This Week in Baseball 4/27 - 5/3

[alkeiper]

I look at a 4-6 finish when you were still up a half game as a choke when 2 of those losses were to an Atlanta team that was 20 below .500, 2 were to a Cubs team that had nothing to play for, and 2 more were to the Marlins who eliminated them the prior year. I'm tired of hearing about how good the Mets team is on paper (from Phillies fans no less) when they've blown decent sized leads two years in a row at exactly the same point. If the roles were reversed and the Mets came back from 7 & 3.5 back with 17 left and won a WS, I'm sure you guys would be bitter as fuck by now as well.

Let's see. 2001 the Phillies were up as much as eight games on the division and faded. 2003 the Phillies went to Florida a half game back in the wild card with six to play and got swept. They lost seven of their last eight games there. 2005 the Phils were in it until the last day of the season. The Astros won the wild card by one game thanks to a three game September sweep of the Phils. And they entered the last week of the 2006 wild card chase tied for the lead, but fell short when the Padres and Dodgers both refused to lose. And of course, 2007 ended with a sweep by the wild card entrants.

So shit happens.

 

[Bored]

Bob Geren just sits and watches Gio Gonzalez completely lose the strike zone and blow a three run lead in the 13th, now heading to the 14th. Again, fuck you Bob Geren.

Edit: And Gonzalez is starting the 14th...he's thrown 95 pitches in relief. They aren't out of relievers either!!!!

 

[Vitamin X]

Gio Gonzalez was supposed to be a big prospect, wasn't he? He's being wasted in Oakland.

 

[Bored]

Everyone is seemingly wasted in Oakland these days. Even Matt Holliday has looked like complete shit so far this season (0 for 7 today).

I don't know what the hell is going on but the A's have supposedly have three relievers still available (Michael Wuertz, Andrew Bailey, Dan Giese) but now after letting Gonzalez throw 108 pitches in relief, Dana Eveland is in to pitch the 15th. He started on Friday. Either everyone got hurt warming up (Giese and Bailey were both warming up during the 13th) or Geren is trying to get fired at this point.

 

[Vitamin X]

Check what Slayer found on wiki.

 

[Bored]

Eveland gives up a single then on attempted sac bunt, he tosses one into center field. Intentionally walked Ichiro, bloop single by Lopez, Mariners win 8-7.

HALF OF THE FUCKING BULLPEN WAS STILL AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Vitamin X]

You're fooling yourself if you think the A's were going anywhere with the Angels and M's in the division.

But speaking of Holliday, has that trade fucking crashed and burned so far or what? Holy shit. You've got Clint INSISTING Huston Street is a viable closer instead of letting Manny try and actually win games for us, and then Holliday is just dogging it now that he's not playing in a hitter friendly park like Coors anymore. Adding to that, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez are down in the minors, not doing much of note. Wasn't Smith winning games for Oakland last year? I'm still wishing Colorado kept Holliday, even if it would've been for just one more year.

 

[alkeiper]

Gonzalez's control has been an issue throughout his minor league career. He's still just 23 and pitched well in four starts in Sacramento. A player of his type is going to need some refinement and there are growing pains.

 

[Bored]

You're fooling yourself if you think the A's were going anywhere with the Angels and M's in the division.

But speaking of Holliday, has that trade fucking crashed and burned so far or what? Holy shit. You've got Clint INSISTING Huston Street is a viable closer instead of letting Manny try and actually win games for us, and then Holliday is just dogging it now that he's not playing in a hitter friendly park like Coors anymore. Adding to that, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez are down in the minors, not doing much of note. Wasn't Smith winning games for Oakland last year? I'm still wishing Colorado kept Holliday, even if it would've been for just one more year.

I'm not convinced at all that the Mariners are for real (and no we're not having a poll!) as their offense is almost as bad as the A's. Angels or maybe even the Rangers will vulture an 84 win division title this year.

Greg Smith is nothing special and I had no problem with him being part of the deal. Ya ugly win/loss record aside, he had a decent rookie year but he'll be nothing more than 4th/5th starter. For the A's sake I can only hope Carlos Gonzalez is a bust in Colorado. I don't know what is wrong with Holliday but I don't think it's simply not playing in Colorado.

 

[alkeiper]

You're fooling yourself if you think the A's were going anywhere with the Angels and M's in the division.

But speaking of Holliday, has that trade fucking crashed and burned so far or what? Holy shit. You've got Clint INSISTING Huston Street is a viable closer instead of letting Manny try and actually win games for us, and then Holliday is just dogging it now that he's not playing in a hitter friendly park like Coors anymore. Adding to that, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez are down in the minors, not doing much of note. Wasn't Smith winning games for Oakland last year? I'm still wishing Colorado kept Holliday, even if it would've been for just one more year.

Gonzalez is hitting .333 in Colorado Springs with 7 doubles, 5 triples and two home runs. That he has 11 walks against 15 strikeouts and 84 at bats is a HUGE positive sign.

Greg Smith is hurt. He's on the SkySox roster, on their 7 day DL. No details.

 

[Smues]

Check what Slayer found on wiki.

