Now that I've got you thinking a little bit about your team, it's time to take a look at some other factors which could make a big difference in how your team improves in the standings....
Before the first pitch of the season was thrown, the Phillies were prohibitive favorites to win not just the NL East but to be the only elite team in the entire National League...
Just about a month ago I thought the White Sox were on the verge of throwing in the towel and becoming sellers before the non waiver trading deadline...
Now that I've got you thinking a little bit about your team, analyzing the standings and how the points are distributed, not to mention pondering the trade market, it's time to take a look at some other factors which could make a big difference in how your team improves in the standings. Even if you are in first place the...
Before the first pitch of the season was thrown, the Phillies were prohibitive favorites to win not just the NL East but to be the only elite team in the entire National League. Barring a playoff upset, the team which acquired Roy Halladay to be their ace during the offseason was already being written in for another World Series appearance....
If your team didn't do too well in the first half, don't give up. There is still probably some hope. That's not to say that you are going to make a last to first turn about or erase a 40-point deficit in standard leagues, but the chance to improve is definitely there. For those not that deep in the hole...
Just about a month ago I thought the White Sox were on the verge of throwing in the towel and becoming sellers before the non waiver trading deadline at the end of the month. What a difference a month makes as the White sox come into the second half as the first place team in the AL Central. Barring a...
Several years back I wrote George Steinbrenner's obituary. It was what they call in the business a "canned" piece that would need only minor revisions in the event of the Boss's demise and ready to go almost instantly. That's not what I'm putting in this place; I've thrown that file in the virtual trash can. Steinbrenner was many things. A...
I have to admit I was one of the proponents who thought that the All-Star Game might actually be a bit better because home field advantage in the World Series would go to the winning league. I was wrong. It didn't help the All-Star game or make it any more interesting for the fans. All it's done since the inception...
I'm trying hard to find something to like about the All-Star Game. Great baseball? Nah, that's a dubious proposition -- far too many one dimensional players and players who aren't even the best at their position but have been voted in by fans. Maybe the fact that they've tried to give an exhibition game a little meaning by allowing the...
The rumors are flying and trades are in the air. Admittedly this is still the foreplay to what looks to be an intriguing July. Only a couple of minor deals, such as Bengie Molina to an already offensively potent Texas Rangers and Russell Branyan to the Mariners have actually been consummated. That doesn't mean that the phones of General Managers...
Good riddance to interleague play. Sure there were some entertaining games this past week as interleague play wrapped up for 2010. But there are plenty of teams who'll be happy to tell you how much they didn't enjoy interleague play. That includes the LA Dodgers who managed to go 4-11 in 15 games against teams on the right side of...
This won't be the year of the Nationals, but it might well be the start of something good. Long suffering Washingtonians have dealt with naught but losing baseball since 1934 when a plucky Senators team made it, but lost in the World Series to the New York Giants. The decade spawned a phrase summing up the city's baseball plight: "First...
George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees from CBS in 1973; the franchise today is now worth more than a billion dollars. He also helped build the team to a point where it won ten pennants and six World Series. Yet along the way, he constantly berated his players, tortured his managers and employees and was twice suspended from baseball...
In just over six weeks Austin Jackson has seen 69 points shaved off his batting average (knocking him down to a mere .308). That's not his fault, but it's something that often happens to high flying rookies who light it up in the early months of their careers. It doesn't mean that Jackson has lost anything, or that suddenly he's...
Author's Note: Ok, I admit it. It's been a few weeks since my last Bottom Fishing column but I have to admit I wasn't sure just how many of you actually cared. But thanks to an outpouring (by which I mean some 20 odd) of e-mails from fans and supporters, you've motivated me to get back to doing this as...
When the Tampa Bay Rays offered free agent Pat Burrell a two-year contract worth $16 million dollars back in 2009, they thought they were getting a deal. Instead Pat "The Bat" Burrell turned out to be a total disaster in the DH role, managing just a paltry .221 average with 14 home runs in 122 games for the Rays in...
Ignore the hype -- at least for now. Oh the potential to be great is there but it's too early to anoint Stephen Strasburg as one of the great ones. Sure he had a great debut and struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in seven innings but the key words in that phrase is Pittsburgh Pirates. Strasburg fanned 14 Pirates in...
