Balls, Sticks, & Stuff | Phillies, Eagles, golf and other matters of great importance...

Base Knocks & Linkology

With apologies to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, here's a whole lotta links...

Pass It On

There might not be anyone in the phlogosphere that posts with more fervor than the folks at We Should be GM's.  Even in the offseason they're bringing it, publishing an email interview with Phillies reliever Chad Durbin:

You did an amazing job in the bullpen...do you remember the exact date your arm fell off?

Thanks, very much. It's a grind, that's for sure. I was thrilled, every single time I came into a game or got up in the bullpen...to be part of such a special team and season. So, if there's a moment in the season when I felt that I ran into a wall...had to be late August. You know what happened, though, and the beauty of baseball? Ryan Madson went on an absolute tear, right as I cooled off. It's amazing how those special seasons consist of story after story of teammates stepping up during the year. MadDog was amazing.

I firmly believe a certain degree of luck goes into the success of a bullpen.  Fortunately for the Phillies and their fans, it went down pretty much exactly the way Durbin describes.

Thanks to Durbin and We Should Be Gm's for the interview on this rainy Christmas Eve.

Wish I Wrote That

From Tom Goodman's Swing and a Miss:

"Madson's fastball has about as much movement on it as the Slowsky turtles."

Linkology

A few links to peruse between innings but before MLB.com's enhanced gameday locks up your computer...

...Jason Weitzel is bringing sexy blogging back.

...The 700 Level evaluates the broadcast crews of the Phillies.  I agree that the radio crew is very good to listen to and while I really want to like him, I think we have to change Gary "Sarge" Matthews' nickname to "Captain Obvious".

...If you watch LOST, then you absolutely have to read Begging to Differ on Thursdays.

...Pretty much all of us saw this coming, and all the beat writers hinted about it on their blogs:  Matt Smith was demoted to AAA Ottawa and Fabio Castro was brought up to the big club. [Incidentally, if you've ever seen an episode of "Hogan's Heroes", the Germans are always threatening to send someone to the Russian front as a means of punishment or motivation... I can't help but think the word "Ottawa" carries similar weight in the Phils' clubhouse.]

...I had lunch with Tom Durso of Shallow Center and we both agreed that since he has not written anything about the Phillies since their win streak began, he will not do so until the streak snaps.

-----------------

For more recommended reading, visit "Trying to Get to the End of the Internet" in the sidebar.

A Phlogger in Stereo

There are times when I wonder if this little hobby of mine isn't a little over the top and has crossed the line into obsession.  But almost always, a bit of news will come my way and remind me that I'm doing just fine.  Some time ago, it was a segment I happened to overhear on the Today Show, endlessly speculating about all the details of the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding.  Yesterday, it was the news that an astronaut had an unhealthy obsession with another astronaut that, again, reminded me that I'm doing just fine.  You can rest assured, you will never hear of me strapping on diapers so I won't have to make any stops on an all night drive to Clearwater.

Come to think of it, I know of at least one person who thinks about the Phillies more than I do, and that is Jason Weitzel of the Beerleaguer.  No worries, he's perfectly sane [mostly], but there are few that know more about the Phillies and baseball than Jason.  Curious about an obscure 19-year old catching prospect just brought out of the jungle after being raised by wolves?  Drop Jason an email.

Chances are, if you read this site, you also read Beerleaguer, so I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.  But what you might not know [yet] is that Jason was a guest on WIP 610 radio last night at around midnight:

• Download Beerleaguer on 610 WIP [2/6/2007, 10 mins 18 secs, mp3]

Good Reads

Several projects on the web worthy of your attention...

...The Courier-Post asked Rowan University to objectively evaluate the Phillies handling of the Brett Myers situation [main page here, including a PDF of the entire 68-page report from Rowan].  BS&S.com observation: It would be funny if it weren't so true.  Even to this day, the Phillies are handling the issue poorly.  Phillies CEO David Montgomery was a guest on Sports Talk 950 AM with Jody MacDonald.  In the interview Montgomery said, "Brett knows he made a mistake."  I'm sorry, was there a mistake?  Didn't Myers' wife, Kim, say that he did not hurt her that night?  If he didn't hurt her, what was the mistake he made?... Four months later, the team is still inconsistent in the matter.  Update:  Look for Michael Radano of the Courier-Post to appear on 610-WIP tommorrow [Wednesday] morning around 8 AM to discuss the series.

