Ultimate baseball league: Seattle Mariners

Hey, Félix Hernández might actually get some run support. The first four spots in the all-time Mariners lineup includes four likely Hall of Famers, which raises the question of how in hell they never won a pennant during the years from approximately 1995 through 2002.

(Short answers: pitching, playoff baseball is a crapshoot and who cares, it was 10 years ago.)

King Félix leads a starting rotation that is relatively strong for a 35-year-old franchise, even with Randy Johnson needed elsewhere.

STARTING LINEUP

1. RF Ichiro Suzuki,* 2004 (8.1). This was about the point (the 262-hit season) when he went from foreign curiosity to living legend. The last great singles hitter is about two-plus seasons away from 4,000 hits combined for NPB and MLB, four seasons away from three thou in North America.
   
   
2. 3B Edgar Martinez, 1992 (5.9). The most beloved Mariner will become the first DH in the Hall of Fame one of these days. Nineteen ninety-two was Gar's best hitting season (.343/.404/.544 slash line) while he was a position player, so let's use it to keep the DH spot open. It is either that or use either David Bell, Russ Davis or Jim Presley and no one wants that.
   
   
3. CF Ken Griffey,* 1996 (9.7). As Poz put it, Junior "was so much to watch that he he probably inspired to people to think he was better than he was." Saying Griffey inspired people to think he was better than Barry Bonds would have been more to the point. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2016.
   
   
4. SS Alex Rodríguez, 2000 (11.0). The only debate is which A-Rod season to use. How did he not win MVP for leading a thoroughly mediocre Mariners team to a playoff spot in '00?
   
   
5. 1B Alvin Davis,* 1984 (5.6). Typically associated with Bill James' concept of young players with old player skills. Davis on-based .380 career, more than decent considering his era.
   
   
6. LF Mike Cameron, 2001 (6.4). Three-time Gold Glover slides left on the defensive spectrum, since nobody puts peak-value Griffey in an outfield corner. This also takes care of the Mariners' eternal vacuum in left field. Cameron has never made enough contact to an elite player, but he's always been a treat to watch.
   
   
7. DH Ken Phelps,* 1986 (3.7 oWAR) / Richie Sexson 2005 (3.9).
   
   "They kept saying, 'Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps.' " The irony of that is the Seinfeld-ized George Steinbrenner's baseball people were clearly in the right. Phelps was 31 in 1986 when he finally got a regular swing in the majors; he wore out right-handed pitching. He and the lefty-mashing Sexson would form a good platoon.
   
   
8. 2B Harold Reynolds,# 1989 (4.2). Three Gold Gloves, good at getting on base, occasional boundary issues.
   
   
9. C Kenji Johjima, 2007 (3.4) / Dan Wilson, 1997 (3.3). A pair of good catch-and-throw types can decide which starting pitchers to work with. Wilson caught 190 of Jamie Moyer's career starts.
   

STARTING PITCHERS

• RHS Félix Hernández, 2010 (6.0). Fingers are crossed that he did not waste the best 250 innings of his pitching life on a 101-loss team. Becomes the ace since Randy Johnson is needed elsewhere.


• LHS Jamie Moyer, 1999 (5.7). Last threw a fastball in Babe Ruth league, but one of the all-time survivors.


• LHS Mark Langston, 1988 (5.6). The best pitcher the Mariners had until the guy who came from the Expos in exchange for him (the kicker is the Randy Johnson deal was not a blunder, since 6-foot-10 pitchers aren't sure things). Langston probably should have never left Seattle, but the team had some cheapskate ownership.


• RHS Mike Moore, 1985 (5.6). Power pitcher who started the trend of Mariners pitchers being a big part of World Series-winning staffs.


• RHS Freddy García, 1999 (5.0). The six degrees of García include being traded for Randy Johnson and mentoring his compatriot, Hernández. Probably should be given the 2001 Cy Young (he had a 3.05 ERA that season) retroactively).


• RHS Scott Bankhead, 1989 (4.2). Must have known how to pitch, since he was generously listed at 5-foot-10.

BENCH

• 2B José López, 2008 (3.9). Once had more home runs in a season than bases on balls. That is difficult to do!


• OF Tom Paciorek, 1981 (3.9). It is arguable Paciorek had the best season by a Seattle left fielder during a strike-shortened season. That does not say much for the club, does it?


• INF David Bell, 2001 (3.1). In the mid-aughties the Philies had Chase Utley and Placido Polanco and couldn't figure out that one of them should bump Bell off third base.

BULLPEN

• RHR Bill Caudill, 1982 (4.3). Scott Boras is not the devil, but Caudill was the vessel for one of his more notorious stunts.


• CL J.J. Putz, 2007 (3.9). One of the best relief seasons ever, which gulled the New York Mets into signing him.


• RHR Bill Swift, 1991 (3.5). Was lights-out as a middle reliever in Seattle, then converted to starting after being part of a 3-for-1 deal that stuck the Mariners with Kevin Mitchell.


• RHR Enrique Romo, 1977 (2.9). Once held the record for saves by a pitcher on a first-year team (16 for Seattle in '77). Major league career ended when his team couldn't find him. Was also traded for Mario Mendoza, namesake of the Mendoza line.


• LHR Arthur Rhodes, 2002 (2.7). Do not comment on his diamond earrings.

Batter up: Seattle Mariners

It's that mystical, wonderful time of year where you commit to a team which you know fully well won't win. This season, in honour of an popular Internet meme that's probably been around for 25 years, we'll present 25 things about each team. Here's the Seattle preview, in which we rely on U.S.S. Mariner for almost everything.

1. Slogan for 2009: "A New Way. A New Day." I give it a B-. They do, legitimately, have a new way about them this year (read on) but the creativity isn't there, guys. At least it's not "Our Team. Our Time."
   
2. 2008? Not good. They had one hitter with an OPS+ substantially above 100, and he couldn't catch a cold in a Grade 1 classroom in December. Second-worst offense, fourth-worst defense. Fifty-four starts, most of them awful, from Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn, who collectively received $30M for that fine work.
3. Newer Slimmer Carlos Silva is down 30 pounds this year, apparently. I'll spare you the list of players who said they were in the best shape of their life in spring training this year.
   
4. And even when they won last year, they didn't do it very well. The best example is June 9 at Toronto. Down by one in the seventh with two on and the, er, heart of the Blue Jays order coming up, they call for Batista. We'll get to Batista in a second, but two days before that game, he was bombed out of Fenway, so any manager worth his sunflower seeds should recognize he wasn't the ideal choice to handle a high-leverage situation against Scott Rolen and Vernon Wells.
5. Related to the last point: Any lineup that allows the other team to intentionally walk Ichiro in a tie game in the ninth... wow.
6. The best way to build a bullpen is to grab a bunch of cheap pitchers who can't start, tell one of them he's throwing the ninth, and see who in the group isn't terrible. Which makes one wonder where Batista, owed another $9 million this year, fits in. A sunk-cost-ish argument from U.S.S. Mariner says he should be released; the value put on his first two Seattle years at Fangraphs (paid 15.5 million, worth about four) doesn't disagree.
7. Roy Corcoran, Mark Lowe, David Aardsma, Tyler Walker, Jesus Delgado, and Chad Cordero. All making less than $1M in 2009, all likely to be just as good as more expensive pitchers.
   
