Hyun Jin Ryu was captured playing catch with a boy, only known to me as “Deuce”, in the stands during batting practice.

After Matt Kemp made headlines everywhere for being a great guy, something he’s done before, Ryu once again brings positive headlines to the Dodgers for off-the-field reasons.

In what has been a horrible 2013 thus far for the team, at least there’s been bright spots off-the-field to relieve the constant bombardment of negativity.

We are on the cusp of a new MLB season, which means that fans and those interested in baseball betting are starting to think about which teams could conceivably win the American and National leagues, and the World Series. When it comes to the National League, there are sides from all three of the divisions (East, West, and Central) that have a real chance to take the pennant.

The favorites from the NL East division is currently the Washington Nationals – although the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies must also be considered in contention. Washington are favorites, both for the East division and the NL, with odds of 7/2. The West division looks likely to put up two real contenders – the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers have spent big – their payroll is rumored to be between $215 and $230 million – but the Giants are the holders of the World Series and will not want to lose that crown. This could be a titanic battle, especially compared with the Central division – where most expect the Cincinnati Reds to be the only serious contenders for the National League pennant. They won the division by nine games last year, and will hope to go one better by taking the pennant this season.

If you find it too hard to select a team to bet on for the National League at this stage, you may prefer to play a game like Hot Shot at an online casino and bide your time. Hot Shot is a baseball themed slots game which can be found at places like www.iphonecasino.com.au, with a maximum cash jackpot of $2000 available. Even if you don’t manage to win this, you should certainly win something by playing it, thanks to the nine pay-lines and the presence of a wild icon on the reels. It’s the burning baseball, and it can substitute for other missing icons to give you a winning reel – which in turn activates the great sound effect of a bat hitting a baseball. Throw in crowd noises throughout and reel icons of baseball players, catchers’ mitts, and typical baseball snacks, and you have one of the best sports slots games around.

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Sponsored post.

What’s going on in that picture? Don’t ask.

Really though, Matt Kemp was on “Sesame Street” recently, and he showed off his acting chops.

What an amazing showing by Mattycakes, especially the part where he gives the camera a disgusted/angered death stare on a show meant for kids.

:o

At this rate, it’s between him and Daniel Day Lewis for the Oscar in 2014.

Since it was off R.A. Dickey, hopefully it represents a World Series preview.

Matt Kemp represented the Dodgers in a commercial for MLB 13: The Show recently, and I … sorry, just got lost in his eyes.

—–

Use this every time Don Mattingly decides to bunt…

…and this every time Matt Kemp does something dreamy.

It’s a flawless plan.

I voted in the IBWAA Hall Of Fame election for 2013, in which Mike Piazza was the only player elected this time around.

In its 2013 Hall of Fame election the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) selected Mike Piazza, with 79.10% of the vote. While no other player managed the required 75% threshold, Craig Biggio was closest with 64.18%.

Roger Clemens finished in third place, with 52.24%. Jeff Bagwell and Barry Bonds tied for fourth at 50.75%. Complete results below.

The IBWAA selected Bert Blyleven in 2010 and Roberto Alomar in 2011. No player tallied 75% in 2012. Though he was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) in 2012, Barry Larkin remains on the IBWAA ballot.

Beginning with this election, the IBWAA added voting for “special consideration” candidates, those normally associated with the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Veterans and Era Committees. This year’s candidates were Buzzie Bavasi, Gil Hodges, Tom Kelly, Marvin Miller, Danny Murtaugh and Vada Pinson.

My ballot can be found in the lead picture, where a yellow highlight means a vote for the individual and a ‘YES’ next to a name means I would have voted for them if I had room.

These are the overall percentages for the players who got votes:

Discuss?

Recently, I linked to a FanGraphs article about how stolen bases now matter more and why the break-even point is dropping. In the comments section of that article, a user named “Joshua” asked a question I found interesting.

Joshua says:
November 30, 2012 at 7:32 pm

Interesting. What would this do to run expectancy tables and bunting? Is the 1st to 2nd sac bunt now less offensive than before?

I’m sure somebody out there smarter than me has tackled this before, but I had not personally seen this addressed yet, so I thought I would take a look at it.

The FanGraphs article analyzed stolen bases from 2007 to 2012, so I looked at those years as well.

—–

Run Expectation

2012

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.8577
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.6551
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2026

2011

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.8500
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.6492
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2008

2010

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.8666
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.6586
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2080

2009

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.8957
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.6827
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2130

2008

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.9037
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.6891
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2146

2007

Runner On First/Nobody Out: 0.9284
Runner On Second/One Out: 0.7077
Sacrifice Bunt Difference: -0.2207

—–

So is it less offensive? Absolutely.

