Baseball Prospectus: Obviously by the time you left the Expos to broadcast Marlins games for the 2001 season the off-field situation had deteriorated in Montreal. But the Marlins seem to have faced many of the same problems. How does the Marlins’ situation differ from the Expos’? Dave Van Horne: There are huge question marks in Miami–really a lot of the same signs we saw in Montreal. There is a level of support in spirit if not financially though; local government wants all sports to succeed in Florida, including the Marlins and the Devil Rays. But the political climate here is that public money can’t be used to prop up professional sports franchises. The question then becomes: Does Jeffrey Loria have the wherewithal–both the money and influence–to pull this off? He’ll be tested.
One of the perks of traveling for work–I’ve been doing a lot of that lately–is the USA Today planted in front of your hotel room door. Sure, for the most part, McPaper’s articles are about as substantive as the “continental breakfast” you’re likely to eat while reading it–but now and then, in its own glossy, Technicolor way, USA Today stumbles across something significant.
Last Wednesday’s sports page featured a headline on leadoff hitters–it seems that there aren’t very many good ones these days. As the article pointed out, none of the league’s leadoff hitters are among the top 30 players in OBP. Among qualified players, the highest-ranking leadoff hitter is Ichiro Suzuki, 39th as of this writing (Jason Kendall, who has occupied the leadoff spot in Pittsburgh since the departure of Kenny Lofton, ranks 31st). And it’s not as if Suzuki or Kendall are walking machines in the mold of Rickey Henderson–Ichiro is a fine player who can hit .340 consistently, but his walk rate is well below league average, while Kendall’s OBP is boosted in part by his fearless desire to lean into pitches.
Then again, players of the Rickey/Tim Raines profile have never been terribly common. It also doesn’t help when teams insist on placing mediocrities like Eric Young or Endy Chavez in the one-hole. Is anything going on here, apart from a one-year fluke?
Theo Epstein won’t get much sleep this week, but whatever shut-eye he does grab is going to be very, very good. Epstein, who rode out four months of small-minded teasing about his age, followed by two months of ridicule as the initial implementation of the non-closer-centric bullpen went sour, has positioned the Red Sox to be the AL’s most dangerous team down the stretch of his first year as GM.
Yesterday’s acquisition of Scott Williamson from the Reds might complete the roster, and it fills out the bullpen with the second of three pitchers best-suited to make this type of pen work. One of the others is Byung-Hyun Kim, who Epstein acquired two months ago for the extra third baseman he had lying around in Shea Hillenbrand. (The other is Octavio Dotel.)
The turnaround is stunning. For a modest cost, the Red Sox have not only picked up the two puzzle pieces that make their entire plan work, but they’ve upgraded their bullpen from a collection of high-risk, high-reward question marks to perhaps the game’s best. In addition to right-handers Kim and Williamson, the Sox have two effective lefties in Alan Embree and Scott Sauerbeck. And after a season of seeing more than a dozen pitchers post negative ARPs, the Sox go into the last two months with the following relievers…
After a great night at the ballpark with BP intern Cliff Roscow and the attendees of our first “Baseball 101” presentation, I’m coming in a bit late and, in fact, I’m already well past deadline. Rather than skip a day of UTK–yeah, I know how to keep you addicted–this will be short, stripped down, and tight: think of it as the White Stripes edition of UTK. If this and the rest of the content at BP Premium isn’t enough for you, let me recommend checking out a phenomenal interview with Michael Lewis by some-time BP contributor Alex Belth. OK, onto the injuries…
The Orioles’ pitching has come to life, costing Geronimo Gil his job. The Rockies got a strong debut out of Chin-Hui Tsao. The Mets sift through their B prospects while waiting for Huber, Wright, and Kazmir. These and other news and notes out of Baltimore, Colorado, and New York in today’s Prospectus Triple Play.
Transaction Analysis brings you the latest of Chris Kahrl’s daily updates, featured all Trade Deadline week long. The Braves’ battered bullpen needs Jason Marquis to contribute. The Reds clean house. The Astros will have to somehow cope without Brian Hunter. Scratch Kris Benson off the trade market. These and other tidbits and Kahrlisms in today’s TA.