Rants, raves, ridicule, and riots

Rant:  Bravo to Yankees OF Brett Gardner.  This little flea has scored more runs (42) than Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, and Alex Rodriguez.  He is on pretty often (.395 OBP) and tends to get himself into scoring position by stealing some bags (20 SB/4 CS).  He sees more fastballs than any other hitter in the majors except David Eckstein, he leads the AL in pitches per plate appearance (4.52).  He is the best role player in baseball, bar none.  He can probably hit HR's in the grand scheme of things (he has only 3 in 194 AB) but he knows his job is to get on base, and he's done that very well so far.  He's the kind of guy every team needs, a little pest that is never (or very rarely) an easy out.  He has probably developed his toughness by being told he was too small his whole life - 5'10", 183 lbs. is small by MLB standards.  Don't let nobody hold you down Gardy, you the man!!

Rave:  Here's a sweet Lego rave I found on the internet.  I didn't know LEGO was around and prospering.  The DJ looks like an aviator, and the ravers look like prisoners.  Looks like a good party to me, but I wouldn't show up.  For starters, I hate crowds.  Secondly, I hate loud, base-filled techno.  Third, I hate the Jersey Shore scene and the drug scene, both of which are intrinsic to a rave.  I am a bar guy, and if I walk in and I can't sit down or play Golden Tee, I'm probably leaving after one drink.

Ridicule:  Kansas City Royals, you are a joke.  Your 24 wins are more than only six other teams, and you refuse to score runs for last year's Cy Young Award winner, Zack Greinke.  Surprisingly, you aren't in the cellar in the AL Central, the Indians are two games worse.  Here's the shake down:  Greinke is 1-8 with a 4.05 ERA.  You've won only two of his thirteen starts, and have scored only 40 runs in those games - a dismal average of 3.08 runs per game - give me a break.  You score 4.34 runs a game on average, no wonder there are always rumors that he wants to leave.  If I was him, I'd demand a trade to a contender.  Granted he's not putting up numbers like last year, but who the hell does?  Score some runs for this kid already. 

Riots:  You know what, with all the kids at all these camps and clinics, I'm not sure even half of them want to be there.  I think their parents makke the decision for them to play baseball.  Here's what may go through some of their heads when (and if they ever) get to first base.  Kids don't seem to have the same drive as we had when I was growing up.  I'm not trying to knock the kids or anything, it's just a trend that keeps rearing its ugly head.  Anyway.

He gone!

Blah Blah Blah

Mr. Softie just stopped by - well, we stopped him, he was parked down the block.  Lindsay got herself a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate.  I didn't get anything, times are tough here in the Bronx, I had $4 in my wallet.  Pathetic, I know.  Gotta provide for the wife and kid (or in our case, Nathan).   She ate the ice cream coated in the chocolate and fired the rest in the garbage.  Oh well, next time I'll ask Mr. Softie if he can coat the ice cream in layers.

Just started reading a new book, my favorite author, Chuck Klosterman.  The book, Downtown Owl, is a novel about the small town of Owl, ND.  He's written for The NYT Magazine and The Washington Post and his previous books have covered topics ranging from the relationship of rock music, mortality, and love (Killing Yourself to Live:  85% of a True Story) to the history of glam metal (Fargo Rock City:  A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta) to previously published columns and articles on pop culture (Chuck Klosterman IV).  I just like his writing style, give him a shot.  You'll probably chuckle to yourself like I do.  Nathan's been trying to learn to read Downtown Owl:

Yankees vs. Mets - not looking too good for the Yankees so far.  Bay kills the Yankees.  Stupid throw by Russo out in LF - C.C. needs to get out of this jam - I hate José Reyes, stupid hair, nonchalant actions - just stay on the DL foo!  Damn, 2-0 Mets.  Alex Cora, seriously?  See, there goes Bay, HR to deep left-center.  Crap!  I'm going to switch topics, this game isn't going how I had anticipated.

Today's Birthdays:

Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks!! Happy Birthday to comedian Drew Carey, who's 52 today.  I think he's still the host of the new The Price is Right.  When I'm home weekdays (which is never), I'd watch it.

Author, sports-columnist, radio-personality Mitch Albom, who's books my mother loves, is also 52 today.  I hate his hair, it's always covering his ears and just looks stupid, but he's great on "The Sports Reporters" on ESPN.  Keep up the good work Mitch, and cut the hair over your ears.  But Happy Birthday nonetheless.




