Keith Allison (Flickr)

From Bill James to fangraphs.com to Tom Tango to baseball-reference.com to the next name or organization out there in the world, there are almost unlimited places to go to learn all about the new wave of baseball statistics. What does all this stuff mean? Without doing a full analysis, I’ll give an explanation.

The most obvious issue with the recognizable statistics is the fact that they don’t take enough available variables into account. You’d probably recognize that 40 homeruns at Coors Field in Colorado isn’t quite as impressive as 40 homeruns at Petco Park in San Diego, but in terms of statistics, how much less impressive is it? These are questions advanced statistics attempt to answer.

Batting average is probably the most common statistic used to rate a baseball player. It shouldn’t be. All that batting average tells you is what percentage of the time a player turns an at-bat into a hit. What about walks? What about extra base hits? Which pitchers did he face? What stadium was he in? Statistics like OPS and wOBA will take things like these into account and come up with more accurate numbers.

Now you should have an idea of what I’m talking about, so let’s try a test. The topic will be Earned Run Average (ERA). Pitcher A sports a 10-5 record and a 2.50 ERA at spacious Petco Park with the league’s 3^rd best defense behind him. Pitcher B sports a 6-7 record and a 3.00 ERA at Coors Field with the league’s worst defense at his back. Which is better? If you answered Player A simply because of his lower ERA and better win-loss record, you’d be making a mistake. Pitcher A might not be the wrong answer, but you selected him for all the wrong reasons. Questions like “What is each player’s BABIP and LOB%?” need to be asked. Another is “how many runs would’ve been scored against the two pitchers had they been playing at a neutral park with league average defenses behind them?” A statistic like FIP can help answer that question.

There are tons of statistics out there, several of which overlap each other. Your best bet is to sit down, study them, and determine which ones, in your opinion, best rank players from top to bottom. This is by no means a perfect science and statisticians and baseball fans alike are developing better methods every day.

Next time you have a free couple of minutes, take the time to learn a few of these statistics. The conversion to the days where you hear them on ESPN and in the newspapers is coming faster than you think.

Well, at least that’s what was supposed to happen and then I started to wonder.

Could A-Rod getting caught really be good for baseball?

I’ll let you catch your breath before I continue on down this path. I am not about to suggest that I think steroids, there use and abuse has any place in this game. Not Coke, Greenies or HGH, not a single one of them is good for baseball.

But can we make their legacy something. By we, I am talking the royal we, you, us, baseball, the people that love it,cherish and celebrate it. The numbers are what they are…..don’t forget the Asterisk.

But something else has happened, something very genuine. I mean we can be serious for a moment, the steroid scandal is kind of like a bell. You can’t unring a bell, and you can’t pick and choose which numbers are legit. To be fair without the leak and/or release of the results of ever drug test ever conducted we’ll never know.

Ken Griffey Jr.? Are his 600 plus homeruns legitimate? Some would say of course they are, look at that sweet swing. True, but wouldn’t steroid use explain this knee conditions, and you can’t tell me with the ability to speed up the healing process wasn’t an option considering the amount of time he missed due to injury.

What about Howard, Ortiz, Thome, Pujols and Manny? What about Miguel Cabrera? He wouldn’t break into the Majors in 2003 but he’s 25 years old with 175 homeruns, should we question every last cheese puff or potential needle that entered his body in the minors?

All that being said my intention here wasn’t to muddy the waters around guys that have yet to have their so far good names dragged through the mud. My point is that we have to do what we can to clean up the game, but dirt digging and claims of indiscretions from 2003 aren’t going to do that.

Luckily I believe that A-Rod and his outing have done what Bug Selig couldn’t do, what Senator George Mitchell couldn’t do, what House Government Reform Committee was unable to do, what the Players Association has been unwilling to do. That is genuinely starting to heal baseball.

In the broadest sense this will help baseball from the point of view of the fans, players and owners. I’ll start with the fans, and then describe the betterment of the game from the other you points of view later. This could get a little long. So I promise I’ll break it up for you.

Let’s start with the Fans of the grand old game. Our first reaction to steriods was to be expected. We were outraged, upset and indignant. As a collective we acted exactly how social scientists would have predicted. We started tearing through the 5 stages of grief.

1 – Denial. There was no way all our home records were brought down by these Juicers? Was there?

2 – Anger. How could they do this to us? How could they do this to baseball?

3 – Bargaining. Every time we saw another name we’d make one of two deals. If one more star comes up Dirty I am done with this game! Or that has to be the last one right? I’ll give anything for this to be the last one.

4 – Depression. If you guys are like me you didn’t want to follow baseball anymore. You questioned yourself, you fandom. You still loved the game, but felt like you’d been hurt too many times.

Now this is where you come in.

5 – Acceptance. You can admit it, it’s ok, and I saw them too. I saw the articles, and was battered and bruised by the Colin Cowherd’s of the world that said. I don’t care, what’s done is done. Juicer or not, give me interesting, screw the integrity of the game. Who gives a flying flip if he did them or not? They were all on them, so what?

