2010 MLB Season

[ghost of miles]

Well, unless the Yankees pull off a 9th-inning comeback, they're finally going to drop one to the O's tonight, partly due to anemic offense, and partly due to "Bad A.J." having shown up, surrending 4 ER in 6 2/3 IP. Evidently it's "Bad AJ" on the road and "Good AJ" at home--check out these splits for 2010 so far, going into the game tonight:

Home: 2.27 ERA, 1.23 WHIP

Away: 4.97 ERA, 1.41 WHIP

An even bigger differential than last year, when he was a full run worse on the road. Iirc Girardi was trying to start him at home as much as possible throughout the playoffs last year...not so good for your #2 starter to be so dramatically less effective for away games.

[Matthew]

It was a bad ten days for me not to be anywhere close to a television, stupid travel... Well, at least the Yankees look like they're going to third place in two weeks.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Matthew

[Patrick]

Kerry Wood is the worst closer in MLB. Not Bob Wickman on a bad day. No, approaching Joe Borowski on an average day. Who was the last reliable Indian closer? Probably Jose Mesa before he lost it. KW gets to within one out of a victory, then puts on a runner and serves up a go ahead HR. Fortunately the Boston bullpen returns the favor by loading the bases with no one out for Hafner (who strikes out), Peralta (who pops out to catcher) and old man Russell Branyan who hits a game winning single. Not bad for the lowly Tribe--get manhandled by Dice K, but do just fine against Buchholz and Lester.

[BERIGAN]

J.H., what in the wide, wide, world of sports is up with the Phillies offense??? If there was one thing I was sure of this year, it was that your team would score more than anyone else, and only the starting pitching would be an issue. How can an entire team just stop hitting??? I don't buy it's because JRoll is hurt. He seems to miss a chunk each year, or not hit for a month or 3. Very weird.

And Patrick....I don't know what's up with Kerry Wood. Though he throws a very straight fastball, going back to his days in Chicago as a starter. I wonder if they would consider making him a starter again. I know he thought he had to close to stay in baseball, but damn....

[Matthew]

Mostly lame inter-league play this weekend, clearly the most interesting series will be Boston vs. Philadelphia -- think I'll listen to the Philly's (Phillies?) broadcast, I'm getting tired of the NESN announcers.

[Matthew]

Moyer's looking his age tonight...

JM's final totals: 1 inn. 9 hits. 8 earned runs six of the hits were doubles and one home run. That was one ugly start.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Matthew

[BERIGAN]

Apparently, no team in baseball needs a starter. And the braves will just let him go. I don't think Bobby likes him, he rarely used him when we had him back in 2008...I think he went 12 days between games a few times. Then Bobby wouldn't use him cuz he walked a few guys. Double

Anticipating Chris Resop's Next Team

By Ben Nicholson-Smith [June 11 at 1:15pm CST]

Chris Resop should be in the major leagues before long, it’s just a question of where. The right-hander has pitched to a 1.84 ERA in 13 Triple A starts this year, striking out more than a batter per inning, and he has a clause in his contract that forces the Braves to expose him to the 29 other clubs if he's not on Atlanta's 25-man roster by June 15th.

Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports that the trade market has yet to develop for Resop, who pitched a one-hitter last night. MLB.com's Mark Bowman agrees and notes that no MLB scouts watched Resop last night. Morosi reports that the Braves will trade Resop if they see a good offer, but they’ll promote him if they don’t see a proposal they like. Resop could replace struggling reliever Jesse Chavez in the team’s bullpen.

It’s hard to pinpoint Resop’s value, but as Dave Cameron of FanGraphs points out, pitchers with 9.9 K/9 with ground ball rates approaching 50% open some eyes. Plus, since he doesn’t have much big league experience, Resop would be more than a rental. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Tigers or Mets pursue the 27-year-old.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/06/anticipating-chris-resops-next-team.html

Edited June 12, 2010 by BERIGAN

[Chalupa]

Ugh.

[ghost of miles]

Mostly lame inter-league play this weekend, clearly the most interesting series will be Boston vs. Philadelphia -- think I'll listen to the Philly's (Phillies?) broadcast, I'm getting tired of the NESN announcers.

Didn't the Sunday TV broadcast get bumped for Strasburg's start against the Indians?

[ghost of miles]

Ken Burns' The Tenth Inning coming this fall.

[Quincy]

Wow, Nava hits a grand slam for the BoSox in his 1st AB. 1st pitch too. I won't even Google it, but I think Bobby Bonds grand slammed on his 1st AB.

Edit - Wrong, Bobby did it in his 1st game but not AB. 3 guys total for 1st AB, 2 very recently. Bill Duggleby (1898), Jeremy Hermida (2005), and Kevin Kouzmanoff (2006).

Edited June 12, 2010 by Quincy

[Dan Gould]

I was going to post about this kid. Nava was cut as a walk-on at the University of Santa Clara and became the equipment manager (and laundry guy). Blue Jays declined to sign him after a try-out. Starts his professional career with the Chico Outlaws (Independent league) and has a 1.100 OPS which I guess got the Red Sox' attention. Spends his age 25 and most of his age 26 seasons at Single A Lancaster and Single A Salem. Now at the age of 27 he gets called up from AAA Pawtucket (.294/.364/.492) and he hits a grand slam on the first pitch he sees in the major leagues.

