ALCS Beat: Hello Angels!

Game 3 of the ALCS started ominously (and quite familiarly) for the Angels.  Shortstop Derek Jeter led off the game with a homerun off Halo pitcher Jered Weaver.  It was Jeter’s 20th postseason dinger which puts him third behind Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers and postseason superman of lore, Bernie Williams. 

Down 3-0, in the 5th inning, things weren’t looking much better for the Angels.  Things started to click with the help of some questionable decisions by Yankee skipper Joe Girardi.  With a decent lead going into the homestretch of of the game, some of his calls just didn’t go his way. 

561px-Joe_Girardi_April_2009Putting Jerry Hairston in left field is somewhat questionable.  But the fact that it required removing the designated hitter is beyond me. 

Girardi (left) also replaced David Robertson in the 11th after he got the first two outs only to bring in Alfredo Aceves.  Girardi  justified his move saying that Robertson threw 33 pitches on Saturday.  True but many of those pitches on Saturday were on intentional walks. 

Too much micro-managing.  Girardi just needs to relax and let his boys play ball.

When all was said and done, the Angels came up with the big ‘W’, thanks to a game-winning double by Jeff Mathis off Aceves.

Box Score

Howie Kendrick was 3 for 5  with a homer and 3 runs scored.  Vladimir Guerrero went 2 for 4 with a homer and two rbis.  Reliever Ervin Santana got the win. 

So the Los Angeles Angeles, on the brink of a 0-3 deficit, buck up and take advantage of some weaknesses as the Yankees did the first two games.  Now it’s 2-1 and a whole new ALCS.

2009 Postseason: This, that, and the other

Miscellaneous news and opinions on the postseason so far:

  • Former commish Fay Vincent takes a look back at the 1989 World Series that literally shook the world.
  • With the cold weather in the northern cities in the playoffs, this Reuters post is looking for any angle they can.  They’re suggesting a neutral site for the World Series in warmer climate… (The Baseball Zealot says:  ummm, no).
  • Greg Trietley of The Pitt News, is the only one I know making this suggestion… make the playoffs longer (albeit with a shorter regular season).
  • And something not to be read while eating… a puff piece by the Idaho Statesman about Tim McCarver.  From the article:  “How long will he do it? "I think about (Pat) Summerall’s line about the butterflies before the game," he said. "Whenever that stops, it’s time to leave.”

Somebody get a fly swatter.

Three Finger Brown born 133 years ago today

Mordecai_Brown_Baseball_Hand Happy Birthday Three Finger Brown! 

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown would have been 133 years old today. 

As a kid, I learned a little about baseball history from an old-timers bubble gum baseball cards I bought at the dime store.  Of course, Three Finger Brown was one of them.  As a Cub fan, I had an affinity for him. 

Some interesting (and perhaps lesser-known) facts about Brown.

  • Made his major league debut at age 26 in 1903.
  • Brown accumulated 239 wins in his career but also led the league in saves four years in a row (1908-1911, unrecognized at the time of course).
  • Known primarily as a Cub, Brown did get picked up by the Reds later in his career and even played in the Federal League.  In 1916, he was purchased by the Cubs for his last year where he pitched in 12 games.
  • Broke and held for many years, the record for number of chances handled by a pitcher without an error in 1908 with 108.

Here is his obituary that was in the New York Times when he passed in 1948

ALCS Beat: Yankees looking pretty and Angels losing ugly

The New York Yankees will hope to continue their 2009 playoff dominance today against the LA Angels.  They have yet to lose this year in the postseason.  It was close on Saturday… real close. 

Yankee fans can thank Alex Rodriguez for keeping the Bombers in Game 2.  In the bottom of the eleventh inning, he hit his third homerun of the postseason to keep the Yankees tied with the Angels.  Before 2009, ARod had one homer in his last 13 postseason games.  

Yanks fans can probably also extend a little gratitude towards Macier Izturis.  Thanks to his errant throw in the bottom of the 13th inning, ex-Cub Jerry Hairston Jr scored to break the 3-3 tie and brought the Yanks their second win of the ALCS.

