Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

- Ted Lilly may be having a pretty poor season but he always does good against the Red Sox (so it seems). Last night he went 6 2/3 innings allowing only 4 hits and 1 run. This year Lilly has a 1.54 ERA against Boston in 2 starts. For his career he's just 2-3 in 12 starts with a 3.97 ERA - so maybe it just seems to me that he's always pitching lights out against the Sox.

- Kyle Davies looks like the real deal for the Braves. In his first start he shut down the Red Sox in Fenway Park and last night he beat the Mets at home in Atlanta. In both starts he went 5 innings without giving up a run and while striking out 6 batters. Davies was brought up after Mike Hampton went on the DL with a forearm injury and it looks like he may stay a while. Davies is just 21-years old. Just saying but Davies may turn out to be the difference in the NL East this year.

- There was just 189 pitches thrown in last nights Seattle / Baltimore game. That's less pitches than what Dusty Baker limits his starters to.

- Aaron Boone continues to struggle. He's hitting just .162 with a paltry .214 OBP. His wife Laura Cover is really hot though (NSFW).

- Todd Helton is hitting 53 points below his career average (.337 career vs. .284 in 2005). Don't get me wrong - .284 is decent but it is below Helton's standards. More troubling to me is the fact that his slugging percentage is also down 149 points vs. his career average (.611 career vs. .471 2005). You could blame it on the cold weather in Colorado but for his career Helton has hit .350 in May with half his games at Coors Field. I love Helton but I do wonder why you don't hear Peter Gammons talking about how he's "disinterested" the same way he railed against Manny Ramirez (whose number are down but not as bad as Helton's).

- OK - you have to give Alex Rodriguez his due. He is having a monster year batting .318 with 16 HR and 47 RBI. Maybe with his hot hitting he can finally make his announcement.