Taking the Plunge

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On Saturday I fulfilled a long-held dream, one that I could barely have conceived of when I started this blog back in 2001: I attended a game as a member of the working media, with access to the press box, the locker rooms and the field, the whole behind-the-scenes megillah. Credential in hand (or more accurately, around my neck), I watched the Yankees take on the Twins at Yankee Stadium and wrote up the game — won 7-1 by the Yanks — for Baseball Prospectus.

As I wrote at BP, the matchup featured two southpaws on comeback trails of sorts in Francisco Liriano and Andy Pettitte, the former only starting to re-emerge as an ace after three years in the weeds following Tommy John surgery, the latter simply coming back from a missed turn in the rotation. On this day, Pettitte got the better of the two, shutting the Twins out for 6.1 innings while allowing just two hits thanks to some spiffy defense:

That [2-0] score held until the sixth, punctuated by by a few notable defensive plays by the pinstripes. In the third inning, [Nick] Swisher laid out for a diving catch of a Butera bloop. Gardner, who would later concede that catch topped his own (“That’s what [Swisher] says, too,” he told reporters later) nearly collided with Robinson Cano Derek Jeter while battling the sun to catch Denard Span’s short popup one batter later. In the fourth, Cano would snare consecutive line drives off the M&M boys, with Morneau’s shot leading to Orlando Hudson being doubled off first to end the inning.

Pettitte had to dodge the M&M boys [Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau] one more time on the day, which made for a worthwhile spectacle. With two outs in the sixth and the lead still at two runs, he walked both Span and Hudson on a total of nine pitches, bringing up Mauer for the game’s pivotal moment. Petitte fell behind 3-0 on a trio of low-and-away pitches as the Yankee bullpen sprung to life, but he got a called strike on the outside corner. On his 26th pitch of the inning, he induced Mauer to sky a high fly ball to the fattest part of the ballpark in left center. Some 46,347 fans watched with bated breath as Gardner ran the ball down on the warning track to end the threat.

“In the first inning, I felt sharp but it wasn’t a great day as far as continuing to hold it, conceded Pettitte after the game. “I made some mistakes and the guys made great plays behind me. I got a little tired in the sixth inning, my legs went on me a little bit, I lost my focus, and almost let the game get away from me, but I was able to get the fly ball there. I felt very fortunate.”

Despite flagging, Pettitte returned to battle Morneau in the seventh, retiring him on a generous called strike on the outside of the plate. It was one of just two Ks he’d have on the day to match the bare two hits he allowed, both singles. In all, he generated just three swings and misses over the course of his 95-pitch afternoon, but got ahead of 14 out of 22 hitters with first-pitch strikes, and wound up providing the Yankees with yet another bend-but-don’t-break performance in a seemingly endless line of such outings.

As they’d done the night before, the Yankees broke the game open against the Twins relievers, with Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada both connecting for long two-run homers:

For the second night in a row, the Twins bullpen made a hash of things in the seventh — something of a surprise given that they’d come into the series with a Fair Run Average well under 3.00 and the league’s WXRL lead (they’re now down to second). Jesse Crain quickly got ahead of Swisher 0-2, then broke out his shovel to dig a big hole by nibbling his way to four straight balls. He worked Teixeira to a full count, but the Yankee first baseman crushed a 94 mph fastball for a towering homer that landed in the narrow club level in right field, a difficult target to hit from 429 feet away.

As noted in this week’s Hit List, Teixeira’s simply been Mr. May. After hitting just .136/.300/.259 in April — the worst numbers he’s ever put up over the course of a full month — he’s at a torrid .333/.406/.649 since the calendar turned, with five homers in 64 plate appearances. Lobbed a batting practice fastball after the game as far as what had changed for him this month, he didn’t miss: “Just hitting the ball harder and they’re finding holes.” So true: his BABIP this month is .333, up from .148 in April.

That was my softball question, and while it certainly didn’t read like I received a particularly substantial answer, there was truth to what Teixiera was saying. Even checking the Fangraphs splits, his line drive percentage is up from 19.0 percent in April to 23.5 percent in May, the kind of difference that could change a BABIP about 40 or 50 points.

Still, listening to the rather rote answers coming out of the players’ mouths pre- and postsgame — I heard Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher debrief the reporters on the status of their injuries, and  several others discuss their afternoon results —it wasn’t hard to see why such stuff makes up the most tedious part of ballpark reporting: the players generally don’t have a lot to say, and if they do, they’re unlikely to spill it in this setting.

