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Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Cubs to place Soriano on 15-day disabled list
Cubs to place Soriano on 15-day disabled list
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Junk Bonds
The Red Sox, and it appears every other team, said no to Barry Bonds....
Source: http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/031379.php
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Center of attention
Duke Snider remembered as the engine that drove the Dodgers
Museum News
Watch Duke's 1980 Induction Speech
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. ? In the 1950s, three future Hall of Famers played center field for New York ball clubs: Willie Mays for the Giants, Mickey Mantle for the Yankees and Duke Snider for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Never has there been more talent at one position in one city. And never was a player more a part of a town than the powerful Snider was for Brooklyn.
Snider passed away Sunday at the age of 84. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
"Duke Snider was beloved by a nation of Dodgers fans, from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, across generations and around the world," said Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "His wonderful legacy as one of the greatest outfielders of the 1950s will always be celebrated by us in Cooperstown. Our hearts go out to Beverly and their family at what we know must be a sad and difficult time."
"The Duke of Flatbush" was born in California on Sept. 19, 1926, but his baseball home was New York. He led all major leaguers in home runs and RBI in the 1950s. He was a major contributor to six pennant-winning teams and won two World Championships with the Dodgers ? in Brooklyn in 1955 and in Los Angeles in 1959.
"We shed a tear in Cooperstown for the man affectionately tabbed by his fans, 'The Duke of Flatbush.' There was no one classier or more easy-going than Duke Snider," said Jeff Idelson, the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "He was nationally renowned for his smooth fielding and powerful bat ? as evidenced by hitting more home runs in the 1950s than anyone else. He is still today revered by Brooklynites everywhere for patrolling center field in Ebbets Field with grace and dignity, leading the underdog Dodgers to six pennants and their only World Series title in New York in 1955."
Snider was named to eight All-Star Games and was named the Major League Player of the Year in 1955 by the Sporting News. He finished first in the National League in hits, runs, on-base percentage, RBIs, extra base hits, home runs, total bases and intentional walks in at least one season his career.
He was also an outstanding outfielder.
"The greatest catch I ever saw was one made by Snider in 1954, when he climbed the wall of Connie Mack Stadium like a mountain goat to take an extra base hit away from Willie Jones of the Phillies," teammate Pee Wee Reese once said.
Snider hit 40 or more home runs in each of the last five seasons the Dodgers played at Ebbets Field before spending five more years with the team in Los Angeles. He collected the first hit in Dodger Stadium and was named captain in 1962, his last season as a Dodger.
Snider finished his career with a .295 batting average, 2,116 hits, 407 home runs and 1,333 RBI, playing for the Dodgers (1947-62), Mets (1963) and Giants (1964). He also totaled 11 home runs and 26 RBI in World Series play.
"Duke was a fine man, a terrific hitter and a great friend -- even though he was a Dodger," said Hall of Famer Willie Mays. "It was great playing centerfield in New York in the 1950s along with Mickey and Duke. I have wonderful memories of that. Duke and I played on some All-Star teams together and even on the same Giants team the last year he played and today I feel that I have lost a dear friend. He was a hero to the fans in Brooklyn and a great Dodger."
Snider scouted for the Dodgers and Padres following his career and managed in the minor leagues. He went on to become a beloved broadcaster for the Montreal Expos.
Snider is survived by his wife Bev, whom he married in 1947; children Kevin, Kurt, Pam Chodola and Dawna Amino; and 10 grandchildren.
A private memorial service for Duke Snider will be held on March 12. Snider, a 1980 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, passed away on Sunday at the age of 84.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Fallbrook Union High School Baseball Program, c/o Fallbrook Baseball ASB, 2234 S. Stage Coach Lane, Fallbrook, CA 92028.
The Snider family extends its gratitude and appreciation for support during this time of remembrance of Duke.
Samantha Carr is the manager of web and digital media at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Source: http://baseballhall.org/news/museum-news/center-attention
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Pregame notes: Martin scratched with sore toe (The LoHud Yankees Blog)
Russell Martin has been scratched with a sore toe. Girardi said pregame that he made the lineup before checking with Martin, and he would change the lineup if he had to. Turns out, he had to. Derek Jeter SS Curtis Granderson CF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Jorge Posada DH Nick [...] Click on the headline for the rest of this blog post ...
Source : The LoHud Yankees Blog
Explore : Baseball Players, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Sports
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American League roundup: Jo Jo Reyes gets win as Blue Jays rout Indians (Toronto Star)
Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game, and Jayson Nix hit a two-run home run to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-1 rout of the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.
Source : Toronto Star
Explore : Baseball Players, Cleveland Indians, MLB, Sports, Toronto Blue Jays
Source: http://wik.io/info/US/268956604
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Monday, 30 May 2011
Graphing the Pitchers: LOB% and BABIP
Thanks to the work of Voros McCracken and later Tom Tango, Defense Independent Pitching and Fielding Independent Pitching have become widely accepted in the baseball community as better measurements of pitching effectiveness (and predictability of future results) than earned run average (ERA). DIPS and FIP focus on strikeouts, walks, and home runs — the three primary outcomes that a pitcher controls. Except for perhaps catchers, fielders have no impact on these events.
While SO, BB, and HR play a large part in determining ERA, the latter is also a function of defensive and bullpen support, as well as performance with bases empty vs. runners in scoring position. As a result, the difference between ERA and FIP is almost entirely accounted by strand rate (LOB%*) and batting average on balls in play (BABIP). Each variable has a coefficient correlation of nearly 80 percent with the delta between ERA and FIP.
* Based on the formula, the strand rate is an estimator of LOB% rather than an actual tally.
When you put the two together (LOB% divided by BABIP), the coefficient correlation jumps to 90 percent. Accordingly, the coefficient of determination or R² is 81 percent. In other words, more than four-fifths of the difference between ERA and FIP is due to LOB% and BABIP. As such, in addition to SO, BB, and HR rates, it makes sense to study LOB% and BABIP to understand why a pitcher's ERA may be better or worse than his FIP.
The MLB averages for LOB% and BABIP have been running at almost exactly 72 percent and .300, respectively, for several years. These percentages held true once again in 2010.
