Indians dismal season leaves time to debate merits of football vs. baseball.
View full sizeThis is Grady Sizemore, who's missed big parts of the last two seasons as the Indians center fielder. He was a three-sport star in high school, and had even signed a letter of intent to play football AND baseball with the University of Washington. So let's look for something interesting: Foxsportshouston.com has a piece up that uses the start of football season to rekindle the debate over which sport is better. The story is interesting in that it mentions some baseball stars who were also football stars: notably Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Kirk Gibson, Todd Helton and even Cleveland's own Grady Sizemore, who had signed a letter of intent to play baseball and football at the University of Washington when the Montreal Expos came calling with a $2 million signing bonus (hence, the use of this item in the Cleveland Indians links).
But the story is a bit flawed in its logic, even to a Starting Blocks author who believes spring training is proof that there is a Great Umpire in the Sky.
Players of two-sport skill have usually concentrated on their best one. But history also shows if a player is really good in both, baseball tends to win out more often.
After all baseball players must be smarter than football players. How many times have you seen a baseball team be penalized because they can't count with too many men on the field?
Aha! Have you caught the flawed logic? How many times have you seen a pitcher or someone else walk off the field or throw to the wrong base because he forgot how many outs there were?
False starts in football? Hel-lo! Can you say "balk?"
Prevent defense, which mainly prevents a win? Think Indians' annual fire sale.
Three-and-out? Easy: Any series involving the Indians, Orioles, Royals, Seattle, Pittsburgh ...
Touchdown? Average margin of victory for Tribe opponents.
Fumble? See the fire sale entry.
Readers Digest version here is that every sport has its shortcomings. Except for cornhole. Man, now there's a game ...
Speaking of forgetful
Dan Haren, the pitcher the Angels acquired from Arizona in late July, knows something about our first post. The Los Angeles Times recounts what happened in yesterday's loss by the Angels to the Tribe, with Haren on the mound.
Earlier, some of Haren's teammates lost track of the number of outs in an inning, lingering on the field after Haren had struck out the final batter.
Haren has met expectations if the Angels haven't, pitching at least six innings in eight of his nine starts with his new team, including a strong seven-inning outing Monday in which he gave up five hits and two runs.
His only hiccup was a three-walk sixth inning in which he lost his release point and walked in a run.
"I've never done something like that that I can remember," he said.
Haren might also have trouble recalling the last time his teammates scored more than a handful of runs for him. The Angels have scored three runs or fewer in seven of Haren's nine starts, with Torii Hunter's solo home run and Alberto Callaspo's run-scoring single accounting for the only runs against the Indians.
Haren was supposed to lead an Angels' charge to the top of the AL West. While it could happen, smart fans don't bet on it. The Halos are mired in third place, 91/2 games behind division-leading Texas. Considering that six other teams in the American League have better records right now, it looks as though the only way they're gonna get into the playoffs is with a ticket.
Apparently, the Angels are turning into the AL West version of the Indians: unable to get their starters any support. So says the Los Angeles Daily News in its account of the Tribe's win on Monday. And the bashing began right after the Indians took a 1-0 lead early in the game.
For the Angels, a 1-0 hole might as well have been 10-0, the way their offense has failed to produce this season, and particularly of late, in support of their starting pitchers. In fact, Angels starters have now given up two earned runs or fewer in nine of their past 11 games, but the Angels have won only four of those games.
"I don't know if they get appreciated for how well they've
pitched," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We have not supported
them, we've had defensive lapses, the offense has struggled. Overall
we've struggled to play at a higher level and they haven't really shown
their true talent because of things they can't control."
From The Plain Dealer
Boy, if anyone should be sympathetic to the Angels' plight, it should be the Tribe pitching staff. In beat writer Paul Hoynes' Indians Insider, he notes that the Indians lead the American League in errors with 103. Now it's always nice to lead the league in something, but that's not really the category you're hoping for. Jason McDonald and Asdrubal Cabrera have combined for 19 errors. Jayson Nix and Andy Marte have made 18 errors between 'em in just 42 games.
All you Jhonny Peralta detractors should take note: He made only five in 91 games. We're jus' sayin'.
For his game story, Hoynsie talked to manager Manny Acta about the job rookie Carlos Carrasco did before leaving the game with it tied at 2-all in the sixth.
Carrasco didn't get the decision in the Indians 3-2 victory over the Angels, but did show a lot of the things Acta wanted to see. He showed aggressiveness by pitching out of early trouble. He showed consistency and strike-throwing ability by striking out a career-high six batters and throwing 64 percent (61-for-96) of his pitches for strikes.
The win, btw, went to Jensen Lewis (4-2), who is the Indians' nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, "given to the player who best combines outstanding skills on the baseball field with devoted work in the community," according to mlb.com.