The Gamecocks are so 2011

For 22 straight playoff games the rest of the college baseball world was at the mercy of South Carolina fans. Say anything that could be perceived as not completely worshipping the Gamecocks and you were (as Eric Sorensen put it) “at the risk of death threats.”

It was a non-stop gloatfest. I’ve never understood why a team that’s accomplished so much still has fans that feel the need to constantly try to use the internet to further inflate their egos. Let the winning do the talking, Cockheads. Leave the cheap smack talk for the losers.

And now, they’ve finally lost, so as one of those losers (soon, Dirtbag fans, soon) I will now take the opportunity to use that cheap trash talk.

The last time the Gamecocks won anything The Hangover: Part II was still in theatres and I didn’t see it because I was too busy reading on my $150 kindle. Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper was a teenager and Daniel Tosh still seemed funny.

11 1/2 months and counting!! You mad, brah?!

Since they're now sure to run the table and win a third straight title I'll preemptively provide this peace offering to Gamecock Nation that their 2011-minds will be able to understand:

 

Who Needs the College World Series?

Unfortunately, I do. The College World Series has cut into my attendance of DC Grays games (still on the UCLA bandwagon, but at this point things are looking great for the Gamecocks), but I’ve had a chance to take in 3 1/3 more Grays game lately (well, two full games and a combined 12 innings from two other games). Before I get too far behind here’s a recap of some of the action:

June 10 vs. Bethesda Big Train

An ugly, ugly game for the Grays. Some credit should be given to the Big Train, Tucker Tobin (Senior, George Mason) had a big day with two singles and a homer, and Bethesda showed off it’s speed, running wild on catcher Blake Overmiller (Soph., Cantonsville CC) all day. 2B Michael Bass (Junior, UNC Wilmington) had three steals by my count (though the official card gave him only two). The game saw one of Overmiller’s throws sail into left field (allowing a run to score), misplayed pop-ups by RF Matt Kianka (Soph., Central Arizona CC) and 1B Kris Moules (Junior, Morehead State), four total DC errors, and a run given away when Tobin waltzed home from third after DC shortstop Zach Lopes (R-Soph., Delaware) seemed to forget to check the lead runner after receiving a throw at second from Overmiller.

The game gave me my first look at relievers Charlie Baxter (Junior, Williams College), who did his best to put out the fire, going three innings without giving up an earned run (though the defense would spot Bethesda two more); and Chris Nee (Senior, DC’s Catholic University), a sidearm throwing southpaw who pitched a perfect 8th (had it not been for another error, of course).

Big Train with a Big Win, 11-0

June 11 vs. Baltimore Redbirds

Anyone else find it odd a Baltimore-based team is called the REDbirds? I only caught the tail end of this one, (a 6-2 Baltimore win) but a few tidbits:

-John Beaubien (Junior, Seton Hall) hit a MASSIVE home run, across the street. Of his seven hits so far (7-for-26, .267), four have been for extra bases.

-I must be missing something, regarding Billy Bissell (Junior, Gallaudet University). On almost every pitch Bissell, a center fielder, seemed to be standing straight up and on his heels, and twice during this game he came up about a step short chasing a fly ball to the gap. I can’t imagine an everyday player at the college level could’ve made it this far playing on his heels without a coach saying something, so perhaps he’s just very discreet when getting into a set position. For what it’s worth, he made a great throw in the 7th inning to gun down a runner at third.

 -RHP William Kelly (Soph., UNC Wilmington) has a scary violent sidearm delivery. He pitched a decent three innings out of the pen (4 K’s, 2 BB’s, and that Beaubien moonshot) and consistently pounded the inside half of the plate to right handed hitters.

June 14 vs. Rockville Express

It was the Jason Seitler show. The Junior RHP from Harford CC had a nice 11-5 breaking ball working for him all day and ended up with a 5-hit, 1-run, 123-pitch (my unofficial count) victory. Besides a little laboring a in the 4th and 5th innings and a Josh Powell (Senior, Alcorn State) solo homer in the 8th, it was fairly easy sailing for Seitler.

There were four more SBs against Overmiller (to be fair, some of these are just the result of great jumps off Grays pitchers). Two from Gary Schneider (Senior, Virginia Tech) in the 5th helped manufacture the game’s first run, and Christian Wolfe’s (Senior, UNC Greensboro) steal in the 6th (his second SB of the day) would lead to a sac fly that proved to be the difference in the game.

-Chris Nee with another solid relief appearance for the Grays, going 2.2 perfect innings.

Express win, 2-1.

June 16 vs. Herndon Braves

As a Dodger fan I’m ashamed to say I reinforced the LA stereotype and bowed out early, leaving the game in the 7th inning. This is not something I would normally ever do (I swear!) but it was after a long day at work and I wanted to catch the end of the Kent State/Arkansas game (8-1 final, good call, Brandon!).

