Monday, April 30, 2007
11-Million-Dollar Pitchers of the World...UNITE!
Everyone wants to compare former Florida flame-throwers AJ Burnett & Josh Beckett, and I can see why - the Mark Prior/Kerry Wood of the Marlins homegrowns, they both fled to the AL East to compete against each other and the Yankees.
Great angle.
Still, I need me a monetary-juxtaposition (and Baseball is the only endeavor that you'll hear me utter those words), and I prefer the AJ Burnett-to-Gil Meche juxtaposition:
Both signed for $11 million/year at the age of 28 - Burnett's contract was considered "crazy", Meche's "insane"...
Gil Meche, career:
149 GS
57-45 4.53 ERA
1.43 WHIP 6.35 K/9IP
4 CG 2 SHO
98 ERA+
AJ Burnett, career:
157 GS
61-59 3.78 ERA
1.29 WHIP 7.87 K/9IP
16 CG 9 SHO
111 ERA+
These numbers would have you believing the Jays got the better pitcher for their money, especially with that no-hitter that Burnett has on his career ledger...
(Side Note: Burnett's no-no included NINE walks - this means that, for that game in which he allowed nary a hit, he had a WHIP of 1.00, which is pretty nutty.)
...but this year, so far, here's the deal:
Gil Meche
2-1 2.18 ERA
1.31 WHIP 6.32 K/9IP
209 ERA+
10.7 VORP
AJ Burnett
2-1 4.18 ERA
1.39 WHIP 6.11 K/9IP
106 ERA+
5.2 VORP
Hey hey! Ol' Gil's pitching up to his contract, and he's totally better than Burnett. Except for that 7-inning shutout AJ threw at the, admittedly, reeling Yanks last week; Meche, meanwhile, managed a big-time 6-inning shutout of Baltimore on April 12th.
Sarcasm in italic-form is one of the many pleasures I allow myself in life.
Let's see how this plays-out shall we? On the line: the fiscal responsibility of both the Blue Jays & Royals front-office staff.
I'm getting chills from the excitement. ¶ 10:14 AM 0 Comments
Great angle.
Still, I need me a monetary-juxtaposition (and Baseball is the only endeavor that you'll hear me utter those words), and I prefer the AJ Burnett-to-Gil Meche juxtaposition:
Both signed for $11 million/year at the age of 28 - Burnett's contract was considered "crazy", Meche's "insane"...
Gil Meche, career:
149 GS
57-45 4.53 ERA
1.43 WHIP 6.35 K/9IP
4 CG 2 SHO
98 ERA+
AJ Burnett, career:
157 GS
61-59 3.78 ERA
1.29 WHIP 7.87 K/9IP
16 CG 9 SHO
111 ERA+
These numbers would have you believing the Jays got the better pitcher for their money, especially with that no-hitter that Burnett has on his career ledger...
(Side Note: Burnett's no-no included NINE walks - this means that, for that game in which he allowed nary a hit, he had a WHIP of 1.00, which is pretty nutty.)
...but this year, so far, here's the deal:
Gil Meche
2-1 2.18 ERA
1.31 WHIP 6.32 K/9IP
209 ERA+
10.7 VORP
AJ Burnett
2-1 4.18 ERA
1.39 WHIP 6.11 K/9IP
106 ERA+
5.2 VORP
Hey hey! Ol' Gil's pitching up to his contract, and he's totally better than Burnett. Except for that 7-inning shutout AJ threw at the, admittedly, reeling Yanks last week; Meche, meanwhile, managed a big-time 6-inning shutout of Baltimore on April 12th.
Sarcasm in italic-form is one of the many pleasures I allow myself in life.
Let's see how this plays-out shall we? On the line: the fiscal responsibility of both the Blue Jays & Royals front-office staff.
I'm getting chills from the excitement. ¶ 10:14 AM 0 Comments
Monday, April 16, 2007
42
There I go, writing about symbolism being the "nectar of dimwitted numbskulls" on the day that baseball celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first Major-League game...and, granted, I was talking about the ridiculousness of the confederate flag, but what's the difference between revering a flag and revering a number?
Not much.
I don't think that the heads of MLB could think of a higher honour for Robinson then the retiring of 42 ten years ago, rightfully making him bigger than the game itself...but what looked at the time as a surprisingly original gesture of respect is being usurped so that "42" will, at some point, hold the same iconographical-status as the cross or the Stars and Stripes, which is, I'm sure, the point.
You've seen those mini-vans sporting "jesus-fish", or the cheeky "Darwin-fish"-with-feet response on Volvos...or those ridiculous "jesus-fish-with-TRUTH-written-in-the-fish-eating-the-Darwin-fish" response-response?
Bumper-warfare at its finest, indeed, but useless.
Kind of like making "42" a symbol of Jackie Robinson's ugly battle against systemic-segregation.
The man should be honoured at every opportunity, and he is...but it's kind of like Joe Morgan's performance in the booth during the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast: self-serving, like Milhouse, who "knew the dog before he came to school".
