Posts Tagged ‘Milton Bradley’
Bradley has surgery, season may be over (AP)
August 17th, 2010Think You’ve Got Problems? Top Three Biggest Losers in MLB
August 16th, 2010The 2010 MLB season is in the home stretch, as contending teams battle for a coveted playoff spot and the possibility of going to the World Series.
It would be impossible to name the fate of teams still in the hunt. There is a lot of baseball to be played and anything can happen.
That doesn’t mean that, for a few teams, the 2010 season isn't already in the toilet. Here, in order from bad to worst, are baseball ‘s top three biggest losers:
3) BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Here it is, plain and simple: the Baltimore Orioles should be better than 41-77 and 31.5 games out of first place in the AL East. Blaming failures on location is not going to fly, because the O’s are at the bottom of all 30 MLB teams.
Just look at the Rays, who have far less money, history, and fans than the O’s. Who would rather call dumpy Tropicana Field a home dome, instead of gorgeous Camden Yards? The Rays would happily switch stadiums with the O’s at a moment's notice.
Where are all these superhero prospects the Orioles supposedly have? I have heard about the depth of the O’s farm system for at least four seasons, but pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg was on the Nationals the last time I checked.
The Orioles' core of Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, and Brian Roberts is a solid group of talent. The pitching—not so much. O’s fans are waiting for their young pitchers to debut and claim that, in time, the O’s will win again. Guess the plan of embarrassing themselves in the meantime is working out better than expected.
There is light at the end of this tunnel and it started the day Buck Showalter was hired as the team’s skipper. Maybe owner Peter Angelos is finally listening, because hiring Showalter gives fans a reason to cheer again.
Though Showalter has been on the job for only a few weeks, Baltimore has already shown a huge improvement. Sorry to say O’s fans, but it may be next year before the team gets back to the “The Oriole Way” again.
2) NEW YORK METS
Coming in a close second and, with no surprise, is the New York Mets. The Mets have owned a spot on the "Biggest Losers" list since 2007, as the drama is never-ending in Queens.
The three problems with the Amazin's are as follows:
- The Mets have the talent to contend, but lack the leaders to get them there. All-Star third baseman, David Wright is not feared by his teammates.
- The real defect is the owners of the Amazin's, the Wilpon family. The Wilpons have no business owning a top-market ballclub or any professional sports team at all. The way they conduct business, from the firing of Willie Randolph to moving Lady Gaga to Jerry Seinfeld’s private box, is appalling. You can’t expect the players to have class when the owners don’t set an example.
- Skipper Jerry Manuel needs to be axed. Manuel is not the right fit for this clubhouse because the players don’t listen. Hiring a disciplinarian like Bobby Valentine is the way to go from here. That entails spending money, another pet peeve of Jeff and Fred Wilpon.
- FYI, the K-Rod incident should not be happening in the family waiting area in any clubhouse.
1) SEATTLE MARINERS
Everyone’s 2010 preseason predictions featured the Seattle Mariners to win the AL West. I have yet to find an expert who didn’t foretell Seattle as one of the top six teams before the season.
It’s hard to believe a team with Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez leading the rotation, and bats like Ichiro Suzuki, Chone Figgins, and Milton Bradley could completely implode.
Well, that is exactly what the Seattle Mariners did in 2010—or more what they didn’t do. The Mariners couldn’t collapse because the team never swelled to anything in the first place. There was a lot of hiring initially to throw in the towel midseason so easily.
The poor Seattle fans love the Mariners, who had proclaimed themselves losers by saying goodbye to Cliff Lee and letting franchise hero Ken Griffey, Jr. retire with no dignity.
Recently, the Mariners fired manager Don Wakamatsu, which is a textbook response to losing in sports. The Mariners' pigheaded front office has fired and hired seven managers since 2001.
This is obviously not the problem, nor the solution. It’s a diversion of blame. Warning to Mariners fans: don’t presume the front office is buying time in order to work out the kinks. It hasn’t worked Seattle yet.
PLEASE, READ MORE AT LADY LOVES PINSTRIPES
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M’s OF Bradley to have knee surgery (AP)
August 14th, 2010The Seattle Mariners Should Have Fired Their Players, Not Their Coaches
August 13th, 2010The Seattle Mariners are owners of the second worst record in baseball this season, and typically when a team performs as badly as the Mariners have this season, someone has to pay for it.
In the case of the Mariners, the wrong people have paid for it. After turning the Mariners around from a 101 loss team in 2008 to an 85 win team in 2009, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu and his coaching staff were fired Monday.
Wakamatsu went from Coach of the Year candidate to unemployed all in the span of less than a year, while his bunch of under-performing players continue to keep their jobs and pick up their paychecks.
The Mariners have been by far the worst hitting team in baseball this season. They have scored 390 runs this season, worst in the league and 26 less than the Pirates. The Mariners are hitting .235 as a team, also the worst in the league and seven points worse than, you guessed it the Pirates.
To call the Mariners offense pathetic this season would be an understatement. Ichiro is the only Mariner that is hitting above .255 this season, while Chone Figgins, who has been far below his career average this year, has climbed all the way into second with a whopping average of .253.
It's okay though because the Mariners hitters swing for power and not average right?
Nope.
The Mariners have the fewest home runs in baseball this season with only 67 all year. The Major League leader in home runs this season is Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista who has 36 home runs, more than half of the Mariners total as a team.
The Mariners are 12th in baseball in pitching this season, yet pitching coach Rick Adair was fired along with Wakamatsu. Pitching has not been the Mariners problem this season, and if the Mariners had even a decent offense this season they would have been in playoff contention right now.
