Mel Kiper, Jr. Has High Standards

I consider myself an NFL fan and a loyal supporter of the New York Giants, but I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about college football. That’s Mel Kiper, Jr’s job. So when I read his NFL Draft grades on ESPN.com, I was quickly reminded of his perenially lofty expectations for each team’s haul.

I’m not sure if you can access the web page, since it’s an Insider article. In any case, Mel’s lowest grade is a C- and his highest grade is a B+. No As, no Fs. Not even a D. Is this arbitary? Sure. Is it with getting worked up about? Nope. But damn, Mel, lighten up a little. According to you, every team in the NFL did either “okay” or “pretty good” in the draft. The Cleveland Browns got freaking Joe Thomas AND Brady Quinn (grade: B+).

Not everyone can be a draft-master guru like you, Mel.

JH 32

In June 2002, the Cardinals had just about the worst week a team could have. First, their iconic radio broadcaster Jack Buck passed away; then, more shockingly, their ace Darryl Kile died of heart failure the night before a game at Wrigley. After a brief tailspin, the Cards buckled down and won 97 games and the division title. Many factors contributed (chief among them Jocketty’s trade for Scott Rolen, completing the MV3) but the media obviously had a storyline to complete, and Tony La Russa won a Manager of the Year award for his steady, veteran hand.

Now would be a good time for TLR to whip up that leadership stuff again.

As you probably know, Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock died Sunday when his SUV collided with a tow truck on a freeway near downtown St. Louis.

There’s not much to say. A young man was at the height of his talent and doing what he loved most. And now he is gone. I just thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge it since we are a baseball blog and I am a Cardinals fan. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, the Cardinals, and anyone who knew the guy.

Special Offer

For one day, and probably one day only, Igawa > Matsuzaka.

Igawa: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.

I am happy. Let’s go Yankees!

This Has Nothing To Do With Baseball

Seriously. This is wholly unrelated to baseball or sports of any kind, but I feel it merits mentioning, and since this is my outlet to (a very small portion of) the world, here goes.

On Wednesday night I went to see My Chemical Romance perform in downtown Nashville. I’m not a super-emo guy or anything, but I was quite looking forward to the show since the band was going to perform the best album of 2006 in its entirety.

The band was pretty spectacular, but late in the main set, lead singer Gerard Way took a moment for a little speech, a kind of public service announcement in the wake of the recent Virginia Tech shooting. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it was something along the lines of, “We sing a lot about feeling outcast or depressed or lonely, and we know that touches a lot of you. No matter how bad you feel, there’s always someone to talk to; and you never try to solve your problems by hurting others or yourself.”

Then he sang this song.

Hmm.

Obviously, there’s a hint of ironic flourish to the song just like everything else MCR does, but come on. Was I really the only one who was bothered by the flippant contradiction here?

My issue is not so not much with the intention; Way was certainly heartfelt, and his message seemed very appropriate and even downright responsible, given the surprisingly young median age of the audience. He just shouldn’t have said it right before a song that would encourage (or even wink at) said violence.

Despite the dark subject matter of “The Black Parade,” My Chemical Romance can be quite uplifting; at their best, they transform liminality into something anthemic. Why not unfurl that PSA right before launching into this song?

Of course, the effect would have been rendered moot by the giant banner with 18 guns encircling the word “REVENGE” in bright red text.

So between this display of insensitivity and all the death and what not, I left the show a little bummed out. But the fervor and demographics of the audience confirmed to me that this decade will be cherished for two musical developments: the disappearance of any distinctions between pop and hip-hop, and pop-punk concept albums.

Okay, I promise I won’t not write about baseball for a while now.

I Was Wrong.

[H]ow soon until [Philip] Hughes gets the call-up? I’ll put the over/under (after/before) at July 21st and say after.

It is Thursday, April 26 and Hughes just gave up his first major league run.

Although, to be fair, my prediction was based more on whether or not Pavano would be effective as a fifth starter, and not related to Pavano, Mussina, and Wang all going to the disabled list.

Pettitte, you’re still cool.

