For once, Keith Law didn’t piss me off

While reading up on Rob Neyer’s Bill James’s article, I saw someone in the comment section pointed out that Keith Law recently declared the new MLB Draft system a failure simply because the Pirates failed to sign Mark Appel.

Lucky for me, I’ve recently been “blessed” with a free ESPN Insider account (no, really, it’s a legit account, just free) so I had a chance to see exactly what Law said.

“The real problem here is that the new system, allegedly designed to funnel the best players to the teams most in need of those players, failed.” (excerpt from the free section of Law's 'Insider' column)

I thought Law knew better than to simply buy the line from MLB’s PR department. Despite what Bud Selig may claim, it’s pretty clear MLB’s reasons for the new spending cap wasn’t to “funnel the best players” to the worst teams. It would be nice if that’s what happened but, regardless, it would be incidental. The real reason behind the rule change was simply to haul in spending on the draft. In that respect, the new system worked perfectly. The slot recommendation was $2.9 million; Appel wanted a hell of a lot more than that; he didn’t get it. Score one for MLB.

In spite of this minor fallacy (which Perfect Game's Allan Simpson was also guilty of a month ago), Law does go on to make an excellent point (which I am now editorializing on a bit) on how MLB can maintain it’s spending limits and give teams like the Pirates the flexibility to deal with these situations: allow them to trade picks. It’s not really a novel idea, but we need people like Law to become more vocal about this (and it would be nice if it was accessible to all readers, not just us “insiders”). MLB needs to finally join the rest of the sports world and allow the trading of draft picks.

I know I harp on Klaw a lot (and I really need to stop because I don’t want to become “that guy who hates Keith Law”, although I’m sure there are many others that could be called that) but I actually agree with many of the ideas he professes, and this was one example of that.

What’s that?

"I think it's much less likely that Stanford will attempt to abuse (Appel’s arm in 2013), as they did in one infamous 149-pitch outing in 2012"

Attempt to abuse? Keith, you would write some….. aw, screw it. I’ll let it go. (But why is 'Appel's arm in 2013' in parenthesis?)

Speaking of trading draft picks, MLB just revealed the order of next season’s lottery round picks. Why they already held the lottery (and thus forced the 2013 draft order to be contingent on 2011 records) is beyond me, but starting now, for the first time, there will be tradeable picks out there on the market, if only for the lottery rounds. Again, for some stupid reason MLB has limited the time teams can trade picks to the regular season (so from now until July 31, then again from Opening Day 2013 until the 2013 draft). Under the logic of “beggars can’t be choosers” I won’t complain about this useless rule. In fact, we heard some encouraging words on MLB Network from Rob Manfred, MLB’s VP on draft lottery rounds (or something like that), stating:

“(The competitive balance lottery) is kind of an experiment. These twelve picks we made assignable to determine whether it would be helpful to small market clubs to be able to capitalize on a pick., either by taking a player… or trading the pick.”

Most of MLB’s “experiments” tend to last forever (the DH, interleague play, an All-Star game that ‘counts’), so hopefully this is good news on the Trading-draft picks front.

I will now write about what Rob Neyer wrote about what Bill James wrote about Joe Paterno (which I read about on Deadspin)

This was supposed to be my week-late piece on the 2012 Triple-A All-Star Game, but it wasn’t like I was going to have much to talk about anyway, other than that Buffalo is kinda weird. I’ll probably get around to that article at some point this decade, but for now the work of Rob Neyer has once again interested me.

I’ve long been a fan of Neyer’s, owning two of his books (well, only one now, my copy of “Baseball Dynasties” disintegrated a few years ago), but I haven’t kept up with much of his work since he left ESPN. Recently he wrote an interesting column over at SBNation, in which he explored sabermetric guru Bill James’s reasoning for defending Joe Paterno’s role in the Penn State scandal (the column, including James’s remarks, can be found here).

The entire Penn State scandal has really reinforced my lack of faith in humanity. The most tragic part is that most of this lack of faith steams from reasons aside from the whole child molestation aspect. It’s understandable why a scandal involving child rape would rile up the masses; but it’s disappointing that it’s caused most people to lose their fucking minds to the point where all objective debate is suspended. (Example: The other day on “ESPNCoversations” I stated that the “Death Penalty” may be warranted for Penn State, but that it shouldn’t come this season since private and public legal investigations are still ongoing, and that the guilt-less student athletes would have virtually no opportunity to transfer with the season and fall semester just a month away. I was met with a response that simply stated: “That’s your only reasoning? It was a child rape case.”)