It was 2-0 Braves when I took off and Herndon would go on to win, 5-3. Here’s what I saw:

-Seth Greene (Junior, Virginia Commonwealth) ended up with the victory, going five innings with five strikeouts and 3 walks. Chase Lemaster (Soph. Radford) relieved him, in the one inning of action I saw from him he badly crossed up Bissell and Moules in breaking pitches to record a couple of K’s.

-Manny Cabreja (Junior, Columbia University) was behind the plate for DC but didn’t fair much better than Overmiller. Cabreja had a stolen base against him and sent a pick-off attempt sailing into center field.

-In other Grays defensive news: It pained me to give yet another E to 3B Troy Marrow (Junior, North Carolina Central) who has muffed a few routine plays this year. On the whole he has still shown great instincts at the hot corner. And I’ll be damned if flat-footed Billy Bissell didn’t gun down another base runner (with an even better throw!); this time the victim was at home plate.

Even though I know you’re all waiting for more (well both of you are) I can’t promise much more coverage until after Omaha.


Update: So apparently right around the time I posted this the Grays overcame an 8-0 deficit to get a 12-11, walk-off win. Good thing I'm sitting here on the couch giving you all the updates on 11-0 games that happened over a week ago.

Meanwhile on Twitter...

I guess I’m late to the party, can someone tell me what the hell this cyber war involving college baseball is about? By the time UCLA had built up a 9-1 lead the most entertaining thing in the baseball world was following the #CWS hashtag on twitter.

Much of it involved Keith Law (of course) and his insisting that college coaches endlessly abuse their pitchers (well, their arms, anyway). This has caused some discussion in the past and although I may not agree with Klaw’s claims I think his objections on behalf of the players are fair. But, for the life of me, I still can’t figure out why he thinks he needs to stand up on behalf of poor old Major League Baseball. Who gives a damn what the St. Louis Cardinals think about Kurt Heyer throwing 130 pitches last night? (as mentioned on Klaw’s feed) MLB teams draft players knowing full well the risk involved when taking a guy who’s still in season and, besides, the players aren’t yet under contract. The MLB teams have no say (nor should they) on what the players does and the NCAA coaches certainly owe nothing to MLB. If MLB teams are really this upset over their draftee’s pitch counts, they should’ve changed the draft date until after Omaha.

#NotTheNCAAsProblem

Sorry, I’ve got twitter on the mind right now. Anyway, Law’s complaint over Heyer’s pitch count would’ve slipped through the twitter world undetected had it not been for something called a “Brian Foley” of College Baseball Daily (using the CB Daily handle).

Mark Etheridge with the comeback of the century. But it didn’t end there…

Ouch, Etheridge is on fire! But the best argument of the night came from Brent Carter who earned a “follow” from me after this comment

That was pretty much it for Pitch Count-Gate, but I'll be damned if Foley didn’t have more shit to stir throughout the day. On top of his attacking of the game he devotes a website to, he also remarked (in a tweet he has since removed) during the 11th inning of last night’s UofA/FSU game “Isn’t it past Mike Martin’s bedtime?” Always good to take one of the game’s great icons down a peg or two.

And then this little gem earlier in the day:

Omaha is overrated? To quote Bill Hicks “Jesus, what balls!”

And one final cyber meltdown:

Good Lord.

I don’t mean to pile on Brian, here…. but I think that ship has sailed so, here we go…..

Really, though, I don’t want to give the impression that Foley isn’t entitled to his opinion or that he hates college baseball, but damn near everything he posts seems to imply there’s a screw loose somewhere. I actually reached out to him a few weeks back about being a contributor to College Baseball Daily. After sending him some writing samples I got an e-mail that so eloquently inquired:

“Where u based?”

(end of message)

I told him the Washington, DC area. I never heard from him again.

I have no sour grapes, Brian. I’m pretty happy with the blog I have now and I still check our your site from time to time. So keep doing what you’re doing, although you might want to edit that ego-trip of a twitter description you have:

Editor of College Baseball Daily and contributor to Inside Lacrosse. A rising star in Sports!

 ... for all the wrong reasons, Foley.

CWS Day 1 Chat

Because we need more College World Series Previews

I’m not a coach, player, or scout. If you want a real breakdown go to the countless other college baseball sites and are incredibly hard to find. Anyway, this is my guide about whom you should root for in Omaha… or at least the teams I’m rooting for.

UC(Davis)LA Bruins – Chances of Winning it All: 15%, My rooting interest: 55%

In what has been a year to forget in the Big West, I’m going to really reach to find something to hang my Dirtbags hat on. Rex Peters, who ironically enough left the Big West (as Head Coach of UC Davis) for a job made available by Rick Vanderhook’s re-joining of the Big West (as Head Coach of Cal State Fullerton), has been key in turning around the Bruins offense and getting them back to Omaha. After returning most of last year’s lineup UCLA saw a significant bump in it’s on-base percentage, slugging, and a large drop in strikeouts. Therefore I’m going to take it upon myself to say “you’re welcome” to the Bruins for giving you a Big West guy as your new assistant coach and miracle worker with the bats. Jeff Gelalich is now on his way to becoming a millionaire. Five other Bruins regulars hit above .305. I won’t forget about the pitching. Four solid starters, lead by Adam Plutko, and three ace relievers (Scott Griggs, David Berg, Ryan Deeter) are enough to get me to stick to my pre-regionals pick of a Bruins team in the championship round, although overall bracket 1 is a toss up (with a four sided coin, I suppose).

