Tuesday, May 18, 2004
STOP THE PRESSES!
Just as I was about to wrap things up for the night, I heard one of the Red Sox radio announcers inform us listeners that Randy Johnson was perfect into the 8th down in Atlanta. Well that caused me to scramble to the nearest TV I could find and start writing. Scroll down to the end of tonight's post to read my commentary...
A Tuesday Night Stroll
Somewhere between me and WFAN's antenna, there must be some disturbances in the atmosphere. I'm hearing crackles and electrical sizzles coming me through an already fuzzy radio reception.
The Cards are up on the Mets 3-1 at Shea. Edmonds put a helluva at-bat on Tom Glavine in the first inning before rifling a single to center to make it 2-0 at the time. Glavine was staying away, staying away. And Edmonds was able to fight his way to 3-2, was looking for the pitch on the outside and hit it well.
I'm wondering how far into the night I'll make it watching baseball from the West Coast tonight. The Yanks are in Anaheim, and while that match-up intrigues me, 6:30 a.m. comes quickly when you call it a night at about 1:00 a.m.
So for now, baseball on the radio and the Gameday "broadcasts" on MLB.com will suffice. You're welcome to join me as I take a stroll through the Bigs on this sticky, feels-like-mid-July, Tuesday night.
---
We start in Philadelphia where they're certainly feeling good about life after the Phils, who were trailing the Dodgers 6-2 in the 4th, just hit Back-to-Back-to-Back (that's three in a row) home runs. All solo shots.
Abreu led off the inning and hit a 1-2 pitch out. He was followed by Thome and Burrell. 6-5 now. That was home run # 11, 8 and 11, respectively.
Wilson Alvarez (yes, that Wilson Alvarez) is pitching for the Dodgers, and looking at his stats quickly, I can't believe how well he's pitched for L.A. over the past season and change.
After falling off the face of the Earth (he didn't pitch in 2000 or 2001), he continued his ill-fated stint with the Devil Rays in 2002 going 2-3 with a 5.28 ERA in 23 games (10 starts). After leaving his Tropicana tragedy behind him, he ended up with the Dodgers last year and pitched very well.
6-2, 2.37, 21 G, 12 GS, 95.0 IP, 80 H, 23 BB, 82 K
This season he's been even better than that. Coming into tonight (his 3rd start) he had a nifty 1.10 ERA in 10 appearances. 31.1 IP, 20 H, 4 BB, 28 K.
As incredulous as it is for me to say this, it is 2004 and Wilson Alvarez has been a dominant pitcher for the Dodgers. Tonight, however, has been the dose of reality that you would expect to hit him at some point. With the 5 ER given up through four innings, his ERA has jumped up to 2.29.
---
Where to go?
How 'bout a trip to the aforementioned Tropicana Field for a check on the Sox and Rays.
Damn, what the hell has happened to Lou Pinella and the Devil Rays? It's not that we're unaccustomed to watching Tampa stink, it's just that most observers thought that at least they were on the path to being decent. I even was ready to concede that the line-up was "pretty good" and getting better. Now I'm ready to throw any praise for this team out the window.
As the big red-head Bill Walton would say, "They've been terr-i-bull."
Here are some of their rankings to date:
Pitching
ERA: 5.19 (12th in the AL). They were bad in this category last year: 4.93, good for 11th in the league. This year they've been even worse.
They're also nestled near the bottom in walks allowed and number of strikeouts. In fact, Kansas City's 178 Ks are the only total lower than Tampa's even 200.
Hitting
This is where I thought the improvement of this team would manifest itself the most ... right?
Yeah, right.
Their 132 runs? Last. Dead last in the AL. That's 3.66 R/G, down from last year's terrible offense which scored runs at a 4.41 clip.
Home runs? 30. Good for a tie for 12th with the under-achieving Blue Jays.
They don't walk (100 BB = last in the AL), and their OPS reflects this in part. They're easily last in OPS at .667 (next lowest is Seattle at .698), with a truly terrible .301 team OBP. For good measure, their .239 BA is last in the league as well.
