Slide or surrender Dorothy

I don't really understand the fuss about the Buster Posey play. Would anyone give a hoot if Dane Sardinha had gotten run over? But he probably wouldn't, because he's been a catcher for a long time and knows better. Buster Posey is a young, inexperienced catcher who made a rookie mistake.

The rules of baseball are explicit regarding obstruction. A player who does not have the ball may not block a base. Period. The fact that the rule tends to be ignored at home plate does not make it any less a rule. If we don't want catchers to be blindsided, teach them to not get in front of the plate until they have the ball, especially when the throw is coming from right field.

Could the guy have slid? Of course, but if a catcher has the plate blocked and the ball is coming from right field, it's going to be a difficult tag and the catcher probably won't have perfect control of the ball. So if you don't have a clear path to the plate, jarring the ball loose by running through the catcher is a good option.

I would hate it if they change the rule to "slide or surrender." That's a nice rule for adult softball, but I don't think it even belongs in little league. Yeah, I know, prevent injuries, blah blah blah. It's sports. If you take the physical part out of sports you might as not bother. It's all part of the Global War On Fun, imposed by baby boomers on their kids to make sure that nothing that they did to have fun when they were young is available to their kids.

And there really are few things as entertaining as a good play at the plate, with the catcher receiving the throw and trying to turn and tag all at the same time and the runner coming full tilt, able to approach the plate in a bunch of different ways. It's one of the most compelling moments in sports. And as fans, we don't deserve to have it taken way because one famous player got hurt.

Great lines you hear at a Phillies game

I wish I could definitively remember which play this was, but the Phillies' (lack of) offense today was all so dreadful it kind of just blends together. I want to say it was Howard's strikeout on three pitches in the bottom of the ninth. Regardless, following the play, one of our Sunday regulars sitting behind us remarked: "Wow, the crowd didn't even boo. We are so disgusted that we aren't even booing anymore. And for Phillies fans, that's really saying something."

Sigh. And I didn't even get on the Bongo Cam.

Blast From the Past

I remember when our Philadelphia baseball team scored four runs.

If you haven't heard of this kid yet, shame on you

My dad always gives me the job of scouting prospects before Rotisserie drafts. He's never really made it a priority but has always wanted to, and I love discovering new talent so I eagerly volunteer for the job.

Last year, my great call was Neftali Feliz. Can't say I'm upset to see him on the bench while the Rangers are playing the Phillies, but in any other situation, he's my man.

This year, my rookie pick was Michael Pineda. I'm sorry, let me just take a moment here to pat myself on the back, because this kid is boss. Like I said, if you haven't heard of him by now, shame on you. Granted, he is on Seattle, meaning that he suffers from what I like to call Ichiro Syndrome (Felix Hernandez does as well). Basically, it is as simple as: On Seattle, everyone forgets about you, despite the fact that you quietly remain one of the dominant players in the league.

So here are the no nonsense stats. No analysis or filler, just cold hard facts that speak for themselves. Keep in mind: He is on Seattle. This team DOES NOT HIT. (Oh, and did I mention he's 22?)
W-L: 6-2, (1 ND) ERA: 2.16, 58.1 IP, 41 hits, 14 earned runs, 61 strikeouts, 14 walks, .193 batting avg. against, and a .94 WHIP. Enough said, right?

This guy looks like he's trying to become Seattle's ace. You'd think no one would dare challenge King Felix's reign at No. 1, but I mean, Felix's numbers this season? Not quite as impressive. None of his numbers are as good as Pineda's in 2011 at this point, with the exception of strikeouts (he has 64, not really much of a difference). This is not to discount Felix's abilities by any means. It is just to point out that my man Pineda has better numbers than the reigning AL Cy Young and we're almost to June.

And another Cardinal bites the dust

Make that 2.

This must be a record year for injuries. Or at least a record for injuries of star players. Chase Utley, Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer, Grady Sizemore, Johan Santana, Chipper Jones, Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke, Evan Longoria, Kendrys Morales and Ryan Zimmerman, have all struggled with injuries at some point this year. And those are just the marquee names.

