Inning 2- It’s about Process…Results follow
Items needed for solo drive to PK Park in Eugene, Oregon (From Portland):
1. 2 completely full 80 minute mix CD’s (preferably with at least 1 Yaz song on each)
2. Water
3. Solitude
4. Quiet
5. 1 piece of baseball nerd literature (Baseball Prospectus, Bill James Handbook, Baseball America Prospect Handbook)

You may have noticed that I didn’t say map or anything like that. That’s cuz it’s really easy to get to PK Park (It’s so easy that, although it is fewer miles, I spent the same amount of time in the car as I did on the Corvallis trip). It’s the same route that one takes to get to Autzen Stadium (UO’s football stadium). And there’s signs for that shit everywhere! Here are the directions:
1. Find I-5.
2. Get on it.
3. Drive straight.
4. Get off I-5 when you see signs for UO campus.
5. Follow signs for Autzen Stadium.
6. Press brake until car stops fully.
7. Enjoy baseball!

Inning 3- Ice Cole
“It’s not super complicated – fastball from 93-99, mid-80s slider, rapidly improving change-up. If he throws strikes, he’s unhittable.” Reputable baseball nerd, Dave Cameron.

The quote above describes a man named Gerrit Cole. Gerrit Cole may very well be the first person selected in the 2011 amateur baseball draft in this week. If he isn’t the first, he’ll be a top five pick (Jim Callis of Baseball America has him going 5th to the Royals). There isn’t much to say about Cole that wasn’t written about Cole above by Dave Cameron or elsewhere on the internet. He has been having a little trouble with his performance this season. The struggles have to do mostly with the long ball, 7 dongers in 99 innings in a year of home run suppression in college baseball. The MLB draft begins Monday June 6th and it has been reported that the Pirates will take him number 1 overall, although the early season sheen has started to wear off a bit.

Pitching in crummy weather, Cole seem to struggle a bit getting his footing in the clumpy mound dirt. The velocity and slide piece were undeniable. His fastball was consistently in the mid-90′s, even topping 98 on a scout’s gun in the 8th inning. He only struck out five but only walked one as well and got lots of weak contact. I didn’t see much of the supposedly rapidly improving changeup.  Probably because he didn’t really need it against a righty dominated lineup (Ducks only had one lefty hitter starting).

Inning 4- Surroundings
Sometimes I think that baseball and the state of Oregon just aren’t that good of a match. Temps in the 40’s, rain, wind. Ugh. The Ducks facility was the saving grace for the potential enjoyment of watching baseball in drecky weather. PK Park is well designed for spring weather in the Willamette Valley. The only natural surface on the entirety of the field is the pitcher’s mound. It’s dirt. The infield dirt is brown, painted artificial turf. The infield and outfield “grass” are artificial turf. The dugouts are made from artificial turf (too far?). You get the idea.

FYI: This is also the home park of the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League. They start play in late June.

All that brown stuff is field turf.

The other good idea in the construction of PK park is that almost all of the reserved seating section is covered by the roof of the stadium. There is uncovered seating up the lines and the first 5 or 6 rows of “box seats” but otherwise, like all good antiperspirants, spectators are guaranteed dryness.

Just a thought. Next time there’s an opening for the PK Park grounds crew, I’m totally applying. That job would be easy, even for a lazy person like myself.

Inning 5- Friday Night Lights– Scouts Honor edition.
Being that college baseball public relations departments are really stingy with the press credential, I purchased a ticket for the section next to the section where there were many, many baseball scouts in attendance for this Friday night Pac-10 baseball game. Naturally, being a resourceful “young” man, I took advantage of the lenient ushers at PK park and I parked myself in the adjacent section with the scouts and did my best to fit in without a radar gun.

Organizations represented in the Scout Section
4 scouts- Pittsburgh Pirates (owners of first overall pick in 2011 MLB draft)
1 scout- St. Louis Cardinals
1 scout- Chicago Cubs
Lots of scouts- Not wearing team gear.

UCLA’s Gerrit Cole wasn’t the only highly regarded pitcher on the mound this night. Tyler Anderson, the Ducks’ best pitcher was hurling as well. This is what makes Friday cool in college baseball. Starting pitchers only pitch once a week and they pitch the same day every week. In this way, fans and scouts know when the best often most interesting pitchers will be on the mound. Anyway, back to Anderson.

Considered a mid to late first round prospect, Tyler Anderson is a lefty with a considerable repertoire of pitchers. A fastball around 90 MPH that he can sink and cut, a kinda Zitoesque high seventies curvepiece, a nice change which has some arm side run, and a quicker slurve. Considered polished and easily signable as a pro, he’s been projected to go as high as from 15-20 in the draft this week. He definitely doesn’t have the upside that Cole has, but it can be more fun at times to watch a guy with less stuff pitch when he can command his pitches better and still be really effective. Per college splits here are some of his numbers for the 2011 season:

ERA= 2.17
FIP= 3.13
INNINGS= 107
HITS= 73
HR allowed= 2
BB= 35
K= 114
BABIP= .287

BABIP- Batting average on balls in play

On this night he was shaky. He walked a bunch of Bruins, hit one too. Only one batter hit the ball hard against him.

Inning 6- TINSTAAPP
“Pitchers are like delicate flowers, 6’3” 230 pound delicate flowers” Disreputable baseball nerd, Dan Woytek

When one plugs the acronym TINSTAAPP into the Acronym Delineator 3000 one gets a result of:
There
Is
No
Such
Thing
As
A
Pitching
Prospect

TINSTAAPP is a concept that gets thrown around in baseball nerd circles because of the fickle nature of pitching. It’s something to think about as the MLB draft begins today. Pitchers get hurt. They need surgery. They get anxiety disorders because of the pressure. They never develop secondary pitches that get opposite handed batters out. Because of these concerns and more, position players are considered better bets as draft picks. Also, there are lots of ways to get the job (getting outs) done as a pitcher and relievers often even have it easier, needing to master only one or two pitches to have a great career (see Mariano Rivera).

With this preface I give you Scott McGough:

The third pitcher I was interested and viewing because of my purchase and perusal of Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook, Scott McGough ranked as the 47th college prospect in the aforementioned publication.  He came into relieve Tyler Anderson and did kind of a poor job.  He has some pretty cool pitches though.  One of them led to this conversation I had with a scout from the Cubs.  After noticing that McGough was featuring two pitches with the same velocity (93-94 MPH) but much different movement, I turned to a Cubs scout next to me:

Me:  Excuse me, can I ask you a question?

Cubs scout (looking perturbed): Sure

Me:  McGough is throwing two  fastballs there, huh?

Scout: Yeah, a two seamer and a four seamer.

Me (trying to sound scouty): The two seamer’s the one with all the arm side run right?

Scout: Yeah.

Me: Thanks.

McGough also features a nice looking slide piece and is not a giant (6’1”, 185), for a pitcher which makes him more likeable.  He’ll be drafted this week, but as a college reliever, he might be there to stay professionally.

Inning 7- Stretch: This is happening in Portland. It’s awesome. And no, it’s not like kickball.

HOLEY BALLS

COLUMBIA COWLITZ WIFFLEBALL ASSOCIATION

Inning 8- Game Recap
This game, as a competitive venture, was no great shakes. The weather kinda blew, affecting hitting and defense. No home runs. Cool pitchers as mentioned previously. Honestly, I was so focused on the starting pitching I hardly noticed other things going on during the game. This is an experience that I’m relatively ok with when I go to a baseball game solo. I don’t really have to react that much to the play going on and I can focus my mercurial attention span on particular players. For this reason, and the reason: the game was not all that exciting, this recap is written as such.

