I've Had My Phil

Well, the Phillies are the champs, and despite the concerns of some fans in the City of Brotherly Love, Game 5 in all its suspended glory was every bit as dramatic and climactic as it would have been had it been completed Monday night. The pile on the mound was just as enthusiastic and the champagne was just as cold (I assume), so relax, naysayers.

As for individual players, you have to acknowledge the performance of Brad Lidge. A guy whose career as a dominant 9th inning man seemed all-but-over a few seasons ago is now alive and well, following a 48-for-48 season concerting saves including the postseason. He's not a Dennis Eckersley kind of closer. He's going to put guys on base and he's going to give up runs, but he's also going to pitch out of trouble and make hitters (Eric Hinske) look like they've never seen a slider before. For him to bounce back and do so in such convincing fashion speaks volumes about his character.

Speaking of character, they didn't talk about it at all during the game, but did anyone else see B.J. Upton not bust it out of the box on his double-play grounder in the 8th? This was a huge play in the game. The Rays were down a run and J.C. Romero gave up a leadoff single. So Upton had a chance to, at the very least, put a lightning-quick guy (Carl Crawford) in scoring position with one out and the heart of the order due up. But instead, he hit a weak grounder to short and, in my estimation, was not at top speed when the throw hit Ryan Howard's glove. Had this been just about any other hitter, I would have given him the benefit of the doubt, but since it's Upton, a guy who was benched multiple times this season for lack of hustle, I have to wonder what in the hell was going through his head. For someone who is allegedly one of the fastest runners in baseball, he grounded into 13 double plays during the regular season, plus 4 more in 5 World Series games. That's more than noted sloths Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, Kevin Milar, Jack Cust, and Jason Giambi. It's also way more than his younger brother Justin, who hit into just 3 twin-killings in 417 plate appearances and his teammate Akinori Iwamura, who grounded into only 2 double plays in more than 700 plate appearances (yet Iwamura stole 8 bases this year compared to Upton's 44). Bottom line, while it wasn't as blatant, he tanked it again and on the biggest stage posible. Mark my words, this guy is not going to end up being as big of a superstar as everybody thinks.

Pat Burrell also didn't run hard on his leadoff double in the 7th because he thought he'd hit a go-ahead homerun, but in his defense, you don't want to make the first out at third in that situation. Plus, although perhaps not fairly, it's forgiven because pinch runner Eric Bruntlett ended up scoring.

This was also the first time I got to see David Price pitch live and I must say- wow. Mid-to-high 90's fastball that he can throw arm side and extension side, and that slider. His only downfall in '09, I fear, will be the leash the Rays keep him on with regards to innings and pitches thrown, and to a lesser extent occasionally spotty control.

Given everything he's been through this year, I also thought it was a nice moment when Rocco Baldelli hit a game-tying homerun off Ryan Madson in the top of the 7th. You have to wonder if Baldelli will have a more memorable moment in a career that's certain to be cut short. It's too bad for him that this bit hit was rendered meaningless in the bottom half of the inning.

Finally, for all the talk about matchups, bullpens, and shortening an already short Game 5 Wednesday night, did anybody else notice that no reliever had a 1-2-3 inning? A total of 7 different guys pitched 6 half-innings and not one of them could retire each guy he faced. I guess when it's all on the line and the wind chill is 25, even the best of the best become human.

In closing- good for the Phillies and good for Philadelphia. They were my favorite to win it all at the start of October (although I had them beating the Sox) and for many of the reasons I've previously highlighted (big boppers, speedsters, best bullpen, hottest starting pitcher), they made me look like I know what I'm talking about. I'm sure '09 will afford many opportunities for me to re-insert my foot in my mouth.

Statistical Oddities

Today is June 11. Most teams have played about 65 games, meaning we're roughly 40% through the 2008 regular season. Yet, there's still some awfully weird stuff happening, aside from the fact that Tampa has a 3.5 game lead over Oakland for the AL Wild Card.

Here are a few of my favorite examples...

*Milton Bradley, a career .278 hitter, has the highest batting average in the American League (.338).

