Tag Archives: MLB

September 6, 2010

Labor Day Ramblings

By chappy81

Three day weekends are never a bad thing. You everything you want to in the first two days, and have an extra day to come back to the reality of knowing that tomorrow you will be heading back to work. I pretty much missed all of the first college football Saturday of the year, but fortunately the game of the week is on tonight. The Sportschump broke it down what the teams looked like, so that helped. In an attempt to get myself ready for the upcoming NFL line predictions, I figured I’d start my ramblings with my pick for the college game of the week.

Virginia Tech (+2) Over Boise State

I’m going to be rooting full force for Boise State, but in the end, I have a tough time seeing them coming out the winner. I’m not basing this pick off the players, the coaching strategies, or even team strengths. I’m mostly picking Virginia Tech because they are at home, and the underdog. Since Boise State has to travel to the other side of the country, it’s going to be an even tougher task for them than just playing a great team. I think this is one of the biggest factors that’s overlooked in a game. Teams don’t do well traveling from the westcoast (sort of) to the eastcoast in the NFL, so why should they in college?!? Hopefully this game lives up to the hype, and we get a close one. Anytime you can take the home team with points in a game that you aren’t sure who’s going to win, you do it. The Hokies win unfortunately win tonight!

Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis finally ended his holdout agreeing to a contract worth $46M for four years, with $32M of that guaranteed. He held out to get paid as much as Asomugha, but didn’t really get close to his numbers, and isn’t even the second highest paid cornerback in the league (making less than Asomugha and Champ Bailey this season). I’m not sure I understand why he incurred half a million in fines only to sign this four year contract when it sounded like the Jets offered him that wacky ten year $120M deal. I’m on my own island when it comes to understanding contracts, so maybe that offer had a lot of incentives, and the guaranteed money wasn’t where he wanted it to be. To me, it’s like watching a porno for the dude “actors”, it doesn’t make a ton of sense, but $32M guaranteed > $1M this season… Who knows, I just hope Hard Knocks will clear that up for me on Wednesday night, and now maybe Rex Ryan’s #2’s will play a lot better now that Revis pushed one of the #1’s down to a #2. Are the Jets the favorite to win the Super Bowl now? Maybe, but it all still comes down to how well the Sanchize does, and it’s sounding like the experts have less and less confidence in him. If you somehow didn’t know that Revis was an amazing cornerback, our buddy Weller broke it down like only he can.

Floyd Mayweather apologizes?!? He made this racist rant challenging everything he could conjure up about Manny Pacquiao towards the end of last week. Not surprisingly, it ended up making him look foolish.

Floyd likes chicken so much he's becoming one!

He apologized after the video hit the newswires, but I’m not sure why he was calling him out in the first place. It seemed like a month ago, the fight was going to happen, and Pacquiao conceded to some things in the contract to get this fight going more on Mayweather’s terms. Once again pretty boy Floyd backed down. I’m actually shocked that he apologized. I didn’t really know that this guy even had the word sorry in his vocabulary. Maybe he finally realized that he was the idiot ducking the fight that could save or  revive boxing. I’m not sure how these guys can’t agree on a $100M+ fight. It’s just ludicrous that they are holding this sport hostage, and denying us a chance of seeing rematches as the two slowly grow out of their primes. Mayweather has never been short on confidence, but you have to believe he’s scared at this point, since we’ve never really seen him apologize about anything. If he’s truly the best, he needs to prove it, and I don’t think he is even drinking his own Kool-Aid anymore.

The Padres lost their 10th consecutive game. They are scratching for answers anywhere they can find one, but just flat out aren’t playing well. I was one of the semi-doubters, but was still rooting for them more than against them. I understood how they were getting it done for most of the season, yet I still couldn’t really understand, if that makes any sense! This bump in the road might be showing that they don’t have enough offense, and their pitching might just be too young. The NL West is starting to heat up with the Rockies, Giants, and Padres all in contention now. Two weeks ago, I thought the Padres were going to walk into the playoffs, now they might have to use Latos more than they originally wanted to, and are finding it’s never easy to close out a division title. In contrast to the Padres sudden demise, is the big rise of the White Label Hot Rockies, who seem to come out of nowhere at the end of each season. They’ve won 11 of their last 15, and have a former A’s player, Carlos Gonzalez, who is putting up some MVP type numbers. Too bad for C-Gon, that he has to compete with guys like Pujols and Votto are pushing for a triple crown. This might be the most interesting race in baseball down the stretch, so stay tuned!

