MLB and Selig Worse Than I Thought

Shortly after my previous post, I flipped over to MLB.com, where they have neatly packaged in a separate link a list of all the players included in the Mitchell report.

Don't bother reading the report. MLB.com is reporting what you really want to know.

Selig, Mitchell and the Media

It's hard to understand exactly why Selig commissioned the Mitchell report. It doesn't, all by itself, "clean up" the game. It also does not produce much new information about whether baseball players (as a group) are using performance enhancing substances. I knew it. You knew it. And Bud Selig knew it.

Still, did McGwire and Bonds hit all those home runs because they bulked up, or because they stopped swinging at balls out of the strike zone?

I think Selig needed the report so he can put pressure on the union. Selig, by himself, can't do that. However, if he gets a report from a respected statesman, who holds a press conference, the media can jack it up to the Nth degree and the public can finally confirm their worst fears about doping and the baseball record books.

Now we have a 400 page report, available for download on MLB.com, where we can all see the proof of what's been happening. In case you don't download it yourself, don't worry...this is made for media stuff. They'll be all over it for weeks...interpreting, and probably misinterpreting.

It's nothing more than a media play engineered by Selig to make the union move on a testing policy. Why else would Mitchell name the players? In his press conference, he said he didn't think the players should be prosecuted for past conduct, unless Selig found a particular situation to be egregious. So why not just tell Selig and Fehr the names on the sly, and leave it out of the report? The new names are not integral to understanding the history of the problem, the investigation or the recommendations.

I guarantee you that 9 out of 10 journalists began their review of the report by hunting for player names. How many started by looking at the recommendations section? The names should draw attention away from the fact Selig and the owners did not push hard enough for substance controls before they did.

In his press conference, Mitchell said he hoped everyone would focus on the recommendations more than the player names. The best way to ensure that was to leave the players names out of the document.

The real downside is that I can no longer remain hopeful that some of the Royals will begin using performance enhancing substances.

Tigers 2008 Batting Lineup

In 2007, the Tigers most often used this lineup:

Granderson (8)
Polanco (4)
Sheffield (dh)
Ordonez (9)
Guillen (6)
Rodriguez (2)
Casey (3)
Monroe (7)
Inge (5)

The Tigers scored 5.47 runs per game last year with that lineup, with due allowance for shuffling in the 7-9 spots and the Sheffield injury. That was good for second in the AL.

The new Tigers lineup will look something like this, having eliminated the weak 7-9 hitters:

Granderson (8)
Renteria (6)
Cabrera (5)
Ordonez (9)
Sheffield (dh)
Guillen (3)
Polanco (4)
Rodriguez (2)
Jones (7)

I plugged in these two lineups into the lineup optimizer at Baseball Musings.com. The '07 lineup is predicted at 5.56 rpg, which is pretty close to the actual 5.47 figure, particularly when you take into account that that particular lineup was used in only 25 of 162 games.

The projected '08 lineup? 6.168 rpg, an increase far in excess of a half run a game.

It translates to nearly 1,000 runs scored. What does that mean when translated to wins? If the pitching staff gives up exactly the same number of runs as last year (797), the Tigers are predicted to win 98 games, a full nine game improvement. That would have won the AL Central this year. In fact, it would have given them the best record in baseball!

Marvin Miller and the Hall of Fame

For once I agree with something Donald Fehr said:

"It was very disappointing to learn this morning that, once again, Marvin Miller was not elected to the Hall of Fame. Over the entire scope of the last half of the 20th century, no other individual had as much influence on the game of baseball as did Marvin Miller."

I'm not crazy about putting non-players in the Hall of Fame, but since that's already been established, I think Miller ought to be in. (Anyone who cares deeply about baseball should read Miller's book "A Whole Different Ballgame" but copies are scarce.)

It would be somewhat strange, however, to elect both Bowie Kuhn and Marvin Miller on the same ballot, since they were at each other's throats. You'll notice that if you read Miller's book, or Kuhn's for that matter. But Kuhn has already died before getting the glory. In fact, everyone elected today, other than Dick Williams, has already died.

The aging Miller ought to be elected while he can enjoy the moment.

Ode to the Yankees and Red Sox

Thou pinstripes breed contempt,
Thou foster-child of Beelzebub and Succubus:
Elysian history attests to power,
But a false tale made sweet by time
For the legend is haunted by thy payroll.
Deification via the dollar?
What god are ye? What grace have ye?
Mere mortals are thou, by George.
Though winning is the goal, you grieve
Your farm, and must pluck the fruit of smaller trees.

North, the patriots claim long-suffering sacrifice
To what green altar? What monster?
Paling to the house that Ruth hath built.
Bogged in thou fens, lusting for respect,
It hath returned, on the wings of legal tender.
Care not the Southies, the Bluebloods,
Who be desolate at their cores. Wicked,
Until glory is restoreth for decades-long pain.
Reward they that spend? That bid the most?
Thou shalt return to woe, lest you robbeth a Twin.