CELEBRATING AWAY A GREAT DAY

I can't imagine there's anything like the deep exhale that comes from closing out a division title in baseball.  The long journey of hard work, dedication, travel and the pain of playing day in and day out for five months and nearly a 162 games is suddenly and all at once rewarded.  A collective deep breath is finally allowed as the team celebrates the moment and then prepares for the playoffs in October.

The Dodgers got to experience just that yesterday.  After a near disastrous first half of a season left them seemingly out of it and a fan base embarrassed to the point where the stadium was virtually empty in early June, the rise of Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig combined with the timely return of key players from injury like Carl Crawford and Hanley Ramirez provided a huge boost and a run that hasn't been seen in the history of the team.  So the celebration of last night's clincher was without a doubt warranted.

Until it turned into something that borders on sacrilege to baseball die-hards.  The post-game celebration carried onto the field as usual, but then into the pool located in the right center field.  After being asked by Diamondbacks Management to respect their stadium and not continue the celebration on the field, the boys in blue decided to turn their celebration black. 

This in turn caused journalist Dan Bickley to pen an editorial in Arizona with a headline that probably is euphemistic to what most Arizona fans, coaches and players are wanton to say:

The Dodgers Are Idiots

Forget whether he's right or wrong.  Forget whether you believe that the Dodgers can celebrate however they want to, even if it is against the wishes of one of their division rivals.  Forget about the fact the Diamondbacks made a ridiculous management decision to force Dodger fans to wear their Diamondbacks gear because they were sitting behind home plate last April. 

What did this celebration accomplish that the win didn't besides creating more bitter feelings between fellow ballplayers?  Do you think the rest of the league now looks at the Los Angeles Dodgers and thinks wow, what an accomplishment.  No, they're talking instead about this celebration and what it all meant.  They're talking about who'll throw the first intentional bean ball next year that might actually end someone's season.  They're talking about the unwritten rules of baseball and how the Dodgers crossed the line.

The question isn't whether the Dodgers have the right to do what they did.  The question is why did they need to?  What inside these young men gave them the idea that this behavior was a good way to punctuate a celebration?  What good could come of it?  Did they feel better about themselves knowing that Arizona fans, particularly the children who entered June with their favorite team in first place only to watch them fall to pieces by early September, felt humiliated?  Was it more important to return the favor from April and make it clear that the Dodgers fans won't be bossed around?  Did they think this reflected well on their manager Don Mattingly, who was one of the classiest players of his day?  On the Dodgers management?  On Los Angeles itself?  Or were they thinking at all?

Forget even these reasons.  Let's just imagine the situation was reversed.  Imagine the reaction of Angelenos if the Diamondbacks had done this in Dodger Stadium?  Yes, we Angelenos, home of the guys who beat a San Francisco Giants fan to an inch of his life for simply wearing the opposing team's jersey and being their fan.  Yes, we of Los Angeles who watch this kid's game with our hearts on our sleeves, painfully enduring the wins and losses as if they were personal to us.... as if we were personally involved.  As fickle as L.A. fans can be, our desire to win isn't any less passionate, or any less desperate.  We are so unable to separate ourselves from our Dodgers that the amount of curse words, boos, hisses, screams and cheers that leave our mouths in any given nine-inning stretch is something you would only expect to find in Congress.

Baseball players are among the most superstitious lot in the world.  Rumors of players not showering for weeks, growing playoff beards and staying in the same underwear during a win streak are often verified because of the ballplayer's need to feel some sort of control in a sport where success and failures interchange so often. And on a day where you enter the playoffs after a miracle run, it would seem to me that to step on another man's grave after he's dead and buried is to have lifted up your own voodoo doll and handed your playoff opponent the first pin.

We can make a million cases for shoving back at the way the Diamondbacks and their management have behaved.  Heck, the whole state of Arizona is completely backward if you ask me -- I mean I'm surprised Puig was allowed into the ballpark without having his immigration papers looked at by local law enforcement.

Dodgers fans are already ripe with rationalizations, citing the above-story as reason enough to stomp on an Arizona fans pride.  It's as if the win isn't verification enough of the miracle the Dodgers pulled off this season, it has to be verified further at the expense of others. 

And for those that say I'm missing the point, it was just young men celebrating, ask yourself why the celebration couldn't have stayed where it is supposed to, where the D-backs' management asked for it to stay, in the clubhouse.  Nothing would have changed.

Well actually, something would have.  More people would be discussing this legendary run by a group of young men Los Angeles is taking great pride in.  Instead, this father looks at these guys as silly children, and hopes my child never feels the need to stomp on his opponent when he's already beaten. 

That's the difference between class and insecurity, of grace instead of vanity.  And sadly, the Dodgers showed way too much of the latter last night.

