MLB suspended Joba Chamberlain for two games after throwing two pitches over the head of Kevin Youkilis. In the future, he’ll hire bounty hunters.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:47 pm | Discipline | Permalink | 2 Comments
August 31, 2007
Different Paths to Nothing
The Rockies and Diamondbacks are scoreless in the seventh inning. Ubaldo Jimenez is shutting out Arizona the traditional way, throwing a great game. He’s allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out six through six and two thirds. He’s had the DBacks off balance all night.
Livan Hernandez, on the other [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:32 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2007
Low K Kendrick
The K’s in Kyle Kendrick don’t stand for strikeouts. Kyle struck out four in seven innings tonight, which is very good for him. For the season, he’s just struck out 3.3 per nine innings. He’s pitching impressively well for someone with a low strikeout rate. He allows hits as his .272 [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:21 pm | Uncategorized | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 31, 2007
Low Hit Friday
Two young pitchers throw low hit games this evening. Scott Baker takes a perfect game into the ninth inning before allowing a walk to Buck and a single to Sweeney, but completes the shutout as Minnesota splits salvages a split with the Royals 5-0. In addition to just allowing a walk and a [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:43 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2007
Hits Them Long and Not Too Often
The St. Louis Cardinals acquire Russell Branyan. Branyan, with a .229 career batting average doesn’t get hits that often, but with a career .481 slugging percentage, the few hits he gets tend to go a long way. If you divide slugging percentage by batting average, the result is the average hit for a [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:20 pm | Trades | Permalink | 2 Comments
August 31, 2007
Staying Pensive
Hunter Pence returned to the Astros lineup on 8/21, but as is often the case with wrist injuries, he wasn’t 100%. He only produced two extra base hits in his first nine games, a double and a triple. He doubled that today, hitting two home runs from the leadoff spot and driving in [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:42 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2007
Trade Trachs
It looks like the Cubs reacquired Steve Trachsel.
Trachsel, who turns 37 on Oct. 31, cleared waivers and was perhaps the best of the starting pitchers currently available. He is 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in six August starts, and 6-8 with a 4.48 ERA in 20 starts overall this season.
Despite his 60-69 his first time [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:43 pm | Trades | Permalink | 3 Comments
August 31, 2007
Games of the Day
The Orioles travel to Boston, as two teams on losing streaks face each other. It’s a nice chance for a probability lesson. When a team suffers a long losing streak, people tend to think that the team is due for a win. In other words, the probablility of the Orioles losing is [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:38 pm | Matchups | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 31, 2007
Charity Softball
Here’s a press release for a worth cause:
Hundreds are expected to attend as 22 men’s softball teams compete in a Labor Day Weekend tournament that will raise money for SHARE, a 31-year old organization that offers survivor-led support to breast and ovarian cancer victims, on Saturday, September 1st and Sunday, September 2nd, Pelham Bay Park [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:31 pm | Charity | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2007
Nothing is Obvious to the Uniformed.
The uniform police are out in force. During Wednesday’s game, MLB officials pulled Francona out of the dugout to check to see he was wearing a uniform top under his jacket. This is a league wide crackdown:
Wearing team apparel instead of a uniform top is not uncommon among coaches and managers across the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:48 am | Uniforms | Permalink | 8 Comments
August 31, 2007
Salvaging the Series
When I went to bed last night, I thought the story line for the Diamondbacks-Padres series would be how the teams won backwards. San Diego took three close games, and it looked like Arizona would win the blow out. But San Deigo stormed back to score seven runs over the last three innings. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:28 am | Division Races | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2007
Friday Update
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:17 am | Statistics | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Walk Off Walk
The Indians load the bases with two out. Rick White and his blond beard come into the came with one out and men on first and second. He gets Peralta to line out, but walks Gutierrez to load the bases for Kenny Lofton. Kenny works the count full, fouls off a pitch, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:36 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Nine in a Row
The Orioles lose to Tampa Bay 8-6 this evening, extending their losing streak to nine games. That matches their longest of the season, set one game into Dave Trembleys’ tenure. He’s yet to win a game since the interim label was removed from his title.
Meanwhile, the Devil Rays remain stuck at eighty losses. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:27 pm | Team Evaluation | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Double Switch, Double Dingers
Lou Piniella pulls a double switch to insert Matt Murton in the number nine slot, and the move pays off as Murton and Soriano hit back-to-back, two-out homers in the bottom of the sixth. The came off Chris Capuano, pitching in long relief tonight. That gives the Cubs a 5-3 lead as the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:19 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
One Base Wonders
Down 5-4 in the top of the ninth, the Mariners get the leadoff man on via a walk, then use a single, sacrifice and ground out to drive him around one base at a time to tie the game at five. Joe Borowski, who keeps Cleveland fans on the edge of their seats, blows [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:14 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Down on the Twins
Joe Christensen is down on the Twins future:
Today is the official groundbreaking for the new ballpark. Thoughts will drift away from this 2007 mess and toward 2010. Call me a cynic, but the way things have been handled this year — with payroll restrictions and no progress on important contract talks — do you see [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:29 pm | Management | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
What’s He Werth?
