The Media Circus That Wasn't

Last Thursday morning, I sat in the Players Club, just beyond the right field bleachers inside Fenway Park. Joined by 50 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Stars, the league’s ten coaches, a few other league officers, we enjoyed a humungous buffet, waiting patiently before the Cape League and its All-Stars were recognized in a pre-game ceremony that afternoon before their game against Oakland.

Then my phone started buzzing. Then it kept buzzing and buzzing. Looking up at the flat screen televisions around the room I realized why. Across the bottom of the NESN pre-game show told how the New York Times was reporting that David Ortiz had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003. I figured all hell would break loose around the stadium. I was wrong.

After successfully chaperoning the Cape League All-Stars through their pre-game ceremony, I headed up to the press box, making good use of one of the few times a year I’m able to get media credentials from the Red Sox. I was expecting the media level to be buzzing. It wasn’t. It was remarkably calm. And then it hit me. Maybe, finally, reporting on steroids had jumped the shark. Unless someone comes out with all 100 plus names on the much talked about 2003 positive test list, their really isn’t going to be all that much buzz, no shock, no nothing. Sure Dan Shaughnessy will spit out some boring, played out column about how Ortiz should be ashamed and how he lied to Red Sox Nation and how Boston’s two World Series championships are tainted. (In his defense, I never actually got beyond the title of his Ortiz article, I refused to read anything by him a long time ago, but I assume that’s how the column went.)

In the press box, seats we aplenty, the only banter going on was former Red Sox player and current radio/television talking head Lou Merloni explaining how he only hit 14 career home runs. Most of all, there was really no buzz.

While I’ll admit that I don’t often frequent major league press boxes, I do have a point of comparison. Last year, I was at Manny Ramirez’s last game as a member of the Red Sox. There was buzz, there were rumors, there were beat writers talking about where, when, and if Manny Ramirez would finally be traded. First it was Manny to the Marlins, then something involving the Pirates, and it turned out that Manny didn’t get dealt until much later the next day. But there was excitement; it had the vibe of big news. I felt none of that last Thursday.

Even in this era of 24-hour news cycles, while the Ortiz news certainly dominated headlines, it seemed as though everyone, even those covering the sport, seem bored with steroids, especially in the manner that names trickle off this 2003 list and into the public domain. Sure, using PEDs is dirty, but the shock value of steroid news is gone, for everyone.

Chin Music: Bonuses Down...For Now

In the latest issue of Baseball America, Jim Callis makes some interesting points regarding the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft. Bud Selig’s bonus recommendations, which are the non-binding guidelines set forth by MLB on what a specific draft slot should receive as a bonus, have decreased by 10 percent compared to last year.

The MLB draft, as with all drafts, is a means to control costs for professional sports franchises rather than creating a bidding war. Baseball draftees, however, are known to hold out fairly often and return to school for their senior season. Scott Boras clients Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew both tested the draft regulations by playing independent league baseball for the St. Paul Saints in an attempt to circumvent the draft rules. The Royals’ 12th overall pick this year, Aaron Crow, followed a similar route when he played professional independent league baseball after opting to hold out after he was drafted ninth overall in the 2008. Boras represents the top overall pick this season in Stephen Strasburg, who will surely demand more than the recommended slot money.

What is interesting though is that despite a cut in the recommended slot bonuses, players are signing fairly quickly, and only a handful of players appear to have signed with bonuses over the recommended slot value. While it’s still early, draftees have about a month before they need to sign or wait until the 2010 draft to start the process all over, it is a little interesting that players are taking the money below slot value. Two players who have received more than slot value are Rex Brothers and Ben Paulsen, both of who signed with the Colorado Rockies.

Due to many players’ likelihood to hold out, teams oftentimes skip over top talent and instead draft someone who is “signable.” That has played a large part in the lower bonuses from this most recent draft. Tony Sanchez was drafted fourth overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates, which was a surprise for sure since many pegged him for a late first round pick at best. Instead though, the Pirates got a solid player that they knew would sign, and he signed for 700,000 less than last year’s fourth overall pick. The Orioles fifth pick Matt Hobgod signed for roughly 4 million less than last year’s fifth pick. A.J. Pollock signed with the Diamondbacks for 100,000 less than his slot last year, and the Nationals’ Drew Storen signed for 500,000 less than his slot last year. The decreases in bonuses are clear.

The number of first round picks who have signed contracts thus far are similar to the number of pick that signed over the last two years through as many days after the draft. And while many of the quick signees are signing for less than Bud Selig’s suggest slot value, expect the remainder of players to hold out and receive higher than their suggested bonuses. Players like Strasburg, last year’s holdout Aaron Crow, and second overall pick Dustin Ackley are all likely to receive huge bonuses, and they aren’t alone.

Jonathan Sanchez is Jose Jimenez

This past week, the San Francisco Giants’ Jonathan Sanchez got a spot start after he was demoted to the bullpen June 28. I had him on my fantasy team and quickly dropped him, his 5.54 ERA probably worthy of his release regardless of whether he started or came out of the pen.

Then, on July 10, Sanchez came out of nowhere to throw a no hitter against the Padres (asterisk, right? It’s the San Diego Padres) and a day after Tim Lincecum went six and a third innings before giving up a hit against San Diego. I’m still not sold on Sanchez, as I’m sure most other people aren’t. The borinqueño pitched reasonably well for Puerto Rico in the World baseball Classic, but he has proved to be remarkably inconsistent over his brief major league career. Even with the no-hitter, his ERA is still 4.69 and his WHIP, despite no hits or walks over nine innings is still an even 1.50. In fact, an error by Juan Uribe was the only thing between Sanchez and perfection, which certainly must’ve made Uribe feel Julio Lugo-ish. At least someone didn’t get a base knock with two outs in the ninth inning.

No-hitters may not be all that rare, but perfect games most definitely are. For Sanchez to pitch a perfect game would have blown my mind, and he basically did a pitch a perfect game, at least on the pitcher’s end, so mind blown I guess. But is this a turning point for Sanchez’s career? Will he go the route of solid pitcher like Carlos Zambrano, Jon Lester and Justin Verlander before him? Or will he end up on the route of Anibal Sanchez, Bud Smith, and Jose Jimenez.

Jimenez is probably most comparable to Sanchez at this juncture in his career. Jimenez was in his first full big league season when he threw a no-hitter for St. Louis in 1999. He finished 1999 with a 5-14 record, a 5.85 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. Sanchez is in his second full major league season as a starter and is 3-8 with the aforementioned 4.69 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. Jimenez pitched until 2004, but 1999 was his only real season as a starter, another parallel to Sanchez who may very well be headed back to the bullpen.

Jimenez finished with a career ERA of 4.92 over the course of his seven seasons. Sanchez’s ERA over his four seasons? 5.07. Jimenez’s career WHIP was 1.45. Sanchez’s thus far is 1.50, the same as his WHIP thus far in 2009. Both are Hispanic pitchers whose names start with “Jo.” Both last names end in z and have seven letters. Both were 26 years old when they pitched their no hitter and both no hitters happened in a year ending in 9. And Lincoln was Kennedy’s secretary, and Kennedy was Lincoln’s secretary. Either way, my money’s on Jonathan Sanchez’s career turning out like Jose Jimenez’s. I’ll be happy to eat crow if I’m wrong, and if he shows more promise I may just pick him up on my fantasy team again, but until then, to me, he's just an Anibal Sanchez, Bud Smith, and most of all, Jose Jimenez.

