Trades

Barrett for Bowen plus A class minor league outfielder, seems fair on both sides because Padres still have Bard and minor league catchers if Barrett doesn't work out. Plus Cubs are paying most of the salary. I hope Barrett fits in well and does not hurt the outstanding pitching staff the Padres have. Though so far in his first game he has a passed ball and is 0-1 with a strikeout (to be fair he did have to face Erik Bedard)

Wil Ledezma for Macay McBride. Advantage Braves. I hope they convert him to a starter and let him have a regular spot to get situated. He does have touble making it deep in games, but he is definitely not a lefty specialist reliever. So this move probably means either he or Villarreal will take Carlyle's spot in the rotation. Hopefully Braves get Mark Buerlhe. I don't know why Tigers want Macay, he has control issues and they already have two relievers with which lefthanders are batting under .200 against.

Congrats Sammy. Not a fan but it is still a great accomplishment.

Wow

How does A Rod already have 73 RBI?
How did Prince Fielder hit an inside the park home run?

Yankees are playing really good right now. The Mets are undergoing how I felt their whole season would have been. None of their pitchers are as good (anymore) as they were pitching at the beginning of the season.

Chipper hit his 2000th! Great little bloop that I am suprised Grady couldn't get to. Though he made an amazing catch later in the game.

Andruw is struggling more than he did during his last slump. Hopefully he gets out of this one quicker.

So it looks like Sam Perlozzo is being fired as O's manager with hopes they cant get Joe Giradi. I say good for them, I for one thought that they would be an improved team with the acquisitions they made in the off season but so far it hasn't panned out.

Big Boys

Derrek has played in the big leagues long enough to know that not every pitch a pitcher throws is going to be a strike. Not every pitch is going to be close to the strike zone. A pitch that comes up and in isn't necessarily thrown at you. If you think it is you have a bit of an ego problem, not everyone cares enough about you to hit you. On top of that it should have been a foul ball, even Bowen knew it didn't hit you. First off, you should have still been batting instead of walking down to first acting like a big baby. Second, every Cub deserves to be hit for being on the same team as Alfonso Soriano. Thirdly, both Lee and Young need boxing lessons.

Braves help up their end of the bargain by beating the Indians, but Tigers wouldn't help out by beating the Phillies, come on guys.

No Hits

Verlander is amazing. If he can start striking out that many on a regular basis he will end his career with more than just one no hitter.

Cubs fans are completely retarded. They have no respect for the rules of the game. They reach over the ledge and pour beer on opposing outfielders and interfere with countless balls that might make it over the wall.

Some fun stuff happened over the past two days, too much to recap so I'll just try to keep updated in the future.

Comeback

Great come back win yesterday for the Braves and Brewers.

If Nate Robertson comes back healthy and shows he is capable of pitching like he did last year and the beginning of this year I guarantee he will be playing in Texas by July 31 (Texas or Houston).

Chipper might be ready to come back very shortly, great news for Braves who after playing terrible lately are only 2.5 out.

Nationals interested in Elijah Dukes doesn't really make sense, unless Nook or Langerhans are on their way out. All of them are pretty much batting around .200 (mostly below).

Hopefully Berkman is on his way back to normalcy.
Wow, the White Sox look absolutely terrible.

Sunday

So James Loney finally got the call up for the Dodgers and as I type this he is 1 for 1, RBI. Really they had no reason to give Nomar a new contract. Yes he is a good player but Loney is ready for the bigs, he batted .380 in the minors last year.

Russell Martin better be the starting catcher for the All Star Game.

Carlos Gomez is really fast, great 5 tool player, though only 2.5 tools at the moment he will blossom soon.

Leyland continues to not know how to manage a bullpen. Yes Miller was at 101 pitches but he was up against the 8 and 9 hitters that he had dominated the other times he faced them. Detroit needs to perserve the bullpen but still gives Miller a quick leash, with a big lead at the time. They should have left him in and let him work through trouble something he is still learning as a young pitcher, this could have given him experience and helped him in the future.

So I was right the other day about Prince hitting a home run to catch A Rod again, but Alex hit 2 today and I am not sure if he will catch him tomorrow or not, but at the end of the year this will be a close race between two amazing power hitters.

Vlad's been slumping.
Abreu's breaking out.
AL is dominating interleague today.
Mesa is picking up in Philly where he left off in Detroit, 1.2ip, 2er.
Sowers sent down to AAA hopefully he can work out his issues.
Pujols hit 2 HRs today. I think thats 6 in June so far.
David Wright has homered in 4 straight.
Last year's trade deadline had big hopes, but this year could actually be huge.
How good would Lidge, Otsuka, and Gagne look in Tigers uniforms?

