Mike's Baseball Blog

Thursday, August 26th, 2004
Haven't been watching much baseball lately, as the wife has commandeered the TV, and she's gotten tired of my baseball watching. So I cut it out for a while. Still, I've been keeping an ear on things, and there were a couple of dumb things that Greenberg's sub has said on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" that are driving me bananas.

Javier Vázquez
According to this doofus, Erik Kuselias, Javier is not a "winning pitcher." His claim is that, "Here's a guy from the Expos whose career record is 64-68...and this was for Expos teams with winning records!" Sounds good, huh? A guy from a bad team, claimed to be a good pitcher, who wasn't even a contributer to the winning clubs in Montreal.

It's baloney.

Here are Vázquez's records and the Expos' records, while he pitched for them.

Year	Javier's Record	Expos' Record	+/- Win %
1998	5-15	65-97	-.151
1999	9-8	68-94	+.110
2000	11-9	67-95	+.136
2001	16-11	68-94	+.173
2002	10-13	83-79	-.077
2003	13-12	83-79	+.008
2004	13-7	78-48	+.031

+/- Win % refers to whether he had a better or worse winning record than his clubs. I included this year's Yankees to show how he has "not" been a winning pitcher this year. Over the 7 year period, his teams have had a .466 Winning Percentage, and he has had a .507. So much for not being a winning pitcher.

I can think of several possibilities for why he's been struggling to a 4.32 ERA - this is the real issue, not whether he's a winning pitcher. Check these numbers out:

Year(s)	Hits/9 IP	HR/9 IP	K/9 IP	BB/9 IP	ERA
2001-03	8.39	1.05	8.26	1.97	3.52
2004	8.48	1.50	6.65	2.33	4.32

There, now doesn't that explain it a bit better? His K rate is way down, which should result in more hits, but isn't, thanks to decent defense when he's on the field (I checked defensive efficiency of the Yankees, and though they're pretty low in the AL - 13th out of 14 - Vazquez is getting better than normal defensive support from his troops), his hits allowed aren't up. His home runs are WAY up, and his walks per game are up about 15%. Thus, his ERA is up pretty high.

Now couldn't Kuselias have noted that his ERA is higher, hence he hasn't been as effective? And why is his ERA higher? Because he's giving up more dingers and walks than usual while striking out fewer batters. Voilà! A real explanation...

Barry Bonds vs. Scott Rolen for MVP
Next, the inestimable Kuselias said that Barry wasn't as important as Rolen because of RBIs. Barry, despite having more home runs, has only 79 RBI. Rolen, of course, leads the NL with 110. Golic argued, rightly, that Barry doesn't get RBI because he has no one on base AND they don't pitch to him when there are men on base. Kuselias said something to the effect that Barry doesn't get RBI because he takes too many walks. Some joker then called in and said that Barry was getting walks because the umps were giving him "pitches down the middle" for balls.

To Kuselias' credit, he told that guy to take a hike. I've watched Barry take walks, and he never gets anything close to the strike zone when he walks. If he's supposed to swing at pure shit in order to get RBI, it will make him a much worse hitter. Rolen has been batting cleanup on a team with Pujols, Edmonds, Renteria, and a surprising Tony Womack. He's got the 2nd best hitter in the world in front of him (and usually on base), and some damn fine "protection" behind him. I'm normally not one for protection, but the debate between Rolen or Edmonds and the debate between Barry and...Grissom? Pierzynski? Felíz? isn't much of a debate. Especially when Barry is twice the hitter that Rolen is. (This is no slight on Rolen, only an incredibly compliment to Bonds.)

Barry Bonds is the offense of the Giants, and Jason Schmidt the pitching staff. Barry Bonds is simply unbelievably dominating. It seems as if he's so good that he's hurting his team, but he's second in the league in runs despite having guys like Pierzynski and Grissom and Felíz knocking him in rather than Rolen, Edmonds, and Rentería. Plus, he gets walks in odd situations. Last night, for instance, he was intentionally walked to force the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. The pitcher then walked Pierzynski to give the Giants the win.

How, exactly, is Bonds' walking hurting this team?

Thursday, July 15th, 2004
The Very Finite Wisdom of Jeff Brantley
Jeff Brantley did the color on today's game, and man-oh-man, this guy is a piece of work! I only took notes for a couple of innings, but he had some doozies. Among them:

• The TV flashed up Victor Zambrano's stats: in 113 innings, Zambrano had thrown 84 walks (this leads the league). JB noted, "He's winning this year because he's throwing strikes...he's giving up walks, but he's throwing strikes." This is like saying a guy with a .350 Slugging is winning because he's hitting home runs.
• When he was discussing Tim Raines, Jr., who must have recently hit a late-inning home run or something, JB stated, "Being the son of a Major Leaguer gives you an advantage in clutch situations." This is ridiculous. After hundreds of games at the little league, high school, possibly college, and certainly minor league level, is the majors really going to create more nervousness? Jim Bouton said that his high school games were just as tense to him as most of his Major League games. I find it hard to believe that the sons of Major Leaguers are better clutch hitters than sons of non-Major Leaguers.
• JB said something about Victor having the "guts" to get out of bad situations, but I find that a silly, old-timer sentiment, too.

Yeah, Right.
Apparently, Victor thought he should have been an All Star. Although he does indeed have 9 wins for a team that was predicted to be in last place, he was also (prior to Thursday), 25th in ERA. He also leads the league in walks. If we go by wins, he's surpassed (easily) by Kenny Rogers, who also sports a better ERA.

Oddities of the Day
John Olerud was designated for assignment. I didn't realize how poor a year he was having, but "being designated for assignment" means: he stinks, no one wants him, and they're about to release him.

Craig Counsell got on base this year for the 4th time via catcher's interference. This is a club record. Bob Uecker thinks that teams should be ready for this, and suspects that Counsell does it intentionally. I'm not sure Bob's right, but I get the feeling that Bob, a former catcher, thinks it's a cheap way to get on base all the time.

Finally, in the Baltimore/Tampa Bay game, Jerry Hairston smoked a ball into the right field bleachers and plunked a kid. Hairston immediately went to his knees and covered his face when he saw it really drilled the kid. Rarely do you see a guy look this guilty. Sometimes you see worried looks, but usually the batter has no concern and just gets right back in the box.

The Ballad of José Valentín
I was reading a chat by Rob Neyer the other day, in which the following exchange took place:

Neyer (in response to a fellow who said the White Sox want Garciaparra): ...why would the White Sox want Garciaparra? Last I checked, Valentín was doing a pretty good job at shortstop.

Later, someone said:

Last you checked Valentín's doing a good job at shortstop? When was the last time you checked, 2000? Why can't just 1 member of the media pay attention to the White Sox before speaking like an authority?

Rob defended his statement, saying (essentially) that a shortstop that slugs .548 is damn fine (he also asked the guy how much beer he had drunk, which was a bit inciteful). The guy didn't let up, of course, giving Rob the business:

Valentín's almost definitely the worst fielding shortstop in the majors. He gets thrown out on the bases a little more than once a week. He's striking out at an unbelievable pace this year. And he's getting 5 million a year to do all of this and hit .255 a year. Why wouldn't the Sox want Garciaparra?

Rob replied to this, saying that Valentín's defense is underrated and said, "Look, it's the 21st century . . . can't we stop talking about stupid fielding percentage?"

