15 Teams in 15 Sentiments (ver. AL)

Here's a thought of mine for each of the 30 MLB teams based on the opening weekend of games.  The standings will dictate the order of the teams within their division.


AL East
Baltimore Orioles - It took them 19 games to get three wins a year ago.
Toronto Blue Jays - Jose Bautista picking up right where he left off in 2010 (2 HR in 1st 3 games)
New York Yankees - Red-hot Russell Martin? (and A-Rod, Teixeira, and Swisher - try pitching a little)

Tampa Bay Rays - Three runs against the O's...at home...with Manny and Johnny Damon?  Oh boy!
Boston Red Sox - Keep serving them up.

AL Central
Kansas City Royals - 1st Place or Bust! (see me after the CHW series)
Chicago White Sox - Battle the Royals for 1st place in an always hostile (& empty) Kansas City
Minnesota Twins -.143 - no not I Love You, Joe Mauer's batting average - where's the offense?
Detroit Tigers - Cabrera's drunk and hitting for average and power - who needs rehab?
Cleveland Indians - Are we on the verge of another Major League movie? (please be yes, please be yes!)

AL West
Texas Rangers - 2010 AL Champion impressive after a sweep of the 2011 AL-favorite Red Sox
Seattle Mariners - Invest in some sunglasses for your outfielders - or practice fly balls (3 drops vs. Oakland)
Oakland Athletics - Pray the pitching gets better and pray they can score more than 4 runs at least 100 times!
Los Angeles Angels - They need the Rally Monkey back in Anaheim - or LA - wherever the team is.


Lindsay is done with jury duty - I'm out this bitch!

Opening Day; iPad Games, Play Ball!

Opening Day

It's finally here - MLB Opening Day.  There are only six games on the docket today, but that's fine with me.  A glorious day indeed, for any baseball fan - ah hell, any American.  It should be a national holiday, but they've yet to acknowledge it as one.  Maybe when all 30 teams play on the same day they've officially recognize this day.

The Yankees host the Tigers at 1:05pm, but this shitty weather may push that game back a bit.  It's already raining by me, and I am a measly five minutes from Yankee Stadium.  Verlander vs. Sabathia.  Two monsters on the mound.  Given the chill in the air, the rainy forecase, and two stud pitchers, this one is looking like a pitcher's duel on paper. 

Atlanta and Washington also starts at 1:05pm - not a lot of hub-bub to this one with Strasburg on the DL.  Derek Lowe and Livan Hernandez.  Both seasoned veterans on the bump, one of the ground ball specialist variety and the other of the head-scratching, "how's he keep doing this?" variety.  The game also marks the official beginning of a new regime in ATL, the Fredi Gonzalez era.  (Cox may be at the game, although it is in DC).

Milwaukee and Cincinnati begins at 2:10pm.  Prized off-season coup Zack Greinke is not ready to go, so Yovanni Gallardo opposes Edison Volquez in a matchup of two rising stars on two relatively obscure teams.  I think the Brew-Crew has a very good shot at that NL Central crown this year, but it all starts today with an inner-division tilt with the Reds.

Angels/Royals at 4:10pm.  Jered Weaver and Luke Hochever.  The cerebral Angels look to start the year off right with the doormat Royals in the other dugout.  Hochevar is no Greinke and although maybe not today, the Royals will find this out the hard way.  Weaver will begin his defense of the majors' 2010 strikeout leader (233).  It's also the 50th Anniversary of the Angels organization.  Congrats!!  (Sorry MJ, for the Angels fan in your house!)

Pads and Redbirds at 4:15pm.  Former Richmond Spider Tim Stauffer (no, not the mac 'n cheese guy) takes the mound for SD while the always dominant Chris Carpenter takes the mound for the home team.  Stauffer is coming off a great year, albeit a short one - one in which he was 6-5 with a 1.85 ERA in 82.2 innings.  Carpenter is always tough at home - to the tune of 12-4 with a 2.81 ERA last year.  A pitcher's duel in the making?  Possibly.  Oh wait, there's that guy at 1B for the Cardinals, Pujols.  Sorry Timmy!

The World Series Champion SF Giants travel south the face "Donny Baseball"'s Dodgers tonight in primetime, 8:00pm.  Speaking of electric young arms, Time Lincecum and Clayton Kershaw.  Are you kidding me?  No wonder this is a pitchers division.  And with "The Beard" lurking in the 9th (or 8th), the Dodgers had better get to Lincecum early.  It's always a grudge match between these two NL West rivals.  I'll be tuned in to this one tonight, no doubt!

iPad Games
I am still enamored with my iPad - probably the coolest gift I've ever recieved, and there are always new things coming out for it (not the iPad 2).  I will never, ever get into a pissing match with electronics people, because once one thing comes out, the next one is not far after.  So trying to keep up with the Jones' is impossible, unless you wanna go broke.


