When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

01.29.2008
Santana to Mets

Our network partner MLB Trade Rumors says USA Today has the scoop: Johan Santana will be a Met if New York can work out an extension.

If true, and if Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos approves the Erik Bedard trade, we might see a lot more starting-pitcher moves the next couple weeks.

Also: MLB Trade Rumors caught Royals’ starter Brian Bannister for a long, three-part Q&A. Bannister is obviously a thoughful guy, and even better, he uses adverbs correctly. Check this out:

…Whether you like it or not, baseball is a game of randomness. We play outdoors (mostly) in changing elements and field dimensions, and each pitch results in a series of events that can go in either teams favor. One thing that I have have come to accept is that just because I train hard physically, I practice perfectly, I prepare diligently, and execute a pitch exactly as I wanted, it can still result in a home run. In golf, if you analyze all the variables correctly (lie, distance, slope, wind, etc.) and execute your swing perfectly, it will result in a great shot. Not so for a pitcher or a hitter. A hitter can swing the bat perfectly and it will result in an out more than six times out of ten. Therefore, as a pitcher, I study and play to put the percentages in my favor more than anything because I know that I can't control the outcome in a single game or series of games, but over the course of a season or a career I will be better than average. 
Also on the Network:



[January 29, 2008 8:14 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Johnny Disaster said

With a little new agey jargon, this could be a nice meditation on the wisdom of seeking perfection in your actions while remaining unattached to the outcomes of those actions. Zen and stuff, you know, our ultimate powerlessness in the universal scheme of things and so forth.

[January 30, 2008 2:49 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Paul R. said

Is this the first recorded instance of a major league ballplayer acknowledging the existence of DiPS?