Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-18-2013

Pittsburgh Press, April 18, 1913:

George Sisler, the twirler who refused to report to the Pirates and who is now on the local team’s ineligible list, twirled a wonderful game for Michigan university [sic] yesterday, beating the Alma college nine 4 to 1, allowing his opponents one hit. In addition to twirling like a big leaguer, Sisler also pounded out two hits, one of which was a triple.

Mark my words: This Sisler kid is going to be a great big leaguer someday.

Rybarczyk: Can Mantle’s 565-foot homer be matched?

Up Chuck Stobbs? Rumination syndrome at play here.

Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most famous home runs in major-league history—one hit by Mickey Mantle off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. Yankees publicist Red Patterson claimed the home run went 565 feet.

Is a 565-foot home run feasible in today’s game? Let’s look at that from two angles.

...Let’s run through five ballparks just to show you how difficult a feat this would now be.

At Yankee ...

Schram: Washington’s sorry monument to Jackie Robinson

Even the Frank Howard monument makes more sense.

So today we’ll educate ourselves by taking a guided tour of Washington’s monument to Jackie Robinson. You never heard of it? Probably not. After all, it doesn’t tower above the capital skyline like George Washington’s, nor sit and gaze down at us like Abe Lincoln’s. Washington’s monument to Jackie Robinson stands just 131 pages tall, a monument originally made of paper and microfilm. It is the FBI’s file on Jack Roosevelt Robinson. ...

Tigers 2, Mariners 1: Pitchers’ duel ends in 14th, masterful Scherzer strikes out 12

AL SO/9 is now up to 7.6. Ho-hum…K’s are becoming the HR’s of the 90’s.

The Detroit Tigers needed 14 innings, 19 strikeouts, eight pitchers and ended the game by throwing out a runner at the plate, all in order to beat the Seattle Mariners 2-1. The two teams combined for 40 strikeouts (Mariners 19, Tigers 21), the second-highest single game total of all time.

Neither starting pitcher was eligible for a decision, but Max Scherzer and Felix Hernandez deserved better. Scherzer and Hernandez ...

4-18-2013 OMNICHATTER

Games start 1:10 with the Giants at Brewers, and the final game of the day starts at 7:10 when Miami is at Cincy. Among the pitchers today: Cain, Gallardo, Verlander, Lester, Wainwright, Price, Sale, Dickey and Hamels.

Newhan: Matt Kemp: Has a Superstar Ever Been This Lost at the Plate?

Dunno…but I do remember Mantle (after his last HR) finishing his career going 1 for 20.

—Yes, it has only been two weeks, but I don’t recall ever seeing a verifiable superstar looking as lost at the plate as Matt Kemp. The Dodger center fielder can not hit a breaking pitch, seems equally unsteady in the field, and is the equivalent of the Thin Man after his shoulder surgery, reducing his home run strength to that dreaded cliche of “warning track power.”

  —Unless the Angels prove they can ...

The Washington Informer: The Real Reason Blacks Got to Play Major League Baseball

‘twas I, informed on…

Ironically, in the years before Robinson’s breakthrough, a committee was formed to help baseball overcome its “Negro problem” then. The late Queen Mother Audley Moore of Harlem, then 84-years-old told this writer for a 1982 documentary, for The Black Scholars Radio series, that in her early years, she had tried to be a “good Negro” and that she was involved in just such an effort.

“I worked hard at it. And this was what I did as a Negro,” she said. “I’ll give you an ...

Triple A fan throws peanuts at Brandon Inge

Brandon Inge is trying to make his way back to the majors with the Pirates by playing at Triple-A and last night he almost got into a fight with a Toledo Mud Hens fan throwing peanuts at him.

Deadspin: Tony Gwynn Jr. Shows Us How Hecklers Should Be Dealt With

This video has been on YouTube for almost two years, but we’ve only just discovered it. And we are very glad that we did, because this may be the best way we’ve ever seen a baseball player handle a heckler.

Chris Getz removes name from list of homerless streaks

On Tuesday night against Atlanta, Royals second baseman Chris Getz did this for the first time since 2009, for the first time in 954 at-bats ...

That would be third home run of his career, which to date spans 1,350 plate appearances.

