Posts Tagged ‘Johan Santana’
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Luck? No, It’s Physics.June 5th, 2008
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I bet none of those guys - Newton, Einstein, etc - knew they were talkin’ ’bout baseball when they came up with all their theories. But oh! Look how nicely it all fits:
First Law of Motion: Once something is in motion, it usually stays that way until something really messes up its course.
Baseball is a game of patterns, and streaks. Seattle knows all about streaks, since it basically is the streakiest team in baseball. But it’s true, in essence, of every team. It’s also a game of contagion. Errors or mistakes (that may not be counted officially as errors, though you KNOW your players could’ve done better on that ground ball…) often come in pairs or series. The Angels are definitely a team of contagion, where most of their runs come in packages of two or three, and if one strikes out, the next two outs tend to follow shortly.
As far as streaks go, the Angels just finally ended a 13-game streak in which they only earned four or less runs per game. It took beating a division rival team stuck 13.5 games back to snap the streak. Luckily for the Angels, they were also 9-4 in that period, so it very little affected them, thanks to the great pitching as of late. They also had a streak of about a week where nearly every game ended in a walk-off. First, it was Anderson’s walk-off walk. Talk about the most exciting ending to a baseball game… zZzZz… and then it was Rivera’s walk-off single, Junior’s walk-off single, and my personal favorite, Kendrick’s getting beaned and Maicer’s subsequent walk-off single. Really, that’s all Kendrick is good for – getting beaned. Sure, it makes for very exciting baseball – to win by a run, or to win in the bottom of the ninth with two out and the bases loaded. But after a week of the same thing every game, it starts getting to my stress levels. STOP IT ALREADY!
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Bonderman & Tigers Restore Winning WaysMay 24th, 2008
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Both Jeremy Bonderman’s season and career can be summed up in one word—inconsistent.
His pitching on Thursday afternoon stood more on the positive side for the Tigers. He led Detroit to a 9-2 victory over the hapless Seattle Mariners, who jerked back the trophy for Most Disappointing American League team. 40,166 fans watched Bonderman escape several early jams, three times stranding a runner on third base. Armed with one of the game’s most dominant sliders when working—the key phrase is when working—he limited Seattle to two runs on eight hits. Finally receiving sufficient run-support, Bonderman bumped his record up to 3-4, well off pace from his 10-1 streak a year ago.
Like most Tiger pitchers, control has been a major issue so far for Bonderman. In five full years with Detroit he has averaged 31 starts and 60 walks per campaign. Through nine games, he is already halfway to his normal walk total at 33. Striking out fewer hitters as well, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is roughly 1:1; that is one strikeout for every walk. Normally, Bonderman will blow away two batters for every one he gives a free pass. A 2006 runner-up to Johan Santana in strikeouts, his inability to zing strike three’s regularly has led to more hits, ground outs, and fly outs, which in turn has led to more runners advancing to score. Despite the number of prolific bats in Detroit’s lineup, the Tigers will not score 9 runs every time Bonderman takes the mound and he must regain the command he has displayed over the course of his career.
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Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe … It Is For LesterMay 21st, 2008
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Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a down-on-your-luck screenwriter languishing away in the bottomless depths of the unjust Hollywood caste system. You’re miserable, depressed, and desperately trying to regain the talent and sanity you once had—if you ever truly had it at all.
But then, an epiphany hits you in the dead of the night like a surge of untapped creative energy. You can’t sleep. You have to write. Because the idea stuck in your brain that has launched into ceaseless jumping jacks won’t let you do anything else.
And then, in the midst of this artistic euphoria, let’s say you draft up this amazing baseball narrative about a top-notch pitching prospect that debuts at age 22 only to find out mere months later that he has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
With his career derailed in the immediate future, a long, hard road back to good health, let alone the big leagues, now awaits the young athlete—the perfect inspirational plot-line.
So, if you were writing this script, you’d then wonder how to end it. Sure, he’d battle back from cancer and certainly win his first start back in the majors, but how would you cap off the script, ensuring that no eyes were dry when the credits started to roll.
Would you have him winning the World Series clincher just ten months after completing radiation treatment?
Or would you have him tossing a no-hitter for the film’s final climax?
Well, against better judgment, you decide to have the protagonist accomplish both feats. But hey, you’re excited, and you can’t wait to pitch your yarn to the motion picture bigwigs … plus, you really want to quit working as a used-car salesman in Santa Monica.
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Congrats, D-Backs. You have your first challenge.May 5th, 2008
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Sunday’s was another marquee pitching match-up for the Diamondbacks. But this one didn’t pan out in their favor.
And it wasn’t through any fault of Dan Haren. He matched Mets ace Johan Santana on Sunday, and left the game down 2-1 on a mere 3 hits. That became 2-2 in the seventh, but in the last two innings, the wheels fell off for Arizona.
First, after capitalizing on a throwing error to first, Chris Burke turned a bunt into two bases. But when he tried to stretch it to three, Ryan Church nailed him at third to take the runner out of scoring position and off the basepaths.
