The Baseball Zealot

If you use Twitter, I assume you are on for on two reasons.  To  glean information and perhaps to give your own analysis/info on what you know. 

If you are a Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox fan and on you are Twitter, there are some must-follow feeds to get the most out of the social networking tool.  This is a general guide that will help you get started. 

Let’s start with the basics. 

The Teams

Here are the official twitter accounts for the two major league teams.  Follow these if you want the latest news from the Cubs and Sox.  Keep in mind that anything from here will most likely be links you will see on mlb.com or press releases.  Certainly nothing too juicy.

Chicago Cubs @cubs

White Sox @whitesox

Search Hashtags

Since you all can can read the articles on mlb.com on your own, perhaps of more interest to Chicago baseball fans is search hashtags.  This will allow you to follow all tweets from baseball fans having to do with say, the Cubs. Without going into a whole tutorial on Twitter (you can find a good one on hashtags here), suffice to say that any tweet with the “#” sign before the search term before it will be included in the search query and folks will see it when they follow that query.

So the ones that we’re interested in are:

Chicago Cubs #cubs

Chicago White Sox #whitesox

Keep in mind that Twitter programs (like Tweetdeck, Tweetie or Twitterific) take advantage of hashtags much better than the web version of Twitter.

MLB on Twitter

Let me throw out the general Major League Baseball Twitter links out there while I’m on the topic. 

MLB on Twitter @mlb. 

To follow the Major League Baseball hashtag, it’s #mlb

Other Chicago Baseball people to follow

Cubs fans will want to follow MLB Cubs beat writer Carrie Muskat (@carriemuskat).  Similarly, Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) who covers the Sox for mlb.com is must for White Sox fans.

For the Cubs fans, here a few more. 

Iowa Cubs @Iowa Cubs

Official Cubs Vine Line @vinelinetwitter (not too active yet)

Len Kasper and Bob Brenly’s Official Twitter @lenandbob

For the White Sox:

Charlotte Knights @KnightsBaseball

Sun Times Sox blog @CST_sox

I was thinking of throwing up some baseball blog twitter links for both teams but so there are so many I wouldn’t be doing justice to some good ones out there.  Just know that most all of them out there have a twitter presence and it’s easy to follow them.  Not only is it an easy way to get notified when they update their website but more importantly, you get some good insights from the bloggers in 140 characters or less. 

Also, there aren’t too many active Chicago players on Twitter right now (no, the Carlos Zambrano you see is a fake).  Former White Sox OF/1B Nick Swisher (@NickSwisher) has an account is quite active (and interesting).  Fantasy Baseball Dugout blog has a list of current MLB players on Twitter.  Keep in mind not all players with accounts are active or even post themselves. 

I’ll throw one more in here for kicks just because it’s been in the news lately.  Ozzie Guillen is on the Twitter thing now.  And so far, he been having fun with it.  So has the Twitter community because his Tweets have been quite nonsensical at times.  I’ve said it before… I’m not a Sox fan but I kind of like Ozzie Guillen because I think he makes MLB a little uncomfortable.  This Twitter venture on his part is just one more example. You can find Ozzie on Twitter @ozzieguillen.

I hope this help those of you baseball fans who are just starting to use Twitter.  If you have other relevant Chicago baseball people to follow on Twitter, please let me know. 

Posted in: Technology and Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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C.C. Sabathia was matched up against fellow Cleveland Indians starter Cliff Lee in the opener of the Series.  Lee outpitched C.C. in that game, but only Sabathia was ready to go on three days rest, Cliff would need one more day before he could go.  So on Sunday night Joe Blanton would answer the bell for the Phillies versus big C.C.

Derek Jeter got the Yankees going in the 1st with a leadoff single, went to 3rd on a Johnny Damon double, and Derek would score on a Mark Teixeira groundout, and then Damon would be plated on a Jorge Posada sacrifice fly, after Alex Rodriguez was drilled by a pitch, Yanks up 2-0 with the Phils coming to bat.  Back to back first inning doubles by Shane Victorino & Chase Utley would cut it to a one run game, 2-1 after one.

BIG Ryan Howard got a leadoff single in the bottom of the 4th, stole 2nd, and scored on a Pedro Feliz base knock to knot the game at two.  It was time for New York to get to work in the top of the fifth, Nick Swisher started it with a base on balls, went to 2nd on a Melky Cabrera single, and then C.C. Sabathia struckout trying to bunt the runners up.  With one out Derek Jeter plated Swisher with a single, then Cabrera scored on a base hit off the bat of Damon, and the Yanks again had a two run lead, 4-2.

The Phillies got their first two guys on in the bottom of the 5th as Jimmy Rollins singled & Shane Victorino walked, bringing up Chase Utley (who had homered twice in game one off C.C.), BIG Ryan Howard, and Jayson Werth, the meat of the order.  Two popouts & a strikeout later, and the threat was over.  Neither starting pitcher allowed a run in the 6th, Ben Francisco batted for Blanton, ending his night.

