Baseball Rant

okay, moving along toward the All-Star Break ... the Braves are not doing so well, but at least we have a few bright spots ... Johnny Estrada as one of the best producing catchers in the NL ... um, what else ... we're not as bad as the Expos, and still better than the Mets ... um ... help me out here ...

come on people, I expect a little more chatter on here

we've got spring training

we've got 'roid scandals

let's get posting

Yahoo! Sports - MLB - Braves open spring training in rebuilding mode: "``Everybody thinks we're going down this year, which is the same thing I heard when I came to camp last year,'' pitcher Russ Ortiz said. ``That's really kind of crazy when you think about it. Why would an organization that has won for so many years in a row suddenly decide they don't want to win anymore?'' "

ummmm ... actually, I don't think that that's should be a rhetorical question at all ... why WOULD the braves decide to slash payroll this year? because they're owned by a media conglomerate, and that sucks ...

you have GOT to be kidding ...

we've heard this before, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually the year that the Braves did not finish first in their division (for all the good it's done them in the post-season ... grrrrr); however, as last year demonstrated, you should never count the Braves out, and I won't believe that they're through until I see it first hand.

Mazzone begins molding new staff

"This kind of situation never would have happened eight or 10 years ago [when Ted Turner owned the Braves]," Jones said. "But John [Schuerholz, general manager] is operating under a different set of circumstances. He did the best he could."

Jones spoke with Schuerholz several times during the offseason, discussing players the Braves were targeting and the direction of the organization.

"I'm frustrated," Jones said. "You get used to deep pockets, then all of a sudden they get shallow on you. We get frustrated, because we feel like our chances of getting to October dim when those purse strings tighten up."

Told of Jones' comments, Schuerholz smiled. "And then you reminded him that we're going to spend more than the world champions did last year, and the year before?" he said, referring the Marlins and Angels.

article on intriguing position battles for the upcoming year ... Braves and Dodgers both have 1st base up for grabs ... no Reds or Cubs positions mentioned ...

I am the penguin baseball champ ... 588 feet ... yeah baby

okay, let's throw this question out there: Will Scott Boras do to Maddux what he did to Pudge . . . ?

your thoughts?

Aaron Gleeman has a interesting post comparing Eckersley and Smoltz in regards to Smoltz's possible place in the Hall of Fame ... all in all a good post, although I take issue with a few of his comparison techniques, but let's leave that for another time

Okay, so the Braves have lost some big names to free agency this offseason, which does not bode well. Most believe that this will be the Phillies year (assuming they don't all have career-worst years again). But all is not lost for the Braves ... they did pick up J.D. Drew ...

(cough)

anyway, here's a look at some AAA numbers from last year for a couple of the up-and-coming Braves destined to get some significant playing time this season:

Johnny Estrada (C) - .328 / .393 / .494
Adam LaRoche (1B) - .295 / .360 / .466

both of them hit in the range of 1 home run every 33 to 35 at-bats.

hmmm, not bad. both hit for good average w/ decent on-base percentage and slugging; they both seem pretty balanced. Defensively? dunno - will check the stats later.

looks like we've got a couple of solid producers here. Hopefully they will both be able to keep it up next year.
not that we're expecting them to replace the production of Javy and Sheffield, but hopefully these guys will be able to make positive contributions to the team throughout the season ...

So Aaron Boone goes down, big deal ... the Yankees will just go out and trade for an all-star 3rd baseman ... (grrrrrr)

and lo and behold, here's the article describing their options ...

This is a cool site that lets you see the BB Hall of Fame voting for each year, and even track the number of votes per player per year ... National Baseball Hall of Fame - History of BBWAA Voting

Baseball Musings and ESPN report on interesting developments in the world of Baseball contracts (involving the insidious insurance industry) ... read about it here

In case you've missed this excellent site, check out Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Baseball Statistics and History ...

