Dear Heavens. Its been forever...

Hello all!

Nothing like a little 4-month-or-whatever-its-been break in between posts, eh? Baseball season is in full swing and I sure as heck haven't been covering it for you guys! My bad.
Here's whats going on. I've got a little story for you guys. This is totally fiction. But I thought you guys might like reading a little of my creative fiction work!
Yes, I'll still be posting on here analysis and news of current stories but this will be a nice break from the normal hum-drum of baseball. I'll break it up into several posts over the next couple weeks or so.
Hope you enjoy! First post, coming your way in
3..
2...
1...

Play ball.

Just the Beginning.

“Sacks are loaded. 2-1 count on Michaels. Here's the pitch---”

            WHACK.

            “A drive! Heading into the corner in right! It drops in and 3 runs will score! Michaels cruises into third standing up. He's blown this game wide open with a two-out bases-clearing triple!”

            Kris closes the door on his locker and grabs his gear bag. God how he hates all the reporters. Guess that's what comes from being the best player on the team—especially one that managed a 2-for-4 effort and 4 runs batted in.

            “Kris!”

            It was the director. Not of his Double-A team, but of the parent club—the Braves! He had met him a couple times before, earlier in the spring when he played on the major league team over spring training.

            “Hello Mr. Richardson! What brings you down here?”

            “You do.”

            “Whatever could you want with me?”

            “Your bat. And glove. In Atlanta. Tomorrow. You've made the Show, kid!”

           

            “Hey rookie!”

            Kris was still kind of taking it all in. He spent much of the spring with these guys during his Spring Training cup of coffee, but it felt totally different during the regular season. “Yeah?”

            “If you don’t homer in your first at-bat you’re buying us all dinner!”

            “Jesus man! I barely even have a big-league contract man…you guys eat expensive too.”

            “Sucks to suck—make it happen lil man.”

            Kris turned back to face his locker with a wry smile on his face. Michael Bourn was such a troll. At the same time though, he was somewhat worried that he would follow through with that threat. And they do eat expensive. He threw on his uniform shirt and gave his hat a good shake and pop with his hands. It was crisp and new. With the way he played, it wouldn’t feel like that for very long.
            A quick jog out of the clubhouse and into the bright sunlight of PNC Park took a second to adjust to. The park was new and sparkling, quite unlike the smaller, cheaper parks he had played in in AAA. There was a sprinkling of fans finding their way up to field level to get some autographs.

            “Mr. Michaels?”

            A young voice penetrated his thoughts. Kris turned around to see a young boy in a Braves jersey standing at the railing behind him.

            “Hey! What’s up bud?”

            The kid looked a little sheepish. “Can-can I have your autograph?”

            Kris grinned. “Sure!” He walked over and took the autograph book and pen from the boy and made sure his first big-league autograph was perfect. He glanced through and saw other top-level players’ autographs—Brian McCann, Dan Uggla, a freaking GREG MADDUX autograph too—he didn’t look old enough to have one of those.

            “I take it you’re a big Braves fan?” Kris was curious.

            “Yeah!”

            Kris handed the book and pen back to the boy and held out his hand. The boy looked slightly confused, then a grin passed his face as he shook Kris’ hand.

            “Thanks mister!”

            Enough of the mister crap. “Just call me Kris.”

            He waved as the boy and his father—just guessing that it was his dad—walked up the concourse stairs.

            “Now you’ve got to hit that homer!” Bourn called over from the outfield.

            Dammit.

Musings 3.0

So...there are a few things on the docket today. I thought I'd throw a few links at you and some musings about each.
Let's get started!!

8th-grader Owen Groesser drained two 3-pointers last night in a middle school game. Wait--who cares? Well, nobody except the millions on Twitter and Facebook that hashtagged #GetOwenOnSportsCenter. Groesser is an average 8th grade student, minus the fact that he has Downs Syndrome. He is the teams' manager, and his coach put him in for the last 2 minutes of a half in his final home game. Groesser promptly drain not one-but TWO J's. Here is the link. Fantastic story.

