Olbermann: It Disgusts Me

Wow! The constant misspelling of Hoda Kotb doesn’t bother you...yet this does?

But first, let’s take you out to San Diego where Manny Ramirez is just back from a 50-game suspension. For cheating. For cutting corners. For breaking rules. For lying. For deception. For letting down his teammates. For contributing to suspicions against every honest player. For raising a giant middle finger to sportsmanship. For abusing the fans. For risking that for which Lou Gehrig would’ve given anything - his own health.

Ramirez, of course, homered today in his first at bat. And some people cheered. As if he were just back from an injury, or a death in the family. As if he were a hero. As if he were an honest man. As if he were somehow worthy of sharing the meaningfulness of this day with Lou Gehrig.

Credit to Fox’s Tim McCarver - who has never gotten enough of it for this one quality he has shown, often at such great risk to his own security and even employment - for his honesty in pointing out the inappropriateness of the reaction to Ramirez’s return. He is not making a comeback. He is out on parole and it will be years - if ever - before many of us will believe he did not do something illegal, improper, or immoral, this morning.

...This is Lou Gehrig’s day. The rest of the juicers may come back and play tomorrow and there will not be boycotts. The Dodgers will probably go to the World Series, carried in part by a great flaming fraud like Ramirez. And judging by the brainless response of fans who would cheer anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their team, and boo anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their opponents, there will not even be significant repercussions.

But today, there should have been. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez and the others of the PED era did not belong in baseball today, and that they did not show the requisite awareness of their own shame, only makes it worse. Lord, send us a ‘roider who has the presence of mind to say: “On this day I do my penance; I don’t yet belong on the field even with just the memory of this man, I hope you’ll forgive me and I can again earn your trust.”

Jason Stark: It’s so wrong to celebrate Manny’s return

So instead, the reaction to Manny, from Albuquerque to Ensenada, has been—what else?—downright hero worship. You’d think the guy had spent the past 57 days curing cancer, dousing tensions in Iran and smoothing out plot glitches for the final season of “Lost.”

But why? That’s the question we’ve been struggling with since Manny-mania busted out in Albuquerque last week.

Why is America so ready to forgive this guy, of all guys? Because he has fun hair? Because he has a lovable smile? Because he has a long, not necessarily proud, history as baseball’s foremost goofball?

Why would that be enough to outweigh his disgraceful exit from Boston, his indisputable guilt in this case and the dubious alibi his spin doctors typed up to explain his way out of this mess?

Why? We posed that question to four men who have thought about it a lot themselves: esteemed Columbia School of Journalism professor Sandy Padwe, cerebral journalist/author Robert Lipsyte and two of the most thoughtful players we have ever covered, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and a man who has turned into an official New York Times op-ed columnist, Doug Glanville.

Craig Calcaterra: Francoeur for the All-Star Game

Right field: Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta: Apologies to Justin Upton, but when baseball no longer has a place for the likes of Francoeur, a player so extravagantly talented that he can hold down a major league job despite seemingly having little more idea of what to do with that talent than a tomcat, baseball will no longer be worth watching.

May as well agitate for a contract extension while you’re at it, Tim. Sheesh.

Diamond Notes: Ned Colletti talks sabermetrics on XTRA Sports 1360 AM in San Diego:

“I think the sabrmetrics gets you interested. I think it gives you a chance to seek more information on somebody. But I’d have a hard time trading for a player or drafting a player that I really didn’t know what was inside his head and inside his heart and how he thought and how his priorities were set up and if he aspired for greatness and was willing to sacrifice. I’m not sure you’re going to get that off a stat sheet. But the numbers do tell part of the story. I think you have to have a mixture of all. Information is power, and as much information as you can get - whether it’s a number on a page or whether it’s a conversation with somebody - I think it adds to your decision-making process and helps you make better calls.”

Why is Bucky Dent in my Mailbox?

So I opened my mail last night … and there he was.

Bucky Dent. 

Well, at least a three and a half inch cardboard facsimile of him in near-Mint condition.

