Backman could leave Mets for Nationals

Wally Backman, a candidate for the Mets’ managerial opening last offseason, could soon leave the organization, according to a team source.

The fiery Backman, 52, is considering the possibility of joining Davey Johnson’s coaching staff with the Nationals—likely as the third-base coach. The Nationals have not yet officially announced Johnson will return next season, but that is considered a formality.

The source said 68-year-old Johnson may look to groom Backman for the managerial job, much in ...

ALCS GAME 3 CHATTER

Rangers (Lewis) vs. Tigers (Fister). 8:05. FOX.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 10-11-2011

As the World’s Series approaches, Giants catcher Chief Meyers does some 1911-style trash talkin’:

Thomas and Lapp of the Athletics must find some way to stop such fast men as Devore, Doyle, Murray, Merkle, Snodgrass and Herzog, who have stolen 50 or more bases each, against the strongest catchers in the National league.
...

I am unable to say what Thomas and others on Mack’s team can do, as they have never faced such a fast baserunning team as we have.

Philadelphia catcher Ira Thomas, however, ...

FanGraphs: Carruth: Ron Hunt Got Hit Like Nobody Else

In contrast, consider Ron Hunt. A second baseman during the expansion era, Hunt made a couple All Star games but otherwise made little dent in baseball history, except in being hit by pitches. Ron Hunt was hit 50 times in 1971, which destroyed the previous record by a whopping 19. That number is made more interesting to me by Hunt’s 58 walks and his 41 strikeouts. He was hit more often than he struck out! That’s an incredibly rare, if not, unprecedented achievement over a full season. ...

Bud Norris: Does Brian Wilson Play Baseball or Work in Hollywood?

Think outside the fun.

The nation’s obsession with Brian Wilson is something I will never understand. He’s funny, he’s weird, and he’s quirky, but people act like he’s the first dude in sports to ever wear a beard. It’s simply not true. I have hard evidence saying that he’s the second. Anyway, he stars in a Taco Bell ad that has been playing quite a bit lately.

I don’t really understand the ad, and apparently I’m not the only one who’s unimpressed. Astros pitcher Bud ...

Plunkett: Moreno is not being impulsive, just hoping for a change

Impulse! The house that Moreno built.

Speaking publicly for the first time since dismissing his GM in the first of a handful of moves that promise to reshape the front office, Angels owner Arte Moreno said “it’s not a purge” or a knee-jerk reaction to a second consecutive year of missing out on the playoffs and losing money.

“I just felt we weren’t going in the direction we needed to go in and we needed a change,” Moreno said, emphasizing that he had come to that realization “over a period of ...

T.J. SIMERS Frank McCourt won’t own up to his responsibilities

He pulled his office out of the stadium. He talked to his rookie manager twice this season. He stopped sitting in his field box adjacent to the dugout, no doubt hearing a thing or two from the fans — the truth hurting.

But you know what? Donald Sterling sits at center court, almost everyone in the building sitting behind him with the chance to tell him what they think.

Sterling’s record as owner is abysmal, and although he should top the list of owners in hiding, he puts his picture in the ...

MLB.com: Feast Mode: Pujols’ huge night evens NLCS

Albert Pujols led an all-out assault on Shaun Marcum and a parade of relievers as the Cards handed Milwaukee its worst home loss of 2011, throttling the Brewers by a 12-3 score Monday night in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. The game was over for all practical purposes in the middle of the seventh following the Cards’ fourth multi-run inning.
...
Pujols hammered a two-run homer to left in the first, a two-run double to center in the third and an RBI double to right-center in ...

Selig says expanded playoffs unlikely in 2012

I am not a Treasurer of Pennsylvania crook!

Postseason expansion is most likely going to baseball, but not as soon as next season, or at leas that’s the impression commissioner Bud Selig gave when he spoke to reporters before Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

“I don’t know yet,” Selig said when asked if an expanded postseason could come in 2012. “I think that might be a little optimistic, but I don’t know yet.”

As for the idea of two more wild card teams, hearing Selig ...

MLB.com: Full Nelson: Cruz belts walk-off slam in 11th

Nelson Cruz, batting with no outs, hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Rangers a dramatic 7-3 victory over the Tigers in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. It was the first walk-off grand slam in postseason history.