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

August 31, 2010

Cahill’s a Contender, But It’s Felix’s Cy Young To Lose

By chappy81

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…

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

August 26, 2010

Taking A Look At The MLB Waiver Period

By chappy81

With Manny being put on Waivers last night, it made me curious exactly how the waiver process works. I mean, even Casey Blake doesn’t understand what’s going on after hearing the news he was put on waivers. Now that we have the blog, it’s given me an extra reason to find out what is going on with this seeming second trade deadline. The waiver period doesn’t really end there, but that’s when teams have to declare their playoff eligible players. So, just like I broke down the Super 2 rule that keeps some teams from calling up their top prospects. Now, I will loosely use Manny as an example of how this waiver crap works…

It all starts with the Dodgers deciding to place Manny on waivers. This means they control three things that happen at the end of a 48 hour period or a kind of0 silent auction so to speak. One note, it’s not actually 48 hours sometimes. For some reason it only counts business days, so if they held off putting Manny on waivers until Thursday or Friday his waiver period would last through the weekend until Monday or Tuesday. By doing it yesterday, the Dodgers insured that the period will end before this week is over.

So who can claim Manny? Basically any team can throw their name into the claim hat, but there is a priority list, and it starts with the worst team in the National League, because Manny is in the NL. If the Pirates decided to throw in a waiver claim in for Manny, they’d have the top priority. The team with the best record in the AL (Yankees/Rays) would have the lowest priority if multiple teams were putting in claims on Manny. Also, the best team in the NL would have a better shot than the worst team in the AL. Still with me?

Ok, so let’s say a team claims him. The Dodgers now can choose three different outcomes. They can pull the player back, and keep him on their roster. They can negotiate a trade with the team that put the claim in (Two business days to work out a deal from the time the claim goes through). They can also let the player go without compensation to the new team like the Blue Jays did letting Alex Rios go to the White Sox last season, and let the new team assume all of his remaining contract. We saw Johnny Damon weep like he just realized his beard was gone, and denied a return to the Red Sox was a prime example. It will be Manny’s choice if he goes anywhere, which in a likely scenario, the team that put the player on waivers is usually stuck with that player they put on waivers, and just have to hope for some compensation picks, which isn’t a terrible 2nd place prize if your stuck with said players contract.

Another interesting thing I found was how much strategy there is in the waiver process. Just because a team claimed someone doesn’t necessarily mean they REALLY wanted them. Sometimes a team will claim a player just because they want to block that player from going to a rival or someone they are chasing in the standings. It’s why I think the Red Sox put in a claim for Damon and might for Manny. They would rather have these guys deny a trade to play for them, and block the Yankees and Rays from improving. Who knows, they might even be happy that Damon stayed put! This factor made me realize that the July 31st deadline is way more important than the August 31st deadline, because teams are heavily restricted with who they can negotiate with. The problem though, is what if a team claims one of the players without a no trade clause to block someone else from getting them, and they just get screwed with a someones recycled pile heap? I guess that’s just the risk you have to take as a GM sometimes…

11 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Sports

August 10, 2010

Brandon Phillips is a Badass

By chappy81

About five or ten minutes ago, Brandon Phillips made his way to the plate for his first at-bat against the Cardinals since making the comment stating how he hated the Cardinals, and called them little bitches. It wasn’t what I expected, but at the same time, I’m not surprised with the outcome. Yadier Molina had some words for him. Shortly the benches emptied right after both took off their helmets. Phillips isn’t a shy guy, and had plenty to say right back to Molina. I like seeing this kind of hatred for an opponent, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen guys getting THIS heated! I love the retaliation factor in baseball, but Jaime Garcia didn’t even have a chance to bean Phillips. I’m sure Phillips shouldn’t have said those things yesterday, but it’s rare we have an athlete truly speak their mind. Well played Brandon, well played sir.

After things seemed to be calming down, Scott Rolen decided to pick it up again. Not sure what was said to him, but someone set him off! The Reds are tired of being the Cards doormat, and are ready to make this race a fight, literally. Just one more reason the Reds are a team I didn’t expect to care about. If you haven’t seen it, you have to check out the clip here.

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

August 9, 2010

Optimistic For Oakland Part I: Athletics

By chappy81

When MCeezy and I were in China, we were disappointed to see Stomper on a Chinese billboard, because the A's were struggling at the time, but maybe the trip overseas showed him what he was missing!

I’m very excited for all three of the Oakland franchises’ futures, more so than I have been for long while. I feel weird, because I’m not expecting/demanding playoff runs from any of them, but instead am just happy that all three franchises will be worth watching for the next couple of years, which is more than I can say for the last two years. It has been a downtime for all the Oakland sports area the last few years in terms of success, so naturally, there’s really only one way to go, up. So this three part series will be about why the fans of Oakland’s franchises can finally be optimistic about the future! Let’s start with the Oakland A’s, since their season is still going on, and everyone overlooks them outside of the Bay Area, and even in their area they are under covered because of the recent Giants success.

