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A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published a column making the case for selecting Derek Jeter as the 2009 American League MVP. The story discussed how Jeter’s performance has improved from a subpar 2008 and also took a historical look at how the writer felt Jeter had been hosed during previous MVP-level seasons.
In reality, while Jeter has had a fantastic season, he’s nowhere near the best MVP candidate for 2009. Look at the work Joe Mauer, Miguel Cabrera and others have done compared with Jeter and that’s obvious. Then take a look at Jeter’s teammate, Mark Teixeira, and hopefully it’s clear to most impartial observers that Jeter, while a valuable player and by almost all accounts a decent guy, isn’t even the most credible candidate on his own team.
Really what it most proved was that the Wall Street Journal should stick to business reporting. In past years it would have been a perfect target for a Fire Joe Morgan deconstruction, but unfortunately that Web site has shut down. A friend and former colleague at the Star Tribune took a credible FJM shot at the WSJ’s performance on his Randball blog.
While his work was solid the masters were at the helm as guest editors of Deadspin for a day. And they came through, brilliantly exposing the holes in the Journal’s argument. Read and enjoy …
Then let’s have some debate. Who is the AL MVP for 2009? In the NL it would appear to me as though Albert Pujols is the clear-cut winner. But there are a handful of legit candidates in the AL. Who would y’all vote for?
My vote? As a local, it’d be nice to see Joe Mauer win. He’s had a fantastic season. But facts are facts and I believe winning plays a role in how “valuable” you are to your team. And the Twins were roughly .500 without him the first month of the season and they’ve been roughly a .500 team with him. Taking homerism out, I’d probably choose Cabrera. The Tigers will likely win the AL Central. And while they aren’t without flaws, without Cabrera that team probably finishes in third place.
The Tampa Rays are in the midst of a seven game losing streak that has virtually knocked them out of the American League playoff race. But the team hasn’t been eliminated and, mathematically, if the team could get on a huge roll, they could conceivably make themselves a player during the last month of the season.
During Wednesday’s ESPN game between Tampa and the best money can buy, the New York Yankees, the Rays took an early 2-0 lead. In the 5th inning, Derek Jeter lined a ball to deep centerfield. B.J. Upton jogged slowly after the ball, then threw up his hands as it hit on the warning track and then bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double.
I haven’t seen the entire game. But the announcers are talking like this isn’t the first issue the Rays have had with Upton tonight. It definitely would not have been the first time manager Joe Maddon had been confronted with an issue due to an alleged lack of hustle on Upton’s part - he benched Upton at least twice in 2008 for just that issue.
ESPN announcer Dan Shulman indicated that if it’s the best he can do because of an ankle issue, he shouldn’t be in the game. And that if it is the best he is choosing to do out of frustration or laziness, he also shouldn’t be in the game.
He’s right.
Retired Major League pitcher Curt Schilling wrote on his blog today that he’s “has some interest” in running for the Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy. He then indicated that many things would have to align in order for him to do so, not indicating what any of those things might be, then said he’s not going to comment on the talk any further, calling it “speculation on top of speculation.”
Umm, if you weren’t really planning on talking about it, why even bother to bring it up?
Upon further review of the Internet, I guess he was asked by something called NECN Radio (okay, why did they bring it up?) on Wednesday about his plans where he basically said the same thing he indicated on his blog.
Schilling appears to be a reasonably intelligent guy who is outspoken about his strong opinions. He campaigned for John McCain last year. But has he ever done anything that indicates he’s got the chops to be a U.S. Senator?
I mean, what’s next? Schilling running for Senate would only be eclipsed in weirdness by some clown in the state of Kentucky wanting to open up an alcohol-free bar.
Then again, Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California, Jesse Ventura was governor of Minnesota and Al Franken is now that state’s second senator.
I need a Tylenol. Sometimes this country makes my head hurt.
LOUISVILLE, KY and ST. LOUIS – Yesterday morning I took 20 cuts in a batting cage using the same model bat used by Ken Griffey Jr.
Tony and I woke up in Louisville, Ky. on Monday and started our week with a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, a building that just sort of pops up in the business district out of nowhere.
A guide, definitely schooled in the history of the game and the bat-making process, led us on a roughly 45-minute tour of the company’s history. The current employees helped out a lot too, as one guy demonstrated the old process for making a bat that included carving tool and lathe.
It used to take Louisville Slugger workers 30 minutes to carve a pro model bat. Now in the automated machines, they can do one in 30 seconds. Lacquering and finishing pro model bats is still done by hand—they were working on an order for Alex Gordon while we were there.
