August, 2009 | The Baseball Zealot

Cubs at a low point but hey, the Pirates are comin’ to town

I’ll go on record here. If, god forbid, the Cubs don’t win the NL Central in 2009, the 2010 review mags and books will point to their series with the Philadelphia Phillies in mid-August and call it one of turning points of the season. A “lowlight” if you will.

And there would many reasons to do so.

The Cubs extended their losing streak to five games after getting swept by the Phils. When they lost 4-3 in a heartbreaking 12-inning affair in which Rich Harden was perfect into the sixth and the Cubs outhit the Phils 10 to 3. And when they were out-slugged 12-5 on Jeff Samardzija’s first career start.

And today, when Ryan Dempster saw his August ERA go sky high (Kudos to Jeff Baker, though who went 2 for 2 and has 11 hits in his last 5 games). Today’s rout of 6-1 puts the Cubs at 4.5 back in the NL Central.

No timing, no patience, no luck, and no clutch.

Oh as if the players weren’t having a tough enough time, who invited this fan into the park??

God, this kind of stuff puts me in a bad mood. There’s nothing anyone can say (including “I was drunk”) that excuses this.kind of behavior. If you can’t treat people with decency, then stay home. Chicago, the Cubs, and baseball doesn’t need need to make the news for this kind of crap.

But all will be fine again. Word has it Ted Lilly is ready to come back on Monday after his surgery. He threw five scoreless innings in Peoria A ball.

And this weekend, the Pirates are coming to town. This year, they’ve gone 4-2 against them. The last three years? Same ratio… 26-13.

So say it loud, Cub fans, The Pirates are comin’ to town and all will be fine again!

Rejoice!

25 things we miss

I enjoyed reading through Sports Illustrated’s list of 25 Things We Miss in Baseball.

There’s no reason to expect any of the listed 25 will ever come back nor for the most part, should they… we live in a different world (#11- Fans Running Out onto the Field, #9- Wimpy Middle Infielders)

But I get it. Some of the listed are products of baseball when it was a sport in age of more innocence. And if wasn’t innocent, we didn’t know it.

I still would like to hear organ music (#13) at a ballpark and quality mustaches (#7) would certainly bring some character to the game (Rollie Fingers, anyone?)

(link via Circling the Bases)

MLB Bits and Bites

Now that Juan Encarnacion is out of baseball since losing most of the vison in one eye because of an errant foul ball in 2007, he’s going political. He’s running for a Senate seat in his home country of the Dominican Republic. Here’s an even more detailed article provided you read Spanish.

With the Brewers two games under .500 and 6 1/2 out, they’re ready to make changes. They’ve demoted slumping JJ Hardy to Triple A and DFA’ed Bill Hall. Not only that, they’ve fired pitching coach Bill Castro. Castro had been with the organization as the bullpen coach for almost 20 years before getting upped to his new position this year.

Orlando Hudson will be missing a couple days with a groin injury according to Joe Torre. He is currently on a 10 game hitting streak. Torre says it “could have been worse”. Ouch.

Finally, poor Jamie Moyer. He’s having hard time of it. But as I always tell my kids, you need to find appropriate ways to express your anger. And in the context of Major League Baseball, this is not it.

Couldn’t he just smash a water cooler like every other player??

Consistent Percival near retirement

"I don’t think you’re retired until the paperwork’s in. But it’s safe to say as of right now, I don’t see that I’m going to be able to throw a whole lot"

By the time you read this, Troy Percival will probably have announced his retirement. He’s already met with the Rays’ management and rumors are flying that he has submitted his resignation. And with the above quote, the writing seems to be on the wall.

Looking back over Percival’s career, there’s no question he had Grade A stuff. But look closer and see how consistent he was. It really is quite amazing.

For starters, in nine years (1996-2004) he dropped below 30 saves just once and accumulated 313 for that period.

He was solid over the course of the baseball season throughout the years, too. Both his opponents batting average and ERA were pretty consistent from April to September. Career ERA high of 3.51 in May and amazingly BA high of .204 in May as well.

If their was one knock on Percival, it’s that his batting average with runners in scoring position (.273) was slightly high, especially with the bases loaded (.380).

Interestingly, he had a career 0.00 ERA against the Angels who he played for his first ten years of his career

Assuming he does retire, Percival’s 358 saves puts him #8 on the all-time list behind Jeff Reardon. He and Billy Wagner are the only two on the top ten list who have never led the league in that category (off topic: Billy never led the league… does that surprise you??).

Redundant Team Nicknames in Sports

As a University of Illinois alum, one thing I’ve had to come to grips with is our “Fighting Illini” nickname. No. I’m not talking about the whole political issue. I just think the nickname is a bit redundant. Illinois Fighting Illini” doesn’t roll off the tongue like “Iowa Hawkeyes” or “Michigan Wolverines”. Too many damn ‘L’s and ‘I’s.

