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| Monday, August 26 Updated: August 28, 10:56 AM ET Baker's Dozen: The week in preview By Jim Baker ESPN Insider |
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1: Best Matchup of the Week Actually, there are a lot of good series this week. Here are the standings showing the combined records of the combatants:
That's a pretty good week on the top end, wouldn't you say? What could possibly spoil a week of good matchups like that? I have nary a clue!
2: The Sweeps Week Matchup of the Week Can the Royals knock the wheels off of the A's magic cart to Happytown? (Or does a 12-game winning streak put a team past Happytown and are now on its way to Blissville? Well, wherever they are on the Joy Road, here are the pitching matchups for the series with some stats that may well be red hearing statistics:
Game One: Corey Lidle versus Shawn Sedlacek
Game Two: Mark Mulder versus Runelvys Hernandez
Game Three: Barry Zito versus Jeff Suppan I think the Royals will win one of these games, for no other reason than a 15-game winning streak seems outrageous -- even from the vantage point of starting with a 12-game head start as the A's are.
3: The Former Denizens of Harlem Matchup of the Week So named because the Giants used to play in the Polo Grounds, once situated in Harlem. I'm sure somebody expressed this sentiment somewhere, so forgive me if you've read somebody saying this already. While I'm no fan of showboating in the major leagues, I thought it amazing to watch those kids from Harlem playing in the Little League World Series having so much fun on such a grand stage. I say that if a kid that age can relax enough to smile and have a good time under that kind of pressure, then he is a lucky kid indeed. I don't ever remember having any kind of fun when I played Little League baseball. I was pretty thrilled when I hit my first (OK, only) home run, but that was about it. I was too tightly wrapped and so were most of my friends and teammates. I remember laughing after the games ended, but while they were on, it was all so deathly serious. Playing the games was informative and good exercise and probably a positive experience in the long run –- but they were not fun as best as I recall. So, you'll not see me passing harsh judgment on kids for some hotdogging. They are kids, after all, and they're playing a game –- not the stock market. Barry Bonds has played in 18 stadiums this season. Surprisingly, the ballpark third from the bottom for him in terms of productivity as expressed by OPS is Coors Field at .738 (in 29 plate appearances). Only Turner Field (.607 in 12 PA) and Wrigley (.125 in eight PA) are worse. How much longer can that last? Not very, I would bet.
4: The Jesse Orosco Returns to the Scene of One of His
Greatest Moments Matchup of the Week Well, he could return if had a mind to. He'd need to take a cab there, but the Astrodome is standing yet. (Can Houston support two major league teams? If there were another oil boom they could.) Orosco's great moment came at the end of Game Six of the 1986 NLCS against Houston while he was playing for the Mets. He closed out the game and chucked his glove high in the air. A lot of people took his picture. I was watching the Fox Game of the Week on Saturday and a strange coincidence occurred. Orosco was brought into the game and mention was made of his record for most games ever pitched. He only faced two batters, but in that brief window of time, the news came through that Hoyt Wilhelm had passed away. Wilhelm had owned the games pitched record for 30 years before it was broken in 1998 by Dennis Eckersley. Orosco passed Eckersley in 1999.
5: The Tune-Up, Preview, Test Drive, Look See, Foretaste
Matchups of the Week
Can the Twins hang with the big snakes in the pit? If you a break a season down to four components, you would expect a team's won-loss record to decrease along these lines:
Best: Home versus sub.-500 teams You could probably argue that the middle two could be switched. Here's how the Twins have done:
Home versus sub.-500 teams: 37-14 .725 They're about one game off of form. If you take away their season series with the Yankees, they're 13-12 against plus-.500 teams. Now, the Twins can only exist in the world into which they were born, so I'm not blaming them for this, but 31 games out of 132 against teams of quality is not a considerable amount. The Mariners, one of their opponents this week and a team with a very similar record, have had 54 such games out of their 131 contests. Here's how their season splits:
Home versus sub.-500 teams: 20-11 .645 The Angels won their first 10 road games against the American League elite. One thing about these numbers, though. These records reflect teams' records now -– not at the time the series took place. When the Mariners went into Anaheim in April and took what they pleased, the Angels were reeling and did not resemble the Angels team that swept Seattle while hosting three months later. So, in summary, the Twins could earn some street cred by comporting themselves well this week and next when they also play these teams in return series. After that, it's back to the less fortunate of the league for the rest of the year.
