Monday, August 22, 2011
Ian Bell is not only England's best batsman, he's the best fielder too | Paul Weaver
The double-centurion's catch to dismiss Amit Mishra was more than good ? it was sensational
Keith Medlycott, the cheerful Cockney spinner who used to play in these parts, was once given the nickname of "Jesus" by his Surrey team-mates.
Suitably flattered, and wondering which of his messianic qualities had particularly caught the attention of his fellows, Medders inquired about the origins of his soubriquet. "No, mate," he was told. "We just reckon you've dropped so many catches this season you must have holes in your hands."
Medlycott, who like a number of left-arm spinners suffered the "yips" and was forced to retire early, went on to become a most successful manager of the Surrey team, and he came to mind while thinking about the relative fielding qualities of these sides.
India do not only drop catches, they do so comically, as if discovering, for the first time and to their horror, that they are playing with a hard ball. To them the approaching ball always seems to come as a terrible shock, as if they are being attacked by a stray fragment of comet.
As for their ground-fielding, they like to keep the ball company on its passage to the boundary, in the manner of two jogging pals meeting up on a street corner before setting off in a different direction.
And then there's England, well-drilled, professional and ? as we saw with Ian Bell on Sunday ? occasionally brilliant. Bell is not only England's best batsman, he is their best fielder, too. His catch to dismiss Amit Mishra was more than good. It was sensational, especially as he appeared to lose his grip of the ball while in mid-air before collecting it again.
There are a number of good fielders in this side and the sight of two fast bowlers, Jimmy Anderson and Tim Bresnan, occupying close-catching positions is a heartening sight. Fast bowlers used to be put out to graze in the deep.
If you do not trust my word concerning Bell then listen to Richard Halsall, England's fielding coach. Halsall, who will take charge of the side in Dublin this week while the head coach Andy Flower takes a breather, told me: "I think we're very fortunate to have a group of very physically talented men at the moment who are very committed. Belly is the best all-round fielder we've got. Technically, he's fantastic. But we're lucky to have so many fast bowlers who are excellent fielders. Jimmy Anderson is just wonderful."
He added: "People talked years ago about the fielding of Colin Bland, or Derek Randall, or people who caught brilliantly, like Bobby Simpson. So I think great fielders have always been highly regarded. But there hasn't been a universal demand for everyone to be an outstanding fielder. Today there is."
On the evidence of this series, Medlycott must be wondering about qualifying for India. Yips, holes in the hands and always ready for a comic turn, he would fit perfectly into this awful side.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/aug/21/ian-bell-england-fielder-india
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Isringhausen?s blown save tops K-Rod?s in Mets? 11-9 loss
With the Milwaukee Brewers clinging to a one-run lead, K-Rod gave up three runs in the eighth inning ? two of them coming on a home run by Angel Pagan. The Mets rallied from a six-run deficit to take a two-run lead. It was going to be delicious.
But then K-Rod's successor as Mets closer, Jason Isringhausen, came in for the save and sputtered gas all over the field.
After two walks and a single put the first three Brewers batters on base, Isringhausen then walked Mark Kotsay to cut the Mets' lead to one. Manager Terry Collins pulled his veteran reliever, but the fire Isringhausen started was too big to put out.
"When guys come back, and our team comes back, and I go out there and do that, it's just a debacle. I mean, it ranks right up there as one of the worst ones of my career inning-wise. Like I said, I don't have any excuses. I just couldn't find the strike zone."
Prince Fielder golfed a RBI single off Manny Acosta to tie the game, and Casey McGehee took back the lead with a two-run single, giving the Brewers an eventual 11-9 win.
For the Mets, that had to be one of the most demoralizing losses of the season. For Isringhausen, it was a hell of a way to follow up notching his 300th career save. By his own admission, reaching the milestone was the reason he came back this year. Maybe Isringhausen used up all the mojo he had left to get there.
If Collins wasn't already prepared to hand the closer's role to Bobby Parnell and his 100 mph fastball, Saturday's developments likely rendered that decision easier to make.
