MLB and MLBPA will bring All-Star Series to Taiwan in November

Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) today announced that a team of Major Leaguers will travel to Taiwan this November to play against the Chinese Taipei national team in the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series.

The 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series will consist of five games played between November 2 - 6 in three different cities - New Taipei City (XinZhuang Stadium) on November 2, Taichung (Intercontinental Stadium) on November 3 and 4 and Kaohsiung ...

NL Wildcard race: September 22, 2011

ATL 88-68 [8-13 in SEPT]
STL 86-70 [14-6 in SEPT] (2 GB)
SFG 84-72 [12-7 in SEPT] (4 GB)

MLB.com: Cards can’t put away Mets, fall two out in WC

A weary Cardinals bullpen suffered a breakdown in an extremely disheartening and costly 8-6 loss to the Mets at Busch Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Manager Tony La Russa cycled through three relievers in a six-run Mets ninth as St. Louis saw a four-game winning streak come to an end. The Cards had led, 6-1, through seven innings.

MLB: Loss puts ...

ESPN: Lance Berkman, Cardinals agree

Lance Berkman has agreed to a $12 million contract with St. Louis, giving the Cardinals a valuable bat for 2012.

The 35-year-old Berkman is completing a big comeback season with 31 home runs, 91 RBIs and a .300 average. The switch-hitter made his sixth All-Star team this summer, his first such honor since 2008.
...
Berkman said he’d been aware for a few days that the deal was done. Talks accelerated recently and Berkman pointed out he probably could have gotten a two-year deal for the amount ...

ESPN: Robinson Cano stumps for MVP

Vote for me and I’ll set you fre…akin’ 13th in OPS+ & WAR?!

One candidate in the American League MVP race sticks out to New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano.

“MVP is tough right now, you got a lot of guys, but I would give my vote to myself,” Cano said. “You can see the numbers. I’m batting fifth in the lineup, I’ve been there the whole year and why not me? My numbers are there and you guys got to decide that. I hope I get your guys vote.”

The second baseman gave his opinion on the ...

Jason Whitlock: Sports closer to art than science

I won’t be going to see “Moneyball.” The movie celebrates the plague ruining sports: sabermetrics.

Jason Takes Madhatter!

When the “Moneyball” movie hysteria subsides, I hope the sabermeticians STFU.

Marlins Closer Leo Núñez Suspended by Team, Mysteriously Leaves The Country

Marlins relief pitcher Leo Núñez, who’s racked up a career high 36 saves this season so far as the team’s closer, has mysteriously been suspended by the team and left the country, according to The Miami Herald. The report has precious few details. Nothing like a gold ol’ sports controversy mystery.

Núñez’s agent isn’t talking much either.

“I can’t yet comment,” Andy Mota tells the paper. “This is very recent. I don’t want to say anything at all.”

Why the team suspended the player hasn’t ...

Posnanski: Moneyball The Movie

“They broke down Chad Bradford’s pitching style”... wannabes.

There are baseball details so real that no other filmmaker would have ever dared even try it. They broke down Chad Bradford’s pitching style. They use the key sabermetric phrase “small sample size.” They spent a good chunk of the movie talking about Beane’s fascination with left-handed specialist Ricardo Rincon, for crying out loud. And then, on the other hand, they have a whole movie about the 2002 Oakland A’s without even subtly ...

EPL Talk: Exclusive Interview With Liverpool Chairman Tom Werner

In England, the Red Sox are still a “powerhouse” and Theo Epstein is still a genius.

Alex Fairchild (AF):  To what extent is your experience transforming the Red Sox into a MLB powerhouse helping you turn LFC around?

Tom Werner (TW): I have said in the past that John and I are better owners at the Red Sox because of the experiences we had at the San Diego Padres and the Florida Marlins. I expect that our knowledge of running a first class baseball organization will give us useful experience ...

Boston Herald: Source: Sox made play for Mets’ Capuano

How desperate are the Red Sox to hold on to their incredible shrinking wild card lead? So desperate the team is looking to trade for pitchers to just finish out the regular season. According to the Boston Herald, the Red Sox have spent the last week trying to get lefty Chris Capuano from the Mets to start Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

According to the report, the Mets will hold on to Capuano, who is a free agent after the season. Capuano is the scheduled starter for the Mets on Thursady in a 1:45 ...

LAT: Bankruptcy doesn’t mean Dodgers can’t offer big contracts

The Dodgers’ status as a bankrupt company should not prevent owner Frank McCourt from offering big contracts this winter, according to parties involved in the federal bankruptcy proceedings.

“Whatever happens with the club, it’s in everyone’s interest for the team to be competitive and not compromised in trying to operate,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., which, as co-chair of the bankruptcy creditors’ committee, represents the interests of ...

Allen Barra: The ‘Moneyball’ Myth

Alright, alright…so the “SLOBball” movie wasn’t ignatin’ and fell through. But did you have to drag the Hirsch brothers in?