Plotting LOB% on the y-axis and BABIP on the x-axis for all 147 pitchers who threw at least 100 innings in 2010, I created the following graph. As has become customary around these parts, I broke the graph into quadrants via the intersection of the LOB% and BABIP means. The pitchers in the northwest quadrant had high LOB% and low BABIP. Moving clockwise, the pitchers in the northeast quadrant had high LOB% and high BABIP, the hurlers in the southeast quadrant had low LOB% and high BABIP, and those in the southwest quadrant had low LOB% and low BABIP.
The numbers were lifted from FanGraphs in January. The BABIP data was subsequently recalculated, perhaps due to FanGraphs using an incorrect formula initially. While directionally correct, the BABIP used for this graph are generally about .005-.010 higher than those listed on the site now. The LOB% data matches exactly. You can download the spreadsheet with the applicable data here.
As usual, I have identified the outliers in all four quadrants in the graph above. In addition, as shown below, I have created lists of leaders and laggards for both LOB% and BABIP. For perspective, the ranges on LOB% and BABIP were 59.5-82.7 percent and .238-.354, respectively.
Starting with LOB%, I highlighted the six pitchers with strand rates over 80 percent and compared 2010 with their career marks. All but Madison Bumgarner (who pitched just 10 innings prior to last season) have career LOB% that are well below their results in 2010. That said, I found it interesting that the career rates were all above the MLB norm of 72 percent.
Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Brian Duensing, Tim Hudson, and Tommy Hunter all posted career high LOB%. Halladay had only exceeded 75 percent twice before last year.
In addition to sharing high LOB%, the common thread among these pitchers is that they fared better with RISP than with the bases empty.
There were 11 pitchers with strand rates of 65 percent or lower. Excluding John Ely (who was a rookie), all but Luke Hochevar have career LOB% that are well above their results in 2010. Nonetheless, I found it as equally interesting as the observation from the leader board that the career rates were all at or below the MLB norm of 72 percent.
Nate Robertson, Tim Wakefield, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Jeff Francis, and Paul Maholm all posted career low LOB%. Scott Feldman, Jeremy Bonderman, and Tony Pena produced the second-lowest LOB% while Jamie Moyer had the third-lowest since he broke into the majors in 1986.
In addition to sharing low LOB%, the common thread among these pitchers is that they fared worse with RISP than with the bases empty.
Turning to BABIP, I spotlighted the 14 pitchers with averages under .270 and, like LOB%, compared 2010 with their career marks. All of these starters (including Armando Galarraga who actually posted a .261 BABIP based on FanGraphs' revised calculations) have career BABIP that are above their results in 2010. Of note, the career rates were all below the MLB norm of .300.
Matt Cain has never had a league-average BABIP and, in fact, has not exceeded the .278 he allowed in 2007.
Hudson and Hunter appear on the most favorable LOB% and BABIP lists. Moyer, on the other hand, was the only pitcher to appear on a leader and laggard board.
There were 16 pitchers with BABIP higher than .330. All of these pitchers have career BABIP that are below their results in 2010. In five cases, the career marks are slightly below the MLB norm of .300. The balance are all higher.
Maholm and Feldman appear on the least favorable LOB% and BABIP lists.
Here is the same graph presented with a best-fit trendline. As shown, it slopes from the northwest quadrant down and to the right through the intersection to the southeast quadrant. Generally speaking, the lower the BABIP, the higher the LOB%, and the higher BABIP, the lower the LOB%.
The outliers in the NWQ were the pitchers who benefited the most from high LOB% and low BABIP. Here are the pitchers with the highest ratios of LOB% divided by BABIP:
Six of the above pitchers ranked in the top seven in ascending order in ERA minus FIP (E-F), meaning they had better ERAs than FIPs. The other four placed 11th, 17th, 27th, and 28th (out of 147 pitchers who threw at least 100 innings in 2010).
Conversely, the outliers in the SEQ were victimized the most by low LOB% and high BABIP. Here are the pitchers with the lowest ratios:
Seven of the above pitchers ranked in the top ten in descending order in E-F, meaning they had worse ERAs than FIPs. The other four placed 17th, 19th, 21st, and 22nd.
Interestingly, the outliers in the NEQ and SWQ neither benefited nor were victimized in the aggregate as the abnormal percentages in each category basically offset one another. As an example, Moyer, a SWQ outlier, had an ERA (4.84) minus FIP (4.98) of -0.14.
There are several takeaways embedded in this study, some of which are more obvious than others:
There are also a few questions: Is the discrepancy in performance between RISP and bases empty due to a pitcher's ability to work from the windup as opposed to the stretch? Do certain pitchers have an extra gear that they can employ when the going gets tough? Is there a self-fulfilling prophecy at play here, a Yogi-ism where pitchers perform well until they don't perform well? The answers to these questions could go a long way toward understanding how much skill or luck is involved in the year-to-year fluctuations in LOB%.
Courtesy of Dave Studeman of The Hardball Times, you can read more about LOB% here and here.
Source: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2011/03/graphing_the_pi.php
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Reyes halts winless skid as Jays throttle Indians
Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game and Jayson Nix hit a two-run home run to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-1 rout of the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310530114&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
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Pledge Drive Update
The Baseball Musings Pledge Drive is up to $2245 through the first thirteen days of donations. With 17 days to go, continuing that pace would make this the best pledge drive in the history of Baseball Musings. Peter Gammons donated...
Source: http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/031384.php
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Game 51: Yankees at Mariners (The LoHud Yankees Blog)
YANKEES (27-23) Derek Jeter DH Curtis Granderson CF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Nick Swisher RF Andruw Jones LF Eduardo Nunez SS Francisco Cervelli C LHP CC Sabathia (5-3, 3.17) Sabathia vs. Mariners MARINERS (26-25) Ichiro Suzuki RF Chone Figgins 3B Justin Smoak 1B Franklin Gutierrez CF Mike Wilson DH Brendan [...] Click on the headline for the rest of this blog post ...
Source : The LoHud Yankees Blog
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Maturing Arrieta opens set against Mariners
Maturing Arrieta opens set against Mariners
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30 years ago today presents: great moments in fielding (5/27/11)
Thirty years ago today, one of the most memorable and certainly most original defensive strategies in major league history occurred: Mariners third baseman Lenny Randle tried to blow a ball foul.
In the sixth inning of a game against the Royals, KC star Amos Otis tapped a slow roller down the third base line. It was one of those balls hit ever so right—right place, right speed, right trajectory—that it looked like a sure infield single. It went to where no fielder was; by the time a fielder got to it and picked it up and threw it out, Otis would be safe. Last but not least, it looked like it wouldn?t go into foul territory while it rolled through the infield.