Someone is anonymously sending baseball cards to baseball bloggers and writers ... including David Pinto, Will Carroll and Craig Calcaterra

True Blue L.A.: Rockies Come To Town Smelling Blood

We have to go back 36 years to find a Dodger team that didn’t convert a lead this big into winning the division or league.  A seven-game lead is a big deal.  While the Dodgers may not be as good as 48-28, I’m going out on a limb to say the Rockies aren’t as good as 20-3 or 22-7 (their record under Jim Tracy) either.  And the Giants?  Not with that offense.

Also, I don’t know if you have heard this or not, but the Dodgers are adding a fairly significant hitter to their lineup at the end of this week, which should only bode well going forward.  As much as I would like to bill this series with the Rockies as some huge clash between two teams vying for the division title, that’s simply not the case.  Sure, the Rockies (or Giants) could end up winning the wild card, and Baseball Prospectus has the Dodgers’ chances of winning the division at “only” 89.4%, but for all intents and purposes…

THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST HAS ALREADY BEEN DECIDED.  THE RACE IS OVER.

The Columnists: Isaacs: BEWARE THE BLOGS!

Least Chipmunk: Tamias minimus bloggerami.

John Gonzalez, who strayed from the wise-guy juvenile humor that is his stock in trade, lamented that such was the state of affairs today about tainted baseball druggies that an Ibanez would have to suffer such suspicion. That lame excuse mattered little in light of his having publicized the item in the first place. He was no better than the blogger who also gave legitimate factors that explained Ibanez’ improved play, but only after first casting suspicion on the Phillie stalwart.

The responsible journalist takes note of such a rumor and checks it out behind the scenes. If he can substantiate it with reliable sources, he then can print it. If not, he treats it for what it is, a worthless item that gets no checking by a blogger, one that even a gossip columnist shouldn’t touch.

In a sterling salvo of mealy-mouthed prose, Gonzalez concluded his exercise in hypocrisy by writing, “Until there’s proof to the contrary, shouldn’t all of us--from the traditional mainstream to bloggers--be judicious about calling people cheaters? It’s easier to sling mud than ever before, which is why we need to be careful when taking aim.”

And the powers that be at the Inquirer ought to be judicious by giving the license of a sports column only to adults.

Bucs Dugout: We Don’t Need Lastings Milledge

When he came up in 2006, a Mets fan – or a paid hack i LM’s entourage – produced the website http://milledgefacts.blogspot.com which included, among others facts about LM ....

1. Lastings Milledge isn’t a 5 tool player. Lastings Milledge has more than 100 tools, many of which are unknown to most baseball scouts.

4. Lastings Milledge doesn’t hit 8th. Those seven other guys are just warming up the pitcher for the first real at bat of the game.

27. Lastings Milledge beat Jose Reyes in a race running backwards.

96. Lastings Milledge is his own species. His biological name is “Homerun Rakings.”

Milledge proceeded to hit .241 (with a .689 OPS) with only 4 home runs. He apparently so annoyed his teammates that a “Know your place, rook” message was left on his locker. He was late for a game in Philly.  He improved slightly in 2007, but was still traded, even though the Mets need some youth and speed in their outfield to go along with the youth, speed, and power they have with David Wright and Jose Reyes.

Jay Mariotti: Milton Bradley Reduces Cubdom From Sad to Wacko

CHICAGO—We’ve long moved past the sympathy-for-the-lovable-losers stage. Now, the Cubs must be treated like any other patient with an acute mental illness: send them to the funny farm, load them up on Prozac, lock them in a rubberized room and hope they don’t kill each other. It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before this forlorn franchise collapsed from the burden of a 101-year drought without a World Series title.

Still, who knew the Cubbies would crack up and go utterly mad?

