Month: November 2008

Add Fear Strikes Out to my favorite list

I ran across this recently…   Ten Baseball Movies That Belong in the Hall of Fame from VideoHound. 

Most of the usual suspects are there and I don’t disagree with almost all of them on the list.

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A movie I’d have to add to the list is a classic from 1957, Fear Strikes Out based on the autobiography of Jimmy Piersall.  Anthony Perkins in his pre-Norman Bates days, plays the lead role and Karl Malden plays his father. 

The story of Fear Strikes Out deals with Piersall’s battle with both his mental illness and his overbearing father as he came up into the major league system. 

Apparently, Jimmy Piersall wasn’t pleased with the final product of the movie and didn’t give it his seal of approval mostly due to some stretching of the truth in the screenplay. 

That said, it’s a moving film and one of my favorites. 

MOOSE, STAY AWAY FROM ALASKA!

Here’s a word of warning to Mike “Moose” Mussina, who today announced his retirement, stay away from Alaska! Sarah Palin’s no longer got a shot at being VP, so she’s now focused her sights on shooting moose, ya betcha . All kidding aside, Mussina did announce his retirement, after winning 20 games this past season for the first time in his career, Sandy Koufax is the only other pitcher in the history of major league baseball to retire after winning 20 games in a season. Mike finishes tied with Burleigh Grimes for 33rd on the alltime win total with 270, two ahead of Jim Palmer. He also finished 19th alltime in strikeouts with 2,813, ten ahead of Cy Young. Not bad company at all.

Mussina was 147-81 with the Baltimore Orioles and 123-72 with the New York Yankees. So now the question has got to be, when/if he gets the call from the Hall of Fame, does he go in as an Oriole or a Yankee? Hats off to Moose on always being a professional and on a great career!

MARINERS: I THINK I’M TURNING JAPANESE

The Seattle Mariners named former White Sox catcher Don Wakamatsu their new skipper. Wakamatsu becomes the first Asian-American manager in major league baseball history. He is a fourth generation Japanese-American, born in Hood River, OR, to a Japanese-American father and an Irish-American mother.

Don last managed in 2000, when he guided the Erie SeaWolves of the Eastern League to a 12th place finish, with a record of 47-94, which would be seven losses better than the 2008 Mariners 101 losses, and there is no way they could finish in 12th place. Wakamatsu’s bloodlines might give him an edge in managing Seattle’s Japanese players, Ichiro Suzuki & Kenji Johjima, but more important than that are his baseball bloodlines. He’s paid his dues, is a baseball man, seems qualified for the job, and was on the Texas Rangers short list when the Rangers went with Ron Washington.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish him, Gokouun o inorimasu, which is Good Luck in Japanese.

MLB gives Silverlight the thumb

After two years, Major League Baseball will be discontinuing the use of Microsoft’s Silverlight technology for streaming its games and on-demand content. 

In its place, MLB Advanced Media will replace it with the more familiar Adobe Flash player.  Adobe has won a two year contract starting with the 2009 Spring Training Games. 

The Bartlett Vote

There’s already been plenty of discussion all around why Evan Grant left Red Sox secondbaseman Dustin Pedroia off his ballot. He’s been getting plenty of flak for that already.

But another ballot move that’s been deemed questionable (perhaps more so at least in my opinion), is the Tampa Bay chapter of the BBWAA giving Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett a fifth place vote on the MVP ballot.

Bartlett, who hardly played a full season at 128 games and 454 at-bats, didn’t wow anyone at the plate.  He batted .286 with a .329 OBP and .361 slugging percentage.  He had no power (1 homerun) and little production (48 runs and 37 rbis).

Opinions are mixed on Rays blogs but they range from “too much is being made of the Bartlett vote” to “what was he thinking?”

I don’t live and die with the Rays and I couldn’t tell you what got them to the World Series.  And I won’t bore you by comparing teammates Evan Longoria’s or Carlos Pena’s stats.

But that said, Jason Bartlett for MVP??  Really?

Silver lining for Swisher?

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.

Witch hunt begins for Pedroia non-voter

As you heard, Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox won the 2008 AL MVP vote comfortably. 

Fortunately, he won the vote comfortably enough that he didn’t need the vote of Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News who left Dustin Pedroia’s name off the ballot altogether. 

Here was his ballot:

Kevin Youkilis
Francisco Rodriguez
Justin Morneau
Josh Hamilton
Carlos Quentin
Alex Rodriguez
Cliff Lee
Joe Mauer
Grady Sizemore
Carlos Pena

Grant is pretty red-faced about the whole thing.  In between answering emails and phone calls, he’s posted his explanation/apology on his blog.

Did I perhaps get too “cute” at the bottom of the ballot? Yeah, probably. Was that a mistake? Yeah, probably. Was it a mistake to leave him out of the top five; in retrospect, yeah, it was. My colleagues all thought he belonged in the top five. My opinion on this one was obviously wrong. What I’m happiest about is that if my analysis was so wrong, at least it did not cost Pedroia the MVP award. I can assure you I give the MVP vote an awful lot of time. In this case, perhaps I gave it too much time and overanalyzed, particularly at the bottom of the ballot. In retrospect, it’s hard to argue that Pedroia wasn’t one of the 10 best players in the league.

He over analyzed… putting too much weight on stats like BA in scoring position etc. 

Despite all that, while some Red Sox fans are understanding that it was just a stupid mistake, others are calling for Grant’s head.  I’ve seen commenters calling Grant an idiot, a moron and yes, the prerequisite requesting that his voting privileges be taken away. 

Meh, it’s just the American League. 

 

Update:  Grant goes on The Big Show to explain his non-vote.

The interview can be heard here. (thanks College Baseball Blog)

Captain Obvious here but maybe it would have been better if had just not gone on the air.  Just my opinion. 

Cubs reward Dempster with 4-year contract

Ryan Dempster, who more than anyone, helped the Chicago Cubs to a second straight NL Central championship, was rewarded today with a four-year, $52 million contract by the Cubs.

Terms of the agreement:  $4 million signing bonus; 2009- $8 million; 2010- $12.5 million; 2011- $13.5 million; 2012- option for $14 million

In the last week and a half, I’ve heard rumors bandied about of such a deal mostly in the context of “…in my opinion, Demp isn’t a 4-year, $50 mil kind of pitcher.” 

You didn’t hear that from me, though.  Like I said, Dempster was responsible more than any other pitcher on the Cubs for getting them as far they got.  I admit I was a little dubious when I heard he was being transformed from a starter during the last off-season.  But from the beginning, he took to it like Tony Oliva to Wii Baseball. 

For the year, he was 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA.  He initially had trouble winning on the road and ended up with a 3-3 record away from Wrigley despite a 3.13 ERA. 

Dempster says he has a desire to get the Cubs to the World Series and that played into his decision of staying with the team.  I’m sure the $52 mil didn’t hurt either. 

Money well spent in my opinion.  Now let’s see if there’s any money in the coffers for a leadoff hitter.

Female Knuckleballer gets drafted in Japanese pro league

Schoolgirl Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new Japanese independent league that debuts in April. 

Those bus rides won’t quite be the same now.

Yoshida says that Tim Wakefield is her hero.  She is a sidearm knuckleball pitcher and eventually wishes to play in a higher league.