TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Minnesota and Florida are cities where the doom of baseball has been preached in recent years. The Oakland franchise has been a serial "aberration", winning year after year with a slim payroll. For those who think that baseball has a serious problem with the level playing field, here's a quick breakdown of payroll and the playoff series:

Team	Payroll ($M)	Rank
San Francisco Giants	82.9	(9)
Florida Marlins	49.0	(25)
Atlanta Braves	106.2	(3)
Chicago Cubs	79.9	(11)
New York Yankees	152.7	(1)
Minnesota Twins	55.5	(18)
Boston Red Sox	99.9	(6)
Oakland A's	50.3	(23)

Three teams from the top quartile, two from the second quartile, one from the third and a pair from the bottom quartile. Because anything can happen in a short series, the ALCS might come down to a pair of teams that total for a payroll slightly above $100M.

(Salary data from USA Today.)

posted by David 10:38 AM

Friday, October 03, 2003

So, to borrow a line from one of the Division Series previews here, how many people had Cubs-Marlins in the NLCS at the start of the year in their office pools? You've got Dontrelle Willis vs. Jason Schmidt on short rest and Matt Clement vs. Russ Ortiz, also on short rest, to set up this very possibility. Florida and Chicago have Josh Beckett and Kerry Wood, respectively, waiting in the wings for a prospective Game 5. You've gotta like their odds at this point, though a Wood-Hampton matchup has the makings of a classic do-or-die game.

I believe there was some pining for the good old days of the hoss who could take the ball and shut down the opponents for nine innings a few weeks ago on this site. I think we just saw Exhibit A for why this would be a Good Thing with Mark Prior's masterpiece last night at Wrigley. Well, maybe Jason Schmidt's Game 1 performance against the Marlins was Exhibit A and Prior's game was Exhibit B. Regardless, with the likes of Schmidt, Prior and guys like Toronto's Roy Halladay and the White Sox's Bartolo Colon having big success while racking up relatively high pitch counts and complete game totals, maybe this is the beginning of a trend which sees a complete gamer anchoring pitching staffs throughout the league. I guess before we get too carried away with this, let's see how their arms hold up next year.

Anyways, big weekend of baseball. I'm pretty psyched about the Twins chances, assuming they can get a good game out of Kyle Lohse. He seems like the one guy of the Twins trio that is most likely to get smacked around. I think if he can get settled in early on he'll have a good game, and the Twins might be able to play to their strengths of speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths to make just enough noise to get by the Rocket. Also, given the troubles the Yanks have been having catching the ball, they might have some problems with the turf. In any case, no matter what happens in Game 3, Santana-Wells in Game 4 should be another good one. I think the Twins are taking a lot of people by surprise, but if you've been heeding your faithful Minneapolis correspondent they shouldn't have snuck up on you...

posted by Tom Renbarger 11:04 PM

Thursday, October 02, 2003

I made the Boston Globe's website!





I'm on the far right (but am not hot for Johnny).

posted by David 7:40 PM

Wow.

Great way to start off the A's-Sox series last night. I have a few musings and thoughts:

First, let's talk about Grady Little. Yes, I know that he was worried about Byung-Hyung Kim breaking down. And of course he was playing the percentages by bringing in Alan Embree. I can understand his decision, but part of using a closer is to build his confidence. I think Kim was pitching as well as he could have in that situation and Kim probably would have benefitted from getting the final out. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but I think Kim should have gotten a "one strike and you're out" grace period. Of course, Little's lack of trust with the bullpen was evident - Pedro's 130 pitches, plus Derek Lowe coming into the game??? Grady's going to regret bringing in Lowe in game 3.

Of course, the A's stuck to their game plan of playing small ball and getting to Pedro early. Hudson pitched a nice game, and I agree that it was gutsy for him to stay in while he was injured. I wasn't expecting a squeeze play to end the game, but we all know that somewhere around the Coliseum, Billy Beane was beaming.