But while the New York Yankees had far more money to spend, the competition on the field was not so lopsided. Baseball had been evolving into a more competitive sport for decades. In fact, 2000 marked the first season in which every team in the league finished between .400 and .600 in won-lost percentage. In other words, no matter how much money was being made or spent by ...

MASN: Billy Rowell displeased with organization’s handling of his time after injury

Rowell from Sewell. No well.

I asked him if he thought he had been given a fair chance to show what he could do with Bowie?

“Not really. I was supposed to go to Florida for two weeks according to (director of player development) John Stockstill. Two weeks in Florida and then come back to Bowie. That was the plan. I was good (healthy) after two weeks, then they brought up the guy they traded for Derrek Lee, what’s his name, Baker.

“They bring him up and he gets dominated in Double-A. The game ...

One Hundred Years

Young’s shutout against Pittsburgh that Friday afternoon 100 years ago brought his season record to 7-6 (4-2 with Boston.)  It was the 511th win of his career. It would turn out to be the last. Three days later, he lost his next start 6-5 to the Cubs, giving up the winning run with one out in the ninth; five days after that the Reds beat him 4-1 in Cincinnati. This would be the 749th (we think!) and definitely the final complete game of his career. There’s another record that looks pretty safe. ...Read More...

mathesond Posted: September 22, 2011 at 01:17 PM | 13 comment(s)
  Beats: general

TTF: Dad-gum fired up about Kershaw snub on ESPN

Gee, I might have to find ESPN on my remote again.

The regular anchor started talking about the National League Cy Young race and said that a baseball expert was going to break down the race and the favorites. Then this “expert” came on and said that no matter what, a Philadelphia Phillies pitcher – either Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay – is most deserving of the Cy Young award. ESPN then flashed Lee, Halladay and Kershaw on the screen. Kershaw has more wins than Halladay or Lee. Kershaw ...

ESPN: Ban foils Manny Ramirez’s comeback plans

Pregnant pause…......for a Winston Llenas sighting!

Manny Ramirez will have to scuttle existing plans to play for a team in the Dominican Republic because his Major League Baseball-mandated drug suspension still has to be served, a source close to the situation told ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez.

An MLB official confirmed that since Ramirez has unresolved MLB drug-program violations and the Dominican winter league is affiliated with MLB, commissioner Bud Selig’s office considers him ineligible to ...

Former major league outfielder Aaron Guiel retires

Guiel’s theme goes away with everything…

Former major leaguer Aaron Guiel has retired after five seasons in Japanese professional baseball.

The 38-year-old outfielder from Vancouver, British Columbia, was limited to 11 games this season with the Yakult Swallows because of a back injury.

He batted .234 with 90 homers and 239 RBIs in 441 games over five seasons in Japan, all with Yakult.

“The Swallows brought me over here, and that changed my life and my career, so I think it’s only fitting ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-22-2011

This just in:  Old-timer says current players aren’t as good as they used to be.

White Sox manager Hugh Duffy in the Toledo News-Bee, September 22, 1911:

“When I was a player you had to serve a long apprenticeship in the minors.  Breaking in with a major league club was a tough job.  Furthermore, the other players, the fellows who were in ahead of you, impressed it upon your mind at the start that you had a lot of things to learn.  They don’t do it that way any more.”

“A ballplayer starts with ...

Strikeouts put Stubbs in funk

James Jamerson…Shake him, wake him (when it’s over)!

With the Reds idle today, Stubbs essentially will have two days off before play resumes Friday in Pittsburgh. He was in the original lineup Wednesday, then Baker thought better of it.

...“Obviously I’ve been in a pretty big funk lately,” Stubbs said. “This gives me a chance to kind of regroup.”

Yes, the strikeouts bother Stubbs.

“That’s a big part of it,” he said. “At the same time, it’s not like I’ve been striking out a couple times and ...

MLB.com: Posada’s clutch hit delivers AL East title

The New York Yankees captured their 12th American League East championship in 16 years Wednesday at Yankee Stadium with a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Pinch-hitter Jorge Posada leveled the final blow in the eighth inning, a two-out, bases-loaded single that broke a 2-2 tie and put New York ahead for good.

The win gave the Yankees a sweep of a day-night doubleheader and, combined with Boston’s loss to Baltimore, mathematically eliminated the Red Sox from contention for first place in the ...

Joe Posnanski: Moneyball and the Ballad of Bill James

Da, dun…dun, dun, dun, dun. You walk into the post-movie party room. And you go watch the numbers geek

The movie did not suck, not at all; that’s the wrong word, and that’s a story for tomorrow. The story for today is how we even got here. It is a story about a man who is not really in the movie. No actor plays him. He’s mentioned in the movie here and there, but only for a few seconds. Still, without him, there is no Moneyball. There is no sabermetrics, at least not under that name. ...

