Would a Cleveland vs. New York series be deemed "Star Wars," then?

8 stars? But I thought Cleveland was "Detroit without the glitz."

Good one, Icaros.

3 Thanks, LAT. I thought it was a little cheap, personally, but it was either that or post a virtual singing of Bad Company's:

"Don't you know that you are a shooting star..."

Jon,
I know the average might reflect it, but come on, J.D. "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Drew a star?

I think its going to be more like just another asterisk on the injured reserve!

Aybar--Now there is a star in the making! :)

6 Wouldn't that make him a nebula?

Jason Repko is a black hole.

Grabowski is a galaxy of black holes

Jim Tracy is a frustrated former black hole whose goal in life is to lead an army of black holes on a ruthless path of universal destruction.

What the heck? Are you guys suddenly aspirants to jobs at Palomar? I never saw so many astronomy-related bad jokes in my life!

10

It would be funnier if you replaced "holes" with "panthers".

Or stranger.

12 I see Tracy as more of a Gray Panther.

Tracy is only 49. Felipe Alou is a Gray Panther.

Looks to me like no other NL West team is very starry either. None in the top 10, anyway. And look at the Angels - smallball be damned - they did it with Vladdy and outstanding pitching.

ESPN.com experts picks for World Series champions

Angels 6
Astros 5 (including Uncles Pete and Jayson)
Cardinals 2
Yankees 1 (Alan Schwartz)
Red Sox 1 (Eric Karabell)

Poor Chicago, San Diego and Atlanta. No one loves them. Only 3 of the 15 pick the Braves to beat the Astros.
Only 1 picks the Padres to beat the Cardinals (Buster Olney)
Jim Caple is the only one who thinks that the White Sox will make the World Series, but he has them losing to the Astros.

If the Astros were playing the White Sox in the World Series, I would have to check myself into a hospital to make sure I was still sane.

Who's Buster picking?

To win it all I mean.

Buster has the Angels over the Astros in the World Series in 6 games with John Lackey taking home the MVP award.

15 - On that note, if I could summarize the consensus of the ESPN Council of Experts:

ALDS:
Angels over Yankees (12 out of 15)
Red Sox over White Sox (8 out of 15)

NLDS:
Astros (12 out of 15)
Cardinals (14 out of 15)

ALCS (BOS-LAAofA pickers only):
Angels (4 out of 6)

NLCS (HOU-STL pickers only):
Astros (7 out of 11)

WS (HOU-LAAofA pickers only):
Angels (3 out of 5)

In Round 1, Buster Olney was the only one to pick the Padres. Whatever the human equivalent of the "productive out," is, he's well on his way to becoming it.

The writers also picked their WS MVPs. The strangest choice? A tie between:

Olney - John Lackey
Eric Neel - Chone Figgins

Someday, I will write a piece about the Cult of Figgins. Or maybe a piece about The Cult of the Sparkplug that seems to afflict a lot of sportwriters - the guy who does the little things. Eckstein, Luis Sojo, Willie Bloomquist, Figgins, Joe McEwing - anybody else have their favorite?

Pipped by Timmermann, curses! No shame getting scooped by a journalist, I guess.

I'm about as much of a journalist as Plaschke. And I bet I could do a lot better keeping football stats on a poorly marked high school field than he could!

Bob doesn't type. He just thinks his posts and they magically appear.

20 - To be fair, Figgins is a bit more than Luis Sojo or Joe McEwing - or to quote another popular choice, Dave Roberts. A .282 EQA in more than 700 plate appearances while playing six positions (not counting first base, where he would be superior one-on-one to Erstad) is legit value. He was 71st in all of baseball in VORP this year - that would make him the third-best position player on most teams.

20 - Are we sure that ESPN doesn't own the Angels anymore?

favorite sparkplug:

How about Rex Hudler, the Wonderdog (or the Wonderbong, after he got busted for pot)

King of the Hobos was even faster than me. But he's not even old enough to vote.

26 If he isn't old enough to vote, then he isn't old enough to be a hobo. He's still on his parents' dime!

27 "Ya coulda been a meat eater kid!" -- Emperor of the North

27

So what does that make you?

24 - I hear you - it wasn't meant to disparage Figgins' ability, just to point out how players of a certain type get overvalued by certain sportswriters. It just seems like when you consider who normally wins WS MVP, and what they have to do to get it, picking Figgins is absurd, since he seems unlikely to drive in a ton of runs, hit for a high average, or pitch well in multiple crucial situations.

