Home Run Derby

So back on June 3, the New York Mets announced the “15 Seconds of Met Fame” Contest in which fans could submit a 15-second video which would be used as 15-second Mets television spot using the slogan …

“The 2007 Mets. Your Season Has Come.”

The contest comes to its culmination tomorrow (July 24th), when the winning videos will debut on SNY when the Mets host the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Winners get tickets to a Mets Home Game and get introduced on the field. 

Naturally, some of these videos showed up on YouTube before the Mets will get a chance to show them. 

And here they are … with commentary.

Kids always win these things

This has a real shot of winning.  Because baseball executives think baseball fans love kids who love baseball. 

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The Chicago Cubs have traded catcher Michael Barrett to the San Diego Padres.

The Cubs will get Padres backup catcher Rob Bowen, minor league outfielder Kyler Burke, and possibly some cash.

A lot of people are saying the Cubs didn’t get enough for Barrett.  I don’t think so.  The Cubs tried to make a lateral move here to remove a catcher who’s become a distraction in their clubhouse. 

I’m surprised at what they got in return.  They got a decent replacement for Barrett and got a early 2006 2nd Round pick (albeit a project) in return.

This season, Rob Bowen has better offensive stats (except for Home Runs) than Barrett while playing at pitcher-friendly Petco Park.  He has a career .273 AVG and .442 SLG at Petco, which rank him 12th best for hitters with at least 75 At-Bats at Petco.  Playing full-time at Wrigley Field could improve those numbers - just as they did when Barrett came to the Cubs from Montreal (.253 AVG / .388 SLG with Montreal and  .284 /.484 with the Cubs).

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The Year is 1997.  July 31, 1997 to be exact.

Nearly ten years ago, the Chicago White Sox were 52-53 and 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Indians with two months left to play. The White Sox led the season series with Cleveland (3-2) with six games remaining against the Tribe in September.

However, the White Sox had just lost 6 of their last 8 games and were in need of something to get over the hump.  So the White Sox went to the 7/31 trading deadline - like a lot of teams - and looked to make something happen.

To the Shock and Ire of their fans, that something was to give up on the season.  The White Sox traded away their best starting pitcher (Wilson Alvarez: 9-8, 3.03 ERA), their closer (Roberto Hernandez: 27 Saves in 31 SvOpps, 2.44 ERA, 8.8 K/9) and another serviceable staring pitcher (Danny Darwin: 4.13 ERA - 2nd best in the rotation).

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf summed it up:  “Anyone who thinks we can catch Cleveland is crazy.”

Bart Simpson:  “Gotcha.  Can’t Win; Don’t Try.”`

The Sox finished in second place, six games behind the Indians.  The next two years, their attendance dropped to less than 17,000 a game - among the worst in the American League.

The year is 2007.  Today to be exact.

Two years removed from their 2005 World Series Championship, the White Sox are in shambles.  The Sox are 27-35 and wallowing in 4th Place in the AL Central - 10 games behind the Cleveland Indians and 4.5 games out of 3rd Place. 

The Sox lineup can’t hit (MLB worst .232 average) and their bullpen can’t get anyone out (MLB worst 5.80 ERA).  They’ve lost 16 of their last 20 games. 

Let’s sum up the season by paraphrasing Hawk Harrelson … “SHE GONE”

If there ever was a time for the White Sox to run up the White Flag and give up on the season, this is it.  They have two very tradeable free agents to be … pitcher Mark Buehrle and OF Jermaine Dye.   Buehrle has hinted at wanting to pitch for his hometown St. Louis Cardinals throughout his career.  Dye isn’t having the best season, but might get an offensive kick if his surroundings were to change.   And rumor has it that the Mets and Dodgers are interested in one or both.

I think White Sox fans would be more understanding if the Sox gave up this time.  Sox fans are usually pretty savvy baseball fans and might be more pissed off at Sox management if they lost Buehrle and Dye after a forgettable season … with nothing to show for it.