That?s when Lenny Randle entered the picture. He ran up to the ball and got down on his hands and knees and screamed at it ?GO FOUL GO FOUL GO FOUL!? He stayed alongside the ball without touching it, but the force of his breath knocked it off course, and it went foul. What would be a single was now a foul ball.
Royals manager Jim Frey protested, saying Randle was the reason it went foul and therefore the ump?s call of a foul ball should be changed. Randle counter-protested he wasn?t try to blow it foul but just trying to use the power of suggestion. Lenny Randle: The Ball Whisperer? The ump didn?t like Randle?s argument and changed his call: Otis got his single.
The rule has since been rewritten to clarify a Randle-like scenario. Now the rule states a person can?t alter the path of a ball, a verb that doesn?t require actual physical contact to be enforced.
Randle always had the knack for getting in the middle of weird plays. Four years earlier in Texas came his most infamous moment: He beat up Frank Lucchesi, his manager, before a game. Another time he tripled on a 4-2 pitch. Yeah, he, his teammates, the official scorer, and the umpiring crew all collectively lost track of the count, and he stayed at the plate after ball four.
But nothing in Randle?s career quite equaled the hilarity of seeing him blow a ball foul on May 27, 1981.
Other events also celebrate their anniversary or ?day-versary? (which is an event occurring x-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you just want to skim.
1,000 days since Manny Ramirez clubs his 500th double
4,000 days since Bronson Arroyo makes his major league debut
5,000 days since Bobby Jones of the Mets ties a record, and not one anyone wants to set. He allows eight runs while getting zero outs. Four others since 1920 equaled that, but no one?s ?bested? that achievement.
8,000 days since 41-year-old Carlton Fisk hits three doubles in one game, his personal best.
9,000 days since Don Sutton tosses his 5,000th inning.
9,000 days since Earl Weaver, Hall of Fame Orioles skipper, manages his last game
9,000 days since several players complete their major league careers, most notably: Dave Kingman, Ben Oglivie, Gorman Thomas and Tony Perez.
10,000 days since Jeff Franceour born
1888 19th century workhorse Adonis Terry tosses his second career no-hitter.
1891 Tony Mullane, 1880s star pitcher, allows two inside the park home runs in one game, something he did just 16 days earlier, too. Today?s home run hitters are a pair of future Hall of Famers: Philadelphia?s Billy Hamilton and Sam Thompson
1896 Jouett Meekin, decent pitcher in the 1890s, has a not-so-decent day: he walks 13 batters and throws three wild pitches.
1897 Hall of Fame catcher Buck Ewing plays his last game.
1897 The Cincinnati Reds sign Hall of Fame first baseman Jake Beckley, whom the Giants had released five days earlier. Actually, this is pretty clearly related to Ewing playing his last game. Ewing was playing (and managing) the Reds at this time, and while he?s in Cooperstown as a catcher by this time he's exclusively a first baseman. So Beckley comes aboard to replace Ewing at first, allowing him to manage the team full-time. Though the Giants had just cut Beckley, he'll last more than a decade in major league baseball from here on out.
1904 Dan McGann of the New York Giants steals five bases in one game against Brooklyn.
1909 Pinky Higgins, future Red Sox manager, born
1912 Red Ames, pitcher, steals home in the fifth inning of a 6-2 win.
1923 Cy Williams sets a record by clubbing his 15th home run of the month.
1928 Boston Braves buy Hall of Famer George Sisler from the Washington Senators for $7,500 as his career circles the drain.
1929 Hall of Fame umpire Tom Connally works his last game behind the plate, and it?s a wild one: CWS 6, DET 5 (14). The Tigers led 3-1 in the middle of the eighth, but the Chi Sox scored one in the bottom of the eight and another in the ninth to sent it into extra frames. Both teams scored once in the 12th and then again in the 13th innings, before the Sox finally won in the bottom of the 14th. One of Detroit?s ineffective relievers, veteran hurler Elam Vangilder, will never play in the majors again.
1937 Carl Hubbell wins his 24th consecutive game, a record that still stands.
1939 Hall of Famer Joe Cronin hits his 100th home run.
1940 When the Yankees beat the Senators 5-0, Washington manager Bucky Harris has his career record fall below .500 (1,237-1,238). It?ll remain below .500 for the rest of his career, but Harris overcomes that to become a Hall of Fame skipper anyway.
1943 Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser fans 14 batters in one game, his personal high and I believe at the time a Tiger record. Paul Foytack struck out 15 in a game in 1956, but I don?t think any Tiger ever had that many until then.
1943 Johnny Allen, never known for his good sportsmanship, completely loses his composure when umpire George Barr calls him for a balk. Enraged, Allen starts shaking Barr so hard his cap falls off, and the situation ends only when Allen?s own manager tackles him.
1945 Red Sox rookie sensation Boo Ferriss one-hits the Chicago White Sox for his third shutout of the season.
1947 First baseman fielding whiz Ed Konetchy dies.
1948 Gary Nolan, late 1960s Cincinnati phenom pitcher, born
1952 Yogi Berra sets a personal best of 10 extra bases by tying a personal best of three extra base hits. He went 2-for-4 with a double and two home runs.
1952 Best WPA for any known relief stint in Cincinnati Reds history: Frank Smith gets a 1.057 WPA by pitching 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K in extra-inning game.
1953 Exactly one year after that Reds relief performance, the greatest WPA stint by any White Sox reliever occurs. Harry Dorish lasts 10.1 IP with 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, and 7 K for a 1.010 WPA.
1953 Jesse Burkett, Hall of Fame offensive star from the 1890s, dies.
1954 Duke Snider blasts his 1,000th hit.
1954 Hall of Fame skippers Casey Stengel and Bucky Harris manage against each other for the 100th time.
1955 Mickey Mantle laces his third triple of the week and fifth in the last two weeks.
1956 AL president Will Harridge marks his 25th year in office. None of the men who appointed him are still alive.
1956 Cubs pitcher Jim Davis becomes the fourth ever—and the first in 40 years—to fan four men in one inning
1956 Mark Clear, Red Sox reliever whose warm-up music was ?Thank God I?m a Country Boy? by John Denver, born.
1959 Robin Roberts commits the first balk of his career. It comes after 3,177 innings of work.
1960 Clint Courtney, Baltimore, uses oversized mitt designed by manager (and former catcher) Paul Richards to catch Hoyt Wilhelm?s knuckleball. The monstrous mitt will later be banned.