If was at that moment a rumble started, somewhere in the pit of a collective stomach. A rumble that said, the MLB isn’t baseball. It’s just a league. People were rejuvenated. See we had given the MLB power over our game; they were its care taker. Under their watch, it had fallen, fallen into a state of disrepair. Like a little kid with a skinned knee. He knew we must pick it up, dust it off. Start cleaning out the wound. You remember being seven, the rubbing alcohol is going to sting. In the long run, it’s worth it. Alan Bug Selig only wanted to talked Revenues and Attendance. What Bud failed to tell you is everything in an America was up, the Dow Jones was up, the Real Estate Market was up, and the Price of Gas was up. Revenue’s aren’t the indicator of a strong game of baseball.

That is like saying what is the great movie of all time? People will say the Godfather, Citizen Cane, Gone with the Wind, not a single one of them is in the top 50 in Revenue. According to Old Bud the best five films ever are as follows, Titanic, the Dark Knight, Star Wars Episode 4, Shrek 2, and E.T.; does that seem wrong to anyone else? As a matter of fact only 3 of the top 30 all time were shot before 1990. Only 5 of the top 50 were filmed before 1990, and in that top 50 we have movies like Night at the Museum, Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, Meet the Fockers, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.. According to the American Film Institute only 5 movies made since 1990 crack the top 100 and none are in the top 50. Oh yeah and of those 5, one are in the top 50 in revenue.

Now that being said, A-Rod some how managed to take that group, you know the one that missed baseball and all it’s glory. His positive test some how seemed to bring together a group less interested in his persecution and more interested in saving their game. Restoring it so that when he was passed on, it was in a condition that their fathers would’ve recognized.

A-Rod was the one we could believe in. We hated him, but as I’ve said before we hated him for all the right reasons. He was really good and he was a New York Yankee. In baseball those two tend to combine into a lot of hate. But again the good kind, the I love my team and hate you cause your not on it kind. A-Rod was a player we all wanted to have on our team. Don’t get self righteous Sox fan, you acted like a spurned lover when we was traded to the Yankees.

But he looked Katie Couric in the eye and said, never. Never had he taken steroids, never had he thought about taking steroids. And at 553 home runs it would only be a matter of time until Bond’s was wiped off the books. Then it slipped, maybe never wasn’t a time that included 2001-2003.

Maybe never wasn’t as all inclusive a statement as we had thought after all. But I will tell you what never now means. Never will we give them our game back. We the fans now must hold the standards up and decide who measures up. We must demand more as the Owners, Commissioner, Players Association Heads, and Players themselves weren’t willing to do it.

If we can be fair, this A-Rod positive test was just galvanizing force we needed. How will this affect the owners? How is it a positive for the game as far as the PA and Players are concerned? Well that I will cover in my next article, so yeah there will be a part two and three.

But for now understand simply, it’s not there game it’s ours. They’ve proven they can take care of it anymore. So let’s take it back.

To quote Zach Del Rocha, who had a very different vision of an America, “It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime, what better place than here, what better time than now.”

When Nick Benas and Jared Verrillo of Big League Wiffle Ball were kids, they had no idea that the game they played on the cul de sac at the end of Bunker Hill Road could wind up being a career. Or maybe they did.

“I remember thinking,” Benas says, “Someday I’ll do this for living.”

Not an hour’s drive from where wiffle balls and wiffle ball bats are made in Shelton, Connecticut, Benas and Verrillo played wiffle ball until the sky went black. Their parents almost had to handcuff them to get them back in the house. “The best part was, you always knew where to find them,” Benas’ mother, Dian says. “They were always out on the cul de sac playing wiffle ball.”

Twenty years later, they saw the game that they loved transitioning into a sport. Benas knew that it was more than just a child’s game. It was baseball for the 21rst century. Where neighborhood-wide baseball games were nearly impossible to amass due to fast paced schedules, a highly competitive wiffle ball game only took three or four players, two if necessary. The white plastic ball with eight holes in one side caused pitches to defy the laws of physics.

Fields could be creatively adapted to backyard nuances. Even a young person’s limited finances could be accommodated as a bat and ball cost less than ten dollars. Above all, it was a form of baseball that still enabled your average American kid to be a champion. It didn’t take steroids and scholarships and big money contracts. All it took was friends, a love of the game, and a few bucks for a ball and bat.

Benas explains: “Nothing is more American. This is the evolution of baseball. People don’t realize what a pitcher can do with a wiffle ball scuffed to his or her liking until they see the videos on the internet. People don’t realize until they see it. Then they become intrigued. Then they invest in a ball and bat. Then they spend some time in front of a strike zone, pitching and swinging a bat. Then their friends get interested. Then they sign up for their first tournament. Then they’re officially hooked.”

Benas and Verrillo have been running some of the most premier wiffle ball tournaments in the country. All the strongest contingent of professional wiffle ball players reside in New England, they’ve run tournaments on both coasts and even have a branch in the Midwest. They had a wiffle ball homerun tournament at Fenway.

