Hey Austin LSBers. I'm going to watch the game tonight at Billy's on Burnet.  Come on by if you like.  It's at 2105 Hancock Dr. (78756) which is Hancock and Burnet. They've got a TV (and some heaters) on the patio too if it's not too chilly.  I hear the veggie fare is above average for a pub.

Billy's

Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers. Go Rangers.

I started a free head to head league at cbssports.com called Lone Star Ballers.   Any LSBers are welcome to join, I think it will hold 10 teams total. I like H2H because I never learned Roto and I'm an old dog so it's hard to learn new tricks. CBS is easy and seems to work most of the time.   Anyway, the draft is next Tuesday, March 30 at 9pm central.  The password is 'omft'. I think this will get you there:

go to cbssports.com - "fantasy" - "fantasy baseball" -  "fantasy baseball free" - "start a team" - enter your team name-  in "search leagues by name or keyword" enter "Lone Star Ballers" - "join"

password is 'omft'

draft is Tues. Mar. 30 9pm central

What a great player. I know the Rangers don't really have a place for him but amidst all the talk of resigning Marlon Byrd and thinking about what kind of contract he'll get, I was watching the Angels/Red Sox game and started wondering what Figgins might get.  He can play center, and wherever the hell else you want him to play, and he'll hit .300 and steal 40 bases.  He's 31, a career .293 hitter with  a .404 OBP. Maybe he gets caught stealing more than you'd like, and maybe Marlon has more 'leadership' mojo than he does, but who wouldn't want this guy on their team? I guess you could say a utility guy shouldn't get a big contract but at this point he reminds me of a Mark DeRosa, a guy a lot of teams would want.  I say he gets 3yrs/30M and maybe 4 years from some team (probably the Angels.)    What do you think? 

I'm fascinated by Pixar.  The consistent high quality of the movies amazes me, especially given that so many people are involved in making them.  I just saw Up and thought to myself....wow, they did it again.  The pre-story story of the main character's life, which i think takes about 20 or 30 minutes at the beginning of the film is absolutely beautiful.  Maybe the most elegant film storytelling i've ever seen.   Anyway, thought i'd put up a poll to see what some of the favorites are.

106 games to go.  We're a little over 1/3 of the way through the season, and just off a good trip thru juggernaut-land.  We're at 33-23, so where do you think we end up?  My rosy pre-season projection was 92-70, and i'm sticking with that.  10 of the next 25 games are at home, so we're home a lot in June and away a lot in August.  (10 home, 19 away.) Being away in August could be a good thing to escape the heat a little.  The season ends with a 7 game road trip to LAA for 4 games and Seattle for 3 games...could be an important trip west.

Remaining games:

I don't like the Jones/Cat move or the Benson/Feldman move, and not that Wash is making all the roster decisions, but my impression is that he pushed for both of these.  This just reinforces my feeling that Wash is just not a good players' manager. Cat has been a great team guy for the past two years, and he's dumped for a guy who STUNK the past two years.   Feldman was the ultimate team guy last year and he's rewarded  by being sent back to the bullpen for a guy that's been out of baseball for two years, and was never that good when he was "in his prime."  He yanked Cat out of the game when he was online to hit for the cycle, he yanked Laird around while he was here.  He was a non-entity, and maybe even a little subversive, with the Young to third situation, which WAS something the team needed. From snippet's i've read from Byrd and Murphy, my impression is that he hasn't been very clear with them or with Cruz what the outfield roles would be this year, and their uncertainty must have increased during the whole Jones drama. 

As much as I hate Mike Scioscia personally, I think he handles his players much better, to wit, the GMJ drama.  He had some careful quotes in the press where he said he sympathized with Gary, and he told GMJ what was up in no uncertain terms as soon as he knew.  But Wash just seems reactionary, and when he reacts, he's not always thinking about what's going through the mind of the player(s) he's affecting. 

I was so happy at the beginning of spring when Wash said the rotation was set barring injury, and then he goes and proves himself a liar.... and for Benson???  Is Benson really worth yanking my boy Feldman around?  I Still don't understand why Benson can't be the long guy in the pen. 

AS, (after Showalter,) we were supposed to be getting a good communicator and motivator, but time has proven that Wash is bad at in game strategy, bad at managing players' egos, bad at preparing the team for the beginning of the year, and bad at preparing the team defensively.  What is it exactly that he's good at?  I give him props for dealing with CJ last year and being fun to listen to in interviews but.....

I'll add that I do hope both moves work out, and I would much rather have a beer with Ron Washington than Mike Scioscia, but for me these moves sort of put a damper on an exciting spring.

link

In spite of Berardino's words to the contrary,  and MJH's prediction that something would get done with the Sox, IMO a trade with Florida could make a lot of sense for both sides. It would take an additional prospect coming from the Rangers, especially for Johnson, Volstad or Nolasco but few teams have such an abundance of good young major-league ready pitching, and they need a good young major-league ready catcher with upside. Also didn't realize Salty was from Florida.

Here are some '08 stats for the pitchers mentioned and Buchholz:

Josh Johnson - 87ip, 91h, 77k, 27bb, 3.61era, 118era+, 1.35whip.  24yrs, 6'7", 240lb, throws-right. (Had Tommy John - aug '07)

Chris Volstad -  84ip, 76h, 52k, 36bb, 2.88era, 148era+, 1.33whip. 22yrs, 6'7", 190lbs, throws-right. ('08 was his rookie year)

Ricky Nolasco - 212ip, 192h, 186k, 42bb, 3.52era, 121era+, 1.10whip.   26yrs, 6'2" 220lbs, throws-right.

