Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Interesting interview with Hunter Pence of the Astros... Dusty Baker will be under the microscope for how much he uses both Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez. It will be interesting to monitor. Maybe it was a fluke that exceptional pitchers like Kerry Wood and Mark Prior just happened through the Cubs at the same time Dusty was managing and that both were predisposed to injuries. It's possible that Baker had little to do with it. That's not the popular opinion right now though - which again gets us back to Dusty being under the microscope with Cueto and Volquez... Dan Johnson was DFA'd by the A's. I always thought that Johnson getting double vision and having trouble hitting the ball because he got suntan lotion in his eyes would have made for a great premise for an episode of Seinfeld... Chien-Ming Wang has not had much succes at Fenway Park. He is 2-3 with a 6.17 ERA in 6 starts. That has me worried since it is guys like that who suddenly pitch a shutout after having trouble over the years...

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Jim Edmonds will probably miss Opening Day with a calf strain. I wish there was some casino offering a prop bet about who will miss more games in 2008 - Jim Edmonds or Mike Cameron. I'd say Edmonds misses more games even with Cameron's 25 game suspension... My reaction after reading this was to wonder if the Rays will change the name of their stadium to the Vomitorium. An all-you-can-eat menu including hot dogs, Italian sausage, popcorn, peanuts, nachos and Pepsi products? Where do I sign up?... Dusty Baker wants his players to swing at bad pitches:

"A lot of this on-base percentage is taking away the aggressiveness of some young kids," he said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Most of the time you've got to put handcuffs on a young guy to keep him from swinging. [The young players are] playing good, real good. I'd like to see them more aggressive."

Am I wrong or is that exactly what he's saying? Dusty Baker - I'm sorry Reds fans... Is it wrong that I found it humorous that ESPN has one article titled "Hampton hoping to make triumphant return to mound" and a news bit titled "Hampton leaves game; injury isn't considered serious". According to Baseball-Reference.com - Mike Hampton has already made over $106 million in his career. I know this is a contract year for Hampton but I'm doubting he's really money motivated and I won't fall into the trap of thinking this will be a big year for Hampton's comeback... I also found it interesting that Jon Heyman had an article about even the best teams having holes to fill where he rattles off a bunch of the top teams and their needs. Heyman doesn't mention the Red Sox - so either he doesn't consider the reigning World Champs a top team or the Red Sox disprove his contention...

Red Sox / Indians ALCS Game 2 Live Blog

I have the time to do some live blogging tonight - so what the heck.

First off let me say that I was a huge Springsteen fan. I use the past tense because to be honest - he's lost his fastball. The Radio Nowhere opening just didn't have that old-time "oumph". Do you know what I mean? The Boss is teetering on become a South Park parody. I'm sorry but its true. How long before he becomes a Vegas act?

One thing I've been dwelling on today is how Josh Barfield just completely missed on his projected production this year. What is wrong? Was he lightning in a bottle last year? Was the NL West so weak last year that Barfield just projected as a better player than he was? Just strange. I thought the Indians had a steal in Barfield. It turns out that the Padres probably had the steal with Kevin Kouzmanoff and his 18 HR (the same as Casey Blake but in 100 fewer AB and Blake didn't have to play half his games at Petco Park).

8:17 - Tim McCarver just admitted he has no clue. Tim we've known that for years! Where the heck is Al Leiter? This guys spells out how I feel exactly.

8:33 - Indians go up 1-0 on Victor Martinez's double which scored Grady Sizemore. It could have been worse. The Red Sox were lucky Eric Wedge was so willing to give up an out with that bunt. Was that really James Taylor doing the Red Sox player introductions or was that Norm McDonald doing a bad James Taylor impression? Kevin Youkilis is the first base player?

8:51 - Is this really the time to be talking about Schilling being a free agent? Thank goodness that double play kept us from further subjection to that line of discussion. Schilling has a gaming company in Boston - he isn't going anywhere. He'll re-sign for $13 million with a team option for 2009. Mark it down.

