I know the Orioles are looking for another starter after sending Brian Burres to wherever they sent him (Is he on the ML roster? I don’t even care). But it seems pretty clear that the starter they are looking for is not Dennis Sarfate. He has now started three games. I honestly can’t decide which is his worst performance. He hasn’t gotten through the fifth inning. His ERA is 11.45. His WHIP is 2.18. That’s 13 hits and 11 walks in 11 innings. And the 13 hits I can even forgive. You can give up a hit even when you make a perfect pitch. It happens. But walking a batter per inning is just inexcusable. As Satchel Paige (supposedly) said, “Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move”. I have no idea if he actually said that – it’s often attributed to him, but it’s never been entirely clear if he really said the things they say he said. But it’s good advice nonetheless. At least if you throw the ball over the plate, you have a chance to succeed. I’m not interested in seeing him pitch any more. He wasn’t a great reliever, and he’s a miserable starter. It’s really too bad Jeremy Guthrie can’t pitch every night.
Tag: baseball
Of all the dumb things to say
I’ve always been a fan of Mike Mussina. He broke into the league in 1991, and quickly became a star the next season. He was a big part of some exciting Orioles teams that kept losing to the Blue Jays. I’ve never been a fan of Murray Chass. He’s a favorite target of Fire Joe Morgan, and deservedly so. He recently started a blog, but refuses to call it a blog, refuses to allow comments . . . He pretty much took all that’s good about a blog and threw it away, while taking all that’s bad about journalism and put it on a pedestal. Anyway, today he’s writing about Mike Mussina. He has no idea what he’s talking about. So, because Mussina is having a good year at age 39, and people think he might finally break the 20-win mark for the first time, we’re starting to hear talk about the Hall of Fame. That seems pretty reasonable – five of the ten comparable pitchers listed at Baseball Reference are in the Hall, and at least one more (Curt Schilling) has a good shot. What does Murray Chass think about this? “Mussina has an impressive career won-lost record (265-151) but not much else.” His won-lost record is actually the least impressive thing about his career. Sure, he’s 39th all time in winning percentage for players with 100 decisions. That’s pretty good. But won-lost record is a pretty useless measure of a player’s actual ability. Let’s look, though, at the good measures of a player’s actual ability. Let’s look at WHIP, 1.19, 9th among active players. Let’s look at K/BB ratio, 3.56, 13th all time. Or how about strikeouts, 2759, 21st all time. All of those are much better measures of a pitcher’s ability, and in all of those Mussina compares well with Hall of Fame pitchers. What else does Chass have to say? He compares Mussina to some of his compatriots who are not in the Hall – Tommy John, Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat. “All had career victory totals in the 280s. Except for winning percentage, all had better records than Mussina.” I’m not even sure I can address that. What does it even mean? Let’s start with Tommy John. 288-231 career record, a winning percentage of .555. That’s not nearly as good as Mussina. Neither is his 1.28 WHIP, 1.78 K/BB, or total strikeouts, 2245. Then look at Jim Kaat. 283-237 (.544), 1.26 WHIP, 2.27 K/BB, 2461 K. Not in the same league. Now, Blyleven is harder to bash, because he, like Mussina, deserves to be in the Hall. He’s become something of a sabermetrics poster boy. He excelled in the “new-fangled” stats like WHIP (1.20), K/BB (2.80), strikeouts (3701), 5th all time. But he played on crummy teams, and compiled a 287-250 record (.534), and it’s keeping him out of the Hall.
John and Kaat were each 20-game winners three times, Blyleven once. Mussina doesn’t come close to the number of complete games and shutouts any of the three had. The three had slightly lower totals of baserunners per nine innings. But why let facts get in the way of a partisan view?
I’m not sure how he’s measuring baserunners per nine innings, because all three are higher than Mussina. It’s true, Musinna’s complete games and shutouts are low. But no one (except Roy Halladay) finishes games anymore. Mussina is fourth in both categories among active pitchers, so he compares well to present-day pitchers. So, Murray Chass, I can only conclude that you are either a moron or a Red Sox fan. You certainly don’t seem to know a whole lot about baseball.
