SB Nation User Blog: brian8065

Scolinos was more than just a coach

brian8065 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:16:09 -0000

Scolinos was more than just a coach

It is hard to make this a real Rockies post, but I will try. I had two great coaches in my life, Coach Scolinos and Marcel Lachemann. Both of these guys new each other very well.

Lachemann of course was a coach for the Rockies.

Coach Scolinos had a thousand stories. I will share three here. He saw a fly trying to get out of a window, and said to a player, "That fly is smarter than you are." Then he would show how the fly is trying over and over again to get outside through the window, hitting the window in a different spot each time. He then said to the player, "If you were the fly, you would be doing this!" and coach would make a buzzing sound as he hit the window at the same spot with his finger over and over. His point to the player was that he was trying the same thing repeatedly and getting the same result.

Coach had a favorite story about meeting an ex-player who played for him in college. Coach asked him what he was doing, and the player said that he was a street cleaner. Coach was visably surprised and saddened that this college grad was cleaning the streets. The player then said to coach, "Don’t worry coach, I got the cleanest streets in the city." His point was that every job was important, and always worth doing the best you can.

Coach would get one of his players every year to help him illistrate a point. He would tell the player that everytime he would fake hit the player, the player would fall down, then get right back up. Couch would do this in front of all of his players, and tell them that if you get knocked down, you get right back up, and don’t just lay there.

Coach would have pitcher and catcher meetings. I was neither, but I went to all of them, as did many other players and non-players. It was the most instructive baseball class imaginable. It was so fun, that I could not wait for the next one to start. Ex-Rockie Mike Munoz was in those classes most days I was.

Longtime pitching coach Mark Wiley played for coach Scolinos. He was an assistant to Dan O'Dowd for a short while, and in that time convinced O'Dowd to bring Rodrigo Lopez to the Rockies.

Second article about Helton on Baseball Prospectus

brian8065 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:14:22 -0000

Second article about Helton on Baseball Prospectus

Look for my comment on the article.

If Helton had played his entire career at a extreme pitchers park, and his park adjusted numbers were the same, these guys would be falling over themselves pointing out how Helton should be a HOF'er.

Oops, Scott Beerer again

brian8065 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:06:33 -0000

Oops, Scott Beerer again

You need a subscription.

Scott Beerer

brian8065 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:05:16 -0000

Scott Beerer

Interesting tidbit about Scott Beerer down in Modesto.

A few words about Clint

brian8065 — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:00:03 -0000

There are several Purple Rowers that would like to see Eric Young Jr. brought up to take Clint Barmes’es job. I cannot disagree anymore. Especially reading Brian Cartwright’s analysis on Baseball Prospectus as to where EY2 would do at the Major League level.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=1337

Let my argument for how good Barmes is start out with how awful he is about taking a walk. Somebody on Purple Row stated that Barmes will swing at a pick off to first. This is what stops him from being an All-Star. To a baseball stat person, which is a lot of the Purple Row community, this is an unforgivable shortcoming. He is getting better at it, as his stats this year have improved considerably.

With that out of the way, Barmes should be the NL Gold Glove winner. He is, or is very near, the best defensive second baseman in all of baseball. He was a very good defensive shortstop when he played there. I remember going to a game in 2006 where he made several difficult plays at short. I bet Clint Barmes could play any position. If pressed, he could catch. If really pressed, I bet he would be one of the best position players to pitch. He is a terrific athlete, with a good arm, who plays a smart defense. A switch from Barmes to Eric Young would be a big drop off defensively. I have read that Eric Young is a serviceable second baseman.

It is easy to look at Eric Young’s offensive numbers in Colorado Springs, especially his .388 OBP and 50 Stolen Bases, and want that up on the Rockies. Brian Cartwright from Baseball Prospectus does not think he will do nearly this well, as he projects a .255 BA and a .326 OBP. Even at that, his OBP is better than Clint’s, who is at .313 this year, and .304 career. Clint hits for power though. He may end up with 20 HR this year. His Slugging Percentage is .468, which is second in the league for Second Basemen. His OPS+ is 99 right now, which for second basemen, is pretty good. Chase Utley is far and away the best offensive second baseman, with an OPS+ of 150. Here are the National League second basemen that qualify for the batting crown by OPS+:

Player	Team	OPS+
Chase Utley	PHI	150
Freddy Sanchez	PIT	114
Orlando Hudson	LAD	109
Skip Schumaker	STL	107
Brandon Phillips	CIN	106
Dan Uggla	FLA	102
Felipe Lopez	MIL/ARI	100
Clint Barmes	COL	99
Luis Castillo	NYM	99
David Eckstein	SDG	87
Kazuo Matsui	HOU	72

Five teams do not have a second baseman with enough at bats to qualify for the batting title, so I did not include them.

I just do not see EY2 in the same category as Clint Barmes. I believe Barmes is a better hitter and offensive player, and a far better defensive player. When you consider his defense, Clint is in the top tier of a group of players that are all close to being the second best second baseman in the league behind Chase Utley. EY2 would not even be in this group, at this time.

I am not down on Eric Young. I hope he continues to improve, and becomes our second baseman someday. Right now, he is decidedly blocked.

Relief

brian8065 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:33:49 -0000

As everyone knows, The Rockies have a big hole in their game. The current relievers for the Rockies are Houston Street, Josh Fogg, Matt Daley, Manny Corpas, Franklin Morales, Joel Parelta and Juan Rincon. Street is great, but there is no real #2 man. I do not believe there is one in the organization. If we do not get at least the wild card, this is the reason. I would like to see two pitchers added.

