Obviously the biggest news of the week was the non-perfect game thrown by Andres Galarraga's son. Since you probably haven't heard enough about that whole situation, allow me to weigh in.
Just kidding. Yes, it was a big deal and even the kind of thing we discussed around the office the day after, but I think it's probably time to just let it go. And let me tell you a secret. Galarraga is going to get killed his next time out. Just shelled. Trust me on this one.
Oh, and I suppose Wooden passing is a pretty big deal, too. RIP. Fifth best Wizard ever behind Merlin, Gandalf, Raistlin, and that kid from that Nintendo movie.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Justin Smoak. Smoak is rising (sorry, had to be done). Uber-prospect and secret crush of mine Justin Smoak got the call up early this year after Chris Davis crashed and burned (and whiffed) for the second year in a row, and didn't exactly get off to a great start. All through April and May he never got his batting average over .200. There were good signs, however, such as a good OBP (around .310), a good BB/K ratio (nearly 1:1), and good power when he did make contact. One of these days, things were going to click. And it looks like they have. He went 8-18 this week, including a 3-3 with a HR game against the Rays, and has now raised his average to .212, which may not sound like much, but it's a huge improvement. Oh yeah, he also walked five times. Seriously, man, this kid can hit, and he's going to be a player for a long, long, time. Get on board.
2. Tommy Hunter. As long as I'm talking about how the Rangers' are stacking with youngster types, we might as well throw a little bit of praise Hunter's way after he tossed a complete game five-hitter on Saturday in his first start of the year. And it's not like he threw it against a crappy hitting team like the Mariners or Twins, he threw it against the Rays. Hunter, a top pitching prospect type, made his debut in 2008 and got destroyed in his three starts, but then came up again mid-year last season and ended up putting up respectable numbers with a 9-6 record, 4.10 ERA, and 1.30 WHIP in 19 starts. For some reason that I don't know, he started the season in the minors, but was recalled this weekend in time to completely shut down Tampa. Because the Rangers don't have enough blue-chippers (Smoak, Andrus, Feliz, Borbon, Max Ramirez, and the list seriously goes on and on and on.) I don't really believe in Hunter, however, because there's no such thing as a good fat pitcher. 6-3, 280 lbs.? Oof.
3. Ray Allen. Game 1: 27 minutes, 0 three-pointers, 12 points, Celtics loss. Game 2: 44 minutes, 8 three-pointers, 32 points, Celtics win. Watching that game 2 tonight, Allen is clearly a major, major key for the Celtics if they're going to win. In game 1 he was limited by a bunch of terrible foul calls against him, but tonight he was able to get free and he lit up the Lakers for 7 threes in the first-half, which tied a finals record for a full game. Pierce is being limited pretty well by Artest and Garnett has shown that he's aged ten years in the last two real years, so it's basically up to Allen and Rondo, and they came through (Rondo had a triple double) to pull it out. They needed this one, and Allen was the biggest reason they got it. Plus that jumper is just so beautiful. What's prettier than a Ray Allen jumper. Nothing, that's what. And if you disagree you're a stupid liar.
4. Ubaldo Jimenez. I know I already wrote about Ubaldo early last week in his very own spotlight post, but I have to point him out once again because he won once again. My favorite part is that he pitched seven innings and gave up two runs, and it raised his ERA by 19%. He's now 11-1, with an ERA under one, and by all accounts is completely unhittable. Nobody can hit his fastball, and nobody can hit his changeup. And both his curve and his slider are above average. His BABIP and runner strand rate are outside of the normal range, so he should come back to earth, but watching him pitch I'm not sure. He seriously looks ridiculous out there. I feel like I'm watching Bob Gibson or the bizarro Brad Radke. He probably has around 22 starts or so remaining, so 30 wins is basically out of the question, but I can see him getting to 25-27, which would be the most since Bob Welch's 27 twenty years. Yes, he's that good. At least so far.
5. Troy Glaus. I seriously thought Glaus was retired, but it turns out he's playing 3B for the Braves, which is where I thought Chipper Jones played. Clearly I don't know what's going on. Especially because Glaus homered four times last week. That gives him 11 this year. That's as many as A-Rod, Joe Mauer, Ian Kinsler, and Nick Punto have combined. And Troy Glaus is like, 45. He should be playing softball with Matt Stairs and Matthew LeCroy, but instead he's killing NL pitching. Makes no sense. Although I'd take him on the Twins. I tire of slap-hitting corner infielders easily, no matter the amount of bare-handed pick-ups they make.
WHO SUCKED
1. Zack Greinke. Did I, or did I not tell you about Zack Greinke? Now, after a 6 inning, 10 hit, 4 run outing, even the too great to be put into actual words Joe Posnanski agrees. Check out his full blog post here, but it highlights the same drop in velocity I brought up, and mentions how his slider isn't breaking like it used to - big keys in him missing bats, the #1 change from last season. Posnanski believes that it isn't Greinke's physical tools that are hurting him this year, but his confidence. Check out these quotes: "The last month I haven't really been myself, I guess. Everything looks tougher, like the hitters look better and the strike zone looks smaller. It just seems tougher out there at the moment." and about his slider, "I was probably striking out like six guys a game last year on a slider, and now I probably do one or two a game. I still throw it, but I don't know why it's not working. But obviously, something's wrong with it. I don't know." Now it's not like his numbers are Kevin Mulvey-esque or anything and he's still one of the best pitchers in baseball, but it sounds like his head is all out of whack. And for a guy like Greinke who has had some mental problems before, that is a huge red flag. I hope he can get his head right and not go into a shame spiral, because when he's dominant he's about as fun to watch pitch as there is.
2. Ricky Rubio. It seems Mr. Rubio has no interest in coming to the NBA until after next season, and is only interested in becoming a Timberwolf if things "get better" and "gel." Well excuse me, your majesty. Did they not scout the arrogance on this kid? I'm starting to hope he never ends up a Wolf. Hopefully they can just go ahead and trade his rights. Maybe they can include him in a sign and trade with the Heat and get Dwyane Wade. I'm just sayin' that Al Jefferson, Corey Brewer, and the rights to Rubio would work under the salary cap rules to get Wade. And, if they do that trade, that still leaves them enough to sign Bosh. So Bosh, Love, Wade, Flynn, and Evan Turner after he slips to #4. Sounds about right.
3. Matt Wieters. Good god this is some kind of world-record slump. But do you remember when Jesus was in that slump and ended up getting crucified for it? And then three days later he smashed through that rock and flew up to heaven? Expect Wieters to be rebirthed in three days. Wednesday versus C.C. Sabathia. Make your time.
4. Denard Span. Since we are talking world record slumps, how can I leave out Spansy? He tripled on Sunday, which was his first hit in June, and his 1-5 on the day was a huge improvement over the 1-20 he had put up so far in the week. Span's average has now dipped down to .266, but because he has such a good command of the strike zone and such good plate patience, even when he's slumping with the bat he's still valuable because he gets on base due to walks. Of course, with the injuries piling up to the point where Matt Tolbert and Brendan Harris are now considered regualrs, Span's bat is sorely needed. Also, why did Brendan Harris play first base with Morneau out? Are we serious here that Jim Thome is really too old and too slow that he can't fill in in an emergency? With nearly ever big bat out of the lineup for various reasons it would have been a pretty good idea to get Thome in there. Either he's become completely immobile or Gardy is an idiot. I know which way I'm leaning.
5. Nick Blackburn. Staying with your precious Twinkies, Blackburn really stayed hot, didn't he? After a May in which he posted a 2.65 ERA and looked like he could be half as good as Dawger thinks he is, he came crashing back hard this week, going 0-2 and lasting a total of just six and a third innings, givng up 20 hits (yes, 20) and 10 runs while striking out zero. Yes, zero. See, here's the problem with Blackburn - if he's not hitting his exact spots, he gets destroyed because he doesn't have good stuff. He has good control and good sinker which can be a great weapon when he can keep it down and move it in and out, but if he's not he can't get away with just throwing. When opponents swing at his pitches they swing and miss only 5.6% of the time - lowest in the majors - so he needs the ground balls. Obviously, this week he couldn't hit the corners and didn't keep the ball down, and he got knocked all over the yard. This is exhibit A through exhibit Z of while he'll never be a top-line pitcher, and will always be mid to end of the rotation type. I still like him and all, but there are going to be plenty more games like this in his future. Zero margin for error.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
TIP FOR THE BELMONT
If you recall, I nailed the pick for the Kentucky Derby, which means I'm credible and you should listen to me.
If you're looking to spice up your Belmont Stakes watching, I'm going to recommend Fly Down to you at 9/2 odds.
If you're looking to spice up your Belmont Stakes watching, I'm going to recommend Fly Down to you at 9/2 odds.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Remember this Guy?
Remember Darius Smith, combo guard for the class of 2009 out of Illinois? The Gophers were interested, offered, and at one point he actually said they were his lead school, and it was basically a toss-up between him and Cobbs. Justin accepted first, filling up the roster, and Smith ended up at UCONN.
Now, with Cobbs gone, it's interesting because Smith is also transferring out of Connecticut. He wasn't exactly a paragon of success with the Huskies, playing in just 19 of the team's 34 games and just seven conference games and scoring a grand total of 19 points all season, but I'm still intrigued.
He was ranked as the #12 point guard in the class and the #71 recruit overall in the final rankings from Rivals.com, and the scouting reports on him called him one of the best on-ball defenders in the class and made a huge run up the rankings with a big senior year.
He was a day away from signing with the Gophers last year (seriously, one single day from having him instead of Cobbs). I would then assume that there would likely still be some interest on his part, and since Tubby liked him before I'd assume you would still like him now. Add in the Gophers' pressing need for a point guard in 2011 and it makes too much sense to not happen. Of course, that means it probably won't.
But maybe once, just this once, things that should happen actually will.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Random Thoughts while watching the Twins
I once again have the opportunity to watch an entire Twins game with sound, and once again am going to take advantage while blogging whilst watching. I won't be doing a live blog, since those seem to always end up boring lately and it's hard to get excited about the Mariners, but I'm sure some game or announcer related things will sneak in here. I don't know. I don't know if there's time. I gotta go to Home Depot later.
- First, it seems pitching a perfect game has become easier than your sister after a couple glasses of Boone's Farm. On the heels of Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay's perfectos, Armando Galarraga pitched 8 and 2/3 perfect innings before having it broken up by an infield it, and according the radio the guy was only safe thanks to a bad call by the umpire (I haven't seen the replay, but I'll assume the umpire was probably racist). And the list of guys with perfect games is so weird. Out of the 20 perfect games, you have some that don't surprise you. The Hall of Famers: Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, and Catfish Hunter and soon to be Hall of Famers: Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay (if he can keep it up). Then there are guys with electric stuff you don't really surprise you: David Cone, Dennis Martinez, and even Mike Witt - the fact that they were unhittable for one day isn't a huge shock.
