Notes from the Under-Mound: Sept, 3, 2011

Yankee/Red Sox Games Take Too Long
I thought I liked baseball, but that was before I watched the Sox/Yankee game on Thursday night. I know I’m about the 10 millionth person to complain about the length of these games, but I’m also the 10 millionth person who is right about it. I get that drawing walks and working a count can take up more time, but that has nothing to do with the 35 plus seconds (yeah, I started timing) in between pitches. Can the Yankees and Red Sox please watch how Jose Bautista (who just happens to lead the league in OBP), operates in between pitches? The guy is as patient as anyone but instead of strolling through as much foul territory as possible in between pitches, he keeps one foot in the box most of the time. I know Blue Jays games tend to have fewer A-list celebs sitting behind home plate than Yankee/Red Sox tilts, but for the love of God, stay in the damn batter’s box.


MVP Watch: If Jose Bautista Isn’t Playing for a Contender, Neither is Justin Verlander
Every year I promise myself I’m not going to argue with my friends about MVP races, and every year I get sucked back in. It’s exactly like Michael Corleone trying to get out of the family business... exactly the same. I don’t want to go on some long diatribe about how to interpret what “valuable” means, but I will say that it seems preposterous to suggest the Tigers “contention” makes Verlander a better candidate than Bautista. The Blue Jays are as good a team (if not better) than Detroit. The Tigers, who play in a far weaker division, have still only managed to win 7 more games than the Blue Jays. If you don’t think playing 57 games a year against the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays, is substantially more difficult than 57 games against the Royals, Indians and Twins, I don’t know what to tell you. The Jays and Jose Bautista in the AL Central are playoff contenders, just like the Tigers in the AL East are nothing more than a .500 team.

Rooting for Lind
Everyone in Toronto is rooting for Adam Lind to succeed, but as we enter September, we may have reason to worry about the smiley Blue Jay. As Jay’s/Sportsnet blogger Tao of Stieb notes, in the last 253 games (save one hot month) Lind’s offensive numbers are eerily similar to the Arizona Diamondbacks first basemen’s. Has the ghost of Lyle Overbay come back to haunt Adam Lind? This year Lind’s WAR is 0.5 and we have seen his AVG and OBP dip down into the .250/.290 range. Looking for any reason I can to hope Lindy can break out of it, let’s remember he is hitting .253 against LHP, a year after he posted an abhorrent .117 clip. His BABIP is a tick low at .264 and despite a WAR of 0.5, I don’t think he is the defensive liability at first base that Fangraphs does (he has a +4 Total Zone rating according to Baseball-Reference.com). His line drive percentage is also right where it was when he had his breakout 2009 season. He still needs to take more walks but let’s not stick the proverbial fork in Lind yet, even if it’s just because we all like him so much.