Now we know what Bored does in his free time. I have a friend who is an M's fan used to vandalize M's players pages. The one I remember was making Willy Bloomquist's say that he was a piece of shit that should be thrown into the Pudget Sound. He got quite the nasty gram from wikipedia for that one.

 

[Bored]

I swear I didn't edit the Gio wiki page! But I'm thinking about editing Bob Geren's right about now...

You're fooling yourself if you think the A's were going anywhere with the Angels and M's in the division.

But speaking of Holliday, has that trade fucking crashed and burned so far or what? Holy shit. You've got Clint INSISTING Huston Street is a viable closer instead of letting Manny try and actually win games for us, and then Holliday is just dogging it now that he's not playing in a hitter friendly park like Coors anymore. Adding to that, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez are down in the minors, not doing much of note. Wasn't Smith winning games for Oakland last year? I'm still wishing Colorado kept Holliday, even if it would've been for just one more year.

Gonzalez is hitting .333 in Colorado Springs with 7 doubles, 5 triples and two home runs. That he has 11 walks against 15 strikeouts and 84 at bats is a HUGE positive sign.

Well this sure doesn't help matters.

The A's have never recovered from Bobby Crosby being a bust and Eric Chavez becoming a cripple.

 

[NoCalMike]

You're fooling yourself if you think the A's were going anywhere with the Angels and M's in the division.

Settle down. It's eaaaaaarly.

Like Bored said, Crosby being a bust, hurt, the front office choosing to throw the cash at Chavez instead of Tejada,(at the time it seemed like an ok decision because of Chavez's upside, but the way it played out...uggggghhh) and then Giambi turning down 90 million contract to go to the yankees and "win championships"

 

[still fly]

The Dodgers swept the Padres today and now have won 10 home games in a row to start the season, which is a club record. Dodgers are now four and half up on San Francisco. NL West is looking like a one team race now.

The Dodgers have too much offense for this division, it's ridiculous.

 

[Vitamin X]

Wait until the Rox get a late season rally and the Dodgers collapse. *crosses fingers*

 

[wnyxmcneal]

I put Chris Reitsma's home phone number in his wiki page.

The edits made after Cory Lidle died were hilarious.

 

[alkeiper]

I put Chris Reitsma's home phone number in his wiki page.

The edits made after Cory Lidle died were hilarious.

I hope you were rightfully called a jackass for that.

 

[wnyxmcneal]

For Reitsma or Lidle?

 

[Smues]

I would guess Reitsma, since you didn't specify that you did anything to Lidle's, just that you liked the ones made. And while I certainly understand and share the Reitsma hate, I do think posting his phone number publicly is pretty low. How'd you get it anyway?

 

[wnyxmcneal]

He's listed in the phonebook at Canada 411. Or at least he was. He had a charity, so I put: For more information on his charity call (Reitsma's number).

He's still listed, in case anyone wants to give him a call and thank him for blowing two NLDS.

With Lidle, I did write a song mocking his death, but the funniest thing at wikipedia was-

Career statistics
Win-Loss record 82-72
Earned run average 4.57
Strikeouts 838
Plane crashes 1

That made me laugh so hard

 

[Precious Roy]

I'm trying not to pay attention to the A-Roid stuff, but something I heard on WFAN this evening really jumped out at me

They had a clip of Bob Costas interviewing the woman who wrote the book, I guess from his HBO show, and this is her anecdotal evidence that he juiced in high school, paraphrased

"His sophomore year he benched 100. By his junior year he could bench 320"

Hearing that as supposed evidence of steroid use just really ticked me off. First off, that's right in the age range where guys start to really mature physically and become naturally bigger and stronger. Second, take most any young man who can bench a hundred pounds at 15 or 16 and give him a year of actual 4-5 day a week weight training and 320 is an attainable goal.

That's not to say I don't think Alex used steroids in high school, because it wouldn't surprise me at all if he did. I grew up in a less metropolitan area than Miami without the same degree of pressure he must have faced as a high school athlete, and I know kids who used steroids while we were in high school. He probably did use something, but it doesn't mean he was on anabolic steroids, remember that there was a lot of potent legal shit available at GNC back then that has since been banned.

But to say, "he benched more at 17 than he did at 15" and use that as any kind of evidence is absurd. It's a fucking tabloid witch hunt, plain and simple.

 

[jimmy no nose]

That is probably the weakest evidence you could put out. Doug Mientkiewicz, who was his high school teammate, was pretty pissed off about that part of the story too. I understand that part of the book is that she says a son of a high school coach saw him using steroids, though, so it's not just based on weight gain. It's still a semi-anonymous source, but it wasn't just based on the weight gain.

 

[JHawk]

I'm seriously beginning to think that despite their talent, the Red Sox might be one of the most boring teams I've ever seen. I'm not opposed to baseball games taking four hours to be completed, but it's almost 1:00am, I'm trying to finish this Yankees-Red Sox game since I need my baseball fix and it's the only live game I have access to, and I can't remember the last time I was this bored by a 6-4 game. And it's like this nearly every time I try to sit through a Red Sox game.

And as soon as I type that, Papelbon hits Jeter to put the tying run at first and make me out to be a liar. Thanks Jonathan.