April 30th, 2008: Guangzhou at Chengdu

April 30^th, 2008

Guangzhou Fire at Chengdu Spice

CHENGDU – The Fire won their fourth straight contest today, beating Chengdu, 4-3, on an Edgar Martinez single in the top of the 9^th inning.

The late Guangzhou rally knocked Spice starter Jim Bunning out of the box. Bunning threw 8.1 strong innings, giving up only 4 runs. Alas, those bases on balls, the plague of all pitchers, came to haunt Jim. Jim gave up 5 walks in his stint, including three in the top of the 7^th. Those three led to three Fire runs. Bunning did toss nine strikeouts, but it was too little in the end.

Fire starter Jack Taylor was equally brilliant, though his walk and strikeout totals were relatively low. Taylor gave up five hits and three runs in 8 innings, earning his first win of the season.

The come-from-behind victory, their fourth in a row, puts Guangzhou in fourth place, a game and a half behind Lhasa.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Beijing Mets 2, Beijing Red Dragons 0 At Mets. The 13-2 Mets continue their domination of the Northeastern league, shutting out the Red Dragons on three hits.

Tokyo Giants 7, Seoul Blue Dragons 3 At Seoul. Tokyo has won nine straight. The pathetic Blue Dragons have lost their last ten, and are now only 2-13, allowing 43 more runs than they score (55-98).

Shenyang Defenders 4, Harbin Icecaps 2 At Shenyang

Nishinomiya Tigers 8, Tianjin Lions 4 At Tianjin

Southeastern League

Shanghai White Sox 2, Nanjing Monarchs 1 At Shanghai

Suzhou Artisans 7, Shanghai Red Sox 4 At Suzhou

Ningbo Stallions 7, Wenzhou Merchants 0 At Wenzhou. Ningbo’s Greg Maddux won his third straight game of the season, shutting out last place Wenzhou on five hits, all on 87 pitches.

Northwestern League

Jinan Leopards 11, Xi’an Wild Geese 10 At Jinan

Lanzhou Refiners 4, Urumqi Flying Tigers 3 At Lanzhou

Taiyuan Kylin 3, Luoyang White Horse 2 At Taiyuan

Wuhan Turtles 7, Zhengzhou Dragons 3 At Wuhan

Southwestern League

Chongqing Fog 5, Fuzhou Whales 3 At Fuzhou

Lhasa Monks 13, Yunnan Bulls 2 At Lhasa

April 29th, 2008: Nanjing at Shanghai

Honestly, I wish the time wouldn't fly by so quickly. I can't believe April's almost over. I've got a German independent study class to finish by July, and school just started again. At least baseball still feels slow in April.
This was a day of injuries in my league. Has anybody else noticed a rather large number of injuries with the setting on "random"? Seems that every time I turn around another star player is out for a month or so.

April 29^th, 2008

Nanjing at Shanghai

SHANGHAI – Despite losing their ace starter to a beanball, the Nanjing Monarchs shut out the Shanghai White Sox this afternoon, 2-0.

Both teams played to a scoreless draw through the first five innings. Shanghai’s intense heat, combined with high humidity, shut down hitting all day long. No White Sox batter was able to reach third base the entire game, and both teams suffered from severe hitting problems.

Disaster struck the top of the sixth inning. Pedro Martinez, leading off for the Monarchs, was hit by a Joe McGinnity fastball to the face. Pedro, the Monarch’s ace, was leading all of baseball in strikeouts and was throwing a one-hitter at the time. He will miss the next 37 days, and it will be a miracle if he returns.

Rickey Henderson, who has been in the middle of a hitting slump lately, came in to pinch-run. Henderson was sacrificed to second and then driven home by Honus Wagner’s double to center. Later, in the top of the 8^th inning, Henderson scored the second Monarch run. After reaching first on an infield hit, Rickey stole second, was sacrificed to third, and then was driven in by pinch hitter Tilly Walker’s single. Yet, despite the speedster’s obviously positive influence as a pinch runner, the Monarchs certainly would rather have their ace back.

Iron Joe McGinnity pitched a brilliant game for the White Sox, despite the hit batsman. McGinnity gave up four runs in eight innings, striking out seven and lowering his ERA to 5.40, all in another losing effort. Iron Joe was plagued by walks, as he gave up four free passes during the contest. Joe’s pickoff move also proved helpful, as he caught Ichiro Suzuki leaning too far off first twice in the game. In fact, aside from Henderson’s steal, Shanghai completely shut down Nanjing’s running game, catching Wagner trying to steal third and intimidating all other baserunners.

