Madden: Fewer runs, more power relievers lead to ugly MLB marathons

Bill Madden! Elias Sports Bureau! Partridge Pattern Cords! It’s all here!

Why have extra innings, which used to be looked upon with great anticipation, instead been replaced by a sense of dread? And why are there suddenly so many of them? According to scouts and baseball execs I talked to, it starts with the gradual decrease of runs and homers since baseball instituted its ban of amphetamines in 2006.

“There’s less power in the game,” said one exec, “less examples of one swing of the ...

OMNICHATTER for June 16, 2013

Got Omnichatter?

MSN: Baseball highlights are far more exciting with a British spin [video]

Just try going to another baseball game and not thinking of a routine flyball being “caught by the chap in the pajamas with the glove that makes everything easier.”

Press-Telegram: The secrets behind baseball’s walk-up music

The origins of walk-up music are difficult to pinpoint. There is no “aha moment.” Or even an “A-ha” moment.

Loosely defined, the concept has been around for decades. St. Louis Cardinals leadoff hitter Lou Brock, to name one example, used to ask Busch Stadium organist Ernie Hays to play the “Theme From Shaft” for his trips to the plate in the early 1970s.

Sparky Lyle of the Yankees was also an early pioneer of baseball as musical theater. In 1972, his first season in New York, the left-handed ...

Newsday: Shyman [sic] Das, former MLB arbitrator, breaks down baseball’s appeals process

If a player is suspended as a result of the Biogenesis probe and appeals the decision, the case will go to the current arbitrator. Das said the arbitrator’s role is to judge the ultimate fate of any player suspected to be in violation of baseball’s joint drug agreement, and the arbitrator’s decision is not likely to be challenged outside of baseball.

“Baseball, like most other private employment collective bargaining, is covered by federal law,” Das said in a recent telephone interview. [...] ...Read More...

bobm Posted: June 15, 2013 at 11:14 PM | 2 comment(s)
  Beats: appeal, arbitration, peds

AWOL catcher Miguel Olivo begs Marlins: “Let me go”

To waste my baseball life
Would be a sin
Release me
And let me play again #humpdink

The Marlins placed Miguel Olivo on the restricted list after the team refused his request to be released and he walked out on the club during Friday’s game.

“I told them I wanted to be released and they wouldn’t give it to me,” said Olivo, who has been unhappy with his lack of playing time, in a phone interview with the Miami Herald. “I don’t understand why they don’t release me. I told them I wanted to be ...

BtBS: Phil Hughes: Baseball’s own “Jekyll and Hyde”

I’m going to broaden the study to the beginning of the 2012 season and look at a number of possible answers. Slowly, I’ll narrow down the problem areas and identify the real problem area(s).The first task was to separate Hughes’s starts into clearly defined “good” and “bad” samples, to best construct anatomies of each. I used Game Score as a quick and simple method, by excluding all starts since 2012 in which his score was between 36 and 64—roughly speaking, average starts. ...

Rosenthal: Team that gave us Moneyball ditching HR’s for BB’s & OBP - and W’s

Harold Reynolds: “The A’s aren’t walking a lot.”

Last season, when the A’s won the AL West, they mostly walked and hit homers — their .238 batting average ranked next-to-last in the AL, and they struck out more than any team in the league.

This season, their identity is different due to the acquisitions of two quality hitters, catcher John Jaso and shortstop Jed Lowrie, and emergence of a third, third baseman Josh Donaldson.

The A’s grind down opposing starters — they’re first in ...

YES Network: An interview with Ken Singleton

Terrific (yet clutch) interview with Singleton.

MW: I found that my personal appreciation of the game has increased exponentially as I’ve explored sabermetrics. I know there is a group of fans out there (and maybe they’re even the majority of fans) who cringe at the new age stats – can’t have the nerds ruining baseball with all their numbers! For me though, the metrics are not diminishing the game, rather they’re merely elaborating on what our eyes see. The “mystique,” if ...

Lee, Carbo sound off on MLB

Lee Carbo?  Pretty sure Toots Mondt used to book him all the time at the rickety Sunnyside Garden Arena.

And Bill Lee would like to keep the ball in play too, “talk about speeding up the game, use the same seven or eight balls during the game, what is the story? Tell the Fox Network not to run long commercials. And don’t have the girl with the tweater thing, the twit thing between innings, I don’t care what anyone says calling in - unless it’s the Flying Stilarsky Sisters.”

...“Get the drugs ...

