Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you stayed up to watch the madness because you’ll never see anything like what transpired on Wednesday night happen again for the rest of your lives. One can only hope a night so magical unfolds like that every season. If the playoffs and World Series are even half as exciting, it would be an excellent postseason. By now, you’ve seen the results and you’ve seen the highlights. So instead, we’ll focus on the fan and media reactions.

Note: This page has a lot of videos on it which makes it a bit unstable if you’re doing a bunch of tasks on your computer. Your browser might freeze if you have a lot of tabs open. Sorry.

ESPN’s Buster Olney

ESPN’s Mike and Mike

MLB Network crew

“Red Sox Decline” – Parody of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”

CNBC

Baltimore Sun interviews fans after Orioles game

St. Petersberg Times video

President Barack Obama welcomed the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants into the White House on July 25. After making the speech (video below), he accepted a few gifts from the team and posed for photos. Willie Mays was also in attendance. Obama singled out two players in his speech: Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson. Obama quipped that he does “Fear the Beard” when referencing Wilson. He had nothing but kind words for the Giants, except that he’d be rooting for the White Sox if the Giants happen to face them in the World Series although he said that was “not a sure thing.”

Follow Matt on Twitter and Facebook for all his baseball and Fantasy sports updates! For every update here at The Dugout Doctors, follow our official Twitter account @DugoutDoctors.

The Dugout Doctors present the 3,000 Hit Club.

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The Baseball Writers’ Association of America revealed the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot yesterday, and with it we learned the 19 candidates whose names will be appearing for the first time. At this slow stage in Baseball’s off-season, it’s always fun to have something to speculate over, so let’s take a look at who has a chance at the necessary 75% of the BBWAA’s votes.

Right off the bat we’re going to eliminate the Carlos Baerga’s and Charles Johnson’s on the list. They were good players, but a .245 Avg. over twelve seasons isn’t going to get it done, Charles, even if you are Fred McGriff’s cousin.

That whittles us all the way down to 5 candidates (sorry, Bobby Higginson) who appear to have a decent shot at an eventual election to the Hall (it should be noted that Juan Gonzalez and, more so, Rafael Palmeiro have the numbers to be there. However, if Mark McGwire is any example, the steroid speculation surrounding them will ruin any chance at election)

1. Jeff Bagwell

Though nobody on the list is a sure-fire first-ballot selection, the former Astro is as close as they come. With Bagwell we’re talking about a guy who was 1991′s Rookie-of-the-Year, and from ’93-’04 was consistently one of the best hitters in the league. In his MVP season he hit 39 HRs and 116 RBIs while scoring 104 Runs. That season? 1994–the strike year. That’s right, Bagwell put up those power numbers in just 110 Games. His career OPS was .948 while he added solid defense, earning himself a Gold Glove award in 1994.

Verdict: He’s in, this year or next.

2. Al Leiter

Leiter always struck me as a classy player who loved every second of his career. He pitched in three World Series, one of which his team won (’97 Marlins). Since retirement, Leiter has also offered insightful commentary in the announcer’s booth. However, none of this adds up to a HOF selection. 300 Wins will get you to Cooperstown, no doubt. Al has 162. Multiple Cy Young awards aught to do it as well. His closest finish was sixth place, in ’98. I always liked watching him play, but in the end, he just doesn’t deserve to make it.

Verdict: Sorry, Al.

3. Kevin Brown

Brown has a stronger resume than Leiter, his former Marlins teammate. 211 Wins, 3.28 career ERA, and six All-Star selections to go with his World Series title. Unfortunately, if you take a closer look at the resume, under “interests,” he clearly lists “‘roiding with my strong friends.”

If you use the “similarity score” feature at Baseball-Reference, you’ll find that Brown compares quite similarly to Hall-of-Famers Don Drysdale and Catfish Hunter. So, he’s got a shot, just not a great one.

Verdict: The steroids speculation hurts an already iffy chance, so we’ll say no, he doesn’t make it.

4. Larry Walker

Here we have the hardest decision on the list. When I think of Walker, I think of an elite player. Throughout his playing days he was always one of the best. His 383 HRs might be a little low, but his career On-Base-Percentage sits at a fantastic .400 and his OPS is actually higher than Bagwell’s at .965. Born in Canada, Walker used to shag fly balls in the darkness of a deep forest (can’t find a source, but it sounds true) and the training paid off in the result of seven Gold Gloves. He was the 1997 NL MVP with a slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) of .366/.452/.720, while putting up even better numbers in 1999.