Chin Music: Unknowns to Knowns

This week I’m going to briefly take a look at the players who have impressed thus far in the Cape Cod Baseball League, and if history tells us anything, some of these players are already on your radar, or will be for years to come. Most of these players don’t have the pedigree of being big names before coming to the Cape League, but they are all helping their own causes with impressive seasons thus far.


Cody Hawn - The Hyannis first basemen was drafted in the 41st round out of high school but the impression he made at Walters State CC (.401, 23 HR, 71 RBI) gave him a shot to play at Tennessee next year. His Cape League numbers prove that his juco stats were no fluke. He’s hitting .382 with 4 HR and 11 RBI in just 34 at bats. The Cape League could put Hawn on the map much in the way it did with Tim Lincecum, who was also a 40+ round draft pick out of high school.

Kyle Roller – Another first basemen with similar numbers to Hawn, Roller is hitting .323 with 3 HR and 11 RBI in his 62 at bats. Roller was taken in the 47th round of this year’s draft by Oakland. While he is having an impressive offensive season this summer for the Bourne Braves, his defense remains a question with his 250 pound frame.

Chris Sale – The Florida Gulf Coast sophomore boasts a 1.29 ERA with 30 strike outs in 28 innings pitched. Sale was taken in the 21st round by Colorado out of high school but the left hander looks to have increased his draft stock going into the 2010 MLB Draft.

Ryan Cuneo – Originally signed a temporary player until players from the College World Series arrived, Cuneo impressed in Hyannis that he was signed on for the full season. Sharing first base and DH duties with Cody Hawn, Cuneo is hitting .308 with 2 HR and a league leading 13 RBI through just 17 games. Cuneo plays college ball under the radar at Delaware and was undrafted out of high school.

Eric Cantrell – The George Washington sophomore pitcher has a 2.25 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 20 innings pitched for the Bourne Braves. Cantrell has won the Pitcher of the Week Award and is in line to win another this week.

Austin Wates – The Y-D outfielder is hitting .387 and, despite no home runs, has an OPS of .966. He has 10 RBI and 7 extra base hits. The Virginia Tech sophomore was undrafted out of high school.

Jack Armstrong – Wareham’s starter threw a 2-hitter against one of the top offensive teams in Hyannis in a shortened 7 inning complete game earlier this week. The Vanderbilt pitcher is the son of former Cincinnati Red’s pitcher of the same name. He has a 3-0 record with a 1.47 ERA and 15 strikeouts through 18 innings pitched thus far. Armstrong was drafted in the 36th round by the Rangers out of high school.

Chin Music: Road Shows

The Red Sox took on the NL East in Interleague play this season, and last week arrived in Washington D.C. for a three game set with the Nationals. Three days later, the Nationals had set their new single game attendance record, despite being the worst team in baseball.

David Ortiz hit a three run home run to deep center field at Nationals Park, and he got a standing ovation from 40,000 people. It seems to be a general rule for baseball fans in the northeast, they either travel in hordes to opposing ballparks up and down the east coast, or many of them simply remain loyal to their team despite relocating to somewhere else. After the Red Sox set the single game attendance record (41, 517) and the single series attendance record (breaking 120,000 in attendance) they took their show down to Atlanta with similar, although not record breaking, results.

Where does this phenomenon come from? Remember those empty box seats at the new Yankee Stadium? Fenway Park has standing room only tickets to $20 and you can’t even see any fly balls because of the overhang, never mind the difficulty of getting tickets at face value. For many fans, they travel because tickets are much easier to come by, tickets are much cheaper, and hey why not make a vacation out of it? Tons and tons of Red Sox fans head down to Baltimore every year to take in Camden Yards. I took that trip for the first time last year, and with impeccable timing I was able to catch Manny Ramirez’s 500th home run off of Chad Bradford. The thousands upon thousands of Boston fans were all lucky enough to see that historic event.

Meanwhile, while terrible teams like the Nationals continue to trot out Nick Johnson at first every night to their dismay of their dwindling fan base, they’re thankful when the giants in the northeast, whether it’s Boston, either team from New York, or Philadelphia, because those are the fans that truly care about travel, whether by choice or by lack of ticket availability at their home ballpark. Not to take anything away from any other fan base, like the Dodger fans who show up for the middle three innings, or Angels fans who patiently wait for the big screen to dictate their next move, but next time a northeast team comes to town anywhere else in the country (but small markets in particular), take notice when they dominate cheering, chants, and celebrations.

Chin Music: Old Timers

On Thursday, 42 year-old John Smoltz makes his Boston Red Sox debut against the Washington Nationals, almost two years to the date where he helped tie a Major League record. That record? The number of starting pitcher in their 40s starting on the same day.

On June 22, 2007, Smoltz (40 at the time), the Rangers’ Kenny Rogers (42), Jamie Moyer (44), Greg Maddux (41), Woody Williams (40) and Tom Glavine (41) all started, setting the record.

That following Wednesday, June 27, the stars were aligned to break that record, with seven pitchers in their 40s scheduled to start, with 44 year-old Roger Clemens set to join in and break the record set only five days earlier. Instead, Rogers’ game was postponed and the record was only tied again at six.

Now, two years later, many of these pitchers still remain, among them, Smoltz, who spent the first two and a half months of the season on the disabled list, Jamie Moyer, who proves that you can throw 70 miles an hour and still be effective, and Tom Glavine, who is actively looking for work after being released. There’s also Randy Johnson, whose spot in the rotation didn’t align with the other quadragenarians (yes, I just made that up) in 2007, who it very well may have been eight starters over forty years old making starts all in one day.

The fascinating part is that it isn’t just power pitchers or the guys who can paint corners that are sticking around well into their forties, it’s both contrasting styles, whether it was from Clemens to Maddux or now, Smoltz to Moyer. These aged pitchers make it clear that sometimes pitching IQ is more important than overall skill. Many young pitchers with fantastic stuff come in and do well in their first few starts. And then batters, coaches, and advance scouts start to figure out their weaknesses and the only way for a pitcher to stay one step ahead of them is to adjust, or get shellacked. That’s what makes these elder statesmen of the game even more impressive, their ability to effectively adjust and attack the strike zone in different ways since before the likes of Clayton Kershaw or Clay Buccholz were even born.

With young pitching stars, like Tim Lincecum, Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, and Yovani Gallardo ready to take the reigns, the old timer’s aren’t quite ready to hand them over. Teams keep giving them a chance, and it doesn’t seem like they’re ready to call it quits quite yet.

Chin Music: Who Makes The Jump First

Now that the MLB First Year Player Draft has come and gone, I’m going to take a look at some of the players who are likely to make the jump to the Big Leagues sooner rather than later. Outside of Stephen Strasburg, who most agree is likely to be the first player up from this draft class, assuming he signs, and Dustin Ackley, who I secretly was hoping was taken first overall so that the mainstream media would be shocked and scrambling to figure out who he even is, here are some players that may make the jump first. All of these players are college players, they just tend to be more well developed, and much easier to project, than their high school counterparts. Many of these players should be able to take advantage of combining their abilities with the general lack of talent in front of them on the team that drafted them. While these are generally top players, it's not always the best player who makes the jump first. As quickly as Evan Longoria rose to the big leagues, the likes of San Francisco's Brian Bocock, a 9th round pick in the same draft class, made his Major League debut first.

