Honey Badger takes what he wants

Apparently the Honey Badger didn’t care.

Didn’t care about team rules anyway. LSU “sensation” Tyrann Mathieu nicknamed “ The Hone Badger” has been released from the football program for what is being dubbed as violation of team rules.

A major impact player at a successful program is not simply given the boot. This tells me that it was something related to improper benefits, drugs or he had simply been riding the fence and been warned repeatedly about something that was re-occurring for some time, and simply did not change his ways. We know it was not for academic reasons as school is not yet in session for a couple of more weeks.

Message Boards and sports and news outlets are speculating with many varied stories at this time of exactly the cause of his dismissal from the team. In the hours following the announcement, the main rumors appear to be that Mathieu failed another drug test, which would be his third in three seasons. If this is true it appears that Honey Badger likes more than…well…umm…honey.

Mad-Hatters Presser earlier on Friday

For now LSU head coach Les Miles is not talking …..or at least talking as much as we are used to hearing him talk – which is seemingly every chance he gets to put his mug on ESPN. At his news conference announcing this on Friday, Miles did not mention the reason he was dismissed.

“We’ll miss the guy,” Miles said. “The football team’s got to go on. We’ll have to fill the void.”

Athletic Director Joe Alleva said Mathieu, who was suspended for a game in 2011 after failing a drug test, violated an athletic department rule and had his scholarship revoked.

“Being an athlete is a privilege,” Alleva said. “It’s a privilege and you have to follow the rules to take advantage of that privilege. And unfortunately, he doesn’t have that privilege here anymore.

“He really is a good kid. It’s a shame. But I told him this morning that he has the rest of his life and his life is still ahead of him. He still has a tremendous opportunity to do good things and I encouraged him to do those good things, and I think he will.”

Alleva said the violation did not involve law enforcement and Mathieu could stay at LSU and pay tuition. But Alleva said that was unrealistic.

“He’s not going to stay in school,” he said.

Bit by the Cobra

The best bet would be that Mathieu will go to a non-Division 1 program. If this is the case he would not have to sit out a year under the NCAA transfer rules. (a rule that was waived this year coincidentally for Penn State football players in the wake of the sanctions that have been imposed there) This would allow him to continue to play football at a lower level division this year and then have the opportunity to transfer back to a Division 1 school next year and be right back in the mix.

After this year at a lower division program, he could land just about anywhere, but the real question is will a coach take a chance on a player carrying some baggage…whatever that baggage may be.

Until next time, stay class Emporia State!

It will be an All-American final in women’s volleyball

Last night I sent a text to a friend of mine asking if he was watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh-Jennings in volleyball. Although I do not consider myself a volleyball aficionado, I do live in Nebraska where college volleyball is a big deal. This was a great match to watch with some great individual plays and long rallies. My buddy was pleading with me to not tell him the results as he had been waiting all day to watch this. Don’t worry Jonsey…I would never spoil the result for you.

Last week I wrote an article about the Olympics being ruined (in my opinion) by spoilers and social media. I guess my good friends don’t always check up on the articles on Facebook 🙂

I have tried to remain “true to my word” and follow my earlier statements, not reviewing websites and not listening to ESPN to catch any updates. I have been burned twice last week, as while in my car the “sports updates” let the cat out of the bag” and I found myself scrambling to change the dial quickly before I heard more. Darn radio….

Of course there are always big stories for the Olympics. I am looking past the Phelps and Douglas storylines to things that I have been more intrigued with personally.

We tend to focus on the stories that impact the people from our country more than others. Here are some of the things that I have found interesting.

Boxing – for the first time ever the U.S. Men’s boxing team is shut out of winning any medals. That is correct. NONE – when you think of all the greats, like Leonard, Ali, etc., that is a statistic that carries some real meaning

USA Basketball for both the Men and Women are boat-racing the competition. I still feel for the people last week at Ladbroke’s that had Nigeria and the unders in Team USA’s 156-73 drubbing of the Nigerian team. The troubling part for me is the fact that there was a lot of controversy about running up the score. Fact is, (if you watched the game like I did) it was like video game basketball, everything went in the hoop, and the end of the bench saw extensive action. This was a case where one team was far superior and having an extra good day of it on the hardwood.