My day at the park was a surreal experience, and while hardly a letdown, it did produce some mixed emotions:

I have to admit that the day felt a bit anticlimactic, perhaps because I don’t hold the new ballpark in the same esteem I held its predecessor; even in the deep recesses of the carpeted clubhouses, it still has that new stadium smell instead of the old Stadium’s weathered if spartan charm. Perhaps also because I needed to show restraint in the press box, channeling my reflexive urge to cheer into private text messages to friends and semi-detatched expressions of marveling wonder (“wow, what a play”) rather than uncurbed enthusiasm.

Still, I’d be lying through my teeth if I didn’t admit that this provided me with a fresh point of view after some 150 trips to the ballparks in the Bronx. I got a particular charge out of walking onto the field to watch a few minutes of batting practice on a gorgeously sunny day, seeing the venerable “Core Four” — Jeter, Posada, Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, who’ve meant so much to me as a fan over the years — milling about both before and after the game, standing among the horde of cameras and microphones as Pettitte, Gardner, Cervelli and Teixeira discussed their afternoons, and even lobbing my softball question to the latter, who certainly wasn’t wrong given those BABIP numbers.

This was only the first of what I hope will be many trips to ballparks — Yankee Stadium, CitiField, and points beyond — in such a capacity. I’m damn proud to have earned my way there, and look forward to going back for much more soon.

Philthy Stuff

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Good stuff from YES Network’s Jack Curry on Phil Hughes, who pitches tonight for the Yankees against the Red Sox, reminding me of my “attack, attack, attack” characterization:

Phil Hughes looks different on the mound this season, different in a positive way. He acts more assertive and more fearless. He has the demeanor of a pitcher who is anxious to throw the ball because he doesn’t expect batters to do any damage. He looks that cool for the Yankees.

Watch how Hughes performs when he faces the Red Sox Monday night. He rarely strays from the rubber because he doesn’t want to waste time between pitches. He shows little emotion because he is focused on the next pitch. While Hughes’ friends have told him that they have noticed a difference in his presence, he believes the most crucial difference is what has transpired above his neck.

When Hughes thinks about what has allowed him to rumble to a 5-0 record with a 1.38 earned run average, he centers on “confidence and aggressiveness.” Yes, Hughes has used his cut fastball more often and will toss it in any count. Yes, his curveball is better and he has added a changeup. But Hughes feels the mental adjustments have been more important to his ascension than any physical changes.

Hughes is throwing the cutter 28 percent of the time, up from 16.4 percent last year — a level that Curry cautions may be bordering on overexposure: “As valuable as Hughes’s cutter has been, he must be wary of not always throwing it when he is behind in the count. Hitters aren’t idiots. If Hughes throws his cutter every time he is behind, hitters will make adjustments and simply wait for it.”

So true, but still, whatever Hughes is doing, it’s working. His 1.38 ERA leads the league, he’s striking out a batter per inning, and he’s allowed just one homer in 39 innings. He’s simply a gas to watch these days.

Chatterbox

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Shortly after the AL Hit List went up, I did another chat over at Baseball Prospectus. This one was relatively short and sweet by my standards (90 minutes as opposed to 2-3 hours), but full of crunchy goodness:

JoeR (Upstate): Jay Who do you see the Dodgers settling on for the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation? Elbert hasn’t exactly been lighting it up for the Isotopes, is he still a consideration? Would Washburn be that much of an improvement over what they already have?

Jay Jaffe: Well, I’d assume that if Vicente Padilla returns he’ll get first crack at reclaiming the fourth spot, and it sounds like John Ely has earned himself a longer look in the rotation based upon his past two starts. Scott Elbert hasn’t pitched very well down in Albuturkey, but perhaps later this summer he’ll round into shape, him or Josh Lindblom. Other than salty veteran goodness of the kind Joe Torre craves, I don’t think Washburn would bring that much of an improvement, particularly given that he’s been sitting on his derriere. For that kind of trouble, I wonder about the possibility of a Pedro Martinez return to Chavez Ravine.

workermonkey (ct): i’m convinced [Jesus] [M]ontero could play LF better than Thames and hit far better than Winn. he can catch part time to spell Po and cervelli, plus DH for johnson. why aren’t the yanks calling him up?

