WBC - A work in progress

Having attended all six World Baseball Classic games in Toronto, it's clear that there are three major issues that need addressing.

1. Better Pitching - There's an argument to be made for better players all together, but most teams in the WBC have been able to field reasonably good hitters.

However, in 2009 every national team has been refused by at least one high profile pitcher.

According to local radio broadcasts, Team USA had to make 60 phone calls to patch together their rotation. Fortunately, the United States has the largest population base of any country participating, and they were still able to turn up the likes of Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt and J.J. Putz.

Other teams were not so fortunate.

Venezuala would undoubtedly be stronger with Johan Sanatana as their anchor, and it was apparent to all that the absence of Jeff Francis, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden and Eric Bedard led to the early dismissal of Team Canada.

The lack of high-calibre pitching hurt the quality of the games. Instead of seeing great hitters battle through at bats, most outs came from ground balls and pop flys. Not exactly gripping drama.

2. Shorter Games - Major League Baseball is trying to sell baseball to the rest of the world. The targets aren't the United States, Cuba or Japan where baseball is already loved, but Australia, Canada, Italy, South Africa and the Netherlands. Bud Selig wants the sport to take off in countries that have disposable incomes but baseball is not popular.

But a four hour game between Italy and Canada? Six, seven, eight pitching changes per team? Brutal.

Long, boring games will not capture people's imaginations. Marathon games are no way to sell a sport to fans of fast-paced games like hockey, soccer and basketball.

3. Better Umpires - In fairness, the officiating at the SkyDome wasn't biased.

It was just bad in general.

Phantom tags. Fluctuating strike zones. The calls were inconsistent for all four teams, that I can only assume the players were pulling their hair out.

In particular, Marvin Hudson, the home plate umpire for the Italy/Canada game was troublesome. With him at the plate, pitches in the same location were called as both balls and strikes.

Again, if the WBC is meant to be an introduction to baseball, shouldn't the officiating be at the highest level as well?

The World Baseball Classic is a great concept and, with tweaking, should become a major global event. But before that can happen, these three issues need to be addressed.

The Case for Roy Halladay to win the Cy Young

On Friday, left-hander Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians won the American League Cy Young Award, the annual award handed out to each league's best pitcher. While I don't doubt his 22 wins and only 3 losses were impressive, I think the Cy Young Electors made a mistake. They should have given it to Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays.

In 2008 Halladay and Lee were actually quite similar statistically:

Cliff Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA, a 1.11 whip and had 170 strikeouts.
Roy Halladay went 20-11 with a 2.78 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and had 206 strikeouts.

Where Lee had a better won-loss record and ERA, Halladay is a strikeout artist and put fewer men on base.

But the Cy Young isn't just about wins and losses - - after all, closers like Eric Gagne have won it - - and there is more to baseball then just statistics.

Halladay led the league in complete games, with nine. That kind of consistency is crucial for a long season because it gives your bullpen an unscheduled day off. It also gives the entire team a sense of confidence, that they can rely on him to carry them through the game. Cliff Lee, who struggled mightily the previous season (5-8 record, 6.29 ERA) always had a sense of doom about him, even as he had a career season. Halladay's ability to finish a game is actually quite an accomplishment. In fact, Halladay had more complete games then the entire pitching staffs of any other team in the American League East. He had more complete games then the combined staffs of the Yankees and Red Sox.

Halladay did not have run support from his team. He had four games where he lost by a run, and two no-decisions where the Jays lost by a run. One heartbreaking day in late April Halladay lost 1-0 to the Boston Red Sox after pitching 8.2 innings. The key play was when Gold Glove-winning centre-fielder Vernon Wells' made a fielding error in the ninth inning. With the slow David Ortiz on second, Kevin Youkilis hit a single to centre that Wells picked up and then dropped, giving the lumbering Ortiz enough time to round third and head for home. If you make half of these one-run games go Halladay's way, he has a 23-9 record and an even stronger case for the Cy Young.

I know Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda is a dangerous game to play, but Halladay put in a career season that was only marred by Lee's impressive turnaround from the 2007 season. Granted, some sports writers did acknowledge Halladay's contributions to the Blue Jays, and he finished in second in the Cy Young balloting. However, if you put a premium on consistency and ability to raise a team up, Roy Halladay is your man for the 2008 American League Cy Young Award.

Is there some sort of terrible commissioner contest going on?

Some days I really get the idea that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig are in some sort of perverse contest to see who can ruin their respective league's the fastest. What's that? You put hockey franchises in Phoenix and Atlanta? I'll end the All Star Game in a tie and introduce interleague play!

This week has been a classic example of this one downmanship.

