Wednesday Night:A No-No In Progress, No Support For Sheets & Whatever Else Come To Mind

Alright, it's a rainy night (despite the calender saying it is late April) I felt it was the right time to do a live-ish blog for part of the night. My original plan was to have the Angels-Tigers game running on the HD Background (this game appears to have been pre-empted for an LA Kings Playoff Game) but instead I'm "settling" for MLB Tonight.

On the MLB.tv feed, I was able to catch the last couple innings of the Brewers victory over the Pirates. It turns out LaTroy Hawkins is capable of holding a lead. Unfortunately, said lead has to be around 8 runs. Still, i'm happy that the Brewers have won 3 in a row and have managed to make it back to .500.

In terms of fantasy implications, plenty of games to keep me entertained (Yankees-A's, Angels-Tigers, Twins-Indians (Cuddyer just hit a 2-run triple) Rays-White Sox and Cardinals-D Backs).

So many places to go where I land nobody knows. I guess this should mean I shouldn't have to sit through too many commercials. Since theres only half an inning left with the Twins-Indians, i'll stay in this neighborhood for a few minutes.

Didn't get a chance to see Liriano pitch....i'm not sure what happened but it seems like this could be 2006 all over again (sans the injury). This is now his second straight start without surrendering a run....is it too early to put him in Cy Young consideration or the very least comeback player of the year (i know he played in 29 games last year but he didn't pitch that great).

Whoa.....i didn't know Mark Grudzielanek was still playing in the bigs. I thought he had retired but appearantly I had thought wrong. But hey when you get the chance to sign the player who finished 27th in 2003's MVP voting, you gotta go for it. I must be in the right place if the game i'm watching on MLB.tv is the same as the one on MLB Network as the Twins are on the verge of their 11th win...as the Indians are down to their last strike...which has been elusive the last couple of pitches.......game over......seems fitting that Joe Mauer gets the last out to finish it out.

Time to ask the question of What's Next? I would move on to the Rays-White Sox but that games pretty much a blow-out. I would go on to the Angels-Tigers but that's blacked out.

I guess i'll check out what the Yankees and A's are up to. Didn't know it but Ben Sheets is getting the start for the A's tonight. It's gotta be a good sign that Sheets has made it to his fourth start without missing anytime. It's gotta be a good thing that Sheets has done his part to justify his 2010 salary thus far.

The state of my team: 2-0 right now......things are going good so far this week as I have a 28 point lead (If/when Teixiera, Wood and Vasquez get things going) this team's solid play should continue. Just saw that Phil Hughes was pitching for the Yankees and decided to check out his baseball-reference page. Which happens to be sponsored by something called The Buffet Is Closed. With promises of bad Yankee journalism being skewered my mediocre journalism...hasn't been updated since last summer and it involves the Yankees and bloggers that don't like some guy named Peter Abraham.

So apparently, the Cubs have moved Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. I know he's struggled this year but it should be interesting to see how this move works out. I wonder if he'll get enough work to hold onto his NL lead in Wild Pitches. If nothing else, his strike outs haven't lagged 12.1 K/9 this year. Either way, i'd hate to be a gatorade machine right now.

The Yankees have pulled out to a 2-0 lead. Rumor has it if you watch a Yankees game for more than 20 minutes you get ESPN syndrome where what the Yankees do is more important than every other team combined....actually, I came up with this far-fetched legend off the top of my head.

Time to see what the Cardinals-D Backs are up to. With Carpenter on my team, this is one case where I don't mind if my player doesn't always have a great game (as they lead the Brewers by a couple games right now). So far its 3-2 Cardinals in the 5th. I'm reading an article by Jeff Passan from Yahoo where he argues that the concept of divisions should be eliminated.

Honestly, i'm not sure how I would feel about a set-up like this. In the article it says this would address inequality but i'm not sure how eradicating divisions would address the revenue inequalities between the top and bottom markets (I should make a sarcastic comment about this thing called a salary cap but the odds of this coming to MLB is slim and none.....and he acknowledges that would be the best idea but that would never happen so you can't really hold this against him)

Still, it's hard to see how this would change the chances and hopes of mid to small market teams in either a good or bad......the upside to his argument

So blow it up. Start over. Unalign. Allow teams to keep the current sharing agreement while addressing the balance problem. Sacrifice the bonanza of Yankees-Red Sox 18 times a year – sorry, ESPN – for a schedule that evenly spreads games against them and gives every AL team a substantive piece of the New York-Boston ticket spike

Anything that forces ESPN to show the other 28 teams more often can't be that bad of a thing.

Somewhere during that rant, the Cards-D Backs game went to the sixth and the Cards tacked another run to their lead but hey it's baseball, these things happen

Carpenter seems to be cruising along in Arizona. Still not feeling the rooting for a divisional rival thing......moving back to the Yankees-A's game.