What will likely hurt Walker is the feeling that his power numbers are inflated. Not by steroids–no, he always seemed to play the game right. Inflated instead by the amusement park that is Coors Field in it’s pre-humidor days. You needn’t look any further than Vinny Castilla and Dante Bichette to realize Coors produced some souped up numbers, and in the end, the voters could hold that against him.

Verdict: He probably won’t make it in his first or second chance, but I think eventually Larry Walker will find himself the second Canadian elected into the Hall.

5. Tino Martinez

If all writers were Yankee fans–and it sometimes seems that way–Tino would be a lock for Cooperstown. Unfortunately for him, that’s not the case, and his numbers just don’t add up. I would imagine everyone thinks of Martinez as better than he actually was because, as a Yankee, he was in the playoffs every single year. And don’t get me wrong, he was certainly a solid player–he just doesn’t have the stats he needs to get a plaque in the Hall.

Verdict: Won’t make it.

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Clearly, of the five, Bagwell is the only near-lock. Expect him to get over 75% and to join Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar, who both barely missed election in last year’s vote.

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Does Lou Piniella Make a difference?

If Tony LaRussa bolts St. Louis should anyone care?

If Joe Torre bows out for more free time in the L.A sun, will the world end?

It seems this season we will be keeping a watchful eye on the futures of a few high profile managers, but why do we care? Are baseball managers really that important?

We know that managers have different expectations placed upon them. Joe Girardi is expected to take his team to the World Series. As is Mike Scioscia (Angels), Charlie Manuel (Phillies), and Tony LaRussa (Cardinals). However, we can’t expect Ron Washington (Rangers) and Jim Riggleman (Nationals) to achieve the same thing. But there is one thing every manager is expected to do: win.

Certainly the quantity or quality of their wins differ from team to team but, nonetheless, they should be winning more games than they did the year before. But you can’t put a team’s success or failure to win on a manager.

Take the 2007 Yankees led by Joe Torre. They were a poor team lucky to make it into the playoffs only to get bounced in the first round. This meant the axe for Joe. In comes Joe Girardi and only two years later the New York Yankees win their 27th World Series Ring. What changed? The manager? Yes.

But perhaps something easier to understand the pitching staff in 2007 included Andy Pettitte, Rogers Clemens, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Ken Igawa, and Chien-Ming Wang.

In 2009 it was C.C Sabathia, A.J Burnett, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettite. So it looks like you can be successful if you replace two guys of retirement age (Clemens and Mussina) and two starters who were underachievers (Hughes and Igawa) with a Cy Young winner (Sabathia) and a young gun with a proven arm (Burnett). Let’s not forget either that unlike ’07 when Alex Rodriguez hit .267 in the divisional series, A-Rod hit .455 in the ALDS in ‘09.

Point being is that while baseball managers may be valuable to a team, nothing is more valuable than production on the field.

So what do we do with managers who have been recognized as good at their job? Generally speaking: we fire them. Take the winners of Manager of the Year: since 1983 in the American League, only 4 managers have won MOTY and have not gone on to be fired.

There is, as always, a reasonable explanation for their demise and it goes back to the first point: players matter most. Managers don’t. Take Jack McKeon, the beloved 2003 Florida Marlins manager. He took his team from irrelevant to a World Series ring. But 3 seasons later, the man who got so much credit for taking a team to the World Series was stepping down at the end of another disappointing season.

What had changed in that time? Staff ace Josh Beckett was gone. A. J Burnett was gone. Derrick Lee, Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan Pierre had all said goodbye. Once again it comes back to players. It is no wonder why MLB managers get paid an average of 1.3 M, easily the lowest of the three major sports.

Let’s not look at this as an indictment of managers. MLB managers certainly attribute to key decisions and living in Chicago I have seen my fair share of bad managers. We can all also agree that some managers have the right temperament for a particular team. A young team needs a guy who holds them accountable and can also teach. Where as a veteran team might need a manager who just keeps the train moving, so to speak.

So if we can all agree that a MLB manager isn’t all that important to winning, then why fire them at all? The reason is that a manager can contribute to a team’s losing ways far easier than he can help them win.
Moving Pujols to 9th in the lineup and limiting Chris Carpenter to 60 pitches a game would certainly hurt your team. So a manager is fired to give a team a boost. It’s a move done to send a message to others and lets face it: a general manager fires the manager. It’s much easier to for Kenny Williams to say Ozzie Guillen is not a right fit for the ballclub anymore rather than to say that he constructed a bad ballclub, even if everyone knows the latter is true.

