The Astros lose to the Brewers 10-1 to finish July 3-24, the worst record in the month since the expansion era. The 1963 Mets finally lose that record, and will be happy to know there was a team worse than them. The Astros scored 84 runs and allowed 153. That’s just bad play on both sides of the ball. We’ll see if Oakland can set the record for best record in the month.
A.J. Burnett is out for the eighth inning with a no-hitter intact. He gets a grounder for the first out, then hits Darwin Barney in the helmet. It was a breaking ball and Barney ducked into it. He walked off the field on his own power, but did come out of the game. That’s the third batter Burnett allowed to reach base this evening.
Update: After a strikeout, Adrian Cardenas singles with two outs for the first hit of the game. Still a great game for Burnett.
A.J. Burnett uses just six pitches to retire the Cubs in order in the seventh. He gets two grounders and a fly ball, the fly almost causing a collision in left-center. The Pirates lead Chicago 5-0 as Burnett works on a no-hitter. It would be the second of his career.
Through five innings, the Cubs do not have a hit against the Pirates and A.J. Burnett. He’s walked one and struck out five, facing just 16 batters so far. The Pirates lead 4-0, new addition Travis Snider one for three with a run scored on Neil Walker‘s grand slam.
Update: Burnett walks another batter, but retires the Cubs without a hit in the sixth. A.J.’s pitch count is pretty good at 74, 49 for strikes.
The Rangers will lose Neftali Feliz for at least a year:
Texas Rangers pitcher Neftali Feliz needs Tommy John surgery to repair a tear in his right elbow and likely will be sidelined until next summer.
The two-time AL champion Rangers said Feliz will have surgery on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the AL West leaders acquired ace Ryan Dempster from the Chicago Cubs.
Feliz was 3-1 with a 3.16 ERA in eight games, including seven starts. He has been on the disabled list since May when he was diagnosed with a ligament sprain in his elbow.
Another young pitcher goes down to that ligament. We’ll see if he comes back like Stephen Strasburg or Francisco Liriano.
The Phillies bring back three players for Hunter Pence:
For the second time in two years, the Giants made a significant trade for offense, acquiring right fielder Hunter Pence from the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday for top catching prospect Tommy Joseph, outfielder Nate Schierholtz and minor-league pitcher Seth Rosin.
I’m not exactly sure why Joseph is a top catching prospect. On the plus side, he’s at AA at the age of 20. On the down side, he’s an out machine. I assume he’s a great defensive catcher. Nate showed great power in the minors, but it never developed in the majors. On the surface Rosin looks like the best player of the group, with great three-true outcome rates. On the other hand, he’s seasonal age 23 and pitching at single A, so he should be doing well. The Phillies get bodies, but they don’t seem that great to me.
The White Sox lose John Danks for the rest of the season due to shoulder surgery:
The operation will be performed at Rush Surgery Center by shoulder experts Dr. Tony Romeo and Greg Nicholson, and assisted by Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph and Nick Verma.
The Sox hope Danks will return by the start of spring training.
“It’s tough,” Danks said. “Obviously, this whole time this has been the absolute last resort. We’ve been going on eight to nine weeks, and we haven’t made improvements that we hoped and thought would be making. You do what you got to do. And we got to the point where we couldn’t think but help start thinking about next year and cutting our losses this year and try to be ready by spring.”
Danks saw his K rate drop his year, and his ERA rise. We’ll see if surgery can get that back.
If found the Pirates deals at the trade deadline interesting. This was the first year in a long time when the Pirates were trying to improve the team now, instead of selling off players to restock. They improved the starting rotation with Wandy Rodriguez, who is not a rental player. They can keep him under contract through 2014 if they so wish. Travis Snider gives them a player they can control for three years, just entering his prime. If they can get him to realize his potential, he’ll be a nice complement to Andrew McCutchen.
Gaby Sanchez is older, seasonal age 28, but still in his prime. If he can get his OBP back in the .340s, he can give the Pirates someone who might be able to get on base and a decent backup at first. Chad Qualls has a history of great control, and gives them a little more depth in the bullpen.
What I really like is each of these players has upside. In the case of Rodriguez, Snider and Sanchez, the Pirates have control of them beyond this year. The team managed to pull off trades that not only help this season, an unexpected year of contention, but down the road as well when the team in expected to improve. I’m impressed.
