Rotoman

Random notes:

Bill Mueller’s injury (out 8 weeks) could prove to be a blessing for Vinny Castilla, who was reportedly the subject of a Don Baylor plea last last week. Give me Vinny, he said. In trying to remember why I drafted Vinny this spring, I remembered that he had an awesome winter in Mexico. And I wasn’t expecting much, which I suppose you could say he delivered.

The Red Sox demoted Pax Crawford (who admittedly had two bad games recently) and Tomo Ohka (who had one). David Cone and Tim Wakefield are their replacements. I suppose that when veterans a team has commited to are available there might be good reasons to give them another shot at the expense of youngsters. I think it makes more sense, however, to keep the youngsters in the majors, let them work out of the bullpen. But options make the kids expendable. My prediction: The tenure of Cone and Wakefield in the rotation will be quite short. My verdict: I still wish I had Ohka. Crawford I’m not so sure about.

Jason Marquis is a good young pitcher who made a nice start on Saturday. He doesn’t have a role as a starter, as yet, with John Smoltz returning this week. Want to know my take on Smoltz? He’s trying to take his time, but ultimately he’s rushing back. He may well have a handful of good starts, but the odds are good he isn’t going to be pitching in August.

Did you notice that Jeffrey Hammonds is hurt?

Alex Escobar is one hot streak away from solving the Mets outfield problems, at least partly. My skepticism isn’t that he can’t do it, but that the odds are against him (or any other rookie whose name isn’t Pujols). And if he struggles a little he’ll end up back in Norfolk faster than a NY minute.

MLB Latest News

So much for Blogger. Friday it was down whenever I tried to comment on such crazinesses as Greg Myers DHing again! And there was something else.

Today, I’m lifted by a tie game in the sixth between the Yankees and Baltimore, and the two relievers, who are doing very well, are my guys. Towers and Boehringer.

Who do I root for?

ESPN.com: MLB Boxscore: Baltimore vs. NY Yankees

Shawn Chacon got slaughtered by Cincinnati in his first outing, but he did strike out eight in five innings, in Colorado. In his second start he faced Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh and gave up 6 ER in 1.1 IP without striking out a soul.

Tonight, ESPN.com: MLB Boxscore: NY Mets vs. Colorado he shut down the Mets. Now, I know that’s not a true test. The Mets are weak. But this game was played in Colorado and Chacon allowed no earned runs in eight innings, reducing his ERA from 17.55 to 7.98. Which is probably where it will stay.

After all, we’re talking about a Colorado pitcher (who isn’t Mike Hampton).

A few of you have asked me what a blog is (though most of you thought the name was utterly appropriate).

The name comes from BLOGGER, a website that offers up diary-writing software, on the web. While the diary aspect of the blog is appealing, what really makes it sing for my purposes is the way the software is accessed.

While I’m browsing, reading about Steve Parris’ tough luck against Oakland, or Frank Thomas’s tough luck in this world, all I have to do is right click. One of the right-click menu choices is “Blog This”. I select it and a little wordprocessing window opens up.

Actually, there are no formatting helpers here, though I can insert html code if I remember how. Anyway, I can write what I will, press “post and publish” and the site is updated.

Which is a whole lot more immediate and friendly than trying to get the same material posted using Front Page.

Something else you should know: The Blog page isn’t password protected. It doesn’t have to be since no one but members know about it. The URL is www.peter.kreutzer.com/blogger.htm

Geez, why won’t the Cards send him down and give him a chance to succeed? This must be tough love, right? It isn’t like he’s helping them win games. But as much as he might hate riding the busses of Double-A for a month or three, wouldn’t that be preferable to this?

Stop the madness. Sometimes a shrink isn’t enough.

Major League Baseball News

My American Dreams League team has been pretty dismal. I’m playing for next year, I had no keeps to speak of going into the draft.