But then the rest of these guys. Throw out Charlie Robertson because I've never heard of him and the two guys who did it in 1880 because the rules were all kinds of fucked up then, but Len Barker? He only won double-digit games twice and never posted an ERA under 4.80. Don Larsen? You would never had heard of him if he didn't toss that perfect game in the World Series. He never won more than 11 games in a season, and spent most of his career as a reliever.
The weirdest part is the sheer amount of soft-tossing lefties who achieved perfection: David Wells, Tom Browning, Dallas Braden, Kenny Rogers, and Mark Buehrle. That's as many nancy-boy southpaws who have done it as Hall of Famers. It's just so weird. I'm not taking anything away from the achievement, any way you look at it, it's still only been accomplished 20 times, but the list is mind-boggling. Apparently Brian Duensing is more likely to toss a perfecto than Felix Hernandez. So weird.
- I just saw the replay. That was a bad call. I was also just reminded that Griffey Junior announced his retirement today. Man was that guy good. And since I am pretty sure he was never using anything performance enhancing (other than Mr. Burns' Nerve Tonic, which is not on the banned list) I can't help but wonder what would have happened if he had gone on the Barry Bonds diet.
Griffey played until about 30 years old before he started getting injured all the frickin' time. At that point, he had hit 438 home runs with a batting line of .296/.380/.568, giving him an OPS+ of 147 in 7,319 plate appearances. At age 30, Bonds had hit 292 homers with a line of .286/.398/.541 for an OPS+ of 158 in 6,038 plate appearances. Pretty close to equal. So let's say Griffey stays mostly healthy and got as many at-bats as Bonds after age 30, and hit home runs at his same pace. He would have ended up with 831 career HRs. And if he hit the Balco diet and hit them at the rate Bonds did after age 30, he would have ended up with 908.
I know it's a pretty useless exercise and uses a ridiculous amount of assumptions and conjecture, but still kind of fun to look at. One thing is clear: Griffey should have used the roids. Burnsie's Tonic just couldn't quite cut it.
- Matt Tolbert somehow got a hit. Dick: "The Twins have some speed on the bases." No, he's white and "gritty" and "scrappy." That doesn't make him fast. And he promptly tries to steal and gets thrown out by 8 feet. Beautiful. Gardy's fascination with that guy might be the worst part of him as a manager, and that's saying alot.
- Now Punto walks, and Dick wants him to steal too. What's this guy's fascination with stealing? He would have thrived down in New Orleans after Katrina.
- Milton Bradley just stole third without a throw thanks to Kevin Slowey paying zero attention to him. That's your go ahead run with only one out in a 0-0 game here in the bottom of the fifth. I know Milton Bradley's crazy. Like Carl Everett crazy, but I love his game. I bet you didn't even know that in 2008 he led the league in OBP and OPS, and that he's broken a .400 on base percentage three times. But he doesn't steal a ton of bases (career high of 17, hasn't hit double digits since 2007, and the two he stole in this inning just tripled his season total) so nobody cares that he gets on base all the time. He's like the anti-Vince Coleman, but you probably like Coleman better because you're a moron. Thanks for ruining baseball.
- Oh, and he scored on a sac fly, so his heads up steal of third probably just won the game for the Mariners - who, I'll remind you, I claimed were a sleeper World Series contender. I'm so dumb.
- Since the M's are basically out of it already, I wonder when they'll deal Cliff Lee. He's on the hook for $9 million this year, but he's a free agent after this season. If the Twins tried to acquire him (LOL) I'd assume they wouldn't be looking to add payroll in the amount and length he'd be asking for, so it would have to be a half-year rental sort of deal. Which I would be fine with, depending on what they are asking for. I'm not sure what exactly I'd be willing to give up - haven't really thought about it - and I'm sure somebody else would be willing to offer him more + a contract (I'd bet he ends up a Met), so it's really just a pipe dream, but since they won't end up making a big trade deadline deal, pipe dreams is all I got.
- They just showed the Galarraga replay again, and man, I don't like the guy or anything but that really sucks for him. Maybe even worse, apparently the umpire admitted after the game that he blew it. I'm sure that makes Galarraga feel a lot better. Ugh. Just a terrible situation. And if Miguel Cabrera isn't a terrible terrible terrible fielder and let's the second basemen get that, we aren't even discussing it and are instead trying to figure out why there are so many perfect games this year. He was probably drunk.
- By the way, I just want you all to know that Matt Wieters fucking sucks. It's like he's purposefully going out of his way to intentionally hurt me. I'm shifting all my love to Stephen Strasburg, who, by the way, will be making his first big league start June 8th, which is only six days away. I will be flying out to Washington for the occasion.*
- It's still 1-0 Mariners and we're now in the 7th. The good news is if they can get Lee out of the game (doubtful) Seattle's closer is David Aardsma, who in no way should be a closer and is the kind of closer you can rally against in the ninth. Just like Jon Rauch. :sadface:
- Cuddyer dinger. Tie game. Suck it, Cliff Lee. And Snacks. I know you hate the guy with everything you have, but I can't enable this anymore. There's no reason to hate him, guy can mash. Sure, he chases the slider down and away all the time, but it's small price to pay for the power he brings.
- Oh hell yes. Cuddy is leaving the team for bereavement because his father-in-law died (that's not the hell yes part) and Danny Valencia will be called up. Thank god we finally get to see this guy play. I'm sick of hearing about him without seeing him. And what happened to Luke Hughes? And Trevor Plouffe? Why do they keep recycling Tolbert and Casilla instead of giving one of these guys an extended look? And just cut Harris. Oh wait, you geniuses signed him for two years even though you only had to sign him for one. For such a successful and well run organization sometimes these guys are dumb as shit.
- Valencia's stats at AAA this year: .298/.350/.380 with no homers and 34-13 BB/K ratio. I could not be less excited. Sounds like another slapper. It's almost like they draft these kind of guys on purpose. Seriously, the draft is in like a week and I expect them to go off the board and get a guy whose bio reads:
PROS: Scrappy. Tough. Gritty. Hustles. Dives a lot. Slides into first to show his hustle despite all the evidence that it's a dumb play. Can play multiple positions. Regularly invites teammates over for a barbecue.
CONS: Can't hit. No idea of the strike zone. Gets an extra-base hit once a month. Makes terrible base-running decisions. Is either short and white or short and ethnic. Definitely short. Is a "Gardy" kind of guy.
- Slowey lets the first two batters get hits in the seventh, but gets out of it with a double play (started by Tolbert!) and a pop-up. We got a ballgame here folks.
- Apparently they've given up. Leading off the 8th, Punto attempted to bunt and ended up striking out and then Span did bunt and was thrown out by Lee on a pretty nice play. I guess they've decided they can't hit him. If only it was Aardsma out there.
- I've come around on the Celtics/Lakers final. I'm pretty fired up for it. Definitely rooting Celtics here. Even though I hate all Red Sox fans and most Patriot fans (but definitely all Red Sox fans), I have no problem with the Celtics. I grew up a Laker fan because I hearted Magic Johnson and hated the Celtics and Bird because I had to, as I've gotten older I appreciate the Celtics more and more, and I'm rooting for them because I hate Kobe and still love KG and definitely love Ray Allen. I've also learned to appreciate Michael Jordan. I hated that guy and considered him nothing more than a high-scoring ball hog who managed to win. But after watching a new generation of ball hogs who suck (I'm looking at you Tracy McGrady) I have to give Jordan some props. He's still just the fifth best player ever, but that's higher than I used to have him.
- I think Jesse Crain has a new curveball. That thing is pretty nasty. No way he had that pitch before, I would have noticed. And he put Seattle down 1-2-3 in the 8th. Pretty sure that's never happened before.
- Sweet! Aardsma is in to face Mauer/Morneau/Cuddy in the ninth. This probably will end up not even being a save situation for Rauch.
- Four pitch walk to Mauer. Looking like a Morneau 2-run dinger here.
- Or a wild pitch and a Morneau ground out to move him to third (look at that Twins baseball! Giving up his at-bat to move a runner up!) So now we have go-ahead run on third with one out for Cuddy.
- And he hits the ball as hard as you can, but right at the shortstop who is playing in. So it's up to Kubel. All he does is win games. Or strikeout. Also a big fan of the pop-up.
- Fly out. Shit. And apparently this has turned into a live blog of the game.
- Guerrier goes 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth. And I am getting way tired. Stupid west coast. And I hate traveling out there, every single sporting event is done by 8pm. When you're out there alone and have nothing better to do than sit in a hotel bar and watch sports, that really puts a bit of a damper on things.
- Twins lose. Excellent base-running by the Mariner guy. I'd write more on that play but I'm really tired. Suffice it to say, that call to ruin the Big Cat's perfect game wasn't the only bad call tonight.
* = No, I'm not.
- First, it seems pitching a perfect game has become easier than your sister after a couple glasses of Boone's Farm. On the heels of Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay's perfectos, Armando Galarraga pitched 8 and 2/3 perfect innings before having it broken up by an infield it, and according the radio the guy was only safe thanks to a bad call by the umpire (I haven't seen the replay, but I'll assume the umpire was probably racist). And the list of guys with perfect games is so weird. Out of the 20 perfect games, you have some that don't surprise you. The Hall of Famers: Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, and Catfish Hunter and soon to be Hall of Famers: Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay (if he can keep it up). Then there are guys with electric stuff you don't really surprise you: David Cone, Dennis Martinez, and even Mike Witt - the fact that they were unhittable for one day isn't a huge shock.
But then the rest of these guys. Throw out Charlie Robertson because I've never heard of him and the two guys who did it in 1880 because the rules were all kinds of fucked up then, but Len Barker? He only won double-digit games twice and never posted an ERA under 4.80. Don Larsen? You would never had heard of him if he didn't toss that perfect game in the World Series. He never won more than 11 games in a season, and spent most of his career as a reliever.
The weirdest part is the sheer amount of soft-tossing lefties who achieved perfection: David Wells, Tom Browning, Dallas Braden, Kenny Rogers, and Mark Buehrle. That's as many nancy-boy southpaws who have done it as Hall of Famers. It's just so weird. I'm not taking anything away from the achievement, any way you look at it, it's still only been accomplished 20 times, but the list is mind-boggling. Apparently Brian Duensing is more likely to toss a perfecto than Felix Hernandez. So weird.
- I just saw the replay. That was a bad call. I was also just reminded that Griffey Junior announced his retirement today. Man was that guy good. And since I am pretty sure he was never using anything performance enhancing (other than Mr. Burns' Nerve Tonic, which is not on the banned list) I can't help but wonder what would have happened if he had gone on the Barry Bonds diet.