For The Love of God, Brian Cashman, Please Fire Joe Torre

Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Torre has done it again. He has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

• Top of the 7th: Yankees take a 3-2 lead on a Josh Phelps single. Phelps reaches second on a Johnny Damon single. Torre pinch-runs Melky Cabrera for Phelps. Miguel Cairo flies out to end the inning.
• Bottom of the 7th: Torre obviously feels comfortable with a 1-run lead, because Melky replaces Damon in CF, and Doug Mientkiewicz replaces Phelps at 1B. I am strongly suspicious that the Yankees will need more runs to win, and that Torre’s moves will come back to haunt the Yankees.
• Still bottom of the 7th: runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Joe Torre pulls Chien-Ming Wang, despite him only throwing 81 pitches. He replaces Wang with Jose Vizcaino, who has been bad and overworked. Vizcaino – per Torre’s instruction – intentionally walks the bases loaded in order to set up the inning-ending double play.
• Special K (that’s me) throws his microwave out of his 13th floor window, because Wang records the vast majority of his outs via the groundball. Furthermore, Wang was the best in baseball last year at inducing groundouts. This is why he gets away with striking no one out. Therefore, Torre has decided that a shaky, tired reliever who has trouble throwing strikes is a better bet to induce a double-play than the best pitcher in baseball in inducing groundballs.
• Vizcaino gives up a screaming liner to short that Cairo has to jump about two feet to get.
• Torre, satisfied with Vizcaino, puts in Mike Myers to get out Carl Crawford. Crawford hits a grand slam, 6-3 Tampa Bay.
• Top of the 8th: Yankees score a run, making it 6-4.
• Top of the 9th: Yankees attempt to score 2 runs with Cano, Cabrera, and Mientkiewicz coming up. Had Torre not unnecessarily pinch-run for Phelps and taken out Damon earlier, this would have been Cano, Phelps, and Damon. Guaranteed runs? Nope. Better chance? Yes.

Now, would leaving Wang in the game have gotten the Yankees out of this situation unscathed? Probably not. But if Torre’s whole freaking idea was to induce a double-play after loading the bases, then why in the world would you take out the best groundball pitcher in baseball who has only thrown 81 pitches. What kind of sense does that make? He does this (or some variation) every game too. It’s like he makes moves just because he can, or because he thinks he should.

Certainly, good pitching and good offense are more important than a good manager. It is possible to win in spite of bad coaching (have the Yankees been doing it since 1996?). But if a team is to have any hope of recovering or improving, it needs to master all of the little things that are under its control. In other words, don’t make stupid mistakes. But the Yankees’ manager is Joe Torre, and Torre is incapable of making a good decision or a sound judgment.

More to come, I’m sure.

Bob Klapisch Is Panicking

Bob Klapisch is panicking, which is ironic because that’s what he’s accusing the Yankees of doing in bringing up Phil Hughes to pitch Thursday. Hughes – as you may or may not know – is the consensus #1 pitching prospect in baseball today. Klapisch uses this promotion as a way of addressing the Yankees’ shortcomings in general. He has some legitimate concerns, but there are some pretty startling moments of panic:

No one wants to admit they’re panicking, but what else can the Yankees’ summoning of rookie Phil Hughes from Triple-A be except just that — panic, following a disastrous weekend sweep at Fenway?

Disastrous? The Yankees’ starting pitching could not get any worse, Joe Torre is a horrendous manager, no Matsui (for the whole series) and no Damon/Posada for various parts, and it was on the road against a completely healthy Red Sox team (with their three “aces” giving up 15 ER in 20 IP). Final score of the series: 21-17, Boston. And also, it’s April. This was not disastrous.

Everyone is hurt, including Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano and Chien-Ming Wang, who finally comes off the disabled list tonight against Tampa Bay. But the franchise’s foundation was further rocked on Friday when Mariano Rivera blew a disastrous save against the Red Sox, and was clocked at just 88 mph on the radar gun

This is true. Lots of Yankee starters are hurt. Wang comes back tonight, Mussina in a week, and Pavano probably never. The Yankees have replaced them with inferior pitchers (Darrell Rasner, Jeff Karstens, Chase Wright), who have sucked to the point that the bullpen has been overused. This will be very important to remember shortly.

