Tag Archives: baseball

Continuum Baseball Rankings Update (Oct. 20, 2014): Asian Games moves some stuff around, but nothing drastic

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The Asian Games occurred late last month. Seven of the eight teams had a talent-level good enough to have it count for them in the Continuum Rankings (Korea, for example, sent KBO players, while Taipei sent players from the Affiliated Minors. The one team that didn’t qualify for Continuum Rankings was Japan, which sent amateurs and semi-pros, which isn’t enough to count). Korea won.

Now, despite all of this, there wasn’t too much movement. While Taipei lost a small amount of points and Korea gained over 19 points, those weren’t enough to cause any changes in the top 10. Instead, there were minor changes down the board, with China and Germany flip-flopping, South Africa and Hong Kong doing the same, and Finland and Mongolia switching places down near the bottom.

Anyway, look below the jump for the full rankings.

 

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Last Night’s Mr. Octobers (2014 LCS Day 1)

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In the LCS round, the winners of the Mr. October get five points, except for in game 7s, where it doubles to 10 points.

Last night’s Mr. Octobers were Alex Gordon and Wade Davis.

Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher, * means eliminated from playoffs):

PP Alex Gordon 8

PP Nelson Cruz 6

PP Matt Carpenter 6

P Wade Davis 5

P Kevin Gausman 3

PP Delmon Young 3

PP Joe Panik 3

P Jake Peavy 3

P Yordano Ventura 3

PP Eric Hosmer 3

P Andrew Miller 3

PP Mike Moustakas 3

P Jered Weaver 3*

P Yusmeiro Petit 3

PP Brandon Belt 3

P Zack Greinke 3*

PP Matt Kemp 3*

P Bud Norris 3

P James Shields 3

P Doug Fister 3*

PP Wilson Ramos 3*

P John Lackey 3

PP Matt Adams 3

P Trevor Rosenthal 3

PP Bryce Harper 3*

P Ryan Vogelsong 3

PP Brandon Crawford 1

P Madison Bumgarner 1

PP Brandon Moss 1*

P Brandon Finnegan 1

You, too, can own a Minecraft Costume once owned by the Schilling Family

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Although nowhere near as creepy as going through Stan Musial’s wallet or as (arguably) outright random as a Mr. Peanut costume that hung out with Reggie Jackson, today’s strange find on eBay is a nice mix of both. Now available on eBay: a Minecraft box mask from the Curt Schilling estate, just in time for Halloween!

“But Dan,” you say, “Curt Schilling isn’t dead! He recovered from that cancer!”

Correct! And thank goodness for that. Instead, his estate sale was a result of a disastrous post-career stint into the Video Game industry that sent him into bankruptcy. Or maybe it was because they just wanted to downsize and so they got rid of a bunch of things. Depends on what story you read.

Still, as a result of that estate sale, we see stuff like this on eBay:

Screen Shot 2014-10-10 at 2.42.36 PMNow, a few things to keep in mind:

1) There is no way of proving this actually was worn by Curt Schilling or (more likely) any of his kids. There isn’t any certificate of authenticity or anything.

2) Look at how likely it is that that thing could break in shipping!

3) It’s kind of disturbing that that belonged to Curt Schilling’s kids and now it’s just being sold online.

4) If you absolutely must have a Minecraft head, I’m sure that there are cheaper ones available, especially once you take shipping into account.

Still, if YOU want this unique piece of tangentially baseball-related “history”… you can.

Yesterday’s Mr. Octobers (October 7, 2014)

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Dodgers/Cardinals: Matt Adams and Trevor Rosenthal.

Nationals/Giants: Bryce Harper (even though they lost) and Ryan Vogelsong

 

Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher, * means eliminated from playoffs):

PP Nelson Cruz 6

PP Matt Carpenter 6

P Kevin Gausman 3

PP Delmon Young 3

PP Joe Panik 3

P Jake Peavy 3

P Yordano Ventura 3

PP Eric Hosmer 3

P Andrew Miller 3

PP Mike Moustakas 3

P Jered Weaver 3*

P Yusmeiro Petit 3

PP Brandon Belt 3

P Zack Greinke 3*

PP Matt Kemp 3*

P Bud Norris 3

P James Shields 3

PP Alex Gordon 3

P Doug Fister 3*

PP Wilson Ramos 3*

P John Lackey 3

PP Matt Adams 3

P Trevor Rosenthal 3

PP Bryce Harper 3*

P Ryan Vogelsong 3

PP Brandon Crawford 1

P Madison Bumgarner 1

PP Brandon Moss 1*

P Brandon Finnegan 1

2014 ALDS and NLDS predictions

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Here are my predictions for the 2014 ALDS and NLDS series:

The Orioles are a good team and have a flare for the dramatic, and also seem to like giving the middle finger to any sort of baseball logic and sense. However, I do not think they can beat the Tigers rotation. Their only shot will be to get to the soft underbelly that is the Detroit bullpen. However, it’s entirely possible that the Tigers’ won’t give them that chance. Tigers in 4.

