The Wheelhouse Returns! Ringing in the New Year...

To say it's been a while would be a severe understatement. It's been approximately six months since my last post (whoa!), but maybe this can be the start of a new rule at The Wheelhouse...when a MLB pitcher throws a perfect game, we shut down the site for the rest of the year in honor of it. OK, maybe not.

Let me start by wishing everyone a happy New Year and decade! I have an internal debate going on with some friends over the nickname of this decade, whether it's the "Tens" or the "Teens." I think it's the "Tens," but that's just my opinion and maybe this will lead to a longer discussion in a separate post further down the road.

I usually don't make new year resolutions, but I'm making an exception this year for this blog. My resolution is to take the time to write and update The Wheelhouse significantly more than was done in 2009. I have already made the effort to jot down a couple topics to discuss throughout the year on top of the usual posts, so rest easy.

Moving on from the housekeeping and new year talk, tomorrow is the final week of the regular season in the NFL. As usual we have plenty of meaningless games as teams that have already clinched divisions and playoff berths and will promptly lay down while resting their starters for the postseason. Post-Gazette Steelers beat writer Ed Bouchette brings up a great point in his Sunday column when he asked what's the difference between laying down and throwing games?

I don't see any difference between the two. Just because one team clinches doesn't mean another team fighting for a playoff berth should get an easy game and not have to fully earn their way into the playoffs. There has to be some degree of integrity that remains in these games even if the Colts are 14-0 and decided they don't want to try for history and just lay down to the Jets instead. And what happened to the old theory of competition where players just wanted to beat the other team on the field to prove they were the better team?

Another point that needs to be addressed since it appears the NFL is on the path to add two additional regular season games, how many meaningless games will fans have to watch at the end of the season with teams clinching divisions and first-round byes with four and five games left instead of one or two? If the NFL is serious about going to an 18-game schedule, this resting starters and meaningless games business has to be addressed. The entire playoff picture in the final weeks of the season could be thrown out of whack if the top teams are basically throwing in the towel.

UPDATE (January 3): During today's Steelers-Dolphins game, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the issue in my post yesterday regarding teams laying down and producing meaningless games. Here's the link to the article. Goodell said it's something that will be looked at in the offseason while mentioning that incentives (possibly extra draft picks) could be added for teams to play out their entire season. Time will tell if it's just talk or the NFL will make a move to eliminate these uncompetitive games.

Perfection

About two years ago, somewhere in the middle of reading most of my baseball collection, I stumbled upon a beautiful book titled "27 Men Out." Each chapter was designated to a perfect game in MLB history as they broke down those special games in great detail. There were only 15 chapters—the book does not count the two thrown in the 1800s. Fifteen chapters for 15 perfect games in more than 100 years of baseball.

Ever since reading that book, no-hitters never really excited me that much. Of course it's still an unbelievable feat and rare accomplishment to fire a no-hitter, but I've been waiting for that next perfect game since Randy Johnson's in 2004. It's probably the rarest single-game occurrence that can happen in baseball.

Yesterday afternoon on the South Side of Chicago, Mark Buehrle wrote his own chapter of perfection with the 16th perfect game in baseball history. He mowed down the Tampa Bay Rays by retiring all 27 batters. No hits, no walks, no errors, nothing except history and the record book.

Buehrle didn't come out of nowhere either. He's already thrown a no-hitter prior to his perfect game, he owns a World Series ring and he's been one of the most consistent, steady pitchers in the past decade. This just adds to his resume of a great Major League career.

I don't think the average fan understands how greater a perfect game is from a no-hitter. In a perfect game, no one from the opposition reaches a base as everyone is retired in order. Consider this—there's been 263 no-hitters in MLB history, which is more than two a season. Compare that to 16 perfect games, which comes out to about 15 percent chance to see a perfect game a season. It just doesn't happen. That's why Buehrle's game Thursday was so special and easily goes down as the highlight of 2009.

The Mets Stink

One thing that became very obvious over the recent weeks was showcased tonight on Sunday Night Baseball—the Mets are a mess. Their 7-1 loss to Atlanta was only one game, but if you've seen them in the past month then you know they stink. Despite the second-highest payroll in baseball (just under $150 million), the Mets are 43-48, just lost three-out-of-four to the Braves and are 15-29 since June 1.

Of course fans and baseball people will point to the amount of injuries that continue to pile up for the Mets. Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz and John Maine have all missed a significant amount of time already this season. Injuries are a part of the game and sometimes they dictate the fortunes of a season. But doesn't it seem like it's always something for the Mets in recent years? Last year, it was their bullpen falling apart, blowing games. So they go out and spend a ridiculous sum of money on the pen, only to see injuries derail the team in 2009. And there's always the late-season collapse the past two years, which is difficult to explain other than they simply buckled until the pressure.

If you looked at the Mets lineup lately, you wouldn't recognize half of them. And then there's the Mets pitching. They've had to rely on some of these names: Elmer Dessens, Tim Redding, Casey Fossum and Jon Niese. Ouch. Then there's Livan Hernandez who sucks, Oliver Perez who still sucks and Mike Pelfrey who's been awful this year.

Overall, it's added up to a bunch of nothing for the Mets. It's actually a surprise they have hung around as long as they have. But that's changing fast thanks to the Phillies kicking it up a notch along with the Mets continued struggles. I'm writing this team off once again. At least we won't have to watch or hear about their epic collapse in the last month of the season because come September, the Mets won't be anywhere near the playoff chase.

The Wheelhouse is Now Tweeting

This post is probably two weeks overdue, but it's official—The Wheelhouse is now tweeting on Twitter. You can find the home link here at http://twitter.com/IntheWheelhouse to follow all of the tweets.