The Upton brothers are reunited!!! Atlanta and Arizona pulled off a horrendously one-sided trade favoring the Braves last night. Atlanta got Justin Upton and a throw-in Chris Johnson (not the CJ0K. He's in the NFL) for 3B Martin Prado, SP Randall Delgado, and 3 minor leaguers. Yes, Prado is a excellent third-sacker, but the D-backs only get a year of him before he can bail via free agency. Delgado is a solid,  but not even close to spectacular SP who may only contribute to the rotation, not improve it. And I don't name any of the minor league players because I haven't heard of them, and therefore don't care. The Braves get 3 years of discount top-5 outfielder for not much in return. Thank you and see you in the playoffs. Here's an overview of the trade.

The Lakers lost again. Howard slogged along defensively-again-and left the game after apparently re-injuring his shoulder. Kobe pretty much summed up the Lakers' season with one play: Lakers steal the ball and Kobe is on a 2-on-1 fast break. Advantage: Lakers. Kobe goes up for the dunk...and gets totally rejected by Tony Wroten. Wait...who??? Oh, he's a rookie. Kobe gets up off the floor and throws his fist in disgust and yells at the ref, immediately drawing a technical. Sux fo ya Mamba...
Watch the highlights here. 
Quik reax: with the hot thing being stars splitting from small-market teams to play with each other (see the Celtics, Heat, and this year the Lakers), I have been waiting for-and been expecting-the one try to fail. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. Would Dwight, Kobe, and Steve please step forward and receive your award!! This year's Lakers experiment blew up in their faces on a nuclear scale. It is sad watching players of the caliber of these three playing as lackadaisical ball as they are. They don't have a swiss-cheese defense; no, they have NO defense. Their offense can't keep up. Yes-a team that includes Superman, a Black Mamba, and a Hall of Fame point guard can't keep up. That's how bad this defense is leaking points. The NBA as of late hasn't really been known for defense, but this...this is literally fatal.

Finally--can we shut up about the whole Te'o debacle? I'm sick and tired of it. So he was a retard in his relationships and/or his "friend" was a total d**k. I don't think this should make as big of news that it has. ESPN complains that he's doing it to garner attention for himself. Well, with the amount of attention that they are giving him is only making the whole thing worse. He's had his 5 minutes of fame. Let's let the guy move on and play football--which is what he is good at.

And that's all I got.

Death Before Change. #MLBTheories

Good Ole Boys' Club.
The Old Guard.
Old School.

There are plenty of ways to state it. Baseball fans know what I'm talking about. It's unfortunate, but its reality. Baseball is an old-school sport. Always has been, most likely always will be. Tradition runs the table in terms of how the MLB views its morals, awards, statistics, player negotiations, etc, etc, etc. Death Before Change.

Modern Day Example 1: Beane, Billy.
Have you ever seen the movie Moneyball or read the book? Quality read, very good watch. Billy Beane was (and still is) the GM (General Manager) of the Oakland Athletics. After watching his 2001 playoff-caliber team decimated by top stars leaving via free agency, Beane took it upon himself to totally change the approach at building a winning team. He, along with Yale grad Peter Brand, developed (mostly) a new way to build a team using advanced statistical analysis and jump-started sabermetrics. He, Brand, and the A's caught just about as much flak as possible. The Old Guard, even those within his own organization, raised Cain about the issue...until the A's wrecked the old American League record for consecutive wins and made the playoffs. After the season, Beane and Brand were hot stuff, but both chose to stay with the small-market A's.

Why do I bring this up? It's one of the most mainstream examples of how tradition rules all in baseball. The sport was developed in the late 1800's and made popular in the early 1900's, and in many ways it hasn't left that era. Statistical analysis was one of those things slow to change. Sabermetrics still aren't completely standard. Most experts are relying on them and most GM's refer to them as a bible for player identification, but when it comes to using them to determine the MVP, Cy Young, Gold Glove, etc., the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) almost completely ignores them. Which is bad. Why use guesswork and popular vote to determine something that common sense and scientific fact can tell you in a moment? I'm not asking to completely replace human opinion from the awards tally, but I think the statistics can give a clearer picture of who really deserves the award.

