Thank you Sports Center for the years of entertainment which you have provided me every morning, but I often times question the soundness of your decisions. For the most part, the LIVE (!!) Sports Center telecasts are a nice little change-up to the daily morning routine.* I can remember watching many repeat episodes of Sports Center in-a-row during the summers of my formative years in the mid-nineties, but being bored to death by the third go-round because I already knew all of Keith Olberman’s punch lines.** Thank God we’re LIVE (!!) now and I can be astounded by the ballerina-esque wit of Josh Elliott re: rain-tarp jokes. (He’s got a new one every hour!!)
*Though airing LIVE (!!) from Los Angeles at 3:00 AM local time on a set that looks strikingly similar to the one in Bristol is questionable. I accredit this to ESPN wanting to take full advantage of Neil Everett’s unquenchable coke habit.
** Yes Keith…the winner of the auto-race really IS in a Champagne Supernova in the Sky. You are hilarious.
The most remarkable of all Sports Center innovations, though, has to be the Rundown, which appears on the left side of the screen and tells you the stories that are coming up next. There was a little mix-up today, though, and I’m not just talking about the dubious decision to label the Sammy/Steroids story Say it ISN’T Sosa. (Really?? Say it AIN’T Sosa. C’mon, guys.) No, I’m talking about the fact that SC had the Diamondbacks/Royals due next in the rundown slot behind the NY Giants label. I know we were all enthralled by Osi Unimiora’s take on Plax Burris, but I was really just sitting thru that non-story to get to the goods on Gil Meche’s complete game last night.* Unfortunately, we went to commercial after the story, and when SC and the Rundown returned, we were treated to the story on the 15th anniversary of the OJ Simpson Bronco chase. What happened to the Royals?? Even worse, I had to wait two more hours before the Royals story returned.
*And congrats to Gil. As UFR reported today, this was, according to Bill Jame’s Game Score, the most impressive start of Meche’s career, and according to ESPN, just out of the top 10 for the year in the AL. This, though, according to ESPN is obviously not as newsworthy as Brandon Marshall being an A-Hole.
This isn’t the first time that a KC Sports story was looked over on the national scene (it happens every day), but one story this week in particular really bugged me. Un-surprisingly, the story in question was from SI.com’s Jon Heyman.
Heyman is a former Yankee’s beat writer, but is mostly know (by me anyways) as a old, crusty baseball purist who doesn’t cater to those stat-heads in their mother’s basements. I could go on about Heyman in this regard, but it’s already been done ad-nauseam by Ken, Junior and Dax at (RIP) FJM. But since they’re not ripping on him anymore, I have decided to take up in their place, at least for the purposes of ripping this story.
Really, there’s not a whole lot to take from it. He goes thru his baseball “surprise performers” from the first two months of the season on both sides of the coin. The good is represented by Raul Ibanez (who’s remarkable season, as pointed out by Poz is not really as surprising as it seems), and the bad is represented by Papi (pre eye-drops, of course). In-between are 28 other players that are listed as either surprising or disappointing using a cherry-pick of useless stats and idiocy that I find nearly unfathomable. One thing is clear though, there is not one Kansas City Royal near important enough to make the list.
On Heyman’s list as surprisingly good? How about Kosuke Fukudome? Sure. If you look at Fuku’s last 50 games of last year (.208/.299/.326) compared to the first 50 for this year (.285/.417/.461) you can make that case. But looking at the first 50 of 2008, (.301/.406/.421), you can see that Fukudome is performing at much the same rate as last year. Heyman uses HRs, RBI and BA to make his case, but even using those stats(5/22/.296 in ‘09, 2/19/.301 in ‘08) Fukudome’s early season success is nearly identical. Why not point to Soto’s sophomore slump, or D-Lee’s lack of presence in the order as surprises re: the Cubs offense?? Oh, I know why…Heyman’s an idiot.
Also on Heyman’s list of surprisingly good: Andrew Bailey of the A’s. A great story out of the pen, but a relief pitcher for the A’s. And what does Heyman use to make his case for Bailey as sruprising?? His 171 ERA+?? His 1.000 WHIP?? No, his 4-1 record…OUT OF THE PEN.
NOT on Heyman’s list of surprisingly good: Zack Greinke…enough said.
I’ll still read Heyman due to the fact that, because of his tenure, he still breaks an awful lot of baseball news, and has access to those in the know inside baseball’s inter-sanctum, but relying on him to do any kind of objective analysis, especially in the statistical realm is just asking for trouble.