Dallas Braden threw strikes as he went the distance in the Athletics 6-2 win over the White Sox. He threw 76 or 111 pitches for strikes, 68.5 percent. That gives him three complete games on the season. He’s tied for fourth in the AL in that category, Cliff Lee leading with six.
Josh Hamilton’s knee kept him out of the starting lineup against the Angels Saturday night:
Hamilton, hitting .362 with 23 homers and 75 RBI, started in center field in Friday night’s 9-7 loss to the Angels. He was shifted to left field in the fifth inning after feeling discomfort in his troublesome knee, and came out of the game in the seventh.
“The pain part of it is not something I can’t deal with,” Hamilton said before batting practice, when he was penciled in to play left field and bat third. “I mean, it’s frustrating when it gives out on you at times that you need it not to give out on you when you have to perform baseball functions.”
I think he meant to say that he can deal with the pain, and it’s frustrating with the knee gives out when he needs to perform baseball functions.
David Ortiz doubled in three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Red Sox comeback to beat the Tigers 5-4. It was Ortiz’s first walk RBI of the season.
Phil Coke set himself up for failure in the ninth as he went 2-0 on all four batters he faced, including an intentional walk to Kevin Youkilis. It’s never good to fall behind batters, but it’s especially bad when you’re facing the selective hitters of the heart of the Red Sox order.
Confirmed. #Marlins acquire LHP Will Ohman from the #Orioles for RHP Rick VandenHurk. Ohman holding lefties to .226 BAA.
Ohman is having a good year. Why the Orioles want another bad pitcher, I don’t know.
NESN report that the Royals traded Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel to the Braves. Again, we don’t know what the Braves sent to KC. Ankiel gives the Braves a home run threat off the bench, and Farnsworth showed outstanding control this season.
I take the it players going to the Royals are some Dayton Moore knows and loves from his time in Atlanta.
NESN reports the Red Sox traded Ramon Ramirez to the Giants. No word on what Boston is getting back.
NESN just reported that the Pirates traded Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers.
Update: The Pirates get James McDonald. Dotel has pitched better than his 4.28 ERA this season. McDonald’s minor league numbers are much better than his major league numbers. At 25, McDonald still has time to mature into a good starter.
There’s a rumor of Jonathan Sanchez/Jose Bautista deal.
Update: The Blue Jays just lost to the Indians 2-1. Maybe we’ll hear something now.
All the big sports writers are a twitter about the Yankees acquiring Kerry Wood from the Indians. Why would they want a wild pitcher who gives up home runs? Joba Chamberlain is better than that. Is there something wrong with Mariano Rivera?
Billy Loes passed away July 15th. He was a pitcher for some of the great Brooklyn teams of the early and mid 50s. He finished his career with an 80-63 record, a .559 winning percentage to go along with a 3.89 ERA. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Josh Tomlin fills in for the traded Jake Westbrook, and lasts 5 1/3 innings for Cleveland. Tomlin gets the call on just three days rest and pitches well. He walked two and struck out five, allowing one run. He won’t get the win, but in two starts his ERA stands at 1.46. The Indians and Jays are tied at one going to the seventh inning.
The Cubs trade Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to the Dodgers for Blake DeWitt. I assume the Cubs are getting some minor league talent as well. Theriot is in the second season of an offensive decline, and at age 30, I don’t really expect him get back to his peak. Lilly gives the Dodgers a solid starter. Since joining the Cubs, Ted figured out how to walk fewer batters, and has been steadily good ever since. DeWitt is young and better than Theriot, so the Cubs come out ahead on that end of the deal. We’ll see who else the Cubs get.
Update: The Cubs are getting a pitching prospect
Prospect going to Cubs is pitcher Brett Wallach, not Walch. Deadline Day Typo Attack!
Wallach is a high strikeout, high walk, righty. Maybe the Cubs can teach him control, too.
Update: The Cubs also get Kyle Smit, another righty pitcher. He found his control his year and is having his best season in the minors.
Martin Prado broke his knuckle:
Prado jammed the hand while sliding hard into home plate Friday night during the 10th inning of a 6-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds. X-rays initially were inconclusive.
Prado is expected to be sidelined for a week to 10 days. Manager Bobby Cox said the team will take a day or two before deciding whether to put him on the 15-day disabled list.
That hurts the Braves. Prado was not only hitting for average, but for power as well. The good news is that Omar Infante learned how to get on base once he joined the Braves, so they should lose anything in terms of extra outs from the leadoff spot.
Giants Win remembers an old Dodgesr base running mistake similar to last night’s goof by Rafael Furcal.
