Calling out a pair of interesting articles about the St. Louis Cardinals star player and his former teammate (along with his current manager, sort of).
Catching up on my Sunday reading, I came across an interesting item concerning the future of Albert Pujols. Rather than being from an anonymous blog somewhere, it was posted on the NESN website.
It is significant to note that the New England Sports Network is primarily owned by the Boston Red Sox and naturally holds their television rights. Their Red Sox reporter, Tony Lee, penned a piece entitled “Red Sox Could be Contenders in Albert Pujols 2011 Free Agency Race.”
Though I follow baseball closely, I didn’t know the specifics of the Red Sox’ minor league pipeline, but I was aware of the long-time interest the club has allegedly held in San Diego Padres’ first sacker Adrian Gonzalez.
Lee puts forth an interesting take as to why and how the Red Sox might make a run at Pujols instead if he reaches free agency in 12 months. He also notes why the Yankees may not compete.
As one might expect, Red Sox fans are especially unsettled after missing the playoffs for just the second time in the last eight years and finishing in third place behind Tampa Bay and New York. Still, the Sox won 89 games, three more than the Cardinals.
Of course, at this juncture at least, most everyone expects Pujols to remain a Cardinal for the foreseeable future, but until it is done, it isn’t done.
In the meantime, I expect we will start seeing more Lee-like pieces popping up all over the baseball landscape. What makes this one a bit more notable is its source. Of all the 29 remaining clubs, the Red Sox are among the relative handful with the money, market and prestige to land a big fish like Pujols.
The bridge to my next item is the DOVE ad campaign entitled “Journeys to Comfort.” Along with Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, the other two headliners are Pujols and Pettitte’s manager Joe Girardi.
La Russa 2.0
I couldn’t help but chuckle over a Sunday piece from the New York Post that describes in a begrudging manner why Girardi will likely be back to manage the Yankees. The deal may be three years, $9 million, says a later report from Jon Heyman of SI.com.
Back when there was some uncertainty about Tony La Russa’s return, the former Cardinals catcher (2003), FOX Sports broadcaster and Florida Marlins manager was mentioned by some as a possible replacement candidate in St. Louis.
Among the comments about Girardi from writer Joel Sherman:
“…a very good manager. Prepared. Smart. A student of the game.”
Then Sherman proceeded to march and burn his way through the manager’s office, inflicting some collateral damage as well…
“…you have to wonder if the Cardinals would have wanted the 2.0 version of La Russa — tense and paranoid — to succeed him.”
“…clenched teeth, edgy pacing and obsession with his black binder.”
“Thus players end up, at best, respecting him rather than having a human connection that would foster something greater.”
“…a personality that too often strays to the robotic or — worse — dishonest.”
“So if he is deceitful or anxiety-laced, that becomes the face and the pulse of the team.”
“When you treat every bit of information about your team — including the innocuous — as if it should be CIA classified, then your joyless persona begins to corrupt clubhouse atmosphere, as well.”
Has anyone around here ever heard anything like that before? Apparently Joe learned well.
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If 200 million can’t overcome it how in the world can 95 million even hope to make the playoffs?
Joe Girardi, articulate grad of Northwestern U, spent a year on the roster of the Cards, stepped up at Wrigley and made the public announcement when Darryl Kile died. Was not afraid of the owner of the Marlins, Lorie, told him to shut up. Smart student of the game, like Duncan or Scoscia. A class act.
The Yankees used to feature a drunk as manager, Billy Martin, who distinguished himself by beating up a marshmellow salesman in Minneapolis. Later one of his pitchers, Ed Whitson, broke Billie’s arm. Billie was the most frequent manager of the Yanks for George. Its hard to see Girardi as a step down from garbage like Martin.
Should I care if players or reporters think Joe Girardi is not helping the Yankees have enough fun and indulging their every overpaid whim? Give ‘em heck, Joe!
Bruce Bochy has done a great job with the Giants. I like the way he turned CF over to 32 year old “career minor leaguer” Andres Torres, though Rowand collects the big checks. Offensively, Torres is much the better player. Bochy must be dedicated to competing, not to helping Rowand have fun.
