5/28: Epic Duels, Epic Walkoffs With A Side Of West-Coast Bias

Well, it's been an interesting night baseball-wise. The Brewers-Mets game has been an epic pitchers duel to the nth degree as Yovani Gallardo and Johan Santana have put zeros across the score-board all night long.

As I write this, there is one gone in the bottom of the ninth and the Mets are in the process of making a pitching change. Will this be the second straight day the Crew win it in their last at-bat? That is a question that is yet to be revealed. With Braun and McGehee the next two batters up, the Brewers have a shot.

Braun eeks out an infield hit after Reyes makes a diving stop...good for the momentum but there's still work to do. McGehee jumped the gun and hit a harmless pop-up. Tonight in particular it seems like the Crew hitters have an all or nothing approach (i.e. everyone seems to be swinging for the fences).

And just like that IT WORKED. Corey Hart took one DEEP!!!!!!!!!. Had to chill for a few moments and let the walk-off homer sink in. Even though the Brewers still have work to do standings wise (20-28)....it has been nice to get out of the abyss of a 9-game losing and to start winning some games in the 9th inning instead of losing them.

As epic and awesome as tonight's game was, there is still more baseball to get into. We might be getting towards the late games but these games do have heavy fantasy implications for myself. As I write this, my team is trailing by 4 points for the week (191.5-187.5) and two of my starting pitchers are pitching right now (Cain and Richard) and the team i'm up against has Edwin Jackson and Scott Kazmir getting starts currently.

In other words, lots of hectic split-screen back and forth engagement between split-screens on the mlb.tv and the Angels game on Fox Sports West.

Right now, my main focus is on the Padres-Zombie Expos game as Clayton Richard has put up 3 2/3 scoreless right now. If Clayton Richard keeps this up, i'll have to ask myself why it took me so long for me to replace John Lackey with Clayton Richard.

I'd definitely have to say that I find the Padres to be one of the more interesting teams in baseball this year. Pretty much everyone (myself included) thought the Padres had little or zero chance to contend this year. But the way that team is pitching, this is a definitely a team that is not going away anytime soon (even though Willingham just hit a 3-run shot off of Richard).

The Zombie Expos on the other hand seem to be playing the hang around .500 until they can call up Strasburg without accruing arbitration time in 2010 (this rule manipulation is up there amongst things that are wrong with pro baseball). While this team is not going to be as bad as they have been the last few years (100-plus losses)......I definitely wouldn't give the Zombie Expos a higher than 20% percent chance to stick around (tougher division, less overall talent, no way that Livian Hernandez keeps that era low, etc.).

Either way, if I end up winning this league Strasburg will be indirectly involved to some extent (no he's not on my team). To back track, third base had been a black hole for my in the first month of the season as I decided to pick Brandon Wood's upside over Casey McGehee (big mistake). I had stuck with Wood (not good) gave Casey Blake a chance to start (didn't work out) but at this moment, a third basemen fell out of the sky the same way a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky for Benjamin Linus when Oceanic 815 crashed on to the island. I look one day and Casey McGehee was on the waiver wire. I picked him up and out of curiosity looked to see who the NL Leader In RBI was replaced with (none other than Steven Strasburg).

Bounced to the D-Backs-Giants game to see if the Giants can put up some runs on Edwin Jackson. The Giants broadcast team just put up a pop-up of highest slugging average since 2009. Not suprisingly, Kung Fu Panda took the 1-spot. The #2 spot, Andres Torres.

While it may be a small sample size (305 At-Bats) and he didn't exactly set the world on fire prior to coming to The City, it does seem odd that it took Torres a year to get regular playing time considering how much this team has struggled to score runs in recent memory. Playing for the Giants (and thus half his games at Pac-Bell and he's put up a nice 126 OPS+, his profile may be low but that's actually fairly impressive. (Giants went up 2-0 BTW).

Back to the Padres-Zombies game which has the Zombie Expos up 3-1 (my team is up by .5 pts currently).........it looks like lots of leads changes and ties for my fantasy team tonight. Since Richard wasn't back on the mound yet, back to the Giants game and Matt Cain cruising along into the 4th inning.

Cain gets through another scoreless half-inning, my lead jumps to 4 points (helped along by Scott Kazmir giving up 4 runs). Off to the top of the 5th inning, a shot of the San Diego skyline and Richard racking up his second K. Richard shows a nice bounce-back from giving up the homer as he goes through a very quick 1-2-3 5th inning.

Back to the Giants-D-Backs game. I show up just in time to see Bengie Molina strike out. With mega-prospect call-up season right around the corner, Molina may not have many more chances to look clueless at the plate. Molina's (probable) replacement Buster Posey could be coming over from Fresno any day.

While this article indicates that Posey could be brought in to play 1st instead of going behind the plate, it is inevitable that Posey will take his reigns as Giants catcher of the future at some point. With the Giants still having hope for contending (only 3 1/2 out) and their offense struggling as always, there just seems to be more-upside to upgrading (i.e. starting Posey) at Catcher than at First.

