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Nobody Loses Like the Pittsburgh Pirates

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-07T20:29:00 00:00

Filed under: Pirates, NL Central, MLB Milestones

Maybe you glanced at the box scores this afternoon and saw the Giants beat the Pirates 11-6. Chances are good that if you looked at a scoreboard, you didn't even think twice about that result. But there was something special that happened this afternoon in San Francisco. It wasn't the Giants ten-run third inning that made the game special. Instead, it was the number in the Pirates' loss column when the game ended: 82.

With today's loss, the Pirates clinched a losing season. That seems unimportant because the Pirates do that every year, but that's EXACTLY why it is important. With this loss today, the Pirates clinched their sixteenth consecutive losing season, tying the record for an American sports franchise set by the 1933-1948 Philadelphia Phillies, a team so bad that they changed their name to the Blue Jays for two years in the middle of the streak.

The tough news for Pirates' fans is that there's a very good chance that while their new front office works on rebuilding the minor league system that losing season number 17 is looming pretty large right now. Few people under the age of 20 remember the Pirates being any good, and starting in October, teenagers will get driver's permits without ever having been alive during a time that the Pirates were any good. That's depressing.

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Ben Sheets' Arm Must Be OK

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-07T13:23:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, NL Central, MLB Injuries

After Ben Sheets left his Labor Day start at the end of the fifth inning and 54 pitches, Milwaukee fans were certainly worried about the health of their fragile co-ace. They probably shouldn't be worried any more, because last night he threw a complete game five-hit shutout at the Padres, throwing 120 pitches without any groin problems and giving the Brewers their second win in a row after four straight losses.

The win was Sheets' 13th, which is a career high. It's hard to believe that a pitcher as talented as Ben Sheets has never won more than 12 games in a year before this year, but it gives you an idea of just how injury-prone the guy has been over the past four years. His 188 innings this year are the most since he threw 215+ in three straight years between 2002-2004, which probably helps explain his injury problems from 2005-2007.

This is an obvious statement, but Sheets' health is a big deal for the Brewers because they need him to match the 1-2 pitching punch that other NL contenders like the Cubs and Diamondbacks bring to the table. With the way Sheets and CC Sabathia have pitched of late, it's hard to imagine any combination in the NL, even Haren and Webb (who might miss the playoffs) matching up with them in a short playoff series.

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Earthquakes Are Zach Duke's Lucky Charm

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-06T13:04:00 00:00

Filed under: Pirates, NL Central

Since 2006, Zach Duke's career has been pretty disappointing. After a stellar rookie year in 2005 when he went 8-2 with an ERA of under 2.00, Duke has mostly been cannon fodder for the National League. Last night he came into his start against the Giants with a 4-13 record and a 5.14 ERA, allowing opponents an OPS of .839 against him. Against the Giants, he threw a complete game shutout, then got some interesting news when he got off the field. There had been a small earthquake during the game.

Zach Duke pitched a six-hit shutout to push the Pirates past the San Francisco Giants, 7-0, last night, and he did so through a light earthquake that registered 4.0 on the Richter Scale and was felt by many of the 31,133 at AT&T Park. It struck just before midnight Eastern time, coming with two outs in the sixth inning as Duke fielded an Emmanuel Burriss squibber to the right of the mound.

"Really?" Duke said, informed of this minutes afterward. "I had no idea."

Since the start of the 2006 season, Duke is 17-36 with a 5.03 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP in games that he started with no earthquakes taking place. In games started that did experience an earthquake, he's undefeated with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP. Perhaps you would argue that his 9-inning "earthquake" sample size is far too small when compared to his 472-inning "non-earthquake" sample size, but to that I would respond to you, "it's clearly not working the other way, so he might as well try to pitch through as many earthquakes as possible."

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Mr. Met Is Battling Online Predators

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-05T14:35:00 00:00

Filed under: Mets, NL East

The internet is full of creepy, seedy, sexual predators. There's so many out there that Chris Hansen just can't stop them all by himself, no matter how hard he might try. In the day and age of 40-year-old men picking up 13-year-old girls on the internet, the authorities are turning to the only person capable of stopping such a menace: Mr. Met.

Advocates trying to warn kids about the threat of online sexual predators trolling the Internet have a new ally - Mr. Met.

The mascot has been recruited to get the word out at the first-ever Internet Safety Day at Shea Stadium. The event kicks off before the 3:30 p.m. home game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

The program is part of a two-year, federally funded project by a task force from the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, with help from the Queens District Attorney's office and sponsor Time Warner Cable.

