White Suburban Punk

Jim Joyce is the latest with a colossal screw up, costing the Tigers’ Armando Galarraga a perfect game.  With two outs in the ninth.  Whatever happened to giving the guy the benefit of the doubt when he’s got something like this going on?  I remember watching the endings of a couple of Nolan Ryan’s no hitters and if a pitch was anywhere near the plate in the ninth inning, it would be called a strike.  Joyce apologized after the game, but it sure looked like he dogged it on the replays.  The commentators all say that he’s known as a  good ump, but how can this happen? 

This latest incident comes soon after Joe West with Mark Buehrle and after Roy Oswalt of the Astros got thrown out for saying, “I ain’t talking to you.”  Now, I keep hearing that today’s umpires are unquestionably better than they used to be and I guess I can buy that they’re under more pressure because of the extensive use of replay, but these incidents are the result of egos and laziness — really, really bad umpiring.  And it’s not just baseball.  The Celtics/Magic Game 5 was atrocious because of the individual referees, too.  The NBA ended up rescinding one of Kendrick Perkins’ technicals from that game, but that’s it, there was no more public action.  At least with these baseball incidents there has been extensive national attention, which hopefully puts pressure on umps to do their jobs competently. 

The 1985 World Series was arguably decided by a bad umpiring call on a play at first base in the ninth inning of game 6.  With the Cardinals leading the series, 3-2, and the game, 1-0, Don Denkinger missed a call at first base on the Royals’ first batter, calling him safe when replays clearly showed he was out.  Single, passed ball, intentional walk, and then a two run single by Dane Iorg, and the Royals won the game, 2-1, and then won game 7, 11-0.  There have also been recent contorversies in the NBA playoffs, such as Larry Johnson getting a phantom call on a 3-pointer in the playoffs and the Sacramento Kings getting jobbed for an entire game 7 against the Lakers.  In soccer, Thierry Henry’s obvious hand ball was missed and France advanced to this year’s World Cup instead of Ireland.

So bad officiating has at least helped decide some very big games.  I know it’s stupid to complain about umpires and officials, especially from a fan’s point of view, but we’re getting close to a bad call or a series of bad calls blatantly deciding a championship.  At the rate we’re going, it will happen very soon.

Still trying to digest the stunning news about Mark McGwire.  The thing is, why would this possibly improve his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame?  Doesn’t make any sense at all.  He had several pretty bad years, and also lost some to injury.  He also had some phenomenal years, but it looks like they were steroid-aided.  His admission that he used them shouldn’t have any impact whatsoever.  He had something like 23% of the vote this past year, and I don’t see how it should improve from there.  I say he’s out.

So now there’s news that Daisuke Matsuzaka hid an injury from the Red Sox last year.  Great news.  He apparently injured his leg training for the World Baseball Classic and that led him to alter his mechanics and injure his shoulder.  Obviously, the Sox were aware of the shoulder issue, but not the leg.  I don’t think the relationship between Daisuke and the Sox brass can really get any more strained over this, but I think the Sox just want to forget about last year as far as Daisuke is concerned.  Wipe the slate clean, and make sure he comes into camp in premium shape.  Unfortunately, it looks like this is yet another lesson that needs to be drilled into the pitcher’s head — don’t hide injuries!  He says he did it because he didn’t want to make excuses.  But he sucked and once he got sent down . . . Calm down, just forget last year.  He’s supposedly in good shape this offseason, working out in Arizona at the Athletes Performance Center or whatever it’s called.  I heard a radio interview with Dustin Pedroia where he said Daisuke looks good and they were planning to go out to dinner.

Aroldis Chapman signs with the Reds, which is somewhat surprising, but good for them.  According to the article I read about it, the yankees weren’t even in on the bidding.  Of course, the article also calls the Reds’ rotation “deep”, so that makes me suspicious about everything else.  Anyway, we’ll see how he does.  I saw another report somewhere, I can’t remember where, that called him the “John Rocker of Cuba.”  Handing $30 million to a guy who supposedly has maturity issues and is now in the US for the first time, without family or a support network, is an incredibly risky thing to do.

Jason Bay went to the Mets, too bad for him.  Looks to me like his agent really screwed this one up.  He bluffed, and Theo called him on it.  Then Seattle didn’t materialize for him, and he’s stuck in a dysfunctional organization and a huge ballpark, in a city he doesn’t seem that crazy about.  The Mets’ offer was on the table for at least a month before he signed it, after all.  Too bad, he seemed like a good guy.