*In nearly 220 at-bats, Chipper Jones is still hitting .420. He needs to hit approximately .387 the rest of the season to finish up at .400.

*The top 2 pitchers in the AL in wins right now (Cliff Lee and Joe Saunders) already have more wins this season than they did all of last season.

*Entering this season, Edinson Volquez had given up 64 earned runs in 80 career innings. This season, he's given up 14 earned runs in 81 innings, en route to the lowest ERA (1.56) in baseball.

*Ryan Howard has 38 more strikeouts (89) than hits (51).

*Miguel Cabrera is tied for 29th in the league in homeruns, 17th in RBI, and 32nd in batting average. Last year he was 5th, 3rd, and 8th.

*Adam Dunn and Jack Cust are hitting .240 and .247 respectively but their on base percentages are .406 and .407 respectively!

*Four of the top-10 strikeout pitchers in baseball (Sabathia, Harang, Billingsley, Burnett) have losing records.

*Jacoby Ellsbury has more walks than strikeouts and more steals than RBI.

*Joey Votto is on pace to commit 20 errors this season at first base. Kevin Youkilis has one error at first base in 185 games over the last two seasons.

*And perhaps my favorite...Nate McLouth has more extra base hits this season (37) than every single All-Star from 2007 except Chase Utley (41).

And So It Begins...

It's baseball season.

Not just in Japan. Not just in China, Mexico, or another country that isn't spelled A-M-E-R-I-C-A. It's baseball season here, and that's exciting. That's not to say that I object to teams playing regular season games overseas, because I don't. It just makes me a little jealous. But it also makes me feel quite comforted to know that after a tumultuous offseason, the next 7 months will be about walk-offs and wild pitches, not steroids and subpoenas (that said, I did just buy Jose Canseco's new book, although I haven't started reading it yet).

Among today's 14 games, we'll see Johan Santana's New York Mets debut, Erik Bedard's Seattle Mariners debut, Joe Torre's Los Angeles Dodgers debut, and Joe Girardi's New York Yankees debut (along with the last-ever home opener at Yankee Stadium). There are potential pitchers' duels between Brandon Webb and Aaron Harang in Cinncinnati, Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy in San Diego, and Ben Sheets and Carlos Zambrano in Chicago. We'll get a first look at the new-look, high-octane Detroit offense.

And if last night's US opener (complete with a new ballpark, Presidential first-pitch, and walk-off homerun) is any indicator, this season is going to be another memorable one.

I Like Baseball Stuff Too, But...

I'm not sure if I'd pay hundreds of dollars for this.

About Last Night

Just a few observations about the first three playoff games...

First, in the Rockies/Phillies game, I was definitely shocked at a couple of things, most notably the fact that it was a pitchers' duel. These are two of the most offense-heavy, pitching-light clubs still playing, yet the final was 4-2. Equally shocking was Chase Utley's forgettable October debut...0-4 with 4 K's. I was also surprised to learn CY had another 0-4, 4 K game June 8th of this year at Kansas City. Weird. And I was just as "unshocked" to see Tom Gordon give up a big hit in a big spot (an 8th inning Matt Holliday homerun). The Rockies' bullpen is superior to Philly's and it may cost them this series.

Next, in the Red Sox/LA game, I think lots of people expected Beckett to be on, so that's not a huge surprise to me. After all, this guy was World Series MVP in '03 for the Marlins. That's not to say that everyone was expecting a 4-hit shutout by any means, but Beckett acted like he's been there before, because he has. No, what came as the biggest surprise to me, and what should be of huge comfort to Red Sox fans, was how good Kevin Youkilis looked at the plate last night. Remember, this is a guy who took a Wang fastball off his forearm in mid-September and played sparingly down the stretch. Plus, he had a simply miserable second half, going .238/7/39 with more strikeouts than walks after the break. But in Game 1, Youk went 2-4 with a bomb and 2 runs scored. If he is back to his old self hitting in front of Papi and Manny, the Sox, not the Yankees, may have the best offense in the postseason.

And finally in the D-Backs/Cubs game, Brandon Webb dominated Cubs' hitters, as expected. But what I did find a bit odd was how badly the top of the Chicago order struggled. Soriano, Jones, Lee, Ramirez, and Floyd combined to go 1-20 with a run scored, a walk, and 8 K's. Eeh.