All kidding aside, this is actually a pretty good idea. As part of Internet Safety Day, the Mets are doing things like putting up scoreboard quizzes and handing out baseball cards with online safety tips for kids. It's unclear what the role of Mr. Met will be in all this, but I personally hope they deck him out in a pedo-stache and have him drive around the stadium in a bullpen car with "Free Candy" painted on the side of it to show kids just who they're giving their address out to online. Or, you know, just pass out the cards.

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The Astros Are Still Delusional

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-05T13:18:00 00:00

Filed under: Astros, NL Central

When the Rockies went on their amazing run in September and October last year, culminating with 21 wins in 22 games and a World Series berth, a lot of superlatives were thrown around in the media. Normally I'm the guy that rolls his eyes at those kinds of things, but that Rockies' run last year was really a once-in-a-lifetime type thing. Don't tell that to the Astros, though, as they've won eight in a row to pull to within six games of the Brewers for the wild card and they're feeling awfully lucky:

"The Rockies did something very special last year," Astros general manager Ed Wade said. "I know people say it's an aberration, but as long as we continue to go out there with the attitude we've shown the last third of the season, it's not beyond the realm of possibility."

People said it was an aberration because no one had every done anything like that before. Wade's insane vision of Astro Utopia requires them to jump over three teams (St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee) in 22 games. Even if they go 16-6 (a .727 winning percentage), the Brewers will have to go 10-12 in a stretch where CC Sabathia will pitch five times and they have 12 games against the Pirates, Reds, and Padres. Seriously, Ed, it's not happening, so just made Randy Wolf an insane contract extension offer and let's get on with our lives.

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Ned Yost Has No Problems With Destroying Manny Parra's Arm

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-04T13:06:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, NL Central

Last year, Manny Parra threw in 133 innings. This year, he's already up to 156 2/3 with a month left in the season. That's already a pretty significant jump in innings for a 25-year-old that's never thrown more than 139 in any minor league season, especially with the playoffs looming. With their fairly solid lead in the wild card, it would seem appropriate to start limiting his innings at this time of year, right? Ah, wrong. Ned Yost has something else in mind:

"We haven't discussed it," Yost said. "It hasn't been a problem; hasn't become an issue."

[...]

Since going 5-0 with a 2.59 earned run average in June, Parra has slipped in effectiveness. He was 1-2 with a 3.90 ERA in July and 1-2 with a 4.25 ERA in August.

Skyrocketing innings count, drop in effectiveness, and no plan for a mildly insane manager to limit his innings. Doug Melvin might as well get James Andrews on the horn and schedule Parra for a date in Birmingham in November. I know that the Brewers are in a playoff race and they need to limit Ben Sheets' innings as well, but ramping Parra's innings up this month without giving him time off is playing with fire.

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From The Windup: Sorting Through the Latest Scott Boras Draft Power Play

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-04T09:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Pirates, Royals, AL Central, NL Central, MLB Biz, MLB Draft

From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

There is one name that strikes fear into the heart of baseball fans and it's not Rodriguez or Santana or Sabathia or Ramirez. It's Boras. Signing or drafting a Scott Boras client means that your team is going to be put through every wringer possible as Boras tries to hustle, hassle, and finagle every last dollar out by exposing loopholes in agreements that no one ever even knew existed. At best, it's annoying for the fans to deal with. But a guy like Boras is exactly what baseball needs.

If you're unfamiliar with the most recent Boras saga, allow me to get you up to speed (for all of the details, read Dejan Kovacevic's excellent piece at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's PBC Blog). In June, the Pirates drafted Pedro Alvarez with the second overall pick. After little contact the day of the August 15th deadline, the sides worked out a $6 million signing bonus on the cusp of the midnight deadline. Things got suspicious from there when Alvarez never reported to Pittsburgh for his physical or to sign the contract in person.

After nearly two weeks, word broke last Wednesday that the Pirates had placed Alvarez on the restricted list for not signing his deal and that the player's union (the MLBPA) was filing a grievance alleging that the contract had been signed after the midnight deadline. From there, the finger-pointing started between Boras and Pirates' CEO Frank Coonelly (formerly the MLB General Counsel in charge of draft slotting) with the Royals' first round pick, Eric Hosmer (who signed after the deadline with an extension from the commissioner's office) dragged into the feud.