So seeing a levelheaded mind like Neyer’s enter the discussion is refreshing. Prior to writing this column, I hadn’t really paid much attention to the James controversy, but seeing it now it’s unsurprising to see the masses are once again dismissing an opinion that says anything short of “burn down the school” without considering any other factors. As Neyer explains, in James’s case there may be a pretty significant piece of information to consider: James has likely read the manuscript for the yet-to-be-published Paterno biography by Joe Posnanski. Neyer explains the significance of this:

 

when Bill writes that Paterno fired Sandusky, he's either reading the Freeh Report incorrectly or he read something in Joe's book that suggests Paterno did actually force Sandusky out of coaching.

 

Bold is mine. Or:

 

(James on ESPN radio) “(Paterno) had very few allies. He was isolated, and he was not nearly as powerful as people imagine him to have been. And he had poor sources.”

 

(Neyer) None of that's in the Freeh Report, leaving me to guess it's instead in Joe Posnanski's manuscript.

In other words Bill James may have been privy to information that the majority of people didn't have, and thus formulated an opinion outside the mainstream. You'd think James would be use to this by now.

Neyer goes on to address James’s comments about showering with boys, the role the media has played, and then makes an ambiguous remark about the Paterno statue in the comment section. He also goes on to make his own points that could be written independently of the James controversy. Stating:

Should Paterno have done something to stop Sandusky?

Sure. So should McQueary, who saw Sundusky abusing a child. So should the two Penn State janitors who saw Sandusky abusing a child. None of those men have been seriously criticized, presumably because they were afraid of maybe losing their jobs ... Which sort of ignores the possibility that "maybe losing your job" is a lousy excuse for not reporting the sexual abuse of a child that you've personally witnessed.

Paterno's bosses at Penn State should have done something, too.

Everyone assumes that all of these men -- Paterno's bosses, and Paterno himself -- were evil, or at least acted evilly in this case, which means they acted evilly over the course of 10 years, or 13 if you start the clock in 1998.

That's not the way these things work, usually. There was never a moment when four men sat around a table and cackled with glee as they plotted to facilitate a known child molester. That meeting didn't happen. The truth is far more banal than that. They were instead a few moderately powerful men, weighing competing interests and making some truly unfortunate decisions along the way.

In 1998, they went by the book and Sandusky was cleared of wrongdoing by a variety of official entities. In 2001, they failed to connect the dots and they failed to separate Sandusky from the University and they failed to report him to the authorities. They blew it. Big time.

So why did I just spend the last 750 words (many of which where Neyer's) further watering down (and for the most part, simply recapping) the details of this sub-scandal with one or two of my own empty observations? Pretty much just so I could copy and paste what you see above. Whether or not Neyer is correct is up to you, but that’s beside my point. It sounds strange but the reason I like sports writers like Neyer has a lot to do with the reasons I like writers like John Steinbeck or even Hunter S. Thompson. In spite of the shitstorm we’ve routinely seen involving this scandal (and really with everything in the public eye) there’s something almost inspiring about finding a mind that can parse through a debate about “good” and “evil” and recognize that usually things just “are”, for better or worse.

What? This is a college baseball blog? Oh, err…. Hey Baseball America just wrote this: “Long Beach State landed a potential ace of its own in righty David Hill”. Yay!

Maryland needs a coach, among other things...

Poor Maryland. Despite one of the programs best seasons in decades (#31 in the RPI) the Terrapins fell short of an at-large bid in the Regionals, a spot in the ACC Tournament, saw their revered head coach, Erik Bakich, depart for a mid-major conference team, and this past week suffered major cuts to their athletic department.

The U of M already seemed unwilling to support their baseball program and now appears they’re simply unable to. Bakich (who left for Michigan largely because of the Wolverines commitment to baseball) was paid a shockingly low $100,000 by an ACC school and with the budget cuts it’s reasonable to assume that figure should just get lower for his successor. My prognosis of the Maryland coaching situation is a bit pessimistic, but with all the budget cuts that have taken place the Terrapins should be thankful to still have a baseball team at this point, so despite coming off a surprisingly good year, my guess is the Maryland position will be a bit difficult to fill.

