Stan Musial: Great Catholic American

Book: Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey

Method: Read library copy

What I got from the book:

• The word nice is essential to understanding who Stan Musial was.
• The book cloth color is Cardinal Red, naturally. The dust jacket is bathed in red, white and blue with a picture of a young Musial at the end of his swing. Perfect. A tip of the cap to book designer Jo Anne Metsch. Book typeface is Caledonia, designed in 1939 by William Addison Dwiggins for the Merganthaler Linotype Company. Hey, my Dad was a printer, this stuff matters.
• The style of the book is anecdotal. It has 47 chapters and 337 written pages, 397 in total. Some of the chapters are only a few pages long. Given that, I fully expected the chapters and pages numbers to have some connection to Musial’s stats. They don’t, or I couldn’t decipher it. Look, his lifetime average was 331. Jus saying …. Am I alone on this one?
• This was the 1st sentence, which recounted when Vescey first saw Musial in St. Petersburg in 1960: “We drove straight through the night, married only a few months, on spring break, our first vacation together. Like Bonnie and Clyde, we had the feeling of putting something over on every body, Every mile we traveled south of Baltimore was the farthest I had ever been from New York. We were twenty-one.”
• Reminded of one of the the greatest stats in MLB history. Musial struck out only 696 times while hitting 475 home runs, “an astounding ratio.” DiMaggio actually excelled him in that one area, hitting 361 home runs with only 369 strikeouts.
• Stan is really Stanislaus. In 1910 Musial’s Polish father, Lukasz, sailed out of the Elbe River and arrived at Ellis Island six days later and then immediately settled in Donora PA, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, because of work at a mill. It was a close-knit, 6 kids, but poor family. The men from the mill all drank. Vescey treads lightly on how that might have affected the young Musical.

Padawan Morrison Back Too Soon? Sith Happens

Recently, Padawan Morrison was ordered to leave Planet Jazz and return to Sun Life. To understand why this move is such a risk, a little background is needed.

Following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the system of training Jedi became more regimented and organized, more closely resembling the setup of training in the Old Republic era. Students were divided into groups based on age, each group having a predetermined set of techniques to be learned, like Force Jump, Telekinesis, Force Persuasion, and center fielding exercises.

Now Padawan Morrison has had his training cut short so as to assist Master Yoda’s older brother, Master McKeon, in the loneliest of outposts. While there have been cases where leaving the training early has not done harm, every galaxy has its Darth Vader. Time will tell if this desperate maneuver — Younglings despise uncertainty — was short-sighted. After all, we of all people, know that Sith happens.

These are Larry Beinfest’s potential statements on the recall of Logan Morrison.

Will The Miami Marlins Waste The Mike Stanton Years?

Will the Miami Marlins waste the Mike Stanton years? First let’s define the Stanton years.

Under the current MLB CBA which expires this year, a player is eligible for free agency after 6 full years of service. One of the main reasons the Marlins didn’t bring Stanton up from the minors until June last season, is to avoid having the 2010 season count as a full season and thereby extend the period of time they control him. Which means that this 2011 season, his 2nd year in MLB, is technically the first of six he needs to file for free agency [The Freedom from Loria Act]. That would keep Stanton a Marlin through 2016, five more seasons after this one.

Except that no team would sign Stanton to yearly arbitration-determined salaries, between the 2013 [he's a Super 2] and 2016 seasons, only to lose him for nothing the following season. Therefore, at the latest and maybe earlier, the California native would likely be traded before or during the 2016 season when he would be only 26 years old. Mike Stanton’s next non-arbitration contract could make him the highest paid player in MLB. Jeffrey Loria won’t write that check, unless Mike takes up painting. That’s why I believe that Stanton’s Marlins years will realistically last 4 more seasons past this 2011 season.

So who will the Marlins surround Stanton with? I go through each position player — forget pitching and injuries for now — and indicate what I think can be expected — using ESPN and Fangraphs [UZR/150] statistics to compare with other National League players — based on past performance.

Bottom line, unless there’s a Bizarro World Marlins farm system out there somewhere, this franchise doesn’t appear to have enough offense or defense based on its current position players and their performance to date to compete — Phillies and Braves are like the Patriots and Jets — during the next 4 Stanton seasons.

See the position players listed below:

Will Logan Morrison Put A Dent In Beinfest’s Reputation?

After establishing that Larry Beinfest’s track record of personnel moves since 2005 includes many mistakes [click here], imagine my surprise that Beinfest has now set his sights on David Samson’s record for unbelievable public statements. This from the SunSentinel’s J.C. Rodriguez about how the Morrison demotion was handled:

When the door opened to the media [after Saturday nights game], manager Jack McKeon said the moves were decisions made by the organization and that Morrison needed to “work on his whole game.”

Morrison was sitting by his locker with his head down, seemingly in shock after being summoned from the training room to the manager’s office, where President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest and GM Mike Hill delivered the stunning news.