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PITTBURGH – It’s been about 10 days since the Pittsburgh Pirates finished the latest chapter in their rebuilding project – yeah, the one that has lasted nearly 20 years now.
Tony and I made our first journey through PNC Park this afternoon It was interesting seeing the jerseys on sale in the team’s souvenir shop – the most recognizable name was Ryan Doumit.
The flags flying on light poles outside the ballpark featured guys like Garrett Jones and Ramon Vazquez. This is a team seemingly intent on trading every position player on its roster.
As we wandered PNC Park, with its jutting outfield and views of several bridges and the skyline in the outfield, it’s almost as though ownership thinks the beauty of the ballpark outweighs the need to spend the money to put a major league product on the field. Yes, Delwyn Young might be a perfectly fine role player. But he batted third in the lineup today.
I said to my brother “Any team with Delwyn Young batting third doesn’t have a good immediate future.”
He reminded me that Young was leading the team in some hitting categories. Again, I said “Any team with Delwyn Young leading the team in major hitting categories doesn’t have a good immediate future.”
It’s not that the cupboard is completely bare. Stephen Pearce hit two homeruns today. And Andrew McCutchen has been as good as advertised since the team brought him up.
But deals like the one that allegedly cleared space for McCutchen – Nate McLouth to Atlanta for three prospects – are the reason I am suspicious of team ownership’s motives. If they had a history of turning those deals into an improved product or at least into improved prospects for the future, one might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But that’s not the case with these guys.
Out of curiosity I rewound through yahoo to find out what the Pirates’ starting lineup was on April 2, 2008. It is listed below. Shockingly, seven of the eight position players are no longer with the team. A look at the team’s first five starting pitchers of the 2008 season revealed that two are still on the team, two have been traded, and one is out of baseball. There was talk that one of the guys that is left, Zach Duke, was on the block before the deadline.
The lineup and where those players are currently is below:
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TOLEDO, Ohio – The players’ names are less recognizable but the sights, sounds and smells are the same and the setting is even a bit more intimate.
When Tony and I planned this trip we started by picking a couple of main stops (Canton for the NFL inductions and Pittsburgh for the renowned ballpark) then started filling in some blanks.
We decided to make a stop in Toledo because Fifth Third Field was once named the Best Minor League Ballpark in America. Because of traffic, we arrived for the Toledo/Gwinnett game in the middle of the third inning. Before we saw a pitch, we’d made friends with a quartet of seniors in the row behind us, two of whom will be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Congratulations, folks.
Located in the middle of downtown Toledo, we found parking about five blocks away for $5 and bought tickets for $9 each. The neighborhood has some vacant buildings, but also has a couple lively restaurants and bars. Then suddenly across the street we saw people milling around a decorative fence and we realized we had arrived at the park.
The game itself was a little less than exciting – a scoreless tie was quickly broken with an eight run inning for the Mud Hens. More impressive to me were the great viewing points – even our seats in deep right field faced the pitcher and batter, though our view of the right fielder was obscured a bit.
We wandered around the park, visiting standing room areas in centerfield and picnic tables between left and center. The concessions weren’t anything incredibly out of the ordinary, but their two souvenir shops – one of which (The Swamp Shop) appeared to be the main store and one of which was smaller, were both staffed by friendly people who appeared to be enjoying their employment at the ballpark.
And we saw Brent Clevlen, a second round pick of the Detroit Tigers in 2002 who has excelled in the minors but just not quite made it yet in the bigs, hit a moon shot homer that first landed on an awning in deep right center field and then kept bouncing until it landed likely in the street outside the park.
It was a nice way to relax after a six-hour drive from the outskirts of Milwaukee. As my brother put it, “if I lived here, I’d have season tickets.”
RACINE, Wis. – I’m no baseball analyst, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
And when I picked the complimentary USA Today off the floor in front of my door this morning, I turned to the sports page and saw a story about Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, and their respective contributions to the New York Yankees this season.
“It’s incredible how important these guys have been,” Johnny Damon told the paper. “I feel like they’ve been worth about seven or eight games a piece.”
AMAZING HOW IMPORTANT THEY’VE BEEN?!?!?
You spent $423.5 million last offseason to bring them in. I’d say for that amount they’d damn well better be important or the Steinbrenners would have every right to be as stuffy and huffy as they have been the last seven or eight years while the Yankees have languished below mediocre by their high-priced standards.
