Perfect Pitch Communications: The Nub

��<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 12"> </head> <body> <big>February 2010 Archive<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>(Posted: 2/27/10)<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Billy Beane’s and Team Obama’s ‘Revenue Stream’ Problem<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Before he persuaded oft-injured Ben Sheets to take $10 million to sign with the A’s, GM Billy Beane wondered “if anyone wants to play here (in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:city>).”  His grubby ballpark is no bargain, but it’s the team’s budget – about a third of what the Yankees can afford in payroll – that keeps free agents away. Skipper Obama and his Democratic team are facing a similar problem on the political field: the Dems are losing key players like Evan Bayh and seeing their fan base erode, in part, because government doesn’t have the financial (or promotional) clout it once had.  And that has hurt performance at all playing levels. For Billy Beane and core Democrats, and for the good of baseball and government, the team approach has long been seen as the way the game should be played.  On the other side of the field, team owners and most Republicans have successfully argued that we individuals should be in the catbird seat, entitled to keep what we’ve earned.  Thus baseball, the quintessential family sport, cannot get agreement to make all teams competitive for the benefit of fans, young and old.  And government has to resort to small ball to improve the well-being of its national family. Earlier this week, NY Times slugger Paul Krugman swung out against the squeeze-play strategy employed on the political diamond: “Rather than propos(e) unpopular spending cuts, Republicans…push through popular tax cuts with the deliberate intention of worsening the government’s fiscal position.  Spending cuts (are) then sold as a necessity…the only way to eliminate a…budget deficit.”   How far toward the right-field corner has the game turned?  Well, according to the IRS, the country’s top 400 earners in 2007 - averaging about $345 million – paid 16.6 percent in income taxes.  That compares with a tax rate of 91 percent  paid by top earners in the 1950’s.   It was a rare period of broad affluence, with few complaints in the political field about the Eisenhower-era economy.  Baseball fans then had more reason to be unhappy about inequality than they are today: the Yankees played in eight of the decade’s 10 World Series, winning six of them! </big> <big>Team Obama would like to see the top tax rate curve sharply upward.  But it’s a tough pitch to make: any talk of investment in, or a “revenue stream” to provide public services and other improvements – another name for taxes – is sent to the showers, by many Dems as well as Repubs.. </big> <big>                               -     -     -</big> <big>Seven players in the <st1:placename w:st="on">Tampa</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype> farm system were among Baseball <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s 100 top prospects list.  The Cubs had the second most numerous prospects on the list, with five. The Yankees only placed two, but catcher Jesus Montero was number four overall.  The Mets had four, but all from the lower half of the list.  Three Red Sox prospects made the “top” category, as did three from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:city> affiliates.  Touted outfielder Jason Heyward, from the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city> system, was tabbed as the number one overall comer.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>SI’s Joe Posnanski loves spring training because of the hype associated with it.  The KC Royals have provided him with this early puff of what he considers unreality:</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“They're trying to make (Kyle) Farnsworth into a starter…It's the perfect spring training story.  Farnsworth comes into camp with a brand new change-up -- and the Royals are AMAZED by how advanced that change-up looks. ‘I couldn't believe it,’ pitching coach Bob McClure says.  Farnsworth comes into camp enthused -- he LOVES the opportunity to start again for the first time in 10 years. And the Royals talk on and on about how this makes perfect sense.  Farnsworth still has the great arm! He might be reborn as a starter!<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Of course, it has about a 1.3% chance of working -- that's on the high end. Kyle Farnsworth will be a 34-year-old pitcher with a career (4.47) ERA+ and a strong tendency to not get people out when he's throwing 98 mph -- hard to see how he's going to get people out throwing 92.<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“But it's February.  It's spring training.  It's that time to hope for the impossible.  And, so, I love this story.  Can Kyle Farnsworth become a successful starter?  Hey, crazier things have happened! Though, I must admit, none immediately comes to mind.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                  - o -</big> (The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to dickstar@aol.com are welcome, as are subscription requests. Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)        <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>  <style>  </style>(Posted 2/23/10) <o:p></o:p> Bracing for Bad Calls by Judicial as Well as Baseball Umpires<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> It’s the 25th-anniversary season of the worst umpiring call in baseball history.  The “safe” call by Don Denkinger in the bottom of the ninth of the sixth game of the 1985 Cardinals-Royals World Series helped change the final outcome:  Instead of St.Louis winning in six games – the Cards were ahead 1-0 when the blown call occurred – the Royals went on to win in seven. <o:p></o:p> No one ever accused Denkinger of being involved in a fix, but judicial umpires - elected judges in districts throughout the country - will surely not be so lucky.  