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> March 2010 Archive</big> (Posted: 3/27/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>A Winning Month for Baseball and Team Obama<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>March, the month of promise, will be missed by baseball fans: Stephen Strasburg, confirming his super-phenom status; Jason Heyward emerging as Atlanta’s new Chipper Jones, Curtis Granderson the Yankees’ new energizer, and new veteran Jose Reyes returning to provide the Mets with early hope.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>For Team Obama and its roster of Democrats , March marked the end of a long losing streak, and, perhaps, more confident play as the season unfolds.  The game-changer, of course, was health reform.  Globe columnist James Carroll sees its enactment as both a lesson and season-enhancer:  “To remember that there are cycles in every realm — economic cycles, political cycles, even news cycles — is to refuse to allow present conditions of discouragement the permanence they presume to claim.  Spring overrides winter, and that rule of time has meaning across experience…News from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state> shows that the glass of American will to reform the nation is at least half full.  Naysayers are the party of winter.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>At least one respected observer (SI’s Joe Posnanski) tabbed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city> as a “hot” pre-season choice to stir up things in its (NL Central) division.  But that was before Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban pitching phenom, came down with a bad back.  For the moment, the Reds are lukewarm, but far from cold.  MLB Network’s Barry Larkin predicted the other night that second baseman Brandon Phillips and first baseman Joey Votto would both be “30-30 studs” on a team that can expect Scott Rolen and Jay Bruce to provide additional punch.  Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang are the team’s solid top-of-rotation starters. <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Before Wednesday, the NY Times had been lukewarm in its opposition to the market-oriented, anti-social attitude that had swept the country and Congress over the past 40-plus years.  That changed with the lead story on the paper’s front page by David Leonhardt. “The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday,” he said in his lead paragraph, “is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising(in the 1970’s).  Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality…Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>In mid-windup, Leonhardt cautiously looked ahead: “Much about health reform remains unknown.  Maybe it will deliver Congress to the Republicans this fall, or maybe it will help the Democrats keep power…But the ways in which the bill attacks the inequality of the Reagan era — whether you love them or hate them — will probably be around for a long time.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                   -     -     -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>Buried under the phenom stories are sagas like that of 37-year-old Garret Anderson, trying to catch on with the Dodgers.  He made $12.6 million two years ago with the Angels, $2.5 mil last year with the Braves.  He’ll make $550,000 if he makes the LAD team.  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Anderson</st1:place></st1:city> told Orange Country Register columnist Mark Whicker he was “not quite ready to walk away.”  Still waiting, so far in vain, for a walk-on this season: Jermaine Dye, Jarrod Washburn, Pedro Martinez, among other former phenoms.<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Five-tool player Garrison Keillor - humorist, novelist, radio host, singer, political commentator – is among Twins fans looking forward to the opening of the team’s new outdoor ballpark Target Field.  The Twins will host the Cardinals there next Friday in a pre-season game scheduled to begin at 5:10.  It may be a little warmer for official opening day, April 12, when <st1:state w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:state> will play <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city>.  Keillor hopes to be there:<o:p></o:p></big> <big><big>“We Minnesotans have been watching baseball in a basement for 28 years, under a fabric dome on a plastic field designed for football, and come April, we'll be sitting in sunlight, or under the stars, with the handsome towers of downtown Minneapolis just beyond center field, and we'll mill on the great concourse just behind the loge seats and eyeball the game while ordering a steak sandwich or an old-fashioned Schweigert hot dog. Hallelujah. Wowser.</big><o:p></o:p></big> <big>“That this beauty was accomplished through public financing -- $392 million of the $544 million total paid through a sales tax approved by the Legislature -- is some sort of triumph, and to an old Democrat like me, who believes that government can indeed do some good things right and is not a blight upon the land, this ballpark is an enormous pleasure,..And so I(‘m) head(ing) to my favorite medical clinic to make sure I…live until Opening Day.”