8. Okay, so they lost 100 games in 2008. But this year should be better: not only do they have simple regression on their side, but they've actually put some effort into their manager, GM, and player acquisitions. When Don Wakamatsu, hereafter referred to as Wak, was hired in November, USS Mariner (not known for being optimistic about the local nine) said: "There’s no way to describe the last month as anything but total and utter change of direction. And that, in and of itself, is encouraging."
9. Wak comes from the A's, where he was their bench coach, and he's probably a little more prepared to be a manager than other bench coaches. Not that a manager matters that much, but any small advantage is still not a disadvantage.
10. Another good decision was the hiring of Jack Zduriencik. No, I don't know how to pronounce that. This isn't an A's/Red Sox stats thing, but rather a Twins/Braves development thing. For nine years or so, he was the Brewers' scouting director and/or assistant to the regional general manager and has been in similar positions going back to 1990. Back to USSM for their opinion: "If you want to know why the Brewers were in the playoffs this year, it’s because Zduriencik hit home run after home run in the draft. This is a good hire."
11. Can't find the link where it's discussed, but the Mariners are perhaps uniquely positioned to build a terrific analytical department: the Seattle area is one of the most-educated in the country and has long had a computer science-y background, so it shouldn't be too hard to set up an office, steal some Amazon workers, throw them doughnuts every four and a half hours, and get some terrific results.
12. Outside King Felix and The Interview, the rotation isn't pretty. Their improved D, with Franklin Gutierrez out there and Raul Ibañez not, will help the 3-5 guys. Phillippe Aumont is a few years away.
13. If there was one good moment in Canada's second-straight first-round exit in the World Baseball Classic, it was Aumont. I had the good fortune to see him live against the U.S., and the power he puts into his fastball is simply without peer. The noise it produces is unlike any other ball-meets-glove sound you've ever heard before. (For baseball nuts, try to catch Aumont at a Clinton-Lansing game in the Midwest League this summer: Lansing is only five hours from the Centre of the Universe and is the Jays' affiliate.)
14. We have a CIS connection! Seattle Times baseball reporter Geoff Baker, formerly of the Toronto Star, was cut by the Concordia Stingers football team several years ago after five knee operations.
15. More on Baker. His Mariners blog is probably the best one out there in pure output. USS Mariner has long been the king, and the best in terms of value, but as they'll tell you, they work their 9-5 and then blog about the M's. Baker's blog is part of his job and he does it well: pictures, video (a short daily show, it appears), audio, and regular old text.
16. Geoff Baker Live or Ron Livingston Live? You decide.
    
17. Adrian Beltre, possibly remembered among casual fans for riding a big 2004 with the Dodgers into a bigger contract with the Mariners, is actually a very very good player. His defense at third has been near the top in the majors in 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004...is that enough? Should I go on?
    
18. So the big contract doesn't matter much for Beltre: he's been worth $45M or so since 2006 and has been paid just $35M mostly because of his D. This is not a mundane detail, Michael!
19. If you cheer for the M's before they do well, you can be one of those people who claims to be ahead of the bandwagon: they're 19th, or were 19th on Thursday afternoon, among teams at Ballhype's most popular rankings. (Toronto: 16th. Hooray.)
20. Ken Griffey, Jr. is back. But it's not 1993 Junior, so he should be kept away from an outfielder's glove. From MLB.com's Jim Street: "He said that he never saw any of the balls that were to left field until it was too late for him to catch any of them." Rest is fine.
    
21. Did it really take this far to get to Ichiro? Well, everyone knows him. He knows Griffey, too.
22. Tommy Lasorda now knows Ichiro's got some wit, or maybe not, unless the joke was explained to him.
    
23. Here's how old Griffey is: his most recent good performance was in Little Big League.
    
24. Safeco Field turns 10 this year, making it older--yes, older--than the AL stadiums in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Petersburg, and soon enough, Minneapolis.
    
25. Letterman disappoints: the best Top 10 involving Seattle in any way is "Top Ten Ways Charles Kuralt Will Spend His Retirement." Too soon.
    

Batter up: Previewing the World Baseball Classic ...

The 2009 World Baseball Classic begins in the wee hours of Thursday morning, which for some of you lot, probably elicits a huge shrug. However, some of us will take baseball any way we can after a long winter and haven't forgotten the awesomeness of March 8, 2006, when Canada beat the U.S.. Here is a preview of Pool A (Tokyo): China, Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei. A full schedule is here.

JAPAN

• Opener: Thursday, March 5 vs. China (first pitch flies around 4:30 a.m. Eastern)
• WBC 2006: Went just 3-3 in the first two rounds, but won the tournament, beating Korea 6-0 and Cuba 10-6 in the semi-final and final.
• Players to watch: RHPs Daisuke (Dice-K) Matzusaka (Boston Red Sox) and Yu Darvish, 2B-3B Akinori Iwamura (Tampa Bay Rays), some guy named Ichiro
• Who's missing: Free-agent DH-OF Hideki Matsui, RHP Kenshin Kawakami (Atlanta Braves), RHP Junichi Tawaza
• Pitching: Both Dice-K and Darvish have had some dodgy pre-tournament outings (really, it's surprising that Matsuzaka would show any inconsistency, he nevers does that during the American League season). Toshiya Sugiuchi, the classic plate-widener (left-hander whose best pitch is a change-up) probably figures to be an X-factor among Team Samurai's starting pitchers. Hisashi Iwakuma, who's sort of a Japanese equivalent to Roy Halladay (which is to say he had a 1.87 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and was the Pacific League MVP last season while playing on a fifth-place team) was solid in his last outing.
  
  Sidearmer Shunsuke Wanatabe, who was untouchable in the 2006 WBC, is back in the fold.
• Hitting: Ichiro is probably not going to pitch, or play shortstop, but will step outside his regular role by becoming Japan's No. 3 hitter, since they're knee-deep in hitters who are about bat control and base running, including the Cubbies' Kosuke Fukudome and Norichika Aoki, a two-time batting champ in Japan.
  
  The middle of the order, by our guesstimate, should include two veterans (Japan's one of the older teams in the tourney) from the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants: lefty-hitting veteran third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara and catcher Shinnosuke Abe.
• Fielding: Defence is usually an immutable for Japanese teams since, basically, they don't pay lip service to glove work. They have the two best shortstops in Japan, Munenori Kawasaki and Hiroyuki Nakajima. Kawasaki started during Japan's title run in 2006. Nakajima, who has better power numbers, started at the Olympics where Japan failed to medal..
• Predicted Round 1 finish: First
• Tournament potential: Runners-up, although anything can happen in a one-game final.
  

KOREA

• Opener: Friday, March 6 vs. Chinese Taipei (another 4:30 a.m. Eastern start)
• WBC 2006: Lost to Japan in the semi-final, 6-0, after winning six straight games, including two over their rival
• Players to watch: DH-OF Shin-Soo Choo (Cleveland Indians, pictured), OF Hyun-Soo Kim, 1B-3B Dae Ho "Big Boy" Lee, LHP Kwang-hyun Kim, LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu, leadoff man and CF Jung Wook Lee
• Who's missing: Shortstop Jin-Man Park, who's been their McGlovin for a decade. First baseman Seung-Yeop Lee, who opted to stay at his Japanese training camp; former major-league closer Byung-Hyun Kim was dropped after losing his passport.
• Pitching: Remember the left-hander who shut out Canada 1-0 at the Beijing Olympics? That was Hyun-Jin Ryu, who also went eight-plus in Korea's gold-medal game upset of Cuba. Korea can pitch like nobody's business, thanks to young pitchers such as Hyun-Jin (21), Kwang-hyun Kim (20) and swingman right-hander Suk-Min Yoon (22). Righty Jung Bong, who pitched in the majors a few years ago, is also in the mix, or at least you have to assume he is, am I right?
  
  Sidearmers seem to be more popular than peculiar in Asian baseball. Korea has two good ones, Tae-Hyon Chong and Chang-Yong Lim, who (Canadian fans can relate) missed the Olympics because the Yakult Swallows would not give him his release. Lim, according to reports, got whacked on his right elbow by a batted ball during a spring training game, leaving his status is up in the air.
  
  Seong-Hwan Oh is another option out of the bullpen.
• Hitting: Choo, who on-based .397 and slugged .549 in a half-season with Cleveland, Dae Ho Lee and Tae Kyun Kim are envisioned as the 3-4-5 hitters for Korea, which will probably have to scratch out runs. Jung Wook Lee can flat-out fly and presumably impact games in the way base stealers used to in the baseball of the 1980s.
• Fielding: The left side of the infield could be problematic. Korea has turned over the entire infield which played error-free ball at the 2006 WBC. Park is a rock.
  