Aaron Crow – Crow, who was drafted 9th overall in 2008 by the Washington Nationals, was picked 12th overall by the Kansas City Royals. If last year is indicative of anything, Crow will be stringing out the negotiation process until well into August. In independent league ball, where he spent the beginning of this year, Crow had a 1.06 ERA and 17 strike outs in 17 innings. Meanwhile, at the Cape League in 2007, Crow Struck out 36 with a tiny 0.67 ERA in 40.1 innings.

Kyle Gibson – Gibson is a former collegiate teammate of Crow both at Missouri and in the same starting rotation in the Cape League. He posted a 3.21 ERA this year, going 11-3. With the rate that the Twins bring up young, good pitchers, look for Gibson to make the jump into the Minnesota rotation early on in his career. As a freshman on the Cape, Gibson struck out 51 in 34 innings and finished with a 1.17 ERA.

A.J. Pollock – Taken 17th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of Notre Dame, Pollock was the MVP of the Cape League in 2008. Pollock was back in Falmouth this week, where he played in the Cape Cod League, and unlike many of his first round counterparts who will hold out until the August 15th signing deadline, Pollock expects to report to the Diamondbacks within the week, giving him a few extra months of pro ball. Pollock is a very good contact hitter with great speed and very good defensive abilities as a center fielder. For someone who doesn’t have a ton of power, he had an OPS of nearly 1.000 in 2007 and 2008 at Notre Dame and he hit an almost unheard of .377 in the Cape League with an OPS up over 1.000, alongside 4 home runs and 11 stolen bases.

Angelo Songco – Drafted by the Dodgers in the fourth round, Songco hit .360 with an OPS of 1.152 and hit 15 home runs for Loyola Marymount as a junior this spring. He has proven he can get it done with the wooden bat in the Cape League where he hit 8 home runs and had 26 RBI in 2008. He also has above average, but not blazing, speed. The Dodgers have a history of crowded outfields, so Songco’s ETA may be delayed for quite some time, unless he ends up part of a trade.

Brad Boxberger – Taken by the Reds with a sandwich pick, Boxberger has shown flashes of a very good pitcher. After overcoming an elbow injury, Boxberger led USC’s rotation in 2009 and he posted a 3.16 ERA. Boxberger finished with a 1..24 ERA in the Cape League in 2007 and should be an up and comer in the Cincinnati organization, particularly is pitchers like Homer Bailey don’t pan out.

Chin Music: After The Draft

The Major League Baseball Draft began last night and continues today. Now that the big names have been drafted, the contract negotiation games have officially begun. Players and teams have until August 15 to finalize contracts, or else the player has to wait and re-enter the draft in 2010 before he can start his Major League career. Over the last fifteen years, the league has changed the name of the draft from the "Amateur Draft" to the "First Year Player Draft" thanks to some shenanigans from current Red Sox teammates Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew. Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote two years ago about the MLB draft. In it it discusses how players tried to circumvent draft rules to how teams try to stay away from certain high profile players who they deem too expensive.

In 1994, Georgia Tech catcher Jason Varitek was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the first round of the then labeled Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. At the time, teams lost their rights to a player nearly one full year after the amateur draft, the week before the following year’s draft, teams shed their exclusive rights to drafted players and those players would re-enter the amateur draft (it should be noted that recently that June of the following year deadline has been amended to August 15 of the draft year, which coincides with the end of amateur summer leagues). Varitek, who was holding out on a contract with the Mariners at the direction of his agent Scott Boras, opted to play for the independent St. Paul Saints of the Northern League, a league completely unaffiliated with Major League Baseball and its minor league affiliates. At the time the Amateur Draft rules stated that draft eligible players were those who had never signed a professional contract. At the time these rules were written, independent baseball did not exist in its current form in 1965, meaning the term professional baseball essentially referred to Major League teams and its minor league system. The Northern League, of which the St. Paul Saints were a part of, was not founded until 1993. Varitek, who had already held out after being drafted the year before and returned to school for his senior year, went to play in St. Paul and had thus signed a professional contract, meaning he was, by draft rules, ineligible for the draft because he had signed a contract, and could thus become a Major League Baseball free agent when Seattle lost his rights the following June. Major League officials continued to contend that Varitek would be forced to re-enter the draft the following season, but the point became moot when Varitek eventually agreed to terms with Seattle.

Despite the Varitek threat that never actually came to fruition, Major League Baseball did very little to amend or change rules about its amateur player draft. As a result, in 1997 Florida State outfielder, and Scott Boras’ client, J.D. Drew was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. Drew held out on a contract agreement after demanding 11 million dollars while Philadelphia offered him only 2 million. Drew signed a contract with the St. Paul Saints and threatened to fully hold out until the following June unlike Varitek, and become a free agent.

To counteract this threat, Major League Baseball reworded the draft rules to mean first year Major League player, not simply first year professional player. Major League Baseball, thinking it had put an end to the Drew/Boras plot to instigate a post-drafted player free agent market, quickly found itself fighting the MLBPA, which is where the entire situation becomes slightly confusing and even more interesting. Rather than intervening in this draft rule rewording in order to protect J.D. Drew, the MLBPA intervened and filed a grievance with a neutral arbitrator over the rewording of the rule, which the MLBPA labeled as a revision, something Major League Baseball could not do without the MLBPA’s consent.

Drew essentially had nothing to do with the MLBPA, he was not a Major League baseball player, and was not a part of the Major League/Minor League system, but on the principle of Major League Baseball changing a rule without arms lengths bargaining of that change with the MLBPA, the grievance of MLBPA with MLB would affect him. Drew was in no way represented by the MLBPA, there was no basis for it. What is remarkable is that draft rules, including eligibility is something that the MLBPA and Major League Baseball must agree to, considering eligibility refers to amateur/non-Major League players, which one would think would be out of the realm of what the MLBPA should be covering, considering it does not affect actual members but rather only potential members.

Despite this, the MLBPA grievance was reviewed in May 1998 by Dana Eischen, an independent arbitrator. Eischen decided that the rewording of the draft rules to clarify that it meant first year Major Leaguers (as the rule had been intended in 1965 when no independent leagues existed) was indeed an actual change and was a condition that the MLBPA had to agree to. What Eischen did not rule on was the meaning of the rules prior to the rewording, meaning that Major League Baseball could apply their new reworded meaning to the old rule, thus meaning that Drew would not be able to declare for free agency in June 1998. Eischen could not rule specifically on Drew’s case because Drew was not a member of the MLBPA or MLB and Eischen had no way to issue a ruling on an outside party under Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.

J.D. Drew re-entered the June 1998 draft, was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, and agreed to terms with the club. Nearly ten years later and now a member of the Boston Red Sox, Drew is ironically known as one of the most overpaid players currently in Major League Baseball. While the MLBPA filed a grievance in order to protect the principle that Major League Baseball could not revise a rule under the CBA without its consent, and perhaps inadvertently was helping J.D. Drew, from the union’s perspective, the draft, and collusion among teams to keep entry level wages down may actually be the stance the MLBPA takes by agreeing to the concept of a draft.

There have also been some strange occurrences after the draft, but with the teams at fault, like what happened with Travis Lee in 1996. There is also a tendency for some smaller market teams to select a player that is likely to be signed rather than the best player available (because that player may demand more money than the team is willing to pay). This happened, for example, with Andrew Miller, who slipped to all the way to sixth to the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 draft.

