This Week in Baseball

[Bored 0]

Octavio Dotel blows his first save opportunity with the A's. Granted he came in the 8th to get the A's out of a Jim Mecir bases loaded jam but...I'm speechless. Somebody find the person with the A's bullpen voo doo doll.

[Guest Anglesault]

Somebody find the person with the A's bullpen voo doo doll.

::giggles::

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Harden injured his non-throwing shoulder, so there's a silver lining.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

A's win in the 10th, and Dotel picks up the win.

[Bored 0]

Yes, so his season probably isn't over but it's still about as bad as a day can get. I mean I'm not really worried about Dotel, although I'm sure several idiot A's fans will already throw him under the bus, but damn what horrible timing.

 

Hopefully the A's can just survive until the All-Star break. They'll have Hudson back and Chavez soon after. Until then it's going to be a severe gut check time for this team. Hopefully Blanton is as good as advertised because they'll need the boost.

 

Marco Scutaro rbi single in the 10th wins it. Dotel gets the vulture.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Dotel did pitch well in the 8th and 10th, so it wasn't TOO bad of a performance. One mistake to Pierzynski cost him.

[Bored 0]

I know and I already said I didn't worry but with everything that went wrong today I didn't need to see the new closer blow it. It's just too much bad shit in one day.

 

Thinking about what they will do for the next two weeks until Hudson comes back, they might actually call up ex-Brewer Steve Woodard if they seriously don't want to waste an option year (and arb year?) on Blanton. They have ex-Astro Kirk Saarloos also but since he's been hurt this year they might have him on a real strict pitch count so don't know if they'd want him up or not.

[Bored 0]

A's pitching coach Curt Young said after the game that he thinks Harden can make his next start. I'll believe it when I see it but I'll take that as this injury isn't a bad as it looked.

 

Now I read this from the AP article on the game

 

Harden sustained the same injury during spring training -- from reaching for his alarm clock, he said -- and missed more than a week. He was scheduled for an X-ray Sunday morning and it was unknown whether he would make his next start.

Those alarm clocks are a bitch.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Just caught the Devil Rays-Marlins highlights. Holy fuck is Joey Gathright fast. He makes contact and draws walks, but has no power (11 extra base hits in 633 minor league at bats coming into this season). Should be interesting to see how he develops. He hit .326 in a brief trial in AAA.

[Guest Anglesault]

So, let's see. 8 Ks to 1 BB and 1 hit over 4,

 

A big error and a 2 men on situation without Josè turning into a quivering mass of jelly

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the new (Real?) Josè Contreras.

[Guest Anglesault]

Tell me I'm not the only one who sees this. Or just humor me.

 

 

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Meanwhile in Kansas City..

 

Desi Relaford is batting 6th

 

his numbers this year: .201 BA/.537 OPS, 1 HR, 8 RBI

 

Tony Pena's a freaking idiot and i'm really getting sick of him

[Bored 0]

A's have called up Kirk Saarloos but they didn't DL Harden yet, they sent down Ramon Castro. Saarloos is only going four to five innings a start at Sacramento so I think he's being called up to take Duchscherer's spot as the long man while he steps in the rotation. I suspect when/if Harden goes on the DL they will call up Steve Woodard. It does appear they have no intention of wasting an option on Blanton at this time.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Anybody know of a good pitching coach who's looking for work?

 

John Cumberland and his "Don't strike people out, put the ball in play" philosophy irritate the hell out of me. It's a proven failure. If you don't strike people out, YOU WILL NOT PITCH VERY WELL

 

The league K/9 average is now 6.46

 

And here's how the Royals have done so far

 

Dennys Reyes - 7.03

Darrell May - 6.22

Zack Greinke - 5.32

Jeremy Affeldt - 4.72

Brian Anderson - 3.38

Jimmy Gobble - 2.56 (so far today)

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I haven't been able to watch much baseball lately, but from the look of the score sheets, the Cubs' defense over the past few games has been awful, making it no surprise they're on the verge of losing their fourth out of their last five. The Sox are already a great-hitting team; giving them extra outs to work with just fucks you over even worse. Meanwhile, the Cards are starting to pull away from the division, as the Cubs will probably be five out after today, as will the Reds, while the Stros will still be seven out.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I'd like to add that from the small portion of today's Cubs game I've seen, the homeplate ump's strikezone is crazy. Derrek Lee just got called out on a ball that wasn't even up to his knees.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

I know that this has nothing to do with the pros but I would like to congratulate my school, Cal State Fullerton for winning their fourth Div I NCAA Baseball Championship.

