Sorry for the lack of posting, I haven't had the time/energy/anything worth writing about recently, but I'll do my best to pick up the pace. Anyways I was reading Tom Verducci's list of all-stars for his offcial ballot and while its not bad it inspired me to give my list of all-stars just the starters and the reasoning behind it.
American League
1B. Mark Texiera - I realize that he may look lacking in areas such as batting average, as he only is batting .276 but when you're OPSing over .980 it kind of makes up for it a bit. More importantly, despite his really awful start to the season the raw numbers don't show precisely how utterly dominant this guy has been since then, as someone who's seen him everyday he's carried the yankees with his bat and at least as importantly with his defense.
2B. Aaron Hill - I'll agree with Verducci here, I knew he was hitting well but 19 home runs with a line of .302/.340/.506 from second base, well that's pretty impressive. Especially when you consider that his career was seriously derailed by a concussion that he didn't get over for a very long time its been remarkable. Indeed, you watch them enough its plain to see that Hill has basically carried this team, and this is down from where he was a few weeks ago.
SS. Jason Bartlett - God help me I pick a freaking Tampa bay Ray over my man Derek Jeter and I almost did pick him over Bartlett given that he's missed a good chunk of the season the DL but the guy's numbers are still better, .368/.404/.566 with 17 stolen bases and 6 home runs compared to the Captain's .309/.384/.455 with 19 stolen bases and 9 home runs. To Jeter's credit its still good and an improvement from last year but its hard to argue with those numbers and his stellar numbers. All that said I still want Jeter to win and I'll vote for him because he's a yankee and damnit what would an all-star game be without Jeter?
3B. Evan Longoria - Man I feel like I'm copying Verducci here but you can't argue with Longoria the disussion begins and ends with Evan this year. Sure A-Rod is playing better but he's hardly been all-star caliber its not even worth discussing.
OF - Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, Jason Bay - a lot of deserving guys for sure but these three stand out for me for various reasons, all having career or breakout years and seem to me to be great overall players
Pitchers - Zach Greinke, Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, John Lester, Justin Verlander
I could list more but I won't just two reliever and five starters is adequate, all of these guys have been absolutely lights out all year.
As you can see I suprisingly thought the fans did a decent job with the all-star teams, with some exceptions like Pedroia over Hill who's clearly having a better season, but for the most part the fans will get to see the best of the best.
It seems like a long time ago but three years ago Dice-K was a living legend, a near myth. Indeed, some baseball insiders had heard about him and in the first World Baseball Classic we got our first glimpse of the wonder of the far east, a diminiutive pitcher who threw in the high 90s and a proverbial kitchen sink of off speed stuff, sliders, curves, cutters, and even, at least alledgedly the "gyro ball" a pitch that sounded like it was out of a Dr. Seuss book. For sure Daisuke Matsuzaka to many here too good to be true, a pitcher who was treated like a god in japan was available to every american baseball team, at the right price, and it seems today it was too good. For sure, as Daisuke Matsuzaka goes onto the DL for the second time this year already with shoulder problems it's hard to say that the man has lived up to the myth and has made at least some question whether the Japanese model of baseball could ever translate to the rigors of the american game.
Daisuke Matsuzaka burst onto to the scene in Boston to quite a bit of fanfare for sure. Indeed, I remember going to spring training games in Fort Myers, FL the home of the red sox and I couldn't help but be amazed how many "Matsuzaka" shirts I saw on the backs of red sox fans, this guy had never even pitched a game for the Sox and they already adored the guy! As a rookie perhaps he didn't quite live up to the billing but he represented himself well of what was to come, leading the team in innings pitched and sporting a not so awful 4.40ERA striking out 201 in 204 innings but walking a pertty horrible 80 batters. For sure, from the early going you could see watching the man they called Dice-K was a troublesome and stomache-ache inducing event, throwing tons of pitches in a very deliberate manner walking guys like it was going out of style and constantly nibbling at the corners, never ever giving into the hitter. And yet somehow despite his especially infuriating style, it just worked, he somehow always managed to get out of the jams early on, and in truth it didn't matter much because the team was on a roll, crusing to an easy AL east title and despite falling behind the Indians in the ALCS, won that and the World Series, why worry? Plus the next year he was even better spotting a 2.90 ERA to go with a 18-3 win loss record, for sure they had the makings of an ace right? Well perhaps not as Dice-K's location problems only worsened, seeing his strikeout numbers plummet to 154 in 167 innings which walking a leage leading 94 batters, how? How did he seemingly always find a way out?