Tonight, it's Game 2 of Rocks/Phils, and D-Backs/Cubs, while the Indians/Yankees series gets underway. Should be another good night!

About A Quarter Of The Way Home...

...in the 2007 baseball season, and there's some downright goofy stuff going on. For example:

-The New York Yankees are on pace to win 71 games. If that happens, it would be their lowest win total since 1994. And guess what? There was a strike that season, so the Yanks only played 113 games! The last full season in which New York won so few games was 1991. A 22-year-old Bernie Williams made his big league debut and Derek Jeter was a junior in high school.

-Speaking of the Yanks, Mariano Rivera is on pace to save 12 games. That would break Mo's streak of at least 25 saves for 10 straight years.

-Speaking of saves, Francisco Cordero is on pace to save 60 games this season! That would break Bobby Thigpen's record of 57 set back in 1990. That's the good news for the Brew Crew. The bad news is, the year Thigpen broke the record, the White Sox won 94 games but finished 9 games back of the Oakland A's and missed the playoffs. Of course, that was before the wild card.

-The Brewers have been on a great run, and when it comes to scoring runs so has Hanley Ramirez. If he keeps it up, the second year fish will touch home 147 times this season. It sounds like a lot, and it is...just not in the grand scheme. 147 runs would tie him for 57th on the all-time single-season list, a full 45 runs behind Billy Hamilton of the 1894 Philadelphia Phillies (who somehow scored 192 times in 129 games...basically a run and a half a game). To Ramirez's credit, 147 would be the most any player's scored in one year since Jeff Bagwell's 152 in 2000.

-While we're talking about runs, Jose Reyes has stopped running a little bit, but he's still on target to swipe 96 bags this season. It's been 20 years since somebody stole 100 bags (Vince Coleman, 109) and it's been 19 years since somebody topped 90 (Rickey Henderson, 93).

-Barry Bonds never used to run like that, but he did have some speed. Now, he just walks (and hits homeruns, of course). He's on pace to receive 170 free passes this season. And he turns 43 in 2 months. If he gets 170, he'll tie Babe Ruth for 4th on the single-season list behind Barry Bonds '01, Barry Bonds '02, and Barry Bonds '04. Interestingly, Luke Appling holds the record for most walks in a season after age 40. He took 121 base on balls for the 1949 Chicago White Sox, at age 42. Bonds is number two on that list, with his 115 last year. Willie Mays is third with 112 and Darrell Evans is 4th with an even 100. So only 4 times in history has a 40-year-old walked 100 or more times in a season. Bonds needs another 56 this year to be the only 40-year-old to appear on that list twice.

-Adam Dunn is on pace to strikeout 219 times. That would demolish his old mark of 195 in 2004 (an all-time record).

-Jake Peavy is well on his way to a 267 strikeout season on the mound. That would be the most since Randy Johnson's 290 in 2004.

-And just for fun...JJ Hardy's numbers at the end of the season if he keeps it up? .316, 53, 151

Shocker

Roy Halla-Day-Spa is on the shelf for 4-6 weeks with apendicitis. That's so odd considering his track record of healty and durability.

Furthermore, in an actual surprising development, Jake Peavy struck out 10 batters for the 4th straight game. Granted, his arm will probably fall off soon, but man...that's impressive.

Scranton Area Paper Company, Dunder Mifflin, Apologizes To Valued Client; Some Companies Still Know How Business Is Done

This post has absolutely nothing to do with that. I just always wanted to have that be a headline for one of my stories ever since I saw it on "The Office."

Okay, here's today's "how about..."

Last night in Arizona, Julio Franco took Randy Johnson deep for a two-run home run in the top of the second inning. Franco is 48 years, 254 days old. Johnson is 43 years, 236 days old. Combined, they are 92 years, 125 days old, making them the oldest pitcher/hitter combination ever involved in a home run in major league history.

When Julio Franco was born in 1958, gas was 24 cents a gallon, Dwight Eisenhower was President, our country was still segregated, Ernie Banks hit a big-league-best 47 home runs, and Jose Reyes' life wouldn't start for another 24 years.

