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Today is bittersweet for me, readers.

(Quick sidenote: The photos on the right highlight some memorable moments in Just Baseball history).

Boy did John Danks stink

I am sad to see Just Baseball sink into hibernation during the offseason, but at the same time I’m proud of what this blog has accomplished.

Barry Bonds left a stain on the game of baseball

I will continue to post when big stories in the baseball world break (and the steroids problem will be in the news again soon, so they say), but posts will be far more infrequent.

Here’s your NL Cy Young

A turning point.

In the end, wasn’t this the highlight of Chicago baseball this year? You gotta love a no-hitter.

As my final post, I’d like to talk about a hobby of mine I’d like you try. It’s a subject subject I always meant to talk about on this blog and I just never had the opportunity to: scorekeeping.

One of my favorite pastimes is going to a baseball game and keeping score of the game. Not only is it an enjoyable experience in itself, but it provides a nifty souvenir to take home with you from the game.

The beauty of it is that there is no correct way to score a game. Everyone does it differently, and everyone does it correctly, so long as you can follow all the action of the game 10 years after it’s ended.

Let that be the final thing you take from Just Baseball; next year, when you attend your first game, spend $1 on a scorecard and enjoy following along with the game.

Oh, and another thing I want to leave you with. I still greatly dislike this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy, sorta.

Enjoy the links, because that’s as close to a rant as my farewell post will include.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Just Baseball as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. The forum of discussion that some of my posts created made it all worthwhile for me. Especially this one. A three-word post spawned a 24-comment conversation between some of my most avid readers.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed if you’d like to keep track of my offseason posts. I will be switching over to the Daily Illini Sports Wrap-Up blog as my home away from home, posting about Illini basketball and thoroughbred racing, primarily.

I’m not sure what will become of Just Baseball when I am gone. As you know, this is my final semester at the helm of the sports desk. Without a doubt, though, the baseball blog will return in some form or another.

I will be covering the Illinois baseball team for the newspaper in the spring and may include some of that material for Just Baseball.

But come February, my mind will already be on the major league season to come.

Just, out.

Just wanted to quickly comment on the 2008 NL Central race. It’s never too soon, right?

Most of the Cubs’ offseason decisions will be the responsibility of new ownership, so it’s difficult to predict whether the team will improve. What we do know is that the team’s core of Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Carlos Zambrano are in place.

The team also has a lot more potentially going for them in Rich Hill and Geovany Soto. Hill already displayed his talent over the course of a full season, but Soto’s production as a catcher should be big.

I hope the Cubs give Felix Pie the starting job in center next year, but given that it’s the Cubs, they’ll probably look elsewhere. If they do decide to do this, they have to trade Pie. Keeping him around and turning him into Matt Murton would be devastating.

The team will have many more decisions, too, regarding the futures of Cliff Floyd, Jacque Jones, Daryle Ward, and others.

Overall, I certainly don’t think the Cubs will be any worse, but we’ll have to wait and see — the Cubs have proven me wrong before.

Not being worse may not be enough to win anymore, because the Brewers are certainly not getting worse.

Just, out.

The World Series was kind of a yawner, wasn’t it?

A-Rod and Scott Boras tried to be the news Sunday night when they announced the superstar would opt out of his contract. The MLB got mad and Boras apologized.

So where does that leave A-Rod?

Well, his new contract will probably be as big as his old one — if someone will pay that much. The Angels seem like a top contender for Rodriguez, seeing as they’re a big market, AL team with the bankroll to support him.

Plus they could use a power hitting third baseman.

Frankly, I’m not all that interested in where A-Rod ends up. I’m more interested in the dumb articles that will soon be coming about his horrible tenure in New York.

On to Girardi. I could have told you after Joe applied for the Orioles’ open spot and then declined their offer that he was waiting for the Yankees’ spot to open up.

I wish Girardi all the luck, but he’s going to get the blame when the Yanks aren’t as good without A-Rod. And all the fans that booed him will have a lot to own up to.

Just, out.

I’m sad to see that the Fire Joe Morgan guys beat me to this little number in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune.