How bad are these numbers?
Well, many of us could agree that the Detroit Tigers last year (and the year before that) were one of the worst offenses we've ever seen, and probably one of the worst offenses in modern baseball.
Here are some comparisons:
Avg.
'03 Tigers: .240
'04 Devil Rays: .239
OBP
'03 Tigers: .300
'04 Devil Rays: .301
SLG
'03 Tigers: .375
'04 Devil Rays:.367
Runs per Game
'03 Tigers: 3.65
'04 Devil Rays: 3.67
When I see guys like Aubrey Huff and Jose Cruz, Jr. hitting around .200, and other position players hitting .160, .203 and .200, I have to believe that it can't be this bad. Can it?
I'm going to make the leap that Tampa is not going to be this offensively challenged the entire season and will make a run to avoid the label of "Worst Offensive Team in the American League."
The Sox just tagged on a run, by the way, in the 7th, lead 3-1 and are on their way to vaulting back into a first-place tie with the Yankees for at least a few hours.
------
The only tie game in baseball right this second, not counting a scoreless game at Wrigley Field between the Giants and Cubs, is the... Oops. Tied no longer.
The game I'm referring to is the one between the Twins and the Jays. Toronto just pushed ahead the go-ahead run in the bottom of the 6th, thanks to a hit batsman with the bases loaded. Dave Berg was hit by a Johan Santana pitch, which allowed Josh Phelps to score. Pitching change.
------
The Astros are beating up on the Marlins, 9-1 in Florida. Boy the Marlins have cooled off a bit since their fast start.
April 6-15: 8-1
Since (including chalking tonight up as a loss): 13-16.
If it wasn't for a good opening week to the season, the Marlins would be just another .500 team in the middle of the muck that is the National League East. They're fast approaching that fate as it is.
---
Postscript:
It’s 9:36 EST and within the past three minutes I got the word via the Red Sox radio broadcast that Randy Johnson was still perfect in the 8th inning in Atlanta.
I immediately raced into my back room to flip on TBS and see him retire the 3rd and final batter of the 8th.
He’s now batting, actually, in the top of the 9th with two men on and no one out against Mike Hampton who’s still in, and pitching his best game of the season as well. Unfortunately, for him, he picked the wrong night to take the mound.
Johnson’s line to this point is simply dazzling.
8 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K
Hampton just did a great job of pitching out of a 2nd-and-3rd-no-outs jam and the score remains 2-0 going to the bottom of the 9th.
The last time I did this (wrote alongside a perfect game or no-hitter) was two years ago when Derek Lowe no-hit the Devil Rays in Fenway Park. I remember Rickey Henderson caught the last out of the game. I also remember it was an absolute blow-out, 11-zip if my memory serves correct.
In this instance, it’s still a game, with the ol’ bloop-and-a-blast routine a possibility.
Well, here we go…
Mark DeRosa.
Low, ball one. A breaking ball. That was pitch 104.
Swing and a miss. Another breaking pitch. 1-1.
Fouled to the right. 1-2. That was juice. 95 mph.
Jammed him, groundball to second base. Two outs to go.
Crowd is pulling for Johnson at this point. No surprise there.
Nick Green. 0-1.
Swing and a miss. 0-2. Looks badly over-matched.
Low. Ball 1. 1-2.
Johnson taking his time a bit before this pitch.
Fouled to the right. Stays alive.
1,009 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Zero no-hitters. Not yet anway.
Caught him looking. 12 Ks. One out to go.
Last perfect game in the majors: David Cone vs. the Expos in July of 1999.
Eddie Perez is pinch-hitting.
Swing and a miss at that vicious slider.
Crowd on their feet.
Outside. 1-1.
Fouled to the right. 1-2. One strike to go.
Ball two.
116 pitches. 86 strikes.
Strike Three. Blew it by him.
