Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
Goodbye, De Wain Lee Stevens
My first memory of Lee Stevens is of his 1991 Topps baseball card. For the first time in my card collecting career (I got really into Topps cards during the 1987 season, when I was four - I'm not really sure how that happened), Topps decided to vary the layout of their cards: while some were in the standard, vertical format, the '91 set also included horizontal cards with a nice panoramic view. If memory serves me correctly, Stevens's card was the first I saw of this new design.

Of course, that card depicted the man we know as Lee when he was a 22-year old first baseman with the then-California Angels, coming off a dynamic .214/.275/.339 season in 67 games at the major leauge level. He'd been a first round draft of the Angels in 1986 and had put up pretty decent numbers in the minor leagues before getting his shot in the bigs. He only played 18 games the following season (1991), followed by a .221/.288/.349 showing in 1992 over the course of 106 games and 345 plate apperances. After that, Stevens slipped from my consciousness, bouncing around from the Expos organization (where he was traded by the Angels for the retiring Jeff Tuss and ultimately, Keith Morrison) to the Blue Jays (where he signed as a free agent, destined only to make it as far as AAA Syracuse) back to the Angels and then to Japan, where he played two years with the Kintetsu Buffaloes before returning home.

No, he was not destined to reemerge until some four years had passed since his last major league action, when he joined the Texas Rangers organization and tore up AAA, winning MVP honors while playing with Oklahoma City. As a result, Stevens was called up and appeared in 27 games for the Rangers in late 1996. His .231/.291/.449 line was enough to secure a place on the 1997 version of the team, where he would remain as a semi-regular through the 1999 season. In early 2000, Stevens was a part of the three-way three first baseman trade involving Brad Fullmer and David Segui, winding up traded to Montreal for the second time in his career. Okay, I really don't feel like doing this anymore...he was traded to Cleveland mid-way through last season (2002, if you're reading this archived at some point in the future) in the Bartolo Colon deal with a whole bunch of players much better than he ever was like Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee.

This year he signed minor league contracts with the Devil Rays and Brewers, arguably the worst organizations in baseball (certainly among them), and couldn't cut it. So he's retiring. And apparently, his first name was (is) De Wain. Or is it De? The full name is De Wain Lee Stevens...I'm going to go out on a limb and without doing any research at all, I'm going to say that with his retirement, he leaves a De Wain-less MLB. And for that, I will miss him. Because that is a really weird name.

(A lot of the statistical information in this entry and in a lot of the others is taken from the invaluable baseball-reference.com and way more sports (mostly for minor league stats). I don't mention these all the time because I assume that you all use the same or similar resources and they're linked on the left side of this page...but that's where it comes from.)
posted by VZW Watcher at 11:10 PM -

 
Justin Wayne vs. the Diamondbacks
Wayne didn't quite give the Marlins what they needed, but he fared alright after giving up a two-run homer to Junior Spivey, the second batter he faced. After looking pretty lost against leadoff man Craig Counsell and walking him quickly, the struggling Spivey (.211/.309/.296 even after last night's 3 for 5 performance) crushed a 3-2 pitch to deep left, putting the exhausted Marlins in a hole from which they would not emerge. Jeff Torborg probably would have liked to get more than 5.2 innings from Wayne and avoid having to use Michael Tejera (who is now thrust into the rotation with A.J. Burnett done for the season), but it wasn't to be. Headed back to Albuquerque following the start, Wayne probably performed well enough on extremely short notice that he'll be the first guy back up should the team need to reach down again for another starter.

More in this space shortly. Or tomorrow. Soon.
posted by VZW Watcher at 4:00 PM -

 
Stark on Millwood, Schuerholz
I usually like Jayson Stark's work. I don't mean to be antagonistic here, and I'm trying to identify with the situation Stark is in when he's writing an article like this. Presumably, he has to talk to John Schuerholz on a semi-regular basis to get information and, as such, he's anxious to maintain a decent relationship with him, something that ripping him in an article published to the entire world might preclude.

