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Twins go to Chicago tied for first


Sometimes, as the saying goes, it's not who you play but when you play 'em.

The White Sox had to play the Baltimore Orioles in the O's first week under new manager Buck Showalter. For whatever reason, Buck's Birds are 6-1 — 3-1 against Chicago — and the upshot of that is that the White Sox have fallen into a tie with the Twins going into this three-game series in Chicago.

It's mid-August, and the Twins and Chisox have more head-to-head series after this one.

But it's worth knowing: The Twins have just one season-closing series left with an East Division team (Toronto). The White Sox have three games later this month with Baltimore (who may well have regressed by then), three with the Yankees, and seven in September with the Boston Red Sox.

Twins fans should hope that the Red Sox are still contending then and not just playing out the string.
more:here

The sinking Mariners


Don Wakamatsu was fired Monday as manager of the Seattle Mariners. He wasn't a completely innocent bystander in the M's implosion, but their 42-70 record when he was fired wasn't all his doing either.

He got the job for the 2009 season, part of a new regime that featured Jack Zduiencik as the general manager. Zduiencik had been the scouting director of the Milwaukee Brewers, and he had a distinctive style in that job. He focused on bats.

Prince Fielder was too fat and too slow for most teams; Zduiencik took him in the first round. Rickie Weeks was an amateur second baseman, and there's a long-standing scouting rule about not signing amateur second basemen, because a player with the athletic ability to play infield in the majors is going to be a shortstop in high school or college. Zduiencik took Weeks with the second overall pick. Matt LaPorta was a man without an obvious position; Zduiencik took him in the first round.

Then he came to Seattle and — surprise — reshaped a bad team around defense.

The M's already had Ichiro Suzuki. Zduiencik traded for Franklin Gutierrez, a bit player in Cleveland; Wakamatsu installed Gutierrez in center; Gutierrez quickly established himself as an eye-popping defender. At times the M's played three legit center fielders in their outfield. They made a midseason trade for a legitimately outstanding defensive shortstop. The sophisticated defensive metrics were off the charts.

Seattle was last in the league in runs scored, batting average, walks drawn and on-base percentage. They had just two pitchers work more than 100 innings. And they won 85 games. Eighty-five wins off Felix Hernandez and defense.

Zduiencik doubled down on this strategy. His corner infielders, Russell Branyan and Adrian Beltre, left as free agents; he replaced their 39 homers with a second leadoff man (Chone Figgins) and good-glove, weak-stick first baseman (Casey Kotchman). He traded a handful of prospects for Cliff Lee. He exchanged high-cost disappointment Carlos Silva for high-cost disappointment Milton Bradley.

And somebody — maybe Zduiencik, maybe the ownership, maybe even Wakamatsu — decided to bring back aging legend Ken Griffey Jr.

There was Internet chatter about how brilliant Zduiencik is, praise for his grasp of defensive metrics, how Silva for Bradley was a no-lose proposition. The M's were a trendy pick to win the division.

And it all went to hell.

The offense is even worse than in 2009. Lee has been shipped off for a different handful of prospects. The pitching staff, with Lee gone, is back to being King Felix and a cast of thousands. Bradley was a pain, and Silva is 10-5 with the Cubs.

Griffey might have been the key. He was there because he was Ken Griffey Jr., and that helped sell tickets in '09. He was expected to be a good influence on the troubled Bradley. More than that, he was supposed to contribute something as a DH. He hadn't been great in 2009, but he had his moments.

But he was toast, and Wakamatsu was in an impossible position. Griffey, as it turned out, held more respect in the clubhouse than the manager did. When Wakamatsu benched Griffey, and the superstar retired, the rest of the team turned on the manager. Bradley acted up. Figgins, long seen as a class act, rebelled. Wakamatsu's superiors — Zduiencik or the people above the GM — were unwilling to take the heat for ending Griffey's career.

Now Wakamatsu is gone, and the same people who were so impressed by Zduiencik's reshaping of the M's are jeering his missteps.


source:here

Contemplating Michael Cuddyer


Earlier this season, when Michael Cuddyer was playing some at third base, I suggested that the stress of playing the more difficult defensive position was sapping his bat.