At this point, the Yankees have held on to their 2-0 lead into the fifth. If it was tomorrow we would be seeing Sabathia pitch (i'm still slightly surprised he didn't sign with the Giants or Dodgers when he was a free-agent). Sure, the Yankees have the money but with Sabathia from NorCal I felt that those two NL West teams had a legit shot.

Could someone get Ben Sheets some run support here?! Or some base-runners. If I didn't dislike the Yankees I probably wouldn't mention the fact that Phil Hughes has a no-hitter going through 5 (is it just me or does it seem like a lot of pitchers have taken no-hitters fairly deep into the game this year). Either way, it's good to see that Ben Sheets still has it.

Wandering around aimlessley through ESPN.....checking out some excerpts of their 30 for 30 doc. about fantasy baseball.....sorta distracted by the 30 for 30....just noticed Hughes has a no-no through 6.

Looks like Ben Sheets' night is done. Good that he had a good start bad that he'll unfairly get tagged with a loss. Broadcasters said the magic words of his club is yet to get a hit. Which probably means the A's will lead off the 7th with one of these said hits.

So 9 outs away from a no-no, can Phil Hughes pull it off? At 77 pitches and 9 Ks....its an impressive outing either way. The announcers reference the no-hitter again (for the second time). For the second time the exact same broadcast is blaring from the laptop and MLB Network. With a pop-foul that would have gone into the stands in just about any other stadium, it's now a no-no through 6 1/3. No hitter reference count up to 3. Down to 7 outs which MLB Network has now deemed both a Developing Story AND Breaking News. If not for that pesky 1st inning walk....we could be talking about a wait for it.......perfect game.

Despite 7 innings.....hes only at 87 pitches..........Blevins is back to pitch in the 8th but this game is unlikely to be remembered for whatever Blevins does in his second inning of work......well it's that time of the night where my day is comin to an end.....does Hughes throw the no-no?....stay tuned to find out

Finally.....Winter's Over....Here's some baseball games that will count

Well, it's FINALLY time for the 2010 baseball season. No more winter, no more spring training....time to see how this goes down....how my predictions (and everyone elses will stand up over the season).....and also how Chedderhead/My Razzball team and the random Cbssports.com fantasy league i'm in that I haven't talked about does.......

Yankees vs. Red Sox

Sunday (Sabathia vs. Beckett) ESPN 2

Tuesday (Burnett vs. Lester) MLBN

Wednesday (Pettite vs. Lackey) ESPN 2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 1

Like a bad TBS movie that they "give you 3 chances to watch" you get 3 chances to watch the Yankees take on the Red Sox. The Sunday game stands out because its the first game of the season that actually counts. In the context of this season, this series is fairly insignificant but i'm pretty sure ESPN is hyping it like the ALCS because to them, the other 28 teams might as well be Triple-A teams for all they care.....as evidenced by this 2007 expose by the Onion.

In all seriousness, I don't care who it is...baseball is back. You have ex-Brewer Sabathia taking the hill against Beckett who is currently in negotiations for a massive extension (will this keep him in contract year blow the world away mode?)

On Tuesday, MLB Network gets in on the fun as they show game 2 of this series. MLB Network gets a pass on the Red Sox-Yankees criticism I give ESPN as they are taking the step of showing all 30 teams within the first 30 days of the season.

Wednesday marks the first Red Sox start for John Lackey....does he justify the piles of money thrown at him last summer or not? We begin to find out Wednesday

Cardinals (Carpenter) vs. Reds (Harang) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10, my interest is: 6

A few interesting things here:

1) First look at a couple of NL Central rivals: The first look at a Cardinals team that just about everyone (except myself....and I don't see them missing by much) against a Reds team that is a perpetual sleeper in the NL Central

2) A first look at whether Chris Carpenter can replicate his strong 2009 season. Talent isn't the issue, the ability to stay healthy....well that's a completely different story......also he's one of my starters in the CBS league (Baseball, Beer and Bahkas) so i'll be a bit more interested in the results

3) Day 1 of Jay Bruce's breakout season: With Cliff Lee and Huston Street injured, someone is going to have to carry Cheddarhead on their shoulders, it might as well be Jay Bruce.

Indians (Westbrook) vs. White Sox (Buerhle) Monday ESPN2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 4

The Indians have lots of potential in 2010.....to be as bad or as worse than the Royals. If the Indians have any hope of making that last sentence sound horribly wrong, they are probably going to need Jake Westbrook to make more than 5 starts.

The White Sox on the other hand, have reasonable playoff expectations. They may not be a great team but then again they aren't in the strongest division either. Despite Joe Nathan being shelved for the season, I still think the Twins will win the division (barely.)

Another fun fact is that this game matches up 2 of the 3 pitchers who tied for the league in Hits Allowed in 2006. (The third player, Jon Garland gets the opening day nod for the Padres).

