Why Even Have FoxTrax?

Let me start by catching up the uninitiated as to what I am talking about in that post title.

FoxSports Detroit and I would assume all affiliates of the 29 other MLB teams - or, rather, all those with a contract with FoxSports use a technology called FoxTrax to show whether a (disputed) pitch was a ball or a strike (i.e. did the ump get it right?)

It's not my favorite technology since it often shows pitches that I believe were "on the black" to be off the plate. I just accept that I would be more of a pitchers umpire because I believe they deserve the benefit of the doubt considering all the drift to hitter-friendly conditions in the past generation (if you know baseball, you know the list: mound height, smaller ballparks, smaller strikezone, 'roided up players, juiced ball?, etc).

Okay, now that my readers are all hopefully caught up - here is the problem I have:

Over the weekend Detroit-ChiSox series, there was a pitch that White Sox DH/1B Adam Dunn took for a called strike three. A replay was shown and Tigers play-by-play broadcaster, Mario Impemba, audibly gasped and said "that was nowhere near the strike zone!" Later in the game when Adam Dunn came to the plate, Impemba again claimed Dunn was "called out earlier today on a pitch that clearly out of the strike zone.".

With that said...it should be a surprise to you, dear reader, that when FoxSports showed a replay using FoxTrax, it indicated the pitch was a strike!! Now, why would you invest in this technology if you clearly do not take it seriously and apparently don't expect your viewing audience to trust it? It makes no sense!

Moreover, I am curious about how the technology actually works? It is just a shmuck in the production truck just eyeballing an approximate square? That could sound like an inexact technology that would produce errors except that is how the First & 10 lines are generated on football broadcasts... and how often are those actually wrong? Pretty much never!

Also, I wanted to compare this technology to what they use for tennis tournaments these days. They have a replay system which routinely zooms in to show a ball in or out by mere millimeters and I have never, ever heard anyone suggest that the technology got it wrong. So I guess the analagous situation would be that Mario (& Rod Allen) were calling a tennis match and having replay show a ball was on the line but they actually insisted the ball was out by a foot!

All right, if I have not made myself clear, consider me on the side of technology. Mario Impemba got the call wrong. The replay indicated he was wrong. He was too stubborn to acknowledge it. The reason you have FoxTrax is because announcers like Mario Impemba don't know a strike when they see one!

Rod Allen Again? Yes. Sorry.

Sorry, dear readers. I know it's probably not a good thing that I am turning this esteemed blog into a schizophrenic journal where Elijah Moon is doing insightful analysis/commentary on the big issues of the day and I am metaphorically throwing things at Rod Allen (and other nitwit baseball commentators), but, alas, it is what it is.

Last night's spotlighted Rod Allen comment was only annoying because of how he so blatantly contradicted himself from a different recent conversation he had with Mario Impemba. The Tigers were facing the Blue Jays and power-armed right-handed starter Brandon Morrow. Morrow cruised through the first couple innings which led Rod Allen to say:

Why did Seattle give up on a guy like this? And they got a reliever for him! Brandon League.

Now, truthfully, I completely agree with that sentiment of that comment. The problem is that just a few weeks ago - I can't recall the context but it may have been in reference to Joba Chamberlin (who has been a successful reliever after essentially failing as a starter during the 2009 season) - Rod Allen said he'd rather have a stud closer than a stud starter. His reasoning, as I recall, was that there was nothing more demoralizing to a baseball team than to have a lead going into the 8th/9th innings only to have the back end of the bullpen blow the game. I didn't agree with him when he said it, I don't agree with him now, but that is what he said.

Okay. Now who is the closer for Seattle? Why... it's Brandon Fucking League!! And as of this posting, League is tied for third in the A.L. in saves with 9 - and he is the only one of the top 4 to have not blown a save yet this season! Even Mariano Rivera has blown two.

So, again, I apologize. I will go down to the office of Elijah Moon and suggest he write something about the debt ceiling debate or Chinese currency manipulation so we can get this Furriners blog back to it's mission statement: smart political thoughts and Derek Anderson worship.

I Call B.S. - Mark Mulder Edition

It should probably come as no surprise that new ESPN baseball analyst (and former oft-injured pitcher), Mark Mulder, does not know what he is talking about... the guy went to Michigan State! How embarrassing for him.

ESPN should probably hire smart guys like Chris Sabo or Barry Larkin to be analysts.... oh, they did hire Barry Larkin? Christ almighty!! Why do they need so many guys? Just re-hire Harold Reynolds and go with the classic lineup of John Kruk, Reynolds, and Peter Gammons and everybody will be happy! You could even keep Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian. They do a good job too.