My point had more to do with Olney's thinking (I think he's conflating "WS MVP" with "MVP of WS Champion," in which case he'd still be wrong, but merely less so). It's kind of like those people who overvalued Dave Roberts for the Red Sox because of The Steal. Olney in particular seems very susceptible to this kind of thinking: remember that his preseason pick for AL MVP was Hideki Matsui. He seems to confuse "valuable" with "undervalued," when they're just not the same thing. And maybe this is what drives The Cult of the Sparkplug.

29 Almost 30.

Not sure why Lackey or Figgins would be a strange choice. As someone noted above the Angels won with Vlady (not giving Figgins any respect) and outstanding pitching and Lackey has been the best pitcher on the team. Figgins was voted the MVP of the team by his team and in a short series can wreck havoc on anyone.

However, Olney picked John Lackey as MVP of the World Series, which is reasonable if you think the Angels are going to win it all. They would likely need two good performances from him to win and he's been pitching well lately.

Figgins was Eric Neel's pick.

surely someone must believe that vlad the impaler, if anyone, is going to be the MVP for the angels?

32 - Being picked MVP by your teammates is one thing, but it's not the same as WS MVP. The Angels might have picked K-Rod as their MVP in 2002, but Troy Glaus got the award. My whole point about Olney was that he wasn't looking at who really gets these awards, just like when he picked Matsui for AL MVP this year. As for Lackey, do you think he was a better pitcher this year than Colon? If so, why? I don't follow the Angels much if at all, so I'm genuinely interested in this and have no dog in this fight, so to speak.

In 48 years about 11 surprising players have been name MVP. So 22% of the time a star isn't the guy. I do believe that Lackey is a star and would not be shocked at all if he wins the MVP or maybe you haven't noticed how good he is. Only 8 pitchers in the playoffs have a higher VORP then he does and I expect if you checked the VORP from the all-star game on, he'd be near the very top.
2003 - Josh Beckett, Fla
2002 - Troy Glaus, Ana
2001 - Randy Johnson, Ari
2000 - Derek Jeter, NYY
1999 - Mariano Rivera, NYY
1998 - Scott Brosius, NYY-------
1997 - Livan Hernandez, Fla
1996 - John Wetteland, NYY
1995 - Tom Glavine, Atl
1994 - No World Series
1993 - Paul Molitor, Tor
1992 - Pat Borders, Tor----------
1991 - Jack Morris, Min
1990 - Jose Rijo, Cin
1989 - Dave Stewart, Oak
1988 - Orel Hershiser, LA
1987 - Frank Viola, Min
1986 - Ray Knight, NYM-------------
1985 - Bret Saberhagen, KC
1984 - Alan Trammell, Det
1983 - Rick Demspey, Bal---------
1982 - Darrell Porter, Stl----------
1981 - Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero, Steve Yeager, LA------------
1980 - Mike Schmidt, Phi
1979 - Willie Stargell, Pit
1978 - Bucky Dent, NYY------------
1977 - Reggie Jackson, NYY
1976 - Johnny Bench, Cin
1975 - Pete Rose, Cin
1974 - Rollie Fingers, Oak
1973 - Reggie Jackson, Oak
1972 - Gene Tenace, Oak--------
1971 - Roberto Clemente, Pit
1970 - Brooks Robinson, Bal
1969 - Donn Clendenon, NYM-----
1968 - Mickey Lolich, Det
1967 - Bob Gibson, Stl
1966 - Frank Robinson, Bal
1965 - Sandy Koufax, LAD
1964 - Bob Gibson, Stl
1963 - Sandy Koufax, LAD 1962 - Ralph Terry, NYY
1961 - Whitey Ford, NYY
1960 - Bobby Richardson, NYY 1959 - Larry Sherry, LA------
1958 - Bob Turley, NYY----
1957 - Lew Burdette, Mil
1956 - Don Larsen, NYY-------
1955 - Joh
nny Podres, Bro

20 , 24 - Is it really possible for Luis Sojo to do "little things"? Would this be like the time Cecil Fielder stole that base?

Doesn't Willy Taveras on the 'stros define "sparkplug"?

And Jon, I may have to protest your Indians as supernovas if one of them is Kevin Millwood.

36 - Ray Knight had an off-the-charts Scrap Quotient in 1986 though. If anyone on there is Figgins-esque, it's him.