A recent Supreme Court ruling by a 5-4 score opens the judicial field to possible corruption: it gives corporate teams the right to support candidates for the bench, putting those teams in position to get the robed umpires on their side.  As for the judges, if they win thanks to the clout of business cash, they’ll be on the spot: should they decide cases favorably for their well-heeled benefactors, how could the public not suspect a fix?  More crucially, the infamous 5-4 decision compromises the cause of justice.  That’s a call no one can dispute. <o:p></o:p> As scrutinized on Bill Moyers Journal last weekend, the case in question, known as Citizens United, constituted a drastic departure from the High Court’s normal practice of following precedent.  The player widely believed to have started the activist ball rolling was the Chief Justice himself John Roberts.  It was the same Roberts who at his confirmation hearing four-and-a-half years ago renounced judicial activism in baseball terms: "I'm just like a baseball umpire,” he said. “I don't make the rules, I just call balls and strikes.  “Nobody ever went to the game to see the umpire,” Roberts added. “Judges have to have the humility to recognize that they operate within a system of precedent shaped by other judges equally striving to live up to the judicial oath.” An expert scorekeeper of High Court games, author and New Yorker staffer Jeffrey Toobin predicts that pitch by Roberts “will live in infamy…I think (he believes) that…entire areas of the law…need to be changed…fixed and…improved.”  The chief justice “is acting more like (a)…baseball (czar) than an umpire,” Toobin noted on the Moyers Journal.  <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Who is going to stop Roberts and his core teammates from driving such decisive hits to extreme right field?  Congress hopes for the moment that proposed legislation requiring full disclosure of corporate and labor contributors will lessen the impact of the Citizens United ruling.  But the effect of such a law on low-visibility judicial contests will surely be minimal.  Or, in the disquieting words of scorekeeper Toobin: “Judicial elections are really a national scandal that few people… know about.”   Perhaps, thanks to Moyers, a few more know now, and the word will get around.<o:p></o:p> The mini-scandal of bad baseball calls - like the many made during the 2009 playoffs (and exposed by TV replays) - is at last being addressed by the commissioner’s office.<o:p></o:p>  In time, baseball will use the available technology to correct most, if not all, human-error calls.  The key question: for how many more seasons will the umpires successfully resist official challenges to their blunders? <o:p></o:p>                                       -     -     -<o:p></o:p> Nub-bites:<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> It says here the signing of Johnny Damon edges the Tigers on to the top layer of the AL Central mix.  We know JD’s alternate name is“W-i-n-n-e-r.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>Damon is one of several active ex-NY players we wish were still on local rosters: Hideki Matsui is another, Billy Wagner a third.  We suspect the investments made in that trio by the Tigers, Angels and Braves will pay off handsomely. <o:p></o:p> The Red Sox seem to be overly hopeful of what Mike Cameron can add to the team.  At 37, Cameron can’t be much of an improvement – if any – over Jacoby Ellsbury in center field.  And Mike hasn’t repaired the mechanics that have made him a strikeout machine:  he has k’d in well over 30 percent of his career AB’s.  Last year with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Milwaukee</st1:place></st1:city>, Cameron whiffed more than a third of the time. <o:p></o:p> The news from Mets owner Fred Wilpon’s press conference in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> came in two catergories: bad and worse.  The bad: he didn’t say a word about the club’s most glaring issue – its unproductive farm system.  Worse:  The boss repeated his plan to keep the team in the family and not sell.  That means Mets fans must adjust to the idea of Jeff Wilpon running things for the foreseeable future.  Of course, if the Wilpons won’t move on, the fans can.  And that could well begin to happen this season.                                        - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 2/20/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Will NY Skipper <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paterson</st1:place></st1:city> Be Forced to Join Delgado on Retired List?<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>At the end of a news-sparse 12-day road trip, we asked security people at the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Juan</st1:place></st1:city>, PR airport about Carlos Delgado.  Had the ex-Met found a team that wanted him?  No, we were told; the consensus was “He’s going to retire.”  On arriving home, we found the NY Times doing its best to nudge another veteran, local political player David Paterson, into retirement.  <o:p></o:p> Three Times pitchers yesterday delivered a three-column front-pager whose 59 paragraphs covered an entire inside page (along with two photos, one of which low-bridged the state skipper) about how “remote” the NY governor has become.  Two days earlier, you may remember, there was a more egregious play: the paper filled four of six columns at the top of its first page with a vaguely sinister-looking photo of Paterson and a “confidant.” The story below the pic ran 54 columns with a jump to an inside page and involved six reporters; it examined in minute detail the checkered background of the confidential aide, David Johnson. There was more than enough to suggest questionable judgment on <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paterson</st1:place></st1:city>’s part and to further send reeling the skipper’s already slim hopes of digging in as governor.   <o:p></o:p> As attentive political fans know, the stories mattered little; the photos – four all told, two of which showed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paterson</st1:place></st1:city> in an unfavorable light - drove home the anti-incumbent message.  The Old Gray Lzdy has come a long way from the days she shunned tabloid journalism.  Whatever their validity, the bean ball aimded at Paterson by the Times seemed to connect to a more and more undisciplined media game.  A prominent ex-state legislator warned at a meeting in Manhattan Thursday night of a bad outcome. "We are becoming," he said, "a propaganda society." <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"></st1:place></st1:city><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"></st1:place></st1:city> <o:p></o:p> Delgado has plenty of company on the free-agent remainder list.  Former Met teammate and recent Phillies starter Pedro Martinez is among still-available pitchers, as are John Smoltz and Jarrod Washburn; all can presumably be had at bargain rates.  Brett Tomko and Chan Ho Park are two other marginally successful ’09 pitchers looking for work. Position players of note still unsigned include outfielders Jermaine Dye, Garret Anderson, and Rocco Baldelli; first baseman Hank Blalock; infielders Joe Crede, Rich Aureilia and Nomar Garciaparra, and catcher Rod Barajas. All those, and the most prominent - and potentially expensive - available prize of the bunch: Johnny Damon. <o:p> </o:p>                                         -     -     -              SI’s Joe Posnanski says what we all know, that the Phillies are the best team in the NL.  As for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state></st1:place>, here is a take that tickles – his on the Yankees: “Loaded.  And loaded.  And on top of that: Loaded.  Take last year's team -- maybe the best team of the decade -- and add Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez.  Did I say loaded?” How is baseball doing in <st1:place w:st="on">Puerto Rico</st1:place>?  This distanced first-hand report contains a clue: more than a dozen lighted, diamond-studded ballparks sparkled the other night in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">San Juan</st1:city></st1:place> (as seen from above).                           - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 2/2/10) <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Laid-Back Mets and Team Obama Looking for Leadership<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> After a season of Mets’ misreadings – the amount needed for a number 2 starter, first-string catcher, etc. – the team (but not the rest of us) could find solace in a remarkable strategic bobble by the people’s skipper.  President Obama confessed to Time magazine that he had “overestimated” his ability to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to play ball together.  The admission suggests lack of focus on a crucial game.  It preceded the part of the skipper’s State of the <st1:place w:st="on">Union</st1:place> pep talk in which he distinguished between “good short-term politics” and “leadership.” <o:p></o:p> The Mets likely blew their chances for minimal competitiveness when, with nobody taking charge, they let Randy Wolf, Joel Piniero and Bengie Molina get away.  We know they did complete a good (for the moment), multi-year corporate play when they signed <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place>.  If someone in the front office – Omar Minaya, Jeff Wilpon, someone – had focused on the farm system, the Mets might not be so poorly positioned for the 2010 season. <o:p></o:p> When the skipper contrasted Team GOP’s short-term political game to leadership, he left the ball over the plate.  On the foreign affairs field, he not only failed to be leaderly when Team Netanyahu took liberties in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, he allowed a right-wing outfit to overthrow a democratically elected president in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region>.  Barack was nowhere in sight as those plays unfolded.  Back on his home turf, the skipper’s unwillingness to replace oft-booed economic coaches Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Ben Bernanke suggests that, Mets-like, Team Obama has no bench. “We Believe in Comebacks,” the poignant new Mets slogan, thus applies to Team Obama.  We suggest this hopeful variation: “A Comeback You Can Believe In”.                       -     -     - How about misreadings between the Yankees and Johnny Damon?  The Globe’s Bob Ryan almost wishes they had gotten together on a contract. Almost: “The…divorce is a tremendously welcome development in the rivalry.  (It) is, without question, the most foolish split in recent baseball history.  The farther Johnny Damon is from the Yankees, the better things will be for the Red Sox and their fans.  The Yankees need Johnny Damon and Johnny Damon needs the Yankees.  They may think they'll be just fine with Nick (Ming Vase) Johnson replacing Damon in the No. 2 spot in the batting order, but that's a laughable delusion. Yes, Johnson is an OBP guy.  But he ain't Johnny Damon, who had developed a swing for the new Yankee Stadium that guaranteed him 20-25 homers as long as he remained a Yankee or turned 45, whichever came first. “But what exactly is the matter with Damon? Does he think he will ever again be able to bat in a comparable batting order in which he hits behind Derek Jeter and in front of Mark Teixeira and A-Rod?... Hey, that's <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>'s problem. The Yankees cannot be as good a team with Nick Johnson and Brett Gardner as they would have been with Johnny Damon and Johnny Damon.”<o:p></o:p>                          - o -<o:p></o:p> (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>The Nub will be away on a road trip, returning for pitchers and catchers.       <big> </big> <big> </big> </body> </html>

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