Out the window.

Two people's chances for a Cy Young award came to an end today. Tim Hudson giving up 5 earned in 2 ip, and also Francisco Cordero, who was in pace for 59 saves while only allowing 17 hits, compared with Gagne's Cy season of 55 saves and 37 hits. With the blown save he is out of the Cy picture. There are still plenty of candidates left though in both leagues.

Hopefully Hudson is okay though and starts at least getting his pitching back in line for a 15-18 win season and only 7-9 losses.

Haren just keeps pitching as the heir apparent to Zito (particularly his Cy season)

Keeping with the Cy talks, Johan is 6-6 this year. Unless he rattles off 15 straight wins (not impossible) and ends up leading the league in strikeouts (not impossible), than he is most likely out of the Cy picture as well.

I hate watching Saturday Baseball on FOX, the announcers mess up stats, people's names, and just have overall poor descriptions of what I am seeing on the screen.

AL definitely isn't running away with interleague like they did last year, so to get my semi-bold prediction on paper, NL is going to win the All Star game this year. ... And for the pretty bold prediction it will give the Padres the home field advantage in the WS.

Which is more interesting: Giants SP Noah Lowry having to play outfield or Tampa Bay's Utility Infielder Josh Wilson pitching?

Wilson pitching in my opinion. Hit 88 mph and hadn't pitched since high school. Which would win an all pitching team or all hitters team?

Also Draft note addendum, and Percival.

According to ESPN.com, Percival is close to a deal with St. Louis. This would suck. Tigers need Percival and hopefully this isn't Dombrowski dropping the ball. Who knows he could not have classic Percival stuff, in which case good job laying off, but considering other teams are interested and Tigers bullpen is a disaster it seems as if he would be worth the risk. Come on Tigers.

Also, add Tim Alderson to my list of draft players that will live up to their potential.

Jump to Conclusions

First of as a disclaimer I know a lot of prospects don't pan out. But for the sake of fun and speculation lets say they do.

Andrew Miller, Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, Jeremy Bonderman. As a starting rotation could be the best thing since Zito, Mulder, Hudson.

Scott Kazmir, James Shields, David Price could bring the Rays into contention in 3-4 years.

I think Aumont was pissed to drop to the Mariners.

Predictions 5 years from now which first rounder player has made the biggest impact:
Rick Porcello
David Price
Kevin Ahrens

Predictions who doesn't live up the the first round billing:
Daniel Moskos
Bumgarner
Beau Mills

check back in 5 years.

Home runs.

What are the odds that Prince Fielder homers tomorrow to tie it up with A Rod again? 1:1?

Ill give some draft thoughts tomorrow.

Bad Playing

A lot of teams right now are not playing up to their level. Milwaukee is not getting their offense and pitching in sync and either are the Braves.

Didn't Nate Robertson's start yesterday remind you last year of when Maroth lasted only 0.1 against the Royals last year before missing pretty much the rest of the season. Losing velocity and feeling no pain also reminds me of what just recently happened to Mike Gonzalez. Nate Robertson meet Tommy John? Hopefully not, but either was if things keep going the way they are it is looking like Andrew Miller is going to become a permanent fixture in the Detroit rotation.

Cardinals are making a move. Phillies are making a move. Red Sox are losing ground. San Diego is showing what pitching can do (even though as I type this they lost the shut out).

I keep making early June predictions about a lot of different categories but here is my first round guess at Playoff teams:

NL: Mets, Brewers, Padres, Dodgers / Just missed Diamondbacks
AL: Boston, Tigers, Angels, Cleveland / Just missed Oakland

Kaz came in and was the Tampa Bay ace that he should be getting the win after a loss, but he still needs a lot of work only logging 5 innings but throwing 103 pitches. Compare that with Maddux who has just completed 5 innings with only 46 pitches.

Today's Notes:
Gathright is back in the majors, that guy is fast and I am glad to see it.
Paul Byrd walked someone.
Guerrero was 0-4.
Kyle Davies continued his bad outing / good outing / bad outing routine, can't wait for his next.

Yesterday's Notes:
Berkman's ejection was hilarious.
Saltalamacchia his his 2nd home run.
Yunel broke up a no hitter.
C.C. is dominant as hell.

Blowing Leads.

Jim Rome just said blowing a five run lead is just the Devil Rays being the Devil Rays and no one else could have done it. Tell that to the Indians, Cubs, Tigers, and Orioles. Probably even more. I am always back and forth on the debate of how important a closer is, right now I am forth, or is it back. Ill update on this more later.