Mariners fans had hopes for the postseason this year after the team acquired pitching ace Cliff Lee during the offseason, but those hopes quickly faded once Mariners fans saw the team step in the batters box this season.
The Mariners brought in players such as Casey Kotchman and Milton Bradley, who the Seattle front office hoped would add more depth and production to the offense. Both players have struggled this season and Bradley was even placed on the restricted list for 13 days in May so he could seek help for his emotional outbursts.
Jack Wilson has always been one of the best defensive shortstops in the league, but he has also been one of the worst hitting shortstops in the league. The Mariners have focused so much on becoming the strongest defensive team in baseball the past few seasons that they forgot they still have to score runs to win.
It is a wonder that Jose Lopez is still on the team after the season he has had. Lopez hit .272 with 25 home runs last season for the Mariners, and because of that he started out this season as the Mariners cleanup hitter. Lopez is currently hitting .240 with six home runs, not exactly the stats of your typical four hitter.
Lopez has also made numerous mistakes in the field and on the bases, perhaps none bigger than in a game a few weeks ago where he was on first base in the ninth inning of a tied game. Lopez' run did not matter, as the winning run was on second, yet Lopez decided to take off on a line drive to right field and ended up getting doubled off at first to end the inning. The Mariners went on to lose the game in typical Mariners fashion this season.
Lopez is just one cog of the disaster that is the Mariners this season, he needs to go and so do many other players from this team.
Wakamatsu has the perception of a very laid back manager, which was good last season for a team that was trying to come together in the clubhouse, but was bad this season for a team that has not been winning.
Wakamatsu never had a chance this season once the Mariners stopped hitting and started losing, it's a shame that he had to go, especially when others deserved to go more.
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MLB Attendance Down 701,000
August 13th, 2010For the first time this season since I have been tracking the MLB attendance at baseball-reference.com, the attendance has declined over 700,000. Not surprisingly, we haven’t heard any reports from baseball commissioner Bud Selig about how well the game of baseball is doing.
Only 12 teams have shown an increase in attendance during the 2010 baseball season. The numbers should continue to drop as teams drop further out of the races, school starts again, and college and pro football start in about a month.
Attendance would have fallen more if not for the new Target Field in Minnesota showing an increase of over 561,000 more fans than in 2009 for the Minnesota. The Colorado Rockies, with an increase of over 163,000, and the San Francisco Giants, with over 108,000 more fans this season, are the only three teams with an increase of over 100,000 more fans than in 2010.
Seven teams have drawn over 100,000 less fans in 2010 than in 2009 with the New York Mets topping the list with a loss of over 341,000 fans. The Toronto Blue Jays, with a loss of over 273,000 fans, the Indians, drawing over 271,000, and even the Milwaukee Brewers, who Selig used to own, have drawn over 217,000 fewer fans.
Twelve teams are drawing 1,000 fewer fans per game than in 2009 with the New York Mets losing over 6,200 fans per game while Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians losing over 4,000 fans per game while the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles are drawing over 3,000 less fans per game.
The Yankees are averaging over 46,000 fans per game while the Cleveland Indians are the worst drawing team with about an average of 17,000 fans per game.
The Florida Marlins could move to the positive side in attendance since they have lost only 38 fans per game and are only a minus 2,249 for the season.
Over 700,000 fewer fans represents a huge loss for the major league baseball. Those 700,000 fans, assuming they would have spent $20 at each game, means a loss of $14 million for baseball.
Baseball is averaging 408 fewer fans per game which, if using the $20 per fan benchmark, represents a loss at each game of $8,160, which multiplied 81 times for each home game comes to a loss of $660,960 for the season.
With 11 major league teams at least 10 games behind the division leaders and three teams at least nine games behind the division leaders, that could be 13 teams out of the division races very soon.
On a more positive note five division races are showing a separation of two-and-half games or less between the first and second place teams which should boost attendance. The AL West is the only race not hotly contested but not by no means over with the Angels seven-and-half behind the Rangers.
The Tampa Bay Rays have lost over 98,000 fans despite being the thick of the AL East race.
These are the attendance gain or loss numbers for all the division leaders:
Yankees: +38,839
Twins: +561,382
Rangers: +96,386
Braves: +43,264
Cardinals: -14,617
Padres: 88,012
The totals for all the last place teams in each division:
Orioles: -176,399
Royals: -149,108
Mariners: -68,584
Nationals: + 63,477 ( most of increase could be attributed to Stephen Strasburg pitching in home games)
Pirates: +71,064 (this is a surprise considering the Pirates have lost seven more games than at this point last season)
Diamondbacks: -27,879
In summation, these numbers mean that general managers will have to be even more careful to not sign free agents for exorbitant sums.
They will be careful to not take a risk on injury prone players like Ben Sheets who earned $10 million from the Athletics despite winning only four games in 20 starts and is now out for the season and is not likely to pitch at all in 2011. They also paid Coco Crisp $5 million to play in only 41 games so far and he will fall short of playing in 100 games.
Another example is Kevin Millwood earning $12 million this season with two wins in 23 starts. The Mariners have paid out big bucks to players like Milton Bradley (hitting .205 for $11 million in 2010) and Chone Figgins, who is hitting .253 for $8.5 million but is hitting .310 since the All-Star break.
The Mets are paying Carlos Beltran over $19 million and he only recently played in his first game of the season. Jason Bay is earning $8 million to hit six home runs.
Then there is the case of Carlos Zambrano, who has either pitched badly or been suspended this season for $18.8 million, despite winning only three games.
Kosuke Fukudome is earning $14 million in 2010 and hit .189 in June and .162 in July, but is hitting .421 in August.
Baseball is going to have to stop the insanity of these long-term contracts because the fanbase isn’t there to support such extravagant spending.
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