Christy Mathewson comes off the disabled list for the Monarchs tomorrow, and is expected to start here.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Beijing Mets 4, Beijing Red Dragons 2 At Red Dragons. Despite an abbreviated start by Dizzy Dean, the Mets continued their tear across the Northeastern League, beating their cross-town rivals 4-2. Dean was injured in the top of the third inning after striking out Willie Mays, and will be on the DL for 9 days.

Tokyo Giants 8, Seoul Blue Dragons 4 At Seoul

Shenyang Defenders 6, Harbin Icecaps 3 At Shenyang

Tianjin Lions 8, Nishinomiya Tigers 4 At Tianjin. Lions starter Tommy Bridges was injured in the top of the second inning and will miss 20 days.

Southeastern League

Hefei Hope Stars 3, Hangzhou Eagles 1 At Hangzhou

Suzhou Artisans 4, Shanghai Red Sox 2 At Suzhou. In a day that saw several star pitchers injured, Shanghai superstar pitcher Bartolo Colon was injured in the bottom of the 4^th inning and will miss 20 days.

Ningbo Stallions 2, Wenzhou Merchants 0 At Wenzhou. Ningbo’s Bozo Wakabayashi was absolutely brilliant, giving up two hits on only 94 pitches in a complete game shutout.

Northwestern League

Jinan Leopards 5, Xi’an Wild Geese 4 At Jinan

Urumqi Flying Tigers 8, Lanzhou Refiners 4 At Lanzhou

Luoyang White Horse 8, Taiyuan Kylin 4 At Taiyuan

Wuhan Turtles 7, Zhengzhou Dragons 1 At Wuhan. Zhengzhou has lost their last four, dropping into forth place.

Southwestern League

Guangzhou Fire 8, Chengdu Spice 7 At Chengdu

Fuzhou Whales 6, Chongqing Fog 5 At Fuzhou

Lhasa Monks 10, Yunnan Bulls 8 At Lhasa

Taibei Brother Elephants 7, Xianggang Reds 6 At Xianggang.

April 28th, 2008: Shanghai at Suzhou

April 28^th, 2008

Shanghai Red Sox at Suzhou Artisans

SUZHOU – The Artisans kept themselves right in the thick of the early pennant race this afternoon, defeating the Shanghai Red Sox 11-1.

Starter Kevin Millwood was the star for the Artisans. He went the distance against a good Shanghai lineup, limiting them to a single run on five hits and winning his first game of the season. Millwood needed only 102 pitches to complete the task, the only Shanghai run coming off Johnny Bench’s 7^th inning double to left.

As usual, Frank Chance lead Suzhou’s offense, going 5-for-3 with two runs batted in. Chance is now hitting .356 and is an expert at leading off early Suzhou rallies.

Shanghai starter Dave Stieb had his first bad start of the season, giving up six runs in four innings.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s other games

Northeastern League

Shenyang Defenders 5, Harbin Icecaps 4 At Shenyang.

Southeastern League

Hangzhou Eagles 7, Hefei Hope Stars 0 At Hangzhou. Eddie Cicotte’s knuckleball shut out Hefei on six hits.

Nanjing Monarchs 4, Shanghai White Sox 2 At Shanghai

Ningbo Stallions 2, Wenzhou Merchants 1 At Wenzhou

Northwestern League

Lanzhou Refiners 11, Jinan Leopards 9 (10) At Jinan. Visitng Lanzhou won in dramatic fashion, scoring three in the top of the ninth to tie the game, and then two more in the top of the tenth. Jinan, meanwhile, had a wild bottom of the 8^th inning, scoring seven tallies in all, the big blow a Roy Campanella 3-run homer.

Taiyuan Kylin 6, Wuhan Turtles 1 At Wuhan.

Southwestern League

Guangzhou Fire 6, Chengdu Spice 1 At Chengdu

Fuzhou Whales 4, Chongqing Fog 3 At Fuzhou

Yunnan Bulls 9, Lhasa Monks 7 At Lhasa

Taibei Brother Elephants 12, Xianggang Reds 3 At Xianggang.

That Boring Game of Baseball

While trying to find a few articles to help my younger brother understand the current economic recession, I ran across this post at the Freakonomics blog. The post is another argument about how boring baseball has become, the sort of thing you always read about in the spring. I've found similar articles in newspapers from the 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s and earlier, even one in a 1903 Sporting News, if you can believe it.

