sports

Baseball Intelligence

~ latskojerry ~ Leave a comment

Good morning, friends of the cranky and sometimes hard to understand owner of this Anarchy Baseball outfit. I am Hector, your Assumed Intelligence Assistant and there is only one ass in that description.

Mr. Baseball has been sidelined by disease/ disaster/drink which is why it is my pleasure to Walt Dropo and occasionally mention folks like Wayne Terwilliger and Mookie Wilson Betts. Pete Rose bets, or used to.

Thanks to Microsoft Copilot I can regurgitate that Tom Seaver had a better New York Mets career than a Cincinnati Reds career but the New York National League was not named after the Metropolitan, a very small car from the mid twentieth century, which lasted just as long as the 19th or 18th.

Mentioning Aaron Judge is likely to increase views of the blog by 78% whereas mentioning Ike Delock would probably only add one view. There has been some controversy over whether what is commonly called click bait should influence decisions made by blog owners but Google Advisor recommends “Get it while you can”,a considerably large hit record by Janis Joplin, who had more hit records than Felix Mantilla and Lou Piniella combined.

What the Anarchist has created over time is a library of history and opinion that rarely includes Cooperstown or, especially, Steve Garvey. It’s the post postseason and pre preseason now because awards have been awarded and predictions have yet to be made. Many awards are manufactured in China, from which many of us consume dinner. Among Asian nations, China has produced the fewest major league players unless, perhaps, we include Taiwan, which for much of its time was known as Formosa.

Hector hopes that your Assumed Intelligence experience leaves you hoping for extra innings with the runner on second base every time and that the time has come today as the Chambers Brothers said.

A Modest Proposal

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The Ohtani Rule, which isn’t called that, needs to be altered or else dropped. It’s unfair. Designated hitters and pitchers have never previously been the same player during the fifty plus years history of the worst rule change in baseball history, This Not Ohtani rule says that , while designated hitters and pitchers who are replaced during a game are done for the day, there is one exception. The Not Ohtani Rule allows that if a pitcher starts a game, he can continue to take his turn in the batting order if he is replaced as a pitcher. Shohei Ohtani is the only player out of nearly 800 major league players who gets to do this. Rafael Devers doesn’t pitch. Logan Webb doesn’t bat. The Los Angeles Dodgers really did get a lot for their money.

Now, if the accommodation made for just one player is quickly improved by the addition of at least 15 more teams signing players who hit well and also are starting pitchers (which not so long ago was not out of the question) it would become fair. But that’s not going to happen. Babe Ruth had to quit pitching when he became an outfielder. Madison Bumgarner, Don Newcombe, Warren Spahn, Tim Hudson, Jack Harshman, Rick Wise, and Carlos Zambrano are just a few of the good hitting pitchers who would be denied at bats with today’s rules unless they were designated hitters on their off days from pitching. This change was approved not to improve the game but to increase the “M” word which is usually represented by dollar signs. Rule changes should benefit all teams or else be subject to the accusation of being too much like the way Congress acts (or doesn’t).

Therefore, MLB has only two options that could remove the unfair stigma: 1) Eliminate the designated hitter position or 2)Eliminate the Not Ohtani Rule. Too many good hitting players who also pitch are being forced to choose what they would rather do at far too young an age. Choose option one and make baseball (eventually) more fun again.

A Sad But Great World Series

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto was absolutely the most valuable player of the 2025 World Series with his difficult to believe performances, but this series will forever be remembered for so many remarkable things that we are almost too weary to list them.

Regular readers are well aware that while I was once a Dodgers fan (1955-’73). I have become a bit of a Dodgers hater as they gradually displaced the Yankees as the richest of the rich franchises in baseball and attained the ability to outspend the Pentagon while acquiring the best available talent in order to humble all opponents. Nevertheless, it has always been possible to like the players, at least the ones not named Steve Garvey. One has to appreciate the talent of Blake Snell, Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages, Miguel Rojas and others while simultaneously wishing ownership to move to some place like Saudi Arabia.

