Friday Flexin': Indians, Mets, Kruk 'n' More

"Yeah, but it's my plate, A.J."

GLENDALE, Calif. -- There's no reason for me to say this, but I really like Angel Pagan, utility OF for the NY Mets (came over from the Cubs). His stats are fairly sterling and his numbers this spring (hitting around .400+) bolster my thinking. But even before I looked it up, he's one of these guys that seems to be everywhere when the Mets are on TV. Plus that name is kind of enjoyable, like a character in an hour-long drama about a biker with sci-fi religious undertones.

As I wrote this, he crushed a double off the left field wall (followed up by a sweet, run scoring double by the Sexy Killer Tomato.) Howdy! So keep your eyes open. (Ugh, Charlie Weiss is apparently a Yankee fan, too...barely squeezing his ample carriage into a luxury box seat at Legends Field. And he had the nerve to ask the Yankees staff why ND, NYY and the Patriots are so "hated for doing things the right way." I'm surprised Steinbrenner didn't turn the hounds on him for that crack.)

Today we had:

Cleveland Tribe v. NY Mets (ESPN-HD, Lee v. Perez)
NY Yanks v. Houston Astros (YES-HD, Pettitte v. Chacon)

Top 5

1. The Kruker: When John Kruk joined the Baseball Tonight crew, he seemed more a sweaty, nervous and, well, portly gent than a well-spoken hairdo suited for a seat under the bright glare of set lights and sticky-coating of pancake makeup. Within the year, he'd become a decent commentator, IMHO. I'm happy to say that in 2008, Kruk has clearly become the value-added talent ESPN hired him to become. I really liked his insights on the Mets/Indians game, doing play-by-play with Karl Ravech. (KR For his part was steady as Daysailer, as usual) He pointed out how nervous Killer Tomato should have been standing on third with a right-handed batter and a pitcher throwing cut fastballs on the inside (fat guys get other fat guys). And he deftly handled a "rough" balls-n-strikes call by home plate ump #47 Mark Wegner. With Cliff Lee cruising in the first before the Pagan/Saenz doubles, he got two strikes on Raul Casanova. The next pitch caught a portion of the outside often called a strike, but it was called a ball. The crowd groaned a bit. Instead of "that's a bad call" as we too often hear these days, Krukster went with "that's a tough pitch to take with two strikes." Good insight, doesn't get picky with the ump (who was consistently tight on the corners all day). Casanova ended up walking, and the two-out rally continued. Lee eventually got run after 2/3rds. But Kruk focused on the two doubles as the reason Lee got shaken up and lost his compsure. Kruk/Ravech brought up the tight strike zone later in the game, too, but rightly pointed out the Wegner was consistent -- fi very tight for Spring ball. Real pro moves there. Imagine any call like this during an ESPN College Football game, where you'd swear the entire game hangs on a borderline fumble call replayed 15 times with grunts of disgust from the broadcast team. To me, this always takes away from the enjoyment of the game. And I deeply appreciate those that chose to handle such situations with professionalism and class.

2. Closing Time: Cleveland's favorite dog to kick seems to be closer Joe Borowski. And the Big Burner did himself no favors today by giving up 2 hits, including a HR in 1.0 innings of work...but I still respect his talents, so we'll see. The hometown fans are hardly chanting his name, though.

3. Dodgers Hot Corner: I didn't see this. I haven't read anything but the headline. But the injury to Andy LaRouche seems to improve the chances Brandon Inge will be brought on from the Tigers to backup Nomar. He's a decent pinch hitter (offers some power, but poor average), can play pretty much anywhere and has a lot to offer defensively for the Dodgers. So here's hoping. I think they could use the overall depth and Inge is a truly gifted natural athlete.

4. Slide Step: Andy Pettitte has apparently been working on a new delivery with runners on. Pettitte, who picked off 5 runners last year to lead the league, has one of the best moves to first there is. So good, in fact, Yankees describer Michael Kay postulated that it had been overstudied by opposing players, making it easier for basestealers to crack the code (that kind of makes sense, but kind of doesn't). As such, Pettitte has developed a slide step. After hitting a batter in the 2nd Inning, the NYY talkers eagerly anticipated seeing the new step. And honestly, I was pretty interested at that point, too. Unfortch for everyone, he stuck with his usual high knee action and gave up a dinger on the second pitch to HOU left-fielder Victor Diaz.

5. Sideways Shawny: I don't really mind the sideways-ish cap. Dontrelle Willis (a founding member of this club?) once showed on camera how his cap just simply wouldn't sit straight. He'd put it on and magically with a pitch or two, it would be ever-so-subtleeeeee off kilter. And frankly, C.C. Sabathia (who's mug shows his cap going to the right, not left, BTW) can do whatever he wants if he keeps sitting 'em down faster than a Shoney's on Easter Sunday (more regional/local humor, there). But Shawn Chacon? After a great 2005 with NYY, his ERA was 2.85. Then he dialed a 7 in the front half of '06 with the Yanks and a 5.48 after being sent down in the second half to Four-A PIT. He came back the next year and notched a very respectable 3.94 in '07 in 90+ innings with a dismal Pirates squad. But I think his cap twist should have been temporarily revoked about 18 months ago. Tiger reliever Fernando Rodney had his cap cocked very, very sideways through the Magical Summer of 2006, but it came as little surprise to me that the cap started finding it's way back toward to the plate when 2007 bit him in the keister with a string of rough outings. Once he calmed down (his ERA settled in to a 4.26 in '07, up from 3.52 in '06 and 2.86 in '05), the crunked hat found its way back to his bandana'd head. Who knows where the Crooked Hat Club will draw the line. But I think Chacon should still be on probation. And I think Marino Rivera, saw three up and three down in his first action of the Spring, should consider pushing his hat a half inch the the left. He'd be pretty bad looking with that going.


FUKUDOME WATCH:

The buzz is building around our hero, with MLB.com (a site with so many freakin' scripts running that its crashing my Mac at the moment) doing a feature on how he is outperforming Ichiro...so far this Spring, anyway. Even we shudder at the comparison so early. Anywho, the Fukster was 1 for 3, with a double, a walk and a run scored. That earns a happy :P sign.