The Baseball Zealot

Illini-Purdue: Mother Nature Wins Again

Once again the weather prevails.  For the 15th time this season, a game has been affected by weather.  Thursday’s game between Illinois and Purdue has been postponed.

The game will be made up during the course of the weekend.  Friday’s doubleheader will start an hour earlier at 3pp and there will be an extra game tacked on to Saturday’s schedule.  Saturday’s doubleheader begins at 4pm. 

So the updated schedule:

• Thur May 15 6:05pm (postponed)
• Fri May 16 3:00 (DH)
• Sat May 17 4:00pm (DH)

And not to be a downer but Saturday’s weather looks iffy depnding on who you get your weather info from. 

Friday looks nice though. 

May 15th, 2008 Posted by The Baseball Zealot | University of Illinois Baseball | no comments

REDS ENTER, LIFE W/O KEPPINGER

Jeff Keppinger fractured his patella in Tuesday’s game against the Marlins. He is expected to be out several weeks. Keppinger was hitting .324 at the time of his injury and seemed to have taken the starting SS job away from injured Alex Gonzalez. Jeff is a guy that has had to show he belonged, even though he hit wherever he went. After hitting .383, .365, & .389 in three seasons at Georgia, he went on to post a career minor league batting average of .320 in six long seasons. Now it’s a given he can indeed hit as exhibited by his .313 major league average in 565 at bats.

But this story isn’t about the long road Keppinger took to the majors. It’s about his replacements, temporary as they may be. Rice’s former SS Paul Janish was called up from Louisville to take Jeff’s spot on the roster. While Janish batted .345 in his last year with the Owls, it’s been his glove that’s gotten him his shot at the big leagues.

Reds skipper decided to go with Jerry Hairston, Jr. at SS in Wednesday night’s game against Florida. Hairston would be the offensive half of SS by committee, with Janish being the fielder in the equation. Kind of a Jerry Janish or a Paul Hairston, Jr., if you will. Anyway Hairston lived up to his part of the bargain, going three for four, with a double, triple, walk, stolen base, two runs scored, and an RBI. So with a six run lead it was time for Janish to take over.

Funny how the ball finds you. The first two batters for the Marlins hit grounders to Paul. The first grounder was routine. But the second was a hard hit grounder to Janish’s right, Paul doing his best Mark Belanger imitation, went to the ball, skidded on his right knee, got up, and threw a strike to first. It must’ve seemed surreal to Janish who the night before was pulled from the Louisville game in the 8th inning and told to drive to Cincinnati. As luck would have it, his mom was coming to Louisville to see her son play, she happily rerouted her trip to the Queen City. The announcers were focused on the young shortstop, making his big league debut, looking for a smile as he exited the field. But this kid had worked too hard to get here and wanted to show he belonged.

A little more about the game… Bronson Arroyo looked like his old masterful self as he had everything going on as he led 6-0 when he left the game after six innings of work, lowering his inflated ERA to 6.08, turning the ball over to Mike Lincoln. Coco Cordero, the Reds closer, had worked the previous two nights and was looking forward to a night off. But it wasn’t to be, as Francisco answered the call with the bases loaded in the 9th, a run in, and nobody out. After letting up a two run single to make the score 6-3, Cody Ross stung his old team with a three run game tying bomb.

Would there be anyway Dusty could reinsert his offensive shortstop for his defensive one? Nope it’d be Janish’s job for the rest of the night. Paul almost did himself proud in his first big league at bat as he sent the Marlins outfielder to the wall to track down his deep drive. But things really got interesting in his second time to the dish. The bases were loaded with two outs, game tied, in the bottom of the 10th. Tough lefty reliever Renyel Pinto was on the hill for Florida. Pinto was sporting an ERA of right around 0.50, having only allowed one run in his last 24 innings. Janish just flicked the ball over the first baseman’s head, just inside the rightfield line, for a game winning base knock.