I agree with Rob 100%. José Valentín is one of the most underrated and over-criticized guys in the majors. The reason Valentin makes so many errors is because he gets to so many more balls. I did a study on this a couple years ago, using Range Factor or Zone Rating, comparing Valentín to Royce Clayton. The ChiSox had bumped Valentín from short to third and the outfield because Clayton was better. Guess what? He wasn't. Valentín, working with the same pitchers and the same team, outperformed Clayton in plays per inning, even taking into account the fact that he made 1.5 times as many errors.

That's one bullet I've got in favor of José. Here are some more. He's got almost all the attributes of an underrated/over-criticized player:

• He strikes out a lot.
• He has a low batting average.
• He's not outstanding in any one area.

When you consider that Valentín is making $5 million, and Garciaparra is making $11.5 million, you have to realize that Valentín is just as valuable. Nomar doesn't have the defensive value of Valentín, and Valentín probably has 80% of No-mah's offensive value.

Wednesday, July 23th
It's happened twice now, and so it is brought up all the time. A-Rod has now been on two teams that have improved dramatically since he left. He left Seattle after the 2000 season, and the 2001 M's went on to 116 wins, breaking the MLB record. He left Texas after the 2003 season, and the 2004 Rangers are in first place in the west (after several losing seasons), 2 games over the 2nd place A's. Does the absence of A-Rod truly make a team better?

Let's see. I'll compare the last season of A-Rod with each squad and list each team's starting lineups, then look at each squad's ERA. First the 2000 & 2001 Mariners.

2000 Mariners, 91-71				2001 Mariners, 116-46
Player	Position	OPS		Player	Position	OPS	Better?
Dan Wilson	C	.627		Dan Wilson	C	.708	YES
John Olerud	1B	.831		John Olerud	1B	.873	YES
Mark McLemore	2B	.669		Bret Boone	2B	.950	HELL YES
David Bell	3B	.697		David Bell	3B	.718	Same
A-Rod	SS	1.026		Carlos Guillén	SS	.688	Much Worse
Rickey Henderson	LF	.689		Al Martin	LF	.712	Same
Mike Cameron	CF	.803		Mike Cameron	CF	.833	Same
Jay Buhner	RF	.883		Ichiro Suzuki	RF	.838	Same
Édgar Martínez	DH	1.002		Édgar Martínez	DH	.966	Little worse

I should note that the 2001 M's left fielders were an Al Martin/Stan Javier hybrid, which was pretty damned ineffective. The 2000 model was a Rickey Henderson/Stan Javier hybrid, which was a slim bit more effective.

As you can see, the 2000 M's had no less than 4 sinkholes (<.700 OPS) in their lineup every day. The 2001 model had 3 mediocre players (Wilson, LF, and Bell) and sinkhole Guillén. Suzuki's stats look worse than Buhner's, but it's hard to really say that he was worse than Buhner. His speed, high average, and defense more than make up for their differences, in my opinion. Still, the table above doesn't explain a 25 win turnaround. Wilson improved, but was no great shakes, and the improvement of Boone offset the loss of A-Rod, but no more than that. Cameron and Olerud only moderately improved, and Édgar declined.

How about the pitching? 2000 M's ERA was 4.50, 2001 M's? 3.54. Ahh! In 2000, the M's were 3rd in the league in scoring with 907 runs. In 2001, 927. The problem, indeed, was not A-Rod. They had a championship offense both years. The last year of A-Rod, they were a fantastic run-scoring team, despite the effort of half the lineup. In 2001, they were only marginally better, thanks to some improved play from existing players, notably Dan Wilson (who also played about 38 more games in 2001), Mike Cameron, John Olerud, and David Bell. Ichiro more than made up for the loss of Bones, and Bret Boone had an incredible year - beyond all reasonable expectations - as a free agent signee.

The real story was the improvement of the pitching. Only two players made 30+ starts: Aaron Sele (4.51 ERA) and John Halama (5.06 ERA). This was Moyer's bad year, as he only made 26 starts and sported a horrific 5.49 ERA. Freddy Garcia was the lone bright spot (3.91 ERA), but only started 20 games. Gil Meche (3.78 ERA) started 15 times. The bullpen was good, but not spectacular, as Kaz Sasaki led the way with a 3.16 ERA. Good, but by no means great for a closer. Paniagua and Ramsey also sported ERAs in the 3.40's.

The M's in 2001? Wonderful. Garcia made 34 starts and had 3.05 ERA. Moyer returned to form: 33 starts, 3.43 ERA. Sele was much better, having his career year: 33 starts, 3.60 ERA. Abbott and Halama were serviceable as they could be - 4.25 and 4.73 ERAs. Joel Piniero started 11 games late and mustered a 2.03 ERA!

Although Sasaki didn't improve (3.24 ERA), the rest of the bullpen was spectacular. Arthur Rhodes came in and gobbled up hitters for a 1.72 ERA, Jeff Nelson threw that frisbee-slider of his to the tune of a 2.76 ERA, and Norm Charlton sported a 3.02 ERA. Ryan Franklin and Jose Paniagua were far from disastrous, too, with 3.56 and 4.36 ERAs.

The 2001 team benefited from surprise years from a number of players - Bret Boone, Ichiro, Moyer (whom everyone believed washed up) and Sele. The only players that played great and to their lofty expectations were Garcia and Edgar. The eternally underrated Olerud and Cameron also improved on good years, and hence the 2001 M's (with the help of an incredible bullpen as well) went on to immortality.

Great. So what's with the Rangers.

Before I looked this up, I'd say it's the pitching once again. Also, I would add, is the blossoming of a group of young players. The 2001 M's had free agents that boosted the offense. In Texas, I'll wager it's young talent.

Runs per game, Texas, 2003: 5.10
Runs per game, Texas, 2004: 5.66

ERA, Texas, 2003: 5.98
ERA, Texas, 2004: 4.59

The 2003 Rangers were historically awful in pitching. They had also just brought up some incredibly great young talent in Mark Texeira, Michael Young, Hank Blalock, and Laynce Nix. In 2004, the bulk of the offense come from these 4 guys, plus the fellow acquired in the A-Rod deal, Alfonso Soriano, who, in all honesty, is 90% the player of A-Rod.

This is the same story as the 2001 Mariners. In 2003, Texeira was very good. This year he's outstanding. In 2003, Michael Young was very good. This year, he's an All Star. In 2003, Blalock was an All Star, in 2004, he's an MVP candidate. In 2003, Nix had a cup of coffee. This year, he's slugging .570 in more appearances. Soriano has been struggling, but he's still been excellent.

Once again, though, the true story is pitching. The pitching staff has completely turned around. Well, not really. Kenny Rogers and Ryan Drese have been excellent, but the rest of the starters are a shambles. The bullpen, though, is excellent, and they are probably as much responsible for the pitching turnaround as Drese and Rogers.

It's now easy to see how these teams improved. The 2000 M's were at a low-point in pitching - most definitely a fluke - and the offense was re-strengthened in 2001 despite A-Rod's absence by the dramatic arrivals of Boone and Suzuki. The 2004 Rangers' pitching had nowhere to go but up, and they are currently around league average. The offense has also improved - not because of A-Rod's absence - but because the young talent has begun to peak.