Aubrey Huff has had a reasonable bounce-back season so far and it being questionable that Bengie Molina is an asset offensively (yes he can be counted on to hit .270-.290 with 15-20 homers but the last time he even had a 100 OPS+ was in 2006 with the Blue Jays). Point being, the numbers show that Molina is a slightly below league average hitter, he's 35 this year (his hitting is bound to regress at some point) and I think Posey is one of those prospects who steps in and gives his team a boost (probably should have broken camp with the Giants but hey, he "needed" those two months to develop his game.

Well I finished that rant in time to see Cain put up scoreless inning number 5 (as my team has pushed the lead up to 10). Kung Fu Panda misses an opp to blow the game open as he strikes out with the bases are loaded. The Giants are still in good shape though (up 3-0) and my team's lead has expanded to 16 1/2 points.

Well, that's whats going on right now....been a pretty good night.....till next time

Random Rants Loosely Based Around Padres-Rockies Game

Alright......the blacked out you can only see 1 game portion of the Saturday MLB schedule and off to 5 PM Pacific Time on Saturday when you can watch several games at once. A few games tonight with fantasy implications for myself that will get primary focus (Padres-Rockies, Pirate-D-Backs, Angels-A's).

Still sorta waking up a bit as I took a lovely 2-hour nap that took me to about 15 minutes before first pitch.

Just realized Doumit is up right now....he's worked the count against Haren to a full 3-2. Showed lots of promise in 2008......off to a solid start....now its a matter of maintaining said start and staying healthy....and not striking out very often like he just did to end his teams half of the first.

Padres-Rockies game playing on the laptop right now. Gonzales is up right now, Blanks is on deck and Tony Gwynn Jr. is trying to argue his way out of a call that got him picked off from second. Gonzales strikes out to end Top of the first....looks like I have to wait a bit longer for Blanks to come up.

Blanks...sees ball....hits ball.....to short for a harmless groundout...the early season slump continues.

In other stuff going on in the bigs........Milton Bradley is in mid-season form as he flipped off some Rangers fans (c'mon Miton we aren't even a week into the season). Bradley has all the talent in the world but c'mon you can't be doing that stuff especially in your first week on a new team when you are 1 for 17. Even with this, he's still better for this team than Carlos Silva.

Speaking of Milton Bradley & The Rangers this reminds me of an incident back in September of 2008. I ended up taking in a Rangers-A's game towards the tail end of what has been Bradley's best season to date. Anyways, somewhere in the middle of the game (4th ish inning) Milton Bradley has one of his standard temper tantrums and gets himself ejected.

At this game, I happened to be sitting in the left field bleachers which gave me a straight view of the Rangers dugout which was on the first-base side and thus a clear view of the tunnel Bradley would be walking towards to get back to wherever ejected players go. The one thing that stuck out ion Bradley's walk was he knew exactly where he was going. This obviously wasn't the first time he got kicked out of a game and from the way he was walking it was obvious this was a walk he's taken mid-game many times before....it was almost like he went on auto-pilot when he got kicked out.

The Rockies-Padres game flashed back to a home run Ian Stewart launched off of Yovani Gallardo on opening day. If his series against the Crew is any indication, my prediction of him struggling this year could turn out to be horribly wrong.....at least the Brewers took 2 out of 3 in the series.

In the I guess it serves me right having a Yankee on my fantasy team department: In the random CBS League, I had been getting pretty good production from my starting pitchers.....then Vasquez made his start Friday....pitched bad enough to get negative points and was one of the catalysts from going from a 30 point cushion I had going into Friday to being down 20 points to my opponent for the week in one day...Seriously I got outscored by something along the lines of 60-8. Obviously it takes a whole team to fail epically like that but giving up 8 runs in 5 innings doesn't help that any......an early indication to not expect the crazy production he gave during 2009.

Just noticed Doumit is up and that he's behind 0-2 in the count. Again, Doumit strikes out to end the inning. A bit creepy how that sequence parallels the sequence from about half an hour ago in the first inning.

It took till the 3rd inning but Chris Ianetta ends Mat Latos' no-hit bid by taking him yard. Just stumbled across a Forbes special report about The Business of Baseball. My take on this, is time for me to give some input on the Randy Levine controversy going on right now. Mark Levine pretty much told Brewers owner Mark Attanasio to stop complaining about the salary mis-balance in baseball.

Needless to say, Randy Levine is not my favorite person right now. Taking a look at the Forbes make it even clearer that Levine is acting like a grown bully. The current value of the Yankees is almost twice as high as the next closest team (Red Sox) and about 5 times higher than the Brewers which obviously makes it a bigger deal for the Brewers to dish out an A-Rod/Jeter type salary than it would be for a team like the Brewers. It's also easier for the Yankees to do this when their revenue runs circles around teams like the Brewers (441 million to 171 million) and runs circles around the next closest team (Mets-268 million) ....To recap, teams from massive markets like New York are easily able to generate revenue and pay players to more lucrative contracts and Levine is ready to taunt anyone who calls out the mis-balances of this system.

