Good morning, All! After
writing a more in-depth posting yesterday, I will again today just
post some random thoughts from here and there and everywhere. Game 1
of the Twins series at Yankees Stadium last night was postponed, so
today the two teams will play two games, starting at 3:00 central
time. Let's get to the randomness:
JOHAN AND RANDY
Yesterday, I wrote an entire article on how good Curt
Schilling has been this year, and that he should finish second
to the Twins Johan Santana in the Cy Young voting. It won't
be his first second place finish. I got some thoughts on Schilling
from the readers, but the majority of you chose to discuss the Final
Thought of the story. That was just a comparison of Johan Santana
and Randy Johnson's numbers this year.
W-L ERA
IP H BB
K K/9
WHIP OppBA CG
Johnson
15-14 2.65
237.2 167 44
282 10.8
0.89
.193 4
Santana
20-6 2.62
223.0 153 53
260 10.5
0.92
.193 1
Again, when looking at the two
numbers, they are incredibly similar, aside from the Wins. But as
I've mentioned many times, the Win stat is vastly overrated when
discussing how well a pitcher pitches. So, here are some of your
thoughts on this topic, and you each touched upon something that hit
me like a brick as I was taking a walk on break at work yesterday
morning:
From
Kenneth Brandt -
Another factor is that Santana has
not had the luxury of an automatic out every nine batters. If
Santana were not facing DHs, his numbers would be better.
From
Matt Dahl
-
Santana and Johnson have such
similar numbers, it's really amazing. However, I don't think the
tie-breaker should be Wins-Losses. I couldn't care less about
that meaningless stat. Randy Johnson is on a horrible team.
there's nothing he can do about that. The tie-breaker, in my
opinion, is that Santana has put up nearly identical stats to
Johnson while pitching in the AL. I realize that Johnson can't
help that he's pitching in the NL. BUT, facing a pitcher 3 times
per game (on average) should require him to completely blow away
Santana's numbers in order to claim "top pitcher of the year"
honors. While Johnson is facing a Jason Schmidt at the bottom of
each lineup, Santana is facing a David Ortiz in the heart of
each (well, not the Royals) lineup. That Santana has been able
to hold his own statistically with Johnson is amazing. Look at
the strikeouts. Johnson has 282, while Santana has 260. Is there
any doubt that Santana would have 300 strikeouts if he was
pitching in the NL? I can almost guarantee that Santana would
strike out a pitcher at least 60% of the time, probably more
like 75%. Santana's #1, no question in my mind.
Seth's Thoughts
I am surprised that I never
did think about the NL/AL thing until this morning. We saw that
Curt Schilling was averaging 10 or more strikeouts per nine
innings the last few seasons. This year, he is averaging just over
8. Why didn't I think to ask the question: Is it because of the DH?
Does the pitcher hitting make that big of a difference? What would
Randy Johnson's strikeout rate be in the American league, and
likewise, what would Johan Santana's strikeout be in the
National League? Interesting question. Do you have the answer? If
so, let me know what do you think?
E-mail me.
TWINS/YANKEES
MATCHUPS
Here are the pitching matchups
for today and tomorrow between the Yankees and the Twins with the
rain out from last night.
Here are those pitching
matchups for the series:
Today- 3:05 - Kyle Lohse
(8-11, 5.31, 1.63, .306) vs Orlando Hernandez (8-1, 2.87,
1.24, .224)
Tonight - 6:05 - Johan Santana
(20-6, 2.65, 0.92, .193) vs Jon Lieber (13-8, 4.37, 1.31,
.298)
Thursday - 6:05 - Brad Radke
(11-8, 3.48, 1.15, .265) vs Mike Mussina (12-9, 4.59, 1.30,
.274)
Any thoughts on the
Twins., the playoffs, the roster? E-mail me.
THE
NEW YORK MEDIA
There have been a number of
great articles written on the Twins and Yankees in the New York
papers, and will be more, I'm sure. Especially if the Twins and
Yankees play each other in the playoffs. Here are some of the New
York papers and articles written the last couple of days:
New York Daily
News
Yanks Time to Pitch and Moan - by Mike Lupica -
discusses the Yankees in negative terms, especially regarding
their pitching staff and how they were hoping to get younger and
stronger.
Johan, Twins May Make Orel History - Obviously an
article on Johan Santana. It compares his dominance to Orel
Hershiser for the 1988 Dodgers team. It says that team was
not very good, but Hershiser alone made them so much better. Can
Santana do the same for the Twins this year?
Yanks Tune in on Santana - A story about how members of
the Yankees believe Santana should be the Cy Young winner.
Fellow Venezuelans Luis Sojo and Miguel Cairo
discuss how special Santana has been since long before his big
league career.
The New York Times
Hernandez Should Worries Yanks - El Duque has been the
Yankees best pitcher in the second half. However, arm problems
cost him the entire 2003 season and the first half of 2004. Now
he has a "tired shoulder." This story is worth following as
Hernandez could start against the Twins in the playoffs.
Hazy Sunshine, Vivid Memory - 50 years ago today,
Willie Mays made "The Catch" in the Polo Grounds. Read
George Vecsey's thoughts on that moment.
