The Best Defense ... AL East

OK, I cannot stand watching Jorge de la Rosa pitch. It's nothing personal. Royals general manager Dayton Moore seems to like him -- and I like Dayton Moore. But with de la Rosa, you get pitches all over the place, seemingly no plan, two of them are hanging curves (which are either hit for homers or very long foul balls). To me, it's like watching a really bad bar band. A few years ago, I saw a band called the Jehovah Waitresses, and they had this really cool female singer, but they didn't let her sing. Instead, the lead guitar guy sang, and he was pretty awful. Plus one song was rock, another country, another a ballad, you could tell they had no real concept of what they wanted to do. It was just a bad overall experience.

That's what it's like for me to watch Jorge de la Rosa pitch. He did just throw his first six pitches for strikes and struck out Reed Johnson, so maybe tonight will be different. The guy's got good stuff.

Anyway, I'll watch the game, but I need a little project. So, in honor of the Rawlings All-Time Gold Team that they're doing, I'm going to try and do the best defensive players at every position for each team. I'm thinking I can get through the AL East today (especially because I have no intention of doing Tampa Bay). The only two rules are:

1. Minimum games played: 750.
2. I'm not going to have time to separate outfielders. I'll try to pick a LF, CF, RF for each team -- but because players are generally categorized as "outfielders" I really won't have the time to try and break them up.

OK? Here we go.

New York Yankees

First base: Don Mattingly. It's a tough battle with Wally Pipp, but Donny Baseball was pretty special defensively. He did win nine Gold Gloves. Pipp might have won seven or eight, though, had the Gold Glove been invented.

Second base: Joe Gordon. You know, he really was a Hall of Fame calliber player. Lost those two years to the war, but he was a terrific defensive second baseman, hit with power, flashed a little speed, got on base, all those things. Finished Top 10 in the MVP voting five times. ... I guess there's some debate how good defensively Willie Randolph was; I recall him being pretty good.

Shortstop: Phil Rizutto. Roger Peckinpaugh was fabulous and so was Tony Kubek. But you can't pick against the Scooter.

Third base: Graig* Nettles. Tough one. There are those who say Clete Boyer was even better defensively than Brooks Robinson. But I'll take Nettles, who seemed to steal about two hits per game whenever the Indians played the Yankees. This hurt even more since Nettles played with the Indians (the Tribe did get Charlie Spikes in the deal, though).

Outfield: Joe DiMaggio, Bernie Williams and Dave Winfield. Yeah, it's two center fielders. DiMaggio is a given obviously. Bernie became pretty embarrassing at the end, but I think he was good as a young player. Bill James says Winfield was wildly overrated defensively, probably because he had a good arm and climbed the wall for catches three times a year. But, well, he did have a good arm, and he did climb the wall beautifully. He just barely edges Mickey Mantle.

Catcher: Yogi Berra. The Yankees have three amazing defensive catchers -- Bill Dickey, Yogi, Elston Howard -- but Yogi wins. Why? AFLAC.

Pitcher: Ron Guidry. I don't know if I'm going to pick a defensive pitcher for every team. But Guidry was great defensively and worth mentioning.

Boston Red Sox

First base: Jimmie Foxx. Yaz was good defensively at first too, but in memory he's a left-fielder right? Foxx was, according to what I've read, rock solid at first base.

Second base: Bobby Doerr. Only three Red Sox second baseman qualify for 750 games, and all three were good defensively. Doerr was the best of the bunch. Marty Barrett deserves special credit because I once played a mammoth Strat-o-Matic World Series against MLB.commer Jim Banks -- Red Sox against Reds -- and Barrett was series' MVP. He hit something like .884 for the series, while Wade Boggs was something like 1 for 21. The key to the series though (glad you asked) was when Dewey Evans hit a two-run ninth-inning walk-off homer off of Tom Browning, when Jim decided to let Browning face one more batter rather than go to one of the great bullpens in baseball history. He has not lived this down.

