The Worst Team of 2010

By Blaidd Drwg

We are twenty six games into the season and the Pittsburgh Pirates have been outscored by 88 runs. Why is that news you ask? The Pirates are obviously the worst team in baseball you say. Well, it is news worthy because the Pirates record currently somehow stands at 11-15. Based on their run differential they should be a truly awful 5-21.

Currently, there are only 2 teams in baseball who are more than 2 games +/- between their expected record and their actual records based on runs – the Colorado Rockies who are 3 wins worse than their expected record and the Pirates who are 6 wins better.

How the heck are they doing it? If you remember earlier in the year, I posted about the luck the Mariners had last season winning 35 1 run games. Well, that is the Pirates this year – they are currently 6-1 in one run games, 5-14 in all others. I have absolutely no explanation for this, but if you back out the +5 runs the Pirates have gained in those 5 games, they are -93 run differential for 19 games – which means that they have lost by a 4.9 runs a game. They have a team ERA of 6.60 and no starter with an ERA under 5. I guess that is what happens when you give up 10 runs in a game 5 times in 26 games.

Goodbye, Ernie Harwell

By Blaidd Drwg

Today, one of the truly great voices in baseball has gone silent for the last time. Ernie Harwell, longtime brodcaster for the Detroit Tigers, passed away this afternoon at age 92 after a short battle with cancer.

When I think about who are the greatest baseball broadcasters I have heard, it is a short list – Harwell, Jack Buck and Vin Scully. Buck passed a few years ago and now Scully is the only one left. If you have never heard him call a Dodgers game, you should go online and listen to one before his voice too signs off – he is an artist with words and brings you into the stadium with his descriptions. The added bonus – he has no color commentator calling the game with him. You just don’t see a one man broadcast booth anymore outside European soccer.

There are a lot of tributes to Harwell being written and I feel compelled to write mine, with tears streaming down my cheeks as I type this. I have never lived in Detroit, but I remember listening to a number of Tigers games in the mid-80’s with my dad’s short wave radio. On a good night, you could pick up the Tigers. I was struck by the descriptions of the game given by Harwell and I think he contributed to my love of Alan Trammell. My most memorable moment though occurred on September 29th, 2002. I was in Montreal watching what I was sure was going to be the last game for the Expos and it also happened to be the last regular broadcast for Harwell. I went back to the hotel after the game and logged onto the internet to listen to the rebroadcast of the game. I will let Harwell take it from there:

“The Tigers have just finished their 2002 season. And I’ve just finished my baseball broadcasting career, and it’s time to say good-bye. But I think good-byes are sad, and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.

“I’m not leaving, folks. I’ll still be with you, living my life in Michigan, my home state, surrounded by family and friends.

“And rather than good-bye, please allow me to say thank you.

“Thank you for letting me be part of your family. Thank you for taking me with you to that cottage up north, to the beach, the picnic, your work place and your backyard.

“Thank you for sneaking your transistor under the pillow as you grew up loving the Tigers.

“Now I might have been a small part of your life. But you have been a very large part of mine. And it’s my privilege and honor to share with you the greatest game of all.

“Now God has a new adventure for me. And I’m ready to move on. So I leave you with a deep sense of appreciation for your longtime loyalty and support.

“I thank you very much, and God bless all of you.”

I wish I could find the audio, but I have had no luck as of yet.

Goodbye, Mr. Harwell, and to use your words it has been my privilege and honor to share with you the greatest game of all, thank you for that.

Thanks to Jim Wolf

By Blaidd Drwg

In the bottom of the 7th inning of last night’s Mariners-Rangers game, home plate umpire Jim Wolf actually made a call that (incorrectly) almost never gets made in MLB baseball games. Casey Kotchman at bat and hits a little bleeder in front of the plate and it is picked up by Matt Treanor who proceeds to throw the ball past 1B Jason Smoak. However, Jim Wolf waves the play off and calls Kotchman out for interference. You see Kotchman was clearly running on the fair side of the first base line, which is against the rules (there is actually a runners box that runs on the foul side of the baseline for the last 45 feet to first base and the runner is supposed to be in that box). In Wolf’s opinion, Kotchman’s running interfered with Treanor’s ability to make the play, hence the call. Score it 2-3 on the putout.

