Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Tony La Russa has had enough of Ryan Franklin in the closer role. Franklin and his four blown saves and 11.57 ERA. La Russa is going to, in his words, âchange the responsibility a little bit for a little bit."
According to USAToday Sports:
Franklin has already made a cosmetic change, shearing off more than half of a long beard that juts off his chin.
LOL, wut?
Ok, Roy Oswalt has made news by surprising some people and making a trade request. Surprising, I guess but the gist behind it was that the Astros arenât going anywhere and he wants to play on a postseason team.
Since that request, Oswalt pitched a dynamite game which he won against the Brewers. Fox Sports Houston had an interesting twist on that game as it pertains to Oswalt in their opening sentence:
Roy Oswalt made a convincing argument for the Houston Astros to keep him in his first start since the team publicly acknowledged the ace’s trade request.
Funny, I saw it differently. If I was a reporter and looking for an angle, maybe Oswalt was showcasing his talents for any takers out there in the market for a quality starter. The cynical side of me, I guess. In either case, both sides are downplaying the trade thing at the moment anyway.
In related news (maybe more related than we think) Andy from Baseball Reference has a post on how little support Oswalt is getting from the Astrosâ offense. Hereâs the gist of it:
According to his neutralized pitching stats, Roy Oswalt deserves a .731 winning percentage this year, which projects to a 19-7 record for the season. Instead, he’s actually 3-6 with a .333 winning percentage.
Heâs got the numbers to back it up on his post.
I think good olâ Roy wants some decent offense. Maybe this is his way making his wished heard.
Jonathan Papelbon has been slapped with another fine related to MLBâs âpacing violationâ. This rule which MLB has asked to be more vigorously enforced, limits the time that a pitcher takes to throw the ball.
Iâm not a fan of the rule necessarily but I understand why it is in place. Papelbon is certainly familiar with the rule. This incident is the seventh time heâs been hit with this violation. This time he got a $5000 fine to bring his total to $10,000 for fines accrued for this practice.
Some baseball fans (who regard any infraction of the rules baseball as a personal affront) feel Papelbon is doing this because in the words of a commenter in one forum, âthe rules are meant for someone elseâ or that it âshows the type of character he possessesâ.
Sheesh.
Papelbon is, in my opinion, simply pitching the best he can in the way that he can. If getting fined a measly (in relative terms) $1,000-$5,000 a shot for a couple times a year in order for him to put up the numbers that he does, heâll do it.
Should he find a way to hurry his delivery? Probably, unless he doesnât mind that fine to continue to rise.
At this time, Pap has 34 saves in 37 opportunities with a 1.84 ERA. Iâm sure Red Sox fans arenât complaining about the extra time.
I admit I snickered a bit when I read the news release about Minnesota trading for starting pitcher Carl Pavano. My first reaction was: Is the Twinsâ pitching really that bad off?
Since 2004 when Pavano won 18 games with Florida, there have been continual trips to the DL not to mention countless disappointments for Yankee fans save for those who were smart enough to not to get their hopes up. Pavano won only nine games between 2005-2008 including missing 2006 altogether. This year with Cleveland, he has won nine games already despite a 5.37 ERA. A positive stat for Pavano: only 23 walks in 125+ innings.
Well, Carl Pavano may have quieted his critics a little after his first start tonight. Against rival Detroit, he pitched seven scoreless innings in the Twinsâ 11-0 victory. Pavano was efficient, facing only 27 batters and throwing only 90 pitches. And yeah, his control remained intact, walking none.
Minnesota is within striking distance of first place in the AL Central. With todayâs win, they are only 4.5 games back behind first place Detroit and 2.5 behind second place Chicago. The Twins put out the usual line that Carl Pavano is what they need to win down the homestretch. I wonder if Pavanoâs performance tonight helps them convince themselves of their own PR-speak (it shouldnât surprise them TOO much, Pavano owns the Tigers. He came into the game with a 3-0 record and a 1.93 for the season against them).
Carl Pavano wonât come out and pitch shutout ball every start. But itâs POSSIBLE he could be a productive member of their staff. But the big issue with Mr Pavano is his health. Hopefully for the Twinsâ sake, history does not repeat itself.
MLB Umpire Eric Cooper has had his share of Buehrleâs noteworthy pitching efforts.
How’s this for strange? (Umpire Eric) Cooper has been behind the plate for each of Buehrle’s last three shutouts — the perfect game Thursday, the no-hitter April 18, 2007, at U.S. Cellular Field against the Texas Rangers and a 6-0 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 17, 2005, at the Cell.
Hope Mark Buehrle isnât superstitious⌠he might start putting in requests for Cooper for his future starts.