Griffey played until about 30 years old before he started getting injured all the frickin' time. At that point, he had hit 438 home runs with a batting line of .296/.380/.568, giving him an OPS+ of 147 in 7,319 plate appearances. At age 30, Bonds had hit 292 homers with a line of .286/.398/.541 for an OPS+ of 158 in 6,038 plate appearances. Pretty close to equal. So let's say Griffey stays mostly healthy and got as many at-bats as Bonds after age 30, and hit home runs at his same pace. He would have ended up with 831 career HRs. And if he hit the Balco diet and hit them at the rate Bonds did after age 30, he would have ended up with 908.
I know it's a pretty useless exercise and uses a ridiculous amount of assumptions and conjecture, but still kind of fun to look at. One thing is clear: Griffey should have used the roids. Burnsie's Tonic just couldn't quite cut it.
- Matt Tolbert somehow got a hit. Dick: "The Twins have some speed on the bases." No, he's white and "gritty" and "scrappy." That doesn't make him fast. And he promptly tries to steal and gets thrown out by 8 feet. Beautiful. Gardy's fascination with that guy might be the worst part of him as a manager, and that's saying alot.
- Now Punto walks, and Dick wants him to steal too. What's this guy's fascination with stealing? He would have thrived down in New Orleans after Katrina.
- Milton Bradley just stole third without a throw thanks to Kevin Slowey paying zero attention to him. That's your go ahead run with only one out in a 0-0 game here in the bottom of the fifth. I know Milton Bradley's crazy. Like Carl Everett crazy, but I love his game. I bet you didn't even know that in 2008 he led the league in OBP and OPS, and that he's broken a .400 on base percentage three times. But he doesn't steal a ton of bases (career high of 17, hasn't hit double digits since 2007, and the two he stole in this inning just tripled his season total) so nobody cares that he gets on base all the time. He's like the anti-Vince Coleman, but you probably like Coleman better because you're a moron. Thanks for ruining baseball.
- Oh, and he scored on a sac fly, so his heads up steal of third probably just won the game for the Mariners - who, I'll remind you, I claimed were a sleeper World Series contender. I'm so dumb.
- Since the M's are basically out of it already, I wonder when they'll deal Cliff Lee. He's on the hook for $9 million this year, but he's a free agent after this season. If the Twins tried to acquire him (LOL) I'd assume they wouldn't be looking to add payroll in the amount and length he'd be asking for, so it would have to be a half-year rental sort of deal. Which I would be fine with, depending on what they are asking for. I'm not sure what exactly I'd be willing to give up - haven't really thought about it - and I'm sure somebody else would be willing to offer him more + a contract (I'd bet he ends up a Met), so it's really just a pipe dream, but since they won't end up making a big trade deadline deal, pipe dreams is all I got.
- They just showed the Galarraga replay again, and man, I don't like the guy or anything but that really sucks for him. Maybe even worse, apparently the umpire admitted after the game that he blew it. I'm sure that makes Galarraga feel a lot better. Ugh. Just a terrible situation. And if Miguel Cabrera isn't a terrible terrible terrible fielder and let's the second basemen get that, we aren't even discussing it and are instead trying to figure out why there are so many perfect games this year. He was probably drunk.
- By the way, I just want you all to know that Matt Wieters fucking sucks. It's like he's purposefully going out of his way to intentionally hurt me. I'm shifting all my love to Stephen Strasburg, who, by the way, will be making his first big league start June 8th, which is only six days away. I will be flying out to Washington for the occasion.*
- It's still 1-0 Mariners and we're now in the 7th. The good news is if they can get Lee out of the game (doubtful) Seattle's closer is David Aardsma, who in no way should be a closer and is the kind of closer you can rally against in the ninth. Just like Jon Rauch. :sadface:
- Cuddyer dinger. Tie game. Suck it, Cliff Lee. And Snacks. I know you hate the guy with everything you have, but I can't enable this anymore. There's no reason to hate him, guy can mash. Sure, he chases the slider down and away all the time, but it's small price to pay for the power he brings.
- Oh hell yes. Cuddy is leaving the team for bereavement because his father-in-law died (that's not the hell yes part) and Danny Valencia will be called up. Thank god we finally get to see this guy play. I'm sick of hearing about him without seeing him. And what happened to Luke Hughes? And Trevor Plouffe? Why do they keep recycling Tolbert and Casilla instead of giving one of these guys an extended look? And just cut Harris. Oh wait, you geniuses signed him for two years even though you only had to sign him for one. For such a successful and well run organization sometimes these guys are dumb as shit.
- Valencia's stats at AAA this year: .298/.350/.380 with no homers and 34-13 BB/K ratio. I could not be less excited. Sounds like another slapper. It's almost like they draft these kind of guys on purpose. Seriously, the draft is in like a week and I expect them to go off the board and get a guy whose bio reads:
PROS: Scrappy. Tough. Gritty. Hustles. Dives a lot. Slides into first to show his hustle despite all the evidence that it's a dumb play. Can play multiple positions. Regularly invites teammates over for a barbecue.
CONS: Can't hit. No idea of the strike zone. Gets an extra-base hit once a month. Makes terrible base-running decisions. Is either short and white or short and ethnic. Definitely short. Is a "Gardy" kind of guy.
- Slowey lets the first two batters get hits in the seventh, but gets out of it with a double play (started by Tolbert!) and a pop-up. We got a ballgame here folks.
- Apparently they've given up. Leading off the 8th, Punto attempted to bunt and ended up striking out and then Span did bunt and was thrown out by Lee on a pretty nice play. I guess they've decided they can't hit him. If only it was Aardsma out there.
- I've come around on the Celtics/Lakers final. I'm pretty fired up for it. Definitely rooting Celtics here. Even though I hate all Red Sox fans and most Patriot fans (but definitely all Red Sox fans), I have no problem with the Celtics. I grew up a Laker fan because I hearted Magic Johnson and hated the Celtics and Bird because I had to, as I've gotten older I appreciate the Celtics more and more, and I'm rooting for them because I hate Kobe and still love KG and definitely love Ray Allen. I've also learned to appreciate Michael Jordan. I hated that guy and considered him nothing more than a high-scoring ball hog who managed to win. But after watching a new generation of ball hogs who suck (I'm looking at you Tracy McGrady) I have to give Jordan some props. He's still just the fifth best player ever, but that's higher than I used to have him.
- I think Jesse Crain has a new curveball. That thing is pretty nasty. No way he had that pitch before, I would have noticed. And he put Seattle down 1-2-3 in the 8th. Pretty sure that's never happened before.
- Sweet! Aardsma is in to face Mauer/Morneau/Cuddy in the ninth. This probably will end up not even being a save situation for Rauch.
- Four pitch walk to Mauer. Looking like a Morneau 2-run dinger here.
- Or a wild pitch and a Morneau ground out to move him to third (look at that Twins baseball! Giving up his at-bat to move a runner up!) So now we have go-ahead run on third with one out for Cuddy.
- And he hits the ball as hard as you can, but right at the shortstop who is playing in. So it's up to Kubel. All he does is win games. Or strikeout. Also a big fan of the pop-up.
- Fly out. Shit. And apparently this has turned into a live blog of the game.
- Guerrier goes 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth. And I am getting way tired. Stupid west coast. And I hate traveling out there, every single sporting event is done by 8pm. When you're out there alone and have nothing better to do than sit in a hotel bar and watch sports, that really puts a bit of a damper on things.
- Twins lose. Excellent base-running by the Mariner guy. I'd write more on that play but I'm really tired. Suffice it to say, that call to ruin the Big Cat's perfect game wasn't the only bad call tonight.
* = No, I'm not.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Well this is getting Ridiculous
If you're like I used to be and like a lot of Twins fans and teams of American League teams in general are, you don't really pay much attention to the National League. Well, you should start paying attention to the Rockies, but only every fifth day, because Ubaldo Jimenez is destroying the world.
Earlier today, he tossed a shoutout against the Giants, allowing just four hits and striking out nine. This improved his record to 10-1, lowered his ERA to 0.78, and extended his streak of consecutive games allowing 2 or fewer earned runs to 11. Staggering numbers.
That streak of 11 straight is the fourth best in history to start a season (behind Lou Vette in 1939 with 14 and John Tudor '88 and Edinson Volquez '08 with 12) and a top 50 streak in history (if he goes one more it will be a top-25 streak - Roger Clemens holds the all-time mark with 21).
I can't find a way to look up lowest ERA at this point in the season in history, so I looked up a few guys with historic seasons to see where they stood at the end of May.
- In 2000, Pedro Martinez had a truly insane season, the best of his insane career, when he posted a 1.74 ERA in a year when the league average was 5.68, perhaps the greatest pitching season ever, all things considered. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.05.
- In 1985, super phenom Dwight Gooden had a season on par with Pedro's, chewing up the league with an ERA of 1.52 - the best since 1968. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.75.
- Greg Maddux, the best pitcher of our generation in my opinion, had back-to-back seasons in 1994 and 1995 that were just incredible, posting ERAs of 1.56 and 1.63. His ERAs after May were 1.47 and 2.37.
- For an easier frame of memory reference, you probably remember how Zack Greinke set the league on fire last year, and how he seemed completely unhittable out of the gate. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.10.
- Finally, in 1968, Bob Gibson would finish the season with an ERA of 1.12, the modern record. At the end of May he was sitting at 1.52.
Ubaldo's ERA is lower than all of these, and in some cases by a half-run or more. I don't know if this is the best start in history, because like I said I can't find that information, but he's off to a better start than the best seasons ever by a pitcher. It's insane.
He's doing it with the fastest fastball in the league amongst starters with an average of 96.1 mph, and also mixes in a curve, slider, and change-up. He gets guys to miss, and when they do make contact they hit groundballs twice as often as flyballs and pretty much never hit line drives, which accounts for a low BABIP of .226. That number will almost certainly have to go up, and his WHIP and ERA along with it, but no matter what we are looking at a historically awesome start and possibly one of the best seasons in history, or at least this century.
He's everything we thought Francisco Liriano could be. He also has one of the highest average pitch counts per start, as well. Better hope that arm doesn't fall off.
Earlier today, he tossed a shoutout against the Giants, allowing just four hits and striking out nine. This improved his record to 10-1, lowered his ERA to 0.78, and extended his streak of consecutive games allowing 2 or fewer earned runs to 11. Staggering numbers.
That streak of 11 straight is the fourth best in history to start a season (behind Lou Vette in 1939 with 14 and John Tudor '88 and Edinson Volquez '08 with 12) and a top 50 streak in history (if he goes one more it will be a top-25 streak - Roger Clemens holds the all-time mark with 21).
I can't find a way to look up lowest ERA at this point in the season in history, so I looked up a few guys with historic seasons to see where they stood at the end of May.
