Tag: baseball

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MLB General

The Full Count: All-Star teams announced



Top NL and AL vote getters

1. All Star teams announced: The highly anticipated All Star game selections came last night, and for the first time in a while there appears to be no (major) snubs. The Mets and White Sox lead all teams with six selections, and the Red Sox and Yankees combined for 5 players in the AL starting lineup. The Mets will start 4, and 6 of the 8 NL starters will come from the NL East division. Almost every player who deserved a spot got on the rosters, available here. Those who didn’t could still earn a spot through final fan voting of five nominees. The AL nominees are Justin Verlander, Francisco Liriano, Travis Hafner, Ramon Hernandez, and AJ Pierzynski. The NL candidates will be Bobby Abreu, Billy Wagner, Chris Young, Chris Capuano, and Nomar Garciaparra. Unfortunately only one of those players can make it from each league, and the ballots are available online. We’d take Liriano and Garciaparra.

2. A-Rod over Mets: Alex Rodriguez had his best game of the season on a huge stage, almost single-handedly upstaging the Mets on Sunday Night Baseball. A-Rod hit 2 homers and drove in 7, including a grand slam in the 3rd that put the Yankees up for good. The Yankees scored 8 runs in that inning, and they cruised by the Mets 16-7. It was another attempt by Rodriguez to prove his doubters wrong, as many were wondering if he deserved the All Star start (which he got). A-Rod finished the series win over the Mets 5-12, with 3 homers and 9 RBIs. He is now on pace for 39 and 133 over the season, which sound like A-Rod numbers to me. It’s about time that Yankees fans just shut up about how disappointing he is. Sure, he was awful in the playoffs last year, but without his monstrous contributions in the regular season New York wouldn’t have gone that far.

3. Lightning lefty: Is there any question who the AL rookie of the Year will be? At least for now, it has to go to Francisco Liriano. He has so fully dominated his opponents this season, he even has a chance to win the Cy Young. After shutting out the Mariners last night in 8 innings and striking out 12, Liriano is 9-1 on the year. He has racked up 7 consecutive quality starts, and on the year has a 1.99 ERA and .97 WHIP. Liriano just defines unhittable–opponents have only batted .203 against him this year. The Twins are almost guaranteed a win 2 of 5 days with Liriano and Johan Santana in the rotation. The team has now won 10 in a row, and should be a strong contender for the AL Wild Card.

4. A pitcher’s nightmare: That described yesterday’s White Sox-Cubs game, which turned out to be one of the most high-scoring and crazy games of the year. Going into the game many expected a pitcher’s duel between Mark Beurhle and Carlos Zambrano, but they both got shelled. Beurhle allowed 11 runs in 5 innings, while Zambrano gave up 7 in 6 but escaped with the victory. The Cubs won 15-11 in the end, in a game in which four players homered for each side.

5. Start me up: The starting pitchers for each side in the All Star game has yet to be announced, but Brandon Webb has sure made his case in the NL. Though the Diamondbacks ace struggled in June, he returned to his dominant form yesterday. Webb fired a four-hitter against the A’s, striking out seven in a complete game. He outdueled Barry Zito, who allowed 1 earned run through 8.2. Webb finally earned his 9th win on the year after going 8-0 through May. He has been the best pitcher in a league where there has been no truly dominant starter. On the AL side of things, Johan Santana deserves the start but it will likely go to undefeated Jose Contreras. Contreras is 8-0 but is inferior to Santana is every aspect but winning percentage.

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MLB General

Joe Mikulik meltdown video

In case you haven’t seen the meltdown by Joe Mikulik, or have just seen the ESPN edited down version, here’s some amateur video of the tirade. Clocking in at almost 4 minutes, it gives a sense of how involved and insane the whole thing really was. Excellent work, unknown video taker, excellent work.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Beavers take the College World Series

1. Beaver Time: The biggest news in baseball last night wasn’t anything that happened in the majors. It was the Game 3 of the College World Series finals, a winner-take-all battle between favorite North Carolina and unheralded Oregon State. And it was the Beavers who took the title, with a 3-2 victory in the final game of a very close series. OSU became one of the biggest underdogs ever to win the CWS, and the first northern-based team to win it all since 1996. They won in the most improbable of fashions, with 6 victories in elimination games. Pitcher Johan Nickerson was selected the tournament’s most outstanding player, with 4 runs allowed in three elimination game starts.