Getz’s rare clout calls to mind current notable homerless streaks—a list from which Getz has, of course, just removed himself. Here’s the rundown from FoxSports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg:

Ben Revere it is! Revere, it should be noted, has no ...

TheScore: Mariners Look to Complete Nintendo+Television Combination for Maximum Fun

The Seattle Mariners already purchased one of the largest televisions in the world and are owned by a company best known for creating some of the most popular video games in history. Why not complete the entertainment trifecta and buy up the company which current owns the team’s broadcasting rights?
The good people at Seattle Mariners Inc are going to do just that, as reports indicate the Mariners ownership group will buy a controlling interest in ROOT Sports, the regional sports network that ...

Granillo: “Rise of the Robot Umpires”

It troubles me that the world is just one big rip-off of Ferro Lad.

We’ve all thought it. Heck, many of us have even said it. Watching the exploits of Eric Gregg, Phil Cuzzi, Jim Joyce, and so many others, it’s hard not to believe it at least once. “We want robot umpires!”

A new project by Dan Levy is working to explore just what might happen if baseball ever heeded that call. Rise of the Robot Umpires is a graphic-style novel set in the not-too-distant future where the commissioner finally ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-17-2013

Washington Times, April 17, 1913:

This is a story of a young man who literally would rather play baseball than eat.
...
[Because he spent eight hours a day working as a plumber, Hugh High] did not have very much time left for ball playing, but he found that by passing up his supper he could get in about an hour’s work on the lots in the baseball months.
...
He still works at the plumbing business in the fall and winter months and holds a union journeyman’s card. They say that he can melt lead ...

Rockies employees clear half a foot of snow off field for doubleheader

“And then swept off the Mets” sez Carlos.

Just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, Rockies owner Dick Monfort walked by the media cafeteria. He was no longer hunched over or limping from shoveling snow for four hours.

While his effort was admirable, it raised the question of why team employees were needed to clear Coors Field, delaying the start of the first game of Tuesday’s scheduled doubleheader with the Mets by 2 hours, 2 minutes.

Colorado swept the doubleheader, winning the first game 8-4 with Todd ...

Nats Talk: Nats’ confidence waning after blowout loss

Swagger gone…no longer money in the bank.

The Nationals took the field two weeks ago for the start of the most-anticipated season in club history brimming with confidence. They had a potent and balanced lineup, they had one of baseball’s most-dominant rotations, they had a ridiculously deep bullpen and they had a talented bench more than capable of plugging any holes that developed along the way.

They also had a swagger, starting with their manager, that suggested a ballclub with no fear and ...

Terence Moore: Is this the best Braves team ever?

Holy Harry Hanebrinks…10 in a row!

So will these Braves evolve into a better “team” than any of their predecessors—Atlanta or otherwise? We’re talking about teams ranging from the 1875 one that won nearly 90 percent of its games (71-8) to the Miracle Braves of 1914 who shocked the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series to Chipper’s 1995 bunch that won it all.

“From top to bottom, this Braves team certainly has the capability of being in that same conversation with some of the best in ...

OMNICHATTER for April 17, 2013

Among the pitchers taking the mound today are Sabathia, Masterson, King Felix, Scherzer, Matt Moore and Kershaw. Two of those names I would not have expected to mention in the same breath as the others when the season started.

Chatter up!

Rob Neyer: “42” - A Rogues Gallery

Good stuff from Rob here…

The new movie about Jackie Robinson tells many lies, as all such movies do. The great majority of people who see 42 will assume that it’s telling the truth, because the great majority of viewers won’t bother to marshal any facts that would suggest anything else.

I don’t actually want to get into all the lies today. I do want to write about 42’s villains, and there are more than a few.

There are plenty of anonymous villains—the filling-station attendant, the desk ...

Yankees to honor Boston by playing ‘Sweet Caroline’ on Tuesday

In light of the tragic events in Boston on Monday, Yankee Stadium is going to play Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, the team has announced.

As many know, singing “Sweet Caroline” is a Fenway Park tradition.

Classy move by the Yankees to show this kind of camaraderie to their on-field rivals.

Thanks to Chet.

Fan’s oversized glove pays off

I believe he’s using a Luis Polonia model.

Yovani Gallardo picked up for DUI

Lucky for Gallardo that drunk driving is not a crime in Wisconsin.