Other reasons for unexciting recaps:
1. Not having a rooting interest
2. This game was a long time ago and the writer:

• is bad with deadlines.
• was only taking notes on the pitchers, really.
• would probably just steal some stuff from this recap.

Inning 9- Post-game Food Pick
Have you ever had one of those days where you go so incredibly long in between meals that if you eat anything remotely resembling a meal, you will immediately pass the heck out? That’s how I felt while driving back from Eugene, Oregon. So instead of eating and endangering the entirety of I-5 North, I waited until back in Portland before eating. The name of the place is the Bonfire, and they have falafel (isn’t that what I had last time too?). Its innocuous enough. Nice for outside beers. Mostly, it’s like four steps from my house, so I knew I wouldn’t kill anyone (beside myself) between there and my bed.

Extras: Draft Update

Just a little note:

Gerrit Cole: Number 1 overall selection in MLB draft (Pittsburgh Pirates)

Tyler Anderson: Number 20 overall selection in MLB draft (Colorado Rockies)

Depending on how early he signs, Anderson could be back in the Northwest, pitching for the Tri-City Dust Devils of the Northwest League.  He could also be advanced above short-season ball for his first professional destination.

Inning 2- It’s about Process…Results follow
Items needed for solo drive to PK Park in Eugene, Oregon (From Portland):
1. 2 completely full 80 minute mix CD’s (preferably with at least 1 Yaz song on each)
2. Water
3. Solitude
4. Quiet
5. 1 piece of baseball nerd literature (Baseball Prospectus, Bill James Handbook, Baseball America Prospect Handbook)

You may have noticed that I didn’t say map or anything like that. That’s cuz it’s really easy to get to PK Park (It’s so easy that, although it is fewer miles, I spent the same amount of time in the car as I did on the Corvallis trip). It’s the same route that one takes to get to Autzen Stadium (UO’s football stadium). And there’s signs for that shit everywhere! Here are the directions:
1. Find I-5.
2. Get on it.
3. Drive straight.
4. Get off I-5 when you see signs for UO campus.
5. Follow signs for Autzen Stadium.
6. Press brake until car stops fully.
7. Enjoy baseball!

Inning 3- Ice Cole
“It’s not super complicated – fastball from 93-99, mid-80s slider, rapidly improving change-up. If he throws strikes, he’s unhittable.” Reputable baseball nerd, Dave Cameron.

The quote above describes a man named Gerrit Cole. Gerrit Cole may very well be the first person selected in the 2011 amateur baseball draft in this week. If he isn’t the first, he’ll be a top five pick (Jim Callis of Baseball America has him going 5th to the Royals). There isn’t much to say about Cole that wasn’t written about Cole above by Dave Cameron or elsewhere on the internet. He has been having a little trouble with his performance this season. The struggles have to do mostly with the long ball, 7 dongers in 99 innings in a year of home run suppression in college baseball. The MLB draft begins Monday June 6th and it has been reported that the Pirates will take him number 1 overall, although the early season sheen has started to wear off a bit.

Pitching in crummy weather, Cole seem to struggle a bit getting his footing in the clumpy mound dirt. The velocity and slide piece were undeniable. His fastball was consistently in the mid-90′s, even topping 98 on a scout’s gun in the 8th inning. He only struck out five but only walked one as well and got lots of weak contact. I didn’t see much of the supposedly rapidly improving changeup.  Probably because he didn’t really need it against a righty dominated lineup (Ducks only had one lefty hitter starting).

Inning 4- Surroundings
Sometimes I think that baseball and the state of Oregon just aren’t that good of a match. Temps in the 40’s, rain, wind. Ugh. The Ducks facility was the saving grace for the potential enjoyment of watching baseball in drecky weather. PK Park is well designed for spring weather in the Willamette Valley. The only natural surface on the entirety of the field is the pitcher’s mound. It’s dirt. The infield dirt is brown, painted artificial turf. The infield and outfield “grass” are artificial turf. The dugouts are made from artificial turf (too far?). You get the idea.

FYI: This is also the home park of the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League. They start play in late June.

All that brown stuff is field turf.

The other good idea in the construction of PK park is that almost all of the reserved seating section is covered by the roof of the stadium. There is uncovered seating up the lines and the first 5 or 6 rows of “box seats” but otherwise, like all good antiperspirants, spectators are guaranteed dryness.

Just a thought. Next time there’s an opening for the PK Park grounds crew, I’m totally applying. That job would be easy, even for a lazy person like myself.

Inning 5- Friday Night Lights– Scouts Honor edition.
Being that college baseball public relations departments are really stingy with the press credential, I purchased a ticket for the section next to the section where there were many, many baseball scouts in attendance for this Friday night Pac-10 baseball game. Naturally, being a resourceful “young” man, I took advantage of the lenient ushers at PK park and I parked myself in the adjacent section with the scouts and did my best to fit in without a radar gun.

Organizations represented in the Scout Section
4 scouts- Pittsburgh Pirates (owners of first overall pick in 2011 MLB draft)
1 scout- St. Louis Cardinals
1 scout- Chicago Cubs
Lots of scouts- Not wearing team gear.

UCLA’s Gerrit Cole wasn’t the only highly regarded pitcher on the mound this night. Tyler Anderson, the Ducks’ best pitcher was hurling as well. This is what makes Friday cool in college baseball. Starting pitchers only pitch once a week and they pitch the same day every week. In this way, fans and scouts know when the best often most interesting pitchers will be on the mound. Anyway, back to Anderson.

Considered a mid to late first round prospect, Tyler Anderson is a lefty with a considerable repertoire of pitchers. A fastball around 90 MPH that he can sink and cut, a kinda Zitoesque high seventies curvepiece, a nice change which has some arm side run, and a quicker slurve. Considered polished and easily signable as a pro, he’s been projected to go as high as from 15-20 in the draft this week. He definitely doesn’t have the upside that Cole has, but it can be more fun at times to watch a guy with less stuff pitch when he can command his pitches better and still be really effective. Per college splits here are some of his numbers for the 2011 season:

ERA= 2.17
FIP= 3.13
INNINGS= 107
HITS= 73
HR allowed= 2
BB= 35
K= 114
BABIP= .287

BABIP- Batting average on balls in play

On this night he was shaky. He walked a bunch of Bruins, hit one too. Only one batter hit the ball hard against him.

Inning 6- TINSTAAPP
“Pitchers are like delicate flowers, 6’3” 230 pound delicate flowers” Disreputable baseball nerd, Dan Woytek

When one plugs the acronym TINSTAAPP into the Acronym Delineator 3000 one gets a result of:
There’s
Is
No
Such
Thing
As
A
Pitching
Prospect

TINSTAAPP is a concept that gets thrown around in baseball nerd circles because of the fickle nature of pitching. It’s something to think about as the MLB draft begins today. Pitchers get hurt. They need surgery. They get anxiety disorders because of the pressure. They never develop secondary pitches that get opposite handed batters out. Because of these concerns and more, position players are considered better bets as draft picks. Also, there are lots of ways to get the job (getting outs) done as a pitcher and relievers often even have it easier, needing to master only one or two pitches to have a great career (see Mariano Rivera).