Follow Ian on Twitter ?�@iancass ? and engage�The Stew on Facebook
The Secret Footballer: For new boys there's nothing like the big time
The biggest strength of the newly promoted clubs could be the one thing that nobody else has: they have nothing to lose
I always felt that Bob Dylan was on the money when he sang: "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose," so much so that in the early part of my career I adopted it as my own motivational mantra. Since then things have changed, materialistically at least, and yet such is my affection for the sentiment behind that line that I constantly find myself applying it to new situations, like the fortunes of Norwich, QPR and Swansea this season.
It's been a tough start for the three promoted clubs as a group. Between them they've picked up one point, scored one goal and conceded nine. Yet these are early days and their biggest strength could turn out to be the one thing that nobody else in the Premier League has: they have nothing to lose.
A number of their players will be appearing in the Premier League for the first time, which is a markedly different experience from playing there with the reputation of someone from whom great things are continually expected. To the players already plying their trade you are an unknown quantity and this, coupled with the team spirit that newly promoted teams almost always have, provides the Premier League newcomers with their most dangerous weapon.
Everything has a wonderful novelty value, from the fabulous stadiums, like the Emirates, where the facilities are better than the five-star hotel you stayed in the night before, to the seemingly insignificant things that put a smile on your face, like the lion with the crown on its head on the sleeve of your shirt and the balls that move all over the place ? nobody particularly likes them but they're new, so who cares?
There are some things that you simply can't help getting excited about, like being on Match of the Day every week, although I quickly came to realise that this also has its drawbacks when you're playing for a promoted club. Not long after the season started one of our players missed what at first glance looked like an easy chance but on closer inspection revealed the assistant referee had flagged for offside.
MOTD, however, replayed the incident several times in its highlights with Alan Hansen pulling quotes out of the idiot's guide to punditry like: "If you don't take those at this level, then you're gonee get punished." They portrayed it as a missed chance to provide their pundits with a stereotype to suit the game, namely: smaller, newly promoted team plays OK but squanders a great opportunity and learns a harsh lesson after conceding at the other end. That sort of patronising coverage is much easier than doing homework on unknown players.
Financially the difference in the Premier League is huge. Promoted players will often get a 100% wage increase while around the club everything is done on and off the field to encourage you to retain top-flight status. Suddenly numbered car parking spaces appear at the training ground, flights are used for away games when a coach used to do the job perfectly fine and the staff numbers are swelled by the addition of the best chefs, player liaison officers to call if you need a restaurant booked or the media off your back and, bizarrely, at one of my clubs, a resident priest. I never did get round to asking who sent for him.
One of the most important things, though, is to remember what got you in the Premier League in the first place. Ian Holloway, the Blackpool manager, was particularly shrewd in this respect last season. His players were eating their lunch from tin-foil packages delivered in the boot of a car to their training ground (otherwise known as a hut with smashed windows with some playing fields) and washing their own kit. Little wonder they kept their feet on the ground.
The manager is so often the key to the hopes of a newly promoted team. He is riding high on the back of last season's success along with his players and, if promotion has been on the cards for a while, he may already have targets earmarked to improve the squad. The trick is to strengthen without upsetting the harmony in the changing room, which isn't always easy if a new signing has joined on higher wages than those who slogged their guts out to win promotion.
Victories in the Premier League come nothing like as easily as they did the year before but there is enormous satisfaction to be taken from getting results as the underdogs. I've been in that position and at the end of games witnessed top professionals refusing to shake hands or swap shirts because they couldn't accept that they hadn't beaten this team of nobodies and one or two somebodies. And all that does is spur the smaller clubs on.
I actually came to prepare for games with the mind-set that I had no respect for any player from the first whistle until the last, irrespective of their background. That is not to be confused with kicking people to bits; it is simply a way of thinking that allows me to play with no fear of reputations or bank balances. After a while you begin to notice a change: the handshakes come, they might even start calling you by your nickname. Other managers recognise your quality and you may be on your way up the ladder. We can't all be Lionel Messi but it is amazing how far determination to succeed can carry a player.