Completely unbelievable. And when you look at his stats you think that maybe this kid really can play and he just needs a chance. I mean, yeah, he put up big numbers at A ball when he was 5 or 7 years older than the competition. But its not like the kid got a lot of chances to play all those years. There's something of a similarity with Brian Daubach (who didn't get a chance to play in the majors til he was 27 and finished that year 4th in the RoY balloting and OPS'd better than 110 three of his first four seasons) but it sure looks like Nava has more pop in his bat than Dauber ever really had.

Whatever happens he has a helluva story to tell the grandkids.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Dan Gould

[Dan Gould]

Oh, and how about Adrian Beltre, who has single-handedly broken 9 ribs of Red Sox left fielders? Since the bats are going to work again they should enjoy this while it lasts. But Ellsbury broke another rib when he played three games before going back on the DL and is now out until the ASB, minimum. And Hermida now is out too after his ill-fated collision with Beltre's knee. And Dice-K is gone for at least 15 days, Beckett has just now started a throwing program and is gone til the ASB. What the fuck are they going to do? They have exactly one decent pitcher at Pawtucket, and he's a 21 year old I am pretty sure they don't want to rush this much: Felix Doubrant.

[Patrick]

Nice second game for Carlos Santana--a double, a HR and 3 RBI. Strasburg likely will be tough tomorrow afternoon, but nice to see the new #3 man performing in his first weekend up. And a great outing from Carmona, CG, 3H, 1ER, 7K, 0BB.

[Patrick]

...and the game took only 2 hr 3 minutes to complete.

[Matthew]

Nice second game for Carlos Santana--a double, a HR and 3 RBI. Strasburg likely will be tough tomorrow afternoon, but nice to see the new #3 man performing in his first weekend up. And a great outing from Carmona, CG, 3H, 1ER, 7K, 0BB.

Looking forward at seeing Strasburg tomorrow, as I missed his first start. Zito had a nice outing for the Giants tonight, and this Buster Posey guy looks very good, nice swing.

[zen archer]

Oh, and how about Adrian Beltre, who has single-handedly broken 9 ribs of Red Sox left fielders? Since the bats are going to work again they should enjoy this while it lasts. But Ellsbury broke another rib when he played three games before going back on the DL and is now out until the ASB, minimum. And Hermida now is out too after his ill-fated collision with Beltre's knee. And Dice-K is gone for at least 15 days, Beckett has just now started a throwing program and is gone til the ASB. What the fuck are they going to do? They have exactly one decent pitcher at Pawtucket, and he's a 21 year old I am pretty sure they don't want to rush this much: Felix Doubrant.

They could call Casey Kelly,? Sometimes the Sox do crap like that remember Cla Meredith,Craig Hanson they called both

of these kids up before they were ready.

What happened to Bowden????.....I thought he was one of the TOP pitching prospects I never hear his name anymore.

The Ellsbury thing is very interesting the media up here are obnoxious (as if that would be a surprise to anyone).

The guys on EEI and CSN are all over this kid calling him soft and he won't play with pain ..jesus then he finds

out he did more damage by playing.

[Chalupa]

Hey Dan can you tell your guys to take it easy on Kendrick today?? How about keeping it under 10 runs?

[Dan Gould]

Is Kendrick Hamel's first name? Because certainly even with the Phils stinking up the joint for a few weeks the odds are in their favor based on the pitching match-up.

No way Kelly gets called up. He's struggled in AA up until his last two starts and he's on a very restrictive pitch count. He's more likely to spend the season in Portland, although I guess its possible he gets a taste of Fenway in September.

And what is really screwy is that the Globe is reporting that Dice-K says he feels "great", so why the hell did they DL him (Atchison was already up from Pawtucket, replacing Joe Nelson who was DFA'd)? Now they've got a hole in their rotation for at least two turns and no one to fill it. As for Bowden, he's sucked so far this year - and I don't think anyone was ever that high on him, not seriously. He's our Ian Kennedy, OK stuff but nothing outstanding. He has to have perfect command to survive in the bigs. In all honesty I'd like to see them bring up Doubront, who has continued to dominate at AAA. I don't think there's any harm in letting him get his first major league start.

[Brad]

I've said it before but I can't figure out what's going on with the Phillies. The only thing I can say is that they're a much better second half team. J.H. would know that for sure. I'm sure that when it's all said and done, they'll have won the division and have home field advantage.

[papsrus]

Enjoying the Tribe-Nats game this afternoon. Strasburg just issued his first major league walk in the bottom of the fourth. Previous inning was an eight-pitch (I think), three ground ball inning for him though. He's looking good.

.. and his second walk. Two straight batters.

[Matthew]

Enjoying the Tribe-Nats game this afternoon. Strasburg just issued his first major league walk in the bottom of the fourth. Previous inning was an eight-pitch (I think), three ground ball inning for him though. He's looking good.

.. and his second walk. Two straight batters.

He's looking very good indeed, had to fight a bit in the fourth, but was able to get the k. I'm impressed on how Strasburg goes about pitching, "has an idea out there" as the saying goes -- not pitching brain dead.

[papsrus]

He's having real issues with the mound today.

[Patrick]

Nice game from Strasbourg against an admittedly underpowered offense. Huff hung with him for awhile, and I got to hang with Rob Dibble and Bob Carpenter for a few hours. Carpenter in a respectable pro and Dibble has a fair amount of insight for a player turned color guy, but it was getting a bit tedious (kinda like the game was after SS left) listening to Dibble talk about how he destroyed locker rooms after bad outings, and hated to wear throwback unis. Please stop.

[ghost of miles]

Baseball and Cubs fans in particular are highly advised to tune into ESPN right now.