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

Eno Sarris at Fangraphs on how the new schedule will affect the NL's use of the DH. Basically, it comes down to: keep a full-time DH (i.e. pretend you're in the AL anyway), use a pinch-hitter, move an aging or bad-glove guy into the slot, or most intriguingly, add someone to the roster in June. Andre Ethier, whose contract is now pretty pricey for a guy who can only hit righties, starts to look a little better in that light.

Update: Interesting idea from Baseball Prospectus' Russell A. Carleton: let the teams decide whether they want to use the DH in their home park for the whole year:

Some time prior to the free agent period starting (so before the World Series ends), teams are required to make a decision. For the next season, they can decide whether their home park will be a DH park or a pitcher-batting park. The decision holds all year, but teams can switch back and forth from season to season as they desire. Everyone submits their choices in a sealed envelope and they all get revealed live. How fun would the day after that be?

Labels: dh rule, rules

An interesting long-form article at ESPN about the many changes coming due to the new CBA. Among them:

• Allowing teams from the same division to meet in the playoffs before the league championship series.
• A ban on all visible tattoos, and any tattoos of commercial logos.
• Pace-of-game violations of up to $10,000 after the sixth violation. This means things like stepping out of the batter's box or taking too long to deliver a pitch.
• Plays subject to instant replay will expand to include fair/foul calls, fan interference calls, and caught/trapped calls. These are still subject to approval from the umpire's union. (Why they haven't added another umpire to the crews yet I have no idea, but it seems to me to make sense.)
• Bans team officials and players from contesting official scoring decisions, instead making it mandatory that this go through the league offices.

Much more at the link.

Labels: rules

Hard to believe yet true. The "clarification" as written allows the player to go to his mouth but must wipe his hand dry prior to touching the ball. This provides a nice avenue for throwing the spitter. Good catch, Mat Kovach.

Labels: rules

Jayson Stark couches his column about abbreviating the season to 154 games with an anonymous GM, but he could probably be talking about Ned Colletti or Jim Hendry, both of whom have players racking up frequent doctor miles on the DL. I'm not sure this is feasible; those extra eight games amount to a decent piece of revenue, and all that you accomplish is to maybe move the postseason back to its historical time in October without having to worry about playing Opening Day in Target Field snow.

Labels: rules

Via MSTI, both Rob Neyer and Steve Dilbeck of the Times both noticed that the umpires themselves blundered in the resolution of Mattingly's two trips to the mound: Mattingly should have been yanked after Broxton faced the next batter ("the manager shall be removed from the game and the pitcher required to pitch to the batter until he is retired or gets on base"). What's even more incredible: nobody else in the Dodgers dugout knew this, either.

Labels: dodgers, rules

At The Biz Of Baseball, Bud Selig praised the Tigers for their handling of the situation (which was as graceful as could be asked of any men), while "[applauding] the courage of umpire Jim Joyce to address this unfortunate situation honestly and directly." He also said, "I will examine our umpiring system, the expanded use of instant replay and all other related features."

My boss made an eminently sensible suggestion: have five-man umpiring crews, with the fifth man in the press box, watching the game on video. Most of the time he won't be needed, but when he is, the other umpires can call on him at any time by radio for a call on a close play. (Presumably, postseason umpiring crews would consist of seven men.) This would have two positive effects from the umpires' perspective:

1. It would provide more employment opportunities for umpires, a carrot for the use of video.
2. The video umpire would give immediate relief to the home plate umpire, or any other umpire, disabled by a foul or other hard-hit ball, play, etc. so that play could continue with a full traditional four-man crew.

Getting the call right is important. But finally, I would like to say something to those people who say that we should simply ask the commissioner's office to overturn the game result. We are far better off with a system whose rules, limitations, and failures are knowable in advance than one where outcomes can be decided after the fact. Ultimately, such a system would be a disaster for everyone, players, umpires, owners, and fans, because no win can then ever be final.

Labels: indians, rules, tigers

The DH will be used in every All-Star game starting this year according to the AP, even in games taking place in NL parks. Also, the roster will expand to 34 players.

Under a change that runs contrary to normal baseball rules, each manager may designate a position player who will be eligible for re-entry to the game if the final position player -- at any position -- is injured.

Previously, there was a special All-Star rule allowing re-entry only to replace an injured catcher.

Labels: all-star game, dh rule, rules

Tony LaRussa, Mike Scioscia, Jim Leyland, and Joe Torre have been selected to consider the possible additional uses of in-game video for adjudicating contested calls. Chaired by Commissioner Bud Selig, the committee will meet next month.

