The Not-So-Social Morgan Network

School just started up for me again, which means boring professors galore and plenty of free time to look for pieces of sports literature that frustratingly tickle my funny bone in just the right spot. What better way to come back from a long hiatus than to take a look at 'ol Joe's "JoeChat."

IT'S T-SHIRT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!

Jay (South Korea: Love ur work Joe! Last night's gem against Washington locked up Halladay for Cy, do you agree?

Joe Morgan (11:09 AM: Well, the fact that Jimenez has not been able to win, I would say yes. Jimenez has pitched well, but he hasn't been able to win and Halladay has won. I think with the fact that the Phillies have won that Halladay will win it.

Number of forms of "win" used in paragraph: 5
Number of forms of "win" necessary in a Cy Young argument: 0
Number of min left in this boring International Business class: 97
Number of billion dollars Mark Zuckerberg has made from Facebook: 22

M@ (Hattiesburg, MS): As wide open as the AL CY Young race is, I haven't heard Jon Lester mentioned once, even though his numbers are better than C.C.'s. across the board, an equal to Felix. For instance, opponents hit .243 off CC, .213 against Felix and .214 against Lester. Did his flirtation with a no-hitter against the Yankees Saturday put him on the map, finally? Who would you give the CY to?

Joe Morgan (11:12 AM): I think he's always been in the race in my mind. I like what Felix Hernandez has done, but he has won only 12 games.

Irrelevant.

People say that he doesn't get support from his teamamtes,

Hernandez has 12 losses. In those 12 losses, the Mariners have scored a grand total of 14 runs. 14. As in two more runs than the number of games lost. As in 1.2 runs scored per game. For 12 starts, saying he didn't get support from his teammates was almost literally true. He was literally 1.2 runs of support away from getting literally no support from his teammates. Literally.

but guess what, every award is a team award.

No it's not. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any actual "team" awards besides the World Series Title. Other than the super obvious ones like Silver Sluggers, Gold Gloves, and MVP's, I mean.

Anyways, among A.L. pitchers with at least 160 innings pitched, Sabathia ranks 8th in run support with 7.31 runs per game. Hernandez is dead last (42nd) with 3.75 runs per game.

You can't win the MVP without your teammates.

Yes you can. The M.V.P. award, according to trustworthy Wikipedia, stands for "Most Valuable Player", not "Most Valuable Team-Player As Deemed By Joe Morgan And His Painstakingly Outdated Chass-Like Ways Of Looking At Things" (or M.V.T.P.A.D.B.J.M.A.H.P.O.C.L.W.O.L.A.T.).

Do we look at an MVP candidate and say his team didn't give him a chance to drive in runs?

Who's "we"? Because my answer to your patronizing, sarcastic, condescending, leading, naive, ignorant, arrogant-poised question is... HELL YES!

Also, the Seattle Marines scored less runs than any other team in baseball this year. The Yankees scored the most. You will ignore this information.

The fact is that Felix has won 12 games and CC has won 20.

True fact (well, technically King Felix has 13 wins now, but at the time of the JoeChat this was a true fact). You know what else is a true fact? Felix beat C.C. in ERA, FIP, xFIP, WAR, K's, IP, CG, K/9, BB/9, K/BB, HR/9, and WHIP. True fact.

It is harder to win in a championship environment in New York than in Felix's situation.

Yeah, it's easier to win when your team scores 3.75 runs for you per game and more difficult to win when your team scores 7.31 runs per game. Poor Sabathia man... King Felix has it easy, bro! He's got a castle and a queen and servants and shit!

Just look at AJ Burnett this year.

Awesome example. For heaven's sake just last year this guy threw 207 innings, struck out 195 batters, and posted a 3.1 WAR! What happened? All of the sudden he comes to New York and can't pitch anymore?! Are you kidding me??? Sack up and grow a pair Burnett, this is the Damn Yankees!!!



(**browses at Burnett's Baseball-Reference page**)



....Nevermind all that. Apparently Burnett pitched for the Yankees last year too. My bad.

Felix has done a good job this year, but he's not in the same difficulty level of pitching this year as CC.

Major League Baseball has been around since 1869. During that span the world has witnessed things such as the invention of the automobile, airplane, radio, television, air conditioning, computer, telephone, Coca-Cola, Beatles, Jersey Shore, and--above all-- Facebook. The world has developed drastically in almost every way over the past 141 years. However, what has not developed is the ability of sportswriters (specifically Joseph Morgs) to ignore the ever-so-attractive "wins" category when evaluating pitchers. I'm fairly certain that even Snooki could understand the basic concept if it was written at a 3rd grade level on a spray tan can label.