They’re also a west coast school and my brother’s a student there. I know that’s not really relevant to any of you but, screw it, let's go Bruins.

Kent State I-guess-we-like-you-toos – Chances of Winning it all: 3%, My rooting interest: 50%

The Golden Flashes were beat to the punch by those upstart Seawolves for the “Darlings of Omaha” title, and while they’ll still be a fan favorite at the College World Series they go in drawing a field of Arkansas (scary but not much worse than what Stony Brook will face), Florida, and South Carolina (holy crap). David Starn gives them something more than a chance against maybe the SEC’s best pitching staff in Game 3 versus Arkansas. If they can get past that game they’ll have a leg up on half of the GatorCock two-headed monster. Ryan Bores (16 walks in 104.1 innings) will keep Kent State from beating themselves, but UF or USC should be able to do the job without too much trouble.

While they’ve had a good pos-season run, including (barely) winning twice against the SEC’s Kentucky, they have the worst pitching staff in their bracket making it hard to see them getting to the championship round. Stony Brook may be getting all the media attention, but a deep run by the Golden Flashes would be the biggest upset in Omaha this year. Good luck guys, I’ll be pulling for ya… 

Stony Brook Seawolves of Omaha – Chances of Winning it all: 10%, My rooting interest: 40%

Somebody should tell ESPN that being a 4 seed in the regionals is sorta like being a 13 seed in the basketball tournament. Or that Stony Brook was a division III team at one point. Or that Joe Nathan went there. Despite the Mothership’s best efforts, I’m not yet annoyed enough with the Seawolves to stop caring. Plus, at least they've stopped calling it the AmericaN East Conference.

Really, though, but there’s not a lot left to say about the Seawolves, except that it’s probably naive to think they’ll just take their token trip to Omaha and head right back to New York. Bracket 1 is winnable, and though their pitching may look a bit top heavy for a deep tournament run, the offense is loaded (oh, that reminds me, ESPN should mention that Travis Jankowski was drafted by the Padres in the supplemental first round) and they can beat you on both sides of the running game (93 steals, a 73% CS% from catcher Pat Cantwell).

A Game 1 win is key if they don’t want to rely too heavily on the post-Tyler Johnson/Brandon McNitt rotation. Since they’ll be facing UCLA, depending on who wins that Game 1 match-up I’ll either be content or somewhat happy. Now that’s a rabid baseball fan. :-|

Florida State Bridesmaids – Chances of Winning it all: 10%, My rooting interest: 15%

I was on the Seminoles bandwagon about this time a month ago. Then peer pressure from just about everyone forced me off. Although they don’t have the pitching of the SEC schools, I still like the ‘Noles and somewhere in my gut I still feel this could finally be “next year” (that shellacking of Stanford might’ve helped that feeling). They might actually have the worst offense in their bracket (which says a lot about the bracket) but they’re lead by the best player in the nation and Kermit the Frog impersonator James Ramsey. 

Now that I’ve put them side-by-side I’m not really seeing it. Maybe I’m thinking of Jamey Carroll...

There it is.

Going 0-3 versus Florida doesn’t bode well for their championship round hopes, but crushing the left coast’s best in Mark Appel gives them a solid chance in their bracket, and maybe they’ll luck out and play Kent State in the finals. (Who would be the Cinderella team in that scenario?)

Arizona Wildcats (sorry, I got nothing) – Chances of winning it all: 15%, My rooting interest: 10%

Getting the quadruple-whammy of being the first team to secure their Omaha bid (seems like a month ago, now), being on the west coast, playing a bunch of teams nobody really cared about, and now being buried in the coverage by Kent State, Stony Brook, and the SEC, the Wildcats have turned into probably the most ignored team going into Omaha (having suffered from serious “middle child syndrome” I can relate).

Hopefully everyone remembers how the Wildcats pretty easily cruised their way through the post-season, and that was preceded by a series win versus the rival Sun Devils that clinched a share of the Pac-12 title. They have arguably the best lineup in the field (only the AmEast Seawolves have a better average or slugging percentage), and while their pitching staff (post-Kurt Heyer) doesn’t jump out at you, they have a solid bullpen and Wade Konner and James Farris both had complete game wins over a loaded Stanford lineup (not that Florida State cares). 

Pretty much anyone out of this bracket I’ll be rooting for in the championship (unless they face Kent State), and I’ll give these guys a few bonus points for being from the Pac-12.