Jordan Jovtchev (Previous event)

Jordan Jovtchev, the 39-year-old Olympian, qualified for the finals in the still rings. Read that again….39 year old gymnast. The guy has more gray hairs than Captain Kangaroo, but yet he is competing in his 6th Olympics in one of the most grueling events in gymnastics. Dude can ring it!

Usain Bolt repeats in the 100 meters for the 2nd straight games. He is trying for the double in the 200 meters. No one has ever pulled off the double – double.

And let’s give it up for the Jamaican women sprinters. – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, became the third woman to successfully defend her Olympic title by running 10.75 in the 100 meters.

Maybe even more impressive is Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown. She won Bronze in the 100 meters in the 2008 and 2012 games but the 200 meters is where the real action is. She is trying to complete the trifecta of winning the 200 meters in 2004, 2008 and now the 2012 Olympics. She would become the first woman in history to win an individual athletics crown in three consecutive Olympic Games if she can pull it off.

Oscar Pistorius (Previous event)

Most impressive to me thus far is the story of Oscar Pistorius. Unless you are hiding in a closet you will know this is the South African double-amputee nicknamed the “Blade Runner,” after his “J” shaped carbon fiber prosthetic blades.

He qualified for the semifinals this past weekend after running a fabulous 45.44 in his heat race for the 400 meters.

The runner’s legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because of a bone defect. His debut Saturday made him the first Paralympian to compete Olympic Games. Unfortunately he did not make it to the final, but still he will serve as a true inspiration to many with disabilities around the world.

To me, that is what the Olympics is all about. Inspiring others through goodwill, sportsmanship, and athletic excellence.

We still have another week of Olympic stories, legends and lore will continue to play out.

I for one can’t wait.

Until next time. Stay classy Johannesburg, South Africa

Mike McQueary  (red hair) was the quarterback the last tiem the Nittany Lions won a game.

There has been plenty of chatter about the punishment the NCAA meted out on Penn State.  Did it go too far – or not far enough?  There are strong opinions on both sides.  I won’t get into that discussion in this article (although the topic is likely to be raised in the comments section) but will focus on what the actual penalties were.

$60 million fine – The money will be used to fund programs that helps victims of child sexual abuse.  If there was going to be a financial aspect to the penalty, then this is a logical use of the money.

Four year post-season ban – Penn State will not be allowed to participate in a bowl game for the next four years.  After the NCAA’s announcement, the Big 10 conference announced two related sanctions from the conference.  First, Penn State would not be allowed to participate in the conference title game (the winner of that game gets a berth to a BCS game).  Additionally, Penn State will not receive a share of Big 10 bowl revenue for the next four years.  The conference is taking that money and giving it to charities.

Allowing players to transfer freely – The NCAA will allow any current Penn State player or incoming freshman to transfer to another school and become immediately eligible.  In almost all cases, a student-athlete must sit out a year before becoming eligible at a new school.  This wasn’t announced as a penalty, but realistically it is, as it will likely cause many players to bolt.

Schools that take a Penn State “refugee” are allowed to exceed the scholarship cap (85) in 2012 as long as they reduce 2013 scholarships by the same number.  In other words, if you take 2 Penn State players to boost total scholarships to 87, you can only have 83 scholarships in 2013.  No doubt some top schools will cherry pick the best talent, but this could also be a chance for a mid-level school to make a one year splash.  A team could add some good depth by taking on 10 of Penn State’s players, for example.  They’d be taking the field with 95 scholarship players in 2012, whereas their opponents would have 85.  Sure, they’d be forced to cut back to 75 in 2013, but it might be worth it.  Instead of being 6-6 both years, maybe the team could go 9-3 and get a bowl win this year, and then fall back to 4-8 next year.

Reduction in scholarships – For the 2013-2016 seasons, Penn State will not being to exceed 65 total scholarships (85 is standard), nor can they offer more than 15 new scholarships (25 is standard).  Penn State will probably wish that this penalty started in 2012, as the number of defections may leave them below this number.  My advice to Penn State this year – if you have extra scholarships left due to people leaving the program, reward some of the senior walk-ons with a scholarship.