Cubs (Zambrano) vs. Braves (Lowe) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 8

Well, the Cubs are involved so if nothing else I have a team to root against. Also, with Carlos Zambrano pitching you never quite know what your getting although this tends to equal itself out over each season as his ERA+ the last few years have been eerily similar (117,118,119) Usually an interesting and harmless experience unless you happened to be dressed like a Gatorade machine and Zambrano doesn't like the umpiring on a given day.

For the Braves, the have Derek Lowe taking the hill here. Lowe is coming off his worst year as a starter but I see him coming back strong in 2010....i'm confident enough in this assertion that he ended up on Chedderhead.

Giants (Lincecum) vs. Astros (Oswalt) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 7

Good pitching match-up. Anytime Lincecum takes the hill, it's worth watching (right now he's my favorite non-Brewers player) because you never know whats going to happen. The Astros are looking to Roy Oswalt to anchor their staff this year.

From '01-'07 this would have been a fairly sound strategy. However, Oswalt's performance and his health have regressed a bit in the last couple years ......pretty much a microcosm of the Astors as a whole.

Twins vs. Angels

Baker vs. Weaver Tuesday MLB Network

Pavano vs. Santana Wednesday ESPN 2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a : 6

It should be interesting to see how the Twins come out of the gate. Will their saavy winter moves and the momentum of locking up Joe Mauer be the catalyst towards another playoff appearance. Or will the downgrade from Joe Nathan to whoever they have closing games bring them back to the pack.

For the Angels, will they rack up another AL West title or will the Mariners off-season moves allow them to overtake Los Angeles of Anaheim of North America of the Northern Hemisphere and be top of the class. To answer some of these questions but raise more questions than are actually answered, stay tuned to find out.

Brewers vs. Rockies Wednesday MLB Network

See, Brewers-Rockies Series Preview Post

AL Central Preview Part--Two

Time to finish off the AL Central by taking a look at the pitching.....after part one our standings are

Twins 21

White Sox 21

Indians 26

Tigers 32

Royals 35

Starting Rotation

White Sox--Jake Peavy/Mark Buerhle/Gavin Floyd/John Danks/Freddy Garcia-4.5

Twins--Scott Baker/Kevin Slowey/Nick Blackburn/Francisco Liriano/Carl Pavano-9

Tigers--Justin Verlander/Rick Porcello/Armando Gallaraga/Jeremy Bonderman/Max Scherzer 13.5

Royals--Zack Greinke/Gil Meche/Kyle Davies/Luke Hochever/Brian Bannister-18

Indinas--Fausto Carmona/Jake Westbrook/Justin Masterson/David Huff/Aaron Laffey

Cluster A: White Sox/Twins--Ultimately this comes down to a couple of areas 1) Can Jake Peavy Stay Healthy? 2) Can Freddy Garcia stay healthy and be productive? 3) Can Francisco Liriano stay healthy and be effective?

The White Sox get the nod for a couple of reasons 1) While both teams have decent depth from 1-5, the talent in the White Sox rotation is better 2) Jake Peavy looks more likely than Liriano to stay healthy and even if Liriano stays healthy it is still unlikely we are not going to see the Francisco Liriano that dominated the summer of 2006.

The Tigers and Royals are in Cluster B: Kansas City's ace (Greinke) gets the nod over Verlander however the supporting cast for Kansas City (Meche/Bannister) is not close to the caliber of Detroit's mid-rotation starters (Porcello.....tough to believe he'll only be 21 and Max Scherzer who looks primed for a breakout season.

Cleveland is projected Fausto Carmona as their staff ace.....nuff said.

Bullpen:

Twins- Joe Nathan/Matt Guerrier/Jose Mijares-4.5

Royals-Joakim Soria/Robinson Tejeda/Kyle Farnsworth-9

White Sox-Bobby Jenks/Matt Thornton/J.J Putz-13.5

Tigers-Joel Zumaya/Ryan Perry/Bobby Seay-18

Indians-Kerry Wood/Chris Perez/Jensen Lewis-22.5

Twins have the best bullpen (by far) and the best closer (Joe Nathan) by a pretty good margin. The Royals got their ranking solely based because of Soria and despite Kyle Farnsworth. The Royals aren't going to get many chances to win but Soria will do his part to squander very few of those chances. I'm not overly optimistic on Jenks having a strong year. I get creeped out everytime I see a recent ex-closer (J.J Putz) hanging out in middle relief (this combo screams a red light similar to the Fuentes/Rodney combo from Los Angeles of Anaheim).

If this was a competition of who could throw the fastest fastball or the competition of who struck out 20 batters in a game once, the Tigers and Indians would be ranked higher than they actually are.

Speaking of Kerry Wood, i'm closing this out on a rant where I tie in Kerry Wood and Al Bundy. The career of Kerry Wood and the life of Al Bundy both started pretty sweet. Kerry Wood burst onto the scene in '98 and struck out 20 in a single game. Al Bundy had a pretty sweet life in high school as he scored 4 touchdowns in the same game.

