This Week in Baseball 6/29 - 7/5

[alkeiper]

The MLB Network crew is critical of the Nyjer Morgan trade for Pittsburgh. The guy is a LF with a career .376 slugging percentage, and leads the league in caught stealing. They got upside in Milledge and even if Milledge only plays at his 2007-08 level, he's still better than Morgan.

 

[Bored]

MLB Network former player analysts are just like the ones on ESPN. They really have no insight or perspective when it comes player personnel changes. The night Nate McClouth was traded I heard Harold Reynolds say (paraphrasing) "Why hang on to prospects? That's all they are, prospects! I've never understood that."

On the other hand Steve Phillips is a former GM and he's probably worse than any of them.

 

[jimmy no nose]

For as negative as fans might feel about their NL teams, there is no team apart from the Dodgers that has really gathered significant steam. Seven teams have positive run differentials, and one of those are the Pirates. The entire NL Central is separated by 5.5 games.

Based on Pythagorean Record the Pirates should only be half a game out in the Central. No idea how that happens. It actually has the whole division sitting right around .500 except the Astros. Weren't the Cubs supposed to have run away with that division already?

On a similar note, anyone noticed that the Rays have the league's best run differential and pretty easily lead the league in runs scored? Do they officially make their move soon?

 

[treble]

They've won like 7 in a row. They're making it now. At the expense of the Jays.

 

[KingPK]

Quite the implosion by the Boston bullpen after the delay. A 10-1 game has turned into an 11-10 game

 

[still fly]

Well I went to Dodgers-Rockies game tonight. Jason fucking Marquis looked like Cy Young tonight. Manny is coming back at the perfect time as I think this team is coming back down to earth.

At least the fireworks after the game were cool.

 

[Bruiser Chong]

I mean, I'm not sure what was worse. The three-error inning against the Yankees on Friday, or Fernando Martinez falling flat on his face just now followed by Ryan Braun bringing three runs home, overrunning third, Santana gunning a ball from the backstop past David Wright who could have tagged Braun out, Alex Cora slowly diving and missing it, the ball rolling into the outfield and Braun finishing it by scoring the fourth run of the at-bat.

Words cannot describe. Sorry Czech, the Mets have officially replaced the Cubs in the ranks of ineptness.

The Cubs allowed a runner to score from second base tonight on a strikeout.

They also had runners at second and third with no outs with their 1-2-3 guys coming up and didn't score. But that's standard fare for them.

 

[strummer]

yeah the Mets and Cubs are battling over who can find more inventive ways to lose

it's neck and neck now

 

[Dobbs3K]

Rumor has it Geoff Jenkins may have finally found a job with someone, but not sure with who yet (per MLB Trade Rumors on Twitter).

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Holy hell that game last night was awesome.

 

[treble]

Is Ricky Romero the AL Rookie of the Year right now? He hasn't given up a run in his last 2 starts, and aside from his first 2 starts coming off the DL (when he was pretty awful) has been lights out all year. His walks might be a bit high, but that's about the only downside I've seen so far.

Just a quick look at the other rookies seems to show that there's no one else who really sticks out, but is there anyone I'm forgetting?

 

[jimmy no nose]

Maybe I've just watched the right games, but does something happen to opposing pitchers/Brewers hitters every time Gallardo pitches? Gallardo-Snell, Gallardo-Carpenter, and now Gallardo-Pelfrey. Everyone seems suddenly unhittable. At least it was understandable when it was Carpenter.

 

[Czech]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/06/29/james.33/index.html?eref=sihpT1

28-32 IS PRIME

33+ YOU DECLINE

BILL JAMES ACKNOWLEDGES THIS

 

[devo]

Mets pull out the 1-0 victory in Milwaukee today behind a terrific performance from Mike Pelfrey (7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 6 K) and some solid defense. Besides an early error from Wright the fielding was stellar today and played a huge part in keeping the Brewers from scoring. Just a refreshing game after watching how this team played over the past week.

 

[alkeiper]

All Star rosters are expanded to 33 players this year. How many freakin' players do we need in one game? The biggest problem now with the All Star game is that the best players only play three innings.

 

[still fly]

Dodgers get to 50 wins as they close out the Rockies 1-0 in a hard fought series, which has seen some stellar pitching. The bullpen, which was thought to be a weakness this season, has really stepped it up this year. Belisario and Troncoso have been godsends.

Fittingly, Juan Pierre catches the last out of the game, as his time as regular starter is done. He'll probably still see some action in center, as honestly it's almost foolish to take him of the line-up with the way he's been swinging the bat.

 

[Smues]

I just noticed that Florida, Atlanta, New York, and Philly are all over .500 in their own division. How is this possible? Because the Natinals are 6-30 against the east. Poor D.C. fans.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Damn. We're not gonna get out of LAST PLACE losing in extra innings to the Red SUX (lolol)

I just noticed that Florida, Atlanta, New York, and Philly are all over .500 in their own division. How is this possible? Because the Natinals are 6-30 against the east. Poor D.C. fans.