6: The Worst Matchup of the Week A lot of you are wondering what would cause the loss of a series like this right when it's getting started. "I don't understand the issues," people write in and say. So, for the benefit of those not clear on how baseball arrived on the brink of yet another work stoppage, here's a brief history of some of the game's recent labor strife: 1972: Prior to 1972, players had to stitch all the game balls by hand. What is more, teams were not obligated to soothe them in any way if they stuck themselves with the needles. They were also required to buy their own caps at the souvenir stands. Players had to launder their own uniforms as well -– sometimes during a game if they got it especially dirty with a dive or a slide. 1981: This midseason walkout raised the minimum salary from $2 per game all the way up to $5 –- whether you played or not. A great leap forward for the players. There was also a question of player mobility. Could they get up and walk around the dugout any old time they chose, or did they have to continue to yell to the manager, "scratchin' here boss!" or "wipin' off here boss" whenever they wanted to make the slightest movement? 1985: Health care was the cause celeb in this go 'round. Prior to 1985, players had to act as their own team doctors, for the most part. What little team-provided health care there was was restricted to visits to unlicensed racehorse veterinarians who would, more than likely, prescribe a shot with a comically-oversized hypodermic needle and a good rubdown with liniment, regardless of the malady. 1994-95: Stadium parking was the key issue here. Players, now buying huge SUVs rather than diminutive sports cars, wanted wider and longer spots. Management fought them tooth and nail and we lost the World Series in the process. 2002: Television money. That's what it's all about this year. The players want the owners to pay for televisions in the clubhouses and on team buses. The owners are saying the players should pay for them. There is a rumor of a compromise counter proposals wherein the owners would provide black and white TVs, but it is, at press time, just that: a rumor.
7: The American League Old School Matchup of the Week It's been three months since we ran the standings of the old originals –- those teams that are still in their original cities from the birth of the American League. That joyous sound you hear coming from Jacobs Field is that of Indians fans, knowing they can put a lot of distance between themselves and the Red Sox this week in the battle for best original team. Here are their standings in head-to-head games:
W-L Pct. Cleveland Indians 21-10 .677 Boston Red Sox 7-6 .538 Detroit Tigers 17-20 .459 Chicago White Sox 12-21 .364 It's not over yet, but it's looking pretty good for Cleveland. Their schedule this week also includes Detroit (which are also playing the White Sox) so it's an old school-intensive week in the American League. Surely the players sense this. Be on the lookout for manifestations of increased tension.
8: The National League Old School Matchup of the Week While the Reds may be fading in the real world, here in the isolated subgroup of National League teams that opened the last century in the same city in which they currently reside, they're still neck and neck with the Cardinals:
W-L Pct. Cincinnati Reds 21-15 .583 St. Louis Cardinals 26-20 .565 Philadelphia Phillies 9-9 .500 Pittsburgh Pirates 19-25 .432 Chicago Cubs 17-23 .425
9: The Debts No Honest Man Can Pay Matchup of the Week Depending on the outcome of Monday's action, the Red Sox could enter this series trailing the Yankees by as many as eight games. In a way, a two-game series must be kind of frustrating in a situation like this. They must be heading into it thinking that no matter how well they play it will not bring them close, only closer. However, a pair of losses and it may look like the end of the world. They're kind of like the person who is $50,000 in debt and can only land a temporary job. No matter how hard they work and how much they set aside to pay off that debt, they are still in a hole so deep they can barely see the light breaking over its rim high above their heads.
10: The Now I Must Face the Final Curtain Matchup of the
Week Speaking of temp work:
APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT TOP DRAWER TEMP AGENCY/Las Colinas, Texas
11: The Biggest Mismatchup of the Week As often happens, when you see a player do well at a minor league game, you have a tendency to want him to go on to big things so you can impress schoolchildren by making grand pronouncements like, "Why I saw him play in the Eastern Rhode Island League when he couldn't have been more than four feet tall and still used a chipmunk poker for a bat," or something like that. For me, the main guy who fits that description is Aubrey Huff of the Devil Rays. I saw him tear it up in Durham a couple of years back and have been pulling for him ever since. I'm sure you have favorite guys picked by that random method, too. He's been playing some more first base lately, but after his struggles at third last year, it looked as though the Rays were going to use him solely a designated hitter. I would hope that his manager, Hal McRae -- the first man to really seize the position of DH and make it his own -- would see in Huff something of himself and push him in that direction. If so, perhaps he could go on to have a McRae/Edgar Martinez type of career because the guy is a big league hitter. It still amazes me that thirty years after the DH was introduced to baseball, more teams aren't identifying perfect DH types and moving them away from having to play in the field. To that end:
A Man Called Aubrey
12: The Biggest Heartbreaking Matchup of the Week This matchup comes in the form of a letter:
"Jim: Since the big mystery this week is whether or not half of these games will even be played, it seems moot to have a Mystery Matchup. The solution to last week's Mystery Matchup was the Mets at Colorado. Reader Jeffrey Blatt, serving with the USAF, was the firstest with the mostest in answering the question. Good job, Jeffrey.
13: The Mr. MVP Meet Mr. Cy Young Matchup of the Week
Check out ESPN Insider Jim Baker's 'Baker's Dozen' column appears on Mondays during the baseball season. He also writes Monday through Friday for ESPN Insider. He can be reached at jimbakerespn@yahoo.com. |
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for even more proof of Bonds' great season.
