Charles Pierce: Hello, goodbye

I say Nomar, you say Ramon.
You say why and I say I don’t know...what all this happy #### is about!

I am not opposed to Nice Happy Time Moments, per se. But that whole Nomar Garciaparra comedy show this morning stretches my inner Fred Rogers to the breaking point. Here’s a guy, coming back for a one-day dumbshow so that he “can retire as a Red Sock,” because that, apparently, has been a dream of his since shortly after he realized he couldn’t get around on a major-league fastball any more. This is a guy whose presence in the Red Sox clubhouse lingered like a case of cholera for two years before they finally shipped him out of town, who openly loathed the team, but who, apparently having been visited last night by his Guardian Angel Clarence, now has decided that, glorioski, this was the bestest place he ever played.

I sincerely hope that, one day, Manny Ramirez, with whom the Red Sox won two more World Series championships than they did with Garciaparra, is struck by a similar revelation. If it happens, I’m sure the Red Sox will indulge him the same way. Yes, and I am the Tsar of all the Russias.

Torii Hunter upset about way he’s portrayed in USA Today article

Hunter! Terra! Imposters!

Torii Hunter was fuming about the way he came off in a USA Today article examining efforts to develop black talent in baseball, a story that quoted the Angels center fielder as saying that dark-skinned Dominican players are “imposters.”

On NBCSports.com, writer Craig Calcaterra called the “imposters” statement “beyond repugnant.” But Hunter, who directs much of his charitable efforts to the development of inner-city baseball, claimed his comments “were distorted and taken out of context.”

“I’m not apologizing because I didn’t say anything like that,” Hunter said before Wednesday’s exhibition game against Cincinnati. “I’m [ticked] right now. I’m upset. And people wonder why athletes don’t talk to the media that much. It’s stupid.

“That wasn’t even the main topic of the discussion. That was like a piece of the conversation, .5% of 100%. The main topic was that there are no scholarships for baseball. ... It wasn’t a negative story. It was a positive story. I try to get a lot of inner-city kids to play the game. I’ve done the research. That’s why I have all the programs.”

WEEI: Thorton: The geeks will inherit the earth

Thorton...Theophilus south? Wilder than anything you’ve evah read!

But not everyone has evolved the same way. There is a growing subculture of stats-crunching troglodytes among us, and I for one am frightened that these mouth-breathing, greased stained Gollums might actually be influencing something vital to our national interest. Namely, the 2010 Red Sox. They’re like the nerdy fanboys from “Galaxy Quest” being asked to use their ridiculously detailed knowledge of the show to save the world for real. I mean, consider Bill James, who is like a god to these Sabremetric trolls. He’s made an industry out of making up silly, useless formulae to prove things like Alex Gonzalez should be bussing tables in the Fort Myers Waffle House, and yet Theo has given him a position of power and influence in his inner circle. It’s the equivalent of my old Missle Command skills getting me a job with NORAD or my Bill Belichick building a gameplan around my Coleco electric football offense.

So as a public service to all like-minded fans, concerned Red Sox citizens worried about the direction the Nation is headed, I’d like to put my ex-Stat Geek skills to us and offer my own formula for judging all statisticians. Let’s call it the NSGR/MMUSRI (Nerdy Stat Geek Ridiculous/Meaningless Made Up Statistic Rating Index). You take any new, obscure baseball evaluation stat and you start with the weight of the guy who invented it, times how many days he’s been wearing the same “Han Solo Shot First” T-shirt, divided by how many times he’s had sex in his life, multiplied by how often his mom cooks his meals add how many days a month he sees the sun times the percentage by which he throws like a girl.

Then you throw them all out and go with what your eyes tell you. And stop wasting our time with this Sabremetrics foolishness.

Razzball: 20 Risky Pitchers for 2010

YEEK! Looks like half of my pitching staff will double-sucking through a Siebe Gorman Savox!

For the purposes of this post, consider ‘risky’ to be a “greater chance than average that they have a significant drop in their skills and/or miss over a 1/3 of the season.” So I’m not going to cherry pick ‘lucky’ 2009 starters like J.A. Happ whose ERA was significantly lower thanks to unsustainable luck in terms of batted balls finding fielder gloves and fly balls not finding the mitts of spectators.