  Over at third, they might have to sacrifice D for some power. Cleveland's condition for Choo playing was that he would only play in the field once in the first round and twice in the second round and DH the rest of time. Having him DH and having Kim at first base means Dae Ho Lee, who is a Big Papi-esque 6-foot-3, 264 lbs., might have to play some third. Presumably putting someone that large at the hot corner could be a problem, but they need his bat.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Second
• Tournament potential: Semi-finals, more likely a Round 2 exit
  

CHINA

• Opener: Thursday, March 5 vs. Japan (4:30 a.m. Eastern)
• WBC 2006: Went 0-3 and were outscored 40-6 in pool play
• Players to watch: C Zhenwang Zhang (a Yankees farmhand), SS-1B Yufeng Zhang, CF Lingfeng Sun, SS Ray Chang, DH Fenglian Hou, LHP Kai Liu, RHP Chenhao Li, RHP Jiangang Lu.
• Who's missing: C Wei Wang, who is still recovering from ACL surgery (he was injured in a home-plate collision with Cleveland Indians phenom Matt LaPorta at the Olympics)
  
• Pitching: This area is a wee bit of an Achilles heel for China, seeing as it was outscored 60-14 while going 1-6 in the Olympics. Li, who gave up only two earned runs in 10 innings in Beijing, along with Lu, have had a modicum of success in international tournaments.
  
  China's pitching staff seems right-hand dominant. Liu, who was signed by the Yankees in July 2007, had a rocky Olympics.
  
  Kun Chen's claim to fame is throwing at a brushback pitch at LaPorta during the Olympics in retaliation for taking out Wang.
  
• Hitting: Hou is about the Chinese's best hitter and will probably hit second or third. Yufeng Zhang, the player-coach of the Shanghai Golden Eagles, will probably hit cleanup. At the Olympics, Sun attempted to hit leadoff, but as our liveblog of the Canada-China game noted, wasn't succeeding.
  
  The bottom line is Ray Chang (.705 career OPS in a minor-league career which includes only 10 at-bats about Double-A ball) is being expected to provide pop in the middle of the order.
• Fielding: The aforementioned Zhang is apparently a pretty rangy shortstop. Chang also plays that spot but has played second base in the minors, so he could slide over to make room for him. Defence has let China down in the past.
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Third
• Tournament potential: Advancing out of pool play is way beyond them, but China is making strides, so put them down to beat a short-handed Taiwanese team.
  

CHINESE TAIPEI (aka Taiwan)

• Opener: Friday, March 6 vs. Korea (yup, 4:30 am)
  
• WBC 2006: Didn't advance past the first round, with a 1-2 record.
  
• Players to watch: CF Che-Hsuan Lin and 2B Chih-Hsien Chiang (both Red Sox farmhands), LHP Chi-Hung Cheng (former Jays farmhand), RHP Chen-Chang Lee (in Cleveland's system)
  
  Chiang has an infamous birthday video, but it's hard to figure out what, if anything, is infamous about it:
  
  
  
• Who's missing: Yankees RHP Chien-Ming Wang (foot injury), L.A. Dodgers LHP Hong-Chih Kuo
  
• Pitching: The China Post reports that Taiwan is lacking in pitching depth, not unlike Canada:

  "In a tournament that will limit pitchers to 70 pitches — good for up to about five innings — in first round games, pitching depth will be critical. The collapse of the squad's relievers in recent exhibition games has left a major question mark."

  Lee, who's a sidearmer, might be worth watching just out of curiosity. Their pitching staff is mostly young and untested.
  
• Hitting: Lin figures to be the leadoff man and centrefielder, with first baseman Cheng-Min Peng, the four-time batting champion in China (he hit .391 last season) likely anchoring the middle of the order. Kuo-Ching Kao, who can also rake it in the Chinese league, will also be in there somewhere. Who knows how well the numbers in that league translate to facing the best pitchers from Japan and Korea. The lineup appears to be rather thin, which can be expected with such a young team.
• Fielding: The same above-linked article also noted that fielding has been sloppy during pre-tournament games.
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Fourth
• Tournament potential: The only faint-hope scenario is that with the double-knockout format in the first round, they have a rematch with Korea and beat them.

Zen Dayley: Judge Jeri smacks Jeffrey Loria with a fresh-caught marlin

You can keep Tina Fey -- this is the sharpest woman in America over the past week to 10 days.

The invaluable ShysterBall linked to an article about the ruling Judge Jeri Beth Cohen handed down in the Florida Marlins stadium lawsuit. As you know, the court denied the claim that it would be unconstitutional, based on the rather broad term "public purpose," to use taxpayer money to build a stadium for Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.

That's the end-of-story for most people, even though Loria is the gentle soul who took the hammer from Claude Brochu and drove the final nails into the Montreal Expos' coffin. There's no objectivity here.

Cohen's written ruling, though, is a multilayered masterpiece. In not so many words, yet in language that upholds jurisprudence (granted, it's Florida, it wouldn't take much), she basically calls the city of Miami a bunch of big idiots for wanting to having anything to do with the Marlins, let alone drop $500 million on a stadium for a crappy baseball club run by jerks.

It's fun to picture Loria, after hearing the verdict read in court: "But you're not saying I can't have the stadium, right?"

This is very narrow reading by someone who still rues the day, Sept. 28, 2004, that the Expos died. On a more marco level, Judge Jeri's ruling is a must-read for anyone who hates the idea of big-league sports franchises that are practically a licence to print money receiving corporate welfare (although if you're going to project bile toward the filthy rich, there's are better targets this week).

It's a good idea to bookmark that article for easy consultation the next time a smooth sports operator starts talking about all the benefits that will accrue to a community if it builds a big sports arena -- like a 30,000-seat stadium for Major League Soccer, just to give a random example.

"There is no evidence in the record that the building of a stadium in Little Havana will increase attendance and, thereby, promote social cohesion. Simply put, no one will know whether a new retractable roof stadium will increase attendance... until it is built."

Line by line, Judge Jeri -- bearing in mind, this in a civil court, where the judge is supposed to soften the blow for the winning and losing sides -- just basically slams the city of Miami for wanting to hop into bed with Loria. She flat-out alls it "a sweet deal" for Loria and the Marlins and pretty much says, hey, the bozos who run this city are giving these clowns a stadium rent-free, but insofar as upholding the state constitution goes, "the court does not find it relevant."

In other words, it's not her job to make policy, but simply belittle the city officials who think they're progressive and pro-growth instead of simply stupid.

"... This court is well aware that more citizens may be opposed to the building of the stadium, even to retain the Marlins in Miami, than in favor of building the stadium. These considerations, however, may not sway this court..." (emphasis mine)

Really, that's a huge burn -- Jeffrey Loria can get his stadium, but it's been made perfectly clear that he's only getting through the idiocy of the powers-that-be in South Florida. The people in Miami didn't ask for Loria as owner, and it's not even clear that they're asking to keep the Marlins, but hey, it's not Judge Jeri's problem, nor should it be.

She simply hit her target with impeccable wit and timing. That's high comedy.

Should-be-aware-ofs

• The Rays' big win over the Red Sox, 10-3, might very well have wrapped up the AL East a week-and-a-half early. Much is will be made of the fact that the Red Sox are staring at a first-round matchup against the L.A. Angels, whom they're 1-8 against this season.
  
  The whole idea that two teams from the same division can't meet in the first round should be dumped. The Red Sox will have a better record than the AL Central winner, so why are they facing the No. 1 seed? (And why are baseball fans reduced to using basketball and football lingo like No. 1 seed?)
  
  The Red Sox finish their year 1-8 at Tropicana Field -- which is coincidentally their record against the Angels, whom they might end up facing in the first round of the playoffs.
• Jonah Keri's look at the whole notion of who knows how to win is worth a look-see, especially since there's a couple playoff spots (NL East, NL wild-card, AL Central) that no one wants to claim.