Before the first pitch of the season was thrown, the Phillies were prohibitive favorites to win not just the NL East but to be the only elite team in the entire National League. Barring a playoff upset, the team which acquired Roy Halladay to be their ace during the offseason was already being written in for another World Series appearance....
Just about a month ago I thought the White Sox were on the verge of throwing in the towel and becoming sellers before the non waiver trading deadline at the end of the month. What a difference a month makes as the White sox come into the second half as the first place team in the AL Central. Barring a...
Several years back I wrote George Steinbrenner's obituary. It was what they call in the business a "canned" piece that would need only minor revisions in the event of the Boss's demise and ready to go almost instantly. That's not what I'm putting in this place; I've thrown that file in the virtual trash can. Steinbrenner was many things. A...
I have to admit I was one of the proponents who thought that the All-Star Game might actually be a bit better because home field advantage in the World Series would go to the winning league. I was wrong. It didn't help the All-Star game or make it any more interesting for the fans. All it's done since the inception...
I'm trying hard to find something to like about the All-Star Game. Great baseball? Nah, that's a dubious proposition -- far too many one dimensional players and players who aren't even the best at their position but have been voted in by fans. Maybe the fact that they've tried to give an exhibition game a little meaning by allowing the...
The rumors are flying and trades are in the air. Admittedly this is still the foreplay to what looks to be an intriguing July. Only a couple of minor deals, such as Bengie Molina to an already offensively potent Texas Rangers and Russell Branyan to the Mariners have actually been consummated. That doesn't mean that the phones of General Managers...
Good riddance to interleague play. Sure there were some entertaining games this past week as interleague play wrapped up for 2010. But there are plenty of teams who'll be happy to tell you how much they didn't enjoy interleague play. That includes the LA Dodgers who managed to go 4-11 in 15 games against teams on the right side of...
This won't be the year of the Nationals, but it might well be the start of something good. Long suffering Washingtonians have dealt with naught but losing baseball since 1934 when a plucky Senators team made it, but lost in the World Series to the New York Giants. The decade spawned a phrase summing up the city's baseball plight: "First...
In just over six weeks Austin Jackson has seen 69 points shaved off his batting average (knocking him down to a mere .308). That's not his fault, but it's something that often happens to high flying rookies who light it up in the early months of their careers. It doesn't mean that Jackson has lost anything, or that suddenly he's...
When the Tampa Bay Rays offered free agent Pat Burrell a two-year contract worth $16 million dollars back in 2009, they thought they were getting a deal. Instead Pat "The Bat" Burrell turned out to be a total disaster in the DH role, managing just a paltry .221 average with 14 home runs in 122 games for the Rays in...
Ignore the hype -- at least for now. Oh the potential to be great is there but it's too early to anoint Stephen Strasburg as one of the great ones. Sure he had a great debut and struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in seven innings but the key words in that phrase is Pittsburgh Pirates. Strasburg fanned 14 Pirates in...
We tackled the American League on Monday so today we'll take a quick tour around the senior circuit and try to figure out who's buying, who's selling and just what is likely to be available on the market. NL East Who'll be Buying: Phillies and Braves, possibly the Mets. The Phillies should be a little scared at this point. They...
The trading has already begun. The move of struggling lefty Dontrelle Willis was the opening salvo of what looks to be an interesting, but perhaps not very vigorous, trading season. With roughly 50 days left until the trading deadline it's probably that a handful of deals, including possibly some big ones will occur. In the last few years there hasn't...
In the last piece we discussed possible destinations for Astros slugger Lance Berkman who requested a trade from the team and today we'll take a look at just where pitcher Roy Oswalt could land if the Astros honored his request for a trade too. Oswalt, ostensibly an ace pitcher, is having a career type year so far, but doesn't really...
While Astros Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt have asked for trades out of Houston, it's no sure thing that the Astros will honor those requests. After all, the Astros don't have a lot of star power and are already struggling at the gate due to their rather poor play. Trading away either Oswalt or Berkman would just make that worse....
Now that I've got you thinking a little bit about your team, analyzing the standings and how the points are distributed, not to mention pondering the trade market, it's time to take a look at some other factors which could make a big difference in how your team improves in the standings. Even if you are in first place the...