"This is not a reaction to some of the things that happened during the playoffs," Selig said. "I'm not saying that it didn't keep moving me along in this direction because it did, but frankly I had this in mind for a long time."

The group will examine scheduling, umpiring, the strike zone and pace of game, which again became an issue when Yankees catcher Jorge Posada made frequent trips to the mound during the postseason.

Via David Pinto.

Labels: angels, cardinals, dodgers, managers, rules, tigers

Padres Sign David Eckstein

The Padres have signed David Eckstein to a one-year deal, dollars unknown. That likely scotches the purported deal the Pads were going to make with Omar Vizquel.

Rangers Ink One-Year Deal With Brandon McCarthy

... who missed four months of 2008. For $650,000, it's a decent deal, but the injury risk is pretty big.

No More Coin Flips For Baseball's Postseason

Instead, the whole shebang will be determined by head-to-head records -- but what if those are tied, too?

Also, the owners ratified a rule that legalizes what Bud Selig did in Game 5 of last year's World Series: postseason games will be declared suspended no matter how many innings have been played. This won't apply to the All-Star game.

Labels: ex-angels, hot stove, padres, rangers, rules, transactions

Dodgers Not Pursuing Sabathia — Yet

Now that the winter meetings have started, the Dodgers aren't chasing C.C. Sabathia, just yet, anyway.

Veteran's Committee Elects Joe Gordon To Cooperstown, Snubs Ron Santo (Again)

Well, at least they elected someone. It would have been pretty embarrassing if they hadn't elected anyone; there's a pretty compelling argument that Santo is the best third baseman not in the Hall currently, and the fact that the Veteran's Committee can't see it is just nuts.

Maury Wills was also on the ballot but failed to get the required votes.

MLB Won't Ban Maple Bats

Sanity, oddly enough, reigns, no matter how briefly. Was there ever anything besides anecdotal evidence to support the contention that maple bats shattered more frequently than ash bats? If so, I've never seen it.

Rangers Send Gerald Laird To Detroit For Two Pitchers

Now that's a deal I can understand. The returnees to Texas are Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo, a pair of prospects.

Update: Allegedly the Tigers inquired about Mike Napoli but were rebuffed by a high price tag.

Juan Rivera Garners Tampa Bay Interest

Joe Maddon to Juan's rescue? Well, I'm not surprised; like Seattle, St. Louis, and Toronto, Tampa Bay lately seems to be another repository for former Angels.

It's Go Time For Tony Reagins

C.C. or Teix or nobody, i.e. fish or cut bait, Tony. I agree.

K-Rod Meets With Mets

Bill Plunkett reports that Francisco Rodriguez had a long dinner meeting with the Wilpons Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Dodgers Near Agreement With Casey Blake

Yahoo's Tim Brown reports the Dodgers are near a deal for Casey Blake, alleged to be for three years. Reports over the weekend had the Twins, his only other serious suitor, balking at offering a third year.

Labels: angels, dodgers, hall of fame, mets, rangers, rays, rules, rumors, tigers, trades, twins

MLB is considering eliminating coin tosses as the basis for potential end-of-season tiebreakers.

"The team that performed better against the other team I think is the one that deserves to have home-field advantage, not an arbitrary coin flip," San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers said Thursday as the annual GMs meeting ended.

MLB staff is drafting a proposal for the GMs to consider next month when they gather at the winter meetings in Las Vegas, according to Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office. Head-to-head record between the tied clubs appears likely to be the first tiebreaker.

With such a system, the site of tiebreakers might not be known until the last day of the season.

Labels: rules

Obliteration: Rangers 12, Angels 1

John Lackey got shattered in this one, the worst outing of his professional career, but it's hardly surprising; among teams he has pitched 50 or more innings in his career, he sports a 10-10 and a 5.73 ERA against the Rangers. The second-worst team is of course the Boston Red Sox (3-6, 5.54 ERA), and now that the AL East was decided with the Yankees' 19-8 pounding of Boston, the Angels will face the Red Sox on Wednesday. As the the Rays lost 6-4 to Detroit, the Angels clinched home field advantage throughout the postseason — assuming they make it out of the first round — but they will have to wait for win number 100.

The game had a couple good moments, though. After it became obvious the Angels weren't going to win this one, Mike Scioscia replaced all the starters, among whom Reggie Willits got the call to center field. He made a spectacular catch at the angle in dead center to rob Nelson Cruz of a home run. And Shane Loux and Jason Bulger actually pitched well against a potent offense, allowing only two runs the rest of the way.

