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Baseball Quick Hits

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UPDATE: Click here for Joey Matschulat’s look at the state of umpiring in general this morning at BBTiA.

It’s been a rough October for MLB umpires, who have struggled to get some of the most obvious calls correct. Among a litany of his peers, Phil Cuzzi came under scrutiny in the ALDS series between the Twins and the Yankees when he ruled a Joe Mauer liner foul even though the ball landed well inside the chalk. The Twins went on to lose the game 4-3 in 11 innings and the series in three games.

But the general outrage may have culminated with Tim McClelland’s bizarre call Tuesday night — which you can watch here — that resulted in Robinson Cano being called safe at third base despite standing with his foot clearly off the bag as Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged him with the ball. Though the call didn’t affect the outcome of the Yankees’ 10-1 blowout win, the miss was so evident that many fans and critics have spoken out for the expansion of instant replay in baseball.

Much maligned commissioner Bud Selig is uninterested in addressing the issue, seemingly not wanting to leave a legacy, fair or not, as the guy who let the Steroid Era happen and the guy who slowed the game down. The argument against says that a game based so heavily on pace and timing would be hurt by frequent interruptions to check fair or foul, out or safe, etc. And where do you draw the line? Foul tips? Hit batsmen?

But missed calls like we’ve seen so far can’t continue, especially not at this point in the year. After playing through a grueling 162 game schedule — 163 if you count their one game playoff with Detroit– the Twins were done in just three games, and at least one of them was affected by a shoddy call. And the fact that even experienced umpires are botching plays has only emboldened those who want to bring MLB into a more technological state of existence. So can baseball really afford to wait for a major umpiring meltdown before they implement some kind of change?

Rangers Outright Two

Texas outrighted reliever Jason Grilli and catcher Kevin Richardson to the minors Wednesday after the pair cleared waivers. Both have the option to decline the assignment and opt for free agency, which Grilli is expected to do. It may not guarantee that Grilli is done in Texas, but it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the front office’s confidence in him moving forward.

This move is all the more reason the Rangers have got to find answers internally for the bullpen. With Grilli possibly out the door, Eddie Guardado looking towards retirement, and Joaquin Benoit unlikely to re-sign with the club, Texas is running out of veterans to eat up the middle innings. On the bright side, Grilli and Darren O’Day were both waiver wire additions who played major roles in the pen last year, so there’s hope that the Rangers can find some quality arms on the cheap this winter.

Coming to America

The Rangers have been courting Japanese star Yusei Kikuchi, an 18-year-old lefty who’s touched the mid-90s on radar guns already.  The front office even sent Derek Holland to ease any concerns Kikuchi had about playing in the States. So what’s the problem? It’s not that the Rangers are just competing against other MLB teams for Kikuchi’s service, they’re competing against his home country as well. Kikuchi is trying to decide if he should play a few seasons the better part of a decade in Japan’s Nippon Profession Baseball league or skip it entirely and sign with a major league club. Jamey Newberg is now reporting that Kikuchi’s going to have his mind made up by Sunday:

Yakyubaka.com, a States-based website covering Japanese baseball, relying on a story in Sanspo.com that ran about five hours ago, reports that Hanamaki Higashi High School has announced that 18-year-old lefthander Yusei Kikuchi (a formidable candidate for “Most Likely to Succeed” in this year’s senior class) will hold a press conference on Sunday to “announce his decision.”

So, even if Kikuchi decides to go straight to MLB, the Rangers will be fighting with a number of teams for the right to sign him. Unlike Daisuke Matsuzaka, who Texas made a push for in 2006, Kikuchi doesn’t appear to be ready to pitch at the highest level anytime soon, so he won’t be as pricey. And though the Rangers’ dabbles in Asia haven’t yielded stellar results yet (Kaz Fukumori, anyone?), the fact that they’re trying to become a presence is at least a good sign. Texas has become much more active in Latin American scouting under Jon Daniels, and it’s already paying dividends with names like Martin Perez shooting through the farm system.