The victory, before 51,227 at the Ballpark in Arlington on Monday, put the Rangers up 2-0 in the ALCS with Game 3 scheduled for Tuesday night at Comerica Park in Detroit.
...
Mike Adams was the winning pitcher as five Rangers relievers ...

Jocketty: Votto won’t be traded

...unless Milt Pappas has a grandson or something.

Walt Jocketty angrily denied a report by ESPN’s Buster Olney that the Reds are listening to trade offers on Joey Votto.

“I’m tired of talking about it,” he said. “We’re not shopping him. We’re not entertaining offers. It’s frustrating. He’s one of the best players in the game. Why would we trade him? I wish people would stop writing about it.”

Votto name comes up in media speculation — yours truly is guilty — because ...

Griffin: Jays president Paul Beeston unplugged

“farreachinginterview” ain’t the word!

RG: The fact of Doc was that he wanted to go somewhere else and…

PB: Doc wanted to go. Doc made it quite clear that that he was not signing here at the end of the 2010 season.

RG: So to believe that if you had Halladay and Marcum and Romero and those guys that’s not based on reality.

PB: That’s not based on reality. Doc made it quite clear that he wasn’t going to be around at the end of the 2010 season so he would not have been here. Certainly we ...

Topkin: Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg writes e-mail to season ticket holders

Harrumph…might as well send them to the dead letter e-mail office.

Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg clarified in a letter e-mailed to season-ticket holders that his recent comments about the “precarious” future of the franchise were not a complaint nor meant to sound ungrateful about the support they do have, but the reality of their situation. Also, he provided assurance that the organization remains committed to finding a solution to the region-wide issue.

“It would be easy ...

Howard:  CC 2011 = A-Rod 2007

CC has a horrible body.  A-Rod COULD sell jeans.  Neither should be signed to superstar money in his late ‘30s

Jest.com: Too Much Moneyball

Forget Brad Pitt.  This is 2011’s best actor.

Keefe & Murti: Looking Back And Forward At The Yankees

This will be the fourth day that there hasn’t been a baseball I have cared to watch and it’s just weird. The Yankees went out in five games over the course of seven days and now I have to wait until next spring to watch baseball again.

As I always say at my local Interlocking bar (before getting tossed out on my keisler)...“Yankee fans are not baseball fans”

Yes, the Tigers do deserve some credit, but there is more blame to go around, and a lot of that blame goes to A-Rod and the Goof ...

Keeping Stadium Neighborhoods Alive in the Off-Season

There’s only one thing more depressing come October than the end of baseball season: the sight of an empty ballpark. All those vacant seats, the hot-dog concessions closed, the field empty, and the gates padlocked until the following spring.

It’s a bitter scene for baseball lovers. But it’s an economic conundrum for cities, too.

“A large percentage of most facilities built in the last 25 years have been financed with public money,” says Patrick Rishe, an associate professor of economics ...

McQuade: Fire Charlie Manuel…And Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and the Phanatic.

Dan McQuade is Lone Wolf McQuade. Charlie Manuel is the man that got in his way! Or maybe not…

While they’re at it, fire first base coach Sam Perlozzo and third base coach Juan Samuel; the Phillies had a terrible season running the bases. Fire hitting coach Greg Gross (seven career home runs when a player) and pitching coach Rich Dubee (a career minor-leaguer). Fire Mick Billmeyer and find somebody who can properly steal signals without getting caught.

Ryan Howard tore his Achilles on the ...

THT: Jaffe: Ten best daily double doses of postseason baseball

Jaffe! Totally inspired by recent events! Go!

3. Oct. 11, 1986: A pair of walk-off classics. ALCS Game Four: Angels 4, Red Sox 3 (11). NLCS Game Three: Mets 6, Astros 5.

The 1986 playoffs gave us the best pair of championship series ever. Neither Oct. 11 game was the best in its respective LCS, but that says more about the overall quality of those series than any lack of drama in these games.

The Mets beat the Astros with not one, but two, impressive comebacks. After the Astros struck for a ...

LCS Game 2 chatters

Tigers (Scherzer) at Rangers (Holland). 4:19. FOX.
Cardinals (Jackson) at Brewers (Marcum). 8:05. TBS.

Weather permitting, of course.

Sherman: Yankees must add lefty starters and make big push for Carlos Beltran

Sherman theatrics offers everything needed for a complete evening of entertainment!

