The Futility Infielder

The post-trade deadline Hit List is up at Baseball Prospectus, with a look at which teams improved themselves, which ones dropped the ball, and which ones merely treaded water. The Yankees, thanks to their recent offensive onslaught, climb all the way to #2 behind the Red Sox, with the Mets third.

The Dodgers come in at #7:

With rotation injuries sprouting up like mushrooms--Randy Wolf may be done for the year, while Brad Penny and Derek Lowe narrowly escape DL stints--the Dodgers trade away their most productive third baseman for an overworked reliever and spend the rest of their deadline arguing internally over which prospects to keep and which to deal without pulling the trigger. That this one's so obvious even Bill Plaschke gets it right is a sign that whatever the current regime's faults, they know how to deal in PR. Bad news: Jeff Kent strains a hammy after a .447/.500/.737 July.

Yes, that's a Bill Plaschke link in the Hit List, and for once, my nemesis actually written something about the Dodgers that I agree with:

For the first time in a decade, they are no longer the kind of team that needs to do calisthenics every July to be strong for many Octobers.

They have a nucleus. They have a surplus. They have a clue.

What they may not eventually have this season is a spot in the playoffs, but -- and I can't believe I'm writing this -- maybe that can wait.

Maybe they have to sacrifice a September for James Loney, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier to learn how to play in the heat.

Maybe they have to lose a division for Jonathon Broxton to learn how to pitch under the glare.

Maybe Dodgers fans, just this once, will agree to pay for two months of soaring, skidding fun with an October of silence.

Having finally collected enough good players to contend for several years, the Dodgers smartly refused to break them up for the sake of this one.

Maybe, by taking no big steps, they have actually taken a giant one.

Sorry about that spacing; like high-powered magnets, Plaschke's thoughts continue to be too weighty to put side-by-side. Anyway, while none of the prospects Dodger GM Ned Colletti has traded have come back to bite the Dodgers thus far, every deadline gives Dodger fans the feeling that he's playing Russian roulette, willing to sacrifice a prospect or two in spectacularly shocking fashion. The GM puts up a unified front in the Plaschke piece, but the buzz leading up to the deadline had Colletti clashing with the team's player development arm over which prospects were tradable, particularly 19-year-old southpaw Clayton Kershaw, who stands a good chance of being one of the top three pitching prospects on next year's lists. Even with the Dodgers on the edge of a playoff spot, I can't fault them for keeping the kids together; 2007 won't be their last playoff chase by any means.

Anyway, elsewhere in the Hit List, you'll find Willy Wonka, Nightmare on Elm Street, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Lays potato chips, Thomas Hardy, and Coach Krupt. I challenge you to find a more eclectic assortment in any set of power rankings for the big four sports (baseball, chess, curling, and yak rodeo).

As for the Dodgers, I watched most of their three-game series against the Giants, with Barry Bonds perched on the precipice of history at 754 home runs. As negative as I am about the whole record chase, the the idea of Vin Scully calling the shot, as he did Aaron's 715th, certainly held some appeal, as did the idea of Bonds at least tying the record in the ultimate enemy territory as a chorus of boos rained down. The possibility of that contrast wasn't lost on Scully:

“This to me is different,” Scully said. “Aaron was received with great love, affection, adoration. I’m not sure how this one will be received. The story won’t be what I say. The story will be what the crowd will say. So I will shut up and let them take it.”

Scully is famous for going silent at the right times. When Aaron hit his 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth, Scully let 26 seconds pass, allowing the crowd in Atlanta to roar. Only then did he reflect on the setting, the meaning and the times:

“What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron.”

Speaking of that call, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Furman Bisher recently did a completely irresponsible hatchet job by taking Scully's call out of context, as though race were the first thing he mentioned.

Anyway, though they neutralized Bonds, the Dodgers dropped two out of the three games. They did win the middle one in dramatic fashion, outlasting rookie phenom Tim Lincecum with a four-run eighth-inning rally capped by a two-run homer by Nomar Garciaparra. Ironically, that was the one game called by the delightfully bent Giants' announcing team of Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper (futility personified, with one home run in 3,379 career at bats); they're about the only Giants-related thing I can stand. Overall, Bonds went 1-for-7 with five walks during the series, thereby halting a 19 at-bat hitless streak against the Dodgers. He only faced Dodger lefty specialist Joe Beimel once, resulting in a reach-on-error; Beimel, as the New York Times notes in a recent article, came into the series having held Bonds to 1-for-15 with a homer and two walks over the last two years.

The middle game also featured Scott Proctor's Dodger debut; he threw one pitch that resulted in an inning-ending caught stealing, and that was his night. When he reappeared the next night with somewhat less success (1.1 innings, one run on two walks and a hit), the sickening realization came over me that I am stuck with the guy like he's some felonious in-law trying to goad me into joining his next shady venture at every family event. There's no relief from Scott Proctor.

