E.K. NATION

For a long while, I thought the "hold" statistic was bogus, just as bogus as the save statistic. It took me a while to understand that the hold could be used to determine a set-up man's effectiveness much better than could a simple comparison of saves to blown saves.

For example, a set-up man rarely is in the game when it ends, which is one requirement for a save. Naturally, he's rarely supposed to be in the game when it ends. So the opportunities for actual saves recorded by him are few. But when the set-up man enters the game in a save situation, he is now suddenly on the line. If he blows the lead, he is charged with a blown save, even though he was never intended to be in the game to close it out. So a set-up man might not have any saves in a season but he may have, say, ten blown saves. An 0-for-10 mark in save situations doesn't look good at all, but it's not at all representative of the work he did.

A "hold" lets us know that he was in the game for a save situation, didn't give up the lead, and left with his team still leading. Now, the set-up man might get 50 holds and ten blown saves. A 5-for-60 mark certainly looks much better.

But now I see the box score from last night's Giants/Padres game. Two Giants pitchers, Jim Brower and Jason Christiansen, earned "holds." Funny thing is, neither one of them recorded a single out. With a three-run lead to start the ninth inning, Brower entered the game and allowed a double and a walk and then was removed, and Christiansen allowed a run-scoring single and was removed. Christiansen got a hold for in effect doing nothing but giving up a run, and Brower got a hold even though he was not in the game long enough to face the batter who would have represented the tying run.

Shouldn't a pitcher record at least one out before getting credit for a hold? Neither Brower nor Christiansen did much holding of anything last night.

In any event, isn't Jason Schmidt, after eight innings of work, still better than a fresh Brower or Christiansen? Those two weren't even good enough to prevent the suddenly terrifi-horriblendous Matt Herges from having to pitch. Were it not for the generosity of Jay Payton to hit into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded, we here at E.K. Nation would be once again bemoaning another blown Schmidt victory and another game lost in the standings in a crucial N.L. West game.

E.K. Nation's Dad: E.K. Nation? Sweetheart?

E.K. Nation: Daddy?

E.K. Nation's Dad: Hey, kiddo.

E.K. Nation: What's wrong?

E.K. Nation's Dad: Everything's fine. I was just upstairs and I couldn't sleep. I feel like a real jerk, E.K. Nation. We forgot your birthday. I bet you're really P.O.'d huh?

E.K. Nation: No, it's okay. I'm not really all that upset anymore.

E.K. Nation's Dad: This wedding is really turning this entire house inside out, and I just came down to tell you that we did remember.

E.K. Nation: Thanks Dad.

E.K. Nation's Dad: Happy Birthday. (turns to go but turns back) Is something else wrong?

E.K. Nation: Yes. The Giants are about to crash to earth with the velocity of an anvil dropped from a weather balloon.

Speaking of birthdays, Barry turns the big 4-0 tomorrow. So happy early birthday, Barry Bonds. I fully expect a walk-off home run. Can you do that if you're the road team? I think Barry can.

Truth is, I do have a wedding to go to next Saturday, my brother's. But that wasn't distracting me. Happy birthday, my blog. You are one year old as of Wednesday. Gosh, how you've grown! (*sniff*)

"Make a wish, E.K. Nation."

• Just thought I would point out: At MLB.com's shop website, you can get an autographed Edgardo Alfonzo baseball for $79.99. While the Juan Marichal baseball goes for $50.99. Is there a particular reason a Hall of Famer's autograph can be had for 64% of the cost of a (for all intents and purposes) nondescript baseball player who will certainly not ever be inducted into the Hall? It reminds me of most people when asked about their favorite movies: Few of them, apparently, have an attention span that goes back before freakin' Finding Nemo. Hey, kids: Lawrence of Arabia, anyone? Citizen Kane? For Chrissakes, not even The Shawshank Redemption? Yes, Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings. And Juan Marichal is a legendary pitcher. Come on, now.

Four players will hit home runs in tonights ballgame: Ichiro Suzuki and Alfonso Soriano for the A.L., and Edgar Renteria and Paul LoDuca for the Nationals.

The National League will win it 8-5.