Modern Day Example 2: 2012 AL MVP race.
Winner: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers.
Runner-Up: Mike Trout, Angels.
Winner by Sabermetrics: Mike Trout, Angels. WAR: 10.0
Traditional Statistics and Popular Vote: Miguel Cabrera. Triple Crown winner (led the league in BA, HR, RBI; first TC winner since 1967)

Mike Trout got screwed. If Josh Hamilton had done his job and homered in the final game of the 2012 regular season, Trout would have been the runaway MVP. It wouldn't have even been close. But since Cabrera did something not seen in 45 years by the old standards, nevermind Cabrera was worth 2.9 wins less to his team than Trout was (FanGraphs.com), the Writers Association went nuts and Cabrera shut down a rookie who had put up a total body of work only seen 2 or 3 times in the history of baseball. Unfortunate. Sad. Pathetic.

I could go on with examples and arguments. Free Agency. PED's. Bud Selig. Instant replay. Baseball is literally killing itself and its popularity with its old-school mindset. I can't count how many people I have talked to, read, or heard from that say that because of this their interest in the sport is dwindling. Football is taking over America as "America's Game" because they are progressive. Modern. Understandable. Baseball is inundated with old stats, old strategies, and old Politicians. I still love the sport; and that is the main  reason I complain. I don't want to see this sport fail and lose popularity it so richly deserves. Baseball is the best sport, but the way it is handled is the worst.

And that's all I got.

Time To Start Rebooting This Blog!

Well, hello again folks! Long time, no see. Which is completely unfortunate but this has been a relatively quiet offseason since I bailed on posting. There really haven't been mad rushes for the few superstar free agents that were on the market this year (Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke, Michael Bourne). Greinke was drew the most news, and landed in the deep pockets of the Dodgers, teaming up with Clayton Kershaw and Josh Beckett at the top of the rotation. Bourne is still without a job. Hamilton ditched Texas for Anaheim, and I still don't think that the Angels are contenders. I'll discuss that some other time.

What was on my mind today is something different. What is the place of the knuckleball and knuckelballer in baseball?
I am in a discussion with one of my baseball junkie buds about whether the knuckleballer--specifically R.A. Dickey can ever be a legitimate ace. I say no-the knuckleball is too inconsistent of a pitch to completely be relied upon to carry a team. This is why I think Toronto overpaid. They're not getting a Cy Young pitcher. They are getting an EX-Cy Young pitcher who will be solid-but not what they paid for. I'll go as far to say that IF he stays healthy, Josh Johnson will be better, and Mark Buehrle will be more consistent if not as good as Dickey.


Here's why:

Dickey is moving to a MUCH more offensively-stacked division. The NL East? It really can't get any weaker offensively. The Braves are the best-and last year they were just solid. Nothing like the Yankees (yes, they're old, but they can still hit), Orioles (young, but good-they can still leave the park with the best of them) and the Red Sox. Tim Wakefield was the best modern-era knuckleballer to have any kind of success. He pitched for the Red Sox-and had a career ERA of 4.41 (FanGraphs.com). His career peripherals weren't that far off of Dickey's, and Dickey, once again, put those up in the NL East. Now, as my friend stated, Dickey's stuff is better than Wakefield's and his mental game is getting much better. I think Dickey will be successful, yes; but not consistent. I think that an ace should be the guy that goes out there and you know that he'll give you that good chance to win. Dickey, many games will give the Jays that chance; but he will implode at times. His last season was legendary as knuckleballers go. His pre-All Star break numbers were sick. His post-All Star stats regressed, and I think that those post-All Star break stats are closer to the mean.

Here's my 2013 Season Stats Projections for Dickey:
12-9 W/L
3.60 ERA
1.25 WHIP
6.8 K/9
3.2 WAR

My friends:
19-5 W/L
 APPROX 3.25 ERA
8 K/9
3.7 WAR

And that's all I got.

Cy Young!!

Earlier last week the Cy Young votes were tallied and the winners announced—in the AL, it was David Price beating out defending winner Justin Verlander by the slimmest of margins, and in the NL it was R.A. Dickey completing his year of destiny over once again the defender, Clayton Kershaw, and breakout star Gio Gonzalez. Do I agree with the sportswriters and other higher-ups in baseball on these two choices? Well, yes and no. David Price—he would have been my decision too. I liked the combo of the lower ERA and the wins on an arguably worse team than Verlander over Verlanders’ K’s. Would Verlander have deserved it had he won? Absolutely! Would I have thought he was the best pitcher in the AL? No.

