I really don't intend every single post to be in this format, it just worked out that way this week. It's so easy and I like doing it. I do still intend to do some more in depth type of posts, and definitely will during basketball season. But for now, you'll get what you get and you won't get upset.
1. The bullpen tried like hell to blow the game. Luckily, the Twins were able to scrap together a couple of runs in the top of the ninth, mainly thanks to a Jason Kubel popup that hit the catwalk above the field and resulted in a hit and the first run, and then Matt Capps managed to shut the door. I didn't get to watch the game, being at work and all, so I don't have too much to add except that they really surprised me. Splitting a four-gamer on the road against a team like the Rays is a very positive outcome, especially considering they dropped the first two. If they can keep splitting with the good teams and win the series against the bad, they should be in good shape assuming Chicago decides to lose once in a while. With 63 games to go they probably need to go about 34-29 or so. That would get them to 95 wins, and I have to assume that would win this division. Again, assuming Chicago doesn't go 45-15 like they have recently.
2. Naturally the White Sox won as well. Because they never lose. Not even when world's worst closer and possible worst pitcher and human being ever Bobby Jenks gives up a 3-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game. Why he is still closing I'll never understand, especially since they have Thornton, Putz, and Santos who are all much better pitchers. It's that damn save statistic. Man, people are more obsessive and devoted to that then their bibles.
3. In case there weren't enough young pitchers making noise this year. Go ahead and add James McDonald to the list. McDonald, once a pretty good prospect in the Dodgers' system, made his debut for the Pirates after being acquired for Octavio Dotel at the trade deadline and pitched well. He had mainly been working out of the bullpen in his one full season with LA last year, but acclimated himself well, going six innings and allowing just four hits and no runs while striking out 8. I like what the Pirates are doing, maximizing the value on some marginal veterans over the last few years to acquire some possible future solid talent. I was going to list all the upside-y guys on their roster, but there's just too many. Just know that the Pirates might be finally starting to move in the right direction. They're young, they have some talent, and if some of these young prospects develop they could find themselves on the right side of .500 sooner rather than later. At the very least there seems to be a plan here, unlike, say, Kansas City.
4. Tiger Woods officially sucks at golf. Tiger shot a 74 today in the first round of the Bridgestone Invitational, which is +4, and you may think that's just a bad round and other golfers like Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas shot similar scores, but this is notable for one big reason: he completely dominates this course. Forget about Augusta, Pebble, or St. Andrews, Firestone is where he really dominates, having won this tournament something like 7 out of the last 10 times he's played it with a runner-up mixed in as well. That 74 is not only his worst score on this course by two strokes, but it also puts him in a tie for 70th - and there are only 81 golfers entered. He only shot better than seven golfers, several of whom barely even count, on a course he's owned. I think it's safe to say his career is pretty much over. Might as well retire and start collecting stud fees.
5. I guess Calipari didn't teach Josh Pastner everything. Slick Cal never seemed to have issues getting his recruits eligible (see: Rose, Derrick and Evans, Tyreke) but Josh Pastner has just run into some issues with Will Barton, Class of 2010's #2 rated shooting guard and #11 on the Rivals list. Barton has been ruled academically ineligible for the year, and if the NCAA doesn't pass him on appeal (they won't), it will be a major blow to Pastner's attempts to keep Memphis relevant. The question for Gopher fans is how will this affect Trevor Mbakwe and his possible choice between the Gophers and Tigers? There's some speculation that seeing Memphis suspend a player for the entire year would turn him off, but I don't really see it. If his trial is pushed back again and Minnesota won't let him play but some team promises he can suit up, whether it's Memphis or Morehead State, I have a feeling he'll be there. And then, in two years, we can watch both Royce White and Trevor Mbakwe make All-American teams while the Gophers grab yet another double-digit seed.
6. The Gophers will play Western Kentucky in the Puerto Rico Tip-off. And if they beat the Hilltoppers, and they should, they will likely have a date with Harrison Barnes and the North Carolina Tarheels. Can Tubby and the boys pull off another marquee win in an early season tournament to go with their wins over Louisville and Butler the last two years? I don't know, probably.
As far as WKU goes, they're generally amongst the top team's in the Sun Belt, but they are still a far cry from the sweet 16 team or the team led by Taco Hawk, and are losing their top player in guard A.J. Slaughter. Still, the Hilltoppers have proven over and over again that this isn't a program you can ever take lightly. They have four of their top seven back from the 20-12 team from last season, the same team that beat Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, and have a Rivals Top 150 player coming in guard Derrick Gordon (#126). Great, I've suddenly talked myself into being terrified for this game.