There's plenty of cool apps, features and games - too many to name but here's a few:
BlogPress for keeping up to date with my blog postings
Stick Golf HD rules!  It's one of the most highly addicting games I've ever played.  It's like Bejeweled x 20.
Coin Dozer is way easier than the real-life version, where it's impossible to win any of the prizes by pushing coins off the ledge.  Lindsay is a Coin Dozer addict.  I am actually looking into rehabilitation options.
NPR focuses on news stories related to things I enjoy - News, Arts & Life, and Music.  Always up to date.
Cover Orange is like a newer Angry Birds.  The goal is to drop items in order to create a home for oranges before they get hit with what looks like acid raindrops.  Pretty cool and it requires some logic skills as well, to keep my bean thinking.
Friendly (Facebook) and the Twitter app also enable me to keep up with my social media life while traveling.
My iPad Keyboard Dock is outstanding as well - I even got the guy to preview it to prove it wasn't flimsy, as I'd heard.  Turns out it's sturdy and excellent for posting from a hotel on the road or even on the bus itself. 
Words With Friends is basically Scrabble.  Except for the pricetag - $2.99.  Scrabble is a whopping $9.99.  I'll save myself seven buck thank you very much.
Another word game I enjoy is Word Solitaire.  Totally worth the $0.  It's another challenging game that is fun to play and very, very addicting.  Sometimes it just pisses me off but I keep going back to it.
I'd love than MLB.com At Bat app, but I think I'll pass on the $14.99 pricetag and just track it online.

OK, time to get the day going.  I slept in a little bit because my  head felt like it was going to explode.  I am a human barometer - if my head hurts, there's probably a chance it'll rain or snow or sleet or hail.  Feeling a little better now, thanks for caring.  Be back later, hopefully on Digital Darcy Photography with a new picture.  (I know, I've been a slacker lately).

Oh, and Lindsay is officially 38 weeks today.  Two more weeks (we think) til our lives change forever and Baby D is here.  Yowza!

PLAY BALL!!

Ty Cobb Sighting

No, not the HOF'er.

His 6'5" great grandson, a forward for the 6-5 Occidental College Tigers basketball team.  He seems to be a little bit of a role player.  But seriously, you think if Ty Cobb was hitting .140 he wouldn't take some extra swings?  This Ty is shooting 44% from the charity stripe.  Plays pretty well down low it seems, averaging 3.8 ppg in limited time, shooting 51.5% from the floor, and grabbing a shade under four rebounds per game.

(Photo: www.oxyathletics.com)

Good luck kid!

Numbers Game - #9

The Splendid Splinter and best hitter to ever play Ted Williams

Mr. 61 Roger Maris

The late, great Steve "Air" McNair

Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe

My sinful Raiders reference, Punter Shane Lechler

Post Baseball Blues

Trying so very hard to dig up some news in the baseball world now that the season is over (97 days til Pitchers & Catchers report).  I'll admit, pouring over the internet finding Brian Wilson interviews will never get old.  I watch the Jim Rome interview at least three times a week.  He was on Leno the other night, basically a lot of the same material he covered with Rome (except that The Machine made an appearance).  The CheapSeats interviews are always a treat, you can find those all over You Tube.

Chief Wahoo makes an appearance on all four Indians uniforms this coming season.  I love the throwback grays.

Derek Jeter somehow won a Gold Glove this year.  To all the haters out there who think he's lost a step (which he has) and has nothing left in the tank (.270 BA in 2010), sorry.  He had the best fielding percentage (.989) in the American League.  Here's the breakdown among AL shortstops:  seventh highest amount of chances (553), third in double plays turned (94), committed the fewest errors (6), fourth highest in innings played (1304), and was second in games played (151).  So you can sip on those numbers for a bit and let me know if you still think it's a joke that he won.  I think they got it right.

Joe Miller and Joe Morgan are OUT as ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analysts - this one was a long time coming. 

The other night on "Undercover Boss", Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts was in the spotlight.  He sold hot dogs, changes the scores in the board at Wrigley, cleaned restrooms (where he was asked to leave), helped park cars (where his cover was almost blown), and was a part of the grounds crew.  It was awesome to see a man in his position with his type of money do something of this magnitude.  The five people he worked under were all under-appreciated in their field of work - in fact, the bathroom attendant was the same guy who flips the scores.  Each and every one of them got a well-deserved "gift" when all was said and done.  Bathroom/Scoreboard guy was given his wish - a staff family appreciation day and swimming lessons for his daughter (by Northwestern's swim coach).  Hot Dog vendor was given a plaque on the wall and a $1,000 gift.  Parking Lot attendant was told that the Cubs are going to pay for his classes to get his ESL degree.  The field maintenance guy was given a paid internship with the Cubs marketing department.  Why, I ask, can't something like this hap

Publish Post

pen to me?

The Giants decided not to pick up the option on World Series MVP Edgar Rentaria.  This was the case with the Yankees last year with 2009 WS MVP Hideki Matsui.  There is something to be said about having veteran guys help lead your team to a World Series - get rid of them.

