The June thread.
It’s officially Summer, and we’re heading into a holiday weekend. What games are you going to and how is your teams doing so far?
I’ve got just five games this month – two against the Cubs and three, oddly enough, against the Mets.
The Dodgers seemed to kind of barely survive June. They held sole possession of first place in the NL West for a day, then promptly went into a six-game losing skid. The three-game series against the Yankees felt like a total loss due to our Sunday collapse against them (I had the pleasure of witnessing that in person). But we finished the month back in our comfort zone – playing our NL West opposition – where we managed to sweep the Giants, who are in a bit of a nosedive at the moment.
We’re currently three games back of the Padres, who are still seem to be astounding everyone in baseball by hanging on to first place with extremely potent pitching. We hold a record of 21-5 against all of our division rivals so far, and we’ve yet to lose a series to anyone in the NL West. Unfortunately, only 11 of our 26 games this month are within the division. We’ll also be taking on the Cubs, Mets, Marlins and Cardinals.
Matt Kemp seems to be waking up a bit again. Our starting pitching is starting to look good – Vicente Padilla’s last two outings haven’t been bad. Jamey Carroll, who seems to inevitably prompt a “Who???” from the Dodger crowd whenever his name is announced over the PA system, continues to produce. Rafael Furcal is on fire. The team seems to have a lot of promise. If San Diego ever slips up, we might manage to walk away with this division yet.
I still wonder if we’re going to be in the hunt for Oswalt or maybe even Cliff Lee as the trade deadline approaches. Should be a fun month.
Braves status report:
1.5 up on Mets and 3.5 on Phils. June has been a bad month for the Braves the last several seasons, so to end up in first after going 17-11 (I think) is a great feeling.
The upside - Jair Jurrjens returned from the DL after two months off for an injured hamstring and looked very good against the Nats last night. Kenshin ‘1-9’ Kawakami heads to the 'pen to make room for him in the rotation. Kris Medlen continues to look good as a starter and Tim Hudson and Billy Wagner have been dominant.
Chipper Jones and Brian McCann seem to be coming out of their funks, while Troy Glaus hasn’t cooled off THAT much after a scorching May. And Martin Prado continues to rake out of the leadoff spot.
The Bad: Jason Heyward had an awful month, and wound up on the DL with a thumb ligament injury that may nag him for the rest of the season even after he returns. The outfield looks thin at the moment, with Heyward and Nate McLouth on the DL. When arguably the second best OFer on your roster is Gregor Blanco, things are not good.
Tommy Hanson has gotten hammered the last two starts, but has the stuff to rebound quickly if he can figure out what’s going wrong. (Speculation is that his mechanics are leaving the ball exposed too long and hitters are picking up the type of pitch soon enough to lay off his breaking stuff.)
The outlook: If you consider Jurrjens’ activation as the equivalent of a trade, the Braves rotation is sound; Hudson, Jurrjens, Hanson, Lowe, and Medlen give the team a shot every day. Not a real weak sister in there. The offense could use another right handed power bat, and centerfield is still a weakness. However if Heyward returns strong and matt Diaz returns to form then the offense may be good enough behind the pitching to carry a Gregor Blanco/Melky Cabrera in the 8 hole.
The Padres continue to defy expectations, going 15-11 in June and holding onto a 3-game lead in the NL West. Almost all of that has been done with pitching.
When they led at the end of April, i though “Ha, ha, that’s pretty funny.” When they led at the end of May, i thought, “They’re going to fall in a heap pretty soon.” And now i find myself saying, “Can they keep this up for another three months?”
That’s my local team.
As for my first team, the Orioles, the less said, the better. Although they did go 10-16 in June, making it their best month of the season so far.
Boy, I remember the first time we faced the Jays this year (early May) and I was all “wow, THAT is a baseball team!”
Now, we’re about to win 4 of 4 off them, and the Indians are pretty much all AAA position players and Choo.