With this preface I give you Scott McGough:

The third pitcher I was interested and viewing because of my purchase and perusal of Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook, Scott McGough ranked as the 47th college prospect in the aforementioned publication.  He came into relieve Tyler Anderson and did kind of a poor job.  He has some pretty cool pitches though.  One of them led to this conversation I had with a scout from the Cubs.  After noticing that McGough was featuring two pitches with the same velocity (93-94 MPH) but much different movement, I turned to a Cubs scout next to me:

Me:  Excuse me, can I ask you a question?

Cubs scout (looking perturbed): Sure

Me:  McGough is throwing two  fastballs there, huh?

Scout: Yeah, a two seamer and a four seamer.

Me (trying to sound scouty): The two seamer’s the one with all the arm side run right?

Scout: Yeah.

Me: Thanks.

McGough also features a nice looking slide piece and is not a giant (6’1”, 185), for a pitcher which makes him more likeable.  He’ll be drafted this week, but as a college reliever, he might be there to stay professionally.

Inning 7- Stretch: This is happening in Portland. It’s awesome. And no, it’s not like kickball.

HOLEY BALLS

COLUMBIA COWLITZ WIFFLEBALL ASSOCIATION

Inning 8- Game Recap
This game, as a competitive venture, was no great shakes. The weather kinda blew, affecting hitting and defense. No home runs. Cool pitchers as mentioned previously. Honestly, I was so focused on the starting pitching I hardly noticed other things going on during the game. This is an experience that I’m relatively ok with when I go to a baseball game solo. I don’t really have to react that much to the play going on and I can focus my mercurial attention span on particular players. For this reason, and the reason: the game was not all that exciting, this recap is written as such.

Other reasons for unexciting recaps:
1. Not having a rooting interest
2. This game was a long time ago and the writer:

• is bad with deadlines.
• was only taking notes on the pitchers, really.
• would probably just steal some stuff from this recap.

Inning 9- Post-game Food Pick
Have you ever had one of those days where you go so incredibly long in between meals that if you eat anything remotely resembling a meal, you will immediately pass the heck out? That’s how I felt while driving back from Eugene, Oregon. So instead of eating and endangering the entirety of I-5 North, I waited until back in Portland before eating. The name of the place is the Bonfire, and they have falafel (isn’t that what I had last time too?). Its innocuous enough. Nice for outside beers. Mostly, it’s like four steps from my house, so I knew I wouldn’t kill anyone (beside myself) between there and my bed.

Question: On an average team, would you rather have a guy who gets a single every at bat or a guy who hits a home run every four at bats while striking out the other three?

Answer: It’s about to get nerdy. It would be hard to argue against 125 HR/500 AB, but a guy who never makes an out is actually way more valuable. (It was a surprise to me how much!) This obviously depends on run environment and such.

Average runs per batted ball type 1993-2010
1.398 HR
1.059 3b
0.773 2b
0.471 1b

Linear Weights 1993-2010
-0.294 - Out - Generic Out
-0.296 - K - Strikeout

per 4 ab
Singles guy 1.884 runs!
Donger guy .492 runs!

Those outs are an ouch!

Ed: In the end, the singles hitter is worth nearly 4x as many runs per four at bats, making the seemingly difficult question a no-brainer. Take that, Dave Kingman.

Question: On an average team, would you rather have a guy who gets a single every at bat or a guy who hits a home run every four at bats while striking out the other three?

Answer: It’s about to get nerdy. It would be hard to argue against 125 HR/500 AB, but a guy who never makes an out is actually way more valuable. (It was a surprise to me how much!) This obviously depends on run environment and such.

Average runs per batted ball type 1993-2010
1.398 HR
1.059 3b
0.773 2b
0.471 1b

Linear Weights 1993-2010
-0.294 - Out - Generic Out
-0.296 - K - Strikeout

per 4 ab
Singles guy 1.884 runs!
Donger guy .492 runs!

Those outs are an ouch!

Ed: In the end, the singles hitter is worth nearly 4x as many runs per four at bats, making the seemingly difficult question a no-brainer. Take that, Dave Kingman.

For Baseball Loving Portlanders (BLP), the mood may be a little less of all those aforementioned positive emotions. There may be a little of Eliot’s cruelty in this particular April as the (503)’s professional baseball team, the Portland Beavers, have moved to the much sunnier climes of Tuscon, Arizona. In a painful dose of irony, this move of the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres has coincided with the graduation of the most interesting crop of young prospects to AAA, that the Padres have seen in many years. For those interested in young, projectible, talented baseballers, this fact can be an add your choice of lemon juice, or salt into the existing wound.

But take heart, BLP. Do not be embittered. Baseball can and will be celebrated when and wherever it is being played.

As a representative of the Portland Sportsman and the newly coined BLP, I have been charged by Notorious Idea-Man and Man-of-Whimsical-Ambition, Mike Merrill, to act as scout, liason, and advocate for the Portland Baseball refugee. This article represents the first of hopefully many dispatches from the regional baseball world. It is our hope to chronicle baseball from the lowliest T-ball game at Sewallcrest Park in Southeast Portland to MLB’s Mariners of Safeco Field in Seattle.

Let us proceed to then to our first baseball adventure. To Corvallis, and the Oregon State University Beavers versus the Arizona State University Sun Devils!

2nd Inning- It’s about the process, results follow.
If you look up Corvallis in the Oxford English Dictionary, (OED for nerds) the following entry reads: 1.(n.) agriculturally-oriented college town in the mid-Willamette valley in Northwest Oregon. 2. (n.) capital of Beaver Nation.

Seeking out baseball, for baseball-less Portland fans now requires a certain modicum of “want to”. College baseball is a practical alternative for spring baseballing in Oregon. Professional ball now doesn’t start until mid-June in both Keizer, Oregon and Eugene, Or. Our closest Pacific-10 conference school to happens to be the land grant university and a day trip to the aforementioned town of Corvallis is not a prohibitive and baseball fans can get back to Portland by dark.

Fun things to do on the drive to Corvallis:
1. Stop at the Big Chevron in Wilsonville for gas/whatnot.
25410 Southwest 95th Avenue
Wilsonville, OR 97070

Two very redeeming qualities of the Chevron of Wilsonville include:
a. the sailor-like mouths on the gas station Quick-E-Mart employees.
b. The incredibly amazing light switch in the men’s bathroom labeled “Light Switch”.

2. Drive through an office park in Wilsonville.
This allows one to appreciate one’s not inhabiting Wilsonville.
This also allows you to discover incredibly creative street names:

Street Name of the Trip
Parkway Avenue
Need I say more!

3. Get someone else to drive so you can search for birds of prey.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that I drive too much or that I grew up in the war-filled middle western states (where birds of prey were low in number), but, when not behind the wheel, I always feel the need to both look for and point out, without getting specific, where and when a bird of prey glides into view. Riding south on I-5 in a motor vehicle gives one the perfect opportunity to yell, “Right there! A bird of prey!”

Be sure to be as general as possible. By screaming, “bird of prey”, one does not open oneself to criticism for mistaking an osprey for a barn owl.

3rd Inning- College game: Little, Yellow, Different, Better?
Channeling my old codger, let me tell you a story of the way College Baseball used to be. College baseball used a game played with giant metal bats. A game where even the smallest men could jack the giantest of dongers and inflate their batting numbers so, that it would make pitching coaches spit and grab their crotches with disgust. Starting this year, a bunch a people got the highfalutin idea that they would change the requirements for the bats, making the impact of the bat on the ball well, less impactful.

This is being done for safety reasons but it has had an affect on scoring and overall power numbers in college baseball this year. There is even some concern in the scouting community over talent evaluation given the new requirements. If you are interested in reading some nerdy material related to this topic check out these articles . These affects weren’t noticeable during the game as there were two home runs and one shouldn’t make definitive statements view one baseball game. However, there were many bunt attempts and occasions for small ball circa 1968, so maybe the head coaches are already noticing a drop in run scoring and power.