Also, I’m not saying Rivera isn’t declining. He probably is, because he’s old. But to say that “the franchise’s foundation was further rocked” is extreme. Rivera, like every other reliever in the history of baseball, has had bad months before. This season, Rivera has thrown 6 innings. 6. I think making such a sweeping judgment after 6 innings of work is insane. If he had 6 iffy innings in the middle of the season, it’d be a slump. But it’s at the beginning, so he’s falling apart. I get it.

The rest of the bullpen has been so unreliable that Andy Pettitte has already made two relief appearances. The other relievers, it seems, are just waiting for their next flogging, with no cure on the horizon

Okay, Bob, you yourself said that the Yankees’ starting pitching has been atrocious. This means that the bullpen has had to pitch a ton more than usual. Sean Henn, Luis Vizcaino, Scott Proctor, and Brian Bruney are all in the AL’s top ten innings pitched by a reliever this year. It’s because the starting pitching has sucked so far. The Yankee bullpen is not unreliable, nor are they “just waiting for their next flogging”. I know this because I looked it up. The Yankee bullpen is 12th in baseball with a 3.51 ERA, 5th with a .206 BAA, and 7th with a .625 OPS against.

The Yankees – despite having their foundation rocked by 6 iffy innings from Mariano Rivera and obscenely overworked/mismanaged middle relievers – have one of the best bullpens in baseball. You can look it up, Bob.

Hughes has had mixed results in the minors, pitching effectively in his first start, getting roughed up in his second, before finally mixing and matching his weapons to perfection in overwhelming Syracuse.

Philip “Mixed Results” Hughes:

• (2004-2006): 21-7, 2.13 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 237 IP, 150 H, 6 HR, 269 K, 54 BB, 10.21 K/9
• (2007): 2-1, 3.94 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 16 IP, 11 H, 0 HR, 17 K, 4 BB, 9.56 K/9

I’m assuming that Bob meant to say that he has had mixed results in AAA so far, but he didn’t say that. He said Hughes has had mixed results in the minor leagues, which is clearly really wrong.

Don’t think people aren’t noticing how vulnerable they are. One major league executive said, “I wouldn’t say this is one of the better Yankee teams of the last few years.”

I agree the Yankees have gotten off to a horrendous start. But again: injured Wang, injured Mussina, permanently injured Pavano, overworked bullpen (that has managed to be effective), injured Matsui, zero production from first base. But it’s way too early to be saying this stuff with this sort of conviction. The Yankees’ team ERA, believe it or not, is 25th in baseball at 4.67. It’s probably going to improve, since everything that could have gone wrong HAS gone wrong. The Yankees are also on pace to score 1044 runs, when no team has scored more than 1000 since the Cleveland Indians in 1999.

Has the Yankees’ starting pitching sucked so far? Yep, sure has. But the melodrama and panic surrounding this is starting to bother me. Look, I’ll eat my hat if the pitching keeps the Yankees from winning 90 games. But I don’t think it will. Bob Klapisch needs to calm down, step back, and think about what he’s writing. The Yankees began the 2005 season with a 11-18 record, and made the playoffs. Relax, and we’ll talk again in a month.

Thoughts On Yankees vs. Red Sox, Part I

Obviously, it’s hard to be completely happy about being swept by the Red Sox. The goal is always to win, and going 0/3 is clearly not good. So yes, I am unhappy.

But…

I can’t be completely unhappy. I’ll go game-by-game here. The first game was obviously pretty devastating. The Yankees were cruising until a deadly combination of epic Joe Torre mismanaging and Bad Mariano showed up. That was a rough loss. The second game was also close, despite Jeff Karstens’ best efforts to give the game to the Red Sox. Tonight was competitive as well, with the bulk of the Red Sox’ scoring coming on ridiculous back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs against Chase Wright. Altogether, the games were pretty close and competitive.

I take heart for several reasons. First, the Yankees are a wreck right now. An absolute wreck. They have quite possibly the worst in-game manager in baseball today, a pitching staff in shambles, an overworked bullpen, and a lineup missing (for this series, at various times) Matsui, Damon, and Posada. Considering all that, the Yankees being outscored 21-17 in three games is vastly more acceptable.

