This Week in Baseball

[Guest FrigidSoul]

I see alkeiper here. I wonder if he'll speak his mind on what Ken Macha just decided to do with Kotsay

[Guest Anglesault]

Mo had another one of his Wetteland innings.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Here's a situation where I think playing small ball would've been the best option. Had they laid down the bunt correctly, there would've been runners on second and third with only one out. As it was, it's just another crushing loss for the A's.

[Guest Anglesault]

Kevin Brown looks ready to kill some poor victim. He has issues.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I see alkeiper here. I wonder if he'll speak his mind on what Ken Macha just decided to do with Kotsay

 

Oh. Nothing to see here. Small ball works. Buster Olney said so. There's a stat and everything.

 

Here's a situation where I think playing small ball would've been the best option. Had they laid down the bunt correctly, there would've been runners on second and third with only one out. As it was, it's just another crushing loss for the A's.

 

And if he smacked the outfield wall with the pitch, the A's would've won. Moneyball.

[NoCalMike 0]

Small ball only works when your team has a closer that can Save 1 run games......

[Vern Gagne 0]

Both only work when you win.

[Bored 0]

Oakland officially blows nuts. When does the fire sale start? Speaking for the Red Sox we'll give you several shitty prospects for Tim Hudson since your owners don't care. Its a very good deal

Hey the Red Sox are some roll too, huh? Sorry Hudson isn't going anywhere but feel free to take Zito off their hands.

 

Anyways they've actually had worse starts than this one and survived. They were 8-18 to start the 2001 season and weren't even over .500 until July that year. I have no clue why they always struggle in the first half and it's really gotten old. I'm thinking they aren't too far off from a Beane house cleaning similar to 2002 where three or four guys get shipped to the minors and he makes a couple out of no where trades. The bullpen is just a complete disaster right now.

 

Oh and I didn't really care about bunting in that situation last night but problem is Kotsay can't bunt. Kotsay has been a major dissapointment as Chris Singleton has seemingly taken over his body at the plate.

 

One more thing to add if the skid continues I won't be shocked if Ken Macha is fired. Rumor was during the offseason Beane was already unhappy with him.

[the pinjockey 0]

Just thought I would give everyone a glimpse of what happens if the Philadelphia media starts to not like you.

 

Yesterday afternoon (the day after Bobby Abreu hits 2HRs):

On his radio show Howard Eskin ripped Bobby Abreu pointing out that neither of his home runs put the Phils in a tie or the lead. Then he accused, in a negative manner, Bobby Abreu of coming up in the 9th looking for a walk. Even though a walk would have loaded the bases for their best hitter it was apparently wrong to do.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

as noted baseball mind Dusty Baker says, "I don't like walks. They clog up the basepaths"

[Bruiser Chong 0]

So it's settled; Dusty Baker and Philadelphia fans are morons.

[the pinjockey 0]

I want to take offense at the Philadelphia fans are morons part of that statement, but considering 95% of the people that call WIP agree with Eskin I find it hard to counter.

[Guest FrigidSoul]

Oakland officially blows nuts. When does the fire sale start? Speaking for the Red Sox we'll give you several shitty prospects for Tim Hudson since your owners don't care. Its a very good deal

Hey the Red Sox are some roll too, huh? Sorry Hudson isn't going anywhere but feel free to take Zito off their hands.

Considering we have Pokey Reese playing for Nomar and Gabe Kapler playing for Trot I really can't complain. I'd take Zito still. The only thing wrong with him is your new pitching coach fucked up his mechanics. I saw it plain as day watching the game last night. Zito use to throw at a 3/4s delivery, his arm is dropping more when he releases now. Fix that and give the man some offense and he'd be fine.

 

Anyways they've actually had worse starts than this one and survived. They were 8-18 to start the 2001 season and weren't even over .500 until July that year.

 

Only thing is that year you had Giambi, Tejada, and Isrenhausen on the field and a competant manager in Art Howe. Athletics are screwed

[Bored 0]

Zito was already having problems last year and that's why he tried to make a change.

 

Yeah, yeah hear the same thing every year. Written off in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Might as well have them written in 2004...IN MAY! Hasn't the AS topic on the Yankees taught anyone, anything?

[Bruiser Chong 0]

The Cubs continue to play like a AA team, making mental mistakes and not taking advantage of scoring opportunities. I don't know where the hell Patterson thought he was going on first when Todd Walker, who doesn't run well, is on second. Whatever he was thinking, it got him picked off, Sosa flied out and then Ramirez struck out. Thank god we don't play the D-Backs again after today.