On that cheery note, let’s see who could get this thankless job in College Park:

The Top Program Assistants:

I’ve decided to lump all these guys together because I think their odds of getting hired are all comparably low. A top assistant at a good program could already be making close to (or more) than the $100,000 that Bakich received, plus they’ll be coming from a school that has a decidedly larger commitment to its baseball team. Among the candidates rumored (as in, mentioned on Kendall Roger’s latest Coaching Carousel) are:

Scott Forbes, Associate Head Coach, North Carolina – Forbes may be the most qualified candidate on the list. He’s been an assistant in the ACC for well over a decade, has experience as a summer league head coach, and is an AHC at an elite program. All that may mean the Terps simply won’t be able to pay him enough to pry him from an already prestigious position. He’s also a pitching coach (and former national pitching coach of the year), the one position that could still be filled and one of the few Maryland coaches likely to stick around in College Park, Eric Milton.

Kevin McMullan, Associate Head Coach, Virginia – Another ACC AHC, McMullan is also the team’s recruiting coordinator and hitting coach (begging the questions, just what the hell does Cavaliers Head Coach Brian O’Connor do?). McMullan is immensely valuable to UVa, making it hard to imagine they’d let their coach leave for a conference foe when they can probably offer a better salary (if they’re not already).

Scott Jackson, Assistant Coach, North Carolina – Jackson may be a slightly more realistic option for Maryland since he’s a step down the payscale already yet still has an impressive resume as the Tar Heels recruiting coordinator. He also has a diverse coaching background; working as a hitting, base running, infield, and pitching coach.

Link Jarrett, Director of Player Development, Auburn – Jarrett offers a similarly impressive, still relatively young career as Jackson and what he lacks in the on-field success Jackson and the Tar Heels have had he enjoys in personal accolades, winning two SEBaseball.com Assistant Coach of the Year awards. Auburn’s lack of significant success the last few years could also make the jump to ACC Head Coach by Jarrett more likely than what you’d expect from your typical SEC assistant. Also, the guy’s name is Link. What the hell?

Chris Lemonis, Assistant Coach, Louisville – Yet another recruiting coordinator for a top-25 caliber team, Lemonis is the top assistant for the Cardinals although he doesn’t carry the “Associate Head Coach” tag, meaning he may be easier to pry away. Furthermore, he’s primarily a hitting coach, which may be what Maryland needs first and foremost (besides a strong recruiter). This is pure speculation on my part, but it’s possible all these non-AHCs could also be candidates for the UNC Greensboro job, where the program plays at fairly well respected ballpark, despite being a mid-major. So ACC team Maryland could actually find itself competing with that.

The Head Coaches:

Also being rumored are a few current and former head coaches, most of which already have comfortable positions at schools that, while small, have solidly built baseball programs.

Monte Lee, Head Coach, College of Charleston – Lee has been mentioned as a candidate, but this is one option I just can’t see. Why in the world Lee would leave the baseball hotbed of South Carolina, and a program that’s turned into a solid regional contender year after year, is beyond me. Mid-Major status be damned, right now I’d rather be coaching the Cougars than the Terrapins.

Mike Kennedy, Head Coach, Elon – Kennedy has been with the Phoenix for 16 years with consistent success for a mid-major team, and is a former player for the school. Although Elon may not be as prestigious as North Carolina, Virginia, or even College of Charleston, no other coach on this list may be more deeply entrenched with his program. Kennedy likely only leaves the Phoenix if he gets an offer that’s too good to refuse. Despite U of M’s budget problems there’s an outside chance of Kennedy getting a decent offer. Since the Terps are likely to lose nearly their entire coaching staff to Michigan they may put a premium on a candidate that can bring a coaching staff with him. 

Joe Sottolano, Head Coach, Army – Sottolano is in a similar situation as Kennedy, having a long history with his program. However he’s not an alumnus of the school so his ties may not be as strong as Kennedy’s. He also may be more willing to depart since he comes from a military academy, where achieving much success outside the conference is less likely than for a typical mid-major. One last major factor: For over six years during Sottolano's tenture as the Army HC, his Athletic Director was current Maryland AD Kevin Anderson. Lord knows what this means or if these guys actually like each other (although, come to think of it, Kendall Rogers probably knows) but this could certainly help Maryland attempt to undo those ties Sottolano and Army have.

Frank Anderson, Former Head Coach, Oklahoma State – This could be a match made in purgatory. Anderson is currently unemployed, after getting the axe from Oklahoma State just a few weeks ago, after being a coach in the Texas/Oklahoma region for over two decades. An outfielder in college, Anderson has experience as a pitching coach. Geographically it may be a mismatch and PR-wise it may just look bad for an ACC school to hire a coach deemed unworthy of coaching in the Big XII. Still, if Maryland is simply looking for anyone who knows how to run a baseball team, a recent firee (not a real word) could be the perfect candidate to offer a modest salary to. The real question could be if Anderson is willing to move halfway across the country to try and right a wayward ship.  