Back in April, the wizards at E.K. Nation picked teams such as the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros to win their divisions in Major League Baseball, and the Toronto Blue Jays to be the A.L. wild card. Shows how much we know here. Arizona is the worst team in all of baseball. Toronto is ten games under. These two picks admittedly were shots in the dark, as each season has at least a couple of surprises.

The only two reasons I picked Arizona to win it were that they seemed to be a solid young team, with a veteran pitching ace in Randy Johnson, and that I couldn't decide between San Francisco, San Diego or Los Angeles.

The real surprise is the failure of the Houston Astros to be any better than fifth in the N.L. Central. The pitching rotation of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Wade Miller and Roy Oswalt et al., while beset by minor injuries, hasn't done much to put the Astros above .500--they're at 44-44, ten-and-a-half games behind St. Louis for first. I felt that this rotation was just as good if not better than that of the Chicago Cubs, but the Cubs are still three-and-a-half games better despite being hit with an even bigger injury bug this year.

However, a closer look at the wild-card standings reveals that Houston isn't as bad off in its attempt to fulfill the E.K. Nation prediction of National League champion: They're only four-and-a-half games back in the wild-card standings.

Then again, an even closer look at the wild-card race shows eight teams ahead of the Astros--and this doesn't count the division leaders. Yes, it's not horrible to be four-and-a-half games back in a race. It is, however, horrible to be in ninth place during any baseball race.

What We've Gotten Right (Or Close To Right, For The Most Part): Our pick to win it all, the Yankees, is clearly the class of Major League Baseball. And they will follow through and prove us to be right.

We were also right in thinking the Angels would bounce back and be much better than they were in the World-Series-follow-up season of 2003. Our projected NLCS loser, Philadelphia, has rebounded from a slow start to stand in first at the Break. Our N.L. wild-card pick, the Cubs, is one game behind the Giants. And our pick to win the A.L. Central, the White Sox, is indeed in first, albeit by a half-game over the Twins.

Postseason Hardware Possibilities: We didn't make any picks for player awards, but here's who we'd go with for the first half:

For the N.L. Cy Young, starter-wise, it's almost a toss-up between four guys with nearly-identical stats: Jason Schmidt, Ben Sheets, Roger Clemens and Carlos Zambrano. Sheets has much fewer walks than the others and a lower ERA, so a slight edge goes to him statistically. However, Schmidt is simply dominating right now, and we think he's poised to continue to dominate. Then again, we can't forget about Eric Gagne, who's been virtually unhittable again in his relief role, or the shocking 0.98 ERA of Armando Benitez, who is second in saves (30) to Danny Graves. All things being equal, which they are not, we'd go Eric Gagne so far.

We think the relievers have the goods in the A.L.: From the 0.99 ERA of Mariano Rivera to the 1.17 ERA of former Giant Joe Nathan ("I'm a little verklempt! Talk amongst yourselves!") to the superb set-up/closer combined effort of Frankie Rodriguez (17 holds, 7 saves, 1.34 ERA and 71 K's in 47 IPs). We'll go with Rodriguez, but we can see the future and it contains Johan Santana of the Twins going absolutely insane.

The MVP of the National League is Barry Bonds. (Come to think of it, let's also give him the Cy Young Award.) We'll take Manny Ramirez by a nose over Vladimir Guerrero for A.L. MVP so far.

• It's all fine and good with me that Roger Clemens is starting and Jason Schmidt is not. I'd just assume Schmidt not pitch at all, what with him pitching eight strong innings just yesterday to earn his 11th straight victorious decision, the longest such streak by a Giants pitcher in over 40 years. He started last year's game anyway, and besides, Roger's in his hometown. Let him start. No biggie. Clemens won the game's MVP award the other time the game was held in Houston, in 1986.

• I'd also rather not see Barry Bonds do anything to risk injury, but then again, what is the Home Run Derby but a glorified batting practice? Anyway, the controversy about Barry Bonds allegedly getting paid to participate is totally stupid. Can the guy ever catch a break?

• Good to see the league office get its wits about it and put Carlos Beltran in the game, for cryin' out loud. It's not his fault he got traded to the other league. But the guy got voted in, the fans want him. Isn't it all about the fans, Bud Selig?

• Of course, we need the National League to win the game to give the N.L. the home-field advantage in the World Series.

