Report: Phillies sign Jose Mesa
Like it or not, we're gonna party like it's 2002.
Some outlets are also reporting that Freddy Garcia may find his way to the DL after giving up 6 runs in less than 2 innings to the motherfrakking Royals last night. This will most likely be a completely fabricated "injury" (a la Jeff Weaver) and is precisely what I was predicting as I watched the likes of Mark Grudzielanek slaughter the Chief.
Don't be surprised if Freddy has a mishap "washing his truck" this weekend.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Shannon Stewart Is A Singles-Hitting Coward
In case you missed it, Curt Schilling took another no-hit bid into the late innings only to have it obliterated by a punchy little ground ball. Schill must be taking this one pretty hard because his blog has nothing to say about it yet. Or maybe he's just tired. The 40-year-old has averaged 6.5 innings per start this season, which is a ratio Freddy Garcia can only dream of.
Still no no-nos for Schilling in his career, his most recent chance (actually an attempt at a perfect game) being the infamous "chickenshit" game that led to another one of those stupid debates about the "unwritten rules." More importantly, that game triggered the storied Bochy-Brenly rivalry. And good from them, because until then they were pretty much the same guy for an entire generation of young fans.
It's nice to see an older pitcher who resists that "he can't fire it anymore, but he's wily" paradigm and isn't an aloof Texan that sweats testosterone. Schill, for all his detractors, is still easier to like than Roger "No Neck" Clemens because he resembles the guy pitching in your softball beer league more than a creepy middle-aged gym rat.
Curt Schilling--the best pitcher of the last 30 years to never throw a no-hitter or win a Cy Young?
Apologies to Shannon Stewart, of whom the Baker Bowl is quite fond.
Still no no-nos for Schilling in his career, his most recent chance (actually an attempt at a perfect game) being the infamous "chickenshit" game that led to another one of those stupid debates about the "unwritten rules." More importantly, that game triggered the storied Bochy-Brenly rivalry. And good from them, because until then they were pretty much the same guy for an entire generation of young fans.
It's nice to see an older pitcher who resists that "he can't fire it anymore, but he's wily" paradigm and isn't an aloof Texan that sweats testosterone. Schill, for all his detractors, is still easier to like than Roger "No Neck" Clemens because he resembles the guy pitching in your softball beer league more than a creepy middle-aged gym rat.
Curt Schilling--the best pitcher of the last 30 years to never throw a no-hitter or win a Cy Young?
Apologies to Shannon Stewart, of whom the Baker Bowl is quite fond.
Insert Your Own "Savory Rice" Joke Here
Tedium scores big ratings. That's my theory. Why else would Deal or No Deal and the NFL Draft attract so many viewers?So don't be surprised if the very first televised MLB amateur draft breaks the Nielsen meter. Between Bud Selig adding extra vowels to the word "Cincinnati" and pronouncing "Los Angeles" like the cowboy in The Big Lebowski, entertainment value was sorely lacking. You can only listen to so many 18-year-olds act surprised and dodge the "are you going to college?" question.
(Why do people think that if a person has athletic ability, he'll automatically give a scintillating interview? Even when they become professionals, 70 percent of athletes have almost nothing interesting to say. For the most part, they are employees doing their jobs. And ESPN sure ain't asking the guy who fixes your office's Xerox machine to sit down and chat for a few minutes.)
I lasted long enough to see the Phillies draft Rice University junior LHP/1B Joe Savery with the 19th overall pick. The Phils have had mixed results drafting a pitcher with their first pick in recent years (Gavin Floyd in 2001, Cole Hamels in 2002). With the well of hurlers in the minor league system running dry, it seems the Phillies brain trust (now there's an oxymoron) is again stocking up on young arms--lest we forget, Kyle Drabek was their marquee pick last year in the franchise's grand tradition of acquiring the relatives of good major league ballplayers. If you ask me, there must be an easier way to get Nomar's phone number than letting his little brother play on your Double-A team.
Anyway, the lowdown on Savery is that he potentially could have gone higher if not for a bone spur injury last year. What's more important to me is the following tidbit from his Rice University bio:
"Started on the mound and served as his own designated hitter six times."
Yep, the man can hit, at least with those aluminum billy clubs they use in the college game. Not to take anything away from his accomplishments, but it is essentially the same technology I used to rake doubles with in Little League. But hey, we may be looking at a future Randy Wolf on the mound and at the bat. Welcome to the Phamily, Joe.