Tonight, the Cardinals lost their corners. Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday, two guys who have been killing it at the plate this season, left mid-game (5th inning and 3rd inning respectively) after making a pair of impressive catches in the outfield against the Astros (of all the teams to do that against...really??). Holliday is atop the NL in batting average with .357, and Berkman is the leading man in RBIs with 35. He also leads the team with 11 homers.

The Cardinals, who already suffered the loss of Adam Wainwright this season to the infamous Tommy John, have been playing impressive ball without their ace. Sitting at a respectable 25-19, St. Louis is in second place in the NL Central, just half a game behind the Reds.

Holliday left tonight's game with "quad tightness" and Berkman with "wrist discomfort", both of which don't soon too serious, but one can never be too careful. Push a little too hard if you're not quite ready to come back and you've got a case of the Jimmy Rollins on your hands. I know the Cards just swept the Phils, but I like St. Louis otherwise, so let's hope that these little tweaks heal themselves and that neither of these guys land on the DL. It would really be a shame.

YOTR

Last year was the Year Of The Pitcher,  and so part of what sportswriters do after a year like that is examine whether the next year is a repeat of what happened last year (YOTP2). But after examining all the data, it seems pretty clear that this year is the Year Of The Rainout.

Not

I think this Posada thing bears some discussion.

That Bautista guy is definitely a fluke.

The Twins are the class of the AL Central.

The Rays' bullpen is a complete disaster.

Lance Berkman is finished.

Ryan Madson can't close.

This year's big comeback story? Oliver Perez.

Mediocrity on parade

I guess the baseball folks would prefer "parity," but I'm not sure which one better suits a situation where only three teams in MLB are more than 6 games over .500, two in the NL East. Think I'm cherry-picking? I'm sorry, there are five teams more than 5 games over. And we're talking about expanding the playoffs to 10 teams? Wow, that'll be awesome!

Really, what we're waiting for here is someone to take control. There are reputed to be a few really good teams out there, but of those 3 teams, only the Phillies are doing what's expected of them.

Baseball in the underworld

I had a nightmare about a new version of baseball hell. The Yankees and Red Sox are mediocre- say they're 2 games over .500 between them. But they still play 19 times a year, the games still take 4 hours and see-saw back and forth, and there are so many pitches taken that even the baserunners are clearly bored. ESPN tries to liven things up with a box purporting to be the strike zone, even though everyone knows there's no such box. Bobby Valentine is a color commentator and talks more than the other 2 people in the booth combined.

Oh, wait, that's not a nightmare. That's tonight's game.

Apparently, last season was not a fluke.

Who is Jose Bautista? Like really? Someone please tell me, because there's no way it's the same Jose Bautista who averaged 15 home runs a season and a .700 OPS in Pittsburgh.

This guy had three bombs today, bringing his 2011 home run count up to 16. Who cares if they were against a very shaky Minnesota pitching staff? Three homers are three homers, no matter what team you're facing. Not surprisingly, Bautista leads the league in long balls. As of today at the 40-game mark, he's on pace to hit 65 home runs in 2011. I repeat: WHO IS THIS GUY??

It's not even like he's a two/three outcome guy like Jim Thome or David Ortiz. He's doing everything this season. .368 batting average, .520 slugging, a .868 OPS with 35 walks and just 19 strikeouts Ks at this point in the season. When this dude was on the Pirates, a .250 average was a good season for him.

My next question: How in the world is MVP in the AL going to be decided this year with Cabrera and Cano still tearing it up, with the addition Matt Joyce to the mix with his random breakout season on the Rays? That being said, it's only May, but like the title of this post, this is clearly not a fluke.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jorge, but..

...I think last night may have just been the beginning of the end. As if we didn't already know that was the title of his 2011 season.

Last night, Posada's back "stiffened up", which coincidentally followed his viewing his place in the batting order. Ninth. Posada has already been struggling with becoming the Yankees' DH this season, and the drop in the lineup was just icing on the cake.