Take your pick on who goes between Fogg, Daley, Parelta and Rincon. Like most Rockies fans, I like Fogg, and he has done well when he has pitched. Daley, Parelta and Rincon have all been OK, but not comparable to Taylor Buchholz. We need a pitcher or two of that level.

One of the results of having a week bullpen is more pressure is put on our starters. You can't help but notice that Jim Tracy stays with his starters longer than Clint did. This has the potential of hurting us down the road. I feel that Tracy does not have confidence in the back end of the bullpen.

On everybody's "Power Rankings" the Dodgers are at or near the top. Baseball Prospectus has the Dodgers as the number one team. If you take our best lineup (which includes Seth Smith), our players have a better OPS+ than the Dodgers best 8. Our starters are at least close to being as good as theirs, and depends on how you look at it, ours are better.

It is our bullpen that is clearly the problem. These are the guysthat I would be willing to trade for players close to Buchholz's quality. EY2, Garrett Atkins (lol), Matt Murton, Sadly Ryan Spillborghs, possibly Carlos Gonzalez (for the right guy), Jeff Kingery, and even, (gulp), Seth Smith.

For instance, trade Garrett Atkins, where we pick up most of the salary, and EY2 to the Orioles for Jim Johnson. Trade EY2 to Oakland for Michael Wuertz. Get Bobby Seay from the Tigers. Get someone. Or two. We have average guys now. We do not need quantity, we need quality. For you EY2 lovers out there, we have a second baseman now.

I assume that Dan O'Dowd is working on something. I would like a rumor or two to ease my mind. This is a big hole, and if it is not fixed, we will underperform with a very good team.

Hurdle, O'Dowd and the Bunt

brian8065 — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:26:46 -0000

I wish to comment on Hurdle’s decision to bunt Iannetta in the 8th inning and Spilborghs in the 9th inning. The good news is that Iannetta correctly hit into a double play. Maybe Hurdle will not try it again with him. What troubles me is that Spilborghs laid down a good bunt, which was terrible news. Hurdle will now be encouraged to bunt with Spilborghs all season now.

Hurdle looks at this as though it is "Good fundamental Baseball". He says it all the time. As if he knows? This is the strategy part of baseball. To my knowledge there are no baseball strategy books. I am a poker player. I have over 50 poker books, all of which I have read, some 5 times. When I am at the casino, and I get a tricky hand, I go home and look at the math on the computer. I have a program that simulates a million hands after I imput the information, and it tells me the math.

If Hurdle or O’Dowd ever did this they would know not to have guys that have career ops+ of 103 and 111 bunt in that situation. They need to run a simulation of 1,000 games of Iannetta and Spilly swinging away instead of bunting, to really know what they should have done. I cannot imagine that it is even close that the bunt was the right decision.

Someone needs to point this out to these guys.

I like Hurdle. I believe the players will do anything he asks them to do. He seems like a really good person. Hurdle was instramental in the development of several of the best Rockies. I also believe if Hurdle is fired, and anyone else comes in, they will make this same stupid mistake. This really is an O’Dowd problem. He needs to sit Hurdle down and show him the math.

There are no plays in baseball like basketball, hockey or football. When a single is hit to the centerfielder with a runner on second, the first baseman is the cuttoff to home for all teams. (Unless your third baseman is Doug DeCinces and your first baseman is Rod Carew.) It is pretty simple. At an all star team for baseball, the manager does not sit all the players down for hours before the game and explain the plays they plan to run. If Hurdle decides to change the linup it is not going to change things much. Most decisions a manager makes are cut and dried, and easy to make. SO IS THIS ONE. You don’t bunt. It is maddening that he does. Absolutely maddening.

Tracy Ringolsby should ask him. Anyone in the media should ask him, what is the math behind bunting Spillborghs? O’Dowd needs to be asked too. Someone needs to point out to these guys that they are doing the same thing as trading the Browns (New York, Tennessee and St. James) in Monopoly for the Reds (Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois). Someone needs to point out that they are doing the same thing as not protecting their Queen in Chess. Somone needs to point out to these two that they are drawing to inside straights without the odds. I am going to send them both a calculator along with this post.

This decision is a simple math decision. There is a right or wrong answer. I was playing Blackjack with my brother, and he stood pat with a 12 against a dealer 2. I pointed out to him that that was the wrong strategy, and he replied, "I don’t play it that way. I let the dealer bust." Hard to argue with that, but it is completely wrong. If you play it that way a million times, you will have less money than if you play it the correct play a million times. If Hurdle bunts in this situation a million times, he will lose more games than if he lets them swing away a million times. There is no other way to put it. It is not disputable. Two plus two does not equal 5!

It makes me so mad. And to hear them say that it is fundamental baseball? IT ISN’T FUNDAMENTAL BASEBALL!!!!!! It is a bad bet. It is against the odds.

We can only hope that Iannetta does the right thing the rest of his career and continues to hit into double plays when asked to bunt. IANNETTA NEEDS TO TEACH SPILBORGHS HOW TO BUNT!!!! The only players that should sacrifice bunt on the Rockies are the pitchers, Torrealba, and possibly Barmes in the right situation.

Someone please get to O’Dowd and Hurdle. PLEASE.