The Baseball Zealot

Yahoo suit of NFL Players Association has MLB roots

Yahoo Inc is in the process of suing the NFL Players Association basically saying it doesn’t have to pay royalties for stats, photos and other NFL data related to its online fantasy game. Yahoo claims that this data is already publically available.

Why is this relevant to baseball fans (other than the obvious fantasy league angle)? It’s this. The MLB Players Association and MLB Advanced Media lost a case very similar to this in 2007 when an online fantasy baseball called CDC Distribution Marketing Inc didn’t have to pay the baseball players for data very similar in the Yahoo case (stats, photos, etc).

Yahoo is clinging to a court decision between CBS Interactive and the NFL Players Inc which claims it doesn’t need authorization. And apparently, that decision based a lot of their ruling on the 2007 MLB decision.

Copyright and freedom of information issues are always tough. How people come down on them usually depends on how it affects them (i.e the most positive outcome possible). That goes for fans, too.

What do you think? Are stats public information? How about a photo of a baseball player?

Breakdown of #1 picks in the First-Year Player Draft

Monday: Picked first in the first.

In one week, the 2009 First-Year Player Draft will take place. This year, the Washington Nationals will have the top the top pick.

How ‘bout some interesting facts/trivia about the very top picks in the 44 year history of the major league rookie draft?

Breakdown of High School/College?

Since Rick Monday was picked #1 by the A’s in 1965, 24 top picks were drafted out of high school and 20 were drafted out of college. That’s more coming out of the hallowed halls of learning than I thought, quite honestly.

Arizona State University had some good mojo going as far as the top pick goes. They are the only institution (high school or university) that has the honor of more than one #1 pick… and they have three! Monday, Floyd Bannister, who went to the Astros in 1976 and Bob Horner who got picked by Atlanta two years later all came from ASU.

Who are the only #1 picks that never made the majors?

LHP Brien Taylor picked by the Yanks in 1991 and Steve Chilcott who was chosen by the Mets in 1966 (the second year of the draft) never made it to the bigs. I’m giving Tim Beckham and Matthew Bush (2006 and 2004 picks respectively) a mulligan here. Let’s give them a chance.

Which #1 pick has played the most in the majors?

Whether you’re judging on games or at-bats, 1977 pick Harold Baines wins on both counts with 2830 games and 9908 at-bats. Ken Griffey comes in at a close second (2559 games, 9446 at-bats).

Among pitchers, Seattle’s first round pick in 1981, Mike Moore pitched in 450 major league games and won 161 games.

What position was picked the most as the top pick?

Not surprisingly, pitchers were high on the list,

C- 5
1B- 4
SS- 10
3B- 4
OF- 9
P- 13 (4 lefties, 9 righties)

Interestingly, no players were drafted as secondbasemen. Keep in mind that these figures are the positions they were drafted at not necessarily where they ended up playing. B.J. Surhoff at short? Hah!

Which teams had the most first picks since 1965?

No, it’s not the Rays (who had four). The San Diego Padres and New York Mets tied for this honor with five apiece.

How many top picks eventually became major league All-Stars?

Among the 44 first picks to date, twenty have appeared in a major league All-Star game. At this point, no first pick has gotten in the Hall of Fame but for my money, Ken Griffey Jr and Chipper Jones both have a good chance to make it. (update- Arod too, if voters forget about the PED thing).

Texas, Austin Wood top BC in longest NCAA affair

A fine job by appropriately-named Texas reliever Austin Wood on Saturday. In a 25 inning, 7 hour affair, Texas defeated Boston College 3-2 in the longest NCAA game on record.

Wood pitched 13 innings of scoreless ball. More impressively, he allowed no hits for 12 1/3 innings of it. Wood struck out 14 and threw 169 pitches.

Here’s the box score from University of Texas’ web site.

And kudos to the 7000+ fans who stayed with the game for seven hours.

Seminoles Put a Hurtin on the Buckeyes

osu-baseball 37-6, it sounds like a football score, but the Seminoles never scored that much in football, this was a regional game between Ohio State and Florida State. The Buckeyes trailed 32-0 after five innings of play, starting pitcher Jared Strayer was tagged for seven runs before getting an out, while their fifth hurler Andrew Armstrong allowed 11 runs in one third of an inning.

Florida State set NCAA postseason records with 37 runs, 38 hits, and 66 total bases. While Stephen Cardullo set a tournament record going seven for seven, including three of FSU’s 15 doubles, an NCAA record.