Today it was reported that our highly touted prospect, Chris Carter, is going to be called up to join the Athletics roster in Seattle tonight. I couldn’t be more pumped. Even if they weren’t planning on it, the injuries to Barton and everyone in the outfield made it a necessary move. I thought this would happen sooner in the season, but now is as good of a time as any with the DL getting even more crowded adding Matt Watson yesterday. Although I don’t see this move getting us to the playoffs this year, it will give us a better idea of what we have waiting in the wings for next year, and this is a move that has rejuvenated my enthusiasm that much more for the A’s. If you didn’t know, Chris Carter is the best power hitting prospect we have in our farm system, and we got him as part of the Dan Haren trade to Arizona that keeps on giving (we got Brett Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Carter, Gregg Smith, as the major pieces that have made an impact so far). I hope Carter hits a few bombs, and supplants Cust as the DH/Platoon LF for the rest of the year.

Oakland currently sits in 2nd place, 7 ½ games back of Texas in the AL West. They still play seven more games against Texas this season, and have a mild shot at weaseling out an AL West title or maybe a Wild Card spot if Tampa Bay falls apart. Not that I see that happening, but I can always hope that the standings tighten up a little as we get closer to the end of the season. Seriously though, with close to 50 games left, a there is room for movement! Texas is heading to NY, BOS, TB, BAL, and MIN. The A’s meanwhile head to SEA, MIN, TOR, TB, and CLE. I view the Rangers schedule as harder (feel free to disagree I’d like to hear that argument), so we could conceivable be 3-6 games out going into our next series against Texas. If Texas starts faltering, the A’s could sneak up on everyone! Also, this season has made me like our manager, Bob Geren a little bit more. I’ve never been a fan, but seeing how he’s kept this youthful team together through tons of injuries over the last couple years, you have to give him some of the credit no matter how many of his late inning moves I don’t agree with. Continue reading

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

August 8, 2010

Baseball Needs Some Juice

By chappy81

It seems as though everyone thinks baseball is on the decline, and that’s pretty tough to the latter with very few intriguing story lines for the casual fan this season. A couple weeks ago we saw the TV ratings come out that were very low, but the A’s were surprisingly up +48% as MCeezy quickly pointed out to me. We’ve seen attendance head south with half the teams drawing under 30,000 per game. The proclaimed best player in baseball just hit his 600th homer, but being a cheater and liar, so nobody seemed to care. The umpires are blowing calls left and right, and replay is still out of the question for some inconceivable reason. The worst part is even the umpires have said they wouldn’t mind it. In the YouTwitFace Era, we need instant gratification. We want everything now, and sitting through long baseball games everyday isn’t always that appealing. There are so many other options out there, it’s hard to keep anyone’s attention for very long anymore. How does baseball win back its viewers? Speed up games, and move into the YouTwitFace Era. Maybe even think about realignment to get people fired up about beating teams within their state/region. Maybe throwing out the whole AL and NL thing wouldn’t even be a terrible idea. I’d love to see a division filled with the California teams (A’s, Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Padres), I can already hear the smack talk between me and my friends. There’s no question that the DH causes games to be longer adding another hitter to the lineup. The AL games take close to a fifteen minutes longer to complete than NL games, so axe the DH. Maybe limiting the time a batter can step out of the box or putting a pitching clock up when runners aren’t on base (they already do that in college). There are tons of solutions, but baseball is so old school that they just don’t conform to the times. I will always love the game regardless of whether it conforms to the times or not, but if they don’t do something, they are going to be battling the NHL for the third most popular sport. One thing I’ve always liked about the NBA and NFL is that they do make an effort to make the game better for us, the fans. Hell, the NFL is looking into putting a mirco chip into the football to see if the ball crosses the goal line or first down marker, and why not use technology to their advantage! Have you ever heard someone regret starting to use the latest technology? Yeah, that’s what I thought… Continue reading

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

July 29, 2010

There Goes More ‘Stros

By mceezy

As a die hard A’s fan, I can empathize with any fan of a losing team. But I definitely don’t envy Astros fans. While the A’s don’t have the financial means to load up their roster with proven talent, there’s always a boatload of talent in the farm system. Remember, they’re only 4 years removed from an LCS appearance, and guys like Andrew Bailey, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Ryan Sweeney, Daric Barton, Chris Carter, and Michael Taylor give plenty of reason to believe they’ll be back sooner or later. And while I’m waiting for the front office to trade away a guy like Coco Crisp or Michael Wuertz (hopefully Wuertz), the Astros have already gotten started. Frankly, it’s about time. They’re clearly headed nowhere, so it really made no sense for them to hang on to Roy Oswalt. While it’s still to be seen whether or not they move Carlos Lee – I doubt there’s any takers – or Lance Berkman, they’ve at least brought in some young guys who may play a significant role if and when they decide to rebuild, because they need to. In other trade news….