I don’t know what the Reds were doing in the ensuing celebration as they almost killed Paul. They were patting him on the back & jumping on him. In fact one Cincinnati player kicked Janish in the face. Throughout the rest of the scene on the field, the youngster could be seen wiping his nose, checking for blood. Funny thing is, he didn’t seem to mind.

May 15th, 2008 Posted by Teddy Ballgame | Uncategorized | no comments

ANGELS SKIPPER HAS MERCY ON WHITE SOX

Last night’s matchup featured Jose Contreras for the Pale Hose versus John Lackey for the Halos. Both were once the aces of their respective staffs. Contreras was the #1 man in the White Sox 2005 rotation when the won it all. Lackey is coming off an injury, but is still pretty much regarded the #1 man in Anaheim. John got out of a first inning jam allowing only one run, soon it was obvious that he had his A-game working. While Jose surrendered one run and the game was a classic one-one pitcher’s dual.

That is until the White Sox got a man on, Erick Aybar made a throwing error on a single, making it 2nd & 3rd with A.J. Pierzynski at the dish. Mike Scioscia having pity on the Sox, not wanting to embarrass them by taking four straight, intentionally passed A.J. This loaded the bases for the hottest hitter on the White Sox Carlos Quentin. You guessed it, Quentin took Scot Shields yard. Final score 6-1.

One more game to go, let’s see if Scioscia has anymore charity in his heart, as Jon Garland will meet Javier Vazquez in the series finale tonight. The Angels are up two games to one. The two teams will meet up again in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend.

May 15th, 2008 Posted by Teddy Ballgame | Uncategorized | no comments

Illinois-Purdue Preview

Next Game:

Ok, Illini Fans, this is it.  Our magic number is down to two.  The Purdue Boilermakers are coming to town and the Illini need all fans to come to the park.  Don’t forget that the schedule is a bit different this weekend.  It will be a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series.

Purdue has already clinched their Big Ten Tournament spot.  It would take a four-game sweep for us to overtake their second place position and thereby gaining a bye in the first round.  I honestly don’t know what would happen if we tied them by going 3-1.

[Update:  I inquired about this of the one person who I knew would know, Brian DeCaussin of Big Ten Hardball.  His reply:

I believe that if the Illini take three of four from Purdue, they would be the second seed by virtue of their head-to-head record against the Boilermakers.  That would give them the first-round bye.

So nothing official but that seems to makes sense to me.]

Media Coverage

If you have the Big Ten Network and can’t make to the ballpark, all three games will be broadcast.  This should make my buddy Brando happy who’s always asking why he can’t watch Illini (or any Big Ten baseball, for that matter) on BTN.

More Altobelli?

I didn’t even notice last weekend that Dom Altobelli suited up and pinch hit in two games against Ohio State.  Dom had been out since April with a torn labrum.  His replacement at third base, John Schlichter, has been doing a bang-up job in his stead but it’s good to see him getting his swings in.

Can we get some good weather?

According to Illini’s official website, six of the seven Big Ten series have been affected by the weather what with cancellations or postponements.  It would be nice to have a 3-day series of sunny baseball weather to watch the games.

Checking the weather forecast, looks like a chance of rain on Thursday but clear on Friday and Saturday.  Hopefully, the rains will hold off on Thursday night.

[Update:  Thursday's game was postponed.  I updated the schedule above.]

Comeback Mountain

An amazing 14 of Illinois’ 29 wins this season have been comeback victories.  Five of those wins happened in the last at-bat.

See you at the ballpark!!!

And the dirt on Purdue: 

May 14th, 2008 Posted by The Baseball Zealot | University of Illinois Baseball | one comment

HEY BUCCO, NEED AN EYE PATCH?

I know it’s been about one month ago since Pirates hitting coach Don Long was injured when a piece of a shattered bat hit him in the face while he was sitting in the dugout, but the situation of exploding bats has gotten out of control. Check out the full story of Long getting hit, here.