The headline:

Hit-and-run to join White Sox’s arsenal
Guillen will stress small-ball tactics at camp

Here’s Ozzie Guillen, as quoted by Tribune writer Mark Gonzales:

You’re going to see a lot of crazy stuff in spring training, regardless of the baserunning. You’re going to see hit-and-run [plays] when it’s not a hit-and-run situation. You’re going to see people bunting when it’s not a bunting situation.

Maybe people are going to criticize me for the way we’re playing in spring training, but we have to go with a different approach. In spring training we’re going to turn the switch on right away.

OK, so let me get this straight. In order to improve the team’s likelihood of winning, Guillen is going to hit-and-run and bunt more? At times when doing so would be absolutely, positively, strategically incorrect?

I just don’t get this man.

But nothing frightens me more than the end of the article:

“We need a backup playing shortstop,” Guillen said, which could mean that Alex Cintron could be dealt or not tendered a contract by Dec. 12.

“Right now the decision between [Juan] Uribe and someone else we don’t know yet. We want Uribe to lose some weight and show up in shape.”

The Sox could give Uribe a $300,000 buyout and attempt to re-sign him if they fail to land a free agent like David Eckstein, who can bat leadoff and play shortstop, or fail to trade for a younger shortstop.

Judgment day is approaching rapidly. I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it again: If David Eckstein is wearing a White Sox uniform at any time during his or my lifetime, I will disavow any loyalty I ever felt toward the White Sox.

Just, out.

Who do I think will win tonight? I’d give the Red Sox a 52% chance of winning.

Who would I bet on tonight? Rockies at +185.

Book it.

Just, out.

Through four innings, things don’t look good for the Rockies. A 4-1 deficit is certainly not insurmountable, but the Rockies are being obliterated right now.

Jeff Francis is on the verge of being yanked …

Oh dear, the Red Sox just scored two more thanks to a Jason Varitek single.

Not good for Rockies Nation.

And Ken Griffey Jr. is on his team now! I must be at the nexus of the universe!

Anyway, Dusty Baker is back at the helm of a Major League ball club, and I’m cringing at the thought.

You’d think a guy who said that walks clog the bases would be disqualified from any and all management positions in baseball. I thought people that said things like that were limited to analyzing games for us on TV.

I guess they do both, now.

Anyway, the Reds do A LOT of walking, and Baker isn’t going to take to it very kindly.

Here’s Keith Law with the rest of that terrific Baker quote:

So Baker likes to work pitchers hard and doesn’t seem overly concerned when they walk too many opposing hitters. In fact, he has said walks are an overrated part of offense.

“I think walks are overrated unless you can run,” Baker said in an MLB.com story in March 2004. “If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps, but the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time he’s clogging up the bases for somebody who can run. … Who have been the champions the last seven, eight years? Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks?”

This evinces, in my view, a lack of understanding of how runs are scored — and of the importance not just of getting on base, but of plate discipline in general. And in fact, the two years before Baker made those comments, the Yankees did lead the American League in walks, just as they did in 1997 and 1998, the latter being the year in which they won 114 games and led the league in runs scored.

See, this is exactly why the Reds can’t compete. It’s not because they’re in a small market or because they don’t have talent. No, it’s because they make bad personnel decisions. They’re like the Chicago Bears in that regard. But the Bears at least draft well.

The Reds are in rebuilding mode, or at least they should be. This is a team that hasn’t finished above .500 since 2000. Only a few teams can say that, and besides maybe the Devil Rays, it’s for the same reasons as the Reds.

Baker is notorious for his inability to develop young talent. This is why after winning the division with the Cubs in 2003 the team finished in third, fourth and last in the division after each of the next three seasons.

Baker’s .527 career winning percentage is probably what lured the Reds into giving him the reins, but Baker is usually the guy that comes in and takes over a veteran team that is already suited for the playoffs — like the Cubs in 2003. When it didn’t work out, things got uglier and uglier.