I’m not getting my hopes up with this (possible) 5-game winning streak because…damn, the Jays are looking sad.
Sorry, RickJay.
Oh, come on. Santana is legit. Anderson Hernandez even has some promise to him. I do snicker when Marte is brought in as a defensive upgrade, though…
AL East is still bunched up tight for the top 3. Teixiera is hitting now at least.
CC is rolling fairly well but the Yanks need to get AJ Burnett straightened out.
Tampa has some clubhouse issues but nothing major and currently the Red Sox have an injury bug.
The Reds are currently holding a slim (half a game? a game?) lead for first in the NL Central. Our offense has been awesome, starting pitching’s been a bit shaky lately. We’re bringing up a AAA guy, Travis Wood, to face Carlos Silva tonight.
Also, Edinson Volquez is ahead of schedule and pitching well in the minors in his rehab assignment from Tommy John surgery, and Homer Bailey will be back from injury too.
Outlook for the Reds is good. They play with heart, and to date have 25 come from behind wins.
And you guys need to vote for Scott Rolen for the All Star game! He’s having a great year!
All of our boys are legit, and fun to watch. Especially Santana. But they’re also, for the most part, just up from Columbus. Including Santana.
I thought Asdrubal would be back after the All-Star break (just my own diagnosis) but right now he’s slated for August. Bugger 
I agree!
Except Kerry Wood. I am just not ever going to be able to trust him.
I always worry about how someone like that is going to play after spending most of the season out, too. sigh
Reds beat the Cubbies 3-2 in a 10 inning affair, and are now 10 games above .500 in July for the first time since…well, seemingly forever.
Does anyone else think Rolen is a candidate for NL MVP this season? The guy is tearing it up…batting over .300, has 17 HR’s, 58 RBI’s, 12 doubles…and hit an RBI triple today thanks to Wrigley’s ivy…
He isn’t even the top candidate in his infield.
Mariners fans must be looking at Carlos Silva and Adrian Beltre this season and thinking, “Why the fuck couldn’t those guys play like that for us?”
Beltre, during 5 seasons with the Mariners: .266/.317/.442, with an OPS+ of 101
Beltre, during half a season with Boston: .349/.385/.558 with an OPS+ of 145
Silva, during 2 seasons with the Mariners: 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP
Silva, during half a season with the Cubs: 8-2 with a 2.96 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP
Silva, in his last 4 starts, has had 2 losses and 2 no-decisions. In those games, he has pitched at least 6 innings every time, and given up 2, 3, 2, and 2 runs.
Are you serious? Whom else would be better qualified in the Reds infield?
Joey Votto, of course. .314/.413/.570 (versus Rolen’s .302/.367/.581) in slightly more at bats.
Also, David Wright should start at 3B for the NL in the All-Star Game (go Mets).
:smack:
Of course. They should be co-MVP’s then! The budding young superstar and the grizzled vet!
Everyone in D-backs land is glad they cleaned house yesterday. Hinch was a very strange choice for manager from the beginning. The Diamondbacks have spend the last year not only losing, but losing stupidly. The 2 errors in the 9th inning game to blow a lead to the Cardinals was just one of many such games. The team also makes way too many bad base running decisions as well.
I’m guessing they’re going to be major sellers as the trade deadline approaches. They’d better get something decent in return for Dan Haren. Brandon Webb is trying to finally get healthy enough to return. As soon as he shows he can pitch, he’s gone as well.
Is the D-backs attendance hurting? Well, let’s just say they’re giving away free tickets if you buy a case of beer!
Dodgers are looking for middle relief, so who knows? We might buy some snakes.
The Rangers are still 3 games up (I think that’s right) on the Angels and just signed Bengie Molina. Hopefully that’ll give us a much needed boost in the catcher department.
What’s wrong with Troncoso this year, do you think? It looks to me like he’s lost something (hidden injury?) rather than the league having figured him out. Too many pitches down the middle with predictable movement.