The rest of the schedule was released as well, and I sort of feel like it maybe deserves it's own post but ugh. Look at this: Northeastern State, Winona State, Wofford, Siena, NDSU, Virginia, Cornell, @ St. Joe's, Eastern Kentucky, and Akron. Woof. I know three of those teams were in the NCAA Tournament last year, but both Siena and Cornell were hit hard by graduations. Wofford is the only team on there that is likely to get a bid, although Siena could still grab one with what they have left. Overall pretty underwhelming. Just like your mom.
Showing posts with label Bobby Jenks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bobby Jenks. Show all posts
Friday, August 6, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Week in Review - 7/19/2010
It is truly amazing how truly, frighteningly awful my golf picks for the majors have been so far this year. First, I was absolutely convinced Jim Furyk was going to win The Masters. He shot 80 on Day 1 and missed the cut. Then I made Hunter Mahan my pick for the U.S. Open. He shot 80 on Day 1 and missed the cut. For the British Open, I couldn't decide between Ernie Els and Justin Rose. They both missed the cut. And, I went on and on about how awesome the British Open is, and then we end up with the boringest major in a hundred years. Seriously, congratulations to Oosterhuizen and everything, but he got lucky twice with weather to get a big lead then coasted to the win and nobody ever bothered to challenge him. Impressive win to be sure, but boring as all hell.
In conclusion, I suck.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Carl Pavano. Honestly, what more can be said about Pavano at this point? Who would think he'd be putting up a career year at this point? His 3.48 ERA would be his third best ever, second best if you make more than 100 innings a requirement. His 1.03 WHIP would be the best of his career. His four complete games (3 out of his last six games) are already double his career best, and his 1 shutout ties his season best. A 34-year old soft-tossing nancy is suddenly one of the best pitchers in the league and capable of carrying a staff - like he did with his complete game on Saturday, just when the Twins needed it most. And he may be getting a little lucky BABIP and strand rate-wise, but really not much. This is a legit career year. So let's not waste it, kids.
2. Francisco Liriano. Might as well include him here, too, since he came up with a pretty big outing on Friday right when they needed him too. Similar ERA to Pavano, but they've arrived there in different ways. Liriano has allowed more baserunners, has struck out a lot more guys,and where Pavano has been been a bit lucky Liriano has been a bit unlucky, but either way it's clear these two are going to have to carry this team. Not saying they're Drysdale/Koufax or anything, but it certainly seems like we have ourselves a bit of a "Liriano and Pavano and pray for a tornado" kind of situation. It works better if you pronounce tornado with a bit of a schwa sound. Or like you imagine a British guy would say it.
3. Tim Lincecum. It's sort of boring to write about Wiley Wiggins here seeing as how he's won the last two NL Cy Young awards and just kind of keeps chugging along. He picked up win #10 for the year on Thursday, just cruising against the Mets with a six-hit shut-out. He is once again leading the league in strikeouts and is top 10 in ERA, and although he probably won't win a third straight, he can take solace in the fact that if you put his name into google when it does that thing where it adds words onto your search, "Tim Lincecum Weed" is the first entry. Also I know I'm not exactly the first person to make the Tim Lincecum/Mitch Kramer comparison, but come on, it's uncanny. Creepy, even. And don't forget, Mitch Kramer was a pitcher. Do you think they're the same person? Cuz it'd be a lot cooler if you did.
4. Demarcus Cousins. He tailed off a bit towards the last couple of games of Summer League, finishing 1-12 and 3-15 from the floor in the final two games, but Cousins looks like he is everything he was advertised to be, and maybe even more. What I saw with my own eyes was a guy who showed a more complete offensive game than he ever did at Kentucky. I think in college he didn't have to show an impressive offensive game because he could just overpower everyone, but in Summer League he really showed that he can score in a lot of ways. Nice. But what I read about, was how he complained about every call, got in running verbal battles with every opponent, and basically acted completely uncoachable. Kind of like he was in college, but worse. Much worse. One thing is for certain - this is going to be an interesting ride.
5. Gordon Beckham. Funny Beckham story. He's struggled all year, and was hitting just .216 going into Thursday's first post All-Star Break game agains the Twins - a game Snacks and I attended. As Beckham gets up for his first at-bat, Snacks turns to me to say, "What happened to this guy? I thought there was going to be a new guy to hate in the division for years, instead he looks like he's going to get sent down" and before he can even get to "guy", Beckham hammers the ball over the fence on his way to 2-3 night. He then went 2-3 and 1-3 before finishing the series by going 4-4 against the Twins. So to recap, he sucks. Snacks questions his ability. He responds by going 9-13. So Snacks single-handedly saved Gordon Beckham's career. Thanks a lot, A-hole!
