The 3/8th All-Stars A poor man's bias-free All-Star Ballot!
Published by browntown653
Today

We're just over one-third of the way into the 2007 MLB season, and already, promos for the All-Star Game are consistently floating across the league website. The casual fan might think this is slightly too early for All-Star voting to begin…they may be right, but unfortunately it started A MONTH AGO. MLB's All-Star voting starts notoriously early and at this rate, fans wouldn't be surprised if they were given those cute little ballots with hanging chads during spring training. Yet one thing remains constant; for the most part, fans don't know what the hell they're doing. Manny Ramirez? Ivan Rodriguez? The fans are actually much better than usual so far, but there's a few guys who are obviously getting by on name recognition only, as always…so without further adieu, I give you a poor man's ballot for the 2007 "3/8th All-Stars…"

The League of Americans

There aren't many positions where a .358 AVG, 2nd in all of baseball, won't get you the nod. However, Victor Martinez (CLE) presents a formidable challenge to Posada's dominance of AL catchers this year. Vic paces AL backstops with 12 HRs and 54 RBIs, with Jorge at 7 and 40 respectively. However, Posada's 21 doubles make up for it and give him the edge in OBP and SLG to the tune of a .980 OPS. Martinez gets the fielding nod but Posada has clearly been the best offensive catcher in the AL, if not baseball.
Others considered: Martinez, John Buck (KC), Kenji Johjima (SEA), Ivan Rodriguez (DET)
Fan's leader: Rodriguez


This was an extremely close call for me as quite a few 1B in the AL were having great years, but no one stood out of the crowd. Carlos Pena of the Devil Rays would most likely get the nod if he had played the whole season, but only playing in 49 games costs him the starting spot here. It came down to Youkilis and Mark Teixeira (TEX). Tex has more HRs and RBIs and a slightly better OPS. Both players have very high BABIPs (batting avg on balls in play) as well, but Teixeira's 55 strikeouts lead to a 34-point advantage in batting average for Youkilis. It's a coin flip, but you can't completely ignore batting average. Note that I only considered players whose primary position is first, no DH because the game is in San Francisco (NL park).
Others considered: Teixeira, Pena, Justin Morneau (MIN), Casey Kotchman (LAA)
Fan's leader: David Ortiz (BOS)


That's right, a Devil Ray starting the All-Star Game! Second base has quietly been a solid position in the AL this year, with 4 players hitting .316 and above, with Upton's .320 ranking third among the group. However, his .941 OPS easily outdistances the group, by over 100 points, and his 9 HRs and 13 steals show Upton's 5-tool power. His strikeout rate is alarming with 68 K's, and his fielding is ugly too with 12 errors. However, in 41 less at-bats than Brian Roberts (BAL), his closest competitor, his power numbers easily outdistance him. Upton is a work in progress but has been good enough to gain the starting nod here.
Others considered: Roberts, Placido Polanco (DET), Dustin Pedroia (BOS), Aaron Hill (TOR)
Fan's leader: Polanco

Yes, I'm a Yankee fan and I'm not picking Derek Jeter (NYY). First off, Jeter has 11 errors and has been an awful defender while Cabrera has done a sold job with the Angels. Secondly, the numbers are too eerily similar to pick. Cabrera's batting .335, Jeter .329. Cabrera has 112 total bases in 248 at-bats, Jeter has 111 in 246. Cabrera has one two more hits, Jeter has three more runs, Jeter has one more HR and Cabrera four more RBI. It's so close that the subpar fielding of Jeter has to come into major consideration. And while Jeter is hitting a ridiculous .455 with RISP, Cabrera's .338 RISP AVG isn't doing him any harm either. It's the third straight meticulously close case that people are sure to argue, but I give the nod to Cabrera by a hair - check back tomorrow.
Others considered: Jeter, Carlos Guillen (DET), Jhonny Peralta (CLE), Miguel Tejada (BAL)
Fan's leader: Jeter


Finally, an easy one! A-Rod leads the league in HRs and RBIs and has a 1.081 OPS. No competition here for the 3B spot as the fans finally get one right.
Others considered: Mike Lowell (BOS)
Fan's leader: Rodriguez


Magglio is my MVP for the first third of the season. He paces the league with a .367 batting average and a ridiculous 1.108 OPS. He also leads the league with 30 doubles and has hit 13 homers while driving in 56. Vladimir Guerrero hasn't been too shabby either, with 12 homers and 54 RBI and a great 1.015 OPS. Here's where things get tricky. Nobody has a clear hold on the third outfield spot, so based on his combination of power, discipline, speed, and defense, I give the nod to the emerging superstar Sizemore. He's hitting a solid .289 with a great OBP of .405, has hit 11 home runs, scored 54 runs, and stolen 18 out of 20 bases. And no statistic can cover the all-out diving catches he makes weekly in center field. In this outfield, Sizemore would cover CF, with Ordonez in left and Guerrero in right.
Others considered: Torii Hunter (MIN), Gary Sheffield (DET), Ichiro Suzuki (SEA), Curtis Granderson (DET), Alex Rios (TOR), Nick Swisher (OAK), Carl Crawford (TB)
Fan's choices: Guerrero, Suzuki, Manny Ramirez (BOS)


Barry who? How about a 1.58 ERA and a ridiculous 0.86 WHIP for your All-Star starter. Another ingenious pickup by Billy Beane, Haren has been unhittable all season long and anchored Oakland's rotation.
Others considered: Chad Gaudin (OAK), C.C. Sabathia (CLE), James Shields (TB)

OPS: Can We Do Better? A Quick Look at 2006 and How Various "OPS"es Predicted Runs Scored
Published by Fishercat
06-11-2007

Baseball has long been a game based in statistics. Henry Chadwick devised the box score over 100 years ago, and since then, players have been judged by statistics. Cars were won with batting titles and baseball resurged after the Black Sox scandal on the power of the rarely used HR, when Ruth made it the ideal hit rather than an ignored facet of the game. Since then, statistics have only become more important. Records cause some of the most heated debates, almost all honors are based on the statistics of how well a player performs, and there is a whole section of baseball fandom based in statistics: fantasy baseball.

At this point, possibly the favorite offensive statistic of the somewhat educated fan is OPS and it's easy to see why. It's an easily calculated stat, you simply add on-base percentage and slugging percentage together. It's easily comparable between two players, since both stats are relatively independent of teammates. The adjusted versions of the stat are available on the internet, and the unadjusted stats are updated daily. It also helps that OPS has a good correlation to runs scored by a team, especially for a stat that isn't created by Baseball Prospectus or Bill James. Simply put, it includes patience and power and produced a compiled stat that actually seems to judge players fairly.

But OPS should be able to be improved. Logically, the main problem with OPS is the weight it gives to slugging over on-base percentage. Both slugging and OBP have a solid correlation to runs scored and produced. Most results show that there is not much of a difference between the two stats in terms of how they correlate to runs scored. However, Slugging gets a noticeably higher weight in OPS, as compared to OBP. The nature of the stats is that almost every player who is not a singles hitter is going to have a higher slugging percentage, simply because total bases add up faster than walks do. Therefore, OPS gives more influence to slugging than to OBP.

There are two solutions that jump out at me right away to test out. The first is a relatively obvious one, simply multiply OBP by a specific number to give it equal weight to slugging, and add the results together to get an Equal OPS (EOPS for the purposes of the article). For the numbers presented (based on 2006 team statistics), I'll make the multiplier 1.29, as that number multiplied by the league average OBP would equal league average slugging. That would logically equalize the value of slugging and OBP and produce a state more likely to correlate to runs.

