this said, I don't buy this team being as good as they're playing. Sure they're not a bad team and judging how the rest of this division has been looking, perticularly my sleeper the Diamondbacks who have looked very bad so far, they could win the division going away. But when it comes to face the rest of the league and possibly in all of the majors they're going to have problems. If 3/5 of your staff is consistently sucking when its their turn to go, and the other side of your staff is injury prone and mediocre Randy Wolf and "due for a sophmore slump" Chad Billingsley (he's awesome but not as your most reliable starter, not yet at least) you're asking for trouble. Sure they're offense has been spectacular but can they honestly expect to keep this up all year? Hardly, such a performance would be record setting. As I am apt to say time will tell on this one, they've clearly got talent, but they need a whole lot more from their starting pitching to reasonably expect to compete come October.
I haven't posted a whole lot if you noticed, and its because these assholes have made my baseball viewing experience miserable. Indeed, if you've heard over the last two weeks or so the Red Sox have embarassed the Yankees whether that be in Boston or New York and it's beyond painful for me to watch or admit, but they're just too damn good. Sure they're not a perfect team by any means, their number three hitter David Ortiz has a grand total of zero home runs, their revolving door at shortstop seems to have stopped at Nick Green right now, but they're just too damn good. The yankees may have spent a great deal of money to improve themselves but if you saw any of these "games" I'd call them massacres its pretty plain that they're as a perfect as a team gets. Great fielding, hitters who are patient enough to work counts and wear down pitchers but aggressive enough to hit it out of the park at any moment, superb starting pitching with obcene depth, and top it all off with a nasty bullpen top to bottom its a team that makes my heart sink.
I'll be the first to admit I'm spoiled as a yankee fan. In 1995-6 when I started watching I was still in elementary school and they've just gone on winning ever since, I don't know any other way other than that from my beloved yankees so I take it especially hard to lose to them, but it seems plain that we're second or maybe even third best in this division. Indeed, I imagine I feel how many red sox fans felt in those salad days of the yankee dynasty, even when things are going up I feel the oncoming dread of eventual loss, and for good reason because they've got it all. They've got the smartest baseball people, Theo, Jed Hoyer an the rest of the Yale Boys, a weathy and dedicated owner in John Henry and add into that mix Bill Freaking James, THE greatest baseball mind we've ever seen! They make all the right moves, draft all the best guys that no one else expected, make smart trades and free agent signings and even if they do mess up and get burned on a deal they have the depth in their system to make up for it. So Julio Lugo sucks? Well we've got Jed Lowrie waiting in the wings! Didn't sign Texiera? Welll we've got Lars Anderson, rated one of the top ten prospects in baseball by Baseball America to play first base in a year or so! It just makes me cringe.
I'm not saying that the yankees are a "bad" team or that they in turn do everything wrong, but compared to how the sox run their organization its hard not to look they're run by morons. When the yankees screw up they screw up big, they get it plastered all over the news, when they overcharge fans for tickets they hear about it the most even though the red sox have done it for years. They're just the team of the decade, the team of the moment, so brimming with talent and smarts and good fortune that it always seems like they always get the big hit when they need it, they get the dominating start from the kid from the farm, a ball goes through the right hole in the infield and so on and so forth. I just fucking hate it, it makes me sick but its hard to deny, impossible even. Maybe the yankees will rebound, in fact im sure they will they get A-Rod back and their bullpen can only get better from how they've looked now, but even then I can only see them being second best, a wild card maybe to the Sox's smooth sailing to the top of the standings. We fans of the baseball world are living in the golden age of the Red Sox and I couldn't be more miserable about it.
Now those scant few of you who read this regularly know how I feel about this sensationalism that is coronating the New Yankee Stadium as "Coors Field East" that the new stadium was an abomination a disgrace to baseball and it would ruin the yankees. Now I'm not saying this is affirmation of my thesis because its all too small of a sample size to start freaking out, but consider the last four games at yankee stadium. In four games, the same amount the Cleveland series where 20 were hit, a mere 9 were hit with five of those coming in one game. Now does this mean anything? No it doesn't but neither do the first four games, ITS JUST FOUR GAMES. Like I said earlier, its baseball, crazy shit happens all the time in this game, and when you get two teams that hit the crap out of the ball with lousy bullpens and starting rotations that have some suspect members its very possibly and indeed likely that 20 home runs can be hit in four games, that's how baseball goes. But as the next four games showed I believe baseball is a game of averages, there's some ups and downs but in the end things even out. Indeed, if we had flipped these sets of fours games, would anyone be talking about yankee stadium as a fucking disaster? No.
At least for me this whole "crisis" is just yet another example of the national sports media's zeal to make everything sensational. Everything needs to be this huge problem, everyone wants to flip out about a bad day or few days. If you're smart and look at the big picture instead of cherry picking and jumping to conclusions like so many in the media do, its pretty evident that you can't say anything substaintial without substanital data to back it up. Who knows maybe the stadium will prove to be a true home run haven where balls just fly out like never before, but until that happens over say oh I dont know a season, or at the very least a half season all this talk is a lot of crap.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
My Blog List
-
-
OKC's Sam Presti is an overrated draft savant6 months ago
-
-
A Goodbye and a Thank You5 years ago
-
-
About Me
- burnsie77
- Morristown, NJ, United States
- I write and read everything I can about baseball and have some thoughts about it.