Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Knuckleballers: 1, Earthlings: 0

Scott Baker’s Opening Night assignment has been called off. And so has the Philip Humber-R.A. Dickey roster competition.

The right-hander was placed on the disabled list today after he experienced some stiffness in his right shoulder while pitching against Class AAA Norfolk on Wednesday.

Baker will be replaced Monday night at the Metrodome against the Seattle Mariners by Francisco Liriano, who receives the first Opening Day assignment of his career.

Liriano will be followed by Nick Blackburn on Tuesday, then Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins. Friday’s starter in Chicago figures to be Dickey, whose quest for a roster spot has been successful, at least until Baker returns.

Pitch Count Porn

In a 16-inning, complete-game win against Baltimore in 1962, Washington's Tom Cheney threw 228 pitches.

[Nolan] Ryan, known as much for his walks as his strikeouts, routinely approached 200 pitches in a career that spanned 27 years, 222 complete games and 5,386 innings pitched. In 1974, according to beat writers in attendance, Ryan threw 259 pitches in a 12-inning win over Kansas City.

The New A’s Ballpark

Will Barry Bonds get the Ted Stevens treatment?

The Justice Department moved on Wednesday to drop all charges against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, who lost his seat last year just days after being convicted on seven felony counts of ethics violations. The case was one of the most high profile and bitterly fought in a string of corruption investigations into current and former members of Congress. But Justice Department lawyers told a federal court Wednesday that they had discovered a new instance of prosecutorial misconduct, on top of earlier disclosures that had raised questions about the way the case was handled, and asked that the convictions be voided.

The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said he would not seek a new trial.

Mr. Novitzky’s detractors, mainly the defendants and their lawyers, say he is biased and unfair. They say he has a vendetta against Mr. Bonds, is seeking fame and financial gain from the case, and puts words into suspects’ mouths. They say he has lied in sworn reports, including on the initial search warrant affidavit that kick-started the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and its many famous clients.

Since May, Mr. Bonds’s lawyer, Michael Rains, has accused Mr. Novitzky of lying in the court documents used to obtain much of the evidence gathered against Mr. Bonds, according to letters obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Novitzky’s credibility, motives and methods have been the subject of correspondence between Mr. Rains and the United States attorney’s office in San Francisco.

Follow the Money

With all due respect, I think Matthews is nuts. There are so many ways to dissect this, but I will stick to my basic mantra: Follow the money.

Top starters signed this off-season:

CC Sabathia, NYY, 7 years, $161 million
AJ Burnett, NYY, 5 years, $82.5 million
Derek Lowe, ATL, 4 years, $60 million

Top closers/set-up men signed this off-season:

Frankie Rodriguez, NYM, 3 years, $36 million
Kyle Farnsworth, KCR, 2 years, $9.25 million (sorry, I had to include him)

Follow the money. If closers (or, gasp) set-up men were so valuable, they'd be signing the big contracts. But it's the horses in the rotation that pull the sled and are paid accordingly.

New Food in Chicago

At the Cell, Illinois Sport Service will unveil build-your-own-burrito (or nacho grande) kiosks on the upper and lower decks; fans will be able to choose a meat (chicken or beef) and select from a wide range of toppings for $7-$8. At the various grill stations in the park, the menus will be augmented by a half-pound turkey burger on a multigrain roll ($6.25) . . .

. . . On the North Side, Levy Restaurants will be adding a few new dishes. The Northside Twist (so new it doesn't have a price yet) is a 4-pound pretzel served in a pizza box with three mustard dipping sauces; it feeds three to five fans. At the Sheffield Grill, there will be chicken and barbecue pork Quasi-dillas ($7), and footlong Buffalo dogs with Buffalo-wing dipping sauce and blue cheese slaw ($6.75).

The New Parks

The quirky signatures at older stadiums — like the Green Monster at Fenway Park in Boston — were adaptations to their narrow confines. But idiosyncrasies like Tal’s Hill are driven by the urge to be original.

“Teams want something that is memorable about the building because it’s broadcast to the fans,” said Earl Santee, a senior principal at Populous, formerly known as HOK Sport, the Kansas City, Mo.-based architect that has designed many of the retro ballparks. “The fans want to say, ‘That’s my building.’ ”

The Giants mark their territory

Amid a threat to their territorial rights in Santa Clara County, the Giants are moving to fortify their baseball outpost in the region.

The major league club has reached agreement to purchase a 25 percent stake in their Single-A minor league affiliate in San Jose, club and industry officials told the Mercury News.

The club will hold a news conference at Municipal Stadium on Thursday to announce the transaction, which includes an option to gain a controlling interest in 2010 by purchasing an additional 30 percent.

"The South Bay is a major part of our operation and this reinforces that," San Francisco Giants president Larry Baer said. "We have fans, sponsors and baseball history there that runs deep. It was a logical extension of who we are and what we do."

According to baseball officials, the purchase will not enhance or alter the legality of the San Francisco Giants' territorial rights to Santa Clara County; the A's are known to be eyeing the region in their longstanding efforts to build a new stadium.

Living in the 90th Percentile

Nobody would have ever believed the Angels would win 120 games – a new Major League record – but with no holes in the lineup, they had the highest team OBP since the 1999 Indians, and easily outslugged that Cleveland team. Like the '99 Tribe, the Angels scored 1,000 runs. Combine that with the team's 3.27 ERA (easily the best in baseball), and the Angels allowed only 580 runs. In fact, the geniuses would note that a team with 1,000 runs scored, and 580 runs allowed, would actually be projected to win 121 games, but the 2009 Angels got a bit unlucky.

Player Merch

The Major League Baseball Players Association on Friday will open its first retail outlet devoted to selling player-only merchandise.

The store, which will be inside Citi Field and be operated by Aramark, is an attempt to boost licensing revenue for the union and to promote star players, much as the N.B.A. and other leagues have done. The outlet will be called The Players Clubhouse: A Players Choice Store and is being billed by the union as a prototype for future retail stores . . .

. . . “The intention is not to block out New York Mets logos,” Heeter said. But “fans believe the players are their connection to the games and they want to keep jerseys of their favorite players” . . . Sports industry analysts say fans increasingly follow players more than their teams because they switch teams so frequently. The union is trying to make the most of that trend, it said.

“You don’t necessarily grow up a Mets fan, but a David Wright fan, and your affinity changes when he changes teams,” said Dan Migala, director of the Graduate School of Sports Business at Northwestern University. “People are there to support the Mets, but also David.”