The second solution is a bit more exploratory on my part. The essential idea is that slugging would also recognize walks. Currently, slugging is Total Bases divided by At-Bats, a quick and easy calculation. However, we all know that walks count just the same as a single in terms of what total bases would calculate. Total bases doesn't account for if a runner on base takes an extra base, rather simply what the hitter accomplishes. Therefore, I will also count a walk and a HBP as one total base, equal to a single. Additionally, stolen bases are not added in and neither are CS. The new formula would be (TB+BB+HBP+SB-(2*CS))/(PA). I had a tough time deciding between CS and 2*CS, mostly because the team only loses one overall base when a player is CS from 1st to 2nd. However, since I am comparing for runs, and the break-even point is 66%, 2*CS seems more accurate. I will call this SLGBB (Slugging with BB) and AOPS (Adjusted OPS). AOPS is simply OBP + SLGBB.

Since I have no real statistical skills and can't come up with actual statistical terms or concepts, my ranking system will use the ranks of the teams over the entire major leagues. For instance, if a team is ranked 5th in OPS, 3rd in EOPS, and 8th in AOPS, and they ranked 4th in runs, the EOPS and OPS would equally correlate and AOPS would be way off. Also, I'm only looking for a stat that doesn't require a degree in mathematics to understand, so my formulas will try to be accessible.

Also, since this is simply exploratory, I will only do one year, so be warned that this is a small sample statistically and that if I tested 2003, the results could and probably would be different, as if I tested 1947.


The OPS Results turn out a good correlation to runs from the 2006 data. On average, without removing any outliers (Toronto's ten rank difference is the most notable), there was a 2.4 difference in rank, on average. Five teams turned out to be exactly the same in both OPS and Runs rankings, six if you include tied teams as either ranking (Los Angeles was 9th in OPS and Tied for 9th in runs, which I made 9.5). The data tended to be more accurate for the teams at the top of the OPS and runs ranking as compared to the teams near the bottom and in the middle. That is most likely due to the 40-point difference between 1st and 10th, and the 50-point difference between 11th and last, which resulted in closer raw differences between the teams near the middle and bottom. All the perfect teams were within the Top 18 teams, which supports that idea.


The EOPS numbers look very similar to the OPS numbers. They have the same major outliers (Toronto at a 10-rank difference, Cincinnati at a 7-rank difference, and Kansas City at a 6-rank difference). In fact, with the OPS and AOPS columns sorted by rank, there were no differences greater than one spot between the two calculations. For instance, Florida and Baltimore flipped spots from the OPS to the EOPS, as did a couple other teams, but all in all, the equaling of the weight of the two numbers had little impact on the overall results in comparison. The overall rank difference was a total of 71, meaning each team was off by an average of 2.37 ranks. Essentially, if any one team were off by one more ranking in the EOPS ranks, the correlation would be equal. There was not a major difference between these two ranking systems and the effort to calculate the EOPS of a team is unnecessary when comparing them, as OPS will be just fine in comparison.


The AOPS Numbers, which left OBP alone while tinkering with slugging, were a huge flop. The average rank difference was 3.5, basically a full rank more than either OPS or EOPS. The formula maintained the same factors that made Toronto and Kansas City exceptions to the rule. However, it simply inflated the problems of teams like Cincinnati (which ballooned from a seven rank difference to a thirteen rank difference) and Arizona.I thought that adding the factors of walks and HBPs into slugging would have made the results more concurrent, but the rankings show significant regression in terms of accuracy when using AOPS.


I did a quick calculation combining the general idea of the two "test" OPSes. First I determined AOPS, and then I found the number to multiple OBP by to make it equal. The produced the EAOPS results. The results were the exact same as the AOPS result. That means that the increased difference between SLGBB and OBP was not the culprit. The EAOPS multiplier was 1.43, resulting in a formula of (1.43*OBP)+(AOPS).


In conclusion, in spite of my best efforts, OPS either has more correlation or equal correlation to runs as compared to my test OPSes. A quick calculation of Ratio (SLG*OBP) produced results better than OPS or EOPS, but not significantly by any means, with an average rank difference of 2.37. The Ratio Results are placed above this paragraph

OPS is a flawed stat, but with a very small average difference between the real runs produced and the OPS predicted runs produced and the lack of a better option found among my calculations, OPS seems like a fair tool to use when predicting future success in terms of team runs scored.

Thanks to Mission for making the tables color coded and available for use in the article. Comments are welcome.

2008 Draft: Creating A Consistent Winner 2008 Mock Draft
Published by redsrbetter
06-06-2007

OOTP Baseball: Winning Fake Baseball the Saber Way Swing the Damn Bat! (Saber's ego-stroking and failure to make a deadline incarnate)
Published by Saber
05-30-2007

(Ed.-Whoever put that OOTP graphic in the articles thread, bravo. I want a bigger version of that.)

We've covered how to run a pitching staff, specifically, into the ground with workloads that would kill actual men. But now that you have a winning staff, how do you score the runs to support them?

A Useful Bat

I don't need to tell you to have the best batters possible. Unfortunately, that's the hardest part. Player acquisition is a difficult beast to tame, and the subject of another article. But what makes a useful bat? Let's look at each component of offensive ratings.

Batting Average

BA is the driving force in the value of all players, real or simulated. Anywhere from half to most of a players value is in his BA. This applies to the ability to get on base as well as power. Thus, a player who cannot hit for at least some minimal average is of no use at the major league level. Each sim league establishes the minimal rating where a player can hit for a sustainable average. In the Strike 3 Sim League, the minimal BA rating is 6. Case in point:

Tony "Stretch" Rodriguez (Note the huge variance in good and bad years. Tony can swing hard, but can also power a small town with the wind he produces.)

Unfortunately, average is the statistic most prone to fluctuation. Look at Tony again. He's all over the damn place. Fortunately, OOTP allows for BAs to stay high on high-contact players fairly consistently with the right support. If a player can hit for average consistently enough, he has value even with the lack of secondary skills. Case in point:

John Woodmansee

Gap Power

Hitting to the gaps, properly, is simply the ability to hit doubles. OOTP, for some reason, differentiates this ability from homerun power. This means that a player can lace line drives into the gaps all day without poking them out,

Luis Llanes

or touch second base only when he muscles it over the fence.

Tom "Dynamite" Loose

The thing to remember is that gap power can give a player value even when he doesn't hit bombs, as in the case of Llanes, or hurt the value of an otherwise complete hitter, as with Loose. Don't ignore it.

Homerun Power

Homeruns are largely intuitive to you by now. The more, the better.

Discipline/Eye

Now, most of you would probably think that this is most important rating to me. You'd be wrong. Batting average is the most important, with power second. Batting eye, while vital in real life, is almost a tertiary concern in OOTP. Discipline can be extremely valuable to a player when at the highest level. Look at the walk leaders in you league, and they'll always be 9s or 10s. But discipline doesn't guarantee that a player gets on base. Take a look again at Tony Rodriguez and Tom Loose. Both have a 10 eye, but Loose has a career .399 OBP in contrast to Rodriguez's .339 OBP. OBP is in part driven by BA and power. The lack of those things minimizes a player's ability to draw walks. Having walks doesn't make you succeed, but piles on to value created by other means. Conversely, you can succeed without drawing walks, but it's tough.

Avoid Ks

Now here is a rating probably ignored by most, but possessing probably a huge amount of value if utilized correctly. While Contact is the ability to hit, Avoid Ks is the ability to maximize contact. A player with low Avoid Ks doesn't get to make the good contact nearly as often as a player with a higher Avoid Ks rating, even if the Contact rating is the same. Go back to Luis Llanes. Wonder how he hits at all with no discipline or homerun power? It's that Avoid Ks rating that keeps him going. Ever wonder why Tony Rodriguez hits .200 when he has a sustainable Contact, and tons of power and plate disicipline? His Avoid Ks is low enough that the whiffs pile up to ruin him. Do not underestimate the value of not striking out.

