About once or month or so a side project of mine which may or may not involve wagering requires me to type up a spreadsheet full of baseball players' statistical minutia (trust me, if it wasn't profitable I wouldn't do it) and every so often I stumble upon a little nugget of information. This is why, some time ago, I was able to report in this very blog that Joey Votto hadn't hit an infield pop-up in two years and how I found that absolutely amazing since he's a power(ish) hitter.
Well I have sad news to report. Some time between the last time I did my spreadsheets and tonight, Joey Votto popped out. Sad. And yet we must carry on, so I have found another interesting statistical quirk: Josh Tomlin of the Indians has allowed 15 home runs, but only 14 walks. That's right, more HRs allowed than walks. That has to be rare, right? To the baseball-reference machininator.....
Wow, Bronson Arroyo has a shot too with 25 and 23, but that's already too many home runs to sustain so he's out. Join me please in rooting for Josh Tomlin to become just the 16th player in major league history (who qualifies for the ERA title) to allow more homers than walks in a season. It will at least give us all something to care about as we continue on this hellstorm of a Twins' season. And really, isn't caring what it's all about?
FACT: On that list you will find Brad Radke twice, Carlos Silva twice, and Rick Reed twice with five of those seasons occurring as Minnesota Twins. I don't know if I find that funny sad or funny funny, but either way I'm laughing right now.
FACT #2: The new Harry Potter is awesome. If you don't go see it you are a moron.
Showing posts with label Carlos Silva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carlos Silva. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Monday, June 28, 2010
Week in Review - 6/28/2010
You know what's awesome? Scottie Reynolds. Undrafted. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sweet.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan, not really at all, but I really, truly dig the World Cup. All these countries, battling to be the king of the most popular sport in the world, and the more I watch, the more I understand. I now know the difference between a good, legal tackle and a foul. I now know a lot of the strategies involved, including the cross and various versions of the give and go, and I knew enough to know that once Ghana scored it would be very difficult for the U.S. to tie it up, so when they did on Landon Donovan's penalty kick I knew enough to know it was pretty incredible (and on a related note, I also now know why a commenter on this blog who posted a lot about soccer used the handle "L. Cakes.")
Will I continue to be interested in soccer after the World Cup is over? Almost certainly not. Will I keep watching even though the U.S. has been eliminated? You bet. I'm even at the point where I understand all that passing around the mid-field area. Seriously, if you can't enjoy the World Cup, you might want to re-evaluate yourself as a sports fan. And probably as a person, too.
2. Carl Pavano. At the time when the rest of the Twins' starters are pitching as if they've gone retarded, creepy mustachioed man Carl Pavano is coming to the rescue, much as Super Mario comes to the rescue of the Princess whether she has been kidnapped by a giant, barrel throwing, mechanically inclined monkey or a giant, fire-breathing, axe-wielding turtle dragon. A nice little complete game shut-out on Saturday to stop the season death-spiral of doom was just what Dr. Mario ordered, and is the second complete game he's spun in a row. Pavano actually has shockingly good numbers this year. His ERA of 3.33 is 16th in the AL, and his WHIP of 1.03 is second behind just future Twin Cliff Lee. I'll do a more thorough breakdown of why Pavano is so frickin' good and if I think it will continue or is just fluky in a future post, but for now I suspect he either ate a mushroom or some kind of fireball flower.
3. Edwin Jackson. It doesn't really matter that he walked 8 guys, and it doesn't matter that it took 149 pitches, a no-hitter is a no-hitter. And a no-hitter against the Rays is an awfully nice feather to place in one's cap, if one was so inclined. I've featured Jackson on here before for being awesome, and he's just been out of this world lately. After running up a record of 3-6 with a 6.03 ERA during the first two months of the season and causing people such as myself to wonder if he was a lost cause. Well, now in June he's , all topped off by this no-hitter.
Of course, 149 pitches is ridiculous, and now he'll probably get lit up like a Blackburn the next couple of times out. Then he'll be put on the 15-day DL with "arm soreness" or "dead arm." He'll come back and get lit up again, and then will be shut down for the year. Then it will come out that he needs offseason surgery on his arm and he'll miss a full year. Then when he comes back his fastball will have lost about 5 mph and he won't be an effective starter. He'll reinvent himself as a mediocre middle reliever and hang on for a couple years before ending up in the Northern League for a couple years. But hey, at least got the no-hitter. Sweet.