...Over at A Citizen's Blog, Michael Berquist is writing up a sixteen -- 16! -- part series on the 1950 Phillies, otherwise known as the Whiz Kids.  BS&S.com observation:  If Richie Ashburn, who led the league nine times in put outs, were alive today, he would likely say of Counselor Berquist, "The kid doesn't chew tobacco, smoke, drink, curse or chase broads. I don't see how he can possible make it."  I would have to disagree however, as the series looks to be, shall we say, comprehensive-ish.

...The Iggles Blog takes a very interesting look at time-of-possession finger-pointing.  BS&S.com observation:  This site is a recent discovery of mine, and I can't recommend it more highly.  This particular post, coincidentally, goes hand-in-hand with the post I wrote last week about the Eagles approach to offense.

Base Knock: A Premature Phillies Year In Review

Over the last few days, I've thought a lot about the range of emotions and moods this Phillies season has elicited from phans.  Everything from dejection and depression to excitement and euphoria.

This great post over at Just Off-Camera shows I'm not the only one who has been doing some reminiscing: "A Premature Phillies Year In Review".

-----------------

- Previous Base Knocks
- What are base knocks?

Base Knock: Beerleaguer Has Parting Words for Lieby

Last summer, several other phloggers and I got together for a game at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies took on the Padres.  I don't remember if it was the first time the four of us met (I think so...), I remember the weather (hot and muggy), and I remember the outcome of the game (Chase Utley hit a homerun in extra innings to win).

Another thing I remember is that on the night, I gained a little perspective on Mike Lieberthal.  After reading a great post by The Beerleaguer, I realize I wasn't the only one [I was tempted to take an excerpt of the post and paste it here, but it's too good to select just one paragraph.  Go read it.].  As Jim Salisbury made us understand that night, just because a player doesn't talk a lot about his injuries doesn't mean they don't affect him, and, just because a player has surgery doesn't mean his troubles are over.

Now that we see how well Lieberthal plays when he doesn't have to bear 80-90% of the catching duties (.853 OPS in July and August so far with improved defense behind the plate), one can't help but wonder what would have happened if managers and general managers had seen fit to get Lieby some real help behind the dish.

For next season, the Phillies should consider bringing back Lieberthal at a reduced rate (something Lieberthal himself has suggested), promoting Carlos Ruiz, and of course, bring back Chris Coste to share the catching duties and spell Ryan Howard at first base.

Ichiro? Pavin?

Some mid-day thoughts as the temperature nears Abe Nunez's batting average...

...The trades that could have been:  Ichiro! to the Phillies [hat tip to the Beerleaguer for the story] and Pat Burrell to the Orioles.  First, imagine Ichiro! leading off for the Phillies.  Ryan Howard would have a mortal lock on the RBI title every year.  And if Burrell had willingly gone to the Orioles, would the Phillies have hung on to Abreu?

...Nobody writes better headlines than Erik at Philliesflow: "Cory Lidle coin-flips his mind, pulled from conference call after 5 1/3 innings" is priceless.

...Mike Berquist at A Citizen's Blog has been going after the Phillies D this year the way a dog gnaws a bone.  There's no doubt their defense is not as good as last year, but it isn't quite as bad as Mike regularly concludes.  He usually uses zone rating as the basis for his observations, but zone rating is flawed in that it does not take into account the difficulty of fielding batted balls.  Look, if you put three Willie Mays in the outfield and four Cal Ripkens in the infield, they would have low zone ratings with this group of pitchers.  The team allows a line drive rate higher than the league average (typically, 75% of line drives fall for base hits).

...The Hardball Times has baseball cards.  Fortunately, they do not come with cheap cardboard-like sticks of bubble gum.

...Over the weekend, Ryder Cup vice-captain Corey Pavin won the US Bank Championship (formerly the Milwaukee Open).  According to PGATour.com:

Corey Pavin won this weekend despite averaging just 263.6 yards off the tee, which was last in the tournament for those who made the cut. Only one player has won on TOUR this year with a shorter average driving distance (Arron Oberholser 259.3 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). Coming in, Pavin ranks last in driving distance on TOUR in 2006 with a 264.4-yard average.

On tour, chicks are digging the longball more and more all the time, but it's nice to know that it is still possible for a short hitter who "works" the ball and "hits shots" can still win.

Linkology, Quotables, Base Knocks, Notes, etc...

- I'm having a hard time seeing the attraction to the World Cup of Soccer.  Growing up in Pennsyltuckey, no one ever played the game, so it just wasn't part of my culture.  But certainly baseball was, and (even though I knew this already), Jim Caple of ESPN.com reminds us we shouldn't feel guilty for that.