But you can't put out an article like this and maintain your credibility. Stark actually says: "Johnny Estrada could look like a steal -- in the long run, anyway." Does he actually believe this? Based on his previous work, which indicates that he knows more than a little bit about baseball, the answer is no. This was not a good trade for the Braves and, pretty clearly, it never will be. If, as Stark speculates he might, Millwood walks at the end of the year, the Phillies still got a year of excellent pitching out of him in exchange for what? Estrada is a guy they'll never miss.

I know this is has been discussed to death elsewhere, so I'll keep it brief. Stark chooses to include Schuerholz's "excuses" for the trade again in this piece (they've been printed before), noting that he didn't want to trade Millwood to the Phillies, that he tried every other team in baseball first and no one would take him off their hands because he was due in the ballpark of $10 million for 2003. I don't know that I buy this, but for the sake of argument, let's say that's true. Of course, Schuerholz had the option to non-tender him (and to miss out on Estrada), but he doesn't think that would've helped: "People say, `Why didn't you just non-tender him, to keep him away from Philadelphia?'" Schuerholz said. "And my answer is this: Don't you think, if we'd non-tendered him and let him become a free agent, that the first team standing in line with $10 million would have been the Philadelphia Phillies?"

Maybe I'm mistaken, but if Millwood were non-tendered, that $10 million figure doesn't exist anymore. He doesn't go to arbitration at all and instead becomes a free agent. At that point, a bidding war ensues with no team likely to bid up to this $10 million figure in the current market. And there are teams that would've bid on a pitcher the quality of Kevin Millwood that are not the Phillies. And we don't know that Millwood would've wanted to go to Philadelphia given the choice. Whatever. Anything would've been better than handing him directly over. But you know this and Schuerholz knows this and Stark knows this. It's a shame to see a guy who is usually a quality writer play those who don't know for fools.
posted by VZW Watcher at 10:06 PM -

 
Limited schedule tonight, featuring only two games. Unfortunately for them, one of the teams participating is the Florida Marlins, who are coming off Sunday's loss to the Cardinals in 20 innings. That was in Florida and tonight's game (a 9:35 start) is in Phoenix...couldn't have been a pleasant flight after losing a game that took over six hours to play. Actually, the Diamondbacks played 18 innings on Sunday in New York (they won both games against the crappy Mets), so I guess both teams are probably tired tonight. Carl Pavano had been the scheduled starter, but he was called into action late in Sunday's contest (and wound up taking the loss), so the Marlins have called up minor league pitcher Justin Wayne, who will likely see his first action of the season tonight.

Wayne's a young starter out of Stanford (I write that despite the fact that he's more than three years my senior) who was part of the first Cliff Floyd deal last year, sent from Montreal down to Florida. He got a little more than a cup of coffee at the end of 2002, making five starts and going 2-3 with a 5.32 ERA in 23.2 innings, striking out 16, walking 13 and allowing 3 home runs. He hasn't even pitched 11 innings yet this year at AAA Albuquerque, so I'll spare you the meaningless stats. Anyhow, the start interests us here at the dump's sportslog primarily because he's a guy we picked up at the end of our DMB draft for our team and we'd like to get a look at him. So I'll be watching, with one eye on tonight's other game, Phillies vs. Dodgers in LA, which features Brett Myers going up against Darren Dreifort.
posted by VZW Watcher at 9:32 PM -

 
So A.J. Burnett is hurt, possibly seriously, and is hitting the DL. We're real bummed about it here, not only because he's a promising and already very good young pitcher, but also because he's the ace of our Diamond-Mind staff. Let's just hope that if and when he's ready to return, Jeff Torborg is well out of the picture. Our friend-in-blogging Aaron Gleeman looks into this sad story in detail over at his blog, which, as always, I encourage you to take a look at.
posted by VZW Watcher at 9:15 AM -

 
Notes on tonight's action...
- Very interesting nationally broadcast game on right now on TBS...not because it's particularly competitive, but because John Vander Wal has a pair of home runs for the Brewers and teammate Richie Sexson has three. And it's the seventh inning, so there'll likely be at least one more opportunity for each of them. Shane Reynolds got crushed tonight, not a good sign vs. an offense like that of the Brewers.