Anyway, back to Mark Mulder. Why was this guy hired? He clearly does not know what the heck he is talking about, as this is what he had to say regarding Justin Verlander's no-hitter on Saturday:

What makes him so good is the stuff that he has and he pitches to contact - which keeps his pitch count down (and) allows him to go deeper into games. I think if he wanted to, he could strike out a lot more guys but he chooses not to. He gets ahead and stays ahead and pitches to contact.

Okay, that is a reasonable analysis of the Justin Verlander that pitched the no-hitter on Saturday, but that is most definitely NOT consistent with what Tiger fans see on a start-to-start basis.

For example, "pitches to contact" who "chooses not to" go for strikeouts? You don't have to be a baseball historian like the aforementioned Tim Kurkjian to know that Justin Verlander led the major leagues in strikeouts in 2009 with 269. He followed that up with a fourth place finish in the A.L. in 2010 with 219. (By the way, he is currently tied for second in the league in 2011. He is one strikeout behind the current league leader, Dan Haren.)

To continue, then there is the "keeps his pitch count down" comment. That is such bollocks!! I got an e-mail from my father just last Wednesday where he completely unprompted wrote "Last line I saw on JV was 6 IP and 127 pitches... will he ever be able to pound strikes and develop command consistently?" Does that sound like a comment one would make about a guy who does a great job at keeping his pitch count down?

Want more evidence? Just look at JV's game log: Prior to the no-hitter, his last four starts were:

6 IP - 127 pitches
6 IP - 114 pitches
7 IP - 117 pitches
6 IP - 116 pitches

So let's not confuse JV with Greg Maddux or Orel Hershisher!

Oh, and one last piece of evidence. Prior to the no-hitter, Verlander was averaging ~17.0 pitches per inning. That is a total that would put him at the 7th highest in the league - behind six pitchers who don't have a sub-4.50 ERA amongst them as of this posting.

Memo to ESPN, please hire analysts who actually demonstrate that they know what they're talking about! And to reiterate, one hint that they don't know anything is a resume that mentions Michigan State.

Rod Allen Will Not Be My G.M.!

Another ridiculous statement last night by Fox Sports Detroit analyst Rod Allen last night during the Tigers-Blue Jays game.

Rod had this to say about Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar:

If you were starting a team and you were picking a shortstop, (Escobar) might be the first guy you'd pick. He is that good on both sides of the ball. The young kid, Elvis Andrus, in Texas is a pretty good player too, but there are not many players walking around as good as this guy at that shortstop position.

Tigers play-by-play guy, Mario Impemba, lended his support to the statement with "Andrus is the first one that came to mind I guess as an alternative to Escobar."

Does Mr. Allen know there is a National League?

Has he ever heard of Troy Tulowitzki? Hanley Ramirez? Jose Reyes?

Now what you might be thinking is: yeah, yeah, Furriners, they are better than Escobar now, but if I am starting an organization from scratch, you probably want to start with younger talent to build a team for the long-haul (like the way one would certainly start an NFL team with Aaron Rodgers rather than Peyton Manning or Tom Brady). I would agree.

Do you know who is younger than Yunel Escobar?

Troy Tulowitzki. And Hanley Ramirez. And Jose Reyes.

Sorry, Rod Allen... you just got owned!


* And, by the way, I like to think I'm being nice by not pointing out Stephen Drew and Starlin Castro as well.

** Hmmm... that probably wasn't very nice of me to do that.

Rod Allen Hyperbole

I don't know what it's like to be talking "live" on television for a couple hours a day for about six nights a week for six months out of the year. Maybe it's inevitable that one will unleash some really ludicrous statements in that job?

And I don't mean to pick on the man because, in general, I think he does a solid job - but it just so happens that I watch Tigers games about six nights a week for six months out of the year -and yesterday I took note of several Rod Allen statements that seem indefensible:

1. "(Robinson Cano) would be batting third on any other team in the major leagues."

Really? You're telling me that the Cardinals would bat him 3rd or 4th with Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols holding down those two spots in the batting order? Do you know Matt Holliday - as of this posting on May 4th - is batting .409 and slugging .648? And Albert Pujols is... well, he's Albert Pujols.

What about the Milwaukee Brewers with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder? How about the Minnesota Twins with (a healthy) Justin Morneau and (a healthy) Joe Mauer? And you could arguments for other teams as well (Boston and Texas being two others) which would not bat Robinson Cano third (or fourth).

2. "(The Yankees) were rotating second basemen before (Cano) arrived on the scene. Derek Jeter couldn't find a double-play partner. He has one now."

Okay, this is sort of true. The fact is that Chuck Knoblauch played second base for the Yankees from 1998-2000. Knoblauch had a solid career and played fairly well for Yankees. However, he, of course, famously had some throwing issues that moved him to the OF for the 2001 season.