1962 Willie Mays gets in the only on-field fight of his career, but isn?t ejected.
1967 Veteran reliever Johnny Klippstein retires
1968 Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas born. Just think: you can make an argument that Jeff Bagwell is both the best first baseman in NL history and also the second best first baseman born on May 27, 1968.
1968 Eddie Mathews has his 49th and final multiple home run game.
1969 Dr. Strangeglove Dick Stuart plays in his last game.
1969 Todd Hundley, catcher whose dad was a catcher, born.
1974 Would-be no-hitter by San Diego's Ken Brett broken up in the ninth in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, he appears as a pinch hitter and hits a two-run triple in a game the Padres end up winning by one run.
1975 Lou Brock hits for the cycle
1980 John Hiller, Detroit pitcher who overcame a shocking heart attack at a young age to set a record for most saves in a season, plays his last game.
1981 Bert Blyleven has a hissy fit. Upset that the umpire isn?t calling his curve for a strike, Blyleven gives up altogether, throwing nothing but fastballs over the plate. After seven straight hits by the opposing team, he?s yanked from the game.
1987 Dave Winfield hits the 10,000 home run in New York Yankee franchise history. That includes the franchise?s 1901-02 seasons as the Baltimore Orioles.
1988 Dwight Evans bangs out his 2,000th hit.
1988 Royals say bye-bye to Steve Balboni, releasing him.
1990 Rick Reuschel enters trivia answer heaven. He tosses a gopher ball to Barry Bonds, becoming one of only two pitchers in baseball history to surrender dingers to Bonds and Hank Aaron. The other pitcher is Frank Tanana.
1993 Dale Murphy retires.
1995 Cubs intentionally walk Gary Sheffield three times in one game. It works as he never scores and the Cubs top the Marlins, 3-1.
1996 Angels trade Lee Smith to the Reds for Chuck McElroy.
1997 Speedster Kenny Lofton hits his only career inside-the-park home run.
2000 Cincinnati retires Tony Perez?s number.
2000 Cardinals dedicate statue to Dizzy Dean.
2001 Barry Bonds' hitting streak maxes at 15 games, tying his personal best.
2002 Marlins steal seven bases in one game.
2002 For the first time in over four years and 572 games, Mike Piazza hits a triple.
2003 Ruben Rivera has the worst base running Jon Miller ever saw.
2004 Carlos Pena, Tigers, gets six hits in a game.
2004 Albert Pujols has five plate appearances without an at-bat: four walks and a sacrifice fly.
2004 Major league debut: Alexis Rios.
2006 Curt Schilling wins his 200th game: 200-133.
2006 Craig Biggio walks five times in a game, and still goes 1-for-4 at the plate. Clearly, it was an extra-inning game.
2007 Bruce Bochy loses his 1,000th game as skipper: 975-1,000
2007 Jamie Moyer beats the Braves, something he last did on May 25, 1987. That?s the longest stretch between victories for one pitcher over an opposing team.
2008 The Indians achieve a rare triple steal. It?s an accident, actually. The White Sox try to pick off the runner on first, leading to a rundown, and the man on third breaks for the plate, and the Sox are so discombobulated by it all that everyone?s safe.
2009 The Red Sox lose 4-2 to the Twins, thanks in part to six wild pitches.
2009 Chipper Jones has perhaps his worst day ever: 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, his only four-K game.
2010 For the third straight game, the Phillies are shut out by the Mets.
Read more great baseball stuff at The Hardball Times.
)
In the sixth inning of a game against the Royals, KC star Amos Otis tapped a slow roller down the third base line. It was one of those balls hit ever so right—right place, right speed, right trajectory—that it looked like a sure infield single. It went to where no fielder was; by the time a fielder got to it and picked it up and threw it out, Otis would be safe. Last but not least, it looked like it wouldn?t go into foul territory while it rolled through the infield.
That?s when Lenny Randle entered the picture. He ran up to the ball and got down on his hands and knees and screamed at it ?GO FOUL GO FOUL GO FOUL!? He stayed alongside the ball without touching it, but the force of his breath knocked it off course, and it went foul. What would be a single was now a foul ball.
Royals manager Jim Frey protested, saying Randle was the reason it went foul and therefore the ump?s call of a foul ball should be changed. Randle counter-protested he wasn?t try to blow it foul but just trying to use the power of suggestion. Lenny Randle: The Ball Whisperer? The ump didn?t like Randle?s argument and changed his call: Otis got his single.
The rule has since been rewritten to clarify a Randle-like scenario. Now the rule states a person can?t alter the path of a ball, a verb that doesn?t require actual physical contact to be enforced.
Randle always had the knack for getting in the middle of weird plays. Four years earlier in Texas came his most infamous moment: He beat up Frank Lucchesi, his manager, before a game. Another time he tripled on a 4-2 pitch. Yeah, he, his teammates, the official scorer, and the umpiring crew all collectively lost track of the count, and he stayed at the plate after ball four.
But nothing in Randle?s career quite equaled the hilarity of seeing him blow a ball foul on May 27, 1981.
Other events also celebrate their anniversary or ?day-versary? (which is an event occurring x-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you just want to skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Manny Ramirez clubs his 500th double
4,000 days since Bronson Arroyo makes his major league debut
5,000 days since Bobby Jones of the Mets ties a record, and not one anyone wants to set. He allows eight runs while getting zero outs. Four others since 1920 equaled that, but no one?s ?bested? that achievement.
8,000 days since 41-year-old Carlton Fisk hits three doubles in one game, his personal best.
9,000 days since Don Sutton tosses his 5,000th inning.
9,000 days since Earl Weaver, Hall of Fame Orioles skipper, manages his last game
9,000 days since several players complete their major league careers, most notably: Dave Kingman, Ben Oglivie, Gorman Thomas and Tony Perez.
10,000 days since Jeff Franceour born
Anniversaries
1888 19th century workhorse Adonis Terry tosses his second career no-hitter.
1891 Tony Mullane, 1880s star pitcher, allows two inside the park home runs in one game, something he did just 16 days earlier, too. Today?s home run hitters are a pair of future Hall of Famers: Philadelphia?s Billy Hamilton and Sam Thompson
1896 Jouett Meekin, decent pitcher in the 1890s, has a not-so-decent day: he walks 13 batters and throws three wild pitches.
