WBC 3

The World Baseball Classic was born during March Madness in the first year after I graduated college, in 2006. Derek Jeter was on the American WBC team and all the announcers raved about what a fine ambassador he was for the game. My friend and I watched the early WBC games on TV and mused about potential products bearing Jeter's moniker: "Ambassador Sauce --- finally you can experience all the taste and flavors of Derek Jeter, in an easy-to-pour bottle."

Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were still the main baseball announcers for ESPN's televised coverage, and it was hard not to notice that while Miller relished pronouncing every "ñ" and "rr" on the Cuban team, Morgan tripped over name after name. Both men are in the Hall of Fame, and listening to them cover the World Baseball Classic, it was no mystery which man was enshrined for his words, and which for his play.

I was much more in tune with baseball in those days. Of course I had more time, too. I didn't know all the players on the Cuban or Japanese WBC squads, but I could probably name the managers and general managers for all 30 teams in Major League Baseball. In general, I haven't followed the game as closely as I did in 2006, the Mets' last great season before their '07 and '08 September collapses. I watched almost every game with my mom on the Mets' new cable channel, SNY. It was a good ride: the Mets won their first division since we moved to California in 1989. I even drove to Los Angeles to watch their Game 3 clincher against the Dodgers. The Mets dropped the ALCS to the Cardinals, though, and I started working three jobs that offseason. By June of the following year, I found a new job, one that stuck, one with benefits, and I've been working for them ever since.

I don't really remember much about the second WBC in 2009, though I have vague memories of lots of American players getting hurt and dropping out during the first few games of the tournament. Did we lose a game to the Netherlands? That resonates. I think part of the reason I don't remember much about that second tournament is that I was --- well, I was a bit occupied: working on a promotion (I got it, and still have the "new" job four years later); starting a new relationship (that "new" girlfriend is now my fianceé). Anyway, watching the World Baseball Classic wasn't really on my radar that year as much as the inaugural tournament. I didn't even have TV at home!

This time around I want to really pay attention to the World Baseball Classic. I just read through the rules and jotted down notes. I've got tickets to the championship round games in San Francisco in mid-March, and I'm even planning to shell out for cable so I can record the first and second rounds of play.

Some of the topics I want to investigate before the 2013 WBC gets started include:

• What is the most coveted uniform number for each team? I would guess every Puerto Rican will want to wear 21 (for Roberto Clemente). Are there similar special numbers for other countries?
• Each first round pool features one team playing in its home country (though I'm not sure how the Chinese Taipei/Taiwan thing works, exactly): Japan, Chinese Taipei/Taiwan, Puerto Rico, and USA. Have teams playing in their home countries typically enjoyed a special advantage? I know we're working with a small sample size since there have only been two tournaments, but I'm still curious.
• Which team has the most experienced players? Experience as professionals vs. experience in WBC 1 & 2.
• Games will be played at stadiums around the globe. What are the different stadiums named after? Are they all corporations? What kinds of corporations?
• Where are players born? Are they typically born in the lands they are representing? Or are they playing for the homeland of a parent? Which team is the most "pure" by this standard?
• What is the national ____ of each team? (Fill in the blank with: animal; color; song; film; export; drink; food; car). What, if anything, does this tell us about that team?

Enjoy Every Sink Bath: Songs of 2011

Last week I finished up my second ever year-end musical mix CD: "Enjoy Every Sink Bath," a collection of songs I was really into during 2011. Some of the songs were released in the past 12 months, and many were released long ago. A full track listing appears below, and with one exception, all songs are available for download on iTunes.

The project's title alludes to Warren Zevon's quote on death and dying -- "Enjoy every sandwich." -- and extends the playful theme of that advice while honoring the departed Buffalo Bill, our family's pet guinea pig, who is seen above, enjoying his sink bath.

My first try at a mix CD was in 2008, which was when Buffalo Bill passed away. I got the idea of compiling a gift CD from a co-worker, Ryan, and in tribute to Buffalo Bill, I named my annuary "The Year of the Buffalo" and slapped a photo of him on the cover. That mix was a lot of fun to put together, although it was challenging to fit all my favorite (at the time) music onto a single CD.

Since then, I've spent less and less time discovering new music, have been listening to music less, in general. Part of that is because listening to new music actually requires time and effort. Whereas I used to check out new tunes during periods at work when I was performing dull, data entry-related tasks, lately my work has required greater concentration and fewer uninterrupted blocks during which I can immerse myself in whatever's hot on Pitchfork/Stereogum/AV Club/etc.

