Baseball Brawlsby basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 4:36 pm EDT
Lackey provoked a fight in 2006 when he commented on
the elbow pad worn by Kendall (flickr)
Interesting article in the Mercury News today, about baseball brawls and what the root of the problems seems to be most of the time: respect.
“Could be what's a clean slide vs. a dirty slide,” San Diego pitcher Greg Maddux said.
“Are guys trying to show you up?” Giants pitcher Matt Cain said.
“Are you playing the game the right way,” St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa said.
“Do you have to make a statement?” Cleveland outfielder Grady Sizemore said.
The answer is that there is no one answer. The code that teams use in a high-stakes game of policing one another is not a uniform one, and they can stem from the fracturing of unwritten rules to gestures of disrespect.
But at their heart, base-brawls are connected by one underlying theme.
“It comes down to respect,” Giants pitcher Noah Lowry said. “No. 1, respect one another. No. 2, respect the game itself. If you cross those two lines, you're probably going to have a price to pay.”
The code seems to constantly change. In the 1920s, it was considered bad form for a player to look into the crowd; today, curtain calls are an acceptable practice. In Blue's day, stealing bases with a five-run lead was taboo; now, few leads are considered safe. Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale spent the 1960s establishing their dominance by drilling any batter who hit a home run; now, hitters often gaze at their home runs with no reason to fear payback.
Thus, it's little wonder that what is and what is not acceptable has to be passed down from the elders.
My question to you all is…Do you think there is a place in modern baseball for brawls and if not, what should we do about it?
With all the money involved in this business, baseball should be really tough when it comes to hitters charging the mound after being hit by a pitch and also pitchers who have a history of hitting batters when they are frustrated.
As the article mentions, many things have changed in modern baseball compared to the way it was played in the past and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Purist might dislike it, but the quality of baseball and the era of specialization has brought another layer of depth to the game and somehow bench-clearing brawls should have gone away, when you consider the risk of injuries and the example it sets for amateur players.
On the other hand, should players really trust MLB to hand out the appropriate punishment when a player is hit by a pitch or any other disrespectful act is committed between the lines?
I'd like to hear you on this topic.
At least this era is over:
Found this on Flickr
Burrell Due for First All-Star Gameby basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 3:28 pm EDT
Believe it or not, the Phillies’ left fielder, in his ninth
season in Major League Baseball, has never appeared in an All-Star Game.
Burrell has only once finished a season with an OPS+ under 100 (that nightmarish
2003 season) and routinely finds himself in the 30 HR, 100 RBI area by season’s
end. Add to that his gift of excellent strike zone judgment – close to or above
100 walks in the past three seasons and on pace again this season – that keeps
his on-base percentage hovering near the .400 mark, and his .500-ish slugging,
and you have to wonder why this guy has never started an All-Star Game.
Realizing that All-Star Game selections are a wholly unreliable
way of judging a player’s success, I was interested nonetheless, and decided to
root through Burrell’s splits. Surprisingly, his overall first- and second-half
production doesn’t vary all that much: .846 OPS in the first half; .869 OPS in
the second half.
Looking throughout his career, here are his best first-halves:
2002: .929 OPS,
22 HR, 63 RBI
2006: .885 OPS,
19 HR, 58 RBI
2004: .873 OPS, 15
HR, 62 RBI
2005: .871 OPS,
17 HR, 63 RBI
After that, there is a significant drop-off in OPS: .821 in ’00;
.812 in ’01; .786 in ’07; and .678 in ’03, so we can presume that in those four
years, he shouldn’t have even been a consideration.
I decided to look through the All-Star Game rosters and see
if Burrell had been snubbed in any of those years (Italicized names signify
starters).
2002: Barry Bonds (1.342 OPS); Sammy Sosa (1.059 OPS); Vladimir Guerrero (.959 OPS); Lance
Berkman (1.053 OPS); Andruw Jones (.849 OPS); Adam Dunn (.996 OPS); Luis
Gonzalez (.885 OPS); Shawn Green (.970 OPS).
2006: Alfonso Soriano (.888 OPS); Carlos Beltran (.995 OPS); Jason Bay (.927 OPS); Andruw Jones (.848
OPS); Matt Holliday (.974 OPS); Carlos Lee (.916 OPS).