2. Master in the Clutch: David Ortiz won Sunday’s game with a walk-off homerun, and he lifted the Red Sox to another win on Monday. With the Sox trailing 7-6 in the 12th inning, Kevin Youkilis hit an RBI single, followed by a Mark Loretta walk. Then Ortiz came up and did it again, winning the game with an RBI single. He became the first player since Nomar Garciaparra in early May to end two straight games with RBIs. It was the 9th win in a row for Boston, and they remain the class of the AL East.

3. Continued success: Many thought the Tigers would fade after a tough schedule stretch earlier this month, but they still are outpacing every MLB team. With a 52-25 record, they are still the only team with 50+ wins, and they are 2 games ahead of an outstanding White Sox team. Yesterday they continued their dominance over the NL, defeating the Astros 10-4. Catcher Ivan Rodriguez homered and drove in three runs, and starter Zach Miner improved to 4-1. The entire top half of the AL Central is on fire: the Tigers, White Sox, and Twins have each won 9 of their last 10.

4. St. Louis struggles: The team that many consider the best in the NL, the St. Louis Cardinals, has performed terribly in Interleague play. Excluding a May sweep of the Royals, the Cards have lost all seven games they’ve played against the American League. Their struggles continued yesterday when the Indians romped them 10-3. St. Louis starter Jason Marquis performed horrendously for his second straight start, with 7 earned runs in 6 innings. In fact, in Marquis’ last two starts he has allowed a combined 20 earned runs, becoming only the third player since WWII to allow such an amount. Over that stretch his ERA has ballooned from 4.55 to 5.82, according to Elias Says. Travis Hafner hit two homeruns for the visiting Indians.

5. Justice is not served: Most people know by now of the laughably awful tirade thrown by single A manager Joe Mikulik yesterday. It will likely hold its place as one of the worst performances by a manager in baseball history. So that is why we are questioning the punishment given to him by the South Atlantic League. Mikulik was suspended a mere week and fined $1000. The fine might be appropriate considering that a single A manager doesn’t make much cash. But the suspension is a joke, and it sends a message that a manager can disgrace himself and his organization and only miss 7 games. Ozzie Guillen says one word and people are calling for him to step down, but this guy can act like a child and gets a minor suspension? If we were the upper management of this team, we would get rid of Mikulik.

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MLB General

Odds and Ends (6.7.06): Not quite Randy Johnson

In a AAA game between the Buffalo Bisons and the Durham Bulls, a seagul flew right into the path of a pitch by #23 of the Bulls. There’s no #23 on the Bulls official roster so we’re going to say it was Michael Jordon in disguise. The bird fell to the ground and fluttered around a bit before it was carried off the field by the Bisons’ backup catcher. It later flew away.

While interesting, this bird beaning doesn’t even come close to the poor bird that got in the way of a young Randy Johnson. (Video)

In other news…

[AZ Central.com]: From the completely not related to sports file: Woman finds live frog in her salad

[SI]: Sports Illustrated apparently has experts — and they’re picking the World Cup

[USA Today]: OLN averaged 611,000 households for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals

[BFLOBLOG]: Making the case for Andre Reed in the HOF

[The Purple Curtain]: Hope springs eternal in Ravens land as McNair heads to Baltimore

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Boston Red Sox

David Wells is a blowhard

How is it that the Boston Red Sox have two of the biggest blowhards in the game? Curt Schilling is the biggest media whore this side of T.O. and David Wells will open his big trap to comment on anything.

Last year, Wells blasted Selig on the steroid issue and now he’s dragging ex-teammates through the mud.

You see a little, bitty guy hitting 30 home runs… what, Dellucci, I guess? How many home runs did he hit last year? Twenty-nine. Has he ever done that in his career? How many has he hit this year? So, the numbers have gone down tremendously since all this has come up… I know Dave, I’ve never suspected him of doing them.

Delucci responded that his home run numbers are down because he’s now a bench player. David Wells is such an ass that Red Sox manager Terry Francona and Curt Schilling (there he is again) had to apologize to Delucci on behalf of the entire Red Sox organization.

Today, Wells attempted to sweep the issue under the rug by claiming he was just “making conversation”.


I’ve known David for a long time. I’ve been a teammate. The guy busts his [expletive] in the gym, and he works out hard. We were just making conversation.

I wasn’t accusing him or anything of the sort. So the [expletive] who did it, or the [expletives] who did it, I think they need to [expletive]. And you can quote me on that. [Expletives].

Hey, and you know, when we accused David Wells of being a fat blowhar, we were just making small talk.

