Yes, the Oakland Raiders finally can say they’ve won two in a row. It predates Doin Work’s existence, and is the first time that it’s happened since 2008 when Jamarcus made us think he was improving. This time it’s much different though as we are actually in the divisional race. We’ve looked good on both sides of the ball, and I think the guys are finally starting to believe they can win. McFadden finally has decided to be one of those elite backs we were all hoping he would be. Yesterday was the first time we’ve put up 500 yards of offense since 2002 when we had Gannon. It’s also the first time we’ve had fantasy relevant players! Heyward-Bey finally got over the century mark in receiving yards for a game, and scored his second career TD. Our defense has been sacking QB’s at an amazing rate, and already have 24 on the season witch is good enough to tie the Giants for third in the league. They are ranked 9th in defense overall, and getting pressure on the QB has helped the not as good corner opposite Nnamdi look a little better. The offense hasn’t been explosive per say, but just efficient enough, and chewing up enough clock to keep our defense from being tired like they were at the end of every game last year. That has been the biggest difference this year by a long shot. It feels foreign to me to see them actually improving from week to week instead of improving then regressing. I’m happy to say that my prediction for them making the AFC Championship game is still alive 8 weeks in. This weekend we have a huge divisional match up for what could be a factor in deciding the division as they take on the first place Chiefs. Thankfully this match up is at home and is supposedly sold out, so it should be on TV for once! Another thing I’m starting to love about these wins is it’s pissing off Patriots fans because they see their possibilities of having a top ten pick next year dwindle by the week!
Watching lots of NBA action, and I forgot about a team in the West…
Since we are all blessed with the NBA League pass for the first week of the season for free, I ended up seeing quite a few teams that I normally don’t get to see much since they aren’t contenders or in a big market. A few teams impressed me like Indiana, Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento, but one team made more of an impression on me for some reason was the Memphis Grizzlies. Are they actually a good team? Memphis was nearly .500 last year, but I wasn’t really sure if they were a “good” close to .500 team or a “lucky” close to .500 team, since I didn’t get to see them play much. I watched good portions of them beating Dallas and Minnesota over the weekend, and have to say that this team actually has some solid potential. They got 22 steals against Minnesota, and pretty much dominated them. Dallas they snuck away with a victory, but got the W nonetheless. This team is very young, but they have all their starting spots filled with quality guys that are just entering their 2nd or 3rd seasons. Even though I don’t see any of them being superstars, much like OKC they have a solid core of young talent that likes playing with eachother. Everyone knocks Rudy Gay, but the guy was clutch against Dallas, and if they have a closer, they already have more than some teams. OJ Mayo is a great scorer. He’s not as exciting as I originally thought he’d be coming out of college, but he can fill up the cup. Marc Gasol is improving about as fast as his older brother did. Mike Conley is shockingly better than I thought he’d be when he was playing at Ohio State. Darell Arthur seems to be a great glue guy who you don’t have to run plays for but still finds a way to chip in 15 on any given night, and is filling in admirably for Zach Randolph nursing his tailbone. Their bench isn’t all that exciting, and may hold this team back, but just based off the starting five, they are pretty solid.
World Series Ratings
Yes, we get it, the World Series ratings are extremely low. So what if it means more people would rather watch a regular season matchup of either MIN/NYJ or PIT/NO. Does that influence me to watch those games over the WS? Not really, I still took in the fall classic, because I’m intrigued by the teams and storylines. I think this once again proves that the Eastcoast media bias has too strong of a hold on what were supposed to care about. Just because it’s non-Eastcoast teams we are lead to believe that we aren’t supposed to care about it. If you like baseball, why wouldn’t you be into the WS? I for one find the most important games of a sport that I watched for 7 months more intriguing than football games midway through the regular season… I think the problem with the ratings is more that far more people like football, its just a fact. If baseball had half of the football audience, and everyone didn’t hate listening to Joe Buck, I’m sure they’d have higher ratings. If Lincecum vs. Lee doesn’t get you excited, then you probably aren’t a baseball fan.
Did you seriously think I couldn't out coach Girardi!?! What planet are you on?