Coincidentally, Rob Neyer brought up how much good a manager can be to a team in his ESPN chat wrap yesterday:

I would guess that maybe 10 percent of managers are capable of making a significant positive impact, but 25 percent are capable of making a significant negative impact. So if you’re the Yankees, you just have to guard against hiring one of those 25-percenters (and yes, I just pulled those numbers out of my nether regions).

Keith Law, again talking on the subject, echoed this sentiment on ESPNNews shortly after the announcement:

I think we really overrate how much good a manager can do…A good manager might be worth 3-4 wins, maybe five if he’s really good with his bullpen like Bob Melvin is, tops. But more likely a good manager is worth an extra two wins a season. But a bad manager? Not only could he be worth five or eight fewer wins…but i think a bad manager could really hurt you going forward because (he) can really retard the development of your prospects.

Speaking of which, the Reds are busting with young talent. Top pitching prospect Homer Bailey will be a regular starter next season, and Johnny Cueto, another top prospect is waiting in line after him. Additionally, the bats of Joey Votto and Jay Bruce will make big impacts in the middle of the lineup. There is more than enough talent here to win an NL Central title — with the right person in charge.

Forgetting what ESPN analysts have to say, I asked the one Reds fan I know what he thought about Baker. His response?

So far, 98% of Reds fans are pissed over the move.

Way to get the fans back. This was their chance, the Bengals suck, ND
football is awful, UC & UK basketball is down. They could have been the
talk of the town. Instead…ummmmm, not so much.

Thanks for those inspiring words, John.

To be sure, it won’t be long before Baker is back in the broadcast booth, telling us the same wrong things that he tells his players.

Just, out.

Alex Rodriguez is your scapegoat, Paul Byrd is an “outstanding” pitcher and Eric Wedge is a genius. It’s time for my ALCS breakdown:

Catcher:
Jason Varitek had a 2.000 OPS in 1997; that’s pretty cool. The captain of the Red Sox is a .267 career hitter and has recovered nicely in 2007 to his awful ‘06. His numbers are still down from his career averages, but even his best years don’t compare to Victor Martinez. V-Mart is second in baseball in slugging percentage and OPS, behind only Jorge Posada. His catching is suspect at times, but the Boston guys who will run on him would run on anybody.
EDGE: INDIANS.

First Base:
Ok, let’s play who’s who:

2007 Player A: .288 /.390 /.453
2007 Player B: .289 /.359 /.483

Hard to know who to like here, isn’t it? If you’re familiar with Kevin Youkilis‘ nickname, you’d correctly identify him as Player A. By process of elimination, Player B is Ryan Garko. What separates these players? Youk didn’t commit an error this year.
EDGE: RED SOX, slightly.

Second Base:
The AL Rookie of the Year is likely the Sox’ Dustin Pedroia. Good with the bad and good with the glove. The Indians benched Josh Barfield in favor of Asdrubal Cabrera, who likes like the real deal.
EDGE: RED SOX, slightly.

Third Base:
The Indians were hoping to have a star in Andy Marte and that didn’t pan out for them, either. Casey Blake stepped in and put together an adequate season at the corner of the infield. Mike Lowell did not look like he was going to do anything after his big 2003 season, but has been getting better since joining the Sox.
EDGE: RED SOX.

Short Stop:
Julio Lugo’s season has been doted on all year, and I don’t want to continue that discussion. He’t not that good at hitting and his career stats indicate that. Jhonny Peralta had one of the biggest letdown years in 2006 and came out of it somewhat this season. This is probably right around where he’ll stay for his career.
EDGE: INDIANS.

Left Field:
Kenny Lofton might just be the MVP of the ALDS for the Indians. I expect that a lot of people wrote about how he’s game-smart and his experience allowed him to get three hits in the opening game. He’s facing Manny Ramirez in this breakdown and that’s hard to top.
EDGE: RED SOX.

Center Field:
Grady Sizemore may be the best offensive weapon on the Indians. A leadoff hitter that has a high OBP isn’t as common as I’d like to think it is. He had a letdown second half, but that’s not his historical norm, which in any case is significantly better than Coco Crisp.