4. R.A. Dickey. What the hell? I mean seriously, what is going on? Dickey, after tossing eight shut-out innings on Wednesday against the Tigers, is now 6-0 with an ERA of 2.33 and a WHIP of 1.29 since joining the Mets rotation in mid-May. Carlos Silva is 8-0 for the Cubs with an ERA of 3.01 and a WHIP of 1.05. Livan Hernandez is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.28. What do these three have in common, other than their ex-Twinness? Well, for one, they are all three putting up better numbers that Matt Garza so far (8-5, 4.10, 1.31), the only ex-Twin starter I thought I would miss. For two, they'd make a better 3-4-5 than Baker, Slowey, and Blackburn right now, and it's not even close. I still believe these guys are going to regress, and regress hard, but I've been believing that for two months. For now, I'll just say this is a bunch of crap, but it doesn't change the fact that Baker/Slowey/Blackburn suck. We need some kind of nickname for these dickfors. Like, the Sucktastic Three or something.
5. White Sox. I know I mentioned them in this space last week, but the run continues and they are suddenly just X.X games out of first place. Last week you could chalk up to a scheduling fluke since they swept the Pirates and Nationals, but this week included a sweep over the Braves, and that's no joke. A joke would be "A woman goes to check out at the Super Market, and puts a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, a gallon of milk, and some butter on the conveyor. The checkout guy looks at her groceries, looks at her, and says with conviction, 'You're definitely single.' She looks at the guy and says, 'Wow, you could tell that just from four items I bought at the grocery store?' He replies, "No, it's because you're f*cking ugly."
Anyway the Sox pitching is suddenly really awesome (particularly Peavy) and they're probably going to win the division after they end up trading for Prince Fielder.
WHO SUCKED
1. Twins. Really no other way to say it, these guys sucked balls this week. A 1-5 road trip against a couple of middling National League teams? Ugh. And with the Tigers still playing well and the Sox nearly as hot as Alice Eve, we've got yet another three team barn burner in the central. I really wish you could point to just one issue, but suddenly it's everything. The pitching is completely mediocre, but giving up an average of 5.5 runs per game should lead to more than one win if you have a good offense - but suddenly they don't, scoring an average of just 2.5 runs per game themselves.
Getting shutdown by Yovani Gallardo is one thing - it sucks, but it's acceptable - and I guess Pelphrey has somehow become decent, but Manny Parra? Jon frickin' Niese? Special shout-out to Cuddy Bear for hitting .167 this week with no power and 3x as many strikeouts as hits. Although to be fair, that might not be Cuddy's fault, since there was apparently a mandate that came down from high against hitting with any kind of power, since nobody bothered to this week unless they were going against Johan. Apparently unless Carl Pavano comes to the rescue (see above comparison), this team is screwed. Might as well not even bother trading for Lee. Just becoming sellers and pick up some prospects.
2. Timberwolves. Seriously, what the hell? The more I think about this draft the more upset I get. Wes Johnson is fine and was the obvious and necessary pick at #4, but after that they end up with another wing who has been in the league for five years and proved himself to be pretty mediocre, an undersized power forward, and two Euros? Euros never work out, everybody knows this. The success rate is like 4%. How would this have sounded instead: Johnson, James Anderson, Jordan Crawford, Soloman Alabi, and Derrick Caracter? Or Johnson, Anderson, Hassan Whiteside, Terrico White, and Gani Lawal? Either of those scenarios could have happened last night, with the trade of pick #23 or not. Instead they got the ball rolling with the insane trade of Luke Babbitt and Ryan Gomes for Martell Webster, and just kept doing baffling things all night. Gomes' contract is a valuable asset because it isn't guaranteed, why thrown him in on a deal that's probably already slanted against you? Why I expected anything more, I have no idea.
3. Tommy Hanson. There are bad games, and then there are epic bad games (hi Nick Blackburn). Hanson's outing on Tuesday was essentially the quintessential definition of "getting the shit ripped out of him." Three and two-thirds innings pitched, 13 hits allowed, 9 runs allowed. 13 hits. An average of more than three per inning. Nick Blackburn's worst outing was nowhere near this bad. "But wait!", you say, "Blackburn had back-to-back crappy outings, surely he is worse than Hanson." Not so fast my uninformed friends. Hanson pitched again on Sunday, and again lasted just three and two-thirds innings, this time surrendering six runs on eight hits. An improvement. At this rate he might last past the fifth inning by sometime in August. It's a deadheat betwixt him and Blackburn for the Livan Hernandez award for worst starter who keeps getting the ball (a fluky Livan year does not change the name of the award.)