Vacated wins – All wins between 1998 and 2011 are vacated.  This is a total of 112 wins, 111 of which were Joe Paterno’s wins.  Paterno is no longer the all-time winningest coach.

Penn State is also on five years probation and must work with the NCAA on corrective actives to ensure that this never happens again.

Statue of Joe Paterno removed from Beaver Stadium

No bowl games for 4 years, statues taken down, scholarships lost, massive fines imposed, wins vacated.

By now we have watched countless hours of coverage on ESPN and other news stations involving the sanctions levied by the NCAA toward Penn State. Yesterday was a veritable media blitz covering all of the sports talk radio, local and national news broadcasts, newspapers and internet message boards.

Former players, students, coaches from teams from all over the country all had microphones put in front of them to give their opinion of the penalties against the University and the football program in particular.

Everyone has an opinion on this matter.

Some have stronger opinions than others.

Whether you agree or disagree with the punishment fitting the crime, it does not change the fact that there is a lot of healing that needs to take place for many people involved, regardless if they are directly or indirectly impacted by these events and resulting consequences.

My only hope is that some of the public figures just quit talking about it altogether.

Bobby Bowden was taking numerous opportunities yesterday to talk about the subject and used his typical – good ol’ boy, golly gee whiz’ attitude. Bobby, stop with the Elmer Fudd impersonations here. A polite comment such as “this is a hard way to back into a record” and then just walk away.

I do feel for the Paterno family. Many of the things that have happened this week I am sure are viewed by them as a direct attack on their family, their pride and most importantly to them, the legacy of the good things that their beloved Joe stood for.

Unfortunately every time they make another press release – which seems like every single day – the perceived reality in their statements appears to be far out of touch with the pulse of most of the sports fans who are following the proceedings on a daily basis.

Another side bar to this entire event is what will happen to the current football players who have been given free rein by the NCAA to go elsewhere and not have to sit out and miss any time. Head coach Bill O’Brien will have his hands full trying to keep existing players and also try to make sure the kids that have already committed to the program as freshmen to be will continue to uphold that early promise and attend the university.

Many of the football players could look to other programs , and as some speculate this could essentially turn into a college free agency scenario for this year.

Since it is late in the summer and football is just around the corner, it is unlikely that many players will leave Penn State due to the timing of it all. No matter how high the talent level, it would be difficult at this juncture to leave and go to another school and still play this year for another program. It would require a lot of things happening in the lives of those young men in a short amount of time.

As we continue to discuss this entire topic over the next days and weeks, it is important to remember that a lot has happened here in a short amount of time.

More importantly…….. It has all happened because nothing was done for a long amount of time.

Until Next time…just stay classy.

Tim Lincecum

Tim Lincecum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most starting occurrences of the first half of the baseball season has been the fall of Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum.  Licecum won the Cy Young award in 2008 and 2009 and finished in the top 10 in Cy Young balloting the last two years.  This year, he has been absolutely horrid, with a 3-10 record and 6.42 ERA.

One possibility is for the Giants to option Lincecum to AAA.  (Note to casual fans: “Options” refers to the ability to send a player back to the minor leagues without exposing them to waivers.  A team can typical option a player in three different years).  While some have stated that this could backfire by causing Lincecum to doubt how the team values him and cause him to leave via free agency, I think this is a viable option.  Lincecum is getting crushed in nearly every start.  Surely his self confidence is taking a hit.  Maybe a handful of starts in AAA to work on his delivery and build some confidence by winning a game or two would be a good thing.  Alternately, the Giants could use Lincecum out of the bull pen for a while to get him into a different mindset.  Worrying about losing Lincecum to free agency should be a secondary concern – if Lincecum doesn’t return to form, he won’t have any value as a free agency.

Greinke’s busy weekend

Zach Greinke got ejected on Saturday for spiking the ball in frustration after a close play at first base.  He had thrown just four pitches in the game, but managed to lose the game by allowing one run to score.  Since he hadn’t pitched much on Saturday, he also started Sunday’s game.  He allowed three runs on five hits in three innings of work.  It’s hardly surprising that he didn’t pitch well, since the whole series of events likely disrupted his normal routine.