Here, according to Baseball Reference, are Cuddyer's career averages by defensive position, listed in order of plate appearances (at least 100 plate appearances):

RF (2,411 plate appearances): BA .269/ OBP .343/ SLG .446
3B (610): .261/.327/.430
1B (424): .296/.368/.522
2B (184): .248/.330/.429

He's got a bit more than 100 other plate appearances scattered about left field, center field, DH, and pinch-hitting, not enough to put any weight at all on.

A similar pattern is to be seen in this season's splits for him.

Even if these splits would hold up over time — Cuddyer hasn't had even the equivalent of a full season at first base — I wouldn't bench a healthy Justin Morneau to give the first base job to him. But the numbers do suggest that he's best at first base — and that his offense gets better when he has less to do defensively.

source:here

The Cuddyer Principle in effect


Michael Cuddyer may hit better when playing first base, but he had a rough game there Wednesday.

Early on, broadcaster Bert Blyleven relayed to viewers the idea at Cuddyer not only plays multiple positions, he plays them all well.

No. He plays them passably — which is not an indictment. It's praise. There are a lot of nuances to major league baseball, even at the simplest positions (such as first base); for a player to start games at five different positions without embarrassing himself totally at any is an accomplishment.

But the Cuddyer Principle — that you can get by for while with an out-of-position player before he demonstrates that he's out of position — is still true.

Chicago's third run (third inning) was set up with Cuddyer couldn't handle a throw. Alexi Ramirez advanced to second on the error and scored on the following batter's single.

A key piece of Chicago's three-run fifth inning — an outburst that drove Glen Perkins from the mound and essentially buried the Twins chances — was Cuddyer's inability to turn a pickoff of Juan Pierre into an out. Pierre took off for second, Cuddyer made a weak throw, and Pierre was credited with a stolen base. (Photo above)

No error charged, but still a missed out. That led directly to Pierre's run, and indirectly to another run later in the inning.

Perkins wasn't great, but his defense —not limited to Cuddyer — did him no favors.

source:here

What we knees to know


Twins knees to know: Jose Mijares goes on the 15-day disabled list with his knee injury. I've seen nothing on whether he needs surgery or how long he's expected to be out, but he's clearly not going to pitch for a couple of weeks at least.

Jeff Manship got the callup. What I expect: Manship takes the long-man role. Glen Perkins, who figured to inherit that burden (all this is assuming that Kevin Slowey's elbow is not going to keep him from starting this weekend) will become the second lefty in the bullpen, with Ron Mahay assuming Mijares' spot as the primary LOOGY.

I can hear you groaning about that. But lefties are only hitting .230/.250/.295 against Mahay. The damage has come from right-handed hitters. He's actually been more effective than Mijares against lefties.

And that said, if Mijares is out for the year, I would expect the Twins to scour the waiver wire for a lefty reliever, because off last night, it's difficult to have much faith in Perkins.

Famous knees to know: He hasn't said so explicitly, but I assume that Chipper Jones' playing days came to an end Wednesday night when he blew out his ACL. (Photo above)

Bill James did an elaborate age-to-age comparison between Jones and Eddie Mathews (it's in the 2010 edition of the Bill James Gold Mine) and concluded that Jones was slightly superior to Mathews — who was a great player.

No question in my mind that Chipper's going to the Hall of Fame.

more:here

Inelegant effectiveness


It wasn't elegant, but it was effective.

Francisco Liriano didn't make it through six innings. He allowed seven hits (to be sure, two of them didn't get out of the infield), walked two, hit two. He got 17 outs while allowing 11 baserunners.

Three times the White Sox loaded the bases. But only once did they score.

Inelegant pitching? Absolutely. But a good sight for Twins fans anyway, to see Liriano — who last year essentially admitted that he had trouble keeping his composure — wriggle out of jams.

This was an inelegant series. The losing team in all three games did things to embarrass themselves. Getting picked off; failing to turn pick offs into outs; committing balks.

But Twins fans will take the result — two out of three in the White Sox's home park and a return to first place in the AL Central.

Inelegant but eloquent: The Sox Machine blog (a link to which sits on my siderail) is two blogs in one. Sox Machine talks about issues involving the White Sox; State of the Sox does game recaps.

The recap for Thursday's game has no words, just this picture.
more:here

Pennant chase daze


It's been more than a month since Justin Morneau took a knee to the head while breaking up a double play, and the concussion's effects linger. He'll be back when he's back. Unless he isn't.

