Blogging About Baseball

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum can do whatever he wants.

If he wants to grow his hair so that it’s fourteen feet long, I’m into it—as long as he keeps winning.

Last night, Major League Baseball fans were treated to a semi-masterful performance by “The Freak” as he silenced the Phillie’s potent lineup for seven innings and struck out eight, including power-hitting first baseman Ryan Howard twice. For those not paying attention, Lincecum’s twenty-two strikeouts through his first two postseason starts ties a record set by the St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson way back in 1964. He’s also won seven of his last eight starts, including two postseason bids, a fitting cap to his unusually underwhelming 2010 regular season.

I couldn’t be more excited because I’ll be the first to admit it: I do not want another New York Yankees/Philadelphia Phillies matchup in the World Series.

I’ve been alive for twenty-five years and of those twenty-five years, the New York Yankees have appeared in the postseason fifteen times. Most of those appearances happened to occur during my formative years, and as someone from New Bedford, Massachusetts, I guess you could say I’m scarred. Knowing that the Yankees are an almost-lock to appear in the postseason means that there’s only three real postseason spots.

And recently, it seems, the Philadelphia Phillies have routinely occupied one of those three spots. It’s like Groundhog Day—things are predictable and boring and, as a result, I’m generally ho-hum about the postseason. Sure, a team like the Tampa Bay Rays pops in and makes its mark, but a year later, it’s the same old song and dance. It’s baseball’s version of a monopoly, and it makes for a poor experience for fans living outside of New York and Philadelphia.

So last night, I was dazzled, awed, even smitten, with Tim Lincecum’s performance. Even if he does look like a barely legal girl on the mound, I’ll latch onto anything he does, as long as it means that the Philadelphia Phillies don’t make the World Series and there’s still a chance of a Texas Rangers versus San Francisco Giants finale.

The television ratings would probably be lower than a Mormon’s blood alcohol level on a Sunday, but for me, the prospect of that matchup is exceedingly exhilarating.

Think about it: Tim Lincecum versus Cliff Lee in game one, C.J. Wilson versus Jonathan Sanchez in game two, Colby Lewis versus Matt Cain in game three, or some combination thereof. No, no pitcher tossed a postseason no-hitter, but that’s a damn good list of pitching matchups for die-hard baseball fans.

Something’s going to have to happen for this matchup to occur, however.

San Francisco’s offense is anemic. The Phillies’ big boppers haven’t gotten it going yet.

Add to that the relentless, unstoppable, just-when-you-think-you’ve-got-’em-they-beat-you New York Yankees, and my World Series dream matchup may be just that.

Still, I’ve got my fingers crossed.

If I had kids, I’d let them play around this year’s Hot Stove.

Since nothing of significance has happened this offseason, the country’s baseball analysts have become nothing but rumormongers: “The [insert team name here] have shown interest in [insert 2010 big-time free agent here].”

Rinse, wash, and repeat for the 29 other Major League Baseball teams and voila! you’ve got yourself a newsday.

But that’s not to say there aren’t some gems amidst the rubble. Today, the reputable Peter Gammons revealed that Dustin Pedroia is “all for” a switch to shortstop, the position he played at Arizona State University and in the Red Sox minor league system.

For Theo Epstein and the Red Sox, moving Pedroia to shortstop makes an incredible amount of sense. The market for everyday shortstops hasn’t developed, with Marco Scutaro and Miguel Tejada considered the highlights. If it were 2002, “highlights” would be the operative term here, but in 2008, it pretty much means “the only guys who aren’t terrible.”

But the second base market is much deeper, peppered with former All-Stars like Orlando Hudson and Placido Polanco and serviceable, everyday bats like Ronnie Belliard, Mark DeRosa and Felipe Lopez.

And while none of these options likely provide the Red Sox with future stability, the drastic realignment will shore up the rotating door of ineffective stopgap shortstops the Red Sox have become a laughingstock for trotting out. Since the departure of Nomar Garciaparra in 2004, the Red Sox have used 19 different players to plug the hole, none of them particularly effective or successful.

Nineteen!

Pedroia hasn’t played shortstop since 2006, so this proposed transition obviously wouldn’t be seamless. Still, in 184 games at shortstop during his minor league tenure, he committed just seven errors. And at Arizona State University, he was an All-American.

What’s your take on the situation?

As soon as the Chicago White Sox decided to buy out the $950,000 remaining on slugger Jermaine Dye’s contract, the front office began scrambling to replace his offensive production.

They brought in Mark Teahen, a versatile infielder/outfielder with slight pop, from the Kansas City Royals. They re-signed pinch hitter extraordinaire and corner outfielder Mark Kotsay to a one-year deal.

Not surprisingly, those signings did little to inspire confidence in Chicago.

But now they’ve brought in 10-time Gold Glover and five-time All Star, 32-year-old Andruw Jones.

For $500,000.

My how the mighty have fallen.

Jones is a shadow of the player that routinely garnered Most Valuable Player votes as little as three years ago. In limited play with the Texas Rangers in 2009, he hit .214 with 17 homeruns in 281 at-bats. The campaign was actually an improvement over his horrible 2008, when he hit a measly .182 with just three homeruns as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In recent years, Jones has reverted to one of his old and worn tendencies: swinging at and missing breaking balls. There’s a good article about his rapid decline here.

Jones is just the most recent piece of the White Sox’s expanding bench. It’s highly unlikely that he’ll amount to anything more than a platoon corner outfielder, but Jones is still valuable to Chicago.

It’s entirely possible that he hasn’t forgotten everything that once made him one of the game’s most feared hitters.

Jones averaged a homerun every 16.5 at-bats in 2009. Had he played a full season and amassed more plate appearances, that mark would have been good for eighth in the American League. He also led Texas batters in walk rate in 2009, earning a free pass every 7.4 at-bats.

Jones’ contract with the White Sox includes $1 million in performance based incentives, an advantage he’ll want to make the most of if he hopes to even earn a contract in 2011.

While the signing isn’t likely to quell Chicago fans’ uneasy thoughts about the team’s outfield in 2010, it is a step towards replacing Dye’s offensive production. Jones will most likely split time at the corner outfield positions and as the team’s designated hitter.

For $500,000, the Chicago White Sox could have certainly done worse.