The View From The Other Side
Sometimes it’s interesting to see the spin from other markets after games, or, in this case, a series.
It seems Tom Glavine feels that — apart from Richie Sexson’s home run — the Mariner offense just plain got lucky off of him yesterday.
[“]The rest of the stuff, ground balls in the hole or bloop line drives falling in front of guys. If you get a break here or there, it’s a ground ball at somebody or it’s a fly-ball out.”
Without irony, I can say that I admire confidence. It’s a necessary stock in trade for any high-pressure industry, professional sports perhaps the best example. But Tom, you’re giving up 11.8 hits per nine this year. Crash Davis’ “ground ball with eyes” speech aside, not all of those are bleeders.
Besides, it seemed to me that command was the real issue for Glavine yesterday. In over 80 innings, he’s walked just 34 men so far this year — but issued two free passes in two-and-a-third yesterday.
Perhaps he was just frustrated at giving up so many runs against the heretofore anemic Mariner attack. Hopefully, the bats have woken up just in time for another offensively-challenged ball club, the A’s, to roll into town.
Meet the Mets
Living in New York now, I have a different perspective on the Mets and Yankees than I used to. Still hate the Yankees, of course, but I’ve sort of adopted the Mets for the time being (don’t worry, there’s no conflict at all this weekend).
A couple of things:
As a rule, fans hate Kaz Matsui. He certainly hasn’t been the middle infield version of Ichiro! as everyone hoped, and he’s more or less the scapegoat for anything that goes wrong with the Mets. He gets booed when he’s hitting at Shea and routinely looks awful at the plate. And what do you expect — he’s hitting .234/.284/.321 on the year and making $7M.
Matsui’s OBP is five points higher than that of Jose Reyes, who his leadoff. Yes, the Mets employ a .279 OBP in the #1 slot. Reyes has walked eight times in 287 at-bats this season and is hitting .258/.279/.383 — but the fans love him. Maybe it’s his defense at short, maybe it’s because he’s young and barely making above the minimum, but he appears to get a free pass while Matsui is ripped on a daily basis.
The fans have also been pretty hard on David Wright because he’s made 11 errors already at 3B. Frankly, if they get sick of him, any team in the league would take a 3B hitting .300/.400/.500 at the tender age of 22. Wright’s a stud, better than Hank Blalock and two years younger to boot. I’ll make the Beltre for Wright swap tomorrow, defense be damned, no questions asked.
Pedro goes today. I don’t know about you, but it’s still weird to see him in something other than a Boston uniform. Mets fans say the same thing. He’s been really, really good this year, nearly back to his early Boston days. I suppose it goes without saying that the M’s have their work cut out for them today.
Finally, I hope Mike Cameron is able to make an appearance this series — he’s in for quite an ovation, I’m sure.
The Attrition War, Giants
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Giants.
The Attrition War, Rangers
So the Rangers go up out of order, because of a fine reader contribution. Adam Morris writes:
I’m the author of the Lone Star Ball blog, which covers the Rangers.
In conjunction with your attrition reports, I’ve prepared one for the poor, pitiful Texas Rangers pitching prospects who cracked the BA top 10 list from 1995-2004.
It is a pretty depressing list, as a Ranger fan.
This ended up being a great help, as Morris found information on some of the more obscure players that take about 80% of the research time. As a result, I was able to hurry up and get this out the door before I head out on vacation.
Readers who want to help with this freaking enormous research project can either email me to take on a whole team or just look at one in the series, find a player with “unknown” or something, go research them and post the results in the comments.
This is part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
The Attrition War, Nationals
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Nationals.
The Attrition War, Dodgers
Special contributor edition. Douglas Fearing writes
I performed the Attrition War analysis for the Dodgers and posted it on Dodger Thoughts. Please feel free to post on your site as well.
(Handy link to Dodger Thoughts)
I will! Because I’m lazy!