4th Inning- Interesting parties.
The scenery and a nice day may be one reason to go to the ballpark and watch nine-on-nine, but I came to watch “playas play”. This particular series against Arizona State, a perennial college baseball power, featured four of the top 40 college draft prospects according to Baseball America. Those men are listed below in bold (cuz they’re good at baseball):

Oregon State C Andrew Susac
Did Not Play
This is the player I was really excited to see play down in Corvallis. Unfortunately he had the day off but since you are definitely going to go check out a game let me give you a little hint about him. He’s really good. Slashing .364/.496/.614 through 26 games as a college sophomore rates as the 23rd best college prospect in the 2011 draft according to Baseball America (2nd to 3rd round).

Guys who can catch and mash even at the college level are just really rare and from many different scouting sources Susac is considered the best catcher in the west. He’s already played and starred, in the Cape Cod League, the premier college summer league and is a real pro prospect.

Arizona State 2B Zack MacPhee
1-5 Single, Run Scored
Ok, let’s get the leprechaun jokes outta the way. We caught Zack on April 9th but we heard that ASU purposely scheduled a day off (they really did you can look) on March 17th because Zack had a previous engagement that he just couldn’t get out of.
Now, Zack is tiny. He plays 2nd base for ASU. He’s gonna get Pedroia comparisons all the freakin’ time. WE GET IT, PEOPLE! He also won PAC-10 Player of the Year last year. It however, seems as though the new college bat has sapped some of the pop from Zack. Last year he hit .381/.490/.686 with 14 triples, 8 home runs, 7 doubles, and 18 stolen bases. This year he’s still getting on base like a mad man slashing .281/.429/.353 but has only eight extra base hits (7 doubles, 1 homerun).

Arizona State LF John Ruettiger
1-4 Walk, Single, Run Scored
Nephew of Daniel Ruettiger, inspiration for the film Rudy*
*This may or may not be true. It is therefore a test of your faith in my journalistic muscle.

Arizona State 1B Zach Wilson
1-3 Single, Walk, Run Scored, RBI
In order to play infield for ASU, the coaching staff preferrs that one’s given name be Zach or Zack. Ranked just below MacPhee on the BA draft prospect list, H-Zach is showing a little power he is slugging .450 with 5 HR’s on the season.

As it goes with baseball, sometimes the guys you are excited about watching, don’t do squat during that game.

5th Inning- Game Recap
After taking the opening game of the three game series, Oregon State definitely did the proverbial little things to pull out the 7-6 victory in their final at bat against Arizona State. The ASU Sun Devils got out to an early lead by scoring four runs against Beaver lefty Josh Osich and his bullpen mate, Gig Harbor, Washington freshman and Portland Sportsman favorite Scott Schultz.

After giving up a three-run dongpiece to ASU shortstop Deven Marrero while working in relief, Schultz may have realized according to fellow observer Mike Merrill, that he “wasn’t in Gig Harbor anymore”. OSU head coach Pat Casey must have made the same realization as Merrill and asked him to channel some of that high school magic while conversing with Schultz on a visit to the mound. Schultz went on to pitch five innings, striking out 3 and walking none. This performance allowed the Beavers to crawl back into the game. After scoring three in the seventh and one in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game, Brian Stamps won the game with a bases loaded (duh), walk-off walk to complete the five run comeback, much to the dismay of the kinda wussy, bundled up ASU Sun Devil bullpen.

6th Inning- Park environs
Goss Stadium, in its current location, has hosted OSU baseball for 100 years. It experienced a renovation beginning in 2009. It’s a nice place to watch baseball. The location is a bit awkward with a lot of walking involved if you want to sit in the bleachers. Tickets are a little spendy for visitors ($10 for bleachers, $20 for reserve seats). Announced attendance was 2729 out of a capacity 3200. I don’t have great word picture ability so let me show you actuals:

View from the Bleachers

7th Inning- A limerick for Arizona State 2b, Zack MacPhee
There was once a baseballer from Tempe,
Whose gait was opposite of gimpy.
He grinded so wholly,
with uniform sullied,
one forgot his stature so shrimpy.

8th Inning- OSU Beaver baseball update
Let’s just put it this way, BLP, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team is killing it right now. They are currently ranked 3rd in the United States among Division 1 baseball programs, leading the Pacific Ten conference with a 10-2 record and just dropped their first game since April Fool’s Day to Washington State over the weekend. To say that this is a team worth watching is an understatement.

One might wonder, how does a team that has won two previous College World Series in the past five years win 11 games in a row and get into the top 5 ranking and have it be relatively unnoticed?

First, this is college baseball. Unlike its football and basketball brethren, baseball is not a revenue sport. It doesn’t bring in revenue for schools, there are no giant TV deals for college baseball and is therefore less publicized.

Secondly and conjectural, OSU sports are not considered to be very sexy. If other college programs nationally, or even in the region had two national championships in the past five years and a number 3 ranking in baseball, you dear reader, would probably know a little more about it. OSU Baseball’s under-the-radar profile, yet incredibly successful approach deserves admiration and has earned it from at least one, two-thumbed, local, digital baseball writer.

Viewin’ Beavs
Games in the Oregon area in the near future include:
05/03/11 vs. Oregon Corvallis, Ore. 5:35 p.m. PT
05/06/11 vs. California Corvallis, Ore. 5:35 p.m. PT
05/07/11 vs. California Corvallis, Ore. 1:05 p.m. PT
05/08/11 vs. California Corvallis, Ore. 1:05 p.m. PT
05/10/11 vs. Portland Corvallis, Ore. 5:35 p.m. PT
05/20/11 vs. USC Corvallis, Ore. 5:35 p.m. PT
05/21/11 vs. USC Corvallis, Ore. 2:05 p.m. PT
05/22/11 vs. USC Corvallis, Ore. 12:05 p.m. PT
05/27/11 at Oregon Eugene, Ore. 7:00 p.m. PT
05/28/11 at Oregon Eugene, Ore. 2:00 p.m. PT
05/29/11 at Oregon Eugene, Ore. 1:00 p.m. PT

9th Inning-Post-game food pick.
After a game in Corvallis, go to this place for falafel!
It’s like 4 blocks from Goss Stadium!
Nearly Normal’s
109 Northwest 15th Street
Corvallis, OR 97330-5801
http://www.nearlynormals.com/

Warning: Some of the names of the sections of this article may or may not have been lifted directly from the 1973 Academy Award winning, con man classic, The Sting.

Inning 1: The Players

I know what you are thinking. I’m that good. You reader are thinking, “Hey I think I know my American geography but I have no clue where the hell Round Rock is.” Well Round Rock is in central Texas about 20 miles north of Austin. The Express are the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros and as recently as earlier this year had Astros regulars, third baseman Chris Johnson and starting catcher, Jason Castro. There aren’t any super exciting prospects left in Round Rock, but the kinda exciting ones will be covered later. Oh, this guy played for the Express earlier this year too:

Whimsical Trivia: Can you name another sports team, college or professional, whose name ends in “S” but is not a plural noun?

Inning 2: The Set-Up

Misquote of Benjamin Franklin about beer: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Franklin was actually talking about wine, but the quote was co-opted by beer lovers.

Feeling like late summer in multiple ways, another verse in the swan song of the Portland Beavers was played at Thursday’s game against the Round Rock Express. This particular baseball contest was the last cheap beer baseball game of the 2010 season and therefore the last thirsty professional baseball game to be enjoyed by Portlanders for the foreseeable future.