Ha ha. Suck it Washington.

 

[alkeiper]

I just noticed that Florida, Atlanta, New York, and Philly are all over .500 in their own division. How is this possible? Because the Natinals are 6-30 against the east. Poor D.C. fans.

If you think that's bad, the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics almost kept the entire LEAGUE above .500.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1916.shtml

 

[alkeiper]

Is Ricky Romero the AL Rookie of the Year right now? He hasn't given up a run in his last 2 starts, and aside from his first 2 starts coming off the DL (when he was pretty awful) has been lights out all year. His walks might be a bit high, but that's about the only downside I've seen so far.

Just a quick look at the other rookies seems to show that there's no one else who really sticks out, but is there anyone I'm forgetting?

Nolan Reimold: Has yet to qualify for the batting title but has nine home runs and an .883 OPS.

Elvis Andrus: So-so offense, but fantastic defense.

That's all I see. Maybe a Matt Wieters run, but he hasn't done anything to warrant consideration yet.

 

[treble]

Yeah, Andrus and Reimold were the only 2 that really came to mind when I was looking. Reimold seems to be having a decent season, especially for a rookie, but Romero could probably be a Cy Young candidate, too, if he hadn't hurt himself sneezing and taken a few starts to get back into a rhythm.

Wieters, I think, will be his biggest competition, especially since all the hype he's had would be enough to sway some voters.

 

[Precious Roy]

Another Oriole to keep an eye on is Brad Bergesen. He's having a fairly similar season to Romero numbers wise. Prior to tonight he was 5-2 in 13 starts, averaging over 6 innings per, a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio, 3.76 ERA, 1.22 WHIP but those numbers are actually inflated due to a rough first month, in the last month in 36 innings he's got a 2.23 ERA and .88 WHIP!

And then tonight he pitched 8 innings of 4 hit ball against Boston before the bullpen blew the game

 

[treble]

I was going to post that Romero was a lock for June Rookie of the Month. I'm glad I didn't.

A quick look at the numbers makes me think that Romero still has the edge (mostly because of the strikeout rate), but Turd Bergeson's looking pretty good, too.

 

[jimmy no nose]

It turns out Xavier Nady is going to end up having that second Tommy John surgery that they were unsure about initially. Most pitchers who've had the surgery twice haven't had a ton of success making a comeback, but there aren't many position players who've ever done it. I know Vance Wilson did, and he's spent some time with one of the Royals minor league affiliates this year. No idea what the impact might be on an outfielder in terms of recovery.

 

[Bored]

There's a report that due to Tom Hicks financial problems, the Rangers had to borrow $15 million from MLB to make payroll. It'll be very interesting to see a few weeks from now if the Rangers turn into sellers at the trade deadline despite being in contention.

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3375:rangers-may-have-borrowed-as-much-as-15-million-from-mlb-to-make-payroll&catid=30:mlb-news&Itemid=42

 

[jimmy no nose]

For some reason the Mets and Pirates had a 30 minute delay then started the game while it was pouring. That lasted for 4 minutes before they had another 45 minute delay. Good thing they got those first 11 pitches in early.

 

[treble]

I keep reading about how well Juan Pierre played while Manny was out, but I'm just not seeing it. Maybe he started out fine, but in June, his OPS has dropped from .935 to .796. I guess the steals are nice, but that doesn't make up for slugging .294 over the last month (5 extra base hits in June, all doubles). And I have to laugh when I see quotes like "Were it not for the fact that none of those drives have made it over the wall, Pierre would be doing an awfully good Manny impression at the plate." What drives?

 

[Bored]

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story! I guarantee you if Manny gets off to a slow start in his first week back the Bill Plaschke's of the world will be demanding Pierre be put back into the line up and how Manny is destroying the Dodgers team chemistry.

 

[Smues]

Plaschke will probably demanding it anyway even if Manny comes back with 5 homeruns in his first week back.

 

[devo]

Exhausting game today. After two rain delays totaling about 75 minutes and a quick 5-0 deficit thanks to an awful Tim Redding start (2.1 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 K), the Mets battle back, scoring eight runs to go into the bottom of the ninth with a 8-6 lead. However, Fransisco Rodriguez immediately blows the save, giving up a two-run homer and just barely escaping the inning thanks to a game saving snag from Castillo.

Thankfully, Ryan Church comes through for the second day in a row with an RBI single to give the Mets the one-run lead in the bottom of the tenth. Rodriguez stays in and retires the side in order to "earn" a win. I'm not expecting much from the series in Philadelphia this weekend, but it is pretty cool that they'll be going in at most two games back.