Whew, that was a long rant. Time to watch Blanks go to the plate and hit. Blanks finally manages to get on base as he just got hit by a pitch. Will Venable: Clutch Hitter....first Padres at-bat with the bases juiced (according to their announcers) Venable turns a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead within seconds......also Angels-A's are underway as well....despite no fantasy implications, i'm anxious to see how Ben Sheets does in his start tonight.

I guess the Angels had seen enough out of Wood for now to not put him in tonight's line-up as Izturis gets the start tonight. The Ben Sheets era starts out good enough for Oakland as he has induced a harmless line out to second.

What in the name of Billy Beane is going on? The Fox Sports West broadcast just showed a brief capsule of the A's of Low Payroll (What else is new) Young deep pitching rotation (Hudson, Zito, Mulder: The Next Generation) and Small Ball (Small Ball ???!!!!!! your talking about small ball....dude your Billy Beane...the same Billy Beane that tought us about how small ball was a waste out of outs....i don't care how many bases Ricky Henderson thinks Rajai Davis can steal......Jack Cust is still a more valuable offensively player because hey hitting home runs leads to more runs than stealing bases (oh wait--that's right Jack Cust just got DFA'd right before opening day).

It looks like we have a potential Coors Field slugfest on our hands as Hawpe just went deep to pull the Rockies within 4-3. Your classic Coors Field home run as the Hawpe home run has initiated a discussion about how they thought it was just another fly ball that the ball park was going to contain.

Going to the 5th in the Padres-Rockies game...Gwynn, Eckstein, Gonzales due up......another chance for Blanks if one of the above gets on base. Get to see Ben Sheets try to pitch his way out of some trouble as the Angels have runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 gone and and Kendrick coming up the answer to that...so far so good as he induces a fielders choice....good to see Sheets off to a good start.

Tulowitzki is doing his part to postpone Blanks' next plate appearance to the 6th as he makes a nice catch. That's followed by David Eckstein getting the ball out of the infield (good) which led to a running catch by Gonzales (bad).....Padres go down in order......we play the waiting game for the next Kyle Blanks at bat.

Just looked at the interface for my CBS league team and saw Ryan Doumit struck out a 3rd time for the night. This week, my team has struck out 45 times in 171 At-Bats.

A sign that your team isn't contending this year: The broadcast team speculates about your team's chance of being respectable....not good...not contenders....but respectability.

Latos has a nice 1-2-3 fifth....induces a couple of strikeouts leaving us a commercial break away from Kyle Blanks next at-bat.......the cold stretch continues as he strikes out.

Off to the Pirates-D-Backs game as Doumit is on deck......Pirates looking in position to win as they have a comfy 6-0 lead aided by a Kelly Johnson falling asleep on defense....Hideki Matsui welcomes Ben Sheets to the American League by driving in a run to put the Angels up 1-0

Doumit.....racks up his 4th strikeout of the game....back to the Padres-Rockies game which has proven to be much more entertaining......wasn't on the Pirates-D-Backs game very long but long enough to get the quote of the night from one of the announcers "you can train a chimpanzee for 2 weeks to do this job"........classic.......it may have been said as a joke but sometimes it seems there is a kernel of truth considering the following situation has gone down several teams.....Cheddarhead is watching random baseball game on TV and the conversation turns to some observation about the game going on......only to hear the announcers say the EXACT SAME THING pretty much verbatim about an inning or two later

Hawpe just hit another homer to tie it at 4-all during the middle of the previous paragraph.

Sorta spacing in and out of these games Padres-Rockies go into the 7th inning stretch tied.....Angels just broke a tie with the A's---wandering around aimlessly through ballhype looking through what else is going on. Luke Gregerson coming into pitch for the Padres......appearantly the dude was awesome at Petco.....terrible outside of Petco (according to the graphic they just showed).

Tony Gwynn Jr. is doing his part to help Gregerson improve on the road as he just made a really good catch. Looks like Ben Sheets first A's start isn't looking as good as a couple innings ago as he has fallen behind 3-1 and has runners in scoring position.......but he manages to get out without digging into a deeper hole.

The Rockies end the 7th without going deep or scoring a run......bad news which means no free Whoppers for people in the Denver area.

Betancourt comes in for the Rockies. According to the graphic shown on TV, he's pretty good against the Padres. If anyone gets on base for the Padres, we'll get another Kyle Blanks plate appearance. David Eckstein just "grounded out" on a pitch that hit the bottom knob of his bat (below his choked up hands). So let me get this straight, in addition to not being very good at hitting he somehow manages to botch a routine HBP........wow.....

Gonzales rips a single to right.....can Blanks improve on his .062 average now.....stay tuned to find out.....while Blanks attempt to go yard was unsuccessful...he did rip a double to get runners in scoring position for Headley......i'll take it as progress. Headley strikes out.....on a pitch that goes in the dirt......the Padres have a 4th out to play with...bases loaded....Venable gets a chance to make a further dent in the game.....Venable drops to a .500 average with the bases juiced as he strikes out to end the inning......