- Chris at I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake looks at the walk rates of the Phillies batters and how they team stacks up against the rest of the league (and, for some reason, people chose to comment about it at the Good Phight).  It is interesting to think about, but you have to be careful not to take too much from it.  To me, walks are a by-product of having a good batting eye and plate discipline, but it isn't a by-product that always comes about.  For instance, look at Ichiro Suzuki.  He rarely walks, but it's not because he has little plate discipline -- quite the opposite -- it's because he gets so many hits.

- Also at IMHTM, Chris brings up a good question: Michael Bourn was recently promoted to AAA Scranton Wilkes-Barre... If he performs well there, and if Shane Victorino continues to impress, does that make Aaron Rowand expendable?  Objectively speaking, I think it does, but geez, I'd have a hard time seeing Rowand leave Philadelphia.

- The Daily News reports that Jimmy Rollins called a team meeting to motivate the rest of the players.  Several quotes came out of it that stand out.  First, Rollins said at the meeting:

"The bottom line was, I asked each guy to say to himself, 'What can I do this at-bat, this ground ball, this pitch, to help my team win?' " Rollins said.

Show of hands, how many of you immediately thought, "why don't you start with yourself and draw a walk more often than once every full moon of an odd month?!?!"?

The second quotable was from Charlie Manuel, "I think they've heard everything I've got to say."  I think with each loss, Charlie comes one step closer to reaching the same fate as Brooks in Shawshank Redemption.

- Joe Logan reprints some of Phil Mickelson's pre-Western Open presser, and he talks about how he plans ahead of time the clubs and shots he will employ on various holes at the major championships based on situation and weather.  It seems like a good idea to me, but it must be nearly impossible to prepare for all the different conditions and permutations a British Open course can take on, even in the course of a single round.  But I guess that is why he gets paid to play.  Update:  Further discussion of Phil's club/shot selection here, at G-Shack.com.

- Does anyone else find it ironic that Peter Gammons' music CD, Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old, came out just days after he became seriously ill?

- Ryan Madson is scheduled to start to night for the Phillies.  Even if Atlantic City was open, you would be foolish to place a bet on his start.  It is impossible to predict which Ryan Madson will show up [click chart to enlarge].  Whichever one shows up, however, my philosophy is the same as it is for Cole Hamels and Scott Mathieson:  let them start and start and start this season, so that they will have just that much more experience for next year.  Think Maddux, think Bonderman.

- The Beerleaguer points out how well Vicente Padilla is doing down in Texas [4.47 ERA, 7-5].  Yes, we are only at the halfway point in the season, but it looks more and more with each start that those of us who thought the Phillies wouldn't miss the Iguana were wrong.

- The 700 Level: Nobody Cares About the Phillies.  The troublesome part about this is, if attendance continues to decline, the Phillies braintrust may decide they have to cut payroll, and if that happens...well, I fear it could be 1996 in 2008.

- Arthur Rhodes may be considered the bullpen sheriff, but he is beginning to pitch more like Barney Fife.

- For years now, if you told someone you were going to watch "Saved" on television, they thought you were using short hand for the show with Screech and Zach.  But I have a suspicion TNT's new series is about to change that.  Having watched two episodes while nursing a holiday hangover, I give it two thumbs up.

- Finally, I know the last thing many of you need is another username and password, but I have to recommend co.mments.  Basically, you set up a free account, and you are given a page on which you can track everywhere you have commented on a blog, enabling you to follow a discussion as it develops and proceeds.  And, if you are the feed readin' type, you can subscribe to your tracking page in Bloglines, Newsgator, etc.

Track this post with co.mments

Base Knocks

Last summer, I introduced a new feature to BS&S.com called "Base Knocks".  It was a way to give a nod to some of the better posts in the phlogosphere.  Somehow, I lost track of it and rarely did Base Knocks make an appearance again. Hopefully, this post will change that. Without further ado, here are the best recently posted base knocks, culled from the Phloggers Pheeds page...

- No one mixes game recaps and sarcastic one-liners better than Philliesflow. Here's an example, this one on the Phillies heading to the West Coast:

The future of TiVo and its ilk scares me already, whatever form it may take.  There may indeed be a reason to disrupt the space-time continuum, but I'm pretty sure it's not to watch Gavin Floyd pitch.

- Pawnking was on a hot streak this week with posts on the Phillies lineup, a critique of "Casey at the Bat", the concepts of modernism and postmodernism in baseball, the existence of clutch hitting (a very good post, even though I have to disagree with him, because clutch hitting is real), and last but not least, he is starting his own farm team.

- We've all scratched our heads on the Phillies bullpen usage.  The Good Phight breaks it down.