“He faced 27 men. He got ‘em all out. And he’s getting mobbed by his teammates on the mound.” – Skip Carey
117 pitches. 87 strikes. 13 strikeouts.
A great reaction by the Diamondbacks dugout. A team that needed a boost with the season they’ve been having.
A legendary pitcher. One more line on the Hall of Fame plaque.
It’s 9:52, and baseball has its most enduring memory of the season so far.
Just as I was about to wrap things up for the night, I heard one of the Red Sox radio announcers inform us listeners that Randy Johnson was perfect into the 8th down in Atlanta. Well that caused me to scramble to the nearest TV I could find and start writing. Scroll down to the end of tonight's post to read my commentary...
A Tuesday Night Stroll
Somewhere between me and WFAN's antenna, there must be some disturbances in the atmosphere. I'm hearing crackles and electrical sizzles coming me through an already fuzzy radio reception.
The Cards are up on the Mets 3-1 at Shea. Edmonds put a helluva at-bat on Tom Glavine in the first inning before rifling a single to center to make it 2-0 at the time. Glavine was staying away, staying away. And Edmonds was able to fight his way to 3-2, was looking for the pitch on the outside and hit it well.
I'm wondering how far into the night I'll make it watching baseball from the West Coast tonight. The Yanks are in Anaheim, and while that match-up intrigues me, 6:30 a.m. comes quickly when you call it a night at about 1:00 a.m.
So for now, baseball on the radio and the Gameday "broadcasts" on MLB.com will suffice. You're welcome to join me as I take a stroll through the Bigs on this sticky, feels-like-mid-July, Tuesday night.
---
We start in Philadelphia where they're certainly feeling good about life after the Phils, who were trailing the Dodgers 6-2 in the 4th, just hit Back-to-Back-to-Back (that's three in a row) home runs. All solo shots.
Abreu led off the inning and hit a 1-2 pitch out. He was followed by Thome and Burrell. 6-5 now. That was home run # 11, 8 and 11, respectively.
Wilson Alvarez (yes, that Wilson Alvarez) is pitching for the Dodgers, and looking at his stats quickly, I can't believe how well he's pitched for L.A. over the past season and change.
After falling off the face of the Earth (he didn't pitch in 2000 or 2001), he continued his ill-fated stint with the Devil Rays in 2002 going 2-3 with a 5.28 ERA in 23 games (10 starts). After leaving his Tropicana tragedy behind him, he ended up with the Dodgers last year and pitched very well.
6-2, 2.37, 21 G, 12 GS, 95.0 IP, 80 H, 23 BB, 82 K
This season he's been even better than that. Coming into tonight (his 3rd start) he had a nifty 1.10 ERA in 10 appearances. 31.1 IP, 20 H, 4 BB, 28 K.
As incredulous as it is for me to say this, it is 2004 and Wilson Alvarez has been a dominant pitcher for the Dodgers. Tonight, however, has been the dose of reality that you would expect to hit him at some point. With the 5 ER given up through four innings, his ERA has jumped up to 2.29.
---
Where to go?
How 'bout a trip to the aforementioned Tropicana Field for a check on the Sox and Rays.
Damn, what the hell has happened to Lou Pinella and the Devil Rays? It's not that we're unaccustomed to watching Tampa stink, it's just that most observers thought that at least they were on the path to being decent. I even was ready to concede that the line-up was "pretty good" and getting better. Now I'm ready to throw any praise for this team out the window.
As the big red-head Bill Walton would say, "They've been terr-i-bull."
Here are some of their rankings to date:
Pitching
ERA: 5.19 (12th in the AL). They were bad in this category last year: 4.93, good for 11th in the league. This year they've been even worse.
They're also nestled near the bottom in walks allowed and number of strikeouts. In fact, Kansas City's 178 Ks are the only total lower than Tampa's even 200.
Hitting
This is where I thought the improvement of this team would manifest itself the most ... right?
Yeah, right.
Their 132 runs? Last. Dead last in the AL. That's 3.66 R/G, down from last year's terrible offense which scored runs at a 4.41 clip.
