# MLB: July 2012 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 1, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913 "2012-07-01T16:14:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/141 "2012-07-21T15:59:56Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > Eh, I guess Happ’s numbers aren’t completely in the tank. He’s got a sub-5 ERA and almost 8.5 K/9. > > Jayson Stark says the Red Sox might be after Matt Garza. Depends on the price. Stark also says there is interest in Cody Ross, but I assume that interest is coming from other teams who are buyers at the deadline. Ross is on a 1 year contract, so I’d deal him for the right offer. Especially now with Ellsbury and Crawford back. Given that Ellsbury is back and the Sox are more or less obliged to play Crawford, Ross is expendable, but seriously, what contender has an obvious need for Cody Ross? You’d need to match up with a team in the running who has a speciic need for a corner outfielder who hits some home runs but is playing a little over his head right now. The Dodgers, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/142 "2012-07-22T00:11:28Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > But Unfortunately they Got Porcello and Turner for the last two games. ☹ So I’m not expecting the sweep unless the bats really hit this weekend. Well I’ll happily admit I was dead wrong and underestimated Porcello greatly. Now if only i can be wrong again tommorow 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/143 "2012-07-22T12:13:45Z")
The Reds keep chugging away. 14 games over .500 now…and this in spite of Bronson Arroyo being on the roster and Joey Votto rehabbing from a knee injury. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/144 "2012-07-22T13:57:48Z")
Well 3 straight losses to the A’s is not good for the Yanks, but we retain a 7 game lead at least. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/145 "2012-07-22T13:58:35Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Given that Ellsbury is back and the Sox are more or less obliged to play Crawford, Ross is expendable, but seriously, what contender has an obvious need for Cody Ross? You’d need to match up with a team in the running who has a speciic need for a corner outfielder who hits some home runs but is playing a little over his head right now. > > The Dodgers, perhaps? I would be thrilled to see Cody Ross on the Dodgers, but I don’t know what LA has to offer for him. Maybe bullpen help? There certainly isn’t anything in the minors that Boston would want. Also, if LA is able to find a competent everyday or even platoon 3B then they can play Harriston/Gwynn Jr in LF and they don’t need the corner help as badly. LF just isn’t anywhere as big a priority as corner infield spots are right now. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/146 "2012-07-22T14:53:52Z")
Ellsbury and Crawford are both fragile, and \*somebody \*has to play RF. Ross isn’t going anywhere as long as Boston has a chance, and most of the league _does_. Crawford isn’t tradeable due to his contract and to the possibility of his elbow popping at any moment - he’s already said he’s headed for a Tommy John. Ellsbury \*might \*go, since he has another year left and Boras for an agent and there’s a not prospect (Jackie Bradley) in AA ball, but it would take a big contract (Hanley Ramirez has been mentioned) in return. But all they really need is for Beckett and Lester to put down the bucket of chicken and start getting guys out again - Beckett in particular, with his 10.69 ERA in the first inning. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/147 "2012-07-22T16:21:17Z")
Umm, Bradley’s a _hot_ prospect, not a \*not \*prospect. But that could change. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/148 "2012-07-22T16:35:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Well, the A’s currently have _the best team ERA in the American League_. Their pitching is fantastic and it’s keeping them in the playoff mix. I was quite wrong. Well, the Athletics just swept the Yankees, beating them by a total of three runs over three games: 4-3, 3-2, and 2-1. Giving up a total of six runs over three games to that hitting line-up is pretty impressive. The Orioles continue to win enough to stay in second place. They are 5-4 since the All-Star break. They’ve won another couple of 1-run games in that stretch, taking their record in such games to 18-6. They are now a full 8 games over their pythagorean expectations, the most in the Majors (next is Cleveland, at 5 over). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/149 "2012-07-22T19:03:02Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > But all they really need is for Beckett and Lester to put down the bucket of chicken and start getting guys out again This ranks as the most immediately prescient statement of pessimism on the SDMB this year. Lester gave up nine runs in the first two innings just hours after this was posted. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/150 "2012-07-22T20:36:36Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Well, the Athletics just swept the Yankees… Correction: it’s a four-game series, so they still have one more to play. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/151 "2012-07-22T21:42:03Z")
Barry Larkin inducted into the HOF today. Much deserved. Speech: [http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c\_id=cin&content\_id=23248943&topic\_id=6003532](http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=cin&content_id=23248943&topic_id=6003532) ETA: Oh yeah, and Reds win again! 15 games over .500! Whoop! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/152 "2012-07-22T22:06:21Z")
