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Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Unlucky Yu

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Just a short reflection on the most memorable moment of the past week in MLB.

‘(Un)Lucky Y(o)u’ by the Lightning Seeds

You’ve done it again
The night would soon belong to you
A no-hitter loomed
It seemed this time nothing could stop it coming true

But Yu, it didn’t happen

Ooh-ooh-eee-ooh
Ooh-ooh-eee-ooh-eee-ooh-eee-ooh

No-hitter blues now, unlucky Yu

Unlucky Yu
What more could you do
Except get one more out
Unlucky Yu

….

Coming within a single out of pitching a no-hitter is heartbreaking enough. Doing it twice seems a cruel twist of fate handed down by the baseball gods.

The Texas Rangers’ Yu Darvish could manage a wry smile at David Ortiz’s ground-ball eluding Elvis Andrus with two outs in the eighth inning (it was fitting that the Rangers were playing a defensive shift at the key moment – nothing defines the 2014 season so far quite like teams moving their infielders about).

 

 

It’s tempting to say that it’s inevitable Darvish will get a no-no at some point considering how close he’s come to it on several occasions. He has more than lived up to his ace-type billing since making the move from Japan and he has the ability to dominate teams whenever he’s on top of his game.

Yet perhaps luck will determine that he remains the nearly no-hitter man for the rest of his career.

Nothing is ever certain in baseball, which is exactly why we are so captivated by the sport.

 

Offseason so far: AL West

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After looking at the AL East and AL Central, today we complete a round-up of the offseason so far in the American League by reviewing the comings and goings from the AL West division.

Oakland A’s

There’s rarely a quiet offseason in Oakland as General Manager Billy Beane knows that his team, more than most, cannot afford to stand still whilst those with more money (which is pretty much every other team in the Majors) can outspend them.

The A’s have won the division in each of the last two years and, although they haven’t made any major moves, they’ve shuffled the pack to try and make it three on the spin. Oakland normally can’t afford to keep hold of players that hit free agency and, sure enough, Bartolo Colon (Mets) and Grant Balfour (still to find a team) will not be with the club in 2014. However, these losses didn’t start an Oakland firesale; in fact they immediately replaced those two key players with Scott Kazmir and Jim Johnson, the latter acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles.

The A’s have traded away several players – including Seth Smith to the Padres, Brett Anderson to the Rockies and Jerry Blevins to the Nationals – but they’ve done so mainly to improve their options for the current roster, rather than as part of a rebuilding project. Outfielder Craig Gentry (from the Rangers) and reliever Luke Gregerson (Padres) are the main two new recruits likely to be regulars on the team.

Texas Rangers

The last two seasons haven’t been completely disastrous in Texas, yet they’ve certainly been a disappointment with a Wild Card game loss in 2012 and missing the playoffs completely last year.

The Rangers hope that some better luck with injuries will lead to an improvement in their pitching, so their offseason so far has been geared towards improving the batting lineup.

They did this in one surprising swoop when they traded away second baseman Ian Kinsler to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers. Fielder was only two years into a nine-year contract in Detroit, but he became something of a target from Tiger fans when logging just one extra base hit (a double) in 11 postseason games after ending the season with the lowest home run total of his career (25). A change of scenery could work out extremely well for Fielder and the Rangers.

He’ll be joined in the lineup by outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, who signed a 7-year, $130m contract with the team in mid-December. Choo will take over from Nelson Cruz, a free agent still searching for a new team, whilst Neftali Feliz is likely to return to being a closer after Joe Nathan left for the Tigers as a free agent.

Los Angeles Angels

After the big-ticket offseason signings of 2011/12 (Albert Pujols) and 2012/13 (Josh Hamilton), the Angels have been relatively quiet this time around. Their big hope is that they’ll be able to add fit, healthy and productive versions of those two players to their lineup regularly in 2014.

David Freese has been acquired from the Cardinals to take over at third base, whilst slugger Mark Trumbo has been traded away to the Diamondbacks. Trumbo is really a home-run-hitter who provides little else and having traded away such a player they arguably acquired another one in 42-year-old veteran Raul Ibanez, who’s not much of a fielder and had just a .306 OBP last season, but did hit 29 homers in 124 games for the Mariners.