NL Wildcard race: September 21, 2011

ATL 88-68 [8-13 in SEPT]
STL 86-69 [14-5 in SEPT] (1.5 GB)
SFG 84-71 [12-6 in SEPT] (3.5 GB)

MLB.com: Lowe solid, but Braves stifled by Vazquez

[Javier] Vazquez extended a dominant run that extends back to June and made Derek Lowe pay for the few mistakes he made as the Marlins claimed a 3-0 win over the Braves at Sun Life Stadium on Wednesday night.

MLB.com: Freese’s big day helps Cards close on Braves
MLB.com: Giants 8, Dodgers 5

AL Wildcard race: September 21, 2011

BOS 88-68 [5-16 in SEPT]
TBR 85-70 [11-9 in SEPT] (2.5 GB)
LAA 85-70 [12-7 in SEPT] (2.5 GB)

MLB.com: Beckett stumbles

For the second consecutive evening, what was shaping up as a much-needed win turned into loss. Playing their final game at Fenway Park this season, the Sox suffered a 6-4 defeat to the last-place Orioles.

Almost stunningly, considering the juncture of the season that it is, Boston lost three out of four to Baltimore to cap a disappointing 3-7 homestand.

MLB.com: Rays miss ...

Royals Designate Kila Ka’aihue For Assignment

The Roberto Petagine of our day?

It wasn’t long ago that Kila Ka’aihue seemed like a promising piece of the Royals’ future. But the Hawaiian first baseman doesn’t appear to fit into their long-term plans any more, despite the career minor league on-base percentage of .390 that has endeared him to the statistically minded. Kansas City designated the 27-year-old for assignment to create 40-man roster space for right-handed reliever Kelvin Herrera, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star ...

Baseball Prospectus: Fast: Removing the Mask

A freebie from Prospectus: a study on catchers and ranking them by their pitch-framing and ump-gulling ability, replete with animated GIFs and heat maps.

To calculate the catcher performance, I first established a baseline for each pitcher over the period 2007-2011. I used the strike zone definition described here and counted the number of extra strikes and subtracted the number of extra balls tallied by each pitcher. I also applied a small correction to the pitch location data as described ...

Sirius: In a classic Mad Dog Rant, hear Chris Russo go off on Billy Beane and “Moneyball” (Audio)

“Brad Pitt on the cover of Sports Illustrated is gonna make me throw up!”

Yahoo: Movietalk: Brad Pitt Going All Out for ‘Moneyball’

To say Pitt has been less than shy in his public appearances in support of “Moneyball” is putting it mildly: never before has the actor seemingly campaigned so hard to sell a film, happily posing for photos that milked his universal sex appeal. The new Sports Illustrated cover boy knows he’s hot, and he’s working it. According to Us Weekly, Pitt charmed journalists on the “Moneyball” red carpet and “let loose” at the afterparty. “He was hugging old ladies, taking pics with co-stars, and letting ...

Hoffarth: Larry King says he’s mad as heck and isn’t going to take it anymore

Big Jack Braun from Borough Park…you’re on the air!

Longtime listener, perhaps first-time caller Larry King made it clear that he’s dropping his Dodgers’ season seats after this season because of his disappointment with Frank McCourt’s running of the franchise.

Calling in today to the MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM today to vent with hosts Kevin Kennedy and Jim Duquette, the former CNN talk-show host said:

“My contract’s up on my season tickets. I’m in partnership with another guy. ...

Kiszla: Time for Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd to take responsibility

When will somebody finally demand accountability from general manager Dan O’Dowd for a team that has lost its mojo in LoDo?

We know O’Dowd won’t be grilled by franchise owners Dick and Charlie Monfort, who apparently think general manager is a lifetime appointment, the same as Supreme Court justice or queen of England.

But, sooner or later, O’Dowd must answer to the 2.9 million Coors Field fans who mistakenly bought the idea that this would be a baseball season with no limits.

What went ...

Playoff Race: Today’s Schedule

Rays@Yankees-GM 1: 1:05pm:  Shields (15-11) against Noesi (2-1)

Rays@Yankees-GM 2: 7:05pm:  Hellickson (13-10) against Sabathia (19-8)

Orioles@Red Sox-7:10pm:  Hunter (4-4) against Beckett (13-5)

Angels@Blue Jays-7:07pm:  Haren (15-9) against McGowan (0-0)

Braves@Marlins-7:10pm:  Lowe (9-15) against Vazquez (11-11)

Mets@Cardinals-8:15pm:  Schwinden (0-2) against Garcia (12-7)

Giants@Dodgers-10:10pm:  Vogelsong (11-7) against Eveland (2-1)

Tampa Bay: 2 GB from Red Sox ...Read More...

Lost Giants Fan Billy Found

For those who read the first post about Billy.

Finally, I spotted Billy Chamberlain, the homeless Giants fan who has been missing, at the entrance to the main parking lot at Dodger Stadium. I talked to him for a little while. He said he’s OK and was looking forward to seeing the team. He’s been in Southern California for awhile, and although he heard something about people looking for him, he had no idea the Giants had been showing his picture on the scoreboard, etc.

“That’s the first ...