Tuesday Tidbits

Since the NBA decided to have the Pacers-Heat wait until Wednesday to get started, the NBA was off last night.  Gotta love that during the playoffs.  I think scheduling like this is part of the reason people think that the playoffs in every professional sport, excluding the NFL, lasts too long.  So these guys can play 82 games from late October until early April (basically over a five month window), but they get four days off between series for the Pacers and a week off for the Heat? I understand the NBA doesn't like playing back to backs during the playoffs, but this series should've tipped off last night.

Yesterday in the world of baseball, a common theme reared its ugly head: bullpens in the MLB are struggling.  Jim Johnson of the Orioles blew his third consecutive save last night.  I love the fact that he blew it against the Yankees, but c'mon Jim.  Three straight blown saves is just unacceptable for a playoff contender.  Wanna guess how many saves he blew last season during their magical run to the postseason?  Three.  I'll let that sink in.  The Orioles were clearly overachievers in the minds of most people last season.  One of the main reasons for that was the dominance of their bullpen.  In what should be a tightly contested race for the majority of the season, the Orioles could very well look back and find that these three consecutive losses caused them to miss the playoffs. 

The Mariners managed to lose a ballgame yesterday in which Brendan Ryan and Robert Andino combined for three hits.  Justin Smoak hit a rare home run.  I realize the Mariners are not a stellar baseball team at the moment, but you can't waste the one good offensive day you have every week.   Ryan and Andino had combined for 29 hits on the season before yesterday in 170 at-bats (combined BA .171).  They were 3 for 7 yesterday (.429 combined BA/.500 OBP including Ryan's BB).  When you start Ryan and Andino as your middle infielders in any game, you just pretty much assume you're getting an 0 for 8 out of your 8 and 9 holes for the day.  It's quite clear that you're not going to win very often with those two guys occupying 22% of your lineup.  However, when you actually get production out of them, you must capitalize on it. Back to Smoak's home run.  Smoak was a major prospect not so long ago.  He was the centerpiece of a trade for Cliff Lee.  He's hit 3 HR on the young season.  The Mariners are 0-3 in those games.  Again, when you get offensive production from unexpected places, you need to take advantage of those opportunities.  I realize that it is not that simple. Just because you get production from three unlikely places does not mean that you are going to win the game.  However, it seems that a ton of Mariners fans think that getting Ryan, Andino, and Smoak out of the lineup would help the team.  They all produced yesterday, yet they still figured out a way to lose.

Finally, we get to my favorite story of the day:  Alex Sanabia was clearly spitting on the ball yesterday. 

Click Here for Video Evidence

Okay so spitballing has become a bit of a lightning rod early this season.  Thank you Clay Buchholz.  However, Sanabia is not a good pitcher.  He had a good start last night.  He spit on the ball last night. This doesn't seem to be that difficult of a case to me.  However, he probably wasn't doing it all night because well for one to spit on the ball all night and only get caught once would require one to be a member of some secretive counterintelligence agency.  Sanabia had a rare good start.  He also clearly spit on the ball after giving up the lone run during last night's start.  I say let it go.  It's the Marlins.  If anyone should be allowed to throw a spitter, it is a pitcher for the Marlins.  They need all the help they can get when their offense scores that few runs.  If Sanabia peels off two or three dominant starts in a row, then maybe something should be done.  Let's just say I find it highly unlikely for him to do so.   Playing for the Marlins has to wear on you mentally. He had a slight blonde moment and spit on the ball after giving up a home run.  It's a wonder more Fish pitchers don't do crazy things when they lose their shutout and chances for a win. 

--Pinstripe Wizard

Random Monday Thoughts

Okay everyone. Sorry I have not posted anything in awhile.  I decided to go back and delete all my old posts and start fresh.  I am going to start posting at least one article a day, and if I could ever convince my brother to start writing stuff for the blog, who knows how much material we could get out.  Anyway, our new Monday column is Random Monday Thoughts.  I don't believe I know anyone that enjoys Mondays, and I don't exactly have everything organized in my head on a Monday.  Therefore, this space will be dedicated to random musings about the previous weekend in sports.

