Dean Watch: Part IV

I need to finish up a few more pinks and oranges, then a crap load of black and blues, I'm just waiting on a few key ingredients.

CMW

Got to catch a few innings of this one on the net, and it was good to see CMW work out of jams with confidence. A couple of gappers put you in a two on, no out tight spot? No problem - a strike-out and a double play later and you're walking back to the dugout. But in watching the game tonight, and even when he took a perfect game into the 8th against the Mariners, you could still imagine him allowing a couple of cheap base hits and a double. That is the trouble with relying on a ball hit into play as the basis of your success, but hey, Maddux has made a pretty good career out of it. But as Rob Neyer has noted in the past, most pitchers who go on to long successful careers strike out more than 0.37 batters per inning. Like most types of pitchers, it's great fun to watch when things are going good, but it's definately more painful to watch when things are going poorly. So here's to fun.

Dean Watch - Part IV

Just getting started on the Oranges and Pinks.

Why Is This Man Smiling?

a.) He got to watch the latest bullpen meltdown from an air-conditioned box with a bar.

b.) The front office panic move involved signing Roger Clemens, rather than firing him.

c.) Doug Mientkiewicz just made it over the Mendoza Line.

d.) Kei Igawa was just sent down to Triple A.

So Willie Bloomquist, Seattle's modern day Rex Hudler, slides in and steals a split at Yankee Stadium, resulting in yet another tough loss. If the Yankees end up missing the playoffs by just a few games, here are 3 key losses that I will remember:

4-15-2007 New York 4, Oakland 5. Marco Scutaro Walk Off. How weird does that sound?

4-20-2007 New York 6, Boston 7. Five run 8th for Boston. Need I say more?

5-7-2007 Seattle 3, New York 2. Assist to Gerry Davis.

Mike's Intruder - Red

Dean Watch: Part III

Highlander

Purple

Kingfisher

Dr. Jekyll, meet Mr. Hyde

5-5-2007

Seattle 1 2 0
New York 8 13 0

On a road trip this weekend, I had the opportunity to listen to almost all of this game on the radio. Both the Seattle and the New York broadcast were availible, and I chose the Seattle guys, because although their pre and post game coverage is always hopelessly optomistic, they call a good game, and John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman are just plain annoying.

The pitching matchup was an interesting one - Jeff Weaver and Chien Ming Wang. Weaver's welcome in Seattle is just about worn out, with the 15+ ERA and all. Wang is just off an injury, and although he was effective all of last year, he still gives up a ton of contact even when successful, and it only takes a few seeing eye singles to land in a heap of trouble.

Weaver dodged trouble through the first 5 innings, prompting the announcers to draw comparisons with his Cardinal playoff heroics, but then had a stat correcting 6th, using a creative combination of hit batsmen, walks, singles and doubles to allow a 5 spot.

Wang on the otherhand cruising along with a perfect game. I started to actually believe that it might happen when he struck out Ibanez to end the 7th after trailing 3-0. He would only retire one more batter before giving up a solo shot to Broussard. In hindsight, I'm sure they were happy to be able to keep his pitch count at 103. It would have been very interesting to see how Joe would have handled the situation in the ninth had Wang kept the perfect game alive.

OK, it might be time to panic

Seattle 15 20 0
New York 11 16 0


With Kei Igawa doing his best Hideki Irabu imitation, the Yanks pulled off a number of amazing feats last night. I don't think losing while scoring 11 runs is what Cashman had in mind when he wrote out the $26 million check to talk to this guy.

Dean Watch - Day 2

Kingfisher

Highlander

Oregon Beauty

This was the first fish caught on the trip. We were fishing on the Nehalem River on the Oregon Coast. I was fishing across the river, so I'm getting my first up close look at her as well. Nice work my friend.

What were you thinking?

So George has Joe's back. Not all that surprising, as George seems to be getting all the more patient in his old age. But is Joe really to blame for the Yankee's miserable start? Tough to say. The injuries to the starters have certainly been tough. But Joe, who earlier in his Yankee tenure seemed to almost never panic, seems to be making lots of panic moves lately. Here's one that really caught my attention.

