I'm going to explain something real quick: I set up this blog mainly to serve as a journal for when I'm on my baseball tour, which I'll be leaving for this Friday July 31. Aaaand I never explained that. So on July 31, I'll be doing those entries from the road, and if you're confused by what's being said here, then keep reading.
I'm taking a class with USM that deals with Baseball in our society, and it involves reading a bunch of books all summer, then, going on a week-long bus tour throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, New York, and of course, Massachusetts.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE MAP
We will visit 10 ballparks and 2 museums (including Cooperstown), attend 9 games, meet at least 11 personalities, and take countless amounts of pictures.
The pictures will be for my photostory about the whole thing, which will revolve around Baseball being passed through various generations. There will be a wide rage of ages among the people I will be traveling with, and I'm hoping each person can have a unique story regarding the game.
So look for pictures, journal entries, and updates elsewhere to keep track of where I'm going. Check the map in the link above if you are wondering where I'll be that day.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
IF the AL Cy Young was handed out today...
I still wouldn't give it to Mark Buehrle.
That is a tough call though, especially when you look at the 4 other pitchers that are racking in very similar numbers as of right now.
But lets pretend for a minute that the season ended today, AND that Buehrle did not just throw the 18th perfect game in MLB history yesterday. Who would be the top 5 candidates?
Well, in the Mind of Shinny, here are my picks (in no particular order):
-Roy Halliday
-Felix Hernandez
-Zack Greinke
-Josh Beckett
-Mark Buehrle
The Cy Young is for the BEST pitcher in baseball. To be the best pitcher in baseball you have to have the best command, the best pitches, the best stamina, and a lot of luck that doesn't get put into numbers. Most of the time it translates into helping your team win, but not all the time. And that's what the MVP award is for anyway.
Out of all of my top 5, Greinke is the only pitcher not in the 11-win club, and the only one in the group to mass 5 losses. But he does have more innings pitched than Halliday AND Beckett, along with the best ERA among the 5. But ERA and innings pitched doesn't quite convince me he deserves it. Or does he...
Keep in mind, we're JUST talking about the AL. Categorically, here's who is top dog:
Best command: Halliday, by a long shot.
His 17 walks are the fewest among my group of pitchers, and when you look at his AB statistics, he walks the fewest amount of batters after falling behind 2-0. The most amount of walks he has given up is when he gets into a full count. Better yet, when he gets ahead 0-2, he has only walked 2 (and just 19 hits allowed in that situation).
Best Stamina: Greinke
He has 5 complete games, 1 more than Halliday, and his 134.1 innings pitched rank top 5 among starters. He also throws about 105 pitches per start. He's the guy I want on the hill if my team is in the middle of a losing streak or if my bullpen is taxed. No longer the headcase he was from last year, and he's on pace to hit 19 wins.
Best "stuff:" Beckett and Hernandez
I'm looking at the Hits and Strikeouts categories for this one, because you will see everything in each start they put up. They will either take care of business themselves with a little help from his defense on a good day, or use their defense a lot and scatter a few hits on a bad day. Beckett and Hernandez both have identical records at 11-3, but Hernandez leads Beckett in strikeouts with 137. Both guys are hovering around 111-117 hits allowed so far this season, and have pitched a lot of innings.
Most efficient: Buehrle
He usually doesn't go above 100 pitches per start, and works quickly and attacks the strike zone. If you saw the perfect game yesterday, you know what I'm talking about. But his perfect game is just a microcosm of what he's been doing all this season (usually). He has only lost twice in a row once, and was unbeaten until the middle of may because of his efficiency.
So I have to pick a winner, but quickly, I want to snub some guys too.
Tim Wakefield and Edwin Jackson.
Wake would be my pick for Red Sox MVP because of how he goes out and plays "stopper" in mostly every start. Not to mention, he only has 3 no-decisions this season, putting together 9 consecutive starts with a decision between May 2nd and June 16th. But he still walks too many (yes he's a Knuckleballer), and while he does well with runners on base, he gets in trouble by allowing too many 2-out hits, home runs, and RBIs. So am I saying that Wakefield will never win the Cy Young because he's a Knuckleballer? No. But that still doesn't give him an excuse when comparing him among the other great pitchers in the game right now either.
And I just don't like Edwin Jackson. His command sucks (40 walks), and he's a streaky pitcher. But as of now he does have a lot going for him, with a 2.52 ERA, 99 hits, and 129 IP, just below Beckett. He's on pace to reach 180 strikeouts, so his 7-5 record really doesn't do justice to how his season's going. But I just don't like him.
So my "1st Half Shinny's Mind AL Cy Young Winner" is....
HALLIDAY. With Beckett and Greinke in a CLOSE 2nd.
It seems like every time Halliday steps on the hill, it's a domination or a close game with few runs scored. This dude is electric, no way around it. It seems like the popular choice right now, but trust me, when you look at his numbers it's the obvious choice too.