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Ben Sheets Won't Miss a Start

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-03T13:07:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, MLB Injuries

After leaving his start early on Monday afternoon, Ben Sheets caused all of Brewerland to hold their breath when he left his start after just 54 pitches with what the Brewers described as a "tight groin." There is no such thing as a minor injury to Ben Sheets. A too-closely-cropped-fingernail could be a season-ender for Sheets at this point in his career. Apparently the Brewers have dodged a bullet this time around, though, because Sheets says he won't even miss a start after his latest injury:

"I'm feeling confident about it," said Sheets. "I think I'm going to (pitch). I just don't want to go five (innings) again. I want to go more than that."

Manager Ned Yost also expressed optimism that Sheets would make his next start.

"The trainers didn't come to see me today," said Yost. "That's a good sign. It was precautionary (to remove him Monay [sic]) for the most part."

One thing the Brewers should be careful of is rushing Sheets back, only to see him hurt himself worse like Carlos Zambrano did last night. The Brewers more or less have the Wild Card locked up and winning the division is a pretty trivial matter because they won't be playing the Cubs in the NLDS no matter what happens. Keeping Sheets healthy needs to be the top priority in Milwaukee.

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Carlos Zambrano Will Have His Arm Examined Today

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-03T11:36:00 00:00

Filed under: Cubs, NL Central, MLB Injuries

When Carlos Zambrano missed his start on Sunday, everyone shrugged and said it was a precautionary move with an eye towards October. Things appear much more serious now, as Big Z left his start against the Astros after five lackluster innings, saying that he couldn't pitch any more. He left to be examined and the Cubs dropped their fourth straight, allowing the Brewers to narrow the division lead to 4 1/2 games.

This is about the worst news the Cubs could get at this time of year and it has the Cubs fans running for cover out of fear that the sky is falling. Even Lou Piniella was bristlier than usual after the game:

''If he can pitch, he can pitch,'' Piniella said. ''If he can't, we'll put [Sean] Marshall in the rotation and go from there.''
[...]
''Did anybody think this thing was going to be real easy?'' Piniella said. ''You didn't hear that from me all year. We're in a stretch here where things aren't going our way, and we've just got to keep battling and keep our confidence up.''

Obviously this is bigger than just putting Sean Marshall in the rotation if Zambrano is hurt. His ugly August might suggest an injury, but after a short DL stint in June he came back strongly. This situation may be similar to that, though if it's not the Cubs are going into the playoffs lead by Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster in their rotation. That's a scary thought for anyone.

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The Yankees Missing the Playoffs Could Cost New York City Millions

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-02T15:36:00 00:00

Filed under: Yankees, AL East, MLB Biz

When a team has made the playoffs every single year since the strike, it's easy to think of a playoff berth and all of the things that come with it as foregone conclusions. With the Yankees staring firmly at their first October at home since 1994, New York is coming to the realization that the Yankees' playoff runs have brought in a ton of cash to the city. The New York Post has details on exactly how much:

The report conducted by NYU adjunct professor John Tepper Marlin shows that if the Yankees snag at least a wild-card berth, a first-round appearance could fill the coffers of bars, restaurants and other businesses across the city with $26 million.

[...]

"If they're not, you can argue that the city loses money," he said. "You would think that with such a bloated payroll, the Yankees would make the playoffs."

Even econmists are taking digs at the Yankees! By Marlin's calculations, the Yankees bring in an additional $54 million if they make the ALCS and $61 million more for the World Series, for a grand total of $141 million (or about half of an A-Rod contract). Still, I think something's fishy here. This guy makes fun of the Yankees payroll and his name is Marlin, which is the same name as the team that beat the Yankees in their last World Series. Plus, he says a Mets World Series run is worth more to the city than a Yankees World Series run. Clearly, a conspiracy is afoot. How do we know this "John Tepper Marlin," if that is his REAL NAME, doesn't have a Red Sox cap in his office? Huh?

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Ned Yost Is Still Whining

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-02T12:18:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, NL Central

Today, a full two-days after a semi-controversial scoring decision cost CC Sabathia a potential no-hitter, the Brewers are STILL whining about the ruling that gave the Pirates their only hit on Sunday. Even after official scorer Bob Webb explained himself quite well (the ball was spinning down the third base line away from Sabathia making it a very difficult play for a lefty), both manager Ned Yost and GM Doug Melvin have kept complaining about the call. Yost's latest rant makes him sound like a petulant child.

"I think that whatever it ends up is whatever it ends up," he said. "(Sunday) was the day it should have been a no-hitter. It takes away from that aspect; the celebration with your teammates, the excitement of our plane ride home. That's all gone.

"So whatever they call it, whatever. They missed their opportunity to do it right."