They’ve made wiffle ball an official game at Connecticut’s Nutmeg State Games. Other states are falling in line to make wiffle one of their state games. A reality show is being filmed about their exploits, and they are gunning for the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest wiffle ball tournament in history.

They have a weekly show on their website www.bigleaguewiffleball.com where interviews are posted with premier professional wiffle ball players and business people. Benas says: “Once people get passed the idea that this is a kid’s game and see that it is coming into its own as a sport, it begins to make sense to them. All it takes is for them to see what a professional wiffle pitcher can do with the ball and the feeling of cracking a line-drive homerun passed their opponent.”

America is catching on. With serious money being handed out for tournament prizes and professional wifflers transforming what was once just a backyard game into a highly competitive, organized movement, there appears to be no height that Benas’ and Verrillo’s dream can’t scale.

When America’s pastime collides with the innovative and ever-evolving American dream, why shouldn’t it?

Are the New York Yankees brass just like you and me, only richer? Do they make decisions based on the airwave mouth pieces that fill the New York A.M. dial?

I know what you’re thinking, that’s impossible. Is it really? From what I can tell Hank, Hal, Brian and the rest of the crew up in the Bronx are playing real life fantasy baseball and listening to way too much sports talk radio. (Ok, I think what they are doing is way smarter than that, but the fans aren’t looking hard enough.)

My first assertion isn’t completely out of the question. Brian Cashman is clearly getting his scouting report from our friends a CBSSports.com Eric Mack or Scott White.

Here we have a guy that dropped serious cheddar to sign Fantasy baseballs number four first basemen, and number three and twelve start pitchers. (According to cbssports.com) These are additions to a line up that already boasted fantasy baseballs number three closer, number three third basemen, number four ranked short stop and number seven ranked second basemen.

Unfortunately for Yankee fans in fantasyland there are very few points for relief pitchers that don’t close, so Cashman didn’t bother to worry about his bullpen again this off-season.

Also like most fantasy teams the Yankees are a little thin on the bench. After pressing their top utility man outfielder, first basemen and relief pitcher extraordinaire Nick Swisher into action the Yankees are left with a bench that features Berroa, Gardner and Molina.

Now Yankees fan can say what they want about Cashman’s attempt to recreate a fantasy team in pin stripes. So far it looks like his attempts to do all of his scouting at the All-star have failed to pay dividends and the Yankees are a mere one game over five hundred after twenty one games.

Who could’ve predicted that?

Now that alone wasn’t enough to convince me that the chaos that was the Yankees front office wasn’t just a collection of stiffs with a penchant for my life but with more bread to spread around.

Then this happened…Yankees announce new ticketing plan. (This is where the Yankees true brilliance shows through, this move goes against every free market principle in their collective Steinbrenner bodies. Follow along.)

What did my eyes and ears deceive me?

Had the loud mouth callers and sports talk radio hosts in New York City been loud enough and obnoxious enough to cause the 2009 New York Yankees to bend to their will?

The New York Yankees, as in the team owned by George, the team now guided by Hal “Needless to say my dad is a tough act to follow” and Hank “You tell him to hit the damned ball…and hit it when it counts” Steinbrenner. Are now bending to the will of the airwaves.

We are all more than familiar by now with the issue of empty seats in the Legends Suite, and Delta Sky 360 Suite.

In case your not, the Yankees were struggling to sell about 2000 seats per game at the new stadium. So what you might say, well those 2000 seats happen to be the $2500 seats located directly behind home plate and therefore directly in the middle of your TV screen as you watch the game.

Now the Yankees just this week have decided to slash those seats by between 35 and 50 percent depending on the seat. So the $2500 tickets are now going to retail for $1250, and the $1000 seats for $650.

I roast the Yankees for a lot of things; this is not one of them. Lowering tickets to adjust to the market demands makes sense to me. We do it every day in our lives. Baseball tickets being particularly time sensitive, I even give them credit for making this decision in a timely manner.

You know as well as I do, that no matter where you live a ticket price goes something like this. A seat with $50 at the box office, $85 on stub hub, $100 from a scalper 30 minutes before game time, $25 after the first innings and whatever they can get for it by the third. If that isn’t 100% accurate it’s pretty close.

So Hank and Hal good for you. Sitting down and realizing this, realizing you misread the market. Don’t take it personal, it’s not like you’re the only one. Warren Buffet looks confused and he knows more than the rest of us, or so it would seem.

My issue comes with the rebates described in a press release by Hal from the other night.

I know this going to sound weird, but I spent everyday for as long as I can remember hearing that sports is a business. Then for as much as we malign that phrase shouldn’t it teach us to be better consumers?

People will see this as a good PR move by the Yankees. You know why the Yankees need a good PR move? It is because after spending $425 Million dollars on free agents in the off-season they are 11-10 on the 29^th of April.

If the Yankees were 17-4 there wouldn’t be this need to buy a little time so to speak.

I can’t believe we live in world where the New York Yankees, an organization that says you should be allowed to spend your money however you see fit is going to reimburse people for paying the market rate on tickets. Maybe they are still waiting on their Carl Pavano check?