  Each baseball game contains so many random events that, with an eighth of an inch here or a fluke hop there, it could just as easily go the other way. The Twins have had a huge number of those random events go against them lately, just as they had many go in their favor earlier this year. The Twins now are what they have been all year: a talented team that might be a player away from winning a division title. The dice have just come up snake eyes a lot more often lately.

• MLB Trade Rumors passed along word that the Seattle Mariners might cut Erik Bedard (or "non-tender" him) after the season. Bedard's fall from grace has probably not been that sudden for people who understand PitchFx data.
• Ichiro Suzuki made it eight straight seasons with 200 hits tonight. Does anyone still care who leads the league in hits?
• Former Ottawa Lynx pitcher J.A. Happ got his first major-league win tonight.

Damn, the Jays

• The shock of J.P. Ricciardi likely coming back as GM, let's just say it hasn't fully metatashized.
  
  Walk Off Walk, for what it's worth, said that by the time interleague play rolls around next June, "J.P. Ricciardi should be building a contender with the Brockton Rox."
  
  On Ricciardi's Jays Talk appearance tonight was that the Jays are going to seek an "upgrade" at shortstop. Before the end of the show, he said the Jays were "happy with (Marco) Scutaro and Johnny Mac (McGlovin)."
  
  The free-agent crop for shortstops is pretty thin. The second thing Ricciardi said might actually make more sense.
• This actually happened: Alex Rios slammed a go-ahead home run vs. the Orioles tonight on the first pitch after a streaker interrupted the game by running on to the field.
  
  On the radio, Jerry Howarth joked, "You had to figure that might happen with Rocky Cherry pitching," which was a rather involved reference to Wild Cherry (You Sexy Thing, get it). It put the Jays ahead for the first time after being down 6-0...

  Rod Black: We've seen it all tonight.
  Pat Tabler: Unfortunately.

• Matt Stairs hit his first homer for the Phillies tonight. He's had just 11 plate appearances since the trade at the end of August, which of course raises the question whether the 2009 World Baseball Classic will be his valedictory.
• How about Mike Wilner citing the fact that Derek Jeter is a three-time Gold Glover? Unheard of.

Zen Dayley: By a factor of 10, no more

The "Dayley" aspect of Zen Dayley is going to get figured out, soon enough. How about the Tampa Bay Rays going to 30 games above .500, with the White Sox pitching doing the gift-wrapping? Some bullet points, after the jump

Should-reads

• Jonah Keri takes on the Base 10 Mafia, so-called -- the baseball writers who " a in hits 3,000 or homers 500 wins, 300 season, wins 20 over obsessing 10, of multiples importance the overstate constantly career.?
  
  Keri notes that only six pitchers in baseball history have won more games than Mike Mussina, with a higher winning percentage. Six. That should clear up any question about Mussina's Hall of Fame credentials.
• The Mariners might want to consider trading Ichiro. That will happen right after Seattle trades the Space Needle.
• Speaking of the M's organization (oxymoron, natch), Phillippe Aumont is on the disabled list again.
• It's a little disturbing that even venerable Thomas Boswell in indulging fantanking -- the concept of looking at who might be the No. 1 pick before the season is over (OK, so it's been over for the Washington Nationals since the second week of April, but still). Drooling over San Diego State/U.S. Olympic team right-hander Stephen Strasburg, everyone's No. 1 pick in 2009, is too prosaic for Boz.
• Dale Stevens (full disclosure: he's run the Canadian university basketball discussion list) has a great job in baseball.

Damn, the Jays

• See how it works? In the wee hours of Saturday morning, mock the Jays for not having anyone who can keep up to the dizzying home-run exploits of Willie Harris.
  
  On Saturday, Vernon Wells hits two vs. the Red Sox, tying him with the Double Flap. It's all part of the grand plan.
• Lefty Brett Cecil is a work-in-progress at Syracuse, but he threw seven no-hit innings at Triple-A on Saturday night. (He came out after 86 pitches.) He's given up just two hits, both singles, in his last two starts, while getting more than half the outs on ground balls. This means Jays Talk callers will expect him to be called up tomorrow.
• Shockingly, and sadly, membership in the Facebook group Brad Mills will pitch in the Bigs still be languishing in double digits That's poor, Jays fans, very poor, considering that Brad Mills' progress -- ERA just above 2 and more than a strikeout an inning this summer while advancing two levels in the farm system.
  
  Please, Drunk Jays Fans, get on this. Brad Mills needs the love.
• FanGraphs had a note on another Jays minor-league pitcher, righty reliever Robert Bell, who's got a 36-to-zero strikeout-to-walk ratio and has held hitters to a .149 opponents' average in the NY-Penn League. It's very early yet, but that's not bad for an 18th-round pick out of Rice University. (Teams fearing burned-out elbows and shoulders often shy away Rice pitchers due to the Owls' intensive schedule, so Bell slipped in the draft.)

Zen Dayley: It is possible we haven't seen Kevin Wench's black magic?

Five wins in a row, but...

What was that about how other teams' good moves can be seized upon to criticize Godcciardi, almost by rote?

It's safe to say that the combination of the Blue Jays GM's stubborn loyalty to his guys and Rogers Communications' habit of conspicuous consumption would never allow for a move like the Cleveland Indians' trade of overrated Casey Blake to the NL West-contending L.A. Dodgers for two minor leaguers. Eating the salary of a regular in order to get two players the casual fans wouldn't even know how to find information on? That never happens in Ted Rogers' neighbourhood, even if one of them (a catcher named Carlos Santana) does share his name with a famous rock guitarist.

It's hard not to feel a sense of envy that Cleveland, under GM Mark Shapiro, is thinking for itself instead of being slave to Toronto sports fan groupthink.

(Update: Fire Joe Morgan, by the way, has destroyed the trade from a Dodgers perspective.)

Cleveland's been closer to winning something of consequence with the group it has (93 wins in 2005, seven-game loss in the ALCS last season). They're willing to gut the place and renovate. J.P. Ricciardi would rather go shopping for some second-hand furniture -- proven hitters, he wrote, with disgust -- than take a chance on someone with room to grow.

Carlos Santana is an athlete-first, ballplayer-second who might end up being great for a team who can carry a defensive catcher. (He's hitting .323/.431/.563 in the California League, but it's his third year of Single-A ball.) The right-hander, Jonathan Meloan, has a power arm, even though his potential is obscured by his 4.97 ERA in the high-scoring Pacific Coast League.

The Jays, though, they like their low ceilings, even when they need to renovate. Maybe Molean and Santana might not amount to anything. Still, it means feeling jealous of the fans in Cleveland. It's come to that.

Errata

• Our man Andy Grabia at The Battle of Alberta had a nice post about the World Junior Baseball Championship, which opened last night in Edmonton. It probably won't get 1/100th of the media attention given to the World Junior Hockey team's summer development camp (which won't even decide who makes the team!), but there are several future major leaguers playing in the event, including Milwaukee Brewers first-rounder Brett Lawrie. Canada opened with a 7-0 win over Italy last night. It gets a little more serious tonight vs. Taipei.
  
  (Canada can do no better than fifth at the World University championship in the Czech Republic. That's too bad.)
• Ichiro Suzuki is 1-for-10 vs. the Jays (he got a single his last time up today to avoid taking the collar two days in a row). That 3,000th hit might not come in Toronto.

Damn, the Jays

• Dustin McGowan is going to have season-ending surgery next week.
• Drunk Jays Fans reports that there was a Vernon Wells sighting at the MLS All-Star Game. Perhaps he will be the Obama-like force who finally effects a truce between baseball nuts and footy fans.

Zen Dayley: Mr. 3000, with Japanese subtitles

Well, there's one reason to check out a Mariners-Jays series where neither of the Toronto club's top two starters are pitching.*

Ichiro Suzuki needs five hits for 3,000 in his career (a feat yours truly jumped the gun on back in '07 after a tragic misreading of his Baseball Cube page). You might have misgivings about why why broadcasters and journalists persist in making a big deal out of someone's hit total when the batting title goes to the player with the highest average, or why MLB doesn't swing with the times and do what it should have done a long time ago, which is recognize the player with the highest on-base percentage as the batting champ.

