On the TSN broadcast yesterday, J.P. Ricciardi said (or Pat Tabler said to JP; can't remember) that the Jays had the most wins of anyone in the last two years without making the playoffs. And wouldn't you know it, he's right.
191 NYY (2 times made the playoffs)
183 DET (1)
183 LAA (1)
182 BOS (1)
175 MIN (1)
174 CLE (1)
170 TOR (0)
169 OAK (1)
166 SEA (0)
162 CHW (0)
...some losers
Don't know if that's impressive or who-cares-if-they-can-win-games-in-September-with-nothing-on-the-line. May is when they sucked last year, after all.
One of those guys also said something like "one of 9 teams with back-to-back winning seasons." There were five AL teams who did it (you know who they are, and who they aren't) as well as the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, and Padres. Amusingly, every NL Central team above .500 in 2006 was below .500 in 2007.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The former third baseman
A poster over at BTF was asking about Troy Glaus, whether there was "any chronic stuff" on the injury front that wasn't showing up in games missed in '06 and '07. My response:
Yeah, there's lots of chronic stuff. Glaus was permanently hurt in Toronto, after the first half of '06, with a variety of lower-body stuff. He's very gritty, and he plays well when hurt (unlike a lot of guys who will play hurt but will play poorly when doing so) but the most worrying thing about him for his future is that his most recent serious injuries are to his feet - and big guys NEVER do well after foot injuries (NBA players, for example, have an absolutely horrible record at recovery from foot injuries). And it's not one problem, either - he has a heel problem (bone spurs), and he has plantar fasciitis as well.
The problems started in his knees, and were probably exacerbated by having him play at short during June of '06. The knee gave him trouble for the whole rest of that year, it never really healed (he just played through the discomfort). Then in spring last year, he had the bone spurs in his heel giving him trouble - having surgery to shave them down wasn't an option, so he basically had to rest it completely to try to get it to heal. When he came back, he was very, very slow - he was never fast but now he was noticeably slower when running the bases. But he was playing marvelously - he was hitting a ton and playing very well at third - his range problem just made him play deeper and use his arm more.
But that changed running style ended up giving him hamstring trouble in the early part of the '07 season, so he was back missing games again. Again, he came back - playing through the pain - but this time the hammy was causing him to shorten his stride and slow his hip turn, and he was batting gamely but generating no power. He took a few games off here and there and got some rest, and he started to hit with authority again. But he's slowed down even more, and his feet were giving him even more trouble, and finally at the all-star break they figured out he had plantar fasciitis. For which the only real remedy is complete and utter rest - don't walk on it at all. And he came back eventually, after taking some time off around the break, and again he was in a lot of pain, but his hamstring had gotten truly better after the rest, and he started hitting all over the place.
And from there on in, the plantar fasciitis just kept giving him more and more trouble. He was competent from there on in, again playing well through the pain. He continued to play extremely well on defence as well, despite the injuries - again, that rocket arm of his can really bail him out of trouble. But given his age, his size, and the fact that the problems are in his feet, I seriously doubt that Glaus will ever again have a healthy season. He might well play 140-150 games, but he will not be playing them in perfect health. That doesn't matter as much for him as it does with someone with a less power-based playing style (power arm and bat) but it still matters. When Glaus first came to Toronto I fully expected him to hit 50 homers, or damn near to it. I'd say to expect about half that many this season.
Yeah, there's lots of chronic stuff. Glaus was permanently hurt in Toronto, after the first half of '06, with a variety of lower-body stuff. He's very gritty, and he plays well when hurt (unlike a lot of guys who will play hurt but will play poorly when doing so) but the most worrying thing about him for his future is that his most recent serious injuries are to his feet - and big guys NEVER do well after foot injuries (NBA players, for example, have an absolutely horrible record at recovery from foot injuries). And it's not one problem, either - he has a heel problem (bone spurs), and he has plantar fasciitis as well.
The problems started in his knees, and were probably exacerbated by having him play at short during June of '06. The knee gave him trouble for the whole rest of that year, it never really healed (he just played through the discomfort). Then in spring last year, he had the bone spurs in his heel giving him trouble - having surgery to shave them down wasn't an option, so he basically had to rest it completely to try to get it to heal. When he came back, he was very, very slow - he was never fast but now he was noticeably slower when running the bases. But he was playing marvelously - he was hitting a ton and playing very well at third - his range problem just made him play deeper and use his arm more.
But that changed running style ended up giving him hamstring trouble in the early part of the '07 season, so he was back missing games again. Again, he came back - playing through the pain - but this time the hammy was causing him to shorten his stride and slow his hip turn, and he was batting gamely but generating no power. He took a few games off here and there and got some rest, and he started to hit with authority again. But he's slowed down even more, and his feet were giving him even more trouble, and finally at the all-star break they figured out he had plantar fasciitis. For which the only real remedy is complete and utter rest - don't walk on it at all. And he came back eventually, after taking some time off around the break, and again he was in a lot of pain, but his hamstring had gotten truly better after the rest, and he started hitting all over the place.
And from there on in, the plantar fasciitis just kept giving him more and more trouble. He was competent from there on in, again playing well through the pain. He continued to play extremely well on defence as well, despite the injuries - again, that rocket arm of his can really bail him out of trouble. But given his age, his size, and the fact that the problems are in his feet, I seriously doubt that Glaus will ever again have a healthy season. He might well play 140-150 games, but he will not be playing them in perfect health. That doesn't matter as much for him as it does with someone with a less power-based playing style (power arm and bat) but it still matters. When Glaus first came to Toronto I fully expected him to hit 50 homers, or damn near to it. I'd say to expect about half that many this season.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Shelley Duncan has the Good Mace
Let's go through the lineup of amusing moments in this one.
