Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

It's not so much that Detroit is 0-6 to start the season. It's that they are already 4 games back in the standings... Many Red Sox fans are frustrated with Coco Crisp and would like to see him traded already. But Terry Francona has shown an ability to get bench players their at bats and Coco at the least makes the best late inning defensive replacement in the game (moving Ellsbury to left for Manny Ramirez). However, the frustration Red Sox fans have with Crisp's situation must be nothing compared to how the Dodgers fans must be feeling about Juan Pierre. Both Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier deserve to start and both of those players make the Dodgers a better team than what Pierre brings to the table. Yet there's Pierre continually trotted out to take up valuable AB from Ethier and Kemp. Here's the catch - both Crisp and Pierre are light hitting defensive specialists but Pierre has $36.5 million left on his contract that runs through the 2011 season and the contract includes a limited no-trade clause. Meanwhile Crisp is a better defensive player and his contract calls for only $4.75 million in '08, $5.75 million in '09, with a $8 million club option in 2010. My guess is that it will be very tough for Ned Colletti to trade Pierre for any sort of value while Coco Crisp is also available on the market... It very could be that Derek Lowe will be the best free agent pitcher available after this season. Lowe has had two real solid starts to begin the season. It could also very well be that Lowe ends up trade bait for the Dodger since the Dodgers are pretty deep at starter if Estaban Loaiza remains steady and Jason Schmidt comes back healthy. Lowe could be traded mid-season for the simple fact that Scott Boras is his agent and Lowe will probably be going to the highest bidder at the end of the year... The season is less than 10 games in and already Oakland's Joe Blanton has two 2-1 losses on his record. I feel bad for the guy... My early season fascination with David Murphy continues as the ex-Red Sox farmhand had another 2 hits last night and is now hitting .409 on the season... The Colorado Rockies have only scored 10 runs so far this season and are only hitting .209 as a team. Yet it is the Cubs fans you hear complaining... Who knew? Gabe Kapler (2) now has more HR than either Manny Ramirez (1) or David Ortiz (1). I guess that year off really helped. Just the same - I wouldn't rush out to pick up Kapler for your fantasy baseball team nor would I drop either Manny or Big Papi from your line-up... John Smoltz just needs 19 more strikeouts for 3,000 in his career. Smoltz should be a first year selection for the Hall of Fame when he's done....

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

How about those first place Marlins, Royals, Rays and Orioles? You have to love early season standings.... Dontrelle Willis gave up 3 earned runs in 5 innings yesterday on just one hit. Of course he left inherited runners who were driven in on a ground out and a single. Most telling was the fact that Willis walked 7 batters and struck out zero. I don't think Willis will fare well in the AL with a walk to strikeout ratio like that... Happy birthday to Framingham's Lou Merloni... Alex Rodriguez needs just 3 RBI to pass Mickey Mantle for 46th place on the all-time list. I'm sure Yankee fans have mixed feelings about that... If A-Rod's 3 RBI come on 3 solo HR - then he will also pass Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for 15th place on the all-time HR list. Of course any way the next 3 HR come from A-Rod he will still pass Williams and McCovey. I just like to think of A-Rod as a solo HR type of guy... Carlos Delgado is still the all-time leader in Toronto team history for HR (336), RBI (1058) and total bases (2786). Those numbers would only put him 5th, 6th and 7th respectively on the Red Sox all-time team lists... Kyle Snyder's time with the Red Sox is probably over. There are just too many teams out there who are desperate for a 5th starter for him to clear waivers... Nick Carfardo of the Boston Globe likened the situation of Mike Hampton to lottery winners who are beset with bad lucky after striking it rich. It seems like an apt comparison... It's worth noting that David Murphy (who the Red Sox traded to the Rangers in the Gagne deal) qualifies as a rookie and with his HR last night - he's probably the early leader for AL ROY. Murphy currently has an OPS of 1.180....

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Today would have been Mickey Cochrane's 105th birthday. Cochrane was both one of the 5 best ballplayers to ever come out of Massachusetts and one of the 5 best catchers of all-time (Bill James has him ahead of Carlton Fisk). Not bad for a kid from Bridgewater... I thought OBP was Billy Beane's thing? Travis Buck is supposedly Oakland's leadoff hitter but Buck has yet to get a hit or a walk this season... Just when you thought the Eric Gagne trade to Boston couldn't get more aggravating. Last night Kason Gabbard went 7 scoreless innings to earn the win and outfielder David Murphy had a two hits (including a double), two runs scored and a stolen base in last night's 11-6 victory over the Angels. Gabbard and Murphy were traded for Gagne late last season... Last night Matt Stairs hit his 242nd HR. I like Matt Stairs if just for the simple fact that he doesn't look like an athlete. He looks like he should be tearing it up in a local beer league not the major leagues but there he is in his 16th season in the bigs. Stairs is also 2nd on the list of HR hit by a Canadian born player (Larry Walker tops the list)... Ian Kennedy gave up 6 earned runs in less than 3 innings yesterday and the Yankees were pounded by the Rays. I'm pretty sure that Clay Buchholtz can top Kennedy's start when Clay pitches for the Red Sox today. LaTroy Hawkins also managed to give up 6 earned runs last night but he did it in less than one inning. My guess is that Girardi may be better off only using Hawkins on the road until Hawkins gets his ERA under double digits... Matt Holliday probably has a large number of people second guessing their decision to take him with their first pick in their fantasy baseball drafts. Holliday has just one single so far this season but now's the time I remind you that the season is just a week old and to just wait. Holliday will put up the numbers (at least I hope so since I too took him with a first round pick)...