Does Zack Greinke Win the John Lackey Award?

There was a whole lot of things not to like about last night's NLCS contest between the Cardinals and Brewers if you were a Brewers' fan. Much, of course, has been made of the four errors committed by the Brewers that led to three unearned runs. Much also has been made of Tony LaRussa's brilliant gamesmanship as manager during the game (eyeroll). And of course, there was the fantastic performance of the Cardinal bullpen that recorded the last and conversely, the Brewers lack of getting to those relief pitchers. In the middle of it all was Zack Greinke.

Greinke simply wasn't effective yesterday and really hasn't been for much of the last month. This writer will never know if the game plan was for Greinke to pitch to contact. But pitch to contact he did. Greinke struck out no one and in fact only induced only two swing and misses all night in 89 pitches. Errors or no errors, if Greinke had missed a few bats, the results might have been different.

But what earns Greinke his John Lackey Award is his reaction to the Jerry Hairston play that resulted in two runs. In fairness to Greinke, it's unknown if he was mad at himself, Hairston or life in general. But as you can see in the linked video, Greinke slammed the ball down after the two runs scored from the error. It was a bush league move and perfectly in line for the award he's being given here.

There were so many things that were wrong on that play. Yes, Hairston blew it. Yes, he then interfered with Yadier Molina (who is looking more and more like his brothers now) that allowed Molina an interference call. But what if Hairston didn't interfere with Molina? What the heck was Greinke doing in front of the plate? His taking that throw from the outfield is reminiscent of the Manny Ramirez famous cut off play. Excuse the Fan, Zack, but you were supposed to be behind the plate not in front of it.

Some could say that he knew it was interference and knew it didn't matter. If so, then why did he try to swipe tag Molina? It was after missing on the swipe tag attempt that Greinke fired the ball into the dirt in frustration.

Zack Greinke famously said negative things about Chris Carpenter before the series started. But perhaps, instead of cranking on the Cardinals' ace, he should take some lessons.

Jerry-Meander Hairston

If you look up the definition of, "journeyman," there might well be a picture of Jerry Hairston, Jr. next to the entry. He's played fourteen seasons for eight different teams. He's never been spectacular. He's only been a starter once (for the Orioles way back in 2001). At times he's been less than valuable. But most of the time, he offers a little bit of value to his team, but not much more than that. He has played seven different positions during his career with more than eighty games logged in six of them. He's a utility guy. No more. No less. But in the wonders of playoff sample size, he's become one of the heroes of the Brewers' post season.

Hairston, of course, is a member of the semi-famous Hairston baseball family. He is the brother of Scott Hairston, who has also had a long and unspectacular career. He is the son of Jerry Hairston, Sr., who also had a long and unspectacular career. And he is the grandson of Sam Hairston, who had all of four games of glory as a major league player back in 1951. The symmetry between the two Jerry Hairston's is pretty freaky. Junior has played fourteen seasons. Senior played fourteen seasons. Junior has a .258 lifetime batting average. Senior had a .258 lifetime batting average. Junior has a .371 lifetime slugging percentage. Senior had a .371 lifetime slugging percentage. But really, the similarities end there. Senior played his entire career with the White Sox except for one season elsewhere. Senior was mostly an outfielder who didn't come close to the playing time his son has seen. Senior also had a better on base percentage. But the bottom line is that both father and son played a long time and were good enough to be on major league rosters, but were never good enough to play every day.

Fast forward now to 2011 and Junior. He started the season with the Washington Nationals. He played a surprising number of games for them plying five different positions. He hit pretty well for a Hairston and had a 100 OPS+ in 75 games. On the last day of the trade deadline, the Nationals traded Hairston to the Brewers for a minor league player named Erik Kamatsu, who seems destined to stay in Double A for a while. He got into 45 games for the Brewers after the trade and was his solid, if unspectacular self while patrolling five different positions. Utility guy. A good guy to have around. He won't embarrass you wherever he plays and he's handy.

But heading into the post season, the Brewers had a problem. They had completely lost faith in their regular third baseman, Casey McGehee. McGehee looked lost at the plate most of the season and finished with a slash line in 600 plate appearances of: .223/.280/.346. McGehee, never really known for his patience at the plate, had a good season in the field, but offered nothing at the plate as his power dried up and he couldn't get on base. So the Brewers turned to Jerry Hairston, Jr. who has played the entire post season at third for the Brewers and with that decision came another dose of post season serendipity.

In the Division Series against the Diamondbacks, Hairston started all five games and hit .375 with an OPS of .900. He drove in three runs with two doubles and scored two runs. He's now played all four of the Championship Series against the Cardinals and has the same .375 average and has improved his OPS to .974 with three doubles, an RBI and four runs scored. He's been in the middle of everything for the Brewers and made a spectacular slide at home plate to tie the game up on Thursday night.

It's simply one of those fluky things that happens in the post season. The Brewers have to be ecstatic while the Cardinals (and Diamondbacks before them) are probably saying, "Jerry Bleeping Hairston." It's been quite fun to see the reactions from the stats guys on Twitter as Hairston continues to operate at inhuman levels. Jerry-Meander Hairston is having fun in his own sandbox and all we can do is smile and shake our heads.

Both Hairstons Banished to San Diego

Anyone who has been a long-time reader of this site knows that the Hairston brothers are not Fan favorites. And not that the Padres are unloved here either, but they are in sort of a holding or rebuilding pattern of late and so a good dumping ground for the pair. Scott Hairston was traded there and now Jerry Hairston Jr. was signed there as a free agent according to this news story.

Being a Fan means that some judgements are irrational. The dislike of the Hairston brothers has been going on for quite a while and there really isn't a rational explanation. Sure, it makes no sense that they have played in the major leagues for so long. Jerry has a lifetime OPS of .701. Eww. How is it that fringe players like him can have such long careers and other, more talented players (like Josh Whitesell) never get a shot? Sure, Scott is the better hitter, but come on! He has 58 career homers in his 40 year career. Well, it seems like 40 years.

This Fan has the perception that some managers just like guys who will hustle and have a good attitude no matter the circumstances. A Hairston who sits on the bench for two straight weeks, but smiles a lot and say, "Good morning, Skip," to the manager every day gets to hang around maybe.

It was an ironic twist when Jerry Hairston Jr. was traded to the Yankees last year toward the end of the season. Poetic justice maybe? And all indications seemed to be that he would sign there again this year. Well, that proved inaccurate and all is well with the world.

The Fan is sure that the Yankees can find any old weak hitting utility player for a lot cheaper than $1.5 million. Seems like they had one last year from their own organization. They are a dime a dozen, even more so than back-end relievers. For every Hairston, Miguel Cairo and others, there has to be dozens of cheap options in the minors that can actually...you know...hit just a little bit?

Why do all these guys hang around so long? Bruntlett? Does being a good guy average out an 82 OPS+? Does being a glad-hander who is willing to play any position and do the laundry worth over a million dollars? Doesn't seem like it.

But the FanDome's favorite whipping boys, the Hairstons, are now together in San Diego. Besides Hawaii, that's the farthest you can be from northern Maine and still be on the same continent. Which is probably a good thing. The Padres need to become a winner again as they have a nice market and run a good ship. But right now, they are on the bottom looking up. And now they have the corner on the Hairston market. God help them.