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I don't like Mondays, I want to shoot the whole day down


Especially Mondays on which the Jays aren't playing and you end up flicking between the Orioles and Mets games.

Bobby Cox started Jorge Sosa yesterday, which meant he had to pitch to Carlos Delgado with the expected results. After a single and a dinger Delgado is now at 14 for 27 against Sosa with seven home runs. The games real story though was the 200th win in Pedro's remarkable career.

Daniel Cabrera can show Ted Lilly a thing or three about teasing, in his first two starts he was giving up walks at about the rate I drink coffee, sixteen in six and a third Innings of work. Last night, the other Daniel appeared, the one that gets everyone excited and starts people talking about him being a potential ace. He went seven strong, walking only one with six strikeouts and was hitting 99 mph regularly on the (generous) OPACY gun. The Orioles won it 4-2. They've taken three of four from the Angels and are now at 8-6.

The Jays spending spree over the winter has got them noticed by the press south of the border.  Ahead of this weeks mini-series with the Yankees The New York Times has a summary of the moves from the winter and some Godfrey quotes about the rebuilding process (RR).



Today is the 25th anniversary of the 33 Inning game between Rochester and Pawtucket, the Washington Post has a look back. Wade Boggs was 22 when the game started and 23 when it ended, and he was playing opposite Cal Ripken who went 2 for 13.


Steve Treder has a look at the early days of the Expos (and the Padres) over at THT.

What's up: Tonight the AL East bottom dwellers fight it out. Johnson vs Chacin 7:07 at the RC.


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Chuck - Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#145367) #
Quiet Tuesday morning. The silicon chip inside my head is hardly switched to overload.

Inspired by Gwyn's comment on Cabrera's nutty walk rate, I decided to do a cursory look-see at the early season stats around the AL.

BAL - Brian Roberts (250/283/321) appears to no longer be channeling Brady Anderson and is perhaps showing the effects of  (a) his brutal injury and (b) his regression to the mean. Nonetheless, he's on pace for 110+ RBI.

BOS - Manny has zero extra-base hits. The same number as me. Schilling and Beckett are 6-0 with a sub-2 ERA.

NYY - Giambi (344/543/781) is resuming his second half Lazarus impersonation and is serving as the poster boy for what life can be like sans steroids. Presumably for fears of placing himself in a position where his contract could be voided, Giambi can't come out and state explicitly that he actually was on the juice (recall last year's kinda, sorta confession for some unnamed transgression), MLB unfortunately can't use his post-juice success for PR purposes.

TOR - Noted doubles machine and Olerud wannabe, Lyle Overbay, has none.  Zippo. Nada. He'll have to pick up the pace a tad to match his 53 of 2004.

CHI - In 13 games, Thome/Konerko have hit 12 HR and knocked in  29. Now that's a heart of a batting order.

CLE - Is Travis Hafner (354/483/854) the game's best hitter that the casual fan hasn't heard of?

DET - Everyone is aware of Shelton. He has 17 extra-base hits in 51 AB. On XBH alone he's batting .333. He has 9 homers. What's his over/under on HR for the rest of the season?  Is there a return to pumkindom in the offing, or he is the new Travis Hafner?

KC - Somebody learn a new pitch in the off-season? Elmer Dessens has 10 K's in 7.2 IP and a 10/1 K/BB ratio.

MIN - Noted non-walker Tony Batista (297/366/568) has walked 4 times already. Of course, he may not reach 10 for the whole season. If Brad (7 HR in 19 IP) Radke faced Chris Shelton, could the result be other than a homerun? Would the laws of physics allow it?

LA -  On a team noted for swinging at everything, is it a surprise that the leader in walks has 3? Vlady is hammering away to the tune of a 1000+ OPS, yet where are the IBB's?

OAK - Will Jason Kendall every get an XBH again? Just 29 in 601 AB last year. 0 in 33 AB this year.

SEA - Even blind squirrels like Bavasi find the odd acorn like Johjima (364/429/568) once in a while. Of course, they also find expensive FA's like Adrian Beltre, he of just 7 singles and 0 XBH in 49 AB. I used to be dubious of the claims that players did better in contract years, but the boys at BP claim this is so. Beltre is just another data point to confirm that position.

TEX - Brad Wilkerson has been underrated for quite a while but he's not exactly been making people forget Soriano (185/214/315). He has walked just twice and K'd 23 times. Perhaps a visit to an optometrist is in order. Really.










Mike Green - Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#145370) #

Chuck, don't you think that it is prudent to make no assumptions about whether any particular player is on or off the juice this year?  There is certainly debate about the efficacy of the testing.

Shelton is actually a year ahead of Hafner's pace.  Shelton's age 25 season last year (slugging .510 in Comerica is not chopped liver) was actually somewhat better than Hafner's age 26 season in 2003, and he looks like a reasonable bet to equal or better Hafner's 2004 this year.

 

Chuck - Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 11:59 AM EDT (#145371) #
Chuck, don't you think that it is prudent to make no assumptions about whether any particular player is on or off the juice this year?  There is certainly debate about the efficacy of the testing.

I am loathe to add to the heaping pile of random comments about who is and who isn't on steroids, and to presume how helpful steroids actually are. I don't think I have ever made a comment about steroids before, for that very reason.

I just imagined that in Giambi's specific case, based on his bizarre non-confession last season, that he had been on steroids and is (as of the start of 2005) no longer. I thought that was the universally accepted gist of his carefully worded (non-)message. I suppose it's possible that (a) he never was on steroids or (b) he always was and still is. I wouldn't presume to state categorically that I knew for sure what his story was.
Mike Green - Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 12:06 PM EDT (#145373) #

Fair enough, although personally I'm not making any assumptions about any players. 

andrewkw - Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 02:29 PM EDT (#145388) #
i have an extra club 200 baselines ticket for todays almost sold out game,  first row anyone want it?  email me in the next couple hrs
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