4. Italy (and France). Defending champions? Ousted. Dirty frenchies? Heading home in complete disarray. No, I'm not an expert or even a novice when it comes to soccer analysis so I can't and won't really try to break down any of this, but these teams were both expected to, at the very least, advance to the knockout stage. But they didn't, with France losing to both South Africa and Mexico and Italy losing to Slovakia and tying Paraguay (ok) and New Zealand (mind-boggling) to finish last in their group. Seeing how soccer is the #1 sport over there, and the World Cup is the by far biggest event, I'm guessing there are a lot of wine drinkers not very happy right now. Seriously, in Italy they have taps for wine right next to the beer taps. Crazy.
[UPDATE: I'm going to go ahead and throw England in here too, since I'm watching them get destroyed by Germany in the first knockout round. Good god, they play defense like the Golden State Warriors.]
5. A.J. Burnett. At this point we almost have to assume he's actively trying to sabotage the Yankees, right? In his two starts this week, Burnett lasted just seven combined innings, giving up 15 hits and 13 earned runs with an 8-to-9 walk-to-strikeout ratio. And he certainly didn't waste any time setting the tone for the week, giving up three home runs in the first inning of his first start (against Arizona). He's striking out about a third less batters this year than in previous years, giving up about 25% more home runs, and allowing batters to hit about .030 higher. Oh, and he's lost a full mile per hour off his fastball, and it's by far his worst pitch, but since he's lost confidence in his curve for some reason he's throwing it far more often. Which would explain why he continues to get hammered. That's four out of five starts where he's given up at least six runs, three straight where he's pitched four innings or less, and a season ERA of 5.25, which ranks 51st out of 56 pitchers in the A.L. who qualify (Nick Blackburn is last), and a WHIP of 1.54, which is 49th. Oh, and he's still owed $66 million over the next four seasons. And THAT my friends, is really a joke.
Lastly, I need to make a very, very strong movie review and I'm telling you to go rent She's Out of My League. Funny throughout with several laugh out loud moments ("I'm sorry, are you a plane doctor?") and really hilarious scenes (bowling), to go along with a super hot chick. Very strongly recommended. The anti-Scottie Reynolds of movies, if you will.
Plus, this:
Sweet.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan, not really at all, but I really, truly dig the World Cup. All these countries, battling to be the king of the most popular sport in the world, and the more I watch, the more I understand. I now know the difference between a good, legal tackle and a foul. I now know a lot of the strategies involved, including the cross and various versions of the give and go, and I knew enough to know that once Ghana scored it would be very difficult for the U.S. to tie it up, so when they did on Landon Donovan's penalty kick I knew enough to know it was pretty incredible (and on a related note, I also now know why a commenter on this blog who posted a lot about soccer used the handle "L. Cakes.")
Will I continue to be interested in soccer after the World Cup is over? Almost certainly not. Will I keep watching even though the U.S. has been eliminated? You bet. I'm even at the point where I understand all that passing around the mid-field area. Seriously, if you can't enjoy the World Cup, you might want to re-evaluate yourself as a sports fan. And probably as a person, too.
2. Carl Pavano. At the time when the rest of the Twins' starters are pitching as if they've gone retarded, creepy mustachioed man Carl Pavano is coming to the rescue, much as Super Mario comes to the rescue of the Princess whether she has been kidnapped by a giant, barrel throwing, mechanically inclined monkey or a giant, fire-breathing, axe-wielding turtle dragon. A nice little complete game shut-out on Saturday to stop the season death-spiral of doom was just what Dr. Mario ordered, and is the second complete game he's spun in a row. Pavano actually has shockingly good numbers this year. His ERA of 3.33 is 16th in the AL, and his WHIP of 1.03 is second behind just future Twin Cliff Lee. I'll do a more thorough breakdown of why Pavano is so frickin' good and if I think it will continue or is just fluky in a future post, but for now I suspect he either ate a mushroom or some kind of fireball flower.
3. Edwin Jackson. It doesn't really matter that he walked 8 guys, and it doesn't matter that it took 149 pitches, a no-hitter is a no-hitter. And a no-hitter against the Rays is an awfully nice feather to place in one's cap, if one was so inclined. I've featured Jackson on here before for being awesome, and he's just been out of this world lately. After running up a record of 3-6 with a 6.03 ERA during the first two months of the season and causing people such as myself to wonder if he was a lost cause. Well, now in June he's , all topped off by this no-hitter.