Jason Vargas has left the team as a free agent to join Kansas City. Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs, who was reacquired from the D-Backs having been traded to them in August 2010, will join the battle for a rotation spot, with Joe Smith signed as a free agent to be the set-up man for Ernesto Frieri.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners haven’t been leading players in offseasons of recent years, but they’ve made the biggest move of all so far in 2013/04. Rumours that they were genuine contenders for the signature of Robinson Cano seemed fanciful right up to the point when the New York Yankees admitted defeat in their attempt to keep hold of their second baseman.

For all of the excitement generated by their $240m investment in Cano, everyone knew that Seattle needed more than one player, however talented, to be genuine playoff contenders after finishing 25 games behind the A’s last year.  They’ve acquired Logan Morrison in a trade with the Marlins and signed Corey Hart, who missed all of 2013 with a knee injury, but you still feel they are several players short and that may well mean their offseason work is far from over, especially in adding to the pitching staff.

The main free agent departures have been Ibanez’s above-mentioned move to the Angels and the anticipated departure of Kendrys Morales, who is yet another player still seeking a team.

Houston Astros

The rebuilding work continues in Houston where even the most optimistic Astros fan will see a winning season as being beyond them this year.

They have moved towards signing some established Major League players though. The main feature of their offseason work has been compiling what looks to be a good bullpen thanks to the acquisitions of Jesse Crain, Chad Qualls and Matt Albers.

Scott Feldman has been brought in on a three-year contract to lead a young rotation, whilst the Astros swung a trade with the Rockies to make Dexter Fowler their new centrefielder.

Rounding the Bases: Deals being made

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One week ago I stated that we may be waiting a few weeks before the MLB Hot Stove started to heat up and teams began making significant roster additions.

It turned out that this past week was in fact quite a busy one, with several free agent signings being completed and one major trade.

Fielder and Kinsler swap teams

At breakfast time on Thursday morning I was tucking into a bowl of porridge and enjoying watching the highlights of Day One of the first Ashes Test on Sky Sports News (enjoy the good times while they last, comes to mind) when I noticed that an MLB news item was about to scroll across the bottom of the screen. I expected it to be news of a minor free agent signing, but instead was taken aback to read that the Texas Rangers had swung a trade to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

Just two years ago, the Tigers caused a major shock by coming out of nowhere and signing Fielder to a nine-year, $214m contract. Despite having a disappointing 2013 season, Fielder appeared to be set to stay in Detroit for years to come and yet all of a sudden the long-term commitment between player and team had been broken.

At first glance it looks to be a trade that should benefit both teams handsomely, not just in the player each team has required but the knock-on effects for their respective rosters.

The Tigers can now move Miguel Cabrera over to first base, where his limited fielding skills are better suited, and create an opening for their best prospect, third baseman Nick Castellanos. Kinsler will add a combination of some power and speed to the lineup and moving the majority of Fielder’s hefty contract (the Tigers have given the Rangers $30m as part of the deal to cover some of the remaining $168m) gives them some financial flexibility potentially to add another player or two or to add to the pot for a contract extension for Max Scherzer and, down the line, Miguel Cabrera.

As for the Rangers, they were desperate to make a big move after suffering late season heartbreak in the last two seasons. Acquiring a premium slugger is a statement of intent and moving to the homer-friendly confines of Rangers Ballpark should suit Fielder down to the ground. Moving Kinsler also frees up some space for the Rangers to let top prospect Jurickson Profar settle in at second base.

Angels and Cardinals

The Rangers’ AL West rivals the Los Angeles Angels also completed a trade this week, acquiring third baseman David Freese from the St. Louis Cardinals for centre fielder Peter Bourjos, with a couple of young prospects thrown into the deal too.

Freese will forever be a hometown hero in St. Louis for his 2011 World Series heroics, yet it looks like a good time for him to move on to a new challenge with the Angels. The Cardinals will probably move their infield players around so that Matt Carpenter shifts over to third base and Kolten Wong moves into second base full-time, potentially with former Detroit Tiger Jhonny Peralta joining the team as their new shortstop if the rumours from Saturday night are accurate. Bourjos, if he can stay fit and on the field, will be a better option in centrefield than the disappointing John Jay for the Cards, whilst Mike Trout will no longer be moved aside to the Angels’ left field and will instead be the number one centre fielder.

