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ESPN.com–Michael Young out on strikes

It turned out not to be an important AB, but in the eighth inning last night Michael Young came up and worked the count full. The payoff pitch was clearly many inches off the plate. Young started to throw his bat toward the dugout, in order to march to first base, but was instead called out.

ESPN showed that doojiggy computer graphic that shows where the ball is when it reaches home plate, and it showed the ball well outside. They also showed the shot from the high-home camera, which also clearly placed the ball well off the plate.

The call was so bad that the youngster Young actually turned to the umpire and talked to him heatedly, though he didn’t show him up and he didn’t get tossed. It did no immediate good, of course, and instead of Texas having two men on with one out, they had one man on with two outs, a substantial difference.

The point here isn’t that an umpire blew a call, that happens, but that we appear to have technology now that can pretty reliably call balls and strikes. Of course the umps are resistent to this technology. It threatens their jobs.

As we learn more and more about how the game of baseball works, it becomes more and more clear that the game turns on balls and strikes, and that the count confers a crucial advantage to either the pitcher or hitter. At some point it’s not going to be good enough to have the umpires get it right 85% of the time, or even 95%, or to bring their own idiosyncracies to the calling of a game.

In the not too distant future, we’ll still have a need for umps, I just don’t think we’ll need them calling balls and strikes.

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

This wasn’t the Mike Hampton that the Braves hope emerges. There’s really no way to argue definitively one way or the other. History suggests that players who leave Coors rebound in the ways you’d expect. Battered pitchers get more effective. Muscled up hitters take a hit (though not as big as their Coors-Road splits suggest).

But the numbers argue that Hampton was not as good a pitcher as his results the two years before he headed for the Rockies. Too many walks, not enough strikeouts, is the rap.

It looks to me like he’ll be a good pitcher again, in time. Maybe not as effective as he was in Houston and NY, but good enough to help any team. But it wouldn’t be shocking if I turned out to be wrong. And no matter which way it goes, a judgment won’t be rendered for a while.

ESPN.com: MLB – Down and out: Schilling undergoes appendectomy

Obviously sitting Schilling this week is a good idea. I know that other appendectomies have cost players more than a week of rehab, but that abdominal surgery has become much less traumatic in recent years.

Cleveland down 6 after 1

Travis Hafner will probably hit better than .180, and he’s going to have to make up for all the unearned runs that will score against a team that plays him in the field. Because he’s backed up behind Ellis Burks at DH he’s not going to get many chances to play except at first base.

So far the results haven’t been too happy.

ESPN.com: MLB – Not so swell: Big Unit held out of next start

If you own Randy Johnson you probably already know this. If you don’t, delight for a while in someone else’s agony. By all accounts Johnson is in great physical shape, but injuries like this for guys pushing 40 are a whole lot different than they are for, well, younger guys.

No predictions here, Big Unit may heal just fine with a little more rest, but if I’d invested my season in him I’d be worried.

ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

There is clearly something very wrong with Ramiro Mendoza.

Ask Rotoman at mlb.com

This week’s column is posted. Keep the good questions rolling in, by email or the discussion group, which has been busy of late.

I miss blogging. I wanted to write about Alfonso Soriano’s first two steals, finally, and Jesse Foppert’s debut. I want to write about the war and my taxes, too. If I can get the software working smoothly (a big if) you’ll see more and more of me in the coming weeks, though my head–which lately has been immersed in hundreds of football pictures and writer assignments for the football magazine–will be increasingly cluttered by trying to remembering how to pronounce Edgerrin.

I’ve been busy the last few days, and let the blog slip. I’ve decided to let it slip even more. I’m going to continue to be busy, and while I love to chatter about the latest news, the obligation to appear here each day was weighing on me. So I’m jettisoning it.

You may find comments here from time to time, but it’s going to be scattershot. When I find a web site that I think might help, or when I read some commentary I think is bogus, or when Mike MacDougal gets sent down to the minors, you’ll probably hear from me. Until then you’ll still find me prowling around the discussion board and at mlb.com. I appreciate all your questions.

Ask Rotoman at mlb.com

This week’s column is out. A look at some less than powerful outfielders, the time it is, and managing bottom of the barrel pitchers.

Florida crushes Atlanta

So far, Greg Maddux has been less than stellar.

And the two most offensive forces in baseball have been Florida’s Alex Gonzalez and Tampa’s Rey Ordonez, if you don’t count Pittsburgh’s Reggie Sanders.

Needless to say, it’s early. And already Ken Griffey Jr. has experienced a new injury. So don’t freak out. But if you have a hole don’t shy away from the early hot hands. They’re unlikely to persist, but there is enough we don’t know that it would be foolish to think that a Gonzalez or Ordonez might not be helpful. At least for awhile.