My workload for graduate school has ramped up significantly, so I will be unable to continue writing this blog. Obviously, graduate school is much more important than keeping this material fresh. Something else finally occured to me: nobody cares what I have to say! Therefore, this is my final post. Tell them I'm through, for love of The Game.
Here are some final observations:
1) There are a lot of old-timers who now have sons in the majors. Jesse Barfield, Cecil Fielder and Tony Pena all have kids now in baseball. I'll bet they've all grown up with some great stories. I can't wait for Wade Boggs Jr. to join the majors. Maybe he'll eat a whole turkey before each game.
2) Jeff Suppan looks better tonight than he has. This is what happens every year: he comes to camp overweight, and within a few weeks after the season's started, he begins to pan out. I used to think that he was more worried about the post-game spread than the runner at third.
3) I never did figure out what was going on in the clubhouse of that 1992 Philadelphia Phillies team. It's a shame.
4) Joe Randa is batting, what, .240? It looks like America's love affair with Joe Randa is finally starting to end.
5) Jim Edmonds is hitting something like .180 with a .890 fielding percentage. Is there any question that this guy isn't a $10 million a year guy anymore?
6) I saw last Sunday on ESPN that the Braves called a heralded product of their system up who contributed immediately. No surprise there.
7) I saw Reggie Jackson in "The Benchwarmers" a few weeks back. I also heard that guy plug some hitting system before an interview he had on ESPN the Radio. Is there anything that guy won't do for a buck?
8) The Chicago White Sox have put it together, after a slow start. No surprise there, either.
9) The Cardinals new ballpark features $8 beer and $5 hot dogs. If ownership could figure out a way to turn install toilets that cost fifty cents a flush, they would.
10) Incidentally, have you ever noticed how chummy all of the ownership groups are? Do you know why? It's because they all participate in a "cartel," or, an organization that keeps prices artificially high so that all the members of the group can benefit. If it were a truly competitive business, Cardinals ownership wouldn't be chummy with the Reds ownership, and nobody would hang out in each other's luxury boxes. This is one area that I actually respect Billy Beane for--he seems like a truly competitive guy.
11) Speaking of Billy Beane, did I change any attitudes on Billy or moneyball? At least we all got some laughs, right? As it turns out, one of the professors at my new school is a huge Bill James fan. It took quite an effort to keep from taking some shots at him and Rob Neyer when I met them all a few weeks back.
12) Did anybody ever figure out my Mike Laga mystery?
13) The Cardinals defense ***** this year.
14) Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball. I get to watch him regularly and I've seen many a time how he's single-handedly changed the course of a game. Alex Rodriguez, on the other hand, will only perform for a team that's got a fair chance of winning already so that, you know, he's not accountable for anything.
15) I was reading the other day that MLB is trying to squeeze money out of fantasy leagues. I'm not a fantasy guy, to be sure, but I think that it's a shame that baseball is now trying to tax fans for being fans. Of course, this can only be bad for mlb: fantasy leagues aren't crucial to anybody, and baseball's reputation of being a short-sighted organization will only be compounded if they proceed with this fiasco. Maybe Selig can give Donald Fehr a call to see if they can cancel the World's Series, while they're at it.
16) Can there be any doubt, that the outcome of the Bonds mess can only be bad? Bonds is effectively finished as a productive major leaguer. I'm not crying for him.
17) Does anybody know how many donuts Mike Lavalliere ate over the 1987 season? I have a good bet that it's 1,944: one dozen for every game played.
18) Thanks to people who posted comments and regularly read the blog, notably a few close friends and Reid at reid.mlblogs.com. Reid even linked to this blog from his blog. I would've linked to some of my favorite blogs, but there are only a handful that I checked regularly (Reid's among them).

If I hear the Cardinals announcers tell me the Josh Hancock story one more time I will go mad.  They do this every year.  They pick out one guy and each announcer tells his story ad naseum until I never want to hear the story again.  Enough Already!

Much has been said about the upward trend in home runs.  How about some of the amazing defense?  The best three plays I've seen so far this season are:

3) Scott Rolen dives to his right and throws a guy out from his knees.

2) Dontrelle Willis' quick-reaction on the mound.  I don't think I've ever seen a line drive hit that hard.

1) Tadahito Iguchi making a throw while parallel to the ground.  He didn't even start the throw until he was already airborne.  This is unreal.