- I posted something about Shawn Chacon's brief perfect game bid earlier in the year, and how it was jinxed by Kurtwood Smith, notably of That 70's Show. Well, it just happened again. Joe Mays had been cruising through five no-hit, no-walk innings (he had hit a batter, so it wasn't perfect), prompting the YES Network to break into the Yankees-Rangers game with an update. The guy at the YES update desk, Fred Hickman, commented that Mays' effort was a no-hitter thus far. Yankee broadcasters Michael Kay and Ken Singleton laughed, jokingly accusing Hickman of having jinxed the game by mentioning it, with Kay noting the ridiculousness of such superstitions and saying that during the perfect games of David Cone and David Wells, he and then-radio broadcast partner John Sterling uttered the phrase "perfect game" countless times. Of course, the next pitch Mays threw was promptly hit into left for a single by Sandy Alomar, the Junior.
posted by VZW Watcher at 9:36 PM -

 
Mike Nicolas acquired by Boston
After being placed on waivers by the Padres and claimed by Milwaukee, minor league pitcher Mike Nicolas now has a home in the Red Sox organization, being traded there for a PTBNL or cash. Baseball America indicates that San Diego made the move to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for reliever Matt Herges, and also notes that Nicolas has had some off-the-field problems, most notably his being charged with inflicting corporal injury on his wife in January. Personal problems aside (and whether or not they can be dismissed is very much up in the air, it would seem), Nicolas is a pretty good looking minor league reliever and could potentially be a real nice pickup for the Red Sox.

Now 23, Nicolas was signed by the Padres out of the Dominican Republic in 2000 (when current Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was in that organization as the Director of Baseball Operations) and posted pretty impressive numbers last year, including the highest K/9 ratio in all of minor league baseball at 14.1. Obviously there's a lot to be worked out on the personal front, but with the PTBNL or cash equivalent unlikely to be anything consequential, there's the possibility that the Red Sox made a really nice acquisition here. He's reporting to AA Portland.
posted by VZW Watcher at 6:09 PM -

 
Notes...
I'm still getting reacquainted with the baseball world after having left it for a week, so I took a bit of the time I had today to watch pieces of a few games (Red Sox-Rangers, Cardinals-Braves, and now Yankees-Angels). A look around today's action as I get back to normalcy:

- As most of you know at this point, the Royals are still undefeated (10-0) at home. As much as I generally shun the "save" indicator/stat, Mike MacDougal now has nine saves, which is pretty impressive with a week yet to play in April. Naturally, there's a tendency to write off the Royals' start (they're 16-3 now) as a bit flukey, but MacDougal's in a great position to continue to pile up saves for the rest of the year, even if the team comes back to Earth a bit (which they almost certainly will).

- There'd been some noise that Padres' figurative flamethrower Oliver Perez was headed to AAA, but it looks like that's not going to happen, at least based on today's results...he pitched six strong scoreless innings at Wrigley, but his ERA is still an evil 6.66.

- I only caught the end of the game, but from the eighth inning on, the Cardinals-Braves game tonight in Atlanta was played in pouring rain. I honestly can't recall seeing guys with uniforms that looked as saturated as those of the Cardinal players tonight towards the end of the game.

- Pedro Astacio pitched pretty well in his return to the Mets' rotation, allowing 2 runs (both earned) on 4 hits while striking out 4 and walking one over six innings. There are a whole bunch of questions about Astacio's health, but it's pretty clear that if he can provide the Mets with six decent innings every five days for a decent chunk of the season, it improves that questionable staff quite a bit.

- Finally, as I want to end on a happy note, I had the pleasure of watching the Rangers tattoo Derek Lowe to the tune of 7 runs (all earned) on six hits with three walks over 2 innings. Steve Woodard and new arrival Kevin Tolar got clobbered after Lowe's early exit, and the Rangers massacred the Red Sox by the score of 16-5. I don't mean to jump on him now that he's having a rough go of it, but Lowe's really not looking at all like the pitcher he was for most of last year...I'd be a bit worried if I were a Red Sox fan and certainly wary about counting on him to duplicate his success of 2002.
posted by VZW Watcher at 11:49 PM -

 
Baaack
I'm back from England after about a week. My grandparents, with whom I stayed during my trip, do not have any reasonable internet access (they have a very watered-down version of WebTV called "Bush Internet"), so I was completely in the dark about everything that was going on in the world, both sports-related and otherwise.

