Stephen Strasburg: One Hit Wonder, or Platinum Artist?
Monday May 21st, 2012
Robert Whitmer: Fate….. It’s a funny word. Others call it “destiny.” It’s a word that some see one way, and others don’t even believe in it. I believe that things happen for a reason. I am a very religious person, but this will not turn into a religious piece. I believe that things happen to us to teach us something so that, in the future, we can see the lesson that was taught and apply it to not make a mistake that would have cost us dearly. Now, on the other hand of things, we still have the ability to choose if we apply those teachings in our life to avoid those situations. People might argue that if someone believes in destiny or fate, their path has already been chosen so what is the purpose of the decisions we make. No matter which side you are on, fate or fake, we all are going somewhere. We all have an ability inside of us to be great. It is up to us whether we get there or not. Such is the same with the topic of my writing this week. Mr. Stephen Strasburg is at a crossroads with his career. The path that he chooses is up to him. Right or wrong, good or bad, he has the ability to be a Justin Verlander, or a Mark Prior. Read the rest of this entry
MLB Should Investigate a Payroll/Geographical Look into Division Re-Alignment
Monday, May.21/2012
Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth (Baseball Writer- and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- Despite being a Yankees fan, I admit the economics of baseball are way out of whack. I was talking with a few other fans about the MLB and thought of a radical new change in division re-alignment that may finally end the disparity between all ball clubs having a chance to make the playoffs each year. Much like soccer, it would kind of be a tier system. Scheduling and travel wise it makes a lot more sense as well. For those hardcore fans I would also make each team play at least 3 games against every other team in the Majors. Let’s see if you like what I have done.
The new AL would feature the bigger payroll teams. I know this break’s up 130 years of tradition but it is time to move into the new millennium. There would be 15 teams in each league so that would make for 1 Interleague series at all times. Under this format you could still keep your 2nd wild card berth. After you read these Divisions take a look at how I would break up the 162 game schedule-and then demo sampled the natural rivalries playing each other 12 or 19 times still. I believe this is the fairest and most accurate way to have competitive balance for all of the clubs. The National League would take a bit of a hit however they should change the All-Star Game to mean nothing for the World Series home advantage. The team with the best record overall in the regular season should have home field advantage when deciding the World Series and playoff round. There would be 50 interleague games for each team. This still only represents 30% of the games folks. With more teams rotating through the league, the games would remain fresh. They can still keep the American League and National League Stats separate like the NFL does. Read the rest of this entry
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Karim Garcia Interview: Working My Way Back to the Big Leagues – From Mexico With Baseball Love
Monday May 21st, 2012
MLB reports – Jonathan Hacohen: Today we are in for a treat folks. One of my all-time baseball faves is our feature on the Reports. The man needs no introduction in baseball circles. He can flat-out play the game. Karim Garcia. The man has played ball in New York. Los Angeles. Cleveland. Arizona. Korea. Japan. Mexico. World Baseball Classic. The man has done it all…and seen it all. After making his major league debut with the Dodgers as a raw 19-year old, Karim went on to play for 7 MLB teams over 10 seasons. His best statistical season came in 2002, as Karim belted 16 home runs playing mostly for the Indians, with a .297 AVG and .574 SLG. The fact that he was able to produce those numbers in only 53 games played shows his strong hitting potential. Watching him play, it was always obvious that Karim Garcia could hit. He just needed the opportunity to play.
Therein lies the unfairness of baseball. It can be a cruel and unforgiving sport. Karim played 113 games with the Diamondbacks in 1998 and 96 games with the Tigers the following season. Despite his hitting abilities, Major League Baseball never game him the opportunity to play a full season. To show what he can do with a full year’s worth of at-bats. Few can understand how difficult it can be to play sparingly off the bench unless you have done it. Karim Garcia has done it. He did it for a decade in the show. Despite knowing he could star and not receiving that chance- he persevered. Karim Garcia came back to the big leagues, with different teams year after year, to prove himself. To play the game he loves and to play the only way he knows how. Hard. When the opportunities in North America did not present themselves, Karim Garcia did not give up. Far from it. Over the last 8 years, Karim Garcia has been travelling the globe to play baseball. Korea. Japan. His native Mexico. Wherever he can find a high level of competition and the opportunity to play ball, Karim has taken it. He doesn’t play for the money. He doesn’t play for the glory. Karim Garcia is playing ball for the simple love of the sport.