Pitchers getting paid

David Freese should be a good addition for the Angels, but their most pressing need over the offseason is to bolster their pitching corps. Another opening in the rotation has been created by Jason Vargas departing as a free agent as he agreed a four-year, $32m contract with the Kansas City Royals.

The signing was met by a fairly lukewarm response. In part this was because of the Royals rumours swirling in the hour before it was announced:

A “major-baseball announcement” immediately created visions for some of Carlos Beltran donning the ‘KC’ cap once again, so when the reality was a player you can neatly file under the words ‘solid’ and ‘dependable’ there was bound to be some disappointment.

Giving a four-year contract to a less-than-spectacular player also raised a few eyebrows, yet $8m per year for a good starting pitcher looks like being a good deal for the Royals on the current pitching market.

The San Francisco Giants spent $23m this week to sign 38-year old Tim Hudson on a two-year contract (£137k per week). Hudson’s 2013 season was ended by a horrible freak accident when the Mets’ Eric Young accidentally landed on the pitcher’s right ankle as he was covering first base. The Giants are confident that Hudson will come back from his fractured ankle as good as new and if he does then he should help the team in their attempt to get back to the postseason and to win a third World Series in five years.

Elsewhere in the NL West, the San Diego Padres have also signed a pitcher whose 2013 was impacted by injury. Josh Johnson has spent most of his career so far battling the tag of being an ace when not injured. Recently he’s spent more time injured than being an ace but the Padres have little to lose in signing him to a one-year contract worth $8m and, with Petco Park being a great place for a pitcher to ply his trade, it’s also a good setting for Johnson to have a good year and then earn a more lucrative contract in a year’s time.

Another veteran for the Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies played at the Veterans Stadium for 33 seasons before moving to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. The team’s General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr has done a good job in recent years of honouring their old home by building rosters dominated by veterans and, just a week after signing 36-year-old Marlon Byrd to a two-year contract, he added another this week with the re-signing of catcher Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz has spent his whole Major League career with the Phillies and even when his contract ran out at the end of the 2013 season, there always seemed a very good chance that he would carry on with the club.

Amaro’s decision to hand the 35-year-old a three-year contract worth a guaranteed $26m (annual salaries of $8.5m – approximately £101k per week – with a $500k 2017 buyout fee) made sure of that and immediately led to the GM’s thought processes (or more precisely lack of) being questioned.

Giving a three-year contract to a 35-year-old catcher isn’t ideal, but Ruiz is a good all-round player, not spectacular at anything but solid enough at the plate and behind it, at a position where merely being good carries plenty of value. Additionally the risk involved is mitigated slightly by the Phillies’ familiarity with him, from how he fits into the group as a personality to a detailed knowledge of his fitness.

And finally …

The Phillies kept hold of their catcher, but it looks like the Atlanta Braves have lost theirs. Brian McCann has been with the Braves for his entire professional career and his nine-season Major League run with the team always looked likely to come to an end this offseason when he became a free agent. Sure enough, late on Saturday night it was being reported that he has agreed a five-year, $85m contract (just over £200k per week) with the New York Yankees.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Shouldering responsibility

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The list of baseball incidents likely to catch the attention of the British press is a short one, topped by steroid scandals that over the past decade have sadly ‘won’ the sport a fair few column inches across the pond.

A 50-man plus, bench-clearing brawl is on that little list – who doesn’t enjoy seeing a good old dust-up? – and if you add in an injury to an expensively-acquired player an extra paragraph or two will be tacked on to the story.

As Carlos Quentin charged into Zack Greinke recently and everyone else began the familiar shoving match, the thought that came to mind was that it’s a wonder so few brawls (if we can really call them that) end up with an injury being suffered. In Greinke’s situation, you would not expect the player to come out from underneath the heap unscathed.

Against the odds, often a few bumps and bruises are the sum total of the damage done, but it wasn’t long after the bitter Dodgers-Padres clash ended that we found out Greinke had not been so lucky. Initial estimates propose that he will be out of action for at least eight weeks after undergoing surgery on his broken left collarbone.

