Mark Byron

Das Booted

Don't cross the baseball owners if you like your job as an arbitor. The owners were ticked with Shyam Das after he ruled for Ryan Braun in his steroid suspension appeal and opted to remove him as MLB's arbitrator.

That's not the first time we've had an arb get the left foot of disfellowship-

Many of baseball's grievance arbitrators have had brief tenures, with the list including Lewis Gill (1970-72), Gabriel Alexander (1972-74), Peter Seitz (1974-75), Alexander Porter (1977-79), Raymond Goetz (1979-83), Richard Bloch (1983-85), Thomas Roberts (1985-86), George Nicolau (1986-95), Nicholas Zumas (1995-97) and Eischen (1997-98).

Joseph Sickles heard one case in 1976, and temporary arbitrators were used between Eischen and Das.

Seitz was fired after he ruled against owners in the Andy Messersmith-Dave McNally reserve clause case that led to free agency. Roberts was fired after deciding management colluded against free agents between the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

Note that the players haven't been the ones to ditch the arbitrator. Interestingly, Das is also the NFL's lead arbitrator, who will have his hands full with Bountygate cases.

Restrictor Plate

You learn something new every day, and the schooling today is of MLB's restricted list. If works a bit like the DL, except it's for players who can't play due to various personal problems, like visa issues or rehab; one player with visa issues went on the RL when his team did a Toronto road trip and he couldn't leave the US. The key difference is the restricted list is without pay, so teams need a very valid reason to use it lest the players union file a grievance and win.

Delmon Young has been put on the RL for his late-night exploits Friday morning. His sub at DH, Brad Eldred, went 2-5 with a RBI triple (a misplayed single in reality, but it looks like a clean shot up the gap in the box score-the infield single that got charged as an error was some instant karma there), and Danny Worth got called up to help bolster their infield after Brandon Inge's release.

Young made a statement yesterday which had the right tone of contriteness, but such contriteness is often ghost-written by your PR-guy to make you sound like less of a goon that the stuff you got in trouble for would indicate. Walking the walk is the long-term way to make such contriteness seem less trite, but when you just got done walking the perp walk, that's still in your future.

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On a lighter note, what was Leland thinking putting Villarreal in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth at Yankee Stadium with a cadre of Hall of Famers due up? Especially with Valverde at the ready. Papa Grande often underperforms when he's not in a save setting, but not so much so where Villarreal should be thrown to the wolves in a rare clutch situation for him.

The Huge one will rip Leland a new one on Monday, to be sure.

 

Taking the Rusty Inge Out to the Curb

The Tigers wound up biting the bullet and releasing Brandon Inge; when he wasn't even hitting his IQ let alone his weight, his days were numbered. I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in the Tiger organization as a coach, for he's well liked (other than among the "what have you done for me lately" crowd), but just wasn't able to produce at the plate the last few years.

Veteran minor leaguer Brad Eldred has his slot. He's having a career month at Toledo, with 13 homers in 80 at bats; Chris Shelton's 2006 comes to mind. He'd be in Barry Bonds territory if that held up, but becoming a terror at age 31 seems unlikely. We shall see. With Delmon Young out for a bit with his impersonation of a Palestinian teenager, Eldred will have a shot at playing some DH and spot starts at first if they want Prince Fielder to DH and get the day off in the field.

Food Network Meets Tru TV Meets ESPN?

Here's an interesting Detroit Free Press addition to the Delmon Young Jew-bashing story, discussing the millieu outside of the NY Hilton the Tigers were staying at-

The Hilton New York on 6th Avenue -- also known as the Avenue of the Americas -- is a favorite spot for professional sports teams. The Tigers are booked there for their weekend series. Only five blocks north of Times Square, the hotel is one of the city's largest. By day it bustles with tourists and the business activity of Midtown. By night it is home to dozens of sidewalk food vendors, many of them selling chicken kabobs and Halal food.

One vendor, who wanted to remain nameless, said that on most nights, say between 2:30-3 a.m., especially from Thursday to Saturday, drunken patrons spill from nearby bars and pubs and queue up at the trucks looking for something hot and spicy.

