What’s cool?

Dewey’s House in French!

It’s awesome to see La Chambre Que Dewey A Construite is becoming an international favorite.

What’s not cool?

Buster Olney.

Sure, it’s fun to be anti-intellectual when it comes to such cultural pursuits as trivial as baseball, though (DIGRESSION) I’ve yet to hear why Van Gogh’s talent with the paintbrush is more important or better than Honus Wagner’s with the bat. It’s even fun to blame Michael Lewis’ Moneyball for all the ills of today’s game. It’s most fun to blame Billy Beane.

It doesn’t make it true.

Olney is essentially trying to say that there are productive outs, and in doing so, takes a shot at the people who look at baseball through objectivity and concrete evidence (statheads…Which I have been accused of, despite playing more than a decade of organized baseball, most at a high level). Apparently, ’small ball’ is important when it comes to winning, despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary. And we need something like Productive Out Percentage as a stat (heheheh) to show how teams need to make productive outs to win.

Of course, there is no evidence of any out being productive, save a sacrifice fly, with one out, and a man on third. Doesn’t matter. Jim Kaat said that Juan Pierre should have been the MVP of the World Series last year after all.

Nevermind actually. I haven’t read Olney’s piece yet. I wouldn’t want to make a whole argument against someone else’s without reading it first. That would be intellectually dishonest of me.

Bronson Arroyo makes his last start as a participant in the Red Sox’s starting rotation this evening. He will subsequently resume his long man duties as Byung-Hyun Kim fills the number 5 starter role. Still, last impressions are lasting impressions and it would serve both Arroyo and the Red Sox quite well if he could turn in another solid outing. It won’t be easy. These Rangers can hit and they have a young nucleus of offensive firepower unmatched perhaps anywhere else around the Majors. Mark Teixeira, Hank Blalock, Laynce Nix and Gerald Laird are all under the age of 25. Michael Young and Kevin Mench are just 26 and Alfonso Soriano, though older than we thought 3 months ago, is just 29. And in Brian Jordan and Brad Fullmer, the Rangers added two quality roster fillers. The Rangers are currently third in Major League Baseball in OPS.

Texas will send Ryan Drese to the mound to counter Arroyo. Yes, he of the 5.88 career E.R.A. Ryan Drese. “Well what of his 2.87 2004 E.R.A.”, you ask? Relax. Drese has made just 3 appearances this year. He contributed some stellar relief work in a 9-4 loss on April 14th against Oakland. The A’s pounded teammate R.A. Dickey to the tune of nine earned runs before Drese came in and shut the A’s down. In two starts, both against Seattle, Drese sports a 3.97 E.R.A. Not terrible for sure but what is terrible is his 1.68 WHIP he has to show for the two starts. Drese has never been an effective Major League starter and I do not expect that this season he will start to be. I do, on the other hand, expect the heretofore relatively dormant bats of the Red Sox to continue their gradual awakening.

Like Wild Bill Hickok said recently on HBO’s original seriesDeadwood, “there’s thunder in the distance.”

Buster Olney writes in his piece today…

“But Boston plays the “Moneyball” style — never bunt, don’t take chances on the bases, sit back and let your hitters hack away and do the work regardless of the game situation, regardless of the identity of the opposing pitcher.”

He cites a situation during Sunday afternoon’s game against the Yankees as an example. What astounds me about people that collect a paycheck writing about sports is that the vast majority of them don’t spend close to enough time on actual research.

Just the previous day, Pokey Reese succesfully sacrificed Gabe Kapler to second in the bottom of the ninth against Tom Gordon.

I find that many would be far more open to sabermetric principles if they actually took the time to understand them. Rarely are there black and white rules like, “you never sacrifice bunt”.

Of course Buster Olney wouldn’t know that. He hasn’t read Billy Beane’s bestseller, Moneyball.

It’s been a really long time since Kevin Millar was a good Major League hitter. Here are his month by month lines starting last July (BA/OBA/SLG):

July: .208/.286/.386
Aug: .267/.342/.429
Sep: .238/.319/.381
Apr (’04): .221/.299/.351

Um, Craig Wilson anyone?

