Sunday, July 08, 2007
Meandering through the N.L.
The All-Star game traditionally kicks off the debate about the leading candidates for the Cy Young Award. Reason being is the All-Star game starting pitcher is nominally a proxy ballot for the Cy Young. Of course, there are always circumstances, who started for their regular squad when and who has a start coming up soon afterwards. There are two run away candidates the N.L. to be the All-Star starter, Jake Peavy and Brad Penny.
Both guys are in the N.L. West, playing for leading contenders, and practical, fatigue realted considerations aside, the Clarion has to give a slight edge to Jake Peavy. *No doubt there are sentimental reasons at the editorial desk to lean San Diego. But the stats back up the case for Peavy. Penny may be a gaudy 10-1 to Peavy's 9-3, but Peavy has a better ERA, better strikeout to walk ratio, fewer base runners per inning allowed, more innings pitched...
They went head to head in a sweet match-up last week. They left the field at scenic Chavez Ravine with the score tied 1-1 in the 8th. The Pads won the game in extras. Peavy’s rotation mate Chris Young is going to the All-Star game, too, as the last guy voted in by the fans with the additional on-line balloting. The Padres old guys David Wells and Greg Maddux, Wells getting kicked out early yesterday notwithstanding, look good as #3, #4 starters. Possibly the best starting pitching in the N.L. is why the Clarion looks to the Pads to start pulling away in the West.
Listening to Vin Scully do the Dodgers-Padres, Peavy-Penny matchup yielded an oustanding trivia question. Name the last major league pitcher to hit for a for a higher batting average than his earned run average for a full 150+ inning season. Hint at the end of the column. Follow this link for the answer.
As expected the Brewers have started to give ground in the atrocious N.L. Central. The Clarion documented the Brewers easily predictable cold stretch against winning clubs, their low water mark was four games over .500. Lately, they have again been beating up on their lousy division, but the Cubs are finally playing halfway decent (for this era.) The Cubbies are two games over .500, so the Brew crew’s lead has shrunk to 4 and a half. The Brewers are 12 up and 8 down in their last twenty games, this despite an uber soft schedule featuring the Giants, Royals, Astros, Pirates and Nationals.
Ruminating on used car salesman Selig's Brewers and the mess that is N.L. Central, then listening to baseball wag Buster Olney the other night underlined to the Clarion why the Wild Card sucks, and how baseball has debased one of its very best traditions, the great regular season. Olney was asked on ESPN Radio what teams he thought were eliminated, toast, done at this point, could only eliminate 11 of the 30 teams. He and the ESPN Radio folks attempted to laud this kind of parity. But actually, it is crap. Among the teams Olney could not rule out yet, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Colorado Rockies.
This is how we end up with the 83 win Cardinals from last year as champions. There are 95 plus years of baseball history where those Cardinals aren’t a good enough team to make the playoffs. They would have been swept in a seven game series by any of the nine Cardinals series champion of the past. They have maybe a single starter who cracks either the line-up or the rotation of any of those squads. So is that what Olney, ESPN, MLB, and various other apologists are saying? This mediocrity is what we should look forward to? Average teams wheezing to the finish-line, getting hot in a ridiculously brief five game series, then meandering through another round, to play a team whose pitchers can’t even throw the ball to first. Whoop-dee-do, your 2006 World Series champions.
MLB greedy for playoff dollars has attempted to co-opt Pete Rozelle style football parity, which has worked so well for the NFL. (with its 16 game regular season and every game counts mentality.) They have distended and distorted their playoff system in a vain attempt to regain market share from America’s new game. They even stole the rubric from football, “Wild Card.” Look at the World Series champs since the introduction of the Wild Card, we now have a fair sampling. Who amongst these twelve rosters could stand the historical test of time? Surely not the deconstructed ‘97 Marlins. The ‘03 version? The it’s not our money ‘01 Diamondbacks? For the Clarion only maybe the ‘04 Red Sox, the Yanks run and the ‘95 Braves can truly grasp the chalice of greatness. And the Braves can be maligned for the failure to win another title.
