Tom Scocca

Tom Scocca http://www.tomscocca.com/ en Copyright 2010 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:11:27 +0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Markakis Defends Terry Crowley, Makes Case for Firing Terry Crowley an interview grappling with the question of how a club that looked solidly mediocre and due for improvement on paper has become the worst team of 2010 and potentially the worst team of modern times:

"You need guys in there who have a plan, who have a clue and who know how to execute that plan and get on base. We don't need every guy in this lineup trying to hit home runs. We're paid to get on base and figure out how to score and drive in runs. You look at the Yankees. They have guys who can hit home runs, but everybody in that lineup can get on base."

Markakis said the team's offensive woes shouldn't be attributed to longtime hitting coach Terry Crowley, who is known for advocating an aggressive approach at the plate.

Crowley "has 110 percent nothing to do with the way we are going about our business at the plate or on the field right now," Markakis said. "You can have anybody come here, and you still are going to have a couple of guys who are not going to change their approach and fix it. It's worthless. You can point your fingers here and there, but it is what it is. You're in the big leagues. You have to change your approach on your own. This is the best of the best, and if you go up there clueless, you're going to come back [to the dugout] clueless. It's that simple.

This is nice and diplomatic, but the Orioles are a stain on baseball, and Markakis' defense of the hitting coach makes no sense. Bless Terry Crowley for his years of service to the club as a player and coach, but he needs to have been fired weeks ago. The team is full of players, and especially young players, who are doing everything wrong at the plate, and are getting worse.

Yes, the players are at fault. But if Terry Crowley is not also at fault, then what is Terry Crowley's job, as hitting coach?

The Orioles are awful hitters. No one wants a baseball team to hit the way the Orioles hit. Suppose Markakis is right, and Crowley "has nothing to do with the way we are going about our business at the plate." That would mean Crowley is completely useless. ]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/06/markakis-defends-terry-crowley.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/06/markakis-defends-terry-crowley.html futility meaninglessness Nick Markakis Orioles Terry Crowley Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:11:27 +0800 Not Good Enough: The Dave Trembley Era
It was not Dave Trembley's fault that the Orioles are a lousy team this year. They are a lousy team because they have a lousy collection of players. A little over a week ago, this finally sank in, when they fielded the following lineup:

Corey Patterson, LF, .267

Julio Lugo, 2B, .229

Ty Wigginton, 1B, .281

Miguel Tejada, 3B, .260

Matt Wieters, C, .261

Adam Jones, CF, .259

Garrett Atkins, DH, .220

Lou Montanez, RF, .146

Cesar Izturis, SS, .226

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/06/not-good-enough-the-dave-tremb.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/06/not-good-enough-the-dave-tremb.html Andy MacPhail blame Dave Trembley failures Orioles overreliance on metaphor Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:55:00 +0800 Three Statements From a Not-Quite-Three-Year-Old
2. "Woodpeckers don't peck on the Dongzhimen. Because woodpeckers peck on wood."

3. "When I was little, I ate a glass table in Silver Spring."

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/three-statements-from-a-notqui.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/three-statements-from-a-notqui.html Dongzhimen kids say the darnedest things language acquisition No, he did not eat a glass table in Silver Spring parenting Tue, 25 May 2010 22:55:42 +0800 Blogging About Blogging: The "Scocca" Blog another Web log. This new one is called "Scocca," and it is published by Slate. It will be a more professional version of this, meaning probably not as many child pictures or rants about marginal roster moves by the Orioles. Meaning probably more of those here!

The Slate blog begins with an IM dialogue with Choire Sicha, because why try something new? Then it goes on to deal with flaming Tatas, Rand Paul, and other pressing issues of our day.

Now here is a picture of some pretty flowers.

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/blogging-about-blogging-the-sc.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/blogging-about-blogging-the-sc.html blogging peonies self-promotion Slate Sat, 22 May 2010 10:15:28 +0800 The First Twenty-One Names on the Orioles Roster, as Typed by a Small Child BRION ROBERTS

JULIO LUGO

CESAR ISTURIS

ERAL WEVER

BROKS ROBENSON

JUUSTINTURNNER

COW RIPCIN SR.

COW RIPCIN JR.

MAGELTEJADA

ATUM JONES

WANTSOMMEWEEL

ROBERTANDDENO

WEELOMEN

NOOLENRIMLED

JAMEWAAKER[*]

LOE MONT ANYAS

BRIAN MADIS

FELICS PIE

COJYWAYUHRA

FRANK ROBINSON

MARCACIS

[* Matt Wieters switched from jersey No. 15 to 32--so, logically the old No. 32 must have switched to 15.]]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/the-first-twentyone-names-on-t.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/the-first-twentyone-names-on-t.html command-V Cow Ripcin Jr. how young is too young to teach your child about Julio Lugo? I swear this is not my fault language acquisition Orioles parenting spelling reform Yes, he typed them in order Sun, 16 May 2010 12:35:22 +0800 Jing-Jin Intercity Railway, May 8

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/jingjin-intercity-railway-may.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/jingjin-intercity-railway-may.html Acela is a sad, sick joke Beijing China railroads speed Tianjin Sun, 16 May 2010 12:18:04 +0800 Maybe Corey Patterson Is Awesome look dumb about Corey Patterson and be happy than look smart and stay mad:

The victory wasn't assured until Patterson unleashed a throw from left field that nailed Josh Wilson at the plate for the final out. Wilson tried to score from second on Ichiro Suzuki's single.

