Will Leitch talks Trent Richardson, Cleveland sports and an Indians Cardinals World Series – WFNY Podcast – 2013-09-23
September 23, 2013“Mission October” a welcomed break from the norm
September 24, 2013“While We’re Waiting” serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“Weak schedule or not, the Indians are an underdog, a low-revenue club with a popular manager, Terry Francona — a compelling postseason narrative waiting to happen. But when you compare opponents, the accomplishments of another low-revenue club, the Rays, are that much more impressive — a near-miracle, actually.
I know I’m shouting in the wind — the unbalanced schedule isn’t going away, at least not before Selig’s scheduled retirement on Jan. 15, 2015. And maybe it shouldn’t go away, given the historic appeal of traditional rivalries. I get it. And I’m fairly certain that baseball would suffer a different form of damage if, say, the Yankees played the Astros as often as they played the Red Sox.
Still, why should one team have it easier than another?” [Rosenthall/Fox Sports]
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“The AL Cy Young race has gotten pretty interesting. A month ago, Max Scherzer looked like a near lock, with his glistening 19-1 record and strong peripherals that supported the idea that he’d pitched like an ace this year. However, he’s gone 1-2 with a 4.66 ERA in his last five starts, perhaps opening the door for voters to take a closer look at all the candidates. And when they’re investigating, they just may find that the difference in quality of competition is a pretty significant factor this year.
For example, let’s look at the competition effect for Scherzer and Chris Sale. On first glance, you might think that there wouldn’t be a huge difference here, since both pitch in the AL Central and face a lot of common opponents. However, breaking down their starts by opposition reveals some striking differences.” [Cameron/Fangraphs]
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“The poor results came on consecutive weeks, but they weren’t that similar. The Akron game was an absolute dumpster fire. The offense did not convert third downs (3/10). The defense did not stop third downs (9/18). Turnovers, especially the INT returned for a touchdown were devastating. That was a letdown gone rotten.
UConn was different. Yes, the Huskies lost to Towson. That’s the same Towson that was a handful for LSU last year and looks like one of the best FCS teams this year. UConn hung with a pretty good Maryland team, getting foiled by an interception returned for a touchdown. They aren’t awesome, but they are better than their 0-3 record suggests. The betting public loved Michigan as -18 favorite. Nerd stats were far more pessimistic. FEI projected a 22-14 Michigan win.” [Duffy/The Big Lead]
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“The Graduate: Cody Allen, RHP: Allen’s fastball-curveball combination has helped him dominated big league hitters and he looks like a future closer. He could become even more nasty once he improves his fastball command and finds a way to keep the ball in the park. He’s fourth in rookie appearances, and fourth in strikeouts (minimum 30 innings).
The Riser: Jose Ramirez, 2B: The diminutive second baseman held his own when he was promoted to Double-A in 2013 at the age of 20. He stole 38 bases and showed an offensive skill set that could make him a solid No. 2 hitter at the big league level, although he has to continue to get stronger. Surprisingly, Ramirez was given a September callup during the Indians’ playoff run.” [Hulet/Fangraphs]
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Hate the Yankees, but man this was a cool idea. [LA Times]
12 Comments
I still don’t get the canonization of Rivera. The Save is possibly the most overrated stat in sports. Closers are like placekickers — useful but not integral. Color me unimpressed.
The Rangers and Athletics got off pretty easy in that column.
Regardless of whether or not he was used optimally, Mariano Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher of all time. It’s not even debatable. Don’t let your Yankee hatred keep you from appreciating him.
“given the historic appeal of traditional rivalries”
You mean the rivals the Indians had since 1901, the Red Sox and Yankees, but never played an inning in anger vs the Reds until 1997 (96 years after being established)
Get rid of interleague and get rid of the unbalanced schedule. It will make the All Star game relevant without adding the “this time it matters” manufactured narrative, and will make the world series more special because teams will not be as familiar since there was interleague peppered throughout the season. Oh, and you could switch the Brewers and Astros back to their respective leagues while you’re at it.
I enjoy interleague play. I could do without the unbalanced schedule given how much it affects the wild card races though I do love the new wild card format (winning the division means something again).
The best way to get rid of the unbalanced schedule is to install a salary cap.
I found this fascinating. So, the Texans game was on at the same time as the Astros game on Sunday. Somehow, the Astros game drew the FIRST EVER 0.0 Nielsen rating for a MLB game.
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2013/09/according-to-nielsen-nobody-watched-astros-indians-game-sunday/
according to Nielsen, there were more people watching a WNBA game with no Houston teams than the Astros:
WNBA Minnesota-Seattle, ESPN2, 0.2
MLB Houston-Cleveland, CSN-H, 0.0
The Yankees! The rings!
The roles and development of relief pitchers is ever-evolving, making it damn near impossible to call him the greatest. He came in when the reliever became pretty much a one-inning-and-you’re-done affair. Now, Rivera has gone more than 1 inning many times, but he’s still pitched his entire career in the one inning role. How do we compare that to, say a Goose Gossage, who had to get his starter out of a jam in the 7th, and still finish the game to get a save?
It’s also important to note that Rivera has spent his whole career reliever because we are quicker to convert starters than past eras. He failed as a starter, where a guy like Eckersley succeeded. We’ve already moved even farther in that direction, where guys like Kimbrel and drafted and developed without even given a chance to start. We need to see if the specialization of the role is creating better relievers to properly place Rivera’s achievements in context.
Interesting fact: if you go by records vs. other divisions, the Tribe would win the Central w/o interleague and a balanced schedule (52 v. Central, 55 v. E/W). TB & NY would tie with 89 wins and beat Detroit (88 wins) for the wild card. This is, of course, based on this morning’s standings.
My only thought while watching the Metallica performance was “good god, Lars looks like a starved latter-day Jack Nicholson.”
Good points. Rollie Fingers may be the best I saw, in countless big games coming in with guys on base in the 7th or 8th and finishing it up himself. And similar points can be made about starters. How impressive are the ERAs (or pick your pet stats) of Bob Gibson and Koufax when those guys generally finished their games unless it was a real off day.
But Rivera didn’t choose his era or role. He was a lights out set-up man in the ’90s and the lights out closer thereafter with a crazy long run of excellence. Same pitch over and over, batters knew it was coming and still couldn’t touch it. Probably would have been great in any era, pitching 1 inning or 3.
I would agree that he would be great, though I wouldn’t go past three innings. He was pretty awful in his stint as a starter, and his minor league performance as a starter wouldn’t have led you to believe he’d be much of anything in the majors. Rivera is the pinnacle example of how much better the starters are than one inning relievers.