All Star Game Break

I absolutely love the All Star Game.  The day of the game is one of my favorite days of the year.  I thoroughly enjoy seeing the stars from the various teams take the field to represent their leagues.  I am a fierce fan of my own National League.  I do think that the rosters have gotten too large, however, mostly due to the idea that each team must have at least one representative.  I’d be in favor of abolishing the idea.  I’d prefer to see a standard 25 man roster composed of the best players in the game.

MLB also needs to look at the issue of fan balloting.  I like having fans vote, but the currently system is open to abuse.  You can vote 25 times per email address.  I personally have an unlimited number of addresses (by virtue of a catch-all email account) and could conceivably cast millions of votes.  I’m not sure I’d go as far as limiting it to one vote per person, but someone needs to be done.

The downside to the All Star Game, of course, is that there’s a three days break during which no “normal” games are played.

Some brief thoughts at the break.

• After many felt that he was finished, David Ortiz has resurrected his careers.  Kudos to Papi for fighting through the very tough times.
• The Orioles are 45-40, but have a run differential of -36, while Cleveland is 33-41 with a -29 run differential.  If those run differentials continue to be in the red, expect those teams to fall out of contention.
• The Pirates not only are in first place in their division, but have the second best record in the National League at 48-37.  If the Pirates can go just 34-43 in the second half, they would have their first winning record since 1992.  I was still in high school in 1992.
• Last year, Reds  minor league shortstop Billy Hamilton had 103 stolen bases for low A Dayton.  This year, he already has 104 for high A Bakersfield and is on pace for around 150.  Hamilton stills needs a lot of work defensively, but if he can eventually reach the Major Leagues, he could be a lot of fun to watch.

Other sports

Ray Allen signed as a free agent with the Miami Heat.  When the Boston Celtics failed to agree to his request for $9 million per year (they offered 6), he signed with the Heat for $3 million.  This is a clear case of Allen chasing another title, and it makes a lot of sense.  The Heat beat the Celtics in the playoffs in spite of Allen; adding Allen to the Heat should put them heads and shoulders above the rest of the league.

Jeremy Lin signed an offer sheet with the Rockets that would pay him about $28 million over 4 years (the fourth year is a club option; $19.2 million would be paid ove the first three years).  The Knicks can still retain him by matching the terms of the offer sheet.  It wasn’t so long ago that nobody wanted Lin, and he was forced to crash on his brother’s couch.

NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger has been suspended following a positive drug test.  His team was made aware of the suspension 90 minutes before Saturday night’s race and had to rush in a replacement driver, who arrived 8 minutes before he had to get into the car.  This could be the end of the line for the drive I nicknamed Nut Bell (almond is a nut, dinger is a bell).

I’ve always been a huge baseball fan.  In recent years, however, I’ve begun focusing even more on the sports, while losing some focus on the other sports.  I haven’t followed the NBA much since Magic retired, and my interest in the NFL has waned in recent years.  I have baseball thoughts 365 days a year.  There has never been a better time to follow the sport, as technology lets fans get up to the minute information.

Here are some tools I used to follow baseball.

MLB Extra Innings

I subscribe to MLB Extra Innings on Direct TV.  I actually think the price point is pretty decent.  You pay roughly $200.  Compare this to the $300+ that the NFL package costs – for 1/10 the games – and Extra Innings seems like a pretty good deal.  Next year, I’ll drive the price down a bit more by getting MLB.TV instead of Extra Innings.  For about $50 less, I’ll watch the games streaming through my net-enable Blu-Ray player (upstairs) or Roku (downstairs).  A benefit is that I’ll also be able to stream audio on my Palm Pre.

I like MLB Extra Innings, but it’s not without flaws. 