If your team didn't do too well in the first half, don't give up. There is still probably some hope. That's not to say that you are going to make a last to first turn about or erase a 40-point deficit in standard leagues, but the chance to improve is definitely there. For those not that deep in the hole...
Author's Note: Ok, I admit it. It's been a few weeks since my last Bottom Fishing column but I have to admit I wasn't sure just how many of you actually cared. But thanks to an outpouring (by which I mean some 20 odd) of e-mails from fans and supporters, you've motivated me to get back to doing this as...
In the bottom fishing column I'll be looking for players with upside who can usually be found either for nothing amidst the free agent pool, or who might acquired cheaply via trade. Players selected will either have above average upside, or have value that has been overlooked by many players. I'll throw in some stinkers too, not to mention a...
In this column I'll be looking for players with upside who can usually be found either for nothing amidst the free agent pool, or who might acquired cheaply via trade. Players selected will either have above average upside, or have value that has been overlooked by many players. I'll throw in some stinkers too, not to mention a few players...
In the bottom fishing column, I'll be looking for players with upside who can usually be found either for nothing amidst the free agent pool, or who might acquired cheaply via trade. Players selected will either have above average upside, or have value that has been overlooked by many players. I'll throw in some stinkers too, not to mention a...
In the bottom fishing column I'll be looking for players with upside who can usually be found either for nothing amidst the free agent pool or who might acquired cheaply via trade. Players selected will either have above average upside or have value that has been overlooked by many players. I'll throw in some stinkers too, not to mention a...
Don't Panic. Yes, those were the words on the cover of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and they'll stand you in just as good stead in fantasy baseball during the early part of the season as they did for Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent in the book. Simply put, the first few weeks, even the first six or...
In the bottom fishing column, I'll be looking for players with upside who can usually be found either for nothing amidst the free agent pool or who might acquired cheaply via trade. Players selected will either have above average upside, or have value that has been overlooked by many players, such as the two older players at the end of...
The waiver wires are already buzzing. In both deep and shallow leagues owners are panicking just days into the season. Some probably have good reason to panic -- a poor draft often is tough to recover from, others are just jumping at the sound of quick starts or rather slow ones. Brad Hawpe has not hit much yet, but most...
Back in April, I wrote a column about the dangers of getting too comfortable too soon with the early season success of your fantasy team and the individuals comprising it. I also advised all of you Evan Longoria owners to test the trade waters to determine how big a bite you could get for the Tampa third baseman, who, at...
The MLB trade deadline may have passed on July 31, but the fantasy trade deadline -- if your league has one -- likely either just happened or is about to happen. In my league, the deadline came and went Aug. 16. Saddled in seventh place (out of 12 teams), I knew I had to act. Despite early and mid-season acquisitions...
It's no longer a marathon but a race. In fantasy ball most of us tend to start the season with a long view. We can wait while slumping sluggers attempt to find their normal places in the fantasy rankings, but as the season wears along the time for patience begins to pass. Now with barely two months left in the...
In the first of our new Four Bagger columns, we'll take a look at four players who all have one thing in common: They are at the very least perceived as having a sub-par season. All of these hitters -- Jimmy Rollins, Magglio Ordonez, Alfonso Soriano and Matt Holliday -- ranked among the top options at their position but have...
Not to sound like Jim Rome (whom I actually admire and find entertaining), but here's what I'm burnin' on: I don't care what anybody says about Hanley Ramirez or A-Rod or anyone else -- Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball, and he should be the consensus No. 1 pick in every draft next year. I don't care about...
George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees from CBS in 1973; the franchise today is now worth more than a billion dollars. He also helped build the team to a...
Will Leitch's Are We Winning? isn't easy to describe. Like many memoirs, it uses a framing device, in this case baseball, to tell a more complex story. And like many...
Full disclosure: This reviewer has the essential advantage of having seen Willie play at the old Polo Grounds in Harlem. (For the record, it was on the "D" line at...
I have to admit that before being given a copy of this book to review that I hadn't given a lot of thought to the relationship of Jews and baseball. ...
If you don't know the answer to the question, What Major League pitcher won the most games in a single season and the story behind it then this book is...
