That is all.
106 Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report
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Category Archives: baseball
Great Moments in Advertising: California Baseball Edition
Let’s run around the park, without a care in the world! Let’s have a catch! Win or lose, it doesn’t matter, we’re just happy to be here!
I’m as incompetent as the Mets
How I forget this headline from my last rant about the Mets is as appalling as the headline itself:
Livan Hernandez to first base?
There are occasions when a team might use a starting pitcher as a pinch hitter. Typically, the pitcher in question pinch hits for a relief pitcher (who gets very few plate appearances) when the team is trying to conserve a bench player or is out of bench players. Livan Hernandez has a lifetime batting average of .228, which is pretty good for a pitcher. So Livan Hernandez might be a guy a manager would consider using to pinch hit for a relief pitcher in a special circumstance.
HOWEVER.
Livan Hernandez’s role is first and foremost to act as a starting pitcher. Livan Hernandez is a terrible in this capacity. He should not be on any major league roster, as a pitcher, let alone as an option in the field. The fact that Jerry Manuel, the Mets’ manager, suggested to a member of the media that Livan Hernandez could be used at first base implies a level of roster mismanagement that is incomprehensible. The fact that this came up in any conversation is proof to me that Mets’ management is entirely devoid of competence and should be not be allowed to make any decisions of consequence.
Ain’t nothing about this phony – redux
That was the statement by Cliff Floyd when the Mets surged to the top of the NL early in the 2006 season. Well there ain’t nothing phony about the 2009 Mets’ 50-56 record. It’s so bad that:
- Giving up 1, 2, and 5 runs in the eighth, ninth, and tenth innings, respectively, to lose to St. Louis tonight doesn’t even qualify as a major disappointment this year.
- Not making a deal at the trade deadline represents ‘good judgment’ for this management.
- Gary Sheffield is the second best hitter on this team.
- The Mets traded for this guy, and he has only walked once for New York, and that was an intentional walk. Adding to my exasperation, he does not consider this a problem.
Carlo and the Caps
Aside
Because the best parenting advice comes from the Hardball Times
Was baseball more fun in the 1980s?
Sure it turned out that they were all a bunch of drug addicts, but watching the Mets of the 80s shaped the way I think about baseball. For example, I thought lighting someone’s shoe on fire was a normal thing to do in a dugout.
The best we have now is a guy who can spin his bat around in mid-air.
Trying to improve myself
Old Jere: “I hope Jimmy Rollins tears an ACL at the bottom of that pile.”
New Jere: “Pitchers and catchers report in ~100 days.”
The Psychology of White Sox Fans
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf recently conducted an informal survey of his team’s fans. Here’s what he has to report:
“I’ve asked a lot of White Sox fans: ‘If given the choice of both teams in the playoffs or neither team being in the playoffs, what would you pick?’ The answer is usually neither, because, ‘I can’t take the chance the Cubs might win.’ And these are from some fairly intelligent people.” [Tribune article]
I think that rationale is the antithesis of intelligent, but such are the White Sox.
The top two things I didn’t expect to see at a baseball game this year
#1, Little League Division:
Occasionally in non-professional games, a pitch will be thrown above or behind the batter, and the ball will incidentally hit the bat and land in foul territory. This is seen as a lucky break for the pitcher, as the pitch was destined to be called a ball, but instead goes as a strike, without the batter swinging at the pitch. However, at a recent little league game in Ohio, a pitch was thrown behind the batter that hit the bat and landed in fair territory. Most everyone at the field believed it was a foul ball. Fortunately, that population did not include the umpire who, after several seconds of silence, informed the 9-11 year old players that the ball was in play. The batter reached first, completely unintentionally obtaining a single.
#1, MLB Division:
Felix Hernandez is a 22 year old pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. He made his debut at age 19 and is expected to be one of the best pitchers of this generation. However, playing in the American League, he has few opportunities to take a turn at bat. In fact, he only has two hits in his career. (It’s also likely that he had no hits in the minor leagues.) The first came on June 10, 2007, when he reached first safely on a bunt that was presumably meant to sacrifice a runner to second base. The second hit came on Monday night, facing Johan Santana, the best pitcher in baseball over the last 5+ years, at Shea Stadium, a park that supressed home runs by 10% in the 2007 season. In the second inning, Hernandez came to the plate, with two outs and the bases loaded; there was no chance he would be bunting. Instead, the budding superstar hit a fastball, later described by Santana as out of the strike zone, over the right-center fence for a grand slam.
And that, my friends, is what happened on my last visit to Shea Stadium.
Case in point: ESPN is worthless
Joe Morgan is the analyst for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN must consider him an expert to give him this job. His responsibilities include following baseball games and news and providing intelligent commentary. He does none of these things. Consider the following exchange from last Tuesday’s chat on ESPN.com:
Lee (NYC): Joe, thanks for taking my question. I am a Yankee fan but I have always been a huge Willie Randolph fan. I feel that Willie Randolph has nothing to do with the mess the Mets are in. Shouldn’t Omar Minaya take most of the blame? He put this team together.
Joe Morgan: He has to take his share of the blame for putting the team together, but the manager usually takes the blame first. If Willie is fired, the focus will go to the GM. If he stays, the focus will stay on him. But it would be that way in other cities too. The Mariners are way under .500, for instance, but no one is criticizing the GM, they’re looking at the manager.
I’m guessing that the average fan in Kansas City or Houston doesn’t know who the manager and GM of the Mariners are. But Joe Morgan, the top baseball analyst for ESPN, should know. He should also know that the Mariners’ GM, Bill Bavasi, was fired the day before this chat took place while the manager was not.