I'm tired. Class is over. Time to devote the next couple hours to coming up with an idea that will allow me to--much like Mark Zuckerberg did after inventing Facebook--drop out of school and become a billionaire.

Joe Morgan's Eyes >>> Replay

If you have been following Sunday Night Baseball for any of the past twenty years, you would have noticed that one of Joe Morgan's less redeeming qualities as a broadcaster is his reluctance to accept a dissenting opinion. Now, I'm not here to say that he's alone in this regard (I still think the WB made a mistake cancelling Road Rovers. Who cares that the ratings were bad?) but today's 438th edition of the Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry (TM) this season brought about this wonderful example of Joe's stubbornness (from MLB.com):

The Video

If you can't see the video, here is what happened:

With Nick Swisher on 2nd and no one out, Robinson Cano flied out to Jacoby Ellsbury on a fairly shallow fly ball. Swisher tags up and advances to third. Given the shallowness of the foul ball and Swisher's less than blinding speed, Joe Morgan thought that Swisher may have left early. Moments later, Paul Byrd throws to 2nd on appeal and Swisher is called out. On the replay where the catch and Swisher's tag attempt are synchronized, Swisher's foot is still on the bag. At worst, he left at the same time according to that view. For some reason, instead of agreeing with that assessment as Jon Miller did, Morgan somehow thinks he has the same view of the play as the umpire.

This leads to two questions:
1) How in the world can you have the same view if you're yards away?
2) How can you not see that his foot was still on the bag? Only because he leaned as if he left early? (though not in this video, Joe insinuated this)

If you think this is his first time overstating the margin of error of technology relative to his observation, read this piece from Baseball Analysts in 2006.

It is absurdity at it's finest.

Just When You Thought Fangraphs Couldn't Get Any Better

They go and write something like this. I encourage you to read the comments as well.

JoeChat

Alright, this obviously isn't FJM, but somebody's gotta tear this up, right?

Buzzmaster: Hey everyone. Joe's running about 10 minutes late. So we'll get started around 11:10 a.m. ET.

This should not come as a surprise to those who know Joe. He isn't a huge fan of computers, so to think that he would spend any more time than necessary on one is absurd. ABSURD I TELL YOU!

Buzzmaster: We've got Joe!

Yes! It was only a matter of time before he figured out that "internet" thing on his dial-up imac. Now let's brace ourselves for Joe's opening statement.

Joe Morgan: I want to clarify my position on the 103 list of people who tested positive in 2003. I do not view all the players as suspects, because I do not know who's on the list. The only time I'm suspicious of players is when it's been called for suspicion. Because I don't konw (sic) who's on the list, I do not look at Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter and Jason Varitek and think they are suspects. I do not use the lack of knowledge of names on the 103 list to form my own list. I believe people are innocent until proven otherwise.

So basically Joe will not be suspicious of players until they have tested positive. I'm not really sure why you would need to be suspicious of a player taking steroids if it's already been confirmed that the player took steroids. Whatever. Thanks for the heads up, Joe.

Gary (Buckeye ,Az): Joe, did you like the White Sox trade for Jake Peavey?

Joe Morgan: I didn't until I realized that he's going to pitch until the end of this month.

This makes no sense. Peavy won't be back until the end of this month. Okay, now we can move on.

When I first thought that he was out for the season, I didn't think it was a good move. But Ken Williams says they can get 6 starts out of him down the stretch. So then I think it's a good move. They're also looking at next year too.

A lot of things have to go right in order for Peavy to be back by the end of this month, let alone have six starts. Even so, I'm a little reserved about the move. His career numbers on the road, while pretty good, aren't nearly as impressive as they are at pitcher-friendly Yellowstone Park in San Diego. Peavy's thrown 114 fewer innings on the road throughout his career, yet he's given up 33 more homeruns. U.S. Cellular Field is also considerably favorable to hitters. Fangraphs did a nice piece on the trade. The White Sox gave up quite a bit, and Peavy's owed upwards of $15 million each of the next three seasons.

Anyways, at least Joe answered the question, even if it wasn't very helpful.

