Fornoff: Canseco-bashing not merited

Ratatat Remixes Vol. 3?

La Russa cares only about a player’s contribution to the success of the team. He has always had a reputation as a veterans’ manager and for good reason: La Russa does not mentor. He considers the main part of his job to be filling out the best possible lineup every day, which is why America’s hotel bars are littered with napkins containing his scribble. He fathered daughters, not sons, and has not been a father figure to his players.

This is by no means a flaw. La Russa has been successful, and so have his teams, which is what matters in the world of sport. After Dave Kingman embarrassed the A’s organization by sending me a gift-wrapped rat in 1986, La Russa wanted to bring Kingman back in 1987 because he felt Kingman’s bat would have lifted the A’s record. The A’s did not sign Kingman, and neither did anyone else. But La Russa would have; it wasn’t about character, it was about home runs.

...Disgraced or not, Canseco and Mark McGwire were the core Bash Brothers on a team that became generally known as such for its showy power and dominating offense. If Canseco was good enough for La Russa to put in the lineup every day he was healthy in 1989, he is good enough to share in the celebration of that season 20 years later.

Frankly, Rickey Henderson had the reputation as a “me first” player, and Lansford was a Hall of Fame whiner - but who cared as long as the A’s were winning? It’s just not going to be a party until Canseco and McGwire show up - and until La Russa, Stewart, Lansford and friends are big enough men to thank Canseco for the undeniable contribution he made to their legacies and their bank accounts.

L.A. Times: Dodger fans should ‘Think Boo’

Or you can just think back to all those buzzer-beaters by Greg Harvey and get around this nonsense.

I’ve never asked Dodger fans for a favor before, but I have one request now:  When that first home game comes on July 16, for one night, one at-bat or at least one swing, boo Manny. I’m not asking you to burn your coveted Man-wig, hide the name on the back of your No. 99 T-shirt under duct tape or torture yourself by watching Angels games. All I ask is that if you attend Manny’s first home game, you boo. Once, at least.

...Dodgers fans should boo Manny for one at-bat to make sure he knows his actions were unacceptable. The obvious reasons are often floated about when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs: it might spurn younger kids to use steroids, it’s selfish, and it is disrespectful to the game.

Those arguments and their counters are uttered almost daily. The main reason Dodger fans should boo, however, is to let Manny know they will not be had with a few home runs and a smile. They need to say to Manny, “We’re the ones who pay to watch you, and we demand better.” What does it say about fans if out of the gate they embrace a blatant cheater?  Doesn’t it tell him, “Hey, you have free rein to do whatever you want, as long as you put runs on the board”?

...I’m not asking Dodger fans to hate him for the rest of his career. All I’m asking is that, for the good of the game and team, for one night Dodger fans should “Think Boo.”

Pirates make offer to Sano

Pretty much nothing of news value in the article, other than confirming that the Pirates did, in fact, make an actual offer to the young Dominican.  Go Gayo!!!

Two sources confirmed today that the Pirates have, indeed, made an offer to elite Dominican prospect Miguel Angel Sano. Neither source—one inside, one outside the team—would divulge the dollar figure or otherwise characterize the offer.

Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez takes game to the next level by becoming top run producer

Sometimes I think Massive Dynamic invented The RBI Machine...just to screw around with the world..

This season, only Todd Helton (23.16 percent) has knocked in a higher percentage of the runners on base during his plate appearances than Ramirez (22.61 percent).

“Tremendous,” Ramirez said of his work with Tony Perez. “We’ve talked about [hitting] with runners on base, trying to hit the ball up the middle. Every day in batting practice we keep talking about it. He’s helped me a lot.”

Ramirez could not ask for a better resource. A renowned RBI man during his Hall of Fame career, Perez, in every season from 1967-71, ranked among the NL’s top five in percentage of runners driven in, according to Baseball Prospectus.

“That was my job,” Perez said. “That was what the team expected of me and I wanted to do it. Any which way, a ground ball, anything, if I knocked in a run I was satisfied even if I made an out.

“You can’t swing hard all the time. You have to play the small game, get your hits and drive in runs that way. The pitcher and the catcher aren’t always going to give you a pitch to hit home runs. You have to adjust and make the appropriate swing. That’s what [Ramirez] is doing now. ... He has more experience, has matured. He now sees and can realize what he needs to do.”

