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Okay, so this would have been a four-game sweep were it not for Lugo's Glove of Futility (trademark pending) on Wednesday, but three out of four ain't bad. In fact, five out of seven overall this season against Detroit is pretty darn good. I know the Tigers have been struggling all season, but holding that offense to 27 runs over seven games (about 3.86 runs a game) seems pretty good, especially when you consider that ten of the Tigers' runs came in Wednesday night's battle. Three times in the seven games, the Red Sox pitchers shut out the Tigers' offense, and two other times the Tigers were held to three runs or fewer. Not bad. And, we're done seeing them this season, so if they heat up later, it won't be a problem for Boston.
Josh Beckett did his thing on Thursday, and recorded his 1,000th strikeout along the way. He gave up six hits over his seven innings of work, every one of them singles. Delcarmen gave up a single in the ninth, which meant the Tigers had zero extra-base hits in this game. In fact, if my count is correct, Detroit only managed three extra-base hits in the entire four-game series. That's a stat that could explain their inability to win ball games.
Boston's offense rolled again on Thursday, thanks in large part to Kevin Youkilis, who hit yet another home run at Comerica Park. That makes four in the series, and that makes me very happy. The Sox scored three runs off Verlander in the second inning like this: single, single, wild pitch advances runners, single (two runs score), bunt single, HBP, sac fly (run scores). Nice. Verlander settled down for a while after that, and Beckett just continued to cruise until the fourth, when he gave up three consecutive singles after recording two outs. One run scored, and then Granderson struck out to end the inning. That was all Beckett was giving the Tigers, as he retired the next nine in a row before handing the ball to Craig Hansen, followed by Manny Delcarmen.
Youkilis hit his home run in the fifth, after Ellsbury singled and Pedroia and Ortiz flied out, and the Sox took a 5-1 lead, which was all they needed. Good series, and now they head to Minnesota, where Lester will take the mound. Remember, Lester was once part of a package the Sox were considering sending to the Twins for Johan Santana. I was always against that, and Lester has been pitching well enough to make it look like it's just fine that the trade didn't happen. Let's see how he does in the dome tonight.
Player of the Game: Josh Beckett (7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks)
Record: 23-14 (second-best in MLB, one game behind Arizona)
Oh, and regarding this post (and this one, too), I heard back from Josh Rawitch, the Dodgers' VP of Broadcasting and Public Relations. He's looking into the situation, and he'll be getting back to me. I will, of course, pass along any info I get from him as soon as it comes in.
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Rumors abound that Peter Magowan wants to wave his frozen peas over the express lane check-out scanner and step down as the Giants president and managing partner. Former Giant beat writer Mark Gonzales, now covering baseball for the Chicago Trib, slipped the whispers into the public record at the back end of a tiny blog post Wednesday night. (Ain’t bloggin grand?) San Fran scribblers have dutifully followed suit and noted they’ve heard similar stuff for some time; Ray Ratto gives his take here.
(And for a refresher course on how Magowan came to be the face of Giants ownership, read this.)
Everyone retires sooner or later. If indeed he’s leaving, here’s what to watch for:
* Is it because of the Mitchell Report fallout? Is there pressure from MLB and/or legal entities?
* Who steps up to make the big decisions? Other owners? Sue Burns, the widow of Harmon Burns, is the largest shareholder. Chief operating officer Larry Baer? Does he even have an ownership stake? Or will the group look for someone outside to buy Magowan’s stake, which Ratto estimates at 15%?
* Is it time to sell the team? Without Magowan, it’s possible that other owners will want to cash out and move on. You can betcha we’ll soon see stories about who might want to buy the team. Eddie D! Willie Brown! Robin Williams! Joe Montana! George Lucas! I vote for Fritz Maytag. C’mon, Fritz, live the dream: Mays Field at Anchor Park.
* If Magowan goes, does Sabean go with him? We’ve debated many times in this space who really pulls the strings on the roster decisions, i.e., who’s to blame for the Zito contract. A lot of the facts are speculation, but we do know that Magowan has rarely wavered in his support for Sabean, save for a few comments at the beginning of 2007. Are they tied at the hip?
If P-Mags is really double-bagging his black-and-orange groceries for the last time, it’s quite a legacy he’s left behind. The dramatic revival of a storied sports franchise, a successful but ultimately disappointing run with the best and most controversial player in history, a dysfunctional, co-dependent decline, a reputation for tolerating pharmaceutical, um, leniency, and a better-late-than-never stab at the difficult task of rebuilding.
You’re not gone yet, P-Mags, but I have to hand it to you, pen pal: It’s been fun, and when it hasn’t been fun, it’s been weird.