[KingPK 0]

Tonight should be pretty interesting in Cleveland. Will Pedro take his anger at the backlash from his comments earlier in the week (he actually thought acting like a whiny bitch would get the fans on his side) and use it to throw an absolute gem, or will he put up ANOTHER stinkbomb and continue to torpedo his chances at a good contract (while tanking my fantasy team in the process)?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Just thought I would give everyone a glimpse of what happens if the Philadelphia media starts to not like you.

 

Yesterday afternoon (the day after Bobby Abreu hits 2HRs):

On his radio show Howard Eskin ripped Bobby Abreu pointing out that neither of his home runs put the Phils in a tie or the lead. Then he accused, in a negative manner, Bobby Abreu of coming up in the 9th looking for a walk. Even though a walk would have loaded the bases for their best hitter it was apparently wrong to do.

 

Why are people like this allowed airtime?

[Bored 0]

Speaking of people who souldn't be on the air...Harold Reynolds gave his opinion of OBP:

 

http://www.futilityinfielder.com/archives/...y_archive.shtml

I think it's overrated. I don't think it indicates how the game is played at all. There are certain roles -- guys that get their man over in certain situations -- you're not going to get an on-base percentage for that. I think it takes away from the game. And the other thing is a lot of the guys with high on base percentages, they just clog the bases. Talk about Frank Thomas.

 

Corey Paterson -- these are guy who have bad on-base percentages right now -- .309 [OBP]. This guy is going to score runs for you. On this list I've got Corey Patterson, I've got Jimmy Rollins, and I have Derek Jeter.

 

Jimmy Rollins last year had a .320 on-base percentage scored 85 runs. He hit 8 home runs. Take away those home runs, he was on base 211 times and he scored 77 times. That ain't no .500 on-base percentatge, but he's scoring a heck of a lot of runs.

 

Derek Jeter ,well we know, .259 [OBP], we know his at batting average struggle and all that. He scores 33 percent of the time he's on base and that will change as the season goes on because he's going to be on base. Guys that don't clog the bases are going to go base to base.

 

Now I have a problem with everybody saying, oh this is such a great stat. Jason Giambi, if he hits the ball out of the ballpark, that's great. But if he's on first base, he ain't scoring on the gapper, its taking two hits to score him. To me that's the difference in the game today. Everybody's saying on-base percentage is the greatest thing ever. Jason Varitek, this guy last year, he scored 63 runs. All right? That's great, he had almost a .400 on-base percentage. He scored 63 runs! I mean, I don't get it. I just don't get it.

 

Then Frank Thomas, we talked about the Big Hurt. .494 OBP, .489 last year, he doesn't extend the plate that much. 216 times he's on base last year, he scored 45 runs. He's scoring one out of five times he's on base. I think we're getting carried away with this on-base percentage thing, because it doesn't tell the true story of a full game. I'm not going to pitch to Frank Thomas in a situation when I know I got a base open and he's not going to score on a gapper. I don't want him hitting the ball out of the ballpark. It changes the way the game is played. I think we're taking numbers and we're forgetting all the things that go in to making baseball what it really is.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

The Cubs' offense continues to have an indentity crisis, breaking out in the five-run inning en route to winnin 11 - 3. I've said it before, but if they could get at least five - six runs a game, they could be sitting pretty, considering their pitching staff.

[the pinjockey 0]

Today's Abreu Report (yes, Eskin is doing a daily report)

 

He is relishing in the fact that Abreu went 0 for 7 the last two games. The best part was him mocking Abreu's RBI today. The whole mantra of the Philly media has been that they have not been able to get a man on third home with less than two outs. Well Abreu did just that today. He grounded out to short with one out, driving in Byrd who was on third. If I was Abreu I would demand a trade at this point, it's not worth it.

[fairtoflair7 0]

Great Pitcher's duel going on at Shea w/ Leiter vs. Schmidt....no hits for either team through 3

[Guest Anglesault]

Red Sox Win World Series in April

Trophy Awarded for 6-1 Domination of Yanks

 

By Tony Borelli

 

May 4, 2004

 

 

NEW YORK — In a surprising move that finally removed the “Curse of the Bambino” from the heads of Boston’s baseball franchise and its long-suffering fans, Major League Baseball today declared the Red Sox winners of the 2004 World Series, in recognition of their domination of the New York Yankees in April.

 

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig made the announcement at a hastily arranged news conference Tuesday. He said he was taking the unprecedented step of ending the regular season five months early, skipping two rounds of postseason playoffs and canceling the Fall Classic, due to Boston’s 6-1 April record against their greatest nemeses, and in an attempt to acknowledge the inevitable.