The Padres picked up Miguel Tejada, but I’m not sure what role he’s going to fill. I can’t see them replacing Chase Headley, so Everth Cabrera is going to be the loser in this move, but he’s hitting .199, so Tejada should be an upgrade at the plate. But are they expecting Miggy to play shortstop? Not sure what they’re envisioning there, but maybe it puts pressure on the Giants and Dodgers to make a move as well.

The Rangers acquired Jorge Cantu, which makes more sense in the short term, since Ian Kinsler is headed to the DL. They already swung a deal for Cliff Lee, so making it clear they plan to hold on to the top spot in the AL West.

The Twins picked up Matt Capps, which doesn’t excite me, but may have been the smartest move by any of these teams thus far – except of course the Phillies getting Oswalt. But Capps will move into the closer role, demoting Jon Rauch to setup duties. Your move, White Sox.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

July 29, 2010

A-Rod’s Chase For… Who Give’s a Crap!

By chappy81

On Sportsnation they put up a poll on Monday asking something to the tune of, Which is more likely to be a smash hit first? A-Rod hitting his 600th homer or Dinner for Schmucks (which is opening tomorrow). At the time I was thinking there’s no way A-Rod goes six games before he hits his 600th, but low and behold it still hasn’t happened, and I’m much more excited about Dinner for Schmucks coming out tomorrow than seeing him get to his milestone. I’m not a big “go to the movies” kind of guy, but this one seems like a can’t miss comedy. It will probably be one of the four I’ll see in a theater all year. Anyways, I’m usually pretty into milestones like this, but A-Rod’s 600th homer doesn’t really pique my interest.

I’m sure it has to do with the numerous guys breaking into the 500 and 600 HR clubs over the last decade, which has it’s diminished the worth a little in the PED era. Seven years ago, I wouldn’t have thought the 600 club would be achieved so easily/often. I never liked A-Rod, maybe because he’s an ass, maybe because we found out that he was a cheater in marriage and during his Mariners and Rangers days, and yes, there was that whole Dallas Braden thing. I can’t find one person that really even likes him, well, some Yankee fans probably do, but who cares about them. I think the real reason I can’t root for him is, he symbolizes the era. Lie, cheat, succeed, and get over paid for doing everything wrong. While he was HGH’d up (assuming he started in HS as some think), that’s about 350 HR’s to put in question. I’m not saying to take away 350 from his total, I’m more debating that he wouldn’t be on 599 yet. I have no idea what you’d shave off the total, 20, 50, 100? Who knows? I don’t really even care though, when it’s all said and done, I still want all the cheaters in the HOF as backwards as that sounds. The reason I come to this conclusion is that, it’s not completely the players fault baseball turned their heads on a more than obvious problem. I was never faced with these kinds of tough ethical decisions, so I can’t say I wouldn’t have tried PED’s of some sort if I was a really good player in that era. I’d like to say I wouldn’t, but the temptation of 70% of players around you using sounds tough.

I remember when Bonds was chasing his home run records, and maybe because I was a little younger, I thought it was more special, but I was rooting for the guy to break those records. No matter what people say about him, you have to admit, every time he came to the plate you wanted to see what he did, and he crushed some balls into the bay like nobody else ever will! Hell, Manny and Ortiz gave me that same kind of feeling, even if I wasn’t rooting for them. I always wanted to see their atbats. A-Rod just doesn’t do it for me, and it’s too bad because I want to care about greatness unfolding. He’s going to hit that 600th homer, and we’ll be talking about the 700th before you know it. I will be rooting against him the whole time, but that does nothing. I just don’t want him to be the face of this era. I’ve dedicated tomorrow to making sure I don’t watch A-Rod in Tampa, and help Dinner for Schmucks be a bigger opening day hit.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

July 28, 2010

MLB Power Rankings

By chappy81

Sadly, I think baseball is missing HGH...

I haven’t put up some baseball power rankings for awhile. Probably because the A’s had a rough patch, but now that they are on fire, and I can justify putting them in with the top 16 teams in the league again, it’s time to get some new power rankings up for the first 17 weeks of the season. It’s been a year of surprises, and I didn’t see the Padres being ranked third at any point, let alone this deep in the season! With about 100 games in the books every series starts to become more important than the last! Continue reading

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

July 27, 2010

CP3, Haren, and Garza’s No-No

By chappy81

Maverick Carter, a face I'm starting to hate more and more...