I have not edited the original email he sent, so this is still almost entirely his work. If I get a chance, I may go through and compare with notes, etc. Readers who want to help with this freaking enormous research project can either email me to take on a whole team or just look at one in the series, find a player with “unknown” or something, go research them and post the results in the comments.
This is part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
The Attrition War, Diamondbacks
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period. For the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks, the comparison period is limited to years the club existed (and also by Baseball America’s listings).
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Diamondbacks.
The Attrition War, Devil Rays
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period. For the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks, the comparison period is limited to years the club existed (and also by Baseball America’s listings).
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Devil Rays.
Franchise Players
I’ve been working a lot lately, so perhaps I just feel the need to have a little harmless fun. So, I’m stealing a page from every roadtrip I think I’ve ever been on, and bringing up the totally pointless but still entertaining topic of franchise players. You know you’ve talked about this with your friends before or heard it on sports radio or on ESPN: If you were starting a franchise tomorrow, who would you take?
Well, I’m going to take that a step further. If I was starting a franchise tomorrow and given first pick of each player at a given position, this is how it would go. I’ve slotted players into roles that I feel their talent level matches, so no Josh Beckett as my fifth starter type picks. I’m giving myself a $100 million salary cap, by the way.
Catcher: Joe Mauer – perhaps the easiest call on the whole team.
First Base: Albert Pujols – okay, this might have been even easier.
Second Base: Rickie Weeks – just got called up from Triple-A. He’s going to be a star.
Shorstop: Alex Rodriguez – when a guy is this good, you’ll take his decline phase.
Third Base: David Wright – he’s Scott Rolen without the bad back.
Left Field: Delmon Young – tearing the cover off the baseball in Double-A as a teenager.
Center Field: Carlos Beltran – he didn’t have much competition, though I don’t love his contract.
Right Field: Miguel Cabrera – Perhaps the most talented player of the whole bunch.
Reserve Catcher: Humberto Quintero – you haven’t seen a kid play defense like this since Pudge.
Reserve Corner Infielder: Kevin Youkilis – the Greek God of Great Bench Players.
Reserve Middle Infielder: Alex Cintron – Solid glove, good stick, not good enough to complain.
Fourth Outfielder: Ryan Church – one of the more unheralded players in the game.
Fifth Outfielder: Jason Michaels – lefty masher, underrated centerfielder.
Utility Player: Bill Hall – mostly an infielder, but has the arm and athleticism to learn outfield.
Number One Starter: Roy Halladay – Closest thing we have to mid-90s Greg Maddux.
Number Two Starter: Mark Buehrle – Most underrated pitcher in the game.
Number Three Starter: Brandon Webb – Extreme groundballer finding control again.
Number Four Starter: Dan Haren – average stuff, good command, and an innings eater.
Number Five Starter: Brad Halsey – the very poor man’s Mark Buehrle.
Closer: Brad Lidge – I’m not sure how long he’ll be healthy, but I want that arm in my bullpen.
Righty Setup: Huston Street – Can go several innings and get big strikeouts when needed.
Lefty Setup: B.J. Ryan – Best lefty reliever in the game. And its not really close.
Middle Relief: Chris Ray – you haven’t heard of him yet, but he’s going to be ridiculous.
Long Relief: Julio Mateo – basically perfect for the role.
Spot Starter: Matt Belisle – swing guy who can work in relief or in the rotation.
The ’05 payroll would be in the $85 million range. Once I had to give raises and extensions to a few of the soon to be arbitration eligible types, I’d be getting near the $100 million cap.
So, there you go. For each of the 25 spots on on a roster, those are my “franchise guys”, the ones I’d take if given a choice among anyone in the game at their respective role.
Marlon Anderson
Do yourself a favor and catch some sort of sports recap show tonight — Marlon Anderson of the Mets just hit a pinch-hit, inside-the-park homer off Francisco Rodriguez in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game at two, ending in a collision at home. I think he might need stitches. The whole thing is fun to watch, including the part where he blows a bubble with his gum while rounding second base (you might not see this depending on the angle). I kid you not.