“Heartbreaking move, disappointed. What are you hitting, .240?” Morrison said Beinfest told him. “I don’t know if that makes any sense to me or you guys, but all I know is I go out and give everything for this team. I play hurt, play through injury and this is how you get treated. It doesn’t seem very fair or right to me.

“They didn’t say anything about [my 17 homers and 60 RBI]. They didn’t say anything about maybe the reason I was hitting .240 was getting the guy over to third rolling over groundballs, not worrying about average.”

Of course, no one believed the reasons given by management and over the next few days it became clear that the reason for the demotion was not baseball related. I have no idea whether Logan Morrison deserves to be punished for his behavior. My point is that only an organization which has become accustomed to operating with disregard towards its fan base would pull such an arrogant stunt.

Will Maybin Put A Dent In Beinfest’s Reputation?

Will Cameron Maybin put a dent in Larry Beinfest’s reputation? I have 3 answers:

• Yes, for those who think that his track record consists mostly of successful moves.
• No, evaluating baseball talent is difficult. The most telling fact about that job is that Albert Pujols was drafted in the 13th round. Even the best have failures.
• Yes, but not the dent you’re thinking of, I’m thinking Dark Knight.

Harvey Dent once told Bruce Wayne, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” I recalled that movie line after hearing about the recent exploits of Cameron Maybin and it made me think of Larry Beinfest, the Florida Marlins Director of Baseball Operations. If we alter the quote to fit Beinfest’s job, it might say;

“You either quit after a championship or hang around long enough to miss on four consecutive 1st round draft picks and cause people to snicker when they hear you referred to as a genius by fawning fans and/or radio personalities.”

The analysis below from the Elias Sports Bureau is why the two hyper-linked in my mind:

Lucy In The Diamond With Skies

I went to a Marlins game with my brother on Saturday and our childhood broke out. We walked into a cavernous stadium for a MLB game and by the time we left I had wandered into a Little Havana apartment mere blocks from the Orange Bowl circa 1967. It was there that my pre-teen hormones found themselves in the room of a teenage neighbor girl who showed me her ‘With the Beatles’ album and played it on her plastic white General Electric portable record player. I knew and cared nothing about the music, but she was thrilled and I wasn’t moving.

I couldn't figure why they would use a picture that didn't even show all their faces

This magical mystery tour came after another Marlins one run loss to Milwaukee and courtesy of a Beatles tribute band named The Fab Four [go figure], who wandered in from the outfield with the same urgency as Hanley chasing down a bloop double. Oh Shea, can’t you see?

Status test

status – highlighted and no title

Morrison and the Door Closers

The 2011 Marlins have a rock band feel about them. Morrison and the Doors – as in Logan Morrison and a bullpen that closes on everything; doors, streaks, an LA Woman, hopes and rallies. Hopefully, my wordplay will be the only other resemblance to that band, given that the Doors started strong and flamed out early.

See LeBron James was not the first icon to bring his talents to Miami. But by the End Of The Night of Jim Morrison’s visit in 1969 to the Dinner Key Auditorium, When The Music Was Over and he should have headed out the Back Door Man, instead the police arrived. They said, My Eyes Have Seen You and we were called by an Unhappy Girl. It was a Blue Sunday morning. A Twentieth Century Fox film would follow.

Have you seen the Florida Marlins numbers after 13 games? Logan Morrison must be thinking Someone Touch Me — except Maggie M’Gill from Love Street — he is first or a close second in every Marlins hitting category — see Marlins hitting stats here — 2nd in average to Sanchez [Spanish Caravan] and OPS to Dobbs [The Unknown Soldier]. Morrison has started to earn a reputation as a Wild Child and a very good hitter. He may look like The Wasp, sound like People Are Strange, but he hits like he’s ready to Break On Through To The Other Side [>1.0 OPS]. Morrison is so laid back he looks like he just Take It As It Comes, but I’m here to Tell All The People that it’s OK not to Touch The Earth for now, because The Changeling Logan Morrison is not.

Oh Hanley! Still

When I saw Hanley Ramirez appear to get seriously hurt in Friday’s Marlins win at Houston, my reaction was a disappointed ‘oooh Hanley.’ Ramirez was off to a slow start and now this. The feeling was, ‘this guy’s not our Pujol’s, he’s our Linus.’

“Oh Hanley!,” was the catchphrase the Marlins likeable TV play-by-play announcer Rich Waltz used to describe the excitement about Hanley Ramirez when he first came on the scene. That was then, Mike Stanton is now. By far, the player Marlin fans can’t wait to see perform in 2011 is Mike Stanton. From afar, it must seem like an good example of how fickle fans can be. After all, 21 year-old Stanton, for all his potential, has only 100 games in the big leagues coming into the year, whereas Ramirez is considered by some to be the best all-around shortstop in MLB and is only 27 himself.