CP3 made me, and the sports-world lose a little respect for him over the weekend after making some trade demands that he can’t really force. If you have a player that is close to or at the top of their position you just don’t trade that guy away when he’s still under contract. The only time you really do is at the trade deadline when you are obviously out of it for the season, and have zero chance to re-sign the guy. I’m sure there’s something about making $14M this year and $16M next year that makes me feel he should honor his contract/commitment to the Hornets. I think the thing that bugs me the most though is that this whole ill-conceived plan to demand a trade was most likely whispered into his ear by his new buddies/agents Worldwide Wes and Maverick Carter. I’ve always been a CP3 fan, and like By, I was really looking forward to his return to greatness in 2010-2011 season. Now that he has taken the Lebron-Maverick-Wes route I’m not sure I will ever view him in the same light anymore. He’s nearly as important to New Orleans as Drew Brees, and the fans there don’t deserve to be jerked around for the next two years by James’ crew and CP3. I prey they don’t contrive some ridiculous hour special for his decision 2012. He shouldn’t have demanded a trade, especially since it sounds like he hadn’t even meet with the new coach (Monty Williams) or new GM (Dell Demps) prior to telling the world he wanted out. Just another flawed power trip by James’ gang of half wits that think they are above everyone, and are the ones pulling the strings. If this isn’t a sign to stay away from Carter and Wes, I’m not sure what will show players that they are bad for the league and a players image. They’ve done well killing Cleveland’s fan base, are they going to kill New Orleans basketball too? Let’s hope not…

Speaking of guys I used to like, Dan Haren was traded to the Angels over the weekend and made his first start last night. I had to tune in to see exactly where my sports hate of him would stand, and just like Vlad and Torii before him, I now have to root against the guy. During his stint with the A’s I didn’t think I’d ever NOT like him. He’s easily the most successful player we’ve had over the last few years. Even the players we got for him ended up being great (Brett Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez, and hopefully Chris Carter pans out too), which made me like him all the more. I had mixed emotions watching him pitch last night, and after he threw a couple of innings I realized this was the end of our relationship for awhile. It’s amazing how quickly you can turn on a player, and I admittedly cracked a small smile when he was hit by a line drive, then immediately felt a little bad I was happy that he got hurt in his first start. I guess I’m just mad that the A’s will have to face him six times a year now… Oh well, if anyone has a complete scouting report on the guy, it’s the A’s!

I was eating dinner at a bar where one of my whiffle ball buddies bartends, and last night I found out he went to Fresno State, and played baseball with Matt Garza in college. It only came up because we were watching Garza pitch the last four innings of his no hitter yesterday. It was pretty impressive as he faced the minimum amount of hitters, and only walked one guy the whole night. It had to be relieving for the Rays, and their fans to be on the right side of a no-no/perfect game as they’ve seen three thrown against them in the last two years. Anyways, my buddy who went to college with him said he wasn’t even the top prospect on their team, which makes his story a little better. He also told me that the guy “acts like a little girl when he drinks” Another thing he mentioned was that he was a really weird guy that kept to himself a lot. Anyways, just thought those might be a couple of interesting tidbits of info on Garza that you probably haven’t heard….

13 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

July 20, 2010

MLB Trade Deadline Actually Makes Sense

By chappy81

My favorite trade deadline in all of sports is baseball’s July deadline. Basketball might be a close second, but baseball is the most interesting for both teams involved in a trade. Pretty much anyone could go anywhere. In basketball, we only see trades that fit within contract constraints hence the creation of the ESPN trade machine. Basketball also has a lot of players that are disgruntled with their current team only to be shipped away for basically nothing, so the talent traded isn’t all that exciting except for the team that gets the big name player. In baseball, we at least see talent traded for talent. You’re either a team building for the future, and stocking the farm system with prospects or you are going to improve your team to compete for a championship that year by sacrificing your farm system. In short, you get trades that actually make sense for both clubs kind of like when your a kid trading baseball cards with a friend. Even if it’s a high risk high reward proposition for all teams involved. Sure we may not know who the AAA guys are that were in the trade off hand, but if you’re a fan of that crappy team that just gave away their star, you instantly have hope for the future, and want to see these guys called up as soon as possible. I doubt the A’s will be wheeling and dealing since they have little to offer other teams. Maybe we can get a couple of project guys for Sheets, but I’m not holding my breath at this point. Here’s a few guys that I think could make an impact on a contending team that sound like they are on the block.

