Paranoid Arms

There is nothing more desired in baseball than a young power pitching prospect that can run the radar gun into the upper 90's while maintaining control. Every year five to seven first round picks are used on high school pitchers. Only a quarter of all first round high school pitching prospect selected payoff for the organization. Many of these power arms burn out at a young age because the act of pitching is such a forceful and unnatural movement. The art of pitching has been called the most awkward motion in sports, because it garners so much stress on a pitchers shoulder and/or elbow.

This ties into what we have been talking about in Underworld the constant presence of paranoia. Every front office in baseball is constantly paranoid by the fact that the kid they just handed a multi-million dollar signing bonus to very well could tear a ligament the next time he steps on a mound. There have been countless careers cut short by Tommy John surgeries or shoulder complications. Thanks to medicinal improvements as well as better physical therapy it's now possible for pitchers to come back from major surgeries on their money makers. Some notable players that have had Tommy John surgery and didn't allow it to derail their careers are: C.J. Wilson, John Schmoltz, Chris Carpenter, the newest member of the perfect game club Phil Humber, and the one and only Jamie Moyer (Who at 49 couldn't break 77 mph if he wanted to ). There is a very short list of solid pitchers that have been able to make a full recoveries following surgery on their throwing arm. And the fact that if that throwing arm is not healthy then that player or prospect is completely useless to the team and organization; unless your name's Rick Ankiel in which case your blown out pitching arm sends you back to the minors from which you return a slugging center fielder. The fact that a pitcher is utterly useless to an organization without a strong and healthy pitching arm is a nightmare to any front office or scout in baseball. The whisper of a torn labrum, rotator cuff or the dreaded tear of the ulnar collateral ligament will give any general manager nightmares. Therefore all major league clubs have a heightened level of paranoia that one of the organizations best pitchers could causes injury to the only part of his body that can help the team.

Today the New York Yankees received troubling news when they were informed that prized off-season acquisition Michael Pineda would have season ending surgery. The 23 year old power pitching prospect was brought over from the Seattle Mariners this off-season in a trade for top Yankees prospect Jesus Montero. After a late season call up to the Yankees Montero posted an impressive .328 batting average to go along with 4 home runs and 12 RBI's in only 61 plate appearances.

Many people around baseball that the sky was the limit for the six foot seven inch tall, 260 pound Dominican born power pitcher Michael Pineda. As a rookie last season he pitched 171 innings for the Mariners while posting an impressive 3.74 ERA to go along with 173 strike outs compared to just 55 walks given up. His young electric arm was racking up better than a strike out per nine innings and seemed to be on the cusp of becoming an elite pitcher. His velocity was down in spring training which immideately raised red flags in the Yankees front office. Paranoia and doubt began to creep into the minds of the men that had orchestrated the trade to bring the big man to New York; and pair him with an even bigger man, CC Sabathia, to create New York'ss new twin towers. Unfortunately the Yankees worries were confirmed when they were informed today that Pineda would have to undergo season ending surgery on his torn labrum. The injury is reportedly even tougher to come back from than Tommy John surgery, therefore the Yankees now have an entire year to sit around full of paranoia that their young power pitcher will never make a full-armed recovery.

Blog about Pineda

Nostalgic Berkman

On Tuesday March 20, 2012, Lance Berkman accused Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig of extorting the Houston Astros organization... but he plays for the St. Louis Cardinals. Why does he care?


The St. Louis Cardinals roster last season included notables Matt Holliday, David Freese, Yadier Molina and oh yeah some guy named Albert Pujols. Yet arguably the player that had the best and biggest impact on the season last year was the ol' reliable  Lance Berkman. No doubt, this upcoming year there will be exponentially more weight on Lance Berkman's shoulders to carry the load left behind with Albert Pujols's bat moving west. 


Although Lance Berkman had an incredible 2011 season in which he batted at a clip of .301 smacked 31 home runs and drove in 94 RBI's those are all dazzling numbers; but most impressive was his .412 OBP which was nearly .50 points higher than Albert Pujols's and good enough for 5th best in all of MLB. 2011 batting statistics.  


Regardless of his impressive 2011 campaign, I believe that the increased burden placed on his 36 year old shoulder to carry the St. Louis Cardinals hopes and dreams this season will wear down his body over the162 game season. Therefore i believe that Lance Berkman's career is winding down and will unfortunately end much more abruptly  than people anticipate. I also mention this because in May of 2009 he said he would like to coach at the University of Texas (although he attended Rice university). Berkman is hopeful that current  UT head coach Augie Garrido will hang up his clip board around the same time he strings up his cleats, "I know Garrido's going to coach four or five more years. I figured that might dovetail nicely with the end of my career" (Quote from 2009). 