But making a change to make a change isn’t the answer either. Moving Riggleman from the Nationals dugout won’t make the team perform better unless the guy that replaces him knows something he doesn’t or is capable of something special. Managers can’t prevent injuries. They can’t prevent slumps at the plate, and they cannot prevent better teams from beating them on most days.

I know this season will have its usual round of MLB Hot Seat and we’ll be watching the futures of Torre and LaRussa, but at the end of the day the only thing worth watching are the players out on the field. They will most certainly make the most difference.

@Mikearta

Big Mac Returns to the Batting Cage

After a few years of staying away from the baseball diamond and clear from cameras, Big Mark McGwire returned to the place that made him famous. Mac only took a few swing off the tee, and is noticeably smaller, but remember “steroids did not make him hit the ball out of the park.”

Whatever that means. Anyways, good to see you swinging again, Mac. It looks like you could hit .200 and knock at least 20 out, right?

Big Mac is ready for a new start

Mark McGwire reported to Cardinals camp in Jupiter, FLA Thursday and answered a few more softball questions from local reporters. McGwire continued to tell reporters how “sorry” he was and how much he regretted using banned substances during his late 90s home run binge. From the AP:

“It’s something I regret,” McGwire told reporters. “I can’t say I’m sorry enough to everybody in baseball and across America, and whoever watches this great game. “I think people understand how truly sorry I am for what I did.”

Sadly, McGwire contradicted his apology by saying steroids did not make him hit the ball further, it only gave him more at bats.

“Like I’ve said, people are going to have their opinions,” McGwire said. “Listen, it got me the opportunity to get out there and get more at-bats, and I got the chance to play.”

Mac, you are correct, steroids DO help you recover from various injuries, but you are wrong and contradicting your apology when you say they do not help you hit the ball out of the ballpark. You seem to be in denial, and still think you could have made the Hall of Fame with or without the juice.

The facts are you took the juice, played a lot longer than you should have because of the juice, and hit a lot more HR with the juice than you would have without.

McGwire keeps saying how sorry he is for cheating the game, but also says he does not think steroids helped him hit the ball out of the park. So what is he sorry for? Playing in too many games? Huh?!

Steroids add about 100 ft (Doc’s guesstimate) and millions of rotations on the baseball creating an inordinate amount of backspin, therefore making the ball go out of the ballpark nearly every time a 6’5″ 225 pound behemoth hits the sweet spot.

McGwire also said the evolution of his swing helped him hit 70(!) HR and not steroids. LOL.

Big Mac would go on and say how bad he felt for Roger Maris and his family, which again, contradicts his apology, and said he felt he owed it to the Maris family to call them before his steroids admission on national TV. I am still confused on what McGwire is sorry about.

It seems he is very happy with his admission, and happy he cleared his conscious, but the juice rotted his brain because he has no idea what he is sorry for.

“It took a lot to do what I did,” McGwire said. “I spoke the truth. Let’s move on and turn this into a really positive thing.”

I will happily turn it into a positive when you admit steroids made you a better player. Barry Bonds was a HOFer before he used steroids, but you were not.

Sidenote: Another creepy/forgotten fact in this mess is Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa’s role in the entire steroids era. He managed McGwire twice, Jose Canseco when he was a 40/40 caliber player, and the dozens of other abusers LaRussa would turn his back on all for the price of winning.

Matt Anaya
Twitter @MatAnaya @DugoutDoctors

If you do not know who Bryce Harper is, now you do. The probable number one pick in this season’s 2010 MLB Draft, Harper, a catcher by trade, is only 18 years old and mashing already this season. He has been touted for a couple years now as the ‘Lebron James of Baseball’

Through Valentine’s Day, Harper was hitting .362, getting on base over 42% of the time, and has three HR and 15 RBI.

Harper received his GED after dropping out of high school last season in order to chase his big league dreams. He will be eligible after this season for the June MLB Draft and he is expected to be represented by super agent Scott Boras who will likely scare off potential suitors.

It is more than probable Harper and Boras will command more than the $15.1 million last season’s No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg did, but will it cost Harper the title of top pick?

Swing analysis: Got fooled, hips flew open, kept hands back and smoked that ball. He literally accidentally hit that ball out of the park. Unbelievable.