I am sitting here for an exhibition basketball game - we're playing a Division II school and are losing.  1:00 left in regulation, so I gotta get on the ball and get this clean-up underway.

Much love!

What Series?

  Thanks, Fox and Cablevision, for taking away the biggest stage of America's Pastime, the World Series.

  First year ever I won't get a chance to watch a game in the comfort of my own couch.

  Jackasses.

No TV

  Day 10 of no program television is now upon us.  Things are going well, besides not being able to check out some high quality prime-time shows (all of Lindsay's shows, plus MLB baseball, SportsCenter, American Pickers, Pawn Stars to name a few).

  Netflix has come in handy as of late, movies come and go on about a three day schedule.  We watched Step Brothers the other night, hilarious freaking movie.  Lindsay's first viewing, my second.  Still entertaining.  Will Ferrell has to be one of the funniest actors alive.  Hands down.  Then we sent away for Up In The Air.  George Clooney is awesome in that one, and I'm not generally a huge fan.  But the premise was great, it was funny, and it had won awards out the ass.  I say those awards were well deserved.  Two nights ago, Jesse came over for dinner with me, Linds, and Nathan because Julia was in St. Maarten with her sister.  We ate, and watched JUNO.  Same director (Jason Reitman) as Up In The Air, and just as funny if not funnier.  The language is hilarious, the words they use.  If you haven't seen JUNO, go see it.  It also won plenty of awards from the press and media.  Well deserved.  Just because DirecTV sucks the big one doesn't mean they can damper my television viewing experience.  I still got DVD's sucker!!

  On the baseball, the Yankees are once again tied with the Rays for first place in the AL East.  Both teams share the best record in baseball (78-48) but the Red Sox are still hovering, only six games back.

  Lindsay kicked my ass at Scrabble last night, 296-216.  What an absolute drubbing it was.  I was out of it from my third turn.  I had seven consecutive turns where I had at least 5 vowels on my rack.  Needless to say, 1-point letters when your down 50 points are useless.

  It's getting muggy in the office, per usual.  I share my office with the entire student-athlete population, so the traffic is high and some of the odors are pretty horrific.  Gonna take a stroll and take care of some things on campus.  Meeting with broker today - hope things work out for this new place.

  Fingers crossed. 

Bonehead of the Month

   Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan pie-face'd Wes Helms after a walk-off and tore his left meniscus and is headed for the DL.  Take a read (courtesy of Yahoo!'s Big League Stew):

   Pie'd Piper Coghlan on DL

Case of the Monday's

   While Andre Dawson was busy getting inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, I was busy taking care of business for the Pelham Mets.  I dominated the Collegians to the tune of 5 IP, 3 H, 9 K.  We won 12-2, in a game shortened because we were kicking their ass.

   I happened to catch clips of the induction on ESPN and there was no one there.  I mean granted the class consisted of the "Hawk", former manager Whitey Herzog, announcer Bob Miller, NL umpire Doug Harvey, and the NY Daily News' own Bill Madden, but still, it is the Hall of Fame induction.

   This kid is awesome:

   Feeling utterly uninspired today, so bye for today.

Hot, Hazy, Humid, Hell

   Today started with a pounding headache and a swollen throat.  After generously pouring this crap down my throat (OK, 2 cap fulls), I asked LMD when it expired.  I felt like we've had that thing for years - luckily, JAN11 was stamped on the bottle.  Crisis averted.

   Took the fur-kid out at around 5:48 am, basically sleep-walking around the mean streets of the Bronx, he did his business, and we went back in to the AC to cool it down for another two hours before physically removing myself from bed for the day.

   I went outside and it was relatively cool out this morning, probably about 15° cooler that the hell-hole apartment.  Still perplexed as to how in the hell the apartment gets so hot and muggy when it's cooler outside.  Made me angry.  So here I was, sick, sleep-walking, and angry.  A trifecta, all before 6:00 am.  Awesome.

   I guess it could be worse.  That's the way I seem to look at everything nowadays.  It could be worse.  I mean, I have my wife and dog and family and friends, but that's really all.  I still don't think the mantra I'm living by is healthy though.  It really grinds my gears.

   Moving on (quickly before I get agitated again), in MLB news, Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano got his first win since 2007 last night, a string of 13 straight losses with a myriad of ND's sprinkled in there.  In his 13 losing decisions, the Brewers scored only 38 runs (2.92 runs/game) for him.  I mean you gotta feel for the guy, he's had 2 Tommy John surgeries.  Most guys would have called it quits.  He's persistent, to say the least.  This is a guy who went 18-12 with a 3.99 ERA in 2005.  Not to mention he's a DUKE guy.  A real feel good story, similar to Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo (who still hasn't let up a hit to a LH batter this year) and also had to deal with numerous surgeries.

