Knuckle Curve » hardball_times

Lousy Pitching

Geoff Young — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:38:52 +0000

My latest article is up at Hardball Times: “Ten pitching seasons to forget.” Two of these guys actually won the Cy Young Award at some point in their careers, which just goes to show that anyone can have a bad year.

Enjoy!

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Bizarre Out Triangle

Geoff Young — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:30:17 +0000

John Beamer at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) describes 11 unusual baseball rules. There’s all kinds of good stuff in here, but my favorite is this:

There are runners on first and second with no outs. The batter hits a fair ball that can be fielded by one of the infielders. He is out by the infield fly rule even if no one touches the ball. Then the crazy stuff really starts. The runner on first passes the runner on second, so the runner on first is out due to rule 7.08, which forbids a runner overtaking another runner on the base paths. Two outs. The runner at second is then struck by the batted ball as it lands (rule 7.08 again — look, it covers a whole host of base running situations). There we have it three outs and no fielder has touched the ball.

That is so esoteric and absurd. It’s freakin’ genius, is what it is. I’m getting verklempt. Anyway, go read the whole article. It’s well worth the time…

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Too Many Mitts

Geoff Young — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:31:15 +0000

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So I take the wife out shopping today. She shops, I sit in the car and read Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2008, everyone’s happy.

On page 145 of the Annual, I come across an amusing anecdote about a gentleman named Clay Dalrymple:

One July day in Baltimore in 1969, the umpires were faced with a problem. Clay Dalrymple was to catch for Baltimore that evening, but he emerged from the dugout with both a catcher’s mitt (on his hand) and a fielder’s glove (in his back pocket).

“I asked him about it,” reported home plate umpire John Rice. “And he told me he was going to switch to the fielder’s glove if he had a play at the plate.”

The umpires huddled, and though they couldn’t think of a rule that specifically forbade the use of the second glove, they exacted a promise from Dalrymple that he wouldn’t use the glove until a ruling was made by the league office.

Oriole manager Earl Weaver argued, of course. “If nothing covers it in the rules,” offered Earl, “then why rule against the glove? Why not for?”

This incident (which thanks to the magic of Baseball-Reference, we know occurred in a game against the White Sox) led to the addition of Rule 1.12 to the Official Major League Rules Book. Gotta love Earl Weaver.

And Clay Dalrymple…

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There’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

Geoff Young — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:48:11 +0000

My latest article at Hardball Times looks at some unusual games from the past 50 years. Enjoy!

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When It Raines, It Pours

Geoff Young — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:16:08 +0000

Dan McLaughlin has a nice article up at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) on the Hall of Fame worthiness of Tim Raines. In it, Dan compares Raines to other great “tablesetters” — guys whose skills were best suited to the top of the order — throughout baseball history.

The most important finding is that Raines hangs pretty well with his contemporaries — Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, and Paul Molitor. I didn’t get to see Henderson and Molitor play much until later in their careers, but I watched a lot of Gwynn and Raines. As a huge Gwynn fan, I find myself agreeing with Dan that if he’s in, Raines has to be there as well.

Seems to me the best argument anyone can make against Raines is that he didn’t reach the magical 3000-hit plateau, which is silly. Lou Brock hit that milestone, but I like to believe that the voters would have elected him in even if he hadn’t. And you know what? Raines was a better player than Brock.

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Some Games (Almost) Never End

Geoff Young — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:46:11 +0000

I’ve got a new article up at Hardball Times about a 22-inning game between the Dodgers and Astros back in ‘89. Two current big-league managers and a Hall of Famer played in this one…

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More Hot Stove Talk

Geoff Young — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:46:23 +0000

I’m a little late getting this out there, but the folks at Hardball Times (myself included) have weighed in on some more recent moves, including the Andruw Jones and Eric Gagne signings. And yeah, I know that Miguel Tejada has been traded; I’m still thinking about it, should have something later this afternoon…

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Rule V Draft, 2007 Edition

Geoff Young — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:58:08 +0000

The Rule V draft took place on Thursday. For those not in the know, this is sort of a swap meet where teams can gather cheap talent from other teams, with a catch — you buy it, you have to keep it on your 25-man roster all year or offer it back to the other team. Sometimes this works (Roberto Clemente, George Bell, Johan Santana), but most times not so much.

USA Today has the full list of ‘07 draftees in the major-league phase (there’s also a minor-league phase, but seriously, it’s barely worth mentioning). Chris Constancio at Hardball Times [full disclosure: I contribute to THT] offers his thoughts on the draft.

The vast majority of these guys won’t pan out, but maybe one or two will. Hey, it’s something to do in the off-season…

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Royals Sign Guillen

Geoff Young — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:02:12 +0000

The Kansas City Royals have signed outfielder Jose Guillen to a 3-year, $36 million deal. Among other things, this probably forces the Royals to move one of David DeJesus of Joey Gathright, which doesn’t strike me as the best course of action for a team that should be rebuilding.

Guillen also may be facing a PED-related suspension. As I note in today’s hot stove round table over at Hardball Times, I have no clue why Kansas City would make this move. I’m trying to understand it, and I really can’t.

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Relievers and Long-Term Deals

Geoff Young — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:44:44 +0000

I’ve criticized the signings of J.C. Romero and Scott Linebrink this winter. Today at Hardball Times I attempt to answer the question of why teams keep overpaying these guys. Be sure also to check out Dave Studeman’s companion piece on the wisdom of long-term contracts.

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