Mostly though, I blame it on Ryan leaving our company nearly two years ago (don't worry, his mix CDs are still going strong)

Anyhow, this year I was re-energized with respect to engaging in music. I trotted out to local festivals (Outside Lands, Bridge School Benefit, Noise Pop), became smitten with Spotify, and actually purchased new music for the first time in lord knows how long. Even better, I learned that several of my favorite co-workers share my musical tastes, and they have pointed me in the direction of new stuff all year long.

Once I decided that I wanted to make a mix CD to say "thanks," the main challenges were 1) ordering the various songs in a enjoyable flow, 2) getting my track list under 80 minutes, and 3) choosing only one song per artist. I had to cheat a little bit (removing 25 seconds of near silence for space consideration, editing two tracks into one) but the night before I wanted to hand them out, I finally had to stop tinkering and sat down to spend a few hours burning 30 copies.

Well, I thought it went off without a hitch, but a few folks have started to tell me that their CDs do not contain track data. I confirmed this when I inserted one of them into my hard drive and iTunes displays the list as "Track 01," "Track 02," etc. I was initially totally bummed about that because the whole point was to share music with my friends, so I decided to post the track list at the bottom of this blog entry, and also provide a back story to the album name.

Enjoy Every Sink Bath | Songs of 2011

Track | Artist Los Peces En El Rio | Gipsy Kings Who Could Win A Rabbit | Animal Collective Fine Fine | Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations Bleecker Street | Simon and Garfunkel The Breakup | The Rural Alberta Advantage Blue Spotted Tail | Fleet Foxes My Favourite Book (Flack) | Stars Need You Now | Cut Copy For Better or Worse | JF Robitaille The Ghost Of Tom Joad | Junip Drmz | A.A. Bondy Fell Thru Ice (Complete) | Memory Tapes Call Me Back | The Strokes Point of View | Pujol I Saw The Light | Spoon Desperados Under The Eaves (Live at WMMS) | Warren Zevon Angel Is Broken | Atlas Sound So Well | Dawes Another Wave from You | M83 Little Lion Man (Live) | Mumford & Sons

If you didn't receive a copy and would like to, or if you did receive a copy and want me to correct the track info on your copy of "Enjoy Every Sink Bath," please get in touch; I'd hate for the reason you don't listen to this music to be that it required your time and effort.

Good Decisions, Bad Decisions

This afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks will send righty Daniel Hudson to the mound. Hudson was a fixture in the Snakes' rotation this season, compiling a 16-12 record in 33 starts.

Shortly after I noticed that his win-loss total included two double-digit numbers, it struck me that I couldn't think of any other hurler who was the pitcher of record more times than Hudson  in 2011.

A quick check on MLB.com confirmed my suspicions.

Hudson's 28 decisions tied him with Seattle's Felix Hernandez, Tampa Bay's James Shields, and Oakland's Gio Gonzalez for second-most in the bigs (Gonzalez's decision total is all the more impressive for having been amassed in only 32 chances).

The top of the leaderboard featured another tie.

One of the co-champs was hardly surprising: Justin Verlander, the most brilliant pitcher in a year filled with pitching brilliance, earned a decision in all but five of his 34 turns, going 24-5.

Verlander's dominance -- he limited opposing batters to a .192 average, striking out nearly one batter per inning -- allowed him to go deep into ballgames: the average Verlander start lasted 7.38 innings. In this measurement of longevity, Verlander trailed only Shields, who logged 7.54 IP/G on the way to completing 11 games, a total which also led the major.

Ironically, because of the suspension of ALDS Game 1 due to rain, Verlander was ineligible for a decision after game play paused with a 1-1 tie score. Anyway, the point is: pitching a lot of innings increases the likelihood that a starting pitcher will end up being the pitcher of record

How, then, to explain the curious case of Hideki Kuroda, the 36 year-old Dodgers righty who averaged a mere 6.31 IP/G but who nonetheless failed to earn a decision only three times in 32 starts? That's a decision rate over 90 percent, for those keeping track at home.

Kuroda's 29 decisions weren't all smiles and sunshine, though; despite his 3.07 ERA he lost 16 games, the most by any Dodger pitcher since Orel Hershiser in 1987.

That was a tough season for Hershiser. Like Kuroda would 24 years later, he sported a low ERA (3.06) for an under-performing Los Angeles team that finished well off the playoff pace (in my opinion, neither Dodger pitcher should be discredited for getting tagged with so many losses, given their strong peripheral statistics).