Box Score

That’s five errors in two games for the Angels for those counting and a lot out there are.  LAA has come into the postseason with one of the best defensive teams in the majors yet it’s one of their facets that has let them down.

They wasted a great outing by Joe Saunders who allowed just 2 earned runs in seven innings and pretty decent work from the pen by Kevin Jepsen and Darren Oliver. 

One more interesting key stat from the boxscore:

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Guerrero 7

Yikes!

 

So right now, the Yankees are up by two (and already up 2-0 in the 4th inning of the 3rd game as of this writing).  It’s nice to say that anything can happen in baseball but not every team can pull off what the Red Sox did in 2004.  Is the writing on the wall for LAA?  It is unless they can pull away with a comeback today. 

Weekend’s Best & Weekend’s Worst in One Game

CLIFF LEEESPN’s Dan Patrick has a feature where he asks for the weekend’s best & the weekend’s worst performances.  The third game between the Phillies & the Dodgers last night featured both for me.  There are only four teams left in baseball, the top four, pretty evenly matched, and you get an 11-0 outcome, unbelievable!  Late in the game Chip Caray & the Chipettes (Buck Martinez & Ron “You don’t have to call me Darling” Darling) came up with their version of stupid when they were talking about how it’s easier to lose one like this, rather than a tough loss.  Where does that kind of logic come from?

Cliff Lee was dominant from the beginning to the end, no runs, three hits, no walks, and striking out ten.  Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda, wasn’t, he was out of there after going just 1 1/3 innings, surrendering 6 runs on 6 hit, it was like the Phillies were still taking batting practice, on the plus side he didn’t walk anybody, he was wild in the strike zone, not locating his pitches in the strike zone.  BIG Ryan Howard ripped a two run triple into the rightfield corner in the 1st & Jayson Werth launched a monster blast deep over the centerfield wall to make it four zip after one.  When the game was over, in the 2nd inning, Joe Torre brought in a series of relievers, one looked worse than the next, two walks off Scott Elbert in 1/3 of an inning, Chad Billingsley allowed 2 runs on 2 hits & 2 walks in 3 1/3 innings, Ramon Troncoso walked 2 in 2 innings, and served up some 8th inning BP to Shane Victorino, who nailed him for a three run bomb, the game would’ve been over if there a 10 run slaughter rule (LA would’ve only lost 9-0 if they’d simply forfeited.

Not to second guess Joe Torre, but he did decide to go with Scott Elbert & the injured Hiroki Kuroda (although his interpreter Kenji said he was okay, maybe he got it wrong) over veterans Jon Garland & Jeff Weaver.  Dodgers pitchers(?) have walked 7 Phillies in two of the three games so far, they’d be down in the series 3-0 if it weren’t for Charlie Manuel pulling Pedro Martinez in game two after 87 pitches.  Cliff Lee demonstrated that you don’t need to throw the ball hard to win, change speeds, spot your pitches in the strike zone, he made it look easy.

I’m not saying LA would’ve won this ballgame, whomever they started, but now the talking heads are wondering whether Billingsley earned(?) a start in place of Kuroda next time, Chad was touched for 2 runs in 3 1/3, remember that?, better than Hiroki, but still, do you think that type of performance will beat Lee?, highly doubtful.  Perhaps if Torre had kept Garland & Weaver active, moving Clayton Kershaw to the bullpen, similar to what the Yankees have done with Joba Chamberlain, the Angels have done with Ervin Santana, & the Phillies have done with J.A. Happ this postseason.  The postseason is not for the young or the faint of heart.

So now the Dodgers will attempt to regain home field advantage with veteran lefthander Randy Wolf pitching against his old team, with Joe Blanton toeing the rubber for the Phighting Phils.  As many of you know I play in a dice baseball league featuring the board game APBA, have done so for 35 years, in the game when you’re beating somebody badly, rolling hit after hit number, your opponent is saying, “get it out of your system”.  But this isn’t a dice baseball league, this is real life, their hitters seem spot on, although I did hear somebody ask the question, will Philadelphia need some of these runs tomorrow?  Well tomorrow is here today, we shall see what we shall see, can’t wait.

