May 24, 2012
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Thursday, May 10, 2012And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraMets 10, Phillies 5: Cliff Lee was OK in his return, but he was on a pitch count and the bullpen -- including reverted-to-longman-work Kyle Kendrick -- got shellacked. Again. Ike Davis drove in three. The Mets so thoroughly own Citizens Bank Park this year that the Phillies are gonna have to launch some awkward take-back-the-park initiative pretty soon. Philly-a-tude! Phillies-o-rama! Phillandia! Rays 4, Yankees 1: Welcome to what everyone else has had to deal with forever, Yankees fans: shaky bullpen work. Granted a 1-0 lead isn't the easiest thing to protect, but David Robertson left little doubt about whether this one was going to be blown, giving up four runs. Rockies 6, Padres 2: Left-hander Christian Friedrich pitched six solid innings and .... wait. Sorry, I can't continue this one. I need to clear something up. [dials the Rockies clubhouse] Me: Mr Freed-rich ... Christian Friedrich: "Fredrick" Me: You're putting me on. Christian Friedrich: No, it's pronounced "Fredrick" Me: Do you also say "Christ-Ean"? Christian Friedrich: No... "Christian." Me: Well, why isn't it "Christ-Ean Frederick?"? Christian Friedrich: It isn't; it's "Christian Frederick." Me: I see. Christian Friedrich: You must be Craig. Me: No, it's pronounced "Cray-ag." Christian Friedrich: But they told me it was "Craig." Me: Well, they were wrong then, weren't they? Pirates 4, Nationals 2: Erik Bedard left with an injury after one inning but the Pirates didn't miss a beat: five guys combined to pitch eight innings of two-run ball and Andrew McCutchen went 4 for 4. Bryce Harper went 0 for 4, but he did catch a Pedro Alvarez fly near the wall and then turned around with the ball in his glove and taunted Pirates fans with it, and that's pretty effin' solid. As a tremendous fan of Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard, I can't tell you how happy I am to have a heel in Major League Baseball right now. Reds 2, Brewers 1: Hit this one up yesterday. Zack Greinke's bad luck and lack of support has to remind him of his days back in Kansas City. Blue Jays 5, Athletics 2: Adam Lind was moved down to eighth in the order. Must not have liked it because he hit a homer. Brandon Morrow struck out ten. Cubs 1, Braves 0: A two hour and five minute game on getaway day. I have no idea if this is common for the Cubs, but I am shocked -- shocked! -- that the Braves went down quietly while a plane waited for them at the airport. White Sox 8, Indians 1: Jake Peavy (7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER) and Adam Dunn (1 for 3, HR, BB, 2RBI) continue to carry this team. Angels 6, Twins 2: Mike Trout had a couple of doubles and a couple of RBI. Albert Pujols singled in a couple of runs. I've been telling people for a while that I'll feel way better about Pujols being back on track if he starts to simply hit a bit -- singles count -- as opposed to us watching the home run totals as if they mean everything. Royals 4, Red Sox 3: Two of the Royals runs were unearned thanks to a Marlon Byrd error. Bruce Chen gave up three runs while pitching into the seventh. Adrian Gonzalez had a bases-clearing double. The Sox have lost seven of eight. Those games were against Oakland, Baltimore and Kansas City. Which, sure, they're all playing decent ball, but no, they were not supposed to be abusing the Boston Red Sox. Marlins 5, Astros 3: I fell asleep before this one ended and I set ATH to post this morning before I woke up. In the meantime, Old Gator supplied a pithy recap that will suit our purposes just fine: The Feesh took down the Astros 5-3 in extra eenings last night, playing beyond Craig's bedtime when he wore himself out trying to button the rear hatch on his Pooh pajamas after having already put them on ... Josh Johnson peetched seven pretty solid innings, thank Buddha, giving up just two runs and looking, if not like the dominant monster he was early last season, at least a lot less like the batting practice machine he has been in most of his starts. Probably Slobbering Ozzie had noticed something about his motion, and Josh discovered the flaw while he was trying to figure out what Ozzie had said to him in the first place. Omar Infante got Ryan Webb back the two runs he gave away for him the night before with a walkoff seengle in the twelfth. Dodgers 6, Giants 2: Lincecum