Newsday
Questions on the Mound - more thoughts on the woes of
the Yankees pitching staff which is limping into the playoffs.
This article focuses as much on the makeup of their bullpen.
It's All Closing in on Brown - John Heyman's
article discusses the rocky road of Kevin Brown.
New York
Post
Forget Sox and Heal Thyself - Obviously an article
telling the Yankees to quit worrying about what is happening in
Boston and start worrying about their own problems.
EXPOS
TO WASHINGTON D.C.
Major League Baseball is
expected to announce today that the Montreal Expos will move to the
US capital city today.
Seth's Thoughts -
About Time!!! That's
about it! No need to go any more in depth on that situation!
FANTASY UPDATE
I receive frequent e-mails
from a number of readers asking for my advice on their fantasy
baseball and football teams. Many times, these people thank me for
my thoughts on certain players. Some have gone so far as to having a
couple of teams, and calling one their SethSpeaks team, full of
players that I touted highly. In a couple cases, those particular
teams are winning their leagues. For that, I am very happy. I am
glad to be able to provide quality information on players and answer
your questions. (Here are those preseason previews, if you're
interested. It is fun to see how right, and just as frequently how
wrong I was with these predictions.)
Seth's
Baseball Previews
HITTERS
AL Central
AL East
AL West
NL Central
NL East
NL West
PITCHERS
AL Central
AL East
AL West
NL Central
NL East
NL West
So, why don't I take my own
advice? I can't answer that. I like to think that I take my thoughts
into account when I draft, but things have not turned out well for
me this year. Looking at the leagues in which I put some money
(hypothetical money, of course!!!), here are how they did, or have
done:
Fantasy Baseball Team # 3: You will recall, in this league,
I shared one team and drafted one team for myself. About my team, I
actually wrote, "To be brutally honest, at
this point, I feel this team is unbeatable. But, that's why we play
the games, right?"
Wow! Was that right. My team (which
included Brian Giles, Hideki Matsui, Jacque Jones, Milton Bradley,
Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, Hank Blalock, Jorge Posada, Curt
Schilling, Mark Prior, Derek Lowe, Jose Contreras, Eric Milton, Jake
Peavy, Odalis Perez, Brian Lawrence, Billy Wagner and Trevor
Hoffman) finished in 9th place out of 10 teams and well out of the
playoff hunt. I can't even explain how this team performed so
poorly! Must have been bad management!
The team that I shared did
finish in third place in the regular season, but lost in the first
round of the playoffs.
Fantasy Baseball Team #4: Again, I thought I had a strong,
well-balanced team here. Good pitchers from good teams, and plenty
of power-type hitters. Things didn't go well for this team either,
and I finished in 13th out of 14 teams.
Fantasy Football Team #1: In a league where you play three
running backs every week, we used our first three picks on starting
running backs. Then we jumped into the receivers and quarterback
before grabbing the kicker and defense late. Again, do to the
interesting intricacies of this league, our team has really
struggled to score points, and we have started 0-3 and are dead last
in a 10 team league.
Fantasy Football Team #2: OK, this is the team for which I
would like some sympathy! And let me explain why. In Week 1, I lost
a close game. Not only that, but I scored the second most points in
then entire 12 team league, but lost my head-to-head matchup. In
Week 2, same story. Second highest point total, lose to the league's
high scorer. What makes this worse is that I lost by four points,
and the team I was up against had Terrell Owens. Remember his
TD catch on Monday Night Football that, if reviewed, would have been
reversed? So, I'm still feeling ok about my team. Week 3... I lose
114-112! You got it, second most points in the league. So, at this
point, I have about a 30 point lead over everyone in the 12-team
league, but I am 0-3! What to do? What to do?
So, what is the moral in all
of this? Feel free to
e-mail me and ask me any questions on fantasy baseball or
football, and I can help. But I am apparently unable to translate
that into my own teams!
BLOG SPOTTING
Just a couple of other sites that I
would like to encourage you to check out when you have a moment.
GLEEMAN IN SI
Yesterday, I read on
Aaron's Baseball Blog
that he was mentioned (and linked to) in Sports Illustrated this
week. It is SI's 50th Anniversary special issue, which is even
better! But, check out the Scoreboard's Baseball page. There is an
article on Retrosheet,
and in a separate box, there is a link to
Aaron's Baseball Blog and three other great baseball sites.
So if you subscribe to SI, be sure to check it out! It is an
inspiration to the rest of us lowly bloggers!
BRENT WANTED TO BE...
OK, I have mentioned on
several occasions that mine is a baseball site primarily. But many
times I find that the entries I get the most response on are on
other topics. One of those topics is TV, and those shows I watched
when I was growing up. Check out this incredibly interesting posting
by Brent over at
BrentNet from
the other day. In it, he discusses some of the people/characters
that he always wanted to be. For instance, I would definitely agree
that I always wanted to be
Zach Morris
from Saved by the
Bell (even if I am out of his mentioned age bracket to think
that)! Check out
his posting and be sure to let him know your thoughts on the
topic. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you and tell him I sent you!
On that note, have yourself a
great day! As always, please feel free to
e-mail me about
anything.
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