The Baseball Zealot

The Angels gave them a pretty good fight considering the outcome of the first two games.  But the Yankees won.  They won their 40th AL pennant.  In a league that is barely a century old, that is quite a feat. 

As was the ALCS, yesterday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a whole lot closer than the 5-2 would lead you to believe. The Halos were within one at 3-2 with runners on base in the top of eighth inning.  The Yankees were helped by two errors in the bottom of the inning to seal the fate of the Angels and put New York into the World Series for the first time since 2003. 

For the series, yeah yeah, there was Alex Rodriguez.  9 for 21 with 3 homer and 6 rbis.  The Angels caught on quick to him because he also had eight walks.  Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon contributed also to the Yanks’ victory.  Both had 2 dingers and Damon had 5 rbis while Jeter scored 5 runs. 

No can deny C.C. Sabathia’s role in the ALCS.  In two starts and 16 innings,  he only allowed 2 earned runs giving up nine hits.  

Vladimir Guerrero overcame his putrid Game 1 to put up some good series numbers.  He was 10 for 27 (.370) with 5 rbis.  But Jeff Mathis had some interesting stats.  He was 7 for 12 (.583) but with only one rbi.  He made his one rbi count, though as it was the game winning hit in Game 3. 

The award for most least productive for the Yankees goes to Nick Swisher who not only went 3 for 20 (all singles) with 0 rbis, but didn’t come through in key situations. 

As for the Angels, the goat is Chone Figgins.  He started out with a 0-18 streak for the series.  Before the dust settled, he went 3 for 23 (again, all singles) with 1 rbi and 2 runs scored. 

A frustrating LCS for me.  This is going to force me to root for the Phillies. 

Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.  And as my buddy Don, who is an Angel fan said late night, “If Brian Fuentes had walked Swisher, I think I would have jumped off my roof”. 

Fortunately for the Angels (and Don S), he didn’t.

I learned my lesson though.  I watched the game on TV at home till the beginning of the 7th.  John Lackey had been pitching brilliantly up until then and had a 4-0 lead.  Thinking that Big John had things well in hand, I decided to head to local coffee shop and watch the rest of the game on Gameday while I got some work done.

It’s a 6 block walk to the coffee shop and I was away from the game for 15 minutes, 20 tops.  Logging into Gameday, I was rudely greeted with a 7-6 Yankee lead.  Refreshing the browser didn’t seem to help. 

Looking back at it, I had a sneaking suspicion that Lackey was tiring.  Mid-inning, the camera crew show him in the dugout and boy, he really looked spent.  I remember commenting on that to my kid.

But thanks to a 3-run seventh fueled by back-to-back base hits by Guerrero and Morales, the Angels got back on top for the final score 7-6.

I’d like to say that was the end of the excitement but the Yankees made the Halos earn their pay Thursday night.  Angel reliever Brian Fuentes made things a little too interesting.  After a two-out, bases empty intentional pass to Alex Rodriguez, Fuentes followed that up with a Matsui walk and a Cano HBP to load the bases.  If that weren’t enough, Nick Swisher took him to a full count before popping out to short for third out to end the game. 

Fuentes line looked good.  One inning, no hits and a save.  But that sure didn’t tell the story of the game.  However, he got the job done.

The Angels got their miracle.  Three-Two sounds a whole lot better than Two-Zero or Three-One.

Other Postseason News:

• The MLB is panicking calmly reacting to the controversial calls that some of the umps have been making and readjusting the World Series lineup.  Is this a PR move or a logical move on their part?
• One analyst in, one analyst out.  ESPN’s Steve Phillips is taking an “extended leave of absence” after admitting to an affair with another ESPN worker. 
  Over at Fox Sports, they’ve decided to hire Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as a pre- and post game analyst for the World Series (The Baseball Zealot’s opinion:  Good on them… he’ll at least be interesting)
• Is MLB doing a little damage control?  The same day an article came out in the Washington Post entitled Phillies Want Shot at Yankees, MLB.com came out with an awkwardly titled article, Series Opponent Doesn’t Matter to Phillies.  Not that we as fans really care a whole lot but image is a big deal to Major League Baseball.

Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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I’m so rope they call me Mr. Roper
When the troubles arise I’m the cool coper
On the mic I score just like the Yankees

“3-Minute Rule” by the Beastie Boys

Yeah, the Yankees score alright.  Yet, like any team should, the Angels remain hopelessly positive. 

"We’ve got a mountain to climb," said Angels center fielder Torii Hunter. "We’ve just got to know we have to go out there [Thursday] and try to get that win. It’s a must-win. It’s not like we’ve got games left. We can’t go out there and let these guys win. If they do, it’s over with. We’re going to come with a different mindset and try to have some fun and get the job done."

But it ain’t going to be easy.  With the Yankees now 3 games to 1, it’s simply going to be an uphill battle that will take a miracle to overcome. 

Up until Monday night’s win for the Angels, the playoff series for them has been characterized as ugly and full of mistakes.  Not Tuesday night.  They were simply out-pitched and out-hit and the Yanks won 10-1.  C.C Sabathia is doing his best to outdo ARod in his bid to strip him of MVP of the Series.

On just three days rest, Sabathia almost repeated Game One’s numbers, allowing just one run in eight innings with just five his and two walks.    In Game One, he allowed one run in eight innings as well with four hits.  For the postseason, C.C. is 3-0.

Alex Rodriguez led the hitting attack, going 3 for 4 with his fifth homer of the fall and 2 rbis and 3 runs scored.  Melky Cabrera chipped in with a 3 for 4 performance and four rbis of his own.