Quick intermission to quote Joe Posnanski’s blog:

The announcer during Monday’s game actually called Grady Sizemore, “The best player you’ve never heard of,” which made me think about 11 different things all at once.

1. Are there really baseball fans who have never heard of Grady Sizemore?
2. Really?
3. Wasn’t he, like, on the cover of Sports Illustrated?
4. Have people heard of Sports Illustrated?
5. If Chip Caray’s name happened to be Chip Babblerock, would he be announcing playoff games on national televeision?
6. I thought Curtis Granderson was the best player you’ve never heard of.
7. Oh, you’ve heard of him too.
8. If Grady Sizemore was playing for the Yankees would he already have a statue in Monument Park or would they wait until he turned 30?
9. How many different Frank TV commercials are there anyway? There have to be like 40 of them. You know, he might want to save some bits for the actual show. Thing is, I like Frank Calliendo — I think his John Madden is freakishly good — but I will say this: My wife Margo was watching the game with me (you mothers and fathers out there can check out her Mom’s blog HERE), and whenever one of those commercials would come on she would say, “Was he supposed to be Dr. Phil? … Was that supposed to be George Bush? … Who is that? (It was supposed to be Robert DeNiro). My wife is usually a better judge of the American psyche than I am, and that show seems doomed.
10. Are there really baseball fans who have never heard of Grady Sizemore.
11. Really?

God Posnanski’s good. Or is Posnanski God? Chicken and the egg, I guess.
EDGE: INDIANS.

Right Field:
If Franklin Gutierrez walked a bit more he’d be the clear favorite over J.D. Drew, but Drew’s .390 OBP is very nice looking on paper.
EDGE: RED SOX, slightly.

Designated Hitter:
This is probably the most interesting “position” battle, even though David Ortiz is far and away the winner. Travis Hafner had an extremely down 2007 season, so it’s hard to give him any kind of edge. Even in his better years, it’s definitely a Red Sox advantage.
EDGE: RED SOX.

Starting Pitching:
If there’s one thing this series has, it’s good starting pitching. That is, until the Indians work past C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. The fact is the Indians can go toe-to-toe with any other rotation when only using three pitchers, which I hope is something Eric Wedge reconsiders doing. Vegas Watch did a pretty solid analysis of the rotations yesterday,and I agree with most of it. I think the matchups are even a little closer than he makes them out to be, mainly because my confidence in Paul Byrd and Jake Westbrook is essentially zero. The biggest strategy will come into play in this series with how the managers work their starters. I’m going to give a cop out answer on this one.
EDGE: PUSH.

Relief Pitching:
Wedge has the tool to throw out one of the best bullpens in the league. The problem is his mismanagement of it. We’re due any day now for a Joe Borowski meltdown of such grand proportion that the mere thought of the Indians’ World Series hopes resting on his shoulders makes me cringe. Assuming the closers get used like closers tend to be used, it’s definitely a Boston advantage. Eric Gagne’s postseason role should be interesting. I assume he’s on a pretty short leash with very, very little room for error.
EDGE: RED SOX.

All things considered, this is the World Series. The Red Sox accumulated the best run differential during the regular season, and the Indians were third — behind only the Yankees, who they just eliminated from the playoffs.

I’m going to stick with my Indians preseason World Series pick because I still think they’re a dominating team and in many places where the Red Sox have an edge it is only slight.

Indians in seven.

Enjoy the ALCS!

Just, out.

Looks like the Diamondbacks (wow!) and Rockies (huh?) have reached the NLCS.

Let’s be the first to do a breakdown:

Catcher:
The Rockies’ Yorvit Torrealba is a career .250 hitter with a .313 OBP. The Diamondbacks split duties between Chris Snyder and Miguel Montero. Neither has been all that impressive this season, but both are young (26 and 23, respectively). If you lined all three up statistically it would be really hard to tell them apart. There’s very little production coming out of the NLCS backstops.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS. They have two relatively poor hitting catchers compared to just one for the Rockies.

