A Measure of Balance

The Major Leagues has to consider rectifying the scale in the very unbalanced distribution of teams.

As it stands now:

American League

East : Blue Jays, Devil Rays,Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees = 5 teams

Central: Indians, Royals, Tigers, Twins, White Sox = 5 teams

West: Angels, Athletics, Mariners, Rangers = 4 teams

Total Teams in the American League = 14 teams

National League

East: Mets, Braves, Marlins, Phillies, Nationals = 5 teams

Central: Astros, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates, Reds = 6 teams

Western: Diamond Backs, Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Rockies = 5 teams

Total teams in the National League 16 teams

How is it that the National League allows this disparity to continue? Just the fact that there are two less teams in the American League translates into, less travel time for players, as well as two less teams to contend with. This combined with the accepted disparity the Designated Hitter creates, (pitchers in the American league never have to come up to bat!) attributes to the fact that the American League will deal with less stress and fatigue. The addition of Inter-League play non-withstanding.

Since 2006, I've been hearing the grapevine chatter about how the American League is just superior. Well it's no wonder, look at the slanted disbursements of scheduling. The fact that there are two less teams in the American League to compete with than the National League makes for an unfair advantage. The American League as a whole contends with the opportunity to play more and risk less. The fatigue factor that travel and day to day ball playing create is heavier in the National League. This affects travel, conditioning, their pitchers come up to bat, which causes more wear and tear on both the pitchers and their team. In turn it trickles down to the the Minor leagues where the American League has to worry less about the amount of players that may be called up to play against their team.

It is so unbalanced for a sport like baseball which is statistically driven, to continue to perpetuate such an askew foundation for fair play. It creates and substantiates an unbalanced playing field. Which will always teeter its advantage toward the American League.

New Season, New Decade, Clean Slate and here we go again…

Here the Mets organization goes and ruins a perfectly good blog. Everything was ready for a good beginning. You picked up Jason Bay; word is you are close to picking up Benjy Molina and now you go and make complete asses of yourself by releasing statements to the press about a player that has showed you guts baseball, heart and soul and spectacular offense and defense!

Carlos Beltran has played with a broken face, injured knees, etc. He sought with the Mets consent, what was a second opinion on his knee last November. Dr. Steadman agreed with the first opinion that the surgery was necessary, because the pain came back after doing all the maintenance that was required from the doctor’s care. The surgery was deemed obligatory to restoring his health. To restoring to what would be his star athlete capabilities. The Mets organization wanted a third(?) opinion. They had the opinion of two of the top knee orthopedic surgeons in country, who both agreed that surgery was the best recourse. From the sound of it, they are now angry that he went ahead and had the surgery. So that he could recover earlier rather than wait for a third opinion which meant that more than likely it would lead to surgery in February and Beltran returning to the game at the earliest in August.

After the complete disastrous meltdown of physical injuries last year and the medical miscalls regarding Reyes, you think they would have welcomed a direct approach to recovery. There is no up side to this wait and see approach. A third opinion? REALLY??? WTF??? Your knee is what holds you up when walking, running, hitting, what about it needing to be repaired didn’t they understand?

This continuous buffoonery of the way the Mets organization handles situations with their players and the media is the example of an immature, tight fisted, ignorant set of owners who have money, are fans and have no clue of the what it takes to have a winning ball club.

It is just inexcusable that we are close to spring training and instead of discussing the pitchers and catchers we are stuck in a quagmire of irresponsibility.

I am amazed at how instead of writing about Jason Bay, David Wright, and the excitement of a new season, we are looping around another badly handled Mets drama. This should have been handled quietly, in-house, there was no reason to bring this type of stupidity to the forefront. Once again the Mets organization dropped the ball. Carlos Beltran has had the surgery, It is done. It can’t be undone. They should be focusing on who will handle centerfield until his return this 2010 season, instead of whining about the fact that Beltran went and had the surgery, from a surgeon they had approved of in November. Who BTW did surgery on Tiger Woods and had him walking and swinging on the golf course in no time.

This is the epitome of stupidity in running a ball club. Will Mark Cuban please come and buy the NY Mets before they shoot themselves in the foot yet again? And need a second and third opinion to close the hole.

Any comments? Shout out here or at my Facebook page.
Hawk

2010 Mets

Just wanted to wish all the great Met Fans a Happy New Year! Hopefully 2010 will bring all of us health, wealth and a solid season!