Knew it was coming

I've got to admit - Ryan Theriot had a good game yesterday which helped put the Cubs into first place. He went 4-5 with two doubles, two singles, a walk and scored three runs. So naturally, sportswriters are jumping on the Ryan Theriot bandwagon. Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first.

Theriot, 28, doesn't look very imposing at 5-10, 175 pounds.

But he's wiry and fast, and his game awareness, savvy, confidence and bat control are helping this team become so much more than just power pitching and the giant sticks of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Kosuke Fukudome.

What does he mean exactly by "so much more?" Aramis Ramirez had a good game yesterday. He went 4-5 with a home run and a double, but no one's writing any articles praising him. Derrek Lee is second in the majors in home runs with 7 and has an awesome line of .364/.419/.714. Kosuke Fukudome is 8th in the National League in on-base percentage. How is what Theriot is doing "so much more?" That's like saying the criminals on the streets of Chicago are giving the city so much more character than the well-behaved citizens.

Look, Theriot has gotten off to a pretty good start (.338/.408/.485). If he produces like this for the next few years of his career, I will retract all the bad I have said about him. However, his BABIP of .379 shows that he has run into a little bit of luck this year. This is also his age 28 season, and as history suggests, this is the peak age of his career.

In the fourth inning, Theriot, who was putting together his third straight multihit game, showed how baseball can be played. He hit a line drive to right center that was either going to be a long single or a close-shave double. Reed Johnson sprinted from first to score, and Theriot, running like a rabbit, slid into second, a whisker under the throw from Pirates center fielder Nate McLouth. On the next pitch, The Riot stole third. Three batters later, Matt Murton grounded out to first baseman Adam LaRoche, and Theriot scored.

Normal stuff, right? Not exactly.

Come on. Just because he is fast enough to steal bases, doesn't mean that's how baseball should be played. In this instance, yeah, it resulted in a run being scored. But what if he got thrown out trying to steal third? What if Murton hit a single which would have scored him from second? What if Murton grounded out, but next hitter Mark DeRosa hit a single?

Like I said before, he had a good game. But when you talk baseball, you have to talk about long-term. Theriot most definitely will not produce at this level for the rest of the season, and if he does, I owe every single none of you a beer.

Hello again

It's been a while (once again). Long enough to tell you all that I have finally come over to the dark side. I love Ryan Theriot. I love his passion, his fire, his speed, his passion, his eyes, his speed, his elf-like stature, his passion and his passion. ESPN has finally convinced me that scrappy players are actually good at baseball.

Just kidding. Aside from that though, I really haven't posted all that much for two reasons:

1) There is a lack of baseball news in this part of the offseason. Even though Spring Training is underway, writers still don't have much material for which to worship these fiery white hobbits in their columns. There should be many more posts come March 31st.

2) There is only so much I can say about these players without being redundant. There are only so many times I can make fun of someone for saying that a player's passionate demeanor is way more important than actually playing baseball. So I have to say that I'm going to reserve those posts for when I find articles that truly exude complete baseball stupidity and change the content of this blog to be more about general baseball topics.

So that's just about it.

In the meantime, imaginary audience, here's a post about Ryan Theriot on FIRE JOE MORGAN.

Cheers.

Sorry to bother no one

For the approximately zero people that read this blog, Flotsam Media has an absolutely fabulous post about gritty players, incorporating "math analysis" within it.

DIRT
The most important factor in determining a player's GRIT is his uniform. A player who is "containing, covered with, or resembling grit" will show visible signs of his grittiness on his uniform. Dirty uniforms are good; bloody uniforms are better. A true team player, the gritty player is prepared to sacrifice his body at all costs. This is one of the few ways gritty players are efficient, since they probably aren’t as well compensated as their genuinely talented teammates.

Go read it. You will be an infinitely better person for it.

Theriot to host baseball clinic

That's right, you heard me.

High school baseball players who want to polish their hitting and fielding skills can pick up a few pointers from Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot in January.