Pitchers – Obviously Cliff Lee was by far the best pitcher on the market, and he was gone before we could even start the rumor mongering about him. After him there isn’t a whole lot of big names out there, but there’s a few impact players that could make a difference.

Dan Haren – It sounds like the D-Backs want more than a kings ransom of prospects for Haren, and it’s doubtful that teams are willing to give that much up to get him, but if someone can pull of a deal to grab him, he’s by far the best pitcher in the market. He usually doesn’t do as well in the 2nd half of the season, but it’s hard to say adding an ace of his status isn’t worth it for anyone seriously contending for a pennant. The Twins desperately need someone of his pedigree. He’s also not a short term fix since he’s locked up through 2012, so it’s a move that could yield more than one playoff run.

Roy Oswalt – It’s tough to see a lot of teams wanting to give up a ton of prospects, AND have to pay Oswalt $25M on top of that. Plus, he has a no trade clause that would make things even more tricky, but then again I’m sure you could persuade him to waive that clause if he has a chance at pitching some meaningful games. He made a trade demand, but made his small list of teams that he’d like to go to… Houston might have to send some cash in any deal made.

Joakim Soria – I think the Royals must be riding the short yellow bus thinking they are in the race, but somehow, in spite of their record each year, they seem to think they are. I don’t think they’ll trade away one of their only players worth having on the roster, unless they get some godfather offer from someone. They’d deal Soria five times before Grienke though, or he would be on the list as well.

Ted Lilly, Ricky Nolasco, Jake Westbrook, Edwin Jackson, Kevin Millwood, and Wandy Rodriguez – None of these starters are going to be an ace for teams, but they might be cheaper to get than the other guys mentioned above. I like Lilly and Nolasco the most of the bunch. I don’t see any of them really making a huge impact on teams unless a team like the Yankees needs to grab someone they know can hold down the fort while others get healthy from injuries.

Octavio Dotel, Jason Frasor, Kerry Wood, Brandon Lyon, Kevin Gregg, David Aardsma, and Aaron Heilman – These are all guys you could bolster that bullpen with. Everyone needs some reliable guys that they can call on in a sticky situation. Some of these guys might not be sexy names or guys you’d really be all that excited about if your team traded for them, but they will be invaluable in bridging that gap to the closer.

Hitters – There aren’t a ton of teams looking for hitters, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Giants, Angels, Padres, and possibly the Cardinals try to make a move that would improve their offenses.

Prince Fielder – It’s pretty unlikely any offer they will receive would match what they want for him. He’s as big a name as you could find on the trading block, but it sounds like there’s not many ways he’d actually be traded. It’s more likely he ends up being traded over the off season than the July deadline.

Jayson Werth – The Phillies haven’t given the five tool outfielder a new contract that he was asking for. If they keep playing mediocre ball, and fall behind the Mets and Braves further than they are, don’t be shocked if Werth is moved for the right price. I can’t think of many teams in the hunt that couldn’t use an upgrade in the outfield.

Corey Hart – The more likely player to leave the Brew crew. He’s only moving if they get some pitching in return, it’s just a matter of what teams are willing to give up. The Giants sound intriguing possibly giving up Sanchez or Bumgarner, and Corey would provide Buster Posey some protection or vice versa.

David Dejesus – He’s in the same boat as Soria with a breakout season this year. It would be nice to see him in another uniform playing some meaningful games, but for some reason Kansas City’s front office always thinks it’s still in the race.

Adam Dunn – He’s the big guy that a lot of teams will look at as a rental with a solid track record of performing. I hope he doesn’t don the Angel red in place of injured Kendry Morales, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did pull out a trade as an answer to division leading Rangers big move in acquiring Cliff Lee.

Everyone else on the Marlins, Blue Jays, Astros, Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Orioles – All of these teams have some interesting players that could help a team out. None are extremely exciting, but are guys that could mildly upgrade a position for a playoff bound team. Should be fun when it gets closer to the deadline!

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July 12, 2010

Mid-Season MLB Awards

By chappy81

It’s amazing the ebbs and flows I go through with baseball season, and it’s pretty consistent nearly every year. For the first month and a half I can’t get enough, I watch every pitch I can even for games that I don’t really care about (like NL games), and then I’ll realize how many games they still have to play, and only check box scores for a month or so. Now that Lebronapalooza is over, and we’ve hit the All-Star break, I’m back to full force on baseball. Now it’s about time to break down who the first half award winners are, well, the award winners in my book that is.