Byung-Hyun Kim pitched five scoreless innings today against Tampa Bay, giving up just two hits in the process. On a strict pitch count, manager Terry Francona lifted Kim and Tim Wakefield started the sixth. It is currently 3-0 Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning. Since I am in full temper-enthusiasm-at-all-costs mode I will simply say that Kim’s performance looked encouraging for Sox fans.

While basking in the almost mechanical like precision of the 6-0 blanking of the Triple Rays, I decided to take a peak at the Site Meter for your favorite (top 5) Baseball Blog Named After Dwight Evans.

THe best thing I found? On Google, if you search “Steve Levy”ESPN “asshole”, The House That Dewey Built comes up #4 on the list. Don’t believe me? Check it here.

So what is better. The fact that someone did a google search for “Steve Levy”ESPN “asshole” and clicked on my humble hyperspace abode, or the fact that I’m 4th on the list?

Wow, this is the most relevant Steve Levy has been in many years. Kudos, Dewey’s House visitors.

After last year’s slug-happy cardiac season that featured largely mediocre pitching, I gotta admit it’s awfully nice winning games as systematically and methodically as these Red Sox do. Simply put, on almost every night, the Red Sox will start the better starter, field the better lineup, replace their starting pitcher with better relievers and replace their position players if needed with better role players than their opponent. It’s a simple and simultaneously alarmingly effective means of achieving baseball success.

Tonight Curt Schilling pitched his best game as a Red Sox and Jason Varitek’s 4th inning 2-run home run off Paul Abbott was all the offense the Sox would need. As is their custom, the Sox tacked on an extra four runs and the team went on to a 6-0 win. Bill Mueller and Manny Ramirez each had impressive nights at the dish, both singling and doubling on the evening. It will be interesting to see how much the Boston mediots harp on Manny’s failure to run out a towering double he hit in the fifth inning. On a ball that appeared almost certain to either be foul or a home run, Ramirez stood at home plate only to see the ball land fair and off the green monster. What easily should have been a two-out double was just a single. Of course since the next batter, Varitek, grounded out the matter was inconsequential.

Schilling was lifted after 7 and 1/3 innings. He had eight strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Alan Embree and Lenny Dinardo combined to polish off the Rays, getting the final five outs in succession.

I understand that times will not always be as serene as these. Still, this roster is built to succeed with exceptional regularity and it is difficult to imagine even a hypothetical scenario in which things could go all that awry.

If you polled 1000 Red Sox fans in and around Boston and asked them “of all the Red Sox which one would you just as soon not have on the team”, I bet 30% of them would say Kim.

Yup, the guy with the career 141 ERA+, better than Clemens.

Only in Boston.

Anyhoo, Curt Schilling and the Sox face Tampa tonight. While Terry Francona decided to skip Tim Wakefield, Lou Piniella will stick with Paul Abbott. Wakefield will start Sunday in Texas.

As for the Red Sox’s injured triumvirate, Kim starts tomorrow for the Sox and yesterday, Nomar took grounders at Fenway and Trot played for the Gulf Coast Sox. Good stuff.

Joe Morgan thinks the Sox are better than the Yanks which is kind of like having a blind guy tell you your haircut looks nice. Not exactly reassuring.

Look for Schill to pitch well tonight - I have a feeling he still may be pissed about last Thursday night’s debacle. Not that one of Curt’s ilk needs to be angry to succeed against the Rays but you get the point.

Enjoy and I will be back with a recap.

Since I’ve been cognizant about the Red Sox, there have been very few baseball players as enigmatic as Byung-hyun Kim.

