Tyler Beede v. Andrew Suarez Tale of the Tape

Andrew Suarez pitched well last night against the Diamondbacks, save for having to pitch to Goldschmidt (certified Giant killer). 

Both Suarez and Beede suffered from too many walks, however both pitched well through the base traffic and put up decent results. In the future, cutting down the walks will allow both to go deeper into games. 

Since one start is by definition a small sample size on which to judge, I looked back on both guys prior history to see if the SSA was part of a larger trend  and what came out was that comparable stats at each level were remarkably similar. 

Suarez gives up slightly more hits, but less walks, at virtually every level. Both guys can get a strikeout when they need to. The ERA was very close at AA and NCAA level, Suarez separated a bit at AAA. Less WHIP-y as well. It seemed like Suarez is also better equipped to get a grounder when he needs one. I don't have the FB/GB splits handy, just using the eyeball test. 

from thebaseballcube.com (Player comparison tool):

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/apps/compare.asp?Q=165296,165113&Y1=1871&Y2=&Group=true&Stats=Pitching

We'll see how it plays out at the MLB level, but based on early returns, I still like Suarez better as a prospect. Both appear to have good futures as major league starters.

Swisher Drawing Interest from M's, O's and a Few Others

TALE OF THE TAPE (For Brian Sabean's analysis): 

Put me down for a NO on this one (as if anyone cares) for the following reasons:

• The Yankees are where Melky came from. Once bitten, twice shy.
• The Yankees keep people way past their prime, so if they don't want him, why should anyone really.
• The irony of his last name and having to play half his games in SF might be too much to overcome. Think of the children. 
• Too many guys with a Moneyball approach leads to 3 1/2 hour games. This is the NL for cryin' out loud.

On the plus side:

• The hair will fit in the Giants dugout nicely. Easy transition. 
• The last name should increase home attendance, at least initially. Not that there is anything wrong with that. 
• Dude combines eye-black and facial hair like no other. 
• Dude can hit when motivated. 

from BleacherReport.com
Swisher Drawing Interest from M's, O's and a Few Others:

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- While he isn't going to be able to duplicate Jayson Werth's $126 million contract, Nick Swisher is drawing interest from several teams interested in offense.

The Mariners, Orioles, Phillies, Giants, Braves and Nationals are all believed to have some level of interest. Several teams seem willing to go to at least three years, with the likely salary figure estimated to be in the $11 million to $13 million range. With so many teams possibly interested there's a very good chance he'll be able to get at least a four-year deal.

The Yankees have no interest in bringing him back, but will get a draft choice for him turning down the $13.3 million qualifying offer they made.

'via Blog this'

Sabean on Pence move: “Right now, we needed all the help we could get.” | Giants Extra

I like the deal, I like Hunter Pence a lot. Always have from back when he was with the Astros.
However, it still smacks of 'the dog chasing his tail' of mistakes. If we don't let Cody Ross walk away, we don't have to give up two additional prospects for Pence.

The prospects were (over?) payment for the prior mistake as well as compensation to get the more premium player in the Pence vs. Schierholz tale of the tape.

Pence will add some heart, some soul, some flavor that's been lost since Ross left and Huff hit the couch. Sorely needed, as it seems as if the Giants were becoming a tad corporate lately. Time will tell.

from mercurynews.com:
Sabean on Pence move: “Right now, we needed all the help we could get.” | Giants Extra:

"The Giants had their eye on Pence a year ago but weren’t able to pull the trigger. As the Phillies fell out of the race, a deal came into place. Schierholtz was said to be “a required piece” and the Phillies were high on catcher Tommy Joseph. Sabean feels that Seth Rosin, the third player in the deal, has a chance to pitch in the big leagues at some point and the Phillies agreed.

“It was talent we had prepared ourselves to be able to move for various reasons,” he said. “And that’s what it took.”"

'via Blog this'

BIG BROWN - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

If there was any doubt before that the thirty year drought between Triple Crown winners is about to end in three weeks at Belmont Park, Big Brown laid them to rest today at Pimlico Race Track.

Once again, this horse turned it up a notch as the horses came down the back stretch, just as he finished twenty opponents in the Kentucky Derby.

That makes it two straight races that this beautiful horse evoked images of Secretariat, barreling down the back stretch and Belmont Park and obliterating the assembled field.

BIG BROWN - PREAKNESS:

THE AERIAL VIEW OF HIS STRETCH RUN BLOWOUT IS AWESOME - HE JUST HAS ANOTHER GEAR THE OTHER HORSES DO NOT


Folks, these are not horses recruited from outside the glue factory that Big Blue is passing like they are standing still. These are quality, stakes winners from all over the world.

So unless there is some horse bred and trained to run the distance the Belmont offers, or there is some sort of jockey error that costs them the race, this horse seems poised to take his place alongside "Big Red" Secretariat, as one of the all-time great horses.

This horse Big Brown is a beauty, in that he is a classically beautiful thoroughbred and he is a beast to his opponents. Nobody has yet figured out how to handle him. Like the greats before him, he apears to have a remarkable will to win, to run up front and in the lead.

His jockey's only problem to date seems to be to keep from spending himself too early.
That will be an even more important skill to have come the third leg of the Triple Crown in New York.

Stay tuned, it might be thirty years before we see another Triple Crown winner after this one. Go Big Brown, bring it home.
------------------------------------
SECRETARIAT KENTUCKY DERBY FACTS:
On his way to a still-standing track record (1:59 2/5), he ran each quarter-mile (approximately 400 m) segment faster than the one before it.

The successive quarter-mile times were: 25 1/5, 24, 23 4/5, 23 2/5 and 23.

This means he was still accelerating as of the final quarter-mile of the race.

It would be 28 years before any other horse would run the Derby in less than 2 minutes (Monarchos in 2001).
------------------------------
SECRETARIAT v. BIG BROWN - TALE OF THE TAPE

Kentucky Derby:
Year Time Purse Field
1973 Secretariat 1:59.40 $155,050 13
2008 Big Brown 2:01.82 $1,451,800 20

Preakness:
1973 Secretariat 1:54.40 $129,900 6
2008 Big Brown 1:54.72 $600,000 12

Kentucky Derby:
1973 Secretariat 2:24 $90,120 5
2008 Big Brown ???? ????? ??
---------------------------
NBC did a good job with their round table discussion of some of the problems the industry faces as a result of the Eight Belles tragedy. They brought up genetics and training as issues, but really seemed to zero in on the use of "permissible medications" such as Lasix, anti-inflammatories and steroids.

To the panelists, steroids were not considered a "performance enhancer" so much as a tool to enhance recovery. Very interesting and here you have a pool of athletes, some who use and some who do not, legally by the way, since most states allow the use of steroids for race horses. It doesn't seem as if that during the 20-30 years that this pool of athletes have been using steroids, that the winning times (performance) have been declining dramatically (enhancement), if at all.

Veteran analysts Randy Moss said pointedly that you could draw a clear link to the increased use steroids and anti-inflammatories and the increased numbers of break downs on the track. Very interesting and provocative points indeed.

It was also rather humorous to see Bob "The Midget" Costas in the jockeys room conducting interviews with subjects that he literally towered over. Now he knows what Shaq feels like.
-------------------------------
SECRETARIAT'S IMMORTAL BELMONT RUN:



http://www.secretariat.com/legacy.htm

New York Post columnist Larry Merchant (now better known as HBO's sharp-tongued boxing analyst) clicked off his words in Broadway staccato:

"Secretariat," said Merchant, "is the kind of Big Horse that makes grown men weep, even when they are flint-hearted bettors, even when he goes off at 1-10. He is the apparently unflawed hunk of beauty and beast they search for doggedly in the racing charts every day, and never seemed to find. His supporters rhapsodize over him as though he is a four-legged Nureyev, extolling virtues of his musculature, his grace, his urine specimens." If he were to lose the Belmont, Merchant warned, "the country may turn sullen and mutinous."

SUPER BOWL XLII PREVIEW

Perhaps not since the Christians faced off against the Lions in ancient Rome has there been a more one-sided match up of foes as we will see in Super Bowl XLII.

Interesting that since the days of the Roman Empire, there has been a need for societies rulers to keep the masses in tow and their attention diverted from the important issues of the day (sound familiar?). The premise was that you could give people some relatively cheap entertainment so that they would--at least temporarily-- forget their grievances against the collective shortcomings of their rulers or political system.

It just seems as if it will all come together so perfectly tomorrow. The Super Bowl is the ultimate TV event. The ultimate "opiate of the masses" if you will. And with all the other side issues circling over the event, yet to be resolved, it makes for both perfect theater as well as a perfect teaching and learning moment for the country.

Arlen Specter may or may not be able to call Commissar Goodell on the carpet to explain the inexplicable. Why he punished the Patriots for wrongdoing and then destroyed the evidence of the wrongdoing, which smacks of a cover-up (remember, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up) I just can not explain. But he has multiple billions of reasons (measured in dollars of revenue) to protect the NFL's image at all costs.

At first blush, his explanation that any advantage Bellicheat and the Pats may have gained from the illegal videotaping was "limited." I'm sure the Nixon Administration tried to sail similar logic past the public when the initial details of the Watergate break-in and cover-up were uncovered, and look what it did for Nixon.

After the Super Bowl, it seems that Congress will attempt in earnest to determine what most already suspect. Bill Belichick is a cheater, albeit an equal opportunity cheater. He cheats on the field as well as off the field. And Congress will do this if only to show they can come together on certain select issues like this and steroids in baseball, but continue to fail to come together on issues that make real differences in real peoples lives. Amazing.

As far as defining Coach Bellicheats character--I would just like to know from Pats apologists--how do you respond to the following questions?:

How do you explain the reports that Coach Bellicheat was the "other man" who helped break up his secretary's marriage by chasing her around the desk too much?

FROM SPORTSBYBROOKS.COM
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/both-of-new-england-coachs-beli-chicks-at-sb-15755

How do you explain Spygate? Just a one-time thing, like Andy Pettitte's dalliances with HGH? It was just to prepare for the Jets that week? The 4-12 Jets you had to skirt the rules to try and beat?

What's that? The media told you not to worry, Spygate was nothing. Just a one-time thing, right? It doesn't have any effect or in any way tarnish any of their Super Bowl victories, correct? HAHAHAHAHA.

All the talking heads on ESPN who continue to spit that logic, as well as the one about the NFL having the toughest PED policy and NO PROBLEM WITH PED USE ought to be writing fairy tales. Just don't read them to kids.

Tell me, how do we explain away the recent reports that indicate the Patriots taped the Rams walk-through prior to their very first Super Bowl XXXVI victory six years ago? You remember, back when they were supposedly David and the Rams were Goliath.

FROM THE BOSTON HERALD:
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1070762&srvc=sports&position=0

The one where "team unity" banded together to overcome the mighty Rams offense. Well, I guess if you knew in advance what they planned to focus on offensively either through having their signs or effectively, their game plan, it's easy to acquire the label of defensive genius that it now appears Bellicheat does not deserve.

It all made for a cute story for the media to serve up and salivate over, but it now is beginning to appear more and more like it was a story built upon a lie and a cheat. And for the story to be promoted as it was by the media, who are supposed to be the guardians of fairness and integrity in sports. What say you now, fellas?

The media missed the boat on the steroid story that grew right under their own eyes.
Now it appears as if they missed out on the Spygate story, even though it also appeared to grow and flourish right under their own eyes. That's a big oh-for-two if you're scoring at home, or even if you're all by yourself. HAHAHAHAHA.

And yet the media wants to continue to be the arbiters of righteousness and fairness and integrity in sports? Give me a break.

I know, I'll make it easy on you to cut through all this bullshit once and for all. So you can get things right for a change, right from the get go. Just imagine how quickly you would jump on this story, how rapidly you would turn it into the biggest issue the country faces, if it were noted Christian and man of character Tony Dungy who was suspected of cheating and wrongdoing.

You would have thrown him to the lions quicker than the Romans. You would have strung him up and brought up on charges in the court of public opinion.

In my opinion, Dungy and his legacy are harmed the most by this. Imagine how many rings he might have now if everyone was playing on a "level playing field".

Maybe Peyton Manning would be the one hanging and banging with multiple Super Models and multiple Super Bowl rings and God knows what else instead of little Tommy Brady.

Nah, Peyton has too much class and character. And so does Dungy. That's why the media will never fight or dig for guys like that. They wouldn't know class and character if it punched most of them right in the face.

And how about Dick Vermeil? The Patriots cheated and still barely beat 'em? Yeah Bellicheat's a real genius all-right. Another Super Bowl victory makes him an all-time great coach, right?

Tomorrow, the Giants will be served up as a foe against the Patriots and like the Christians of yore, will seemingly only have their faith in each other to give them any chance at victory. That and the collective spirit of those who would rather not see cheaters continue to prosper.

I hate to make it as serious as a clash of good vs. evil, but in this case, I think I will. The Giants simply must win, and I believe they will win. God help us if they don't. What will we tell the children when such blatant cheaters are allowed to prosper? I guess I could do the Roger Goodell thing and try to cover it all up. Nah, not a good choice there.

The Giants faith in each other will propel them to victory.

"Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelations 2:10

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=church&book=lions&story=lions
From the book: To the Lions, A Tale of the Early Christians, by Professor Alfred J. Church

"HE HATH SHUT THE LION'S MOUTH."

The Patriots want to join the Dolphins in as a part of football immortality as the only undefeated teams in history, but as much as they and their lackeys in the media and the NFL executive suite want to cover it up, they know in their heart and soul that they do not deserve it. They are not worthy of the honor and they have not earned it. They will fail under the collective weight of their organizational guilt.

AND THE LION'S MOUTH SHALL BE SHUT

It will be the Giants who are granted their slice of football immortality, since they have endured much this season and continued to keep the faith when others of lesser strength gave up on them. They will have earned and deserved the praise that is given to them. Call it karma, call it faith, call it what you will.

GIANTS TO WIN SUPER BOWL XLII.

Ana Ivanovic the Next Anna? Let's find Out

Lately we've done an awful lot of dry, stuffy, boring statistical comparisons between large, sweaty baseball players. I just felt like it was time to pass judgement on a sports comparison that I can get firmly behind.

I hear the debate, "Is Ana Ivanovic the next Anna Kournikova?" a bit on talk radio and I understand why the topic is popular, given the demographic. But please, who said we were anywhere near done with the old Anna? Why the rush to throw out the old? Sometimes old is better. Is it better in this case? Let's Find Out.

Tale of the Tape
SPELLING ABILITY: Being somewhat of an egg-head, I have to deduct points for misspelling. In reality, who cares? Use spell check.
ADVANTAGE KOURNIKOVA

HAIR COLOR: Anna - Blonde (pretty sure) Ana - Brunette (why lie?)
What you've never seen "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"? It's a Classic.
ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA

ENDORSEMENT POTENTIAL: After an exhaustive Google Image search, I must declare further extensive research is required. Next time, I vow to muster all the human strength at my disposal and keep two hands on the keyboard at all times. For now....
ADVANTAGE: NEITHER

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ana - Serbia, Anna - Russia
ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA
I don't know where Serbia is, therefore I don't recognize it as a legitimate country.

PLAYING ABILITY: Ana 50th, Anna 1st
ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA
Sorry, babe we dig winners here in America, no time for losers.

HEIGHT: Ana 6-0 Anna 5-8
ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA
Although I'm willing to learn Amazonian.

WEIGHT: Ana 160 lbs Anna 123 lbs
ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA
It's cruel to have to say "Get off me, you beast, you're crushing my spleen", to an otherwise perfectly acceptable woman. A buck sixty is what I weigh on a good day and I can't have a woman that weighs more than me or can beat me in arm wrestling. Not good for that whole perpetuation of the species thing.

INTANGIBLES:
Both play right-handed - ADVANTAGE: NEITHER
Anna seems more willing and able to play doubles. ADVANTAGE: KOURNIKOVA.

It's over. It's all over. And I think we have a winner in this case.

Clearly, the most lop-sided heavy-weight confrontation since Michael Spinks pissed down his leg in front of Mike Tyson.

THIS JUST SCREAMS WHAT THE LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES IS ABOUT

http://www.littleleague.org/series/2006divisions/llbb/teams/transatlantic/aarondurley.htm

Meet Aaron Durley, Little League age 12, 6-8 and 256 pound first baseman for Arabian American Little League Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

This young man fares well in a Tale of the Tape with Prince Fielder. In fact, my money is on Aaron if he goes up against Cecil Fielder.

This is why when Dr. Mike Marshall rants about this type of tournament, and in some respects youth baseball in general, being mainly about "accelerated maturers" vs. "delayed maturers", we need to take notice and at least understand what is going on and gain some perspective.

In some respects, I have a love-hate relationship with all the hoopla surrounding the LLWS. Mainly because of the nostalgia, the light that is shined on the critical issues surrounding youth sports. You get to see, if you care to look, both the best and worst of what youth sports is all about. And amazingly, it is not all about steroid use.

We had the recent case of the coach in Utah, who intentionally walked a team's best hitter in the champioship game to get at the next hitter, who was a recent cancer survivor. And there was a split in the reaction to the event ranging from why was a no-competetive league holding a championship game, if the kid was handicapped why was he hitting behind the best hitter on the team, wouldn't you want to treat the kid equally, etc.

Watching the LL Southern Regional final between Columbus, Georgia and Dunedin, Florida, we got to see a polished, 12-year old lefthander throwing 80+ MPH fastballs.

No, Danny Almonte is not making a comeback.

But you do have to wonder about the accuracy of the radar readings when the Florida pitcher was throwing 64 MPH knuckle-curves. I don't think I had any High School Freshman throwing 80+ and thats 14 and 15 year olds. He did look as polished mechanically as some 14 and 15 year olds I've seen, it's just that I had the same queasy feeling I had when I saw Amonte pitch and that's a) 12 year olds don't throw that hard and b) 12 year old LH pitchers generally aren't that polished on the mound.

I hope for the sake of Little League Baseball that I'm just being overly cynical. Or that the radar readings are as inflated as a Major League Slugger. I'm not sure they could take another Almonte-like scandal.

Especially with the Outdoor Life Network showing the Cal Ripken World Series at the same time. Good to see some of these other organizations get some play. Especially Ripken's, they do an outstanding job and have a fantastic approach to youth sports overall. I saw Billy Ripken on air explaining rule changes for next year: 50 foot pitching distance to help the hitters a little bit and 70 foot basepaths to help infielders learn better mechanics. His explanation was that at the shorter distances IF's "panic" too easily and don't learn properly how to relax and just field the baseball and throw. They just don't hav enought time with 60 foot basepaths, or in most cases they don't feel like they have enough time. Good explanation for why they were making the change and I would expect both changes will facilitate a better overall game played by kids at that age.

Competition is good, it's what made America great. It's good to see some of that philosophy filter down to the youth baseball level.