One of the weird things about this gig is that people who aren’t familiar with BP or my work assume that I go to a lot of baseball games. I don’t, actually. While I love live baseball, I also love my Extra Innings package and the 10-15 games a night it brings into my home. Given a choice between attending one and watching 15, I often choose the lazier of two paths.
If anything, I’ve gotten worse about it with each passing season. I’ll have to make a greater effort next season, maybe set a goal of N games or to catch one game of each series.
Last night, however, I dragged my sorry ass down to Anaheim to catch the Angels/Mariners game with BP’s Jason Grady. I’d been wanting to see the Mariners, anyway (and will do so again today), because their repeat of 2002’s second-half fade is an interesting story that I’d like to cover. More on that tomorrow.
Are the Red Sox cheating? During a game last Wednesday, Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella complained that the Boston Red Sox relievers were watching television in their bullpen, while his team’s bullpen had no television. After talking to the umps, the umps made the Sox turn off the television. Piniella said a couple of things, but mostly that by having a TV, relievers could better see batters and their approach, which gave them an unfair advantage. There are important issues at stake here. What if there are better-quality sunflower seeds available in one bullpen? Could one team stock a nasty flavor of Gatorade, like “Glacier Freeze,” in the opposing team’s bullpen in hopes of knocking them out of their routine? Make the bench itself uncomfortable and wobbly, promoting inter-bullpen arguments about who’s rocking it? It’s not, incidentally, cheating to steal signs. There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t, because there’s nothing in the rules about signs at all. Technically, this is all outside the rules anyway…except that I understand there’s an MLB rule that prohibits electronic devices in ballparks entirely. Which if true, the Red Sox are breaking. Unless MLB granted them an exemption, which they do all the time when teams want to do things like build stadiums with dimensions forbidden by the rules, or violate the debt/equity rule if the team is owned by the Commissioner.
As most focus has gone to the workloads placed on Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, Dusty Baker hasn’t gone easy on his other starters. Carlos Zambrano, one must remember, is in fact younger than Prior by nine months. Zambrano is averaging 109 pitches per start–more over the last two months–and followed a 129 pitch appearance with a poor outing where he was saved by a 10-run outburst. Zambrano’s next start is pivotal, both because the Cubs are tied for the division lead, and because he must show that he can rebound from the heavy workload placed on him. Zambrano is also significantly past his previous innings pitched maximum, a big red flag. Add in reports of back and knee soreness and Zambrano goes from the fist-pumping fireballer that Cubs fans want to see on the mound to someone that has to be watched closely and could become a question mark if the Cubs make it to post-season play.
Also making the watch-list is Matt Clement. Lately, Clement has been dealing with groin and calf problems that have exacerbated his streaky nature and spotty control. The Cubs will combat his problems with extended rest, pushing him back to Saturday and forcing the Cubs to go to Shawn Estes in a must-win game. Clement’s move back in the rotation opens a question as to his playoff availability, and where he fits in the playoff rotation. Depending on tiebreakers and last minute, must-win game adjustments, the Cubs figure to use Prior, Wood, and Zambrano. Expect Clement’s outing next Saturday to be his audition for the rotation. A good start and the Cubs will go four-man.
The Red Sox aren’t settling for the Wild Card yet. The Barry Larkin era has apparently come to an end for the Reds. A look at the second tier of young Padres pitchers. All this and more from San Diego, Cincinnati, and Boston in your Tuesday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.
It is every fan’s god-given right to second guess. Half the fun of the game is the “Why is he bunting?” or “He has Dunston pinch-hitting?” chatter. BP is built on the idea that baseball can be made better by looking at it from a different perspective, which is an academic slant on second-guessing. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say “Just because it worked doesn’t mean it was smart” when it comes to a Dusty Baker move–especially if this includes my own utterances on that theme–I’d be able to afford one of those cool Segways.
At some point, however, there has to be something more to it than mere luck. While it’s tough–if not impossible–to isolate managerial performance, Baker is demonstrating that he more-or-less knows what he’s doing in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. At some point, Baker ceases to be a fluke like the 2002 Angels–a house built on sand–and becomes, well, something else entirely.
Powered by a software update to my Nokia 3650 and Apple’s iSync, on to the injuries…
The White Sox go through a demoralizing series against the Twins. Bud Selig thinks the game is great (funny how things change). Ron Santo is just proud to be a Cub. And a bunch of Tigers weigh in on who’s the best pitcher in the AL this year. All this and many more quips from around the league in your Monday edition of The Week In Quotes.
