6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Pickoff Moves

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Saturday, April 09, 2005

Pickoff Moves

Why Can't Anyone Throw Faster Than 100 MPH?

Noam Scheiber tries to answer in Slate; the principle reason is that, unlike sprinting, there are fundamental human limits about the force tendons and ligaments can take.

The Evil Stoney

Steve Stone haunts the Cubs clubhouse and front office, says Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times.

If Dusty Baker, Jim Hendry, Kerry Wood and other Stone critics thought they had successfully run him out of town by purging him from Tribune Tower, they were badly mistaken. Stone has taken his blunt-but-fair style to local sports radio, where he has accurately assessed the biggest problem to date in Cubdom: the nagging and potentially devastating arm woes of Wood and Mark Prior.

God knows I miss Stoney on the days we watch WGN for Cubs games. More than just that, though, is the nagging feeling, with Wood's fleeting effectiveness and Prior's return to the DL, that Stone may be on to something.

BTF: Orioles Strike A Deal

Thanks to Baseball Think Factory for this hard-hitting analysis of the unbelievable concessions the Orioles were able to extract from MLB. Angelos gets a guaranteed sale price for the O's if he decides to sell, gets to pretend as though the TV rights to Washington were always his (when in fact they were on loan from MLB), and in fact, the Orioles will control the cable network the Nats' games appear on! The other owners have been sold down the river, but don't expect them to complain too much. Quoting Jim Bouton: "The reason baseball calls itself a game is because it's too screwed up to be a business."

Meta: Absent

Hopeful as I was for yesterday's debut of Paul Byrd in an Angels uniform, it looks like he got whomped good, so for once the bullpen doesn't get to take the blame for the loss. As to the Dodgers, looks like Valentin gets to play hero once more. Meantime, I was out at a play last night, and only found out about the final scores when I got out. Oh, well.

// posted by Rob @ 12:02 PM link // 1 comments