David Price gave up more than three runs in only three of his 31 starts this season. He gave up five today in his first career postseason start. Two solo homers, Jeff Francoeur and Vladimir Guerrero doubles, and a Bengie Molina blooper to right field plated the runners, dirtying what otherwise could have been an impressive stat line that includes eight strikeouts and zero walks.

Clearly Price was not at his absolute best today, but a lot of credit should be given to Cliff Lee. He of great command showed it, going seven innings without allowing a walk and giving up only five hits. Ben Zobrist had two of those hits, which happened to be the only two of extra base variety. A third inning double and seventh inning homer represent the highlights of the Rays’ day. He also struck a ball hard off Neftali Feliz that went for an out. Zobrist hit the ball with more authority today than he had in a while. One has to wonder whether his back – which caused him to miss some time – is finally healthy or if those three at-bats were simply an aberration.

In the preview, I mentioned Carlos Pena’s struggles versus southpaws and sure enough they were evident throughout today’s game. Bryan Smith wrote this about the most notable aspect of Pena’s game (although he had some issues receiving the ball on defense as well):

It didn’t feel that way early, as Cliff Lee came out firing almost exclusively fastballs, keeping his plus (or plus-plus) cutter, curve and change all in his back pocket. It almost back-fired in the first, as Lee loaded the bases with one out and Carlos Pena at the plate. After falling behind in the count 2-1, Lee threw an inside fastball up and in. Home plate umpire Tim Welke looked as if he was going to call the pitch a ball, but after Carlos Pena argued that the pitch hit him, Welke called a foul tip strike. Rather than plating the game’s first run or at least gaining a 3-1 count, Pena fell behind 2-2, and would strike out on the seventh pitch of the at-bat.

Rocco Baldelli then came up and did the same in an even more meager manner. I don’t find myself awestruck by many of the Rays’ decisions, but the one to have Baldelli – who did not hit well at any level this season – on the postseason roster over Willy Aybar or Brad Hawpe seems questionable at best and a classic example of wishcasting at worst. Baldell is a great story, but not such a great player that he should be treated with blind loyalty.

The Rays will attempt to beat the Rangers’ other lefty starter tomorrow as they try to rally behind James Shields to avoid must win scenarios beginning in game three.

During the Media portion at this past weekend’s Live Event, one topic addressed by the panel members was the relevance of the traditional game report.

On this subject, the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman said something to the effect of: “This is our first year at the Herald without proper game repots. We figured that our time and resources were better spent elsewhere — analyzing the game, etc.”

Allow me, first, to echo vigorously Silverman’s comment. I’ve said it before, will say it again, and will probably have it inscribed on my tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France, after I die: “The traditional, pyramid-style game report is a Snooze Fest of gigantic proportions.”

*Although, owing to the location of my tomb, the inscription will read more like the following: “Le rapport de match traditionnel du modèle-pyramide est un Snooze Fest des proportions colossales.”

But allow me to offer, secondly, a revolutionary thought: what if, instead of being written “pretty soon after the game” by a “paid reporter” who “watched the whole game attentively” — what if, instead of all that, a game report was written three days after a game by a bespectacled fellow who drank, like, three beers during said game and is generally prone to forming irrational attachment to fringe players?

Well, in that case, it would probably very much resemble the following.

The Game I’m Talking About
It happened this past Sunday night, August 8th, between the Connecticut Tigers and Brooklyn Cyclones of the short-season New York-Penn League. The latter team is a New York Mets affiliate; the former, shockingly, is affiliated with the Tigers.

Connecticut won 6-3. I mean, just in case that sort of info is important to you.

Why I Went There in the First Place
The answer to this question is a little bit of the “N’doy” variety, but still fair. Anyway, here are three reasons:

1. Because I was in New York already. (Live Event in the hizouse.)

2. Because minor league games are cheaper, and generally more accessible, than their major league counterparts.

3. Because it gave/gives me the opportunity to front like a prospect maven. (Which, if you’re gonna front, fronting like a prospect maven probably isn’t the worst. Fronting like a doctor? That’s pretty bad.)

What the Weather Was Like
Silly good. Sunday was a hot day in New York — and humid. But on account of MCU Park is right by the frigging ocean, there was this great breeze.

Pop quiz: How many baseball stadia are right by the ocean? San Francisco’s AT&T and San Diego’s Petco Parks are the only two I can think of. (The latter is on San Francisco Bay, but whatever.) As for minor league stadiums — fuggedaboutit.

What the Crowd Was Like
The box score says that 8,047 were in attendance — this, in a stadium with an official listed capacity of 7,501.