A rule stipulates that clubs must offer draftees a contract within 15 days of selecting them in the June draft. In 1996, four clubs did not offer their first round picks a contract within the set 15 days, meaning those four picks became free agents under rule. When simply looking at the numbers those free agents made compared to draftees whose rights were exclusively held over the following year, second overall pick Travis Lee, one of the four free agents, signed a 10 million dollar contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks (a team that was not set to begin play until 1998). Meanwhile, first overall selection Kris Benson, who was offered a contract within the 15-day limit by Pittsburgh, signed for only 2.5 million dollars. Comparatively, the better player made over 7 million less because he was allowed to bargain only with one team.

Despite wages being driven down for American players due to the draft, many Major League teams still find many draftees’ prices too high, especially for unproven athletes at the professional level. This leads to top prospects, such as North Carolina’s Andrew Miller, falling in the draft. Miller, the former Cape Cod Baseball League (the top amateur collegiate summer baseball league) Pitcher of the Year for 2005, found himself dropping to sixth overall, to a slot where Major League Baseball suggests that a pick be offered less money than would have been suggested had he been first overall pick that year to Kansas City, who most likely would not have been able to afford his required signing price.

One player bridges the gap between spending a year in independent league baseball with the concept of falling in the draft: Aaron Crow. Crow fell out of the top 10 last night after he was drafted ninth overall in 2008 by the Nationals. He spent a year playing independent league ball, not to go around the draft but rather to play at the professional level, and then saw his stock drop once teams saw his hardline stance when it comes to his contract.

Chin Music: Keeping Score

With the prices of programs at Major League parks more expensive than they need to be, one aspect of fandom has gone by the wayside over the last few years, or decades: keeping score. Every once in a while you’ll hear a play-by-play man say “that was a 6-4-3 double play” but beyond that, I’m not so sure that the up and coming generation of baseball fans will ever know how to keep score of a baseball game.

Keeping score tells a story and believe it or not, tells of trends among batters and pitchers much more easily than weaving through the play-by-play you could read on an internet box score or game recap. What’s the best way to learn how to score? By trying it out. I’m sure most of you know the basics, for example, each defensive position has a number from 1 through 9. I think most people already know the number of each position and can get most of them on your own, but be sure to not get tripped up on which corner outfielder is 7 and which is 9. (7 is the left fielder.)

What experience do I have scoring? Since 2007 I have been an official scorer for the Cape Cod Baseball League, the top collegiate summer baseball league. In a sport where statistics tell so much about a player, the official scorer is how Major League scouts get wooden bat information about baseball’s top prospects without having to send a scout to every game. (For example, my scorecard above includes three top ten picks from the 2008 draft: Buster Posey, Gordon Beckham, and Jason Castro.)

Now, back to the basics of scoring. You have you groundball outs, which include an assist and a put out. For example a grounder to third would be transcribed as “5-3.” You have your fly ball outs, which depending on how specific you want to get can be transcribed as “8” meaning the center fielder made the put out, or “F8” for a fly ball to center field, or “L8” for a line out to center field. You have your strikeouts, frontward K for swinging and backwards K for looking. You can have bizarre plays, like a pickle, where every assist needs to be transcribed. For example, for a player who takes off too early for second and is caught stealing by the pitcher before throwing a pitch: “1-3-6-1-4-3-6” with the shortstop finally getting the put out. (It would also go down as “CS” for caught stealing since the runner did take off for second.)

One of the toughest decisions for scoring, particularly for the official scorer, whose call it is, is deciding whether a play is a hit or an error. The basic rule is whether or not ordinary effort would have retired the batter, and that is a judgment call by the scorer that really depends on the level of play. This judgment call is not taken lightly, especially at higher levels where players, coaches, or managers demand explanations or request changes in scoring decisions, sometimes rightly, but inquiries are oftentimes ridiculous.

There are a few things to remember when it comes to scoring a play as an error. One is that you can never assume a double play. There are only two was to give an error on the second half of a double play (that is, after one put out is already complete). Those are if the first baseman muffs (drops) the ball on a clear putout of the second runner, or if the second basemen/shortstop (whoever’s making the second throw) throws the ball away and allows the runner to advance a base that he otherwise would not have. Also, wild pitches and pass balls are not recorded as errors, but pass balls do play a part in the making of an unearned run. How do you calculate unearned runs? It requires restructuring the inning without errors (even those by a pitcher, who can commit an error and the run is still unearned) and pass balls. Examples work best:

There’s one out and no one on. A batter reaches on fielding error. The next batter walks. It’s first and second with one out when the following batter hits a home run. The pitcher then retires the side on the following two batters. How many of the runs scored in that inning are earned?

Now let’s look at similar situation. There’s one out and no one on. A batter reaches on a fielding error. The next batter walks. It’s first and second with one out when the following batter strikes out. The batter after him hits a home run. The pitcher then retires the side. How many of the runs scored are earned?

The answer to the first question is two of the runs are earned. The batter who reached on an error can never be an earned run, no matter what. Had he been retired as he should have, there would have been two outs when the home run was hit. It would have been a two run home run after the walk, so there two earned runs.

In the second scenario, none of the runs are earned. The batter who reached on the error would have been the second out. The next batter would have walked with two outs, but the following batter, the strike out victim, would have been the third out. The batter who hit the home run would have never come to the plate and no runs would have scored. See how that works?

There are always fun and bizarre plays that happen during baseball games. For example, in 2007 I scored a game where current Rockies farmhand Christian Friedrich struck out ten batters in three innings. A wild pitch on a swinging strike three allowed one strikeout victim to reach first base. Despite not recording an out on the play, it still goes down as a strikeout for Friedrich. That allowed him to have four strikeouts in an inning, and ten through three innings.

In another scenario, I had a batter get an RBI and score a run in his first at bat of a game, but he was still considered 0-1 on the day after the play. With a runner on third and no one out, a batter hit a groundball to third base. With the infield at normal depth, the run was conceded, but the third baseman threw the ball over the first basemen’s head and down the right field line. The runner from third scored, as he would have even if the batter had been thrown out. With the ball halfway down the right field, the batter advanced to second. The right fielder picked up the ball and attempted to throw out the batter at second, with his errant, and late, throw ending up down the left field line. The batter ended up scoring while the ball was down the left field line. In what amounted to a little league style play among college players ended with the batter getting an RBI (he would have had he been thrown out at first), scoring a run, and technically is 0-1 since he should have been put out. He essentially scored on two two-base errors, one by the third baseman, the other by the right fielder.

An even more bizarre scenario too place when I was scoring a game in 2008. With Team A at the plate and two outs and a runner on third, in a 3-1 count, the runner on third took off for home. The pitch was outside to the left handed batter, landing right in the path of the oncoming runner, who was tagged out to end the inning. The following inning the same batter from Team A, who happened to be one of the team’s top hitters, was in the on deck circle waiting to lead off the inning. The team was about to bat out of order, much like how Michael Bourn batted out of order for the Astros last month. But it’s not the scorer’s duty to point this out to anyone, it’s up to the opposing team (Team B) to point it out so that the proper penalty (the batter who bats in the wrong spot is called out).

But why was this batter about to bat out of order when he was at the plate when the previous inning ended? Because technically he wasn’t the batter when the runner stealing home was tagged out. The pitch was outside, ball four, the batter had walked, but because his teammate was tagged out a millisecond later, the walk didn’t register with everyone. The manager from Team B noticed that the batter was coming back to the plate the next inning and said something before he stepped to the plate. An argument ensued between the two managers and the umpire over the count at the time of the last pitch of the previous inning. The umpire had 3-1, I had 3-1, it was pretty clear cut. It just so happens that Team A ended up better off because they didn’t bat out of order and have an out recorded no matter the outcome, while Team B should have waited until after the at bat to say anything.