The Eric Miltons:

The sad thing about most of these candidates is that if they fail, well, they’d obviously be fired within a few seasons, but even if they find success at Maryland, the position would almost certainly be a stepping stone job. A chance to put “Head Coach for ACC school” on their resume before trying to move onto something bigger and better. It’s possible the Maryland AD will find some young, idealistic candidate who wants to rebuild the program all by himself, and if that’s the case then Maryland should by all means give that man the job, however it’s unlikely they’ll find this given the bleak situation in College Park.

There is one candidate that is unlikely to bolt after a few seasons, but he’s also probably the least qualified man for the job.

Eric Milton, Interim Head Coach, Maryland – That title is a little misleading, as Milton has held the position for about a week and his college coaching resume consists of less than one calendar year as a volunteer assistant with the Terps. Despite this, he may end up being the last man standing after Bakich assembles his staff out in Ann Arbor. Milton is an alumnus, if that counts for anything, but the biggest factor supporting Milton’s chances at the gig is the fact that an inexperience, in-house, hometown hire such Milton could also come the most cheaply.

As great a hitter as Tony Gwynn was, he just has never been a terribly successful college head coach. Some have questioned whether a man without Gwynn’s iconic status would have been fired by now. For my money, it seems that the folks at San Diego State have resided themselves in the idea that, with Gwynn, they can pretty much put the program on autopilot. No need to shake up the coaching staff or pump more money into the program (I say that, admittedly, without knowing SDSU’s baseball budget) just let Gwynn write his own ticket and let the recruiting pitch simply be “Want to play for a Hall of Famer?”

Not that Milton is on the same level as Gwynn, either in terms of major league talent or popularity, but it’s possible Maryland could take a similar route as SDSU and simply hire someone with strong ties to the program who could make up for his lack of experience and the school’s lack of success by simply telling high schoolers “want to play for a former All-Star?” The department’s budget issues may leave them little choice. 

Before the College World Series I gave my odds for each team winning the title; this time I’m taking the more lazy route and simply ranking the candidates in order of likelihood to get the job.

1. Joe Sattolano
2. Frank Anderson
3. Eric Milton
4. Scott Jackson
5. Chris Lemonis
6. Link Jarrett
7. Mike Kennedy
8. Kevin McMullen
9. Monte Lee
10. Scott Forbes

UPDATE (7/19): Maryland has their man, hiring Kansas State Associate Head Coach John Szefc. Szxfecfsdsd was #11 on my list, so, yeah. Nailed it.

Who am I? Why am I here?

I’ve always felt Dirtbag Blues was the James Stockdale of College Baseball Blogs

I figured a reference to an American War hero was an appropriate way to honor this Forth of July post. Actually, I had the Stockdale joke in mind for weeks and just got around to writing it.

For the first month of this blog’s life the posts have been a collection of critiquing the coverage of reputable sports media outlets, the MLB draft process, a random College World Series chat, a few half-hearted commentaries, days late recaps of DC Grays Cal Ripken league action, some memes I made impulsively, and a delightful recap of some college baseball twitter wars (it now appears Brian Foley has blocked me on twitter for some reason).

So the question I’m sure that’s on the minds of both of my readers is just what the hell this blog is actually going to be about. I’m now going to attempt to answer that today.

I know things, um, more things about college baseball than anyone in the world, I know some things about college baseball more than anyone, um…..

(looks at notes)

Although this blog is based in Washington, DC (as in, I live in Washington, DC) most of the content will be focused on the west coast brand of baseball, particularly action in the Big West Conference, and even more specifically, the Long Beach State Dirtbags. The Maryland Terrapins and DC Grays have been nice surrogates for me, so they’ll be sure to get their share of coverage. There are plans to integrate some regular features into the posts, such as capsules on some under the radar D1 teams, recaps on local teams (as you’ve seen whit the Grays), and updates on recruits. Most of this won’t be able to come into play until fall ball begins (or even later), so for now the posts may be a bit schizophrenic.

One thing I’ll make clear: I’m no scout, and wasn’t much of a player (I got cut from my high school team senior year) so much of my “analysis” will be second-hand. This will be made up for in some of Dirtbag Blues’s unique/specific coverage of teams, and my own cheap attempts to amuse, such as calling Keith Law an asshole or making early ‘90s pop culture references (did everyone see The Bodyguard??? So romantic… what am I typing on?)

