Random Baseball Musings

[El Duderino]

Paul Sullivan ‏@PWSullivan

Jack Morris has an MLB press conference but no one really has any questions or any idea why he's talking.

 

I'm guessing he needed to tell people again that if he really cared about giving up runs, he would have a better ERA.

[Post Count Padder]

Awful articles like this make me wish FJM was still around. (And also does not make me wonder why Jim Bowden is no longer a GM)

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/the-gms-office/post/_/id/5207/time-to-blow-up-the-yankees

[Clem Fandango]

Wow. Yeah, the Yankees made it one step away from the World Series... time to pull the plug. Bowden is terrible. I once saw him do a fluff piece video blog on Jordan Zimmermann and he made sure to mention that he was the one who had the foresight to draft him. He's a douche.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18731

 

These games, and to an extent Dominican Summer League games, are fascinating character studies. Since no fans are allowed into the academies, the majority of observers are either coaches, scouts or trainers, which creates a highly pressurized environment for kids aged anywhere from 14-17. Prospects can hear every word shouted to them, and all of these instructions hold special resonance since they are uttered by men who control their young futures.

 

Kids will listen to what these men say, and follow their instruction. Unfortunately, much of what these young players are hearing—like the trainer chastising his prodigy for being selective—is steering them astray.

 

It’s been more than a decade since the value of on-base percentage reached the mainstream, yet the significance of that has yet to hit the island. While the industry has evolved to evaluate players based on advanced metrics that capture the impact of previously overlooked contributions, scouting and teaching in the Dominican continues to be based on raw skills grounded in flawed fundamentals.

[Guest]

Um, wow. Just wow.

 

On Oct. 14 at 11:45 p.m., the Pirates’ minor-league coaches and instructors broke the midnight silence by banging on dorm rooms throughout the complex shouting, “It’s Hell Week! It’s Hell Week!”

 

Players were told to be dressed in 20 minutes and to meet outside by the batting cage. Waiting there were Kyle Stark, the assistant general manager and architect of the team’s “Hoka Hey” ways, as well as Larry Broadway, the first-year farm director who never before held any instructional position at any level of baseball.

 

Look it up.

 

Broadway told the assembled players this would be their “rite of passage” to become Pirates, then sent them on a two-hour scavenger hunt for envelopes hidden across the complex.

 

(Don’t ask. No idea.)

 

At 5 a.m., after a wink or two of sleep, they were bused over to Bradenton Beach for a two-mile run, followed by relay races in which they ran back and forth filling garbage cans with sand.

 

(Don’t ask. No idea.)

 

At 1 p.m., after more non-baseball drills back at Pirate City, they played an actual game against Toronto’s prospects.

 

This garbage — pardon the pun — went on all week.

 

On the “Hell Week” finale Friday, with a 10 a.m. road game on tap, the players again were awoken at 5 a.m. This time, it was to perform sliding drills on a still-dark field lit by a solitary quartz lamp. The coaches took turns manning second base and tried — not always successfully — to leap over players sliding into the bag, generally making a mess on the basepaths.

 

(Now this one explains a lot.)

 

I know about the above because I continue to hear from prospects worried about injury (some among the team’s most expensive draft picks), from parents who wish their sons had never signed with the Pirates, from angry agents, even from men who answer to Stark and GM Neal Huntington.

 

I’ll repeat: The Pirates’ development system is the laughingstock of baseball.

 

And most unfortunately, it isn’t just a harmless sideshow.

 

Gregory Polanco is one of the Pirates’ top five prospects. He’s a 21-year-old, 6-foot-4 outfielder who was named Most Outstanding Prospect in the Single-A South Atlantic League after batting .325 with 16 home runs, 85 RBI and 40 steals for West Virginia.

 

The kid can do it all, but that apparently isn’t enough.

 

Polanco’s ankle was sprained in mid-August, and it cost him most of his final month of play. But the Pirates still saw fit to have him participate in that first day with the SEALS last month, and as you might guess, the ankle was reinjured.

 

Worse than before.

 

It happened during a drill in which Polanco sprinted across the outfield, through an above-ground pool of ice water, then leaped into a sand pit.

 

(You’re still seeking logic?)

 

I know this because I asked Polanco himself. Through an interpreter, he described it in vivid detail.

 

I know this because a pitcher in his drill group independently described it the same way.

 

But sadly, I wouldn’t have known this if I had relied solely on the Pirates’ word.

 

When I initially asked the team two weeks ago about Polanco, this was the emailed reply from baseball operations — no name assigned — through a team spokesman: “Polanco was NOT injured during that workout. He actually injured his ankle during the season. He opted out of those workouts, as he has continued to battle swelling but no pain.”

 

If you believe the players — and I do — the statement was a bald-faced lie.

 

Not from the spokesman, but from baseball ops.