I very much like the Adrian Beltre signing.  I was pretty skeptical until it happened, but the more I learn about the guy, the more I like him.  I really didn’t realize he was that good of a fielder, and he’s got a better bat than I thought.  He played through brutal injuries last year, including a shoulder injury where he couldn’t lift his arm above his head.  But he played.  So no wonder his offensive numbers were awful.  He seems to have a great swing for Fenway, and if he’s healthy, he should be able to hit 20-25 home runs.  And the fans should love him right off the bat just because of his defense.

I also liked the announcement that Jacoby Ellsbury will be playing LF, something I thought should happen when Mike Cameron was signed.  Hopefully it doesn’t bruise his ego too much, but it should really be better for both him and the team.  It minimizes his lack of arm strength and saves his legs.  He’s also been working out in Arizona and supposedly getting stronger, so maybe we’ll see him drive the ball a bit more next year.  He tends to get on streaks where he just slaps at everything and gets nothing but singles.

That’s all I got as we enter the netherworld between the premature end of the Patriots’ season and Spring Training.

I’ll add my voice to the joke of the Gold Glove (or as Dennis Eckersley would say, golden glove) Awards voting.  The great Bill James provides the best counterargument with his Fielding Bible.  He uses a panel of ten experts, including himself, to vote on the best fielders by position in major league baseball.  Of course, this is subjective, but so is the Gold Glove voting, which is done by managers and coaches in each league.  The Fielding Bible uses Bill James, Joe Posnanski, Peter Gammons, and Rob Neyer, among others.  Here are the 2009 Gold Glove winners, with their rank by the Fielding Bible:

AL

C Joe Mauer     3rd

1B Mark Teixeira     4th

2B Placido Polanco     6th

3B Evan Longoria     4th

SS Derek Jeter     17th (tied with Hanley Ramirez!)

OF Torii Hunter    9th

OF Adam Jones    22nd

OF Ichiro     1st

P Mark Buehrle     1st

NL

C Yadier Molina     1st

1B Adrian Gonzalez    3rd

2B Orlando Hudson     5th

3B Ryan Zimmerman     1st

SS Jimmy Rollins     8th

OF Michael Bourn     5th

OF Matt Kemp    14th

OF Shane Victorino     13th

P Adam Wainwright     24th (tie)

Now, some caveats.  The Fielding Bible ranks all major league players by position, that is, there is only one winner in all of baseball for each position.  And the Fielding Bible also breaks the outfielders down by position, left, center, and right, which seems to make more sense.  The NL Gold Glove outfield is all center fielders, while the AL has two center fielders and a right fielder.

The biggest disparities are Mr. Fist Pump, Adam Jones, and Adam Wainwright.

Here is the Fielding Bible’s list of 2009′s best defensive players in baseball:

C Yadier Molina

1B Albert Pujols

2B Aaron Hill

3B Ryan Zimmerman

SS Jack Wilson

LF Carl Crawford

CF Franklin Gutierrez

RF Ichiro

P Mark Buehrle

And here are the Fielding Bible’s ranks of Red Sox players:

C Varitek 11th

1B Youk 2nd

2B Pedroia 2nd

3B Lowell received no votes

SS Alex Gonzalez received one vote, 19th

LF Bay 10th

CF Ellsbury received no votes

RF Drew 8th

P Lester was the only Sox pitcher to receive any votes, 17th

The great Joe Posnanski wrote a great article for SI about the Yankees here.  Actually, his blog posting may be better, and that’s here.

He breaks down the numbers, and here they are:
In 2002, the Yankees spent $17 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2003, the Yankees spent $35 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2004, the Yankees spent $57 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2005, the Yankees spent $85 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2006, the Yankees spent $74 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2007, the Yankees spent $40 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2008, the Yankees spent $72 million more in payroll than any other team.
In 2009, the Yankees spent $52 million more in payroll than any other team.

And the Red Sox have twice as many championships as the Yankees this century.  Now that’s quite an accomplishment.  Now word comes that the Yankees are supposedly interested in John Lackey.  I guess they have Matsui and Damon coming off the payroll, and maybe Pettite, but WTF?

