Baseball, baseball, baseball!

Los Bravos enter today tired with the Mets for first in the NL East. I’ll hit you with some notes:

  • So how about that Jeff Francoeur? If you know me, I’ve made no secret of the fact over the past two seasons I thought he was very overrated – most people got excited after his first month in the majors. Through his first 25 games, he had 8 HR, was batting .400 and had a 1174 OPS. In his remaining 45 games in 2005, though, he hit .246, had 6 HR, 731 OPS and struck out 41 times.
    2006 wasn’t very good for him, as this numbers continued on the same trend – 132 strikeouts, .260 average, 742 OPS. His home rate rate also dipped slightly – in 70 games in 2005 he hit 14, in 162 in 2006 he hit 29.
    2007 is a different story, though. Since he struck out 132 times and didn’t draw very many walks (23) and thus had an abysmal OBP in 2005 (.293). This year, in 30 games he’s drawn 11 walks, equaling the total he drew in 70 games his rookie year. He’s also hitting for a higher average (.299), both of which improve his OBP to a pretty good .362 (21st in the league). He’s got a 866 OPS, good 13th in the NL (one spot ahead of Andruw as a matter of fact, who I’ll get to in a minute). Not bad. Subjectively, it seems like he’s using the opposite field a lot more (as in, he’s actually hitting over there) and in 2-strike counters is swinging smarter, not harder (though he still takes more cuts than I’d like).
  • Kelly Johnson leads all MLB second basemen in on-base percentage, and is second in OPS (1021) only to B.J. Upton (1084). His .459 OBP also blows away anything Furcal managed to do (provided he keeps it up over the next 132 games, of course….).
  • Only one third baseman has managed to hit more HR (10) and have a higher OPS (1070) than Chipper Jones – Alex Rodriguez (14/1210).
    Something that mildly upset me a while ago was the question of whether Chipper is in the Hall of Fame. I’d say easily – until A-Rod retires, he’ll have been one of (if not the) best hitting third baseman of all time. If you look at the other 3B in the hall, this shouldn’t be a hard decision.
  • It’s been harped on enough, but the back end of the starting rotation has been really terrible. Davies pitched a pretty mediocre game yesterday. Redman suddenly decided to have an ingrown toenail fixed last week – though those pretty painful (I know the hard way), so I’m willing to cut him a tiny bit of slack.
  • Andruw Jones is not having the prototypical contract year so far. An 833 OPS is low for him, and while he’s probably never going to be a .300 hitter, his .229 average is low (usually hits in the .260’s). He’s also struck out 33 times in 30 games, which is alarming to say the least. Subjectively, he looks lost at the plate and needs to trim down his swing – he’s like the kid who tries to hit HRs all the time. (Like, say, Jeff Francoeur before this year.)
  • Based on that, I wonder if the Braves would be better served by hitting Andruw 5th and moving McCann up to 4th – certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Andruw has been moved down to regain his swing. (EDIT: Today’s AJC “Blog” wonders the same thing.)
  • Losing your closer to injury isn’t as big of a deal when your set-up men are essentially back-up closers.

That’s about it from me for now. Later.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

We haven’t exactly been saving the best for last here at asimsports. In fact, I’ve just been going in alphabetical order, or if you really want to use a big word to use at cocktail parties, lexicographical order.

So, here we go with the Southeastern Conference:

  1. Georgia (2 legit, 1 DI-AA): Oklahoma State, Western Carolina, Troy, @Georgia Tech. It pains me to say a team that has not traveled outside of the South for a non-conference game since 1965 when they visited Ann Arbor has the toughest OOC schedule in the SEC, but here it is. They are one of only 3 SEC teams to even play 2 BCS opponents of any sort, much less two legit BCS teams. Next year, however, UGA will actually be going to Arizona State with the return trip to Stillwater in 2009.
  2. South Carolina (2, 1): UL-Lafayette, South Carolina State, @North Carolina, Clemson. Actually going to UNC is a nice touch here – too bad UNC kinda sucks.
  3. Auburn (1, 1): Kansas State, South Florida, New Mexico State, Tennessee Tech. If you recall my statement from earlier about 3 SEC teams playing 2 BCS opponents, you’ll know it’s all downhill from here. There’s some marquee matchups below, sure, but still. Also, I was going to make fun of USF here, but then I remembered they’re probably better than Kansas State. Alas.
  4. Tennessee (1, 0): @California, Southern Miss, Arkansas State, UL-Lafayette. Zounds! A SEC team traveling not only out of the South, but clear across the damn country! Unbelievable! Of course, it rapidly goes off a cliff after Souther Miss with two Sun Belt teams, but hey.
  5. Louisiana State (1, 0): Virginia Tech, Middle Tennessee State, @Tulane, Louisiana Tech. Perhaps the best OOC matchup for the entire SEC is LSU-VT. Absolutely nothing after that, though. Also, “at” Tulane? I’m sure the Green Wave will be the ones filling the Superdome to capacity. Yeah.
  6. Alabama (1, 1): Western Carolina, Florida State, Houston, UL-Monroe. The FSU game is actually going to be in Jacksonville, a move I wholly commend. I’m all for neutral site marquee matchups and I hope that series continues.
  7. Mississippi State (1, 1): @Tulane, Jacksonville State, Alabama-Birmingham, @West Virginia. @WVU isn’t bad, but is overshadowed by the better and more interesting matchups above. Also, Miss State is really bad and probably got scheduled as a BCS conference patsy.
  8. Mississippi (1, 1): @Memphis, Missouri, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern State. You know, I (and some other Tennesseans I know) consider Memphis part of Mississippi anyway, so is that really much of a road game? Between that and Mizzou is a nice attempt to make this look like a real schedule, but I know better. Also, 2 Louisiana schools and the UL-UM pick’em isn’t one of them? Shocking.
  9. Florida (1, 1,): Western Kentucky, Troy, Florida Atlantic, Florida State. Shame on you, UF. 2 Sun Belt teams, a DI-AA team that is moving to DI-A in football in 2009 because of Title IX. (You read that correctly.) If you didn’t have to play FSU every year, who would you play as the 4th team? (I firmly believe UM, FSU, and UF should all have to play each other.)
  10. Vanderbilt (1, 1): Richmond, Eastern Michigan, Miami (OH), Wake Forest. The Vandy of the ACC meets the Wake Forest of the SEC! Exciting! At least they’re not being scheduled as a BCS patsy this year.
  11. Kentucky (1,1): Eastern Kentucky, Kent State, Louisville, Florida Atlantic. Once again, if they didn’t have to play Louisville….
  12. Arkansas (0, 1): Troy, North Texas, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Florida International. 3 Sun Belt teams and a DI-AA Team. This may the worst schedule in major college football. I’m pretty sure there’s a Houston Nutt cellphone joke to be worked in somewhere, but I just can’t muster the spirit for it.

Well, that was depressing. Conclusions in the near future.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 5: Pac-10

It’s time, kids, for the round-up of the wondrous conference with only 3 OOC games.

So, without further delay, I give you my completely subjective and arbitrary rankings of the Pacific 10’s out of conference schedules:

  1. Southern Cal (2 legit, 0 DI-AA): Idaho, @Nebraska, @Notre Dame. Even if USC kills Nebraska, the Pac-10’s crown jewel has 2 non-conference road games against marquee teams.
  2. Washington (2, 0): @Syracuse, Boise State, Ohio State. Home game with OSU is huge, and they also go across the country to the Carrier Dome. Boise State isn’t terrible either.
  3. Oregon (1, 0): Houston, @Michigan, Fresno State. Once again, another team wishes Fresno didn’t suck last year. Houston didn’t, which helps, but the biggest thing here is the away game in Ann Arbor.
  4. Washington State (1, 0): @Wisconsin, San Diego State, Idaho. SDSU is at a “neutral” site (Seattle), and the Idaho game is once again in Pullman, shockingly! (Not.) @Wisconsin is the beef here.
  5. California (1, 0): Tennessee, @Colorado State, Louisiana Tech. Rematch of last year’s debacle in Knoxville, and they also play a Mountain West team on the road for some reason. A solid 5 spot for the Bears.
  6. UCLA (1, 0): BYU, @Utah, Notre Dame. ND also has lots of games against Pac-10 teams for whatever reason. UCLA also hits the Utah circuit but resisted the temptation to schedule Utah State.
  7. Stanford (1, 0): San Jose State, Texas Christian, Notre Dame. Notre Dame again. SJSU makes the 30 minute drive up the 101 to Palo Alto. TCU isn’t terrible, but this lacks the meat of the WSU, Cal, and UCLA schedules.
  8. Arizona State (0, 0): San Jose State, Colorado, San Diego State. ASU shouldn’t need to use their fine ladies to distract these three teams. The key word there is “shouldn’t”.
  9. Oregon State (0, 1): Utah, @Cincinnati, Idaho State. One of only two Pac-10 teams to schedule a DI-AA team. Not exactly inspiring DI-A choices, either. Could switch places easily with ASU due to having to go on the road, though.
  10. Arizona (0, 1): @BYU, Northern Arizona, New Mexico. Ugh. @BYU is decent, but canceled out by being one of only 2 Pac-10 teams to schedule a DI-AA team.