While bummed to see that my Pistons lost Game 1 to Orlando over in the NBA Playoffs, it's very nice to see that the Yankees are continuing to roll, now standing at 17-3. In another part of town, I got the chance to see the Mets take on the Marlins on Friday night before leaving for Europe. The ballpark was virtually empty, which is really inexcusable in a market like New York where the Yankees are drawing really well in a significantly worse area. Sure it was cold, sure the Mets suck, but the attendance (which couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 thousand - in terms of actual bodies in the seats, not what they announced) was pretty horrible for a Friday night. I know New York's got major budgetary problems at the moment, and I don't know how it could get done without a great deal of public investment, but the Mets would really, really benefit from a new ballpark. There's no way, even with everything else being the same as it is now, that if you had a new stadium (preferably one with a retractable roof, as has been suggested for many years now) that you wouldn't have drawn 25,000+ to even an early season tilt with the Marlins. New Yorkers love baseball and people will come from far and wide to get to Met games when there's a reason to go...but Shea is a dump and a deterrant to anyone interested in taking in a game. (Not that it stops me, of course.) If you're interested in taking a look at the proposed new Met ballpark - nobody's holding their breath, it was proposed quite some time ago - I highly recommend ballparks.com, which has information on not only baseball facilities, but also NBA and NFL buildings.

I'll be back with more later, and I still don't understand why MLB.TV needs to blackout games when there's no baseball national telecast (like for tonight's late game).
posted by VZW Watcher at 5:06 PM -

 
Thanks for bearing with us. Regrettably, I'll be out of the country over the weekend and through Wednesday, so I'll be unable to post anything during that time. It's very possible that Dan will chime in with posts here and there, but it'll be all quiet on the Barnard front until that time. That being said, we've got a few days to go before then, so I'll do what I can to sate your voracious appetites in the meantime.

A little bitching about Met pitching
Before I leave, I'll be taking in my first baseball of the season at Shea on Friday night (Mets vs. Marlins, which looks like it'll be Leiter vs. Redman), which should be great. Leiter's been terrific thus far in terms of wins/losses (2-0) and run prevention (3 runs in 18.2 innings, good for a 1.45 ERA), in three starts against the Cubs, Marlins and Expos. His other numbers (12/8 BB/K ratio) are a bit troubling, but hey, as long as he can continue to give up 6.3 hits per 9 innings, it's all good.

Looking at the bigger picture, the Mets' top two starters are Leiter and Tom Glavine (2.91 ERA in 21.1 innings pitched over 4 starts), both of whom are 37. Beyond them, you've got three starters who have looked pretty bad at times: Steve Trachsel (who, to his credit, has been better in his last two starts), Jae Seo and David Cone.

I'm not sure why Seo is in the rotation to begin with. I don't particularly understand Cone either, but he's a reclamation project, is a way of sticking it to Steinbrenner and at least has had success in the past, even in a Met uniform. Seo's real major league career (he pitched a perfect inning as a reliever last year) has begun with 8 runs allowed (6 earned) on 19 hits over his first 10.1 innings. He's struck out six and not walked a batter, but that's not nearly as significant when you're giving up that many hits. Obviously, we've got a pretty small sample size to work with here, but early returns (a .900+ OPS against) aren't encouraging. He's 25, has a career AAA ERA of 3.83 with significantly more than one hit per inning pitched (198/176.0) and a BB/K ratio of 28/112. Those aren't terrible numbers by any means, but they also don't demand an opportunity at the major league level.

While the Mets don't have a ton of alternatives yet (Astacio is on the way back and they don't want to bring Heilman up yet), they do have a guy who performed reasonably well in a starting role last year in Mike Bacsik. Yeah, he's sucked even worse than Seo thus far in relief and his BB/K ratio so far is over 1...he's been very bad. I'd just hope he would get a shot though as a starter again if Seo continues to be unimpressive. The bigger issue is that the Mets have a whole bunch of mediocre-at-best pitchers at the back of the rotation, and any noise that they'll be a competitive team this year (if it hasn't been debunked already with their start) is just that. If I were Steve Phillips and were serious about saving my job, I'd be doing what I could to sell off the marketable chips (Alomar being at the top of the list, even with his rapidly declining value) for younger, cheaper players who can make some contribution now. Of course, Phillips might get fired if he takes that course...but with this team, he's pretty sure to get canned anyway.

