Tribeservations

1) Somebody, please, either explain to the Toronto Blue Jays' official scorer what an "error" is, or politely ask him to seek other employment. Everything is a hit to this guy.

- First inning, Blue Jay batter hits a shallow popup that absolutely destroys Shin-Soo Choo in RF, rolls to the wall, and lands the hitter on 3rd. This HAS to be an error, or else we just stop having errors. At best you give the batter a single, though a three-base error is an option, but a triple? No way.

- Second inning, Tribe batter hits one to John McDonald, who tries to make a fancy flip to second for a force instead of getting the runner at first. This is not a base hit, except in Blue-Jay-scorer-land.

-Fourth inning, Choo hits a drive to center that is dropped by Alex Rios and is promptly scored a double. I'm out of words here.


In-game update: They have now overruled the original ruling and charged Rios with an error. Not because it's the right decision, but because Toronto pitcher Roy Halladay is a Cy Young candidate, and Choo's run now becomes unearned, improving his stats. That's fucked-up. The point of scoring isn't to make your team's numbers look as good as possible - it's to accurately reflect game play. This is embarrassing.



2) This off-season, I demand that Indians management get Rick Manning a subscription to Baseball Prospectus or at least arrange for him to spend a day with Bill James. I can't even tell you how much this would enhance STO's broadcasts. Manning is likable and professional, but he needs to have a modern understanding of the game.


3) I'm not sure if the goal was to sacrifice an out or to get a hit, nor whose idea it was, but either way, having Ben Francisco bunt with a runner on 2nd and no one out in the 4th inning was foolish.


4) There are two things that constitute a "good at-bat" to Manning and Underwood. In both cases, you have to fall behind in the count early, then take a few balls. At this point, you can: (a) walk or (b) hit the ball to the opposite field, to earn the crew's approval.


5) Cliff Lee's acting is pure joy to me.


6) More Manning! I've really enjoyed two moments from him recently. One was his slow-burn ire at Shin-Soo Choo for losing a pop fly in the sun and then still refusing to go to the dugout to get sunglasses. He's got a good point, and I liked the animated way he pursued his argument. The other moment was him pointing out the ridiculous frequency with which batteries appeal to 1st- and 3rd-base umpires on checked swings. Seriously, any time a batter thinks about swinging, these guys are pointing to a corner umpire for some help. Let's calm down here, and let's also realize that only the home plate umpire can request an appeal. If I was a home plate umpire, I would only ask for appeals in borderline cases, and if a corner umpire, I would completely ignore the players and only make a ruling if my home plate compadre asked me too. Take that, overzealous pitchers and catchers!