Well it appears that Matsuzaka's luck has run out early on this season as the former myth is looking very human and emantly hittable. Having a 8.91ERA 18 walks and 34 strikeouts in 35 innings Dice-K isn't fooling anyone and as many will tell you harder and harder to watch. Indeed, one friend of mine who's a red sox fan tells me he can watch a game where Dice-K pitches and check on two or three channels in between pitches, its just brutal. Now of course there is a possibility that he'll recover from these problems but the numbers don't seem to give him much hope. Three DL stints in two years, diminished strikeout numbers and increased walks, all signal to me that at the end of his contract, the Red Sox are going to be very very regretful to have invested 103 million into this guy and given his history it shouldn't be suprising. For sure, Matsuzaka has been the poster boy for the campaign against babying pitchers. Look at Dice-K he throws every day, works on little or no rest constantly and he's been fine look at him! Well as we can see now with the advantage of hindsight such talk is fool-hearty and shortsighted.
Perhaps he will turn it around or perhaps some other japanese pitcher will come over and be able to translate his dominance to the american game, but its looking less and less likely as time goes on. As two consecutive WBC titles will attest the japanese game is a good one and a succesful one at that, but if the Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Parks of the world have shown us anything its that it doesn't work in the long run, and in a time in baseball where players fight for the big long term contracts, that's not something owners will more and more be reluctant to give it a whirl.
A few weeks ago Sports Illustrated put a 16 year old kid on their cover who they gave some pretty high praise, The Lebron of Baseball, the Chosen One among others and his rap sheet read like a tall tale. 96 mile per hour fastball, 570 foot home runs (that's right 570), .626 batting average, it was hard ot believe, I had to see it to believe it. Thankfully we live in an age of youtube and I got my wish very quickly. If you get a chance look for it and the boy, check that, the man, named Bryce Harper is pretty incredible. Indeed, as you can see above the power display took place in Tropicana Field, and I've seen my share of games there, but I've NEVER seen anyone hit the ball where he was hitting it, it was pretty unbelievable. Well in the weeks since the publication of the SI cover story Harper has become a bit of a sensation, with clips of hime on YouTube to hundreds of fans showing up for HIGH SCHOOL GAMES and it seems that Bryce is siezing on that right now. Although only 16 years old, Harper is getting his GED and enrolling this fall into a community college to play with older kids and a wooden bat, but most importantly become draft elligible at the tender age of 17, but is he justified? Should he sacrifice his high school years for the big bucks? Although some may argue I say yes, chase your dreams Bryce, you're wasting your time in high school and your talent, get on the fast track and see if you really are every bit as good as they say.
There are many, like Jeff Pearlman whom I respect greatly who would argue that Bryce is rushing into things. Indeed, he and the rest of people of who echo his sentiment make a good point, after all its only another year more that he'd have to be in high school and there's probably a great deal he'd miss in social development, but at least from what I can tell, Bryce is no ordinary sixteen year old. For sure, as a guy who has been "the chosen one" by scouts everywhere he hasn't lived a normal life up to now, he's been on the road at home run derbys, all-star games all over the country while other kids were home grabbing drinks from their old man's liquor cabinet, he's just on another track. Indeed as a guy who's already routinely gets asked for autographs whereever he goes, this is not some 16 year old kid, on the field and in life he's a man, so why bother spinning his wheels in high school? Besides, his stock is high now, why not get the money when he can, who knows what will happen in the next two years? He could get hurt and never play again and he'll never be able to capitalize on his talent, but at least now Bryce stands a chance of cashing in on his gifts, the longer he's an amateur the greater the risk to him as an investment.
