Category Archives: Baseball

No. 4 Top Thing of 2010: Galarraga’s imperfect game

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Baseball’s 2010 regular season featured two perfect games, but arguably the most memorable pitching performance came from 28-year-old righty Armando Galarraga.

Galarraga, you’ll recall, retired the first 26 Cleveland hitters in order on June 2. The 27th, Jason Donald, slapped a soft grounder to the right side of the infield. You know all this: Miguel Cabrera handled it cleanly and fired it to Galarraga, covering first, beating Donald by a step. Umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe, robbing Galarraga of a perfect game.

Galarraga didn’t argue the call. He smiled instead.

Armando Galarraga is not a great pitcher by Major League standards. He’s not even a good one; he’s just a guy. He won’t make the Hall of Fame, he won’t win the Cy Young Award, and he probably won’t ever make an All-Star Team. But thanks to the whims of the sport and small sample sizes and in part to a brutal Indians lineup, Galarraga had a shot at baseball immortality.

I don’t know Galarraga personally, but I know he was signed by the Expos out of Venezuela when he was 16. And I know he spent seven years kicking around the Minor Leagues before settling in to the Tigers’ rotation in 2008. And then on June 2, he saw before his eyes the culmination of all the work he has certainly endeavored and all the physical toil he has doubtlessly endured: perfection, the ultimate single-game accomplishment for a pitcher. Then it was taken from him, and he only smiled.

Joyce, for his part, watched a replay of the call immediately after the game, admitted he blew it and apologized to Galarraga. Galarraga said he understood.

In the end, Joyce and Galarraga shared something perhaps as rare as a perfect game: Two apparently decent and reasonable human beings behaving in a civilized and understanding manner despite an awful situation.

Roy Halladay’s perfect game further confirmed my knowledge that Roy Halladay is really good. Dallas Braden’s perfect game further exposed Braden’s Happy Gilmore-esque silliness and introduced me to his smack-talking grandma. Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game reminded me of the human capacity for dignity. It’s hard to imagine a more impressive performance on a baseball field.

No. 6 Top Thing of 2010: Albert Pujols’ continued existence

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In 2010, Albert Pujols led the National League in home runs, RBI and runs scored. He finished third in on-base percentage, second in slugging and second in OPS and OPS+, and placed second in the National League MVP Award voting. It was something of a down year for him.

I will keep this short because there’s little I can say about Pujols that can’t be told more eloquently by his baseball-reference page. He created some sort of stir this season by showing up at a political/religious rally, but I’m not here to quibble with or judge Albert Pujols for his beliefs. I figure if I were as good at anything as Albert Pujols is at hitting, I’d have a wildly different outlook on just about everything.

Just how good? He is tied with Mickey Mantle for sixth all time in park- and league-adjusted OPS+. The men above him? Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Gehrig, Hornsby.

Pujols will be 31 when 2011 opens, so it’s safe to argue his career rates will ultimately drop off a little bit. Frank Thomas, after all, had a 174 career OPS+ at age 30 and finished his career (some 5000 very good plate appearances later) with a still totally awesome 156 mark.

And Albert Pujols didn’t earn his way onto the TedQuarters Top 10 Things of 2010 by showing signs of his decline. Instead, he maintained his excellent and remarkably consistent level of performance. I could list stats to show the clock-like regularity with which he dominates Major League hitters — he has finished in the top 3 of MVP voting eight times, he has never hit fewer than 30 home runs or driven in fewer than 100 runs, he has only once finished a season with an on-base percentage below .400 (and it was .394) — but again, it’s easier and more effective to defer to the back of his baseball card.

Pujols is in the inner circle of greatest hitters of all time, and we are lucky to be able to enjoy his prime in thrilling HD. Historically great hitters don’t come around all that often, so though it’s safe to say we might see a couple more hitters as good as Pujols in our lifetimes, we probably won’t see a few.

No. 7 Top Thing of 2010: R.A. Dickey

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Duh.

Dickey will be the last Mets-related entry in the TedQuarters Top 10 Things of 2010. I considered including the hiring of Sandy Alderson somewhere, but it seems inappropriate to bestow such a weighty honor upon the decision (and the general manager) until we see the team Alderson constructs play some ballgames and everything.