Stealing Bases

Done efficiently, stealing bases can add value to a player otherwise regarded as unimportant. The level of efficiency needed to make steals worth the effort varies from league to league, but you should adjust the efficiency needed up as the run-scoring increases in the league. Generally, if a guy can't be at least 66% successful, he shouldn't run. Rarely, you have a basepath commando so good that he takes runs himself into being a great player.

Paul "The Fireman" Galeana (The awesomest nickname ever.)

In closing: You can't hit a homerun without swinging the bat.

The Biggest Disease in Baseball Six men who suffered from a psychological condition that struck in the 70s.
Published by McKain
05-15-2007

Steve Blass, Steve Sax, Rick Ankiel, Chuck Knoblauch, and Mark Wohlers.

Little common ground is to be found among this list of players: one reliever, one starter, one starter-turned-outfielder, and two second basemen. But certain baseball thinkers believe these five men to be sufferers of "The Steve Blass Disease," a condition ascribed to those baseball players who mysteriously become incapable of performing tasks which they used to succeed at, likely due to psychological effects.

Steve Blass, a Pittsburgh Pirate, nearly won the Cy Young in 1972 at age 30, was an All-Star, and had pitched brilliantly in the playoffs, pitching 15.2 innings and giving up three runs. In 1973, his WHIP reached 2.17 and his ERA nearly quadrupled, rising to 9.85. He walked 84 men in 88.2 innings in 1973; he had walked the same amount in 249.2 innings the year before. He was sent down to the minors, would return briefly in 1974 to make a relief appearance, and then retired in March 1975 after failing to make it out of spring training.

(It says a lot about his career that the only usable image of him I could find was from The Simpsons)
Steve Sax, second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, would be the next man diagnosed with Blass' disease, after suddenly becoming incapable of making throws to first base in 1983. He committed 30 errors in that year, up from 19 in 1982. He would be one of the few to be "cured," so to speak, when he rebounded and no longer frightened the fans behind first base.

Mark Wohlers was the first reliever hit, in two ways. Jim Leyritz in game four of the 1996 World Series hit a game tying 3-run home run, shifting the power and giving the Yankees a World Series title after defeating the Atlanta Braves in six. All seemed well in the year following, but in 1998, his control was no longer there. In 1996, he issued 21 walks in 77.1 innings. In 1997, he issued 38 walks in 69.1 innings. In 1998, he would nearly equal that, with 33 walks in only 20.1 innings. This one hit much closer to home in terms of Steve Blass Disease, as the loss of control was exactly what Blass had experienced. Wohlers would rebound, however, and return to the majors to throw another 167 average innings before leaving baseball.

(I could not find a picture of Chuck's bad feeling shaming him, so I found one that was an uncalled shame)
Chuck Knoblauch, second baseman for the Minnesota Twins, the Yankees, and the Kansas City Royals, was Steve Sax redux. In his time in Minnesota, he gained a reputation as a sure-handed fielder, one of the best in the game at second. He came to the Bronx in 1998; a year later, he could not make a throw to first. Another year later, the Yankees would actually play Knoblauch as a DH just to keep him off of the field. He even went to psychiatrists and psychologists for help, but still fired many a throw into the crowd. Joe Torre threw him in left field, where an errant throw meant less hassle than a lawsuit from an angry fan with the imprint of a baseball on his forehead and lost outs.

Perhaps the most famous case for a fan of the game today is St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel. He struck out batters at an absurd pace in high school, maintained his stuff in the minors, and would finish second in the NL Rookie of the Year vote for 2000 while posting a 3.50 ERA and 194 strikeouts, striking out nearly ten batters per nine innings. The playoffs, however, would be a different tale for the rookie. In the third inning of game 1 against the Atlanta Braves, Ankiel saw his career as a starter die. He walked four men (one of whom was fellow starter Greg Maddux) and threw five wild pitches. The Cardinals weathered the storm, and Ankiel got a chance to redeem himself in game 2 of the NLCS. The recovery and return to dominance was not to be, unfortunately, as he threw two wild pitches and another three pitches had reached the backstop in the first inning. He had thrown 20 pitches at the time of his removal. He showed up in relief in game five, walking two and throwing two more wild pitches.

His issues persisted in 2001, and he was returned to the minors. His control was completely gone at this point, and he walked 17 batters and threw 12 wild pitches in only 4.1 innings. Later that year, he would see time as a designated hitter, which would help him start his recovery - not as a starter, but now as an outfielder. Today, he is on the Triple-A Memphis disabled list, waiting for a call-up.

But in truth, this article is about none of the players mentioned above. While most fans find their stories depressing, none of them matter today. Even in Ankiel's case, he is clawing his way back to the majors, and most seem to have forgotten about his experiences. Brad Lidge, however, is still quite present to us, and he is who I want to put the focus on.

(No player has ever wanted to throw up in his own face more than Brad here)
While not viewed as a sufferer of Steve Blass disease, Lidge seems well on his way to that path. Most people reading this can remember the moment where Lidge's downfall began. It was the 2005 NLCS, game five, and the Houston Astros were one out away from going to their first ever World Series. David Eckstein and Jim Edmonds reached base, and then Albert Pujols stepped up and decimated a pitch, sending it on to the railroad tracks of Minute Maid Park. The Astros would win game six and head to the World Series, but Lidge has yet to rebound. Lidge was one of the best closers in the majors in 2004 and 2005, predicted to remain in the elite class for several years to come, but in 2006, he struggled mightily.

He has been juggled in and out of the closer's role in 2006 and 2007, being demoted but then pitching well in middle relief and being given it back by Phil Garner. All it took to knock Lidge off-course from his expected multi-year career as a top closer was a single home run, one that did not even cost his team in the end. He still has a chance, but likely not one that involves closing games.

Is Lidge really a sufferer of the disease that has ruined careers? Is he just reaching the end of his (short) prime? Is this even a disease? No matter the answers to these questions, there is one undeniable point here. Witness what may be the strongest force in baseball: the mind.

A Rocket on the Horizon: Will He Blast Off To The Promised Land? Roger Clemens and His Potential Impact on the 2007 Season
Published by Fishercat
05-12-2007

Last Sunday, the Yankees and Mariners were playing a Sunday matinee. The Yankees fans had to be relatively happy around the 7th inning stretch. The Yankees were ahead of the M's by three runs, with Darrell Rasner pitching shutout ball through five and two-thirds with Proctor and Henn picking up the last one and a third. The Yankees looked primed to take their second game of this four-day affair and hopefully get within a game of .500. Basically, life was good for one day in Yankee Stadium.

Then, PA Announcer Bob Sheppard asked the Yankee faithful to look to the owner's booth.

The Yankees fans saw something that meant more than anything that could happen on the field. The result caused the Yankee dugout to produce one, collective, unadulterated grin. It resulted in a cringe from fans of MLB teams around the nation (and in Toronto). Particularly, Boston Red Sox fans were reminded of some pretty horrid memories and Houston fans had to be a little surprised by the sight. It even resulted in the first orgasm produced in a Yankees announcer booth that wasn't from Michael Kay (thanks for that disgustingly homer-tastic announcement Mr…Ms. Waldman). As all the eyes panned up to the owner's booth and the jumbotron, they saw what some consider to be the Yankees' saving grace

Roger Clemens is back in black (okay, navy blue, it sounds better in black).