Dodgers Enjoy Walk-In LA

pedroGame two was a snappy contest, whereby the patience of LA won out in the end.  Both teams were accustom to the ending which occurred, the Phillies bullpen often times implodes, while the Dodgers had more come from behind victories than anyone in the league.  It didn’t necessarily have to end this way, but holding to the script, it did.

Pedro Martinez was on the hill for Philadelphia, returning to where he started his career at Dodgers Stadium with LA at the age of 20 in 1992, since then he’d hit the highs, winning the Cy Young Award three times, capturing the ERA title four times, and is the tops in career active winning percentage at .687.  But this wasn’t that Pedro who joined the Phillies in midseason, he’d been castoff by the Mets after going 5-6 with a 5.61 ERA for New York last season.  Nobody would give him the money he’d earned based on his career numbers, until he signed with Philadelphia.  Immediately he showed he still had some gas left in that 37 year old arm, and oh, what a heart!  Martinez was 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA in nine starts during the regular season, but this is the postseason, where the great ones shine.

Opposing Pedro was a pitcher whom the Texas Rangers cut loose during the year, even though they were in the race for postseason, and needed pitching.  Although Vicente Padilla came up as a relief pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks, it was a starter with the Phillies where he first showed off his gritty style as a winning pitcher, not as good as Pedro, but a .536 winning percentage none the less.  It was pointed out Vicente has more career HBPs (99) than victories (98), a fact which did not endear him to Ranger batters, who did not appreciate getting hit in retaliation.  Although he’s mellowed in this area lately, Pedro was known as a headhunter in his day, nailing 141 batsmen, all be it in over 2,800 innings.  Both pitchers are examples of, if you want to win, you’ve got to pitch inside.  The Dodgers gladly signed the Nicaraguan righthander, who moved right into the starting rotation, going 4-0 with a 3.28 ERA in seven LA starts.

In the top of the 3rd Carlos Ruiz lined a leadoff single to centerfield, Pedro popped up a bunt attempt, and James Loney intentionally dropped it and threw to Ronnie Belliard covering first, Belliard stepped on first, then tagged Ruiz, who was still on the bag.  The announcers correctly stated the umpires ruled Loney had intentionally dropped the attempted sacrifice and the batter Martinez was ruled out, Ruiz did not have to run.  However because Belliard stepped on firstbase first, removing the force, Ruiz was okay to remain at firstbase.  Nothing much happened as a result of this ruling, although Ruiz did steal secondbase when Rafael Furcal dropped the throw, should’ve been an error, in my opinion, he was stranded there when Shane Victorino popped out, after Padilla had gotten Jimmy Rollins to fly to right.

Chip & the Chipettes were at it in the bottom of three, with one out & Russell Martin on first, Padilla bunts him over, Martin gets a good read and makes it to 2nd easily as Pedro throws to first.  The talking heads comment about how, if Martinez had pounced on it & whirled to secondbase, he might’ve had a shot at a force play.  This guy knows how to win, stay away from silly mistakes which could end up beating you, and really on your good stuff.  Chase Utley fielded an easy bouncer off Furcal’s bat for out number three.

The BIG MAN, Ryan Howard caught a hanger from Padilla and mashed it deep over the leftfield wall in the 4th to put Phillie up 1-0.  I don’t remember so many hitters taking balls the other way out of the park, back in the day, don’t get me wrong, there were some shots, but they were generally pulled or hit straight away, I wonder why that is.

Matt Kemp opened things up in the bottom of the frame with a line single to center.  With lefthanded hitting Andre Ethier at the dish, it looked like a perfect opportunity as Howard was holding Kemp, leaving a big hole between 1st & 2nd, and Martinez was not fully concentrating on the batter, with the speedy baserunner aboard.  Moments later Ruiz gunned down Kemp trying to steal and that was the end of that.