Sam (Boca): what moves can the Yankees make to improve their rotation before the postseason? one injury and they will have trouble brewing.....
Joe Morgan: Well, if they think they need that, they will make a move. I think they did a smart thing by not giving away players and making deals. Now if they get to September and have to do a waiver deal or something, they'll try to do it. I still think they need another starter, but I think they can get it done later without paying too hefty of a price.

Rook: Joe, what moves can the Yankees make to improve their rotation?

Joe Morgan: Well, Rook, they can make moves.

Rook: Perfect. Thanks.

Kent (Greenville): Do you think the Home Run Derby is the cause for Pujols' recent slump. Not a hit this past weekend. When was the last time that happened?

Joe Morgan: He didn't do well in the Home Run Derby either. He only had about 20-30 swings. I think he was on such a torrid pace and played at such a high intensity level, I think he needs a breather. I think he's mentally tired. He didn't get any time off during the all-star game, because he was the unofficial host. I think he needs a couple of days off and then he'll be back on track.

Gary (Buckeye,Az): Joe,what is your take on Milton Bradleys struggles this year?

Joe Morgan: I think it started when he first got hurt and the fans were expecting so much from him and he was expecting from himself and he put pressure on himself. He played maybe when he shouldn't have played. Baseball is a tough game to play when you're healthy, let alone when you're injured. I think he has time to regroup and get hot. I think between now and the end of the season he will get hot and raise his average. He's not a .240-.250 hitter. I think there's still more to come from him if he can get mentally focused.

Let's play a drinking game. Go back and read these last two responses from Joe and take a shot every time he says "I think." If you're not wasted by the fifth sentence then you are drinking water. If you don't have any alcohol, caffeinated beverages will also get you drunk. Good luck reading the rest of this post.

Edward (Nashville): Who is going to be the "under the radar" team in the playoffs this year?

Joe Morgan: I don't see anyone getting hot like the Rockies did a couple of years ago. But I do see some of the teams that are playing well now getting hot and maybe opening up a lead. I do see that happening. I don't think the races are going to be as close as they are now.

Rook: Joe, who is going to be the "under the radar" team in the playoffs this year?

Joe Morgan: A team that is playing well will perhaps get hot and open a lead.

Rook: Okay cool. Wait, you didn't say a team, though.

Joe Morgan: A team not like the Rockies.

Rook: Alright, that's better. For a second I thought you weren't gonna answer my question. That would've been funny, huh?

Joe Morgan: Well I can't say for sure whether or not it would have been funny because there's no way of knowing. And I don't want to speculate. There is perhaps a possibility that it could have been borderline humorous.

Rook: (**searches for upcoming Rob Neyer chats**)

Chris (Cincy): Why are there no consistently great teams like your Reds teams of the 70's? Even the top teams this year (Yankees, Angels, Red Sox, Dodgers) seem to struggle with their consistency. What do you think is the cause of this?

Chris is definitely baiting him here. Two "consistents" in the middle of a comparison to the "good 'ol days." Nice. My guess is that Joe is going to hold a great deal of bias for his era while giving almost zero credit to today's MLB teams.

Joe Morgan: Well, that's a great observation. The point is that there aren't any great teams any more. Great teams have speed, pitching, defense, hitting, power. You don't have anybody with that combination any more.

Yankees, Angels, Rays.... Usually the teams with the best records are the ones that can hit, run, play defense, etc. The correct answer is the developmental progress of free agency. It is more difficult to keep a team together in today's game than it was in the 50's 60's or 70s. There are still great teams year in and year out, it's just nearly impossible to sustain that success within a franchise unless you have unlimited access to money, which I'm pretty sure is not the case with any team in professional sports. Yes, I know that includes the Yankees, but even they have a limit.

You have good teams, not great teams. The weaknesses show up more. Any time that happens, you'll lose 3-4 in a row. When your strengths show, you win 5 in a row. That's why the good teams have stretches. The Yankees won 9 in a row, but then lost 3 straight in Chicago. One thing to watch the rest of the way is whichever team can shorten their losing streaks, that team will win the division.

Teams that win more games than they lose will be more successful if they win a lot of games in a row and don't have long losing streaks. Grade "A" analysis brought to you by an Emmy Award Winner from your Worldwide Leader in Sports.

Elvis (Graceland): Do you think Matt Holliday can keep it up? Why was he not playing like this in Oakland?

