A Rule Change to End No-Win Situation

If you need more evidence of why the rules for which pitcher gets the victory, look no further than last night’s Dodger game. Starter Brad Penny pitched a gem, holding San Francisco scoreless for seven innings before allowing a run in the eighth and giving way to the usually reliable Yhency Brazoban. The bullpen was due to blow a lead at some point, and last night was the first time in a long time.

Brazoban promptly gave back another run credited to Penny and one of his own to turn a 3-0 lead into a tie, and making it impossible for Penny to get a decision. Then, in the top of the ninth, the Dodgers scored three times to re-take the lead, and they held on for a 6-4 victory.

Eric Gagne got a save for getting three outs before giving up three runs (he gave up one, and faced the tying run at the plate). Brazoban, the ineffective reliever, got the win, even though he didn’t do his job of protecting a lead. And Penny got nothing except the heartfelt thanks of his teammates, who were sorely in need of a win after dropping the first two games of the series.

So let’s get this straight: Penny, who was the best Dodger pitcher of the night, got nothing while the other two guys padded their stats! Something’s wrong in Denmark.
With the number of games being decided in the late innings, baseball needs to readjust its rules so that the victory goes to the pitcher who does the best job, not the one who comes in at the most fortuitous point in the game.

Currently, a pitcher gets a win if his team takes a lead that it never relinquishes while he is in the game. That makes sense in lopsided games where the outcome is never in question. But in back and forth games or games that are tied for a long time, there are no shortage of injustices.

Let’s say Derek Lowe and Shawn Estes both pitch shutouts in tonight’s game, leaving the score tied at 0-0 in the 10th. Then both pitchers give way to relievers; Mike Koplove pitches a scoreless top half, but Giovanni Carrara gives up the winning run in the bottom half. Carrara rightly gets the loss, but does Koplove merit a victory? Hell no. He did for only one inning what Estes did nine times. But under the current rules, the win goes to Koplove.

There’s precedent for changing the rules. Currently, the starting pitcher cannot earn the victory if he does not last five innings (even if he gets hurt). In that circumstance, the official scorer decides who gets the victory, basing his choice on the pitcher who performed most effectively in relief.

I say change the rule to let the official scorer decide every win and loss. Most of the time, the choice will be easy—a starter will build a lead and his bullpen will protect it, and the scorer won’t have to make a tough decision. In last night’s game, Penny pitched most effectively, and deserved the victory. It would be foolish to argue that either of the two relievers merited a w.

There will of course be occasions where the choice is more difficult—for example, Erickson, Alvarez, and Houlton each pitch three innings and give up three runs apiece, yet the Dodgers win 10-9. But I much prefer the decision be in the hands of somebody who is paid to watch the entire game than it be decided by some arbitrary rules that don’t apply in all situations.

If You Don't Have Something Nice to Say. . .

Yesterday’s Dodger game was too disgusting to write about. How do you give up 10 runs to the Giants, a little league team? And how do you not score more than two runs against Bret Tomko?

Since I have nothing nice to say about the Dodgers, let’s talk about Derek Jeter instead. The catch he made in last night’s game against Detroit was simply amazing, not only reeling in a ball with his back 180 degrees away from the plate, but tackling rookie second-baseman Robinson Cano, who was in his way.

Word to Cano: When the team captain and future Hall of Famer is chasing after a ball, GET OUT OF THE WAY. Jeter is worth $20 million a year; you’re worth $20,000 a month. If the ball falls for a hit, it’s not the end of the world. But if you bang up the franchise, you’ll be on the next Irabu out of town.

Jeter continues to astound. Even those who are not Yankee fans can recall half a dozen plays from his highlight reel. The relay from left that nailed Timo Perez at the plate in the 2000 World Series. The catch against Oakland in the playoffs where he fell into the let-field stands to catch a ball. The dive into the stands against Boston to prevent the winning run from scoring. The grounder deep in the hole that he fields, then jumps and pivots in the air to make the throw to first, which he has done so often that people now expect other shortstops to emulate it. And of course the Giambi flip.

Add this latest catch to his long list of highlights. And start a list of NFL highlights for the Yankee shortstop. This catch was as good as anything Jerry Rice or Randy Moss has ever done.

Jeter’s stellar defense is made all the more impressive by the cast of designated hitters that surround him. The Yankees could almost start an all–DH lineup with Jason Giambi, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Ruben Sierra, and Tony Womack. Perhaps they can acquire Mike Sweeney from the Royals, who are eager to dump his salary, and Mike Piazza from the Mets. Those guys can stand around while Jeter makes all the plays.

A Too Familiar Ring

Is there anything more tiresome in baseball than a pitching change? The team at bat gets into a flow, the game gets into a flow, and all of a sudden, some sexagenarian starts a slow walk from the dugout to “have a chat” with his pitcher. If I wanted to see an old man “have a chat” with a struggling youngster, I’d watch the Pax Network. This is baseball, not a Quaker Oats commercial.