I would contend that if I went out and bought a new Lexus the day it hit the lot, there maybe 19 different cars there loaded with different options and in different colors. On that day the cost on that car is $90,000.00. A year later I return to the same car lot, there are two left, my options are between a green and a blue Lexus. My options are chosen for me. That being said for giving up the options, I’ll probably pay $70,000.00.

Why do I use this example? I do it because the free market says that 85% of Yankee stadium sold at the market price. The remaining 15% of people had to take the seats that were left. On the other hand the Yankees had discovered that they must take action to sell the remaining tickets.

So one of two things is going on here, and I am not buying the Yankees have become like a hooker with a heart of gold.

I think the truth lies in the fact that playing fantasy baseball has finally caught up with the Yankees brass and this ticket rebate is like a prematurely balding man buying a Cherry Red Porsche, it takes the attention off the real problem. All it does is serve to distract from the fact that Teixeira is batting .206 and Burnett and Sabathia in nine starts have surrender 32 runs and combined for a 3 – 2 record.

OK, so the kids have cooled down and Adam Lind and it doesn’t look like the Blue Jays are going to bat .400 in 2009.

That being said, the Blue Jays have kept it rolling through the second week of the season. They are headed into an off day leading the American league East with a scorching 10-3 record.

The Jays much to the surprise of many pundits including myself have been getting quality starts from many of the question marks they had to begin with on the mound.

Young Ricky Romero has started strong this season posting a two wins, no loses with an ERA of 1.71. In what is becoming a very Romero-like effort, he pitched seven complete shutout innings on Sunday to cap the week. The rookie struck out six and only walked two. That brings his season totals to 14 strikeouts against only four walks in 21 innings.

That followed an afternoon game where the bullpen tossed six-and-two-thirds of one-hit scoreless baseball to hold down the fort until Lyle Overbay blasted a two-run walk-off home run in the 12th inning.

The solid starts the Blue Jays have been getting seems to have gone unnoticed throughout most of the start of the year as the focus has been on the offense and it’s ability to score runs in bunches.

During a four game set in Minnesota the Jays offense proved they don’t need to be in their dome to be hot.

From Tuesday to Thursday, the Blue Bird scored more than eight runs three times and combined to score 31 runs in four games. What few people were paying attention to was the fact that the runs against were six, three, two, and two. So other than one rough outing by Jesse Litsch that landed him on the disabled list until late May, the pitching has been stellar.

How long the kids can keep it up for is unclear as Purcey, Richmond, and Romero don’t have any track record to go on. What we do know is that we said the same thing about Marcum, Litsch, and McGowan.

The Blue Jays pitching staff has been severely underrated so far in this young season. Opponents are batting a combined .233 vs. The Starters and the Bullpen. They have an ERA collective of 3.75 and a staff WHIP of .856.

The Blue Jays have been excellent thus far, so why are people not buying into the results?

Two issues have come up but they haven’t really hurt the Blue Jays yet.

Save conversion: The Jays have managed to convert only three of five save opportunities in 2009. BJ Ryan was a concern coming out of spring training. So far he has converted two of three saves, but his ERA is a whopping 7.71 and opponents are batting .389 against the closer in four-and-two-thirds innings work. Also a cause for concern is the fact that Ryan has walked more batters (four) than he has struck out so far (three).

The Blue Jays keep towing the company line with Cito Gaston repeatedly saying that Ryan was his guy and that his closers job is safe. If the Blue Jays keep handing the closer leads of five runs every couple days just to get him work that may be the case. That being said, Ryan hasn’t looked the same since he tried to convince everyone nothing was wrong after blowing back to back saves to the Yankees last July.

The other issues are the lack of production out of Alex Rios in the No. 3 hole. Rios is batting a scary .207 with a .277 OBP. In 58 at-bats, Rios has generated only four extra base hits, and 12 hits overall. He has managed only six RBI, and some would argue that the hot stick of Aaron Hill has artificially lowered this number, but I would look back at Rios for the answers. He’s also struck out 16 times in 16 games and walked only six times.

The Jays have definitely been the class of the American League thus far. They have had some tremendous performances out their young players. The only question marks so far have been Rios and Ryan but so far so good because the Jays are sitting on the top of the AL East.

Every generation likes to believe that it is better than the one that came before it. Some would like to argue that in today’s game Willie Mays would be an average center fielder. Some would say that Babe Ruth who looked like a giant in his day would be nothing more than a bench player.

On Apr. 15 every year we celebrate the contributions of one of the legends of baseball. A contribution infinitely larger than a home run record, a contribution immeasurably bigger than a stolen base or base hit could ever be.

Jackie Robinson was that special individual that was not only physically gifted enough, but mentally tough enough to be the first African American to step over the color barrier and onto a Major League field.

He paved the way for generations of minorities on that day, Apr. 25, 1947. Not only that he paved way for all of us to just play ball. He allowed us to step forward out of the shadow of black and white and into world of color, where talent is the currency of the times.

