This won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who has read this blog with any regularity, but Dustin Parkes does some actual research and shows how spending lots of money on a bullpen is not the best way to build a bullpen. Seven of the 10 most effective relievers in high-leverage situations in 2011 will make less than a million dollars for their efforts.
Jon Mooallem’s investigation into the invention of the high five is way better and way sadder than you’d expect. Definitely worth a read.
The question then becomes how long a wild-card series should be. Costas predicted the adoption of a one-and-done playoff over a three-game series because that would be television’s preference — ensuring two games every season modeled on the storied playoff game of 1978 (Yankees-Red Sox) as opposed to the three-game version of 1951 (Giants-Dodgers).
“Here’s the difference,” Costas said. “Those games came after 162 games and were the result of a dead heat. They were not contrived like these would be.”
A best-of-three series would also require the survivor to extend its pitching staff by having to play at least twice, thereby making it that much more challenging for a wild-card team to win the World Series. Under those terms, this weekend’s series in Boston would be well worth the hype.
It sure sounds like Major League Baseball’s going to add a second Wild Card, so this feels a bit like tilting at windmills now. Plus I should add that even as a teenager I disliked the idea of a grand change to baseball’s playoff system in 1994. For all my pretense toward open-mindedness, I’m pretty stodgy at heart.
But indulge me. Say for the sake of argument that there were a second Wild Card and a one-game playoff in 2011, and season ended with the teams in the exact positions they are right now.
In the American League, the Yankees would be rewarded for being eight games better than the Angels over a 162-game season by having to beat the Angels in a one- or three-game series. Nevermind that the Yankees play in the toughest division in baseball and are seven games better than the AL West-leading Rangers and 9.5 up on the AL Central-leading Tigers, it doesn’t seem at all fair to force them to assert their dominance over the Angels in a short series (or single game!) that could easily be decided by randomness when they’ve already shown it over the much larger sample.
Granted, since the start of divisional play there are tons of examples where teams with better records have been excluded from the playoffs in favor of those that managed only to be better than the dreck in their division, plus it’s not like a full seven-game series is enough to show for sure that one team is superior to another.
And I guess the most important thing to keep in mind is that it’s not really about fairness. Not to sound cynical, but presumably Bud Selig has at his disposal an army of accountants showing the ways in which adding a Wild Card would be financially best for the teams and the game.
This is happening whether I like it or not, so I suppose it’s time I get used to the idea. I imagine in time there’ll be seasons made more exciting by the change and seasons made less exciting, it’ll all balance out and eventually I’ll just accept it as the way it is instead of focusing so much on the way it once was.
Your thoughts?
[poll id=”32″]
Selfish Carlos Beltran yada yada yada. From Kyle.
Jordan Zakarin passes along word that the following is available for sale in SkyMall, America’s most essential in-flight catalog:
SkyMall has really outdone itself this time. Among pages upon pages of ridiculous, unnecessary products, perhaps most absurd of all: Jeff Francoeur, Clutch Hitter.
If you’re playing at home, Francoeur’s career line in high-leverage situations is a hefty .252/.301/.384, meaning he is a clutch hitter in roughly the same way that Yuniesky Betancourt is a hitter, in that both men are often charged with the task regardless of if they are up to it.
In fact, since Francoeur’s career rates in medium- and low-leverage situations are well higher than in those highly pressured spots, one might even argue that Jeff Francoeur is a decidedly unclutch hitter if one believed such a thing exists at the Major League level.
But then SkyMall says otherwise, and SkyMall sells the Litter Robot.
What follows is fiction, obviously.
House of Pain’s “Jump Around” blares from an iPod dock in the visitors’ clubhouse in Citizens Bank Park. Members of the defending World Champion, first-place San Francisco Giants bounce giddily around the room, preparing for their game against the Phillies. Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo pass an iPad back and forth, laughing at something on the screen. Miguel Tejada and Mike Fontenot take turns flicking a paper football through deodorant-stick uprights.