looked good for three innings and then hit a wall in the fourth, giving up a bases-clearing triple to Tony Gwynn Jr. In other news, I don't care if he plays 15 years, I will still have trouble getting my mind around the fact that Tony Gwynn's son is playing major league baseball. I never have this trouble with other kids of major leaguers, but for some reason it just doesn't match up for me with Gwynn, who no matter his age, shape or infirmity, I am convinced stopped playing baseball only a year or two ago. Cardinals 7, Diamondbacks 2: Arizona is skidding, St. Louis is surging. Close until the ninth when Matt Holliday drove in two with a double and Allen Craig hit a two-run bomb. Mariners 2, Tigers 1: John Jaso drove in the go-ahead late after Jason Vargas allowed one run over eight innings. Detroit is a .500 team on May 10th. No one saw that coming. Rangers vs. Orioles: POSTPONED: Pfft. As if Josh Hamilton isn't powerful enough to have just stopped the rain with his bat and his determination. Weak sauce, Hamilton. Wednesday, May 09, 2012A job with your name on itby Dave StudemanThe Houston Astros and old buddy Mike Fast are looking for a summer intern for their Decision Sciences group. They're particularly interested in candidates with good database and front-end skills. If that sounds up your alley, here's the link. And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraRangers 10, Orioles 3: Josh Hamilton: four bombs, eight RBI and 18 total bases on a 5 for 5 night. Every time he does something awesome this year I imagine him muttering something about how dumb it was for Jon Daniels not to talk about a contract extension before the season began. Yankees 5, Rays 3: Two homers for Raul Ibanez. Which most nights would get him kudos, but we have used up our kudo supply on Josh Hamilton. In other news, remember those Kudos chocolate covered granola bars? When my brother was in the navy and his ship was sent to the Persian Gulf in late 1990, the Mars Corporation sent an utter ass-load of those Kudos bars to them. They had them all the time every day and they got sick to death of them. Summer 1991 they were back in Norfolk and they had a dependants' cruise, allowing the families onboard. I went with my parents. They still had tons and tons of Kudos bars, and the sailors were begging everyone to take handfuls of them with us so they could clear out the stock. Rumor was that they'd get better candy bars once those where gone. I have no idea why I just told you all of this. Cardinals 6, Diamondbacks 1: A big night for multi-homer games. Carlos Beltran had two and drove in six runs. Like I said, we're out of kudos. Would you care for a Skor? Or a Whatchamacallit? God, I love Whatchamacallits. Jake Westbrook pitched seven shutout innings. He gets some Necco Wafers. Sorry, I know that sucks, but we're running out of candy. Athletics 7, Blue Jays 3: Earlier in the day yesterday I was on a radio show in Toledo that covers the Tigers and we talked about how hilarious it would be if Brandon Inge was a big hero this weekend when the A's play the Tigers. Well, he's warming up: walkoff grand slam. He's had two straight 4-RBI games. Pirates 5, Nationals 4: Rod Barajas hit a walkoff two-run homer. Henry Rodriguez was fugly in the ninth: a walk, two wild pitches and then that tater. The fact that the Nats signed Mike Gonzalez yesterday is no accident. Braves 3, Cubs 1: Hey, on the bright side, the Cubs actually gave Ryan Dempster one run of support. Which is a ton for him. I think they're gonna see if they can trust him with that and if things go well they may score two runs for him sometime in the near future. No need to go crazy or anything. Braves are tied for first, by the way. And while I watched this whole game, I didn't focus too hard on the second half because I was busy riffing on Chip Caray on Twitter. I gotta start watching the opponents' broadcasters so I'm not so distracted with fun pursuits like that. Mets 7, Phillies 4: Philly jumps out to a 4-0 lead but Joe Blanton didn't have nearly the mojo last night that he had in his last start. The first four guys in the Mets lineup went 8 for 17 with 5 RBI. Astros 3, Marlins 2: Houston ends Miami's seven-game winning streak. All-Star infielder Omar Infante had two errors on one play in the sixth allowing two Houston runs to score. White Sox 5, Indians 3: Alex Rios tripled home the go-ahead run off Chris Perez in the 10th and scored himself on