Joe Morgan: Well, first, it's kind of like what I said about Milton Bradley. Holliday is a good hitter. He struggled early on, but he started to get hot right before he left Oakland. That doesn't mean he'll hit like that the rest of the season. Playing in Oakland was a downer for him, because you're playing on a team that doesn't excite you. It's a boring team to watch. They either strike out, walk or try to hit HRs. Jack Cust is a typical Oakland hitter. He either walks or hits home runs. It's just not an interesting team and that had an effect on Holliday. Plus the ball park is not easy to hit in.

2009 Oakland Athletics

694 Strikeouts--24th most in MLB
363 Walks-- 19th most in MLB
89 Homeruns-- 27th most in MLB

The A's have had 4,228 plate appearances so far this year. All of 1,146 of those plate appearances have ended in either a strikeout, walk, or homerun. That's good for 27 percent. Joe also said that Cust either walks or hits homeruns. This has happened in 18 percent of his plate appearances this year and 22 percent over the course of his career.

Oh, and since when were homeruns not exciting?

Kevin (Connecticut): Who are your AL and Nl Cy Youngs/MVPs right now?

Joe Morgan (11:37 AM): Well, the one thing to remember, there's a long way to go. In all of those awards, someone can still step forward. I think Pujols is the MVP in the NL. I still think Prince Fielder and Braun are legit candidates if the Brewers can win the division. As far as Cy Young, that's even more difficult for me, because I think people want to lean toward Tim Lincecum, but they ignore what Matt Cain has done. I think he's pitched more consistently from his first start to his last start than Lincecum. He's not going to get a lot of votes, but I think Jason Marquis has done a great job in Colorado. You always have to look at Santana, because of what he does for his team. He can get hot down the stretch and win many games in a row. It's hard to make a call, but those would be my leaders at the moment.

Cain has been more consistent than Lincecum..... Sometimes I think that Joe would prefer "consistency" over anything else. Even if the player is consistently bad, it seems like Mr. Morgan would give him credit and say stuff like "well you always know what you're getting with this guy." Lincecum leads Cain in the following categories: ERA, K's, K/9, BB/9, HR/9, BAA, WHIP, K/BB, FIP, RAR, and WAR. Also, while I'm not really a fan of the statistic, he leads Cain in Quality Starts as well (19 to 15). I guess you could kinda use that as a measure of consistency. Whatever.

Buzzmaster: Thanks for chatting Joe!

I don't think that these chats serve any real purpose for humanity, other then to entertain the blogosphere. For all our sakes, I hope ESPN never realizes this.

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

Steve Phillips is now a part of the "Sunday Night Baseball" broadcast team, alongside Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. This, without a doubt, is the best news of the young season. I've watched half an inning of the Cubs/Phillies game and already we have a gem from our good friend, Joey M. (I like to rhyme). For a few minutes, Joe went on about how the Cubs manager, Lou Piniella, splits up his righties and lefties in the batting order and how it isn't smart to give your best hitter, Aramis Ramirez (presumably), fewer at-bats because it really doesn't make much of a difference to have consecutive righties or lefties. Okay, sounds reasonable enough, right? Ah, but wait, this is Mr. Morgan we're talking about, we should know by now that he just can't leave it at that. So he proceeds to say this:

**Paraphrase**
"You see, in Philadelphia their three best hitters--Rollins, Utley, and Howard-- are left-handed, but they bat them all in a row. That's the difference between Manuel (Phillies Manager) and Lou."

He goes on to cite this quite a few times as he chastises Piniella for batting Ramirez fifth in the lineup as opposed to having his best hitters in their deserving spots regardless of whether they bat right or left. There's only one thing wrong with this comparison that Joe keeps pointing to: THE PHILLIES HAVE NOT ONCE HAD A ROLLINS/UTLEY/HOWARD BATTING ORDER THIS SEASON. In fact, the only time Manuel did that during the entire '08 season was that strange two week stretch where he had Utley batting second, followed by Rollins and Howard (not a horrible idea, btw, just strange in the sense that he never did it again).

I don't understand how Joe Morgan can consistently be allowed to consistently say stupid shit on a consistent basis despite his consistent idiotic remarks week in and week out.

Yes, it's now been nearly five months since FJM disbanded, and I am sad.

"No Shit Sherlock" Video of the Day

That's right, folks. Believe it or not, walks with no outs and nobody on base can actually be more damaging than walks with two outs and nobody on base. I know, mind-boggling.

Man, I really miss FJM.