The signing was a bit of a surprise to some fans, as Clemens had stated he wanted to win a title, but is going to the team in the worst current state of his three potential teams in those terms. The Astros are a half game worse right now, but they are in a division where the Brewers have to cool down and one that has no one definitively better. The Red Sox are leading the Yankees by six games early on. Sure, the Yankees have been unlucky, but even fully healthy, it's a tough battle between the AL East rivals.

So some people were surprised…until the details of his contract came out: a "minor league deal" with a pro-rated salary of 28 million dollars a year, or 4.5 million a month. No logical person turns that down. And the Yankees were smart to seal the deal. On a roster worth nearly 200 million dollars, what's another 16 million or so when he plays (more with the luxury tax)? And when that roster is forcing Chase Wright and Jeff Karstens into starts, the need for a legitimate SP is even greater. However, is he really the cow bell for the Yankees' fever?

The Yankees have two notable problems that can be solved by starting pitching. First is the obvious one: performance. The Yankees starting pitchers have an ERA just under five runs this season (as of 5/9). That is not a horrid number, but very few teams can win consistently with SPs giving up five earned runs every nine innings. Last year, no teams with a worse ERA by starters than 4.9 made the playoffs, with the closest being St. Louis with a 4.79 ERA. Philadelphia got close, but they also had the eighth best bullpen in baseball with a 3.79 ERA. The Yankees are almost a half-run above that.

So basically, the Yankees know they have to improve from their 4.9 SP ERA to even make the playoffs, especially if any major offensive player gets injured. Clemens will certainly help with that. But another problem is the abuse their relief pitchers have taken so far. The Yankees have used seven of their bullpen members in 12 games or more, with three of them being in 17 games or more for a total of 120 innings. As a point of comparison, the Red Sox have used four pitchers in twelve games or more, with Hideki Okajima appearing in 15 games. As a bullpen, the Yankees have pitched 40 more innings than the Red Sox. The Yankees are second in baseball in terms of how many innings their RPs have pitched, only behind Florida. That typically is an indicator of poor starting pitching, but it does not bode well for the Yankees, as the abuse of Quantrill and Gordon led to some problems later in the season for usually reliable relief pitchers.

Much of the problem will be solved in time as their starting pitchers return. Wang seems to be able to hold down the fort as a good #2 SP, if not an ace. Mussina is aging like Dick Clark before the stroke, Hughes looks extremely good, and Pettitte is usually reliable for a competitive effort every fifth game. The fifth starter is a bit of a problem, but that's a problem for almost every team and the bullpen expects to throw some innings on that day. All four of these SPs can go for six to seven innings on a regular basis, and even go for a complete game if they are on a roll. They are good enough to bridge a performance gap and to rest the pen.

With that said, how much of a problem will Roger Clemens really solve?

Let's look at the performance level first and assume that Clemens replaces the fifth starting pitcher (a bunch of middling minor leaguers, Carl "Dr. Andrews' Vacation" Pavano, and Single Kei Igawa). That group has been motley this year and there was little reason to expect improvement. Here are their vital stats.

86 innings pitched in 16 games (5 and 3/8 innings per game, so about 16 outs per)
About a 5.54 ERA on my calculations (53*9/86) (53 earned runs allowed)

In comparison, here are Clemens' vital stats from the last three years

6.41 innings per game
2.40 ERA

The innings were a bit worse and the ERA was a bit better if you just consider 2006, but he was in the NL where SPs are more prone to being taken out and his ERA was in half a season, so you figure it would rise.

That basically shows that the Yankees, if his NL stats hold up, will get an extra inning a game along with 2 less runs or so per game (since they pitch about two-thirds of the game). For the sake of argument though, let's assume that the AL East (with five of the top eight offensive teams in the AL and with all their teams in the Top 16 overall) will be a tougher hitting division than the NL Central. Additionally, let's assume that Roger will be allowed to go a bit longer than he did in the NL. So, how about an even 3 ERA and 6 and 2/3 innings per game, just as a guessing estimate, about 20 outs per game.

That most certainly solves a major production problem. The Yankees are improving by about .6 ERA points per rotation cycle by turning their rotating 5th SP into Roger Clemens. That is a pretty huge difference at about 2-3 runs per game, especially considering the Yankees have been involved in eleven losses decided by one or two runs. When you consider that six of those games were started by Rasner, Igawa, Karstens, Wright, or Desalvo, and that the Yankees could have expected a better job by Clemens in four of them, the replacement by Clemens looks like it would have given the Yankees a better chance in a few of those games (although considering the start by Karstens and Wright were next to each other, only one of those games). If you extrapolate that over a season's length, that could mean four or five more wins for the Yankees by SP performance, a distance that is similar to the one between the Yankees and Red Sox every so often.

However, where Clemens solves one problem, he fails to truly solve the other one. By the guesstimated stats, Clemens would produce four more outs per game than the 5th SP rotation. If he starts 20 games (unlikely, but possible), that's a total of 80 outs, which is about 27 innings. That seems like a notable amount, but his biggest benefit may hurt the bullpen in this situation. Clemens is far more likely to keep the Yankees in a game than Igawa was. That means that if the Yankees are leading 4-2 when he takes out Clemens after seven, he is more likely to put a set-up relief pitcher in the game. Granted, the poor performance by the rotation of #5 starters didn't stop Proctor from coming in, but I would guess Torre is even more likely to go to his trusted men if the Yankees are within a run or two of the opposing team. And while it means about 27 less innings, it could mean even more innings for a Proctor, Farnsworth, Bruney, or Vizcaino and less for a Henn or Bean. And that could bite them later in the year if a fatigued Brian Bruney or Mike Myers simply can't get that fastball by Grady Sizemore in the ALDS, if either team makes it.

All in all, Clemens is a great signing for all parties involved. Clemens is getting around 18 million dollars and he doesn't even have to travel if he doesn't pitch. The Yankees get a legitimate ace caliber SP who can put any team away for 7 innings, even if he didn't have to prove it last year, facing only four top-ten offenses (Philly twice, Atlanta, and Los Angeles if I remember correctly). The fans don't have to suffer through the one Japanese import this year who is devoid of value so far and is now the ace of Tampa, New York's single A affiliate. Still, even 18 million dollars may not solve the Yankees woes, and that's not even talking about starting Doug Mientkiewicz at first base. Seriously?

Take The Money and Run (A View of The Top 5 Dollar Contracts of The Offseason) (And Daisuke)
Published by missionhockey21
05-10-2007

We're nearing one and a half months of play in this 2007 MLB season and after one of the most debated free agent markets we have seen, it's time to determine if the contract is a Milano or a Pavano. For those of you who don't know your baseball gossip, shame on you is the first thing I have to say and secondly Alyssa Milano and Carl Pavano were once an item a few years back and given that we potentially have many free agent contracts that could one day be mentioned in the same light as Pavano's four year deal of buttock injuries and more with the Yankees, I thought he was a suiting poster boy (we're not even making him stand for the poster boy shoot out of fear for his newly developed hollow bones syndrome.) Simply put, more Milanos and less Pavanos are the object of the game (because nobody wants more of Carl Pavano, Alyssa I am sure can attest to this) and I will be judging the five richest contracts of the offseason based off of expectations in comparison to what they have actually done up this point in May. This isn't a value judger of the player or how bad the contract is, although both of those could be factors, but it is simply looking at what they have done in comparison to what you as the GM might have expected when you signed them to such a ludicrous deal.
(Contracts, such as Aramis Ramirez's, where a player resigned with their current team but in the offseason were disregarded.)



