Crawford, lf       Catalanotto, lf
Lugo, ss           Hudson, 2b
Huff, dh           Wells, cf
Lee, 1b            Koskie, 3b
Cantu, 2b          Hillenbrand, dh
Gomes, rf          Hinske, 1b
Sanchez, cf        Rios, rf
Johnson, c         Zaun, c
Green, 3b          Adams, ss
Waechter, p        Tower, o

They should have had Lugo twice. On his AB, Adams' throw pulled Hinske off the bag. I thought it should have been an error. Then on the Huff flyout, Lugo lost track of the ball and was around second and twenty feet to third when Wells caught it. But Wells didn't notice and flipped it back in to the shortstop. If he's thrown it straight to first, Lugo was a dead duck.

Make that four, as Towers forgets to come off the mound...

Through his first 23 IP this year, Towers has 20Ks and 1 BB.

I think I'll take that project. Anything that brings back memories of Huck Flener can only be a good thing.

:)

The right sentiment -- a definite lack of power on this team -- but you couldn't have picked a worse time to post that thought. :)

In other words, Going Going Zaun!

That's Zaun's first HR hitting RH in at least three years.

True enough -- his ERAs by month went 1.59, 5.14, 9.00 and 4.91 from June through September last season. However, even in his best '04 month (June), his BB/K rate was 8/12 in 17 innings -- his April '05 peripherals are already better than anything he did last year. He might just have adjusted and turned it up a notch.

Aaron, we're putting you and R Billie in charge of our Supernatural Committee.

Josh Towers career ERA+ 91
Jaret Wright career ERA+ 91

Take that, George.

Not that it matters, but I think it does since the tying run is on-deck.

Finish him off, Miggy!

What the hell is that??!

Oh well, it doesn't matter. CC pops out. Woohoo!

I agree it's not optimum bullpen management. But look at the bright side, all you Bauxites who are hoping to trade Miggy later this year - and I'm not advocating it, just pointing it out - the gaudier his save totals look, the more likely some less than astute general manager might be tempted to give up more than he's worth to get him.

Everyone says that but do saves really carry any cachet any more? Certainly there are some questionable front offices out there, but are there GM's really that dense to go ga-ga over a 30-save Batista or a .330-hitting Hillenbrand?

Have any of you guys given any thought to the idea that Miggy might actually be a good closer?

He seems to be great about 50% of the time, and being one pitch from losing the game the other 50%. So far he's only blown one save, but he frequently scares me ;)

I doubt it. Speier's been an extremely effective reliever for the last five years in a row. I can't imagine why you'd want to get rid of a guy like that, even if he were to struggle for a while.

I don't think he's been all that ineffective, anyway. He's been consistently in and around the strike zone, and his problems have come from three pitches that he's left up enough to give up homers. That's unlucky as much as unskillful, and while he can't keep making those mistakes, there's no real reason to believe he will.

One interesting thing is that all of Speier's problems so far have been courtesy of right-handed hitters. That's unusual for him, very unusual in fact. I actually haven't noticed anything in particular, but has anyone seen Speier's slider and how it's breaking? If his slider's not an effective pitch, that would explain why righties are finding him easy to hit.

Well he may be, but at this rate I may have to take up smoking, just like Earl Weaver did when Don Stanhouse was on the mound, ( and I don't think it'll be tobacco either) (check that forgot about the impending government change).

I was at the game today and the crowd was indeed booing the call. Since the majority of the crowd was school children they weren't very knowledgeable about what was going on and hence the booing for the sake of booing and failure to stand in the ninth with 2 strikes and 2 outs.

Surprisingly, Miguel Batista got a warm (but not too warm) ovation as he came out of the pen, to the tune of "Gangstas Paradise".

To bad he's an artista and not a comedian. Weird Al's Amish Paradise is good for a chuckle.

Well you're right about JP willingness to make changes this year, but I think Speier is in a different situation. He was pretty effective last year, and the only one of JP's big four reliever signings that worked out last year (Ligtenberg, Adams, and DLS being the other three). That and his proven track record should buy him some leeway I would think.

Besides which I dont see any way you could possibly justify cutting loose Speier when Matt Whiteside is still a member of your bullpen.

Does it really work like that? Do General Managers really follow the same process a fantasy baseball manager might? It's not like a GM wouldn't have tons of actual information on the guy first, and be well aware if some of his starts were cheap 1 out gimmes.

I guess I should come back to defend my observation, however lukewarm my original investment in it was. Let's just put it this way: I don't think a few cheapie saves are going to hurt his trade value any with, oh I don't know, the Kenny Williamses of this world...

         W  L  S   ERA    IP   H  R ER
Foulke   1  3  3  7.20  10.0  13  8  8
Rivera   1  1  3  3.18   5.2   8  6  2
Batista  1  0  6  2.70  10.0  13  5  3

Speier's been an excellent reliever for five years.

However if he continues to struggle, do you honestly think JP will do nothing?

Yes, pretty much. Clearly there is a limit... if Speier goes through the All-Star Break with an ERA over 7, something might happen, sure. If Speier continues to be as ineffective as he was in the first half of last season, I expect him to do exactly nothing.

I don't think I agree with you when you say he has not struggled, but thats debateable as well.

Speier's struggles, such as they are, have been connected to three mistake pitches. If he'd given up a home run and a double on those instead of three homers, no one would be talking about him, plain and simple. It's making a mountain out of eight innings' worth of molehill. This isn't like someone who can't find the strike zone, or is getting tagged all over the place, like Adam Peterson last year.

Craig you mentioned his slider being ineffective and his stuggles against righties.

I said I didn't know and hadn't noticed, but was asking if he was having problems with the slider, because that's the only reason I could think of (other than bad luck) why he'd be having trouble specifically with righthanders.

I point out that if he cannot get righties out, then what good is he to us?

It's 21 batters. Twenty-one freakin' batters. You're going to condemn a guy after facing twenty-one batters? It would be foolish to make decisions based on those kinds of results (3 HR in 21 PA), because blips like that happen to everyone. In his Cy Young season in '03, Doc gave up 3 HR in less than 21 PA. (Actually, it was 3 in 16 batters, against the Royals on April 25).

Now on the other hand, R Billie mentions that his velocity is down (though the Towers comp is a bad one to judge from - Towers has significantly increased velocity over last year). If that's the case, and that's the reason for his problems, I'm actually more relieved than anything, as Speier is known for his inconsistent gas. He'll probably get it back soon.

If not, then there may indeed be a problem, I grant that.

Sounds like a few friends of mine from university...