SB Nation User Blog: bdief

2009 Spring Training Schedule Culled

bdief — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:16:25 -0000

From Spring Training Online and confirmed on mlb.com from the Oriole, Tampa Bay and Marlins web sites:

Feb 25 - Marlins – 1:05 PM
Feb 25 - @ BAL (Ft. Lauderdale)
Feb 27 - Washington
March 1 - @ FLA (don’t you just call this a home game?)
March 2 - Tampa Bay
March 4 - World Baseball Classic Team
March 5 - @ NYM (Port St. Lucie)
March 7 - @ HOU (Kissimmee)
March 8 - Marlins
March 10 - Detroit
March 11 - @ FLA
March 12 - Boston
March 13 - Baltimore (Split squad)
March 14 - Atlanta
March 15 - @ PHI (Clearwater)
March 16 - @ DET (Lakeland)
March 18 - Baltimore (split squad)
March 19 - @ TB (Port Charlotte)
March 20 - Philadelphia
March 21 - @ WAS (Viera)
March 22 - Baltimore
March 23 - Washington
March 25 - Houston
March 26 - New York Mets
March 27 - @ BOS (Ft. Myers)
March 28 - Baltimore
March 29 - @ MIN (Ft. Myers)
March 30 - Florida
April 1 - New York Mets
April 2 - @ FLA

Thanks to Walk Off Walk for pointing out that schedules are slowly being released.

Andrew Zimbalist on St. Louis NPR

bdief — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:54:35 -0000

On Tuesday, July 1 sports economist Andrew Zimbalist will be interviewed on KWMU - St. Louis NPR from 11:06 - 12 N.

Call in:
(314) 382-TALK (8255)

Or listen:
http://www.kwmu.org/listen.php

Some of his titles include:
Baseball and Billions (1992)
Sports, Jobs and Taxes (1997)
Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-time College Sports (1999)
The Economics of Sport, I & II (2001)
May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003)
In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006)
The Bottom Line: Observations and Arguments on the Sports Business (2006)
Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change (2007)

A home for Reyes?

bdief — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:30:29 -0000

obviously a little bored today, but this headline caught my eye.

Would Mo send uber-whipping boy and starter-turned-reliever Anthony Reyes over there?

What could you get for Reyes right now? Is Brandon Wood a possibility?

Maybe lightning could strike twice with trades involving the Angels.

Uncle Rico in the Bigs?

bdief — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:21:35 -0000

As per the latest Bird Land, Rico Washington has been tagging along with the big club the past few days.

D’Angelo Jimenez figured to be the Cardinals backup option if Ryan is unavailable for opening day, but a new name has entered the picture as of this morning. Rico Washington, a utility infielder from the Cardinals’ minor-league camp, is with the team today, has been with the team sporadically over the past week and will travel with the team to Springfield tomorrow. Washington offers an alternative to Jimenez, one with minor-league options still available.

A couple of days ago I was worried about the backup 3B spot if we lost Glaus for any extended period of time. Maybe this addresses this. Not sure if he offers a whole lot of pop to the bench.

3B backups

bdief — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:43:45 -0000

Is anyone as concerned with the options should something bad happen to Troy Glaus? Him being out of the lineup today made me think of it.

I shudder at the thought of having the offensive juggernaut that includes Miles, Kennedy and Izturius in the same lineup.

Any thoughts on Plan B (assuming an extended injury)? Mather, Freese, Shannon, Torre, Boyer, Gaetti???

Reyes' New Pitch (too bad he doesn't know it yet)

bdief — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:30:02 -0000

I have an undocumented history of wanting Anthony Reyes to learn the split-finger fastball.

I have an undocumented history of wanting Anthony Reyes to learn the split-finger fastball. I had thought when all of the talk about Reyes needing to learn to keep the ball down that the best way to not affect him too much was to let him continue with the 4-seamer and then add the split. It gets the ground out that the coaches want and the Ks that Reyes wants with very little adjustment to his philosophy/approach.

This was brought back to the spotlight after his last start when he seemingly abandoned the changeup altogether.

Today, somebody just pointed out to me that Paul Byrd was listening to my advice even though I never gave it to him.

A couple of things that led me to this conclusion:

I will always remember in 2002 when Andy Benes came back from his knee injury he picked up the split and was striking out hitters at a rate that I thought was not possible for him. What changed? He added a splitter.
Watching Danny Haren pitch in the playoffs last year. He would get a hitter 1-2 or 0-2 and then let the splitter fly. It always seemed (and this is probably revisionist history) to get either a strikeout or a groundout.

I know that there is a stigma against the pitch. The Columbus Dispatch article has lines about an old dog needing a new trick, etc. But the thing is just too darn effective. And Anthony is in need right now.

This just seemed like a good time to bring this up since the Cards are open to advice at this point in the season.

PSA on getting to Busch via 40 East

bdief — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:16:02 -0000

This is a suggestion for anyone taking I-64/US40 east to downtown for a Cards game early this season.

