Spring is Here

Well not quite, but spring training is here. My local teams, the Giants and A's, both play their first spring training game today. Tim Lincecum is even pitching today. Very exciting!

Of course it's been an ugly time lately for Major League Baseball. Everyone is upset about Alex Rodriguez and his use of steroids in the past. I have mixed feelings on this. First, I don't care that A-Rod used steroids. I don't care who used them. I don't find any difference between a guy using steroids or using "legal" supplements or sophisticated weight training or getting a cadaver's ligament sewn to their knee when they tear their ACL. These are all examples of technology allowing athletes to be better athletes than has ever been possible before. They are bigger, stronger, faster, and they are able to play at a high level for a longer amount of time. Does this mean that as technology progresses, that the sports may change so much that it turns off fans? Yeah, maybe. Perhaps it has already started.

All of that being said, I hate dishonesty even when it is required. I don't blame A-Rod for lying about using steroids until evidence was surfaced that contradicted him. I just can't stand to hear the PR crap that he recites to Peter Gammons or at press conferences. How bad for A-Rod would it be if instead of saying "I was young and stupid" he said "I wanted to hit as many home runs as possible because the more I hit, the more money I made, so I took steroids." I know he's got to say that he's not using now and that he has to minimize the amount of time that he did use them, so I can live with these lies. But wouldn't we all be better off if people just said "I took it so that I could make more money, be more famous, see myself on SportsCenter more often."

A-Rod's The Man

Why is A-Rod leaving New York? Why did he announce it last night?

I think A-Rod is leaving because he can. He doesn't like it there, and can at least get the same money somewhere else. People keep saying "Boras must know that they can get better money from another team" but I don't think it has to be better. And that answers the second question.

The best way to sell A-Rod is not on his stats, as impressive as they are. The best way to sell him is on his potential economic impact to a team. The best way to emphasize that is to make sure that A-Rod is the story in baseball. That would not have happened if Boras had waited ten days past the World Series to announce A-Rod is opting out of his contract. Nope. But by announcing it while a lot of people were still paying attention to baseball, i.e. during the World Series, then he smoothly transitions all those World Series watchers into A-Rod watchers.

Boras doesn't have a deal in place already. He's going to have to work for his money, and this is part of how he's going to do it. His client wanted out of New York, and he's just doing his best given that situation.

So all the idiot Yankees fans (which is not all of them...) are getting their wish. No more A-Rod. The Yanks have a lot of money to spend on replacing A-Rod, so that should make for an interesting offseason in the Bronx.

For what it's worth, A-Rod has clearly made the right decision. Any other city would have worshiped A-Rod unconditionally before this season, and would be ready to rename their city after him at this point. I should know, I live in the Bay Area. Barry Bonds is the worst player to root for in baseball history since Ty Cobb, and he is completely adored in San Francisco. A-Rod is nowhere near as unlikeable as Bonds and is almost as good (especially if you consider position.) Plus look at the "new" ownership of the Yankees. They parted ways with Joe Torre and now A-Rod, and in both cases the owners felt the need to talk trash to the press. How old are these guys? It's just amazingly juvenile.

Unlucky Braves

My favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, are just about out of the playoff picture. And that's too bad. Statistically, they are one of the best teams in the NL. If you use the Pythagorean formula, then Atlanta would have the second best record in the NL, just behind Arizona and just ahead of New York. In the "but that's why they play the game" world, the Braves have seven fewer wins then they should statistically. That's by far the most unlucky of any team in baseball. The most lucky by the way (no surprise here) is the Arizona Diamondbacks, who is in first place in the NL West despite having been outscored by their opponents.

Most people will blame the Braves pitching staff for their record. That's not really fair. They are middle of the pack in almost every pitching category, and are pretty (5th) in opponents on-base-percentage (despite the most intentional walks by far.) Oh, but it's the bullpen's fault, right? After all, the Braves cut their closer in the middle season. Nope, their bullpen is middle of the pack, too, in terms of blown saves and save percentage. It's not the pitching staff's fault. It's just bad luck. People hate to admit how important luck is in baseball.

If the Braves were having a luckier season, then Chipper Jones (my favorite player) would probably warrant some MVP votes. He had a DL stint which cost him in raw totals. Right now he leads the NL in batting, and is third in on-base percentage, second in slugging. He's second in runs created per 27 outs. He trails Barry Bonds in most of these categories. Yeah that Barry Bonds, the guy that everyone here in the Bay Area can't wait to get rid of at the end of the season.

As it is, it seems all but given that Prince Fielder will be NL MVP. Maybe Matt Holiday or Ryan Howard can sneak in there, just because RBIs are so overrated. Fielder's huge lead in homers and Milwaukee's feel good story seem like too much to overcome. As for the other individual awards:

• NL Cy Yong: Jake Peavy in a landslide. If the season ended today, he'd win the triple crown!
• AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez in a landslide. Magglio Ordononez will get some votes, since he leads the league in batting and is second to A-Rod in RBIs, but that's just silly. A-Rod leads the AL in HRs by 12! Oh and if anybody cares, he's by far the leader in both runs created and runs created per 27 outs.
• AL Cy Young: Statistically no clear front runner. Can you believe there are eight AL pitchers with ERAs less than 3.50! Seems like most folks think it's a two pitcher race between Josh Beckett (leads the league in wins) and C.C. Sabathia. That's funny since C.C.'s teammate, Fausto Carmona, leads the league in ERA (just barely, but still) and has 17 wins just like C.C. I think Beckett will win it, just because Boston is the best team in AL by far.

A-Rod

I was really annoyed by all the fretting done by New York Yankee fans last year over how disappointed they were in Alex Rodriguez. So it's nice for A-Rod that he is having such an amazing start to this year. I was watching ESPN last night and I have to say : Calm down!

You would think that A-Rod is on the verge of breaking the single season home run and RBI records already. It's April folks. He tied the record for most April HRs (a somewhat meaningless record, since there are a lot more April games played these days than there used to be) last night. That wasn't exactly a Maris-esque feat. The record was set just last year by Albert Pujols. A-Rod is having a great start, but there's a long way to go this season. It would be fun to see him make a run at the home run and RBI records, but he's got a long way to go to do that.

One thing I'm waiting to hear about is how the Yankees keep losing even though A-Rod is hitting a home run every game. This "negative correlation" was touted back when Mark McGwire broke the Maris record and when Barry Bonds broke McGwire's record. McGwire's Cardinals were not even close to making the postseason that year, and Bonds' Giants finished several games out as well. You couldn't escape people saying ridiculous things about how maybe these guys were hurting their teams with their individual exploits. They were taking the focus off the team, or some other nonsense. I'm sure we'll hear garbage like that if the Yankees pitching keeps stinking it up and A-Rod keeps tearing it up.