SB Nation User Blog: philofthenorth

HBT On Avilanche

philofthenorth — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:00:42 -0000

HBT On Avilanche

This is not news to RRers, but it is nice to see Mike get some notice outside KC.

Redman In The Spotlight

philofthenorth — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:24:22 -0000

Mark Redman is currently being recycled by the compost heap that is the '08 Rockies. The Mets/Rox game is on ESPN right now (it probably looked good last winter), and Redman is starting a game on national TV; let that sink in. He just gave up a 3-run blast to Beltran in a decidedly uneven matchup of former Royals' All-Stars. Redman is on pace for a 27 run 18 hit complete game masterpiece. Hurdle should let it happen.

Are we off the hook now?

philofthenorth — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:39:27 -0000

Are we off the hook now?

Talked To Jason Waugh Today

philofthenorth — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:48:34 -0000

I mentioned this in the overthrow thread today, but it was right as the game ended, so I don't know if anyone noticed. Who is Jason Waugh?

http://smcgaels.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060402aaa.html

"June 4, 2002

Moraga, CA - On day one of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft, Mark Teahen (Yucaipa, CA), Jason Waugh (Bakersfield, CA) and Brett Wayne (Simi Valley, CA) were drafted by the Oakland A's, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. Teahen was drafted by the Athletics with the 39th overall pick. The selection by the A's was a first round supplemental pick where Teahen was the seventh player taken by Oakland. Waugh was selected by the Blue Jays with the 326th overall pick in the 11th round and Wayne was picked up by the Dodgers with the 661st overall pick in the 22nd round."

It was a slow day at work today; I was watching the Sawks/Sailors game with no sound while listening to the game via KCSP internet feed. I noticed a young guy in the window to the lobby where people wait for us to take them to work. I told him the game on the TV was not the game he was hearing; he knew this, but was listening to the Royals game. Long story short, Waugh is one of Mark Teahen's good friends. He washed out of the Jays' organization, but they're still close from their college days.

He asked if Teahen was at 1B again; I said yes, they're starting Gathright in CF again. We discussed the Royals for about 15 minutes; I won't give details of his opinions, good or bad, about the players, but he does think Moustakas is the real deal from what I gathered. We did talk about Teahen's recent power surge, trading Berroa (he was unaware of this), Gordon's season to date and other general baseball bullshit. He certainly seems to know the Royals' organization better than the average fan. Our conversation got cut short by a flurry of phone calls, but it was a nice, unexpected pleasure to meet a friend of Teahen's. He seems like a smart, good guy.

We flew him out to the Anna Platform, and he will come back on us, but people usually don't hang around long when they come back. Funny how that works.

The Season That Crushed My Baseball Fan Soul

philofthenorth — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:30:08 -0000

There's no big mystery here. The '64 A's are consistently listed as one of the worst teams of all time. it's obvious now, but to a 9 year old kid whose whole world was baseball, 1964 looked like the year we were going to have a winner at last. Seroiusly. Why? Two words; Rocky Colavito. Here was a real All Star, a power hitter feared by pitchers throughout the league, and somehow Finley's crew had gotten him out of Detroit in exchange for a couple of middling to bad pitchers and Jerry Lumpe, a good MI.

With Colavito in RF and big Jim Gentile at 1B, the middle of the lineup looked like a real MLB team should. A young Dick Green took over for Lumpe at 2B, and Wayne Causey started nearly every game at SS. My hero, Ed Charles, was firmly ensconced at 3B. Unknown to me, the A's had acquired Nellie Matthews from the Cubs for Fred Norman, who would blossom as an effective starter years later. Matthews was handed CF, and he stunk; out of baseball by '66. LF was patrolled by Manny Jimenez, whose dazzling .301 BA in his rookie season still had me convinced he was good, George Alusik (10 HR's!), Jose Tartabull, and occasionally the 22 year old Ken Harrelson. Charlie Lau and Dave Duncan both spent some time behind the plate that year, but the non-descript Doc Edwards was there most of the time. To top it off, a 22 year old Cuban import named "Dagaberto" was on the bench, ready to push Causey for the starting job. To my 9 year old eyes, this was a team for the ages.

And the offense, for the most part, didn't disappoint. Colavito and Gentile had 34 and 28 HR's, respectively. Causey had his career year (.281/.377/.386), Charles banged out 16 HR's, and Dick Green, well, he was Dick Green. This was arguably Colavito's best year, with a career high 137 OPS+. What could possibly go wrong? Three things; pitching, pitching and pitching.

The inspiration for this post was this man.

via www.baseball-almanac.com

He was a dependable, old-fashioned fireman who would later get a win in the '67 Series for Boston. In '64, he logged 128 innings, all aut of the pen. He gave up only 111 hits with a 1.273 WHIP and was selected to the All Star team. Looking at his stats, one thing jumped out at me; he surrendered 23 HR's! The most he ever surrendered in any other season was 12. Then I started examining the rest of the staff; virtually everyone on the staff gave up prodigious numbers of HR's: Orlando Pena- 40, Diego Segui- 30, John Donoghue-24, Moe Drabowsky-24. Even 19 year old Blue Moon Odom surrendered 5 in 17 innings, while Aurelio Monteagudo (who?) contributed 11 in 31.3 innings. A barely used Jack Aker allowed 6 in 16.3 innings and recorded 6 HBP's! All told, the staff surrendered a staggering 220 HR's while compiling an ERA of 4.71. This would be bad today; it was unspeakably atrocious in '64.

