Are They Doing It With Mirrors?

Far ahead of expectations Vernon Wells celebrates another Yankee win.

Somehow, against all expectations, the Yankees keep on winning. A bunch of their stars are injured (heck, even Brian Cashman is on crutches) but it doesn't seem to matter. They recently passed the very successful Red Sox and are in first place.

They play a series against the Blue Jays later this week and I would have expected that New York would be in last and the Blue Jays in first, but it's the other way around.

Say, I couldn't figure out why the heck they rehired him in the first place, but when are the Jays gonna get rid of  John Gibbons?

It seems like forever since the Jays had a crew that got clutch hits. It is interesting that they have three of the leaders in home runs. Encarnacion, Arencebis, and Bautista, respectively are tied for first, 5th, and ninth. But where are they in RBIs? They are 8th, 36th, and 27th.

The Yanks are winning with just one star performing as he usually does, i.e., Robinson Cano. Ichiro Suzuki is recovering from a terrible start. Francesco Cervelli got off to a surprisingly good start and then broke his hand, to join Jeter, A-Rod, Teixeira, and Granderson on the DL.

Jayson Nix congratulates Lyle Overbay on a home run
that gave him two of his five RBIs against the Royals on Friday.

Up steps Chris Stewart to take his place and hit better than he's supposed to. Jayson Nix has done pretty well at shortstop, though he is no Jeter. Vernon Wells is hitting a lot better than I thought he would. He's tied for the team lead (.299) with Cano and has nine homers and 22 ribbies. In his last two seasons out west he hit .218 and .230 and he already has almost as many homers as he had all last year.

Lyle Overbay has also hit better than expected and Travis Hafner, who's thrilled not to have to play the field, has been Mr. Consistent with a .999 OPS and a .582 Slugging Average.

Hiroki Kurado

It’s not any one thing you can point to. The Yanks are 3rd in home runs and ninth in Slugging, but fourteenth in Runs Scored, fifteenth in average, and sixteenth in OPB. Their staff is fourth in ERA, however, and they lead the AL with 17 saves (Rivera has 15 of those).

Their big three have been excellent. Hiroki Kurado is 5-2, with a 2.31 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. C.C. Sabathia is 4-3, 3.23 and ancient Andy Pettitte is 4-2, 3.83. Even Joba Chamberlain, fresh off a dustup with Mariano Rivera, is pitching well.

"I still think we have a lot of good players," says Joe Girardi. "Maybe not the names of the guys we're used to having her, but guys that have had big years. They're playing extremely well. It seems to be a different guy every night finding a way to get it done for us."

Worse news for the rest of the league is that Curtis Granderson had eight hits in five rehab games with the Scanton Wiles-Barre Rail Riders last week and appears ready to return.

Final Note: Is Miguel Cabrera planning to win back-to-back Triple Crowns? He's second in average at .369, first in runs batted in (40), and only a few back of the lead in home runs.

Does EVERYTHING in the MLB have to revolve around money?

“And this pitching change is brought to you by…”

As you no doubt know if you’ve been around Late Innings for awhile, I prefer to listen to baseball on the radio. You might think I’m being old-fashioned or clinging to ancient habits, but let me assure you, that’s not the case. I like using my mind to imagine what’s going on. I find camera work in games often gets in the way of how the game is actually going. If the radio broadcasting crew is a good one (and for Jays games, it is very good), you don’t need no stinking camera to know what’s happening.

Since I’m often at my computer when games are on, I subscribe to the MLB radio channel. (Forget about their TV channel. If it’s a home game, you’re blacked out. What good is that for around 100 big ones per season?)

I’ve been a subscriber to the MLB radio service since its first year, but starting last year, the amount of advertising I’m subjected to if I happen to look in at their Gameday screen while listening has gotten absolutely ridiculous. It’s at the point where it’s impinging on the actual screen view with ads bracketing the “scoreboard” that change every minute much like the ads you now see behind home plate at the ball park. There’s currently one particular one in a look-at-me shade of hot pink that actually hurts my eyes. There are ads between innings, ads before you’re allowed to watch a video highlight clip once the game is over. It’s just ridiculous.

Last night, I had enough and just flipped off the whole thing (it didn’t help that the Jays were busy imploding yet again). I may just go back to my radio broadcasts and forget game day.