Joe Torre was asked what he was looking for from his starter Padilla.  Joe said, “I’m looking for him to match Pedro, just keep us within striking distance, Martinez is tough to beat, but maybe we can make him work & outlast him”.  More prophetic words were never spoken, as Vicente looked tough, other than Howard’s BIG FLY.

Chip Caray, trying to fill airtime, tells about how Ryan Howard came into camp this spring in great shape, and has worked tirelessly with coach Sam Perlozzo on his defense at firstbase.  Then Chip says, Ryan cutdown on his errors from 19 to 14, which isn’t really that much of an improvement.  Well actually Chip, you are wrong, five fewer errors, from 19 to 14 is quite a drastic percentage decrease, except when you look at range factor, total chances, & assists, and you see that Howard was down in all three categories (fielding percentage went from .988 to .990, not much difference there, so wonder why Caray would bring it up, perhaps to hear himself talk).  Did I mention Chip wouldn’t be a pimple on his grandfather’s behind?

Other than Pedro nailing Russell Martin with a pitch to leadoff the bottom of the 6th (he was stranded at 2nd after Padilla’s bunt moved him up) and Ryan Howard singling in the top of the 7th (he was quickly erased on a Jayson Werth 6-4-3 DP), the pitchers dominated in the 5th, 6th, & 7th, as the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Boys from the City of Brotherly Love through seven.

87 pitches was all Pedro threw while dominating LA over seven innings of work, it looked like the 5’11” 175 pound righthander could’ve gone twelve, he looked shocked when informed in the dugout that his day was done, like, what?, don’t we want to win?  Greg Dobbs was sent up to bat for Martinez with one out and Ruiz on first, lefty Hong-Chih Kuo was brought on to face the lefthanded pinch-hitter, Phillie skipper Charlie Manuel, not to be outdone, sent up the righthanded hitting Ben Francisco, who promptly hit into an inning ending 6-4-3 doubleplay, deja vu all over again.

Now this is where the real game begins, this is what Joe Torre & his Dodgers were waiting for.  On the other side of the diamond, Charlie Manuel had to be saying to himself, “Oh shit.  Now we have to go to the bullpen, and we have no bullpen”.  As Chan Ho Park was summoned into the game, Craig Sager was miked up, he commented about how he’d talked to Park about pitching on two consecutive days, after not pitching for a month because of a hamstring, and that Chan Ho said, he had great command.  It surely didn’t seem that way, as Park only threw 7 of 12 pitches for strikes in his 1/3 inning of work, allowing two basehits, and two earned runs, but this didn’t stop the booth talking heads from repeating Sager’s statement about how Chan Ho had great command, idiots.

The shadows were perfect for the Dodgers batters to be overpowered in the 8th, Pedro had them all game long even without no stinking shadows, and where was Ryan Madson, the normal 8th inning setup man for Phillie, afraid to use him after he’d allowed two runs in game one?  Casey Blake singled off his counterpart at thirdbase Pedro Feliz’ glove, for a leadoff single, Feliz was guarding the line against a double & the ball was hit to his left, the light standard was casting a shadow by thirdbase, which also might have factored into the basehit.  Juan Pierre was put into the game as a pinch runner, Pierre was wearing his spikes, so the game didn’t have to be delayed while he went into the clubhouse to put them on, ala first game Dodger pinch runner Randy Wolf.

Ronnie Belliard stepped up, looking to advance Juan to second with a bunt, the first pitch from Park was so far inside that it almost hit him.  Talking head Buck Martinez commented, how he’s never going to get the bunt down with that technique, he needs to get the bat out in front of homeplate.  Belliard bunted the very next pitch, pushing it past a hard charging pitcher, and out of the reach of a not really improved fielding firstbaseman for an infield single.  The next batter Russell Martin hit a tailor made doubleplay grounder to Feliz, but when Chase Utley, using the bag to shield himself from a hard sliding Belliard, threw off the wrong foot, the ball sailed over BIG Ryan Howard, and allowed Juan Pierre to score from secondbase to tie the game at one.