Atlanta

How's that Atlanta staff faring under Roger McDowell?  Not too good, from some of the things I've seen.  What, John Smoltz is the only starter with a win? 

OBP

In my softball league, I have an OBP of 1.875.  A batting eye is a batting eye, righit?  So why hasn't Billy Beane called yet?  Is it the fact that I'm within the weight standards for my height? 

This isn't about baseball, but I'm going to post it anyway.  Illinois drivers are really terrible.  I saw a CNN story a while back that said out of the midwest states, Illinois ranks the worst in terms of driver knowledge of basic driving laws. 

I work in Illinois but live in St. Louis.  I have seen people driving while: 1) doing their checkbook, 2) Reading books, 3) reading notebooks, 4) fixing their make-up, and of course, 5) talking on their cell phones.  Of course, they do it all while traveling at high velocities (or very low velocities in the cases where people are reading novels) and they are in complete ignorance of everything going on around them.  Also today, a guy came up behind me doing about 90, and he was talking on his cell phone while letting his dog wander all over in the interior of the car.  If he hadn't have braked at the very last second, there would've been a colossal wreck.  I know, I know: he's real macho with the reflexes and the multi-tasking.  He's a regular NASCAR driver in his 1988 rusted out Buick Regal.  Recently I have read of states undertaking legislation to prohibit cell phones while driving.  I am in favor of this.  Anything to keep people safer on the roads. 

Of course this won't get the idiots off the road.  And of course, this phenomena is local to Illinois; it's all over.

Incidentally, why do people like NASCAR?  NASCAR stinks.  What's so great about watching a car go around a circle several times in a row?  I get to drive everyday; it's not a huge fantasy for me.  The problem with NASCAR is not lack upper-middle class fans (like I saw they're trying to get into New York City), it's lack of an interesting premise.  These guys drive cars.  I get to drive cars.  The big difference is, these guys plug things like "Skoal" which makes me think "maybe this is the type of thing that won't go over in New York City."  NASCAR is what it is: a sport for rednecks to drink beer to on a Saturday afternoon.  Don't try to change it; it's just not very interesting.

The more I see of Jason Marquis, the more I like.  It seems like he's stronger this year.  He touched 97 today; and was still bringing it at 95 in the 8th. 

I am going to start working a part-time job to complement my earnings from my full-time job so that I will save as much money as possible before I start school this fall.  This means that my postings will be less frequent than they have been.  But I have been known to go on a tear, so who knows?  I am only going to keep this going until the first week of August, anyhow.  I know you're all sorely disappointed. 

1) I think it's ironic that Braden Looper got the win for the Cardinals pulling it out this afternoon.  He surrendered the lead to a Rich Aurilia double in the 8th after Quinten McCracken's homer off of Wainwright.  Why is Looper always grinning?  What's he got to be happy about? 

2) When La Russa needed a hit today, he reached down and got Jason Marquis, who promptly stroked a single to set the stage for Pujols' afternoon drama.  Jason "Slash" Marquis is also the guy La Russa goes to when he needs a fresh set of legs to run for a guy when they need a run. 

3) Today's STL Post-Dispatch featured a column that mentioned the Cardinals need for an outfielder.  The "cavalry" is on the way, in Larry Bigbie!

4) I'm checking out the LA/San Fran game as we speak.  I guess Bonds has set the stage for his retirement due to complications in his elbow.  He said that if he has to have another procedure, he's done.  But let's be honest: It's best for all if he retires, the sooner the better.  Before you could make the argument that the Giants benefitted from his production, but he's not producing anymore. 

5) Let's take a quick look around the majors...the Mets are off to a great start.  And they're STILL the second story coming out of NY....Andruw Jones made a great catch in today's game against the Pads...he also had a bomb.  The A's are a game under .500.  Hardly running away with the division.  No team seems to want the AL West.  One team that could, in theory make some noise is Seattle.  They looked pretty decent when I saw them the other night.  They've got that hotshot pitching prospect coming up who could be pretty good.  All they need is Jarrod Washburn to pan out and to find some more pitching, both of the bullpen and starting variety.  They say that Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera are on the block.  Dollars to Donut the Mets make a major push for one of either Cabrera or Willis, or both.