The Sox traded for Jeremy Hermida, who I have always liked.  I’ve had him on fantasy teams twice, always for that unfulfilled potential.  It’s a good risk, a risk that a team like the Red Sox, with a top 5 payroll, have to take.  Not much risk-taking in the Bronx.  Meanwhile, the Sox declined the $6 million option on Alex Gonzalez, which is not surprising, and picked up the $7.1 million option on V-Mart, also not surprising.  I guess they’re going to look into bringing Gonzalez back for less money, especially now that JJ Hardy was traded to Minnesota by Milwaukee.  My eyes say that Gonzo really shored up the infield D last season, but apparently the defensive metrics say he wasn’t that good.  I know I had a lot more confidence with him out there than anyone else last year, that’s for sure.  He also showed some rare pop with the bat.

The GM meetings are coming up soon, so maybe there will be some hot stove action.  I don’t think there usually is, though.  Action comes later.

Home Calls

Three sports, two countries, but there were some extremely questionable/controversial calls favoring home teams on Saturday.  Saturday morning, Liverpool played at Sunderland in the Premiership.  Early in the game, Sunderland’s Darren Bent turned and fired a shot from relatively close.  The ball struck a beach ball and deflected past Liverpool goalie Pepe Reina and into the net.  Surprisingly (at least to me), the announcers on Fox Soccer Channel did not know if there was a rule governing such a situation, and the studio analysts at halftime claimed the goal was “somewhat controversial” and “just desserts” for Liverpool, since replays showed it was actually a Liverpool fan who threw the ball on the field.  However, the Fox Soccer website later quoted a former Premiership official who claimed that the play should have resulted in a drop ball, not a goal, due to “outside interference”.  This former official also claimed that it was a “basic law” and a rule that would be learned on an “initial refereeing course”.  Essentially, anything other than the 22 players and the referee is outside interference, whether it is an object on the pitch or a fan.  Needless to say, the goal counted, and Liverpool lost the game 1-0.

Next case is Arkansas/Florida, at the Swamp.  After Arkansas goes up in the fourth quarter 20-13 on a 75 yard touchdown on 3rd and 17, Florida benefited from two extremely favorable calls on the ensuing drive, including pass interference in the end zone and a personal foul for unnecessary roughness.  Both calls were awful.  Florida scores, game tied at 20.  Florida later gets away with offensive pass interference in the end zone, and wins 23-20.  Note: the officials have since been suspended by the SEC for the ridiculous unnecessary roughness call.

Case three is USC/Notre Dame, from South Bend.  On Notre Dame’s final drive, the officials bent over backwards to do everything they possibly could to allow the Irish to tie.  Two extremely questionable personal fouls and even putting one second back on the clock for one more chance after time had expired.  Despite all the help, Jimmy Clausen was unable to get the tying score with four plays inside the USC 10 yard line.  Epic fail.  And this is your Heisman candidate?  Are you kidding me?  After his wild fourth down incomplete pass, Clausen looked shocked, not for the loss, but because he wasn’t gifted another ridiculous flag.  Even with all that help, he failed.  His Heisman candidacy should be finished, but of course, it’s the most overrated college football program in the country, and the remaining schedule is BC, Washington State (neutral site), Navy, at Pittsburgh, Uconn, and at Stanford.  In fact, the best scoring defense on the remaining schedule is Uconn, and they give up 19.6 points per game, 30th in the nation.  So we will continue to hear Jimmy Clausen rhetoric for several more weeks.  Really looking forward to it.

Case four is the phantom double play that was not given to the Angels in the bottom of the 10th at Yankee Stadium in Game 2.  Obviously, this didn’t directly result in a run or the Yankee win, but it was yet another extremely questionable call favoring the home team.  A somewhat striking note about these four instances is the fact that they all took place in stadiums with “intimidating” reputations, including the Stadium of Light in Sunderland.  Clearly, the Swamp, South Bend, and Yankee Stadium qualify.  It’s something that as fans we all know we have to live with, but Saturday brought stark examples.

I’m So Bored With The USA

Liverpool’s loss, mentioned earlier, was their fourth loss in nine league games.  They lost only two Premiership games all of last year in finishing in second place, and now sit in eighth, seven points behind Man U, as Sunderland leapfrogged them with the win Saturday.  Predictably, the calls for the sacking of Rafa Benitez have begun again, this time even including Nick Webster from Fox Soccer’s website.

