Sunday, September 24, 2006

It's sick out there and getting sicker---ANOTHER TREVOR BARF ALERT

Piling on the corporate spin on Sept. 17, 2006, Mike Berardino adds a bunch of gross impressions to the ad campaign for Trevor. Mike's spin is that Trevor's Hall-bound because he gives union employees such as baseball writers, some quotes to fill up the blank page when they are "deadline strained." It couldn't be Trevor sees an HOF voter in front of him. Or thinks, my HOF campaign is in trouble since I screwed up again, & even though I DESERVE to be paid as much as Mariano (Berardino somehow forgets St. Trevor said this some months back), I'll simply stand here by my locker. As Berardino shows in his column, that's what will win votes--not actually being the best at the job. (Mike is with the So. Fla. Sun-Sentinel, which no longer permits its employees to vote on baseball awards).
(BARF ALERT):
"
There is no Hall of Fame for great teammates, but if there were Trevor Hoffman would be a charter member.

Those who have cycled through San Diego over the years continually rave about the Padres closer, and not just because he's about to pass Lee Smith (478) atop the career saves list.

"He's a great guy, a real family man," said Marlins catcher Miguel Olivo. "He's the same guy on the field and in the clubhouse."

Hoffman, 38, has long made a point of inviting younger players and new teammates to his home for dinner. But what really made an impression on Matt Herges was the impromptu catering service Hoff-man ran for his teammates while out with a shoulder injury in 2003.
  • Berardino is apparently unaware other senior players do this for younger guys.

When the team bus would arrive back at Qualcomm Stadium following each road trip, Hoffman would be there to greet the other Padres.

"He would have a full spread when we got off the bus -- Outback Steakhouse or P.F. Chang's," said Herges, now a Marlins reliever. "Right there, as we walked off the bus, he'd shake everybody's hand. `Hey, good road trip. Come get something to eat.' That was just out of his pocket. Nobody does that."

Herges was traded to the Giants in July 2003, but he still had enough time with Hoffman for the closer to make a lasting impression.

"He goes way above and beyond the norm," Herges said. "Even if he was the worst pitcher ever to pitch in the big leagues, he's still the top teammate that I've ever had."

For that reason, Hoffman's latest accomplishment will rank as one of the more celebrated achievements within the baseball community.

There may not be a more respected player in the game than the Padres closer,
  • THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. IF MIKE CHOOSES HYPERBOLE, MAYBE HE COULD FLESH OUT THE ARGUMENT A BIT.
who has become a San Diego institution since the Marlins traded him in a package deal for Gary Sheffield and lefty Rich Rodriguez 13 years ago.

From a media perspective, Hoffman secured his reputation after Game 3 of the 1998 World Series, when he stood at his locker for more than 30 minutes patiently discussing the game-turning homer he allowed to Yankees third baseman Scott Brosius.
  • SEE, JUST BE NICE TO VOTERS. BEING A FAILURE ON THE FIELD IS ERASED.
This July in Pittsburgh, after Hoffman blew the save to Michael Young and the American League All-Stars, the closer again stood at his locker, answering every last question from wave after wave of deadline-strained reporters.

Such classy gestures aren't forgotten.

Between the lines, Hoffman has earned praise as a converted shortstop that thrives despite a mid-80s fastball. He was closing in on his eighth season of 40 or more saves thanks to perhaps the finest changeup the game has ever seen.

What the cutter is to Mariano Rivera, the changeup is to Hoffman.
  • THERE'S NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 2, MIKE. TREVOR HAS SIMPLY TRIED TO GO FOR A PHONY STAT, TOTAL SAVES. YOU'D NEED 3 OF HIM TO DO WHAT RIVERA DOES.

"I think singlehandedly he has made changeups cool," Herges says. "You can have a changeup as an out pitch. You don't have to throw 98 [mph]. You don't have to have a humongous Sandy Koufax curveball. You can strike people out with a changeup."

Hoffman's career save percentage was holding steady at .896, including 38 of 42 conversions this year. While some of it is no doubt due to Hells Bells -- still the best entrance for any closer -- the
bigger factor by far is that changeup.

"He has just got an unbelievable ability to sell it," Herges said. "You sit on a changeup and he throws it and you're like, `I think that's a fastball,' and you change your mind and the next thing you know it's a changeup. That's how good it is. Everything is exactly the same. You can't pick it up until you're swinging and missing at it, pretty much."

Even Olivo, who spent the last two months of 2005 with the Padres, wasn't able to hold off on the change when he faced Hoffman this year.