Home runs? 30. Good for a tie for 12th with the under-achieving Blue Jays.
They don't walk (100 BB = last in the AL), and their OPS reflects this in part. They're easily last in OPS at .667 (next lowest is Seattle at .698), with a truly terrible .301 team OBP. For good measure, their .239 BA is last in the league as well.
How bad are these numbers?
Well, many of us could agree that the Detroit Tigers last year (and the year before that) were one of the worst offenses we've ever seen, and probably one of the worst offenses in modern baseball.
Here are some comparisons:
Avg.
'03 Tigers: .240
'04 Devil Rays: .239
OBP
'03 Tigers: .300
'04 Devil Rays: .301
SLG
'03 Tigers: .375
'04 Devil Rays:.367
Runs per Game
'03 Tigers: 3.65
'04 Devil Rays: 3.67
When I see guys like Aubrey Huff and Jose Cruz, Jr. hitting around .200, and other position players hitting .160, .203 and .200, I have to believe that it can't be this bad. Can it?
I'm going to make the leap that Tampa is not going to be this offensively challenged the entire season and will make a run to avoid the label of "Worst Offensive Team in the American League."
The Sox just tagged on a run, by the way, in the 7th, lead 3-1 and are on their way to vaulting back into a first-place tie with the Yankees for at least a few hours.
------
The only tie game in baseball right this second, not counting a scoreless game at Wrigley Field between the Giants and Cubs, is the... Oops. Tied no longer.
The game I'm referring to is the one between the Twins and the Jays. Toronto just pushed ahead the go-ahead run in the bottom of the 6th, thanks to a hit batsman with the bases loaded. Dave Berg was hit by a Johan Santana pitch, which allowed Josh Phelps to score. Pitching change.
------
The Astros are beating up on the Marlins, 9-1 in Florida. Boy the Marlins have cooled off a bit since their fast start.
April 6-15: 8-1
Since (including chalking tonight up as a loss): 13-16.
If it wasn't for a good opening week to the season, the Marlins would be just another .500 team in the middle of the muck that is the National League East. They're fast approaching that fate as it is.
---
Postscript:
It’s 9:36 EST and within the past three minutes I got the word via the Red Sox radio broadcast that Randy Johnson was still perfect in the 8th inning in Atlanta.
I immediately raced into my back room to flip on TBS and see him retire the 3rd and final batter of the 8th.
He’s now batting, actually, in the top of the 9th with two men on and no one out against Mike Hampton who’s still in, and pitching his best game of the season as well. Unfortunately, for him, he picked the wrong night to take the mound.
Johnson’s line to this point is simply dazzling.
8 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K
Hampton just did a great job of pitching out of a 2nd-and-3rd-no-outs jam and the score remains 2-0 going to the bottom of the 9th.
The last time I did this (wrote alongside a perfect game or no-hitter) was two years ago when Derek Lowe no-hit the Devil Rays in Fenway Park. I remember Rickey Henderson caught the last out of the game. I also remember it was an absolute blow-out, 11-zip if my memory serves correct.
In this instance, it’s still a game, with the ol’ bloop-and-a-blast routine a possibility.
Well, here we go…
Mark DeRosa.
Low, ball one. A breaking ball. That was pitch 104.
Swing and a miss. Another breaking pitch. 1-1.
Fouled to the right. 1-2. That was juice. 95 mph.
Jammed him, groundball to second base. Two outs to go.
Crowd is pulling for Johnson at this point. No surprise there.
Nick Green. 0-1.
Swing and a miss. 0-2. Looks badly over-matched.
Low. Ball 1. 1-2.
Johnson taking his time a bit before this pitch.
Fouled to the right. Stays alive.
1,009 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Zero no-hitters. Not yet anway.
Caught him looking. 12 Ks. One out to go.
Last perfect game in the majors: David Cone vs. the Expos in July of 1999.
Eddie Perez is pinch-hitting.