Of course, 149 pitches is ridiculous, and now he'll probably get lit up like a Blackburn the next couple of times out. Then he'll be put on the 15-day DL with "arm soreness" or "dead arm." He'll come back and get lit up again, and then will be shut down for the year. Then it will come out that he needs offseason surgery on his arm and he'll miss a full year. Then when he comes back his fastball will have lost about 5 mph and he won't be an effective starter. He'll reinvent himself as a mediocre middle reliever and hang on for a couple years before ending up in the Northern League for a couple years. But hey, at least got the no-hitter. Sweet.
4. R.A. Dickey. What the hell? I mean seriously, what is going on? Dickey, after tossing eight shut-out innings on Wednesday against the Tigers, is now 6-0 with an ERA of 2.33 and a WHIP of 1.29 since joining the Mets rotation in mid-May. Carlos Silva is 8-0 for the Cubs with an ERA of 3.01 and a WHIP of 1.05. Livan Hernandez is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.28. What do these three have in common, other than their ex-Twinness? Well, for one, they are all three putting up better numbers that Matt Garza so far (8-5, 4.10, 1.31), the only ex-Twin starter I thought I would miss. For two, they'd make a better 3-4-5 than Baker, Slowey, and Blackburn right now, and it's not even close. I still believe these guys are going to regress, and regress hard, but I've been believing that for two months. For now, I'll just say this is a bunch of crap, but it doesn't change the fact that Baker/Slowey/Blackburn suck. We need some kind of nickname for these dickfors. Like, the Sucktastic Three or something.
5. White Sox. I know I mentioned them in this space last week, but the run continues and they are suddenly just X.X games out of first place. Last week you could chalk up to a scheduling fluke since they swept the Pirates and Nationals, but this week included a sweep over the Braves, and that's no joke. A joke would be "A woman goes to check out at the Super Market, and puts a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, a gallon of milk, and some butter on the conveyor. The checkout guy looks at her groceries, looks at her, and says with conviction, 'You're definitely single.' She looks at the guy and says, 'Wow, you could tell that just from four items I bought at the grocery store?' He replies, "No, it's because you're f*cking ugly."
Anyway the Sox pitching is suddenly really awesome (particularly Peavy) and they're probably going to win the division after they end up trading for Prince Fielder.
WHO SUCKED
1. Twins. Really no other way to say it, these guys sucked balls this week. A 1-5 road trip against a couple of middling National League teams? Ugh. And with the Tigers still playing well and the Sox nearly as hot as Alice Eve, we've got yet another three team barn burner in the central. I really wish you could point to just one issue, but suddenly it's everything. The pitching is completely mediocre, but giving up an average of 5.5 runs per game should lead to more than one win if you have a good offense - but suddenly they don't, scoring an average of just 2.5 runs per game themselves.
Getting shutdown by Yovani Gallardo is one thing - it sucks, but it's acceptable - and I guess Pelphrey has somehow become decent, but Manny Parra? Jon frickin' Niese? Special shout-out to Cuddy Bear for hitting .167 this week with no power and 3x as many strikeouts as hits. Although to be fair, that might not be Cuddy's fault, since there was apparently a mandate that came down from high against hitting with any kind of power, since nobody bothered to this week unless they were going against Johan. Apparently unless Carl Pavano comes to the rescue (see above comparison), this team is screwed. Might as well not even bother trading for Lee. Just becoming sellers and pick up some prospects.
2. Timberwolves. Seriously, what the hell? The more I think about this draft the more upset I get. Wes Johnson is fine and was the obvious and necessary pick at #4, but after that they end up with another wing who has been in the league for five years and proved himself to be pretty mediocre, an undersized power forward, and two Euros? Euros never work out, everybody knows this. The success rate is like 4%. How would this have sounded instead: Johnson, James Anderson, Jordan Crawford, Soloman Alabi, and Derrick Caracter? Or Johnson, Anderson, Hassan Whiteside, Terrico White, and Gani Lawal? Either of those scenarios could have happened last night, with the trade of pick #23 or not. Instead they got the ball rolling with the insane trade of Luke Babbitt and Ryan Gomes for Martell Webster, and just kept doing baffling things all night. Gomes' contract is a valuable asset because it isn't guaranteed, why thrown him in on a deal that's probably already slanted against you? Why I expected anything more, I have no idea.
