Albertville

Last night Albert Pujols came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning with the score tied as St. Louis batted against the Washington Nationals. It had been an excellent game with the newest Cardinal, the latest in a long line of older players who find new life and happiness in the baseball nirvana that is St. Louis, John Smoltz pitching for St. Louis and John Lannan, working quickly and efficiently for the Nats.

Albert had looked terrible against Lannan in three at bats and would now face Jason Bergmann, who throws harder and faster than Lannan. I don’t think there was anyone in the ballpark who thought Pujols wasn’t going to hit a home run. Certainly the Nats announcers, Bob Carpenter and the ever annoying Ray Knight, said so. Heck even I, half asleep in Virginia, knew it. And, of course, the great thing about Albert is that he did it.

It’s interesting that even though the Cardinals have been leading the NL Central all season, they are rarely featured on national TV. When ESPN and Fox deviate from their Yankees, Mets, Red Sox formula, it tends to be last year’s World Series winner. So we see the Phillies and the Braves, the Phillies and the Mets, etc. Guess we will see more of the Cardinals next season, after they win something.

The Squeeze

The other day I saw a successful suicide squeeze play at Nationals Park. Sitting on the third base side of the field, I saw the base runner suddenly break toward the plate as the pitcher delivered. As the crowd gasped, the batter, Nyjer Morgan, laid down a perfect bunt and the runner scored easily. It was fantastic. And it occurred to me that it was because I was there, with a view of the whole field, that the play was so exciting. If I’d been watching on TV or listening on the radio, the experience of seeing the runner break and realizing what was happening would have been diminished. No amount of replays or slo-mos could duplicate being there.

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This is the time of year when teams who are not in contention (and some that are) have pitching rotations filled with inexperienced, young arms. These pitchers by and large seem to pitch 5 2/3 inning and are out. They get through the opposing team’s lineup twice and can’t make it through the third time. We hear a lot about pitch counts but the reason that pitchers are running up 100 pitches in 5 plus innings is, in part, because they can’t get through the line-up three times.

The Baseball Draft

The Nats will introduce their $16 million man today. He is a pitcher from San Diego State who was the number one draft pick this year. Pitchers have, of course, been notoriously tricky draft picks, with many more misses than hits. This is one of the reasons I don’t get too excited about first round draft picks. But I have been thinking about drafts of old. For example, only two players from the 1987 major league baseball draft are still active. One is Ken Griffey, Jr. The other, drafted in the 48th round, with 1150 players drafted ahead of him, is Brad Ausmus. Brad Ausmus, by the way, has never been on the disabled list throughout his major league career. So you never know. And the team that drafted Brad Ausmus? It was the New York Yankees.

Here are some other active players who were late round selections: Mike Lowell (20th round), Barry Zito (59th round), Jason Bay (22nd round) Roy Oswalt (23rd round), Ian Kinsler (17th round), Mark Buerhle (38th round), Brad Hawpe (47th round), Kevin Youklis (8th round), Trevor Hoffman (11th round), Tim Lincecum (48th round), and Jake Peavy (15th round). A veritable All-Star team.

Quick Takes

No one can blow a save faster than Brad Lidge.

Hey pitchers: quit throwing at batters’ heads. You’re going to kill someone.

The Phillies discovered the perfect solution to their excess of starters: three innings of Pedro, a rain delay, and six inning of Jamie Moyer.

Strange things happen in August and September. The Dodgers’ nine game lead in the NL West is down to 3.5. Phenom Kershaw threw 97 pitches in 3 plus innings. How is that even possible?

Barry Zito, free agent disaster, seems to be finding himself (and his curve ball) in San Francisco. Finally.

What's a bad baseball team to do?

He was hailed as the once in a generation pitching savior. They were called the worst team in baseball. He was called ready for the major leagues Now. They were called the worst team in baseball. He has a 100 mph fastball and Scott Boras as an agent. They fired their manager.

As the signing deadline approached, the Nats were bashed by every commentator and blogger who could spell Strasburg, and many that couldn’t. They had to sign him. The fans would demand it, the money would be made up at the gate. They couldn’t not sign him.

So they signed him with 90 seconds to spare. And the commentators turned on a dime. Now the chorus was: he’s never thrown a pitch in the major leagues; pitchers drafted in the first round have historically underperformed in the bigs (no kidding); he may need Tommy John surgery; they never should have drafted him in the first place All that and more.