But then luck and circumstances changed things. Wood struggled with injuries for a few years but eventually bounced back and had a few gasps of brilliance (i.e the 2003 season). The struggles in Wood's career and the struggles in Bundy's life can both be placed on external sources (Dusty Baker/Peg Bundy).

Kerry Wood spent the next few years in a world of injuries, simulated games and hanging out at the disabled list before settling into the role of closer for a flailing Indians team. Al Bundy on the other hand ended up selling shoes and being perpetually unlucky. This part sort of messes up the analogy because while Kerry Wood didn't become the superstar/hall of famer everyone expected him to be, it is still 10 years later and he still has a job in the bigs which even if it's not for a great team, your still in the bigs. Sadly, Al Bundy has no shot of redemption as he's stuck selling womens shoes at the mall in syndication.

Anyway, our final rankings:

Twins 34.5

White Sox 39

Royals 62

Tigers 63.5

Indians 71

If this holds up the Twins will be fighting for their playoff lives till the bitter end for the third straight year (and being sucessful for the second straight year). I was surprised that the Royals snuck into third for these rankings but that happens to be more on the strength of Greinke and Soria and based on these rankings it in no way indicates them having any hope of contending.

AL Central Preview--Part One

Well we got through the AL West, time to move towards the Central.

Catcher:

Joe Mauer-1

A.J. Pierzynski-2

Carlos Santana-3

Gerald Laird-4

Jason Kendall-5

Joe Mauer is far and away the best Catcher regardless of if you are talking about the league or the AL Central. It's a toss-up between Pierzynski and Santana. While Santana has the highest ceiling (he is one of the hottest prospects his Minor League numbers equate to pretty solid MLB numbers but he's still an unsure thing as he's yet to play in the bigs)......at the same time, there's no way he could be any worse than Laird and Kendall.

A side note about announcers and baseball players with the same name as musicians. The one pet peeve I have after watching nationally televised Brewers games is goes as follows: Yes, I am aware the Brewers regular right fielder's name is Corey Hart. Yes, I am aware he has the same name as that guy from the 80's who sang about Wearing his sunglasses at night. No, I do not need to hear announcers make lame jokes about Corey Hart wearing his sunglasses at night. This rant has been several years in the making. Which brings me to my main point, I am already cringing at the Carlos Santana references that are inevitably going to be made (fortunately the Indians aren't going to be very good and not be on TV very often). Point being I don't want to hear about how "smooth" is swing is or how we can say "oye como va" to a ball after he hits a home run (2 cliches that took me about 5 seconds each to make up). There's about at least a dozen cheesy Sports Center made for Stuart Scott cliches that are inevitable going to be unleashed upon the public if the high expectations set aside for Santana turn out to be fulfilled.

If Gerald Laird was half as good at getting arrested at Phoenix Suns games as he was at playing baseball, he may be higher on this list. However, his career to this point indicates that this is not the case. If being a Brewer fan has taught me anything, it's that Jason Kendall just isn't that good.....in fact he's a pretty terrible ball-player. Luckily for him, the Royals have a thing for making bad baseball decisions, are one of the dumbest teams in baseball and somehow made a conscious decision to sign him to a 2-year deal to a player who hasn't even been a league average hitter since 2004. These two were made for each other.

First Base

Miguel Cabrera-1

Paul Konerko-2

Justin Morneau-3

Billy Butler-4

Matt LaPorta-5

This division is LOADED from top to bottom at 1st. Unlike the Catcher rankings which are relatively easy, the Top 3 here was fairly difficult. While there are concerns regarding how last season ended with Cabrera, the reality is he is an elite-class player. If he can get past his drinking-related problems, he looks destined to be one of the greatest hitters of this generation.

The Konerko versus Morneau was a tough decision to make. More of a hunch than anything else, I think Morneau will come back strong from his injury problems from last year but I think that Konerko is going to have a monster season in '10. Even the back end players are pretty solid, Billy Butler was one of the few bright spots not named Zack Greinke in 2009 and I see that being repeated in 2010. Just like the Catcher rankings, the last spot is taken by someone who has connections to the Brewers (while he was traded before seeing Major League action, he was a major reason why the Brewers were able to land C.C. Sabathia in 2008 and is thus made his own contribution to getting the Brewers their first playoff appearance in 26 years). Anyways, LaPorta is definitely a can't-miss prospect he looks headed in the right direction of having a long and productive career and he's going to have a solid 2010, it's just that Cabrera, Konerko, Morneau and Butler are all happen to be really, really good at baseball.

Second Base

Gordan Beckham-1

Luis Valbuena-2

Orlando Hudson-3

Alberto Callaspo-4

Scott Sizemore-5

Fairly weak at second. Beckham seems poised for a breakout season. Valbuena, while not having the high profile like Beckham is a sleeper candidate for a breakout season. O-Hud is likely to give his typical .280 average and 10 homers.....may not be exciting or stand out but it's a lot more than they would have gotten out of Punto.