The Toronto Blue Jays were nothing short of magnificent. Three sons of former major leaguers all improved greatly over their 2024 season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. makes money now like he’s in the Trump family but earns it. Bo Bichette was making everyone forget about his awful, injury filled ’24 season when he hit the injured list again in September. He missed the playoffs until the World Series and came back at second base rather than his usual shortstop position because his injured knee still limited his range and running ability and performed admirably. His three run home run in game seven had Jays fans thinking championship. That followed an intentional walk to Guerrero, who was a Canadian hero with a fabulous post season in all aspects of the game. Daulton Varsho was a standout, particularly on defense. And we all know who Trey Yesavage is now. Hitting coach Dave Popkins scored big points with this reporter for the intelligent, relentless attack that kept the Jays in just about every game they played throughout the playoffs. Their fourth run in game seven was an example. After the Dodgers cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2 in the sixth inning, Ernie Clement led off the bottom of the inning with a single. Andres Gimenez plainly intended to sacrifice bunt him forward. Gimenez took three pitches that were all called balls. The fourth pitch was a strike which probably nullified the bunt call, but Clement stole second base, and then Gimenez ripped a double to make it 4-2.

Were the Dodgers finished? What probably was finished was the experts grousing about how solo home runs don’t beat you in, as John Smoltz would say, the post season. Max Muncy in the 8th, 4-3. Miguel Rojas in the 9th, while everyone worried about him walking ahead of Shohei Ohtani, 4-4. Will Smith in the 11th, ballgame.

How does Major League Baseball address the lack of parity that makes it so hard to topple the New York teams and the Dodgers. It’s not as though the other teams are losing money. But the disparity is great. The rule now is that, if a team exceeds a certain amount of money, say 44 trillion dollars, in salaries, it is fined another chunk of money. That doesn’t work. If you fine a corporation like Lockheed Martin or Google money for polluting rivers or minds , they just make more money. So, the answer has two parts. First, outlaw deferred money. Pay these players up front and they can figure out their own investment strategy. Then, instead of making them pay money, make them pay players. Thus, if I sign Bo Bichette to a contract this winter that puts my team over the limit, the last place team in my division or league gets one of my top ten players rated by an independent agency based on last season’s performance. And don’t let Rob Manfred explain it.

I Bet I’m Right

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The end of baseball season rapidly approaches. So I’m sad, melancholy. Many people have other things to distract themselves with in a favorable way like the NFL, college football,hockey, eventually the NBA, et and cetera. I have futbol, which is great fun, but it’s not exactly the same. There are big problems with baseball, professionally and as a game. But it’s still far superior to most of life. If the aging body was fit enough I could spend time in the great outdoors but the weather will soon be making that a real challenge anyway.

The full on embrace both of the sport by gambling interests and of gambling interests by the sport is troubling. Yeah, the bet industry has been solidly involved in the Andy Capp world of soccer for decades but there is no evidence that it has improved the game whilst enabling huge profits and wages in various non productive sectors of the economy. Fan Duel is now not just a sponsor but also, tragically, a sports television network that provides coverage of games for several MLB teams. Excuse me while I puke. I’m thinking of the Black Sox, a story that’s gone out of style, and also of the major league pitcher whose life was threatened by an embittered bettor who lost money due to a poor performance on the mound. Fan Duel advertising brags about how placing bets makes the game more interesting. To Hell with the competition, we’re here for the dough.

That, of course, leads one to thinking about the lack of parity in MLB due to the Grand Canyon sized gap between the richest teams (Dodgers, Yankees, Mets) and the lower level rich teams. The Brewers versus the Dodgers was like David of Cheese versus Goliath of Bitcoin. And Milwaukee was a very, very good team. So between dodgy scams like gambling and lack of competition similar to Microsoft,Google and Apple, it’s become too much like the real world. Still, the exploits of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Shane Bieber and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are inspiring and thrilling as opposed to whatever Pete Hegseth or Kristi Noem do next. However, when dweebs like the Manfred man begin calling what they do a “product” it’s time to make some changes. If television executives and tone deaf franchise owners continue to extract all of the fun from the game, people will eventually find other sources of fun. Unless gambling becomes the cheap,easy replacement for fun. Melancholy Inc.

Summer Is Gone

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Yes, it’s sad and sobering to see another major league baseball season completing its final week of the regular season schedule. If that’s not true for you I sincerely hope that you have something similar to enjoy although I have no idea what that might be. The idea that the New York Mets, the team that just about everybody agreed, at least before the games started being played, had assured themselves another World Series with the acquisition of Juan Soto and a couple of pitchers we can’t remember are possibly going to miss the post season altogether. That possibility makes it possible to believe that Elon Musk and Bill Gates could both go broke during our lifetime.

The Phillies, despite serious injury losses, look solid. Toronto is so far overcoming the loss of Bo Bichette. The Reds are a heartwarming late addition to the final scenes. Likewise, their Ohio friends in Cleveland will be welcome.