Is it really going to happen? The two teams I wanted to win could be squaring off in the World Series. I’m always a fan of the underdog, so usually my teams get knocked out just after I decide to root for them. Naturally, it makes me not care much who wins the championship when the teams I don’t care about are in the final series. This year has been different though, and the teams that I’m rooting for, for some reason, are actually winning. It’s like when I get excited seeing one of my bets at halftime correct, only to see said team fail to cover. Maybe, because neither series is over, especially the Giants and Phillies because it’s only a 2-1 series lead, and the Phillies have the pitching and hitting to come back. Plus the Giants seem to have a hard time closing out their opponent, (see the regular season against the Padres). The only reason I feel like that series is a done deal is because my 80 year old grandpa said to me over the phone last night that the Giants would win the WS. Sure, he’s been a big Giants fan his whole life, but MCeezy will vouch for him that if he says it, it will come true! It’s one heart attack win after another for the Giants all season long, so I hope grandpa didn’t jinx them. In the other league, my ALCS prediction was spot on. It’s been awhile since I was able to gloat about a prediction, so here it goes with the things I was right about! The Rangers made the Yankees look old, check. They scored every way imaginable while running all over Posada, check. Ron Washington out coached Joe Girardi by not over managing and getting his players motivated, check. The only thing I didn’t predict was how good the Rangers pitchers would be, and honestly aside from the bullpen meltdown in game 1, they dominated the best hitting lineup in the league. Now that the Rangers are up 3-1 I feel comfortable saying they will be in the World Series. Even if the Yankees somehow shake it off, and win the next two games they will have to face Cliff Lee in game 7. I’d say that means series over anyway you look at it.
Kirk Gibson Still Grinds My Gears
It’s been 22 years since Kirk broke my heart as a young baseball fan with his gimp pinch hit home run off the A’s unstoppable Eckersly. At seven years old, I didn’t think I’d hate his name still 22 years later, but reading about him selling off that historic pinch hit bat making me relive that experience yet again filled me with that same hatred. It’s bad enough they show his fist pumps around the bases every month or two during the season, but having to read about the intricacies of the bat and jersey made me throw up in my mouth a little. Here’s what Gibson said that made me relive one of my worst childhood sports moments,
If you look at the handle on the end of that bat, there’s an ‘x’ because it was a reject. I really only got it because it was so light, I was hurt, so I started to get that ready,” he said. “The cleat marks at the head of the bat where I hit my shoes, there’s indentations at the beginning of the bat. At the end of the bat, it was so deep, there’s really deep indentations, the red ink from the foul balls I hit is on it. You can actually see the spot where I made contact with the ball. It’s preserved very well.”
I can take a little solace in the fact that he is a dick, and many people don’t like him, but it just reminds me that some things you never really get over. I guess holding grudges is part of being a fan. Devastating moment #2 was probably the “Tuck Rule.”
Even though I had my doubts when the Rangers drew the Rays in the first round, they still came through. For some reason I like the Rangers chances even more against the all mighty Yankees than I did against the Rays. Back in September when the Rangers swept the Yankees, I started to believe in them, and wrote a little about why. In that series they were without Josh Hamilton, and the Yankees were without A-Rod, so I figure those two injuries evened each other out lineup wise. What they got from that series more than anything was some extra confidence that they belong with the best. The Rangers have a swagger to them, there’s no way around it, and they’ve been that way all year. I know I brought this up in an older post, but I remember one game back in June when Ian Kinsler was yelling at the Angels players after the game in Arlington to get off their field. I thought it was kind of stupid since they played each other the next day, but it speaks volumes about this team’s mentality, and how together they are. I mean, how many teams would do a separate ginger ale celebration because one of their players is an addict? How many teams survive a manager’s dirty drug test? How many teams would have survived a bankruptcy during a season seeing guys that played in Texas eight years ago, still not being paid what was owed to them? Not many can go through that much turmoil in the workplace, but I think all those outside distractions just made them closer. They don’t roll over like the Twins did when things went wrong, they just move on to the next pitch. Continue reading
Chappy brought up a good point the other day. The Minnesota Twins are the new Atlanta Braves. The Braves gained notoriety for not just winning 14 division titles in 15 years, but only winning ONE World Series during their run of domination. The Twins aren’t quite on that level, but they are starting to put together quite a streak of postseason futility. Being an A’s fan, I can’t say I don’t know what it feels like, but with today’s ALDS series loss to the Yankees, that makes 5 LDS losses in the last 8 years. What’s worse is they only have TWO wins to their name during that stretch. This is their third consecutive time being swept in the LDS, including one at the hands of the Oakland Athletics in 2006. They seem to have their nucleus locked up for a few years to come, but will they ever taste postseason success? Much like the A’s, their defeats seem to come often at the hands of the Yankees. You can’t help but feel like they’re destined to reach the playoffs year after year, only to be tossed aside by whichever team draws them in the opening round. But hey, most can only hope for a taste of the postseason. I can appreciate the Twins’ low-budget success. But really, I can’t help but think they’re the Braves of this era.
