The Man in Blak

Maybe I need to work on my sarcasm when posting on the internet.

This, coincidentally, is exactly why so many baseball fans hate the Yankees and their fans in recent years; wins over the other "lesser" teams are to be taken for granted, as though the Royals and Devil Rays are in the league to be cattle for the slaughter.

The problem with Alex Rodriguez isn't a matter of performance, but a matter of perception, in my opinion. A-Rod may have a comparable amount of "clutch hits" as David Ortiz, but even if those aren't on as grand a stage, the issue still comes down to the fact that the expectations are higher. Alex Rodriguez is the highest paid athlete in the history of sports. He's supposed to be the biggest fish in the biggest pond. However, despite routinely putting up MVP numbers every year, "PayRod" is symbolic of failure due to his tenure with the Rangers, who didn't (or couldn't) put a halfway decent team around him. That he was one of the primary figures on a team that gave us the greatest chokejob in the history of baseball is ultimately just icing on the cake. The old saying goes that "excuses are no substitute for performance" and, in the eyes of baseball fans, A-Rod is not only a loser, but a loser who has all of the ability of the winner. The 2004 ALCS numbers are not only ironic, but also hilarious when taken within this context: 2004 ALCS A. Rodriguez - .258/.378/.516, 8 R, 2 HR, 5 RBIs D. Jeter - .200/.333/.233, 5 R, 0 HR, 5 RBIs Derek Jeter turned in a pathetic performance of the plate in the 2004 ALCS, but he managed to get the same number of RBIs as Alex Rodriguez. To those who are willing to buy his persona as a loser, A-Rod "fattened up" in non-critical situations, while Jeter did "more with less." The sabermetrician wisely says that RBI is an absolute crap stat that tells you virtually nothing about a player, save for opportunity, but 5 RBIs are 5 RBIs and, by gawd, if A-Rod was going to slug .500, he should have done it when the game was on the line.

I only caught the highlights of the brawl, but what did Pierzynski get ejected for? I saw him get hit, but I never saw him retaliate. Seeing John Mabry duck under Brian Anderson's lunge Super Punchout-style was hilarious too. What a crazy brawl. At this point, the Cubs have become a comedy troupe. They're almost not even a baseball franchise anymore. Ownership blasting the newspaper that they own for writing critical articles? Liquored-up catchers starting fights after getting floored by incoming base runners at home plate? Jacque Jones earning his diploma from the Moises Alou school of baserunning? Freddie Bynum? I can't even begin to fathom Rich Hill's comment on the situation, unless Dusty Baker was hiding under the table, wielding his secret Rich Hill Muppet for the press conference. And there's another game tomorrow, with Pissed Off Ozzie and Big Z in the same ballpark. This will be awesome.

Outside of an absolute massacre at Boston, Benson has actually had a pretty good year. Not No. 1 starter material or anything, but definitely a better year than I would have expected. The Royals scored five off of Carpenter early, who was definitely not as sharp as usual, but the Cardinals have roared back with nine unanswered. Sure, it's a little bit of a backhanded compliment, but Scott Spiezio may be the best DH option that St. Louis has had in years.

Well, you've got the three runs taken care of early, as Beltran hits a three-run homer in the bottom of the first to make it a 4-3 game. That's Beltran's 11th home run of the year.

Perhaps I'm giving Springer a little too much credit. The first pitch was a slider that went behind him and that's typically taboo within MLB, regardless of intent. It's just the other pitches in the at-bat. I know he's not a control artist, but do you think he really would have missed on three straight inside pitches after the warning if he was really intending to do physical harm to Barry? And, once again, if we're talking about preventing beanball wars, then I'll be expecting a similar suspension handed down whenever we see a retaliatory HBP in a game. The situations don't compare at all, in my opinion. There's absolutely no excuse for a ballplayer to even touch an official, and Delmon Young tried to throw a frickin' baseball bat at one. Not only that, but it's not the first incident that he's had with an umpire in the past - the bat throwing is just another action in a history that showed a disregard for umpires in general. Young's assertion that it wasn't intentional was laughable and you could see that just by watching the video - you don't rationalize that kind of heinous action. In Springer's case, we're talking about hitting a batter and/or pitching inside to a batter, which are two things that do happen within the game of baseball. Once again, maybe I'm giving Springer the benefit of the doubt when he doesn't deserve it, but I think Bonds gets drilled on pitch #2 if the intent was really premeditated.

