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This Week in Baseball 5/26 - 6/1

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ESPN/FOX/TBS Games to Poison Our Youth

 

TUESDAY

Dodgers (Hiroki Kuroda) at Cubs (Sean Gallagher), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN

 

WEDNESDAY

Dodgers (Derek Lowe) at Cubs (Carlos Zambrano), 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

SATURDAY

Dodgers at Mets, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

Braves at Reds, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

Tigers at Mariners, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

 

SUNDAY

Marlins at Phillies, 1:30 PM/10:30 AM, TBS

Dodgers at Mets, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

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Taking a look at the A.L.'s top prospects. I wrote this about two weeks ago, so if some information is old I apologize. When I originally developed the list, I neglected to remember that some trades occurred after Baseball America's Prospect Handbook went to press. Therefore the Minnesota Twins and Oakland A's gained new #1 prospects in their organization. The original writeups for the other prospects remain in italics.

 

Baltimore: Matt Wieters, C. Absolutely dominating the Carolina League to the tune of a .355 batting average, .618 slugging percentage. Will likely advance mid-season as he is obviously above the league. Only downside here is how he will hold up behind the plate given his height (he is nearly 6'6").

 

Boston: Clay Buchholz, RHP. Major leaguer for good, 4.50 ERA is slightly below league average but good for a 23 year old starter. Striking out a little more than a batter an inning.

 

Chicago White Sox: Aaron Poreda, LHP. Jumped to High Class A and is performing extremely well, with low walk and home run totals. Strikeouts are down, but the other peripherals are solid.

 

Cleveland: Adam Miller, RHP. Off the DL and pitching in Buffalo. 2.04 ERA in four starts, still too early to draw many conclusions. Even if he proves himself, he will need to wait for an opening in the big league rotation. Possibly an option for 2009.

 

Detroit: Rick Porcello, RHP. Jumped to High Class A in his debut and while strikeouts are low, he's allowed just one home run in eight starts. Considering he is just 19, this is a very good opening season thus far.

 

Kansas City: Mike Moustakas, SS. Coming around after a slow start in the Midwest League. Still young at 19, but ranking is based more on high school scouting than any production thus far. I think it was a rush to rate Moustakas ahead of Daniel Cortes or Luke Hochevar.

 

LA Angels: Brandon Wood, SS. Minor league numbers this year include a .273 batting average, 8 home runs, and a 29/5 K:BB ratio. Got the call and has yet to hit. Wood has legit power but has failed at every MLB turn as of yet. Still just 23 and can play short and third, so he will have plenty of chances.

 

Minnesota: Deolis Guerra, RHP. Repeating the Florida State League and not doing particularly well, posting a 4.56 ERA with unfavorable peripherals. Control seems to have deserted Guerra. There is more projection than performance here as of yet. I'm not sold.

 

Minnesota: Nick Blackburn, RHP. Not a strikeout pitcher at all, will survive on his ability to keep the ball down. To me, the idea of a 26 year old pitcher with a minor league K/9 ratio of 5.6 being the organization's top prospect is ludicrious.

 

NY Yankees: Joba Chamberlain, RHP. Still dominant in relief, but showing signs of humanity.

 

Oakland: Carlos Gonzalez, OF. Hitting .312 in the PCL. Gonzalez is still a tough prospect to judge because he has never played in an unfavorable hitting environment. His biggest year took place in 2006 in Lancaster, one of the best hitting environments in the country. Solid prospect, but nothing in his overall line screams stardom.

 

Oakland: Daric Barton, 1B. League average OBP, subpar slugging percentage in big leagues. As first baseman, will need to improve to show his worth.

 

Seattle: Jeff Clement, C. As Kenji Johjima was re-upped for three years, Clement's future will lie as the team's DH. Dominant at AAA, Clement just needs to earn playing time yet.

 

Tampa Bay: Evan Longoria, 3B. Will man third base in Tampa for the next seven seasons. Hitting just .211 but showing legit plate discipline and power.

 

Texas: Elvis Andrus, SS. 19 year old already in AA and hitting .271 there. Andrus lacks any kind of power but runs well.

 

Toronto: Travis Snider, OF. Earned a promotion to AA after three weeks with Dunadin. Another case of a batter hitting for a low average but showing plate discipline. .301 career hitter in the minors, Snider is considered one of the best outfield prospects after Jay Bruce.

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Guest Smues

All three ESPN games are Dodger games, two against the Cubs. Thanks for the variety worldwide leader! And again no national TV games on Memorial Day. Lame.

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The Reds have just called up Jay Bruce! Official announcement and corresponding move will be made on Tuesday. Free at last. Now that 21-year-old better be the second coming of Josh Hamilton (okay no one is that good).

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With the way Ramon Hernandez is playing and the lack of good backup Catcher, I can almost guarantee you Wieters is up with the Orioles later on this season. Especially if they can find a team at the deadline that wants Hernandez.