We haven’t put up any power rankings up for a long time, and don’t really need to anymore now that the regular season is over. Today we were debating about playoff teams, and some of us thought certain teams were stronger than others, and decided to rank them. No explanations for the rankings, just how we feel about each of these teams going into the October classic. Cincy and Atlanta seem to have the least support. Can you blame us though?!?
It’s usually not a smart idea to post about a team returning to the playoffs when they haven’t clinched yet, but I’m an A’s fan, so if the Giants meltdown and fail to make the playoffs, I won’t shed any tears. At any rate, I’ve got to admit I’m a little excited about the black and orange returning to the postseason for the first time since they blew the 2003 World Series to the Anaheim Angels. Now, they’d have to get swept this weekend by the Padres to force a one game playoff for the division, but the way the two teams are playing right now, that doesn’t seem likely. So let’s assume the “G-men,” as the much maligned announcing duo of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow call them, hold off the Pads to win the NL West. Contrary to Chappy’s sentiments, I’m pretty excited for the MLB Playoffs this year – on the NL side at least. The Phillies are pretty much a perennial postseason favorite at this point, but if things hold the way they are, we’ll see the return of the Giants, the Atlanta Braves, and most refreshingly, the Cincinnati Reds.
In all likelihood, the Giants will open the first round at home against the Braves, which should be an exciting series. Remember that the Giants knocked off the Braves in the first round in 2003 on their way to a World Series berth. But SF has the makings of a pretty dangerous playoff team. The pitching staff is unparalleled, led by Tim Lincecum of course. Throw in guys like Matt Cain, a revitalized Barry Zito, and quite possibly the hottest pitcher in the rotation, Jonathan Sanchez, and you can’t figure them to give up many runs. On the offensive side, though not the most dangerous lineup on paper, the Giants are ridiculously deep. It’s a huge collection of guys that can come through with the big hit at any given time. Buster Posey, Jose Guillen, Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Edgar Renteria, Pablo Sandoval, Freddy Sanchez, Mike Fontenot, Cody Ross, Aaron Rowand….. I could go on for days. I guess I’ll put away all my green and gold and break out that one Giants shirt I have for the next few…. weeks, hopefully.
It’s lame that Bynum put off his surgery opting to go to the World Cup instead. Even if he thought it was going to be a less serious surgery, he knew he was going to have surgery. I don’t buy his story that he didn’t know what the recovery time would be, anytime you know you are going under the knife, you get all the details from the doctor on the major points like say, recovery time. It was a bonehead move to say the least. Maybe he just thought, if Favre can do it, why not me?!? In the end, Bynum has never played a full season (35, 50, and 65 games), so why start now?!? It really won’t matter if he’s in the lineup for the first month or two. The Lakers are going to be in the playoffs regardless of what Bynum does to start the year, which makes me question how meaningful the regular season is. The Sports Chump brought up a good point that it comes down to three teams that truly have a shot at winning the title (Lakers, Heat, and Celtics), so why all the fuss. There’s always hope of OKC, Orlando, and Chicago pulling out some miracles, but would you really bet on them? In basketball missing a month or two isn’t the worst thing in the world for a team. It hurts, but when we already know who the title contenders are before the season nearly every year, it’s really a non-story. Maybe it matters if you’re a small team, and want to see LA early in the season while Bynum is still out, but that’s beyond a team’s control.
