I wasted Tuesday night watching the Yanks roll over to the Anaheim Angels in Derek Jeter’s return. The Angels waited out Mike Mussina, spoiling his good pitches, forcing him to labor, and then they broke the game open, winning 10-3. An uncomfortable flashback to the Halos treatment of the Bombers in last year’s AL Divisional …
This spring’s hottest baseball book is Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Lewis, author of the bestseller Liar’s Poker, chronicles Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane and the unconventional inner workings of the A’s front office. Lengthy excerpts in the New York Times Magazine and the current (May 12) issue of Sports …
For the first time since leaving my job in late February, I’ve been freelancing on a regular basis, with a former colleague whose current clients include the The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, for whom I’ve been designing a newsletter. So between work and getting adjusted to my new “roommate,” this has been another busy week …
Once in a while, either to provide an outlet for a tense disagreement or merely to keep ourselves entertained, my pal Nick and I make an impulsive bet with a sushi dinner riding on the outcome. Past wagers that have left him crying wasabi tears include picking the Jets to come from behind in the …
Continue reading ‘Duelling Chopsticks over the AL Central’ »
In one of my pieces last week, I touched on the topic of pitch counts. An earlier version of that piece which was sacrificed to the fickle and vengeful diety that lives inside my computer contained a reference to the new poster child for pitcher abuse, A.J. Burnett, who placed second in the 2002 PAP^3 …
Here is the starting lineup of a baseball team: AGE AVG OPS HR RBI C 29 .328 .960 32 111 1B 30 .337 .993 40 115 2B 30 .282 .765 14 56 SS 30 .285 .686 2 30 3B 32 .251 .785 20 67 LF 25 .282 .818 22 90 CF 23 .242 .644 2 …
“You’re only as smart as your ERA,” Jim Bouton wrote in Ball Four over 30 years ago. While Bouton was talking about how nobody within baseball wants to hear what a marginal player has to say, Colorado Rockies reliever Todd Jones has illustrated Bouton’s adage in the most literal terms. Interviewed by Denver Post theater …
Continue reading ‘Winner of the John Rocker Award for Tolerance’ »
Apparently all of the email over the past 48 hours sent via my jay@futilityinfielder.com address has been bouncing due to overzealous spam filtering on the part of my service provider, Time Warner. While I appreciate their efforts to weed out those offers to increase my manhood, romance barnyard animals, and earn several mil via the …
Whether your a fan, analyst, player, manager, or GM, few topics within baseball are as hotly contested as pitch counts. Crusty codgers may sneer about how today’s young whippersnappers are babied with their five-man rotations and specialized bullpens, bemoaning the death of the complete game and the 300-game winner. But the history books are littered …
Enshrined writer Leonard Koppett has an enlightening piece about a key rule change which just passed its 100th anniversary. As of the American League’s season opener on April 20, 1903, the first two foul balls hit by a batter counted as strikes. The National League had adopted the foul-strike rule in 1901, but the AL, …