This Week in Baseball 6/2 - 6/8

[Cowboy Battlenuts 0]

It was the presence of Farnsworth not the lack of Joba. I can't even pronounce his name without giving it a dragged out, emphasized 'milhouse' effect.

 

Tonight's gonna be fun, hopefully we get some runs early so it's as comfy as possible for him.

[naiwf 0]

Joba might just throw his 70 pitches in this first inning

[CanadianChris 0]

Joba is looking as mortal as he has at any time since he was first called up. He's not going to make it through the third inning at this rate.

[treble 0]

Yankees already have someone up in the pen.

 

38 pitches. Even though they only scored 1 run, that was about as good as it could have gone for the Jays.

[CanadianChris 0]

Yankees already have someone up in the pen.

 

38 pitches. Even though they only scored 1 run, that was about as good as it could have gone for the Jays.

And he's a rookie, too. This could be fun.

 

Of course, not if Doc keeps pitching like he did to Damon.

[sfaJack 0]

For all the bullshit hype we've had to endure about his start, Joba could've at least lasted three innings.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

No kidding. This shit even made Yahoo's main page last week.

[C Dubya 04 0]

It's an obvious move, but teams are now walking Utley to get to Howard for the Phillies. After the last few years I didn't expect it to come to that so quickly.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Great to see Dan Giese pitch well tonight, even if for the Yankees. The guy pitched extremely well in AAA his entire career, he deserves an opportunity.

 

Note for Yankee fans, at least they didn't lose it in the eighth inning!

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Enough with all the Joba talk already, yeesh.

 

The Brewers are on quite the tear of late, beating the D-Backs 7-1 tonight. Seth McClung of all people, is turning into a pretty serviceable starter for the team. Randy Johnson looked pretty good tonight, but lost some steam towards the end.

[Guest Smues]

Hey look at that another 1 run win at home for Atlanta, and it took late inning runs to do it. Exactly the opposite of how road games go. This is such bizzarro season. And could the Philies please start losing some games?

[the max 0]

Pissed off that I missed the Tampa/Boston game for the Fish/Braves. Boooo.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Jason Marquis is such a meathead of a pitcher. In one of the stranger sequences I've seen this season, Wilfredo Ledezma (yes, the pitcher) scored the first run of the game by getting walked, moving to second on a balk, tagging to third on a flyout, and scoring on a botched pickoff attempt.

[devo 0]

Pedro was serviceable tonight. Even just a quality start once every five games would be a welcome improvement.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

Enough with all the Joba talk already, yeesh.

I think he gets about 20% of the attention he gets because his name sounds like the big gelatinous villain from the Star Wars movies.

 

The Brewers are on quite the tear of late, beating the D-Backs 7-1 tonight. Seth McClung of all people, is turning into a pretty serviceable starter for the team. Randy Johnson looked pretty good tonight, but lost some steam towards the end.

I've enjoyed the last few Brewers games, just as a baseball fan, but what I enjoy even more are the commercials on FSN. My new favorite is the car dealership that goes

 

YOU BETTA CALL TYYROOOOOOONE (tyrooooooone!)

CALL TYRONE AND GET YO ROLL AWWWWN (get your roll on!)

 

It's almost as good as the Eastern Motors spots that Edwin posted here a while ago, but what I really love are JERRY GARCIA'S PIGGLY WIGGLY TAILGATE TIPS. That's the BEST. He keeps coming up with all this awesome food that I would have to think is too elaborate to consume at some parking lot in Milwaukee, but I would totally make at home. It's like, "okay guys, today we're making a gorgonzola and portabella stuffed sirloin steak, and we're gonna throw a little sage in there too." I think I'm gonna grill up some trout tomorrow like he told me to.

 

Speaking of steaks, Jason Marquis owes a lot of his teammates some expensive dinners after bailing him out of one of the more horrid pitching performances I've sat through all year, especially Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Theriot, and Reed Johnson.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

And at least we know of one former Chicago catcher who didn't suddenly learn how to throw out baserunners after leaving town. I think they stole more bases tonight than they did in all of May.

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Is that Call Tyrone ad like the song "Tyrone" by Erykah Badu?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Phillies are up 2.5 games on the east. The last time they were so far in front was July 5, 2004.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I saw the MASN promo for the Os/Cubs series in a couple weeks..its in HD too.

 

I can hardly wait.

 

 

[MFer 0]

John Smoltz is gonna have season-ending shoulder surgery. Might be the end for him.