Even though there are fantasy implications with the Pirates game and the Ben Sheets storyline in the A's game......at this point i've gotten heavily engaged in the Padres-Rockies game and the A's-Angels game has taken a background role.........Mike Adams now in the game for the Padres with Ben Sheets already pitching, Adams is the second injury-prone ex-Brewers player to pitch in a game in the last couple of hours.

Starts off strong as he strikes out Fowler. This shouldn't be shocking as the dude has struck out 9.1 batters per 9 innings in his career. According to the broadcasters, the Rockies are 0 for 16 against Adams so the fact that he's put down the first two hitters should not be a surprise. For a moment, it sounded like Tulowitzki changed that to a 1 for 17 with a homer......however, the ball harmlessly lands in Kyle Blanks' glove instead.

The Rockies are handing things over to Franklin Morales. The in my best interest scenario involves the Padres scoring 1-3 runs in the top of the 9th and Heath Bell coming in to get a save.....will this happen....we'll know for sure fairly soon. The Padres pinch-hit one junior (Tony Gwynn) for another (Jerry Hairston)......I wonder what the single season record for one junior pinch-hitting for another is........regardless the Rockies get out of the 9th and get an opportunity to win in their last At-Bat.

Cesar Ramos' turn to keep this game a 4-all affair. A tall order considering he is making his 8th career appearance. Appearantly Ramos is the Padres LOOGY as he strikes out a couple of lefties and is promptly pulled from the game. It may be the 1st week of the season but this game has a semi-epic intense feeling to it. With this change, it's up to Mujica to force some extra frames. He may not have the best body of work (career 83 ERA+) but he gets the job done.

EXTRA INNINGS!!!!!! Extra Innings De-neh-nuh-nuh-neh. Also, Blanks is due up 3rd....could he be the one to get a game winning hit here.....stay tuned to find out. It also looks like the 4K game by Doumit is official as the Pirates game ended with the Pirates winning 6-3

Matt Daley takes the hill to start the 10th. A couple quick ground outs bring us to another Kyle Blanks plate appearance..with my fantasy team down 22.5 points....a home run would help a lot. Gets a basehit.....that brings him to 2 for the game.....more encouraging in the long term that possibly the slump he's in is relatively short lived.....also has a chance to score the winning run as he moved to 3rd on a Headley single......only down by 21.5 points now.....speaking of right now.....another pitching change.....the Rockies counter with their LOOGY Randy Flores.....again Venable is up with a chance to do some serious damage.....for the second time in 3 innings....Venable is unable to replicate his 4th inning appearance as the Padres squander another opportunity for Blanks to score a run and Bell to come in and get a save.

Jason Giambi is up pinch-hitting.....just realized that he looks pretty old.......old enough to not bite on any pitches not even close to the strike zone.....and promptly gets pulled for a pinch runner.........Giambi getting some pretty intense high fives for standing there and drawing the walk...almost as if he had gotten a game winning hit.....the pinch-runner strategy turned out to be a pretty big fail/non-factor as an inning-ending double play was induced.......11th INNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt Belisle gets handed the task of keepin it at 4-all. I can't tell if the Padres are looking to score runs or if they're trying to engage Brad Hawpe in a game of pepper. Matt Stairs pinch-hitting....let me re-state that; Professional Hitter Matt Stairs.....Stairs penchant for going for the home run swing gets the best of him as he strikes out chasing a pitch out of the zone.........speaking of Matt Stairs....the Padres are team #12 he has played for........my take is that he should just go all in and try to play for all 30 teams before he retires....sure age isn't on his side (he's 42)....but c'mon for that shot of immortality it's worth the shot.

Tim Stauffer's turn to extend the game. Ouch, dude just got slammed by the broadcast team for not having the career of a 4th overall draft pick. File that under signs that things have not gone as planned. His career may not have gone well but he did his part to force a 12th inning.

For what seems like the umpteenth time tonight, Blanks is due up fourth in this inning. In all this focus on the Padres-Rockies game has completely obscured the fact that the Angels and A's are tied in the 9th. Gonzales is getting the intentional pass......Blanks gets a chance to hit with two runners on.....Yes!!!!!!

Kyle Blanks swung at 2 pitches outside the zone and racked up another K........No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not a fan of leaving things hanging like a Lost episode but the reality it's pushing 9 pm on a Saturday Night.....I got places to be................

NL West Preview Part II

So after the first half, the NL West power rankings are as follows

D-Backs 17

Dodgers 22

Rockies 25

Giants 26

Padres 30

Starting Pitching

Giants-4

Dodgers-8

Rockies-12

D-Backs-16

Padres-20

The Giants rotation is the class of the division/league. The concept of scoring runs may be foreign to them but the concept of preventing runs from scoring is something they have a knack on. Tim Lincecum has already won the last two Cy Young Awards and is looking to rack up a third one. Matt Cain looks to build upon his breakout year and continue his ascent towards the leagues elite pitchers. Sanchez and Zito aren't going to win any awards but both will have their moments of brilliance.