Out at the old ball yard, I feel as if I’m in the middle of a pinball machine. This is not me being an old fart, either. I like cutting edge advertising. What we have now are pixel board technology run rampant. From my seat at a recent ball game at the Rogers Centre, I counted over 50 ads on these boards and on “static” ads, and I obviously couldn’t see all of them (those behind me and below me). If you want your birthday mentioned, you pay. Everything is sponsored from the broadcast booths to the on-deck circles. Stadiums have naming rights that bring in huge amounts of money.

Mlb.com is no different.

My question is this: do they really need advertising dollars that much? We pay a lot of bucks to come to the ball yard, and while I expect there to be a fair bit of advertising, it’s just gotten completely out of hand, to my mind. The Gameday feature on all major league sites is free, but I doubt there are many who watch it without paying for the radio broadcast.

How about giving ball fans a little break from the constant bombardment of (repetitive) advertising?

“And that grounder to short is brought to you by…”

When the Yankees come to town

While the Jays are getting their butts kicked in New York this weekend, looking more like a dog and pony show than a contending baseball team, I’d like to go back to the New York nine’s visit to Toronto last weekend.

I didn’t attend any games, but a few friends who did thought the fans, particularly on the two weekend games were rather rowdy. Apparently, things were even worth in the seats immediately behind and above the visiting team’s bullpen. There was a lot of heckling (expected when the Yanks are in town), but also a lot of bad language and eventually some stuff thrown – not a good reflection on ball fans in this city, to be sure.

However, this bad behaviour brought out the fact that the Yankees travel with their own security guards who watch over the pitchers during the game. Here’s a blog posting on the subject. You can read it while I go out and pour another cup of coffee.

The article was written before all was known about what happened. The two guys fingered by Yankee security and then thrown out by the Toronto Police at their behest admitted later to throwing a few peanuts down into the bullpen. Clearly, that’s out of bounds because it can easily escalate into throwing things like beer, soft drinks or other, more dangerous items like batteries or projectiles brought in for the purpose of being thrown.

But I have to say I was more than a little put off by the fact that it was the Yankees security people who seemed to be running the show here. That to me is really out of bounds. The cops totally dodged any responsibility (we were just doing what they asked us to do), but it should be Rogers Centre security calling the shots here. The Yankees were the visiting team, “visiting” being the operative word here. This wasn’t Yankee Stadium. They aren’t the home team. If they want to bring their own security, fine, but these guys have to know their place.

I would hope in light of this that the Rogers Centre took notice and will move to make sure that they don’t cede control to outsiders. Like other ball parks, heckling the visiting team is part of the game. As long as things aren’t thrown, then the visitors just have to put up with the gibes. If there’s a lot of cussing from the stands, home stadium security can (and does) step in to ask people to dial back a bit. If they don’t, then it is time to throw them out. But this sort of call should never be made by the visiting team. That’s just nuts.

From the Now I’ve Seen Everything Department...

Combing through the MLB website this morning, searching for inspiration, I stumbled across the following clip:



Now if I understand this correctly (and I’m sure the inestimable Mssr. Braund will point out the error of my ways if I’m wrong. The man is a bloody walking rule book.), Jean Segura of the Brewers has done something that no ball player in history has ever accomplished: he’s managed to steal first.

That old baseball truism is now going to have to be thrown out of the game: you can’t steal first. Jean has done it, or at least he appears to have done it. If I’m wrong, then maybe he’s managed another first-time feat: getting tagged out twice in the same inning without the benefit of having two plate appearances. Sure, there are guys walking around who have made two outs in an inning. They’re pikers compared to our Jean. He’s now made two outs on only one plate appearance: once when he stepped off second base after making it back from his attempted steal of third (the play was still live since no one had called time) and once again when he tried to steal second for the second time in that inning (on one plate appearance). And if he hadn’t been tagged out on that second second base steal attempt, he also would have managed to steal second twice in an inning on only one plate appearance.

Confused yet?

Personally, I’m with Ryan Braun here, who, in a heads-up play, makes it to second during the Segura rundown between second and third, only to be told that he’s actually not safe. Knowing he’s in the middle of a very bad thing, he just throws up his hands and retreats to the relative sanity of the dugout where he can eat some Gatorade and drink a few sunflower seeds.

Somewhere in the middle of all this are the poor umpires. These men know the rule book inside out. Hell, they probably have to memorize the darn thing and then be able to recite it perfectly in order to work at the Major League level. Jean has probably given them heartburn over his baserunning adventures. Or he’s rewritten the rule book.