Jay Jaffe: Well, even if Jesus Montero were actually hitting at Triple-A — and he most decidedly isn’t (.233/.295/.359) — there’s still the small matter of actually putting him in the pasture and teaching him how to play it better than Thames, which isn’t a small matter given that we’re beyond the kind of trial-and-error forgiveness granted by spring training. Unless he starts to rake at Scranton, I don’t see him as being a factor for the Yankees this season.

tommybones (brooklyn): Who gets into the HOF on the first ballot with a higher percentage of votes, Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter? I think even those voters with anti-closer bias are going to agree with Mo’s inclusion, eh? Tough call.

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think I’m going out too far on a limb by saying that either of these guys could challenge Tom Seaver’s 98.84% record vote. The closer thing is more likely to work against Mo, but any writer who doesn’t think both of those two are Hallworthy should be considered a fraud.

dianagramr (NYC): ETA of Austin Jackson coming back to earth? K’ing in 35% of your ABs, with a .500 BABIP is a recipe for regression. How does he end up the season? .270/.340/.410?

Jay Jaffe: Hey Diana. I think the correction has already begun, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up with a batting average maybe 10-20 points higher, with the other two rates about right (remember, he’s not walking all that much. Let’s say .285/.340/.410.

With that one in the books, I’ve got big fun to look forward to on Saturday: my first-ever press credential. Yes, it’s true. After nine years of blogging in my underwear, I’ll put on pants to be a member of the media elite for the afternoon’s Yanks-Twins tilt, with Andy Pettitte’s return from a scratched start going up against Francisco Liriano’s return from three years of elbow-induced oblivion. I’ll be filing a game report at Baseball Prospectus when it’s all said and done. Hopefully this will just be the first of many times I get to do this.

Friday’s Child: the Royal Sampler Edition

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This week’s National and American League Hit Lists are up, as is the combined ranking with the all-important league adjustment (-21 points for NL, +24 for AL to balance out the asymmtrical number of teams). Here’s a royal sampler:

[#2 AL Yankees] Tex Time: While helping to secure a series win, Mark Teixeira scores a hat trick in Boston, becoming just the second Yankee to homer three times in a game versus the Red Sox (after Lou Gehrig) and the fourth player do so for three different teams (after Johnny Mize, Dave Kingman, and Alex Rodriguez). It’s also Teixeira’s second four-hit game since the calendar turned on his wretched .136/.300/.259 April; he’s hitting .300/.375/.580 in May. Also lending a hand of late—particularly amid a slew of injuries that claims Nick Johnson and sidelines Jorge Posada—is backup catcher Francisco Cervelli, who matches Teixeira with five RBI on his big day; he’s hitting .408/.482/.490 while rocking the Great Gazoo helmet.

[#3 AL Twins] No Idle Threat: After failing to receive a single run of support in either of his previous two starts, Carl Pavano makes a whopping three stand up as he subdues the White Sox. It’s Pavano’s fourth straight quality start; he’s got a 3.30 ERA, a 34/7 K/BB ratio and just three homers allowed in 46 1/3 innings, and now ranks 13th in the league with a .599 Support Neutral Winning Percentage. Teammate Francisco Liriano is fifth at .663, not to mention eighth in ERA (2.36).

[#12 AL Royals] Claiming His Earthly Reward For a Job Poorly Done: On a day when the Royals halt a seven-game losing streak and Zack Greinke finally gets enough run support to claim his first victory of the year, the joy is upstaged by the firing of manager Trey Hillman. While the blame for a good portion of his plight rests with GM Dayton Moore for paying non-Monopoly money to Yuniesky Betancourt, Willie Bloomquist, Jose Guillen, Kyle Farnsworth, Jason Kendall et al, the move was hardly unwarranted, particularly after Hillman’s latest bit of managerial malpractice: letting fragile Gil Meche throw an MLB-high 128 pitches and surrender the go-ahead run five batters into the eighth inning. Shocking nobody with his uninspired choice of a replacement, Moore tabs Ned Yost, a man who knows all about the ways in which managerial malpractice can cost a guy his job.

[#7 NL Mets] Hot Rod: Making Mets fans grateful that the team didn’t sign Bengie Molina over the winter, Rod Barajas is simply en fuego. He hits a walk-off homer agains the Giants, his second blast of the game and one of six in a span of eight starts across which he hits .375/.375/1.031 to lift his overall line to a lopsided .247/.272/.567. Also homering twice in that Giants game is Likable Ike Davis, who’s been everything the Mets could have hoped for; he’s hitting .290/.405/.478 and turning somersaults afield; the Mets are 14-7 with him in the lineup.