I'm not entirely sure how this new online phenomenon will be used in relation to The Wheelhouse, but know that we'll be tweeting away on various topics, comments about sports and life in general. Oh what world we live in where thousands of people now tweet on their twitter and people actually knows what that means. Couldn't they have thought of a better name for this online communication?

Anyway, continuing with the housekeeping, look for a gadget on the right column that shows the live Twitter feed as I'm currently trying to work on the kinks in it. I will also be adding a couple of new links to the blog and website list on the right as well as possibly overhauling the layout and design of The Wheelhouse. Nothing official as of yet, just playing around with it to see all the options.

That's it for now. I promise to get some new baseball posts in the next couple of days with the All-Star game rapidly approaching next Tuesday.

It's Time

Let's do it. Let's Go Pens!

May Baseball Musings

This is drastically overdue, but better late than never, right? Anyway, with two months of the baseball season pretty much in the books, I wanted to catch up on some interesting things in this early season.

Predictions—The Wheelhouse might have been a bit off with some of our preseason forecasts as not only are the Indians in dead last (picked to the the AL Central), but I also thought the Diamondbacks were on their way to a great season to compete with the Dodgers down the stretch all season. As it turns out, the Dodgers, with or without Manny, might have the NL West wrapped up by the Fourth of July. They are currently up 8.5 games over the Padres—yes, the Padres and they just won 10 straight this week! Meanwhile, the D-Backs are 20-27 and have really been hurt by the loss of Brandon Webb since April. The Dodgers look to be a force in the National League. With Chad Billingsley living up to the expectations, the Dodgers might be my favorite to come out of the NL.

Zach Greinke—Can you say legit? Greinke is finally putting together that breakout season that people have been talking about for a couple years, and it's not a breakout season for a young player, but possibly on way to a historic season. He's already fired five complete games while sporting an ERA under 1.00 through his first 10 starts, which hasn't happened since 1966 when Juan Marichal did it. Not bad company at all. It'll be a great thing to watch all summer to see how long he can keep this incredible pitching going. And he almost makes the Royals watchable...every fifth day at least.

Early Surprises—If you scour the standings, you see two teams near the top of their respective division that is a bit of a shock. Before their recent nine-game streak into the tank, the Blue Jays were the hottest team in baseball. They have come back to earth, but once they figure out how to win again, I think they can hang around for a while and compete. I've always been a fan of the Blue Jays. I love the city of Toronto, a great baseball town. Love the SkyDome (forget the Rogers Centre crap) and I think they have a decent team. The other surprise is the Texas Rangers, who are leading the AL West by three games. Sure, they can hit the ball, they have always been able to do that, but the pitching has been there for them through 40 games. Will it last? No, it will not. I mean they are getting pitching from guys you never heard of like Matt Harrison. Texas will not last and the Angels will pass them once they get healthy and their shit together.

Guys I Would Love to Have on my Fantasy Team—This is a long list, but nobody is higher on the list than Raul Ibanez. I had him on my radar in both of my drafts this year because he's always been a consistent hitter and I liked the move to Philly. Of course, I thought he would drop a round or two more and passed him only to see him get taken and absolutely rake in this early season. Have you seen this guy? He's having an incredible start to the season, hitting .339 with 17 long balls, 44 RBI. He had just 23 homers in 162 games last season! Of course, I wish I had Greinke. How about Orioles outfielder Adam Jones—what a pickup if you grabbed him late. I do have Justin Morneau in two leagues, so I can't complain there as he's been a beast so far this season as well. The list goes on...Ian Kinsler, Dan Haren, Billingsley.

Pride. Passion. Pittsburgh Pirates—Of course, the Pirates would put their fans through a series of crazy emotions through just two months. The Pirates ran out to an 11-7 start, dropped eight straight after that and have been about 4-5 games under .500. It would be nice to see them sniff .500 all year and actually make something to watch down the stretch to see if they can avoid the infamous record. Honestly, I don't see that happening. They just don't have the talent (surprise) yet. The winning in April was a nice reminder of how great it can be if they would have a winning team one of these years. For now in Pittsburgh, we're on the Andrew McCutchen watch till he gets called up.

Stupid NHL.com Articles

With the Penguins fresh off their sweep of Carolina to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive year, the Philadelphia Flyers are still crying.

Honestly, we are three rounds past that series and the NHL is still publishing these kinds of stories? The Flyers still feel like they outplayed the Pens! Even though they got bounced at home after six games. Flyers captain Mike Richards is the latest to speak up about how much it hurts...

"Last year, give them full credit, they beat us and dominated us in a lot of parts of the game," Richards said. "I would never make excuses and this year they beat us and they're having a lot of success, but we thought we had a lot of success against them, outplayed them and outshot them, but we just couldn't beat Fleury. They had great goaltending and they're an opportunistic team. They capitalized on their chances.

"In playoffs, all the teams are so close and you need a couple of bounces to have success. Even though they have a great team, they got a couple of bounces and we didn't. It's not an excuse, though."

Let me summarize his comments, "WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH." Anytime you say this isn't an excuse and then use the word excuses twice, it's an excuse. Sure, there are a couple of bounces that go either way in every series and every game, I agree with that. But it's not like the Flyers lost on a last-second shot in Game 7 in overtime. They got beat on home ice in only six games for the second straight season. Get over it, Mike. Get over it, Philly. Move on—break out the irons and set up the tee times cause nothing's going to change. And NHL, please stop publishing these "oh whoa is me" loser stories.