It was almost better when they’d lose 97 games and fans were in it just for the beer, the seventh-inning singer and the post-game mating rituals. What happened this past weekend just might be rock bottom in the bottom-feeding, increasingly dismal existence that is Cubdom. Not even in the most psychotic of sporting soap operas—Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers—do you see a three-day rage in which: (a) serial knucklehead Milton Bradley attacks a water jug in the dugout and is ordered to go home by his angry manager, Lou Piniella; (b) Piniella follows him down the clubhouse tunnel, where he rips Bradley as “a piece of (bleep);’’ (c) the Cubs accuse visiting clubhouse workers at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the crosstown rival White Sox, of leaking the “piece of (bleep)’’ quote to a reporter, prompting outrage from the equally loony Sox manager, Ozzie Guillen; (d) catcher Geovany Soto, your reigning National League Rookie of the Year, is busted for a positive marjiuana test during the World Baseball Classic, which might explain his sluggish season and desire for munchies; (e) Piniella volunteers that he “smoked dope’’ once (though, honestly, who in this world smokes dope only once?); (f) Piniella and Bradley have a hug-it-out session in which both admit to crying; (g) the Cubs lose two of three, extending their woe to six losses in seven games and dropping them to 35-37 in the NL Central; and (h) watch a player who never should have been traded away, Mark DeRosa, get snapped up by top divisional rival St Louis.

Fangraphs: Eric Seidman: Perplexed About Lee

With the Indians tanking and Lee’s value likely higher than it ever will be, it makes sense for Shapiro to kick the tires on a potential deal netting him prospects, but for some reason, more rumors and trade talks have involved guys like Marquis, who is actually making almost double Lee’s salary this year, and is a free agent at the end of the season with no option on which to hang his head. I am honestly perplexed as to why Lee has not attracted more attention; or if he has, why we have not heard about it yet. It is almost as if teams are still waiting for the massive regression to occur, when we now have a year and a half of awesomeness from the Indians lefty proving his worth.

Since the beginning of last season, Lee has thrown 334.1 innings over 47 starts, with a 2.67 ERA almost matched by an equally low FIP, a 1.17 WHIP, a sub-2.0 walk rate, and a 4.2 K/BB ratio. The only thing missing is the reputation that usually accompanies the name of a pitcher with numbers like that over an extended period of time. It is time to start realizing that Cliff Lee has become a very good pitcher, not a back of the rotation upgrade. If any of the Phillies, Brewers or Rangers is serious about solidifying their rotation by trading a young stud prospect, they should start amping up efforts to acquire Lee. He might not win the Cy Young Award again, but given his contract and current established level of performance, as well as the lack of health issues, no other pitcher being discussed as a trade target would be a more significant upgrade.

Main reason why people aren’t trumping Cliff Lee as possible trade bait. People still think he’s a fluke.

L.A. Times: T.J. Simers: Even he can’t stay mad at Manny

ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez reports Tuesday afternoon that Ramirez orders pasta. She does not follow him inside even though that’s why she’s here, because she needs to go to the empty stadium to do a report for ESPN.

“I didn’t see him order pasta,” she says later in explaining her exclusive, “but I feel comfortable with my sources.”

Dodgers’ PR guy Josh Rawitch cannot confirm Ramirez ordered pasta, “because I wasn’t there.” That doesn’t seem to matter to Dominguez.

The Times’ Dylan Hernandez appears disappointed, all his life wanting to come to Albuquerque and bang on the batting cage while Manny’s inside trying to hit a ball off a tee. Manny can hit a 94-mph fastball in front of 50,000 screaming fans, but for some reason Hernandez unnerves him while facing a tee.

A nation awaits more breaking Manny news, Dominguez confirming “it was spaghetti.” She also spots him carrying “six bottles of water.” Nothing gets by her.

ESPN News has plans to go live each time Manny bats, Manny explaining before the game, “people love me everywhere.”

Hard to argue, or for that matter feign Gary Matthews’ Jr.-like outrage, Manny more charismatic, more talented and more interesting than Matthews.

But this is L.A. Manny, a different guy from the one everyone talked about in Boston, L.A. Manny listening to some advice offered by Mota and then stepping forward to say, “Let’s go—let’s talk. What do you want to know?”