The other and probably more important reason for Bryce going to college to become draft elligible is that he seems like he's ready for it. Now granted my exposure to Bryce is limited, and fine writers like Tom Verducci are very deft at making their subject appear anyway they want to, but reading his quotes from the article I was struck at his confidence and maturity. For sure, after being told you're the best thing since sliced bread for so long can be a detriment to a young man, but Bryce seems to embrace it, but not content with the honors. Indeed, Bryce has big dreams and high aspirations for himself because he's a competitor at his core, a guy who wants to prove he's every bit as good as people say he is, which is why he's doing what he's doing now by enrolling into college. Sure Bryce could beat up on high school kids for the next two years, but he's not content to do that, he wants to be challanged to hone his skills and prove himself to the doubters and take the next step.
I for one am rooting for the kid, it would be such a shame to see Bryce never realize that talent that right now seems so boundless. After finding out about the guy and his character and how he handles everything he seems like a good guy a guy who has the wherewithal to do it, I just hope he doesn't become another flameout in the long line of "Next Big Things."
Well this weekend marks the second weekend of the season where we roll out our favorite "rivalries" for interleague play, but why? Okay, thirteen years ago, this was a really interesting and novel idea, why wait until the world series, let's play the other league, see teams that we've never seen before, watched some rising stars we haven't heard of yet, and so on and so forth, and it worked in principle. Indeed, as any baseball person will tell you interleague play is good for baseball, it cuases more people to watch, more people on average show up to the games which of course means more money in the pockets of owners and players alike, but is it really better for baseball? Sure as a yankee fan at first the novelty of playing the Mets was fun and interesting, but who really cares at this point? For certain, while an interesting idea and a good way to boost interest in the game when it was sagging, the novelty and usefulness of interleague play has run its course. For the most part it causes lackluster series matchups (who cares about rockies-tigers?) and most importantly it takes away from the great peannant race in which major league baseball is predicated on.
As I mentioned above, while there are some series that are intriguing, for the most part interleague play produces some pretty lackluster series. For sure, for every white sox- cubs series, there is five twins-cardinals series, royals-diamondbacks series and rays-brewers series, do any of those really sound that interesting? Sure these are teams that your hometown team doesn't usually play, its novel and can be interesting, but it was only novel a decade ago. Now in 2009 I've seen the yankees play the dodgers play twice, the phillies two or three times, and so on and so forth, it doesn't really excite me that much because they're kind of irrelevant. Yeah okay so you beat the world champion phillies a few times, but if you're not even the best in your division it wont matter a whole lot. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but the prospect of going to say Cleveland or Detroit a few times a year instead of once sounds way more exciting. Indeed, there was a time not long ago when the Indians and the Yanks had a pretty lively rivarly going on, for years battling one another all year, now? We go there once a year, once a year! That's the same amount of games we go to the Mets ballpark! At least for me novelty is no prize when it comes at the stake of more important american league battles that have far more juice to them.
The other aspect of interleague play is forcing pitchers to hit when they haven't done it all year or for many for years at all. Now I realize that this sounds hypocritical of my love of hitting pitchers, but its just plain unsafe to have a pitcher who hasn't done any running of the bases or hitting to just step in the box against major leaguers. In an ideal world they'd always be doing those things and the DH would be gone, but this is not an ideal world we live in and as such pitchers just don't do those things and as a consequence end up looking foolish. The best example of this is of course Chien Ming Wang, a guy who never hits or runs the bases last year got a freakish injury on his foot that he really hasn't recovered from. This just may be a yankee fan's sour grapes, but it doesn't suprise me all that much if the same were to happen to any other american league pitcher who just isn't used to doing this things and all of a sudden is forced to do on the highest level of baseball played in the world.