There has been plenty of hype over the past couple of years regarding this book, as Jay McGwire promised a tell-all about his famous slugging brother. It's not quite that. ...
So much of Hank Greenberg's life was prescient of America's future: the battle for human rights, the growth of America during the fabulous fifties and Roger Maris' challenge of Babe...
"Pie Traynor" is a mellow, pleasant biography of the erstwhile Pittsburgh Pirates third sacker. PT was with the club from 1920-1939 as player, player-manager and manager. The story faithfully follows...
With the precision of an ace runner on the base paths, Society for America Baseball Research member Roy Kerr uncovers the life and times of a forgotten superstar through the...
With a rich tradition in amateur baseball, it seemed like a natural for the entrepreneurial spirit to take hold in Connecticut at the birth of the professional game. And a...
Before slick software and statistical analysts who crunch numbers to determine the next five-tool star, the science of discovering talented baseball players was solely based on reports from eyewitness accounts...
It wasn't supposed to end this way. In 1999, the baseball diamond was swept away at Providence College, ending 80 seasons that may have not made a huge impact in...
The Hot Stove League gets smoking with a twin bill of recent releases from ACTA Sports which dig into the heart -- and controversies -- of the game; statistical consultant...
Leave it to southpaw star Jerry "The Kooz" Koosman to deliver a perfect pitch for the spectacular The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin' Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked...
The Mets pulled Oliver Perez from their starting rotation on Saturday, and David Lennon of Newsday reports Perez won't accept a demotion to Class AAA. Instead, he will pitch out of the bullpen. Tuesday is his first expected day of availability.
Perez's outright rejection of going to Class AAA shows his true character. He doesn't care about performing to the best of his abilities. Instead, he just wants to remain in the Major Leagues, even if it impacts the Mets negatively.
We've all seen the horror of Perez starting this season -- 1.92 WHIP, 28 walks (vs. just 27 strikeouts) in 33 1/3 innings pitched, a 5.94 ERA. The Mets have had plenty of pitching trouble so far this season.
Johan Santana's ERA is about four-tenths of a run higher than his career average. His fastball has lost velocity, which limits the impact of his changeup because of the smaller difference between the two in velocity. John Maine has been atrocious, while Jonathan Niese hasn't been much.
Perez's difficult 2010 season comes after an injury-marred and difficult season in 2009. The concern with Perez has been whether his control would be good enough to make use of his excellent stuff. That hasn't been the case this season.
Perez should be open to a demotion to Class AAA. There, he would receive opportunities to regain his control without the difficulties of getting Major League hitters out. If he were in Class AAA, he would allow the Mets to call up another arm to help their Major League club. Instead, once manager Jerry Manuel calls on Perez, it may mean he needs to have another pitcher warming up to bail Perez.
Perez says he wouldn't accept a demotion, but it's the right move for the Mets to make. It's only a shame Perez doesn't see the benefit in it, for whatever reason he chooses not to.
It's been apparent that the Astros have needed to blow up their Major League roster for some time now. If your big free agent signings are Brett Myers, Russ Ortiz and an assortment of washed-up arms, there's a larger problem.
It would be an ugly situation if they did, especially considering the weak farm system. The Astros also have two players with basically immovable contracts (Carlos Lee and Brandon Lyon), one player with a big contract that only a limited number of teams could add (Roy Oswalt) and a superstar willing to waive his no-trade clause, according to a report by Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle.
"If it was me and I was running the show here, if we didn't make a great comeback like we did in '05 and be sort of around .500 by the All-Star break, I'd try to trade every veteran I could to reload," [Lance] Berkman said. "That's the quickest way you're going to be able to reload and get it going in the right direction.
"As a player, if they came to me and said, 'Hey, we've got a deal to go to a contender,' I'd take it. Heck, it's only a three- or four-month deal. It's not like I'm signing on for 10 years with another team."
...
"I would say yeah," Berkman said. "I think it would benefit the organization, and in the end, it would be a benefit for whoever it is - whether it's me, or Roy (Oswalt) or Carlos. I'm not saying we're at the point where they should start pulling the plug on us, but they need to start thinking forward. If this thing keeps going like this, they've gotta do something.
"If you're running a team, you don't want to get caught in baseball purgatory - where you're not really getting young and you're not really (competing). Where you're in this deal where every year you're signing a marginal veteran and you just never get in the mix."