Dodgers go 12 with the Mets before spanking them 8-3, earning the first sweep against them since 2002 and going 7-0 in the Eastern time zone. Josh Wall gets the win in his first major league game. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/153 "2012-07-22T23:05:30Z")
Orioles sweep the Indians, winning another 1-run game in the process, although it shouldn’t have been that close. Baltimore led 4-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, but gave up 3 before finishing it off. The A’s have come back from a 4-0 deficit against the Yankees to tie the game, and they’re now in the 10th. Go Oakland! ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/154 "2012-07-23T01:57:48Z")
This was kind of neat. While looking around the web for something else, I ran into the complete issue of Baseball Digest for February 1973. I was never a subscriber, but I did buy every copy around that time on the newsstand (well, at Walgreen’s), and read them till they fell apart. (I was about 12, the perfect age for such things.) Anyway, the first letter to the editor is in support of one Celerino Sanchez, a name that is no doubt unfamiliar to most of you young’uns and many of you not-so-young’uns as well. “Mr. Vass obviously did not follow the Yankees during 1972,” the letter writer complained, referring to an earlier article claiming that the Yankees needed an upgrade at third and suggesting that Vass “do some research.” The Yankees, the writer explained, “had one of the finest third basemen in baseball since early June, Celerino Sanchez.” [Sanchez, just for the record, hit .248 with no home runs, no stolen bases, and 12 walks in 269 plate appearances.] The letter was signed by one Keith Olbermann of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. Yup, THAT Keith Olbermann, who was about 13 or 14 at the time. [The link can be found at [http://books.google.com/books?id=2TEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs\_ge\_summary\_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false](http://books.google.com/books?id=2TEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). The letter in question is on page 7 of the issue.] ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/155 "2012-07-23T13:12:35Z")
I barely remember Sanchez and that is quite cool. The 4 game sweep of my Yanks, all by 1 run was brutal and apparently the only time it ever happened to the Yanks. Tough weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/156 "2012-07-23T13:18:31Z")
Well, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh stay nearly neck and neck while sweeping their weekend series and now they both go off to play the weakest clubs in their division. I’m also amazed at how close they are staying to Washington in the National League overall. It looks like Washington-Atlanta, Cincinnati-Pittsburgh, San Francisco-Los Angeles are in the race. With the extra wild card, only one will get squeezed out of the playoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/157 "2012-07-23T13:52:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Well, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh stay nearly neck and neck while sweeping their weekend series [Eight sweeps this weekend.](http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/23/it-was-a-very-sweepy-weekend/) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/158 "2012-07-23T17:09:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [Eight sweeps this weekend.](http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/23/it-was-a-very-sweepy-weekend/) And that doesn’t include Baltimore’s 3 straight wins over the Indians, because their 4-game series finishes up today. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/159 "2012-07-23T17:17:02Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Well, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh stay nearly neck and neck while sweeping their weekend series and now they both go off to play the weakest clubs in their division. I’m also amazed at how close they are staying to Washington in the National League overall. It looks like Washington-Atlanta, Cincinnati-Pittsburgh, San Francisco-Los Angeles are in the race. With the extra wild card, only one will get squeezed out of the playoffs. When’s the last time the Pirates were in the playoffs? When Bonds played there? What about the Dodgers? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913/160 "2012-07-23T17:23:52Z")
The Yankees, despite being swept, still have the biggest division lead in baseball. The AL East also has the smallest gap between the second- to fifth-placed teams, with a total of 3.5 games separating Baltimore, Tampa, Toronto, and Boston. And there is still no team in the division under .500. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > When’s the last time the Pirates were in the playoffs? When Bonds played there? What about the Dodgers? 1992 for the Pirates. They have not made the playoffs since before the three-division format and the Wild Card were introduced. The Dodgers have made the playoffs four times in the last ten years, and went to the NLCS in 2008 and 2009. If Baltimore continue their improbable run and manage to sneak into the playoffs it will be the first time since 1997. And the first time since i became a baseball fan. I’ve never even seen them have a season over .500, so that’s my first wish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-july-2012/626913.md?page=9)