Of Pitchers and Lightbulbs

By my count this morning, the Cubs were carrying 14 pitchers on their 25-man roster.  They must need all 14 to change a lightbulb in the clubhouse.

Joe the Genius Maddon wants that many—and more—to get through a game.  Citing a stretch of close and extra-inning contests, Maddon last night called on catcher Miguel Montero to pitch the ninth in a 11-6 drubbing by the Yankees.  So, that makes 15 pitchers with an asterisk.

This way leads to madness, folks.  The Cubs sent down Matt Szczur (who should give the White Sox a call and vice versa), which leaves them with four outfielders, and that’s including Kyle Schwarber.  Talk about a lack of flexibility, or a disaster waiting to happen.  I sure wouldn’t want Schwarber risking injury running around where he doesn’t belong in late innings.

The next big thing in baseball will be to think of pitching in terms of quality, not quantity (see Cubs, above).  If you’ve got bad pitching, the solution is not more of the same.  Conversely, good pitching should free up a roster for talented role players like Matt Szczur.  Oh, to own a baseball team and impose my will on it.  Maybe in my next life.     

"Exit Velocity"

The term de jure on baseball broadcasts is “exit velocity,” or how fast a homerun ball leaves the yard.  I was going to say this is a meaningless stat, a homerun’s a homerun, but that would be wrong.  If you think about it, the idea of “exit velocity” is pure poison.

Look at how EV to came out of nowhere to become part of instant replay.  Americans love things fast, fast things and now, thanks to a new gadget or a new readout from an old one, fast-moving homeruns.  How much you want to bet there won’t be a top-ten list at season’s end for fastest EV balls?

What’s the harm with that? you might ask.  Just this:  the faster the speed, the more likely the hitter was tall and strong.  The equation EV=Height and Muscle will will affect entire lineups.  This is not a good thing for 5’ 9” (yeah, right) Dustin Pedroia or 5’ 10”Andrew Benintendi or anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps.  And “EV” may as well be scarlet letters branded on the forehead of any female athlete who wants to play professional baseball.

Just remember that the next time the EV number flashes on the screen after a homerun.

For Show and For Real

MLB had a story and video clip on its website about the couple who lives together and hits homeruns together, that being the Ozunas, Marcell and Genesis.  Marlins’ outfielder Marcell Ozuna hit a mammoth, 468-foot shot against the Rays at Tropicana Field Wednesday, but wait, there’s more!  This was a gender doubleheader.  In game one, Rays-Marlins’ wives and girlfriends squared off in a 12-inch softball contest, during which Ozuna’s wife Genesis lined a two-run homer to left.  If I had a dime for every time someone watched the video…

Only this was unlike any softball game I ever watched my daughter play in high school or college.  Since when does the pitcher lob the ball underhand?  And since when doesn’t the score count in a game?  In all the stories I read online about Genesis Ozuna, nobody bothered to mention the score.  Why, because it was girls and/or softball?

Speaking of softball, I came across an item that didn’t receive nearly as much attention as the Ozunas.  Back in January, MLB appointed Olympic softball gold medalist Jennie Finch its “youth softball ambassador,” a position which includes reaching out to girls who play baseball.  Huh?  Jennie Finch and baseball?  Yes, I know she’s married to former major-league pitcher Casey Daigle, but promoting that game to girls might seem like an act of treason, not to me so much as Finch and her psyche.  And yet she seems to be doing it.

Lost in all the annual Jackie Robinson hoopla last month, MLB and women’s USA Baseball sponsored a three-day baseball tournament in Compton California open to girls 16u and 12u, from the U.S. and Canada.  The tournament drew 96 players, and there was Jennie Finch saying how great it was for baseball-playing girls to see they’re not alone.  I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.

Too bad MLB didn’t publicize it the way it did the Ozunas.   

 

Good Things, Bad People

I nearly did a full Danny Thomas at the breakfast table Sunday while reading something in the sports’ section.  How I kept from spraying my coffee across the kitchen qualifies as something of a minor miracle.

It’s just that you never read a sportswriter actually calling out an owner for business ethics, but here it was, a Tribune columnist ripping into the Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria, widely regarded as one of, if not the, worst owner in baseball.  Loria ran the Montreal Expos into the ground, prevailed upon Commissioner Bud Selig to have MLB buy the Expos and allow him in turn to buy the Marlins while the Marlins’ owner bought the Red Sox.  In Miami, Loria extorted the construction of a mostly publicly funded $639 million ballpark, something he failed to pull off in Montreal despite his best and thuggish efforts. 