I don't really want to get into the struggles of Armando Benitez at the moment, everyone goes through bad stretches and it'd be foolish to do anything with him right now. But I've said for several years that the Mets should really deal him (after he has a run of successes, as he invariably will) to a team that wants a big time closer, which Benitez certainly is. It's been said many times before, but a closer is of very little value if you can't get to late in the game with a lead, and right now the Met lineup and pitching staff really suck. There are gaping holes on the team which could be addressed by moving Benitez, and it's gotta be done. This is a baaad team right now.
posted by VZW Watcher at 2:52 PM -

 
Apologies
I'll be back tomorrow (Wednesday). Thanks for continuing to check out the site. In the meantime, please visit the the excellent sites on the left.
posted by VZW Watcher at 8:37 PM -

 
A few quick early notes on baseball at Hiram Bithorn...
- the ball is really carrying, as expected (as I write this, Brad Wilkerson just crushed a grand slam)
- there's a ton of foul territory in the ballpark...Ty Wigginton was able to tag from first on a foul out to third
- Maria Alomar misses her kids, according to an exclusive interview on Fox Sports Net New York
posted by VZW Watcher at 8:11 PM -

 
Bullpen bitching in Boston
The Red Sox home opener was scheduled for 2:20 today, the odd start time a result of a lengthy pregame ceremony. Rain had been in the forecast, and there was some doubt as to whether or not scheduled starter Pedro Martinez would go if there was even the threat of a delay at some point during the game, which makes sense, no need to waste a Pedro start. It did rain, and as is usually the case in deference to the fans who show up, they waited around for about an hour before officially postponing the game (which will be played tomorrow as part of a day-night doubleheader). During that hour, I foolishly left the TV on and took in an hour's worth of banter from the Red Sox broadcast team and assorted media guests.

If you're not in Boston: first of all, you're lucky. Secondly, you have no idea how often the "closer-by-committee" garbage comes up in any discussion involving baseball, especially on Red Sox/NESN telecasts. They've got Dennis Eckersley working for them now, so they bounce questions off him constantly so he can rip into a bullpen (and, in effect, management) that doesn't have "traditionally" established roles. This subject has been covered ad naseum by people I respect and who do great work, so I'm not going to get into it extensively...but I'm faced with this crap constantly here, and I know there are at least a few people who read this blog who don't visit any of the others we recommend.

Without further ado...every one of the guys in the Red Sox bullpen (Brandon Lyon, Ramiro Mendoza, Steve Woodard, Chad Fox, Mike Timlin, Alan Embree and Bobby Howry) is a decent pitcher, they've been so over the course of their careers. However, none of them are great and as such, they're more interchangable than you'd like for this system. The "closer-by-committee" moniker is inaccurate, and it's a shame that local media (which is completely obsessed with this topic) continues to use it. The whole point is that you do away with the whole notion of a "closer" - you don't have a guy whose only job it is to come into games in the ninth inning with a one, two or three run lead and record three outs. Instead, you use your best guys in the most important spots...if you're in a dicey situation in the seventh, you use your best pitcher there as opposed to holding him out until the ninth simply because it's not a save situation. Makes a lot of sense, and if implemented with the right pitchers, would almost certainly help a team.

The problem in Boston right now is that none of the pitchers in the bullpen is pitching particularly well (I guess Lyon is doing a nice job), and since there's no standout among the seven guys in question, it's difficult to know who you should use in those high-leverage spots. If your guys pitch poorly, that's going to be a problem no matter what your substitution patterns are. On top of that, Grady Little is just getting accustomed to having added responsibility as a manager, as his job gets significantly harder under this system. What the system needs to work most effectively is a top-flight reliever or two who can be plugged in as needed...when you've got that, the other guys become significantly less important, and guys like Embree, Mendoza, Woodard and friends are fine for these slots, as they won't generally be used in dire situations. The issue, at least at this point, is one of performance by the individuals involved, not in the system, which hasn't yet had a chance to flourish. In short, Red Sox fans: hate the players, not the game.