The Angels have to be disappointed with their offense till this point.  Up until Tuesday night, the starting pitching has held up pretty well.  No Halo starter has given up more than three ER until last night (and if you want to pick nits, Kazmir only gave up four but we won’t go there).  Had the offense been a little more productive even a little more timely, it would be a different series now.

Tonight’s scheduled pitchers are John Lackey and A.J Burnett.  Don’t look for Torii Hunter to have a great night.  He’s 2 for 23 lifetime against Burnett.  However, those two hits?  Homeruns.

ARod is in pretty much in the same boat with Lackey.  He’s 9 for 51 (.176) lifetime against Big John.  Most of those hits have gone for extras though.  One double, one triple and FOUR homeruns. 

This is first time I’ve said this publically but…

Go Angels!

Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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Alex Rodriguez had the Linescore of the Day, or rather of the Inning, against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, as he drove in seven runs in the 6th inning (an inning RBI mark for the AL).  His seven runs batted in helped propel the Yankees to a 10-2 (all ten NY runs coming in the 6th) victory in their final game of the year, the team’s 103 win of the season.  ARod ripped a three run homer in his 1st at bat of the inning and he came to the plate with the bases loaded in his 2nd time up, after the Rays intentionally walked Mark Teixeira, and Rodriguez cleared off the bases with his 30th dong, giving him 100 RBIs for the season, in only 124 games, due in part to hip surgery, AMAZING!

Alex Rodriguez 3 for 4, 2 HRs, 7 RBIs (in the 6th, including a GS), 2 runs

Posted in: Linescores of the Day by Teddy Ballgame
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Tom Glavine talked to the press Friday about PED testing standards in the major leagues.

“I think that it’s easy to sit on the outside, look at what has happened and blame Bud Selig or Don Fehr and the Players Association by saying that one of these guys or all of these guys knew more and should have known more,” Glavine said. “You know what? I don’t think it’s fair to say that.

While I’m certainly not ready to absolve Bud Selig on the matter especially considering what he said the other day about not taking responsibility on the steroid issue, Glavine’s point is somewhat well taken.  The fans and the media are busy playing the blame game and most of the dialogue I hear is more directed at hatin’ on the player rather than solving the problem. 

My friend Nick once told me, “C’mon, fans like to boo!”.  Of course, he was talking about within a ballgame.  However, you could extend his point to the broader context of Major League Baseball and problems it faces.  A lot of fans (most?) would just as soon read the headlines and listen to the sound bites throw ARod to the wolves.  Most of the media, unfortunately, is complicit in this as well, fueling the fire of contempt rather than providing good solutions to the issue. 

I’m not an ARod fan and I’m certainly not condoning what he did.  I’ve just seen and heard what has happened in the past with similar issues.  Bonds, McGwire, the list is long and problem is still here. 

Glavine does advocate for consequences for Alex Rodriguez, as well he should, 

“There comes a time for everybody in life — I don’t care where you are or what you do — that you have choices to make, and sometimes people make bad choices.  If you make a bad choice, then that’s your responsibility to deal with the consequences of that bad choice, and certainly Alex is having to deal with that.

However, baseball management was definitely responsible, at least in part, for not quelling the steroid issue at some point.  With his statement to the press, Glavine needs to be careful while he treads a fine line between calm, reasoned thought and being a ‘yes’ man for the MLB (ironic since he is the player rep for the NL). 

All parties need to take responsibility…

Posted in: Performance Enhancers, Scandals by The Baseball Zealot
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FINALLY!!! A BIG FISH, AROD has been caught in baseball’s roid dragnet. I’ve been complaining about this for a long time, the only players being caught have been minor league Hispanics of marginal talent. Now it comes out Alex Rodriguez tested positive in 2003, but this story comes from a Sports Illustrated’s article, written by David Epstein & Selena Roberts, rather than MLB.

Four independent sources have told SI that Alex tested positive for two anabolic steroids. In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez’s name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s ’03 survey testing, SI’s sources say.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. “You’ll have to talk to the union,” said Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, “I’m not saying anything.”

Baseball’s drug policy prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, but there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003.

As part of an agreement with the players’ union, the testing in 2003 was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

The results of the testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner’s office and the union. SI reported that Rodriguez’s testing information was found after federal agents, with search warrants, seized the 2003 results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., in Long Beach, Calif.

Now the question has got to be, does MLB FINALLY get it? This steroid problem needs to be taken seriously. It wasn’t just a few players then, it isn’t a few minor league Hispanic players today, this problem is rampant, it needs to be taken seriously, and it needs to be addressed now!

Posted in: Performance Enhancers by Teddy Ballgame
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A-Rod became the first player to reach the 400 mark in homeruns before the age of thirty. These tidbits from Jayson Stark at ESPN help put that in perspective:

• That’s two years and three months younger than Aaron was when he hit No. 400.

• It’s almost two and a half years younger than Willie Mays was when he hit No. 400.

• It’s four years and two months younger than Bonds was when he hit No. 400.

• It’s four years and seven months younger than Mark McGwire was when he hit No. 400.

Rodriguez was helped by the fact that he came up at the age of 18 and began playing full time by the age of 20. That and he didn’t have an aversion to the long ball. In roughly 10 full seasons, he hit 40 dingers. It’s not hard to do the math.

Ironically, Stark throws doubt on whether A-Rod can reach Aaron giving examples such as Ken Griffey Jr and Jimmie Foxx who both petered out as age crept up on them.

Posted in: Statistics by The Baseball Zealot
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