Manager Don Mattingly’s emotional post-game opinion that Quentin should be banned for as long as the time Greinke has to miss was understandable, if never the least bit likely. When you invest $147m in a top-line pitcher, you’re going to be upset to see him injured in such a bizarre way.

Plenty of debate has been had about any intent on Greinke’s part with the high-and-inside pitch and Quentin’s decision to charge the mound, but in hindsight you would also have to question Greinke’s decision to meet Quentin by putting his shoulder into the well-built outfielder. It has shades of the macho stance that still leads some catchers to block the plate as a baserunner comes barrelling down the third-base line trying to smash him into next week.

That approach may please the masochists, but it isn’t clever to put yourself at such an extreme risk of injury that could cost your team dear. The smart catcher can skilfully tag the runner without putting himself in harm’s way. Greinke would have been wise – rather than a wimp – to have displayed a quick bit of footwork to sell Quentin the dummy before the cavalry came to smother out the danger.

Some may see it as a kill-joy, health-and-safety-gone-mad stance, but this isn’t rounding the edges off those dangerous pointy flapjacks. The Dodgers aren’t paying Greinke $147m to be a nightclub bouncer, they are paying him to pitch and he won’t be doing that for the next couple of months.

Replay the instant replay debate

The Premier League announced last week that they will be implementing HawkEye technology for goal line decisions from next season. MLB has apparently ruled out the use of such technology for fair/foul line calls, but it is expected that an increased use of instant replay will be adopted for the 2014 season.

The game-ending call between the Rays and Rangers last Monday raises an interesting question as to how that should be implemented.

At first glance, umpire Marty Foster’s decision to call the Rays’ Ben Zobrist out on strikes is exactly the sort of play that instant replay should be there for. It came at an important time (the final out of the game with the Rays trailing 4-3 with a runner on first) and was a clearly incorrect call. Nobody wants to see a blatant mistake by an umpire play a crucial part in the outcome of a game, especially the umpire that has to live with the mistake.

However, we don’t yet know whether an expanded instant replay referral system would include balls and strikes calls. My guess would be that the Umpires’ Union, and quite probably the MLB Commissioner’s Office too, would be dead-set against it.

The incorrect strike call on Zobrist was a freak event; most disputed calls on balls and strikes are more marginal. Most, if not probably all, cameras looking towards home plate do so at an angle that distorts the perception of the path of the pitch, so you couldn’t use the standard camera angles. That brings in the prospect of a PITCHf/x type tracking system being used and whilst some fans would be happy for computers to call all pitches, it’s safe to say the umpires would not agree.

As things currently stand, any new referral system would need to be introduced with the approval of the Umpires’ Union and opening the door to the use of a pitch-tracking system is likely to be refused.

It’s possible that the new system would give the umpires ultimate discretion to check any call and therefore a completely baffling error such as the one Foster made could be rechecked (i.e. with the umpire knowing that they had blown it and so referring it themselves), but don’t be surprised if the new system still results in such a call being met only with the consolation of an apology from the umpire.

Which for the team in question is no consolation at all.

Replay on Rajai

Another potential replay scenario cropped up during last week’s series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers.

The Blue Jays’ speedster Rajai Davis attempted to steal second base and was called safe. On first viewing I thought the umpire had got the close call exactly right and I maintained that view having watched a replay. However, a second angle revealed that after narrowly beating the throw, Davis actually came off the bag briefly whilst Omar Infante kept the tag applied.

Infante didn’t make a big deal of it, but maybe he would have done had there been an option to refer the decision to a replay process.

Rule changes typically lead to changes in the way a game is played and the expanded use of instant replay will be no different. Every baserunner tries to stay on the bag when sliding in, just as every infielder knows they should keep the tag applied, but once instant replay comes into effect you should see players refining their technique.

The demand for additional replay has grown deafening as technological developments in TV coverage have hugely magnified the slightest error by an umpire. What shouldn’t be overlooked is that expanded replay will cast the same level of inspection on the players and slight mistakes that they presently get away with may come back to haunt them.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: A 2013 return

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After a one-year hiatus, my ‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball column returns today.

Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the key stories that caught my eye in MLB over the past week.