In the past decade, however, the “call to the bullpen” has become a too-familiar ring. It’s now as much a part of the game as the home run trot or the obligatory salute to God (more on that another day). We can thank Tony LaRussa for this development. LaRussa, a lawyer when he’s not screwing up the flow of a baseball game, discovered some time in the early 90s that you didn’t have to have a decent bullpen if you had enough guys who could get out certain kinds of hitters.

So he packed his pen with lefty and righty specialists and used all of them practically every night. It was a loophole that few managers had taken advantage of up until that point—imagine that! A lawyer taking advantage of a loophole—and it worked, forming a bridge between Oakland starters like Bob Welch and Dave Stewart and closer Dennis Eckersley. In fact, the notion of a “closer” dates to that era. Before Eckersley and LaRussa redefined the reliever’s role, a team’s top reliever often pitched two or maybe three innings in a game.

Because it worked, every team followed the model, and now it is the rare starting pitcher who lasts more than seven innings, and the rare reliever who throws to more than a few batters.

But the effect on the game has been awful. What was once a two and a half hour affair now drags on for three-plus hours, with five-minute lulls in the action every time a new Christian comes in to face the lions. Then there are the “trips to the mound.” Outside of family vacations where you fought with your sister in the back seat about who was over the middle line, I can’t think of a more horrific trip. Their saving grace is that they’re not followed by a new pitcher throwing his 8 warmup tosses before the game can begin again.

In last night’s Dodger game, Felipe Alou used six pitchers, including three in the eighth (one batter each!) and two in the ninth. Jim Tracy, not to be outdone, used five pitchers in eight innings. And they’ll continue to do it because it works. Neither pen gave up a run.

The situation won’t change without unilateral action from higher up. In case anybody’s listening, let me suggest two possible solutions.

1) Limit trips to the mound. Under the current rules, each pitcher is entitled to one visit from the coaching staff, but must be replaced on the second trip. That made sense in the era of starters who went nine innings, and a well-placed word to keep the fastball down might get him through an arduous fifth inning. But these days, a conference on the mound is about as productive as a Congressional hearing.

Instead of two mound trips per pitcher, how about two mound trips per inning (or per game?) This would return some strategy to the game, with managers hoarding their visits like football coaches saving their timeouts until the end of the game.

2) Raise the minimum. Currently, pitchers must face a minimum of one batter. Why not double it to two batters, or raise it to a full inning? That would rid the game of the lefty specialist who can’t get out righties and the left-handed pinch-hitter who can’t hit southpaws. The beautiful thing about baseball is that players must have multiple skills. The designated hitter has allowed fat guys who can hit the tar out of the ball but can’t field to remain in the game. That has created additional scoring, which pleases the offense-happy owners , but it has been an overall scar on the game.

Raising the minimum would create just as much offense as the loathsome DH, but especially so in the late innings. That means fans might stick around until the completion of the game, knowing that it isn’t truly over until it’s over.

NOTES:
What’s the Korean word for Strikeout? According to my Korean-English dictionary, it’s Hee Seop Choi. I’m surprised there isn’t a K somewhere in his name. The Seoul Man with the Olé swing had two more whiffs in last night’s game, giving him a total of 27 for the year. If you’re keeping score, his hit total is still above his strikeout total, 32-27, but it’s a horse race.

The game against the Giants fit the stencil—scratch out a lead, blow it, watch it all come undone in a single inning, bring in relievers to stanch the bleeding, but fail to mount a comeback. But unlike the losses of the past few weeks, last night’s episode came against a bad team. Without Barry Bonds and now Marquis Grissom, San Francisco’s offense is punchless. Yet Jeff Weaver somehow managed to give up home runs to the eight and ninth place hitters (yes, pitcher Jason Schmidt did more damage with the bat than with his arm).

Even Jeff Fassero held the Dodgers scoreless for two innings. Jeff Fassero! He’s older than my dad! Wasn’t Fassero the opposing pitcher during Don Larsen’s perfect game? Weren’t he and Walter Johnson teammates? Didn’t he once strike out the Babe?

On the Road

The Dodgers had an off day yesterday. The team is 23-20, in third place. They begin a road trip against division opponents San Francisco and Arizona.

Much has been written about how L.A. is such a tough place to drive. The traffic is truly horrendous. Some friends recently came out from New York, and though they had been warned, they were still amazed. “Every road is as bad as the Long Island Expressway,” they complained. Welcome to L.A.

But L.A. has New York beat on many other road-related scores. Although the occasional road rage incident captures the headlines, I’ve found that drivers here are actually very polite. They don’t cut you off in traffic, they obey the rules of the road, they make room for you to hang a left out of a driveway, even if it means crossing four lanes of traffic, and they come to a screeching halt to allow pedestrians to cross a busy street.

And you know that guy who hangs out in the left lane, driving 56 miles per hour, causing a two-mile backup behind him? He doesn’t exist in Los Angeles. Angelenos seem to know that the left lane is for speeding and if you’re not going as fast as the car behind you, GET OUT OF THE WAY. Perhaps that’s because there are so few opportunities to reach cruising speed on the congested freeways, but still.

