We always are talking about the offense some teams generate or the way the pitchers dominant teams so let’s look at the different baseball parks and analyze.

Here is what I perceive as hitters parks and pitchers parks and then we will check the second list for a more detailed, stat-oriented approach to the idea.

Pitchers Park - Meaning that the ballpark is great for pitching

Pitcher-friendly – Generally favorable to defense

Neutral – Neither pitchers or batters are favored

Hitter-friendly – Less forgiving to pitchers than to batters.

Hitters Park – The ballpark is a haven for batting

 

Pitcher Friendly

• Oakland-Alameda Coliseum
• Kauffman Stadium
• US Cellular
• PNC Park
• Citi Field
• Joe Robbie Stadium
• Turner Field

Pitchers Park

• Safeco Field – Pitchers Park
• Comerica Park – Pitchers Park
• Petco Park – Pitchers Park
• Nationals Park – Pitchers Park

 

Neutral

• Angel Stadium
• AT&T

Hitter Friendly

• The Ballpark in Arlington
• Metrodome
• Progressive
• SkyDome
• Tropicana Field
• Chase Field
• Busch Stadium
• Great American Ballpark

Hitters Park

• Coors Field
• Minute Maid
• Wrigley Field
• Miller Park
• Camden Yards
• Fenway
• Yankee Stadium

 

Below are the rankings of “hitter’s parks”, home teams and their rankings in runs scored.

1. Rangers Ballpark (Texas Rangers #1-AL) 1.142

2. Chase Field (Arizona D’backs #10-NL) 1.135

3. Coors Field (Colorado Rockies #8-NL ) 1.126

4. U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox #5-AL) 1.122

5. Fenway Park (Boston, Massachusetts #2-AL) 1.077

6. Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers #4-AL) 1.077

7. Great American (Cincinnati Reds #12-NL) 1.069

8. Wrigley Field (ChicagoCubs #1-NL) 1.068

9. Turner Field (Atlanta Braves #6-NL) 1.063

10. Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles #8-AL) 1.051

11. AT&T Park (San Francisco, California #15-NL) 1.045

12. Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees #7-AL) 1.04

13. Nationals Park (Washington Nationals #14-NL) 1.038

14. Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros #11-NL) 1.036

15. Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies #2-NL) 1.029

16. Angel Stadium (California Angels #10-AL) 1.017
Ok, the list above does not entirely match the first list. Why? Because I gave my opinion in the first list of parks and the second was some stats to them. Proves I am not always right. (Hope my wife doesn’t read this blog today).

3 Comments »

Check out my previous National League Central Preview.

American League Central

The Chicago White Sox look poised to regain the American League Central Division. The signing of Adam Dunn and his dingers coupled with the return play of Paul Konerko, puts manager Ozzie Guillen’s team back in the saddle again. Add to the mix Carlos Quentin, Akex Rios and Alexei Ramirez and there is a potent line-up.

The rotation smacks of veteran presence with Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd, John Danks and Edwin Jackson. The bullpen is the biggest question mark they have going into 2011 with the loss of Bobby Jenks and the closer role handed over to inexperienced Matt Thornton and his 17 career saves.

2011 Prediction: 92-70, 1^st place

The Minnesota Twins return some valuable commodities from the injury list for 2011. Back to close game will be Joe Nathan from Tommy John surgery and a full year of Matt Capps makes this bullpen formidable again. Jon Rauch performed well last year but the whole gang makes them eons better.

The return of Jim Thome leads an offensive explosion that is aided by a healthy Justin Morneau and ever consistent Joe Mauer. Look for an even better breakout year for Delmon Young for this team to be on fire.

The pitching staff is banking on Francisco Liriano to continue as ace material but then they fall off rapidly with Carl Pavano, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Brian Duensing. This team will struggle to get games to the closer many times.

2011 Prediction: 86-76, 2^nd place

Manager Jim Leyland has struggled now for over 4 years trying to put a competitive team on the field for the Detroit Tigers. On paper they have a very good offensive team. Victor Martinez may be the key to scoring some runs this year. Add in Miguel Cabrera, if he stays away from legal issues, with Jhonny Peralta, slugger Ryan Raburn and Austin Jackson and tis has lots of power and the ability to drive in runs.

The ace of the pitching staff is left in the hands of Justin Verlander. He is definitely capable of handling those duties and will be followed by Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer. Brad Penny is added to this staff but they are not a top of the line rotation. In the bullpen we have fire-baller Joel Zumaya and Jose Valverde that can man late inning situations. Joaquin Benoit was a solid add to the team and lefty Phil Coke provides help from that side of the pitching mound.

