Instant Replay Arrives

Major League baseball has finally listened to the swarms of people who think baseball needs some form of instant replay. They have finally ignored the people who think that replay needs to be kept out of the game. (Apparently, the spirit of the game included the human element of umpires blowing calls left and right) They will begin instituting the practice tomorrow, and we’ll all see how it goes. I haven’t had the chance to read up on how exactly this will work. I hear it will be allowed on fair/foul questions and on home run/not home run decisions. That seems reasonable. In those cases, there’s a line right there. All the camera needs is to look at the line and see if the ball crosses it. The process should be fairly simple. But, it does invite a few questions.

How much time is this going to take? Baseball has a bad reputation as it is as being a long slow sport. (How much longer it really is than a football game, I’m not sure) The last thing it needs is another process tacking on more time. In theory, it should move pretty quickly. In fact, instant replay has already been used in a MLB game to determine a home run. A few years ago, (I want to say it was in Florida or Cincinnati) the group of umpires was huddling to decide if a ball had cleared the wall. Apparently, they were having trouble coming to a consensus. So, one of them had the bright idea to wander over to the TV camera just off field, and had them replay the play through the viewfinder. The actual review took less time then the huddle took, and the correct call was made. That example bodes well. As long as the process isn’t bogged down by rules and checkpoints, it should be just fine. It also matters how often this process will be going on. As it stands, there aren’t many instances where a foul call or homerun call is disputed. But, now that it’s an option, does that increase the frequency? Are people going to think, “Boy that was close. I better have them look at it just in case?” Again, that’s going to slow things down more than fans are going to like. At the moment, though, it looks like minimal disruption to the game.

How fair is it to implement during the season? If one playoff contender wins a game because of a reversed call, is that fair? What about other teams that may have won more games if calls were reversed? Baseball just needs to hope that things don’t work out that way. Baseball’s great at that. From the All-Star game, to division tiebreakers, MLB is great at hoping conflict doesn’t present itself. Sure beats the heck out of coming up with an actual plan.

Where do we go from here? That’s the elephant in the room. This year, a couple high profile games involved missed calls that prompted this whole race to replay. So, they made sure to fix the problems that occurred in those games. What about the next call that’s missed? What happens the next time an umpire assumes a tag is made on a baserunner during the ALCS? Will that be included in the reviewable list, or will he just make another apology? How about the next time a runner is awarded home plate on interference in the ALDS? Will there be calls for that to be reviewed? Where is the line? In this case, the line seemed to be “when something bad happens to both New York teams on national television in the span of a month.” Is that the yardstick we’ll be using from now on?

Whatever the answers to the questions, replay is here. That’s a good thing. I see nothing at all wrong with getting the calls right. I agree it should be up to the players to decide the games. So, let’s use whatever technology we have to make sure that they do that. This helps everyone.

Nicely done Bud.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, The Team, and the Cost of Greatness. - By: Buster Olney

This book comes from a genre that is becoming common, the story

behind a game. The book follows a single baseball game, but goes much deeper into the people within the story. More than a story about a game, it evolves into a collection of biographies of people who happen to be involved in the game. If you’re trying to follow the game along, it can be difficult at times. It becomes tricky to remember which inning the game was in after a ten-page segment on David Cone. However, if your intent is to learn about the people, than this is a great way to do it.

The best part of this book is that it involves the collapse of the Yankees. Olney, who might as well tattoo pinstripes on his chest, is able to provide intimate details into the lives of the Yankee Players. The book might have been easier to follow if it just admitted it was an anthology of biographies. It would have been just as powerful if it didn’t try to stuff in game detail where it didn’t belong. Still, a wonderful read, and well worth picking up.

Rating: 3 bases.

Dice- Cy?

I’ll start out by saying that I haven’t looked at other contenders yet. I have no idea how strong a case K-Rod or Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay can make. But, if you look at the numbers Dice-K will put up this year, and compare them to a Cy-standard, they stack up rather nicely.