A funny thing happened in 1988, though: the Bulldog won the Cy Young Award, setting the record for most consecutive scoreless innings along the way, and the Dodgers went onto the playoffs and the World Series, during which Hershiser tossed two complete games and went on to win the Series MVP trophy.

Fans often remember the 1988 World Series for a different achievement, though. A hobbled shortstop who left the Tigers to play for LA before the 1988 season -- and whose regular season performance and leadership earned him the 1988 NL MVP Award -- provided a magical ending to Game 1 when he gimped up out of the dugout, stepped into the box, and clobbered Dennis Eckersley's slider into the left-field bleachers to send the crowd home happy.

It's been 23 Octobers since Kirk Gibson etched his name in the record books, and as manager of the Diamondbacks, his ball club is down 1-0, on the road, and facing a pitcher who didn't lose at home all year. Milwaukee jumped all over Arizona's ace, Ian Kennedy, in the series opener, and at some point in the middle innings of Game 2, possibly before Daniel Hudson has established himself as the pitcher of record, Gibson may again have to make the long walk on to the diamond, this time for a totally different reason.

Despite Hudson's success racking up decisions during the regular season, and even though the 24 year-old was still in diapers when the Impossible happened, something tells me that if and when Gibson pulls his from the game, the youngster won't question his decision making.

The Men With Two Names

As St. Louis right-fielder Allen Craig stepped up to the plate in the first inning of today's Cards-Phils matchup, it dawned on me that two-thirds of the St. Louis starting outfield (Craig and center-fielder Jon Jay) are manned by players who have two first names.

Questions raced through my mind:

Is it weird to have more than one of these guys patrolling the same outfield? What about the other playoff teams? Are their lineups stocked with guys who could pass for superheroes?

To further my study, I needed to find a definitive postseason roster for each of the eight current playoff teams.

Fortunately this was easy to find: MLB.com shares active rosters for every club and even groups players by fielding position: Pitchers, Catchers, Infielders, Outfielders, and (for AL squads) Designated Hitters.

While compiling results, I occasionally had trouble deciding who to include or exclude from my count. For instance, Tampa Bay's Johnny Damon is an easy inclusion, but what about Brewers outfielder Nyger Morgan? His first name is barely a first name. And players such as Arizona's Ryan Roberts come close, but if we're being precise, "Roberts" is just not the same as "Robert."

To help me settle these edge cases, I elected to let the U.S. Government be my ultimate authority for name verification: if a player's first and last names exactly matched two of the Top 750 baby names for the year 2010, I counted him.

Why 750? Twenty-five players per team times 30 teams in MLB gets us to 750.

Crude, perhaps, but you have to set the cutoff somewhere. If that means we don't count Phillies slugger Ryan Howard because his family name is the male equivalent of "Fay" -- at #905, "Howard" sits between "Lionel" and  "Davon" on the baby name popularity index, circa 2010 -- so be it.

Another note on methodology: since Allen Craig and Jon Jay inspired this research, I restricted my survey to non-pitchers (with apologies to playoff hurlers Wade Davis, Edwin Jackson, and Colby Lewis).

Okay, onto the names. Without further ado, your 2011 Jay Bruce All-Stars:

Arizona Diamondbacks: 0

Detroit Tigers: 3
Austin Jackson (#64, #25); Don Kelly (#377, #306-F*); Ramon Santiago (#480, #133)
* Kelly was the 306th most common name for U.S. females born in 2010.

Milwaukee Brewers: 0

New York Yankees: 1
Russell Martin (#406, #258)

Philadelphia Phillies: 1
Ben Francisco (#692, #196)

St. Louis Cardinals: 2
Allen Craig (#323, #665), Jon Jay (#576, #414)

Tampa Bay Rays: 1
Johnny Damon (#266, #419)

Texas Rangers: 1
Nelson Cruz (#569, #321)

It turns out St. Louis trails only Detroit in terms of stocking up on these types of hitters. If we see a Cardinals-Tigers World Series, I think we can safely deduce that these teams' fates lay in their players' names.

As an aside, I was surprised to learn that so many Hispanic names are popular as baby names, but perhaps I shouldn't be. For a semi-related graphical representation of the rise of Latino surnames on baseball uniforms, check this out.

Mets vs. Braves

First Inning

The Mets fielders follow Mike Pelfrey onto the playing field, and applause scatters down from the home fans. If the Citi Field crowd seems lacking in enthusiasm for this Sunday Night Baseball matchup, perhaps it's because raindrops are falling as well.