But other than that and the regularly scheduled fireworks, there was little to cheer for. The crowd was in a surly mood, booing Lackey off the mound when Scioscia finally yanked him in the third. The Angels' recent history of getting knocked out in the first round by Boston weighed heavy on everyone's mind, and to see Lackey whipped badly was a dreadful omen. Looking at his 2008 game log, Lackey has thrown 120 pitches or more twice this year, and one of those times it took him three games to recover his form to at least a quality start (June 29 against the Dodgers, followed by two rough starts and a quality start, finally, on July 18 against the Red Sox). Let's hope three time's the charm this time, too.

Yahoo box • Angels recap

Dodgers Collapse Late: Giants 6, Dodgers 5 (10 Innings)

I was at the Angels game so I didn't pay much attention to this one, especially with all the crazy position switches, which had me furiously scribbling on my scorecard. Thanks to the late start, by the time we got out the Dodgers were leading 5-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, but between another defensive miscue by Russell Martin (a sailed throw on Eugenio Velez's stolen base) and Juan Pierre's noodle arm (Steve Holm's sac fly would not have gotten a run home on any competent outfielder, something I saw on the subsequent replay), Broxton just couldn't quite recover. Those watching the game also claim that Scott McLean's one-out walk should have been a strikeout thanks to an inconsistent strike zone from home plate umpire Bill Welke; I would argue that giving up a walk to a quadruple-A hitter like McLean in a 13-pitch at-bat is cause enough for doubt.

For those watching all the way through, the story apparently was about the use of instant replay that ended up with Benjie Molina getting a home run where before there was none. That brought up an odd scenario where Bochy had assumed the initial call was correct, and pinch-ran for Molina:

In the sixth, Molina lined the first pitch from Scott Proctor to the roof in right and the ball ricocheted onto the grass below. Molina stayed at first and Emmanuel Burriss rushed out to pinch run before anybody could stop him, while Bochy hustled out to argue. After a brief discussion, the umpiring crew headed to the replay booth in the hidden umpire room behind home plate.

After about two minutes, they returned and crew chief Tim Welke signaled the home run—the second time since baseball began using instant replay that an on-field call was overturned. Dodgers manager Joe Torre came out for an explanation.

...

“We conferred and decided to use the replay. We took a look and the ball clearly hit the green part of the wall, which is part of the ground rules that a ball hitting any part of the green thing it’s a home run,” Welke said. “Bochy wanted to reinsert Molina into the game but he doesn’t get another bite at that. We know the rules. Once a pinch-runner touches a base he’s in the game whether he’s put in or not. Bochy wanted to protest the game. You can’t go back and revisit history.

“We informed the official scorer that the game was being protested. In retrospect, he should have come out and discussed it before the pinch-runner. There is a rule that covers pinch-runners and that’s the one we went by. … The system worked and we got it right.”

So oddly enough, Molina didn't score on his own home run. Had it stood, Russell Martin's pinch-hit, two-run ninth inning homer would have served only to tie the game. Update: As pointed out in the comments, the run scored was given to the pinch runner, Burriss.

Yahoo box • Dodgers recap

Other Races

• AL East, Wild Card: As mentioned above, the Rays are the East division winners and the Red Sox are the Wild Card.
• AL Central: Cleveland beat the Chisox 11-8, and even though Kansas City whipped Minnesota 8-1, the Twins' magic number goes down to three in what is liable to be a photo finish. Chicago has played 159 games, and have a possible makeup game on September 29 against Detroit at home.
• NL East: Philadelphia beat Washington 8-4 while the Mets lost 6-2 to the Marlins with Chris Volstad on the mound. The Phils' magic number is one.
• NL Wild Card: The Brewers beat the Iowa Cubs 6-1, with the Cubs trotting out a mostly AAA lineup to rest the regulars. The victory combined with the Mets' loss put the Brewers in the lead for the Wild Card for the first time since September 15.

How To Behave When You Clinch But Don't Win?

Something else that Manny can teach the Dodger kids: how to handle a clinch that happens because of your pursuer's loss.

"Do we pop the bottles before or after the game?" Ethier asked with a grin. "I guess we'll wait until after the game, because nobody wants to see a bunch of drunk guys out there."

It was understandable if many of the Dodgers did not know how to act. They have rarely been down this road. It is their first playoff appearance since 2004, and they have won one playoff game since winning the World Series 20 years ago.

Or perhaps the Dodgers were simply taking a cue from their newest leader, the what-me-worry Ramírez.

Ramírez found out he would be back in the playoffs as he was riding the elevator at Dodger Stadium with his teammate Pablo Ozuna. Asked what he had said at the time, Ramírez - wearing shorts and flip-flops and pulling a rolling suitcase - shrugged and replied, "Nothing."

