Generation K: Baseball’s strikeout trend is growing at record pace

DGAFism spreading across the land…

There are many factors. More teams and more overall games mean more strikeouts. There also are more power arms, more starters who can touch 94 mph, more relievers who finish games throwing 98.

Some are more subtle. Without question, the influence of Sabermetrics has played a role, much to Harold Reynolds’ chagrin. The new math – analyzing baseball using the game’s statistics – has produced a new crop of hitters who are conditioned to take pitches, ...

TB Times: Crash victim works to forgive former Ray Bush

Been through the Bushmills…

Tony Tufano tries not to be bitter, but there are days, like Wednesday, when he struggles to get out of bed and he can’t help it.

Tufano, 73, is grateful to be alive after he was nearly killed last year on March 22 in North Port, when his motorcycle was struck by a Dodge Durango driven by former Rays right-handed pitcher Matt Bush. Bush, 27, baseball’s top overall pick in 2004, is in jail serving a 51-month sentence after pleading no contest in December to driving ...

OMNICHATTER for MAY 16, 2013

Darvish and Verlander face off tonight. Enough said.

Al Lopez house to be moved to new address in Ybor

Here’s a tentative schedule of the move:

• 8-10 p.m.: Moving Al Lopez house toward Nuccio Parkway, where it will wait for the 909 E 12th Ave. house to meet it at 13th Street and Nuccio Parkwaykwy.

• 10-midnight: Moving 909 toward Al Lopez house.

• Midnight-4 a.m.: Moving both houses down Nuccio Parkway, toward 21st Street, then Palm Avenue to 19th Street.

• 4 a.m.: Placing the houses into position at 2003 and 2005 N 19th St.

• 11 a.m: Celebratory toast at Ybor City Museum State ...

Seattle Weekly: The Real Reason “King” Felix Chose to Stay In Seattle

Chace’s Pancake Corral, for real. (NYT backgrounder on the star who stayed)

Seems our favorite M, who dazzles us with the K, makes it a point to visit the Pancake Corral a couple of times a week, in fact, whenever the team’s in town.

“Yes, he comes in with wife and cute little boy and he always has the strawberry waffle with bacon and eggs and orange juice,” says owner Jane Zakskorn, whose dad, William Chace, now deceased, opened the cozy little breakfast and lunch joint 55 years ago ...

MLB.COM: Longtime Royals radio voice Fred White dies

RIP Fred White

Fred White, a Royals radio voice for 25 years, died Wednesday due to complications from melanoma, a day after announcing his retirement following a 40-year relationship with the club.

White teamed with Denny Matthews on broadcasts from 1973-98, and since had served as the team’s director of broadcast services and the Royals Alumni.

His retirement was due to health issues, and he died in hospice care.

The Non-Catching Molina (sjs1959) Posted: May 15, 2013 at 05:06 PM | 9 comment(s)
  Beats: broadcasting, fred white, royals

Beer and Loathing: Taking Stock of the Best and Worst Ballpark Suds | Extra Mustard - SI.com

Mmmm, beer.

2013 MiLB #foodfight

Hungry?

Fans are lining up for oversized sandwiches, massive plates of food or batting helmets filled with edible delights. Which of these 16 food items will be the Greatest of the Gut Busters?

Ever wondered how players do on their bobblehead night? - SBNation.com

This article is bobblelicious!

SI: The 50 highest-earning athletes

When welterweight Floyd Mayweather was No. 1 on Sports Illustrated’s Fortunate 50 last year—knocking out Tiger Woods, who had been No. 1 every year since SI started producing the list in 2004—it looked like a fluke, the result of the $85 million he received for his fights with Victor Ortiz and Miguel Cotto. Now Mayweather is proving that he belongs at the top. From just two bouts this year, one earlier this month and the other scheduled for September, he will earn at least $90 million, ...

MLBTR: Phillies to sign Carlos Zambrano to minor league deal

Get ready for WORLD WAR Z.

The Phillies have officially announced the signing of Carlos Zambrano to a minor league deal. He will report to extended Spring Training in Clearwater, Fla. Zambrano is represented by Praver/Shapiro, as shown in MLBTR’s Agency Database.

The 31-year-old Zambrano had previously agreed to a contract with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League but never signed the contract as he continued to look for employment with a Major League team.

After spending parts of ...