Still mockable and dumb? Yeah.

Outs are always at a premium over advancing one base. There are certain contexts and situations where it makes sense to bunt a player over, but a great majority of the time, it’s still a move that goes against The Book.

I joined the IBWAA and participated in the IBWAA Awards vote in 2012, the results of which you can see in the picture above.

So did they match what I voted for? Sort of.

*Click To Enlarge*

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I think everything I voted on is self-explanatory, though there’s room for quibbling here and there.

Thoughts?

So THAT happened at a Clippers game yesterday, presumably because Matt Kemp was there to see Blake Griffin. Unfortunately, by the look in Kris Jenner‘s eyes, you can tell she’s thinking about him as a potential publicity marriage partner for one of her two younger daughters in a few years.

As a Dodger fan, your initial reaction to this picture basically has to be “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!“, right?

#Analysis

NotGraphs posted a seemingly innocuous tongue-in-cheek type article about the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, but don’t tell that to one commenter, who managed to fit a whopping 12 cliches into a single paragraph.

Jjmann says:
September 4, 2012 at 1:06 pm

Im sick of the fantasy baseball pencil neck baseball anylists complaining about a team that steps up to challenges and does what it takes to win. Get out of your computer room and go to a game, orioles or otherwise and realize its played by human beings who can believe in what they can do, and not listen to numbers. This is old school baseball. This is what america fell in love with before steriods and computers and million dollar contracts. They may not be there next year, but they believe this year and thats why they win.

Hall Of Fame material right here.

1) Statistics means fantasy baseball.

2) Pencil-necked nerds.

3) Clutchitude.

4) They do whatever it takes to win.

5) Vague mother’s basement reference.

6) We don’t go to the games.

7) Baseball is played by humans.

8) Old school.

9) We love steroids.

10) Computers are hard.

11) Athletes today are spoiled.

12) Armchair psychologist.

Bonus!

1) “anylists”

2) “steriods”

Amazing.

I like to imagine these people as Kevin Hart in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin“.

“Well, aight, check this out, dawg. First of all, you throwin’ too many big words at me, and because I don’t understand them, I’m gonna take ‘em as disrespect. Watch your mouth and help me with the sale.“

The involvement of Dee Gordon and Jerry Hairston Jr. in this MLB Fan Cave bit is obviously correlated to their current injuries.

The lesson here is to never do this again.

*Click To Enlarge*

So last time around, the brother of a girl named Katie, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia, posted on reddit about Matt Kemp‘s support of her fight against the cancer, and now her friend has done so as well, complete with visual evidence.

He’s a cool dude.

So everybody knows Matt Kemp rules on the field, but this is even better than his play.

This Is Matt Kemp. My little sister has AML She met him last Tuesday and he has worn her bracelet ever since. I don’t care if you are a dodger fan or not this man means more to my family then you will ever know.

Awesome.

Was browsing around the Internet yesterday, reading up on the Penn State University scandal, and stumbled upon this article by Thomas Ferraro of United Press International published on May 17th, 1987.

What stood out to me were Joe Paterno‘s quotes on his image…

“Joe Paterno shifts uncomfortably on the couch of his office at Penn State University and makes a confession about his holier-than-thou image.

‘It scares the heck out of me,’ booms the hallowed football coach. ‘Because I know I’m not that clean. Nobody is that clean.’”

…and the death penalty being used on a football program.

“SMU: ‘It’s unbelievable to think that kind of corruption came right from the top of the power structure. The NCAA did what it had to do’ in canceling SMU’s 1988 football season.”

Interesting considering the reactions of a lot of PSU supporters in light of Jerry Sandusky‘s conviction and The Freeh Report.

Episodes five and six of “Between Two Palm Trees” deal with Clayton Kershaw‘s Justin Bieber heartthrob status and A.J. Ellis trying to solicit a ticket to the All-Star Game.

A.J. needs to jump out of the chair and try to strangle Clayton or something, just so I can get GIF material out of it.

Episode one here. Episode two here. Episodes three and four here.

Apparently this was posted a few days ago but I missed it, and given that I covered episodes one and two, I figured I should continue the trend by drawing attention to episodes three and four.

The debut episode of “Between Two Palm Trees” provided a GIFable moment, but this one took awkward to the next level.

The best thing? I didn’t know this was a series of videos, I thought it was a one-off.

Is the play of A.J. Ellis not enough for you to love him? Okay, how about his sense of humor then?

Via Dodger Thoughts

Seriously though, if you don’t vote A.J. Ellis to the All-Star Game, I hate you.

