The Sports Idiot

Here at The Sports Idiot things have been pretty hectic lately, thus the lack of updates.  One of our good buddies and fellow seamheads has decided to lend a hand.  So welcome Brian (aka Butter) to the mix.  His first contribution is the following entry, which I’m a few days late getting up…

A third of the way through the long baseball season and the best coaching job goes to… How about Cito Gaston, who in his second stint with the Blue Jays had his team off to a red hot start and atop the stacked AL East?  What about Joe Torre, who has the LA Dodgers sitting with the best record in the game even without his best player? Even Dusty Baker, who has the Cincinnati Reds four games over .500 and playing good all-around baseball? The person who has done the best coaching job is not even the manager of his own team.  The manager of the Texas Rangers, Ron Washington, has his team off to 26-19 record and sitting atop the AL West.  However, he hasn’t even done the best “coaching” job on his own team.  The pitch is on the way, it’s a curve and a strike! And here is another curve for you, Mike Maddux is the pitching coach of the Rangers and arguably has done the best “coaching” job in the game up to this point of the season.  Maddux is the older brother of the soon to be Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux, and has his pitching staff excelling well beyond expectations.

Maddux’s philosophy to finish what you have started has the Rangers pitching staff near the top of the league in wins and saves and is the leader in complete games. Yes, the Rangers are ninth in the AL in ERA and dead last in baseball in strikeouts, but the job Maddux is doing is remarkable.  The most important stat and one that is consistently overlooked, is the fact that, the Rangers have used their bullpen the least of any club in the Majors this year.  With a rotation of veterans, Vicente Padilla and Kevin Millwood, along with Brandon McCarthy, Scott Feldman and Matt Harrison it is remarkable that Washington hasn’t tapped him arm more often.  The Rangers have a Major League low 111.1 innings from the bullpen, some 55 innings less than the Marlins, who lead the league.  Why is this important?  The correlation in the total number of innings pitched by relievers and wins is always apparent.  Last year in the American League, four of the six teams with the least amount of innings pitched from their bullpen made the playoffs.  Conversely, the teams with the most innings out the pen usually don’t make the playoffs.  The Rangers were dead last in 2007 and 2008 in innings pitched from the relievers, as well as last in the Bigs in 2008 with an ERA of 5.37.  In both of those years they pitched upwards of 600 innings from the bullpen (which equates to about 65 games) and did not perform up to expectations in either year and were under .500 both years.  Saving the bullpen for the dog days of summer can do nothing but help the team, especially in the scorching heat in Texas.

With Maddux’s team taking a page from his brother, (location, location, location) they are overachieving this year.  The Rangers are dead last in the league in strikeouts with 227.  They are third in the Majors in both walks per nine (3.26) and pitches per inning (16.3).  Their closer, Frank Francisco, has pitched 15.2 scoreless innings to start the year.  So will this last all year? Who knows, but with Maddux’s philosophy to have the starters going as deep into games as they can and the fact that the Rangers can simply mash the ball, they look like they will be a contender for the rest of the year.  I know Maddux cannot win coach of the year, but when Ron Washington does at the end of the year, he should thank his pitching coach first.

As expected, Jake Peavy squashed the trade that would have sent him to the Chicago White Sox yesterday.  The confusing part here is why the Padres would even attempt to work on a deal with an AL team that is not on Peavy’s short list to begin with.  Note to self, before I try to trade a player with a full no-trade clause it might be a good idea to talk to said player first.  It is not like Peavy does not know that he could be traded, or that the Padres have been trying to move him, so why not talk to Jake before completeing a deal?  Because the Padres and GM Kevin Towers want to try and make Peavy look like an ass for killing the deal.  It is not going to work, Mr. Towers, because we already know who you are.

A deal has been struck that would send super stud Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox.  All that they are waiting on is Peavy’s approval, which is not guaranteed to happen.  It is well documented that Peavy wants to stay in the NL, and that he is happy staying in San Diego.  The players in the deal are unclear, so speculate away.

I do not see this deal going down.  Why would Peavy want to go to the White Sox?  They are not going to be in contention this year, are an AL squad, and just do not make a lot of sense for Peavy.  We’ll stay tuned, and try to let you know if something goes down.

Joey Devine is going to start the year on the Prior List, and is on his way to be examined by the one and only Dr. James Andrews.  When baseball fans hear Dr. Andrews’ name, they grab their blankies and call their mommies.  It almost always means a lost season.

So grab Brad Ziegler if he is available in your league.  He will get all of the saves for Oakland while Devine is out, which will be at least three weeks, and could lock the job down for the year if he performs well.

UPDATE 4/6/09

Devine was placed on the 60 day Prior List, retroactive back to March 31.  Dude meets with Dr. Andrews on Tuesday, but it is looking like a lost season for the former NC State closer.