The food vendors set up on both sides of 6th Avenue at 52nd Street just across from the hotel entrance.

The food might be halal (I think that should be lower-case for the Muslim version of kosher), but Young was more haram in the wee hours of the morning.

[Update 4/28- The editors at the Free Press must of caught that, for a revised version goes with a lower-case halal.]

One thing that I have noticed in my late-night TV ramblings after a tutoring shift is that food trucks are a big item in bigger cities where they are allowed. New York has a long-standing tradition of street food (I'm reminded of the street hot dogs in Crocodlie Dundee as the analogue to the odd outback critters from their Aussie stay, she gives him the same retort he gave her-"tastes like [crap], but you can live on it.") which gets a late night twist in towns with an active night-life.

Getting people lubed up and on the street can be a recipe for disaster, and Young must have gone off his John Rocker.

Funky Cold Tigres

Our local sports-talker was raging on the Tiger's offence. His usual whipping boys are Brandon Inge (working hard to hit his IQ, let alone be within hailing distance of the Mendoza line) and questionable lineups.

However, the whole team, save Austin Jackson, seems to be having off years so far. If we use OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) as our metric, here are the Tiger's differences between 2012 and 2011

Name	Change
Ryan Raburn	(0.409)
Brennan Boesch	(0.270)
Ramon Santiago	(0.257)
Jhonny Peralta	(0.177)
Brandon Inge	(0.148)
Don Kelly	(0.145)
Miguel Cabrera	(0.101)
Alex Avila	(0.051)
Andy Dirks	0.065
Austin Jackson	0.150

2012	Ryan Raburn	(0.409)
2012	Brennan Boesch	(0.270)
2012	Ramon Santiago	(0.257)
2012	Jhonny Peralta	(0.177)
2012	Brandon Inge	(0.148)
2012	Don Kelly	(0.145)
2012	Miguel Cabrera	(0.101)
2012	Alex Avila	(0.051)
2012	Andy Dirks	0.065
2012	Austin Jackson	0.150

Looking at those numbers casts the blame fairly widely. Boesch in the two-hole isn't producing up to specs, Peralta has seen his numbers drop and even Cabrera is off to a slow start. I didn't put Prince Fielder on this table, since I did a cut-and-paste of the Tiger stats for 2011 and 2012 and Fielder was in Milwaukee last year; heading to his career stat sheet shows that his OPS has taken a 0.139 tumble, thanks largely to a lack of power so far.

The team is having a cold April as Michigan is, but are still 10-7 and tied for first. Both the weather and the Tigers should improve.

Vote for Pedro

I had a chuckle going through the baseball news and finding the name of a Pedro Strop in the Oriole's organization. With an 0.73 ERA in 12 relief stints last year, he's doing better than his brother Jacques Strop, who's an actor now, nominated for Best Supporting Role.

Zoom Zoom, We Hardly Knew Ye

Joel Zumaya blew his elbow and might opt to hang it up at 27. He had an incredible 2006, where he was bringing 100-MPH heat as a normal thing, but was snake-bit since them. He signed with Minnesota this winter when Detroit had lost patience with his injury record.

That sadly reminds me of another short-lived Tiger great who had one of the best 15 minutes of fame ever three decades prior-Mark Fidrych; The Bird won 19 for the Tigers in 1976, lead the league in ERA and sold out stadiums whenever he started. Sadly, The Bird couldn't stay healthy after that and never came close to being the All-Star starter ace he was in '76.

In an interesting parallel, Fidrych closed out his pro career in the Red Sox minor leagues, as the MA native turned their after Detroit got burned by a string of injuries. Zumaya is facing packing it in as a Twin if he can't make it any further.

Surgery is better now than in the 70s, as Tommy John had his namesake surgery in 1974 as a cutting-edge medical procedure. Zoom-Zoom is looking at TJ surgery if he wants to give things one more try, and that means a year-plus of rehab. Since he has seen more rehab than Amy Winehouse in the last six years, he might throw up his hand and try pro fishing.

