To the wise and merciful Lord, BaseBa’al, Defender of the Game,

We implore thee to reserve thy ultimate judgment and reprisal from the Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise and the members thereof.

We ask of thee to leadeth their grounders into safety, to increaseth the luck of the BABIP with their line drives, and for their fly balls to saileth into the Promised Land of the Garden of Eden in Center Field and Ashburn Alley. May their swings be productive and their balls be plentiful and may your many followers in the bleachers surrounding the outfield acquireth multiple souvenirs during this long continued Run of Plenty.

We humbly entreat thee to allow the hurlers of our Beloved Franchise to continue missing the bats of their enemies while never missing the hands of their catchers who are in the finest tradition of the Tribes of Bob Boone. May their BABIP be continuously lowered along with all flyballs and grounders finding their way into the dependable hands of thy faithful servants in the luscious green grass and curated dirt.

We beseech of thee to prevent injury and to permit a rapid revivification of those who have momentarily left us, especially the one called The Big Piece and the one called YATM. We once again pleadeth with thee to lift the Curse of Second Base away from this Team forevermore.

We ask thee to protect and guide both the decisions of Charles F. Manuel and Ruben Amaro, Junior. Leadeth Charlie away from the folly of multiple Juan Pierre appearances and Ruben to maketh the correct call on the one called Hollywood and on any potential acquisition he may maketh in the middle of the Battle of 2012.

Finally, we deferentially propose the following petitions for thy compassionate deliberation:

For Many Victories
For the Scoring of Many Runs
For Above Replacement Production in the First Two Months
For Plentiful Pinch Hits
For the Ease of Jonathan Papelbon Saves
For the Perpetuation of the Open Window
For Another 100 Wins
For the Smiting of Our Enemies
For Another Division Title and Pennant
For Another World F*cking Championship

We ask all of these things in thy just and forgiving name, O wise BaseBa’al.

Amen.

We thank Thee O wise Baseba'al for answering our prayers and granting Thy humble servants franchise records and total domination by our Starting Rotation.  

Now as we enter month the tenth of the Year of Baseba'al One-Hundred and Forty Two, we beg of Thy compassion and greatness to grant our Beloved Team the esteemed title of World Champion.  

Once again we asketh of Thee to withhold Thy vengeance against the Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Club and all of its players.  Likewise we do asketh in Thy kindness the following:

May all of our enemies forgetteth to swingeth the bat and fieldeth the ball.

May our Starting Rotation continue their domination thanks to Thy graciousness.

May Thou continue to lead our groundballs and flyballs to open spaces and into the stands.

May Thou guideth the Gut of Charles F. Manuel evermore to the right decision.

May Thou guideth every pitch of our Rotation and Bullpen to the glove of the man named Chooch.

May Thou allowest our Starting Lineup to produce our daily bread of Ten Runs.

May Thou allowest Ryan Madson to saveth all in October.

And may we all processeth in the bright light known as Broad Street on a Sunny Day of October to celebrate the redemption and salvation of all Thy People.

We humbly beseech of Thee to grant our prayer in Thy just, holy, and merciful Name.

Amen. 

This is a slightly modified version of what I wrote for my own blog. However, I wanted to introduce it to a more baseball-inclined audience that what I normally have.  This was written to be a trifle provocative, so please accept this in the spirit that is intended. -- W.M.

In the past couple of days, there has been a bit of talk about Major League Baseball re-aligning their divisions and teams.  Each of the other major sports leagues have re-aligned in the past decade while baseball went to its current alignment in 1994 (the only minor change being the Milwaukee Brewers moving to the National League, a move that coincided with the entrance of expansion franchises Tampa Bay and Arizona in 1998).  

As it stands the, NL has sixteen teams and the AL has fourteen; much of the talk surrounds 'evening' out the two leagues.  Former Nationals GM (and recruitment cheating enabler) Jim Bowden put forth this 'radical' plan that would effectively eliminate the two leagues in favor of 'conferences' based on geographic realities.  At the heart of all of this (and the real reason for talking about this) is the idea of expanding the playoffs.  

Bud Selig, the MLB Commissioner For Life has made it a stated goal that he wants at least one more team per league in the postseason; others have said they don't mind if they have an NBA or NHL style of postseason.  I think that would be a rotten idea.  Part of baseball's charm is that they don't let everyone and his mother into the postseason.  Over half of the teams in the NBA and NHL make their playoffs; only just over one-quarter of MLB teams make it in.  It is a privilege that a team earns, and they have to work hard over 162 games during the season to get in.  Stumbling through the back door is a rarity in baseball, but it is seen all too often in the other aforementioned sports.

