joepepsi

If the pace of the pitcher determines run support then Sheets would be the winningest pitcher of the decade. I tend to agree with backup. If there is anything to this at all, it has to do with the 1 or 2 pitchers in a rotation facing the best opposing pitchers more often than the the other pitchers in the rotation. You could probably build some kind of study that looks at how many starts a guy like Santana pitches against opponents with an ERA under 3.50 vs. the same with Pelfry. So far this year Santana has gone head to head with Josh Johnson twice(2.34), Aaron Harang (2.93), Yovani Gallardo(3.09), Derek Lowe(3.80), and two scrubs, Chan Ho Park and Scott Olsen. Pelfry is 4-0 in 5 starts but has faced Volquez (4.40), Walter Silva (6.52), Daniel Cabrera (4.98), Park(6.67) and Jamie Moyer(7.26). It's reasonable to expect the Mets to score more runs so far this year when Pelfrey pitches. Meanwhile Santana has faced some of the better pitchers in the league, guys who go deep in innings keeping the Mets from the opportunity to feast on the opposition's bullpen.

As with any huge American city, most of the people live way out in the suburbs, so they seldom every actually experience the many "wonderful" things there are to do in the city. It's too expensive and too much of a hassle to bother. Instead they spend weekends at backyard barbeques or going to the nearest strip mall to watch the game at Benigans.

This must be the 100th trade MacPhail has made with the Cubs since taking over the Orioles. The acquired Freel for Ramon Hernandez who they wanted to dump because Wieters would be joining the club this year as soon as he would no longer be eligible as a Super Two arby guy. Freel would platoon in LF with Luke Scott. Then they signed Wigginton who would also see time in LF. Meanwhile journeyman minor league Luis Montanez had a fantastic Spring, with LF really being his only position. Also, Nolan Reimold, a 25 year old slugging LF'er appears to have returned to prospect status after a good year last year, a strong Spring, and a great season so far at AAA. I suppose he's their version of Brad Nelson. Finally, late in Spring they acquired Felix Pie. That doesn't make any sense, since they already have a good young CF'er in Adam Jones. Besdies Pie was out of options and going to be cut by the Cubs before Opening Day anyway. MacPhail announces to the world that Pie will be the everyday LF'er, even though he's never played there. In Spring Freel started playing a bit at 2B, SS, and 3B, looking like he might be their Craig Counsell. But right before Opening Day they trade out of options, but talented Hayden Penn to the Marlins for an out of options worthless ss, soandso Andino. In order to justify the trade they have to keep Andino on the roster. So, by Opening Day Freel had nowhere to play. He expressed disappointment that he wasn't getting much playing time. then he got injured and went on the 15 day DL. Then the Orioles spin machine began their bad mouthing campaign of Freel. This is typical of the organization as they ramp up to trade a player. Ramon Hernandez had a bad attitude so he had to be traded. Freel, who had a great rep in Cincy as a hard nose, good clubhouse guy, was suddenly a clubhouse cancer. So now they are without Ramon and Freel, though still obligated to pay Freel's $3+ million contract. In the meantime they signed Greg Zaun to replace Ramon and are paying him a few million. And all they have to show for trading Ramon, who probably would have been worth at least a 2nd round supplemental pick at the end of the year, is Joey freaking Gathright. Look for Gathright to be released at the end of the year. This is why the Orioles are a pathetic organization.

Not according to baseball-reference.com. But Loretta did an inning back in 2001 and Cirillo did with AZ in 2007, against the Brewers. That was on FSN about a week ago.

And he kept him there to throw 35 pitches! That's a lot for a guy who hasn't pitched in years. Will be interesting to see if he comes down with an arm or shoulder injury in the next few weeks.

I don't think that was a stupid move. He had thrown 96 pitches and was leading off the inning. He was ahead 3-1, pitching well-had only walked one batter, and was averaging 16 pitches per inning. One more 16 pitch inning isn't going to kill a journeyman like Suppan and it could have saved using one reliever. It was a bit of a risk to be sure, but once he gave up the triple Macha immediately did the right thing and pulled him.

Pre-WWI lots of pitchers also played other positions, so technically it wasn't unusual back then.

The All Star game is just three days in the middle without real baseball. I hate it and don't care about it.

I also like managers that use their entire roster. Earl Weaver was the master at making mediocre players look like All Stars by putting them in the best position to be successful. I didn't like Ned's approach in the early years, when he insisted on set lineups even though the talent didn't call for it. Later, the Menchkins platoon seemed particularly difficult for him to grasp. But I can understand playing the starters every day this year and last year. They're young, talented, and healthy for the most part. Kendall plays too much and Cameron should get regular days off. Hall is the only one with real platoon issues. The others really should be playing every day. It would be different if the they were in their 30's.