2004: Barry Bonds (1.421 OPS); Sammy Sosa (.939 OPS); Lance Berkman (1.008 OPS); Carlos
Beltran (.913 OPS); Ken Griffey, Jr. (.862 OPS); Moises Alou (.836 OPS); Bobby
Abreu (1.009 OPS); Miguel Cabrera (.908 OPS).
2005: Bobby Abreu (.955 OPS); Carlos Beltran (.754 OPS); Jim Edmonds (.942 OPS); Andruw Jones
(.930 OPS); Moises Alou (.909 OPS); Jason Bay (.930 OPS); Miguel Cabrera (.958
OPS); Luis Gonzalez (.828 OPS); Carlos Lee (.864 OPS).
We can say (roughly) that in 2002, Burrell deserved it over Andruw
Jones and Luis Gonzalez; in 2006, he deserved it over Jones; in 2004, he
deserved it over Ken Griffey, Jr. and Moises Alou; and in 2005, he deserved it over
Carlos Beltran, Gonzalez, and Carlos Lee.
Granted, he would have been a reserve in those four seasons,
but an All-Star nonetheless. OPS isn’t the stat most people look at, though,
when they’re selecting All-Stars, and Burrell’s AVG/HR/RBI were almost always
less than or equal to the players selected ahead of him. Defense may also have
been accounted for, and Burrell isn’t exactly a Gold Glove candidate every season,
though he’s finished T-5th, T-4th, third, and fourth in
outfield assists from 2007 going back to 2004, respectively.
Will Burrell be snubbed again in 2008? It’s highly unlikely.
Along with teammate Chase Utley, Burrell has been one of the most productive
hitters in all of baseball, ranking sixth in the National League in OPS, eighth
in doubles, T-3rd in home runs, T-2nd in RBI, and T-2nd
in walks. Of the OPS leaders ahead of him, none are outfielders. Josh
Willingham, Nate McLouth, and Justin Upton are the next three outfielders with
the best OPS.
Burrell has been getting a lot of media coverage, especially
since he is a free agent at the end of the season and there’s a chance he may
not be returning to Philadelphia. In addition, Burrell, along with teammate Utley, are the only
Phillies regulars who have been hitting. Burrell and Utley have a 180 and 206
OPS+, respectively, and no other regular has an OPS+ over 71 (that high score belongs to Geoff Jenkins).
In other seasons, Burrell was outshined by Utley, Ryan Howard, Bobby Abreu, Jim
Thome, Scott Rolen, and Mike Lieberthal, not to mention some of the pitchers
(Tom Gordon, Billy Wagner) who may have pushed him out.
In his ninth season in Major League Baseball, Burrell is almost
a lock to not only be nominated, but to start in his first career All-Star
Game. This is good news for Burrell and his fans, but bad news for anyone thinking about signing him because the longer he continues to hit, the more expensive he becomes. If Burrell keeps it up, he may be hitting himself out of Philadelphia!
Perhaps Plate Mail Would Help?by basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 3:13 pm EDT
Oh, the drama. When last we met, New York Mets closer Billy Wagner was slinging verbal arrows at starter Oliver Perez in an apparent attempt to motivate the young left-hander by involving the media.
Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either, but there it is.
Fast forward to Monday. Perez takes the mound against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Mets lose, 5-1. Among other things, he gets plunked in the midsection by a line drive off the bat of Jeff Kent. What does Wagner have to say about all this? Well, let's ask:
He competed. He took a shot to the chest.
You can't make this stuff up, folks. I wouldn't have made the connection between competing and taking a shot to the chest on my own, so I guess we can all be thankful to Wagner for helping us out there.
As for Perez, he now knows what he needs to do to win the respect of his teammates. I wonder how plate mail would affect his delivery…
Buzz Bissinger Interview with The Big Leadby basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 2:07 pm EDT
In an interview published yesterday at The Big Lead, Buzz Bissinger addressed his performance during the debate with Will Leitch and had the following to say:
Buzz: The initial reaction was quite positive, more than quite positive from those I immediately spoke to–fellow panelists and members of HBO with the exception of Costas (Bob was friendly but muted in his response to my performance. He is one of the most thoughtful people I know and I think he was mulling that I had gone way too far.) What I began to realize by the next afternoon is this: What the fellow panelists thought (at least the ones I spoke with) were not remotely a representative group. When I came home from New York, my wife simply told me that I had been over the top and undignified. Then I started reading emails sent to me. The majority were predictably vindictive — dickhead, horsefucker, douchebag, windbag, ugly, stupid, etc. But what struck me far more is that many of the emails were smart, not laced with personal invective, and made cogent points about sports blogs and the Internet. It was also abundantly clear that I had disappointed people who had been fans of my work. That hurt terribly. They were also right.
