My two favorite teams have both been a surprise this season so far.
Oakland A’s. They’ve already started with the injuries with Harden and Duchscherer and a couple of really bad games against Boston. Still, the series against the Jays has been nice. The Angels have the AL West locked up, but I could still the the A’s a bit over .500 and taking second place in the weak division.
Arizona Diamondbacks. Wow! What else can you say about their hitting? The loss of Davis will hurt the rotation and Randy Johnson seriously needs to retire. Johnson will probably embarass himself on Monday and come down with another back problem. Still, the young hitters and Brandon Webb/Dan Haren will make the D-backs a serious threat in the best division in baseball, the NL West.
The problem with that Pie and Theriot aren’t really any better at reaching base than Soriano. Roberts would solve this issue, but in the meantime, I think Fukodome is your best option to leadoff.
The Mets finally beat the Phillies after losing the last 9 meetings. Although the Phillies had to essentially hand it to them with a flurry of walks, errors, and passed balls. The 5th starter, Pelfrey, looked good after a pretty rough 2007.
On the bright side, Angel Pagan is still hitting, and is still named “Angel Pagan.”
CoG888 I am hoping that the reason Cleveland has Carroll is that there was a secret agreement between them and Colorado that they meet up in the 2008 World Series, and Carroll was the key
Damned right. Soriano needs to put up or shut up, but thankfully we were able to stumble to the finish last night after 15 innings. These extra inning night games are killing me. The Cubs have played 3 games worth of innings in the last 2 games for the love of god. At least Dempster looked good.
Yanks lost an odd one yesterday where the hitters continued to not hit and the starter did not start but pitched later. Farnsworth had another poor outing.
Posada cannot catch right now, but he is the only backup to Molina and Jeter cannot play for a few days. The Yanks sent Duncan down who had options to pull up Alberto Gonzales to play short.
The rain was so heavy at times that the picture on the TV was gray.
Very nice indeed - go Royals! 6-2 might not sound like a lot, but when the team you’re a fan of hasn’t been 4 games above .500 since the end of 2003, you celebrate every chance you get!
Yeah, I realize Theriot and Pie are struggling too, but I am hoping that the move out of the bottom of the order might inspire them. They at least wouldn’t be any worse than Soriano. I really don’t like the idea of putting Fukudome in that spot, generally you don’t want your best all-around hitter in the leadoff spot. His OBP is sick right now, but you want him hitting with at least a chance of RISP.
Just once I wish a Cubs rookie would pan out sooner than later.
What are our feelings on Girardi’s decision to pull Ian Kennedy last night and start Brian Bruney under threat of rain? The logic was apparently that rain was threatening in Kansas City, and by starting a reliable reliever with a pretty long pitch selection, Girardi wouldn’t waste Kennedy’s start but if the game was delayed after the first or second he could pull Bruney and put Kennedy back in for the bulk of the game.
As it was, the game played through without a delay. Bruney pitched three scoreless innings until Girardi put in Kyle Farnsworth to start the fourth. Farnsy, in an unusually competent performance, allowed only one run in two innings, at which point Girardi inexplicably threw Kennedy into the mix. Three runs later and up against a brilliant performance by the Royals’ Grienke in eight scoreless innings, Kennedy just couldn’t get the W.
Thoughts on:
a) the use of a preliever in this situation?
b) putting Professor Farnsworth in to start the 4th, rather than e.g. Kennedy, if Girardi planned to use him anyway?
c) the decision to put Kennedy in late in the game, rather than using an established reliever? Chamberlain, for example, hadn’t pitched since Sunday and it would have been only slightly odd to put him in in the 6th inning in a 0-1 situation with a short bullpen. I know Hawkins and Ohlendorf were tired, but what’s the problem with using Traber or Brackman to try to eat an inning?
It seems to me that the time to put Kennedy in is to start the 4th after Bruney’s beautiful setup - put him in then or leave him on the bench, start him tonight and use the top of the rotation against the Red Sox.
Bonus question: Why are the Yankees carrying Ensberg AND Betemit when their bullpen’s in this kind of shape, where if you’re not Bruney or Chamberlain you’re a rookie or Farnsworth?
I followed along with Joe’s decision to not start Ian. He rightfully feared a long delay or postponement and did not want to waste the starter. The conditions were miserable and under most circumstances the game would have been at least delayed.
Bruney went two and Traber only one, then came Farnsy. Farnsworth actually gave up two over two innings. So far your facts are a bit off.
In the fourth inning the rain was still coming down hard. It was still too soon to go to Kennedy.
Now Joe got a good inning out of Farnsworthless. The rain had slacked off, I would have had Ian start the 5th and try to the last 5.
OK, OK, we’re only 11 games in, but the Cards have the 2nd best record in MLB and are 1-1/2 up on the Cubs. Let me repeat the most important part: they are ahead of the Cubs. Pujols is starting to play like a man possessed, and Izturis has traded in his skillet for a glove and also started getting in some decent at-bats. Schumaker is showing off a fine arm in the outfield; along with Ankiel’s cannon, the outfield looks like it’ll be able to keep baserunners looking over their shoulders. Lohse turned in another good outing, and the bullpen kept the lid on. Things are looking good.
Hah! Fox cut away from the Yanks/Sox game to update us on a NASCAR race and then go into commercials with two outs in the ninth, and two strikes on Cano.
I could spoil it for you since I’m listening to the game on the radio.
I was about to come back and say that they must have announced the switch, because the race went through a caution and another round of commercials. That’s what I get for listening to the radio broadcast.
I’m really enjoying the series, I even saw some really good things through the loss yesterday. I’ll post about it after all three games are done. Save your congrats, and enjoy the game tomorrow.
Okay, one thing, Girardi made a couple of very silly moves in this game. Pitching to Manny with 1st base open? Sending runners with Arod on the plate and two in scoring position? Yah, after the third game I’ll talk about the series.
