(As an aside, is anyone else sick of the word “meh” to show indifference? I’ve used it here to sound hipper than I actually am, but I kinda hate it. I’m ready for the fad to pass.)

Okay, so we’re talking about Opening Day in Japan. My friend Dale lives over there, and he got to witness the game in person. He emailed me with a first-hand account, which I now share with you (it’s a bit long, but well worth the read):

Just saw my first MLB opening day game — happened to be in Tokyo. It was an exciting game as it turned out to be a real roller-coaster. On the other hand, it was a really flukey game, which makes me think that the pitchers could have used the full spring-training period to iron out a few things.

The game was at the Tokyo Dome. The Dome sucks as a venue. Didn’t much care for it when I first saw a game there (maybe a decade ago), and the place hasn’t improved. It’s extremely neat and clean and there are no real obstructions to viewplanes, but it’s still boring… However, the fans were great. The Japanese fans were partial to the Sox for obvious reasons, but there must have been a lot of American fans who traveled overseas (as well as a number of American expatriates I ran into in the concession line). Certainly there were a lot of vocal Sox fans chanting “Youk” — which sounds like booing the first time you hear it. Matsuzaka was 2 different pitchers in one game. First 3 innings he struggled with control and the A’s pretty much let him fling it all over the strike zone. However, he wasn’t really getting ripped. Over the first 3 innings he gave up a solo shot to Ellis (which was probably a mistake on Matsuzaka’s part), but he only gave up one other run, despite the fact that he walked 2 and hit 1 in the same inning. Over his final 2 innings, he was completely dominant. For the first 3 innings, he was, for the most part, blowing hard stuff past the A’s. In the last 2, he was consistently blowing smoke past them. I don’t understand why he wasn’t sticking with the hard stuff early. The A’s look like they will have a hard time dealing with good pitchers because they don’t look well equipped to manufacture any runs. They don’t look like they can run or hit-and-run much. Only 1 guy, Kurt Suzuki of all people, even showed bunt with no one on. Cust looked horrible. I’m sure he’ll whack 30+ HRs, but he really looked like he was one of those 3-outcomes guys — K, BB, extra-base hit. Daric Barton was interesting — rookie hitting in the #3 spot and showing good knowledge of the strike zone. He didn’t just benefit from Matsuzaka’s wildness, he made pitchers work. Emil Brown looks like he can still be a decent hitter, but he doesn’t run well and he’s not an asset on defense. Also, the A’s look like they need to work on a number of fundamentals. OF defense was not at its best, as described below with respect to Travis Buck. Also, Emil Brown is guilty of a big baserunning error. While I wasn’t intimately familiar with Emil Brown’s career stats, I didn’t think he was much of a triples hitter and his rather prominent gut only reinforced that impression. With
that background, I don’t know what he may have been thinking when he ripped a run-scoring extra base hit off of Papelbon in the bottom of the 10th with the A’s trailing 6-4 entering the frame, but it shouldn’t have been “this is a good time to take 3 bases.” The ball arrived in Lowell’s glove when Brown was maybe halfway to third, so it wasn’t really a close play either. Brown became the second out in the bottom of the 10th in a rundown. That’s just an unforgivable fundamental baserunning error.

Speaking of defense, Travis Buck was having a tough day defensively. It won’t be obvious in a scoring play-by-play, but he misplayed a ball hit off Blanton that would up a double in an inning where Manny hit a 2-run double to tie the score. Buck seems to have overrun the ball to the right and then had to twist back to make the play — which he wasn’t able to do. It was by no means a routine play, but the result was a baserunner on 2nd rather than an additional out. He also missed the cutoff man on the rbi-single by Brandon Moss that gave the Sox a 3-2 lead. Moss easily took 2nd on a ball that Buck played entirely in front of him. Ellsbury made a great running catch. You can see the highlight on MLB.com. Maybe Ryan Sweeney can make that play for the A’s as well, but Jeff Fiorentino wasn’t able to. That was the difference between Manny flying out at the wall and the 2-run double that gave the Sox a 6-4 lead in the 10th. Mark Ellis has some great range — saw him play a ground ball on the shortstop side of the bag and he made it look completely routine. Ellis consistently played around the edge of the infield. Pedroia, on the other hand, plays 1 or 2 steps deeper and maybe a step closer to the bag, and yet he can’t make the play Ellis did — Pedroia wasn’t able to snag a single up the middle where Ellis was able to. Alex Cora was a 10th inning replacement for Julio Lugo at short. My guess is that Francona likes Cora’s arm better — he was firing lasers during his round of warmups. Recalling highlight reels of top third basemen like Caminiti in his prime, Rolen, Chavez and others with great arms, it really shows up the difference between a guy with a gun on the one hand and Jack Hannahan on the other hand. Hannahan doesn’t appear to lack range and made a couple of nice stop to his right, but he just doesn’t have the arm or motions to pop up off the ground and nail the runner. If he did, Kevin Youkilis does not get an infield hit. This is not a knock on Hannahan, but appreciation for those guys who make that play with some regularity. The A’s have a really exaggerated infield shift on David Ortiz. Crosby plays left of the bag and at the edge of the infield, Ellis plays in short right, maybe a dozen steps, Hannahan is
at deep short and Emil Brown is in left center. Shift seems to be right on, though as Ellis and Brown made a couple of completely routine plays from those exaggerated shifts.

