This Week in Baseball 5/26 - 6/1

[DMann2003 0]

Hey Genius there's a great deal at Sam's Club for 4 Reds tickets with limited blackouts for view level seats, like 35.76- it's a real great deal.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Im disgusted at Manny getting a curtain call standing ovation for #500 in Oriole Park.

 

It was bad enough he hit it into a sea of Red Sox fans out in CF.

[devo 0]

Something dumb was here. Pay it no mind.

 

[alfdogg 0]

It would've been kinda neat to see Manny hold out a couple weeks until the Reds/Sox series, just for the possibility of two guys going for 600 and 500 in the same ballpark at the same time.

[Dandy 0]

Although he has been slowly stalking 600 so far, I sure as fuck hope Griffey won't still be trying for 600 in the middle of June! Chipper Jones had a shot at 400 this series where Griffey had a shot at 600.

 

On a side note, Griffey has been flying out to the wall a lot lately, or lining out hard into the shift. His swing is coming back around, and he's due to bust out. I'd love to see him get hot, as a lot of the Reds lineup is already hot right now. Griffey and Encarnacion are the ones not pulling their weight at the moment. With Hairston and Bruce at the top of the lineup, the club has been moving people over and manufacturing runs much better. There have been double steals, sacrifices, good baserunning, etc. Bruce really breathed new life into these guys.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

ESPN.com has a poll assessing the HOF chances of 25% players. I was one of just 2.8% who identified Billy Wagner as a "first ballot lock." If you draw up a list of relief aces (I came up with a list of all pitchers with 200+ career saves), Wagner and Mariano Rivera leap to the top in ERA+. No other pitchers are even close. Wagner is as dominant a per-inning pitcher as anyone in history, and he is the most dominant left handed reliever of all time. His playoff performances might hurt, but I can't see leaving a guy out because he had 10 1/3 bad innings.

 

Also, less than half think Pedro Martinez is a first-ballot lock? (He's overwhelmingly in though.) Martinez is THE most dominant starter in history, again by a large margin.

[naiwf 0]

Billy Wagner doesn't pass the "first thought" test. If you ask someone is he a HOFer their first instinct is no because he is the drizzles in the clutch. His numbers may look great but all anyone remembers is how God awful he is when his team needs him most.

[strummer 0]

Wagner's numbers so far this season are just unspeakably insane.

 

I know he won't keep it up but he's on pace for maybe the best season out of a relief pitcher all time. Al?

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Im disgusted at Manny getting a curtain call standing ovation for #500 in Oriole Park.

 

It was bad enough he hit it into a sea of Red Sox fans out in CF.

Yeah, they really should've sat on their hands after witnessing something so pedestrian as a guy clubbing his 500th career homer.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Wagner's numbers so far this season are just unspeakably insane.

 

I know he won't keep it up but he's on pace for maybe the best season out of a relief pitcher all time. Al?

It's funny. People look at on pace and they never notice that greater percentages always come in fewer appearances. You see it nowadays with "Can Chipper Jones hit .400" stories, which I will touch upon in the near future. To answer the question, Eckersley in 1990 was even stronger. 0.61 ERA, 73 K's, 4 BBs, 2 HRs allowed. His peripherals over a full season were every bit as good as Wagner's. Wagner's ERA this season is boosted by four of his five runs allowed being unearned.

[the max 0]

Im disgusted at Manny getting a curtain call standing ovation for #500 in Oriole Park.

 

It was bad enough he hit it into a sea of Red Sox fans out in CF.

Yeah, they really should've sat on their hands after witnessing something so pedestrian as a guy clubbing his 500th career homer.

 

Marvin's just pissed because Red Sox fans treat Camden Yards as Fenway South.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

The Brewers really flipped the switch on Houston this weekend. Great pitching > great hitting, I guess, because Parra and Sheets really shut the Stros down. Awkward kudos to the Brew Crew. However, as faulty as Bill Hall has been at baseball skills that aren't hitting home runs, I can't imagine that benching him for Russell Branyan gets the Brewers any closer to a world championship.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Mark Prior is going to have season-ending surgery on his shoulder. Which cliche should we go with? The sun rising or death and taxes?

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Mark Prior is going to have season-ending surgery on his shoulder. Which cliche should we go with? The sun rising or death and taxes?

 

In other news, rain is wet.

[Cartman 0]

Im disgusted at Manny getting a curtain call standing ovation for #500 in Oriole Park.

 

It was bad enough he hit it into a sea of Red Sox fans out in CF.

Yeah, they really should've sat on their hands after witnessing something so pedestrian as a guy clubbing his 500th career homer.

 

Marvin's just pissed because Red Sox fans treat Camden Yards as Fenway South.

