Excuse me if this is brief, I’ve always had a long-standing mantra when it comes to sports that affected last night: The Playoffs Rule. If there’s a playoff game on in any of the four major sports leagues, it takes precedence. As a Canuck, I probably should be more of a hockey fan but I’m not; it’s baseball and football for me. With that said, I was pretty excited that the hockey team that plays in a market with winter beat the hockey team that plays in California in an overtime bonanza. Today, the Canadian team will face the American team at 3:00PM as to not disrupt the 8:20PM Basketball game.
Shin-Soo Choo hit a couple of dingers in the CLE/CIN game. Choo has a freaky way of maintaining a ridiculously high BABIP, so don’t worry about his .355 BABIP. The LD% is down but remember that Choo had a .367 and .370 BABIP over the past couple years. With Choo’s walk-rate up and K-Rate down, he should have absolutely no problem posting a 20-20 season in Cleveland.
Kerry Wood gave up a homer in a non-save situation but also struck out a couple of batters. Wood’s probably an injury risk and Chris Perez has been solid but at this point, the stuff is there.
Joey Votto stole a couple bases — that’s 6 on the year. I think Votto’s finally entered the “elite” category of first basemen, but keep an eye on his 50% GB-Rate.
Lefty J.C. Romero retired two batters to get the save for the Phillies against the Red Sox. Romero relieved Baez, who’d put a man on first and second, in a 4-run game. Romero got J.D. Drew to ground-out (advancing the runners) before plonking Beltre. Finally, Romero got David Ortiz to fly out to deep-center. Romero was more than likely brought in to deal with the lefties and did just that; even if it wasn’t pretty.
Jimmy Rollins was back atop the lineup with Victorino hitting behind Ibanez.
Tim Hudson shutdown the Pirates. Hudson has a 2.09ERA and a 3.88K/3.43BB rate — guh. Obviously, Hudson’s gawdy 66% GB-Rate has been keeping him elite but at some point, the .213 BABIP and 87% LOB-Rate will abandon him. I don’t see this ending well.
The Orioles are actually starting to hit: Adam Jones had his first homer since April 24th.
Javier Vazquez got well against the Mets. Takahashi pitched a very solid game for his first start: 6IP, 5H, 1BB, 0ER, 5K. Takahashi is now striking out over 10 batters per 9 IP with a 2.91 tERA and a 3.56 xFIP. Definitely someone to take a look at in deeper leagues (even with a Mets’ bullpen that has WHIPs that resemble ERAs)
Colby Lewis shut down the Cubs even though he walked 3 in 6 IP. Lewis is striking out a batter per inning and is a solid bet to post a sub-4.00 ERA on the year. Lewis is going to his Slider quite a bit more than previous years — it’s up to 30% and the Curve’s down to 8% versus last year’s 13% SL/23% CU split.
That’s 12 Saves on the season for Neftali Feliz. I don’t understand why Texas gave up so soon on the dream of Neftali being a starter but to each his own, I guess.
Brett Myers is now (3-3) on a 15-27 Houston team. Seven strike-outs in seven innings certainly doesn’t hurt his value. Myers allowed a single unearned run in the first inning. Myers is still a grade-A douchebag but his O-Swing is up 5% and his contact-rate is down 5%. Myers also hasn’t seen his Swinging Strike percentage at 9 in a couple of years. Myers has been going to his slider more often which has the best downward movement in his career.
Matt Lindstrom picked up his 10th save of the year and has his BB-Rate below 2. A 3.75 K:BB Matt Lindstrom is a very useful Matt Lindstrom. He’s left 93% of runners stranded but every other indicator shows that Lindstrom is just better.
Mark Buerhle pitched a great game: 8IP, 3H, 3K. Buerhle does this from time to time before reminding the world that he’s spectacularly average. Sergio Santos pitched the ninth and struck out a couple batters. This is me tooting Carlos Quentin’s horn for the third straight day.
Nick Punto was the only Minnesota Twin to not touch home plate and score a run last night. Nick Blackburn is now 5-and-1. That’s that for that 15-3 rout.
Jose Guillen hit a couple more DINGERS! Twenty-two percent of his fly-balls are going for a long ride over the fence. Unless you’re a baseball purist, there’s absolutely no reason to dislike the hilarity that follows Jose Guillen.
Colby Rasmus tripled for his lone hit of the day. As a Rasmus owner, I’m absolutely terrified. Rasmus is striking out 35% of the time and has a .368 BABIP. Rasmus has a .930 OPS and has been graded AAA by Moody’s, S & P and Fitch — Obviously, it’s buying time. Banking Sarcasm!
I can’t believe I turned off the Blue Jays / Diamondbacks game last night. The Diamondbacks (397K) are number one in strike-outs and the Blue Jays (361K) are number 2. Almost as if these two things were connected, the Blue Jays are number 1 in DINGERS! (72) and the Diamondbacks are number 3 (56 HR).
Here’s the DINGERS! from last night’s game: Fred Lewis, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind, Adam LaRoche, Chris Young.
In six and two-thirds innings, Trevor Cahill struck out four and only walked one. Walks will be the biggest factor in Cahill’s development. I love the kid.
Cliff Lee got the win after giving up 7ER? The weird part is that the Padres didn’t take a single walk, they just aimed and fired en route to 15 hits.
Mike Sweeney hit a couple of DINGERS! but really doesn’t deserve too much attention at this point.
Austin Jackson had two more hits and is still hitting 36% line-drives.