He went on to win the MLB Rookie of the Year that year, become a six time All-star; he won the 1949 NL MVP and a 1955 World Series Champion. On this day when we celebrate a legend of the game, an iconic human being, let’s look at what the young men that now pivot the double play in the majors.

To look at those who he paved the way for regardless of whether they are black, white, japanese, jewish or christian.

We now deal in a world that is not perfect but ability trumps race, and the skills of the modern day second basemen are second to none.

Let’s start with the reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia. The Red Sox spark plug from Woodlands, California has managed to take the American League by storm. In two years in the big league Pedroia has managed a Rookie of the Year, Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger, an All-star Selection, a World Series win and an American League MVP trophy.

What Pedroia has managed in two season sounds like enough accolades for to describe a solid MLB career in most cases.

To go with all the hardware Pedroia boasts 398 hits, 99 doubles, three triples, 28 home runs, 140 RBI and 28 stolen bases. His career offensive line is .311/.368/.458.

In his MVP season, he batted .326 with 216 hits, 118 runs scored, 54 doubles and 20 stolen bases.

In 1949 Jackie batted .342 with 203 hits, 122 runs scored, 37 doubles and 37 stolen bases.

To follow the theme of great young second basemen in New York City, the Yankees have been cultivating a young superstar of their own. Robinson Cano wears 24 in the Bronx. The second-generation superstar was named after the baseball Legend and Cultural Icon.

So far, Cano has done the name proud 682 hits in his young career, he finished second in the 2005 voting and in 2006 won his first of looks to be several silver sluggers.

Then there is Aaron Hill, after back-to-back years of batting .291 he was side lined for most of 2008 with post concussion syndrome. But before that he smashed 17 homeruns, 47 doubles and produced a line of .291/.333/.495 in 657 at bats in 2007.

In Baltimore, the crafty veteran of the AL East at two bag is Brian Roberts. In 2004 Roberts announced his presence as a premier lead off man with 50 doubles and posting to that point career high .344 OBP. At 31 Roberts has now stolen 229 bases in 288 tries, while twice knocking out 50 plus doubles in a season.

This week we have seen two second basemen hit for the cycle. The first being the O-dog, quite possible the best defensive second basemen since Roberto Alomar. Hudson has been called “the best team mate I ever had.” By perennial Cy Young award contender Roy Halladay.

After the O-dog was let off the chain Ian Kinsler at 27 years old became the fourth Texas Ranger to hit for the cycle. He did it as part of a six for six effort where he managed two singles, two doubles, a triple and a home run. Kinsler also stole a base drove in four and scored five runs out of the lead off spot for the Rangers while wearing Robinson’s 42 on his special day.

Chase Utley is the kind of nose to the grind, no complaining no questions asked, put in the work athlete that every fan would be proud to call his own. Utley has cashed in on 20 plus home runs and more than 100 RBI each of the last four seasons. Chase is a three time Silver Slugger that has received MVP consideration in each of the last four years.

Take all of that talent and add in Dan Uggla, Howie Kendrick and Akinori Iwamura and you realize that the second base position is as deep as it has ever been.

He was never just a ball player, but I bet you he’d love to watch these guys patrol his spot. It is become he wasn’t just a ball player that people like Orlando Hudson get to be.

I wonder Jackie would say if he could see the position played like this?

Cause I know what we would say to him if he were still alive at the age of 90. We’d simply say “Thank you Mr. Robinson.”

Unfortunately nobody seems to be noticing. The Jays fans were their normal loud and loyal selves on opening night. Unfortunately a few bad apples decided that with the bases loaded and a seven run lead in the eighth on opening night to participate on a level of stupidity that caused the MLB to threaten forfeit. That was the Ugly. Even more predictable was the dramatic drop off in attendance over the next couple of days.

The Good:

The kids started off scorching hot and were looking to prove that the 12 spot they dropped on the Tigers on opening night was more indicative of the potential offense that they are have. With 46 runs score in the first week and twice knocking out double digits Cito and Gene Tenace seem to have the boys in blue swinging hot sticks right out of the gate.

Adam Lind – Has been on a tare to open his second full big league campaign. He’s managed 12 hits, five for extra bases in just seven games. He’s also shown a knack for the five spot driving in team high 12 runs.

Aaron Hill: Returning for post-concussion syndrome that kept him out of a large chunk of 2008 Hill looks to be back on track to be the player he was becoming, by batting .300 with three double and two long balls. Not to mention he has already knocked in eight RBI from the two spot. Not a proto-type two-spot hitter Hill is capable of creating a lot of excitement with his ability to generate runs.

Vernon Wells: Looking like the guy they gave all that money to, Wells has started the year batting .321 and has also knocked around three doubles and a home run in his first seven games.

The Bad:

Alex Rios: Although Rios seems to have learned the value of a walk with five in his first seven games, he hasn’t exactly been on fire in the three spot. The Jays have scored a league high 42 runs and Rios has driven in six. Combine that with Vernon Wells and you’ve gotten nine RBI out of the 3 and 4 spot. Luckily Hill and Lind has book ended them with 20 out of the two and five spot.