And who says your entertainment dollars aren’t well-spent when you go to the old ball yard?

An added bonus: Just to prove that strangeness is all around us, I offer this photo:

So now we know that Hu is indeed on first. Sorry, there’s no indication if What was on second at the time…

Egad!

What a day it was in Tiger Town on Wednesday! I went with my Dad – a 91 youthful years old – and brother-in-law Mike to game eight of the season. Heavy downpours, lightning and flooding on the road punctuated the drive to Detroit.  However, the game did start two-and-half-hours late. I thought it would be a washout. My Dad was positive there would be a game. The ground crew took off the tarp and the game began with mist and wind. The starting temp was 43°F and went down to 41 and ended around 7 pm. So much for a pleasant afternoon game!  It was a twilight single header.

We all had to put up with the very uncomfortable weather. The players had some tough plays in very bad conditions.  The fans really had it tough too. I met Jays fans from Kitchener and Windsor. The Jay's fans out numbered the Tiger fans towards the end. They were a very loud and persistent group. Nice to see.  All in all, it would have been better in a domed stadium. Northern climes should all be under the lid when needed, then  you can always have the game with a modicum of comfort. The Thursday game was 35°F and awful as well.

Sorry about the poncho. It was necessary.

The start to the Jay’s season has been about as unproductive as possible. The top-drawer trades, made for rebuilding the pitching staff, have not panned out so far. Mark Buehrle did not have his good stuff and on Thursday, Josh Johnson did not as well, for both their second starts of the season. So far the starting pitching has only one in the win column.

The pitching is the worst in the AL, with a total ERA of 5.48. The starters have a combined ERA of 7.064. J Happ has an ERA of 0.00 and so far the only win. He starts tonight and I wish him well against a red hot Royals team.  Everyone in the bullpen has been called upon so far for a total 37 innings already. John Gibbons will have to hope the starters can go deeper into the game and give some relief to the relief.  Still the team ERA must start to change. How much time do the fans give them? A few games do not make a season, but to have all the starters throw bombs at the same time is a bit much. Especially with new teams and contracts.  Johnson should come round soon as he has learned to finesse the ball even through he has lost lots off his fastball. With Buerhle, he has to have better control – no finesse involved.

The lumber, too, is dead. In areas where it counts, the Jays are worst in category. In Runs and Hits the Jays are 13th and 11th and yet are 5th in Home Runs. For BA and OBP they rank 12th and 11th.  So far, with batting, the opposing pitching is baffling them. I know that many are now in the AL for the first time. They are seeing a different set of pitchers for the first time. Still though, there are some pretty bad swings.

Wednesday was the first real comeback game the Jays have had. Down 6-1 in the sixth, they fought back against a weak Tiger bullpen. Rick Porcello departed in the fifth leading 6-1. Darin Downs put in 1.1 innings – one earned run – and then came Brayan Villarreal who promptly walked 3 in a row. All three runs scored.  Former Jay and former every other team, Octavio Dotel, served up two hits, one walk and three SO for no earned runs. He would have stayed in, but he took a line drive to the bit below his belt. OUCH! He was hurting. Phil Coke pitched the ninth with no ER.

On the Jays side, Buehrle lost it in the fifth. He had five ER and one IBB, which went to Prince Fielder. The rest of the bullpen was excellent. A line drive to the forearm also smacked Daren Oliver. Glad to hear he is available to play today. Casey Janssen closed it down very efficiently.

One real concern is the number of errors by Emilio Bonifacio.  He has collected four to date. The Tigers, as a team, have none. Bonifacio seems to be really struggling at second. He does not know where to make a play or how to pick up a grounder and fire it to first. I have heard it said that he is great in the outfield and the infield. Maybe he is just a good utility guy. Again, we are looking for a second baseman. Maybe Maicer Izturis is the guy.  I hope that Brett Lawrie is back sooner than later. Jose Reyes is the go-to guy right now, best in field and at bat. Bravo for the great start.

Even with the weather, we all had a good time and warmed up on the way home.  It was good to have the bats come alive on Wednesday but a big disappointment that they went so far away on Thursday. Doug Fister pitched a brilliant game and the Jays bats, again, were not to be heard from.

Hope that better days are around the corner. The expectations are high and when a top team is in last place, people worry. It is too soon to worry, but things do need to pick up. Is it John Gibbons who was told that you don’t have to stress too much because the team is so great? Maybe he will have to make some more serious changes.