If this is true, then I’m forced to assume that the one or two thousand empty seats around the park were occupied by the Ghosts of New York Baseball Past. And they all paid.

What the Crowd Was Also Like
Like all the tweets from Sh*t My Dad Says being read aloud, simultaneously, over and over.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the most recent edition of One Night Only, I previewed a Fresno/Portland Triple-A game that was due to feature, among others, the two most highly rated prospects in the San Francisco Giants system: 23-year-old catcher Buster Posey and 20-year-old lefty Madison Bumgarner.

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Bumgarner’s start — which originally seemed set to take place on Saturday — was pushed back to Sunday. (The same thing happened to Portland’s Josh Geer, so let’s not call the Conspiracy Police quite yet.) As such, I ended up attending both the Saturday night game (i.e. the one I’d previewed) and the Sunday day game (i.e. the one that Bumgarner started).

Posey caught both games and, in nine plate appearances, went 2-for-8 with a walk. Two of those outs were strikeouts. Of his six balls in play, three of them were line drives. In general, he resembled a very good baseball player.

My observations on Bumgarner require more attention, I think — and, as it turns out, attending both games allowed for an interesting portrait of the young prospect.

Below, I’ve broken my analysis of Bumgarner into the two days I saw him, and the two sides of his story — performance and personality — that seem to demand attention.

Sunday
The main concern about Bumgarner, both during the second half of last season and the beginning of this one, has been his velocity. After throwing in the mid-90s as a prep star and in the low minors, Bumgarner — according to Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook — pitched in the 88-90 mph range at Double-A and, per BIS and Pitchf/x data, averaged about 89 mph on his fastball in his 10 Major League innings (one start, three relief appearances).

Having been armed Sunday with a Jugs-brand radar gun — thanks to Bubblegum Baron/Hefty Lefty Rob Nelson and his “connections” — I’m able to announce with some certainty that Bumgarner was a tick or two higher in terms of fastball velocity, pitching in the 89-92 mph range for most of the game.

That’s not to say, however, that his outing was fantastic. Yes, he only allowed a single run on only four hits, but walked as many as he struck out (three of each) and conceded a couple of fly balls that, were they struck by anyone besides Sean Kazmar, might have been more damaging. Moreover, his fastball showed little in terms of movement, nor did his secondary pitches pose much of a challenge to the Portland batting order.

All of this conspired to net Bumgarner a mere five swing-and-misses on the day out of his 99 total pitches. (By comparison, Major League average for starters is somewhere around 8.0 – 8.5%.).

Physically, Bumgarner looks like a talented pitcher. He’s 6-foot-4 with a fluid motion. Also, there are signs from today’s performance that hint at the sort of general athleticism he possesses: not only did Bumgarner pick off two (two!) runners at first, he also fielded at least one bunt with what can only be described as “aplomb,” and even jacked a donger off Portland starter Josh Geer.

Saturday
No, I didn’t see Bumgarner pitch today, but here’s something I did do: sit mere feet away from the young prospect as he charted pitches for teammate Kevin Pucetas, Fresno’s starting pitcher.

And here’s another person who was there, too, sitting right behind Bumgarner: a young lady whom I’m presuming to be Bumgarner’s wife, Ali. (In fact, even if the young woman wasn’t his wife, the following points remain salient.)

Typically, I’d feel absolutely zero compulsion to discuss a player’s personal life. And the reader can rest assured: I’m not about to TMZ the frig outta this. I have no pictures of the couple going to Make Out City or freaking “all up” on each other, nor any reports to file about a domestic “incident” between the two.

Nor would it be necessary at all to invoke the newly wedded couple if it weren’t for the first three paragraphs of a recent article by Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News — three paragraphs that read exactly like this:

SAN DIEGO — Conspiracy theories abound as to why left-hander Madison Bumgarner suddenly became so hittable at Triple-A Fresno.

According to Brian Sabean, there is nothing physically the matter with the 20-year-old. But the Giants’ general manager provided a frank assessment of where things went off track for the heralded prospect.

“It’s this simple: He was preoccupied this winter and it cost him,” Sabean said. “He had personal stuff to straighten out, getting married, and he was ill-prepared to come into spring training. I don’t know how much he threw to get ready.”

It’s peculiar to me — to any reader, I’d imagine — that getting married would be one of the personal things Madison Bumgarner had to “straighten out” this offseason. In the interest of full disclosure, allow me to say that I, myself, got married just this past August. Though my wife despises me and scowls visibly whenever I enter her line of sight, this is almost exactly the way she behaved before we got married. This is indicative of other married couples I know — i.e., that, for whatever else happens after the wedding ceremony, “straightening out” isn’t so much a part of it.