The Pitching: Everyone is enamored with the offense, but people shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the false promise that is this Blue Jays pitching staff. The Jays rank 17^thin the majors in ERA. In the American League alone the Jays rate in the top three in average, runs, slg, OBP and OPS on offense. On the reverse, of the 14 teams in the AL they are ninth in WHIP, ERA and tenth in OPS in pitching.

The Ugly:

I’ve discussed my disappointment in the opening day crowd already with their behavior. Lets talk about the fact that on the night the Blue Jays were attempting to take their third straight from the Tigers to start the season (Their best start since 1996) and drew 12,145 or 24% of capacity. Cito Gaston showed measurable improvement in this teams offense last season and opening day did nothing to dispel that. But 24% capacity by the third game of the season is nothing short of embarrassing.

So what do we know?:

After one week the Jays are mashing and their pitching is right on track with what we might have thought. The glut of runs has allowed them to get into the pen with a lead. Camp, Carlson, Downs and Fraser have held down the late innings. The Jays have gotten one quality start out of rookie Rickey Romero and Roy Halladay is 2-0, but Litsch, Purcey and Richmond have been the weak link accounting for the team’s two losses. In four starts and 21 innings the trio has surrendered 14 earned runs.

Are the Jays for real? Well as long as their two, four and five hitter keep up this pace they should be fine, even with this below average pitching. Unfortunately for them I just don’t seem Adam Lind being the first guy in 68 years to crack .400, and knocking out approx. 70 bombs.

Are the Jays better than most thought, it sure looks that way, but their team ERA and WHIP are cause to be concerned that what we have seen so far can not maintained.

The stat line for his September call up reads as follows in four starts: 0-3, 9.82 era—10 walks, four strikeouts, and a WHIP of 2.182.

But as they say, it isn’t how you start but how you finish. Well, there weren’t any no no’s on the resume, but yesterday, he finished, with “Zero Regrets.”

Curtis Montague Schilling managed to live the Major League dream for 20 years. When it was all said and done, his 216 – 146 record was certainly more impressive than his ominous start—but even that doesn’t tell the story; nor does the 3116 in 3261 innings.

Schilling is defined by what he managed to do against the best of the best. In his career, whether it was against the 1993 Blue Jays, a team which had three guys that are either in the Hall of Fame or certainly belong, or the 2001 Yankee, a modern dynasty while Schilling was at his best.

On raw regular season numbers, there are places that Schilling is short of the magic stats. There are also other places where he clearly measures up to the greatest the game has ever seen.

Just to make everyone happy, let’s break down a few stats that people think are important and a few that are over looked. Before I make the intangibles’ arguments that make the sports writers and traditionalist turn green, although that shade is probably envy, I will lay out the stats.

I think, for instance, his strikeout total 3116 is a major plus. That total put him 13th on the all time strike out list, 85 whiffs ahead of Pedro Martinez and one behind “The Immortal” Bob Gibson. There are only 15 members of the 3000 K Club. Of all the retired members, only Bert Blyleven is not in the Hall of Fame.

People point to the fact that he has no triple crowns, he has zero no hitters, and he didn’t manage to collect a Cy Young.

He has 216 wins which puts him a solid but not staggering 80th all time.

That to most people would be a minus, but when compared to his contemporaries, he’s only bested by other future hall of famers. Wins to me is more of a team stat anyway—measuring a team and not individual effort, but the sports writers do love to bring them up.

But I would argue that you have to compare people within their Era. If you take those three letters and look at Earned Run Average, you have a guy that was a full run better than the league average for his career.

Schilling has a career number of 3.46 vs. a league average of 4.41. That being said, Randy Johnson has a 3.26 for his career, in that span.

“The Professor” Greg Maddux, a contemporary they’ll most certainly open the doors to on the first ballot put up a 3.16, talk about a staggering stat in the middle of the dubbed Steroid Era.

There is another set of stats, during Schilling’s career, which struck me when I started to sort through all the accolades. I knew the wins number would be what is held against him. But what about the WHIP? You know the one that stat geeks everywhere run to as the measure of a man or a pitcher in this case.
Author Poll Results
Wait Until You’ve Read the Entire Article to Vote, Hall of Famer or not?
•    Yes, Schilling derves enshirement
66.7%
•    No, Schilling didn’t do enough
33.3%
•    Total votes: 3

“The Professor’s” control was legendary, better than everyone else of his time. It had to be right? He couldn’t break a pane of glass but managed to post a 3.16 ERA and the 10th best strikeout total of all time (3371). Maddux for all his control has a career WHIP of 1.143 and a strikeout to walks ration of 3.37.

What if we look at a couple of Future Hall of Fame pitchers and a hurler that I feel to be the best of the best over the last six to eight years?