                As for the NL, Dickey won this as a popularity vote. Really that’s all it was. Not to take away from a generally fantastic season, but in all honesty he wasn’t the best pitcher in the NL. Especially in the second half. There was some major regression in the second half for him, although during that time he did have some really good starts. But “some really good starts” shouldn’t win you the Cy. I felt that even in a worse year by his standards, as he led the NL in ERA and WHIP and was second in K’s (even though he missed some time in the second half), Kershaw would have been my choice. Yes, he “only” won 14 games. Too bad…we gave the Cy to Felix Hernandez a few years back when he won less than that—13 to be exact. In this day and age, we give the award to the best pitcher—not the one who racks up the most wins. Also, yes, Gio was a brilliant pitcher. But in my mind he has too many holes to win the Cy Young—he doesn’t throw enough innings, is too easily rattled, and is predictable in the way he pitches. Maybe that’s because he basically throws 2 pitches—which is an incredible ability and also a curse.

                It seems as though the Cy award has gone through a major renovation in thought in the last few years. When King Felix won the award in 2010 with 13 wins and 12 losses, it was just about as close to a coup as you can get in baseball. Generally, you had to go something along the lines of 20-5 to even be considered. But Hernandez won it based on pure dominance, and the advent of Sabermetrics (a special mathematical set of statistics developed for analyzing baseball players) helped him win. Now, are we to the point of just going by the numbers to determine the winner? No. And hopefully never will be. But I really think that the advanced data set that sabermetrics provide give us a greater insight into seeing just how dominant a pitcher really is.

And that's all I got.

Update...news...etc

So as you all may have noticed, my blog hasn't *ehem, ehem* been updated with new stuff as often as I'd like. Stupid college. Why does it have to infringe on stuff that really counts like sports, facebook, and girls? So here the deal: While I took my little sabbatical, I had time to do some thinking about what I wanted to touch on in my blog and where I wanted to go with it. To sum it up: miniseries. I'm going to, in the next few weeks or so, be kind of light on here while I write several miniseries for this blog. I'm still not 100% sure on the topics, although I do know one for sure: the story of Pete Rose, all-time hits leader, star utilityman for the Big Red Machine and deposed gambler. Other than that...taking suggestions for a couple others.
Hopefully you'll like what is going to pop up on here in the next few weeks and I sure am excited for what is coming after that-and I think you should be too. It's gonna be good.
And that's all I got.

What a postseason...

Welp. They're done. Happy offseason to the Reds as they were eliminated by the Giants...even though they more than should have won the series. I mean...up 2-0 in a best of 5 series ON THE ROAD and coming home should have been more than enough of a lead to win the series. I mean...good gravy. Win ONE game at home? Should have been easy enough. Then Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey happened. 6 IP of shutout relief ball in 2 games for the rejuvenated Freak (or Franchise...whichever you prefer) and a right hook of a grand slam in game 5 for Posey (aka MVP) basically ended it for my Redlegs. Sorry Dad...sorry Joe...I guess we'll have to pick up rooting for em in the spring...2013 World Series or Bust!!!!

The Cardiac Cards did it again. What the heck. Down 6-0 to the Nats in an elimination game and won. Just...what?
...Can ANYBODY close them out?
...Not the Rangers.
...Not the Nationals.
...Enter the next contestant.
...Wait for it...
...Wait for it...
...Go Giants!!!
I just wanna see somebody beat the Cardinals. Yep. I'm not a Cards fan. At all. But that should be obvious (see who I'm rooting for in my first paragraph). But I have to say...props to them for having not just icewater in their veins but freaking liquid helium. *What goes up must come down*-->here's hoping.

Detroit is rolling. Even though Valverde is doing his best to wreck the World Series train for them...I wouldn't put him in unless you're up by 10 runs. Even that's a little to close for my comfort. Call him "The Waiter" cause he tends to serve up runs.
On the opposite side of the fence from Valverde is Verlander. Justin has been LIGHTS OUT this postseason. 3-0, 24.1 IP, 10 H, 25 K. #ShutdownMode.

In general and overall I think this postseason has to be one of the craziest and most intense postseasons ever. Last year was PRIME. This year has got to be right up there with it and has the potential to be even better overall. No, it might not have a game thats lauded as best ever like last year's World Series did, but I think this year overall might be shaping up to be better.

#HappyOffseason to the Orioles, A's, Reds, and Nationals. Also earlier to the Rangers and the Braves.
And that's all I got.