Category Archives: MLB

The War for the (AL and NL) East

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The greatest division races are already shaping up to be in the (AL and NL East). Teams that had been afterthoughts are now in the mix, perennial powers have found themselves in the cellar. Things are changing quickly, so by the time this goes up on the afternoon of June 10, it may already by obsolete: teams that were in first may have fallen to second or even third. A team who was in it could not be out of it. A team that was out of it could be in it. It is just that volatile.

(more after jump)

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Great Predictions in History: Nobody will break Ruth’s Record (says Duke Snider in 1957)

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From Baseball Digest in October, 1957:

The record he speaks of is his 60 HR in 1927. Among the reasons that the record won’t be broken are the fact that Ruth didn’t have to deal with the media pressure as he headed down the stretch that anyone going for 60+ has to, the fact there are fewer off days, the fact that there are now day and night games that could mess with a player’s rest schedule, and that most of the parks aren’t as easy to hit home runs out of as Yankee Stadium had been during Ruth’s day.

He implies that Ted Williams could if he wanted to, but that he doesn’t focus on home runs, instead focusing on being an all-around hitter.

Interestingly, Duke Snider and his ghostwriter Milton Richman also predict that if anybody did they’d be headed to Cooperstown for sure.

Roger Maris is not in the Hall of Fame…. but he did hit 61 HRs in 1961.

They call the AAA team the Norfolk Tides (but the All-Stars don’t wear blue)

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Miguel Tejada (left) chats with Brian Roberts before a ballgame in Rochester. Photo by Dan Glickman.

Brian Roberts. Miguel Tejada. Nate McLouth. Jamie Moyer. Between those four players, there are 10 All-Star Game selections. And yet, all four of them are currently at Baltimore’s AAA affiliate in Norfolk. There are several other ex-MLBers on the Norfolk roster as well, such as Bill Hall.  I recently saw three games involving the Tides. Here are some impressions of this unusual group of players who all have found their way to the International League, whether due to injury, poor play, bad luck or an attempt to make a comeback.

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No-Hit Fever!

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After six Mariners combined to no-hit the Dodgers last night, it is now official: America has no-hit fever. And the only solution is… I have no idea. It was enough when no-hitters were getting thrown against bad teams like the Twins and Mariners, but now we’re having no-hitters thrown against the defending champion Cardinals and the Dodgers, who have the best record in the league. Even the Rangers were almost no-hit by Jarrod Parker not that long ago. In other words, this is getting close to ridiculous.

Not bad, really, just ridiculous. We have come to the point where, every night, we feel as if a no-hitter could happen. This is one of baseball’s great strengths: anything could happen at any time, in the most unexpected places.

Still, this made me curious as to what season saw the most no-nos. The fact is, the four we have seen so far in 2012 actually aren’t that many, historically. The pre-modern 1884 season had eight no-nos, while 1990 and 1991 both saw seven no-nos. In fact, June 29, 1990 saw two no-hitters thrown (one by Dave Stewart, one by Fernando Valenzuela), which brings up the question of what ESPN led off with that night.

So, when will the next no-hitter happen, and is there a chance we could see seven or eight of them? I don’t know, but that’s the beauty of it: we could see another no-hitter tomorrow, or there might not be another one for a few years. They just… happen.

Great predictions in History: Interleague Play… in 1955

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From Baseball Digest in January 1954:

Interleague in 1955? Well, apparently it was considered. Nate Dolin, the Cleveland Indians director of operations and AL schedule representative, wanted it to happen. He even got Walter O’Malley to agree with him. He proposed that the season would look like this:

  • 158 game schedule (instead of 154)
  • The 22 games-between-each-team-in-their-league balanced schedule would be cut to 18 games between each team in their league.
  • Each club would have two two-game series with each team of the opposing league.

Of course, it never happened. But it’s interesting to note that, starting next year, interleague won’t only just exist but will be expanded: there will be at least one interleague game every day, since both leagues will have 15 teams.

But it could have happened… even earlier!

The Mauer deal is still worth it

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Joe Mauer is still the face of the Minnesota Twins, and one of the faces of baseball in general, but he’s been under siege ever since he signed his 10-year extension and the Twins moved to Target Field. He’s not playing up to his contract, he no longer hits for power, he’s no longer a perennial MVP candidate, merely an All-Star (and even that might be stretching it- Matt Wieters and Cleveland’s Carlos Santana have better Wins Above Replacement on the Baseball Gauge).

He’s probably not worth the $23 million a year he’s getting, I understand that. I also think that the deal had to be done. Not for on-the-field reasons, but for off-the-field reasons. Psychological reasons. Go below the jump to see why.