Unless someone thinks A-Rod had something to do with the pitching disasters on his teams, he is in no way to blame for the lesser performances of the 2000 M's and 2003 Rangers. I thank goodness that he's on the Yankees (who are winning), because if he were on another losing team, he'd be getting reamed again, and once again, it would be for no fault of his own.

Tuesday, July 12th, 2004: All Star Game at Houston
Back from Kooskia, Idaho, though I wish I could have spent one or two more days there.

Finally got a chance to look at the All Star rosters. Really can't bitch too much about them. I guess I don't quite understand why Tom Gordon of the Yanks had to go. He's been excellent, though, and all the excellent AL pitchers had already been taken (plus Pédro didn't want to go). The Indians had 5 selected, but all 5 were completely worthy. You have to take Sabathia and victor Martínez, you need another 2nd baseman in Belliard, and Westbrook and Lawton are better than most other options, though perhaps Johnny Damon should have trumped Lawton. One could argue for Sánchez, put he'd be wrong. Westbrook has the 3rd best ERA, and (from what I've heard), his bullpen has been shoddy.

The NL has much better pitching, and I can't disagree with any selections. It would have been nice if Lyle Overbay could have made the team, but Pujols, Helton, and Thome are definitely better, and Sean Casey is, too (though he was injured). I'm not too keen on Larkin, I think Aramis Ramírez should have been taken, but only Furcal is any real challenge at SS, and he's missed a bunch of time. Lastly, J.D. Drew should have made the team somehow. He's been outstanding. Out from the shadows of the Philly debacle and injuries and LaRussa's undeniable hatred of him, Drew has performed great. When the season started I honestly felt that if anyone was going to get production out of him, it'd be Bobby Cox. Every year I gain more and more respect for the guy. Somehow, he always seems to get the best out of his position players, especially guys that were question marks for other teams - like J.D. Drew.

Wednesday, July 7th, 2004: Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee
Ah, sweet baseball! The Crew gave all those Cub fans a sweep at the hands of their cheesehead rivals today, getting shut out 4-0 at the hands of Doug Davis and Mike Adams.

I wanted to discuss this yesterday, but today's okay (I guess). Last season, Bill Schroeder and Darren started this club called the Buckethead Brigade. Every Tuesday night, they sell out a couple sections, and all these rabid Brewer fans come in and yell and scream and wear buckets on their heads. I can hear them all the way from my couch at home, and they scream and yell and all wear the same color t-shirts - whatever Darren and Bill had decided on for the day. It makes the Brewers more fun to watch and it adds a wonderful color to the typical Tuesday night home game. We need more stuff like this - devoted groups of fans out to make baseball a fan sport. It's the first steps back to something like Camp Randall's student section, where 50% of the fun of the game is sitting in the section and yelling, chanting, and jumping around.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2004: Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee
Brendan Harris, a fairly decent 3rd base prospect (or so I've read), started his first game tonight. He was put in the number two spot, ahead of Sammy Sosa, and he had a helluva first inning.

• In his first ever pitch of his first ever game, Brendan Harris was so excited he smoked a first pitch ground out to shortstop Craig Counsell.
• On defense, Craig Counsell bunted down the 3rd base line. It was a helluva bunt, and Harris wouldn't have had him anyway, but he zinged the ball down the right field line, leading to a run scoring and 4 COUGH! unearned COUGH! COUGH! runs charged to Mark Prior. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
• Finally, something good. He makes his first positive play in the bigs by catching a popout off the bat of Geoff Jenkins.
• Now, something REALLY good. Overbay ripped a shot to the left side that a diving Brendan Harris managed to catch as he lay in the dirt. This undoubtedly saved the Cubs a run.

Harris also put frosting on his day by hitting a 2-out double in the 3rd, helping to erase that error.

This was really an odd first inning, even by non-Brendan Harris standards. First, I learned the the current Crew bats .351 against Prior. Then, Podsednik rips a single past Ramón Martínez, who lazily tried to backhand the ball. Single. Next was Counsell's incredible bunt, which scored Podsednik, and was somehow ruled a sacrifice, although it could have gone either way - more on this below. A couple outs occurred before Ben Grieve hit a grounder down the line past a diving Derrek Lee. Really, it wasn't that tough a play, and Lee makes it most of the time, but he somehow missed it this time. Then Keith Ginter, who's hit 2 Home Runs (going 4 for 9 with a HBP) off Prior, hits a third to put the Brewers up 4-0. 0 earned runs for Prior.

What I want to know is, who did the scoring today? Did the Cubs scorekeeper come up along with all the Cub fans? Sheesh. Prior was rocked, and in all honesty, his ERA deserved to balloon, especially for the pitch that Ginter smoked into the space beyond the left center field wall. I'm starting to believe we should just start keeping track of Runs Allowed, and not ERA. A lot of pitchers get off the ERA-hook because a scorer makes a borderline decision like the Counsell bunt call.

Note: Ah! Common Sense! The runs were reviewed and considered Earned. My faith in humanity remains unshaken after all.

Monday, July 5th, 2004: Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee
Great pitching match up today: Clement vs. Sheets. Steve Stone and Chip Caray lamented Clement's lack of run support, and today was a perfect example - 1-0 loss. Sheets, of course, has been suffering from the same thing. He is 8-5 after this victory, and Clement is now 7-7. I feel your pain, buddy. Clement's ERA is 2.83, which is fantastic. Still, Sheets' ERA is 2.42. Awesome.

The games in Milwaukee this week will be fun because the stadium is chock full of Cub fans. As a Brewer fan, it ticks me off that the Brewer fans are outnumbered by the Cub fans, but it is so sweet to see the Brewers win in such an environment. All we need is a sweep!

Fun note: in the 9th inning of today's game, José Macías hit a foul ball that drilled Dusty Baker in the ribs.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004: Boston at NY Yankees
I was able to watch most of the Boston-New York game tonight. I love watching these two teams play. New York always seems to win on some terrible decision by Boston. I'm not sure that they have the better players, but they have the mentality that they should win, and Boston seems like they're a pouty little brother demanding respect that they have to earn - and never have.

Now, although everyone is in fits that Boston has lost two straight - and today's loss was pretty bad - everyone seems to be forgetting the larger scheme. Sure, New York is now 7 1/2 games up, but Boston hasn't been playing very well for about 2 months, and they did, after all, beat the snot out of New York back in April.

Still, it doesn't help when the manager over-manages. I couldn't believe Francona took Wakefield out in the bottom of the 7th. I suppose he didn't want him to lose the game (with two on and one out, a home run would have given him the loss), but he was awesome. I've seen a lot of managers do this. What usually happens is that a pitcher is pitching right along and he'll give up two cheap singles, or, in Wakefield's case, a hit batsman and a walk. Francona ignored the fact that he had just made Jeter and A-Rod look like a couple of 2 year olds with bats at a whiffle ball championship - he had obviously "lost his stuff" - after 87 pitches. Timlin gave up 2 runs (on a David Ortíz error), and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over. By the way, that Nomar error should have been scooped by Ortíz.

