Working the Poll

So the annual Sports Illustrated poll of the most overrated players in Major League Baseball is out.    I've read a few pieces on this, and everyone makes the same points over and again, without asking the first thing that popped into my mind- how do they define overrated? 

Who conducted this poll?  Frank Luntz? Daily Kos?  Quinnipiac?  Just a few SI editors?   Unpaid interns?  How was the question asked?  Was it “Who is the most overrated player in baseball?” or was “Who do fans overrate the most?”  These are distinctions that would dramatically affect a poll with a sample size of 185. 

What I can say is this- if the poll question was “Based on the volume and laudatory statements of home team broadcasters, who is the most overrated player in baseball?”, then this poll is accurate- Yankees are four of the top six vote getters. 

For once Jorge Posada isn't upset that Jeter's getting all the attention. 

Nice Nights Finish Last

Twenty minutes after the final pitch of another demoralizing loss, Katie, Duff and I were sitting in beach chairs in the parking lot, drinking Bud Light out of keg cups the same shade of red as most of the fans in Citi Field were wearing when the game ended. 

My sister got me Mets tickets for my birthday, and now seven weeks later the game had ended with predictable disappointment.  The Mets held a lead for seven innings, only to blow it in the end.  By the ninth the Phillies fans had taken over the bleachers completely.   

But all was not lost.  There was still cold beer and good company in the parking lot.  As the rest of the parking lot emptied, slowly, we laughed and talked about everything but the last two innings of the game. 

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Are We Allowed to Be Impressed?

You know you should be enjoying this for what it is. I mean. This is fantastic. This guy is 38 years old. His whole career was clear in the discard pile. And there is no rarer thing in life than a man who suddenly changes your opinion of him for the better. But your conscience nags at you. You sit in the couch, idle on your laptop. It's already the ninth inning. They're not even going to bring Mariano Rivera into this. You remember that when you were younger you got sucked into things. And you look up clips of that home-run race.

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I feel really good right now. It doesn't matter if I'm 38 years old. I feel really good right now

–Bartolo Colon. 

No, kidding dude. 

Now All Catchers Must Suck?

Last Wednesday night Scott Cousins collided at the plate with Buster Posey in the top of the 12^th inning of a tie game.  Since then, baseball people have been tearing their hair out trying to make heads or tails of the situation. 

Make no mistake- if Scott Cousins had collided with Kyle Phillips, we wouldn't be talking about this.    It's because Posey is a star, and the title hopes of the defending World Champions are at stake that this is a conversation. 

The immediate reaction was 'Well, this is unfortunate, but it's the way the game is played, it's the way it always have been.'  While I'm always suspicious of white people saying 'This is the way it's always been', everyone knows the play was legal.  It was only after it became clear that Posey was probably out for the season that we began committing seppuku.   

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Parked Posey

Giants catcher Buster Posey's season is likely over after he broke a bone and twisted ligaments in his leg in an epic home-plate crash last night.  

If you have an ESPN Insider subscription, read Buster Olney's thoughts on why the collision-play at the plate should be disallowed. It's now being openly questioned whether there ever will be "franchise catchers" in the future, considering the money and the risk involved. Franchise players just can't afford to miss as much time as catchers are prone to miss, either through need of rest, shortened careers, or calamitous injuries unique to the position. 

Update on Thursday at 2:34 PM by Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posey's agent is understandably upset, and curiously active in lobbying MLB about a rule-change. 

"You leave players way too vulnerable," Berry said. "I can tell you Major League Baseball is less than it was before [Posey's injury]. It's stupid. I don't know if this ends up leading to a rule change, but it should. The guy [at the plate] is too exposed.

"If you go helmet to helmet in the NFL, it's a $100,000 fine, but in baseball, you have a situation in which runners are [slamming into] fielders. It's brutal. It's borderline shocking. It just stinks for baseball. I'm going to call Major League Baseball and put this on the radar. Because it's just wrong."

Houston May Not Remain Sweaty Mess Forever | Fan Graphs brings us an impressive list of Astros prospects. Hope is named Delino DeShields Jr.

Around the Einhorn

So the Fred Wilpon has found his knight in shining equities markets, David Einhorn.

Einhorn claims to be a childhood Mets fans, which should already endear him to Mets fans sick of having a Dodgers nostalgist as the sole owner. "Having an opportunity to become part of the Mets franchise is exciting beyond my wildest childhood dreams,” Einhorn said in a statement.

Amazingly, early reports say that Einhorn will take no part of ownership in the SNY cable-network, the most lucrative part of the Mets operation. He told reporters in a conference call that "It was never of interest to me." Unfortunately, the $200 million in cash that Einhorn brings will be used almost entirely to service debts that the Wilpons have acquired.

The initial reaction from Forbes writer, Nathan Vardi is full of speculation:

Einhorn runs Greenlight Capital, a very successful hedge fund that is known for making daring and contrarian investments. By purchasing the Mets, Einhorn may believe the team has reached bottom not only in the baseball standings, but financially as well. The team drew only 2.6 million fans last year and is on track to attract even fewer fans this year, but not long ago the annual attendance was well above 3 million–Einhorn may believe it will be again once the team overcomes its current on-the-field problems.