Braun and the Pickup Artist

Someone has grounds for slander in the exchange of urinary products between MLB management and Ryan Braun over the testing of urine leading to a positive steroid test. Braun was calling the process "fatally flawed" while MLB and the drug-testing folks disagreed.

At contention is whether having the samples kept at a courier's home over the weekend rather than sitting at a FedEx pickup site awaiting transit was enough to invalidate the sample. An arbiter said yes, but MLB and the WADA drug-testing agency disagreed. MLB's initial reaction had them "vehemently disagree[ing]" with the decision, which essentially says "Braun's a doper, but we couldn't prove it here based on that loophole."

The anti-doping people don't want to look like dopes and Braun is trying to avoid looking like yet another 'roider who got off courtesy of his sample's weekend at Bernie's. Whatever happened to the old Earl Warren line about the sports page being about man's accomplishments and the front page being about man's failures?

Welcome Back, Fielder

Heartwarming tale in the Free Press of Prince Fielder tootling down I-4 to Spring Training in Lakeland from his off-season home turf of Orlando with his two sons; this is his first official day as a Tiger in Lakeland but not his first day in Lakeland, since he was part of things when his dad Cecil was a Tiger in the 90s.

Some of the old-timers in the Tiger organization remember him as a kid-

Fielder returned to the clubhouse, and clubhouse manager Jim Schmakel outfitted both of the Fielder boys with Tigers uniforms. Just like the one that Prince used to wear when his father, Cecil, played for Detroit.

"We have a supply for the kids," Schmakel said. "I just remember him as a young man. Real quiet. He's a nice young man."

He and Miguel Cabrera seem to be long lost buddies who just met, razzing each other during batting practice; that, along with Cabrera losing weight and making a serious stab at 3B, is encouraging as a Tiger fan.

I was reminded of coming back to work where you were a student as a kid; the old Welcome Back, Kotter show was the archetype, but my short stint adjuncting at Saginaw Valley State, subbing for the professor I learned under as an undergrad, comes to mind.

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Another interesting Tiger piece ponders the fate of Nick Castellanos, the Next Big Tiger Star currently slated for AA ball this year. He's a third baseman, but that job seems to be filled for a while by Cabrera, especially if Victor Martinez comes back to claim his DH spot and keeps Cabrera and Fielder from platooning there.

Castellanos seems versatile, having played both outfield and shortstop before settling in at 3B last year. A move to a corner outfield spot might make sense if the logjam stays put by the time he gets ready to move up to Detroit. The alternative is to trade him away for talent at other positions; I recall Sandy Alomar Jr came to the Indians that way, when San Diego had a good young catcher on hand and needed to send Alomar elsewhere. That turned out very well for the Indians, as he anchored the good Tribe clubs of the 90s.

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Speaking of those 90s Tribe clubs, it doesn't seem two decades ago when I was down in Canton watching Manny Ramirez playing AA ball, as he had the Next Big Indian Star tag that Castellanos holds down in the Tiger system at present. Manny is taking his heart and baggage out to Oakland after exiling him into retirement last year after getting busted for PEDs. He will have to wait until about Memorial Day to play due to a 50-game suspension.

43 Million Hot-n-Readys Worth of Home Run Artist

It looks like the Tigers solved their DH problem, but broke the bank doing so; they have come to terms with Prince Fielder on a 9-year, $214 million deal. With Victor Martinez out of commission for most if not all of 2012, Fielder and Miguel Cabrera will likely swap duties at first base and DH. Both are so-so defensive first basemen, so there isn't a clear choice on which of the two to DH.

One thing to look at in spring training is whether Cabrera can move back to third base where he played for the Marlins. On days where Alex Avila might be useful as a DH on a day off from catching, you might play with the idea of putting Fielder at first and Cabrera at third; that would also work when visiting the NL and the DH is out of commission.

Also, depending on how bad Cabera's glove work is at third, you might look at playing him there and letting Delmon Young DH, getting someone like Andy Dirks into the line-up to add some speed.

