Conspiracies and Comebacks

photo © 2010 Dirk | more info (via: Wylio)

Chucking a fastball hard is a thrill. Throwing it fast enough that major league hitters can’t put lumber on it is exhilarating. Throwing it 106 mph is epic. Depending on which reading, i.e. radar gun, you believe, Aroldis Chapman tossed a pitch at 106 mph earlier this week. However, another reading at the game said the pitch came in at 105 while another had the pitch at 102.4. How is is that the pitch was recorded at three different velocities? Jeff Passan has a fascinating article about the pitch and how mph marks are recorded in Chapman’s 106-mph Fastball Was Likely Bogus.

Jed Lowrie is the hot add in all circles, and who could be blamed for wanting to add the Red Sox infielder who is hitting an amazing .457 with nine RBI and eight runs scored through 12 games. Here’s what I have to say about Lowrie.

(1) You had better add Lowrie immediately if you are going to make the move. If we assume he hits .300 in 500 at-bats this season that means he is going to hit .288 the rest of the way (134 for 465). Each day you wait, that average will likely fall – that is unless you think he has a legitimate shot to bat better than .300 this year.

(2) Lowrie is a fine hitter, but make sure you don’t overvalue his recent work. I know he has hit .316 with 11 homers since the start of last season, but are you really thinking he is going to be able to keep up a .315, 30 homer pace? You really think he is the next Alex Rodriguez at shortstop? Don’t forget that he his slash line was .235/.313/.423 over his first 349 at-bats with the Red Sox.

(3) Lowrie is clearly white hot and deserves to be starting, but will he be able to hold off Marco Scutaro all year? It’s not like the Red Sox don’t have the money to pay a guy $5 million to come off the bench, but Scutaro has been a very solid hitter the past two years who has produced an average 5×5 line of .279-12-58-96-10. Are the Sox going to give up on him completely after just three weeks? I kind of doubt that.

Brandon Wood was designated for assignment on Tuesday meaning that his tenure as an Angel might finally be over. At one point named the #3 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America (2006), Wood has been an unmitigated disaster in the big leagues. In 464 career at-bats he has hit .168 with 11 homers, 33 RBI, a .197 OBP and a .455 OPS. How historically pitiful is that effort? Amongst players who have had 475 plate appearances in their careers while primarily playing third base, Wood has the second worst average ever (.169), the worst OBP (.198) and the second worst OPS (.458)… in the history of the game. How a guy who owns a .284/.352/.536 line in more than 750 minor league games, and one who had one of the greatest minor league seasons in recent memory in 2005 (.321-43-116-110 in just 134 games) has been unable to do anything in the big leagues is one of the greatest mysterious of the 21st century. Maybe Wood lost his game in the woods while he was searching for Bigfoot.

I know it has nothing to do with baseball, but as an unabashed San Jose Sharks I just have to mention it. Did you see that the Sharks came back in Game 3 against the Kings from a 4-0 deficit to win 6-5 in OT? That effort was just the fourth in the history of the NHL playoffs in which a team was able to overcome a four goal deficit to win. If you get a chance to see the game on reply jump all over it. The one word I keep using to describe it – amazing.

By Ray Flowers

Here We Are Again

You know the feeling. It’s like getting punched in the gut or seeing your high school sweetheart sneak behind the gym to make out with that stoner guy who literally looks like he hasn’t taken a shower in two weeks. It’s the pain you feel when “your team” is eliminated from the playoffs before getting the chance to raise their finger and exclaim, accurately, ‘we’re number 1.’ It happened yet again to me this past weekend.

I know this is a baseball website, but I make no bones about my nearly lifelong connection with the San Jose Sharks. Year after year I buy into the hype, and season after season I end up having flashbacks to that time I caught Suzy making out with that dude on the blacktop.

Last season the Sharks won the President’s Trophy – awarded to the best team in the league (most points) – only to then fall in the first round to the Ducks. I was so distraught I almost turned in my pen after writing When is Enough, Enough? Eleven months later, I’m in the same spot once again.

The Sharks didn’t lose in the first round this time, or the second for that matter, as they lost in the third round – the Conference Finals – which they reached for only the second time in their history. There is some small satisfaction in that, but it rings pretty hollow at this point (you can read more about the battle with the Blackhawks in Frozen Pucks, Conference Finals). Still, much, much more was expected of this club.