AL MVP – Miguel Cabrera (.346/.423/.651, 22 HR, 77 RBI)

Not a tough choice at the midpoint. Miggy has come out focused from his alcohol rehab program this offseason, and leads in two of the three triple crown categories. If you can make a case for Morneau, Cano, Hamilton, or Youkilis there might be some room for debate, but in my eyes this isn’t really a close vote if there was a vote held now.

NL MVP- Albert Pujols, by default (.308/.416/.576, 21 HR, 64 RBI)

I can’t really say I’m even sold on my selection, but Albert has to win by default. He’s in the running every year, and has finished in the top five 11 times. I’m sure he’s going to go through a stretch where teams will opt to not pitch to him because he’s on fire. I’ve seen a few lists that have David Wright as the next in line under Albert, but I think that’s the New York hype machine pumping up their golden boy even though he’s having a good year, I don’t think it’s an MVP season. Adrian Gonzalez has put up some big numbers despite having nobody around him for protection. Joey Votto and Scott Rolen are also nice choices, and are surprisingly keeping Cincy relevant. I also really like Carlos Gonzalez to make a push for MVP, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him in the discussions at seasons end.

AL Cy Young – Jon Lester (11-3, 120 IP, 2.78 ERA, 124K, 1.09 WHIP)

David Price had the lead for much of the year, but Lester now leads him in K’s, innings pitched, and has a  lower WHIP which I always find more impressive than win totals, so I gave Lester the nod. Cliff Lee’s six complete games is amazing for this point in the season, so he has to be thrown into the top three as well. Pettite is an intreguing candidate, but I like a Cy Young to have lots of K’s…

NL Cy Young – Josh Johnson (9-3, 122 IP, 1.70 ERA, 123K, 0.96 WHIP)

Most people have been picking Ubaldo Jimenez, but I actually have Halladay and Wainwright ahead of Ubaldo at the moment. I’ve never been an advocate of looking at a pitchers record and weighing it like some do with the award. Josh is tops in the league in ERA and WHIP, and opponents BA is a ridiculous .203. This is a WIDE open race, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone that I didn’t even mention winning this award.

AL Rookie of the half – Brennan Boesch (12 HR’s, 48 RBI, .345 BA)

Austin Jackson (Brennan’s teammate) and Neftali Feliz have been subperb rookies this year, but Brennan has been that much better than them. I didn’t really even know who he was before the year started, but have a feeling we will be hearing about him a lot in years to come as he’s a 6’6” 25 year old with tons of potential.

NL Rookie of the half – Jaime Garcia (8-4, 2.17 ERA, 99 2/3 IP, 80 K’s, 1.25 WHIP)

It was a tough call between Jaime and Heyward. I was pretty close to picking Heyward, but since he hasn’t played over the last month I DQ’d him for the moment. It’s going to be a tight race at the end of the season, but if Jason puts up the same numbers he did in the first half, I’m sure he’ll get the award. Tyler Colvin, Gaby Sanchez, and Mike Leake are also playing good enough to garner some attention as well.

Comeback player – Alex Rios (.305/.361/.518, 15 HR, 49 RBI, 23 SB)

As recently as last year I ripped Rios and his former teammate Vernon Wells for having two of the worst contracts in all of baseball. They must’ve read my post and gotten pissed because both are having big seasons. Rios has reformed himself into that potential we always knew he always had, and is on the hottest team in the league right now. If he can keep it up, the Sox could be a lot to deal with in the playoffs, and has made the AL Central more interesting than most would’ve thought a couple months into the season.

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July 9, 2010

Power Shift in the AL West

By chappy81

Looks like we're moving again kids!

Well, I just posted about David Lee’s jump to the Warriors, so I may as well dedicate today as Lee day, and talk about the Rangers acquisition of Cliff Lee. The Rangers are already 5 1/2 games up on the competition in the standings, and the Angels continue to slide, losing four in a row, and seven of their last ten without their main man Kendry. The power in the west shifted even more today, as Texas acquired Cliff Lee from Seattle for Justin Smoak (2008 first round pick), and four other minor leaguers. The Cliff Lee sweepstakes took a surprising turn when pretty much everyone had him going to the Yankees earlier today. He instead will be heading to Texas in a deal that had to make Nolan Ryan crack a smile. It’s a good move to do it now, so they can get an extra three or four starts out of him instead of waiting all the way to the trade deadline. As a rabid A’s fan, I’m not completely against making our current division leader better, because if there was a team I wanted to win outside of the A’s, it would be the Rangers. Maybe that’s why I picked them in our predictions at the beginning of the year. Their biggest weakness was pitching, and now they have a true ace of their staff that they’ve been missing for so many years. If they get back Rich Harden from the DL after the all-star break, and he is what he used to be with Oakland, they’d have a very solid top of the rotation with Lee, Harden, and Colby Lewis. They might get rocked here and there in the home run friendly confides of Arlington during the dog days of August, but all of these guys know how to pitch when healthy. Does this make the Rangers a contender to win it all? Most would say no, and I’d agree with that, but the way their offense is set up they can beat good pitching, and now acquired one of the best pitchers in the game that will surely give them a win every fifth night. As long as Ron Washington is there, I’ll be rooting for that club to do well, and with some pitching to back up that great offense this deal couldn’t have worked out better for them. Side note, it also feels good to be a Vlad supporter again after he spent so many years on the Angels.

