This Week In Baseball: 5/12-5/18

[milliondollarchamp]

3 home runs for Jayson Werth

[CanadianChris]

Poor David Purcey. He probably wishes they left him in Syracuse after all that.

[MarvinisaLunatic]

Sherill has now saved 16 of the Orioles 22 wins after the Os victory tonight over the Nationals.

 

Also it was wierd having a hybrid Nationals/Orioles Announcing team for the whole game, bleh. Don Sutton and Jim Palmer though bring the over 500 combined career wins to the booth..

[Guest Smues]

Tom Glavine: Pinch hitter.

 

Didn't work, but it's creative. I guess.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Well Cueto pitched good tonight for Cincy until he gave up 3 in the 6th. Aside from that minor blowup, I like the energy and determination I'm seeing out of the ball club right now. I'm just glad Adam Dunn didn't pull a strikeout with the bases loaded in the eighth and instead got a walk to get a go-ahead RBI. Plus, with the Pirates getting knocked around by the Cubs the Reds are a step closer from escaping the cellar of the NL Central.

[Dandy]

I was busy with some things I needed to take care of and didn't get the game turned on until the start of the 6th inning. I saw that Cueto has not given up a hit by that point. Three of the first four batters I saw in the game hit home runs, and the next two after that reached on a walk and an error. I considered turning the game off due to the obvious curse I had brought upon the Reds' team, but I watched the rest of the game anyway.

[Bruiser Chong]

We can talk about Berkman, and we should, but Josh Hamilton is just sick this season. Forty-nine RBI after tonight's game.

[Dandy]

I'm rooting for him. I enjoyed him on the Reds last year and hope he has a terrific career. Way to turn your life around, Josh.

[Bruiser Chong]

Watching Miguel Cabrera occupy first base makes me value Derrek Lee that much more. Yeesh.

[Danville_Wrestling]

So is anyone watching baseball at 1:05 today not going to watch Mets-Yankees and opt for Cubs-Pirates part 8 or TB-STL?

[Guest Smues]

So is anyone watching baseball at 1:05 today not going to watch Mets-Yankees and opt for Cubs-Pirates part 8 or TB-STL?

<Raises hand>

 

I'm much more interested in TB-STL.

[Danville_Wrestling]

I almost chose to watch that game but I never seem to enjoy watching the Cards play and figure that I'll have better games to watch the Rays play in later in the season. Early in the Mets-Yanks game Santana is really having control/location issues, walking batters in four pitches.

[Bruiser Chong]

Is there any hitter in the game today who's more Jekyll and Hyde than Alfonso Soriano? Few guys look as bad as he does when slumping, but good streaky Soriano is just unstoppable.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Everytime I see Kyle Farnsworth pitch, and this dates back to his days in Chicago, he always has a major meltdown. Girardi put him in for the 7th inning and the YES network announcers were acting like he was some kind of savior but the guy has yet to get anyone out and in three batters has kept locating pitches up in the zone resulting in 2 HR's and a single. I can see why little Steinbrenner isn't happy with the way this team is playing this year.

 

Santana has also been smart in this game because when he recognized early on that he was having location trouble trying to be fancy he's just pitched to contact and made quick work of the Yanks since the first two innings.

[naiwf]

God bless Kyle Farnsworth. Santana wasn't that good today but got the victory, which balances out the couple of wins that the bullpen stole from him earlier in the season.

 

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

We can talk about Berkman, and we should, but Josh Hamilton is just sick this season. Forty-nine RBI after tonight's game.

I was skeptical of Hamilton last year, citing his lack of ABs against left handed pitching. He's handled them well so far this season.

[Danville_Wrestling]

God I hate David Weathers in relief. He's on course to go to 0-3 on the year after giving up a solo HR to Francisco in the 8th. Granted, we may not be in this situation right now if we'd stop stranding runners on 2nd and 3rd and finally give Harang some run support.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Well just when you've about given up on Adam Dunn he comes through in a big way with a 3-run walk off HR to beat the Indians 4-2. I'm just glad that his first attempt at a sac bunt failed (which I was 50/50 on because although it would've moved the runners to 2nd/3rd it would have left Paul Bako to drive them in).