"You picked me last? You can't pick me last! It's my ball, and I'm going home and taking it with me!" Seriously, Ned, get over yourself. If Sabathia had carried a no-hitter into the eighth and ninth innings, he would've pitched differently and the Pirates would've approached their at-bats differently. There's no guarantee the game ends the same way with a different scoring decision. Shut up and enjoy it while your supremely talented team wins the wild card for you and saves your job.

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MLB Weekly Rewind: Playoff Races

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-02T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: MLB Video

Every Monday (or in the case of national holidays, Tuesday), the MLB Weekly Rewind takes a look at the past week in baseball in video form. It's biased, rambling, and mostly cynical, but ... Hey! Moving pictures! Sweet!

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MLB Weekly Rewind: Playoff Races

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-02T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: FanHouse TV

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Ben Sheets Leaves Start After Five Innings

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-01T15:54:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, NL Central, MLB Injuries

With the Brewers opening up a 5 1/2 game lead in the wild-card race with only a month to go in the season, things are looking pretty good for their first post-season appearance since 1982. Still, after last year's collapse, fans are a little jumpy in Brewerland. In Milwaukee, there's nothing that stirs worry quite like Ben Sheets being mysteriously pinch-hit for after mowing down the Mets in 54 pitches through five innings. That is, however, exactly what happened this afternoon.

After information was initially sparse, the Brewers Blog is reporting that Sheets left his start today with "tightness in his groin." That's pretty unremarkable and makes this move sound precautionary (which fits the Brewers Blog's earlier description of Sheets being in the dugout after being pinch hit for). That's probably all we'll know for a while and it won't be until the game ends that we hear anything at all from the Brewers.

I know with Sheets the tendency is to assume the worst (and for good reason), but with the Brewers opening up a rather massive lead in the wild card, this is probably a move along the same lines as Carlos Zambrano skipping his start yesterday. With rosters expanded and the playoffs looming, giving the notoriously oft-injured Sheets some down time is probably a good idea for the Brewers.

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Cubs Say Zambrano's Arm Is Fine

Pat Lackey — 2008-09-01T12:37:00 00:00

Filed under: Cubs, NL Central, MLB Injuries

With the calendar turning to September, every little bump and bruise to players on contending teams is going to be agonized over in the next three weeks. The Cubs held Carlos Zambrano out of his start yesterday with a sore triceps in order to preserve his arm, but even with such a routine move they feel the need to defend themselves in public and assure Cubs' fans that there's nothing wrong with the Big Z.

''He's not in any pain at all,'' Rothschild said. ''He's gone through this [arm fatigue] every year for the last four or five years. His arm feels tired. But he was feeling better today. He threw long toss [Saturday] and again [Sunday], and he feels a lot better.''

With the way Zambrano's worn down the past two years and the big lead they've built up (Baseball Prospectus says they're a 99.8 percent certainty to make the playoffs), making sure players like him are healthy is a huge priority right now for a team like the Cubbies. They're the overwhelming favorites in the NL, which means they get to spend a month resting up while talking heads wonder if they can maintain their "edge." And then they'll roll over the D'backs in the first round, but no one will wonder why we wasted a month worrying about nothing.

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Brewers Protest Hit in CC Sabathia's One-Hitter

Pat Lackey — 2008-08-31T21:45:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, Pirates, NL Central

With the Pirates mired in an nine-game losing streak and CC Sabathia dominating the National League since his trade, the stars seemed aligned for an easy Brewer win before today's Pirates/Brewers game even started. The resulting complete game shut out (CC's third in the NL) win for the Brewers was about as predictable as outcomes come. In fact, the only hit allowed by Sabathia was a fifth inning single by Andy LaRoche. Apparently, that was one hit too many, because the Brewers are protesting the scoring:

"That's a joke," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "The scorekeeper absolutely denied Major League Baseball a no-hitter. He threw a hit up on the board before LaRoche had even hit the bag. It's sad. That's sad. I'm upset. I can see if it was borderline, that it could have gone either way. That wasn't even close."

Yost continued, "If you know baseball at all, you know that's a play that has to be made and is made all the time. He rushed it. That's a stinkin' no-hitter that we all got cheated out of. I'm upset. That was my first no-hitter. I could have told my grandkids about it."

The play in question was Sabathia's flubbing of a squibber off of LaRoche's bat that he didn't even bother to throw to first. Fielding errors are pretty rare for pitchers and with the easy 7-0 win the Brewers have a 5 1/2 game lead in the NL wild card with only a month to go. I'd like to tell my grandkids about watching a no-hitter today, too, but I bet they'll get over it.