Even though the White Sox are out of town and I will not go to the Unfriendly Confines on the Northside of Chicago, I’ve been watching alot of MLB on Direct-TV’s MLB package. It seems as though three or four times per game, at least, bats are shattering. They are exploding! The barrel end is flying onto the field, causing fielders and pitchers to have to avoid the flying projectile while attempting to field the ball. In many cases the barrel end has a sharp, jagged end, that is seriously dangerous. It’s only fun until somebody gets impaled, or in the case of Don Long, loses an eye, which almost happened.

Last night Brian Roberts was left with only the knob of his bat, after his bat exploded, and the dangerous part flew into the stands, where it almost hit several shocked fans. We all know, when attending a game in person, to be on the lookout for foul balls screaming into the stands, but this is even more dangerous. It used to be that every once in awhile, especially on a rainy day, a player would lose his grip on his bat and it would fly into the stands. In those rare instances, fans would be allowed to keep the bat, or negotiate with the batter for a replacement bat. But who wants to be skewered?

MLB needs to wake up to the fact that somebody is going to be seriously injured or killed and do something fast. What to do, you might ask? Well the problem seems to be in the bats that are used today, in particular maple bats. Before Barry Bonds went on his home run tear, or tearoid as the case may be, nobody except Barry used maple bats. Now everybody uses them. There’s even a bat company called Old Hickory, you guessed it, they make maple bats.

I’m not saying we need to go back to the days of hickory bats. But we need to wake up to the reality that maple bats are lethal weapons and outlaw them, before it’s too late.

May 14th, 2008 Posted by Teddy Ballgame | Injuries | one comment

RYNO GIVEN THE HEAVE-HO

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is serving the third day of his three-day suspension today. It seems Sandberg, manager of the Peoria Chiefs, took exception with an opposing player bunting for a basehit, while his team was leading 6-0. The feisty manager engaged the other manager in a discussion, which led to a bench-clearing brawl.

Some might say, it’s the minor leagues and this player was just brushing up on his bunting skills, a learning process. To which I’d say, you don’t bunt for a basehit when leading 6-0, a learning process. From a Hall of Famer, way to go Ryno!

May 13th, 2008 Posted by Teddy Ballgame | Cubs, Hall of Fame, Managers, Minor Leagues | 3 comments

PLAYING FOR PEANUTS - A HIT

I TIVO’ed Playing for Peanuts, a reality TV show about minorleague baseball, that aired its first episode in Chicago Sunday night on CSN. Finally got around to watching it this morning, after a frustrating late night of watching the Halos crunch Mark Buehrle & the White Sox. I needed a reminder that our national pasttime was worth watching. Playing for Peanuts, John Fitzgerald Director/Producer/Editor, was just what I needed to see.

Wally Backman was the manager of the South Georgia Peanuts of the now-defunct SCL. The SCL was an independent league where players/managers hope to get a chance of getting into more organized ball. I remember when Wally Backman was an up & coming youngster in with the NY Mets. Backman was always a scrapper, being a 5′9″ secondbaseman, who’d do anything to win, and win it all he did, with the 1986 Mets over the Boston Red Sox. As a 26 year old Wally batted .320 for New York that year.

After his playing years were behind him, he was on the fast track to a big league managerial job, in fact he landed one, with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But his stint only lasted days, he never got to manage, before it was disclosed he had a DUI, an incident with domestic abuse, and a parole violation, for which the new skipper might have to do some jail time. The D*Backs quickly distanced themselves from Backman, which is why he resurfaced as the manager of the Peanuts.

Looking over the Peanuts roster I saw another familiar face in Mike Caruso. At 21, Caruso was the Chicago White Sox shortstop of the future when he batted .306 as a rookie in 1998. Mike came to the Sox from the Giants in the 1997 fire sale, in which Chicago shipped off Roberto Hernandez, Wilson Alvarez, & Danny Darwin in exchange for Caruso, Keith Foulke, & Bob Howry. The Sox cashed in the present for the future and Owner Jerry Reinsdorf took a lot of heat. The next year Caruso’s production fell off to a .250 batting average, and his bigleague career was pretty much history. A has been at 22, which is the reason he was trying his luck with the Peanuts.