Wow, did I kill this thread too?

Hello? hello-o-o-o
Echo! echo-o-o-o
Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon, Manny Mota! mota-a-a-a...

37 - Well, he did hit the inside-the-park grand slam that beat the Angels in the '95 playoff, which enabled the '95 comback against the Yankees which saved the franchise. And the Yankees kept acquiring and reacquiring him as their good luck charm, although it didn't always work.

20 It is possible that it is not just sportswriters but the baseball public who doesn't care about sabremetrics that are enamored with the winning sparkclub as Eckstien/Figgins/Sota all played on World Championship teams. Sota just rode on the coattails but Figgins and Eckstien were serious contributors not some piece of crap like MCewing or Bloomquist. Putting Figgins in the same breath of Mcewing and Bloomquist is a diservice to his game.

Anyone notice how many crappy offensive catchers have won the WS MVP?
A good choice then could be Molina/Molina/Molina/Ausmus/

37 - I'll add another to the list: Scott Podsednik: 7 for 15 in stolen base attempts in August and September. A Scott Podsednik who cannot steal a base more often than not is no Scott Podsednik at all.

Getting back to the Angels, I'm hearing a lot of talk on various boards that Jarrod Washburn is overrated, and yet he has one of the lowest ERAs in the league (3.20). Do people feel he's overrated because they think this is a fluke, because of his 8-8 W-L record, his peripheral numbers, or what?

Washburn is a fluke because the defense and relievers did an excellent job of helping him strand baserunners.

BB/9 = 2.59 (good)
K/9 = 4.77 (awful)
H/9 = 9.34 (putrid)

235 baserunners in 177 innings is Erickson-esque; he also averaged barely 6 innings per start. Washburn will make a lot of money this off-season; I hope it's not from a check endorsed by either Arte Moreno or Frank McCourt.

were there any teams without any stars?

To contrast Washburn with teammate John Lackey:

BB/9 = 3.06
K/9 = 8.57
H/9 = 8.96

45 - im guessing KC

Oakland had a hitter in the top 50 in Ellis.

The Giants had no hitter in the top 50. There were also no Blue Jay or Twins hitters.

However they all had pitchers in the top 50.

Mike Sweeney was 35th and Emil Brown was 49th.

I'm shocked that Winn didn't get into the top 50 with just his Aug/Sept numbers:)

Dodgers just announced Tracy will not be back

Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported today that the top three candidates for the managerial job are: Ken Macha, Jim Leyland and Jim Tracy.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05276/581769.stm

Earlier this evening Hacksaw reported that Macha was offered a multi-year deal in Oakland and that Leyland has removed his name from consideration with Pittsburgh because he expects to be offered a contract in Detroit.

That leaves Steve's buddy as the last man standing. Assuming it happens, who can Depo get in return for Repko, Izzy and Phillips?

51 - don't tease us like that :)

I swear it

51-
Wear did u hear that?

53 - Its true. It has been announced on www.dodgers.com

Just a short report so far:

"The Dodgers plan to announce that they and manager Jim Tracy mutually agreed to part company, ending Tracy's five-year tenure in charge."

An alert just moved on the sports wire

where lol wow what a brain fart

http://tinyurl.com/dbdoh

The Dodgers plan to announce that they and manager Jim Tracy mutually agreed to part company, ending Tracy's five-year tenure in charge.

Does that mean the Dodgers don't have to pay the '06 salary or just a nice way of saying they canned him?

From Dodgers.com:

"The Dodgers plan to announce that they and manager Jim Tracy mutually agreed to part company, ending Tracy's five-year tenure in charge."

52
Didn't someone say Pittsburgh has 10 games v. the Dodgers next season?

Has anyone measured, sabremetrically, the 'grudge' factor? Was it just an illusion, or did it seem like Shawn Green played well primarily against the Dodgers?

If it exists, then we might have a problem.

DODGERS AND JIM TRACY AGREE TO PART WAYS

LOS ANGELES - Paul DePodesta, Executive Vice President and General Manager
of the Los Angeles Dodgers, today announced that the club and Jim Tracy have
mutually agreed to part ways.

"Jim Tracy has been a passionate and valued member of the Dodger
organization. I have an extremely high regard for him professionally and
personally," said DePodesta. "However, we felt strongly it was time for a
change."

"It has been a privilege to work with the Dodger organization," said Tracy.
"My seven seasons in Los Angeles have been a part of my life that I will
never forget and for that I am truly grateful. I wish the McCourts, the
team, and the fans and the whole Dodger organization nothing but the very
best."