My list of redundant nicknames in the world of sports.

Major League Baseball

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Philadelphia Phillies

Minor League Baseball

Indianapolis Indians

Jamestown Jammers

College

Augsburg College Auggies

Illinois Fighting Illini

Lake Superior State University Lakers

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Miners

Pacific Lutheran University Lutes

St John University Johnnies

Silver Lake College Lakers

St Leo University Lions

St Olaf University Oles

US Merchant Marine Academy Marines

University of Utah Utes

High School

Rock Island (IL) Rocks

any team named “Saints” or “Mountaineers” (most of them have St or Mount in their name- West Virginia excepted)

The NFL’s Buffalo Bills fall into a totally separate category. They use their city name for their logo not their nickname. Also, I have to admit, the St Leo Lions was pretty clever.

I’m sure there are more. Especially, if you look into teams from the past. If you know of one, let me know.

Trevor Bell and his day job

Reader DonS sent along this article on about Trevor Bell. Bell who pitched for the Salt Lake Bees in the Pacific Coast League and has been called up to the majors recently (he’s scheduled to pitch Wednesday), has an interesting side story. He had been moonlighting as an actor.

Bell calls it a “hobby” now. As a child, he did a fair amount of acting especially in commercials. Nowadays, he spends the off-season in LA where he can get in Hollywood atmosphere.

Acting runs in Bell’s family. His grandfather is Bob Bell who portrayed the original Bozo the Clown for WGN-TV in Chicago. Living in Illinois as kid, I remember Bozo the clown and how popular he was.

Now in the Angels’ organization, Trevor Bell is the real deal. He was picked by Baseball America as the top 14-year old pitching prospect in the country. That’s when Bell focused less on Hot Wheels commercials and more on baseball.

In 2009 between stints with Arkansas and Salt Lake, Bell has gone 7-7 with a 2.70 ERA.

Can Bell continue his “hobby” while pitching in majors? Doubtful. One thing is for sure, there’s no clowning around for him when he’s on the mound.

Sorry, had to fit that pun in somewhere.

Update to Upper Deck story

Upper Deck has released a statement in response to Topps’ exclusive agreement with MLB re baseball cards. They have re-affirmed their agreement with the MLBPA which is at least half the battle.

The statement is difficult to parse out what with all the positive talk. Phrases like: “looking ahead”, “building the highest quality and most innovative baseball cards” and “looking forward to continuing the partnership”

The upshot of it all is that while Topps can use club logos (including logos on baseball caps), on their baseball cards, Upper Deck cannot.

Carl Pavano shuts down Tigers and maybe shuts up critics

I admit I snickered a bit when I read the news release about Minnesota trading for starting pitcher Carl Pavano. My first reaction was: Is the Twins’ pitching really that bad off?

Since 2004 when Pavano won 18 games with Florida, there have been continual trips to the DL not to mention countless disappointments for Yankee fans save for those who were smart enough to not to get their hopes up. Pavano won only nine games between 2005-2008 including missing 2006 altogether. This year with Cleveland, he has won nine games already despite a 5.37 ERA. A positive stat for Pavano: only 23 walks in 125+ innings.

Well, Carl Pavano may have quieted his critics a little after his first start tonight. Against rival Detroit, he pitched seven scoreless innings in the Twins’ 11-0 victory. Pavano was efficient, facing only 27 batters and throwing only 90 pitches. And yeah, his control remained intact, walking none.

Minnesota is within striking distance of first place in the AL Central. With today’s win, they are only 4.5 games back behind first place Detroit and 2.5 behind second place Chicago. The Twins put out the usual line that Carl Pavano is what they need to win down the homestretch. I wonder if Pavano’s performance tonight helps them convince themselves of their own PR-speak (it shouldn’t surprise them TOO much, Pavano owns the Tigers. He came into the game with a 3-0 record and a 1.93 for the season against them).

Carl Pavano won’t come out and pitch shutout ball every start. But it’s POSSIBLE he could be a productive member of their staff. But the big issue with Mr Pavano is his health. Hopefully for the Twins’ sake, history does not repeat itself.

A retro look: Making a lot out of nothing

Take a look at this 1999 box score between the White Sox and the Devil Rays and tell me if you see anything odd.

Give up?

Look at Frank Thomas’ line:

2 runs scored, 2 rbis, and 0 at-bats.

He’s the only player in the last 55 years to score at least 2 runs AND drive in at least 2 runs without registering an at bat in one game. He did so on the basis of three walks and a sacrifice fly.

With the score 10-0, Jerry Manuel pinch hit for him with Brian Simmons (who?) in the 8th inning. James Baldwin got the win for those scoring at home.

Incidentally, 1999 was the year the White Sox placed second in the Central Division based on their whopping 75-86 record.