There seems to be a collective acceptance of the hazards of driving, a notion that “we’re all in this together,” like that communal feeling you get when you and 75 other people are trapped together in the same subway car. Drivers here are accustomed to spending countless hours in their cars, so they’ve made them comfortable, with plush upholstery, tricked out sound systems, and speaker phones. The notion of spending an extra minute in traffic just doesn’t bother people that much, so they don’t feel the need to drive aggressively and shave seconds off their commute.

In general, people don’t rush around the way they do on the east coast because they lack that urgency. Not necessarily because they’re “laid back,” but because their daily lives don’t demand it. There’s no 5:15 train out of Penn Station to catch, so there’s no reason to crowd onto that already replete subway train.

The traffic is so terrible that hardly anybody expects you to arrive on time for anything. In the event that people have to arrive somewhere on time, like a job that requires it, or the airport, people generally leave plenty of time rather than try to cut it fine.

The only exception to all this serenity is on the half dozen times a year that it rains. On those days, people lose their minds and start crashing their cars all over the place. You’d think that people who spend so much time in their cars would be better drivers, but the minute the sun disappears, they forget how to drive. To be fair, the roads do become slick when water mixes with all the oil built up over months of sunny weather. But that only applies in the first hour of rain; the numerous accidents that occur the rest of the day are simply the fault of bad driving.

NOTES:
Paul Depodesta was quoted in the L.A. Times as saying he thinks the Dodgers are built to compete against the elite teams in baseball. He flatly rejected the notion that they are a team capable of winning the division but making an early exit in the playoffs.

Has he been watching the games? The Dodgers lost three out of four to the Cardinals, two out of three to the Braves, two out of three to the Marlins, and two out of three to the Angels. The last series they won was on May 6-8, against the Reds. Since the 12-2 start, the team is 11-18.

And they’ve been firing on all cylinders. Gagne is back. The hitters are all hitting better than expected. The bullpen has been lights out. What part of the team does DePodesta to get so much better all of a sudden? The starting rotation? The slide took place before Odalis Perez went on the disabled list. Scott Erickson came to the team with a 7 E.R.A. and he hasn’t done anything to change it. Jeff Weaver was consistently mediocre last year, and he’s been consistently mediocre this year.

DePodesta says maybe the team needs a fifth starter, but he doesn’t intend to make any changes of the magnitude he made last season. Too bad. What the Dodgers need is not a fifth starter; it’s a first starter. Brad Penny and Derek Lowe have been nice additions, but neither is a bona fide ace. Match them up with the number one starters for possible playoff teams and they come up short:

Mark Mulder of the Cardinals, Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins (last week’s win over him notwithstanding), John Smoltz or Tim Hudson of the Braves, Jake Peavy of the Padres (4-0, 2.29 ERA), Jason Schmidt (we’ll see tonight whether he’s returned to 2004 form). Those guys are all capable of giving their teams a 1-0 lead in a playoff series. Can you say the same about Lowe or Penny? Not yet.

An Unfair Advantage

Imagine if a wide receiver were permitted to wear a big pillowy jacket around his torso so he wouldn’t be afraid to get hit going across the middle. Imagine if basketball players were allowed to stop play any time they were too tired to run allthe way down the court on each play..

There would be an outrage. You can’t change the game just because certain players aren’t ready to accept the risks inherent in the game.

But baseball makes this kind of exception for hitters by allowing them to wear body armor to the plate. Hitters like Barry Bonds and Mo Vaughn and countless others now strap huge plastic casts onto the arm facing the pitcher, ensuring that even if they get popped in that arm, it won’t hurt.

I’m all for protecting the players—Kevin Seitzer’s faceguard, ankle and shin guards for batters who consistently foul balls off their feet, and the like—but the body armor has to go. It removes the hitter’s healthy fear of a ball hurtled at them at 100 miles per hour, and allows him to dig in at the plate. I’m surprised that hitters who use these elbow guards haven’t dipped their fortified arms into oncoming pitches as a cheap way of getting on base.

It’s probably folly to think baseball will outlaw these prosthetics any time soon. Baseball is in love with offense, and the guards give hitters just one more advantage. The also keep the big-money sluggers in the lineup longer, allowing them to return to action soon after injuring an arm.

NOTES
There’s no indication that Jim Tracy (or anybody else, for that matter) reads these pages, but he’s certainly noticing the same run production statistics I see. He moved J.D. Drew out of the three hole, as I suggested in my post last week, and it paid dividends immediately in the Dodgers’ win over Los Anaheim. I still don’t like a lineup that lines up three lefty hitters at the top of the order in the switch-hitting Izturis, Drew, and Choi—I’d rather see Kent in the middle of all those lefties—but Tracy has shown a willingness to fiddle in hopes of getting more runs out of a lineup that’s hitting well, just not all at the same time.

The Dodgers showed their formula for winning yesterday—good starting pitching, timely hitting, and a lights-out bullpen. For the first time, we got to see what the combo of Yhency Brazoban and Eric Gagne looks like, and it’s impressive. The closer and the heir apparent shut down the Angels with barely a whimper. It’s not time to get too excited, since the Angels simply aren’t the same team with Vlad out of the lineup. But the Dodgers can take heart in the notion that their opponents will only have seven innings in which to score in a typical game.