He's had concussions before, and while much is unknown about these brain injuries, one concussion is thought to make the next all the more likely, and there is doubtless some cumulative effect as well.

Under those circumstances, a batting helmet — even the newfangled helmets the major leaguers are resisting on the basis of their dorky appearance — may not be sufficient protection from a fastball to the noggin. Or a shortstop's knee in the temple, as in Morneau's early-July injury.

So the Twins will stick for the foreseeable future with Michael Cuddyer at first, as they did last season down the stretch, and the heedless will deride Morneau as soft.

Which he isn't. Even if he were, so what? We each get one brain to play with per lifetime and no more.


source:here

Ex-Twins watch: Craig Breslow and Steve Tolleson


I wasn't thrilled when the Twins tossed Craig Breslow aside in May of 2009, and nothing that has transpired since suggests to me that discarding him was the right move.

When the Twins waived him, Breslow had a 6.28 ERA in a bit more than 14 innings. He went to Oakland and ran off a 2.60 ERA in 55-plus innings — this while the Twins were cycling though lefty relievers.

And this season? He entered Saturday's game with a 3.12 ERA in 52 IP. His splits still suggest, as they did with the Twins in 2008, that he's overqualified for the LOOGY role.

In the wake of Jose Mijares' injury, the loss of Breslow continues to sting.

Yes, Breslow gave up a run Saturday, but that was in part because his infield failed to get the out at third base when Denard Span decided to go from second to third on a grounder to short.

And the shortstop involved in that play? Steve Tolleson spent years in the Twins farm system — they drafted him in the fifth round in 2005 — before he was waived to make room on the 40-man roster when the Twins signed Jim Thome.

With the Twins he was generally a second baseman; the A's used him mainly at shortstop in Triple A Sacramento this year (54 games at short, 13 at third, just five at second), where he hit .332. (Last year he hit .266 between Double A and Triple A for the Twins; this illustrates the difference between the Pacific Coast League and the International/Eastern Leagues.)

I don't know if the Twins underestimated Tolleson's defense or if the A's are overestimating it, but I do know that the Twins had a few years to evaluate him. Nor do I know if he's going to get serious playing time at short in Oakland; Cliff Pennington has been the regular there, and he's hardly emerged as a star. I suspect that neither is the answer to the shortstop question.

(Tolleson is the on-deck hitter in the photo above.)
more:here

Pulling Slowey and other poll stuff


Kevin Slowey missed a start with elbow tendinitis. His strike-to-ball ratio Sunday wasn't its usual 2-1; it was more like 3-2. He wasn't getting ahead of hitters in his usual fashion.

And yet he had a no-hitter after seven innings.

I saw little of Slowey's outing (listened on the radio while doing yardwork), but I came in to see him pitch the seventh. I saw a pitcher laboring.

This is not an easy call for a manager. Ron Gardenhire opted to pull Slowey after 106 pitches, and as much as I would love to see Slowey get a no-hitter, I think it was the right call.

Heck, when even Bert "pitch until your arm falls off" Blyleven doesn't argue with the decision to pull a pitcher, it's probably pretty obvious.

What do YOU think? That's this week's poll question.

----

Last week's poll concerned second base in 2011. We had 40 votes.

Nineteen (47 percent) want Alexi Casilla to get the first crack at the job. Thirteen (33 percent) want Orlando Hudson re-signed. Eight (20 percent) want a third option.
more:here

More on defensive stats

The Monday print column discusses the difficulty of defensive stats. In it I promised links to two pieces, one a critique of the newfangled formulas, the other a defense.

For Tim Marchman's critique, click here.

For Joe Posnanski's take, click here.

If you read them carefully, I think you'll find they agree on a lot. The difference is one of attitude. Posnanski acknowledges that the numbers aren't perfect, but he's still willing to put more weight on them than Marchman will; Marchman knows the numbers are advancing closer to something resembling the truth, but isn't willing to drive his truck over their bridge.
more:here

Where Ozzie (and I) went wrong on Thome


The common off-day angle on this Twins-White Sox series was Jim Thome. It was a story that more or less wrote itself:

  • Thome had played for the White Sox (2006-2009);
  • The Sox toyed with bringing him back as a free agent during the winter and chose not to, with manager Ozzie Guillen explaining that there wouldn't be sufficient at-bats for him;
  • The Twins signed him to a low-priced one-year deal with no commitment on playing time;
  • He has mashed with Minnesota (17 homers, .593 slugging percentage in 253 plateappearances);
  • The White Sox are believed to be looking now for left-handed power.