I especially enjoy seeing player similarity lists ... for example Troy Glaus is rated as being most similar to Reggie Jackson at the same age ... my reaction: HUH?!? but then I looked it up ... it's true, they're quite similar through age 26 (Troy Glaus is only 26?); the interesting thing is that looking at the stats Reggie's production really started picking up at age 27 ... another baffling thing about Reggie Jackson's stats is that his career BA is only .262, and he was still voted in as an All-star at age 37 when his end-of-season BA was .194 w/ an OPS of .640 ... wow ... overrated? thriving on past glory? stranger things have been known to happen, but none immediately spring to mind ...

an interesting article attempting to shine a bit of light on a very shadowy organization (no web site? no permanent headquarters?), entitled Hall of Fame Keeps Baseball Writers on Top ... it would be nice to know how these BBwriters view the whole Pete Rose situation ...

so apparently the head of the writers association actually calls up the new Hall inductees to inform them of their induction, leading to my favorite quote from the article: "When Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies received the call in 1995, according to O'Connell, he wanted to know the identities of the 16 people out of 460 who did not vote for him."

nice.

in anticipation of the upcoming release of The Return of the King, check out THIS ... just to show the more direct route that could have been taken by Frodo & co. had they benefitted from services such as map quest ...

Thoughts from the All-Star Game:

* you'd think that they'd not introduce the five Braves reserves all at the same time, to avoid having everyone feel like the Braves are monopolizing the All-Star roster ...

* this is horrible - an awful rendition of Smashmouth's 'All-Star' that sounds like it's being playing on a steel drum ...
what's this?!? why in the world do you throw in this cheesy rendition of 'Tonight' from West Side Story

* shouldn't it be in your contract if you sign on to sing the national anthem that you have to sound like you actually care about what you're singing?

* Are the announcers contractually obligated to use the phrase "this time it counts" in every other sentence?

* Top of the 5th - Hasegawa comes in to pitch for the AL (can we say 'overrated')
leadoff walk to Sheffield, then Helton crushes a pitch that just hung over the plate, crying out to be pounced on, and Helton willingly obliged blasting it dead center

* That's interesting - apparently it's a judgment call for the umpire on a ground-rule double whether to award a runner homebase
Rolen on 2nd, Furcal on 1st, and Andruw rips a double down the left-field line; with Garret Anderson rushing over to field, the ball caroms off the siding and a silly fan (who will no doubt be kicked out) gloves the ball, prompting the field judge (what are they called?) to correctly call fan interference
meanwhile Raphie is hurtling around third and into home - I would have thought that they'd hold Raphie up at third, but the umpires in their discretion say Furcal would have reached home anyway so they awarded him

* gotta love the "random" Fox "star" sightings - Wanda Sykes? please

* top of the 7th - ANDRUW! just reaches out there and knocks it out

* here we go, bottom of the 7th ... what, no 'take me out to the ballgame'? instead we get 'God Bless America' by Amy Grant - I don't know if it's the speaker or monitor problems,but she sounds way too mellow in this rendition; come on Amy, let's end it off strong ... and ... no
way too sedate ... man, what we need is a Whitney-Houston-1991-SuperBowl-Star-Spangled-Banner rendition, instead we get prozac

* Sosa/Giambi Pepsi commercial where they're up on Mt. Everest with a Sherpa and it turns out that Sosa's ball landed a few inches further than Giambi's, then the Sherpa finds another ball with Babe Ruth's name on it further on up the mountain, punchline: "who Babe Ruth?" ... My wife: "like they sign the balls before they hit them"

* bottom 7th - Billy Wagner: Brett Boone pops up to deep right, Magglio Ordonez pops up to first, Jason Giambi just destroyed that Billy Wagner pitch - that's what you get with power on power - man there was no doubt about that one, now Wagner is throwing off-plate stuff to Hernandez but it's all good because he grounds out to third

* bottom 8th - Eric Gagne: Nomar grounds weakly to short, Garret Anderson w/ a stand-up double (3/4 HR, 2B), next guy grounds out, then Vernon Wells slaps a run-scoring double (one run game, tying run on second w/ Blalock up), oh man - Gagne what is up?!?! Blalock sent that 2-1 offering into the stratosphere - where's the feared Gagne we keep hearing about? there goes Andruw's MVP bid ...

* my brother's take: never let a Canadian pitch in the freakin' all-star game

* yeah, the National league blew it ... what is Dusty Baker thinking? we have a top of the 9th down by one run and we have Paul Lo Duca, Luis Castillo, and Raphael Furcal ...
and Raphie almost ties it up - this close! about 5 feet away ... thanks Gagne, Thanks Dusty

"You can't go get drunk every time you have a bad game, or you'd be drunk all the time,'' Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "So these are the games where you sit around, you think about it ... and try not to take it home to your wife and family. They know how you feel."

Nice to see that the Braves have seven players on the All-Star team

of course, I don't know whether Marcus Giles being selected is a testament to his season (which has been good, but he's been in a major slump the last 5 weeks or so) or to the lack of depth at the position in the National League - where are all the good second basement?!

