Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Fun Stuff

Switching Varitek

"Oh my goodness. Hell, no," Varitek said this morning at the Red Sox' spring training complex. "Have you ever all of a sudden tried to hit right-on-right when you haven't done it in 15 years? . . . I've heard that offered a few different times whether [it was suggested] in the media or whatever, but it's ludicrous."

So there you have it.

He's still switch-hitting.

A natural righthanded hitter, Varitek batted .284 from the right side last season as opposed to .201 from the left side. The discrepancy was easily the greatest of his 12-year career. The difference in OPS was even more astounding -- .863 from the right side, .616 from the left -- which led to the obvious suggestion that maybe it was time for him to hit solely from the right side.

Obvious, it seems, to everyone but him.

For the record, Varitek said the idea of hitting exclusively righthanded never has been discussed by him and team officials.

Vegas

Great moments in prosecutorial discretion

A recently released report from DOJ's Inspector General found that Acting Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman gave false testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee (both in his oral testimony and in written supplemental testimony) regarding his partisan misuse of his office and his violations of the Civil Service Reform Act.

Page 64 of the report states unambiguously that, "Schlozman made false statements about whether he considered political and ideological affiliations when he gave sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and in his written responses to supplemental questions from the Committee." The IG report further notes that Schlozman "made false statements to Congress" and referred the matter to the US Attorney's office for prosecution. Inexplicably, the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia declined prosecution of Schlozman. The same U.S. Attorney 's office now announces that it has decided to pursue charges against a professional baseball player.

CC Slimbathia

Peter Schmuck Interview

MoneyBasketBall

The virus that infected professional baseball in the 1990s, the use of statistics to find new and better ways to value players and strategies, has found its way into every major sport. Not just basketball and football, but also soccer and cricket and rugby and, for all I know, snooker and darts — each one now supports a subculture of smart people who view it not just as a game to be played but as a problem to be solved. Outcomes that seem, after the fact, all but inevitable — of course LeBron James hit that buzzer beater, of course the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl — are instead treated as a set of probabilities, even after the fact. The games are games of odds. Like professional card counters, the modern thinkers want to play the odds as efficiently as they can; but of course to play the odds efficiently they must first know the odds. Hence the new statistics, and the quest to acquire new data, and the intense interest in measuring the impact of every little thing a player does on his team’s chances of winning. In its spirit of inquiry, this subculture inside professional basketball is no different from the subculture inside baseball or football or darts. The difference in basketball is that it happens to be the sport that is most like life.

He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly ­reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates — probably, Morey surmises, by helping them out in all sorts of subtle ways . . .

. . . There are other things Morey has noticed too, but declines to discuss as there is right now in pro basketball real value to new information, and the Rockets feel they have some. What he will say, however, is that the big challenge on any basketball court is to measure the right things.

Full Circle

Ballparkus Interruptus

The Florida Marlins encountered another curveball Friday in their bid for a new ballpark.

City commissioners met for 7 1/2 hours without reaching a final decision on a plan to build a 37,000-seat stadium near downtown. They agreed to take up the issue again March 12.

The Miami-Dade County Commission was on deck to consider the proposal but never met. The Marlins had hoped for final approval of plans calling for a stadium projected to open in 2012 and cost $515 million, with the public paying $361 million.

City commissioners voted 2-2 on the plan, with one member absent and three votes required for approval. They were on the verge of adjournment, which likely would have killed the deal, but after a recess agreed to resume discussions next month.

"We are not angry. We are not bitter," Marlins president David Samson said. "We are trying to figure out the best way to have a deal that makes sense for the city, county and team, and we'll continue to work toward that."

Yankees be gone

The Lowell Spinners (short season; NY-Penn League) announced the continuation of a popular program: eliminating the New York Yankees in youth baseball programs throughout New England.

Originally developed as a response to the heartbreak and taunting children assigned to Yankees youth baseball and softball teams face, the Yankees Elimination Promotion (Y.E.P.) eliminated over 100 Yankees teams since 2006, replacing them with Spinners teams.

This year’s Yankees Elimination Promotion will be limited to 75 teams on a first-come, first-served basis. As part of the promotion the Spinners will replace the league’s Yankees hats with Spinners hats and provide a $200 donation toward the cost of uniforms. Through Y.E.P., the Spinners have donated over $50,000 into the youth baseball and softball community.

“The original intention of the Yankees Elimination Program was to combat the stories of children losing interest in the game and facing taunts simply for playing the game we all love in a Yankees uniform,” said Tim Bawmann, Vice President/GM of the Lowell Spinners. “The outpouring of teams looking to change their image and relentless requests from coaches and parents looking to escape the ‘Yankee Curse’ has us excited to help bring joy to young athletes across New England this spring.”