* The Sharks led the Western Conference in points for the second straight season.

* They ranked first in the NHL in face-off winning percentage (55.6 percent), fourth in power-play efficiency (21.0) and fifth in the penalty kill (85.0).

* Joe Thornton was second in the NHL with 69 assists and eighth with 89 points.

* Patrick Marleau was fourth in goals scored with 44.

* Dany Heatley was 8th in the league in goals (39) and second in power-play tallies (18).

* Dan Boyle was fourth amongst blue liners with 58 points.

* Evgeni Nabokov was second in the league with 44 victories.

* They vanquished long-time nemesis Detroit in the second round of the playoffs.

But in the end, the results were no different then what we have seen from this club year after year.

In each of the past four years the Sharks have finished with at least 100 points, and in each of the past six years they have totaled at least 99 points as they have taken home four division titles. Still, they have never advanced to the Finals, never had a chance to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, and never fulfilled their destiny as one of the NHL’s great teams. I’ve tried to fight the prevalent perception in the national media that the Sharks are the NHL’s version of football’s Buffalo Bills (they lost in the Super Bowl 4-straight years from 1990-93) or baseball’s Atlanta Braves (to be fair the Braves did one title though they made the playoffs 14-straight years), but the fact is they are a great regular season team that can’t find a way to win a championship. They are a consistently good team that can never seem to raise their game to the level of greatness.

I don’t know what the Sharks need to do. They’ll probably lose Marleau and/or Nabokov, you can read move about that in the piece I linked to above, but much of the core will return (Thornton, Heatley, Boyle etc.). I’m certain we’ll hear a lot of tough words from the front office and a certain amount of player movement before next season begins, but in the end, will it matter? Are the Sharks destined to be the NHL version of the Cubs – a team that everyone desperately wants to love despite that little voice in the back of your head that says don’t buy into what your eyes are seeing because no matter how good things look sooner or later they club will break your heart? I desperately hope that isn’t the case, but with each passing year of regular season success followed by failure in the playoffs, I feel a growing kinship with those fans that have cheered their Cubbies on without ever once being able to say – we’re number one.

By Ray Flowers

Can it Get Any Worse?

I’m speechless.

Sports can break your heart worse than just about anything in life. Sports can ruin your day, your week, heck, they can crush your spirit completely. Last night the Sharks, and every person who cheers for the teal and black, suffered through the worst loss in the history of the team, and that is saying something for an organization that has suffered one playoff defeat after another – some being catastrophic in nature (for my take on last years epic playoff failure you can read When is Enough, Enough?). Here’s what happened lat night in Game 3 of the Sharks first round series with the Avalanche (the series was tied 1-1 going into the matchup).

The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 21-3 in the second period.
The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 21-4 in the third period.
The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 42-7 in the second and third periods.
The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 1-0 in OT, yet still lost the game.

How is that possible? In actuality the shot clock will say that the teams matched each other with one shot apiece in the overtime period, but the truth is that Sharks’ defensemen Dan Boyle, :51 seconds in the extra frame, accidently backhanded the puck past Evgeni Nabokov when he attempted a hard wrap around behind the net (after further review, it appears that an angle from a camera in Colorado shows that the puck did glance slightly off Ryan O’Reily’s stick). With that one errant shot of the puck the Sharks, in a game that they totally dominated, ended up losing 1-0.

This is the worst loss I have ever seen. More than that, it’s the worst loss I can recall ever hearing about in my 37 years on Earth. To completely dominate a game only to lose when your own player, your best defensemen mind you, accidently shoots a puck in his own net – catastrophic isn’t a strong enough word. It couldn’t have happened to a better guy either. Dan Boyle always stands up and is accountable for his mistakes. He talks openly and honestly to the press, never shying away from the painful truth, so it was no surprise to see him talk to the media almost immediately after the conclusion of the worst game of his life. His willingness to take responsibility for everything makes the stinging pain of this loss even harder to deal with since he is such a good guy.

So what do the Sharks do?

* They have outshot the Av’s a mindboggling 103 to 39 the past two games.