MLB: Branyan hits restaurant in center field at Yankee Stadium

9 bucks for a Yankee root beer float? I’d break a few windows too!

After going nearly two games without hitting a ball between the white lines at Yankee Stadium, Mariners first baseman Russell Branyan hit one where no else has gone.

Branyan took one of his husky swings at the first pitch he saw from right-handed reliever Alfredo Aceves in the ninth inning of the Mariners’ 8-4 win over the Yankees on Thursday night and drove the ball majestically to straightaway center field.

It had distance, it had height and it caromed off the dark glass protecting the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, located above Monument Park, becoming the first player to hit the structure in the first season of the new stadium.

The Yankees apparently don’t measure opponent’s home runs, but this was a long one.

“That was majestic,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. “[Alex Rodriguez’s] was measured at 439 feet and this one went way beyond that one.”

..."I think that one is going to be hard to top in this ballpark,” Wakamatsu said.

Jeff Pearlman: Do I hate sports?

I’m reminded of a grammar school friend that handed in an anti-gym note from his mother..."My son Frankie is not allowed to play sports because if he sweats...he will die.”

I don’t hate sports. I love sports. I hate what sports have—in many ways—become.

...I love how Joe Charboneau used to open beer bottles with his eye socket. I hate how now there would be a contractual clause banning the practice.

I loved watching Sal Marciano and Jerry Girard and Len Berman on the evening news. They were my local sportscasters, and they let the stories unfold for themselves. I hate—truly, truly, truly hate—Stu Scott and Chris Berman. They are wanna-be celebrities. Buffoons. Their need to be the story will never feel right with me. Never.

...I loved the pre-e-mail era of column writing, when letters to the editor were reasoned and thought-out. I hate the modern, “Your column on the Yankees sucked!!! Blow me, #######!!” reaction to sportswriting

Really, I still love the games. But just as church has damned religion, corporate greed has damned sports.

Oy.

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.”

L.A. Times: Manny Ramirez and the gray areas of Dodger blue

Similarly, the Dodgers made the business decision to pay Ramirez more than his cleaner-cut teammates. And Manny, having made the business decision to avoid scrutinizing his medicine intake, delivered more results. Life is full of accommodations.

We expect athletes, particularly those wearing the Dodgers uniform, to act as role models. But Manny didn’t get into baseball to make parents like him. A few youths may imitate his mistake, just as they’ll copy gangsters, corporate thieves and slimy politicians. The majority, though, will emulate his batting psychology and charity work; the medical matter won’t endanger their fragile souls.

Ramirez’s sin wasn’t a rare aberration among athletes, here or elsewhere. Yes, we should monitor drugs and scan the horizon for the next shortcut to prowess. But let’s conserve our dwindling reserves of outrage for deadlier infractions.

Yahoo Sports: Un-bee-lievable: Bee Swarm delays Astros 7-2 win over Padres

This is Petco Park, after all.

Talk about adding a late-inning buzz to a ballgame.

The Houston Astros—who once had the “Killer Bs”—beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 on Thursday, but only after waiting out a 52-minute delay in the top of the ninth inning caused when a swarm of bees took over part of left field at Petco Park.

Geoff Blum(notes) hit a three-run homer and finished with four RBIs. The Astros won three of four against the Padres.

A beekeeper was called to the downtown ballpark and sprayed a chair and a ballgirl’s jacket that had attracted the bees. Padres president Tom Garfinkel said a few thousand bees attached themselves to a queen bee.

“The umpires made the right call to stop the game,” Garfinkel said. “There’s a couple thousand bees there. If they decide to swarm on a person, whether that’s a player, an employer or obviously a fan, we could have a real situation.”

SI.Com: Posnanski: MARIANO RIVERA’S A TRUE YANKEE, ALMOST MYTHICAL IN HIS DOMINANCE

Not enough Mo here lately.