Conclusion: The White Sox screwed up.

Maybe so. I wasn't enthused about the Thome signing at the time myself. I was concerned about how his inability to play in the field would thin the bench and reckoned that the White Sox had concluded that age had eroded his hitting.

Guillen, for political reasons, was never going to say anything like We think Thome can't hit lefties or a good fastball anymore. But that was likely part of their thinking when they shipped him to the Dodgers last August, and even more so this winter.

Thome is a one-dimensional player. He can't run and he hasn't played in the field in years. He has to hit to help a team.

He has helped the Twins.

Tuesday's 10th-inning game-winning home run came off a hard-throwing lefty-handed reliever (Matt Thornton) — exactly the kind of guy I figured would eat Thome up. He had two singles earlier in the game against John Danks, a left-handed starter. Thome's playing time against southpaws has been limited, but in his first 60 plate appearances against lefties (56 at-bats) he hit four homers and slugged .500. Lot of strikeouts, few walks — but he hasn't been Jacque Jones helpless against southpaws.

I don't know how well Ron Gardenhire would be doing at juggling playing time if Justin Morneau had remained healthy. He had turned to playing Michael Cuddyer at third base in order to get Thome, Jason Kubel, Delmon Young and Cuddyer all in the lineup at once, and I didn't think it was helping. The defense suffered, and Cuddyer wasn't hitting.

Guillen, meanwhile, isn't backing down on his preference to have players who can play in the field and run a bit. And it isn't like the White Sox have lost all their power.

Here's Guillen after the game on the Thome homer:

''I will take that matchup again, Maybe Thome will hit a home run again. He's hit about 600 home runs. Jim Thome is a home-run hitter, he's a very strong man, he's been doing it for a lot of years. If center fielder Denard Span hit that home run in that inning, then I would be crying here. But Jim Thome hit it, you go shower and go and get it tonight.''

more:here

Guillen and Thome, Part II


Ozzie Guillen had a pregame rant Wednesday on the subject of Jim Thome not being with the White Sox.

As I said, or at least implied, in the previous post, I agreed with the intent of making the White Sox roster more versatile. Thome is a one-dimensional player. It's a mighty important dimension, however.

A few Ozzie points I wanted to comment on specifically:

* He cites the White Sox' record in interleague play. Yes, the Sox had a very good run against the National League. I'm inclined, however, to assign the credit at least as much to the incredibly soft schedule the Sox (and Tigers) had, especially as compared to the Twins.

* He specifically says that the Thome he saw the past few years couldn't have hit Thornton's fastball as he did last night.

* He suggests that White Sox fans ought to miss Jermaine Dye at least as much as Thome. But: Dye is out of baseball, as a right-handed hitter he wouldn't fill the left-handed power void and there doesn't seem much cause to second-guess the Sox for not bringing him back.

I don't know if he's reopening the notion that Dye didn't get an offer he liked because he's black. Thome accepted a $1.5 million (with incentives) deal from the Twins; supposedly Dye turned down some offers as too low for a player of his stature. If so, Dye violated a bit of Jim Leyland wisdom offered several years ago to a journeyman player on a hot streak: Don't price yourself out of the game.
source:here

Leaping over the White Sox


Ten games ago, the Twins trailed the White Sox by two games in the standings.

This morning the Twins lead by five games. If they can complete the sweep tonight, it will be six games; even if Chicago salvages this one, a four-game lead looks pretty good from here.

The magic number is 38.

---

No retaliation Wednesday night. I wasn't pleased on Tuesday with Delmon Young's high forearm on A.J. Pierzynski when Young was thrown out at home, and thought it likely that there's be some brushbacks the next day. Didn't happen.

There was some gum flapping preceding that play. In the series last week against Chicago, Glen Perkins hit Carlos Quentin with a pitch, and Ozzie Guillen at least pretended to believe Perkins was throwing at "Q." But Quentin leads the league in HBP for a reason, which is that he stands on top of home plate and dives.

Before the series started, Juan Nieves, the White Sox bullpen coach, told a radio station that he's thought of urging his pitchers to punk a few Twins and see if they can start a fight. (He named Mauer specifically.)

