Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - This Day In Baseball: 6 July 2005

This Day In Baseball: 6 July 2005

Dime si de veras crees que se pueden
Desviar a los planetas
De una trayectoria de colisión.

The Boston Herald reports that Curt Schilling is not pleased with how his rehab is going. "There are two options - quit or move on. And I'm not quitting. So we'll talk, and we'll decide what we need to do and we'll go from there."

Good news for Baltimore, and they could use some, having lost 12 of their last 15 games. Javy Lopez could be back as soon as the weekend, and Erik Bedard is on schedule to return a week after the All Star Break.

Carl Pavano had an MRI on his shoulder yesterday. Whatever the results, it's never good news when a starting pitcher needs an MRI...

It just doesn't seem likely that the White Sox could possibly lose to Tampa Bay, although they needed a three-run HR from Frank Thomas in the eighth to pull out last night's game. Thomas has 17 hits since returning to action - 10 of them have gone over the fence. The man is throwing back the little ones. His homer last night was the 446th of his career - that's not just more than any other White Sox hitter. It's more than the combined total of the next two guys on the list (Baines and Fisk.)

Josh Beckett left last night's game in the third inning with a strained muscle in his side. He was relieved by Al Leiter, who was making his first relief appearance since October 23, 1993. He was wearing a Blue Jays uniform that night, and he came on in relief of Danny Cox. You might remember that game. Joe Carter hit a big home run...

And on a day when Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux both started, when Esteban Loaiza out-duelled Pedro Martinez, the day's outstanding pitching performance was turned in by Kip Wells. Wells struck out 12 while pitching a four-hit shutout against the Phillies. It was the second shutout of Wells' career, the other coming against the Cubs in May 2002. Jon Lieber was the opposing starter on both occasions. What are the odds?

Wednesday's schedule looks like this:

AL
Minnesota (Santana 7-4, 3.74) at Los Angeles (Byrd 8-5, 3.55) 4:05
Detroit (Bonderman 10-5, 4.12) at Cleveland (Sabathia 6-4, 4.33) 7:05
Oakland (Blanton 5-6, 4.48) at Toronto (Lilly 6-8, 5.89) 7:07
Tampa Bay (Fossum 3-6, 4.04) at Chicago (Contreras 3-5, 4.34) 8:05
Boston (Clement 9-2, 3.82) at Texas (Park 8-2, 5.50) 8:05
Seattle (Sele 6-7, 4.71) at Kansas City (Hernandez 5-9, 4.79) 8:10

NL
Chicago (Prior 5-2, 2.86) at Atlanta (Smoltz 9-5, 2.68) 7:05
New York (Glavine 5-7, 4.95) at Washington (Hernandez 12-2, 3.32) 7:05
Philadelphia (Padilla 3-8, 6.96) at Pittsburgh (Redman 4-7, 3.72) 7:05
Milwaukee (Ohka 5-4, 3.71) at Florida (Burnett 5-5, 3.18) 7:05
San Diego (Peavy 7-2, 2.89) at Houston (Pettitte 5-7, 3.15) 8:05
Los Angeles (Penny 4-5, 3.49) at Colorado (Kennedy 4-8, 6.93) 9:05
St.Louis (Carpenter 12-4, 2.60) at Arizona (Vazquez 7-7, 4.75) 10:05
Cincinnati (Hudson 1-3, 10.18) at San Francisco (Correia 0-0, 3.60) 10:05

And a Question of the Day! Actually, just fill in the blank. And if you get the author's name, bonus!

Now perhaps we can see why ______ could build his team so quickly. He could get the guys he wanted because nobody else thought much of them. He sought precisely the baseball commodities that were most undervalued.

Oooh! A tough one, no?

Posted by Magpie on Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 12:01 PM EDT.

This Day In Baseball: 6 July 2005 | 26 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Donkit R.K. - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 12:07 PM EDT (#121669) #

I haven't read the book nor have I made my voice heard here much in the past couple of months, but that sounds to me like the underlying philosophy of MoneyBall by Billy Beane. And Michael Lewis is the name that belongs in the blank. Or is it the other way around ;-).

Donkit R.K. - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 12:14 PM EDT (#121674) #

As Elijah said in his Game Report:
"I want to apologize to Rob Dibble and Joe Morgan for that."

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 12:22 PM EDT (#121678) #

Obviously a good guess, but no - It's not Michael Lewis writing about Billy Beane.

James W - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 01:28 PM EDT (#121689) #

Sounds like something from yesterday's report on the Alan Schwarz talk. I'd guess that Branch Rickey goes in the blank, and Schwarz is the author.

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 01:33 PM EDT (#121691) #

Branch Rickey's a very good try, but no...

Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 01:59 PM EDT (#121693) #

I've got it - It's Tracy Ringolsby talking about J.P. Ricciardi!

Pistol - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:00 PM EDT (#121694) #

How about Beane's mentor, Sandy Alderson

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:03 PM EDT (#121696) #

No (I know Pepper wasn't serious. I hope Pepper wasn't serious!) and No.

Jordan - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#121697) #

I'm going to take a stab and say it's Kenny Williams. As for the author, I'll guess Peter Gammons.

costanza - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:14 PM EDT (#121698) #

Back to Lou and his D-Rays, he says he's going to try something quite radical with his pitching staff.

He won't actually go through with this, will he?