All this being said, i strongly believe that Lance Berkman is calling out the commissioner for "extorting" the Houston Astros because he's relishing in all those old memories that he created over his 12 seasons in an Astros uniform. Obviously Nostalgia has played a major trick on poor Lance Berkman's mind. 


Poor Mr. Berkman is obviously entranced in his memories of being a very good if not dominant team in the early to mid part of the 2000's. A formidable team built around the smooth swinging Lance Berkman, the crouching legend that was Jeff Bagwell, the human pinata Craig Biggio, and the raging Roger Clemens. in 2005, this nucleus propelled the Astros to their only World Series appearance in franchise history where they were swept by the Chicago White Sox in four games. 


Lance is lost in those glory days, in the early part of the century when the Houston Astros were relevant. He seems to have forgotten that the Houston Astros almost lost two times as many games last year as they won, their record at the end of the season was a dismal 56-106. The team was so bad that it seems they were unanimously volunteered by the other 29 major league teams to be dispatched to the AL, although the Astro's have had their roots in Houston and the NL since their inception in 1962 as the Houston Colt .45's. 


The reason Lance Berkman believes that Bud Selig 'extorted' the Houston Astros is because the commissioner wouldn't approve the sale of the franchise to a new ownership group until they agreed to switch to the AL west from the NL central. Ok the new owner got a cool $65 million dollar mail in rebate for switching leagues but that's not the point. Lance Berkman is entranced in the glory days of the organization that he doesn't realize that Houston Astros will be one of the worst teams in baseball for the foreseeable future... Just take a look at their roster, i recognized a total of 6 names that i can for sure say is a big league ball player Houston Astros roster.

The Mythical Man

Myth: Opposed to truth. Natural truth. Will be true always and forever.

October 2011, by the time David Freese stomped on home plate game 6 of the World Series had already been stamped among the greatest thrillers in baseball history. Twice down to their last strike the Cardinals somehow rallied to win game 6 in extra innings and took the series in the decisive seventh game. Freese hit a two out, two strike, game tying triple in the bottom of the ninth inning off the Rangers lights out closer Neftali Feliz. The rangers Josh Hamilton answered with a two run bomb in the top of the tenth, before Lance Berkman once again tied it with a single in the bottom of the inning. After holding the Rangers offense in check in their half of the inning, David Freese once again came up to the plate.

Having already saved the season with all odds stacked against him, two strikes, two outs, bottom of the ninth inning any more heroics from David Freese and he would be immortalized in baseball history. With one swing of the bat the ball was flew high and deep into the star studded St. Louis sky, and with it his status was catapulted to legendary, to live there forever among past baseball myths and legends.

The St. Louis Cardinals went on to win decisive game seven of the World Series 6-2 over the Texas Rangers. Cardinal nation was in love, and believed the honeymoon would last forever. I'd imagine 99% of Cardinal fans were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that their was no way their poster child, superstar, arguably the best right handed batter in baseball history, Albert Pujols would ever think about skipping town. To the shock and horror of St.Louis that is precisely what happened. Their Pujols had done the unimaginable and bolted for the lights, cameras, and extra $40 million dollars the Los Angeles Angels had to offer.

This decision put an immediate end to the over joyous honeymoon Cardinal nation was still riding. One of my friends, and far and away the biggest Cardinals and die hard Pujols fan that I've ever met admitted that he had no idea where his once prized possession, his authentic Pujols jersey was. It was unaccounted for and he couldn't care less. He claimed "it may be at the bottom of some basket" and added "Ohh, I f*@%*#^ hate him". His entire family, all big time Cardinals fans apparently shared the same feelings of hatred and betrayal- along with the rest of Cardinal nation.

Today Mr. Pujols acknowledged that he was unhappy with the message the Angels attached to his name and pictures plastered on billboards in and around Los Angeles county which promotes the upcoming season. The billboard is of Pujols back and it reads "El Hombre" which is Spanish for "The man". Cardinal nation had already attached this moniker to Pujols, where he already publicly admitted he wasn't supportive of it, because of the myth surrounding Stan "The Man" Musial deeply embedded within Cardinal Nation.







So while many Pujols followers believe he left St. Louis high and dry by taking the extra $40 million and his power bat to play under the bright lights, midst the ritz and glamour of LA. Pujols today proved he will always have a special connection to the Cardinals. His statement today proves that Pujols stayed true to Cardinal nation by refusing to endorse the 20 billboards erected around Los Angeles county, declaring him as "El Hombre" or the man.