Then, in the ninth, with the typically steady Chad Qualls on the mound, Conor Jackson committed a throwing error that allowed Mets centefielder Carlos Beltran to score the go-ahead run. Qualls gave up three hits in the inning, three runs, and in the process surrendered his first unearned run of the season.
And the Mets left the desert with a 2-1 series lead, the Diamondbacks first real hiccup of the season.
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April Farm Report: A Master and His Bard - Part 1May 1st, 2008
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There’s a reason why many Red Sox followers remained hesitant when it came to the discussed but never-to-be trade for ace lefty and change-up king Johan Santana this past off-season.
Just call it prospect envy.
With the success of second baseman Dustin Pedroia, last year’s American League Rookie of the Year, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, a key cog in Boston’s World Series sweep of the Rockies, and right-hander Clay Buchholz, owner of a no-hitter in his second major league start, the fans of the Olde Towne Team are starting to expect similar results from each farmhand that makes his way up to the big club.
Add into the mix shortstop Jed Lowire, who has filled in admirably as a super-sub on the major league roster due to injuries in the Boston infield this season, and right-hander Justin Masterson’s impressive spot start against the Angels last week, and this phenomenon of lusting after the unknown—like the backup quarterback in football—only intensifies.
And fans aren’t alone when it comes to prospect envy.
Ultimately, the Red Sox front office, led by general manager Theo Epstein, felt the price for Santana—four top prospects … and a huge contract—was not one worth paying.
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Nats fall to Mets, SantanaApril 24th, 2008
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Just when the Washington Nationals showed a glimmer of straightening out …
One day after beating the Atlanta Braves and legendary pitcher John Smoltz in Atlanta on the historic night he recorded his 3000th strikeout, the Nats fell to another formidable pitcher at Nationals Park.
Johan Santana threw seven innings, gave up two earned runs and hit two doubles, helping the New York Mets defeat the Nats 7-2 on Wednesday night. His record improves to 3-2.
Nats pitcher Tim Redding threw five innings and was pulled in the top of the sixth for Ray King after giving up a single to centerfielder Carlos Beltran. Rightfielder Ryan Church reached safely on an infield hit to third, where he ultimately ended up after Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman’s errant throw also allowed Beltran to score what proved to be the deciding run. Redding falls to 3-2 on the season. Read more
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The Justice LeagueApril 20th, 2008
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I started writing this waaaaay to early. You see, I had this great article about the bullpen for the Colorado Rockies all mapped out in my head. I mean, these guys have been phenomenal so far this season. Unstoppable. Unhittable. More on fire than Richard Pryor ever was. I even picked out this great picture to represent how truly awesome they’ve been . . .
By the way, and no disrespect intended, but I’d say Kip Wells is probably Wonder Woman, only because he kind of has a girlie name. Unfair? Maybe. But did John Wayne ever portray a cowboy named “Kip”? Of course, I’m not one to criticize. For the first 10 years of my life my mom insisted on calling me “Jamie” only because she had desperately wanted a girl when I was born. Don’t even get me started on the way she dressed me.
But like I was saying, I was all set to write this fantastic piece about the Rockies’ bullpen and how they helped the Rockies sweep the Astros for the very first time in Minute Maid Park.
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Red Sox Win Series, Lose LowellApril 11th, 2008
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The Red Sox may have won the home opening series against the Tigers, but they did so at a cost.
That’s because before Boston doubled up Detroit in a 12-6 slugfest Thursday night, the team found out it would be minus the services of third baseman and five-hole hitter Mike Lowell until at least April 25 as a result of a sprained left thumb suffered on a diving stop in the top of the first inning of Wednesday’s contest.
With Lowell, last year’s World Series’ MVP, landing on the 15-day disabled list, the team purchased the contract of 23-year-old Jed Lowrie from Triple-A Pawtucket. The switch-hitting Lowrie, rated by Baseball America as the organization’s fifth best prospect, has so far been groomed as Boston’s shortstop of the future or even trade bait in the right deal. Yet he does have experience all over the infield from the minors.
Although off to a cold start with zero runs batted in over nine games, the loss of Lowell will present the Red Sox with their first real challenge on the young season while also testing the team’s depth as they head into a weekend series against the Yankees.
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The Problem with PredictionsApril 7th, 2008
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Every year, sports broadcasters - regardless of the sport - begin that particular sports’ season with a series of predictions. These predictions range from individual player predictions and team predictions, to division predictions and even championship predictions… you name it, they’re already thinking about it before the professionals step on the court/field/rink/whatever. Broadcasters will proceed to tell you, with their own mystic authority, exactly who will be good, who will be a waste of paycheck, who will be undervalued, who will be the best and worst teams, and which two teams will make the championships. Many will even go as far as to claim, with conviction and fervor, that they “know” who is going to win it this year (despite the team’s hundred year dry spell, and all those curses that have been plaguing that team for decades). Read more