Is 4-zip a good enough beating NFH ?
Excellent game for the good guys yesterday, Walker, League, Glynn, Downs and Whiteside combined for a one-hit shutout of Detroit and the Jays won their 14th game of the Spring.
Pete Walker made a strong case for a place on the team, 4 perfect innings and 7 strikeouts. Wilner thinks that puts him on the team, and I agree.
As it is Warren Sawkiw weekend at The Box I listened to the game and was pretty impressed with Warren. He was far better than his appearances on Sportsnet had led me to expect. He wasn't being overly-energetic or sounding too forced. He seemed, as has been said, like a fan hanging out a game, a knowledgeable fan to boot as he had clearly done his homework. He sounded a bit stinted and hesitant at the start going through the lineups, but settled in well later. The 'when I played..' stuff wasn't too overdone, and he added a couple of nice insights - there was a good piece of work explaining the positioning on a play by O-Dog for instance. Clearly he knows he has a lot to learn and knows that he couldn't have a better guy to learn from than Jerry, there was an interesting interlude where he picked 'the old pros' brains about how he scores games as he calls them.
He was fine, I was pleasantly surprised.
On the subject of commentators I'm looking forward to hearing Darrin Fletcher working on Sportsnet, I heard him do a couple of Expos games on the Score last year and he really impressed me. We touched on his work in this game thread early last season. He did a great job of taking you through an at-bat, saying what the pitcher was trying to do, what the hitter was looking for, what he would be calling and why and how adjustments are made as the at-bat progressed. I don't have any thoughts much on the other colour guys, any that bauxites are looking forward to hearing?
Interesting Notes:
Some links. The first couple I found at Primer and they were so good I wanted to pass them on in case anyone hadn't seen them:
Bill James interview at Sons of Sam Horn, this is extensive and touches on some really interesting areas apart from the normal sabermetric questions. Clearly Bill James knows just about everything.
Eric Neel has a just brilliant piece on Vin Scully, this is one of the best things I've read in forever. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend a look.
Jim Turner has a great piece at the Toronto Baseball Guys site on Robbie Alomar "the best player to ever don the uniform".
Spencer Fordin on Brandon League and the possibility of trades before the end of the Spring.
Geoff Baker joins in the praise of Pete Walker
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050327152716879