Frankly, a large role this blog is going to play is to help keep me entertained. I’m not doing this to offer any kind of fair and balanced (trademarked) coverage, gain a wide following (although a sincere thanks to those reading this) or curry favor with any college baseball insiders. If anyone doesn’t care for the content I offer, well then, screw you. No, really, it's understandable and that’s your prerogative. Thanks again to those viewers that I have.

Just to keep myself honest, here’s some random stuff to expect in the next week or two:

1. Coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game in Buffalo.
2. An update on the University of Maryland’s search for a Head Coach.
3. (Hopefully) some more coverage on the DC Grays and Cal Ripken League.
4. Any crap I hear about the Boise State drama.
5. Updates on Big West/Long Beach State players in summer ball.

That’s it for now, thanks for readi….. wait….. MY TAMAGOTCHI DIED!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

(yeah, that's 1996, so what?)

All The Commissioner’s Men

 Sorry, I just got done reading Robert Penn Warren’s classic. Can someone tell me why the actors in the movie version are listed on the book cover? As if James Gandolfini’s acting chops are really going come across as I read the part where Jack confronts Duffy.

This post is about the Big West conference and Boise State. Just wanted to make that clear before since the title was a bit cryptic. If you don’t care about the Big West, feel free to leave.

 

For those of you still here, here’s the latest with that whole situation:

Boise State has officially told the Mountain West that it will be departing in all sports on June 30, 2013. The football program joins the Big East. The rest of the athletic department is basically homeless.

There’s been ongoing discussions about the Broncos joining the Big West, as a simply a cheap place to put their non-football sports, a la Hawaii and San Diego State. Today the Boise State athletics website curiously released this statement:

the Big West announced today that it will hold  meeting of its Presidents prior to the start of the coming academic year for a final decision on Boise State's membership in the Big West beginning July 1, 2013.

That’s a little too ambiguous for my liking. Either Boise IS heading to the BWC and this article just implies it too weakly, or they aren’t (yet) joining the BWC and the article seemed to imply that they are.

What the release is trying to say is that BWC commissioner Dennis Farrell and the various members will decide Boise's fate sometime this summer, so now the question becomes does Boise have the votes to make it happen?

Boise does not sponsor some of the Big West’s most popular sports… including Baseball. The travel costs will be prohibitive, so BSU will have to subsidize road trips for the league. Then there’s the whole concern that Boise will just up and leave the conference (and take San Diego State with them) as soon as a better opportunity presents itself.

Hawai'i (starting today an official member of the Big West, welcome!) seems firmly against the addition for obvious reasons (which I will now state: they don’t want to have to travel halfway around the globe for conference games, they joined the BWC to avoid doing that in the first place). Long Beach State doesn’t seem to be on board either, meaning one more “nay” vote and the Broncos will fall short of admission. 

Rumor has it (by that I mean, people have said on message boards) that Boise’s official departure from the MWC makes it’s joining the Big West more likely. Regardless, as a Big West fan, I’d just rather not see it happen. The only thing the Big West gains from adding the Broncos is a slightly larger sense of stability when it comes to San Diego State’s status. Financially speaking, the best the Big West can do is try to directly profit from Boise State through fees, subsidies, and revenue sharing. Even though Boise needs the Big West a lot more than the other way around, seeing the rest of the conference directly profit off of one specific member sets such a bad precedent that it’s not even worth doing.

BSU’s precarious standing in the Big East isn’t going to get much stronger than it is now. So even though San Diego State’s Big East (and thus, Big West) membership is tied to Boise’s, the BWC would be better served to simply move forward with what they have now. The Aztecs bring a lot to the conference, and if Boise’s BS lead to SDSU’s tenure being short-lived, so be it. One of the things that has keep this conference alive through all the realignment is its commitment to beardown and maintain a strong footprint in California. Putting up with Boise’s politics would be a major departure from that gameplan. So hopefully Farrell and Co. can conjure up one more no vote and keep the league at 10 teams

But then, there could be so other factors I'm ignoring. There’s also some talk about the Big East/Big West possibly cutting a side deal as part of BSU’s admission that would bring include some Big East @ Big West basketball games, which would be a great for the conference if possible, but frankly I don’t care about that and I just want to get this post finished. So I’ll just let you think about that.

One final note; someone caught me reading All The King’s Men the other day and remarked “oh yeah, I thought about seeing the movie.” I appreciate that they where trying to make conversation but how lame of an attempt is that? Oh, your son goes to Harvard? I almost watched the “Call Me Maybe” video the other day!