Category: Media

Who’s going to lose their job over this?

ESPN shot their load with the All-Star rosters and now they’re paying for it. Because they announced the roster list before the MLB-imposed time limit, MLB will not allow ESPN’s Baseball Tonight to broadcast live from San Francisco. Instead, they will be doing the show from their studios in Bristol, Connecticut. They will be allowed … Continue reading “Who’s going to lose their job over this?”

ESPN shot their load with the All-Star rosters and now they’re paying for it.

Because they announced the roster list before the MLB-imposed time limit, MLB will not allow ESPN’s Baseball Tonight to broadcast live from San Francisco. Instead, they will be doing the show from their studios in Bristol, Connecticut. They will be allowed to have a one-hour show before the homerun derby.

In a obligatory statement, ESPN promises the “same in-depth All-Star coverage they have come to expect.”

Good luck with that.

 

Gameday chat by All-Star break?

MLB.com says they might have a new re-engineered chat in Gameday available by All-Star break. From MLB.com’s Gameday blog: We’ve completely retired the old chat engine for a number of reasons: it was unreliable, could only support a very limited number of concurrent users, was very limited in features and was not integrated with other … Continue reading “Gameday chat by All-Star break?”

MLB.com says they might have a new re-engineered chat in Gameday available by All-Star break.

From MLB.com’s Gameday blog:

We’ve completely retired the old chat engine for a number of reasons: it was unreliable, could only support a very limited number of concurrent users, was very limited in features and was not integrated with other products.

In its place, we will be rolling out a completely revamped chat service by the All-Star break. However, it will not be a Gameday-only chat; instead, it will be better integrated with MLB.TV, the Fantasy Open and other products, with the goal of creating a more complete and immersive user experience.

 

Brilliant Show by the Cubs

I’m not in the habit of agreeing with my Sox fan friends especially when it comes to Cubs/Sox issues but I have to hand it to my good buddy Teddy Ballgame. He’s right about Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson. Someone needs to take his mike away. Don’t ask me why but Sunday I turned on Comcast … Continue reading “Brilliant Show by the Cubs”

I’m not in the habit of agreeing with my Sox fan friends especially when it comes to Cubs/Sox issues but I have to hand it to my good buddy Teddy Ballgame. He’s right about Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson. Someone needs to take his mike away.

Don’t ask me why but Sunday I turned on Comcast to watch the Cubs-Sox game. That was about the time that Juan Uribe was called for interference. I think that Ford Frick nominee Ken Harrelson said “This is BS!” about 3 time then guaranteed that the protest would be upheld. All this, of course, before he even heard what the final ruling was.

I’m not sure what Hawk meant by BS. Maybe he meant Bad Series by the Sox who eventually dropped all three to the Cubs. Or Blundering Shortstop Juan Uribe who committed the interference infraction.

I eventually got smart and changed the channel to WGN. Len and Bob to the rescue.

The Cubs have won 4 in a row (including the one tonight that got away and they roped backed in) and are 14-8 since according to the media Piniella had “lost control of his team”.

Yet, as good as the Cubs are doing, Milwaukee is doing that much better and remain 7 1/2 ahead.

What we need right now…

a Brewers Slump.

Catcher’s ERA

A news release I received via email from cubs.com announcing the Barrett-Bowen trade contained this tidbit: Behind the plate, Bowen has turned in a 3.46 ERA in 26 contests with San Diego, posting a 16-10 record in those games. It didn’t surprise me that Catcher’s ERA as a stat exists. I’m sure it is used … Continue reading “Catcher’s ERA”

A news release I received via email from cubs.com announcing the Barrett-Bowen trade contained this tidbit:

Behind the plate, Bowen has turned in a 3.46 ERA in 26 contests with San Diego, posting a 16-10 record in those games.

It didn’t surprise me that Catcher’s ERA as a stat exists. I’m sure it is used and discussed in more esoteric baseball stat web sites. But it does surprise me that a mainstream media outlet like mlb.com would use it so prevalently in a news release.

Am I living under a rock or is Catcher’s ERA as a stat becoming mainstreamed?

First-Year Player Draft is coming up. Are you ready?

Tomorrow is the first day of the First-Year Player Draft. Ok, David Price is going with the #1 pick. That we pretty much know. But what else do you need to know to keep up with the draft? Well, let’s get these handy links out: MLB Draft Central MLB Draft Tracker The Draft Tracker was … Continue reading “First-Year Player Draft is coming up. Are you ready?”