Tuesday's How About...

How about former #1 pick Josh Hamilton's 1st home run of his career? How about Jorge Julio blowing another save? How about A-Rod's big-league-leading 6th home run of the season? How about Tim Hudson (1-0, 0.64 ERA) and the Braves off to a 6-1 start? How about Josh Beckett (2-0, 1.50 ERA) and the Red Sox batting around in the bottom of the first of their home opener? How about the Indians winning at home (in Milwaukee) after 4 straight snow-outs?

An Odd Week

The Atlanta Braves have the best winning percentage in baseball (5-1), even though they've allowed as many runs (25) as they've scored (25).

The Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians have had more games postponed (5) than they've played (3).

The Japanese guy everybody forgot about on draft day (Tampa Bay's Akinori Iwamura) is leading the big leagues in batting average (.529), although in 9 AB's Cleveland's Trot Nixon is slightly higher (.556).

Arizona's Chris Young is leading the National League in RBI (9) despite a .191 average, and just 5 hits.

Albert Pujols is hitting .136 and started off 1-17.

Brandon Inge is 0-17 with 3 walks.

The Chicago White Sox have three starters (Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, A.J. Pierzynski) all hitting under .120.

In 5 games, the New York Yankees have not had a starter last more than 5 innings.

Salomon Torres leads baseball with 4 saves.

The San Francisco Giants have scored 13 runs in 6 games, while in half as many games, the Cleveland Indians have already scored 23.

Miguel Tejada and Derek Jeter each have 3 errors.

I can't wait for week two!

Can They Still Do This?

I was surfing around the MLB.com shop today, as I do from time to time, when I stumbled upon this. I stared at the screen with a puzzled look on my face for a few minutes, trying to figure out why the Cubs would still sell this on their website. Why Sammy Sosa? Why now? He hasn't been good useful since 2003, he hasn't been a Cub since 2004, he hasn't had a big league at-bat since 2005, and even though he's attempting a comeback, it's not with the Cubs!

It's not like the Cubs are desperate for a franchise player whose name and number they can sew on a uniform and hock on the web and in ballpark shops. They have Derek Lee, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Aramis Ramirez, Mark Prior, and Kerry Wood. I know Sosa is one of the best players the Cubs have ever had, but it just seems weird that they'd be selling a jersey of his in March of 2007, when he's trying to make another team as a DH. You don't see the Red Sox selling old Roger Clemens jerseys do you? The answer is no.

But they are selling Keith Foulke. The same Keith Foulke who signed with the Indians, only to retire a few weeks later. I guess recording the last out of the 2004 World Series and ending "The Curse" earns you a few entitlements. I didn't see a Bill Buckner jersey on their page.

As I continued my jersey search, I noticed a few other odd things. You can get a Nolan Ryan jersey from his days in Texas, California, Houston, or New York, and the Mets also sell Mike Piazza, Lastings Millege, and Dwight Gooden.

You can show your friends how much you wish the Braves had kept Marcus Giles.

He's been with two teams since then, but Carlos Lee's Brewers jersey is half price (Derek Turnbow's, however is not).

If you have $256, you can re-live the St. Louis Cardinals' glory days, when Jeff Suppan was toeing the slab (before he sold out to join Turnbow and the Lee-less Brew Crew).

The Diamondbacks have plenty of authentic Randy Johnson jerseys, but not one of 2006 Cy Young winner Brandon Webb.

Jason Schmidt has a Turn Back The Clock Giants jersey for sale (ironic, no?), but not a Dodgers jersey.

The poor, poor Nationals aren't selling any Ryan Zimmerman jerseys, or Soriano jerseys, but they are selling Livan Hernandez and Jose Guillen.

This one's my favorite. The Baltimore Orioles are selling a SAMMY SOSA JERSEY! Sorry fans, no Rafael Palmeiro, though. I also noticed a subsection on some teams' pages called "Fashion Jerseys." This is the biggest misnomer of all time, judging by this.

