WTF HEATH?!?

Heath Bell is at it again. On Wednesday, he was called in to pitch the ninth against San Francisco with a 2-0 lead. His outing went thusly:

1. Brandon Belt doubled to CF
2. Joaquin Arias singled to RF, Belt scores
3. Buster Posey singled to RF, Arias to third

No worries! It's not like the Marlins are paying him $27 million over three seasons or anything...

Ozzie Guillen mercifully pulled Bell for Steve Cishek. After striking out Brett Pill, Cishek allowed the tying run to score on a brilliantly executed squeeze bunt by Gregor Blanco. Under the byzantine rules of the save, this means Cishek blew the save, but Bell did all the damage here. Bell's WPA during the inning was -0.556, while Cishek's was 0.111.

Bell had this to say about his troubles after the game:

I just feel really bad because Zambrano pitched a heckuva game. It still hurts, but it's one of those things that, for whatever reason, I'm not having any luck this year. The tide will change for me, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Heath is half-right. So far this year, his BABIP has been .387, a full 84 points above his career average. BABIP is out of his control, and we all know the Marlins defense has been less than stellar this season.

But what Bell can control are his strikeout and walk rates, which have been abysmal. His 2012 BB% is 17.4%, compared to 8.4% for his career. And his K% is a paltry 10.9%, down from a career mark of 24.7%. He is having a hard time fooling hitters, as shown by a decrease in O-Swing% (percentage of swings at pitches outside the strike-zone) to 22.0% from 31.7% last year. Opposing hitters' contact rate has jumped to 88.5% from 81.2%.

What does this all mean? Meet your new Marlins closer: Steve Cishek. Guillen has not publicly said what he plans to do about the closer situation, but the writing is on the wall.

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A Very Short Chat with Jesse Thorn

Something different to kick of 2012. My favorite public radio show, The Sound of Young America, relaunches this week as Bullseye. To promote the new show, creator and host Jesse Thorn (America's radio sweetheart) promised to accept any interview request, so we took him up on that offer. We briefly discussed baseball (of course).

Both times the Marlins won the World Series, they ended up beating the Giants in the NLDS. Which of those Marlins teams ('97 and '03) irritated you more as a Giants fan?

One of my closest friends, a San Franciscan, became a baseball fan the year the Marlins joined MLB. I was 11, he was 10. He picked Jeff Conine as his favorite player, and the Marlins as his favorite team. I never heard the end of those two series.

I will say that I've never had anything against the Marlins, and the 2003 edition even had the cool addition of Dontrelle Willis, a Bay Area guy my age who'd played against my friends in Little League and gone to high school with a good college buddy of mine. Still, I thought that was the Giants' year. And the stupid MARLINS messed it up. So I'm going 2003.

Which baseball player or manager (alive or dead) would you most like to appear as a guest on Bullseye? My choice: Earl Weaver

I was just thinking that I'd love to have Bill Veeck on the show sometime, were he not dead, but he never played or managed, so I suppose he doesn't count. I did have his son Mike on once, many years ago. A couple of the folks I'd most like to have on have been on: most notably Bill "Spaceman" Lee, whose autobiography The Wrong Stuff was almost certainly too influential on me as a child.

It's often hard to tell who in baseball is genuinely funny or eccentric, and who is just eccentric compared to baseball players, who seem to be the most boring people in the world. Only in baseball can you find black guys whose only hobbies are hunting and golf.

Earl Weaver's not a bad choice. I read his great book "Weaver on Strategy" as a kid, and loved it. I might choose the man who inspired Weaver, though, Branch Rickey. There'd be a lot to talk about.

Great choices all, and now Ted and I know who to recruit for social chair when we start our Earl Weaver Appreciation Society. The fact that he has actually read Earl Weaver makes him the most qualified cultural Sherpa on public radio.

Here's Bullseye's social media particulars, and a link to the show's podcast in iTunes. Below, the promo for Episode 1, which airs this week. Also, links to Jesse's interviews with Bill James and Mike Veeck. Bullseye is not carried by any public radio stations in Florida, so by all means, pester your station into carrying it.

Image via GQ

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Posey Posey Posey

We're considering renaming the blog to Our Bay Area Cousins, covering only the Scott Cousins-Buster Posey imbroglio.

Posey released a statement yesterday, which basically screams "I don't want to deal with any of this right now."

I appreciate the continued support of Giants fans and others as I begin the process of working my way back. But in no way do I condone threats of any kind against Scott Cousins or his family.

As I said last week, I'm not out to vilify Scott. I appreciate that he made the effort to reach out to me on the night of the play, but I was in no physical condition to talk to anyone. I have not been back with the team since that night, so I haven't even been aware of any other messages he's left for me. We all need to move on, so it isn't necessary to have a conversation with him at this point.

My only focus right now is looking forward, getting healthy and returning to catching for the Giants.

Meanwhile, legendary catcher Johnny Bench decided to give his two cents, and he says Posey, not Cousins, is to blame for Posey's injury:

When I heard about the injury, I was anxious to see how this happened. Buster put himself in such a bad position.

Bench is not really helping here (indeed, he's basically blaming the victim, which makes no one feel any better about the incident). He went on to explain that he teaches young catchers "to stay away from the plate when you don't have the ball," in order to induce a slide out of the runner. "And if you have the runner on the ground, there's less chance of any severe collision," he concluded. He also likened Posey's positioning to "a disabled car in the middle of a four-lane highway. You’re just going to get smacked." Sound advice, if delivered in a tone-deaf manner.

