If a Tree Falls...

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it actually make a sound?

If I craft a baseball blog in the woods, would anyone read it?  What about in a city?

Welcome everyone to Safety Squeeze, a baseball blog no one bothers to read.  I could write the greatest baseball post of all time, with sweeping coverage and analysis, written with the grace of great poets, covering of all 30 major league teams with in-depth coverage of all the results and stories from each game, previews of all the next days action and perhaps the stories that might otherwise fall through the cracks, but it matters not; no one will be reading.  Why do I write anyway?  Because I don't care if no one reads it.  I just want to write it.

With that being said, let's talk about baseball.  Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers has debuted this week with a splash, hitting four homeruns in four games.  That's special, but I wish he wasn't hitting clutch homers against the Braves.  He grand slam on Thursday night to extend the games lead to 5 runs, and he broke a 1-1 tie in the late innings on Friday night to set up extra innings, where the Dodgers won on a walk-off wild pitch.  Great.  I know that baseball is a marathon not a sprint, and losing two games in Los Angeles in early June is nothing to cry about in the long run, but as a competitive fan, I don't like to see my team lose. It's going to happen, and they say that if you don't like losing, you shouldn't be involved with baseball, but I sure wouldn't mind it the Atlanta Braves would go 162-0.

Last time I wrote here I wrote about Jeremy Bonderman and his return to the majors after a three year absence due to many horrible health ailments.  I wrote about how wonderful it would be if we all watched to see how the man performed.  Well, I didn't watch the game.  I watched Bonderman record one out, to end an inning, and I don't even remember how that out was recorded or what inning it was.  I got busy when I got home, okay?  The Mariners got beat that day, I don't know, something like 10-1 and Bonderman seems to have pitched like someone who hasn't pitched to big leaguers in three years.  I don't know for sure, like I said, I didn't watch the game.  I read the line, and it seems as if that was the case.  Anyway, he got another start on Friday, and he beat the slumping Yankees, so that's cool.  Good job, Jeremy.  I didn't watch that game either, or even watch any highlights yet, because it's just hard for me to watch Mariners baseball.

It was brought to my attention last weekend that there is a treasure trove of classic baseball games on a YouTube page called MLB Classics.  I've included a hyperlink there to the page.  Anyway, I decided to check it out this past Monday, since there were no day games and I had watched most of the previous day's Braves game so I needed some sort of baseball to watch.  There are many old, black and white games, mostly from World Series' and such.  But the one that caught my eye was the first ever game for the Florida Marlins against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 5th, 1993.  Chris Berman was on the mic doing play-by-play for the game that aired on ESPN that opening day.  One thing I noticed is that a younger Chris Berman was a lot more...how do you say...uniform in his delivery as a play-by-play man.  I mean to say, he sounded more formulaic than what he is these days, which is Schticky, and gimmicky. That was nice.  Anyway, I couldn't help but notice and comment on Twitter about the Marlins horrible (in retrospect) decision to wear teal.  There was this fascination of new pro sports teams to use new, rarely seen color schemes when debuting in the 90's.  Not just in baseball, but in all sports.  Teal was exceptionally popular a color, with the Jacksonville Jaguars, San Jose Sharks and the Marlins all debuting in the 90's with that color.  The Jaguars have since shifted to a dark green, and the Marlins are primarily orange and black these days, but the Sharks are still riding high, wavin' the flag of team teal, and I got to respect that.  Also, purple was popular.  The Rockies and Diamondbacks wore purple.  Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a rant on color choices of teams, it's about the Marlins.  The thing that stood out about the teal color is their weird teal batting helmets.  They looked so weird, like an eraser head or something.  They made everyone's head seem bigger and more cumbersome.  I also liked that the first opening day pitcher for the Marlins was 45 year old veteran knuckleballer Charlie Hough.  Seeing a 45 year old man wear a teal hat throw a knuckleball at a young Mike Piazza or Eric Karros, truly something to behold.  Another thing, I know they've only been out of the football stadium for one full season now, but watching them play there that day, it had this temporary feel to it, like they would play in Joe Robbie stadium for a couple seasons and then get their own park like a lot of other expansion teams have done (Mets, Nationals for example) yet it took almost 20 years to get it done. I'm not going to make any sort of sweeping analysis of baseball in Florida (or any sports in Florida for that matter) but as long as I've been watching baseball, Marlins baseball has always felt the weirdest.  Their opening day game in 1993 was no different.  I only watched the first three of four innings, and then went off and did other things, but I'd seen enough to know that it felt awkward, and would feel awkward for the rest of my baseball watching life.  I guess that's a sweeping analysis, isn't it?  For some reason, even though they played in that mammoth stadium as recently as 2011, it was strange to see baseball being played in what is obviously a football stadium, even though teams like the A's do it 82 times a season.  I don't know, it felt off.