If you don’t get what A.J. Ellis is doing here, I also hate you, but Google “Between Two Ferns“.

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Or that’s what you would say if you believed in jinxes and what not.

With a headline like that, you would expect this is for the division lead, right?

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No. It’s to see which team ends up in last place.

I swear these two teams could both be at 40-121 going into the last game of the season and their finish would still be hyped more than the teams who were actually winning.

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That comment on Dodger Thoughts from Terry Pruett on the ownership situation basically sums up exactly what I feel about the recent controversy.

I must be the only one who couldn’t care less whether the Dodgers owners reveal their whole involvement with McCourt.

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 16, 2012

Far more concerned with the trading deadline, what the front office looks like, and 2013 payroll.

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 16, 2012

As far as what they do with their own money? It’s up to them.

I’ll criticize if they fail to do what it takes to make Dodger Stadium better, to make the other facilities better, and to make the team better.

They don’t owe me (or us) anything beyond that.

Hank Schulman went insane yesterday, translating a sequence of events and reactions from the Dodgers/Giants game in the most illogical way possible, basically so that they would fit his narrative.

Many fans here booed when Kemp misplayed Melky ball, didn’t reach Arias RBI single.If that’s what they were booing, they’re total idiots.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 8, 2012

Honestly, I think Schulman has lost his fucking marbles. That’s my honest assessment.

—–

Dodgers fans didn’t boo Matt Kemp when he actually made the error on Melky Cabrera‘s single, as it was silent in the stadium, probably because they were worried that the Giants just put the tying run on.

Then Joaquin Arias singled to center and the tying run scored. Fans proceeded to boo.

Now, any reasonable person would conclude that Dodgers fans were booing the fact that their hated rival just tied the game at one in the sixth inning, but Schulman?

Oh no, my friend.

Now I’m getting Tweets saying fans weren’t booing Kemp. Just booing a Giants run. What a load of crapola. They were booing Kemp, period.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 8, 2012

How in the flying fuck one concludes that fans were booing Kemp instead of a game-tying single is beyond me.

The hit was a clean single that landed about 15 feet short of Kemp and 5 feet to his left, meaning that either the fans were booing Kemp’s effort on a line drive single OR that the goddamn Giants just scored the game-tying run.

Hm…

So just to recap, the fans didn’t boo Dee Gordon when he tried to make three errors on a single play in the previous inning, and the fans didn’t boo Kemp when he actually made the error on the play Schulman was talking about. Yet, Dodgers fans apparently decided to bust out the boo birds on Kemp because of a clean single to center that nobody on this planet would have had a shot at catching.

Oh yeah, that certainly sounds more plausible than booing the Giants.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe fans were expressing deep-seated hatred for Joaquin Arias.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 8, 2012

Dodgers fans were expressing a deep-seated hatred for the Giants scoring the tying run in the sixth inning. The Dodgers and Giants, they sort of have this rivalry and stuff.

You know, kind of like how Giants fans chant “BEAT L-A” in the third inning.

Now they’re chanting “MVP, MVP” for Kemp. These really are the worst fans in baseball.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 8, 2012

To be clear, I’m not criticizing fans for MVP chant, but for doing it after booing Kemp on defense.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 8, 2012

Jon Weisman already handled this ridiculousness from a different angle, but I wanted to comment from my perspective as well.

Not only has Schulman convinced himself that fans were booing Kemp instead of the fact that the Giants tied the game, he actually managed to convince himself that Dodgers fans did a complete 180 on their views of Kemp within an inning of play and suddenly decided that he was the MVP.

WE’RE AMAZING!

Maybe though, just fucking maybe, Dodgers fans actually love Kemp, hence the “M-V-P!” chant (which happens all the time), and they were actually booing the Giants as a team during the previous inning because it’s the Giants they hate.

MAYBE.

As I watched Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro get absolutely lit up in a home plate collision with Mat Gamel of the Milwaukee Brewers, I wondered to myself why this aspect of baseball was even necessary.

I’m obviously not the first person to suggest this, and I’ve read all the criticism of writers who have previously suggested such rule changes, but there’s generally minimal logic to be found in the dissenting corner.

Their arguments usually go something like this:

“You’re ruining the tradition of baseball!”

“It’s always been this way, so why change it now?!”

“You could get hurt doing anything! What’s next? No sliders?!”

This would be a straw man fallacy if these weren’t the most common arguments I actually see against the idea.

Oh, and don’t let me forget the best of all:

“It’s people like you who are pusssssifying Amurrrrricccccaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!”

Well, that’s great.

—–

Despite my mocking, I actually understand where they’re coming from. No, really.