(Hey, college football, which is the most tradition-mongering sport going, used to recognize the player who gained the most yards on the season as its rushing leader. Then they changed it to yards per game. The world, remarkably, stayed on its axis.)

Ichiro's feat is a jumping-off point for a discussion. Should it be treated the same as if he had played his whole career on one side of the Pacific, instead of spending his first nine seasons in the Pacific League? How well do us North American folk do at comprehending a player whose career was spread over two continents, or included a stint in the "other league"? Like the kids say on Facebook, "it's complicated."

It's not the same, because is isn't the same. The ballparks in Japan are smaller and its brand of baseball offers a lower level of competition, so even considering the shorter season (140 games instead of one-sixty-two) how can this be put on the same level?

By the same token, though, it is the same. Ichiro was a major-league ballplayer when he was leading his Japanese league in hitting for seven straight seasons before joining the Mariners in 2001. He was simply kept out of the American majors by circumstances beyond his control. This was only 10 years ago, but it wasn't so long ago that baseball people, quote, unquote, were largely skeptical that a Japanese position player could make it in the major leagues. There was a little xenophobia going on there. It's either that or they did believe it, but couldn't convince the highers-up that it was worth the expense to find out. The Japanese players also had little incentive to test themselves across the water and their teams -- it was probably a pride thing -- weren't anxious to let them leave. Ichiro had fortunate circumstances -- his team was hard-up for money, and didn't want him going to another team and beating him.

The point is, though, there has to be some acknowledgement that if Ichiro had been in North America earlier or from the get-go, he would be well on pace for 3,000 MLB hits.

Cultural differences. North American journalists still have some work to do when it comes to properly appreciating a player. It's still mind-boggling that people who should have known better got their hackles up when Igor Larionov, the great Russian centre, was selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame last month. It seemed pretty cut-and-dried.

Consider the following: Mike Bossy was a hands-down, no-doubt Hall of Famer in hockey, based on what he did from 1977 to '88 with the New York Islanders, who as you know, won four straight Stanley Cups. Larionov was a key cog in another hockey juggernaut, the Soviet national team, for roughly the same span. He was one of the best players on what was one of the most powerful hockey teams in the world -- just like Bossy.

Bossy had to retire young due to back problems. Larionov, once he'd managed to get out from under the thumb of Viktor Tikhonov and the old Soviet sport system, managed to come to North America and fashion a nice career as a role player, first as Pavel Bure's setup man with the Canucks and as a checking centre with the three Red Wings' Stanley Cup winners. He more or less had Mike Bossy's career -- in terms of length and impact -- and then had someone else's career. But, oh no, since the better part of it came in the old Soviet Union, it didn't count. As far as some are concerned, it was if he only began playing real hockey when he joined the Canucks in 1989.

That's absurd. It's ridiculous to believe what Ichiro did before 2001 doesn't count. It's a matter of what degree it's discounted -- and it's more like 5%, 10% than 70-75%.

(* That's assuming A.J. Burnett doesn't once again display his lack of guts and grittitude by working on three days' rest again.)

Errata

• The great Greg Maddux hasn't received credit for a win since May 10.
• One more reason to get on the anti-Cubs bandwagon: They called up right-hander Jeff Samardzija, the former (grits teeth) Notre Dame football star. The blogosphere is already roiled up enough about the huge Wrigley Field love-in that will ensue if the Cubbies make the playoffs. No one needs the prospect of Samardzija's former quarterback, the much-resented Brady Quinn, showing up in the stands wearing a Cubs jersey.
  
  Guess what? The Cleveland Browns' bye week in the NFL coincides with the first week of the baseball playoffs. You can't make that up.
• The Hardball Times has a look at the only previous AL team that went from worst to first.

Damn, the Jays

• ShysterBall has a note, "Yesterday lots of folks were reporting that the Jays were shopping (Roy) Halladay. Late in the day the Jays denied it. If I had to guess, they are shopping him, as any team in their position should be given the kinds of returns teams are getting for starters this year. (CC) Sabathia, (Rich) Harden, and (Erik) Bedard all brought back value, and given how well Sabathia has pitched in particular, you can bet that there are some teams out there thinking about how to get the same kind of magic on their side."
  
  It's kind of come to the point with the Jays that you can read something positive about a baseball team's front office and then turn it around on Godcciardi. They would rather squeeze an 83-79 season out of this bunch than attempt anything radical.
• Baseball America has provided the latest look at the Jays bright hitting hope, Travis Snider. He's now hitting .259/.343/.453 for New Hampshire, which for a 20-year-old in the Eastern League, is serious stuff. (Thanks to Pete Toms for the tip.)
• The same site also has some tidbits on lefty-hitting Double-A second baseman Scott Campbell (on-base machine, somewhat dodgy defence) and the first-round draft choice, first baseman David Cooper, who's been tearing the cover off the ball in the Midwest League -- and hasn't been involved in any bench-clearing brawls yet.

Zen Dayley: Insert picture of upside-down Canadian flag in 3, 2, 1...

Fox Sports cutting to a commercial during O Canada is tacky -- but it's like expecting the class clown not to make armpit noises during a school assembly.

The point is, you almost look forward to it with Fox. One less than endearing Canadian trait is that we often overanalyze American interpretations of us, just to look for the boo-boos. It's kind of like the nerd who adds to the goofs section on the Internet Movie Database. Watching how Fox, the broadcast arm of the hyperbole-industrial complex, utterly ignored this country's baseball fans during the baseball All-Star Game telecast from Yankee Stadium, though, you can't blame us for feeling that way.

It happens too often. We are forced to keep score at home. No one in Canada would have known about this right away, save for the fact globesports.com's Jeff Blair blogged it, but MLB did have O Canada. While Sheryl Crow performed The Star-Spangled Banner, there was a recorded version of our national anthem, with no singer. The only reason it was even seen in Canada, ironically enough, was due to a screwup by the Canadian rights holder.

Think about it. Months of planning and preparation went into this Bronx bonanza, but MLB couldn't find anyone to sing O Canada. Hey, it's not like there were an unprecedented three Canadians in the game. In fairness, New York City isn't swimming in unknown performers who just need a break.

This very well could be the old Canadian insecurity talking. Doesn't it seem like U.S. broadcasters constantly betray a lack of broadcast preparation when it comes anything Canadian? The half-assed treatment of our anthem was just the tip of the iceberg.

What happened was that that chill bump-raising pregame ceremony introducing virtually every living Hall of Famer wrapped up and Fox went to a commercial break. That's not so bothersome. They had a lot of ads to squeeze in and the pregame ceremony was bound to run a little long.

On Sportsnet Pacific, the screen went to black for about 15-20 seconds. Then suddenly the feed came back, somewhere around the "from far and wide," although it was hard to be pinpoint it exactly, since there were no words. What, MLB couldn't spring for the airfare and a hotel room to get this singer down to New York City?

Any Canadian baseball nut who tuned to see a game that had an unprecedented three of our own playing in the Midsummer Classic -- the L.A. Dodgers catcher Russell Martin, Cubs right-hander Ryan Dempster and Twins first baseman Justin Morneau -- saw half of a half-hearted treatment of our anthem.

In the top of the fourth, Roy Halladay came on to pitch. Joe Buck called the four-time All-Star Holliday (no, he plays for the Colorado Rockies -- as Amrit pointed out, he homered an inning later, but not off his AL near-namesake). A few moments later, Tim McCarver, referred to the Jays' home stadium as the "Rogers Dome." (Well, it has only had Rogers' corporate on it since 2005, and it is a dome.)

Hopefully Jays president Paul Godfrey wasn't expecting any quid pro quo for persisting in playing God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at the Rogers Centre long after many U.S. teams discontinued the practice.

It was a slap in the face. They skimped on an anthem singer and then Joe and Tim skim over some basic prep work for the broadcast involving a Canadian-based player. It comes off as saying, hey, it's Canada, what does it matter?