Lonestar State MLB season opener

Our progression through the long baseball-free winter months reached a significant moment this past week as ESPN announced which game would be the 2013 MLB regular season opener.

Baseball fans in the U.K. will be putting sleep to one side in the early hours of Monday 1 April as the Houston Astros make their American League debut against the Texas Rangers. The game will begin shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday 31 March, making for a 1 a.m. Bank Holiday Monday start for us.

The game choice is a slight surprise. The obvious choice for the marquee season opener was the game between the free-spending Los Angeles Dodgers hosting the reigning World Series champions the San Francisco Giants.

Over the past ten seasons, the reigning World Series champions have featured in the opening game on seven occasions (taking the three Japan series in 2004, 2008 and 2012 out of the equation).

On the other three occasions, the Orioles celebrated 50 years in Baltimore to start the 2004 season against the Boston Red Sox, Ryan Zimmerman memorably launched the new Nationals Ballpark by launching a walk-off home run against the Atlanta Braves in 2008, and there was no single opening game in 2011 when the action started on a Thursday.

The Astros’ move into the American League is certainly a notable moment. It marks the end of the organization’s 51-season spell in the Senior Circuit and is the first time a team has switched leagues since the Milwaukee Brewers moved from the AL to the NL in 1998.  Combine that with this being the first game in a new American League local rivalry against the Rangers and it should be the sort of memorable occasion that the marquee opener deserves.

The only problem from a neutral’s perspective is that the Astros aren’t very good. And that’s putting it kindly.

Houston lost 107 games in 2012, after losing 106 in the previous year, and their offseason inactivity coupled with the move to a more competitive division doesn’t bode well for their prospects in 2013.  Their number one starting pitcher right now is Bud Norris and whilst he’s a decent enough starter who can rack up some strikeouts for your fantasy team, he isn’t anyone’s definition of an ace.

It’s a shame that the Astros are starting this new era whilst being in the early stages of a rebuilding phase. The Major League team and farm system had needed an overhaul since 2009, but stubbornness alongside the protracted sale of the organization delayed the process for a couple of years and it’s probable that Astros fans will be waiting until 2015 or 2016 before they start to see real progress at the Major League level.

But let’s not be too negative. Every baseball fan knows that however mediocre a team may look on paper, and however poorly they may perform over the course of a season, they are capable of pulling out a win on any given day or night.

The Astros played six Interleague games against the Rangers last season. They lost five of them, but they did gain a 6-5 victory over their rivals on 19 May at Minute Maid Park.

One solitary win doesn’t count for much in the general scheme of things; however wouldn’t it be great if the unfancied Astros shocked the Rangers with an Opening Night victory, sending their fans home happy, decked out in clothing adorned with their new logo and colour scheme, toasting the joy of being able to claim that they have the best record in the Majors, for one night at least.

It could come true, or they could be put to the sword by a Texas team intent on showing the locals how tough life will be in the AL West.

The 2013 regular season opener will not just be a great occasion for the Astros, it will be an instant reminder, as another season gets underway, of one of the great wonders of baseball: you never know what’s going to happen.

Berkman joins the Rangers

Saturday’s news that Lance Berkman has agreed a one-year,$10m contract with the Texas Rangers will bring an extra storyline to the opening game.

Berkman is of course an Astros hero having been a star on the team from 1999 to 2010. Injury wrecked his 2012 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, restricting him to only 32 games; however, that followed a memorable 2011 campaign in which he helped the Cards to a World Series win.

Moving to the AL, where his knees can be rested as a Designated Hitter, increases the odds that Berkman will be able to contribute throughout the season. If he does, the Rangers’ offence is really starting to shape up again. This is their projected batting lineup against right-handed pitchers, as proposed by the brilliant MLBDepthCharts website:

1 2B Ian Kinsler
2 SS Elvis Andrus
3 LF David Murphy*
4 3B Adrian Beltre
5 DH Lance Berkman**
6 RF Nelson Cruz
7 C A.J. Pierzynski*
8 1B Mitch Moreland*
9 CF Leonys Martin*

Projected Bench
C Geovany Soto
IF/OF Leury Garcia
IF/OF Mike Olt
OF Craig Gentry

(* = left-handed hitter, ** = switch-hitter).

