With the QuesTec computerized evaluation system spending a lot of time in the news the past few weeks, the strike zone has been a hot topic. Mike’s Baseball Rants has an exhaustive archaeological dig through the changing strike zone:

So as far as I can tell, the drama that is being played out between owners, umps, and players regarding the strike zone and the QuesTec system, started in the mid-Eighties with umps ceding the outside strike to pitchers and almost simultaneously, batters crowding the plate and getting hit more often. But it seems impossible to disentangle those two events into cause and effect. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg type Ghordian knot. What is clear is that as a result the batter’s box was obliterated. I believe if the umpire requires a well demarcated batter’s box, the hit batsmen and potentially the outside strike issues are somewhat mitigated…

To me it boils down to a management issue. 2001 got them three-quarters of the way there. Now if the owners had used QuesTec to enforce the strides made in 2001 and retrain and empower (yeah, I said it) the umps instead of becoming oppositional with it, maybe they could get to the promised land, that is a strike zone according to the book. I’m afraid now that Bud and MLB’s inability to properly motivate their employees will cause more bad than good as neo-Luddite umps attempt to circumvent the QuesTec system and bring the issue to a head.

As usual, another excellent, informative rant from Mike.

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The Mets finally canned GM Steve Phillips today, a move that was as overdue as that library book you checked out in sixth grade and forgot to return. The New York Post had the best headline (“Stevie Nixed: Mets tell GM Phillips to go your own way”) and back page, while William Rhoden of the New York Times sums it up best:

This ship has been off course for three seasons, not because of a lack of resources, but because of a lack of judgment. The Mets began the year with a payroll of about $120 million, which is second only to the Yankees’ roughly $180 million. They have nothing to show for it but a clubhouse of aging stars with big names, big contracts and big injuries. It’s all Steve Phillips’s fault.

He sold Wilpon on the notion that you had to win with big names in New York, that the fans weren’t patient enough to wait for rebuilding, that you had to do it now. Forget the farm system.

Rhoden suggests that Giants GM Brian Sabean, Braves GM John Schuerholz and Expos GM (and former Met assistant GM) Omar Minaya would be the best choices to replace Phillips, but obviously, all three are currently employed. Jim Duquette, cousin of the Boston Red Sox General Pariah Dan Duquette, was named the interim GM until the end of the season and will be a candidate for the permanent job, as if any high-level New York sports executive can consider his job “permanent.”

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New Kid on the Blog: The Minnesota Twins are already well-represented in the blogosphere by a couple of great pages, John Bonnes’ The Twins Geek and Aaron Gleeman’s Baseball Blog. Now comes a new blog from another Twins fan called Seth Speaks. Recent topics include the playing careers of the Twins coaches and manager (ahem), an evaluation of Latroy Hawkins’ career, and the callup of Justin Morneau. Good luck, Seth.