So … the bar is set at bullying drunk?
And creating a loose and friendly atmosphere means that players won’t get benched in favor of better players?
Just trying to follow along here.
It seems odd that a New York reporter covering a franchise led by a rich loon, George Steinbrenner, who repeatedly hired a drunken brawler, would say disparaging things about Joe Girardi. Maybe Joel Sherman suffers self-esteem doubts that cause him to spew bitterness when he writes about one of his betters in Girardi?
I’ll bet we will never see TLR in a Taco Bell commercial.
Jumbo, the Steinbrenner who repeatedly hired Martin is no longer leading the franchise.
crdswmn, maybe if Taco Bell come out with a meatless line. Still, it could get ugly with all that cheese stuck in Franklin’s beard. Of course, you have to put aside the entire grossness of the concept of finishing someone else’s half-eaten meal, something that is probably no big deal to the average Taco Bell customer.
I hear you Jumbo, give em heck from the living room as your team got kicked out with a 200 mil payroll. yea buddy…..give em heck.
Seems like the reporter has noticed some odd occurances tha takes place on Joe’s team. His opinion is that those occurances don’t seem to be promote good play.
As far as the Giants go Jumbo, read this article and I’ll ask you again, could Tony have managed this group, and do you believe he would have been as flexible in his approach as Bochy was? The article below shows that a looseness prevails among the team, and it seems a genuine unity exists. And unfortunately the Giants seem to have fun………….damn them.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/25/MNGT1G1CHV.DTL
Post hoc ergo propter hoc, Latin for “after this, therefore because of this”, is a logical fallacy (of the questionable cause variety) that states, “Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one.”
Post hoc–the Giants have fun–ergo proctor–the Giants win–hoc –the Giants win because they have fun.
I am having this sense of deja vu.
Very true
I tend to think the Giants’ excellent starting pitching is the key to their success. Bochy is a good manager, no doubt, but he didn’t have this kind of success in San Diego without Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner… or even the overpaid/underperforming Zito.
Wish Mozeliak could raid SF’s scouting department after figuring out who is responsible for their success at identifying pitching prospects. That’s an area where the Cards have been weak for some time.
Who besides Haren and Jaime, from our system, have become effective starters in MLB in recent years?
Here’s a little background for Bochy-managed teams vs. ‘Tight Tony’ in post-season.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/article_22f45b96-beed-5b8a-8acf-7cbe0cf35124.html
Thinking about Zito, Mulder and Hudson… there’s a lesson in there somewhere. Don’t buy used pitchers from Billy Beane’s Used Arms Emporium.
The Cards probably had fun in ’06.
I wonder if Tony feeds his dog meatless dog food?
Here’s an interesting little exercise in Texmextrics, a new stat I’m calling WPBAERA. I figure if the SABR folks can make stuff up… well, I can too. Looking at win percentage, team ERA and team batting average for all +.500 teams in the AL/NL. The chart shows each team’s ranking in their league in the three categories, then totals them, with the lowest total being the best.
Notice that for the AL, this method identified the 4 teams that made post-season and correctly identified Texas as the WS representative.
Still pretty good results for the NL. The teams that made post-season came out on top, with the exception of Atlanta & St. Louis being swapped. Again, the one of two teams with the best score is the WS representative.
For Cardinals fans, one more indication of a year when we should have done better?
Dang it! I was hoping my spacing would be preserved… Hope you can still make it out.
Interesting approach. No doubt that the Cardinals not reaching the playoffs was a disappointment.
HB, I gave you an assist on the data. Thanks for sharing.
I might think run scoring would be a better measure of offense than batting average and it would also align well with your use ERA for pitching. Just a thought.
Thanks for the assist, Brian. Much easier to read that way (and would appreciate another).
Using your suggestion, here’s the same analysis substituting Runs/Game for Batting Average.
It fixes the St. Louis-Atlanta anomaly from the earlier example, but no longer accurately predicts the teams that went to the WS.