Phils Select Rice Lefty With First Pick [Phillies.com]
Player Bio: Joe Savery [Rice Owls]
Fun Times At Shea
A few observations after attending my first Phillies road game at Shea Stadium last night:
- Nothing was sweeter than Jimmy Rollins' first home run since April 27. The casual chatter of Mets fans in the nosebleeds revealed that nearly all of them loathe J-Roll for his pre-season comments about the Phils being "the team to beat" in the NL East. What surprised me though, was the use of euphemism (e.g. "punk," "all that other stuff he's done") that made Jimmy seem more like Pacman Jones. It was a fascinating study in scapegoating--Mets fans were practically inventing a rap sheet for J-Roll that simply doesn't exist.
- Julio Franco got to pinch-hit in the exciting 7th. Just want to point out that he was part of the Von Hayes trade in 1982. Also, Endy Chavez made us proud by grounding into a double play with the bases loaded (though he hurt his hamstring running it out, sucking some of the schadenfreude out of the situation).
- My buddy marveling at Shane Victorino's throwing arm after gunning down Carlos Delgado in the 4th: "He's like a cannon with a glove!" And Rod Barajas actually blocked the plate, kind of!
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #1: A guy on the long escalator ride to the upper deck loudly argued that Ryan Howard was the worst defensive first baseman in the National League. Ryan later made a great diving stop to prevent a run from scoring in the critical 7th. Presumably, this fan forgot that his own team, which starts Delgado at first, is also in the National League.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #2: I walked by a guy in the concourse who yelled, "Oooh, the Phillies, never won a World Series!" Presumably, this fan's memory does not extend past the Mike Piazza Era.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fans #3-5: A group of three guys several rows down got ejected from the game after they threatened to beat up some other fans for throwing ketchup packets at them, too drunk to realize that they had spilled it on themselves. These were douchebags of the first degree, not a single one of them actually wearing any Mets gear, attending a baseball game in white belts and silk-screened hoodies. It reminded me of when J-Lo used to go to Sox games with Ben Affleck.
- Mets Fans--A Caveat: The large group of young businesspeople in front of us were very friendly and very focused on making propositional bets for every other batter. Good people.
You really can't beat the adrenaline rush of wearing an opposing team's colors in hostile territory, especially when your team wins. Leaving the stadium, I must have given the thumbs-up to or high-fived every single other Phillies fan I encountered. Mets fans silently filed out of the building, mustering only a few "Yankees Suck" chants.
Only six games ahead now and they're not even worried about the Phils. We've got them right where we wanted them a month and a half ago.
- Nothing was sweeter than Jimmy Rollins' first home run since April 27. The casual chatter of Mets fans in the nosebleeds revealed that nearly all of them loathe J-Roll for his pre-season comments about the Phils being "the team to beat" in the NL East. What surprised me though, was the use of euphemism (e.g. "punk," "all that other stuff he's done") that made Jimmy seem more like Pacman Jones. It was a fascinating study in scapegoating--Mets fans were practically inventing a rap sheet for J-Roll that simply doesn't exist.
- Julio Franco got to pinch-hit in the exciting 7th. Just want to point out that he was part of the Von Hayes trade in 1982. Also, Endy Chavez made us proud by grounding into a double play with the bases loaded (though he hurt his hamstring running it out, sucking some of the schadenfreude out of the situation).
- My buddy marveling at Shane Victorino's throwing arm after gunning down Carlos Delgado in the 4th: "He's like a cannon with a glove!" And Rod Barajas actually blocked the plate, kind of!
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #1: A guy on the long escalator ride to the upper deck loudly argued that Ryan Howard was the worst defensive first baseman in the National League. Ryan later made a great diving stop to prevent a run from scoring in the critical 7th. Presumably, this fan forgot that his own team, which starts Delgado at first, is also in the National League.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #2: I walked by a guy in the concourse who yelled, "Oooh, the Phillies, never won a World Series!" Presumably, this fan's memory does not extend past the Mike Piazza Era.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fans #3-5: A group of three guys several rows down got ejected from the game after they threatened to beat up some other fans for throwing ketchup packets at them, too drunk to realize that they had spilled it on themselves. These were douchebags of the first degree, not a single one of them actually wearing any Mets gear, attending a baseball game in white belts and silk-screened hoodies. It reminded me of when J-Lo used to go to Sox games with Ben Affleck.
- Mets Fans--A Caveat: The large group of young businesspeople in front of us were very friendly and very focused on making propositional bets for every other batter. Good people.
You really can't beat the adrenaline rush of wearing an opposing team's colors in hostile territory, especially when your team wins. Leaving the stadium, I must have given the thumbs-up to or high-fived every single other Phillies fan I encountered. Mets fans silently filed out of the building, mustering only a few "Yankees Suck" chants.
Only six games ahead now and they're not even worried about the Phils. We've got them right where we wanted them a month and a half ago.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Joe Morgan Bites The Hand That Feeds Him
There are two things I know for sure:
1) Joe Morgan was a terrific baseball player.
2) Joe Morgan is a terrible baseball analyst.