Buehrle/SchmuehrleâŚBuy stock now in Jarrod Washburn if not too late. He has done it again.
Pitching seven shutout innings, Wash has won his fourth in a row and is finally after all these years making a good argument that he is a front row starter.
With Seattle, he pitched decently in the first half but didnât get the breaks. Now things are falling into place for the 6â1â lefty. Heâs only allowed 8 ER in his last 42 2/3 innings spanning six starts. More importantly for Seattle, heâs won five of those games.
Tonightâs win gives Washburn a .500 record for his career.
I was going to be in Chicago, that was the original plan, but decided to stay in Santa Barbara with my brother Todd, while he put a new roof on my brain injured friend Lee’s house. It was still before noon when I turned on the live scoring feature for my CBS Sportsline fantasy baseball team, WTLNXTYR, and noticed the White Sox were playing a 1:05 PM game, hosting the Rays, at the Cell. It all came back to me, I’d have been at this game, probably with Rob, as we feel like we’re getting away with something, going to a day game in the middle of the week. With me not working, I don’t know what I’m getting away with.
I was torn, sit in the sun by the pool, or watch Buehrle pitch against Tampa on TV at the bowling alley across the parking lot from my Motel6 room, they happen to have the MLB package there, good things seem to work out for good people. It took me about two minutes to decide to go watch the White Sox, in the time it took me to walk across the lot, a nothing to nothing game quickly became 4-0 on a big fly off the bat of Josh Fields with the bags juiced. Later in the game Scotty Pods ripped a leadoff double inside the firstbase line, Alexei Ramirez, hitting behind the runner also sent his double just inside the first base bag, into rightfield for an RBI double.
That was more than enough for Mark Buehrle, as he had it on cruise control, Tampa got NAHTING! Buehrle doesn’t overpower anybody, just keeps batters off balance by changing speeds, and setting up his cutter. He was masterful, a joy to watch, besides being a gem, it was also quick. There were a couple of close calls, but nothing which required a fielder to over extend himself, a line drive to third that Gordon Beckham snared, with his feet planted on the ground, then there was a screamer that the thirdbase umpire had to jump out of the way from, before deliberately & dramatically signalling, FOUL BALL!
Before I knew it, it was the top of the 9th inning, defensive specialist Dewayne Wise took over in centerfield. Gabe Kapler caught all of one and sent it over the centerfield wall to lead off the inning, only to have Wise get on his horse, in a full sprint, leap at the fence, bringing the baseball back, preserving the no-hitter and the Perfect Game. Everybody in the bar cheared, but I think I was the only one knowing what was going on. “Two outs to go!”, I exclaimed, urging Buehrle on, “Go to work, Mark, bring your lunch bucket with you”. Buerhle struckout the 26th batter he faced and got the final guy on a grounder to short.
I missed Mark Buehrle’s no-hitter, thrown in April 2007, when I went to Rose Angeli’s with my sister in law Lisa and a good friend named Debbie from Waupaca, they were both in to see a taping of the Oprah Show. I couldn’t have had a better seat for this one, if I’d been at the park, watching it brought tears to my eyes. And I have to give the homeplate umpire credit, he had the same strike zone all game long, no matter the count, no matter the situation.
Yes, the Metsâ are suffering from injury issues in a bad way but has it come to this?
Manager Jerry Manuel is considering using pitcher Livan Hernandez as a position player if other options donât present themselves.
In the meantime, the Mets will have to get by with just three position players on their bench. They could release Tim Redding to make room for another position player, but if they don’t, Manuel said he could use Livan Hernandez as a pinch hitter or a corner infielder if he runs out of options on the bench.
Hernandez certainly can handle himself with the bat and has done so throughout his career. He has a career batting average of .229 with 9 homeruns. In 2004, the year he won the Silver Slugger award, he collected 10 rbis.
Livan is up to the task:
I want to do it," Hernandez said. "That’s my dream — to play one day at one position. I’ll play anywhere."
That said, injuries and all, I canât imagine thereâs not a better solution. I know one APBA manager in my APBA league whoâs paying rapt attention, though.
University of Illinois physicist Alan Nathan was interviewed by USAToday on the effects of the gyroball. “What makes Matsuzaka so effective is that he has an arsenal of pitches,” Nathan says. “The gyroball is just one more of his tools, and he doesn’t actually need to throw it. He just has to have the batter … Continue reading “U of I physicist on the gyroball”
“What makes Matsuzaka so effective is that he has an arsenal of pitches,” Nathan says. “The gyroball is just one more of his tools, and he doesn’t actually need to throw it. He just has to have the batter think he might.”