2011 Prediction: 80-82, 3^rd place

This is the year the Kansas City Royals break out of last place. Not much better than the fifth place team but they qualify slightly. Joakim Soria is the only household baseball name left in a Royals uniform. Offensive starts with Billy Butler and trends quickly downward to Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur. This team lacks many quality players to ever be taken seriously. Saving grace for them is that they have been proclaimed to have the best prospects in the Minor Leagues.

2011 Prediction: 70-92, 4^th place

Yes, I do believe there is a team worse than the Royals. It is the Cleveland Indians. They have shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera and….. I can’t really find any more.

The pitching rotation is one weak starter in Fausto Carmona  and then a group of Class AAAA pitchers of Mitch Talbot, Justin Masterson and Jensen Lewis. The bullpen has Chris Perez as closer and then more of the same, players that would never make most Major League rosters. This is one very weak team.

2011 Prediction: 63-99, 5th place

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To quote Pat Benatar:

Well you’re the real tough cookie with the long history
Of breaking little hearts, like the one in me
That’s O.K., lets see how you do it
Put up your dukes, lets get down to it!
Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Why Don’t You Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Fire Away!

You come on with a come on, you don’t fight fair
But that’s O.K., see if I care!
Knock me down, it’s all in vain
I’ll get right back on my feet again!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Why Don’t You Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Fire Away!

I am going to give you a chance to beat me out of a job. Yes, it is a sweeet one. It is with Major League Baseball. Now how cool is that?

I received an email from them and I am offering up a snippet for you.

The winner of this Dream Job will move to NYC to star in a baseball web series and be a part of a live interactive experience for baseball fans that will include watching every MLB game while they’re happening over the course of the entire baseball season and Postseason, blogging opinions, interacting with fans through social media and appearing in video blogs.  The web series will be distributed on MLB.com and through social media outlets.

The winner will be a person who:

o   has an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire league

o   entertaining personality

o   unique writing style and voice

o   a sense of humor

o   be comfortable in front of a camera

o   and most importantly, love baseball

So allow me to point how I am the best candidate for that job.

Encyclopedic baseball mind of the leagues- oh yeah, that is me. I offer up information to my adult kids and others at all times. I watch baseball all the time. I write baseball everyday and I read 30-40 blogs per day. As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and the United Cardinal Bloggers I am attached to baseball all the time.

I am glad I live in this time for the simple reason that I wouldn’t want to be known for the quote by Rogers Hornsby, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” I can live it year round.

Encyclopedic mind: check

#2 Entertaining personality- I got myself covered there, too. Just go back and ask many of my students about that topic. I love to be with people and don’t know a stranger. After 37 years of marriage, my wife still knows when we go to the mall that I am going to talk to every person wearing Cardinal gear. That’s me.

Entertaining personality- Check. Score: Me 2  You 0

#3- Unique writing style and voice- I can only claim a half a point in this category. I can definitely write any style needed. I probably taught many of them. I can do research and cite the source correctly. Can you? But the voice is nothing special. Wait, let me try my Sam Elliott impersonation. Nah, didn’t work, my voice doesn’t go that low. Just an ordinary voice that has spoken millions of words.

Score: Me 2.5   You 0.5

#4- Sense of humor: I can out-fun you, out joke you all day every day. Humor was a big part of my classroom for 34 years. Love to find the fun aspect of all the things I am involved in. Mark Twain wrote, “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.  The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

Humor: Check. New Score: Me 3.5   You 0.5

#5- Be comfortable in front of a camera- That is me. Bet you didn’t know that my degree in college is Radio and Television. Yep, it is. But my wife was a teacher and it fit best for our lifestyle to have the same time off and then when kids came into our life, we could vacation together. I don’t regret that move at all. Cameras are not a bother to me.

Do I need to keep the scoreboard up and running? I am ahead.

#6- love baseball- Without a doubt I do this. But not to short change you, there are many passionate fans that share the same love as I do for the game of baseball. I started when I was 16 years old driving my two friends (I just made that sound like I only had two friends, didn’t I?)  3 hours away on weekends to watch baseball and have been doing that ever since.

So this was light-hearted. I hope I didn’t demean you in any way. In fact I am such a good guy (Leo Durocher said good guys finish last) that I am going to give you the URL so that you may apply. Who knows, there may be tons of baseball fans that are better than I am. You can find that information at the end of this blog. My last parting words are that I enjoy retirement. In fact, I have not found anything that I don’t like about it. I could just as easily watch baseball for MLB in NYC as I do in Central Illinois.