6) From what I've seen, The Cubs look pretty good.  I like their style of play; I like Juan Pierre at the top of the order.  You can't do better than Derek Lee at first, both as a player and as a clubhouse guy, from the things I've read. 

7) How is Houston in first place?  They were supposed to have nothing left in the tank after Bagwell's arm fell off, Clemens semi-retired and Craig Biggio turned 803 years old.  One big answer: Lance Berkman.  I shouldn't have ripped on that guy for so long.  The reason that I hated Lance Berkman, was because my impression was that he was a buffoon.  I mean, what kind of an idiot ruins his knee playing football in the offseason?  Any time I've ever seen an interview with him, he's always had a blank expression on his face.  But he did go to Rice, a school of the highest caliber, so that's good enough for me.   

The news broke last night that a grand jury is looking into whether or not to indict  Barry Bonds for perjuring himself while testifying in the Balco probe.  If the evidence is there, indicting Barry Bonds is absolutely the right thing to do.  Why?  Let's go back in time to those heady days, back when steroids was just a gathering cloud on the horizon.  Guys were called up on the stand to testify, and each of them faced a choice: 1) Tell the truth, 2) Tell a lie, or 3) tell something in between. 

Jason Giambi told the truth, and he suffered for it.  He's through the dark period now, though, and assuming he's currently legitimate, his career is on the mend.  Barry Bonds, all the evidence seems to indicate, told nothing but lies and was on the brink of having no punishment whatsoever. 

So, in effect, if Bonds were to be granted the right to lie on the stand, it looks like we punish honesty and reward deceit.  I don't think that's a message that federal prosecutors would like to send to potential witnesses in other cases.      

Isringhausen says that the key to being a good closer is to not let anything bother you.  At least we know that Izzy will sleep well tonight.

Most scribes, as they rush to defend Isringhausen, are quick to forget that Izzy also had a terrible spring.  I'd rather rush to defend Adam Wainwright, a guy who held the line while the Cardinals bats tried muster something. 

I wonder where the Cardinals were, this offseason, when clubs were giving Dan Kolb away for free.  Kolb has surrendered only a hit over 3 innings worth of work.

The Cardinals should see if Anthony Reyes can close.  He's got great stuff, and he's been shown to not be able to go 200 innings in a year without injury.   

La Russa made an interesting move this afternoon.  When the Cardinals came to bat after Carlos Lee unloaded on Jason Isringhausen, Aaron Miles reached on four straight balls.  So La Russa asked #3 starter Jason Marquis to go out and drop a sacrifice bunt to move Miles into scoring position.  In years past, La Russa would've gone down and got an Eddie Perez or a John Mabry, guys that La Russa undoubtedly feels that can give him a game-winning HR.  This year is asked a guy to drop a bunt?  Don't get me wrong, I like the smallball.  I love the smallball.  But it's very un-La Russa like.  Maybe he feels that he really is trying to work with nothing this year, and when the Cardinals ownership starting pinching pennies on payroll last winter in the face of unprecedented revenue streams, he was left to "fill the holes" with guys like Skip Shumaker and whoever at 2B.  No, the Cardinals as presently constituted are not a championship-caliber club.

Here's a link to an article that a friend tipped me off about:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/franz_lidz/02/16/darren/

It covers Darren Daulton's insights into the universe, including a theory that everything revolves around the number 11, the strategic positioning of pyramids, the end of the world in 2011, etc.  Daulton makes Wade Boggs look sane.  Maybe Daulton and Carl Everett can have a symposium for crackpot theories.

The article also reveals that Daulton was a career .245 hitter.  I was shocked to hear that.  I thought he was closer to a .260 man. 

The article also reveals something about the nature of that Phillies club of 1993.  Those guys were into all kinds of stuff that nobody knew about, apparently.  This only begs the question I've been asking for a while now: What was the clubhouse dynamic like with that 1992 Phillies club, that featured these guys, and Good-Guy Dale Murphy.

Here's something a friend sent me this afternoon.