There is a Yankee mythology that sustains New York fans and drives everybody else crazy, and it goes something like this: To play for the New York Yankees, you need to have a certain quality—quiet dignity, maybe, that’s part of it, or valor or a sense of the moment. All of that. More. To be a Yankee, the mythos goes, you should suffer your pain in private like Mantle, and keep hitting home runs even when your hair falls out like Maris, and find your true self in October like Reggie. You can be larger than life, like the Babe, and call yourself lucky when dying like Gehrig, and see the world through your own eyes like Yogi. You can even punch out marshmallow salesmen like Billy Martin. As long as you win almost every time out, like Whitey, and make perfectly timed moves, like Casey, and are willing to dive headfirst after victory like Jeter.
. . .
Yes, if there is an expression that conveys the Yankee myth, it would be the countenance of Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning.

Chi Trib: Ask Paul Sullivan

The question:

Any idea why Hendry didn’t go after Bobby Abreu instead of Milton Bradley?

Joe Posnanski Blog: Stupid Is

Joe Posnanski risks getting banned from the K by coming out against the noble start of Gil “The Ultimate Warrior” Meche

Matt Tolbert then worked Meche for an eight-pitch at-bat which led to a walk. Meche was now up to 113 pitches with two of the best lefty hitters in the American League — Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau — coming up. Well, yes, that was a disaster, but at least now Meche would get taken out of the game and …

No. Meche stayed in to face Joe Mauer. It leads to one of the great questions of philosophy: At what point does idiotic become criminal? Jamie Quirk, who was color commentator on television, talked about how Meche wanted to stay out there. Well OF COURSE Meche wanted to stay out there, but that’s why you have a MANAGER, someone who MANAGES to walk out to the mound and say, “Great effort Gil, but you know, I had to be insane to let you pitch the sixth inning in the first place, I have to get you out of here now.”

Bloomberg: Levinson: What Does It Mean for the Jews With Youkilis, Braun, Kinsler?

Uhh...they can now completely forget Ross Baumgarten’s year with the Pirates?

Jewish fans of baseball—fascinated with Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg and Lou Boudreau—may have a new crop of athletes to dote upon at this year’s All-Star Game.

Ryan Braun, Kevin Youkilis and Ian Kinsler lead in balloting for the squads, and pitcher Jason Marquis had the most wins in his league through June 30, meaning the four Jewish players are favorites to earn invitations to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game on July 14. It would be the first time four Jews were named to the event.

“We’re in a glory time for Jewish baseball players,” said Howard Megdal, author of “The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players.” “The fact that you have three stars in Kinsler, Braun and Youkilis all under the age of 30 and all seemingly continuing to improve is a very impressive thing.”

...“Third base is a paradox for the Jewish people,” according to Megdal’s “The Baseball Talmud.” “Given the lack of Jewish players at the position, you’d think the bag was made of pork.”

“That’s pretty funny,” Braun said in an interview when read the excerpt. Rather than Kosher considerations, he suggested that the inactivity and tendency for short hops at third base were the reasons he struggled there for a season before being moved to left field.

Rockies send Baker to Cubs for prospect

Carnac alert!..."The butcher, the baker and the trouble maker.”

The Rockies traded utility infielder Jeff Baker to the Cubs for Class A Daytona relief pitcher Alberto Alburquerque, who will be assigned to Double-A Tulsa, Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd confirmed Thursday morning.

Baker, who was at the end of a rehab stint for a right hand sprain, said he learned of the trade in a conversation with Cubs general manager Jim Hendry on Wednesday night.

“I haven’t talked with [Cubs manager] Lou Piniella, but I did talk with Jim Hendry last night,” said Baker as he headed to a flight Thursday morning so he could join the Cubs for their game against the Brewers at Wrigley Field on Thursday night. “I’m excited for the opportunity. I don’t know what their plans are for me yet, so I’m looking forward to getting there.”

Fanhouse: Cuban Pitcher Aroldis Chapman Defects

And pulling a Jose Osoria...he now ar Bob.

ESPN’s Jorge Arangure relays a report from a Cuban website that 21-year-old Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman walked out of the Cuban national team’s hotel room in Rotterdam, the Netherlands today and plans to defect to America to pitch in the major leagues in the near future. What happens next is all speculation at this point, but Arangure says Chapman is the best Cuban prospect since Jose Contreras and could command more than $30 million on the open market.

...Baseball America’s John Manuel relayed this quote from a scout in his story today about Chapman:

“There were rumors heading into Mexico that he wouldn’t be there because they were afraid he would defect, but he was there and was lights out. ... You’ve got honestly just one or two tweaks that could be made but he could go straight to the top of a big league rotation. He’s got a great body, definitely has high pockets, absolutely. He’s on top of the hitter, his release has extension, he’s got the ball coming out of there at 100 mph. He’s absolutely electric.”

