Baseboogle uses Google’s search engine to sift through a set of custom selected websites that concentrate on studying, analyzing, and advancing our understanding the great game of baseball.

Coolness. [Hat tip to Baseball Musings.]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Ready for the Mitchell Report? Totally psyched? Man, it’s just like the World Series, only with allegations of drug use instead of baseball games. I can’t believe it’s almost here, just in time for [insert winter holiday of choice].

Howard Bryant at ESPN writes a detailed piece outlining the troublesome nature of this investigation (hat tip to Baseball Musings). You really need to read the entire article, but here are a few little nuggets worth mentioning:

The teams’ general managers, too, felt pressured by questions that led them to believe the Mitchell report will judge them harshly for condoning widespread drug use by not bringing it to the attention of club owners and baseball’s central office. That, they acquiesced, is an unfortunate but real byproduct of the enormous demands placed on player evaluators to win games in a billion-dollar business.

“If this thing comes out and pins everything on us, which is what I think will happen, then every GM in baseball should sue baseball,” one general manager said over the summer. “It’s not going to happen, but this report is going to be total B.S. It’s going to blame us for everything, because we don’t have anyone in our corner. The owners aren’t going to blame themselves, are they?”

And further down:

As ESPN.com spoke with baseball people interviewed during the investigation, a common theme emerged: Investigators, while generally cordial, often revealed an alarming lack of knowledge regarding the day-to-day workings of baseball. Instead of focusing on the elements of the game that might make drug use appealing, investigators asked surface-level questions such as which players suffer from back acne and who underwent the most dramatic body changes. One interviewer, for example, read off a list of players and asked the interviewee to say if he believed the player could have used steroids. No questions were asked, the source said, about the root causes of steroid use.

“They didn’t ask us those things because they didn’t have the level of sophistication about what we do,” said a National League strength coach. “They didn’t know the right questions to ask. At no point in my interview did anyone say to me, ‘What can we recommend to make sure this never happens again?’”

Sounds like the emphasis is more on assigning blame than actually trying to solve the problem. Disappointing, perhaps, but hardly surprising.

Let he who cast very small rocks…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Two aspects of this story fascinate me:

1. The announced attendance was 10,121, but a photo from the game tells a very different story. Er, forget steroids for a moment; someone is cheating here, and it ain’t the players.
2. The Marlins are a great case study in the difficulties of promoting a team that has no identity. This is a franchise that came into existence in 1993 and has won two World Series. If you’re keeping score at home, they’ve won rings in 13.3% of their seasons. The Boston Americans/Red Sox have done so in 5.6% of their seasons, the Dodgers (and their various predecessors) in 4.8%, the Cubs in 1.6%. Heck, the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 85 years before the Marlins came into existence. (Even Miami’s original team, the Class D Florida State League Hustlers, didn’t appear until two decades after the Cubs’ last World Series victory.) Anyway, the point is that apparently winning isn’t enough to sustain a franchise. There needs to be at least some kind of tradition, and it’s hard to build one when you’re busy slashing payroll all the time and alienating your potential fan base.

[Tip o' the Knuckle Curve cap to Baseball Musings, whose suggestion of a move to Havana, Cuba, intrigues me...]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

A reader points out that Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle has mentioned Padres GM Kevin Towers as a possible replacement. Although I have no doubt that Towers would do a world of good in Houston, I’m not sure what the incentive would be for him to leave San Diego and an organization that is on the rise.

Whatever the Astros end up doing, they’d better hope it works. Their winning percentage has dipped every year since 2004 — from .568, to .549 (mitigated by an NL championship, of course), to .506, to .443 through Monday. We’re talking about a franchise that had experienced just one losing season since 1992 before this year.

I dunno, maybe they should try to talk Casey Candaele out of retirement. Probably wouldn’t help, but at least it would be different.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Wells spent most of the season pitching for the San Diego Padres. It’s great to see that he is doing everything he can to help propel his former employer toward the playoffs.

[Tip o' the Knuckle Curve cap to Baseball Musings.]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

The Orioles have played well under Trembley, and it’s great to see a “lifer” rewarded for his efforts. There are far sexier names available right now, but none have enjoyed the success that Trembley has since taking over for Sam Perlozzo in mid-June. Congrats to Trembley and best of luck to him in what will continue to be a challenging role…

[Tip o' the Knuckle Curve cap to Baseball Musings.]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Of course, there are differences between Zambrano and Zito. The most important are:

• Zambrano is three years younger.
• Zambrano’s contract is two years shorter.
• Zambrano is a much better pitcher. He’s having an off-year, but it’s still better than anything Zito has done since 2003.

I guess the real take-home lesson here is that winning the Cy Young Award can be profitable even 5-10 years after the fact…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

I don’t have a strong recollection of Kuhn’s tenure (I was in high school when he vacated the office), but David Pinto at Baseball Musings shares his opinions on the matter.

One passage from the ESPN article stands out to me:

Kuhn did battle with ornery owners such as Charlie Finley, Ted Turner, George Steinbrenner and Ray Kroc. Finley once went so far as calling Kuhn “the village idiot.”

Can you imagine, in this day and age, a commissioner that isn’t universally loved by the owners? If nothing else, Kuhn wasn’t among peers when he represented the sport. I wouldn’t mind seeing that again some day. There’s a little too much comfort at the top now for my taste.

Post from: Knuckle Curve