I just finished watching "Beyond the Glory" on Kirk Gibson's homerun.  It was pretty good stuff.  First off, that Gibson was okay.  They brought him to L.A. to regulate on the sissies that were a bunch of losers.  His whole philosophy was to play as hard as possible until your body broke, then get fixed and commence to breaking it again [kind of like the 'Lather, Rinse, Repeat' approach to baseball].  The most interesting aspect, however, involved the role scouting played in that most dramatic homerun.  A Dodger scout had watched Eckersley and realized that when he would get to a full count against a left handed hitter, he favored going to a backdoor slider.  When the count went to full, Gibson called time, stepped out, and smiled.  He was sitting on that pitch.  A fastball would have struck him out easily.  I just found it very ironic that the work of a scout proved so pivotal in that moment -- and that it came against the Oakland A's.  I'm not saying that an iBook wouldn't have revealed that, but it does seem to be a powerful argument for the presence of scouting.

I just got back in town, so let's see what's been happening:

1) The Brewers are on fire!

2) The Pirates are not.

3) I can't wait to hear an impassioned defense of Jason Isringhausen, on how loading the bases and giving up a grand slam was all part of his master strategy.  It was because he thought his "out" was Matt Murton.

The Ballad of the Atlanta Braves

A few years back, I wrote and recorded a song to celebrate the achievements of the Atlanta Braves organization.  It's only a demo.  But I just put it on the server of a friend of mine, so you can download it and check it out if you want.  You can download it here.  If you just want to listen to it, click on the afforementioned link.  If you want to download it to your computer for you to cherish for all time, right-click on the link and choose "save target as." 

What's that?  You think this is weird?  It is weird.  I wrote it when I was much younger than I am now, and I had much less going on in my life. 

Jason Isringhausen

It looks like the new, smarter Jason Isringhausen is no more effective than the old, stupid Jason Isringhausen.  "Izzy," true to the form he's displayed the last few years, was handed the ball in the ninth inning of last night's Cardinals/Phillies contest, where he promptly issues a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases.  Who says there's no poetry in baseball?

La Russa, walks to the mound and points with his right-index finger, as if to say "Give me Isringhausen."  Isringhausen, wearing a determined scowl, makes his way from the bullpen to the mound.  They exchange a few words and then La Russa hands him the ball.  Isringhausen pulls the bill of his cap down over his face.  He is ready.  He won't be rejected.  Not here.  Not tonight.  What's his out pitch?  The cutter, of course.  Every other pitch he uses builds around getting to his cutter.  But the hitters realize this.  They know that Isringhausen won't serve up a fat pitch because he's looking to use his cutter.  So they watch.  And wait.  Ball one is a curve ball, just missing off the corner of the plate.  Ball two is a four-seamer outside.  Now he has the hitter right where he want him!  The next pitch is a fastball called strike on the inside corner; a pitch the hitter can afford to watch because he's ahead in the count 2-0.  Isringhausen executes his pitch.  Now the count is 2-1.  He's still behind the hitter.  What to do?  He can either go back to the breaking pitch, or go to his cutter earlier in the count than he'd like to.  Yadi Molina flashes the signal for the cutter.  They agree.  And the batter strokes the pitch for a single, setting up a hectic ninth for the Cardiac Cardinals.

The details of this pitch-sequence may not be exactly accurate, but it IS poetic!         

Washington Ballpark

In today's Wall Street Journal, architecture critic Catesby Leigh hammered plans for the new Washington ballpark.  He writes:

What we get with the Nationals' current design is a ballpark bowl enclosed by banal buildings with limestone (or precast concrete, depending on budgetary factors) unimaginatively framing vast expanses of glass.

and:

The design goes from banal to pretentious at the ballpark's south end, where a triangular volume derived from I.M. Pei's National Gallery East Building is awkwardly appended to emphasize, and indeed exaggerate, the nonperpendicular intersection of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue.

I am no expert in contextual architecture, but I do know a good-looking ballpark from an ugly one.  In my opinion, the plans for the new Washington park definitely belong to the latter; these designs make it look like a converted office park.

Busch III

The new Busch Stadium in St. Louis was showcased last night in a game between the AAA club in Memphis, and the AA affiliate out of Springfield, MO.  The new Busch is stunning.  I still hate the fact that tickets are terribly expensive, you can't find any to buy, the average fan got priced out, the people that get to afford games now are the passively interested customers of some client who is in town on business.  I hate the fact that much of it was built with faux brick.  But from an aesthetic perspective, the new facility is stunning. 