1897 Hall of Fame catcher Buck Ewing plays his last game.
1897 The Cincinnati Reds sign Hall of Fame first baseman Jake Beckley, whom the Giants had released five days earlier. Actually, this is pretty clearly related to Ewing playing his last game. Ewing was playing (and managing) the Reds at this time, and while he?s in Cooperstown as a catcher by this time he's exclusively a first baseman. So Beckley comes aboard to replace Ewing at first, allowing him to manage the team full-time. Though the Giants had just cut Beckley, he'll last more than a decade in major league baseball from here on out.
1904 Dan McGann of the New York Giants steals five bases in one game against Brooklyn.
1909 Pinky Higgins, future Red Sox manager, born
1912 Red Ames, pitcher, steals home in the fifth inning of a 6-2 win.
1923 Cy Williams sets a record by clubbing his 15th home run of the month.
1928 Boston Braves buy Hall of Famer George Sisler from the Washington Senators for $7,500 as his career circles the drain.
1929 Hall of Fame umpire Tom Connally works his last game behind the plate, and it?s a wild one: CWS 6, DET 5 (14). The Tigers led 3-1 in the middle of the eighth, but the Chi Sox scored one in the bottom of the eight and another in the ninth to sent it into extra frames. Both teams scored once in the 12th and then again in the 13th innings, before the Sox finally won in the bottom of the 14th. One of Detroit?s ineffective relievers, veteran hurler Elam Vangilder, will never play in the majors again.
1937 Carl Hubbell wins his 24th consecutive game, a record that still stands.
1939 Hall of Famer Joe Cronin hits his 100th home run.
1940 When the Yankees beat the Senators 5-0, Washington manager Bucky Harris has his career record fall below .500 (1,237-1,238). It?ll remain below .500 for the rest of his career, but Harris overcomes that to become a Hall of Fame skipper anyway.
1943 Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser fans 14 batters in one game, his personal high and I believe at the time a Tiger record. Paul Foytack struck out 15 in a game in 1956, but I don?t think any Tiger ever had that many until then.
1943 Johnny Allen, never known for his good sportsmanship, completely loses his composure when umpire George Barr calls him for a balk. Enraged, Allen starts shaking Barr so hard his cap falls off, and the situation ends only when Allen?s own manager tackles him.
1945 Red Sox rookie sensation Boo Ferriss one-hits the Chicago White Sox for his third shutout of the season.
1947 First baseman fielding whiz Ed Konetchy dies.
1948 Gary Nolan, late 1960s Cincinnati phenom pitcher, born
1952 Yogi Berra sets a personal best of 10 extra bases by tying a personal best of three extra base hits. He went 2-for-4 with a double and two home runs.
1952 Best WPA for any known relief stint in Cincinnati Reds history: Frank Smith gets a 1.057 WPA by pitching 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K in extra-inning game.
1953 Exactly one year after that Reds relief performance, the greatest WPA stint by any White Sox reliever occurs. Harry Dorish lasts 10.1 IP with 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, and 7 K for a 1.010 WPA.
1953 Jesse Burkett, Hall of Fame offensive star from the 1890s, dies.
1954 Duke Snider blasts his 1,000th hit.
1954 Hall of Fame skippers Casey Stengel and Bucky Harris manage against each other for the 100th time.
1955 Mickey Mantle laces his third triple of the week and fifth in the last two weeks.
1956 AL president Will Harridge marks his 25th year in office. None of the men who appointed him are still alive.
1956 Cubs pitcher Jim Davis becomes the fourth ever—and the first in 40 years—to fan four men in one inning
1956 Mark Clear, Red Sox reliever whose warm-up music was ?Thank God I?m a Country Boy? by John Denver, born.
1959 Robin Roberts commits the first balk of his career. It comes after 3,177 innings of work.
1960 Clint Courtney, Baltimore, uses oversized mitt designed by manager (and former catcher) Paul Richards to catch Hoyt Wilhelm?s knuckleball. The monstrous mitt will later be banned.
1962 Willie Mays gets in the only on-field fight of his career, but isn?t ejected.
1967 Veteran reliever Johnny Klippstein retires
1968 Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas born. Just think: you can make an argument that Jeff Bagwell is both the best first baseman in NL history and also the second best first baseman born on May 27, 1968.
1968 Eddie Mathews has his 49th and final multiple home run game.
1969 Dr. Strangeglove Dick Stuart plays in his last game.
1969 Todd Hundley, catcher whose dad was a catcher, born.
1974 Would-be no-hitter by San Diego's Ken Brett broken up in the ninth in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, he appears as a pinch hitter and hits a two-run triple in a game the Padres end up winning by one run.
1975 Lou Brock hits for the cycle
1980 John Hiller, Detroit pitcher who overcame a shocking heart attack at a young age to set a record for most saves in a season, plays his last game.
1981 Bert Blyleven has a hissy fit. Upset that the umpire isn?t calling his curve for a strike, Blyleven gives up altogether, throwing nothing but fastballs over the plate. After seven straight hits by the opposing team, he?s yanked from the game.
1987 Dave Winfield hits the 10,000 home run in New York Yankee franchise history. That includes the franchise?s 1901-02 seasons as the Baltimore Orioles.
1988 Dwight Evans bangs out his 2,000th hit.
1988 Royals say bye-bye to Steve Balboni, releasing him.
1990 Rick Reuschel enters trivia answer heaven. He tosses a gopher ball to Barry Bonds, becoming one of only two pitchers in baseball history to surrender dingers to Bonds and Hank Aaron. The other pitcher is Frank Tanana.
1993 Dale Murphy retires.
1995 Cubs intentionally walk Gary Sheffield three times in one game. It works as he never scores and the Cubs top the Marlins, 3-1.
1996 Angels trade Lee Smith to the Reds for Chuck McElroy.
1997 Speedster Kenny Lofton hits his only career inside-the-park home run.
2000 Cincinnati retires Tony Perez?s number.
2000 Cardinals dedicate statue to Dizzy Dean.
2001 Barry Bonds' hitting streak maxes at 15 games, tying his personal best.
2002 Marlins steal seven bases in one game.
2002 For the first time in over four years and 572 games, Mike Piazza hits a triple.
2003 Ruben Rivera has the worst base running Jon Miller ever saw.
2004 Carlos Pena, Tigers, gets six hits in a game.
2004 Albert Pujols has five plate appearances without an at-bat: four walks and a sacrifice fly.
2004 Major league debut: Alexis Rios.
2006 Curt Schilling wins his 200th game: 200-133.
2006 Craig Biggio walks five times in a game, and still goes 1-for-4 at the plate. Clearly, it was an extra-inning game.
2007 Bruce Bochy loses his 1,000th game as skipper: 975-1,000
2007 Jamie Moyer beats the Braves, something he last did on May 25, 1987. That?s the longest stretch between victories for one pitcher over an opposing team.