Jason Werth singles off Billy Wagner to open the ninth as Wagner goes for a six out save (he gave up the homer to Burrell in the 8th. With one out, Werth steals second, then third, and scores on a Iguchi pinch-hit single. That ties the game, a blown save for Wagner. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:03 pm | Games | Permalink | 10 Comments
August 30, 2007
Bird Watching
Matt Albers, a pitcher with a 5.76 ERA, pitches a great game against the Cardinals as the Astros take the game 2-1. Matt gives up four walks, but only three hits over seven innings and keeps the ball in the park. If Cooper can get that kind of performances out of his players, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:58 pm | Games | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 30, 2007
Mets Comeback
The Mets score five runs in the eighth inning to take a 10-8 lead over the Phillies. New York draws five walks in the inning, and when you put that many men on base, they’re bound to score. Pat Burrell hits his second home run of the game in the bottom of the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:48 pm | Games | Permalink | 2 Comments
August 30, 2007
Yankees Sweep
The Yankees finish the game with a 5-0 victory over the Red Sox. It’s quite a turn around for both teams as Boston scored ten runs in four consecutive games coming into the series, but are held to six runs in the three games. The Yankees had allowed 32 runs in their previous [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:13 pm | Division Races | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Nuke Chamberlain
Chamberlain comes out for the ninth, and with one out faces Kevin Youkilis. He pulls a ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh and throws a 1-1 pitch over Kevin’s head to the back stop. On the next pitch, he does exactly the same thing, and the umpire tosses him. Now, I assume the ump thought the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:04 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | 12 Comments
August 30, 2007
An Extra Grand
Curtis Granderson homered in the fifth inning today to help the Tigers to a 5-1 lead over the Royals in a game they really need to win. That’s the eighteenth long ball of the season for Curtis to go along with 34 doubles, and 21 triples. Only five players have ever gone 20-20-20 [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:41 pm | Players | Permalink | 5 Comments
August 30, 2007
Joba Goes to Eleven
Joba Chamberlain just pitched his eleventh inning without scoring a run. Someone asked the other day what was the record for consecutive scoreless innings at the start of a career. I don’t have the most recent record book around, but through 1999 the record was 25 by George McQuillan of the Philadelphia NL club, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:34 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | 2 Comments
August 30, 2007
Mets Scoring
The Mets are finally getting some offense today, but unfortunately the Phillies are fighting them in a slugfest. Orlando Hernandez gives up three home runs in three innings, continuing his long ball woes on the road. The Mets come back and tie the game at five, but the Phillies get two two-out singles [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:21 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Out of Line
The Red Sox had men on first and second when Drew hit a roller to A-Rod, who was shifted to short. A-Rod tried to tag Youkilis going to third, but missed as Kevin ran toward the infield grass to avoid the tag. A-Rod threw to first and got Drew, but Remy thought he [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:11 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2007
Wang All Right
Wang has a no-hitter through six. He’s walked four.
Correction: Sorry, it was six. I was in a rush to get home and got the inning wrong. Lowell breaks up the no-hit bid in the seventh.
Posted by David Pinto at 2:53 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | 3 Comments
August 30, 2007
Games of the Day
It’s a New York afternoon as both the Yankees and Mets work on sweeps, one good and one bad. Curt Schilling faces Chien-Ming Wang as the Yankees go for a sweep of the Red Sox in order to keep hope alive that they can win their tenth straight division title. Schilling is showing [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:44 am | Matchups | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 30, 2007
Historic Low
As mentioned in the previous post, the Padres have the highest run differential in the National League, +67. That struck me as a very low number for this far into the season, and indeed it is. The following table lists the best run difference in the National League from 1962 to the present, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:23 am | Offense | Permalink | 8 Comments
August 30, 2007
Inconsistent Offense
Nick Piecoro notes Arizona’s offense simply hasn’t delivered during their losing streak:
“You can’t dwell on what happened the past three games,” third baseman Mark Reynolds said. “We’re going to forget about today and go out there and try to put some numbers on the board.”
They couldn’t do that on Wednesday night, going just 1 for [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:48 am | Division Races | Permalink | 1 Comment
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