Rafa did prepare for this game in a rather bizarre fashion, starting three center backs.  Should a team of Liverpool’s caliber really be making radical adjustments to match up with a team like Sunderland?  The team was also hindered by injuries to Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, and Javier Mascherano had to come off the bench after international duty.  It all added up to an ugly day for Liverpool.  There was the unbelievable goal allowed off the beach ball (thrown by a Liverpool supporter – how does that happen?  He threw it in front of his own team’s goal!), but the team played extremely uninspired football.  Ryan Babel stunk, as usual, despite his incessant demands for playing time.  Youngster Jay Spearing was in the lineup and didn’t acquit himself all that well.  The team clearly wanted to rely heavily on Yossi Benayoun, but he was largely invisible in the first half and effectively handcuffed in the second.  Glenn Johnson had possession in threatening positions several times, but he would typically wait until the ball was taken away from him.  I believe Liverpool had two legitimate scoring chances all day, but after bringing on Mascherano and Voronin for Spearing and Skrtel, the team did start to show some life, just not enough.  So it’s yet another loss, and now the calls begin again for Rafa’s head.  I’ve really had enough of this.  He didn’t have his two best, world class players.  The goal was a fluke and shouldn’t have counted, anyway.  And Sunderland really isn’t that bad so far this year.  Their goalie is Scotland’s #1, they led Chelsea at the half before losing, and they beat Man U at Old Trafford.  Clearly, the top teams in the Premiership are going drop a lot more points than in previous years.  What surprises me is that world soccer fans seem to be more trigger happy than American sports fans, besides Dan Snyder and the former incarnation of George Steinbrenner.  This is at least the third straight autumn that fans and media have called for Rafa’s job.  In fact, last year, British bookies even took Benitez’s sacking off the books for a time.  They wouldn’t take the bet.  Now, I know Liverpool’s owners are idiots, but I sincerely hope and believe they’re not this stupid.  You can’t get blood from a stone, people.  Tuesday Liverpool plays Lyon at Anfield in the Champions League, and Sunday they get a visit from Man U.  Lyon leads the group with two wins in as many games, and it appears at least Gerrard will be able to play.  It’s obviously a huge week, and I fully expect Rafa to have his charges ready and I certainly expect better results.

Badgers

Ouch.  That one’s going to leave a mark.  Again.  WSP was very confident in the Badgers coming into this game.  After essentially dominating Ohio State at the horseshoe last week, I figured Bielema’s boys would return to Madison and play “Wisconsin football” and handle Iowa rather easily.  Iowa has pretty much done it with smoke and mirrors so far this year, and that continued Saturday.  What exactly is that team even good at?  They don’t pressure the passer, they’re not that great against the run, they hardly have an explosive offense, and they don’t run the ball all that well, either (1 100 yard rusher this season).  Bielema was 15-0 in 11 am games in Madison and Wisconsin was 34-3 at home in the last five years.  Kirk Ferentz was just 5-5 vs. the Badgers.  The first half was essentially all Wisconsin, yet they only led 10-3.  The dominated in total yards, 172-79, first downs 11-3, plays of 10+ yards 7-2, and had caused five negative Iowa rushing plays, to just one for Wisconsin.  Neither team had turned it over, and Wisconsin had survived what at first appeared to be a devastating knee injury to John Clay.  Montee Ball replaced him and got his first career touchdown to cap an excellent 92 yard drive. 

But the second half was all Iowa.  UW quarterback Scott Tolzien threw a terrible pass for an interception on UW’s first possession, which Ricky Stanzi turned into an Iowa TD with a 25 yard pass play while on the run on 3rd and 7.  Clay had returned, but looked tentative the rest of the day.  Wisconsin managed to get a turnover on a strip sack of Stanzi, but Wisconsin couldn’t get anything.  Tolzien was nearly picked on 2nd down, and Nick Toon dropped a pass in good coverage on 3rd down.  Philip Welch then missed a 38 yard field goal attempt.  Iowa responded with a quick drive for a TD and a 17-10 lead.  That was pretty much it.  Wisconsin couldn’t run at all in the second half, as Iowa kept eight men in the box.  Tolzien threw two more interceptions, giving him six in the last three games, and Wisconsin has scored one offensive touchdown in the last two games.  After a promising start to the season, Tolzien has been exposed, and it’s eerily similar to last year’s quarterback debacle with Allan Evridge and Dustin Sherer.  These guys just aren’t that good.  Wisconsin goes into a bye next week, and calls have started for redshirt freshman Curt Phillips to run the show.  But can Bielema really bail on his starting quarterback for the second year in a row?  I doubt he will.  Next up, Purdue in Madison on Halloween.