- In 2000, Pedro Martinez had a truly insane season, the best of his insane career, when he posted a 1.74 ERA in a year when the league average was 5.68, perhaps the greatest pitching season ever, all things considered. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.05.
- In 1985, super phenom Dwight Gooden had a season on par with Pedro's, chewing up the league with an ERA of 1.52 - the best since 1968. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.75.
- Greg Maddux, the best pitcher of our generation in my opinion, had back-to-back seasons in 1994 and 1995 that were just incredible, posting ERAs of 1.56 and 1.63. His ERAs after May were 1.47 and 2.37.
- For an easier frame of memory reference, you probably remember how Zack Greinke set the league on fire last year, and how he seemed completely unhittable out of the gate. At the end of May, his ERA was 1.10.
- Finally, in 1968, Bob Gibson would finish the season with an ERA of 1.12, the modern record. At the end of May he was sitting at 1.52.
Ubaldo's ERA is lower than all of these, and in some cases by a half-run or more. I don't know if this is the best start in history, because like I said I can't find that information, but he's off to a better start than the best seasons ever by a pitcher. It's insane.
He's doing it with the fastest fastball in the league amongst starters with an average of 96.1 mph, and also mixes in a curve, slider, and change-up. He gets guys to miss, and when they do make contact they hit groundballs twice as often as flyballs and pretty much never hit line drives, which accounts for a low BABIP of .226. That number will almost certainly have to go up, and his WHIP and ERA along with it, but no matter what we are looking at a historically awesome start and possibly one of the best seasons in history, or at least this century.
He's everything we thought Francisco Liriano could be. He also has one of the highest average pitch counts per start, as well. Better hope that arm doesn't fall off.
Week in Review - 5/31/2010
It's pretty tough to keep track of what's going on in the world when you're spending an entire weekend at a cabin without a computer and limited/no cell phone reception. Of course, the trade off is that you get to spend the whole time alternating between drinking, fishing, and drinking and fishing. Pretty sweet deal. Plus I caught a monster Swamp Muskie. A monster.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Roy Halladay. I, of course, missed this until I got back into town, but it seems Doc twirled himself a no-hitter this weekend. That gets him to 7-3, with an ERA of 1.99 and a WHIP of 0.99, all while sporting a nice 70-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio. So he's pretty much dominating the national league, just like I said, and has a shot to actually win 25 games, which I also said. That's the reason I wanted to draft him early in our fantasy draft. To which, Snake said, "I wouldn't draft Halladay if he was still there in the fifth round."
2. Jon Lester. Remember watching this guy carve up the Twins a couple weeks ago? Well that wasn't a fluke, and he continued mowing down hitters this week, going 2-0 and racking up 14 strikeouts in 13 innings while giving up just five hits and one run. He's now #2 in the league in strikeouts and ranks in the top ten in both ERA and WHIP. For years when I read about top prospects there was talk about the two Red Sock arms: Lester and Clay Buchholz. And now they've both actually developed and become top pitchers in the American League. Since the Red Sox have more money than Scrooge McDuck they'll never have to worry about losing these guys in free agency and can just ride them for the next decade. Great. I really hate Boston.
3. Buster Posey. Besides having a sweet name, Posey is one of the top hitting prospects in all of baseball, but the Giants have kept him down at AAA because they are trying to figure out a position for him. He's a catcher officially, but I think he's a catcher more like how Brian McCann and Brian Harper were catchers more than how Joe Mauer and the Molina's are catchers. But when the bat talks, the bat talks, and after hitting .349/.442/.552 at Fresno the Giants made the call and brought him up this weekend. He responded well. In his first game, he went 3-4 with 3 RBI, and in game two on Sunday he 3-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Sounds very Wilson Ramos-y, but I'm no anticipating that same dropoff for Posey. Oh, and remember how I said he was a bad defensive catcher? He played first base in both games.
4. Jason Kubel. He's heating up folks. Lock up your wives and daughters people, Kubel is heating up. He hit .375 this week with 2 homers and 3 doubles, and continued to walk like a madman with an OBP of .500 - by far his overall best week this season. What's crazy is even with his average languishing down in the .230s (and that's a big improvement lately), he's still OBPing at .355 and is second on the team in RBI. If he can keep up this hot streak, I think we're talking possible triple-crown winner. Yes, this year.
5. The Daytona 500. What a race! It was amazing how all those guys drove in a circle so fast. I'm kidding of course, because this stupid race is only thing that sucks about Memorial Day weekend. I'd rather remove my own eyeballs with a shrimp fork than watch racing of any kind. Not counting the Kentucky Derby.
WHO SUCKED
1. Phillies. It seems a titch weird to be putting a team who had a pitcher throw a no-hitter for them into the sucked category, but that was only one of two games they won this week, going 2-4. Going 2-4 might not necessarily warrant inclusion in the bottom section on it's own, but here are their run totals for the week: 0, 0, 0, 3, 1, 0. And here is the illustrious group of pitchers who held them to four total runs for the week: R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi (2 career starts), Mike Pelphrey, Chris Volstad, Josh Johnson (he's actually good), and Anibal Sanchez - and this doesn't even include the near no-hitter Dice-K tossed at them last Saturday. I have a theory. When Rollins was out, their midset was just "hold it together until J-Roll comes back." Then he did, and there was much rejoicing. But, as you would know if you have him on your fantasy team, he got hurt again and is back on the DL, and this time they're pretty bummed. They're still going to end up winning the World Series, but they'll just do it in a less dominating fashion.
2. Kendry Morales. Remember when one of the Gramatica brothers blew out his knee after celebrating like he scored a goal in the World Cup? This is like that, except not quite as funny. In case you missed it, Morales hit a game-winning Grand Slam to beat the Mariners. For some reason, despite it being a game in late May and not in September, the entire team met him at home plate to celebrate. Morales jumped up to land on the plate, and somehow came out of it with a broken leg - a broken leg that might have ended his season. Morales leads the team in average, home runs, and RBI and led in HRs, RBI, and OPS last year, so this is a pretty significant blow. Seriously guys, I know it's exciting to win on a walk-off grand slam, but it's pretty hard to feel sympathy considering they were acting like they won Game 7 of the World Series. Karma is always watching, and Karma hates jackassery.
3. Bobby Jenks. This guy sucks so hard. He came into a non-save situation and gave up 3 hits and 3 runs while walking another 3 guys, and his ERA now stands at 6.35, and his WHIP is 2.06. Somehow he's 7 out of 8 in save opportunities, but when he comes in and it's not a save opp he can't find the plate, and when he does he just gets ripped. Plus he's a big fat idiot who sucks. He's like Charlie Kerfeld crossed with Guy Fieri, with a dash of Jesse Crain.
4. Vince Carter. Bill Simmons long-running opinion of Vince Carter as a player you can't build a team around just continues to get validated over and over again, and really, just a bang-up job against the Celtics. In the three games this week, Vinsanity managed to shoot 10-34, highlighted by an awesome 1-9 in game 4. I saw the one basket he made, and it was a very nice take to the rim, one where he got hit pretty hard and made the free throw for a 3-point play. But, just like Simmons says, if he gets hit he stops getting to the paint and settles for jumpers. And that's exactly what he did. The Magic are screwed with him on the team, but he's under contract for two more years. Even more tragic: he and Rashard Lewis (who also disappeared this postseason) will make a combined $36 million next year. Thirty. Six. Million. Dollars.
5. NBA Finals. Speaking of basketball, I'm bored by this matchup. I'll be rooting for the Celtics, because I love watching Ray Allen shoot the J and I still kind of like Kevin Garnett and I hate Kobe Bryant and basically every other Laker other than Shannon Brown, but I'm bored with it. It will actually be pretty fascinating to watch and see how Kobe deals with such a solid defensive team and if he is willing to keep getting Gasol involved or if he goes into one man show mode and how the Lakers are going to deal with Rondo/Allen/Pierce when Derek Fisher is going to be involved defensively. Maybe it's really not all that bad of a matchup. There are some good story lines and strategy decisions that need to be made here. I take it back, it should be a pretty good finals.
Lastly, I didn't really want to put him in the official awesome section, but it should be noted here for posterity that Snacks had one of the best fishing weekends I've been privileged to see. Apparently a chartreuse single-bladed spinner with a skirt guarantees you won't have to worry about going more than three casts in a row without catching something. Nicely done. Although I still caught the biggest swamp muskie (and the biggest crappie).
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Roy Halladay. I, of course, missed this until I got back into town, but it seems Doc twirled himself a no-hitter this weekend. That gets him to 7-3, with an ERA of 1.99 and a WHIP of 0.99, all while sporting a nice 70-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio. So he's pretty much dominating the national league, just like I said, and has a shot to actually win 25 games, which I also said. That's the reason I wanted to draft him early in our fantasy draft. To which, Snake said, "I wouldn't draft Halladay if he was still there in the fifth round."
2. Jon Lester. Remember watching this guy carve up the Twins a couple weeks ago? Well that wasn't a fluke, and he continued mowing down hitters this week, going 2-0 and racking up 14 strikeouts in 13 innings while giving up just five hits and one run. He's now #2 in the league in strikeouts and ranks in the top ten in both ERA and WHIP. For years when I read about top prospects there was talk about the two Red Sock arms: Lester and Clay Buchholz. And now they've both actually developed and become top pitchers in the American League. Since the Red Sox have more money than Scrooge McDuck they'll never have to worry about losing these guys in free agency and can just ride them for the next decade. Great. I really hate Boston.
3. Buster Posey. Besides having a sweet name, Posey is one of the top hitting prospects in all of baseball, but the Giants have kept him down at AAA because they are trying to figure out a position for him. He's a catcher officially, but I think he's a catcher more like how Brian McCann and Brian Harper were catchers more than how Joe Mauer and the Molina's are catchers. But when the bat talks, the bat talks, and after hitting .349/.442/.552 at Fresno the Giants made the call and brought him up this weekend. He responded well. In his first game, he went 3-4 with 3 RBI, and in game two on Sunday he 3-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Sounds very Wilson Ramos-y, but I'm no anticipating that same dropoff for Posey. Oh, and remember how I said he was a bad defensive catcher? He played first base in both games.
4. Jason Kubel. He's heating up folks. Lock up your wives and daughters people, Kubel is heating up. He hit .375 this week with 2 homers and 3 doubles, and continued to walk like a madman with an OBP of .500 - by far his overall best week this season. What's crazy is even with his average languishing down in the .230s (and that's a big improvement lately), he's still OBPing at .355 and is second on the team in RBI. If he can keep up this hot streak, I think we're talking possible triple-crown winner. Yes, this year.
5. The Daytona 500. What a race! It was amazing how all those guys drove in a circle so fast. I'm kidding of course, because this stupid race is only thing that sucks about Memorial Day weekend. I'd rather remove my own eyeballs with a shrimp fork than watch racing of any kind. Not counting the Kentucky Derby.
