Off Season Blues

We are still a tad less than a month away from Spring Training and my visions for this blog didn't include a lot of "will Bill Hall sign with the Yankees?" talk. So, rather than force a blog entry about the minutia of the off season, here is a photo of A Rod with Ronald McDonald.

Random Player of the Week: Gary Disarcina

Gary played 12 years for the Angels as a shortstop, with a few random appearances at 2B and 3B. He managed to put up a .258/.292/.633 triple slash line. Making him a perfect candidate for random player of the week.

Roid Rage

2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun has appealed his 50 game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. For my fantasy team's sake, I hope they reduce the suspension to zero games and award him an extra 5 home runs and a nice fruit basket for all of the trouble. It did get me thinking about the MLB reaction to PED's over the past 20 years. It went from complete indifference, to shock, to rabble rousing outrage almost instantly. Any player who seems to have done a couple of lat pull downs in his life is automatically stripped of legitimacy (see Bagwell, Jeff).  There also seems to be a consensus among the average fan that once you took a steroid you were a 40 home run power machine. For every Ken Caminiti, there is a Larry Bigbie. Many of these admitted PED users were still really not good at baseball.

So, what exactly is my point here?

In 2013 some absolute baseball heavyweights (literally and figuratively) will be up for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza. Will Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, and Piazza (unfairly) experience the same shunning that their peers Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro have experienced? Probably. Should they? I personally do not believe they should. Especially Bonds and Clemens. If Barry Bonds retired after the 1998 season (when by most accounts he starts doing steroids) he would have had 411 home runs and 445 stolen bases. He would have been the ONLY player to ever accomplish that feat. 

Another question I have, what if Barry Bonds hit a ball off of Jason Grimsley and it was caught by Chuck Knoblauch? Three guys who, for all intents and purposes, are guilty of PED use. Does it not count as an out for Clemens? Or should it not count as a putout for Knoblauch? Or should it count as nothing because Bonds shouldn't have made contact?

My bottom line is that the water is too murky to automatically discount these players accomplishments. These players are representatives of their eras warts and all. Up until 1947, baseball did not allow black players. In 1963 the mound was raised for a few years. Amphetamines were common in baseball for decades. Each of these eras have highlights and lowlights and are still represented. I think the players should be judged for their accomplishments in relations to the others of the period.

P.S. If you say that admitted cheaters shouldn't be allowed in, then kick out Gaylord Perry. If you cite the character of players, then boot Ty Cobb and we can talk. 

What 90's wrestler would AL West teams be?

Texas Rangers
After the Rangers 'close but no cigar' performance in the past two World Series, they have to be perennial bridesmaid Lex Luger. He was in some marquee matches in the 90's; Royal Rumble '94, Wrestlemania X. Even with all this success, the Lex Express never managed to bring home WWF gold. Just like Ron Washington's Texas squad. They've managed to make big headlines (good and bad) and appear in the fall classic, but have yet to win that elusive ring.

Seattle Mariners
The Mariners had a very intimidating pitching staff last year, featuring King Felix, the newest Yankee Michael Pineda, and, at one point,  hilariously named Doug Fister. However despite this intimidating rotation, lost 95 games. So while appearing intimidating, they packed little punch. This makes them Adam Bomb. A guy who was a large intimidating ring presence, yet achieved absolutely no notoriety or success.












Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Angels are a team that has spent some serious cash this offseason, bringing in big time free agents C.J. Wilson and greatest hitter on the planet/also hilariously named Albert Pujols. They also have relied on the guile of manager Mike Scoscia for much of their recent success. For these reasons, they can be none other than Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. A guy who out witted and out smarted opponents, DiBiase was a wily competitor. He also was part of the most racist storyline of the 90's when he owned hired his slave servant Virgil.











Oakland Athletics.

Finally, I come to the Oakland A's. They are a team that has seen some success in the earlier part of the decade, but has largely been mediocre. Some years they are pretty decent, some years not so much. They manage to fly under the radar without much fanfare. They are Double J Jeff Jarrett of the 90's. He was ok. Not good, not great. Just J-E double F, J-A double R, E, double T. 

Yu Darvish, Victor Martinez, Carl Crawford

Let's do a couple of quicks hits across each AL division:

In the West, the Rangers signed Yu Darvish to a six year deal worth about $60 million, with the possibility of another $10m in incentives. This is in addition to the $51 million they had to bid in the posting process.  Seems like an awful lot of money to pay for a pitcher who is essentially a top prospect. He will be filling the recently departed (to the Angels, not in the dead way) C.J. Wilson's spot at the top of the Rangers' rotation. I remain skeptical of the newest super hyped "best Japanese pitcher ever." After surviving through both Hideki Irabu  (pour some out) and Kei Igawa, as well as witnessing the the legend of Daisuke Matsuzaka, I need to be convinced. Maybe he will be the first Japanese import to see long term success as a pitcher, but Dice-K and his mythical gyroball were supposed to serve that function 4 years ago.

The Tigers lineup took a major hit yesterday when it was announced that Victor Martinez will probably miss the entire season with ACL surgery. The lineup looks slightly less imposing with the inconsistent and confusingly named Jhonny Peralta protecting Miguel Cabrera. One can only speculate that this may put them in the market for a bat (Carlos Pena perhaps?).

Carl Crawford had arthroscopic wrist surgery. The Red Sox best hope is that he heals quickly and also remembers how to be a somewhat productive major leaguer. That is, not the offensive blackhole he managed to be in 2011.

Nick Swisher: Muppet of a Man, or Very Manly Muppet?

         

          

                       

                             

The Worst Position Player of 2011

This is the first post of what will hopefully be more than one post. I will post my random thoughts and hilarious quips about what my Latino friends call beisbol.  I am leading off with a look at the worst position player in the majors last year:

The White Sox sure had their share of under-performers in 2011. Out of the 203 players who had at least 400 AB's last year, they had 4 players rank in the bottom 20 in WAR and wOBA. For my friends who don't buy into the "Bill James bullshit" (as America's greatest actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman said as Art Howe in Moneyball) that means they sucked, like a lot.

The worst offender of all, was a guy who I always considered to scream consistency, Adam Dunn.  He managed a minuscule .159/.292/.569 batting line. To put that in perspective, Luis Sojo retired with a career .261/.297/.650 line.

The Big Donkey didn't do himself any favors in the field either. In only 37 games in the field (35 at 1B, 2 in the OF) he managed to be worth -6 runs. Taking into account all his offensive woes and defensive butchery, Dunn managed to be worth 2.9 wins less than your average replacement player (minor league call up).

How did he manage to be so awful? Well, bad luck had something to do with it. A BABIP 50 points lower than his career average will definitely hurt the numbers. Dunn, throughout his career, has been known for three things: striking out a lot, walking, and hitting for big time power. In 2011, he struck out more, walked less, and didn't show any of that power.

Over the past two seasons, Dunn has swung at nearly 10% more pitches out of the strike zone than he has averaged over the rest of his career, what hurt him in 2011 was that he made contact with 53% of those pitches, as opposed to only 46% the year before.

Basically what Dunn needs to have a rebound year, is to lay off pitches outside the zone, and a reversal in luck. To be honest, the entire White Sox organization needs a reversal of luck, especially that rat bastard Gordon Beckham who has been instrumental in my fantasy baseball suckitude the past two seasons. Fool me once Gordon, shame on you, fool me twice.. STILL SHAME ON YOU, LEARN TO HIT A FASTBALL!