This Week in Baseball 7/23 - 7/29

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Edit: Nevermind. I hath been scooped.

 

 

Don't let that get you down. You could tell us about the time he threw up that 7.something ERA when he played for Houston. C'mon I know there's an Astros story somewhere... maybe he took care of Bagwell's cat or something.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Twins ain't happenin' this year, are they. Yeesh.

 

Nope. It's time to make some trades. Anyone want Luis Castillo? Carlos Silva? Juan Rincon?

[Guest •]

Well, I assume this means Grant Balfour's time is up. Good for Brewers. Bad for me.

[vivalaultra 0]

Edit: Nevermind. I hath been scooped.

 

 

Don't let that get you down. You could tell us about the time he threw up that 7.something ERA when he played for Houston. C'mon I know there's an Astros story somewhere... maybe he took care of Bagwell's cat or something.

 

Oh, cheech, you minx. In all fairness, the year he threw up the 7 something ERA, he was hurt and only threw like 25 innings. The year before and the year after, he was really, really good. Uh...I know that in 2005, when Ensberg got picked to go to the All-Star game as a late substitution, his family and Linebrink's family were all scheduled to go to Lake Tahoe on vacation, but when Ensberg went to the ASG, it ended up with Linebrink and Ensberg's family hanging out in Tahoe. The nature of the relationship between Linebrink and Bagwell's cat is murky at best.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

After a little poking around I realized that Inman is a stud pitching prospect. Even with TINSTAAP, he's likely to be a 2/3 pitcher someday, especially playing in San Diego.

 

Thatcher has good relief numbers in AAA and could probably give you a decent replication of 2007 Linebrink right now. I know he's a proven reliever, but his numbers aren't that good this year and he hasn't had much recent success outside of Petco. They paid a large ransom for a moderate upgrade in the bullpen.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

The Brewers' pen hasn't even been too shabby this year. Their starting rotation is what's been on the skids the last month or two. It's possible Linebrink turns things around, but his stock had really plummeted since the outset of the season.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The Brewers gave up three good prospects for relief help, but since Linebrink is a Type A free agent after this season, they will get 1 or 2 high draft picks if they can't re-sign him, if I understand correctly.

 

FWIW, I like the move. The Brewers bullpen needed a boost, as clearly Grant Ballfour wasn't cutting it. Inman is touted, but doesn't seem like his ceiling is as high as someone like Yovani Gallardo.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Twins ain't happenin' this year, are they. Yeesh.

 

Nope. It's time to make some trades. Anyone want Luis Castillo? Carlos Silva? Juan Rincon?

 

I'll take Johan Santana for Pelfrey, Heilman, Milledge, Humber, and Beltran.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

I guess here is a good place as any for a "Movement in the All Time Homer List" check

 

Barroid is still stuck on 753, could not do it on the same general site that Aaron launched # 755 and most likely a great majority of his 755 homers so he will attempt to do so at home vs the team Aaron hit the great majority of those 755 homers for.

 

Ken Griffey Jr is at 587, 13 away from 600 now while Sammy Sosa is on 602. Sosa is 4th all time and Junior is 5th

 

Little lower on the list, Frank Thomas has stalled a bit and is at 503, while Alex Rodriguez is knocking on the door after crushing # 498 Sunday. Both are #s 21 and 22 all time.

 

Unless ARod goes into a massive slump or has a horrific injury he will surpass Jimmie Foxx as the youngest to 500, Foxx was 32 years and 337 days old, ARod is just a week shy of his 32nd birthday.

 

Jim Thome 489, Manny Ramirez 485, and Gary Sheffield 478 should be the next three entrants to the 500 club, if not late this year then defiantly early next. Currently they occupy slots 25, 26 and 27 respectively

 

Carlos Delgado and Mike Piazza are the other current active 400 HR guys, both at 39 (423) and 40 (422) respectively.

 

The next to 400 should be Chipper Jones (61st) at 374, and Andruw is at 361, tied with Joe DiMaggio for 64th all time.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Also as Tom Glavine tries to get win # 299 tonight and inch closer to being the 23rd guy to win 300 here is the current movement on that particular all-time list

 

The Rocket won his 351st and stands just 13 wins shy of being the all-time winningest pitcher of the post-WW II era (Warren Spahn 361) and vaulting himself into the 6th greatest winner of all time, which would also put him two away from the top 5. Currently he is in the 8th slot.

 

Not happening this year, wonder if a good year will bring him out of retirement AGAIN?

 

Greg Maddux has been in the top 10 for a while, and his 340 total leaves him 2 shy of Tim Keefe and the 9th slot.

 

Glavine we know

 

Randy Johnson has sputtered a bit with his back situation and is stuck on 284, good a tie for 28th place with Fergie Jenkins. One wonders if he'll keep pushing to get to 300? He's a HOFer for sure, but with 300 so close to his grasp and all.