That is a tough call though, especially when you look at the 4 other pitchers that are racking in very similar numbers as of right now.
But lets pretend for a minute that the season ended today, AND that Buehrle did not just throw the 18th perfect game in MLB history yesterday. Who would be the top 5 candidates?
Well, in the Mind of Shinny, here are my picks (in no particular order):
-Roy Halliday
-Felix Hernandez
-Zack Greinke
-Josh Beckett
-Mark Buehrle
The Cy Young is for the BEST pitcher in baseball. To be the best pitcher in baseball you have to have the best command, the best pitches, the best stamina, and a lot of luck that doesn't get put into numbers. Most of the time it translates into helping your team win, but not all the time. And that's what the MVP award is for anyway.
Out of all of my top 5, Greinke is the only pitcher not in the 11-win club, and the only one in the group to mass 5 losses. But he does have more innings pitched than Halliday AND Beckett, along with the best ERA among the 5. But ERA and innings pitched doesn't quite convince me he deserves it. Or does he...
Keep in mind, we're JUST talking about the AL. Categorically, here's who is top dog:
Best command: Halliday, by a long shot.
His 17 walks are the fewest among my group of pitchers, and when you look at his AB statistics, he walks the fewest amount of batters after falling behind 2-0. The most amount of walks he has given up is when he gets into a full count. Better yet, when he gets ahead 0-2, he has only walked 2 (and just 19 hits allowed in that situation).
Best Stamina: Greinke
He has 5 complete games, 1 more than Halliday, and his 134.1 innings pitched rank top 5 among starters. He also throws about 105 pitches per start. He's the guy I want on the hill if my team is in the middle of a losing streak or if my bullpen is taxed. No longer the headcase he was from last year, and he's on pace to hit 19 wins.
Best "stuff:" Beckett and Hernandez
I'm looking at the Hits and Strikeouts categories for this one, because you will see everything in each start they put up. They will either take care of business themselves with a little help from his defense on a good day, or use their defense a lot and scatter a few hits on a bad day. Beckett and Hernandez both have identical records at 11-3, but Hernandez leads Beckett in strikeouts with 137. Both guys are hovering around 111-117 hits allowed so far this season, and have pitched a lot of innings.
Most efficient: Buehrle
He usually doesn't go above 100 pitches per start, and works quickly and attacks the strike zone. If you saw the perfect game yesterday, you know what I'm talking about. But his perfect game is just a microcosm of what he's been doing all this season (usually). He has only lost twice in a row once, and was unbeaten until the middle of may because of his efficiency.
So I have to pick a winner, but quickly, I want to snub some guys too.
Tim Wakefield and Edwin Jackson.
Wake would be my pick for Red Sox MVP because of how he goes out and plays "stopper" in mostly every start. Not to mention, he only has 3 no-decisions this season, putting together 9 consecutive starts with a decision between May 2nd and June 16th. But he still walks too many (yes he's a Knuckleballer), and while he does well with runners on base, he gets in trouble by allowing too many 2-out hits, home runs, and RBIs. So am I saying that Wakefield will never win the Cy Young because he's a Knuckleballer? No. But that still doesn't give him an excuse when comparing him among the other great pitchers in the game right now either.
And I just don't like Edwin Jackson. His command sucks (40 walks), and he's a streaky pitcher. But as of now he does have a lot going for him, with a 2.52 ERA, 99 hits, and 129 IP, just below Beckett. He's on pace to reach 180 strikeouts, so his 7-5 record really doesn't do justice to how his season's going. But I just don't like him.
So my "1st Half Shinny's Mind AL Cy Young Winner" is....
HALLIDAY. With Beckett and Greinke in a CLOSE 2nd.
It seems like every time Halliday steps on the hill, it's a domination or a close game with few runs scored. This dude is electric, no way around it. It seems like the popular choice right now, but trust me, when you look at his numbers it's the obvious choice too.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Reiley needs to shut up
I'm going to deviate from baseball thoughts to address the latest "conniption" from Rick Reiley.
Rick Reiley recently published his idea of how the game of golf (aka the golf game to my WMEB peers) should be played. He, like every other professional sports purist out there, calls golf a gentleman's game; that players should police themselves and call their own penalties (read the article), and that Tiger Woods needs to stop his "Tiger Tantrums" and clean up his act.
While that is mostly true of the game, there is no need for Woods to do so. If this was 1997, then yes, Tiger shouldn't be acting like this. But he is at the very top of the PGA hierarchy. Without Tiger Woods, golf would be as popular as professional soccer in the U.S. If we were talking about any other player in the Pro Circuit, then Reiley would be right. But let me say this: Tiger Woods deserves to play the game the way he wants to, just like every other person who is the greatest in their sport deserves to. I am not saying that he can start breaking the rules because he had a bad day on the links, but as long as he stays within boundaries, the rest is just BS.