Morgan to Rachel Robinson (Jackie's widow):
"We'll talk about it when I call you tomorrow."
Morgan to Hank Aaron:
"We'll talk about it when I call you next week."
Morgan to Frank Robinson:
"Tell me about when you first heard about how good a baseball player I was."*
*The above Morganisms may be complete fabrications.
Baseball is trying to horn-in on Robinson's accomplishments, even though Robinson was fighting against not only society, but baseball itself; it's like the bully from high-school who's ass you eventually kicked going on and on about how great you were in defending yourself...great, at first, but then, christ, man, leave it alone - you only had to kick his ass because he wouldn't leave you be in the first place.
I agree with Spike Lee, who sounded justifiably angry in his pre-game rant, that Robinson would probably be pissed-off if he saw how little "race-relations" had progressed in 60 years...and maybe you noticed that, unlike Joe Morgan, Lee wasn't showing off the 42-Dodger-jersey on his lap like it was his own crowning achievement - ol' Spike had been wearing the jersey at every conceivable opportunity for, oh, twenty years; he didn't need to transfer his own cache to Major League Baseball and their forever-attempts to make things right with the memory of Jackie Robinson.
Listening to Robinson's wife Rachel talk about him was the best part of the night, because he was a guy, not some made-up legend like Jesus Christ...he was just a guy with more intestinal-fortitude than 168 fire-fighters, and, as such, there isn't any approbation that Major-League Baseball can bestow on anybody for the repulsive racism they allowed before 1947, and that's that.
Hitler:
"Sorry about all that."
Jews:
"Oh. Okay."
He said he was sorry! Everything's fine now!
Equating Major-League Baseball with the Nazis?
NOW we're getting somewhere. ¶ 8:25 AM 2 Comments
Not much.
I don't think that the heads of MLB could think of a higher honour for Robinson then the retiring of 42 ten years ago, rightfully making him bigger than the game itself...but what looked at the time as a surprisingly original gesture of respect is being usurped so that "42" will, at some point, hold the same iconographical-status as the cross or the Stars and Stripes, which is, I'm sure, the point.
You've seen those mini-vans sporting "jesus-fish", or the cheeky "Darwin-fish"-with-feet response on Volvos...or those ridiculous "jesus-fish-with-TRUTH-written-in-the-fish-eating-the-Darwin-fish" response-response?
Bumper-warfare at its finest, indeed, but useless.
Kind of like making "42" a symbol of Jackie Robinson's ugly battle against systemic-segregation.
The man should be honoured at every opportunity, and he is...but it's kind of like Joe Morgan's performance in the booth during the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast: self-serving, like Milhouse, who "knew the dog before he came to school".
Morgan to Rachel Robinson (Jackie's widow):
"We'll talk about it when I call you tomorrow."
Morgan to Hank Aaron:
"We'll talk about it when I call you next week."
Morgan to Frank Robinson:
"Tell me about when you first heard about how good a baseball player I was."*
*The above Morganisms may be complete fabrications.
Baseball is trying to horn-in on Robinson's accomplishments, even though Robinson was fighting against not only society, but baseball itself; it's like the bully from high-school who's ass you eventually kicked going on and on about how great you were in defending yourself...great, at first, but then, christ, man, leave it alone - you only had to kick his ass because he wouldn't leave you be in the first place.
I agree with Spike Lee, who sounded justifiably angry in his pre-game rant, that Robinson would probably be pissed-off if he saw how little "race-relations" had progressed in 60 years...and maybe you noticed that, unlike Joe Morgan, Lee wasn't showing off the 42-Dodger-jersey on his lap like it was his own crowning achievement - ol' Spike had been wearing the jersey at every conceivable opportunity for, oh, twenty years; he didn't need to transfer his own cache to Major League Baseball and their forever-attempts to make things right with the memory of Jackie Robinson.
Listening to Robinson's wife Rachel talk about him was the best part of the night, because he was a guy, not some made-up legend like Jesus Christ...he was just a guy with more intestinal-fortitude than 168 fire-fighters, and, as such, there isn't any approbation that Major-League Baseball can bestow on anybody for the repulsive racism they allowed before 1947, and that's that.
Hitler:
"Sorry about all that."
Jews:
"Oh. Okay."
He said he was sorry! Everything's fine now!
Equating Major-League Baseball with the Nazis?
NOW we're getting somewhere. ¶ 8:25 AM 2 Comments
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Sac Fly Watch, More Shutdown City & An April A-Hole
Fucking hell with this cold weather:
AJ Burnett gets shelled in start one, then goes for 6 and two-thirds giving up but a solo bomb to someone named John Buck;
Curt Schilling gets similarly shelled in his first outing, shelled in his second by Frank Catalanotto, but remains on point to deliver 7 innings of one-run ball;
Daisuke Matsuzaka somehow lives up to the hype, though against the Royals, giving up only a rocket to David DeJesus while sitting down 10;
San Diego's Chris Young shuts out the Giants through 7, turning Matt Cain's no-hitter into a 1-hit loss on a Geoff Blum's Sac Fly...
