Sports Writing

Was thinking about how Kevin Millar’s high OBP for the season was because he got plunked a fair bit, but then realised Millar gets plunked a fair bit in general anyway. If he got plunked at his 2004 rate (17 HBPs), he would have been hit 3 times. As it is, he’s been hit 5 times, which is high, but seems statistically possible.

I’ve always thought Matt Clement was one of the most aggravating pitchers to watch. This game showed why: the lack of control, always pitching in jams - not to mention he’s slow. But he did get out of the jams to finish at 3-0, which is something.

Finally, a win. Of course, it would come in a Bronson Arroyo start - the man hasn’t lost a game since August last year. There are babies born right now that were conceived after Arroyo last lost a game. They’d be slightly premature babies, if my calculations are right, but still.

Meanwhile, since I’m awake, I might as well watch Wang go at it against Bush… man, I love sniggering juvenile humour. Where Midre Cummings when you need him? Edit: from the commentary - “Bush has got to take his ball and go in and out with it…. Bush has got to go not just in and out, but up and down”

Congrats to Kevin Millar on his twins Kashten and (probably) Kylie. Last year his wife’s unfortunate miscarriage was said to have been the cause of his slow start… here’s hoping this year pre-birth anxiety has been the cause of his weird lack of power.

So, it looked like it was going to be a pitchers’ duel - Wakefield has been hot, and I watched Chan Ho Park in his last start dealin’ against the Rangers. And indeed, it was for the most part. Then came the homer to Soriano, and it was like suddenly the Rangers remembered they play in a hitters’ park. Unfortunately, the Sox bats stayed weak. Part of that was Chan Ho is still on form - that K of Manny in the 6th was especially impressive. But it was still a very disappointing return to baseball for the Sox.

When will I see the Sox play again? When will we share precious moments?

It never rains but it pours, doesn’t it? Injuries left, right, and centre. Oh well, at least the literal rain out saved the ailing rotation. Especially at a time when it would have to face the white-hot Orioles.

Rumour now says: Schilling going on the 15-day DL. Um. So. Wells out. Schilling possibly out. The rotation: Wakefield, Arroyo, Clement, and - Miller? Halama? DiNardo? Not that Schilling’s been good thus far this season, admittedly, but this team’s pitching staff increasingly looks held together by a band-aid.

“4” is the number of death in Chinese superstition. And two really awful 4-run innings - the 5th and the 8th - killed the Sox today. Ugh. The 5th was pretty awful to watch. Isn’t Embree’s forte supposed to be stranding inherited runners?

David Wells AND Matt Mantei with the sprained feet/ankles? Weird. I watched Wells pitch to Javy Lopez and he certainly pulled up funny. Hope it isn’t too bad. That grimace on Wells face doesn’t look too appealing.

Ichiro’s new hitting stance gets broken down in the New York Times, plus this Ryan Franklin quote: “I faced him in an intrasquad game his first year here and he swung and missed one time. All the Japanese reporters, like 20 of them, surrounded my locker, asking, ‘How did you do that?’ It was amazing to them. They couldn’t believe it. It kind of made me feel good. I thought everybody swung and missed.”

Six Apart, after introducing Friendster blogs, now introduces MLBlogs, a tool for blogging about MLB. OmMalik - who had the scoop on MLBlogs.com being registered - sounds happy, BusinessLogs is not impressed. (Incidentally, I had no idea that baseballblogs.org was associated with Markos Zuniga, but I guess I must’ve missed the Times article.

In light of recent events, it’s time to dig up an old post on HBP rates and the moral hazard of plunking. I still think it’s bush to plunk someone just because that person hit a homer off you.

Someone on SoSH pointed out this quote from Dewon Brazelton, apres-fight: “I’m embarrassed I got thrown out of the ball game,’’ Brazelton said. “Normally, when you go out there, it’s a song and dance but in this case I was trying to protect our pitcher. Nobody wants to hurt anybody but we had just had two really hard-fought games and sometimes emotions get the best of you.

Meanwhile, over in Colorado, old friend BH Kim came in the 8th today and had a horrible outing: he came on with a man on 1st, faced 3 batters, and recorded a HBP, a 1-run double, and a 1-run single. It didn’t help that Ryan Speier took over him and promptly allowed a double and single.

Michael Lewis has a great piece in the New York Times Magazine on Steve Stanley and Mark Teahen about how power corrupts - or rather, the idea that hitters, even those who’re recruited for their OBP and are in an environment like the Oakland farm system, get enamoured of the long ball to their detriment.

As they say in Street Fighter… Round 1… FIGHT! That photo above made me realise just how big Blaine Neal is. Yeah, at 6-5, 250lbs, he’s double my weight, but it was still weird to see Trot look so small.

Curt Schilling’s not looking particularly sharp right now. It’s not so much giving up the Alex (insert middle initial) Gonzalez homer, it’s the parade of hits. The box score (9 hits, 5 Ks, 0 walks) and the video suggest to me that he’s hitting the strike zone, but not with particularly good pitches. Very worrying. Of course, these April games are rehab/spring training for him coming off surgery so he’ll definitely get better, but how long will it take? I know at the end of last season I said that Pedro would have a better season than Schilling, even if he stayed in the AL East. But I thought it would be close.

Outpost Nine has some thoughts on Japanese baseball: The regular season hadn’t started yet, it was just exhibition (A’s vs Giants), but it was still a bajillion zillion times better than Japanese baseball. In Japanese baseball, the strategy is to get a man on base…then bunt. They bunt with no outs, one out, two outs, runners on first, second, third, the bases loaded, it doesn’t matter. The pitcher bunts, the power hitter bunts, the leadoff hitter bunts, they might as well call it Buntball and just be done with it. The funny thing is, the Japanese almost sort of think that they invented baseball. A friend of mine asked why do the Japanese always bunt, and I told him “Are you kidding?! Sacrificing yourself for the good of the team, really was there any other choice?” (Link)