Jake Westbrook will not start for the Indians today. The rumor is that he will be traded to St. Louis.
Update: This may be a three-way deal with the Padres.
Update: The Indians pre-game show just said a trade was official as they signed off. No details yet.
Update: The game broadcast has no details.
Update: Keith Law has some names at his Twitter feed.
Update: Broadcast posts trade. Indians get AA pitcher Corey Kluber from San Diego. Cardinals get Westbrook from Cleveland and prospects from the Padres. Padres get Ryan Ludwick from St. Louis.
Update: I’m somewhat surprised the Cardinals traded Ludwick. Along with the injured David Freese, Ludwick was one of the players who complemented Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday on offense. It makes me wonder if the Cardinals have another move to plug the hole left by Ryan. Kluber looks good, a high strikeout pitcher who found his control this season. I bet he can help the Indians next year. I’m not sure what the Cardinals see in Westbrook. His road number this year are very poor. I see where San Diego did well and Cleveland did well. I’m not sure St. Louis did, but I’ll wait to see if they do anything else.
Update: It appears the Cardinals would rather have Jon Jay in the outfield than Ludwick, a cheaper option who is playing well. He had good starts in a small sample size of PA in AAA this season, and got off to a really good start with the Cardinals this season, again, in a small sample size. There’s some indication he might post a decent OBP in the majors, but his OBP is very dependent on his batting average. There’s little indication his .600 slugging percentage will continue. I would not be surprised if he finishes the season with an OBP around .340 and a slugging percentage around .450. Not bad.
The White Sox try to maintain their lead in the AL Central as John Danks hosts the Athletics and Dallas Braden. Since his perfect game, Dallas has been less than perfect, allowing 74 hits in 59 innings. He’s kept his walks low, just 1.8 per nine as he’s posted a 4.12 ERA in that time. Danks has been a big part of the White Sox climb to the top with a 2.83 ERA and 7-2 record since June 10th. He’s only allowed three home runs in his last nine starts, none in his last five.
Javier Vazquez takes on Matt Garza, with the Rays needing a win to tie the Yankees for first place in the AL East. Vazquez has been pitching well since the start of June, with a 3.05 ERA. He still is susceptible to the long ball, as he allowed nine home runs in 65 innings during that stretch. Garza comes off his no-hitter, trying for the rare two no-nos in a row. He’s tough to hit in general, but he has allowed 18 home runs, one of the weakness of the Tampa Bay starters. I can see this being the second game in a row decided by home runs.
Finally, former teammates Rich Harden and Dan Haren face off for different AL West teams as the Rangers continue their series with the Angels. Harden is coming off the disabled list and hasn’t pitched in the majors in six weeks. He allowed seven home run in his last 16 innings before going down with an injury. Haren was hit on the arm in his Angels debut, so we’ll see how much he recovered from that bruise. With LAnaheim eight games back of Texas, this is a must-win game for the Angels.
Enjoy!
News Corp. joined the bidders for the Texas Rangers:
News Corp. wants to bid on the Rangers to ensure continued TV rights for its Fox Sports unit, a source close to the negotiations said late Friday.
Craig Calcaterra doesn’t understand this reasoning:
This seems rather ridiculous to me. For one thing — to echo what one of the experts quoted in the article says — it’s the tail kind of wagging the dog, ain’t it? I mean, yes, you want to make sure you keep your broadcast rights, but how is taking on the overhead of a bankrupt baseball team the best way to do that? Also: doesn’t anyone at News Corp. remember that FOX used to own the Dodgers? And it was a disaster?
Craig forgets that Mark Cuban also owns a television network. This strikes me as Fox trying to prevent Cuban from competing with them. If Mark buys the Rangers, he could move them off Fox, maybe to one Cuban’s own broadcast properties. As an owner, Cuban might even cut deals with other teams to develop local affiliates for them that Cuban could brand. My guess is Fox is more interested in stopping a broadcast competitor than actually winning the team.
The Diamondbacks traded Chris Snyder to the Pirates and Chad Qualls to the Rays. No other details are available at the moment. Qualls owns an 8.29 ERA, but with good strikeout numbers. Snyder is having one of his best years offensively, although I’m not sure what Arizona expects to get from the Pirates.
Update: Looks like Snyder was a salary dump.
Update: The Diamondbacks are getting two dead-wood bats and D.J. Carrasco, who should help the bullpen
J.A. Happ has Houston winning the Roy Oswalt deal so far as Happ pitched six shutout innings against the Brewers. He was a bit wild as he walked four, but he kept Milwaukee off balance as he allowed just two hits in a 5-0 Houston victory.
