Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Who keeps on loving you when you’ve been lying
Saying things ain’t what they seem
God does but I don’t
God will but I won’t
And that’s the difference between God and me


Who's hot? Well, the longest current winning streak in the majors is six games: the Yankees and the Braves. Some things just don't change. The Yankees moved into second place with last night's win, although this may equally be a matter of Baltimore moving out: the Orioles have gone 4-13 since they came to the Rogers Centre on June 20. You're welcome.

Rumours of the Yankees impending demise, however fondly wished for, have possibly been exaggerated. Probably because they were so fondly wished for. Alex Rodriguez is having a fabulous season. Chien-Ming Wang is looking like a good rookie-of-the-year candidate. The Bombers still have some big problems (team defense, inconsistent starters, getting the ball to Rivera), but they still have some pretty big strengths to play with as well. For example, which leadoff hitter is leading the AL in runs scored? Is it all-star Johnny Damon? Is it all-star Scott Podsednik? No, it's Derek Jeter. Who, apparently, isn't an all-star this year. Despite being, arguably, a better leadoff hitter than either of them. (His comment: "Every year, there are people on other teams who are pretty deserving. I've been on when others have deserved it.")

PLAYER	        TEAM   AB  R  H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB  CS  BB  BAV  OBP  SLG  OPS
Derek Jeter      NYY  332 68 103  12  2  11   37  10   4  40 .310 .395 .458 .853
Johnny Damon     Bos  338 65 116  23  5   4   42   9   1  26 .343 .387 .476 .863
Scott Podsednik  CWS  273 48  80  13  0   0   17  43   9  33 .293 .368 .341 .708

Jeter and Damon are very close indeed. Park effects? Jeter and Damon are both hitting a hundred points better at home than on the road. And Fenway is still one of the league's best hitter's parks, and the Stadium is still one of the league's better pitcher's parks. The best lead-off hitter in the majors has actually been Brian Roberts, of course.

The Braves, the Braves, the Braves... there are simply things that surpasseth the limits of human understanding. Last night they became the third team in the NL and fifth in the majors to win 50 games. Danny Kolb got the win in relief, with his fourth straight scoreless appearance. That's the first time Kolb has put together that many good outings since early May.

From the beginning of his managerial career, Bobby Cox has always loved to play the kids - he doesn't want them on the bench, he wants them on the field. Winning. Last night Andy Marte (21 years old) was at 3B, Jeff Francouer (21) in RF, and Kelly Johnson (23) in LF; Ryan Langerhans (25) drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Johnny Estrada is 29, which made him the oldest player in the lineup last night - he's older than Andruw, Giles, Furcal, everyone except for the immortal Julio. (Franco doesn't count. He's special!) The Braves future is here, now. Other teams rebuild, and do some losing while they're at it. Not these guys.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, are busy discovering how many players can go down at once and just how many strange and interesting ways it can happen. The latest injury, of course, occurred when LH Kelly Wunsch came in to face Todd Helton with two men on base in a tie game. Alas, Wunsch sprained his ankle while warming up. RH Franquelis Osoria had to come in and promptly gave up the game-winning homer. Wunsch will have surgery and his season is over.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, Mark Loretta of the Padres is beginning a rehab assignment: Loretta and Adam Eaton should both be back in a couple of weeks. It's over, I tell you!

Other news: both Jon Garland and Dontrelle Willis were denied their 14th win yesterday: both fall to 13-4. Oakland beat the White Sox in the series-opener in Chicago after taking two of three from them in Oakland last weekend.

On the first of May, Barry Zito was 0-4, 6.60 - at that point, he decided he needed another pitch and started throwing the slider he had abandoned early on in his minor league days. In May he went 1-2, 3.49; in June he went 3-2, 3.05; and so far in July he's 1-0, 2.25. Since May 1, he's 5-4, 3.18 in 85 IP; he's struck out 60 and allowed 66 hits and 34 BB. He's still younger than Mulder and Hudson; he's still never missed a start in his career.

Finally, Jamie Moyer won the 200th game of his career last night, and congratulations are in order. Needless to say, no one regarded this as even a remote possibility for the longest time. From his page at baseball-reference.com

November 13, 1990: Released by the Texas Rangers.
October 14, 1991: Released by the St. Louis Cardinals.
March 30, 1992: Released by the Chicago Cubs.

Moyer's won 166 games since turning 30, and he becomes the fourth active LH with 200 wins. Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, and David Wells are the others.