#4– Joba Chamberlain

MLB Pitches 2009-2010:  1,711 -> 2,733 (+1,022)
2009 was first year > 2,500+ Pitches:  Yes
Slider %:  22%

I know….Joba has more warning signs than a cigarette pack – 1.55 WHIP last year, declining fastball speed, starter vs. reliever status, his mom, his surname-inherited guilt for appeasing Hitler’s pre-WWII Central Europe land grabs.

As a nominal Yankee fan, I’d send him to the bullpen anyway.  But the fact that his fastball was crushed last year (-21 wFB) while his slider was solid (+7.5) is just one more reason to do it.

Pass on him as a starter.  Pick him up on waivers if he shows promise again as a set-up guy.

#20 – Josh Johnson

MLB Pitches 2009-2010:  1,412 -> 3,284 (+1,872)
2009 was first year > 2,500+ Pitches:  No
Slider %:  25%

Like Tommy Hanson, Josh Johnson is a pitcher I really like, would draft, and sounds like an actor on the CW (b/w him and fellow Marlin John Vander Wal, their pitching staff reads like a Dawson’s Creek reunion).  He’s got a great fastball (95.1 MPH).  He’s got a decent changeup but just doesn’t use it that much.

But with that slider rate, I’m a little more hesitant to draft him than I otherwise would be.  I know he’s built like a truck but so was Kerry Wood.  Discount him a little bit and don’t cry to me in June if your Tommy Hanson and Josh Johnson-led staff has some injury troubles.

Steve Fehr named MLBPA Special Counsel

Fehr and Loathing in Lost Wages

Fehr, 58, brother of former MLBPA Executive Director, Donald Fehr, first began working as an outside counsel to the Association in 1980. He represented the MLBPA during the collusion cases of the late 1980’s and has been a significant member of the MLBPA’s legal team ever since. He played a prominent role in negotiating the 2002 and 2006 Basic Agreements, as well as multiple negotiations over the Joint Drug Agreement.

Rangers GM learns from early setbacks

Almost immediately after Daniels moved into a bigger office at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, he was presented with an intriguing offer. Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria approached Hicks at the owners meetings and told him starter Josh Beckett wanted to go back to Texas.

“He gave me the players they wanted,” Hicks said. “He was leaving the country and wanted the deal done before then. There wasn’t a lot of time.”

The Marlins wanted third baseman Hank Blalock and either Thomas Diamond or John Danks for Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell. Florida ended up asking for Danks over Diamond in the package....

Daniels admits that he was slow to pull the trigger. He also didn’t understand Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest’s style, which is to put his best offer on the table right away. The Marlins ended up dealing with the Red Sox and got Hanley Ramirez as part of the trade.

“I think Jon learned from that,” Hicks said. “We all learn from our mistakes, and we all would like some mulligans.”

Consider for a moment, the Rangers could have had AGon and Beckett in addition to their already talented team.

Big League Stew: Remember Matt Wieters? He’s on the newest Sports Illustrated

All of that is to say that I’m glad to see Wieters on the front of Sports Illustrated — the first Oriole coverboy since Roberto Alomar in 1996 — and an extended profile on the young O by Tom Verducci within its pages. The article is entitled “Rare Bird” while the cover is emblazoned with “Matt Wieters: The Orioles’ Tower of Power, The Game’s Next Joe Mauer(notes).”

Perhaps both are reminiscent of the cyber palm fronds that greeted Wieters arrival in Charm City last summer. But in an age where we lose focus once something doesn’t immediately match our outsized expectations, it’s nice to receive a reminder that Wieters is still only 23 years old and that he’s still on a path to be one heck of a baseball player.

Wieters vs. the Cover Jinx. At stake: The Soul of the Human Race.

Orioles worry that Roberts might not be ready for Opening Day

For the first time this spring, Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail acknowledged that the club is concerned that second baseman Brian Roberts might not be ready for the start of the season.

Roberts, who has a herniated disk in his back and then got sick as a result of the medication he was taking to ease the inflammation, hasn’t played in a game all spring, and now he has been shut down until at least Thursday.

In which the Orioles have the best second baseman in club history felled by bad medication.

Or: “Why you should never call the Mets for medical advice.”

Milton Bradley goes after Lou, fans—again

You are Number 21
I am not a number, I am a free man.

