Corriendo beisbol estring numero seis (because 46 pages on No. 5 was enough ...)

;D

 

Oz is a two-word synonym for lemming.

 

Time to say good bye to the phutile Phillies.
They'll be 7 out by Sunday night.
If they can't beat the Mets with "ace" Cole Hamels pitching they have no chance.

I know someone mention this earlier, but to reiterate:

Mediocre John Maine, 9-4, 2.74
STUD Cole Hamels, 9-4, 3.87

 

All I know is, I'm happy the Royals are on their first five-game winning streak in two years. I'm really starting to get a good vibe about where this franchise is going. It's been a long time since I've been able to say that.

Dayton Moore's move to get Milton Bradley -- which of course fell through -- might have put everyone on alert that they needed to stop using youth as an excuse for not scoring runs.

 

The offense is of course shining right now (eight starters had a run or RBI yesterday), but the pitching is doing great right now. Bannister has been lights out for the most part, Meche has been Meche, Perez and De La Rosa have been off and on, but the bullpen has been almost awesome. Four guys in the pen (Duckworth, Gobble, Riske and Soria) have ERAs under 3.00. Dotel has converted 9 of 11 saves and has a good ERA, and Gopher Ball Greinke has turned back into Zack Greinke in the pen. Had his first save yesterday, maybe the first of many to come.

 

1. I don't remember anybody calling John Maine "mediocre", though I could have missed it. He's always shut the Phils down, though, so any Phils fan that pays attention wouldn't do that.
2. The Phillies have been dead for weeks. We've already said our goodbyes, thanks.
3. If you're even thinking about a team with a starting rotation of Hamels-Happ/Durbin-Kendrick-Eaton-Moyer, then you've got serious problems.
4. I'd spend less time thinking about the Phils and worrying that Atlanta's offense might be waking up.

 

John Maine looks like an All-Star to me, spnited.

As for the Cubs, if any of you have the capability to check back when we were doing predictions entering the baseball season, let's see who casty picked to win the NL Central. Of course, he also picked the Phillies to win the NL East, the Yankees to win the AL East, so he's not perfect. But he is honest.

 

Matt Garza finally gets the call up after an up and down first half at AAA.

That leaves the Twins with a possible starting rotation of Santana, Bonser, Slowey, Baker and Garza. Also means that when Liriano comes back next year, one young pitcher is probably available, as well as Silva.

Also a nice matchup of young pitchers today in Detroit as Miller goes for the Tigers and Slowey for the Twins.

 

I'm glad Zack is pitching well again, but he's way too young and way too talented to be in the bullpen.

This season is basically a wash. I'd love to see them leave the Sox 10 games in the dust, but they won't be catching Detroit or Cleveland. If they don't put Grienke back in the rotation at some point, I'll be extremely disappointed.

 

Through 5 innings in the Bronx, Chad Gaudin has allowed only two baserunners ... both walks.

 

The immortal Chad Gaudin has thrown 5 no-hit innings against the Yankees so far. Good stuff.

 

I'm glad mlb.tv blocks it out so that I have to watch the Fox network game. What? The Fox game doesn't start until 3:55. Gee, that makes a lot of sense.