Shortstop

Alexei Ramirez-1

J.J Hardy-2

Asdrubal Cabrera-3

Mike Aviles-4

Adam Everett-5

Toss-up between whether Ramirez or Hardy will have a better season. Ramirez has had a more consistent last couple years and a higher upside. J.J Hardy, was more unlucky than bad last year. Last year, it seemed like about every other day, someone was robbing J.J. Hardy of an extra base hit. Didn't really think too much beyond until I saw that his BABIP was significantly lower for him in 2009. Despite this, the Brewers still sold him for 50 cents on the dollar for Carlos Gomez. Asdrubal Cabrera is still young at this point he's Orlando Cabrera version 2 at the plate.

Third Base

Alex Gordon-1

Jhonny Peralta-2

Mark Teahan-3

Brandon Inge-4

Brendan Harris-5

A fairly close but fairly weak crop. Gordon and Peralta are probably going to produce similar numbers but Gordon gets the nod since his ceiling is higher. Nothing special about the other three.

Left Field

1-Delmon Young

2-Ryan Raburn

3-David DeJesus

4-Juan Pierre

5-Michael Brantley

Another close call. Young and Raburn are both solid candidates for breakout seasons. Young has the disadvantage of not living up to his potential (yet) Raburn has the disadvantage of being five years older. Juan Pierre has the disadvantage of it being illegal to steal first in baseball......almost put Brantley above Pierre on the sole basis of him being the Player To Be Named Later in the Sabathia deal and thus his minor part of letting me see the Brewers make the playoffs.

Center Field

1-Grady Sizemore

2-Johnny Damon

3-Denard Span

4-Alex Rios

5-Mitch Maier

This field is middle-heavy. Sizemore may have struggled with injuries last year but he should bounce back in 2010. Damon and Span are fairly interchangeable. Damon is the bigger name and still has at least a couple solid seasons in him (but don't expect a 2009-esque power burst....well unless the bring in the fences and turn Comerica park into a little league field). Span might not be the most exciting player but he can be penciled in for a .300 average 10 homers 20 steals and being more valuable to a real team than a fantasy team (or what I refer to as the Orlando Cabrera All-Stars). The only thing big about Alex Rios' game is that monster $77.5 million contract he somehow got.

Right Field

1-Carlos Quentin

2-Micheal Cuddyer

3-Shin-Soo Choo

4-Magglio Ordonez

5-Jordan Parraz

Pretty solid group from 1 to 4. It was a toss-up between Quentin and Cuddyer. Quentin has a question mark around him due to dealing with injuries pretty much every year of his career (even costing him the 2008 AL MVP).

Cuddyer also has a pretty good case for the top spot but Quentin got the slight nod as has demonstrated the ability to carry his team on his back for longer (5 months ) than Cuddyer (although his September was pretty sweet).

A random Mike Cuddyer story/anecdote/me being weird. I was rocking out to "Holy Diver" by Dio earlier today and I mentally started coming up with alternate lyrics about Mike Cuddyer's epic September.

Designated Hitter

1-Jason Kubel

2-Travis Hafner

3-Andruw Jones

4-Jose Guillen

5-Carlos Guillen

Kubel gets the nod as the question marks surrounding him are relatively smaller. For how the rest of these rankings actually go down, it will be a war of attrition of whoever gets hurt last wins.

On pure talent level, Hafner is the best of the rest but staying healthy has been a problem for him. For Andruw Jones, the problem is it isn't 2005 anymore and his peak has come and gone (though he still should be good for about a .260 average and 20 homers).

Exhibit 234 of the Royals being one of the dumbest teams in baseball: They are actually paying Jose Guillen $12 million a year......didn't realize that hitters with an OPS+ of 90 over the last two years were that expensive.

Standings at the End of Part One:

Twins-21

White Sox-21

Indians-26

Tigers-32

Royals-35

Well, the top of the division looks like a re-enactment of the 2008 AL Central. The Indians are closer than I expected them to be and the Royals are exactly where I expected them to be.

Monday Baseball Ramblings

Well, the Yankees are back in the World Series

While the Angels definitely helped the Yankees in this process due to some bad innings, un-clutch defense, so on and so forth.......at least they made the series somewhat interesting. The Yankees proved again that you can indeed buy at least a League Championship......They face off against the Phillies who are trying to repeat.......if they were real people.....it would give the gang from Its Always Sunny another chance to sneak into a world series game, deliver a letter to Chase Utley...or go up against the Fanatic for mascot supremacy......or not

Manny Acta gets another chance

When Acta got fired from the Nationals job....I mentioned that there was no way to tell whether the his bad record was because he's not a good manager or because he was managing a really bad team. Arguably, the same could be said about this Indians team he is inheriting. I'm not going to stretch and say the Indians are as bad as the Nationals....but they have traded away enough players in the last couple years that they could almost field a team. Still, Acta will have a better chance to win in Cleveland since he moves away from a competitive NL East to an AL Central division that is arguably the weakest in baseball. If he does a good enough job as a manager and catches a few breaks he could be heading a competitive team within a couple years.