Posada was interviewed after the game, and kept trying to get around what he was quoted on prior to the game: "I needed to clear my head". This clearly got him in trouble the second go-round after the game, where that line kept coming up. Reporters were desperate to find something to help them break a "Posada refuses to play if he is penciled in lower than 7th" story. This season, Posada is batting a dismal .165, more than 100 points lower than his lifetime .273.
From the 2009 to 2010 season, his average dropped from a .283 to a .248. Do we see a trend here?

Not everyone can get as lucky as Jason Varitek. Like Posada, he is at the ripe old age of 39, but conversely, has all of a sudden found himself with a group of Boston pitchers demanding to pitch to him and only him. It's not like Varitek's numbers are much better than Posada's. He's batting .154! But Varitek wasn't the hitter that Posada was to begin with. He's a lifetime .257, with just one season in the .290s. There's a reason why Varitek has never subbed in for Big Papi.

I seem to always write letters to Posada, but I feel strongly about this. Dude, if you want to help out the Yankees, QUIT.

The Morales of the story

I cannot think of a sadder story in major league baseball at the moment than Kendrys Morales. No, I'm not talking about how his name magically changed from Kendry (pronounced ken-dree) to Kendrys (pronounced ken-driss). I'm talking about the poor guy's ankle.

Anyone who's ever played basketball has jumped up for the ball and come down on someone's foot. It's very painful. You can get a bad sprain or even break it in rare instances. But you never hear about the player not being able to return from that injury, But poor Kendrys, back when he was Kendry, hit a game-winning grand slam and joyously leaped into a crowd of his teammates waiting at home plate, only to land on someone's foot and break his ankle so badly that he has already missed a full season and will now miss another for a second round of surgery.

I guess part of why this is so sad is that it was such a random occurrence. Presuming there wasn't something structurally wrong with is ankle to start with, he probably could have repeated that action 1000 times and never had that same result. Yeah, it's kind of stupid, but not "you deserve it" kind of stupid. Like I said, it's just sad.

Footwear

My other shoe never drops. That's because if I leave shoes sitting around the house for very long, my wife decides that they don't belong there, picks them up and puts them in the closet.

The Phillies, on the other hand, heard the other shoe drop last night. They've been coasting along, winning most of their games, almost all of which were against bad teams. Even when they played Atlanta earlier in the year, Atlanta was a bad team momentarily. Their record against teams not named the Mets, Padres or Nationals was 5-6 going into last night. It's now 5-7.

Maybe it was fortunate that the Phillies played a weak schedule when they were short-handed, maybe not. Last night, the Phillies got to play against the hottest team in the NL, the Braves, who have been playing good teams and winning. Their record is still mediocre because of their bad start, but this is a very good baseball team. And they have a big advantage over the Phillies in that half their team isn't injured.

The results were pretty predictable, a 5-0 (though I don't count the last 2 runs so much because they came against the execrable Danys Baez who should never sniff the mound during a meaningful game). Cliff Lee was excellent for the most part, striking out 16. However, he made 4 terrible pitches to 4 consecutive batters in one inning and the Braves took advantage. You can tell the Braves are hot because 2 of the hits tipped off the end of Phillies fielders' gloves. But they were all well hit. This netted them 3 runs.

When the Phillies got 2 hits in a row to start the 7th inning, after having none through the first 6, they responded with 3 consecutive strikeouts.

I'm not saying that this game is a season-changer or anything, but it was a pretty strong signal to the Phillies that they're going to have to raise their game during May, when they play almost exclusively against good teams. We'll soon see what they're made of.

Amusing

Francisco Liriano had not only never pitched a shutout, he had never pitched a complete game. Tonight, Liriano had a no-hitter, the first for the Twins since 1999. Kind of perfect: He had six walks. I don't think it would have been right if he wasn't even a little wild.

