Yeah, it’s a semi-rare Saturday edition. There’s baseball to talk about, so I am.
- Last night the TV host loses for Saints. He only had one earned run, but there’s more to the story than that. As the Saints press release Saints Held To Three Hits In 7-0 Loss says,
He pitched a commendable five innings…
but that’s also not the whole story. Yes, there never really was any offense last night, and yes, a bunch of the runs Crawford gave up were due to an error by Josh Renick, but you also need to know that a fairly popular starting pitcher lost his spot in the rotation to this guy (who I thought never looked very good on the mound), and I’m not at all surprised the bats were silent and there were errors. The guys weren’t playing as hard as they would have for a teammate.
Now they’re four games behind Lincoln, and three-and-a-half behind Gary, with nine games remaining in the season, three of which are against Gary, and none of which are against Lincoln. But it doesn’t matter, right? They’re already in the playoffs, right? Well, yes and no. If the Saints come out on top, they’re much more likely to face Gary (who leads the wild-card race) than Lincoln. To add to that, beating Lincoln and Gary could vault first-year Calgary into the playoffs due to the fact that Fargo will win both halves of the season in the Northern Division, Getting into the playoffs would be a huge deal for a team that hasn’t been getting a lot of press this year.
That’s one of my biggest gripes with the stunt last night. I think the Saints would do better getting regular daily coverage in St. Paul than they would by having one or two extra stories a year on ESPN. Their fans are here in Minnesota. When a rookie like Charlie Ruud comes out and does a respectable job, there’s better coverage from his alma mater than there is from either the team or the local paper. And in the thick of a pennant race, the Saints start some guy who couldn’t earn his way into the league, just so they can get some national press. Yes, it’s good for the front office folks who may be looking for jobs in the majors, but what does it do for the team? [press-patch] - Which leads me to Cosh’s info-representation pet peeve that’s so obvious once he points it out that I wonder why someone hasn’t made a web-page to do the job. I wish I could figure out how to do that for the Northern League, but the split season, combined with a lack of decent stats from the league makes figuring out each teams standing in relation to the baroque wild-card rules more than I can figure out this morning. [colby cosh]
- In an article I missed during the week, Midway renovation is likely. It’s still moving along, and one of these days they’ll actually get started on renovating the stadium. I figure I’ll have some commentary on the renovation once the season is done. [press-patch]
- From a reader: Money Doesn’t Talk In Baseball, and my reader gets tired of hearing about money in baseball.
It means crap. The best closer in MLB will be paid $346,500 this year. The leading candidate for the NL Cy Young will make $378,500. It is possible that the batting champs in both leagues will be guys making $370,000 and $377,400.
If you’re interested in this sort of thing and haven’t read Moneyball, I’d strongly suggest picking it up for the off-season. If nothing else, you’ll hear why the batting champs might not be the best hitters, and the best closer may not be worth all that much. [some guy]