Man Accused Of Posing As Dodger

Maybe he should have learned how to fire a throw into center field, too.

Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, rangers, recaps, rules, weird

Dodger fans remember 1988 as the last moment of glory for the Chavez Ravine nine, but a recent entry at Jeff Sackmann's Brew Crew Ball introduced me to Theron Schultz's Recondite Baseball, for whom 1988 has another meaning entirely: the balk rule changed, making it much more specific and thus having the side effect of encouraging umpires to call it.

Baseball Official Rule 8.01(b): The pitcher, following his stretch, must (a) hold the ball in both hands in front of his body and (b) come to a complete stop.

1988 Baseball Official Rule 8.01(b): The pitcher, following his stretch, must (a) hold the ball in both hands in front of his body, and (b) come to a single complete and discernible stop, with both feet on the ground.

In 1988, AL pitchers gave up 558 balks, while NL pitchers gave up 366. The year before, it was 137 and 219 respectively. One of the reasons why the rules were changed was Whitey Herzog's complaint that Bert Blyleven had committed 19 uncalled balks in the 1987 World Series.

Labels: history, rules

Baseball To Formulate Instant Replay Proposal

Major League Baseball will formulate a proposal for the use of instant replay, and this new rule will be tested in the Arizona Fall League. Jimmie Lee Solomon, hoping to impress us with his wisdom, says there will be no timetable for the delivery of such a plan.

"The times are such that our fans are used to seeing all the high technology and they're used to seeing the other sports that use these systems to make determinations, and the fans are clamoring for all the sports to look at that," Solomon said Thursday.

Following a blown home run call at Yankee Stadium, the Bombers installed a new outfield net to make home run boundaries perfectly clear. The missed call had no effect on the game, as the Yankees trounced the Orioles 8-0. The blown home run call was the third in a week; the other two:

• Carlos Delgado had a ball called foul that was actually a home run for the Mets in a game that team won 11-2 over the Yankees.
• Geovany Soto's ball was declared in play on Monday's game against the Astros, but he got an inside-the-park home run when the Astros outfielders made the correct call with their own eyes; the Cubs won 7-2.

Jim Edmonds, Fount Of Suck

I don't know why the Cubs decided that Jim Edmonds could help them, but it's worth noting at this point that

• he leads all Cubs with 10 or more plate appearances in negative VORPr (VORP per game accumulation) with -0.582, i.e. his presence in the lineup is costing the Cubs a run every other appearance.
• By batting WPA, he's only worse than two regulars, Felix Pie and Ryan Dempster, and Pie had 63 at bats, and Dempster is a pitcher with 19!
• Edmonds hasn't contributed negative win shares... yet ...

What is Jim Hendry thinking?

Lou Piniella says Edmonds needs to start hitting. Knock me over with a feather.

Andruw Jones, One Of MLB's Least Exciting Players

I leave no stone unturned in finding places willing to slag on Druw, and here's a piece by Larry Dobrow at CBS Sports that does just that, looking at the top (or bottom, depending) dullest players in the Show:

9. Andruw Jones, Los Angeles Dodgers: The tasks he no longer completes with much distinction include running, hitting and fielding. Sure, he still enjoys the Gold Glove reputation -- ask regular Derek Jeter watchers just how long that rep can stick, no matter what a player does on the field to betray it –- but Jones' bloated torso and knobby knees have negated whatever little athleticism he has left. But for the 'u' in Andruw, even his name would be boring.

Pounding On The Same Gong: Dave Cameron On Casey Kotchman's Lefty Torching

Robb Quinlan, are you listening?

But there he is, six weeks into the season, torching southpaws to the tune of a .389/.421/.583 line. In fact, Kotchman’s posting a pretty severe reverse platoon split, as he’s been much more effective against LHPs than RHPs, who he’s hitting just .286/.343/.452 against. This is a pretty significant change for Kotchman, who had never hit a home run off a left-handed pitcher in the majors before this season. From 2004 to 2007, Kotchman had 142 plate appearances against southpaws (he had been pretty strictly platooned) and notched just six extra base hits, all doubles. In 38 plate appearances against lefties this year, he’s already recorded five extra base hits including the home run.

Hat tip to Stephen Nelson, of the much lamented Mariners Wheelhouse.

Labels: cubs, dodgers, ex-angels, rules

Learning nothing from such things as "freak accident", MLB has ruled that base coaches must stay in the box until the batted ball is past them. Brilliant.