Judging by the various Red Sox Message boards, to say the fandom is mixed on Kim is an understatement. Over the course of the off-season, other than acquisition talk, I would say that Kim was the primary topic of conversation among Sox fans.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why. There have been a series of myths propagated about Kim by the baseball media (Thank you, Tim McCarver), and parroted by fans who either don’t know any better, or don’t want to know any better. Among these myths are that Kim has emotional problems, Kim can’t handle the pressure of pitching in Boston, Kim is a choker, and Bronson Arroyo is better suited to start than Kim. I’ll start at the beginning…

Kim has emotional problems

I have an inherent problem with Joe Fan making this kind of exclamation, none of whom actually have met Kim. That’s secondary though. The evidence presented is that he pouts from time to time, he flipped off the fans, and he punched a photographer in Korea.

On the evidence, I doubt these fans have seen Derek Lowe pitch, or remember that Ted Williams flipped off the fans quite a bit, or realize how invasive the Korean tabloid press is. Kim might not be the most mature player on the planet, but I doubt he’s the least. And I think he’s handling himself pretty well considering the culture shock, something that players such as Hideo Nomo mention they still have trouble with.

Kim can’t handle the pressure of pitching in Boston

Wow.

Putting aside that the 2003 Boston Red Sox do not make the playoffs without Kim, and there not being one iota of evidence that he struggled in Boston, this is one of the most repeated criticism of Kim.

Kim had a 0.00 ERA (13.0 ip) in September, as the Red Sox were making a run for the Wacky Card. Detractors mentioned that it wasn’t against the crème of the AL crop, but if the competition was so easy, why is it that relievers thought of as ‘stable’ didn’t post similar numbers? Alan Embree (9.00), Scott Williamson (8.59), and Mike Timlin (6.00) all pitched worse in less innings. But all can pitch in Boston apparently.

Also, keep in mind that Bronson Arroyo posted a 2.45 ERA in September.

Oh yeah, he pitched for the Korean national team before signing with Arizona. The only way the Korean government would release him from his obligation to enlist in the Korean armed forces was to pitch well in the Asian games. If he screwed up, he was in the Army. That is pressure. Not blowing a game after your manager hung you out to dry as a 22-year-old in the World Series. Which brings us too…

Kim is a choker

Well, his team won the World Series (he was lights out in the NLDS, and the NLCS), he averted the Korean military, stabilized the Red Sox bullpen in 2003, pitched two innings with four strikeouts in Yankees Stadium in 2002, and didn’t allow a run in September.

Why are people harping on blowing two saves in the World Series, at 22-years-old, one on over 60 pitches, and the other on the next day? It can’t be because he got saddled with an impossible situation in a game against New York in July (courtesy of Scott Sauerbeck), because he blew two other saves all year can it? It can’t be because Alan Embree couldn’t get Eurbial Durazo out can it?

Also, people claimed the Red Sox gave Kim a phantom shoulder injury in order to keep him off the postseason roster against the Yankees. “No way he was really hurt,” they said. Of course, he started the season in the DL with a shoulder injury.

Bronson Arroyo is better suited to start than Kim

4.91.

That’s Arroyo’s ERA right now, and it’s the best mark he’s posted in his career as a starter.

For Pawtucket last year, Arroyo posted a 3.43 ERA. Kim’s ERA as a starter?

3.10 in Boston. 3.38 overall.

In two hitters parks (Arizona and Boston). Kim was better than Arroyo was in a minor league pitcher’s park. And Kim is 2 years younger.

As you can see, if you want to, Byung-hyun Kim is not only a valuable part of this Red Sox team, but is also been a top notch pitcher for his entire career. It’s a shame a good amount of people don’t notice it.

That’s right. Tickets for two games, and two rain outs. I missed one of the Baltimore games too.

This time, I made it all the way up from Narragansett, ate some food, imbibed in some beverage, sat and watched the A’s 3-run 4th on the Jumbotron in the wet, stood a lot, and began to hate The Weather Channel for telling me there was a 30% chance of rain. Bastards.

Anyway, I’ll be attending the double dip on Thursday. It marks the return of Sox pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, which I will talk about tomorrow.

In case you don’t look at who actually writes these things, my seat was not the well-covered section 26 seat Sully had. Mine was the totally exposed section 42 seat in the bleachers. I’m just now dry. Dammit, Weather Channel.