If he's getting punished because it's blatant, should we expect a suspension the next time that Pedro Martinez buzzes the light tower? As I said, the pitch that hit him seemed intentional, as it hit him squarely in the back on a 3-1 count. If he didn't feel like pitching to him, all he had to do was offer one outside the plate. Instead of doing that, he drilled him in the back and, given the warning that was made earlier in the at-bat, he was thrown out of the ballgame appropriately. But, in terms of intent, just how blatant was it? As I said, some of the media almost have Springer rocking back and forth in the locker room, frothing at the mouth, thumbing through a stack of Barry Bonds cards that he's spent his life's salary collecting, all because Barry hit a home run off of him in 2001. There are plate appearances other than the two HBPs and the home runs - maybe I'm being dense, but I don't see the vendetta here. And the punishment seems to fit a vendetta, rather than an intentional HBP after a warning.

He continued pitching inside, which isn't hard to do when the batter virtually stands right over the plate like Bonds. The final pitch is really the only pitch that I would consider to be intentional, as Springer drilled him straight in the back, and that was on a 3-1 count. It's a ridiculous suspension, in my opinion, but I tend to think that suspending pitchers for hitting batters is kind of silly to begin with, so take that as you will. The Vizquel/Mesa situation was worth attention from officials because there hasn't been one single at-bat in the years since they were teammates where Mesa hasn't hit or attempted to hit Vizquel. Springer has hit Bonds before, but to hear some of the media (I'm looking at you, ESPN) tell it, Springer has had some kind of vendetta against Bonds ever since he hit a home run off of him. Bonds has a career average of .167 versus Springer, with that home run being the only hit in six at-bats. If Springer had such a vendetta, then how did Bonds not get drilled in those other plate appearances?

I've got to say, Nomar looks closer to NOMAH this year than he ever has since he got traded out of Boston. The Cubs may have just latched onto him for the wrong two years of his career.

I couldn't agree more. If you crowd the plate, how can you complain about getting hit by an inside pitch every now and then? Frankly, he shouldn't be allowed to wear all that "armor" either. Well, the funny thing about it is that the armor is actually illegal, per MLB batting equipment regulations, but MLB "grandfathered" it for a select few players at the time, including (obviously) Barry Bonds. Bonds wore the armor for a forearm injury years ago, but because he was wearing it for injury at the time that the ruling came down, he was able to wear it even after the restrictions took hold. Bonds isn't the only player who benefitted from this - I believe Mo Vaughn was another player who wore that armor for injury - but I think Bonds is the last one left playing in the big leagues. Personally, I think more pitchers should drill him, if only because so many of them intend on walking him anyway. Since Barry wants to hover over the plate, throw one at his legs. Let him take first base with one pitch and protect the plate.

Yeah, I don't know if it's a complete Jump the Shark moment, but it's definitely a nuisance. What's hilarious is why they made the change - Pardon the Interruption actually gets better ratings than Sportscenter now, so they're trying to carry over as many viewers as possible. And Gamenight is the absolute worst in sports radio.

If the Sox sweep, that would probably increase the chances of Dusty being fired.

From: Livin' it up in West by God Virginia!

Really, the problem with Dusty Baker isn't so much of a problem anymore. When Baker originally came to the Cubs, he was seen as a managerial savant on the level of LaRussa who had been behind the wheel of one of the most successful periods in Giants history, despite being the exact same manager that he is now. Baker was overrated by almost everybody, but the last few years in Chicago have revealed his true abilities. Baker does not believe that his players should take accountability (unless they're young and they "just don't know the big leagues"), nor does he really take any accountability onto himself. He whines to the press about not having a left-handed batting practice pitcher. He not only watched the team disintegrate in 2004, but he actually had the temerity to deflect it back onto the television crew. The team is sloppy because Baker is the ultimate enabler, the "player's manager" who's always willing to copout or deflect for one of his "proven veterans." He has no managerial prowess whatsoever - he goes through fits where he constantly double-switches, even when the situation doesn't warrant it. He feels that walks clog up the basepaths. He may be the worst bullpen manager in the big leagues, ignoring Mike Remlinger's platoon splits and constantly ying-yanging relievers out of situations, which certainly didn't help young relievers like Wellemeyer or Farnsworth. In my opinion, he's the worst manager in the major leagues and the most overrated manager in the ESPN era. Finally, people are starting to figure it out.

BTW, even though I'm a Cardinals fan and they're an divisional rival, I've got to admit that it's nice to see the Reds pull away with a nice moment of their own for once. Maybe it's slanted perception from only seeing a few Cincinnati games a year, but it just seemed like they were the team that was always on the bad end of the walk-off hit.