Ryan Freel

Chewing tobacco notwithstanding, Ryan Freel is OK in my book.  I just saw him single-handedly make Dusty Baker concede third base as "stolen" because Baker didn't want his guys to move out of position, in an attempt to take out the hit-and-run.  He's a guy that will play a lot of positions for you, which leads me to question: Why don't we respect these guys like we respect the multi-faceted football player?  Wasn't Kordell Stewart nicknamed "Slash"?  Troy Brown of the Patriots and Neon Deion Sanders were great two-way threats.  To be fair, Jose Oquendo was nicknamed "The Secret Weapon," but that's about it, as far as clever nicknames for utility guys go. 

Tim Wallach

That being said, today we honor the legacy of Tim Wallach.  Tim Wallach is a guy who was not unlike Oquendo, in that he played every position (except catcher), but unlike Oquendo, Tim Wallach never had a great nickname (as far as I know).  Therefore, I propose Tim "Eli" Wallach after the actor that was in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  Eli Wallach was the Ugly.  Tim Wallach pitched a total of two innings over the course of his major-league career.  His ERA from the first game, in 1987 was 0.00, which is very GOOD.  His ERA from the second game, in 1989, was 9.00, which is very BAD.  His career ERA is 4.50...not good, not bad, but UGLY.   

I want to like Barry Bonds.  I really do.  Nothing would make me happier than to be able to root for him this season to pass the Babe and later Hank Aaron.  But I can't. 

I just caught the highlights from the first episode of "Bonds on Bonds." 

1) Why would we expect to see the real Barry Bonds?  Do we think we saw the real Bobby Knight on "Knight School"?  I don't think so.  This whole show is Barry's design on how he wants to be remembered.

2) Barry keeps promising to stop talking to the media, but all I've been seeing lately is Barry in the media.  He says he doesn't like the cameras, but everything I've seen really suggests that he loves the cameras.  He wants to be a movie star when he's finished, right?  Why would he choose a second career, possibly the only career, where there are even more cameras?  Maybe he actually likes the cameras after all.

3) From the highlights I saw, it appears as if Barry is trying to run a very neat trick on us.  He weeps in front of the camera, about how much everything weighs on him and the like.  But I don't know whether or not I can believe him.  If I should ask him "Barry, how can we believe you?  How can we believe you about steroids and not eating dinner at Ken Griffey's Jr.'s house and everything he would likely look in the camera and say "I don't give an 'f' whether you believe me or not."  And therein lies the problem.  Barry has no credibility and he is not willing to try to build any.  Derek Jeter has credibility.  Ken Griffey Jr. has credibility.  Dale Murphy had credibility.  Mark McGwire has none.  Raffy Palmeiro has none.  And Barry Bonds has none. 

There are some racist people in the world that hate Barry because of his skin color.  For that he has my deepest sympathy.  I also saw Ken Burns' Baseball, the final chapter, in which he interviews Hank Aaron.  Hank showed several letters that he received of the same type, death threats, racist propoganda and the like.  The implication that Barry attempts is that to question the validity of Barry is to side with the racists.  And nobody wants that.

He said, through tears, that he would "like to walk away, but he can't." and that "he doesn't need the money."  So the money means nothing to him?  Is that what I hear him saying?!?!?  That goes against everything I've ever read about Barry Bonds.  Remember that thing in New York a couple of years ago, when you could pay several hundred dollars to hang out with Barry for half a hour?  Both him and ARod participated, although ARod donated his share to charity.  Barry donated his share to Barry. 

All these things aside, I would like to root for Barry, I really would.  Steroids or not, he's still one of the greatest players I've ever seen.  But then, this magical thing happened: He started to hit more home runs as he got older; something that has never happened before.  Maybe it was his ego, his pride that made him do it; I don't know.  Maybe he is completely innocent, and all of these things (leaked grand jury testimony, Book of Shadows, etc.) have him all wrong.  But Barry surely isn't going to tell me.  Oh well.  Maybe he'll at least say some things about Jeff Kent, another guy I'm not particularly fond of.

Tony La Russa seems like he's getting old.  Whenever I see an interview with him, it seems like he's definitely not the guy he used to be.  In today's STL Post-Dispatch, Miklasz postulated that La Russa could keep on managing because it would be hard for him to walk away in the middle of Albert Pujols' career.  I don't buy it.  This is probably Tony's last season (for now--he could always go Jim Leyland or Jack McKeon on us and resurface somewhere in ten years). 