This is merely a confirmation of Wilpon's biggest selling point: there is only one National League team in New York, there probably never will be another one in our lifetimes.

Interesting that this is the second time this week that Einhorn has been in the news. Earlier this week, this equities prince demanded the head of Microsoft Chairman Steve Ballmer. It would be nice to have a voice like this in the ultra-staid company of other baseball owners.

Einhorn said something else in his conference call with reporters today: "I think the Wilpons are the control holders of the team. I'm just looking forward to the overall experience this investment will lead to." This absolutely confirms the view of Wilpon, shared with reporter Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker that owning a baseball team changes the way you are perceived in your other businesses.

Utility

Just as he was the only happy man in the clubhouse on that day last March, he was the only one unhappy this day.  As he went through his preparations for the night's game, a game that for the first time this season he was unlikely to play in, Wilson Valdez made every effort to keep focused.  That's when the unmistakable strains of “Kashmir” erupted throughout the room.  Valdez looked towards the door.  A large shadow stood in the frame, his features obscured by the blinding white light behind him.  He was back. 

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Notes on an Epic

The insane, grinding, dancing-on-the-edge-of-silly 19 inning game between the Reds and the Phillies last night produced a parade of laudable and laughable stats. 

Laudable: The heroic relief pitching of the Phillies' Danys Baez who racked up five scoreless innings, 73 pitches, almost double his career-high of 40. Then there was the Reds' Carlos Fischer who threw 5 and 2/3 innings (95 pitches!) and looked like he could have collapsed in the pitches just before he took the loss on a Raul Ibanez sac fly. 

Laughable: The Reds left 14 men on base - in the first nine innings. Jay Bruce admitted after the game that Valdez had "OK stuff." The Phillies used 9 pitchers, but Charlie Manuel never went to other members of his starting rotation. The Phillies announcers pour-mouthing Wilson Valdez and how it was a "shame" that "it had come to this" while he was providing the most memorable inning of pitching in the Phillies' season.  

Wilson Antonio Valdez (born May 20, 1978, in Nizao, Peravia, Dominican Republic) is a motha fucking beast of aMajor League Baseball utility infielder and relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. 

– The first line of Wilson Valdez's Wikipedia page at 1:31 in the morning EST. The entry was corrected two minutes later. 

Valdez, a journeyman utility infielder, was dragooned to pitch in the top of the 19th in an epic game between the Reds and Phillies. Valdez hit one batter and induced three pop-ups. He became the first position player credited with a win since 2000. 

Barry Bonds' Oversized Heart

Positive news out of San Francisco. Former slugger and current hate-object Barry Bonds has promised to pay for the college tuition of beating-victim Bryan Stow's two children. Stow is a single-father. 

According to Bryan Stow's lawyer, "He didn't say anything about it to the press. This was just a gift he gave  the family because he knew that it was going to be pretty important to the  kids"

Dice-K and Us

Something tells me that some Red Sox fans are almost relieved by the injury news involving their expensive starter. That "something" is Red Sox fans. 

I’m going to admit something up front.  After reading Heyman’s report, I did a little “happy dance.”  There, I said it.  I did a “happy dance,” and I don’t feel guilty about it.*  I couldn’t help it!  While I don’t wish injury on anyone (especially someone on the Red Sox), the thought of not having to watch any more Dice-K torture-fests for the foreseeable future is too good to be true.  Watching him pitch is like going to a long-form Catholic wedding.  One minute you’re standing (angrily screaming); the next you’re sitting (frustrated and irritated); and lastly, you’re kneeling (praying the 25 minute, 36 pitch inning will at some point end).  It’s grueling.  It’s uncomfortable.  It’s uniquely Dice-K.  There’s no other way to explain it.

The best part is the deep wrestling with one's conscience, so typical of New Englanders. 

Order to Be Viciously Restored

Yes, we talked up the Royals. We talked up a hot Orioles start. We are still talking up the Indians. And we told Red Sox fans and Rays fans that all they could justly expect was misery. We embraced the revolution of nobodies. But now order is visciously being restored.

The Red Sox started 2-10. They've since gone 25-12. They Rays are right behind them bunched up at the top of the American League east. Kansas City has falled below .500 and will rapidly drop behind the Chicago White Sox.

Cleveland still owns the best record in baseball, but their schedule suddenly stiffens in the next month. Boston hung them 14-2 in this afternoon's matchup. And now the Tribe is about to be exposed by the Rays. We still think Cleveland can win that division by maintaining a pace just barely above .500 for the rest of the year. But with one of the smallest run differentials in the league, Clevelanders should prepare for a painful adjustment.

I see what you’re saying because you have to have something to write about. If I stop doing that, I won't be true to myself as a baseball player or true to my teammates or true to the fans who watch me play the game. I just don't get why you keep harping on it. Just expect it out of me. If I get hurt, we'll continue to do this thing. It's ridiculous. I frickin' play the game. I can't worry about that. I never think about it.

-Josh Hamilton, on his intention to continue to slide head first, despite last month's injury.