This isn't coming from someone who's resolutely anti-American. There's so much they do better than Canada -- sports, movies, politically motivated witchhunts, Trials of the Century, showing celebrities at their worst, subtle political satire. How many Canadians who couldn't get anywhere creatively in this country have made it big down there?

One of the funnier aspects about that line "where else can even paperboy option the film rights to a book?" in that Bruce McCullough Kids In The Hall monologue, In America, is that it has a grain of truth. The U.S is still the country for the dreamers, the lottery players. Canada is where your life is just a job you have to finish, although that's probably just as true for most Americans (that's why country music is so popular in both countries).

Getting back to the point, no Canadian broadcaster would ever think to go to commercial during the American anthem. We're way too eager to ingratiate ourselves with the Americans. Our government even let American fighter pilots do a flyover over the U.S. ambassador's residence in Ottawa on July 4, as well we should have. We would never consider not giving our American friends equal consideration.

Down south, they figure there's no need to bother with acknowledging Canada, but then again, we are kind of boring.

You think Buck and McCarver mentioned that there were three Canadians in the game? Don't be foolish.

(How sweet was it to see the full range of Martin's talents -- hitting, going first-to-third on a single, working the plate -- and to see Morneau score the winning run?)

Forget it, it's the Bronx

• Capping the pregame hoopla by wheeling in George Steinbrenner was lame. Only the Yankees would have the gall to be so obvious about ripping off the scene in Boston in 1999, when the presence of Ted Williams, in evident poor health, turned Fenway Park into a giant kiss-and-cry area at a figure skating competition.
  
  There's no moral high ground in begrudging an 78-year-old plutocrat in his sunset years becoming America's grandpa. That said, you can sub in "baseball owners" into that line from Chinatown about how "politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough" and it fits the scene to a tee. It's no wonder he didn't get a big ovation from the crowd.
  
  Painting Steinbrenner in such a glowing light, giving him more of a spotlight than Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, George Brett, Mike Schmidt and Frank Robinson, et al., is a whitewash. Sorry, but there's no way to be objective about Steinbrenner.
  
  In the back half of his time running the Yankees, he was the best owner in sports. However, you have to remember that for at least as long, probably longer, he was the worst owner in sports. He demeaned players and managers, ran roughshod over people who had no way of fighting back, traded in thinly veiled racism to try and shake down NYC for a new stadium -- remember when he kept saying the area around the Stadium was "too scary" -- and damn near destroyed the Yankee tradition.
  
  A generation ago, Goose Gossage, one of the Yankees legends involved in the first-ball ceremony (four first balls? Really?), said, "George always like to talk about the Yankee tradition. When did he ever play for the Yankees?"
  
  Gossage was right the first time. The Yankees can recognize Steinbrenner on their own time, like before their final home game of the season, rather than shoving it down the throats of fans whose teams don't have $209-million payrolls. The rewriting of history is well underway.
  
  Plus there was the time he invited himself to Costanza's wedding.
• The best hitters in the game (and Jason Varitek) went 3-for-28 with runners in scoring position. Basically, it was like a Jays intrasquad game.
• Everyone will be having a lot of fun with the story about Ichiro Suzuki's not-G-rated Gipper speech.
• Great lines from ShysterBall: "The baseball luminaries are riding in 100 Chevy Silverados. Baseball's carbon footprint is taking a beating this evening.
  
  "This thing reminds me of the Macy's parade. I hope I didn't tune in too late to see the David Wells balloon."
• Dustin McGowan's not out for the season. Even better news: He never watches movies that star Bill Murray.
• Via Uni Watch, here's a great trivia question: Who was the first player to play in an All-Star Game wearing Blue Jays gear? OK, It was Ruppert Jones, an outfielder in the '70s and '80s who never played for the Jays. How did he pull that off?
• Lastly, how much more informal was baseball back in 1967, the only previous time the game went 15 innings? Mickey Mantle was on the American League team that season, but didn't feel like he rated the honour, so he flew from Dallas to Anaheim, arrived after the game had started, pinch-hit for the starting pitcher in the third inning, struck out, and flew back to Dallas. The game was still going when he met up with his buddies at the country club.
  
  It's too bad that OPS+ wasn't around in in 1967. For a guy who was supposedly done, The Mick had an OPS+ of 150. Most players never get close to that in their entire career.

(Digression: Searching for the McCullough monologue turned up the greatest cold opening in television history. Try to work "guilty, but with various good excuses" into conversation whenever possible.)

Zen Dayley: Plus, Jeter's intangibles once saved Christmas (don't bother looking it up)

(Alternate title: Shut Up, Take Some Cialis.)

Derek Jeter is going to start the All-Star Game and that's OK.

There's one question anyone who embarks on writing seething screed about The Captain being voted into the Midsummer Classic should first have to answer. If they can't, they have to turn their energy toward another topic, something less contentious than who starts in the all-star game (suggestion: "Religion: What Is The One True Faith?").

Here it is: Has anyone from Major League Baseball ever made it clear whom the All-Star Game is actually for, the players or the fans?

An answer has never been apparent during the past 20-odd years as a baseball-obsessive. That's why anyone -- present company very included -- who writes a blog post or any full-length article giving her/his opinion on whom the fans should have voted into the game is, at best, fulfilling their obligation to provide content. At worst, they're a little bit full of shit for being blind to a grey area that Roger Clemens' family could drive six Hummers through, side-by-side.

Just using should is strikes one, two and three. There is no should about an event that's ensnared by the MLB hype machine's meathooks. Derek Sanderson Jeter is producing a garden-variety .732 OPS and his usual just-OK defence for his $21.6-million salary, which makes him one of the game's most overpaid players. It's not even the second-best production among a thin field of American League shortstops. All three Yahoo! Sports national baseball writers anointed the Texas Rangers' Michael Young as their starting shortstop.

So what, though? All of you can take your OPS and your WARP and your VORP and stuff it in a sack. Don't share your Win Shares. Shame on Yahoo! Sports for telling baseball geeks what they want to hear, that the game is for the players who are doing the best this season.

Anyone who watches a Fox station on a regular basis (in the case, only because FOX 44 from Burlington, Vt., shows Family Guy and Seinfeld reruns between 11 p.m. and midnight) knows that this is being played up as, cue the ominous music, "the last Midsummer Classic ever at Yankee Stadium."

Let's ignore that Yankee Stadium isn't what it is because of anything that ever happened in a glorified exhibition game in July -- can you even name the last time the game was played there? -- but because of what's happened there in October. Never mind that, as Will Leitch pointed out last week in a New York Times piece, "the bleacher bums, the upper tier folk, the families who have had the Yankees in their blood for decades," likely won't be at the July 15 game since tickets for an event typically have such a mark-up that only the most well-connected and well-heeled can attend.

Fox and MLB want that image of No. 2 in pinstripes trotting out to take his place at shortstop in the top of the first inning of the last all-star game ever at Yankee Stadium. They want Joe Buck -- did you know the guy doesn't even like baseball that much? -- to make some extemperaneous remarks about how it's fitting that it's Jeter who's starting in this, the last all-star game ever at Yankee Stadium.

(Digression: At some point, there will be a post about how watching The MLB on Fox stirs up more mortal terror than anything Alfred Hitchcock ever put in a movie. It's this funhouse-mirror distortion of America -- the banal commentary from Joe and Tim McCarver, along with a steady stream of commercials for all sorts of wonder drugs for your wang. Far be it to suggest that there's a time-tested holistic remedy if your penis isn't doing what you need it to do -- stop drinking beer and watching sports, put down the channel-flipper and the fatty foods and get some exercise!)

October, according to the major media, is Jeter's time, but of course, there might not be playoff baseball for the Yankees, who are four games behind the Red Sox for the wild-card spot. One major culprit for the failure of a $196-million ballclub is a lack of a production from the all-important 2-hole in the lineup, Jeter's normal spot in the lineup. Note the irony? (Fire Joe Morgan pointed out a couple days ago that this only adds to the reason to blame the Yankees' shortcomings on Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez.)