Big Busts

Okay, so maybe the title is a shameless attempt to lure internet surfers, but it actually refers to a number of top line players who have yet to begin earning their big pay checks, players whose teams are counting on them to carry a significant portion of the load this year.

Let's begin with Alfonso Soriano, who must produce in the heart of the Cubs' order. Even with two hits on Monday he is still 6 for 27 for a .222 average and he has no home runs and no runs batted in. Matt Kemp bats third for the Dodgers and is 2 for 20 (.100) with no home runs and two runs batted in. 

Ryan Howard struck out three times on Sunday.

Marco Scutaro, who bats second for the Giants, is a dismal 3 for 27, .111, with – you guessed it – no home runs and no runs batted in. Phillie slugger Ryan Howard was, 7, 16, .322 in Spring Training, but he's 4 for 27 with no home runs and four RBIs. And the Cardinals are hoping for more from Carlos Beltran, who is just 4 for 21, with no dingers yet. 

As for the American League, Carlos Pena is one of the few bright lights in Houston's dim batting order. He's now 3 for 19, .158 with no home runs and no runs batted in. The Astros, who seemed World Series bound after leading the majors with a 1-0 record, are now, predictably, 1-5.

Tiger DH Victor Martinez, who looked so promising in Spring Training, is now 3 for 21, .143 with no home runs and one measly run batted in. He's hitting behind three great sluggers. Torii Hunter is hitting.393, Miguel Cabrera is batting .304 (though he has not homered yet), and Prince Fielder is .261 with eight RBIs. Imagine how well they'd be doing if Martinez was getting more hits.

Before I move on, I want to mention a very interesting stat I heard on Sunday's Yankees vs. Tigers broadcast. At the start of the game Cabrera was batting .368 for his career against the Yankees. Of all players with at least 150 at bats against the Bronx Bombers (who have few bombers in their order right now) only two guys had better averages – a couple of nobodies named Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Can Jay-Z get Robbie that $125 million deal?

The Yankees have two stars off to lousy starts, which they can ill afford given injuries to Jeter, Granderson, and Teixeira. Ichiro Suzuki, usually a base hit machine, was 2-18, .111 after the weekend, but got two hits in the Yankees' 11-6 win over the Indians Monday night. Robinson Cano, who recently – and interestingly – abandoned super sports agent Scott Boras for hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, may also need a new swing after being so awful in the playoffs last year. He was 3 for 23, .130 with no home runs and no runs batted in before getting three hits last night. Leadoff hitter Brett Gardner is batting .167.

The Blue Jays have two struggling stars. Edwin Encarnacion is 2-23, .087 with one home run. At least he has three runs batted in. So far this season Melky Cabrera without the juice is like a Sunkist orange – or a guy after a vasectomy – "all juice and no seeds". He is 4-24, .167 with no home runs and no runs batted in.

Ranger fans let Hamilton have it after another strikeout. 

Getting a whole lot of attention for his bad start is Josh Hamilton. On Friday night in the Rangers' home opener (how ironic that they should open against Hamilton's new team) he was greeted by a huge chorus of boos. He did the opposite of silencing the crowd, going  0-4 and dropping his average to a microscopic .050. To make matters worse, his wife had to ask for help from security because she was being insulted and sworn at .in the stands (their kids were with her).

Hamilton left six runners on base, though Pujols and Trumbo provided enough power to salvage a game out of the series. "If I was somewhere else the same thing would be going on. It'll get better", said Hamilton, who got three hits on Sunday. (That was after he'd grounded out with the bases loaded in the first inning.) The Angels lost again. Hamilton is now up (?) to 4-25, .160, with no homers and two runs batted in. Is that what $125 million gets you these days?

Halladay has not gotten past the fifth inning yet.

Roy Halladay, about whose troubles Rick wrote very poignantly in his last entry, is now 0-2 and has the worst ERA in baseball, an ungodly 14.73. On Monday, with little speed or control,  he was hammered by the Mets. "When you're trying to find something, the more you're grasping at it, the more you're reaching for it, the more you're trying to find it, the harder it is to get," said a candid and reflective Halladay after the Mets' pounding.

"You really have to stick to your routine, stick to your program, prepare every day and let it come to you." Cole Hammels is also off to an awful start, 0-2 after allowing 16 hits, four home runs, and five walks in 10.2 innings for a 10.97 ERA.

