Smizik: Time for Huntington to act is at hand

The Pittsburgh Pirates (.217/.266/.346) are basically Jeff Torborg (.214/.268/.265) using Dale Torborg’s muscles.

The following players have done nothing to merit their current roles, be they starters or backups: Clint Barmes, Casey McGehee, Jose Tabata, Michael McKenry, Yamaico Navarro, Nate McLouth, Gorkys Hernandez

Exempted are Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Rod Barajas, Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones, either for current or previous contributions. That’s not to suggest they can’t be ...

Raissman: Lonn Trost off base by calling for MLB probe after TDN reports team may be exploring sale

Hey, I’m still calling for a MLB probe of LeTrostvine going around lying about the dimensions at the New Yankee Stadium.

The denials offered by the two Yankees suits were tepid compared to what Trost delivered. For a guy used to a six-watt light bulb spotlight, Trost was all star shine, jacking up rhetoric and taking his protest to an entirely different level. It almost seemed as if he has something personal at stake.

Trost more than suggested those responsible for providing the Daily News ...

HP: Baseball is leaving the human factor behind

Hell…even Hummer Winblad sounds like a scout’s dream.

Bill James started this Sabermetric movement in the early 80’s, claiming that by using complicated data you can predict every outcome. They also believe that you can predict a players future worth so when a player hits a down trend it’s time to let him go. Johnny Damon was a good example, Boston let him go because of back to back down trend years yet, Damon made several playoff runs with the Yankees and Rays, while Boston hasn’t been able ...

Matinale: WADJ: Wins Above Derek Jeter

Wadj were also an Egyptian fertility god…but that’s neither here nor there.

Recently a friend mentioned that the Yankee winning percentage with Derek Jeter playing was the same as without Derek Jeter playing.  This prompted me to consider that there might be such a thing as Wins Above Derek Jeter: WADJ, pronounced the way it’s spelled for the comic effect.

For the Yankees to improve they need to replace Jeter with a player who has WADJ.

Many years ago Bill Dean manually researched the runs ...

Sullivan: Dan Haren Makes Mariners Look Like Mariners

Another Haren goody…is he finally rebounding?

As soon as Dan Haren started to pitch, it looked like he was in absolute command. And he remained in absolute command throughout, such that, at the end, he was charged with but a single line drive. Haren faced 31 batters, and he struck 14 of them out. He’d never before struck out more than a dozen batters in a game. Since joining the Angels, he’s averaged about seven strikeouts per nine innings. Tonight he quite literally doubled that. And he ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-25-2012

El Paso Herald, May 25, 1912:

Tiffany water is circus lemonade compared to the way this glorious athlete thing goes to a boob’s think nubbin. Note, Tyrus Raymond Cobb, Esq., of Georgia, sah!

...

Stabbed night watchman in hotel Euclid, Cleveland, when watchman remonstrated because he was on floor other than that housing Detroit club at 2 a.m.

Beat up negro street cleaner in Detroit.

Went auto riding season of 1910 and forgot to come to ball park in time for game. Happened twice.

Quit the ...

FS Midwest: Streaker halts Cardinals-Phillies game

One in the hand is worth a tush in the Busch.

The incident occurred just as the Cardinals completed batting in the bottom of the sixth inning when a fan down the right field line jumped over wall and immediately took off his clothes.

The man then took off running completely naked into the Busch Stadium outfield as fans cheered, flashbulbs popped and security chased towards him….

Krauthammer: The Nationals and the Joy of Winning (An old fan needs a new philosophy.)

It was our much-anticipated quarterly lunch with Tim Kurkjian, baseball analyst extraordinaire, wherein George Will and I bathe in a constant flow of obscure statistics, Kurkjian oddities, and ribald anecdotes, like the one about the Red Sox beat writer who accidentally walked in on a players’ prayer meeting and was greeted by the burly right fielder, newly born-again and not yet practiced in the language of Christian fellowship, bellowing “Hey! Can’t you see we’re having f—— chapel ...

Boston.com: Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios lays off all staff

No Money, Mo’ Problems

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company, 38 Studios, has laid off all of its employees in the wake of financial difficulties, according to a company insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Shawn Green to play for Israel in World Baseball Classic

Shawn Green enjoyed quite the professional baseball career: In 13 seasons, he clubbed 328 home runs, drove in 1,070 runs, batted .283, was a two-time All-Star and retired in 2007 holding or sharing seven Major League records. The former Dodger also twice refused to play on Yom Kippur.