If that's on the agenda now that the Sox are on the verge of sinking, putting it out in public in advance is really bad strategy.

source:here

Splitting the difference


Baseball stats always tell us something about what has happened. Using such history to foretell the future — or even to evaluate the present — is tricky.

Remember the gloom and doom earlier this season about the Twins and their lack of success with the bases loaded? Even LaVelle Neal, who really ought to know better, was reading something significant into 65 at-bats.

I thought of that Thursday night when Jason Kubel came up with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. Actually, I thought of a lot of stat splits, because FSN put up a graphic with Kubel's bases-loaded splits, which are impressive. (But they never put up a graphic with his numbers against left-handed pitching, which are considerably less impressive.)

Anyway:

* Twins with the bases loaded this year: 138 plate appearances, 117 official at-bats: .291/.319/.444. That is by far their lowest on-base percentage of any bases occupied split, probably because pitchers really don't want to walk a run in, but it's also one of the highest slugging percentages, probably for the same reason.

(Numbers come from Baseball Reference's team splits page. At the time I was writing this, the page had not been updated with Thursday's results.)

One hundred-seventeen at-bats, 138 plate appearances — these are still small sample sizes. The Twins have been less productive with the bases loaded than when the bases aren't loaded — but not so drastically so that everybody's noticing.

* Jason Kubel with the bases loaded this year: 22 PA, 17 AB, .353/.409/.765, 21 RBIs.

* Kubel, bases loaded, career: 76 PA, 62 AB, .403/.395/.839. Note that his on-base percentage is lower than his batting average — his nine sac flies drive the OPB down. And that's the kind of anomaly one gets with such small sample sizes.

* Kubel versus left-handed pitchers, career: 555 PA, 489 AB, .231/.310/.352. Not quite a full season's worth of chances — in his entire major league career.

* Kubel versus LHP, 2010: 147 PA, 127 AB, .209/.299/.339. Not good. Also not, in and of itself, proof of anything — but combined with his career track record, still suggestive.


more:here

Duensing impressing


Brian Duensing had yet another superb start Friday night — eight innings, seven hits, no walks, six strikeouts, one run.

The assumption here has been that in the playoffs, the lefty will return to the bullpen, where he has also been effective. His run as a starter — since replacing Nick Blackburn in the rotation, he's 4-0, 2.18 — might be changing that.

It also should be noted, however, that most of those starts have come against rather weak lineups. Cleveland, Kansas City, Baltimore, Oakland — even the Angels have struggled to score runs this season. The best team he's faced so far, Tampa Bay, is also the one that gave him the most trouble (three runs in six innings).

After Duensing's three-hit shutout against Oakland in his previous start, Ron Gardenhire pulled the Johan Santana comparison. Yes, like Santana in 2003, Duensing started the season in the bullpen, then shifted to the rotation. Santana quickly became the Twins best starter and earned his first Cy Young Award the following season.

Duensing is no Santana. Santana was — and even in decline, remains — harder to hit. Duensing is striking out a bit more than five men per nine innings. Santana fanned more than a batter per inning every season in the Twins rotation, and even now is around 6.5 K/9.

It's no rap on Duensing to say he doesn't match Santana at his best. The question for the Twins as October nears is which four starters give them their best shot at advancing through the postseason. They have several more weeks to determine that.
source:here

Sunday morning: Pitchers goin' down


A number of pitching injuries from Saturday to discuss today.

The big one nationally is Stephen Strasburg (pictured), but being a Twins parochial I'll save the budding superstar for later.

A week ago today Ron Gardenhire pulled Kevin Slowey from a no-hitter in an attempt to avoid an arm injury. Saturday Slowey struggled to get outs — or even to keep the ball in the park — and reported a problem in his right triceps.

The prognosis isn't in, but he's out: 15-day DL for Slowey, and Nick Blackburn is back to the rotation.

Blackburn is not as talented as Slowey, but he does have a track record, and the reports on him in Triple A have been positive. He's rediscovered his sinker, we are told. Maybe so.

I regard Blackburn as a downgrade from Slowey, but not necessarily a massive one.

Ron Mahay is a less important piece of the puzzle, but a less-easily replaced one. With the earlier injury to Jose Mijares, the veteran LOOGY had become the Twins' top left-handed bullpen option.