[#8 NL Dodgers] Dr. Dre is In: With Clayton Kershaw and John Ely leading the way, the shaky pitching situation takes a turn for the better, with that unlikely duo outdueling Ubaldo Jimenez and Dan Haren, respectively. Meanwhile, Andre Ethier is simply crushing it with a .478/.510/.978 May, including four three-hit games, a walk-off grand slam and an are-you-effing-kidding-me intentional walk in front of Manny Ramirez (.393/.507/589 for the year) setting up a game-breaking bases-clearing double, a sweep of the Diamondbacks, and a return to .500.

Back shortly with more…

Zombie Apocalypse in Blue

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As promised, today’s Prospectus Hit and Run column, “Night of the Living Dodgers,” finds me examining the threadbare state of the team’s pitching staff, one with an all-too-high count of zombies:

Rewind to the winter, when the Dodgers let Randy Wolf, who’d just set personal bests for starts, innings and ERA+ while finishing 11th in the league in SNLVAR, depart as a free agent without so much as an arbitration offer. Even having shed not only Wolf’s minimal salary ($5 million plus incentives) but also that of perennial dead weight Jason Schmidt ($15.5 million in the final year of a three-year, $47 million deal) and second baseman Orlando Hudson ($3.38 million plus incentives), the Dodgers made no attempt to corral a frontline hurler, studiously steering clear of the bidding for John Lackey, the top starter on the market. Furthermore, they avoided Joel Pineiro, Jason Marquis, Ben Sheets and others who wound up signing commitments of at least $10 million, as well as dicier but less expensive propositions such as such as Brad Penny (who left a bridge smoldering on his way out of town after the 2008 season), Carl Pavano (likewise vis-à-vis Torre during his tenure in New York), Rich Harden or Erik Bedard… The list goes on.

Not that any of those pitchers were necessarily ideal fits for the Dodgers, but it was clear going into the season that with Kershaw, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda — a trio that totaled less than 500 innings in each of the last two years — the only proven starters under contract, the team needed at least one proven innings-eater, and might do well to take an additional shot on a more mercurial starter with a higher upside. Instead, with the news of owner Frank McCourt’s divorce proceedings with wife Jamie turning the team’s hot stove news into tabloid fodder, the Dodgers sat on their hands until late January, when they finally doled out a one-year, $5.025 million deal (plus incentives) to Vicente Padilla, who made all of 10 starts for the team after being plucked off the waiver wire last August.

The Dodgers are now paying for those decisions, or lack of them. Through Monday, the rotation ranked just 12th out of the 16 NL teams in terms of SNLVAR (1.8), and was carrying a 5.47 Fair Run Average. The bullpen hadn’t been much better, ranking 11th in WXRL, with a 0.04 WXRL and a similarly awful 5.68 Fair Run Average. The staff as a whole leads the league in walks (4.4 per nine), and while they’re missing a reasonable number of bats (7.9 per nine, third in the league), their the defense had provided little support, with a .673 Defensive Efficiency, which ranks 12th.

…As shaky as the Dodgers rotation has been, the starters have actually thrown a larger share of the team’s innings than all but two other NL clubs, the Pirates and Mets, though given the divergence between those two rotations’ fates, that may not be saying all that much. What is worth saying is that as currently constituted, the Dodger bullpen is best avoided. At times it’s looked more like a zombie revue worthy of a George Romero retrospective, particularly when the Dodgers broke camp not only with Jeff Weaver (-1.9 WARP since 2005, albeit with reasonable work as a swingman last year) but also both Ramon Ortiz (-1.7 WARP since 2002) and Russ Ortiz (-3.0 WARP since 2004) on staff. Also making the cut was Rule 5 pick Carlos Monasterois, one of only four such picks to wind up on active rosters on opening day.

Injuries were a big reason the NRI body count was so high, but they weren’t the only one. Hong-Chih Kuo and Cory Wade began the year on the disabled list, the former with the latest in a lengthy litany of elbow woes, the latter due to the kind of arthroscopic shoulder surgery which comes free with a subscription to Scott Proctorology: The Magazine for Joe Torre’s Overused Relievers. Also missing in action was Ronald Belisario, who emerged from nowhere as one of Torre’s go-to guys last year but whose entry into the US this spring was delayed by visa issues stemming from a DUI charge.

