baseball – Page 8 – Hank Kalet

Why the pitching is so bad

Bill Madden in his column in today’s New York Daily News offers the best explanation I’ve heard for the maddening inconsistency of baseball’s bullpens:

So herein lies the crux of this pitch-count insanity: It has come down to managers entrusting the most critical innings not to the starting pitchers in whom the team has its biggest investment, but rather to (more often than not) mediocre middle relievers. Can anyone explain what sense this makes?

I can’t. This is one of the reasons that offense has been on the rise and it’s why no team has been able to establish a level of consistency this year. Perhaps it’s time to let guys like Tom Glavine (who was yanked a few minutes ago after throwing exactly 100 pitches) go a bit deeper into games.

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Dispatches: Bonds says ‘king me’

Dispatches is up on the site — a contemplation of Barry Bonds, the record and the Hall of Fame.

Speaking of Bonds, today’s L.A. Times editorial offers one of the fairest takes on Bonds and the state of baseball I’ve read.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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The theory of sports relativity

Leave it to The Onion to capture the essence of the American sports world in the year 2007. Here is the lede:

SAN FRANCISCO—Although Barry Bonds remains the target of criticism over his possible—some say almost certain—use of performance-enhancing substances, the fact that Bonds has not been implicated in dogfighting, nightclub shootings, gambling, or murdering his family has transformed his controversial pursuit of the all-time home-run record into the feel-good sports story of the summer.

The sad thing, unfortunately, is that as funny as this is it’s way too true.

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Big names and big changes

As John Saccenti, my colleague here at the Post and Press, says: “The biggest name to move in sports today was a basketball player.”

A not-so-strange day at the deadline, possibly more active than in recent years — I don’t know the numbers — but a few moves that could have an impact:

Mark Texeira to the Braves will be a thorn in the Mets’ side — I mean, who wouldn’t want to add a major power bat to the middle of their lineup. The Braves had the best setup going in, an ability to move a big-league-ready prospect and a highly though of prospect without hurting their organizational depth. Rangers get Jarrod Saltalamacchia (stuck behind the young study Brian McCann) and a young shortstop.

Braves also get Octavio Dotel in the who cares category. Dotel hasn’t been the same since becoming the Houston closer and losing the job to Brad Lidge (and then being traded to Oakland).

Kyle Lohse? This probably says more about the Phillies’ pitching than anything.

Eric Gagne makes the Sox even more dangerous. You better score early because there is little chance you’ll get to the team in the late innings now.

Met fans are still waiting for something else to happen (perhaps the acquisition of Chad Cordero?), but at 4:40 it’s not likely. But things are not done. There will be some waiver-wire deals.

As for the basketball player? Well, the Celtics have nearly finished their offseason makeover, going from young wannabees to older, but dangerous. The Celtics — who acquired Kevin Garnett for their best youngster and a bunch of other guys — now feature Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, a formidable scoring trio that should put the team in the mix in the awful Eastern Conference, if not at the top of this rank heap. The Celtics will not win a championship — Spurs, Suns, Mavs are all better than them — but they should challenge Miami and Detroit, good teams with significant flaws. But only if Pierce and Allen are willing to play supporting roles to one of the greatest players ever, an unselfish offensive player who loves to play D.

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Yanks still treading water

The Yankees had a pretty good week, going 4-2 (not counting the official win from the now finished suspended game, which was added to the July 21 standings).

And yet, the team managed to drop a game in the standings to the Red Sox and pick up only one game in the wild card race.

Seems like a good reason for Yankee fans to remain optimistic with nine/10 weeks to go in the season.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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