And R.A. Dickey, certainly the shiniest bright spot in a mostly dark season for the Mets, deserves recognition here. A 35-year-old journeyman with no ulnar collateral ligament, Dickey harnessed the mesmerizing powers of the knuckleball and enjoyed a career season: He posted a 138 ERA+ in 174 1/3 innings, induced a ton of groundballs and kept runners off base. Mixing speeds with his signature pitch, He flummoxed Major League hitters from May to September.

Dickey’s on-field contributions didn’t end there. A ferocious competitor, he swiftly established himself as an excellent defensive pitcher. And at the plate, Dickey posted a .296 on-base percentage, equaling or bettering the season line of five position players in the Mets’ Opening Day lineup (!). Got the bunts down when he had to, put the ball in play when he had to, even smacked a couple of doubles. Just a good baseball player.

All of that, in sum, probably would have been enough to help Dickey crack the Top 10 Things of 2010. We like redemption stories, after all, and in a purely baseball sense his is a great one. Former first-round draft pick develops a knuckleball late in his baseball life, figures it out, dominates.

But then on top of all that, there’s R.A. Dickey the dude. Turns out the Mets’ knuckleballer himself recognizes the universal appeal of the knuckleball. He loves literature and poetry, and he reads before games. His last name is “Dickey.” He would like to be a ball boy at the U.S. Open, but he’s unwilling to part with his beard. He makes an awesome face when he throws. He is accessible to blogger and Burkhardt alike. The guy is a fan’s dream; great story, obvious dedication, interesting fellow.

Still, I’m certain that the most endearing thing about Dickey, to fans, is the outstanding performance in 2010. Moving forward, if Dickey regresses a little bit as the league catches up to him, it will be interesting to see how fans react. Naturally some of us will always have a soft spot in our hearts for a pitcher/poet, but I wonder if, at some point after two lousy starts happen to fall on consecutive outings for Dickey, we’ll have to suffer WFAN callers and incensed Tweeters demanding Dickey take his head out of his Dumas and start watching more game film, or something stupid like that.

For now, though, we can hope that never happens, and that Dickey only continues to baffle opposing hitters and enthrall adoring fans.

No. 9 Top Thing of 2010: Luis Hernandez’s tragic home run

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Look: In reality, there were a few solidly awesome Mets moments in 2010, but this will be the only one that makes the TedQuarters Top 10 Things. I could have gone with one of the Ike Davis catches over the rail, or any number of amazing things Angel Pagan did, or Carlos Beltran’s first homer after his return to action. But somehow this seemed a fitting way to eulogize the end of the Omar Minaya Era.

Haters will point out that Luis Hernandez probably shouldn’t have even been playing on Sept. 18. They’ll show you all the evidence that Hernandez wasn’t anything like as deserving of a roster spot as Justin Turner, or anything like a credible Major League hitter. And they’ll complain that in spite of that evidence, Jerry Manuel made the diminutive Venezuelan his de facto starting second baseman for a short while due mostly to one good game in which the Mets scored 18 runs in Chicago.

Haters could also point out that, in fact, Hernandez might not have even been a better hitter than young Ruben Tejada. And they’d say that since Tejada was merely 20 at the time and still could play some role in the Mets’ future, he deserved at-bats to adjust to Major League pitching and audition for 2011.

Haters gonna hate, as they say. And Hernandez’s home run, one pitch after the foul ball that broke his right foot, was tragically heroic. With his front foot broken and Tim Hudson on the mound, with the Mets down 3-1 in the game and long out of the pennant chase, a 5’10” backup infielder with two home runs in 289 prior Major League plate appearances positively crushed one.

I happened to be listening on the radio when it happened, and I wish I could present Howie Rose’s call instead of the one above. I can’t remember it word for word, but he essentially used it to symbolize the Mets’ entire 2010 campaign. To me, it seemed almost a more apt description for Omar Minaya’s entire tenure: The Mets get surprising contributions from an unlikely source, only to have it ultimately go horribly and triumphantly awry.

The Mets lineup as half-full

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Over at MetsBlog today, Matt Cerrone took issue with Ben Shpigel’s assertion that the Mets, “in all likelihood,” would not contend in 2011. I can’t fault Shpigel for the prediction — the Mets, as we all know, are coming off two sub-.500 seasons, have made few roster moves, and will start the year without Johan Santana in their rotation.