WHO SUCKED
1. Phillies. It seems a titch weird to be putting a team who had a pitcher throw a no-hitter for them into the sucked category, but that was only one of two games they won this week, going 2-4. Going 2-4 might not necessarily warrant inclusion in the bottom section on it's own, but here are their run totals for the week: 0, 0, 0, 3, 1, 0. And here is the illustrious group of pitchers who held them to four total runs for the week: R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi (2 career starts), Mike Pelphrey, Chris Volstad, Josh Johnson (he's actually good), and Anibal Sanchez - and this doesn't even include the near no-hitter Dice-K tossed at them last Saturday. I have a theory. When Rollins was out, their midset was just "hold it together until J-Roll comes back." Then he did, and there was much rejoicing. But, as you would know if you have him on your fantasy team, he got hurt again and is back on the DL, and this time they're pretty bummed. They're still going to end up winning the World Series, but they'll just do it in a less dominating fashion.
2. Kendry Morales. Remember when one of the Gramatica brothers blew out his knee after celebrating like he scored a goal in the World Cup? This is like that, except not quite as funny. In case you missed it, Morales hit a game-winning Grand Slam to beat the Mariners. For some reason, despite it being a game in late May and not in September, the entire team met him at home plate to celebrate. Morales jumped up to land on the plate, and somehow came out of it with a broken leg - a broken leg that might have ended his season. Morales leads the team in average, home runs, and RBI and led in HRs, RBI, and OPS last year, so this is a pretty significant blow. Seriously guys, I know it's exciting to win on a walk-off grand slam, but it's pretty hard to feel sympathy considering they were acting like they won Game 7 of the World Series. Karma is always watching, and Karma hates jackassery.
3. Bobby Jenks. This guy sucks so hard. He came into a non-save situation and gave up 3 hits and 3 runs while walking another 3 guys, and his ERA now stands at 6.35, and his WHIP is 2.06. Somehow he's 7 out of 8 in save opportunities, but when he comes in and it's not a save opp he can't find the plate, and when he does he just gets ripped. Plus he's a big fat idiot who sucks. He's like Charlie Kerfeld crossed with Guy Fieri, with a dash of Jesse Crain.
4. Vince Carter. Bill Simmons long-running opinion of Vince Carter as a player you can't build a team around just continues to get validated over and over again, and really, just a bang-up job against the Celtics. In the three games this week, Vinsanity managed to shoot 10-34, highlighted by an awesome 1-9 in game 4. I saw the one basket he made, and it was a very nice take to the rim, one where he got hit pretty hard and made the free throw for a 3-point play. But, just like Simmons says, if he gets hit he stops getting to the paint and settles for jumpers. And that's exactly what he did. The Magic are screwed with him on the team, but he's under contract for two more years. Even more tragic: he and Rashard Lewis (who also disappeared this postseason) will make a combined $36 million next year. Thirty. Six. Million. Dollars.
5. NBA Finals. Speaking of basketball, I'm bored by this matchup. I'll be rooting for the Celtics, because I love watching Ray Allen shoot the J and I still kind of like Kevin Garnett and I hate Kobe Bryant and basically every other Laker other than Shannon Brown, but I'm bored with it. It will actually be pretty fascinating to watch and see how Kobe deals with such a solid defensive team and if he is willing to keep getting Gasol involved or if he goes into one man show mode and how the Lakers are going to deal with Rondo/Allen/Pierce when Derek Fisher is going to be involved defensively. Maybe it's really not all that bad of a matchup. There are some good story lines and strategy decisions that need to be made here. I take it back, it should be a pretty good finals.
Lastly, I didn't really want to put him in the official awesome section, but it should be noted here for posterity that Snacks had one of the best fishing weekends I've been privileged to see. Apparently a chartreuse single-bladed spinner with a skirt guarantees you won't have to worry about going more than three casts in a row without catching something. Nicely done. Although I still caught the biggest swamp muskie (and the biggest crappie).
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Two Live Blogs for the Price of One
I finally have a chance to sit and watch a Twins game in peace and to completion, and on an actual TV with actual sound instead of on the computer, so why not live blog it? Of course, it's already the bottom of the seventh and the Twins are down 2-1 to the Yankees, but still. It's a real TV with actual sound. Which could definitely be a negative. Whatever. You suck.
8:08 - Delmoney! Just as I sit down to watch, Delmoney hits one about 390 off the wall to tie the game at 2-2. So runner on second with one out. I would be willing to bet any amount of money that they don't get that run home.
8:10 - Like clockwork, Hardy bounces it right back to Pettitte who catches Delmon too far off the base and he's erased. The ghost of Lew Ford strikes again. Now it's a runner on first with Harris up and two outs. I would now be willing to bet any amount of money x 2 they don't take the lead.
8:13 - Maybe Delmon would be a good name for a boy (Baby Boy W = 11 weeks from arrival and counting). Or do I go with Delmoney? Or just Delmon, but call him Delmoney? Man, there are so many decisions you have to make with a kid on the way.
8:15 - Guerrier is in. I kind of hope he ends up facing A-Rod. Just because he can't possibly give up another home run, can he? It's not like we're talking Jesse Crain here.
8:17 - A quick box score check shows A-Rod made the last out in the last inning, so this is definitely the safest time to put ole Matty Yardball in the game.
8:18 - Francisco Cervelli. That's just fun to say. And have you seen some of these guys on the Yankees now? Juan Miranda. Ramiro Pena. Damaso Marte. Alfredo Aceves. Boone Logan. Sergio Mitre. They're like a linguist's dream. And also sound like the roster of the Puerto Rican team from the World Baseball Classic.
8:21 - He walks Cervelli. Walks will haunt.
8:25 - Butera just hit the ball as far as he can, which was really just in the gap, and it was still almost caught by Gardner, but just went off his glove. First career extra base hit. Congrats. Way to only get a double, slow ass.
8:26 - Hold up. Why the mother hell isn't Gardy pinch running here? I know Mauer is DHing so if you pinch run and he moves to catcher you lose your DH. But it's the 8th damn inning in a 2-2 game. Guess what you do here? YOU PINCH RUN GOD DAMMIT! It's the 8th! Odds are that spot won't even come up again. And if he's trying to sac bunt - which he is with Span - even if you get Butera to third you'll have to hit it very deep to get him in. This move makes zero sense at all. None. Zero.
8:28 - Awesome. Span makes a bad bunt, Butera freezes at second, but A-Rod boots it and it's now first and third and nobody is going to say a word about not pinch running. Bert and Dick haven't even hinted at it. God this is annoying. I hope Butera gets tossed out tagging on a medium deep fly ball.
8:29 - Line out. 1 down. Mauer up. This is screaming 4-6-3.
8:29 - Serious, Gardy makes more game mistakes than anybody I've ever seen ever, but this crap always happens and nobody ever calls him on it. I have no problem granting that he is clearly a good manager in terms of managing people/egos/whatever, but his game management skills are worse than Dawger trying to manage a fantasy football team.
8:34 - My bad. It was 6-4-3. What a waste of an inning. I wish I could blame this on Gardy somehow. That was still a really stupid non-pinch run, even though it ended up not mattering. It will at some point. I often wonder if the Twins would make it further in the playoffs with somebody who understood basic strategy. I bet he loses to kindergartners in checkers often.
8:36 - That GB Leighton song is brutal.
8:40 - Swisher with a monster blast off of Rauch. Mariano is about to get two saves in one day. Sweet. I'm so glad I'm watching.
8:41 - I really liked the Lost finale, by the way, if you're wondering. And I'm sure you are.
8:42 - Cuddyer has a pretty good arm, throwing out Tex going for two on a ball hit into the corner. I'm still depressed.
8:45 - So Pettitte warms up, but then before Morneau gets to hit they pull him and bring in Rivera. So clearly the whole point of having Pettitte warm up was just to stall. Doesn't seem legal. Dick and Bert are saying it's supposed to be against the rules, so that basically guarantees it's completely legal, but it seems like it shouldn't be. If I cared I'd be outraged.
8:49 - Cuddy lines one into the dugout. I'll bet anything he was trying to take out Gardy. I now approve of Cuddyer.
8:52 - Three weak grounders and we're done. And if you thought this blog post was boring, the game was ten times worse.
Will the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals be any better? I'm guessing no.
9:41 - I took a short break to watch Above the Rim before I remembered this game was on. How can you not love a basketball movie with 2-Pac, Marlon Wayans, and a guy who plays basketball against an imaginary opponent with no ball. Plus, Bernie Mac back when he was funny before he got all popular and then sucked. GET OFF OF ME!!!!!!!
9:42 - I don't know what happened, but Big Baby apparently got clocked in the head and is quite a bit disoriented right now. So disoriented, that he basically sprinted right at the ref, who to his credit didn't get out of the way. I don't know about you, but if a big black man is sprinting towards me with a crazed look in his eye my general strategy is to throw my wallet at him and run.
9:44 - Oh, and by the way that whole sequence was ten times more fun than the Twins game. He went down like Zach Galifanwhatever when Tyson decked him in The Hangover. Great movie.
9:46 - We're heading to the fourth with the Tragic up 9. Let's hope for a little entertainment here.
9:47 - When you go to put in labels for the posts (the little tags below each post), as you are typing tags you've used in the past with the same letter combinations popup. When I was typing "Orlando Magic" in there, "Magic Taco" popped up. I have zero idea what this could be referring to.
9:50 - Jason Williams is still playing, by the way, and after toning down the And 1 Mix Tape Tour crap he's actually a really solid back-up point guard. It's kind of tough to get past the "White Chocolate" nickname, though. Plus how he framed Randy Moss back in high school for all the issues he had. It wasn't moss, it was Whitey Chocolate holding him down. I'd mention his high school transgressions here, but for the life of me I can't remember what any of them were or why he ended up at Marshall. I think he might have punched out some dumb white hick at a bowling alley, but that might have been Allen Iverson.
9:53 - Speaking of And 1, did anybody ever watch that show on MTV from like seven or so years ago, where it was basically Top Chef but instead of cooking it was basketball? And instead of basketball it was street ball? And Magic Johnson hosted? And some white guy won? It was so, so awesome. I need to find a way to watch it again. Plus, not working from home anymore I can't get my And 1 Tour fix on ESPN2 from noon - one every afternoon. At least they're bringing back NBA Jam. I love fake basketball.
9:56 - Oh my god. Tell me Rico Tucker wouldn't be a dominant force on the And 1 Tour. I should shoot him a message on facebook and tell him. We're friends, so he wouldn't mind.
9:57 - Rashard Lewis has 12 points tonight. I think that is what he had in games 1-4 combined.