The Dodgers don't have any pitchers in the neighborhood of Lincecum/Cain (right now). Kershaw is on the cusp of a breakout season (he needs to stop walking people all the time) and Billingsley should bounce back from his 2009 season. Charlie Haeger is a nice sleeper candidate in the back of the rotation. He had a couple nice starts with the Dodgers after getting called up....his track record in the minors doesn't indicate it but with the knuckleballers, you never really know.

The Rockies have a solid front 3 of Jiminez, Cook and De la Rosa (two of which are members of Chedderhead). On talent alone, the D-Backs should be at least #3, maybe higher but that would hinge on Brandon Webb staying healthy (already not off to a good start). The Padres, they have some young pitchers with potential. They have a possible sleeper pitcher in the back of the rotation in Clayton Richard (part of the package they got from Jake Peavy) but overall, not that impressive.

Bullpen

Dodgers-4

Padres-8

Rockies-12

Giants-16

D-Backs-20

Pretty solid crop of closers/bullpens in the division. Broxton looks to be the most likely to replicate his success. He's still young (26 in June), overpowering 114 Ks in 76 innings and he's proven to be effective at closer. The Padres lost Trevor Hoffman to the Brewers in '09 but Heath Bell made sure the bullpen remained a strength in San Diego......and gained my respect for calling out ESPN for only caring about the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets .

Close call between the Rockies and Giants. Huston Street looks to have another solid year (which should be a given as he's one of two closers for Cheddarhead). Brian Wilson should rack up some more saves and possibly set a single-season record for saves recorded after loading the bases. The D-Backs aren't in terrible shape with their bullpen provided Chad Qualls stays healthy......their bullpen would rank higher in another division but with the depth in the NL West, someone has to be last.

And now our final standings:

Dodgers-34

Giants-46

Rockies-49

D-Backs-53

Padres-58

Nothing like doing the second half of a divisional preview to course correct the projections. While the Dodgers had an inactive off-season, they still have a pretty strong team and should 3-peat in the west. The Giants are on the upward swing but inept offense is going to do them in (again). I've had a sinking feeling that the Rockies aren't going to be as good as most people think so i'm not shocked to see them in third. The questions surrounding the Arizona pitching staff moved them down to a realistic 4th place finish. The Padres, the only reason to pay attention to them is A-Gon (until he's gone) and the newest member of Cheddarhead (fresh off the waiver wire) Kyle Blanks.

NL West Preview Part I

Off to the NL West....the division I see the most of (outside of Brewers) because why? They show a lot of Dodgers games on TV where I live. Time to see how the West is going to be won:

Catcher:

1-Miguel Montero

2-Chris Ianneta

3-Buster Posey

4-Russell Martin

5-Nick Hundley

Toss-up between Montero and Ianneta for the top spot. Montero a better source for contact/average, Ianneta a better source of power....factor out the Coors bump and he goes in second. Buster Posey was the hardest one to project. According to the Baseball Forecaster, his Minor League numbers equate to a .836 OPS. With those numbers over a full season, Posey has an argument for being 1 or 2 but with the learning curve to adjust to Major League pitching and the likeliness that the Giants will insist he needs some time in Fresno to develop his game (say till late-May/Early June....regardless of whether or not said time to develop is needed).

First Base

1-Adrian Gonzales

2-Pablo Sandoval

3-Adam LaRoche

4-Todd Helton

5-James Loney

As usual, a deep position. Gonzales gets the nod for now (Sandoval will probably get bumped to first when NOT if A-Gon gets shipped out of San Diego). I see Pablo Sandoval having a nice breakout season.......he was THIS close to being a member of Chedderhead but Ryan Zimmerman got the pick instead with the deciding factor being Pac Bell Park. Few things in life are guaranteed Death, Taxes and LaRoche struggling in the first half, surging in the second half and ending with a .270 average and 25 homers. Unlike Sandoval, LaRoche is a member of Chedderhead as he got drafted in the second to last round.

Second Base

1-Freddy Sanchez

2-Clint Barmes

3-Ryan Roberts

4-Jamey Carroll

5-David Eckstein

The wasteland. Clint "Sub .300 OBP" Barmes, Ryan "Didn't Get A Chance Till 28" Roberts and The King of Grit himself David Eckstein. Interesting thing about Barmes......it took me a few years of him in the bigs to realize that his last name was Barmes not Barnes. There were countless times where I would think things like why does Clint Barnes last name look different, why that n looks like an m and finally realizing that oh his last name is Barmes not Barnes.

Shortstop

1-Troy Tulowitzki

2- Stephen Drew

3-Rafael Furcal

4-Edgar Renteria

5-Everth Cabrera

Tulowitzki graduated from promising young player to Star last year. Stephen Drew has shown flashes of promise and hopes to join Tulowitzki at the top of the class in 2010. Furcal and Renteria are interchangeable 30-somethings who have seen better days and Cabrera is in last because I don't care for light hitting middle-infielders regardless of how many bases they steal why? Because you are more likely to score a run when you hit a home run than when you steal second.