A really quick look at Red Sox relievers numbers thus far as compared to their career numbers:
Brandon Lyon (1.29 ERA in 7 innings pitched) career 5.18 ERA
Steve Woodard (3.60 ERA in 5 innings pitched) career 4.92 ERA
Mike Timlin (4.70 ERA in 7.2 innings pitched) career 3.58 ERA
Chad Fox (9.00 ERA in 3 innings pitched) career 3.43 ERA
Bobby Howry (10.80 ERA in 3.1 innings pitched) career 3.88 ERA
Ramiro "Traitor" Mendoza (12.00 ERA in 6 innings pitched) career 4.15 ERA
Alan Embree (12.27 ERA in 3.2 innings pitched) career 4.50 ERA

Care to comment on this? Do so.
posted by VZW Watcher at 6:09 PM -

 
Petroskey cancels Bull Durham festivities
This is a day or two old, but I'm commenting on it anyway. I really don't like Tim Robbins or Susan Sarandon, but this is ridiculous. For those of you who aren't aware of the story and don't feel like using the above link, I'll quickly summarize what's going on:

The Hall of Fame had scheduled a ceremony of some kind to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the release of Bull Durham, a film which stars Kevin Costner and, among others, Robbins and Sarandon, who are both liberal activists and have unsurprisingly come out strongly against the action being taken by the US in Iraq. Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey has made the decision that as a result of their stance, these festivities needed to be cancelled.

Quite frankly, if this was the course of action Petroskey wanted to take, I don't understand why it took this long. Robbins (a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York, as I am) and girlfriend Sarandon are unabashed liberals and are widely known as such. So why schedule the event in the first place if the problem is with their politics? Could Petroskey not guess that they'd come out and make public statements about the war and what those statements would be?

According to the linked article, Robbins responded in a letter, "I know there are many baseball fans that disagree with you, and even more that will react with disgust to realize baseball is being politicized." And that's the real issue. Robbins and Sarandon shouldn't be evaluated here, and it's not Petroskey's place to make a judgment on their politics. If anything, Petroskey (who apparently has worked for Republican politicians in the past and obviously supports the war effort) should be happy that things are seemingly going so well in the Middle East currently, and not worry about something that is completely unrelated. There's just no need to have personal political views cross over into what is strictly a baseball-related matter.

I'm really surprised that the day has come when I can agree with something Tim Robbins says, but he's absolutely right about this.
posted by VZW Watcher at 5:56 PM -

 
A few words on tonight's action...
Kyle Lohse's first start of the season was excellent (eight innings of shutout ball, two hits, five strikeouts), but it came against the Tigers. I haven't been able to watch any of tonight's game yet (I've missed two live Yankee games thus far this season due to blackout, and they've been the two Mussina starts), but I've been keeping an eye on it. I was particularly curious to see how Lohse would fare against a real lineup...and it looks like he did well tonight, allowing two runs (both earned, they were solo homers to Posada and Mondesi) on three hits, walking one and striking out five over seven innings.

Fortunately, Mussina's been better and Juan Acevedo appears ready to slam the door. It'll be interesting to see how Lohse progresses though, he's certainly off to a good start. I really hope we don't continue to get flooded with Angels games all season on ESPN national telecasts as we have this first week and a half, though I fear it might well happen. Their game with the Mariners is coming up in half an hour, which at least features Joel Pineiro, who is a lot of fun to watch, vs. Kevin Appier for Anaheim.

I don't know how many of you saw the highlights, but last night's marathon Rockies-Cards game at Coors Field featured a pretty bizarre home run to provide the final margin of victory (which was 15-12 Cards). With two men on in the top of the 13th, Mike Matheny (he of the .330 career slugging percentage) hit a ball to deep left field, which was coming down just in front of the wall. Rockie leftfielder Gabe Kapler played the ball just about perfectly, moving back towards the fence, timing his jump as needed and actually catching the ball. However, his leap carried him into the fence and, unable to get a tight enough grip on the ball or get his outstretched arm down, the ball was jolted out of his glove and over the wall for a home run.
posted by VZW Watcher at 9:36 PM -