I think I need to send Wolf a fruit basket or something for actually making that call. I will see if I can find footage of the play later.

It’s Inter vs. Bayern

By Blaidd Drwg

For the Champions League final after Inter advanced on a 3-2 aggregate over Barca despite losing today 1-0 and Bayern advancing after crushing Lyon in the other semi-final.

I only got to see the last 15 minutes of the Inter-Barca game and it was a hell of a match. I still think that the goal that Barca scored late in the game was a offside, but Inter still managed to ward off a tremendous onslaught, down a man for most of the game, against arguably the most talented club in the world.

The Finals on May 22nd should be interesting. My prediction – Inter on top 2-1.

Sorry, I Couldn’t Resist…

By Blaidd Drwg

I would be remiss in my duties if I did not make a comment on another nostolgic Griffey piece of peplum from last week, this time from Steve Kelley of the Times. Some of the comments from both Griffey and Wak make me think that they are sharing the same delusion about the rapidly declining skills that Griffey has. Note to Griffey, Wak, Z and all the Griffey defenders – this is not 1999 anymore. Griffey is a shadow of his former self and needs to put his ego aside, announce he is retiring at the end of the season and take the role as bench player/cheerleader that he seems most suited for at this point in his career.

Some wonderful gems from the piece:

“So Griffey takes pitches. Lots of pitches. He works the count the way manager Don Wakamatsu preaches to all of his players. He waits for that one pitch in his at-bat that he can work with. The Mariners’ offensive strategy is simple. Make the starting pitcher throw dozens of pitches in the early innings. Wear him down. Get “the horse” out of the game early. Get into the bullpen fast.

Griffey fits that philosophy and that plate patience is one of the reasons the Mariners re-signed him for his 22nd big-league season.”

I am not sure where this notion comes from – Griffey sees 3.88 pitcher per plate appearance, which is almost exactly league average and slightly below the team average of 3.92. He is also not particularly patient – he swings at 44% of the pitches he faces, which is league average and it is also one of the highest percentages in the Mariners lineup (and highest % for him since 2006) – even higher than Ichiro and only outdone by Milton Bradley (which is surprising considering he is a patient hitter) and our favorite hackers Jose Lopez and Jack Wilson. Griffey also swings at 30% of the first pitches he gets, with only Bradley swinging at more. Sorry Mr. Kelly – the numbers don’t show what you are saying.

The Mariners offensive strategy may be to get pitchers out of the game early, but they aren’t really doing it. They are just about league average in their opponents starters appearance lengths – just over 6 innings and 99 pitches per start, about what you would expect from a starting pitcher in April. There have only been 5 of 19 games in which the opponents’ starter failed to last 6 innings this season and there have been 8 times where the opponents starter has pitched at least 7 full innings in a game against the M’s. Need to work on that Wak.

My favorite quote from Griffey:

“I’m not going to get the 2-0 fastball. I understand that,” he said, walking toward the field to take batting practice. “I have to be selective, wait for a pitch that’s over the plate that I can hit, whether it’s a changeup, or curveball.”

Here is what Griffey has faced this season:

Pitch Type	% of Pitches (2010)	% of Pitches (2009)
Fastball	63.8%	64.2%
Cutter/Splitter	9.0%	8.0%
Slider	6.4%	7.7%
Curve	10.6%	9.2%
Change	10.1%	9.9%

The percentages of what he is seeing really haven’t changed – he sees roughly 72% fastballs, and 17% breaking stuff.