Alfonso Soriano took home a whopping $136 million dollar contract after the free spending Cubbies had set their sights on him. Soriano has made a career of deception, from magically becoming a few years older than what the baseball world believed, to the Rangers actually believing he wouldn't be that much of a downgrade from Alex Rodriguez (as we know, Soriano's numbers dipped quite a bit even with the ballpark in Arlington.) The latest deception was getting many to believe by just pure view of his statistics that he found discipline at the plate as his 2005 OBP was .309 and his 2006 OBP was .351 (a good portion of that can be explained by a significant jump in IBB and a slight jump in HBP.) Soriano's 2007 effort has been disappointing for the Cubs, but not completely dismal. You would figure he would have a better time hitting a few out of the park versus playing in the national park (no pun intended) they have in Washington known as RFK, but he's actually hitting for a higher OPS away from Wrigley (.891 away / .731 home.) He has walked for a grand total of three times but struckout twenty-seven times (BB/SO of 0.11 versus last year's career high of 0.42), and for power hitters, I usually don't mind strikeouts one-way or the other but as a leadoff hitter this isn't a favorable statistic. He is on pace for nearly 80 doubles though and even when that estimate starts to normalize a bit, I expect him to surpass his season high in 2002 of 51 doubles despite that. But his power to go yard has vanished with only three homers to this point of the season. I can't imagine a player whose power is one thing even the biggest critics can't deny him of not to pick up that abysmal pace, but it is concerning how many groundballs to flyballs he is hitting this year, nearly at a 1:1 ratio. The last time Soriano did this was in 2001 (his first full season), when he had 173 groundballs and 177 flyballs and consequently he only had 18 homers in that season. And its not a real accurate trend with him that the lower his G/F ratio goes, the more power he gains because his 2002 and 2003 efforts in New York were his best power years outside of 2006 with a 0.765 G/F ratio (or so) for those seasons, but his 2006 season he had 46 homers (89 EBH, second best in his career) with a 0.56 G/F ratio, so it is something to look at. He is hitting for a much higher average with a .314 clip currently, so if the Cubs have groomed him into making contact for the leadoff spot in versus taking advantage of his power, then that was a colossal waste of $136 million. Of course he could be slumping or putting more personal pressure to hit at a higher average with the newfound contract are both possible options to explain the increased grounders hit and the low homerun total for one of the National League's premier power threats last season. He has only attempted to steal four bases this year (three attempts were successful) and it looks nearly impossible for him to reach the 30 or so bags you can't expect him to steal usually (using him anymore on the bases is just not wise given his SB/CS.) The verdict is three Pavanos, he has had a respectable season and some of those doubles should turn into homers soon or later, but at the price tag he came at a .900 + OPS is the first thing to expect when paying his salary every month. He has dealt with a hamstring strain this year already and started the season in a pretty big slump, but he is currently riding a sixteen game hitting streak and had a nice cluster of EBH (including two of his three homers) in early May. A fun fact about the slump is that it took Soriano 43 AB's before recording his first RBI of the season, only four other players in the past forty years needed that many AB's to record their first RBI of the season after coming off a season of driving in 90+ runs. If the power picks up, like it should, there is no reason why he can't have some power packed seasons at Wrigley over that long, long, long, long contract. Not worth his contract, but few players who were big earners in this market has the potential to be truly worth the value their dollar figure indicates. The Cubs could possibly play a bit of trickery by pretending that Chicago is indeed New York or that he is in a contract year every year and that could bring out the best in Soriano.

Everyone wanted Barry Zito this offseason, and anyone who lived on the east coast who was a General Manager and desired this was crazy; Barry was to stay close to home as evident of his signing with the San Francisco Giants. Zito's debut wearing orange and black probably wasn't exactly how the Giants or Brian Sabean envisioned after Zito went a modest five innings of two run baseball without using that dazzling 12-6 curveball to rack up the punchouts with taking the loss against the Padres. Of course that's not a horrid outing by any regards, but an initial letdown after getting their primary offseason target that was especially needed to replace the departed Jason Schmidt. No, the horrid outing came just a few days later against the rival Dodgers allowing eight runs in six innings as Wilson Valdez no doubt had his most memorable game of the season with a double and a triple off the $126 Million Dollar Man and Luis Gonzalez went deep for the first time wearing Dodger blue. Since then however, things have returned to a more expected state for a pitcher like Zito as he has only allowed 8 runs over his last 33.1 innings, lowering his ERA down to 3.65 with those five consecutive quality starts. Even though Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/whateverITSnowCALLED Park is pitcher friendly, Zito has amazingly only given up 1 homerun to this point in the season, which if continued, should obviously help the bottom line of his statistics after his peak seasons in Oakland he saw his HR/9 rise quite a bit in 2004-2006 versus 2000-2003. Zito's K/9 has been a moderate 5.68, which isn't the worst thing as strikeout ratio's have never translated into success or failure for him (in recent seasons at least) but he has held batters to a much lower batting average than last season, .030 points lower at .227. He is having a pretty typical successful season for Barry Zito at neither his best or his worst, he's a good pitcher and it's translated over from the AL West to the NL West. This signing will get one Pavano as Zito is a young lefty who was overpaid but is worth the cash if you have it to spend. Cain and Zito would make a fine 1-2 punch for any rotation and it's one that the Giants should be able to rely on for quite some time.
Carlos Lee is a player who many felt was overpaid for many reasons, be it for 2006 being what they considered a fluke season or over his career he has been a solid player but only rarely a great player, and solid players with power but questionable other tools and limited OBP ability shouldn't be getting a $100 million dollar contract over six years at age thirty. Nonetheless, he got it and he has had about the kind of season you would expect from looking at his career numbers averaged out for a season. He's batting with a .296 batting average (.286 career average), on pace for 30 homers (career average 30), his doubles pace is at a projected 35 (career average 36), although he is on track to drive in a considerable more amount of runs than his career averages would lead you to believe with a projected 157 RBI's versus his career average of 107. There are some curious numbers on Lee though, such as the fact that he has already grounded into 9 double plays, which correlates with his efforts since 2006 (both in Texas and Milwaukee) of increased groundballs being hit. Being at Minute Maid Park, you would expect the Astros to be grooming him for more of the power stroke to take advantage of those dimensions a bit more, but so far he's been a road warrior with his power (4 homers away from Minute Maid, 2 homers there). Lee is a good player, not spectacular, and he's playing about how you would expect from looking at his career which is why he is deserving of a two and a half Pavanos. His ability to drive in RBI's (even if that positive statistic is watered down by leading the NL GIDP's with 9) has been his saving grace in a season of .800 OPS play which isn't the mark of a player making that kind of cash, then again the Astros shouldn't of expected much more than that.