But as Matt points out, unpredictable things happen in baseball all the time. I didn’t talk to Cerrone about the post, but if I had to guess I would assume it was at least in part motivated by the sense of fatalism that seems to be growing in Mets fans, especially since the Phillies signed Cliff Lee. There’s nothing wrong with making predictions and taking stabs at what will likely happen, as Shpigel does. Writing off any team entirely before the season even starts is silly.

For what it’s worth, last winter I listed both the Reds and the Padres as “unlikely to contend” in my National League preview for the Maple Street Press Mets Annual. Captain Hindsight can look back now and identify the ways in which both clubs were primed to compete, but at the time it hardly seemed I was taking controversial positions.

Anyway, on to the point. If we’re talking optimistically and trying to figure out the things that reasonably could happen to launch the Mets into contention, I’ll point out that the Mets might have a very good offense next season.

Fangraphs currently lists two 2011 projections for most players — Bill James’ version, and their crowdsourced fan projections. In most cases, the two are reasonably similar. Because I’m trying to see the cup half-full for the sake of this post, I took the better of the two projections for everyone slated to be in the Mets’ lineup and plugged them into David Pinto’s lineup analysis tool.

I even gave Josh Thole a bit of a boost, figuring Ronny Paulino will take some at-bats away against tough lefties. Since Thole was projected at a .358 OBP and a .378 slugging by the fans, I unscientifically bumped those numbers up to .360 and .415, seeing as Paulino has a lifetime .390 OBP and .490 slugging against lefties. I’m painting in broad strokes here.

I plugged in Daniel Murphy for second base, which assumes he can capably man the position. His Bill James projection seemed so optimistic that I didn’t bother adjusting it for any sort of platoon. James’ system projects Murph to post a .339 OBP and .455 slugging in 2011, which would put him among the top handful of second basemen offensively.

Anyway, with a lineup of Jose Reyes, Angel Pagan, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, Ike Davis, Murphy and Thole/Paulino all performing up to the most optimistic of reasonable projections, the Mets would score just short of five runs per game (4.959, to be exact) according to the tool.

That’s nearly a full run per game better than the Mets scored last season. It would have made them the NL’s top offensive club in 2010.

Obviously the system is not perfect for a variety of reasons. For one, it assumes all players play 162 games at their positions, which clearly won’t happen. There’s a dropoff when you start plugging in bench players for the starters, and even in full health every team needs to plug in bench players with some frequency.

But even despite the team’s impotent offense last year, I don’t think it’s crazy to expect the Mets to score a lot of runs next season. There’s no obvious gaping hole in the lineup, and amazing things can happen when you replace out machines with capable Major Leaguers. Subbing in Jeff Francoeur’s 2010 Mets line for Beltran and Rod Barajas’ for Thole/Paulino would cost the team about a half-run per game, per the tool. (Pinto’s script fails to factor in smiles and leadership.)

If the Mets could only prevent runs as well as they did last year, using the Pythagorean win expectancy formula with that lineup projection, they’d finish with right around 100 wins. So that, well, that’d be cool.

Problem is, it’s just not that likely to happen. The Mets enjoyed very good pitching last year, but they also had a healthy Santana throw 199 innings. Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey, two of the three starters penned in for the 2011 rotation, experienced lasting big-league success for the very first time in 2010. And throwing Murphy in at second base could have repercussions for the defense.

The Mets lineup, as currently constituted, probably won’t score 800 runs. But it will probably be pretty good. That is what we can hold onto until April. That and the knowledge that lots of crazy things happen in baseball.

I’d say neither of those things makes the Mets likely to contend in 2011, but together they should be enough for us to recognize that it’s not downright impossible for the Mets to contend in 2011.

Well, I compare sportswriters to totalitarian dictators

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I compare PED users to murderers — of course, it’s not the same thing. But please follow my reasoning. Lots of murderers never get caught. Yet society has no trouble punishing murders who get arrested and convicted. It’s not like a defense lawyer walks into court and says, “Thousands of murderers get away with their crimes, so you should let my client, who wiped out an entire family, go free in the interest of fair play.”

That would be absurd. It also is absurd to let McGwire or Palmeiro into the Hall just because we don’t have the goods on somebody else. We have the goods on McGwire and Palmeiro.

– Lowell Cohn, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

Cohn has become the Internet’s new whipping boy for his ridiculous murder comp, but that’s not actually the thing that most stands out about this article to me.