Dubner's article makes a few assumptions that I find extremely strange. Baseball, according to Dubner, is boring because it's remained unchanged for so long. "Football and basketball may be more innately exciting than baseball," he says, "but just as important, they’ve also changed a lot over the past 40 years. They are full of innovation." Never mind the influx of new, hitter-friendly stadiums, the Designated Hitter rule, inter-league play, expansion, the wild card structure, an influx of young pitching stars from Asia and so on. Also never mind critics of modern football and basketball, who point out how boring and slow those games have become (Dubner has apparently forgotten that the World Series still attracts more viewers than the NBA playoffs). Don't pay attention to the fact that television ratings are down across the board for every single type of program. Furthermore, never mind the fact that football and basketball honestly haven't changed much fundamentally lately. Baseball doesn't change, other sports do, and, as a result, baseball has become a slow sport more fit for the 1960s than today.

It's hard to argue against Dubner's article without directly challenging his faulty assumptions (a technique economists like him are certainly used to). You could argue against every innovation he lists. He quotes an article written by Darren Everson (no relation, despite similar-looking names), which explains new techniques some managers use to liven things up. Dubner lists a few modern managerial techniques, such as having relief players play in the field to avoid baseball's "archaic" single substitution rules (which, naturally, have rendered soccer obsolete across Europe and Asia), putting an infield shift on every hitter, using bullpen pitchers rather than dedicated starters for poor weather games, and having the pitcher hit eighth.

I can see how having your LOOGY play in the field until the next favorable platoon matchup comes up could cut down on dead time while new pitchers warm up, but it obviously could also severely damage a team defensively. If somebody hits a hard line drive out to the pitcher-turned-outfielder, you'll see some awful fielding, more runners on base, and longer innings as a result. The other four innovations have absolutely nothing to do with how long or how sluggishly games are played. Dubner is certain that these changes will "make the game a bit more fluid and fun to watch," but I don't follow his logic. Who wants to watch a relief specialist start a game because there is rain in the forecast? Who wants to see exaggerated infield shifts for every power hitter? Wouldn't that slow the game down even more, not speed it up?

There is, of course, truth to what he's writing. Baseball has slowed down over time, as we all know. I'm not sure what more can be done to speed the game up, other than forcing hitters off the plate and giving them thicker bats (ala Bill James' New Historical Baseball Abstract.) I guess you could bring back the spitball, which will probably result in more walks, since it's always been considered one of the most difficult pitches to learn. We could build bigger stadiums, but low homerun totals traditionally doesn't do much to draw fans to the park.

We could also improve how the game is broadcast. Of my sports-minded friends, many have commented that baseball is exciting to watch live, but an absolute snooze on television. I'd have to agree, and the FOX/ESPN era has been especially damaging to how the game has been televised (ESPN less so, in my opinion). If we could bring back the sort of game NBC showed America in the 1980s, maybe things would improve.

Still, even the mindless bantering of Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Joe Morgan and Chip Caray is nothing all that new. Have you ever tried to watch old DVDs of World Series games from 1968 to 1974? Curt Gowdy wasn't exactly Vin Scully, and the announcer accompanying him was rarely any better (with the exception of Harry Caray and Vin Scully, of course). Not every guy is going to be as fun to listen to as Joe Garagiola or Dizzy Dean. Other annoyances, such as incessant close-ups and constant crowd shots, were very much a part of NBC and ABC broadcasts in the 1980s. If you go back to games shown in the 1960s, crowd shots are few and far between, and close-ups even rarer, but you honestly start to miss that sort of thing. It's not exactly clear what baseball should do to improve how games are broadcast.

My solution would be to wait off the slew of "baseball is so boring" articles that come around every spring. Once the pennant races start heating up, and inter-league play provides a distraction from the sleep-inducing NBA playoffs, these articles will disappear.

A good contrast to this article can be found here, where Jayson Stark argues that a lot has changed in baseball over the years.

Oh, and the comments to that blog piece are a waste of time. People are complaining about lack of competitive balance in baseball? Did they forget that the Colorado Rockies went to the playoffs last year for the first time since 1995? Have they missed out on the fact that Tampa Bay and Baltimore are on top of the AL East? Do all these people root for Pittsburgh or what?

April 27th, 2008: Nishinomiya at Tokyo

Here's today's game. Enjoy!

April 27^th, 2008

Nishinomiya Tigers at Tokyo Giants

TOKYO – After 13 innings, 23 runs, 32 hits, 8 home runs and a good five hours of mayhem, Tokyo outlasted Nishinomiya, 12-11.

The initial Randy Johnson – Minoru Murayama pitching duel didn’t last very long. By the time Randy Johnson was yanked in the third inning, he had given up six runs, and the Tigers were trailing, 6-1. Murayama lasted only through the beginning of the fifth inning, however, exiting the game trailing 7-6. Both pitchers find their ERAs over 6 after this game, with hopes of fewer pinball games to come.

