Marco's Baseball Blog-o-roonie: 2016 SPRING FLASH

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE: 2016 SPRING FLASH

Christy Mathewson once won a complete game on 65 pitches.

In 1919 the Giants beat the Phillies in a nine inning game 6-1. The game was completed in 51 minutes.

As recently as 1977, the famous Reggie Jackson 3 homer game in the sixth game of the World Series against the Dodgers was completed in a tidy 2:18.

In modern baseball the games drag on and on. Four hour games are commonplace. What happened?

The answer is pretty easy. Home runs happened.

In the dead ball era that didn't end until 1920, most games were played with one baseball that turned into a soggy, tobacco-stained turnip by the ninth inning. Bringing in a new baseball at any point was considered wasteful and profligate. Hardly anybody could hit the dead ball over any of the distant fences (or no fences) then prevalent in ballparks.

In these conditions, pitchers didn't have to worry about most hitters hitting one out. They challenged most hitters with hard stuff in the strike zone, saving their trickier corner pitches for the occasional dangerous hitter like Home Run Baker (led the league 4 years in a row with 9,10,12 and 8 homers!). Hitters swung at good pitches early in the count. Pitchers didn't tax their arms as much and pitched complete games.

Add to that day games that working people attended by playing hookie from day jobs for a couple of hours of baseball bliss before they went back to the hog butchery. Who had time for a four hour game?

In the modern game, every hitter in the lineup is facing a brand new shiny baseball. One pitch in the dirt and the ball is thrown away as too unclean for anybody to possibly use.

Baseball players have been chosen for power potential to take advantage of the homer so batters get bigger and stronger. The pitching staffs had to counter by seeking out ever more powerful arms to blow balls by these behemoths.

So every hitter in the lineup is a potential home run threat. The pitchers have to use their best stuff on every hitter, rarely challenging anybody in the heart of the plate. Counts go deeper, pitchers tire quicker. Therefore every team uses five or six pitchers a game. Takes time to change pitchers every time a left handed hitter comes up. Pitching staffs are now made up of 12 or 13 hurlers.

Add a dash of long commercial breaks between innings and frequent trips to the mound ..first the catcher, then the catcher again, then the pitching coach, then the manager...all just to give the bullpen time to warm up another relief pitcher. Then have the batter step out after every called strike...4 hour games.

Somebody should do something.

SPRING FLASH: Oh my god, they've played 30 games already! What are the trends?

Everybody is sure the Cubs are the next super team. Maybe. They have that stopper in Arrieta. Lackey and Lester and Hamels are all pitching great. (Some credit here to “back-up” catcher David Ross, who seems to be a real difference maker to his staff.) They've scored 90 more runs than the next best team and Heyward, Soler and Russell aren't even hitting. Shall we give them the trophy and go home?

Nope. The Cubs have played only 8 games against first division competition (St. Louis and Pittsburgh...currently playing Washington) They've played 23 games against the zombie teams (Atlanta, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, San Diego, Colorado) and a struggling L.A. Angels. They've faced a good team...Arizona...that just lost their second best hitter and has two star pitchers out of sorts while they adjust to the dry Phoenix air. That's a lot of weak teams in one month.

They've got a more balanced schedule this month. If they are still steamrolling, I'll buy in.

Washington and New York are 1-2 in the East, as expected. Harper and Murphy seem to be the only Nats really producing. The Mets pitching has sputtered with deGrom having babies and lat strains and “the Dark Knight” Harvey in eclipse. Syndergaard is their best pitcher right now.

I suspect the Mets will get well soon, and Cespedes and Conforto are hitting more as it warms up.

It's nice to see the Phillies playing well. Atlanta is a disgrace...only ...what... 6 homers?...all season? Surely that's not right? Yep!

Dee Gordon (and Colabello of Toronto) win this year's “I never knowingly ingested” awards. Let's stop putting their names in bold.

The NL West is Dodger/Giant territory. The Giants are starting to get hurt and...you read it here a month ago...Cain and Peavey are giving up a run an inning. Those two old warhorses are no longer major league quality pitchers I'm sad to say. Watch some young ones get called up soon. The Giants can't keep sending those two out there to throw batting practice.

The Dodgers new pitcher Maeda is a phenom and Kershaw is in mid-season form. I expect them to gradually pull away.

I already mentioned Arizona's troubles.

Colorado's new shortstop Trevor Story has hit 10 homers! Not as publicized is the fact that he's on pace to strike out 250 times this year! And nobody seems to care! 250 times! That's what's wrong with baseball...inning after inning of strikeouts waiting for one long ball. Boring!

San Diego keeps getting shut out. A zombie team snooze fest.

Over in the Al East the Yanks have gotten off to a very slow start. I think they are next to last in the AL in runs scored and they just lost ARod to a hammy. Their starting staff has the highest ERA in the league! And that's a starting staff with the highest average velocity...94mph... to no effect apparently. They aren't even getting to use their excellent bullpen 'cause they aren't even in the games. The Yanks look like the Sox did last year.

The Red Sox are dueling the homer-happy Orioles for first place. The Sox pitching appears to be stabilizing with the bullpen getting better and Porcello and knuckler Wright giving them good starts, even with Price struggling.

Big news in the Central! The Chisox are in first place! They have good hitting all through the lineup and have Quintana and Latos pitching great to help out Ace Chris Sale.

One caveat White Sox fans (Hi Tom!)...their first 17 games were against Zombie teams. Now they're playing first division clubs for awhile.

Minnesota has been making me look bad by losing over and over. And KC is only a .500 team so far with not enough starting pitching. (I have faith in them however.)

The big surprise is in the AL West where the Houston Astros have fallen into the muck. Of all their hitters with over 20 at bats, nine of them are hitting below .230. They have 9 guys with over 20 strike outs already. Rasmus and Jose Altuve are carrying them offensively. Altuve has 9 homers! A lead off hitter! That guy is a gamer.

The pitching has been bad bad. Their new reliever Giles couldn't make it as the closer even throwing 96. They stayed with 89 mph Luke Gregerson as the better option. That speaks volumes. Giles hasn't pitched well under stress...he blows up and is wilder than gopher meat. McCullers got hurt and the rest of the starters have underwhelmed to say the least. Keuchel even lost a home game. The Stros can't win at all on the road. Could be a long season for my first place picks.

Last year the Rangers were falling all over themselves at this time of year while the 'Stros were taking off. Now they've traded places. The Rangers have the most intriguing rookie in the league...Nomar Mazara...youngest player in baseball. They brought him up when Choo got hurt and he's hitting .333 and has a rifle arm from right field. Let's see how he does next time around the league, but he may be the real thing. Seems to have his head on straight.

If Darvish comes back healthy....

Seattle is tied for first with Texas and are getting great pitching from Taijuan Walker and Wade Miley.

Oakland is running in place and the poor Angels...as I predicted they may be disintegrating. Pujols still hits the long ball when they make a mistake but his batting average is .198. Starter Weaver has an ERA of over 5 and Shoemaker over 9. No help seems to be coming.

Okay ball fans. Help me keep an eye on this thing and I'll talk at you later.

May 6 2016.