The real fun will begin when Martinez gets healthy. If Cabrera hasn't made third base a regular home, the Tigers might need to look to move Martinez.

Next... the Home Run Artist Known as Prince Fielder?

Interesting construct on this first sentence

The Cleveland Indians pitcher known as Fausto Carmona issued a tearful apology Friday as he was released following his arrest for allegedly using a false identity to play baseball in the U.S.

"I ask for the forgiveness of my fans, the government of the United States and the Cleveland Indians for this situation," he said upon leaving the court, where a judge released him on bail of about $13,000.

Police arrested him Thursday outside the U.S. consulate in his native Dominican Republic when he arrived to get his visa renewed. Spokesman Maximo Baez Aybar said the athlete's real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia and that he is 31, three years older than he had claimed.

He was the second Dominican player arrested in recent months for using a false identity.

I also remember a story of a Dominican teen who got his age fudged in order to dominate Little League in his adopted Nuevo York; it's easy to be a man among boys when you are a man, or close to it.

If I recall, you see ages fudged in Latin American recruits, since a player looks more impressive if he's 17 rather than 20; the scout can see three years of future growth that won't exist. Would the Indians use this as grounds to void his contract, since the person in question didn't exist?

Edifier du Jour-I Timothy 5:17-18(NIV)

¹⁷ The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. ¹⁸ For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

I'm not sure if this is a good passage to be discussing Albert Pujols with, since we weren't dealing with church leaders, but it's the go-to verse in my mind for fair wages.

Pujols is the best all-around hitter in baseball (the Tigers' Miguel Carbrera is a close second, but second nonetheless) and a devout Christian to boot; he just signed one of the largest contracts in baseball history, a 10-year, $250 deal with the Anaheim Angels. Is he doing the Kingdom of God a disservice by accepting that big of a contract and disappointing his fans in St. Louis?

Were he solely in it for the moolah, he'd have likely taken the Miami offer, for a state with zero income tax looks good to a one-percenter; going out to California, where a cash-strapped state government is looking to raise taxes, isn't a good choice for maximizing cash flow. Also, Pujols would have to deal with the profane and mercurial Ozzie Guillen as a boss in Miami, which might prove more taxing than Jerry Brown.

Had Pujols offer to play for a tenth as much, making a "modest" couple of million a year, where would the other $20m go? Into the owner's pocket and partly into Uncle Sam's pocket, for if the owner is less charitable than Pujols, the owner will pay more taxes than Pujols would on a like amount of marginal income.

Pujols has an charity looking after Downs Syndrome kids; that and other charities are likely to get the lion's share of that salery. He can probably do more good with it than the Angel ownership.

People are generally worth their wages; what the person does with those wages is between him and God, but the wage is usually what the market feels is a fair price for the worker's services. Playing Monday-morning QB with salaries is more an exercise in envy than in seeking fairness.

God Calls The Shots.. and Calls a Shot?

I missed last night's wild Game 6, where St Louis rallied back twice to win a wild 10-9 game to force a game seven tonight. That was despite Ranger slugger Josh Hamilton, a devout Christan and recovering substance abuser, getting what they'd call a word of knowledge in some of my old churches as he got up in the 10th.

"He told me, 'You haven't hit one in a while, and this is the time you're going to,' " said Hamilton, who had gone 65 at-bats in the postseason without a home run. "You know what? I probably had the most relaxed, peaceful at-bat I've had of the whole series at that moment. It's pretty cool. You ought to try it sometime."

As Hamilton recalled the sequence of events in the Texas clubhouse after Game 6, he ruefully took note of the missing piece in the discussion: God promised him a four-bagger, but made no mention of the Rangers' bullpen collapse or Freese's game-tying triple in the ninth inning and game-winning homer in the 11th.

"There was a period at the end of [the sentence]," Hamilton said. "He didn't say, 'You're going to hit it and you're going to win.' "

That reminds me a bit of the old Monte Clark story, where he was praying for a winning field goal that missed; when he was asked whether his prayer wasn't answered, he said it was answered, but the answer was "no." Here, there was divine guidance (I'll take Hamilton at face value), but not to the point of a win.

