All About Baseball

This is going to be a long post about baseball. I will break it down into three subtopics: Pirates, Current State, Modern Players vs. Different Eras

Pirates
They suck. Seriously. The Pirates really suck. They have absolutely no offense. Aside from Gorzo and Snell, their starting pitching has been less than spectacular. Offord said how the Arizona series is like the Yankees series from a few years ago, but in my opinion, I have no idea how they have been winning games at all.

They just got swept by the Cardinals, which normally would be no big deal, but these were the pitchers they lost to: Adam Wainwright, Kip WELLS!, and Braden Looper. Kip Wells, whose record was like 1-6 or something and had about a 43245243534.23 ERA!!!! How does this happen??? Because the Pirates are not all that good.

Watching them frustrates me so much anymore. Against Wainwright they had the bases loaded in 3 out of the first 4 innings with only one out each time. Did they knock in an assload of runs? NO. It is like they have no clue how to get that big hit, you know, a double that knocks in 2 or 3 runs. That is why the team leader in RBIs has about 20-something. I would look it up, but it will just make more angry.

Wow, I did not realize talking about the Pirates was going to get me worked up. I am moving on to the next topic.

Current State
I was going to write about how it feels like there are a lot of mediocre teams out there, but after comparing records from this year to previous years, that really is not the case. Maybe it just feels that way because the Pirates have a bad record, but are not that far out of first place yet.

Anyways, Barry Bonds is going to break the record. It is going to happen, and it will suck. I really do not care about the guy that much, what I think sucks is that Ken Griffey Jr. would have broken it had he not gotten hurt so much since coming to the Reds. I know you cannot say things like that, but still, you gotta feel bad for the guy.

Does anyone think Roger Clemens' contract was a bit on the ridiculous side? But, I guess if Barry Zito can get some astronomical figure, Clemens can too. I am tired of ESPN jamming everything they can about him down my throat. I do not care how he did in a minor league outing. He will not pitch every game for the Yankees and that still leaves whatever crap rotation they have pitching the four other games. I hate to say this, but it seems like they have a lot of work to do to try and catch the Red Sox. I just threw up in my mouth saying that.

Modern Players vs. Different Eras
Why is that when you talk about baseball to an older person, they always tell you how these modern guys would not be able to cut it back in the olden days, or that if the guys from their time played today, they would be gods? I understand that there is something special about your childhood heroes, but why is it that people just will not accept that the modern player is just as good as olden players.

In other sports people will admit that modern players have gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. LeBron James would destroy players back in the 40s and 50s. The worst team in the NFL would probably crush the best teams of the 40s. But, if you say something like "if A-Rod played in the early 1900s, he would have put up monster numbers." Some old-timer will slap you.

Would Babe Ruth still be the best hitter if he played today? I don't know, I doubt it. I know that you can look at different SabreMetric stats that adjust everyone's numbers by different era, but that does not really change the fact that they are not playing against each other. I mean, look at the different kinds of pitches that are used today, that were not used until the 70's. Roger Clemens vs. Babe Ruth? For a long time, hitters saw a nice steady stream of fastballs. What happens to guys who have never seen a splitter or a cutter. What if Ruth played in San Diego, does he become another Ryan Klesko or Brian Giles? Guys who can hit homeruns, but play in a park that is 90,000 feet to right field.

Oh well, this is something that annoys me, and I am sure in 50 years, I will be telling my grandkids how Andy Van Slyke was the greatest player to ever put on a Pirate uniform (okay, I do not believe that now, but he will always be my favorite) and they will be like "umm, yeah gramps, the guys now can throw runners out at home while standing on top of the wall, which is now 600 feet away." Who knows.

This rant is over.