Baseball’s dated playoff system
The MLB has seen an attendance dip for yet another season. Not too surprising in a season with very little drama, and we ended up hearing about Strasburg for four straight months. Alas, we really only have one interesting race to get in the playoffs in the NL West, and that race is all but over, unless the Padres pull out a miracle in SF. Baseball is in a down year because of its lack of star power, but with all the good looking rookies that broke onto the scene this year, I’d say the future is very bright. It’s been brought up in hundreds of articles that the MLB playoffs should be changed to make it more interesting at the end of the year. I agree with most of them. We have a great race between Tampa and New York, but since home field really doesn’t mean crap in baseball this isn’t, and shouldn’t be getting much attention. Baseball is by far the slowest evolving sport, and has batted around the idea of instant replay for what seems like a decade. We already debated about instant replay, and unless you hate Armando Gallaraga you’d agree that getting the calls right are more important than anything, but the MLB continues to stay behind on the technology curve, and has chosen to stay in the simpler times of cassette tapes and VHS’s. We could upgrade to at least DVD’s and CD’s if we aren’t ready for IPod’s and Blue Rays, but I don’t think Selig’s great grandkids have told him what those are yet. I’d like to see more teams in the playoffs like two more in each league with a total of three wild card teams. Does that diminish the regular season? A little, but there’s ways around that to reward the division winners with some perks. Have the wild card winners play each of the division winners, but start a best of seven series at 2-0 in the division champs favor. Maybe even make the all the games at the division winners home stadium, so they only have to win two of five games to advance. Would that give the Yankees and Rays some incentive to play out this final week? I would certainly think so…
I must really be fired up about this AL Cy Young race, because it’s the second post I’ve done on it, and I rarely go back to any subject I previously poured out my views on a post, but hearing people argue that CC should win it aggravated me enough to write a post on it again. It’s obviously a two man race for the AL Cy Young Award, and both Felix and CC made their final starts of the year last night. Like I said back in August, it was Felix’s award to lose. If anything Felix has strengthened his case over the last month and a half. Since I wrote in the original post (end of August) that it was Felix’s Cy Young to lose, they both have the same record (3-2), are within a few innings pitched of each other, have about the same K’s as each other, but CC’s ERA is two full points higher over that span. CC just happened to win his 21st game during that time span, which made more people jump on his bandwagon. Does that make him a better choice for the award? I don’t think so, because I don’t value wins and losses all that much. The award is supposed to be given to the best pitcher period, not the best pitcher on the best team. Greinke winning the award should show us that you don’t have to be on a good team, same with Cliff Lee on the Indians. Over the whole year it’s easy to see who should win the award. They both had the same amount of starts (34), but Felix threw 12 more innings, had nearly one less run on his ERA (0.91 lower), struck out 35 more hitters, and threw four more complete games (6 total) than CC. I will argue for King Felix on the points that I keep seeing light on why CC should be the winner. One last stat, 12 of 13 pitchers that held the lead in strikeouts and ERA won the award, so I’m hoping that it doesn’t go to 12 out of 14 this year.
Argument: CC won 21 games on the best team.
I know CC has won 21 games, but he’s on a team that scored the most runs in the league by nearly 50. Conversely, Felix is on a team that scored 70 less runs than anyone else in the league. You tell me which guy you’d put money on to win more games. Hell, I’d probably would’ve put money on AJ Burnett or Javier Vasquez to have more wins than Felix. If wins are so important, why aren’t Lester, Pavano, and Verlander in those Cy Young talks? They still could get 20 wins, and are comparable to CC in ERA and K’s.
Tigers fans are probably cringing right now. Matt Nokes has got to be one of those names that just makes any Detroit fan shake his head. I may have been just a little whippersnapper in 1987, but I remember a pretty good AL Rookie of the Year race. Of course it would eventually go to my hometown hero, Mark McGwire, on the strength of 49 homers and 118 RBI. And first runner up may have gone to Kevin Seitzer of the Royals, but the guy I remember challenging McGwire for the trophy was Tigers’ catcher, Matt Nokes. Nokes was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 20th round of the 1981 draft. He spent a few years in the minors, made his big league debut in 85, went 11 for 53 and was dealt the following offseason to Detroit in a multiplayer deal that was essentially the swapping of poo poo platters between the Giants and Tigers. Nokes made just 24 plate appearance for Detroit in 1986, but then he broke out in 87. While batting .289, the Tigers new star player jacked 32 home runs and drove in 87 RBI, which earned him an All-Star berth, a Silver Slugger award, and third place in the AL ROY voting. He even got some clown to give him an MVP vote. The future looked bright for Nokes….. but it wasn’t. He never topped any of those numbers, and despite a slight resurgence in New York with the Yankees in 91-92, he never really made any noise. Those were terrible Yankee teams, so the numbers didn’t mean much. To be honest, I probably haven’t even thought of Matt Nokes in years. I was contemplating a feature on Glenallen Hill or Milt Thompson, and somehow I stumbled upon Nokes. Here’s to you Tiger fans!