[Dandy]

Bako has been good with RISP if I am not mistaken. I'll look for his stats. Great win for the Reds today. I figured this series would be a pitching series, and it has been a lower scoring affair until the later innings so far. Tomorrow should be a great game to watch with two ERA leaders going at it.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Bako's RISP this season is .290 and he's 1 for 1 on the year when runners are on 2nd & 3rd (which they would have been if Dunn's sac bunt had worked). I just say I was split on whether I wanted to see him come up because he seemed off today and was 0 for 3 and was not able to drive in Encarnacion in the 7th inning when Encarnacion was in scoring position (he struck out).

[geniusMoment]

Has there ever been a trade like Josh Hamilton for Edinson Volquez. Hamilton is the american league player of the year so far while Volquez is now the majors ERA leader after beating cliff lee and going to 7-1 with an ERA of 1.33. You have essentially traded one potential player of the year for another, neither were projected to be that.

[Bruiser Chong]

I'd like to point out that all four runners the Cubs pushed across the plate today were on base via the walk. Only four hits for the boys in blue, but a ton of walks set the table for those four hits to drive in runs.

[Guest Desensitized]

I demand immediate cessation of Paul Bako. This is getting retarded. He's Paul Bako.

[Dandy]

He's no Mackey Sasser, but he's doing an outstanding job. He got a chance due to an injury, and he is being productive at the plate for the first time ever. He calls a good game and has been working with the young pitchers on the Reds staff. You may not like Paul Bako, but Paul Bako says fuck you.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Phillies/Jays are back from a second rain delay. Jays need a righty in a tight spot and they turn to.....Roy Halladay? Damn it.

[Dobbs 3K]

Brewers got swept by the BoSox. I wonder how much longer Yost has manager.

[Guest Desensitized]

I don't know how many of their recent losses can be attributed to managerial decisions, though. If ever there were a time to fire the manager for sucking, it was at the end of last year, when Yost started crapping his pants nightly, by pulling the best hitter (Ryan Braun) out before the late innings while going to weak middle relief instead of Cordero, or getting ejected from game after game because the umps were making bad calls or he couldn't keep his composure against Tony La Russa. Last September was when the Brewers should have said that he wasn't the right man for the job. Right now, the players are just in a slump. Wasn't the rumor that come June, he'd be zapped if the Brewers were struggling? I won't be shocked to see him go, but I wouldn't make that call were it up to me, and I don't see the immediate benefit in replacing him.

[Dandy]

Cincy has been on a roll lately, and that can be chalked up to quality starts from the pitchers and decent enough work from the bullpen. The offense is still not up to speed, so it will be difficult to keep this momentum going until that area comes around. They are only 6 games back with plenty of time to go, but it is a pretty big hill to climb if the Cubs continue to play the way they have been. If the Reds play .600 baseball (a major improvement over what they have done so far) the rest of the way, the would finish with 92 wins. The Cubs could play .480 baseball the rest of the way and still beat them. Making up that 6 game difference looks a lot worse when you look at it that way.

[Guest Desensitized]

You know what, I don't think there's a truly dominant rotation anywhere in the Central. I can't even name Houston's 4 and 5. The Cardinals' rotation is sketchy now, but will improve. I don't know what the deal is with Rich Hill, but I heard he can't find the strike zone in Iowa, which is scary news. I think I actually like Harang/Volquez/Cueto as the second best 1-2-3 punch behind Zambrano/Lilly/Dempster.

[CanadianChris]

What's the rule on that call? The ball hit the top of the wall in fair territory and bounced left of the pole into foul ground.

 

Whatever, you can't tell me they can't introduce replay just to check things like that.

 

And I commend Joe Morgan for calling these games without eyesight (saying the ball caromed off the pole when it clearly didn't) and brainpower (saying he didn't think instant replay would work in cases like that because he personally doesn't think it should ever be used). Truly his working through these handicaps should be an inspiration to us all.