Patterson, who also homered, was in the midst of a postgame television interview when he received a shaving cream pie to the face from teammate Will Ohman.

Nice touch that the pie was flung by Will Ohman, who has given up 8 hits and 7 walks in 11 innings, with an ERA of 0.00. Does Corey Patterson win games? Corey Patterson just won this one. Welcome back to the majors, Corey Patterson!

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/maybe-corey-patterson-is-aweso.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/maybe-corey-patterson-is-aweso.html Corey Patterson IDK Orioles Will Ohman winning Fri, 14 May 2010 10:02:18 +0800 Orioles Demote Struggling Reimold, Replace Him With Outright Failure
Another answer is that they demoted Nolan Reimold to Triple-A, brought up Corey Patterson, and installed Patterson in the leadoff spot:

Signed as a minor league free agent on April 21, Patterson was batting .368 in 14 games with the Tides.

He was immediately placed at the top of the lineup in Wednesday's game against the Seattle Mariners. With Roberts out, the Orioles tried Adam Jones and Julio Lugo at the leadoff spot and experienced little success.

[...]

Replacing Reimold, who was batting .205, with Patterson served as an indication that Baltimore wasn't going to stand pat while owning the worst record in baseball.

"I hope it is a twofold purpose here," manager Dave Trembley said. "We need to get somebody that can spark our offense. I am not putting it all on Corey, but he has been a leadoff guy in the past. He was playing very well at Triple-A. Nolan wasn't playing well here. It's unfortunate that these things happen, but they do happen."

Now, Nolan Reimold has not played particularly well. He is coming back from Achilles tendon surgery, and it may help him if he goes to recuperate somewhere other than in the major-league lineup. "Trembley said it was obvious that Reimold had lost his confidence, both at the plate and in the field," the news story reports.

Funny thing, confidence. Reimold may look uncomfortable at the plate, but 1 out of 9 times he steps up to hit, he draws a walk: 11 walks in 96 plate appearances this year. Actually, the rate works out to a walk every 8.7 plate appearances--exactly as often as Reimold walked last year, when he was a Rookie of the Year candidate.

That walk rate means that Reimold has a .302 on-base percentage. And that is to say, this year, hobbled by surgical aftereffects and batting without confidence, Nolan Reimold was so awful, his on-base percentage through 29 games was TWELVE POINTS HIGHER THAN COREY PATTERSON'S CAREER ON-BASE PERCENTAGE.

Uh-oh. Am I shouting? Corey Patterson, in 10 years in the majors, has reached base 29 percent of the time. And Dave Trembley is hoping that will solve the problem of the leadoff slot. Patterson will "spark the offense," except for the 71 percent of the time he will turn around and go sit back down on the bench, because he made an out, because Corey Patterson is the exact opposite of what a baseball team needs from its leadoff hitter.

Some of the things that have made the Orioles the worst team in the majors are genuine baseball mysteries. How can a starting pitcher be as good as Kevin Millwood has been without ever winning a game? How and why, in the course of 12 months, has Adam Jones deteriorated from the next Eric Davis to the next Jeffrey Hammonds to his current condition, in which he looks a lot like the next Corey Patterson?

But other parts of this season's debacle are easy to explain. The Orioles have decent pitching, but can't score runs. To fix this, they are going to put Corey Patterson at the top of the batting order. This is the kind of decision that the people who make decisions for the Orioles make, when they make decisions. Other teams make other kinds of decisions. ]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/why-are-the-orioles-so.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/why-are-the-orioles-so.html Corey Patterson Dave Trembley failures Nolan Reimold one man's trash is another, poorer and dumber, man's smelly and bedbug-infested new couch Orioles the opposite of Earl Weaver Thu, 13 May 2010 13:06:41 +0800 Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, May 7

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/tianjin-economictechnological.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/tianjin-economictechnological.html China sunshine Tianjin Sat, 08 May 2010 18:04:24 +0800 Jing-Jin Expressway, May 7

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/jingjin-expressway-may-7.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/jingjin-expressway-may-7.html advertisements China Jing-Jin Expressway landscape photoblogging progress Sat, 08 May 2010 17:52:14 +0800 Outer Chongwenmen Ave., May 6

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/outer-chongwenmen-ave-may-6.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/outer-chongwenmen-ave-may-6.html Beijing 老北京炸酱面 food and drink gray food for a gray city local cuisine noodles Tumblr Without Tumblr Sat, 08 May 2010 17:47:19 +0800 Outer Dongzhimen, May 5

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/outer-dongzhimen-may-5.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/outer-dongzhimen-may-5.html Beijing Din Tai Fung food and drink 小笼包 Sat, 08 May 2010 17:32:25 +0800 The Beijing Skyline: A Brief Survey of Recent Architectural History

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/the-beijing-skyline-a-brief-su.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/the-beijing-skyline-a-brief-su.html architecture Beijing chinoiserie context new CCTV building Wed, 05 May 2010 22:27:07 +0800 Dongzhimen, May 5

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/dongzhimen-may-5.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/dongzhimen-may-5.html Beijing cleanliness crosstown and beyond old CCTV tower unseen things made visible 山外有山 Wed, 05 May 2010 19:30:40 +0800 Dongzhimen, May 4

]]> http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/dongzhimen-may-4.html http://www.tomscocca.com/2010/05/dongzhimen-may-4.html Beijing the problem of dirt windows Wed, 05 May 2010 19:23:14 +0800