The A's lost last night!  Why?  Well, it couldn't have been the fact that Barry the Yogamaster Zito had a horrific start.  It couldn't be the possibility that Johnson was unhittable, exploiting the A's tendency to watch borderline pitches be called strikes.  It couldn't be the possibility that a lot of balls bounced off of guys gloves in the field.  I know what it was!!!  None of the A's scored a base on balls last night!  I'll bet Beane was fuming, pacing around outside the Colisseum.  Speaking of the Colisseum, what's with that plywood "Home of the Oakland Athletics" sign they took out the upper deck for?  Were they really drawing so few fans?  Should the A's move to a new city, that will make the fourth new home for the franchise that originated in Philadelphia.  That would definitely be a record, I think, in ANY sport.  The closest competition I can think of is the Arizona Cardinals, who have had three home towns (Chicago, St. Louis and now Arizona) as well as the worst owner of all-time (Bill Bidwell).

Connie Mack was a guy who was not all-that different from some of the owners of today.  He ran his club on the idea that he didn't need to be good enough to challenge every year; His Philadelphia A's only needed to be good enough to get people in the stands.  In other words, he figured out the exact point to where the marginal cost of one additional salary would be equal to the marginal benefits of one additional win.  Clever man.  I wonder what it feels like, to be a fan going into a season and knowing that your club is not going to win the World's Series. 

1) During last night's game between the White Sox and the Indians, Joe Morgan mentioned that stories where guys have amphetamine-laden coffee pots around the clubhouse are somewhat outlandish.  That might be.  But he should be able to see why it's not crazy for us to all to believe something like that, though.  When I was a kid, I thought they called Tim Raines "Rock" because he played hard.  As it turns out, he only slid head-first to keep the cocaine in his back pocket intact.  And as far as I know, this kind of thing was always out and in the open in the clubhouse.  The White Sox looked awful good last night, though. 

2) On ESPN Classic the other day, I was watching part of Jim Abbott's no-hitter against the afformentioned Cleveland Indians.  This was in early fall, a couple of days after the September call-ups.  Who had been called up that year?  Why Manny Ramirez.  Anyway, Abbott had surrendered a walk in the fifth inning to the guy in front of Manny (it might have been Carlos Baerga, I forgot).  Manny hits the ball to one of the middle-infielders, who flips the ball to the other middle-infielder and then the quick turn to first for the double-play.  Why is this interesting?  As Mattingly grabbed the ball at first, the announcers pointed out how Manny hadn't bothered to put much effort into beating the throw.  In fact, well after Mattingly had caught the ball, Manny was nowhere to be seen.  I guess some things never change.   

3) Today's I honor Nelson Santovenia.  Over the course of 887 career ABs, Nelson racked up 206 hits (7 seasons worth of MLB service). 

4) I do like the new opening for ESPN Baseball, what with the baseball-card themed intro and all. 

5) The Cardinals looked pretty good today, for anybody who didn't notice.  Pujols had a couple of homers (2 for 2), while Rolen had a GS; Aaron Miles had a four-hit day (believe that?  Now THAT's outlandish!), and Eckstein made a nice catch.  They could turn out to be pretty decent.  I'm all turned around now on Sidney Ponson.  I had been rooting for the guy ever since Jeff Brantley trashed him last summer (Brantley, by the way, is the only remaining member of the 1990 Reds team that still perms his hair).  It hurt me when Ponson assaulted the Aruban judge, but now it seems like he's cleaned his act up.  Good for you, Sidney. 

6) The Reds, on the other hand, could be much, much worse than any of us thought.  Well, many thought that they'd finish in the cellar.  I also think they will probably finish in the cellar, but let's hope they don't get "Royal"ly bad.      