Former Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley who repeatedly has insisted that he wants to get on with his career and move forward, revisited his controversial stay in Chicago for the second time in less than a week.

This time Bradley told his lengthy story to ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez. During the interview Bradley said of Chicago, “I felt like a prisoner in my own home.”

When Bradley did go out, he says he and Alfonso Soriano encountered racist comments from a waiter at a restaurant—a story (minus the Soriano part) he told reporters last season.

Bradley also talked about his run-in with manager Lou Piniella. After Pinella called him “a piece of (expletive)” in front of his teammates, Bradley asked Piniella to apologize in front of the whole team. According to Bradley, Piniella refused. Bradley says that because of his Christian background, he still forgave Piniella.

Baseball Image of the Day: Disneyball

What is it, B-Ref? 26 days until the season starts? 26 days!?!?! Darn it, Sean Forman, make time move faster!!!

Today’s image:

The Ballpark at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports.

Tomorrow: His Name is Strasburg.

Selig, committee considering radical realignment plan

One example of floating realignment, according to one insider, would work this way: Cleveland, which is rebuilding with a reduced payroll, could opt to leave the AL Central to play in the AL East. The Indians would benefit from an unbalanced schedule that would give them a total of 18 lucrative home dates against the Yankees and Red Sox instead of their current eight. A small or mid-market contender, such as Tampa Bay or Baltimore, could move to the AL Central to get a better crack at postseason play instead of continually fighting against the mega-payrolls of New York and Boston.

Divisions still would loosely follow geographic lines; no team would join a division more than two time zones outside its own, largely to protect local television rights (i.e., start times of games) and travel costs.

Floating realignment also could mean changing the number of teams in a division, teams changing leagues and interleague games throughout the season, according to several sources familiar with the committee’s discussions. It is important to remember that the committee’s talks are very preliminary and non-binding.

Like fine wine, Bud’s ideas just keep getting better as the years go by.

Edes: Nomar to announce retirement

Walked into the pressbox Wednesday morning at City of Palms Park and it’s all set up for a press conference. But it’s not a Josh Beckett or Victor Martinez signing.

Nomar Garciaparra is announcing that he’s retiring from baseball, according to multiple sources. Is there a future tie-in with Red Sox, or is he launching a media career? Don’t know yet.

Thanks to Victor Rojas.

Martone has more…

Nomar Garciaparra will sign a one-day contract with the Red Sox today and then announce his retirement from baseball. He will become a baseball analyst for ESPN.

The Red Sox and Garciaparra have called a press conference for 10:30 a.m. at City of Palm Park. CSNNE.com has confirmed the signing and retirement.

Garciaparra is signing the contract so he can retire as a member of the Red Sox.

The Daily Something: The HOF Isn’t What It Used to Be (and Didn’t Used to Be, Either)

Or as Francesspool said yesterday...“McGwire, Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro were all mediocre players until they started juicing!”

First, I agree generally that there are too many generally uninspiring players in the Hall, but my complaint is with the quality of players selected, not the quantity (though we could do with just a couple fewer Chick Hafeys and Freddy Lindstroms). Substitute Tim Raines for Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven for Bruce Sutter, Lou Whitaker for Tony Perez, etc., and I’m happy.

But my main point is this: getting elected to the HOF is exactly what it once, and always, was. People tend to have this vision of the Hall as a place that was intended for legends, the very best of the very best, a place that’s downright sullied by the inclusion of guys like Dawson or (God willing) Santo.

...So now we’re back to the 2000s. Maz, Rice, Sutter, Dawson, whatever. Hard to see how it’s any worse than what came before, and it’s a whole lot better than what they did between the sixties and eighties.

My point isn’t that it’s okay that Rice and Sutter are in the Hall (if you’ve read anything else I’ve ever written here, you probably know that’s not it). My point is that this isn’t anything new. The Hall of Fame has never been exclusively for the legends—at least not since 1938 or so. It would’ve been fine without Andre Dawson, but Dawson doesn’t do anything to cheapen it, either.

And Ron Santo certainly wouldn’t do anything to cheapen it. In fact, I’d say Santo would raise the bar just a tiny bit. Regardless, there’s no sensible argument that Ron Santo doesn’t belong in this Hall of Fame. You can argue that he doesn’t belong in your Hall of Fame—but just know that that’s what it is. If your Hall of Fame doesn’t have room for Ron Santo in it, then you’re dealing with an entirely different sort of institution than the one located in Cooperstown, NY.