Shortstop: Rick Burleson. The Rooster, I think, is one of the most underrated defenders in recent years. He only won one gold glove, but he was a terrific shortstop who got to everything Everett Scott was by all accounts a brilliant defensive shortstop as well, and the Deacon actually played in 1,307 consecutive games ... which is amazing for a World War I era shortstop.

Third base: Frank Malzone. Not a lot of competition here, but Malzone did win three Gold Gloves and was terrific at diving stops.

Outfield: Dom DiMaggio, Tris Speaker and Dwight Evans. Jimmy Piersall should probably be on this list, and perhaps Fred Lynn and Yaz, but I've already told you how I feel about Dewey Evans so he's got to be in this outfield. And he was good. Amazing arm.

Speaker is obvious -- one of the best ever defensively. As for Dom, I love the Bill James chart which shows that, had they given out Gold Gloves in the 1930s and 1940s, the DiMaggio brothers would have won 18 of them. There are some who say Dom was the best of the bunch; here's how Bill's Win Shares ranks the best defensive outfielders of the 1940s:

1. Dom DiMaggio
2. Terry Moore
3. Joe DiMaggio
4. Vince DiMaggio

Catcher: Carlton Fisk. Jason Varitek is good defensively, but you've got to give it up to Pudge. Which reminds me ... Can you have two Hall of Fame catchers both nicknamed Pudge? Is that right?

Pitcher: No idea. I'm not going to pick pitchers except in special circumstances. I will say that my friend Mike Boddicker won a Gold Glove with the Red Sox ... he tells a great story about facing Kirby Puckett. Bod threw one of his junk pitches (he had a million of them) and struck out Puckett ... and Puckett -- WHILE HE WAS SWINGING AND MISSING -- yelled, "If you're going to throw the ball, throw it like a man."

Bod also says that Rod Carew was once quoted in the newspaper saying: "My wife has me take out better garbage than Boddicker throws." Bod was proud of that.

Baltimore Orioles

First Base: Rafael Palmeiro. Everyone remembers the ridiculous Gold Glove he won in 1999, when he only played 28 games at first. Because of that, people think he was overrated defensively. Maybe. But he was awfullly good defensively in his early years -- anyway better than Boog Powell. Eddie Murray won three Gold Gloves too, but I've always heard from scouts that HE was overrated defensively. Special mention to the St. Louis Browns' George McQuinn who was, apparently, a defensive whiz.

Second base: Ski Melillo. By all accounts a terrific defensive second baseman for the Browns. He also had a stretch in his life when he ate nothing but spinach -- so you have to give him a Popeye bonus. Rich Dauer made one error in 87 games at second base in 1978 -- he went 425 straight plays without an error. One contemporary said this was because, "He only reached grounders hit right at him."

Shortstop: Mark Belanger. Who else? One of the best defenders ever. One question that I've never really heard answered well -- was Cal Ripken a good defensive shortstop? Many people say yes -- especially those who measure the numbers -- but scouts have consistently told me he had no range and had to rely entirely on positioning. I tend to think his positioning was awfully, awfully good.

Third base: Harlond Clift. He set a league record with 50 double plays in 1937 and ... no, I'm just kidding. Of course it's Brooksie. My father's favorite player. Brooks Robinson is one of those rare players that defies comparison ... it's like when people would ask Buck O'Neil, "Just how fast was Cool Papa Bell?" He would say: "Faster than that." That's Brooks too. Ask how good he was at third base, someone of out generation should simply say: "Better than that."

Outfield: Paul Blair, Jackie Brandt and Baby Doll Jacobson. Blair was the smoothest outfielder I ever saw. I loved watching him play. Brandt, supposedly, was the original flake, but a dandy outfielder. Baby Doll Jacobson was an outstanding defensive outfielder for the Browns in the 1920s. And Al Bumbry deserves mention here.

Catcher: Rick Dempsey. Not a lot of competition, but he was a pretty good defensive catcher. Here's a little Dempsey tidbit ... he came up in 1969 at 19. He was the fourth youngest player in the league. He retired in 1992 at age 42. He was the fourth oldest player.