Tracy, 49, managed the Dodgers for five seasons, posting a 427-383 record
(.527) during that period. Prior to being named manager, he served for two
seasons as the club's bench coach following coaching stints in the
Cincinnati and Montreal organizations. He also played parts of two seasons
in the Major Leagues with the Chicago Cubs.

A search for a new club manager will begin immediately.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been representing the Los Angeles community
since 1958. With a cumulative attendance of more than 168 million, the
Dodgers have played before more fans than any other sports franchise in
history. Over the years, the team has made it to the postseason 23 times and
has won six World Championships.

If I'm correct they don't have to pay him if he gets another job.

Leyland looks like a cinch to go to Detroit. The A's offered Macha an extension today. Pittsburgh has already announced that they will hire someone with major league experience and JT goes way back with Littlefield.

The Dodgers can say they have fired him and are willing to eat his salary, but as far as I know they still won't have to pay him, because he'll be the next mgr of the Pirates.

Time to start posting your baseball manager resumes on moster.com I guess.

Or maybe with Caljobs.gov?

61 -
Tracy won't be hitting or pitching so the "grudge factor" won't be all that bad (unless he's allowed to make out the Dodger lineup for those games and benches HSC, our new every-day first baseman)

Does anyone pay attention to the Dodgers outside of Southern California?

Rocky Mountain News - What went wrong in LA
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/rockies/article/0,1299,DRMN_19_4127921,00.html

wouldnt the "grudge factor" be on our side with Choi and Perez seeking revenge for this season :)

Does Colburn go to Seattle, stay in LA or follow Tracy to Simi Valley High School, or wherever he ends up.

Tracy will be eager to manage a team where his actual best player will be named Jason.

I just heard that Dusty Baker is going to be the new manager. This probably isn't true but Univision was reporting it.

I missed Tracy's announcement because of a calculus exam...

At least one of the events made me happy

There is a live feed of the press conference on Dodgers.com

It's sort of weird.

The radio guys are talking on a live mike without knowing it.

Henson has an article up on latimes.com.

http://tinyurl.com/ckft2

Not a whole lot of new info, but he says Depo would have been comfortable with Tracy coming back for '06, but Tracy asked for the 2 year extension, which wasn't going to happen.

They worked out the separation over the phone today.

To sanchez101
On a previous subject thread you were kind enough to respond to my questions about the Dodgers 1 and 2 run losses.

"...the dodgers this year were 20-23 in one run games and 16-25 in two run games. Thats 48 of 91 losses were by 1 or 2 runs. Ive posted here many times how the biggest reason for this season's dissapointment has been the bullpen. This season there were 84 games decided by 1 or 2 runs, winning .429% of them. Last year there were 72 games decided by 1 or 2 runs, but the winning percentage was .597."

I thank you for your response and here are some followup questions & thoughts --

How many of those close losses were the fault of poor starting pitching - rather than the bullpen giving up the lead?

Would poor run production be a more likely culprit in losing so many close games?

And finally, shouldn't we expect a manager's biggest influence on the outcome of games to occur in the closest games?

Did Tracy's in-game strategies help or hurt the Dodgers the most in the closest games? How can we tell? Could another manager have provided a more positive result given the same roster issues?

67 Great point. Jason Bay has nothing against our guys. But Choi will probably hit 7 homers against them, and Perez will start 10 double plays.

The Pirates might want to do a little homework before jumping on Tracy's bones. It would be nice for the Pirates to stop being a doormat; great franchise history and all.

70 That better not be true. I thought we were trying to improve upon Tracy, not destroy Billingsley, Jackson, Houlton, etc

66 - From Ringolsby's piece:
The Dodgers paid the price of being old.
Whu? Did you hear anyone complaining about the roster's age?

70 -
If that report about Baker was true (and I would bet my house that it isn't), the decision could only have been made by McCourt and not DePo, and if Baker actually comes here, DePo will remember with great fondness the days when Jim Tracy was his manager.

"Paul DePodesta, the Dodger general manager, said the search for a new manager could take several weeks. He will be in Italy for six days beginning Wednesday for his sister's wedding and expects to begin interviewing candidates upon his return. Angel pitching coach Bud Black and Oakland Athletic coach Ron Washington are expected to be among those considered."
LA Times

Please hire Ron Washington, Depo!