First and foremost is MLB’s archaic blackout policy.  Baseball teams have territorial rights, and if you live in that team’s territory, the games cannot be viewed through MLB Extra Innings (and can only be viewed on a delayed basis on MLB.TV).  The basic idea is that the local cable affiliate has rights to the games, and that you can view the games there.    That’s OK if you’re in Boston and only the Red Sox are blacked out.  But if you’re in Iowa, the Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Brewers, and Twins are all blacked out (until recently, the Royals were also blacked out).  The Cubs are often available on local channels, the White Sox are sometimes available, the Cardinals are rarely available, and the Brewers and Twins are never available.  It’s frustrating to have a Rockies game blacked out because they happen to be playing the Brewers.  Even though the Brewers claim Iowa as part of its home territory, there are absolutely no Brewers fans in Iowa.  MLB need to re-draw territorial rights boundaries soon.  They are leaving a lot of money on the table.  Just in Iowa, there are tens of thousands of Cardinals fans who are unable to watch any of their team’s games.  It’s likely that a significant number of these people would pay $200 for Extra Innings if they could watch Cardinals games.  I fail to see the downside to this.

It’s great that you can choose to watch either the home or road team’s broadcast of the game – unlike the NFL, where you get stuck with only one option.  I really can’t figure out why DirectTV doesn’t simply dedicate one channel for each team.  Foe example, make channel 742 be the Rockies channel.  On any given day during the season, I could just flip to channel 742 for the Rockies game.  Having to scroll through the list of available games to find the one I want is mildly annoying.

Finally, Extra Innings gives you only the game – none of the pre and post game coverage and interviews.  Seriously, throw the viewers and bone and include these features.

Palm Pre

A while ago, I purchased a used (and slightly battered) Palm Pre for a good price, and have used it as a portable WiFi device (the phone portion is not activated).  This has been a great tool for keeping up to date on scores and stats.  I use a premium app (meaning that it cost a whopping $1.99) called Baseball Live.  The home screen of the app lists all the games.  You can easily click to get to a detailed information about the game.  Based on your settings, you’ll get either the MLB.com or ESPN widget for the game.  You could get the same end result by going directly to MLB.com or ESPN, but the Baseball Live app provides a more convenient interface.

Podcasts

I’ve only recently begun seeking out podcasts.  I complain (a lot) about the lack of baseball coverage on sports talk radio.  There are several baseball podcasts that can alleviate this.  By far the best is the Up and In podcast from baseball think tank Baseball Prospectus.  Baseball Prospectus is a serious organization, published several books every year.  Up and In throws this aside and is a very informal (and often R-rated) chat between two colleagues (and occasional guests).  Baseball Prospectus managing partner Kevin Goldstein hosts the show with Jason Parks.  They cover a variety of topics in both Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball.  The show generally rambles on for about two hours (with frequent detours to random non-baseball topics).  I’ve enjoyed Up and In so much that I decided to purchase a membership to BaseballProspectus.com – mostly to get the minor league insights from Goldstein.

I also listen to the ESPN Baseball Today and Fangraphs podcast.

Is Jeter reaching the end of the road?

 Jeter’s Slump

Derek Jeter got off to a fast start this year, hitting .389 with 5 homers and 13 RBI in April.  His current average is still above .300, but a steep downward trend – a .293 batting average in May and a .238 in June (through Wednesday) – should have Yankees fans a bit concerned.  This is not a young player we’re talking about – Jeter turned 38 earlier in the week.  Even worse, he’s a middle infielder – and middle infielders rarely reach age 40 with their offensive skillset intact.  Don’t be surprised if Jeter’s offensive skills start to slip away and he turns into a .240 slap hitter.

Albert’s Surge

Albert Pujols

On the other side of the coin we have Albert Pujols.  After signing a monster deal with Anaheim in the off-season, Pujols had a horrific start to the season – unable to get his average to .200 and displaying no power at all.  After hitting .217 with no homers in April, the power returned in May when Albert hit 8 homers to go along with a .263 average.  In June, the batting average has returned, with Pujols hitting .333 with 4 homers.  When (not if) he’s able to consolidate those April and May statistics, he’s going to once again be one of the most feared hitters in the game.  even with the horrible start to the year, Pujols is on pace to hit 25 homers and drive in nearly 100 runs.  A reasonably good second half could push his homer total above 30, and I’d bet that his batting average gets close to .300 by the end of the year. 