The one criticism you could level at the line-up is that David Murphy is not an ideal Number Three hitter, but if they could add another quality bat to the outfield mix – and they continue to be linked with a trade for Arizona’s Justin Upton – then it would become a very well-balanced offence.

The Rangers have lost several key players this offseason, not least Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli, whilst missing out on pitching targets such as Zack Greinke and James Shields.  However one look at their roster tells you that it would be a grave mistake to underestimate how good a team they remain.

Optimism in Cleveland

Positivity and optimism was overflowing this week in Cleveland as the Indians formally announced the signing of free agent outfielder Nick Swisher.

The former Yankee is one of the most gregarious players in MLB so the level of excitement coming from the player was no surprise. However, there seemed to be a wider sense at the press conference that Cleveland, with Terry Francona at the helm, are on their way up.

Moving from a 68-94 record in 2012 to challenging the formidable Detroit Tigers in 2013 may be beyond them, but there are genuine reasons for fans of the Tribe to look forward to the coming season with optimism that their team is heading in the right direction once again.

 

Darvish completes deal with Texas

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Major League Baseball will welcome a new international talent to its roster this season after Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish signed a six-year contract with the Texas Rangers.

Much as foreign players joining the Premiership can take some time to get used to playing in England, so Darvish will go through a period of transition as he gets used to his new surroundings. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka faced a similar period of transition and never reached the heights that were expected of him. However, all of the reports suggest that Darvish has the talent and character to succeed Stateside.

He might be a star pitcher coming over from Japan, but that’s really where the similarities with Matsuzaka end. Darvish should be considered as a talent in his own right and when you look at him that way, it’s not difficult to see why the Rangers have acquired him.

Darvish has been linked with a move to MLB for several years due to his utter dominance on the mound in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. A recent feature on the MLB Network examined his pitching statistics and compared him favourably with Stephen Strasburg and the Rays’ Matt Moore.  Continue reading →

Rangers raise the stakes again with $51.7m bid for Darvish

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After all the rumours, it was Texas, rather than Toronto, who were the highest bidder for Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish.

Toronto can turn their attention to other targets, possibly swinging a trade for a pitcher like Gio Gonzalez, or maybe even setting up a Jose Bautista-Prince Fielder double act in their batting lineup.

As for Texas, the fun has only just begun.  Now it’s on to the tricky process of negotiating a contract.

The spectre of Daisuke Matsuzaka has never been far away in the Darvish story.  Matsuzaka’s decidedly mixed transition to North America has made some question whether Darvish’s star will shine so brightly in MLB as it has in Japan.  The Boston Red Sox’s $51,111,111 bid doesn’t look like money well spent in retrospect, to say the very least.

When it came to posting a bid for Darvish, there were several different approaches that a team could take. They could have shied away from such a vast sum as a risky investment, they could have believed that he is a superior talent to Matsuzaka and therefore potentially worth a similar amount, or believed that he is a superior talent but that $51.1m was paying well over the odds and therefore settled on a significant but lesser figure.

The Rangers went for the middle position of those three, bidding $51.7m.  The current conversion rate has that at approximately £33.1m, intriguingly close to the £35m that Liverpool speculated on the similarly risky (in different ways) Andy Carroll.  Put that down as reason number two why the Red Sox’s owners – also Liverpool’s owners, of course – steered clear of dishing out a similar sum this time around.  Continue reading →

An inspiring World Series

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A day or so removed from the final out, the excitement generated by this year’s World Series is still fully evident among baseball fans.

What more could you ask for from a Fall Classic than a seven-game series packed full of drama and containing one game – Game Six – that will go down as one of the all-time greats. 

The St. Louis Cardinals were crowned as champions, but we were all winners really, even if it won’t feel like that for anyone connected to the Texas Rangers.

It must be devastating for the Rangers to lose a second straight World Series, especially as they were so close to winning Game Six and completing their journey the way they had imagined all season long.

Their defeat made me think of the Cincinnati Reds team of the early 1970s, so brilliantly depicted in Joe Posnanski’s book The Machine.  The Reds didn’t lose back-to-back World Series, but they did fall short in the Fall Classic twice in three years (1970 and 1972) and when they got back there in 1975 their mindset was that they simply had to win.