Although Pujols is arguably the best player in baseball today he isn't even comfortable to be associated with the myth and legend of Stan "The man" Musial. As we discussed in class today, this is primarily because the further the past gets from us the more we mythologize it. The last time Stan "The Man" Musial swung a bat was 1963, nearly 50 years ago. The man played his entire 22 year career with the Cardinals, and compiled the fourth most hits in major league history 3,630. Amazingly he had 1,815 hits at his home park and 1,815 hits on the road. He's tied with Willie Mays for the most all-star selections in Major league history. The man was also voted NL MVP three separate occasions, and is considered the most consistent batter of his era, if not in MLB history- he retired with a .331 lifetime batting average!

At this point in his career Pujols is posting a career .328 batting average, and has knocked 445 balls out of the park. Very similar statistics to Stan "The Man's". But i still 1,557 hits away from catching Stan. Last season Albert had 173 hits while posting a .299 BA. Assuming Pujols's play will decline over the course of his 10 year $250 million contract, it would be a surprise if Pujols caught Stan "The Man's" career hits mark. He would have to average 157 hits a year for the next 10 seasons- not an easy task for an aging body and arguably a set of already regressing physical tools. This speaks to how incredibly consistent Stan Musial was and explains why the "The Man" was so fitting, and fully deserved.

Since Stan "The Man" hasn't played in 50 years he has been mythologized. The fact that he is "The Man" is now a natural truth and something that Pujols doesn't even want to tamper, or be associated with. I can't blame him because no mortal man can live up to a legend, much less a myth of man who could play 22 seasons and maintain a lifetime batting average above .330. Stan "The Man" Musial was very real but he put up such mythical numbers that the man himself has almost become a myth. Stan "the Man" Musial was so damn good that the very best players of today don't want to be compared with him because they can't shoulder the burden of being compared to a mythical legend who was of a helluva ballplayer, but an even better person- he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a civilian on February 15, 2011.

By the time Pujols's playing career ends don't be surprised if Stan is remember as Stan "The Mythical Man" Musial, for all his amazing achievements on and off the diamond.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7602635/los-angeles-angels-albert-pujols-objects-team-el-hombre-billboards

Oakland's Potential Star

Being the general manager of the Oakland Athletics and wanting a superstar as the face of your franchise are two things that rarely go together, unless one of two things take place. You can either get lucky and have one of  your previous draft picks be mentored and home grown through the farm system until they are a perennial all star alla Alex Rodriguez with the Seattle Mariners in the 90's. Great, you know have a superstar as the face of your franchise..until they are able to hit the open free agent market where their current small market teams can't compete financially  with the Yankees, and Red Sox of the baseball world and their bid$ to keep them in town are blown out of the water. So the only other option to a general manager of a small market team like Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics has to land a superstar at a manageable price is to roll the dice and take a gamble on a foreign player just entering his prime. This is exactly what the Oakland Athletics did yesterday when they handed a 4 year $36 million dollar contract to 26 year old Yoenis Cespedes. He is known as a 5 tool Cuban outfielder with plenty of pop in his bat (not too mention two sweet training videos). The contract which will pay Cespedes 6.5 million his first season 8.5 million in his second season, and 10.5 million the last two years of the contract! His contract tells us that Billy Beane is banking on this Cuban import to really hit it big right off the bat and be able to market him to fans and the rest of the baseball world as a superstar which would then generate a stream of revenue for the Oakland Athletics, and is their only chance at being able to afford the last two years of this contract. If he doesn't play like an all star, or isn't especially marketable his first season in the MLB look for Billy Beane to sell him to a big market club for a couple prospects. One reason i say this is because there is no other player on the Oakland Athletics roster makes $6 million dollars annually http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/roster/_/name/oak/oakland-athletics. But primarily because as we've read in Moneyball, Billy Beane takes the only road available to a small market general manager and that's the unconventional one. To assemble a competitive baseball team under tight and restrictive finances Billy Beane began incorporating advanced metrics when analyzing players and picking up under-appreciated players that he was always able to get the most out of. This is absolutely not your typical Billy Beane signing, someone who so deeply analyzes a players statistics that some believe he is ruining the beauty of the game.http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/yoenis-cespedes-elite-talent-and-war/. Billy Beane typically refuses to get personally connected to players, but rather sees them as assets to a statically run business. Again this was not a Billy Beane decision because the record tying 33 bombs that Cespedes hit in the Cuban leagues last season and his shiny .300+ batting average mean diddly squat for Beane's advance statistical analysis because he was playing against inferior competition in Cuba, comparable to the minor leagues. That's why this surprise signing most likely came as an initiative from the owners box, desperate to put a face on a struggling franchise. From that perspective this contract makes sense for a small market team desperate for a star, like the boy from Universal Baseball Association, the Oakland Athletics rolled the dice hoping they just luckily landed an instant star at a bargain- for 4 years anyway.

Lets Play Ball