Game's on - C.C. singles, Jeter singles, Gardner is so fast but hits into the 4-6-3 DP.  Will someone please step up and get some hits off Santana?  Teixeira blows!  Game's off - channel surfing instead. 

Back to work tomorrow.  Graduation was a success, everyone walked across the stage for the first time ever.  It was about 100° in the gym, but they had 8 fans that cooled off the faculty.  Parents, family, and friends suffered in the sweltering humid gym.

Flipped it back on and back off - Joe Morgan is a moron.  I was hoping his new job as special advisor for the Reds would help ease him off the SNB set, but no such luck.  Him and Jon Miller - match made in heaven for a black and white silent film.

I'm done with this game for good - Food Network is going on, even if it means I have to watch "Down Home with the Neely's". 

Monday tomorrow - time for some zzzz's.

Err's-day

We made some big errors in some big spots today.  Second inning - pick off at second base, runner made a move towards third on a pick off play, pitcher throws to second, we dropped the ball.  Safe at third; next guy hit a sacrifice fly, 1-0 deficit.  Ultimately, I'm not sure if that's what cost us game two, but it sure didn't help any.  Now, our season comes down to one game.  Win and we're in the conference tournament, lose and summer starts early.  Unreal, I'm speechless that some of our leaders (read: upperclassmen) had some of the worst at-bats of anyone in our lineup.  They play with their heads up their asses sometimes.  It's not always cookies and milk, but when it gets tough, you gotta get tougher.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Moving on - the Yankees just went down in order in the first inning - on 7 pitches - after Andy Pettitte struggled through the first and threw around 25, 27 pitches.  Way to give him a breather.  Ben Zobrist is .429 (6-14) with 3 R, 3 BB, and 4 RBI against the Yankees this year - through the second inning of today's game.  This guy is killing them.  Big Game James is on the mound for the Rays - the Yanks aren't going to have it wasy tonight - Shields is 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 59 K/11 BB coming into this one - pretty solid numbers - more than a hit an inning allowed, but low walks negate that. 

There's two things that can happen with a pitcher's control - you can walk a lot of guys and not let up many hits, or you can let up a lot of hits and not walk many - do both, and you won't get out of the 5th inning.  Either that, or you better have a ton of strikeouts.

Below are some statistics from the American League only, seeing how their numbers indicate effectiveness better than the National League - the DH is way better than the P hitting.

Here's a list of the top 3 WHIP with their H/BB and ERA and K:
#1 Doug Fister SEA 0.91 (40 H/10 BB in 50 IP) - ERA 1.96 - 25 K
#2 Shaun Marcum TOR 0.97 (46 H/14 BB in 62 IP) - ERA 2.61 - 45 K
#3 Jason Vargas SEA 0.98 (32 H/13 BB in 46 IP) - ERA 2.93 - 33 K

Here's a list of the top 3 BB with their H/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Rich Harden TEX 32 BB - 41 H/4.74 ERA/1.67 WHIP - 43 K
#2 Gil Meche KC 31 BB - 51 H/6.75 ERA/1.92 WHIP - 25 K
#3 Brandon Morrow TOR 27 BB - 42 H/6.15 ERA/1.68 WHIP - 54 K

Here's a lost of the top 3 in H and their BB/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Scott Baker MIN 64 H - 12 BB/4.88 ERA/1.37 WHIP - 47 K
#2 Kevin Millwood BAL 63 H - 15 BB/3.65 ERA/1.26 WHIP - 48 K
#3 A.J. Burnett NYY 61 H - 22 BB/3.86 ERA/1.42 WHIP - 40 K

The guys with the lowest WHIP don't necessarily need to strike a lot of hitters out because they're rarely in too many jams.  Pitchers with high BB and a lot of H allowed rely on strikeouts more, helping them out of jams.  The pitchers with the highest BB totals have terrible ERA's because they are always allowing free baserunners - even allowing only a hit an inning, as Harden and Morrow do, BB's before those hits will kill the ERA.  And finally, the guys with a lot of H allowed have decent ERA's because they don't walk a lot of guys and have pretty good K numbers.

Yankees tied it up at 3 - scored on a HR by Juan Miranda and an error by Shields on a bunt from Gardner.  Damn, Upton just homered - that's also been our Achilles’ heel this year - we score and instead of throwing up a 0 and keeping a little momentum on  our side, we go out and let up a run, or 2, or 4.  The inning after your team scores is a huge inning - throw up a goose egg and get your guys back hitting again.

I have to shower, I'm disgusting.  Our shower sucks, it's like a 3' x 3' square - tight quarters.  Clean time.