Back by popular demand, I bring you another installment of “Conversations With Dave,” which are, in fact, not with Dave, but with someone not named Dave at all, who’s not a stathead or blogger, or even a management consultant. The conversation was not transcribed perfectly, but Dave has had an opportunity to review and approve the final copy, to make certain he wasn’t misrepresented.
Jaret Wright doesn’t get it. Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker talk chemistry. Doubles or home runs? Tough question, according to the Brewers. All this and more in this week’s edition of The Week In Quotes.
The last week was a whirlwind, with four Pizza Feeds in three days in the Philadelphia and New York areas. At every one, I got to meet enthusiastic BP readers who provided both great feedback on the book and the Web site, as well as hours of interesting baseball talk. The highlights for me were the first and last events: Tuesday afternoon’s Feed in Philly’s Central City included a great Q&A session from an overflow crowd, while Thursday night’s session in Brooklyn featured another group that spilled out into the Fiction and Literature aisles, and a panel of five BPers touching on everything from fantasy baseball to what wins in the postseason to the World War II-era Washington Senators. One thing I’ll take from this trip is the enthusiasm for baseball I encountered in both cities. For all the shots Philadelphia sports fans have taken, they seem genuinely excited about this year’s team and the opening of Citizens Bank Ballpark. They have good reason to be, because their boys are the consensus favorite to win the NL East. Even my pessimism about Larry Bowa can’t convince me that the Phillies will do anything but win the division comfortably this year. Meanwhile, New York was its usual baseball-crazed self; I had any number of random conversations with people who, upon discovering what it is I do, wanted to give me their analysis of the Yankees’ rotation, the Mets’ new acquisitions, and the not-so-popular baseball team located a bit to the Northeast.
While the Cubs and Astros are the consensus picks, there are smart analysts out there picking the Cardinals. There are reasons to believe this, but in the immortal words of The Dude, “The Dude cannot abide.” This lineup is not only bright Cardinal red, but a whole bunch of yellow. The second base situation is so bad that comparing it to an Ed Wood movie is an insult to Ed Wood, fuzzy sweater or not. Simply put, this team has the talent to win, but probably can’t keep that talent between the lines long enough to really challenge the Astros and Cubs. As Walter Sobchak would say, “You’re about to enter a world of pain.” Every position player has a light on the Cardinals, something I didn’t think had happened before. I checked and there’s never been more than six lights for the position players, even for AL teams where the DH is included in my lineups. The Cardinals can abide almost any injury as long as it’s not Albert Pujols. Pujols is gaining distance from his sprained elbow, but it remains a concern. His injury risk is reduced at first, but he remains yellow… and yet he’s the least risky player on the field.