So there it is, the basic primer for scoring with a few fun examples thrown in. Now go get a scorecard, or get a ruler and pencil and make your own, and give it a shot tonight with your favorite MLB team. For everything that I didn’t cover, like substitutions and how to show how runners advance, check out The Baseball Scorecard.

Chin Music: Koji Uehara and the NPB

Ichiro and Hideki Matsui spearheaded the Japanese invasion in Major League Baseball. Ichiro was the MVP and Rookie of the Year in his first season, and Matsui proved valuable in his first few years in the Bronx. That success has been followed up on the pitching end by the likes of Daisuke Matsuzaka and even new Orioles acquisition Koji Uehara, an under-the-radar pitcher whom Major League teams have been after since the late 1990s. (Expect 22 year old Yu Darvish to make the jump at some point too). Uehara has a 4.34 ERA and a 2-3 record, but has a 4:1 K to BB ratio and a tidy WHIP of 1.17 to go with 5 quality starts already this season.

The 34 year old Uehara is one of the few Japanese players who, given the opportunity, actually reject offers from American clubs and opt to stay at home in Japan. It wasn’t until he finished off a successful career at home and became a free agent that he was able and willing to make the move half away around the world to Baltimore.

Thinking about Uehara got me to thinking about his old team and the chance I had to see the NPB is person. It turns out I saw Uehara pitch in Tokyo seven years ago. I had absolutely no clue who he was at the time, in fact I just happened to check my ticket stub and the box score or else I still would’ve had no idea that I even saw him play. Uehara spent ten seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo’s hometown team, where he was teammates with Hideki Matsui, the only player I’d ever heard of back in 2002 when he hit an absolutely bomb to right-center that nearly landed in the Tokyo Dome concourse.

I was in Japan in 2002 for an entirely different sporting event, the 2002 World Cup, but everywhere I turned, behind the façade of Nike and Adidas soccer ads and the delirium that seems to accompany anything embraced by the Japanese (in this case the World Cup), there was baseball and it was everywhere. Baseball is embedded in Japanese culture and children play it much more than anyone in the United States. The sport there is like a bizarro mixture of American middle-upper class access to quality equipment mixed with the Dominican passion of always playing the sport, as if it was something fun to do, not something your parents signed you up for as something to do a few days a week. That said, these kids were like robots Honda was churning out at the local factory or something, there wouldn’t be an adult in sight and if they weren’t playing a game they were doing self-imposed drills or working on their mechanics.

Baseball is embedded in Japanese history. In Hiroshima I visited Atomic Bomb Dome (a hall that inexplicably survived the nuclear blast despite being just about right next to the drop zone) and the Hiroshima Peace Museum. When I heard a roar and what sounded like those annoying thunder sticks, I turned and looked across the street. Directly across from me sat the Hiroshima Municipal Stadium, home of the Toyo Carp. (They have since built a new stadium the opened this season). That’s when I decided that I’d come for the soccer and incredibly sights, but I had to get to a baseball game.

A few days later I was on the subway on my way to the Tokyo Dome. I mean this in the nicest of ways, but in terms of vocal support Americans are pretty lame compared to the rest of the world. All we ever do is the universal “Let’s Go _______” and even that usually only comes at crucial moments. The Tokyo Dome, despite being nowhere near filled to capacity rivaled the atmosphere of other stadiums I’ve visited abroad like Camp Nou and Amsterdam Arena (where, because I spoke English, they put me in the cordoned off Liverpool section…good times). On one side of the outfield bleachers were blue, the other orange and black as the two teams fans chanted, sang, and did anything but sit on their hands.

Meanwhile, all the beer vendors were women and carried mini Asahi kegs on their back (which I think is a brilliant idea even if I couldn't drink back then). You get a draught beer right at your seat, no opening bottles or cans and pouring them into a cup. Between innings there were strange on field promotions that make anything in an American minor league park look normal. The promotions ranged from a two-minute fitness class for a few select fans to the equivalent of one round of a Japanese game show, which are just remarkably strange in general. The game ended, I managed to find a McDonald’s (I hate fish), and then I headed back to the New Sanno to call it a night. Now, seven years later, instead of the efficiency of the Tokyo subway, I’ll hop on America’s oldest subway system (and also the worst subway system) and go see Uehara and Matsui play again, this time at Fenway Park.

Chin Closer Music: Making An Entrance

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity in the baseball world, from Manny Ramirez's positive test for HCG to Jeremy Guthrie grooving a fastball to Alex Rodriguez like he's Chan Ho Park pitching to Cal Ripken Jr. in an All-Star game to Selena Roberts "investigative journalism." Rather than waste more electronic ink on these issues, I'm going to move on to a part of baseball that I have an issue with: closer entrance music. Closer music always seems to fall into one of the following categories: Metallica, AC/DC, Welcome to the Jungle, or something that will make grandma's ears bleed (I'm looking at you Disturbed, Staind et al). Since most of those songs are either played out or well, bad, its time to move on to the next generation of closer entrance music. I'm here to offer up some suggestions.

Often times a song is picked because of its title or the message that its words send to the batters due up in that half inning (like "Welcome to the Jungle" or Nas' "Hate Me Now" which Huston Street uses and is one of the closer songs I don't think are bad choices). Outside of the songs by the screaming types, entrance music tends to start off slow to feed into the anticipation of the crowd. Rather than to serve the purpose of "intimidating" the opposing team, the music actually, more than anything, pumps of the crowd and, maybe just a little bit, the pitcher. Remember, these ballplayers are professionals, they all know the situation they're in, top of the ninth on the road in a tight game, James Hetfield isn't going to make their knees shake any more than ABBA. Similarly, while closers are a rare breed that most teams are lucky enough to stumble across, they too understand the situation the lies before them. Sure music can get your adrenaline going, but it really should already be going if you walking out onto the field in front of forty-thousand people. Now, it's those forty-thousand people that, unfortunately, need the music to get into the game. In some places, namely the northeast, this isn't much of a problem. But in other places fans arrive late, leave early, and don't do much unless a big scoreboard says to.

So now, if I may, here come some suggestions for the next generation of closers, but first a few things to note: 1) the name of the song doesn't matter. It doesn't, song titles (and generally words) don't pump people up, music does. Also, bad words can generally be edited out, as long it doesn't ruin the song. 2) The break between innings is only two minutes long. That means a song can have two glorious minutes and the rest can be terrible, doesn't matter, as long as the music is those good two minutes, even if it's the middle of the song. 3) Some of the lyrics in the following songs are NSFW (The Offspring, Eminem, Jay-Z), plus if you can get away with listening to music at work loud enough for other people to hear it, I applaud you.

First off is a song that morphs the coolness of a sheriff from a spaghetti western with a Custer-era calvary with a futuristic feel of...lasers and electric guitars. Knights of Cydonia by Muse.



Led by three lead guitars, and roughly ten, yes ten, singers is Boston-based band Bang Camaro and "Push, Push (Lady Lightning)." After all, the more singers there are, the more it feels like a kicking party from way back when you were in college. Similarly, beer sales end well before the end of the game so beer-fueled rowdiness tends to dissipate towards the end of games. While everyone's favorite Marxist Che Guevara described liquid courage best when he said "by the time we went on to the village dance, I felt ready to take on the world," fans who've lost their buzz, and closers who, unless they're Kevin Millar, never had one, will feel the courage to take on the world again after this song.