Then, the Yankees had Alfonso Soriano from 2001-03. A fantastic player for the Yankees... or, again, a fantasic hitter who was not a good defensive baseman and has since moved to the outfield. Regardless, he was shipped out as the main piece in the deal to get Alex Rodriguez.

Then, the 2004 season saw the Yankees using a very unheralded duo (Miguel Cairo and Enrique Wilson) before promoting Cano for the 2005 season. So, again, it is sort of true what Rod Allen said even if it is sort of ignoring the fact that the Soriano's departure was a Yankees choice -- I just think he made it sound like the Tigers issue at 3B in the decade or so between Aurelio Rodriguez and Travis Fryman... remember all the guys that got to play that spot (HoJo, Garbey, Brookens, Pittaro, Castillo, Coles, Lovullo, etc)?

3. "Those days are about over when a player plays for just one team throughout his entire career."

Announcers say this all the time... and that is my point I guess... they have been saying it for years and years! The fact is is that there will always be some players who play their entire career for one team! You might think of it like a bell curve; a few players will play an entire career for one team, the majority of players will change teams several times over the course of their career, and then there are some who will play for many, many teams (think Bruce Chen, Arthur Rhodes, Mike Myers, etc); that is just the way it is.


And I guess I'll just ignore the quote about what a luxury is to have a guy like Russell Martin hitting 8th. I mean, do they (Rod and Mario Impemba) not realize that Alex Avila bats 8th for the Tigers (and his stats are nearly identical to Russell Martin's)?!? So just because your #8 hitter is performing well doesn't automatically mean you have super deep lineup! Of course, in the Yankees case, it is true. The Tigers, unfortunately, would not be considered a deep lineup by any stretch (currently 8th in the A.L. in runs per game). It just so happens that Avila is hitting very well (probably overachieving - but who knows? Maybe he'll keep it up).

Important Research

While my colleague continues to post graphs about how the Republicans are fleecing the middle class (YAWN!) for the benefit of the rich... I have been doing important research.

I have found that Max Scherzer is really good and deserves more love from the hometown fans.

Consider this:

Since May 29th, here is the stat breakdown of Scherzer vs. CC Sabathia (front-runner for the A.L. Cy Young award):


Memo to Joe Morgan:

I would NOT trade Max Scherzer for CC Sabathia. And this is why:

2010 Salary (per ESPN):

CC Sabathia - $24,285,714
Max Scherzer - $ 1,500,000

My New Pet Peeve

I am a pretty easy going guy. Not much really bothers me.

But I am here to report my new pet peeve. My old pet peeve was that I would watch Pistons games and Richard Hamilton basically travels every time he catches the ball. He apparently believes the concept of having to establish a pivot foot does not apply to him. Unfortunately, the refs seem to collectively agree. Also unfortunate is that for all of the odd videos on YouTube... no one has seen fit to make a compilation of Rip Hamilton traveling! What is up with that?

Anyway, my new local sports pet peeve is Detroit Tigers second baseman Will Rhymes abuse of the "neighborhood" call when turning the double play. I swear that little guy was not on the base as he turned the game-ending double play in Saturday night's 6-4 win over the Royals. This was the not first time and I'm sure it will not be the last as the umpires let him get away with it. That is the lesson of Rip Hamilton.

Outrage At Tiger Stadium... Er, Comerica Park

Armando Galarraga got hosed last night. This is not in dispute and there are better sources for information on this topic than Furriners... so I will not rehash it here.

However, I would like to add a few comments to what is already out there.

One, for those who didn't watch the game, I would like to point out that Jim Joyce (who people like Tim Kurkjian are defending as one of the best umpires in major league baseball) also got a call wrong in the 8th inning! With two outs, Johnny Damon hit an infield grounder where the throw beat him to first but Joyce called him safe. It led to two runs as Magglio Ordonez followed with a hit that drove in Austin Jackson and Damon scored on a throwing error by Shin-Soo Choo. This was, obviously, not a historically awful call as was the call a half inning later - but it could have easily decided the game given that it was 1-0 game before the Ordonez hit.

Also, for the "I Call Bullshit" moment of the game, we had this exchange from Tigers announcers Mario Impemba and Rod Allen regarding the retirement of Ken Griffey, Jr.:

Mario: "(E)verybody has their opinion of who the best player they've seen play and I know there are a lot of great ones but I still maintain Griffey, for me, was the best overall talent that I've seen play when healthy."

Rod: "There is not a lot of people that would even argue with you on that."

BULLSHIT!

Love 'em or Hate 'em... well, let's face it... we all HATE him but Barry Bonds would have the support of "a lot of people". If Mario had qualified it by saying that Griffey was the best that we presume was clean... fine. But as an unqualified statement, to say that not a lot of people would argue with that is bullshit.