9:58 - So I just checked, and it turns out Snacks put us down for the Magic to outscore the Celtics from the 12:00 mark to the 6:00 mark of the fourth quarter, and for the 6:00 to 0:00 half-quarter as well. I didn't even know you could bet half quarters. I think one of us has a problem.
10:00 - So it seems Kendrick Perkins was ejected for getting two technicals, and now Big Baby is down with a dented forehead, so guys playing relevant minutes for the Celtics include Nate Robinson, who is a good dunker for a midget and good in an uptempo game - the opposite of what the Celtics do, Marquis Daniels, who has been a third-stringer for like 10 teams in 10 years, and Michael Finley, who actually makes the Celtics average age increase by coming in the game.
10:02 - I haven't looked this up to verify or anything, but when Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Finley, and Rasheed are one the floor together, which they haven't been all night, their combined age is 207.
10:05 - Orlando is up 13 with 7:24 left. Why is everything so boring tonight? I actually have full control over the TV, and I'm bored out of my mind. Watching Bernie Mac and that kid from that movie play one-on-one for Boomps is the most entertained I've been. I wish I had a White Men Can't Jump DVD here.
10:08 - In case you were wondering, Rasheed can still shoot. Also in case you're wondering, it would be pretty damn funny if the Celtics blew a 3-0 lead in the same year the Bruins blew a 3-0 lead. I only know that because I heard it on the radio. No, I don't watch hockey. I'm not some kind of mouth-breathing cretin.
10:12 - The lead is now 18. This is really fun.
10:16 - Marquis Daniels ended up leaving with a concussion at some point when I wasn't paying attention. That explains everything.
10:18 - Lot of effort out there on both sides. It's just a battle. You got to love this passion and drive. This is why the NBA is so much better than college, nobody is out there just going through the motions. So much love for the game.
10:25 - Just realized that Kendrick Perkins is now automatically suspended for game 6 since he got ejected in game 5. He's super, super important for the Celtics because he's basically the only one who can guard Howard. And the play he got his second tech on was pretty bad, like NBA the fix is in bad. Except I'm pretty sure the NBA wants Celtics/Lakers, so expect them to change the rules to get Perkins back in there.
10:27 - Game over. Post over. What a waste of time this all was. Although if I wasted just one other person's time reading this, then I've done my part.
8:08 - Delmoney! Just as I sit down to watch, Delmoney hits one about 390 off the wall to tie the game at 2-2. So runner on second with one out. I would be willing to bet any amount of money that they don't get that run home.
8:10 - Like clockwork, Hardy bounces it right back to Pettitte who catches Delmon too far off the base and he's erased. The ghost of Lew Ford strikes again. Now it's a runner on first with Harris up and two outs. I would now be willing to bet any amount of money x 2 they don't take the lead.
8:13 - Maybe Delmon would be a good name for a boy (Baby Boy W = 11 weeks from arrival and counting). Or do I go with Delmoney? Or just Delmon, but call him Delmoney? Man, there are so many decisions you have to make with a kid on the way.
8:15 - Guerrier is in. I kind of hope he ends up facing A-Rod. Just because he can't possibly give up another home run, can he? It's not like we're talking Jesse Crain here.
8:17 - A quick box score check shows A-Rod made the last out in the last inning, so this is definitely the safest time to put ole Matty Yardball in the game.
8:18 - Francisco Cervelli. That's just fun to say. And have you seen some of these guys on the Yankees now? Juan Miranda. Ramiro Pena. Damaso Marte. Alfredo Aceves. Boone Logan. Sergio Mitre. They're like a linguist's dream. And also sound like the roster of the Puerto Rican team from the World Baseball Classic.
8:21 - He walks Cervelli. Walks will haunt.
8:25 - Butera just hit the ball as far as he can, which was really just in the gap, and it was still almost caught by Gardner, but just went off his glove. First career extra base hit. Congrats. Way to only get a double, slow ass.
8:26 - Hold up. Why the mother hell isn't Gardy pinch running here? I know Mauer is DHing so if you pinch run and he moves to catcher you lose your DH. But it's the 8th damn inning in a 2-2 game. Guess what you do here? YOU PINCH RUN GOD DAMMIT! It's the 8th! Odds are that spot won't even come up again. And if he's trying to sac bunt - which he is with Span - even if you get Butera to third you'll have to hit it very deep to get him in. This move makes zero sense at all. None. Zero.
8:28 - Awesome. Span makes a bad bunt, Butera freezes at second, but A-Rod boots it and it's now first and third and nobody is going to say a word about not pinch running. Bert and Dick haven't even hinted at it. God this is annoying. I hope Butera gets tossed out tagging on a medium deep fly ball.
8:29 - Line out. 1 down. Mauer up. This is screaming 4-6-3.
8:29 - Serious, Gardy makes more game mistakes than anybody I've ever seen ever, but this crap always happens and nobody ever calls him on it. I have no problem granting that he is clearly a good manager in terms of managing people/egos/whatever, but his game management skills are worse than Dawger trying to manage a fantasy football team.
8:34 - My bad. It was 6-4-3. What a waste of an inning. I wish I could blame this on Gardy somehow. That was still a really stupid non-pinch run, even though it ended up not mattering. It will at some point. I often wonder if the Twins would make it further in the playoffs with somebody who understood basic strategy. I bet he loses to kindergartners in checkers often.
8:36 - That GB Leighton song is brutal.
8:40 - Swisher with a monster blast off of Rauch. Mariano is about to get two saves in one day. Sweet. I'm so glad I'm watching.
8:41 - I really liked the Lost finale, by the way, if you're wondering. And I'm sure you are.
8:42 - Cuddyer has a pretty good arm, throwing out Tex going for two on a ball hit into the corner. I'm still depressed.
8:45 - So Pettitte warms up, but then before Morneau gets to hit they pull him and bring in Rivera. So clearly the whole point of having Pettitte warm up was just to stall. Doesn't seem legal. Dick and Bert are saying it's supposed to be against the rules, so that basically guarantees it's completely legal, but it seems like it shouldn't be. If I cared I'd be outraged.
8:49 - Cuddy lines one into the dugout. I'll bet anything he was trying to take out Gardy. I now approve of Cuddyer.
8:52 - Three weak grounders and we're done. And if you thought this blog post was boring, the game was ten times worse.
Will the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals be any better? I'm guessing no.
9:41 - I took a short break to watch Above the Rim before I remembered this game was on. How can you not love a basketball movie with 2-Pac, Marlon Wayans, and a guy who plays basketball against an imaginary opponent with no ball. Plus, Bernie Mac back when he was funny before he got all popular and then sucked. GET OFF OF ME!!!!!!!
9:42 - I don't know what happened, but Big Baby apparently got clocked in the head and is quite a bit disoriented right now. So disoriented, that he basically sprinted right at the ref, who to his credit didn't get out of the way. I don't know about you, but if a big black man is sprinting towards me with a crazed look in his eye my general strategy is to throw my wallet at him and run.
9:44 - Oh, and by the way that whole sequence was ten times more fun than the Twins game. He went down like Zach Galifanwhatever when Tyson decked him in The Hangover. Great movie.
9:46 - We're heading to the fourth with the Tragic up 9. Let's hope for a little entertainment here.
9:47 - When you go to put in labels for the posts (the little tags below each post), as you are typing tags you've used in the past with the same letter combinations popup. When I was typing "Orlando Magic" in there, "Magic Taco" popped up. I have zero idea what this could be referring to.
9:50 - Jason Williams is still playing, by the way, and after toning down the And 1 Mix Tape Tour crap he's actually a really solid back-up point guard. It's kind of tough to get past the "White Chocolate" nickname, though. Plus how he framed Randy Moss back in high school for all the issues he had. It wasn't moss, it was Whitey Chocolate holding him down. I'd mention his high school transgressions here, but for the life of me I can't remember what any of them were or why he ended up at Marshall. I think he might have punched out some dumb white hick at a bowling alley, but that might have been Allen Iverson.
9:53 - Speaking of And 1, did anybody ever watch that show on MTV from like seven or so years ago, where it was basically Top Chef but instead of cooking it was basketball? And instead of basketball it was street ball? And Magic Johnson hosted? And some white guy won? It was so, so awesome. I need to find a way to watch it again. Plus, not working from home anymore I can't get my And 1 Tour fix on ESPN2 from noon - one every afternoon. At least they're bringing back NBA Jam. I love fake basketball.
9:56 - Oh my god. Tell me Rico Tucker wouldn't be a dominant force on the And 1 Tour. I should shoot him a message on facebook and tell him. We're friends, so he wouldn't mind.
9:57 - Rashard Lewis has 12 points tonight. I think that is what he had in games 1-4 combined.
9:58 - So I just checked, and it turns out Snacks put us down for the Magic to outscore the Celtics from the 12:00 mark to the 6:00 mark of the fourth quarter, and for the 6:00 to 0:00 half-quarter as well. I didn't even know you could bet half quarters. I think one of us has a problem.
10:00 - So it seems Kendrick Perkins was ejected for getting two technicals, and now Big Baby is down with a dented forehead, so guys playing relevant minutes for the Celtics include Nate Robinson, who is a good dunker for a midget and good in an uptempo game - the opposite of what the Celtics do, Marquis Daniels, who has been a third-stringer for like 10 teams in 10 years, and Michael Finley, who actually makes the Celtics average age increase by coming in the game.
10:02 - I haven't looked this up to verify or anything, but when Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Finley, and Rasheed are one the floor together, which they haven't been all night, their combined age is 207.
10:05 - Orlando is up 13 with 7:24 left. Why is everything so boring tonight? I actually have full control over the TV, and I'm bored out of my mind. Watching Bernie Mac and that kid from that movie play one-on-one for Boomps is the most entertained I've been. I wish I had a White Men Can't Jump DVD here.
10:08 - In case you were wondering, Rasheed can still shoot. Also in case you're wondering, it would be pretty damn funny if the Celtics blew a 3-0 lead in the same year the Bruins blew a 3-0 lead. I only know that because I heard it on the radio. No, I don't watch hockey. I'm not some kind of mouth-breathing cretin.
10:12 - The lead is now 18. This is really fun.
10:16 - Marquis Daniels ended up leaving with a concussion at some point when I wasn't paying attention. That explains everything.
10:18 - Lot of effort out there on both sides. It's just a battle. You got to love this passion and drive. This is why the NBA is so much better than college, nobody is out there just going through the motions. So much love for the game.
10:25 - Just realized that Kendrick Perkins is now automatically suspended for game 6 since he got ejected in game 5. He's super, super important for the Celtics because he's basically the only one who can guard Howard. And the play he got his second tech on was pretty bad, like NBA the fix is in bad. Except I'm pretty sure the NBA wants Celtics/Lakers, so expect them to change the rules to get Perkins back in there.
10:27 - Game over. Post over. What a waste of time this all was. Although if I wasted just one other person's time reading this, then I've done my part.