</big><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.) (Posted: 3/23/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Girardi and Cuomo: the ‘Must-Win’ Boys<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>As intense as the the pressure to win it all was on Joe Girardi last year, it’s nothing like what he’ll be under this season.  Only in NY’s political field is there a heavier - and more pressurized - favorite: AG Andrew Cuomo is considered such a hard-hitting shoo-in for governor, the Republicans competing to run against him are seen as comparative minor leaguers; Rick Lazio and Steve Levy have yet to prove they belong in the same ballpark with Andrew.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>In addition to an overwhelming media consensus, <st1:city w:st="on">Las Vegas</st1:city> oddsmakers rate the Yanks 17-10 to win the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">AL</st1:place></st1:state> pennant and 7-2 favorites to repeat as World Series champions.  No other team is close.  Girardi dismisses the pressure as a constant in his job   He is more fortunate than Cuomo in that there are respected dissenters to his team’s top ranking.  Andrew has the pressure of having to overcome the foregone-conclusion approach to his candidacy; example: an article by Azi Paybarah in last week’s NY Observer entitled “Can Andrew Cuomo Stay on Top?” The question had to do, not with Cuomo’s candidacy, but with his inevitable role as governor: </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Andrew Cuomo has done very well politically, as attorney general, by holding himself apart from the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Albany</st1:place></st1:city> muck. Soon, barring a serious career reversal, he’ll be in it.  What happens then? Will the capital’s notorious dysfunction and defiantly reform-proof Legislature have the same toxic effect on his approval ratings as it had on Eliot Spitzer’s and David Paterson’s?<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Can a Governor Cuomo be…”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Nearly everyone agrees Cuomo cannot be beaten by either Lazio of Levy.  A tested electoral player, Andrew won’t give either an opening through rookie mistakes.  But there’s a long-shot chance he can be upset by the Scott Brown syndrome.  It was Levy who invoked Brown’s surprise victory in the special <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype></st1:place> election to succeed Senator Ted Kennedy.  A broad Brown-like protest vote aimed at punishing the Democrats for their error-prone performance in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Albany</st1:place></st1:city> over the last few years could upend Cuomo.  The NY Dems’ 3-2 voter-registration lead over Team GOP makes it more of an uphill challenge than ever, but Scott was at a similar disadvantage in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:state>.  In the end, Lazio or Levy’s biggest obstacle is likely to be an inability to match Cuomo’s money-raising pitch. <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Nate Silver, stat man for Baseball Prospectus, sees simultaneous physical decline as the Yankees’ Achilles heel this year.  He notes that the Yanks’ homegrown “core four” of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera have an age average of 38.  Silver says his research indicates all four should experience a production falloff this year.  As cited by the Village Voice’s Allen Barra, here are the Silver stats:<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Jeter from a 2009 batting average of .334 to .286 this year, a drop in home runs from 18 to 11, and in stolen bases from 30 to 10. Posada from a .285 BA to .263, home runs from 22 to 12. Pettitte from 14-8 and an ERA of 4.06 to 10-11 and 4.70. Scariest of all, Rivera from 44 saves to 22, and and ERA the moves from 1.76 to 3.53.<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Of course, even should that worst-case scenario develop, the talent-rich Yanks have  in C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, etc. the passel of younger players whose contributions can keep Girardi’s stress level under control.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>On MLB-TV the other night, SI’s Tom Verducci noted an overlooked Yankee advantage over most other teams:  the financial ability, not only to sign top free agents, but to hold on to core players like Jeter, Rivera, et al.  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:city>, for example, had to trade away three core pitching stars, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, because it couldn’t afford to meet their ascendent salary levels.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>MLB panelists seldom say a discouraging word about anyone in baseball, incessant hype being the cable network’s built-in handicap.  So, it was refreshing when former Cleveland GM John Hart looked over possible replacements to the Twins’ injured closer Joe Nathan.  