Josh Hamilton’s allergy issues nothing to sneeze at

Josh Hamilton said he has changed sinus medication and is scheduled to be tested for allergies, but he wanted to make one thing about his weakened condition perfectly clear.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with my .200 batting average,” he said.

The Angels limited Hamilton to designated hitter Tuesday, one day after the right fielder came out of a game with what Manager Mike Scioscia called dizziness. Hamilton said he has had sinus and throat discomfort for about 10 days and said he ...

Grantland (Lindbergh): The Art of Pitch Framing

Really good discussion, not just of the good (Molina, J) and bad (Doumit) of pitch framing, but approaches to fixing the issues:

For Diamondbacks bullpen coach Glenn Sherlock, a former minor league catcher and an experienced catching instructor whom Arizona GM Kevin Towers credits with turning Miguel Montero into a good framer, the first fix is glove height. “I think catchers’ targets at the bottom of the zone is so important,” he says. “You see a lot of catchers who have high targets and take ...

FanGraphs: Q&A: Dennis Martinez, El Presidente Legacy

Pontoon points out ~ “Dennis Martinez ERA+106/4000 IP ~ Jack Morris ERA+105/3800 IP”.

On his legacy: “I think maybe I am [underappreciated]. I don’t feel I got the credit I deserved, maybe because of where I came from. I was a Spanish-speaking kid from Nicaragua who didn‘t understand the language real well, and I got a reputation in the Orioles organization as a hot-headed pitcher who didn’t want to go along with the system. The reason was that I fought for my rights. I fought for what ...

BPro: Listen to What the Heyman Said

With the Yang-Mills existence problem seemingly solved…we now move on to the Heyman existence problem. Or something.

And sometimes there isn’t much you can do. I wrote what I did about Hawk Harrelson and The Will To Win because at some point, you have to come to the conclusion that someone isn’t worth talking to anymore. Hawk’s problem wasn’t that he was wrong, it was that he was stuck in a frame of mind that starts from conclusions and will, when it cares to, circle back around to ...

After Felix’s exit, Yanks pounce on Mariners

The Yankees couldn’t solve Seattle’s ace—a common cause celebre among American League teams—but they took advantage of his early exit. Hernandez left with a two-run lead after six innings, and the Yankees used a key seventh-inning rally to earn a 4-3 victory over the Mariners.

Granderson went hitless in the victory, his first game after starting the season on the disabled list.

The Yanks looked like they were destined to lose until Felix went out with back tightness. Wedge said after the ...

Mets’ Collins On Valdespin Flap: ‘I Don’t Answer To Fans’

The Valdespin: Misdirection and diversion.

On Friday night, with the Mets down a sizable margin to Pittsburgh, Valdespin admired his ninth-inning home run. We all knew what was coming Saturday: the outfielder was sent up as a pinch-hitter and promptly got drilled by Pirates pitcher Bryan Morris.

Valdespin was greeted to crickets in the dugout, and the hit-by-pitch wasn’t met with retaliation. Some fans and media personalities – including WFAN radio’s Mike Francesa – got all over the ...

Red Sox could use reliever Mark Melancon right now - ESPN

A great breakdown of Mark Melancon.

For Red Sox, long relievers are a thing of the past | The Providence Journal

I can’t wait for the 15-man pitching staffs.

“I don’t think you see too many true long men on pitching staffs and in bullpens anymore because you can make a change to your roster overnight to get a fresh arm in here,” Farrell said.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-15-2013

Washington Times, May 15, 1913:

Walter Smokeball Johnson is today holder of a new world’s record for holding the foe scoreless in successive innings…When Derrill Pratt pounded a single to right, scoring Gus Williams, who had already doubled to left, the onward march of the fireball flinger was at an end. He had traveled down fifty-six complete innings without allowing the enemy a run, and it will be some time before this record is bettered.

Don Drysdale’s record-breaking streak started 55 years ...

Schoenfield: Don’t freak out over Kershaw’s 132 pitches

The Kershaw kerfuffle continues…

I get it that 130-pitch games aren’t commonplace anymore. There were only four last season (two by Justin Verlander, one each by Johan Santana and Edinson Volquez)—- and, no, Santana didn’t fall apart immediately after that game. You probably don’t want to make 130-pitch starts a regular occurrence or stretch out a pitcher in a blowout game.