Waiting for Next Year: Indians to Honor Michael Jackson, America

And in a moving tribute to the pinched Bill Bailey...the Indians will continue doing the backslide into last place.

When the product on the field has trouble drawing in crowds, shift your focus to promotions!

The Indians will do just that this weekend with a back-to-back fireworks show.  Friday nights typically have fireworks following every game, and this week will be no different.  Except for the fact that the team will attempt to take you on a voyage to Neverland Ranch as they pay tribute to the late Michael Jackson with an “expanded 15-minute pyrotechnic display.”

Expect plenty of Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean.  Perhaps a little Smooth Criminal for good measure.

With Friday’s show paying homage to the King of Pop, the Indians will follow up with a Saturday night show that is deemed an Independence Day Celebration.

Rany on the Royals: Banned!

Good to know that Dayton Moore took some time out from scouting Braves rejects to make a move.

I was, in fact, planning to show my face at the ballpark in two weeks. We had been working behind the scenes for the past several weeks to put together a Baseball Prospectus night at Kauffman Stadium – an event that we have held with much success at a number of major league parks around the country. We even had the date tentatively set for July 17th, we were lining up guests from Kansas City and around the country, and I was just a few days away from announcing the details to all of you fine readers. Unfortunately, that event is now on indefinite hiatus. I guess the Royals have no interest in selling 100+ tickets to their Hall of Fame Suites at $80 a pop.

Having already cleared the weekend on my schedule, I’m still planning to come to town that weekend, so maybe I’ll get the chance to face the heat. Or maybe not: I was just informed last night that I’ve been blacklisted by the team. That’s right: I’ve been banned by the Royals! The way this team is playing, I’m not sure if the Royals are trying to punish me or reward me.

ESPN: Leyritz Charged With Battery

Authorities say former major leaguer Jim Leyritz has been arrested and accused of battery in South Florida.

The arrest comes about two months before he faces a trial on a DUI manslaughter charge.

Personal struggle leads Snell back to Indianapolis

But Triple-A hasn’t been much of a challenge for Snell. But why is he playing at this level? Snell says he’s doing it to save his life. A month ago, he says he contemplated suicide.

“Sometimes people do stupid stuff and I had to fight it, not to do something stupid and take my life for myself and from my family and my parents,” he said.

He says, emotionally, he hit rock bottom and has been battling depression. When he had bad games with the Pirates, negative comments from the media or on the Internet bothered him, so he wanted to leave Pittsburgh.

“I just want to say sorry to all the bloggers and media people for saying they don’t know anything. But I didn’t mean anything by it,” Snell said. “I was just upset at the time.”

WEEI: Larry Lucchino Discusses Bay, A.L. East Race

Given the Yankees’ offseason spending, is there satisfaction in being ahead of them after a winter in which the Sox spent their resources on short-term contracts and extensions for homegrown players?

They are definitely two different approaches. No question about that. We don’t rule out the significant free-agent signings. Make no mistake about that. We were out there trying to sign Teixeira. We look at the best free agents to come onto the market every year. It’s just not our primary course of action. It’s not the preferred way to operate. But you should never, and we never, foreclose any options to make our team better.

I do like the fact very much that we have a different approach. The Yankees seem to do things one way. We try to do them another. They’ve built the eighth wonder of the world as a ballpark, as a grand stadium, a grand edifice. We just have a nice little ballpark here. They’re also in the largest market in the world. We are in the most avid or passionate market in the world. There are real differences between us, and I like to be reminded of those from time to time.

Would you be surprised if a team with the resources of the Yankees made a run at Jason Bay in free agency this winter?

They have a track record of doing exactly that: signing the best players to come onto the free-agent market…Jason has the kind of track record that will establish him as one of the better free agents on the market as a position player. I think that it’s quite likely that they may do that, as a general rule. But who knows? I don’t know how rich their farm system is in terms of coming outfielders, but that doesn’t seem to deter them in most years.

Thanks to Bill Spanswicked This Way Comes.