Indeed, in the days when I'd have to leave the pitch, after ruining a few betting coupons, with no shirt and no handshake, I'd walk directly behind my opposite number towards the tunnel staring at the name on his back and think to myself: "Now you don't talk so loud, now you don't seem so proud, how does it feel?" There is a lot to be said for having nothing and sometimes I really miss the effects of it. I'm sure Bob knows the feeling and, come the end of the season, perhaps Norwich, QPR and Swansea will too.
Follow the Secret Footballer on Twitter: @TSFGuardian
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/aug/19/the-secret-footballer-new-boys
We?re Going Streaking! Curtis Granderson?s eye-popping season
The Stew goes through the quad and into the gymnasium to look at some of the hottest players in baseball and their chances of keeping it going.
Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees
The Naked Truth: .281/.374/.593, 34 HR, 95 RBIs, 22 SB, 10 CS, 63 BB/129 K
Having a nice little Saturday: And boom goes the dynamite. Granderson is having by far his best offensive season in the majors, leading the majors in RBIs, runs scored, and total bases, while definitively answering my 2010 question: "Can Granderson solve his lefty pitcher problems?" The answer: Yes, he can.
Well, at least for now. Is it permanent or is it a fluke?
You're my boy, Blue!: When it comes to Granderson, the numbers against lefties are everything. In 2010 I wrote that he was a "platoon player," and in previous years, his OPSes against lefties have been the following: .647, .484, .739, .494, .671. This year, it's a stunning .965, virtually indistinguishable from his .967 OPS against righties. The OPS against righties isn't surprising at all, Grandy has always crushed them maintaining a lifetime .899 OPS against them. But lefties have always bedeviled him. And peeking at the numbers, it looks like he hasn't completely solved his problems against them.
| BABIP | HR/FB% | BB% | K% | |
| vs Righties, 2011 | .306 | 20.4% | 13.8% | 22.3% |
| vs Lefties, 2011 | .333 | 26.1% | 7.6% | 28.1% |
| vs Righties, career | .327 | 14.6% | 10.9% | 20.7% |
| vs Lefties, career | .277 | 11.3% | 6.9% | 25.0% |
Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) and homer per flyball ratio (HR/FB) are two of the most reliable indicators of luck in a batter, because hitters don't have a great deal of control over their career averages; generally, when they're above their career average in a given season, they'll tend to regress, and when they're below their career average they'll tend to improve. What Granderson has done against lefties this year is way, way better than anything he's ever done before, and his BABIP and HR/FB rates would seem to indicate that he has benefited from extraordinarily good luck while doing so. (He's also hitting more homers than before because the new Yankee Stadium is a great place for lefthanded power hitters. But a lot of it is luck.)
Granderson's a better hitter against righties, too, but not by nearly as much. But while he's not likely to continue to maintain an OPS over .900 against lefties, .700 may be possible, as he did in 2008. Overall, he's got the best walk rate of his career, so he may just be improving as a hitter all around.
Think KFC will still be open?: After great years in 2007 and 2008, Granderson hit something of an offensive wall in 2009 and 2010, severely declining offensively in his last year as a Tiger and first year as a Yankee. This year he's not only repeated his early success in Detroit, he's far surpassed it. The chief difference between this year and his stellar 2007-8 is his success against lefties, which appears to be at least partly fluky, as does his 45-homer pace. But he's proven that he's still the hitter he was then. That appears sustainable.
What other players are currently streaking?
No surprise here: Troy Tulowitzki is having another killer second half. Since the All-Star Break, he's hitting .402/.462/.701 with eight homers and 28 RBI in 34 games. But it hasn't been quite enough to right the moribund Rockies, who are just 14-19 in the second half despite Tulo's hot hitting.
But Tulowitzki isn't just as good as he's been in previous seasons. In some ways, he's better. While his power is slightly down ?�as it is across baseball ?�he's significantly cut his strikeouts while improving his walk rate over last year. He continues to play killer defense, and with the decline of Hanley Ramirez and continually iffy health of Jose Reyes, he is the undisputed best shortstop in baseball, easily the best-hitting shortstop and arguably the best-fielding shortstop. (By UZR, Alexei Ramirez has been slightly better this year, but the difference is in the range of statistical error.) The key is just keeping him on the field. In his previous five big league seasons, he has only played 130 games twice. This year, he's on pace for 155. As long as he's on the field, he combines plate discipline, average, and power as well as nearly any hitter in the game, and he does it while remaining one of the best defensive players in the game.