USA Today: Panel Part III: Efforts to develop black talent in USA insufficient

Fans look down from their seats onto the baseball field, see dark-colored skin and might assume they are African-American players.

But increasingly, the players instead hail from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Venezuela.

“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African American,” Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter says. “They’re not us. They’re impostors.

“Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ “

Baseball’s African-American population is 8%, compared with 28% for foreign players on last year’s opening-day rosters.

“As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us,” Hunter says. “It’s like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?’

“I’m telling you, it’s sad.”

..."The colleges have corrupted baseball,” says Boras, whose son plays at Southern California, “because they have taken away the scholarships. They’ve taken away America’s pastime from the grass-root level of homes.”

Says Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, “Killed it.”

Thanks to Winn.

K-Rod: I have no idea who Gossage is

Grey Goose: Lost for Words. Mix it up.

Goose who? Francisco Rodriguez is just fine with Goose Gossage’s assessment of him.

Gossage referred to K-Rod as a “clown” in a recent interview, citing Rodriguez’s penchant for theatrics on the mound, but Rodriguez shrugged off Gossage’s comment Tuesday.

“I have no idea who he is,” Rodriguez said.

Told about Gossage, a Hall of Fame reliever who had his best years pitching for the Yankees in the 1970s and ‘80s, Rodriguez took the high road.

“We all have an opinion,” Rodriguez said. “That’s his opinion and you’ve got to respect it. I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

That’s a different stance than Rodriguez took last season, when Brian Bruney made a similar comment. Rodriguez sought out Bruney the following day during batting practice at Yankee Stadium and had to be restrained from the Yankees reliever.

Seamheads: Schlossberg: 300-Win Club is Closed for Good

Says Dandy Dan Schlossberg (Dan & GGC...back together again!)…

What makes 300-game winners as unlikely as 30-game winners? Consider the fact that pitchers routinely worked in four-man rotations and finished what they started — at least until managers decided to deploy an array of relief pitchers and yank top starters after seven innings. Blyleven had more shutouts than most current pitchers will have complete games.

Things were vastly different before World War 2, when legends like Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Lefty Grove all managed to crack the 300-win circle. Johnson even topped 400, joining Cy Young (511) as the only men at that level.

Warren Spahn, who worked exclusively after World War 2, would have been there too if he hadn’t lost so many years to the war. The only player to win a battlefield commission, Spahn won 363 games, mainly because he reached 20 wins in 13 different seasons. These days, few men win that many games in a single campaign.

The next time anyone wants to know the name of the best lefty in baseball history, Spahn’s name should be mentioned first. He had more wins than any southpaw and only 10 less than Alexander and Mathewson, who are tied at 373. Spahn wanted the ball every fourth day and hated to come out.

Conlin: Phillies have best infield of baseball’s modern era

“What kind of a fool do you think I am?
You think I know nothing of the modern world”

And ponder this . . . Has any non-expansion team ever had the three best players in franchise history at the same time? The closest I could come was Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider from Brooklyn’s Boys of Summer.

And how often have you seen a major league infield line up 1-2-3-4 in the batting order?

These are giddy, historic, times for the Phightins.

There will be challenges to my best infield of the modern-era assertion, of course, including a couple I debated myself.

You could throw a blanket over the numbers put up by the Phillies and Yankees infields in 2009. New York’s quartet of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira slammed 112 homers, three more than the Phillies with Feliz at third. But the Phils’ Fab Four won the RBI war, 393-373.

...Pat Gillick was the Baltimore Orioles’ GM in 1996, when an infield of B.J. Surhoff, Cal Ripken, Robbie Alomar and Rafe Palmeiro put up some sick numbers. With Rafe “With God As My Witness” Palmeiro leading the way by producing 39 homers and 142 RBI, that infield pounded 108 homers and drove in an amazing 420 runs, an average of 105 for each infielder. But, sorry, Palmeiro hangs an asterisk on those numbers. Just as A-Rod hangs one on his Yankees infield.

ESPN: Reyes’ thyroid condition debated

The New York Mets say Jose Reyes has an overactive thyroid, but the shortstop isn’t buying it.