Normally, the term bittersweet seems to me to be a bit maudlin for occasions like this. After all, it is just AAA baseball we are talking about. But bittersweet may be appropriate as Thursday night felt like a real baseball game at PGE. Sure, the beer garden was full and the douche quotient was elevated, but being one of 8,000 rather rowdy attendees watching the Beavers on Thursday did fill me with a little sadness as well as excitement.

Sadness because there should be more games like this during the year for baseball. Also, because there are only five home games for the Beavers in Portland. That means five more chances to, as one spectator called Allie remarked, “watch Kyle Phillips run the bases like he’s got something extra in his drawers.”

Inning 3: The Tale

Unlike some sports that are timed affairs, baseball’s time is governed by the 27 outs each team is given. This difference can lead to some interesting developments. Thursday night’s game provided one scenario where, especially against the 2010 Portland Beavers, the game was largely decided within the first twenty minutes after the first pitch.

It is commonly stated that certain starting pitchers have a tendency to have “one bad inning” that otherwise undermines their quality appearances. But you, the sensitive baseball observer, know that “bad innings” can come in different forms. There are four run innings that could come directly from bloop hits, bad defense, seeing eye grounders. Cesar Carrillo, starter for the Beavers, gave up four runs in the first inning of Thursday night’s game. His four runs against were not the result of these previously mentioned outcomes.

Leadoff man for the Express, and fairly interesting prospect, Jack Shuck singled on a sharp ground ball up the middle. Cesar Carrillo got the first out on a flyball to center. That was where it got interesting (euphemism) for the Portland starter. Carrillo got his second pitch up in the zone to Andrew Locke, and Locke, with much distaste, smashed a screamer onto the boardwalk above the left field wall at PGE. The subsequent batter, Brian Bogusevic got a 3-1 fastball on the inner half and straight up jacked it over the right field wall, bouncing the ball off the PGE lightbulb guy in right center (that’s far away). Carrillo gave up a RBI triple later in the inning and just like that the Beavs had a large (and in retrospect, insurmountable) deficit to overcome.

The Beavers threatened on a couple of occasions however. Held scoreless for six innings, the Beavers hit three consecutive singles to load the bases in the 7th inning. With nobody out pinch hitter, and resident slow guy, Dusty Ryan grounded into a double play, scoring a run and immediately killing a potential rally.

The Beavers loaded the bases again in the ninth but were unable to push across any runs, which otherwise would have made the game a little more interesting. With the bags full and one out, Round Rock closer, Gary Majewski struck out Sean Kazmar and Mike Baxter to end the rally and the cheap beer era for Portland.

Inning 4: The Hook

The following is an actual headline written after a recent Round Rock Express vs. Tacoma Rainiers game in Tacoma WA:

Ozzie, Express Mount Rainiers 2-1

That’s at least a triple entendre! Well played Express press release writer, well played.

Inning 5: The Wire

Mike Baxter, right fielder and sometime 1st baseman for the Portland Beavers is having an 2nd half to remember. Ever since the AAA All-Star game in mid-July, Baxter has had Locked-in Syndrome. I don’t mean the one where you have to blink at hot French nurses to write books. In the past 35 games, Mike is slashing .389/.476/.651 for the Beavos. On Thursday, he was 2-5, but did strike out as the tying run in the ninth for the Beavers.

Side note: Radio voice of the Beavers, Tim Hagerty mentioned that Baxter was the hottest hitter in professional baseball. Mike Baxter has been impressive but I would urge Hagerty and y’all to check out Joe Mauer’s recent numbers. They’re Insane!

I won’t even make you look ‘em up
Mauer since the break:
Games: 29
Batting Average: .427
On Base Percentage: .489
Slugging Percentage: .658

Holy Crud that’s awesome!

Inning 6: The Shut-out

Let’s be honest with each other. The Beavers offense is, if not offensive, pretty anemic. The only regulars with an above average wOBA this year are Mike Baxter, Kyle Phillps and Cedric Hunter are above average. And as I discussed with a certain employee of the Beavers, Cedric Hunter is the only prospect among them.

What’s wOBA you asked? It’s a statistic that measures both on-base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage in a way that weights OBP more heavily than slugging. Because OBP is generally is more important in terms of team run scoring as opposed to slugging wOBA has been shown to be a more sensitive measure than the more commonly used OPS (on-base plus slugging).

Thursday, the Beavers were shut out for six innings by the Express pitching staff though they recorded more hits than Round Rock. For comparison however, 9 of the 10 Beaver hits were singles while the Express jacked two dongers, two doubles and a trip-piece.

Inning 7: Stretch

Chicagoan or not, this is awesome: (posted by a guy in my ridiculously nerdy fantasy baseball league):

Dandruff, Tons!

Inning 8: The Sting

As professional baseball in Portland comes to a close, at least for a while, I just wanted to take a moment for a little self-indulgence and thank Mike Merrill, other Sportsman contributors and readers for having the intestinal fortitude to read these baseball articles for the past year or so. It has been fun as all get out and I hope that it came across in the words written here.

Inning 9: Foul Balls!

Press Box Menu: Sponsored by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Pizza Party!: Cheese, Pepperoni, Fancy Sundried Tomato Spinach, Garlic Chicken
Various sweets: Brownies, Cookies.
Fruit Plate
Awesome Spinach Salad with Red Onions, Pistachios, Dried Cranberries.

Soundtrack: Partially Automobile Related!
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)- AC/DC
Life Is a Highway- Tom Cochrane
Green Onions- Booker T and the MG’s
Shake it Up- The Cars
Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car- Billy Ocean

Warning: Some of the names of the sections of this article may or may not have been lifted directly from the 1973 Academy Award winning, con man classic, The Sting.

Inning 1: The Players
I know what you are thinking. I’m that good. You reader are thinking, “Hey I think I know my American geography but I have no clue where the hell Round Rock is.” Well Round Rock is in central Texas about 20 miles north of Austin. The Express are the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros and as recently as earlier this year had Astros regulars, third baseman Chris Johnson and starting catcher, Jason Castro. There aren’t any super exciting prospects left in Round Rock, but the kinda exciting ones will be covered later. Oh, this guy played for the Express earlier this year too:

Whimsical Trivia: Can you name another sports team, college or professional, whose name ends in “S” but is not a plural noun?

Inning 2: The Set-Up
Misquote of Benjamin Franklin about beer:
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Franklin was actually talking about wine, but the quote was co-opted by beer lovers.

Feeling like late summer in multiple ways, another verse in the swan song of the Portland Beavers was played at Thursday’s game against the Round Rock Express. This particular baseball contest was the last cheap beer baseball game of the 2010 season and therefore the last thirsty professional baseball game to be enjoyed by Portlanders for the foreseeable future.

Normally, the term bittersweet seems to me to be a bit maudlin for occasions like this. After all, it is just AAA baseball we are talking about. But bittersweet may be appropriate as Thursday night felt like a real baseball game at PGE. Sure, the beer garden was full and the douche quotient was elevated, but being one of 8,000 rather rowdy attendees watching the Beavers on Thursday did fill me with a little sadness as well as excitement.

Sadness because there should be more games like this during the year for baseball. Also, because there are only five home games for the Beavers in Portland. That means five more chances to, as one spectator called Allie remarked, “watch Kyle Phillips run the bases like he’s got something extra in his drawers.”