Fish Tank:  Video: Marlins fan vs. Yankees fan in a brawl for the ages

Wondering about all that ruckus in the stands during Sunday’s game? We’ve got the answer. One intrepid fan shot the following video, which involves a Yankees fan and Marlins fan going at it, WWE-style, in what some are calling ‘The Citizen Kane of Fan Fight Videos.’ A title well-earned, we say:

Bleacher Report:  Hot Commodity: Los Angeles Dodgers Interested in Jarrod Washburn

Washburn’s stats are misleading (26-48 4.23 ERA), as he has something like the second lowest run support out of all AL pitchers in his tenure with the Mariners, something interested teams know.

Since the Mariners are not in a desperate situation (i.e. 30 games out and forced to sell for the future), and could either be buyers or sellers this season, it will drive the price for their players up. No matter what they decide to do, they are going to get top line young talent, or established MLB ready players.

With a confident, competent GM in Jack Zdurencik who has already shown his savvy in trades by grabbing guys like David Aardsma, Jason Vargas, Garret Olson, and Franklin Guiterrez, Mariners’ fans should feel good about what goes on at this years trade deadline. It has been a refreshing change from the Bavasi era when all of the best trade chips were given away on a silver platter. I know every trade deadline of late felt like a kick to the nuts for Mariners fans.

Name one Bavasi era trade import who is currently making any impact for the Mariners. That’s funny, because there are not any.

In regards to Washburn, a three prospect package containing two high rated prospects, and a mid to low level, is what can be expected. I would expect them to be looking for a SS with the lackadaisical Yuniesky Betancourt drawing the ire of many Mariners fans. I know I am not the only one wishing those Jack Wilson trade rumors had not fallen through.

A report from the Seattle Times had Dodgers OF Juan Pierre as a possible match for Washburn. Just what the Mariners need, another OF who cannot hit for power.

With JZ at the helm, just let this thing play itself out and the result should be positive Mariners fans.

Man, Bleacher Report is always good for a laugh.

Kokoyakyu - High School Baseball

This is a solid documentary about Japan’s Koshien baseball tournament that was just made available for free online viewing at Hulu.com.

A description from when it originally aired on PBS in 2006:

Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball opens up the world of Koshien by following the fortunes of two teams as they compete in regional games and then head for the 2003 tournament (the 86th annual games). Tennoji High School is a public school whose team is coached by a dedicated and self-effacing teacher, Masa-sensei, who becomes deeply involved in the lives and welfare of his students and their families. Tennoji, with its limited public-school resources and location in the most competitive region, always faces an uphill climb to Koshien. Chiben High School, by contrast, is an elite private school whose team is coached by the legendary Takashima, who has taken the team to Koshien more than 20 times and has won the national championship three times. So successful has Chiben been that some of the nation’s best high school baseball players go to great lengths to attend the school — and increase their chances of competing at Koshien.

Both coaches are obsessed with baseball and the values it teaches — and demands — of the students. Yet their different temperaments seem to mirror the contrast between the teams. The humbler Masa-sensei spares no feeling or attention to personal detail as he guides his students through a sports competition and trial-by-fire that will mark them for the rest of their lives. The depth of his emotional investment in his players becomes clearest at the tournament’s end. The great Takashima brings a more Olympian sensibility to the proceedings; as soon as the tournament ends, he’s already thinking of next year and the prospects for a Chiben championship. Kokoyakyu also brings us into the lives of the players, from the stars and captains to the second-stringers whose struggles to make a contribution become, perhaps, the purest expression of Japanese values in baseball.

Give it a look.

Deep Left Field: La vida SABR

This is the funniest thing I ever heard Chris Dial say. “I am not a stat geek.”

This was back in the late nineties, sometime during the storied Braves-Mets clashes of that era. Maybe opening weekend. Maybe 1999. Sitting in the covered boxes of the Lexus Level at Turner Field, day game, long delay, waiting out the thunderstorms blowing through. Post-Piazza. Pre-Rocker. Right dab in the middle of Rey Ordonez.

What you have to understand about Dial is this. It’s all about Rey Ordonez. Ordonez is the Rubicon. Ordonez is the great white whale. Ordonez is his raison d’etre, his existential meaning, the very soundtrack of his life. Without Rey Ordonez, Chris Dial would not exist.