After spending 35 minutes on the Broadway exit Sunday afternoon it should be known that the construction at the bottom of the exit is not finished yet. I had assumed it was done. I was wrong.

Get off at 11th or 14th streets. Take Metrolink. Take I-44. Anything other than the Broadway exit. You will be a happier fan and won't miss much.

Today in Jupiter

bdief — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:36:18 -0000

I just got back to Ocala (not a quick drive from Jupiter).

The larger picture was covered pretty thoroughly by the postgame article and Goold's blog.

Saw Braden Looper start again. I was hoping to see someone else, but thems is the breaks. Once again he didn't allow hitters to get deep into counts. A lot of ground balls. Of the four hits allowed, I think 2 were fly balls. The last inning was interesting as the Braves started making more contact in the 4th, but it didn't translate to runs. He was probably saved by two leaping catches by Jolbert Cabrera.

On Jolbert: I like the idea of him. Can hit (at least in Japan) and has some pop. Plays all of the infield positions. I wouldn't cry if he took Miles' job. Ain't happening, but if...

Got to see Ryan Franklin again. There isn't anything that remarkable about him. So, I'll move on.

Ankiel had a homer and a double. His batting stance looks different from the third base side versus the first base side. What this means, nothing. Just a thought I had. He doesn't seem too interested in taking pitches at this point. I would be surprised if he saw any more than five or so total in all of his plate appearances today.

Finally saw some corner outfielders field some balls. Duncan had two catches. Nothing difficult, nothing dropped. What has been most impressive about him have been his walks. He has worked really to get them. In at least one PA today and onece in Vero he was 1-2 or 0-2 and worked his way on base. Very promising, I hope.

Home games bring more starters. All but one or two projected opening day starters were out there today. Kennedy did nothing to wow me. He didn't look too quick on a double play that was turned, but maybe that was because he didn't have his usual playmate out there.

Braves: Chipper fouled a ball off of his ankle and couldn't move towards first later on a ground ball to end the at bat. He was immediately replaced in the bottom of the inning.

Flight back to St. Louis tomorrow. One irrelevant note: Everyone told me to get the Dean dog. 1/3 lb beef dog with peppers and onions. I have to say I was left wonting. I would still prefer the kosher dog at Busch with grilled onions. Which I can in only a few short weeks.

Report from Vero Beach

bdief — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:48:10 -0000

Just spent a beautiful day in Vero Beach watching Skip Schumaker hit two home runs. So much going on so I will only leave a few thoughts about what I saw.

Looper: Looked like he kept everything down. Only two well hit balls to the outfield. Almost all of the hits were on the ground. Sawed off a couple of bats. He had two nice defensive plays in the field. Overall, he looked good. We will not know if experiment will work out until he has to face a set of good hitters three times in a game to see if he has the arsenal to be a starter.

Ankiel: He was robbed by Nomar for what could have been an extra base hit, but honestly the balll wasn't hit all that hard to begin with. When he swings and misses (he struck out once) he looked BAD. When he (what I thought to be) guesses correctly he tags the ball.

Franklin and Narverson: They both had troubles throwing strikes. Neither came in to start an inning, but there wasn't anyone on base in Franklin's case and I can't remember if anyone was on when Narv came in. I was too sunburned and tired (bad travel experience) late in the game to remember anyone pitching after the 7th.

I saw much talk about Tagg Bozied on the Board. If you haven't seen him in person he is just a right handed hitting version of Chris Duncan. Their builds are eerily similar. He had two nice defensive plays early in the game. Unrelated: Gonzalez's shot was an absolute bomb.

The kids: It looked like I might get a good chance to see Ryan, Hansen, and Rasmus play, but they only got one at-bat each and a few innings in the field. Nothing worth writing about, but I just did.

Dodger note: James Loney is a hitting fool. He was beyond awful in right field. Allowed a very easy ball drop in front of him for a Rolen single (although in his defense the sun was in his eyes). Any lineup where Grady Little doesn't have his bat in the lineup is one that does not deserve to win. Nomar will probably be at 3rd base by the end of April. I think he never should have been resigned.

Brad penny looked lost. Couldn't get anything over for a strike. Everything that was hit was up the middle. I just saw that he used the "got my work in" excuse for his performance. Anyone who had any thoughts of trading for him needs to take a few breaths.

Dodgertown: It is a shame that the Dodgers are moving to AZ next season. Vero is just such a nice location. Most interesting is that there are no dugouts. The players are exposed to the sun just as much as the fans are (supposedly Branch Rickey's idea). There was someone behind me today who said he had been coming to Vero for 40 years. It was asked if he was ther when they were in Brooklyn. Answer: No, they have been in LA for almost 50 years now.

Tommy L: I can't see how he can get any bigger. He just sits at the corner of the pseudo-dugout. At one point he fell asleep and some fans started chanting his name. He woke up, and simultanously a Cardinal grounded out and he received an ovation for finishing his nap. Not knowing what was going on, he started clapping too. He should just rent himself out for birthday parties.

I'll be in Jupiter on Monday. If the feedback isn't too negative i'll give another update.