Links:
[Philly.com Remarks prompt apology to Dellucci
[Boston.com]: Wells attempts to clear the air

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MLB General

Full Count for Mon May 22 2006: Recapping the Subway series

1. Playoff intensity in June: The Mets-Yankees was likely the most interesting series in this weekend of interleague play. While there were two other intercity rivalries, this was by far the most intense. The teams split the first two games of the series with two huge comebacks, but the third game was slightly less exciting. The Mets beat the Yankees to win the series, 4-3. The Yankees offense dominated during the first few innings, yet they were only able to put 2 runs up. The Mets quickly answered with 4th inning homeruns from Carlos Delgado and David Wright, both complete shots off Aaron Small. They produced 4 runs, which was all of the Mets needed to win this series. Tom Glavine, pitching in his 48th MLB season, went 6 innings and picked up his seventh win of the year. The Mets are up 3 in the East now, while the Yanks have fallen 1.5 back of the Red Sox. That could be resolved when the two teams square off each of the next 3 days.

2. King Albert: The Cardinals-Royals “rivalry” turned out to be just as one-sided as everyone thought. St. Louis disposed of the weakling Royals in a 3-game sweep, and Albert Pujols took advantage of KC’s weak pitching. Pujols homered in all three games to bring his season total to 22, which is on pace for 84. His 54 runs batted in also lead the majors. Why aren’t teams starting to give him the Bonds treatment? It’s beyond us. The Cardinals have now won 8 out of 10 to take a 4 game lead in the NL Central. Expect them to sweep through this division with ease unless the Astros can sign Roger Clemens.
 

3. Last place dominance: The Devil Rays may suck, but they can sure beat the other bad teams in the league. They swept the Royals earlier this season, and Sunday’s 3-0 win over the Marlins gave them another sweep. The pitching matchup was excellent for this highly unanticipated game. Dontrelle Willis and Scott Kazmir faced off, and Kazmir was able to add another win to his total. Kazmir struck out 11 and shutout the Marlins to improve to 7-2. Compare that to last year, when in 32 starts he went 10-9. He is quickly becoming the first ace the Devil Rays have ever had. Meanwhile, Willis’ struggles continued as he is now 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA. The Devil Rays now have a surprising 20 wins on the year.
 

4. Return of the King?: The White Sox’s Jose Contreras had been the king among major league pitchers this season until he was put on the DL. Yesterday he returned to pitch against the Cubs, but the results were only so-so. Contreras pitched 7+ innings and allowed 4 runs, and he got a no-decision on the day. It was the White Sox’s bullpen that blew the game, as they allowed 3 runs to the lowly Cubs. The Sox lost 7-4 to end chances of a sweep against the other Chicago team.
 

5. When will 715 come?: It took Barry Bonds over a week to hit no. 714, which he did on Saturday against the A’s in case you were in a coma. So how long will it take him to hit 715? The Giants play at home against St. Louis the next three days, then they play Colorado for three in San Fran. We are just guessing here, but it would more likely come against the Rockies based on their crappy pitching. Either then or the Giants’ June 27-29 series against the Rangers, if Bonds waits it out like last time.

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MLB General

Full Count for Fri May 19 2006: What’s the best division?



No longer doormats

1. Divisional Wars: If you go solely by record, the NL West has been the best division in baseball so far this year. Every team in the West is over .500, and they are packed within 2 games of each other. However, this is by no means the most talented division, as the teams have won games beating up on each other. The best division in the NL would likely be the Central, as four teams have at least 22 wins. In the AL, the East once again looks super-competitive. The Red Sox and Yankees, as always, are battling for the division lead, while the Blue Jays have nearly caught up to both of them (they’re a game out). Honorable mention goes to the Central division, which houses the AL’s best two teams–Detroit and Chicago.

2. End of their run?: The Los Angeles Angels, who have dominated this division the past few years and made the ALCS last year, have looked abominable so far this season. With a 17-24 record, they are battling for 3rd place with the Mariners while the A’s and Rangers dominate the division. Last night, their struggles continued, as they lost to Toronto 8-4. Toronto’s Roy Halladay, who pitched two complete games last week, had a mediocre game in which he allowed 4 runs in 7 innings. The game was tied after 9 innings, but the Blue Jays put up 4 runs in the tenth to effectively end the game. Toronto is in third place in the East at 23-17.