Teams aren’t afraid of him anymore – he is swinging at 22.3% of his pitches outside the zone (as opposed 20.6% over the last 8 seasons), making less contact with pitches in the zone at 82% this year (87.8% over the last 8 seasons) and missing a lot more – 10.3% of his swings. Even if you don’t believe the numbers – if you watched the end of the M’s game yesterday, you could see if for your self. Bobby Jenks threw Griffey 3 pitches – a 94 MPH Fastball that Griffey took, a 95 MPH fastball that Griffey was way behind on and fouled off and a 96 MPH fastball down the heart of the plate that Griffey came no where close to hitting. There were your fastballs, Junior, why didn’t you hit them?

If Griffey Makes the All-Star Team as a Starter…

By Blaidd Drwg

…I am no longer watching a baseball game involving him. It is bad enough that you have the Mariners asking fans to vote for him, but you also have this moron who created a site to encourage fans to vote for him. Folks, he ranks dead last in production among AL DH. He doesn’t deserve to be at the game unless he buys a ticket. From the aforementioned Vote for Junior Website:

Goals:

1. Vote Ken Griffey, Jr. into the AL’s starting lineup for the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim.

2. Once that happens, get him back in the Home Run Derby.

As much trouble as I have with the logic defying voting Griffey as a starter goal, the suggestion that a guy with 1 extra base hit over the first 19 games of the season even being considered for the HR derby causes this guy to lose all credibility.

I realize that All-Star voting is a joke and a popularity contest, but generally the fans come close to getting it right. A couple years ago, someone floated a proposal to have 1 honorary spot on each team reserved for a retiring player. They would participate in the pre-game and get a nice ovation, but would not actively play in the game. That is the kind of thing I would be happy to see for Griffey, assuming that he actually realized it was time to call it quits. Otherwise, the only worse selection I can think of for an AS game would be this one in 2008 – and it was made by a Manager.

I say, if you want to vote for someone, vote for the guy who actually deserves it – Adam Lind.

A Note to the Mariners

By Blaidd Drwg

Dear Wak and Z,
It is time to end the ridiculous experiment at DH you have with your Griffey/Sweeney Platoon. Neither Griffey or Sweeney looks like they can hit their way out of a paper bag and yet you insist on playing one of them daily and hitting them high up in the lineup. It is time to release Sweeney and offer him a coaching position if you want his “character” in the clubhouse and to put Griffey on the bench as a PH and occasional DH – he is washed up and everyone who pays attention, including your opponents, has figured it out. Nostalgia is nice, but not if you want to compete for the division. Once this is done, you can move Bradley to DH and call up Mike Saunders and put him in LF. Let’s face it you need to do something to wake up this anemic offense and Saunders can’t possibly be worse than the 500 OPS that your excuse for the DH position has put up.

Signed,
A Disgusted M’s season ticket holder

Running on the Red Sox – Part 2

By Blaidd Drwg

I didn’t get a chance to finish the last post due to technical issues, but there are several disturbing trends with the Sox catchers – in general, their ability to throw out runners with Wakefield on the mound is shaky at best, teams realize that it is easy to run against Wake, and there is a very disturbing trend downward in Varitek’s throwing abilities.

I didn’t understand the Sox resigning Tek – he can’t hit and he can’t throw anymore which generally makes him a paperweight on the bench. The Sox seem to have the same fascination with Wakefield – he isn’t particularly effective anymore and he seems to give teams more scoring opportunities by letting them run against him, but, thankfully, it looks like he will be heading to the pen when Matsuzaka comes off the DL. There is probably only one way to improve on the ability to throw runners out – go get a catcher who can actually do it.

Running on the Red Sox

By Blaidd Drwg

The 9 stolen base disaster the other day got me thinking – I always heard that the Sox, and Jason Varitek in particular, were easy to run against, so I thought I would take a look at just how easy it is to steal against them. The following chart represents the numbers for all Sox catchers over the last 16 seasons. Generally, all of the Sox catchers have been below average to terrible.