Karim’s glory moments came as part of the recent 2009 World Baseball Classic. The man was playing in the tournament like his hair was on fire. The intensity. The passion. Every big game. Every big at-bat. If it involved team Mexico, you knew that Karim Garcia was involved. The undisputed leader for his country, Karim showed at the plate and the field that the magic burned strongly within him. Yet despite a strong WBC showing, the majors did not come calling. With the 2012 season upon us, I see many MLB teams missing the intangibles. The veteran presence. The key bat off the bench. Those types of players are the difference between a contender and a champion. What does the modern game need you ask? More players like Karim Garcia.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Karim, as he currently plays in the Mexican league. Karim is playing baseball for one reason, and one reason only. To return to the show. To return to where he started…and where he belongs. It is impossible to turn back the hands of time and unfortunately Karim will never get back the chance to play full-time in his 20′s in the majors. But Karim is not looking to change the past. He has no regrets. The Karim I spoke to is only looking to the future. Before his playing career is done and he looks towards his next mission of managing, he wants to make it back to North America. Back to playing Major League Baseball. Karim is ready to help a team to a championship. With all of years and experiences in the game, that chance should be there. It needs to be there. Karim intends to make it happen.
As part of our conversation, Karim and I discussed all aspects of his career. From making his MLB debut, to the trades, baseball travels, WBC and his future. Just like his play on the field, Karim was straight in the interview. Not holding back. Giving it all. Giving the straight goods. The Karim Garcia I spoke to was just like the one I watch on the baseball field. Passionate. Determined. Intense. Now ready to return to North America, I am proud to present my interview with Karim Garcia. Get ready to see the sides of Karim Garcia that you may have never seen. Might have never known. You know the name and the player. Now get ready to meet the man. The man who loves the game of baseball with every ounce of his being. Karim Garcia is today’s featured interview on MLB reports:
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Why Is The Baltimore Orioles Rotation So Dominant?
Sunday May 20th, 2012
Dedrick Hendrix: So far this season it is arguable to say that the Orioles have one of the best rotations in baseball. It is also arguable that the Orioles are the best team in baseball so far this season. Last night the Orioles won their fifth game straight in their 6-5 victory over the Washington Nationals. The Orioles are now 27-15 (after this afternoon’s loss to the Nationals and Strasburg) and currently have a two game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. In addition to that, they also polished off a nine-game road winning streak and are an MLB best 15-6 away from home this season. Read the rest of this entry
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Ask the Reports: ATR Answers Your Baseball Questions – May 20th, 2012
Sunday May 20th, 2012
Let’s get to your top questions of the week:
Q: I watched the replays of the 3-1 and 3-2 count with Brett Lawrie batting in last nights Blue Jays game.
As far as I’m concerned, Bill Miller missed two calls. Brett Lawrie was entirely justified in his outrage.
Ok, you gotta throw him out when the helmet hits the ump, but there’s no outrage if Miller makes those calls right.
It infuriates me that umpires are so go**am arrogant and they have so little tolerance for a player objecting to a bad call.
The 3-2 pitch was farther out of the strike zone that the 3-1 pitch, and it looked a lot like Miller called it a strike since, apparently in his mind, he’d been shown up by Lawrie after the previous pitch. I’d like to see a 3-day suspension for Miller, and any ump who’s that arrogant. John
JH: Before we start this discussion, let’s go to the video replay and see what happened in Toronto the other night:
John, I feel your frustration. I hear where you are coming from. But let’s get this straight. Firstly, Lawrie lost his cool and crossed the line. He didn’t just cross the line, he buried it. Regardless of whether he agrees or disagrees with a call, he clearly acted in a manner that was not professional and put the umpire and himself at risk. Lawrie got a 4-game suspension…and he should consider himself lucky. It could have been much worse. Look again at how the helmet was thrown- Lawrie threw it in a manner that the helmet made contact with the ump. I have long detested when players start trotting to first base during an at-bat before hearing the call of ball/strike from an ump. In my estimation, that shows up the ump and is more likely to result in a strike call. I am not defending Miller though. He was not on his game and clearly made some terrible calls. The league should have periodic reviews of umps (report cards), with specific instances of issue to be addressed when incidents arise.
