August 4th, 2007 A date which will live in infamy

Yesterday, August 4^th, 2007 – a date which will live in infamy – the integrity of baseball was deliberately attacked by the bat of Barry Bonds.

Spiritfuck: The Joba Chamberlain story

Generally speaking, collegiate pitchers progress through the minors faster than international prospects or high school draftees. Joba Chamberlain is no different – having graduated a Husker no more than a year ago and was signed in a sandwich pick by the New York Yankees.

Giambi on the comeback trail

Yankee slugger Jason Giambi has been sidelined since early June seems to be on the comeback trail, starting this week with class low A Tampa Bay where he will join high ceiling prospect Jose Tabata.

The main “issue” here for New York when Giambi finishes his rehab stint is where do you play him? Due to the type of injury he sustained to his foot, his already atrocious defense will be even more impeded – while not an issue in the AL for way of the DH it does create an interesting clog. The Yankees have been playing Johnny Damon at DH since Giambi’s stint on the DL – Damon has been producing much better and the Yankees were able to insert a plus defender in CF by the way of Melky Cabrera.

Damon has been rotating in and out in the currently vacant DH spot, centerfield and left field – which would enable Hideki Matsui ½ days off but keeping his potent bat inserted into the lineup. The most obvious solution would be to keep Cabrera in CF, Matsui in left while inserting Giambi into the 5 hole and have him DH while tossing Damon in at first – not unlike the Sheffield experiment last season.

Damon is on record for having said, “I am going to play [first] eventually. I am OK with it.” Suddenly the equation becomes clearer, the Yankees better and the race even tighter down the stretch.

Giambi is expected to return (barring setbacks) early August to the Yankees.

Kei Igawaful likely odd man out

 

 

When the New York Yankees and GM Brian Ca$hmoney signed the ace of the Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional League – they weren’t expecting for him to replicate his dominance here in the MLB. Rather they were expecting a solid number 4 or 5 back of the rotation guy – who goes deep into the games and throws the ball with his left hand.
Well it’s past judgment time for Igawa – who is likely the odd man out of the Yanks rotation who has been underwhelming to say the least so far in his Yankee career. Igawa currently sports a 6.67 ERA with a 1.53:1 K:BB ratio. With the return of the 21 year old phenom Phil Hughes imminent, he will probably take over the 5 spot in the rotation for New York, bumping Igawa to the bullpen.

Mike Hargrove quits

Stunner in Seattle as the red-hot Mariners lost their manager today. Mike Hargrove said his passion for the game was fading  and he can not continue to do his job. Hargrove quit after leading his team to a  9-1 record in his last 10 games and an active 7 game win streak leaving them only  4 games behind the Angels in the AL West and only 1 game behind Detroit in the Wild Card race. Will the Mariners be able to keep their hot streak up with a new skipper?

Rod Beck dead at 38

ESPNEWS reports that former all-star relief ace Rod Beck has died. More details as they come.

RIP Rod Beck

http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/beckro01.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Beck

Who doesn’t fit?

Hank Aaron

Barry Bonds

Babe Ruth

Willie Mays

Sammy Sosa

Michael Barrett to fight San Diego pitchers

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2910079

Peavy and Chris Young had better watch out

Re-watch the infamous fight that started it 

Jason Giambi getting ready to talk

Or so the New York Post reports.

 Of course Selig knows everything about the steroid problem, but is using this committee as a way to make it seem like he’s taking action to correct the problem. Giambi made a extremely stupid error with his comments, but Selig is throwing him under the bus to create an image of a tough-on-steroids regime.

Pretty sad state of affairs.

HOF or not?: Dick Allen

 

Dick Allen was a offensive powerhouse in an era that lacked offense, putting up monster stats in an era where pitching dominated. In his MVP season of 1972 the average line of the AL was .239/.306/.343. (by contrast in 2006 the average AL line was .275/.339/.437 , and that’s Batting Average/On base %/Slugging %). Allen’s 1.024 OPS (on base% + slugging%) was far and away the best in the AL

• During the span of Allen’s career, the only player (with a fair amount of plate appearances) with a better OPS was Hank Aaron.
• As shown here Allen has the third highest OPS+ among retired players not in the hall of fame, behind 2 players (Joe Jackson/Black Sox scandal and Mark McGwire/Steroids scandal) who would have been elected on the first ballot had they not been involved in certain scandals. (for the unfamiliar OPS+ is OPS adjusted for the park and the league in which the player played, but not for fielding position. An OPS+ of 100 is defined to be the league average. An OPS+ of 150 or more is excellent, signifying that the player had a 50% higher OPS than average, adjusted for park.)
• In his MVP season of 1972 he put an OPS+ of 200 joining this elite club of players who have done that. Note how there is only 1 other HOF eligible player not in (Norm Cash)
• 113 HOF batters (including Hank Aaron) have a lower career OPS+
• Out of every player with 3000 Plate Appearances since 1901 , Allen is 18th in career OPS+