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 ...

Jeff Polman: I Like Hawk Harrelson. So Sue Me

And I like Ken Nordine’s “Bathtub”. So sue me.

What Hawk and his dryly funny and smart color man Steve Stone thankfully never do is turn their booth into a nightly, headache-inducing talk show. In my mind, there is no worse trend in the last 40-odd years of sports broadcasting than this. I believe ABC gave rise to the disease with Monday Night Football and spread it into Monday Night Baseball featuring the insufferable Howard Cosell. Now, it’s almost everywhere; stuff three people into the ...

Reminders of Jackie Robinson’s resonance in Brooklyn and beyond | The Strike Zone - SI.com

Read the whole thing.

Robinson’s story has resonated with me for almost as long as I’ve been watching baseball. I first learned about him during the 1978 World Series, when I was eight years old. My father asked me if I knew who the first black player in the majors was. I thought for a moment and took a wild guess, figuring the answer might be in front of me: “Dusty Baker?” I was already color-blind when it came to my baseball heroes; Davey Lopes was my first favorite Dodger, and I ...

Jackie Robinson Again : The New Yorker

From Roger Angell.

April 15, 1947 Boston Braves at Brooklyn Dodgers Box Score and Play by Play - Baseball-Reference.com

Box score from Jackie Robinson’s first game.

The Read Zone: The Greinke – Quentin Brawl, Was It More Than Just a Baseball Fight?

Even though the injury here was not as severe as in Moore’s case, I believe that it’s a question of intent and propriety within the sport.  In this case, Quentin’s actions have cost the Dodgers and Greinke dearly.

Olbermann: Meet THE Kid In THE Jackie Robinson Photo (Which Was Staged)

Dweck as in wreck-ed a story. But oh, what a story!

Having clarified history’s erroneous conflation of Robinson’s first game in a major league uniform in a major league stadium (April 11, when the photo was taken, when Robinson went hitless but drove in three runs, one on a fielder’s choice and two on sacrifice flies) and his first official Major League Game (April 15), what was that part again about the photo – a photo which nearly all the rest of us look at as we might look at an ...

The Other Kind of Moneyball

I think this article is misguided but thought the masses here would like to chew on the topic

Frank Jackson: Bronx Bomber

The Babe hit the first-ever home run at Yankee Stadium and went on to lead the league with 41 in 1923. Subsequent Yankee home run champs include Bob Meusel, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Etten ...

Wait a minute, Nick who? Run that name by me again.

His name may not ring a bell, but Nicholas Raymond Thomas Etten, a left-handed hitting first baseman, once hit enough dingers to win the American League home ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-15-2013

El Paso Herald, April 15, 1913:

President Ban Johnson, of the American league, has hit upon a new idea for shortening the average ball games. A new ball will be put into play every time a foul is hit, even if it does not go over the fence, or into the stands. Two small boys would be retained to pursue the ball and return it immediately.

And if that doesn’t work, they can reduce the average game length by eliminating Yankees-Red Sox matchups.

MASN: Showalter on Conor Jackson’s retirement

Rear Admiral Upper Half ‘A.J.’ Showalter on Conor Jackson’s retirement.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter found out about first baseman/outfielder Conor Jackson’s retirement today during a text exchange with Triple-A Norfolk manager Ron Johnson.

“He loved being with the organization and all that, but he’s at the stage of his life where it wasn’t something he wanted to continue to do,” Showalter said. “I know a little bit more than that, but that’s something that should come from Conor. He’s ...

After another rough start, A’s Parker says he’s ‘just a tick away’

‘just a ticket away’ (fixed)

Jarrod Parker made it through just 3 1/3 innings and allowed nine hits for the second consecutive start Sunday. The difference from his last one—when he gave up just two runs in Anaheim—was the Detroit Tigers made him pay with a career-high eight runs allowed in the A’s 10-1 loss at the Coliseum.

Parker had a rocky spring and has not fared much better in his three regular-season starts. His ERA is currently at 10.80, and he has allowed 23 hits in 11 2/3 innings. ...

The700thLevel: Jayson Werth Used ‘Game of Thrones’ Theme Song as At-Bat Music

I don’t know about you, but HBO’s Game of Thrones is probably my favorite show on television right now. So it’s safe to say I thought it was a pretty badass when DC Sports Bog posted about Jayson Werth using the shows theme song as his walk up music. The fact that Werth and his beard could probably make for a great character in Westeros just makes it even better.

You can kind of hear it in the above video but if you’re unfamiliar with the theme song you may not make it out.

Now, sadly, Werth ...

April 15, 2013 OMNICHATTER

It’s not only Jackie Robinson Day… it’s also Patriots’ Day! So that means, y’know, 11:05 start for Boston-Tampa. Sadly, the Cubs have the day off, presumably because we can’t have nice things.

Other things to watch: Buerhle faces his old Chicago teammates, Cliff Lee goes for a 3-0 start, and the Dodgers face the Carlos Quentin-less Padres.

ESPN: Carlos Quentin drops appeal

“There’s been many different ideas and thoughts and concerns out there,” Quentin said Sunday. “Let me say this as far as the Dodgers series: Obviously I will miss the upcoming one but I will be a part of the rest. We play them many times.”

Quentin charged the mound after he was hit in the upper left arm by a pitch from Greinke. The two players lowered their shoulders and Quentin slammed into Greinke, who broke his left collarbone in the wild fight that ensued.

Quentin has said he felt ...

Dizzy and Pee Wee on You Tube

I have never posted before, but i just found this and thought people would like it.  I hope it is appropriate and i hope it works.

Cardinals pitchers embrace art of elevation.

During spring training in 2010 as the Cardinals tried to indoctrinate fastball jockey Brad Penny into the organization’s philosophy of sink, pitching coach Dave Duncan and his staff kept a running tally for Penny’s benefit on a markerboard in the coaches’ office.
In one column, the pitching coach counted every fly ball allowed during spring, and in another all of the groundballs. Beside each was the number of extra-base hits in the air or on the ground. That number, so much higher by the ...