The Old Milwaukees

If Ben Sheets weren’t the ace, there wouldn’t be one

April 13, 2008

Tom Haudricourt went for the gotchy’all after Saturday’s performance by Ben Sheets, stating again that Sheets is the team’s ace, and eff you if you’ve ever e-mailed him otherwise.

I agree. Most everyone agrees. Chris Capuano wasn’t an ace when he was recording all those wins. Jeff Suppan was never any team’s ace. Gallardo and Parra: maybe someday, who knows.

Where I disagree is with Tom’s implied statement that the best pitcher on the team is the ace. Nope. I think it’s perfectly acceptable for a team to not have an ace (Pittsburgh). I think it’s OK for a team to have two aces (San Diego).

If Sheets didn’t exist, it wouldn’t be necessary to elevate the next-best guy.

Because Prince Fielder is left-handed, we must make every effort to protect him

April 12, 2008

This is why we have beat reporters. To investigate the questions no one is asking.

Neither Prince Fielder nor Ryan Braun has prospered in his new spot in the batting order over the first 10 games but Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost said Friday that it was too soon to flip-flop them.

Fine. Nice tidbit for the bottom of your notebook. What else you got?

“I’m not apt to change this early,” Yost said before the Brewers lost, 4-2, to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. “I’ll give it its due course. I’ll look at it awhile longer.

Oh, we’re still proving that first one? It’s been 10 games. One-sixteen-point-twoth of a season. See you in June. If Fielder still has no home runs and is still eating those muscle-crippling soy burgers, we will revisit this.

Fielder batted fourth most of the season last year, with Braun ahead of him. Braun won the National League rookie of the year award and Fielder became the youngest player to slug 50 home runs in a season.

Two nice seasons from two players who seem to be developing into nice hitters. Point made.

Because Fielder is the only left-handed hitter in the Brewers’ regular lineup this season, Yost decided to protect him with Braun.

Pardon?

Because Fielder is the only left-handed hitter in the Brewers’ regular lineup this season, Yost decided to protect him with Braun.

The sentence construction here boils down to “Because _______, Yost decided ________.” So many things would fit in these blanks, because it is Ned Yost’s job to make all sorts of decisions. “Because Derrick Turnbow is fragile emotionally, Yost decided to only use him when it doesn’t matter.” “Because Gabe Gross threw an opposing team’s batted ball over the fence for a home run, Yost decided a better defensive player should start in center field for the remaining 151 games.” “Because he was friends with Dale Earnhardt and believes in magical spirits, Yost decided to wear his 3 t-shirt under his uniform for every game.”

Haudricourt’s statement doesn’t follow the same formula. There is no need in the first clause that is solved in the second. They’re two independent statements.

[1] Prince Fielder hits from the left side of the plate. Often, he is the only such player in the lineup. This is true. [2] Ryan Braun has been batting immediately after Fielder in the lineup. True again. (We’re conceding the point that this “protects” Fielder, who, as was stated above, hit 50 home runs in 2007 while finding his crucial protection from a variety of other sources.)

But why does the fact that Fielder is left-handed necessitate his being protected? The annual “Left-Handed Performance By A Team Award” was canceled in 1987 after it was awarded to Tony Gwynn, John Kruk and Tim Flannery, whose Padres finished sixth in the NL West, exposing the myth that a hitting statistic for a subset of a team equals success.

Back to the thing.

Yost said the key was for Braun to be selective at the plate without Fielder behind him for protection. Braun has not been selective, however, drawing no walks in 44 at-bats while hitting .227 with three homers and seven runs batted in. …

Braun was not alone in his impatience at the plate. The Brewers have drawn only 19 walks, the lowest total in the league. Their .302 on-base percentage ranked 12th among the 16 teams.

“That’s the only real negative aspect of our offense right now,” Yost said.

No big deal. It’s just that one aspect.

Answering Prince

March 16, 2008

Prince Fielder asked a question in the newspaper Saturday:

Prince Fielder socked his first homer of the spring Friday night and in the process probably calmed a few fears in Brewer Nation. Because Fielder had announced he had changed to a vegetarian diet before the start of camp, some wondered if it resulted in a loss of power.

“Were people getting panicky?” asked Fielder, who went 32 at-bats before going deep.

Answer: Unfortunately, it seems some people were, but two-thirds of those people are beat writers for the team. The other guy answered a leading question on their blog. Most people seem to understand that protein is easily replaced.

Weren’t we told at the beginning of camp that Fielder is working on things — like the ability to steer the ball through Gwynn’s 5.5 hole? That’s Spring Training. I’d be disappointed if he just went down there and Burnitzed the whole time.

The strikeout numbers that Weeks and Hart are posting concerned me a little, but then I remembered that it’s totally gay to put any meaning on 30 practice at-bats.

A tale of two tales

March 10, 2008

One tale, really, but with two different endings, appearing in the Journal Sentinel on back-to-back days.

The first version showed up as a blog post on Sunday from Anthony Witrado. To paraphrase: The Ned Yost we know and the Ned Yost who is his son look sort of alike. Eric Gagne only knew about one of them and mistook the other for his manager. The next day, the elder Ned tried to goof on it.

