The Captain's Blog

In the 1956 World Series, an imperfect man pitched a perfect game. Last night, an imperfect umpire prevented one from happening.

Jim Joyce's blown call in yesterday's would-be perfect game now rivals Don Denkinger's costly mistake in game 6 of the 1985 World Series.

If you had not heard of Jim Joyce before last night, chances are you now have. Unlike his more controversial brethren (I am looking at you Joe West), Joyce has managed to have a rather anonymous 23-year career as an umpire, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, with one bad call, Joyce has now gone from unknown to infamous.

Even though it occurred on the same night that future first ballot Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. announced his retirement, Joyce’s blown call of the last out in Armando Galarraga’s would-be perfect game has reverberated around the sport, becoming one of the biggest stories of not only the season, but recent memory. What’s more, Joyce’s blunder will undoubtedly join, if not surpass, Don Denkinger’s infamous blown call on what should have been a ground out by Jorge Orta leading off the ninth inning of game 6 in the 1985 World Series. Denkinger’s erroneous safe call helped spark a Royals’ rally that changed the outcome of the World Series. Coincidentally, both Joyce and Denkinger worked on the same crew during their overlapping careers.

Predictably, the response to the blown call has been to first lambaste Joyce, and then once again sound the drumbeat for expanded instant replay. After a spate of missed homerun calls during last season, major league baseball responded to increasing public pressure by incorporating the use of instant replay on boundary calls. The decision was quick, decisive and sensible. This time, however, baseball needs to be more deliberate lest it run the risk of going overboard.

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the [expletive] out of it,” Joyce said, looking and sounding distraught as he paced in the umpires’ locker room. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.” – Umpire Jim Joyce as quoted by AP

Lost in the furor of Joyce’s blown call was another costly umpire’s mistake from last night’s action. With the Mariners and Twins tied 1-1 in the 10th inning, Ichiro Susuzki hit a ground ball up the middle that second baseman Matt Tolbert fielded on a dive before flipping to JJ Hardy for what should have been an inning ending force out. Instead, second base umpire Dale Scott incorrectly signaled safe, by which time Ryan Langerhans was steaming around third with the winning run. Although Joyce’s blown call denied Galarraga a historic achievement, Scott’s miscue actually decided a game. Considering the Twins penchant for playing one game tie-breakers to decide the AL Central, that one game could prove very significant.

Although the Scott’s blown call seems to bolster the case for instant replay that has been revived by Joyce’s mistake, it actually points out the number of potentially game changing calls that take place over nine innings. If baseball decides to enact instant replay, it must be prepared to deal with a number of resultant issues. After all, despite having instant replay for years now, the NFL’s system still is encumbered by many flaws.

Unlike most sports, in baseball, the defense has the ball and the offense scores without it. As a result, instant replay in baseball can not simply follow the ball. There is too much simultaneous, dependent action occurring. For example, let’s take a modified version of the play that ended last night’s game in Seattle. With runners on first and second and one out this time, the batter hits a ball up the middle that the defense attempts to turn into a fielder’s choice. After the second base umpire rules out on the force, the third base coach instructs the runner to sprint for home, figuring it a worthy risk with two outs now in the inning. The alert short stop spots the attempt, however, and guns him out at the plate. Inning over.

But wait, upon further review, it turns out the runner at second was really safe. Now, what do you do with the runner who was thrown out at home? Had the umpire originally called safe, the attempt would never have been made. It’s easy to construct countless examples of how instant replay could open up an even larger Pandora’s Box than one created by a blown call.

If baseball can come up with a perfect way to implement instant replay, then it should obviously begin doing so immediately. Until then, however, the sport would be wise to proceed slowly. Otherwise, it may wind up with an even more imperfect system

June 2, 2010 will go down as a momentous day in baseball history. Future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. announced his retirement and first base umpire Jim Joyce blew a call on what should have been baseball’s third perfect game this season. Both events will be remembered for some time to come. Tonight’s Yankee game, however, will not.

The Yankees victory over the Orioles was overshadowed by an eventful day in baseball that included this blown call at the end of a would-be perfect game.

Although baseball is by far one of the most unpredictable sports, some games just scream mismatch. Brad Bergesen versus Phil Hughes was one example. After a scoreless first inning, the Yankees essentially put the game away with a four run second inning. The offense, which featured three hit nights by Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson, would go on to pile up nine runs, but the rest of the game was all about Phil Hughes plowing through the Orioles lineup.

Over seven innings, Hughes only went to one three-ball count, while throwing 72 of his 102 pitches for strikes. His only hiccup occurred in the sixth inning, when Ty Wiggington singled home Miguel Tejada, who had doubled earlier in the inning. In addition to improving his record to 7-1, Hughes also surrendered two runs or fewer for the eighth time in his 10 starts and moved up to third in the American League with a 2.54 ERA.

Aside from Hughes continued emergence as an ace starter, the biggest story for the Yankees was the return of Jorge Posada to the lineup as a DH. Before the game, Posada acknowledged that he would likely be occupying the DH role with increasing frequency, a concession that Posada hitherto had been unwilling to make. Although Posada will still see his fair share of games behind the plate, a more permanent transition to DH will not only help ensure that he stays healthy, but also allow the Yankees to benefit for Cervelli’s superior defense.

In addition to Posada’s return, the continued hot hitting of Curtis Granderson also bodes well for the Yankees. With his three hits tonight (his only out was the result of an outstanding running grab by Adam Jones in deep right center), Granderson is now hitting .400/.434/.700 in 23 plate appearances since returning from a groin injury.