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Chris Dickerson Is Honest

Pat Lackey — 2008-08-28T20:38:00 00:00

Filed under: Reds, NL Central

Isn't it infuriating watching a player do something stupid? There's not much that drives fans crazier than a player getting picked off while not paying attention or forgetting how many outs there are or throwing to the wrong base. This afternoon, Chris Dickerson got picked off of first while walking back to the bag with his head down. When asked about it after the game, he had a simple explanation:

"I was being lazy," he said. "I dropped my head. It was lackadaisical, lazy on my part. It's so basic, so fundamental: Know where the ball is at all times. I lost sight of that."

I guess it's easy to get upset over a player being lazy, but isn't that honesty refreshing? It's a long season, the Reds suck, Dickerson's mind wandered off for a couple of seconds, and he doesn't make excuses for it. I think, "I was being lazy," is way better than, "The lights flashed off of a fan's watch and I got distracted for a second."

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Brewers Insult Cardinals, Blow Lead

Pat Lackey — 2008-08-28T12:49:00 00:00

Filed under: Brewers, Cardinals, NL Central

If I've learned one thing in all of my years watching the National League Central, it's one simple rule; do not, under any circumstances, insult Albert Pujols. Last night, while holding a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning, Carlos Villanueva celebrated in the Cardinals' faces last night after escaping a bases-loaded jam with a 3-1 lead in the seventh. The Cardinals responded with a season-saving four-run rally in the ninth. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

"I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant, obviously," said first baseman Albert Pujols.

[...]

Rather than coolly walk to his dugout, Villanueva struck a flex pose that did not escape Pujols' notice. Villanueva further inflamed the situation, according to Pujols and several teammates, by pointing and screaming at the home dugout. Pujols quickly rose from a crouch in the on-deck circle and responded to Villanueva, who replied by cursing Pujols in Spanish.

Pujols started the resulting eighth-inning rally with a double and as a result of the comeback, the Cardinals are still 3 1/2 games behind the Brewers in the wild-card race instead of the 5 1/2 game deficit a loss would've given them. Given the two teams' schedules the Brewers probably still have the upper hand in the race, but it feels like they may have awoken the sleeping giant last night. Giving Albert Pujols more determination to destroy you is always a bad idea.

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Scott Boras Is Wreaking Havoc Again

Pat Lackey — 2008-08-27T19:55:00 00:00

Filed under: Pirates, NL Central, MLB Biz

Remember two weeks ago when the deadline for signing draft picks came and went without a lot of drama from Scott Boras? How it seemed like he caved to the Pirates' and Royals' offers for the second and third picks, Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer? When it comes to Alvarez, at least, things are never that simple with Boras. What seemed to be resolved on August 15th with the Pirates and Alvarez slowly devolved when Alvarez never showed up in Pittsburgh to take a physical and sign his contract. Today, things apparently hit the fan.

The ball got rolling when the MLB Players' Association filed a grievance with the Commissioner's Office (more details being constantly updated here), charging that Alvarez signed his contract after midnight on the 15th. The Pirates responded by refuting that charge and placing Alvarez on the restricted list, saying that Boras had since tried to renegotiate the contract and his client has refused to officially sign the deal that was agreed on in principle the night of the 15th.

What does all this mean? Where does this go? It's a good bet that this is rooted in Boras's dislike of the August 15th signing deadline, even though there's not much being said right now beyond run-of-the-mill finger pointing. As it stands, Boras feels the Pirates signed Alvarez to an illegal contract and the player's union is on his side. The Pirates feel that Boras is posturing for more money and the MLB higher-ups are on their side. A hearing is scheduled for September 10th, but I imagine both sides will have a lot to say before then.

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Craig Hansen Goes on a Rant

Pat Lackey — 2008-08-27T09:32:00 00:00

Filed under: Pirates, NL Central

There are a number of ways to endear yourself to the fans in a new city after you've been traded. The best way to do it is to actually perform well. If you don't perform well, the next best option is probably to go on a profanity-laden rant after you perform poorly.

Last night Craig Hansen, one of the players the Pirates acquired at the trade deadline, came into the game with the Pirates leading the Cubs 8-7, walked three hitters, gave up a hit, and watched all the runs score. When asked about his outing, this is how he responded:

"I couldn't throw a [expletive] strike," he said at his stall, eyes flaring. "When you can't throw a [expletive] strike, you can't get anyone out."

For a former first round draft pick, Hansen's struggled to this early point in his career with a 6.39 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP in 81 appearances with the Pirates and Red Sox through his career. He's got a live arm and great numbers in the minors, but until he learns how to throw strikes in the big leagues (he's walked 51 batters in 81 2/3 innings) he's going to have more frustrating outings like last night's.

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