3. Tommy Hanson. There are bad games, and then there are epic bad games (hi Nick Blackburn). Hanson's outing on Tuesday was essentially the quintessential definition of "getting the shit ripped out of him." Three and two-thirds innings pitched, 13 hits allowed, 9 runs allowed. 13 hits. An average of more than three per inning. Nick Blackburn's worst outing was nowhere near this bad. "But wait!", you say, "Blackburn had back-to-back crappy outings, surely he is worse than Hanson." Not so fast my uninformed friends. Hanson pitched again on Sunday, and again lasted just three and two-thirds innings, this time surrendering six runs on eight hits. An improvement. At this rate he might last past the fifth inning by sometime in August. It's a deadheat betwixt him and Blackburn for the Livan Hernandez award for worst starter who keeps getting the ball (a fluky Livan year does not change the name of the award.)
4. Italy (and France). Defending champions? Ousted. Dirty frenchies? Heading home in complete disarray. No, I'm not an expert or even a novice when it comes to soccer analysis so I can't and won't really try to break down any of this, but these teams were both expected to, at the very least, advance to the knockout stage. But they didn't, with France losing to both South Africa and Mexico and Italy losing to Slovakia and tying Paraguay (ok) and New Zealand (mind-boggling) to finish last in their group. Seeing how soccer is the #1 sport over there, and the World Cup is the by far biggest event, I'm guessing there are a lot of wine drinkers not very happy right now. Seriously, in Italy they have taps for wine right next to the beer taps. Crazy.
[UPDATE: I'm going to go ahead and throw England in here too, since I'm watching them get destroyed by Germany in the first knockout round. Good god, they play defense like the Golden State Warriors.]
5. A.J. Burnett. At this point we almost have to assume he's actively trying to sabotage the Yankees, right? In his two starts this week, Burnett lasted just seven combined innings, giving up 15 hits and 13 earned runs with an 8-to-9 walk-to-strikeout ratio. And he certainly didn't waste any time setting the tone for the week, giving up three home runs in the first inning of his first start (against Arizona). He's striking out about a third less batters this year than in previous years, giving up about 25% more home runs, and allowing batters to hit about .030 higher. Oh, and he's lost a full mile per hour off his fastball, and it's by far his worst pitch, but since he's lost confidence in his curve for some reason he's throwing it far more often. Which would explain why he continues to get hammered. That's four out of five starts where he's given up at least six runs, three straight where he's pitched four innings or less, and a season ERA of 5.25, which ranks 51st out of 56 pitchers in the A.L. who qualify (Nick Blackburn is last), and a WHIP of 1.54, which is 49th. Oh, and he's still owed $66 million over the next four seasons. And THAT my friends, is really a joke.
Lastly, I need to make a very, very strong movie review and I'm telling you to go rent She's Out of My League. Funny throughout with several laugh out loud moments ("I'm sorry, are you a plane doctor?") and really hilarious scenes (bowling), to go along with a super hot chick. Very strongly recommended. The anti-Scottie Reynolds of movies, if you will.
Plus, this:
Monday, April 5, 2010
Week in Review - 4/4/2010
Baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball. Seriously, this NCAA hoops championship matchup really sucks, but at least we have baseball. Hell, I even enjoyed the hell out of the Yankees/Red Sox last night, and usually I'd rather die than watch those two teams play. Now, if some of their fans want to go at it, who am I to stand in the way?
God bless baseball.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Harrison Barnes. Did you happen to check out any of the McDonald's All-Star festivities this week? If you did, you would have definitely noticed Harrison Barnes. First was all the goofy stuff, in which Mr. Barnes finished third in the three-point competition and third in the skills competition while eschewing the dunk contest because he was too pimp and knows that dunk contests are for the same people who love monster truck rallies and Big Buck Hunter. Then he went out and dominated the actual all-star game, scoring 18 points and grabbing I think something like 40 rebounds. He is going to be a beast. Remember the part where I said he finished third in both the skills competition and the three-point contest? Yeah, he's also 6-7. And I read where somebody called him "the most competitive high-school player since Kobe Bryant." I have no idea what that means since I never saw Kobe in high school, but I have to imagine it's some kind of compliment. Should've picked the Gophers, Harrison. Your bad.