Over in the American League David Price is struggling. He's 0-1 with 17 hits in 11 innings. His ERA is 8.18. Jared Weaver is also 0-1, with a 4.91 ERA. 

Ya got give those web surfers somethin'.

Then there is Cy Young Winner R.A. Dickey. J.P. Arencibia may be having a hard time catching Dickey's knuckleball, but it doesn't seem to be messing up hitters very much. He's been shelled in both of his starts and is now 0-2, allowing 15 hits and three home runs in 10.2 innings. He was booed at the Rogers Centre on Sunday after giving up five straight hits including a home run. The Jays need Dickey to start getting people out if they are to begin their march to the post season. Say, I sure hope you guys enjoyed reading about these big busts.

When the whispers start

With a Children’s Wish fan.

I have long been a fan of Roy “Doc” Halladay. Not only has he been a great pitcher for a very long time, he’s been a paragon of professionalism, a straight-talker to the press who doesn’t hide away in the club house when he’s had a poor game, as well as a total class act. When he left Toronto for the Phillies in a trade he asked for and deserved, it was followed by a letter to Toronto sports fans published in a newspaper, thanking them for their support and kindnesses during his stay in our city. There were no hard feelings when Roy left as there were when AJ Burnett kicked sand in our faces when he signed with the Yankees after we’d stood by him during an injury-plagued few years. We won’t even talk about skipper John Farrell, now of Boston, in town this weekend with his “dream job”. (I really hope Dickey and the Jays keep Boston’s ass in today’s game.) Torontonians actually felt good that Halliday had stuck with the team for so long, even though we’d never managed to get to the post season. That certainly hadn’t been due to anything he’d done.

During his first year with the Phillies, we were all pulling for him. I’d look at the box score every time he pitched. He had a typical Roy Halladay year, too, the first 20-game winner by a Philly right-hander since Robin Roberts had done it in 1955. On May 29th, he pitched the 20th perfect game in ML history. To commemorate the event, everyone on the team (and support staff) received a beautiful watch, engraved with their names on the back and with the box bearing the inscription: “We did it together. Thanks, Roy Halladay.” Now that, my friends, is class.

Not done yet, he pitched only the second no-hitter in post season history.

We all felt great for him, and I was exceptionally disappointed when Philly was eliminated and never made it to the series, something we all knew Halladay really wanted, and as we all felt, deserved. In 2011, they again failed in their quest to make it to the end.

Then last season, he began to have a lot of trouble. He spent time on the DL with shoulder problems and went 11-8 with the worst era since he first started pitching. It was a very un-Roy Halliday-type season. The whispers started.

His problems continued in spring training this year and the whispers grew louder. He claims everything is fine, but there’s no doubt the velocity of his fastball has dropped with it barely reaching the 90 mph range. More troubling still, even though he struck out 9 in 3 1/3 innings, it took him 95 pitches to do it. This is a pitcher who once chucked an 83-pitch complete game. The really troubling thing? The batters who didn’t strike out hit him at a rate of .857.

You have to ask if Halladay is through. No matter how you look at it, the question is legitimate. I would like to think that he isn’t. Roy Halladay has been a great pitcher for a long time. But more importantly, he’s been a smart pitcher. Jayson Stark, an ESPN baseball writer, states in his excellent post on the same subject that Halladays punch-outs of nine Braves hitters was done by fooling them.

I take heart in that. If Doc can find a new way to challenge hitters early in the count since his legendary pinpoint command isn’t quite there, his pitches are coming in flatter and the speed of his fastball has dropped, he could remain one of the elite pitchers in the game. He still has the stuff to fool hitters, as witnessed by the 9 punch-outs. But those are “soft”. He’s surviving by guile. He needs something new – or increased velocity.

A sidebar: It was a very cold day in that first game for Halladay this week. I have seen him have trouble  in this situation, no doubt because he doesn’t have a good feel for the ball. We tend to forget just how much a cold day can affect all ball players, some more than others. Perhaps this was the cause for his uncharacteristic wildness.

If anyone can find that, I would like to think that Roy Halladay is the man for the job. He’s not going to give in easily and he’s smart enough to come up with the answer. And perhaps his team will make it all the way through the post season and he will finally get his coveted World Series ring.

Then the aging warrior can retire at the height of the game. I’m not the only baseball fan who would love to see that happen. No ball player deserves it more.