Which leads us, giddily, into the first installment of the Sac Fly Watch!
One week in, 2 Sac Flies produce a ten-way tie for first - some notables include Beltran, Garciaparra, Berkman, and Cincy catcher David Ross, who has gathered 100% of his ribbies on those two flyballs with less than two-out; Blum's Game-Winner, alas, only put him into a 54-way tie for second...
As for A-Hole's ridiculous start (6 HR & 15 RBI in 7 games), well, it's April; wait until he blows a play at third, gets booed, and forgets that he's the Best Player in Baseball History.
That'll be hilarious.
Even funnier? The Yankees not making the playoffs...could it happen?
For all our sakes, let's fucking hope so; there's a bunch of bad karma in the air, and we need to put a stop to it. The first step is collectively willing the Yankees to fail; after that it's all gravy.
Trust me. ¶ 9:47 PM 0 Comments
AJ Burnett gets shelled in start one, then goes for 6 and two-thirds giving up but a solo bomb to someone named John Buck;
Curt Schilling gets similarly shelled in his first outing, shelled in his second by Frank Catalanotto, but remains on point to deliver 7 innings of one-run ball;
Daisuke Matsuzaka somehow lives up to the hype, though against the Royals, giving up only a rocket to David DeJesus while sitting down 10;
San Diego's Chris Young shuts out the Giants through 7, turning Matt Cain's no-hitter into a 1-hit loss on a Geoff Blum's Sac Fly...
Which leads us, giddily, into the first installment of the Sac Fly Watch!
One week in, 2 Sac Flies produce a ten-way tie for first - some notables include Beltran, Garciaparra, Berkman, and Cincy catcher David Ross, who has gathered 100% of his ribbies on those two flyballs with less than two-out; Blum's Game-Winner, alas, only put him into a 54-way tie for second...
As for A-Hole's ridiculous start (6 HR & 15 RBI in 7 games), well, it's April; wait until he blows a play at third, gets booed, and forgets that he's the Best Player in Baseball History.
That'll be hilarious.
Even funnier? The Yankees not making the playoffs...could it happen?
For all our sakes, let's fucking hope so; there's a bunch of bad karma in the air, and we need to put a stop to it. The first step is collectively willing the Yankees to fail; after that it's all gravy.
Trust me. ¶ 9:47 PM 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Shutdown City
It all started with a seemingly innocuous comment about the umps calling the "high strike" this year...then:
Tom Glavine peeled off a solid 6 innings of 1-run ball against the defending "World Champion" Cardinals on Day 1, followed up by El Duque's 7 inning-1 run jobby two days later;
Aaron Harang gave up one run in 7 innings, making the Cubs look like they just picked up a bucket of money and threw it off a bridge during this past off-season;
Felix Hernandez dominated with a 3-hit shutout through 8, cutting down 12 A's in the process;
Ben Sheets ripped the Dodgers apart with a complete-game 2-hitter, giving up just a lonely solo bomb to Jeff Kent;
Jake Peavy went K-per-inning, whipping a donut at San Francisco through 6;
Even Gil Meche pitched well, holding Boston to one run into the eighth...but, unlike Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman, I'm not yet penning an ode to Meche after one solid start;
Right now, Nate Robertson just got his shutout through 5 snapped by Aaron Hill's first HR of the year, but I think the Tigers'll be all right, up by fucking SEVEN runs.
Thank me later.
But first, you're welcome. ¶ 12:25 PM 0 Comments
Tom Glavine peeled off a solid 6 innings of 1-run ball against the defending "World Champion" Cardinals on Day 1, followed up by El Duque's 7 inning-1 run jobby two days later;
Aaron Harang gave up one run in 7 innings, making the Cubs look like they just picked up a bucket of money and threw it off a bridge during this past off-season;
Felix Hernandez dominated with a 3-hit shutout through 8, cutting down 12 A's in the process;
Ben Sheets ripped the Dodgers apart with a complete-game 2-hitter, giving up just a lonely solo bomb to Jeff Kent;
Jake Peavy went K-per-inning, whipping a donut at San Francisco through 6;
Even Gil Meche pitched well, holding Boston to one run into the eighth...but, unlike Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman, I'm not yet penning an ode to Meche after one solid start;
Right now, Nate Robertson just got his shutout through 5 snapped by Aaron Hill's first HR of the year, but I think the Tigers'll be all right, up by fucking SEVEN runs.
*update - Jays lost 10-9; Troy Glaus flew out to the defensively-challenged Magglio Ordonez to end the eighth with the tying run on third...gah.
Keep this in mind, though: how 'bout that Aaron Hill? Projections are super-great.Thank me later.
But first, you're welcome. ¶ 12:25 PM 0 Comments