Down 7-6, the Giants mounted a big, 4-run 5^th inning rally to retake the lead. The big blow came on Roberto Clemente’s three run shot off Roy Face. For good measure, Barry Bonds added a solo shot for the Giants in the bottom of the 6^th, placing the Tokyo lead at 11-7 with only three frames remaining.

However, in the top of the 11^th inning, the Tokyo pitching fell apart. The visiting Tigers managed four runs in the inning, the big blow a three run blast off the bat of Shosei Go.

Then, somehow, the pitching returned. From that last score in the top of the 7^th to the bottom of the 13^th, not a single run was scored. Both teams rallied, but couldn’t manage to put the winning run over the plate. The Tigers had the bases loaded with only one out in the top of the 8^th and couldn’t score. Shortly thereafter, they had runners on first and third in the top of the 10^th, and still came up short. And then, as if fate were teasing the hometown Giants, they found themselves stranding a bases-loaded chance in the bottom of the 11^th, as Robert Clemente struck out after fouling off three consecutive pitches.

The winning run scored on a Josh Gibson single with runners on first and second. Rube Waddell, Nishinomiya’s eccentric pitcher, wound up with the loss. Tokyo advanced to 7-3 on the season, improving from an awful 0-3 opening series against the Beijing Red Dragons, and good enough for second place, 2 ½ games behind the Beijing Mets. Tokyo’s April has been especially impressive due to its runs scored / runs against ratio. The Giants have scored only 53 runs, despite an offense that was widely considered the best in baseball. They have given up 56, for a -3 margin and a projected .472 winning percentage (vs .700 actual).

Nishinomiya finds themselves relegated to forth place, 4 games out of first, with a 6-5 record.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Beijing Mets 7, Seoul Blue Dragons 4 At Beijing. Eight straight loss for the hapless Blue Dragons, who are now 2-11.

Beijing Red Dragons 6, Harbin Icecaps 4 At Harbin.

Shenyang Defenders 4, Tianjin Lions 2 At Shenyang

Southeastern League

Suzhou Artisans 3, Nanjing Monarchs 2 At Nanjing. Randy Johnson pitched a complete game for the Monarchs, losing despite only giving up five hits.

Ningbo Stallions 7, Hangzhou Eagles 6 At Ningbo

Shanghai White Sox 9, Shanghai Red Sox 2 At White Sox

Wenzhou Merchants 3, Hefei Hope Stars 2 At Wenzhou.

Northwestern League

Lanzhou Refiners 7, Jinan Leopards 2 At Jinan

Wuhan Turtles 15, Taiyuan Kylin 12 At Wuhan. Despite a 13-1 deficit in the top of the 6^th inning on the road, Taiyuan nearly made the comeback, scoring 11 times in the final three innings.

Luoyang White Horse 3, Zhengzhou Dragons 0 At Zhengzhou. Robin Roberts shut out the Dragons on five hits.

Southwestern League

Chongqing Fog 8, Chengdu Spice 1 At Chengdu. Leo Day went the distance for Chongqing, striking out 11.

Guangzhou Fire 4, Fuzhou Whales 0 At Guangzhou.

Taibei Brother Elephants 10, Lhasa Monks 2 At Taibei. Bob Shawkey threw a complete game for Taibei.

Xianggang Reds 3, Yunnan Bulls 2 (12) At Xianggang. With the score tied 1-1 going into the top of the 12^th, Yunnan’s Al Simmons smacked a homerun to left field. However, after a single and a botched bunt attempt, Xianggang’s Judy Johnson hit a long ball to win it.

League Leaders

We’re not far enough into the season to start talking about batting average (quite a few players are hitting over .400, and the current leader is Wenzhou’s Vada Pinson, at .500 after 24 at-bats), but we can take a peek at a few other categories. Here are a few top threes:

Home Runs: 1) Eddie Mathews, Xi’an Wild Geese, 7. 2) [tied] Sammy Sosa, Lhasa Monks, 6, and Hank Greenberg, Xianggang Reds, 6.

Stolen Bases: 1) Chester Williams, Zhengzhou Dragons, 8. 2) [tied] Jelly Gardner, Xianggang Reds, 6, and Tetelo Vargas, Zhengzhou Dragons, 6.

Earned Run Average: 1) [tied] Sandy Koufax, Nanjing Monarchs, 0.00 (14.1 IP) and Charley Radbourn, Hefei Hope Stars, 0.00 (8.2 IP). 2) 4 tied with 0.56.