- Finally, two "phloggers" have undertaken some causes...  Enrico at The 700 Level sent me an email entitled "save the boobs".  How it got past Gmail's spam filter I'll never know, but his cause is certainly worthy, breast cancer.  Phillyville directs readers to an online petition to break Comcast's monopoly over Philadelphia sports.  I like the idea of that, but the same legislation wouldn't necessarily be good for net neutrality.

Beerleaguer Bellies Up to the Phillies Skipper

Recently, the Beerleaguer got to fulfill the dream of anyone who watches Phillies games with regularity, in particular someone whose hobby is to analyze and write about them:  interview Charlie Manuel.  I'm so jealous right now I can't even stand myself.

I've always felt it would be fun to sit down with Manuel sometime and just talk baseball, and now after listening to Jason's interview, I know I'm right.

A highlight of the interview is when Jason asks if the plethora of bullpen options Manuel will have this year make his job harder.  Manuel's reply, "Mah job's alwuhs harder, son."  Another great moment comes when Jason recites all of the things Manuel did not get enough credit for last year.

Link: Beerleaguer: Belly up to the bar with Charlie Manuel.

Bravo

Base Knock: Beerleaguer: "They could be heroes"

If there was some highfalutin' award for good blog writing, this would win hands down.

Rock On

This post over at Minutiae is very close to something I've had percolating in my head most of the baseball season.  However, Jeff just did a much better job with it than I would.

Good Phloggin'

Base Knock #1: Jeff Hilenbrand of Phillies Foul Balls has a very interesting analysis of the quandry the Phillies rotation is in due to last night's rain out in his post, "Rotation Crunch".

Base Knock #2:  "George S" is now so against getting a Blogspot/Blogger account that he is now typing comments out on Microsoft Word.  Tom Goodman has the file posted on his site (it is almost to the point now where on some level, it seems as if Goodman is to George S as Woodward was to Deep Throat), and it is a great analysis of the usage patterns of the Phillies relief corps.

Base Knock #3:  While he isn't technically a Phlogger, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com is someone who writes about baseball online and lives in the 215 area code.  Today, he writes a very interesting piece that centers on the difference Charlie Manuel has made in this years Phillies club. [hat tip to B.S. & S. Erie correspondent]

Base Knocks

Balls, Sticks, & Stuff 1.0 had just one sidebar, and it was on the right.  But it became kind of lengthy and difficult to read.  B.S. & S. 2.0 originally had one sidebar as well, but when I upgraded, I cleaned it up and it was much easier to read.

But gradually, as this site's readership as well as the attention it receives has grown, the sidebar began to get cluttered again, to the point that I added another one.  And gradually, that is getting cluttered too, partly because I can't say "no" to advertisement offers, but mainly because new bloggers keep on cropping up that I feel are worthy of linking to...Heck, there are usually around fifteen Phillies-centric blogs alone that I link to at any given time.

But I view all this as a nice problem to have, for websites like Beer Leaguer, Swing and a Miss, Baseball Musings, and Sabernomics (just to name a few) have all added to my enjoyment and understanding of baseball and writing about baseball.  As a matter of fact, I read sites such as these (as well as The Hardball Times, The Philling Station, Shallow Center, The 700 Level, etc.) before I head to ESPN.com or Philly.com.

And why shouldn't I?  The sites are free, don't require a registration, and have analysis that is just as good -- check that -- better than any of the larger sites.  As far as I am concerned, the only thing that separates traditional sports news sources from the blogosphere is access to the news before the rest of us.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking to the streets and shouting, "Revolution!" and "Down with the MSM!", I'm just pointing out how impressed I am with some of the people that write about sports and don't get paid to do it.

And so, without further ado, I introduce to you, dear blog reader, "Base Knocks", a  quasi-weekly round-up of some of best posts around the blogosphere. I plan for it to be more than just another version of my "Linkology" posts, which are really more like little bloops of things that interest me rather than full blown base knocks, which inform, debate, and spur thought.  More like "The Highlight Reel", but for other blogs (my horn toots enough).

If you'd like, feel free to email me a link you feel is worthy of labelling a "base knock".  I'm looking for insightful points, creative thinking, and/or creative writing.

First off, The Crossbow Project reports first-hand of Michelle Wie on her way to a second place finish in an LPGA major championship:

I saw Michelle Wie on Saturday down at Bulle Rock. She can play a little. I saw her back up a wedge shot on #2 about 15 feet to within a foot of the cup. I've only ever seen male players do that before. She made Julie Inskter stop flapping her yap about Michelle's sponsor exemption by finishing second to Annika. Michelle doesn't quite have Annika's machine-like approach yet, but she has 19 more years to catch up. She's also way too timid at this point. She laid up on #2 from only 205 yards out, which is about a 4 iron for her. Of course, she stuck the wedge on her third shot, so what do I know.

