Fourth of July Baseball...
As I sat downstairs today watching the Cincinnati Reds nearly blow a two-run lead in the ninth while playing the San Francisco Giants, I thought it might be about time for some massive, knock-your-socks-off baseball article. After all, I think that's the idea behind this blog...
While I was watching the Reds play the Giants (only for a little while) I managed to note a few things... one of which being that Ken Griffey is nowhere near as proficient at defense as he once was. In the course of two batters he managed to lose two balls in the sun, thoroughly frustrating new closer Kent Mercker (that's right, the Reds have turned to the Merck to slam the door shut) to the point that Jerry Narron saw fit to take Mercker out and throw in Matt Belisle. Belisle appears to be an excellent candidate for closer from what I can tell- he can throw over 92 and he kind of spotted his fastball nicely tonight. Of course, if he had faced batters that weren't Deivi Cruz, Jason Ellison, and Ray Durham, we might have been talking about a blown save, but that's another matter for another time. So here's what I'm wondering... is Narron just going to throw out whoever he wants to close? Personally, I think it would be really awesome to see four different pitchers on the Reds with five or so saves (even though it would be a fantasy owner's nightmare), because then teams would really have to do some scouting. (The flip side, of course, is that these teams just assume the Reds' closer sucks and tee off on him, but hey, let's be optimists here).
I then turned the dial to the Phillies/Pirates game, where I saw the Phillies up 10-1 before falling asleep on the couch for a little while. I must say that Tony Gwynn really brought his "A" game to Pittsburgh, chiming in with insightful comments like "the Phillies are really forcing the Pirates to throw strikes today," and "Lidle has the luxury of throwing a bunch of offspeed stuff, because the Pirates are looking to be aggressive right now." And what do you know, Gwynn was right, as Cory Lidle struck out Rob Mackowiak on three ugly-looking changeups, wasting a quality at-bat from Ryan Vogelsong in which Vogelsong absolutely laced a double, but Freddy Sanchez falls on his face rounding third, screwing Vogelsong out of an RBI. I guess that's the Pirates for you.
Does anybody remember when Ryan Franklin was going to be a star? Well, last year's 4-16 record kind of threw that to the wind, but today he got back on track against Kansas City, shutting them out 6-0, and improving his ERA to 4.44. The point of all of this is that playing against Kansas City can really do a lot for a player. Here's a sign your team is in a lot of trouble: you're letting Terrence Long bat fifth in your lineup with no qualms about it.
I also saw how Seattle unceremoniously showed Bret Boone the door the other day. Boone falls into the Rich Aurilia/Brady Anderson genre of players with hyper-mysterious power surges. What really confuses me is why Boone was being paid so much to begin with, but I guess that's a matter for another day. I bet the Mariners are wishing they could fire Sexson and Beltre as well, but that's a matter for another day. My favorite Bret Boone moment: Bret's being shut out of the Home Run Derby a few years back while Alex Rodriguez and Aaron Boone were making fun of him. That's comedy at its finest.
(Apparently Bret Boone played for the Padres in 2000. Does anybody remember this? Or is this another example of our complete ignorance for all NL West teams. I swear I need confirmation of this, at least a baseball card or something.)
I'm out...
Mike
While I was watching the Reds play the Giants (only for a little while) I managed to note a few things... one of which being that Ken Griffey is nowhere near as proficient at defense as he once was. In the course of two batters he managed to lose two balls in the sun, thoroughly frustrating new closer Kent Mercker (that's right, the Reds have turned to the Merck to slam the door shut) to the point that Jerry Narron saw fit to take Mercker out and throw in Matt Belisle. Belisle appears to be an excellent candidate for closer from what I can tell- he can throw over 92 and he kind of spotted his fastball nicely tonight. Of course, if he had faced batters that weren't Deivi Cruz, Jason Ellison, and Ray Durham, we might have been talking about a blown save, but that's another matter for another time. So here's what I'm wondering... is Narron just going to throw out whoever he wants to close? Personally, I think it would be really awesome to see four different pitchers on the Reds with five or so saves (even though it would be a fantasy owner's nightmare), because then teams would really have to do some scouting. (The flip side, of course, is that these teams just assume the Reds' closer sucks and tee off on him, but hey, let's be optimists here).
I then turned the dial to the Phillies/Pirates game, where I saw the Phillies up 10-1 before falling asleep on the couch for a little while. I must say that Tony Gwynn really brought his "A" game to Pittsburgh, chiming in with insightful comments like "the Phillies are really forcing the Pirates to throw strikes today," and "Lidle has the luxury of throwing a bunch of offspeed stuff, because the Pirates are looking to be aggressive right now." And what do you know, Gwynn was right, as Cory Lidle struck out Rob Mackowiak on three ugly-looking changeups, wasting a quality at-bat from Ryan Vogelsong in which Vogelsong absolutely laced a double, but Freddy Sanchez falls on his face rounding third, screwing Vogelsong out of an RBI. I guess that's the Pirates for you.
Does anybody remember when Ryan Franklin was going to be a star? Well, last year's 4-16 record kind of threw that to the wind, but today he got back on track against Kansas City, shutting them out 6-0, and improving his ERA to 4.44. The point of all of this is that playing against Kansas City can really do a lot for a player. Here's a sign your team is in a lot of trouble: you're letting Terrence Long bat fifth in your lineup with no qualms about it.
I also saw how Seattle unceremoniously showed Bret Boone the door the other day. Boone falls into the Rich Aurilia/Brady Anderson genre of players with hyper-mysterious power surges. What really confuses me is why Boone was being paid so much to begin with, but I guess that's a matter for another day. I bet the Mariners are wishing they could fire Sexson and Beltre as well, but that's a matter for another day. My favorite Bret Boone moment: Bret's being shut out of the Home Run Derby a few years back while Alex Rodriguez and Aaron Boone were making fun of him. That's comedy at its finest.
(Apparently Bret Boone played for the Padres in 2000. Does anybody remember this? Or is this another example of our complete ignorance for all NL West teams. I swear I need confirmation of this, at least a baseball card or something.)
I'm out...
Mike
1 Comments:
I actually saw the number of decisions that Oswalt had and was quite shocked myself. He seems to get more run support than Clemens does.
There will be a topic about Florida's woes here in a little bit. Nice point about the Zambranos... Carlos has been all over the place this year.
I found a Topps card picturing Bret Boone as a Padre, so that's been cleared up.
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