... Reyes told ESPNDeportes.com’s Enrique Rojas later Tuesday: “The specialists who took care of me in New York have told me that I’m fine and that there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid. The test [taken to follow one conducted during his physical] showed that I’m fine. We just have to wait for the results of the additional test. The [doctors] found inflammation in my throat and no medicine to treat the thyroid or any other condition has been prescribed.”

Denard Span has grown into Minnesota Twins’ leadoff role

Span is “getting on base four or five times a game”...isn’t that like some sort of record or something?

Denard Span traces his evolution as a leadoff hitter to the laser eye surgery he had in 2007. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire thinks it was Span’s I’ll-show-you determination. Venerable sabermetrician Bill James thinks, perhaps, it was natural maturation, a more hitter-friendly home ballpark than Span had for much of his minor-league career and a natural shift in Span’s game.

..."When we put him in that leadoff role, he just took it to heart. It was probably in there, but I think he just decided this is what I need to do to help this ballclub,” Gardenhire said. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know what to expect really. But he just kind of took off, and all of a sudden you’ve got this guy that’s getting on base four or five times a game, not afraid to take two strikes and (who) can hit with two strikes, and he just became a player.”

...James, the author and senior adviser for the Boston Red Sox’s baseball operations, said Span’s leadoff evolution might be traced to a number of things, the first being that, in baseball, “different skills mature at different ages” and that OBP is a “late-maturing skill.”

James also pointed out that Class AA New Britain’s ballpark, where Span spent two full seasons, is not hitter-friendly, and offered up Boston’s Kevin Youkilis as an example of a hitter who changed his game from the minors to the majors.

Youkilis became well known in the Michael Lewis book, “Moneyball,” for his on-base prowess. Oakland general manager Billy Beane reportedly called him the Greek God of Walks, but when Youkilis finally stuck in the major leagues his walks diminished, replaced instead by improved power numbers.

“He walked a lot in the low minors because he has a hitting zone; he was looking for a pitch in that zone. In the minors, the pitches were all over the place. In the majors, more of them are in that zone where he will swing,” James wrote in an e-mail to the Pioneer Press.

“The minors are about getting to the majors. The majors are about winning. You might figure, if you’re at (Class) AA and hitting third or fifth, that drawing walks isn’t going to help you get to the majors. But once you get to the majors and you’re a leadoff hitter, maybe somebody tells you to get on base.”

Bradford: Daisuke: I want to play at least 10 more years in the U.S.

And then he can wake Bob Feller. Ok...that might be a bad idea.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has gone exactly halfway through his six-year contract. He is 29-years-old. And the pitcher has been a professional baseball player now for 10 seasons.

Tuesday morning he decided to take stock of his past and talk of his future.

“I think both personally and from a family standpoint we’re all enjoying our lives over here in the U.S., and if at all possible I would like to play over here as long as I can,” Matsuzaka said through translator Masa Hoshino. “I guess in the very least I hope that I can play for at least another 10 years here in the U.S. Yeah, 10 years is a long time and it’s tough to imagine what it’s going to be like that far out, but at the same time when I’m 40, or older than 40, I want to still be able to pitch.”

Then, after a pause, came a term that needed no translation.

“Nolan Ryan.”

As it turns out, just before entering high school Matsuzaka got a hold of the book, “Nolan Ryan’s Pitching Bible” thanks to some older teammates, who had an infatuation with the major leagues. It not only changed his approach in the short term, but helped mold the long term goals he carries with him today.

Yankees VP Mark Newman arrested for DUI

NEWMAN!

Longtime Yankees executive Mark Newman was arrested and charged with driving under the influence Monday night, according to the Hillsborough County Sherriff’s Office.

Newman, in his 11th season as the Yankees’ senior vice president of baseball operations, refused to take a blood-alcohol test, according to the arrest inquiry.

“We were informed that Mark Newman was arrested last night on suspicion of driving under the influence,” the Yankees said last night in a statement. “The New York Yankees do not condone this kind of behavior. We take this situation seriously and we are looking into the matter. We will have no further comment at this time.”

The report said Newman, 60, was released Tuesdayon $500 bail.

The arrest was first reported by The Associated Press.

According to the inquiry, Newman was pulled over at 10:56 p.m. near the corner of Hudson Lane and North Dale Mabry Highway, about five miles from his office at George M. Steinbrenner Field and just over a mile from his home.