WHO SUCKED
1. Dan Gladden. I've ripped Gladden here before, both for using the nickname "Dazzle Man" as well as for being a complete dickmitten when it comes to talking about baseball, but he hit a new low on Thursday, low enough that a low-level meaningless third-rate blogger thinks he deserves his own section in WHO SUCKED. Anyway, to refresh your memory, the Twins lost to the Sawx thanks to Kevin Slowey and Alex Burnett sucking, plus little baby boy Morneau's headache kept him out of the lineup. It was the first game after the All-Star Break, and thanks to Kate J. I attended. On the way home, the Dazzle Man's reason for the loss, "You know, after three days off it's tough to get back into the rhythm of playing again." Now is probably where I should go into some kind of tirade, but this one is just so over the top I'm just going to stop talking and let it sink in. I'm not talking now. Be the ball, Danny.
2. Al-Farouq Aminu. Remember how last week I was talking about the Clippers sucked and were making bad offs-eason decisions including their drafting of Aminu and then there was that one guy who left a comment and said I was stupid? Well who's laughing now? Aminu has been B-R-U-T-A-L in Summer League. He's shot 29% in the five games, with games where he shot 4-13, 3-12, and 3-15. Even in his best shooting game where he went 4-9 he turned it over 4 times and committed 8 fouls (they allow 10 for some reason). And for a 6-9 athletic player five rebounds per game in Summer League isn't very good. Basically he's shown one skill and that's getting fouled and making free throws. Valuable to be sure, but it wouldn't kill him to hit a shot once in a while.
3. Justin Morneau. Seriously? SERIOUSLY!!!???!?!?
4. Bobby Jenks. It's always nice to know that you're never quite out of the game when you still get to hit against Bobby Jenks aka "Stupid Fat Idiot" as he's known around my house. One of the announcers kept harping about how Jenksy was 20-21 in save opportunities for the year and had saved 15 in a row, and I kept thinking that's awfully hard to believe. Then you look at his stats and see he has an ERA of 4.76 and a WHIP of 1.56, and things are even more confusing. Basically he's somehow doing an ok job, but when he flames out he flames out spectacularly, as we all know. In the ten games this year where he's allowed at least one run in half of them he allowed at least two and three times he's allowed three. So basically when he comes in the game he either shuts you right down or you're going to light him up like he was Nick Blackburn.
5. Scott Baker/Kevin Slowey/Nick Blackburn. Good god take your pick, because these guys all suck and they're killing the team's season. If they don't get it figured out, and it's seeming more and more like they won't, it won't matter how much of a career season Pavano and/or Delmon Young have - they won't win a division this way. Seriously, at this point they might as well replace these three clowns with Jeff Manship, Anthony Swarzak, and Glen Perkins. They couldn't possibly be worse. I read they're finally at least moving Duensing into the rotation, but I have a feeling it might be both too little, and too late.
Finally, and this could probably deserve all five spots on the Awesome list by itself, but here is Miguel Angel Jimenez's shot on 17 on Saturday. Sadly, it still ended up as a double-bogey, but it's still pretty sweet and the kind of thing you'd be more likely to see in a game of Golden Tee. Check it:
In conclusion, I suck.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Carl Pavano. Honestly, what more can be said about Pavano at this point? Who would think he'd be putting up a career year at this point? His 3.48 ERA would be his third best ever, second best if you make more than 100 innings a requirement. His 1.03 WHIP would be the best of his career. His four complete games (3 out of his last six games) are already double his career best, and his 1 shutout ties his season best. A 34-year old soft-tossing nancy is suddenly one of the best pitchers in the league and capable of carrying a staff - like he did with his complete game on Saturday, just when the Twins needed it most. And he may be getting a little lucky BABIP and strand rate-wise, but really not much. This is a legit career year. So let's not waste it, kids.
2. Francisco Liriano. Might as well include him here, too, since he came up with a pretty big outing on Friday right when they needed him too. Similar ERA to Pavano, but they've arrived there in different ways. Liriano has allowed more baserunners, has struck out a lot more guys,and where Pavano has been been a bit lucky Liriano has been a bit unlucky, but either way it's clear these two are going to have to carry this team. Not saying they're Drysdale/Koufax or anything, but it certainly seems like we have ourselves a bit of a "Liriano and Pavano and pray for a tornado" kind of situation. It works better if you pronounce tornado with a bit of a schwa sound. Or like you imagine a British guy would say it.
3. Tim Lincecum. It's sort of boring to write about Wiley Wiggins here seeing as how he's won the last two NL Cy Young awards and just kind of keeps chugging along. He picked up win #10 for the year on Thursday, just cruising against the Mets with a six-hit shut-out. He is once again leading the league in strikeouts and is top 10 in ERA, and although he probably won't win a third straight, he can take solace in the fact that if you put his name into google when it does that thing where it adds words onto your search, "Tim Lincecum Weed" is the first entry. Also I know I'm not exactly the first person to make the Tim Lincecum/Mitch Kramer comparison, but come on, it's uncanny. Creepy, even. And don't forget, Mitch Kramer was a pitcher. Do you think they're the same person? Cuz it'd be a lot cooler if you did.
