Prince Fielder heads to Motown…and more baseball news in this week’s Sweet Chin Muzak column.
Sweet Chin Muzak – Albert Is Going To Disneyland
Albert Pujols, you and the St. Louis Cardinals just shocked the baseball world and beat the Texas Rangers in the World Series. You weren’t favored to do so. You weren’t even favored to get out of the first round of the playoffs. Your city, one of the premier baseball cities in America, has been on a high ever since, hoping that high they feel is what you’re feeling. They really thought they knew you and what was important to you. [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Baseball Podcast
Rather than try to be eloquent in my sorrow (the Giants won’t get to defend their World Series title), I decided to take this show on the road. Actually, I decided to take it to the air. After the St. Louis Cardinals officially caught and surpassed the Atlanta Braves to win the NL Wild Card on Wednesday night, I thought it would be a good time to chat with Daniel Shoptaw, writer and editor of the Cardinals blog C70 At The Bat . We [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – A Look Back At My New Year’s Predictions
At the beginning of the year, I made some New Year’s Predictions and came back a month later with more . I wrote them with the intention of looking back at them near the end of the baseball season to see how off hilarious they’d look after the fact. Well, we have one month left in the baseball season, so it’s as good a time as any to take a look. The Giants won’t win the NL West in 2011 Of course, my first [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – The Journeyman
This week’s Sweet Chin Muzak column looks at the long and winding career of San Francisco Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong.
Sweet Chin Muzak – Derek Jeter Gets Hit 3,000 In Style
Derek Jeter hasn’t forced this upon us. On second thought, maybe he has. But he hasn’t done it through Twitter or reality TV shows. He’s done it through winning. But not just winning. It’s the way he’s won. He’s done it with style and class. Jeter isn’t a choir boy. He’s dated several of the most famously beautiful women of our time like Adriana Lima, Jessica Alba, and Mariah Carey when she still had her fastball. And now, he’s dating [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Moneyball
In 2003, author Michael Lewis published a book about the Oakland A’s, their general manager Billy Beane, and the untraditional methods that Beane and his staff (including assistant GM Paul DePodesta) used to evaluate talent. It was based on playing high percentages, using statistics to predict outcomes, and going away from touch and feel scouting that was predominant since the day baseball scouting existed. It put terms like OBP, SLG, and OPS into popular sports lexicon, even if baseball nerds [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – What’s Dirty?
That photo right there broke a lot of hearts in San Francisco last week. The play at the plate can be baseball’s version of violence. A runner is coming full speed and if he decides not to slide, a collision is going to happen and sometimes, the catcher is defenseless. Folks react differently to home-plate collisions. Some determine that it’s simply a part of the game, while others look at the situation based on where the catcher is sitting. If [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Four Aces And Joe Blanton
Sports Illustrated’s 2011 Baseball Preview featured an entire starting rotation of one team on the cover. But it wasn’t the starting rotation of the defending world champs. It was the starting rotation of the team the San Francisco Giants beat in the NLCS, the Philadelphia Phillies. Last year, the Phillies traded for Roy Halladay and during the middle of the season, traded for Roy Oswalt. And this year, they signed free agent Cliff Lee. Cole Hamels was now their fourth best starter and Joe Blanton [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Is Derek Jeter Done?
After not hitting lower than .291 in his entire Major League Baseball career, last season, Derek Jeter hit .270 and slugged just .370. The slugging percentage was also the lowest of his career. And even though he won his 5th Gold Glove in 2010, his decline in range at shortstop over the last few years is very apparent. As of this writing, Jeter is currently hitting .206 with just one extra base hit in the first nine games of the [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Beware The Disease Of More
Later tonight, the baseball team I’ve been watching since 1984 takes their first step in defending their World Series championship. It was only just five short months ago when Brian Wilson struck out Nelson Cruz to clinch the Giants’ first ever world championship in San Francisco. While I cherish the moment of being able to call my team the champs, I sit here conflicted as I await to see what 2011 holds for them. So much of my rooting last [...]
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