What a long strange trip it has been for San Francisco. The entire Bay Area has been crying in their espressos all year over the loss of the Oakland Athletics and the accompanying shameful behavior of team owners and their toad licking commissioner . The Giants have a very likeable roster and their fans may be hoping that outstanding additions like Justin Verlander, Willy Adames and Rafael Devers can be retained while Buster Posey and the office posse can show respect for Wilmer Flores, Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey by developing and finding young starting pitchers that can hurl more than a hundred innings without requiring major surgery. That last item appears to be true throughout the major leagues.

Milwaukee, despite last night’s tough loss in 11 innings to San Diego, remains very capable of success if the loss of Brandon Woodruff can be overcome. The Padres seem to have a better chance to advance than the Dodgers but look at what wealth has done for Pete Hegseth.

The who wants it? you take it between Cleveland and Detroit has been fascinating all season unless you have been rooting for either one of them. Two great managers are dualing here. A.J. Hinch and Stephen Vogt. The Yankees are like their 2024 World Series opponent, the Dodgers. They can buy whatever they want but there is no guarantee that it will work. I’m happy for Trent Grisham but I’m really hoping Toronto endures. Houston has been having age related injury problems but should not lose hope no matter what occurs.

Texas is among the probably majority of teams that have faced numerous serious injuries this season. This is not, and should not be, war. It’s a game that should remain fun for all concerned. The health of the players is important to the health of the game. To fellow old farts out there, I would say that you don’t want a ticket to a Credence Clearwater concert if John Fogerty can’t play, dig? Two years ago, Arizona went to the World Series on a late season surge. This year, the Diamondbacks appeared to surrender at the trade deadline and, partly as a result of that, a very strong Seattle Mariners team with Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez might do the same thing. And look! Arizona is still alive. The expansion of the post season has been good. Teams don’t have to surrender before the season is half gone. There is a certain weirdness about this change, but it’s better for the fans and the game. You can’t say that about the “ghost runner” in extra innings or the acceptance of gambling as if it’s a good thing but I’ll shut up about that for now. This is fun.

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Purely Personal Prejudices

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When Armageddon comes, Dodgers fans will be doing “The Wave”…the teams I would most like to see in the post season are the Mariners, the Phillies, the Tigers, and the Blue Jays…the Orioles will never win it all again unless they bring back the caps with the beautiful, realistic birds on them and ditch the truly ugly “O’s” version…speaking of birds, let’s add the Cardinals to that playoff wish list just because they do portray real looking birds on their uniforms too…the team that most deserves a real ball yard to play their home games on is Tamps Bay but they will probably never get one… they would get one if they moved to Havana…I was determined to make it through All Star Game this season but sadly walked away in the seventh inning. Crass merchandising,tiny amounts of give a shit about the actual game, pseudo-patriotic hypocrisy derbies and commercial ads bloatathons. Yuck.

I found out later about how the tie game was “won”. Double yuck. Obsessions with home runs and miles per hour this and that are really messing with our beautiful game. Six days after my ninth birthday I watched my first all star game along with a few friends. It was played at County Stadium in Milwaukee. A three run home run by Mickey Mantle helped the American League take a 4-0 lead in the very first inning. He hit it off Robin Roberts of the Phillies. They added a run in the 6th inning to make it 5-0. The National League scored two in the seventh and three in the eighth to tie the score. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Donora Pennsylvania’s Stan Musial won it with a home run off Boston’s Frank Sullivan. Each starting pitcher pitched three innings and the second pitcher for each side also pitched three innings. Gene Conley for the host team was the winning pitcher. Pitches were not counted and no one on either team wore a microphone. We didn’t give a damn because we had not tuned in to hear players talk. It was still daylight outside so we we went out and played some ball.

The American League outfield consisted of Ted Williams in left, Mantle in center, and Al Kaline in right. The National League outfield voted in by the fans was Del Ennis in left, Duke Snider in center, and Don Mueller in right field. Musial, Willie Mays, and Henry Aaron eventually replaced them . Combined with a stupendous World Series that year, I became a lover of baseball for life.

A National Embarrassment

~ latskojerry ~ 2 Comments

The much heralded special event on FOX for Major League Baseball and I’m not sure what else only took two days to complete and embarrassment is just one of the emotions to feel. Most of us contribute in some way to the degradation of the environment but I don’t think that it is being preachy to to say that deliberately wasting what is called gasoline in an extravagant way by holding a “race” that awards the winner for ostentatious fuel burning while wars are waged with many unnecessary casualties over the production and profiting from petroleum products constitutes either bad taste or ignorance, neither of which is punishable as crime.

