Ok, here we go! Before there was Lofa Tatupu, there was Mosi Tatupu. Before there was Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, there was Mosi Tatupu. Before there was Junior Seau, there was Mosi Tatupu. Heck, before there was Afa and Sika, there was Mosi Tatupu. The pride of Samoa. Samoans were once known as fierce warriors. Today, they take their aggressions out on the football field. Mosi Tatupu was a fierce warrior. He took his aggressions out on the football field. For 14 seasons, Mosi Tatupu was a fierce warrior for the New England Patriots. If you came up when I came up, Mosi Tatupu was your favorite warrior. Warriors, come out and plaaaaayyyy. - link
The other day Rob Neyer of ESPN discussed a story regarding Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo who is suppose to serve in the Korean military before his thirtieth birthday. This service is for two years and would cut into Choo’s prime. Some pointed out that losing Coo would be a blow to Cleveland, especially since he has an OPS just under .900 for his career wearing an Indians uniform. It doesn’t appear that it will happen since Choo very well may choose to become a US citizen or not return to his homeland. - link
Michael Wilbon, on The DanPatrick Show Tuesday, discussed his Pardon the Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser getting a two-week ESPN suspension for making disparaging remarks about ESPN anchor Hannah Storm on Kornheiser’s local radio show on ESPN’s Washington, D.C., affiliate. “I have never been part of the Bristol culture,” said Wilbon, referring to ESPN’s Connecticut headquarters. “I don’t understand how these things work. I don’t know what is affiliated and what is owned. I have zero idea of these things.” -
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There simply isn't much of a difference between pitchers in their ability to control what percent of balls hit the bat and what percent hit the bat squarely on the center. That makes a lot of sense. The pitcher can control how often the batter misses, whether it's more likely to hit the top of the bat (fly ball) or bottom of the bat (ground ball) based on the trajectory of his pitches. I think that if I went out to the mound in a major-league game, hitters would be able to time my slow offerings right in the center of their bats. They might be a little better at putting their bats on Sidney Ponson's pitches than CC Sabathia's pitches, but when they do, they square it up more often based on whether they are Michael Young or Eric Bruntlett (or whether they happened to guess right), rather than who the pitcher was. Of course, if pitchers were predictable, then their line-drive rate would spike, but it does prove to be true statistically that their line-drive rate shows no persistence when they are trying to avoid tipping their pitches. The fact is if you can miss enough bats to get 10 percent of hitters to strike out, then the other 90 percent will get their bats on the ball right in the center of the bat as often against Sabathia (20.4 percent) as Ponson (19.3 percent). - link
I expect Strasburg to be in the Nationals' rotation and pitching well by June 1, if not sooner. His unique contract ensures the Nats don't need to play any dodgy games of service time suppression; the Rays got the benefit of a full Evan Longoria season in 2008 for similar reasons, and that worked out great. Strasburg instantly becomes one of the two best players on the team, with enough star power to be the rare player who gooses attendance by himself by dint of the "Dude, let's go see the Nats tonight! Strasburg's pitching!" demographic.
Zimmerman's the real deal. He's still only 25 so there's additional power potential there, which is scary after he cranked 73 extra-base hits last season. He's also a great defender and a worthy challenger to Beefcake McWright for the title of best third baseman in the NL.
I'm not completely sold on Nyjer Morgan. Yes, I'm well aware of the UZR numbers that say that Nyjer Morgan was more valuable than Joe Morgan last season (I'm almost not kidding). I'm just not ready to throw a parade in someone's honor for one year's worth of defensive data. Yes, he looked good in limited playing time in previous seasons, but this was Morgan's first year as a (near-)everyday player. I'm not convinced this is a player who's a lock for nearly 3 wins of value on his defense alone. The fact that he turns 30 this year doesn't inspire confidence either. If I were the Nats, I would have shopped Morgan this off-season after what was likely a career year. The problem is that the teams who will properly identify his great defensive value are also probably intelligent enough to be skeptical of one-year numbers and generally aware of the risk of regression to the mean. So the Nats will be stuck with a cheap defensive whiz who gets on base and steals tons of bases. There are worse fates, even if 2009 was the best we'll ever see from Morgan. - link
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