EA signs baseball star Curt Schilling to make fantasy role-playing game

Electronic Arts has teamed up with baseball star Curt Schilling to make a game. But this isn’t a sports game. It’s a deal with Schilling’s fantasy role-playing game studio, 38 Studios.

Schilling is developing an epic single role-playing game code-named Project Mercury. It’s not the big massively multiplayer role-playing game, code-named Coperinicus, which is due to launch in 2011. Rather, Mercury is a single-player role-playing game that is being made by the former Big Huge Games studio, which 38 Studios acquired last year.

The game is being designed by Ken Rolston, former lead designer of the critically acclaimed hits, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game will also be based on a vast universe created by New York Times best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, with artistic direction by Todd McFarlane, a famed comic book artist and creator of Spawn.

“From day one, 38 Studios has been focused on creating the next generation of entertainment experiences that embrace all mediums, including film, television, comics, novels, toys and, of course, games,” said Curt Schilling, founder and chairman of 38 Studios, in a statement. “We are creating an enormous world, with heroes and villains and a rich back story from the brilliant minds of R. A., Todd and Ken at its heart, and I can think of no finer partner than the global powerhouse that is EA Partners.”

Curt Schilling Retirement Update!

RE Auctions: “The Merkle Ball” - The Ball That Cost the Giants the Pennant in 1908!

Robert Edward Auctions has had the privilege of handling literally hundreds of thousands of baseball items over the past thirty years, including some of the game’s most significant historical relics and rarities. Even our years of experience, however, could not temper our excitement over the consignment of this extraordinary piece: The famous “Merkle’s Boner” Ball. Presented here is the very ball held by second baseman Johnny Evers to record the final out in the famous “Merkle’s Boner” game between the Giants and Cubs on September 23, 1908 at the Polo Grounds. That was the game in which Giants rookie first baseman Fred Merkle failed to touch second base on what was the apparent game winning hit in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. That mistake not only cost the Giants the victory (the game was ruled a tie), but ultimately the pennant. The Merkle Ball is perhaps the most famous baseball in the history of the game! It is without question one of the defining artifacts of the game. There is no more important baseball from the dead ball era or a more controversial ball from the entire twentieth century.

The ball was personally saved by Johnny Evers and sold at auction by his family way back in 1993, where it was purchased by Charlie Sheen, who sold it in 1999 in a private transaction to a fellow collector who has had it ever since. We have known about this ball all this time, but it’s been so long since it’s been seen or heard of, even predating the Internet era, that it seems like it is being presented here for the first time. But in fact it was sold in 1993 (at that time for $30,250) and is being offered at REA in 2010 publicly for the very first time since. It is an honor!

The ball is accompanied by a notarized letter of provenance directly from Joe Evers, the great-nephew of Johnny Evers.

Thanks to John Thorn.

Lombardi: RIP: The Extreme Contact Starting Pitcher

If only Touch Connors had been a pitcher…

Playing with Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder, I looked for how many times each season, since 1901, has a pitcher qualified for the ERA title while having his strikeouts be less than one-third of his innings pitched. Basically, I was looking for regular starting pitchers since 1901 who really pitched to contact. The year-by-year breakdown of this search follows below.

As you can see, 1978 was the last baseball season where we had ten pitchers pull this trick - with Jerry Augustine, Jim Barr, Jack Billingham, Ross Grimsley, Randy Jones, Dennis Lamp, Bill Lee, Dave Rozema, Lary Sorensen and Paul Splittorff making the cut. And, after 1983, it’s really become something that just doesn’t happen any more - sans a fluke here and there.

Shoot, basically, in the last quarter-century of baseball history, the extreme contact starting pitcher is now extinct, no?

I wonder if we’ll ever see a time in baseball again where a bunch of these types of starting pitchers appear in the same season.

Strasburg allows 2 hits in spring debut

Top prospect Stephen Strasburg made his spring training debut on Tuesday, pitching two scoreless innings in the Washington Nationals’ 9-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

Strasburg threw 15 of his 27 pitches for strikes and allowed two hits, successive two-out singles by Don Kelly and Alex Avila in the second. But the right-hander finished off Brent Dlugach with a bending, 81 mph breaking ball for an inning-ending strikeout.

Don’t worry, Stephen. Even Matt Wieters only hit .288 in his rookie year.