 

Then we go down to 51st place (tie with Juan Marichal) for Mike Mussina and his 243 wins. Moose is inching closer, one away in fact, to Dennis Martinez's mark of most wins without ever winning 20 once in his career. Cracking the top 50 of a list that spans over 130 years though is nothing to sneeze at, even if Moose doesn't rank HOF status

 

Next is David Wells who just cracked the Top 60 (59th) with his 235th win, and others currently in the 200 club are

Jamie Moyer 224 (68th place), Curt Schilling 213 (84th), Kenny Rogers 210 (91st), Pedro Martinez 206 (99th all time winningest pitcher), and John Smoltz 203 (102nd)

 

Andy Pettitte is 8 wins shy of 200 so he should be the next to do it.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I can't recall a time when the Cubs were getting two-out hits with such regularity. Nine of their 10 runs in the Cards series so far have come with two down.

[Hawk 34 0]

Pedro Lopez took a horrible hit to the face at the plate and is bleeding quite badly.

[Guest •]

I saw that, that was horrible. Any hit above the shoulders should be an automatic ejection.

[Dandy 0]

That could have been much worse than what it was. I hope he's okay. At least he didn't lose consciousness.

[Guest •]

He was developing a nasty little bump there on his face, wasn't he.

 

And now look, Wise just gave up two runs. He should've been thrown out for his own good.

[Longdogger_Pete 0]

Carmona came damn close to doing the same thing to Dustin Pedroia tonight.

 

Anyways, second consecutive pitching duel leads to a second straight 1-0 game in Cleveland. But after Dice-K outduelling Sabathia last night, this time it's Carmona who beats Beckett. Both pitchers go eight and give up four hits.

 

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well, I was in a Brewers chat room and my "theory" was that Yost had Wise intentionally hit the batter. My viewpoint was not appreciated.

 

In all seriousness, that was pretty bad. I hope he's all right.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Jimmy Rollins tied up the game with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th with a flyball that the Nats couldnt catch, and he rounded the bases and scored.

 

Good stuff, but unfortunately Mesa is in now.

[vivalaultra 0]

The Astros won 2 outta 3 from the Dodgers. Brad Lidge picked up his 5th save tonite. His ERA is under 2.00 and he's pitching like 2004 Lidge. They're 10 and 10 in July. The best I can hope for is a win each day so that I can proudly wear my Astros Spring Training cap about town.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I may put the (OMG!) jinx on it, but if the Cubs keep playing anywhere close to how they've been going the last two months, this team's got a legit shot of a landing a playoff berth.

[Guest •]

I have nothing to complain about regarding how the North Siders are playing right now, so I'll complain about other Cub-related things. I don't feel the Cubs are doing enough to promote "Jump" as a theme song these days. That used to be like our big song in the 80s, was it not? Now to the team/WGN's credit, "Go Cubs Go" by Steve Goodman is played after every home win (maybe "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request after losses?), which is great, but I want more memories of 1984: play "Jump" more during broadcasts and less of Len Kasper's iPod (the Fray, Coldplay, Weezer, fashionably-indie-but-not-really music for white guys). Chicago has the indisputably best music related to its sports teams:

 

Bears: "Bear Down," "The Super Bowl Shuffle"

Cubs: "Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel," "Jump," "Go Cubs Go," "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request"

Bulls: "Sirius"

Black Hawks: "Here Come The Hawks"

White Sox: "Let's Go, Go-Go White Sox," "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," "Don't Stop Believin'"

 

And moving away from My Favorite Team, I hereby declare that Tim Lincecum's nickname is "The Sourdough Kid." I'm going to write to Giants p.r. and request that they run with it. I'm sure it beats Linny or T-Lin.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Jason Kendall's already been demoted into a platoon situation with KOYIE HILL. This may be the most fearsome platoon the Cubs have fielded since Ramon Martinez and Rey Ordonez.

 

At this point, they might as well give Soto another shot. He's probably not going to amount to anything special, but he's certainly an upgrade over these guys.

[Guest •]

Dude, Koyie's having a year. He's like Damian Miller 2007, other than Damian Miller himself in the year 2007, who is having another great year for the Brewers, that magnificent scab bastard.

 

Speaking of further celebrating 1984, the Cubs need to wear blue jerseys again on the road. Not as often, and not the ones they overused until this year, but we need some new iteration of the blue shirts again, because the grey ones they have now are really ugly.

[devo 0]

The NL Wild Card race is going to be ridiculous this year. The fact alone that three of the West teams are probably going to be competing for it could make things really interesting.

[Guest •]

A win tomorrow night formally steps on the throat of the St. Louis Cardinals, which will mean we have four in the West, two in the Central, and three in the East, giving us four great playoff races as we head past the 100-game signpost.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

A-Rod's sitting on 499. Tonight the Yanks face Jorge De La Rosa, who he hit his 400th off of. Tomorrow is is 32nd birthday, and he's going to become the youngest 500 club member of all time no matter what, because the youngest as of right now was (I think) Jimmie Foxx who was 33.

[Brett Favre 0]

Well, he really hit his 500th HR yesterday if you count that Orioles game.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Steve Stone will be filling in for Darrin Jackson during early August. I love Stoney, but that also means three hours of Hawk.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Cubs have a shot to close to within a game tonight, as the Cordero just blew a save in the ninth and then lost it in the 10th. Unless Gameday was lying to me, the tying run was the pitcher, who had doubled to lead off the inning.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Brewers are playing like they want to give 1st place away to the Cubs at this point.