   The Yankees placed Andy Pettitte on the DL, giving Sergio Mitre a shot in the rotation, so says the NY Daily News.  It shouldn't really be a huge issue, so long as the front four can keep giving quality starts (AJ Burnett needs to have a quality start).  Pettitte has been on a tear all season long, so it's really a tough pill to swallow.  Every fifth day, you knew you had as good a shot at winning as there was, and now you have to hold your breath as you send Mitre out there.  We'll see how long it takes before the Yanks make a move and acquire another aging arm (Oswalt, Westbrook).  I'd rather see Carmona or Haren, but who knows what they're thinking.  Just gotta keep winning two of three, three of five and avoid a prolonged drought or losing streak.  Their offense should be able to carry them for a month or so.  No worries from Yankee-land.

   Health wise, I feel like crap again.  For some reason, my nose continues to run (maybe the humidity melts the mucus) and my head is beginning to ache, and my neck is beginning to get stiff.  I may be coming down with the (sic)ness. 

   I want a Harley Davidson too.  I was just thinking the other day about how bad-ass it would be to ride up to a field to recruit on a Harley with the loud pipes screaming.  Just a though, probably won't come to fruition, but it's good to dream. 

   OK, headed out.  Gotta go to Target, always find some neat stuff over there, not that I really need anything.

   Keep cool and try to keep your cool.  That's what I'm gonna try to do the rest of the day. 

   I'll leave you with this.  Good for the public school education in the Bronx.  They can't even get their 123's and ACB's? right:

   Siyanara suckers!

Break Time

   First of all, LeBron James is a bag of expletives.  Go after a title on a team where you're the man, not one head of a three headed monster.  Way to wimp out.

   Now that the MLB season has reached the All-Star break, I want to take a look at some of the top stories, as far as I'm concerned, in the first half.

   1.  Friar Power.  The San Diego Padres are 14 games over .500 (they were 75-87 last year) and up by two games in the much-improved NL West.  I mean this is a pitchers dominated team - with the best ERA (3.25) and WHIP (1.23) in the MLB.  They're hitting a paltry .250 but are in first place - pitching wins.  Look at the pathetic KC Royals - they lead the majors in hitting (.282) and are 10 games under .500 and 10.5 GB of the 1st place White Sox.  Watch out for the hooded clergy, they're here for real, and I don't think their pitching will go out of style.  They have no pressure to succeed and their best pitcher has only 27 starts under his belt for his career (Mat Latos) and a journeyman John Garland is reverting back to old form (when he won 18 games back-to-back years with the White Sox).  The Padres are good man, but so is everyone else in the West.  It's gonna be exciting.

   2.  Abe Vigoda (aka Jamie Moyer).  How in the hell is this guy 9-8?  I watched him dominate the Yankees (8 IP, 3 H, 2 R) and get shellacked by the Red Sox the very next start (1 IP, 9 H, 9 R).  He's got a 4.51 ERA in over 107 innings pitched - better than A.J. Burnett (4.75), John Lackey (4.78), and Brandon Morrow (4.86) - all guys with far superior stuff.  I watch him pitch and it actually infuriates me.  How can this guy do this at the highest level?  He throws 83 mph!  Are you kidding me?  I have to move on, it's pissing me off even thinking about it.  Good for you Jamie, you old bastard.

   3.  Vuvuzelas at a baseball game?  Really Marlins?  Fire the PR guy instead of letting Fredi Gonzalez get the axe.  This was something that people bitched about at the World Cup 2010, and once the USA was eliminated, everyone bitched about everything related to the World Cup.  And the Marlins decide it's a good idea to hand out half-assed vuvuzelas to fans for a game versus in-state rival Tampa Bay?  Give it a rest.  That goes against everything a traditional baseball fan stands for.  At least give out cowbells or something like that, everyone needs to have more cowbell.  Vuvuzela Night?  Never going to a Marlins game, on principle alone.

   4.  Marco...Polo...Teixeira?  He's hitting an eye-popping .254, but surprisingly has 17 HR and 60 RBI.  He seems to be AL version of Adam Dunn - HR's and right around a .250 BA (Dunn is at 22 HR and .288 in 2010).  He went into the break on fire, hitting .419 in July.  I mean he did virtually nothing in April (.136, 2 HR, 9 RBI) and the Yankees still managed to go 15-7.  They have a two game lead over the Rays and a five game lead over the Red Sox and they haven't even had the best record in the AL East in any given month (TB - Apr., TOR - May, BOS - June, TB - July).  Not to mention the heading to this paragraph - Mark Teixeira is having a mediocre season at best.  If they played the White Sox, Twins, and Mariners every series, he'd be hitting .450 for the year (.545 vs. CWS, .400 vs. MIN, .448 vs. SEA).  If he can stay hot after the break, watch out baseball!  Good time to be a Yankee fan.

   That's all I have time for.  Gotta go work on a few things.  We just got a new GTee in, may go take a few hacks off that, get some frustration out.

   HR Derby tonight at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific) - Swisher looking to bring the trophy back to the Bronx with him.

   Be well people.