The solution is actually quite simple - it's so simple in fact, it makes a lot of sense and it would work so well that it would never happen.  My solution involves a couple of different aspects, which I now present to you...

1) Contraction

It is such an ugly word in baseball, especially after Bud's ham-handed attempt to impose it on the Twins and Expos about ten years ago.  My thought would be to trim some dead wood from Major League Baseball.  There are thirty teams now - six teams need to be eliminated.  The candidates are both Florida teams (Marlins and Rays), the Colorado Rockies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Washington Nationals, and the Oakland Athletics.

The first four teams are all recent expansion franchises from the past eighteen years.  The Marlins and Rockies joined in 1993; the Rays and D'Backs in 1998.  Florida and Arizona are great Spring Training states and they should stay that way.  Colorado has always had a bastardized game that requires a humidor just to make things 'fair'.  

The other two will be a bit more controversial - first, the Nationals (when they were the Expos) were once a prime candidate to be contracted.  Then they became the red-headed stepchild of MLB until they were sold to the Lerner family in DC, who promptly bungled quite a few things. Even the stadium, which is nice, is cold and sterile, and designed with the express purpose of separating the fans from their money rather than being a location to watch a baseball game. Washington, DC is a Redskins town first, then a basketball town; baseball, no matter what history people will talk about concerning the Senators, will always bring up the rear behind those and hockey.  The fanbase isn't there in such a transient area - just look at me, the Phillies fan, who has lived in the area for well over twenty years now, and likely will never build up a groundswell.  

Finally, Oakland, which was once based in Philadelphia (until 1954) and Kansas City (1955-67), just has never had the great draw, even when they were very good (late 1980's, early 2000's) or great (1971-75).  While the Bay Area can theoretically support two teams, the lion's share of that support goes to the Giants of San Francisco. Their finances are screwed up as a result, and while there is consistent talk of moving the team out of Oakland itself (to San Jose or some other close locale), it is time to end the dual-team Bay Area experiment.

2) Re-Alignment

There are two potential plans for this - one involving a 154-game season, and one involving a 162-game season. First, there will be at minimum, two twelve-team leagues.  The traditional National and American Leagues will remain as they are, minus the teams removed above.

154-Game Season: No divisions, twelve teams in the league and a team will play every other team in its league fourteen times during the season - two three-game series and two four-game series, one home and one away.  I wish to see interleague play completely eliminated as it cheapens the value of both the regular season and the World Series.  However, I do leave room for one scenario that would allow for some interleague.*

There are two ways to go about the postseason - 1) Do it as it was prior to 1969 and whoever has the best record in the league goes to the World Series or 2) Have the top two or four do a tournament for the pennant, similar to what we have now - a best of five followed by a best of seven for the pennant.  There is a bit of flexibility with this kind of alignment and scheduling.

162-Game Season: This would essentially bring MLB to the scheduling of sorts in 1969, when they went to two divisions in each league.  A team would play each of its division rivals eighteen times (90 games) and all the teams in the other division twelve times (72 games). The issue would be who would be in which division, but never fear, here is the solution...

NL East: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
NL West: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco
AL East: Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Toronto 
AL West: Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Seattle, Texas

The divisions are aligned here also to keep some of the traditional rivalries intact, such as Chicago-St. Louis in the NL and Minnesota-Chicago in the AL. This particular alignment would not allow for any kind of interleague play, but it would put an emphasis on winning the division, which is something that has gotten lost a little bit in the past fifteen years since the advent of the Wild-Card.  The 154-game division-less leagues allow for more teams to make the postseason if desired, but the division alignment would eliminate having any more than two teams from each league making the postseason at all.  The division winners would play a seven-game series for the right to go to the World Series and it would be that simple.   

*The 154-game schedule can be lengthened to 162 games by adding two four-game interleague series - playing one against the team in the other league that finished where you did (fourth place NL team plays fourth place AL team, and so forth), and playing one against the 'mirror' team in the standings (First place NL team plays twelfth place AL team; third place AL team plays tenth place NL team, and so forth).