Swing and a miss at that vicious slider.
Crowd on their feet.
Outside. 1-1.
Fouled to the right. 1-2. One strike to go.
Ball two.
116 pitches. 86 strikes.
Strike Three. Blew it by him.
“He faced 27 men. He got ‘em all out. And he’s getting mobbed by his teammates on the mound.” – Skip Carey
117 pitches. 87 strikes. 13 strikeouts.
A great reaction by the Diamondbacks dugout. A team that needed a boost with the season they’ve been having.
A legendary pitcher. One more line on the Hall of Fame plaque.
It’s 9:52, and baseball has its most enduring memory of the season so far.
A Shot in the Arm
My exposure to baseball last night consisted of checking the score of the Phillies-Rockies game on the Internet (Rockies 7, Phillies 6 “Hey, nice comeback…”) and catching glimpses of the Toronto-Minnesota match-up on the two corner TVs of a bar I was at for a little while. That was it, and befitting of one of the quietest nights in the Majors this year.
I saw it flash across the bottom of the screen on ESPN this morning that Troy Glaus is going to have surgery on his shoulder and will miss two months of the season. The AP is reporting that he could actually miss the remainder of the season. And several quotes by the Anaheim brass make it clear that no one will really have an accurate idea of the recovery time until the surgery is performed on Friday.
Besides being a crippling blow to the already depleted Angels, this will cause some shifting on the American League leaderboards; here’s where Glaus ranks in some notable American League statistical categories:
OPS: 1st, 1.082, that includes a #1 ranking in SLG (.694) and an OBP of .387
Home Runs: 1st, 11
Win Shares: T-5th, 7
Add to that 28 RBI, 8 doubles and a .296 BA, and it’s easy to see without looking too hard that the face of the AL West race, along with the pool of legitimate MVP candidates, has changed a bit.
As I noted last week, the Angels have been more than just an offensive story to this point, so I don’t expect them to fall of the face of the Earth. However it’s tough to envision an Angels line-up sans Glaus that’s going to be as effective as one with him in it. At the very least, it makes the healthy return of Anderson/Salmon/Erstad even more imperative, and gives the chances of Texas and Oakland a certifiable boost.
Stat sources: ESPN.com and The Hardball Times (www.hardballtimes.com), which just posted its 2004 Win Shares section yesterday
My exposure to baseball last night consisted of checking the score of the Phillies-Rockies game on the Internet (Rockies 7, Phillies 6 “Hey, nice comeback…”) and catching glimpses of the Toronto-Minnesota match-up on the two corner TVs of a bar I was at for a little while. That was it, and befitting of one of the quietest nights in the Majors this year.
I saw it flash across the bottom of the screen on ESPN this morning that Troy Glaus is going to have surgery on his shoulder and will miss two months of the season. The AP is reporting that he could actually miss the remainder of the season. And several quotes by the Anaheim brass make it clear that no one will really have an accurate idea of the recovery time until the surgery is performed on Friday.
Besides being a crippling blow to the already depleted Angels, this will cause some shifting on the American League leaderboards; here’s where Glaus ranks in some notable American League statistical categories:
OPS: 1st, 1.082, that includes a #1 ranking in SLG (.694) and an OBP of .387
Home Runs: 1st, 11
Win Shares: T-5th, 7
Add to that 28 RBI, 8 doubles and a .296 BA, and it’s easy to see without looking too hard that the face of the AL West race, along with the pool of legitimate MVP candidates, has changed a bit.
As I noted last week, the Angels have been more than just an offensive story to this point, so I don’t expect them to fall of the face of the Earth. However it’s tough to envision an Angels line-up sans Glaus that’s going to be as effective as one with him in it. At the very least, it makes the healthy return of Anderson/Salmon/Erstad even more imperative, and gives the chances of Texas and Oakland a certifiable boost.
Stat sources: ESPN.com and The Hardball Times (www.hardballtimes.com), which just posted its 2004 Win Shares section yesterday