Seal Island

   I as just watching a segment on ESPN about Seal Island, off the coast of South Africa, and the chain of command down there.  The dense population of fur seals is what leads to the prevalence of great white sharks.  Heading into the water down there would be insanity - something I would never even consider doing.  Just seeing those beasts flying out of the ocean and snagging a meal mid-air is amazing.


   Speaking of getting thrown into the sharks, here is my list of 2010 All-Star game snubs.  These are the guys who fell off the vote-boat.  (Answers will be at the bottom)


   1.  Position Player Snub:
   1.  Player A:  .318 BA, 21 HR, 59 RBI, .599 SLG%, 1.017 OPS
   1.  Player B:  .305 BA, 20 HR, 60 RBI, .567 SLG%, .981 OPS
   1.  Player C:  .291 BA, 16 HR, 51 RBI, .517 SLG%, .902 OPS
   1.  Player D:  .296 BA, 15 HR, 59 RBI, .502 SLG%, .852 OPS


   Three of these players are on the squad and one is not, an to me, it's not even close.  There is one guy (Player A, cough cough...) that should have been a lock.  Fans don't know players in smaller markets, and it's sad because this players team is actually competing for a change.

   I mean the Marlins tried to bribe fans with 2 free tickets to a game if you punched all Marlins to the All-Star Game on at least 200 ballots.  Doofs!



   2.  RHP Starter Snub:  9-4, 2.62 ERA, 91 K, 0.96 WHIP, .193 BAA


   His team is at the top of it's division and he has the lowest WHIP in his league and the lowest BAA in baseball.  His stuff is dirty and he's a huge dude (6'6", 225 lbs.)


   3.  Reliever Snub: 
   3.  Player A:  2-0, 22 SV (2 BS), 2.04 ERA, .241 BAA
   3.  Player B:  3-0, 17 SV (2 BS), 2.02 ERA, .231 BAA
   3.  Player C:  3-1, 12 HLD, 2 SV (1 BS), 1.03 ERA, .122 BAA, ZERO HITS to LHH


   Granted you want closers in the game, and seeing how the Pirates are so bad that their lone rep was a middle man (Evan Meek), I guess there was no room for a guy who knows how to shut down an inning to get it to the closer.  Plus, he's had four arm surgeries - this guy is known as "The Cockroach" in the clubhouse.   This guy hasn't let up a hit to a LHH - all year - in 10.1 IP.  He is a specialist.  I hope Player A or B comes in when a LHH comes up and serves one up - if only Player C was available.  Or they'll use their only other LHP, who's like 100 years old.



   That is all I have time for today, but these are three of the guys I feel got thrown to the sharks off the coast of Seal Island.  Two are in lesser markets, one is in a big market, but either way, the best players should get in.  (I'm not going to make a push for Stephen Strasburg, because he has just six appearances under his belt and I feel that although he does give the NL a good chance to win, he hype doesn't get you in to an All-Star Game)


   Oh yeah, here are the answers and players listed above:


   #1 - Position Player Snub:  Player A - SNUBBED - JOEY VOTTO, Player B - Albert Pujols (STL), Player C - Adrian Gonzalez (SD), Player D - Ryan Howard (PHI)



   #2 - RHP Starter Snub:  Mat Latos (SD)


   #3 - Reliever Snub:  Player A - Brian Wilson (SF), Player B - Jonathan Broxton (LAD), Player C - SNUBBED - HONG-CHIH KUO (LAD)


   Alright, time to go.  I hope you don't get snubbed.  And remember, if you want to see sharks up close, stand two feet from your television during Shark Week on Discovery Channel.


   Happy 34th Birthday 50 Cent, G-Unit, we in here, party like it's your birthday.  If you see him in the club, bottle full of bub.  Word, yo.

Back to basics

   I am going to come back to my bread-and-butter - baseball.  I just turned off the Yankees-Dodgers game in favor of Discovery: Health (Hoarding:  Buried Alive, Ch. 279 on DirecTV).  Disturbing watching this guy walk around his house knee deep in clothes, garbage, books, and magazines.

   What is even more disturbing is the way Andy Pettitte is fielding his position (or should I say not fielding it).  He has only one error tonight, but should have two (they gave one to Robinson Cano).

   The inning started with a double to right field by Reed Johnson and Kershaw coming up.  Sac bunt.  Pettitte threw it down the left field line, allowing Johnson to score.  The announcers were saying it's the catchers call and A-Rod gestured to go to first base as well, but the ball wound up in left field.  Man on 1st, 1 run in.  Furcal bunt single.  1st and 2nd, 0 out.  Belliard sac bunt to Pettitte, who threw wide of Cano covering first.  Kershaw scored, Furcal to third, Belliard to second.  Sac fly from Ethier scored Furcal, allowed Belliard to go to third.  IBB to Manny-wood, Casey Blake struck out, Loney walked, Martin grounded out to third. 