Labels: rules, stupid ideas

David Pinto forwards a Boston Globe story that explains why no amount of bobbling by rookie outfielder Brandon Moss would have made a difference, and Jeff Mathis was safe to go when he did:

Schilling departed in the seventh trailing, 3-2, after bantamweight Maicer Izturis hit his third home run of the season to open the seventh and slumping catcher Jeff Mathis (0 for 18) doubled. A fourth run was charged to Schilling when Reggie Willits, facing reliever Julian Tavarez, bunted Mathis to third and Chone Figgins lined a ball to Moss, who juggled it a couple of times before securing it in leather.

That ignited a mini-controversy, as Mathis had left well before Moss had full control of the ball, but the argument mounted by Francona didn't last much longer than the one Francona initiated after Ramirez was ejected.

The applicable section of the rulebook was Section 2.00, in which this stipulation is added under the definition of a catch: "Runners may leave their bases the instant the first fielder touches the ball." That would guard against outfielders deliberately breaking into a circus act, rather than the inadvertent performance by Moss.

While Julio Lugo was arguing vehemently that Mathis had left too early, Moss knew the rule. "It happened to me once in the minors," he said. "It was frustrating, because I lost that ball in the lights. If I catch it, I probably throw him out, so it cost us a run."

Labels: angels, red sox, rules

So we all know the story about Torii Hunter shipping a mess of Dom Perignon to the Royals after the latter team swept Detroit in their last series of the year.

The rule, 21-b, regards misconduct and is titled "Gift For Defeating Competing Club." It prohibits anyone connected with a particular team from offering a gift or reward to a person connected with another club for an attempt to defeat a competing club. The giver and receiver, without notification of the commissioner's office, are subject to ineligibility for "not less than three years."

Clearly, this was nothing more than Hunter's enthusiasm running away with him intersecting with a relatively obscure rule, yet one that apparently is posted on the walls of the Twins' clubhouse, which makes you wonder what might happen in the event of a fire.

The episode got its start when Derek Zumsteg first wrote about it at The Cheater's Guide To Baseball Blog. "This is dangerous", he oh-so-seriously intones, but in fact it really isn't; if all it takes is a case of Dom Perignon to motivate the Royals, there's acres of that waiting for them should they win the division. The real problem here, and with modern life in the U.S., is overly-strict rules on personal behavior, and the culture of tattletales it engenders. It reminds me — in course but not yet extent — of nothing less than the old East German Stasi that encouraged neighbors to rat on neighbors for the most trivial kinds of infractions.

Zumsteg has already taken a well-deserved slapdown for his gratuitous and apparently groundless (at least, as far as MLB was concerned) finger-pointing at Francisco Rodriguez's dirty cap. Despite his protestations that he was not a "hall monitor", he sure is acting like one; perhaps, as with so many reformed alcoholics and fresh religious converts, he's suddenly gotten overzealous at sniffing these things out and reporting. All right, fine; I can totally buy Seitz's argument that

... [He] wrote the book and got used to looking for that kind of stuff. You know how when you're in the market for a new car, you start noticing every car on the street and wondering what it cost (or is that just me)? Kinda like that.

But the law is frequently an ass, and some kinds of crimes can be in fact harmless (selling the weed, for instance) or even noble. The Underground Railroad was highly illegal; so were the people who hid Jews from their Nazi pursuers breaking the law. Zumsteg has lost his sense of proportion on this one.

Labels: rules, twins

In today's Cards @ Cubs game: in the bottom of the seventh, with Henry Blanco at bat and Jacque Jones and Mark DeRosa at first and second respectively, Blanco attempted a bunt to move over the runners. Popping the ball up instead, Cards catcher Yadier Molina reached around Blanco to catch the pop. He almost succeeded.

Instead, Molina dropped the ball. Quickly recovering, he picked it up, tagged Blanco, and threw to second. Shortstop David Eckstein fielded the ball and threw to third for the tag out of DeRosa.

Triple play, right?

Not so fast.

Blanco was automatically out for batter's interference when he failed to get out of Molina's way to make the play. Jones and DeRosa returned to their respective bags thanks to Rule 6.06(c):

Rule 6.06(c) Comment: If the batter interferes with the catcher, the plate umpire shall call “interference.” The batter is out and the ball dead. No player may advance on such interference (offensive interference) and all runners must return to the last base that was, in the judgment of the umpire, legally touched at the time of the interference.

Update: Yes, you're right, Seitz, there was no force at second with Blanco already out at the plate. Bob Brenly said there was, which is probably what put the idea into my head in the first place; no wonder he's no longer running the Snakes. Corrected the players after reviewing the play.

Labels: cardinals, cubs, rules