MARCO'S
BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2018: HOT CHILD IN THE CITY
If
you're like me you got to hate all those early season games they were
trying to play in Detroit or
Cleveland or
Minnesota where you had
to watch Edwin Encarnacion or some other Dominican try
to hit while snow was swirling around the infield and the on-field
wind chill temperature was about 15 degrees above zero. So when Edwin
was hitting .050 in April all the pundits were griping about how he
was washed up and letting the team down.
Just
about every year of his career Edwin hasn't hit in cold weather and
then he heats up as the weather does. Now he's raking with 20 homers
and 60+ ribs at the halfway mark. He'll wind up with his usual 40
dings and 115 ribbies this season. Duh...like pretty much every other
hitter in the game, Ed likes it hot.
It's
not even any fun to hit a hundred mile per fastball with a wooden bat
in cold weather unless you hit it right on the sweet spot. Anywhere
else on the bat and cold weather contact results in bone-rattling
stingers racing up into your armpits. Psychologically, that messes
with your head and you wind up hoping you miss the ball entirely.
So
why do they play baseball games in cold weather ballparks early in
the season when bad weather cancellations and grade F playing
conditions make the game a joke?
The
answer is money, of course. Gotta play 162 games and we can't run the
playoffs into November any deeper or else you have the same problem
during those showcase games. So every year the game endures frozen
night games, pulled hamstrings and postponements that lead to no days
off later in the season trying to play baseball in conditions it was
never meant to be played in.
Baseball
hates injuries, and yet it insists that its high salaried workers
risk muscle pulls and arm trouble playing in the cold, and then
fatigue injuries later in the season when teams have to double up on
plane tickets to play make up games (and doesn't that cost extra
money, MLB?) and cancel much needed off days trying to complete the
schedule. Plus they play double headers, which are really an
anachronism in today's game when most teams are regularly using seven
pitchers in the average nine inning contest. (They act like it's
1903, when Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity of the New York Giants could
pitch 434 innings including starting and completing both games of a
doubleheader THREE TIMES in one month!) Stupid Stupid Stupid.
All
of which is just my way of saying that I'm glad it's summer when the
pitching elbows are toasty and the hitters have a little sunshine in
their bats!
I
guess while I'm complaining I should suggest a fix for the problem of
April winter baseball.
PLAY
THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF THE SEASON IN WARM WEATHER CITIES OR DOMED
STADIUMS!
With
14 domed stadiums and warmer April weather cities available, this
system will result in fewer games canceled so you can still play 162
games in the season without taking away so many off days to use for
makeup games. It means fewer injuries. It means more money. And it's
fairly easy. Just have two teams a day take the day off, and the
other 28 have a place to play. It means several inter-league games in
that two week period, but big deal...they now play inter-league
almost every day of the season anyway.
F.Y.I.
the domed stadiums are in Tampa, Miami, Toronto, Houston, Milwaukee,
Phoenix and Seattle and open air stadiums in warmer weather cities
can be found in Atlanta, Arlington, Oakland, San Francisco, L.A.
Angels, L.A. Dodgers, and San Diego.
Why
more money? Because you'll get more fans coming out to a game in a
nice cozy dome or warm weather city than you do now in beautiful 4
degree Target Field in lovely Minnesota. How about a night game in
Toronto on April 3rd?
Doesn't
that seem logical? Baseball has resisted this fix because they don't
think it's fair to have the cold weather teams play the first two
weeks on the road. And it is fair to have 28 games (2018 stat)
canceled this spring? Besides, the northern teams get to have an
extended home stand in prime summer months later on.
In
fact, a bonus result of this change is that the cold weather teams
will catch up on their home game schedule in July and August so we
have fewer games in Atlanta or Arlington when the on field temps are
about 110, even at night.
Things
would be even better if baseball would play more day games in the
first two weeks. Day games draw fairly well early in the season
because the fans are excited to see baseball again and will still
come out. And even if you draw fewer fans for day games in April, you
don't have to suffer the notoriously poorly attended make up games
and day night double-headers later in the season, which are often
played in the daytime anyway.
This
fix is so obvious that it's almost guaranteed that baseball will
obstinately refuse to institute it. What's new?
If
I sound a little truculent, it's because I got a knee replacement a
month ago and I've been reclining in bed in between painful bouts of
“rehab therapy” (which is euphemism for “torture”). Nothing
to do all day but watch baseball punctuated by world cup soccer.
Those soccer players are teaching me new and better exclamations of
pain and anguish as they writhe in uncontrollable agony every time a
member of the opposition gets within breathing distance. I need some
of these new moves to try out on my therapist. So far nothing is
working. She's merciless.