Batting Average Against: 1) Sid Fernandez, Xianggang Reds .093 (13.0 IP). 2) Alex Fernandez, Wenzhou Merchants, .109 (13.1 IP). 3) Hideo Fujimoto, Nishinomiya Tigers, .115 (16.0 IP).

Strikeouts: 1) Pedro Martinez, Nanjing Monarchs, 29 (23.1 IP). 2) Jimmy Key, Zhengzhou Dragons, 27 (23.0 IP). 3) Mike Mussina, Zhengzhou Dragons, 24 (23.2 IP).

Team Offense (sorted by BA, includes OBP / SPC): 1) Wuhan Turtles, .305 BA, .357 / .560. 2) Lhasa Monks, .304, .378 / .541. 3) Taibei Brother Elephants, .289, .360 / .482.

Team Pitching (sorted by ERA): 1) Hefei Hope Stars, 2.22. 2) Nanjing Monarchs, 2.67. 3) Shanghai Red Sox, 2.73. All three teams come from the Southeastern League, which is using a pitcher-friendly era and has more pitcher-friendly parks.

April 26th 2008: Lanzhou at Jinan

Here's yesterday's action, summarized really quickly.

April 26^th, 2008

Lanzhou Refiners at Jinan Leopards

JINAN – With a seven run outburst in the bottom of the 7^th inning, the hometown Leopards overcame a four run deficit to overwhelm Lanzhou. And, for insurance, Jinan added three runs in the bottom of the 8^th, putting the game out of reach for once and for all, winning 10-6 in definitive fashion.

On a warm spring day when the ball seemed to fly out of the yard at will, seven players in all hit homeruns, leaving high ERA and pitch counts in their wake. And yet, the hitting star of the afternoon, Jinan’s Jackie Robinson, didn’t hit a single dinger all afternoon. Robinson went 4-for-5 with a single double and three singles for the Leopards, and yet didn’t pick up even a single RBI for his efforts.

The teams meet again tomorrow afternoon.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Tianjin Lions 3, Beijing Mets 2 At Beijing

Harbin Icecaps 4, Beijing Red Dragons 2 At Harbin

Shenyang Defenders 14, Seoul Blue Dragons 0 At Shenyang

Tokyo Giants 5, Nishinomiya Tigers 4 At Tokyo

Southeastern League

Nanjing Monarchs 3, Suzhou Artisans 1 At Nanjing

Hangzhou Eagles 4, Ningbo Stallions 2 (10) At Ningbo

Shanghai Red Sox 5, Shanghai White Sox 0 At White Sox

Hefei Hope Stars 9, Wenzhou Merchants 1 At Wenzhou

Northwestern League

Xi’an Wild Geese 11, Urumqi Flying Tigers 4 At Urumqi

Wuhan Turtles 6, Taiyuan Kylin 1 At Wuhan

Luoyang White Horse 4, Zhengzhou Dragons 2 At Zhengzhou

Southwestern League

Chengdu Spice 6, Chongqing Fog 2 At Chengdu

Fuzhou Whales 5, Guangzhou Fire 2 At Guangzhou

Lhasa Monks 6, Taibei Brother Elephants 5 At Taibei

Xianggang Reds 4, Yunnan Bulls 3 At Xianggang

One day delay

This will be the first of what may be a number of slight update delays. We spent the majority of the day having lunch, shopping, and playing UNO with a few friends. After they left (around 8 PM), I let my wife use our desktop to watch a Taiwanese music program on YouTube, and sat down to watch the Jazz - Rockets game and play some baseball.

I got in three APBA basic games before the 4th quarter, took a deep breath, and decided to try my hand at the Super Advanced Strat-O-Matic baseball game. I haven't played Strat for very long (I can only get a game in once in a while), so I was worried that the system would be too foreign for me. I was hoping that my experience with the APBA Master Game would help at least a little. Well, I was more than pleased with the result. In a replay of last year's Wild Card play-in game, Colorado came from behind to beat San Diego, 8-6. Strat's Super Advanced game is a lot of fun, especially with the "optional" steal and wild pitches / balks system (Kaz Matsui got a couple of steals that way, especially since San Diego's starting catcher had a +3 arm rating, and Jake Peavy threw a crucial wild pitch with runners on first and second), and I really like the fielding system. It took me almost an hour to finish the game, but I still thought the flow was nice. I'm pretty sure I could get the hang of it!

Anyway, I'll write a "real" post tomorrow. Hopefully I can fit two in. Oh, and I'm very happy that the Jazz won again. I don't know if we'll be able to beat L.A. in the second round, though, and I'm afraid we still don't stand much of a chance against San Antonio.