Tigers, Braves, and Sox

We're going to do things in reverse order today, starting with comments first. Kevin actually came in and surprised me by leaving some legitimate baseball opinions. Regular readers know that Kevin is Part II of this whole baseball thing I have. He's the guy I go to the ballpark with, and occasionally he'll pipe in with his own comments. They're usually something like, "Roy Halladay is not that good," or, "You know you didn't think the Tigers would do as good as they are." And at least once a week he'll send me an IM that goes something like this:

Kevin: Dude
Reid: What's up man?
Kevin: I was on this message board, and some dude just said that (insert stupid comment here, "the Yankees are the worst team in the league," or, "Barry Bonds is the best player ever," or, "Kenny Rogers will win us the World Series,") and I tore him up. He kept saying these stupid things like, "dude no you're wrong."
Reid: Stupid idiots.
Kevin: Haha yeah.

He also has his own blog when he wants to, and he does other stuff like that. According to him, the Tigers will deal for Bobby Abreu, just because Leyland says it won't happen. Like I said, he is strong in his beliefs. Tell him that the Tigers won't be getting Abreu, and you're wrong. Why do we want Abreu now? The Tigers have been building up one of the best farm systems in the league for the past few years. Eventually, it will be time to trade away some of those prospects for a championship run. I don't think that now is that time. Maybe, come July, the Tigers are 5 games up of the White Sox - then, maybe, you make a deal. But if the Tigers are 5 games back of the Sox, that move doesn't happen. But to deviate for a second to what Yuhsing said, the Tigers do have some hidden problems this year. They strike out a lot, don't walk a bunch, and have an inexperienced rotation. However, the team is winning.

But the Tiger's weak schedule has also helped them to their record. However -- and this is important -- like I've always said, bad teams don't beat average teams. What I mean by this is that, oftentimes, someone will say, "Hey, Roy Halladay (or take your pick,) had a 2-hitter against the Angels. But they have a terrible offense, so it doesn't count." While it may be easier to two-hit the Angels than the Yankees, that doesn't make it an easy thing to do in and of itself. You still need to be a good pitcher to do it. Same thing goes with the Tigers -- they have to be good to do as well as they're doing. So maybe the Tigers are a little worse than their record shows us, but they're not bad. Maybe they should have 47 wins instead of 52, for example. Next, Brandon Inge. He's not  the All-Star that some people think he is, (I keep hearing that people think this. Why?) But he just broke up Clemen's potential perfect game in the bottom of the 3rd. Not a big deal for most, except that Kevin invited me to tonight's game (two hours before gametime,) and I declined. If Clemens had thrown a perfect game or even no-hitter, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. On another note, I was happily watching this game on MLB TV, but then the feed stopped. Of course, when I tried to start it up again, I received the black out message. Alright, I accept that I can't watch any Tigers games, but please, don't tease me about it like that, alright?

Now we're going to shift gears to the Yankees - Braves game. As I mentioned in last night's post, the Braves have gone, in the month that I've been in Chicago and Cincinnati, from 5 games back of the Mets to 16 games back. Why? Perhaps it's because the Mets can't be counted on to choke two seasons in a row. They're not drastically different from last year, yet they have 10 more wins now than they did exactly one year ago - and the Braves have 10 fewer wins. Last year, at this time, Atlanta had 42 wins and New York had 37. This year, New York has 47 and Atlanta has 32. Atlanta is worse and New York is better. So maybe the previous theory is incorrect - the Mets are better, but that's not why the Braves are in last, (however, if the Mets had the same record this year as they had last year, the Braves would only be 6 games back, not 16.) Maybe it was the not-so-good start the Braves got off to this year, which they never really recovered from. Throw in a losing streak like this, and look where you end up. But, remember this. The Braves are baseball's version of a vampire. Remember that. Just when you start to throw some dirt on them, they come back and take the division again. All the evidence points to this not happening this year, but you never know with these guys. And they just showed a 'highlight' clip of Jaret Wright getting hit by comebackers. Are you kidding me? I think they showed four, and once he was even hit with a bat. And, I also believe he was wearing a Yankee uniform each time. Considering he's only pitched about three games as a Yankee, I can't imagine how many times the guy has been drilled in his career.

Well, it looked like Buehrle was kicking around the Pirates, surprise. So I jumped to that game, because I like Mark Buehrle. From the moment I turned the game on, here is what happened: Craig Wilson got an infield single, Jose Castillo hit a double, advancing Wilson to third, and then Ronny Paulino walked on four pitches. Then Joe Randa comes to the plate and came about two feet away from the Grand Slam. Mark Buehrle is on my pay league Fantasy Team, and suffice it to say that there must have been some sort of black magic at work there. You know it's time for one of our favorite BHGM references... Black Magic in Baseball?

And they just showed a very distraught-looking Jim Tracy explaining why Oliver Perez has been moved out to the bullpen. He said that you never know which Perez is going to show up every fifth day. You just never know, he continued, and that's just really hard to deal with. You know what else is hard to deal with? A guy that, in the last four years, has only had an ERA below 5.38 one time. Once. That one time was his unforgettable - at least for the Pirates - 2004, when he had his breakout year. He went 12-10, with a 2.98 ERA, and 239 K's in 198 innings. Remarkable. That was the good Oliver Perez. Now, let me make things simple for you, Jim. In 2004, the Good Oliver Perez showed up. In 2003, 2005, and 2006, the Bad Oliver Perez showed up. This isn't a matter of specific games, it's a matter of being good, and that's something Perez hasn't been since 2004. Here's something else that's hard to deal with. Your team has lost 11 games in a row. They have three games with the Defending World Champs, and then they have three games with the team that currently has the best record in baseball. That's what's really hard to deal with. Which brings us to something that BPS has asked repeatedly... "Do these games with the NL still count?"

It's like a turkey-shoot here. I wrote, much earlier, about some possible reasons why the AL is so much better than the NL. The crux of my theory was essentially that a player needs to field in the NL, but not in the AL. Therefore, when a good bat rises through an AL organization, he can continue even if he can only hit, and not field. In the NL, this player would be dealt for another guy. You could say that this makes for a more potent 8-man lineup than the AL, but that's obviously not the case for two reasons. If it was true, the NL would be evenly matched when they played at home. The second reason, which is more likely the ultimate cause, is that the game is so balanced right now that's its impossible to have 8 men that are more potent than 9 men.

Thank you, Roy. - April 5, 2006
AL v. NL, Mariners, Nats, and more! - April 1, 2006