The Texas Rangers will go into 2012 with that same mindset, whilst acknowledging how difficult it will be even to get back to the World Series.  They had a very strong team in 2011 and, subject to any major injuries, will have so again next season.  The trouble is, even the best planning can come undone.   Continue reading →

World Series 2011: On to Game Seven

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Game Seven of the 2011 World Series will get underway at 1.05 a.m. on Saturday.

At several times during Game Six, it seemed very unlikely that we would have one more game to look forward to in the 2011 season.

However, the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals turned a very good series into a great one with an absolute classic of a game that will go down as one of the greatest in World Series history.

The Cardinals’ incredible victory tied the series at 3-3 to set up a single game decider.

ESPN America and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be providing live coverage in the UK. The one-day postponement of Game Six has meant that we can follow the action early on Saturday rather than Friday, which was the original scheduled date for Game Seven.

It almost seems pointless to try to explain Game Six because any writer would struggle to do it justice. The Cardinals twice were a strike away from losing, only to come back and win. On the other side, the Rangers twice were one strike away from winning their first ever World Series, only to see their dreams put on hold. Add on a host of errors and a walk-off home run and you couldn’t have asked for a more dramatic game.

Looking back over the highlights, the one thing that stands out to me is the moment you see Nelson Cruz start to go back on the fly ball in the ninth inning. Despite knowing the outcome, my reaction is still to think that he will make the catch and complete the Rangers’ victory. It wasn’t an easy play – and I suspect no play could really be called easy in that spot – but it was one Cruz would often make. That might just come back to haunt Texas.

The extreme contrast of emotions coming out of yesterday, coupled with Game Seven being played in St. Louis, would appear to give the Cardinals all the momentum. However, this series has showed that momentum doesn’t always have much of an effect, and perhaps doesn’t always exist in the first place.

The Rangers’ victory in Game Two seemed to hand the momentum their way, coming from behind in the ninth inning to level the series before the teams headed to Arlington for the next three games. Instead, the Cardinals came out and absolutely hammered the Rangers in Game Three. That would seem to have swung the momentum back to the Cardinals, but then the Rangers came back to win the next two games.

So there’s really no way to predict what impact Game Six will have on Game Seven. All I can safely predict is that it will be another great game and whichever team comes out on top, they will have done so by beating a formidable opponent.

World Series 2011 Game Five: Rangers are one win away from glory

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The Texas Rangers stand one win away from capturing the 2011 World Series.

Their 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Five gives them a 3-2 series advantage as the Fall Classic takes a day off before resuming in St. Louis in the early hours of Thursday UK time.

Game Five marked the final contest at Rangers Ballpark in 2011, but it felt as if the game was being played in Bizarro Land rather than Arlington.

It was a confounding blend of incidents and strange tactical decisions, enough to leave anyone with their head spinning.  The effect was probably even more pronounced from this side of the pond. 

Watching the game in the early hours after limited sleep from the previous two nights made me question whether I could trust my eyes or if I had dozed off and started dreaming. The bemused comments on Twitter at the time were enough to make me realise that it was all really happening.

The most bizarre moment had to be Cardinals reliever Lance Lynn’s contribution with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Manager Tony La Russa called him into the game, ordered him to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler and then called for Jason Motte to relieve Lynn. 

La Russa is well-known for mixing and matching his relievers, bringing pitchers into the game for quite specific roles. I could imagine the British press re-using their nickname for ex-Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri and referring to him as ‘Tony the Tinkerman’, if they were the least bit interested in covering baseball.  La Russa will use a LOOGY from time to time – a lefty one out guy – which is quite a specialized role, but using a pitcher simply to issue an intentional walk is taking the approach to the extreme.

It turns out that his use of the bullpen in Game Five was hampered by miscommunication between himself – or pitching coach Dave Duncan – and the bullpen which meant that Jason Motte wasn’t ready to pitch when La Russa wanted to turn to him.  So he wasn’t intentionally creating a new pitching role, which is a shame in some ways as I had come up with a name for it (IBBM – pronounced ibbum – for intentional base on balls man).  Continue reading →