It started with Bud Selig, or the office of the league commissioner deciding that the World Series games should all start at 8:30... sorry, 8:29 eastern standard time every night, even though both teams are in the eastern time zone. I am sure this was to make the World Series more accessible to the Midwest and West Coast fans. However, it means that young fans of the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies have to stay up until at least 11:30 at night to watch their home teams play. Any sensible parent would have to send their kids to bed around 10 on a school night. How does a sport, recovering from a major faith-shaking scandal, expect to grow young fans and get them interested in the sport if they can't even watch the championship series in its entirety?

Apparently, Gary Bettman saw this and felt he could do better. (Worse?) After a week of excited speculation that a Western conference hockey team, likely the Nashville Predators, would be bought by Research in Motion co-owner Jim Balsille and moved to Toronto, Gary Bettman announced that it was a baseless rumour that would never happen. Why? He didn't say. One can only assume that he is against the idea of an unsuccessful and unpopular team being moved to a proven hockey hotbed that could easily support a second franchise because he dislikes the idea of people enjoying the National Hockey League.

Not to be outdone, Bud Selig decided that Game 5 of the World Series should be played even though it was raining and there was no sign of abatement. The hometown Phillies were starting ace Cole Hamels, and, if they won, would win the World Series. However, the rain was so bad that halfway through the sixth inning the game was suspended as a 2-2 tie. Hamels was still on the mound at the end of the game, can't possibly be expected to start the day after throwing six innings worth of pitches in the pouring rain and freezing temperatures. Essentially, his start last night has been wasted and has given the Rays another shot at winning the game.

I shudder to think how Bettman will top this disaster...

World Series Prediction: Rays Your Expectations

Last night the Tampa Bay Rays completed the rags-to-riches turn around that they'd been on the verge of for the past week - - going from worst to first in the American League in the span of a single season. Their game seven victory in the American League Championship Series finalized the World Series match-up: the Rays versus the Philadelphia Phillies, the National League champions.

A week ago, with both teams on the verge of winning their respective League's Championship Series, I would've picked the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. They have a superb infield with Ryan Howard covering first, Jimmy Rollins in the gap between second and third, and Chase Utley, the best second baseman in Major League Baseball. They have the speedy Shane Victorino in the outfield and leading off their batting order, and consistent power hitter Pat Burrell also in the field. Coming off the bench they have known-Canadian Matt Stairs who can provide leadership and hitting when called upon. Their pitching is also impressive with Cole Hamels anchoring their rotation and the perfect Brad Lidge as their closer.

However, unlike the Phillies, the Rays lost their fifth and then their sixth league championship games to the Red Sox. Only in the seventh and deciding game were they able to bear down and gut out a 4-2 win over the reigning World Series Champions.

I think this is to Tampa Bay's advantage.

While the Phillies have been resting on their laurels, maybe getting a little stiff jointed from sitting at home and certainly losing any momentum they had, the Rays have still been battling. The Rays have the confidence boost of winning a hard fought series from the reigning champions, and haven't had enough time to breathe, let alone let any neuroses or doubt gnaw away at them.

Although the Phillies are definitely a strong team, they are in an odd place mentally. They can't claim to be underdogs, but they certainly aren't favourites. Although only a week has passed since their last game, it can seem like an eternity in the world of sports. Meanwhile, the Rays are riding a wave of good will and positive energy, one that goes far beyond any pun-based headlines. It's a positivity that comes from freshly won battles conquered by a team.

I am sure that it will be an entertaining World Series, but I also think it will be a short one with the surging Rays winning in five games.

Book Review: Living on the Black by John Feinstein

Book Review: Living on the Black by John Feinstein

In a post-Mitchell Report world, baseball has to place emphasis on the finesse and strategy of the sport. John Feinstein's Living on the Black does just that, focusing on control and location pitchers Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina for the entirety of the 2007 season.  Feinstein provides knowledge and insight to an aspect of the game that had long been ignored by Bud Selig and the powers that be in Major League Baseball, namely pitching.

In the 2007 season, veteran pitchers Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine were nearing important milestones in their careers. Mussina was seeking 250 wins, while Glavine was trying to achieve his 300th win, and an almost guaranteed place in Cooperstown. However, neither pitcher has ever really been a power thrower, with Glavine in particular having to rely on breaking balls and careful ball location over the plate.

The title of the book says it all: Living on the Black refers to home plate and the one inch of black rubber that serves as its border. A control pitcher wants his pitches to  brush that inch of black so that umpires have to call the strike, but hitters are loathe to take a swing. The book details the intricate art of pitching and the amount of skill a pitcher must have to excel in the majors.

