Leading Off #5 — The Week That Was In Baseball AND BDD
Posted by Brian Joseph on Monday, May 4, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Someday what a player actually does will be the measurement of his ability… and we’ll ignore our preconceived notions.
The Black Hole of Defense: Left field has been somewhat of an adventure for many teams in Major League Baseball. Ask the Mets with Daniel Murphy. Or the Nationals with Adam Dunn. Actually, this early in the season it is tough to tell but it seems like every night in the highlights some left fielder is misplaying a ball to cost his team a run. That being said, one person I expected to see it from but have not is Raul Ibanez. Since joining the Phillies, Ibanez has looked like an average to above-average fielder in left. Like I said, it’s early but so far the popular opinion that somehow Ibanez was going to be a defensive downgrade from Pat Burrell is not matching up to reality. That doesn’t stop people from criticizing Ibanez’s defense nor will it stop them no matter what actually happens on the field.
Someday I’ll finish Selena Roberts’ A-Rod book… and I’ll probably regret the time investment.
Replacement Road: The non-injury starting rotation casualties should start piling up shortly. The notable move over the weekend was Oliver Perez’s exit from the rotation in New York. His replacement — 40-year-old rookie Ken Takahashi. Perez is bullpen bound after a rough outing in Philadelphia on Saturday highlighted by a bases loaded walk of 46-year-old Jamie Moyer. Perez wasn’t the first and won’t be the last rotation casualty not done out of necessity due to injury. Both Mark Hendrickson and Adam Eaton have been ineffective in Baltimore and Chan Ho Park in Philadelphia has been especially unimpressive. At one point do the Dodgers try an alternative to James McDonald? Do the Nationals tire of watching Scott Olsen and Daniel Cabrera turn in poor outings? How about Jose Contreras and Bartolo Colon in Chicago, Dana Eveland in Oakland or Brad Penny in Boston? Plan B will be put into place for a few teams over the next coming weeks and there is also Pedro Martinez available and he will soon be joined on the free agent market by Paul Byrd. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Someday someone will steal seven bases in a game… it’s only a matter of time.
The Return of the Stolen Base: It started with Jacoby Ellsbury’s steal of home last Sunday. It was followed by Dexter Fowler’s five stolen bases on Monday. Then, Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford joined Eddie Collins, Otis Nixon and Eric Young as the only players in the history of baseball to steal six in a game yesterday. As a defense and stolen base guy, I’m excited to see so many steals and hope the stolen base stat column continues to get marked up. While there’s always the debate over the actual value of the stolen base, it is one of the more exciting plays in the game so I’m all for those numbers going up.
Someday the Dodgers will lose a home game… but the way they’re playing now, I wouldn’t bet against it.
This Week (And Last Week) At BDD…
Expect more of the same from Baseball Daily Digest this week. We had our second Live Blog of the season on Thursday and thanks to Red and Denton from Red Sox blog Surviving Grady for joining us for the event. Writer Stewart O’Nan described Surviving Grady as the “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ of Red Sox Nation and we certainly learned why as the Red Sox were thumped by the Tampa Bay Rays 13-0 behind a Matt Garza gem.
Our next live blog has not been scheduled yet but expect two more live blogs this month as we look to bring our readers two live blogs a month, each with a different tone and feel.
In addition to the live blog, we introduced our first Player and Pitcher of the Month Awards with Albert Pujols selected as the Player of the Month and Zack Greinke selected as the Pitcher of the Month.
Also, BDD’s Jason Pafundi was on hand in Tampa Bay for the Red Sox-Rays series and related some postgame content from a near no-hitter from Matt Garza and Carl Crawford’s six steal game.
This week expect more of the same from BDD with new features being cultivated with plans to hatch soon. Until then, keep reading and enjoy!
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