Javy and Sheff are deserving starters methinks - this is the type of performance we've been looking for from both these guys for a couple of years now

I really hope Sheff doesn't revive his 'no-respect' mantra and realizes that this team is being run by a coporate giant ...

nice to see Furcal coming back around to form this season, and Russ Ortiz has been the most consistent of the staff this year - a well-deserved all-star nod to him

caught a glimpse of Baseball Tonight where they were running down the NL closers, and someone made the comment that should the NL get to the last couple of innings with any kind of a lead, that could pretty much be the ballgame - agreed with the likes of Smoltz and Gagne out there ...

again, Chipper on the bench: 2/4, 2 hr's 3 rbi's, 2 runs

my fantasy team is going down the crapper; the new name is "Throw in the Towel"

I have four 11-game winners on my staff, and I got one stinkin' win last week - ONE!

of course, as I learned to my chagrin last year, all that matters is the playoffs

you've got to love it when you bench a fantasy player that then proceeds to have an amazing game. Case in point - yesterday I sat Garrett Anderson because he'd been struggling the last week or so, and he responds with a 4/4 game, 1 hr, 4 rbis and 2 runs scored. Sheesh.

Of course, nothing tops Jerry sitting Kevin Millwood for the no-hitter.

So Sammy Sosa used a corked bat in his game the other day . . . he says that he accidently grabbed his batting practice bat and used it in the game . . .

so what was his batting practice bat doing available for game use in the first place? if you know that your batting practice bat has cork in it, wouldn't you do everything possible to keep it out of your game-bat bag as possible, just to avoid something like this from happening? Should we take Sammy at his word? he's such an exciting baseball player that fans love to see wherever he goes; he just seems so sincere in everything he does that it's hard not to believe that he just made a mistake like he claims . . .

but what if it's not a mistake? If it comes out that he has been using corked bats in games regularly, then look out - the rumours are going to be flying on all sorts of other things. All of the sudden his reaction to the suggestion that he get drug tested just to prove to the world that he's not on steriods will be examined with a lot more scrutiny.

What I thought was more interesting was the espn article that I read about the whole corked bat thing - Bret Boone's reaction:
"Pitchers cheat all the time. They scuff balls, use pine tar. I've never used a corked bat, not even in batting practice. If I was guaranteed I wouldn't get caught, I probably would."

Does this strike anyone else as a pretty shady comment? If I was guaranteed I wouldn't get caught, I probably would ______ (fill in the blank)
a. cork my bat
b. bulk up on steriods
c. do anything that would give me a competitive advantage
d. do nothing in the year that I played for the Braves, then once I'm with the Mariners start doing all of the above
(we sure could have used your .331 batting average, 37 home runs and 141 rbi's that year Bret, thanks for nothing!!)

I was just taken aback by the audacity of Mr. Boone's statement and the ethical implications - 'if I knew I could get away with it, I'd probably cheat.'
Makes me wonder how many of the professional ballplayers there are with the same mentality. If you believe the Ken Caminiti's and Jose Canseco's of the world you'd have to believe that about two thirds of them do ... which if true would be absolutely appalling.

well, I did it. I dumped both Maddux and Glavine from my fantasy team after watching three innings of work on Friday - a combined 5 earned runs in six innings - ugh. Neither has been up to snuff this year - not up to expectations, but I think I might have been a bit hasty in dropping both of them. ah, we'll see what happens.

I'm semi-addicted to playing Baseball Mogul. For a baseball stats junky it's a great game - low-grade graphics, no control over actual 'game' play, but you're in charge of everything else - the roster, the lineup, calling players up from the minors, demoting others to the minors, making trades, cutting players - all through careful monitoring of player stats game by game, week by week, and through watching player development over time.

When I first started playing, I moved the Expos franchise from Montreal to Salt Lake City (I had to increase the city size from the Salt Lake-only number of around 300,000 to the wasatch-front number of around 1 million in order to attract sufficient crowds to the games - plus operating for many years with drastically reduced ticket prices). I suffered through three or four years of rebuilding - key move: not signing Vladimir Guerrero when his contract was up for renewal - the salary demand was too much for a small-market club trying to rebuild. After a few years of pumping mega-bucks into the farm system, the up and coming players started to really produce dividends. Pitching was always suspect due to the high elevation (the Colorado Rockies effect), but I managed to put together some competitive teams that actually started regularly making the playoffs and even winning the world series! good times.

my wife just shakes her head when I get zoned out in the game.