WEEK 3 PREVIEWS - The Early Games

Get the lowdown on James Starks, and the Trent Richardson deal as it pertains to this Sunday for your daily fantasy lineup.

http://dfsedge.com/nfl-week-3-previews-the-early-games/

GAME PREVIEWS

Week One's previews are now up on DFSEdge.com

http://dfsedge.com/nfl-week-1-previews-late-games/

http://dfsedge.com/nfl-week-one-game-previews-part-1/

DFSEdge.com

Friends and readers of the blog:

It's with great excitement and enthusiasm that I have been hired by DFSEdge.com to provide the weekly NFL previews I brought you here the last few years. 

DFSEdge is a site focused on the newest type of fantasy gaming, that of daily fantasy games.  Columns are focused on giving you the best advice from a daily fantasy perspective (more relevant to baseball than football), to help you compete in the newest and most profitable form of fantasy gaming out there: daily fantasy gaming. Sites like FanDuel.com, Draftday.com, DraftKings.com and provide you the chance for you to pit your knowledge against thousands of other fantasy on-line gamers, by drafting a new team each day.  No long seasons to have to manage your way through -- this is a chance to turn you knowledge into $$ now.  And because this kind of gaming involves analysis it is totally legal.

I'm proud to affiliated with DFSEdge.com and hope your readership will follow me there. Other articles will run here, so feel free to check in occasionally for specific pieces on players I'm following.

A JOE SHEEHAN BLOG

If you've never heard Joe speak or read anything he's written, you're missing out on a baseball aficionado.  For me, in person Joe often comes off as a bit of a condescending cynic, but one thing is for certain, his writing chops are outstanding, and his takes on baseball events are often unique and dead on.

In this case, Joe's blog today is right on the money.  While I'm an anti-PED guy, I'm not simply castigating A-Rod as the poster boy for such things, nor do I agree in any way that really this is about our kids.

I leave you with Joe's blog entitled TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. WELL?  For reference you can find his blog here. http://joesheehanbaseball.blogspot.com/

RYAN BRAUN - MY THOUGHTS

I'm sure those of you who have followed my blog(s) have seen that I am not short of opinions.  I have waited to sound off on the recent MLB Biogenesis Scandal simply because my opinions on the use of steroids in baseball have been offered into the ether many times over.  But for those of you who haven't read my illustrious postings of the past, let me reiterate.

Simply put:  If Major League Baseball advertised the game as a steroid-infused, home-run loving, strikeout-dominating sport, then I'd be fine with steroid use.  Until that happens these guys get rule books and memos pointing out exactly what is OK and what isn't in baseball several times over.  They know what they're doing is wrong, so in my mind, they're cheaters.

These guys are just a symptom of a larger problem

To me, to take any other stance is to rationalize something that deserves none.  And if you're willing to do that, then you better be willing to reward your child for posting a phony "A" after copying off the class genius' test.


However, with that being said, I will raise another issue.

Can we blame only Ryan Braun? 

Can we blame any of the previous assumed steroid users?  McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Bonds, Clemens,.... the list goes on.

Aren't the owners, the agents and even we the fans slightly culpable?

I'll explain.

The first MLB player to earn an average of $1,000,000 a year was Dave Parker of the Pittsburgh Pirates after he signed a five year, $5 million dollar contract in 1979.  Nolan Ryan is thought to be the first player to earn the actual coveted $1 million salary for a single season in 1980.  This, back at a time where according to the US Census, the average price of a home in 1979 was anywhere between $67,000 - $70,000.  According to the Department of Energy, an average car price cost you around $6,900 and imports were even cheaper.  While prices have more than tripled since then, salaries have skyrocketed through the roof for professional athletes, with more and more athletes signing large, incentive-laden contracts fresh out of high school. 

According to MLBtraderumors.com, Josh Beckett was the first player to receive a contract as a high school player - Four years, $7 million at age 18.

If you had a chance to make $7 million dollars back in 1999, the year Beckett signed his agreement, you'd do it in a second.  And if you had a chance to earn that kind of bank, the kind of cash that would garner security for you and your family for years, meant injecting a fluid into your thigh twice a day just to get you to the signing, would you pass it up?  Maybe you would if you had good parenting, solid morals, truly believed you shouldn't be paid on false pretenses, etc.  But an 18-year-old, presented with these options and parents who aren't on such morally high ground, come on.  He'll do it.  And yes, we all probably would.

It would be like someone coming back from the future, and offering you the numbers to that day's as-yet drawn lottery with the only requirement being that your name will be scowled upon ten years down the road.  You'll keep the money, the wealth, the fame (or the infamy if you will), the girls/boys, the cars, the royal treatment, the admiration and most enjoyable memories of ten years of a dream life but you'll be remembered with a sour taste. 