After reviewing the list of relievers already on the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:place></st1:state> roster – Jon Rauch, Mark Guerrier, Jose Mijares, Jesse Crain, etc. – Hart said “Ron Gardenhire should tell (GM) Bill Smith to start calling around and get him someone from another team.”  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; line-height: 13.5pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><big>Except for Minnesotans, no one’s happier than non-NY fans that Joe Mauer has signed an eight-year-$184 million deal with the Twins.  Here is a typical comment, this by Dave Sheinin in the Washington Post: “We all tend to get cynical about the ugly business side of baseball. I'm as guilty as anyone of putting economics first.  But sometimes it's nice to remember how good we all have it. There's baseball in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>. And Joe Mauer won't be in pinstripes any time soon.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                        - o -</big> (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> (More of The Nub, a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey, can be found at perfectpitcher.org)       <o:p> </o:p>   <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <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.) (<big>Posted: 3/20/10)<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big><big> </big> <div style="text-align: left;"><big> </big> <div style="text-align: justify;">Critical At-Bats for Baseball and Team Obama<big><big> </big></big></div> <big><big><o:p></o:p></big></big></div> <big> </big> <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cdickstar%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype> <style>  </style> <big> If the hit-and-run play involving “crisis” and “opportunity” can be executed successfully, baseball and Team Obama each have a chance to score in separate challenges facing them.  Baseball reopened the bad-calls crisis last week when it announced the firing of three supervisors of the umpires who made the calls during the 2009 playoffs.  The O-team had a crisis thrown at it by <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> – the announcement of a plan to expand settlements in East Jerusalem against <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> wishes.  The housing plan brushed back our hopes of reopening peace talks between Team Netanyahu and the Palestinians.  </big> <big>The three umpiring supervisors were clearly let go in response to the growing media insistence on minimizing through technology the chance of human error skewing the outcome of a game.   Although the three super-umps penalized did not make the most glaring calls, they helped select the umpires who did; that would be Phil Cuzzi and Tim McClelland, who butchered plays in the ALCS.  The  jobs of both were spared, presumably because of union protection.</big> <big> Protection is a key issue pushing Skipper Obama to confront Benjamin Netanyahu on the settlements; the protection the president seeks is a political safeguard for American forces in the region.  Foreign Policy magazine reported recently that both Joint Chiefs Chair Admiral Mike Mullen and Army central commander General David Petraeus gave the same message to the skipper: “<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s intransigence could cost American lives.”  They were referring to the animosity of the Muslim world toward us and our troops because of our unwavering support for their main adversary.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The chief obstacle to expanding baseball’s use of instant replay – it’s now only employed on controversial home-run calls – is Commissioner Bud Selig.  If he doesn’t succumb soon to the mounting pressure, his retirement in two years will almost certainly signal the sensible change – replays of all controversial plays – most fans want to see. The change in Skipper Obama’s stance toward Team Netanyahu is occurring haltingly, no surprise given the clout of pro-Israel lobbies in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>.  But Mark Perry, author of the Foreign Policy article citing Mullen and Petraeus, says the highly respected admiral and general have brought a new level of influence to the game: </big> <big>"There are important and powerful lobbies in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby.  But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> military."                                                    -     -     -</big> <big>Rotation Reliables:  A couple of years ago, Curt Schilling called attention to a baseball axiom validated by the record book: Most teams reaching the post-season do so because their starting rotations stay healthy and pitch in more games than rival staffs do.</big> <big> SI’s Jon Heyman checked out the starting fives of the 30 teams this year and concluded that one had the deepest, most reliable rotation.  No, it wasn’t the Yankees or the Red Sox, but the LA Angels.  Mike Scioscia boasts a still impressive one-through-five, despite the absence of John Lackey:  Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Scott Kazmir and Joel Piniero.       </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The Yankees have a reliable foursome in C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Javier Vazquez, but the fifth slot likely to go to Joba Chamberlain is iffy.  