He repeatedly states that he feels good about not voting for known PED users like Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds. That’s weird to me. Does that really feel good? Even if you’re broken up about steroid use in baseball — as Cohn undoubtedly is — is it really ever enjoyable to punish someone? Don’t get me wrong, there are times when punishment is just and proper. But even in those cases, is it fun to be the punisher?*

Apparently Cohn thinks so, and that’s his right. It’s just not for me. I made a terrible substitute teacher.

* – It is definitely fun to be The Punisher, except for the whole tortured-antihero thing.

Mets Interactive with Matt Cerrone

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The fruits of our earlier labors:

On the Garza for Mejia and Flores thing: You’ll see in the video that I say, in a typically hedged way, that I’d probably do it. 70 percent of TedQuarters readers and conversations with a few Mets fans and non-Mets fans have me at least considering otherwise.

Y’all know I’m all about keeping the farm system intact and building from within. Thing is, both Mejia and Flores seem pretty far off from impacting the Major League team, and so much can happen between now and when (and if) they do.

Garza, like I say in the video, is hardly an ace, but he has proven he can stay healthy and throw 200 big-league innings, plus he’s under team control via arbitration through the 2013 season.

Still, I get that Flores and Mejia are the Mets’ two best prospects, and Mejia seems like the guy in the system most likely to develop into a legit ace. And I happen to like Flores for a variety of reasons, even if he’ll have to move from shortstop and everything else.

I would love to be able to poll a larger sample of non-Mets fans to see what they’d say. And like Matt suggests in the video, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the Rays might be able to get a more enticing package of prospects — with at least one that’s ready to contribute in the Majors — than the Mets’ top pair.

A partial year in Tweets

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I’ve got Christmas shopping and an upcoming vacation on the mind, and I’m struggling a bit to come up with anything to write about. But I’m vain enough to reprint things I’ve already published, and I figured revisiting the year via a selection of my own Tweets would make for a decent year-in-review post. Problem is, I can’t find a way to see any Twitter before May 26. So indulge me in a partial year in Tweets:

May 26: Oh thank god. I was concerned Fernando Nieve wouldn’t get in this game. #youhavetwomopupguysforjustthissituation

June 1: I am embarrassed and terrified by how few of NY Mag’s 101 Best Sandwiches in NY I’ve had. Looks like I’ve got a long night ahead.

June 3: ROBBLE ROBBLE ROBBLE JIM JOYCE!

June 4: An A-ball team is now calling batting practice “hitting rehearsal” to avoid calling it “BP.” That’ll teach ’em.

June 7: Prediction: Some guys drafted tonight will turn out good and others will suck.

June 11: You can scold Lady Gaga for wearing a bikini bottom to the Mets game, but you’re just jealous she can get away with never wearing pants.

June 15: Painter Thomas Kinkade was arrested for DUI Friday on an idyllic cobblestone road by the charming old lighthouse at dusk.

June 18: Campbell’s is recalling 15 million pounds of SpaghettiO’s. In a related story, there are 15 million pounds of SpaghettiO’s.

June 24: Obviously Johan Santana sucks now because he had extramarital sex with a woman on a golf course eight months ago.

June 30: Me, after filming five intros: “Does being introduced as ‘Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner’ ever get old?” Kiner: “How could that ever get old?”

July 4: Jeff Francoeur, who has a .718 OPS, said all the Mets OFs deserve playing time upon Beltran’s return since none is “flat-out sucking.”

July 8: Funniest outcome: LeBron James announces he’s signing with Olympiacos then suffers career-threatening finger injury while flipping everyone off.

July 16: Source: The Yanks would like to have Joakim Soria, distinguising them from all those teams that would not like to have Joakim Soria.

July 20: When managing an MLB roster, the most important thing to know is never, ever risk losing Fernando Nieve on waivers. Too risky!

July 23: Jason Bay has struggled all season, presumably because of something Carlos Beltran did.

July 29: Source: Adam Dunn is lazy, but won’t DH because he hates baseball so much he wants to torment it with terrible defense.

Aug. 5: Are we discounting the possibility that Brett Favre’s photos were actually aimed for his wife and intercepted?

Aug. 6: Why do crappy baseball teams lack the confidence that the good ones have? The world may never know.

Aug. 9: According to Alex Cora, if a team is committed to winning now, it should hang on to Alex Cora.