Those 14-18 year olds probably exceed him in height about a foot, but he probably exceeds them in grit points by about 3 million.

By the way kids, you're probably better off going to a baseball clinic hosted by Stephen Hawking.

More Eckstein

ESPN.com had a poll today asking what player you would rather have: Alex Rodriguez or David Eckstein. The results are lopsided, but a little staggering at the same time

69.6% Alex Rodriguez
30.4% David Eckstein

Ken Tremendous over at FIRE JOE MORGAN gives an awesome synthesis about this apparently tough decision.

Now, I suppose it is possible that some of the 150,000+ people who have voted in this poll were taking into consideration things like salary, or the current 3Bman on their favorite team, or something. But the question is, straight-up, who would you rather have?

And 30% say Eckstein. Thirty percent. Thir. Ty. Per. Ce. N. T.

That means that more than 45,000 people sat at their computers, and thought it over, and they said, you know, I don't want the guy who is 32 and had a .354 EqA+ last year with 54 HR. I want the 32 year-old who only played in 117 games last year (and 123 the year before) and hit 3 HR and had a .275 EqA+, and who needs a relay man to get the ball from short to first.

Who are you people? What is wrong with your brains?

But hey, with a scrappy mentality like him, who WOULDN'T take him over the soon-to-be AL MVP?

This surprised me a bit

The Hardball Times is a great baseball think tank known getting truths out of the value of players in the present and the future. But when I read an article today about writer Lisa Gray's favorite baseball players, guess who cracked the top 10?

10) David Eckstein, aka "That Dratted Pest." True, he's neither graceful nor hot. Come to think of it, he's not the best fielder, hitter or basestealer either. Drafted in the 19th round, released by the team that drafted him, he simply refused to lose and his indomitable spirit triumphed over all scouts' predictions. After the 2002 World Series, Barry Lamar Bonds expressed his admiration for The Pest's ability to make so much of so very little. As for me, when I fall into a funk, unsure of my ability to even begin to start to think of doing what needs to be done, I think of The Pest, and I say to myself—if he can play major league baseball, then you can cook that dinner for 18 people tonight (it is too the same thing, and if you weren't men you'd understand perfectly.)

Granted, she lays it out at the beginning saying that the type of players she likes are ones that are "drafted at the bottom of the barrel, expected to be minor league filler, at best, and through persistance and sheer force of dominating will, worked themselves into the major leagues." Still, there are many, many players better than Eckstein (who is a "Dratted Pest" for reasons that aren't good) who probably do better than a career .262 EqA (when league average is .260) and .362 slugging percentage.

Eckstein is pretty decent at getting on-base, but this has to be said people - just because ESPN tells you that a small white dude who is Mr. Scrappy McScrap Scrap doesn't mean he is particularly valuable to your team. It truly surprised me that one of THT's writers thinks in this mindset.

The White Sox and their old ways, as usual.

Just for starters, here is a post by RJ Anderson at the sabermetrics blog Beyond the Box Score, explaining how even though players like David Eckstein and Aaron Rowand can be valuable to a certain extent, they will probably be overpaid in the offseason.

While part of the attraction of Eckstein will be his World Series rings and Most Valuable Player title, Aaron Rowand and his nose fracturing collision with the wall and numerous diving catches will be remembered more so than his frightfully similar season in 2007 to that of 2004. Rowand's line drive rate went down from 22% to 19.8, in 2004 it was 19.5. His walk rate 6.1 was higher than the 4.3 and 5.2 posted, and his BABIP went from .297 and .318 to .348, again close to 2004 and .341. With that line drive rate he's expected to have a BABIP of .318, it's reasonable to expect his .309 batting average to slip back below that line and into the .260-.280 range.

Let me say that while I think both can be valuable to a team at a certain price, I feel they'll be paid more than they're worth, and on certain teams that makes them bad buys. With that being said I fully expect Kenny Williams to overspend for both of these players and hopefully the Chicago media won't be as oblivious to why the team failed rather than how next year.

Oh that delusional Kenny Williams cracks me up.