But on Saturday Mahay injured his right shoulder when he fell while pursuing a ground ball. He's also already on the 15-day DL, with Anthony Slama recalled to fill his roster space. But Slama's right-handed. So is everybody else in the Minnesota bullpen, with the exception of Glen Perkins. And Perkins has not, in the past, demonstrated the skill set of a lefty-killer.

At least Mahay's injury is to his non-pitching arm.

OK, on to Strasburg. He threw one of those otherworldly pitches of his Saturday -- a 90-mph changeup? Really? -- grimaced and looked at his elbow. Out of the game he went, and let the speculation begin.

As with Slowey and Mahay, the specifics of the injury are unclear.

What I do know: It's not just amateur analysts (such as moi) suspicious of Strasburg's delivery. Don Cooper, the White Sox pitching coach -- who knows a thing or two about keeping pitchers healthy -- said a month ago he sees trouble ahead for the Washington pitcher.

I don't wish injuries on anybody, so I hope I'm wrong. But if he's having arm miseries when being babied along, this is not going to end well.

---
Poll stuff: Last week's question was about pulling Slowey from his no-hit bid. We had 57 responses, which I believe is the record for this blog. (Feel free to be either impressed or unimpressed.)

Fifty (87 percent) agreed with pulling him. Seven (13 percent) did not.

New poll up.

source:here

More on pitches per out


Continuing a topic from the Monday print column:

I drew up three groups of pitchers, using the season stats entering Friday's play:

1) The six pitchers who have started the most games for the Twins (no innings requirements)

2) The ten pitchers with the highest strikeout/nine innings rate (120 innings minimum)

3) The five pitchers with the lowest K/9 rate (120 innings minimum).

Francisco Liriano (pictured) is in both (1) and (2), so we've got 20 pitchers total.

Twins group (ordered by K/9 rate)

Liriano: 9.81 K/9, 454 outs, 2,387 pitches, 5.25 pitches per out
Scott Baker: 7.53, 432, 2,236, 5.18
Kevin Slowey: 6.57, 403, 2,181, 5.41
Carl Pavano: 5.71, 522, 2,451, 4.70
Brian Duensing: 5.12, 253, 1,157, 4.57
Nick Blackburn: 3.03, 312, 1,585, 5.08


High strikeout group (excluding Liriano, who would be third)

Brandon Morrow: 10.48 K/9, 394 outs, 2,250 pitches, 5.71 pitches per out
Jered Weaver: 9.96, 504, 2,871, 5.70
Yovani Gallardo: 9.78, 428, 2473, 5.78
Tim Lincecum: 9.55, 478, 2,643, 5.53
Jonathan Sanchez: 9.35, 436, 2,482, 5.69
Clayton Kershaw: 9.32, 472, 2,645, 5.60
Cole Hamels: 9.17, 477, 2,585, 5.42
Jon Lester: 9.17, 489, 2,612, 5.34
Mat Latos: 9.08, 428, 2,242, 5.23


Low strikeout

Livan Hernandez: 4.59 K/9, 494 outs, 2,485 pitches, 5.03 pitches per out
Bronson Arroyo: 4.57, 502, 2,513, 5.01
Kyle Kendrick: 4.51, 413, 2,152, 5.21
Paul Maholm: 4.37, 439, 2,420, 5.51
Mark Buehrle: 3.82, 481, 2,445, 5.08

----
Any great insights here?

1) The Twins pitchers, with the exception of Slowey, tend to put hitters away quickly. Duensing (in very limited innings) and Pavano (who got the most outs of these 20 pitchers) are the two most efficient in the pools. What separates Slowey from the others? My guess is (a) nibbling when he's ahead in the count and (b) foul balls.

2) Three of the five low-strikeout starters have at least 160 innings pitched; only two of the 10 high-strikeout pitchers are there.

3) The high-strikeout group is young; I don't think there's a 30-year-old listed. There are a bunch of guys in this group who could win a Cy Young in a given year and nobody would be too surprised. And there are three guys in their first full season in a rotation.

4) Doing just five of the low-strikeout guys (and setting the innings limit at roughly the ERA qualifying point) probably makes that group look better. Most pitchers with strikeout rates that low lose their jobs in a hurry. These guys have done well enough to keep their jobs, and none of the five is really in jeopardy. They are the definition of innings-eaters.
more:here

Contemplating Lou Piniella


Citing pressing family issues --specifically the grave illness of his mother -- Lou Piniella walked away from his job managing the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.