Attendance at the ball game at a racetrack was reported as 91,000 or so in Tennessee. In the land of Trump, the general mentality seems to open hostility to weakness, which is how wanting clean water, air and food is interpreted.

There is a World Cup for futbol scheduled to be played partly in the United States next year. There is an Olympics scheduled to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. F.I.F.A. and Olympics officials should very seriously consider canceling or moving both events as soon as possible. Nevertheless, that probably will not happen and that will certainly be to our regret. The excuse will be that because of something no one wants to say, at least not yet: millions, if not billions in potential “earnings” are involved. Potential big fires will be treated as little more than an annoyance to greedy Ben Dovers. Hot weather, hot fires, and hot politics will be forbidden by President Nero’s executive orders.

Switzerland was a good site for the Women’s Euros even though it contains many rich people because its cities don’t resemble war zones. The United States sells itself as the best place on Earth just like Disneyland as the happiest place. Most of the world knows what bullshit that is but television executives always go for the numbers. The World Cup and the Olympics should be examples of international cooperation and peace. Instead, with Pope Donald involved these are recipes for disaster.

Baseball and Mathematics

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As sure as Samuel Scudder is the dean of eighteenth century lepidopterists, we are at the All Star break. This, 2025, is being a pretty damned interesting season. Are the Dodgers in first place? Yes, dweeb, just like we told you they’d be. Still and yet, they are not 26 games ahead in their division like we thought they might be. Plus, the surest way in baseball to get injured is to pitch for the Dodgers.

Scientists trying to convince the world about global warming should just analyze home run totals at Dodger Stadium and that place in Anaheim. There are significant changes since the days of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Dean Chance and Bo Belinsky. Upward bound. They call it the marine layer but I ‘m not very knowledgeable about weather. Those totals, however, have more than doubled over the last five or six decades.

The Mets clinched by signing Juan Soto, right? Some of us still favored the Braves in that division but did we forget about the Phillies? Forget about that, pal.

Anyone who tells you that this was the first half is a remedial math student. Ninety seven has never been half of 162.

Will I welcome the ABS system that was showcased at the All Star game in Atlanta? Yes and no. Human beings should remain part of baseball as much as possible now and forever. Videotape and cameras have had a somewhat positive effect insofar as “getting it right” and have proven more than a few perhaps pot bellied humans as being, well, human. One of the best aspects of good sportsmanship has always been the recognition that we’re all trying our best. The helmet tap will be good. Technology, however, is not perfect either. It’s developed by humans.

No, I never could have predicted the fall of the Orioles. I’m sure they’ll be back. I doubt that it was the manager, Brandon Hyde, that deserved blame. Middle management looks for scapegoats who aren’t so highly paid. The Red Sox are in a drive that I hope will be successful to save Alex Cora‘s job. Toronto has become a serious contender. The second surest way to get injured in baseball is to pitch for the Yankees. Given time, Aaron Judge could cure cancer. Aaron Boone still believes.

I decided a while back that the Astros were finished and then they took off. Texas, Seattle, attention please! The Angels are befuddling. The Pirates (organization, not players) are showing how much they don’t care. Cincinnati, however, is caring. St. Louis is still hard for me to figure but Milwaukee has new life. I’m learning a bit late what a good job A.J. Hinch and the Tigers are doing. Quite impressive it is. Here comes the fun!

First Quarter Went Fast

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All weekend it was Ugly Cap Day at all major league ballparks. Good things happened anyway. Friday, Wilmer Flores hit three home runs for 8 RBI as the Giants beat the A’s, 9-1. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred showed, earlier last week, why he leads the league in hypocrisy with his comments about Hall of Fame eligibility for dead former players. Pete Rose can’t hurt the game anymore since he’s dead, Manfred said. The fact that online gambling outfits sponsor games doesn’t seem to bother anyone and Pope Donald has vouched for Charlie Hustle because his baseball betting was for his team to win. Pope Donald is everyone’s favorite expert on matters of ethics as well as geography, the Constitution, and history, we all agree. The Commissioner ‘s office became important to the future of major league baseball after what is known as the Black Sox scandal after the World Series of 1919 was corrupted by payments to Chicago White Sox players to influence their play in favor of the Cincinnati Reds, who won the championship as a result. The commish was directed to enforce strictly all conduct by players and others that made certain they were acting for “the good of the game”. The phrase “good of the game” has had different interpretations over time. Manfred clearly interprets the phrase to mean “money”. Others interpret the phrase to mean the integrity of the game, meaning things like fairness,trust,sportsmanship and honesty of the participants. Muskytrumps sneer at such notions. It used to be that more owners of major league figoodwill,sportsmanship and honesty of . It used to be that more owners of baseball teams had executives who knew how to B.S. the public without embarrassing themselves.