The WHIFF Index

The other day, I was working on my BOGUS indicator, and I developed a new moneyball stat that I know fantasy GMs everywhere are just going to eat it up.  The WHIFF index--Why Harden Is (going to be) Freakin’ Fantastic-- measures the number of times in a game that a given pitcher can get hitters from the opposing, normally-distributed line-up to either swing-and-miss at three pitched balls, watch passively as three balls move from the pitcher’s hand to the middle-area of the receiver’s matrix, or any combination therein.  Since the key is the integer “3” we must construct a 3x3 receiver’s matrix to measure the location of the pitched ball to determine whether or not the pitch-instance can be added to the WHIFF function.  In the graphics below, you will see 1) The receiver, 2) The receiver’s matrix, and 3) the receiver with the matrix construct.  The WHIFF function was built on a series of binaries, where a “1” or “True” would indicate a ball either in the middle-zone of the matrix or a swing-and-miss; and a “0” or “False” when the ball fell in any one of the remaining eight zones and the batter did not swing.  The middle-zone of the matrix was determined to have a z-value of plus-minus 6 inches, with x-value of plus-minus 7 inches.

+ =

After each pitched ball has been assigned to a matrix-zone, each matrix cell then contains a value representing the pitched ball for that at-bat.  Each column of the matrix represents the pitch-location/hitter-selection variables associated with an at-bat, and then we can solve the matrix from there.  Why?  Because we know that the main equation must equal “3” for a WHIFF indicator to be added.

We can then go in and add up these WHIFF indicators over a guy’s season or a career.  Here is my WHIFF-adjusted all-time pitcher’s list:

Steroids

I keep hearing that I am going to be shocked by the names that might be mentioned in connection with the steroids probe.  Let’s be honest here: my life is not going to be wrecked if I find out that Brady Anderson did steroids.  It won’t be wrecked if I find out that anybody named “Boone” did steroids.  The only way I will be disappointed is if I find out that 1) Ken Griffey Jr., 2) Derek Jeter, or 3) Dale Murphy did steroids.  For me, anybody who’s name is cleared will be a bonus. 

Some Last Words on Moneyball

After this, I'm going to shut-up about Moneyball for a while.  I might catch a couple of A's games on tv this summer on TV; it depends on whether Harden is pitching. 

I keep hearing, whenever I point out the obvious Moneyball draft flops (that is, guys that no other club prior to 2002 would take), I hear "well, you can't expect every one of these guys to pan out.  We have to cut Beane some slack."  But that's not good enough.  Moneyball was all about reducing the uncertainty associated with the draft, and to justify Moneyball as a philsophy, a percentage of these moneyballers need to make it to the majors.  I don't know what the percentage is, but it doesn't even have to be comparable to what the Atlanta Braves are doing.  I do know that a "bad-bodied" catcher that hits .270 in the minors isn't going to cut it.

My brother just walked through here wearing an Oakland A’s hat.  He knows next to nothing about baseball (we’re not close, but not for these reasons).  My brother fancies himself to be quite the cosmopolitan, having spent a year studying in Japan, proclaiming himself to be a “vegan,” wanting to “leave the country” in protest of certain political realities, and looking down on the rest of my Midwestern family among many other things.   

The Oakland A’s are the height of cosmopolitan cool.  Why is that?

If I’ve seen anything on TV over the past twenty years, I know that “young” and “chic” is cool, appealing.  They stock their club with young guys who don’t cost much money, have wild hair and surf on the weekends.  Everybody wants to be young again, right?  Even St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz has an earring.  “Old” and “proven” is associated with tired and worn down; it makes us think of our own mortality and that scares us.

But Billy Beane still chews tobacco.  I've seen some public service announcements from Lenny Dykstra that leads me to believe that, as a society, we still look down on this.  So does Terry Francona, I believe.  That's not cool, is it?  WHen the Reds traded Wily Mo Pena to the Red Sox, Billy likely through a chair through a wall at the Colisseum.  Do we look up to guys who act like an eight-year old whose Mom just made him eat his vegetables?   

The A’s process their club with precise “numbers” and “analysis”—very European.  Although I’m not sure how well it’s worked out for the Europeans.  France is on the decline—the need for labor market liberalization has been met with a series of protests by lovers of the former USSR—a very statistically-minded organization. 

When you say that you are with the A’s, Red Sox or Blue Jays, what you’re saying is that you’re wise to a “better” or “smarter” way of doing things.  I mean, take a look at Red Sox owner John Henry.  That guy has Eastern patrician snob written all over him.  Being a Moneyball guy is really just another way of claiming superiority over other people, drawing new class distinctions as the old ones die out.

The Monstrous-Cut Monk logo was actually a premonition of the Ryan Klesko era.