First Base:
Todd Helton may not be the stud he once was, but he continues to put up acceptable enough numbers to keep manning the corner for the Rockies. The Diamondbacks have a platoon between the switch-hitting Tony Clark and the still-waiting-to-breakout Conor Jackson. Even if this were anything close to a tie, Helton is a gold glover (and a rightful one).
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Second Base:
Kazuo Matsui has been a pleasant surprise in Denver this year. His numbers don’t look that different from his days in New York, but his OPS is higher now than it ever was there. With Orlando Hudson on the shelf, the Diamondbacks have been using ex-Cub Augie Ojeda, who is really, really, bad — and not good defensively.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Third Base:
Garret Atkins vs. Mark Reynolds. Uhhhhh…
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Short Stop:
The Diamondbacks are continuing to wait for Stephen Drew to have his breakout season, as they should. He was bad on both sides of the baseball this season. Meanwhile, Troy Tulowitzki broke out in a huge way. My pick for NL Rookie of the Year has got everything going for him. I still do think, though, that Drew is the better of these two in the long haul.
EDGE: ROCKIES. This is getting kind of redundant.

Left Field:
Potential NL MVP Matt Holliday in left for Colorado. Surprisingly terrific year from Eric Byrnes in Arizona. I’ll take the MVP.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Center Field:
Ryan Spilborghs has put up some decent numbers in Colorado this year. Another of Arizona’s potential stars, Chris Young, is waiting on his breakout year. I mean, this could have been it with 29 homers, but a .295 OBP has me thinking probably not. Still, he’s good defensively and I love future stars.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Right Field:
For whatever reason, the D-backs benched Carlos Quentin (another future star, maybe) in favor of Jeff Salazar and Justin Upton. With regards to this breakdown, it doesn’t really matter — Colorado’s Brad Hawpe is at the head of the class. But the D-backs might have been better off with Quentin in right for the long haul.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Starting Pitching:
Both teams have a very similar rotation: Good No. 1 and the rest is just blah. The difference is Brandon Webb is far and away superior to Josh Fogg. In a short series that may not matter a whole lot, but the D-backs get the edge here.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Relief Pitching:
Arizona has one of the best bullpens in the majors when it comes to protecting leads. Colorado has found success in the (cheater?) Manny Corpas, but that’s about it.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Surely, the Diamondbacks have the better pitching, and they proved they can shut down a powerful offense as they ripped through the Cubs. But the Rockies don’t keel over like the Cubs.

ROCKIES IN 5.

Just, out.

I wrote this for today’s DI:

Illinois Field will make the switch from grass to the artificial FieldTurf in time for the start of the 2008 baseball season, Illinois Director of Athletics Ron Guenther announced last week.

The installation is set to begin Monday and will take two to three months to complete.

“It will be a big boost for our program,” Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said. “The field will play truer and be one of the finest in the country.”

The installation will be funded by private gifts and will cost just more than $1 million. Illinois Field costs more than $85,000 to maintain annually, and the University expects to break even with the virtually maintenance-free FieldTurf.

One of the major benefits for the players will be how much earlier they can begin practicing outside, senior second baseman Ryan Hastings said.

“We also get a home field advantage because we play on it everyday,” he added. “Other teams have to come in here, and it’s something more for them to worry about.”

Rainouts will likely be a thing of the past; barring any lightning, the drainage system embedded in the rock subsurface will minimize the need to cancel games.

And as for the increased risk of injury that comes with playing on an artificial surface?

Actually, there’s less risk of injury, Hartleb said.

“The field allows for some cushion but still has enough grip for cleats to dig in and guys to make quick turns without turning an ankle or knee,” he said.

Illinois is the 19th Division I-A university to install FieldTurf for its baseball facility and three Major League Baseball clubs - the Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays - use it in their stadiums.

“It’s great for our program,” junior outfielder Nick Stockwell said. “It will make this field one of the elite fields in the Big Ten.

“It’ll play a little faster, but more importantly it will play truer and balls won’t take as many bad hops.”

Hartleb expects the transition to the artificial surface to be a smooth one because of how similar it is to natural grass.

Even so, Hastings would still choose to play on grass if given the choice between the two.

“Grass is a truer feel, but this is still as realistic as possible,” he said.