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The Not-An-Expert Q&A preview of the MLB Draft

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Tomorrow, the MLB draft begins. As I mentioned before, College Baseball is sort of the odd man out in college sports. And, as I referred to in that post, a lot of high schoolers get drafted in the MLB draft. So, with that in mind, in most years you need a scorecard to know who the people being drafted are. So, with that in mind, I’ve done some research to get you up to speed on the draft, and who will probably get drafted, check it out underneath the jump:

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Back Then: Red Sox Fans

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The Library of Congress has lots of pictures from the earlier part of the 20th century available for free online. Take this picture of Red Sox “Royal Rooters” during the 1910s:

(Click the picture for a bigger view)

As you can see, everybody has a hat on, they are all white men, they are waving pennants, wearing suits, and generally looking old-timey. Although there is one guy on the right who seems to be making a finger-pistol at us.

I wonder what would happen if a group dressed like this showed up at Fenway today…

What is wrong with the Orioles?

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It’s too early to declare the Orioles’ season, which I wrote about awhile back, as heading down the tubes. But it is definitely not looking as good as it once did. They’ve lost six straight. They’ve fallen out of first. Nick Markakis is hurt. The AL East is becoming even more of a gigantic no-holds-barred brawl than it was.
So what happened?

What happened was that the pitching- especially the starting pitching has been having a tough week. They have been routinely falling behind early. They fell 5-0 on Friday night, for example, giving up all of those runs in the first inning. They were falling behind to the Blue Jays early in games. In other words, the Orioles are getting dragged into the same kind of shooting-gallery, pray-we-can-outhit-them-because-our-pitching-cannot-stop-them kinds of games they’ve been getting stuck in the last decade and a half or so. Spoiler alert: They usually can’t.

The Orioles are by no means out of it yet. They are only one game back. A win today would get them tied for first again. Two wins over the weekend would get them to first outright. All of the AL East teams have flaws, and the Orioles still have a very good bullpen, something that is essential in this day and age. They also have Adam Jones, who can, on some days, win a game by himself.

The question is: Can they pull themselves off the mat, or will, like so many season before, the Orioles squander a good start and fall back into the basement?

Only time will tell.

Thoughts on Johan’s no-no night

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There is site out there that came to my attention shortly after Johan Santana completed his no-hitter tonight: Nonohitters.com. It was written by a Mets fan who kept count as the Mets continued to not have a no-hitter.
The person who runs it can now, presumably, sell it to a Padres fan, as they now have that record.

But anyway…

This was a no-hitter that was good for baseball fans in general (well, except for Cardinals fans). The Mets now finally have their no-hitter, all the more amazing considering the great pitchers they had in the past. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan didn’t throw one in a Mets uniform. Neither did Dwight Gooden or David Cone. Tom Glavine didn’t do it either. ‘

But Johan Santana did. This was something everyone (again, except for Cardinals fans) could get behind. Johan is one of the great pitchers of his generation, but could have been even greater if not for his injury problems as a Met. He became, over the years, something of a shadow of his old Minnesota self. Now, however, it appears that he has returned, which is good for baseball.

In many ways, this was the most entertaining no-hitter of the year, with the possible exception of Phil Humber (who Johan Santana was traded for once) and his perfect game. Here’s why:

  • There was controversy: Carlos Beltran definitely deserved a hit for the ball that he ripped down the line. It clearly hit the chalk, and if a ball hits anywhere on the line, it is a fair ball. That said, I have to imagine that nobody will remember that in 20 years.
  • Mike Baxter made perhaps the greatest no-no saving catch since Dewayne Wise saved Mark Buerhle’s perfect game. He paid for it too, going straight into the wall and injuring what appeared to be his shoulder. Hopefully the doctor’s office had a TV or radio, and hopefully Santana buys him something nice.
  • Santana came up in the bottom of the 8th and proceeded to stand as still as a statue, yet still got a 3-2 count before he finally struck out like he had hoped.
  • The first two outs of the ninth seemed to be possible hits, especially Holliday’s. I was sure that Andres Torres was about to overrun the ball.
  • At the end, a fan in a Gary Carter uniform ran on the field, and, for a few seconds, was able to join in the pileup before being inevitably tackled by security. Maybe it was the fact he had on a Gary Carter jersey, or maybe it was just the neatness that one guy was able to celebrate with his team, but I think that was cool.

So, it was game to remember for every baseball fan in America who isn’t a Cardinals fan. Well, except for Mets radio announcer Josh Lewin:

Ouch.

So, anyway, congratulations to Johan Santana and all of those New York Mets fans who finally have a no-hitter to celebrate. Padres: you are on the clock.