Meanwhile, the White Sox trotted out Lucas Harrell for his major league debut. He was extremely wild as he walked five Oakland batters in six innings of work, but left most of them stranded as he allowed just four hits and one run. Harrell only struck out one batter, and I doubt he’ll see much major league success if those numbers hold up. Given that during his minor league career he walked 4.5 batters per nine IP and struck out 5.9 per nine IP, we may have seen the high point of his career. The White Sox win 6-1, maintaining their 1 1/2 game lead on the Twins.
The Evil Player program selected Trever Miller as Saturday’s evil player. Miller fell under the evil spell of Dave Duncan in 2009 when he joined the St. Louis Cardinals. Before meeting this Svengali, Miller posted a 4.43 ERA. Since, he’s walking fewer batters and dropped his ERA to 2.58. He’s a full member of the cabal of the Cardinals.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
Don Cooper, the pitching coach of the White Sox, thinks Stephen Strasburg’s mechanics will lead to more shoulder problems:
White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper, speaking to MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM on Thursday, voiced a concern that some pitching gurus previously noted about Strasburg’s manner of throwing a baseball. As he loads the baseball, his elbows raise higher than his shoulders — forming what pitching coaches call an inverted W — and the back of his shoulders pinch toward one another in the “scap loading” portion of the delivery. Such a delivery, some pitching coaches believe, puts him at greater risk of shoulder fatigue.
Cooper called it “an upside-down arm action.” One major league pitching coach years ago told me about the exact same concern about Mark Prior — before Prior broke down.
“He does something with his arm action that is difficult, in my mind, to pitch a lot of innings on,” Cooper said about Strasburg.
This will be something to watch as Strasburg progresses. Verducci makes a very good point about Cooper’s credentials, given the number of 200 inning seasons he coaxed out of his staff.
If this is true, general managers are not going to want to deal with Mike Rizzo in the future.
The Yankees and Rays play a tight game, the Rays winning 3-2. Phil Hughes and Wade Davis each made one mistake. Davis allowed a two-run homer to Nick Swisher in the first, while Hughes allowed a three-run homer to Matt Joyce in the sixth. Tampa Bay cuts New York’s lead to one game in the AL East.
The good news for the Yankees is that Joba Chamberlain threw two perfect innings in relief, striking out three, and throwing 2/3 of his pitches for strikes. The broadcast noted that the Yankees have Chamberlain working on hiding the ball better.
River Ave Blues links to tweets from Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman indicating the Yankees are trading for Austin Kearns. Kearns has always been a good OBP hitter, and the Yankees like those. He’s just a bit of insurance for the outfield. The Indians will decide on their player later.
Roy Oswalt lasts just six innings in his Phillies debut, allowing five runs, four of them earned. He only walked two, but he also only struck out four. It wasn’t a terrible outing, but it also wasn’t what I’d expect out of Roy against a team like the Nationals. I wonder how much his foot is bothering him.
The Nationals lead 8-1 in the top of the eighth.
Jhonny Peralta makes his first start for the Tigers and homers twice off Jon Lester. In his previous 74 at bats at Fenway, Peralta never homered and was slugging just .297 there. That’s gone up a bit tonight. His three RBI have helped the Tigers take a 4-1 lead as the Red Sox bat in the bottom of the fifth.
Jose Bautista hit his 31st home run for the Blue Jays, a grand slam that was part of a six-run fourth inning against Cleveland. He’s now slugging .596 as the Jays lead the Indians 7-1 in the top of the fifth.
Most of the reporting on Alex Rodriguez hitting his 600th home run has been rather negative. No one cares any more, he’s a fraud because he took steroids, etc. But the Yankees went into Cleveland and the Indians drew 10,000 more per game than they averaged for the season, and fans streamed into the leftfield standing room area when Alex came to bat. The Rays have sold out a three-game Yankees series for the first time in their history. Some people want to see Alex hit this shot.
The Twins send Nick Blackburn down to AAA to make room for Matt Capps.
Minnesota misguidedly gave Blackburn a four-year, $14 million contract this offseason instead of simply going year-to-year with a player they controlled through 2013 anyway.
Blackburn succeeded for two seasons despite a horrible strikeout rate and mediocre ground-ball percentage, but was bumped from the rotation last week after posting an MLB-worst 6.53 ERA in 18 starts and is now headed to Rochester following one poor relief outing.
I don’t know how misguided it was. $3.5 million a year is chump change for a starter these days, and you never know what an arbitrator is going to give a player. The Twins made a mistake here, but this certainly wasn’t a horrible one. They saved themselves worrying about arbitration, so they can concentrate on more productive activities.