The Royals/Angels series is a bit less clear, partly because I haven’t seen them “live” as much as I’ve seen the O’s and Tigers, but also because they are very different teams (while the Orioles and Tigers have more-or-less the same approach as each other). The Royals, as we saw during the Wild Card game, are an old-style team that loves to bunt and steal, while relying on pitching to try and make up for all the times that might fail (the Royals actually were one of the worst teams in the league in certain offensive categories this season). The Angels are more of a standard modern team at the plate, with a big-name lineup that was the league’s most productive offense, led, of course, by Mike Trout. Their pitching, however, is nowhere near as big-name as their lineup. With such different teams going at each other, and with strengths going against strengths, this could be anyone’s series. That said, I think the Angels are the better overall team, so I think they will win it. Angels in 4.

The Cardinals/Dodgers matchup is one that has happened many times before- they are two of the flagship teams of baseball and stalwarts of the National League. They met last year in the NLCS and the Cardinals won in 6, but I think this time it’ll be different. The Cardinals no longer have postseason man-god Carlos Beltran, Michael Wacha is still recovering from injury (although certainly the Cardinals maintain a very deep rotation) and Yadier Molina isn’t fully healthy either. The Dodgers, meanwhile, now are another year wiser and experienced, and, oh, right, have Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke all nice and lined up to pitch in order. If not for the fact Hyun-Jin Ryu is going to be coming off an injury and that Dan Haren has long had trouble against the Cardinals, the starting rotation situation for the Dodgers would look almost as good as Detroit’s looks like against the Orioles.

While the Cardinals do have the advantage in bullpen, experience and overall team depth, all of that might mean diddly-squat, though, because this is a best-of-five series and to win the Cardinals will likely have to win at least two games against the 1-2 punch of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke (there are rumors that Don Mattingley will try to go with a 3-man rotation). I don’t think they can, even with Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn. Dodgers in 5.

The Nationals hold a edge against the Giants because  of the Wild Card game. Because the Giants had to play that, they probably won’t be able to have Bumgarner pitch until Game 3. Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson, of course, are also perfectly good (and Ryan Vogelsong has his moments), but they aren’t Bumgarner. The Nationals, meanwhile, will have Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez. So, advantage in the rotation. Nationals also hold the advantage in offense, with a deeper lineup that features two players (Denard Span and Jayson Werth) who were top-10 in batting average in the NL this season and with Bryce Harper having heated up after the All-Star Break and Adam LaRoche. While you can never count out Buster Posey and the rest of the Giants, I feel like the Nationals will win in 4.

 

So, there you go.

Looking at the “Pace of Game” rules that will be experimented in the AFL

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The Arizona Fall League will, this year, be a test bed for some possible rule changes to speed up the pace of play in baseball. It is, of course, an important issue, and I’m glad to see that already some possible changes will be tested. So, let’s take a look at what we’ve got here:

 

Batter’s Box Rule: The batter shall keep at least one foot in the batter’s box throughout his at-bat, unless one of a series of established exceptions occurs, in which case the batter may leave the batter’s box but not the dirt area surrounding home plate. (Exceptions include a foul ball or a foul tip; a pitch forcing the batter out of the batter’s box; “time” being requested and granted; a wild pitch or a passed ball; and several others.)

 

A fine rule to start with. A chunk of the killed time these days is because batters step out to take some practice swings or adjust some equipment after nearly every pitch. So, on the surface, forcing hitters to stay in the box is good. However, there are some possible flaws, mainly in the fact there are a ton of exceptions, with the biggest one being the fact the batter can still call “time”. Yes, sometimes when a batter calls time it is for a good reason, but other times it is just so that they can do the aforementioned practice swings or adjustments. So, ultimately, this rule will only help if umpires cut down on unnecessary calls of “time”, otherwise the problem will remain, just in a different form.