I will be in section 29 tonight at Fenway to welcome the Sox back from one helluva road trip. The Sox took 2 of 3 from the Jays up at SkyDome and proceeded to stomp the Yankees in three straight at the Stadium. Tonight, they host the Devil Rays as Tim Wakefield takes to the hill for the carmine hose. Wakefield has been rock solid in his last two outings and he may need to have that knuckler working for him again tonight. That’s because Tampa Bay counters with 36 year-old Paul Abbott, a journeyman of sorts who has experienced considerable, albeit uncharacteristic, success here in the early goings of 2004. He comes into tonight with a 2-1 record and a shiny 2.37 ERA.

Ah, the joys of small sample sizes.

Truth is, it’s hard not to root for a guy like Abbott. A model of perseverance, he is now in his 20th season as a professional baseball player despite having pitched just 643 career Major League innings. He spent the better part of his career, when not injured, playing and rehabbing in places like Elizabethton, Kenosha, Portland, Tacoma and Las Vegas clinging to his dream. His career highlight is and probably always will be the fact that the 2001 Seattle Mariners, a team of historical significance, won 22 of Abbott’s 27 starts that season. He even won 10 straight decisions at one point.

His time at the top, if you could ever even call it that, was short-lived however as the injury bug bit him once again in early 2002. He was abysmal all of April until the M’s pulled the plug on his season and subsequently his tenure with the club. He spent 2003 with Arizona and Kansas City’s organizations before landing in Tampa Bay for 2004.

Thus far, he has been healthy and effective.

Seems like the perfect night for a little mean regressing, no?

The Red Sox just completed a three game sweep of the Yanks, sit at 12-6 atop the American League East and pretty soon will add baseball’s best shortstop and a top-5 rightfielder to their lineup, plus a guy with a 1.16 career WHIP to their starting rotation.

Pardon me if I am struggling to temper my enthusiasm.

While the Red Sox play host to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beginning tomorrow night, the Yankees face off against, in succession, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito – collectively better known as Ghidora. Amazingly, things might get better for the Sox. They have a real opportunity this week - and for the month of May really - to put some distance between themselves and the Yankees. While the Bombers cut and slash their way through a schedule laden with tilts against talented AL West foes (12 of which are on the road), the Sox play a softer combination of AL Central and AL East opponents (Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Kansas City…etc.).

If history has told us anything, it would behoove the Red Sox to take advantage of this time. Recent woes aside, the Yanks still boast a potent lineup. Furthermore, the George Steinbrenner I have grown up disdaining does not sit on his hands when things begin to go awry. Sure the Yanks lack high-level prospects but their willingness to take on a contract of any size puts them in the running for any player. It wouldn’t shock me to see Randy Johnson and Jose Vidro in pinstripes before June 1st.

Still, the Sox are a deeper, better club and lack the glaring holes that the Yanks’ roster sports.

No need to fear these guys but no need to let them up, either.

This is what I posted on SoSH:

They have a payroll of $185 million this year. Their problem isn’t that they have “too many superstars, and not enough heart” or whatever.

There problems are…

*Poor defense…the players the Yankees have thrown money at aren’t really known for defensive prowess. The only one that is in the top 1/3 of the league at his position is ARod…and he was moved off of short for the worst defensive player in baseball at that position.

*Back of the rotation…Jose Contreras and John Leiber have turned into Ed Whitson and the Alex Graman/Donovon Osborne two headed monster. There is no depth in the minor league system either.

*End of the bullpen…Proctor, and the loser of the Graman/Osborne-Torre-whimsy-of-the-week. Doesn’t lend for much quality flexability.

*Bench…The Red Sox have a weakend bench, due to the injuries to Nomar and Nixon. The Yankees bench right now, is probably only marginally better than the Sox bench. Right now. Meaning that could be a huge Sox advantage when Kapler and Bellhorn/Pokey become bench players rather than de facto starters.