From here on out, let's at least be halfway intellectually honest and stop humouring ourselves that the All-Star Game exists for any such noble purpose. The annual byproduct of ballot-box stuffing does decide home-field advantage for the World Series, which is like choosing the next president of the United States by the same method used on American Idol (which will happen, by 2024 at the latest).

ESPN carries on like the only two baseball teams that exist, much less matter, are the Red Sox and Yankees. It's no surprise, then, that the Evil Empires account for six of the nine elected starters in the American League, with Ichiro Suzuki, who's 26th among AL outfielders in OPS (one spot up from the Jays' Alex Rios, for pity's sake) also voted since there's a huge voting bloc in Japan. The Cubs' Kosuku Fukudome, .420 slugging percentage and all, was also elected as a National League starting outfielder, although he's simply having a nice first season in North America.)

It's just pointless to spew venom about Jeter, or to point out that among the 17 elected starters, only five are the most productive hitters at their position going into today (this is based on OPS). If you want to get mad at anyone, point out that if the Red Sox hadn't traded Hanley Ramírez out of the league, he could be starting for the AL. Hey, since everything gets blamed on Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi, point out if his ballclub had ever been able to come up with a solid shortstop (too bad Troy Tulowitzki, whom the Jays infamously passed over in the 2003 draft, is having a lousy, injury-riddled year?), maybe there would be a viable, popular alternative to Jeter in the AL.

(Digression No. 2: Obligatory passive-aggressive swipe at Ricciardi -- if Kim Ng is ever going to become baseball's first female general manager, could it please be in Toronto?)

Fox and MLB use the all-star game to sell stars, not call attention to the guys who might happen to be better at baseball. They need Derek Jeter out there patrolling his range of infield dirt — a range which is shrinking like the polar ice cap — instead of a deserving player, so-called. Judging by how the voting turned out, ESPN, Fox, et al., are doing a very good job of persuasion. The two Boston/New York players who actually have great numbers but who are also media-inculcated whipping boys, Jason Giambi and J.D. Drew, didn't get voted in.

At least Red Sox slugger David Ortiz' injury means that Texas' Milton Bradley should get to take his spot as the designated hitter.

See? There's that word should again. We've lost already.

Related:
Why I Hate The MLB on Fox (Greg Wallace, Anderson Independent-Mail)
Leave Joe Buck Alone!, Or Why Joe Buck is Not the Baseball Anti-Christ (Eamonn Brennan, AOL Sports Blog)

At least there's an explanation for the baldness

Terry Bradshaw admitting he was occasionally 'roided-out in the '70s has the air of when Pat Boone admitted to infidelity.

The news has hit people with all the impact of a takeout menu -- the knee-jerk reaction is "who cares."

It just goes to show there's a such a double standard when it comes to steroid use in the NFL as opposed to baseball. It made headlines a while back when Mike Schmidt, a great ballplayer from roughly the same generation simply said that sure, he might have shot himself up with steroids if he had been playing in the '90s and early 2000s when it was so rampant. Let's say that Reggie Jackson had come out and said he was goosed up on steroids when he hit three home runs in the deciding game of the 1977 World Series. There would be columns written and sports radio callers demanding that he be removed from the Hall of Fame.

The crazy part? It's not necessarily wrong to have that double standard. All these years later, it's finally dawned why people get so bent out of shape over steroids in baseball and are blind to it in football.

Baseball is an all-comers sport and people do, whether they admit or not, know it's the hardest act to do well, hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely. It's one of the great mysteries why ballplayers span a physical spectrum from the Chuck Knoblauch and Ichiro Suzuki types at to porcine types such as David Ortiz who can hit, while in between, there's any number of chiseled-from-marble types who can't hit their way out of a wet paper bag.

Ours is not to question why -- although there's about one book per year published on the secret of hitting -- some people can't play baseball worth a damn when Cecil Fielder or Kirby Puckett could. In a sense, it's the ultimate vanity to believe that steroids can turn someone into hitter or help a pitcher get a little extra drop on a split-finger fastball. So, in the fans' minds, you're shorthchanging one of the game's eternal truths by sticking that needle in your butt. Why would you do it?

(OK, so it helps you recover from injuries faster, it helps with rest-and-recovery during off-season workouts, it reduces fatigue across the 162-game season, it's the difference between a seven-figure salary in the majors and eating PBJs on the bus in Triple-A and, baseball didn't test for it until recently and still doesn't test for HGH. But other than that ...)

Meantime, in football, the players shorten their life expectancy a good 20-25 years beating the hell out of each other for the vicarious joy of out-of-shape guys sitting in the stands in their Takeo Spikes replica jerseys. It's a brutish, bloody business that so many people would do anything to be part of, so why wouldn't someone use steroids and HGH? Perhaps that's why (well, that and the media's complicity) it barely registered when Rodney Harrison, the New England Patriots strong safety, admitted receiving HGH shipments just before one of the Pats' Super Bowl wins. The same goes for when Shawne Merriman won Defensive Player of the Year in the same season that he received a four-game ban for doping.

People shrug. They've seen football, they've seen how hard those guys hit, so it's almost like they should be testing to see which NFL players aren't using performance enhancers (steroids, HGH, anti-inflammatories, the whole lot).

It's not fair, but please keep this mind the next time you hear someone go all high-dudgeon over some baseball player getting pinched for failing a drug test, then in the next breath, talk about their fantasy football team. Terry Bradshaw used 'roids, and no one gave a damn.

Zen Dayley: Feeling a lot better now

Roy Halladay gets some run support, The Tao is full of pith and vinegar and dropping killer Tom Waits references...

• A comeback win took the onus off obsessing over the Jays running themselves out of a scoring inning in the third. Alex Rios got a leadoff single and was caught stealing. The Jays eventually left the bases loaded.
  
  John Brattain has an in-depth piece up about the Jays trying to find an offensive identity. There's some potential for them to become a good on-base team.
  
  The slash stats John cites for the Jays left fielders -- .231/.306/.294 -- are beyond bad. Go ahead, check the splits for their expansion-era teams. Cool Standings, by the way, rates the Jays' playoff chances at 29%. It was as high as 49% less than a week ago.
  
  Hey, it's always darkest before the dawn.
• Ichiro Suzuki, by unofficial count, is 54 hits away from 3,000 for his major-league careers on both sides of the international date line.
• It is completely normal to have the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end when TV guys start talking about baseball history. The CBC's Jim Hughson, while talking about Halladay's complete games on Sunday, started talking about the 1971 Orioles and their four 20-game winners.
  
  Hughson talked about how that an era in baseball "when starters were expected to finish games and relievers were just pitchers who couldn't start." Guhhhh. That might be how Hughson remembers it. In '71, Hoyt Wilhelm was winding up his Hall of Fame career as a relief pitcher. Rollie Fingers, who's also in the Hall of Fame, was making the switch to being a full-time reliever. Sparky Lyle and Mike Marshall, future Cy Young winners who are still among in the top 50 in career saves, were already established as relievers.
  
  Something else prompted doing some sifting through the stats. That '71 Orioles has always eceived the Shula Treatment as a decades-old sports accomplishment the media just take at face value. The 1971 staff's Adjusted ERA+ wasn't even in the top five for an Earl Weaver-helmed Orioles team, let alone the best:
  

  '69: 127
  '79: 123
  '72: 122
  '73: 121
  '70: 116
  '71: 112

  All four of the 20-game winners -- Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer -- were at full health in 1972, and they pitched much better. Three of the four lowered their ERAs, with McNally's rising just slightly; the team's was 2.53.
  
  No one remembers that, though, because the Orioles didn't hit for beans that season and they finished just six games above .500.
  
• Big League Stew's big ballpark review has reignited the urge to start spitballing about how Toronto needs a real ballpark to replace the Rogers Centre. One Yahoo! Sports commenter called " last and best of a dying breed -- the domed, turfed failed monuments to god that were all the rage before Camden Yards came along and started the rage for parks you might want to play baseball in."
  