Inning 3: The Tale
Unlike some sports that are timed affairs, baseball’s time is governed by the 27 outs each team is given. This difference can lead to some interesting developments. Thursday night’s game provided one scenario where, especially against the 2010 Portland Beavers, the game was largely decided within the first twenty minutes after the first pitch.

It is commonly stated that certain starting pitchers have a tendency to have “one bad inning” that otherwise undermines their quality appearances. But you, the sensitive baseball observer, know that “bad innings” can come in different forms. There are four run innings that could come directly from bloop hits, bad defense, seeing eye grounders. Cesar Carrillo, starter for the Beavers, gave up four runs in the first inning of Thursday night’s game. His four runs against were not the result of these previously mentioned outcomes.

Leadoff man for the Express, and fairly interesting prospect, Jack Shuck singled on a sharp ground ball up the middle. Cesar Carrillo got the first out on a flyball to center. That was where it got interesting (euphemism) for the Portland starter. Carrillo got his second pitch up in the zone to Andrew Locke, and Locke, with much distaste, smashed a screamer onto the boardwalk above the left field wall at PGE. The subsequent batter, Brian Bogusevic got a 3-1 fastball on the inner half and straight up jacked it over the right field wall, bouncing the ball off the PGE lightbulb guy in right center (that’s far away). Carrillo gave up a RBI triple later in the inning and just like that the Beavs had a large (and in retrospect, insurmountable) deficit to overcome.

The Beavers threatened on a couple of occasions however. Held scoreless for six innings, the Beavers hit three consecutive singles to load the bases in the 7th inning. With nobody out pinch hitter, and resident slow guy, Dusty Ryan grounded into a double play, scoring a run and immediately killing a potential rally.

The Beavers loaded the bases again in the ninth but were unable to push across any runs, which otherwise would have made the game a little more interesting. With the bags full and one out, Round Rock closer, Gary Majewski struck out Sean Kazmar and Mike Baxter to end the rally and the cheap beer era for Portland.

Inning 4: The Hook
The following is an actual headline written after a recent Round Rock Express vs. Tacoma Rainiers game in Tacoma WA:

Ozzie, Express Mount Rainiers 2-1

That’s at least a triple entendre!
Well played Express press release writer, well played.

Inning 5: The Wire
Mike Baxter, right fielder and sometime 1st baseman for the Portland Beavers is having an 2nd half to remember. Ever since the AAA All-Star game in mid-July, Baxter has had Locked-in Syndrome. I don’t mean the one where you have to blink at hot French nurses to write books. In the past 35 games, Mike is slashing .389/.476/.651 for the Beavos. On Thursday, he was 2-5, but did strike out as the tying run in the ninth for the Beavers.

Side note: Radio voice of the Beavers, Tim Hagerty mentioned that Baxter was the hottest hitter in professional baseball. Mike Baxter has been impressive but I would urge Hagerty and y’all to check out Joe Mauer’s recent numbers. They’re Insane!

I won’t even make you look ‘em up
Mauer since the break:
Games: 29
Batting Average: .427
On Base Percentage: .489
Slugging Percentage: .658
Holy Crud that’s awesome!

Inning 6: The Shut-out
Let’s be honest with each other. The Beavers offense is, if not offensive, pretty anemic. The only regulars with an above average wOBA this year are Mike Baxter, Kyle Phillps and Cedric Hunter are above average. And as I discussed with a certain employee of the Beavers, Cedric Hunter is the only prospect among them.

What’s wOBA you asked? It’s a statistic that measures both on-base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage in a way that weights OBP more heavily than slugging. Because OBP is generally is more important in terms of team run scoring as opposed to slugging wOBA has been shown to be a more sensitive measure than the more commonly used OPS (on-base plus slugging).

Thursday, the Beavers were shut out for six innings by the Express pitching staff though they recorded more hits than Round Rock. For comparison however, 9 of the 10 Beaver hits were singles while the Express jacked two dongers, two doubles and a trip-piece.

Inning 7: Stretch
Chicagoan or not, this is awesome: (posted by a guy in my ridiculously nerdy fantasy baseball league):

Dandruff, Tons!

Inning 8: The Sting
As professional baseball in Portland comes to a close, at least for a while, I just wanted to take a moment for a little self-indulgence and thank Mike Merrill, other Sportsman contributors and readers for having the intestinal fortitude to read these baseball articles for the past year or so. It has been fun as all get out and I hope that it came across in the words written here.

Inning 9: Foul Balls!
Press Box Menu: Sponsored by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Pizza Party!: Cheese, Pepperoni, Fancy Sundried Tomato Spinach, Garlic Chicken
Various sweets: Brownies, Cookies.
Fruit Plate
Awesome Spinach Salad with Red Onions, Pistachios, Dried Cranberries.

Soundtrack: Partially Automobile Related!
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)- AC/DC
Life Is a Highway- Tom Cochrane
Green Onions- Booker T and the MG’s
Shake it Up- The Cars
Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car- Billy Ocean

I’d probably be a writer if there was no such thing as baseball, but because there is such a thing as baseball I can’t imagine writing about anything else.

Some folks have texts that they turn to on a semi-regular basis as an spiritual edifier, provider of ecstatic literary moments, or in the case of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, artifact of hilarious family anecdotes. In my late teens I had the slightly embarrassing idea of reading Kerouac’s On the Road on a yearly basis before I realized that Kerouac’s style was not only blinding (use some punctuation, Jack), but the not so subtle messages in that book ran against my slightly rigid Catholic upbringing and more prominently, my rather neurotic psyche.

Later on, as I thought of myself as more sophisticated, my repeat reading attention focused mostly on the “Bandini Trilogy” by John Fante. A depression era, Italian-American writer, Fante’s “from the guts” writing style appealed to me as a sort of alt-Hemingway. Fante’s protagonist Arturo Bandini in Ask the Dust is a man of contradictions: masculine, yet vulnerable; confident yet insecure; freewheeling and guilt ridden; as tied to tradition and convention as he was eccentric.

On a recent trip to Chicago, I stopped by Myopic Books in Wicker Park. While killing time I came across a book that I realized had become my current repeat reader. I decided to finally purchase a used copy of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball. A book I read originally read around the time of its paperback release, I have frequently gone back and read, if not the entirety of the book, at least specific sections, almost compulsively. Since the purchase of the book last week, I have returned to the text and read the entirety of the book almost completely out of order.

The perfect book about sport, Moneyball combines a David v. Goliath story, an interesting partial biography of many flawed characters, a case study in sports economics and a classic “season with a team” narrative. Personally, Moneyball was more important because it was an introduction to the rational analysis of baseball. More than simply increasing my understanding of what happened on the field of play, rational analysis became a way to delve deeper into a complicated game, while also increasing my enjoyment of the game exponentially (believe me I made a graph).

All this very long introduction means is that the following article will be sprinkled with ideas from Moneyball that I will be cramming into the themes of the report of this game.

The Don Corleone of baseball analysis, Bill James.

“…baseball statistics, unlike the statistics in any other area, have acquired the power of language.

Radhames Liz: Gettin’ Peripheral

One of the chapters of Moneyball is dedicated to examining what makes a successful pitcher with special consideration given to the statistical noise that a baseball game normally provides. This phenomenon is examined through the lens of weird-ass underhanded pitcher, Chad Bradford. For two years, Bradford, with little in the way of actual pitching stuff (mid-80′s fastball), was the A’s relief ace. This meant that Bradford was brought in the game when the A’s were in the most peril in terms of the outcome of the game. Bradford was awesome mostly because he did three things. He struck guys out, didn’t walk many, and induced ground balls from batters at an alarming rate (in the 60 percent range).