3) Pipe Dreams

Let me just say this: I loathe the Designated Hitter.  It's a very simple concept - you play in the field, you hit.  In a perfect world, the DH would not exist  in any circumstances whatsoever.  People can whine all they want about pitchers who can't hit and so forth, but the fact still remains that the DH is an artificial inflationary measure and is an interloping aspect of the game.  At worst, keep it where it is - in the American League only and at best, eliminated it altogether.  The day the DH becomes a regular aspect of the National League is the day the game starts dying a death by a thousand cuts (/Hyperbole).

The main issue here, though, is the fact that all of these changes have to be collectively bargained with the MLB Players' Association, long acknowledged as the most powerful union in America.  Six teams being eliminated could only be done with the consent of the players, and the elimination of 150 jobs just wouldn't sound too appealing to them.  

Likewise, the union is the roadblock concerning the DH - it is a way to allow (sometimes) washed up non-athletic hitters to steal money get paid lucrative sums. David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Adam Dunn, and Jim Thome would not have jobs if they had to play the field for at least seven innings; no team would waste the roster space on a one-dimensional player.  It's in the MLBPA's interest to keep the DH and to have as many teams as possible.

Anyway, this is all a faint hope. It will never happen, but this is how it would be in a fantasy world.  Think about it, though - the talent level would be so much less diluted than it is now; several players who have no business sniffing a Major League roster will never make it past Double-A.  The pitching would improve (a complaint always heard around expansion time), and there would be a little more parity in MLB (although I do believe such a thing is a tad overrated). This post has been an exercise in wishing more than anything else, but I suppose a man can dream, right?

Fire away.

[edited to add jump and update date & time]

Something we have been kicking around during the game threads has been the Phillies’ approach at the plate, especially with regard to getting ahead in the count, namely 3-0 and 3-1. Our eyes tell us there is something off about certain hitters and how they hit once they get to those particular counts, but it is hard to ascertain precise numbers. This is an attempt to get a feel for where the Phillie hitters stand in those situations. How the numbers are to be interpreted, I am not sure at this point; without doing this for every team we aren’t going to know what would be considered ‘average' at this point in time.

A note about the methodology in compiling – I was not interested in how they hit in a specific count; you can look that kind of stuff up at B-R and Retrosheet. What I wanted to see was what the results would be ONCE a hitter got to the deep so-called "hitter’s counts". There are two charts – one for 3-0 counts and one for 3-1 counts. There is a bit of overlap, considering that many hitters are taking a strike on the 3-0 count. If that happened, then it has been counted on both charts.

I went through every plate appearance and tracked hits and walks; not making an out was what I was looking for here. There is no distinction held between four-pitch walks or walks after eleventy billion foul balls, so long as the hitter got to 3-0 during his plate appearance. I do not include intentional walks, unless it was just a fourth ball intentional walk (i.e. putting him on after the count got to 3-0 already - which has happened, I believe, only 2-3 times this season).

Key - T.P.A.: Total Plate Appearances; P.A.: Plate Appearances with that count

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To the great and compassionate BaseBa’al, protector of the Game, we beseech thee to withhold thy vengeance from the Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Club and its players.  

We ask of thee to guide their ground balls into the hole, their line drives to land in safety on the luscious green grass planted in thy honor, and their fly balls to sail beyond the reach of their enemy’s glove and, whenever possible in thy kindness, beyond the outfield fence. 

We humbly beg of thee to allow the pitchers of our Beloved Team to miss the bats of their enemies and to find the hands of Chooch always.  When, in thy mercy, thou allowest the enemy to make contact, may they only hit weak grounders and popups that shall always find the unfailing gloves of thy humble servants.

We implore of thee to prevent injury and to grant a safe, speedy return and resurrection of those who have temporarily left us, especially Chase Utley, Domonic Brown, and Placido Polanco.  We also plead with thee to lift the Curse of Second Base away from this Team forevermore.  We ask thee to protect and guide both the decisions of Charles F. Manuel and Ruben Amaro, Junior.  Leadeth Charlie away from the abyss of the Gut and Ruben away from the folly of the Smug.

Finally, we docilely submit the following petitions for thy benevolent consideration:

For Domination by the Starting Rotation
For the Scoring of Many Runs
For the Accuracy of Ryan Howard’s Throws
For Plentiful Pinch Hits
For Bullpen Competence
For Two Halves of the Good Raul Ibanez
For 100 Wins
For Another World F*cking Championship

We ask all of these things in thy just and merciful name, O wise BaseBa’al.

Amen.