OMNICHATTER for June 15, 2013

You know the drill.

Bernhardt: Albert Pujols is now just ‘average’

That’s how far Albert Pujols has fallen in the year-and-change since moving from St. Louis to Orange County. Last year, he was a victim of a very poor start to the season which colored everyone’s perception the rest of the way, but come June he hit his stride, with a .941 OPS the rest of the way. This June has also been his best month of the year so far, but whereas last June he hit .326/.409/.568 (.977), this June has only seen him hit .262/.327/.548 (.874) so far. A slugging-heavy .874 OPS is ...

ESPN Los Angeles: Do the Dodgers need to get Puig under control?

Chemistry problems already? Oh no!

I happen to think Puig was perfectly within his rights to fly off the handle Tuesday night. But that’s not to suggest there aren’t reasons to fret that he is a ticking time bomb in the Dodgers clubhouse.

After his past two games, Puig has refused to speak with reporters. It kind of sounds like no big deal. He hasn’t had much to say anyway and the questions would have undoubtedly been repetitive.

But it’s a bit troubling that, at age 22, with less than two ...

TPM: Congressional Baseball Game slideshow

Congressional Democrats handed Republicans a stinging 22-0 shutout during the annual Congressional Baseball Game at the Washington Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2013. The game marked the 52nd edition of the modern version of the game, amounting to major bragging rights in the halls of Congress.

Seems like everyone wore the jersey of the closest minor or major league team to their district, which is pretty cool.

NY Daily News: Mets’ David Wright jilts CougarLife’s ladies in public relations rout

The ladies of CougarLife.com were eager to help Mr. Wright reach third base — until things went all wrong.

The web site’s lineup of “sexy older professional women” was romanced by a Mets official to help land star infielder David Wright a starting spot in the upcoming All-Star Game at Citi Field.

The hunky third baseman was recently voted the most desirable major leaguer by the site’s members — leading the marketing executive to propose an outpouring of cougar love for Wright. ...

MLB suspends 8 in Dodgers/D-backs brawl

Summary:
Ian Kennedy 10 games
Eric Hinske 5 games
JP Howell 2 games
Skip Shumaker 2 games
Mark McGwire 2 games
Ronald Belisario 1 game
Don Mattingly 1 game
Kirk Gibson 1 game

Yasiel Puig’s latest accomplishment? He’s the inspiration for a new band — Puig Destroyer

This is more blistery than downing a flesh-fueled shot of Nolan Ryan’s pickle brine!

“ONE MAN, FIVE TOOLS”

After 10 MLB games, Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig has inspired a brawl, many nicknames and T-shirts, crazy merch sales, a fresh round of “small sample size” rants and now this — a new rock band called Puig Destroyer.

Riley Breckenridge, who is most famous for playing drums in the hard rock band Thrice, has announced he’s starting a “baseball-themed grindcore” side project and ...

Matthews: Yankees go ‘Oh-for-Oakland’ vs. A’s

Cue the dugout camera to Kevin Long nursing his genius.

Most of all, the game was lost because of numbers like this: Mark Teixeira, 0-for-5 and four runners left stranded; Travis Hafner, 0-for-8 and seven runners left stranded; Vernon Wells, 0-for-8 with three strikeouts, and Kevin Youkilis, 0-for-7 with three strikeouts, a double play and five runners left stranded.

In fact, Teixeira, Hafner, Youkilis and Wells, the heart of the Yankees’ batting order, were a combined 0-for-28 and struck out ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-14-2013

Washington Herald, June 14, 1913:

It is not often that [an outfielder] comes dashing in and makes a put-out between third and home plate, as was the case yesterday when [Howie] Shanks came flying in and intercepted a throw from John Henry as the catcher, Laporte, and McBride were attempting to run down Mattick after the last-named had been forced off third base when Henry and McBride caught Weaver napping at second.

Shanks is always in the game. He uses his head all the time, and for a ...

Troy Tulowitzki breaks rib, to miss 4-6 weeks

Well this just about flushes the season for my “Lupe Velez Nauseous Nine” fantasy team.

An MRI on Thursday night revealed that Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has a broken rib, the Denver Post reported.

Tulowitzki, hitting .347 with 16 home runs this season, is headed to the disabled list and is expected to miss four to six weeks, according to MLB.com.

Tulowitzki hurt his ribs trying to make a play in the eighth inning of Thursday’s 5-4 loss to Washington. Manager Walt Weiss said ...

