Around Baseball: Method to LaRussa's madness
Call him a genius, or call him mad, but Tony LaRussa is at it again.
The Cardinals' manager said he will bat his pitcher eighth this season, and he has been doing so during spring training. LaRussa told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he has always believed in the strategy - but hasn't employed it on a full-time basis for the bulk of a season since 1998.
"I'm gutless," LaRussa said.
One column of LaRussa's theory is that, with a better hitter at the bottom of the order, No. 3 batter Albert Pujols will have more opportunities to drive in runs. Moving the pitcher to No. 8 also gets him farther away from Pujols.
Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch examined some statistics related to batting the pitcher eighth instead of ninth and came to the following conclusions:
- The No. 8 spot will produce, on average, only 19 more plate appearances per season than the No. 9 spot, and that difference can be erased via pinch-hitting for the pitcher.
- The best-hitting team in baseball in 2007, the New York Yankees, gained their most decided advantages over the other teams in overall productivity at the No. 4 spot (Alex Rodriguez) and at No. 9.
- The teams with the highest on-base percentage from the No. 8 hitter generally didn't score a lot of runs. The AL teams with the lowest on-base percentage at No. 8 were still among the league leaders in runs scored.
So, there may be some method to LaRussa's madness.
Tom Ruane wrote a very extensive statistical study for the Web site retrosheet.org that examines all batting orders from 1993 to 2004.
One conclusion he reached is that the difference between the batting order a team normally used and its best potential order would have produced about one extra run - every three weeks.
That should certainly make LaRussa feel better about his guts.
Back to the future
Three-time All-Star second baseman Bret Boone, 39, is attempting a comeback with Washington after two years out of baseball. Boone, who retired in the spring of 2006, accepted an assignment to Triple-A Columbus on Thursday.
"I've come this far, and I want to pursue it," Boone told the Washington Post.
The Nationals already had Ronnie Belliard and Felipe Lopez to play second base.
Willing to serve
Seattle pitching prospect Nick Hill will report for military duty after the season ends. The West Point graduate is in the Army's Alternative Service Options program.
The 23-year-old left-hander must spend two offseasons in active duty, then can buy out his remaining three years by agreeing to spend six years in the Reserves.
"If they said I had to go (to Iraq), then I'd go, no doubt," Hill told the Seattle Times. "But the people that I know over there support me 100 percent and want me to do this. They told me if I got this opportunity, I should jump at it.
"That's what I'm doing. If, down the road, I'm needed someplace else, I'll do that too."
Hill had a 0.51 ERA in short-season Class A last year, striking out 45 and walking nine in 35 innings.
Hoop it up
Mark Hendrickson, Florida¹s 6-foot-9 pitcher, is one of a select few men to play in both the major leagues and the NBA. He has played in 179 career big-league games after 114 games with four NBA teams (Philadelphia, Sacramento, New Jersey, Cleveland).
Which is tougher? To Hendrickson, it¹s no contest.
"I've seen other athletes try to do the baseball thing, and they just look ridiculous," Hendrickson told the Miami Herald.
Never happened
John Smoltz took an Orlando Sentinel reporter aside this week to finally, hopefully, once and for all, repudiate a 20-year-old story about him.
The original tale said Smoltz once burned himself as he ironed a shirt while wearing it. That story, while odd and interesting, apparently isn't true.
Smoltz said he used a small portable steamer to take wrinkles out of his shirts. Once, when he set the steamer down, hot water popped out and onto Smoltz's chest. The resulting burn looked like a hickey, prompting plenty of explaining from Smoltz to his teammates.
That explanation, over time, somehow morphed into the urban legend that will apparently follow Smoltz all the way to the Hall of Fame.
Reach Repository sports writer Andy Call at (330) 580-8346 or e-mail andy.call@cantonrep.com.