Given the nature of the two blown calls, I would not have an issue of Miller going before a reviewer to discuss the incident. I would not suspend him in this instance, but a warning and discussion would be in order. Where an ump shows up a player and acts in a manner that is detrimental to the game, then suspensions could be in order. I agree that the whole process of umpire accountability is somewhat of a mystery and should be more transparent. We should have a better idea on the scale that umpires are graded, reviewed, rewarded and reprimanded. Lawrie had to be accountable for his actions- but where is Miller’s part in the process? That is unclear. Umpires should hold power given what they role in the game is. If that power is taken away, the very state of how the game is played and called could be severely damaged. But we don’t want umpires abusing their role and power. The Lawrie incident in Toronto was not pretty and accountability should be required from all involved. Again, I don’t see a suspension coming for Miller. But without dealing with this incident properly from the start, there is no guarantees that it won’t happen again. Read the rest of this entry
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Dante Bichette Jr. Looks Destined for Greatness
Saturday May 19, 2012
Sam Evans: When the Yankees drafted Dante Bichette Jr. in the 1st round (compensation pick) of the 2011 draft, some people were surprised that Bichette Jr. got drafted so high. Several draft experts didn’t see Bichette Jr. as a player that would go in the first one hundred picks. However, the Yankees fell in love with his bat speed, and so far picking Bichette Jr. is looking like a smart choice. What kind of player will Bichette Jr. be if he reaches his ceiling? What position will he eventually end up playing? Keep reading to find out.
Dante Bichette Jr. comes from a strong baseball family. His dad, Dante Bichette, was a phenomenal hitter for the Colorado Rockies in the nineties. Bichette played in fourteen seasons, and averaged a .299 AVG and 26 homers per year. The four-time All-Star outfielder was drafted in the 17th round of the 1984 MLB amateur draft. Having a dad who played in the majors never solidifies where you’ll be drafted, but having baseball in your blood definitely helps. Read the rest of this entry
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Joey Votto: Ready to be Crowned the Best First Baseman in Baseball
Saturday May 19th, 2012 
Brendan Henderson: Joey Votto, the 28-year-old first basemen from Ontario, Canada is arguably the best first baseman in baseball. Votto has “been in the shadow” of Albert Pujols the last couple of years when Pujols was in St. Louis. Many thought Pujols was the best first baseman in the NL Central and in all of baseball. I don’t think that is the case now. With Albert Pujols out west and in the AL, I believe Votto is the best first baseman in not only the NL Central, but in all of baseball. I watch every Reds game and Joey Votto has proved to me enough times that he is the best at what he does without-a-doubt in the Big Leagues.
Joey Votto is batting .317 this year with six home runs and 25 RBIs. Joey Votto has the 24th best batting average in the MLB. He is 23rd in RBIs and is 1st in the MLB in doubles with 17. Votto led the MLB last year in doubles with 40. This isn’t the only year in Votto’s career that he has done superbly at the plate; Votto has a career batting average of .313 with 426 RBIs and 125 home runs, he is in his sixth MLB season and fifth full season in the Big Leagues. Read the rest of this entry
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“Deadball” – By David B. Stinson: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel Review
Friday May 18th, 2012
“DEADBALL” – A Metaphysical Baseball Novel BY DAVID B. STINSON
(Huntington Park Publications: 2011)
MLB reports – Jonathan Hacohen: On the quest to uncover original and fascinating baseball books here on MLB reports, today we present yet another treasure that we have uncovered. “Deadball”, by author David B. Stinson. A “recovering lawyer” as he describes himself, Stinson’s Deadball is his first venture into the literally world.
Here is the official Deadball release:
Set in 1999, Deadball is the story of Byron Bennett, a former minor-league player who has a deep and spiritual connection to the game of baseball and its history. He sees things in a way others cannot and believes in things others would not. He thinks the old men working the menial jobs in the diners, dives, and graveyards he frequents are not what they seem. They try to fit in, go unnoticed, but Byron suspects they are not your typical second-career working stiffs.
Spurred by the impending demise of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, Byron becomes obsessed with learning as much as he can about Baltimore’s other former professional ballpark sites – in particular, Union Park, home of the 1890′s National League Baltimore Orioles.
