Red Sox-Twins

Since this series starts tonight with Santana-Schilling, I figured I'd throw out some random Twins notes that I've gathered from watching the first four minutes of this game:

1. Johan Santana - he had a rough start, mostly attributed to the WBC (by the way, they just showed a replay of Oriz's home run off of Santana in the first inning of the Venezuela-Dominican game... what a game that was, and what a week), but he's back, baby. There's something strangely intimidating about watching him pitch, despite the fact that he's built like a left-handed Pedro and he looks like a left-handed Fernie Estalla. He also stands further to the third base side of the rubber than any pitcher I've ever seen, and I can't beleive I'm just noticing this now.

2. Joe Mauer - everyone knows that he's leading the AL in batting average and should be starting in the all-star game, but I love that he's wearing an old-school, tri-colored Twins helmet behind the plate. I'll try to find a picture of it if I can, but it's very sweet. (EDIT: I captured a picture from the first inning - it's kinda blurry, but you can see the sweeeeeeeeet helmet.)

By the way, Santana just struck out the side in the first inning. And Schilling just walked his first batter in 34 innings or so.

WBC Pitchers

Before the WBC I had said many times that I was just happy that Yankee pitchers were not participating. Now, even more so, but for different reasons. I was worried that one of them might get hurt. Now, it's just the ineffectiveness that the WBC pitchers have shown so far this season.

There are 68 pitchers who pitched in the WBC who have also pitched this season in the Major Leagues. They have a combined 5.09 ERA in 1270 innings. 24 of the 30 teams in baseball have a better team ERA than that. Of the 64 of these pitchers who also pitched in 2005, 20 of them have a better ERA than last season, with 44 of them with a worse ERA (that's 69%).

Of the pitchers who have been better, Rheal Cormier, Byung-Hyun Kim, Joe Nathan, and Dennys Reyes have yet to pitch 10 innings. The others:
Tony Armas 3.98 ERA 31.2 innings
Erik Bedard 3.58 ERA 37.2 innings and now working with one of the top 2 pitching coaches
David Cortes 1.38 ERA 13 innigns pitched
Elmer Dessens 2.30 ERA 15.2 innings pitched
Brian Fuentes 1.20 ERA 12 innings pitched
Jeff Francis 3.60 ERA 35 innings pitched
Hong Chi Kuo 5.54 ERA 13 innings pithed
Francisco Liriano 3.31 ERA 16.1 innings pitched
Chan Ho Park 5.34 ERA 30.1 innings pitched (that's his lowest ERA since 2001 with the Dodgers)
Joel Piniero 4.26 ERA 38 innings pitched
Fernando Rodney 0.00 ERA 12 innings pitched
Duanar Sanchez 0.00 ERA 19 innings pitched
Scot Shields 1.10 ERA 16.33 innings pitched
Mike Timlin 1.54 ERA 11.2 innings pitched
Javier Vazquez 3.00 ERA 33 innings pitched (now working with baseball's other best pitching coach)
Oscar Villarreal 2.25 ERA 12 innings pitched

Three of them were Rockies, most of them are relievers. On the whole, while these pitchers have been better, their overall impact on their teams asn't been that big (in a couple of cases it has). Let's look at just some of the ones the other way.

We have three of the NLs top Cy Young candidates coming into the year; Jake Peavy 4.58 ERA, Carlos Zambrano 5.35 ERA, Dontrelle Willis 4.38 ERA. Of the AL Cy Young candidates there is Johan Santana with a 3.89 ERA, and Bartolo Colon 7.07 ERA.

Some of baseball's closers; Chad Cordero 3.09, Brad Lidge 5.74, Chris Reitsma 5.06, Francisco Rodriguez 3.09, Huston Street 6.75.

Other starting pitchers include; Miguel Batista 5.29, Gustavo Chacin 4.70, Bruce Chen 8.40, Lenny DiNardo 7.36, Freddy Garcia 5.45, Estaban Loiza 8.35, Rodrigo Lopez 6.81, Oliver Perez 7.53, Odalis Perez 6.90, Jae Seo 4.85, Carlos Silva 8.59, Jorge Sosa 6.65, Victor Zambrano 7.20.

The players who have done worse have had a far greater impact than the ones who have done better (just ask the Twins). It seems too overwhelming to just be a coincidence. Since it seems the tournament will be the same time of year next time, if they don't do anything to get the pitchers into more of a regular spring training routine, teams will be trying to convince their pitchers not to participate. And people who play fantasy baseball should factor that into their draft.

Bud in the booth

Oh boy... Bud Selig is in the booth with Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo on NESN, talking about being in town for the Boys and Girls Club, or something. Let's see if he says anything important:

Don asks about the WBC: "It sounds like (a great deal of players) loved it."

Bud: "It was spectacular... we gotta fine tune it a little bit... we'd like the U.S. team to come in (earlier in the spring to practice together)."

No mention of having it at a different time of year. And at least he's not only concerned about the U.S. team. Of course he isn't.

Jerry asks about the steroid issue: "(It was) a cloud hanging over baseball... are you pleased with the way things are going (with the new steroid testing program)?"

Bud: "I really am. When you think back... this sport had no drug testing of any kind, and I think it's fair to say... we've had significant drug problems in the past. We had a terrible cocaine problem in the 80's, couldn't get a drug testing program. We had one, starting in 2002... twice, with credit to the player's association, we've gotten them to tighten it up. Now we have the toughest program in American sports. We're funding a program at UCLA (to try to find a test for HGH), we've banned amphetamines... I'm not going to tell you that we've totally eradicated it with less than 1% (positive tests) last year, I think it'll be even less than that this year."

He also babbled about the Mitchell investigation ("there's nothing to hide"). A few observations:

He went straight from cocaine in the mid-80's to the flimsy 2002 drug testing program - no mention of 1998 or 2001, the two hallmark years of the steroid era.

I keep hearing this "toughest program in American sports" jibberjab... he can't be serious. They don't even test for the designer stuff (The Cream, The Clear, insulin, chlomid, etc.), and no test exists for HGH. However, I am impressed that they're funding HGH research. How far it goes remains to be seen, though.

The 1% thing... complete poppycock. It's the easiest test to beat - of course you're going to have a low percentage of people fail. Not every ballplayer is as dumb as Palmiero.

Jerry asks about Bonds and the new Nationals owners.

Bud: "We're very proud of (the selection of the new Nationals owners)... we agonized over (the selection process)."

*** INNING BREAK ***

"We only celebrate new records... we didn't celebrate Barry when he went by Willie Mays."

Way to dodge the question, Bud! Whatever you do, don't mention the book or the grand jury testimony or the charges of tax evasion or anything else implied by the question.

Don asks about the spike in power numbers this year.

Bud confirms that they've tested "dozens and dozens" of balls, and they aren't juiced. Honestly!

They continue to babble about the weather (warmer weather! That must be the reason for the balls flying out! It can't be all the guys on untested steroids, could it?).

Bah. Easy questions disguised as hard questions accompanied by mostly spin and Bud-speak, insisting that everything is hunky-dory and that baseball has no problems whatsoever. Of course - I'm glad he pointed all of that out. I feel much better about the state of the national pastime now.