Other Baseball

MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred, MLB vice president of business Tim Bronson and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner are the candidates, according to Nightengale. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/08/committee-names-three-finalists-for-next-mlb-commissioner.html Kind of interesting -- appear to be 2 from within the current structure and one a bit more of an outsider. But I really don't know enough about any of them to comment.

Over the weekend I had the chance to share the great Abbott & Costello skit with someone who had never seen/heard it before. Bringing that joy to someone was pretty neat. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQyCkwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkTcRRaXV-fg&ei=N871U6mbAoLJsQTDqIKABA&usg=AFQjCNFgYNgDASU56Y1ACJfb9zEe3Piiag&bvm=bv.73231344,d.cWc 3RD BASE! Love it every time.

The wind must be blowing in Pittsburgh. IP H R ER BB K HR WHIP ERA Vance Worley 1.0 5 6 6 2 1 2 1.22 3.26

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/baseball-scouts-use-numbers-too/ Pretty easy read but it features Joe Mauer and scouting grades.

Good read over at Grantland today by Rany Jazayerli regarding how the Chicago Cubs are rebuilding – they are doing it by acquiring offense. Draft and trade for top offensive talent and pick off pitching at the margins or later through trades with your surplus of bats. From Jazayerli: Focusing on first pillar in the new Cubs’ way, while the first round has supported this narrative, the numbers don’t quite support this as their overall strategy, particularly in the draft. True, they avoided pitchers with their first overall picks since 2011, they almost took exclusively pitchers the rest of the draft. For instance, in 2012, they took outfielder Albert Almora but then…

When I first went to read this, I thought perhaps Doolittle was going to give us a little insight into Oakland's use of sabermetrics, But I enjoyed his humorous look much more. And i've no doubt that Oakland gets pretty specific in what they evaluate! http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post/_/id/7721&ex_cid=InsiderTwitter_guestbloggerseandoolittle

I absolutely love stuff like this. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/08/10/bryce-harper-drags-foot-through-braves-logo-making-braves-fans-real-mad/ On his way to the batter's box, Bryce Harper completely by accident, he swears, smeared the "A" logo behind the Atlanta catcher. Three times. This just makes rivalries better. Edit: mlb.com has better video but when I linked it is says "unavailable" so I linked the Washington Post story which isn't as good.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/adam-dunn-as-a-pitcher/ This might be the best thing you'll read all week.

Hey guys, I hope this is the right section to put this in, but me and some buddies are going to come up there for a game in August (the 16th, specifically), and I was hoping you could give us some advice ticket wise. We're looking at the left field bleachers, as that seems to fit our price range, and our desire to be as low as possible, but was curious if there were any other options we should look at. It will be a guy trip, so if there are any "all you can eat/drink" seats, etc. we'd be interested in those, also if there are just better seats usually available, we'd be willing to spend a little more (but we have to save as much as we can for beer!). Thanks for the inp…

The Brewers put Matt Garza on the DL with an oblique issue. The Twins have an experienced right handed starter available. Just sayin'.

Purpose: To prevent runners from taking advantage of the current blocking rule when they are clearly not going to be safe at the plate. If a throw from a fielder is caught by the catcher before the runner is within1 stride of the catcher, the runner is automatically called out (like the infield fly rule.) The runner (if he continues) is obligated NOT to collide with the catcher even if the catcher is blocking the pathway by taking the throw. If the runner reverses and tries to reach 3rd base, normal rundown rules will apply. What do you think ?

Brennan Boesch had his bat fly into the stands twice in a row. He apparently hit a little girl with the first one. The crowd was really on him after the second one. http://deadspin.com/brennan-boesch-flings-bat-in-stand-on-consecutive-swing-1616886551

1. 1922, Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns becomes baseball’s first 30/30 man. Williams remains the only 30/30 man in baseball for the next 34 years until Willie Mays in 1956. 2. 1972, Nate Colbert of the San Diego Padres drives in 111 runs for a team that only scores 488. This still stands as the highest percentage of a team’s runs ever driven in by a single player. 3. 1974, in his first year as a Dodger, Mike Marshall pitches in 106 games, winning 15 and saving 21 while pitching 208 1/3 innings - becoming the first ever relief pitcher to win the Cy Young award. Marshall remains the only reliever to ever pitch in 100 games or to log over 200 innings. 4. 2007, Pla…

was watching the wsox-detroit game this afternoon (being the lowlife sox fan i am) when in the top of the 7th inning (i think it was the 7th) dave dombrowski appeared in the tigers dugout in his $1000 suit he looked at his watch (it was about 2:55pm) and waved to brad ausmus and pointed to center field immediatly rajai davis ran out to center field and austin jackson stood there with a WTF look on his face davis must have told him he had been traded jackson went to the dugout and received hugs from the few who were in the dugout steve stone and wimpy paciorek both said they had never seen such a situation, i know i had not