April 22nd - Trailing the Red Sox 6-7, Torre answers the question we've all been asking - "Can Josh Phelps Catch?" With Posada unable to catch due to a injured thumb, Torre panics and pinch hits for Nieves, forcing him to put either Phelps or Cairo behind the plate. My biggest question was "What would of happened if they would have tied the game and forced extra innings?" Disaster. I'm sure Phelps is an excellent athelete, but given an extended opportunity, he certainly would of cost the Yankees a run, and most likely the game. This is the same game, by the way, in which Andy Pettitte was used as a reliever, for the second time this season.

The reason that this alarms me is that they aren't really playing all that bad, and they shouldn't be panicking. They've scored 131 runs this season, yet allowed only 125. That means that they are better than their 9-14 record would lead you to believe. These things seem to settle out over the course of the season. Just ask Tony Pena, manager of the 2003 Royals. They led the Central at the All-Star break, but allowed more runs than they scored. They slowly slid back to where they belonged, finishing third at seasons end.

If they can get just some of their starters healthy, and find a reliever that can post just one scoreless inning every once & awhile, and if Mariano doesn't have some serious elbow problem, then the Yankees will be fine. That's a lot of ifs, but I do know this - if you continue to put DH's behind the plate and pitch starters out of the bullpen in April, you should start panicking.

Summer On the Dean

So my buddy Mike Opitz, the older brother of my fishing partner Chris, is off to the Dean this summer, to chase some hot chrome, fresh from the salt. I can't send him up there empty handed, so down to the basement I go. My desk was a complete disaster, so after a couple of nights of cleaning, I finally sat down to try to do some damage. Here's the first thing I came up with. A kingfisher blue intruder with the saddle hackle flanking tails that Mike likes so much. He prefers white for the tails, but I had these blue ones that were just too sexy to pass up. The photo just doesn't do this color justice. Stay posted, there's more to come.

Yankees MVP

An interesting thing is happening in New York. Alex Rodriquez, who was nearly booed out of the Big Apple last year, is on pace for the best April in big league history. What's changed? Beyond his swing, which he clearly spent a great deal of time tuning up over the winter, I think the answer lies about 127.2792' across the diamond (although lately only late in games or before getting lifted for a pinch hitter.)
AP Photo
















How, you may ask, can a skinny guy who isn't hitting his weight (currently his below Mendoza average is .152) be the MVP of the most potent line-up in the majors? Well it certainly isn't with his bat. And as brilliant a fielder as he is, it's also not with his glove. Doug Mientkiewicz's value to the Yankees lies entirely in his ability to keep A Rod's head on straight.

Baseball and football stars at the same high school, these two go way back, and other than an effective starting pitcher and a reliever that leaves his gas can in the bullpen, it's exactly what the Yankees needed. As expressed in Tom Verducci's Sports Illustrated article The Lonely Yankee, A Rod isn't exactly the most popular guy in the clubhouse, but now he has with Doug what he wished he had with Jeter.

What's really interesting is how Jeter is going to come out of this whole situation. Sabremetric types have know for years that Jeter is no wizard with the glove, but his ability to look so good (and almost never screw up the routine plays), while pulling off enough "to his right Jump Throws" to make the Sportcenter cut has fooled the general public, not to mention the Gold Glove voters, into thinking he's a great defender. But the fact is he has possibly the worst range in the league, and its really starting to show. Combine that with the cold shoulder he threw to "now everybody loves me" A Rod and a cluster of errors on routine plays, I think the captain is about one slump away from seeing just how bad Alex got it last year. Lucky enough from his .316 average should keep the wolves at bay for a little while.

For me, the really most fascinating part will be to see just how A Rod will react if Jeter runs into an 0-fer streak and the media unleashes the hounds. But of course Alex will have to keep yarding them out at a steady clip to enjoy the kind of love he's getting lately.