Of course they'll never get rid of interleague play because baseball doesn't make its money off of baseball traditionalists like me, and its a shame because it really takes away from the great pennant race. Formerly the main feature of the baseball season, there used to be no playoffs at all up until the world series because it was seen as sort of redundant. Indeed, it was the feature of the regular season, the 154 or 162 game schedule where you played the rest of your respective league over and over to decide who was the best in baseball instead of some silly five game series. But now the glory of that pennant race has been sullied by interleague play. Instead of having to play its peers a large chunk of a team's schedule is against teams that have no stake in the pennant at all. Some teams can get a lucky break and play a shitty division that year en route to a dozen or so easy wins to pad their win total while some other team ends up playing a tougher division and in turn could get decimated in the long run. Of course its baseball and to be the best you need to beat everyone so you could argue otherwise, but at least for me the luster of interleague play has long since faded, give me back my pennant race.
Bloggers seem to have always gotten a bad wrap ever since this whole blogging thing started and the case of Raul Ibanez is no different. Indeed, ever since the "blog" became a legitmate tool for fans and people everywhere to voice their opinion (like your humble writer) the mainstream media and the so-called powers that be have not liked them nipping at their respective toes. For sure, players and writers alike have grown accustomed to dealing with only "professionals" writers who went to school to talk about their subject and for some reason their opinons are worth more, that they in fact have some sort of god-given right to say what they say because someone is paying to put those words into print. If you can't tell from my dry tone I really think that this way of thinking is a load of crap. Of course, these men and women of the journalism world are more qualified than us peons who are just fans with day jobs. They have access that we don't have, know things that we don't, and most importantly the time and resources to get to the bottom of the issue, because well its their job. But the matter of opinions is an entirely different issue. For certain, as with any subject, whether that be movies, books, politics, everyone has an opinion, it may not be the most learned one or rooted in truth, but in the world of a free press we can voice those today better than ever. Blogs such as these give me and other people a platform to be heard, to put their flag in the sand and be heard and why not? I'm being a bit roundabout about my point, but in the case of Raul Ibanez and Jared Morris the blogger who insuated that ibanez might be on steroids is yet another case of the mainstream trying to discredit the blogosphere and diminish our importance or ability to voice our opinons and Ive grown weary of it. Ibanez is a public figure, an entertainer playing a childrens game for millions of dollars and playing at an exceedingly high level at the ripe age of 37, if he doesn't like the criticism tough shit, go live in a mountain then because this is the era of baseball we are in and suspiscion knows no bounds.
My last sentence seems exceedingly callous and unkind, but the reality is it is Raul who's been naive and mean-spirited.
"I'll come after people who defame or slander me," he said Tuesday night before the Phillies played the New York Mets, according to the report. "It's pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there."
"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said, according to the Inquirer. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."
Pretty harsh words for a guy who never even directly said "Raul Ibanez did steroids" here's what he said;
"Maybe the 37-year old Ibanez trained differently this offseason with the pressure of joining the Phillies' great lineup and is in the best shape he's ever been in.
And maybe that training included ...
Well, you know where that one was going, but I'd prefer to leave it as unstated speculation. However, if Ibanez ends up hitting 45-50 homers this year, you can bet that I won't be the only one raising the question. And judging by my buddy's message board post this morning, and questions like this in public forums, people already are."
And maybe that training included ...
Well, you know where that one was going, but I'd prefer to leave it as unstated speculation. However, if Ibanez ends up hitting 45-50 homers this year, you can bet that I won't be the only one raising the question. And judging by my buddy's message board post this morning, and questions like this in public forums, people already are."
Perhaps you could accuse Morris of not being a great wordsmith, but the lines here are less slander and more an accurate depiction of the state of baseball. As I have said time and time again here with all we know about steroids now and how prevalent they have been in the last decade plus the entire sport is under investigation. One by one superstars have been found out to be the cheaters they are and time and time again guys that we were "sure" didn't juice came up on the Mitchell Report or a positive test or BALCO or whatever, its everywhere. In short we live in a time as baseball fans where the whole sport is subject to suspicion by the fans and media alike and when something seemingly out of the ordinary happens we pay close attention. Sure maybe it is not said right away or even directly stated, but when a 37 year old outfielder who's made a career of being a pretty decent leader all of a sudden is in the top 5 of OPS home runs, batting average, RBIs and pretty much every other statistic you'd have to be naive to at least wonder if things aren't totally on the up and and up, and who could blame you! We've seen it before! Barry Bonds breaking the home run record in his late 30s, bums like Brady Anderson and Brett Boone all of a sudden hitting 50 and 40 home runs, Roger Clemens suddenly finding a few MPH on his fastball in Toronto just to name a few who at the time "just happened to have a comback year in the late 30s" who were found to be the cheaters they are. Does that make Ibanez a cheater? Of course not, but it's at the very least suspcious.