Pen.

So in a night where Detroit's bullpen is summoned in the first inning with zero out, Relievers not named Rodney pitch 7 scoreless. Relievers named Rodney let up a run. More tomorrow, this Padres / Dodgers is to nailbiting.

When?

When are the Marlins going to give another washed up closer a chance and pick up Mesa?

So Homer Bailey's first ML start is coming against one of the best offenses in the MLB in the Indians? I see it as another Lincecum / Hughes type debut start, 4 1/3 4-5 er, 7-8 hits, and a big fat L.

So I got to watch Vanderbilt v. Michigan where David Price came in and let up a home run, he still had some electrifying pitches. In a few years Shields, Kazmir, Price, Howell, Sonnanstine(sp?) could make a pretty good pitching rotation. If they can make a trade or two to secure some new players for at least 3-4 years they could be making a wild card shot by 2010. I think it would be good for baseball.

You can't stop Vlad you can only hope to contain him. (By giving him some IBB)

How many Cubs does it take to catch an infield fly over the pitcher's mound?

Biggest pitching surprise of the year: I'll admit I didn't thin Haren would start this good.
Biggest hitting surprise of the year: I thought Prince would take another year or two before he had these numbers.

Awards Prediction

One third through the Season so I will make some predictions.

AL CY YOUNG: Dan Haren, showing no signs of slowing down, no decisions are hurting him but he is remaining consistent. Runner-Up: Beckett, he's going to have a lot of wins.
NL CY YOUNG: Jake Peavy, ERA leader, lots of strikeouts and will get enough wins even with the bad SD offense. Runner-Up: Cole Hamels, great pitcher with Philly offense backing him he will get the wins (Just missed Runner-Up: F Cordero, Hudson, Penny.)

AL ROY: Dustin Pedroia, (I think he qualifies, if not I'll update it at the halfway point) wow this kid can hit. Runner-Up: Reggie Willits, hopefully he still gots regular playing time.
NL ROY: Tim Lincecum, since he doesn't have to face the Phillies any more he should be fine. Runner-Up: Hunter Pence, where would Houston be without him.

AL MVP: Vladimir Guerrero, just plain scary good. Runner-Up: Magglio Ordonez, he will stay hot because he is in a great lineup but Vlad can do it with out the lineup.

NL MVP: Prince Fielder, this year's Ryan Howard. Runner-Up: JJ Hardy, just because I feel like doubling up on Brewers.

To much to take.

I'm not going to lie, there is a lot of times when I like to see closer's fail, and it was perfectly set up for Rivera to blow it having to face Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis (and Lowell) but in the end he pulled it off with a couple strike outs to boot. So at least Papelbon blew his as well as Okajima blowing a save. Now I definitely would have liked to have seen the Red Sox win but hey one game is only one game, no reason to feel the end was near. Francona managed the game beautifully but Okajima and Papelbon just flat out blew it, when you are only out there for an inning you have to stop the other team, they didn't and so they deserved to take the loss.

Saltalamacchia made his first appearance at first base today, and he made some fine stops, and a bad throw, but showed some promise. I definitely think he will have the better career versus him and Thorman. I wish Scott could have gotten it going, but it looks like if they can get Salty accustomed to first base Thorman is either going to head to AAA or find a new home at the trade deadline.

I hope Mark Teixeira does not become a Yankee. It would be a bad career move, Arlington is a good hitters park if Rodriguez would have stayed there he would have more career homers than he does. I'm not saying that he should necessarily stay at Texas, but it is not like the Yankees are going anywhere fast. Who else really needs a First baseman besides Yankees?

Bye Mesa.

Have I even mentioned the Dodgers in this blog yet? Probably not, surprisingly, Their starting pitching is doing better than I thought it would, though some of that was bias from being mad they didn't resign Maddux, but I'm happy he is on the Padres. Their bullpen is solid as hell but I still am waiting for someone not named Lowe or Penny to really fall off and leave a spot in the rotation for Billingsley, he could be a star. They have a lot of youth and how could you not love watching Russ Martin or Andre Ethier play? I'm asking a lot of questions tonight.

Francisco Cordero is having a fantastic year with the type of team they are on he could challenge the single season saves record.

How cool would it be in if two months Eric Gagne and Troy Percival were Tigers?

Ben Sheets looks like he finally has his pitches under control and has assumed his role as staff ace. Job well done.

I know calling someone "the best player" is usually completely arbitrary and just an opinion but I really don't see how you can argue against saying Vlad is the best.

I'm done ranting for now.