   3 Runs.  2 Hits.  2 Errors.

   What Pettitte didn't execute is what we like to call in the baseball world PFP's.  Pitcher's Fielding Practice.  Something that is done day after day after day in spring training, in college baseball, and in high school baseball.  The reaction of pitchers after day three or four in a row is usually to roll their eyes, their necks, or just put their heads down.  Truth is, it is something that can win and lose games and add or shave points off the ERA.  So far tonight, it's biting the Yankees in the ass.

   Pettitte had only 29 errors in 15+ year career.  Pretty solid.  Six errors is his season high, in 2003 with the Yankees, when he won 21 games.  Might have been 22 or 23 if he made a few less errors.  Regardless, 29 errors in 15 years is excellent (.954 FLD%).  Greg Maddux, perhaps the best fielding pitcher there ever was, had a .970 FLD% (53 errors) in his 23-year career.

   When it boils down to it, a successful pitcher can repeat his delivery, throw to spots, and can field his position.  Throwing 96-99 MPH helps, but those guys are rare.  PFP's, everyone is on the same level as far as they go.  It's what you do once you get the ball that seperates the winners from the losers.

   Pettitte (.954 FLD%) has a career 238-137 record.  Maddux (.971 FLD%) was 355-227.  Both can field their position.  Both are successful (Maddux was).  Whitey Ford (.961 FLD%) was 236-106.  Bob Gibson (.949) was 251-174. 

   Chuck Finley (.907 FLD%) could have had more wins (200) and a lower ERA (3.85) if he could only field his position.  Randy Johnson (.904 FLD%) would have been less of a pitcher if he hadn't thrown 100 MPH in his prime - he made 5+ errors in a season in 11 of his 22 years on the mound.  Maybe that was his problem, leaving the mound.  When he was bringing the funk, he was nasty.  When he tried to field his position, he was awful.

   Anyway, non-baseball people can probably give two shits about this post, but it resonates with me.  I considered myself an excellent fielding pitcher when I played.  It's something you need to take pride in.  It saves your team, your pitch count, and your ERA.

   Here's a link to a great article on PFP's published on MLB.com earlier this year:  PFP.  Give it a glance, and if you happen to know someone who knows someone who's kid pitches, tell him to take a look.

   Help a young pitcher out, hit him some ground balls.  Trust me.

Shut out and Shutouts

I sincerely apologize to my loyal legion of followers (the three of you) for my lack of posting recently.  I have been busy with work and trying to find a new look for my blog spot.  I hope you can bear with me, I will be sure to make it up to you.

Heading over to the diamond, there has been an awful lot of shutouts lately in the MLB.  Thursday featured three (CWS 2 ATL 0 // MIL 5 MIN 0 // TOR 5 STL 0).  Wednesday night there were four (CIN 3 OAK 0 // KC 1 WSH 0 // STL 1 TOR 0 // NYM 5 DET 0).  Tuesday saw only one shutout (SEA 2 CHC 0).  That's eight shutouts in three days.  There have been 127 shutouts in the big leagues this year already, and we still have just over two weeks before the 2010 Midsummer Classic in Anaheim.

It is shaping up to be the "Year of the Pitcher".  More specifically, it's the year the NL West's pitching staffs are dominating baseball.  Four teams rank in the top 6 in shutouts - Padres and Rockies (9) lead the majors, and the Dodgers and Giants (6) are both tied for 3th. 

Breaking it down, 2009 and 2010, 1st Half statistics:
--2009 - 14 SP's with 80+ IP with ERA < 3.00
--2010 - 23 SP's with 80+ IP with ERA < 3.00

--2009 - 12 pitchers with 10+ wins pre-All-Star break.
--2010 - 23 with 8+ wins (2+ weeks before All-Star break)

--2009 - 24 pitchers with 80+ IP with WHIP < 1.20
--2010 - 30 pitchers with 80+ IP with WHIP < 1.20

--2009 - 32 hitters with 17+ HR (Albert Pujols, 32)
--2010 - 8 hitters with 17+ HR (Jose Bautista, 20)

--2009 - 16 hitters with 60+ RBI (Albert Pujols, 87)
--2010 - 1 hitter with 60+ RBI (Miguel Cabrera, 61)

Call 2010 the "Year of the Pitcher", I know it's still early, but I see no end to this dominance in sight.  The proof is in the numbers.  And with Stephen Strasburg on the scene tearing up opposing lineups like Nathan tears apart napkins, look out.

You think there's a coincidence that HR numbers are down since the Steroid Squad (McGwire, Canseco, Bonds, Sosa) stopped playing?  I think not.  Those guys are dirtbags - and not in a good way.  They ruined the way casual fans look at the game - me, I'm a professional fan.  (If there's such a thing)  These guys should get shut out of the Hall of Fame.  They're losers.  Scumbags.

Time for some dinner, gonna whip something up for LMD, Julia, and myself.  LMD is cleaning, I'm banned because all I do is get in the way.  Gonna go get some prosecco to mix with elder flower for the women, and some beers for myself.  The ladies can pretend they're high class.

Later!