Carlos Beltran enters, wheeling his luggage behind him.
“Hey bro,” says Brian Wilson, bounding across the room. “It’s me, Brian Wilson! The wacky guy, with the beard! Do you like cheesesticks?”
“I know who you are,” says Beltran. “We met last week, and you’re on TV constantly. You’re the most overexposed man in America. Have you no shame?”
The music stops. Eli Whiteside puts down the bust of Bruce Bochy he is whittling and stares at Beltran.
“Aw, it’s just… I… I’m me being me,” Wilson says. “I… ahh… do you like cheesesticks?”
“You’re not even the most talented or craziest Brian Wilson,” says Beltran.
Beltran rolls by the lockers belonging to Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. “Hey, Mitch from Dazed and Confused and Badger from Breaking Bad. Big fan, guys.”
A few lockers down, Pablo Sandoval changes into his uniform. “Brother, I thought they said you lost weight,” says Beltran as he passes.
Hitting coach Hensley Meulens meets with the rest of the Giants’ starting lineup near the locker assigned to Beltran. Beltran sees the group and doubles over in hysterical laughter.
The Giants are 1-5 since Beltran’s arrival.
1) Pete Incaviglia is the reason baseball players cannot be traded within one year of being drafted.
2) Somewhere in my parents’ basement, there’s a binder containing some 20 1987 Topps Pete Incaviglia rookie cards. My brother and I thought Pete Incaviglia was going to be totally sweet. He was, but not in the way that would make his rookie card valuable.
3) An old edition of Baseball Prospectus referred to Pete Incaviglia’s position as “Thunderstick of Yore.” I thought this was a particularly cool sounding phrase and tried to sell it on my then-band as a band name: The Thundersticks of Yore. We considered it, but played our only gig under the name “The Lewis Effect” at a festival in Pennsylvania called Ratstock, opening for the long-established Long Island blues-rock band The Good Rats. We sucked.
Yesterday, Jered Weaver took exception to what he believed to be Magglio Ordonez admiring a home run hit down the line at Comerica Park. So a couple innings later, Carlos Guillen did this. Weaver got ejected after he threw the next pitch at Alex Avila’s head, but none of that matters now.
When I went to the Tigers’ website to pull up that Guillen homer, I found out that they’re hosting Zubazpalooza on Wednesday. For $23, you get a ticket to the Tigers’ game, entrance to a pre-game party, and a pair of Zubaz.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a ballpark giving away pants before. It’s interesting, because it tacitly encourages fans to change their pants at a baseball game. I guess Zubaz are baggy enough that you could pull them on over whatever you’ve already got on, but that seems kind of steamy for the summer.
Remember earlier, when I said “There probably exists something equally goofy of Shane Victorino”? It turns out, the night of the Cole Hamels Roadhouse Photoshopping was 80’s night in Philadelphia. Here’s what they went with for Victorino:
What’s entertaining is that it’s even-money Victorino actually has that suit.
What’s disheartening is how awesome this one came out:
Hat tip to Seth and Kim again, and Theresa.
Barry Bonds in recent years has been a heated debate. Should he or shouldn’t he get in the HOF? And if the answer is yes, should Barry be a first ballot HOF? C’mon man! This guy was unbelievable, PED’s or whatever! There is one thing you need to ask yourself, “Is Barry Bonds and his performance on the field during his career worthy of HOF entry? As my son would say (he’s 8 years old), “Duh!” ‘Nuff said. Barry is simply one of the best to ever play this great game. No maybe, no but what about the help he might have gotten, and no, well, lets put him in but make him wait. I see clearly now, the powers that be are playing HOF God? C’mon man! If Barry is not an automatic, in any era, no matter what help he might have gotten, Hall of Fame baseball player, than I’m done with this Cooperstown thing.
How ’bout Rico Brogna, huh? I knew I liked that guy.
Via Repoz.
Tedquarters 