Mike Trout

Mike Trout

Pujols’s teammate in Anaheim, rookie Mike Trout, is having a tremendous season.  While Bryce Harper of the Nationals has been a highly touted player since high school, Trout slipped to the 25th overall pick in the 2009 draft, partly because of New Jersey high school players having a poor track record.  By the end of the 2010 season, he had emerged as one of the top prospects in the game.  Trout put up pedestrian numbers during a brief call-up in 2011, as is common with rookies.

This year, however, Trout has been tearing it up.  he was called up on April 28th, and has been one of the best players in baseball since his call-up – and he’s just 20 years old.  He’s leading the American league in batting average and stolen bases and showing good power for his age, with 8 homers in his first 54 games.  He’s also a terrific defender in the outfield.  Some worry that Trout won’t be able to maintain his elite speed, given his body type.  However, it’s possible that he could slim down a bit, or that he’ll simply be the exception.  In any cases, Trout is still several years away from reaching his physical peak – it should be fun to watch him improve and become an even better player.  If you’re looking for an example of Trout improving, look at his strikeout rates – 28 strikeouts in 108 at bats in May and just 18 strikeouts in 104 at bats in June.

Teams to watch

Do you know this man’s name?

It’s been an interesting start to the season, with lots of good storylines.  Here are some teams to watch in the second half.

Phillies – The Phillies are in last place in their division.  Why are we watching them?  Well, although they are nine games behind the Nationals, they are only 5 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot.  With Chase Utley back in the lineup, Ryan Howard beginning his rehab stint, and Roy Halladay not too far away, the Phillies could very easily find a way into the playoffs.

Pirates – I was still in high school the last time Pittsburgh had a winning record.  They teased their fans last year before falling apart late in the year.  They are in contention once again this year.  Although their negative run differential suggest that they aren’t as good as their record suggests, I’d love to see them emerge with a division title.

Who do I predict as the playoff teams?  In the American League, the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Angels, and Rangers.  In the National League, the Nationals, Phillies, Cardinals, Pirates, and Giants.

Omaha, the NEW Sports Mecca!

Before any of you accuse me of being a homer, and writing about the city to the east of my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, let me set the record straight.

I am really not a fan of Omaha. Compared to Lincoln it has a HUGE amount of crime. Many people there have what I would call the quasi East Coast Attitude.

They are the biggest city, their news is the only important news, the rest of the state is…well…hicks so to speak.

Even the Omaha TV meteorologists do not make mention of any storms hitting the rest of Nebraska. But once the storms are close to their beloved Omaha then it is a Major weather event…even if the storms have left major hail, tornados and feet of rain and snow in their wake.

Now that we are past my dislike of the Republic of Omaha, let’s focus on the positives.

The College World Series

Robert Refsnyder of 2012 champion Arizona.

Each year Omaha hosts two sporting events that are incredibly well received. The main crown jewel in the Sports Scepter is the College World Series. It has been an institution in the Big O for many many years. ESPN came aboard and blew the CWS to a whole new level. They even held so much power over almighty Omaha that a new baseball part was built right in the downtown area. This of course was to provide a bunch of extra income to the downtown area, and to also keep all of the drunk drivers off of the roads driving from Rosenblatt Stadium to the downtown area. Now, all of the inebriated people at the CWS just walk back to their hotel instead. (if you don’t believe me, check out the surrounding area next year during the CWS at about 11 PM on any game night)

The Cox Classic

2011 Cox Champion J.J. Killeen

The Nationwide Tour also hosts the Cox Classic in Omaha every year. This tournament is held at the Champions Club, and is viewed by most of the Nationwide tour players as the best event they have all year.

Volunteers turn out in droves to come and help make the Cox Classic a success. The prize money payout is one of the largest on the Nationwide Tour. But the real fun starts after the tournament is over each and every day. Once the golfers are off the greens, the parties start at a number of designated events at the golf course. These parties go late into the night and are known to be the favorites of the locals and the tournament players and staff alike.

I am sure in large part that the success of this tournament has led Omaha to host the 2013 United States Senior Open Championship. Omaha Country Club will be the site of that tournament and I am sure it will be attended by huge masses of people.

U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials

He’s back!

