Ananas

Love that logo. Of course after the Marlins unveiled their new jerseys, anything short of duplicating an S.S. uni is going to come off better.

Papelbon reportedly to the Phils. 4 years, approaching 50 million. Yep, definitely the best way to address a team with an injured first baseman, a free agent shortstop and an aging core.

Wilson Ramos was apparently kidnapped in Venezuela.

Jesus Christ.

I'm probably the only one here geeky enough to care about this, but right now MLB.com is streaming the Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars Game. The pitching match-up - Danny Hultzen vs Gerrit Cole.

Tito must have decided to take some time away from the game. Only way his name would not have even been uttered for any of these jobs.

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22297882/33074876

There are only 30 GM jobs in baseball and Tony LaCava just turned down one to remain Alex Anthopoulos' right-hand man in Toronto. This has to fall on Peter Angelos. LaCava is clearly being nice in saying "this has more to do with Toronto than Baltimore" because everything seemed to be moving full steam ahead until he met Angelos. As much as the Jays fan in me is happy that the head of player development in one of baseball's best farm systems is sticking around another year, that's just brutal.

I was hoping for another A-Rod "insane AAV through age 42" deal. Oh well, disappointingly level-headed.

This is the worst managed WS I've ever seen. And last year had Bruce Bochy.

He'll develop big guns on his left side because he won't be able to drink with his right.

I think baseball is just going through a down spell. The sport has done it quite a few times, and it always comes back. It's not the hip thing right now, but it'll come back. Hopefully the next time it reaches it's popularity height, it won't be because of steroids.

Other than that, there isn't really much you can do. Like Beatnik said, it's not a one-off game, so the only people who are going to be hardcore invested in it are the fans of the team. I'll be surprised if I watch even a full game of the World Series this year. It's not that I've lost interest in the sport, it's that I just couldn't give a hoot about the Cards or Rangers.

Attendance on a whole was up across the league this year. In 2009 and 2010 the league reported record revenues. I'm not sure where this perception that baseball is on some sort of decline, and you're definitely not the first to suggest so, but it's simply not true.

This isn't a Rays home game. People have a remote and after whatever pre-game gimmickry is done, if they don't want to watch baseball they're not going to watch baseball. It's not like anyone who would have even basic awareness of the game doesn't know that the World Series happens around now. The sport has been engrained in American culture since before anyone alive now was born. I think at this point it is what it is, and the ratings are reflective of who wants to watch a baseball game they don't necessarily have a rooting interest in. The numbers should be better this year because of the storied Cardinals being in the series, but because it's not a one game, winner take all the ratings aren't going to be a bonanza like the Super Bowl.

The vastly more talented team won. Imagine that. It'll be interesting to see how they match up with two teams that definitely aren't putting on pitching clinics like the Giants were in 2010. I'm sure Josh Hamilton is glad that's it for day games.

Rangers Preparing To Bid For C.C. Sabathia

I know he'll almost certainly end up going back to the Yankees, and the backdoor way it's been reported is sort of spiritual tampering (something the Steinbrenner's are pretty well versed in), but it's probably a good way of making sure the Yanks are occupied while they try to bring back CJ/sign Yu Darvish. And seriously, after watching Hank basically ask AJ to opt out of his contract with the Jays in 2008 (although thanks for that Hank, BTW) to go to big money in the big apple it'll be funny if CC sees the leverage they've given him and opts out to get that A-Rod type term under his current salary.

I'd be shocked if he signs with Texas. If C.C leaves, he'll leave for a team in California. Much like last time I do not want him on the Angels though. Could the Giants make a play and then maybe trade Cain for some offense?

Given what CC's going to cost (and how brutal the terms will eventually be), why wouldn't they just pursue Reyes/Fielder/Beltran on the FA market? Do you really want to be paying a big bodied SP like CC 25 million dollars in 2018? I mean the Giants/Red Sox/Cubs/Rangers will all like him at a price, but ultimately the Yanks are going to go above that. And if it got in the way of the Giants finding a way to lock up Tim Lincecum long term, that would be a gigantic, franchise changing mistake.

Rangers Preparing To Bid For C.C. Sabathia

I know he'll almost certainly end up going back to the Yankees, and the backdoor way it's been reported is sort of spiritual tampering (something the Steinbrenner's are pretty well versed in), but it's probably a good way of making sure the Yanks are occupied while they try to bring back CJ/sign Yu Darvish. And seriously, after watching Hank basically ask AJ to opt out of his contract with the Jays in 2008 (although thanks for that Hank, BTW) to go to big money in the big apple it'll be funny if CC sees the leverage they've given him and opts out to get that A-Rod type term under his current salary.

I feel like A-Rod almost has to play a position as long as humanly possible. The scary thought is where his bat will be when he's at the stage of no longer being able to provide defensive value. Take a look at this chart, look at the trajectory of his slugging percentage numbers and ask yourself, given a natural regression rate (which we've now got a 4 year sample size to suggest he's pretty much following), where they'll be in 2-3 years? Probably not at the rate of an above average DH.

Hey A-Rod, great couple of at-bats late when your team needed a hit.

Actually, um, no, they were terrible.

Seriously. On a shortlist of the most exciting, dramatic days of regular season baseball ever.

I was looking at something on Baseball-Reference.com today and came across an unusual stat. Curtis Granderson of potential 2011 MVP fame has come to the plate 680 times and has a total of ZERO IBB this year. He leads the league in runs scored, RBIs, has over 40 HRs to his name and hasn't been intentionally walked once this entire season. I can't really think of anyone else putting up numbers like that who never gets a free pass in the post Barry Bonds era.