Next up are the instrumentals. Words aren't alway necessary, in fact they generally get in the way of a lot of good songs. Take, for example, the song from Requiem for a Dream. I'm sure you've heard it before. It isn't bad.


There's also an "Fire On High" by E.L.O., which isn't just good because it's an instrumental, but also because you don't have to listen to Jeff Lynne's voice.


In the third category, to counter the guitar heavy riffs from above, we have the drum heavy intros, led by The Offspring's "Americana."


Next is Billy Squier's "The Stroke" (whose words, in my mind, would mock the opposing team, or would at least be good for a bad closer, like Derek Lowe). You may also remember "The Stroke" from Billy Madison's arrival at his first day in high school, which sort of makes it even better.




If words of inspiration really are your thing, rather than the typical go-to, "Lose Yourself" I'd suggest an edited version of Eminem's "'Till I Collapse."



Or better yet, some words of advice on closer humility and work ethic (and really, it's advice everyone can use) from Shawn Carter himself in "My 1st Song."



Now what about the Caribbean coalition of closers? Fernando Rodney uses a song by reggaeton duo Angel y Khriz, while Frankie Rodriguez also goes the route of reggaeton. I think Hispanic closers are a little different in their outlook on a lot of things. Granted, they still want to get hyped, but a lot also just want to relax, and nothing helps that more than some reggaeton, merengue, or even slowing it down with some bachata. The Dominican north coast's finest in Raulin Rodriguez and his combination of country twang and Allman Brothers-sounding smooth guitar in "Parece Mentira" or Eddy Herrera's "Tu Eres Ajena" cover Bachata and Merengue respectively, but to really get maximum effectiveness it's going to need to be reggaeton. The default reggaeton artist? Daddy Jankee.

And finally, what about music for the visiting team's closer? I wouldn't suggest anything that mocks them upon their entrance because of how that could backfire once he strikes out the side in nine pitches. But what if he gets chased from the game? Then I say pour it on with some Benny Hill chase music or with some replacement-emasculating, Andy Bernard-inspiring Swedes (especially if you can get that last video on the video screen).

So there it is, a whole article without using the word steroids (whoops).

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Chin Music: Reviving the Craft

On April 26, with the bases loaded and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte on the mound, Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury took off for home, stumbled as he approached the plate, and slid into an awkward belly flop, safe at home plate. Since the game was on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and happened in a game against the Yankees, the feat of Ellsbury stealing home blew everyone’s collective mind, like when Daniel Faraday’s own mother sent him back in time so she could knowingly, but really unknowingly kill him. See, either you have no idea what I’m talking about or your mind was just re-blown.

With one stolen base on everyone’s mind, Rockies rookie center fielder Dexter Fowler pluralized the whole situation and made it a bunch of stolen bases on everyone’s mind the very next day when he swiped five bases in a win over San Diego.

Not to be outdone, this past Sunday (six days after Fowler’s accomplishment), Carl Crawford stole six bases against the slow deliveries of Brad Penny and the Red Sox bullpen, becoming the fourth person to accomplish that feat by joining Eric Young (who was last to do it in 1996), Otis Nixon, and Hall of Famer Eddie Collins (who did it twice in 1912, which I believe is back when the base paths were all uphill, both ways).

So that’s pretty cool, I guess. There are a handful of top-tier base stealers pompously showing off in a dying art, which is sort of like writing a dissertation in Latin. But wait, maybe in this pseudo-post-steroid-era transitional purgatory that Major League Baseball finds itself in stealing bases is the new homerun; maybe Carl Crawford is the next Max Fischer. Crawford, whose previous season high for stolen bases was 59 in 2004, already has 18 stolen bases through the first month of play. At this pace, while he likely won’t approach Ricky Henderson’s record of 130, he will break the 100 stolen base plateau. Meanwhile, Ellsbury has already stolen 14 bases, and looks well on his way to surpassing the 50 he stole in his rookie season last year. These players are supposed to steal bases though, so what’s the big deal. As John Schlegal points out over at MLB.com, everyone is attempting more stolen bases, and everyone is succeeding at the highest rate since the 1950s.

There are roughly 2 stolen base attempts per game this season, compared with 1.59 per game last year, but some of the league’s top base stealers are actually behind their normal pace –players like Jose Reyes and Grady Sizemore. And despite that, there are still more attempts and a higher success rate (76%). The key that unlocks this conundrum is that it seems like everyone is running. Bobby Abreu, who is 35, already has 11 stolen bases this season, halving his total from last season and pacing him for a career high, surpassing the 40 he stole in 2004. Ian Kinsler, who stole a career high 26 bases last year, already has 7 steals and is also on pace to demolish that previous high. Even some corner infielders are getting in on the act. Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez swiped the first base of his career this season, and even the likes of Joey Votto, Kevin Youkilis, and Evan Longoria, none of whom are exactly fleet of foot, are getting in on the action.

With the deflation of some power numbers, base stealers are back to being important in a game where manufacturing runs and aggression on the base path are playing an integral role in winning. Base stealers are becoming the anti-McGwire (who, by the way, stole 12 bases over the course of his career) and baseball executives are slowly realizing that to win games, they may just need to replace the stigma of Big Mac Land with the all-natural goodness of say, Whole Foods.

Chin Music: Bring Your Green Hat

A handful of teams are doing all kinds of streaking this April. With the help Jason Bay’s three-run ninth inning homerun on Monday night, the Boston Red Sox won their eleventh straight game (after a 2-6 start, mind you). The Sox swept doubleheaders, won 16-11 pitchers’ duels and won games on the backs of stolen bases and a corps of just-called-up rookie relievers.

Conversely, by the end of the first inning on Monday night, the Marlins were well on their way to their eighth consecutive loss at the hands of John Maine and his 7.47 ERA.

We’ve seen a string of winning and losing streaks this April. The Marlins have been on both sides of the spectrum; first by winning eight in a row and now by losing eight in a row. Even the Dodgers --in typical west coast fashion—have quietly snuck in an eight game winning streak. It’s always nice to get off to a hot start, but what does it mean for the long run? You can probably guess the answer: nothing. History tells us that an April win streak really doesn’t predict anything come September and October.

Since 1900, the longest winning streak to start a season is thirteen, done twice: by the Joe Torre-managed Atlanta Braves in 1982 and by the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers (back when they played in the American League). The Braves ended up in the NLCS back in 1982, but were quickly swept by St. Louis. The Brewers? They finished third in the AL East with a 91-71 record.

Is it nice to get off to a hot start? Surely. But teams are much better off streaking late than streaking earlier. Take, for instance, the 2002 Oakland A’s who won twenty straight in late August and landed feet first in the playoffs or the 2004 Red Sox, who went 24-4 from early August to early September.

Now let’s revisit the Marlins’ latest streak, the losing streak over the last week or so. Their loss on Monday night puts their losing streak at the longest on this young season, surpassing Washington’s 0-7 start. While Washington’s 0-7 start is, well, bad, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles got off to the worst start in Major League history: 0-21 (they didn’t even take Cal Ripken out of the lineup even though he was only hitting .211 through those 21 games).