I should also mention that soon to be Duke PG Kyrie Irving's favorite book is Catcher in the Rye, which automatically means I'm a big fan of his and he's now my second all-time favorite Dookie behind Ricky Price, who was god on Coach K for the Genesis.
2. Missouri State/Virginia Commonwealth. Congrats to these two teams for winning their tournaments, Mizz State the CIT and VCU the CBI. Unlike the NIT you can actually take pride in winning these two tournaments (more on that below). Your team sucked and wasn't worthy of an NCAA bid and probably had no shot since day one, but you get to keep playing against other semi-crappy teams and if you win you've proven you're the best of the lousiest. Hey, it's something. Better than being Iowa.
3. Eric Hayes. I know you don't know who this is, so I'll just tell you. He's a graduating senior guard on Maryland who averaged 11 pts and 4 assists per game this season, but more importantly he took his 45% three-point shooting to the NCAA Three-point contest earlier this week and won the whole thing, and dominated while doing it. He posted the best score in each of the three rounds while shooting his way past guys like Ryan Wittman, Jason Bohannon, and other assorted whities to grab the title and join the prestigious list of past winners which includes nobody who I can remember right now. And that's really I have to say about Eric Hayes. You can expect Blake to be in this thing next year.
4. Butler. I have no idea why I'm not solidly behind Butler. I mean, I'll be rooting for them since they're playing Duke who are all gays or jerks or gay jerks, but I'm just not buying into the whole underdog thing. Maybe it's too much of being shoved down my throat and all the retarded comparisons to Hoosiers. I don't know. I just know that I'm not a Butler fan. Except for tonight. Tonight I will be praying to god that Butler wins, and you know God cares about this one because everybody knows Duke is Satan's team.
5. The Taco Hawks. Seriously you guys, me and Snake's Fantasy Baseball team (named after former WKU star Orlando Mendez-Valdez) is just stacked. Check this out:
C - Matt Wieters. See here
1B - Justin Morneau - 30 homers + fun factor? Perfect.
2B - Rickie Weeks - he walks often and has power, expect a big year after his injury last season
3B - Evan Longoria - you know you have a crush on him too
SS - Jason Bartlett - last year wasn't a fluke. Nice trade, Twins.
OF - Matt Kemp - 30/30 is his downside
OF - BJ Upton - he's back, baby.
OF - Jason Kubel - yet another MVP candidate on our team
UT - Billy Butler - keeps getting better
SP - Zach Grienke - will probably win 20 even on that shitty team
SP - Cole Hamels - thanks for letting him slide, draft-mates
SP - Chad Billingsley - a lock for 20 wins
SP - Tommy Hansen - stud
SP - Matt Garza - yes, that's five Cy Young candidates on our team
RP - Rafael Soriano - plenty of chances for saves with the Rays
RP - Jon Rauch - Believe it.
And that's without even getting into the potential breakout pitchers on our bench - Stephen Strasburg, Homer Bailey, and Madison Bumgarner.
I told you - we're stacked.. And we did it without a single Yankee, Red Sock, or White Sock, so there are no dirty feelings. Although you should know Snake was pushing to take Jeter around the fourth or fifth round. Ick.
WHO SUCKED
1. J'mison Morgan. No, he's not here for that horrendous spelling of his name, but because he seems like he might be following the Jaron Rush school of squandering your talent. Morgan was the #25 recruit coming out two years ago and the #4 center in his class. Since signing with UCLA, however, he hasn't done much and was dismissed from the team earlier this week. Morgan was suspended for a game in early March for missing a meeting and didn't play in either of the Bruins Pac-10 Tournament games, and pretty much struggled with being fat all season long. When he did play he didn't do much, averaging just 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game over his two years, with career highs of 8 points and 4 rebounds. UCLA has now lost Morgan and Drew Gordon this season, but honestly they're probably better off. Howland really needs to recalibrate his recruitilizer before he ends up without a team. I hear Monson is gunning for the UCLA job. Also nice name, jackass.
2. Dayton. I know that I've ever said anything good about Dayton, and I'm not going to start now just because they won the NIT. Hey morons, how about you play like this during the season, actually live up to expectations and make the NCAA Tournament instead of winning something that almost ten people in the whole world even know is going on. Chris Wright, Marcus Johnson, and Chris Johnson all had a couple of really nice games in Madison Square Garden in the Flyers' wins over Ole Miss and UNC, but where were you all season long? If you were a little more consistent you wouldn't have lost to St. Louis. Or Duquesne. Or St. Joe's. I swear winning the NIT is nothing more than a reminder that your team shit the bed and way underachieved all season long.