Arkansas Not Gators or Gamecocks – Chances of winning it all: 7% (they got the leftovers from Kent State’s odd number), My rooting interest: 0%

I shouldn’t dismiss their chances too quickly. They won two of three from the Gators in the regular season, boast Omaha’s best pitching staff (which has so far carried them in the post-season), and Ryne Stanek and DJ Baxendale give them a legitimate shot at starting out 2-0. But still, this is Omaha, and the worst team in their bracket will be throwing David Starn in their first game. Despite having some awesome names like Dominic Ficociello, Bo Bigham, and ….. I don’t know, Matt Reynolds I guess, their lineup is in the bottom half of Omaha teams.

I wouldn’t mind a Razorbacks championship, if only because it would mean the Gators and Cocks came up short, but if we can’t have a MAC or AmEast team win the championship, I’d at least like to see a non-SEC team take it.

Florida Gators (AA Affiliate – Boston Red Sox) – Chances of winning it all: 20%*, My rootig interest: -70%

While I’m growing a little tired of the SEC dominance in the game, I’m mainly starting to hate the Gators thanks to ESPN. Each year their post-season coverage is blatantly presented as nothing more than an exhibition for MLB draft prospects and the Gators feed right into that. Eight players taken inside the top nine rounds, then you add Jonathan Crawford, Karsten Whitson, Greg Larson, Casey Turgeon and probably about 12 other players I forgot, and Florida has become the Darlings of Bristol.

It would be great to see Kent State reach the finals (and if they played Stony Brook? Wow.) and Arkansas does have a great pitching staff, but most likely Bracket 2 is going to come down to the defending Eastern League Champion Gators and….

South Carolina Not Agains – Chances of winning it all: 20%*, My rooting interest: -100%

Two words: Michael Roth. The way the bracket shakes out, the Gamecocks will go head-to-head in the opening round (Game 4) with a Gator team that has had some struggles versus leftys (their only loss to the Gamecocks this season was a game that Roth started). With all the talk about how much parity we have in college baseball this year, an opening round win for the Cocks would give them the inside track to the championship series. A championship series with Michael Roth pitching Game 1. And Matt Price waiting in the bullpen.  SOB. That’s just what the college baseball cyber world needs, a fanbase boasting about 3 in a row.  Although it would be funny to see Keith Law once again be perplexed as to how a team with “less talent” could win in Omaha.

*Automatically add/subtract 10% with a game 4 win/loss.

Sorry I didn’t have much on the SEC teams but it’s not like it’s hard to find coverage on them anywhere else.

More DC Grays action soon…

A Gray Day for Baseball

Finally! Baseball!

My 5th post into this blog will finally be related to an actual baseball game I witnessed. Spending my first couple weeks just talking about what other people were talking about was fun, but that’s more ESPN’s shtick. I’ve kicked off my 2012 summer ball coverage by enjoying the first two home games in DC Grays (Cal Ripken Sr. League) history.

If you’re wondering, yes, that name DC “Grays” is a reference to the old Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard Homestead Grays. Many baseball fans (like myself and…. well Rob Neyer is the only other I can think of) felt the Grays would’ve been a fitting name and respectful nod to Washington’s baseball history back when the old Expos moved to Washington. However, I guess the team board or directors (or whoever named the team) felt nothing exuded community pride quite like the name “Nationals.”

Anyway, here’s what I’ve had a chance to see in my two trips to Hoy Field, located on the campus of Gallaudet University (home of the Division III Gallaudet Bisons).

 Don’t worry; he preferred to be called “Dummy.”

Two days, two great games.

The inaugural game (Wednesday, June 6) in team history was a one-run affair that included an 8th-inning botched double steal that lead to a bang-bang play at the plate, throwing out what would’ve been the tying run. The Alexandria Aces held their 2-1 lead in the ninth after Steven Schuler (Junior, St. Joseph’s) was brought in for the save. Schuler was bringing the heat, very high velocity (I don’t have a gun and am not buying one just for this free blog) on his fastball which he blew past Grays hitters on multiple occasions. Also pulled the string on a nice breaking pitch. Two K’s (with a hit batsmen and caught stealing mixed in between) and the southpaw had secured the save. Final score: Alexandria Aces 2, DC Grays 1.

Other notes from Wednesday’s action:

Aces second baseman Adam Forrer (Soph., Richmond) is one scrappy little bugger. The 5’7” infielder has an odd, very compact stance with his feet open. He ended up with a walk and two stolen bases in the game, getting great jumps on both attempts (catcher didn’t bother to throw the first time).

Grays LHP Jarred Forestieri (Junior, Felician College) has an off-speed pitch that can be clocked with an hour glass that he seemed to only throw to right handers. He had a few control issues (3 walks, 1 HBP in 5 innings), and tended to have his pitches float up in the zone.

DC reliever Cory Spera (Soph., Lafayette College) has a delivery that almost looks like he’s throwing sidearm, only to bring the heat with a 3/4 slot.