I never bought into the idea their youngsters were loaded with talent. Upton and Drew are very good, but the rest of them are free swinging outmakers. The Brewers' core of young players has far out performed the D-Backs group, but the National media has seldom noticed.

This occurred to me that night too! I didn't like the move, although Hall had at least played in the OF for most of one season. When you play guys out of position the risk of injury skyrockets. I would have stuck McGehee out there until he had a couple at bats, then put in Duffy. Granted McGehee's never played OF either, but at least if he got injured the effect on the team would be minimized.

According to wikipedia it's a drug used as part of the steroid cycle. http://en.wikipedia.org/w...n_chorionic_gonadotropin

Possibly because he became a star by taking these things?Yeah, that's fine, I understand why players did it in the past. But if they use it now they are going to get caught. So now it's just arrogant stupidity that compels a first ballot HOF'er to risk his reputation.

I don't understand why any player would still be taking these things. Especially a star.

His current OPS is 82 points higher than last season. That's significant improvement.

And Yovani.

Except for Cameron and Kendall the starters are quite young. Youngsters don't get injured as much and are better able to play everyday. If these guys were in their 30's they'd need a day off every 7-10 games. Then the bench would matter more. The Brewers core players have been remarkably healthy throughout their careers, save perhaps, Weeks. If one of the regulars goes on the DL for a substantial amount of time, then Doug will probably look for a veteran replacement. In the meantime I'm OK with Duffy in CF once a week for Cameron and Nelson/McGehee on the occasional get-out-of-town afternoon game.

MLB Network only adds to the enjoyment.

I find the frustrations of squandered opportunities far outweigh the fun of the unexpected happening. It was painful last summer watching Cameron or Hart get on base only to have the outmakers at the bottom of the order squander the opportunity.

I stopped watching Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter years ago. Don't even visit the website. Back in the early 90's when they signed that billion dollar deal to carry games, they treated each team equally. I think they had games on 4 nights a week and so carried many different teams. I'm an Orioles fan too and used to see 12-15 games a year back then. But after a couple years they claimed they were losing millions and MLB let them renegotiate the deal. I'm sure by then they realized carrying those Brewer-Royal games on Wednesday nights didn't get much of a rating nationally. Ever since then it's been nothing but Yankees/Red Sox, or as a friend call them, YESNESNPN

Great article, but the guy's got it wrong if he thinks Hart will outlast Braun as a Brewer. Braun is an amazing hitter, big time power and high average, but middling plate discipline. Usually guys who hit like this have old player skills; slow footed, take a lot of walks, so so defense. He has the build and athletic ability to play a very long time.

I think it would only matter if it were against two good teams. The Brewers are playing great, but beating up on Pittsburgh isn't all that impressive. In 2002 the Pirates went 15-4 against the Brewers. 2004 they were 12-6. 11-6 in '01. They've beat up on the Crew plenty in the past.

Well this article from back in the day has Expos GM Omar Minaya saying some pretty good things about Enrique: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/2002/12/17/2002-12-17_give_in_to_expos__that_d_be_.html

That is my interpretation of the stats.I don't think it's been historically true that AL teams can afford to carry a crappy hitting ss or catcher because of the DH. In fact, hasn't the opposite been true? Since fewer runs are scored in the NL, each individual run is more valuable. Therefore it's in the best interest of an NL team to place a greater emphasis on run prevention than in the AL. That's why the NL has been more likely to have Everett and Ausmus types in the everyday lineup while the AL is more likely to go with Jeter and Posada. Perhaps that's changed in recent years as the NL has some very good offensive ss now. As far as the DH, the NL does use a form of it already; they just call it a pinch hitter. Last year Brewer pitchers made 365 plate appearances in 162 games. That's 2.25 plate appearances per game. So, the starter bats twice in a game in the NL, then the manager designates other players to hit in the pitcher's spot the rest of the game. If you figure 700 PA, that's 335 times the team designates a hitter to bat in the pitcher's spot. (The double switch is hardly rocket science. Certainly not as much as playing platoon differentials; this seems to be a challenge for many managers.) The biggest difference with the DH is the games are slower in the AL. Some of this is because of the DH himself, but also I suspect there are more mid inning pitching changes in the AL. AL managers don't have to make that mid game decision to pinch hit for the starter so can keep trotting him out there until he gets too many runners on base, then go to the bullpen. NL games move along at a better pace, but personally I'd rather give those 365 PA ( and that .184 slg pct!) each year to someone who can hit.

Now that's my kind of sport. Let's all knock for the day and go bowling!