He isn’t finished yet. Green now will come out of retirement to play for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers in November, according to team manager Brad Ausmus. Green is eligible because ...

Ross Newhan: Freeing a Son From His Father’s Words

I’m the old Newhan from the…

David, as it turned out, did have things to say and wrote well, but it has now been more than two years since he contributed. He had gone to work for the San Diego Padres and felt he was not in position to comment on other teams or players, or the industry as a whole. It is for the same reason that we have finally gotten around to removing his name from the heading, the blogs themselves and all comment responses.

    I just wanted to make it clear that the ...

HHS: Womack: Getting sabermetrics into newspapers

Yeah…and where is Jeff Angus?

Part of me has wanted to slip OPS or WHIP into the Chronicle, though I haven’t wanted to rock the boat. It’s not my place, and I’m not sure if I could feasibly get the stats in even if it was. Agate is driven by what comes off the Associated Press wires, mostly an issue of grabbing items as they become available, inserting them into the next day’s paper, and formatting them for style. If the AP sends out sabermetric stat leaders, I haven’t seen them, ...

Dodgers want to host NHL’s Winter Classic

Does Los Angeles even have a hockey team?

Does the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic doesn’t even need winter? The new Dodgers owners don’t think so. The new owners of the team hope to host the NHL’s annual outdoor showcase at Dodger Stadium.

“They put a man on the moon,” Dodgers chairman Mark Walter told the Los Angeles Times. “They can make it work.”...

While it would seem that Los Angeles would be an odd choice for outdoor ice, the Kings have done it before. In 1991, the team played ...

Cardinals unveil latest Ballpark Village plan

Looks like a cool project that will leave for Anaheim in ten years.

The Cardinals unveiled their latest plan for Ballpark Village on Monday. It is smaller than the last one, but one that the Cardinals say is more likely to succeed.

The baseball team and its development partners showed off a 100,000-square foot retail and entertainment complex to be built north of Busch Stadium, anchored by a team Hall of Fame and big outdoor event space. On the rest of the 10-acre site, they will lay the ...

Major League Baseball named Sports League of the Year at Sports Business Awards

Congratulations to Bud Selig for beating out inanimate carbon rod!

Major League Baseball was named Sports League of the Year at the 2012 Sports Business Awards presented by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily last night in New York.  The award recognizes the success baseball enjoyed in 2011 coupling unparalleled drama on the field with record business performance and innovative fan engagement. Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig accepted the award on behalf of the league.

...

Roy Halladay bobblehead with glove on wrong hand selling on MLB.com

Another Pat Venditte?

If this bobblehead is the truth, Halladay is either a famous LEFT-handed pitcher who’s been faking us out, or a righty who has sustained a head injury, thinks he’s a lefty and doesn’t know how to wear a glove or stand on a pitching mound any longer. He also looks like Billy Bob Thornton from “Sling Blade.” Or some combination therein.

Note: MLB.com has since removed the Halladay bobblehead from its site.

12 Baseball Feats That Only Happened Once

2. CHARLIE PICK GOES 0 FOR 11

In the longest game in Major League baseball history, on May 1, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves played to a 1-1 tie after 26 innings. Braves second baseman Charlie Pick has “the bad day” at the plate, going 0 for 11 (poor Charlie made an error that day, too).

8. TAKING IT EASY

On June 25, 1976, Texas Ranger shortstop Toby Harrah played a doubleheader and never touched a batted ball nor had a single ball hit to him -no chances, no putouts, no ...

Neyer: New Yankee Stadium: A Review

The hostess with the moatest…or how the Yankees messed a pearl.

Which reminds of something else that’s disappointing ... The New York Yankees are supposed to epitomize class. But with the arguable exception of Derek Jeter’s appearances still announced by the (now) disembodied voice of Bob Sheppard, there is almost nothing classy about Yankee Stadium. The Yankees could have afforded to eschew advertisements on the outfield walls, but they didn’t. They could have jettisoned “YMCA”, but they ...

Bud Selig—No need for more MLB replay for now - ESPN

MLB sought to increase video review this season to include trapped balls, fair-or-foul rulings down the lines and fan interference all over the ballpark. But it requires approval of MLB and the unions representing the umpires and the players, and any expansion was delayed until 2013 at the earliest.

“I’ve had very, very little pressure from people who want to do more,” Selig said.

Wins Above Replacement: Distribution and Rarity of Talent 2011 - Beyond the Box Score

Who doesn’t appreciate a nice graph?

