Monday, July 16, 2007
A.L. East baseball and more
Three out of four from a Tampa Bay club that has lost 16 of 18, sorry the Clarion still isn’t buying into any kind of Yankee run. It does help them that the A’s have faded of late and suddenly there are only two teams between the denziens of the Bronx and the Wild Card lead. (Seattle and Minnesota.)
The next month or so offers the Yanks a poutporri of crappy of teams, following Tampa Bay with Toronto, Tampa Bay again, Kansas City, Baltimore and the White Sox. Unfortunately for them, it gets a lot harder staring August 10th. Don’t be fooled if the Yanks fire up a for a short while only to fade, as they play Cleveland, Detroit, the Angels and Red Sox to close the month of August.
More suprising than the Yanks taking three out four from the lowly Devil Rays, is why the Rays are so lousy in the first place. Their line-up doesn’t appear nearly as flaccid as their worst in the American League record would indicate.
We love the Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura, a very fundamentally sound player, who plays good defense. Like his countryman, Ichiro, Iwamura is extremely adept at following off pitches at the last possible second. He has a great defensive swing when he is behind in the count. Wonder if there is some drill or trick of the trade the Japanese are teaching their hitters on this point? Maybe it is as simple as choking up a bit when they are behind in the count?
He is by no means the only solid Devil Ray regular, Carl Crawford isn’t having a career year, but he still hits for average and line drive power. B.J. Upton is good too, though he strikes out too much. (He averages more than one per game or once every three at-bats.) Upton is hitting .329 and just returned from missing 29 games, much of which coincided with Rays recent frigid streak. With him, the Rays have a decent defensive outfield, too.
Moreover, first baseman Carlos Pena is on pace for a career year. He has never had 30 homers or 100 rbi’s before. He is currently sitting on 22hrs and 58 rbi’s, heading towards a 35hrs and 100 rbi’s. Sadly, the Rays just prove the old axiom, pitching, pitching, pitching. And the Rays have the worst era in the majors by nearly a full run per nine!! This is with ace Scott Kazmir having a decent, though not his best, season.
A couple of other quick notes, the Red Sox got a shut out last night from rookie pitcher Kason Gabbard. Just what the Red Sox needed more starting pitching. Is his first name a misprint? Was that one of those things where they were typing out his birth certificate and the “K” and “J” keys are right next to each other, somebody messed it up and the family failed to notice for a week, a month, whatever and decided to keep it? Or was Momma trying to be unique? Or is it a family name? Kason Gabbard did shut out crummy Kansas City, but hey, they are MLBers, too. It was the first Red Sox complete game shut out by a rookie since Paul Quantrill in 1993. Which is ironic because Quantrill went on to be a lefty relief specialist, and ended up making 777 relief appearances and only 64 starts. It was the first Red Sox complete game shut out by a rookie at Fenway since a guy named Roger Clemens in July of 1984.
Heard a couple of good one-liners from the Jim Rome talk radio show recently.
on the Phils...
“Where was the commissioner for the Phillies 10,000 loss?”
on future Dan Patrick job possibilities...
Patrick is leaving ESPN next month after nearly twenty years...the Clones think he'd do a great job replacing Bob Barker retiring after 35 years hosting the Price is Right.
The Clarion suggests how about replacing Imus and Chuck McCord with Patrick and Keith Olbermann? We see Patrick playing straight man McCord to Olbermann’s Imus over the long run. Yes, they would have a vastly different tenor, but they might be able to span the politics and pop culture mix that Imus once bridged so well. (Perhaps even in a manner that appeals to the demographic that gets its political news from John Stewart.)
Finally, a trivia question from the MLB vault, name the only pitcher to start 150 games for three different franchises and 75 more for a fourth!! Click here for the answer.
The next month or so offers the Yanks a poutporri of crappy of teams, following Tampa Bay with Toronto, Tampa Bay again, Kansas City, Baltimore and the White Sox. Unfortunately for them, it gets a lot harder staring August 10th. Don’t be fooled if the Yanks fire up a for a short while only to fade, as they play Cleveland, Detroit, the Angels and Red Sox to close the month of August.
More suprising than the Yanks taking three out four from the lowly Devil Rays, is why the Rays are so lousy in the first place. Their line-up doesn’t appear nearly as flaccid as their worst in the American League record would indicate.
We love the Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura, a very fundamentally sound player, who plays good defense. Like his countryman, Ichiro, Iwamura is extremely adept at following off pitches at the last possible second. He has a great defensive swing when he is behind in the count. Wonder if there is some drill or trick of the trade the Japanese are teaching their hitters on this point? Maybe it is as simple as choking up a bit when they are behind in the count?
He is by no means the only solid Devil Ray regular, Carl Crawford isn’t having a career year, but he still hits for average and line drive power. B.J. Upton is good too, though he strikes out too much. (He averages more than one per game or once every three at-bats.) Upton is hitting .329 and just returned from missing 29 games, much of which coincided with Rays recent frigid streak. With him, the Rays have a decent defensive outfield, too.
Moreover, first baseman Carlos Pena is on pace for a career year. He has never had 30 homers or 100 rbi’s before. He is currently sitting on 22hrs and 58 rbi’s, heading towards a 35hrs and 100 rbi’s. Sadly, the Rays just prove the old axiom, pitching, pitching, pitching. And the Rays have the worst era in the majors by nearly a full run per nine!! This is with ace Scott Kazmir having a decent, though not his best, season.
A couple of other quick notes, the Red Sox got a shut out last night from rookie pitcher Kason Gabbard. Just what the Red Sox needed more starting pitching. Is his first name a misprint? Was that one of those things where they were typing out his birth certificate and the “K” and “J” keys are right next to each other, somebody messed it up and the family failed to notice for a week, a month, whatever and decided to keep it? Or was Momma trying to be unique? Or is it a family name? Kason Gabbard did shut out crummy Kansas City, but hey, they are MLBers, too. It was the first Red Sox complete game shut out by a rookie since Paul Quantrill in 1993. Which is ironic because Quantrill went on to be a lefty relief specialist, and ended up making 777 relief appearances and only 64 starts. It was the first Red Sox complete game shut out by a rookie at Fenway since a guy named Roger Clemens in July of 1984.
Heard a couple of good one-liners from the Jim Rome talk radio show recently.
on the Phils...
“Where was the commissioner for the Phillies 10,000 loss?”
on future Dan Patrick job possibilities...
Patrick is leaving ESPN next month after nearly twenty years...the Clones think he'd do a great job replacing Bob Barker retiring after 35 years hosting the Price is Right.
The Clarion suggests how about replacing Imus and Chuck McCord with Patrick and Keith Olbermann? We see Patrick playing straight man McCord to Olbermann’s Imus over the long run. Yes, they would have a vastly different tenor, but they might be able to span the politics and pop culture mix that Imus once bridged so well. (Perhaps even in a manner that appeals to the demographic that gets its political news from John Stewart.)
Finally, a trivia question from the MLB vault, name the only pitcher to start 150 games for three different franchises and 75 more for a fourth!! Click here for the answer.
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