WHIP                        K/BB
Greg Maddux          1.143                         3.37
Randy Johnson        1.167                         3.27
Pedro Martinez        1.051                         4.15
Roy Halladay          1.208                          3.06
Curt Schilling          1.137                         4.38

Only Pedro has a better walk and hits/innings pitched, and no one on that list has had better strikeouts to walks ratio. By the way, he’s not just the best on that list, but the best of all time amongs pitchers with more than 200 wins.

But the reason that Schilling will enter Cooperstown isn’t because of the regular season. I know it sounds amazing to say that about a guy that won more than 15 or more games eight times in his career; he won more than 20 or more four times.

The truth of the matter is the playoffs. When it matters the most, Schilling took his game up another level. I can hear the collective groans of the sports writing establishment, especially after Schilling managed to drop this major announcement on the public via his blog 38pitches.com.

But the playoff facts are what they are. He took three different cities to the World Series—that is every single team he put on a uniform for went to the World Series at least once. When he was asked to take the ball in his first National League Championship Series, all that Schilling did was go 0 – 0 in two starts, which is a shame considering his 1.69 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 16 innings.

You want to know why wins are a bad statistic to measure a pitcher. Look at that line, he allowed 11 hits and five walks over 16 innings.

He managed a WHIP of 1.00 against an Atlanta team that had Terry Pendleton, Fred McGriff, David Justice, Ron Gant, Otis Nixon, and a short stop in Jeff Blauser that batted over .300 and knocked out 15 homeruns. When the Phillies played the best teams in baseball, Schilling surrendered three runs in two starts, with a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.8.

He followed that up with a World Series effort in an elimination game that still stands as an all-time great performance. Let’s set the stage.

In a 2 -1 series, the Blue Jays hung a six spot on the Phil’s in the 8th inning to come back from five down and take a 3 – 1 series lead. Then in game five, against a lineup of now and future Hall of Fame in guys like Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor, and Roberto Alomar.

Never mind a supporting cast that included John Olerud, a 24 year old first basemen that batted .363 that year, Devon White, one of the league premier leadoff hitters, and Joe Carter, who would later create one of sports’ most memorable moment.

Schilling walked to the mound in game five, and with his team’s hopes riding on his right arm, posted a remarkable five-hit shutout to give the Phillies another day to play in the fall of 1993.

He followed that up on 2001—at the age of 34 when most players are winding down a career—he started six of 17 playoff games (three of seven in the fall classic) and managed 48 innings or eight per start and an era of 1.13.

Give that a minute to sink in. He pitched three complete games, averaged more than seven or more complete in his other three starts, and posted a sub 1.15 era. Oh yeah, and struck out 56 in 48 innings just for good measure.

Now dare I measure the ability to “Shut up 55,000 people from New York” in 2004? In what was another elimination game for the Red Sox, we saw a guy march out to the top of the mound with his bloody Sox and pull the down trodden Fenway Faithful to the top of the mountain, not once, but twice.

He went and stepped up in Philly, where they had more losses than any other team in Major League history and changed the culture. He went to Arizona and with Randy Johnson grew success in the desert. He went to Boston, where as the sheriff, he managed to wrestle “The Curse of the Bambino” out of town.

In 11 postseasons, the Big Unit is 7 – 9 with an ERA of 3.50, “The Professor” Maddux is 11-14 with an ERA of 3.27, and “The Rocket” is 12 – 8 with a 3.75.

Schilling, when it matters most, is 11 – 2 with a 2.23. He managed 120 strikeouts vs. 25 walks.

He’s managed three World Series rings in only five postseason trips.

When it matters the most, Schilling was not just at his best; you could argue the best of all time. Cooperstown, isn’t a Hall of Most or a Hall of Stats. It’s a Hall of Fame, and the spot light has shown brightest. You knew Curt could not only rise to the challenge but dominate the moment. That’s why he’s Famous!

It was reported by ESPN today that the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) filed a grievance against the clubs because of the Dodgers new “Ramirez” provision which calls for a charitable donation in all contracts from now on.

Manny Ramirez accepted a 2 year $45 million deal on March 4th. At the same time he made a $1million dollar donation to the Dodgers Dream Foundation at the request of the Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Now it is not known if McCourt asked for that much or if Manny generously offered up the million after being asked for just a donation. But McCourt vowed that he would require all contracts from the Dodgers to have a “Ramirez” provision.

This provision is a blank line for the player to write in an amount that they want to donate to charity. So it does not require a certain amount, as long as it’s something. It could be a dollar or a million. But the player that donates more will certainly benefit from the positive image it creates for them in their new team’s city.

Back to the grievance. The MLBPA’s lawyer feels that its fine for players to make donations whenever THEY want to, but that forcing players to make a donation was not allowed under the current agreement.

The Executive VP of Labor Relations, Rob Manfred, says that it’s totally fine and that teams have been doing it for years. He says that as long as it is a club policy and is adhered to then clubs are free to bargain with players and make special pacts.
“Article II of baseball’s labor agreement states contracts can include special covenants which actually or potentially provide additional benefits to the player. We’re at a loss to understand how the MLBPA could possibly take the position that making a charitable donation does not provide a benefit to the player,” says Manfred.