So much for a feel good story. Show ‘em Stephen.

Break Up the Nats

I checked in on the Nats and Marlins about an hour after the game started yesterday afternoon. The Nats were down 6 to 0. Time to do something else, right? A few minutes later the score was 6 to 3, then 8 to 3. Same old story, right? Wait, it’s 8 to 7, then tied, then the Nats pull ahead 12 to 8. Who are these guys with their name spelled correctly on their uniforms and big hits flying off their bats?

For those of you who don’t have access to the Nats local broadcasts, their color commentator is a knowledgeable, candid, insightful broadcaster. He’s a former pitcher who talks very little about himself despite his success at the major league level. His name? Rob Dibble! The fierce, intimidating reliever who I absolutely hated grew up to be an excellent broadcaster.
***** ****** ***** ***** ***** *****

Okay, I’m ready to call the experiment over. Sadly, John Smoltz has not been the pitcher I had hoped for when the Red Sox put him in the rotation this season. It’s probably time to move on.

More on Pitchers and a hopeful sign in your nation's capital

A number of NL Rookie pitchers have been very impressive this season. J.A. Happ, the Phillies lefthander, is 8 and 2 and just threw a complete game shutout last night. He is fighting for a spot in the rotation because the Phils have more starters than spots for them. With the addition of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez, something’s got to give. It will likely be Happ because not only has he done very well as a starter, he’s been effective out of the bullpen. The other starters are pure starters. Every team should have such problems.

Another successful rookie is Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson who pitched six solid innings in front of crowds of cheering thousands (friends and family) in San Diego last night. He was pulled after giving up a two run homer in the sixth after only 72 pitches. Guess the Braves didn’t want to take any chances. Hanson was one of the reasons they gave for releasing Tom Glavine, wasn’t he?

Not sure how important a sign this is, but over the last week or so an odd thing has happened. The Nats, who I blasted as a double A team playing in the major leagues, are no longer an automatic loser. They have a modest win streak but it’s more than that. The bats have some life in them, Nyjer Morgan is a real spark plug and fun to watch and there’s someone in the bullpen who throws 97 mph and can close. Will it last? Who knows but it’s why you watch the games.

A few thoughts on pitchers

There’s nothing like an intimidating pitcher to make a game worthwhile. My favorite is Josh Beckett. There is something so economical about his motion and his control is often so laser-like that he is great fun to watch. He pitched a few days ago against the Orioles at Camden Yards in front of a crowd that seemed to have been imported from Boston. It was certainly not his best performance but he appears so dominating that I actually felt bad for the Oriole hitters.

This morning’s news focused on Jared Washburn’s debut with his new team, the Detroit Tigers. It was forgettable. But I don’t think he was the story. I think the story was the debut of Brian Matusz, a lefty brought up from double A by the Orioles to pitch against him. He was drafted in 2008, started the season in A ball, got promoted to double A and suddenly is on the mound last night in Detroit. I don’t know if he’s the real deal or not. Dave Trembly, the O’s manager, says he is. But the real deal is that many major league teams have so many pitching problems that they are forced to bring up guys like Matusz way before they want to and way before the pitchers are ready. The phrase “he’s learning at the big league level” comes to mind.

And the winner is...

Nobody. In one of the most tedious trade deadline hypes in years Roy Halladay remained a Toronto Blue Jay. After three weeks of almost non-stop speculation, the Blue Jays turned down offers from contenders in both leagues and no trade was made. Thank goodness that’s over.

But there were some interesting moves made over the past week, especially yesterday’s stealth move by the White Sox who traded prospects to the Padres for the disabled Jake Peavy. I particularly liked this one because not one commentator saw it coming and one by one they admitted surprise and had virtually nothing interesting to say about it, including why Peavy, who exercised the no-trade clause in his contract to veto a trade to the White Sox a few months ago did not do the same thing now.

The Cardinals made two moves early in the nonwaiver trading period, picking up Matt Holliday and Julio Lugo in separate deals. These two then promptly illustrated the value of a change of scenery by playing way over their heads for their new team. Lugo, who distinguished himself early in his career with Houston by showing very little talent in the field, at the plate and running the bases, is now hitting .375 with the Cardinals. Holliday, whose robust batting average in Colorado tapered off a bit in Oakland, is hitting like Ted Williams in his debut with the Cardinals. How long will the honeymoon last?