Mark McGwire: Hitting Coach

Honestly, i'm a bit surprised by this development. Mark McGwire struck me as someone who was over the spotlight of being involved with the MLB as we haven't heard much from McGwire since he stopped playing (well except for that one time where he said he didn't want to talk about the past). It will be interesting to see how having McGwire around will affect the Cards. The two troubling things (for St. Louis) are that being a star as a player doesn't mean they are that good as coaches and b) if/when another steroid controversy breaks out about a current or past player, it has the potential to serve as a distraction to the Cards as McGwire's alleged use is inevitably going to come to the fore-front. Either way, it should be interesting to see how he holds up in a coaching role.

The Thursday Post

Well it's Thursday and that means time to look ahead to another weekend of baseball games..........as always games are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5......and let the games begin

Phillies vs. Braves-Saturday [TBD vs. Kawakami] FOX =4
Sunday [TBD vs. Vasquez] ESPN =4

Definitely one of the better series this weekend. The Phillies have gotten a bit complacent lately letting half of their NL East lead in a recent sweep against the Marlins. The Phils have not decided who to pitch this weekend.

For the Braves, they have played some of their best ball in the last couple of weeks, breaking away from .500 land. They still have work to do as they still sit at 4 1/2 back. It will be interesting to see if Kawakami can follow up his strong start in L.A. with another clutch start on Saturday. On sunday, they bring out Javier Vasquez who is quietly having his best season this year.

Phillies win Saturday, Braves win Sunday

Giants [Cain] vs. Mets [Santana]- Saturday FOX = 3.5

This match-up gets an extra point and a half due to the pitching match-up. While the Mets have two strikes against them [they play in New York and not being good] the Mets are worth watching in this game solely due to Johan Santana getting the start.

The Giants are in a year long experiment to see how inept a team can be offensively while still making the playoffs. While Tim Lincecum has gotten his well-deserved respect for helping this cause along, Matt Cain is having a MONSTER season and has played a big part into why the Giants are within striking distance [ 1 1/2 games back] of the wild card.

Giants win this game 1-0

Indians [Huff] vs. Twins [TBD] =2

This match-up looked a lot better before the season began. At this point of the season, not so much. This is the teams first meeting after consummating that epic trade bringing Carl Pavano to Minnesota.

The Skeleton Indians start a rookie named David Huff who i've never even heard of. Looking at his stats it's easy to see since he's having by all stretches of the imagination, a terrible year [6-6 6.72 era 68 ERA+]

The Twins have yet to decide who they're starting but does it matter. While they are only 5 games back, they seem to be going nowhere and through the motions.......if they're gonna make a run...sweeping the skeleton Indians would be a good first step.

Whoever the Twins start is getting themselves a win.

Rangers vs. Red Sox [Penny vs. Holland] Saturday MLB Network =4
[Tazawa vs. Nippert] Sunday TBS


The pitching match-ups may not be top notch but this game has very heavy wild card implications. As of this writing, the Red Sox are clinging to a 1/2 game wild card lead over the rangers. The Red Sox had a terrible weekend in New York but bounced back by taking 3 out of 4 from the Tigers.

This will be a close and high scoring series. Both teams have loaded offenses and will be going up against pitchers that just aren't that good. The Red Sox will probably will do just enough pitching wise to pull out the series win.

How many transactions can I cover in one post? At least five

So today a bunch of transaction moves went down in Baseball and i'm attempting to squeeze my take on all of them into one post.


A) Indians trade Carl Pavano to the Twins for a play to be named later.

Wow....the Indians have traded away so many players that they are now down to trading players that aren't even good (Pavano) apparently just for the sake of trading players away. While it is commendable that Pavano has not been injured for 90% of the season for once......he just hasn't been that good 9-8 5.37 era 84 ERA+

For the Twins this is a low-risk/high desperation move.....this is an apparent attempt at them to strengthen their starting rotation in the hopes of winning the AL Central (they're 4 1/2 back going into today)...the only problem is that Pavano is no better or worse than the back of rotation pitchers such as Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins, Kevin Slowey and Anthony Swarzak....it's not that I think Pavano is going to bomb out (like he did for the Yankees) I just don't see him putting the twins over the hump.

B) The possible unceremonious ending to a couple of careers.

The night after a rough outing in New York, the Red Sox pulled the cord on John Smoltz. Since coming back from injury he has had a disastarous season going 2-5 with a 8.32 era. I really hope that this isn't the end for Smoltz since he deserves to go out on his own terms and another chance to help a contending team in desperate need of pitching.......in light of his career post-season success some team may take a flier on him but after his stint in Boston, that's unlikely

Jason Giambi got released while still on the DL. This potential ending isn't too shocking since his batting average was south of the mendoza line but he still had a somewhat respectable obp of .332........he did endure controversy with his steroid use...but he taught us an important lesson....if you admit to doing something wrong, even if you don't say explicitly what that said wrong thing is......you won't necessarily be forgiven you just won't have your entire reputation tarnished.....players such as Clemens, Bonds, Sosa could learn an important lesson from this


C) Alex Rios got claimed on waivers from a team......but which team.....nobody knows?