3. Beginning of their run?: The Detroit Tigers, once the laughingstock of baseball, are now rolling through the AL. They have the best record in the entire majors at 27-13, and their pitching staff’s ERA leads the league. Last night, they defeated Minnesota 5-3 to extend a 7-game winning streak. It is the team’s longest winning streak since 1993. Kenny Rogers allowed no runs in almost six innings last night, improving his record to 7-2. Rogers is the first pitcher this year to record seven wins, and he has made the Rangers’ decision to dump him look stupid. If they can continue this at all, the Tigers have a great chance of making the playoffs. Who knows what will happen then…

4. Class of the NL: We knew that the Cardinals-Mets series this week would likely prove which is the best team in the National League this season. The Cardinals won last night 6-3, and they also won the series 2-1. Not even a day off for Albert Pujols could stop St. Louis, as they knocked out Mets starter Jose Lima in the 5th inning. Jason Marquis pitched decently, allowing 3 runs in 7-plus innings. The Cardinals, at 26-15, will likely stomp over the rest of the league again this year. They won the pennant in 2004 and fell just short last year. The Mets still lead the division at 24-16, though the Braves are starting to get on track.

5. DL time is over: Kerry Wood is quite used to being on the DL, as he is injured more often than he plays. Now that he is back off the DL, how many more starts can he give? It’s at least one, because he was uninjured in the Cubs’ game against the Nationals. Unfortunately, he performed poorly. Wood pitched only five innings and gave up four runs, all off of homers. Wood’s usual control problems were not present, however, as he didn’t issue a walk and threw 52 strikes in 71 pitches. Alfonso Soriano was among the many who homered for the Nationals, giving him a surprising 13 on the year. Both teams are still next-to-last in their divisions.

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MLB General

Full Count for Thurs May 18 2006: Pitching Duels

1. Special K vs. Frosted Flakes: One of the best pitching battles so far this season took place when Minnesota’s Johan Santana and Detroit’s Justin Verlander dueled Wednesday night. The game was scoreless through seven innings, until Santana made his only mistake of the game, allowing a homerun to the Tigers’ Vance Wilson. Santana was marvelous up until then, with 12 K’s and only four hits allowed on the night. But Verlander, with 8 innings pitched, 6 hits and no runs allowed, and no walks or strikeouts. If Verlander had gone the distance, it would have been the second time this month that a pitcher had no K’s or walks in a complete game. On May 1, Joel Pineiro of Seattle became the first to do this since 1992. Santana fell to 4-4, though he leads the majors in strikeouts with 70 and innings pitched with 61.1. Verlander has contributed to Detroit’s pitching success with a 5-3 record and a 3.18 ERA. The Tigers (26-13) share the best record in the majors with the White Sox.

2. Pitcher’s duel no. 2: In an unexpectedly low-scoring game, the Mets fell to St. Louis, 1-0. Mark Mulder and Steve Trachsel both pitched excellently, but Mulder (5-1) picked up the win. Trachsel allowed the lone run of the game in the sixth when Scott Rolen drove in Albert Pujols. Mulder allowed 4 hits in 8.1 innings and K’d five Mets. St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen relieved Mulder with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, but he quickly recorded two outs to earn his 12th save. Both teams have two-game leads in their respective divisions.

3.Victory at last: As we said earlier this week, the Baltimore Orioles have struggled mightily against the Boston Red Sox this season. Coming into yesterday’s game, the O’s had a 13 game losing streak against the team. Yesterday, in Baltimore’s last game against Boston until August, they ended the streak with a narrow 4-3 victory. Erik Bedard pitched seven innings and only allowed two hits to the powerful Boston lineup. David Ortiz was their only offensive success, driving in all 3 Red Sox runs. Baltimore’s Kevin Millar homered and drove in two, and Miguel Tejada scored a key run on a wild pitch in the seventh. Once again, the Red Sox are tied with the Yankees for the division lead.

4. They’re still the Royals: The Kansas City Royals may have fooled us last week by sweeping the Indians, but in this week’s series, they have reminded us that they are still the Royals. Last night was one of those games where Kansas City’s weak hitting and poor pitching were completely exploited. Cleveland starter Jake Westbrook owned their lineup, allowing no runs and six hits in a complete game effort. Four of Cleveland’s five runs came on Travis Hafner’s grand slam in the third. At least the Royals were smart enough to walk Hafner in his next three plate appearances. They still lost, 5-0.