ESPN’s Joe Morgan chat on 06/23/09

Silvy (NY, NY)

Will Manny’s return to the Dodger lineup give LA the consistency that they need to run away with the division? Thought they’ve been winning, it seems like that offense hasn’t been as consistent as it needs to be.
Joe Morgan

They already have the best record in baseball. He can improve their chances of winning in the playoffs. Right now this is the best team in baseball. I’m still interested to see how the team plays when he gets back. THey’ve played so well with Pierre at the top of the order. We’ll see how they do with someone like Furcal at the top.

ben (los angeles)

if you were the manager of the Dodgers what would you do with Pierre when Manny returns? It doesn’t seem productive or fair to bench him.
Joe Morgan

I finally found someone who agrees with me. I said this on Sunday Night Baseball. You’re not talking about a bench guy in Pierre. You’re talking about a guy with a lifetime average of over .300. If I’m the Dodgers, instead of benching him, I’d try to trade him for a good starting pitcher. Don’t make a mistake about it, the Dodgers as good as they are need another starting pitcher. But thanks for agreeing with me. I like people that agree with me. Though I like people that disagree with me so I can explain my side.

AP: Fans overlook suspension to see star

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—J.J. Gutierrez, a 15-year-old baseball fan, didn’t mince words when asked about Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez.

“He’s a cheater,” Gutierrez said. “But I still want to see him play.”

Gutierrez and his father, Julian, were among a steady stream of fans who lined up four- and five-deep at the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes’ box office Monday to buy tickets for this week’s series against Nashville.

Fans began buying tickets Friday amid speculation Ramirez might be coming to Albuquerque. The club sold almost 7,000 tickets that day, compared to typical pre-game reserved sales in the hundreds for a midweek series in June.

“And then it got busy,” Traub said. “Friday was nuts. Friday was a vacation compared to what followed.”

Since Torre told reporters on Saturday evening that Ramirez had agreed to begin his minor-league assignment in Albuquerque, Traub said the Isotopes have sold about 20,000 tickets for this week’s four home games.

Traub had a message for fans planning to buy walk-up tickets.

“If you want to see Manny, you can see Manny,” he said. “But we’re telling people not to wait until the last minute. If they do, they’re going to be standing in line and they’ll miss his first two at-bats.”

Dodgers.com: Dodgers bullpen catcher Flippo says slugger is raking in BP

Rob Flippo, whose regular job is to serve as bullpen catcher for the Dodgers, has spent some overtime throwing extra batting practice to Ramirez in his morning workouts at Dodger Stadium.

“For me, he looks more like he did last year than he did at any time in Spring Training,” said Flippo. “From Spring Training and right until he got suspended, he was still trying to find a rhythm. Even in April, he still looked like a hitter going through Spring Training games. He was still trying to get it to click.”

“I can tell just by watching how the balls carry,” said Flippo. “You can tell—the way his rhythm is going when he has it together. You can tell if he looks comfortable. You can tell when a guy is fighting it. Everything is looking easy for him, as easy as when he came to us.

“One thing I can tell, when I throw a good pitch down the middle, I expect that to be hit. With him, even when I don’t give him a good pitch, he still drives it. In Spring Training, if he got one of those bad pitches, he didn’t hit it that good. Last year, when he joined us, no matter where the pitch was, he hit it hard. And right now, it’s the same thing with him.”

“He’s not doing anything different than his regular batting practice,” Flippo said. “It’s like when he came into Spring Training. He would sometimes ask for a little extra live throwing, in the cage mostly. He didn’t ask me to come, but I usually get to the ballpark early anyway when my family’s not in town—maybe I’ll workout—and when he saw me, he asked if I could throw to him. He really doesn’t ask for anything special. Maybe for me it means an extra hour.

“When he wants extra swings, it’s not like we’re out there for hours. He might ask for 25 throws, that’s it. And almost always he’s going the other way. A lot of good hitters are like that, they want to drive every pitch the other way.”

