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Features This Day In Baseball: 6 August 2005
Any time you think you have the game conquered, the game will turn around and punch you right in the nose.
-- Mike Schmidt

Jeff Francouer of the Braves has 7 HRs and 19 RBI in his first 19 major league games. This is a hell of a way to break in. Only one active player hit more homers in his first 20 major league games: that would be Old Friend Carlos Delgado, who hit 8 in his first 20 games in 1993-94. Delgado and Hideki Matsui both had 20 RBI in their first 20 games, but the best performance in this category was turned in by Albert Pujols, who had 22 RBI in his first 22 games.

All of these guys turned out to be pretty fair major league hitters. Francouer is just 21 years old. The Braves, the Braves... well, they got beat last night. And speaking of Albert Pujols, he has now become the first player in history to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons. It's pretty cool to have achieved something as a hitter that Henry Aaron and Ted Williams and Barry Bonds and Willie Mays didn't achieve...

It was Mark Mulder's birthday - he beat the Braves and John Smoltz, and it was Eric Hinske's birthday as well. Hinske went 2-3 with a walk, and scored both Toronto runs.

Speaking of The Dude, his June slump was so unspeakably awful that it was hard to believe this man had ever seemed capable of hitting major league pitching. Here are his month-by-month numbers:

SPLIT 	 AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  HBP  SO  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
April 	 83 18 24   4   0   4   17   9    1  22   2   0 .289 .366 .482  .848
May 	 86 16 25   6   1   2    8   7    1  22   3   1 .291 .347 .453  .801
June 	 76 13 10   3   0   1    8  14    0  26   1   0 .132 .264 .211  .474
July 	 78 11 19  10   0   3   15   7    1  23   0   1 .244 .310 .487  .798
August 	 14  4  9   2   0   0    1   2    0   2   1   1 .643 .688 .786 1.474
Total 	337 61 87  25   1  10   49  39    3  95   7   3 .258 .338 .427  .765
Does he have bad biorhythms in June or what? What was that, anyway?

I'll be at the ball park. Here's what's on:

AL
Baltimore (Cabrera 8-9, 4.66) at Texas (Wasdin 0-1, 4.35) 4:05
New York (Johnson 11-6, 4.11) at Toronto (Downs 0-2, 5.23) 4:07
Cleveland (Westbrook 9-12, 4.55) at Detroit (Bonderman 13-7, 4.03) 7:05
Oakland (Blanton 6-9, 4.29) at Kansas City (Lima 4-9, 6.58) 7:10
Boston (Wells 9-5, 4.45) at Minnesota (Santana 10-6, 3.65) 7:10
Tampa Bay (Hendrickson 5-7, 6.75) at Los Angeles (Bootcheck 0-0, 0.60) 10:05

NL
Chicago (Maddux 8-8, 4.67) at New York (Seo 2-1, 2.00) 1:15
Atlanta (Hudson 7-6, 3.57) at St.Louis (Marquis 9-9, 4.00) 1:15
Houston (Oswalt 14-8, 2.40) at San Francisco (Lowry 6-11, 4.59) 4:05
San Diego (TBA) at Washington (Drese 7-10, 5.61) 7:05
Milwaukee (Capuano 12-6, 3.58) at Philadelphia (Lieber 9-10, 5.12) 7:05
Los Angeles (Perez 6-5, 4.46) at Pittsburgh (Duke 4-0, 0.92) 7:05
Florida (Moehler 6-8, 3.64) at Cincinnati (Hudson 2-5, 8.39) 7:10
Colorado (Francis 10-7, 5.16) at Arizona (Gosling 0-2, 3.68) 9:40

Posted by Magpie on Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 11:55 AM EDT.
This Day In Baseball: 6 August 2005 | 10 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Sherrystar - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 01:44 PM EDT (#124863) #
Just FYI, good article on Chacin on cbs.sportsline.com

They should write one on Russ Adams too!
[ Reply to This ]
Magpie - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 01:49 PM EDT (#124865) #
I'm assuming you mean David Gonos' piece on Chacin and Zach Duke? Anyway, well spotted!
[ Reply to This ]
Rob - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 02:06 PM EDT (#124867) #
I love Greg Maddux. He just caught the Mets snoozing and basically walked into second base. Jae Seo had no clue what was going on and Jose Reyes wasn't even covering the base.

Maddux, somehow, has 7 career stolen bases.
[ Reply to This ]
Ryan C - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 03:02 PM EDT (#124868) #
Just thought Id post this in case it was of interest to anyone. I just heard Rob Neyer interviewed on the FAN just now, he talked a little about the SABR convention and had the following thoughts on the Jays:

- The scoreboards at the Rogers Centre are second to none for their presentation and depth of information. Both the jumbotron and out of town scoreboards.

- Sound system however is way too loud and the in between innings stuff is annoying and distracting.

- He think the Jays are better than their record indicates, based mostly on their run differential and record in one run games. Probably too far behind for it to matter this year, but good indicator for the future.

- He talked with JP this weekend and JP indicated the he and his staff believes they have 6 pitchers right now in AA/AAA who will be solid major leaguers in the next year and a half. Apparently there will be more on this appearing in his column Monday.
[ Reply to This ]
CeeBee - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 04:45 PM EDT (#124871) #
I just used to love Ready Rob Neyer, and then ESPN turned him into a subscriber only feature.... bah!!!!!
[ Reply to This ]
Jordan - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 08:03 PM EDT (#124873) #
JP indicated that he and his staff believes they have 6 pitchers right now in AA/AAA who will be solid major leaguers in the next year and a half.

Hmmm ... who that would likely be?

Josh Banks
Chad Gaudin
Zach Jackson
Casey Janssen
Shaun Marcum
Francisco Rosario

Unless he's including McGowan. And if it's too soon for Janssen, maybe Vermilyea or Purcey instead. Man, that's a lot of good-looking arms.

[ Reply to This ]
ds - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 08:46 PM EDT (#124877) #
Don't forget League!

Man, that is a lot of arms. I can't see too many other organizations with that many quality pitchers in the upper minors.
[ Reply to This ]
ds - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 08:52 PM EDT (#124878) #
Speaking of Janssen, he's given up 1 hit through 5 innings, and he picked that guy off first base! He also has 2 BB and 4 K's to this point. With the way he's pitching I'll be shocked if he's not up in September. What a year he's having!
[ Reply to This ]
Gerry - Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 09:21 PM EDT (#124883) #
Janssen, and Jackson and Purcey, were 2004 draft selections. IIRC they do not have to go on the 40 man roster this year, UNLESS they play in the majors. If I am correct then none of those guys will get called up as the team will lose a spot to protect someone else.

I am not the expert in this area and if I am wrong someone will correct me.
[ Reply to This ]
Marc Hulet - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 10:28 AM EDT (#124905) #
That's true. The Jays have a lot of other people to consider protecting from the Rule 5, including:
Josh Banks
Shaun Marcum
Kurt Isenberg
Jamie Vermilyea
Ryan Roberts
Robinzon Diaz
Ryan Houston
Jesse Carlson
Lee Gronkiewicz
Rob Cosby
Tracy Thorpe... among others.
[ Reply to This ]
This Day In Baseball: 6 August 2005 | 10 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.