Rob, which baseball books would you say everyone needs to read?
- Hollie Hamilton
Hollie, I wouldn’t say everyone needs to do anything. Maybe because I hate when people tell me I need to do something. But if someone came to me and asked for suggestions ... Well, that’s a different sort of thing, and I would happily recommend three books to start: Larry Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times, Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, and Michael Lewis’s Moneyball.
I’ve never thought about it like this before, but those three books cover most of baseball history between about 1904 and 2002. Which is no mean feat. All that’s really missing is the Negro Leagues and the black baseball experience, generally. For that, there’s ... apologies, I’m away from my library at the moment. For pure readability, maybe Joe Posnanski’s book about Buck O’Neil? We’re still waiting, I think, for the classic book about the Negro Leagues.
What is your opinion on the neighborhood play not being eligible for a challenge? It just came up in a pretty big spot for the Cubs. I thought replay was to ensure objectivity? Why still allow a subjective call stand in the game? One of those old school unwritten code garbage things?
- Elliott DiTusa
So, this was Wednesday night? I can’t find the play in question, will take your word for it. But yes, as I’ve written, this is a truly stupid procedure. I believe it was put in place to mollify the players, with the implicit understanding that while infielders might still sometimes make the neighborhood play, they wouldn’t be allowed to take the same liberties as before. And while I can’t prove this at all, I do believe there are significantly fewer of these plays now. Because the infielders just can’t assume quite as much as they did. And I still believe the neighborhood play will die a slow, natural death.
I like your writeup on Ball Four, and I've been curious about what incentive MiLB players have for winning a season championship. Your thoughts?
- Ken Malmberg
Uh, is there some connection between those two things? Bouton pitched mostly for the Seattle Pilots, a real major-league team (however briefly). Either way, I’ll just say there are two obvious incentives: You get a ring, and winning’s a lot more fun that losing. Yes, by the end of the summer guys are ready to get home, or get a break before winter ball, whatever. But I think most of them want to keep playing as long as there’s something on the line. And while the ring might not be real fancy, I can tell you from experience – I mean, not mine, but from talking to guys who have one, even in short-season A ball – that the ring is important, especially later.
When I started watching baseball in the 60ths, conventional wisdom was that teams needed to score early against ace pitchers because they got stronger as game went on. CW now is that pitchers lose effectiveness the more times they go through the lineup. What do you think is closer to being correct?
- Jerry Skurnik
The latter, I’m nearly sure. Because it seems to be systemic. What I think is that there are very few pitchers (Justin Verlander) who seem stronger later in the game, and very few pitchers (Tom Glavine) who seem much weaker early in the game. And some of that’s probably just statistical noise. Hell, maybe all of it.
But yeah, I heard that all the time when I was growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s. I’ll bet guys are still saying it. But I think it’s mostly just something guys say. I mean, of course if you don’t get to him early you probably won’t get to him at all; he’s Sandy Koufax! He’s hard to get to!
Rob, What are the Tigers going to do? It’s been a long time up here since we last had to ask such a question. The rotation is shaky. I don’t even sweat our bullpen as much as I do the rotation. I don;t think they stand pat. They either sell or buy. What do you think?
- Jeffrey Clinansmith
Unless they’re just terrible over the next few weeks, it’s hard to imagine them selling. I mean, this team is rebuilt to win NOW every year. That’s usually what happens when the owner’s a million years old.*
* apologies to any million-year-olds reading this
Hey, the good news is that the Tigers should be scoring more runs than they’ve scored, and probably will. So once again, the lineup’s not really an issue, even without Victor Martinez doing much at all. And as you say, the bullpen’s been decent, at least.
But that rotation ... at this point, David Price is the only reliable starter on the entire roster. Unless you think Alfredo Simon can keep it going for another few months, and that Anibal Sanchez will stop giving up so many home runs.
Actually, at least one of those things probably will happen. Still hard to win with just two or three legitimate starters. So yes, I would expect the Tigers to be buying ... but you can say the same about another dozen or so contenders, and there are only so many good starting pitchers to go around. So while they almost certainly will be looking for a starter, that doesn’t mean they’ll find one.