JD Drew left his fairly ludicrous contract in LA to what many thought was a fools move, well him and Boras played against the house and won again as he left with an improved contract dollars wise and more job security (gaining two more years in his contract with Boston versus Los Angeles). Drew was far from the worse of the free agent signees, but if any player (for the position player market) defined how the market was, it was Drew. He opted out of the last three years of his 5 year/55 million dollar deal with the Dodgers, with injury concerns, to land a 5 year 70 million dollar deal. Drew has actually been relatively healthy as a Dodger outside of what many would classify as fluke injuries and not JD Drew having a body like the guy on the Operation game as he did in St. Louis. After the contract was announced, there was a lot of mystery as to whether it would go through or not as there was concern over Drew's surgically repaired right shoulder (which led to Epstein and Co. postponing the contract long enough to re-work it to protect the organization from any future re-injury financially.) Drew, or rather the mouthpiece for his puppet master Scott Boras, said all the right things to inspire confidence and even had the numbers to back it up. He said the shoulder never felt better after his 146 game season which he batted .283 with 20 homers in (with especially strong numbers in September.) So whether or not he was gritting through the pain to make his 2006 effort look respectable for the future payout is something between him, god and his agent, all we know is that Mr. Drew is slugging a paltry .358 this season. Going back to his September 2006 campaign, Drew had 17 of his 60 EBH's in that month alone, truly a man on fire. And that effort just really begs the question of where is that JD Drew, where is the guy that posted a 1.005 OPS in 2004, a contract year, with the Braves. Of course its not fair to judge a player based on 100 AB's, but Drew has hit only two homeruns, three doubles and one triple for a year that would be classified as an obvious disappointment for Red Sox fans expecting a big run producer behind Manny and Big Papi. His OBP ability hasn't diminished much, he simply has yet to get into a hitting groove, power or of anysort. I do not know his situation indepthly, so whether his lack of production is due to injury, the absence of green motivation or simply is just a good old fashion cold streak… we'll have to see at the end of the season. Irregardless of the reasons, the man he replaced at a much higher cost is currently out producing him quite a bit as he plays with that reckless disregard (for his own body) now at the Jake, that man of course being Trot Nixon. Nixon, who is making $3 million this season, is slugging nearly .80 points higher than his successor, getting on base at a plus .400 clip and typical of what you expect of him he is getting owned by lefties and owning righties. Drew has the skill set to make that contract look very deserving, it's just the question of when can he turn it on. Injuries never seem to slow him down when he returns back to peak form, so whether its for reasons like that, mental reason as I mentioned, or just needing time to adjust to the more intense demands of Boston… he needs to figure it out soon as 100 AB's of this kind of performance from a talent like him is extremely disappointing and deserving of 3.5 Pavanos. I'd take JD Drew at his best, especially at this price, over any of the other top paid offensive talents, but he simply has not performed as evident of his 4.77 RC/27.
Gil Meche is a pitcher who signed a contract that most career 4.50 + ERA and high WHIP pitchers never dream of, at least before they saw the 2006 free agent market where Meche signed for essentially $11 million per season on a five year deal. Meche walked into Kansas City having a red O painted on his chest (for overpaid) as both the apathetic Kansas City fans and the cynical baseball fan in general waited either with expected disappointment or in anticipation for failure (depending on which side you were on), and the results have been stunning. Meche, at his peak, has never had too many complaints regarding his stuff but I don't think even the biggest believer in him would have expected an ERA that ranks third in the AL of 2.07 and to be first in IP with 54.1. Other than one start against Detroit, he has been a lock for a quality start with seven of eight starts being quality (and often for seven innings.) His peripherals aren't all that different from his career though despite all of this success, outside of a few key differences that I'll get to. His K/9 has actually fallen a bit from 2006, from 7.52 to 6.96, which is still obviously well above average and higher than his career average. He's given up 50 hits in 54.1 IP, which again is align to what he has done over his career (810 hits given up 818.1 IP.) But this season we have seen slightly improved control from Meche as that has been a fairly major problem for him in his career, his K/BB is a career best 3.00 (that in comparison to just two years ago in which is was bordering 1.00.) And somehow, Meche has become a flyball pitcher this season. Last season, he was still fairly neutral but for the first time in his major league career he had more groundballs than flyballs, but this season he has sported a G/F ratio of 2.15 (86 GB / 40 FB) which is beneficial in any park and has led to much of his success this year. Another interesting thing to note about our favorite free agent signing of the offseason is that until tonight in his six inning outing, he hadn't allowed a single run on the road (he now has one earned run in 26 IP thrown.) The only other factor to explain his success is a fresh start and an enjoyment of being the pariah, of being the one that writers would cite as what is wrong with Major League Baseball's financial state; because the start to the 2007 season almost appears to good to be true to Royals fans who have learned to expect the worst (maybe Gil rubbed all of his bad luck onto Alex Gordon.) Either that or relishing in being a staff ace and having that pressure on him, but the other view is a lot more fun to think about. Obviously an ERA of this level, without completely dominating peripherals, is unrealistic to expect continued from anyone but Meche has appeared to get a lot together in his short time in Kansas City. For having one of the best early season performances for an AL starter, Meche deserves every single one of his 5 Milanos. Of course there's been luck on his side as you can see his peripherals is not of a 2.15 ERA performance and his component ERA is over a run higher, nonetheless he has gotten the job done and surpassed any expectations (of success that is.)

Dice-K is a bit of bonus to this article, because while he technically didn't get one of the five richest contracts this offseason, the Red Sox of course paid like it even if the Seibu Lions were the beneficiaries to about half of it. Matsuzaka started off the season well enough I am sure to make Red Sox fans not regret that 50 million dollar admission ticket it cost them to gain access to talk dollar figures with his translator (although I hear he has been picking up on English quite fast.) Matsuzaka's first outing in the MLB had him going seven innings of one run ball and striking out an impressive ten batters (impressive might be a strong word since they were batters in KC's lineup) which didn't help to slow his personal hype machine known as 'Sawx Fans.' His next two starts were quality and promising outings as he faced off against the Mariners and then the Blue Jays. But then he got touched up for six runs in seven innings against the Yankees (to the joy of Yankee fans no doubt), then hit up for four runs in six innings against the Yankees again (Yankees fans threw a parade since this outing was in NYC) and finally with seeing the Mariners again he had his worst outing of his short career with five innings pitched and seven runs given up. This performance led his ERA to increase yet once more as it did steadily since his first outing to 5.45. After this string of disappointing outings, Matsuzaka went for his longest bullpen throwing session, throwing 109 pitches on Sunday, in which he worked on his timing in and it seems like that session paid off as he has had his first successful rematch against a team. He has redeemed himself at least for one game as he faced the Blue Jays to eliminate any Japanese starting pitching competition for Boston adoration with squaring off against Tomo Ohka for a winning effort of 7 innings with one run allowed, three walks and eight punchouts. As for his overall efforts this season, it's been split between the good, the bad and the ugly but with a new pitcher in the league (let alone this country), some deviance from expectations within the first month shouldn't be of that great of a surprise. His control hasn't been all that this season (18 walks in 45 IP) but he has had two double digit strikeout performances already to his credit which has given him a terrific 9.40 K/9 for the season (Matsuzaka was the first pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela to strikeout 10 in two of the first three starts to kick off a career). He has been a neutral G/F pitcher for the most part, with a bit more leanings to the flyball which has led to an ERA that is not a pretty sight for Fenway (but I imagine nerves has contributed to that, nerves he should work out of like his 1 ER effort at home in last night's game.) For any rookie pitcher, let alone one in the spotlight like Matsuzaka you would expect nerves to play a role in the equation of success and it has with Dice-K who's been dominant when winding up (ERA with bases empty is 0.81 in 22.1 IP) but not from the stretch (ERA with runners on is 12.06 in 15.2 IP) and you simply don't want to know his ERA when the bases are loaded. Being on this stage, under this pressure, should be something a player of his ability should overcome but it's just too soon at this point to be calling him a success or failure as we are limited to these seven outings to make our judgments on. But when Matsuzaka has been on this season, its hard to argue that you don't like what you see from him. Boston fans expectations were either modest, expecting there to be a transition period for him to find a groove and build a solid relationship with Jason Varitek, or were of Cy Young and Rookie of Year nature (at the same time.) Matsuzaka should continue getting more comfortable and I don't see any reason why he won't finish with an ERA around 4.00 to end the season (maybe even a bit better.) Being in an understanding mood for one of our newest residents (that we know about), I am only going to give him two Pavanos as he has had quite a bit of bad luck on his side (as you can tell from some of his statistics.)