Some Buckeye fans were a little cocky when they defeated Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament, perhaps they’re a little more humble now.

Odd Black Mountain University Magnet

Solve this mystery for me. I found this refrigerator magnet (actually two of them) in my son’s room when cleaning his room with him. I have no idea where we got them.

With two bats crossed and a smiling bear in the middle, the text of it says:

Lady Bruins

1954

Black Mountain University

Fossil Conf. AAA Winter League

After a web search, the only possible result that matched was a Black Mountain College that was founded 1933 near Asheville, North Carolina. The school closed in 1957.

I couldn’t find anything on a Fossil Conf Winter League.

Keep in mind that it could either baseball or softball (I’m thinking softball).

Odd mystery and even odder that it would show up in my kid’s room.

They Are the Pirates Who Don’t Score Anytime

pirates_dvd_cover There was a Veggietales movie out for kids not too long ago called, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, but the Pittsburgh Pirates seem to be The Pirates Who Don’t Score Anytime. If only my White Sox could play the Buccos every day. To be honest, I’ve been up in Waupaca the last week, so I haven’t seen the past two games, only the final scores, and Pittsburgh didn’t score a single run in either game. Now today I see Chicago is down in the first inning, I wonder if the White Sox will be sending today’s starter to the minor leagues for allowing a run to the Pirates. I feel sorry for Pirate fans, that once proud franchise has been so bad for so long. Still I have to say, LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

WTLNXTYR Sputtering in Fantasy League

manny Following his dominating, eight-inning pitching performance in a 2-0 White Sox victory against the Pirates at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday, Gavin Floyd hoped he’d finally thumbed to a happier chapter in his “Tale of Two Gavins” story this season. Those first few pages, after all, were pretty frightening. They told the account of a pitcher struggling to find his rhythm, a pitcher whose first eight starts resulted in a 2-4 record with a 7.71 ERA, the second-highest ERA among qualifying starters in the Major Leagues. “I hadn’t been performing very well,” Floyd said. “I was able to mentally block it out and just focus on where I’ve been going. I’ve been working at it in the bullpen and pretty much transferring it in the game. I think I was able to do that tonight.”
That was where the other Floyd showed up — the aggressive, dominant pitcher reminiscent of his 2008 season, when he posted a 17-8 record and 3.84 ERA.

FANTASY BASEBALL – two words that strike fear into thinking baseball fans everywhere. I’ve been following the game since the 1968 World Series. I still remember that epic battle between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers like it was yesterday. Motown’s Mickey Lolich, Denny McLain, Al Kaline, & Bill Freehan, matched up against the Redbirds Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Curt Flood, & Mike Shannon. Taking the knowledge I’ve garnered over the last forty plus years I decided to apply it by matching wits against other baseball geniuses in fantasy baseball.

My team, WTLNXTYR, is in a ten team mixed league format, because I was an expansion team I got to pick from all the discarded players to come up with eight keepers. I chose to keep Kevin Youkilis, Chris Davis, Stephen Drew, Willy Taveras, Roy Halladay, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, & Edinson Volquez. The two high paid free agents I decided to grab were Manny Ramirez & Brandon Webb. I might’ve overpaid for Brian Roberts, but I really wanted him. In addition I decided to pay for three quality closers, Mariano Rivera, Francisco Rodriguez, & Joe Nathan. Then I got into a bidding war for Jason Motte, Carlos Delgado, & Raul Ibanez. I was able to get Vernon Wells, Elvis Andrus, Chan Ho Park, & J.A. Happ after the auction was over. Other bargains on my team were Chin Soo Choo, Mark DeRosa, Paul Konerko, John Baker, & Ramon Hernandez.

As the season progressed I was able to pickup Randy Wolf, Marco Scutaro, Dave Aardsma, Freddy Sanchez, Alberto Callaspo, Juan Pierre, Jair Jurrjens, Ubaldo Jimenez, & Shairon Martis. But in the process, I’d cut loose guys that I wish I could get back, like, Randy Wolf, Dave Aardsma, J.A. Happ, & now Gavin Floyd.