CAPUTO: Can Detroit Tigers compete with Murderers’ Row

Bengough home!

Baseball has had its share of great lineups. Is the Tigers’ current batting order next?

It may not be far-fetched.

...After a dozen games this season, the Tigers have a long way to go to be mentioned in the same breath with “Murder’s Row” and the “Big Red Machine.”

Yet, it does appear the Tigers have put together one of the most formidable lineups in recent baseball history.

The Tigers’ team batting average is .307 - 30 points better than the next best team ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-16-2013

Milwaukee Sentinel, April 16, 1913:

Wilbur Good...and Ward Miller...worked a delayed double steal Tuesday and Chicago won the final game of the series from Pittsburgh, 5 to 4.

Miller…stole second, and Good, who was half way home when Miller started, crossed the plate before [Viox], who had fumbled the ball, could get his bearing. There was no chance to catch either runner, and the game was over.

Delayed double steal with two outs in the bottom of the tenth with the reigning batting and home run ...

Vin Scully on Chad Billingsley: Damocles of the Dodgers

Thanks to Paul Dylan for transcribing “this beautiful moment in Vin’s call”...

“We often talk about Chad Billingsley, saying that he pitches ‘with the Sword of Damocles over his head.’ That’s an old Greek legend.

The ruler was Dionysus, and he had a guy in the courtier - in the court – who would always talk about how great the ruler had it.

So finally, the ruler said, ‘Ok. I’ll tell you how great it is.’ - the pitch is high, ball two - and he had a big dinner for Damocles ...

Barra: A-Rod’s Latest Steroid Mess: What’s True, What’s False, and is Anyone Getting Blackmailed?

Barra: Rumors/Sources and The NY Daily News—The Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Rage.

Trying to sort through the latest Alex Rodriguez-related mess—I’m not going to call it a scandal yet for reasons that will come up in a moment—is like trying to read the New York Review of Books on a crowded subway: it’s hard to find one line that connects with the next.

The Times fired the first shot in an online report Thursday that appeared in the Friday print edition. All subsequent reports that I’ve ...

BtBS: St. John: How Clutch Are Rookies?

Okay…now where’d I ditch my Bobby “The Boy Wonder” Murcer scrapbook.

Rookies performed better than average in the clutch in 16 of the 39 years represented, although in four of those years the difference is practically zero.

Two years stick out the most in this comparison: 1976 - the worst year for rookies - and 2011, their best year. In ‘76, no players stand out as having particularly bad clutch years. Jerry Mumphrey had the worst year with a -1.76 clutch score in 427 PAs, but that is only ...

Telander: Tom Ricketts promises World Series title if Wrigley renovation plan is approved

Wave soldering combined with aqueous washing…can only mean victory!

Onetime boy-genius baseball executive Theo Epstein was brought here from the Red Sox to make the Cubs winners. So far Theo, which means ‘‘God’’ in Greek, has presided over Hades. The Cubs reek.

Fans have been instructed to wait. I’ve been waiting for 64
years. It gets old, you know. And then you die.

But now Ricketts has declared that Epstein will have everything he needs to win it all. This is more than a boast, ...

Can Major League Baseball bring China into the big leagues?

...baseball’s peculiar qualities are sold as native virtues. “I mean, talk about Confucianism,” says Jim Small, the director of Major League Baseball for all of Asia, and Xie’s boss, rattling off parallels between China’s ethical philosophy and the American game that inspired nickel-beer night and dugout-dancing mascots. “There’s no clock, you sacrifice yourself for the team, everything is in threes ...” At the same time, in conversations with Chinese officials, the game is spun ...

April 16, 2013 OMNICHATTER

In days like this, things like baseball provide a good escape… so today, let us escape.

16 games today due to how Mets-Rockies was delayed. In addition, many teams that did not have it on Monday hold Jackie Robinson Day festivities. 42.

The Bill James Mailbag

Bill with some Roy Halladay, Todd Helton HOF speak and this…

Why do analysts uses replacement level player as a point of comparison, as opposed to for instance major league average?

Well, it’s not that we use one and don’t use the other.  We figure both (comparison to average and comparison to replacement player); we publish both, we use both.  But that’s a quibble, in that you’re certainly correct that the replacement player comps get 90% of the attention.

The “average” is a nothing ...