Covering all bases

Despite the best efforts of DirecTV to prevent me from access to the happenings in the sports world, I still am able to access the internet. HAH! They're sending a technician over on Thursday morning to try to fix the problem, even though the lady on the phone told me that "97% of the time, what I'm walking you through now works to fix this issue." Yeah right lady, SIKE! I won't lay into this guy too much, it isn't his fault after all. I just hope he can meander his way through the brush in the yard - it's a jungle back there.

The internet has provided me some information, however: Stephen Strasburg put up a pretty dominant line against the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 14 K. He struck out the side in the 2nd, 6th, and 7th innings, and allowed three of his four hits in the fourth inning (single, single, 6-4-3, HR, P4). 94 pitches, 65 for strikes. Lastings Milledge was his first strikeout victim, to end the first inning - Andy LaRoche was his last, to end the seventh inning. Every Pirates starter struck out at least once. He even handled the bat OK, at least from the box score - two ground outs to SS.

I'm guessing this kid had pretty good stuff tonight.

In other baseball news, Mike McCoy singled in the 6th inning, after the Rays had scored 7 runs, to break up a no-hit bid by TB starter Jeff Niemann. 48 career at-bats coming in to tonights game - hitting 9th. Poor Jeff Niemann.

Yankees are doubling up the O's right now, 6-3 heading into the bottom of the 6th. Swisher and Granderson have hit HR's for the Bombers - Swisher a 2R shot in the first, Grand(slam)erson a deli-job in the third. That's all their runs right there.

Lindsay is out with her friends catching "Sex and the City 2" at a theater somewhere in NYC and Nathan keeps looking out the window waiting for her to come home (right now he's eating, but he's strolling back over to the window sill).

What's the top search trend on Yahoo! you ask? Why it's everyones favorite, Uncle Jesse (John Stamos), who will apparently be joining the cast of Glee next season for an undisclosed amount of episodes. Top search topics on Google, is "lakers celtics" - the #1 annoyance of mine - a lack of proper punctuation. Bing's top search is the 2010 MLB Draft. No Manhattan College player has been taken, and our only hope really is OF Kevin Nieto, but that'll be late if at all. Dogpile fans searched Tom Cruise MTV Awards as their #1, I am not sure if I recall what he did. And finally, the users of Ask.com want to know, "What are the components of blood?" Sounds a little too in depth for me.

NBA news, Lakers were up 26-17 after one quarter and lead by 15 now. LAL 10-12 from the stripe, BOS is 1-4. Pierce and Allen were a combined 0-10 from the floor in the first half. Garnett has 10, Rondo 6. Lakers led by Kobe (10), Odom (6), and Gasol (4). I hope the Lakers roll by 30.

Nathan just fell off the couch, I have to go tend to him. Later world.

MLB Draft

The MLB Draft is on television tonight (it started at 7pm EST) on MLB Network.  No surprise to see super-douche Bryce Harper go #1.  I got my DraftTracker up on the computer because I can't stand to listen to it.  I like the DT because they give a pretty in depth scouting report on these kids, and it allows me to go back to my d1baseball.com site and scour through the teams to find these guys' stats.  The Mets are on the clock and selected Matt Harvey, a local kid (Mystic, CT) from UNC.  Stud-like numbers this year in Chapel Hill - 8-3, 3.09 ERA, 96 IP, 80 H, 35 BB, 102 K with a miniscule .224 BAA, in the almighty ACC.  Not to mention he throws low- to mid-90's  Good for the Mets, good for Harvey. 

The Astros are on the clock now, I think they can use some help right now.  Astros pick is in:  Delino DeShields Jr., son of former Expos great Delino DeShields.  I think they should have found a stud arm but DD Jr. is probably a stud.  Good bloodlines with plus speed.  Seems like a guy in the Michael Bourn mold.  I played against him in the Cape Cod Baseball League back in the summer of 2002.  I was a Bourn Braves guy and he was a Y-D Red Sox guy.  I'm pretty sure I struck him out - my first appearance was against Y-D and I threw 3 perfect innings with 5 K's.  He had a good summer that year - he was a sophomore at Houston.  He hit .287 with 23 SB's - I was 2-1 with a 3.96 ERA in 36.1 IP with 34 K and 11 BB.  Respectable numbers from a RHP from a small time collee program.

Lindsay and Nathan are here now, she is busting my balls saying they're more interesting, which is true.  They're pretty awesome.  I'm tired of watching this slow-as-shit draft.  It's like the NFL draft, it is taking forever. 

Live well.

Almost 30...

...according to Lindsay, I am almost 30 years old.  Tomorrow I am actually 29, but she gets a rise out of saying I'm almost 30.  She's a funny one.  Heading to NYC this evening, for a surprise put on by Nathan, still have no idea what we're doing, but I'll just have to wait and see.

In MLB news, the Yankees are pounding the Indians, 7-1.  Even Chan Ho Park is getting in on the action.  Former Miami (FL) Hurricane great Chris Perez (aka: I Whine Over Bunts) got touched up.  He came in to face A-Rod, who homered to center field on a 3-1 pitch.  He then promptly let up another homer, this one to Robinson Cano (3-2 count), and a double to Nick Swisher (3-2 count).  It is so important to get ahead of hitters and get outs early in counts - the longer an AB goes, the advantage goes to the hitter.  Case.  Point.

