I had been staring at a blank page for a couple of days. I found myself with nothing to say there for a little while. I can’t tell you if it was writers block or if I am just shell shocked at what has happened in my life this year so far. I sometimes just shake my head and slap it to see if I am going to wake up.
A couple of real highs and a bunch of real lows have highlighted this year for me. One day its performing inLas Vegas
Then the tax bill this year just sank me…then people from 12 other countries listened to my stupid new show this past week. Then…they didn’t send any money.
Ok, so that’s the way it happens in life, its up, its down, its sideways. I recalled that I am still blessed beyond belief.
Then, I became suddenly unblocked and here I am.
We are now 1/8th of the way into the baseball season. Everything moves so fast and now its hard to keep up with everything.
A couple of real highs and a bunch of real lows have highlighted this year for me. One day its performing in
Then the tax bill this year just sank me…then people from 12 other countries listened to my stupid new show this past week. Then…they didn’t send any money.
Ok, so that’s the way it happens in life, its up, its down, its sideways. I recalled that I am still blessed beyond belief.
Then, I became suddenly unblocked and here I am.
We are now 1/8th of the way into the baseball season. Everything moves so fast and now its hard to keep up with everything.
Without diving into real hard numbers to back what I am going to say, let me just say that it looks like its going to be a big power number year at this rate. There are plenty of guys on pace for 50 homeruns and a stack of others on pace for 40.
I prefer those offensive numbers as long as at the end they aren’t so out of whack like during the height of the steroid era where guys like Brady Anderson were hitting 50 homeruns.
But right now there are 22 guys on that pace and this is the time of the year when balls traditionally don’t carry as far. Once the warmer weather hits in July and August the tater pace increases.
I prefer those offensive numbers as long as at the end they aren’t so out of whack like during the height of the steroid era where guys like Brady Anderson were hitting 50 homeruns.
But right now there are 22 guys on that pace and this is the time of the year when balls traditionally don’t carry as far. Once the warmer weather hits in July and August the tater pace increases.
The Dodgers Matt Kemp is on pace to be the player of the month in the NL. He is hitting .402 with 5 homeruns 17 RBI and 8 stolen bases.
The Dodgers Andre Ethier just recorded a hit in his 20th straight game so we’re now on that hitting streak watch. He is hitting .381.
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| Matt Kemp |
On the mound the early story is the Angels Jered Weaver who reached the 5 win mark faster than anyone in history, if what I heard was accurate. It’s a more incredible feat considering the fact that managers have this artificial 100-pitch barrier that they seem to never let pitchers cross very often.
I am so tired of hearing about pitch counts. It is the most useless figure to follow in all of baseball. We have announcers now freaking out every inning when someone throws more than 20 pitches.
While pitches have always been tracked, it was the TYPE of pitch thrown to batters that was tracked.
Using a pitch count to determine when a pitcher would come out of a game really started in earnest in the 80’s and with hall of famer Nolan Ryan. Ryan was 40 years old and coming off of an injury while with the Astros (if my memory serves me correctly.) Because he was old and just off the DL, they limited him to 100 pitches for a while.
It turned out that Ryan came back real strong and somehow this success was credited to the implementation and enforcement of this pitch count.
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| Nolan Ryan - A real man on the mound |
A baseball game is 9 innings. It used to be that a starting pitcher was expected to pitch 9 innings. If he started to become wild late in the game or batters started to time him better and start knocking the crap out of him, then a reliever would come into the game.
From the bullpen, back in the days where men played baseball and not sissies who can only pitch 5 innings now, usually came a veteran pitcher who would mop up, close, or finish the game. These guys were usually those who weren’t good enough to be the 4-man rotation…oh yeah, there used to be a 4-man rotation with a 5th guy around who would pitch the second game of a double header or if there were rainouts and too many games in a row, he would allow rest for one of the real starters.
Where was I? Oh yes, so this veteran would come in and take over the rest of the pitching duties.
It is so ridiculous now that teams actually have a 7th inning guy, an 8th inning guy and a closer on a staff. And somehow its accepted.
Well, I don’t accept it. I mean, I have to, but I don’t have to like it…and I don’t.
Starting pitchers are now getting standing ovations from know-nothing crowds when they give up a run or two, leave a guy or two on base and get pulled in the 7th inning as if they have pitched like Nolan Ryan when he was healthy and pitching 300 innings a year with over 300 strikeouts.
Pitchers, who might start 30 games a year now instead of 35-40 in a 4-man rotation, are making millions of dollars a year. Take Cliff Lee for example, off the top of my head. He is getting paid about 21 million dollar this year. If he pitches in 30 games he is making 700,000 dollars a game. If he only average 7 innings a game he is getting 100,000 dollars per inning which might last 5-7 minutes.
Economically, this is bad business and makes me want to vomit.
If I am going to pay a starting pitcher 21 million dollars a year I am going to expect him to be able to pitch 9 innings every time he is out there. At the very least, he should have the STAMINA to do it. This is what I see is the real problem.
We supposedly have all sorts of new modern training techniques now that we are in the 21st century but the pitchers of today only seem to be able to pitch two thirds as long as they used to pitch.
The physical training is obviously void of much sense. Yes, throwing the ball is a strain on the arm. And running is a strain on the legs, too.