As
far as the baseball goes, everything is unfolding much as I
anticipated:
New
York and Boston rule the roost in the AL East. Cleveland
is quietly dominating the AL Central and Houston is...wait a
minute! Who is that only one game behind the best team in baseball?
Why, it's the Seattle Mariners!
So...AL
WEST:
The
M's suspended their steroid baby Robbie Cano and promptly went on a
big winning streak. Rich Haniger, Kyle Seager,
Dee Gordon, Jean Segura and
Nelson Cruz are the main guns, but they've got a few good
pitchers like James Paxton and Wade LeBlanc to take the
pressure off of Felix Hernandez. Of course the M's have had
early summer hot streaks before and then caved in September so we'll
see. They aren't exactly obliterating people...most of their
victories are amazing one run comeback wins, which are very
inspirational but tend to even up eventually. Not a good way to
negotiate a pennant race.
The
Astros still have the best starting staff in baseball with
Verlander,Cole,Morton, Keuchel and
McCullers all pitching well. Their offense has been off and on
all season, though. Sometimes Springer carries them but he's
in a deep slump for the last three weeks. Altuve was hot, then
not. Gurriel batted .220 for two months then went roman candle
up to .293. Now it's Bregman (player of the month in NL) who
is keeping them in games. Nice system, especially when Carlos
Correa has been out with a bad back. The bullpen still mostly
sucks. That's the Achilles heal. But with those starters, Houston
will be a dreaded matchup in any playoff series, along with New York.
The
rest of the AL West looks tame, even though Oakland is
stirring and should be a contender soon. They need pitching but have
a whole bunch of strong boys who hit homers and strike out all the
time, which seems to be what baseball wants these days. Well welcome
to Oakland, where NINE guys are on pace to strike out at least 100
times! (Big Deal, you say. Yeah, I guess you're right. About half the
teams in baseball can say the same thing! And a golden sombrero used
to be what they called it when a player got fanned 3 times in a game.
Now they reserve that expression for players whiffing 4 times in a
game and it's so common that it barely makes the recap. And yet
everybody still bat flips, struts around the bases and points Upwards
to a Loving God when they hit a homer. What would happen, do you
think, if every pitcher spiked the resin bag and genuflected after a
K? Mayhem, probably.)
The
Angels lost Shohei Ohtani with a bad elbow. He
came back for hitting but can't pitch for the time being. Too bad.
They need his pitching. And baseball needs his flash. The kid is a
special treat...like Bird Fydrich or a young Mickey or
Willie. A signpost for a new baseball age. I hope he can stay
healthy.
Without
Ohtani, and even with Trout having maybe his best season, the
Angels don't seem to be able to muster the Right Stuff. Maybe because
Kole Calhoun, Ian Kinsler, Chris Young and
Zack Cozart (DL for the season)
are all hitting under their weight.
AL
EAST:
The
two Super Teams continue to be super, Boston and New York trading
first place back and forth. I expect New York to pull away for these
two reasons: New York has only 20 games remaining with teams playing
over .500 ball. Boston has 27 remaining with plus .500 teams. But New
York has 27 games with clubs currently in last
place...guaranteed zombie squads like Baltimore, KC, Texas and even
Miami. Boston only has 14 against the bottom feeders. That's going to
make a diff going down the stretch. (Out of curiosity, I looked at
Houston's remaining schedule. The Astros will be facing 51 games
against plus-.500 teams! What does that mean? It means New York will
probably have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.)
The
second reason I think New York is destined for first place in the
East is that Boston only has one pitcher who can seemingly stop the
Yanks...Chris Sale. Everybody else they send out there gets
lit up like Johnny Depp on a talk show. I think the Red Sox planned
their rotation around needing left-handed pitching to beat the Yanks,
but now that they have Sanchez, Judge, Stanton, Andujar and
Torres the Yanks are even scarier from the right side
of the plate, and all those hitters love lefties. Especially when
they've learned to take that outside pitch to right field and into
that friendly right field porch.
Torres
(on DL til end of July) and Andujar give the Yanks a dangerous bottom
of the lineup. Boston doesn't match up in their last third of the
lineup.
Give
credit wear credit is due. The Yankees most valuable player
is...Frank Cashman, the GM. What a team this guy has
assembled. He changed the culture of the Yanks from reliance on free
agents to building one of the best if not the best farm system
in baseball. His young players are producing and he can trade for
help whenever he wants to without running dry in the minors. His team
has huge stars, pitching and dynamic young players. And, he stayed
under the luxury tax penalty cap. Congratulations Frank! (We've
almost forgotten the Jacoby Ellsbury debacle.)