Edwin Encarnacion, Toronto Blue Jays .286/.347/.471, 12 HR, 38 RBIs, 4 SB, 1 CS, 31 BB/54 K
Believe it or not, Edwin Encarnacion is still just 28. It seems like he's been breaking hearts for a decade or more, but the man has finally been tapping into his talent, and over his last two and a half months, he's been one of the best hitters in the American League, with a .313/.396/.555 batting line, hitting 11 homers while maintaining a very good 27/33 walk to strikeout ratio. He always had good power, but he's cut down on his strikeouts while maintaining the same walk rate as last year. If anything, he has been slightly unlucky on home runs this year, as his homer per flyball rate is several points lower than his career average. It's possible he's been slightly lucky on batting average, however, as his .308 Batting Average on Balls in Play is 24 points higher than his career average.
Encarnacion has been such an inconsistent player that he was outrighted to Triple-A by the Jays last year, then waived after the season, claimed by the Oakland Athletics then non-tendered three weeks later, then finally re-signed by the Jays. But he's well on pace for his best season in the majors, finally putting together his power with better plate discipline and a sustained enough streak of success to stay on the team. With teammates like Yunel Escobar and Jose Bautista, Encarnacion is hardly the only Blue Jay to thrive in Canada after struggling in America. Must be a nice place to play, eh?
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves 3-2, 37 Saves, 1.78 ERA, 60 2/3 IP, 1.24 FIP, 0.97 WHIP, 4.17 K/BB
Jonny Venters, Atlanta Braves 6-1, 25 Holds, 1.15 ERA, 70 2/3 IP, 2.38 FIP, 0.95 WHIP, 2.60 K/BB
The best one-two bullpen punch in baseball, Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters, is working on a collective scoreless innings streak of 49 1/3 innings, 29 1/3 for Kimbrel and 20 for Venters. They are, by some statistical measures (FIP, xFIP, SIERA), the two best relief pitchers in all of baseball. They succeed in different ways ?�while they have similar walk rates, and both strike out more than a man an inning, Kimbrel strikes out more men (leading the majors in K-rate) and induces a lot more fly balls, while Venters is the most extreme groundballer in the majors. Both are fastball/slider pitchers who work in the mid- to upper 90s with their heaters, but Kimbrel's fastball is straighter, with slight lateral movement, while Venters's has a devastating sinking action. Both pitchers get a ton of swinging strikes, as they have respectively the fifth- and third- best swinging strike rates in baseball. They're not getting lucky. They're simply unhittable.
They're also being used constantly. Venters has more appearances and more innings than any other reliever in baseball, and Kimbrel is fourth and seventh. (The third man in the Braves bullpen, Eric O'Flaherty, is seventh and 24th, with a 1.29 ERA in 56 innings.) So while the Braves have perhaps the best closer and setup man in baseball, their bullpen has been worked hard, having already pitched a season's worth of innings with a month and a half left in the stretch run. Their scoreless streaks haven't gotten quite as much ink as Dan Uggla's 33-game hitting streak, but they're still remarkable. If the Braves make it to October, and Venters and Kimbrel's arms haven't fallen off, they have the ability to make every game a seven-inning affair.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Yorvit Torrealba Loses Mets Grievance
by FanHouse Newswire
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Mets finally won something.Yorvit Torrealba lost his grievance against the team Thursday when arbitrator Shyam Das ruled the Mets had the right to not complete a $14.4 million, three-year agreement with the catcher in November 2007.
The agreement signed by the team and Torrealba's representative said the contract was subject to a physical that was satisfactory to the Mets. The team concluded it had concerns about his throwing shoulder, which caused him to miss three months of the 2006 season.