“What are you doing?” Yost asked Gagne the next day. “I got a report that you were yelling and screaming at some kid. You pulled down the window and (said), “Where’s this (darn) golf course?”

Gagne didn’t much fall for the joke, but did say the father and son don’t look too much alike.

The joke didn’t work, and the blog post didn’t offer up comparative pictures of the Yosts in question, so thanks for this.

On Monday, the print version of the nugget was prepared a little differently. Same story, juicier ending.

To play a prank on Gagne, the manager approached him the next day and said, “What are you doing? I got a report that you were yelling and screaming at some kid. You pulled down the window and (said), ‘Where’s this (darn) golf course?’ ”

A stunned Gagne was trying to explain himself when Yost laughed and broke the news that the other driver was his son.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, Christ. Come on, editors. You know both versions are still available, right? You know that we don’t have to go to the public library and roll through miles of microfiche anymore to call you on this.

Here are the look-alikes. Might as well be brothers, am I right?

One likes NASCAR; one likes contemporary art. What a crazy pair!

March 10, 2008

In Tom Haudricourt’s love letter to Ted Simmons today, the new bench coach comes off as quite the genius.

I admit, he sounds intriguing and quite the opposite of Ned Yost, but there’s little included about game management or actual baseball strategy. From what I can glean, he’s wise because he has experienced non-baseball culture. He’s not all tobacco and adultery and According To Jim reruns, so he’s like some sort of sage when he reenters the sport.

Then there’s this bit:

Ready to become more involved in the game by 1999, he accepted a job as San Diego’s vice president of baseball operations before eventually settling into a scouting role with the Padres.

And after accepting that scouting role, he settled into a job mopping tunnels at Qualcomm. Is this a successful career path? Sounds like a demotion unexplained.

Still, despite what all parties may be saying, this is a threat to Yost. Seems like the organization feels it has a capable backup for whenever they need it.

Kendall hitting ninth just got dumber

March 9, 2008

This catcher-batting-ninth business is getting closer to reality. In fact, Ned Yost has told a few news outlets that the upside of Jason Kendall hitting after the pitcher has been “thoroughly researched.”

“You’ve got to have a special player in order to do it,” said Yost. “You’ve got to have a high on-base percentage guy …

Let me stop you right there. Last season, Kendall’s on-base percentage was a high .301 — worse than every other non-pitcher the Brewers will start on opening day. Back to that quote.

“You’ve got to have a high on-base percentage guy that …

Hold up, sorry. Let me stop you again. You want to say “a high on-base percentage guy who,” not “a high on-base percentage guy that.” I don’t blame Ned here. It’s a direct quote, but as a journalist, Tom Haudricourt has the right to not embarrass his speaker. He chose to let it go, and now Ned looks like some uneducated southerner.

“You’ve got to have a high on-base percentage guy that puts the ball in play, takes a lot of pitches. The advantage of it, for us, is you’ve got a dual leadoff guy, so to speak, in the No. 9 and 1 spot.

“Two, Jason Kendall is the only player on the team that is an extreme groundball hitter. All of our other hitters are fly-ball hitters. Jason, being a high-contact, high-groundball hitter, puts the ball in play every time, and you get a lot of double plays.

This used to be true. Kendall even led the AL in GIDP in 2005. (Let’s capitalize on this?) But last season, for the first time in his career, Kendall made more flyball outs than groundouts. Not sure it matters.

I was hearing them out at first. The original point of all this was to move Fielder and Braun up one spot each in the order — to 2 and 3, respectively. Over the course of the season, that means more at-bats. I’m for that. But you want guys on base when your meat comes up, so you increase your chances of that (a bit) with Kendall ninth instead of a pitcher.

So now Ned’s going to leave Fielder and Braun at 3 and 4, but he’s still doing the Kendall ninth thing, too.

The first time Braun leads off an inning with a hit, then Nos. 5 and 6 make outs and they walk No. 7 to get to the pitcher, I think it’ll get mentioned here. And also here.

And let us not forget: Sometimes Jason Kendall is so good at getting on base that he breaks his leg.

Haudricourt (the blogger) mixes it up with readers

October 16, 2007

Far be it for the Journal Sentinel to allow comments on its print content, but kudos to the baseball staff there for exposing themselves in a (mostly) unmoderated blog.

I like it. It’s cute. They’ll figure out this “news has more than one publishing period per day” thing yet.

And Tom Haudricourt is not just posting team press releases and half-written teases of what’s going to be in tomorrow’s paper. I mean, he is, but he’s also slugging it out in the comments. Think what you will about his old-school approach to statistics and his tendencies to side with Ned and the front office, the prince of prose does not mind defending himself.

Well, if “sregdab1″ had bothered to do any research or look into the situation in any depth, rather than just trying to be flip and insulting, he would have seen that most of those blown saves came in the first half when Brian Fuentes was the closer.

So No. 1, his feelings are easily hurt. This is going to be awesome in coming posts.

But No. 2, when two guys are arguing about bullpens and both trying to use saves as a meaningful number, aren’t they both wrong?