John Feinstein is considered one of the leading sports journalists in North America today. His articles are regularly published in the Washington Post's impressively well written sports section, and he has written over twenty-three books. Living on the Black was my introduction to him and his writing, and it was an impressively solid read.

More importantly, it is a well timed book. Although he'd been planning this project for nearly six years (originally with the Yankees' David Cone as the subject), he could not have picked a better year then 2007. Mussina did make his 250 wins. Glavine did make his 300 wins, possibly the last man to ever accomplish the feat. Most importantly, it preceded the Mitchell Report and serves as a harbinger of the new style of baseball that is going to be championed by Major League Baseball: small ball.

In fact, just this week Jose Mota had an article on what he calls "National League-style baseball" which emphasizes aggressive base-running, solid defense and generating runs. A rose by any other name is small ball. I expect that this is the tip of the iceberg. Soon many members of the baseball intelligentsia will be singing the praises of small ball and the importance of starting pitcher. Although I doubt this was Feinstein's intention, his well researched and interesting book Living on the Black will likely be the first major piece in this new wave of baseball thought. I recommend you give it a read and beat the curve.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s fading milestone

Growing up, I wasn't really into hockey, which is odd for a kid from a hockey obsessed town like Toronto. I was disinterested in it because I was (and am) a terrible skater. But baseball? Baseball I loved. After all, I was nine and ten years old when the Jays won their World Series, it was before the strike season, and dammit, I was good at baseball.

My favourite player was, easily, Ken Griffey Jr. He was classy but competitive, and tall and thin just like me. I used to stand in my driveway and practice swinging my bat, trying to emulate his swing. I now realize that I could not have chosen a better role model for my swing. It's picture perfect: full of grace and power, efficiently slicing through the air. Griffey's swing can put the ball anywhere on the field, or, if he chooses, past the outfield fences.

That's why I was saddened to read Tim Brown's article on Griffey and the Silent 600, which highlights something that I had also noticed: although Ken Griffey Jr. is approaching the impressive milestone of 600 career home runs, there is little fanfare or media coverage. Even the hometown Reds fans aren't excited about this milestone.

Of all the home run hitters in the modern era, he, along with Frank Thomas, are some of the few to have escaped without getting caught up in the steroid madness. Griffey's body doesn't fit the stereotypical HGHers mold, and there is no doubt that a lot of his success comes from the sweetness of his swing, not of a syringe.

For me, the defining moment of Griffey's career wasn't on the field, but instead at the end of his tenure with the Mariners. His teammate Alex Rodriguez had signed on with the Texas Rangers for the largest baseball contract of all time, and the New York Yankees were approaching Griffey with a similarly bloated offer. Instead, he chose to go to his hometown Cincinnati Reds for considerably less. Although this did nothing to stem the tide of outrageous contracts in the late 1990s, I still admired Griffey's priorities.

Similarly, Griffey is an iconoclast today. A man who's reached a milestone through all natural means, but gets no attention for it, unlike last years cavalcade of shame while Barry Bonds approached the all-time record.

Ultimately, I think this is going to be the aftermath of the post-strike steroid era. The public's trust has been broken, and the honest, hard working and clean ball players will suffer because they don't get the credit they deserve, while the puffed up home run heroes like Jason Giambi attract all the media coverage for apologies where they do not actually say what they're apologizing for.

But for me, I still have my Reds cap, and my Ken Griffey Jr. unauthorized biography comic book, and I can't wait for him to hit his 600th homerun and truly earn his way into Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, because he was, and is, one of my baseball heroes.

The Mysteries of Baseball Management

I love the sport of baseball. Although it definitely takes athletic prowess and skill, it really is a game that hinges on tactics and strategies. It takes a keen mind to conceive and execute a successful plan of attack in baseball.

With that in mind, I can see no method to the madness of JP Ricciardi, the brains behind the Toronto Blue Jays.

Two seasons ago, the Blue Jays finished in second place in the American League East. Their biggest gaps were at shortstop where John McDonald had played brilliant defense but struggled at the plate; middle relief that often put the game out of reach; and a dependable second or third starting pitcher, preferably a left-hander.

Ricciardi responded by signing aging slugger Frank Thomas to be the team's new designated hitter, even though they'd been one of the more offensively gifted clubs the year before. He made some other additions, but the Thomas acquisition was Ricciardi's biggest move.

In no way did this address any of the team's needs. Admittedly, Frank Thomas proved to be a considerable asset, leading the Jays last year in home runs and RBI. He also made the Jays a more difficult team to pitch against. Pitching around him only added to the bases for solid hitters Alex Rios, Matt Stairs and Vernon Wells. It also took alot of pressure of those hitters, and other players in the Jays' line-up.