"The physical turned up an issue,'' Mets executive vice president and general counsel David Cohen said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's one of those situations where different people might have different views of the likely prognosis, but there was clearly an issue. And based on that issue, the team just felt it was not worth taking the medical risk.''
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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/17/yorvit-torrealba-loses-mets-grievance/
Cubs fire GM Jim Hendry, don?t tell anyone for almost a month
Jim Hendry is out as the team's GM after nine World Series-free years on the North Side.
The way that owner Tom Ricketts made the move, however, was not as encouraging.
Ricketts said he came to the decision on July 22 and informed Hendry of his dismissal at that time. But both sides agreed to not make it official or public until almost a month later ? after the team had gone through both the July 31 trading deadline and Aug. 15 deadline to sign this year's draft picks.
There's a couple of problems with this. If Hendry wasn't the guy for the future, why did Ricketts keep him around for two of the three most important dates on the GM's calendar? Why let him make decisions that would impact a 2012 that he was not going to play any part in?
And from a more human standpoint, if Ricketts didn't want to "switch horses mid-stream" before both of those important deadlines, why not tell Hendry after he had steered the team through that pressure-filled month? Why yoke someone you describe as a "great guy" with the burdensome secret that he'd be on the unemployment line in a month?
The way that Hendry's dismissal was carried out speaks well of the ousted GM, but it does not speak well of a Ricketts ownership regime that has been less than inspiring since it took over at the start of 2010. The next baseball move it makes with any conviction will be its first.
That said, this was still a move that had to be made, even if the timing was notably awful. Despite his likable everyman persona and three division titles in his first six seasons, Hendry hadn't moved the team any closer to ending its century-plus World Series drought and the time for new leadership was overdue. Hendry hitched the team to a cart full of unmovable contracts ? from Alfonso Soriano to Carlos Zambrano to Milton Bradley ? and oversaw a minor league system that didn't bear enough fruit. Since winning 97 games in 2008, his teams had gone a combined 212-235.
"We didn't win enough games," Hendry told reporters at Wrigley Field.
It was interesting to hear Hendry admit that his enthusiasm to end the World Series slump may have contributed to pulling the trigger on some of those ill-advised contracts. What always drove me nuts about Hendry's tenure was the way he never announced any concrete plan or vision. His first full season was that magical run in 2003 and it always seemed as if Hendry expected that every big name he signed or traded for thereafter would deliver like Aramis Ramirez after he was shed by the Pirates. Every year was run as if the World Series was right on the doorstep and the cost of doing business was simply writing off the future after the title as mere collateral damage.
That's no way, of course, to run a franchise because it doesn't provide any escape hatch for the obstacles that popped up after that two-year window of 2003-04. There was no insurance for the quagmire of injuries that knocked Mark Prior and Kerry Wood from their path to superstardom, nor was there an alternate route to take after 2006, when a 96-loss year led to a "Hey, we're serious about winning, please come back to the Friendly Confines" eight-year $140 million signing of Soriano.
Under Hendry ? and, to be fair, the last few years of a Tribune Company ownership that was looking to inflate the team's price tag ? the Cubs became the sports car modded up with plenty of flashy and expensive add-ons with almost no attention paid to what was going on under the hood.
It probably goes without saying that this is really a huge turning point for the Cubs and how they do things. For the Ricketts and the Cubs to succeed going forward, they're going to have to pursue a candidate that actually buys their "Year One" strategy and doesn't feel the pressure of the interminable wait for a title. If the Ricketts family and Cubs fans really want the team modeled after the successes of the Boston Red Sox, it's not a facelift that's going to be completed in just one offseason. If the Ricketts bring in a guy and immediately order him to sign Albert Pujols because Wrigley Field had a lot of empty seats this year then, well, there was really no point in giving Hendry the boot.
But if the Ricketts can really go out and identify a smart candidate to lay down a solid baseball blueprint and ? more importantly ? give him the time to do so, they'll be putting themselves in a great position.
There will be no shortage of parties interested in becoming the one who finally engineers a World Series winner at Wrigley Field.�Hopefully Tom Ricketts will do a better job of identifying that candidate than he did in finally letting Hendry loose.
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