Let’s blow this way out of proportion!
Orioles rookie Chris Waters, so green he doesn’t even have a Baseball-Reference.com major league page yet, made his debut last night in the bigs, making the Angels look silly. He opened his career by striking out Chone Figgins on three pitches. Unfortunately, the wife and I only watched the first five innings – the game was in LA/Anaheim/Sacramento/whatever and didn’t start until 10 Eastern. But Waters didn’t need us – 8 innings, one hit, three walks, and a hit batter. No runs. That sure takes away the sting of Brandon Fahey’s demotion. Anyway, despite the fact that he’s making his debut just shy of his 28th birthday, and the small sample size, I’m going to go ahead and call him a first ballot Hall of Famer. I predict he’ll give up his first earned run sometime in 2011 (and it won’t be his fault), become the first pitcher in years to win 30 games in a season, and cure cancer with his curveball. ESPN wrap
Tragedy in Baltimore!
Originally uploaded by thetejon
Okay, maybe “tragedy” is a bit of an exaggeration. But first poor Brandon Fahey, despite getting his slash stats up to .241/.267/.345, has been sent to Norfolk, the O’s AAA affiliate. And then George “Captain Overrated” Sherrill blew another save by loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth and walking in the winning run. The Orioles came back from 5-1 in the ninth and he walked in the winning run. It is unconscionable that he was not traded for prospects at the trading deadline. Were I the Orioles GM, I would have taken $30 and a ham sandwich for Sherrill. Actually, were I the Orioles GM, I probably would have had him taken out back and shot a month ago. In any event, the loss of Brandon Fahey pains me more. I was really starting to like the little guy. I don’t know why we sent him down. I mean, I do, but I don’t like it. It’s obvious that Alex Cintron and Juan Castro are not the future at shortstop. Why even bother with a 36-year-old infielder on a team that is clearly not going to make the playoffs this year? Good luck in Norfolk, Fahey. And come back soon (You could have Sherrill’s spot, or Sarfate’s, if it were up to me).
Worst Game Ever
Originally uploaded by thetejon
Seriously. I finally made it to Yankee Stadium. And I was rewarded for my troubles (Well, the wife’s troubles. Thanks, wife!) with a horrible Orioles loss. Sarfate managed only 4 innings, walking three and allowing five runs, although only three earned. Burres and Cabrera were even worse. On the bright side, I did see a future Hall of Famer hit a home run in one of the most hallowed places in baseball. And we had a nice lunch with a friend and a nice dinner with a brother-in-law. I was impressed with the Yankees fans. They were much more pleasant on their home turf than they are in Baltimore. There were a few words exchanged between Yankee and Oriole fans, but nothing nasty. And the Orioles fans actually came out in pretty good numbers. The guy next to me was part of a group of about 400 O’s fans from Pennsylvania who came up for the game. The new Yankee stadium across the street is UGLY. I mean, hideous. I didn’t get a good look at it, and the inside is probably nicer, but the outside looks like a giant bank. Next on my list of stadiums to visit is Wrigley Field. Probably not this year, though.
Glad I just use the Nationals for their convenient stadium
It’s been a rough week for the Nationals. Since a 15-6 win over Atlanta on July 20th, they’ve lost six straight. Three of their last four games were shutouts, and tonight’s game was a shutout until the 8th. They’re still losing, 2-1, as I write this. They have the worst record in baseball. They’ve scored the fewest runs in all of baseball (Nearly 100 fewer than the next worst team in their division, and the only team in the majors with under 400 scored). But they sure have a nice park, huh?