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I've said it before, so one more time won't hurt anyone: The Yankees are treading water. Earlier in the season, they were treading water waiting for the young pitchers to come around. Now, they're treading water waiting for guys to get healthy, Alex Rodriguez foremost among them. If all goes well with his MRI, A-Rod will probably be back in the lineup a week from today. The Yanks need to keep their heads above water for another 7 games then they should get their potent lineup back. Let's take a look at the pitching matchups for those 7 games, all on the road: 5/9 - Kei Igawa vs. Kenny Rogers 5/10 - Darrell Rasner vs. Jeremy Bonderman 5/11 - Andy Pettitte vs. Nate Robertson 5/12 - Chien-Ming Wang vs. Matt Garza 5/13 - Mike Mussina vs. Edwin Jackson 5/14 - Kei Igawa vs. James Shields 5/15 - Darrell Rasner vs. Scott Kazmir On paper, the Yanks have a pretty clear pitching advantage in 3 of the games. The goal has to be to finish this stretch at 4-3 or better. I'll admit it, watching the Yankee lineup with Ensberg or Betemit in it has been painful at times. On some nights, it looks like a National League lineup they're trotting out there. It's only a week. Only 7 games. Just stay at or above .500 until A-Rod gets back and then things will start looking a lot better for Yankee fans, and a lot worse for opposing pitchers. 7:05 tonight we get to see Kei Igawa for the first time this season... lucky us.
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 That is not a typo. Since our ' soft launch' on May 10, 2007 we have posted 1,000 entries. One thousand posts divided by a leap year tells me that we've had about three posts a day for our year of existence. Not bad. Throw in the 6,300 comments we've had and.....well, I'm not sure what it means in the grand scheme of things. For those of you who have read every entry and been here the entire time....good God you must be bored at work. Seriously though, Thanks. Even though we are shutting down soon, it has been quite a ride. From my initial post about Jason Marquis (what?) to our arguments about IU Basketball/Kelvin Sampson (give it a break) to our announcement that we'd be leaving....it's been fun....for the most part. If I could do this all over again, which I won't be doing, I'd make this an 'invitation only' site because at times things got out of hand and to be honest with you.....we only really care about the people who read daily (or close to it). Obviously that doesn't mean that we'd have the 'hits' we had but I think we'd have a lot more fun with a smaller group of people. Hindsight is 20/20. I hope that we've been able to give you some insight and make you laugh a little bit over the last year as well as being a time consumer for those of you at work. We really had no idea what we were doing when we started and.....we're not far from that still. We write what we think and we think what we write. Or something like that. Anyways, enjoy the picture of Marisa Miller, she's the best, and thanks again for sticking around for so long.
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 I'm probably the biggest Felix Pie supporter out there but when I read this morning that he might be heading back to Iowa.....I thought it was a good idea. I like what Pie brings to the table with his speed and defense but he's just not ready to hit in the major leagues. While he's dominated in the minor leagues, he just hasn't been able to translate that into success in the majors and there is one main reason why.....he has no idea about the strike zone. None. Whatsoever. I've been playing MLB '08: The Show fairly often at my house since most of my other stuff is packed up for the move and in the career mode you have to meet certain standards before you are able to move up to the next level. I have no problem meeting the batting average, RBI's and OB % standards but when it comes to taking a walk...I'm clueless when it comes to the strike zone. Just like Pie. What the Cubs need to do right now is to send him down to Iowa and tell him that if he doesn't have 40 walks by the MLB All-Star Break then he's not coming up and will be put on the trading block. Iowa has about 64 games during that timespan, if he's sent down this weekend, and that really wouldn't be a tough task for someone who wants to move up in the organization. I don't care about how many homers he hits, how many highlight reel catches he makes or how many wins Iowa has with him in the lineup. If he doesn't have 40 walks in 64 games then he doesn't get called up again. Learning plate discipline isn't something that's impossible as Ronny Cedeno has shown us this season so I don't think it's too much to ask. The best case scenario is that Pie goes down, gets the 40 walks and gets called up to the Cubs after the break. He then becomes the Jacque Jones-type player that they had last season that solidifies the lineup and gives them defense in center field. Worst case scenario is that Pie goes to Iowa, continues to do what he's doing now and then is part of the trade for Brian Roberts later on this season. If Pie wants to be a Cubs player he's going to have to earn it and he's going to have to do it soon before he's traded.
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****Since we are leaving soon, we are going to Turn Back the Clock a little bit on some of our best posts. Here is Buck's conclusion to his adventure with his Cougar from August 2007. Click Part 1 to read the beginning. So, where did Jack leave off? Oh yes, the ride to the airport. Now before we get to this much anticipated "Conclusion", I think everyone needs to know that this is my first foray into the world of Cougars. Actually, I'm not sure if you could even call it my own foray, as I was pulled into this situation by said Cougar. She had an unshakable force about her, much like gravity, she was relentless. Without further ado, here it goes.