Boston's Inefficient Offense?
I've heard from the Boston media - Shaughnessy, for one - that the Boston offense "looks good on paper" but is actually inefficient. There are laments that they leave men on base all the time. Last night was a prime example of this, and when they couldn't get a run in with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 7th inning (helped by a terrible strike 3 call on David Ortíz), I, at one point, said to myself, "This is terrible baseball." Anyway, I thought I'd check Bill James' Runs Created Formula to see if Boston's offense is, technically, inefficient compared to the rest of the AL. Runs Scored is how many they HAVE scored, Runs Created is the number they are expected to have scored given their batting statistics. Difference is how many above or below expectations they are. I've ranked them from "most efficient" to "least efficient":

Team	Runs Scored	Runs Created	Difference
Anaheim	382	365	+17
Tampa Bay	344	327	+17
New York	415	400	+15
Cleveland	413	399	+14
Kansas City	328	320	+8
Baltimore	387	380	+7
Detroit	404	399	+5
Minnesota	351	348	+3
Texas	412	414	-2
Chicago	431	434	-3
Toronto	343	347	-4
Seattle	310	318	-8
Oakland	376	387	-11
Boston	409	432	-23

Well, I'll be damned, they're right! Boston laps the field in run-scoring inefficiency. I'm just on the look out for other trends here, and one can see that the so-called "Moneyball" teams rank 13th, 15th, and 16th in efficiency. When you add the Yanks plus the Red Sox' differences together (+15-(-23)) you get a 38 run difference, which is a pretty damned big gap for less than half a season. In essence, the Red Sox have gypped themselves out of 7 games worth of runs in comparison to the Yankees. The A's are also operating with much less efficiency than Anaheim, but they have the benefit of much better pitching.

Other things that make a team's offense inefficient to the media tend to be:
- Few Stolen Base attempts (Boston ranks 14 out of 16)
- Few Sacrifice Bunts (Boston ranks 16 ouut of 16)
- Too many walks (Boston ranks 2nd)
- Poor "clutch hitting"

Oakland, it should be noted, is one ahead of Boston in bunts, and shares one of the last two spots in stolen base attempts with Toronto. I'm not sure what to make of this. Perhaps the Runs Created formula undervalues sacrifices and stolen bases. Or it overvalues the walk. At any rate, a few minor tweaks to the formula can't help the fact that Boston is WAY below expected runs.

Milwaukee at Colorado
Ben was gifted with 5 runs in 7.1 innings by his teammates tonight, and he gutted out a 5-4 victory at Coors Field. I was really eager to see how he'd pitch, since he relies so much on his curveball. He racked up 8 K's using his fastball almost exclusively. Last year he would have gotten rocked throwing all fastballs, but this year he's got about 3 or 4 mph added onto it (and he throws it for strikes). To top it off, Ben ended an 0 for 41 slump with an RBi single. After the game, Ben said that he hated playing in Coors. "It's not baseball to me." He did say it was a beautiful park (it is) with great fans (they are).

David Ortíz
After a game like tonight, where the Boston first baseman had an awful couple innings - strikeout looking with 2 outs and the bases loaded, 2-run error, missed picking up a scoop on a throw by Nomar - one can confirm without worry that the Twins knew what they were doing when they let him go.

I doubt it. He never racked up more than 415 at bats in Minnesota, and I couldn't believe they didn't try to keep him. Right now, he'd blow the snot out of any batter they've got in the Twin Cities. I think I know why they didn't keep him. He doesn't LOOK like a ballplayer. Odd to say about the franchise that loved Kirby Puckett and Harmon Killebrew, but they don't really have any pudgy ballplayers any more. Every player in the starting line-up is pretty svelte and trim - Stewart, Hunter, Jones, Rívas, Koskie, Ford, Mientkewicz, Mauer; even the pitchers - Radke, Santana, etc. Maybe this is why the Twins don't like all these 1B/OF types in their system - they're pudgy. Can anyone confirm this?

The two exceptions to my "no pudgy Twins" theory are Guzmán, but he's a pretty quick shortstop, and shortstops are hard to replace, and Matt LeCroy, who is really only a role-player anyway. I get the feeling they'd drop him in a heartbeat.

Tuesday, June 29th, 2004: Houston at Chicago Cubs
Proof positive that baseball is the greatest game ever. Here are the odd incidents that happened in the top of the 4th inning alone in Houston vs. Chicago game:

• Jeff Kent hit a solid double to the left field gap and pulled up lame rounding first base - he was removed for Luís Vizcaíno.
• Morgan Ensberg knocked a triple to center off Corey Patterson's glove, knocking in Vizcaíno (Stone tried to stick up for Patterson's miscue by saying he was playing him shallow).
• Adam Everett drilled a double to left, and Moises Alou knocked the ball into the ivy. According to Steve Stone, if you reach into the ivy, it's no longer a "ground-rule" double. It is a live ball. So, it was a live ball. That didn't stop Alou from raising his hands to the umps. They ignored him, and rightly so. Aside from the fact that Moises knocked the ball in himself, I could see the ball on TV just a foot or so from where Alou was looking. It wasn't even in the ivy. It was odd. I think Alou was faking that he couldn't see it. After the play was over, Moises went back and kicked at the ivy, and eventually kicked the ball under the bottom of the ivy. It was really odd. I remember another time earlier this year when the ball bounced into the ivy, but was totally visible. Adam Dunn raised his hands, and the umps (again) ignored him. Fortunately for Dunn, Griffey had come over and grabbed the ball, preventing the "home run" that Adam Everett got today. Why would Alou fake it? He probably thought it was his only chance of holding Everett to a double. The kid is pretty damned quick.
• After Everett, catcher Brad Ausmus tried to bunt his way on base to third and almost made it.
• Next up was Andy Pettitte, who ripped a double to left. He actually hustled to second pretty hard, and Dusty Baker had his players tag first base, thinking (hoping?) that he missed the bag. He didn't. I love it when people try this. My favorite ever was in the 2001 World Series, when the D'backs had a big hit, and two runners barely touched second (Luís González, in particular, really almost did miss the bag). Derek Jeter took the ball and tagged second.

Ump: Which runner?

Jeter: The second. (this was González)

Ump: (Makes safe sign)

Jeter: The first one.

Ump: (Makes safe sign again)

Milwaukee at Colorado
The Brewers won again, loading the bases twice in the first three innings on Shawn Estes. The first time the Rockies escaped with only 1 run allowed, but the second time, Chad Moeller hit a 2-out grand slam. It was his first in the majors, and it went into the Brewers' bullpen. As Moeller was being congratulated in the dugout, I could see from my TV that Mike Maddux was on the phone, calling to the bullpen (obviously) to save the ball for him. I love that kind of stuff.

Arizona Trade
While we're on Moeller, I wanted to look at the D'backs, and how they've fared since the trade. Obviously, as a team, they're floundering, and the Brewers sit in 4th place at an unexpected 5-games over .500, a half-game behind the even more overachieving Reds and a game and a half above the wounded Astros. How have the position players done? What I'm looking at, exactly, is why the D'backs made the trade. Were the replacements they added as good as the players they gave to the Brewers? I'll use OPS to show day-to-day effectiveness and Runs Created, which shows year-to-date effectiveness:

Pos	Milwaukee	OPS	RC	Arizona	OPS	RC
2B	Junior Spivey	.785	30.1	Scott Hairston	.807	20.5
SS	Craig Counsell	.692	26.1	Alex Cintron	.635	26.1
C	Chad Moeller	.682	16.4	Robby Hammock	.655	12.1
1B	Lyle Overbay	.944	60.6	Richie Sexson	.914	17.7

The Brewers have a slight advantage at 2B (due entirely to playing time), SS, and Catcher. The problem is the the first baseman, the whole key to the D'back trade. Sexson's rate stat looks good, but he only amassed 90 ABs this season, and now he's gone for the year with an odd shoulder injury. Overbay has been outstanding, probably deserving of an all star bid, but not going to get one (due to Pujols, Helton, Casey, and possibly fan-fave Bagwell). I didn't include Hillenbrand, whose .773 OPS and 34.8 RC close a little of the gap between Sexson and Overbay, but that complicates things, since 1) not all of Hillenbrand's ABs have been at 1B, and 2) I'd have to add the stats for the replacement third baseman, rookie Chad Tracy.