With everything falling into place, the Yankees could be primed to take advantage of a favorable June schedule. For that to happen, games like this  need to become more routine. If the Yankees can have enough forgettable wins, they’ll be on their way to another memorable October.

Within the span of a week, two umpires, Joe West and Bill Hohn, made news by prematurely giving the heave-ho to a starting pitcher. So much for the idea about a good umpire being the one nobody notices.

It used to be that managers, like Billy Martin, were the instigators when it came to on-field arguments. Now, the umpires themselves seem to be initiating the conflicts.

On May 26, West, who was umpiring at first base, ejected White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle in the third inning for protesting the second of two balks called against him. After the second balk was called, Buehrle shrugged his shoulders and dropped his glove, which West interpreted as the pitcher’s attempt to “show him up”. The ejection prompted a more visceral protest from Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who continued venting about West’s arrogance well after the game.

Bill Hohn’s ichy trigger finger was exercised on May 31 in a game between the Astros and Nationals. The victim this time was Roy Oswalt, who was also tossed one out into the third inning after letting out a yell when a close 3-2 pitch was called a ball. According to Oswalt, the scream was more an expression of frustration than protestation, but following a familiar theme, Hohn interpreted the action as an attempt by the pitcher to “show him up.”

In both cases, MLB officials took sides against the umpires involved in the ejection. In the case of Hohn, MLB vice president Bob Watson went so far as to publicly state that the umpire would be sternly reprimanded. As for West, an undisclosed fine was levied.

Since the two incidents, many have sounded off on the growing level of unprofessionalism among umpires, with most targeting their venom toward West, who earlier in the season embroiled himself in a controversy by making remarks about the length of games played between the Red Sox and Yankees (remarks which the umpire, through his publicist, volunteered to readdress).

Although MLB should be concerned about the comportment of its officials, its greater concern should be the quality of their calls. Toward that end, it’s come time for MLB to develop and make public a rating system for its officials. Just like players must face the daily scrutiny of their performance, the officials who oversee the games should as well. Even if it means a labor conflict, it’s time for baseball to impose more stringent requirements on its umpires.

Do MLB Umpires Need to Be the Better Man?

Despite a whole host of injuries and a disastrous week in the middle of the month, the Yankees exited May just two games behind the Rays in the loss column, only one game worse than at the end of April.

On offense, the Yankees were without Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson and Jorge Posada for a combined 60 games in the month, yet incredibly still managed to score 5.9 runs per game, a half run improvement over their April output. Unfortunately, the increased offense was not enough to offset the additional run per game that the pitching and defense combined to yield. As a result, the Yankees winning percentage in the month dipped from .676 in April to .552 in May, the latter being two wins lower than their expected total based on run differential. Below is a recap of the month:

AL East Standings for May

Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez were the two main contributors to the Yankees offense. Not only did both hitters compile impressive statistics in the month, but they also came up with several big hits (Swisher’s WPA for the month was .813, followed closely by Arod at .779). Robinson Cano also came on strong in the last half of the month and posted a near .900 OPS, while Mark Teixeira contributed a solid line of .280/.366/.475 with 25 RBIs, despite suffering a rough 2-24 stretch in the middle of the month.

The biggest disappointment of the month had to be the Captain, who posted a dismal .702 OPS despite hitting .486 over an eight game hitting streak to end the month. The only hitters with a lower OPS in the month were Marcus Thames, Kevin Russo, Ramiro Pena and Chad Moeller, although that quartet combined to have fewer at bats than Jeter. In spite of their struggles, both Jeter and Thames made their lone May home runs count as each proved to be a game winner.

Best of May (Hitters)

Worst of May (Hitters)

Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes were brilliant in May, posting a combined 8-2 record with an ERA just around 3. Surprisingly, the only other pitcher on the staff with an ERA under 4 in at least 10 innings was Sergio Mitre, who recorded a 3.38 ERA in 18 1/3 innings split between the rotation and the bullpen.

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The Washington Nationals celebrated Memorial Day by crushing the Houston Astros 14-4, but that was only an appetizer to the main course. After the game, the team announced that Stephen Strasburg would be making his major league debut on Tuesday, June 8.

Fans hoping to attend Stephen Strasburg's first game will have to look to the secondary market, where tickets are selling well above face value.

Speculation about Strasburg’s eventual debut has made the Nationals one of baseball’s hottest tickets on StubHub, the league’s official secondary market. For the June 8 game, StubHub currently lists 2,580 available tickets at a minimum cost of $65.50, including over 175 tickets priced at $500 or more. For comparison, the site lists 750 available tickets for the team’s next Tuesday home game (June 22, which was well outside the window of Strasburg speculation). The minimum price for that date is $8.50 per ticket; only eight seats are listed at over $500. 

Fans hoping to see Strasburg throw his first pitch in the majors will have to pay those inflated prices because the Nationals’ website indicates that tickets for the game are no longer available for purchase. Unless the official announcement sparked an immediate rush to purchase the remaining inventory, you can bet the Nationals are holding some aside to include in partial season packages.

Through Sunday’s games, the Nationals ranked 14^th in average attendance at 20,760 fans per game. The addition of Strasburg to the roster should help boost that total considerably, especially every fifth day. Perhaps not coincidentally, Strasburg is on track to start five of his first seven games at home, which could have a meaningful impact on both the Nationals’ position in the standings and their bottom line.

In addition to boosting the gate when he pitches, the addition of Strasburg has the potential to make the Nationals a legitimate playoff contender. At 26-26, the team is still alive in both the NL East and wildcard races, so the addition of an ace starter could keep them in contention throughout the summer. If that comes to fruition, the Nationals should enjoy an attendance increase for all games, not just the ones in which Strasburg pitches. Continue Reading »