2008 The Indians achieve a rare triple steal. It?s an accident, actually. The White Sox try to pick off the runner on first, leading to a rundown, and the man on third breaks for the plate, and the Sox are so discombobulated by it all that everyone?s safe.
2009 The Red Sox lose 4-2 to the Twins, thanks in part to six wild pitches.
2009 Chipper Jones has perhaps his worst day ever: 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, his only four-K game.
2010 For the third straight game, the Phillies are shut out by the Mets.
Read more great baseball stuff at The Hardball Times.
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Sunday, 29 May 2011
Prado, Jurrjens lead Braves past Reds
Jair Jurrjens outpitched Johnny Cueto, Martin Prado hit a two-run homer and the Atlanta Braves beat Cincinnati 2-1 on Sunday night to end the ...
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Baseball Tonight Clubhouse
Follow along as Baseball Tonight covers the Major League Baseball season.baseball sim league baseball games best online baseball game 2010 baseball draft
Buster Posey's injury is terrible, but not enough for a rule change
The funereal atmosphere in the Giants' locker room on Wednesday night said it all.
Perhaps no player means as much to his team as Buster Posey does to the San Francisco Giants. He was the offensive catalyst of a championship team in his rookie season, and also adeptly handled a pitching staff that came of age just at the right time last year.
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Rays to bat slumping 3B Longoria in leadoff spot
Tampa Bay Rays All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria is getting out of his hitting funk by moving to the top of the lineup.Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6603192&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
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Hamels Ks 10 as Phils down slumping Mets (AP)
Held down by Mets starter Mike Pelfrey most of the night, the Philadelphia Phillies never doubted they were due for a rally. Ryan Howard hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning and Cole Hamels finally beat a familiar nemesis, pitching Philadelphia past the slumping New York Mets 5-2 on Saturday.
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Saturday, 28 May 2011
Braves top Reds on Jones' single in 12th (AP)
Chipper Jones says extra innings "stink" so he was anxious to make sure a game already 4 hours long didn't continue. Jones' single in the 12th inning drove in Jordan Schafer to give the Atlanta Braves a 7-6 win over the weary Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night. "It's always good to come through on your last at-bat," said Jones, who was 0 for 4 with a walk before the...
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Balester back to Triple-A; Maya to start Sunday
Balester back to Triple-A; Maya to start Sunday
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Roberto Clemente's Autograph
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a collector of autographs, baseballs, baseball cards, etc. As a kid in the '50s, I'd buy baseball cards to look at, memorize the stats on the back and to flip them (heads or tails, against the wall, anything we could think of). The following spring, I'd throw out last year's cards and start again. The most fun about getting autographs was you got to be next to the player to ask for it. That was thrill enough for me. It never crossed my mind that people in the future would make money from collectibles.
I was a Pirate fan living in New York City during the '60s. There weren't many of us. Roberto Clemente was my guy. In the same way that Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax were your guys if you were a Yankee, Giant or Dodger fan. I loved him, wanted to play like him and tried to emulate him on the field. And I wanted his autograph. I can tell you literally dozens of great Clemente stories that I was around for during this era. Here's one of my favorites.
Getting Clemente's autograph was not the easiest thing in the world. He went through his baseball life with a chip on his shoulder. Not that he wasn't justified. With the exception of Jackie Robinson, I doubt any ballplayer was treated as badly by the press as Clemente was and he took every slight personally. He was black, Latino and spoke not one word of English when he came here in 1954 at the age of 19. Sportswriters, perhaps just not used to dealing with Latino players, would quote him phonetically, which made him look bad. "I theenk I have goood seeson." Learning to speak English was not easy for him.
You had to ask for his autograph when he was in a good frame of mind. Me and my buds would go down to the hotels where the teams were staying when they were in town to play the Yankees or Mets. Most teams stayed at the Hotel Roosevelt, the Pirates at the Hotel Commodore. We'd get there on Saturday mornings just before the bus would take them to the Bronx or to Shea and ask for their autographs in the lobby. Most would sign, some wouldn't.
I first got Clemente's autograph on August 18, 1964, which I knew was his 30th birthday. I was rowing boats six days a week all summer as a dock boy at Brooklyn Day Camp. I called in sick that day and went to Shea for an afternoon Pirate/Met game. Back then, I used to write to the Pirates for glossy photos of the players and they'd always oblige. So I had a few pages of Forbes Field stationery with me.
After the game, I waited outside the clubhouse for the Pirates to board their bus. Clemente comes out and a bunch of kids swarm around him. "Can I have your autograph, Roberto?" For whatever reason, he wasn't signing that day. Frank Oceak, the Pirates 3rd base coach, sees me holding my pen and paper and tells me, "Talk to him in Spanish and he'll sign for you." The proverbial light bulb goes on over my head! I took three years of torturous Spanish classes with Mr. Capitano in Junior High School!! "Roberto, Feliz Cumpleanos," I say. He puts down his suitcases, smiles and signs his name on my Forbes Field paper. I kept telling myself that Roberto Clemente likes me. A great moment.
Many decades later, the autograph on that paper is worth quite a bit. Supply and demand. Clemente didn't sign that many and died at age 38. Pete Rose has made his living by signing his name for the past 22 years. I took my Clemente autograph to a card show one time and showed it to a dealer, who immediately offered me $500 for it. Which told me it was worth much more than that. It is not for sale.
For the past 30 years, David Bromberg has lived in Northeast Pennsylvania, former home of the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Red Barons (Phils Triple A team) and current home of the S/WB Yankees Triple A team. He was dubbed "the most inveterate baseball fan in northeast Pa. by Ron Allen, who hosted the local nightly sports radio call-in show there.