So that’s one thing.

The other thing is this, from another article by Baggarly back on February 20th, discussing the pace at which Bumgarner had moved through the Giants system:

Bumgarner is on the fast track in other areas, too. He and his girlfriend of four years, Ali, got married on Valentine’s Day.

“Oh, yeah, we were ready,” Bumgarner said. “We were very sure.”

Among my peer group — and among my social class, in general — to marry before the age of 25 is akin to personal failure. It’s as if one were admitting, “I have nowhere else to go and realize it. Might as well hand it off to the next generation and hope they do better.” Of course, I say this less to make a blanket statement about marriage and more to suggest that I might not be the person to comment on this. Still, to declare, as a 20-year-old, that one is “very sure” about his marriage — that sounds strange to these ears.

Beyond that, there’s this final consideration: Bumgarner’s half-sister died during spring training. That’s different than getting married, I recognize, but inasmuch as it concerns something called “emotions,” it seems relevant.

This is all sort of speculative, I understand, in terms of guessing what’s “wrong” with Madison Bumgarner. But here’s a larger point that isn’t: no matter how bad Dave Allen wants baseball players to be replaced by human-looking robots, it hasn’t happened yet. The thing we call “make-up” may not matter a ton at the Major League level — if a player has gotten that far, he’s done something right. For prospects, it probably means a bunch more, though. And for 20-year-old prospects, it means more still, I bet.

How does this relate to a site (i.e. FanGraphs) that’s made its reputation on providing white hot statistical analysis? It’s this (I think): the stats are only outputs. They describe what’s happened — sometimes on a more, sometimes on a less, granular level. As for the inputs, those are harder to understand, even with a scouting perspective. Certainly things like arm speed, strength of rotator cuff, and ability to repeat one’s release point — those are all important. But something like choice of mate might be another — not just for Bumgarner, but for any player.

It hurts my brain to think about — that is, the million and one uncontrolled variables that make up a prospect — so I won’t dwell on it. Best, probably, to (a) acknowledge that in these matters, there are both known unknowns and also some unknown unknowns, (b) accept that this is the case, and (c) turn one’s attention to problems of a more solvable nature.

Burt Bacharach was wrong: what the world needs now isn’t “love, sweet love,” but a highly subjective recap of some games from like five days ago.

Friday, April 16
I watched this evening’s (rain-shortened) contest between Texas and New York primarily to “scout” Official Starting Pitcher C.J. Wilson. While Wilson actually performed just fine (6.0 IP, 5 K, 3 BB, 10 GB, 5 FB, 4 LD), my lasting impression of the game will be how CC Sabathia is kinda really good at pitching.

Because I demand it of my writing students, I think it’s probably best to do some showing here — as opposed to just telling, I mean. In the interest of doing just that, allow me to whisk you away to the top of the third inning of tonight’s rainswept game.

Here’s the situation: one gone, Elvis Andrus has just struck out, the lefty-batting Julio Borbon is striding to the plate. CC Sabathia looks in, takes the sign from Francisco Cervelli, and then he does this (taken from catcher’s perspective):

No, he didn’t throw all three pitches at once (although it might’ve seemed like that to the unwitting Borbon). Still, I mean, will you please look at this sequence: two-seamer away, slider in, slider low. If Picasso and Matisse had a baby, and then that baby learned how to make a Pitchf/x graph, this is the sort of graph that baby would produce.

Having watched it on live television, I can tell you that Borbon had barely any idea that the at-bat had even started until Sabathia was winding up to deliver the third and final pitch. Unfortunately, said pitch was a mostly unhittable slider dipping below the zone.

But let’s not pick on Julio Borbon, how about. How about we also pick on Taylor Teagarden. To do so, we must fast-forward to the fifth inning. In this case, there are two outs, and both Chris Davis and Joaquin Arias have struck out to begin the inning. At which point, Sabathia was all:

Blam!

Where Borbon didn’t swing until the last pitch, that was the only one Teagarden didn’t swing at. Considering that Teagarden’s a righty (as opposed to the lefty Borbon), we see that really only the second pitch is one we might consider “hittable,” as it got a little more of the plate with a little less movement. After he fouled of that pitch, Teagarden was basically helpless, down 0-2 to an incredibly effective Sabathia. It’s at this point — after delivering consecutive pitches with considerable arm-side run — that Sabathia threw the slider, a pitch with considerable glove-side run. Teagarden merely let it go. Oops.