On Friday the action was even better. After trading runs in the third inning, the Grays and Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (who the hell thought of that name?) remained tied, 1-1, going into the 8th inning when the T-Bolts rallied with two outs to score three times, fuled by an two-run triple from Bobby Vitulano (who apparently is without a school). In the bottom half of the frame the Grays started things off with back-to-back walks followed by a huge, game-tying, three-run homer from Joshua Powell (Senior, Alcorn State). Powell hit the ball on the screws every at bat, but prior to the homer only had a single and two line outs to show for it. A Mike Genovese (Senior, Seton Hall) single, wild pitch, Billy Bissell (Junior, Gallaudet) sac bunt, and Troy Marrow (Junior, North Carolina Central) RBI-single put the Grays on top, 5-4. The T-Bolts made things interesting in the 9th, getting two on with two out, but the sidearmer Genovese picked up the game-ending strikeout. Final Score: DC Grays 5, Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts of Anaheim 4.

Leftovers:

Grays 3B Troy Morrow muffed a routine grounder in the 9th, but prior to that had made some impressive plays at the hot corner and was aggressive when charging slow rolling grounders. Overall he seems like a talented defender. He also had a booming triple on Wednesday to go with his game-winning single on Friday.

T-Bolts LHP Devon Davis (Senior, Montevallo) had a solid start, going six strong innings and only allowed one run. He showed a good pick-off move (should’ve had two pick offs in the game but his infield misplayed the run-downs). His fastball’s velocity wasn’t anything special but the pitch seemed fairly deceptive with good life.

T-Bolts backstop Hunter Boudreaux (Senior, New Orleans) is listed on the team website as 5’10”, which seems fairly generous. He didn’t show the world’s greatest arm from behind homeplate, either, although he’s listed as the only catcher on the roster so it looks like he’ll have to be the Bolts stalwart.

I’ll hopefully have a few more games to report on next week, and maybe some token commentary on the Cal/Northwoods/Alaska leagues since there’s a few Dirtbags taking part in those. Also just five days away from Cape League action!

But for now, it’s back to rooting for Stony Brook to pull off the upset. Go Seawolves!

Memo To MLB: Post-Draft Edition

This was going to just be the leftovers from my last post. A place where I can just throw out a few more things on my “wish list” that the MLB could do to improve its draft. However the way things shook out this year has lead me to make a slight change of plans. First (and least important so I’ll make this quick), I was reasonably impressed by the level of draft coverage we saw from MLB this season. One of the things that was going to be on my wish list was to see the first ten round of the draft broadcasted, due to their increased level of importance under the new rules. Crazy as that sounds, MLB did meet me halfway by webcasting rounds 2 through 10 with Jonathan Mayo (free from his chatroulette horror show) and (gasp!) Jim Callis from Baseball America! Although I just spent 1,100 words bitching about the MLB’s draft coverage, and I still have my gripes, it does appear the coverage is getting better by the year (although the pre-draft coverage still sucks). Well done, MLB.

The big story of the draft, however, is how the new rules altered the picks.

I still believe the outcry that over how these rules would screw over the small market teams has been overblown, since the prospects have lost leverage (just as Mark Appel how he likes his chances at that $6 million bonus now). Now it appears many of the new CBA critics have shifted the focus elsewhere, calling the new draft “flawed” because players aren’t being drafted in order of talent, claiming this is what MLB was intending; or as Perfect Game's Allan Simpson writes:

“It may not be known until July 13—the new deadline to sign players—or for years to come whether all the new draft rules enacted will achieve their intended consequence, but one thing is certain already, after just 15 rounds: players are not being drafted in an orderly, more systematic manner.”

Right, teams were just shouting names into their phones in a chaotic conference call, just hoping to be acknowledged.

I don’t really know why anyone thinks Bud Selig would be upset that a 4th round talent was instead drafted in the 11th round, but to clarify, all that the MLB wanted to accomplish was keeping the cost of draftees down. Maybe, maybe they also cared about the fact that bonus demands were getting so out of control under the old format that the draft started to become less about evaluating talent and more about a team’s propensity to spend. But that’s it. Jim Callis told me, personally (through a BA chat, that is): “I don't think MLB cares about anything regarding the draft other than keeping costs as low as possible.” So it’s not really fair to judge how succesful the MLB was in doing something they weren’t attempting to achieve in the first place. But let’s humor this idea for a moment, anyway.

If the entire MLB draft were only ten rounds, then the results would’ve been just fine. We started out with teams going primarily for the best talent available and as the draft went on we slowly shifted more and more to the cheap, less-talented crop. Teams seem serious about staying within their budget allotments, and because of this they focused more on “signable” players. There weren’t any of these “just in case” picks. When a team drafted a player, every commentator proclaimed “You don’t take Player X in the Nth round unless you plan on signing him.” As the draft went on the shift slowly went from “ability to “signability” to the point where by the tenth round basically everyone was picking seniors who’ll sign for dirt cheap. Or as Simpson so eloquently put it:

“No team may have manipulated the draft this year to its advantage more than the Houston Astros,

[five paragraphs later]

No team may have exploited the new draft rules… more than the Toronto Blue Jays”

As for those “unsignable” players, the thought seemed to be once a player slid down the draft board far enough he’d just get to a point where it became clear he’d go undrafted.