D Magazine: Rangers borrowed $15M from MLB to make payroll

Amid increased internet chatter Wednesday that Tom Hicks financial woes are deepening and that the club has borrowed money from MLB’s rainy-day fund, club officials took a strange approach.

They went silent.

The chatter arose Wednesday after a local blog reported hearing on a national radio broadcast the team had borrowed $15 million from MLB to make its most recent payroll obligations and to fund ongoing operations. Asked about the reports, owner Tom Hicks referred questions to team spokesman John Blake, who said the team would have no comment on Hicks’ financial situation.

Tom Hicks needs to be the next to go in the name of financial flexibility.

Olbermann: Well, You Can Call Me Ray, Or You Can Call Me Jay… UPDATED

Update, 12:15 AM EDT 7/2: I forgot! The aforementioned Mr. Wally Jose Bryan was also a little off on his age, which invokes the greatest baseball biography ever written, on the back of the 1964 Phillies’ Rookie Card featuring Dave Bennett (the top one here). If the wonderful image of a man getting younger before your very eyes doesn’t register, read the write-up outloud.

Tom Hicks ‘streamlines’ his sports entities, folds marketing group

The marketing group’s biggest job was selling corporate advertising and sponsorship — offering package deals to big advertisers. However, with the Rangers for sale, the usefulness of the marketing group and [Jim] Lites had been reduced.

Texas Rangers bullpen adds ‘The Hammer’

Reliever Jason Grilli came across the piece of hardware — complete with a Rangers-blue shock-absorption grip — while in a cab with Josh Hamilton in Phoenix during Texas’ series with Arizona last week. A man on the street sold it to him for $5, a bargain price, according to Grilli.

...the hammer came in handy that same day. After the Diamondbacks’ mascot ran over a pin holding the bullpen door closed in a golf cart, bullpen coach Andy Hawkins used the hammer to bend it back in place and allow the door to open. The Rangers then went on to win the game.

A superstition was born.

Bruce Jenkins Blog: Hypocrites

Show me an announcer that’s not a hypocrite and I’ll show you a Ganglians recording session without a theremin-equipped sandbox.

Part of the fun of Manny Ramirez’ return to the Dodgers, scheduled for Friday night, will be the exposure of Charley Steiner as a hypocrite. Michael Kay was the first to go down, and Charley’s next.

...It seems this didn’t go over too well in other cities. Kay, who anchors the Yankees’ telecasts, ripped Krukow and Kuiper in a public forum for getting so excited over a steroid guy. Steiner, part of the Dodgers’ radio team, made some equally rude comments (off the air), establishing himself as a real high-and-mighty beacon of integrity.

Except it doesn’t work that way. Alex Rodriguez opened the season in disgrace after the steroid-related embarrassment of spring training, but that didn’t stop Kay from going nuts when A-Rod slugged his first home run. Presto—instant hypocrite! Now we get to hear Steiner when Manny rocks Dodger Stadium for the first time. What, he’s going to treat it like a funeral while the place is going crazy?

I’ve known Kay since his days as a Yankee beat writer in New York, and he’s a good guy. So is Steiner, who livened up many an ESPN “SportsCenter” before he joined the Dodgers. Ripping the Giants’ broadcasting team, to say the least, was not their finest hour.

Seamheads: El juego casi perfecto de Tom Seaver (Tom Seavers’ Almost Perfect Game)

(just in case you really, really don’t want to remember...)

Seaver también rememora que mientras calentaba el brazo sintió una rigidez en el hombro que se mantuvo los dos primeros innings. Con los dos lanzamientos iniciales de Ken Holtzman, los Mets se fueron arriba 1-0 mediante triple de Tommie Agee y doble de Bobby Pfiel. En el segundo marcaron otras 2, Seaver remolcó una con un doble. En el séptimo Cleon Jones la sacó del parque para poner el juego 4-0. Sus impresiones sobre el aislamiento que trata de realizar el pitcher para neutralizar la tensión del juego, explican como a medida que avanza un juego sin hits, la situación se dificulta cada vez. En las tribunas estaban su esposa Nancy y su padre, quién había viajado desde la costa occidental. Había 60000 personas en Shea Stadium, la primera vez que Seaver lanzaba ante tanto público.