 

Os got a good win today. Funny it was the same 2 pitchers that pitched last Wednesday when I was at Yankee stadium that resulted in an 8-0 pummeling of the Os and yet today Olson pitched well (and Rasner did as well) and the Os won 6-1. Go figure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I doubt the Orioles will feel pressured to rush a catcher through the minors to reinforce a sub-.500 team.

 

I missed 10-15 minutes of the Phillies/Rockies game, and missed six runs in the process (three apiece).

 

What a waste of time Corey Patterson was.

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What's that in reference to, Al? That the Reds signed Patterson? Or that Patterson's a waste in general?

The signing. I can't hold a lack of talent against Patterson, I've lustily cheered lesser players in AAA. With his talent level well established though, the Reds not only gave him a pile of money, they made him the leadoff hitter when several better options existed.

 

If a team gave Patterson a reserve role, he would be a useful player.

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What a catch by Ichiro to take away a possible triple from Varitek. A leaping, over the shoulder catch, he caught his spikes on the wall and held onto the ball as he grabbed his head on the way down. You'll see it a lot probably. Great play.

 

I think these teams have hot dates tonight. This is the fastest Red Sox game this season so far I think. Game started at 10 or so and we're just ending the fifth at ten past 11.

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Rob Neyer in his latest column repeats a point made by a few people online. Over their last 162 games, the Mets have a losing record (79-83). Currently the Mets are ninth in the league in runs scored, sixth in runs allowed. Looking over their club, the biggest problems on offense seem to be lack of production in left field, first base and the bench. Calling up Val Pascucci from New Orleans seems like an obvious move, he's a big right handed power hitter who can fill in all three roles.

 

Here is the entire NL East over their last 162 games.

 

Phillies 92-70

Braves 83-79

Mets 79-83

Marlins 78-84

Nationals 74-88

 

The Florida Marlins are 30-20, still first in the division. Not to discount them, but they beat up on the Nationals and Brewers (13-2 against those two clubs). They have yet to face the Phillies at all this season. The Marlins really need to play the class of the league before I buy into it.

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Y'know, at this point, I would be satisfied if the Mets finish with a winning record. Not happy, but satisfied. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the team has huge gaps that, for a myriad of reasons, are extremely unlikely to be filled this season.

 

I just want to avoid yet another version of The Worst Team Money Could Buy ©.

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Those puzzling Tigers have scored a grand total of one run in the two games since plating 19 runs on Saturday. This includes a 12-inning affair tonight.

they are like 1-26 when they score 4 runs or less.

 

that game was painful. losing on a bases loaded 4 pitch walk is unacceptable.

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Well tonight's my first look @ the Rays as they square off against the Rangers. I chose it over NYM-FL (which is another team I want to see because I'm eating my prediction earlier this year that they already would've been out of contention).

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The odd man out in Cincinnati is Scott Hatteberg. For the Dusty Baker haters, at least give fair credit that Joey Votto was allowed to win the job at first base. This is going to be an interesting rookie of the year race in the NL. Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Clayton Kershaw and others.

 

Evenings like tonight are fun. I've got a choice between Rockies/Phillies, Yankees/Orioles, Marlins/Mets, Dodgers/Cubs and Indianapolis/Lehigh Valley. That's without an extra innings package.

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Must not be pitchers nights because early on the whole scoreboard is lit up all over the league. I think I'm going to move to another game because the Rays are already down 7-0 after 2 innings. Pretty embarassing pitching, for a while I thought I was watching a NCAA game.

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Guest Desensitized

I don't anticipate a high score in Chicago, given that it's about 40 fucking degrees. This might be the worst summer of my life.

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I don't anticipate a high score in Chicago, given that it's about 40 fucking degrees. This might be the worst summer of my life.

It's not summer yet.

 

This is why the season needs to start in mid-June, right Czech?

 

Harry Kalas for some reason identified Willy Taveras as "Rickie Weeks." That's pretty embarrassing.

 

The Phils are up 7-0. They need two more runs to tie a 108 year old record for runs scored over a three game stretch. The Phils scored 20 off the Rockies last night so their bullpen is already toast.

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Seems that the Rockies are going to sacrifice Taveris and his ERA tonight. They need him to fight his way through the game after last night.

 

The Phillies need the rain to hold off at the stadium. Everything else is going right for them over these last few games.

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Its 8-6 yankees leading in the bottom of the 5th, Mora just hit the 7th HR combined for both teams. Luke Scott follows up with #8 to deep center to make it 8-7.

Kevin Millar goes back to back #9 to tie it up at 8.

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I flipped to ESPN. Derrek Lee worked a 2-2 count and then flied out to right field. Between Erin Andrews' sideline reporting and the announcing, the commentators failed to mention any of it. Do Berman and Sutcliffe realize that they have a job to do besides have a casual conversation on-screen?

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