Actually doesn't surprise me that much. As a team the Yankees are tied for 26th in the majors in IBBs with 30. When you have a lot of depth in your 1-9, pitchers don't really have the option of the IBB. If they do they'd tend to come towards the bottom half of the order, not somebody hitting in front of Tex.

Dustin McGowan, Adam Loewen. Both haven't pitched in the majors since 2008. Both have had injuries that had people doubting they would ever play again. Both battled through setback after setback. And now, today, both officially returned to the major leagues with the Blue Jays (although Loewen as an outfielder).

Deadspin reporting that sources have confirmed that "took his own life "despondent over what he considered a false perception from a community he loved of his role in the team's prolonged failure." That has to be one of the saddest things I've ever read. I think maybe sometimes we forget just how high pressured a GM's job is. Then of course we deride them relentlessly when they fail. It's not like a normal job where if you aren't good, you just get fired and nobody cares. You are the architect, and therefore are held primarily responsible, for a team with literally millions of fans. If you fail, you've failed in the eyes of those millions. Perhaps we would do well to remember that these people are humans, warts and all.

Carlos Zambrano appears to have retired after getting tossed from tonight's game. I feel for Cubs fans on this one.

I dunno, I think having that contract off the book might not be such a bad thing. Especially if they're trying to be players in the Pujols sweepstakes.

Not that I believe the Jays are stealing signs, but it could be possible to just steal and relay signals for fastballs. Hence the increase in home runs and not walks and what not. Obviously you'd probably see an increase in batting average, too. But if you have someone like Bautista just know a fastball is coming and have him sitting on it, he'll destroy it.

Like I said. I don't think they're stealing, but that could be why their walk ratio isn't altered too much. As for the even strikeout ratio, well, even if you know it's coming, sometimes you just can't catch up to a 92-97 mph fastball.

Sometimes you can't, absolutely. Baseball's a game of failure. But for it to actually lead to a higher K%? And weaker contact outside of fly balls that got out of the park? Come on now. This article manufactures its own insulated bubble. And to be fair, the article specifically said that they had a sign for a breaking ball, a sign for a fastball. So if they knew a fastball was coming, they'd be able to judge ball/strike based on where it starts out. Ditto for the breaking pitch.

Of course you can always find stats to back up your arguments, but I'm guessing that the OPS against other teams is probably the easiest to discredit since the Jays had the fifth worst on-base percentage. The stat from the ESPN article that I like the most is quoted below, but it's also the one that makes me think there's some truth to it because if you're sitting fastball, I'd guess you're going to swing for the fences.

Now, by themselves, the above splits aren't conclusive, so to measure the effect of Rogers Centre more precisely, The Mag consulted with Wyers. He has developed a method that generates park factors by comparing a player's performance in any given park with his performance in all other parks, not just in road games for that player. This reduces statistical noise and offers a better estimate of how a park actually plays in a given season. Wyers found that for every ball that batters made contact with in 2010, Rogers added .011 home runs, up from a rate of just .002 from 2005 to 2009. That puts Rogers Centre in 2010 among the top 3 percent of home run ballparks since 1950.

But only the Blue Jays, and not their opponents, got a home run boost in Toronto. When the Jays were on the road in 2010, they hit home runs in 4 percent of plate appearances in which they made contact, compared with an AL average of 3.6 percent. At Rogers, their home run on contact rate soared to 5.4 percent, which is a home-field advantage seven times the magnitude teams typically enjoy.

Opposing batters, however, actually homered on contact at a below-average rate in Toronto. As a result, the power differential between home and visiting hitters at Rogers in 2010 was the third largest of any park in any season over the past 60 years (see chart).

You may like this quote, but it's ignorant on multiple levels. For one if you're stealing signs so you know what's coming, it should also affect your walk rate, strikeout rate, batting average on balls in play and on base percentage. Last season their strikeout rate home/away - 18.6/19.7, walk rate - 7.8/7.7, BABIP - .265/.274, OBP - .315/.309. So basically all you have on peripherals is a slight uptick on OBP based on more balls leaving the park. Are you seriously going to argue that a team that knows what's coming is still going to chase the same bad pitches, strike out slightly more and walk basically the same? And that when they make contact they'll presumably hit less line drives because they had a worse BABIP? Here's the kicker though - the team was ludicrously RH heavy last year and the Rogers Centre plays as a RH power hitter's paradise. So maybe, just maybe, the increase has to do with the fact that the team was tailor made for the park? And as for the opposition not going deep as much, could it have something to do with the extreme ground ball innings coming from GB pitchers like Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Shaun Marcum, meanwhile the Jays hit FBs at a much higher rate than any other team in the game? But no, let's stick with the simplistic cherry picked argument that serves as the new knock on Jose Bautista's MVP candidacy since the steroid allegations made almost as little sense. This article is exactly what's wrong with ESPN. Anyone can do highlight packages, so they have to become the story to generate attention.

EDIT: Just another number I found that makes this more of a stretch - at the Rogers Centre last year the Jays had extra base hits on 7.8 percent of balls put in play. On the road it went up to 8.4 percent. So essentially outside of the home runs which again, are part of the park factors, the Jays made WORSE contact.

http://espn.go.com/e...s-rogers-centre

If you don't have the time to read it, scroll down to the bolded headline Homer Haven and go from there. It shows that the Blue Jays splits are pretty big and while the Blue Jays enjoy a massive boost in home runs playing at their park (much like hitters have an advantage at Coors) their opponents don't get the same boost.

See the thing is, when you cherry pick a few stats that make your argument for you and leave out all those that refute it you can make what looks like a pretty convincing case. But then in the world of baseball statistical analysis someone like Tom Tango comes along who realises why you're wrong and can refute it quite easily. Then you're left with 4 random relievers from the Chicago White Sox who lacked the balls to actually go on record or file a complaint with the MLB.