(MORE AFTER THE JUMP)

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Bizarre Baseball Culture: Cal Ripken orders the 2001 Yankees to Save The World

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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

Wolverine of the X-Men has a habit of appearing in comics he technically isn’t supposed to be in, simply because he’s popular. Well, Cal Ripken is the Wolverine of Baseball Comic Books.  He’s joined forces with Batman, led the Shortstop Squad, and been the subject of a bio-comic. Also, like Wolverine, Cal Ripken seemed to be able to recover from any injury, no matter how severe. But, it’s the first similarity that I’m focusing on, because, in the comic I will be looking at today, Cal Ripken appears in a story about the 2001 New York Yankees being Superheroes.

Let that sink in. The New York Yankees, in a comic that they themselves ordered and gave away, still had Cal Ripken in their comic and had him on the cover too.

YanksCalCover

Entitled “Championship Challenge” and given out September 28, 2001, it stars, as you can see, four of the greatest stars the Yankees had that season. Mariano Rivera! Tino Martinez! Jorge Posada! And, of course, the Once and Future Captain, Derek Jeter himself. But, of course, we also see Cal RIpken on the cover, letting everybody know that the Iron Man will be there! With such Ultimate Sports Force stalwarts as Rick Licht writing and Brian Kong doing the art, this was partially made as part of the Ripken farewell celebration, and it becomes even more obvious when you realize that originally Ripken’s final series would have been at Yankee Stadium if not for the schedule reshuffling that MLB did after the 9/11 attacks.

Anyway, go below the jump to read about the story:

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Plenty of Movement in Sept. 24’s post-European Championship Continuum Baseball Rankings

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The European Baseball Championships are over, and were won by the Netherlands. So it’s time for a new round of the Continuum Baseball Rankings! Go to that link for an explanation about them.

This takes into account both the overall results of the tournament as well as head-to-head matchups during it.

Anyway, there was plenty of movement in the rankings because of the tournament. The Dutch, for example, are once again in fifth place, overtaking Taiwan/Taipei. The biggest jump was made by the Belgians, however, who as I predicted earlier have begun to move up the ladder, jumping from 55 to 50. The biggest drop came for Great Britain, which went from 24th to 27th as a result of their play at the European Championships.

It won’t be too long before yet another update of the Rankings, as the Asian Games baseball competition is going on right now- although it should be noted that that will only take into account results for teams that sent professional players or their closest national equivalent.

 

Go below the jump to see the rankings:

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Roger Maris’ golf clubs could be yours!

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It’s that time again for unusual finds on eBay. This time, it’s not a mascot costume that stood next to a baseball legend, but rather a non-baseball sports item used by a baseball legend. One who, while not a Hall of Famer, long held the most famous single-season record in sports and in the minds of many still deserves to hold it.

Yes, you can buy the golf clubs of Roger Maris. And they were made by Hillerich and Bradsby, AKA Louisville Slugger!

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 12.35.03 PMI’m not entirely sure why you’d want them, especially for the 9-thousand-dollar price. I mean, there is the weird curiosity factor that Mr. 61-in-61 held those golf clubs, but just having them isn’t going to suddenly make you him, and it’s not like they hold any sort of baseball history value either, as a bat or a glove would.

But, hey, I’m not the one buying them…

(By the way, the Babe and George Didrikson Zaharias Foundation also has Joe DiMaggio’s driver for auction. That’s only 800 bucks!)

Famous for Something Else: Larry Colton would go on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

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I was watching the documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball last night. It’s a documentary on the Portland Mavericks of the Northwest League in the 1970s. Owned by actor Bing Russell (Kurt‘s father), it was a truly independent minor league team in affiliated baseball. A good documentary, and you should check it out if you have Netflix.

But anyway, among the players for the Mavericks was a pitcher named Larry Colton, who had played in one game with the Phillies back in 1968. After retiring from baseball, he’d become a writer, and his book Counting Coup, about a girls’ basketball team in Montana, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Here’s Colton’s MLB stats:

Year Age Tm Lg W L ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
1968 26 PHI NL 0 0 4.50 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.0 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 9 84 0.38 1.500 13.5 0.0 0.0 9.0
1 Yr 0 0 4.50 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.0 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 9 84 0.38 1.500 13.5 0.0 0.0 9.0
162 Game Avg. 0 0 4.50 68 0 0 0 0 0 136 204 68 68 0 0 0 136 0 0 0 612 84 0.38 1.500 13.5 0.0 0.0 9.0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/21/2014.