a subsequent fielder's choice. Rios has beaten up on Perez quite a bit in recent years. Twins 5, Angels 0: Scott Diamond had seven shutout innings. The Twins had 12 hits and walked four times. Royals 6, Red Sox 4: Billy Butler with a big three run homer in the eighth. The AP game story, at least as it was written as of 11:15 PM last night, referred to Butler as the Royals' "portly designated hitter." Which is pretty hilarious and I'll be sad if they scrubbed it out by this morning. Brewers 8, Reds 3: Aramis Ramirez his a bases loaded triple and Ryan Braun had three hits and scored twice. Giants 2, Dodgers 1: Ryan Vogelsong outuels Clayton Kershaw. Brett Pill's third inning two-run bomb was all that was needed. Tigers 6, Mariners 4: Kevin Millwood has to be about done, right? (5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 3K). The pen was shaky again, as Jose Valverde walked the bases loaded in the ninth, but this time the Tigers shook loose. Padres 3, Rockies 1: Comeback story Jeff Suppan wins again. Will Venable doubled and tripled. The Rockies have lost five straight. Last week’s recordby Jonathan FalkIt happened last week. On May 2, the Braves came back from a 6-0 deficit to defeat the Phillies and Roy Halladay. Then, after an intervening 4-2 loss, they came back from 5-0 down to beat the Rockies on May 4 and from 6-0 down to win on May 5. That’s three big comebacks in four days. And it was the fastest such set of comebacks in baseball history. Using the Retrosheet game log database, I found 1,799 games where the winning team came back from 5-0 or worse. (Note that I am not looking at all leads here—only leads where the ultimately winning team has not yet scored.) A total of 137 teams performed this feat three times or more in a season. Six teams did it five times in one season, the most recent being the 1987 Cincinnati Reds. I then looked to see how quickly these teams got three such wins. Until last week, the record was held by the 1949 Boston Braves, who came from 6-0 down to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers on 5/28, from 5-0 down to beat the Phillies on 5/31 and from 5-0 down to beat Pittsburgh on 6/1. That’s three big comebacks in five days. Also notable are the 1997 Anaheim Angels, who came back from 5-0 down three times in six days: 5/12 (White Sox), 5/14 (Orioles) and 5/17 (Brewers). And honorable mention goes to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who came back to win both ends of a doubleheader after trailing 5-0 in the first game and 7-0 in the nightcap against the Philadelphia Athletics. I think records are set in baseball every week. You just have to know where to look. Tuesday, May 08, 2012And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraMets 5, Phillies 2: I had been agitating for Jonathan Papelbon to pitch more. Specifically in tie games. Well, he did here and gave up a game-losing three-run homer to Jordany Valdespin. I suppose we'll let Cholly run the team from here on out. Marlins 4, Astros 0: Carlos Zambrano with the three-hit shutout pushes his ERA to 1.98 on the year. Guy can still pitch a little. Reds 6, Brewers 1: Since when does Bronson Arroyo strike out nine guys in six and two thirds? Indians 8, White Sox 6; Indians 3, White Sox 2: I'm beginning to think that, perfecto notwithstanding, Phil Humber is not all that good (2.1 IP, 9 H, 8 ER). The second game ended in a bunch of rain. Which you play through when you're already making up a rainout in a double header. Angels 8, Twins 3: Alas, Jered Weaver did not pull a Johnny Vander Meer. But he could've. It's the Twins we're talking about here. He settled for one run on three hits in six innings, bringing his record to 5-0. Cubs 5, Braves 1: Bryan LaHair, Ian Stewart and Geovany Soto all homered off Braves pitching. Jeff Samardzija allowed only one homer, to Jason Heyward and was otherwise solid. BTW: Samardzija hit Heyward with a pitch in the seventh. If that was intentional retaliation for the Heyward homer, it was bad, bad, bad. Then Eric O'Flaherty hit David Dejesus. If that was intentional it was bad, bad, bad too. There: happy that I don't simply think that Cole Hamels was in the wrong because he plays for the Phillies? Red Sox 11, Royals 5: The Sox snap a five game losing streak behind two Will Middlebrooks home runs. Which is exactly how everyone imagined slumps would be busted in Boston this year. Rangers 14, Orioles 3: Way to make me look bad with