Unfortunately, the Big Hurt is a notoriously slow starter, and he was struggling at the start of this season. After some heated exchanges between John Gibbons and Thomas, Thomas was given his release. Shortly afterwards, he was picked up by the Oakland Athletics, with the Blue Jays picking up his $7 million tab.

Maybe Thomas was a problem in the locker room. Maybe, as speculated in much of the press, it was a cost cutting measure. Even if both of those issues contributed to his release, the move still doesn't make sense.

In both cases, Ricciardi should have moved him in the offseason, either for some draft picks or, better yet, some farm hands. It would have reduced the media attention and also meant that the Jays would have gotten something in return for Thomas. Instead of getting some bench depth, the Jays are now paying Frank Thomas to jack home runs for the competition, with literally nothing in return.

This is madness.

Breaking the back of steroids

For those of you who live in a cave, but, oddly, have an internet connection that allows you to view this blog exclusively, earlier this week surefire Hall of Famer Roger Clemens appeared before a Congressional hearing investigating the Mitchell Report and his claims that he did not, in fact, use Human Growth Hormones or any other banned substances.

I think we can now call him simply "Roger Clemens" and drop the "surefire Hall of Famer" bit.

Mr. Clemens, as the Congressmen who were questioning him called him, has made himself look very very bad. So bad that I think he's done playing baseball and has hurt his chances at entering the Hall of Fame.

His former trainer, Brian McNamee, was the main source of the controversial Mitchell Report's list of steroid users. Of those accused in the Report, most admitted that they had, indeed, used steroids, HGH, or other performance enhancing drugs. Although many relied on the "I only tried it once" line of defense, practically everyone acknowledged that yes, they took drugs.

Andy Pettitte was one such player who owned up (manned up?) and admitted to his steroid use. So did Chuck Knoblauch. Both men have much in common. Both were former teammates of Roger Clemens. Both testified against him in sworn affadavits last Wednesday.

As Tom Verducci said shortly after Wednesday's hearing: "Two months later and even after nearly five hours of testimony Wednesday in front of Congress, the issue of whether or not Roger Clemens used steroids is left in a suspended state of dilemma: it's Clemens' word vs. Brian McNamee's word. Still."

I agree, by and large. But there is growing circumstantial evidence building against Clemens. McNamee was right in over fifty other cases. Two of the men who have admitted to steroid use have also backed up McNamee. This isn't hard evidence, but there's no evidence to support Clemens' claim of innocence.

I'll say this. I do think that Major League Baseball and its comissioner Bud Selig have turned a corner: I think they're now ready to really start laying some heavy lumber on the issue of steroids in baseball, and I think that starting with the 2008 season they'll be able to start re-building the public's trust.

And Major League Baseball reaches a new low...

No, not just the Mitchell Report.

Pete Rose using the Mitchell Report as leverage to get into the Hall of Fame. That is an all time low.

It's bad enough that Andy Peittite, Miguel Tejada and surefire Hall of Famer Roger Clemens have either admitted to or been accused of taking steroids and/or Human Growth Hormones. We now have Charlie Hustle himself weighing in on the subject.

In an interview with Dennis Miller on the VERSUS network, Rose said:

"I've been suspended 18 years for betting on my own team to win," then he added "I was wrong ... but these guys today, if the allegations are true, they're making a mockery of the game."

I'm pretty sure that Pete Rose criticizing anyone, anywhere, for anything having to do with baseball should be dismissed out of hand. After all, when these guys supposedly took steroids, there were no rules against the use of performance enhancing drugs. When Rose bet on baseball, he was breaking a rule that had been in place since 1919. He has no right to cry foul.

But it gets better! He also complains about these players making a mockery of baseball. This from a man who has repeatedly dressed up as a chicken for World Wrestling Entertainment events, and been chased from the ring by a giant. Don't believe me? Check it out on YouTube and the WWE's own website.

So why is Pete speaking up now? "If you're going to put these guys that supposedly did steroids into the Hall of Fame, I mean I've got to get a shot somewhere," Ah. There you go. Self-promotion. Good job Mr. Rose.

Although Rose and his 4,256 hits have their place in history, more then just about anyone else, Pete Rose deserves to be kept out of the Hall of Fame.

The very best part is that when Miller asked Rose how the steroids would have affected his career hits record, he replied:

"I would have got 5,000 hits,"

To be absolutely clear on this:

Pete Rose (who definitely committed a cardinal sin) wants to be let into the Hall of Fame because people who did not break the rules might get in. He (the guy who dressed up as a chicken and acted like an oaf for Vince MacMahon) feels they made a mockery of the game. But if there were steroids available to him, he would have done the same thing.

Ladies and gentlemen: Pete Rose. Class act.