If it was me, I'd hold on to that memory, because some day, you'd be able to say, "I saw one of the best to ever play the game of golf."

Mash (not this one, not this one, but this one) dampens our enthusiasms a bit as he goes into the imbalance of pitching and hitting on the Phillies:

Doesn't look like those runs allowed are going to stop anytime soon, does it? If anything, looking at runs allowed since 15 may (inclusive), I get the figure of 119. So even in our best run of baseball so far this season, we're still hovering around the same mark of runs allowed. Which suggests that's what we're likely to do the rest of the season.

That's not good. Either we start winning games with runs by the bucketload, or the pitching starts to improve radically. I've not broken down these figures in terms of starts vs relief, but I'd say the latter is where we're going wrong. We currently seem to be winning a lot of games where we give up 3-4 runs from the bullpen, but score enough that it makes no odds - maybe Ooogie will help that out, and maybe that'll improve things. But this simple exercise has done much to cool my excitement.

I tend to think that while the bats may cool a bit, the pitching will begin to improve a bit as well, even with the season-long loss of Randy Wolf to Tommy John surgery.  In other words, I'm keeping my bandwagon ticket where the Amtrack/SEPTA attendant can see it.

"Pawnking" finally decided money was no object and got himself a blog.  In one of his first posts, he bangs the drum on a pet issue of mine: Citizen Bank Park's influence on the games played there:

Let me repeat for those who don't know: Citizens Bank Park is not the run-happy field people like to think it is. Citizen's is only 10th in runs as a park. It is only 9th in HR factor, and suppresses overall hits and doubles like a fiend. The park is smallish, and has hard walls, which limits the doubles, which allows the outfield to play rather shallow, which limits the hits. It also has generous foul ground, which also limits hitting...Why did the Phils only allow 60 runs, if it's just the park, including 5 games where we allowed 2 or fewer runs? No, it's easier to say it's just the park.

If a drum bangs and no one hears it, does it really bang?  I say, bang louder.  The Philling Station does just that in response to Harold Reynolds of Baseball Tonight on ESPN:

Reynolds talked about how when the weather gets hot, balls will be flying out of CBP against Phils' pitching -- as if it could get any hotter

Good point Brian, good point.  And by the way, I apologize for bringing Richmond's oppressive heat and humidity with me during The Move.

Many of us compared Jimmy Rollins to his peers when examining his recent contract extension.  Tom Goodman of Swing and a Miss decided to take a different view, by pointing out how hard it is to find a good shortstop.  His proof? Not many at all go into the Hall of Fame.  Interesting. Equally as interesting is Ichiro! of the Seattle Mariners.  Mr. Goodman explains why:

The greatest pleasure in watching Ichiro play is the excitement and tension he brings to every at-bat. He never takes one off. He can go the opposite way, slapping a base hit to left, or drag a bunt down the first base line. He literally sprays the ball all over the yard. And he doesn’t have to hit the ball out of the infield; any ground ball to deep short is going to be a base hit. Once on base, he is always a threat to steal. He reminds me of Juan Pierre (at least the one of season’s past if not this one) in that he puts pressure on the defense from the first pitch of the game, before the opposition has had a chance to get settled. You turn around and suddenly there he is on second base. It can be demoralizing.

Ichiro is also an extraordinary fielder, one of the best in the game right now. He can climb the wall when needed and gun down a runner trying to take an extra base. He is one of the game’s most exciting players but he doesn’t get enough credit for a few reasons. One, he doesn’t hit the ball out of the park and fans want to see power hitters. Two, he doesn’t speak English, communicating instead through an interpreter, so fans have little sense of him as an individual. And three, he plays on the West Coast for a team that is no longer a playoff contender despite some high profile signing in the off-season, so he simply doesn’t appear on national television often enough.

I’ll have to stay up later than normal the next few nights.

Ironically, Ichiro! plays in the house that Starbucks built.

Tom Durso at Shallow Center has a way of wrapping things up in tidy little sentences.  Here's his latest:

Forty million clams is an awful lot of scratch to give a guy who's had one really good season and a couple of pretty good half-seasons.

And finally, The Beer Leaguer earns a base knock for a great little line of his own:

There’s no formula to predict that a team that totally stunk for a month and a half would drop a 12-win megaton bomb squarely on the head of Howard Eskin.

Several days later, I can't turn on WIP without thinking of this line (of course, I've probably only tuned in to it twice, but still...)