Okay, that's all.  Enjoy today's games.  Enjoy that YouTube page.  Have a good day, and let's all hope for a no-no this weekend, eh?  Or a cycle?  Both?  For the Padres?  By the same guy?  After all, it is the National League, the one league where a guy could conceivably pitch a no-hitter and also hit for the cycle in the same game.  Anything is possible in the National League!

Ballparks are the Best

I love ballparks.  It's one of the unique things about baseball I love.  Hockey used to have unique home ice advantages, but all that got taken away some time ago.  Like for example, the ice surface at the Boston Garden was actually shorter than "regulation" because of the smaller size of the old arena.  That's cool, but it's all gone now. In baseball, you can have weird demensions in ballparks for a home field advantage.  Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.

Like when Houston builds a stupid, gimick mound in centerfield, I don't like that.  You only did that to get attention.  But like, the ivy and the shape of the outfield wall of Wrigley.  That's cool.  It's uniquely Wrigley.  Green Monster, obviously is another.  I don't want to just say the weird walls are only allowed in ballparks 100 years old or older, but it's sort of just always been there that way, so that's cool to me.  If there is a usefull reason for a quirky jut in the outfield fence in a ballpark, I'm okay with it.  If it's there so that people will talk about the fact that it's there, that's not okay.

Like, if a team wants to make their park tough to hit in for righties, but a bandbox for lefties and then load up the roster with left-handed batters, that's a good strategy and that makes sense.  You can do that in baseball, and I love it.

Also, I was trying to think of teams that really need a new ballpark, and I could really only come up with one.  Oakland plays in a football stadium, and I can't wait for that era to officially be over.  When the Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Mariners, Padres, Twins, Nationals, Marlins and Giants all moved out of the gigantic, cookie cutter, multiuse, soulless stadiums in the 90's and 2000's, it was just all-around better for the game of baseball.  The only teams still playing in giganic stadiums like that are the Blue Jays and the A's.  For some reason, I don't really have a problem with the Jays still playing in SkyDome, AKA Rogers Centre, is that dispite it being 25 years old, it still has this cutting edge, newness to it.  It was the first time I'd ever heard of a retractable roof.  What a marvel of engineering.  Plus it's the Blue Jays, Canadians don't deserve our game up there.  (signed, bitter Nashville Predators fan)

But when you look around, there are some wonderful ballparks built around baseball, and that matters a lot to me when I'm choosing what teams to watch.  I don't mind watching the A's play in that football stadium, actually, despite everything I'm saying here, because I like the team. But normally, I don't like that atmosphere.  So like I said, I was thinking about what teams need a new park, and there really isn't anyone besides Oakland and perhaps the Rays.  Everything I hear about Tropicana Field is that it's a dump.  I imagine it is, maybe that's why no one goes to Rays games?  Must be.  But at least it doesn't feel like there's 672 people in the stands because the building is too large for baseball crowds, like it was in Miami for Marlins games.  And when the Marlins were bad (were, lol) and it was really empty, it was like watching the empty arena match between the Rock and Mankind during the halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII (I think). Just a weird atmosphere for those watching at home.

When a building is full and everyone is hanging on every play, it's so much more engaging for the person at home to watch.  That's why I like watching San Francisco Giants games.  That place is always packed, it's a cool, modern stadium with a throwback feel.  It's great.  Many teams have done the right thing in the past 10-15 years to upgrade their home ballpark experience, and I think it benefits all of baseball as a result.

I've only visited four MLB ballparks.  Wrigley, Miller Park, Turner Field and Fenway, in that order.  I've got 26 to go. Easiest for me to get to would be Cincinatti and St. Louis.   Let's get on the road, Caleb.  We've got baseball to watch.