As noted above, seems like the pitchers could generally have used a full spring training to fix a few things. The hitters didn’t look overmatched and it’s easy to forget that major league caliber hitters all look like power hitters on pitcher mistakes. Hannahan’s shot is a good example of that. Matsuzaka was painful to watch in the first 2 innings and he wasn’t particularly strong in his 3rd inning. Then he put it all together in innings 4 and 5. Blanton looked like he was in season form. Working fast and throwing lots of strikes. Same results as usual — about a hit per inning, but that doesn’t seem to rattle him at all. In contrast, Matsuzaka works irritatingly slow and works slower when in trouble. Kyle Snyder was not on his game for his first 2 batters, which yielded that 2-run HR to Hannahan for a 4-3 Oakland lead. Embree, Foulke and Javy Lopez were effective, although Foulke gave up some long outs. Okajima was tough for the A’s to deal with. However, usually reliable Street got absolutely rocked for 3 runs over his 1.2 innings and even Papelbon was hit hard, scored on and left way too much drama. Closers aren’t perfect but for both to be so off their game in the same game strikes me as odd — especially as Papelbon had some serious mid-90s heat this evening.

Thanks, Dale, for allowing me to share your thoughts with my readers!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, one of the great things about attending spring training is that you have the opportunity to watch players hone their craft. This includes prospects getting their first taste of pro ball as well as future first-ballot Hall of Famers.

For reasons I won’t get into here, we missed Greg Maddux’s start while we were out in Peoria. But to me — and I can’t stress this enough — the games aren’t nearly as interesting as the practices. Fortunately, we did get to watch Maddux practice.

In the photo above, you can’t see it, but Maddux is standing on a pitching rubber. You’ll notice that his right (throwing) hand is clenched into a fist. He is about to wind and throw an imaginary pitch. A coach will then hit a grounder toward first, with Maddux breaking to cover the bag.

The other thing you can’t tell from this photo is that nobody dogs these drills. Even the veterans. The most successful guys, like Maddux, didn’t reach the top of their profession by doing stuff half-assed. As I learned in my time as a semi-working musician, if you can’t practice well, then what’s going to happen come show time?

Post from: Knuckle Curve

You can see all my spring training photos at Flickr, but I understand that you’re busy and may not have time to go clicking all over the place. With that in mind, here’s a shot of Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton:

Upton, for those who may have been living in a cave, is one of the brightest young players in baseball. From the Baseball America 2007 Prospect Handbook (aff link):

The term “five-tool prospect” somehow doesn’t seem strong enough for Upton. He does everything exceptionally well and already has the body and composure of a big leaguer. If one thing stands out, however, it’s his bat speed. He whips his bat through the hitting zone and has great leverage in his swing, which allows him to sting the ball like few players can and gives him plus power potential.

Upton doesn’t turn 21 until the end of August, and he already has 43 big-league games under his belt. Yeah, as a Padres fan, I’m more than a little concerned at the thought of his sustained presence in the National League West. He may well be the game’s best player in 5 years.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Headed to spring training? If you’re thinking of going to the games only, think again. My latest article at Baseball Digest Daily provides a glimpse of what you’re missing if you don’t get out the ballpark early:

At the next field, pitchers are fielding bunts. And one field over from that, they’re practicing pickoff moves. Runners are stationed at first and second base. A batter stands at the plate. The pitcher throws to first and then runs to cover the bag as the first baseman chases the breaking runner.

After the pitchers are done, the catchers take their turn. They snap throws to first, second, and third. There is a batter and a runner to distract them, as there would be in a game.

They work on rundowns. The coach hits grounders to drawn-in infielders, who throw home as a runner breaks from third. The catcher sprints down the line, chasing the runner back until the third baseman yells “now.” The catcher then tosses the ball to the third baseman, who tags out the runner. Two or three catchers rotate in for this exercise, and you get exhausted just watching these kids in full gear jump up from a squatting position and bolt into a sprint time and time again.

The games are great, but they don’t count in the standings. The real treat is watching these kids bust tail to improve and, with luck, give themselves a chance at living the dream.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Anywho, I took a bunch of photos. Enjoy!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

See full photo set at Flickr.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

• Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard won his arbitration case and has been awarded $10 million for 2008. This is the largest amount ever received by a victorious player.
• You may be aware that my colleague, Hunter Pence, was injured in a freak accident earlier this week. He’s got the details up at his blog. Here’s wishing Hunter a speedy recovery.
• Another colleague, Albert Bianchi at Dejuiced, informs us that New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes will be giving up a celebratory handshake thing he used to do. I can’t speak to that because I don’t follow the Mets closely, but I will say that the photo Albert chose to accompany his story is priceless. Seriously, if the Mets ever get tired of playing baseball, they might try their hand at putting on a musical.

Ugh. Play some games already. I’m getting bored…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

I’ll be in Arizona the weekend of March 7 & 8. I am so ready…

Post from: Knuckle Curve