The primary reason that I’m not all that upset concerns Boston’s pitching. All I heard this past winter – particularly after the Matsuzaka signing – was how amazing Boston’s starting pitching would be this year. There are several links to articles and columns on ESPN.com about the forthcoming dominance of Schilling, Beckett, and Matsuzaka. And you know what – small sample size and all – the Yankees handled them very well:

• Game 1 (Schilling): 7 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR
• Game 2 (Beckett): 6 2/3 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 0 HR
• Game 3 (Matsuzaka): 7 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR

This makes me very happy. Again, to be fair and consistent in my analysis, this was a small sample size. Three games do not a season make, with respect to the quality of the Red Sox’ starters. But it certainly was nice to get 15 runs in 20 innings against the best of their (unreasonably) acclaimed rotation. This was also without various combinations of Posada, Damon and Matsui.

A few notes before my final thoughts:

• Note to Red Sox fans: please stop giving standing ovations for mediocre pitching performances. This occurred both with Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Beckett, well, maybe. Maybe, but probably not. Matsuzaka? No way.
• Those four straight home runs were sick. I chuckled after the fourth. To quote Ron Burgundy in Anchorman, “I’m not even mad; that’s amazing”.
• Note to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan: the last time a team hit four straight homers was last year. I say this because right after the fourth, Morgan said “I can’t remember ever seeing that before”.  Jon Miller said something to the same effect (see previous post). Of course, it’s their job to know the last time something this rare and amazing happened.
• Jon Miller, Josh Phelps is not a rookie. He is 30 years old and has played for multiple major-league teams. Look at the sheets of paper in front of you (if, in fact, you managed to bring some).
• I cannot stress enough how irritated I was at Miller and Morgan all night, particularly about their alarming lack of criticism regarding Matsuzaka. He did not pitch well. Morgan very quietly attributed this to him choosing not to use all 8 of his pitches, preferring rather to limit his arsenal and not expose his entire repetoire. That crafty Asian. Miller also quietly attributed Matsuzaka’s ineffectiveness to the pressure of the rivalry, especially playing at home. That’s funny, because analysts and writers crucified A-Rod for succumbing to this same pressure last year, yet it’s a viable excuse for Matsuzaka.
• Matsuzaka did not pitch well. He had iffy control of his slider, little movement on his fastball, and was particularly vulnerable pitching out of the stretch. Again, little-to-no criticism from our dear broadcasters about this performance. As irritated as I am about the ESPN hype machine (so far) not acknowledging its potential exaggerations, I am heartened that the Yankees will get to face Matsuzaka again.
• Lastly, I thought it was very appropriate that the Red Sox honored Jackie Robinson today, a few days after every other team did (because of weather-related scheduling problems so far). As you may or may not know, the Red Sox were the last MLB team to integrate because of resistance from their owner and manager. The Red Sox (and Boston as a whole) are also somewhat notorious for racism occasional intolerance and homogeneity. Anyway, I thought it was funny.

That’s about it. I think I am being honest with myself when I say that this is not merely me rationalizing a rough weekend of baseball, or being overcome with denial. Sure, 0/3 is not good. It is bad. But all things considered (it’s also only April), this was not an awful weekend. Indeed, I am heartened. Until next weekend, go Yankees.

Um…Guys?

The Red Sox just went back-to-back-to-back-to-back (that’s four homers in a row) against Yankees’ rookie SP Chase Wright. Shortly after Jon Miller finished climaxing about this remarkable (no, really, that was amazing) feat, he exclaimed “I can’t remember that ever happening before!”. A few moments pass, “That’s just amazing, I can’t ever remember that happening! Magical!”.

Umm…guys?

But that’s cool. Last year was, like, a really long time ago.

EDIT: Keesup just came into my room and informed me that Miller and Joe Morgan just mentioned the Dodgers’ four dingers. Took them long enough. It’s not like it’s their job or anything.

Bob Ryan, Will You Marry Me?

Bob Ryan, you are clutch. Let’s go to Vegas and get hitched, whaddya say?

EDIT: Click on page 3 of video clips, and click on the one with Bob Ryan