…One could argue that the retreads have simply bought time for pitchers more essential to the team’s blueprint to get right, either physically or with respect to the strike zone, but it’s quite apparent that the team is at least one solid starter away from a rotation befitting a contender, and by struggling to this point they’ve failed to take advantage of the fact that both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks are down multiple starters as well. For want of a League Average Innings Muncher the division was lost? That may be the epitaph of the 2010 Dodgers’ season.

As noted in the piece, missing in action are well-regarded youngsters James McDonald, Scott Elbert and Josh Lindblom, all of whom could have done away with the need to ever staff an Ortiz (don’t look now at who’s starting on Friday); tattooed love boy Justin Miller, a pretty decent reliever for the Marlins and Giants over the past three years, is stuck in Albaturkey, too. And not for nothing, but it’s worth noting that the team’s opening day payroll dropped $5 million from last year — almost exactly the price of a LAIM such as Jon Garland, who instead is doing good work for the division-leading Padres.

All in all, Ned Colletti and Joe Torre have handled the staff in a destructive manner, with Colletti skimping on basics, and Torre taxing the increasingly smaller number of pitchers he actually trusts. If that sounds like a winning recipe to you, well, let’s book a hunting trip for October, because we sure as hell won’t be watching the Dodgers play.

Get Up On It Like This, Damn It

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With Javier Vazquez set to start tonight for the Yankees after his turn was skipped over the weekend, last week’s “Hit and Run” column has received a big-screen adaptation over at ESPN Insider’s TMI blog. Beyond his historical problems while pitching in the American League, here’s something to chew on regarding his performance this year:

Comparing his 2010 Pitch f/x data with that of previous years, the most obvious difference is that his fastball is about 2 mph slower than last year, falling from 91.1 to 88.9; he’s been somewhere between 91 and 92 in every year since 2005. That’s a significant drop; not many right-handers can succeed with fastballs below 90 mph. Vazquez is throwing fastballs — both four-seamers and two-seamers — a bit less often than in 2009, and generating fewer whiffs (swings and misses):

FB    Freq   Strike   Swing  Whiff   Foul   In Play
2009  49.5%   68.9%   46.7%   7.8%   20.2%   18.5%
2010  46.6%   61.8%   44.7%   6.0%   23.5%   15.2%

Perhaps of more significance, the whiff percentage on his offspeed stuff — curve, slider and changeup — has fallen even more dramatically:

Offs  Freq   Strike   Swing  Whiff   Foul   In Play
2009  48.1%   64.7%   48.1%  17.1%   13.9%   17.0%
2010  53.4%   61.8%   44.2%  12.0%   14.9%   17.3%

Prior to Saturday’s start, TV analyst and former big-league pitcher Al Leiter suggested that Vazquez’s current troubles were rooted in his delivery. “He’s getting under the baseball” rather than on top of it, said Leiter, causing his pitches to flatten out. Fanhouse’s Frankie Piliere, a former big league scout, similarly blamed nagging mechanical difficulties as well, noting that Vazquez isn’t driving over the top of his front leg and getting on top of his pitches, instead rotating around his torso and shoulder and coming from a lower arm angle. In the process, he is robbing himself of velocity, and compromising his command.

We’ll see tonight if the Yankees did anything to iron out Vazquez’s delivery. At least Yankees fans can take comfort that old nemesis-turned-punching bag Josh Beckett (7.07 ERA in 42 innings in 2009-2010) is hanging out in Jerkville as well.

Not-Quite-Lost Weekend

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Back after a few days on the disabled list for… well, you don’t want to know, trust me. Missed the chance to post links to last week’s Hit Lists, so here they are, the National and American League editions. It’s a few days old, but here’s what I had to say about the AL East’s big three:

[#1 Rays] Get Used to It: Wade Davis outduels Zack Greinke with seven scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 2.79 and enabling the Rays to split a four-game series with the Royals. As with the NL Hit List-topping Cardinals, the Rays have no fewer than four pitchers (Matt Garza, David Price and Jeff Niemann being the others) with ERAs under 3.00, with slacker James Shields bringing up the rear at 3.15. Amazingly, all five starters are under club control through at least 2012.

[#2 Yankees] The Funky 4 + 1: Javier Vazquez’s routine poundings are problematic enough to merit a skipped turn, but the rest of the rotation is picking up the slack, and then some. Led by Phil Hughes (1.44) and A.J. Burnett (1.99), the other four starters have a combined ERA of 2.14, and all four rank among the AL’s top 10 in SNLVAR, with Burnett, who’s riding a string of 18.1 innings without having allowed an earned run, ranking third. Nonetheless, the team gets a scare when Pettitte departs Wednesday’s start after five innings, with an MRI revealing mild elbow inflammation.