Upsets

Purdue at Ohio State (-13)

Colorado (home) Kansas (-9)

Kentucky at Auburn (-13)

Texas Tech at Nebraska (-6)

Close Calls

I picked Arkansas to beat Florida, banking on a major hangover for the Gators after last week’s rousing win at LSU and the return of the Chosen One.  With major help from the officials (see above), Florida managed to escape.  Watching the fourth quarter of Arkansas/Florida and USC/Notre Dame, I think I tied my record for saying “what the “&%$#” for the most times in one hour since Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.

Patriots

Wow.  Just wow.  Was it the snow that got Brady to focus more?  Whatever it was, dial it up.  He looked absolutely vintage 2007.  Maroney even looked great for once and all the offensive weapons were clicking.  The interesting story was on the defense, where Adalius Thomas was a healthy scratch and Shawn Springs and Leigh Bodden didn’t start.  Result?  Shutout.  That Belichick guy is really going to make it in this league.

Charissa Thompson

WSP fave and Big Ten Network sideline reporter extraordinaire Charissa Thompson will be, uh, sidelined, with a broken foot and ankle and will be on crutches until at least November 1.  We at WSP will miss her terribly, especially after reading this interview and the following quote:

You host a show called Big Ten’s Best.  What would you say is the Big Ten’s best city to travel to, best fight song, best gameday environment, and best fan base?

Thompson: I hope no one gets offended, but my favorite school to visit and do a game at is Wisconsin.  The town, Camp Randall, the fans…all of it.  I love Badger football games.

God bless her and here’s to a speedy recovery.

It’s been bothering me for quite a while how J.D. Drew seems to get far more than his share of criticism from the Boston media and even some of the fans.  I remember sitting in the first base side grandstand in early 2007 for Drew’s first homestand with the Red Sox and after an opposition single to right field, the rather large and certainly loud woman sitting in front of me stood up and yelled, “Nixon woulda had it!”  This attitude does not seem to have diminished despite a World Series championship and stellar individual postseason play.  Personally, I love the way Drew plays the game.  I love the smooth swing and the gap power.  I feel confident with him in right field at Fenway, the most difficult in the game.  I consider him a good baserunner and a heady player.  But it seems I’m always defending him.  So let’s look at the numbers.  How does J.D. Drew compare to other American League right fielders?  With Sunday’s close of the regular season, Drew’s third season in Boston, we can take a look at relevant offensive stats and salaries for American League right fielders.

The incessant drone from the local blabberers of the airwaves about “Nancy” Drew and the supposedly overpaid Red Sox right fielder simply is not borne out by his production on the field.  In fact, Drew played very close to his career averages in 2009, at the age of 33.  He missed just 25 games (less than Kevin Youkilis) and ranked fifth on the team in games played, behind just Pedroia, Ellsbury, Bay, and Ortiz.  Ichiro had nearly 100 more hits than Drew, yet Drew still led him in OBP by .006 and outslugged him by the relatively wide margin of .057.  And Ichiro only had four more runs scored than Drew, while being paid $4 million a year more.

Michael Cuddyer certainly had an excellent season for the Twins, yet despite the eight more home runs, their slugging percentages were essentially equal and Drew reached base at rate of .050 more.

Shin-Soo Choo appears to be a player on the rise.  At age 26, the Indians outfielder completed his first full season in the majors.  20 home runs and 21 stolen bases in 156 games are very impressive numbers.

Nick Swisher has the reputation of an on base machine, but he actually had a career high slugging percentage this year, at age 28.  Neither his OBP nor his slugging compare to Drew’s.  In fact, Swisher has never reached Drew’s 2009 OBP in any season of his career.

If the local blabberers want to focus on overpaid AL right fielders, check out Magglio Ordonez, Jermaine Dye, and Jose Guillen.  In fact, Guillen is signed through 2010 by the Royals for $12 million.  Also, Nick Markakis signed a contract extension before the 2009 season for 6 years and $66 million.  The 25 year old may have brighter days ahead, but 2009 was fairly typical of his previous three seasons of full time big league play.

It appears that Drew is penalized for not kissing the butts of the knights of the airwaves, and they will have two more seasons to continue deriding him.  But with his production in a Boston uniform so far, Theo and the rest of Red Sox Nation should be quite pleased with the results.