The more I thought about my performance, the initial glow of “telling it like it is” turned more and more into the reality of someone who had truly embarrassed himself and subsumed the very points he was trying to make. I believe in what I said (although the emails I received have also directed me to some excellent information-based sports blogs I was not aware of). But I made a terrible mistake in the manner in which I said it. I am a man of passion and my passion truly got the better of me. I should have considerably toned it down, in particular in terms of my treatment of Will Leitch. Without going into details, I have taken steps to remedy that. I have also publicly apologized on several radio shows that have been widely disseminated. Those apologies are sincere, just as my passion was sincere if terribly misplaced. I treated Mister Leitch like the worst kind of blogger.
I WANT TO EMPHASIZE (hence use of caps) there was no conspiracy between Costas and myself. We did not speak before the show. And his take on blogs is far more benevolent than mine. I got carried away as I often do because of who I am, not because of some clandestine plan to “get” Will Leitch. I am genuinely embarrassed by what I did and I need to reiterate that. It is not representative at all of who I am. I should also point out, just for the record, that I have gotten many emails applauding what I said because they feel that Deadspin in particular does routinely go too far. But still does not excuse profanity on my part. Although I am pretty sure that everybody watching the show, given that it is HBO, had heard the words “shit” and “fuck” before. After all, this is the network that has produced Deadwood and The Wire.
Q: We found the “blogs are dumbing down sports fans” argument to be highly debatable - the exact opposite could be said: With more research tools than ever before, fans are now armed with all the information they need to form coherent arguments about any topic they are passionate about. Sports fans have a choice - don't like one blog, float to another. Don't like a ribald radio host - turn the dial. But when it comes to sports on TV, there's only one option - ESPN. Al Michaels called about the network's incessant arguing “gasbags on parade.” How much blame should ESPN shoulder for the dumbing down of sports fans?
Buzz: In the light of day, I think we are all guilty of the dumbing down not just of sports fans but of society. I was guilty of it on the Costas show. Too many sports blogs are vile beyond belief. Too many ESPN commentators and radio talk show hosts are equally vicious for the same reason–they think it will amass them attention, which will lead to increased viewership and listenership. On the other hand, one thing I have learned from this whole mess is the danger of making sweeping generalizations. As I have just answered, there are some very good information-based sports blogs out there written by bloggers who clearly have excellent sources, just as there are some ESPN commentators who think before they talk and some marvelous radio talk show hosts who know their information inside and out and also have real sources. Now of course I will contradict myself by making the generalization that as a society, we have become more petty and mean-spirited and nastier than ever. We revel in watching celebrities fall apart. We revel in mockery and that is true of every media outlet whether you define it as new or old or mainstream or the future or whatever. Sports blogs certainly do not hold the monopoly on being vindictive.
It takes a man to admit he was wrong, especially in the way he came right at Leitch like he was on a mission.
I don't care whether you are “for” or “against” blogs (a debate that's as stupid as they come, if you want my take on it), but try to keep the discussion dignified and I salute Bissinger for the way he handled himself after this interview and saw that he did not help his cause at all by being on the attack like he was on the Costas' show.
Baseball Transactions - Mondayby basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12:41 pm EDT
Martin Prado will miss the next fifteen days of play (Bill Richardson/BDD)
Atlanta
Martin Prado - Left thumb injury, 15-day DL.
Peter Moylan - Transferred from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL (elbow injury).
Greg Norton - Acquired from the Seattle Mariners.
Boston
David Ortiz - Missed 1 game (knee injury).
Craig Hansen - Recalled from Pawtucket (AAA).
Brandon Moss - Appendectomy, 15-day DL (retroactive to May 3th).
Chicago White Sox
Joe Crede - Headache, day-to-day.