I was raised on traditional, hard-nosed baseball where doing things like wrecking a second baseman and blowing up the catcher was just considered “playing the game the right way”. Hell, my great-uncle was initially reviled in Japan for busting up the double play, and I learned a lot of my baseball from a guy who taught my great-uncle how to play ball, my grandfather. So I don’t feel the “you just don’t understand” reasoning applies to me.

I do get it, but I didn’t grow up believing in statistical analysis either, yet I was drawn to it anyway because I sought out things like logic and facts, not tradition and romanticization.

In that same vein, I can’t see the logic or sense in continuing to allow collisions at home plate, and I’ll even take it a step further than others and add takeout slides as well.

—–

The hit on Jason Castro would be cited as a blow to the head of a defenseless player in the NFL, and would probably lead to a fine and perhaps a suspension. In the NHL, a player just got suspended for 25 games for an elbow/shoulder to the head of a defenseless player. Yet, in the MLB, for whatever reason, these actions are completely legal and legitimate.

Why?

In sports like football, hockey, basketball, and yes, even soccer, exerting physicality and strength over an opponent is not just “part of the game”, but an active and legitimate strategy that is frequently employed by dominant teams.

Physicality in baseball? Eh … not so much.

No matter how often people repeat this rhetoric about beanballs and intimidation or whatever, baseball never was and never will be a contact sport. Exerting one’s physicality on an opponent has minimal to no effect, especially in the modern game, so why even bother keeping this “tradition” alive?

Two roughly developed rule changes (that you can help me adjust) would instantly address the issues I have:

1) Treat home plate like any other base. The catcher may not interfere with the runner’s path to the base and the runner may not collide with the catcher.

2) A player sliding or diving into a base must do so directly in line with the bag unless attempting to avoid a tag. In essence, this eliminates the need for the neighborhood play, as there will no longer be batters sliding five feet out of the basepath trying to take out the legs of infielders.

—–

I can’t see how the product on the field would suffer with those rule changes implemented. People don’t watch baseball to see infielders get taken out or catchers blown up, because if that was the actual appeal of the sport, then they’d be out of business.

The reality is that baseball has been and always will be a finesse sport, regardless of how people try to twist it. As such, both rule changes would have a minimal impact on the actual game, but would help avoid a number of potentially horrific head, knee, and ankle injuries, which I think would both protect players and improve the quality of the product on the field.

Most importantly, it just makes sense.

Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk recently checked up on Jose Canseco‘s ridiculous Twitter antics and had a bit of fun with it in an article.

“Why?”

That’s the only thing that ran through my head when I read the title of the article in my RSS feed.

Now it’s not my intent to pick on Craig, as he’s only one of the many who write about Canseco’s antics, but isn’t it about time we stop giving Canseco all this attention?

I do recognize the irony in writing an article about a person and imploring people to stop giving that person attention, but there’s a reason I unfollowed him, stopped reading articles about him, and just stopped caring about him.

God knows I understand why he appeals to people, as everybody loves a train wreck and so do I, but recently it has gotten to the point where it’s just this constant stream of crazy from Canseco.

In my opinion, there are two reasons for this:

1) He’s legitimately mentally ill and needs help.

2) He’s trolling for attention and will do anything to get it.

If it’s the first scenario, then constantly poking and prodding at somebody who needs mental help isn’t going to do them any favors. In a Twitterverse that is constantly about being morally holier than thou, I’m surprised people continue to mess with him just for the sake of messing with him even though just about everybody thinks he’s lost his marbles.

If it’s the second scenario, then his antics become far less entertaining, don’t they? Assuming he’s being genuine, his tweets are funny because they’re so unbelievable. But as a contrived pseudo-comedy account? Not all that amusing. If he’s just doing it for the attention now, then we’re the ones being trolled, aren’t we?

—–

Personally, I think that at some point he realized people loved it when he went on crazy rants, and now he’s just trying to play up to everybody’s expectation to get a constant flow of attention. Sad, but he wouldn’t be the first person to do it and he won’t be the last.

Either way, I honestly don’t get why people insist on continuing to feed him. Whether he’s mentally ill or trolling for attention or both, keeping him in the spotlight isn’t doing anybody any good.

Just stop.

Dallas Jackson of Rivals brought the public the story of two pitchers who threw 347 pitches between them … in one game. People were shocked, people were angry, and I was … well … unfortunately not all that surprised.

After 501 pitches, the game finally ended.

New Orleans (La.) Jesuit had bettered Metairie (La.) Archbishop Rummel in an 18-inning, pitchers’ duel and the 2-1 victory was exactly what everyone had anticipated when it was announced that both teams would be throwing their ace pitcher.

