I made a mistake in this post. Macha was not a catcher, but a third baseman. For some reason, I must have just seen his catching career, and not the rest of his fielding career. Sorry for the confusion.

I’m somewhat encouraged by the potential number of free agents this year. One great way for clubs to keep costs down is to have a large supply of players to choose from. There are already over 100 players who have filed, and up to 180 can file this year. And there does appear to be some competition at positions. Just as an example, you have Thome and Olerud at first. Each would improve any number of ML teams. Then you have the “declining but still good” veteran pitchers, including Clemens, Glavine and Maddux. How many of these players remain with their former teams will certainly make a difference, but because there is more than just Bonds and Giambi out there, you might see teams making very good deals for players this winter.

Bruce Allen keeps tabs on what the Boston sports media is writing and talking about. Great if you are a Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots or Celtics fan.

A trend seems to be developing here. Ken Macha is going to manage the A’s, and Ned Yost is going to manage the Brewers. Both were catchers with brief major league careers.
Chuck Rosicam has an article at Baseball Library about the large number of managers who are or have been catchers. However, the trend lately has been to hire successful major league catchers. The recent hirings of Macha, Wedge and now Yost seem to be going toward the old trend of career minor league catchers as managers (where’s Crash Davis). Again, I’m going to have to do some research on this.
Correction: Ken Macha was not a catcher, but a third baseman. He caught four games in his career, and for some reason, when I looked him up, that’s all I saw. Sorry for the confusion.

I’ll have to look this up, but I remember when I was younger that Wedge types were prevelent as mangers (minor league catchers with little major league experience). This may turn out to be a very good choice.

The Indians, who began rebuilding midway through last season by trading away some high-priced veterans, had 19 rookies on their roster by the end of the season.
Wedge managed many of them in Buffalo on their way to joining the Indians.
In two seasons, Wedge led the Bisons to a 178-108 record and he was named The Sporting News’ minor league manager of the year this past season.

Bill James has pointed out that minor league success often leads to major league success. If this holds true, the Indians could be poised for a quick resurgence, similar to the gains made by the Twins over the last two years. If anyone from Buffalo has watched Wedge manage, I’d be interested in hearing about his tactics.

Last night I really questioned Dusty Baker’s strategy of not having a reliever ready to replace Hernandez at the first sign of trouble (See this post and this post and this post). This morning, I was flipping through the channels and came across the 7th game of the 1965 World Series, LA at Minnesota. Jim Kaat is starting for the Twins. The announcers point out that in the first six games, all the winning pitchers recorded complete games. As Kaat is throwing to the first batter, Maury Wills, the TV cameras show that there are two pitchers warming up in the Twins bullpen! Somehow, the Twins knew in 1965 what Baker didn’t know yesterday; that even a great starter can break down quickly, and you have to be prepared for it.
I want to be clear on this. I don’t think it was a mistake to start Hernandez over Rueter. But I do think it was a huge mistake not the have Rueter ready to go the second Hernandez showed signs of not being right on. And that happened in the first inning. How Baker didn’t have someone ready at a moment’s notice is beyond me.

Glaus wins the MVP for the series. That makes this my favorite post of the year.

I wonder if Disney is going to display the WS throphy next to their Oscars? 🙂

Lofton smacked one, but not deep enough. Erstad catches it for the first out.
In the end, Dusty Baker not being prepared for a Livan Hernandez melt down doomed them. The Angels pitched great, and the Giants bench did not have the firepower to overcome the relievers. Snow and Bell deserve a lot of credit in this series; they performed well above expectations. I don’t think Bonds should get the MVP, mostly due to his play in the field yesterday. I’d vote for Glaus.
Still it was a great game, and I’m very happy the Angels won. New blood in the series is great. I feel a bit bad for Bonds; this may have been his last chance to pick up a championship.
Let the hot stove league begin!

Shinjo K’s. It’s up to Lofton.

Percival’s first walk of the post-season to Bell. 1st and 2nd, 1 out, and the best the Giants can do is put up Shinjo. I hope he tries to draw a walk as well.

Snow singles. Giants not dead yet.

Nice to see the Giants are still playing hard. Too bad for them their bullpen didn’t pitch like this last night.
In comes Percival, three outs to break 41 years of frustration.

Francisco Rodriguez had great command of the plate, walks Bonds and strikes out three. Percival will need to get three outs in the ninth, and will face Snow, Goodwin and Bell. Giants fans have to hope that Troy suddenly turns into the late Donnie Moore.

Aurilia, Kent and Bonds due up in the 8th. I think Scioscia should bring in Percival there. If you get those three, the rest of the order is pretty easy. Why give those batters the chance to get on vs. a lesser pitcher?

Bell and Lofton drive the outfielders to the wall, but fall just short. Still 4-1 at the 7^th inning stretch.

Great catch by Kent to end the inning. Giants need a run an inning to tie, and you have to assume that three of those outs are going to come vs. Percival. Time is running out on the outs.

I have to disagree with this. If you don’t think Reggie can hit, sit him down for Goodwin. Otherwise, you waste a player early. Secondly, I haven’t seen anything from Goodwin that makes me think he’s any better than Sanders anyway. Giant pinch hitters are now 0 for 15, and Goodwin’s K with men on 2^nd and 3^rd squanders a golden opportunity.

Tom Goodwin may have the worst follow through on a swing that I’ve ever seen.

Heart of the order coming up for the Giants in the 6th. This is where they need to make their move.

Lackey is close to 90 pitches through 5 innings. He may have one more inning in him, but I don’t expect much after that. Still he has a good ball-strike count (31 Balls, 55 strikes), and although it will be a short performance, it’s a strong one so far.

Great catch by Erstad off Bell. The Angels are playing with every bit of insensity they can muster.

Zerbe comes in, throws strikes (5 of 7 pitches) and gets out of the inning with no more damage. Two batters too late, however. Giants offense has to get to Lackey now.

Garrett Anderson hits one down the right field line to clear the bases. Why wasn’t Rueter warmed up? Why wasn’t anybody warmed up? It was obvious in the first that Hernandez didn’t have his good stuff. Maybe Baker doesn’t deserve to come back to SF next year.

Dusty is blowing the World Series right here. There’s no way he shouldn’t have someone warm at all times. Bases loaded, no one out. It will take a miracle to get out of this.

Eventually, someone gets a big hit after one of those walks. Molina doubles in Spiezio to tie the game at 1.

Sanders Sacfly scores Santiago.

David Eckstein runs into a line double play. I’m flabbergasted. He really misread that ball, and that seems to be unusual for him. I wonder if the crowd noise worked against him and he got deked by a fielder?

Scioscia has Erstad sacrifice. Hernandez can’t throw a strike, and he’s playing for 1-run. I don’t agree with that move.

Get Livan Hernandez out of there now. He walks Eckstein to lead off the game, but it looks like he just doesn’t care on the mound. There is no passion behind his pitches.