Berkman is in the final year of his contract but has a $15 million club option for next season. He started the season on the disabled list because of knee surgery, but he remains one of the better hitters in the Major Leagues.
Here's a look at a few places he could finish the season.
Houston - The likeliest scenario is that Berkman doesn't go anywhere. Houston has been reluctant to give up in seasons past, so they may keep Berkman, a fan favorite and a good player. He has said he wants to retire with the Astros, but he is their best piece of trade bait, followed closely by Oswalt.
Atlanta - The Braves dug to the bottom of the bargain bin with Troy Glaus this offseason, and they're desperate for offense. However, they don't have much money, and prospect Freddie Freeman should be ready soon. There's a chance Berkman lands here because of the baseball fit but consider it a small chance.
Boston - David Ortiz is providing the Red Sox with nothing at the plate, and Berkman improves them dramatically. He can play first, shifting Kevin Youkilis to third and give Victor Martinez the opportunity to DH. The same can be done with Adrian Beltre in the DH slot. This would be a difficult move because it would effectively bench Ortiz, but the Red Sox have the money to exercise Berkman's 2011 option and sign him to an extension. It's doubtful they keep Ortiz beyond this season for a large amount of money, and Boston does have a strong farm system. This is the likeliest trade destination.
Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox - It makes sense for these teams to trade for Berkman, but there are larger reasons why they won't.
The Angels don't really have the money and have a pretty good first baseman already. However, they do need a boost to compete in the winnable AL West.
The same goes for the Mariners.
San Francisco doesn't have the money, but they have a huge need at first and a good farm system.
The Mets have Ike Davis, but if he starts to struggle, general manager Omar Minaya may begin to wonder how many disappointing seasons he can have before being fired.
The White Sox could use a little bit of offense, but Berkman's salary will likely be too much.
John Lackey fired at his old team, saying the Angels have been hypocritical in their treatment of previous players, according to this Mark Saxon report for ESPNLosAngeles.com.
"It's different. The way they preach the team game and giving it up for the team. That's a little suspect," Lackey said. "You're supposed to give it up for the team. When the time comes, they might not want to give it up for you. But I totally knew that was a possibility. I was prepared for that. That's the nature of the game today."
The Angels, as Lackey says, do push a "team-first" approach, something manager Mike Scioscia has been excellent at cultivating. But, as Lackey goes on to say, the Angels may not do enough to retain free agents.
This comes one year and a few months after they reportedly offered former first baseman Mark Teixeira eight years and $160 million to remain with the team. It also comes after they reportedly offered Lackey four years and $60 million, as mentioned within Saxon's report.
You can understand their reluctance to offer more money to Teixeira. They had superstar-in-waiting Kendry Morales waiting to take over at first and that should be enough sign player of Teixeira's caliber. Lackey's injury history -- he started the 2008 and 2009 seasons on the disabled list -- made him a questionable long-term signing. (Derek Lowe, not as good of a pitcher as Lackey but certainly more durable, is already seen as a wasted contract two years into his four-year, $60 million deal.)
The players the Angels have let go haven't been perfect. This is one of the reasons the Angels are such a successful team. Vladimir Guerrero looked awful last season, but he's been on a hot streak so far this season. It's certainly difficult to blame the Angels for not bringing him back, especially at the $5.5 million he received from the Rangers. Chone Figgins signed a four-year deal with the Mariners, but he hasn't had four great seasons -- much less in a row -- in his career.
As for the bullpen parts let go, like Francisco Rodriguez and Darren Oliver, the San Diego Padres are proving you don't need to spend money on big guys to have a solid bullpen. Let's not forget: Mariano Rivera and Jonathan Papelbon are failed starters, Joakim Soria was a Rule V pick, and Joe Nathan a throw-in in a trade. Bullpen pieces come into the spotlight for a few good seasons and then flame out, whether from overuse, the league catching up with them or their luck regressing to the mean.
What Lackey says last is most telling: Free agency has just become the nature of the game. And because of that, players have evolved into commodities. If players like Adrian Beltre weren't getting nearly eight-digit salaries annually, would Moneyball have been created? Would teams have to look to certain things -- on-base percentage or defense or whatever is the next chic cheap way to win -- to gain an advantage and use players who fit that model?