Third Base

1-Mark Reynolds

2-Casey Blake

3-Mark DeRosa

4-Chase Headley

5-Ian Stewart

Like Tulowitzki, Reynolds graduated to the top of his class at his position last year. Casey Blake and Mark DeRosa are interchangeable players that will give you between a .265-.275 average and 15-20 homers a year. The musical equivalent is Nickelback. They've been releasing the same album for the last decade with the same songs under but with only slight variations. This applies here because Casey Blake and Mark DeRosa are the same player with slight variations. The tie-breaker....Casey Blake is on Chedderhead so if he does better than expected, that would contribute to Chedderhead's inevitable title while DeRosa playing better than expected won't impact my life what so ever. Why is Ian Stewart last? Well when factoring in MLE equivalent numbers in the Forecaster, his contact rate has dropped 16 percent and in 3 straight years.......he doesn't strike me as a breakout candidate, he strikes me as a candidate for the Bill Hall All-Stars.

Left Field

1-Manny Ramirez

2-Kyle Blanks

3-Carlos Gonzales

4-Conor Jackson

5-Eugenio Velez

Well, Manny Ramirez may be a bit older his bat may be a bit slower after going on a 50-game maternity leave and Manny is still Manny which still means expect Manny to put up some crazy power numbers. Kyle Blanks....well he was the one that got away from Chedderhead. If it weren't for the fact that Chedderhead was drafted while I was hungover and functioning on 3 1/2 hours of sleep, we would have realized he was available in the last round and given him Mike Cameron's position instead of feeling like a complete idiot when he got picked a few picks later. We were even discussing using a pick on Blanks the night before when we were discussing who we wanted, who we didn't want and who we liked but knew they were going to get picked at least a few rounds earlier than we wanted to pick them....point being Blanks has 35-40 Home Run power written all over him.

Center Field

1-Matt Kemp

2-Chris Young

3-Scott Hairston

4-Aaron Rowand

5-Dexter Fowler

Matt Kemp has graduated to the top of the class in 2009. OMG did you hear he's dating Rihanna. In a related story, TMZ needs to go away. Nothing about Young and Hairston inspire me too much. Dexter Fowler gets hype for having a breakout season coming up. I'm not one of those people.....not sure if his high BABIP from last year is sustainable, he could be in for a long year.

Right Field

1-Justin Upton

2-Andre Ethier

3-Brad Hawpe

4-Nate Schierholtz

5-Will Venable

Look for Upton to break into the elite players section this year. Look for Andre Ethier to show that his career year in 2009 was no fluke. Look for Hawpe to quietly go yard 20-25 times this year.

Standings At The End Of Part I:

D-Backs 17

Dodgers 22

Rockies 25

Giants 26

Padres 30

Just finished doing the NL Central preview that produced some unconventional results. After the first half of this preview we have a team (Arizona) on top that absolutely nobody thinks has a chance. Is this just a fluke of being early in the process or am I about to make another risky this may make me look like a complete moron type pick? If i've learned anything from being a fan of Lost, its to leave questions unanswered and to just end

Sunday Randomness Part I:(Non-Football) Edition

Alright, haven't posted in a couple days and I figured it was about time:

Friday night, I got my first chance to watch some NBA Action. Caught part of the Clippers-Jazz game and Lakers-Mavs. The Clippers look light they are the same 'ol Clippers, they kept it close for 3 quarters....but things fell apart in the 4th quarter and they got blown out. In other words, some things never change

Lakers-Mavs game was more surprising. While not much stock can be taken in an early season game, the Mavs surprisingly outplayed the Lakers.

Speaking of Basketball I got the new Bill Simmons book, the Book of Basketball in the mail the other day. I'm still in the process of reading it (the thing is like 700 pages long and you could almost do a full work out just by lifting the book).....its a good read so far, i'll probably discuss it more as I work my way through it.........

Also, I got a chance to watch part of the MLB Network special about the 1984 Padres. Didn't know too much about the squad other than they were the team that lost the '84 Series to the Tigers. If you get the chance to , its definitely worth checking out.

Top 10 Sports Cities---Not Top 10 Aspects

Recently, Forbes Magazine wrote an article with their top-10 list of hottest sports cities.

Well, I decided to twist things around a little bit and give a sarcastic take on some of these top cities not top 10 sports elements/moments/whatever comes to mind/etc.

# 10 San Diego

Out of the cities listed on here this one surprised me the most. The Chargers sleepwalk through a month hoping to squeak into the playoffs (works better when everyone else is .500 or worse) and they have the Padres (beyond Adrian Gonzales and Heath Bell....nothing special there)........losing 85+ games a year and David Eckstein......so not top 10

# 9 Chicago

I admit i'm biased on this one as many of my least favorite teams play in Chicago. I'd go with 101 years of no World Series titles but deflecting the blame on billy goats and scapegoating a die-hard fans who instinctively reach for foul balls.