JeffFrancoeur.com: June 17, 2009

Happy Birthday Delta! 80 years. Wow, you guys are getting up there!

I just wanted to wish you a very happy 80th birthday and thank you for not only everything that you’ve done for me and my family, but also for what you guys continue to do for all of your customers.

It’s crazy to think how far everything has come…I mean, now we have mobile boarding passes, Wi-Fi on the plane, online booking, TV screens on the back of headrests, movies, music…I could go on and on. One of the first things I do when I sit down is to flip to the back of the in-flight magazine to see what movie will be playing on my flight! Delta never ceases to amaze me and you guys continue to make flying more and more enjoyable. And considering how much flying I do over the course of a year, I love all of the little extras that Delta provide.

Other guys on the team spend their time playing cards, sleeping, going out to eat, reading magazines, getting some extra batting practice and hitting the gym in the hotel. If any of you have seen the old movies like Rookie of the Year and Little Big League, there are definitely some pranks pulled on teammates while on the road. But I won’t get too specific on those.

I’m excited to play in Boston this week, and then even more excited to get back to Atlanta to host the Yankees and Red Sox at Turner Field. Don’t forget about Delta Day at Turner Field on June 24th!

http://blog.delta.com/category/sponsorships/

Dodger Thoughts: NL West underrated

The American League East reigns supreme, but the NL West has the second-best record outside the division. This is not only due to the strength of the Dodgers, but the relative competitiveness of the other four teams in the division.

117-95, .552 ... AL East
88-80, .524 ..... NL West
96-90, .516 ..... NL Central
89-85, .511 ..... AL West
92-109, .458 ... AL Central
80-103, .437 ... NL East

Diamond Notes: Shawn Estes retires

Shawn Estes, a former 19-game winner with the Giants, has apparently retired after 13 major league seasons. Estes, 36, went 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA pitching for Triple-A Albuquerque in his attempt to continue his career with the Dodgers.

Rob Neyer: On deck: Weaver vs. Weaver

If, as planned, Jeff Weaver faces Jered Weaver Saturday night, according to the Los Angeles Daily News:

Cool. I’ve already set my DVR. But the one thing I want to know, I don’t yet: which set of brothers will the Weavers be? The Niekros, the Beneses, and the Martinezes account for at least 11 of the 20 previous matchups.

Because you pay good money (not) to read this blog, I did a little research of my own, and discovered that:

• Virgil Barnes and Jesse Barnes faced off for the first time in 1924, and would meet three more times;

• Greg and Mike Maddux met twice, first in 1986 when both were rookies, and then again two years later;

• by special arrangement, Pat Underwood’s major league debut in 1979 was against his brother Tom (and what a matchup it was!);

• the Underwoods, the Martinezes, and the Beneses faced off just the once,

• as did Gaylord and Jim Perry, in 1973.

So that’s the whole list, right? Wait, let me run through the math ... Nope, still missing one. We’ve got seven sets of brothers accounting for 19 matchups: the Niekros nine times, the Barneses four times, the Madduxes twice, and four other sets once apiece. Nineteen. Assuming that I didn’t miss a game for one of the aforementioned pairs, a lovely No-Prize goes to whomever can identify the eighth brothers and drop them into the comments.

THT: Dan Turkenkopf : Adjusting steals for win value

There’s already been a lot of noise on the basepaths in 2009. Dexter Fowler stole a rookie record five bases against Chris Young in April. Carl Crawford bested him less than a week later when he stole six bases on Jason Varitek and the Red Sox pitchers. Jacoby Ellsbury made a splash stealing home behind Andy Pettitte’s back and seemed to have started a trend. Crawford is currently on pace for almost 90 stolen bases this year, a number not reached in 20 years.

These incidents and more have caused some to ask whether the stolen base is re-emerging as an effective offensive weapon.

Rather than answer that question, I prefer to look backwards to rate the speedsters of the past. Which base runners have been the most effective stealing bases across history?

Unfortunately for this exercise, history can only go back as far as Retrosheet’s play-by-play records, but that still gives us over 50 years to look at.