All of that great pitching from Pedro was for naught, but the game was still there for anybody to win.  That’s when Joe Torre sent up his new secret weapon, Jim Thome to pinch hit.  564 home runs in 19 major league seasons is what the lefthanded slugger brings to the table as he steps into the batter’s box.  The quick witted Charlie Manuel, don’t laugh, knows Thome bats lefthanded, so he calls for his southpaw reliever Scott Eyre.  Just as the ever alert Buck Martinez, what a dolt, says, Thome is 0-7 career against Eyre, and he has no chance, Thome lines a single to rightfield sending Martin to third, I don’t know how they do that.  But I do know this, this wasn’t the same Jim Thome I’ve come to know and love from his days with the White Sox, that Thome was a slugger, who went up to the plate with one thing on his mind, hit it as far as possible, either a homer, a walk, or a strikeout, this Thome was a batter with a purpose, who got the job done, Juan Castro, who also was wearing his spikes, came on to run at first for Jim.

Finally setup man Ryan Madson is called into the game to face Furcal, the infield pulled in to cutoff the go ahead run, Madson loses the pesty Rafael to fill the bags, bringing up Matt Kemp.  Ryan is not a strikeout pitcher, but Kemp swings at one in the dirt, trying to hold up, and strikes himself out for the second out.

Now the best hitter in the Dodgers lineup steps to the plate, Andre Ethier, get back there Manny, I wasn’t talking about you.  Again, can’t slip one past Charlie Manuel, who notices Ethier bats from the leftside, so he makes the ill-fated call (don’t do it Charlie) to bring on rookie of the year candidate, portsider, J.A. Happ.  Happ gets ahead of Andre, but then trys to get him to go fishing, and ends up walking in the go ahead run when the batter lays off a 3-2 pitch that missed low.  Chad Durbin is brought on to get Manny to pop out to end the inning, but not before the damage was done as LA pushes across two runs to take a 2-1 lead heading into the 9th with their closer Jonathan Broxton in there, trying to nail it down.

I must ask the question, I know Brad Lidge was shaky all season long, but if he’s the best you’ve got in your bullpen when the game is on the line, when you’re trying to “save” the ballgame, then where was he?  We’ve gotten away from what a save truly is, it’s not just a bargaining chip to be used when negotiating a reliever’s next contract, it’s meant to indicate that a pitcher actually was saving the game, keeping the other team from winning.  I know Lidge would’ve been brought on to face LA in the 9th if Philadelphia had maintained their lead, but he was needed in the 8th, before the go ahead run was on the board.  I know Happ is good, but he’s a rookie, and as Joe Torre learned with his youngster Clayton Kershaw in the first game, the playoffs are not the place for a youngster to cut his teeth.  It might not be fair to jump on Manuel, as Utley’s error on a DP grounder opened the floodgates, but Ryan Madson the 8th inning setup man should’ve been in there from the beginning to work the eighth, if he was crazy enough to bat for Pedro, he could’ve gone twelve.

Speaking of twelve, twelve pitches later from Broxton, and the Phillies were done, 1-2-3, with BIG Ryan Howard standing in the ondeck circle.  The two teams played it out perfectly, just like Joe Torre drew it up.  The two teams leave LA with one win apiece, but the Phillies have stolen the home field advantage, as they head back across the country to the Keystone State.

Before the telecast was over buffoon Craig Sager had a couple of on field interviews.  First he talked with the hero of the game, Andre Ethier, who drove in the go ahead run without hitting the baseball, sometimes patience truly is the better part of valor.  Sager asked Ethier how he was able to not swing, Andre credited batting coach Don Mattingly.  Then Craig tried to be witty by saying something about this almost being a walkoff walk.  When Sager asked catcher Russell Martin about Dodgers starting pitcher Vincent Padilla, rather than Vicente, I had enough, and turned off the TV.  Where is that mute button anyway?

