Odds and Ends for August

Jason Michael Barker

Hiya everybody. How've you been? It occurred to me today while writing this week's column that you always get to hear about me, and we almost never talk about you. So I thought I'd ask. That doesn't mean I want an essay about your life to hit my inbox after you read this, but I thought you might appreciate the gesture. On to baseball·

And don't let the door hit you on the way out·
The Red Sox fired Jimy Williams last week, and even though many people thought the move was a long time coming, I was still struck by the odd timing of it all. Sure the Sox had lost six of seven, but they were only a few games back in the East and still very much alive in the Wild Card (not that anybody's actually going to beat Oakland, but at least they still had a shot).

My first reaction was that Williams really didn't deserve the ax, and he certainly didn't deserve it after keeping his team in contention despite injuries to Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez, Carl Everett and Jason Varitek, and of course the subsequent missed playing time associated with said injuries. Those who supported Williams touted the "could another manager have done better?" line left and right.

Boston's biggest problem this season has been a lack of quality hitters outside of Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon. At their best, Shea Hillenbrand, Jose Offerman, Dante Bichette, Darren Lewis and Troy O'Leary are poor hitters. Hillenbrand and his .266/.286/.388 line have no business playing an infield corner, and Carl Everett's refusal to take walks this season has seriously hindered his offensive production.

When a manager has no tools to work with, who deserves the blame? GM Dan Duquette is the guy who put this team together, but Williams is the one who selected the parts coming out of spring training. And Duquette knew his manager preferred veteran players, if Williams' refusal to play Morgan Burkhart and Israel Alcantara last season was any indication. Apparently Williams' continued use of Derek Lowe and Rod Beck after Duquette acquired Ugueth Urbina was the last straw.

I think both parties -- Williams and Duquette -- are partially to blame, and of course it's always easier to fire the manager than the general manager. It will be interesting to see if Joe Kerrigan plays the players Duquette brings in, particularly AAA scrap heap types like Alcantara and Burkhart that Williams would not. It will also be interesting to watch Boston's pitching staff as Kerrigan, a well-respected pitching coach, leaves those duties behind to handle the full roster.

Who you callin' short?
Those wacky Astros are at it again, calling up young pitchers from the minors only to see them dominate in the majors. By now you're certainly familiar with Roy Oswalt, who's 9-2 with a 3.29 ERA in this his rookie season. Earlier in the year the 'Stros called up another phenom, Tim Redding, only to ultimately send him back to the minors to work on his changeup. The newest addition to the staff is Carlos Hernandez, who pitched seven shutout innings against the Pirates on Saturday in his Major League debut.

Oswalt, Redding and Hernandez have the makings of a stellar starting staff down the road, and they also might be most vertically challenged (read: short) rotation in the majors in a few years as well. I talked about this in last week's NL Rookie Roundup, but here's a recap: unlike many teams, the Astros don't shy away from short pitchers. In a recent Sports Illustrated article, former pitching coach and current consultant Tom House was quoted as saying he knew of "nine clubs who tell their scouts not to bother turning in reccomendations on righthanded pitchers who aren't at least 6-2."

Talk about ridiculous! Pedro Martinez is listed at 5-11. Greg Maddux is 6-0; ditto Tim Hudson. Has a lack of height stopped them from being successful pitchers? Certainly not. I could make a list of tall pitchers who suck (paging 6-5 John Halama), but you get the idea.

For the record, Oswalt, Redding and Hernandez are listed at 6-0, 6-0 and 5-10 respectively, while staff ace Wade Miller stands an imposing 6-2 and closer Billy Wagner checks in at 5-11. Kudos to the Astros for bucking the conventional wisdom in favor of guys who can actually pitch.

Man among boys
Just for kicks, you should surf on over to Baseball America every so often to check on Rick Ankiel. Here, I'll even provide you a link to his stats. Try not to focus on his horrible AAA numbers, looking instead at what he's done for Johnson City. Wow! Ankiel is doing his best Babe Ruth impression, dominating opposing hitters (0.83 ERA, 137 K's and 32 hits in 76 innings) and hitting .282/.365/.694 with ten homers in 85 at-bats. His slugging percentage would lead the league by a fair margin if only he had enough at-bats to qualify, and his ten homers are tied for second in the league.

Of course, he should be hitting and pitching this way against rookie-level competition. It's worth noting that he's still only 22, however, and that he could take a few years to work his way back up through the minors and still be one of the younger starting pitchers in baseball. I'm certainly rooting for him, if only because it would be a shame to see his immense talent go to waste.

I got yer streaks right here·
A few months ago, a poster on Usenet's rec.sport.baseball group pointed out that heading into that day's games, no team in the majors had a winning or losing streak of longer than two games. Was this a sign of a new or increased parity in Major League Baseball? Perhaps it was a function of the unbalanced schedule? Or perhaps it was just dumb luck.

Heading into Monday's games, the A's, Astros and Brewers had four-game win streaks, the Diamondbacks had won nine straight and the Cardinals eleven in a row. On the other side of things, the Phillies were losers of four in a row, while the Marlins, Pirates and Reds sported losing streaks of seven, seven and eight games, respectively.

What conclusions should we draw from these numbers? None, other than that sometimes people look too hard to find a statistical oddity that is, well, just an oddity.

Big Nick
Finally, watch out for Brewers' rookie Nick Neugebauer, formerly of the Strikethree.com Prospect Ten. Don't worry, though, he's hard to miss. The Brewers list him at 6-3, 225, but I saw him pitch in the Futures Game and he looked much bigger than that, particularly around the waistline.

Neugebauer throws very hard (high 90's fastball, low 90's slider), but has had control problems in the past. In the minors he was known to strike out 10 or 12 batters in six innings -- but walk five or six as well. He began the year at AA, where he fanned 149 batters while walking 52 in 106.2 innings. Moved up to AAA, he K'ed 26 with 9 walks in 24 innings. Those walk totals seem high, but they actually represent an improvement over years past -- in his first two years in the minors, he walked 214 batters in 208.2 innings.

In his debut with the Brewers Sunday, he took a no-hitter into the fifth before allowing three singles, and he was clocked as high as 97 MPH. His line for the day: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K and 97 pitches. If he can keep his incredible stuff under control, watch out.

about the author

When you write to jmb@strikethree.com, Jason Michael Barker would appreciate it if you didn't make fun of his odds or ends. Thanks in advance.

Web Strikethree.com