4. Demarcus Cousins. He tailed off a bit towards the last couple of games of Summer League, finishing 1-12 and 3-15 from the floor in the final two games, but Cousins looks like he is everything he was advertised to be, and maybe even more. What I saw with my own eyes was a guy who showed a more complete offensive game than he ever did at Kentucky. I think in college he didn't have to show an impressive offensive game because he could just overpower everyone, but in Summer League he really showed that he can score in a lot of ways. Nice. But what I read about, was how he complained about every call, got in running verbal battles with every opponent, and basically acted completely uncoachable. Kind of like he was in college, but worse. Much worse. One thing is for certain - this is going to be an interesting ride.
5. Gordon Beckham. Funny Beckham story. He's struggled all year, and was hitting just .216 going into Thursday's first post All-Star Break game agains the Twins - a game Snacks and I attended. As Beckham gets up for his first at-bat, Snacks turns to me to say, "What happened to this guy? I thought there was going to be a new guy to hate in the division for years, instead he looks like he's going to get sent down" and before he can even get to "guy", Beckham hammers the ball over the fence on his way to 2-3 night. He then went 2-3 and 1-3 before finishing the series by going 4-4 against the Twins. So to recap, he sucks. Snacks questions his ability. He responds by going 9-13. So Snacks single-handedly saved Gordon Beckham's career. Thanks a lot, A-hole!
WHO SUCKED
1. Dan Gladden. I've ripped Gladden here before, both for using the nickname "Dazzle Man" as well as for being a complete dickmitten when it comes to talking about baseball, but he hit a new low on Thursday, low enough that a low-level meaningless third-rate blogger thinks he deserves his own section in WHO SUCKED. Anyway, to refresh your memory, the Twins lost to the Sawx thanks to Kevin Slowey and Alex Burnett sucking, plus little baby boy Morneau's headache kept him out of the lineup. It was the first game after the All-Star Break, and thanks to Kate J. I attended. On the way home, the Dazzle Man's reason for the loss, "You know, after three days off it's tough to get back into the rhythm of playing again." Now is probably where I should go into some kind of tirade, but this one is just so over the top I'm just going to stop talking and let it sink in. I'm not talking now. Be the ball, Danny.
2. Al-Farouq Aminu. Remember how last week I was talking about the Clippers sucked and were making bad offs-eason decisions including their drafting of Aminu and then there was that one guy who left a comment and said I was stupid? Well who's laughing now? Aminu has been B-R-U-T-A-L in Summer League. He's shot 29% in the five games, with games where he shot 4-13, 3-12, and 3-15. Even in his best shooting game where he went 4-9 he turned it over 4 times and committed 8 fouls (they allow 10 for some reason). And for a 6-9 athletic player five rebounds per game in Summer League isn't very good. Basically he's shown one skill and that's getting fouled and making free throws. Valuable to be sure, but it wouldn't kill him to hit a shot once in a while.
3. Justin Morneau. Seriously? SERIOUSLY!!!???!?!?
4. Bobby Jenks. It's always nice to know that you're never quite out of the game when you still get to hit against Bobby Jenks aka "Stupid Fat Idiot" as he's known around my house. One of the announcers kept harping about how Jenksy was 20-21 in save opportunities for the year and had saved 15 in a row, and I kept thinking that's awfully hard to believe. Then you look at his stats and see he has an ERA of 4.76 and a WHIP of 1.56, and things are even more confusing. Basically he's somehow doing an ok job, but when he flames out he flames out spectacularly, as we all know. In the ten games this year where he's allowed at least one run in half of them he allowed at least two and three times he's allowed three. So basically when he comes in the game he either shuts you right down or you're going to light him up like he was Nick Blackburn.
5. Scott Baker/Kevin Slowey/Nick Blackburn. Good god take your pick, because these guys all suck and they're killing the team's season. If they don't get it figured out, and it's seeming more and more like they won't, it won't matter how much of a career season Pavano and/or Delmon Young have - they won't win a division this way. Seriously, at this point they might as well replace these three clowns with Jeff Manship, Anthony Swarzak, and Glen Perkins. They couldn't possibly be worse. I read they're finally at least moving Duensing into the rotation, but I have a feeling it might be both too little, and too late.
Finally, and this could probably deserve all five spots on the Awesome list by itself, but here is Miguel Angel Jimenez's shot on 17 on Saturday. Sadly, it still ended up as a double-bogey, but it's still pretty sweet and the kind of thing you'd be more likely to see in a game of Golden Tee. Check it:
Monday, May 31, 2010
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).
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