And here are his Minor League stats (first pitching, then hitting, as he also played as a position player):

Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff W L W-L% ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W
1965 23 1.1 Eugene NORW A PHI 12 10 .545 2.89 26 26 193.0 172 80 62 8 63 1.218 8.0 0.4 2.9
1966 24 0.7 Macon SOUL AA PHI 11 8 .579 3.77 27 26 186.0 179 94 78 11 73 125 1.355 8.7 0.5 3.5 6.0 1.71
1967 25 -0.6 San Diego PCL AAA PHI 14 14 .500 3.09 31 31 12 1 201.0 207 84 69 9 50 2 106 2 0 7 1.279 9.3 0.4 2.2 4.7 2.12
1968 26 -0.1 San Diego PCL AAA PHI 5 7 .417 3.45 15 14 5 1 99.0 99 45 38 4 24 2 52 0 0 2 1.242 9.0 0.4 2.2 4.7 2.17
1969 27 1.1 Eugene PCL AAA PHI 11 9 .550 4.18 26 25 8 1 0 155.0 150 81 72 12 54 4 79 0 1 6 1.316 8.7 0.7 3.1 4.6 1.46
1970 28 2.6 Tacoma PCL AAA CHC 12 14 .462 4.24 32 28 12 2 1 221.0 226 116 104 24 76 7 118 2 2 17 1.367 9.2 1.0 3.1 4.8 1.55
1975 33 11.7 Portland NORW A- 0 2 .000 10.64 3 3 1 0 0 11.0 18 16 13 3 5 0 2 0 0 0 2.091 14.7 2.5 4.1 1.6 0.40
7 Seasons 65 64 .504 3.68 160 153 38 5 1 1066.0 1051 516 436 71 345 15 482 4 3 32 1.310 8.9 0.6 2.9 4.1 1.40
A- (1 season) A- 0 2 .000 10.64 3 3 1 0 0 11.0 18 16 13 3 5 0 2 0 0 0 2.091 14.7 2.5 4.1 1.6 0.40
A (1 season) A 12 10 .545 2.89 26 26 193.0 172 80 62 8 63 1.218 8.0 0.4 2.9
AA (1 season) AA 11 8 .579 3.77 27 26 186.0 179 94 78 11 73 125 1.355 8.7 0.5 3.5 6.0 1.71
AAA (4 seasons) AAA 42 44 .488 3.77 104 98 37 5 1 676.0 682 326 283 49 204 15 355 4 3 32 1.311 9.1 0.7 2.7 4.7 1.74
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/21/2014.
Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB HBP SH SF
1965 23 0.8 Eugene NORW A PHI 34 73 24 3 0 0 .329 .370 27
1966 24 0.3 Macon SOUL AA PHI 36 76 69 6 15 2 0 0 7 0 0 7 28 .217 .289 .246 .536 17
1967 25 -1.6 2 Teams 2 Lgs AAA-WRk PHI 34 79 5 18 4 0 0 8 0 0 4 31 .228 .278 22 0 5 0
1967 25 Phillies FLIL WRk PHI
1967 25 -1.6 San Diego PCL AAA PHI 34 88 79 5 18 4 0 0 8 0 0 4 31 .228 .265 .278 .544 22 0 5 0
1968 26 -0.4 2 Teams 2 Lgs AAA-WRk PHI 17 39 2 10 2 1 0 3 1 0 1 13 .256 .359 14 0 0 0
1968 26 Phillies FLIL WRk PHI
1968 26 -0.4 San Diego PCL AAA PHI 17 40 39 2 10 2 1 0 3 1 0 1 13 .256 .275 .359 .634 14 0 0 0
1969 27 1.4 Eugene PCL AAA PHI 27 63 52 7 15 2 0 2 5 0 0 8 17 .288 .383 .442 .826 23 0 3 0
1970 28 2.9 Tacoma PCL AAA CHC 32 82 70 7 12 2 1 1 10 0 0 7 21 .171 .247 .271 .518 19 0 5 0
1975 33 12.1 Portland NORW A- 11 24 20 2 6 3 0 1 7 0 0 3 3 .300 .375 .600 .975 12 0 0 1
7 Seasons 191 446 402 29 100 18 2 4 40 1 0 30 113 .249 .300 .333 .634 134 0 13 1
WRk (2 seasons) WRk
A- (1 season) A- 11 24 20 2 6 3 0 1 7 0 0 3 3 .300 .375 .600 .975 12 0 0 1
A (1 season) A 34 73 73 24 3 0 0 .329 .329 .370 .699 27
AA (1 season) AA 36 76 69 6 15 2 0 0 7 0 0 7 28 .217 .289 .246 .536 17
AAA (4 seasons) AAA 110 273 240 21 55 10 2 3 26 1 0 20 82 .229 .288 .325 .613 78 0 13 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/21/2014.