From the Pedro Binder

2001 UD Vintage AL ERA Leaders

I love this card. Love it for one specific reason.

No, it’s not the floating heads. I understand the idea with the floating head. Sort of a retro look and feel. I actually don’t mind the heads at all if they look like the Mike Mussina, as opposed to the Roger Clemens. A floating head is one thing. A decapitated head is another thing entirely.

But, like I said, that’s not what I love about this card. What do I love? This card represents the five best ERAs in the American League during the 2000 season. Take a look at the floating heads in the yellow. Look at the ERAs. 3.70, 3.79, 3.79, 3.88. As you’d expect, they’re all tightly bunched. Not a lot of separation when you get to numbers that low. There’s only so low an ERA can be, right?

But, hold on. Look at that number in the green diamond. 1.74. My goodness. The league leader had an ERA less than half of the fifth lowest ERA. And the fourth lowest. And the third lowest. And the SECOND lowest. Pedro’s ERA was less than half of his next closest competitor. Sweet mother. In fact, just for fun, double Pedro’s ERA. You get 3.48. That would still be 0.22 runs better than Clemens. Clemens was only 0.18 runs better than Colon. So, there it is clear as day. The top pitchers in the league that year, and Pedro simply embarrassing them. I love it.

The card itself is fine. I’ve said before that UD putting out a “vintage” set just rubs me the wrong way. But, it’s a simple set with a simple design. I like the fact that it’s not all in my face. The information I need is there, without garbage all over the place to distract me. So, it’s a good card.

Especially since it shows Pedro’s dominance so clearly.

Restoring Order

Here we sit a day after the Memorial Day holiday, and the Red Sox find themselves all alone in first place.

Huh?

Where exactly did that come from? What on earth does it mean?

I think I need to fall back on what I said at the beginning of the month. I didn’t know how to predict results based on “better than average” and maybe, just maybe, the whole league tops out at “better than average.” There’s no more waiting to see how they fare against good teams. They’ve faced all the good teams they’re going to see. We’re two months into the season at this point. The “small sample size” argument is starting to go away. Are we now supposed to wait and see where they are on the Fourth of July? Labor Day?

Or is the whole league in the same boat. It’s going to come down to execution on a nightly basis. How your starting pitching matches up with the other starters on a given night. Do you give up six runs on a night where you score seven, or five?

The Sox are currently on pace for about 100 wins. Are they a 100 win team? I guess I have no idea. I wouldn’t think so, but I don’t know what else to call them either. They remind me of last year’s Orioles, or Giants. Nothing exciting about any of them. But, they just happened to come out on the winning side of more close games than not.

Is the rest of the season going to come down to chance? It’s very possible. They have three more games against Texas. Are they rainy games where a team wins based on an errant throw? Do they face the Yankees on a day that Rivera saved a game the night before, and is unavailable? Do they miss Felix Hernandez when they go to Seattle? Does NY? Does Verlander face them? Kershaw?

That’s what’s going to do it. How to the specific games fall? How does everything work out once it’s done? A few percentage points in their favor may make the difference in the end.

It’s gonna make for an interesting season.

It’s 1970 Again

Today we get to take a longer look at some of the cards that were in the box of cards from my neighbor. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, take a look here. I’ll start out with the 1970 Topps cards. There was a sizable chunk from that set, with some neat stuff in it. Let’s see some of what was it there, shall we?

Checklists. Lots of checklists. Nine of them were unmarked, which was cool. Too bad series three was apparently ignored. I like the used checklists a lot too. These are really colorful. I especially like how the one in the middle has the player’s jersey colored in red.

I’ve heard of this guy. Heard way too much of this guy.

A nice reminder for Mets fans. I like the way Topps started off the set with this card.

Maybe Jim can give me some background on Lowell Palmer. Is he, in fact, the coolest cat in baseball?

Buckner. Buckner.

A couple big contributors to those great A’s teams.

A Hall of Fame manager

And, another one. I’m not a Reds fan. But, I’m guessing the Reds didn’t wear uniforms looking anything like that in 1970. I wonder what uniform he is wearing in the original photo, and why couldn’t they at least airbrush it red?

 I love cards with multiple Hall of Famers on it.

How often do you think Lee May shows this card to people?

Look, a Red Sox player!

 The past, and the future all on one card.

A couple guys who could really hit.

Best of all, lots of Red Sox!