Meanwhile, Proctor's opposite number made a splash with the Yankees yesterday, belting a three-run homer in his first official at-bat as part of an eight-run comeback that eventually went for naught. I was at the stadium on Wednesday night and actually saw his Yankee debut as a defensive replacement for Alex Rodriguez. The more I think about the deal, the more I like it from the Yanks' perspective. Betemit's in his Age 25 season (he's listed as 27 on ESPN, but they're still using the false date that got the Braves in trouble several years back when it was revealed they signed him at 15), he's got a .264/.339/.445 career line that if you remove the first 50 at bats in 2001 and 2004 becomes .270/.344/.463, and he's arbitration-eligible for the first time this coming winter, meaning he'll be under the Yanks' control for the next three years. If he never wins a starting spot he's still the best hitter on the Yankee bench in ages.

A few links to note:

• Via Rob Neyer, the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee is being revamped again, with managers, umpires and executives screened and voted upon separately from the players; there will now be a VC election every year, with two sets alternating (managers/umps in '08, players in '09, execs TBD), a final ballot of 10 players, and a new five-year-cycle for players whose careers began before 1943. I'll have more on these changes at Baseball Prospectus soon.

• George Steinbrenner is in rough shape according to former Sports Illustrated writer Franz Lidz, who pays him a visit in this lengthy Conde Nast Portfolio piece.

• Speaking of Steinbrenner, I could watch Oliver Platt play the Boss to John Turturro's Billy Martin, as in the ESPN Bronx is Burning miniseries, on a weekly basis for the next five years without getting bored. The series has its share of problems, but the performances of those two, not to mention the comic relief provided by the Mickey Rivers character, are reasons to keep watching. Bruce Markusen has an entertaining profile of Mick the Quick at Bronx Banter.

Labels: Dodgers, Hit List, Vin Scully, Yankees

Reason #10,001 why Vin Scully is the greatest announcer ever, from the broadcast of last night's game: "Yes, the Phillies have lost 10,000, but it's not been all beer and skittles for the Dodgers either."

When I heard this, at first I thought the esteemed voice of the Dodgers was referencing a great Simpsons quote from the episode "Bart Star":

Homer: Got any of that beer that has candy floating in it? You know, Skittlebrau?

Apu: Such a beer does not exist, sir. I think you must have dreamed it.

Homer: Oh. Well, then just give me a six-pack and a couple of bags of Skittles.

Scully has never been a guest voice on the Simpsons, though he's often been imitated to uncanny effect by Harry Shearer. Realizing the likelihood of the 80-year-old voice of the Dodgers making such a reference was slim, I decided to Google the phrase. As it turns out, it predates the Simpsons by several centuries:

Meaning

'Beer and skittles' is shorthand for a life of indulgence spent in the pub.

Origin

Skittles, also known as Ninepins, which was the pre-cursor to ten-pin bowling, has been a popular English pub game since the 17th century. The pins are set up in a square pattern and players attempt to knock them down with a ball. It is still played but not so much as previously.

The phrase was referred to in Footman's History of the Parish Church of Chipping Lambourn (1894), which reprints a piece from 1634:

"William Gyde... for playing at skittolles on Sunday."

Citations of beer and skittles and variants appear in literature from the 19th century. For example, Dickens' Pickwick Papers, 1837:

"It's a reg'lar holiday to them - all porter and skittles."

Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1857:

"Life isn't all beer and skittles.

Several other sites back up this interpretation. So in the end, two of my favorite things have given me even more reason to appreciate their depth. Scully's added another fine archaism to his arsenal, and the genesis of a great Simpsons joke has been revealed. I'll drink to that!

Labels: Simpsons, Vin Scully

Buried within his daily column, Salon's King Kaufman takes note of a wonderful moment on Friday night when Dodger announcer Vin Scully let a ninth-inning confrontation between Dodger closer Takashi Saito and Angel slugger Vlad Guerrero speak for itself. The Golden Throat of baseball history told his listeners, "Boy, when you get a matchup like this, Guerrero and Saito, I think the best thing to do is shut up. Just, uh, you concentrate, and I'm gonna have some fun myself."

Watching the scene myself on Friday night, I thought back to Scully's artful handling of Nomar Garciaparra's game-winning home run in the now-legendary 4+1 game:

Leftfielder Roberts had already turned back to face the plate as the ball went over the wall as pandemonium broke out both in Dodger Stadium and in my own private viewing box; somehow I managed to keep from waking my wife. The Dodgers dogpiled at home plate as Scully, with admirable restraint, let the celebratory scene do the talking.

Two minutes later, the master of the mic remarked enthusiastically, "I forgot to tell you: the Dodgers are in first place!" Another minute of crowd shots and stadium noise passed, un-Scullyed, before he finally signed off: "I think we've said enough from up here. Once again, the final score in 10 innings -- believe it or not -- Dodgers 11, Padres 10."

I remember showing that clip to Alex Belth a few months back, just after he'd commented that there wasn't anything particularly memorable about Scully's calls during the four consecutive homers that had transpired the previous inning. Alex left my home whistling a different tune.

Once again, thanks to Vin Scully for giving the gift of his understated style.

Labels: announcers, Dodgers, Vin Scully