The top earners of this free agent class have had surprising results for the most part. Soriano is becoming a doubles machine at Wrigley, versus continuing on with a consecutive 40 plus homer season like many Cubs fans (that I am sadly exposed to) believed and you would have to imagine he will start finding his way to sending balls out onto Waveland Avenue more often. Which despite a moderate season so far, I have to imagine that is the desire among both the Cubs fans and front office. Barry Zito has transitioned nicely to joining the National League for the first time and is having a season very typical of the Zito we have come to expect over the past few seasons. Lee is also in that same boat, but being a non-pitcher, an .800 OPS season so far is not all that much to write home about when your contract hits $100 million, then again the Astros shouldn't of expected all that much more from him as I know this solid but not spectacular outing is not shocking to me. JD Drew has been a huge letdown but not for injury as many might of anticipated but just for not producing. Meche has shocked the baseball world and given the Royals at least one month and change of not regretting that five year deal that floored so many. And Dice-K has pitched pretty streaky so far with some bad luck on his side, but after bouncing back in his last start he could very well start putting up starts like he did when he opened up the season. Looking at the combined efforts of these six, have they been worth the cash dropped on them? Not really, but did you expect it to be any other way? Going to a new team brings new pressure, new expectations and new influences on your approach to the game and as we can see sometimes this might have zero effect on a player (Zito, Lee), it could be for the better potentially (Meche) or the worst potentially (Drew) and sometimes it might be a little hard to determine this early in (Soriano, Matsuzaka.)

Is He Still The Greatest Of All Time? The Great Bambino, is he still so great?
Published by redsrbetter
05-08-2007

In 1895 a star was born. A star that had a talent that surpassed all others. An unlikely hero became a legend told for many generations. He was a troublemaking kid who had an outrageous appetite, but an even bigger ability to play a game at a higher level then ever witnessed. George Ruth Jr. was his name and that named will live forever in baseball history.

So why have I introduced the most famous name in baseball? Not only have I mocked some people's intelligence, but I may have dumbfounded a few. Except for, of course, Scotty Smalls in the movie The Sandlot, George Herman Ruth also known as "The Babe" has a name recognized by everyone in the world. We all know about his glorious home run prowess and his short-lived ability to pitch a good game. He is truly a legend whose list of records are getting smaller every year, but still can command the title of the greatest baseball player that ever lived.



Many will argue that point, as I would do the same in some cases. But the man is the face of baseball. As Michael Jordan has become the face of basketball and Wayne Gretzky is the face of hockey, the same can be said of The Babe.

So, where am I going with this? What I would like to do is examine what kind of a man Ruth was and why he was as dominate at the plate as he was. And I would also like to face the challenge of connecting him with the stars of today and align their talents with his to measure his greatness to those who can be compared to him or perhaps argue that they are even better than he was.

Many people know of Ruth's love for eating and drinking. His escapades followed him throughout his career and live on as legendary as are his performances on the field. The man's appetite was large and thus his body frame was that of a man who consumed a great amount. He was big, very big. So big in fact that he loved to play the game big. Here is a quote from him talking about his approach to hitting home runs and the connection of his living big and hitting big.

No question, he was a legend before he ever finished playing the game. But the questions still float around the world every single day. Is Jim Thome comparable to The Babe? Is David Ortiz the new Babe Ruth? Cecil Fielder, Prince Fielder, and even Dmitri Young have been mentioned in strange and somewhat clueless circles. What makes these guys comparable is their large frames and their ability to use those big bodies to hit the ball hard.

So why isn't this comparison made on a larger scale than just sitting around with your pals popping off at the mouth about your contention as to who is or was the greatest player of all time? Babe Ruth was a great ambassador for the game in his own rights. It was he who said;

Though far less talked about, but no less a matter of fact, Babe Ruth was also a legend on the mound. We cannot forget that he still holds the record for the longest scoreless inning gem in World Series history. Babe Ruth threw 13 innings without giving up a single run in Game 4 of the 1916 Series. For 43 years, He held the record for having 29.2 scoreless innings in his World Series career. Babe Ruth was an amazing pitcher, but his bat took him off the mound and made him an outfielder. He was an ace, but needed at the plate far more than needed on the mound. Could David Ortiz put that decision in Theo Epstein and Tony Francona's mind when he went to Boston? Absolutely not, he is a hitter and that is all. Flip the script a moment and imagine if Roger Clemens were a power hitter. Do we think the Red Sox would have made him an outfielder because of his bat? Imagine if they did? Furthermore, imagine if the Red Sox never made Ruth an everyday outfielder that season in 1919. Would he be as remembered as he is today? Would he still be the face of baseball?

Even though we know that a staff ace will not likely turn into a prolific home run hitter any time soon, what is it that tells us Babe Ruth has not been outdone? His records are getting beat. There are many players today who are just as large as he was and swing even larger. Not only do we have fat bodies, but the steroid era has come into play as well. The guys who play professional baseball are much larger than they were before. It is like comparing Wilt Chamberlain's dominance to what his performance would be now. He towered all other players on the court, and therefore destroyed his opposition. Was Babe Ruth before his time in that his body was larger than most? Are those players who are as big as he was hitting the ball equally as hard?

The debate is yours. But it is a fine discussion to finally be able to admit that there are some who can flirt with giving our generation a glimpse of how Babe Ruth played the game.

Pictures and quotes made available by: Welcome to BabeRuth.com

Say Hello to the MLB Amateur Draft Baseball's draft to be televised for the first time
Published by McKain
05-07-2007

Five minutes per pick, thirty first round picks, thirty sandwich picks, and only another forty nine rounds to go.

The MLB Draft is the least popular amateur draft of the four major sports. Now, it is finally getting television coverage. ESPN2 on June 7th will air coverage of the draft from 2 PM EST to 6 PM EST. Each first round pick will be televised, and likely some of the sandwich picks.

In light of this television deal, and considering the lack of knowledge about the rapidly-approaching draft, I feel that most fans should at least be clued in a little as to some of the nuances of the draft itself, and its history. After all, many of us have probably never looked into the draft before due to the fact that so few players make it from each draft, it takes several years for a player to develop, and so many other reasons.

The Early Years
The draft was first held in 1965. The picks went in reverse order of the previous season's standings, and the leagues alternating for each pick. There were three drafts: one for high school graduates and college seniors who finished by June, one in August for summer league players, and one for high school and college graduates in the winter. By 1986, the only draft that remained was the June (and largest) draft. No trading of draft picks is permitted.

High School and "Signability"
High school players would make up the majority of early selections, and would soon develop into the draftees with power. The most notable cases of this were pitchers Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor, who demanded large contracts out of high school while threatening to attend college if the teams (Oakland and the New York Yankees, respectively) would not comply. This was a strong contributor to the recent belief that a player has "signability," or a value that represents how much money he is likely to command. The Montreal Expos, when under control of Major League Baseball, would only draft players they could sign cheaply. In this year's draft, North Carolina State University's Andrew Brackman could suffer a fall due to his signability issues.

Eligibility
The current draft eligibility rules state that a player must be:
a) From the United States, Canada, or a U.S. territory
b) Never been signed to a major league or minor league contract
c) Collegiate players are eligible after turning 21, or after their junior year
d) High school players are only eligible after graduation, and can not have attended college

Compensation
While the NFL practices something similar to compensatory picks, they are not done on nearly as high a level as Major League Baseball. As demonstrated by cases such as Alfonso Soriano, Julio Lugo, and Roberto Hernandez in this past off-season, teams are awarded compensatory picks for losing players deemed to be of a certain type (based on performance) to free agency. Additionally, a team who drafts a player in the first or second round but fails to sign him will receive a sandwich pick in the next draft.