Pitcher: Jim Palmer. He won four Gold Gloves. He tells a great story about facing Al Kaline in his first start. He said the first time he faced Kaline, he thought, "I'll bust him inside with a fastball." Kaline crushed it to left for a home run. Palmer said, "OK, he can hit my fastball. But what about my curve?" Next time up, he threw his best curve outside, and Kaline smacked it to right field for a single.

"I learned an important lesson that day," Palmer said. "I learned Al Kaline was better than me."
It's mostly true too. Kaline did homer and hit a single off Palmer in his first start. But in their first ever match-up, Palmer struck out Kaline.

Toronto Blue Jays

First base: John Olerud. Since the Blue Jays have only been around since 1977, it will be interesting to see how they match up with the older clubs. They match up well here. Olerud was, in fact, a terrific defensive first baseman.

Second base: Damaso Garcia. He's the only Blue Jays second baseman who qualifies for the 750 games rule. He's not an embarrassing choice. He was, in fact, an above average second baseman, but no Frank White or Bill Mazeroski.

Shortstop: Tony Fernandez. Amazing defensive shortstop in his early years -- he looked like a future Hall of Famer until he was 28 or so. After that he played for about 837 teams, including a second stint with the Blue Jays (he was reborn -- he hit .321 and .328 in his two later seasons with Toronto). He won four Gold Gloves as a young shortstop and my recollection is that he deserved them all. He could do it all back then.

Third base: Kelly Gruber. Only two Blue Jays qualify here ... and Gruber was A LOT better defensively than Ed Sprague. But of course, I have an Ed Sprague story. In the 1992 World Series, the Blue Jays were playing the Braves, I was a very young reporter, scared, intimidated, and my friend Ed Price -- now Yankees writer for the Newark Star Ledger -- told me: "You have to go up and talk to Ed Sprague." Ed had gone to Stanford with Sprague, said he was a wonderful guy. "Just mention my name," Ed Price said.

So, before the game I saw Ed Sprague standing alone -- a World Series rarity for any player. I considered going over and talking to him, dropping my buddy's name, and then it occured to me: This guy is Ed Sprague. What good will it do for me to talk to him? So I went into the scrum of reporters talking to Bobby Cox (I couldn't hear him from where I was standing, but I'm sure Cox said something like, "We have to take these one at a time").

Of course, that was the game when Ed Sprague hit the game-winning home run. A game-winning World Series home run. What are the odds? After the game, I couldn't get anywhere near him. And so I waited and waited, and when I finally got to Sprague I said, "Hey, Ed Price says hello." And Sprague, to his everlasting credit, kind of nodded, smiled and gave me a look that said: "Um, too late pal. I'm a hero now. Should have talked to me before the game."

Outfield: Lloyd Moseby, Jesse Barfield and, er, um, Joe Carter. Moseby was terrific defensively. Barfield had the second- or third-greatest arm I ever saw (behind Ellis Valentine and Cory Snyder). And Joe Carter is, um, better than George Bell and Shannon Stewart.

Catcher: Ernie Whitt. He's the only qualifier. He was better than average defensively, I think.

Pitcher: No idea. Was Dave Stieb good defensively. I don't think so. Jim Clancy?

OK, that's it for the East. The Royals lost tonight 7-4. De la Rosa pitched pretty annoying baseball, as he will, but the real goat was Todd Wellemeyer, who was flat awful. David Riske was bad too. The Royals are 3-6. They would be a much more pleasant 4-5 if it weren't that disastrous Riske ninth inning on Sunday. Teams like the Royals simply cannot afford losses like that. We'll try to hit the Central defense during tomorrow's game with the Orioles.

Zack, Gordon and Bad Rock and Roll

Some thoughts on this Tuesday night, watching the Royals and Blue Jays play ball

Report No. 2:

-- I've mentioned this before in the column, but I can never hear about the Sonic Slam Inning without shaking my head. Those of you in Kansas City know ... if a Royals hitter hits a home run then a pre-chosen listener gets some ever-changing sum of money. But if a player hits a grand slam "out of the park" then the listener gets $25,000.