-BJP

Advanced stats

There are a lot of advanced stats out there.  SABRmetrics, or whatever.  Listen, this all might just be coming from a place where I have a lack of understanding on the subject, but I don't really put a whole lot of stock in advanced stats.  That might sound weird, but I just think there are other ways of determining if a guy is a good baseball player or not.  Like, oh I don't know, watching a game.  I'm way more of an eyeball test kind of guy.  Does he look alright?  Then he's alright, isn't he? Guys get hot, guys get cold.  It comes and goes.  Everyone goes through this. I'll tell you right now, after writing this mini rant that I've been planning in my head, I'm going to go and search on Google "how to read and decipher advanced stats" and see if I can change my own mind on the subject.  But as of right now, I think fancy stats are only good for three things.  Number one is obviously fantasy baseball.  It's good to know if a guy is playing over his head or underachieving compared to what he usually does so you can win your fantasy league.  But this reason directly leads me to the number two and three reasons for using fancy stats for baseball is to sound smart, and to be right.  For me, I don't put much stock in being right all the time.  I've lost hundreds of arguments with my wife because I just don't care if I'm right.  She has to be right, it's in her nature.  It's part of what makes her special because she's determined to be right and smart and respected.  Me, I don't care.  I just want to get along with everyone and have a conversation about baseball.  Taht's why this blog exists.  I'm not going to (be able) to tell you that Tyler Lyons has a stranded runner rate of 91% because I looked it up.  I'll tell you that because the Sleeper and the Bust podcast told me that.  I had already dropped him anyway, but that helps the decision feel like the right one.  Is that a fancy stat?  Not really, that's a pretty regular stat, and I probably would have been able to tell you this stat if I had actually watched the Cardinals play for the past 15 days.

What I have watched is Atlanta Braves baseball, and I don't need fancy stats to tell you that Justin Upton had a terrible May, but his numbers don't look all that bad because he had an amazing April.  I know this because I've only missed a couple Braves games all year.  I know this team.  I don't know Cardinals very well.  I don't know Astros or Mariners or Yankees or Angels or really most of the league unless they've played the Braves.  I haven't watched any of their games more than an inning or two this year.  This is where I need people that read into fancy stats to tell me what they're doing.  Why do I run a baseball blog, anyway?

That brings me to my final point here.  What does advanced stats do for me as a fan?  Not as a fantasy baseball team owner, but as a fan of the Atlanta Braves and of baseball watching in general, how does knowing Dan Uggla's BABIP (if I knew what it was) change the way I feel every time he strikes out or flies out or grounds out or walks....which is all he does...Or hit a home run.  If Dan Uggla could just start hitting doubles I'd be impressed.  But he just doesn't.  And I don't need to look at any type of advanced stat to know he's not had a good year.  Knowing advanced stats does very, very little for me as a fan watching games.  What I care about is wins, strikeouts, hits, home runs, web gems, double plays, no-hitters, disputed calls, weird pitching wind-ups, weird pitching deliveries, 17 inning games, position players pitching, catchers throwing their masks off to make a catch on a popup behind the plate, "is a hit or is it an error?" yada yada yada.  Fancy stats are for people that don't watch baseball games.  That's my conclusion.  If that's the way you want to experience this game, then go for it.  Do whatever you want, but I'll just watch the game.  

Jeremy Bonderman to Start Today for Seattle

I can't sit here and tell you that I actually went out of my way to watch a whole lot of the 2003 Detroit Tigers.  You know, the one that went 43-119?  Were it not for an amazing rally in the final week of the season, this was the worst team in baseball history.  All that has been well documented, and after the signing of Pudge Rodriguez and the hiring of Jim Leyland, the Tigers turned the franchise into what I consider to be the class of the American League right now.  As a man who spent the first 26 years of my life in Michigan, I was very aware of the Detroit Tigers ups and downs, even if I didn't consider them "my team."  They were the game on TV, they were my dad's love, and they were my first baseball love.  While I don't live and die with Tigers baseball these days (or the days I'm about to talk about), I certainly have a long-term interest in the team and the team's performance.  I've watched my fair share of good, but mostly bad Detroit Tigers baseball. Most of my friends and family are Tigers fans.

 Just 10 short years ago, that's when this historic-for-the-wrong-reason season happened, I remember a couple things about that.  I've tried to block most of it out, mostly Bobby Higginson until about 25 minutes ago, but there are a few names I'll never forget.  The names Mike Maroth and Jeremy Bonderman.  A couple young pitchers thrown into the fire to burn because the team didn't have any other options.  While their owner was slinging $5 carryout pizzas and blowing all his cash on the Red Wings (don't think it's a coincidence that after the NHL lockout of 2004-2005, when the salary cap went way down, suddenly the Tigers had money to play with for free agents?) the Tigers grew increasingly and embarrassingly bad. 20 year old Jeremy Bonderman, in his first year with the big leagues, was run out there for 28 starts...and he lost 19 of them.  What were the Tigers supposed to do? They didn't have anyone else.  Bonderman had stuff, but he was just a raw kid.