Today's schedule:

AL
Boston (Miller 2-2, 4.94) at Baltimore (Chen 6-5, 4.06) 1:15
Cleveland (Elarton 5-3, 4.79) at New York (Sturtze 2-1, 3.94) 4:05
Detroit (Johnson 5-7, 3.87) at Tampa Bay (Nomo 5-7, 6.80) 6:15
Oakland (Zito 5-8, 4.07) at Chicago (Buehrle 10-2, 2.58) 7:05
Minnesota (Mays 5-3, 3.84) at Kansas City (Howell 1-3, 7.77) 7:10
Toronto (Downs 0-0, 5.40) at Texas (Rogers 9-4, 2.45) 8:05
Seattle (Franklin 4-10, 4.44) at Los Angeles (Lackey 6-3, 4.07) 10:05

NL
Los Angeles (Weaver 7-7, 4.43) at Houston (Oswalt 11-7, 2.44) 1:15
Washington (Patterson 3-2, 3.16) at Philadelphia (Lidle 8-6, 3.92) 1:15
St.Louis (Morris 10-1, 3.17) at San Francisco (Rueter 2-7, 5.48) 4:05
Chicago (Wood 1-2, 5.30) at Florida (Olsen 1-0, 3.55) 6:05
Milwaukee (Sheets 4-6, 3.49) at Atlanta (Davies 4-2, 4.05) 7:05
New York (Ishii 2-7, 5.50) at Pittsburgh (Williams 6-6, 4.37) 7:05
San Diego (Lawrence 5-7, 4.34) at Colorado (Jennings 4-8, 5.59) 8:05
Cincinnati (Claussen 4-6, 3.64) at Arizona (Webb 8-5, 3.36) 9:40

This Day In Baseball: 9 July 2005 | 12 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Andrew K - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 12:55 PM EDT (#121984) #
These is a great series of articles. A good way to find out what's going on in the baseball world without the hype of the espn or mlb websites (which I am coming to detest).
Thanks for taking the time to do them -- it's like a roundup without the links.

(Though I'd like the links too ;)
Magpie - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:08 PM EDT (#121986) #
Thanks very much Andrew. Still finding my way and figuring out things to do with this. The idea is simply to have a daily home for non-Blue Jays baseball thoughts. I felt a need for it one day...

The two main reasons there are no (or very few) links: 1) either there's just too many to choose from, or b) I'm writing it late the previous evening, before they're up.

ESPN is still a wonderful source for raw numbers, but they've now hidden almost all of their writers behind the subscriber wall. I like mlb.com for the beat writers, although all the graphics get irritating sometimes and they haven't done very well organizing their stats. It's handy though for team historical stats - if I want to know who's hit the second most HRs in White Sox history, I go to mlb.com although I have to scroll through a few pages to get where I want to go.

Ah. I should just organize my own bookmarks better. One of these days.

Andrew K - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:27 PM EDT (#121991) #
I agree about the functionality of the websites. It's more the attitude which I can't stand. ESPN is currently running as a headline a totally content-free article on the best lineup of current players. Rubbish, paraded as news.

Re news bookmarks, maybe google news is your friend here?
Andrew K - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:29 PM EDT (#121992) #
On the subject of non-Jays baseball. What on earth is wrong with the Red Sox? Do certain players really think that they run the team? The word idiots has never been more apposite.
BallGuy - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#121997) #
I'm just throwing this out there for fun just to see what others think but.....what about Jamie Moyer in a Jays' uniform? I don't think the Mariners would ask for too much for him and he is pitching ok. Hi ERA is a bit high and he does give up a lot of HRs but he does win games and could add some needed depth to the rotation. Maybe I'm nuts but it might work.
Any thoughts? (other than I am nuts)?
VBF - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:44 PM EDT (#121998) #
When I was half awake listening to ESPN's broadcast on the FAN590, I heard that Damon's wife had a violent altercation with Schilling's wife, and they had to be seperated by the other players' wives. If you ask me, that's pretty funny. I think Schilling's wife made a remark to Damon's that Johnny looked like a 13 year old or something.
VBF - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 01:50 PM EDT (#122000) #
Hi ERA is a bit high and he does give up a lot of HRs

And he's 43. I don't think this is the direction that the Blue Jays want to be going in with their pitching staff. I think it wouldn't be a bad move to one day bring in a older veteran to guide our younger pitchers (even with Halladay), but Moyer is much to old to be considered.

Magpie - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 02:06 PM EDT (#122001) #
Maybe I'm nuts but it might work.

You're nuts, and it wouldn't work! :-)

Seriously, at his age Moyer would only make sense for a team that believes that 2005 is their best shot at winning. I don't think that applies to Toronto.

The other issue is that Moyer is a finesse LH, and the RC is not too friendly to that type of pitcher. He'd be much better off in Yankee Stadium... say, there's a team whose Window of Opportunity may be running out. Whaddya think, Mick?

Mike Green - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 02:16 PM EDT (#122004) #
Marte, Langerhans, Francouer and Brian McCann all are seeing time with the Braves. One of the things about having money is that it allows a team to take "service time" risks more readily. Langerhans was going to play anyway, but with the rest, there were certainly choices to be made.
RhyZa - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 02:37 PM EDT (#122006) #
Roy out for a month according to Rosenthal - via Fox? OUCH
Mike D - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#122007) #
Leigh's favourite pitcher in baseball, Rafael Betancourt, tested positive for steroids and has been suspended.
Magpie - Saturday, July 09 2005 @ 03:51 PM EDT (#122018) #
In other news (on the off chance that anyone cares about anything else), A's lock up Kotsay with extension.

Whoop-dee-damn-doo.

This Day In Baseball: 9 July 2005 | 12 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.