I really do hope Ibanez doesn't come up on a positive test nor do I wish any player does (well except for Ortiz, I know he's a cheating bastard) but if he did I can't say I'd be too surpised, he wouldn't be the first or unfortunately probably not the last either. It is, as the saying goes, a sign of the times in our national pastime that we are forced to be ever watchful, ever keeping a critical eye on someone who just suddenly becomes leaps and bounds better or packs on a few pounds of muscle, and who could blame us fans, we've been duped too many times not to be! These are the times we live in and in these times as public figure you have to at least be able to deflect or deal with criticism like this, its the nature of the job, and if they can't he should just go to his mother's basement, I'm sure there are no bloggers there.
If you didn't catch the yankees-red sox game last night, you didn't miss much, it's a story we've seen seven times already this year, but what stands out is the yankee pitching. Indeed, after getting a horrible horrible start from Burnett (I hated the signing, still do) the earnstwhile ace as everyone is so fond of saying went to the mound and was similiarly horrible and it was nothing new to this writer. For sure, when Chien Ming Wang came back from Lisfranc surgery on his foot last year I knew he'd take his lumps before he got back, but that's all he seems to be doing these days, taking his lumps. Sporting an unbelievably bad 24.50 era to go with his 0-4 record the guy has just been absolutely awful, and yet they still trot him out there, why!!!
Look I get that he's done it before that he was a good starter for a few years, but past performance does not make up for just shitting the bed everytime he takes the mound, its beyond atrocious. Lasting only 2 2/3 innings last night wang gave up 4 runs on six hits and six walks, and that's an improvement! And naturally there are plenty of apologists from the yankee camp who say oh hey look his velocity is up oh he's got a lot of movement on his pitches blah blah, bullshit! The point of baseball is to um, get outs and he's not doing that one bit, he's arguably been one of the worst starters in the history of baseball for chrissake, I mean the guys batting agsint him are OPSing at 1.027 a clip! That's like MVP numbers! That's right the former 19 game winning is making bums like Sean Green hit like MVPs its remarkable, horrible and more importantly completely unacceptable.
I'm being semi-incoherent I realize, but the whole stiuation is making my head hurt. To be performing so poorly, to be getting hit around so badly to basically do everything wrong and yet they keep trotting him out to start, even when its against the Red Sox who own the yankees? It's crazy and the in truth the insanity must stop. Put him on the DL, make him the long man, something, because this just isnt cutting it. As Phil Hughes showed last night in his relief appearance 3.2 innings 5ks 2 runs thanks to his only mistake of the night, he's at least passable and is showing the yankees that he can at least hang in there against major league hitters, Wang in contrast is not.
Who knows, I really hope that he can turn it around and become a competant starter again, because as AJ Burnett showed the night before, we need all the help we can get, like maybe Burnett getting hit by a truck, but Wang pitching effective would be good too. As I've said here before I don't think the yankees are in the Sox's league right now, but if they dont even have five starters who are at least league average that divide is only going larger and larger. And unfortunately for the yankees that will be the case if Wang makes another start, he's just not there.