1)  It seems that I’ve heard a lot these past few days about what other dirt might be uncovered by Senator Mitchell’s steroids probe.  There’s another angle, though.  What if the inquiry clears somebody’s name?  What if Roger Clemens’ name is cleared of any wrongdoing?  We might have a few more villains come out of this, but we might even get a few heroes.  If the game is “bigger than any one person,” as Kennesaw Mountain Landis wrote when he banned Joe Jackson and the rest of the Black Sox, then it’s also bigger than Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire or any other athlete that may turn out to be fraudulent. 
   
2)  Some ballplayers have made a good point, though.  Why is this just happening now?  Wasn’t MLB aware of what was going on five, even ten years ago?  Good times begat silence; and so this points to the obvious: baseball needs a permanent, independent commissioner who does not have an interest in any one team’s financial well-being. 

3)  The 2006 edition of the Chicago White Sox kick off the season Sunday night against the Cleveland Indians.  I will be watching it.  If there’s any one guy in baseball that won’t lose his edge after a championship, it’s got to be Ozzie Guillen.  Maybe this year they'll make Luke Perry their official mascot. 

4)  I’ve decided to develop my own Moneyball stat.  It’s going to be the “Balls Optimal Growth Under Strikouts” stat or, “BOGUS.”  As we speak, I am sorting through mountains of data to prepare this for all of you vigilant Fantasy GMs out there.  My statistical strategy is to plot out balls and strikes for a given player on a Cartesian plane, draw an OLS line through the data, and then take these coefficients to create a weighted average for one all-encompassing index.  Then, I will plot these indexes out for a given player’s career in a matrix built around “pitching type.”  By doing this, I will have successfully plotted a player’s performance against one type of pitching, thereby allowing me to accurately predict how, for example, Bobby Abreu will fare in an at-bat against Odalis Perez based on three at-bats Abreu had against Donovan Osborne in 1996.  I’m really excited about this; maybe I can get the Oakland A’s to hire me as an analyst.  Yes, that’s what I will do: I will go to work for the A’s, until the Blue Jays come in and offer me a lot of money, on the understanding that I replace the scouting staff with a spreadsheet.  I would find it hard to put a scout out of business, however.  They’ve always got something clever to say about a guy and I like to listen to them talk. 

5)  One of the columnists from Sports Illustrated picked the Cardinals to win the National League, but they aren’t going to do it with what they’ve got now.  They’ve got good pitching, there’s no doubt about that.  But look what happened in 2004 and 2005: In the 2004 World’s Series, the bats went silent, all except for the since-retired Larry Walker.  The same thing happened in the 2005 NLCS.  The Cardinals have since subtracted from the firepower of those teams.  If what they had wasn’t good enough in 2004 and 2005, why will they be better with less in 2006?  Maybe they can convert Jason Marquis to an outfielder to get him some at-bats on his days off, as well as occasionally spell the over-extended Larry Bigbie. 

6)  Some folks are writing off the Atlanta Braves.  Why?  In Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the beat writers dismissed the Braves as a “team on the decline.”  He said that their young players overachieved last season.  They wrote off the Braves last year, the year before that and the year before that.  I won’t write off the Braves until they write themselves off.  With Cox at the helm and a supply-chain that has been the best in baseball, there’s no sign of that happening. 

7)  It has come to my attention that my blog might not be the most cherished of blogs on the mlblogs website.  My blog was removed from the “featured blogs” list.  Why is that?  I almost certainly will never be featured on the “MLBlogosphere Blog.”  That being said, I guess I will have to do an interview/profile with myself here. 

Q—You don’t have much going on in your life, do you?

A—I am starting my PhD this fall.  The period before I start is a slow time.

Q—What’s your favorite Toad the Wet Sprocket Song?

A—Walk on the Ocean. 

8)  Here's is a bit of analysis from an anonymous friend of mine that came via electronic mail yesterday. 

I read an interview with Mark Grace in The Sporting News.  He said:

He didn't use steroids, but was offerred them many times.  He also said he saw a lot of guys doing it with his own eyes.  When asked would he vote for Rafeal Palmeiro, Bonds, or McGwire to be in the HOF, he said because Palmeiro tested positive, he would not vote for him.  He said he would need to think long and hard about the other two and get some more info.  When asked if he would for Sosa, he said "No.  In a word.  No."  Now, by my logic, he is pretty much saying he knows that Sosa used.