Some umps on the DL

Interesting take on the quality of the umpiring lately…

From Fox Sports News:

While federal laws prohibit Major League Baseball from discussing injuries of employees, FOXsports.com has learned that the sidelined umpires include crew chiefs John Hirschbeck (testicular cancer), Charlie Reliford (back), Jerry Crawford (back), Tim Welke (concussion), Ed Montague (concussion and neck), Gary Darling (ankle and foot) and Rick Reed (stroke).

Other umpires who are sidelined by injuries include Kerwin Danley (concussion), Alfonso Marquez (back), Brian Runge (details unknown), Bill Hohn (back) and Ed Hickok (concussion).

Any umpire who makes the bigs is surely a quality product.  That said, these particular men in blue, especially Hirschbeck, Crawford, Montague, and Darling are the cream of the crop.  Ok, maybe Yankee fans might disagree with the Hirschbeck opinion

Not trying to excuse any of the mistakes and the whole angle of the story maybe just that, an angle dreamed up by the media.  But it IS an interesting take on the story.

Dell will design your laptop MLB-style and charge you just like MLB does

dellcubs

With the playoffs here, Dell is pandering to the baseball fan now.  For a mere $85, they’ll design your new laptop with your favorite team’s logo.   

Pretty cool, huh?

That or you could buy a big team sticker for few bucks and slap it on there.  But hey, why be practical?

MLBAM Live Streaming becoming more mainstream

Those fans who watch Major League Baseball via video streaming are increasing every day and the numbers for the playoff games are even higher. 

By now, Major League Baseball Advanced Media has the stats available for the Division Series.  On average, 350,000 live streams were served per game.  Even more interesting, 36,000 of those streamed were sent to mobile devices such as the iPhone. 

These video streams were all subscription or pay-for feeds.  MLBAM notes that these per game averages are higher than the 2009 All-Star Game video stream… which was free. 

One other point… the Postseason.TV package is blackout-free (yay!) but to avoid competition with other major networks, the video stream doesn’t give you in their words, “a complete game experience”. 

ALCS Beat: “C.C.’s the real deal, man”

Sloppy.

That’s the adjective I keep seeing repeated in the headlines regarding the Los Angeles Angels play last night in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.  The Angels, who bested their error record during the regular season with only 85 miscues, made some pretty nasty and costly ones in Friday night’s game.  Like a botched routine popup that ended up to be an rbi single. 

I’ll admit I was rooting for Big John Lackey.  But it’s hard to give that kind of edge to the Yankees and expect to win because you know the Yanks will step in and seize the advantage.  With the way C.C. Sabathia was pitching last night, that was kiss of death.  True, Sabathia has had issues with the Angels during the regular season (0-2, 9 ER in 13 1/3 innings though he did strike out 11).  But that was all ancient history and as they say it’s a brand new season when it comes to the playoffs.  Sabathia went 8 innings last night against the Halos allowing only 4 hits and just one run (an rbi single by Kendry Morales).  Sabathia walked one and struck out seven. 

Torii Hunter had begrudging praise for Sabathia (in reference to the mid-40s temperature):

"CC was the cold weather.  He was pitching his butt off. CC’s the real deal, man."

Box Score

 

Other ALCS Bits:

 

  • Speaking of mid-40 degree weather, yes, it was that cold.  And we’re only in the beginning of the League Championship Series.  The MLB Postseason schedule is set till November 5 (assuming all games are played).  It’s going to get a whole lot colder unless the Angels and Dodgers pull it off. 

    Jim Caple of ESPN has a tongue in cheek article about how HE feels about the postseason schedule.

     

  • Apparently, singer Ronan Tynan was a late scratch for singing God Bless America in last night’s game for making an anti-Semitic remark.

     

  • Anyone care what Nick Swisher has to say?  If so, check out MLB.com’s Q&A with him posted today.