Aug. 12: Heath Bell leads the National League in saves, but he’s dead last in old men beaten up.

Aug. 16: Jerseyites always get all dodgy when you ask them about Taylor Ham, a local meat product. Be honest, Jersey: Is it people?

Aug. 21: I saw Wyclef Jean in concert once. It was awful. I left thinking, “I hope that man is never a head of state.” #votepras

Aug. 25: Look I know Jeff Francoeur hasn’t had a hit in two months, but please, give him credit: He’s had some really long at-bats.

Aug. 31: Will the media hordes follow Jeff Francoeur and his pursuit of 100 home runs to Texas?

Sept. 1: Don’t forget: Tommy Hanson and his longtime family friends will deny it, but he’s totally cousins with the band Hanson.

Sept. 5: Mets steaming as clubhouse cancer Mike Pelfrey draws ire for fantasy football grandstanding. “Thinks he’s John Madden,” grumbles one.

Sept. 5: My biggest regret is that I lived nearly 30 years without knowing about the sandwich I just ate. Holy hell. Everything is different now.

Sept. 10: Carlos Beltran should not have torn Johan Santana’s left anterior shoulder capsule.

Sept. 13: Paraphrasing Daily News: Jets should not have objectified this extremely sexy bombshell reporter. WITH SEXY PHOTOS!

Sept. 15: Pretty sure every single person at Citi Field is on the line at Shake Shack.

Sept. 20: I’d like to score a role as the drunk in an action movie who sees something crazy then looks at his drink like, “whoa, that’s good stuff.”

Sept. 27: Jets overcome injuries, penalties, widespread charges of moral turpitude to beat Dolphins, 31-23.

Oct. 3: Not sure why people are so fired up about Dickey pitching here. Doesn’t crack the top 1000 dumbest Mets moves this season.

Oct. 6: I think maybe Cee Lo Green is going to unify the planet in utopian harmony the way we thought Wyld Stallyns would.

Oct. 9: Knowing that Mariano Rivera has been to Taco Bell is like knowing that the Beatles met Muhammad Ali. Historic confluence of awesome.

Oct. 13: An errant dart just struck an unopened soda can and sent a stream of ginger ale shooting across the office. It was awesome.

Oct. 16: Jeff Francoeur’s rocking a historically great 3:1 FA:PT in the ALCS. That’s feature articles:pitches taken.

Oct. 18: Fox vs. Cablevision is like the Yankees-Phillies World Series of corporate disputes.

Oct. 19: Listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver guarantees you’ll appreciate the broadcast you hear next. It’s like taking the donut off the bat.

Oct. 28: ALERT: Man in suit proceeding south on 5th ave. on a Segway.

Nov. 1: Will Tim Lincecum’s performance tonight help sway the vote on Prop 19?

Nov. 8: Even though the Giants debunked Moneyball, the Mets have hired Paul DePodesta.

Nov. 16: Charlie Samuels fired today? Dammit, I had Nov. 16 in the pool. Wait – noooooooo!

Nov. 17: It’s laughable that Bud Selig still thinks Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Everyone knows it was Wally Backman.

Nov. 21: Mets hire manager at 3 a.m. Pakistan Standard Time.

Nov. 22: It’s bizarre to me that many Mets fans who argued that Wally Backman has changed seem certain that Terry Collins cannot.

Nov. 28: What kind of party is it, exactly, that could prompt a man to defile the mashed potatoes?

Nov. 29: Apparently a WEEI caller today suggested that the Red Sox pay Derek Jeter $20 mil and bench him behind Marco Scutaro.

Dec. 3: In Colonial Williamsburg, everyone wore tight, tapered knickers and stayed ironically detached from the whole revolution thing.

Dec.6: OK Jets fans, this is awful. But we need to remember one thing: Tom Brady wears man-UGGs.

Dec. 7: Heard this: A mystery team has made a bid for an unspecified player. Terms not disclosed.

Dec. 9: To me, what the Mets are doing this offseason *is* exciting. Extremely so. I could hardly care less what makes headlines.

Dec. 13: Sandy Alderson is so much cooler than Mike Francesa.

Dec. 14: From the Internet today you’d get the impression that the Phillies won’t lose a single game in 2011. C’mon. They’ll lose at least 5.

Dec. 15: Most amazing thing about tonight’s Knicks game: I’ve now watched three straight Knicks games.