Monday, May 24, 2010
I Want Ryan Boatright
Who is Ryan Boatright? you are probably asking yourself, and up until yesterday I didn't know either. But now that I know, I'm jazzed.
Boatright is a class of 2011 point guard from Illinois who is ranked by Rivals as the #90 overall prospect and #16 point guard for the class, and who the Gophers and Tubby Smith are looking at. He doesn't have an offer yet, but he doesn't have an offer from anybody because schools are still waiting on his ACT Score according to one article (not that it's been bad, just that it hasn't come back yet.) Of course, another article says he has offers from Wake and Miami, so who the hell knows, but I know that I want him.
He's described as lightning quick with a crisp shooting stroke. His passing is rated as "outstanding", with shooting, handling, and rebounding all rated as "good." He led the U.S. Under 17 Junior National Team in scoring at 19.6 points per game this April in a tournament in Germany. His ball-handling is described as elite and impressive. He's said to have a good feel for the game. He can score in bunches. He can shoot. He's an excellent defender. He once delivered a baby while driving a city bus after the driver had a heart attack, fighting off a mugger the whole time - and then giving the driving a tracheotomy with a ball point pen. He's everything I always knew I always wanted.
Boatright has been on the national radar for a long time, having committed to USC as a 14-year old. Huge shocker here, but he has backed out of that commitment and is now hearing from West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas State, and Wake Forest along with the Gophers, with it sounding like Kentucky and K-State are in the lead right now, but not by much. Heady competition for his services, but Tubby has pulled things like this off before. Not so much this year. Or last year. But the year before that was pretty good. Do it again.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Week in Review - 5/24/2010
How weird is it that in my very last post, the one about Justin Cobbs, I referenced 'Lil Romeo and his career at USC, and now news is breaking all over the place that Romeo is leaving the program. Some people just report the news. I create it. With great power, comes great responsibility.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Kobe Bryant. I'm pretty sure anybody arguing that Kobe isn't the best player in the NBA at this point is either retarded or a moron, and it absolutely kills me to compliment him. It's impossible not to after the games he's put together against the Suns this week. Game 1: 40 points on 13-23 shooting, 5 assists, 5 boards. Game 2: 21 points on 8-18 shooting, 13 assists, 5 rebounds. And he was masterful. Took over scoring in Game 1 when the Suns single-covered him, and then became facilitator when they doubled him in Game 2. If he played like this all the time, he'd be the clear-cut best player in the NBA (he also had 36-11-9 in Game 3 but I didn't watch it because I was watching Lost so I can't comment). Plus, he made an appearance on the awesome awesome Modern Family for their season finale, and actually seemed somewhat likable. Or at least he didn't rape anybody. That I know of.
2. Dice-K. Matsuzaka almost pitched a no-hitter on Saturday night, going 7 and 2/3 before giving up a soft single to Juan Castro (yes, THE Juan Castro) to break it up. And why wouldn't he? I mean he came into that game with an ERA of 5.97 and WHIP of 1.3, and had only made it 7 innings in one of his four starts since returning from injury, so it was obvious a game like this was coming. Seriously, what is the deal with Boston and pitchers? It's like anybody who goes there suddenly has these random unhittable nights. Lester and Buchholz have no-hitters in the last couple of years, and now Dice-K with this masterful performance out of nowhere. I'd be fascinated by this and look up who the pitching coach there is, but I hate the Red Sox with all my heart so I'm not going to waste any more time here.
3. Bryce Harper. I suppose it's gotten to the point where I can't really ignore Harper anymore, especially since he's going to be the number 1 pick for the Nationals in the upcoming amateur draft, and helped propel his JC team to the JuCo World Series. How did he lead them to the NJCAA Western Division Championship? Simply by hitting for the cycle on Friday and then following that up with a 6-6 game with four home runs and ten RBIs, going 12 for 13 in the last two games. They hype on this kid has been ridiculous, but it's looking like he might actually be able to live up to it. More background here if you're interested, but in case you aren't familiar with him a quick summary is that he's a 17-year old catcher who dropped out of high school to attend the College of Southern Nevada after his sophomore year, taking the GED in order to get eligible to play and will now be eligible for the draft despite not being able to vote yet. Basically his whole life has been geared around being a professional baseball player. When this burn out comes, it's going to be spectacular. You know those repressed kids who get to college and just go insane with freedom? Like that x100.
4. Edwin Jackson. You remember this guy. Big-time prospect for the Rays, who was then a big-time prospect for the Tigers, who was then shipped to the D-backs for Max Scherzer. So far this season, it had looked like there was a reason he'd been on three teams in three years, racking up a 7.43 ERA in 8 starts, allowing 60 hits in 46 innings, and walking 18 with just 32 strikeouts. Suddenly this week, however, things look like they might be turning around. On Monday he went 8 innings, allowing 4 hits and no runs while striking out 12 and walking just two. Then on Saturday, he followed it up with a 7 and 2/3 inning performance, allowing six hits and five runs. That Saturday outing may not sound that great, but he struck out 9 and walked none, and had allowed just one run through seven innings before giving up a couple of homers in the 8th. He may very well go back to sucking, but that 21-2 K/BB ratio in his last two starts says he may have turned a corner.
5. Justin Morneau. Good god. Completely ridiculous. You know how a lot of people say Ted Williams was the best hitter ever? And others go with Ruth, or Bonds, or maybe Ty Cobb? Clearly all those people are idiots, because it's obvious Morneau is the best hitter ever. I haven't looked this up, but I'm pretty sure his line drive % this year is 100%. Or maybe like 75%, with 24% being home runs and 1% being ground balls that are hit so hard infielders are jumping out of the way. Seriously, remember how amazing Joe Mauer's season was last year? And yeah, it was pretty incredible, but this year Morneau is better than him in every single statistic. 18 points higher in batting average, 53 points higher in OBP, and 114 points better in slugging, and he's on pace to hit 15 or so more homers and walk about 60 more times. Just crazy numbers. Let's put it this way. Morneau is about 30% better this year compared to Mauer last year if we use OPS+ as our guide. To put that in perspective, last year Mauer was about 30% better than Michael Cuddyer last year. That's how good Morneau has been.
WHO SUCKED
1. Orlando Magic. There is just so much to choose from here. What's your favorite part? Vince Carter's Dajuan Wagner impression at the end of game 2? Getting smoked in an absolute must-win game by 23 in a game that wasn't nearly that close? Letting Rasheed become a major factor? Letting Big Baby become a major factor? Dwight Howard being dominated in two of the three games by a combination of Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed? Rashard Lewis taking three games to finally surpass his season per game average in scoring, and only surpassing it by a single point thanks to his 6-24 shooting? Or maybe watching as KG and Ray Allen, who had looked pretty broken down at times this season, suddenly dominating like it was 2002. Just a whole lot to love here. I suppose I could give credit to the Celtics, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's really been pretty pathetic. Orlando Tragic, indeed.
2. Tommy Hanson. There's nothing quite as exquisite as watching someone I've pimped on the record completely flame out. Except instead of exquisite I mean whatever is the exact opposite of that. Hanson is having an excellent year thus far, and will likely continue to have an excellent year, and will probably have a very good career, but for one afternoon he was doing a hell of a Jesse Crain impression if Crain was a starter. On Thursday against the Reds, Hanson couldn't even get out of the second inning. He faced a total of 16 batters, and got less than a third of them out, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs in just 1 and 2/3 innings. Ouch, Tommy. Ouch. I feel betrayed. Like Caesar. Or the Cherokee.
3. Rickie Weeks. Once a top prospect, Weeks struggled for his first four seasons a bit, being about a league average hitter and below average fielder. Then last season, he seemed to be putting it together, adding some power to his already always impressive on-base percentage, hitting 9 home runs in his first 37 games, and looked like he might fault towards the top of the second-basemen rankings if such a thing existed. Unfortunately, an injury derailed the rest of the season and he missed the rest of the year. He started off this season again like gangbusters and was kicking some ass, but the last couple of weeks he's fallen off the face of the planet. He went 3-18 this week. When added to his 3-24 week the week prior, you can see why his average has dropped from the .330s where it was earlier this season all the way down to the .230s. His power is also gone (slugging .382, lowest of his career), and he's already made five errors - which I think is more than the entire Twins team. I think his window has pretty much closed, and he's never going to end up living up to his potential. It's probably the dreadlocks.
4. Kerry Wood. Remember when I mentioned that Wood would probably be a pretty sought after closer around the trade deadline this year assuming he got healthy? Well, he got healthy. Too bad he sucks. On Friday he pitched an inning against the Reds, giving up a home run, and actually lowered his ERA by more than two runs. That's because on Wednesday he pitched against the Royals, and only managed to get one out. While trying to get that one out, he walked two batters and gave up four hits, allowing five runs to score. He did pitch a scoreless inning Sunday which lowered his ERA to 13.50 and WHIP to 2.63, and might end up being good again, but he certainly didn't get himself off to a good start.
5. Channing Frye. As far as NBA players go, Frye is not a particularly good one, although he's not terrible either. He does have one particularly valuable skill however, and that is being 6-11 and being able to make three-pointers. In fact, he made them at a 44% clip, good enough for 6th in the league, was in the All-Star 3-point contest, and takes more than half his attempts from behind the arc. He's basically a more accurate Rick Rickert, except in the NBA it's a valuable skill and doesn't necessarily mean you're a big baby who is afraid to play inside. Anyway, when a guy with one skill can't pull off that skill in the Western Conference Finals, it ain't pretty. Through three games he's 1-14 from three, and 1-20 overall from the floor. Somehow, the Suns are only down 2-1 despite this. Just a brutal choke job. Also, can somebody please tell Jared Dudley to stop cheering for himself so hard every time he makes a shot? It's really irritating. Like watching some chowder at open gym who finally hits a shot after clanging ten in a row off the side of the backboard.
Special mention for suckitude to Todd Coffey. What a spaz. I'm surprised they don't make him wear a helmet out there.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Kobe Bryant. I'm pretty sure anybody arguing that Kobe isn't the best player in the NBA at this point is either retarded or a moron, and it absolutely kills me to compliment him. It's impossible not to after the games he's put together against the Suns this week. Game 1: 40 points on 13-23 shooting, 5 assists, 5 boards. Game 2: 21 points on 8-18 shooting, 13 assists, 5 rebounds. And he was masterful. Took over scoring in Game 1 when the Suns single-covered him, and then became facilitator when they doubled him in Game 2. If he played like this all the time, he'd be the clear-cut best player in the NBA (he also had 36-11-9 in Game 3 but I didn't watch it because I was watching Lost so I can't comment). Plus, he made an appearance on the awesome awesome Modern Family for their season finale, and actually seemed somewhat likable. Or at least he didn't rape anybody. That I know of.