I'll never forget that, what a man must learn getting pummeled for months on end.  It has to do something to you mentally and emotionally.  Well, things eventually turned around a bit for Jeremy, as he did get to start a game in the World Series just three seasons later (which he lost, but whatever, he started).  So I've always rooted for Mike Maroth, who lost 21 that year, and Bonderman.  Those guys took a beat down and didn't quit.  Bonderman would go on to an injury-riddled and shortened career, being diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and then having Tommy John surgery.  I don't know if anyone really thought Jeremy Bonderman would ever pitch in the majors again.

But he's pitching today!  For Seattle!  Against the Twins!  There's nothing sports fans like more than winning championships, talking smack to fans of teams that are not your own, and a good comeback story.  This is the comeback story for the ages if he can pull this off.  Needless to say, I'll be watching for sure.  Jeremy Bonderman, I wish you the best of luck.  I want you to succeed so badly.  He used to throw that wicked slider for a strike that just broke off and made batters knees buckle.  I hope he still has that.  He's one of my favorite pitchers because of all the bullshit he's had to deal with and he didn't quit. I mean, look, I can't even write a post without using two huge paragraphs describing just half of what he went through.  The point here is to tell you that, if you are able, you should watch the Mariners game today.  Dude hasn't pitched in the majors since 2010.  I hope he does well.  I really, really do.

-BJP

Baseball Needs More Day Games

Baseball needs more day games.  I mean it.  More more more day games.  Of course, this is a pretty selfish request.  As a subscriber of MLB.tv, I have the privilege of watching whatever baseball game I want (except for the Braves and Reds whom are blacked out in my area) whenever I want.  When I want it is in the early afternoon.  As a stay at home dad, when the wife is away at work until 4:30 pm, I get to stay home and watch baseball...er the kids.  I watch the kids...and baseball.  I think there should be a baseball game on every day.  After all, baseball is supposed to be a lazy afternoon pastime anyway, right?  So I end up with a lot of Cubs games, which would be fine if they were a better team.  I mean, this week they certainly looked like quite the contender for the pennant, but let's be serious for a minute, they were playing the White Sox, after all.  It's not like they were beating up on any first place teams... Oh, except the first place Arizona Diamondbacks.  But let's not get carried away with that.  Watching the Cubs all the time is okay...but you know, I'd like a little variety.  A little bit of everyone every day would be really nice.

I usually look forward to Wednesdays, because that's when a lot of series' wrap up with day games so the teams can hit the road early for their next town/series.  I win there. A whole bunch of day games. Saturdays and Sunday's provide excellent day game action.  I can watch them.  I'm not in charge of any kids when those games happen but...I'm at work.  Don't tell my employer but I watch a lot of baseball while on the job.  Sorry, boss, I have an addiction to feed.  So that's good.  Day games on the weekend are good.

This little story comes about because I've become a baseball consuming monster.  I did this last May/June as well.  The big difference is that this season I've been watching baseball regularly since the day the season began.  Last year, it was only at about this time of the year that I started paying any attention to the season at all (thanks Stanley Cup Playoffs).  So I've gotten the same increase in baseball consumption as last year, but this time it's on top of my previous obsession.  This means I'm staring at clocks waiting for games to start.  This means that on days where there is no day games, I get sad and lost and lonely.  Thankfully, as I write this all down, there are games set to begin in about 15 minutes.  Indians - Rays, yo!  And they just finished up playing each other at like, two this morning because of rain delays.  Love it.  I just love it.  So lets watch some baseball, and preferably when the sun is high in the sky.  

One Tenth Done: My Reactions to MLB 2013 in April

We have played one tenth of the Major League Baseball season.  What we just watched, we'll just do that nine more times, and the season will be over before you even realized,

Some say that September wins are more important than April wins, and that may be true, a baseball team can really change complexions over the course of a season, but September wins will surely have a lot less pressure applied to them if you can get more wins in April.  Teams that get off to a hot start have a much easier path to the post season than teams that start slow and have to play catch-up all season.  Sometimes it works in the favor of the team with the slow start, but if you don't get up off the mat soon enough, you can be cooked by mid June.

One team that I recall getting off to a slow start and getting their act together was the 2005 Houston Astros.  If you remember, that team made it to the World Series against the White Sox that year.  A lot was made of their 15-30 start to the season, and I always since then check the standings at the 45 game mark, and see who is around that record at that time.  I look at that team and think, if the Astros could do it, anyone can.  So just because a team gets off to a slow start, doesn't mean their season is necessarily cooked.

