"Forgot"? I'd put my money on "never knew."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar06/news/story?id=2515035

Punto might also have more trade value than you'd expect. Scott Podsednik and a live arm once landed Carlos Lee. The Twins could do well to cash in on what might very well be Nick Punto's "Lew Ford 2004 Memorial" season.

They need to address their glaring problem at third base.

And the best way to do that is by trading Derek Jeter and moving A-Rod back to short.

Oh, I know, I know. Conventional wisdom is that Jeter is a proven winner while Alex Rodriguez is the cause of every problem up to and including the North Korea nuclear test.

"What did A-Rod do about Korea? Nothing. Now Jeets is going to have fly around the world backward until he reverses the world's orbit and turns back time to prevent it.''

It's all nonsense. If one of these guys has to go, here are six reasons it makes more sense for the Yankees to trade Jeter instead of A-Rod.

what the hell happened to Jim Caple? When did he become all sensible and stuff -- or have I not been paying attention?

When the dust cleared, Punto hit .290/.352/.373 this season and Castillo hit .296/.358/.370. To me, it looks like the Twins have two alright candidates for second base next year in Punto and Castillo, but they should choose between the two, put their choice at second base, and find an average fielder with some pop at third base.

There's a line between hustle and poor decision-making, and I think head-first slides into first base cross that line.

I think that's the entire point of everyone's displeasure. Since he is slower, he is reducing the likelihood of actually being safe. If he slides into an out in a situation (say in a playoff game) where he would otherwise be safe, then he'd be costing his team an out in a potentially crucial time.

If you like hustle then you would have loved watching Kirby bust his ass down the line on every ball. That was hustle, even if the jersey didn't get dirty.

By your logic, Nick, you'd have nothing to say about Hunter's play in game 2. After all, he ran and dove after a ball. What is more hustle than that? The problem is that it was a foolhardy play that cost his team two runs. A mental mistake, if you will, just like the decision to slide into first.

Nowhere did I say that sliding into first base is faster than running through it. On the contrary, I specifically stated that I would rather see a player run through the base than slide in. My whole point is that I think that some people here blow it way out of proportion, and I really don't understand why. The difference in likelihood of a safe call is negligible, and while there might be an increased injury risk, Punto did not get hurt this year, so no harm no foul.

I guess maybe I'm just an old school type of fan (which is odd, since I'm probably one of then younger readers here). I like watching players go out and hustle and play their asses off. Ubelmann loves stats, and he cares about results. There's nothing wrong with that, and his broad knowledge of statistics and odds are a major reason I enjoy reading what he writes. But Punto plays harder than anyone else on this team, and I love watching players who play with heart. If that means he wants to dirty up his uniform and dive into first base, so be it. I certainly wouldn't call for him to be punished for it.

Anyway, PK has a major man-crush on Jeter. Today's column was classic butt kissing.

I consider myself a better than average softball player, but one thing I always do is sprint through 1B on a groundball. It's the least I can do. And I'm not paid to do that.

btw, what would it take to satisfy the non-scientific community that sliding is in no way faster, an analysis by Bill Nye, the Science Guy? The only uses I can see for sliding are A) for getting below a tag, or B) to quickly halt your forward motion. B is immaterial at first, as you are allowed to pass the bag without being tagged out.

Of course, then we'd have to car bomb the studios.

A much bigger deal would be his August and September performance (274/345/358 in August; 252/266/294 in September). Punto had ONE good month all season (374/432/515 in July, but with 15 Ks against only 10 BBs -- and 11 of his season-total 29 XBH).

Nick, the physics really is NOT debatable. You are now offering a different argument, hinging on an unsubstantiated claim that umpires are biased in favor of runners when the call is close AND the runner is separated from the path of the ball in the umpire's visual field. I assert that the proper "null hypothesis" here is that close play calls are a coin flip, NOT biased. Umpire performance is pretty closely monitored by the league, is it not? I have a hard time believing that umps who show systematic bias would survive very long in the big leagues.

arguing that because Punto didn't get hurt, "the perceived added risk means absolutely nothing" is, well, specious. OF COURSE past good luck means nothing for future outcomes. So the added risk remains.

there is absolutely no evidence that diving/sliding into first provides an advantage. there is very good reason to believe that headfirst slides are more likely to lead to injury than not sliding (or feet-first slides). Put two and two together, and you should be getting four here: don't dive on the routine, bang-bang play at first.

the only instance I can think of in which a dive/slide might make sense is in trying to avoid a tag.

I would agree that the difference is pretty minimal. But we are talking about bang-bang plays, so milliseconds matter.

I would also agree that the call is harder for the ump because the ball and the slider are so separated in his visual field. But I don't see how that generates a systematic advantage to the runner. Sounds like coin-flip territory to me, unless you really believe that "tie goes to the runner" bunk.

Add on the very plausibly increased risk of hand or wrist injury, the first-base dive/slide is not justifiable.

Not debatable. It’s physics. Sliding/diving is slower than running through.

See what I wrote above. There are various reasons that running through a base is not the same as running across a finish line, and sliding in also makes for a more difficult call for the umpire. As for your statement that players shouldn't lunge at the end when running to first, well guess what, on a close play almost every player does so because they want to put in every ounce of effort toward beating that throw.

Whether or not Punto gets hurt is beside the point. It’s the added risk that matters.