Boston
needs to find some pitcher besides Sale...anyone really...who can
control the Yanks, especially in the Stadium. They might try trading
for Jacob DeGrom from the Mets, but it would take virtually
all their top prospects from the minors. If knuckleballer Steve
Wright could get it together, he might answer at least as
somebody to take the Yankee hitters' timing away. Right now Betts,
Martinez, Benintendi and
Bogaerts are playing great baseball...if those four and Sale can
stay healthy...Boston might just make it.
The
only interesting thing about the other three teams in the East is who
they'll trade their stars (Machado, Adam Jones, Happ, Stroman,
etc.) too as July winds down.
*A
note on Machado: I know the Orioles are having a disastrous, epically
catastrophic season, but Manny...an admittedly great player... hit a
double play grounder the other day and practically walked to first.
The infielder bobbled the ball and the throw was ridiculously late
but of course they still doubled up Manny by ten feet because he was
dogging it so bad. Now it's one thing when you jog on a routine
grounder...but not hustling on a double play ball? That's betraying
your team. I saw Harper pull the same thing. Cano is another great
player who doesn't want to run it out. I don't want any of these guys
on my team. If you're hurt, that's different.
I
played senior baseball with guys in their sixties who couldn't make
it to first base on a ground ball inside of a minute (me included
when I was in my sixties!) and you'd still see them beating it down
the line as if their life depended on it. I have more respect for
those old, slow bastards than I do for superstars who dog it.
These
guys should be made to sit down with Pete Rose for a little
conversation. Maybe visit the grave of Enos Slaughter. Or remember
when Deion Sanders came up to the plate with Carlton Fisk
catching and drew a dollar sign in the dirt with his bat. Then he hit
a weak pop up to the infield and just turned around and went back to
the dugout? Carlton got in his face and said “There's a right way
and a wrong way to play this game and you're playin' it the wrong
way. I'm an old guy and it offends me so if you do it again I'm gonna
kick your ass. Run it out goddamnit!”
Come
back Carlton. We need you! This great game of baseball has been
around for 170 years. Have a little respect.
AL
CENTRAL:
No
big mystery here. The Indians are cruising to the division crown
behind big years from Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor
and solid offensive support from Michael Brantley and
Encarnacion. Cleveland will be able to rest their starters down the
stretch and should be in good shape for the post season. They have a
starting staff second only to Houston. Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer,
Clevinger...the Tribe is loaded. If Andrew Miller can make
it back from knee trouble they might surprise the other Super Teams
in their league. They sure won't get any competition from the zombie
teams in their division.
NL
WEST:
I
predicted Machado would get picked up by the Dodgers, but it
appears the Dodgeheads are depending on Matt Kemp for
the duration. He's been great, hasn't he? Justin Turner has
come back strong from injury and this guy Max Muncy has
been amazing. Where did he come from? They're not getting enough from
the rest of their lineup, in my opinion. They're going to need a big
bat in the playoffs, if they make it. Still, how many other teams in
the majors could overcome an average of 13 guys on the DL at any one
time...including 3 or 4 stars...and still be in the thick of it?
Right
now, it looks like L.A. will make it. Arizona had a
chance to bury them when they were playing so bad. Now that they've
gotten some of their injured stars back, that opportunity has
evaporated. Arizona will be lucky to hang on to a wild card. At least
Goldschmidt turned it around after a Reeking Spring. He's
added 60 points to his BA in June and July so far.
My
pick to win the West, Colorado, has regressed. They can't win
at home and they can't pitch except fitfully. They can't get all the
hitters hot at once. Arenado has been their only consistent
performer.
San
Francisco has reclaimed their honor by challenging in the West
with a .500 record. Finally, after a half season, they have their big
three pitchers Bumgarner, Cueto and
Samardzija all healthy. Let's see what they can do. If
there's one thing we should have learned this decade, it's DON'T
COUNT THE GIANTS OUT!
San
Diego, however, is another story. The Press boys should have the
post mortem already written and ready to file.
NL
CENTRAL:
Best
record in the NL...Milwaukee. Who'd a thunk it? This is a
particularly weak year for the NL, because the Brew crew just ain't
that good. Yeah, they have a couple of pitchers and Cain and
Yelich have been great for them. Jesus “Shrek”
Aguilar (he looks like Shrek!) goofs it up for the camera
after he hits one out. They just don't seem like a juggernaut. Maybe
the Crew and the Cubs will fight it out in a pennant race so we can
get some enjoyment out of this.
The
Cubs have lost Kris Bryant until
this week, but this is the year that Javier Baez and
Albert Almora emerged as top of the line players.
Jason Heyward also resurrected himself into a .280 hitter. I'm
happy for him...he was made the target of a lot of bad attention
based on his lack of offense for the dollars he's been earning.