Still, although the Brewers definitely have an edge in the 4 players above, Arizona would have been okay if not for the weird Sexson injury. The real problem is in pitching. Check out these five guys:

Player	IP	ERA
Steve Sparks	88.2	5.18
Elmer Dessens	57.1	5.65
Casey Fossum	44.2	5.84
Corey Daigle	49.0	7.16
Chris Capuano	41.0	2.85

Here's the D'backs' real problem. Capuano is a Brewer. Right now (he's finally healthy), he could really help their shoddy rotation (except for Webb and Johnson). While the Diamondbacks sift through the terrible chaff of Sparks, Dessens, Fossum, and Daigle, the Crew have Capuano as their 4th best starter! Behind Sheets, Davis, and Santos. This is nothing short of a miracle for the Brewers.

Monday, June 28th, 2004
I just heard that Odalis Pérez was injured and read about his MRI. As I was examining his profile on Yahoo!, I saw that he's listed as being 6' and 150 lbs! Bartolo Colon he ain't (5'10", "250 lbs").

Sunday, June 27th, 2004: NY Mets at NY Yankees
There was a fascinating bunch of stuff today.

1) The Yankees, seeing their lead shrink to 7-5, started a rally, getting Bubba Crosby to 3rd and A-Rod to 2nd by performing a double steal as Matsui struck out. (Joe Morgan didn't understand why you would want to send the runners in this instance, and, although it worked, I'd have to concede he was correct. Crosby, for all intents and purposes, should have been thrown out at third. He was beaten by a mile, but the throw was 7 feet in the air.) The fun part was when Parra intentionally walked Posada to load the bases (you won't see this in the box scores), the 3rd pitch was really low and scooted past catcher Tom Wilson about 15 feet. Crosby didn't score (though he could have, if he had been really on the ball). I always wonder why this doesn't happen more often. I'm sure pitchers don't really practice the intentional walk, and ball is thrown just fast enough (usually around 60-75 mph) to ensure some oddness to happen. Still, it's very rare. Maybe they do practice it.

2) Ruben Sierra came to bat next, and I remember when I was in high school I always saw his name in the batting leaders stats. I just checked, and, sure enough, he was an all star in 1989, 1991, and 1992, 3 of my four high school years. In his Historical Abstract (1987), Bill James predicted Sierra to be a Hall of Famer some time in the 2000's. He has fallen from those lofty expectations, but you still can see why he had such things attached to him - he can still rake. If only he didn't do it for the Yankees! His 2 run single helped put the game out of reach for the Yankees.

3) Broadcast note. Jon Miller called the Mets' effort tonight "Sisyphean", alluding to the fact that every time they got close to the Yanks, the boulder fell back down the hill. Morgan either didn't get it, or didn't want to get it, and gave the broadcaster's equivalent of rolling his eyes at Jon. (One thing I like about Joe is that he doesn't always go with Miller. Sometimes it makes for these entertaining little tensions.) Eventually, Joe, not willing to torment Jon Miller any longer (who was trying to elaborate on his meaning for about 2 minutes), conceded, "I think I know where you're going with this."

4) Miller mentioned that the Mets have the lowest ERA in the league. They've allowed 310, which ties them for 5th in the league (just 6 off the pace of the 1st place Cubbies). They've given up 36 unearned runs, which is 4th in the league, behind the Braves (38), Pirates (39), and woeful Diamondbacks (48!). I'm overstating the point a bit, since they are pretty close to 3rd in ERA Milwaukee (33 unearned runs). Still, no one else in the top 5 is within 6 unearned runs, and the Mets have a pitchers park. When one factors in that they are 9th in giving up walks and dead last in strikeouts (to some extent explaining the extra errors), one should be pretty wary of betting on the Mets to continue their performance.

Milwaukee at Minnesota
The Brewers won again. Unbelievable. It's sweet to take the series from the Twins (4-2), and it was nice that the only Twin victories came at the hands of my fantasy pitcher, Johan Santana. Anyway, in the 7th inning, the Crew was up 2-1 with two outs. Kyle Lohse was still on the mound, and Aaron Fultz (the lefty) was warming up. Bill Schroeder had a couple great insights. First, when Lohse (a righty) started pitching to Jenkins, he wondered, "Why bother warming up Fultz in this situation if you're not going to use him?" Sure enough, Lohse walked Jenkins on 4 pitches (to be fair, he pitched around him) and loaded the bases. Fultz in, right? Wrong. Lohse pitches to the lefty Overbay, who draws a walk in an excellent at bat. 3-1 Brewers. With lefty Ben Grieve up to bat, Gardenhire puts Fultz in. Not surprisingly, Yost pinch hits for Grieve with Brady Clark.

Ignoring what happens next, this was all stupid. Jenkins has been looking like Tom Thumb at the hand of lefties this year (with the exception of Terry Mulholland), and there's no way Yost will pinch hit for him (or Overbay, who is also a lot worse vs. lefties).

Clark got lucky with an infield single, and Keith Ginter (righty) pinch hit for Jeff Liefer (a lefty). He walked. Next up was Bill Hall. Roa (righty) comes in to pitch to Hall (righty). The score is now 5-1. Roa, refusing to throw Hall a fastball, walks him. 6-1, Brewers. At this point, Bill Schroeder says, "At some point, you've gotta throw the fastball." I agree. What the hell are they waiting for? The game has already gone from close to a solid lead. What more can you lose? There's only one game to lose, and they just lost it. Finally, against Craig Counsell, with the count worked to 3-2, Roa finally just throws the fastball, and Counsell hits an easy fly to Torii Hunter.

What are these guys thinking?

Sheets vs. Davis
Ben Sheets and Doug Davis are having excellent seasons. Sheets' ERA is a miniscule 2.41, and Davis' is an excellent 3.34. Yet Davis has 8 wins to Sheets' 6. Both have allowed 5 unearned runs, so that doesn't explain it. I thought I'd check a couple things. #1 - "chokability" - is one of them giving up more hits, etc. with men on base? #2 - run support per game (this includes only the innings when Ben or Doug was still on the mound or eligible for the victory).

Player	Opponent OPS	Opp. OPS w/men on base	Run support/9 IP	RS = 4+	RS = 0
Ben Sheets	.577	.514	3.03	4	4
Doug Davis	.691	.602	5.4	9	1

Conclusions? If you've allowed 32 total runs in 101 innings and gotten 34, your record is going to balance out to around 6-5. He's obviously not choking. When guys get on base, both guys have been more incredible than they should be. I didn't run the stats for bullpen blow-outs, but most ofthe games I looked at had Ben behind by 1 or 2 runs after 6 or 7 innings. The bullpen may have helped the Crew stay behind, but generally the team needs to get its bats together for him. What is also remarkable about Ben is that 3 of his 4 "big support" games came in his first three games. Since then, he has only netted 1 game with substantial support during his innings - and that 4 runs on the nose. Doug has had much better support. His last four games have been 5, 4, 6, 6. Ben's? 0, 2, 3, 0. Yikes.