"I knew it was coming and I still couldn't hit it," Olivo said. "I could catch it with my glove, but not with my bat."
(End of ad campaign portion of this column).

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Nov. 20, 1999, Jon Heyman, The Sporting News--"Baseball Writers rate an award for silliness"

Here is Heyman's article, but it only illustrates the problem. THIS IS NOT A DEBATING SOCIETY OR A DEVICE BY WHICH YOU FILL UP SPACE, WASTE PEOPLES' TIME, SELL ADVERTISING, OR CREATE WEALTH & CELEBRITY FOR FORMERLY UNKNOWN, IMPOVERISHED WRETCHES.

"For several days, I was crowing about how silly managers and coaches were to vote a Gold Glove to Rafael Palmeiro after he barely used his glove this season. The crowing is officially over. After hearing of the American League MVP voting, I think we writers may be even sillier.

It's bad enough that Pedro Martinez received only eight of 28 first-place votes after putting together one of the greatest seasons ever for a pitcher. But even worse, two writers--George King of the New York Post and La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis--didn't even include Martinez on their 10-player ballots, costing Martinez a chance to win the award. If King and Neal had voted Martinez as high as fourth, he would have won.

These two writers included Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green on their ballots. Both compiled good statistics--though not as good as Martinez's--but they had zero impact on the pennant race. Green's real impact came after the season, when he signed with the Dodgers for $84 million and raised the salary bar for players who have had two good years. Neal also included Alex Rodriguez, whose Seattle team had a losing record.

"I just believe that to be MVP, you've got to be out there in the field and in the lineup every day trying to help the team win," Neal says. "I could have put (Martinez) fifth or sixth or seventh, but if I've determined that pitchers shouldn't win the award, I think that would be hypocritical."

King's vote is even more curious because he put two pitchers on his ballot last year, according to Jack O'Connell, secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America. King had David Wells seventh and Rick Helling 10th in 1998, according to O'Connell.

One wonders how long the ballots of King and Neal would have to be to include a pitcher who went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and struck out 313 batters. Was their prejudice against pitchers so great they would have voted every starting position player and every No. I designated hitter ahead of Martinez, putting the Boston ace 127th, one spot behind White Sox shortstop Mike Caruso, arguably the worst starting position player?

Only a special circumstance would cause Neal to consider a pitcher, he says. But if posting an ERA that is 2.79 points below the league's 4.86 mark is not "special," then what is?

The MVP award has been won by a pitcher 20 times, and O'Connell says there's an attempt to convince voters not to be prejudiced against pitchers. Yet O'Connell voted Martinez seventh.

Though Neal says he's aware pitchers have won the award, he thinks the wording on the ballot "leaves it up to the voter to enact his own set of rules." The ballot says everyone is eligible, but one criterion listed is games played, possibly leaving a small opening for interpretation. Regardless, the idea that pitchers are less valuable than position players is extremely questionable.

The argument that pitchers perform only "once every five days" isn't useful, either. Consider that Martinez faced 835 hitters this year, more than any hitter had plate appearances. Plus, by pitching late into games, Martinez helped conserve his bullpen, thus affecting games he didn't pitch. Without Martinez, the Red Sox were little better than a .500 team.

Management folks don't always do right, but they clearly have weighed in on the value of starting pitchers, who are paid more on average than starting position players. Kevin Brown, a starter with limited marquee appeal, is the game's highest-paid player. Starting pitchers who are just a cut or two above average, such as Todd Stottlemyre, were paid $8 million a year on the open market last winter (the same salary as MVP winner Ivan Rodriguez).

Martinez had one of those classic years that should not have been ignored. And though postseason performances aren't a factor in the balloting, the righthander nonetheless was the difference against Cleveland in the Division Series, then had the Yankees fearful of facing him in the seventh game of the ALCS. Of course, it never came to that.

Six offensive players were worthy of serious consideration--Derek Jeter, Roberto Alomar, Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Palmeiro and Rodriguez. But none was so dominant he had to be the one. Only one player fit that description of dominance. The only A.L. MVP race should have been for second place. "



Sunday, September 03, 2006

A young fellow named Ben Jacobs is on board with anti-Mariano spam

I decided to ruin my day & read some propaganda written on Foxsports.com by Ben Jacobs of Rotoworld & a few other places.