[#6 Red Sox] “Bomb Squad? They’re Early”: Swept by the lowly Orioles thanks to two late-inning comebacks and a pounding of Daisuke Matsuzaka in his 2010 debut, the Red Sox finish April under .500 for the first time since 1996. The situation has the Sox turning to gallows humor upon receiving an unfounded bomb threat at Fenway. While the lineup’s still having problems regarding Victor Martinez and David Ortiz, the rotation is showing signs of life, with Josh Beckett rebounding from a pair of poor starts, Jon Lester allowing just one run in his last three turns, and John Lackey stringing together five quality starts out of six, the latest at the expense of his former teammates.

Anyway, kind of old news after the Yanks went to Boston and took two of three. Phil Hughes continued to impress on Friday night, mowing down the Sox as the Yankees beat the snot out of soulpatch farmer Josh Beckett (Christ, what is it with the hideous facial hair of the Sox? The pubic goatees sported by Beckett, Manny Delcarmen and others are just absolutely godawful). Watching Hughes, I’m reminded of John Lydon’s description of the Sex Pistols’ modus operandi from The Filth and the Fury: “It was attack. Attack, attack, attack.” Saturday’s contest was a more disjointed affair, interrupted by rain but bound together by three Mark Teixeira homers, the last of which came off reserve outfielder Jonathan Van Every. Sunday night the Sox turned the tables in a blowout best forgotten, the kind of night that makes you wish that A.J. Burnett would simply wander back to the trailer park from whence he came. Still, two out of three ain’t bad; the only real down note for the weekend was that the Yanks got a scare out of Robinson Cano getting hit by Beckett on Friday, then were forced to send Nick Johnson to the DL on Saturday due to an inflamed tendon in his wrist.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers managed to overcome a start in which knuckleballing starter Charlie Haeger failed to retire a single hitter to take two out of three from the Rockies, with Clayton Kershaw outdueling Ubaldo Jimenez yesterday. The Rox were so stifled they couldn’t get a single ball out of the infield until Kershaw’s eighth and final inning. The more-or-less decrepit state of the Dodgers’ pitching will be the subject of my Tuesday BP “Hit and Run.” Unless I’m attacked by the zombie Ramon Ortiz, that is.

Oh, and of course, I can’t let the weekend’s notes pass without mentioning Dallas Braden’s perfect game, only the second bid for a no-hitter that I can recall actively rooting against in the ninth inning (Curt Schilling’s was the other). Braden, of course, made himself a story by calling out Alex Rodriguez for crossing “his” mound a few weeks back. And then continuing to talk, and talk, and talk some more about it — putting the lie to his claim that “we don’t do much talking in the 209″ (his heretofore obscure area code) — to the point that A’s GM Billy Beane had to give him the following message:

The big story about the perfecto was that it came on Mother’s Day, with Braden’s grandmother, who raised him after his mom died of cancer, in the stands to witness the feat. A nice touch, undone by the instantaneous news after the game ended (as reported by A’s beat reporter Susan Slusser) that granny continued to demonstrate the Braden family’s rabidly pathological obsession with Rodriguez: “Stick it, A-Rod.”

Seriously? Stay classy, 209.

Ernie Harwell (1918-2010)

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Since he retired in 2002, I’m not sure I ever heard Ernie Harwell call a full game, as his career preceded the bountiful period in which fans in any market can see or hear virtually any game. But as a fan steeped in baseball history and old enough to remember, say, the Tigers’ 1984 World Championship, I was certainly aware of him, and heard his smooth, lilting voice via numerous clips and occasional guest appearances in the booth over the years.

Furthermore, I could appreciate how closely identified Harwell was with his team, for he was no less to the Tigers what Vin Scully is to the Dodgers, a golden voice ringing true through the decades,  as essential to the team’s identity as the Olde English D on the uniform. Yesterday, that voice was finally silenced, as Harwell passed away at the age of 92. Stricken by terminal cancer, he said his goodbyes last September, but that didn’t prevent the news of his passing from producing any less emotion.

Harwell actually preceded Scully in the Dodgers’ broadcast chair by a year about a year and a half*, and the two were close friends, so it was only fitting that Scully offered a moving on-air tribute to his fallen comrade last night: “He was such a lovely man, everybody loved Ernie, and eventually he just stole the hearts of everybody in Detroit and the state of Michigan, and for that matter anybody who loved baseball.”