• Not necessarily surprising that Barry Bonds does not lead the team in RBIs, given that he walks so many times. What is surprising is that Pedro Feliz leads the team with 51 (a distinction he shares with Marquis Grissom). I would not have called that in the spring.

• Barry got intentionally walked three times Saturday, giving him a whopping 71 walks of that kind for the season. He's already broken his record from last year, 68. His number of intentional passes this year is just barely smaller than the total number of walks, unintentional and intentional, that second-place holder Lance Berkman has (75). And overall, Bonds has 131, and just 19 strikeouts. Totally unbelievable. One wonders if this stat alone could get him a shot at yet another MVP trophy.

• Shame about former Giant Rich Aurilia, who got designated for assignment (!) by the Mariners this weekend. That's not a good thing for a veteran to have to deal with. Pretty much means he sucks. Yikes. he was so good for the Giants for a time; he says he underestimated how easy it would be to switch to the American League, among other cited reasons. The Mariners apparently tried to trade him back to San Francisco before the release. No way man, we've got Deivi Cruz!

Yesterday afternoon, upon coming home from work, I sat down to play a game of EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004 (non-paid plug). Jason Schmidt took the hill and shut out the Blue Jays 2-0, scattering seven hits.

Then, by accident, I exited the game without saving it to my season.

So there went a perfectly good Jason Schmidt outing, down the drain. It doesn't count.

Boy, was that ever an omen.

I stopped tracking the Giants-Rockies score last night once I saw that San Fran had a 6-1 lead in the 8th inning. I figured Jason Schmidt had it wrapped up.

BUT NO!!!!

Felipe "Boog" Alou had to go and be his dumbass micromanaging stupid self and pull Schmidt after seven stellar innings: ONE hit, ONE run, TWELVE strikeouts. The result?

COL--000100052-8
SFO--110400000-6

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Time is running out. We will not be in the race next year, from the looks of things, unless we make some deals, some big deals. So the time to win is now. You can not allow the bullpen to come in and undo everything that Jason Schmidt does. I've ranted about this before, and I will rant about it again. Let the horse do the work. And fuck the bullpen. Wins are at a premium now. Get them while you have them. Save the game to your memory card!

Third place, baby!!

What Is This All About?: Yesterday in Brockton, Massachusetts, there apparently was an effort to set a record for--I swear I am not making this up--the quietest baseball game ever. Really.

According to an article on the Brockton Rox's official website:

Hoping to establish a new record for the quietest baseball game ever played, the Rox and Aces played the first five innings of the game in silence. Decibel-meter readings, which never went above 63, along with ticket stubs and a banner signed by fans, will be sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the hope of entering the game in the record books.

“We thought this would be a great way to get fans of all ages and abilities involved in the game,” said Rox president Jim Lucas.

The Rox should hear a verdict from the Hall of Fame within a month.

I'm not exactly sure how telling everyone to shut up gets them involved in the game. I was also not aware of any previous record for quietest baseball game ever. Well, you learn something every day.

By the way, the Brockton Rox's effort also broke another record: Stupidest Record Ever.

I guess I haven't been paying attention, but Barry's only six walks behind Rickey Henderson for the all-time lead in that category. Now, if he were to break Hank Aaron's home run record after grabbing the walks record, that would really be something. Oh, and he collected his 1,300th extra-base hit last night, the 3-run homer in the 4th. Aaron's at the top of that list too, with 1,477, and then Stan Musial, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays follow up. Barry is in fifth place.

Also, it's just weird, but the Giants, despite their horrific start, have the fourth-best record in baseball. Fourth-best!! Only the Yankees, Cardinals and Rangers are better, percentage-wise. Crazy stuff.

Quick props to the YES Network's Michael Kay and the telecast's director for giving something you don't often hear during a baseball game.

I believe it was when the Yankees were trailing the Bosox 2-0 with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 7th inning of last night's game. The director cut to shots of each Red Sox outfielder. As each one was shown, Kay told the audience about the throwing strength of each guy (Ramirez, average; Damon, below average; Kapler, pretty strong).

Now, that's an "above and beyond the call of duty"...an ABCD, if you will. In case of a base hit to the outfield, the viewers had a better sense of whether the Yanks could get the tying run home. Nice touch.

Forget Anna: This Russian hottie...

...can play tennis. She's in the Wimbledon final, and she's pretty much my favorite tennis player now.