Note: I believe the Cougar to be 35-40 yrs old. I don't think she is married (ie. no ring). I don't know if she has kids. Those three questions were never asked. I don't believe any of those questions should have been asked in this situation. I disagree with Jack's assessment of "fairly' good looking in the comment section of the first post. I would say she was above that. We'll just say straight up good looking. Especially for a 35-40 yr. old. Totally unbiased opinion. Ha.
Click here to read the rest of "Buck Rampage vs Cougar.....The Conclusion" »
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Two days ago, the Cardinals were on a three-game winning streak, had a 3 game lead in the Central, and were four outs away from pushing the lead up half a game and winning the series against the Rockies. Now, the Cards have lost two in a row for the first time in two weeks (since their back to back losses to Milwaukee and Pittsburgh April 22-23), have a two game lead on the Cubs and face a Milwaukee team that would love to add to their misery. It's starting to look like there was a reason Kyle Lohse was on the market as long as he was. In his last two starts, his ERA has risen from 2.36 to 4.87. 15 earned runs in 10 innings will do that to a person. Just a rough check on his peripherals from his last two starts compared to his first six. (I've not figured out tables here yet, so bear with the presentation.) H/IP K/BB GB/FB K/9First 6 0.93 1.75 1.80 3.67 Last 2 1.70 0.57 1.75 3.60 He's giving up more hits and walks. When your K rate is as low as that (and, again, thanks to Rockin' the Red for bringing that to my attention during the UCB project), you can't get out of those jams. More and more wood is being put on the ball, which means more hits, which means he's more careful, which leads to more walks, which is just ugly. BTW, where does he stand in the K/9 category, minimum 20 innings? 159th, just ahead of Matt Morris. Heck, even Jamie Moyer is higher up on the list than he is. You can pitch this way, but you've got to be very careful. Ryan Ludwick gets the rare back-to-back Hero award for his two home run day. If it wasn't for Ankiel's superhuman throwing abilities, he'd have a three-gamer going. In some regards, he was the offense in this series, at least the last three games. 9 for 13 with 6 extra base hits? I don't care what hand the starter throws with tonight, he should be in the lineup. Now the Cards have to regroup and see if they can't get back on the winning track against a fairly familiar opponent. The Cards have already had five games against the Brewers, going to Milwaukee a couple weeks back (part of that last two-game losing streak mentioned above). The Cards have won three of five, with the two losses wild extra-inning affairs, the first where they blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth and lost in the 10th, the second when they made a big comeback, played Pujols at second and lost in 12. The Brewers have lost six in a row and ESPN's Accuscore has the Cards as a slight favorite tonight. The Cardinals should be fairly familiar with tonight's starter. Manny Parra has already pitched twice against the Redbirds, fashioning a 6.00 ERA and allowing 14 hits and 7 walks against them in nine innings, but has yet to factor into a decision. On the whole, the Cardinals have done well against him, though Ludwick has the only home run. St. Louis counters with Todd Wellemeyer, who actually has missed the Brewers so far this year. Wellemeyer is basically a blank slate to the Brewers, as the person that has seen him most, Jason Kendall, has all of four plate appearances against him. It's on the road, where the Cards aren't quite as dominant, but they should have a good chance of stopping the streak and getting back on track tonight.
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 By now you probably know that Hoosier Nation and the entire Internet is going crazy about Tom Crean's statement about Eli Holman transferring to Detroit Mercy: "We were led to believe that this was a family decision and that he
wanted to get closer to home, but now it doesn't look like that's the
way it's going to turn out,'' Crean said. "I don't think there's any
doubt that there was a certain amount of orchestrating going on. It's
disappointing -- very disappointing -- on a lot of fronts.''
So Crean is upset that he was led to believe one thing and then another thing happened....Well, welcome to Ray McCallum's world over the past six months! Look, I don't think it's good that he took a player that IU probably needed next season, but I'm not faulting the guy like everyone else is. In fact, I applaud him for getting his 'revenge'. As you all remember, McCallum and Dan Dakich were up for the job to replace Kelvin Sampson and it reportedly came down to a meeting with the athletics administration just minutes before the press conference. All the players wanted McCallum to be the coach, but the alumni/boosters (even the anonymous donor) wanted Dakich in there. McCallum had the better coaching track record and was seemingly being groomed to take over the position earlier in the season in case something did happen with Sampson at a time when Dakich was just being brought onto the basketball team. Of course, Dakich got the job. McCallum walked out of his meeting with AD Rick Greenspan disappointed and, I'm guessing, hurt. So now the season has ended, IU has a new coach and McCallum leaves. Since McCallum helped recruit most of the players it's not unfathomable to think that he would take some of them with him to his new place of employment, is it? I understand that Crean is upset because Holman was giving him answers that led him to believe that he'd be back with the team next season but, as McCallum knows, until you have it in writing....it means nothing.
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