Can someone confirm that I did in fact hear Buck Martinez doing colour for one of the late games the other night?

Yeah.. I think I actually remember him doing the Twins/Sox 1 game playoff. Not sure about the other games.

For what it's worth, his broadcast team on TBS is considered their "number one" team, according to ESPN.

Voting is open for the Internet Baseball Awards, sponsored by BP.

"For what it's worth, his broadcast team on TBS is considered their "number one" team, according to ESPN."

That's big of them to admit.

Well, the hapless, doomed Cubs may be toast, but Wrigley Field is as gorgeous as ever.  What a beautiful ballpark!  The overhead views on my new TV were just stunning.  The dimensions are about ideal; the angles of vision are generally superb; there's a little dip in the right field corner for triples.  And, of course, there's the ivy, and the grass, and the center-field scoreboard with the flags flying in the breeze off Lake Michigan.  Not many things in America these days can live up to their hype, but Wrigley sure as hell comes close.

How did the players look through the lens of WPA? Let's start with the rotation.

Roy Halladay 4.48 - Roy had 20 WPA hero games with 6 of them over .300. He had 7 letdown performances and none of them were minus .300.

Halladay  4.48    20 (+6)    7 (-0)

Marcum   2.19    14 (+7)    8 (-2)

Burnett    1.78     13 (+5)   15 (-4)

Litsch      0.93     10 (+3)    7 (-2)

McGowan 0.31    6 (+1)     7 (-1)

Richmond 0.12   1 (+1)     2 (-0)

Purcey     -.10       5 (+1)    5 (-2)

Parrish (SP) -.29

Parrish (RP) 0.59 5(+0)   2 (-0)

Bullpen

Downs    2.89     24 (+0)   7 (-2)

Carlson   1.92    17 (+0)   6 (-1)

Ryan         1.89    28 (+0)  6 (-5)

League    0.32     5 (+0)    4 (-0)

Tallet        -.04      6 (+0)    7 (-1)

Camp      -.05       5 (+0)   4 (-1)

Wolfe       -.08       3 (+0)   1 (-0)

Frasor     -.39       2 (+0)    3 (-1)

The pitching staff had a total of 24 super clutch performances. They had 25 meltdowns (with 2 from an injured Accardo and 1 from Benitez).  

My opinions- Burnett is not a good pitcher without his curveball, Marcum is a legit #2 when he is healthy, Tallet should be less trusted, Wolfe should be trusted more, Parrish might be a much better bullpen pitcher than starter.

 

 

So is Parrish = Down's the second? A guy who, as a starter, is a mediocre ML'er but as a reliever can be lights out?

As a reliever lifetime Parrish has a 3.93 ERA (6.15 as starter) with 197 IP, 189 H, 14 HR, 136 BB, 171 SO. A bit wild, but generally effective. This year did nothing to change that with 12 1/3 IP, 10 H, 1 HR, 7 BB, 7 SO and a 1.46 ERA (ERA is pretty much meaningless at this workload).

Parrish looks more like a 8th man in the pen and 8th for the rotation (emergency only). Good to have in AAA but I doubt he'll have a full ML season again unless he figures out how to throw more strikes.

Off-Topic Alert

I went to see the Raptors play a scrimmage at Carleton University today. Carleton, as you may know, has one of the best basketball programs in Canada, and recently played a few exhibition games against American universities, including a nailbiter against defending NCAA champion Kansas University. (Carleton missed a shot at the buzzer which would have won the game.) In Kansas' defense, they lost many of their best players from last season to the NBA, but it's pretty darn impressive that at least some of our schools can compete with American schools, given the totally different college athletics systems in our respective countries.

The Raptors had their training camp at Carleton this year because of its excellent facilities, and capped off the two weeks with an intra-squad match. They put on a great show for the crowd, playing much harder than I've ever seen at an NBA all-star game (not that that's much of an accomplishment), and it got me excited about following the team this year.

Kris Humphreys probably had the most impressive performance, though Jermaine O'Neal ended up as the crowd favourite with a couple of bone-crushing dunks near the end. O'Neal also seemed more excited to be there than any other Raptor, pausing in the tunnel as he was being introduced to high-five everyone in the vicinity (including yours truly... I also got some skin from Calderon, Bargnani and some of the lesser known players. Pretty exciting).

Oh yeah, and I guess the Leafs start soon too...

Sort of Off Topic Alert

I was thinking of going to Dunedin for a few weeks in March for training camp.

But - with the world baseball thingy going on- I wonder if there will be a reduced spring schedule? On the other hand if there isn't a reduced schedule then it might be interesting to see more of the guys from our minors playing for the varsity side.  Go Jays!

MyLegacy,

I haven't heard about a reduced schedule.  My wife and I are going down for our first time with another couple from the 7th - 14th of March.  I'm a little disappointed that Rios, Wells and Halladay probably won't be there because the WBC starts on the 5th, but I'm looking forward to seeing some prospects up close!  If you're going to go you might want to get on it soon since we booked our condo about 3 months ago and all the rooms were already almost gone, and March break is the following week.

According to springtrainingonline.com

"Spring training in 2009 will run Feb. 14 through the end of March, with games beginning around Feb. 25. The long-than-usual schedule is to allow players to participate in a drawn-out World Baseball Classic, slated to run March 5-March 23. Under a normal schedule, spring training -- in terms of the players reporting -- would begin Feb. 20. It is a complicated thing, to be sure: MLB players on the WBC rosters of China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as pitchers and catchers, will report on Feb. 14. All players will report by Feb. 17. No games will be added to the spring schedule, however; it does mean more open dates during March."

I forget where I read it, but I Halladay said he would not go to the WBC.

ESPN park factors are out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor?season=2008

 

Skydome/RC history

Year     Rank      Runs Adjustment

2001      6                    1.152

2002     14                  0.989

2003      7                   1.105

2004      4                   1.128

2005     10                  1.039

2006      7                   1.067

2007     21                  0.944

2008     18                  0.959

 

Last year, the Jays scored 753 runs compared to this year's 714. They gave up 699 last year and 610 this year.

The leader was Texas this year, but they had the smallest adjustment of a leader since 2001. For example, the RC's park factor in 2001 would have been the leader this year.