Three thousand miles away, I'm sitting in my recliner fighting off beads of sweat, not because of the expected intensity from tonight's intradivisional competition, but because the late afternoon California sun shines through our apartment windows and turns the living room into a sauna.

From my long distance, high-def, tropical viewpoint, the field looks damp, but not exactly soaked, as Braves leadoff man Melky Cabrera steps into the batters' box. Stadium floodlights are reflected in the moisture on Cabrera's helmet, which features a glossy sheen not unlike a freshly polished bowling ball.

Pelfrey, the Mets' tall right-hander, retires Cabrera on two quick pitches, and sets down the next batter, Martin Prado, without much trouble. So far, so good.

Who but Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones should step to the plate with two out so get the Atlanta offense moving. Nicked up and aging but menacing as ever when facing the Mets, L-Dub draws a five-pitch walk.

That's fine. Let him on first. He can't run, which he shows by failing to score on a long double to right by the cleanup hitter Brian McCann. Pelfrey walks Troy Glaus to load the bases for Jason Heyward.

Uy.

Heyward, displaying a tremendous combination of plate coverage and plate discipline, works the count full and the fouls off several pitches before popping up harmlessly to end the Braves' threat in the first.

Phew.

Having stymied the Braves most talented young hitter, the Mets face off against Atlanta's top young pitcher, Tommy Hanson. Hanson sets down Angel Pagan and overpowers Luis Castillo. So far, so bad.

Jose Reyes bloops a single that falls eight feet in front of left fielder Cabrera, and then wastes little time taking second base off Hanson and McCann. When Jason Bay grounds a ball softly down the third base line, L-Dub shows his age, diving for a ball that a third baseman shouldn't have to, and short-arming his throw way off line. Amid the confusion, Jose Reyes scoots home, and the Mets nab their first run of the game.

Second Inning

ESPN's television broadcasters tonight are Jon Miler, Joe Morgan and Orel Hershiser. Two Hall of Famers and a Cy Young award winner -- hey, not bad.

Hershiser is almost certainly best remembered for that magical 1988 season, when he was not only the Cy Young winner but picked up some other serious hardware as the Dodgers' MVP in both the NLCS against the Mets, and the World Series against the Dodgers (although Orel's postseason brilliance may be forgotten by most fans in lieu of a particularly memorable Kirk Gibson-Dennis Eckersley encounter in Game 1).

Anyway, Hershiser's most famous and longstanding achievement from the '88 season was his streak of pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings. It just so happens that Mike Pelfrey hasn't allowed a run since his first start of the season, a stretch of 19 innings going into tonight's content.

The streak seems destined to end, though, as Pelfrey has really labored to get through the first two innings, needing 60 pitches. Perhaps the rain can be blamed; I wouldn't say he's been wild, but Pelfrey has walked three through two, which doesn't bode well unless Hanson starts to slip as well.

Pelf works his way through two, though, with the streak intact, and Hanson answers by mowing down the first couple of Mets batters, then farting around with Henry Blanco and walking the punchless backstop.

Joe Morgan freaks out, calling it a sin to walk the No. 8 hitter with two outs, which ordinarily I'd agree with, since you'd love to have the opposing pitcher lead off the following inning. In this case though, bringing Pelfrey to the plate means you're tiring him out even more, and coming off two long innings, the last thing Pelfrey needs if he's already tired is to be digging in for an at bat against Tommy Hanson.

I'm not suggesting Hanson was pitching around Blanco intentionally, but I don't think it was actually that bad a move, all things considered. Maybe credit Bobby Cox for this one? Maybe a savvy Braves beat writer will ask him about it after the game.

For his part, Pelfrey doesn't go down without a fight. After working the count to 2-2, Pelf fouls off three straight Hanson offerings before grounding out to second base to end the inning. Way to go Pelf! I liked his effort. This could be a disastrous next half-inning in the field for him, but he showed me something.

Third Inning
The third inning isn't quite as disastrous as I predicted, as the Braves make three outs with a game-low 16 pitches. More importantly, the scoreless streak stays alive when Heyward comes to bat with men on first and second and one out but grounds a double play ball at Reyes to end the threat.

This makes five runners stranded by Heyward in his first two at bats. I'll take it, but just as John Maine was able to pitch around trouble early in last Sunday night's game against the Cardinals (also the ESPN Sunday Night game), the Mets' good fortune against the Jay Hey Kid can't continue all night long.

