The center of this story seems to be Dempster pulling his pants down on the mound to show Corey Koskie the bruise on his butt, the result of a Koskie comebacker. But it’s played so low key I’m having a hard time buying it. Did Ryan Dempster moon Corey Koskie this past Tuesday night? Who has video?
MLB
The Baseball Analysts: War Stories
Bob Klapisch on Why Ballplayers Don’t Say Interesting Things Anymore
It seems he wrote a highly critical book about the 1992 Mets, and is then surprised that they were really mad about it. Nonetheless, the is a funny story that asks and answers the rhetorical question: What curseword would get you to climb into Bobby Bonilla’s face and offer to fight him, here, now?
Taking One for the Team
MLB – St. Louis Cardinals/Chicago White Sox Box Score Wednesday June 21, 2006 – Yahoo! Sports
That’s what Jason Marquis is doing tonight, dragging down my Tout Wars NL pitching staff, which went into tonight with the second best ERA and Ratio in the league. Amazingly, after 12 runs in four innings I’ve still got 12 points in both categories, though the margin of error is significantly smaller now.
Major League Baseball :
This week’s column is out, taking a look at Alexis Rios’ hot start and a high-powered trade, examining whether it’s a good idea to load up on Twins this week, deciding whether it’s better to hold onto Rodney than jump for Julio, plus chatter about Matt Kemp and Joey Gathright.
WasWatching.com:
Presents evidence that A-Rod is having a really crumby season when the Yankees are trailing by one or two runs, but it’s only 54 plate appearances. Everybody seems to have an opinion about whether A-Rod is always so bad in the clutch (though it should be noted, as the writer here does, that A-Rod has four hits after the seventh inning that put the Yankees ahead, while Justin Morneau leads the league with five).
Last year A-Rod had a couple of game score situations in which he didn’t hit nearly as well as in all other situations. One of them was down by two runs, but the other was up by two runs. He had a 1.096 OPS when down by one run.
In 2004 he was incredible in down by one run (1.416 OPS), fair when down by two runs (.910 OPS), sucked when down by three or up by two (.701/.556) and not so hot when the team was up by five runs (.724).
My conclusion? I love baseballmusings.com and David Pinto’s amazing database. Unconvincing attempts to impugn A-Rod’s clutchiness? Not so much.
Milledge caught looking
I saw Lastings Milledge play two games in the Arizona Fall League last November, and the observation I came away with was that he was not as fast as advertised. Obviously a couple games here, another game there, with the youngster getting caught stealing and thrown out at the plate a couple times will shape your opinions. And maybe he did spend too much time spectating on this play. But I think anyone expecting five-category production out of Milledge is going to be disappointed. He’s not as fast as he looks like he should be.
Sabremetrics Gone Wild!
We’re certainly living in strange times when a story predicated on the Runs Expected Matrix attributing “runs” to isolated events (stolen bases) appears in a publication that isn’t published by SABR or Baseball Prospectus. Just a few years ago such a story as this one would have been so mind blowing that it might have been possible not to quibble. But, quibble we must.
I think he should have put in context the number of runs attributed to Patterson this year that didn’t come from steals, and referenced the league and team leaders so that we had some idea what it all meant. Maybe Patterson shouldn’t be running, but it’s really hard to argue against stealing when you’re safe nearly every attempt.
Names change, drugs remain — Affidavit starts witch hunt
BostonHerald.com – MLB Coverage:
Clever stuff, and makes me feel a little dirty.
BTW, does baseball really need to save itself? Haven’t these steroid allegations been out there for a few years now? Did anybody think that testing was going to make the game totally clean? Aren’t millions of people going out to the ballyard in every major league city? Isn’t everyone making so much money they aren’t even discussing the possibility of a strike/lock out when the basic agreement expires after this season?
That’s all. For now.
Ps. I found the Boston Herald link through deadspin.com.
Baseball Musings:
David Pinto goes to the place I think all discussion about PEDs has to go, but in a comment far down the page Keith Levenberg takes it one step further. Well worth reading down the page if you have set ideas about drugs and the games.
I was going to link to Deadspin’s sober speculation of the contents of the redacted information in the Grimsley affadavit (about him, not by him), but the link from the affidavit to Albert Pujols’ trainer, Chris Mihfield, is too tenuous. Anyone who has hung around with professional athletes in the last 20 some odd years (and probably longer) knows that all follow the supplements, vitamins, and enhancement products to some extent. Mihfield recommending a guy to Grimsley who had bennies is a far cry from a smoking gun pointing at Pujols.
But then I think we need a lot less hysteria.
Milwaukee Brewers/Pittsburgh Pirates Box Score Tuesday May 30, 2006 – Yahoo! Sports
I’ve been tied up on the Fantasy Football Guide 2006, which wraps up this week, to think much about baseball, but I’ve noticed the Pirates the last two nights. One reason is because the offense on my Tout Wars NL team is accidentally built around the Pirates’. (Note that until yesterday this was one of the main reasons I was floundering in the second division.) I rostered Sean Casey and Craig Wilson, then added Freddy Sanchez in the end game, and Jose Bautista in the reserve round. A month in, when I needed a DH, Ronny Paulino seemed like the best pickup, on the chance that he’d stick even after Ryan Doumit came back (something there was talk of in Pittsburgh). Last night these guys combined for 11 RBI and hit better than .500. Tonight Jose Castillo is doing most of the damage, but my guys hit .350 with 3 RBI and 7 Runs. Most importantly, they all played, and I’ve moved back into the First Division. Go Pirates.