By the 2nd week of the season I was fighting for first place. Then Webb went on the DL & Manny Ramirez got a 50 game suspension. I cut Randy Wolf because despite pitching well, he wasn’t winning. Then I tried, unsuccessfully, to get him back because all of his other numbers were solid. I grabbed Aardsma when Brandon Morrow was hurt, cut him when Morrow came back, and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get him back when he was named Seattle’s closer. Now I cut Gavin Floyd with his 7.71 ERA & 2-4 record, but would like him back after he pitched eight shutout innings last night against the Buccos. Another guy I cut, Happ, is now going to start for the Phillies, so I’d like him back. Then there was Park, whom I cut because he had an ERA over seven with no wins, of course when I cut him, he pitches strong, picking up the victory.

The way fantasy baseball works is like this, there are ten offensive categories & ten pitching categories, you get ranked by how well your team does compared with the other teams in the league. Right now WTLNXTYR is closer to the bottom than to the top, so maybe I’ll end up getting some of my waiver claims, as it goes in reverse order of standings. Fantasy baseball is maddening!

Prodigal Son Returns to San Diego

gwynn Tony Gwynn Sr broke the good news to his son, while his son was eating breakfast, the kid was traded to the San Diego Padres. Gwynn Jr grew up in San Diego, following his father all over Jack Murphy Stadium, while the elder Gwynn was starring for the Friars, on his way to a Hall of Fame career. Although the sequel is seldom as good as the original, Gwynn is hoping a fresh start will help his career.

Tony Jr bounced back in forth between the Milwaukee Brewers and the minor leagues, amassing a .248 batting average in 242 big league at bats. With Nashville this season, he was hitting .309 with a .387 onbase percentage, with 15 stolen bases. The Padres sent outfielder Jody Gerut to the Brewers in exchange for Gwynn.

“From what it sounded like, I was going to get an opportunity to play a lot. I don’t know how that’s going to work out,” Gwynn said. “I’m looking forward to coming home and putting that Padres uniform on.”

As for those inevitable comparisons with his father, Gwynn said he’s not too worried about them and that he understands he has to be himself.

“At the end of the day, it’s my job. If you go out and perform, then all of that pressure is eliminated,” he said. “At this point I think people have seen me enough to know I’m nothing like my father. It’s a different style of baseball. I’m going and playing my game.”

Jake to Chicago After All?

peavy The ball is in Jake Peavy’s court, he has a no trade clause in his contract, the White Sox have supposedly made an offer of Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, & two other pitching prospects for him, now it’s up to Peavy to decide if he’d like to pitch on the Southside of Chicago. Jake almost came to Chicago last season, the Northside, but the Cubbies couldn’t quite hammer out their deal. This might be one of those trades, which helps both ballclubs. The White Sox have been struggling, but are attempting to go for it, while the Padres are rebuilding in San Diego.

Putting Peavy at the front of a Sox rotation, which features Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, John Danks, and Bartolo Colon, might be just what the doctor ordered to boost our drooping White Sox. The bullpen for the Palehose has been solid, the longball will come around, the team has good defense (especially when Jayson Nix is at 2B), but small ball will never be a part of this team’s arsenal. San Diego is still a long way from competing, but getting 2007 1st round pick Aaron Poreda, the lefty throws in the high 90s, and University of Michigan product Clayton Richard, would be a step in the right direction.

For those of you who say, Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams, & Ozzie Guillen don’t want to win. What are you talking about? But there are economics around running a major league ballclub, sometimes you have to let good players go, like, Aaron Rowand, Joe Crede, Jon Garland, & Javier Vazquez. Hoping that younger, cheaper, talent can get the job done, like, Brian Anderson, Josh Fields, John Danks, & Gavin Floyd. It’s a tough business, where hard decisions need to be made.

LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Jacoby Ellsbury: Put Me in the Game

jacoby Jacoby Ellsbury tied a record for most putouts, 12, by a centerfielder in a nine inning game, last night in Boston versus the Blue Jays. Ellsbury now shares this record with the late, Minnesota Twins Lyman Bostock, May 25, 1977, and Boston Braves Earl Clark, May 10, 1929.

Marco Scutaro, the first batter of the game, jumped on the second pitch he saw, lining it to Jacoby Ellsbury in center. Aaron Hill drove the first pitch he saw to the warning track, where Ellsbury hauled it in with an impressive over the shoulder catch. Before his night was through, Jacoby would snare a dozen flyballs, including the last out of the game.

“I could feel it a little bit in the legs. It’s just a day’s work, I guess,” said Ellsbury. “I’ll be feeling just the same tomorrow—feeling good.”