all of that "the O's are getting great pitching" on the HBT Extra that will air later this morning but which was taped yesterday. Brandon Snyder homered and had six RBI. Dodgers 9, Giants 1: Ted Lilly allowed one run on four hits and struck out six to run his record to 4-0. L.A. scored five off the Giants pen in the eighth. I'd call the Giants pen a hot mess, but I don't want to insult hot messes. Mariners 3, Tigers 2: The wheels done fell off in the ninth for Detroit as Octavio Dotel -- filling in for the unavailable Jose Valverde -- blew a 2-0 lead, wasting a great Doug Fister start. Dotel was all over the place, walking the first two hitters he faced, then throwing a wild pitch. Then a passed ball -- which could have been ruled a wild pitch -- scored a run. Then a double scored another. After Dotel was yanked a bunt and then a sac fly ended it. Padres 3, Rockies 2: Yonder Alonso drove in two and Edinson Volquez got his first win. Let's just give Cincinnati this victory, OK? The Padres can have the Mat Latos win from Sunday. Cardinals 9, Diamondbacks 6: Lance Lynn wins again after shutting out the D-backs for five. If the season ended now he's the NL Cy Young Award winner, right? God, I hope the season doesn't end now. I like baseball. 10,000 days ago: Marge Schott becomes Reds ownerby Chris Jaffe10,000 days ago, the Cincinnati Reds got a new owner: Marge Schott. Her reign would prove to be one of the most controversial in the annals of recent American sports ownership. As to the controversies around Schott (oh, wear to begin). Let’s start with the obvious ones. She owned a Nazi armband and once told reporters that Hitler was good in the beginning (he built the roads, don’t you know). An employee said she called the team’s best black players “million dollar niggers” and that the front office had an unwritten policy against hiring blacks. As controversies around her biases swirled, Scott told reporters she didn’t understand why people found the term “Jap” offensive. At least one employee contended she made anti-Semitic remarks. There was a good deal of bigotry in the above listed accusations, obviously, and also a good deal of cluelessness. She doesn’t even think Jap is offensive? She thinks Hitler was good in the beginning? (Short version to anyone unaware—no, he wasn’t. His goal from day one was to create a new racial utopia and conquer other places). Not only was it like Schott was walking out of the 1950s—or 1920s—into the 1990s and not being aware that things had changed, it’s like she walked out of a bad stereotype of bygone times. This was true in other ways as well. Schott reportedly said she didn’t want any players who wore earrings because “Only fruits wear earrings.” She announced in midseason that the Reds wouldn’t bring back manager Davey Johnson regardless of how well the team did. One background reason for this was because she didn’t approve of his co-habitation with a woman he wasn’t married to. Schott was odd in other ways. A Sports Illustrated article noted that in the car dealerships she owned (and that she inherited after he husband had died), Schott would engage in various sorts of frankly ridiculous and pointless cost-saving measures. The one that stuck with me is that if she saw a computer terminal turned on at an unoccupied desk, she’d walk up to it and turn it off. She was the one paying the electricity bill, and she didn’t want to waste any. Really? That’s pretty damn pennywise and pound-foolish. Similarly, she didn’t like hiring baseball scouts because all they are paid to do is watch baseball games. More famously, she complained about having to pay players when they were on the DL, even team stars and World Series heroes. Eric Davis was openly irked at her callous treatment of him after getting injured while helping the Reds claim the 1990 world title. Schott also made beloved dog, Schottzie, the team mascot. She always loved animals, but at one point some of the team’s publications featured virtually nothing but photos of the dog, and almost none of the players or even team legend Pete Rose. The mascot had become prominent to the point of parody and embarrassment for the Reds. She let the dog have free reign in Riverfront Stadium. It even pooped on the field. What’s interesting, is that Schott was initially a fairly popular owner. She’d make herself publicly visible during games and talk to fans. She kept the concessions prices low, and even kept the seat