Andy was dandy, as Michael Kay would put it, going seven strong innings, allowing only four hits, a run, and racked up five strikeouts.  Pettitte lowered his ERA from 2.62 to 2.48, and is in line for his seventh win of the year, half of his 2009 win total.

The middle of the Yankees order (Teixeira, Rodriguez, Cano, Swisher) are a combined 8-18 with six runs scored and nine RBI.  It's always nice when you get that kind of production from the meat of the order.  Every starter has a hit, Gardner has three (along with 2 SB).

Good game for the Yankees - too bad the same can't be said for the reigning NL-champion Phillies, who are about to lose their grasp on first place in the NL East, as the Braves lead 9-3 in the top of the ninth inning.  Tommy Hanson had a solid outing, going 6.1 IP with only one run allowed.  Joe Blanton was ineffective, as usual, laboring through 6 innings (8 H, 6 R (4ER), 2 K).  It's unreal how his career has been so mediocre since he's left the Bay Area.  Half the problem is that he was hurt early on this season (oblique injury in March 2010) but the other part of the problem is his lack of an out pitch.  He averages well under a K/IP (.67 K/IP in his career).  This season, he's only averaging .50 K/IP - with the exception of Mitch Talbot (CLE), most of the pitchers having success this year have higher K/IP ratios (Talbot has a .40 K/IP).  Blanton has always featured a pretty good change up, but his velocity is/has been nothing like the mythical Joe Blanton from University of Kentucky was like in the Cap Cod Baseball League - low to mid-90's.  He's generally 86-89 on the gun. 

Gotta get ready - it'll take me about three and a half minutes - but I have to take Nathan out.

Doc Perfect

Posting from my phone, but Phillies ace Roy Halladay just perfected the Marlins. 27 up, 27 down. twentieth one in MLB history. Here's the box score:  Halladay Perfect Game Box Score.  Good for you, Doc!

José Lima...

...Rest In Peace.  This post is dedicated to the passing of former-MLB pitcher José Lima, 37, who died last night in his home in Pasadena, CA of an apparent heart attack.  "Lima Time" will no longer be observed during a game, but will never be forgotten.

From what I remembered of José Lima, he was a wacky, fun, and very average pitcher for most of his 13-year MLB career.  His 1998 and 1999 seasons with the Houston Astros were two of his best.  In '98, he went 16-8 with a 3.70 ERA and in '99 he won 21 games, posting a 3.58 ERA.  He was also a singer, and sang the National Anthem at his own Dodgers game once.

I always recall seeing a game on TV or watching highlights on SportsCenter and noticing José Lima's hair being different colors and his facial hair changing almost daily.  He was eccentric and unscripted, unlike these guys now, with their antics after a big out or save.  His teammates loved him and the fans loved him - and one manager in particular had a great line, "He was an animated guy and a fierce competitor and he got people excited," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said.  When people remember you for those aforementioned traits, you left your mark.

Lima played for the Tigers, Astros, Royals, Dodgers, and Mets during his 13 seasons, as well as spending the beginning of the 2003 season with the Atlantic League's Newark Bears.  His career ERA of 5.26 is nothing special, but he brought something to the park that stats did not  indicate - a love for the game and a man who had a great time playing the game.  He respected baseball - and you don't often see that today (see: Hanley Ramirez).

José Lima will be missed.  RIP and it'll always be "Lima Time".

Here's a little photo gallery of images I've scoured the internet for of José Lima:

1st Place ... Reds?

The Cincinnati Reds are sitting pretty in 1st place in the NL Central - they're actually only up by 1 game on the Cardinals, but they deserve the spotlight.  Today they rallied for three runs in B9 off Brewers closer and future HOF'er Trevor Hoffman, who has been nothing short of terrible this year, to beat the Brewers 5-4.

Five blown saves?  ERA over 11.00?  I know the Brewers are struggling this year, but still - this is a guy with a career 2.83 ERA and 596 career saves. 

The inning was a nightmare - single by Janish, HR by Rolen, 2B by Heisey, BB to Phillips, 1B to Joey Votto.  Votto hit a solo HR in the 8th to cut the Brewers lead to 4-2.  It is only the third time in 1055 IP where he hasn't recorded an out and his first since July 19, 2006 against the Phillies.

May 18, 2010 vs. CIN:  0.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 HR, (L, BS #5)
July 19, 2006 vs. PHI:  0.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 BB, (BS #3)
April 28, 1999 vs. NYM:  0.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, (L)

Not a great week for big name closers.  Sunday--Mariano Rivera blew a game vs. the Twins, Monday--Papelbon blew a game vs. the Yankees, Tuesday--Hoffman blew a game vs. Cincinnati.

ABC!  Always Be Closing!