LSU signee Mitch Sewald started for Rummel; Emerson Gibbs, a Tulane signee, for Jesuit.

Of those 501 pitches needed to decide the victory, the two young arms had accounted for 347 of them.

Sewald pitched 10 innings allowing one run on two hits. He recorded 10 strikeouts and threw 154 pitches. Gibbs pitched 15 innings allowing a single run on six hits. He recorded 13 strikeouts and accounted for 193 pitches.

Is there any way to put this besides negligent? No, I don’t think so. It’s terrible and it’s all too common.

Now the sheer number of pitches is something I haven’t seen outside of Japan, but as far as the gross negligence by coaches? Not all that shocking.

—–

There are situations where these types of decisions are acceptable. If they’re playing in the state tournament and the pitcher’s career is about to end (not going to play in college), then I can understand risking the injury. But these two pitchers? They both want to continue their playing careers, yet their coaches were okay with putting that on the line … for what, exactly? One random high school game? Disgusting.

Just talked with AD at one of schools where HS pitchers went 154 and 193. Anticipates no changes or limits. “Have to trust coach.”

— Will Carroll (@injuryexpert) April 18, 2012

The athletic director says to trust the coach? Nah, I say be more skeptical and protect your own kids.

—–

Now there’s always the other end of the spectrum as far as protecting your kids, as Dirk Hayhurst pointed out recently.

Parents, or The Parents, as we call them among coaching circles, are the number one cause of problems for just about every coach and player… including their own.

That’s because The Parents, in their quest to be loving, helpful, and provide the perfect baseball experience, do some crazy-ass s*^#$ like pick fights with coaches in parking lots, start arguments in the middle of games, harass other teams ten year olds to the point of crying, brawl with other dads, attack other mothers, and contact child services over lack of playing time.

Coach for any amount of time and you’ll learn quickly that the hardest part about coaching young children is dealing with the grown up problems of their parents.

Anybody who has coached knows exactly what he’s talking about, and I agree with his general points, but assuming that you’re not one of these emotionally unstable parents, I’m not sure I agree with his view on coaches.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some bad coaches out there, especially at the lowest levels. Most don’t know anything about baseball, or the mechanics. They yell a lot, they boss kids around, and they have big expectations. But that’s life for you: lots of loud mouths, know-nothings, and frustrating expectations to deal with.

Luckily, many coaches are good people doing the best they can with what they’ve got. Even so, it’s important to realize there is no perfect coach.

My requirement isn’t a perfect coach, just a competent one.

Every time these stories about coaching abuse are released, the common rhetoric is that the type of coach who would let their pitcher throw 193 pitches in a game is the vast minority, but I’m not so sure. Maybe the abuse isn’t to that exact extreme all the time, but from my own anecdotal experience*, it’s not as uncommon as people would like you to believe, and I think a lot of coaches from the high school level on down have no business instructing kids.

*I know it’s anecdotal, but I do know about quite a bit of coaches.

Why do coaches let a pitcher throw 200 pitches or pitch five days in a row? Why do they let tweens throw forkballs or 50 curves in a game? Why do they make an outfielder attempt to hobble through an injury?

Simple, the coach wants to win and prioritizes that over everything else. Worse yet, it’s not even for the players, it’s for themselves.

In my opinion, for as much as parents are at fault for the negativity that transpires, so are the coaches. Similar to parents who treat their children like angels, coaches who treat their players like professionals aren’t fostering a productive and healthy environment for everybody involved either. It’s a natural instinct for both parties, but just as Hayhurst encourages parents to lay off and let their kids figure it out for themselves, when a coach takes on that role for kids and young adults, they owe it to them to constantly remind themselves about the big picture and why they’re doing what they’re doing to begin with.

At the end of the day, nobody cares if you win a Little League game, nobody cares if you win a high school game, and nobody cares if you’re named Northwest Regional 10 Division 42 Coach Of The Year.

In the grand scheme of life, how many players would you be proud of if they came back in 30 years and said winning a Little League World Series or winning a High School State Championship was the proudest moment in their lives? None, because while it means a ton at the time, it really doesn’t mean much when all is said and done.

—–

At the level that I’m talking about, the success of a coach is not determined by how many games they win but by how many players come up to them in a decade and still respect them enough to call them coach. A lot of coaches may have banners or trophies, but in reality, many of them didn’t accomplish anything.

That’s why I feel that all of these coaches who take their jobs way too seriously and base their worth in how many wins they can squeeze out of kids and young adults, consequences be damned, need to be reminded that it should all take a backseat to what they can teach kids about both baseball and life.