MASN is the worst network ever
The MASN HD feed on Comcast in DC is simply the worst quality HD signal I’ve ever seen. I actually turned on the non-HD feed, hoping it would be better. It wasn’t. I know no one cares about the Orioles, but they’re playing the Yankees. You’d think someone in their organization would make sure the DC-area Yankee fans could watch the game in peace, and then I could benefit indirectly. At least the Orioles are winning. At least Adam Jones just hit his first career grand slam to put the O’s up, 11-0, in the sixth.
Comcast did something right
I complain a lot about Comcast Cable in DC. Any of you in the area waiting for Verizon Fios to come to DC and at least make Comcast pretend to compete know what I’m talking about. But they’re actually doing something cool right now – they’re doing a free preview of their MLB Extra Innings package. Unfortunately, it ends tomorrow, and I just found out about it today. And most of it isn’t in HD. But it means I get to watch the first game of the big Mets-Phillies series, and watch the big rivalry that no one (but my wife’s coworkers) cares about, David Wright vs Ryan Howard. So far Wright is winning. Both are one for three, but Wright has a double, run, and RBI, while Howard just has a single. Good thing I’m not making rash statements based on small sample sizes. I’m a little tempted to pay $129 for Extra Innings for the rest of the season. But I watch too much tv as it is, and I don’t REALLY need to watch out of market baseball games. Maybe when I retire.
Nice night for a baseball game
I was thinking this afternoon that I might watch the Orioles game, since I’m still more or less stuck on the couch. The foot is better, but it’s tough to move around. Dinner intervened (The wife has been fantastic about taking care of me while I’m immobile), and we didn’t see the beginning of the game. I checked ESPN to find the Orioles down, 6-2, after only one inning. That wasn’t encouraging. Daniel Cabrera was walking batters and giving up bombs. It took a minute to find the game – at first I thought MASN was only showing the Nats game (Seriously, who’s watching that?), but then we found the Orioles. It was 7-2 by that time. And then the O’s came back. Let me take a quick break from writing – as I was typing that last sentence, Luke Scott hit a monstrous home run to win it in the bottom of the 10th after a bad call at the plate to end the Detroit half of the inning. Anyway, a big back and forth game, a huge home run from Ramon Hernandez to blow a save for Joel Zumaya, 17 hits for the Orioles. Crazy. But this post is tagged complaint. It was one thing when the Red Sox and Yankees were in Baltimore and the crowd was cheering the visiting team. Not that I think that’s okay, but it’s expected. But in the top of the tenth, the Tigers cheers were loud. The Tigers! That’s the team from Detroit. Who cares about the Tigers? Okay, so the wife likes the Tigers. She’s from Michigan, so it’s okay. But I don’t expect to hear Tigers chants at Camden Yards. Peter Angelos needs to go. Camden Yards is going to be the fastest stadium to 50,000,000 fans in the history of baseball (Although I have to think that the new Yankees stadium will eventually beat that). But if you look at the average attendance each year, you see a big dropoff. It was 45,000 a year for the first seven years, then it dropped under 40,000, and then under 30,000. The Orioles have not shown a commitment to winning in a decade. Their payroll isn’t the problem – they don’t spend Red Sox/Yankees money, but they aren’t the Marlins, either. But Angelos has been too busy complaining about the Nationals to bother putting a good team on the field. This year has been a surprise – the offseason looked like they were rebuilding, and then all of a sudden we have the best team we’ve had in Baltimore in a while. Anyway, it was a fun game to watch. I hope Angelos was busy doing something else and didn’t get to enjoy it, too.
What is Billy Beane doing?
Just after shipping Rich Harden to the Cubs, Billy Beane trades Joe Blanton to the Phillies? I mean, these seem like fine deals if your team sucks and you’re looking to rebuild for the future, but the Athletics are 51-44, only six games out of first. Seems like the time you want to be adding that one critical part, not dealing away the critical part to National League teams. I read Moneyball, and like anyone else who blogs about baseball, I think Billy Beane can leap tall buildings and travel through time and trade overpaid pitchers for prospects just before their arms go out, but a baseball team can’t compete without a starting rotation. Should be an interesting second half for anyone following the Athletics.