The Tigers last year had a slow start, and were trying to catch the White Sox all year, and they did.  That was a good team that was underachieving early.  The 2005 Astros were a decent team, as well, a team that, if I remember correctly, had been in the playoffs the season prior.  They were expected to be good and started slow.  That's the difference between them and, lets say for example, the 2013 Houston Astros.  What a mess.  But it's not a surprise that the Astros are terrible, everyone knew they were going to be at the start of the season.  So the fact that they're bringing up the rear in the standings in the American League is no surprise at all.  Don't expect a miracle run out of these guys.

I tend to focus on the terrible teams in baseball because I feel bad for that teams fans.  I'm also very grateful that that team has never been my team.  I have this sick fascination with poor baseball teams, because it doesn't take much to be really bad.  Every team is pretty good.  Every baseball team since baseball has had a season that we record and recognize has won at least 40 games in a season.  And there is always fans in the stands.  It just amazes me that there were any fans in the stands at all for the 2003 Detroit Tigers season. Why would you waste your time?  It's just fascinating.

So 16 games (or so) into the 2013 season, we're starting to see who is good and who is not.  It's never for sure at this stage, but you can start to see it.  The Braves and Nationals are for real.  The Cubs and Marlins are really, really bad.  That's easy.  We all knew that going into this.  But it's the American League that I find really intriguing.  The AL east standings look like 2007.  The West looks like...well, not what I was exactly thinking, and the Central looks really mixed up.  I thought the Red Sox were going to be bad this year?  And I didn't think the Yankees had much of anything?  How are they the tops of the East?For the record, I wasn't drinking the Blue Jays kool-aid.  I just figured basically switch the Sox and the O's and you'd have what I expected.  But who gives a shit what I expect?  That's why they play the games.  It's early, and the difference between the last place Jays and first place Sox is only six games.  Same thing with the last place Indians and first place Royals, which is only 2.5 games.  There's still a lot of shaking out to do.  It's still too early to really say for sure who's who in the AL, but it surely feels like a different year over there.  Too bad I don't watch American League games.

More on that subject....very soon!

Go Baseball!

P.S. I've seen two instances of paper planes being flown onto the field in Toronto this season.  What's up with that?

Welcome Back

Hey

It's been a while, hasn't it?  How's it going out there?  Is anyone out there, even?

Listen, I've wanted to say something here about the off-season for the past few months, but really, it's hockey season and that's been my focus.  I love hockey, maybe even more than baseball.  But I cannot deny my undying love for baseball.  That is why I run a baseball blog and not a hockey blog, isn't it?

I don't even know where to begin.

Boy, the Braves sure look like their going to be good this year, don't they?  Just stacked, top to bottom.  The only hole I see is the 5th starting pitcher spot, and who knows, maybe Julio Tehran will be the next ace and we'll not have a hole at all?  But as of right now, it's a question mark, one of the very few that the Braves have.  Also, third base, for the first time in a very long time has a question mark.  I'm not that worried.  I thing Chris Johnson (not the running back) should be okay over there.  Every team needs an 8 hitter, right?

Enough about the Braves, I want to mention a life saver of a site that kept me in the loop all off-season.  It's the ESPN MLB Transaction page.  Without it, I would have missed every single one of those off-season transactions that don't get reported on the sites and radio broadcasts and news articles I read or listen to from time to time.  In the off-season  I just don't have time to keep up with everything, what with all the hockey I'm watching.  So a quick glance at the transactions page, I get the info I need and move along with my day, make my own opinions on the moves, and blog about it.  All true, except that last part, I suppose.

For example, I'm a massive Atlanta Braves fan, and you think I would stay connected to the team in December, but the fact of the matter is, I didn't.  I found out that Tommy Hansen was traded to the Angels via the Transactions page.  How did I not read about that on Twitter?  Because I don't follow much Braves stuff on there, because of spoilers.  I don't get to watch many Braves games live because I don't have cable, so I watch them the next morning.  I can't not check Twitter, so I don't follow baseball stuff on there.  The point I'm making is that Tommy Hansen got traded to Anaheim and I almost missed it.  Good for him, I suppose.  I believe he's done, but I hope he's not.  Dude was a strikeout machine when healthy.  I hope he finds success in the American League.  Good for him.

Anyway I've rambled along enough.  The season starts like, next week, so hopefully I'll be able to write about it regularly.  Baseball is just the best.