Vegas Watch

First of all, the Mets are about to trade Lastings Milledge for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church (or, if you prefer, Ryan Schneider)? How is this a good idea?


I think it might be time to hang it up, Bill Conlin. Although the Thome/Conlin combo is quite something.

This is pretty cool: pitch f/x cards for everyone in the majors.

Is it really too much to ask to not irresponsibly speculate and jump to conclusions about the cause of Sean Taylor's death?

"College is for losers- in football, and in life". Sure is, Carl.

Tim Raines should be in the Hall of Fame.

Posnanski's excessively long (4200 words) but brilliant post on Herschel Walker's college career.
Someone should probably tell St. Paul Pioneer Press writer Bob Sansevere that the Twins aren't exactly in a position to trade Carlos Silva.

I don't know how to quote this and have it actually make sense, but I'm going to try anyway:

"[Kurt Streeter, L.A. Times:] Arte Moreno, be careful. Don't be tempted by Miguel Tejada. I don't like his downward trend.

[KT, FJM] I hear you, Kurt. Look at this guy's stats. I mean, he's 32, he doesn't walk much, he plays a high-stress position which makes him prone to break down...yikes. Stay away. Stick to Torii Hunter."

Shockingly, Dick Vitale's playoff predictions were quite poor.

There is a new "Boom King", apparently.

Basketball Prospectus made its debut this week.

The PITCH f/x data is available to everybody, which is kind of cool.

Manny Acta dislikes bunting, and enjoys blogs.

Sheehan in his chat yesterday:

"I'll go one further: no one should sign any free agents this offseason. The chance that a 2007-08 free agent will generate a positive return over the life of his contract is comfortably under 10%"

Leitch's NY Times playoff blog:

"Analysts are still trying to figure this whole Rockies business out. During last night’s game, TBS broadcaster Bob Brenly went back to the basics. “They play the game,” he said. “They pitch. They catch.”

These are admirable attributes in a baseball team, and are undoubtedly keys to a successful baseball franchise. That no one thought to mention this before September 2007 speaks poorly of previous Rockies management, I think."

Finally, music news that nobody except me cares about. In a recent interview, Jay-Z described his upcoming album as "the lyrical side of Reasonable Doubt meets the musical majesty of Blueprint". That would be incredible, and though I doubt it's even possible, I appreciate the sentiment. More Hov: "Roc Boys", "Blue Magic" video.

I would first like to say that I have nothing against Eric Wedge. I don't even really dislike him (well, I didn't until an hour ago). He seems like a nice guy.

With that being said, the following is the height of stupidity.

These are the Gameday screen grabs from Rafael Perez's two playoff appearances (click on them to make them larger).

To recap: in the 6th, his average FB was 91.75 MPH, with all but one of them being 91-93.

In the 7th, average FB was 89.5, with all but one being 89-90. Do remember, the Indians were up eight runs when Perez came back out for the seventh. This was entirely unnecessary.

Average FB in the 10th: EIGHTY SEVEN POINT FOUR MILES PER HOUR.
In the 11th: 87.3

He didn't throw a single pitch faster than 88 in either inning. This is the same guy who threw eight of his 12 FBs at 92 or 93 mph the day before.

FWIW, he struck out four guys on Thursday, and then only one on Friday. Faced six batters both nights (NYY is hitting .000/.000/.000 against him in the series).

I wish I had some kind of witty analysis, but I really don't. This seems like it's pretty blatant. Perez has been one of Wedge's main guys for about three months- he should know him pretty well at this point. He HAS to know what effect pitching two innings has on him the next day.

He clearly does not, and the Indians got lucky in game two. It will be interesting to see if the effects of this carry over to game three.

Not surprisingly, fireericwedge.com is "Coming soon!"


Related (kind of): Alex Rodriguez's career numbers against current Indians pitchers. [B-R]

PostmanE is the only reason this post exists.

Top 5:

Top 7:
Top 9: Look, I'm certainly no scout. And the bugs got most of the attention. But can we really blame A-Rod here? All but one of those red dots (the strikes) are 93-95 "turbo" (shut up, TBS) sinkers. The other one is a well placed 86 mph slider.

Quote:

"Me personally, I helped him out a few times," Rodriguez said. "I've got to
stop swinging at bad pitches."

I guess some of those pitches were inside in the third AB. But beyond that? Something is obviously screwed up with pitch two in the second AB, but the other two pitches seem pretty tough. And the three pitches he swung at in the fifth inning were definitely strikes.

If ~15 ABs in October had the potential to effect the way I will be viewed for years, I'd probably be overly self critical also. But if this game occurs in April, don't we have the same result?