Last night’s victory put Matsuzaka’s record at 15-2. Not a bad .882 winning percentage. By my count, Dice has about seven starts remaining. Can he go 5-2 in those starts? That puts him at 20-4. Pretty nice starting point for a Cy Young winner. Add to that his strikeout total that is always among the league leaders. His ERA is below three, a rarity these days. (Beckett’s was 3.27 last year when he should have won the award.) His batting average against him is fantastic. He hasn’t allowed a hit with the bases loaded all season. So, the problems? Oh yeah, the walks. The pitch counts. They don’t scream elite pitcher. The number of innings per game are too low to be at the top of the league. Baserunner after baserunner. All very good points. But, isn’t the job of the pitcher to not allow the other team to score?

Remember during the Celtics playoff run when LeBron had a rough series shooting the ball against them, and all the announcers kept asking when the real LeBron was going to show up? And then Kobe had a bad final series, and they all asked when the real Kobe was going to show up. Finally, people started to realize that maybe it wasn’t some lucky coincidence that the two best scorers in the game kept having their worst games against Boston. Maybe it’s that the Celtics defense was doing something right as opposed to LeBron and Kobe doing something wrong. Maybe it’s the same thing with Dice-K. He keeps walking guys, and putting runners in scoring position and everyone keeps wondering when it’s finally going to bite him. Maybe we need to start thinking that it’s something Dice-K is doing right, as opposed to all the batters coincidentally doing something wrong. Last night with the bases loaded, Dice struck out Melvin Mora swinging on a slider that must have been a foot outside. The announcers made a point to say how lucky Dice-K was that Mora helped him out on that pitch. But, what if Randy Johnson had thrown that slider? Isn’t half of the Unit’s game that batters swing at sliders so far off the plate that they sometimes hit the batter? Is Matsuzaka lucky that Mora swung, or so skilled that he made Mora swing?

One thing I used to hear about Manny, and I hear about Youkilis from time to time, is that they don’t mind hitting with an 0-2 count. They don’t stress about letting a pitch go by that they don’t particularly like, even if it’s a called strike. They’d just as soon let those go by and try to get something to handle. Maybe Dice-K does the same thing. What if he sees a batter and thinks, “I’m not thrilled with facing this guy. I’ll pitch around him because it’s better to have the bases loaded and face a guy I know I can get out than try to mess around with someone I’m not comfortable with.” Take last night. I think it was the first inning where he gave up a hit, or two, maybe a walk, and got the bases loaded. The next three batters went strikeout, strikeout, popout. Who’s to say that’s not exactly according to plan? Now, that method does bulk up the pitch count. But, remember, he’s used to throwing pitches and it hasn’t bothered him yet. It bothers the Red Sox, which is why he keeps leaving games early. But, I bet he’d say he’d go another couple innings every game and throw 150 pitches every time out. Who’s to say he’s wrong?

So, just like Pedro Martinez dominates a game differently than Greg Maddux does, maybe Daisuke Matsuzaka dominates differently than both of them. 

The numbers appear to support that idea.

Lester is More

So, that’s why people in the Red Sox organization were split on whether Lester or Papelbon was the better prospect. He appears to be right on the verge of “getting it”, if he’s not there already. I know last night’s performance was against the Orioles. But, it was still a great performance. On the road, coming off an embarrassing weekend, the Sox needed a quality start from Lester. They got even more than that. He went seven inning of 1-run ball. Even more impressive are the four hits and one walk. Lester has been keeping his walks down so much lately, I almost feel funny mentioning them. It’s starting to become the norm, as opposed to something to be excited about.

This brings Lester’s record to 5-1 following a Red Sox loss. His ERA in those situations is well below 2.00. I know that many of those situations aren’t “we need a stopper” games, but it sure does help to stop a losing streak of any length. If momentum really is tomorrow’s starting pitcher, I like seeing Lester’s name in the boxscore.

Have I reached the point this season where I’m more confident going into a Lester start than I am with a Beckett start? I’m pretty close. I’m still at the point where I assume a good Beckett outing, and I hope to get a good Lester start. But, that’s starting to change. Especially on Lester’s end. That’s really what separates the elite pitchers from the rest of them in my book. When Beckett, or Schilling, take the mound, you expect a good outing, and know the Sox should be in a good position to get the win. When vintage Pedro took the mound, you knew the Sox would win. When Lester or Dice-K take the mound of late, I’m not quite at the “expect” a good outing stage. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a good. But, if they blow up I’m not shocked. If Beckett blows up I’m shocked. If vintage Pedro blew up, I feared injury. It’s the difference in pitchers that makes one an ace, and others top pitchers. Lester’s not an ace yet…Beckett’s pretty close…but he sure should be soon.