We’re still trying to figure out what song he comes out to. Sounds like Bonecrusher or someone, can anyone help?

Matt Anaya
Twitter.com/MatAnaya

Belated Congratulations

On Wednesday, January 6th, OF Andre “Hawk” Dawson, in his 8th year of eligibility (starts 5 years after retirement) was the sole player inductee into the 2010 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Career Highlights

21 seasons
2627 Games Played

Rookie of the Year in 1977
NL MVP in 1987

.983 Fielding %
.279 BA
438 HR
1591 RBI
2774 Hits
314 SB

4 Silver Sluggers
8 All Star games
8 Gold Gloves

Received MVP votes in 9 seasons

If you ask me, the Hawk was a very deserving selection, but there were also others. Who those others are is for another article. This one is for the Hawk!

Hint: look back into this week’s posts to see one of those “others”…

My name is Peter Schiller. I am the creator/owner of Baseball Reflections.com. I’m also a contributing writer. To read more of my work at Baseball Reflections just click HERE!

I am also affiliated with a great cause, a children’s book with a great message called, “A Glove of Their Own”. Everyone who purchases a copy of this great book using the promotional code PIF 129, a $3.00 donation will be made when purchased through the Franklin Mason Press website for Pitch In For Baseball at checkout. You can purchase a copy by following the link at their website http://www.agloveoftheirown.com

Zach Greinke’s distinction of sharing the record for the fewest number of wins by a Cy Young winning pitcher (16) didn’t last long as the record is now solely in the hands of Tim Lincecum (15).

In fact, it shows how times have changed to consider that the 31 total victories between the two 2009 Cy Young Award winners equals the total number of wins that Denny McLain registered when winning the American League Cy Young Award in 1968.

It used to be that the number one criteria for a starting pitcher being a serious Cy Young Award candidate was how many victories he recorded in a season. Sure, other factors like strikeouts, ERA and winning percentage have always been important, but the top prize for a pitcher usually was reserved for a hurler who either led the league or came close to leading the league in wins.

The voting for the 2009 Cy Young Awards clearly illustrates that is no longer the case.

Though Lincecom finished with one fewer victory than Greinke, he actually finished fourth in the National League in wins while Greinke’s total was good enough to tie for seventh in the AL.

What seems to have made Greinke and Lincecum appealing to voters was their performance in other categories.

Despite playing for the woeful Kansas City Royals, Greinke posted a 2.16 ERA, which is the lowest total in the American League since Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 mark in 2000. He also finished second in the league with 242 strikeouts.

While Greinke’s selection was widely expected, Lincecum’s repeat as the National League winner was a slight surprise. Lincecum finished second in the NL with a 2.48 ERA. 2005 Cy Young Winner Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals led the league with a 2.24 ERA and finished with a 17-4 record, compared to the 15-7 mark for Lincecum.

What seems to have given Lincecum an advantage over Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, who finished with a 19-8 record and 2.63 ERA was his strikeout total.

Lincecum registered a league best 261 K’s while Wainwright had 212 and Carpenter just 144.

The selection of Greinke and Lincecum as Cy Young winners seems to signal the completion of what has been a gradual reduction over the last decade of the value of victories as a measuring stick of greatness for starting pitchers.

In an era when most starters often pitch only six or seven innings, voters seem to now recognize that the victory total for a starting pitcher is largely out of his hands.

Greinke won 16 games, but very easily could have had many more wins. He allowed four or more earned runs in just five of his 33 starts during the season. He also pitched more than seven innings only 10 times with just three of those starts coming after the first of July.

Lincecum’s results were strikingly similar. He surrendered four or more runs five times in 32 starts and pitched more than seven innings 11 times.

I guess the selection of two pitchers with so few victories could be a one-year aberration, but I seriously doubt that to be the case. I think in the future we will end up with more Cy Young Award winners with 16 or fewer wins than we do with 20 or more victories.

Five lowest combined win totals for Cy Young Winners (since 1967, includes only years when two starting pitchers won the awards):

31 – 2009 – Tim Lincecum (15), Zach Greinke (16)

32 – 1994 – Greg Maddux (16), David Cone (16) * Strike Season

35 – 2006 – Brandon Webb (16), Johan Santana (19)

37 – 1995 – Greg Maddux (19), Randy Johnson (18) * Strike Season

37 – 2000 – Randy Johnson (19), Pedro Martinez (18)

To read more from Dean, go to his sports blog: Sports Then and Now!