Another thing that happened tonight is that I used my Twitter Machine. Below are three choice comments from the evening.

From LloydtheBarber (on the occasion of Fernando Rodney entering a game between the Angels and Blue Jays): Black Lidge! There is still hope for the Jays.

From daynperry (on the occasion of Dick Enberg employing a 19th century vernacular): Dick Enberg just said “base-ballers.” Awesome.

From jazayerli (on the occasion of having been born a Kansas City fan): Two franchises in a nutshell tonight: the Twins threw 27 balls the entire game. The Royals threw 21 balls in the 8th inning alone.

Saturday, April 17
Voice of the Brewers, Mister Bob Uecker, was on the scene for Milwaukee’s afternoon game at the Washington Nationals. While generally in good spirits, Uecker was a little cheesed off with home plate umpire Tim McClelland and his (i.e. McClelland’s) strike-calling.

It seems that, due to the fact that McClelland makes his strike-calling gesture very much in front of his body — that, and the fact that the press box at National Park is directly behind home plate — it seems that it’s hard for a broadcaster like Uecker to see the call until seconds after it’s been made.

Such were the circumstances that led a duly miffed Uecker to announce publicly:

He gives a call… to the catcher. And everybody else has to wait a sec or more for his “pull-back shot.”

And I’ll tell you, from our vantage point, we might as well be at the hotel as far as looking at the sign from Tim McClelland. Terrible.

Sunday, April 18
Second verse, same as the first: another quote from Uecker.

In this case, Uecker was discussing — at some length, it must be said — the dinner he’d had the previous night at Washington-area restaurant Phillips Seafood.

Relating the story to broadcast partner Cory Provus, Uecker mentioned that, as he was eating, he got curious as to whether the restaurant ever served anything besides fish. Which brings us to the following, courtesy of Uecker:

I asked the waitress, “Do you carry Usinger’s Sausage?”

“Wait a second,” she said. “Let me check my purse.”

Sweet graphs courtesy of our own Dave Allen.

Say bonjour to another episode of “I, Claudia’s,” America’s first and foremost experiment in baseball reporting and self-congratulation.

Tuesday, April 13
One of my great interests as Baseballing Enthusiast — an interest that I’m sure is largely shared by the wide readership — is the art and science of baseball broadcasting. Just as a great college professor can make almost subject interesting, so too can a great broadcaster greatly enhance the experience of the game upon which he’s commenting.

I’ve already had occasion to sing Bob Uecker’s praises in this space. I’d like now to add to the list of FanGraphs-approved broadcasters.

I had the opportunity to watch MASN’s coverage of tonight’s Tampa Bay/Baltimore game. Their broadcast team — color guy Mike Flanagan and play-by-play man Gary Thorne — is the very picture of competence. Thorne, in particular, distinguished himself, both for his Official Man Voice, and also for his unusual commitment to the faculty of reason.

Here are three comments right from that particular horse’s mouth:

1. “I do not favor public money for stadiums.” (While discussing the stadium situation in Tampa Bay.)

2. “Someone asked me, ‘Is it bush league to attempt a bunt during a no-hitter?’ No. You’ll hear guys on the opposing bench — the guys for the pitching team — hear’em saying ‘Swing the bat!’ You’ll hear’em saying some other things, too. But, no, it’s not.” (While discussing Ricky Romero’s no-hitter, which was in its fifth or sixth inning at the time.)

3. “They have the best run differential in the Majors.” (While discussing the Philadelphia Phillies, their excellence through the first week and half of the season.)

Comment number one represents (a) the only sane view on stadium financing and (b) a stance that I’m guessing very few broadcasters are willing to make publicly, on account of their job security is often tied to ownership, and ownership — for obvious reasons — totally hearts public money. The second statement is also a commendably sane one — and slightly daring, if only because there are a number of Real Baseball Men who feel differently. Finally, the third comment there — one echoed immediately by Flanagan — demonstrates at least a cursory understanding of Pythagorean Wins, a surefire way for one to endear himself to the baseballing nerdbone community.

A very little bit of interweb-ing reveals this unexpected, yet not wholly surprising, information from Thorne’s bio:

Thorne is a 1970 graduate of the University of Maine with a bachelor of science in business. He graduated from the University of Maine School of Law in 1973 and received a doctorate in law in 1976 from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a former assistant district attorney in Bangor, Maine, and was admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court in March 1977.