[Guest Brian]

ChiSox got Freddy Garcia!!! With some run support, he's going to bring that record back up.

 

For:

Miguel Olivo ©

2 prospects (Reed and Morse)

 

And I heard they might be getting Ben Davis too, which isn't worth a thing.

[the pinjockey 0]

That seems like way too much to give up for Garcia.

 

I think I would rather have the package Seattle got for Garcia, than what the Royals got for Beltran.

[Guest Brian]

Garcia's good, and Ben Davius is weak. The Sox needed a pitcher, and it seems like a lot. Jeremy Reed was very good, and he's doing decent this year in the minors. I don't know much about Michael Morris, but I expected some upside on Olivo. Good, young catcher.

 

Garcia's got like the sixth best ERA and would have a much better record with run support, especially once Ordonez gets back. He's been getting horrible run support the whole year, probably among the worst in the league, and he's exactly what the Sox needed.

[the pinjockey 0]

But his splits show that he is better at home, because he keeps the ball in the park there. He is homer prone (which is helped by Seattle's field) and now he is moving to a field from what I saw in the Sox-Phils series is as much of a Coors Field Midwest as CBP is a Coors Field East.

 

And if Morse is a good enough fielder to play short (I don't know that much about him), looking at his stats he could be a SS with some pop. Combine that with Olivo (a catcher with some pop) and you could have some power from two weaker positions.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

For:

Miguel Olivo ©

2 prospects (Reed and Morse)

NOOOOOOOO

[the pinjockey 0]

I guess this means Guardado is going to be available. I would hope the Phillies would go after him. But looking at his stats, while he fills the age requirement for a Wade addition, he doesn't quite suck enough to be their midseason bullpen addition.

 

I think I would be up for a Ryan Howard for Guardado deal.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I wouldn't go so far to go after Guardado. If the Phillies can trade Howard for anything decent however, I'd go for it.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

you know, now that I've had some time to think about this trade...it sucks even more! We better use some of the Mags money to sign Garcia's ass up to an extention, or this trade will be even worse.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Just wrote up the trade for my column, and man this trade sucks for the Sox.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Here are some pitchers in Mexico.

 

Leonardo Gonzalez

DOB: August 1983

Stats:

18 starts, 4-6, 4.80 ERA, 93 and 2/3rds innings, 80 strikeouts (second in the league), 58 walks, 52 runs allowed (50 earned), 107 hits allowed, Opponents are batting .306 with 12 homers. Leonardo has hit 3 batters and thrown 14 wild pitches. He strikes out 7.69 people per 9 innings, walks 5.55 per 9 innings and he has a 1.76 WHIP

 

Armando Valdez

DOB: 8/8/84

Stats:

3.29 ERA, 18 starts, 1 relief appearance, 106 2/3rds innings, 74 strikeouts (6.24 per 9), 40 walks, 1.42 WHIP, opponents are batting .276 with 9 home runs

 

Gonzalez strikes out people (a rarity in the Mexican league), and he had four wild pitches in his last start

 

Valdez is better. Except for the K-rate.

 

The pitching is more worthwhile in a hitters league like Mexico. Since the hitters have inflated stats, and most of them are 30

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

http://www.sports-wired.com/draft/draft_search.asp

 

this rocks

 

The Royals drafted John Elway, Dan Marino and Deion Sanders

 

(BTW, it's not my fault if that doesn't work all the time)

[Guest Anglesault]

We needed this day.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The new column is up, featuring thoughts on the Beltran and Garcia deals. The link is in my sig.