Luego que Seaver dominara a Hundley con rolling al montículo. Me senté en la cama y estiré el oído hacia el radio, toda la tensión se desdibujó cuando el narrador dijo”… es una línea de hit de Jimmy Qualls hacia el centerfield, se acabó el perfecto, se acabó el juego sin hits. Tom Seaver mira hacia el cielo, se va detrás del montículo….” Aún sentado en la cama escuché como terminó el juego dominando a Willie Smith y Don Kessinger con elevados inofensivos.

Seaver regresa al dugout y nota que Nancy tiene lágrimas en los ojos. “¿Por qué estás llorando? Ganamos 4-0”.

NYT: Jack Clark Takes Jabs at Mets of Mid-’80s (RR)

More like a Carlos Monzon crushing jab to the face…

As it turns out, the old feuds continue to simmer. Jack Clark, the cleanup hitter on those St. Louis teams, called those Mets a bunch of cheats and showboats Tuesday in an interview on KTRS-AM radio, which broadcasts Cardinals games.

Clark told McGraw Milhaven, the morning host at the station, that the mutual hatred ran so deep that he purposely snubbed the Mets when they played together in All-Star Games.

“I wanted to let them know I wasn’t glad to be there with them and their teammate, didn’t want to be on any team or be a teammate with them, and we were going to battle,” said Clark, who provides commentary on some Cardinals games and manages the Springfield Sliders, a summer collegiate league team in Illinois.

Clark took particular aim at Gary Carter, the Mets’ catcher in those years, saying that he “talked his way more into the Hall of Fame than deserving it.” Carter, he said, craved the spotlight, which was “pretty sickening and disgusting to everybody else.”

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

The Niagara Falls Dugout

RIP Ed Delahanty.

S.I.: Freedman: With Manny coming back, red-hot Pierre forced to grin and bear it

“Stats are stats” handle going once, twice…

But if you’ve got a beating heart and any modicum of pride in what you do for a living, it’s hard to believe that Pierre is not at all perturbed that he’s heading back to the dugout despite putting up fantastic numbers in Ramirez’s absence. Pierre declined numerous requests to comment for this story, and tries to deflect as much attention from himself as he can in interviews with beat writers. But ask his best friend, Los Angeles Angels third baseman Chone Figgins, and it isn’t hard to read through the lines.

“I do feel badly for him because he’s my best friend and he’s not getting to play [regularly],” said Figgins, who came up with Pierre in the Colorado Rockies farm system. “But we’ve seen what happened with the Manny Ramirez situation and the fact that he did do something that was illegal. In retrospect, [the Dodgers] should see that a player that hasn’t done things like that is putting up numbers that are natural. It should be shown that we deserve more respect than what we get.”

..."Now he’s a so-called bench player, which isn’t accurate,” said Figgins. “Bench players don’t get a five-year contract or get 200 hits over the last couple years, [only] behind Ichiro [Suzuki]. Stats are stats.”

Basement Dwellers: What’s wrong with Bronson Arroyo?

NOTHING! He has one bad start out of every six or seven which screws up his ERA! Bronson Arroyo is the solution to all the Yankees’ proble...(sudden dismissive hand wave - Diet Coke ascites retention alert)

What I’m seeing here is a steady decline in his k/9 rates from mid-last season until now. His k/9 rate this year is its lowest since 2005 when with the Red Sox, and to me is looking pretty scary. I’ve long believed that Bronson’s bellweather stat is his strikeout rate, so color me concerned.

I’m no scout, so I can’t give you a precise cause. But let’s play a bit: his fastball run value has taken a huge hit this year, and appears to be where the problem lies among his major pitches from the pitch value data. But his fastball velocity, as he said, is essentially unchanged vs last year. And his fastball pitchf/x movement looks similar (maybe a slight drop in vertical movement, but not as large as 2007 vs 2008). Run values on his curve ball and change are actually improved this year, and are mostly unchanged on his slider, so those pitches look fine.

His walk rate is up this year. So, here’s a hypothesis: Arroyo’s not spotting his fastball this season, and so he can’t use it to properly set up his breaking slop as he usually does. And he’s behind in the count more than usual, causing him to give better pitches to hit. I can’t do my own pitchf/x at this point, but would someone like to test this who can assess strike zones? Maybe compare balls vs strikes on all 3-1 and 3-2 counts in 2009 vs. 2008 in which he threw a fastball? I’ve gone as far as I can go.