Off the Schneider

50 game Buddy Bell mark: 24-26. How can a team that hits so poorly, pitches so poorly and fields so...ordinarily... be a .500 baseball team? Does Buddy Bell deserve any credit? Rob and Rany think he's a tactical moron, but there has to be more to a manager than just in-game decisions.

Although we're all still traumatized by his horrificity in the first half of the season, Jose Lima is quietly getting the job done. I remember reading about an interview with Former Royal Great Brent Mayne (!) earlier in the season, who said Lima's success depends entirely on getting a large strike zone from the home plate umpire. Without it, he gets hammered every single time. With six straight quality starts (which is a dubious measure, but apt in Lima's case), the Zone must be getting as large as Leon.

-- This is a good AP photo of Teahen's swing on the extremely rare "triple cum inside-the-park grand slam":



I also read this morning in the New York Times that Billy Beane's method of evaluating a rookie (or, at least what he says in public) is not to measure absolute performance as much as a) the number of games played, b) finishing the season in the same role as you started it, and c) performing better in September than April. Barring injury Teahen will probably satisfy all of those criteria. John Buck's dismal 2005 is a reminder that these criteria don't always ring true, but Teahen has made steady strides from April to July, both with the glove and at the plate.

I'll try to LiveBlog today during the rubber game.