San Diego at Seattle
One of the great ironies of sports. Jeff Cirillo, an erstwhile Brewer great, had two of the worst seasons ever by anybody the last two years in Seattle. So what does he do as a Padre? Of course, he hits his first home run of the year, a 3-run shot, to put the Pads up 3-0 against the team that is still grumbling about his play last year.

Friday, June 25th, 2004: Atlanta at Baltimore
In the 6th inning, Javy López smashed a bouncer up the middle that pitcher Paul Byrd snagged. Actually, it got caught in the webbing of his mitt. In order to complete the groundout he had to lob his glove - ball and all - to first baseman Michael Hessman (who's almost as ugly as Aramis Ramírez, if you ask me). Byrd had a nice quote: "I studied the highlights. I knew what to do when the ball got stuck in your glove. The scary thing is when you go to throw your glove to first, you're like, 'If this ball falls out of here when I throw it I'm going to look like an idiot.'"

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004
No game to discuss (as I won't be able to see one), but on another baseball blog, Twins fan Aaron Gleeman was wondering why there weren't any Twins posts. He's pretty optimistic on the Twins, but as Rob Neyer noted in a recent chat, the Twins aren't as good as they think they are:

QUESTION: Rob, Everyone is wondering why the Twins won't recall Morneau. Do you think that maybe they don't want his playing for the Canadian Olympic team to interrupt his MLB career?

Rob Neyer: No, I think the Twins have some serious blind spots. They obviously do some things well, but don't you have to wonder about a team that would rather have Jose Offerman in the lineup than Justin Morneau? The Twins have been getting away with crap like this for the last couple of seasons, but I think this year it's finally going to cost them, because the White Sox aren't rolling over.

Rob doesn't go on to explain why the Twins will go down, but I will. They are being outscored this year, 335 to 324. That's always a bad sign. The Royals, for instance, were outscored last year despite leading the Central most of the season, then faltered down the stretch.

Next, the Twins' bats and defense aren't all they're cracked up to be. Check out this list of OBP and SLG from their core players:

Player	OBP	SLG	OPS	Rank (Out of those that qualify)	Salary
SS Cristian Guzmán	.307	.341	.648	11 (12)	$3.7 Million
1B Doug Mientkewicz	.332	.345	.677	11 (11)	$2.8 Million
CF Torii Hunter	.326	.477	.803	5 (11)	$6.5 Million
RF Jacques Jones	.312	.457	.769	6 (10)	$4.3 Million
3B Corey Koskie	.335	.484	.819	5 (11)	$4.5 Million
2B Luís Rívas	.321	.467	.788	4 (10)	$1.5 Million
LF Lew Ford	.382	.496	.878	4 (12)	about $300K

Playing a first baseman that bats like Billy Martin is pure stupidity.

You'll notice, of course, that although the 6 fellows listed above Lew Ford aren't doing really well, they aren't doing terribly, either. They're all right around average hitters (except Mientkewicz and Guzmán). (I should note that Rívas and Koskie don't qualify yet.) I haven't listed Mauer because he hasn't played much, but I'll bet he's in the Javy López range in terms of batting prowess this season.

Next up, we'll look at how their DHs and bench guys have done and see their at bats and cost:

Player	OBP	SLG	OPS	Plate Appearances	Salary
Matt LeCroy	.357	.510	.867	112	$340,000
Shannon Stewart	.396	.403	.799	154	$5.5 Million
Michael Cuddyer	.313	.422	.735	172	$307,500

And here are Michael Restovich's and Justin Morneau's AAA stats (both would get about $300K when brought to the majors).

Player	OBP	SLG	OPS
Michael Restovich	.313	.525	.838
Justin Morneau	.383	.624	1.007

Now, I'm willing to concede that LeCroy and Stewart are of equal value, when you factor in that OBP is more important than Slugging, and that Stewart's a bit faster. BUT LeCroy can chip in at catcher, and he's over $5 million cheaper. The rest of the kids are younger: Ford (27), Restovich (25), Cuddyer (25), and Morneau (23) are not only cheap like LeCroy (who's 28), they're also YOUNGER, and much more likely to improve than the "What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get" Jones (29), Stewart (30), and Mientkewicz (30). In a pinch, Ford can also play some center.

Why the Twins don't let the expensive mediocrities go and play the young guys is beyond me. Then again, it took them forever to put Santana in the starting rotation.

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004: Colorado at Milwaukee
In a 5-run rally in the 7th inning, Jenkins and Overbay were hit by consecutive pitches. Overbay was plunked in such a way that the ball zipped past the buttons of his jersey and was lodged in his shirt. Said Lyle, "I didn't realize it until I was halfway down to first and I pulled it out."

Monday, June 21st, 2004: Cleveland at Chicago White Sox
Just watched for a few minutes, and Frank Thomas batted. Harold Reynolds was talking about how the Big Hurt's skills have deteriorated to the extent that he "no longer has command of the strike zone." As if to prove his point, a ball on the outside corner was called a strike and Frank was upset about it. I'm not sure what the hell Harold's talking about. The dude has 52 walks and a .456 OBP. If he had much more command of the strike zone he'd be Ted Williams. Also, big Frank has always griped at calls. I remember when a pitch would hit the inside corner and he'd jack-knife as if his kneecap was almost shattered and the ump would punch him out. Not just this season - these are memories from his big years in 1993 and 1994, when I was just getting into baseball again and the ChiSox were making the Cubs look like the joke they were.

Sunday, June 20th, 2004: Minnesota at Milwaukee

Met my parents for this Father's Day game. The Crew fell behind 4-0 in the 2nd inning, but I wasn't too distressed, since Twin Johan Santana was my fantasy pitcher (8 IP, 2 ER, 12 Ks). In the 3rd, 33,000+ saw Torii Hunter whiff on a diving catch (he had no chance) off a ball hit by Craig Counsell. The ball rolled to the wall, and, goofiness of goofinesses, Jacques Jones gets an error for bobbling the ball as he tried to pick it up about 3 times before throwing it in. In the real world, this should be an error on Hunter for misplaying a single into a triple + error. Hunter blew the play, not Jones. I'll always remember it because I was halfway up the stairs to get some food, back to the field when Counsell hit it, and I turned after the rising cadence of the crowd's roar to see Hunter's big gaffe. It is so much better to see a play like that in real life, because you can switch from runner to thrower at your own will. One eye tries to watch the fielder, the other the runner.

Counsell, showing one of the attributes that makes him a Proven Veteran, made an excellent slide on the play at home. He saw the big Joe Mauer (who is HUGE) set up outside the lines on the bouncing throw and took the inside to avoid any chance at a tag.

New York Yankees at Los Angeles
Rubber match of the Yankees vs. Dodgers on ESPN. Miller and Morgan had Lasorda in the booth for a while, and then they chatted with Reggie! Jackson. There were a lot of interesting plays in this one. We'll start with the guy I love to hate (because he's so overrated), Derek Jeter:
Good Jeter: In the 2nd inning, on a weak liner to center by Alex Cora off Contreras, Jeter, with Beltré on first, almost raced it down, then picked it up on one hop and tried to force Beltré at 2nd. To Beltré's credit, though, he made it to second before Jeter could get the ball there. It was a nice attempt to get something on the play.
Bad Jeter: Still in the 2nd inning, David Roberts tried to steal second, and Posada made a beautiful throw. Jeter, in his infinite know-how, swiped his glove down before he caught the ball and missed the catch. The ball sailed into center and Roberts ran to third. In a ridiculous call, the scorer gave Posada the error, keeping the golden coating on Jeter's reputation untarnished for another day.

