The Andrew Miller Experiment is not unlike that time in high school when your chemistry teacher told you not to put that stuff in the beaker and you did it anyway when he wasn't looking and the beaker walked three guys and then gave up a double off the monster. You should have listened to your chemistry teacher.
Link time!
The missed call in last night's Pirates/Braves game that gave the game to the Braves was pretty bad. The kicker is home plate umpire Jerry Meals was standing exactly where he was supposed to be and looking exactly where he was supposed to look and still missed the call. Umpiring is hard. Why wouldn't you expand replay to help umpires get the calls right? The Biz of Baseball and Hardball Talk have more on the play itself and it's implications. This stuff is going to continue to happen, by the way. Eventually there will be a call so bad that it alters a pennant race ruins a perfect game alters the outcome of a World Series never mind.
Alex Speier of WEEI.com has a pair of excellent articles on younger Red Sox players. The first is on Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the success of the trade that brought him to Boston. Considering what the Red Sox gave up and what they've received, Saltalamacchia could disappear down a wormhole into a galaxy run by space goats and the Sox would still come out ahead. Also, they'd receive space goat technology which couldn't hurt. The second article is on Josh Reddick and his evolution from a slap hitter to a slugging corner outfielder. Reddick has made the leap this season and it's been exciting to watch. Whether he or Kalish remains long term in Boston, the simple fact that there are two above average outfielders knocking on the door at the same time is a nice problem to have.
Some say Howard Stern is the king of all media. That may have been true at one point. But it can't possibly still be so because Jonah Keri is now writing for Grantland. And in contrast to some of the stuff over there, this is an insightful and worthwhile piece. It's on the trade deadline and the take-away points from specific trades in the past. You should read it. If you're curious you can also read Mr. Keri's work at Fan Graphs, the Baseball Prospectus archives, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, National Geographic, The British Petroleum Newsletter, The Sierra Club Monthly, Cat Fancy, Modern Dog, and Cockatoo Today.
The Nationals aren't what you'd call a model franchise, but this is impressive. To clarify, I mean impressive in the way that setting yourself on fire while falling backwards into a pile of kindling only to get up and trip and fall into the box labeled "old oily rags" is impressive. Listen guys, I understand what you were going for and all, but really, probably not the best way to describe a white kid who grew up in the suburbs. Let's all just say you're sorry and soon enough we'll go back to making fun of you for misspelling your name on your own uniforms.
Finally, because nothing particularly funny happened yesterday, here's something mean I wrote a long time ago about Steve Phillips. (Warning: this contains adult language and lots of swear words. Also the word penis is used about a hundred fifty times. So please, avert your eyes, lest you be cast into a pit of hellfire or something.)