*2nd Baseman…Enrique Wilson/Miguel Cairo. That is their second base tandem. You figure spending so much that they would have tried to find another second baseman.

Is it time to panic? Probably not, but there are some glaring holes that need to be addressed by the Yankees. Chances are, they aren’t going to play very good baseball (championship level) until these needs are filled.

Of course, it’s fun to talk about this after a sweep, and a 6-1 season series lead. Tomorrow, I’ll have a preview of more important things…like the Tampa Bay series.

- Best take I have seen on the weekend series.

- Manny Ramirez’s home run was maybe my favorite swing he has ever taken in a Sox uniform, rivaled only by his upper deck shot also at the Stadium off of David Wells last July 4th. What a missile.

- Kevin Millar looks over his head against even above average pitching. If I’m Theo, I start looking for possible alternatives in case Millar’s decline continues. I dunno, maybe Craig Wilson? When Jason Bay returns, Wilson may be the odd man out in Pittsburgh.

- Vasquez looked tremendous again yesterday. One mistake.

- Many will contend that the Yankees are simply slumping and that’s why the Sox have had their number. But remember, in between their anemic offensive outputs this weekend and last, they hit .277/.354/.436 in Chicago. Not great, but not slumping either. Maybe the Sox pitching has something to do with it?

- When Pokey Reese is at the plate, he reminds me of a movie actor cast as the Red Sox shortstop. Like Omar Epps or Wesley Snipes. His swing is so bad it is literally unbelievable.

- Arroyo was great Saturday but I can’t wait to have Kim back.

Back with more early this evening.

I’ve never seen a team win a game while having all it’s runs score on sacrifice flies.

Who Knew?

The Yankees have real problems at the back end of their rotation. Jon Lieber comes back soon and I suppose it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Jose Contreras could still become an effective starter in 2003, but boy oh boy do they have a couple of question marks in the 4 and 5 spots in their rotation. In fact, the two biggest question marks on either the Sox or the Yanks are the 4 and 5 slots of the Yanks’ rotation.

Sure Yanks fans will poo-poo last night’s win (it’s only April, our hitters are slumping) but with little farm talent, there is a serious problem for the Yanks that may not go away this season. What the hell are the Yanks going to do about the back of the starting staff?

The Red Sox are a vastly better team than the Yanks. It’s the first time in about 9 years that I could say that with true conviction.

Nomar Garciaparra has been intensively working out at the Boston Celtics’ Sports Authority Training Center at HealthPoint in Waltham, MA, Dewey’s House has learned.

While he has also been lifting weights and exercising in the pool, the focus of his workout sessions has been on his lateral movement.

Our source informed us that Nomar looked “strong” and that he “can’t imagine he’d be out of action too much longer.”

Sounds good to us.

“New York to the heart, but got love for all
Lie and die in the fire, where I learned to ball
Uptown is the place where I lay my dome
On the streets of the Bronx where my fa-mi-ly roam”

-Lord Tariq nad Peter Gunz

Well no sense in sulking because tonight the Sox hit the Bronx for another important set. Derek Lowe faces Jose Contreras who, according to the New York Times, has been working with Mel Stottlemyre on some delivery alterations.

Forgive me if I am not all that worried.

What I am worried about, on the other hand, is how Derek Lowe will react to the Yankees’ ability to wait him out. Lowe will need to counter the Yankees’ patient approach by throwing more first pitch strikes and concentrating on working ahead in the count. As always, he will need sound defense behind him.

The Yanks, like the Sox, won two of their last three but lost last night. I am interested to see how the Yankee crowd treats AROD if he continues to struggle this weekend.

I think Lowe, on normal rest and focused after last Sunday’s miserable outing, pitches well this evening.

Oh, one more thing. If Jim Caple, some guy named Dan George on si.com and Frank Deford are all using national media carrying on about how the Yanks and Sox are not rivals, isn’t it probably a rivalry?

I am not going to say much. Jeff already gave the recap.