Strangely, the Cubs starting staff has become John Lester and
a bunch of guys impersonating the Cubs pitching staff. What happened
to Quintana, Stork Hendricks and
Yu Darvish? Somebody needs to pick it up or the Adorables may let
their opportunity slide.
The
St. Louis Cardinals are a real head scratcher. What happened
to this team? In an age of home runs they don't hit home runs. They
don't even hit doubles except for Matt Carpenter (17 homers and 27
doubles). They don't hit for average. They don't steal bases. They
don't get on base. They still strike out a lot. Get the drift? This
is a really weak offensive club. And their pitching just isn't strong
enough to make up for it. Plus they play mediocre defense. This
leaves the Redbirds floundering around 7½ games out of first in the
Central.
Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati
bring up the rear in this division...skeletons of the proud
franchises that once stood like titans on the necks of the also rans
of the NL. Now they are the also rans, hoping for good draft choices.
At least Cincy can see the possibilities with some of their young
position players. Pitching is not developing as fast. The Pirates
don't have anybody with an on base percentage over .350 except
catcher Francisco Cervelli (.381) Their high man for slugging
is Cervelli at .481. And Pittsburgh's starting pitchers are
4.50 ERA men across the board and they aren't even that young.
NL
EAST:
The
surprising mediocrity of the Washington Nationals have somehow
made this the most interesting pennant race in baseball. AS usual,
the Nats have lost half of their lineup to injury and the rest to
incompetence. Don' task me to explain it. Every year I tell you this
bunch has the strongest lineup, the best rotation etc. etc. and they
continue to stink it up. Right now nine guys are on the DL (of course
Strasburg is one of them) and only Anthony Rendon is
having what could be called a good year at the plate. Harper
has hit 23 homers but he's batting .213! That he made the All Star
team is an embarrassment. 19 year old outfielder Juan Soto is
the most exciting player on the team. He could be a good one and is
definitely a Hot Child candidate. They still have probably the best
pitcher in baseball in Mad Max Scherzer. Why isn't this team
better?
The
Nats are in third, but still close to the Atlanta Braves and
the Fightin' Phillies. That means they are still in it. Need I
remind you that they stand to lose Harper and Rendon to free agency
next off-season? This could be it for this classically
underachieving team.
Thank
God for Atlanta and Philly! Two former zombie tams now resurrected
into contenders. We actually have a pennant race and some great
players to watch.
The
Bravos have Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna Jr. to put in
the lineup with Freddie Freeman and a suddenly sizzling Nick
Markakis. That's a potent offensive block of hitters for pitchers
to negotiate. Power, average and speed. Inciarte (when he
hustles) is good for defense and steals. Suzuki is a good
defensive catcher and the Braves have three or four decent starters.
Let's see if the bullpen can hold up over the second half, when
Atlanta plays a whole bunch of good teams.
The
Phillies, my pick for a respectable second place finish behind the
Nats in this division, have decided not to wait til next year to
celebrate their metamorphosis into a contender. They have a lot of
fruit on the tree, but it's not quite ripe yet. But Odubel Herrera
and Rhys Hoskins are players and Aaron Nola is an Ace
already. If Jake Arrieta can somehow recapture his
technique...well, there's not that much distance between this team
and the Dodgers, the Cubs, the Brewers, the Braves or the
Diamondbacks.
The
Mets are sinking into a giant sinkhole that is opening up under Citi
Field. Years of lousy front office work, bull-headed managers and
injury prone players have left the team in shards. They've had a
potentially super pitching rotation that is now meaningless because
they can't score a run for any of them. They spent big money on
Yoenis Cespedes and he just can't keep his body healthy. They
have ten other players on the DL, an annual condition for the Mets.
In
fact, the tragic condition of the Mets remind me of my reworked
system of player evaluation. In the old days they would say “He's a
five-tool player” meaning the player in question could hit, hit
with power, run, field and throw. I think players should be judged in
three additional categories to truly evaluate their
worth...durability, baseball intelligence and leadership. Cal
Ripken wasn't the best hitting shortstop for average or power. He
couldn't run that well. He was a good, but not Ozzie Smith-good
fielder. He did have one of the best arms in baseball. But Cal Ripken
was ALWAYS READY TO PLAY. How valuable was that to the Orioles? Cal
was also a very smart player who knew how to play every hitter in the
league, and he was a true inspirational leader in the locker room and
on the field. So that jacks up his worth far beyond his batting
average or homer totals.
Ok,
I've got to go now. I have a date with an S and M rehab woman. (Hear
me scream!)
All
the best and enjoy the All Star break!