Frank McCourt was surprised by the news when asked about it today but I feel that he put it best in his statements below.
“I have not seen the grievance, but I find it odd that in these challenging times, that we encounter a complaint against the idea of players giving back to the communities that support them,” he said in a statement. “We believe there are qualities that represent the Dodger way. The player’s contributions to the team, appreciation of the fans, and impact on such a supportive community all combine to help our organization live up to our core values. We seek players who embrace these values. The Ramirez provision is a blank line to be filled in with whatever number a player chooses.”

Way to go Frank! The MLBPA needs to pull their heads out and open up THEIR pocket books, along with the players and continue to give back to their communities and help those less fortunate than them.

The grievance was filed Friday and if it’s not settled it will go to arbitrator Shyam Das for a decision.

We will do this by analyzing the 2008 year of Red Sox DH David Ortiz compared to his previous two years as a member of the Boston Red Sox to see if his skills are diminishing due to his age (33) and body type (large). It has been widely reported this off season, that Ortiz is quite possibly on the decline.

Personally, I think it has more to do with his ailing knees that were operated on prior to the 2008 season, but too close to spring training for them to heal properly. Then add to that, the freakish wrist sheath injury that limited him to 109 games. He shook it off for a while upon his return from the DL, but he started feeling or hearing a (pain-free) clicking in the injured wrist down the stretch run. Tell me what team-oriented player wouldn’t be affected by that in a playoff race and especially when he’s the teams 3 or 4 hitter.

I choose the two years prior to 2008 due to their close proximity to last year and their significance, they were considered his best seasons as a pro. In 2006, Ortiz hit a career high in HRs (54, a new Red Sox record), ISO (.349) and his third best RBI total (137). In 2007, he scored his second highest Runs total (116), his best BA and OBP (.332 and .445).

To do this, we will look at his G, R, HR, RBI, BA, OBP, SLG, ISO, BB Rate, SO Rate, FB%, GB%, LINEDR%, POPUP%, BABIP and HRR.

The new metrics in this post are BABIP, which is batting average on balls in play; LINEDR% is the rate of line drives hit; FB% % is the rate of fly balls hit; ISO, which is his isolated power numbers (in terms of extra bases per AB); BB Rate is the percentage of plate appearances that result in a walk; SO Rate is the percentage of plate appearances that result in a strike out; GB% is the rate of ground balls; POPUP% is the rate of pop ups hit and HRR is the rate of HR hit per AB.

By the Numbers

First, let’s take a look at the similarities between these three years. His strike out rate (SO Rate) and HR rate (HRR) matched that of his 2007 numbers (his 2006 HRR was 8%, 3% higher than 2007 and 2008), his ground ball percentage (GB%) and line drive percentage (LINEDR%) matched that of his 2006 season (his GB% was 1% lower than 2007) and his BABIP was only .001 lower than his 2006 season (.273 to .274).

Second, let’s take a look at the differences between these three years. We will avoid the following stats (R, HR and RBI) because they were directly affected by only playing in 109 games as opposed to 149 and 151 in the other two years. His BA of .264 was the lowest of his career when playing in 100+ games (he hit .234 with the Twins in 2001 while playing in 89 games). His OBP was .369 was tied for the lowest it’s been as a member of the Red Sox since 2003 (it had been .380 or as high as .445 between 2004-2007).

His 2008 slugging (SLG) of .507 and .243 isolated power (ISO) were both the lowest marks as a member of the Red Sox. His walk rate (BB Rate) was down 3% in 2008, but it was still higher than it was in his first two seasons in Boston (both were at 11%). His flyball rate (FB%) was down 5% depending on which site you use (Baseball Prospectus or FanGraphs) so we will call this one even as FanGraphs does. His pop up percentage was up 4% from 2008 to 2006 and 7% from 2008 to 2007.

My analysis

Given this analysis, I truly believe that Ortiz was more affected by his ailing knees which were still bothering him after off season surgery. This ailment alone caused him not to be able to drive the ball as easily as he has in the past. The health of the lower body of a power hitter like Ortiz if pivotal to his power numbers and Ortiz was learning how to be productive in spite of not having his full weight behind his swings.

Then came the freakish torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. Now remember, for lefties, their left wrist is the one that is in back and having problems with that back wrist would impede Ortiz to drive the ball as well. Players don’t usually let go with their hand that’s in back until after contact. I’m not sure if this had any other impact, but he has also had past concerns with his shoulder, too. Therefore, nothing else really strikes me as being a concern that David Ortiz is in decline, but only time will tell for sure.

My 2009 David Ortiz Projection

If healthy (knees, wrist and shoulder), I expect to see Ortiz put up the following numbers:

G: 150 R: 101 HR: 31 RBI: 122  BA:  .280  OBP: .380  SLG: .615  ISO: .290  BABIP: .290

Peter Schiller also writes monthly for Seamheads.com and almost daily at his personal baseball blog, Baseball Reflections.com. Please follow the links to read his work at these two other sites.