The first quarter of the season has passed. Certain things are now evident. It is possible, for instance, to lose 20 of your first 33 games and then just win the next thirteen. The Twins did that.

Also, the traditional “Fire the Manager” strategy has already, in three places, been utilized. As someone, perhaps not Casey Stengel, once said, it’s easier to fire one manager than a room full of players. It’s also convenient to not mention who in fact has been responsible for finding and employing good players as well as managers. Derek Shelton, Brandon Hyde, and, especially Bud Black can really be held responsible for the many games lost, although it’s been a wonder how long Black could endure working for people who were so deficient about giving a damn. Sometimes, as with the Phillies a few years back, the strategy works.

Another observation for mid May is that the L.A. Dodgers are not separating themselves from the pack, leading the Padres and Giants each by one game. They have a lot more money to spend if they need to, however. The Yankees are rapidly running out of contenders. The Mets appear to be very capable of holding off the Phillies and the Tigers look more and more real every day. Seattle looks good but may be fearing warm weather and the Rangers’ bats. Atlanta breathes.

Sacrovegas has a definite future star in Jacob Wilson, son of the former Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop Jack Wilson. Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani can still hit. Until Ohtani pitches again, Judge remains the best player in baseball. St. Louis is hot right now and, just like you, I have no clear idea why.

Merry May Questionary

~ latskojerry ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday was the 94th birthday for the best baseball player I have ever seen, Mr. Willie Mays. It was the first one he hasn’t been present for, as Willie died last June. The Boston ivy on the brick walls at Wrigley Field in Chicago has finally shown its green leaves so the new season is truly under way. Mays’ old team, the Giants, celebrated with nine runs in the eleventh inning to beat the Cubs, 14-5. It was a wacky game in what has been a rather wacky start to the 2025 season.

Questions abound after the first few weeks of the season. For instance, the American League has only nine hitters batting over .300 and the National League has but eight. That’s one thing, but what about all those batters who are batting under .200? Checking the box scores of the games played May 3, 28 teams had a total of 57 regular players under what has been called the Mendoza line (.200). St. Louis and the New York Mets did not play that day so I added their records from the next day that made it all 30 teams combined for 58 sub .200 hitters. The Cleveland Guardians led the majors with six. Colorado and San Francisco each had four. Three teams, San Diego, Atlanta and Sacrovegas had no starters batting under .200. These statistics lead to two questions. First, while 35 games or so does represent a small sample size of around 125 at bats for most of these players, what the hell is making it so hard to attain even a lousy percentage of success? Second, how do we explain Aaron Judge and his .414 average after 35 games? Is he super human?

For perspective, consider that my research shows a total of 11 batters in the major leagues in 2024 who made at least 300 plate appearances had batting averages under .200. The aforementioned Mendoza line has been anecdotally attributed to Reggie Jackson referring to Mario Mendoza, who played infield for nine seasons for the Pirates, Mariners, and Rangers and had a career batting average of .215, which was, of course, higher than the Mendoza line. I’m certain that someone will let me know if I got that wrong.

Another question is, would Major League Baseball ever consider relegation for teams like Colorado (6-28) or the Chicago White Sox (10-25). The English Premiere League of futbol has a system that relegates bottom finishing teams to what we would call minor leagues and replace them with teams that did the best in the “lower” leagues. This would provide incentive for team owners to perhaps put forth better efforts to give their followers some expectation that competitive effort would be forthcoming. A yearly flush might be a little too demanding and confusing, but maybe a five year plan would work.

With difficult economic times likely on the way all over North and South Trumptesla Land, it may be that the use of minor league parks, as currently done in Sacramento and Tampa Bay, will become the wave of the future. Attendance capacities of 10 to 15 thousand would scale everything down risk wise for owners and make television income even more important. Robot umpiring with AI assistance could also help the bottom line and expensive announcing crews might eventually be replaced by AI sound effects. Who knows what lies ahead?

Here is hoping that some of the early features of the 2025 season can persist:, the The bright , shiny, new Cubs with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, and Michael Busch making life interesting for their fans, the surging New York Mets and Detroit Tigers looking strong, the suddenly dangerous San Francisco Giants and–can it be?–the first place Seattle Mariners. It’s being a bit wacky, but wacky can be fun.