prices as low as she could. She always loved children and throughout her entire adult life was very active in charity foundations for children. Mainly, I see a large streak of provincialism here; a streak many others share but those who are so provincial rarely have as much public stature of money that Schott had. Or if they are, they’re not so vocal about it. It’s like she developed a sense of how the world should be at an early age and then just spent her entire life locked into it. She never noticed the world was changing or thought to reexamine whether any of her beliefs were wrong. Thus she thought you shouldn’t hire blacks, but should be as nice as you can to kids. Jews aren’t trustworthy, but a ballpark hot dog should only cost $1. There’s something funny about guys wearing earrings but it’s perfectly natural to let your dog poop on the lawn – even if the lawn is center field. I also remember a group of sportswriters (actually, it was the late, great Sportswriters on TV show – saying that they felt more than a few other sports owners had similar social views as Schott, but they didn’t publicize it. For better and for worse, the above era began 10,000 days ago when Marge Schott became majority owner of the Reds. Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you prefer to skim the lists. Click for more... Monday, May 07, 2012Ubaldo Jimenez: A quick mechanics reviewby Kyle BoddyIn my earlier analysis of Ubaldo Jimenez's mechanics, I noted that his initial separation from the glove was extremely early, terminating momentum and reducing athleticism out of the glove with his pitching arm. However, people said that his velocity was up in his start on Sunday against the Texas Ranges and Yu Darvish, and a few readers asked me to take a look into his mechanics. I quickly cut the video and put it up against the 2010 and older 2012 clips to take a look:  The newest clip is on the left, the Rockies (2010) clip is in the middle, and the earlier 2012 clip is on the right. Here's the important part slowed down:  (You can use a free browser plug-in like GIF Scrubber for Chrome to step through these images frame-by-frame or slow it down even further.) If you can't tell, there's a pretty big difference in his pitching arm action between Sunday's game and the one prior to that, and the results showed it on that pitch, registering at 95 mph on the stadium gun. Ryan from Let's Go Tribe said that Ubaldo's average four-seam fastball velocity was 94.7 mph, but the Brooks Baseball PITCHf/x tool disagrees, saying Ubaldo came in at 92.37 mph, not much different than his start on May 1, where he was averaging 92.07 mph with the same pitch. (Texas Leaguers agrees with these velocity readings for Ubaldo's May 1 and his May 6 starts.) Since his average fastball velocity was similar but the arm actions were so different on the 91 and 95 mph fastballs, it's clear that the real problem is consistency in his delivery. Ubaldo's main problem is still the early hand break (with secondary thought to how he uses the front shoulder and glove arm), and while it's encouraging to see fastballs touch 95 mph, his arm action isn't yet as efficient or athletic as it was when he was in Colorado. The closer he gets to optimizing his arm action and remaining consistent with it, the better results you'll see with not only his fastball velocity, but his overall command and control. And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraOrioles 9, Red Sox 6: Just your standard 17-inning affair in which a first baseman is the winning pitcher, after throwing two shutout innings and and an utfielder is the losing pitcher after giving up a three-run homer . Chris Davis shut out the Red Sox for the 16th and 17th innings, striking out two. Of course he did. Darnell McDonald gave up a three-run homer to Adam Jones. Of course he did. J.J. Hardy had two homers. The game took six hours and seven minutes. Mercy. Angels 4, Blue Jays 3: Albert Pujols hit a homer, so we can quit keeping track of that, I suppose. Guess now we can see how long it takes for his average to get above the Mendoza Line. Indians 4, Rangers 2: Yu Darvish struck out 11 Indians but still got the loss because, strikeouts aside, walking four and giving up six hits in six innings while throwing 112 pitches isn't a study in efficiency. The Indians' three-run third inning started when a Johnny Damon popup fell in after getting lost in the sun. Here's Darvish, after the game