This weekend displayed a glaring weakness of the Sox entering the stretch run. For some reason, they can’t figure out how to beat Toronto. Now, some of that is the presence of Halladay. Some of that is Burnett. I get that. The problem is that the Sox face the Blue Jays nine times from here on out. It’s not easy to make up a 4.5 division gap, or hold a 1.5 game wild card lead if you’re playing 25% of your games against a team you can’t seem to beat. Add to those nine games six against the Yankees that you just know they’re going to split and six against Tampa that are up in the air. This could get pretty dicey. Frankly, their entire remaining schedule scares the crud out of me. In addition to the games I just mentioned, they have the rest of the Baltimore series, they have three against division leading Chicago. Then three more against Baltimore, three at Texas, and four against Cleveland. Not many places to make up much ground. Yikes. Tampa Bay better remember that they’re Tampa Bay pretty darn quickly. A quick estimate puts an optimistic 23-14 finish for the Sox. That puts them at 95-67, which is a dang good mark. But, that means the Rays only need a 20-18 finish. Ick. If Beckett continues to struggle, this could be a long September.

Is 19-17 better than 1-0?

The answer is a definite, “Maybe”.

Most fans like to see runs. Scoring is king. It’s the same for every sport. That’s why soccer and hockey don’t draw the fans other sports do. There’s not enough scoring. Kids like runs too. It looks like the team is actually doing something when they’re pushing people across the plate. Runs also allow the stars to do what they do. Everyone who goes to the game wants to see Papi go deep, or Youk hit a double off the wall, or whatever. In a 1-0 game, you’re probably not going to see much of that. So, it’s a downside.

Fans who are a little full of themselves usually say they like 1-0 games. They say if you don’t like the 1-0 game better, it’s because you don’t understand the game like they do. You can’t understand the finer things. (This happens a lot in sports. There’s some feeling out there that if you pick an obscure favorite, it’s because you know more about the game than everyone else. It’s easy to say Chase Utley is the best second baseman in the game. It’s a popular, obvious pick. But, if I claim it’s Dan Uggla it must be because I’m smarter than you. I know about players in Florida. If you only understood the game like I do, or watched as many games as I do, you’d pick Uggla too. I wouldn’t matter if Utley is better or not. The mere mention of Uggla makes me come off as all-knowing. It wouldn’t be true, since I think Utley’s clearly better. But, as an example. )

For my money, I just like to see players do things well. They’re the best players in the world, right? Let’s see it in action. So, is it better to see runs or not? It depends on how they arrive at the runs. If I perceive that the runs are being scored because of good hitting, that’s great. If it’s because of poor pitching, that’s not so good. Same thing goes for the 1-0 game. Is it good pitching, or poor hitting? Some examples?

Let’s pretend Greg Maddux is facing Roy Halladay. Both amazing pitchers. But, if they threw a 1-0 game, I wouldn’t enjoy it. As much as you try to convince me that it’s something they’re doing that is causing ground balls or pop outs, I perceive it as weak hitting. Watching hitter after hitter ground to short is not much fun. On the other hand, you give me a vintage 1999 match-up between Pedro Martinez and Bartolo Colon. I got to see a couple of those live. There’s nothing like watching a pitcher dominate a line-up like those guys did. Each one would end up with 7 or 8 innings pitched and at least ten to twelve punchouts. That’s an exciting 1-0 game. On the other hand, games can have double-digit runs and be snooze fests. Picture a bad Dice-K start when he walks home runner after runner. Or, games full of flares and dribblers that score runs. Those don’t do much for me. But, a game where every other batter rips a double to the gap? Fantastic. That’s great hitting on display. That’s something I want to see.

Obviously, some of that is subjective. Did he strike out the batter because he’s good, or the batter’s bad? Was the double due to poor pitch location? That’s why it’s all about perception.

It’s also why I couldn’t answer the title question. Can you?