* As King Kaufman, who sent me the correction, elaborates, “He got the gig in ’48. The Giants offered him a job in ’49, but he turned it down because he didn’t want to jump from the first big league team that hired him (traded for him!) so quickly. But the next year, the Giants upped the offer so he went, and Scully replaced him in Brooklyn. ‘My claim to fame!’ Ernie used to say.”

Sons of Steve Garvey, the home of the wonderful Vin Scully repository, has the full transcript of Scully’s comments, which include the story of just how Harwell came to the Dodgers. Here’s the video, at least until MLB forces it down:

Meanwhile, at MLB.com, virtually every announcer on the job last night took time to offer his own thoughts, neatly edited in this eight-minute clip, Scully’s included. Don’t miss it.

Also worth reading:

Harwell had one of the longest runs by a broadcaster with one major league club, calling Tigers games for 42 seasons. For the first 32 of those seasons, he made and cemented his legacy by doing play-by-play on the radio. His Southern voice — rich and authoritative but not overbearing — became as distinctive to Michigan listeners as baseball itself.

Unlike some announcers in recent decades, Harwell didn’t litter his broadcasts with shouting, excessive talking or all-knowing pronouncements about players and managers. Listening to him was as pleasant as being at Tiger Stadium in the summertime. As he fell silent between pitches, listeners got to hear the sounds of the ballpark — the crowd’s buzz, the vendor’s cry — and absorb the rhythm of the game. Harwell thus became an ideal companion for a listener anywhere: the couch, the yard, the car or the boat.

“He’s a master craftsman,” former Tigers broadcaster Josh Lewin, now with the Texas Rangers, said in 2002. “He’s always kept it simple, which I think is part of his charm and staying power.”

He conveyed warmth through a relaxed and humorous style that mixed the precise details of the game, player anecdotes, tales about his wife, Lulu, and idiosyncratic phrases that defined him to millions of listeners.

A player retired on a called third strike “stood there like the house by the side of the road” or was “called out for excessive window shopping.” A double play was “two for the price of one.” A foul ball that reached the stands was caught by “a man from Saginaw” or any other city or town that came to mind at the moment.

  • Tyler Kepner’s tribute, excerpting Harwell’s speech at the Hall of Fame after winning the Ford C. Frick award for broadcasting in 1981:

“Baseball is the president tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That’s baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his 714 home runs.

“There’s a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That’s baseball. So is the scout reporting that a 16-year-old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

“In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another.

…“Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball! Thank you.”

It’s hard to talk about what kind of guy Ernie Harwell was without sounding like you’re talking about a guy on the night of the day he died. But it was just as hard when he was still alive. I spent three days with him, and he was unfailingly kind, generous, cheerful, energetic, positive and humble. And not just with me. At 84 years of age, he was tireless, making sure as he roamed the ballpark — which he did a lot — that every fan who wanted a moment with him — and there were many — got the moment he or she wanted.

I talked to a lot of people about Ernie Harwell that summer, and in the eight years since then I’ve talked to more people about him and I’ve heard and read many things said about him, and I’ve never heard a hint that the man I came to know in those three days wasn’t the genuine article. It may be that there has never been an unkind word said about Ernie Harwell.

Jon Miller, the ESPN and San Francisco Giants announcer, was hurrying across a field when I sidled up to him asking if I could talk to him for a minute. He kept walking as he asked what I wanted to talk about. “Ernie Harwell,” I said, and he stopped on a dime. All of a sudden, I had his attention and he grew animated as he told stories about Ernie.

  • Keith Law’s explanation of the enduring power of both Harwell and Scully, transcribed from an ESPN radio spot:

Their style is dated… it’s very understated. The baseball dictates the commentary, and the commentary is fairly limited, and the delivery is very low-key. They sort of absorb you in the game as opposed to absorbing you in their commentary. Now with the rise of the three-man booth you’re sort of being absorbed in the repartee between the announcers, which to me is not actually why I listen to or watch a baseball game. On television, I will often mute the sound because it is a distraction to me… What sets Scully and Harwell and a few others of their ilk apart is that they stuck with that style even as it fell out of favor, at least within the industry.

And here’s Harwell’s highlight reel and farewell address from last September:

Bronx Cheers for Javy

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In today’s Prospectus Hit and Run, I tackle the disappointing performance of the ever-enigmatic Javier Vazquez, who was once again pounded on Saturday. He’s carrying a 9.78 ERA and has allowed eight homers in his 23 innings. What’s more, he hasn’t gotten past four innings in either of his past two starts. The boos are raining down from the Yankee Stadium stands, and the word on the street is that the Yanks may skip his next turn in the upcoming series against the Red Sox.