The Marlins’ Jack McKeon deserves the National League Manager of the Year award. The Yankees start thinking about their playoff roster. The Pirates start thinking ahead to 2004. These and other news and notes out of Florida, New York, and Pittsburgh in the Monday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.
The Detroit Tigers, who opened September by winning three of four from the Indians to make it appear that they would avoid baseball’s all-time lists for incompetence, have reopened all those discussions by going 1-15 since that set, including an active nine-game losing streak. With a week to go, the Tigers have tied the American League record for losses in a season with 117, a mark set by the 1916 Philadelphia A’s, the wreckage of a very good team that was scattered to the four winds by Connie Mack. (Think post-1997 Florida Marlins for the Wilson Administration.) They’re just three losses from tying the all-time mark for defeats in a season, set by the 1962 New York Mets–a first-year expansion team–at 40-120. The Tigers also have a chance to be the first team since the 1935 Boston Braves (38-115) to not reach 40 wins in a full season. Can they get there? What is the most likely coda the Tigers will put on their long and dreary 2003?
As the Red Sox fight both the Mariners and the specter of the Yankees, they’ll do it with a fully-loaded Pedro Martinez. Quotes today from Red Sox Nation include tidbits that Pedro’s recent longer outings were part of a master plan. If the plan is to be believed (and color me somewhat skeptical), Pedro’s extra days of rest, short outings, and conditioning program all built up to this. This bears watching as some sort of modern version of the “Sunday Pitcher.” If it works, like anything successful in sports, it will be imitated. The Sox are also dealing with the limited availability of Bill Mueller, out with back spasms. Adding in Johnny Damon’s problems and a bullpen that seems to be missing only J. Irving Bentley, and the Sox, like every other playoff team, have an Achilles heel. Speaking of teams that are dealing with injury problems and overcoming them, the A’s seem to be the masters. With Keith Foulke likely to be back on Friday, but the back spasms quite possible to recur, the bullpen in Oakland will need to be watched closely and set up for the playoffs. I don’t think Foulke’s injury should be a major problem, but the chance of his unavailability in even one close game could be the tipping point in a playoff series. As the China Trust Whales discovered this season, even one game lost can make the difference between the playoffs and making tee times. On the good news front, Chris Singleton and Billy McMillon should be back, perhaps as early as Friday after treatment to Singleton’s back and McMillon’s finger reduced symptoms.
Could Milton Bradley be on the move? What are the chances of the Dodgers making the playoffs? And exactly how erratic has Freddy Garcia been this season? All these questions, their answers, and much more news from Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Seattle in your Friday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.
Nine days ago, the Twins were up against the wall. They’d dropped the first two games of a four-game series in Chicago, falling two behind the White Sox in the AL Central. They’d be sending their ace, Johan Santana, to the mound for the third game, but that wasn’t without its perils–the heavily right-handed White Sox were slugging above .480 against southpaws. Even if the third game went their way, the Twins would be facing Esteban Loaiza, Cy Young contender, in the fourth game. They seemed certain to leave Chicago with a hill to climb, the only question was how big. Now, nine days ago seems like nine years ago. Last night’s 5-3 win over the Sox was the fifth game in a row the Twins had taken from their chief rival, and it extended their AL Central lead to 3.5 games over the Sox. With seven of their last nine games against the Tigers, and a magic number of seven, it seems like just a matter of time before the Twins become–you taking notes, Bud?–back-to-back AL Central champions.
There have been massive overhauls of the internal structure of baseball
over the last 10 years. Major League Baseball expanded to Colorado and
Florida in 1993, realigned and added the Wild Card in 1995, introduced
interleague play in 1997, and expanded to Arizona and Tampa Bay in 1998.
Each of these changes necessitated a change in major league baseball’s
scheduling, but in each of these changes a balanced schedule was maintained;
the schedule made sure teams played every other team in the league an almost
equal number of times. There was no such thing as strength of schedule.
Starting in 2001, MLB implemented an unbalanced
schedule with the usual amount of fanfare and fan disgust that usually
accompanies such changes. The change increased games between teams in the
same division while decreasing the number of games against other teams in
the league. The reasons behind the change were many, but certainly one of
the most prevalent was that increasing the meetings between divisional
rivals would pique fan interest and peak attendance and, subsequently,
revenue. Who wouldn’t want more games between the Red Sox and Yankees? Or
the Cubs and Cardinals? Or the Devil Rays and Orioles?