Occasionally God does sweat the details. How many strings He pulls in the process is an open question. As a Lion's fan, I wouldn't mind if He let Tim Tebow fend for himself on Sunday and not pull off a improbable rally again.

A Thome Homey

Here's a good-news-bad-news situation for me. As a Tiger fan, seeing them lose 9-6 to Minnesota wasn't nice, but it came due to a pair of homers by Jim Thome, the latter being #600 in his career, only the eighth player to do so.

I can remember Thome as a young third baseman for the Indians in the early 90s as they started to dig out from 30+ years of suckatude; I was going to Kent State at the time and watched quite a bit of Indians games back then. He's been a bit of a baseball vagabond, as is the lot in life of a modern star, but has been a class act all the way.

He's being tabbed as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I hope the Hall voters have mercy on a couple of 600 club members (Bonds and Sosa) who have a scarlet S on their shirt; the voters have snubbed two 'roiders in McGwire and Palmiero who have normal first-ballot Hall credentials (500HR and 3000 hits respectively).

Rusty Inge? Try WD-40

Here's a trooper for you. Brandon Inge has been struggling this year, hitting well under .200. The Tigers traded for KC third baseman Wilson Betemit. Betemit doesn't have a better mitt than Inge, but he is hitting .281 for the Royals, and as a switch-hitter, won't need to be platooned. That gives the Tigers three switch-hitting regulars along with Guillen and Martinez; it also gives the Tigers an all-Latin infield.

Interestingly, Inge accepted a demotion to Detroit's AAA farm club in Toledo rather than be released and allowed to find a job with another team. This isn't a rehab assignment, where an injured player can play his way back into game shape without being "sent to the minors"; this is a full-blown demotion. However, he lives and has his family in Detroit and can make a long commute down to Toledo; in addition, not too many teams want to sign a third baseman with a .177 batting average.

I wouldn't be surprised if they make Inge a player-coach at Toledo. He's under contract through next year and is 34. Catchers make good manager material, and he's played catcher as well as third base; he even played some center field a few years back when they were short there. It might be time for him to transition into coaching.

Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, and World Series Game 6

That's what we're heading towards if we get extended playoffs in baseball. They're playing game four of this year's "Fall Classic" this evening. Thankfully, this year's teams are in warm-weather cities where you don't have to wear winter coats to a late-October, early November baseball game.

We're at 34 degrees as we speak in Midland, not that far north from Detroit. This isn't baseball weather.

If you want to start putting the playoffs in climate-controlled neutral sites, then we can look at expanding the field. However, there is a finite amount of decent weather in northern cities; unless we get global warming to the point that you can go trick-or-treating in shirtsleves in Michigan, expanding the playoffs just isn't going to work.

Lone Star Dry

Here's an interesting story from the baseball playoffs; Texas just won their first playoff series ever in their 50 seasons in existence (counting the Washington Senators 2.0 of the 60s before the move to the Metroplex); baseball custom has a lot of spraying of champagne after winning a series. However, the Ranger's ace outfielder, Josh Hamilton, is a recovering substance abuser and needs to stay clear of alcohol.

When the Ranger's clinched the Western Division last month, Hamilton had to steer clear of the bubbly. Yesterday, they modified tradition by swapping in ginger-ale for champagne so as to have the MPV-frontrunner be part of the fun.

As a Tiger homer, I'd preferred Miguel Cabrera get the MPV, but Hamilton would be a great choice. He's not been a perfect witness, but has been a very good one in his faith-soaked route back to sobriety.

Suzuki Method-Hit 'em Where They Ain't

Ichiro Suzuki hit an interesting milestone, being the first American Leaguer to have ten 200-hit seasons; he's tied for the ML mark with Pete Rose. What's more notable is that those seasons were all in a row; the old record was eight by Wee Willie Keeler, who's motto was "Hit 'em where they ain't." That describes the slap-hitting Ichiro to a T.