Loria is now expected to sell the Marlins for north of $1 billion.  Owners who would love to slap a salary cap on players have no problem with the dirty windfall going Loria’s way.  As Tribune writer Paul Sullivan put it, “Another proud day for baseball.”

Indeed.

Remind Me Again Why We Traded Chris Sale

 In the top of the first inning of last night’s Orioles-Red Sox game, Red Sox fans gave O’s outfielder Adam Jones a standing ovation to show that they weren’t all racists, at least not all of the time.  Red Sox starter Chris Sale did his part by stepping off the mound to allow the applause to continue, after which he struck out Jones swinging.

Sale then threw a pitch behind the next batter, Manny Machado, to let Machado know it’s not a good idea to spike a teammate of Chris Sale while sliding; Machado did that last week to Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia.  After Sale’s little warning, Machado was called out on strikes.  Sale pitched eight innings to pick up the win in a 5-2 game.

For the year, Sale is 2-2.  Off his stats, it should be 4-0.  In 45-2/3 innings, Sale has a 1.38 ERA to go with 63 strikeouts along with a .166 opponents’ batting average and a WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) of .74.  Did I mention that he struck out 11 Orioles, the fifth straight start he’s punched out 10+ batters?  That makes Sale only the second Red Sox pitcher in franchise history to do so, after Pedro Martinez.

That makes Sale the second coming of Sal “The Barber” Maglie, if with infinitely more talent.  And that could make Sale the White Sox version of Babe Ruth, only this time the talented left-handed pitcher goes to, rather than leaves, Boston for a pittance.  I hope not, but have this sinking, Lou Brock-like feeling in my stomach.   

The People's Court

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing,  and all the more powerful when the speaker isn’t afraid to show his/her face.  Pro tennis player Eugenie Bouchard of Canada qualifies as one such person.

Bouchard spoke out last week on the subject of Maria Sharapova’s reinstatement after serving a 15-month suspension for drug use (it was an accident, I’m so sorry….).  Bouchard called Sharapova “a cheater and so, to me, I don’t think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play that sport again.  It’s so unfair to all the other players who do it the right way.”  Maybe a tad extreme, but upfront and not an opinion delivered troll-like.

There was also an interesting incident during the NFL draft in Philadelphia last week.  Fans in the audience booed when the Cincinnati Bengals picked Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, who in 2014 was caught on camera punching a woman in the face.  The whole thing was spontaneous, and nobody threw any bottles, so I’m OK with that reaction.  (Unlike what Orioles’ outfielder Adam Jones experienced at Fenway Park last night: fans taunted him with a racial slur, and someone threw a bag of peanuts at him.  Red Sox management apologized for their fans’ troll behavior this morning.)  Even better, a Cincinnati TV station broadcast an editorial urging Bengals’ fans to boycott the team and donate the money saved to groups that work to combat violence against women.  Again, an upfront expression of opinion.

For his part, Mixon said, “I come here to work and to be the best teammate, the best person, and try to do whatever I can around the community and get everybody together.”  Well, he’s sort of done that already.  The trick will be to win over his critics, both the loud ones and the articulate ones.   

Extra! Extra!

Read All About It: 21^st Century major-league manager uses pinch runner for star player in extra inning game!  Move works!!

In Saturday’s White Sox-Tigers contest, Sox first baseman Jose Abreu walked in the tenth inning, following a solo homerun by Melky Cabrera.  Sox manager Rick Renteria then used a pinch runner, who scored on a triple by Avisail Garcia.  If Abreu had been running, that would’ve been a double by Garcia, with third base occupied.  Detroit has two players, first baseman Miguel Cabrera and DH Victor Martinez, who are both older and slower than Abreu, yet I’ve never seen the Tigers pinch run for either, so this was fairly big in terms of strategy.

The use of a pinch runner also meant that the Sox had to insert a new first baseman at the bottom of the inning.  Todd Frazier switched from third to first and Tyler Saladino from second to third while Yolmer Sanchez, the pinch runner, went in at second.  The net result—better infield defense in what turned out to be a 6-4 Sox win in ten.

It would’ve been really nice if the Sox were so old school they had a six-player bench with a first baseman ready to go instead of having to play a game of musical chairs on the infield.  But I’ll take my old school where I can get it.