Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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Who Needs Instant Replay in Baseball?


The NFL has it, college basketball toys with it, baseball certainly doesn’t need it.

It’s instant replay.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding a blown call in the Phillies Giants game this week, baseball gets along just fine without “further review” from the booth.

Who needs to see the umpires huddling in foul territory watching a television monitor as they try to figure out if a ball was trapped or caught?

If four umpires can’t figure out what happened on the field between themselves there is something wrong with the umpires, not the system.

The human element has always been a charming part of baseball.

I like yelling at the ump when I think he blows a call.

Let’s keep it that way.

Interleague play starts again this week.

Click below for more!

To even the playing field, baseball should allow the use of the designated hitter full time in interleague play.

It’s grossly unfair for American League teams built around the powerful DH to have to alter its strategy when the games are played in National League parks.

It’s monotonous watching National League managers angle game decisions toward facing the pitchers spot in the batting order.

If I’m the A’s I don’t care what the computer says, I’m using one of my first picks in the draft to select Roger Clemens’ kid Koby, a Texas schoolboy who has thrown two no hitters while hitting .500 in his senior year of high school.

How would you like to see Koby Clemens pitching or hitting in the Coliseum in a couple of years?

The A’s are 6-4 in Kirk Saarloos’s ten starts, excellent results for a fifth starter. Saarloos isn’t the problem in the A’s rotation. Fifth starters are expected to need bull pen help when they pitch. The trouble begins when you need four or five innings from the pen to pick up your third or fourth starting pitcher.

The Twins and White Sox are doing to the AL Central what the Yankees and Red Sox have done to the AL East for years. Simply beating up on the teams in their division.

If the trend continues, then the wild card in the American League will undoubtedly come from the Central.

Don’t look now, but the beleaguered Cubs are back in the post season chase. Not only have they closed the gap on the Cards this week, but they are in the thick of the wild card race in the NL.

The AL West is still too shaky to call.

The Angels are doing everything in their power to wear out relievers Scott Shields and Frankie Rodriguez by the all star break. The Halos don’t trust anyone else when the game is on the line in the late innings.

With the Giants signing manager Felipe Alou for another couple of years they better use every pick in the upcoming draft on relief pitching. Alou might be a winner, but the way he uses the pen, San Francisco needs ten relievers on call during the season.

Colrado Rockies centerfielder Preston Wilson, one of the better power hitters in the game, finally appears healthy again. The Braves, Marlins, Orioles, and Yankees will make a pitch for Wilson very soon.

I’m betting Wilson ends up in Atlanta or Baltimore, teams desperate for outfield help.

Want to see a true number three hitter, watch Boston’s David Ortiz. Big Papi is fearless at the plate with the game on the line.

Someone needs to explain how lefty relievers Arthur Rhodes and Chris Hammond could pitch so poorly with the A’s last year, but come back in 2005 with all star seasons for Cleveland and San Diego.

It’s clear the A’s need another lefty in the pen. Ricardo Rincon is manager Ken Macha’s only left handed reliever. Pittsburgh might part with lefty John Grabow in the right deal.

The next manager on the hot seat appears to be Dave Miley in Cincinnati. The Reds pitching has been abysmal. Former A’s pitcher Aaron Harang is the Reds most reliable starter. Nothing more need be said about the cause of Miley’s approaching fate.

With Erubiel Durazo due off the disabled list shortly what happens to Dan Johnson?

He should stay in the big leagues and split time with Durazo at DH. Johnson has nothing left to prove in AAA and will prove helpful off the bench as he adjusts to big league pitching.

Only Octavio Dotel knows how much his sore elbow hampered his pitching. Knowing how competitive baseball players are, I don’t believe Dotel is taking the easy way out by having reconstructive surgery on his elbow.

This season Dotel’s velocity dropped to the low 90’s and he couldn’t throw his slider. Watching the two walk off homers he gave up in Fenway Park should convince everyone that something is seriously wrong with his arm.

0 comments

1 KevinSF { 06.06.05 at 2:12 pm }

Hi Marty

After reading your piece I had to comment on your bold request to use the DH in a national league park.

I was listening to (sorry) KNBR on Saturday and Bruce Magaowen ( who i find fair ) as he vented for just a moment about his complete dislike for the DH. I myself nether like it or hate the DH, but as a fan of all base ball and the upstart beer and whisky (american) league, the insult from national league supporters (giants fans) always centers around the DH. My feelings are this; If the pitcher hitting is such a big deal, why is the DH in (to the best of my knowledge) used in all collage baseball and minor leagues. Some times the pitcher hits for himself, but rarely. That means that a national league pitcher potentially has not had a AB since high school. I know that AB’s in the minors are valuable, and that they are being used to rate and examine potential major league hitters. However those pitchers are going to be major leaguers too, one ninth of the batting order. Teach them how to hit.

I just find some national league supporters missing the boat on this one.

Kevin in SF

2 Anonymous { 06.06.05 at 4:49 pm }

To Marty and Kevin; I am uncertain exactly who said it but I believe, surprisingly, that it was Dwight Gooden. “The designated htter is a tenth player. Baseball is played with nine players. Softball is played with ten players.”

Ed S.

3 Anonymous { 06.06.05 at 6:47 pm }

During the week of Interleague play that NL only parks, every DH haters from NL supporters to sportswriters all come out of the woodwork. They come out with the same old tired argument of the tenth man or “how game should be played”. DH like the five men bullpen are the products of specialization in baseball and other sports. Why should specialization only happen on the pitching side of the game? I prefer the game with the DH, because I don’t mind Henry Aaron hitting 22 HRs, David Ortiz hitting walk off HRs in the post season, Edgar Martinez being mult-batting champion, or Durazo hitting three HRs. In the puriest perfect world, the starter would go nine and be good hitter but we live in this world of specialization. DH is always a great debate for being discussion about on field matters opposes to steriods, labor contacts or other negative off field stuff.
-Edgar Martinez, A’s Fan aka Pachyderm

4 Anonymous { 06.07.05 at 12:21 pm }

National Leaguers just don’t like the American League, period. At least when it comes to hard core fans, anyway. I laugh at the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, because the real scathing hatred is for the A’s, and unfortunately will be for the forseeable future.

If the DH issue didn’t exist, it’d be something else.

Rob

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