# 8 Indianapolis

Nothing against Peyton Manning personally but he's in way too many TV Commercials but its all good as long as he keeps my fantasy team competitive

# 7 Detroit

Tigers inability to hold a 3-game lead with 4 games left......The Matt Millen Era.........Making 0-16 a reality.......its all good because the Lions being in the NFC North gives the Packers a couple easy wins per season

# 6 Pittsburgh

Its crazy to think that despite being 26 years old, the Pirates haven't had a winning season since I was in 4th grade.

# 5 Dallas

Tony Romo, The Cowboys in General, The irony of spending boatloads of cash on a stadium but placing the scoreboard so low that punted footballs hit it on a regular basis......

#4 Philadelphia

Booing Santa Claus....seriously Santa Claus.......can't hate on Philly sports too much since Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia did an episode where the gang tries out for the Eagles....it was funny

# 3 New York

The Mets opening their new stadium with a thud....The fact that the Yankees are one win away from sucessfully completing their purchase of the AL Championship......The Knicks.......Letting Isiah Thomas be a GM

# 2 Los Angeles

LA........Number 2? They'll support teams....if its cool. The Clippers playing to half-empty arenas. Dodger fans arriving in the 3rd, leaving in the 7th. This brings me back to a couple weeks ago: I was watching Game 2 of the NLDS the Franklin/Holliday game....it was the bottom of the 9th inning they showed the stadium attendees... the first thing that comes to my mind is i've never seen Dodger Stadium that full ever (let alone that late in the game)

# 1 Boston

I was going to mention the Titans play against New England on Sunday....but that doesn't apply to the criteria for the posting.

One thing thats sort of bugs me is why does Boston College call itself Boston College? This would imply that the campus is in Boston....but according to the all-knowing Wikipedia its in Chestnut Hill........is there a reason they went the BC method for naming?

Mark Reynolds strikes out but he can hit....David Eckstein, not so much

Alright, so I was watching MLB Network last night. Usually what they're talking about makes sense but for about 5 minutes last night, the normal didn't apply.

They were cutting into the Padres-Rockies game last night with the Rockies up 3-2 in the 7th. The Padres had the bases loaded and one out. They had they little engine that could a.k.a David Eckstein coming up to the plate. Almost on cue, the commentators starting gushing about his clutch hitting "abilities" and about how he's the player you want up in a key spot. While he did manage to get a sac fly on this given time......if I was a fan of the Padres (or whoever is overspending on Eckstein at the given time) he would be one of the last guys I want up in that spot.

It also didn't help that they showed a graphic showing that Eckstein is a .218 career hitter with the bases loaded. He's somehow managed to hit 4 grand slams during that time but a .218 average isn't going to get you mistaken for Tony Gwynn. To make matters worse, his career OBP with the bases loaded is a ghastly .238. They start talking about how he's gonna help the Padres, they're bringing him back blah blah blah while forgetting to mention that he's hitting 18 percent below league average this year.

As bad as this was, they start talking about how they would not want up in that spot Mark Reynolds because he strikes out too much. While this obviously is not a good trait, he does have one little thing going for him. He happens to be a lot better at baseball than David Eckstein. He's gone yard 43 time this year (Eckstein has 33 in 1,187 career games). When it comes to walks, he's not Barry Bonds but he has drawn a respectable 74 walks. If he keeps improving, he could become the greatest 3TO (Three True Outcomes) player of this generation. There's also the little thing of Reynolds pretty much schooling Eckstein in OPS+ (131 to 82)

And back to the original claim that started the Eckstein love fest, Reynolds hitting with the bases loaded. I will concede this area needs lots of work (his career line is .150/.275/.250--small sample size (51 plate appearances) but he's capable of better regardless of the situation. If the games on the line and the bases are loaded i'd rather have the guy who's a consistent threat to go yard, can draw a walk and imposes fear into the opposing pitcher rather than a back of the lineup middle fielder who is known more for being 5'6'' and being gritty than for actually being a good hitter.

I know there's nothing original about calling David Eckstein mediocre but I can't listen to 5 minutes of hearing about how "great" he is without venting.

Weekend Preview: Slim Pickins for Labor Day Weekend

So, September is upon us and in theory an exciting weekend of Baseball match-ups. But it's baseball and anything can happen so I could be totally wrong on the overall lack of excitement for these games. As always, games are ranked on a scale from 1-5......and with that let the games begin...........

Red Sox vs White Sox [Tazawa vs. Floyd]--SAT Fox [Lester vs. Danks] SUN TBS =3

This game might have ranked higher if the White Sox weren't in give up on 2009 mode. Granted, the White Sox weren't great this year but they were at least good enough to not trade Jim Thome for pretty much nothing. Still, they start a couple of decent pitchers in Floyd and Danks this weekend so they should at least be competitive in these games.