The Olympic trials for the swimming events is being held as we speak at the Qwest Center in Omaha (conveniently located basically right next door to TD Ameritrade Park where the College World Series is now held). This is the second time for this event to be held in Omaha, and with crowds over week to be in excess of 100,000 one could argue that these events are better attended in Omaha than they are at the ACTUAL Olympic Games.

Other Events in Recent Years

Omaha has also been host to NCAA Basketball tournament games earlier this year , and the NCAA Volleyball Championships in the recent years. Omaha is centrally located in the United states so while it might not be close for many it is also not near as bad as travelling coast to coast to go to some of these events.

It has a host of Hotels, has the casino’s and dog races right across the river in Iowa, and let’s face it , Nebraska’s State Motto is “The Good Life” for a reason. The people in the Midwest are nice, sincere, and hardworking.

Now if we could only get the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Omaha…wait…they are coming in 2013 as well.

Until Next Time…Stay Classy Ralston, Nebraska – SOUTHSIDE!!!!
 

 

Longtime readers may remember an article about strikeouts a while back.  At that time, I was looking at the whiffs of Mark Reynolds and trying to calculate the impact they had on his team.

Adam Dunn

This time, I went a step further.  I took a close look at Adam Dunn of the White Sox.  Dunn has 109 strikeouts this year.  How much better off would the White Sox be if Dunn had made “productive outs” – that is, outs that advance a runner – instead of striking out?

It’s important to note that I’m not trading any of Dunn’s strikeouts for HITS.  There’s no doubt that it would be better for Dunn to turn some of those Ks into single and hit .265 instead of .225.  Hits are clearly better than outs.  The question is whether strikeouts are inherently worse than ground ball outs and fly outs.  Is an Adam Dunn who hits .225 with 200 strikeouts less productive than an Adam Dunn who hits .225 with 80 strikeouts?

I combed through the play by play data for all of Dunn’s games this year to find the answer.  This is mind numbing work, and it’s possible an error or two crept in, but I think my answer is pretty close.  There are two basic components:

1. Does the opportunity for a productive out exist?  The opportunity only exists when there are baserunners with fewer than two outs.  If there are no baserunners, it’s impossible to advance any runners.  If there are two outs, any type of out will end the inning.
2. Would a productive out have made a difference in the inning?  If there’s a runner on first, Dunn fails to move him along, and the next guy hits a home run, a productive out would not have made a difference – the runner scored in spite of Dunn’s strikeout.  On the other side of the coin, if Dunn fails to move a runner from first to second and the next batter struck out the end the inning, a productive out wouldn’t have made a difference either.  The runner would have simply been stranded on second instead of first.

In a nutshell,  we’re looking for cases where a productive out would have made a difference in whether or not the team scored a run that inning. 

Was a productive out possible?

In 87 of the 109 cases, Dunn was not in a situation to make a productive out. 

• 43 of the strikeouts were the final out of the inning
• 72 of the strikeouts came with the bases empty
• 28 of the strikeouts came with two outs and the bases empty.  This overlap explains why 43 + 72 adds up to more than 87.

This leaves 22 situations where a productive out was possible.

Would a productive out have made a difference?

• In 12 of the 22 remaining cases, all of the baserunners ended up scoring anyway.
• In 6 cases one or more runners were stranded, but moving the runner along with a productive out would not have changed the outcome.  For example, in two cases, the very next batter made an out to end the inning.

This leaves four cases.

April 23rd, season strikeout #26.  Dunn came up with runners on second and third and one out.  After Dunn’s strikeout, Konerko lined out, Pierzynski drove home one of the runs, and Rios ended the inning with a foul pop.  Had Dunn made a productive out, he might have driven home the runner on third and allowed the runner on second to advance to third and later score.  The White Sox won the game 4-0, so no harm done.

May 16th, season strikeout #57.   Dunn came up with a runner on first and nobody out.  After his at bat, the runner advance to third on a single and a fly ball before being stranded.  Had Dunn advanced the runner to second, he may have scored.  White Sox lost this game 7-2, so this wouldn’t have changed the outcome. 