As someone who myself has scraped, clawed and failed so many times over to reach any of the goals I set for myself, I can fully understand the lure this ticket provides young athletes. 

So yes, you can hate Ryan Braun and I can hate Ryan Braun.

But before we all throw stones from our glass houses, let's remind ourselves that we as a society have loved the idea that our kids might someday win this lottery.  We have not taken it upon ourselves to protect our youth from themselves because the bait on this hook is just too great.  And if you doubt any of this just check out a Little League field these days and see the outrageous parents abusing volunteer coaches over how little their son or daughter played.  Read the ridiculous stories of coaches taking practices too far in the name of cashing in on a great high school season and moving onto the college ranks.  There have been deaths over this kind of thing.

Ryan Braun might be a putz. 

But as with most things, he's a reflection of the society that helped build him up. 

THREE REASONS TO BELIEVE IN THIS YEAR'S PIRATES

44-41, one game back. (2012)

45-36, sole possession of first place (2011)

For the past two seasons the Pirates have looked like a winner -- for half of a season.   Call it lack of experience, call it lack of talent, call it bad trades; for some reason the karma faded after the halfway point in 2011 and 2012.

So why should you believe this year will be any different?  As of this day, the Pirates are 11 games over five hundred, and just two games behind St. Louis and Cincinnati.  It's a dogfight already for the N. L. Central and history suggests the Pirates aren't deep enough and don't have the funds come the trade deadline to keep up with these two teams.
 

Here are three reasons why history might change:

1) Pitching - In 2012, the Pirates record in part was a reflection of an over-achieving James McDonald.  The once highly regarded pitching project had been plagued by control problems and had never put it together for an entire campaign.  For the first half of 2012, McDonald posted a 2.37 ERA combined with a rather fluky .196 BAA.  While he did finish the season with a much stronger WHIP than he had previously, his ERA bounced back up over four for the season again. 

In 2011, Jeff Kars tens also had a rather auspicious first half.  Considering he began the season as at best their fifth starter,  his 58K / 18BB strikeout-to-walk ratio allowed him to go deeper into games and face less hitters, and he posted a 7-4 first half record.

The Twins top prospect may
be regaining form.

This season the rotation has not only depth but veteran presence.  The acquisition of Wandy Rodriguez last season and more importantly, Francisco Liriano this year, brings two seasoned lefties to the rotation that can eat more innings and go deeper into games than their previous southpaws Erik Bedard and Paul Maholm could.  Sure, we've witnessed Liriano's lack of control since his TJ surgery, but pitchers moving from the American League to the National League often have initial success.  Examples can be found with Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and C.C. Sabathia.  Now add veteran ace A.J. Burnett and prospect turned good Jeff Locke, and you have four solid arms.  Also on the DL with McDonald is rising prospect Charlie Morton and of course, Jeff Karstens.

The bullpen's addition of former Houston closer Mark Melancon, former A's starter/reliever Vin Mazzaro, and their core of Chris Leroux, Tony Watson, Jared Hughes and Bryan Miller, the lead-in for now closer Jason Grilli is strong and deep.  And don't forget about their minor league system, now loaded with two top arms in Gerrit Cole and Jamison Taillon. 

Blockbuster Trade(s) of 2012?

2) Defense - for the last few years the Pirates offense might not have put a ton of runs on the board, but their defense has steadily improved, going from dead last in 2010 to ranked 21st right now.  While that might not be a big leap in terms of error percentage, there is no doubt that the speed in the outfield now has the ability to take away hits, not to mention the improving glove of Pedro Alvarez at third.  The addition of Russell Martin behind home plate adds a veteran arm with the capability of keeping runners from adding to their singles.  He was ranked in the top five hardest catches to steal against by Bleacher Report this season.

3) Added batting depth - It seemed like a harmless few moves just before the trading deadline, but the deals that brought Marlins 1B Gaby Sanchez and Toronto RF Travis Snider to the Bucs may have been one of the biggest coups in recent memory.  The Pirates gave the Blue Jays developing pitcher Brad Lincoln, and the Marlins speedy and raw Gorkys Hernandez.  Unlike the trade in 2011 that brought in past his prime Derrek Lee and low contact rate hitting Ryan Ludwick, these two prospects are still in their early and late twenties not only have higher ceilings ahead of them, they provided additional power bats at little cost.  Snider, once touted as a high power -hitting lefty has got to smile every time he sees the short porch in right field, and Sanchez can be part of a left-right platoon with Garrett Jones until he can become a full-timer (which is the Pirates hope).

Don't be surprised if 2013 is a lucky number for the Pittsburgh Pirates come this October.