Earlier reports were incorrect, the Cubs traded Ryan Dempster to the Rangers for two prospects:
Per Evan Grant and Jason Cole on Twitter, the two prospects sent by the Rangers to Chicago in the Ryan Dempster trade are Christian Villanueva and Kyle Hendricks. My initial reaction is that this is a significantly weaker package than I would have expected the Rangers to have to part with for Dempster, although Villanueva and Hendricks are both nice prospects.
Villanueva is a 21-year-old in high A ball and seems to be regressing as a hitter. On the other hand, he’s a third baseman who gets played at short and second, so his defense is probably excellent. Hendricks has a very low walk rate and a very good K rate, once again fitting into the Cubs mold of pitcher. I can’t wait until he face Kyle Kendrick in a game. 🙂
Ryan Sweeney will miss the rest of the season after punching a door:
“Just want to apologize to my teammates, #RedSox, and fans. I don’t normally loose (sic) my cool and this was not an intentional action,” he wrote.
The Red Sox have yet to announce anything. But it sounds like Sweeney will be out eight weeks, which is basically the rest of the regular season. Ryan Kalish is expected to join the team today.
Offensively, it is not a significant loss for the Red Sox. But Sweeney was the team’s best defensive outfielder and potentially a trade chip today.
If Crawford opts for surgery, once again the Red Sox will be playing with a backup outfield.
The Dodgers are going all in for the playoffs as they make a deal for Ryan Dempster. Once again, we’ll wait on the details, but this is a huge addition to their pitching staff.
Update: It turns out this report was wrong, Dempster went to the Rangers.
Via Getting Blanked, Shane Victorino makes his way to the Dodgers, and Hunter Pence lands with the Giants. We don’t know the details of the Pence deal, but we do for Shane:
The deal will see right-handed starter Ethan Martin and right-handed reliever Josh Lindblom going to Philadelphia, as the team also recalls outfielder Dominic Brown from Triple A Lehigh Valley, to replace the Hawaiian native in the Phillies lineup.
Leftfield was a weak offensive position for the Dodgers this season, although I don’t know if Victorino will move there or take over in center. Which ever, Shane is going to need to produce closer to his career numbers to really make an improvement.
Pence, too, was underperforming his career numbers. He should make the Giants outfield stronger offensively. Both team improved themselves about the same it seems to me. Lindblom’s Ks are also high, but his walk rate is fairly normal. At seasonal age 24, he looks ready for the majors.
Ethan Martin is a high K, high BB pitcher. There seem to be a lot of those involved in trades this season.
It seems to me the Phillies dynasty is over, and they are trying to build a new one.
Bleed Cubbie Blue sums up the Cubs trades from Monday night. The Cubs received Arodys Vizcaino and Jaye Chapman from the Braves and Jacob Brigham from the Rangers.
For all of you who were expressing so much angst over the Cubs’ apparent failure to do something before the deadline, now they have, and the return, at the very least, gives the Cubs organizational pitching depth; at most, they might have a future closer or even top starting pitcher in Vizcaino.
Chapman is a high strikeout, high walk pitcher, because you just can’t have too many Carlos Marmols in your organization. Vizcaino was a high K, low walk pitcher before his Tommy John surgery. We’ll see what he’s like once he returns. If the Cubs are lucky, the two might combine to be Arodys Chapman!
Brigham is also a high strikeout pitcher. Theo Epstein and company know the value of the K, and appear to be stocking the system with pitchers who can give the defense a break.
The Pirates took Travis Snider off the hands of the Blue Jays overnight, sending Brad Lincoln to the Blue Jays. Snider has been a great hitter in the minor leagues, getting on base and hitting for power, but a bust in the majors. He’s yet to reach 1000 PA in the majors, and his seasonal age is 24, so he’s not at his peak yet. I hope the Pirates just let him play every day, the way the Red Sox did with Dustin Pedroia, and see if the repetitions bring him around. Lincoln is a useful pitcher who can start or relieve, and doesn’t walk too many batters. He gives up home runs, however, and it’s much easier to hit those in Toronto than in Pittsburgh.
This deal has the potential to work out very well for Pittsburgh.
A.J. Griffin matched gems Monday night, with nearly identical pitching lines. Through seven innings, both allowed five hits, three runs, two walks and a home run. Price struck out 11 to Griffin’s six, but that was all the scoring until the 15th inning, when Jemile Weeks hit a sacrifice fly for a 4-3 Oakland win over the Rays. That makes Oakland’s record in July 19-4, and a win Tuesday night gives them the best record in July at least during the expansion era.
At the other end, Bud Norris of the Astros pitched six shutout innings, but couldn’t get an out in the seventh and started a Milwaukee rally that saw them score four runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth to over come a 3-0 deficit, then hold off the charging Astros as the Brewers win 8-7. The Astros are now 3-23 in July, and a loss Tuesday night gives them the worst record in July since at least the start of the expansion era.
