Baseball Bits

This morning I heard Bob Irving on CJOB talk about the unusual playoff structure that made our Winnipeg Goldeyes play the majority of their games on the road despite having a record better than the other team.  Usually the better team gets to host the final game of a playoff series, but that's not the case in the American Association of Professional Baseball.  Irving also called the AA's playoff structure "bush league."

I'm with him on the Goldeyes deserving the chance to host the deciding game, but are we really fooling ourselves that the AA is anything but a bush league?  It's an independent league, velocities on the radar gun are below that of top high school pitchers, players travel everywhere by bus and rosters are so tiny that the only player available to act as a designated hitter is a backup catcher who hits below his weight.  It's charitable to call the play double-A equivalent and the comparison really only holds up if you don't consider the prospects that populate organized ball.

I enjoy going to watch the Goldeyes but I don't think there is anything wrong in admitting that, in the grand scheme of baseball, the play elsewhere is better.  Games in the league remain competitive because the players are all of a similar caliber.  And its about as good as Winnipeg can hope for as affiliated ball would have to start alongside the majors, which means early April if not very late March.  I can't imagine Winnipeg's weather cooperating enough to allow for outdoor baseball at that time of year.

Elsewhere, phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg is back in the major leagues, having recovered a little early from Tommy John surgery.  He's back to his old form zipping fastballs by opponents at up to 99 miles per hour.  He kept LA Dodger hitters on their toes by tossing the occasional changeup which would only register between 87 and 92 miles per hour.  Ted Lilly started on the mound for the Dodgers, his fastball topped out at 91.

And while listening to the Kansas City Royals beat up on the Oakland A's (who were once the Kansas City A's), Kevin Costner urged me to go to the World War I museum in KC should I ever happen to be in the neighbourhood.  I probably would anyway, but if Costner is passing out advice he should tell the co-owners of his baseball team to pay its employees.  I guess the AA can at least claim not to be anywhere near that level of bush.

That brings the post pretty well full circle as the only player to remain with the Lake County Fielders after pretty much every player left, was traded or got released was Alan Rick, the very same DH/catcher who was struggling at the plate when when I was talking about the Goldeyes.  I guess things didn't go much better for him in Lake County as he was released August 8.

Shame he didn't make it, he has a nice autograph.