The White Sox boast an almost equally a solid starting quartet of Mark Buehrle, Jack Peavy, John Danks and Gavin Floyd.  Heyman rates only three Red Sox starters as reliable -  Josh Beckett, Lackey and Jon Lester.  The Mariners win the top- twosome prize with Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee; the Cardinals’ duo of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are deemed a close second; the Diamondbacks’  Brandon Webb and Dan Haren (once Webb returns from the DL sometime next month) and the Phillies’ Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels runner-ups.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>There are lots of outstanding individual starters – Zack Greinke , Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana (who had a second spotty outing yesterday), Josh Johnson, Tommy Hanson, etc.  But unless they are reliably reinforced, their teams - according to the Schilling formula - will not get far.                          </big> <big>                                           - o - </big> <big></big> <big>(The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments </big> <big>to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  </big> <big>Previous Nubs can be fou</big>nd by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 3/16/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>High-Flying Banks and Yanks Causing Anti-NY Resentment<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>If you’re a Yankee fan, you’ve got to like the consensus 2010 baseball predictions: they show the Yankees winning the AL East, and make the defending World Series champions a good bet to repeat.  If you’re a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">New York City</st1:city></st1:place> fan, you might be pleased to hear that the Apple has moved into first place in the world banking/financial center league.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>On the other hand…anti-NYC people now have two reasons to resent the city for the clout money helps give it:  The Yanks can – and do – outspend all other teams in collecting free-agent talent (often conveniently overlooked: they’re good, as well, in developing homegrown players).   NY-based banking outfits have spurred the city to overtake – and tie – the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place> team as financial leader by swinging for the seats.  Bank Team NY can still play a wide-open game while their <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> opponents must now take a more cautious, consumer-friendly approach.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The latest 2010 baseball projection comes from a mathematical model devised by a college professor that has had a high rate of accuracy over the past decade.  It predicts this season’s competitive races in five mlb divisions: the Phillies, Cardinals and Dodgers projected to win in the NL, with the Braves taking the wild card, and an unpredictable scramble foreseen in the AL West.  But in the AL East, the model says the Yanks should “blow away” the competition. (Sorry about that, Red Sox and Rays, although one of you, the model says, should win the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state></st1:place> wild card.)</big> <big> The success of the NY banking team attests to how little the financial playing field in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> has changed since the sub-prime housing market collapse.  Stephen Beard, reporting from <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> on a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region></st1:place> survey for public radio’s Marketplace program, says that, unlike their American counterparts, British banks have taken a hit that has them thinking small ball: “It's fears about tax and regulation. The survey was carried out shortly after the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.K.</st1:country-region></st1:place> government raised the top rate of income tax to 50 percent and slapped a 50 percent tax on bankers' bonuses.  And there's been a lot of… banker bashing by the government here.  More…than in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place>” <o:p></o:p></big> <big> The baseball math model produced its findings before injury put <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:place></st1:state>’s star reliever Joe Nathan down, perhaps for the season   So its prediction that the Twins will prevail again in the AL Central is shaky.  Similarly precarious is NYC’s standing atop the financial league.  Why?  The public radio reporter explains it this way: “<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> could slip in the next survey (because of) President Obama's proposed curbs on certain banking activities.  A spokesman for the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>…said that we seem to be taking turns ’shooting ourselves in the foot’."<o:p></o:p></big> <big>An indication why, for most of us, banking is in another ballpark.