Starting pitchers are like long distance runners. They are supposed to pitch for a long time…9 innings in this case. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense that the training involved made an arm strong enough that it could have the stamina to pitch 12 innings? That way, when they stepped into a real game, 9 would be nothing. Instead they seem to train for 7 innings and then start seeing signs of fatigue at 5.
If you are a long distance runner training for weekly 5k runs, do you train by running 3k when you go out to train or do you run 6,7,8k when you train so that the 5k is easier?
If you’re training less to try to do more, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!
So are major league baseball pitching coaches and trainers.
Speaking of wrong, our next taping of the Dungeon of Manlove is tomorrow. While I am pretty sure that I got most of the nasty things I needed to say off of my chest, there will still be some naughty things taking place for sure…SO TUNE IN TO MARSHCAST.COM SOON!
We will be preparing to do a show that is the antithesis of that one soon. Oddly, when I put a call out for people to help me with that one, no one answered. But when I put out the call to do a “dungeon” type of show, my phone and email went nuts.
I have some theories about why that is which I’ll talk about on the show. I am sure the theory isn’t new and talked about ad infinitum in basic psychology classes, but I’ll spew it anyway.
From the bullpen, back in the days where men played baseball and not sissies who can only pitch 5 innings now, usually came a veteran pitcher who would mop up, close, or finish the game. These guys were usually those who weren’t good enough to be the 4-man rotation…oh yeah, there used to be a 4-man rotation with a 5th guy around who would pitch the second game of a double header or if there were rainouts and too many games in a row, he would allow rest for one of the real starters.
Where was I? Oh yes, so this veteran would come in and take over the rest of the pitching duties.
It is so ridiculous now that teams actually have a 7th inning guy, an 8th inning guy and a closer on a staff. And somehow its accepted.
Well, I don’t accept it. I mean, I have to, but I don’t have to like it…and I don’t.
Starting pitchers are now getting standing ovations from know-nothing crowds when they give up a run or two, leave a guy or two on base and get pulled in the 7th inning as if they have pitched like Nolan Ryan when he was healthy and pitching 300 innings a year with over 300 strikeouts.
Pitchers, who might start 30 games a year now instead of 35-40 in a 4-man rotation, are making millions of dollars a year. Take Cliff Lee for example, off the top of my head. He is getting paid about 21 million dollar this year. If he pitches in 30 games he is making 700,000 dollars a game. If he only average 7 innings a game he is getting 100,000 dollars per inning which might last 5-7 minutes.
Economically, this is bad business and makes me want to vomit.
If I am going to pay a starting pitcher 21 million dollars a year I am going to expect him to be able to pitch 9 innings every time he is out there. At the very least, he should have the STAMINA to do it. This is what I see is the real problem.
We supposedly have all sorts of new modern training techniques now that we are in the 21st century but the pitchers of today only seem to be able to pitch two thirds as long as they used to pitch.
The physical training is obviously void of much sense. Yes, throwing the ball is a strain on the arm. And running is a strain on the legs, too.
Starting pitchers are like long distance runners. They are supposed to pitch for a long time…9 innings in this case. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense that the training involved made an arm strong enough that it could have the stamina to pitch 12 innings? That way, when they stepped into a real game, 9 would be nothing. Instead they seem to train for 7 innings and then start seeing signs of fatigue at 5.
If you are a long distance runner training for weekly 5k runs, do you train by running 3k when you go out to train or do you run 6,7,8k when you train so that the 5k is easier?
If you’re training less to try to do more, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!
So are major league baseball pitching coaches and trainers.
Speaking of wrong, our next taping of the Dungeon of Manlove is tomorrow. While I am pretty sure that I got most of the nasty things I needed to say off of my chest, there will still be some naughty things taking place for sure…SO TUNE IN TO MARSHCAST.COM SOON!
We will be preparing to do a show that is the antithesis of that one soon. Oddly, when I put a call out for people to help me with that one, no one answered. But when I put out the call to do a “dungeon” type of show, my phone and email went nuts.
I have some theories about why that is which I’ll talk about on the show. I am sure the theory isn’t new and talked about ad infinitum in basic psychology classes, but I’ll spew it anyway.
I will also talk about people’s moral compasses and try to figure out what it is that makes people cross artificial lines in their lives that they would never have crossed at another point in their life.
For example, what was the event that sparked a talented musician in the high school marching band to become all of these things at the same time…now get this…a stripping, swinging, bisexual, foot-fetish model.
When I was told this the other day…I was happy! I had just found a new guest for my show!
Seriously, I’m 49 and street wise. It would take a lot to shock me at this point in my life. Was I surprised? Not particularly. EVERYONE has a “dark” side to them. Not that I am saying that those things are “dark” at all, even if some people do; it’s just that side of us that we never wish anyone to know, for some reason. Most of us are perfectly happy when we are visiting the other side but are very hung up about revealing that part to anyone else.
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| Find the Stripper? |
This is where the Dungeon of Manlove comes in pretty handy. It is a place where people can be themselves (while using a stage name of course…lol) and have fun doing it without being judged. (If you are listening and judging people on it, you stop it now! Its satire.)
But since I theorize that everyone has this dark side, its little wonder that I get more calls from people to work on the Dungeon show than I do for the Positively Inspiring show.
Done.
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