 
Real hot at Wrigley despite 36 degree temperature
This Vazquez-Prior matchup has lived up to its billing thus far. The Cubs lead 2-0 on a two-run homer by Damian Miller that somehow snuck over the ivy in left...other than that, the two guys have been virtually unhittable. Through six innings, Vazquez has struck out 11 (tying a career-high), while Prior has 9 strikeouts (his career-high is 13). Neither has walked a batter.
posted by VZW Watcher at 4:03 PM -

 
Blacked out and bungled
Well, this is pretty bizarre. I'm sitting here, tuned in to what should be the Cubs-Expos game...a very appealing matchup in Mark Prior vs. Javier Vazquez, which is supposed to begin at 2:20 EST. Instead of the game though, I've been watching Elimidate and now the very beginning of The 5th Wheel on WGN. Apparently, someone at MLB offices (or whoever handles MLB.tv) just realized that they weren't broadcasting the game, and threw up the standard MLB.tv standby screen, telling us to wait for them to get things straightened out. The game is actually on FSN Chicago or whatever it's called there, so it's taking them a little while to figure that out. You might think they'd know what channels the games are on...but I guess not.

Okay, it's 2:33 and the top of the first is completed, but they took care of it and I'm watching Vazquez face Mark Grudzielanek. Clearly the service is still in the early stages and kinks are being worked out, but I'm glad they seem to be taking care of it (even though they don't respond to emails). Grudzielanek just doubled to leadoff for Cubs...he's been ridiculous thus far.

As far as tonight's action is concerned, ESPN is broadcasting the first night of playoff hockey as opposed to baseball in the 7:00 slot, as well they should. But seeing as that's the case all across the country, why then the need to blackout baseball games at that time? I understand that's the ordinary procedure, but I don't know why it's got to apply in circumstances such as this.
posted by VZW Watcher at 2:45 PM -

 
I'm thrilled about Syracuse's victory (I attended SU for the two years prior to this one and my transfer to Emerson College) and that'd be enough to make my night. But then I came upon this...

Sounds' Wasdin pitches perfect game
A perfect game is an incredible achievement at any level, and this one took place in the AAA Pacific Coast League, where there had only been one other one in the 100 years it's been around. But take a look at that box score...this is a hell of a perfect game, even by those extremely high standards.

- This perfecto was thrown by 30-year old John Wasdin, he of the 5.07 career ERA in 598 innings over parts of seven major league seasons.
- He struck out 15 of 27 batters he faced.
- He threw a total of 100 pitches...including just 28 balls! That's 27 batters, 28 balls. He didn't go to a three ball count until the eighth inning, which is pretty unbelievable...until you realize that he averaged just over one ball to each hitter for the entire game. Absolutely spectacular. Here's the breakdown of balls/strikes thrown by inning (you can get this information too from the bottom of that box score linked at the top of this entry):

inning 1: 2/9 (3 K)
inning 2: 1/7 (1 K)
inning 3: 3/7 (1 K)
inning 4: 2/7 (1 K)
inning 5: 4/6 (1 K)
inning 6: 3/8 (2 K)
inning 7: 3/8 (2 K)
inning 8: 6/9 (2 K)
inning 9: 4/8 (2 K)

Daaamn.
posted by VZW Watcher at 11:45 PM -

 
This isn't baseball-related at all, but it's got to be said and I suppose it's notionally sports-related. If you haven't seen Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC this week, you're missing some incredible television. For those of you unfamiliar with the format, Jimmy Kimmel is the host and he has guests on who he interviews, much like other late night shows (Letterman, Leno, Conan, Kilborn). The twist is that every week he's got a different co-host. Since the show began on Super Bowl Sunday night, he's had a bunch of interesting people, including: Snoop Dogg, Don King, Adam Carolla, Kathy Griffin (ugh, indeed) and Sarah Silverman (my favorite).

This week...Mike Tyson. Really. Monday-Thursday have been amazing, and this is our last chance. Jimmy Kimmel Live will most likely be on shortly after its scheduled 12:05 EST time, as it's been delayed a bit this week due to war coverage. I hope this helped somebody out there.

I'm sure at least some of you are visiting today for the first time (having been directed from OBM). We'd appreciate your comments and/or questions...anything you have to offer us on how the site could be improved, what you like/dislike...whatever you choose. There are links on the side of the page to email us, but if you're real lazy, you can email me here.
posted by VZW Watcher at 11:02 PM -

 
I'll be back with more later, but I'd like to thank John Perricone over at Only Baseball Matters for linking and mentioning us over at his site. It's frequently updated, informative and well-written, and if by some chance you haven't been over there and are reading this...you're missing out.