Tomorrow is the first day of the First-Year Player Draft. Ok, David Price is going with the #1 pick. That we pretty much know. But what else do you need to know to keep up with the draft?

Well, let’s get these handy links out:

MLB Draft Central

MLB Draft Tracker

The Draft Tracker was pretty cool last year with its search features etc. From a cursory look without it being it action, it looks even better this year. I plan to have this going wherever I am.

No doubt, MLB Baseball Channel will be covering this during the afternoon hours giving it the “CNN treatment”.

By the way, if you want listen to some good pre-analysis of the draft, check out Baseball Prospectus’ interviews with Kevin Goldstein. They’re so in depth that they separated them into a hitters episode and pitchers episode.

For that matter, The Baseball Analysts have pretty much been doing the Draft all this month. Check them out.

Sports Columnist enjoying the Tournament

During today’s Penn State-Minnesota game at the Big Ten baseball tournament, I saw someone who looked very familiar. I nudged Brian from Big Ten Hardball, who was sitting next to me and said, “Isn’t that Jon Saraceno from USA Today? It sure looks like him.”

We discussed it and decided that no, it couldn’t be. USA Today wouldn’t be sending someone as big as Saraceno to cover something like the Big Ten Tournament. So I dismissed it.

Later we found out that indeed, it was him. He was there to watch his son who plays on the Penn State baseball team. So I decided to go over and talk to him.

I’m glad I did. He seemed like a really friendly guy. His son is the backup catcher on the Nittany Lions and he pointed him out. He noticed my Illini hat and noted that his wife was a University of Illinois grad,

A few jokes about USA Today not sending him to cover the tournament and then I asked if I could take his picture. He graciously said yes.

Thanks, Jon!

First-Year Player Draft will get some TV time

Mark your calendars. The MLB First-Year Player Draft (otherwise known by its misnomer, Rookie Draft) is one month away. A while back we found out that the 2007 First-Year Player Draft will be televised. More details are out now on who, what when and how. The important stuff: ESPN2, June 7th, 2pm Eastern Of course, … Continue reading “First-Year Player Draft will get some TV time”

Mark your calendars. The MLB First-Year Player Draft (otherwise known by its misnomer, Rookie Draft) is one month away.

A while back we found out that the 2007 First-Year Player Draft will be televised. More details are out now on who, what when and how.

The important stuff: ESPN2, June 7th, 2pm Eastern

Of course, they won’t be televising the whole thing. But they will be showing the first round with complete coverage and maybe a little education on what the whole First-Year Player Draft is all about.

For those of us baseball geeks, I’m sure MLB will be webcasting the whole thing as they did last year.

You can view the entire draft order here (pdf).

 

Congrats to Baseball Musings

Kudos go out to David Pinto. His website, Baseball Musings has been listed #1 in the Top Ten Baseball Blogs about Major League Baseball compiled by Associated Content. It’s nice to see an intelligent sports blog get some recognition for once as opposed to the tabloid driven ones. I’m not about to analyze the Top … Continue reading “Congrats to Baseball Musings”

Kudos go out to David Pinto. His website, Baseball Musings has been listed #1 in the Top Ten Baseball Blogs about Major League Baseball compiled by Associated Content. It’s nice to see an intelligent sports blog get some recognition for once as opposed to the tabloid driven ones.

I’m not about to analyze the Top Ten list but I will say this: I was disappointed that it included team specific blogs. Once you include them, there are soooo many good many out there that it’s hard to narrow it down to ten.

Anyway, nice going, David!

 

Illini Kyle Hudson featured on CSTV.com

Kyle Hudson Illini Kyle Hudson, who has the dual role of centerfielder for the baseball team in the spring and wide receiver for the football team in the fall (and he does very well at both) was featured in Doug Kroll’s column at CSTV’s web site. By the way, Illinois fell to Michigan 4-3 today … Continue reading “Illini Kyle Hudson featured on CSTV.com”

Kyle Hudson

Illini Kyle Hudson, who has the dual role of centerfielder for the baseball team in the spring and wide receiver for the football team in the fall (and he does very well at both) was featured in Doug Kroll’s column at CSTV’s web site.

By the way, Illinois fell to Michigan 4-3 today in their first game of the weekend. What a nailbiter. That’s tough to lose so close to a powerhouse like the Wolverines. Tanner Roark pitched respectably but lost his first game since March. Three more to go.

Go Illini!!