What some baseball nerds, namely Voros McCracken, figured out is that beside the type of batted ball (line drive, pop up, fly ball, ground ball), number of strikeouts and bases on balls, pitchers had little control over the outcome of batted balls put in play. Home runs were an exception to that batted ball rule.
The starting pitcher for Portland Monday night against Salt Lake, Radhames Liz, is sort of an anti-Bradford case study. Liz is currently sporting a rather pedestrian 4.71 ERA and 7-6 W/L record. All this while Liz has a fastball that touches 98 MPH and a pretty nasty slider that was around 87 MPH. He also does two of the three things that Bradford did to be successful, in a way even more impressively than Bradford considering Liz’s role as starter. His strikeouts per nine innings stand at 8.6 while his walks/9 innings are low, at 3 per 9 innings.
So what up? Why hasn’t Liz been more successful? Well you probably guess it, that third category of batted ball types have been biting him in the proverbial back flank. Radhames Liz can’t get ground balls. So far this season 37 percent of his batted balls have been categorized as ground balls. For a reference, the Major League average for pitchers is 43.2%. Generally balls in the air rates increase as the competition improves. So if Liz is six percent below the MLB average at AAA, one can assume that his ground ball rate would decrease further at the major league level.

The ground ball rate is important because more punitive hits (doubles, triples, HR) happen on line drives and fly balls almost exclusively. In the case of Liz, his home run numbers against are inflated at least partially due to the frequency of line drives and fly balls he gives up.

As for Monday, Liz’s results were magic as he kept the ball in the park, K’d 8 and walked only 2 in 7 and 2/3 innings and only gave up one hit, a double to Bees catcher Hank Conger, after pitching 6 and 2/3 innings of hitless baseball. Nine of his fourteen batted ball outs came in the air, so it was seemingly the same old Radhames. However, he was largely working ahead in counts which could account for some of the bad contact by the Bees.

From an aesthetic standpoint he’s easily the most fun to watch starting pitcher for the Beavers right now with electric stuff. Now, just get that ball down, Radhames!

Hank Conger and Hidden Victories

One of the main premises of Moneyball was that the Oakland A’s couldn’t necessarily afford players that looked and played like all-stars. They were forced then to look for players who did things on the baseball field that were a little harder to measure. With that said, I give you Hank Conger.
It is the nature of having a minor league team that baseball prospects come through town on a fairly regular basis. This season, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Chris Carter, Michael Pineda, Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos etc. have all been through. This week, Angels preseason number 1 prospect, Hank Conger played in Portland. MVP of the Futures Game this year, Conger is a 22 year-old, switch hitting, Korean-American catcher, who is not only talented, but shows many of the traits that make baseball nerds’ panties get all weird.

Just off the disabled list, and manning the most defensively rigorous position behind the plate, Conger (rhymes with donger), carries a .266 batting average currently for the Salt Lake Bees. Lacking many of the athletic gifts of some of the aforementioned prospects, Conger provides value in hidden ways, value that doesn’t normally get assigned to 22 year old kids. In other words, Conger has secondary skills, based around his batting approach that are valuable, regardless of batting outcome.

Currently, Conger is working base on balls at basically the same rate at which pitchers are striking him out (13% BB to 14% K). That’s really flippin’ good. He is also averaging 4.19 pitches per plate appearance. With the same average in MLB he would be 9th in all of baseball in between Franklin Gutierrez and Elvis Andrus. That’s good too. I hear you reader mumbling, “who cares how many pitches he sees when he’s up?”.

Well, first, it shows that Conger has a really good idea about what kind of pitches he can hit hard, swinging at pitches at a rate well below average (Conger 37.7% MLB average 43%). Secondly, it can generally be assumed that starting pitchers tend to be better than relievers and if a team can drive up pitch counts on starters and force relievers into the game, teams can have a better chance of winning.

Thirdly, as players advance in levels the pitching gets better, one of the best ways a player can maintain the ability to hit is by controlling the pitches at which a batter swings. Swinging at strikes instead of balls should feasibly mitigate strikeouts and bad contact (given a talented enough hitter).

Conger’s fourth plate appearance on Monday night demonstrates a microcosm of this approach. To start the plate appearance, Conger took two really close pitches from Liz. One up in the zone but away, and the second barely away and down in the zone (pretty close to unhittable). Liz came back in the zone with a belt high fastball, on the inside half, that Conger also took. On the 2-1 pitch Liz grooved a fastball in the same spot as the third pitch and Conger smoked it to straight-away center, over the head of Luis Durango for a one bounce, ground rule double, breaking up the no-hitter.

It is well known that hitting with two strikes is like batter Kryptonite, so if Conger offers and misses at either of the first two pitches he’s in a much different scenario than how it actually played out. Moral of the story is that process is just as, if not more important, than results. The manifestation of the process in the form of plate appearances such as these can be very valuable.

Game recap: Starring Dusty Clutch

Another low scoring affair took place at PGE Park Monday as both starting pitchers, Liz for Portland and Matt Palmer for Salt Lake, threw hitless ball through four innings. Remaining a tied shutout through six and after Liz’s no-no was broken up in the top of the 7th, the Beavers broke through the Bees bullpen in the bottom of the frame when with two outs, Sean Kazmar singled and stole second. Beavers catcher, Dusty Ryan doubled down the right field line scoring Kazmar and the Beavs took a 1-0 lead.

After Liz and Luis Perdomo shut down the Bees in the top of the 8th, the Beavs went back to work at the plate. Relatively new Beaver Cedric Hunter lead off with a single and was sacrificed to second base by Craig Stansberry. Stansberry reached first on the sacrifice via an error by Bees pitcher Barrett Browning. With no outs Mike Baxter and Kyle Phllips added two RBI singles to make the game 3-0 Beavers. New closer, Adam Russell then came in and pitched an uneventful ninth to get the save and nail down the Portland victory.

Foul Balls!

Press Box Menu:
Pulled Pork Sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato, cheese
Pommes frites
Cole Slaw
Blackberry Crud

Soundtrack:
Summertime: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
The Underdog: Spoon
Monday: Wilco
Pump It Up: Elvis Costello
Breakdown: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

I’d probably be a writer if there was no such thing as baseball, but because there is such a thing as baseball I can’t imagine writing about anything else.

Some folks have texts that they turn to on a semi-regular basis as an spiritual edifier, provider of ecstatic literary moments, or in the case of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, artifact of hilarious family anecdotes. In my late teens I had the slightly embarrassing idea of reading Kerouac’s On the Road on a yearly basis before I realized that Kerouac’s style was not only blinding (use some punctuation, Jack), but the not so subtle messages in that book ran against my slightly rigid Catholic upbringing and more prominently, my rather neurotic psyche.

Later on, as I thought of myself as more sophisticated, my repeat reading attention focused mostly on the “Bandini Trilogy” by John Fante. A depression era, Italian-American writer, Fante’s “from the guts” writing style appealed to me as a sort of alt-Hemingway. Fante’s protagonist Arturo Bandini in Ask the Dust is a man of contradictions: masculine, yet vulnerable; confident yet insecure; freewheeling and guilt ridden; as tied to tradition and convention as he was eccentric.

On a recent trip to Chicago, I stopped by Myopic Books in Wicker Park. While killing time I came across a book that I realized had become my current repeat reader. I decided to finally purchase a used copy of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball. A book I read originally read around the time of its paperback release, I have frequently gone back and read, if not the entirety of the book, at least specific sections, almost compulsively. Since the purchase of the book last week, I have returned to the text and read the entirety of the book almost completely out of order.

