Dear Pat Gillick: Get Mark Teixeira

In 1982, the Phillies used Ryne Sandberg as a throw-in to deal with the Cubs. In 1964, they blew an enormous lead and lost the pennant. In 1993, the Phils left Mitch Williams out in the 9th inning to doom their only playoff team since Pete Rose and Steve Carlton donned the red pinstripes. Just this year, the Phillies lost their 10,000th game.

But the worst transgression happened in the 2001 amateur draft. After Joe Mauer and Mark Prior were taken, the Devil Rays did us a bigger favor than leaving Bobby Abreu unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft. The Rays took Dewon Brazelton, meaning that the Phillies were free to draft the player who would lead them to several championships. Mark Teixeira came to the Phillies on a silver platter, and has been nearly as-advertised with his powerful, switch-hitting stroke.

There is only one problem. The Phillies passed on Mark Teixeira and drafted Gavin Floyd instead. Actually, let me stress that entire sentence. The Phillies passed on Mark Teixeira and drafted Gavin Floyd instead.

Dear Pat Gillick,

Here is your chance to correct what is the single most egregious error in Philadelphia Phillies history. The Texas Rangers are desperate to trade Teixeira. In fact, they’re also looking to trade Eric Gagne, and you know our bullpen could use his arm.

For over twenty years, I have known the Phillies would choke. They always do. Either they’re really bad, or they’re just good enough for it to hurt that much more when they choke. This year, Pat Gillick, let’s shed the label. You even get to show initiative by putting Teixeira at third base, a position he has played in the Major Leagues and could easily play for us in 2007.

Here’s the trade. Rangers get:
Francisco Rosario
Kyle Drabek
Jose Mesa
Mike Zagurski
Kyle Kendrick

Phillies get:
Eric Gagne
Mark Teixeira

Come on Pat, let’s make this happen. Philadelphia needs a winner.

Is Luis Gonzalez a Hall of Famer?

Luis Gonzalez on baseball-reference.com

Luis Gonzalez has had a very interesting career, spanning 18 seasons, and including a walk-off hit in the World Series. Most importantly, Gonzalez is not yet finished, enjoying a renaissance at age 39. Is Gonzalez a Hall of Famer? Well, in addition to the famous hit, Gonzalez hit 57 home runs in 2001, one of the finest seasons by any player. He has longevity and great peak seasons, but not enough of either to reach the hallowed grounds.

Gonzalez has always been underrated, from his Astrodome-deflated stats in his 20s to his doubles-heavy record in his 30s. From 1990-97, except for a brief stint with the Cubs, Gonzalez played his home games in the Astrodome, the worst hitters’ park in baseball history. Gonzalez hit only 62 home runs for the Astros and his counting stats were severely hampered. Now, as Gonzalez approaches 350 home runs, his record would look much better if not for the numbers he lost to his home stadium.

Even as he became the face of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gonzalez performed under the radar. While the 57 homer season stands out, Gonzalez has had four other seasons of 45 or more doubles since turning 30, leading to some very impressive slugging percentages. Even when he wasn’t knocking the ball of out the park, Gonzalez remained an important power hitter.

The most similar player to Gonzalez, statistically, is Dave Parker. Like Parker, Gonzalez has had a long career with some important highlights, but the overall package just isn’t enough. Gonzalez had some power, but not as much as most of his contemporaries. He was durable, but not as much as some other players. Gonzalez didn’t stand out as a fielder or baserunner and really didn’t have anything to overcome his low totals.

Gonzalez has always been considered one of the good guys in baseball, and even took a turn broadcasting while he was still an active player. But he falls well short of the Hall of Fame.

Six Degrees: Worth watching online

Sure, it’s been canceled. But lucky for you, the entire first season of ABC’s Six Degrees is available online, including episodes that never aired on TV. This show is really good and does a terrific job of intertwining the lives of the characters. You would think that it might get stale after a while, but they’ve already canceled it, so that doesn’t really matter. Just watch the episodes from this season and you’re done. You’ll be glad you did.

Jericho: Tonight is the night

There is no way the summer viewings of Jericho can live up to the hype. They’re showing on Friday nights and starting halfway through the season. But finally, at long last, Jericho will be in prime time for all of America. I highly recommend watching this. In fact, you should tape it and watch it again later. Get all your friends to watch. Watch it online. Write to CBS and tell them you liked it. Send them nuts. All of these things are very good ideas.

Seriously, just watch. You’ll be glad you did.

Movie: Transformers

What better way to spend a rainy Independence Day than by going to see the summer’s biggest blockbuster? Transformers sure was a big production. I enjoyed the movie, but truth be told, most of the robots looked like they were pulled from the scrap heap, rather than the pristine animated heroes of my youth. Except for Optimus Prime, of course. Naturally, they spent time making him look perfect, even if they decided to give him a mouth.

There was probably too much action here. The plot was good and there was more than a little humor to be had. I can’t say that I’m disappointed: this was a great movie, I just came in with very high expectations.

Vote for Rory… er, Pat

Pat Neshek, he of the most interesting delivery in baseball, has an All-Star Campaign in his honor, just like Rory Fitzpatrick did for NHL’s game earlier this year. Neshek is likely to be more successful, for these reasons:

1. He’s actually pretty good.
2. That funky delivery.
3. Neshek is already on the MLB “Final Vote” list, meaning he only has to beat out four players who were also not chosen as All-Stars.