In 2011, Posada became almost exclusively used against righties because his right-handed swing became so putrid, and Swisher and Teixeira were much better against lefties than righties. Detroit used all righty starters and Posada hit well in the Division Series; Swisher and Teixeira were bad.

Beltran was the lone switch-hitter this year (minimum 100 plate appearances as both a lefty and righty) to produce a ...

BYB: Magglio Ordonez: One of the Greatest Tigers

Wuh. Even Jim Small is left squinty-eyed.

Since coming to the Detroit Tigers in 2005, Magglio Ordonez has provided the Tigers with one of the most memorable moments in their 110 year history in 2006, and with one of the most productive seasons that any Tiger has had at the plate in 2007.  In almost fifty years of watching Tiger baseball, I honestly don’t believe that I have ever seen any Tiger have a better season at the plate than the season that Magglio had in 2007.  He was that good.

...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 10-10-2011

Regina Leader-Post, October 10, 1961.

Red Smith on the fifth and final game of the Yankees’ 1961 World Series championship:

Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson of New York and Craig Cullinan, Jr., of Houston were reported among the 32,589 guests at a lawn party in Crosely [sic] Field on Monday.  If they still insist on putting their money into National League baseball, they’ll have only themselves to blame.
...

Cincinnati has cuddled the game of baseball to its hospitable bosom ever since the first ...

MLB.com: Six pack: Brewers flex in fifth to take Game 1

Harvey Kuenn’s ‘82 club won by bashing the baseball, which is precisely what the Brewers did in a 9-6 win over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, an opener owned by the offenses. If these NL Central rivals trudged any of their regular-season tension into October, they released it by swinging the bats.
...
Ryan Braun led the way with four RBIs and hit one of the Brewers’ trio of two-run home runs in the opener of an all-NL rematch of ‘82 World Series ...

Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, Post-Moneyball, Visits Athletics Nation Part III

We Want the San Jose Airwaves! ~~ Part I and Part II.

TB:  How do you figure out - is there a metric that you guys have outside of the really simple one of wins - but is there a metric to figure out whether your manager is doing a good job? Do you sit down at some point and review every decision they make in a game and then give him a ranking, or is it strictly the wins and losses? How do you guys go about judging that?

BB:  We don’t have a specific metric for evaluating a manager. I’ve ...

Nick Cafardo: Spotlight may very well fall on Lucchino

5. Bud Black, manager, Padres - Could he really become the Angels GM? The feeling is yes. He and Mike Scioscia are very close friends and would work well together on the player personnel side of things. Black doesn’t have front office experience but is certainly bright enough and has a pitching expertise that would make him valuable in that position.

More and more, it seems, players are empowered, and the days when they followed orders from the manager have gone the way of the Edsel. The ...

NYTimes: Irabu Got Lost on the Road Back

Independent leagues are relatively new in Japan, where high schools, colleges and industrial leagues provide most of the young talent for the top teams. Even so, Irabu’s reputation in Japan was still strong, so he stood a better chance of catching the attention of a Japanese big-league club by playing in Kochi than if he remained in California.

It was a brief stay. His first start went as well as could be expected. In seven innings, he gave up three runs, walking five and striking out three. ...

L.A. Times: Judge sides with MLB, but warns Bud Selig

McCourt has argued Selig forced the Dodgers into bankruptcy by rejecting a proposed television contract with Fox Sports, claiming the contract was structured similarly to others approved by the commissioner and that the rejection was but one example of how Selig applied a double standard to McCourt and the Dodgers.

“The Commissioner’s relationship with LAD, including his refusal to approve the media rights sale, is what is at issue,” Gross wrote in his ruling, using “LAD” to refer to the ...

John Torres: Major League players reach for high-tech edge

This season, 19 major league teams—including playoff teams like the Rays, D-backs and Brewers—are utilizing a new tool created by Bloomberg Sports that combines video, data, analysis and news in one system. It also includes a tablet product for Major League players to help them analyze their mechanics and prepare for games. It is apparently so good that FoxSports and TBS will be using a version for the League Championship playoffs and World Series on their telecasts.

Interesting stuff…and ...

NLCS Game 1 and ALCS Game 2 CHATTER

Cardinals (Garcia) at Brewers (Greinke). 4:05. TBS.
Tigers (Scherzer) at Rangers (Holland). 7:45. FOX.

Baseball!