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June 30, 2010

Two Teams that Caught Me Off Guard

By chappy81

Who says money buys you championships!?! Oh yeah, the Yankees, well, there’s two teams that I never would’ve thought would be in first at any point this season let alone in there at the end of June. The Padres and Reds are both in the bottom third of payrolls, and have been pleasant surprises. I doubt anyone outside of their own fan bases would’ve thought either team would be in the hunt when the season started. Okay, maybe a couple people picked the Reds, but were they really confident about those picks? I actually didn’t even expect either of them to be above .500 outside of April, which is why I’ve been so intrigued with their rises out of seemingly nowhere. Every year we have at least one team making the playoffs that didn’t make it the previous year. The way we are heading right now we could see five or six teams make it in that weren’t in the playoffs last year. I feel like we are all waiting for them to fade, and just like Tampa Bay in 2008 we will wait and assume that collapse is coming. Can they prove us all wrong? Maybe. Although I’m not an NL guy, I’ve come to appreciate these two teams for showing me that there are multiple ways to get it done without spending like a billionaire. They both have executed their respective game plans to perfection playing within their means, and sticking to what they are good at to get to the top of their divisions. Sadly only one of these teams will be able to improve at the trade deadline, and I’m preying that the other one doesn’t sell off their stock just to lower the amount going to the ex-wife. Continue reading

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June 27, 2010

There IS an A in All-Star…

By mceezy

Watching your team over the course of a weekend against a team whose lost 17 in a row on the road can certainly give one a false sense of excitement. The Athletics still remain double digit games back of the Texas Rangers, who’ve surged of late. But, the good news is with the All-Star break just around the corner, we know the A’s will have a representative. I’m not always a fan of the every team gets an All-Star, but more often than not it gets guys in that deserved it, but would’ve flown under the radar since their team was out of the pennant race. Very seldom do you see a guy make the All-Star team with underwhelming stats – Gil Meche from KC comes to mind. Today, though, I started thinking about who should get the All-Star nod from Oakland. Three guys come to mind…

Andrew Bailey, Closer – Bailey came out of nowhere last year and made the All-Star team, before finishing the year out as the AL Rookie of the Year. Now that Bailey’s on the map, he won’t get any gifts when it comes to All-Star selections. But he does have the numbers to back it up. His Saves aren’t mind-blowing, due in large part to playing for a losing team, but he’s one of only two AL pitchers with 30+ IP and a sub-2.00 ERA. (Jose Valverde is the other)

Kurt Suzuki, Catcher – Suzuki seems to garner a little All-Star attention each year now, but never really reaches the ranks of catchers like Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez. Although Martinez’s broken thumb this afternoon might affect some things. His numbers are modest: .264 avg, 10 HR, 32 RBI, but anyone who follows the A’s knows he deserves the honor. Though he wasn’t behind the plate for Dallas Braden’s perfect game, he’s managed the A’s pitching staff for the last three season, and I’d be willing to bet any of those pitchers would credit Suzuki for some of their success. He also has been the one to come up with all the clutch hits for the team lately; his 8th inning solo HR today gave the A’s a 3-2 win over the Pirates. I don’t see him getting the nod at catcher, simply because any manager would probably think Posada before Suzuki. Perhaps if he didn’t miss upwards of 20 games this season his power numbers would stand out a little more.

Trevor Cahill, Pitcher – After Saturday night’s 7.2 inning, 2 hit shutout performance, Cahill is definitely my pick right now. He’ll have another start, I think, before the votes are cast, and if he can get to 8-2, despite missing the first month of the season, his numbers should get him noticed. He currently ranks 8th among AL pitchers in ERA with a solid 1.88. His 1.08 WHIP and .213 BAA aren’t too shabby either. Those are good for 5th and 3rd in the AL, respectively. It’s too bad he was hurt to start the year, it’d be nice to see where he’d be at with four more starts. It’s too bad also that Brett Anderson’s been hurt this whole time, or we might be talking about him here as well.

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