 

The truth: Polanco asked to be removed from a later workout on the beach when the pain worsened on the bus ride. By day’s end, the team had to fit him for a boot, which wasn’t the case when he first hurt it.

 

Why try to hide this?

 

Maybe Nutting will start uncovering the answers.

 

 

http://triblive.com/mobile/msports/2819385-81/pirates-polanco-baseball-players-team-hell-month-prospects-week-ankle

[Clem Fandango]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

[Guest]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18731

 

These games, and to an extent Dominican Summer League games, are fascinating character studies. Since no fans are allowed into the academies, the majority of observers are either coaches, scouts or trainers, which creates a highly pressurized environment for kids aged anywhere from 14-17. Prospects can hear every word shouted to them, and all of these instructions hold special resonance since they are uttered by men who control their young futures.

 

Kids will listen to what these men say, and follow their instruction. Unfortunately, much of what these young players are hearing—like the trainer chastising his prodigy for being selective—is steering them astray.

 

It’s been more than a decade since the value of on-base percentage reached the mainstream, yet the significance of that has yet to hit the island. While the industry has evolved to evaluate players based on advanced metrics that capture the impact of previously overlooked contributions, scouting and teaching in the Dominican continues to be based on raw skills grounded in flawed fundamentals.

Arangure's stuff on Latin America is always great.

[Derwood]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

[Cubswin11]

The new market inefficiency is acquiring minor league players who are capable of perfroming navy seal drills and capable of running guantlets of diving coaches and sand.

[TruffleShuffle]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

 

cubbiebum

[SouthSideRyan]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

 

Half the "journalists" NSBB spits out

[jersey cubs fan]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

 

Half the "journalists" NSBB spits out

 

99% of sportswriters write columns that look like that one.

[SouthSideRyan]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

 

Half the "journalists" NSBB spits out

 

99% of sportswriters write columns that look like that one.

 

Well they're all idiots, we can agree on that

[mul21]

Holy crap that's insane. Who the hell puts their own players at risk like that, let alone players who are already injured? It's not a fraternity, it's a team full of investments. What a bunch of idiots.

 

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs?

 

Guys who have a certain number of inches to fill with their column and can't come up with anything insightful to say.

[WrigleyField 22]

I always thought making rookies dress in halloween costumes in getaway days just wasn't enough hazing for baseball.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cubswin11]

I always thought making rookies dress in halloween costumes in getaway days just wasn't enough hazing for baseball.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't really think that's intended for hazing. I think their FO thinks it's an integral part of the player development process and conditioning their players.

[Clem Fandango]

http://i.imgur.com/GNZXC.jpg

[Jake]

Um, wow. Just wow.

 

http://triblive.com/mobile/msports/2819385-81/pirates-polanco-baseball-players-team-hell-month-prospects-week-ankle

 

Was wondering if that would get any mention here.

 

These guys need to go.

[Jake]

Oh, and about DK, who wrote that article - he's having way too much fun with it. Almost becoming the story himself.

 

Sad.

 

Used to be a good journalist. Moved over to a paper that thirves on sensationalist journalism and started becoming more sensationalist himself.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Single-sentence paragraphs used to be universally taught in journalism school. It's a leftover from when there were things things called "newspapers" that actually printed out articles on paper. They were printed with very skinny columns, so multi-sentence paragraphs became long and inhibited reading.

[Clem Fandango]

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1648063/princesalad.gif

[Guest]

http://www.sfgate.com/giants/jenkins/article/Giants-GM-relies-on-eyes-not-statistics-3991756.php

 

 

Take that, NERDS!

 

Some gems...

 

The Giants' world championship is a victory for John Barr, Dick Tidrow, Bobby Evans, a cadre of sharp-eyed scouts and especially general manager Brian Sabean, who learned his trade in the Yankees' system and surrounds himself with people who don't merely know baseball, but feel it, deep inside. They all played the game, somewhere along the line, and if you throw a binder full of numbers on their desk, they don't quite get the point.

The modern-day general manager bears no significant resemblance to Sabean, rather an especially sharp accountant who can draw up contracts, analyze a salary structure and study esoteric numbers with the best of them. It's a new breed of geeks, in essence. Privately, they scoff at the likes of Sabean - although, as far as we can tell, the Giants take home the rings.

The beauty of baseball is that it can be dissected in a thousand ways, each an engaging enterprise in its own way. The stat-crazed sabermetricians, as they are called, invent specific methods of evaluation without needing to witness the action in person. Numbers, they believe, tell the entire story - and their approach is worshiped by thousands of fans and bloggers who wouldn't last five minutes in a ball-talk conversation with Tim Flannery, Mark Gardner or Ron Wotus.

[Sammy Sofa]

Jesus Christ.

[imb]

i talked to ron wotus once, total dick

[Sammy Sofa]

Dick Tidrow.