The key words there, as you can tell by the quotation marks, are "out of the park." Apparently if someone hits an inside the park grand slam homer, they will NOT pay off the 25 grand. Do you know how many inside the park grand slam home runs the Royals have hit in their history? Go ahead ... take a guess. Yeah. Zero.

-- OK, here's Alex Gordon again. And he swings -- he yanked it! He hit it good! Will it stay fair? YES! There's the home run. And a career has begun.
They just showed Gordon in the dugout, and he had a smile about as big as Nebraska. You know that's a relieved young guy.

-- Tony Pena Jr. just hit his fourth triple in eight games as a Royal ... his dad hit four triples in his last 675 games.

Report No. 1:

-- Alex Gordon just grounded back to the pitcher -- he's now 0-for-2 today, and 1-for-23 in his short Major League career. I guess the question is: When does this become, like, a serious problem.?
Everybody points to Willie Mays beginning his career 1 for 26 -- and Leo Durocher telling him "As long as I'm the manager, you are my centerfielder." Is this something Buddy Bell could say? And, no offense to Buddy, but would this even comfort Gordon?

Here are a few unrelated Major League starts:

-- George Brett: 2 for 25.
-- Mike Schmidt: 4 for 23 with homer.
-- Albert Pujols: 8 for 23 with homer.
-- Barry Bonds: 9 for 26 with homer.
-- Paul Molitor: 9 for 23 with homer.
-- Derek Jeter: 6 for 26.
-- Duane Kuiper: 11 for 22 (!)
-- Alex Rodriguez: 6 for 25.
-- Mark Quinn: 10 for 25 with five homers (FIVE!)
-- Buddy Bell: 5 for 24 with a homer.
-- Rod Carew: 6 for 26 with a homer.
-- Mario Mendoza: 7 for 24

-- OK, it's the fourth inning, and Zack Greinke looks fabulous. He just struck out Frank Thomas looking, which used to be harder to do than fitting the rich man through the eye of a needle or whatever that biblical reference is. On this one, Greinke threw a pitch that looked like it more or less split the middle of the plate -- maybe the inner half of the plate -- and Thomas did his "Oh man, that pitch almost hit me" dance, which got him about 8,000 walks in the 1990s.

The umpire rung him up enthusiastically. Good for him.

Anyway, Greinke has thrown four innings, allowed three singles, struck out four, walked nobody, and I just love the way he's throwing. I've been over this before: There's this entirely new purpose to this guy's pitching. He throws every pitch HARD -- and I'm not talking about miles per hour. I mean, he's putting his full effort in every pitch, even his change-up. He's not giving in after a few foul balls, and he's not bailing out with some trick pitch.

He has thrown 70 pitches through four innings, which seems like a lot for a three-hit shutout (especially because 45 of them have been strikes). But that just continues the point: He's battling. I don't think you can overstate how much it would mean to the Royals short term and long term if Greinke puts it all together.

-- The comments have been great on the bad rock and roll bands of the 1980s. And the person who mentioned that Foreigner should have been part of the group is absolutely right. Throw Foreigner in there -- it's urgent, urgent, emergency.

Baseball Night In Canada III

-- OK, third inning, and here's Mike Sweeney facing A.J. Burnett. Unnamed scouts (you know how much I love those guys) have told me that Sweeney's bat is MUCH slower than it used to be. Sweeney used to be a guy that crushed fastballs -- you simply couldn't throw it fast enough for him.
Well, Burnett just blew a 96-mph fastball right by him to make the count 1-2. That wasn't a good sign. Sweeney also used to be a great two-strike hitter ... one of the toughest in the league strike out. Burnett threw his power curve, Sweeney beat it into the ground and into the hole between short and third -- his second infield hit of the day. Not sure what we learned there.

-- And here's Alex Gordon, bases loaded, two outs, facing A.J. Burnett. Let's go pitch-by-pitch again.