While hot April starts and April winning streaks don’t necessarily mean success over the course of the season, terrible starts generally do correlate with bad seasons. After all, it’s a lot easier to lose than it is to win. The 1988 Orioles finished 54-107. The 2003 Detroit Tigers started 0-9 and 2-19 before famously avoiding a 120-loss season by winning five of their last six games to finish 43-119. The 2009 Nationals sit at 4-14 and show no semblance of breaking the trend set by the Baltimores and Detroits of the past. What about the Marlins, Red Sox, and Dodgers? Only time will tell, but all three could very well make the playoffs. It may be that none of the three make the postseason; by August it might be clear that while it seemed like a great idea to go streaking back in April, it may just leave them (and everyone they know) embarrassed and with nothing left to do but to wonder if KFC is still open.

Chin Music: The Cape League And Your Fantasy Team

Cape Cod. That's the hook that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and flexes Massachusetts’ bicep as a warning to, I think mostly just the British, not mess with the state. Cape Cod is known for its beaches and is home to “verdant greens[…]warm golds [and] pampered whites” and of course the Kennedys (not to be redundant). But for your sake, my sake and the sake of this article, Cape Cod is the home to the success of your future fantasy baseball team: the ten team Cape Cod Baseball League. As a wooden-bat NCAA summer league, every team on the Cape is made up of college All-Stars, so the league's All-Star game is truly the best of the best of collegiate baseball.

In late July 2005 I showed up at McKeon Park in Hyannis, home to the Cape League’s Hyannis Mets where I was a lowly intern fresh off my first year in college. The sun was barely up but the stadium parking lot was packed. Like any league, the Cape League rotates the venue for its All-Star game among the ten teams (I'll just go ahead and contradict myself by mentioning that this year's game is at Fenway Park). In 2005 the game came to Hyannis. I threw on the startling bright orange Hyannis All-Star Game shirt everyone got and started the morning off with my typical pre-game grunt work before my boss called me into the television production truck. College Sports TV (CSTV) was airing the game and needed someone to hold the radar gun that would display each pitch’s speed on screen for the game. That someone turned out to be me.

An entire area was cordoned off behind home plate in anticipation of the two dozen or so scouts expected to be on hand. I sat in my position behind home plate and over the course of an hour scouts filed in wearing their typical PGA-style wadrobes: polo shirts, khaki pants, sunglasses and the occasional visor. I struck up a few conversations and made some small talk until the game started.

The Hyannis Mets turned out to be the worst team in Cape League history in 2005. As one of their interns, the only time I got to see other players was when they came to town. This game was a chance for me to see the best players all in one place, and much like the scouts, a bunch of players peaked my interest.

Current Red Sox prospect, but then-North Carolina Tar Heel Daniel Bard (1.25 ERA, 82 SO in 65 IP that season) started the game with two quick outs before giving up a single. Stepping to the plate in the clean up spot was a skinny middle infielder from Long Beach State named Evan Longoria, who finished that Cape League season at .299 with 8 home runs, 35 RBI and an OPS of .831. He calmly stroked a double down the left field line. After another walk, Bard got out of the bases loaded jam unscathed. It was fitting that Longoria was one of the few notable offensive players in a game controled by future Major League pitchers.

As the game went on, it was dominated entirely by the pitchers. From my position directly behind the backstop I could see as nasty curves, even nastier sliders, and pure heat left even the league’s best hitters seemingly hopeless. My radar gun lit up. It made it to triple digits only once, but if a fastball came in below 93 it was an oddity.

A relatively short pitcher from the University of Washington hit 97 and 98 consistently. People seemed to know little about him coming out of high school (he was drafted in the 48th round), but his performance that day in the Cape League All-Star game announced his arrival. His stuff was filthy and combined with his 0.69 ERA and 68 strikeouts over 39.1 innings that season, the scouts took notice. Three years later that same Tim Lincecum won the National League Cy Young.

A tall lanky lefty from UNC threw sliders to left-handed batters that seemed as though they were going to hit the batter in the backside, only to tail back across the plate, leaving scouts to do nothing but chuckle at what was happening. He ended up with a 6-0 record (in a 44 game season, mind you) with a 1.65 ERA and 66 strikeouts over 49 innings. That pitcher was recent disabled listee Andrew Miller, whose career hasn’t panned out according to plan so far, but who has the skill set of an ace, if he can just figure out a way to harness it.

Then came a tall pitcher from Cal who made my radar gun hit triple digits. As a closer in the league, he struck out 24 in 14.2 innings. Despite being drafted as a starter, Brandon Morrow quickly reverted back to his reliever days and he’s closing for Seattle now.

It’s not surprising that the game was 0-0 into the top of the ninth. With current Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson on the mound (1.15 ERA, 39 SO over 31.1 IP that season), Evan Longoria came through with his second hit, advancing the eventual winning run to third. The run, almost rightfully so, scored on a double play. There would be no game winning RBI. The final 1-0 score line was fitting for a game the featured so much young, future Major League talent. It was left up to the scouts to vote on the game’s MVP. Most just wrote in each other’s names, or wrote “the pitchers.”

Every summer since 2005 I have worked for the Cape Cod Baseball league in some capacity. In 2006, the All-Star lineup included Baltimore’s Matt Wieters, Texas’ Justin Smoak, San Francisco’s Buster Posey, and Cleveland’s Matt LaPorta (who, for example, actually struggled his last year at the Cape, especially compared to his college seasons), all of whom are among the best prospects in all of baseball. In fact, after a few weeks of the 2006 a few of my co-workers and I each chose the player who we thought would pan out to be the best pro. One chose Wieters, the other chose Smoak. I chose Tulane outfielder Warren McFadden, but only because his at-bat music was “Apache” by the Sugarhill Gang. It's fair to say that the contest is now down to the two of them. The two former co-workers now work for the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays, so I guess that’s where a keen eye for talent gets you.

The 2007 game included Buster Posey for a second time, along with current White Sox second base prospect Gordon Beckham (who, surprisingly enough for a kid from Georgia, dresses like he’s about to go yachting, or be a part of a Ralph Lauren catalog) and up and coming Reds prospect Yonder Alonso.

So what’s my point in all this? If you’re looking for the next big sensation, or just the next solid professional for your fantasy baseball team, start paying attention to the Cape Cod Baseball League. This isn’t even a new trend. Since the 1988 Cape League season that featured Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Kent, Jeromy Burnitz, Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon, Denny Neagle, and J.T. Snow, the Cape League has been churning out future Major Leaguers every year. At the very least you should take a glance at how prospects did there; it’s a very good indicator of how they will do with the big boys a few years later (the Cape League uses wooden bats. The Big Leagues use wooden bats. There’s a little bit of a correlation there). It’s done wonders for my fantasy team. Just ask the people who thought I was insane for taking Tim Lincecum and Evan Longoria well before anyone else thought they should be taken last year in my 2008 fantasy draft. Even take a look at last week’s Fensts’ Farm Report, you’ll find a bunch of the aforementioned Cape Leaguers in there too.

Many of the 2007 and 2008 crops of Cape League All-Stars haven't even been drafted yet. But glance at who played in the game the last two seasons, or just take a peek at some of the league leaders, you’ll be seeing their names early and often come this June’s draft (like Aaron Crow, Kyle Gibson, Grant Green,Tim Wheeler, A.J. Pollock and Rich Poythress...and Dustin Ackley who, albeit due to injury, didn't even make the All-Star team). It may not be for a while, but I would suggest drafting some of them in your 2011 fantasy draft, they may just key your team to your fantasy league championship.