(Jacobs is a sports copy editor and freelance writer whose work can also be found on The Hardball Times) posted Sept.1, 2006, this is listed as a Fantasy Baseball column.
  • (Ben is out to confuse the facts, starting with the media darling...FALL IN LINE, BEN. Ben does, by MISLEADING YOU:)
Closer: Trevor Hoffman (rock solid) (so Ben says):
"Hoffman pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings* and earned two more saves in the past week. He's now 35-for-39 in save chances with a 1.98 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 37 strikeouts and nine walks in 50 innings. There's not much to say about him other than that he continues to get the job done even though he turns 39 in six weeks."
  • THIS IS DELIBERATELY MISLEADING. First, 1 of these 'saves' was only 1 out, with a 3 run lead, but it's sold here as no different from a save where a pitcher came in with men on base and only a 1-run lead.

  • Hoffman hasn't pitched more than 1 inning in OVER 2 YEARS yet you'll think he works harder than others from this story. The opposite is true. Hoffman was out of a job less than a year ago, and wasn't an automatic re-hire by San Diego. This has been reported, and that Sandy Alderson was hesitant. Hoffman is lucky any team, especially one in a low-pressure, temperate climate, national league pitchers' park was able to afford the luxury of hiring a guy who refuses to throw more than 1 inning under any circumstances, putting the burden onto other team members. He's desperately hoping this gimmick will get him into the HOF.
Then about Cleveland Indians closer Tom Mastny, Jacobs says:

"Mastny solidified his place at the head of Cleveland's bullpen by earning two ninth-inning-only saves this past week."
  • So Jacobs reveals he's able to discern such a thing as a "9th inning save," which he'll let you know about if he feels like it. (Learning a copywriter's bias is always fun--if this is the same Ben Jacobs I'm reading about, he was only 15 years old when Mariano Rivera emerged on the scene in the 1995 post season, and of course what life he's lived has been as a die-hard Red Sox fan. Add that he probably sees this field as his career path, & you see no Yankee fans of consequence in this entire field-- in spite of the fact that I've heard Joe Sheehan and Ben Kabak are. They both chicken out when it counts--they're weak fans, as are the few others online. They avoid the most important battles because their first priority it to retain a mass appeal audience and be accepted amongst their colleagues--which means back off when we tell you to).
Finally young Mr. Jacobs knows his power, knows you're lazy and won't check up on what he writes. Onward to the continual dumping on Mariano:

"Rivera allowed one run in three innings and earned one save (his first since August 15) in the past week."
  • What? He only "earned" 1 "save" which was "his first since August 15." Man, Rivera must be a lazy, worthless, barely above average journeyman. WHAT THE YOUNG MR. JACOBS DESPERATELY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW:
  • First, Mariano wasn't 'resting' for 2 weeks. He had a 'Win' on August 20. He pitched 2 consecutive innings twice after August 15th, first on August 20, then on August 27. It may hurt Jacobs too much to remember the 2 IP on August 20 for the Win happened at Fenway Park. Between Aug. 20 and 27th, the Yankees were losing all the games with 2 exceptions--one they were ahead by 7 runs, and the other was the Monday day game against Boston, where Mariano had just pitched 2 consecutive innings about 14 hours earlier. But, Jacobs et al won't mention that--if anything, they'll say well Rivera was being "rested." It's only defined that way when Mariano is involved--not others.
Jacobs, like others in the mass communications field of baseball (as opposed to people actually in the game like AL managers) seems to be confused, doesn't really have the time to check out his facts. He next goes on to glorify another pitcher not named Mariano, this time, Frankie Rodriguez:

"Rodriguez has been so impressive this year, I can't remember the last time I had to say anything bad about him. He pitched another 3 1/3 scoreless innings with a win and two saves this past week, and he hasn't allowed a run in his last 21 2/3 innings."
  • OK, Ben, I'll remind you: FRANKIE HAS GIVEN UP 6 HR SO FAR THIS YEAR, 2 OF THEM IN 1 GAME (June 4); HE'S WALKED 19 YTD, 2 OF THEM IN 1 GAME, July 22-- if that had been Mo, you'd have remembered; THE WIN YOU MENTION IS 1 OF ONLY 2 HE HAS FOR THE SEASON. HIS IP= 57.1
  • Ben, MARIANO HAS PITCHED 71 INNINGS SO FAR, ALMOST 14 MORE THAN FRANKIE; HAS ONLY GIVEN UP 3 HR ALL YEAR, & ONLY 11 WALKS; MO ALSO HAS 5 WINS ALONG WITH HIS 33 SAVES.
Ben's propaganda appears in several different venues from what I can tell. Anti-Mariano spam
is around every corner, and most people too busy, lazy, or scared to expose this fraud.