To his credit, he did have a 19-year career in the majors and is bound to know something about the game. He also has a propensity for making quixotic statements and sweeping generalizations when presented with complex issues, yet has won two Emmys for his color commentary. This is a man who once said "You can't compare things with statistics," yet is ranked as the 15th-best player in baseball history and the greatest second baseman of all time by prominent statistician Bill James in his Historical Baseball Abstract.
His unpopularity among baseball's sizable sabermetric community--the Moneyball acolytes--is well-documented. And while this isn't a blog that centers around Morgan-bashing or sabermetrics (God knows there are enough of those), well, everyone needs a hobby.
Overheard during Sunday night's Yankees-Red Sox game, concerning Alex Rodriguez's recent tabloid scandal:
"I think when you're following people around, that's getting too much into their private lives. Hollywood celebrities, they're used to it with the tabloids and everything. But baseball players are not used to their private lives being public."
I'm pretty sure that star athletes--especially ones that play in New York--have been national celebrities since the days of, oh, George Herman Ruth.
Also, the notion that one of the highest-profile players to ever play baseball would not expect his entire life to be scrutinized is pure hogwash. It's not like this is the first time this has happened to A-Rod. He's been under a microscope the moment he arrived in the Bronx; hell, that's why he has turned into a seemingly emotionless automaton. I'm actually relieved that the dude was caught coming out of a strip club. Plus this happened in public, in broad daylight. There are no photographers popping out from behind the sink every time he uses the bathroom.
You could even argue that the evolution of ESPN's increasingly excretable MLB coverage is partially to blame for Rodriguez's woes. There is more discussion of marginally interesting human-interest "storylines" than of the issues and concerns that directly impact both the game in question and the sport as a whole. To wit, I learned one thing during last month's Braves-Phillies Wednesday night broadcast: Jarrod Saltalamacchia has a long name. I swear they would not shut up about this insignificant detail, bringing it up in almost every inning as Chris Berman tried to shit out one of his contrived puns/nicknames for this guy.
Unfortunately, Joe is not going away, a testament to the value of his "sweep complexity under the rug" style in an industry based on finding the broadest, least offensive appeal possible. Folks, there's nothing less offensive than good, old-fashioned hot air.
Archive of Joe Morgan Chat Transcripts [Fire Joe Morgan]
Blog Archive: Joe Morgan Tags [Between the Lines]
1) Joe Morgan was a terrific baseball player.
2) Joe Morgan is a terrible baseball analyst.
To his credit, he did have a 19-year career in the majors and is bound to know something about the game. He also has a propensity for making quixotic statements and sweeping generalizations when presented with complex issues, yet has won two Emmys for his color commentary. This is a man who once said "You can't compare things with statistics," yet is ranked as the 15th-best player in baseball history and the greatest second baseman of all time by prominent statistician Bill James in his Historical Baseball Abstract.
His unpopularity among baseball's sizable sabermetric community--the Moneyball acolytes--is well-documented. And while this isn't a blog that centers around Morgan-bashing or sabermetrics (God knows there are enough of those), well, everyone needs a hobby.
Overheard during Sunday night's Yankees-Red Sox game, concerning Alex Rodriguez's recent tabloid scandal:
"I think when you're following people around, that's getting too much into their private lives. Hollywood celebrities, they're used to it with the tabloids and everything. But baseball players are not used to their private lives being public."
I'm pretty sure that star athletes--especially ones that play in New York--have been national celebrities since the days of, oh, George Herman Ruth.
Also, the notion that one of the highest-profile players to ever play baseball would not expect his entire life to be scrutinized is pure hogwash. It's not like this is the first time this has happened to A-Rod. He's been under a microscope the moment he arrived in the Bronx; hell, that's why he has turned into a seemingly emotionless automaton. I'm actually relieved that the dude was caught coming out of a strip club. Plus this happened in public, in broad daylight. There are no photographers popping out from behind the sink every time he uses the bathroom.
You could even argue that the evolution of ESPN's increasingly excretable MLB coverage is partially to blame for Rodriguez's woes. There is more discussion of marginally interesting human-interest "storylines" than of the issues and concerns that directly impact both the game in question and the sport as a whole. To wit, I learned one thing during last month's Braves-Phillies Wednesday night broadcast: Jarrod Saltalamacchia has a long name. I swear they would not shut up about this insignificant detail, bringing it up in almost every inning as Chris Berman tried to shit out one of his contrived puns/nicknames for this guy.
Unfortunately, Joe is not going away, a testament to the value of his "sweep complexity under the rug" style in an industry based on finding the broadest, least offensive appeal possible. Folks, there's nothing less offensive than good, old-fashioned hot air.
Archive of Joe Morgan Chat Transcripts [Fire Joe Morgan]
Blog Archive: Joe Morgan Tags [Between the Lines]
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