Chan Ho Park pitched a scoreless 7th.  When Sabathia delivered his 98th pitch of the night in the 7th it struck me, while thinking about this superhuman’s accomplishments, pitchers routinely went the distance in the olden days, often times throwing 200 pitches in a game, sometimes working on two days rest.  Still it was great to see this workhorse, C.C., going about his job, mowing down the top of the Phillies order, one, two…  But then Utley chased Sabathia from the game with his third home run of the Series off C.C. (so much for platooning), once again it was a one run ballgame, all six Philadelphia home runs being solo shots.  Damaso Marte was brought on to get BIG Ryan Howard to popup to end the inning, 4-3 NY.

There were two on & one out in the top of the 8th, Nick Swisher could’ve iced it, but he took strike three down the middle, shaking his head, rather than lighting up reliever Ryan Madson.  Joe Girardi didn’t want to have Mariano Rivera pitch more than one inning, thus Joba Chamberlain was called on to face the hot hitting Jayson Werth (down on strikes), Raul Ibanez (K’s him on heat), & Pedro Feliz took the kid over the wall for a game tying homer.  Oh brother, wasn’t supposed to happen that way if you’re a Yankees fan, what a ballgame, what a Series!  A wicked breaking ball to Carlos Ruiz, and Joba’s struckout the side, but now it’s all tied at four, going into the 9th.

I know this from experience, sometimes you try to save your closer for tomorrow, and then there is no tomorrow.  Chamberlain looked overpowering, but Rivera is overpowering.  Charlie Manuel called on his closer Brad Lidge to work a tie ballgame in the top of the 9th, getting the first two before Damon singled to left, stole 2nd & went around Feliz, and went all the way to 3rd (the Phillies had a shift on for Teixeira), he’s credited with 2 SBs on that one play.  Lidge hits Teixeira, bringing up ARod (1 for 13 in the Series).  Alex hits a double off the leftfield wall, big moments for big players.  With the Yankees up, Mo starts seriously loosening up to try to close it out with the lead.  A couple of insurance runs score when Posada delivers a single into leftcenter, continuing on to 2nd, where he is tagged out easily, 7-4 Yanks.

Not that it matters, but Rivera faces pinch hitter Matt Stairs and then the top of the order.  A groundout, a popout, & a  groundout, all three to firstbase, and it’s over.  The Bronx Bombers now have a three games to one Series lead, with one ballgame in Philadelphia before heading back to New York (if necessary).  Philadelphia needs to win three straight, if not impossible, close to it.  Game five features Cliff Lee versus nasty A.J. Burnett on three days rest.  Joba Chamberlain was credited with the win in this one, but we all know it was C.C. Sabathia on three days, getting the job done.

Posted in: Postseason by Teddy Ballgame
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There was a one hour twenty minute rain delay before game three finally was set into motion.  Southpaw Andy Pettitte was on the bump for the Pinstripers, while lefty Cole Hamels (I see that commercial with those kids dad, every time he pitches) was matched up against the cagey vet.

It looked like Pettitte was the kid with the jitters in the 2nd inning, when he allowed a leadoff homer to Jayson Werth to give Philly a 1-0 lead.  Before the second inning dust had settled, Andy walked Jimmy Rollins with the bases loaded, and then Shane Victorino’s sac fly made it 3-0.

In the top of the 4th with a runner on 1st Alex Rodriguez’ flyball hit off a camera in rightfield, it appeared as though the camera was out over the field of play, but it was reviewed and ruled a two run home run, making it a 3-2 game.  With one out in the 5th Andy Pettitte took matters into his own hands when he singled home Nick Swisher from 2nd base with the tying run, Swisher had doubled to open the inning.  Derek Jeter kept the line moving with a base knock.  The big blow came moments later when Johnny Damon’s double plated both Pettitte & Jeter, giving NY a two run lead.

In the sixth inning the teams exchanged runs with Nick Swisher hitting a home run in the top of the frame and Jayson Werth matching it with a big fly of his own in the bottom for Philadelphia, still a two run Yankee advantage.  New York took control in the 7th & 8th, with one run in each inning, Jorge Posada’s RBI single in the 7th and pinch hitter Hideki Matsui’s solo shot in the eighth.

Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz hit a solo blast in the 9th off reliever Phil Hughes to cut it to three, but then Mariano Rivera was called upon to close it out.  Andy Pettitte was the winning pitcher, his 17th postseason victory.

I want to say something about the talking heads, they are crazy, and for the most part they talk about stuff which makes no sense.  They talk about pressure & clutch, they talk about slumps, and meaningless statistics of what batters are doing off certain pitchers in certain situations.  The problem here arises in the fact that there isn’t a whole lot of data, the statistics are very limited, and they are skewed as a result.  What I’m talking about in particular is Alex Rodriguez 0-8 with six strikeouts after the first two games, Chase Utley with two long balls in one game off a lefthanded pitcher, Nick Swisher & his woeful slump, and then there’s Ryan Howard 0-8 with seven K’s in his last eight at bats.  This isn’t about pressure and coming through or not coming through in the clutch.  This is the World Series, featuring the best of the best, don’t over analyze everything, just sit back & enjoy.

Posted in: Postseason by Teddy Ballgame
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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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Sloppy.