<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                              -     -     -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>How about the NY team in a different league – and organizational universe – from the Yankees?  A clue to the 2010 outlook for the Mets can be found in these two quotations:  <o:p></o:p></big> <big> Jerry Manuel, June 2009:  “If we can stay around .500 until the All-Star break when our regulars come back, we’ll be all right.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Omar Minaya, March 2010: "We need to play good baseball and fight through the first couple of months, and by July, we could be a pretty interesting team."<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Then there is this bit of truth-telling from Keith Hernandez, during Cardinals-Mets game on SNY yesterday:  “(Johan) Santana can’t pitch every day.  The Met still aren’t sure  how good their numbers two, three, four and five guys are going to be.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Spring training has been comfortably uneventful so far for most teams, but not all.  Here is how we see the season’s three stories with most impact-potential:<o:p></o:p></big> <big> 1 – The Twins’ diminished playoff chances owing to Nathan’s injury; 2 – The likelihood of a slow D-backs’ start with ace Brandon Webb on the DL;  3 – Ditto the Mets, who’ll have Jose Reyes joining Carlos Beltran on the sidelines in the early going.  <o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                 - o -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>(The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments </big> <big>to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  </big> <big>Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) </big>  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 3/13/10)<o:p></o:p>   <big>The Chancy Expectations Game in Baseball and Politics<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>It’s early, too early to be nervous, but…Johan Santana looked like a humpty in his first pro game since surgery.  And <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place> has been horrid, taking his awkward hacks in the early going.  In Team Obama time, it’s not quite so early: the team has had more than a year to work out the kinks.  Yet most of the touted star players - beginning with the skipper - have yet to live up to their billing.  Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are two of the obviously tarnished stars on the O-Team, but Attorney General Eric Holder has lost some early glitter as well.</big> <big> Joe Biden, reputedly a wild swinger, has tightened his stance.  His warning in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> the other day that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s renewed settlement activity was “undermin(ing) the trust” it had earned in the U.S, enhanced the VP’s status as a player.  Steve Clemons, who pitches for the Washington Note, suggests that Skipper Obama sent Biden to see if he could succeed where other teammates (including occasional call-up George Mitchell) have failed to get the ball rolling in the Mideast: “Of all Obama's senior level cabinet members and advisers, Biden has exceeded expectations and performed better than virtually any other member of the team in generating ideas and pushing the policy needle…<o:p></o:p></big> <big> “Rahm Emanuel… and Obama tried hard to kick-start an arrangement that would get some sizzle by forcing the Israelis to stop all new settlement construction in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Occupied</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Territories</st1:placetype></st1:place>. That did not work out so well.   Hillary Clinton… General Jim Jones, the national security adviser, Robert Gates… and (Mitchell) have been giving the Israel-Palestine portfolio a lot of time and have made many a trip to the region.  Nothing much has happened as of yet…”<o:p></o:p></big> <big> The cover story out of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was that right-side players on Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition team made the new-settlements announcement without Skipper Ben’s knowledge.  The International Herald Tribune’s William Pfaff doesn’t buy it: “The Obama administration perversely continues to encourage Israeli belligerence through its failure to react to (such) calculated insolence…This deliberate humiliation of the…administration is undoubtedly intended to reinforce the Israeli prime minister’s domestic political position…”</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Despite <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s latest defiance on settlements (which has benched peace talks with the Palestinians, yet again), Team Obama has given a pass to the possibility of withholding aid to the Netanyahu government.  </big> <big>                                      -     -     -</big> <big>No use belaboring the obvious – that the Mets’ overall health again looks shaky.  Santana’s elbow may be fine, but will his arm have its pre-surgical zip? Jose Reyes’ thyroid problem could compromise his level of play after keeping him sidelined for several weeks; Kelvim Escobar will almost certainly start the season on the DL with Carlos Beltran, etc.  