GEORGE CLOONEY! You been reading about that? You been seeing that?

They pre-empted Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption with coverage of his final two plate appearances.

Oswalt wasn't even the best pitcher on the Astros in 2004, so I'm not sure why you feel he deserved the Cy Young Award that year. That being said, I would agree that Oswalt is overlooked by the mainstream press, specifically the New York media, as he is overshadowed on his own team by Clemens and Pettitte, even though the former isn't even pitching for the team. EDIT: Ooops, it should be Oswalt, shouldn't it. D'oh.

I agree with those guys except Eckstein. When you have a guy who plays a key defensive position and posts a .350 OBP, it's a huge help. For Eckstein, OBP is the ONLY stat that matters. He just needs to be on base when Pujols and company come up. I'm not sure Eckstein is really held in such a high regard to be considered overrated anyway. Most people consider him to be the quintessential Little Guy That Could who gives his all on every play - not a world beater, but a decent, if unremarkable, complimentary player. As a result of his size, his range is terrible, which makes him an awful shortstop by default, but the Cardinals have done a lot to help minimize the damage (such as strengthening his arm through offseason throwing programs). Reyes is an interesting case. Due to the massive push from the NY hype machine when he initially came up, he definitely could have qualified as an overrated prospect. After a botched run at 2B and the emergence of David Wright as the new uber-prospect on the Mets roster, the hype has died down a little bit, just in time for Reyes to actually pick up some plate discipline this year. I'm not saying he's underrated yet, but if he maintains his current 2006 performance so far, I don't think it's too far fetched to say that he could potentially be one of the top three shortstops in the National League.

The Brockton Rox challenge the Kansas City Royals

As far as I know, he's only signed through this year. Here's the details of his contract. Dontrelle Willis p 1 year/$4.35M (2006), plus $0.2M in incentives re-signed 1/06 (avoided arbitration) $4.35M for 2006 paid as follows: $0.2M up front, $2.65M during 2006 season $1.5M deferred $0.2M in incentives $50,000 for 35 g $100,000 for Cy Young award $25,000 each for All-Star selection & Silver Slugger award 2006 contract is record for first-time arbitration-eligible starting pitcher 1 year/$0.3785M (2005), re-signed 2/05 1 year/$0.3535M (2004), re-signed 3/04 (split contract paying $188,891 in minors) agent: Matt Sosnick ML service: 2.143 If I remember the situation correctly, the current contract listed for Willis bought out one year of arbitration, but he'll still only be eligible for free agency until after 2009.

The Marlins already offered Dontrelle Willis to the Mets for David Wright a couple weeks back, IIRC. I don't think offering Milledge alone would get it done, unless the Mets plan on sweetening the deal with Pelfrey or other prospects. In other less-publicized injury news, Sidney Ponson was taken out of the Caridnals' final game in Florida after three scoreless innings due to a twinge in his right elbow. Here are the notes from MLB.com: Unless Paletta's examination reveals something much more sinister in Sidney's elbow, you can probably hold off on those Anthony Reyes waiver claims for the time being.

I haven't listened to it in a long time but, from what I recall of it, Thrak's not too bad. "Dinosaur" is probably one of their most accessible tunes from the period and, lyrics aside, it's not bad for one of KC's lengthier pieces (definitely follows the traditional sonata-form). There's a sequel (or half-assed remake, however you choose to view it) of "Red" on the album as well - I believe it's "VROOM." The production and instrumentation sounds close to the 80's iteration, but the songs sound closer to the 70's group - it's a nice middle point.

Let's bypass the doom-mongering for a second. Who is realistically going to challenge Nintendo in Japan? Short of Microsoft buying the entire country of Japan and replacing all of its citizens with monkeys trained to buy MS products and fling shit at Sony employees, they don't really have any momentum to speak of with the Xbox 360. They've already probably blown their chance. Sony has a much better reputation overseas, but there are tons of red flags being raised about the PS3, specifically the price point. Sony may remain viable with releases like MGS4, but I can't see them making a strong enough move to overtake years of momentum, credibility, and goodwill that Nintendo has built up over there. The way things stand now, I think Nintendo takes Japan, which pretty much keeps them in the game no matter what happens in North America. And, if the Xbox 360 continues to underwhelm and the PS3 doesn't duplicate the splash of its predecessors, the Wii could represent a great opportunity for Nintendo to really get back into the console race in America.