The perfect book about sport, Moneyball combines a David v. Goliath story, an interesting partial biography of many flawed characters, a case study in sports economics and a classic “season with a team” narrative. Personally, Moneyball was more important because it was an introduction to the rational analysis of baseball. More than simply increasing my understanding of what happened on the field of play, rational analysis became a way to delve deeper into a complicated game, while also increasing my enjoyment of the game exponentially (believe me I made a graph).

All this very long introduction means is that the following article will be sprinkled with ideas from Moneyball that I will be cramming into the themes of the report of this game.

The Don Corleone of baseball analysis, Bill James.

…baseball statistics, unlike the statistics in any other area, have acquired the power of language.

Radhames Liz: Gettin’ Peripheral

One of the chapters of Moneyball is dedicated to examining what makes a successful pitcher with special consideration given to the statistical noise that a baseball game normally provides. This phenomenon is examined through the lens of weird-ass underhanded pitcher, Chad Bradford. For two years, Bradford, with little in the way of actual pitching stuff (mid-80’s fastball), was the A’s relief ace. This meant that Bradford was brought in the game when the A’s were in the most peril in terms of the outcome of the game. Bradford was awesome mostly because he did three things. He struck guys out, didn’t walk many, and induced ground balls from batters at an alarming rate (in the 60 percent range).

What some baseball nerds, namely Voros McCracken, figured out is that beside the type of batted ball (line drive, pop up, fly ball, ground ball), number of strikeouts and bases on balls, pitchers had little control over the outcome of batted balls put in play. Home runs were an exception to that batted ball rule.

The starting pitcher for Portland Monday night against Salt Lake, Radhames Liz, is sort of an anti-Bradford case study. Liz is currently sporting a rather pedestrian 4.71 ERA and 7-6 W/L record. All this while Liz has a fastball that touches 98 MPH and a pretty nasty slider that was around 87 MPH. He also does two of the three things that Bradford did to be successful, in a way even more impressively than Bradford considering Liz’s role as starter. His strikeouts per nine innings stand at 8.6 while his walks/9 innings are low, at 3 per 9 innings.

So what up? Why hasn’t Liz been more successful? Well you probably guess it, that third category of batted ball types have been biting him in the proverbial back flank. Radhames Liz can’t get ground balls. So far this season 37 percent of his batted balls have been categorized as ground balls. For a reference, the Major League average for pitchers is 43.2%. Generally balls in the air rates increase as the competition improves. So if Liz is six percent below the MLB average at AAA, one can assume that his ground ball rate would decrease further at the major league level.

The ground ball rate is important because more punitive hits (doubles, triples, HR) happen on line drives and fly balls almost exclusively. In the case of Liz, his home run numbers against are inflated at least partially due to the frequency of line drives and fly balls he gives up.

As for Monday, Liz’s results were magic as he kept the ball in the park, K’d 8 and walked only 2 in 7 and 2/3 innings and only gave up one hit, a double to Bees catcher Hank Conger, after pitching 6 and 2/3 innings of hitless baseball. Nine of his fourteen batted ball outs came in the air, so it was seemingly the same old Radhames. However, he was largely working ahead in counts which could account for some of the bad contact by the Bees.

From an aesthetic standpoint he’s easily the most fun to watch starting pitcher for the Beavers right now with electric stuff. Now, just get that ball down, Radhames!

Hank Conger and Hidden Victories

One of the main premises of Moneyball was that the Oakland A’s couldn’t necessarily afford players that looked and played like all-stars. They were forced then to look for players who did things on the baseball field that were a little harder to measure. With that said, I give you Hank Conger.

It is the nature of having a minor league team that baseball prospects come through town on a fairly regular basis. This season, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Chris Carter, Michael Pineda, Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos etc. have all been through. This week, Angels preseason number 1 prospect, Hank Conger played in Portland. MVP of the Futures Game this year, Conger is a 22 year-old, switch hitting, Korean-American catcher, who is not only talented, but shows many of the traits that make baseball nerds’ panties get all weird.

Just off the disabled list, and manning the most defensively rigorous position behind the plate, Conger (rhymes with donger), carries a .266 batting average currently for the Salt Lake Bees. Lacking many of the athletic gifts of some of the aforementioned prospects, Conger provides value in hidden ways, value that doesn’t normally get assigned to 22 year old kids. In other words, Conger has secondary skills, based around his batting approach that are valuable, regardless of batting outcome.

Currently, Conger is working base on balls at basically the same rate at which pitchers are striking him out (13% BB to 14% K). That’s really flippin’ good. He is also averaging 4.19 pitches per plate appearance. With the same average in MLB he would be 9th in all of baseball in between Franklin Gutierrez and Elvis Andrus. That’s good too. I hear you reader mumbling, “who cares how many pitches he sees when he’s up?”.

Well, first, it shows that Conger has a really good idea about what kind of pitches he can hit hard, swinging at pitches at a rate well below average (Conger 37.7% MLB average 43%). Secondly, it can generally be assumed that starting pitchers tend to be better than relievers and if a team can drive up pitch counts on starters and force relievers into the game, teams can have a better chance of winning.

Thirdly, as players advance in levels the pitching gets better, one of the best ways a player can maintain the ability to hit is by controlling the pitches at which a batter swings. Swinging at strikes instead of balls should feasibly mitigate strikeouts and bad contact (given a talented enough hitter).

Conger’s fourth plate appearance on Monday night demonstrates a microcosm of this approach. To start the plate appearance, Conger took two really close pitches from Liz. One up in the zone but away, and the second barely away and down in the zone (pretty close to unhittable). Liz came back in the zone with a belt high fastball, on the inside half, that Conger also took. On the 2-1 pitch Liz grooved a fastball in the same spot as the third pitch and Conger smoked it to straight-away center, over the head of Luis Durango for a one bounce, ground rule double, breaking up the no-hitter.

It is well known that hitting with two strikes is like batter Kryptonite, so if Conger offers and misses at either of the first two pitches he’s in a much different scenario than how it actually played out. Moral of the story is that process is just as, if not more important, than results. The manifestation of the process in the form of plate appearances such as these can be very valuable.

Game recap: Starring Dusty Clutch

Another low scoring affair took place at PGE Park Monday as both starting pitchers, Liz for Portland and Matt Palmer for Salt Lake, threw hitless ball through four innings. Remaining a tied shutout through six and after Liz’s no-no was broken up in the top of the 7th, the Beavers broke through the Bees bullpen in the bottom of the frame when with two outs, Sean Kazmar singled and stole second. Beavers catcher, Dusty Ryan doubled down the right field line scoring Kazmar and the Beavs took a 1-0 lead.

After Liz and Luis Perdomo shut down the Bees in the top of the 8th, the Beavs went back to work at the plate. Relatively new Beaver Cedric Hunter lead off with a single and was sacrificed to second base by Craig Stansberry. Stansberry reached first on the sacrifice via an error by Bees pitcher Barrett Browning. With no outs Mike Baxter and Kyle Phllips added two RBI singles to make the game 3-0 Beavers. New closer, Adam Russell then came in and pitched an uneventful ninth to get the save and nail down the Portland victory.

Foul Balls!

Press Box Menu:
Pulled Pork Sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato, cheese
Pommes frites
Cole Slaw
Blackberry Crud

Soundtrack:
Summertime: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
The Underdog: Spoon
Monday: Wilco
Pump It Up: Elvis Costello
Breakdown: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.