Continuing my hunt, I made a Craig Wilson sighting on the Pittsburgh page. I couldn't remember so I had to look it up...turns out he's on the Braves now. I couldn't find a Jason Bay jersey though.

The Cincinnati Reds aren't selling jerseys for either of their "aces" Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang.

You know your franchise is in a bad way, when the only promotable player you've had since 1989, is Bo Jackson. Apparently, the Royals and Raiders have more in common than just the letter "R." Bo knows this...he's also on the White Sox site too.

And it looks like the Yankees aren't ready to part with Bernie Williams just yet.

The truly frightening part of all this is that they wouldn't be selling them if nobody was buying them.

First It Was Brangelina And TomKat...

Now, it appears there's a new celebrity couple that everyone's talking about. That's right, it's D-Rod. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez's relationship is apparently the only thing that's actually newsworthy in Yankee-land. Sure there's Mariano's contract, and the Bernie Williams situation. Plus, most people are picking the Sox, who finished 3rd last year, to win the East. Of yeah, they haven't won a World Series since 2000, and haven't even been since 2003, despite having one of, if not the highest payroll each year. There's the pitching staff face-lift. There's Joe Torre's job. There's the 1b/DH/LF cluster-you-know-what involving Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera. And there's the Yanks, all-of-the-sudden-good-again farm system.
But forget about that. Did you see the way Alex looked at Derek when they were taking fungos? I mean, what was that all about?!?!?!?

This is absurd. Who cares how often they stayed over at each other's houses? Who cares how much they talk/party/share their feelings/text-message each other? Even Jeter says he doesn't know why this is a huge story all of the sudden.

Quoting him (and he's absolutely right), "It has no bearing on us playing baseball."

You can't possibly tell me that if Jeter gave A-Rod a big hug before the start of last year's playoffs, he wouldn't have gone 1-14.

Yes, this is early front-runner for "Biggest Non-Story Of 2007," and the scary part is, it's not even March.

I Love When Athletes Do This

And by "this" I mean referring to yourself in the third person, the way Carlos Zambrano just did when asked about his contract and his future with the Chicago Cubs. Here's what "Treinta Ocho" told WGN-TV...

"If they don't sign me, sorry, but I must go. That's what Carlos Zambrano thinks."

Forget the threats to the Cubs. Carlos Zambrano owes George Costanza an apology. That line is so 12 years ago.

As for his threat, the Cubs are in a bad place here. They can't not give him what he wants, which is a deal in the neighborhood of $15M per (oh by the way, he wants it before the season starts). If they don't, somebody else almost certainly will, like division rivals St. Louis, or Cincinnati, either New York team, Atlanta, or pretty much anybody else who wants a 25-year-old, hard-throwing, durable, strikeout machine, with a career ERA under 3.30. Plus, if they don't re-up with Treinta Ocho (seriously, I'm hoping this nickname sticks), and if Mark Prior can't make 30 starts this year, then the money they spent this off-season on Ted Lilly, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and others will be kind of wasted because they'll have no quality pitching.

Although just for the sake of future posts, it would be funny if the Cubs don't re-sign him, and if nobody else offers him anything close to what he wants, and he gives another interview next year at this time and says, "Carlos is getting frustrated!"

Maybe You Already Know, But...

Yahoo Fantasy Baseball returns one week from today, February 15th. That, friends, is cause for celebration!

It's That Time Of Year Again...

We're in it.

And it's going to get worse before it gets better.

"It" is the worst time of the year to be a sports fan.

There's no football on TV this weekend.

There's only one more game left this season (and as a Baltimore Ravens fan, I can't root for the Indianapolis Colts, plus I refuse to root for the Chicago Bears because Rex Grossman has zero business playing in the biggest game of the year).

March Madness is still a month and a half away and pitchers and catchers don't report for at least 17 days.

The good news is, every team still has a shot at the World Series, even the bad ones (remember the Detroit Tigers last year, or better yet, the worst-to-first Series of 1991?).

The next few weeks are going to be slow, but they will also afford me the opportunity to make numerous predictions which will no-doubt prove to be way off by the All-Star Break.
So with that said, I hope you enjoy MLB Baseblogg, and please, feel free to post away too!