What do I mean by most effective? There’s really two ways we can look at that; overall value, and rate value. We’ll get to the particulars in a minute, but first let’s take a little detour down the win probability path.

THT:Colin Wyers: How well can we predict ERA?

Ability vs. Value

I have written at length before on the basic principles of ability (or true-talent level) verus value. There’s just one point I want to come around and reemphasize.

People tend to lean upon defense-independent estimates of pitching performance because they better predict future performance. (And, strictly speaking, they do.) This leads to a lot of fantastic confusion about the issue, with the argument being that if we want to look at past performance, we should ignore defense-independent measures and look at actual results.

This is wrong for the same reason that we look at a pitcher’s ERA instead of his win-loss record. A team does not consistently score the same amount of runs every game; thus it is possible for different pitchers, even different pitchers on the same team, to have vastly different amounts of run support. This is not a function of pitching, and the credit or blame for this should not righly be assigned to the pitcher.

It is the same with defensive support. Two pitchers, even two pitchers on the same team, cannot be presumed to have the same quality of support from their defense. Defense-independent pitching statistics seek to give us a way to compare pitchers with different defensive support fairly.

But for a value measure, we do not care if a result came from luck or skill. We attribute defensive performance to the defense, not because the pitcher has no control over it, but because someone else does have control over it.

Home runs, on the other hand, are not under the purvue of the defense (except for a few, very rare cases). Thus, for a value metric, it is appropriate to credit a pitcher for the precise number of home runs allowed, and not an estimate thereof.

ESPN: Angels and Dodgers: A possible World Series preview?

This Dodgers heading over to play the Angels is definitely the best interleague series of the weekend. It’s the best team in the NL against the hottest team in the AL. It is still very early, but the case can easily be made that this could end up being a World Series preview if the Angels continue to hit the way they’ve hit.

This makes for a very good series. To add just a little more interest to this meeting, you have a sibling matchup set for Saturday, with Jeff and Jared Weaver pitching against each other. You’ve got to love that. There is also a pretty good matchup on “Sunday Night Baseball,” with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw up against the Angels’ John Lackey. So there’s really nothing to dislike about this series at Angel Stadium.

The Dodgers have done a nice job of scoring runs, averaging five runs a game and, again, they’ve done it mostly without having Ramirez in the middle of the lineup. They’ve got tremendous help in their bullpen from guys they didn’t expect to get much out of. Ramon Troncoso has been terrific. The kid who, at one time, was nearly the final pitcher on the Dodgers’ roster is walking around with a 2.34 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

True Blue L.A.: Baseball America Number One Prospect - Not all it’s cracked up to be?

Lot of misses in that group. The 1990’s are represented by many all - star seasons but the 2000 decade is sorely lacking in star power. Josh Beckett, Joe Mauer are so far the only above average players in the group with a couple of big zeros in Rauch, Baldelli, Francis, D Young, and maybe even Alex Gordon when you consider the lofty ranking.

I’d expect HOF inductions from Thomas, Manny, and Jeter. Tim Salmon, Jones, and Konerko had plenty of moments. Chavez was going great guns until the back killed his career.

Anyway, interesting list I came across on Baseball Reference.

Bill Simmons: The wonder years

We’re going with a one-question mailbag this week, courtesy of Phil D. from Montclair, N.J.: “What was the purest baseball era, from a statistical perspective?”

Honestly, Phil? That’s like asking, “Who’s the purest actress in an X-rated movie?” Every baseball era has been tainted to some degree. But if there is no era, maybe we can find a window. A four- or five-year stretch will do. Two years, even. Hell, I’ll settle for an All-Star break. Okay, let’s begin.

I’m dismissing the following eras for being either impure, antiquated or uniquely ludicrous:

The 1800s: Please. They wouldn’t even let those guys play in Ray Kinsella’s cornfield.

1900-1919: Pitchers threw 300 to 400 innings a season. Some outfields didn’t have fences. They used the same ball over and over; by the seventh inning, it looked like Mickey Rourke’s face. Teams hit a home run every five or six games. Fielders left their gloves on the field between innings. Minorities couldn’t play. Come on.