But the team in first place in the health-problems league is <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:place></st1:state>: the possibility that super-closer Joe Nathan will be shut down for much, if not all, of the season, is a mortal blow to the AL Central’s defending champions.  You have to like Ron Gardenhire’s response: “Obviously we(‘ll have to find someone)…No one’s going to cry for us.”</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>There is serious talk in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:place></st1:state> now of the Twins trading possibly unaffordable Joe Mauer for, among other things, a top-flight reliever to replace Nathan.  Would a Mauer-for-Mariano deal tempt the Yanks (assuming Rivera would agree to go to <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:place></st1:state>)?  Given their respective ages (almost 27 compared to 40), it would have to.  But a lot can still happen - Nathan may be able to pitch, after all; Mauer may decide to re-up with the Twins for less than he can make elsewhere - before the Twins offer their all-star catcher to anybody. </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Tony La Russa may have been thinking of the Nathan situation when he gave this baseball-simplified lesson to the Globe’s Bob Ryan:  “I really had little idea about pitching, but from (Dave Duncan) I learned that the first thing you need to do as a ball club was stop the other team.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                   - o -</big> (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: 3/9/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Dem Fans and Many in Baseball Becoming Reconciled to Defeat<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Mets’ High Hopes Always Fade Fast,” said a NY Post headline the other day.  “What high hopes?” would be a legitimate rejoinder.  We know that Mets fans, like those of the Astros, Brewers, Jays, Nats, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Reds, Royals, etc., should have reconciled themselves before now (hype-hopes, notwithstanding) to a long season of non-contention.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Dem fans are wondering if they, too, should concede that Skipper Obama and his team are out of the running on health care reform.  It is by no means clear that the Obama-ites will stage a health-reform rally to score in the part of the Congressional game called reconciliation.   </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Reconciliation, a set play dating from 1974, allows bills to be revised and adjusted if the effort is designed to cut costs.  Team GOP says the Dems would be off-base by resorting to reconciliation; it’s “little-used,” and “controversial,” they say, and would be a discredit to the team using it.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>But a one-two punch of Paul Blumenthal, swinging for the Sunlight Foundation, and NY Times-produced stats showed that the r-game has been used in the Senate 15 times since 1980.  Nearly two-thirds of those times, the plays were triggered by Team GOP.  Why the Democrats don’t make more of this record is a mystery (unless it has something to do with campaign contributions).  UK Guardian lefty Michael Tomasky fires away in frustration, including some name-calling in his pitch: “I can write (the history of reconciliation), which is all well and good.  But modest suggestion: How about, y'know, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and other Democratic senators saying it?” <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>As many of his NY constituents have noticed, Schumer seems to disappear from the field when crunch issues, like those challenging corporate interests, are in play.  On the other hand, if an initiative doesn’t have a chance, like health reform’s public option, “Where’s Charlie?” is loudly front and center.</big> <big>                          </big> <big>                           -     -     -</big> <big>How would you like to be Omar Minaya, hanging by a thread with the Mets, after reading this assessment of the deal he orchestrated with the Mariners and Indians before last season?  The Globe’s Nick Cafardo focuses his critique on ex-Indian Franklin Gutierrez; Omar knows that’s cold comfort for Fred and Jeff Wilpon.  Here’s Cafardo’s take:</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Seattle put a nickel in the slot machine and hit the jackpot in that Dec. 11, 2008, three-team deal that brought Gutierrez from the Indians, plus outfielder Endy Chavez, lefthanded pitcher Jason Vargas, reliever Aaron Heilman (later flipped for pitcher Garrett Olson), first baseman Mike Carp, outfielder Ezequiel Carrera, and pitcher Maikel Cleto from the Mets.  In exchange, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Seattle</st1:city></st1:place> sent J.J. Putz, reliever Sean Green, and outfielder Jeremy Reed to the Mets, plus infielder Luis Valbuena to the Indians. How’s the deal working out? Gutierrez may be the best center fielder in the game; Cleto is one of the hardest throwers in the Mariners’ system; Carrera hit .337 in Double A to win a batting title last season and is in major league camp; Olson and Vargas are contending for the fifth starter job. The guys <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seattle</st1:place></st1:city> gave away have fizzled, with Putz having elbow issues last season.