Imagine a system where the highest-paid players earned between $2 and 4 million annually with revenue being the same. In that system, owners wouldn't have to worry about bringing back a fan favorite or an injury-plagued but talented pitcher. One or two mistakes won't kill a team. Heck, five, six, seven mistakes wouldn't kill a team.
But because of the system in place, the system that made him a very wealthy player because it pays Lackey more than $15 million a season, that's why teams like the Angels "might not want to give it up to you." If Lackey truly wanted the Angels to "to give it up to" him, he would've signed for a little bit less. You know, the fabled hometown discount.
But he didn't. He took advantage -- as is his full right to do so -- of the free agent marketplace. He makes his decisions, and the Angels make theirs. Too bad Lackey doesn't like it. The Angels probably didn't either, and you don't hear them complaining about it.
Wagner signed a one-year, $7 million contract with the Braves last offseason and holds a $6.5 million option that vests if he finishes 50 games. If he vests that option, he won't play it out. Wagner has also said if he doesn't reach his goal of 400 career saves -- he has 387 -- or John Franco's record for saves by a left hander at 424, he will still retire.
Braves manager Bobby Cox announced that this will be his last season, while third baseman Chipper Jones has hinted he may retire if he isn't performing as he would hope. That could happen as soon as this season.
The Braves drew plenty of hype during the offseason, and they had an excellent spring training. Jason Heyward zoomed to the top of prospect lists because of his otherworldly combination of talents. The starting rotation, despite losing ace Javier Vazquez, was deep with starting pitchers who could provide quality innings. Manager Bobby Cox would be ending his Hall of Fame career at season's end.
Twenty-two games into the season, the Braves' 2010 season is over.
You may be thinking it's premature to make any judgments about the season. We're only about one-eighth into the season. But the Braves' current losing streak tells us all we need to know: They just aren't that good.
The Braves have lost nine consecutive games after Thursday's 10-4 loss to the Cardinals. (It's the first time they have lost all games on a seven-game road trip since 1949.) A nine-game losing streak isn't enough to eliminate them. What eliminates the Braves is that their nine-game losing streak proves how bad they actually are. Good teams don't lose this many games in a row this badly.
The Braves had scored just 21 runs in 11 games going into Thursday's game. Their starting pitching was in shambles. Chipper Jones is hurt once again, while Troy Glaus -- admittedly, a move I praised in the offseason -- doesn't look like a Major League player anymore.
Jones may join Cox in retirement after this season. It's obvious Jones is playing through plenty of pain. Balls he would've knocked down and gotten hitters out on are turning into hits into the left field corner. He looks horrible trying to run the bases. Jones appears closer to the finish line than most Braves fans may hope.
They're already 4 1/2 games behind a Phillies team they couldn't afford to fall too far behind. They've already dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of. For a season that started with so much promise, 2010 is going to for the Braves how nobody scripted it.
Ryan Howard's new five-year, $125 million extension is filled with interesting numbers. Here's the one that astounds me the most: $10 million.
He is signed through his Age 36 season at the second-highest AAV of any active player. Yes, he's going to earn more annually than Joe Mauer despite being an older and clearly less valuable player. He's going to earn more annually than Mark Teixeira, clearly a better baseball player. And there's a chance that Albert Pujols, clearly the best player in the Major Leagues, won't sign a bigger deal -- in terms of AAV, at least.
And this leads to Howard's interesting number. He'll be 37 going into the 2017 season, where the Phillies hold a club option worth $23 million. If they choose to reject it, Howard has a $10 million buyout.
Read that again. A $10 million buyout. The Phillies agreed to a situation in which they may pay Howard $10 million to not play for them.
Congratulations to Howard's agent for throwing that little tidbit in there. The second question you're asking (the first should be why would the Phillies agree to that) is, How is Howard going to age? The answer is not well.
He does play the easiest position on the diamond, but his defense has never been too good there. With age, it figures Howard will continue to decline there. Add in that Howard doesn't have the strongest of batting eyes -- he set the Major League record in strikeouts, which has since been broken a few times, a while back and he doesn't draw that many walks -- and you've got a typical slugger whose career declines rapidly in his early to mid 30s.