Pitch 1:
Pitch 2: An 85 mph curve inside,
Pitch 3: A 97 mph fastball -- Gordon takes a defensive swing and fouls it back.
Pitch 4: Another 97 mph fastball -- Gordon takes a defensive swing and fouls it back. It looks like a replay.
Pitch 5: Power curve, 83 mph, starts low and stays low. Gordon lays off.
Pitch 6: An 81-mph sliders, starts low, stays low, Gordon tries to check his swing but can't. Strike three. That's 1-for-20. He really looks overmatched at the moment.

-- So I was curious to see what you could learn about a team from just the first five games of a season. I heard someone talk about how the Marlins were early season "surprises." The Marlins are 4-2 (and winning tonight) and the Twins are 4-1 (and losing big to the Yankees. Could this possibly mean anything at all?
So I did a quick look over the last few years.

2006:
Detroit started 5-0. Give it up ... the Tigers did go to the World Series.
Milwaukee started 5-0. No indication, the Brewers finished 75-87.
2005:
Atlanta, Houston and the White Sox all started 4-1. All three made the playoffs, and the White Sox beat Houston in the World Series. The Dodgers also started 4-1, though, and ended up firing Paul DePodesta.
2004:
Five teams started 4-1, only the Dodgers made the playoffs. Oakland did win 91 games. Detroit lost 90 games.
2003:
Two teams started 5-0 -- Kansas City and San Francisco. The Giants won 100 games. The Royals actually stayed in first place in the A.L. Central for most of the year.
2002:
The Giants started 5-0 -- and went to the World Series.
2001:
Four teams started 4-1, two made the playoffs (including Seattle, which won 116 games) and one was awful (Montreal lost 94 games).
2000:
Three teams started 4-1, and only St. Louis made the playoffs.
1999:
The Giants and Boston started 5-0 (wow, the Giants have had some good starts), and Boston made the playoffs.
1998:
Cleveland started 5-0 and won the division.
1997:
Five teams started 4-1, and three of them made the playoffs, including Florida which ended up winning the World Series.

So that's 10 years, and I have absolutely no idea what it proves. Probably nothing. But it does seem like getting off to a good start might mean something.

By the way, Vernon Wells just hit what looked like an 800-foot home run. That makes it 5-0, Blue Jays. And Burnett is now cruising. The Royals are in danger of going 2-5. That would be a bad start.

-- OK, it's now 8-0 Blue Jays, and this blog night is about to end. We'll stick around for a half inning here to see Alex Gordon bat one more time. But before he comes up, they show Getty Lee in the crowd. Yes, that's the lead singer for Rush. I'll throw the poll out there -- I don't know how to do an official poll, but you can answer in comments.

The best and crappiest of these 1980s bands:
-- Rush
-- Journey
-- REO Speedwagon
-- Styx
-- The Outfield
-- 38 Special

To me, there is a very definite right and wrong answer here. One of these bands sucks the most. And one is significantly better than the others.

Alex Gordon, by the way, broke his bat on the first pitch and hit into a fielder's choice. He's now 1-for-21. The Royals went up and down so fast, the Royals announcer never even had time to say it was the Sonic Slam Inning.

-- Holy Cow, John Buck just dropped a pop-up. I have no comment on that. Why don't we try this again tomorrow night.

Baseball In Canada II

-- You know, it's weird considering Frank Thomas spent the first 16 years of his career with the White Sox, but he now seems like a total rent-a-player. There's no, "Oh, he just looks wrong in a Blue Jays" uniform feeling.
Royals announcer Paul Splittorff just said, "You know Thomas finished fourth in the MVP voting last year." Ugh. I had almost forgotten.

-- Emil Brown just threw out Vernon Wells at home plate by about 15 feet. You know, Emil said a couple of weeks ago that he was an underrated left fielder -- "underrated" in this case meaning that he disagrees with all the people who think he sucks out there. We'll keep a defensive eye on him. So far, he's plus-one.
By the way, when did Vernon Wells start running like Boog Powell. Youch.

-- Here's Alex Gordon -- and they just showed a statistic that he has reached two strikes in 14 of his 19 at-bats. I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what that statistic means. But he's reached two strikes again. In fact it's a 3-2 count against A.J. Burnett ... this should be an interesting pitch.
OK, it wasn't that interesting. Burnett hit him.