Then we got to the 11th round and that whole format was thrown by the wayside.

Teams went back to the old formula and started picking based on talent, singability be dammed. What we got was an 11th-15th round block that was a lot more talented than the 6th-10th. Hunter Virant, deemed too expensive for a second or third round pick, was just right for the first pick of the l1th round.

So what’s wrong with this? I suppose it’s a bit annoying for us fans (although it did lead to there being recognizable talent taken throughout the entire draft), but the teams seemed to make out ok. The 1st pick-owning Astros had one of the best top ten rounds and will have a good chance at signing all their picks. Plus they grabbed the top post-10th round talent (Virant) with a chance to sign him as well.

If the MLB wanted to maintain that nice run they for the first few rounds, where teams drafted based on (signable) talent then making the entire 40 rounds subject to one huge draft pool would’ve made sense. Having more rounds to choose from means teams would be able to go deeper into the draft before they begin their shift toward the cheap picks. And by making the entire draft subject to the bonus pool teams will have a vested interest in wanting to sign each pick so that they can maintain the amount in their pool. However, the double-edged sword with this idea is that it’ll just inflate the first round prospects’ bonus demands. At the very least it’s nice the MLB has gotten many of those “just in case” picks out of the top ten rounds, if anyone cares.

On the whole the first draft under the new CBA was somewhat confusing but nothing more. If the pre-10th to post-10th round shift really bugs you that much just look at the two is different “phases” of the draft, just like the old days. Teams (and agents) will adjust to the rules, but it seems for now the MLB has accomplished its (only) goal of controlling player costs, or to have Simpson tell it:

“almost every team has openly dismissed the spirit of the revised draft rules to manipulate the draft for their own self interests in their never-ending thirst to acquire talent.”

You don’t say? Sorry, I’ll end this digression (I actually had more to harp on), but this really reads like my high school Exit Exam essay I wrote when I was 14. I know Simpson’s a better writer than this.

Let’s just finish the rest of my wish list:

Allow Trading of Draft Picks: MLB, this is one phobia you’re just going to have to get over. The fear for years is that some teams will just punt of their draft and trade away their picks. To this I retort: Who the hell cares? It would turn the draft into some reasonably compelling television (and actually make the “clock” necessary) but more importantly, teams should simply be allowed to do what they please with their commodities. This is America, dammit. If you don like it her you can just git outtttt! (Sorry, Blue Jays)

Plus, having tradeable draft picks could have the opposite effect to what the MLB has feared. In fact, it could open the widow for the more shrewd small market teams, who everyone thought would lose their ability to stockpile draft prospects under the new CBA, to make up for this by trading for additional picks and increasing their allocations.

Draft Combine: I’ll admit some ignorance with regards to the frequency of private player workouts and the logistics involved in them, but it would seem beneficial for most parties if the MLB simply collected the top couple dozen high school prospects and conducted a pre-draft combine. No more endless private workouts (although keep the events sponsored by Perfect Game, and the like). Just a one shot deal that MLB Network can televise (improving that aforementioned crappy pre-draft coverage).

Keith Law gave this idea some legitimacy, recently stating in an ESPN.com chat:

“players are invited to so many workouts that they have to turn some down. MLB should look into doing a combine. It would spare a lot of these kids a lot of unnecessary travel.”

Good call, ya old sonuvabitch.

NCAA Partnership (maybe... I don't know): I’m wary of suggesting this, because lord knows how this would affect the college game (although I think damn near anything that gives the sport more scholarships would be great), but let’s just focus on the positive implications for the draft for now. A deal with the NCAA could lead to further, much need, televised coverage of the college game (and draft prospects) and potentially a draft date that doesn’t conflict with the regionals. I don’t want to see the college season cut any shorter, but it would be nice to have the College World Series precede the draft; allowing the college prospects to join the high schoolers at Studio 42 and give fans more of an opportunity to see them in action before the draft.

  

So there ya go. College season over (for me anyway). Draft over. Now on to the summer leagues.

Keith Law is An Asshole

“Byron Buxton has tremendous upside potential”

-Keith Kiper Jr.

This isn’t going to be the focal point of this post, I just figured “Keith Law is An Asshole” gets a fair amount of hits on Google and being a brand new blog I’ll take all the views I can get.

Really, though, Keith Law is an asshole. He never lets an opportunity to insult his audience get away, and his sadomasochist following just can’t seem to get enough of his abuse. “Klaw”, or at least those who defend his dickishness, enjoy pointing out how “snarky” and “sarcastic” he is, but an asshole? No way. This defense is somewhat reminiscent of Sarah Silverman’s line about celebrities that excuse their behavior by proclaiming themselves a “Diva.” As Silverman retorts: “No, you’re a c**t.”