June 9, season strikeout #94.  Dunn came up with one out and runners on first and second.  After his strikeout, the runners advanced to second and third on an infield single before a ground ball to shortstop ended the inning.  Had Dunn advanced the runners, the lead runner probably would have scored on the infield single.  White Sox won the game 10-1, so this didn’t cost them.

June 17, season strikeout #102.  Dunn came up with one out and a runner on first.  After his strikeout, the runner advanced to third before the hitter was thrown out trying to reach second.  Had Dunn advanced the runner, he likely would have scored on the subsequent hit.  This occurred in a 2-1 extra inning loss, so this could have made the difference in the game.

Findings

Over the course of 69 games and 109 strikeouts, I have found exactly one situation in which a productive out could have actually made the difference in a game.  In my opinion, that’s not a very good reason to criticize Dunn for his high strikeout totals.  His .225 batting average really isn’t any worse than any other .225 batting average.  Trying to force him to alter his swing to cut down on his strikeouts probably has more downside risk (fewer homers) than upside opportunity.

Some of you may argue that an inning may have played out significantly differently if a productive out had been made.  Having a runner at second would have caused the pitcher to alter his strategy, etc.  While that’s true, it’s hard to speculate what may have occurred, so I’ve assumed that the subsequent batters would have achieved the same result.  I could also argue that having more ground balls would also mean more double plays, which could have killed some innings.

And finally … this is a relatively small sample size, and is specific to Adam Dunn.  A larger sample size or a different player may get you somewhat different results.  However, my opinion is that a .225 batting average is a .225 batting average – there’s no reason to separate the guys who achieve the .225 by striking out a lot from the guys who achieve it by hitting weak ground balls to shortstop.
 

Caught in the Webb

Does this look like a crack?

My Pick for the US Open last week was …well…not a good one.

Phil Mickelson simply was not on his game, basically not able to hole any putts and missing more fairways than he was hitting.

It did appear that Tiger was on his way to Major #15, but after a bad start on both Saturday and Sunday he faltered and finished tied for 21st.

Jim Furyk looked like he would keep it together and was on his way to winning a 2nd US Open, and pretty much therefore assuring his place eventually in the World Golf Hall of Fame. The pressure seemed too much, he hit some uncharacteristic shots down the stretch and then had to pull off birdieing the last with fellow playing partner Graeme McDowell to force a Monday playoff. Neither of the two were able to birdie the difficult but short 18th – mainly due to an extremely tough pin placement that did not allow for much of a chance to hit it close – and Webb Simpson, walked away with the Nicklaus Medal and the United States Open Trophy.

Who the Heck is Webb Simpson? That is what quite a few of the non-die hard golf fans are asking Sunday night into Monday morning. The guy dresses nice..anytime Ralph Lauren is a sponsor you are going to have some nice digs.

He played golf in college at Wake Forest, he was on the Nationwide tour for a short while, and really came into his own last year winning twice – including the Deutsche Bank Open during the final Fed Ex Cup race. In hindsight, it appears Simpson was poised for a breakthrough this year, much like Keegan Bradley was last year. It just happened sooner than anyone, including Simpson, could imagine. After all, he is only 26 years old.

NBA Playoffs

I guess I shouldn’t tell them that I like Durant Durant.

Game 3 is in the books and the Heat hold a 2-1 advantage. 85% of the time the team that wins game 3 wins the series. While that is an impressive statistic, these teams are very evenly matched – and each create problems for the other. Oklahoma City has proven all year that it is the toughest place in the league to play.

I do get tired of all of the analysts and sports talk figured “over-analyzing” every single thing that takes place in each game. Of course it makes for listeners to your program to have the latest scoop, or to be controversial in your comments. Maybe because I have no real allegiance to any NBA team I seem to read between the lines more so than a rabid NBA fan.

It is comical how some of these “experts” seem to flip back and forth on their opinions on each team or on particular players from game to game.

Regardless, this should be a great week of basketball and then we set off to the dead period of time known as waiting for football season to start. (Kosmo calls this Baseball season)

At least this summer we have the Olympics coming up in England! I will be covering a number of stories on the Olympics once they get started.

Until Next Time, stay classy Springdale, Arkansas