This has been one of the more bizarre stories in a while. It seems like overkill to say that another team made a claim on him but shhhhhh.....we can't say who it is. This almost sounds like a story you'd see in The Onion...........this move will impact the pennant race in some point....assuming he got picked up by a contender.....but there's no way of knowing since his future team is some league-held secret

D) Brewers call up Jesus Colome from Nashville

Low Risk/High Reward move.....the Brewers have had success with pitchers picked up the scrap heap in recent years [Todd Coffey is a perfect example of this] and Colome does fit the example of this since he pitched bad enough that not even the Nationals wanted him.

In limited duty in Nashville, Colome pitched really well. However, it's tough to see if this will translate into big league success. On the bright side, even if this turns out not to be a genius move, there's no way he can be worse than the player he replaced [R.J. Swindle]


whew.........that was a lot to cover in the post.......back to watching more MLB Network

Vh1s top 100 songs of the 80s--and what it says about the 2009 baseball season

So i'm flipping through the channels after watching the Brewers lose again tonight.........grrrhhhh....but that's besides the point.....i stumbled across vh1 replaying their top 100 songs of the 80s and was randomly became curious whether any of the songs connect to the baseball season or anything else sports related in general........well here it goes

3- Duran Duran "Hungry like the wolf"---the Red Sox at the trade deadline

Having tasted the success of two World Series titles since '04 and after falling short in the ALCS to the Rays in '08....the Red Sox seem hungry to get to the top again.......they've done this by building up on an already strong team...by adding Chris Duncan, Adam LaRoche (until they could get Casey Kotchman for him), and Victor Martinez...with the possible exception of the Phillies the Red Sox had the best body of trade deadline work

19- Cyndi Lauper- "Time After Time" --Brewers starting rotation

Time after Time...the starting rotation seeming finds new ways to hit rock bottom. I thought it was hit when Mike Burns got pushed around by the Pirates..........then Jeff Suppan gave up 10 runs to the Nationals (and the first of TWO Josh Willingham grand slams)........not to be outdone Braden Looper did his part to turn a 7-1 lead into an 11-7 loss..........to the worst-hitting team in the NL (Padres)..........on the bright side only about 8 more months until 2010 opening day

29- Talking Heads - "Burning Down the House" -- to the Pirates and Indians management for completely throwing in the towel

as critical as I have been about the Brewers play as of late.....at least management is trying to win.....the same can't be said about the pirates and indians.......it's actually atrocious how much talent they've given away since June.....if you assembled a team based on the players they have given away ERR....traded in the last couple months......all they would need is a shortstop, third baseman and maybe a mid-rotation starter or to to contend for themselves.

31-Queen/David Bowie "Under Pressure" -- Yankees

So the Yankees are in first place......with their fans and management.....talking about the playoffs?! is not adequate.......I mean there are 9 year old Yankees fans wondering if they'll ever see the Yankees win ERR....sucessfully buy a World Series title in their life times....they're under pressure to win it for the children (and most likely Joe Girardi's job)

47- Twisted Sister "Were not gonna take it"--Tony Bernazard--ex Mets Executive

Mets management apparent response to Tony Bernazard's behavior.....lashing out at their double A team......and at allegedly at K-Rod (their ONE large contract that's actually been worth the money).........so they got rid of him....the Mets are still a joke

51 Ratt -"Round and Round" --the Media

For discussing two of the biggest non-stories of the summer ....round and round the clock....24 hours a day........these being a) Roy Halladay's trade to, oh wait the biggest deadline trade involved Cliff Lee.....but it was a good way to fill a couple of weeks and b) Brett Favre's non-return (for now) to the Vikings......i did hear he made a pretty sweet Sears commercial where he plays a customer that couldn't make up his mind

66 Depeche Mode " Just Can't Get Enough" --me and MLB Network

So I have about 120+ channels and about 119 of them go unwatched on a daily basis.......seriously, when I come home from work the first two things I do is a) turn on my laptop to watch the brewers on mlb.tv and b) turn on MLB Network to see what they're talking about and stay up to date with everything else going on in baseball

71- Rick James "Super Freak" -- Tim Lincecum

So appearently if your 5'11'' and 160...the odds are stacked against a pitcher from being a serviceable pitcher let alone a very dominant one.....obviously Lincecum missed this memo...and baseball is the better for it........seriously it is worth paying attention when he pitches because you never know what might happen........and the scary thing is he's only 25 so he's only getting better...when it's all said and done he's going to be the most dominating pitcher of this generation