through an interpreter: "If the ball goes into the sun, what can you do?" I'd like to think that he listened to "A Saucerful of Secrets" right before this game, but I kinda doubt it. Braves 7, Rockies 2: The sweep. What a nutso series. I thought they had a humidor or something, but by the time yesterday's game got started I was totally of the mindset that a six run deficit didn't matter any. Overall the Braves scored 29 runs in this three-game series. On the pitching side, some order was restored in this one with Brandon Beachy allowing only a couple of runs in six and a third. Marlins 6, Padres 3: Tied at two until the Fish put up a four-run eighth inning. Thankfully, however, the Padres scored one in the bottom of the inning, creating a save situation and allowing us to watch someone besides Heath Bell handle the ninth. Edward Mujica gets the save. Mariners 5, Twins 2: Hector Noesi took a shutout into the seventh and Jesus Montero hit a two-run double. If you told this to a Yankees fan a year ago ... Cardinals 8, Astros 1: Tyler Greene hit two homers, the Cardinals salvaged one in the series and, more importantly, Adam Wainwright looked good, with good command for really the first time all season. Yankees 10, Royals 4: Robinson Cano hit a grand slam, Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run shot and Nick Swisher hit a solo homer, breaking the Yankees offense out of a slump. We knew the offense was going to figure it out soon enough. We were less sure of Phil Hughes, but he turned in his best start of the season, allowing three runs over six and two thirds and striking out seven. Reds 5, Pirates 3: This is why the Reds traded so much talent for Mat Latos: six innings, two hits, no runs and eleven strikeouts. Athletics 9, Rays 5: Of course Brandon Inge hit a three-run homer and drove in four. We all know he'd do that against Matt Moore. Who we also predicted would give up eight runs. We all talked about this during the big pregame show. It was my Master Lock "Lock of the Week." Mets 3, Diamondbacks 1: R.A. Dickey was on point (8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER). Assuming knuckleballers have points. I think of them as having weird concave places and a lot of swirly bits. Giants 4, Brewers 3: Matt Cain struck out 10 in seven innings but the bullpen couldn't hold the one-run lead. Tim Dillard walked two and gave up two hits to blow the game in the 11th. Because -- all together now! -- you can't use your closer in a tie game on the road! Tigers 3, White Sox 1: The Tigers offense still isn't clicking, but solo homers by Austin Jackson, Prince Fielder and Andy Dirks were all Rick Porcello (6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER) and four relievers needed to take care of the Sox. Cubs 4, Dodgers 3: A walkoff walk to David DeJesus in the 11th. By the way: is it just me, or are there an inordinate number of extra inning games this year? Seems like a lot. Someone who has some research-fu, tell me if I'm nuts. Phillies 9, Nationals 3: True fact: Natitude is still only 66.6 percent effective. Hunter Pence had four RBI. Cole Hamels allowed one run in eight innings and struck out eight. Sunday, May 06, 201230th anniversary: Gaylord Perry’s 300th winby Chris JaffeThirty years ago today, one of baseball’s greatest milestones was achieved. On May 6, 1982, veteran spitballer Gaylord Perry won his 300th game, becoming just the 15th pitcher to do so. Making it even more impressive, Perry was the first pitcher to win No. 300 since Early Wynn 19 years earlier. From 1963-81, the 500 home run club erupted from four members to a dozen. In that same span, the 3,000 hit club had nearly doubled, rising from eight to 15 members. But the 300 win club remained stuck at 15. In fact, almost all the 300 win clubbers were either 19th century or deadball pitchers. Perry was only the fourth man to have his prime since the emergence of Babe Ruth to win 300 games. Since Pete Alexander joined the club 60 years earlier, just Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, Early Wynn, and now Perry had done it. Simply put, while it’s always an impressive achievement when someone achieves one of these milestones, Perry’s 300th win was extremely impressive because it was so hard to do in recent memory. Well, from one angle it was an extremely impressive achievement for Perry. From another angle, it was less awe-inspiring. At the time Perry did it, he was barely hanging