Jim Leyland to fix baseball...sort of

Jim Leyland has been asked to be part of a very select committee that has been put together by Bud Selig to "analyze ways to improve" baseball.

He will join 3 other managers: Tony La Russa, Joe Torre and Mike Scioscia along with other greats such as Frank Robinson a number of GM's, owners and even George Will (!). This is a veritable who's who of the baseball world.

So what could such an august body hope to accomplish? Well there are a number of things that many people would like to see to "improve" the National Pastime.

Probably the most often heard complaint is that it is too slow. It is certainly not an exaggeration to say that most Tigers' games are around 3 hours long. I'm sure that this will be a major aspect of the committee's agenda. I'll be curious to hear about how they might tackle this. Thomas Boswell at the Washington Post has a few ideas:

-- I've "timed" every facet of the game. Okay, I'm a nut. But I'm right. The average "mound visit" wastes 60 to 70 seconds. Ban 'em all. Middle-aged guys stay in the dugout. Mike up the pitcher and a coach. Talk all you want. Use a crackberry. But no visits.

-- Putting a clock on mid-inning pitching changes is a must. If it only takes 150 seconds between innings, there's no excuse why "waving for the left-hander" should burn more than three minutes.

-- Sorry about "God Bless America" at the seventh-inning stretch, but it needs to go. It was a fine idea after 9/11. But it has served its purpose. And it wastes two minutes.

-- Yes, of course, wave the hitter to first on an intentional walk.

-- A huge time saver, since every relief pitching change eats about four minutes, would be curtailing the plague of relief specialists who now face only one hitter. This isn't "core" to baseball. It evolved. Then metastasized. Change the rules. A relief pitcher must face two hitters. The effect: more offense, and better pace of play, in late innings.

I don't agree with all of these (ie miking up the pitcher), but shortening the time for relievers to start pitching and eliminating God Bless America are fine with me. Do you remember Posada walking to the mound after every pitch during the last World Series? That was an exception, but it certainly slowed the game down.

With all of the games now televised that also slows down the game. We have to watch the ads because they support the TV. Baseball on TV can't survive without it and baseball without TV can't survive it's current cost structures, so that is a tricky problem.

Of course one of the beautiful things about baseball is that time is not relevant. You have to get 3 outs per inning. Sometimes that takes 5 minutes and sometimes it takes 30 minutes. You can't run down the clock, you have to pitch the ball and do your best. I would hate to see that disappear.

It thinks that the group of men that Selig has brought together will be able to improve the game and I am glad that Jim Leyland is one of the ones chosen for this task.

You keep some, you let some go...

The Tigers announced that they have signed Ramon Santiago to a 2 year deal. This keeps some valuable versatility in the infield as well as some short term power at the plate. There has been debate over the years as to why Santiago doesn't get more playing time. When he plays he has a decent bat:

In 183 games with the Tigers since the start of the 2007 season, the switch-hitting Santiago has hit .274 with 17 doubles, five triples, 11 homers and 60 RBIs. (MLB).

His defense is solid too. His Ultimate Zone Rating has averaged 1.9 since he came back from Seattle until this past year when he dropped down to -2.5.

Plus he is from the Dominican Republic, and that is always a bonus with me!

On the "letting them go" side of the ledger, Ian at Bless You Boys reports that The Freddy Dolsi Era is Over. Dolsi pitched in 42 games in 2008 for the Tigers after working his way back up the minor league ladder. He gave up 50 hits in 47 2/3 innings that year along with 28 walks, giving him a WHIP of 1.64 and an ERA of 3.97. In 2009 he spent most of his time with Toledo and pitched only 10 2/3 innings for the Big Club. In those scant 10+ innings he 13 hits and 4 walks for a WHIP of 1.59 and an ERA of 1.69. Dolsi was DFA'd to clear up roster space and the Dirty Sox picked him up.

Who have been the best defenders in the 00's?

I came across this article while looking over Baseball Musings the other day. The people at "The Book" did a study of defense over the last decade and put together the top 5 defenders at each position. Would you like to know which (ex)-Tigers made the list?

Placido Polanco was the 3rd highest rated of 2nd Basemen in the MLB (based on runs saved). He prevented an average of 10 runs per 150 games over the last 10 years. We certainly saw that in Detroit where he seemed to grab anything near him as well as helping to turn some sweet double plays. I guess I'm happy that he spent much of that time wearing the Old English D.