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:16 PM EDT (#121699) #

I'm also happy to report that none of the Roosterites (so far!) have peeked at any of my Upcoming Works in Progress, where I examine a few of the moves made by the Man Who Appears to Have Invented Moneyball. It's an honourable bunch we have here.

While it's true that the quote in question was published before young Rob the Rook was born, you don't have to go back to 1912. It's from an essay about how two men were building contenders. One of them is my guy, the subject of the quote. And the other guy is very active and visible in the game right now. I can say no more, for now...

Mick Doherty - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:24 PM EDT (#121700) #

Hmmm. Although he didn't get the credit he probably deserved in the Schwarz book, in part because of his aversion to computers, well .. I think I smell a White Rat.

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:32 PM EDT (#121701) #

We have a winner! A big No-Prize for Mick, for it is the Whitey Herzog, the one and only White Rat! The author was Thomas Boswell, from an essay on Whitey Herzog and Jack McKeon, published in "Why Time Begins on Opening Day," published in 1984. I was looking at it this week for the first time in at least ten years.

Besides his depiction of Herzog as a Moneyball operator twenty years before Moneyball, I was also struck by this, about defense:

"... we still haven't begun to answer the quantitative questions that nag us. Sooner or later, even the worst defenders will make enough plays to end every inning; the balls they failed to reach will never show up in the stats. When we analyze the defensive statistics of the great team and the awful one, they will certainly look similar, and they may look identical."

Which of course is what Bill James would call the "false normalization of defensive statistics." Almost two decades later.

Named For Hank - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#121706) #

He won't actually go through with this, will he?

Oh, I hope so! It'll make watching Tampa Bay games really interesting, and hey, they're coming to town soon.

I kinda hope that he tries it and it appears to work and everybody suddenly begins aping him.

fozzy - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 03:18 PM EDT (#121708) #

Considering how poorly the Rays bullpen has been pitching, if they're starting the game there really won't be any need to protect anything by the time the 8th rolls around. Call me skeptical, but I have a feeling Sweet Lou has just invented the 5-man mop-up staff.

Pistol - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 03:26 PM EDT (#121712) #

I'm all for trying new things, but I'm not sure how a reliever pitching the first inning instead of the 8th inning will make him more effective.

I could see how it'd be somewhat effective if you started a righty reliever and then brought in a lefty starter (or vice versa).

For instance if Kazmir were pitching against the Jays there'd be a lot of RH hitters in the lineup that normally don't play (Menechino, McDonald, Johnson). If a RH reliever started you would have an advantage first time through the order that you might not later in the game since later in the game you'd be more likely to pinch hit the lefties.

It also gives the starter a better chance to earn a win since he won't have to pitch as long or there'll be less innings for the relievers to blow the lead.

Thomas - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 03:44 PM EDT (#121716) #

I stand and applaud Lou.

If this is what gets him fired, it's a very entertaining way to go out.

Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 03:49 PM EDT (#121717) #

If the D-Rays are getting blown out of some game, I hope Lou makes the little league move of making all his outfielders play the infield and his infielders play the outfield.

Magpie - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 03:53 PM EDT (#121719) #

On the off-chance that Piniella actually goes through with this strange scheme, does anyone think he'll stick with it..., oh I dunno. Longer than LaRussa stuck with his 1993 experiment of working multiple starters for 3 inning stints? (LaRussa tried it for five days.)

Brian W - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 04:00 PM EDT (#121721) #

This sounds like a good poll question. I would be surprised if he tries this at all and even more surprised if it lasts until the All-Star break.

Mike Green - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 04:11 PM EDT (#121722) #

I don't know if Piniella's plan merits serious analysis, but I just have one comment. If you're having problems with your middle relievers, having them start the game is not much of a solution. It's a fairly high leverage situation.

hugh - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 04:57 PM EDT (#121731) #

...read the Numbers Game a little while ago -- wasn't this Pinella thing one of the crackpot theories from the early 1900's that someone 'statistically proved' and nobody ever implemented?

King Ryan - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 07:36 PM EDT (#121738) #

Yeah. Hugh. It was on page 77 of Schwarz's book (paperback.)

Earnshaw Cook was interviewed in 1964, and he said that (quoting from The Numbers Game) "Games should be started by a 'relief' pitcher who would leave for a pinch-hitter at the first opportunity, followed by a 'starting'-caliber pitcher who would them pitch four or five innings."

Cool! I love it when losing teams try something new. Might as well. Not enough managers are willing to experiment, it seems.

Jefftown - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 07:41 PM EDT (#121739) #

I read on Baseballlibrary.com about how Gene Mauch tried something similar against the Giants in 1961, when he put four starters into his lineup to conceal whether he'd have a lefty-heavy or righty-heavy lineup.

Dark sent a lefty starter up (Billy O'Dell), and Mauch replaced one of his pitchers, presumably with a righty. Then Dark took out O'Dell for Sam Jones. Mauch then replaced Ken Lehman, his lefty starter, with Dallas Green, a righty, after two batters. "All the maneuvering takes three hours and 20 minutes. The Giants then take the nitecap, 4–1."

Rolley Rodant - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 08:48 PM EDT (#121740) #

Hey Mr.Galda would be inpressed not Mr. Goldie

Craig B - Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 10:13 PM EDT (#121750) #

Lou didn't try it, at least not tonight. Fossum started, went six innings, and got shellacked.

This Day In Baseball: 6 July 2005 | 26 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.