10/27/11

Baseball: - Stephen Strasburg, John Lackey, Joe Shlabotnik, Bill Buckner, Theo and Moneyball


I could spend 2,000 words raving about Stephen Strasburg, but I’ll save you the time and just go with this: He has become the pitcher I’m most willing to drop everything to watch. His stuff is electric, the Nats are a team on the rise — provided they can keep their team healthier than they have in the past — and there isn’t much of a drawback anywhere in his game. So why is he on the third tier? This isn’t some insult, the NL has talent to spare when it comes to pitching, and much of it is concentrated on high-exposure staffs. Strasburg’s weakness right now, and it could be gone by this time next year, is just a little bit of uncertainty. His MLB high for innings is 68, an inning fewer than Halladay threw in his first nine starts of the 2011 season. I’m not portending doom for him, but there’s just no way to know if we’ll start to see his stuff fade a little as fatigue hits or when that fatigue will hit. Throw in the fact that the Nationals have already indicated that they’ll be careful with Strasburg next year in much the same way they shut down Jordan Zimmermann early in 2011 and he has a little bit of a handicap when compared to Halladay, Lee, Lincecum, et al. Assuming he gets shut down around the same time Zimmermann did, Strasburg will essentially give owners the polar opposite of what he gave them this year: a strong regular season, but no help in the playoffs. When the shackles are finally off and we’ve seen him throw a full, healthy year, I fully expect him to be tiered higher than this, but for now, I’m very comfortable with this position.  http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/2012-nl-starting-pitcher-keeper-rankings-tier-three

So it's not all bad. Maybe none of it is bad. Let's say John Lackey didn't need to have Tommy John Surgery. Then he'd be coming back in 2012 with nobody's confidence. This way, he saves the team some money, and he gets something repaired that will allow people to think he might be better when he comes back late in 2012, or - more likely - in 2013. Win/win, kind of. Interestingly, Lackey pitched better after coming off the disabled list this season. In seven starts before, he walked 18 and struck out 19. In 21 starts after, he walked 38 and struck out 89. He still wasn't good, though; he was terrible in September, and he needs to be fixed. It's oddly comforting that Lackey has a significant physical problem, because the alternative would seem a lot more hopeless. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/10/25/2513700/john-lackey-tommy-john-surgery-red-sox

9) Joe Shlabotnik -  Never forget the original. Bad movies have Plan 9 From Outer Space, bad literature has "It was a dark and stormy night," bad music has "We Built This City", bad television has Cop Rock and, finally, bad baseball players we love anyway has Joe Shlabotnik. His poor performances were legendary, but he was always out there, giving it his all. Charlie Brown's favorite player was sent down to the Green Grass League after batting 1-for-240 one year. In another season, our hero batted .143 and made some spectacular catches on routine ground balls. He also threw out a runner who had fallen down between second and third. Once, Shlabotnik came to bat in the ninth inning and called his shot. He ended up popping out, but in true Shlabotnik fashion, he ran it out. In 1975, Shlabotnik was made manager of the Waffletown Syrups. He didn't last long, though, getting fired after his first game for calling for a squeeze play with no one on base. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15364

“Hopefully after today, 25 years is something that everybody’s talking about,” said Buckner, who received death threats from irate Red Sox fans for years after it occurred. “But hopefully it kind of goes away for a while.” Wilson, who joined Buckner Tuesday in the radio station’s Manhattan studio, has continued to be linked with him ever since. The ball from the indelible play is currently on EBay for $1 million, although no bids have been made on it. I think even though I wasn’t thinking about how Bill would react or how it would affect his life or affect my life, we were just so wrapped up in what we were doing and we weren’t thinking about the consequences of the whole thing,” Wilson said. “I was just happy to get out of that game without losing. I was in a situation where i easily could’ve been the goat, and as it turned out things kind of worked out for me.” www.espn.com

My argument is that a club must be built from the ground floor.  When Theo was hired as GM after serving with Larry Luke (Lucchino) there was a cupboard there  with raw talent.  The drafting of Pedroaia and Ellsbury were smart drafts for where the Sox were selecting and what they had to spend on their draft those years.  Heart, desire and strength were three of the areas that Theo's scouting staff were sold on in taking those two players, Bucholz, Bard, everyone knew they had great arms.  Yeah, Theo made some bone head signings, on Matsu and Lackey, he made a killer move bringing in Curt Schilling.  Also with his success came the fall of the month of September for the Sox and in-house turmoil.  I'm sure Theo learned a lesson from that, but taking into account he now has to rebuild the Cubs from the ground floor and he's inheriting two admin guys, as well as he'll bring in some of his loyal people as well.  I didn't say Theo was dumb, my point was building a club from the ground floor and Theo for the most part did that with Boston, but his team also fell apart at the seems during a critical time of the season. http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2011/10/24/2510751/theo-moneyball-talk

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