Job information: Fans can apply online at http://mlb.com/dreamjob/.

Good Luck.

Follow me on Twitter.

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This is the first summer in a long while that I have chosen to not play fantasy league baseball. But I still went ahead and created my Top 14 at each position. With approximately 9 Fridays left until Opening Day, I am going to send these out and let you pick me apart. There is not any real scientific or sabermetric tool I use for this. I guess I  just use the old- fashioned “eyeball” test.

I start with first basemen.

FIRST BASEMEN

1. Albert Pujols- some have #1 and #2 flipped. Not me.

2. Miguel Cabrera

3. Joey Votto-#3,#4,#5 can be interchangeable

4. Ryan Howard

5. Mark Teixeira

6. Prince Fielder- new contract means more or less numbers?

7. Adrian Gonzalez- hitting in a very good line-up

8. Justin Morneau

9. Kevin Youkilis

10. Adam Dunn

11. Kendry Morales

12. Carlos Pena- Wrigley Field will be good for him.

13. Billy Butler- I like him and wanted to move him up.

14 Paul Konerko

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SECOND BASEMEN

1. Chase Utley-def top in his position

2. Robinson Cano- took awhile to get me onboard

3. Brandon Phillips- may be one or two spots too high

4. Ian Kinsler

5. Dan Uggla- offensively he is a monster

6. Dustin Pedroia

7. Rickie Weeks- like his upside

8. Aaron Hill

9. Chone Figgins- may needs to go down

10. Brian Roberts

11. Howie Kendrick

12. Ryan Raburn-watch this guy

13. Kelly Johnson-these last two are hard to find.

14. Gordon Beckham

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First basemen and Second basemen are in the books. Show me the error of my ways.

Member of Baseball Bloggers Alliance

Member of United Cardinal Bloggers

contributor to MLBBlogBuzz

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Do fantasy projections translate into success? Of course not. We know that fantasy baseball is purely on the offensive side of the game. But it is winter and we need some things to consider. Let’s look at fantasy value for each infield position in the National League Central. The numbers I am using come from  http://www.fantasybaseball101.com/

I will look at them in numerical sequence as to how they put in fantasy value per position.

First Base- Pujols- 1 Votto- 3 Fielder- 7 Pena- 16 Jones- 31 Wallace-35

Second Base- Phillips-5  Weeks-7  Walker-13  Hall- 26  DeWitt- 31  Schumaker- 38

Third Base- McGhee-9 Alvarez-11 Ramirez- 13 Johnson-  14 Rolen- 19  Freese- 29

Shortstop- Castro-11 Theriot-21 Betancourt- 28 Cabrera- 29 Barmes- 33 Cedeno-34

Catcher- Soto-7 Molina-12 Doumit-17 Hernandez- 24  Lucroy-25 Snyder- 29

So now I took the numbers and added them together to see which team was a better infield as far as fantasy value is concerned.

1. Milwaukee Brewers- 76- Fielder, McGhee and Weeks all in single numbers.
2. Chicago Cubs- 78 – Geovany Soto and Starlin Castro projected out very well.
3. Cincinnati Reds- 89- Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips both in the single digits.
4. St. Louis Cardinals- 101- Two last place finished can’t help but offset by Pujols.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates- 106- Johnson and Walker are smack in the middle.
6. Houston Astros- 126- Not much good on the offensive side here.

So we are looking at the Brewers to lead the division in the offensive categories. As far as the Cardinals we are going to struggle with Schumaker and Freese in the line-up. I have to believe David Freese was marked low due to not having a full season under his belt.

When all the outfield projections are out I will do a review for analysis purposes.

This is for fun and has very little translation to success.

==========================

Coming soon to the sidebar to the right will be a 12-part Remembering the Cardinals by Decades.

Enjoy your weekend.

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Fans go to the game and the first thing they look at is who are the umpires today. Which one is behind the plate?  You do that, right?  Probably not. But be assured the pitchers and managers and coaches know full well which umpire is calling the game and their tendencies.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Let’s look at some random numbers and then see if we can make any judgments on it.

The umpires each called between 33 and 35 games behind the plate. Four umpire were behind the plate in 36 games.

Innings called- Joe West led the league with 665.7 followed byBob Davidson with 665.3.

Outs called also correlate to the innings eaters like West with 1997 and Davidson at 1996.

Which umpire called the most strikes (I am now leaving West and Davidson out of the equation)? C.B. Bucknor called 6665 strikes which led the league.

Greg Gibson called 3994 balls in thirty-five games.