  Stew is looking for recommendations for each park -- where to go before or after the game, food and drink tips, where to sit, how to get there. The only thought that comes to mind is to sit in the 100-level outfield seats during July and August day games, in order to be in the shade. The Eastside Mario's on Front St. isn't a bad place to stop before the game, since the food is cheap and will soak up the overpriced beers.
• Baseball America is right on top of the ramifications of Cuban defector Dayan Viciedo (pictured) arriving in the U.S. -- does he become a free agent who can sign with the highest bidder, or does this means he has to go in the amateur draft next year (where he would still probably go to the highest bidder).
  
  It sounds like Viciedo, who's 19, is a power hitter with a position to be named later.
• From the department of, "As I was saying...", The Hardball Times is explaining how Joe DiMaggio was the likely spur for the Hall of Fame bringing in the five-year waiting period. That rule, of course, as given us the concept of a first-balot Hall of Famer.
  
  A few months back, The Walrus magazine ran a DiMaggio-debunking article titled 56*. It was a good effort, holding the historic hitting streak up to modern-day scrutiny. The author's case fell apart (as I noted when asked to reply in the letters section) when he argued that DiMaggio must not have been that big a star, since he didn't get into Coopestown until his third try. That was actually pretty good in those days; it was also the spur to realize something had to change when Joe DiMaggio was forced to wait. That's the risk with revisionist history.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

BATTER UP: SEATTLE MARINERS

It's staying light longer, the Leafs are all-but-eliminated ... that can mean only one thing: We'll soon see the first halter top of the season. OK, two things: It's almost baseball season, that mystical, wonderful time of year where you commit to a team for six months, knowing full well they won't win. Here's a starting nine for the Seattle Mariners.

1. The question becomes: The godfather himself, Bill James, posed it in his new book, "Do teams that over-achieve their starting pitching in one year discover the next season that they need starting pitching after all?"
   
   The Mariners put up an 88-74 record last season with just about average everything, especially their starting rotation. That's what brought on bringing in Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva to complement Felix Hernandez.
2. He's not in Navan anymore: Bedard (pictured) hasn't even thrown a pitch in a real game yet, but his 8.63 ERA in 24 spring training innings has people in a lather. He should be fine in the long run. Please keep in mind that Bedard didn't always have great dealings with the sportswriters in Baltimore (which was more about their attitudes than him), which could recur in Seattle.
3. The rule of Putz: It's awfully odd and off-putting whenever a team's fans get the most jazzed by seeing their closer start to heat up in the bottom of the eighth inning. A friend who caught Eric Gagné's act during his Dodgers days rationalized fans paying more attention to his warmup tosses than the game by saying, "Hey, it's not like the Dodgers were going to score anyway."
   
   Mariners closer J.J. Putz throws a hellacious fastball and he's got a funny-sounding name. Still, every time a Mariners game is on and if they happen to be ahead late, the fans at Safeco Field react to him more than the pitchers who actually throw more than an inning at a time, to say nothing of the guys who are expected hit and field. It's bad, bad karma; that's why the Red Sox types play it low-key with Jonathan Papelbon.
4. Not up to snuff: An infield, from left to right of Adrian Beltre, Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez and Richie Sexson doesn't exactly scream "playoffs." Betancourt does make some highlight reels with his work at shortstop, though?
5. A redheaded guy out in left field; sounds about right: The USS Mariner is pushing for the Mariners to liberate outfielder Matt Murton, who's been buried by the Chicago Cubs. He would help them out. So would Barry Bonds as the DH; has that horse been beaten into the ground yet?
6. Milestone watch: The incomparable Ichiro Suzuki needs 130 hits to make it 3,000 for his combined Japanese-North American career. He still won't turn 35 until after the regular season.
7. No pennants, either: The next time some know-it-all starts bagging on the Jays like they actually care about baseball, point out that at least they're not the Mariners. They typically have a similar-sized payroll, play in a similar-sized baseball market and also never contend for much, even though they don't have to deal with the Red Sox and Yankees 36 times a season.
8. Someone else! Someone else! The Angels have won the division three of the past four seasons has brought on a desire to see someone else and that brings on a desire to see a different AL West champion. It's not that likely.
9. Need-to-know: The best way to look at the Mariners is that they're trying to build a winner in a way that's kind on the wane. Overpay for some free agents, trade for this veteran guy or that guy and hope none of them goes in the tank too soon. It can work out, but it can also leave a team saddled with bad contracts, like Richie Sexson making $14 million a year. At least they have some nice pieces with Bedard, Hernandez, Putz and Ichiro.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

ERIK BEDARD IS GOING TO PAINT YOUR WAGON

Erik Bédard's pending trade might be the start of him falling into experiencing that David Cone/Kevin Brown have-arm, will-travel type of career.

He'll be that Clint Eastwood type who rides in and saves the village, but he might not hang around after to check the housing ads. He is a helluva pitcher, though.

Anyway, here's a quick survey of what some are saying about the left-hander's pending trade from Baltimore to Seattle, as first reported last night by one-time Toronto Star baseball writer Geoff Baker.

The USS Mariner is absolutely cutting the potential sacrifice of hitting propsect Adam Jones to ribbons:

"Having two great pitchers is awesome, but unless you're cloning Pedro Martinez
in his prime, you better have a good supporting cast around them if you want to win consistently. The Mariners supporting cast now includes a DH in left field, a hole in right field, an enigma at second base, one of the worst first basemen in baseball, and a DH whose career is teetering on the verge of extinction. They also don't have any organizational depth in position players, so an injury to a key player (say, Ichiro or Adrian Beltre) pretty much ends their season before it starts."

Here's Steve Kelley from the Seattle Times. To be brutally honest, the first association was how some Leafs fans (present company included) reacted in June 2006 after John Ferguson Jr. traded for Andrew Raycroft. We believed what we wanted to believe:

"For the first time in about five years, they would have a rotation that can compete. With Bédard and (Félix) Hérnandez, they can avoid the seven-game losing streaks that sunk last season.

"Adding Bédard, along with free-agent right-hander Carlos Silva, would immunize the M's from an August collapse. This new-and-improved staff, combined with the Mariners' bullpen, would, at the very least, make this summer the sweetest in Seattle in years."

Was it that long ago Seattle won 116 games in a season? The Baltimore Sun is sure it's going down:

"As much as I cringe at the thought of relinquishing a homegrown No. 1 starter, a rebuilding team needs to move a pitcher that can bring back so much in return. A pitcher who seemingly wants to be on a club that's ready to contend now and looks at rebuilding the way Kevin Millar would look at a butterfly tattoo on a teammate’s lower back.

"... wish Jeremy Guthrie lots of luck as the Opening Day starter. And perhaps become nostalgic for the days when fourth place was assured, because this season, without Bédard and possibly (leadoff hitter) Brian Roberts, could get ugly."

One spin that we are likely to hear is how much Bédard's numbers will benefit from pitching half his games at Safeco Field instead of Camden Yards in Baltimore and not having to face all those big, bad Red Sox and Yankees hitters. His numbers should get a boost, but people tend to exaggerate the impact.

Bédard's ERA has tended to be more a than half run per game better in Camden Yards (which isn't the hitter's haven that people believe it is) than it is on the road. (2.81 to 3.47 in 2007; 3.52 to 4.14 lifetime). The sample sizes are too small to really determine anything, but his ERAs against New York and Boston are 3.58 and 4.95, compared to 4.12 and 6.18 against Oakland and the L.A. Angels. It won't be as big a deal as some people think. At the very least, those of us who are nocturnal will be able to follow his games closely if he pitches for a West Coast team.

If anyone at Rogers Sportsnet really cared about baseball, they would be making sure as many of Bédard's starts as possible are aired, if he goes to Seattle.

(One last thing: Knowing Orioles owner Peter Angelos, he probably keeps Bédard... it's the difference between 63-99 and 58-104 this season.)

Related:

Bédard still waiting on the call; Expected trade to Mariners not done deal yet (Don Campbell, Ottawa Citizen)