Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

I think if the Rookie of the Year Awards were given today - then the Cubs Geovany Soto would win in the NL and the Rays Evan Longoria would win in the AL. Jair Jurrjens was the leader for the NL award a little while ago but has since cooled off.... Tim Wakefield has been an under appreciated hero for the Red Sox this season. A quality start in baseball is when the starting pitcher goes at least 6 innings and gives up 3 runs or less. Wakefield has 16 quality starts in the 23 starts he has made this season. Only two pitchers in the AL have more quality starts (Jeremy Guthrie and James Shields). The ability of Wakefield to save the Boston bullpen from wear and tear is a very important but as I said unappreciated factor in the Red Sox being poised to make a run at another playoff run... You would think that a AAA pitcher who is 13-4 with a 2.89 ERA would be a hot commodity for pitching starved teams - right? Wrong. That pitcher in question is Charlie Zink who plays for the Pawtucket Red Sox. His problem is that he's a knuckleball pitcher. It seems nobody wants to take a risk on a knuckleball pitcher. Have people learned nothing from Tim Wakefield's example?... Greg Maddux needs 10 more innings to pass Bert Blyleven's 4970 IP for 13th place on the all-time list. The reason Maddux will be a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer while Blyleven remains on the cusp of election after so many years is because Maddux got 353 wins and 222 losses out of those innings while Blyleven managed just a 287-250 record. I'm not Joe Morgan and I know "wins" are an iffy stat but I am just pointing out the obvious. When I watched Maddux pitch - I thought I was watching a Hall of Famer. I never thought Blyleven was as good as Louis Tiant

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Tim Wakefield continues to be the best bargain in baseball. With his win last night he's now 6-6 on the season - which is the least impressive thing about his statistics. Consider that he's started 19 games and averaged better than 6 innings pitched per game all the while posting a 3.60 ERA at the age of 41. You don't think of Wakefield as a strikeout pitcher but with his 6 strikeouts last night he broke his tie with Hall of Famer Kid Nichols to take 78th place on the all-time strikeout list all by himself... Only two teams in the AL have a winning record on the road. The Angels have been great on the road this year with a 30-18 record and the Yankees just qualify by going 23-22 so far this season... Bobby Kielty has been granted his release from the Red Sox. With Coco Crisp and Brandon Moss standing in his way - there was no way he was going to see any action on the big league level... If Jed Lowrie proves to be an everyday shortstop - can the Red Sox afford to eat the $18 million left on Julio Lugo's contract? There are many, many Red Sox fans who hope they can... Speaking of contracts fans would love to drop - how many Phillies fans would love to see Philadelphia's front office shed themselves of Adam Eaton's $9.5 million 2009 contract? Eaton's ERA is 5.71 and it's still more than half a run BETTER than it was last year... It doesn't make me happy that players like Eaton get all the chances in the world but yet a player like Charlie Zink can go 10-2 with a 2.28 ERA in AAA and not get a sniff of the big leagues. Just because Zink is a knuckleball pitcher and he's stuck in a farm system that is pitching rich. Don't try to tell me that a team like the Phillies wouldn't be 100% better with Zink taking the ball every 5th day than it would be with Adam Eaton. Hasn't anyone learned anything from the lesson of Tim Wakefield?