The Red Sox are looking to extend their wild card lead over the Rangers this weekend. They start Tazawa on Saturday who has struggled in the month he's been on the Red Sox roster. They start Lester on Sunday. He's in the midst of another solid season in Boston.

Rangers vs. Orioles [Millwood vs. Matusz] =2 Saturday FOX

Speaking of the Rangers, they have a game on TV this weekend too. They've managed to stay in within contention the entire season due to improved pitching and bring in solid veteran Kevin Millwood to start. They get what basically equates to a gimme series playing against an Orioles team that has given up on the season.....how they got onto TV for a September game is beyond me. They start 22-year old Brian Matusz who has an OK win-loss record (3-2) but hasn't really pitched that well......to display Exhibit 3,478 on this team giving up on the season......Matusz has been a rotation regular despite pitching in Single-A as late as June.

Giants vs. Brewers [The Brewers series preview will get posted later today] Saturday-FOX

Tigers [Jackson] vs. Rays [Sonnanstine] --Sunday TBS =3.5

Probably the best match-up out of an overall uninspiring pack of games. The Tigers send Edwin Jackson to the mound to face his old team. Jackson has been a big reason why the Tigers are in first-place and played significantly better than expected. The Rays (who probably shouldn't have traded him straight up for 11 games and 37 mediocre Matt Joyce at-bats) counter's with Andy Sonnanstine who is having a terrible season (69 ERA+)......The Rays are quickly fading from the Wild Card race and can only be wondering what if they didn't trade Jackson in the off-season.....well they did and they're not better off for it.

Padres [Stauffer] vs. Dodgers [TBA] = 1

Two teams.....two hours apart.....two contrasting places in the standings. The Padres start Tim Stauffer who despite being the #4 pick in the 2003 draft.....hasn't played well enough overall to justify such a high pick. However, he has pitched better this season [3-6 3.76 era 100 ERA+] and looks like he may be a pitcher to watch out for in 2010. The Dodgers have yet to announce who's starting the Sunday night game....but regardless of who it is the Dodgers are likely to win this one easily. For them, this is basically a gimme series against a lesser-talented team.

Well that's the baseball on TV on tap for labor day weekend. Like I said not the most inspiring-but it's a three day weekend and it gives off a calm before the storm vibe.

Brewers-Padres Preview Plus my take on the Weathers trade

The Brewers have the night off after a frustrating series in Houston culminating in them leaving approximately 3,875,465 men on base in yesterday's 2-0 loss to Houston...with a home run hit by Geoff Blum being the difference.

But that is all said and done...and on to this week's series

Brewers (55-56 5% playoff chances) vs. Padres (47-66 <.1% playoff chances)

Tuesday:
Clayton Richard (5-3 4.49 era 102 ERA+) vs. Braden Looper (10-5 4.84 era 87 ERA+)

The Padres start talented pitcher Clayton Richard who they got in the Jake Peavy deal a couple weeks the ago. The Brewers start Braden Looper who couldn't hold a 7-1 lead against the Padres a couple weeks ago but pitched very well against a loaded Dodgers team. While I was impressed with how Richard pitched against the Brewers a couple weeks ago, I don't see him beating the Brewers two times in a row....the Brewers tend to score lots of runs when Looper is pitching and I see the Brewers winning a high-scoring battle.

Wednesday:
Kevin Correia (7-9 4.51 era 83 ERA+) vs. Carlos Villaneuva (2-9 6.05 era 70 ERA+)

A rematch from the last game of the last series. Both pitchers pitched better than usual in this game. This game is the hardest for me to make a call on. This game will come down to whether the Carlos Villaneuva who put in a gritty performance in San Diego shows up or the Carlos Villaneuva that's struggled for the last couple months shows up. I'm not too high on the Brewers chances in this game but Villaneuva has proved me wrong against San Diego once....I think he has just enough to get the win in this game.

Thursday:
Cesar Carillo (Major League Debut) vs. Manny Parra (7-8 6.26 era 67 ERA+)

While Manny Parra has pitched well since coming back from Nashville....his short winning streak probably comes to an end here. The Brewers are facing a pitcher making his Major-League debut. For some reason the Brewers tend to no-show in these games and play horribly in all aspects of the game. Padres take this in a blow out

Other Observations from the last few days:

The Brewers got David Weathers from the Reds for a player to be named later yesterday.

While I wish the Brewers would go and get a STARTING pitcher......this is still an excellent trade. While Weathers isn't a hall of fame pitcher.....he is a smart, durable and effective middle reliever/set up man who can help out an exhausted bullpen and help out the Brewers playoff hopes in the event they ever get back above .500.

RECURRING FEATURE ALERT:

As I noted in one of my post yesterdays i like to pick games on ESPN's streak for the cash....As this is my blog I have made the executive decision to keep you, my readers updated on my pick(s) of the day......yesterday I incorrectly pick the Magic to win game 4 which was looking good until the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter happen...but i digress


Today i look to snap my 2 game losing streak

Pick of the day: Angels over Padres