Whoosh

David Wright seems to have a strike-out problem.

As a Mets fan, hearing the words “Putz” and “option for closer” gives me the cold sweats.

Howard Bryant has a new book about Hank Aaron.  The NY Times makes it today’s Book of the Times.  A snip from the review:

Mr. Bryant, a senior writer for ESPN magazine, quotes the sportscaster Bob Costas as remarking, about Mays, that we “associate him with fun” and remember him with fondness. With Aaron, he added, “it is all about respect.” That quotation lingers like wood smoke over “The Last Hero.” These biographies of Mays and Aaron, taken together, are a striking and elegiac assessment of race relations in America during the 20th century. They are elegant portraits, as well, of two different ways of being a man. Wrap them both up for the 14-year-old in your life. The volume that’ll be left standing when the major book awards are handed out, though, is Mr. Bryant’s, I suspect. His is the brawny one, the one with serious and complicated swat.

Filed under: Uncategorized, David Wright, Henry Aaron, Howard Bryant, JJ Putz

Cleaning Up the Reader (Vol. 3)

And finally, we’re caught up.  Almost.

The Mets are doing the Little Things.  Matt Klaassen explains.

Grant Balfour is throwing slower, yet more effectively in this young season.

MLB Trade Rumors offers some interesting odds and ends.  One such end: Sweet Lou isn’t Cincy bound.

Joe Posnanski feels for Zach Greinke.  I think Zach must feel for himself too.

A great Cleveland Indians take down.  Worth your five minutes.  Thank you, Bruce Dennan:  “We stink, stink.”

You say Sandoval, I tell my middle infielders to “roll it up.”

Filed under: Uncategorized, cleveland indians, Grant Balfour, joe posananski, Mets, zach greinke

Cleaning Up the Reader (Vol. 2)

Another sprint through the links of the last week:

The Good Phight thinks the Phils have a prospect brewing down on the farm.

PhilliesNation reflects on the late Robin Roberts and his pitching style. 

Are the Sox of Red in a must-win situation tonight?  Perhaps, think their fans.

Andy McPhail is unpleased.  Do you blame him?

Courtesy of The Book and TangoTiger, via the WSJ: the size of the strike zone for different batters.  This is a must read.

Beyond the Box Score names the least valuable players in baseball right, sabermetrically speaking, of course.

Also from BTBS: ten players with whom to start your franchise.

And finally, Tim Lincecum strikes many batters out.  He does it consistently too.  Don’t believe me?  Check the graph.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Andy McPhail, Beyond the Box Score, orioles, Phillies, Red Sox, The Book, Tim Lincecum, wall street journal

Dog Bites Man (Again)

Nick Johnson will miss significant time due to a [fill in the blank].

The NYT can do that for you:

A torn tendon sheath in that same wrist required surgery in 2008 and limited him to 38 games for Washington, but it was unclear whether Johnson had injured the same tendon. Even before receiving the results of the M.R.I. test, the Yankees anticipated losing him for a while, and they recalled the utility player Kevin Russo from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

–snip–

When asked how many weeks Johnson was expected to miss, Manager Joe Girardi said, “Several is more than two and less than many.”

—

Also in today’s Times, we learn that David Ortiz is grumpy.  And so are Sox fans.

Filed under: Uncategorized, david ortiz, injuries, new york times, nick johnson, Red Sox, Yankees

Cleaning Up the Reader (Vol. 1)

The reader has over 1,000 entries.  With that in mind, call this volume one.  And on to the links…

Murray Chass weighed in on the recent immigration legislation in Arizona.

The Bats blog remembered Robin Roberts and the major role he played for the Phillies — after he retired.

I didn’t receive any newspapers while in Detroit and had no email access.  At the same time I was there, Ernie Halwell got called up to call the games in heaven.  The Bats blog gives Harwell’s HOF speech full text.  We here at BaseballJeremiad do too:

“Baseball is the president tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That’s baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his 714 home runs.

“There’s a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That’s baseball. So is the scout reporting that a 16-year-old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

 “In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another.

“Baseball is a rookie, his experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It’s a veteran too, a tired old man of 35 hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

“Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over-aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

“Baseball is just a game, as simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

“Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That’s baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.’

“Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, ‘Down in front,’ ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ and ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’

“Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball! Thank you.”

From a week ago, but still a good question: Is D-Murph the next Super Joe?

Shoulder tightness always makes me nervous.

Phil Birnbaum at Sabermetric Research performed a study on game times that nearly made my head explode.

Sorry Red Sox fans, but questions about your Papi abound.

Time to catch my breathe.  More to come…

Filed under: Uncategorized, bats blog, daniel murphy, david ortiz, ernie harwell, mike pelfrey, murray chass, Rob Neyer