Anibal Sanchez - 51ip, 54h, 50k, 27bb, 5.57era, 76era+, 1.56whip. 24yrs, 6'0", 180lbs, throws-right. (Had shoulder problems after brilliant rookie year in '06. Surgery for torn labrum in '07...risky)

Clay Buchholz - 76ip, 93h, 72k, 41bb, 6.75era, 68era+, 1.76whip. 24yrs, 6'3", 190lbs, throws-right.

Jonathan Sanchez - 158ip, 154h, 157k, 75bb, 5.01era, 87era+, 1.44whip. 26yrs, 6'2", 165lbs, throws-left.

Andrew Miller - 107ip, 120h, 89k, 56bb, 5.67era, 72era+, 1.64whip. 23yrs, 6'6", 210lbs, throws-left.

Red  Sox  send Crisp to  KC for Ramirez

Could this pave the way for a catcher for starting pitcher trade with Texas?   This would seem to make  Masterson more expendable or if they want Masterson to start maybe that would make Bucholz available.  They also say they want a right-handed fourth outfielder so, maybe Cruz or Byrd with Salty for Bucholz? blah blah blah blah blah balh blah blah balh blah blah balh blah blah balh

This is a great article on a guy's memories from Yankee Stadium.  Haven't seen a more eloquent description about the difference between guys like A-Rod and guys like Bernie Williams.  Sad but uplifting. A nice prelude to the playoffs.

This is a great article on a guy's memories from Yankee Stadium.  Haven't seen a more eloquent description about the difference between guys like A-Rod and guys like Bernie Williams.  Sad but uplifting.  A nice prelude to the playoffs.

Good, and lengthy article in the NYT on Barry Zito and how the huge contract has changed his life and his ability to be an effective pitcher.  IMO one of the most fascinating things about sports, and baseball in particular is how pressure affects athletes' performance.  If i were a GM and had the resources, i'd employ someone to analyze which personality types flourish under pressure and which ones fold, and use that data to help decide which free agents to go after.  I guess that's some of what scouts do, and thus the school of thought that scouts have something to offer that sabermatricians don't. If that's true i guess it's a good thing that JD uses a mix of both approaches.  I'm not convinced you could predict how a player would respond to the added pressure of a big contract, but if you could, it would be a huge asset. 

I’ve had this idea for a while now, and a stat Josh Lewin threw out last night reminded me of it.  It concerned Sidney Ponson and how his effectiveness goes down as hitters faced him multiple times through a game.  I’m not a stats guy but I bet a lot of pitchers have similar diminished success as they go through a game.

What if a team had the strategy of only letting a pitcher face a hitter once per game?  What if you had 3 starters for every game and a pitcher was expected to go through the order once or twice at most (a 3 inning average)?  So your staff would be 9 starters and maybe 3 reliever types.  There would be a 3 day rotation so a starter would get 2 or 3 days rest between his 3 inning stints.  If a pitcher just didn’t have it on a given day you move up the rotation or use a reliever, but you can afford to get him out of there quick because you have other starters ready for that day.  Likewise you can let someone go twice through the lineup if they’re mowing em down.  This also seems like a possible economical approach to dealing with the free agent pitching market.  Sabathia is going to cost some team Barry Zitoesque money and there’s no guarantee he will continue to perform like he has in the past, because his success depends on a lot of little fragile ligaments and sinews that are not built to take the punishment they get from a pitcher throwing a ball at 90mph 120 times every 5 days.  With 9 starters you stress the arms less, (very good for a young pitching staff.)  You need 9 average/slightly-better-than-average pitchers rather than 3 or 4 brilliant ones.   And I bet you can assemble a good staff for about 20 million with some veterans and young arms, rather than paying 20 a year for a Barry Zito. 

This also addresses something that has always bugged me about the way games are traditionally managed.  Managers are very hesitant to bring in a reliever early in the game.  If Luis Mendoza is getting lit up in the first, why do we have to wait for the game to get away before we put in Dustin Nippert?  If Mendoza only throws 20 pitches and gets 1 out on a start, just move his next start up a day because he’s rested, and if Nippert goes 4 strong, puts up zeros and throws 80 pitches move him back a day and give him an extra day rest.

Only time would tell if this approach would help keep pitchers healthy, but it stands to reason that if you spread the work out more evenly between 12 guys you have more luck keeping everybody healthy.  Another problem of course is how to test it out.  You’d probably get resistance from pitchers and managers because it’s not traditional, but neither was relief pitching many years ago.  I guess a minor league team having a bad season could experiment with it for a few weeks and see how it worked. 

There are many better baseball minds than mine out there in LSB land, what do you think?

Nice piece here in the Tampa Tribune

about the reaction Hamilton got coming back to Tampa Bay.  Agree that those that booed are wrong.  If anything they should boo the GM and staff for not protecting him. 

Anyway, it also brought to mind the Tampa heckler.  I always hear him but can't ever hear what he's saying.  Anyone have any details of the heckler's rap?  I'm also curious where he sits and would be interested to know what the Tampa fans think of him.  I wonder if he's part of the reason they don't have better attendance even though they're the best team in the AL right now?

Got a kick out of this post

from the Seattle Post.  It's from the Mariner Housewife blog which is funny sometimes.  She has snarky comments about Mike Soscia that I enjoy.

I would, however, point out a few notable differences between Ralphie's Christmas Story charge at Farkus and Richie's ... 1. Ralphie had more righteous fury 2. Ralphie landed many more blows 3. Ralphie was smaller than Farkus 4. Ralphie kicked Farkus's butt. 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8059584

Agree with his summation about what the perception will be if Wash is fired.  I've been in the camp of growing discontent with Wash, but now I'm leaning more toward letting him hang in there for a while.  The team's performance can't get worse (can it?) and a new manager probably won't save this season.   Why not give Wash a few more weeks and see what happens?