Baseball And the Olympics Today…

Back in February when the Rockies traded Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals for a bag of beans, I thought that the Cards’ GM who pulled ithe deal off must have had a mask on his face and a gun in his hand. It was close to being a criminal act.  The Cards walked off with one of the – if not the – best third basemen in the game in exchange for pitcher Austin Gomber (ERA of 5.90 in 29 innings this year) and a couple minor league prospects.  Then, to show how serious the Rockies were about giving away Arenado, they tossed in $50M so that the Cards would not be “saddled” with Arenado’s salary.

The Rockies seem to have come to the realization that they have been fleeced because they canned their GM who negotiated that deal.  That action may come too late, and the Rockies may be in for some down times in the NL West.

  • Back in 2019, the Rockies lost second baseman, DJ LeMahieu to free agency.  Ignoring the truncated 2020 season, all he has done in two seasons with the Yankees since signing on there is to make the All-Star team, win two silver sluggers and finish in the Top 5 in MVP voting twice.
  • The Rockies gave away third baseman Nolan Arenado – – see above.
  • The Rockies have an outstanding young shortstop – Trevor Story – who is about to become a free agent and who has shown no interest or intention to sign on with the Rockies.

The Rockies had three “All-Star Quality” infielders in their system and could not figure out a way to build around them to be a contender and/or a way to keep those parts together as a functioning unit.  When LeMahieu left after the 2018 season, the Rockies were a 90-win team; in the same division with the Dodgers, that was not enough; but it was a foundation to build on.  As of this morning, the Rockies project to be sub-70 in wins this year.  Is that organizational malfeasance or non-feasance?  You make the call…

I was not the least bit surprised to read about the firing in Colorado but another baseball firing earlier this week did surprise me.  The Mets as a team – and Francisco Lindor specifically – have been struggling at the plate.  Demonstrating all the patience and equanimity that NYC teams and fans are noted for, the Mets fired their batting coach, Chili Davis, and replaced him with Hugh Quattlebaum.  [Aside:  When I first read the report, my brain “transliterated” that name to Hugo Quackenbush – Groucho Marx’ character in “A Day at the Races”.]

I do not want to make Chili Davis out to be an all-time great player in MLB history, but he did play in the major leagues in 19 seasons, made the All-Star team 3 times, had a career batting average of .274 and a career OPS of .811.  I consider that sufficient “street cred”…

Hugh Quattlebaum spent 5 years in the minor leagues and in those 5 years he played exactly 3 games above A-level baseball.  His minor league career produced a batting average of .241 and an OPS of .676 at that level.

Looking at the last two paragraphs in juxtaposition, the line from George Bernard Shaw’s play Man and Superman comes to mind:

“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”

And speaking of hitting, let me point you the 2021 stats for Mike Trout.  He has been the best player in MLB for a while now and his start to the 2021 season indicates that he may be having his best year ever.  I know; the season has hardly begun to unfold.  Nevertheless, please consider these numbers:

  • Trout has been to the plate 105 times; he has reached base via base hit or walk 53 times.  His OBP is .514.
  • His batting average is .407.
  • His slugging average is .779 and his OPS is a stratospheric 1.293.

Mike Trout is not going to end the season with those numbers intact; but those numbers represent an amazing way for a player to perform in the first 25 games of an MLB season.

Switching gears …  I have been trying here to stay abreast of the challenges facing the folks in Tokyo who are organizing the Olympic Games there.  Moreover, I have over the years been universally critical of the IOC and its less-than-fully-honest ways of doing business.  However, today I am more than willing to take a back seat to Sally Jenkins whose column today in the Washington Post runs under this headline:

“Japan should cut its losses and tell the IOC to take its Olympic pillage somewhere else”

Just in case you might think that the headline writer went overboard with that verbiage, here is Ms. Jenkins’ lead paragraph:

“Somewhere along the line Baron Von Ripper-off and the other gold-plated pretenders at the International Olympic Committee decided to treat Japan as their footstool. But Japan didn’t surrender its sovereignty when it agreed to host the Olympics. If the Tokyo Summer Games have become a threat to the national interest, Japan’s leaders should tell the IOC to go find another duchy to plunder. A cancellation would be hard — but it would also be a cure.”

Please take about 3 minutes to follow the link above and read this column.  Not only is it brilliantly written, but it is also illuminating.

Finally, since I referred to George Bernard Shaw above, let me close with one of his observations about governments:

“Alcohol is a very necessary article.  It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

2 thoughts on “Baseball And the Olympics Today…”

  1. Sally Jenkins may be a better writer, but Sports Curmudgeon had this Olympics target in sight years ago.

    1. TenaciousP:

      Sally Jenkins is a better writer by any yardstick that any literate person might offer up. She too has been on the IOC for more than a few years. She and I are “kindred spirits” on this issue.

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