Kershaw was aware of the situation, saying that after that first inning his main focus was getting his pitch count back ...

Jason Repko loses fire, walks away from baseball

The Repko is gone
but he’s not forgotten
This is the story
of a 71 OPS+ (rotten)

Jason Repko lost something in the offseason. He knew it. He felt it.

An outfielder for 14 seasons in professional baseball, including seven seasons spent in the majors, he lost the desire to be on the field every single day.

But he still wanted to feel that way. That’s the thing. He wanted to feel that fire again. So even when no organization offered him an invitation to spring training, he felt like he needed ...

T.J. SIMERS: He’s not juiced up over Mark McGwire’s results

Halotestin, I heard of. Dodgertestin, not so much.

I had never met Mark McGwire before Tuesday night, but I knew of his reputation and the fact he has struck out so far as the Dodgers’ hitting coach.

So given the Dodgers’ lack of power, I asked, “Is it time to introduce the players to steroids?”

McGwire laughed and I wondered why.

“You’re funny,” he said before finally adding, “No. No.”

What a bummer, I told him, I thought you might have the magic potion to get the Dodgers going.

“The ...

OMNICHATTER for May 15, 2013

Day games! Thank the baseball gods!

Poz: Stolen Bases And Rex Hudler

Ryan made the point that there are studies that seem to show that the stolen base is not as effective or important as people used to assume. Ryan will tell you he’s not especially a fan of some of these advanced statistics, but he’s also an open-minded guy and we have had some fun discussions and disagreements through the years. Anyway, I think he was simply making the fair point that while statistics may show that attempting steals is not necessarily a prudent play—and he concedes that ...

Verducci: After 766 tries, the Mets have a homegrown ace in Matt Harvey

And had an increase in workload of more than 766 tries in the previous seasons!

Most Wins with Mets, 1983-2013 Draft Picks

1. Bobby Jones: 74-56
2. Mike Pelfrey: 50-54
3. Rick Aguilera: 37-27
4. Jon Niese: 37-36
5. Dillon Gee: 23-19
6. Aaron Heilman: 22-23
7. Jason Isringhausen: 21-24
8. Bobby Parnell: 17-19
9. Pete Schourek: 16-24
10. Jeff Innis: 10-20
11. Joe Smith: 9-5
12. Matt Harvey: 7-5
12. Dave Telgheder: 7-5

Now you get an idea of how rare it is for Harvey, a 2010 first-round pick, ...

Rush Limbaugh: A Great Trip Back to the Ballpark in Kansas City

Damn pinkos everywhere!

By the way, it was Mother’s Day. I have to mention, it was Mother’s Day of course yesterday and it was Mother’s Day at the ballpark, and the players were all wearing pink something or other, pink shoes or pink sleeves. There was one guy with a pink bat.

I’m talking about this and George (Brett) said, “Have you seen the official ball for today?”

I said, “No.”

So he went and grabbed one.

The official Rawlings game ball yesterday was printed with pink ink.

So, anyway, ...

Deadspin: The FBI vs. Marvin Miller: How America Commie-Baited A Baseball Hero

We’ve obtained Miller’s FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act request. You can read the entire thing below, 82 pages of information gleaned from Miller’s co-workers and friends, from FBI informants, from the trash of someone Miller may or may not have even known. All of this was done with the goal of determining if Marvin Miller was working toward the overthrow of the American government. Spoiler alert: He was not.

Maybe they confused him with Arthur Miller?

Astros cancel annual fundraiser for Houston Area Women’s Center

Its not like the Astros need good publicity with the way the team is playing.

he Houston Area Women’s Center is reeling from a financial blow after learning their largest fundraiser has been canceled.

The Black Ties and Baseball Caps gala was an annual event at Minute Maid Park put on by the Astros Wives Organization.

The popular gala raised $250,000 for the women’s center in 2012.

An Astros official said the team’s charitable foundation is changing directions and will focus on ...

Connolly: Are you ready to include Machado among the best young players?

Woo-hoo! I smell a “The Chris Davis Kidnap Caper” episode on tap!

Five major league scouts — three from the National League, two from the American League and none from Washington, Baltimore or Los Angeles — were asked this week to rank those players in order of preference if they could select just one to build a club around.

“That’s like asking me which Charlie’s Angel I’d most want,” one veteran scout quipped. “All three are so very good, young, talented and play the game the right way. ...