2. Dice-K. Matsuzaka almost pitched a no-hitter on Saturday night, going 7 and 2/3 before giving up a soft single to Juan Castro (yes, THE Juan Castro) to break it up. And why wouldn't he? I mean he came into that game with an ERA of 5.97 and WHIP of 1.3, and had only made it 7 innings in one of his four starts since returning from injury, so it was obvious a game like this was coming. Seriously, what is the deal with Boston and pitchers? It's like anybody who goes there suddenly has these random unhittable nights. Lester and Buchholz have no-hitters in the last couple of years, and now Dice-K with this masterful performance out of nowhere. I'd be fascinated by this and look up who the pitching coach there is, but I hate the Red Sox with all my heart so I'm not going to waste any more time here.
3. Bryce Harper. I suppose it's gotten to the point where I can't really ignore Harper anymore, especially since he's going to be the number 1 pick for the Nationals in the upcoming amateur draft, and helped propel his JC team to the JuCo World Series. How did he lead them to the NJCAA Western Division Championship? Simply by hitting for the cycle on Friday and then following that up with a 6-6 game with four home runs and ten RBIs, going 12 for 13 in the last two games. They hype on this kid has been ridiculous, but it's looking like he might actually be able to live up to it. More background here if you're interested, but in case you aren't familiar with him a quick summary is that he's a 17-year old catcher who dropped out of high school to attend the College of Southern Nevada after his sophomore year, taking the GED in order to get eligible to play and will now be eligible for the draft despite not being able to vote yet. Basically his whole life has been geared around being a professional baseball player. When this burn out comes, it's going to be spectacular. You know those repressed kids who get to college and just go insane with freedom? Like that x100.
4. Edwin Jackson. You remember this guy. Big-time prospect for the Rays, who was then a big-time prospect for the Tigers, who was then shipped to the D-backs for Max Scherzer. So far this season, it had looked like there was a reason he'd been on three teams in three years, racking up a 7.43 ERA in 8 starts, allowing 60 hits in 46 innings, and walking 18 with just 32 strikeouts. Suddenly this week, however, things look like they might be turning around. On Monday he went 8 innings, allowing 4 hits and no runs while striking out 12 and walking just two. Then on Saturday, he followed it up with a 7 and 2/3 inning performance, allowing six hits and five runs. That Saturday outing may not sound that great, but he struck out 9 and walked none, and had allowed just one run through seven innings before giving up a couple of homers in the 8th. He may very well go back to sucking, but that 21-2 K/BB ratio in his last two starts says he may have turned a corner.
5. Justin Morneau. Good god. Completely ridiculous. You know how a lot of people say Ted Williams was the best hitter ever? And others go with Ruth, or Bonds, or maybe Ty Cobb? Clearly all those people are idiots, because it's obvious Morneau is the best hitter ever. I haven't looked this up, but I'm pretty sure his line drive % this year is 100%. Or maybe like 75%, with 24% being home runs and 1% being ground balls that are hit so hard infielders are jumping out of the way. Seriously, remember how amazing Joe Mauer's season was last year? And yeah, it was pretty incredible, but this year Morneau is better than him in every single statistic. 18 points higher in batting average, 53 points higher in OBP, and 114 points better in slugging, and he's on pace to hit 15 or so more homers and walk about 60 more times. Just crazy numbers. Let's put it this way. Morneau is about 30% better this year compared to Mauer last year if we use OPS+ as our guide. To put that in perspective, last year Mauer was about 30% better than Michael Cuddyer last year. That's how good Morneau has been.
WHO SUCKED
1. Orlando Magic. There is just so much to choose from here. What's your favorite part? Vince Carter's Dajuan Wagner impression at the end of game 2? Getting smoked in an absolute must-win game by 23 in a game that wasn't nearly that close? Letting Rasheed become a major factor? Letting Big Baby become a major factor? Dwight Howard being dominated in two of the three games by a combination of Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed? Rashard Lewis taking three games to finally surpass his season per game average in scoring, and only surpassing it by a single point thanks to his 6-24 shooting? Or maybe watching as KG and Ray Allen, who had looked pretty broken down at times this season, suddenly dominating like it was 2002. Just a whole lot to love here. I suppose I could give credit to the Celtics, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's really been pretty pathetic. Orlando Tragic, indeed.
2. Tommy Hanson. There's nothing quite as exquisite as watching someone I've pimped on the record completely flame out. Except instead of exquisite I mean whatever is the exact opposite of that. Hanson is having an excellent year thus far, and will likely continue to have an excellent year, and will probably have a very good career, but for one afternoon he was doing a hell of a Jesse Crain impression if Crain was a starter. On Thursday against the Reds, Hanson couldn't even get out of the second inning. He faced a total of 16 batters, and got less than a third of them out, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs in just 1 and 2/3 innings. Ouch, Tommy. Ouch. I feel betrayed. Like Caesar. Or the Cherokee.
3. Rickie Weeks. Once a top prospect, Weeks struggled for his first four seasons a bit, being about a league average hitter and below average fielder. Then last season, he seemed to be putting it together, adding some power to his already always impressive on-base percentage, hitting 9 home runs in his first 37 games, and looked like he might fault towards the top of the second-basemen rankings if such a thing existed. Unfortunately, an injury derailed the rest of the season and he missed the rest of the year. He started off this season again like gangbusters and was kicking some ass, but the last couple of weeks he's fallen off the face of the planet. He went 3-18 this week. When added to his 3-24 week the week prior, you can see why his average has dropped from the .330s where it was earlier this season all the way down to the .230s. His power is also gone (slugging .382, lowest of his career), and he's already made five errors - which I think is more than the entire Twins team. I think his window has pretty much closed, and he's never going to end up living up to his potential. It's probably the dreadlocks.
4. Kerry Wood. Remember when I mentioned that Wood would probably be a pretty sought after closer around the trade deadline this year assuming he got healthy? Well, he got healthy. Too bad he sucks. On Friday he pitched an inning against the Reds, giving up a home run, and actually lowered his ERA by more than two runs. That's because on Wednesday he pitched against the Royals, and only managed to get one out. While trying to get that one out, he walked two batters and gave up four hits, allowing five runs to score. He did pitch a scoreless inning Sunday which lowered his ERA to 13.50 and WHIP to 2.63, and might end up being good again, but he certainly didn't get himself off to a good start.
5. Channing Frye. As far as NBA players go, Frye is not a particularly good one, although he's not terrible either. He does have one particularly valuable skill however, and that is being 6-11 and being able to make three-pointers. In fact, he made them at a 44% clip, good enough for 6th in the league, was in the All-Star 3-point contest, and takes more than half his attempts from behind the arc. He's basically a more accurate Rick Rickert, except in the NBA it's a valuable skill and doesn't necessarily mean you're a big baby who is afraid to play inside. Anyway, when a guy with one skill can't pull off that skill in the Western Conference Finals, it ain't pretty. Through three games he's 1-14 from three, and 1-20 overall from the floor. Somehow, the Suns are only down 2-1 despite this. Just a brutal choke job. Also, can somebody please tell Jared Dudley to stop cheering for himself so hard every time he makes a shot? It's really irritating. Like watching some chowder at open gym who finally hits a shot after clanging ten in a row off the side of the backboard.
Special mention for suckitude to Todd Coffey. What a spaz. I'm surprised they don't make him wear a helmet out there.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Cobbs to Cali.
Ok, so Mr. Cobbs is transferring, officially this time, to Cal. Great. Good for him. Now he gets to play closer to home and be in a shitty conference. I have to say though, I think he'd be much better served going to a mid-major type school rather than a BCS conference school - even in the worst conference. I know we only got to see him for a year, but I don't think he'll be able to handle a starting gig in the Pac.
Do you think he'll be able to guard Malcolm Lee? Isaiah Thomas (if he's still around when Cobbsy is eligible) would run circles around him. The Pacific-10 might be in a down-cycle now, but they have some awfully good recruits coming in the next two years at the point. Keala King at Arizona State and Ahmad Starks at Oregon State are already committed for 2010, and odds are guys like Anthony Wroten, Josiah Turner, and Jahii Carson will end up out there in 2011, right as he becomes eligible. And Carson is a good bet to be a Golden Bear. And that's not even mentioning Gary Franklin, a top-20 point guard and top-80 national recruit who is already heading to Cal next year.
About the only point guard he'll be able to guard in the conference is Lil' Romeo who, yes, is still at USC and will be a senior when Cobbs starts playing.
I just don't get this decision, and I'm not trying to rip the kid because I actually thought he would end up being a decent contributor and solid back-up PG down the line. His reasons for transferring (outside of the understandable homesickness) were concerns about playing time and a dislike for Tubby's slow it down offense. But I don't see a real opportunity for more playing time at Cal, and the Bears are basically an average team in terms of tempo. Faster than the Gophers, yes, but we aren't exactly talking Loyola-Marymount 1988 here. Honestly Long Beach would have been perfect for him. A big-time uptempo squad (38th) who can make the NCAA Tournament, and it's still a low-major so he'd have a chance to be a major contributor.
Fare thee well, Justin Cobbs. I wish him luck. I think he would have been best served sticking around and being the back-up PG for three more years and contributing that way instead of doing the exact same thing at Cal, but to each his own. I just think he could have made a better choice.
Do you think he'll be able to guard Malcolm Lee? Isaiah Thomas (if he's still around when Cobbsy is eligible) would run circles around him. The Pacific-10 might be in a down-cycle now, but they have some awfully good recruits coming in the next two years at the point. Keala King at Arizona State and Ahmad Starks at Oregon State are already committed for 2010, and odds are guys like Anthony Wroten, Josiah Turner, and Jahii Carson will end up out there in 2011, right as he becomes eligible. And Carson is a good bet to be a Golden Bear. And that's not even mentioning Gary Franklin, a top-20 point guard and top-80 national recruit who is already heading to Cal next year.
About the only point guard he'll be able to guard in the conference is Lil' Romeo who, yes, is still at USC and will be a senior when Cobbs starts playing.
I just don't get this decision, and I'm not trying to rip the kid because I actually thought he would end up being a decent contributor and solid back-up PG down the line. His reasons for transferring (outside of the understandable homesickness) were concerns about playing time and a dislike for Tubby's slow it down offense. But I don't see a real opportunity for more playing time at Cal, and the Bears are basically an average team in terms of tempo. Faster than the Gophers, yes, but we aren't exactly talking Loyola-Marymount 1988 here. Honestly Long Beach would have been perfect for him. A big-time uptempo squad (38th) who can make the NCAA Tournament, and it's still a low-major so he'd have a chance to be a major contributor.
Fare thee well, Justin Cobbs. I wish him luck. I think he would have been best served sticking around and being the back-up PG for three more years and contributing that way instead of doing the exact same thing at Cal, but to each his own. I just think he could have made a better choice.
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