[Obligatory Jays content: Well, excuse me, Judge Reinhold. We don't need any. It's friggin' Shelley Duncan.]
1) "What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play."
Leading off, Joe Maddon and his happy disregard for that nutjob in my philosophy class who constantly reminds us of Socrates' distinction between "example" and "definition."
2) Batting second: Pain.
3) Batting third, Elliot Johnson. He's "not changing his style" of...breaking the rule against fraternizing with opposing players? Will he talk to any of the Yankees? "Only if I get on base."
4) At cleanup, Brittany Ghiroli's Hilarious Veiled Innuendo. Let me replace one word with a blank and see how the meaning of the story changes. The Rays have "given Johnson a long, hard ____ in Spring Training, especially with utility infielder Ben Zobrist out with a fractured thumb." Johnson again: "if you get lucky enough, you might just slide in somewhere." Maddon: "this guy is very gifted, you can see that."
5) Here it's Duncan himself, hoping everyone forgets that he didn't play in 128 of New York's games last year: "I never in my mind think about sending a message to the other team. They see me playing hard every single day."
6) Batting sixth, Joe Maddon's and Joe Girardi's Shared Anger: "There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible, it's wrong, it's borderline criminal." / "I think it's uncalled for. It's Spring Training. I'm all for playing hard, but I don't think it's the time when you run over a catcher in Spring Training."
7) Batting sixth, Joe Maddon's and Joe Girardi's Shared Appreciation Of Hard-Nosed Plays: "We're playing it hard, we're playing it right. It was a bang-bang play at the plate. I couldn't tell exactly where the catcher was in regard to the plate. He was trying to score a run right there, and that was part of the game." / "Shelley told me he was taught as a player that when you're going to be out, you go after the ball. That's what he did."
8) Next up, MLB's Ongoing Insistence That Every Tampa Bay Incident Is, Like, Really Serious: "Both benches had already been warned by umpires before the game, given events on Saturday at Legends Field in Tampa, Fla., when Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli suffered a broken right wrist in a home-plate collision." Goddamnit, if there's one thing I won't stand for, it's injuries to Francisco Cervelli.
And finally, batting ninth as always, Jonny Johnson Gomes:
9) "Right fielder Jonny Gomes charged Duncan from behind" / Gomes: "It's baseball. This isn't boxing or fighting or anything." No matter how much he desperately wishes it were.
[Obligatory Jays content: Well, excuse me, Judge Reinhold. We don't need any. It's friggin' Shelley Duncan.]
1) "What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play."
Leading off, Joe Maddon and his happy disregard for that nutjob in my philosophy class who constantly reminds us of Socrates' distinction between "example" and "definition."
2) Batting second: Pain.
3) Batting third, Elliot Johnson. He's "not changing his style" of...breaking the rule against fraternizing with opposing players? Will he talk to any of the Yankees? "Only if I get on base."
4) At cleanup, Brittany Ghiroli's Hilarious Veiled Innuendo. Let me replace one word with a blank and see how the meaning of the story changes. The Rays have "given Johnson a long, hard ____ in Spring Training, especially with utility infielder Ben Zobrist out with a fractured thumb." Johnson again: "if you get lucky enough, you might just slide in somewhere." Maddon: "this guy is very gifted, you can see that."
5) Here it's Duncan himself, hoping everyone forgets that he didn't play in 128 of New York's games last year: "I never in my mind think about sending a message to the other team. They see me playing hard every single day."
6) Batting sixth, Joe Maddon's and Joe Girardi's Shared Anger: "There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible, it's wrong, it's borderline criminal." / "I think it's uncalled for. It's Spring Training. I'm all for playing hard, but I don't think it's the time when you run over a catcher in Spring Training."
7) Batting sixth, Joe Maddon's and Joe Girardi's Shared Appreciation Of Hard-Nosed Plays: "We're playing it hard, we're playing it right. It was a bang-bang play at the plate. I couldn't tell exactly where the catcher was in regard to the plate. He was trying to score a run right there, and that was part of the game." / "Shelley told me he was taught as a player that when you're going to be out, you go after the ball. That's what he did."
8) Next up, MLB's Ongoing Insistence That Every Tampa Bay Incident Is, Like, Really Serious: "Both benches had already been warned by umpires before the game, given events on Saturday at Legends Field in Tampa, Fla., when Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli suffered a broken right wrist in a home-plate collision." Goddamnit, if there's one thing I won't stand for, it's injuries to Francisco Cervelli.
And finally, batting ninth as always, Jonny Johnson Gomes:
9) "Right fielder Jonny Gomes charged Duncan from behind" / Gomes: "It's baseball. This isn't boxing or fighting or anything." No matter how much he desperately wishes it were.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Count one off Montefusco, one off Welsh
Jerry Howarth just asked 17-year veteran Alan Ashby if he knew his batting averages from both sides of the plate, for his 17 years in the majors. Ashby said no, but he thought he was better from the left side (he was). Ashby also mused about homering as a lefty and righty in the same game, sometime during his 17-year career, and I could only find one instance: September 27, 1982.
Obligatory post-1970s Blue Jays content: This was the final week of the 1982 season, so with Houston near the bottom of the NL West, Astros left fielder Jose Cruz was probably looking forward to spending some time with his eight-year-old son.
Obligatory post-1970s Blue Jays content: This was the final week of the 1982 season, so with Houston near the bottom of the NL West, Astros left fielder Jose Cruz was probably looking forward to spending some time with his eight-year-old son.
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