As for Posey, he could have been more magnanimous, but I understand he's frustrated and wants to move on. Surely someone in the Giants' media relations department will arrange a meeting between Posey and Cousins at some point so the two can shake hands and call it a day. But hopefully for now Posey's statement will put an end to the controversy.

On the other hand, at least this dustup inspired another great t-shirt from Strip Club With Stanton:

Keep up the good work, SCWS!

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Giants and Cousins release statements on Posey fallout

Cousins:

I hope and believe that Mr. Sabean's comments were made in the heat of the moment and are based more on his fondness for Buster Posey than on any animosity towards me. This situation is still an open wound for many, including myself. As I have stated previously, nobody outside of Buster feels worse about his injury than I do. I have reached out to Buster to let him know how badly I feel about his being injured during our collision at home plate.

I do believe, however, that the play was clean and totally within the rules of the game. Explaining over and over that I would never intentionally hurt another player for any reason won't change the minds of those who doubt my sincerity or intent. I have a responsibility to myself, my teammates, and my organization to play the game hard. This is what has gotten me to the big leagues, and hopefully this is what will keep me here.

San Francisco:

This is a very emotional time for the Giants organization and our fans. We lost for the season one of our best players to a serious injury and we are doing everything we can to support Buster Posey through this very difficult time. We appreciate Scott Cousins' outreach to Buster Posey and to the Giants organization.

Brian Sabean's comments yesterday were said out of frustration and out of true concern for Buster and were not meant to vilify Scott Cousins. Brian has been in contact with Florida Marlins General Manager Larry Beinfest to clarify his comments and to assure him that there is no ill-will toward the player. He has also reached out to Scott Cousins directly...

We intend to move beyond conversations about last week's incident and focus our attention on Buster's full recovery and on defending our World Series title.

Echoing Janie, that didn't sound like much of an apology (In Rumsfeldian terms, it is the quintessential non-apology apology). I take the Giants on their implication that Sabean apologized to Cousins and Beinfest directly. Hopefully this issue will be fully resolved by the time the Marlins and Giants next play each other in August (though I have my doubts).

I still think baseball needs to address the rule which allows runners to plow into catchers (and catchers to block a runner's path to the plate), so I hope this round of statements will allow both teams to put the specific incident behind them and advocate for a rule change. Not that MLB will necessarily make a logical and needed change...

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LoMo Speaks

On Brian Sabean's dickbaggery:

First of all, it's wildly unprofessional for him to make any comment on the situation.  When has he played in the big leagues?  When has he played in the minor leagues?  Correct me if I'm wrong but he's never been in a situation like that.  It's terrible.  Why would you wish anything like that on anybody? … He's taking this very hard without the comments that [Sabean]'s made.  He's getting death threats from people.  This is his hometown, San Francisco.  He's worried about his family and his friends that are there.  And now he's going to make comments like that?  It's ignorant, it's inappropriate and he has no idea what the hell he's talking about.

Sadly, this story is far from over. Not that anything that happens from now on will un-injure Buster Posey.

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Sabean wants to be clear: He hates Scott Cousins' guts

Brian Sabean on Scott Cousins:

Why not be hard-nosed? If I never hear from Cousins again or he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy. ... (Cousins) chose to be a hero in my mind, and if that's his flash of fame, that's as good as it's going to get, pal. We'll have a long memory. You can't be that out-and-out overly aggressive. I'll put it as politically as I can state it: There's no love lost and there shouldn't be.

Two things:

1. I hope you guys love talking about the unwritten rules of baseball, because I bet it comes up next time the Giants play the Marlins.
2. "There's no love lost" never made sense as a phrase to me. There shouldn't have been any love to begin with, right?

Actually, third thing: Posey will not magically heal if the Giants were to initiate a passive-aggressive/regular aggressive fight to the death with Cousins. Sabean understands that he's losing sympathy right? Or does being a dick make you a great leader? I can't keep track.

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A bit of Fun Before the Weekend

Via Deadspin:

"A then-21-year-old Scottsdale-based girl who went to Arizona State University claimed she went to Chicago for the National Championship game in 2003," a source familiar with the production told RadarOnline.com.

"She said she was partying with at least three Cubs players at one of their houses downtown until 4 a.m. -- drinking and hooking up.

"It was the night before Game 7 in the NLCS and at least two of the guys played in the game the next day.

"It was the most important game of the series and the Cubs ended up losing to the Marlins."

Read the whole thing here.

For a more serious take on the 2003 playoffs, head on over to MarlinManiac, where Michael discusses Game 4 of the NLDS against the Giants.

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There Will Be No World Series TV Guide This Year

Last year's World Series participants, the Yankees and Phillies, had the decency to bow out to the Rangers and Giants respectively, sparing us Marlins fans the indignity of watching (or not) two hated teams in the World Series. In fact, this will be one of the first World Series to capture my full attention in a while. Both teams feature some former Marlin favorites, including Jorge Cantu, Edgar Renteria, and NLCS MVP Cody "Co-dy Co-dy" Ross. Throw in two bona fide aces (Cliff Lee of the Rangers and Tim Lincecum of the Giants), each team's tortured history (the Giants haven't won a World Series since the heyday of Willie Mays, while the Rangers had not won a playoff series until this year), and Certified Ninja Brian Wilson, and you've got yourself a Series.


UPDATE: Also, celebrity fans! Okay, Jesse Thorn is not actually a celebrity, but he beats George W. Bush.

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