I am not the biggest fan of golf, but I am an admirer of anyone who works as hard as Woods does to become the top dog in their profession. Our generation has seen some of the greatest individual athletes of all time pass through--Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Woods, Bode Miller (laugh it up, but he was the greatest skiier in the world at one point)--and it is all because these guys took it upon themselves to not only work their asses off, but to make a point of becoming the faces of that profession.
So when they become arrogant, moody, greedy, etc--let them do it! Lance Armstrong deserves to be a cocky MF because guess what (we've all heard it): he's done more in life with one testicle than you or I or your next kid or that kid's dog will ever do in our lifetimes. Bode Miller can drink a 30-rack of Schlitz, come out of retirement, and STILL win a Downhill circuit if he wanted to.
Tiger Woods is just acting like the top dog in his sport should be. He has slipped a little bit, and he's pissed off about it. So what if Tiger curses and slams his clubs down after hooking a shot? EVERYONE who has made a bad drive has done the same thing. So what if he confronts photographers who snap their noisy shutters on an important tee-off? In Reiley's column, he criticized Woods' antics, saying, "It's disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to those he plays with and disrespectful to the great players who built the game before him." It's also disrespectful to make your camera go CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK during a tee-off. I don't hear photography critics saying that guy is disrespectful to his profession.
Before he had his knee surgery, fans and media alike were wondering if Tiger was even human! These "Tiger Tantrums" are only showing us that the greatest can have bad days, just like the rest of us. In fact, it makes me think higher of Tiger because you KNOW he is going to practice even harder for the next match.
So let Tiger drop a few f-bombs here and there, or huck his clubs into the grass. He deserves to get pissed off when he slips a few degrees below the perfection he has achieved for the better part of a decade. He isn't cheating, he isn't going out and shooting up night clubs or degrading women, he is simply a competitor.
Golf is a gentleman's game, but it is a GAME before anything else. And right now, it is Tiger's game. Let him play the way he wants to play. Are theses guys babies sometimes? Yes. Do I NOT enjoy watching some of these athletes piss and moan about little things all the time? You bet. But, when someone else achieves Tiger Woods' status, then they can play their game.
Rick Reiley recently published his idea of how the game of golf (aka the golf game to my WMEB peers) should be played. He, like every other professional sports purist out there, calls golf a gentleman's game; that players should police themselves and call their own penalties (read the article), and that Tiger Woods needs to stop his "Tiger Tantrums" and clean up his act.
While that is mostly true of the game, there is no need for Woods to do so. If this was 1997, then yes, Tiger shouldn't be acting like this. But he is at the very top of the PGA hierarchy. Without Tiger Woods, golf would be as popular as professional soccer in the U.S. If we were talking about any other player in the Pro Circuit, then Reiley would be right. But let me say this: Tiger Woods deserves to play the game the way he wants to, just like every other person who is the greatest in their sport deserves to. I am not saying that he can start breaking the rules because he had a bad day on the links, but as long as he stays within boundaries, the rest is just BS.
I am not the biggest fan of golf, but I am an admirer of anyone who works as hard as Woods does to become the top dog in their profession. Our generation has seen some of the greatest individual athletes of all time pass through--Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Woods, Bode Miller (laugh it up, but he was the greatest skiier in the world at one point)--and it is all because these guys took it upon themselves to not only work their asses off, but to make a point of becoming the faces of that profession.
So when they become arrogant, moody, greedy, etc--let them do it! Lance Armstrong deserves to be a cocky MF because guess what (we've all heard it): he's done more in life with one testicle than you or I or your next kid or that kid's dog will ever do in our lifetimes. Bode Miller can drink a 30-rack of Schlitz, come out of retirement, and STILL win a Downhill circuit if he wanted to.
Tiger Woods is just acting like the top dog in his sport should be. He has slipped a little bit, and he's pissed off about it. So what if Tiger curses and slams his clubs down after hooking a shot? EVERYONE who has made a bad drive has done the same thing. So what if he confronts photographers who snap their noisy shutters on an important tee-off? In Reiley's column, he criticized Woods' antics, saying, "It's disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to those he plays with and disrespectful to the great players who built the game before him." It's also disrespectful to make your camera go CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK during a tee-off. I don't hear photography critics saying that guy is disrespectful to his profession.
Before he had his knee surgery, fans and media alike were wondering if Tiger was even human! These "Tiger Tantrums" are only showing us that the greatest can have bad days, just like the rest of us. In fact, it makes me think higher of Tiger because you KNOW he is going to practice even harder for the next match.
So let Tiger drop a few f-bombs here and there, or huck his clubs into the grass. He deserves to get pissed off when he slips a few degrees below the perfection he has achieved for the better part of a decade. He isn't cheating, he isn't going out and shooting up night clubs or degrading women, he is simply a competitor.
Golf is a gentleman's game, but it is a GAME before anything else. And right now, it is Tiger's game. Let him play the way he wants to play. Are theses guys babies sometimes? Yes. Do I NOT enjoy watching some of these athletes piss and moan about little things all the time? You bet. But, when someone else achieves Tiger Woods' status, then they can play their game.
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