The Pete Rose saga serves as a metaphor for the Angels in this offseason. Rose was hoping for reinstatement into Major League Baseball, just like the Angels were hoping to re-instate their left fielder from the rich outfield pool Didn't happen. For either of us. But Commissioner Manfred held the door into the Hall of Fame just a crack. Just like our window of opportunity remains open.
Let's just hope that we are not left hanging out at a card table in the hallway checking our phone to keep up with what is going on everywhere else.
Enjoy some National Lemon Cupcake Day Links:
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Angels Baseball
Pujols Pedal Power: You know things are slightly hinky when your General Manager is quoted as saying that your prime sunk cost power star "seems to be feeling good", and that is newsworthy. Let's face it. We knew that Pujols would deteriorate with age. I did. We all do. These first few years under the Halo has shown Pujols to be worth his dollars paid, which was hoped for. Even still, his sore wheels are cratering faster than we would have liked and this is where we are gonna focus. We fans are pulling for more DH, to ease the workload. it's obvious, obvious enough that even the Angels are figuring this out. It might be that the only person still to be convinced is Albert Pujols himself............
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Elsewhere In Baseball
Smelly Rose: Shocking, right? I know. Somehow the guy who is still getting caught out lying about how deeply his betting on baseball went, Pete Rose, is still getting rejected by MLB in his quest to get re-instated. Hell, he wants to e inside baseball again but has admitted that he still bets on baseball. Let's hear from Commissioner Manfred: "In short, Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing, so clearly established by the Dowd Report, or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility in 1989." Note, though, that Manfred correctly separated Rose's standing in baseball from his potential membership in that other institution, the Baseball Hall of Fame. In other words, Manfred tells the HoF that he won't get pissed if they induct Pete Rose for his career accomplishments............
WAR of the Rose: Having Pete Rose back in the news gives butthurt Lyle yet another chance to foist up an old straw man with which he might then do battle. And, again, that which continues to curse this acolyte of a baseball earth so flat is the conquest of knowledge over mythos. In this episode we find Lyle implying that modern fans might never appreciate a talent such as Rose "Wonder if Rose would be viewed the same today. Average D metrics. Too many singles, not enough walks to elevate OBP. Clutch? Who cares?" Well, fortunately, our modern world has already documented Rose's career 79.1 bWAR as calculated using today's tools, and that's not a number to sneeze at. Oh, and "clutch"? Show me, Lyle. Rose career BA = .303 versus Rose career BA with 2 outs and RISP = .308. Only when ahead is Rose's "clutch" stat above his career BA. He was, however, .318 in high leverage situations, but that is modern math at work again...........
One with The Force: And the reason Lyle is finding the light of day so frightful? Because history has voted, and the role he thought he would grow up and play in the world of baseball has fragmented out from underneath him. How many MSM writers have been hired into the brain trust of baseball? One? Zero? Compare to all the people hired out of the likes of FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. Most recently, as Josh linked to the other day, bright minds are getting plucked out of SB Nation. Jon Luman was not the only SBN creative, analytical blogger getting pulled into the action (to the Angels). Dan Turkenhopf has joined the Brewers. The Lyle's of the world are still cranking hard on their railway handcars while the future accelerates ver the horizon...............
Save Me!: You know you hate the "save". It annoys you, and you are powerless to do anything but wear t-shirts and rail against it all over the Internet. You know that you are convincing nobody who chooses not to be convinced, but you do take comfort in the fact that your arguments cannot be trumped. MLB writer Phil Rogers is not like you. He hates the save, too, but he argues for a replacement. Rogers favors WPA...or dump it altogether. I love that he uses Mike Scioscia and KRod as exhibit "A" for managers managing to the save stat...........
HoF For the Rest of Us: The National Baseball Hall of Fame has been in business for 80 years. I'm pretty sure they think they are doing a bang-up job. I'm less sure that they think they need to overhaul anything. And yet, people who are NOT a part of the HoF are damned sure they know how to fix what the HoF might not be thinking needs to be fixed in the first place. Since the HoF belongs to them, and there is nothing empirical about becoming an inductee, I'll wait until those geezers who run their joint open up their doors for modifications before losing any sleep over how modifications should be done..........
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Hot Stove Season
Cueto: The Giants signed Johnny Cueto went to the Giants for 6 years, $130 million. An interesting part is that this deal has a 2 year opt-out, meaning that Cueto can bolt practically the day after tomorrow (and he is getting full pay between now and then). It's interesting because it would put Cueto back into the FA market when Jake Arrietta, Jason Hammel, Clay Buchholz and Lorenzo Cain become Free Agents. He didn't get his way and sign with Boston this off-season, and that opt-out plan might not work out for him then, either............Anyway, we can add Cueto to the earlier Samardzija deal and the Giants may be tapped out this offseason. Which would be cool because the fewer teams still waving their wallets at the Top Free Agent Outfielders right now, the more the that the Top Free Agent Outfielder mart becomes a buyer's market. Maybe, if things keep drifting this way, we can score big..............
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