The MLB Draft will end when the final selection of the 50th round has been made, or when each team has passed at least once. Passing on a pick - who would ever think that would be a mainstay of a major sport's draft? Due to the short times involved in making a draft selection, which before this year's draft was two minutes, teams are given the option to defer and not select a player that round.

The only mid-season draft, the only draft to have not been televised, and a draft that utilizes video conferencing to make picks. This year, the MLB draft finally gets high publicity and attempts to legitimize itself. I have never paid attention to the draft before, and I probably never will, but finally all of the prospect-junkies gain access to the inner workings of the draft.

A Night to Remember For some, it's not so hard to find perfection (or at least close to it.)
Published by browntown653
04-30-2007

Perhaps no single-game accomplishment in sports is as anticipated and celebrated as the no-hitter. A basketball player who scores 50 points will probably miss at least ten shots in the game. A football player who throws for five touchdowns will probably throw around ten incomplete passes in the game. Even a baseball player who hits three or four home runs will probably get out once or twice. In comparison, there is almost no margin of error for a no-hitter. A pitcher must retire 27 hitters without giving up a single hit, and the suspense builds with every inning, every at-bat, and every pitch. Whether it is in the majors, the minors, or even in high school, to be able to say you pitched a no-hitter is to reach the pinnacle of your game. Perhaps the most fascinating part of no-hitters is the people who throw them. Players such as Bobo Holloman, who had 3 career wins, throw them, while players like Grover Cleveland Alexander, who won 373 career games, do not.

The no-hitter was brought back to the center of the baseball world this past April 18th, in a nationally overlooked game, when quick-working lefthander Mark Buehrle opposed a Texas Rangers team that couldn't have expected what they would encounter on that fateful Wednesday night. Buehrle had been a big question mark for the White Sox coming into this season after an awful ending to the 2006 campaign. He started out 9-4 with a 3.22 ERA last year and was named to the All-Star team…and then it all unraveled quickly. Beginning with his July 2nd start at the Cubs, where he gave up 13 hits and 10 runs in 5 innings for a Game Score of 3, Buehrle blew up. He lost his next 5 starts and 6 of his next 7, posting a 9.37 ERA over that span. With the downward spiral of Buehrle came the downward spiral of the White Sox, as the defending champs began to fall out of playoff contention behind the Twins and Tigers. Buehrle finished up the year 12-13 with an ugly 4.99 ERA, well above the league average for the first time in his career. It was also his first ever year with a losing record. Critics and fans alike wondered what had gone wrong with Buehrle and if he could ever recover to become the pitcher he once was. Buehrle was named Chicago's #3 starter for 2007 and faced the Cleveland Indians in his first start. It would prove to be a rough one for him, as a second inning line drive back up the box by Ryan Garko knocked him out of the game. However, Buehrle would return for his next start and provide a glimpse of his first six and a half seasons with a 7-inning, four-hit, 3-run performance against Oakland. However, he only struck out one and wasn't dominant, so nobody could have foreseen what would occur in his next start.

Under their ridiculous new marketing rule with 7-Eleven that all home games would start at 7:11 CT, Mark Buehrle took the mound to face a solid Texas Ranger lineup on Wednesday evening, April 18th, 2007. Kenny Lofton and his near-2300 hits led off the lineup with the second-hottest player in baseball, Ian Kinsler in the #2 spot. Michael Young and Mark Teixeira, two of the game's best hitters at their respective positions, filled the 3 and 4 holes, while Sammy Sosa's almost 600 career home runs filled the #5 spot. The Rangers have normally been thought of as a good hitting team, but with the Ballpark at Arlington distorting their statistics their road numbers are certainly not quite as lofty. With an unenviable pitching matchup of Buehrle vs. Kevin Millwood, two good but not great pitchers, it's safe to say the baseball world's eyes weren't exactly focused on this game; although they would be after a few innings.

The first inning started inauspiciously enough for Buehrle. Kenny Lofton grounded out to second, Ian Kinsler skied out to center, and then Michael Young was Buehrle's first strikeout victim. With two outs in the second, Hank Blalock gave the White Sox a scare by hitting a fly ball to deep right, but Jermaine Dye bailed out his pitcher with a nice running catch toward the fence. The real fun came when Jerry Hairston Jr. stepped up to lead off the 3rd inning. Hairston grounded the second pitch to Joe Crede at 3rd, who made a diving stop, and slid headfirst into a bang-bang play at first, but was called out by umpire James Hoye. Hairston's protests got him nowhere but the clubhouse after Hoye ejected him for vehemently arguing. The incident didn't seem to disturb Buehrle, however, who promptly retired Nelson Cruz and Gerald Laird to get through the order for the first time. You can't get a no-hitter without your team scoring, however, and Jim Thome promptly ended that dilemma with a home run to right in the third. After a nine-pitch 4th inning, Buehrle's quest for a perfect game would be undone when Sammy Sosa took a 3-1 pitch low for ball four. But incredibly enough, Buehrle promptly picked Sosa off at first before retiring Hank Blalock on a grounder.

Once a pitcher gets through 5 innings without giving up a hit, people start to feel the anxiety a little bit. More than half the game was done for Buehrle at that point and he just continued to mow down Texas bats. Matt Kata and Gerald Laird both struck out, sandwiching a weak flyout to right field by Nelson Cruz. It was 2 times through the order and 1 to go for Buehrle, who seemed oblivious to baseball superstition when he went in the clubhouse and talked to catcher A.J. Pierzynski between innings. (Perhaps A.J. was telling him about the infamous "foul ball" against the Angels in the 2005 ALCS.) But Buehrle seemed oblivious to the pressure when he retired the Rangers in order once again in the 7th. After another Jim Thome homer extended the lead to 6-0, Buehrle came out for the 8th with the anxiety palpable in the stands of U.S. Cellular Field – aka the stadium formerly known as Comiskey Park. First up was Rangers big bat Mark Teixeira who went down swinging on 5 pitches. Next up was the only baserunner of the game in Sosa who popped out weakly to second. And after Hank Blalock grounded out to Juan Uribe at second, visions of immortality had to be flashing through Buehrle's head.

Matt Kata, Nelson Cruz, and Gerald Laird. It was not exactly Murderer's Row waiting for Buehrle as he came out to start the 9th inning. White Sox fans were on their cell phones at this point, telling their families "I'm at Mark Buehrle's no-hitter!" But no mention of it would be heard in the Chicago dugout or the broadcast booth, as everyone within striking distance of the southpaw feared jinxing the game. Matt Kata dug in to start the inning and wouldn't have to stand there for long. After fouling off two pitches, Buehrle froze him with a beautiful fastball on the outside corner. One out. Next up was Nelson Cruz who looked ugly on two successive changeups before taking two off-speed pitches to even the count on 2-2. However, he swung and missed on a beautiful curveball inside, and although the ensuing ball got away from catcher A.J. Pierzynski he recovered in time to throw out Cruz at first. With one out to go and the entire White Sox crowd on their feet, Buehrle peered in against Gerald Laird, the young Rangers catcher on 1 and 1. And his 104th pitch, another changeup, would be one for the ages…just ask Ken Harrelson. "Ground ball…Crede…YESSSSSSSS! Mark Buehrle, a no-hitter!" The first White Sox no-hitter since 1991 and the first American League no-no since 1992 was a great day for Chicago fans everywhere (except on the North Side). It was just another night to remind baseball fans everywhere how unbelievable a seemingly ordinary game could be.