This was about 40 games earlier than planned, and (at risk of being overly brutal) about 120 games too late. But these Cubs — overpaid, oversensitive and emphatically unproductive — may be impossible to manage anyway. Pity the fool who lands this supposedly plum job for 2011.

The general consensus on Piniella's managerial career is that it's Hall of Fame worthy. I'm not so sure about that. Yes, he's 14th on the career wins list, he guided the 1990 Reds to a surprising World Series win and even his record with the Cubs is probably better than I give him credit for.

But I suspect that too many of his teams were working against him and his decisions. His Seattle Mariners teams may have done less with more than any club in history. Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez were all together at one point, all at the top (or close to it) of their games, and they added up to what?

But then, he may be managing's Richie Ashburn. Ashburn's star was dimmed by being a 1950s center fielder, which means he was a peer of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider. Piniella's managerial career may simply appear to be less impressive to me because it coincides with those of Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre.

It appears to me that the irony of the Cubs over the past decade is that when they had a stable of power pitchers, they had a manager (Dusty Baker) who handled the staff as if it were comprised of the sinker-slider types he succeeded with in San Francisco. And after the big fastballs vanished in the inevitable injuries, the Cubs hired Piniella, who loves power pitchers and ended with with rotations featuring pitch-to-contact guys.

If Wrigley was the right place for Sweet Lou, he got there at the wrong time.
source:here

Around the division: Chicago White Sox


While the first-place Twins were playing the disappointing but still dangerous Angels this weekend, the second-place White Sox had a three-game set in Kansas City.

In theory, this was a chance for the Sox to make up some ground. Instead, they slid a game further back — and did it in excruciating fashion, as all three games went extra innings, with a backdrop of bad blood toward one of the umpires and frustration with the TV rules.

The saga begins with Friday night, when the game began despite the expectation of drenching rain. The rain came, and stayed, and washed out what little had been accomplished.

The crew chief, and hence the man responsible for calling the game, was Joe West. The Sox had a run-in with West in May, and in the wake of Friday's rainout weren't happy with the decision to start the game to begin with.

But:

  • Generally speaking, it's not the umpires' decision until the game starts. Up to then, it's usually the home team's call. (There are exceptions, and maybe this was one.)
  • If Ozzie Guillen expected heavy rain, he didn't have to start Edwin Jackson. He could have deployed one of his middle relievers.
  • Jackson threw just seven pitches before the game was called. Seven! Sure, he warmed up beforehand but still ... this is a guy who threw 147 pitches earlier this season to get a no-hitter, and now he's burned for five days by a seven-pitch outing?

My take: Ozzie messed this one up.

Saturday: Because Fox has an exclusive TV window on Saturday, the rain-out was rescheduled as a nighttime double-header. First game started after 6 p.m. It went extra innings, with the Royals winning. The second game went extra innings, with the Sox winning (and Tony Pena, normally a middle reliever, going seven innings for Ozzie).


All kinds of deliciousness for me in this mess of a series.


Oh, one more thing about the Sox: Ace lefty reliever Matt Thornton hasn't thrown a pitch since Jim Thome's homer last week and may be headed to the disabled list.

more:here

Nick-picking: Is Blackburn back?


(But first: There is a downside to keeping your eye on the ball.)

A very nice job turned in Monday night by Nick Blackburn, better than I anticipated: Seven innings and three runs, eight baserunners allowed, five strikeouts.

Rich Harden deserves credit for his fine start for Texas — 6.2 no-hit innings — but had the Twins defense done its job, Harden wouldn't even have left with a lead.

Ron Gardenhire grumbled about Orlando Hudson playing Josh Hamilton too deep in the first inning, allowing an infield hit that set up Daniel Murphy's two-run triple. I thought Denard Span probably should have caught Murphy's deep fly. Either way, those runs were preventable. The third run on Blackburn came when J.J. Hardy bounced his throw to first base on what appeared to be an easy double play. (Hardy's throwing suggests that his wrist is a real hindrance.)

All the runs were earned, but they were preventable. Not that preventing them would have gotten the Twins a win.

That game might be about as well as Blackburn can pitch. He threw strikes, got ground balls, even struck out Vlad Guerrero looking. It would be a good time for him to go on one of his streaks of good starts. But then, it always is a good time to pitch well.


source:here

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