The lowest ERA umpire is James Hoye at 3.16 and he came in second in WHIP behind Gibson who posted a 1.25.

Which one witnessed the most hits per 9 innings? Bucknor comes in second at 9.48 only to follow Gary Barrett at 9.56.

Phil Cuzzi has the highest strikeout-to-walk ratio in the league at 2.52.

Gary Darling leads in strikeouts per 9 innings by a rather huge margin with 7.89 and Brian O’Nora comes in as the leader in fewest walks called per nine innings at 2.81.

Lastly I mention two umpires that have the largest batting average while they are behind the plate. At .273 we find Gerry Davis and at .272 is Ted Barrett.

What’s this mean? I wish I could tell you in some exact terms but I can’t. I am sure Chris Carpenter knows which umpires will lean on him more than others. They know the ones that call the most balls and strikes. I would guess they go over this stuff in every pregame meetings they have.

What no Angel Hernandez? Doesn’t he throw people out in every game?

THE EJECTION LIST for 2010.

1) Bob Davidson (10)

2) Joe West (9)

3) Paul Emmel (7)

4) Tim Timmons (7)

5) Marvin Hudson (6)

6) Angel Hernandez (6)

7) Hunter Wendelstedt (6)
Adrian Johnson (5)

9) Rob Drake (5)

10) Bill Welke (5)

11 Andy Fletcher (4)

12) Tim Welke (4)

13) Ron Kulpa (4)

14) Mark Wegner (4)

15) D.J. Reyburn (4)

16) Jeff Nelson (4)

17) Greg Gibson (4)

18) Angel Campos (4)

19) Dan Bellino (4)

20) Dale Scott (4)

21) Bill Hohn (4)

22) John Hirschbeck (4)

23) Mark Carlson (4)

24) Mike Everitt (4)

25) Paul Schrieber (3)

26) Larry Vanover (3)

27) Chris Guccione (3)

28) Alfonso Marquez (3)

29) CB Bucknor (3)

30) Gary Darling (3)

31) Sam Holbrook (3)

32) Eric Cooper (3)

33) Laz Diaz (3)

34) Marty Foster (3)

35) Jim Reynolds (3)

36) Tom Hallion (3)

37) Gary Cederstrom (3)

(stats courtesy The Left Field Corner

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For Your information: (from ESPN survey)

Overall Best Umpire

1. Jim Joyce (named on 53% of surveys)

2. Tim McClelland (34%)

3. Jim Wolf (15%)

Who are the Three Worst Umpires in Baseball?

1. CB Bucknor (37%)

2. Joe West (35%)

3. Angel Hernandez (22%)

Who has the quickest hook?

1. Joe West (35%)

2. Rob Drake (12%)

3. Bill Hohn (9%)

3 Comments »

I know, not terribly creative. That has been what many believe ESPN really needs to stand for.

Let’s look at the first half of the Sunday Night ESPN baseball schedule and look to see if they favor the EAST COAST.

• April 3:   San Francisco at Los Angeles Dodgers (ESPN2)
  April 10:  N.Y. Yankees at Boston
  April 17:  Texas at N.Y. Yankees
  April 24:  Cincinnati at St. Louis
  May 1:  N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia
  May 8:  Atlanta at Philadelphia
  May 15:  Boston at N.Y. Yankees
  May 22:  Chicago Cubs at Boston
  May 29:  Cincinnati at Atlanta (ESPN2)
  June 5-July 3 TBD
  July 10: N.Y. Mets at San Francisco
  July 17:  Boston at Tampa Bay

Eleven games. Seven on the East Coast and the Mets at San Francisco.

Mets at San Francisco? How this going to be of importance? That appears to be a poor match-up.

Thirty teams. Six on the East Coast. Yes that counts Tampa Bay.

I see Adam Jones is complaining that Baltimore was not on that list.

Hey Adam, win some games.

Is the East Coast the real” cash cow” for them? You betcha.

I don’t like all these Yankees and Red Sox gamed but this is a business and if they are going to garner more viewers, make more money using the teams from that geographical area. Do it, just do it!

I love baseball but I am not inclined to watch those games, hear the same stories, listen to grown men fawn over the players and their history. Can makes me throw up a bit in my mouth.

This Midwestern won’t watch those games, but I do understand it.

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We have joined the MLBBlogBuzz be sure to check them out along with the United Cardinal Bloggers and Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

1 Comment »

The good teams are easy to sort out in many ways.

The bottom teams are not much of a problem.

But it is the middle teams that can be flipped up to 4 spots in either direction.

This is our attempt.