The next question is how well manager Ozzie Guillen would handle it.  I don’t think Guillen is a manager who would do very well with a ballclub that isn’t equipped with top tier talent. 

He’s not a manager suited for a rebuilding team - he’s a fiery competitor and might not suffer through the hard times very well. 

The last question is how much dead air we’d hear (or not hear) during Sox TV Broadcasts as Hawk and DJ can’t find anything to say.

Gary Sheffield opened his yapper the other day and told us that the reason there’s fewer African-Americans in Baseball is because of the influx of Latin American players who teams keep signing … and then Torii Hunter waxed on the subject and agreed with Sheff that African-Americans would be out of baseball in ten years.

HRD chimed in a couple days ago that it’s simple economics … Let’s find out what other bloggers are saying about it …

The esteemed Hardball Times agrees with Home Run Derby that it’s about the money …

The money trail leads to the answer to Sheffield’s concerns about the increasing ratio of Latin American to African-American in MLB in 2007.

One of my favorite blogs, Our Book of Scrap pined that the Devil Rays and other teams just wasted a bunch of draft picks if Sheffield/Hunter are right …

Boy, I bet the Devil Rays wish they had that kind of information when they drafted David Price with the #1 overall pick yesterday. Figure three years in the minors and this guy is only going to have a six-year Major League career

But my favorite thought on the matter comes from the Drunk Jays Fans …

Considering that, give or take a few million, there is roughly the same amount of African Americans in the U.S.A. as there are Canadians in North America; we have uncovered an even more sinister plot.

MLB hates Canadians more than it hates African Americans.

Both the Hardball Times and Drunk Jays Fans also delve into the diminishing role of Baseball in African-American culture.

Go check them out.

Gary Sheffield’s been in the news for this statement about the declining percentage of African-American Players in MLB:

I called it years ago. What I called is that you’re going to see more black faces, but there ain’t no English going to be coming out …

[It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do — being able to control them …

And now Torii Hunter has raised the bar on Fox Sports Radio today:

You go over to Latin America and you could buy a guy for $5,000. That’s the same guy from Compton, who you get in first round for a million dollars out of high school.

I think that it’s a business thing, not a race thing. Because it happens to African Americans, then it becomes a racial thing. I do agree that 10 years from now you are going to see no blacks (in MLB).

Sheffield and especially Hunter seem to understand how Baseball has paralleled the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. One of the results of NAFTA was that it opened the borders of Latin American countries to US Businesses looking to reduce their labor costs by opening factories in low-wage nations like Mexico.

It’s also Business 101. Reducing your costs while maximizing your returns is good for the bottom line. And MLB teams are no stranger to that philosophy.

Entry level employees, whether at a Factory or at Law Firm, typically are paid the lowest salaries. However, some entry level employees are recruited out of college or grad school (akin to the MLB draft) and paid big signing bonuses because they’ve shown a propensity to be able to contribute to the Firm quickly and also significantly over time. At the same time, if a company feels that it can get the same return on labor that costs less, they’ll often do it - the recent outsourcing of US jobs to India springs to mind.

Part of the reason players from America garner higher price tags than Latin American players is because the US players have typically had more experience and near-pro training (in High School or College) than their Latin American counterparts - and they’re closer to making the show. Also, let’s talk economies - a miniscule signing bonus by US standards might be more money than some Latin players could ever realistically earn over years in their native countries.

US and Canadian Citizens are also subject to the MLB Draft, whereas Latin American players are not.

If the Latin players were subject to the draft instead of being signed off the calle (street), I think you’d see higher signing bonuses, but possibly fewer Latin players signed.

MLB has recognized the change in its player population and their foreign fans (and their Pesos and Yen) by trying to expand its influence beyond the United States.

Playing recent regular season games in Puerto Rico and Mexico and by sponsoring events like the World Baseball Classic in 2006 are some of the more recognizable efforts.

It’s Globalization. Baseball is not immune.