The middle relief of the Brewers pitched poorly, but John Axford got the save, so all-in-all, firing the bullpen coach didn’t seem to change much.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
The Cubs front office started tearing the team apart Monday night, trading Geovany Soto to the Rangers, and in another deal, sending Reed Johnson and Paul Maholm to the Braves. I don’t think the latter two quite equal Ryan Dempster. I’ll have more on this tomorrow when we know who all the players are.
Miguel Gonzalez of the Orioles came into Monday night’s game against the wild with a tendency to give up home runs. His strikeouts were better than usual, as he K’d eight Yankees in 6 2/3 innings. He gave up three home runs, but all were solo shots as Miguel walked no one. That made the difference as the Orioles beat the Yankees 5-4.
The top and bottom of the Orioles lineup contributed most of the offense with the 1-2 hitters collecting five hits, as well as the 7-9 hitters. The win keeps Baltimore in second place, and they are now 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees.
Jason Heyward homered and scored three runs Monday night as the Braves continued to stay hot, beating the Marlins 8-2. Jason is on a nice run, going 10 for his last 31 with five extra base hits. The Braves have now won six in a row.
Kendrys Morales homered from both sides of the plate in the same inning:
Morales sparked the rally with a two-run homer off starter Roy Oswalt and later added a grand slam off left-hander Robbie Ross. He’s just the third player in MLB history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same inning, joining Carlos Baerga (1993) and Mark Bellhorn (2002).
Morales is the second player in Angels’ history to collect two home runs in the same inning, joining Rick Reichardt (April 30, 1966). The six RBI are a new club record and the most in one inning since Juan Uribe had six on September 10, 2010 as a member of the Giants.
I thought this game might be a slugfest, and at 15-4 Angels, it certainly is on the LAnaheim side. Mike Trout continues to hit Texas well as he has two hits including a home run. Albert Pujols hit two doubles among his three hits. He needs just 17 more for 500 for his career.
The game is just in the top of the seventh, so the Angels have plenty of time to add on more runs.
I’m watching the Orioles and Yankees, and just saw the reverse force GDP. When baseball tracks batter stats, they publish ground into double plays (GDP). That’s due to these double plays having more to do with the batter than the base runners. A line double play requires the base runner to misread the ball or having too big a lead. A fly ball double play requires the runner to make a mistake trying to advance on a fly ball. The GDP, however is on the batter.
Most GDPs include a force play. Once in a while, like on this play, the ball is hit to the first baseman right on the bag. Mark Teixeira almost couldn’t help but step on first. The runners, however, will continue and try to reach second, so if he gets tagged at second, it’s still counted as a GDP, and known as a reverse force GDP. Just a bit of baseball knowledge for your Monday evening.
The Orioles trail the Yankees by 7 1/2 games as they open a three-game set at Yankee Stadium. Miguel Gonzalez takes on Freddy Garcia. Gonzalez’s walks and home runs allowed are high, which could cause problems for a right-hander at Yankee Stadium. Garcia doesn’t keep the ball in the park, either, but his lower walk rate somewhat limits the damage.
The Angels trail the Rangers by five games as the two face off in a four-game set in Arlington. Ervin Santana and Roy Oswalt open the festivities, so this could be a slugfest. Mike Napoli did quite a bit of damage against his former team this season, while Mike Trout used Texas to boost his rookie of the year credentials.
The Rays take on one of their wild card competitors as David Price faces Oakland’s A.J. Griffin. Price tries to finish an impressive July in which he posted a 1.27 ERA so far. He struck out 33 in 28 1/3 innings with just two home runs allowed. Griffin’s career is off to an equally impressive start, with 29 K and eight walks in 36 innings.
Finally, the Diamondbacks go after one of the NL West leaders as Trevor Cahill battles the Dodgers and Aaron Harang. Cahill owns a 2.91 ERA away from Arizona. It seems are less likely to fall in against him on the road. Harang’s strikeout rate recovered after two down years, and his ERA with it.
Enjoy!
James Wager notes that defense contributed to pushing the Nationals to the top of the NL East:
Defensive effectiveness is harder to quantify statistically. According to one highly regarded advanced metric, the Nationals rank middle of the pack. The UZR/150 measurement used by FanGraphs.com attempts to quantify how many runs were saved or given up and takes into account a total defense (range, errors and strength of arms). The value is weighed over 150 games.