RACINE, Wis. – Destination Canton, Ohio started after work this evening. About six hours on the road took us to Milwaukee, where we hunted down Miller Park.
The team was out of town and, save for some street lights, it was dark. We stopped and snapped a few photos but didn’t really get a true sense for the park.
But we took a brief drive around Selig Drive, getting as much of a peak at the exterior of the ballpark as we could. One observation my brother made was that in an era where ballparks are being built in smaller, more intimate settings, Miller Park appears to be larger than life – and somewhat resembling a spaceship from at least one angle.
We’ll make it back for a game at some point.
Actually, one aspect of the area we were both intrigued by is Helfaer Field, which according to Wikipedia is a little league park located where the infield at the Brewers’ former home, Milwaukee County Stadium, used to be. There was someone finishing up maintenance work there when we drove the perimeter of Miller Park, so the lights were still on. It was a nice, well-kept spot for little leaguers and a fitting tribute to the former park.
A total of 113,674 fans watched the Los Angeles/Anaheim/Orange County/California Angels pummel Minnesota Twins pitching into submission over the weekend. If any of them doubted just how pointless the Twins’ acquisition of shortstop Orlando Cabrera was when the deal was announced Friday there should be no doubt left now.
That’s not a knock on Cabrera, who even at 34 remains a fine player. But while the Twins have received anemic offense from the second base position and inconsistent play from the middle infield as a whole, the two-month rental was pointless without corresponding moves to fix the biggest problem they have – a dramatically disappointing staff of both starting and relief pitchers.
The Twins’ Web site statistics currently list 12 names that have been involved in the revolving door of a bullpen Bill Smith and Ron Gardenhire have trotted out for fans to watch this year. Among the worst offenders were the ridiculously overmatched Juan Morillo, Kevin Mulvey, Phil Humber and Sean Henn. After starting strong, Bobby Keppel and R.A. Dickey have shown more bad than good in recent outings. And Jesse Crain, a one-time 12 game winner in 2005, continues to be unable to regain his form – despite a demotion to AAA his ERA is over 7.00.
In fairness, setup men Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier continue sporting solid numbers in bridging the gap to closer Joe Nathan. But none of that is going to matter if the starting rotation doesn’t come around.
That rotation, which was supposed to be a young, up-and-coming strength for Minnesota, Nick Blackburn is the only one of six pitchers with nine or more starts sporting an ERA below 4.00. Four of the six are at 4.86 or higher with Glen Perkins and Francisco Liriano dishing up at 5.95 and 5.56 respectively.
Baseball is not a difficult game. Teams with bad offenses can win games if their pitching keeps them low-scoring and close. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how explosive an offense is if the team’s pitching can’t keep it in the game. Witness the Twins’ two most recent series to see just how true that is.
On August 6, 1979, Bobby Murcer hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning and then singled home Bucky Dent and Willie Randolph in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the New York Yankees a come-from-behind win over the Baltimore Orioles.
A week before the game there appeared little to make this ABC Monday Night Baseball a special match up. The Orioles would go on to win 102 games and play in the World Series while the Yankees were playing out the stretch on a fourth place season.
Then, on August 2, Thurmon Munson was killed while practicing takeoffs and landings at the Akron Canton Airport.
Flags flew at half-mast at Yankee Stadium during the Thurmon Munson Tribute game, shown this afternoon on ESPN Classic, 30 years to the day after Munson died.
I’m not a Yankees fan by any stretch but it’s hard not to appreciate the team’s history. And a big part of that history during the 1970s was Munson.
Broadcasting legend Howard Cosell said late in that broadcast that “If integrity and decency and honor matter Thurmon Munson represented all of them.”
Cosell’s partner, Keith Jackson – always more concise than his words – described Munson simply as “a gamer.”
Munson’s number 15 was immediately retired by George Steinbrenner and his locker – transported to the Yankee museum in the new ballpark this year – was never used again.
But his teammates provided probably the greatest tribute a group of teammates could provide for a fallen team leader. They fought and clawed to win in dramatic fashion a game in which they fell behind 4-0.
The powerful Orioles bunch had won 62 of the last 63 games they had led heading into the ninth inning. But Murcer, one of Munson’s two closest friends on the team (with Lou Piniella, according to media reports) provided the winning hit.
It’s been 30 years to the day since Munson died. He is not in the Hall of Fame and at this point it’s likely he won’t end up there. But he’s got ballparks and sports bars named after him in Canton, Ohio and a legacy in New York proven by a series of stories the New York Post published five years ago.
He clearly left a mark.