60+ Saves = Best Pitcher in Baseball

The guys at FJM do a much better job of tearing Joe Morgan's chats apart than I could ever do, so I'll refrain from trying to tackle the whole thing. However, this single quote from today is just so good that it simply can't be overlooked.

Joe Morgan: But I do want to add that I believe K-Rod should win the American League Cy Young. He's going to have over 60 saves, which no pitcher in baseball has ever done. When you do something like that, it seperates you and makes you the best in the league that year.

Holy Shit. This is extremely short-sighted, even for Morgan. How can anyone, with a straight face, say that K-Rod deserves the Cy Young over Cliff Lee? K-Rod has a worse ERA, ERA+, WHIP, OPS Against, etc. and he's a RELIEVER! Cliff Lee has literally thrown three times the amount of innings that Rodriguez has, while being better in practically every facet of the game.

You know what separates you and makes you the best in the league, Joe? Being the best in the league. Saves do not accomplish that. By your childish, naive logic, Joe Borowski was the best reliever in baseball last year despite having a 1.34 WHIP and an ERA over five. K-Rod is not even the best closer in the American League. Joe Nathan, Mariano Rivera, and Joakim Soria (just to name a few) are each having seasons that are drastically superior.

I would much rather have Carlos Delgado win the MVP award than see Francisco Rodriguez win the Cy Young. I think that pretty much sums up the absurdity of the proposal right there.

Sunday Night Baseball Live Blog Cardinals-Cubs

Welcome to this NL Central match up and not to mention my first post on this blog. I'll be keeping track of some of the nuances of this game as well as some of ESPN's "analysis", good and bad. My fellow authors will join in the fun as well.

-Who would have guessed Joe wasn't big on stats?

-I can give ESPN credit for this: they have better scouting reports than the YES Network.

-As much as I think that strikeouts aren't the big evil some people think it to be, it's amazing he's so productive and can work plenty of walks yet not have the high strikeout totals of most others with high walk totals.

-This may just be me but having a microphone on the bases just doesn't add to my enjoyment of the game.

-There's the obligatory "the Molina brothers can't run" mention. Always helpful. :)

-What a jump by Kennedy.

-"Scouting reports tell you a lot about the pitcher." Isn't that the point of a scouting report?

-Woot, gas money from Jon and Joe!

-Here comes the future HoMer (Hall of Merit-er) Jim Edmonds. He crushed the ball all the way to deep center. To be serious, check out his rate stats. He's been very good.

-Not since Ron Santo's victory heel click or Sammy Sosa's home run hop has leg work been a bigger deal.

-Can those montages be any more melodramatic?

-Oh yes, "the club". That is another whole post altogether. Maybe later. ;)

-"Banzai!" *laughs at Jon Miller's momentary awkward silence after that comment*

-Very nice catch by Edmonds. HoMer!

-Speaking of nice plays, no wonder Glaus has shown so well defensively in stats detailing range.

-They've been pitching away to Pujols all night. I don't see what is so special about this situation that they decide to change from a plan that they haven't really deviated from in the first place. (before you say anything: yes, broadcasting is harder than it looks. I tried a mock broadcast at the Fan Fest this year and I certainly botched it badly. Having said that, I'm not a professional.)

-Dempster is sure working that "slidepiece" to great effect.

-Jon, Joe: please don't try to talk racing. You'll just embarrass yourselves. Then again, ESPN is not the source for great racing analysis of any kind.

-Soriano on the first pitch (career, before tonight): .405/.416/.755 in 610 PA with 46 HR. I would say that's not bad at all.

-There's the Joe Morgan staple: belabor a point regardless of how right or wrong he may be. A perfect example would be the discussion of a disputed HR call during the Mets-Yankees Sunday Night game earlier this year.

-Villone: the designated well-traveled lefty. Let's hope that Carpenter is alright.

-Kennedy channels his inner Leon Durham (oh great, now I'm doing it, too).

-Shuffles must love the 5-run inning his team got just now.

-Trying to steal a base down six? I never thought that to be great strategy.

-I'm a bit surprised they didn't start playing the Notre Dame fight song. Maybe I'm thinking about FOX.

-It's strange watching Wilbon speak to someone without Kornheiser yelling back.

-It should not be that surprising Red Sox fans are about in an away series. You know better, Jon.

-I don't know what is worse: listening to bad analysis (not specific to this game) or listening to one's mother singing an Isaac Hayes (RIP) song off key.

Cubs win 6-2.

FanGraphs plot: Plots 'R Us