3. West Virginia. Da'Sean Butler didn't bother to show up until the game was mostly out of hand, the Mountaineers played basically zero defense and little offense, they couldn't keep Zoubek off the glass, and for some unfathomable reason Bobby Huggins never went with the 1-3-1, despite the fact that it was the team's go-to defense all year long and that man-to-man was doing nothing but giving Duke wide open looks. If you were worried about going zone against a team with shooters like Duke, trust me, they couldn't have gotten more open. Just an ugly, crappy, shitty game by a Mountaineer team that on Saturday didn't come close to resembling the team they were all season long. Ugly.
4. Chicago Cubs. Guess who the Cubbies' fourth starter is this year? Come on, guess. You'll never get it. It's Carlos Silva. It seems he's not only still in baseball, which seemed unlikely enough, but also beat out Jeff Samardzjia and Sean Marshall, which means those two should probably start considering killing themselves - or, failing that obvious move, retire. I can't even come up with anything else to say here. Carlos Silva won the fourth spot in the Cubs' rotation really just speaks for itself.
5. Red Sox. They actually allowed the Yankees to pull off the double steal, first and third thing. Seriously, what is this, little league?
Finally, I leave you with the following:
"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again."
God bless baseball.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Harrison Barnes. Did you happen to check out any of the McDonald's All-Star festivities this week? If you did, you would have definitely noticed Harrison Barnes. First was all the goofy stuff, in which Mr. Barnes finished third in the three-point competition and third in the skills competition while eschewing the dunk contest because he was too pimp and knows that dunk contests are for the same people who love monster truck rallies and Big Buck Hunter. Then he went out and dominated the actual all-star game, scoring 18 points and grabbing I think something like 40 rebounds. He is going to be a beast. Remember the part where I said he finished third in both the skills competition and the three-point contest? Yeah, he's also 6-7. And I read where somebody called him "the most competitive high-school player since Kobe Bryant." I have no idea what that means since I never saw Kobe in high school, but I have to imagine it's some kind of compliment. Should've picked the Gophers, Harrison. Your bad.
I should also mention that soon to be Duke PG Kyrie Irving's favorite book is Catcher in the Rye, which automatically means I'm a big fan of his and he's now my second all-time favorite Dookie behind Ricky Price, who was god on Coach K for the Genesis.
2. Missouri State/Virginia Commonwealth. Congrats to these two teams for winning their tournaments, Mizz State the CIT and VCU the CBI. Unlike the NIT you can actually take pride in winning these two tournaments (more on that below). Your team sucked and wasn't worthy of an NCAA bid and probably had no shot since day one, but you get to keep playing against other semi-crappy teams and if you win you've proven you're the best of the lousiest. Hey, it's something. Better than being Iowa.
3. Eric Hayes. I know you don't know who this is, so I'll just tell you. He's a graduating senior guard on Maryland who averaged 11 pts and 4 assists per game this season, but more importantly he took his 45% three-point shooting to the NCAA Three-point contest earlier this week and won the whole thing, and dominated while doing it. He posted the best score in each of the three rounds while shooting his way past guys like Ryan Wittman, Jason Bohannon, and other assorted whities to grab the title and join the prestigious list of past winners which includes nobody who I can remember right now. And that's really I have to say about Eric Hayes. You can expect Blake to be in this thing next year.
4. Butler. I have no idea why I'm not solidly behind Butler. I mean, I'll be rooting for them since they're playing Duke who are all gays or jerks or gay jerks, but I'm just not buying into the whole underdog thing. Maybe it's too much of being shoved down my throat and all the retarded comparisons to Hoosiers. I don't know. I just know that I'm not a Butler fan. Except for tonight. Tonight I will be praying to god that Butler wins, and you know God cares about this one because everybody knows Duke is Satan's team.
5. The Taco Hawks. Seriously you guys, me and Snake's Fantasy Baseball team (named after former WKU star Orlando Mendez-Valdez) is just stacked. Check this out:
C - Matt Wieters. See here
1B - Justin Morneau - 30 homers + fun factor? Perfect.
2B - Rickie Weeks - he walks often and has power, expect a big year after his injury last season
3B - Evan Longoria - you know you have a crush on him too
SS - Jason Bartlett - last year wasn't a fluke. Nice trade, Twins.