That’s a rhetorical question. Bob Geren is still here because he’s Billy Beane’s BFF. I just really wish the A’s would try to find a good manager instead of apathetically letting the GM’s buddy run the show. Today, the Oakland Athletics exercised the option on Bob Geren’s contract for 2011, meaning he’ll be back for another year at the helm. It’ll be his 5th year as manager and he has yet to top 76 wins. Granted, he’ll most likely top that this year, but the guy hasn’t even managed a .500 season in his tenure. He has a career record of 302-334. What club actively brings back a manager after four consecutive losing seasons? It’s not like they’re a struggling franchise like the Royals where a 70 win season could be considered a success. This is a team that had EIGHT STRAIGHT WINNING SEASONS, capped by an ALCS berth. Then the Geren era began, and it’s been all losing ever since. Sometimes I feel like Lou Wolf and the A’s ownership are recreating the classic film, Major League – I probably allude to that every time I write about the A’s – except Lou Brown would probably do a better job.
I think it’s time for the A’s to do what the other Oakland teams did and bring back an old coach that had success. The Warriors brought back Don Nelson and before you knew it were back in the playoffs. The Raiders brought back Art Shell and they only gave up 332 points – their lowest in a season to date since the Super Bowl season in 2002. They went 2-14 but that’s neither here nor there. It’s time to bring back Art Howe. Maybe Ken Macha will be available after the Brewers finish the season. Shoot, Don Wakamatsu, former A’s bench coach, is available. Oh wait, we’re locked in on Geren for another sub-.500 year. I guess the A’s are just going to milk another revenue sharing season and let attendance dwindle even more so they can continue to build their case to leave Oakland. I’m fed up with this charade. The fanbase is there, but this ownership regime continues to alienate. I’m the biggest A’s fan I know, but it’s hard to support a group that simply can’t compete. Sure, there are some great young players, and the future is bright, yada yada yada. But Get Carter had a great cast and that doesn’t make it a good movie. Anyway, I’ll sit through one more year. It’s not like they signed Geren to an extension; they just exercised his option. That’s same thing as someone putting on Get Carter, so you sit through it, as opposed to going to the theater and buying a ticket. I’ll tell you this much though, if the A’s buy a ticket to Get Geren next year, I’m done. But by then they’ll probably have a deal in place to move somewhere so I won’t really care…..
With about three weeks left there are a TON of good looking rookies in the NL. For awhile I thought it was Jaime Garcia, then Buster Posey took a slight lead, then Gaby Sanchez, and now Jason Heyward is remaking his case for the ROY award with a hot streak. What I’ve found most interesting about the NL ROY race is that guys like Mike Stanton have 20 homers, Tyler Colvin has 19 homers, Ike Davis has 18 homers, Neil Walker has a .306 average, John Axeford has 21 saves, Stephen Strasberg was insanely good for a bit, and none of these guys are going to be considered for the award. It’s has been an insane year for the youth in the NL, and will probably be just like the NL West race coming down to who has the best final weeks of the season. I’m going to take a look at the top five candidates, and try to figure out which one is the best choice. I’m already leaning towards Heyward during his resurgence, and being in the big leagues all year helps his case. Gaby Sanchez is so underrated that I feel like I should almost just pick him for shock value, but I just can’t do it. Here’s my thoughts on the top five candidates in no particular order. I heavily weighted one thing in my list, and that was the word YEAR, as in playing a complete season. Continue reading
The Rangers have gotten a ton of play on the MLB network over the past month or so. I can’t remember seeing more of their games on TV at any point in my life. They’ve earned those televised games, as they are the clearly the class of the AL West, and playing as good as any team in the league right now. They usually fade during July and August when their home field turns into a launching pad, but not this year. I was hoping for an implosion from them, so maybe the A’s would be able to sneak into the playoffs, but that’s like hoping for the Raiders to show up in back to back games. Once again, I’m starting to wonder if the A’s are cursed. Not because of the numerous injuries they suffered for a third straight year, but because we let Ron Washington go. I’d much rather have Washington as the manger over Geren, but Beane was very pro Geren, so we’re stuck with the schlep. Until A’s fortunes change, I think we are still under The Curse of the Wash. Normally I’d root against the AL West winner if it wasn’t the A’s, but I found myself pulling for the Rangers to succeed this postseason.