 

Baseball

The Dodgers bullpen may be in more trouble that even most experts expected.  Installing Brandon League at closer was a terrible move from the start, but after consecutive rough outings by Kenley Jansen against the Braves, who knows what to do.  I guess they could close with Paco Rodriguez, but he's more of a lefthanded specialist in my not so humble opinion.  A lot of pitchers will go through rough stretches, and in Jansen's defense the Braves are no slouches at hitting, but given League's struggles, the Dodgers cannot afford to have Jansen struggle at all.  According to the Braves broadcast on Sunday, Evan Gattis got his scouting report on Jansen from Justin Upton.  Basically Upton told him to wait until he saw one coming at him, then let it fly.  Jansen throws a lot of cutters (currently 92.0% according to Fangraphs) and they usually are quite successful.  However, the Braves' scouting report from Upton was wait until it looks inside and unload.  Jansen might not be that simple to hit, but he may need to start using his offspeed pitches a bit more if this keeps up.

 

The Blue Jays are in serious trouble.  Stop the presses if you've heard that one so far this season.  The problems are numerous, but the glaring issue is that the Jays are 8-17 against the AL East.  You can't make up ground if you can't beat your division opponents.    They are 1-8 against my beloved Yankees.  As much as I like the Yankees, there is no excuse for the Jays to be 1-8 against them.  Until the Jays start playing significantly better ball against division foes, the non-division results are just completely unimportant. 

 

I know this thought is a bit late, but people really seem to take how good Clayton Kershaw is for granted.  We all know he's stellar, but according to an article I read, he has the lowest ERA of any starter with 1000 IP during the integration in his career.  Baseball-Reference's Play Index agrees.  Just to show you how dominate he's been, the three guys directly behind him are Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, and Jim Palmer.   I know ERA is not a perfect stat, but he's third in ERA+ as well, behind only Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens.  This guy is special and he's only 25.  He's also an absolute steal for the high paying Dodgers at only $11M for this season.  The guy is easily worth twice that amount.

 

David Price being put on the DL is never a good thing, but maybe it will give him a chance to reset his season.  There's no way to know this, but he could very well have been pressing because he had a couple of bad outings in a row that made his stats look rough.  It's a contract year for Price and bad stats might cost him a little money.  As a Yankees fan, I really don't like having to hit this guy as much as we do, but I really hope he gets back and throws like he's capable of as soon as possible.  He's a joy to watch and one of my favorite non-Yankees. 

 

Basketball

So everyone had pretty much written off the Spurs after three games against the Warriors.  Then they decide to sweep the remainder of that series.  Getting the Grizzlies is no consolation prize for winning, and I will admit that I think the Grizzlies will win this series.  However, the offensive performance they laid on that vaunted Memphis defense in Game 1 was a thing of beauty.  No one does that to the Grizzlies.  They won't have nights like that offensively every game, but a belated kudos to Pop for being able to switch from his hardnosed defensive style over to the free flowing offense when his personnel needed him to do so.

 

Lebron decided to respond to Frank Vogel's description of the Heat as "just another team."  I'm sorry that Lebron felt slighted by that comment.  What was Vogel supposed to say? Would you prefer him to say "We're playing the greatest team of all time, and we have no shot at beating them?"  No one would make that claim.  Vogel's statement was just basic coachspeak.  I'm a huge Lebron fan and he normally does a very good job of not making idiotic comments in the press. I thought this one was quite ridiculous.  Shut your mouth and dominate the series if you take offense to being classified like everyone else.

 

I saw news this weekend that Nerlens Noel will be ready to go by December.  Ladies and gentlemen, your surefire No. 1 overall draft pick.  I expect Noel to have a steeper learning curve that Anthony Davis faced this year.  If he's not back until December, you can't honestly expect any serious production from the guy until late February.  I'm not saying he's not worthy of being the first overall selection, but whomever ends up with him is most likely going to be looking at another year picking high in the lottery. 

 

Hope you enjoyed these random musings.  Feel free to comment below and tell me what you think.

 

--Pinstripe Wizard