Part pilgrimage and part road trip, Deadball visits vanished ballparks like Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, Cleveland’s League Park, Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, and New York’s Polo Grounds.
Deadball evokes many of the well-known and not-so-well known Charm City institutions located in and around the Harwood section of Baltimore, including Union Park, old Oriole Park, Memorial Stadium, New Cathedral Cemetery, Greenmount Cemetery, the Stone Tavern, Ron’s Billiards, Byrdland Carryout, Royal Books, and the Babe Ruth Museum.
Deadball will appeal to baseball fans and history buffs, but it also will appeal to anyone who knows what it means to be driven by a passion that others can neither appreciate nor understand.
When I first found out about Deadball, my first question to myself was: what the heck is metaphysics? What is truly the rationale behind metaphysics and how will this relate to baseball? To start that journey, I trusted our good friends over at Wikipedia for a definition:
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:
- “What is there?”
- “What is it like?”
A person who studies metaphysics is called a metaphysicist or a metaphysician. The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, e.g., existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. Another central branch of metaphysics is cosmology, the study of the totality of all phenomena within the universe.
Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. The term science itself meant “knowledge” of, originating from epistemology. The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called “science” to distinguish it from philosophy. Thereafter, metaphysics denoted philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence.
Do I still have you? Good. If you made it this far- clearly you have a strong curiosity nature to you…and possess an extreme love of baseball. I’m glad to hear. It was worth the trip. Don’t let the metaphysics talk fool you. Yes, the book has a deep inquisitive and philosophical side to it. But when reading the book, you don’t think along those lines. A good book is based on the strength of the author as a storyteller. To be able to take a reader and have them step into the shoes of the lead character. To see their world. To see their story…through “those” eyes. The lead in this tale is Byron Bennett. I have to say, I got completely lost in Bennett’s world. There were times that I felt like I wanted to fire up a Doors cd, turn on lava lamp and become zen with Deadball. The book captured my attention and got me thinking. Part of the strong points that I always look for in a baseball book. Read the rest of this entry
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Using Pay As You Go Phones in Canada or the USA for Vacation
Friday, May.18/2012
Douglas “Chuck” Booth (Baseball Writer- and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter) Fridays are Travel Article Days:- After several years of traveling across the United States of America as a Canadian, I finally have a livable cell phone bill to come home to after being gone for 6 weeks. How did I do this you ask? I bought a prepaid cellphone from 7-Eleven (From T-Mobile) and bought a one month unlimited Talk-Text and Web phone. Sure I took some ribbing on how ancient the phone looked and worked (It still has the abc-1 buttons to press in order to send out messages,) but I pressed on. Having unlimited domestic(USA) talking minutes was actually the best feature of the whole deal. I also used this phone for texting, Facebooking and tweeting. I also took numerous pictures from each baseball park and sent them to my Gmail account. This made it easier to post on social media outlets. On a couple of different occasions I was able to reserve hotel rooms online directly from surfing the web in different cities. Read the rest of this entry
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What Could Have Been… But Wasn’t For Nomar Garciaparra
Thursday May 17th, 2012
Robert Whitmer: Let’s play some word association. What is the first thing that you think of when you hear Nomar Garciaparra? For me it would have to be his unique batting nuances that he has; the obsessive adjusting of the batting gloves, the toe tapping in the batters box, the rotation of the bat as he does his toe tapping. Those are his trademarks, his calling cards, his version of a door-to-door salesman’s smile as they offer you the latest and greatest *insert unnecessary product here*. Had Nomar not been bitten (on numerous occasions) by the injury bug, he had the potential to be a “once in a lifetime” type of player.
As a supervisor of mine once told me about the word “potential;” “potential just means that you haven’t don’t s*** yet but you have the ability to do great things.” This is the case with Nomar. He had a Willie Mays smoothness when he was in the field. Athletes talk about the game slowing down for them when they get accustomed to their level of competition. This seemed to be the case for Nomar. Now I understand that a lot of skill on the fielding side comes from hours of taking ground balls during practice, but for him it seemed to supersede that. You almost got the idea that he knew where the ball was going before the pitcher had even gotten the sign from the catcher. His bat had the patient swing of Ted Williams with the flash of power to knock the ball out of the park. He had all the tools necessary to make him the kind of player you tell your kids about no matter what team you consider your favorite. Read the rest of this entry