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>More unsettling news for Minaya from the Chi Tribune’s Phil Rogers: “The Cubs shrug off the Mets' late signing of reliever Kiko Calero. They were close to adding him to a thin bullpen but backed off after thoroughly exploring the health of his arm. He could be this year's J.J. Putz for the Mets — minus the horribly one-sided trade that obtained Putz from the Mariners.”                                 <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>                                              - o -</big> <big>(The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments </big> <big>to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  </big> <big>Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) </big> <big> </big> <big>     </big> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cdickstar%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype> <style>  </style> (Posted: 3/6/10) <o:p> </o:p> Will Team Obama Heed Bunning’s Warning Pitch?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Jim Bunning was known as a chin-music pitcher, who warned batters early not to ignore his sizzling signal and try to crowd the plate.  Through the years as he went from a Hall of Fame baseball career to the political game in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kentucky</st1:place></st1:state> - including two-and-a-half decades in the House and Senate - Bunning has remained an aggressive competitor.  His latest pitch contained a warning to Skipper Obama and his Dem team that their money-ball game was a losing one.   <o:p> </o:p> Bunning made headlines by refusing to give a pass to the Senate’s stopgap extension of unemployment benefits.   He hung in there against criticism from members of his own GOP team and the Dems.  The media understandably played up his hard-headedness, but   there was more than that to Bunning’s game.  Just as he opposed the quick-pitch bank bailout, which caused the deficit to spiral without bringing relief to plain people, he wanted to insure a more controlled - and responsible - delivery of jobless benefits.  In true conservative fashion, he demanded to know where the money was coming from (a pitch he finally gave up on). <o:p> </o:p> Lefty hitter Robert Scheer (of TruthDig.com) says the role of the bailout was overlooked in the criticism of Bunning: “The senator was made to look the dangerous fool in media accounts while many of those who enabled the financial catastrophe continue to be treated as reasonable experts after being rewarded for their folly with the highest posts in both the Bush and Obama administrations…<o:p></o:p>(The bailout) is the same issue that carried Texas Gov. Rick Perry to victory Tuesday in his state's Republican gubernatorial primary, in which he defeated U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in part because of her support of the bank bailout.  As with the January defeat of the Democratic candidate in the <st1:state w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:state> election for a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> Senate seat, the message from voters (burned in by Bunning) is loud and clear: the political establishment cares only about the fat cats and not the people who are hurting.”<o:p></o:p> A familiar mainstream message from the right side of the diamond that Skipper Obama and the Dem team would do well to heed.<o:p></o:p>                                                -     -    -<o:p></o:p> The Mets front office has endured many damaging lessons over the last few years. NY Postman Joel Sherman suggests those lessons have gone unheeded.  He says the recent fingerpointing at ex-VP Tony Bernazard is the tipoff: “Scapegoating the recently dismissed is an art form around the Mets.  It was not long ago when everything that had gone wrong was <a href="http://www.nypost.com/t/Steve_Phillips">Steve Phillips</a>’ fault or Jim Duquette’s or Art Howe’s or . . .<o:p></o:p> “Fred Wilpon showed up earlier in this camp to say the baseball operations department picked the players who tanked in 2009, not ownership. Of course, ownership hired all the executives who picked players, including Bernazard.  That lack of accountability is so 2009, and makes me wonder if it already has bled into 2010.  Are we nearing when <a href="http://www.nypost.com/t/Omar_Minaya">Omar Minaya</a> and <a href="http://www.nypost.com/t/Jerry_Manuel">Jerry Manuel</a> will get the Bernazard treatment, losing their jobs and being blamed for everything wrong as a shield against ownership ever taking full responsibility for how this franchise operates?”<o:p></o:p> The spring training hype is hard to bear in these early weeks before injuries begin cropping up and reality starts to set in.  Future stars are in the pre-fizzle stage, emerging everywhere.  (One, however, Jason Heyward of the Braves, seen on SNY the other day, looks to be authentic.)  