That’s the adjective I keep seeing repeated in the headlines regarding the Los Angeles Angels play last night in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.  The Angels, who bested their error record during the regular season with only 85 miscues, made some pretty nasty and costly ones in Friday night’s game.  Like a botched routine popup that ended up to be an rbi single. 

I’ll admit I was rooting for Big John Lackey.  But it’s hard to give that kind of edge to the Yankees and expect to win because you know the Yanks will step in and seize the advantage.  With the way C.C. Sabathia was pitching last night, that was kiss of death.  True, Sabathia has had issues with the Angels during the regular season (0-2, 9 ER in 13 1/3 innings though he did strike out 11).  But that was all ancient history and as they say it’s a brand new season when it comes to the playoffs.  Sabathia went 8 innings last night against the Halos allowing only 4 hits and just one run (an rbi single by Kendry Morales).  Sabathia walked one and struck out seven. 

Torii Hunter had begrudging praise for Sabathia (in reference to the mid-40s temperature):

"CC was the cold weather.  He was pitching his butt off. CC’s the real deal, man."

Box Score

Other ALCS Bits:

• Speaking of mid-40 degree weather, yes, it was that cold.  And we’re only in the beginning of the League Championship Series.  The MLB Postseason schedule is set till November 5 (assuming all games are played).  It’s going to get a whole lot colder unless the Angels and Dodgers pull it off. 

  Jim Caple of ESPN has a tongue in cheek article about how HE feels about the postseason schedule.

   

• Apparently, singer Ronan Tynan was a late scratch for singing God Bless America in last night’s game for making an anti-Semitic remark.

   

• Anyone care what Nick Swisher has to say?  If so, check out MLB.com’s Q&A with him posted today.

Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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Neither closer has had all that much success this year, neither Matt Capps, nor Brad Lidge.  Capps spit out a one run 9th inning lead, allowing back to back doubles, and then with two outs Shane Victorino lined a ball right at Andrew McCutchen, McCutchen froze, and the ball took off over his head, and gave the Phillies a one run lead.  Now it was time for Brad Lidge to protect a one run lead.  Hits by Luis Cruz & Brandon Moss, with a wild pitch in between, tied the game when Jayson Werth over ran the ball, and pinch runner Brian Bixler scored.  That brought up the kid, Andrew McCutchen.  Andrew talked with Lastings Milledge during the game, talking about what he’d do if he hit a walkoff home run, and told him he’d be like a basketball player taking the dunk to the hoop when he reached home plate.  He thought he might get the bunt sign, but when he didn’t, he focused on the job at hand and looked for a ball to hit hard.  And BANG it happened!

Which got me to thinking of managers putting their players into positions where they can achieve success.  I remember a couple of nights ago where Jim Tracy didn’t panic, he told Adam Eaton to take three pitches with the bases loaded (he walked), trailing in the game, wanting Ryan Spilborghs to bat with the bases loaded, and BANG it happened!

Then there was the opposite, which happened in last night’s Texas/Yankee game.  With nobody out in the bottom of the 9th New York trailed the Rangers 10-9 with runners on 1st & 2nd, facing Frank Francisco.  Now we all know Swisher cannot bunt, I presume Girardi knows this as well, but he had him try, popout.  And then BANG it happened!  Linedrive up the middle by Melky Cabrera, caught by Elvis Andrus for a game ending DP.

I’m reminded of what Stacey King always says regarding Da Bulls, KYP, Know Your Personnel!  Don’t have players do what they can’t!

Posted in: Managers, Prospects, Rookie Watch by Teddy Ballgame
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On his blog WhatTeddSedd.com, our own Teddy Ballgame writes about how four major leaguers, Barry Zito, C.C. Sabathia, Nick Swisher, and Jake Peavy have donated to Tony LaRussa “pet” (sorry, couldn’t resist) project, Animal Rescue Foundation otherwise known as ARF. 

I suppose it’s a good enough cause:

…these donations will make it possible for low-income schoolchildren in Contra Costa County (CA) to take advantage of two humane education programs.

I always figured C.C. was an animal lover but I had him pegged as someone who liked them on a plate with a little A-1.

Posted in: Good guys by The Baseball Zealot
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Apparently, Ozzie Guillen didn’t see eye-to-eye with Nick Swisher during the Swish’s stay in Chicago.  According the Chicago Tribune, they didn’t gel.

Was Swisher a bad influence in the clubhouse late in the year?

You’ve got to ask the players about that. To be honest with you, I was not happy with the way he was reacting at the end of the season. He wasn’t helping me either.

Guillen just got the Chicago Easter Seals Award for his work in helping autism research so I’m going to refrain from saying anything snarky about him (at least in this post).  The White Sox donated $1 million to the cause.  Good on them.

Posted in: White Sox by The Baseball Zealot
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Stat of the Day recently listed the top 20 hitters with best OPS+ with a batting average of under .220 over a full season.

Nick Swisher came in this year at 9th with an OPS+ of 93. 

Perhaps, the Yankees can work with that. 

In case you’re wondering, Rob Deer placed one and two with his performances in 1990 and 1989 respectively.

Posted in: Statistics by The Baseball Zealot
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