Checkout the Playing for Peanuts website. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a podcast with John Fitzgerald in the not too distant future.

May 13th, 2008 Posted by Teddy Ballgame | Uncategorized | no comments

GAME ONE - SOX at ANGELS - 05/12/08

It was nice of the White Sox to let my Angels win one in this series.  ;–)

Seriously, if I were to pick which of these games the Angels were most likely to win, Buehrle vs. Adenhart would NOT have been the one. That’s why baseball is the most fascinating game of all.

Did you know that Buehrle has only beaten the Angels once in 15 career starts? I would think that his skill package would give the Halos trouble. Wouldn’t you? Changing speeds and taking away the stolen base completely.

Tonight is Jered Weaver vs. John Danks. I have referred to Weaver as “a right-handed Danny Jackson.” No one understands that this is a compliment.

“First Pitch - Strike One” is a key for the Halos tonight. They won last night despite NOT doing this. 4 double plays won the game.

Orlando Cabrera had good things to say about Mike Scioscia: “With all due respect to managers around the game, I think that Scioscia is on another level,” Cabrera said. “This guy dominates the opponent, the thinking,
all the things that they do, the scouting reports. He has an advantage. I think he’s the smartest guy in the game right now, no doubt.”

I can sincerely return Cabrera’s compliment to Scioscia. Ozzie Guillen’s in-game baseball strategy, more often than not, is what I would do. I think he is real solid in that area. He can’t field for Joe Crede or get hits for Nick Swisher. The players have to come through to make the manager look good.

DonS.

May 13th, 2008 Posted by DonS | White Sox | one comment

Hill’s all right in AAA

The Cubs’ starter Rich Hill made the most of his second start for the Iowa Cubs yesterday.  He pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball for the win. 

Box Score

For 10+ innings he’s pitched for Iowa, he’s only given up two runs.  Hopefully, it won’t be too long before he’s back up in the bigs where he belongs.  From an article in the Des Moines Register:

“It’s a process,” he said. “That’s what’s so great about this game. It’ll build you up, bring you down and teach you how to get back up again.”

Hurry back, Rich.

May 12th, 2008 Posted by The Baseball Zealot | Cubs, Minor Leagues | no comments

One series left in regular Big Ten play

No game on Sunday between Illinois and Ohio State.  Rain washed away any chance of the Illini to tie Ohio State for the weekend.  As frustrating as that probably is, Ohio State had the momentum after their amazing comeback in Game 2 on Saturday (they scored 10 runs in the bottom of the fifth after the Illini scored 7 in the top).  Maybe it’s just as well? 

A Look at the Standings

Let’s take a look at the Big 10 standings with just one weekend left. 

Illinois maintains its third place spot (just barely) only one-half game ahead of Penn State and 1 1/2 ahead of Ohio State.  They will need a sweep of Purdue this weekend to take over second place and get the bye in the tournament.

Michigan has now clinched the home berth for the tourney making things easy for those who make travel arrangements, I’m sure. 

It will be a tight race between Northwestern, Indiana and Michigan State for the last two spots.  Michigan State was knocked out of the tourney qualification in the last regular season game by Illinois last year.  I’ll bet MSU will do everything in their power to see that doesn’t happen again. 

On thing that might help the Spartans… Northwestern’s schedule.  They have the pleasure (?) of playing Michigan this weekend. 

All this said, it’s anyone’s game (except sadly for their fans, Indiana, Minnesota, and Iowa; they’re mathematically eliminated).  On the other hand, Purdue and Michigan fans can rest easy, their teams are in it.

Some Big Ten Leaders

Right now, Illinois has 3 hitters in the top ten in batting average in the Big Ten.  That would be Kyle Hudson (.409), Daniel Webb (.404) and Brandon Wikoff (.397).  Hudson also leads the conference in on-base percentage (.515), and runs scored (57).  Wikoff is fourth in rbis with 56.

Big Ten leaderboard

May 12th, 2008 Posted by The Baseball Zealot | University of Illinois Baseball | no comments