Source: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2011/03/roberto_clement.php
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Nishioka, Mauer getting ready to return
Nishioka, Mauer getting ready to return
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Friday, 27 May 2011
Source: Einhorn has path to majority Mets stake
David Einhorn, who has been selected to join the New York Mets ownership group as a minority partner, has a path to majority ownership, a source familiar with the still-not-finalized terms told ESPNNewYork.com.Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6601862&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
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Stark: On a collision course
Should baseball do more to protect catchers and baserunners?arkansas razorbacks baseball baseball backstops 2009 world series baseball alabama baseball
Angels' Morales has bone graft during surgery
A doctor cleaned up scar tissue and debris and did a bone graft on the left ankle of slugger Kendrys Morales during Thursday's three-hour procedure, according to the Los Angeles Angels.Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=6600324&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
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And That Happened
Marlins 1, Giants 0: Anibal Sanchez with the shutout and Ryan Vogelsong took a tough loss. �And at the risk of being a big jerk here, am I crazy for thinking that the articles about the Giants that have taken on a tone of mourning over the Posey injury are a bit much? It sucks. It's awful. You have to love a young talent like Buster Posey and it's not at all cool to see him get knocked out for the season. �But the "it was tough for Vogelsong to take the mound" and the "with the home fans stunned and�grieving" rebop is laying it on a bit thick. It's sports. Injuries like this happen several times a year. I don't recall anyone talking about "mourning" Kendrys Morales' injury last year. Or Jorge De La Rosa's. Or Stephen Strasburg's. Please move past this, people ...somehow.
Cubs 9, Mets 3: As mentioned yesterday, R.A. Dickey left this one with an injury. No word on whether there will be any rules changes about how pitchers cover first base on a grounder to the right side in the wake of all of this. For the Cubs, Carlos Zambrano pitched six strong innings and went 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI on a cold day in Chicago.
Red Sox 14, Tigers 1: I don't know about rules changes for barreling over catchers or rules changes for covering the bag, but I do know this: pretty soon we're going to have to change the rules for Red Sox games. Like, institute the mercy rule or something. Second game in a row with two touchdowns for the Bosox.
Athletics 4, Angels 3:�You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you.��Well, when you pitch eight shutout innings, you probably have a case for that.
Phillies 10, Reds 4: In a day game after a 19 inning game the night before, you have to figure that the team who can get the most out of their starting pitcher is gonna be the team that prevails. Done and done, with Cliff Lee going eight for the Fightins and Homer Bailey leaving after four with shoulder wonkiness for the Reds. Raul Ibanez continues his May rebound by going 2 for 5 with a homer and three RBI.
Orioles 6, Royals 5: That's five straight wins for Baltimore, this one coming on a Vlad Guerrero RBI in the 12th. Vlad has hit in 11 straight games, and is at .354/.400/.476 for the month. The bigger hero here, though, was�Nolan Reimold, who�had four hits, two of which were homers, and four RBI.
Juan Pierre 3, Blue Jays 1: Juan Pierre drove in two runs and the third White Sox run scored on the same play as his second RBI single by virtue of a throwing error. Jose Bautista's slugging percentage slipped below .800. Gee, I sure hope he's OK.
Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 3: Miguel Montero drove in three and Micah Owings got his first win in over a year. The Diamonbacks have won nine of ten and are a mere 1.5 games out of first place. If you say you saw this coming, please stop lying.
Read more great baseball stuff at The Hardball Times.
Cubs 9, Mets 3: As mentioned yesterday, R.A. Dickey left this one with an injury. No word on whether there will be any rules changes about how pitchers cover first base on a grounder to the right side in the wake of all of this. For the Cubs, Carlos Zambrano pitched six strong innings and went 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI on a cold day in Chicago.
Red Sox 14, Tigers 1: I don't know about rules changes for barreling over catchers or rules changes for covering the bag, but I do know this: pretty soon we're going to have to change the rules for Red Sox games. Like, institute the mercy rule or something. Second game in a row with two touchdowns for the Bosox.
Athletics 4, Angels 3:�You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you.��Well, when you pitch eight shutout innings, you probably have a case for that.
Phillies 10, Reds 4: In a day game after a 19 inning game the night before, you have to figure that the team who can get the most out of their starting pitcher is gonna be the team that prevails. Done and done, with Cliff Lee going eight for the Fightins and Homer Bailey leaving after four with shoulder wonkiness for the Reds. Raul Ibanez continues his May rebound by going 2 for 5 with a homer and three RBI.
Orioles 6, Royals 5: That's five straight wins for Baltimore, this one coming on a Vlad Guerrero RBI in the 12th. Vlad has hit in 11 straight games, and is at .354/.400/.476 for the month. The bigger hero here, though, was�Nolan Reimold, who�had four hits, two of which were homers, and four RBI.
Juan Pierre 3, Blue Jays 1: Juan Pierre drove in two runs and the third White Sox run scored on the same play as his second RBI single by virtue of a throwing error. Jose Bautista's slugging percentage slipped below .800. Gee, I sure hope he's OK.
Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 3: Miguel Montero drove in three and Micah Owings got his first win in over a year. The Diamonbacks have won nine of ten and are a mere 1.5 games out of first place. If you say you saw this coming, please stop lying.
Read more great baseball stuff at The Hardball Times.
Source: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/and-that-happened052711/
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LA police chief confident in Stow beating arrest
Los Angeles' police chief expressed confidence Thursday that his investigators have arrested the right person as the prime suspect in the brutal beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium, but he said a case won't be presented to prosecutors Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=6594368&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
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BCS director on USC's national title: 'We have to let the process happen'
One final indignity remains for Southern California's football program: stripping the disgraced Trojans of their 2004 national championship, ...
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomSports-TopStories/~3/f_ypwtLjP2A/1
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New Look Coming
We're in the process of porting the blog from Movable Type to WordPress. My goal is to have the new look in place later today. My apologies for the lack of updates today....
Source: http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/031391.php
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Thursday, 26 May 2011
Junk Bonds
The Red Sox, and it appears every other team, said no to Barry Bonds....
Source: http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/031379.php
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Surgery likely for Posey's torn ankle ligaments
Surgery likely for Posey's torn ankle ligaments
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Who has earned your vote for the AL All-Star team?
We still have more than a month until the All-Star Game in Arizona, but there's no such thing as Election Day in baseball. People are voting now, and voting often. (You can vote now on MLB.com.)
...Source: http://baseball.about.com/b/2011/05/26/who-has-earned-your-vote-for-the-al-all-star-team.htm
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AL Game of the Day / Yankees 7, Blue Jays 3 (San Fransisco Chronicle)
NEW YORK - Andruw Jones, right, hit a pair of two-run homers, Mark Teixeira also hit a two-run shot, and Mariano Rivera made a milestone appearance in New York's victory over Toronto. Rivera pitched the ninth inning in...
