Joe Torre will retire at the end of the season.
Troy Tulowitski has 14 homers in the last 15 days. This has never been done before. He’s got five in his last three games.
For September:
Avg. Hits HR RBI OPS
.354 26 14 33 1.393 (Probably over 1.4 after today’s game.)
Yeah, Tulowitzki’s been unbelievable recently.
The Padres got a win in the ninth today as former Cardinal Ryan Ludwick burned his old team with a 3-run homer. Chris Young made his first appearance on the mound since April, and pitched pretty well for 4 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits.
Let’s go Brewers! Beat the Giants.
This shit has got to stop! I will not tolerate a world where the Giants are winning the NL West.
The Giants must die!!!
That was a brutal loss today. Also I would like Berkman gone. He is slow, prone to hitting into rally ending DPs and a weak fielder. He can’t really hit anymore.
He’s got a .382 on-base as a Yankee.
A .382 OBP is pretty good but when it comes with no homers, no speed, and no defensive ability, frankly you can probably find better uses for the roster spot.
It’s a little better than pretty good. And for the all of 77 at-bats he’s gotten, I’m pretty sure it’s premature to say that he can’t hit anymore just because the one component’s been missing.
Hell, he’s still outslugging Jeter for the year.
Man, the White Sox have really tanked. The Twins only won one game this weekend and still cut their magic number in half. White Sox have lost six in a row and ten of their last thirteen games. Just two weeks ago there was a “pennant race,” now they are 10 games back with 13 to play.
We know what he did for Houston this year too. We have better First Base backups on the Yankees and well Jeter is Jeter and Berkman is nobody to Yankee fans. This should not be too hard to understand I would think.
Either way Jeter does not kill the rallies that Berkman does. He is a part year rental and will hopefully not be on the postseason roster.
His AB that pissed me off yesterday was just plain dumb and unprofessional. It wasn’t that he made and out or even hit into the double play. That happens though he is more prone to it than most Yankees. It was the only taking one pitch against a reliever with control issues. Hitting into a DP with bases loaded in the 10th on the second pitch for someone trying to make a postseason roster is inexcusable.
I have no particular desire to defend Berkman. He hasn’t exactly lit it up since coming to New York and, as RickJay notes, his good OBP is counterbalanced by a complete lack of power since the trade, as well as no speed and effectively useless defense.
But the whole concept of rally killing is fucking retarded. Most baseball players get out far more often than they get on base. Even the absolute best players in the game, guys like Pujols, get out considerably more than 50 percent of the time. By that definition, every single player in the league kills rallies more often than he helps them. The fact that Berkman gets on base at a better rate than the average player suggests that he is, in fact, better than average at NOT killing rallies.
Rally-killing is the sort of concept popularized by TV commentators who need something to fill air time, and who look at one or two significant at-bats where the hitter didn’t manage to get a hit and conclude that he’s a rally killer. Hell, there are some commentators who refer to home runs as rally killers. Jon Miller and Orel Hershiser have both been guilty of this.
It’s a meaningless term.
Fair enough **MHendo **but what of my specific complaint about his At Bat yesterday. Is there a problem with my logic there?
Probably not. I didn’t see the at-bat.
My point is not that you were wrong about that incident. My point is that extrapolating from a single at-bat, or even a few, to call someone a rally killer makes no sense.
Yes, there will be times when even the best players have bad at-bats. They might be made to look foolish by some very good pitches or, as in the case you describe, they might simply adopt the wrong strategy for the in-game situation. But what kills rallies is outs, and when someone makes outs less often than the average major league ballplayer, i don’t think it makes much sense to call them a rally killer.
The Giants have now gone 16 straight games without giving up more than 3 runs.
12 of those 16 they gave up 2 runs or less.
Sounds like they should be on a nice win streak, right? Nope. Because as historically great as their pitching has been, their offense has been that bad.
1-3 loss
0-1 loss
0-1 loss
0-3 loss
1-2 loss
0-2 loss
All in the last 16 games. This is torture.
I have the opposite problem with my Reds (tonight notwithstanding)…potent offense but average pitching.
The playoffs will be interesting anyway, especially if these teams of opposites end up playing one another.
Jose… BAUUUUUUTIIIISTAAAAAA.
50 dingers, ladies and gentlemen. And the only run in a 1-0 victory at that.
Make that 17, which I believe sets the record for the modern era.
If only their offense would come to play more than once every 3 games. Runs scored in their last 14 games:
1
7
1
0
6
0
2
10
0
1
9
1
0
13
Watch out Rockies! 3 days from now, the Giants are going to crush you (after getting shut out the first 2 games).
The Diamondbacks are going to be the only the second team since 1901 to have more strikeouts than hits!
On the radio broadcast (or maybe the postgame) tonight, it was pointed out that all those bolded scores are in last games of the series. Dunno what it means, but it’s pissing me off…
Joe
Ugly Yankee loss last night. Tampa has the tie breakers now for the Division win.