In pretty symmetry with Counsell's "home run", Hideki Matsui made a bigger blunder in the 8th. Down 4-3, Brian Roberts flipped the ball down the left field line. He was out of the box like a bolt of lightning, and everyone watching at that moment was thinking "double". Matsui was thinking single, though, and hurried his scoop, and Hideki Matsui turned the blazing Brian Roberts' double into a "home run" just as Torii Hunter misplayed a single in the Brewer game. Matsui got to wear the goat horns, though, as his misplay kept Eric Gagné's save streak alive. Giambi belted a solo shot in the top of the 9th to bring the Yanks within 1. (It should be noted that Milton Bradley just missed catching Matsui's RBI triple in the top of the 8th.) Among everything else, this shows that Gagné's save streak is due not only to excellent pitching, but luck. Side Note: Just when you think Jack Nicholson isn't a fair-weather fan, you see him in LA with a Yankee cap on. Sheesh.

Friday, June 18th, 2004: New York Yankees at Los Angeles
I can't believe Beltré is as effective as he is this year with a bum ankle (.309 Average, .550 Slugging, 16 home runs). After every swing he's hopping around in agony because of the bone spurs in his left ankle.

Thursday, June 17th, 2004: Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros
I think the Astros are done. It's not because they're struggling or anything, I just don't like their talent pool any more. Aside from Lance Berkman, the hitters are pretty pedestrian. Biggio, Bagwell, and Kent are all old, Adam Everett and Brad Ausmus can't hit. Jason Lane is nothing great, and Morgan Ensberg either isn't as good as we thought or Jimy Williams just doesn't like him. The pitching is hurt (Pettitte) or bound to decline (Clemens) or inconsistent (Redding, Oswalt). Only Wade Miller is pitching at a level meeting expectations. Also, they're prone to good right-handed pitching. They're big boppers are all right-handed except Berkman (Bags, Biggio, Kent) and the resuscitated Mike Lamb. When you compare this team to the Cards and Cubs, I just don't see that they can hold up over the season.

Wednesday, June 16th, 2004: Seattle at Milwaukee
In the top of the 7th inning, game tied at 2-2, the starter Chris Capuano had been pulled for the Brewers. In to pitch came Matt Kinney. Matt's been pitching better as a reliever but he's still not a very good option. Granted, Danny Kolb had pitched the last two nights, but why not bring him in at this point? He's the best guy out of the bullpen and it's relatively late in the game. Why hinge the chances to win the game on a guy with an ERA over 6? What happened? Kinney gave up a run in the 7th, but the Brewers tied it up in the bottom of the 7th. Then Seattle got another run in the 8th off Kinney. The Brewers don't score. Now, it's the top of the 9th. Do the Brewers bring in Kolb to keep it close? Nope. They go with Mike Adams (who, I must admit, has been pitching really well). He gets tagged for 2 more runs. Game over. Maybe Yost had a good reason for not using Kolb in any of these innings, but why not try? Why not let the guy pitch 2 innings? Or, Lord forbid, 3? Danny Graves, in his breakout season (1999), used to pitch 2 or 3 all the time (by "all the time, I am probably wrong, but it seemed like he did it all the time. I'll check retrosheet to be sure - Okay, I checked. Of his 27 saves, 10 were 2 innings or longer, one was a 3 inning save). He went 111 innings and went 8-7 with 27 saves. We need more relievers doing that kind of work. I find it hard to believe that Gagne or Smoltz (two more ex-starters) can't be as effective for 2 innings. Mariano Rivera does it in the post-season. Why not the regular?

Tuesday, June 15th, 2004: Seattle at Milwaukee
I took a bunch of notes on a bunch of plays tonight (until the top of the 8th, when the wife kicked me off FSN to watch Sex and the City). First, I'm working on a "player's habits" list. Check that out on the link. Here are my game-specific notes:
1) In the 1st inning, Overbay singled to right (more on "O" later) with Spivey on first. As Spivey rounded second, Bill Schroeder said, "Don't run on that guy" - that guy being Ichiro Suzuki, who has drawn (justifiable) raves for his strong and accurate arm. In the top of the 2nd, though, Bret Boone tried to stretch a single to left into a double. The ball took an unlucky bounce and Jenkins threw him out at second despite a pretty poor throw. Not to make too much of this, but Jenkins is a helluva left fielder. If guys should think twice before running to 3rd on Ichiro, they should think twice before stretching a single into a double when hitting to Jenkins. He now has 6 assists on the season, second to Adam Dunn(!) in the NL.
2) Ichiro popped out twice. I rarely get to see him, but this is a rare occurrence. I'm used to him grounding to second and making the guy hurry his throw (as he did later).
3) Overbay made two outstanding foul catches (one of which was Ichiro's), both would have landed in the second or third row, and the second one he had to fight a fan to catch, almost knocking the poor guy over. Later, they showed a camera shot on the guy, and he was hunched over looking at his hands in...disbelief? wonder? pain?
4)Lyle Overbay, Bill and Darren tell me, keeps a journal of every at bat he's ever had ever. I was able to watch his first three at bats and kept a journal myself (Garcia throws a 92-3 mph fastball - that's the case below except where I mention a difference).

• First plate appearance (vs. Freddy Garcia) = Spivey on first base. #1 - Fastball outside corner looking, #2 - Low outside sinker, #3 - Sinker on outside corner, Overbay pushes it to right field, grounding between Boone and Olerud.
• Second plate appearance (vs. Freddy Garcia) = Spivey on third, Jenkins on second. #1 - Low breaking ball, #2 - Low breaking ball, #3 Inside fastball which caught too much of the plate, Lyle drove it to right for a double, knocking in both runners.
• Third plate appearance (vs. Freddy Garcia) = Bases empty. #1 - Hit a good outside fastball foul to left, #2 - Swung and missed a low outside sinker, #3 - fastball WAY outside, #4 - Excellent, low curveball, which "O" just managed to hold up on, #5 - outside sinker fouled to left, #6 - inside curveball (count now 3-2), #7 - inside sinker lined foul to right side, #8 - low, slower (89 mph) fastball driven HARD to center, and caught awkwardly by CF Hiram Bocachica, who fell into the wall, stopping play for a minute or so.

Wednesday, June 9th, 2004: Milwaukee at Anaheim
Victor Santos got the Win for Milwaukee over Jarrod Washburn in a 12-2 game, leaving with a 7-2 lead after 6 innings despite having given up 13 hits and 3 stolen bases. (More than 2 hits an inning!) José Guillén at one point, when going back to first on a pickoff throw, stepped on the base at an odd angle, and didn't run the bases too well after that. In fact, on a 1-out single to center (Podsednik doesn't have a very good arm), he stopped at third. A GDP by Kotchman ended the threat, but I thought it cost the Angels a run. Not that it mattered.