70- Please no. Dusty Baker like Neifi Perez. We don't want a guy who likes Neifi Perez managing the team.

I'm feel bad (only a little, he's making a ton of money after all), but I'm definitely happy to hear the news.

At least next year we can strive to be sabermetrically mediocre rather than scrappily mediocre.

80- I need some caffeine. That post was grammatically awful. (Maybe I should delete the gramatically part.)

79 -
I know that Black's name comes up every time there is a managerial opening, but does anyone know how he feels about sabremetrics?

I'm betting on Washington.

74. I dont know the answer to most of those questions. To the question, shouldn't we expect a manager's biggest influence on the outcome of games to occur in the closest games? ill quote jim tracy, "i dont know that the answer isnt yes" :)

Jimbos answers are kinda funny, he doesnt take any blame, and repetedly claims that success takes "continuity and familiarity". I really hope he gets a job managing because i love the way he answers questions. More than once, someone has asked him a question, and his responce has been, "i think that the in answer to that question is yes/no" or asking his own question and answering it.

do we know that washington would be any better than tracy? we know he can improve a teams fielding and is well like by players, but other than that?

Well I'll be. The day finally came.

I hope that the moment isn't spoiled by hiring Dusty Baker. About the only redeeming factor that I can think of him is that he might perhaps have a better chance of keeping Kent and Bradley under control in the same clubhouse.

If the Dodgers wait until after the World Series to pick someone, then you have to think Black is getting some serious consideration.

The Dodgers wouldn't ask the Angels for permission to talk to Black until the Angels finish the playoffs.

In looking at Henson's article, I was shocked to see that the 2003 Dodgers actually won 92 games. This was the Fred McGriff/Brian Jordan team. This was the year Shawn Green hurt his shoulder but only disclosed it after half the season. And this was when the NL West was a much tougher division--Bonds and Schmidt were healthy, Arizona had Curt and Randy, the Rocks had Walker and Helton. Hm. The great pitching I remember. It must have been really great pitching to get that team up to 92 wins.

Black would make me happy, but given Washington's role as a co-star with DePo in "Moneyball," I have to figure that's who Paul wants.

Wonder what happens with Shelby, Colborn, Hoffman. Sounds like they're staying.

HALLELUJAH!

i just picked up the ESPN magazine for eric neel's article, and came back to this. awesome.

84 -
No, we don't know for sure that Washington would be an improvement, but we can assume that they have a history together with the A's and that anyone DePo hires will be thinking along the same lines he does. Therefore, if he is hired and fails, DePo has also failed.

88 -
What do you hear/read that makes you believe they are staying? Somehow I just assumed that most of the coaching staff would follow Tracy and the rest would be replaced (although I have nothing to back that up).

74. I dont think i really answered any of you questions. I dont know if those losses were the fault of hitting or pitching, i think that overall the pitching and hitting was somewhat below average. I also think that one of a managers biggest jobs is using his bullpen in lateinning situations.
The only place that i know of where you can find information about that is on BP stat page, on their Expected Reliever Wins page they have a stat called leverage that measures the importance of the situation that a reliever is called into. If your curious tracy has been pretty good about giving the best pitchers the highest leverage innings from 2002-2004, but really, with the bullpens he had to work with, a anyone could have. This year he did a pretty crappy job. Dessens who had the best era out of the 'pen had one of the lowest leverages on the team, while alvarez and brazoban were #3 and #1 in leverage where amongst the worse releivers. He wasnt flexible enough to mix up his bullpen and leverage its few usefull parts effectively.

91 Well, let me backtrack a little. I think their fate is not tied to Tracy. Lots of times when managers are fired, the whole coaching staff goes with them. No such announcement was included by the Dodgers today. So, as of today, they still have jobs. But that might change before next season.

Some interesting thoughts at LAist today - many that reflect the interests and opinions of many who post at Dodger Thoughts.
http://www.laist.com/archives/2005/10/03/the_season_is_over_so_now_what.php

87. the 2002 team won 92 games, in 2003 they won 85.

89. are you the vishal that neel mentions in the article.

[95] the very same :)

My recollection of Moneyball the book is that Washington wasn't a particular advocate of Moneyball the strategy--he just picked up the pieces after Beane's trades by teaching out-of-position players to field their new positions.
Whoever the Dodgers hire, let it be someone who knows how to handle young pitchers--no 130 pitch games for Chad Billingsley.

New press conference thread up top.