OF - Matt Kemp - 30/30 is his downside
OF - BJ Upton - he's back, baby.
OF - Jason Kubel - yet another MVP candidate on our team
UT - Billy Butler - keeps getting better
SP - Zach Grienke - will probably win 20 even on that shitty team
SP - Cole Hamels - thanks for letting him slide, draft-mates
SP - Chad Billingsley - a lock for 20 wins
SP - Tommy Hansen - stud
SP - Matt Garza - yes, that's five Cy Young candidates on our team
RP - Rafael Soriano - plenty of chances for saves with the Rays
RP - Jon Rauch - Believe it.
And that's without even getting into the potential breakout pitchers on our bench - Stephen Strasburg, Homer Bailey, and Madison Bumgarner.
I told you - we're stacked.. And we did it without a single Yankee, Red Sock, or White Sock, so there are no dirty feelings. Although you should know Snake was pushing to take Jeter around the fourth or fifth round. Ick.
WHO SUCKED
1. J'mison Morgan. No, he's not here for that horrendous spelling of his name, but because he seems like he might be following the Jaron Rush school of squandering your talent. Morgan was the #25 recruit coming out two years ago and the #4 center in his class. Since signing with UCLA, however, he hasn't done much and was dismissed from the team earlier this week. Morgan was suspended for a game in early March for missing a meeting and didn't play in either of the Bruins Pac-10 Tournament games, and pretty much struggled with being fat all season long. When he did play he didn't do much, averaging just 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game over his two years, with career highs of 8 points and 4 rebounds. UCLA has now lost Morgan and Drew Gordon this season, but honestly they're probably better off. Howland really needs to recalibrate his recruitilizer before he ends up without a team. I hear Monson is gunning for the UCLA job. Also nice name, jackass.
2. Dayton. I know that I've ever said anything good about Dayton, and I'm not going to start now just because they won the NIT. Hey morons, how about you play like this during the season, actually live up to expectations and make the NCAA Tournament instead of winning something that almost ten people in the whole world even know is going on. Chris Wright, Marcus Johnson, and Chris Johnson all had a couple of really nice games in Madison Square Garden in the Flyers' wins over Ole Miss and UNC, but where were you all season long? If you were a little more consistent you wouldn't have lost to St. Louis. Or Duquesne. Or St. Joe's. I swear winning the NIT is nothing more than a reminder that your team shit the bed and way underachieved all season long.
3. West Virginia. Da'Sean Butler didn't bother to show up until the game was mostly out of hand, the Mountaineers played basically zero defense and little offense, they couldn't keep Zoubek off the glass, and for some unfathomable reason Bobby Huggins never went with the 1-3-1, despite the fact that it was the team's go-to defense all year long and that man-to-man was doing nothing but giving Duke wide open looks. If you were worried about going zone against a team with shooters like Duke, trust me, they couldn't have gotten more open. Just an ugly, crappy, shitty game by a Mountaineer team that on Saturday didn't come close to resembling the team they were all season long. Ugly.
4. Chicago Cubs. Guess who the Cubbies' fourth starter is this year? Come on, guess. You'll never get it. It's Carlos Silva. It seems he's not only still in baseball, which seemed unlikely enough, but also beat out Jeff Samardzjia and Sean Marshall, which means those two should probably start considering killing themselves - or, failing that obvious move, retire. I can't even come up with anything else to say here. Carlos Silva won the fourth spot in the Cubs' rotation really just speaks for itself.
5. Red Sox. They actually allowed the Yankees to pull off the double steal, first and third thing. Seriously, what is this, little league?
Finally, I leave you with the following:
"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again."
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Carlos Silva is Good?
What......the.........F? Seriously, what's going on? I figured Silva would be released by now, instead, he's practically guaranteed himself a spot in the rotation until the All-Star break, no matter how much he explodes from then until now.
After going 6 1/3 innings last night, giving up 8 hits and 3 runs while striking out 4, Silva brings his season totals to 18 innings pitched, with a 2.00 ERA and a respectable 1.33 WHIP.
I have no idea how this is possible, considering he had an ERA of 5.94 last year with a WHIP of 1.54. Opponents batted .324 off of him. .324! Plus, he's really fat. New nickname = el Gordo.
They're still batting .288 against him this year, which isn't great, so I predict he'll come back to earth and end up not very good, but he's delaying the inevitable Garza call up. Hopefully Ponson will continue to suck and we can get him up here.
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