Matheny: Matt Carpenter is ‘best second baseman in NL’

As Paul Daugherty furiously starts “1. 2. 3.” recounting “4. 5. 6.” Brandon Phillips’ RBI total. “7. 8. 9. 10. 11.”

Before Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter took the field Thursday and offered examples of why he may be back at Citi Field next month as an All-Star, manager Mike Matheny stumped for the second baseman with an even higher title.

“He has established himself as the best second baseman in the league,” Matheny said. “The rest of the baseball world is overlooking what he’s ...

Korean baseball player calls African-American pitcher ‘too black’

At best, South Korean first baseman Kim Tae Kyun is just dumb. At worst, he’s flat-out racist.

The Hanwa Eagles slugger is drawing heavy flack for some cringe-inducing comments about fellow Korea Baseball Organization player Shane Youman, an American pitcher who starts for the Lotte Giants.

Oh, and one more thing about Youman: he’s black.

That, according to Kim, makes him especially difficult to play against. When asked by a sports radio host which pitcher he most dreaded facing at the ...

OMNICHATTER for JUNE 14, 2013

How will (name of disappointing team here) lose today? Find out and discuss in the OMNICHATTER.

Sports Media Watch: MLB Teams Beat NHL, NBA Finals on Local RSNs

Are baseball fans the new silent majority?

Regular season baseball games outdrew Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in fifteen television markets Wednesday night, including NHL strongholds Pittsburgh and Detroit.

The Giants/Pirates game on Root Sports earned an 8.95 rating in Pittsburgh, beating Bruins/Blackhawks Game 1 (5.99) by 49% head-to-head. In Detroit, the Tigers/Royals day game earned a 7.46 on Fox Sports Detroit — beating Game 1 (5.75) by 30%.

Baseball won the battle in seven other ...

Ryan Madson wonders whether HGH could help

WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN????

“If HGH were legal,” Madson said, “just in the process of healing, under a doctor’s recommendation, in the right dosage, while you’re on the [disabled list], I don’t think that’s such a bad idea—as long as it doesn’t have any lasting side effects, negative side effects.”

This is a question that has occurred to a number of athletes who were willing to break the law and do so at the risk of getting caught, at the more important risk of harming their ...

Cameron: The Hidden Juggernaut in Oakland

While the St. Louis Cardinals have steamrolled baseball for the first couple of months of 2013, the A’s have been winning games at an equivalent clip to STL for the past year. A .643 winning percentage over 168 games is an impressive accomplishment, especially considering that the A’s are still overshadowed by the Rangers, Tigers, Yankees, and Red Sox when people talk about AL contenders. However, none of those teams have even been with 10 games of Oakland over the last year.

Once again, ...

Granillo: Living through the Rabbit Ball in 1987

Larry…“In light of the news from Japan yesterday, here’s what some were writing about the juiced ball during the 1987 season. Frank Deford, George Will, and Murray Chass all have great opinions on the matter!”

Frank Deford wrote about the rumors for Sports Illustrated. His piece was as dismissive of the rabbit ball as Sparky Anderson was certain of it. Among a list of possible explanations for how such a conspiracy would come about, Deford winked, “The major league owners had a secret meeting ...

Yankees’ Rivera surprises longtime A’s employee

Posing as a pizza delivery man, New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera surprised longtime Athletics employee Julie Vasconcellos by visiting her in the mail room where she has worked going on 25 years.

Posnanski: Andy Pettitte and the Van Doren Gene

600* BBWAA writers voted, but no one saw a thing.

* give or take

This, I think, was what made the Bert Blyleven-Jack Morris Hall of Fame discussion so interesting. The statistics made it abundantly clear that Blyleven was not just a better pitcher than Morris but light years better. But Blyleven just doesn’t have the Van Doren Gene … and Morris does. And so the debate over which pitcher was better raged on; in some quarters it rages on still. People don’t just see Morris as a Hall of ...

Megdal: What’s behind Francisco Liriano’s resurgent season?

Or as Mitch Williams overly-twitched last night…“FRANCISCO LIRIANO HAS NEVER BEEN CONSISTENT!”

Still, what Liriano has managed to do since his first start on May 11 has been particularly remarkable. He entered Wednesday night’s game against the Giants with a 1.75 E.R.A. over six starts, 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings, and just 3.5 walks per nine. He’d struck out at least seven hitters in five of the six. He’s been every bit the ace the Twins once believed they had, and the Pirates had to ...