on as a pitcher. Perry had been a quality pitcher in his 20s who had a surprisingly strong second wind in his 30s. Actually, he’s one of the game’s greatest late bloomers, as he thrice led the league in wins in his 30s, and twice picked up Cy Young Awards. He won 191 games in his 30s, the fifth highest total in baseball history. But, after a 21-win Cy Young season with the Padres at age 39 in 1978, age finally caught up to Perry. After a middling 1979 campaign, San Diego traded the rapidly aging Perry to Texas. After four months, Texas sent him to the Yankees. Perry won four games for New York, which let him walk away in the offseason to join another team. Instead, Perry landed with the Braves in 1981. Just three years removed from a Cy Young season, Perry was a below average pitcher for the Braves that year. Right after the regular season ended, Atlanta released him. After five months unemployed, Perry finally signed on with the Mariners in March 1982. Yeah, in 1982 Perry was on the verge of achieving the hardest of all milestones. He was also playing for his fifth team in four years. What does that sound like? Sounds like a veteran trying to stick around as his talent wound down. He wasn’t bad enough to leave baseball altogether but he wasn’t good enough for any team to keep him for very long. And the teams picking him up were often the dregs—such as the Mariners. Perry had gone 30-33 from 1979-81, raising his career record to 297-239. Things got off to a dreary start with the Mariners, losing his first two decisions. The losses were largely due to poor run support, but when you’re sitting on 297 wins, you just want to get some Ws. In late April, Perry picked up a pair of victories to even up his record at 2-2 on the year and more importantly giving him 299 lifetime wins. On May 6, 1982, Perry went for No. 300 for the first time, against one of his recent former teams—the Yankees. Seattle’s often-dormant bat awoke for this game. In the third inning they parlayed three singles, two triples, and a batter reaching on an error to plate five runners, giving Perry all the cushion he would need. The veteran pitcher cruised the rest of the way for a complete game win. It was both his 300th win and also his 297th complete game. And it happened 30 years ago today. Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to just skim the lists. Click for more... Saturday, May 05, 2012The injury all-starsby Joe DistelheimA year ago, looking at the carnage of the first month of the baseball season, I suggested to my colleagues here at The Hardball Times that there sure were a lot of star players injured, and that one of our writers should do an article about how unusual it was. Several told me cool my jets; it happens every year, they said. But David Wade, good solider that he is, took up the challenge and put together a first-month disabled list All-Star team. (Wade, a good reporter, did demonstrate that a crowded April DL was not unprecedented.) A fine squad it was, with Kendrys Morales, Chase Utley, Ryan Zimmerman (a small stretch at shortstop) and Evan Longoria around the infield and Joe Mauer catching. Josh Hamilton, Jason Bay and Corey Hart were the flychasers. David put together a first-rate rotation of Adam Wainwright, Ubaldo Jimenez, Zack Greinke, Johan Santana and Jake Peavy. Frank Francisco, Andrew Bailey and Stephen Strasburg headed the bullpen crew. Another year, another march to MRI-ville. Rather than provoke another bout of eye-rolling among the THT staff, I'll call the roll myself. Here's your 2012 First Month All-DL Team: Catcher: Salvador Perez First base: Ryan Howard Second base: Utley Shortstop: Stephen Drew Third base: Zimmerman Outfield: Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Young, Carl Crawford DH: Longoria On the bench, we can have Pablo Sandoval, Michael Morse, Kevin Youkilis, Lance Berkman, Brett Gardner, Brian Roberts and a host of others. Our starting rotation would include Cliff Lee, Daniel Hudson, Michael Pineda, Cory Luebke and Doug Fister. And look at this deep, deep bullpen, headed by Mariano Rivera and including Brian Wilson, Bailey, Drew Storen, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge. That's a strong squad, and there are many lesser lights available as non-injury replacements. I've probably left out some patients of Dr. James Andrews. I apologize to them. But there's always next year. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||