Vazquez’s first stint in New York back in 2004 didn’t end well, of course; after making the All-Star team on the strength of a 10-5, 3.56 ERA first half, he was rocked for a 6.92 ERA in the second, and had two ugly postseason outings already under his belt when he sealed the Yankees’ fate by allowing Johnny Damon’s grand slam on his first pitch in relief of Kevin Brown in Game Seven of the ALCS. Leaving the postseason aside, he’s actually got the highest ERA of any Yankees pitcher to throw at least 190 innings:

Rk  Player                ERA     IP    Years
 1  Javier Vazquez       5.42   221.0   2004, 2010
 2  Ed Whitson           5.38   195.2   1985-1986
 3  Jeff Weaver          5.35   237.1   2002-2003
 4  Andy Hawkins         5.21   378.2   1989-1991
 5  Sterling Hitchcock   5.15   402.0   1992-1995, 2001-2003
 6  Richard Dotson       5.13   222.2   1988-1989
 7  Tim Leary            5.12   425.2   1990-1992
 8  Kenny Rogers         5.11   324.0   1996-1997
 9  Jaret Wright         4.99   204.0   2005-2006
10  Kevin Brown          4.95   205.1   2004-2005

That’s a lot of the past decade and a half’s nightmares on that list, no? In any event, Vazquez has had his ups and downs since then, but came to the Yankees on the heels of a career year in which he finished fourth in the NL in the Cy Young voting. Which is kind of the rub. Vazquez has shown a pretty big split between his time in the AL and his time in the NL, particularly if you discount his first two seasons, when he was getting pounded regularly (5.56 ERA) for a 90+ loss club.

Lg     IP   HR/9  BB/9  SO/9  K/BB   ERA   ERA+  SNWP   SIERA    gap
NL  1337.1   1.1   2.0   8.4   4.2   3.65  121   .538    3.41   +0.24
AL   848.2   1.3   2.6   8.1   3.2   4.67   99   .498    3.64   +1.03

Vazquez’s peripherals during his time in the AL (2004 with the Yankees, 2006-2008 with the White Sox) are across-the-board worse relative to his time in the NL. While his strikeout and walk rates should cover for his gaudy home run rate — as it has during his Senior Circuit tenure — the gap between his SIERA [Skill-Interactive ERA] estimates and his actual ERA is more than three quarters of a run higher during his time in the AL. He’s been over a run worse than expectations based upon his strikeout, walk and groundball rates, the difference between being an frontline starter and a merely league average one.

That he rarely lives up to his mostly impressive peripherals isn’t exactly news. Last year, colleague Eric Seidman examined the enigma that is Vazquez and showed that he performed significantly below average with runners on base. Whereas the average pitcher’s opposing-batter performance with men on rose by 14 points of OBP and seven points of SLG over his showing with the bases empty, Vazquez’s numbers went to hell in a handbasket, rising by 38 points of OBP and 42 points of SLG. Broken down by league as above (excluding 1998-1999), the difference is even more dramatic:

Lg    Bases Empty      Men On Base      Difference
NL  .248/.283/.399   .258/.315/.419   .008/.032/.020
AL  .237/.291/.407   .289/.348/.470   .052/.057/.073

What’s going on? It’s not simply a matter of serving up taters while surrounded by AL baserunners; Vazquez’s rate of home runs per plate appearance edges up only a hair in both cases… During the time in question in the NL, his BABIP splits have been unremarkable, .302 (the same as his overall career mark) with the bases empty and .306 with men on. In the AL, his BABIP vaults from .282 when empty to .326 when occupied. Particularly given the way he’s bounced back and forth between leagues over the past seven years — which would seem to preclude singular points of inflection in the data produced by wholesale changes in repertoire or approach — a good portion of the difference in his men-on-base splits simply has to be chalked up to matters of luck and/or randomness. The enigma endures.

Enigma or no, the big problem with Vazquez is his mechanics, which are lopping 2 mph off his heater and compromising his mechanics and ultimately his command; former MLB scout Frankie Piliere has a good blow-by-blow of what’s going wrong.

Headed to the ballpark tonight to see the much less enigmatic Sabathia face the Orioles, assuming the rain is kept to a minimum.