Here’s what those who watch from a distance may be missing. In between Ramirez’s great debut in 2006 and now; he earned financial security in 2008, earned a 2nd place MVP in 2009, earned the public criticism of some his teammates, a reputation for surliness [the Miguel Cabrera Syndrome], and had a statistically disappointing 2010. Beyond disappointing, Ramirez became the 4th player [see the others here] in major league baseball history to be removed from a game for literally lollygaging.

So that’s how ‘Oh Hanley!’ morphed into ‘oooh Hanley.’ But when we fans start thinking we know what makes someone like Hanley tick [or not], we should consider how many of us can relate to being a can’t miss prospect since the age of 15. The can’t miss tag carries even more pressure when succeeding was his family’s best [only?] chance to escape poverty back in the Dominican. Poverty is a great motivator, and when combined with great talent, it equals riches in today’s MLB.

Once players like Ramirez achieve financial security for their families, we expect the transition in motivation — from a desperate need to succeed to a Ripken-like self-discipline — to be seamless. It’s not that easy. If it were David Allen would not be wealthy and playing on my iTunes in the background for encouragement. As an aside, I thought that Ramirez’s signing in 2008 was a good example of how to quantify risk vs reward [see here] when it comes to professional athletes salaries.

Maybe what we Marlin fans need is a little distance in in the case of Hanley Ramirez. Someone who has a little distance and is considered one of the best writers covering major league baseball, Joe Posnanski, put together a list of the 32 best players in MLB and listed Hanley as #7. More important than the ranking, which is arbitrary [he had Hanley at #3 a couple of years ago], Posnanski makes the follow undeniable points in Ramirez’s favor:

Last year was a harsh season for Hanley Ramirez. He seemed to be settling in nicely as the most amazing player in baseball that nobody ever talked about, a proud tradition that went back many years. From 2007 to 2009, Ramirez hit .325/.389/.549, banged 86 homers, stole 113 bases, played an ever-improving shortstop and basically did things so remarkable that few believed them and fewer still saw them.

Then, last year Ramirez got caught on camera loafing, got into a spat with his manager about it, and suddenly people in the mainstream KNEW Hanley Ramirez, but what they knew was that he was, in the famed words of the Bull Durham manager, a lollygagger. His numbers fell off quite a bit, and he got hurt toward the end of the year, and all in all it wasn’t too great. Based on perception, you would think Hanley Ramirez turned into Yuni Betancourt overnight.

And then you look at the season — .300/.378/.475 with 21 homers, 32 steals, 92 runs scored — and you can’t help but think that for a lousy season that doesn’t seem like too lousy a season.

At the time of the lollygaging incident, Posnanski offered up one possible explanation, but not an excuse, for Ramirez’s actions [see here]. When you factor in that we Marlin fans have that player locked in for the next 4 seasons at a reasonable salary — momentary time-out from hating on the revenue-sharing money-hoarding owner — I’m back to Oh Hanley!

The Marlins Twilight Zone – 3B

Rod Serling’s thoughts on the Marlins 3B possibilities:

You’re traveling through another dimension; a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are a diamond marked off at 42 paces. If you step up to that hot corner up ahead, your next stop could be the minor leagues?

There was an interesting article last week by Eric Seidman from the Fangraphs blog about how the Marlins should approach their search for a third baseman. The article was written before Matt Dominguez was hurt. Seidman’s conclusion:

… they are [Marlins will be] able to see if certain players can be considered assets moving forward. Assuming they handle this situation correctly-meaning they don’t work out a silly trade for Michael Young-the Marlins can really help themselves for the future by not forcing Dominguez into a starting role before he is ready.

The Marlins have played the development game since 2006 and played it very well. But their time as the Brazil [joke was that it was the country of the future and would always be] of MLB , is winding down precisely because of that success.

In his analysis, I thought that Seidman gave the Marlins too much credit for not forcing Dominguez into the lineup right away. There was no way that Dominguez was going to be with the Marlins to open the year because giving up one year of arbitration eligibility is not something the Marlins would have even considered. That’s just not how they roll, arbitrage eligibility speaking.

But that aside, the Marlins 3B search is an irresistible topic for us fans. Part of the reason is the perception that since so many of the Marlins are playing out of position, there is no reason not to continue to fiddle with the lineup. In reality, only Coughlan and Morrison are playing positions which were not their primary positions in the minor leagues. They both saw limited time in the minors in the outfield when it was evident that that was where they would get their opportunities to play. Gaby Sanchez was primarily a 1B in the minors, Omar Infante a 2B and Bonifacio was versatile, even in the minors.

Jonathan Sumple from the Through the Fence Baseball blog makes the case that if the Marlins go through the season with 3B as a development position, Edwin Rodriguez should not be judged as competing with a full roster. He wrote, “management’s willingness to wait for Dominguez – however long it takes – doesn’t sound like a win-now mantra.” Agreed.

I actually agree with the strategy of staying with the internal options at 3B and waiting on Dominguez. But management can’t have it both ways regarding expectations. Talk is cheap, but established third basemen aren’t.