The Hall of Fame came to mind as I thumbed through his career stats. He's at 2228 career hits in the major leagues as we go to press; four more years of 200-ish productivity will get him to the 3000-hit mark. That's an automatic trip to Cooperstown, since all the eligible players over 3K are in the Hall.

Of course, if we count the 1278 he racked up in Japan, he's past 3500 already. He's probably set to down as the first Japanese member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Motown Musings

Two interesting pieces in the to-blog-box on Detroit sports.

One is this piece proposing that Will Bynum become the starting Piston point guard and have Rodney Stuckey be a combo third guard getting starter minutes.

That's not a bad idea, since Stuckey is more of a penetrating two than a one. The problem with that on this Piston club is that Rip Hamilton fills that role on the starting unit. If you bring Stuckey off the bench playing some two with Bynum and some one with Ben Gordon (who is more of an outside shooter), his skills will be better utilized, especially if you throw Austin Daye in the mix as a point-forward on the second unit.

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Johnny, we hardy knew ye. Damon was put on waivers and claimed by the Red Sox; the Tigers now have to either arrange a trade with Boston, let him go to Boston without compensation other than the Sox picking up the last month of his contract, or reclaim him off waivers. Damon can veto the deal via a no-trade clause, but might want to mend some fences in New England after bolting to the hated Yankees.

The Tigers have a number of good outfielders and have to find a long-term spot for Carlos Guillen who is not quite the answer at 2B. Left field or DH is his natural spots right now, and that is Damon's gig at present. It makes sence to let Damon go and play out the 2010 string with Guillen and the farmhands in left and using the salary spot that Ordonez's departure will open up to either get a good left fielder (moving Boesch to right) or catcher for 2011.

[Update 5PM-Damon vetoed the deal. Hey, a logjam of young outfielders isn't all that bad.]

Klingon With a Lisp?

I've been watching too much Star Trek over the years. The Red Sox have a rookie outfielder named Ryan Kalish who had his debut against the Tigers this afternoon. That sounded too much like the Klingon first emperor/messiah Kahless, if you pronounce it with a bit of a lisp.

Congressmen remind me of Quick Draw McGraw's sidekick and baseball players have me delving into Klingon mythology. Where do you get help for that?

Up Comes Frazier! Up Comes Frazier!

I'm glad I didn't watch the bottom of the ninth tonight in the Red Sox-Tigers game; Valverde almost blew a 6-1 lead and the Tigers hung on to a 6-5 win.

Run number five for the Tigers was scored by DH Jeff Frazier, who just got called up from AAA Toledo today. He had gone 0-3 but drew a walk to lead off the 8th and came around to score on a wild pitch by knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. It was ultimate small-ball, where Frazier's walk was followed by a bunt single by catcher Gerald Laird (he should have been called out for going out of the baseline), then a sacrifice bunt, then the wild pitch, then a ground ball to score Laird. Two runs without the ball leaving the infield.

Interestingly, cornerman Jeff Larish lasted but five days. He got called up on Sunday and was "designated for assignment" today. Something must of happened to get that treatment. Did he say the magic word to Leyland or something? He went 2/10 this week, but that doesn't seem like he deserves to be cut. Maybe he's part of a trade that will be going down shortly, given that the deadline is fast approaching.

If you don't get the headline, check the 1:27 mark on this clip. I thought Ali was the foe on that call, but it was George Foreman.

4 Bostons > 5 Detroits

Ralph Houk just died; he was the Yankee manager for 11 years, mostly in the sixties, then "Houk managed the Tigers from 1974-78. His final stint in the dugout came with Boston from 1981-84." I remember my grandpa Byron would name-drop Houk as a friend/acquaintance before he was with the Tigers.

Note that he managed the Tigers for five years and the Red Sox for four. However, the headline is "Ex-Yankees, Red Sox manager Houk dies."

In MSM math, time in the Bos-Wash corridor is at least twice as important than time spent in flyover country. Or, at least 25% more important if the above equation is to hold.