So the season itself was bad enough, but in the off season Charlie Finley cemented his place as the most hated owner in the league by allowing this beauty of a trade:

"January 20, 1965: Traded as part of a 3-team trade by the Kansas City Athletics to the Cleveland Indians. The Chicago White Sox sent Cam Carreon to the Cleveland Indians. The Chicago White Sox sent a player to be named later, Jim Landis, and Mike Hershberger to the Kansas City Athletics. The Cleveland Indians sent Tommy John, Tommie Agee, and Johnny Romano to the Chicago White Sox. The Chicago White Sox sent Fred Talbot (February 10, 1965) to the Kansas City Athletics to complete the trade."

This, of course, was how Colavito left KC. True, his numbers declined shortly thereafter, but Hershberger and Landis combined never produced as much offense as Colavito, and Talbot was a non-factor for his entire career. The A's "improved" from 57-105 to 59-103 in '65, but the OF of Landis, Hershberger and Tommie Reynolds may be the worst starting OF of all time.

Then, a few years later, names like Monday, Jackson, Bando, Rudi, Hunter, Dobson, Lindblad, etc. started showing up in the box scores. Success was imminent, and it soon happened; in Oakland. Finley finally sprouted horns and a tail, abandoning all pretense of humanity. Long before steroids and HGH, he robbed me of my childhood innicence, so please bear with me if I'm a little too cynical and prone to gallows humor where the current Royals are concerned; I was already crushed before most of you were born.

Craig Brown At HBT On Teahen

philofthenorth — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:26:30 -0000

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/mark-teahen-falls-down/

This exhaustive look at Teahen's last two years of MLB hitting comes to the same conclusion that many of us here have drawn; Bags needs to pull the ball effectively to be the power hitter he seemed to be in '06. How he accomplishes this is open to debate. I think he needs to take the pitches away to left, and do it with authority; forget about trying to pull them. Once he does that regularly, he will start seeing more pitches he can pull.

This article does not go into the swing mechanics and how to accomplish this. I haven't seen any discussion of this here lately. Thoughts, anyone? I still hold out hope for his power to come up to an acceptable level for RF. Brown also mentions an idea I floated here last year; maybe he's the long term answer at 2B.

An Early One

philofthenorth — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:22:01 -0000

Apparently Hillman got his experimentation out of the way yesterday. For a getaway lineup, this is virtually status quo. We should beat this Badenhop character like a red-headed mule.

D. DeJesus cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.283
M. Grudzielanek 2b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.325
A. Gordon 3b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.287
J. Guillen lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.239
M. Teahen rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.268
B. Butler 1b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.278
M. Olivo c	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.276
T. Pena Jr. ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.179
Z. Greinke p	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Gator sits, Teahie is back, and TPJ patrols the left side once more. I really would like to see Callaspo at 2B against RHP's most of the time. It will be hard to sit Olivo when Buck returns. Olivo so far this year:

G AB R H 2B 3B HRRBI SB AVG OBP SLG

22 76 10 21 7 0 5 13 1 0 4 19 .276 .313 .566

An .879 OPS from a backstop works about anywhere. I know, small sample size and all, but on an offensively challenged team like this, it's hard to ignore.

Today's Lineup

philofthenorth — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:28:51 -0000

I still hate DDJ in LF with Gator in CF. Guillie sits, while Olivo catches and 1B Exgloads; Buck sits. Best of all, Callie starts while TPJ sits, but inexplicably bats 9th. Maybe it's the wisdom of the east; let's hope so. DDJ does appear to like the 3-hole; inscrutable.

Kansas City	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Gathright, CF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.247
Grudzielanek, 2B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.295
DeJesus, LF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.328
Butler, DH	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.283
Gordon, 3B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.271
Teahen, RF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.278
Olivo, C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.255
Gload, 1B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.278
Callaspo, SS	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.368
Totals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Where's The Game Thread?

philofthenorth — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:01:27 -0000

Consider this the game thread- RR

It's 0900 out here and, like Frasier Crane, I'm listening. We got Gil today, while Cleveland counters with the Laffey Curve; can our boys survive yet another encounter with the dreaded Lefty Soft-Tosser? Can Gil throw strikes and keep it in the park.? Is this the new standard lineup (and why is Buck catching at this early hour after a night game?)? Is Olivo happy? Stay tuned to find out this and more.

D. DeJesus cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.358
M. Grudzielanek 2b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.300
A. Gordon 3b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.291
J. Guillen lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.168
B. Butler 1b	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.299
M. Teahen rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.287
M. Olivo dh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.234
J. Buck c	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.240
T. Pena Jr. ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.157
Totals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

We're #22? Have we really sunk...

philofthenorth — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:30:32 -0000

We're #22? Have we really sunk that far?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=baseballpowerpollmarlins&prov=tsn&type=lgns