Wednesday, April 14
Colby Lewis struck out 10 of the 24 Cleveland Indians he faced. Moreover, he induced 15 swings-and-misses — on about 13% of the pitches he threw, in other words. By comparison, last year’s strikeout leaders, Justin Verlander and Tim Lincecum, each had swinging-strike rates of about 11%.

Wanna hear about a PCL game I went to this evening? Well, you’re about to. The scene: a sparsely attended PGE Park in Portland. The players: the Sky Sox of Colorado Springs (Triple-A affiliate of the Rockies) and the Beavers of Portland. This is why I was excited to go: Rockies prospect and right-handed starter Samuel Deduno. No, Deduno’s not a household name, but he possesses some of the requisite skillz to pay the proverbial billz.

If one were to own the most recent edition of Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook, one would almost definitely read that Deduno has a 92-93 mph fastball with sink, as well as a power curveball, a less exciting changeup, and some control problems (to the tune of 5.2 BB/9 for his minor league career). If one were to read FanGraphs regularly, one would’ve noted how Marc Hulet ranked Deduno as the number ten prospect in the Colorado system. Finally, if one were to point his internet browser over to Minor League Splits, he would definitely see that Samuel Deduno has posted a groundball rate of 57.8% in the minors.

Tonight, that trend continued. Despite underwhelming command — three walks to just one strikeout — Deduno managed to induce groundballs on 10 of the 14 balls in play, good for 71.4%. In terms of pure stuff, Deduno was maybe less impressive. He snapped off maybe three or four well-shaped and -located curveballs on the night and, yes, featured that heavy fastball. It deserves to be said, however, that the Portland lineup was also righty-heavy this evening — a distinct advantage for Deduno, who has yet to develop the change.

Do you want to talk a little bit about dominance?

Here is a line for you: 8 IP | 1 H | 12 K | 10 GB | 2 BB | 2 FB

Jays sophomore pitcher Ricky Romero threw the game of his life on Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox. The southpaw did not allow a ball out of the infield until the seventh inning; the second – and only other fly ball of the night – came on Alex Rios‘ two-run homer that ended Romero’s no-hit bid in the eighth.

Known as a ground-ball pitcher, Romero worked down in the zone and away from the White Sox hitters, many of whom are known for being pull happy. It was a smart approach and with all his pitches working last night, Romero was able to execute with repeated precision. Both his command and control were impeccable with all four of his pitches: four-seam fastball, cutter, change-up, and curve. He has good fastball velocity for a lefty, and he sat between 89-93 mph with the heater for most of the night, but it was Romero’s ability to keep the hitters guessing that led to his success on the mound.

Of his 12 strikeouts, eight came on the change-up, two on the fastball, and two on the curve. Romero’s ground-ball outs came with the fastball (six) and the change-up (four). Clearly, the hitters could not pick up the difference between the fastball and the change-up. His delivery was smooth and effortless.

Romero primarily used his curveball to get ahead in the count early on, often with the first pitch. Although it wasn’t a strikeout pitch for him in most at-bats, the ability to command it helped him set up his knock-out pitches. When a pitcher can command three pitches and get consistent outs with two, he’s going to have a lot of success, as we saw with Romero.

As good as the former No. 1 draft pick was, I want to take a minute to also mention catcher John Buck. The former Royals backstop may be the best free agent signing that the Jays have made in the past few years. He’s off to a pretty good start with the bat, but his true value to the team lies in his work behind the dish. In his first week with the Jays, Buck has clearly earned the trust of the Jays starters.

Rarely have I seen a shake of the head to suggest a disagreement in the pitch selection. The veteran catcher is known for having a game plan detailed before each contest. He appears to be an excellent receiver and he’s created close plays on throws to second base where it appeared the runner would be safe by a country mile.

Although it’s very early, the Jays club is second in the American League in xFIP at 4.01 (fourth in ERA at 3.19). The club is also third in walk rate at 3.05 BB/9. These numbers are significant given that the club has a patch-work starting rotation made up of young hurlers, converted relievers, and veterans returning from significant injuries. Buck, no doubt, deserves a lot of credit for that, as does new pitching coach Bruce Walton.

After eight successful games by the Jays, we should not shift our expectations. It’s still going to be a long season and the club could very well end up with a losing record. However, it’s clearly not going to be all doom-and-gloom as some had suggested prior to the season.

The observant reader will notice that, though purporting to cover the entire weekend, what follows only actually mentions two of the previous four days. This has everything to do with the fact that, as previously stated, I’m not half-machine.