The Nationals are 14th in the majors with a 1.0 UZR/150. Last season, they finished with a 0.3 UZR/150 (also 14th in the majors). The previous two seasons the UZR/150 values were negative and in the bottom half of the majors — meaning the defense cost the teams runs, and obviously, games.
Like the Rays before them, the Nationals bolstered a good, young pitching staff with solid defense. The Nats appear to be in the sweet spot, with a high K staff limiting balls in play, and a defense that’s good at turning the few they see into outs.
The Brewers fired their bullpen coach. Since the blowups started on 7/23, Brewers relievers allowed a .391 OBP. Someone had to take the fall.
Mark Teixeira talks about returning to his pulling ways:
“Hey, listen, halfway through last season I was on pace for 50 home runs and 130 RBI,’’ he said, “and I had people telling me, ‘you need to hit the ball the other way.’ I probably shouldn’t have listened to them but I try to please the people that I work for, and it didn’t work out.’’
Asked if he felt he had a choice in the matter, Teixeira was emphatic: “I was told to do something so I tried it,’’ he said.
Since he and Kevin Long decided that Mark should be aggressive at the plate again, he’s hitting .274/.374/.573.
I also find this bit interesting:
Teixeira, who is now batting .258, says he doesn’t understand such fuss over his average, since he continued to put up big production numbers, hitting 39 home runs with 111 RBI last season.
“It’s all about producing runs,’’ he said. “I’d love to hit .300 every year. It would make everybody happy, but I’d much rather drive in 100 runs every year.”
The problem, in looking at his career stats, is that Teixeira suffered a drop in OBP starting in 2010. That drop came from his hits, not his walks, so addressing his batting average was a way of getting his OBP up. In general, Mark is right, people shouldn’t be fixated on BA, but in this case it was the appropriate weakness to address. While Mark’s home runs stayEd High, his doubles dropped with his batting average. So while Mark was producing 100 RBI, he was doing it at a much higher cost in outs and less power.
The good news is he seems to have found a sweet spot right now, where everything appears to be working.
Hat tip, BBTF.
The Reds beat the Rockies 7-2 on Sunday to extend their winning streak to 10 games. They’ve also won eleven of 13 games since losing their star hitter, Joey Votto, to an injury. They played this well as three batters stepped up to replace Joey’s production.
Brandon Phillips may be the best, with a .383/.412/.617 slash line since Votto went down. He played in all 13 games, driving in 12 runs as seven of his 18 hits went for extra bases. Ryan Ludwick owns a .342/.405/.763 line with four doubles and four home runs in 12 games. Drew Stubbs rounds out the trio with a .333/.400/.583 line, scoring 12 runs and driving in 13. Like Votto, they are hitting for average, getting on base, and hitting for power.
Offense can’t do it all, and the Reds rotation stepped up as well. They are 9-2 in the streak with a 3.35 ERA. They’ve only allowed seven home runs and 24 walks while striking out 65. They’re averaging 6 1/3 innings per start.
All of these number represent a very small sample size. If a small sample is going to help, however, the Reds players picked the right time to show their best.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
R.A. Dickey won his 14th game of the season, allowing just one unearned run to the Diamondbacks as the Mets take the game 5-1. Dickey lowers his ERA to 2.83, and now has 33 walks and 147 K in 146 1/3 innings.
The Mets have 60 games left, meaning Dickey should get 12 more starts. It’s possible for him to go 22-2, 8-0 with four no decisions the rest of the way. That might put him in Steve Carlton company for great pitching on a poor team.
If a pitcher goes 20 games over .500, the the rest of the staff just needs to post a .500 record to reach the playoffs. The Mets have not been able to pull that off this season.
Scott Feldman pitched eight shutout innings against the White Sox as Texas takes the Sunday evening game 2-0. Feldman walked none and struck out five in his eight innings of work, lowering his home ERA this year to 2.81. His ERA stands at 7.62 on the road, and the difference is the walks. He issued ten free passes in 28 1/3 innings away from Texas, just six in 43 1/3 innings at home.
Josh Hamilton returned to the lineup and walked twice, scoring a run. Hamilton has not walked much for a power hitter the last two seasons, but his two tonight matches his 2011 total of 39.
The Dodgers completed a sweep of the Giants as Clayton Kershaw pitched a shutout, the Dodgers winning 4-0. The Giants have now gone 19 innings without scoring as the Dodgers posted their second shutout in a row. That leaves the teams tied atop the NL West.
The Giants are 0-4 since Pablo Sandoval went down, with just six runs scored.