Cole Hamels also pitched a complete game tonight. He was spectacular, and that's not just on the mound. Dude got a triple for his first at-bat and hit a screamer off a 98 mph fastball for his last at-bat. Just your average No. 4 starter.

One more thing: Milton Bradley suspended and fined. SHOCKING.

AL Central: Here's a hole to dig out of

Sorry for the absence. Final exams running rampant in New York City.

Fun fact of the day: If the Cleveland Indians play .500 baseball the rest of the way, the White Sox and Twins have to have a .586 winning percentage to stay in division contention. Gotta love the AL Central.

14 Innings on a Sunday night

I am philosophically opposed to leaving baseball games early. More than any other major sport, a baseball game is a self-contained unit, with beginning and end defined only by opportunities rather than time. So if I'm going to a baseball game, I plan to see a game, not a piece of it. Whether or not the score is close and the outcome yet to be decided doesn't really figure into it.

This can be a problematic philosophy at times, in that games can run very long and the weather can be very uncertain. I do occasionally leave during a rain delay, but even that is rare.

Here in Philadelphia, where we are dealing with a particularly involved fan base, there tend to be only two motivations for people to leave early. Either the game is lopsided or the game is long. Sunday night was of the long variety. Since this year's version of the Phillies don't play long 9 inning games (their pitching is too good and their hitters too impatient to drag things out), it took a 14 inning affair to drag things out for the not quite 5 hours I spent at the park. Adding to the fun was that it was a Sunday Night Baseball game on ESPN, meaning it started at 8, an hour later than usual, and the commercial breaks were longer.

On top of everything, the experience was warped by the sudden chants of  USA! USA! as people found out about bin Laden. This added a peculiar kind of energy that had nothing to do with the game. Kind of like the wave. Even with that distraction, the crowd began to thin in the 8th inning with the game still ties, and each futile Phillies at bat unleashed a new wave of exits.

Setting aside the ultimate result, the worst thing about long games is the ban on alcohol after the 7th inning. Even beyond Bill Murray's astute observation in favor of such cutoffs (something like "Anyone who can't get drunk by the 8th inning doesn't deserve to have another drink") I understand completely that they don't want people getting completely wasted, but why bother having all those security guards if they don't have some drunk guys to drag out? Seems like a waste. And for me, yeah, I wouldn't have minded having one more beer in the 10th inning.

The biggest positives were the chance to have a 14th inning stretch, complete with another "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and 2 Bongo Cams, plus getting to ride the subway more than an hour after it was supposed to be closed. I guess they hold a train or two for the transit-riding sorts like myself.

I got home at 1:30 and I was tired and not at all unhappy that I'd stayed.

Another good thing about Halladay's game today

I can't believe we actually got to sit and watch a nationally televised game from Philly without the announcers ragging on the Philly fans. It's a truly historic occasion. Of course, everyone knows the Philly fans are awful, horrible, despicable. They throw snowballs at Santa Claus, vomit on little girls and, uh, well, aren't a couple of high profile incidents in 25 years enough?

You can tell how bad the Phillies fans are because they've only sold out, what, 130+ straight games? How pathetic. And the nerve of them, booing. In fact, they booed the umpire after he called a ball after Halladay had started the game with 18 straight strikes. Disgusting. You'd almost think they cared about every pitch the guy makes.

And really, that's my point here. I went to a game a couple of weeks ago when Cliff Lee was pitching. The crowd was hanging on every pitch, reacting to every ball and strike call, even when the game was well in hand in the 7th inning. At that point I remember thinking, that's why Lee, and Halladay, and Oswalt want to pitch here. If you're a professional athlete who's proud of what he does and loves the game, how can you resist playing in front of 45,000 people who feel exactly the same way and are right there with you every step of the way?

Media types love to go on about how "knowledgeable" the fans are here or in New York or Boston. But knowledgeable isn't the point. Why would the players care about knowledgeable? You think they care if the fans understand the infield fly rule? What they want is fans who care and who appreciate effort and performance. And I'm proud to count myself one of them.