Trivia Hint:
The last pitcher to hit for a higher average .250 than his ERA 2.41 pitched for one of the two teams playing the game in question (Dodgers and Padres.)
Both guys are in the N.L. West, playing for leading contenders, and practical, fatigue realted considerations aside, the Clarion has to give a slight edge to Jake Peavy. *No doubt there are sentimental reasons at the editorial desk to lean San Diego. But the stats back up the case for Peavy. Penny may be a gaudy 10-1 to Peavy's 9-3, but Peavy has a better ERA, better strikeout to walk ratio, fewer base runners per inning allowed, more innings pitched...
They went head to head in a sweet match-up last week. They left the field at scenic Chavez Ravine with the score tied 1-1 in the 8th. The Pads won the game in extras. Peavy’s rotation mate Chris Young is going to the All-Star game, too, as the last guy voted in by the fans with the additional on-line balloting. The Padres old guys David Wells and Greg Maddux, Wells getting kicked out early yesterday notwithstanding, look good as #3, #4 starters. Possibly the best starting pitching in the N.L. is why the Clarion looks to the Pads to start pulling away in the West.
Listening to Vin Scully do the Dodgers-Padres, Peavy-Penny matchup yielded an oustanding trivia question. Name the last major league pitcher to hit for a for a higher batting average than his earned run average for a full 150+ inning season. Hint at the end of the column. Follow this link for the answer.
As expected the Brewers have started to give ground in the atrocious N.L. Central. The Clarion documented the Brewers easily predictable cold stretch against winning clubs, their low water mark was four games over .500. Lately, they have again been beating up on their lousy division, but the Cubs are finally playing halfway decent (for this era.) The Cubbies are two games over .500, so the Brew crew’s lead has shrunk to 4 and a half. The Brewers are 12 up and 8 down in their last twenty games, this despite an uber soft schedule featuring the Giants, Royals, Astros, Pirates and Nationals.
Ruminating on used car salesman Selig's Brewers and the mess that is N.L. Central, then listening to baseball wag Buster Olney the other night underlined to the Clarion why the Wild Card sucks, and how baseball has debased one of its very best traditions, the great regular season. Olney was asked on ESPN Radio what teams he thought were eliminated, toast, done at this point, could only eliminate 11 of the 30 teams. He and the ESPN Radio folks attempted to laud this kind of parity. But actually, it is crap. Among the teams Olney could not rule out yet, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Colorado Rockies.
This is how we end up with the 83 win Cardinals from last year as champions. There are 95 plus years of baseball history where those Cardinals aren’t a good enough team to make the playoffs. They would have been swept in a seven game series by any of the nine Cardinals series champion of the past. They have maybe a single starter who cracks either the line-up or the rotation of any of those squads. So is that what Olney, ESPN, MLB, and various other apologists are saying? This mediocrity is what we should look forward to? Average teams wheezing to the finish-line, getting hot in a ridiculously brief five game series, then meandering through another round, to play a team whose pitchers can’t even throw the ball to first. Whoop-dee-do, your 2006 World Series champions.
MLB greedy for playoff dollars has attempted to co-opt Pete Rozelle style football parity, which has worked so well for the NFL. (with its 16 game regular season and every game counts mentality.) They have distended and distorted their playoff system in a vain attempt to regain market share from America’s new game. They even stole the rubric from football, “Wild Card.” Look at the World Series champs since the introduction of the Wild Card, we now have a fair sampling. Who amongst these twelve rosters could stand the historical test of time? Surely not the deconstructed ‘97 Marlins. The ‘03 version? The it’s not our money ‘01 Diamondbacks? For the Clarion only maybe the ‘04 Red Sox, the Yanks run and the ‘95 Braves can truly grasp the chalice of greatness. And the Braves can be maligned for the failure to win another title.
Trivia Hint:
The last pitcher to hit for a higher average .250 than his ERA 2.41 pitched for one of the two teams playing the game in question (Dodgers and Padres.)
Comments:
Wow, Valunsuela. Talk about a shooting star. Too bad, like most NL pitchers, he wore himeself out after five years.
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