Source : San Fransisco Chronicle
Explore : Andruw Jones, Baseball Players, Mark Teixeira, Sports, Toronto
Source: http://wik.io/info/US/268131067
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The Cubs in 2011
Sometimes it just all goes wrong. You could say that was the story of the 2010 Red Sox. They suffered injuries all over the roster. Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron, Josh Beckett, you name the Red Sox player and it's likely they missed a chunk of time. John Lackey also fell short of expectations, Jonathan Papelbon imploded down the stretch, and the end result was a 3rd place finish.
But then again, what about the MVP season Adrian Beltre put up? And didn't Clay Buchholz somehow post a 2.33 ERA? Jon Lester had another Cy Young caliber season. Jed Lowrie posted a better OPS+ than Troy Tulowitzki in limited time. You get the point. There were bright spots for the Red Sox, and it's how they managed to win 89 games.
For the Cubs, things went south quickly. They started terribly out of the gate, and a short-tempered Lou Piniella, on his last managerial legs, reacted poorly. He mishandled Carlos Zambrano, whose awful April and delicate temperament seemed to overwhelm Piniella. Inexplicably, Piniella actually played Koyie Hill regularly while one of the game's best hitting catchers sat on the bench. In an unceremonious end to his career, Pinella quit over the summer when the Cubs were 51-74.
It wasn't just Piniella's fault, of course. From 2004 to 2009, Aramis Ramirez hit .303/.368/.551 in over 3,300 plate appearances. In 2010, he hit .241/.294/.452 on the heels of his worst BABIP, .245, since his 21-year old season for the Pirates. Derrek Lee hit .304/.384/.515 from 2007 to 2009 and then fell to .251 /.335/.416 last season for the Cubs. Sure it's probably just one of those things and not attributable to much at all, but the fact that Lee went and hit .287/.384/.465 for the Braves over the last 39 games does little to discredit the notion that there was a corrosiveness surrounding the Cubs in 2010.
There were also the 412 plate appearances of .647 OPS output that Ryan Theriot contributed. Indeed, the most productive Cubs infielder in 2010 was Starlin Castro, an exciting development that bodes well for the North Siders' future. But let's be honest. If a 20-year old shortstop is your best hitting infielder, chances are you're doing it very, very wrong.
On the pitching side, Zambrano notwithstanding, things started out pretty good for the Cubs. The problems arose over the summer. In June and July, they yielded 323 runs over a 55-game stretch. That amounts to 5.87 runs per game, or 951 allowed extrapolated over a full season. No National League team in the last 10 seasons has managed 951 runs. It was a disaster. On the bright side, the Cubs did finish 24-13 under new Manager, Mike Quade, who returns this season.
So what about 2011? Lee is gone and Carlos Pena is in. While it may be a lot to ask of an antsy fan base to grin and bear such a low batting average and a ton of strikeouts, Pena looks poised for a big bounce-back. Dan Szymborski's ZIPS has Lee at .239/.363/.508 with 31 home runs. On the other corner, Ramirez is another great candidate to return to form. At second, Theriot's out of the picture and while Blake DeWitt and Jeff Baker might not amount to much, Theriot gone, and playing for the rival Cards no less, may well amount to addition by subtraction. Baker has hit .308/.363/.545 in his career against lefties, so Quade may have a tactical lever to pull in order to squeeze a bit more production out of second. At short, Castro's another year older and projects as a star one day. He might not get there this year but you never know when a player of his talent might make that leap. They're not the Phillies, the Red Sox or the Yankees but it should be a productive infield, which is a lot more than the Cubbies could say in 2010.
Behind the plate, Quade's mandate is simple. Play Geovany Soto. Play him as much as possible without risking injury. DH him in the AL parks. It was only nine games but I found this to be one of the very saddest things about the 2010 Cubs. Their pitchers hit .132/.170/.159 last season. In their nine interleague games in AL ballparks, Cubs DH's hit .154/.175/.179. They might as well have stuck with their pitcher. Sorry to get off topic but the point here is straightforward. Play Soto a lot. Play Hill as little as possible.
The outfield of (left to right) Alfonso Soriano, Marlon Byrd and Kosuke Fukudome returns in place and while it's old and not the most prolific bunch, it's also steady. None of them figures to turn in a stinker of a season provided they can stay healthy. I'm not a big Tyler Colvin fan but he's versatile and fine enough as a fourth option.
On the pitching side, Ryan Dempster returns and Quade has already named him the Opening Day starter. It's a small thing but I like the early announcement for a few reasons. First, it shows that Quade appreciates what Dempster has managed to accomplish over the last few seasons. Since 2008, he ranks 14th in Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement among all Major League pitchers. Rewarding Dempster for that sort of output reflects well on Quade. Second, it takes a hint pressure off of Zambrano and newcomer Matt Garza. Zambrano hasn't always reacted well to the expectations that come with a big paycheck in a media market like Chicago. And, like Zambrano, Garza is a fiery competitor who can feed off of, or be done in by, his emotions. Again, it's not a big deal but it reflects a level of thoughtfulness that was lacking during the Piniella days. The Cubs had a 103 team ERA+ last season, they return four of five starters, swap Garza in for Tom Gorzelanny and have added Kerry Wood to a bullpen that returns key pieces Carlos Marmol and Sean Marshall.
If the Cubs fail to make a playoff push this season, it will likely be due to a lack of depth. That's a shame for a club with Chicago's payroll but it's the reality. A Soriano injury means everyday Tyler Colvin. If Pena or Ramirez miss time, does Baker move to a corner infield position? There's not much rotation depth at all, and outside of the top three or four or five options depending on how you feel about live arms Andrew Cashner and Thomas Diamond, the bullpen gets thin quickly.
Nonetheless there's a path to success for the Cubs this season. It's tenuous because of how thin they are, but it's there. With health, more of the same from the pitching staff, above average corner infield production, continued excellence and more playing time for Soto and a leap forward from Castro, the Cubs have the look of a contender. They look even more like one with yesterday's Adam Wainwright news, and if you compare the Cubs' reaction to the news to Cincinnati's, who knows? Karma monitors these things, and maybe the Cubs will find it on their side this year?
Source: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2011/02/the_cubs_in_201.php
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