St. Louis at Chicago
A couple things of interest happened in Chicago on this date, too. First, Prior started his second game of the season, and was racked for 5 runs, including the first ever grand slam hit off of him (Édgar Rentería). Second, Tony LaRussa ordered Matt Morris to throw at Derrek Lee after some fellow named J. Leicester went up and in against Jim Edmonds (probably on accident). Edmonds responded with a home run, so I don't know why the hell Tony LaRussa got into a war. Actually, this is what he does. He had been suspended (along with Pirate's skipper Lloyd McClendon) a week before for similar nonsense, and this is what he is reported to have said: "You take the years I've been a manager and total up the number of guys who have been hit above the shoulder. That's how I know it can be controlled...One of the problems is that there are some pitchers and pitching coaches who get careless with the ball up and in. They have the fallback that it wasn't intentional (when a batter is hit). They say it's part of the game. Well, it's a dangerous part of the game. Let's do something about it." Then he said that he wasn't a headhunter, but that he was all about revenge. The fact is, Tony takes revenge all the damn time, even on low, inside breaking pitches. (I think LaRussa's a bit of a jackass.)

Tuesday, June 8th, 2004: Milwaukee at Anaheim
Ben Sheets was perfect through 6 2/3 innings, eventually losing his perfect game to Vladimir Guerrero, who squirted a single through the left side of the infield. Junior Spivey had the first of three errors in the 9th inning, but the Brewers eventually won the longest inter-league game so far, 1-0 in the 17th inning. The Angels mustered all of four hits. The Brewers tied a Major League record for strikeouts in a game with 26. Geoff Jenkins was a sterling 0 for 7 with 6 whiffs. The Brewers ended the drought with a 2-out walk by Counsell and a first-pitch double by Scott Podsednik (almost a home run) against Ramon Ortíz. Counsell made an excellent slide to avoid a tag by catcher José Molina.

Thought I'd mention one other thing. In the 14th inning, Chone Figgins got on base and proceeded to steal 2nd with nobody out. There was just one problem - the ump called him safe. The throw beat him there, but it was an awful tag by Counsell, but he was safe by a mile. This call cost Anaheim the game. DaVanon grounded to second and then Vlad flew out. Granted, Vlad would have been intentionally walked with 1 out and a runner on second, but...

Tuesday, June 7th, 2004: 1st Day of Amateur Draft
Causing me immense chagrin, the Brewers took a right-handed high school pitcher named Mark Rogers, who played some weak as hell competition in Maine (Maine!) as their first pick, #5 overall. The highly touted, but Scott Boras represented SS Stephen Drew and RHP extraordinaire Jered Weaver went 15 and 12, respectively. Aside from Rickie Weeks, who was far and away a top 2 pick last season, the Brewers have selected high schoolers every time since 2000 (CF Dave Krynzel, RHP Mike Jones, 1B/DH Prince Fielder, and now Rogers). The only one who hasn't struggled excessively is Fielder. Krynzel has a huge hole in his swing and Jones has been hurt and doesn't strike anyone out.

Sunday, June 6th, 2004: Boston at Kansas City
In a bases loaded situation in the 6th inning, Cesar Crespo grounded a ball to Kansas City 1B Ken Harvey. As Harvey made to throw home, pitcher Jason Grimsley ran to cover first, and Harvey smacked him in the face with his hand in mid-throwing motion. Both fellows were laid out, and the run scored. Everyone safe. Both players had bruised parts - Harvey a forearm, Grimsley a jaw. On Baseball Tonight, John Kruk and Harold Reynolds commented on how Harvey tends to get into these odd situations on defense quite a bit.

Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs
At Wrigley, down 1-0, Aramis Ramírez, who is one of the ugliest guys in the majors (he's got a pudgy body, and his teeth are nasty looking and he's always got his tongue out), hit a home run that went through the basket at the top of the ivy-clad walls of Wrigley. At first he thought it was out and was jogging around, then Tike Redman threw the ball in, and the Pirates made a nice relay (from Jack Wilson, of course) to nab him at the plate. But the 2nd base umpire (Gary Darling) had called it a home run all the way. Gary, it should be noted, made no hesitation on this call and was almost in MacKowiak's back pocket when the ball came down. Nice work, Gary.

Friday, June 4th, 2004: Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs
Spoiling Prior's excellent, 6-inning debut, the Pirates scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th against a struggling Joe Borowski (ERA was at 7+ at the time of his appearance) with 2 outs. Jack Wilson (who has a piggy nose, where it points nearly straight up) stretched a single into a double with an awesome slide into 2nd base. The ball beat him, but he made a superb hook slide with his arms. Then, on the ensuing single by Craig Wilson (who has a big blond mop that hangs out of his helmet), Jack was aware enough of what was going on with the relay throw from Ordóñez that, instead of sliding, he ran across the plate as catcher Michael Barrett whiffed at him after catching the ball - he tried to tag Jack low, expecting a slide, but Jack was one step ahead of him. Craig Wilson advanced to second and subsequently scored the winning run on a Chris Stynes single.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004: Boston at Anaheim
A great moment came up in this one, as Pedro Martínez struggled through 5+ innings against the Angels. Yes, Vladimir Guerrero notched 9 RBIs (an Angels record), but in a matchup against Casey Kotchman in the 3rd inning, with the bases loaded, and one run in already, Pedro notched his 2500th strikeout. Casey fouled off at least 14 or 15 pitches though, before going down on something low and inside.

Another odd moment came in the bottom of the 7th. The Sox, now down 9-7, brought in Keith Foulke with a guy on second to keep it close. I feel that, if you're going to use your best guy, you use him when he can save the day (which would have been more useful in the 6th inning). Still, I give Francona credit for trying to use his best pitcher to keep the game close in the 7th inning. It didn't work, as Foulke gave up two hits and another run, but at least the Sox went against Conventional Wisdom, which states you must use the reliever only 1) in the 9th inning and 2) when you have a 1 to 3 run lead. Once teams start expanding the best reliever's role to squelch big innings, baseball will be all the better for it. Instead, what frequently happens is a situation like the Brewers had on June 16th (see below).

Sunday, May 23rd, 2004: Milwaukee at Pittsburgh
The Brewers, having just taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the 6th, were on the field with runners at 1st and 2nd and Darryl Ward at the plate with 1 out. He grounded to Junior Spivey, who flipped it to Counsell for the force. As he threw the ball to first, Ruben Mateo jumped in the air raising his hands way over his head, and knocked the ball into the short outfield with his hand. In the blindest non-call I've ever seen (aside from Knoblauch's phantom tag), the ump (history records his name as Laz Diaz) did not call interference. As Bill Schroeder, the color commentator said, "This is the type of call that happens in a losing streak against one team." I was ready to bet my life savings that the Pirates would turn this awful call into a a big inning. Thankfully, Doug Davis had other plans and got Chris Stynes to foul out to Keith Ginter at 3rd.

Sunday, May 9th, 2004: Milwaukee at NY Mets
In a tight situation that eventually cost the Brewers the win, Dave Burba had the funniest balk I have ever seen in the midst of an excellent season pitching in relief. In the 8th inning, with guys on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, Burba wound up and then threw the ball into the ground about 3 feet in front of the mound. The umps all called it a balk, and the two base runners moved to 2nd and 3rd, pitcher Jae Seo and shortstop Kaz Matsui. Ty "Brewer Killer" Wigginton knocked them both in with a single and the Brewers lost 6-5.

This is an old analysis of the Dean Taylor regime: