Be careful what you wish for, MLB

As much fun as Major League Baseball was last night, the games, the action and the excitement were overshadowed by ESPN's Outside the Lines scoop on the deal Major League Baseball has reached with the former owner of Biogenesis of America, Tony Bosch, to rat on his former customers. The zeal with which MLB has pursued this case has known no bounds and reminds me of the ax-wielding swarms that used to arrive at liqueur stockpiles during Prohibition. All I can say to MLB is: Be careful what you wish for.

I have been on record many times as not caring one iota what ball players put in their bodies. I have never changed my stance on that. The players implicated in the past, whether it be the Mitchell Report or otherwise have ranged from great players to terrible ones. A great player is a great player and a terrible player is still a terrible player.

Plus, there are two other things that make this all unseemly for me. First, the largest percentage of players targeted in these things are always Hispanic players and this will be no different. That makes this all seem like some kind of witch hunt. The second is that there are so many grey areas already in what players can and cannot do. Toradol is okay. Blood transfusions and therapy are okay. Heck, even Cortisone could be considered a performance enhancing drug.

But the mess this particular case can lead to could be years in the boiler. With basically a guy like Tony Bosch, who is trying to save his own skin, providing he-said-she-said testimony and without positive drug tests to support it, players such as Ryan Braun will fight this in courts for as long as it takes. The players' union, which has been quiet up until now, will rear its head if 100-game suspensions are lobbed about.

You really have to question MLB's motivation in the zeal they are pursuing this. Are they simply determined to clean up a mess they created in the first place with their own blind eye during the 1990s? Are they trying to keep the government and international sports bodies off of their backs? Is this an end run on some of the bigger contracts in baseball in Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun? Who is to really know?

What is known is that this continuing mess will continue to darken the game for years to come and pull positive vibes and attention away from growth that has exploded in the finances of the sport. Big time media writers get to whet their chops like a meteorologist during an approaching hurricane and give them something to write about to save their jobs in a dying writer's economy for another couple of years which will prevent more players from reaching the Hall of Fame where they belong.

I write not only in a semi-media and journalistic approach but also as a fan of the game. As the latter, this is not what I want my focus on. Oh, some fans will use this as a reason to scream at players who make more money than fans will ever dream about and will side with the media-types. But the rest of us just want to watch our baseball, marvel at pitching match-ups and enjoy our favorite sport. Those of us that are in the latter category, and we are legion, hate this. And we hate it with a passion.

If that is what you want, MLB, by all means, go for it. Go get your zeal on. Go make your examples on fifteen or more Hispanics of the twenty total names. Go ahead and piss on South and Central American fans and nationalists. This is America and you have a right to pursue your agenda. Just do not be surprised when it all blows up in your face and the gains you have so vigorously pursued in the game are thwarted by this perpetual cloud you insist on salting. Get your lawyers in a row. You will need them.

Joe Girardi and Alex Rodriguez's conversation

Joe Girardi called Alex Rodriguez and according to sources, the conversation went well. As an exercise in fiction, yours truly imagined what that conversation sounded like. Click here to read the account.

Top Ten Position Players of the Past Ten Years

Putting lists together is sort of like trying to run across the highway. Somebody is bound to run you over for your efforts. But lists are fun even if, in the end, people end up poking holes in your logic. For this little exercise, this writer went to Fangraphs and used their handy and amazing leader board to find the top ten position players for the past ten years (2002 through 2011). The criteria used was fWAR. Again, you can poke holes in that logic. But so what? The amazing thing about the list is that all of the players on it are still playing. Yeah, a few of them are getting ancient now, but they are all still with us. Such long term performance signifies greatness in this writer's book. There are a few obvious players on the list and a few that may surprise you.

So here's the list in descending order with a few comments:

1. Albert Pujols: (80.1 fWAR): Ten of Albert's eleven year career are covered by these stats. And they are amazing. Everything about his ten seasons lead the world. In those seasons, he had the highest wOBA, the highest wRC+, the highest ISO, the highest slugging percentage, the highest batting average, the highest on base percentage. He scored the most runs, drove in the most runs, hit the most homers and struck out fewer than any player that follows him on this list. Incredible. But what about the next ten years?
2. Alex Rodriguez: (67.9 fWAR): This is the Pujols Era and everyone else is chicken fodder. But with all the negative press he's received, A-Rod has been an amazing player. And even with a few years of late that were below his standards (he is getting old), he's been just below Albert in most every category.
3. Carlos Beltran (51.2 fWAR): Surprised? You shouldn't be. Not if you have been a steady reader here in the FanDome. Beltran easily earned (as the Fan proved) his Mets contract with a decade of good defense, good base running and consistently good offensive numbers. He is the best centerfielder of his era.
4. Chase Utley (50.6 fWAR): Utley has the fewest games played over the ten years of all the players on this list. But when he has played, he's been amazing. Great fielding metrics, very good base running and good offensive numbers. He might not be the best second baseman in baseball right now, but over the last decade, he has been.
5. Lance Berkman (49.7 fWAR): Another surprise. Tucked away on the Astros for most of his career, few have really noticed how excellent he has been. It took a comeback year for a higher profile Cardinal team to show how really good Lance Berkman is and has been. Berkman has the second highest on base percentage on our list and third best slugging percentage and wOBA. If it wasn't for his positional adjustment (1B), his less than stellar fielding and his leaden base running, Berkman could easily have been third on our list. Even so, he's been far better than most realize.
6. Ichiro Suzuki (46.9 fWAR): Ichiro along with the next two players on our list built his high fWAR based just as much on defense as he has on offense. He's not a great on-base guy and he has shown no power, his ability to blow past 200 hits every season takes somewhat of a hit because of those facts. But according to Fangraphs, Ichiro has saved 104.6 runs with his defense over the past ten years and has been an above average base runner. This writer would put him in the Hall of Fame already.
7. Adrian Beltre (46.7 fWAR): Seattle Mariner fans might choke a bit on this one. But he was much better for them than people thought. And his overall defense for the past ten years make him the best defensive player on our list with 138+ runs saved at third base. His offense had some off seasons (hence the Seattle hate) but he's averaged 28 homers and 88 runs driven in over the ten year period. Hardly shabby. He's been a great, great player.
8. Scott Rolen (46.3 fWAR): Rolen is the third of four third baseman that will make our list. And he is a surprise of sorts to be here. But he has saved 114.5 runs with his defense and his ten year slash line of: .281/.360/.485 is not chopped liver either. It's a shame that injuries have kept him from building more WAR and being the household name that he should be. He's played the third least amount of games of our list of ten players.
9. Chipper Jones (46.2 fWAR): It's a shame that a lot of baseball fans will only remember the last couple of broken down memories of Chipper Jones. His offense might be the third best of our ten players with a ten year slash line of .302/.404/.521. Defense has chipped away a bit of his value and he hasn't been a great runner on the bases. But he's a first ballot HOF guy in this Fan's book.
10. Derek Jeter (45.6 fWAR): Yes, Jeter has given away 48.9 runs on defense over the ten year period. But he's also averaged 189 hits, 100 runs scored, 70 RBI and 20 stolen bases. His base running over the decade was excellent (though he's stumbled the last two years). His offense put him four wins above replacement above Jimmy Rollins over the same time period.

So that's the Fan's list. The compiler will now commence dodging speeding cars on that highway! Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Winning Without A-Rod

Alex Rodriguez has missed 58 games for the New York Yankees this season. That's a significant loss of playing time. And yet, with the exception of deep inside the bowels of the Yankee blog universe, the story has been nearly invisible. And even in that Yankee blog universe, the usual story about A-Rod's missed time is that the team has a .577 winning percentage when A-Rod plays and a .655 winning percentage when A-Rod doesn't play. But if anyone thinks that the Yankees are a better team without Alex Rodriguez, they have been visiting the medical marijuana facility far too often.

Perhaps this has been such a non-story because the Yankees have the best record in the American League. Who cares if A-Rod has been missing? The Yankees haven't missed a beat. You could even make a case that the offense hasn't suffered at all with his absence. The Yankees have scored 5.41 runs a game in games A-Rod played and 5.36 runs a game when he hasn't. That is such a small statistical difference that it would seem it matters little if at all whether he plays or not.

But it does matter and it will matter heading into the post season. Perhaps we shouldn't be looking at how the team has performed without or with A-Rod. That could be the biggest point that is missing in looking at such grand statistical claims. A Yankee win or loss depends on a lot of factors including pitching, hitting and defense of not only every Yankee who participates in the game but also the opposing team's pitching, hitting and defense. In other words, one player a winning percentage doesn't make. Instead, you have to look at who plays third, either A-Rod or others and how they have performed at that position when they play.

Let's start with fielding. Uh oh. We're in trouble already because everyone knows that fielding metrics aren't an exact science (yet) and we shouldn't look at one year's UZR to gauge a player's fielding. But we'll push all that aside and look at one year anyway. A-Rod has played 703 innings at third base. In those 703 innings, he's posted a UZR of 10.8. All other Yankees have played 625 innings at third base (A-Rod has DHed quite a bit due to his ailments) and have compiled a combined -4.8 UZR. That's a 15.6 run difference. And since ten runs generally lead to a win, A-Rod's play at third is a 1.5 win difference over other third basemen just in fielding alone.

Then there is batting. Alex Rodriguez has added 15.5 batting runs to the Yankees' line up. Again, that's the equivalent of a win and a half. All others that have played third base for the Yankees have a total of -11.8 batting runs. That's almost a three win difference between A-Rod's batting and anybody else the Yankees have employed at third.

Then there are the stats you can get your hands on easily. A-Rod has an .842 OPS. Eduardo Nunez is sitting at .667 and Eric Chavez at .694. A-Rod's on base percentage is .367. Nunez sits at .301 and Chavez at .331. A-Rod has thirteen go-ahead hits (hits that put his team in the lead). Nunez and Chavez have had eight combined.  A-Rod has a wOBA of .369 while Nunez and Chavez are at .299 and .301 respectively.

Don't let the win-loss records and runs scored per game fool you when it comes to if Alex Rodriguez plays or doesn't play. Despite only playing 90 games, Fangraphs rates A-Rod as the fourth most valuable third baseman in baseball this season. The Yankees are a much better team with A-Rod in the line up and fielding his position at third base. If A-Rod can be healthy and in the line up during the post season, the Yankees will have a greater chance of winning than if he isn't.

Alex Rodriguez and Intentional Walks

No matter how you may want to view Alex Rodriguez and his career, the one thing you have to admit is that he's been a prodigious slugger. One of only a handful of players to hit more than 600 homers, he also has quite a batting resume. His lifetime slash line is: .302/.386/.568. He's driven in 1884 runs and before he is done could become one of the few players ever to drive in over 2000 runs. But there is a curious thing about Alex Rodriguez and his statistics. He's only compiled 88 intentional walks in his career. Why would that be?

The intentional walk is a somewhat modern invention. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig didn't have intentional walks. Well, that's not entirely true. There have always been intentional walks. They tried without success to ban them in 1920 for example. The correct way to say this is that they only started recording intentional walks in 1955. So guys like Ruth and Gehrig were intentionally walked, but there is no way of knowing how many of their recorded walks were intentional. The 1955 date of beginning to record intentional walks is troublesome as well because that was mid-career for guys like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Ernie Banks.

But even with that said, Mays, Aaron, Mantle and Banks were all afforded the "four-finger salute" many more times than Alex Rodriguez. Again, why is that? To prove the point, take a look at this little spreadsheet this writer put together:

As you can see, on this list, only Jose Canseco hit more than 450 homers and had less intentional walks per homer than Alex Rodriguez. You could understand that to a degree because Canseco was an all or nothing kind of hitter. But Alex Rodriguez has been a much more balanced, all around hitter than Canseco ever was. So what gives?

In A-Rod's first six years, he batted in front of Ken Griffey, Jr. for the Seattle Mariners That would explain some of those early years. Griffey, as you can see on the list above compiled far more IBBs than A-Rod because there wasn't a hitter to protect Griffey like Griffey protected A-Rod. But even so, In 1996, A-Rod hit 91 extra base hits and batted .358. You would think you might want to take your chances with Griffey, no? By 1998, A-Rod was clearly the better hitter. But from his rookie season in 1994 to 1999 (the Griffey years), A-Rod was intentionally walked only four times.

In 2000, Griffey was gone and Alex Rodriguez had another great season but was nearly matched in hitting performance by Edgar Martinez. Still, A-Rod was the guy. His IBBs increased to five. But Edgar Martinez was intentionally walked eight times and even Jon Olerud was intentionally walked eleven times.

In 2001, Alex Rodriguez was with the Texas Rangers and hit 52 homers. His 1.021 OPS was clearly the best on what was one of the best offenses in the game of baseball. He was intentionally walked six times. Rafael Palmeiro was walked intentionally on eight different occasions. Palmeiro had a great season, but was he more fearsome than A-Rod? In 2002, A-Rod hit 57 (!) homers and his IBBs bumped up to twelve--the highest of his career. But he was still outpaced by Palmeiro who was walked intentionally sixteen times.

It wasn't until 2003, his tenth season in the big leagues, that Alex Rodriguez led his team in intentional walks with ten. Palmeiro had nine and Mark Teixeira had six. 

2004 began A-Rod's Yankee years and in his first year, he was intentionally walked six times. Gary Sheffield was given seven free passes that season. From 2005 to 2008, A-Rod led the Yankees in intentional walks with 36 total or an average of nine a season. Eleven was his high water mark with the Yankees in 2007 when he hit 54 homers. Since 2009, his totals went from seven in 2009 (Teixeira had more) to one in each of the past two seasons. It's been common in the past couple of years for Teixeira to be walked to get to A-Rod. Plus, with the emergence of Robinson Cano, nobody wants to face him with runners on base.

Alex Rodriguez is in his eighteenth season and again, has been one of the most prolific run producers in major league history. And yet, despite that fact, he has averaged only seven intentional passes per 162 at bats. For a slugger his caliber, nobody has been intentionally walked less. It's puzzling. It might even be confounding. And the lack of free passes might be one of the reasons he shares the major league record for career grand slams. Has it been a lack of respect? Has it been the deepness of the line ups he's been a part of? It can't be because of the myth that he isn't a clutch player. A-Rod has a .943 career OPS with runners in scoring position and a .966 career OPS in high leverage situations.

It's certainly puzzling. But there it is.

Gnash Your Teeth - A-Rod's Back

Many have chosen to enjoy the fact that Alex Rodriguez seemed to regress over the past few years. That he was no longer among the elite players of the league made people happy. See? The guy can't play without steroids. See? He's getting old. See? How stupid the Yankees are for paying him so much. Unfortunately for these folks, Mr. Alex Rodriguez came into Spring Training in his best shape in years thanks to finally being cleared by doctors to do full flexibility workouts years after his hip surgery. A-Rod ripped the ball all over Florida and in the early going, he's doing it in the games that count too.

If you look over at Fangraphs.com and their leader board, these are the top five right now in baseball. There's Tulowitski--another guy getting healthy now. There is Matt Kemp, who is enjoying life after Larry Bowa. Both are sitting with a 1.3 WAR. Right below them and tied with 1.0 is Joey Votto (whom you would expect), Colby Rasmus (who is having a breakout season) and Alex Rodriguez. And A-Rod leads them all in wOBA and wRC+.

Having watched A-Rod play for a long time, this does not have the feel of an early season fluke (ahem - Miguel Montero). He started like this in 2007 and he never let up. Yeah, he had more early homers in 2007, but he was just as locked in and it carried through the entire season. Watching him this early season, you can just see he knows he's going to hit the ball hard. You can sense that he feels comfortable and focused. No, he's not going to finish with a 1.400 OPS, but there is no doubt that barring injuries, he can climb his way back to his familiar 1.000 and higher.

Consider that a year ago, when everyone could see that he couldn't move vertically, he still hit 30 homers and slugged over .500. Consider that some scouts are saying that he has more freedom in his hip movement than they've ever seen from him...ever. Everyone at Yankee Stadium III knew he was going to get a big hit in the tenth inning against Baltimore yesterday. Watching him, you just knew. He might make an out, but he was going to hit the ball really hard. He did and he didn't make an out.

You may hate him, but he's back and as good as ever. His head and his place with his teammates have never been better. Barring injury, Alex Rodriguez is going to have a monster season. The Fan is greatly sorry if that is disturbing to many of you. But if you can put your prejudices aside for a few moments and watch the guy hit, what Alex Rodriguez is doing now is as pretty as it gets in baseball.

War Graphs - Pujols, A-Rod, Aaron

Everyone is having fun with War Graphs, one of the best features of the Fangraphs.com site. This one shows how nearly identical the careers are of Hank Aaron, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols really are. Take a look at the chart below. If it's too small for you to see, click on it and it will get bigger.

This Fan finds that graph amazing. Note how Alex Rodriguez is just above Hank until the last two years, which shows the effects of the hip injury A-Rod suffered. A-Rod appears to be much healthier this spring and could jump back on Aaron's pace this year with a big year. Pujols is on an almost identical path for his first ten years as Aaron.

Let's do the same thing, but remove Aaron and add it Barry Bonds. Note that Bonds and A-Rod are nearly identical at A-Rod's current age. But then Bonds had that late career boom which you can debate some other time...perhaps after the trial is over. Pujols is right there with them.

That's pretty remarkable stuff. Albert Pujols seems to be marching on at a steady pace just like A-Rod and Aaron. Considering he plays first base and gets a positional penalty from that position, Pujols clearly is an astounding player and we should certainly enjoy it while it lasts.

Top 20 Year Old Seasons Of All Time

Buster Olney over at ESPN.com wrote in his blog today that baseball is getting younger. Indeed. A half dozen players played in the majors last year at the age of 20, the youngest of which, Starlin Castro, became the first MLB player born in the 1990s. Ugh! Now doesn't THAT make you feel old? Olney's post got this writer to thinking about young players and set out to find the greatest seasons ever by a player at the age of 20. Here's what the Fan found:

Batting:

This is based on OPS, not a perfect stat, but it seems to do the job here. The following three are the only players in history to have an OPS over 1.000 at the age of twenty (and qualified for the batting title):

Mel Ott - New York Giants (1929). You would think that Ott had help from the short porch in right field at the Polo Grounds, but he hit more homers on the road and had a higher OPS while away from his home park.. It was fourth season in the big leagues and his second full season. He started when he was 17! At the age of 20, Mel Ott walked 123 times against only 36 strikeouts. His slash line that year was .328/.449/.635. He hit 42 homers, knocked in 151, scored 138 and added 37 doubles. And his fielding percentage at first base was right in line with the league average. His final WAR (baseball-reference.com) that season was 8.0. Ott had even better seasons (if you can believe that) as he got older, but remarkably, the Hall of Fame player who finished with 511 homers and over 1600 RBI never won an MVP award. His 1.084 OPS in 1929 is the highest ever for a 20 year old.

Ted Williams - Boston Red Sox (1939). This Fan still can't fathom what Ted Williams' career totals would look like if he didn't miss two stretches to fight in wars. Consider if you will that in the 19 seasons he did play, he only had ONE YEAR where his OPS was less than 1. Can you imagine that? Albert Pujols already has two seasons under 1. 1939 was Williams' rookie year and he started with a bang. He batted .327, had on OBP of .429 (he holds the record for career OBP) and slugged .609. He hit 31 homers and drove in 145 runs (to lead the league). He added 44 doubles and 11 triples and scored 131 times. The only knock on his was his fielding. He made 18 errors in the outfield. 18!? In the outfield? But he still finished with a WAR of 6.8 and an OPS of 1.045, tied for second all time with...

Alex Rodriguez - Seattle Mariners (1996). The Mariners sure cold mash. Rodriguez, Griffey Jr. and Edgar all finished above 1.000 in OPS and Jay Buhner added 44 homers and a .938 OPS. But all A-Rod did at the age of 20 was lead the league in batting, runs scored and doubles. His slash line was .358/.414/.631. He hit 54 doubles and 36 homers as part of his 215 hits. That's a lot of hitting for such a young guy. It was his first full season but he did play parts of the two seasons prior and started at the age of 18. Let's hope his career doesn't parallel Ott's. Ott started young and was finished being productive at 35 and was out of baseball at 38.

Pitching

Went with ERA+ on this one and the pitcher had to qualify with enough innings for the ERA title.

Dwight Gooden - New York Mets (1985). Gooden had the best pitching season of a 20 year old in all of history. His ERA+ was 229 (!), the only 20 year old ever to have a season over 200. What didn't he do well that season? He went 24-4 with an ERA of 1.53. The slash line against him that season was .201/.254/.270. In other words, the entire league was worse than Emilio Bonifacio! He struck out 276 batters against just 68 walks. And...it was his second amazing season in a row. He won 17 the year before and he had 41 wins before he turned 21. There were no Joba Rules back then. He pitched 276+ innings. Unfortunately, we all know the rest of the story.

Harry Krause - Philadelphia Athletics (1909). Here's a guy you never heard of. He had this one brief shining season and could never repeat it and was out of baseball by the age of 24. But when he was 20, he went 18-8 with a 1.39 ERA (leading the league). He had a WHIP of 0.939 and is given a league leading 172 ERA+. This ranks him second all time as a 20 year old pitcher.

Don Drysdale, Bob Feller and Smokey Joe Wood all had 20 year old campaigns with an ERA+ in the 150s.

And those, folks, are the best performances ever by players at the age of 20.

What Does A-Rod Mean?

[[switching to first person]] We have been told by so many people on how we should feel about Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez that I simply cannot figure out how I feel about his 600th home run. It seems fitting that I've watched every game of the "chase" to 600 until today (because I forgot it was a day game). His entire career has been elusive and political. The fact that becomes so hard to grasp is that this may be the finest ballplayer this side of Barry Bonds that we'll ever see. Why can't we enjoy it?

I want to like A-Rod. I really do. But how can you even relate to a man like him? He isn't a ball player, he is a businessman. He is a Texas Rangers' creditor. He is Tiger Woods with half the charisma. This year, that seems like more an apt comparison than ever before. But again, I really want to root for him. It was neat that he and Jeter hugged after the milestone. But isn't it weird that even while the milestone was happening...even as I was watching the replay, I was wondering how the media was going to cover this. That's what A-Rod does to anything he touches. He makes it surreal. This isn't just home run number 600. It's another debate about steroids. This isn't another Yankee team moment, it's an A-Rod moment. This isn't an accomplishment that is amazed at or celebrated, it is ho-hummed by most of the baseball world. Why?

Put your fingers around a guy who is only 35 years old already having 600 homers. Before you go thinking that doesn't mean much, imagine getting two homers a game every day for most of two season. Think about hitting a home run a day for almost four years. Think of mulitplying Jose Bautista twenty times where he is now. That's a lot of homers. Alex Rodriguez now has 1100 extra base hits. That's more doubles, triples and homers than Robinson Cano has hits in his career. If he gets just 100 more extra base hits in his career, he'll finish sixth all time. Alex Rodriguez now has 4960 total bases. That's 19th on the all time list. A-Rod has averaged 354 Total Bases for every 162 games he's played. If he averages a paltry 200 a year for the next six years (he already has 176 this season and it's an off year), then there will be only three men ahead of him: Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Willie Mays.

If Alex Rodriguez were to quit tomorrow, he'd already be a Hall of Fame caliber player. He's already built the stats in EVERY category to do that. His next stolen base will be his 300th. He's rewritten batting prerequisites for shortstops and third basemen. And unfortunately, there will be lots of debate about whether he belongs in the Hall or not because of his PED admission. And that's a shame.

You can't compare A-Rod with Mark McGwire. You can't compare A-Rod with Sammy Sosa. Not only did he play a more highly skilled position than either of them, but he was always a better player than them. He has 1100+ more Total Bases than McGwire and his career OPS+ is 21 points higher than Sosa's. And I believe both of those gentlemen should be in the Hall of Fame. But I can also see the resistance. I can't see that resistance for A-Rod as he was a complete package who could do it all and do it regularly.

All that I have written in the last three paragraphs is the truth. All of it contains accolades that A-Rod has exceeded in deeds and accomplishments. But there has never been a more polarizing player ever. Sure, Bonds was hated everywhere and loved feverishly in San Francisco, but A-Rod has never even been feverishly loved anywhere he's played. I marvel at his accomplishments. I respect his mad skills that are superior to all but one of his generation. I acknowledge that he is a complex and inscrutable person and human being. I attempt sincerely to like him. I applaud his milestone. I recognize that he is a superhero of sorts with his boy-wonder conqueror first name and messianic middle name.

At the end of the day, the sad reality at the bottom core of it all is that I only like him when he hits and hits often. And even if it's the best of times, that's only going to be a third of the time.

The Fan Was Shouting At His Screen Again

Ah, the life of a Fan. Watched Josh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians make his major league debut against the New York Yankees. In a nice, feel-good story, Tomlin got the win going seven innings. He only gave up three hits and didn't walk anybody. That's the feel-good part. The Fan shouting at the screen part was watching Yankee batters take meatballs for strikes only to let Tomlin make his pitch with the count in his favor...that was the bad part.

It's enough to drive a Fan crazy. In Rob Neyer's blog today, he quoted another writer whose theory on why this is a pitcher's year is that major league hitters are taking strike one which puts them immediately in a pitcher's count and the pitchers are throwing first pitch strikes. Exactly. Good call. And the Yankees are the de facto poster boys for such activity. The two biggest antagonists? A-Rod and Brett Gardner.

As you probably know, A-Rod is trying to hit his 600th homer. That's one reason why the Fan has been watching every Yankee game to try to catch history. Tonight against Tomlin, A-Rod let at least four glorious meatballs (chest high) go right by him for called strikes. Two were hanging sliders. And the others were batting practice fastballs. Tomlin had a nice game. But he isn't overpowering by any means. He threw strikes and he kept the Yankees off balance. His most effective weapon was throwing that first pitch strike.

This Fan is no expert or he would be on the field playing. But golly geez, it sure looked like A-Rod could have pounded those pitches. Putting himself behind in the count on all occasions, he had to hit the pitcher's pitch, which meant lunging for outside corner strikes and hitting them weakly.

Brett Gardner is simply maddening. He never swings at the first strike and rarely swings at the second one. It seems he is always in the hole in the count, which makes it amazing how well his average and on base percentage have held up. Tuesday night against Tomlin was no different. Belt-high and downtown Broadway strikes and Gardner just stood there looking just like always. And like A-Rod, he gets in a pitcher's count and has to swing at anything close and makes easy outs.

ARRRRGGGHHH! It's enough to drive a Fan to the basement to write a blog. Good for Tomlin though. Might as well exploit a weakness and keep yourself in counts that benefit your own pitches. Smart.

Dying with Sergio Mitre

The Fan watched the Yankees - Royals game on Saturday mostly to see if A-Rod would hit his 600th homer (that is history after all). He didn't hit one but Teixeira hit two and Posada hit one. But the real story was Sergio Mitre and the first base umpire.

Mitre was making his first start in place of Andy Pettitte. As stated previously in this spot, the choice by the Yankees completely lacked imagination. Bringing up Mitre from Triple A cost Jonathan Albaladejo a roster spot and that's a guy who could be a real nice late inning reliever for the Yankees. Frankly, Mitre was putrid and withing four innings has put the Yankees in a 6-0 hole and it could have been far worse. Girardi finally pulled the plug in the fifth and the relievers (mainly Dustin Moseley did a nice job of keeping the game from getting out of hand.

And the Yankees kept chipping away. Two homers by Teixeira and another by Posada made the score 7-4 and they had chances in every inning to chip away more but couldn't get the big hit. A-Rod didn't get his homer, but had some decent at bats. Then the Yankees managed to get Jeter and Granderson on first and second with two out in the ninth. That brought up Teixeira, who battled hard after getting in an 0-2 hole. He finally dribbled one in the infield and the replay showed clearly that he beat the throw at first. But the umpire, Chad Fairchild, called him out. If the ump had not blown the call, A-Rod would have come up with the bases loaded and all kinds of drama could have ensued. But it was not to be.

Think the Yankees Are Scary Now?

The Yankees have a two game lead in the American League East despite down production from Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and to some degree, C. C. Sabathia. Many stories have been written concerning Jeter and A-Rod and most include stories about their age. The other two have always been slow starters, but this year, the start has gone deeper into the season.

Derek Jeter had such a good season last season that this year looks terrible in comparison. But Jeter really turned it on in the second half last season. In fact, going back to this same June 24th of that season, he was sitting at his low point for the season in Average and On Base Percentage. From June 25 of last year until the end of the season, he raised his batting average 33 points and his OBP 37 points. In 2008, he had a similar phenomenon. From June 25th to the end of the season in 2008, Jeter raised his BA 22 points and his OBP 18 points. Jeter is a year older, but the fielding stats show him to be having one of his best fielding years in a long time. Jeter will come around. This Fan would bet on it.

Teixeira has already started to hit much better, but his early season sluggishness has gone on much longer than usual. Last year, his BA was much higher than it is now. But he did raise his OPS by 12 points from June 25 to the end of the season. It does not seem possible for Teixeira to reach his career norms by the end of this season. But if he simply hits his norms for the rest of the season, he'll be a big contributor to the Yankees from here on out.

At this point last year, C. C. Sabathia was 6-4 with a 3.71 ERA. The big lefty went 13-4 the rest of the way and lowered his ERA by 27 points. The year before that, Sabathia started 6-6 with Cleveland with an ERA of 3.83. He then went 11-2 with the Brewers and lowered his ERA to 2.70 for the season. Sabathia is already 8-3 this year with a better ERA at this point in the season than last season. His K/9 is exactly the same as last year. After looking at the numbers, this Fan might conclude that he hasn't started badly at all! He'll be fine.

The only one that isn't a good bet is Alex Rodriguez simply because his health hasn't seemed right for a while now. His range of motion is way down and he isn't getting to pitches he used to cream. But Alex Rodriguez was the best player in the game for so many years, it's hard to count him out. If he can at least match his last year's numbers for the rest of the season, it will be enough.

The Yankees have the best record in the majors to date, but they haven't even hit their stride yet. That's a pretty scary thought for the rest of the division.

Surpised Braden Didn't Piss on the Mound

Okay, this story is sort of dumbfounding. It seems that in the middle of a rare Yankee loss that featured a triple play and another good outing from an up and coming pitcher named Dallas Braden, Alex Rodriguez (who always seems to be in the middle of this type of story) was the front end of a double play ball that ended the Yankees' inning. After being forced out at second, A-Rod jogged toward his position at third. That's when Dallas Braden, that up and coming pitcher, let him have it.

It seems Braden felt that A-Rod had broken some sort of unwritten rule earlier (after a foul ball when A-Rod crossed the mound on the way back to first), that apparently states that the batting team will not step on the pitching mound while the other team is occupying it. Well, okay. The Fan has been watching the game for more than four decades and has never heard that one before. So Braden gets all pissed off (you can read the story and find the video link here) and starts barking to A-Rod. The video clearly shows Braden's lips saying something to the effect of, "Stay off my @#@@#% mound." A-Rod can be clearly seen looking at Braden as if to say, "Whuh?"

Then Braden kicks a bunch of stuff in the dugout and throws his glove and stuff. Rob Neyer's take on the whole thing was that the Yankees will just shrug that stuff off because they are too good not to, but the A's should be really impressed with the fire of the young 26 year old pitcher. Well, okay again. Mr. Neyer is usually someone who is dead on with stuff, but this is just silly.

First of all, what the heck is the big deal? It's akin to the Fan yelling at the Fan's wife for hanging one of her shirts on his side of the closet. That would be kind of goofy, no?

Secondly, Braden may be good and he may be staking a claim in the league, but he's clearly nothing more than a mere babe in the woods as far as the major leagues go. He doesn't have the juice or the status to be challenging an established player on his own team let alone a superstar like A-Rod. The Fan may be cited here for favoritism, but the reaction would have been the same if it was any other team or any other player that Braden lit into.

Perhaps if the Fan was the captain of the Yankees, he would have his entire team cross the mound the next time they face Braden. But that would be kind of childish. So would hitting another Oakland batter just because Braden got upset about such a stupid little thing. The best course for the Yankees would be to ignore it an go about their business being the overpaid brutes of the AL East. Yeah, that's the best call.

As for the A's, is this something that fires the A's up like Mr. Neyer would suggest? If the Fan was playing for the A's, the reaction here would be, "WTF Braden?" Or similarly, "Oh that's good, Braden, the Yankees aren't already good enough, you have to give them extra motivation?"

The Fan loves his little dog. He's a cute little thing that has become the mascot of our home and he's like our child. Every day, the Fan takes him for several walks around the yard to do his thing. Every time the dog sniffs something he isn't sure about, he pees on that spot just to say that it's his. Now this is quite stupid really because for one, he's a small little dog and if a moose or a bear or a dear or any other dog wants to blunder through the yard, the Fan's little dog isn't going to be able to do anything about it. It's a dumb instinctual thing. But he's a dog. And dog's are stupid. Braden has basically done the same thing here. It's just a pitching mound for gosh sakes. Get over yourself.

Who knows, the Fan could be out in left field somewhere and not know there is really some sort of unwritten code about this sort of thing. Perhaps if the Fan learns that such a thing exists, then Braden would have some sort of beef. But then again, even if there was an unwritten code, the Fan thinks much of those codes are silly or stupid anyway. A-Rod probably wasn't even thinking about what he was doing. We all know that these adults are playing a child's game. But that doesn't mean they have to act like they are one.

Real Life Versus Unreal Life

Life takes on new perspective when money is tight. When money is tight and life is about survival from week to week, which it is for 90 percent of us in this country, then the unreality of someone paying $103,579 for a baseball...any baseball...is surreal. But that is how much money it cost some lucky bid winner to buy the baseball that Alex Rodriguez hit for his 500th homer.

Normally, this Fan doesn't exercise in this kind of futility when players' salaries are discussed. After all, $4 million a year for marginal players is not even computable in this Fan's brain. But a number like $103, 579 is a number that the brain can wrap around. It's not so big a number that the average Joe cannot understand what it means. And for most of us, it means a lot.

To put it into perspective, that much money would buy 36,992 gallons of heating oil, or enough to completely fill a home owner or renter's home tank 148 times. That would get you through a few winters, eh? For the struggling family, that amount of money would supply over 1,000 weeks of groceries. It would pay 695 power bills. It would pay 1726 months of cell phone service. For those of us who dream of traveling for vacation, it would buy 478 plane tickets. It would buy five modest new vehicles for families or 50 used ones.

All that money for a baseball that because of our obsession with stats and numbers, is seemingly worth so much more than the 499th homer or the 501st. All that money was spent for a baseball that will sit in someone's trophy case and do nothing for nobody.

Look, the Fan gets it. The Fan once spent $275 for a 1968 Mickey Mantle (Topps) baseball card. It's cool to collect things...that is until you fall on hard times and the money seems like a travesty. Imagine how many folks in Haiti that money would help. But the story has a good flip side. The average Joe who happened to be lucky enough to catch Alex Rodriguez's 500th homer ball, just made enough money (minus the auctioneer's take) to buy all that fuel oil, groceries, cars or plane tickets. Good for him.

The Twenty Best Seasons of the Past Ten Years

It's funny how us humans view time. Since it is 2009 and we are twelve days from the calendar turning to 2010, many writers across the land are creating lists covering the past decade. You'll see the Top 100 Plays, the Top 100 Athletes, the Top 100 Movies, etc, etc. We seem to be a decadal people who think in terms of tens. You won't see a list of the Top 100 Plays in 2013, for example. But you will again in 2019. Strange. But, as a writer, you go with the flow. So, in honor of the weird human race that goes for such lists at the end of each decade, here are Major League Baseball's twenty best individual seasons for the decade of 2000-2009.

Batting:

1. Barry Bonds - 2001: Obviously, Bonds is going to be on this list at least five times. It's still a sad fact that Bonds entered the decade with eight straight seasons with an OPS over 1.000 and still felt he needed to do what he did. If he had just stayed the course of his already magnificent career, he wouldn't be the pariah he is now. Between 2000 and 2004, Bonds put together five of the greatest seasons in the history of baseball. Color them how you will. Deflate them how you want. But the numbers speak for themselves. The real tragedy of the entire run? That National League managers were allowed to walk Bonds intentionally 284 times in those five seasons. That act of cowardice is almost as big a blight on the game of baseball as what Bonds allegedly did to get the numbers he put together. Of the five season run, 2001 was the record breaking home run year. His OPS and OPS+ were higher other years, but 2001 was the year he was allowed to do the most damage, and damage he did.

2. Barry Bonds - 2004: He led the league in batting at .362. His OBP was over .600 (Egads!) and his slugging percentage was over .800. The numbers are unbelievable.

3. Barry Bonds - 2002: Led the league in batting at .370. His 268 OPS+ was the highest of his career.

4. Barry Bonds - 2003: Limited to only 130 games with injuries, Bonds still finished with an OPS+ of 231.

5. Albert Pujols - 2008: We interrupt this Barry Bonds run to give you the other great player of the decade. Pujols was unbelievable the entire time, but 2008 was the best when he finished with a 190 OPS+ as he went an incredible: .357/.462/.653. It might be the best untainted season since Ted Williams.

6. Barry Bonds - 2000: The first year of the great run started with 49 homers. Was it his last clean year or his first dirty one?

7. Albert Pujols - 2009: As good a year as Bonds in 2000.

8. Albert Pujols - 2003: Pujols had 212 hits (before he started getting walked a lot), hit over .350.

9. Travis Hafner - 2006: Many today forget what an offensive force Hafner was in the middle of the decade. He is an afterthought now, but in 2006, his numbers were huge: .308/.439/.659 all adding up to a 181 OPS+. Remarkable season.

10. Alex Rodriguez - 2007: A-Rod was sick for the Yankees that year. He hit 54 homers, drove in 156 while scoring 143. He hit .314 and had an unbelievable .645 slugging percentage.


Pitching

1. Pedro Martinez - 2000: Looking back at Pedro's best season, it seems impossible that he lost six games. The numbers are eye-popping. His strikeout to walk ratio was 8.88/1. His WHIP was .737. He walked 32 batters in 29 starts. In an offensive era, it might be the best pitching performance ever.

2. Roger Clemens - 2005: Pitching in Houston, Clemens had a season that is totally incongruous with his Win/Loss record. He finished at 13-8 but led the majors in ERA and ERA+. How good was Clemens that year? He gave up only 151 hits in 211 innings and gave up only 11 homers the entire season.

3. Pedro Martinez - 2003: He was much better than his 14-4 record. He led the league in ERA, strikeouts per nine innings, WHIP and Hits per Nine Innings. His most unbelievable stat that season? He gave up only seven homers the entire season.

4. Zack Greinke - 2009: If ever a pitcher deserved a Cy Young, it was Greinke in 2009. He led the league in ERA, WHIP and Home Runs per Nine Innings. It was a phenomenal season.

5. Pedro Martinez - 2002: Yeah, it's hard to argue with a record of 20-4. He led the league in WHIP, Strikeouts, Hits per Nine innings and Strikeout to Walk Ratio. He also had the league's best ERA that season. Naturally.

6. Randy Johnson - 2002: Johnson was amazing in 2002. his 24-5 record is only the starting point. He pitched more innings, struck out more batters and faced more batters than anyone else in the decade that season. His run from 1999 to 2002 rivals only Pedro as one of the greatest pitching runs in history.

7. Randy Johnson - 2001: The Diamondbacks owe a large part of their World Championship on Johnson's shoulders. Only Nolan Ryan struck out more batters than Johnson's 374 that season. He also led the league that season in ERA and WHIP.

8. Johan Santana - 2004: In his only twenty win season, Santana led the league in ERA, Strikeouts and WHIP.

9. Chris Carpenter - 2009: After not pitching for two years due to injury, Carpenter came back and put together an incredible season. He went 17-4 and gave up only seven homers all season. He also led the league in ERA and ERA+. He should have won the Cy Young award.

10. Randy Johnson - 2000: Johnson struck out 347 batters while compiling a 19-7 record. He pitched eight complete games and led the league in ERA+.

Alex Rodriguez: Revisited

When Alex Rodriguez first came back to the Yankees after his hip surgery, he didn't start off very well. Writers all over the web sphere were writing how either his hip had destroyed his game or hinting (or flat out stating) that since he couldn't use PEDs now, he wasn't the same player. He has been all but forgotten in the daily grind of day to day baseball. But guess what? A-Rod has quietly started to build his numbers and they look darn close to his career norms. Oops.

In Rodriguez's last 28 days, his numbers look like this: .324/.467/.676. For those of you disbelievers, that's an OPS of 1.143. His year totals to date: .258/.411/.548. His current OPS for the year is .959, just .008 off his career mark. His OPS+ sits at 150 as apposed to his career OPS+ of 147.

And if you are thinking that his numbers are juiced (poor choice of a word there) because of the new Yankee Stadium, consider that his sOPS+ is higher on the road than at home. So it appears that Mr. Rodriguez is not near death as a player yet.

Alex Rodriguez is only seven homers behind the AL leader (Carlos Pena) who has played thirty more games. He is in the top 25 in the league in RBIs. He season projects out to 30 homers and 97 RBIs. Not bad for a guy who can't play without PEDs.

Buster Olney Whispers

God love, Buster Olney. He's a great reporter and his blog is always full of useful and interesting information. But when he gets on a soapbox, he's a bit like a preacher pointing to the Bible and saying, "You will PAY for your sins!" Today's post starts with "whispers" that A-Rod's problems may be because he is playing without steroids. Oh come on! How absurd is that? Mr. Olney, you are a fuss budget and need to get your high road panties out of a twist.

His colleagues at Baseball Tonight, ESPNs wonderful baseball highlight show, had a much better explanation for A-Rod's struggles. He's being too tentative. The analysts of the show did an excellent job with footage to show an A-Rod not being aggressive enough at the plate. It wouldn't be out of whack to also point to his fielding woes from a lack of aggressiveness. He's playing by taking everything coming at him instead of taking it to the ball with both the glove and the bat.

A-Rod will be fine. He couldn't win no matter how he came back from his hip surgery. If he did well, he would still be a juicer. If he did poorly, then it's because he had to give up the juice. In either case, the truth lies somewhere much more complex and much less dramatic than the laser treatment he gets for his past sins.

Alex Rodriguez Makes an Immediate Impact

Literally. On his first pitch of the 2009 season, Alex Rodriguez hit a three run blast which was the difference on a night that C. C. Sabathia pitched like a $100+ million dollar pitcher. True, it was only the Orioles, and true, it's only one game. But Joe Girardi had to be breathing a little easier than in recent times.

Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez makes a difference for the Yankees. He has been sorely missed while he was away. The Yankees used three players at third while A-Rod was out: Cody Ransom, Angel Berroa and Ramiro Pena. Between the three, they are a combined 23 for 105 with 12 runs scored and 10 RBI. They hit eight doubles and no other extra base hits. They walked only 7 times. Between the three, they had an OPS around .550. So, yeah, there was a big hole in the lineup.

And with Posada's hot bat sitting on the disabled list, Teixeira mired in a season long slump and Swisher falling back to his true self (and Nady out for who knows how long), there just wasn't enough lumber to compensate for a struggling pitching staff. A-Rod will give Teixeira some protection now and give them the boost needed and take some of the pressure off of rest of the lineup.

As for Sabathia, he was brilliant. His fastball and change up were consistently in the strike zone and it looked like he was really comfortable with Cervelli behind the plate. He pitched with better rhythm than of late and was dominant. Even the four hits he gave up in his complete game shutout were doinkers.

The rotation is showing a little sign of life for the Yankees. If Sabathia becomes the anchor as expected, Pettitte continues to keep the team in the game (if not spectacularly), Chamberlain continues to grow and Hughes pitches well most of the time, this rotation will be okay. Burnett has had a few rough outings lately though.

The bullpen still looks to be a problem. Girardi keeps running Veras out there and he keeps getting knocked around. Rivera has not been dominant thus far and only Phil Coke seems to be doing his job on a regular basis. It's no wonder that Sabathia stayed out there all nine innings.

It won't be lost on major league fans that Manny Ramirez checks out for fifty days at the same time that Alex Rodriguez checks in. But if you ask Yankee fans and Joe Girardi, it's sure to be a welcome relief to have him back.