What I will say is this: for a franchise that supposedly operates on the cutting edge of modern baseball theory, last night’s managerial gaffe was downright inexcusable.

Theo et al selected Terry Francona this off-season after a lengthy interview process. What took place last night, given how 2003 ended, should have been an impossibility. Schilling was barely able to get out of the seventh, the inning ending when Vernon Wells flew out to centerfield on Schilling’s 104th pitch. With the bullpen as good as it has been, there was no way he should have come back for the eighth. Tito ignored a bullpen that had not yielded a run in their past 13 1/3 innings of work.

Sure, Keith Foulke was unavailable but the entire bullpen, top to bottom, has been tremendous of late.

Everybody say it with me….

Timlin in the eighth, Williamson in the ninth.

I am a geek.

I read books on analysis of baseball. Generally, I don’t really read anything unless it’s about politics (I won’t bore you, or try to convert you), or baseball. I spend much of my time thinking about baseball (makes classes more interesting), or reading other peoples opinions on baseball, mostly on the internet. I play OOTP baseball, Strat-o-matic baseball, and MVP 2004. I dare say, baseball is a bigger part of my life than just about anything else.

However, I also played a good amount of baseball in my day.

When I pitched, I knew when my stuff was gone. I couldn’t bend my back anymore, the ball kinda floated out of my hand. I saw the fielders play on their toes more. The balls jump off the hitters bats. I saw my stuff go. There was never a time I thought I couldn’t get the next guy. The athlete brain doesn’t recognize the bodies weaknesses.

That’s why I had a coach to tell me to stop being an asshole and come out of the game.

After two outs in the seventh, Curt Schilling gave up four straight hits. What was a nicely-paced, well played 3-1 Red Sox lead, turned into a 3-3 tie ball game. No harm done…the Red Sox have had a pretty good offense lately.

Then stuff got bad.

For reasons known only to God, Curt and Terry Francona, Schilling came out to pitch the eighth inning. After all, there was no reason to expect the bullpen could continue its streak of 13 2/3 scoreless innings. Predictably, the inning went poorly for the Red Sox, with the nadir being a grand slam to Chris Gomez. Yes that Chris Gomez, he of 32 years, 12 seasons, 5 teams, 52 home runs and 0 grand slams. Terry Francona left Schilling out on the mound longer than any realistic sensibility would have him out there.

Of course, the complaint in Philadelphia was that Francona let Schilling run the show. So far, we’ve seen Schilling throw more than 120 pitches twice, and him throw a bitchfit on the mound when pulled against the Yankees. Could Francona not have wanted to annoy his pitcher?

If we see a manager that is like Grady Little with one guy, and like Jimy Williams with the other four, its going to cause a problem with bullpen usage, and the fact it might piss off the other four guys. That might not actually have an affect on the performance of Pedro, Lowe, Wakefield, and Kim, but if they are uncomfortable, it sure doesn’t make this World Series title easier to get. Francona needs to realize quickly how to utilize his tools, or there is going to be more losses like this.

By the way, there were 13 men left on base. One of the weird sidestories of the season was been how the Red Sox are leaving a disproportional amount of runners on base. I’m of the thinking that LOB really aren’t a big deal because if you leave a lot of guys on base, you have a lot of guys on base. Eventually, with clutch hitting (luck) being what it is, that will translate into runs.

I digress. Given the amount of offense that this team has generated, you can figure out how many runs a team should have scored. The Red Sox, as of this very minute, has generate the offense to score 71 runs. They have actually scored 70. That means, through all those men left on, the Red Sox have only underperformed by 1 run. The offense is running at 98.5% efficiency. Which over the course of the season is something like 7-8 runs. Or less than one win.

Guess what? There is no problem.

Tomorrow the Red Sox start against the Yankees, in New York. The matchups appear to be:

Friday: Lowe @ Contreras
Saturday: Arroyo @ Brown
Sunday: Martinez @ Vasquez (3 days rest: rock) or Osborne (career of suck: hard place)

There will be a better preview ahead, if either me or Sully writes one.