Out of Control

Players and Managers are going crazy. At all levels of the game managers (Little, Leyland, Piniella, Wellman) are losing their minds.

I Hope Doug Mientkiewicz has a speedy recovery, he is one of the good ones as far as Yankees go and it is a shame when something like that happens in a game.

First off I know they ended up getting a Grand Slam, but only the Cubs can get a single with the bases loaded and not score the run. Amazing.

Sowers is having a lot of trouble, hopefully during his inevitable trip back to AAA he can work on getting his pitches right.

Lance Cormier's pitches are all hanging hopefully it is just big league rust.

Short One

Lou looked like an idiot today arguing a great call by the umpire. He better get suspended for that if Sheff is suspended for what he did. Yunel looked great out there, I wonder what the Braves will be doing before the trade deadline, Prado could go and pick them up some middle relief.

How funny is it that Clemens might miss two weeks. Hah. Good stuff.

Poor Proctor good stuff but just can't get under control. Yankees look like the Cubs, I wonder how long of a World Series drought they are in for.

I need to get a pair of those sunglasses that the umpire had who was arguing with Lou.

Oh real quick, The Nats.

What is it with the Nationals, started off terrible even with a pretty good team ERA now they are hitting but just look how they beat up on two of the greatest pitchers in the game Smoltz and Peavy combine for 0-3 against them with 1 no decision and in the ND the Nationals defeated the Padres.

Terrible

Wow where to start. Cubs are terrible, Jones is terrible.

Barrett vs. Zambrano is a pretty good fight and it seems like Zambrano won. Mentioning that was just a segue in talking about how bad the Cubs are. Worst franchise in the history of baseball. As good as Wrigley is as a field I think they need a new one to get away from all the curse there, if there is one team to believe is cursed it is them. They can fill there roster with as big money players as they want and everyone on the team just forgets how to play baseball. They can't run, they can't field, they just can't play. Funny thing is the team doesn't have that many errors and has a good run differential. They just never do things at the right time. Also, Lou just doesn't fit their style of how they need to play. What a terrible team. Talking about managers lets me breeze right in to talking about Leyland, not the worst manager, but by far the most overrated. You have to be pretty good of a manager to take a team thats 20 under .500 and have them play 20+ over the next season, but it is a lot easier to manage when things are going good than when things are going bad. Francona looks amazing this year because his starters are giving him innings, his relievers are all doing well, and the hitters are hitting when they need to. Tigers starters last year were giving the team more innings and because of that Leyland does not know how to manage a bullpen when he needs to because he is to worried about overusing it. Who in their right mind would leave Jones in for 46 pitches (over half as Maroth pitched). Now obviously not everyone that was screaming to take Jones out of that game would make a better manger than Leyland but it does make you think. Also, this isn't the first time that Leyland has made a lot of mistakes as manager, see the final stretch of last season. I'll end with why walk left handed Trot Nixon to get to the right hander, but than leave Jones in to face left handed Dellucci when Bobby Seay is up and ready. This team needs a lot of changes if they are going to take the division.

Time for June

Grady Sizemore's catch against Curtis Granderson was the greatest catch I have ever seen, of course I also said that when Hinske made his catch against Rabelo. What an end to May.

Somethings I'd like to see in June:
Ichiro continue his hit streak
Youkilis continue his hit streak
Prince Fielder hit a home run in at least 9 straight
Lance Berkman to start hitting
Kevin Kouzmanoff to get his BA to at least .280
Jake Peavy to not let up a run in June
Chuck James to make it through 6 ip every start in June
Tigers pitching staff have all quality starts
Orioles to gain on the wild card race
Devil Rays to call up some pitching from AAA and make a run at third in the East
Braves to call up Joey Devine and send down Paronto (and McBride)
Kenny Rogers to at least begin rehab starts
Yankees to be 20 out and at least 10 under
Beckett 5-0 in June
Percival to sign with a contender at the end of the month
Clemens goes 1-3 with a 4.50 era in June
Manny to breakout
Holliday and Helton both batting .375 in June
Chris B. Young making strides towards ROY
Royals to have a .500 month
Big name player traded to another team

I guess that is enough for now, lets see where everything is on July 1.

I wonder how many people are just practicing hating A Rod so they are ready when he is coming up on 755.

Josh Bard got a bit to angry for getting a double instead of a home run when your team already took the lead. Sheffield got a bit to angry for not agreeing with the strike calls, it is not like every strike called against you in the past was the right call.

Armando Benitez for Randy Messenger, Marlins should have kept Messenger he has been having a great season and considering that the Marlins are in the EAST they better hope they don't have to bring Benitez in against the Mets...