Two veteran players recently signed by the Dodgers and Mets are worth noting in a positive vein despite our abhorrence of the seasonal oversell: Garret Anderson figures to be an asset to the Dodgers as a reserve outfielder.  He put up respectable stats with the Braves last year - .268, 13 HRs, 61 RBIs in 135 games.  Kiko Calero pitched well in relief for the ’09 Marlins – 2-2, 1.95 ERA, striking out 69 in 60 innings while walking only 30.  It will be a surprise if he doesn’t bolster the Mets’ bullpen.                                             - 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: 3/2/10) <o:p> </o:p> Hidden Deals Are Hurting Both National Pastimes<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Back-room deals are the bane of baseball and politics.  Ball fans continue to puzzle over why in one division – the NL Central – teams have a 16 percent chance of winning, while in the AL West they have a 25 percent chance?  Many Americans wonder why, despite the apparent decision of the Dem team to swing out alone in support of health care reform, the public option seems to have no chance of winning enactment in Congress. <o:p> </o:p> The answer in both cases: front-office arrangements made without consulting fans in the respective fields.  To avoid complicating the six-division scheduling process, baseball’s decision-makers agreed among themselves to saddle the NL Central with six teams, and the AL West with only four.  The idea of shifting an NLC team like <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city> to the ALW, which would have numerically equalized all six divisions, was called back before getting to bat.  <o:p> </o:p> In a much more crucial play, Team Obama apparently sacrificed the public option last summer to advance the interest of the insurance industry in the health reform effort.  Firedoglake.com fireballer Jane Hamsher tossed this sizzler at the home team: “The idea that the (Democrats woul)d even try to pass (the bill) using reconciliation without a public option, after months of insisting they couldn’t include a public option because gosh darn it there just weren’t 60 votes in the Senate, is insane…<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “The public option is substantially more popular than the Senate/White House bill.  Now that only 50 votes are needed, there is no good argument to be made for even trying to pass a bill without one — it’s simply a way to pay off Rahm Emanuel’s back room deals.” <o:p> </o:p> Even avid supporters concede that the public option is of symbolic rather than substantive importance.  It would set up federal-supported competition to the insurance companies but be available only to a miniscule fraction of the national client pool.  Nevertheless, a public option would be a spikehold in what has been an exploitative private fiefdom. <o:p> </o:p> The LA Angels have dominated the three other teams in the AL West the way insurance outfits have controlled the national health care field.  The Angels were division winners in five of the last six years, and they won a world championship in 2002.  A fifth team would not immediately change the balance of power, but it would let air into, and enliven, what has been a constricted division.                                -     -     - Chad Moeller, who has played with seven teams as a backup catcher (mostly) over a 10-year career, has a future as author of an inside-baseball book.  How do we know?  Timesman Tyler Kepner picked Moeller’s brain at the Orioles’ <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state> training camp and elicited interesting takes on pitchers <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chad</st1:place></st1:country-region> has caught. Here is some of the chatter: <o:p> </o:p> Brandon Webb (D-backs): “I was always amazed at what (he) could make a (fast)ball do.  He’d say ‘I just grabbed the ball like this. It just does it.’  I’m like, ‘Seriously, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Brandon</st1:city></st1:place>, that ball’s dropping a foot and a half.’…  You’d watch other guys do it, and they’d get this cute little cut, he does it and it has more break than his curveball.” <o:p> </o:p> Curt Schilling:  “Curt wanted information.  If I saw something, he wanted to know it.  From the first day on he respected my opinion, and for a catcher, that was outstanding.  He expected a lot out of you… but it was fun…He wanted someone who cared as much about what happened…as he did.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Mariano Rivera (Yankees):  “Easiest guy I’ve ever caught.  You know where the ball’s going to be every time.  And it’s just amazing that everybody knows what’s coming and nobody’s going to square it up.  He’s thrown the same <o:p></o:p> pitch over and over, and nobody’s done anything with it yet.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Add to our list of ex-NY players – Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Billy Wagner – we miss:  Melky Cabrera (now, like Wagner, with the Braves), J.J. Putz (White Sox).                                   - 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.) </body> </html>

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