Friday, April 09
I was surprised to find that Major League Baseball scheduled other games on this, the day that All-Joyer Colby Lewis made his stateside return. “Sacre bleu!” is undoubtedly what you’re saying to yourself in utter disbelief. Indeed, that’s what I shouted, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, at the very public space where I first made the discovery. In any case, Marc Hulet and I both had thoughts (here and here, specifically) on Lewis’s start and were foolish enough to write them down for posterity yesterday.

Against all odds, two other pitchers distinguished themselves for other reasons, as follows.

Exhibit One: Homer Bailey

The top of the third inning of today’s Cubs-Reds game is probably the kind that Cincinnati’s front officers envisioned when they took righty Homer Bailey with the seventh overall pick in the 2004 draft.

It was during that inning when Bailey recorded whiffs on 6 of 17 pitches — all but one of which (i.e. the whiffs) came on Bailey’s four-seamer, a pitch he threw at about 93 mph for the game. Three of the aforementioned whiffs came on an excellent sequence of progerssively higher and outside-er (though always within the zone) fastballs to Aramis Ramirez*, a player who, according to our Pitch Type Values, has posted above-average run values against fastballs every year since 2004.

*You can see the third of these at about the 22-second mark in this video.

It deserves to be said that the inning wasn’t all flowers and a piece of cake for Bailey. He hit the first batter of the inning, Derrek Lee, with a first-pitch fastball; allowed Lee to take second on a wild pitch in the dirt; and conceded a run when Xavier Nady hit a wall-ball single. Still, the run aside, the life on Bailey’s fastball, and the way he managed to put it so ably by a fastball hitter, proved to make good viewing.

Exhibit Dos: Kris Medlen

With one out in the bottom of the 12th inning of Atlanta’s game at San Francisco, Kris Medlen threw a sort of pitch to Travis Ishikawa that’ always a pleasure to witness — namely, a sort of two-seamer that starts inside and off the plate to a lefty but tails back in over the corner of the plate for a called strike.

The pitch — and three more, very similar ones, to righty Eli Whiteside — sent me to Medlen’s Pitchf/x profile. Here’s something interesting: 15 of the 27 pitches Medlen threw today were classified as two-seamers by Pitchf/x. This is unsurprising, as the sort of pitch that he threw to Ishikawa — with all that arm-side run — is almost always of the two-seam variety. And across three appearances this season, 42% of Medlen’s pitches have been two-seamers. Yet, a glance at last season’s numbers reveals that only 6.2% of his pitches were classified as two-seamers. Of course, this could simply be the product of a change in the GameDay algorithm — if that’s the case, so be it. It could also be sign that Medlen is making a concerted effort to feature the pitch this year. More on this story as it develops!

Sunday, April 11
If you’re all up on the Twitters, you might already know that I spent a good portion of this Pacific Northwest afternoon at PGE Park, home (at least for the remainder of the season) to the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. In the more likely event that you’re not hanging on my every 140 characters, well, it’s still the case: today, San Diego’s Triple-A Beavers played host to Oakland affiliate the Sacramento River Cats.

These last three years or so, the Beavers — like many Triple-A clubs, frankly — have been less a magnet for high-end prospects and more a sort of purgatory for fringe ballplayers of all descriptions. The early returns on this year’s club are a little more interesting, as center fielder Luis Durango, shortstop Lance Zawadski, corner guy Craig Cooper, other corner guy Aaron Cunningham, other other corner guy Mike Baxter, catcher Dusty Ryan, and starter Will Inman — i.e. 70% of today’s starting lineup for the Beavs — are all, if not necessarily prospects, at least reasonably interesting minor leaguers on the right side of 27.

The River Cats, meanwhile, featured a lineup that included big-time prospect Chris Carter, masher Jack Cust, and giant man Michael Taylor in the 3-4-5 spots. None of them did much of anything, as Sacramento managed only two hits on the afternoon. Of note, however, was this: over his first three plate appearances, Cust saw fourteen pitches and swung at exactly zero of them. The news prompted Ken Arneson to tweet: “A’s team yawns/PA is already way lower this year.”

What follows represents some assorted observations from the first four days of our new season. Note that this effort, in no way, represents an attempt on my part to summarize or encapsulate the action thus far. Rather, my intention is merely to — from one curious fan to another — to report those findings as might be of some interest.

