February 10, 2012
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009Random Dave Weathers infoHow would you like to learn some random tidbits about a player not worth learning about? Goodie. Here it is. Dave Weathers is in some ways the consummate journeyman reliever. He recently finished a four-plus year stint with the Reds, which is the longest he spent in one town in his 19-year career. Random facts about his career: He's plied his trade for nine different franchises, and had multiple tours with three of them. He's second in career games pitched among all current players. Strangely, the only guy ahead of him is a teammate, Trever Hoffman. Despite being 17th all-time in games pitched, he's not among the top ten with any individual franchise (unless I missed it). He's tied for ninth most wild pitches in Marlins history, though. He's got that going for him. He's pitched against every team. They all got at least one hit against him. The Rays are the only team that never had a batter fanned by him. He's 8-0 lifetime against the Reds. No wonder they kept him on their roster for so long. He pitched in 44 different ballparks. His only game in Camden was one of his rare starts. The Kingdome is the only place he never allowed a hit and Safeco Field is the only one in which he never recorded a strikeout. He's worked with 47 catchers. No runner ever stole a base against the might Dave Weathers - Paul Bako combination, even though Weathers faced 146 batters with Bako behind the plate. This has no point. I just found it interesting. Revisiting last year’s top pickWith the number one pick in the 2008 draft the Tampa Bay Rays selected the toolsy prep shortstop Timothy Beckham. Beckham has solid speed, great range and hands, and above-average arm strength which will allow him to stay at shortstop in the future. His premier athleticism has scouts drooling, but there is growing concern about his slender frame and ability to hit for power. In his first full professional season he is batting an unspectacular .281/.335/.403 for Bowling Green of the South Atlantic League on the year. His strike zone command has been rather poor, as is expected with most 19-year old prospects, which has resulted in a lowly .29 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Beckham's numbers may be greatly influenced by his home park. His home OPS is .601 while his road OPS stands at .871. His BABIP is also over 100 points higher on the road. Strangely, it appears no other teammates are as greatly affected by their home stadium. Despite his great speed (reported 6.3 seconds in the 60-yard dash) he has been been caught stealing nine times in 21 attempts. He has also hit into nine double-plays this season. Beckham is clearly still raw. His defense as supposedly advanced beyond his bat but he has committed 40 errors on the season. These struggles are likely due to the steep learning curve and adjusting to pro-ball at such a young age. There is still plenty to look forward to for Rays fans, Beckham is mature enough to handle the pressures and struggles of being a rising star at a premium position unlike other past number one picks (Matt Bush anyone). Grudgingly giving Dodgers GM Ned Coletti credit for Belliard, Thome, GarlandDodgers general manager Ned Colletti has been a busy man these past couple of days. He brought in three brand new Dodgers: infielder Ronnie Belliard, "first baseman" Jim Thome and starting pitcher Jon Garland. Coletti has proven to have a master stroke at getting quality players at discount prices. Click for more... The Book of FredI have to agree with the Baseball Crank. Being a Mets' fan this year has been a travail of almost biblical proportions. Monday, August 31, 2009To pitch or not to pitchPeople like to criticize the Yankees. It's just the way things are. I'm sure the Babe Ruth trade would have been criticized had blogs existed way back when. So when the Yankees announce essentially anything having to do with Joba Chamberlain, there is always backlash. When they announce a plan, there's backlash; when they say "nevermind" to that plan, it's the same reaction. The Yankees recently announced that Joba would be starting on irregular rest for the remainder of the season (while going his usual ~six innings) in order to keep his innings count around 160-165 for this season. Much of the Yankee blogosphere expressed disappointment with this decision, to put it lightly. When the announcement came a few days ago that Joba would be starting on regular rest, but put on an extreme pitch count, there was a similar level of disagreement. You can't have it both ways. I personally agree with this new plan of shorter outings, especially with rosters expanding, and disagree with the old plan. You see what I did there? I agreed with one, and disagreed with the other. Unless you have a third option, you have to pick one. You can't disagree with both and not have a better solution. I can't even think of a viable third option, let alone a better one. In a well-reasoned piece at River Ave. Blues, Joe Pawlikowski argues along similar lines, calling out fellow Yankee-bloggers in the process: Many of these same people criticized the Yankees when the plan was to spread out Joba’s starts over the remainder of the season. This brings to the fore an apt question: what, then, are they supposed to do? If the Yankees aren’t going to shorten Joba’s starts or spread them out, then what options do they have? When I said I couldn't think of any viable options, I didn't count either of those as viable. Neither one is a smart thing to do--long term or short. Remember when Fausto Carmona was one of the best pitchers in the major leagues? And then remember the next season when he couldn't get anybody out? Abusing pitchers is just not the smart thing to do. Having a plan in place to incrementally increase pitcher's innings is the smart thing to do. If you have a better plan than the Yankees do, please share it. If you don't, then accept it until you do. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||