During the regular season, I can see where MLB might fail to get the national deal they’d like. But what’s happening this post-season is a disaster.
Watching the playoffs the last two nights, the Prospectus staff sounds off. We pick it up at the end of Angels-Yankees, Game 1.
Recently, BP’s authors got into a heated debate over the merits of Shea Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand, you may remember, started the 2002 season on fire, setting Red Sox Nation hearts aflutter and confounding statheads everywhere.
Watching the Mariners crawl their way toward respectability like the first fishes onto the world’s beaches, I never would have believed that Ken Griffey Jr. might ever not be the best player in baseball, much less that he would end up being considered junior to his dad. It’s happening, though.
Unstoppable force, immovable object, best hitter of all time versus…well, if not exactly the best, one of the game’s best rotations.
This is my favorite playoff series, if only because it’s going to finally put the lie to Bud Selig’s constant lament that no team in the lower half of payroll has ever advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs. The Twins and the A’s were respectively 27th and 28th in ESPN’s Opening Day payroll tally. I’m surprised that the right Honorable Commissioner didn’t intervene and ‘fix’ the matchups in what he might see as the best interests of baseball. One of these teams will win three games and advance, only to be immediately heralded as an aberration, no matter what happens when they face the Yankees.
There are some obvious storylines specific to the Arizona/St. Louis matchup, as derived from the generic list above. Let’s lay those out, and address them one by one:
The Diamondbacks would really prefer to have a healthy Luis Gonzalez.
The Diamondbacks are backing into the playoffs.
The Cardinals are peaking at exactly the right time.
This is a match-up of opposites in many ways, not the least being the teams’ post-season histories. The Yankees have won the World Series 26 times, including four of the past six years. To achieve a similar level of dominance, the Angels would have had to win 10 championships in their 41 years of existence. Instead, they enter the playoffs with the most meager post-season tradition of any Divisional Series participant, with three first-round exits in as many tries.
“I really have no timetable. The good Lord has blessed me with the health. I’m not going to give it up if I can still perform, compete and enjoy the game.” –Rickey Henderson, Red Sox outfielder, asked how much longer he’d go
Having resolved that pesky AL West issue, one of the most interesting races left is in Milwaukee. Brewers shortstop Jose Hernandez is fighting inconsistent playing time and a fickle manager to set the all-time strikeout record; as of today, he’s stuck on 188, just one shy of Bobby Bonds’ major-league season record.
ANAHEIM ANGELS
Purchased the contract of C-R Sal Fasano from Salt Lake. [9/16]
Hopefully, Fasano is up to finish the season behind the plate now that the Angels have clinched that last playoff spot, allowing Los Dos Molinas a chance to get a couple of days off before the playoffs. As somebody with a weak spot in my heart/head for catchers with that Mark Parent/Dave Duncan offensive profile, the guy who can throw a little and pound a home run every couple of weeks, regular readers know I’ve always coughed up plenty of kind words on behalf of Sal Fasano
It’s Wednesday night, and I didn’t write my column early because I was watching the Mariners-Athletics game. Now I sit down, feeling a little vindicated for my season-long fight against local anti-Mike Cameron sentiment.
The Mariners face the A’s again tomorrow, starting Joel Pineiro against Cory Lidle. The Angels have John Lackey facing Colby Lewis. I don’t think this particularly unfair to the Mariners; it’s not as if they didn’t have their chances to beat up on bad teams, or anything. Their pit is one they’ve dug themselves with crappy pickups and a low-key battle between the manager and GM, where Piniella seems determined to put the awful pieces he’s been given (like Jose Offerman) in crucial game situations where their failures are magnified. Gillick in retaliation doesn’t care.
“We’re pleased with the progress of the club and the direction through Jeff’s leadership.” –Larry Beinfest, Marlins general manager, on bringing manager Jeff Torborg back for the 2003 season
Baseball as a whole grossly underestimates the kind of serious threat that unhinged nutbags like this represent. Something needs to be done to prevent this sort of horrible incident from happening in the future. It isn’t possible to stop any and all potential acts of the truly determined and unbalanced. The occasional deranged crank is always going to be able to slip through any mechanism or process designed to keep them out. Still, all possible and feasible efforts should be made to ensure the safety of the innocent and unsuspecting.
I speak, of course, of the extension of Jeff Torborg’s managerial contract.
After hurting his elbow in 1974, Tommy John’s successful 11-year career with the Indians, White Sox and Dodgers looked like it was over. But Dr. Frank Jobe and his partner Dr. Robert Kerlan parlayed a long-shot procedure (ulnar collateral replacement surgery) into 14 more productive years for John’s left elbow.