The Rangers sweep over the Yankees showed us exactly what they’ve been doing well all year long. Come from behind to win. They came back to win two of the three games, and even made one of those comebacks while Rivera was on the mound. That kind of win can’t be understated when it comes playoff time, and just knowing that they have already beaten up the most dominant closer of all time is a feather in the cap. They also had their ace (Cliff Lee) back on the hill to close out the sweep. It was his first start in two weeks. He showed how healthy he was shutting the Yankees down for 8 innings giving up only one run. It’s only the second time all season the Yankees got swept! What made this even more impressive was that they didn’t need their MVP candidate Josh Hamilton, who is still out with a bruised up ribcage. There’s no rush to get Hamilton back, since they do have a commanding lead in the West (8 ½ games). Now that the Yankees and Rays starting to come back to earth a little, does this give the Twins and Rangers an edge? I’d probably put both of them above the TB and NY on power rankings if I made them right this moment. I’m already envisioning an ALCS matchup between Minnesota and Texas. Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, but if Morneau and Hamilton come back healthy, who’s to say that these two teams are the favorites to make it to the ALCS?
Another thing I’ve noticed about this Rangers team is their swagger factor. It’s crazy how together these guys are. Early in the season after they took out the Angels in the opener of a series in June, right after the final out of the game was recorded Ian Kinsler was out there yelling for them to “get off our field”, as the Angels were heading to the showers. At the time I thought Kinsler was just being the dickhead he is, but now months later I think it was a statement of things to come. It was like they finally believed in themselves before anyone else did, and knew they weren’t going to have a collapse when the weather got hot. They were no longer going to be a pushover and would play every game hard, just the way Wash would’ve played. They were paying attention to more details than they used to, even doing the small ball stuff that wins games utilizing their speed in Bobon and Andrus. We will see if they can continue their good play through the last 19 games. I don’t see any reason for them to slow down since they don’t have the division locked up yet, but they are in as good of a position possible for a solid postseason run, and can let guys like Josh Hamilton and Cliff Lee take some extra rest if it’s needed. I’m glad my prediction of who would win the AL West is working out thus far!
Sometimes the fans take center stage, and ARE the story more than the athletes at times. We saw Bo and Sarah’s foul ball fiasco give them more than their five minutes of fame, and fortunately, I think we are done with both of them. This past Friday a fight between an unruly fan at the US Open made more waves on internet forums than the actual tennis being played. I figured it was only fitting to show you the compilation clip that someone spent some time syncing up all the camera phone videos that caught the incident. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about this jackass. I’ve never been a fan of people from the eastcoast, and this might just be another example of why…
This second clip shows us that unitentional pain is always funny. Cali4Dre’s thoughts summed it up nicely…
Three things I like about that one:
The HD feed looks really nice
The multiple replays of ball contact to forehead
The camera dude saying he tried to warn him, as if that made a difference
I was all fired up to write a Cahill for the AL Cy Young Award last night, but sadly he got shelled for 8 runs by the Yankees. His ERA ended up ballooning from 2.43 to 2.82 dropping him from second to third in ERA. He held the lead in WHIP with an amazing 0.99, but that ballooned to 1.07 after last night, and now he’s now second behind Cliff Lee in that department. He was going to need to lead those key categories if he was going to have any chance in winning a Cy Young. Cahill missed April with an injury, so he had some ground to make up in innings pitched to be considered. Since he doesn’t strike out a lot of guys he needed to keep that ERA and WHIP down to get any Cy Young votes. He’s about as dominating a ground ball pitcher as you can be, but voters value K’s A LOT, so falling out of the lead of those two major categories might have pushed him out of the Cy talks. Until last night, he’d lasted five or more innings, and given up seven or fewer hits in all 23 of his starts. That was broken up yesterday, but the streak was still good enough for an Oakland record, which is surprising thinking of all the pitching greats that have donned the green and gold over the years. I ended up posting Stealing First Base last night, because I was rattled by this rare ugly start for our 22 year old sensation. If he’d shut down the Yankees, there would be more optimism in his Cy Young candidacy. At this moment, I can’t really put him at the top, so I’d probably drop him down to the second tier where I have CC, Bucholtz, and Wilson. He’s got a month left to get a new streak of zeros going, but the way Felix has been firing on all cylinders he’s the man to dethrone now.