That $10 million is going to be an important figure in a while. Just wait and see.
The old adage in baseball is that you see something new every day. Saturday's game between the Cardinals and Mets was no exception.
A closer earned the win, an outfielder took the loss and a starting pitcher recorded the save. How often do you see that?
The game lasted six hours and 53 minutes officially. But we wanted more. Fans without rooting interest in either team were cheering for the game to continue. Our thinking went from, How could this game ever end to, Why did it have to end?
For Fox announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, the end probably came soon enough. The two had adopted gallows humor about how long the game lasted. How could they have prepared enough notes for nearly seven hours of talking?
Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa opted to have two position players pitch. Third baseman Felipe Lopez somehow pitched a shutout inning, while outfielder Joey Mather someone allowed only two runs over two innings of work, even though he couldn't throw a strike.
The scoreboard shows the Mets won the game, 2-1, in 20 innings. But the true winners were the fans. They were treated to an epic game, one that showed just how beautiful baseball is. Even when we get 20 innings, we want so much more of it.
Yankees starting pitcher Javier Vazquez allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings yesterday against the Angels. When he walked off the mound, Yankee fans booed, harkening back to Vazquez's time spent with the team in 2004. This is from the New York Post's Brian Costello.
"I feel like it's unfair because that was so long ago," Vazquez said about the boos. "Like I've said plenty of times, I'm trying to concentrate on this year."
So far this year, Vazquez has looked very little like the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting when they got him in a trade with Atlanta in December. His fastball lacked life and he failed to put hitters away once he got ahead in the count.
...
Vazquez left the mound with one out in the sixth to a chorus of boos. He allowed four runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
"His command is not as good as we've seen it at this point," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It will get better. [The Angels are] a pretty good-hitting club. . . . He had a hard time putting them away at times today and that can be the difference in the game."
...
"It was a little disappointing," Vazquez said. "It was the first game back. I don't think they're forgetting from '04. Hopefully I'll get some [wins] in the Stadium and they'll forget that."
Is it unfair for fans to hold Vazquez's performance in 2004 against him? No, not really. Fans base their opinions on performance. Yankees fans booed Derek Jeter, the beloved Captain, while he was mired in a slump. When Jeter started hitting again, the fans were cheering for him once again.
Besides, I'm sure if Vazquez pitched well in 2004, he'd appreciate cheering the cheering that came with it. You can't pick and choose what you want fans to remember or forget. You can only control your performance.
The fans are holding Vazquez accountable for his bad performance down the stretch and in the World Series in 2004. They are holding him accountable for his bad performance this season.
Vazquez is right in knowing how to stop the booing: by performing well. But he's not right in expressing himself. Performance dictates fans' reactions, not what a player wants them to do or remember.
You get the feeling you are in a scene from Groundhog Day. It's opening day and the MLB.TV forums at MLB.com are full of people complaining about bad service. Here a few highlights:
The NexDef plugin that gives the highest quality does not run on machines with Windows 7.
Someone in Canada got blacked-out of the Mets game.
Condensed Games are just extended highlight reels, but people want every play.
Ongoing live games do not start from the beginning.
...
Add server errors, moderators giving out hardly any information on the reasons of the problems and what is being done to fix them and apparently constant deleting of post of unsatisfied customers complaining in moderate terms, and MLB.TV again managed to spoil the start of the baseball season for many fans.
Opening night had it all. A lot of hits, some home runs, a successful double steal of second and third, a late comeback by the home team. Even Neil Diamond singing "Sweet Caroline". A couple of thoughts on the game:
Even though Boston's front office tried to shore up the defense this offseason, the Red Sox lineup still seems to be able to put runs on the board. Everyone except for lead-off man Jacoby Elsbury got on base at least once and the whole team manages 12 hits and 4 walks. This team may hit less home runs this year, but everyone from 1 to 9 is above average in getting on base.
The Yankees got five hits and a walk out of Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, together 73 years old after all. It's just a game, but it must feel good that the oldies are starting strong.
I did not catch the pre-game shows, but it seems that with both the Yankees and Red Sox winning World Series very recently, the fire is definitely out of rivalry, at least for the regular baseball fans. Just a regular division feud now.
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