So, yeah, I goofed in my original writeup that only 1 Pac-10 team scheduled a DI-AA team: I forgot to count Idaho State as DI-AA. My bad. Anyway, within a few days the last remaining conference should be posted, the SEC. And I’ll follow that up with a summary and my final thoughts. Until then…

“Sports That Could Possibly be Abbreviated ‘Bball’ for $500, Alex.”

Immediately after getting home from work, some friends and I took in the 2007 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Game.

It wasn’t exactly a clinic. Ohio State looked lost most of the night and had trouble getting any sort of outside game that was desperately needed against Florida’s zone defense. Unlike the game in January, the favorites came out on top this time around.

After the end of the night (and hence the lateness of these posts), I poetically segued from the end of one season to the beginning of another. I recorded the Braves’ opener (10:00 am PDT) to view tonight and kept myself willful ignorant of the results.

What a thrill to be back into baseball. I never got into the groove last season – I left for Europe when the season was still young and came back to a team that was realistically out of the playoff hunt. I watched the remaining games, but without my usual zeal. As I watched yesterday’s game, I found my baseball senses were still in great shape – twitching as though I were behind the plate calling the balls and strikes, cringing at the bad swings at fastballs best described as “on the same plane as the batter’s eyeballs”.

Some of the Braves looked a lot more ready for opening day than others. Particular examples that stand out are Edgar Renteria, Chipper Jones, and of course, Brian McCann. Chipper got on base 3 times, McCann was completely himself (i.e., the best young catcher in the National League), and Edgar hit the tying and go ahead home runs. Andruw looked like he was trying to hit the ball to Pittsburgh most of the time, and the bottom of the order after McCann looked completely out of sorts. (I still prefer Chipper batting 4th and Andruw batting 3rd, honestly.)

John Smoltz pitched well, but he was on the hook for the loss after the 6th. Getting him off the hook was Edgar, who took an 0-2 fastball from Brett Myers in the 8th and just belted out beyond the center field fence to tie the game.

The so-called “Big Three” relievers had an interesting debut today. Mike Gonzalez came on in the 7th and proceeded to watch Brett Myers on four straight and give up a double. He then found the strike zone again and struck out the next two Phillies (including Ryan Howard) and retired the side.

Wickman pitched the tied ninth and got two quick out before allowing a double. They opted to walk Howard this time (one of the cases where I agree with that call) and got Utley to hit pop-up into foul territory that was corralled by Chipper.

Kelly Johnson coaxed a lead-off walk in the 10th, and after failing to get a bunt down, Edgar decided to take the next pitch into the right-center field bleachers. A perfect bottom of the inning by Chad Paronto later and the Braves secured the 1-0 start to the season.

It was weird watching this – they showed occasional highlights from last season. Normally, I’d remember these, but it was a reminder this year that even though I tried to keep up online I really had no idea what was going on. What I knew even before I left, though, was how terrible the bullpen was. If this website existed back then it would probably have several posts dedicated to the so-called “reliever” by the name of Chris Reitsma, one of the few people I’ve ever truly hated. (He was that bad.) Needless to say, had he been pitching today, the Braves probably would’ve lost 7-2.

The funniest part was listening to the announcers skip around the topic, saying everything they could about the bullpen last year without out-and-out saying, “Boy, those guys really sucked.” Here was the most damning factoid they presented: John Smoltz had a damn fine year last year at 16-9. He had 10 no-decisions, 6 of which were caused by blown saves, a stat the Braves led the league in last year. Yes, that’s right, with competent relief, he could’ve easily had 19 or 20 wins. Considering neither Cy Young award winner last year had 20 wins, that’s saying something. (Though perhaps it says more about the over-importance on a team-based stat for a pitcher’s performance, but that’s a post for another day.)

Anyway, it’s April, so like the fans of every baseball team, I’m feeling optimistic about this season. Well, except for fans of the Nationals. They don’t have much to look forward to.