Chin Music: Steroids and Age Fraud

Over the weekend 19-year-old Washington Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez was suddenly revealed to be neither 19 nor named Esmailyn Gonzalez. His actual name is Carlos Lugo and he’s 23 years old. That’s four years older than he was originally listed. Lugo got a 1.4 million dollar signing bonus when he was 16 (but really 20), a deal negotiated by Basilio Vizcaino, who according to MLB “helps prepare young players in hopes that they eventually sign big Major League deals and reward him with a percentage of a signing bonus.” So Vizcaino is a buscone, an agent, trainer, coach, scout hybrid of sorts who find players, trains them to the point of the Dominican word “ready” (that's some players, including a former signee discussing the process of readiness, you need to mostly know Spanish) which is taken from the American English word “ready.” The Dominican word means specifically ready to sign. To learn a little more about buscones check out my article from last month, or check out Stealing Lives by Arturo J. Marcano and David P. Fidler.

The fact of the matter is that in a lot of cases buscones put a lot of time and effort into supporting (as in feeding and housing) Dominican prospects while they train them to be “ready.” They certainly do deserve a sort of finders fee in those cases, but all too often the skimming of money intended for a player becomes exorbitant, far more than just a fee, it’s an abuse of the system.

What caught Major League Baseball’s attention in the Gonzalez/Lugo case was the close relationship between Vizcaino, Jose Rijo, who special assistant to Nationals GM Jim Bowden, and Jose Baez, who is in charge of Washington’s Dominican operations. Major League Baseball (and now the FBI) has been looking into the skimming of signing bonuses of Dominican players. Were the Nationals officials part of the conspiracy to misrepresent the player and in turn take a chunk of the signing bonus? We’ll have to let the investigators figure all that out.

The scam pulled off by Gonzalez/Lugo is pretty impressive though. Not only did he lie about his age, which is not that difficult, but he managed to completely change his name. This is a big step up from the simple age issues with birth certificates in the Dominican Republic (like when Miguel Tejada was caught lying about his age). Guess what though? It’s really not all that difficult to officially have the wrong age on your birth certificate in the Dominican Republic, whether done intentionally or by mistake. First of all, nearly one in four Dominicans do not have a birth certificate (for a brief primer on birth certificates, and to get a feel for an “average” Dominican town, check out this report I wrote in the fall). People are far more likely to not be born in a hospital. Officially getting a birth certificate is put off by parents for months and oftentimes years. It’s nothing like here where you aren’t leaving a hospital for home without one.

Even fourteen and fifteen year old students I had in the Dominican Republic would flip-flop on their age from day to day because they weren’t entirely sure what year they were born. Times and dates just aren’t that important where I lived. Meeting at five o’clock really meant sometime before five thirty, or even six. There were very few clocks (I can’t imagine how stuff worked before cell phones) and even fewer people know how to tell time on an analog clock. That’s just something to keep in mind with these age mix-ups.

While it gets more and more difficult to obtain a birth certificate as someone gets older, generally all that is needed is for the child’s mother (it has to be the mother) to go to the town hall closest to where the child was born, fill out, and obtain a birth certificate. What this also means is that the date can become mixed up, misremembered, or even falsified on purpose. Is this what Lugo did? Absolutely not. What he did was almost definitely involved fraud with a whole host of people helping out.

The fact of the matter is, from a baseball perspective, that the better and the younger you are, the better chance you have of getting out of life in a third world country.

That concept brings us to this whole “boli” saga with Alex Rodriguez and his Dominican trainer. Alex Rodriguez has been linked to Dominican trainer Angel Presinal, who himself is linked to steroids (as in he got caught in Canada with a bag full of stuff when he was travelling with Juan Gonzalez earlier this decade). Presinal has been banned from stadiums by MLB but still managed to follow the Yankees around from hotel to hotel in 2007. I don’t trust Alex Rodriguez’s story for a second, not even with his awkward speech “to my teammates…(awkward, awkward silence, I like how he looks next to him to kill more time, and how he looks like he's about to laugh).”


Experts came out saying they have no idea what in the world boli is. But that’s probably because they don’t know Dominican Spanish. Dominicans have words for things that other Spanish-speaking countries have never heard of, or that those countries just use differently (that is, properly). My favorite example of this is the word “poloche.” It means t-shirt. Say it slowly. Po-lo…che(rt). See how that works (and see how polo shirt doesn’t even mean t-shirt in English). Now I don’t know for a fact that boli is slang for steroid or even a specific kind of steroid (I’m still waiting to hear back from someone on island to confirm or deny that), but the name of the steroid doesn’t matter. Rodriguez tested positive for Primobolan. That’s a fact. Did I know any baseball players who used steroids? Not personally. But I also lived very far away from the baseball hotbeds in the south of the country.

That said, many drugs that you would otherwise need a prescription for in the U.S. are generally available for over the counter purchase in the Dominican Republic. Last fall I badly burned my hands (don’t click on that if you’ve just eaten). I didn’t go to the hospital, I went to a pharmacy. A Dominican pharmacy is the stuff of an FDA regulator’s nightmare. The gauze I ended up buying was just sitting on the counter, unwrapped and unprotected. There are a lot of drugs available for purchase, most of which I’d never heard of. Were some of them steroids or testosterone? Probably. Primobolan is illegal in the Dominican Republic, but so are a lot of other drugs, and that never stopped motoconchistas (people riding around on motorcycles who look for fares, and many sell drugs on the side because they’re always on the move, making detection and tracking them difficult) from offering to sell me recreational drugs pretty often.

Something I applaud are steps the U.S. government is willing to take in order to prevent Dominican players involved with steroids from entering the United States. Sure you can cheat and get signed, but you can’t come play. Americans are spoiled, generally a passport is all you need to travel anywhere in the world. For a lot of other places, including a Dominican looking to go to the United States, you need a passport and a visa. Friends of mine have found it impossible to even get a tourist visa (which allows for a temporary visit) to the United States. The only people who have been successful in securing any kind of visa were 1) someone who had a very nice Dominican job (read: the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about them outstaying their visa and looking for an American job) and 2) windsurfers and kiteboarders looking to go to the U.S. for competitions. Baseball players would fall under the second category; a visa granted for having a special skill. The government has said that it may withhold visas from anyone implicated in steroid use. A great first step in my opinion. While the FBI and Major League Baseball continue to investigate the Nationals and the mishandling of signing bonuses in the Dominican Republic, it’s nice to see that the U.S. government is willing to do what it can to at least try and keep the steroid drama out.

We all have to remember that the Dominican Republic is its own country. They’re going to do things the way they want, and right now the way it is, between birth certificates, pharmacies (plus the availability of drugs on the internet and drug dealing trainers), and buscone signing bonus abuses, Major League Baseball needs to get the Dominican government involved. It’s difficult for Major League Baseball to do a whole lot to change anything on their own from their little office in Santo Domingo. Based on the post-strike era though, you have to wonder if Major League Baseball really wants any of it to change.

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I would also like to take a moment to recognize, and most of all give my immense gratitude to my boss John Wylde, the head statistician for the Cape Cod Baseball League (among dozens of other things) who passed away on Monday. John taught me more about baseball and statistics in two years than I could have possibly learned on my own over a lifetime. The man did more for collegiate baseball over the last 25 years than anyone else could have dreamed of, even working through all of last year despite his terminal illness. It's even rumored that the name for Baseball America was even come up with in his living room. My condolences go out to his family.