Year	SBA	CS	PCT CS	Rank	League Avg	MGR	Catcher(s)
2010	36	1	3%	29	25%	Francona	Martinez, Varitek
2009	151	23	13%	30	28%	Francona	Varitek, Kottaras
2008	96	32	25%	21	27%	Francona	Varitek, Cash
2007	107	32	23%	19	26%	Francona	Varitek, Mirabelli
2006	108	23	18%	29	29%	Francona	Varitek, Mirabelli
2005	87	29	25%	21	29%	Francona	Varitek, Mirabelli
2004	123	31	20%	30	30%	Little	Varitek, Mirabelli
2003	101	35	26%	26	31%	Little	Varitek, Mirabelli
2002	118	50	30%	20	32%	Little	Varitek, Mirabelli
2001	223	51	19%	30	31%	Williams/Kerrigan	Hatteberg, Varitek
2000	159	47	23%	28	31%	Williams	Varitek, Hatteberg
1999	159	58	27%	25	31%	Williams	Varitek, Hatteberg
1998	132	58	31%	18	31%	Williams	Hatteberg, Varitek
1997	171	53	24%	29	32%	Williams	Hatteberg,Haselman
1996	147	36	20%	29	29%	Kennedy	Stanley,Haselman
1995	80	41	34%	10	30%	Kennedy	MacFarlane,Haselman
1994	98	38	28%	23	31%	Hobson	Berryhill, Rowland

A couple notes about the chart – the League Avg column represents the percentage of baserunners thrown out in all of baseball for a particular year and the Catchers column has the starting catcher listed first (by number of games caught) and the primary backup catcher listed second. Notice the trend down in SB CS % – I keep hearing that teams are being more selective about the places they are choosing to steal (unless you are the Mariners this season) and those numbers seem to indicate that. I was surprised that the Sox were 29th this season in CS % with teams running all over them (the next most attempts against a single team is 18). The Nationals are last with a 0% CS rate, although their opponents have only attempted 6 SB against them, so for the purposes of this exercise, I feel pretty confident saying the Sox have the easiest battery to run against. This chart makes one thing obvious – historically, the Sox are generally in the bottom third of the league in throwing guys out. Really makes me wonder how many runs this has cost them over the years. So, where does the problem lie? Is it Varitek, is it the other catchers, is it the pitcher, manager or some combination of them. Here is the chart of Jason Varitek vs. the other catchers. In most of these seasons, the other catcher represent the battery of Wakefield and the catcher who is not Varitek.

	Other Catchers			Varitek
Year	SBA	CS	CS PCT	SBA	CS	CS PCT
2010	25	1	4%	11	0	0%
2009	43	7	14%	108	16	13%
2008	30	16	35%	56	16	22%
2007	44	12	21%	63	20	24%
2006	62	10	14%	46	13	22%
2005	22	8	27%	65	21	24%
2004	46	8	15%	77	23	23%
2003	40	12	23%	61	23	27%
2002	37	19	51%	81	31	28%
2001	172	33	16%	51	18	26%
2000	55	13	19%	104	34	25%
1999	35	12	25%	124	46	27%
1998	83	39	32%	49	19	28%

The 2010 NFL Draft

by Coltrane

The NFL Draft has a new format this year: Round 1 is today at 4:30, Rounds 2 and 3 are tomorrow starting at 3:00, and Rounds 4-7 are on Saturday starting at 10:00 am. All times pst.

An interesting subplot will be to see who goes first– Colt McCoy or Tim Tebow. One mock draft has McCoy at #38 and Tebow at #41. I won’t be shocked if either of them go in the first round instead.

Seahawks picks:

Round 1: #6

Round 1: #14

Round 2: #28 (60th overall)

Round 4: #6 (104th overall)

Round 4: #29 (127th overall)

And some other stuff in later rounds that will be lucky to make the roster.