Adam Everett comes in at the TOP of the list for Short Stops with an average of 18 runs prevented for every 150 games played. He isn't as flashy as Inge is at 3rd but don't let that take away from what he has achieved. In 2010 he will have to carry more of it on his own as Detroit breaks in a new 2nd Baseman, but I feel very comfortable with Inge at 3rd and Everett at Short. Miguel Cabrerra continues to improve with his glove at 1st so defense on the infield should not be a major issue.

Back up and running...

It has been quite a while since I could post. My laptop died (it was over 6 years old, so it had a very good run). But that's history- I have another laptop to use now so it's time to jump in again.

There has been so much that happened, especially at the Winter Meetings last week! I'll probably put more up on this later, but my household is grieving right now- Placido Polanco was my daughter's favorite Tiger and Curtis Granderson was mine. Now both of them are gone (although they should enjoy playing for top tier teams).

So many bloggers have given input to "The Trade of 2009" that I don't really have anything to add (especially a week later). See here, here, here and here. Suffice it to say that Dombrowski had better be RIGHT on this one.

For what it's worth I still see two large holes for the Tigers (and no, a closer isn't one of them). I still think they need a solid bat in Left Field and another one at DH. Jason Bay is still available (hint). Johnny Damon is still out there too.

That's all for now, but it is good to be back!

Meet your new 1B/Outfield/Running Coach...

The Tigers announced that Tom Brookens (yes, that Tom Brookens) will replace Andy Van Slyke on Jim Leyland's coaching staff.

Here are the details...

Detroit News

Beck

A schedule rant...

WHYGJG? asks the tough question- why don't they condense the regular season so we don't have a "snow bowl" for a World Series.

I completely agree. There should be more double headers scheduled in the season. They should also set the early season schedule with weather in mind (remember when Cleveland was snowed out for a week to begin the season a couple of years ago?). Stay down south to start the season and use the domes that remain! Don't worry, I'll still watch the games on FSD even if they are played in Florida or Texas.

2 All Star Games?

My friend Bob and I love to discuss baseball and the trivial aspects of it. So last week he asked me if there had ever been 2 All Star games in one year. My answer was "No." and "You're crazy." Everybody knows that there is only one All Star Game.

Well, Bob is a pretty smart guy and sent me enough info to convince me that there had, indeed, been a period of time when there were two All Star Games each year. I needed to know more. Here comes the history...

The relationship between the players and owners has always been stormy (I'm putting together a more comprehensive post on that for later). The short version is that the "Golden Rule" applied: "He who has the gold makes the rules." In MLB's case the gold belonged to the owners.

When the last competitor to the MLB collapsed in 1946 (The Mexican League) the players who had jumped over to it found themselves blacklisted by the MLB. At the same time a lawyer named Robert Murphy was secretly talking to MLB players, attempting to organize them into a union. TheAmerican Baseball Guild didn't really get anywhere, but it came close enough the the owners decided to allow the players to pick a group of player representatives. They also gave the players some concessions (minimum pay reductions, a minimum salary ($5000) and expense money for Spring Training and the promise to create a players' pension plan.

This brings us back to my original conversation with Bob about those doubled All Star Games. Although the owners had agreed to fund the pension plan that didn't mean they wanted to lose their own money to do it. So when the owners fell behind in their payments in 1959 a second game was organized to make up the difference. So, from 1959 to 1962 there were two All Star Games each summer. The first one was the "official" game. The second was for the players' pension.

There wasn't any apparent structure to when the 2nd game was to be played. One year they were only 2 days apart and other years they were almost a month apart. One year both games were played in National League cities. Other years they were split between the leagues. But eventually the fans started to vote with their tickets. The second game drew fewer and fewer fans. By 1961 there was talk of eliminating the 2nd game and after 1962 they did. The owners agreed to give more of the money from the original All Star Game to the players' fund and the 2nd game was dropped.

Here are some links to my sources...

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/all_star.jsp All of the scores of all of the All Star Games

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haupert.mlb This is a fascinating paper on the economic changes in baseball over the years!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/sports/baseball/15sandomir.html A NY Times article about the double All Star Games