-- I have absolutely no idea how anybody hits A.J. Burnett. He throws 98, has some sort of a ridiculous power curve and a nasty slider. And at the same time, he's 30 now, and he's 59-59. How do you explain that?
Wait, he just a 99-mph fastball three-feet high to walk the bases loaded, and the next pitch he threw a fastball when catcher Greg Zaun called for a curve (the 96-mph heater bounced right off of Zaun's chest protector). That might begin to explain things.

-- Announcer Ryan Lefebvre just brought up a pretty common baseball pet peeve ... why are pitchers not allowed to catch pop-ups? Everybody asks this question, but as far I can tell, nobody's ever given a good answer. There must be some reason.

-- Former Royals headache Ambiorix Burgos had his first official Burgos moment today ... he came in with the bases loaded against Philadelphia and got Abraham O. Nunez to ground out. Good, right? Next inning, he hit Jimmy Rollins, gave up a single Shane Victorino, gave up a stolen base, struck out Chase Utley, and grooved a pitch to Ryan Howard who crunched a three-run homer. And he then struck out Pat Burrell. That's Ambiorix. You've been warned Mets fans.

-- Royce Clayton is still playing baseball. Man. Since 2002, he has played for SEVEN different teams -- and every single one of them finished .500 or worse. The Royals announcers (naturally) just said he's a good influence in the clubhouse.
I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, but Royce Clayton has made more than $31 million in his career.

-- It's not going well for the Royals. Odalis Perez looked awful and got yanked in the second inning. Buddy Bell just got tossed out of the game for arguing a BRUTAL fan interference call by the umpire -- and also for peppering a world record 32 F words in one 20-second conversation.
The call: Bases loaded, one out, Lyle Overbay hit a shot down the first base line. Some idiot fan reached over and grabbed it. That's a ground-rule double. But the umpire allowed three runs to score -- replays showed that Reed Johnson (the third run) had barely crossed second base when the fan touched the ball. It was a terrible call. It's no wonder Buddy got tossed.
But it's more than just a bad call. It's the kind of awful call that I never understand. Hey, I can appreciate a missed call, a mistake, but why would you go out of your way to make that kind of ridiculous call -- fan touches the ball in Toronto, that should have been two runs. Period.

Whatever. Royals are down 4-0.

Baseball Night In Canada

OK, it's gametime -- well, actually, right now they're showing David DeJesus interviewing Mark Teahen. David is a fine player. And as an interviewer, he's a fine player. So while this is happening, let's take a quick look at what we've learned so far.

-- I know this has been said before but you really don't want your closer's name to sound like "Risky," do you? I know there have been some studies done that show that, historically, a team is really no more likely to lose the day after a bad loss than after a dramatic win. It sure feels like some losses are worse than others, though.
When David Riske gave up that three-run homer in the ninth to lose to Detroit, well, it seemed like the season had truly begun. It's amazing that some teams have actually gone entire seasons without giving up ninth-inning leads. The Royals rarely seem to go a week without giving them up.

-- OK, is it too early to start panicking? Alex Gordon is 1-for-19 with 8 strikeouts. He's in the lineup tonight, so we'll keep a close eye. For the record, George Brett was 3 for his first 37.

-- Buddy Bell said something odd in the paper today. He said he was worried about the Toronto turf and it's effect on hurt players. So he said he would rest Mark Gruzielanek two out of three games here (Esteban German is playing second tonight). That makes sense. He also said that he would rest Mike Sweeney two out of three games. Does that make any sense at all? He's a DESIGNATED HITTER. When would he even be on the turf?

-- I have watched one-half inning (A.J. Burnett was pretty sensational to start off the game -- 1-2-3, no balls hit out of the infield) and I have already seen three commercials featuring Missouri Lottery Kansas Royals scratchers tickets. The commercials seem to indicate that by throwing your money away on these lottery tickets, you will be showing that you are a "true fan." I have a feeling we'll have a few more comments about this as the evening goes on.