I originally though batting average a better measure since runs scored can be deceiving, something you noted in an earlier article about the Cards scoring more runs in blowout games this year. Interesting…
Alderson settling in at NY Mets……. They aren’t a player for Tony?Dave this year………….But I dare say he will likely be made aware of things going on in St Louis concerning AP
Pujols/Lozano will control the approach window for “discussions”……… Watching the beasts feeding on TV I’m sure has Albert’s attention……….pacing…nostrils flaring……I hope…………..
Lets hope we don’t hear this from Mo………” we don’t know how much money we can spend until we hear from AP”……………….. nothing good can happen if that is the case.
Nice work HB. I think you’re right about runs scored being deceiving, but wouldn’t ERA also be deceiving for the same reason? Blowouts against I mean. I’m not sure what would be the alternative. Maybe quality starts? Anyway, you’re giving that James guy a run for his money.
Here’s the part of the NESN article worth thinking about:
“. . . if Pujols desires to finish his career with a perennial winner, perhaps leaving St. Louis is necessary. After reaching the postseason in five of his first six seasons, Pujols has reached it just once in the last four and it resulted in a first-round sweep. . . ”
That’s the arguement Mo doesn’t have an answer for. It also illustrates the decline in esteem and reputation since, well, since Walt.
http://www.nesn.com/2010/10/red-sox-could-be-contenders-in-albert-pujols-2011-free-agency-race.html
Right Westy. Would be like last winter with Holliday.
“Jose Guillen, the San Francisco Giants outfielder, was kept off the team’s postseason roster shortly after federal authorities informed Major League Baseball that he was tied to an investigation into shipments of performance-enhancing drugs, according to several lawyers briefed on the matter. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/sports/baseball/29guillen.html?ref=sports
Brian, thanks again for the formatting help. Thank you also bb. That James fellow is safe, I think. I’m no fan of the QS stat, pretty much just a tool for agents to get larger contracts for mediocre pitchers, IMO.
I also ran the analysis substituting runs (against) for ERA and runs (for) in place of batting average. That factors errors in and also correctly yields the top 4 teams for both AL/NL, but in a slightly different order.
AL — Tampa Bay (6), New York (8), Minnesota (11) and Texas (12). The positions and scores of Texas and Minnesota are swapped.
NL — Philadelphia (7), Cincinnati (10), Atlanta (12), San Francisco (13). That breaks up the 3-way tie at 12 for the bottom 3.
Something else I really like about Bochy. He kept Zito off the post-season roster, Mr. $100MM.
I seem to be consistent. I like managers who play the best guy, no matter if he is a nobody like Torres, and bench the guys the expensive CF (Rowand) and LHP (Zito).
It doesn’t matter if somebody is a big contract or a big bonus, go with whoever is playing well. I like that.
I believe anything baseball related qualifies for mention here. Ozzie Smith is mentioned in the last paragraph, so Brian should have no cause for complaint.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ozzy-osbourne-genome
Good read BB………………… no way he plays out his contract………… he agrees to a trade, with “the contract” negotiated by Lozano if he is leaving………….or he decides to have the surgery. If DeWitt tried to play public emotions on a “curtain call” finally……..he breaks the whole team apart………Albert couldn’t play that season either………………the whole purpose is that AP/Lozano now have control of any trade negotiations…………..think about it though………..DeWitt could miss this years FA market, with excuses……………..that gets him to 81 by God.
No way Mo sits it out again this year, Westy. Waiting around last year for Matt was a lesson learned. Albert is increasingly aware of his mortality, and feels every one of his 30, ahem, years, so he would be interested. But Mo isn’t going to let the world pass him by again.
Mo knew he was getting Holiday BB……………all along……….. he sat it out because that was the plan.
How about the look on Nolan Ryan’s face………….. I bet he is truly being challenged not to “have a word” with his Bull Pen.
hb– would be curious to see if the results you have posted would change dramatically if you used 2nd half stats only, for each club.
so many of these clubs added players at the deadline (lee, oswalt, etc.), call-ups like posey (may 29th), in season signings like burrell (june 5th) or even waiver claims like ross in late august (22nd).
their 2nd half team numbers might be more indicative to their postseason success or lack of?