All and all, I have to wonder just how long Torre can stomach writing MIENTKIEWICZ onto the line-up card, and for that matter, how long Cashman can justify his spot on the roster. Hopefully, for A Rod's sake, he'll get his average up the 100 points he needs to keep his job, so these two old high school buddies can ride off into the sunset after a successful October.

Proof MLB has it's priorities all wrong

Let me start with a disclaimer - Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I hate the Red Sox. But I also hate Jose Guillen, so I feel that this sort of cancels out the Red Sox anti-bias. That being said, let's review these two incidents:

1. Torii Hunter sends a couple of cases of expensive bubbly to the Royals clubhouse as a gesture of gratitude for handing the AL Central crown to the twins, and is told by MLB that his actions could result in a 3 year suspension, based on an archaic rule created to discourage the Eddie Cicotte types from throwing series.

2. 4-10-2007 - Brendan Donnelly, taking advantage of a blow-out, intentionally plunks Kenji Johjima (of all people) after a yelling contest with Guillen. Donnelly is still mad, and still has Scioscia's back, even though he isn't a Angel anymore.
AP Photo
AP Photo
Moral to this story - and pay attention MLB rookies - Display a good sense of humor by sending the worst team in the league a gag gift - 3 year suspension. Maliciously intend to harm another player with the hopes of instigating a fight by hitting someone who was playing baseball IN JAPAN at the time of the original scruff - no penalty. Makes a lot of sense to me.

I hate fighting in baseball, but as long as MLB allows this crap to happen, the problem will continue.

What I really don't understand is that Donnelly struck Guillen out. What more did he want? The only thing Johjima was guilty of was batting after Guillen. Just a punk ass move. I guess what happens when your pitching staff is being mentored by Curt Schilling.

Think these incidents are unrelated? On the surface, no - but here's where things get interesting. I would bet a paycheck that Scioscia sent Donnelly a bottle of bubbly, or a steak dinner, or something as thanks for still having his back - and it will go completely unreported and unenforced. This kind of stuff happens everyday in baseball, and Torii just got busted for being cute about it.

More Photos

I just recieved these photos from our guide on the Skagit, John Farrar.

Winter Success

Well, our trip was a success. Chris and I recieved some amazing casting instruction from Scott O'Donnell on the Oregon Coast, and then headed back up to Olympia to spend a little more time with Chris's family. We snuck out for an afternoon on the Cowlitz, although conditions were tough due to increased water levels. We headed North to the Skagit River, where conditions were tough, with the Sauk completely blown out and the Skagit rising fast. I managed to land this buck on our first morning, in a legendary run called "The Mixer."

Ghost Intruder

Orange & Red

We're getting down to cruch time, as Chris and I are heading down to Oregon in less than 2 weeks. I've still got about a dozen more left to check off my list. He's another color scheme I ripped from Tom Larimer's site.

Holiday Fly Swap Archive

For those looking for the Holiday Fly Swap Patterns, they can be found in the archives to the right. A few are in December, most are in January, and a couple of stragglers are in February.

Thanks,

Matt

Black & Red Maribou Spey

Flame Thrower

Shank: TMC 7999 #2
Hook: Owner 5311 #1
Tail: Orange Bucktail
Flash: Red Krystal Flash
Rear Body: Red SLF
Rib: Silver Oval Tinsel
Rear Collar: Red Saddle Hackle
Mid Body: Orange, Red, & Yellow Maribou
Mid Collar: Orange & Red Ostrich
Front Body: Orange, Red & Yellow Saddle Maribou
Front Collar: Orange, Red & Yellow Schlappen
Wings: Red Grizzly Saddle
Cheeks: Jungle Cock

Red & Black Intruder

Here it is in Red and Black. I found a cool ostrich plume that was red with black tips.

Mishler's Prawn

I found this Jeff Mishler pattern on Tom Larimer's excellent site - www.larimeroutfitters.com - and couldn't resist giving it a shot. What a great fly.

Orange & Black

Pink

Blue On Black

Olive Intruder

The lower fly is my streamlined rip-off of Ed Ward's popular Intruder, sans pheasant hackle, in an olive and black color scheme.