On problem was that I bought Nomar for $15. Not a problem if he comes back July 1, as they’re saying in Boston now, but a problem in that is money spent that has no return.

Unfortunately, I also spent what seemed like a quite reasonable $28 on Derek Lowe. So that makes $43 without return. And I spent $8 or so on Glenallen HIll, not for next year but to help me get into the middle of the pack. In the ADL you get fewer freezes the lower you finish (4 for last, 5, for 11th, 6 for 10th, 7 for 9th, 8 for 5th-8th. This butte works at the high end, too.

But the real problem has been my pitching. Eric Milton has been as good as hoped for, but Brian Moehler didn’t last long before going down, and Dave Mlicki and Steve Parris got off to awful starts. For a while I was so far out in the qualitatives I considered dumping them, in April.

But instead I special reserved Mlicki, traded for Reichert and added a bunch of middle relievers. All of whom immediately stank. Meanwhile, Mlicki’s first start after I reserved him was against… Tampa Bay!

Idiot! I said to myself. The next week I checked the probables and his next start was against Texas in Texas. No thank you. Of course, he did quite nicely. The next week I didn’t activate Jon Garland off my reserve because he was hit so hard in his first start. But he did fine and won, too.

And I activated James Baldwin when he came off the DL, missing his first (good) start, absorbing his second (bad) start.

All of which brings us to last night: Milton and Baldwin pitched shutouts. Lowe even tossed in 2 scoreless innings (earned scoreless, anyway), and I’m in 9th place in ERA now.

Tonight I have Mlicki and Reichert going. As I write this Mlicki has 2 hit the Rangers through 4. At Comerica. Reichert has allowed 3 runs through 4, but at least all of them were driven in by Russell Branyan, one of my guys.

If only the Royals could hit Sabathia…
ESPN.com: MLB Scoreboard

I updated the pitcher and hitter price posts today. The numbers at the top of the column represent each of the weeks of the season. We’re starting to get enough of them that it’s interesting to see how value ebbs and flows.

mlb.com is getting a subset of this data.

Brian Boehringer increased his value $23 last week. That feels like a mistake, but as a BB owner, the save was fantastic.

Chuck Finley raised his $10.

Pedro jumped $11. Mussina $14.

Ryan Glynn’s good game earned him an additional $10.

These prices are scaled so that they are like full season prices. This isn’t necessarily as informative as showing what the players have actually earned (calculate their earnings each week and divide by 26, roughly). But this way you get to see that your $20 relievers is either earning you an additional $20 or costing you $14. The price you paid (in a $260 4×4 single league) is directly comparable.

Here’s a page that has the lyrics to all the Ramones songs, in English, but the page itself is in Portuguese.

Ramones

Oates Sacrifices Job for Rangers’ Future

You’ll have to register to read this (before Tuesday, I think), from Sunday’s NY Times.

Murray Chass makes it sound as if Johnny Oates quit altruistically. “In the interests of the organization…” he says, before suggesting he be replaced.

The story goes on to note that not only has the Ranger pitching been terrible, but the defense has been awful, too. How often these things go together! And how ironic, since when Oates and Melvin arrived in Texas their stated aim was to improve the pitching by improving the defense.

Somehow it never occured to them that an infield where three of the four positions are filled with someone more than 35 years old, where the top reserve is a mediocre fielder at all positions he plays except first base, maybe, and the crown jewel, Alex Rodriguez, is a big man with a big stick who has never been noted for his glovework.

ESPN.com: MLB Boxscore: Chicago WS vs. Texas

It would be too easy to say this had nothing to do with the managerial change.

In his previous four starts Ryan Glynn gave up 5, 6, 7 and 4 ER in a total of 16.1 innings. Johnny Oates made him a reliever. Now Glynn has thrown the sort of game as a starter that has been expected of him for years.

Coincidence?

Never. A new found determination to concentrate and play tough, hard-nosed, good-basics baseball has paid off.

Look out, Seattle.