Friday, May 30, 2003
There were a multitude of reasons why Boston acquired Byung-Hyun Kim, but maybe this is the best: He's a black belt and tae kwon do. Charge the mound. I dare you.
Of course he'd become a Red Sox. He too has been hammered by the Yankees. But somehow I don't think he's yet gotten the cultural significance of going to the team that has played patsy to the Yankees for the past 80 years. Speaking on the series explosion: ''At the time, it felt like I was in hell,'' Kim said. ''But now, as I look back, it was a learning experience. Now, I feel like I'm in heaven.'' Not heaven, BK. Not Iowa either.
At first I thought this deal was a steal for the Red Sox and I do believe they did themselves a service by getting rid of Hillenbrand, mostly because he can't hit at home. When you log a .293 on-base and a .359 slugging in Fenway, it's time to go. Shea's road splits are pretty decent. 340 OBP/.505 Slug. According to Joe Sheehan over at Baseball Prospectus, he'll probably do pretty well at the BOB, where line drive hitters thrive, so the deal probably can work ok for the Snakes. Now all they have to do is address 2nd, SS, 1st, CF and RF positions. Besides that, they're doing ok. No really. I mean it.
Thursday, May 29, 2003
So what is QuesTec? It depends who you ask.
If you asked Sandy Alderson he'd call it a cutting edge technology able to accurately judge the performance of umpires, who are resistant to because it works. "We don't really believe that this current challenge is based on the QuesTec system. We think it's based on the unwillingness of a handful of individuals to get with the program. They don't want a uniform strike zone. They want to do it the way they've done it the last 20 years," Alderson said to Wired News last summer.
If you asked the umpires they'd say it's half-baked untested technology that is being used to unfairly evaluated their performance. "It is not sufficiently accurate or reliable to provide a sound and objective basis to evaluate umpires," World Umpire Union lawyer Joel Smith told the Associated Press after they filed a grievance over the use of QuesTec.
If you asked Curt Schilling, he's less sanguine about it: "The QuesTec system in this ballpark is a joke," Schilling said after taking a bat to one of the $5000 cameras that judges balls and strikes after his start on Sunday. "The umpires have admitted it. They hate it. In the last three starts I've made here, multiple times umpires have said to the catcher, 'It's a pitch I want to call a strike but the machine won't let me.' "
What the system has done so far is stop umpires from calling balls 2-3 inches off the plate a strike. Umpires always set up between the batter and catcher, right over the receiver's shoulder, leading to getting a very good look at the inside pitch...and guessing at the pitch off the plate. It's always been an unwritten rule that the pitcher gets a couple inches off the plate, especially if you have two strikes on the hitter. Pitchers like Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine have made a living pitching out there. But now there's a new electronic sherrif in town, and umpires are being more careful about ringing up guys on the outside pitch, which led to Schilling's meltdown on Sunday.
But the problem isn't really QuesTec. It's the enforcement of the strike zone. Alderson for years has been trying to get the strike zone more uniform. Now he's got an electronic aid. Better buckle in because this story (and the technology) isn't going away for a long long time.
Other Random Crap:
-Apparently the Red Sox and D'Backs are closing a deal that would bring spare-part third baseman Shea Hillenbrand to Phoenix for Byung-Hyun Kim. Probably on the strength of Kim's performance against the Yankees in the 2001 series.... Use caution with this one: it's a Gammons rumor.
-Gammons's take on scouting a la Lewis.
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Beane has to be dying. He's still a month away from even talking about a deal for another bat and the offense looks not-so-hot. They went from scoring 5.1 runs in April to 4.1 in May, which isn't going to get it done in the AL. The aforementioned Tejada doesn't look like he's going to come out of it anytime soon, Chavez hasn't done that much better and the rest of the lineup is average at best. Although they couldn't afford the contract, letting Ray Durham skip to the other side of the bay has probably hurt the team more than any other move. It sure seems like the team is expecting the rehabbing Jermaine Dye to jumpstart the lineup. It's probably a longshot. But when you're the A's, longshots are your most important commodity.
The play Hops mentions was one of the funniest things I've ever seen at a baseball game. I was laughing so hard, an usher had to tell me to stand up and stop blocking the aisle. A couple things Hops doesn't mention: 1) What the hell is Grissom thinking? He's standing there looking at Ruben. Um, Marquis, how about picking up the baserunner in front of you. It's a pretty simple rule. If a baserunner is doing a three stooges routine, you probably don't want to go to the bag he's occupying. 2) The D'Backs make three, yes three, errors in the inning. Galarraga's ball went right through the Tony Womack's wicket (yes, Ruben was a pinch runner--it just keeps getting better and better, aye?). David Dellucci drops a can of corn in right. Junior Spivey gets credit for a throwing error to third, although, give me a break--the ball hit the bag and richoceted between 2nd and 3rd. You throw the ball and it hits the bag, the fielder (Alex Cintron in this case) should get the error. Womack was the only person on the field completely under control. He just picked up the ball and lobbed it to Rod Barajas, who almost dropped it, which of course would have been the topper, before applying the tag on Ruben. All in all, a truly brilliant little league play.
Neither of those teams could have hit their way out of wet paper bag last night. Between the D'Backs and the Giants, they have a half dozen guys who are just in deep funks. Jose Cruz was 2 for 4 and I have no idea how as he had some of the worst cuts I've seen in baseball, well outside of Neifi (Worst Hitter in NL) Perez.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
The problem is that kids can't produce. Well, like Paul says, maybe you get lucky. But most of the time, it's 50-100 plate appearances of swinging and missing, followed by a train ticket back down.
It'd behoove the Sox to not have lost Kenny Lofton's, Tom Goodwin's, or Brady Anderson's number when making center field plans. While their production surely wouldn't have been outstanding, it wouldn't have been the soul crushing disaster that the Sox are facing with players like Crede or Borchard. You get a little bit better numbers, and you don't screw up a young player who hasn't figured out how to control the strike zone.
But then again, it didn't hurt the center fielder on the North Side of town.
You're a major league general manager in a top media market. Your team has been tragically underperforming, mostly because of the woeful struggles of your young players, who are either stupid or not very good. Your offense is moribund and needs a spark. There's a player that is in the minors. People think he's the best prospect you have. You've paid him a boatload of money to play ball. You think that he might be the answer. Except that he's still trying to figure out how to hit. And he has tendinitis in his wrist and hasn't performed very well this year.
But if you're Kenny Williams, general manager of the White Sox, you call him up anyways. Which is why you'll find Joe Borchard trolling center field for the Sox this week. Who knows, maybe Williams thinks Borchard will lead the two-minute drill for the team. Because he's not going to hit.