ESPN posted this, but 21 years ago was the Ryan/Ventura brawl, easily one of the most memorable events in baseball history. The Baseball Codes book by Jason Turbow has a big section on this brawl but basically Ryan hit Ventura on purpose. White Sox players had been pretty upset at Ryan's "Old School" mentality coming into the game (he had hit some players previously) and had decided as a group that, if someone was hit, they would charge the mound. If you watch Ventura's reaction after he was hit, he started walking to first when he remembered he was supposed to charge, so he has a "oh, wait" moment right before he charges the mound. Anyhow, when the brawl was all d…

I hadn't really considered this as a possibility but I'm not really a fan of the IF shift. Yes, players should have freedom to position themselves based on tendencies but I like players being in the traditional area of the IF. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/23/verducci-baseball-should-think-about-an-illegal-defense-rule-to-combat-shifts/

Trade deadline is drunk already and it's not even 10 AM. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/athletics-acquire-jon-lester-jonny-gomes-cespedes-heading-to-boston.html

The same team has had both the top single season pitching strikeout duo* of all time and the top single season batting strikeout duo of all time. Can you name the team, the players and the years? * Since 1900, that is. Not counting the Pud Galvin and Old Hoss Radbourn pitching era.

I realize that Worley has only pitched in 8 games (7 starts) for the Pirates, but last night he tossed a 4-hit shutout on the road against the Giants. He has a 2.54 ERA this year. Small Sample size or is Anderson overrated?

tigers 6 in the first one out

Just found out that Bovada has set a line on how many trades will take place on Thursday. The over/under is 10.5: That sure seems like a lot to me. It could be crazy tomorrow around here.

Somehow Cleveland got a AA OF for a guy that is on the DL.......(I think he's still on the DL) with numbers as bad or worse than KC and Sunshine Band's numbers. Interesting.

This is great. I remember reading about these shirts a few years ago. Glad they are still around. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/29/caucasians-t-shirts-are-hot-sellers-on-canadian-indian-reservations/

I admit I was always a bit too high on Hendriks but I really wanted him to succeed. Anyhow, he's still only 25 and the Royals traded for him today. He's been pretty solid in AAA - 8-1, 2.33 era, 108ip and only 7(!) walks. IIRC, he was out of options and the Cubs grabbed him, optioned him, Blue Jays nabbed him and now they are trading him to KC. Good luck to him.

Reading Just a Bit Outside yet? Rob Neyer's new project. good article from BP today. Seth often reminds us that a prospect's age isn't everything. Jason Parks on how he overlooked a prospect due to age. http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/steven-matz-lefthander-new-york-mets-prospects-scouting-injury-age-072614

Astros found an issue with #1 pick Brady Aiken's elbow. Aiken says he feels fine but the Astros have dropped their offer to him from the original 6.5m down to 3.168m, a huge dropoff. They also have already come to terms with another draftee, Jacob Nix, and had agreed to pay him 1.5m more than his slot amount on the assumption that Aiken would sign. However, if Aiken doesn't sign, they would lose his slot bonus and would therefore be over the draft budget and have to forfeit a few draft picks next year. They appear ready to not sign Nix if it comes to that but the players association and his agent may fight them on that. "MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said the p…

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/7/27/5941015/john-rocker-raffle-mlb-scores

I have to be honest. I am very much looking forward to watching the HOF induction on Sunday. Although there is not a character who will tell some funny ass stories, etc., etc... I am excited for Maddux's and LaRussa's speeches. I have long admired these guys and it will be fun to watch them talk about their take on things. Everyone going in this year is well deserving and I look forward to every speech from Big Hurt, Glavine, Maddux, Cox, LaRussa, and Torre. I hope there is a tear jerking moment. I like to feel the passion and emotion and I like to get caught up into it. To me it is meaningful. That is how I relate to baseball in my core.

Throughout the past couple months David Price has had to deal with rumors of being traded. He already told the media about a month go that he didn't like hearing the rumors. He just wanted the Tampa Bay Rays to make up their mind. It's unclear if Price will be dealt because the Rays have less than a week to trade him. David Price is an ace and could be in the talks for Cy Young this year with a 3.08 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 183 strikeouts, and 11 wins over 163 innings. It's hard to get rid of a pitcher like that because the Rays need something big in return. The another problem with this trade is that the Rays are starting to get on a hot streak. The Tampa Bay Rays have been playi…

Kind of an intriguing list, I thought. Andre Dawson on the 1987 Cubs immediately came to mind as well as Steve Carlton on the 1972 Phillies. It turns out that pair accounts for 2 of the only 5 rare instances in which a player from a last place team has even gotten 1st place MVP award votes. One player has actually made this list twice and in back-to-back seasons. Your guess?