The Red Sox weren’t integrated until 1959, with the arrival of Pumpsie Green.

1920-1946: Once Babe Ruth ushered in the long ball era, teams averaged five-plus runs a game, and ERAs soared to Chien-Ming Wangesque heights. Also, the concept of the bullpen hadn’t been thought through. And WWII hijacked so many players that the 1945 Browns started a one-armed outfielder, leading to 45,000 “old Pete Gray is just lending them a hand” jokes that summer. Minorities were still banned. No thanks.

1947-1959: Jackie Robinson finally integrated baseball … but it didn’t exactly become the U.N. Most teams had one or two minority players, tops. The Red Sox didn’t start their first black guy until 1959—and his name was Pumpsie. Still not buying it.

THT: Carty: More on the LIPS/FIP discrepancy

As a couple of readers pointed out, while almost all of the players on my list from Monday had abnormally high or low HR/FB rates (which is to be expected since FIP doesn’t normalize HR/FB), there were a few pitchers who saw a big disparity between FIP and LIPS yet had completely normal HR/FB rates. How could this be?

The answer is that while the biggest difference between LIPS and FIP is the fact that LIPS normalizes HR/FB, LIPS also takes into account a few other things that FIP does not. So today, I’m going to look at a few of the starting pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched and at least a 0.50 LIPS/FIP difference and examine why this difference exists.

Roy Halladay - Worse than FIP indicates

Halladay’s difference is being driven by the same two factors as Cook.

1) The Rogers Centre inflates run scoring by 3.1 percent.
2) His infield fly ball rate (2.7 percent) is lower than league average (3.9 percent).

Chris Young - Better than FIP indicates

Chris Young has the most extreme LIPS/FIP difference of any pitcher in baseball this year, whether under or overvalued. Three factors are driving this:

1) PETCO reduces run scoring by 7.7 percent.
2) He induces more than twice as many infield flies (7.7 percent) than league average (3.9 percent).
3) He hits fewer batters (0.24 per 9) than league average (0.35 per 9)

AP: Canseco claims he was ostracized

NEW YORK—Jose Canseco plans to file a class-action lawsuit against Major League Baseball and the players’ association, saying he’s been ostracized for going public with tales of steroids use in the sport.

Canseco said Wednesday that he has discussed the suit with lawyers and intends to enlist Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to join in the suit.

Canseco said the basis of the suit would be “lost wages—in some cases, defamation of character.”

“Because I used steroids and I came out with a book, I was kicked out of the game, but I have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Canseco said in a telephone interview.

“A lot of these players have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Mark McGwire and so forth. They’re losing salaries, because obviously when you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame, you get asked to do certain, you know, appearances and shows and so forth, which incorporates income. So there is a major income loss.

“Not even that, baseball blackballs you from their family, meaning you can’t have a future proper reference from them, a job, no managerial jobs, no coaching jobs, nothing. They completely sever you.”

Dodger Thoughts:Edwin Jackson: What if?

As I researched this piece, I read several reviews of Jackson, and there is a common theme: No one disputes his physical tools, but almost every criticism ends up with his mental approach and confidence.  Baseball Prospectus still had words like “frustrated,” “struggles” and the dreaded “potential” in its 2009 review of Jackson.  I don’t know where I saw it, but I know Jackson himself said in an interview that he does not blame the Dodgers or Rays for moving him, as he knew better than anyone how his career had evolved to this point.

I close this piece by saying that if the question was, “Could the Dodgers have kept Edwin Jackson on the 25-man roster from 2007 to the present?,” from a pure roster management issue, I would say yes. Enough flotsam existed on the roster during that time to make me think they could have done that, and whatever damage Jackson brought on to the team during his growth period would probably not have been too different than every other bad pitcher during the last 2½ seasons. 

But from what I think what would have happened, only if had he been able to speed up his growth to where he is today could Jackson have survived the 2007 season as a Dodger out of options.  And we’ll never know if Jackson would be the pitcher he is today without those two years in Tampa, where he got 62 starts to work out whatever issues he had.