Cat's House of (Mostly) Baseball Rants
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Please make them shut up about LeBron James....please. I am sick of him already. The announcers essentially have orgasms when he's in the game. Oh yeah...the Cavs LOST last night. We're right back to the 84-85-86 Bulls. Jordan scores 63! And his team loses!
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Peter Gammons has a nice column up about the state of free agents in general and the Marlins in particular. Here is that column. It sounds like Soriano might be losing some of the shine from his "future superstar" status. He's gaining a reputation for not listening. That's not good. Problems like that lead to playing for 6 teams in 8 years. It's what has bogged down Alex Sanchez' career. You can have all of the talent in the world, but if you don't listen to coaches, you are still pretty much sunk in baseball.
Monday, October 27, 2003
And it also looks like there is a move to ditch instant replay in the NFL.......again. Another reason to hate the NFL...CONSTANT rule changes. To me it shows that the game wasn't drawn up real well to begin with. It's like if baseball kept changing the # of balls in a walk. It's just silly.
I have another reason I hate football...the announcers. ESPN has a segment on Sundays called "Pump Up the Volume" where they play segments from local NFL broadcasts. At least 2/3rds of them include a guy yelling "go! go!" in the background and screaming. God I hate that. And they think that homers in baseball are bad...YIKES.
Yay! Go Marlins! :) ESPN has a nice article on how many changes that they will be going through next year here. It's amazing how much Hizenga sabotaged that team. He still gets half of their parking revenue! Get them a new stadium stat.
Friday, October 24, 2003
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/7097791.htm is a great example of how overrated the Yankees are. Andy Pettite is barely over 500 as a playoff starter with an ERA over 4. How he became "superhuman" is really beyond me
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Well, the 2003 fan forum is complete. Article is at http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mil/news/mil_news.jsp?ymd=20031022&content_id=589131&vkey=news_mil&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil Hopefully that link will work. :)
Monday, October 20, 2003
Woohoo! The 2 Yankee players are probably going to be charged in that attack on a Red Sox groundskeeper.
You know what's great about these blogs? I can bash football and no one will hurt me. :) What a stupid stupid game. I tried to watch some of the Packer game yesterday. I made it through about 10 minutes before saying "you know, this is a stupid game".
For one thing, it's impossible to follow...completely and totally impossible. I don't mind auto racing, but it shares that in common with football. Even the announcers can't follow the game alot of the time. How many teams have they missed a holding penalty or in racing, completely missed a crash. It's because the entire sport isn't in front of you and to me that's a fatal flaw. In other words, there is just too much going on. And because of that, you can't get a grip on the game. It seems...random.
And I know that this rules out alot of sports, but I despise the clock. Always have. Especially when it's so flawed. In the Badger game on Saturday, the referees let the clock go about 10 seconds beyond what they should have but nothing was done. So the Badgers "lost the game", but it's not fair. Baseball is fair. As long as you can keep that inning going, you can keep the game going. I guess that's what my main complaint against the other sports is, especially football. The refereeing is SO judgement based that to me it just skews the entire sport and again, makes the results almost random. In other words, the better team often loses through no fault of its own.
Another strike against football is its short season. 16 games? Are you kidding me? It always amazes me when they complain about baseball salaries...now come on. I mean, a player in the NFL gets paid literally 400,000 a game or more. That's 100,000 a quarter. And the season is just so short...and no minor league system...so there is nothing to think about.
Well the series is tied at 1. Watched game 1 and some of game 2. Once the Yankees got a big lead, I turned it off due to the Fox announcers. Especially since Andy Pettite is way way overrated as far as the playoffs go. They always site his high # of post season wins. Yeah well...he's also been in the playoffs every year since he came up...every single year. I've always said that if you put Pettite on say the Brewers, he doesn't go 128-70, but you never hear that do ya? I mean his career ERA is nearly 4, which is good but not great by any means. He doesn't K a ton of guys. He's an above average pitcher, but he is not a God. The word "relative" doesn't seem to cross the announcer's minds.
And I love that they kept quoting the stat where the Yankees had won 10 straight games where Pettite was starting after a Yankee loss. So? Talk about a completely meaningless statistic...but of course that's what Tim McCarver thrives on. I'm not sure how many times that this needs to be said but there is NO MOMENTUM IN BASEBALL. None...zip...zilch. Baseball doesn't work that way. Players don't see the ball better when their team has the "momentum". The 10 straight stat is nice for the Yankees, but all it means is that they won the game after they lost. It doesn't mean that Pettite is a better pitcher than anyone else. Given Pettite's ERA, it's safe to say that he's gotten alot of run support in general and I hate to tell the people who keep quoting that stat this, but Andy doesn't influence that one bit.
Friday, October 17, 2003
Grady Little is being held as the goat for keeping Pedro in for far, far too long last night. Normally I'm not into goat making but he deserves it. He should've been removed after the HR.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Woohoo! 3-0 Sox. I've said all along that if the Sox offense gets going, this series is over. I mean, their #9 hitter (Jason Varitek) hit 25 HRs.
I have officially started my boycott of Fox's baseball coverage. I think that I will just bring my XM into the living room and listen to ESPN's coverage instead. It's astonishing to me that none of those 3 announcers last night mentioned how the Cubs should be taking more pitches. I fall more in line with Al's thinking every day on that whole issue. I mean, what does it hurt to take the first pitch? You see the other's guy's stuff, you see how tired they are and you never know what can happen with that taken pitch. Make the guy throw the ball in the strike zone. After Simon's AB last night, the Fox guys SHOULD have been jumping all over him, but we got nothing. That and the pro-Yankee bias is just too much for me.
