Baseball Thread 5 - #5 George Brett Has a Story to Tell

Good pitchers duel in the Fens tonight with Lester and Bannister. Scoreless thru 6, KC 3 hits, Boston just 1.

 

So, what did you think of the trade?

Great! Who'd we get?

 

Hard not to feel for Francouer after watching parts of his last meeting with the local beat guys. You know this is incredibly tough for him. He's a young millionaire playing baseball for a living and coming home to a smoking hot wife, so I guess it's not that bad, but you know he probably never wanted to play in another uniform.

 

Keith Law's reaction to the KC-Seattle trade is pretty damn funny:

Betancourt does nothing well on a baseball field. He can't hit and has lost bat speed since reaching the majors. He hacks at everything he sees, and even swings at pitches thrown to other hitters. He has next to no range at short. And he never hustles on anything -- not balls hit in his direction, not ground balls he might have a chance to beat out (well, before he let himself go physically). Other than all that, he's Honus Wagner.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryIDjavascript:void(0);=4319927&name=law_keith

 

Well, that's the sort of effort I expected. Congrats to KC on not getting no-hit by Lester for a second straight year.

 

I find it fascinating that only five NL teams have positive run differential -- the three division leaders, the Giants and the Rockies.

 

Nah, it'll be the same Chinese water torture it's been since 1993: More than 90 losses, less than 100 (except for 2001, and I had to look that up). Always terrible, but almost never the three-digit kind of terrible that really shames an ownership into trying.

 

He didn't do himself any favors with the organization - or its fans - when he said he felt 'betrayed' by being sent down to AA in the middle of last season. Dude was hitting like .220 with NO POWER. Yet he felt like he was stabbed in the back somehow.
Came off as a spoiled brat.
And from that moment forward, he was unembraced (if that's a word) by a sizeable portion of the Atlanta fanbase. And it never really came back around. Of course it didn't help matters that he was just as shitty this season. Have no idea why the Mets would want him. Does Manuel hate Ryan Church so much that he'd be willing to give him up for one of the worst everday outfielders (statistically speaking) in the major leagues?

 

They could lose all 162 and it wouldn't shame the Nuttings into trying.

 

That might be true, but there are still going to be a sizable number of cute girls in Francoeur jerseys who are going to need consoling. Too bad I don't live as close to Atlanta as I used to ...

 

That's because they got their ass handed to them in interleague play.

 

Joba Chamberlain's last seven starts: 1-1, 5.05 ERA, 1.74 WHIP (47 H, 15 BB in 35 2/3 IP), 27 K. Hasn't gotten out of the fifth four times in that span.

That whole debate about whether he's better as a starter or reliever sure got quiet. And with Phil Hughes dominating the eighth, Chamberlain wouldn't even be an asset there now.

The textbook flash in the pan. He'll be doing autograph signings with Kevin Maas by 2013.