I prefer Fenway 2 or something...Tampa is still Fenway South to me. Seattle looks to be Fenway West these days too.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

Brian Anderson of the Brewers referred to Wrigley Field as "Miller Park South" once, and I felt kind of bad for him.

 

I think it's time for Mark Prior to call it a career. And I'd call it a pretty crappy one. I bet he got off the roids. OTR. He's an otter.

[snuffbox 0]

I hope that the past week indicates that the Brewers have finally gotten around to playing baseball, but I'm not holding my breath and such.

 

I wonder how much the juggling of Billy Hall in the field has played into his poor play this year. I definitly prefer the new platoon situation to watching Hall make an ass of himself every other day.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

They were playing under their heads, at least w/r/t hitting. (I don't trust a rotation with Seth McClung in it.) With Braun, Fielder, Cameron, and Hart, it was only a matter of time before the dam burst and they started putting up 10-run wins again.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Gallardo went down and it seemed like most people just went, "There goes their number two pitcher and Ben Sheets will have a hurt kneecap any day now, so the Brewers are done." I still think they'll finish ahead of the Astros, if not the Cards.

 

Not much to complain about on the North Side of Chi-Town these days. The Cubs are a 14-2 over their last two homestands and both of those losses were one-run affairs. They play something like all but six of their games from here until early July on the road, so we'll have a much better indicator of where this team's going after that run.

[geniusMoment 0]

Mr. Bruce went 2-3 today with another home run, scored 2 runs, had 2 RBI's and a walk.

 

 

13-22 with 6 walks and a hit by pitch, 2 home runs (1 a walkoff), 3 doubles and 2 stolen bases. Hitting .591, with an OBP of .690, not a bad first week.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Ozzie Guillen is requesting, nay, demanding changes from Kenny Williams by Tuesday. I can smell it now: Hawk Harrelson, manager extraordinaire.

[devo 0]

I guess Ryan Church's brain is okay after all. Still not pleased with the way the concussion was handled, but it's good to see that he seems to have shaken off any remaining effects.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Ozzie Guillen is requesting, nay, demanding changes from Kenny Williams by Tuesday. I can smell it now: Hawk Harrelson, manager extraordinaire.

They tried that once already.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

He was the GM, which is actually worse.

 

I'd be amused if this, of all things at all times, is what pulls the trigger on Ozzie Guillen. In one fell swoop, he managed to undermine his players, his scouting department, his hitting coach, and his general manager, and Kenny Williams is enough of an arrogant and egotistical dickhead--even more than Ozzie himself--to assert his authority and fire him. He didn't even hire Ozzie, technically. (Maybe that means he can't fire him, either.) However, the Sox have been adept as of late at slithering out of p.r. disasters, like Ozzie calling Jay Mariotti a fucking faggot, or Nick Swisher sodomizing blow-up dolls with bats as some sort of strange rallying tool, so I think that ultimately, this'll just be forgotten about in a week.

 

That said, in the event that Ozzie gets launched and they promote from within, don't give the managing job to Hawk, give it to my guy Farmio. Say no to random profanities, say yes to nasal monotone rambling about shit nobody cares about.

 

"Well, I think we can all agree, as should anyone, in a sense, that really, the logical thing, in a lot of ways the only logical thing, for the Sox to do right now is work on not stranding runners. Wouldn't you agree. I mean. When I was playing in the Catholic League. St. Rita. Fine institution. One of the things they taught us is to move the runners over. You know what they used to say, right. Right. In Chicago. Growing up. There are two religions, Catholic and Public. It's a joke, you see. Steve used to tell me that one. Steve Dahl. So we'll work on that. I'll get up in their grill. Light it up. Were you saying something, Joseph?"

 

 

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I hope that the past week indicates that the Brewers have finally gotten around to playing baseball, but I'm not holding my breath and such.

 

I wonder how much the juggling of Billy Hall in the field has played into his poor play this year. I definitly prefer the new platoon situation to watching Hall make an ass of himself every other day.

 

I was at Miller Park yesterday and it was indeed a fun time. Funnily enough, we were tailgating and got into the game slightly late, just hearing the Astros' home run on the PA as we were walking in, so I'm thinking "Oh great, another typical Dave Bush start." I was obviously wrong, and it was a good performance from Bush and the Crew. It seems like they're playing with a lot more confidence lately, so hopefully they can keep it up. The other funny thing was that this was a typical Yost "Sunday line up", with Kendall, Cameron, Hardy, and Weeks all getting the day off. You don't necessarily expect a lineup featuring Craig Counsell and Mike Rivera to put up a 10 spot.

 

As for Russell Branyan, he's performing for now, and that's all that matters. I believe Hall will re-earn his starter's spot eventually, but for now it is nice to have a power hitting option off the bench, either way.