Monday, April 05
Turns out, moderating a sweet live chat — while clearly the thrill of a lifetime — doesn’t allow so much for the ol’ baseball-watching. Fortunately, I got my head out of the netbook long enough to behold Sergio Romo’s majestic slidepiece in his appearance versus Houston. It’s an incredible pitch, featuring close to 10 inches of glove-side movement, relative to a league-average mark of about 2.5 inches. Nor is this merely a product of an unusual release point, as Romo induces about 2 more inches of arm-side movement on his four-seamer (8 inches versus 6) than league average. All in all, with Romo, you’re getting close to 20 inches of horizontal differential between the fastball and slider. His whiff rate of 13.4% isn’t exactly Wuertzian (26.2% last season on the slider), but it doesn’t prevent Romo’s out-pitch from representing something of a spectacle.

Also of note is how Kyle Blanks jacked a terrific donger into the friscalating dusklight of an Arizona sky. During Triple-A Portland Beavers Media Day last year, I shook his (i.e. Blanks’s) hand. It was kinda like meeting Paul Bunyan. If Paul Bunyan had an afro, I mean.

Tuesday, April 06
This episode of I, Claudia’s took place less amidst the drunken revelry of my area sports bar and more in the confines of a local community college, where I watched games during a pastime commonly referred to as “office hours.” Utilizing the “mosaic” feature on MLB.TV, I was able to do something kinda smart — namely, to watch three games simultaneously while listening to a fourth, Colorado at Milwaukee, via the Brewers flagship station, WTMJ.

In case you didn’t know, Bob Uecker is officially the Voice of the Brewers, and he’s the sort of person you might refer to as a “wise guy.” Here, for example, are three notable quotables from the first two innings of the game:

1. “I was there just in case Mark dropped any loose change.” (On why he attended a fundraiser at an area YMCA with Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.)

2. “One time I grounded into an unassisted double play to the shortstop. He tagged second base, then ran to first and got me, too.” (On his running ability as a player.)

3. “When you listen to Brewers baseball, you hear a lot of stuff that’s not talked about, or even thought of yet.” (From a rather protracted, and largely fictional, account of how Tommy John Surgery got its name.)

In other news, would you care to guess who was manning right field for San Francisco today? I’ll tell you: Andres Torres. Here’s something you may not know about Torres: CHONE projects him for 2.0 WAR in only 87 games and 321 plate appearances this season, largely on the strength of a 7.8 UZR in center. Actual starting center fielder Aaron Rowand is projected at 1.4 WAR in 137/549. The latter is owed more than $36MM through 2012. The former? He doesn’t even have three years of service time yet. To be fair, Torres’s recent success represents something of a renaissance for the journeyman. Of the 32-year-old, our own Dave Cameron says: “He was terrible most of his career. Being good is a recent development that everyone is still trying to figure out.” Still, it’ll be nice to see what sort of production he, uh, produces this year.

Wednesday, April 07
Here’s an interesting sequence in Cincinnati. It’s the top of the third, and, with one out, Johnny Cueto strikes out Albert Pujols exclusively on called strikes. The next batter, Matt Holliday, fists — yes, I said “fists” — he fists a ball that dribbles just to Cueto’s left. First baseman Joey Votto fields it and flips to Cueto, but the latter has some trouble with his footwork, whiffs on Votto’s toss, and is unable to record the out. During the next plate appearance, Cueto appears unsettled, perhaps even as though he’s tweaked a hammy — a fact about which the Cardinals broadcast team makes note. A quick pan to Dusty Baker and pitching coach Bryan Price reveals the two discussing how much they like toothpicks — whether it’s a lot, or super a lot.. Holliday steals second and Rasmus walks. After whiffing at a slider, the next better, Ryan Ludwick, hits a grounder between third baseman Scott Rolen and shortstop Orlando Cabrera. I’d be tempted to call it a “seeing-eye single,” but I feel like that might do a grave injustice to the abstract concept of sight. After the ball gets by Rolen and ricochets off Cabrera’s glove, Holliday scores.

A quick shot of Johnny Cueto appears to catch the young pitcher mouthing the phrase “There’s no place like home.” Only, you know, in Spanish.

Thursday, April 08
I’m telling the truth and nothing but the truth when I say that FanGraphs contributor and known math snob Jack Moore is posting about C.J. Wilson’s dominant Thursday start exactly one hour from now. I’m telling a lie when I say it’s because I ordered him to do it at knifepoint.

Win some, lose some, America. Win some, lose some.

On What Is This Thing

Last September, when I was only about a half or three-quarters as big a deal as I am now, I wrote a piece for Hardball Times called “I, Claudia’s.” Claudia’s, for the 99.5% of readers who have no way of knowing, is a sports bar near where I live in Portland, Ore. (Furthermore, I, Cladius is a novel/BBC TV series about the Roman Emperor Claudius). I go there (i.e. Claudia’s) to watch baseball with some frequency, on account of (a) I don’t have much in the way of TVs, and (b) they have, like, 700 of them.