If it was decided today, I’d would crown King Felix with the AL Cy Young. He’s been phenomenal after a so-so May. If he played for any team but Seattle, he’d at least have 15 wins. If he was on the Yankees he’d probably have as many wins if not more than CC’s 18. A 10-10 record isn’t anything to write home about, but I care a lot more about the pure pitching numbers, and the 24 year old is having another great season. He’s lost a number of games where his team only scored one run for him or in some cases was completely shut out. Nothing surprising coming out of Seattle since they own the lowest total amount of runs scored in all of baseball. They can’t even score as much as Pittsburgh! Just checking out his game log, it tells the story of his lack of run support. Quality start after quality start, and nothing in the win column to show for it. Over his last 15 starts he’s pitched at least 6.2 innings, and has given up only three runs three times, and two or less runs in the other twelve starts. He’s currently second in K’s (192), second in ERA (2.47), third in WHIP (1.11), leads in IP (204.1), and is holding hitters to a .225 BA (sixth best in the AL). I’ve found myself feeling sorry for the guy. Every time he goes out there he gets the least run support of any of the candidates, and the Seattle crowd knows it, giving him standing ovations even when he leaves the game behind on the scoreboard, because they know they are watching a great pitcher that gave them everything he had. Maybe I’m picking him because I thought he deserved it last year or because he’s on one of my fantasy teams. If it weren’t for Greinke’s freakish year that made Felix an afterthought when the award was handed out, he could be going for back to back awards. Even Greinke got better run support in his Cy Young season last year than Felix has had these past two seasons. I know the award isn’t given out based on a two year period, but consistency can be taken into considered in a year that the award could go either way. Kind of like when Kobe and Barkley won their MVP awards in the NBA. Kobe wasn’t the overly obvious choice for the award, but sometimes you have to reward someone that is at the top for an extended period of time. Same went for Barkley, they might have been tired of giving it to Jordan, so they threw in a change up and gave it to the big man who finished runner up a few times. If Felix keeps doing what he’s been doing, he should win the award! Now that I’ve said all that, I bet Felix gets blown up by the Angels tonight…
This happened a couple days ago, and if you haven’t seen this Gary Robinson ejection, it’s worth a watch. It was probably the most controlled out of control ejection, I’ve ever seen. He started off with the ol’ cover home with dirt, which was when I thought he had lost it. He started heading to first, and as soon as he pulled first base out of the ground, I was hoping for him to bust out his best Phillip Wellman impression. Going nuts is highly underrated these days. Sure you get ridicule, but you are remembered! It didn’t end up being one of the greatest blow ups of all time, but did have an unusual ending. I wonder if that base will end up on ebay?
Memphis was nearly .500 last year, but I wasn’t really sure if they were a “good” close to .500 team or a “lucky” close to .500 team, since I didn’t get to see them play much. I watched good portions of them beating Dallas and Minnesota over the weekend, and have to say that this team actually has some solid potential. They got 22 steals against Minnesota, and pretty much dominated them. Dallas they snuck away with a victory, but got the W nonetheless. This team is very young, but they have all their starting spots filled with quality guys that are just entering their 2nd or 3rd seasons. Even though I don’t see any of them being superstars, much like OKC they have a solid core of young talent that likes playing with eachother. Everyone knocks Rudy Gay, but the guy was clutch against Dallas, and if they have a closer, they already have more than some teams. OJ Mayo is a great scorer. He’s not as exciting as I originally thought he’d be coming out of college, but he can fill up the cup. Marc Gasol is improving about as fast as his older brother did. Mike Conley is shockingly better than I thought he’d be when he was playing at Ohio State. Darell Arthur seems to be a great glue guy who you don’t have to run plays for but still finds a way to chip in 15 on any given night, and is filling in admirably for Zach Randolph nursing his tailbone. Their bench isn’t all that exciting, and may hold this team back, but just based off the starting five, they are pretty solid.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