1. Phillies – R2C2 says it all. Roy and Roy and Cole and Cliff. ‘nuff said.
2. Red Sox- Crawford had them in the #1 until Lee signs with Phillies.
3. Giants- rotation studly but Uribe gone hurts.
4. Rangers- Josh Hamilton health is key and Andrus time to shine
5. Twins- healthy M & M’s make Minnesota move up.
6. Yankees- not much off-season activity but still NYY.
7. Braves- Dan Uggla and 33 HR’s and 105 RBI’s looks good
8. Reds- some believe they overachieved but Votto for real
9. Rockies- very active locking up youngsters.
10. White Sox- Adam Dunn adds potent bat to lineup
11. Cardinals- Pujols and pitching make them solid
12. Angels- Scott Downs addition and healthy Kendry Morales needed
13. Dodgers- Garland and Uribe additions help them in West
14. Brewers- Marcum and Greinke add needed arms for them
15. Tigers- Not sure Victor Martinez helps much
16. Cubs- Garza is solid and Pena capable of big numbers
17. Rays- hard team to judge with recent losses
18. Blue Jays- no significant changes here
19. Nationals- losing 38 dingers from Dunn is a big ouch
20. Marlins- Infante doesn’t do much for me
21. Athletics- David DeJesus and .318 average is good pickup
22. Mets- New GM and manager makes this tough work
23. Orioles- Does J.J. Hardy and Mark Reynolds get you excited?
24. Padres- Adrian Gonzalez is gone, time to re-tool.
25. Mariners- King Felix will like Brendan Ryan
26. Astros- They really set on their hands but got Bill Hall
27. Diamondbacks- they will have a better bullpen with J.J. Putz
28. Royals- nothing to say here but lots of potential
29. Pirates- good young unproven players-love McCutcheon
30. Indians-Cleveland will Choo on last place

Lots of wiggle room here. We will update this in February and March and then twice a month during the season.

Tell us where we are wrong.

5 Comments »

Jubilation in Wrigleyville! It is such a difference maker. The Chicago Cubs have secured Matt Garza from the Tampa Bay Rays. Many are rejoicing but mainly because the Cubs have secured a pitcher to fight it out in the National League Central. The Brewers, Reds and Cardinals have pitching staffs that are envied. Now the Cubs have……. WAIT!

Matt Garza? You kidding me? The same Garza that is 42-44 lifetime? Yes, that is true. The Garza with a career 3.97 ERA? They got him cheap, right? Let me quote todays’ blog from Baseball Bloggers Alliance member blogger Cubs Billy Goat Blog.

The Cubs trade prospects Christ Archer, Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak-Ju Lee and Sam Fuld to the Rays for Garza, minor league outfielder Fernando Perez and a minor league pitcher.  For those of you scoring at home, those are the Cubs #2 (Archer), #4 (Lee) and #8 (Guyer) prospects on my Cubs Composite Top 10 Prospect list, including the Cubs Minor League Player (Guyer) and Pitcher (Archer) of the Year.  Add in Chirinos, who was among the prospects also receiving votes in the composite list, and Fuld, a valuable 4th or 5th outfielder, and that is a VERY steep price to pay for a pitcher not named Roy Halladay.

He doesn’t sound very happy about it. Let’s go on for his reaction.

My reaction to the trade:  I HATE IT!!!!

Who does he blame?

After all this talk about doing things the right way, spending more money on scouting and player development and building from within, this move proves that Jim Hendry and the Cubs are still in “win now” mode.  After a losing season that saw attendance drop, this move stinks of desperation– an effort to try to make the on-field product look better and put fannies in the seats.

Does he tell us what it would take to win? Yep!

Don’t get me wrong, Garza is a good pitcher, but his addition is not going to win the Cubs any division titles (let alone World Series titles).  Three of the Cubs division rivals (the Brewers, Reds and Cardinals) have all made moves to improve their team, while the Cubs have been basically treading water and waiting for their overblown contracts to come off the books.

It is this short-term focus, that generally prevails with Cubs management, that is keeping them from achieving the ultimate goal–the World Series–and until their mindset changes or a certain GM is fired, the Cubs will continue to fail to reach that goal.

Now for more of my take on this. IT was a desperation move that the Cubs felt like they needed to keep up with the Brewers, Cards and Reds. They gave up a bunch of their future.

I believe the Cubs got 5 games better in the 2011 season.

I still feel good about having them in the NL Central.

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Cardinals GM would like to acknowledge the passing of Chicago Cub great Ron Santo.  Santo meant a lot to the Cub community and will be missed dearly by those fans.  We wish his family the best during this time of need.

RIP Ron Santo

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