I'm swimming in baseball in the early days of the season. I watched the Rockies-Diamondbacks game earlier today, and am now digging in for Red Sox-Orioles (television) and Yankees-Devil Rays (computer). I'd really like to watch David Cone's first start back...but I can always get to that later on tonight, and probably will.

- Shawn Chacon was awesome today at Coors Field. He was perfect through five and a third...until it was taken out of his hands. The stands guy (there frequently seems to be one guy on the broadcast team whose job is to walk around the stands and talk to people who stand out or are famous) happened upon Kurtwood Smith (Red) and Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty) of That '70s Show. They explained how they came down to Coors Field to catch a game...nothing important, just usual celebrity banter. At this point, Smith decided to point out that Chacon was pitching a no-hitter (of course, it was even more than that). The broadcasters immediately pointed out that they weren't supposed to say anything, as it'd jinx Chacon and his no-hitter would end. Within seconds, Chad Moeller had hit a ground-rule double.
posted by VZW Watcher at 6:36 PM -

 
A few comments as I watch today's action...
- I didn't get a chance to watch the Twins' 3-0 win to complete a sweep of the Tigers to open the season, but it appears that Kyle Lohse pitched a terrific game, allowing just 2 hits over 8 innings, striking out 5 without walking a batter. I know it's the Tigers, but that's a hell of a way to start the season.

While I'm on the Tigers, take a look at the lineup they trotted out for today's game (2003 stats in parentheses):

Hiram Bocachica CF (0 for 3, .000)
Shane Halter 2B (1 for 4, .250)
Bobby Higginson RF (1 for 11, .091)
Dmitri Young DH (1 for 11, .091)
Carlos Pena 1B (0 for 7, .000)
Craig Paquette LF (0 for 4, .000)
Eric Munson 3B (1 for 9, .111)
Omar Infante SS (2 for 11, .182)
Matt Walbeck C (0 for 3, .000)

I'm not going to get into pumping out any additional numbers to demonstrate how crappy that lineup is, because I'm sure you're all very aware of it. I know we're only three games into the season...but man.

- Rocco Baldelli is ridiculously fast, so much so that I'm becoming convinced he's going to enjoy a fair amount of success right out of the gate (well, he already has). A few nights ago he legged out three infield hits on routine ground balls, and today in the first inning he hit a gapper off Casey Fossum that he stretched easily into a triple. I often wonder why guys don't run harder out of the box and try to turn singles into doubles and double into triples...here's a guy who does so with absolutely no hesitation and blinding speed.

- Dan and I have Jimmy Anderson on our Diamond-Mind team and had every intention of dropping him at the first opportunity. After hearing that he made the Cincinnati rotation, we figured we ought to keep him around on the off chance that Don Gullett was able to turn him around. We're only one start in now, but the early returns aren't promising.

- After three games, both Royce Clayton (.251/.295/.365 in 2002 in 376 PAs) and Eddie Perez (career .252/.299/.385 with no home runs since 1999) have 2 homers. And the Brewers are 0-3.

- Finally, my man Jose Valentin very nearly hit three home runs today but settled for two and a triple (hit high off the wall in right field) in the White Sox' 12-6 loss to the surprisingly impressive Royals.
posted by VZW Watcher at 3:39 PM -

 
We've been moved up the "Hall of Fame" over at Aaron's Baseball Blog, which is a nice honor to receive from a site that has as large a consistent readership as his does. I'd like to think that our ascent is based solely on merit...but it might have a little something to do with the savage beatings his Minnesota Fatboys gave our Diamond-Mind team (Queens Pneumonia, if you're interested) this weekend, scoring 10 runs a game against us and winning three straight. Either way, we appreciate it.

I got a chance to watch Mark Teixeira a bit last night at long last and will get to see Jeremy Bonderman today, as he makes his first career start against the Twins. In the meantime, I've got White Sox-Royals on...it's great to have baseball back.
posted by VZW Watcher at 2:41 PM -