5. Coming back yet?: As we all know by now, Roger Clemens has a pretty nice life. He is extremely rich, currently retired, being pursued by four major league teams, and each want to pay him $4 million a month. But is he coming back or not? This decision is getting more annoying than Brett Favre’s. Well, according to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Roger is “accelerating his workout program” and “could be back within three weeks.” Of course exactly when he will come back and which team he will play for are still mysteries. The Rangers, Yankees, Red Sox, and Astros are the biggest suitors. We’ll just have to wait and see…

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MLB General

Full Count for Tues May 16 2006: Half Empty or Half Full



Property of Boston Red Sox

1. It’s not that bad: The Braves’ situation isn’t as bad as it was a few weeks ago. After defeating the Marlins last night, they improved to 18-20 on the season. They are 6-2 in May, and are only 5.5 games out of the division lead. Last night, they put on an offensive showcase in a 11-8 win over the Marlins. Brian McCann, the Braves’ vastly underrated catcher, drove in five runs and hit his 5th homer. McCann is leading the NL in batting average with .352 on the season. Andruw Jones also was excellent, going 4-4 with 4 RBIs. The Braves are taking advantage of a 10 game stretch against lowly Washington and Florida.

2. It is that bad: The Orioles, expected by many to finish last in the AL East, have surprised many this season by going 18-21 so far. Actually, their record would be a lot better had they not played the Red Sox so many times. They have lost all of their 7 games against the Sox this year, and dating back to last year the streak is 12 games. Nothing changed last night, as Boston soared to a 11-1 romp. Josh Beckett pitched excellently, with a 2-hitter through 7 innings on his 26th birthday. Jason Varitek scored a career-high 4 runs, and Willy Mo Pena homered and drove in 3. The Sox, at 22-14, have a one-game lead in the East.

3. Stuck on you: We haven’t written about Barry Bonds in a while here at Full Count, and that’s because he hasn’t done anything. Last night, he continued his homerless streak in the Giants’ 10-1 blowout over the Astros. Bonds did hit an RBI double, but he failed to go yard for his seventh straight game. The pressure of getting the next one (and another) homers is weighing on Barry. Before, Bonds spoke of the “ghost of Babe Ruth” hovering around.

4. Inner City Rivalries: Interleague play starts this week for some teams, and there are definitely some interesting matchups to look forward to. The Yankees and Mets play at Shea, which could prove to be one of the more intense series of the regular season. The White Sox host the Cubs, which might look intriguing on paper but will likely be a blowout. On Sunday, Carlos Zambrano and Jose Contreras face off in a guaranteed pitcher’s duel. And, in what is inferably considered an inter-town rivalry based on the name change, the Dodgers and Angels play. There are also multiple interstate rivalries which are less interesting. St. Louis travels to Kansas City, San Francisco to Oakland, Texas to Houston, Baltimore to Washington, and Florida vs. Tampa Bay (which will easily be the least-attended series of all time). Atlanta and Arizona are the teams left out of interleague play this time around, though the Hudson vs. Webb matchup on Sunday could be worth watching.

5. This is where the pot goes: Freddie Garcia’s tokin’ in the offseason hasn’t affected his game. Last night, he won his sixth game in a row, allowing 3 runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. That’s good enough to lead the league in wins. Let’s hope little leaguers don’t take notice of his training habits.

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MLB General

Jose Canseco is tearing it up



MSBL uniform?

Jose Canseco insists he can still hit Major League pitching but while he’s waiting for the call, he’s honing his skills in the Los Angeles Men’s Senior Baseball League. Or maybe he just enjoys being the ringer. Valley Mets manager Gary Zelmen quotes, “What a weapon. It’s like cheating.”

Aluminum bats, high school fields, Canseco hitting it about 480 feet. That pretty much sums up the league. That, and Jose’s gotta chip in $5 to pay the umpire. You gotta give it to Canseco though. The guy clearly loves to play the game. People (ok.. we) make fun of Canseco and Rickey Henderson all the time for trying to stay in the game past their expiration date but unless they’re doing it for the money, it’s actually refreshing. Could you imagine Barry Bonds playing any kind of organized ball after he retires? Bonds doesn’t just not love the game, he clearly hates it.

Meanwhile, Canseco is jacking em out of high school fields and the other guys in the league get to say they played ball with a major leaguer. Oh, and if you want to go check it out. The Mets are playing the Cardinals at Westminster High School on 5/21.

Links:

[SF Gate]: Canseco back on the diamond, having fun as an amateur
[MSBL]: The Men’s Senior Baseball League of Southern California