I voted for Pat. Let’s hope he wins, and gets into the game. That would be exciting.

Movie: A Sound Of Thunder

I watched A Sound Of Thunder, starring Edward Burns and based on a Ray Bradbury. Burns works for a time-travel adventure company called Time Safari, and one of the jumps goes horribly wrong.

First of all, this movie is very good. The effects are great, the acting is good, the plot is interesting and everything meshes well. I just have two issues with time-travel-based logic.

*SPOILER START*
1. It would seem impossible to go back into the same exact spot in time more than once. Wouldn’t you see the other people? I’m not entirely sure what happened in the “slingshot jump” that was different than the other jumps. I mean, they went to the same instant and the same spot. Did jumping forward erase that in some way?

2. The future would be changed from that particular moment on, not through waves. As seen in Back To The Future, the travelers would encounter an entirely different world and people with no knowledge of anything different. While the waves added some nice effect, they forced me to suspend the laws of nature even if I ignored the actual time travel.
*SPOILER END*

All told, this is a great movie and I highly recommend it.

Tiant Tanks For History

In 1973, the Yankees and Red Sox faced off in what was due to be the first game in history with a Designated Hitter. Ron Blomberg, batting sixth, was set to DH for the visiting Yankees while Orlando Cepeda, batting fifth, took the spot for the host Red Sox. In natural order, Tiant should have retired the Yankees in the first and allowed the powerful Red Sox lineup to get Cepeda to the plate as the first DH in history. But Tiant struggled in the first, giving up three runs, and allowing Blomberg to take the honors.

We had a discussion about this at the bar last night, and it was mentioned that Tiant complained about the cold early-season weather in Boston, leading to his bad performance in the first inning. But that can’t be right – Tiant pitched eight more innings that day and allowed only two runs. I speculate that he tanked – pitched poorly to become known as the pitcher who faced the first DH in history. Blomberg walked, by the way. In the first official at-bat as a DH, Cepeda struck out leading off the second.

Jericho Returns! July 6th, 2007

A note on the Jericho website proudly proclaims:

JERICHO, CBS’s drama about how residents of a small, peaceful, Kansas town band together to survive in the wake of a nuclear explosion, will return to the Network beginning Friday, July 6 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Rebroadcasts of episodes from the first season will air in the Friday, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period for the remainder of the summer.

JERICHO, which last week received a seven episode mid-season order following an impassioned display of fan support, will return on July 6 with a rebroadcast of the pilot episode. On July 13, CBS will present back-to-back broadcasts beginning with “Return to Jericho” (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), which recapped the first 11 episodes, followed by episode 12, “The Day Before” (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), which launched “Jericho’s” spring return.

The remaining summer broadcasts will consist of episodes 13–22, in which tensions continue to escalate between Jericho and the neighboring town of New Bern as they battle the Kansas winter, dwindling resources and the uncertainty of a new world. The citizens of Jericho must now find a way to unite against these hardships, working together to preserve their community and their way of life as they prepare for an all out battle for survival in the season finale.

Given the shortened schedule, showing Return to Jericho seems quite reasonable. That way, fans will see what happened and get right into the meat of things. I hope dearly that fans are not confused when they settle down to watch Episode 13. The good news is that all of the episodes are available online through CBS InnerTube, so fans that want to get caught up have a way to do that.

Obviously, I encourage everyone who reads this to watch the show, although the Friday night slot seems rough. CBS seemed pretty steadfast in their opposition to online views and time-delayed views, and I would think that Friday at 9 PM would lead to a lot of both.

Either way, it’s good to see Jericho back on the air, and I hope it garners a big following this summer.

At least he hits like a pitcher

After almost four years, the Padres’ Matt Bush, quite possibly the worst draft pick in all of human history, has has converted from a shortstop to a pitcher. Bush was a decent pitcher in high school, but it’s hard to imagine that this turns out well. I’d sooner see Rick Ankiel as a Major League outfielder.

It gets worse: just look at the 2004 MLB Draft…

1 Matt Bush SS Padres Mission Bay HS, El Cajon, CA
2 Justin Verlander RHP Tigers Old Dominion
3 Philip Humber RHP Mets Rice
4 Jeff Niemann RHP Devil Rays Rice
5 Mark Rogers RHP Brewers Mount Ararat HS, Orr’s Island, ME
6 Jeremy Sowers LHP Indians Vanderbilt
7 Homer Bailey RHP Reds La Grange (Texas) HS
8 Wade Townsend RHP Orioles Rice
9 Chris Nelson SS Rockies Redan HS, Decatur, GA
10 Thomas Diamond RHP Rangers New Orleans
11 Neil Walker C Pirates Pine Richland HS, Gibsonia, PA
12 Jered Weaver RHP Angels Long Beach State
13 Bill Bray LHP Expos William and Mary
14 Billy Butler 1B/3B Royals Wolfson HS, Jacksonville
15 Stephen Drew SS Diamondbacks Florida State

Verlander, Sowers, Weaver, Drew, and Bray are already established Major Leaguers, and Butler, Bailey, and Walker are big time prospects. This was a pretty deep draft, and the Padres couldn’t even get an organizational soldier out of it.