* They have scored three “own goals” in three games (the other two weren’t on shots like last night, but two pucks have gone in off of Sharks’ d-men Rob Blake and Marc-Edouard
Vlasic, the one off Blake being the deciding goal in the Game 1 loss). “We didn’t beat their goalie, we found a way to beat ours,” HC Todd McClellan said. “We’ve been beaten by some bad bounces

* They are behind 2-1 games to a team they were expected to beat by nearly ever expert in Hockey (the Sharks had the best record in the Western Conference which obviously makes the Avalanche the #8 seed).

Can the Sharks rebound from this loss? I don’t think a team, an organization, a fan base, can get any lower than this. Year upon year of disappointment was summed up expertly last night on one errant backhand pass that unfortunately is a microcosm of the history of the franchise, one filled with almost unsurpassed highs as well as crushing lows. Will the Sharks slink off meekly into the abyss or will they rally from this devastating loss to avenge themselves in the eyes of the hockey world that roundly regards them as papier-mâché champions? For once and for all, the Sharks will have the chance to prove to the world that they deserve respect and admiration for their determination, expertise and ability to rebound from catastrophic failure. Either that or it’s time for every Sharks fan in the world to pack their bags for the last time and move on from a franchise that breaks their hearts anew every year.

I mention the proverb that we have all heard at one time or another as it is one that the Sharks would do well to heed — it’s always darkest before the dawn.

By Ray Flowers

The Wait is Over

Goose bumps are defined as the involuntary response of the skin to fear or awe. I would like to add another possible factor in the development of goose bumps – the NHL Playoffs.

Have you ever been to an NHL Playoff game? If you haven’t it is simply something you need to do in your life, even if you aren’t a fan of the game of ice hockey. I wouldn’t put it up there with traveling to Italy to see the Vatican or going to Egypt to see the Pyramids at Giza, but it is pretty close. I’m not using hyperbole here, it really is one of those events you simply have to be a part of to understand the palpable feel of anticipation and excitement that is in the air. If Nikolai Tesla had been able to attend one of these games he could have set up one of those famous “Tesla machines” to try and draw some free energy in because if the idea of energy being all around us is true, it would certainly be recordable at a playoff game.

Here are some tips to remember if/when you attend a game this spring.

(1) Make sure you get there early as you don’t want to miss a single minute of game action. Moreover, get there even earlier than you normally would to soak up the atmosphere. In many instances there will be extra activities taking place before games, things like street parties and live bands aren’t unheard of. Plus, you don’t want to miss out on whatever the home club gives away for their fans to waive around to make a good scene on television.

(2) If you don’t know the sport, go with someone who does. However, given the importance of the playoffs, try not to ask too many question except at breaks in play because you don’t want to distract your friend.

(3) Never, and I mean never, wear the jersey of the road team. If you do, prepare to be heckled and potentially throttled if things go your team’s way and not in favor of the home club. You had better be ready to defend yourself. I’m really kidding about being in physical danger (this isn’t an Oakland Raiders game), but come with a quick tongue because you will likely be the subject of scorn.

(4) Make sure to set your TiVo or VCR on slow play. You don’t want to miss a single minute of action while you are at the game as there is nothing like reliving memorable moments from the game when you get home (plus you want to set it on extended play to make sure you don’t miss a minute of overtime – see below).

(5) Respect the traditions of the game. Back when the Islanders were running through the NHL on their way to 4-straight Cups (1980-83), they started a tradition of not shaving until they were eliminated from the playoffs. If you are old enough to grow a beard here are the general rules. First, shave on the morning of the day your first team plays. Second, don’t ever shave again. OK, that is a bit of a stretch, you can certainly trim around your neck or checks to make the beard look “cleaner” to help keep the lady in your life in your life, but you cannot under any circumstances shave the length of your beard down. It’s a hockey tradition that must be accepted and embraced, even if you live in an area where it currently isn’t very cold (i.e. California where I live).

(6) And finally, get ready for overtime. Each year there are a plethora of games that go to sudden death overtime, but unlike the regular season where the extra frame is only five minutes before going to the shootout, the playoffs are sudden death until someone scores. That means games can go an extra period, two or even three meaning that teams can play two games worth of minutes in one game. Last season the Sharks even went to four overtimes before losing to the Stars, and when that game ended I almost threw up in disgust. There is nothing like knowing every shot can win the game as the release of the built up tension when your team scores the winning goal is akin to the first time you kissed your wife.

So there it is. If you can’t get to a game get your local television listings and make sure you catch every game you can on the tube.

It’s playoff time baby!