So, like I’m saying, I got the revolutionary idea last September to combine my baseball watching with my baseball writing. (Shocking, no?) I’m quoting myself when I say:

While previously I’ve only ever gone to Claudia’s in my capacity as amateur layabout, I got to figuring during one of my recent sojourns: on account of I’m being paid all this money by Hardball Times anyway, wouldn’t it be sporting of me to jot down some of my observations about the games I was watching?

Sure, was my answer to myself.

Essentially my idea for the piece was to write something like Craig Calcaterra’s “And That Happened” except less complete, less informative, less factual, and less funny. On the plus side, it’d be a tiny bit shorter*.

*Seriously, I have no idea how he does it. I mean, I get that there’re things like the Extra Innings package and the internet and everything, but Calcaterra is a machine. If I have one complaint about “And That Happened,” it’s that it forces me to imagine him doing all that work. That’s not the sort of thing I’d wish upon anyone — let alone il mio paesano.

On account of (a) there was a real-live baseball game last night, (b) I watched said game at Claudia’s, (c) we’ve been discussing the art of game reporting of late in these very electronic pages, and (d) there’s no time like the present, I figured I might dust off the project I’d started last summer and submit to the readership what I consider to be a first step towards a competent game report.

In short, that’s what is this thing.

On Chan Ho Park

Chan Ho Park posted the lowest WPA of any player in last night’s contest (-.316). He was also responsible for conceding the largest single WPA swing of the game (.309) on Dustin Pedroia’s game-tying two-run homer with one out in the seventh — this after not allowing even one home run in relief all last season (merci buckets, Jeff Sullivan).

In short, the results weren’t so hot.

Having said that, I think Park actually put together one of the more memorable — if not absolutely best — pitching sequences of the night. Just after giving up a seventh-inning single to Marco Scutaro — and right before giving up the aforementioned dongpiece to Little Dustin Pedroia — Park started speed merchant Jacoby Ellsbury off with a low and inside pitch that resists description. While MLB GameDay classified said pitch as a four-seam fastball, I’m suspicious. Park’s four-seamer was around 90-92 mph on the night with about 7-9 inches of arm-side run and 10-12 inches of “rise” (relative to a ball thrown with no spin, that is). This pitch, at which Ellsbury swung and missed pretty badly, was 87.5 mph with an inch of glove-side movement and about 10 inches of rise.

Was it a slider, maybe? That’s a question I asked myself, certainly, and it’s a possibility, except the average rise of Park’s slider on the night was 5.58 inches, while this particular pitch demonstrated similar rise to Park’s fastball.

Whatever the exact classification, it was an excellent pitch, generating the only whiff of the 22 pitches that Park threw on the night.

Ellsbury fouled off the next pitch, a high fastball at about 93 mph, and then came the strikeout pitch. While GameDay classifies the third pitch (a fastball at 92 mph) as having only 8.77 inches of arm-side run — hardly exceptional relative to Park’s other fastballs — it was this movement, combined with the placement just on the inside corner, that caused Ellsbury to take the pitch for strike three.

All in all, it was the ideal sequence for Park: he induced swings on two pitches out of the zone (the whiff and then the foul), and then got the K on a deftly placed, and adequately moving, fastball.

Tweets of the Game

In addition to many competent live chats that occurred during last night’s game, the Twitters were absolutely abuzz with enthusiastic baseball nerds. On account of I’m a Twitter novice and have subscribed neither as far, nor as wide, as some of my fellow baseball nerd friends, it’s possible that the scope of my reading is too narrow.

In any case, here are five choice comments from the Twitterverse during last night’s game:

From devil_fingers (on the occasion of Marco Scutaro fielding a ball cleanly): Um, actually it’s exactly average. BOOYAH! RT @EricSeidman: Scutaro’s UZR is off the charts.

From devil_fingers (on the occasion of Matt Klaassen looking the mirror): I wish. RT @EricSeidman: @devil_fingers Your face is exactly average.

From TylerKepner (on the occasion of Scott Schoenweis relieving Josh Beckett): I love how Scott Schoeneweis has played for seven teams across 12 seasons and never worn any number besides 60.

From zvsanders (on the occasion of the Yankee left fielder not throwing the ball away): Gardner didn’t fail that time! #progress

From jonahkeri (on the occasion of Kevin Youkilis, a Jewish person, dominating the game): And on Easter, a Member of the Tribe shall lead them.