ESPN: Wilkie: Baseball Project steps up to the plate

and will back Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s Second Movie?

As a follow-up to The Baseball Project’s buzz-worthy 2008 album of original music about baseball and a U.S. tour last year, the band has come up with a clever way to chronicle the 2010 season.

The talented rock musicians and hard-core baseball fans will be writing and recording one song per month and offering each of their “Broadside Ballads” for free in ESPN.com’s The Life (see inset boxes to download and listen).

“We figured out a way to give ourselves even more work and make less money,” singer and guitarist Scott McCaughey said with a laugh last week during a phone interview from his home in Portland, Ore.

While they finish up their second album later this year, McCaughey (The Minus 5, R.E.M., Young Fresh Fellows) and his Baseball Project teammates Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Gutterball, Miracle 3), Linda Pitmon (Miracle 3, Golden Smog) and Peter Buck (R.E.M.) will be making musical commentaries on the upcoming baseball season. Singer-guitarist Wynn describes the group as part musicians and part sports journalists.

“I think it will be a lot of fun just to kind of see what’s going on and get fired up about something. And instead of just writing bemused e-mails to each other, we’ll put chords behind it and call it a song,” Wynn said last week by phone from New York.

Former Dodger Willie Davis found dead in Burbank home

Damn. Farewell...Willie Davis.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis was found dead Tuesday morning in his Burbank home, police said. He was 69.

Authorities said that a neighbor who usually brought breakfast to the former baseball star’s Victory Boulevard home found Davis’ body.

The case is being handled by the Los Angeles County coroner, but authorities said there was nothing to indicate foul play and that it appears that Davis died of natural causes.

...After baseball, Davis made headlines in 1996 when he was arrested at his parents’ home near Gardena for allegedly threatening to kill them and burn down the house unless they gave him $5,000. Davis was armed with a set of throwing knives and a samurai sword, officials said.

The Times will have a full obituary later in the day.

Ripken Says His Desire to Manage Baseball Is Growing

Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. says his interest in becoming a manager is growing nine seasons after retirement.

Ripken, a two-time Most Valuable Player who played in a record 2,632 straight Major League Baseball games, said in 2007 that he would consider returning to the sport as a manager or coach after his teenage children were grown. His daughter, Rachel, is now in college and his son, Ryan, is a sophomore in high school.

“I valued that time frame and I wanted to be there, and I’m starting to think about it a little more now,” Ripken said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.” “When my boy goes off to college, if there’s a time to come back to the game, maybe that’s the time.”

Trembley! You have roughly 3 years at most, then you are ....ah crap, I already used the “D word” this week....

(grabs thesaurus)

You are RUUUUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEED!

Miller: Saunders = Greinke? OK, no, but he’s good

Ognir wonders..."They still write stuff like this?”

Just how solid has this guy been lately? With 33 victories, Saunders has more during the past two seasons than Felix Hernandez, Josh Beckett and Adam Wainwright.

Tim Lincecum also has 33 wins, 35 if you count his consecutive Cy Young Awards.

Mark Langston never won as many as 33 games in consecutive years as an Angel. Neither did Jim Abbott. Chuck Finley did it only twice.

...Last year’s 16-game winners in the American League also included Zack Greinke, who, like Lincecum, won the Cy Young.

Yes, we know, Greinke had five more complete games and 141 more strikeouts than Saunders did, and their ERAs – 2.16 to 4.60 – are like comparing the GPAs of Harvard and the Marinello Schools of Beauty.

But the point is that Saunders has been very good – sneaky very good, really – in helping the Angels the past two seasons. Plus, he did beat the Royals and Greinke, 1-0, for his first career shutout last May.

NY Post: A-Rod close again with old pal Jeter

They drove here together yesterday from Tampa for the Yankees’ split-squad 6-0 win over the Pirates. And they left together. Before the game they played catch and long toss together, ran together in the outfield and even walked into the clubhouse together along the right-field line at 12:01 after they were done with their early work while a group of Yankees were still taking batting practice.

“They’ve definitely grown closer,” one Yankee official told me.

They are laughing and joking together more, and during Sunday’s workout in Tampa they spent a lot of time talking in short leftfield on a back field. They are enjoying being teammates.

In order to fully appreciate this article, be sure to watch the companion video.