I’m not really sure why a Harvard and Carnegie Mellon educated man would waste his time belittling the already overtly unreasonable fans that comment on his chats and twitter feed. You don’t see mainstream, 24-hour news networks bothering to give the time of day to completely unqualified, illogical “commentators”.

Okay, bad example. Still, if the people he demonizes are that stupid, why bother responding? If it’s for his own amusement, then he is much more easily amused than I would’ve expected. If it’s for his viewership’s amusement then…

…get the damn MLB Draft back on ESPN, because this man would make a great “Mel Kiper Jr.”

Kiper has never (to my knowledge, anyway) routinely used the Internet as his personal medium for berating fans, but he’s the NFL’s lighting rod for Draft controversy. Whether it’s sparring with NFL executives, telling Todd McShay what a moron he is, that goofy helmet hair, or actually using “upside” and “potential” in the same breath when describing a prospect, Kiper has long been in important piece in the NFL marketing machine that has managed to make the NFL Draft the most awesome piece of pretentious television the world has ever seen. (Really, it’s like the male version of the Oscar’s. It’s the one day in sports where the showmanship plays a larger role than the event, itself.)

That’s not to suggest the MLB should try to mimic the NFL when it comes to the draft, the processes are just too different for too many obvious reasons to bother naming, but the league should take note that behind all that hype, seven different scrawling banner graphics, and cursing Eagles fans, the NFL ends up doing a beautiful job in blending actual, informative, content with TV gimmicks.

Sadly, in lieu of actual analysis on how GM’s and Scouting Directors use the draft to build their farm systems (and, by proxy, big league teams), the MLB Network-produced draft spends four hours simply telling their audience just who the hell a couple dozen of these players are with commentators that have seen hardly any of them play. To make up for this lack of real content, MLB makes a half-hearted attempt to steal a page from the NFL playbook and puts together a cheap stage where Bud Selig can sheepishly announce the picks to MLB Network studio employees.

I understand why the MLB holds the draft on their network. Lord knows they need the ratings and I guess it’s cheaper to just have Selig trot around your own TV studios than to rent out the Radio City Music Hall, which is more akin to what ESPN would like. (Can’t we meet in the middle? Like, the Seacacus Hilton Convention Room?) But the end result for us fans is a draft class full of players from a college or high school season that went completely ignored by the network that now plans on detailing their professional prospects for us. If a fan limits themselves to MLB-operated mediums, their only chance to learn anything about the class, prior to draft day, is to check out Jonathan Mayo’s coverage on MLB.com. Yet, with the draft being as unpopular as it is, even Mayo (who’s one of my favorite baseball writers) is hamstrung by the fact that his audience must first be introduced to many of the draft’s basic concepts. His 2012 coverage met its depressing end this past Friday with a very awkward attempt at a game of “Draft Chatroulette” on MLB.com.

I’d like to see how Keith Law would handle this situation

Even worse, during the one day of the year where the network does bother to cover the draft (you know, draft day) the league-owned channel immediately kills any opportunity for some objective analysis. Every team and every pick has smoke blown up it’s ass by the MLB Network crew, with the closest attempt at any form of criticism is to call a pick “risky” (and even that is likely to be followed by some positive reinforcement). Klaw won’t play that shit. He won’t even let an annoying tweet go unpunished. Get the draft on ESPN and watch him snark the hell out of the Pirates for taking Deven Marrero ahead of Kyle Zimmer, and in the process probably provide some actual analysis.

The coverage doesn’t have to be combative, but it at least needs to be interesting if MLB expects anyone to watch. Enough of the scripted banter and empty commentary. Sure, a lot of fans don’t follow the draft very closely, but maybe they would if MLB gave them a reason to. So fine, MLB, if you insist on carrying the draft on your network at the very least can you give someone from Baseball America (or Perfect Game, or wherever) a seat at the desk during the draft and a reasonable amount of air-time prior to it? It’d be nice to actually hear someone familiar with the prospects them give informative input on players outside the top ten picks.

Also, let’s get a chance to actually see the prospects we’re talking about. The college baseball season begins in February (when MLB is still not yet out of hibernation) and is still active on draft day, is it that unreasonable to see just a tiny bit of NCAA coverage? (I’m holding out hope that this might be possible in the near future with the recent MLB-NCAA partnership discussions, but I’ll have more on that on the next post) And what about a televised Draft Combine for the High School prospects so they aren’t forced to travel all around the country for the countless showcase events?

MLB, if you’re going to go for a draft built on hype and cheap stage productions, at least do what the NFL does and make somewhat of an effort to stage a little drama. In the end, however, your draft simply isn’t built for that. So instead of waiting until the 11th hour to explain just who the hell is on the draft board, get people interested in the event by making sure they know what’s at stake before the draft begins. From there, the fans will create the drama themselves.   