[bob_barron 0]

Smoltz said irregardless.

 

Come on John!

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I heard Smoltz said he wants to come back next year, but we'll see.

[Annabelle 0]

holy shit the tigers are bad. i once stood up to bruiser about the tiger's bullpen. i am wrong. they had a solid month. now they're in shambles. two blown leads to the a's, and another egg by nate notsogreat robertson and the tigers are on the verge of being swept by the anemic a's. i really like the a's, but honestly, their best hitter is hitting like .250. there has to be discussions of serious overhauls soon. even in the event of rebuilding for next year. shocking, really.

[Annabelle 0]

casey fossum currently has an era of 108.00

 

good work, pal.

 

and by the way, can anyone explain to me why marcum thames is hitting 3rd while miguel cabrera hits 6th?

 

jim leyland keeps making such ridiculous decisions.

 

i don't want to be part of the knee-jerk majority that calls for their manager's heads whenever things go bad, but there are about 10 puzzling things that leyland has done with this team that make no sense. the loyalty to kenny rogers, nate robertson, and todd jones is ridiculous. all have eras above 5, and the two starters may even be closer to 6. treating their best starter gallaraga like a second class citizen while staying loyal to the vets is a problem.

 

edit: fossum is up to 135.00

[Montresor 0]

Casey Fossum? Seriously? Holy shit.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

He of the Fossum Flop? Aw rats!

 

I wonder why the Tigers' pitching rotation has been so awful, since the 2008 American League is apparently the greatest pitching league since the dead-ball era, what with life catching up to the league's aging sluggers. I figured that with Cabrera, there was no way they could blow this. Looked Good On Paper Tigers indeed. Yowch. We might have to merge Cleveland's pitching with Detroit's hitting to form a competent AL Central team.

 

Talk around Chicago sports radio is that last night was a horrible win for the Cubs because they overused the bullpen, and it would've been better in the long run to just let Marquis get battered for seven innings and lose the game, giving up ground to St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Houston. I think that's pretty stupid, but whatever. Maybe it would've been a strategic loss. I prefer wins.

 

 

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Lou said the starters will have to go deeper regardless of performance the next time through the rotation since none of them have made it into the sixth since Z's 130-pitch outing early last week.

 

Re: the Tigers. Living near Detroit, I'm around a lot of fans and more specifically, a lot of people who became fans during the 2006 campaign. It's amazing how many of these alleged fans are so anti Miguel Cabrera.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

I don't disagree. I want seven from Lilly tonight no matter how many he gives up. Greg Maddux is running on an empty tank. There's no excuse not to smack him around and give Lilly a wide berth to pitch adequately.

 

Ted Lilly looks like an incompetent serial killer.

[MFer 0]

It's amazing how many of these alleged fans are so anti Miguel Cabrera.

 

This is true. Some people were calling for Brandon Inge over Cabrera earlier this season. I mean, I like Inge, but come the fuck on.

 

[Annabelle 0]

listen for a lot of the year cabrera has been hitting .275-.280. these aren't allstar numbers, but he hasn't exactly been a total flop. i don't understand why the tigers don't place him 3rd in the order and leave him there. he has hit there and 4th his entire career. give him more than one game there. he'll turn it around.

 

the most frustrating part of the tigers is that EVERYONE is having a down year, from pitching to hitting. from granderson to verlander to cabrera to bonderman to polanco to renteria. and on and on. shouldn't that be indicitive of poor coaching? or the coaching failing to reach the players? this team is a total disaster. everytime leyland promises major overhauls he makes one minor move and nothing else. seriously, playing marcus thames full time and batting him third isn't going to be the answer. and even leyland knows this.

 

zumaya and rodney will give the tigers a solid shot to the arm, but both were mediocre to awful last year so i don't exactly see them turning this around. its time to cut the dead fat (rogers & robertson) and time to experiment with some of their young arms. maybe even porcello. they have one kid who has thrown two near no-hitters. in know thats not the majors, but it may warrant a try. but there's so many candidates to be dfa'd or dealt, i don't even know where to start.

 

edit: i wouldn't be against inge returning to 3rd base. i like cabrera at first. but inge playing great defense at 3rd and hitting 9th wouldn't the the worsr thing in the world. everyone needs those meat & potatoes guys.

 

the worst trade that the tigers will be remembered for this past off-season won't be the florida deal because i still believe in BOTH cabrera and willis, but the renteria for jurrjens & hernendez deal. jrrjens was great last eyar in his starts. and is doing well now.