9:05 - Carmona is on track to be over 100 pitches by the 5th inning. That's good for the Red Sox. Schilling is on pace to get to 100 pitches in the 7th inning. That's good for the Red Sox too (looking for silver linings here since there isn't much action and Buck and McCarver are tough to listen to).

9:20 - The over / under for this game was 8.5 runs and I had the feeling it would be a tight game but once again I did not have the conviction to put my money where my mouth is. At this pace Carmona will be toast by the end of the 5th inning.

9:32 - Manny walks and the Red Sox tie the game at 1-1. In Little League the kids would be shouting, "pitcher's blowing up, pitcher's blowing up." Carmona did not want to pitch to Manny Ramirez. The duo of Manny and Big Papi have the Indian pitchers psyched out right now. Mike Lowell comes up huge once again. Two out hit and the score is now 3-1. Tim McCarver "Lowell drove in more RBI - I mean runs this year than any other Red Sox third baseman." Umm grandpa - I think you mean Lowell had more RBI this year than any other Red Sox third baseman in the teams history. What you said is the same as saying Dustin Pedroia had more RBI this year than any Red Sox second baseman.

9:47 - Jhonny Peralta hits a 3-run dinger and the Indians re-take the lead at 4-3. Yuk!

10:05 - Pedroia strikes out again. I don't know what happened to his plate discipline. Pedroia was so hard to strikeout during the regular season. Dustin comes off as a kid with all the confidence in the world but you have to wonder if he's got a bad case of butterflies at the plate. After 4 innings - Fausto Carmona is up to 95 pitches. This game is going wicked slow. I hope it is over by the time the Patriots kick off.

10:11 - Grady Sizemore hits a HR to make it 5-3 and the bastard costs me $20 because my friend Tim has Sizemore in our HR pool. I have Manny, Hafner and Martinez. Tim has Ortiz, Sizemore and Lowell. Now I'm glad I didn't take the under on this game.

10:30 - I see those commercials where Tiger Woods is pitching razor blades and I wonder how often Tiger really needs to shave. Seriously - he looks like the type of guy who could skip a few days and nobody would really notice. Just saying.

10:36 - MANNY! MANNY! MANNY! Not only does he tie it up at 5 apiece with a 2-run bomb - he also wins my $20 back! Way to go Manny!

10:38 - Mike Lowell puts the Red Sox up 6-5 and my $20 goes back to Tim (well worth the money). Mike Lowell has to be back next year. He just has to. I hope management realizes that Sox fans would prefer 2-years of Lowell to 5-years of Alex Rodrigez.

11:07 - That was a long drawn out, sucky half-inning. Indians tie it up at 6. Meanwhile elsewhere in the world of sports LSU and Cal both lost. That means that Boston College probably moves up to 3 in the polls (I see Ohio St. #1 and I see South Florida hopping over BC to #2). Interesting time to be a sports fan in Boston - the hub of the sports universe.

11:30 - Nice job by Okijima. Now the Sox have the Giant part of the order coming up and Jonathan Papelbon waiting in the wings. I admit I'm getting a bit tired and might just veg out on the couch. Oh and once again - Tim McCarver sucks.

11:52 - Wow - Dusty Baker to manage the Reds? My sympathies to any Reds fans out there. On the bright side - at least baseball fans won't have to listen to his moronic ramblings on ESPN any more. Maybe Dusty could do us all a favor and take John Kruk with him.

12:44 - You know people complain that playoff baseball games now start too late for kids to stay up to watch them. Some of these games (this one included) go too late for most adults to stay up and watch them.

1:12 - Eric Gagne comes out of the game and every Red Sox fan watching at home breathes a sigh of relief and says "Thank God!"

1:18 - I stayed up for this? The Indians score two runs on two singles. Yuk! Sorry - three runs on three singles.

EDIT - So OK. When the flood gates opened in the 11th inning I bailed. Can you blame me?