90- Tone Loc "Wild Thing" -- Daniel Cabrera

Despite not pitching in the bigs since May and pitching only 40 innings this year....he STILL ranks 2nd in the National League in Wild Pitches

95- Debbie Gibson -- "only in my dreams" to the Orioles, Indians, Royals, A's, Nationals, Reds, D-Backs, Padres and their fans

According to coolstandings.com these teams have a .5 percent chance or less to talk about the
playoffs.........unless one of their managers gives a legendary Jim Mora-esque rant about how bad their teams are.......probably shouldn't talk too much here since the Crew has a 5.5 percent playoff chance and will likely join the .5 percent or less club sooner than later


well this has been an interesting experience.........I may have been too young to remember these songs when they came out (i was born in 1983).....but not too old to use the song titles to write about some baseball

The Wednesday Five: The Last Place All-Stars

So last Wednesday I did a list of top 5 baseball records that I feel will never be broken. I was thinking about the direction I wanted to take the blog and I have decided to do a top 5 list on Wednesdays....(p.s. i've decided to also make the weekend sports tv preview a regular post and moved it to thursdays)....anyways with the all-star break and pennant races heating up, i've come up with the idea of giving recognition to the players stuck on last place teams that are going nowhere fast....for this list's considerations the teams included are Baltimore, Cleveland, Oakland, Washington, Pittsburgh and Arizona

1) Danny Haren- Diamonbacks 7-5 2.19 era 208 era+

If Haren was playing for a team that was even somewhat good and/or played defense above a little league level, he would be getting a lot more Cy Young award talk. He's having his best year by far which is impressive considering he's already a two-time All Star. When you have an ERA that is less than half the league average--something special is going on....too bad it's just happening for a team that's happens to not be very good this year.

2) Adam Dunn-Nationals .260/.396./.528 142 OPS+

Adam Dunn is doing what he's always done. Hit for a pedestrian average, draw lots of walks, strike out a lot and hit lots of homers. Dunn is iconic in his own way for being one of the greatest 3TO (Three True Outcomes) players of all time.....a little over half of his plate appearances have ended with either a walk, strikeout or home run this year. 

The only difference this year is instead of doing this for a 75-win Reds team, he's doing it for a historically bad Nationals team. 

3) Cliff Lee- Indians  4-7 3.39 132 OPS+

Last year's reigning Cy Young Award winner is definitely not winning 20+ games again. Unlike most pitchers who go 4-7, it's not because Cliff Lee is not a good pitcher. He's still putting up staff ace numbers, he's just not getting offensive help behind him.  

It looks as though Cleveland's run of bad luck in sports has spread to their ace pitcher....(well at least until they trade him).

4) George Sherill Orioles 0-1 1.99 era 229 ERA+

Amongst the multitude of players Baltimore got for Eric Bedard. He was an all-star last year but struggled towards the end. 

This year, he is putting up a largely unnoticed monster season as Baltimore's closer. While there ain't many leads to finish off these days...years....decades in Baltimore, when the opportunity has come up this year he has definitely stepped up.

5) Ryan Zimmerman- Nationals- .301/.371.500 128 OPS +

In a weird twist of irony, the team that's far and away the worst (even by last-place team standards) is the one that got two representatives on this list.

While Dunn is putting up a better season, Zimmerman is more or less the face of an otherwise atrocious Nationals team. His highlight of 08/09 was a 30-game hitting streak is the longest seen in baseball since '06. While there were those left off that had an edge statistically, this is more of a lifetime achievement award for Zimmerman's ability to still play well even when surrounded by the Double A caliber "talent" that is pervasive throughout the Nationals roster.

Also receiving consideration: Adam Jones, Luke Scott, Brad Bergesen, Victor Martinez, Shin Choo-Choo, Matt Holiday, Dallas Braden, Andrew Bailey, John Lannan, Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke, Justin Upton, Doug Davis

Not A Bad Way to Start The Week

Not gonna lie, i'm in a pretty good mood right now.....just finished watching the monday night ESPN game between my brewers and the cleveland indians.....i ended up picking up with the game in the fourth inning with the brewers down 4-3....i got home from work just in time to see brewers starter dave bush fail to get out of the 4th inning which say the brewers fall behind 8-3

after pulling within a run the brewers bullpen endured further struggles as the brewers were down 12-8 after 7.......the brewers finally got over the hump in the 8th inning thanks to a prince fielder grand slam.....after that todd coffey, mitch stetter and trever hoffman held down the fort to give the brew crew a much needed win and extend their lead in the nl central to 1 game.....

alright so it's only a mid june game against a mediocre cleveland team.... and also while there are 90-plus games still to play this game was still clutch.... for the brewers to struggle mightily for most of the game and still find a way to win makes me feel better about this team and makes it more likely that the brewers will be talking about the playoffs come october.


Streak for the cash pick of the day: (Tuesday) In a rematch of the 1988 world series i'm picking the Dodgers to beat the A's 8-2