Cincinnati
Bill Bray - Optioned to Louisville (AAA).
David Weathers - Missed 14 games (right elbow injury).
Detroit
Matt Joyce - Contract purchased from Toledo (AAA).
Jacque Jones - Designated for assignment by the Detroit Tigers.
Texas
Ian Kinsler - Missed 2 games (hamstring).
Short Stops Around the Majors for May 5, 2008by basebal5 on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 6:33 am EDT
- Mike Lowell went 3-for-5 with a double, home run, and 3 RBI, and David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis each hit home runs and drove in 2 as the Red Sox doubled up the Tigers, 6-3. Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed just one run on 2 hits, but walked 8, over 5 innings for
- Johnny Cueto struck out 8 over 6 solid innings, and Adam Dunn hit a 2-run homer as the Reds downed the Cubs, 5-3. Geovany Soto went 3-for-3 with a double and a home run for
- Yadier Molina collected 3 hits and Joel Pineiro helped his own cause by driving in 2 runs as the Cardinals fought off the
- Dana Eveland gave up just 3 hits over 7 scoreless innings, and Emil Brown went 3-for-4 and drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning as the A's walked-off with a 2-1 victory over the Orioles. Garrett Olson allowed just one run on 4 hits while striking out 7 in 6 1/3 innings for
- Raul Ibanez doubled twice and drove in 2 runs, and Wladimir Balentien singled and hit a 3-run home run as the Mariners cruised to a 7-3 win over the Rangers.
- Ervin Santana tossed a complete game 4-hit shutout, and Garret Anderson and Brandon Wood hit 9th inning home runs to lead the Angels to a 4-0 win over the Royals. Brett Tomko pitched 7 scoreless innings of 2-hit ball for
- Chase Utley doubled twice, walked twice, and scored 2 runs, Eric Bruntlett singled, tripled, and had 3 RBI, and Carlos Ruiz and Geoff Jenkins each had 3 hits and an RBI as the Phillies roughed up the Diamondbacks, 11-4.
- Rafael Furcal, Matt Kemp andBlake DeWitt all hit home runs, and Chad Billingsley yielded just one run over 6 solid innings as the Dodgers got back in the win column by beating the Mets, 5-1.
Monday's Scoreboard
|
Cubs |
R |
H |
E |
|
R |
H |
E |
|
|
R |
H |
E |
|
R |
H |
E |
|
|
R |
H |
E |
|
R |
H |
E |
|
|
R |
H |
E |
|
R |
H |
E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
R |
H |
E |
|
Away |
Home |
Time (ET) |
Away Probable |
Home Probable |
|
Padres |
Braves |
7:00 p.m. |
Young (2-2) |
Jurrjens (3-2) |
|
Red Sox |
Tigers |
7:05 p.m. |
|
Robertson (1-3) |
|
Indians |
Yankees |
7:05 p.m. |
Carmona (3-1) |
Pettitte (3-3) |
|
Giants |
Pirates |
7:05 p.m. |
Sanchez (2-1) |
Duke (0-2) |
|
Rays |
Blue Jays |
7:07 p.m. |
Sonnanstine (4-1) |
Burnett (3-2) |
|
Cubs |
Reds |
7:10 p.m. |
Zambrano (4-1) |
Harang (1-4) |
|
Brewers |
Marlins |
7:10 p.m. |
Suppan (1-1) |
Olsen (3-1) |
|
Nationals |
Astros |
8:05 p.m. |
Hill (0-0) |
Chacon (0-0) |
|
Angels |
Royals |
8:10 p.m. |
Adenhart (0-0) |
Bannister (3-3) |
|
Twins |
White Sox |
8:11 p.m. |
|
Floyd (2-1) |
|
Cardinals |
|
8:35 p.m. |
Looper (4-1) |
Redman (2-2) |
|
Phillies |
D-Backs |
9:40 p.m. |
Eaton (0-0) |
Johnson (1-1) |
|
Orioles |
Athletics |
10:05 p.m. |
Burres (3-2) |
Duchscherer (2-1) |
|
Mets |
Dodgers |
10:10 p.m. |
Figueroa (2-1) |
Kuroda (1-2) |
|
Rangers |
Mariners |
10:10 p.m. |
Ponson (1-0) |
Batista (2-3) |