Oddly, the single player stars didn’t want to make an appearance. The only single player base card of a Hall of Famer in the box was Billy Williams. Makes you wonder how that happened. Were they traded away long ago? Was it absolutely terrible luck? Weird. While nothing in the 1970 portion of the box made me stand up and take notice, it was still a lot of fun to flip through them all. Like going back in time.

I wonder what the rest of the box holds. 

Red Sox 1-36: 23 is for…

23 Runs scored in game 4 of the 1999 ALDS

The Power of Pedro.

You all remember the scenario. In 1999, Pedro Martinez was the best pitcher the world had ever seen. A five game series in which Pedro got to pitch twice was almost unfair. All the Sox needed was to win one of the other three games to take the series. All the better, in this case, was that the Indians had their own ace in Bartolo Colon. So, not only would the Sox be able to win Pedro’s two starts, they would, by default, beat Colon twice since he would match up against Pedro. It was almost too easy. But, then things went wacky. Pedro got hurt in game one, and the Sox ended up losing the game. And game two. They won game three, leaving them down 2-1 in the series. Pedro was a huge question mark. Nobody was even sure if he would pitch in the series. If he did, how effective would he be? It wasn’t looking good. It also meant that Mike Hargrove had a decision to make. Who to pitch in Game four.

Bartolo Colon wasn’t scheduled to pitch until game five. But, what if Pedro was Pedro again by then? It would be a waste of Colon. What about pitching Colon on short rest, and removing Pedro from the equation?

That’s what Cleveland decided to do.

Think about that. Hargrove didn’t trust his ace to win a game at home against (at best) a wounded Martinez. He didn’t want any part of game five if Pedro was able to sniff the mound.

It’s not like Colon was the Cleveland ace by default. He was a top pitcher. In any other match-up, he’d probably be favored. But, Pedro was that scary. Hargrove couldn’t risk it. He made Colon pitch on the road, on short rest.

Colon didn’t go two innings. The Red Sox scored 23 runs.

As it turned out, Pedro wasn’t able to start game five. While he certainly pitched true to form once he got in there, he didn’t take the mound until the fourth inning. By then, the Indians had scored eight runs. Would a rested Bartolo Colon have been able to hold the Sox to less than eight? He had certainly done it in game one. But, he didn’t get the chance.

If any other pitcher in baseball was scheduled to pitch game five for the Sox, I bet Hargrove holds his ace. Not with a wounded Pedro though. He was forced to roll the dice.

And the Red Sox scored 23 runs.

23 is for the 23 runs the Sox scored in game four of the 1999 ALDS

First Pitches

Last night, in the eighth inning of a close game, David Ortiz bounced into a key double play. Instantly my twitter timeline was flooded with reactions. It went a little something like this:

“First pitch!”

“Take a friggin’ pitch!”

“First pitch! Seriously?”

“Can’t swing at the first pitch there!”

And on. And on. And on. Which led me to one specific question.

“On which pitch is it OK to ground into a double play?”

Nobody was complaining about the fact that he hit a ground ball. There were no shouts about going the other way with the pitch, or getting it into the air for a sac fly. The only complaint was that it was on the first pitch. So, how many pitches need to go by before he can ground into a double play? Does he have to let one meatball go by for a called strike first? Two?

It’s not just Ortiz, and it’s not just last night. I remember people ragging on Nomar when he would pop up on the first pitch. Implying that there’s a proper pitch to pop up on as well. People have been getting on Ellsbury lately for swinging at the first pitch. Why?

At least with Ellsbury I understand where they’re coming from. He’s struggling. There’s a feeling that when he’s swinging at the first pitch, it’s because he’s pressing. Swinging at the first thing that looks good trying desperately for that hit. I don’t think that’s what’s happening…but at least I can see the argument. But, that’s not what’s happening with Ortiz, is it? Hasn’t he been hitting pretty well lately? So, do we want him to wait, just for the sake of waiting? Again, how many pitches should he wait on before swinging?

I remember when Francona first came here from Oakland. Someone asked him what the difference was between the patient Red Sox, and the patient A’s. He responded that when the Sox got their pitch, they went for it. I think that was a great answer. It’s one thing to take pitches. Jorge Posada was always credited with being patient at the plate. But, in reality, he just didn’t swing. That’s not patience. Being patient is waiting until you get a pitch you can try and do something with. Sometimes that pitch happens to be the first one. Sometimes it’s the fifth one. Whenever it is, though, you jump at it.

So, why would anyone complain about grounding into a double play on the first pitch? If Ortiz thought it was a pitch he could do something with, I’m glad he swung at it.

It just didn’t work out this time.