Middle Relief: The Red Sox’s Endless Outfielders - The Triangle Blog - Grantland

Spinal Tap had less problems with drummers than the Sox are having in their outfield.

Vladimir Guerrero wants to reach 500 home runs

“My goal is those 51 home runs that will get me to 500,” he said. “That’s my immediate goal. I just ask for God’s blessing of good health and to get those 51 home runs. I wish for three or four more years.”

...In 16 seasons, Guerrero stands 35th on the all-time OPS list at .931, three points ahead of Hank Aaron, 10 points behind Willie Mays. He is 35th on the all-time home run list, 11 ahead of Andre Dawson, three behind Carl Yastrzemski. He has a career .318 batting average, ...

Yankees could be up for sale soon, as rumors swirl in baseball and banking circles

Levine, Topping, Webb say Yankees not for sale.

Multiple baseball and finance sources told the Daily News they are hearing that the team the Steinbrenner family has led to seven World Series titles could be put on the block in the wake of the record sale price of $2.175 billion the Los Angeles Dodgers went for in April.

“There has been chatter all around the banking and financial industries in the city for a couple of weeks now,” one high-level baseball source told The News.

Yankee ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-24-2012

Milwaukee Journal, May 24, 1912:

John McCloskey, former manager of the Brewers, who went west two years ago to the Union league, has been having his troubles in the far west. This season John has put a club in at Ogden, Utah, and has been finding it a hard matter to pay expenses. Well, it went so far that John was forced to call in the public for help or else toss up the sponge.

Reports like this may make it a bit more difficult to convince Ty Cobb to walk out on the Tigers and play for Ogden ...

Kelley: Time for Mariners to waive Chone Figgins, play the kids

That Sunken feeling. 

Figgins, 34, has no role on this team. He lost his leadoff spot. He rarely gets into the lineup. Maybe he’s the most versatile player on the team, but playing him just takes innings and at bats away from younger players with promise.
In a different setting, he could be the veteran role model who helps the young players in their development. But he hasn’t been much of a leader.

The Economist: Paradigm shift

Does Mark Teixeira need to learn from Carlos Peña?

Baseball strategy is not a puzzle with a single solution. Instead, it is a dynamic system, in which a tactic that works against one approach can be neutralised by another. And when it comes to shifts, the response is as clear as the sea of empty infield dirt abandoned by the defenders congregating on one side of the diamond…

Sluggers who can bunt are the new market inefficiency, and the first team that has its power hitters practising this ...

Mike Francesa Says Ike Davis Is Slumping Because Of “Jungle Fever”

Sciorra one for Francesspool!

Mets first baseman Ike Davis has looked terrible all year. He missed some time in spring training with a mysterious ailment—doctors identified Valley Fever, a lung infection—and, after a torrid stretch at the end of spring, OPSed .550 in April and .439 in May. There’s plenty of talk of sending him to the minors to fix his problems.

What are those problems, anyway? David Schoenefield says Ike can’t hit the outside pitch. Bill Petti says pitchers won’t throw ...

Matthews: A-Rod’s days of being great are over

If this is the player Alex Rodriguez is for the rest of his career—decent hitter, occasional power, solid fielder and reliable baserunner—he will be comparable to what most teams are sending out on a daily basis, a middle-of-the-road major league third baseman.

But that is not the player the New York Yankees traded for nine years ago, and it is certainly not the player they chose to sign to a contract extension potentially worth $325 million that will not run out for another five seasons.

...

Trevor Bauer knows his math

What’s going through your head? Are you replaying an at-bat from a previous inning or is it something totally different?

“Nah, it’s stuff not related to baseball. I’ll have a conversation I had with a friend from the night before playing through my mind. Or I’ll be thinking about some science article that I read the night before. I don’t know, ‘Flying cars are pretty awesome.’”

“But when you actually look at it and think about the statistics behind it, it makes a lot of ...

Grantland: Curtis: The Phantom of Baseball—An evening with Jose Canseco

As Gawker notes, it’s an open question as to who’s writing Canseco’s tweets. “Do you write all of them?” I ask him. Canseco suddenly gets interested in the giant American flag out near center field. “Yeah,” he says, not meeting my eyes. “Uh-huh.”

Do you know what “trolling” means, Jose?

“Trolling, yeah. … It’s like fishing a lot.”

Well, sort of…...

Later tonight, Canseco stands on the dugout steps, apart from the other Tornadoes, staring into the distance. I ...