what's on my mind grapes?

Ever the dynamic, unpredictable person, I’ve incorporated a few of David’s suggested categories, added one of my own, and thrown together another couple pages of baseball insights.  We’re surprisingly low on Red Sox-related things, but with upcoming series against my hometown Indians and the loathed Yankees and Rays, I’m sure to make up for that next week.

Rhetorical Question of the Week: What the hell is this?

Just because you occasionally hit notes that make you sound like Bono doesn’t mean you should subject the world to your work*.  Whoever thought it would be a good idea to play this before games at Progressive Field needs to be fired. Was ownership too cheap to spring for the rights to “Cleveland Rocks?” What exactly is the story here? (And lest anyone say I’m just  negative about all team-specific music that isn’t entrenched in baseball history, new songs CAN be done effectively when assigned to people who have musical experience beyond Guitar Hero. Case in point:)

I mean, come on.  “It’s Tribe Time Now?”

Underrated Addition: It was just last week that I pilloried the Nationals for demoting a reliever with lousy 2009 results, but they seem to have realized where their standards need to be. Case in point: Robert Meiklejohn MacDougal, better known as Mike. MacDougal was released by the White Sox after starting 2009 with a line that makes Javier Lopez look effective, but with no hope of contending and a bullpen already dealing with injury issues, Washington was wise to take a chance on him. To say he has control issues is like saying Oedipus had some family problems, but in the last four MLB seasons, MacDougal has allowed just 4 home runs in 92 innings. For a team like Washington, he should quickly become a bullpen fixture; the worst-case scenario I see is cheap innings from the pen, with the upside that a pitching-starved team could make trade inquiries once MacDougal re-establishes himself.

Why Do You Still Have A Job? As seems to be a new trend, this section of my posts is again a rare look at an unliked NL club. This week’s unvaluable player is Cardinals reliever/spot starter P.J. Walters, who has as many innings on the young season as closer Ryan Franklin, and more than several potentially decent setup men. That total is, of course, skewed by the one start he made, a surprisingly solid four-inning effort in Chicago. In the six-plus innings since, however, he has descended to abominable levels of futility on the mound, with four walks and three home runs to just three strikeouts (and, for those who give weight to defense-dependent stats, a whopping nine hits). Walters has remained in St. Louis’s bullpen while better arms toil at AAA, including those of Brad Thompson and Jess Todd. While he’s only 24, Walters’ minor league numbers give little reason to think he’s about to turn a corner – while he posted solid enough totals in 2007 (mostly in A ball), his 2008 was plagued by 22 home runs in 158 innings – not acceptable in the majors, and certainly not to AA and AAA competition. On top of that, his control eroded at AAA, and he surrendered 62 walks in 122 innings. Perhaps his success in the low minors (coming at a relatively old age) is reason to think he can be a useful piece in time, but there’s no excuse for the Cardinals keeping him in the bigs; even if they lack confidence in their internal options, they’d be better off trying to resurrect the career of Mike Timlin than trusting Walters with meaningful innings.

Perfect Hindsight: On April 4, the Yankees designated pitcher Dan Giese for assignment.  It was a questionable move, considering their lack of a long man and the unproven nature of some of the arms they were carrying, but not one that figured to be a moment of regret.  Not even a month later, I have to believe that New York GM Brian Cashman thinks back wistfully to spring training.  While Giese has had some problems in his time with the A’s, his track record is solid enough (including a frustratingly respectable 2008), and he has still outpitched those who took his job as the final man in the Yankees’ pen. Now, as they prepare for the Red Sox’ first visit to their new stadium, the Yankees are forced to call up pitchers like Anthony Claggett (who has yet to establish himself at the upper levels of the minors, and was responsible for much of the Indians’ 14-run inning two weeks ago) to bridge the gap to underwhelming setup man Jonathan Albaladejo. Their offense, even sans A-Rod, is potent enough to be considered a playoff contender, but with a more reliable innings-eater available, they would be downright terrifying.

Shrewd Move of the Week (Or “Overdue and Obvious Call-Up of the Week”): The Indians finally picked the right outfielder to aggressively promote, sending down the disappointing Trevor Crowe for Matt LaPorta, whose torrid hitting at AAA seemed too valuable to be overlooked by a club that consistently fielded only two good outfielders.  Though LaPorta struggled  at AA last year after the trade that sent him to Cleveland for CC Sabathia, he should quickly learn to outhit Crowe, Ben Francisco, and veteran David Dellucci.  Considering the Tribe’s pitching troubles (and continued insistence on leaving Jeremy Sowers at AAA), an earlier call-up wouldn’t have helped them avoid falling into a deep hole in the standings, but finally shuffling the pieces (including the promotion of 2B Luis Valbuena) should at least give them the best major league lineup they can muster going forward in 2009.  With so many teams ahead of them, and unable to string together consecutive wins, it’ll be incredibly tough for the Indians to get into the playoff hunt.  But now, they’re finally using the right players to make that effort.

Player of the Week: I continue to doubt that the Royals can hang around at the top of the AL Central for the whole season, but that’s largely due to an underachieving offense – including a black hole at shortstop and the due-for-regression Alberto Callaspo and Willie Bloomquist.  As far as the pitching goes, however, I’m increasingly impressed, and could see the Royals’ staff being one of the better in baseball.  The highlight, as anyone following baseball this year knows, is Zack Greinke.  Greinke finally wound up with a nonzero ERA this week, but his numbers are still staggering enough to merit every bit of praise he’s received – and this is no trifling praise, considering how much I try to avoid talking about players everyone else talks about.  Having allowed a .286 average on balls in play, he isn’t having his stats inflated by the defense behind him.  He has more strikeouts per 9 innings pitched (11.00) than any American League starter, and is 11th in walks per 9 (2.00).  The worst one can say is that he’s been lucky not to give up a single home run, but even accounting for that, he posts an xFIP under 3.00. His team has won every game he’s started, two of which he also finished. Greinke has finally lived up to his stuff and become a true ace; considering that the well-documented issues he’s had have had nothing to do with his physical health, there may not be a more valuable pitching commodity in baseball.

* Yes, this admonishment does apply to Bono himself on occasion, though I’d like to hear U2 help Africa with “Hey Hey Hey, H.I.V./It’s AIDS Time Now.”