Odds and ends

• Nice piece by Joe Posnanski in the Kansas City Star today: Believe it: It’s time to retire batting average. (H/T to Baseball Musings)
  

  But have you ever stopped to ponder how dumb a statistic batting average is? I would hope not. I would hope you have more important things to think about. But I don’t. I can tell you: Batting average is a dumb statistic....There’s no other statistic in sports that is so misleading, so incomplete.

  
  I'd go after RBI first, or pitcher's wins, but if you're going to spread sabermetric concepts out into the population at large, batting average is not a bad place to start.


• Understatement of the week:
  "Kenny is having anger issues right now."
  - Texas GM John Hart, after Rogers attacked two cameramen.
  
  Whatever the cause, the outburst was a bad one (one of the cameramen had to go to the hospital with multiple injuries), and it's got to draw a heavy suspension from Major League Baseball.


• Pat Forde has an interesting piece on ESPN.com about 6 SEC players who came out and ended up undrafted.
  

  What now, Randolph Morris?
  
  What now, Kelenna Azubuike?
  
  You guys could have been part of a 2006 national championship contender at the University of Kentucky – maybe even the preseason No. 1 team. Instead you wake up today as young men without a team, or a grasp on your dream.
  ...
  Here's the deal: A lot of these kids want someone to lie to them, and there are a blue million liars out there ready and willing to do so. When the going gets tough, the scammers get going – and the horribly flawed entity that is American youth basketball serves up scammer fodder by the dozens.
  
  Too many kids don't want to go to school. (See: high schooler Amir Johnson, who turned pro instead of going to Louisville when he couldn't get the standardized test score for freshman eligibility. He was the 56th player picked, which is pretty much the bullet train to the D-League or overseas – not that Rick Pitino's program can offer anything that, say, Turkey is lacking.)
  
  Too many kids don't want to live a world where hard work and demanding coaches are part of the daily routine. (News flash to the '06 hamburger All-Americans: several of the top college programs expect you to take charges, pass the ball AND go to class. Really!)

  
  Clearly, for some guys coming out is the right thing to do. But we see them and hear their stories. We don't hear much about the guys for whom it's not the right thing. I'd love to see a follow-up on this two years from now...


• John Donovan's looking at the All Star teams at CNNSI. Reading through it, it strikes me that there's a chance of 5 Red Sox actually starting that game.
  
  
  
  1. David Ortiz - leading DHs by some ridiculously unsurmountable margin.
  
  
  2. Jason Varitek - currently leading Ivan Rodriguez by over 500,000 votes.
  
  
  3. Manny Ramirez - leading all AL outfielders. Not by a lot, but probably by enough to be one of the top 3.
  
  
  4. Johnny Damon - Not currently in starting position. He's in 4th among AL outfielders, trailing 3rd place Ichiro by fewer than 15,000 votes.
  
  
  That's 4. 3 of them will almost certainly start, Damon being a possible 4th. And the manager chooses the starting pitcher. Well, the Red Sox have a starting pitcher who's in the top 10 in ERA, who's 6th in strike-outs and tied for 5th in Wins (which I don't care for as a statistic, but they still keep it and people pay attention to it.) Would it be surprising to see Matt Clement start the All Star game for the American League? He's going to pitch Friday and Wednesday, so on 7/12 he'd be on 5 days rest. Halladay probably deserves it, though he'd be on 3 days rest, as would Mark Buehrle. (Not that that would necessarily stop them, since no one's going to pitch much.)
  
  But Francona's managing, and it wouldn't be at all surprising to see him go with his own guy...


• So, how much has Gary Sheffield matured in the last 15 years?
  

  I made a lot of concessions to come here, and I'll make it very clear: If I have to go somewhere else, a lot of things are going to have to be changed or you're going to have an unhappy player. Period. It doesn't matter (what team) it is. If I didn't choose to go there, things are going to have to be changed about my whole situation. Contract, years, everything. Other than that, you might as well not bother trading for me, because you're going to have a very unhappy player.... If I'm not happy, you don't want me on your team.

  
  This is a player who admitted to intentionally throwing balls into the stands when he was unhappy in Milwaukee. As great a hitter as he is, I don't want him on my team...