As some of you may already know, Johnson's accomplishments thus far have been impressive to say the least. Johnson has more strikeouts than any other lefty, and 700 more than Carlton. He won five Cy Youngs and finished second three times. Despite competing against more pitchers (thanks to expansion), he led his league in ERA four times and finished second three times. He had a much better adjusted ERA than Spahn and faced superior competition to Grove. He threw two no-hitters, one a perfect game, and struck out 20 in one game. For certain, there hasn't been many guys to come around like Johnson especially when you consider his career path and the era in which he played. Beginning in earnest in Montreal and then later shipping out to Seattle, Johnson was at best a middling pitcher in his 20s lacking the control and mechanics to be a great pitcher, but suddenly the lights just went on and Johnson became a force to be reckoned with winning more games in his 30s than his 20s. What's more, Johnson pitched in an era like no other, where we saw now that a large group of the players where practicing better baseball by chemistry and became stronger than ever able to foul off more pitches and hit them further than ever as stadiums shrunk because well chicks dig the long ball. All of this considered and he still was able to put up the numbers that he did? I mean over 12 years he posted a197-80 record with a 166 (!!) ERA-plus? That's crazy and compared to the compartively less dominating ERA+ of 158 and 124 of Grove and Spahn respectively, the numbers seem to indicate that compared to his peers was even more impressive than the other two leftys were. For sure, all of this considered, to suggest that Randy is the best lefty ever is at least plausible.
However compelling Johnson may be, there is at least a discussion for another lefty who has exactly 300 wins, the great Lefty Grove. Although I'm sure most people reading this blog probably didn't see Lefty, but his numbers are hard to argue. With a record of 300-141 and an ERA of 3.06 Lefty has the best winning percentage of any 300 game winner .680 compared to Johnson's .647. Of course this was a different era where hitters weren't as powerful, but as Philadelphia A's Grove still faced tough competition like the Ruth's and Gerig's of the world and yet still managed to dominate the competition. The incomprable Rob Neyer puts it best;
And for what it's worth, he also led the American League in ERA in nine seasons. Do you know how hard it must be to lead your league in ERA nine times? Roger Clemens is No. 2 on the all-time list, having done it seven times. Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, and (yes) Randy Johnson each have done it four times. Tom Seaver did it three times, and Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer each did it twice. Think about that: Grove led his league in ERA as many times as Seaver, Ryan and Palmer put together. That, my friends, is dominance.
Indeed, one could argue that the true measure of how dominant a pitcher is is how his numbers fare compare to the rest of the league and in this facet Lefty stands alone. Sure his strikeouts are no where near the stratosphere of Johnson's but the bottom line is a pitcher needs to prevent runs and lefty did it the best. Of course Grove's candidacy is not without its faults, after all he played in an era before integration and never had to pitch against anyone of color, a fact that should not be discounted. Further, as I mentioned he played in a bygone era before television or the internets or anything like it to be able to actually see how dominant Grove was. We have plenty of tape to show how great Johnson is, but all we have with Grove is the numbers and some still photos. While those are convincing its hard to adequately compare the two.
Finally we have the winningest pitcher in the live ball era, Warren Spahn. Pitching from 1942 to 1965, Spahn compiled an unbelievable 363-245 record all while on so-so teams wallowing away in obsurity in Milaukee and later Atlanta and yet he still managed to dominate. Nine top finishes in ERA, 13 20-win season, and unlike Grove he pitched against the best baseball players in the world. Of course, Spahn lacks the domination factor of a Grove or Johnson striking out only 4.43 per nine innings, but what Spahn did better than anyone is dominate over a long run and for a whole lot of innings. Indeed as Johnson famously said to Spahn "Oh, I threw 270 innings and had 12 complete games." Spahn just said, "That's a nice year, Randy, but I did that every year." While Johnson was great in his time for a considerable time it's just hard to compare to Spahn's longetivity. In short, he was just so great for so long its hard to say he wasn't the greatest of all time.
This is hardly a open and shut case and there are virtues for each candidate and more, but I think for me the nod goes to Spahn, but not by much. All three pitchers were amazing in their own right and easily the best of their eras so it really hard to quanatively evaluate all three adequately. That said you can really pick any one of these guys and not be too bad, all three are some of the best the game has ever seen.
I should have made a mention earlier, but I've been far far away from my cubicle the last week in the Sunny Caribbean sitting on the beach, snorkling, drinking fruity drinks etc etc. Needless to say when you see this all the time I can't say I was spending a whole lot of time following baseball, so bare with me while I comb the internets to find out what happened. Hopefully I'll be back to my consisent blogging self today, thanks.
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About Me
- burnsie77
- Morristown, NJ, United States
- I write and read everything I can about baseball and have some thoughts about it.