Here's what has to happen during the rest of the series: Nomar and Manny have to pick up their games. Ramirez had terrible at-bats in clutch two out situations. As for Nomar, his slump continues. I was amazed to see Todd Walker actually hit like a #3 batter, but if this team wants success, their stars have to step up. Grady Little cannot second guess himself, even though their bullpen is a mess. The A's will continue to scrape together hits and depend on their pitching (though their bullpen may be a bit tired after last night's three inning work by Keith Foulke).

And did anyone else think that David Justice and Jeff Brantley were terrible color commentators?

Here's hoping for more excitment from this series...

posted by Charles Curtis 10:01 AM

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

A few notes from the first day of playoffs...

Certainly a 10PM start on the East Coast is a bad thing, but a 10AM start on the West Coast on a weekday isn't great either. Perhaps there aren't too many Minnesota fans out in the Pacific Time Zone, but there are Yankee fans everywhere.

I know you don't want Barry to beat you, but two-out bases-empty walks are going a little too far. I did get a kick out of the old man swiping second though. I was sure that career #500 was going to be his final steal, but maybe he's bringing a whole new game to the playoffs. ;)

It kind of makes me laugh that the Cubs kind of have a home-field thing going in Atlanta. Tom Renbarger and I flew out to Atlanta from Chicago a few years back to watch the Astros go down in flames. I remember thinking that Braves fans were very spoiled - 10,000 empty seats at playoff games was one thing, but at one point they booed Maddux. Yeah Greg, go the Hell, you just aren't measuring up to our standards.

posted by David 6:02 PM

Monday, September 29, 2003

The Last Game at the Q
Just got back from the final game at the Q. Ok, to me it will always be Jack Murphy Stadium. I usually go to these closings with the good Dr. Renbarger, but this time out it was with the extended Mrse clan. Nothing like baseball with old friends. I think that Padres did a great job overall this weekend. I would have liked to see the Chicken, and part-timers like Ozzie Smith being named as starters on the all-time Padres team kind of bugged me, but it's no big deal in the big scheme.




Anthony, David and Robert (Andy took the picture)


More photos coming soon!

posted by David 7:41 PM

Sunday, September 28, 2003

The Cubs are NL Central champs. Holy Cow!

I must say that it was only fitting that the Cubs clinched against the Pirates, given that ex-Pirates have been so important for the Cubs in their stretch run. Check out these splits before and after their trades (AVG/OBP/SLG):

Kenny Lofton .277/.333/.437 vs. .327/.378/.471
Aramis Ramirez .280/.330/.448 vs. .260/.315/.494
Randall Simon .274/.305/.417 vs. .277/.315/.485

I believe I'm on record as being somewhat nonplussed by the Cubs' midseason acquisitions, but the imports from Pittsburgh sure got the job done. With Mark Grudzielanek chipping in with a .360-something OBP and Sammy showing signs of snapping out of a mid-September funk, the Cubs might have just enough offense 1-6 to be really dangerous in October.

Switching gears a bit, there should be plenty of excitement in the Twins-Yanks series. I'm putting the finishing touches on my series preview, but I thought I would share a few fevered ramblings in advance, as a sort of preview/companion piece. Mainly what I'm interested in is the composition of the teams' lineups.

I know that Alfonso Soriano will be the leadoff hitter, but looking at that .339 OBP and .522 SLG, it just screams 5-hole to me. Can you imagine what kind of damage Soriano could do hitting behind a 1-4 of Jeter, Johnson, Giambi and Posada? If you recognize this 1-to-5 transformation, it's exactly the one that Barry Bonds made with the Pirates, though he had developed a better eye (as compared to Soriano's current plate discipline) by the time he dropped into the middle of the Pirates order. Or, if you insist on keeping Soriano at the top, why not slip Bernie Williams into the 9-hole? His bum shoulder is really taking away his pop but he still knows how to work a count. Matsui and Boone would be just fine as the 6-7 guys.

The question with the Twins is, why not have Stewart-Mientkiewicz-Koskie at the top of the order? All three of them have .380-.390ish OBPs. Let LeCroy, Jones, and Hunter slug them around 4-5-6, and stick Rivas and Guzman 8-9. Eh, what nerve I have, second-guessing a 4-time World Champion manager and another manager who's 2-for-2 in Division titles with a small-market club. That's what makes it so much fun.

posted by Tom Renbarger 2:04 AM