The league can also make the draft more inherently interesting by making further changes to the rules and format. To be continued….

So I heard you like to get wet

I recorded this from my apartment window, just for you.

Let me tell you a funny story…

Last year I was living in the LA area, roughly halfway between UCLA, home of the Los Angeles Regional, and Cal State Fullerton, home of the Fullerton Regional. On the final night of the Regionals I got stuck working late, so while my heart was set on seeing UCLA take on UC Irvine, the only game I had a chance to get to in time was Stanford-Illinois in the Fullerton Final.

It, in a word, sucked.

Stanford crushed an Illinois team that had no business getting as close to the Supers as they did. The Cardinal scored early and often. By the 6th inning the game was effectively over. On top of all that, it was a very wet, rainy, and altogether uncomfortable night in the OC.

Meanwhile, up in Westwood, UC Irvine pulled off a dramatic 9th inning, walk-off win to complete an improbably Regional victory. And it wasn't raining.

Getting off work one hour late was the difference between being soaked, cold, and seeing the worse game of the year, and seeing the best game of the year from the dry, cozy confines of Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Well, God once again showed his distain for the Regionals (or maybe just me) by sending another el nino to my new home in the mid-Atlantic area, postponing the first two games of the Charlottesville Regional, in what was otherwise a great day in Regional action. While I wasn't on hand to see the start of the Virginia-hosted tournament, the tornado warnings near my apartment assured I felt it's misery.

My 2011 Fullerton shitshow story became even more apropos than I had originally thought when I decided to post this, after I learned today that work would once again screw over my baseball schedule. I had planned post posting my 1st annual “memo to MLB” piece on how baseball can improve it’s painfully contrived draft coverage on Tuesday morning, but now it appears my employer will cause me to miss what little on-air time the draft gets. Since I’m fairly certain this year’s coverage will be the same old empty-analysis, Special Olympics-esque never-ending praise of every team and every pick I’m just gonna say “screw it” and post my memo before the draft.

So this Monday morning, in between reading the ESPN, MLB.com, Baseball America, and Perfect Game mock drafts; other well-written and interesting stories; and actually doing some work; stop by here to see me bitch about an awkwardly staged, yet under appreciated event.

ESPN Reports What Another Reporter Reports

Part of the reason I created this blog was because how disappointed I’ve been in the lack of college baseball coverage. ESPN has been is neglectful as anyone but this time of year they usually like to pretend they’re the worldwide leader in college baseball and actually bother to write a few stories online. Their coverage has steadily increased over the years and this year they’ve actually written a few pre-Regionals columns.

Sadly, it looks like their lack of caring about the game led them to half-ass it with these columns and just ask a real college baseball reporter what he’d write.

From "Robbi Pickeral's" Martin, Fox chasing elusive CWS title:

"There's no doubt that both of these teams have what it takes to go back to Omaha, and I don't know if I'd bet against either one of them," said Baseball America national writer Aaron Fitt. "Is this the season we see Mike Martin or Mike Fox win it all? I think that's a question -- especially when it comes to Mike Martin -- that we all have in the back of our minds every time they make it to the College World Series."

Another piece "written by" Pickeral, Turner a real steal for the Wolkpack:

"He's electrifying; he's the most exciting player in college baseball,'' Fitt said. "… They [the Wolfpack] would be a good team without him. But I don't know if they would be hosting a regional. He makes that offense go."

[sic]

"There are a lot of teams out there wishing they had found him, had talked to him," Fitt said. "This was a huge get for NC State."

So ESPN's means of informing the audience is to call a guy that has weekly chats and frequently replies to fan e-mails? Why do I get the feeling someone was just scanning the Baseball America podcasts when they found these "quotes"? ESPN, why not just hire Fitt away from BA and expand your coverage? If it's too cost prohibitive, then next story just spare your resources and simply post a link to BaseballAmerica.com.

Sorry, this tangent has changed my plans for what my first post was going to be: this exclusive sneak peak at my upcoming 10,000 word piece on how I would solve the unrest in Syria:

"The problem is not with the merits of arming or helping the opposition in Syria but with the international community's approach," said Henri J. Barkey of the Los Angeles Times. "Incremental policymaking in response to events on the ground will lead the world down an unwanted path."

"For the international community to think the (Kofi Annan) peace plan would work simply showed how detached it was from the reality in Syria," added Haitham Maleh from the New York Times.

"If Obama wants to stay out of Syria, fine. Make the case that it’s none of our business. That it’s too hard. That we have no security/national interests there." In Washington Post columnist's Charles Krauthammer's view "the evidence argues against that, but at least a coherent case for hands-off could be made. That would be an honest, straightforward policy. Instead, the president, basking in the sanctity of the Holocaust Museum, proclaims his solemn allegiance to a doctrine of responsibility — even as he stands by and watches Syria burn."