In the Mets' half of the third, Luis Castillo breaks for second with one out and Reyes batting, and after Brian McCann's throw sails into center field, Castillo alertly advances to third. Unfortunately, on the next pitch, Reyes' ground ball up the middle -- slowed by the wet infield grass, no doubt -- is gobbled up and amounts to the second out of the inning. Four-five hitters Bay and Wright are unable to plate Castillo, and the Mets fail to capitalize on McCann's error.

After Reyes' failure to drive in Castillo, Joe Morgan criticizes the Mets' new No. 3 batter for not hitting the ball hard up the middle, and characterizes Reyes' at bat as a misstep. Morgan seems to think that the job of a No. 3 hitter is to work the count until he can either hit the ball hard through the infield, or hit the ball deep enough into the outfield for a sacrifice fly. I'm not trying to pick on Joe Morgan, but I think he and I aren't watching the same game.

It's pretty obvious (to me, at least), that the wet grass has helped both teams so far (remember Heyward's inning-ending double play just a few minutes before), and Reyes' ball, which ordinarily would have scooted through for an RBI single, just happened to not be good enough tonight.

If not for the weather, Castillo wouldn't have even been on third base, and might have even been caught stealing. Do you really think McCann would have thrown the ball into center field if it weren't raining?

Also, is there something special about the third spot in the order that dictates a player should be more patient? Moreso than the leadoff spot, even? Ugh, Morgan, you're killing me...

Fourth Inning

I was so caught up trying to articulate my frustration with Joe Morgan that I miss the entire top of the fourth inning. Noticing that the score was still 1-0 heading to commercial, I decide to celebrate Pelfrey's active streak (and cool off) by grabbing a soda and sticking my head in the freezer for a minute.

I get back to the action with one out in the bottom of the inning just in time to see the wet Citi Field grass take away another grounder up the middle. This time the victim is Jeff Francouer. By the time Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar gets to it, Frenchy's ball is almost in shallow right-center field, the batter safely at first.

Even if Escobar hadn't flubbed the transition from glove to hand (a bungle leading to a non-out), Escobar might have been too far away to throw out Francouer anyway, and the play is ruled a "hit." Escobar sure looked pretty stupid on a ball he normally wouldn't have been able to get to anyway, but that's about all the damage the Braves suffer, as Hanson shuts down Blanco and Pelfrey to end the fourth.

Fifth Inning
Martin Prado drives a ball past Francouer in right for a double to lead off, but Pelfrey mans up to fan Chipper on a mean splitter away, and K-Zone treats us viewers to a replay of Jones' flailing two-strike swing. Nice work, Pelfrey. I don't care if he's hurt, old, retired, or dead, it always feels like an accomplishment when the Mets make that bastard Chipper look human.

Midway through his next at bat (facing Brian McCann), Pelfrey crosses the 100-pitch mark for the night, before walking McCann and bringing pitching coach Dan Warthen to the mound for a conference. As Jon Miller notes, ten men have reached base against Pelfrey so far tonight, and even though none have scored against him, this should probably be his last frame.

The high wire dance continues as Pelfrey magically induces a 5-4-3 double play from Troy Glaus. Huzzah! It's officially on!

Streak Watch: 24 innings Completed, 35 Behind Orel (BO).

After the commercial, Orel deftly points out that expectations have changed quickly for Pelfrey; we're not just expecting his outings to last more than five innings, we're also expecting Pelfrey to pitch cleaner innings. I know what he's saying, but I also am expecting Pelfrey to pitch zero innings more tonight. An ESPN camera picks up a lefty warming up in the Mets bullpen, so hopefully this is it for Pelf for tonight.

Pagan makes a quiet out to lead off the inning, and Castillo strokes a single to right. Once again, with Reyes batting, Luis takes second base. Unfortunately, McCann doesn't field the ball well enough to throw the ball into center field this time, so Castillo has to stay at second for now.

As it turns out, Castillo doesn't even get to third base this inning. Reyes chases a Hanson curveball that looks like it may have tagged the dirt five inches in front of the plate (for some reason, I didn't watch the K-Zone replay with quite as much interest as L-Dub's flail-job...) and Bay skies one to Escobar for the third out.

Sixth Inning
Even at first glance, it's clear that Pelfrey's night is over. The new Mets pitcher is a dark skinned lefty, and no sooner does Raul Valdez throws his first pitch of the game than the rapidly increasing rainpour, which has caused puddles to gather around various patches of the infield, leads the umpiring crew to call for the tarp squad.

Dinner time...

Some ninety minutes later

The game hasn't been officially called yet, but it seems like it's all over, and a near-complete game for Pelfrey, who threw all the Mets pitches but one tonight.