Seeing as how we're looking at this retrospectively, I would disagree with this completely. He didn't get hurt, so the perceived added risk means absolutely nothing.

It’s nice if a player can eke out a couple of extra hits during the course of the year by hustling hard to first base. Those hits aren’t worth added injury risk, though.

Yeah, so instead of risking any type of injury, how about if every player just jogs to first base every time they make contact and automatically resigns any infield groundball to be an out? That's some good baseball to watch right there. Then these athletes will really be earning those big bucks. For that matter, let's have pitchers start throwing underhand so they won't risk hurting their arms, and let's tell Torii never to dive for another ball in the outfield.

Injury risk be damned, I want my players running hard and trying to eke out a hit every time they put the ball in play, and it's for that reason that I can't stand watching players like Miguel Tejada. Yeah, Tejada never gets hurt and he can put up some numbers, but I have very little respect for him as a player because he is lazy and lethargic.

I also like the A's offense a little better in a playoff series just because they have such a good approach at the plate. The ability to go to the plate and see a bunch of pitches is probably over-rated at this point in time, but it can still be important. It seemed like almost every mistake that the Twins made, the A's were all over it. For all the talk about how Scutaro was clutch, to me, the impressive thing was that he was able to wait around until he got something really meaty to hit, and then he just put a nice swing on it. The Tigers don't have a terrible approach, but they are more free-swinging than the A's.

And for all the attention that Zumaya gets, the A's bullpen is deeper and overall better than the Tigers.

But either way, it's two really good teams that are certainly capable of playing great baseball. It sure seems like we'll get lots of close, hotly contested games, with hopefully a smattering of web gem-worthy plays. I'm looking forward to it.

While it still may be true that running through the base is in most cases a few milliseconds faster, I can say from experience that it's a much tougher call for the umpire when a runner is sliding and reaching with his hand than when the ump can simply time the ball smacking the glove and the cleat thumping the bag. In many instances, the umpire will give the benefit of the doubt to the baserunner.

As I said, both sides of the case have some merit, and while I'm not saying that I necessarily condone Punto diving into first on essentially every close play (I don't), I think it gets blown way out of proportion on this site and it's not as huge of an issue as some people are making it seem.

Not debatable. It's physics. Sliding/diving is slower than running through.

Injury risk? Sure, but Punto never got hurt doing it this year, even though he did it seemingly a couple times a week.

If I walk across the street without looking, that increases my chance of death. Just because I might get away with it a couple of times doesn't make it a good idea for me to continue walking across the street without looking.

Whether or not Punto gets hurt is beside the point. It's the added risk that matters.

And are you telling me there’s no injury risk in running hard through first base? On many occasions I have seen players pull a hamstring by stretching their leg on that last step, or jam their knee hitting the bag.

Running through the base doesn't mean that you should lunge at the end, increasing your risk for injury. It's nice if a player can eke out a couple of extra hits during the course of the year by hustling hard to first base. Those hits aren't worth added injury risk, though.

Calling for a player to be fined for playing the game hard and doing what he thinks gives him the best chance to reach base safely is ludacrous.

It doesn't give him the best chance. So, you explain to him that he's wrong. Then, if he doesn't listen to you, he's being insubordinate. Hence, the fine.

Also, he is much less able to take second on an errant throw than if he runs through the base. Those two factors alone make it a bad idea in my book. Just because a player thinks it's a good idea doesn't necessarily mean it is. Either Punto is the smartest player in the major leagues - since he's the only one I know of who does this so frequently - or he's doing something wrong that's hurting his team.

On the ALCS, who do you like? The A's looked awfully solid against the Twins, but Detroit just dismantled a team that most people thought couldn't be stopped offensively. This looks like a low-scoring series, to me, where the strength of both teams is pitching. Excellent starters (maybe Harden is able to start a game?), deep & talented bullpens, and solid defense pretty much everywhere. The A's outfield caught everything in the last series, while the Tigers infield - with Polanco back - is really really good.

I think I'll give the edge to Detroit, because I think their lineup is a little better and they have home-field advantage. If they're smart, and pitch around Thomas, then there's not much else in the A's lineup that can hurt them. As bad as Detroit looked a week ago when getting swept by the Royals, I like them to win it all now (because let's face it; the NL opponent in the World Series will be lucky to win one game). A's - Tigers - this looks like the real W.S., with a 5-game victory lap afterwards.

To some extent, I do understand the frustration with Punto's tendency to dive into first base, but by now it's been blown way out of proportion around here. Calling for a player to be fined for playing the game hard and doing what he thinks gives him the best chance to reach base safely is ludacrous.

Of course, Detroit and St. Louis would get way more coverage than Oakland and St. Louis. Personally, I'm hoping for Oakland vs. New York. Without looking really closely at the Mets and the Cards, the Mets were way better in the regular season, so I think that matchup would provide the best opportunity for good baseball in the World Series. As a viewer, I just want to see good baseball. (Plus, Joe Buck is partial to the Cards in addition to being partial to Derek Jeter. Perhaps this is because he owes his career to his father's broadcasting for that team.)

From what I've seen over the last 15 minutes, I have to make the assumption that the ALCS has been cancelled.

Can the media please remove their mouths from the Yankees? Please?

A nice bit of "fake news" concerning the Captain here:

http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?SectionID=12&StoryID=3136&LayoutType=1