Oh and once the winter comes, I might start a 2nd blog. Possibly on racing...not really sure. The political one started ok, but you know, I'm into politics less and less every day
I don't think I've thanked Al of Al's Ramblings for putting a link to my page on his site. Thank ya! :)
Tired of this "curse" stuff. The Cubs lost because they were the lesser team. I said that earlier in the year when I saw both teams live against the Brewers. The Cubs had a godawful bench and Rameriz is a decent player, but the other guys they got (Tony Womack! Randall Simon!) were bench fodder. Just not a good team. And 0 discipline.
Curse or no Curse, the best team won tonight. Did you see Randall Simon swinging at everything with one guy on and none out in the 9th? Did he have a plane to catch? The Cubs were a mediocre team. They were Kerry Wood and Mark Prior...that's it. Awful awful bench...bad manager (why the hell do you keep a 22 year old in there into the 8th inning?). They were not a LCS team. Period. THe Marlins on the other hand have good pitching and patient hitting...that's all you can ask for. hey....former Brewer in the World Series (Chad Fox). Can't argue with that!
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
The announcers on tv just said that the Cubs are 15 outs away from their first WS since 1945. Why do they do that? I hate the new generation of announcers, who insist on creating tension and not just letting the game itself create the tension. It's like when a team wins a championship and they just talk and talk.
Darn Yankees are ahead of the Red Sox in the 6th. Dagnabbit. I want to see a knuckleballer in the World Series dang it! :) Baseball's neatest pitch IMO and it's most unique. I wish that someone would teach it, but you know, no one really has. We used to have about one knuckleballer per team but still. As Uecker has said, people learn it by necessity, not by desire
Saturday, October 11, 2003
What a joke in today's Red Sox-Yankees game. I'm not sure if Zimmer shouldn't be allowed in the dugout again, but treating this as all Pedro's fault is wrong. What? Just allow Zimmer to do whatever he wants because he's 72 and has a plate in his head? Makes sense to me! The whole Fox broadcast is embarrisingly bad anyway. I mean, they went on and on about how well that Clemens did in calming down and pitching well. Um what about Pedro? Did I miss something or were the Yankees held to 0 runs after that incident? The Yankees did basically nothing after the 4th, but only Clemens settled down? And they called Pedro a well known headhunter. He is? :) Did I miss that memo? :) The whole pro-Yankee bias of the broadcast was just a bit sickening. McCarver used to call Yankee games and Brett Boone's brother is the Yankees 3rd baseman. The Yankees got all of one single after the 4th and nothing against Martinez.
And was it just me who thought that the broadcasters COMPLETELY misinterpreted Martinez's gesture? I was amused when Buck said that it was Pedro saying that hey he hit Garcia in the head and he'll do it again. Really?? When did the shoulder become the head?? I think I missed that lesson in biology class. :) I think Pedro was just saying "why the hell would I throw at you with 2 guys on, 2 in and none out".
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
That Oakland-Boston series might go down as the best ALDS ever. Some good candidates. Lowe is my new hero. :) It takes alot of guts to throw any kind of sinker with guys on in the 9th and he somehow didn't throw a single hittable pitch...blew 2 guys away with pitches that started WAY inside but ended up right over the plate. You know a batter is fooled when he tries to get out of the way of the ball & then argues the call and then it ends up above the knees right down the middle. The pitch to Long was similar. They made a big deal about the fact that he wasn't a closer anymore. So? Good pitching is universal. Go Red Sox!
Saturday, October 04, 2003
A great point that was made in the forum on Al's site. Relievers are over-rated. :) It is amazing to me. To me, bullpens are more than the sum of their parts. What I mean is that it's the entire bullpen that is judged and not really the individual members of the bullpen. In other words, servicable relievers are a dime a dozen. Remember, even the best closers only work 70-80 innings a year...that's not even 10 games worth of innings!
One thing I didn't mention in the roundtable that Al did...next year, if they re-sign Kieschnick, I hope that Ned learns how to use him. Play him in LF for 15-20 games...have him pitch more regularly and yes Ned, you can have him PH and then come in to pitch. He acted like it wasn't possible for most of the year.
Thanks to Al of Al's Ramblings for including me in his recap forum. Thanks Al! And thanks for the plug! :) I need all the help I can get! :-)
Oh, the Saga of the Braves. :) What IS it with them? I mean, the Buffalo Bills made an art out of losing Super Bowls. The Braves make them look like Yoko Ono. :-) It's like it doesn't matter who they face or how good or bad of a team that they face, they suck once the post season starts. I mean look at Greg Maddux, who becomes human every October without fail. And the Cubs are not that great. Take out Sammy Sosa and how good is that offense? It's alot of role players and never have beens. And they still have an awful bench. And yet they are going to beat the Braves anyway. Just amazing. And GO MARLINS! I love Bonds and I like the Giants, but my dream of a Marlins-Twins Series can't exist with the Giants moving on. :)
Friday, October 03, 2003
Mark Redman of the Marlins says that he is going to pitch to Barry Bonds today. Good for him! I understand the fear of Bonds, but you know, he does get on 50% of the time, but you got to remember that that includes the walks. I mean I've often wondered what his OBP would be if he was actually pitched to. You don't hear that at all through the media. I mean, yes, he gets on half of the time, but would the # be if he was pitched to? I will never agree with intentional BBs anyway unless it's in a game winning situation. But walking him with 1st and 3rd and one out? Um no.