 

“First of all, when a team does this well against its chief rival in April, and especially when it’s Boston, common sense tells you that the rest of the season is going to look very much the same,” Selig said. “It’s really kind of ludicrous to suggest that the Yankees were going to scrape together some kind of miracle comeback over their remaining 130-odd games and win the (American League) Eastern Division.”

 

Selig admitted that an A.L. East champion Red Sox club also theoretically could have faced elimination in the postseason by an A.L. wild-card Yankees club, or even from a variety of other teams, but he brushed those suggestions aside.

 

“Look, to postulate that there would have been some kind of wild, cruel, soul-crushing collapse by this Boston team, whether in September or October … that they’d somehow let a big lead slip away in the last weeks of the season or the late innings of a playoff game … well, that just defies probability.”

 

Under intense questioning, Selig revealed another reason for his decision.

“We were made aware that many Red Sox fans had already begun celebrating this championship as early as that Saturday evening, you know, after that extra-inning game they won against the Yankees in the Bronx,” he said. “There just would have been too many difficulties involved in rolling that back—‘de-celebrating,’ if you will—had the Red Sox eventually failed to win it all on their own.”

 

Later this week, the grounds crew at Boston’s Fenway Park will be permitted to paint the official 2004 World Series logo onto the grass at the historic ballpark and leave it in place for 24 hours, to allow for commemorative photographs.

 

Among stunned members of the Yankees organization, who had just flown to Oakland to begin a West Coast swing, reaction was swift.

 

“Sure, you’re disappointed,” said shortstop and team captain Derek Jeter. “I mean, we just won six straight games, and moved up to only one game behind the Red Sox … Mr. Steinbrenner expects …I (inaudible) …We just … Mr. Torre …”

 

Alone in a corner of the Yankees clubhouse, center fielder Bernie Williams strummed gently on a guitar.

 

“I think it’s probably better to play the games,” he said quietly. “In the town where I grew up, we always have warm weather before we have the champion.”

 

Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner, in a written statement faxed to news agencies, said yesterday, “My players are my warriors, and we will fight on.” He said General Manager Brian Cashman would spend the summer attempting to secure the services of Boston slugger Manny Ramirez and star pitcher Pedro Martinez as New York’s first- and third-base foul-ball retrievers, “bringing them into the Yankee family in a capacity appropriate to their temperaments.”

 

But in Massachusetts, jubilant Red Sox players hailed the end of the epic drought that began shortly after their last World Series championship in 1918, when the team sold slugger Babe Ruth to the Yankees and, many believed, called down the curse that had kept them from winning another title—until yesterday.

 

Martinez, whose fastball’s steadily dwindling velocity Selig also cited as guaranteeing a Hub championship, celebrated by reinstating his ban on questions from English-language reporters and extending it to the Spanish-language press as well. Later, speaking through a translator in Old Norse, Martinez said of the early World Series triumph, “I can’t believe this is really happening. It’s like some kind of fantasy.”

[Guest Anglesault]

That first half inning was so sad on so many levels. I want my bitching thread unlocked.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Today's Abreu Report (yes, Eskin is doing a daily report)

 

He is relishing in the fact that Abreu went 0 for 7 the last two games. The best part was him mocking Abreu's RBI today. The whole mantra of the Philly media has been that they have not been able to get a man on third home with less than two outs. Well Abreu did just that today. He grounded out to short with one out, driving in Byrd who was on third. If I was Abreu I would demand a trade at this point, it's not worth it.

Abreu shouldn't demand a trade because one idiot sportswriter can't grasp the concept of winning baseball.

[Guest OctoberBlood]

Ah, great game for the Reds tonight. Finally, back to back wins. Harang sturggled for 2 innings, but inbetween that - he was lights out. That won't show up in the boxscore though. Griffey returned to teh 5 SPOT tonight, and KILLED the ball. 3-5, HR, 5 RBI! Very happy to see that. Very good job by the pen (namely, Todd Jones, John Reidling, and yes .. Danny Graves actually had a 1-2-3 inning.). Very good win, now onto watching the 2nd half of NBA playoffs.

[Guest Anglesault]

Remember that bitching stuff? Nix that.

[DerangedHermit 0]

Mets sweep the Giants as Piazza hits a HR in the bottom of the 11th. The Mets are showing signs of life (and apparently so is Art Howe --- never seen THAT)

[Guest Anglesault]

I want my bitching thread back

[Guest Anglesault]

Idiot commish in Oakland.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Heeeeeeeey, I just turned on channel 6 (forgot I can actually get KICU in the first place. Go cable, I guess) to see the Yankees striking out and hitting fouls when the game's tied. Good timing. Doesn't hurt that it's a local team. Go Oakland.