Batter Up April 17th
Jermaine Dye is locked in. Major leaguers get their share of fastballs to hit, the good ones don’t miss their pitch. Right now Dye is not missing his pitch.
Even though he takes his walks and hustles down the line, Erubiel Durazo’s lack of RBI production is alarming. It’s a race to see if Durazo drives in a run before a Kansas City Royal’s starter wins a game.
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The A’s must be worried about Rich Harden. Otherwise, why keep spot starter Justin Duchscherer instead of relief pitcher Rich Harville, who was released to make room for Harden?
Harville was turning into an effective reliever even though he never won the confidence of Ken Macha or the front office. Now if a vacancy opens in the A’s pen, here comes either Lou Pote or Wayne Gomes from Sacramento.
Not a comforting thought.
The Orioles are trying to unload outfielder Jack Cust, one of those undervalued on base percentage hitters the A’s love to discover. Harville to Baltimore for Cust makes sense for both teams.
Instead the A’s moved Harville to Houston for Kirk Saarloos, a pitcher who came out of college with high expectations, but never seemed comfortable in his trials with the Astros.
With second baseman Frank Menechino poised to rejoin the team within the next week who goes to make room on the roster? Answer: Esteban German who has fallen off the radar screen because of Marco Scutaro’s hot start.
The real dilemma comes at the end of the month when second baseman Mark McLemore is ready. Which infielder goes to open a spot for McLemore?
Truth be told, the Red Sox ownership is wary of signing Pedro Martinez to a multi year deal because Martinez has reached the point where he is now limited to 105 pitches per start. The league hits .360 against Pedro after he reaches the magic number. Sox manager Terry Francona gets very nervous around pitch 100 if Pedro is still in the game.
Oriole David Segui gets drilled in the back by Pedro on opening night, then comes back to hit a three run homer off him Thursday night tying the game 7-7, sending Martinez to the showers.
By the way, has there ever been a superstar pitcher more scrutinized than Martinez? The Boston press analyzes every pitch he throws.
Add Brewer manager Ned Yost to the list of managers who foolishly pitch to Barry Bonds with the game on the line. Finally by game three of the series this week, Yost ditched his instructional league strategy and walked Bonds to load the bases with the slugger representing the tying run in Wednesday’s 3-0 game.
The Brewers pitched to Edgardo Alfonzo who cooperated by hitting an inning ending fly ball to center.
Game over, Brewers go on to win.
How awkward was the ESPN in game interview with Giants manager Felipe Alou last Sunday? Commentator Joe Morgan was introducing himself to Alou as Felipe was trying to give signs to his team.
Not cool!
They can forget the lockeroom interviews of a pitcher when he is removed from the game, too. Looks and sounds like those dreadful post game interviews from outside the losing team’s dressing room after a playoff loss.
What a waste of time.
Don’t count out the Mariners. Even though they look like the over the hill gang right now, they have a solid rotation, a bullpen that will get healthy, and 9 million to spend on a hitter in July.
The Padres have the most balanced lineup in the NL West, but that pitching staff won’t make it to the playoffs. David Wells fell apart in his second start and we haven’t even seen retread Sterling Hitchcock yet.
Padre closer Trevor Hoffman threw a devasting change up for years. It doesn’t look so tricky now because Hoffman’s fastball barely goes above 85 mph. The two pitches are too close in speed. Now his soft stuff isn’t fooling big league hitters. This spells trouble for the San Diego.
With all the lefty starting pitchers now in the AL Central, A’s hitters Eric Karros, Bobby Crosby, Dye, Bobby Kielty, Eric Byrnes, and Damian Miller will need to step up when the team plays Minnesota, Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland 18 times during May.
Don’t underrate the Indians three lefty starters Cliff Lee, Jason Stanford, and CC Sabathia. They all can dominate. Now, if they just had a closer, they’d be a tough team to beat.
After watching Houston’s closer Octavio Dotel pitch the last two weeks, I’d flip Dotel with set up man Brad Lidge because Dotel seems too inconsistent to survive the ninth inning pressure cooker.
Don’t you just love everything Marlin pitcher Dontrelle Willis does on a baseball field. Six hits in a row, shut out pitching, sliding at the plate to beat a throw, and then blasting a home run in Puerto Rico.
The game comes easy to this likeable young man.
Baseball finally got it right 57 years after Jackie Robinson’s debut. From now on, baseball will recognize April 15th as Jackie Robinson Day.
See even Bud Selig gets it right once in a while.
0 comments
There were 3 games on the tube last night that were
absolutely terrific. Pitching dominated 2 of the games. Jason Schmidt and Odalis Perez were locked up in a tight duel and Schmidt looked great although his fastball did seem to rise a lot on the high side. Giants against the Dodgers.
Tim Hudson was again dominant for the second straight
game. He is pitching as he did before he got hit on the hand last year. The Angels have some boppers who can do damage and if their pitching holds up, they will be formidable. Another Bay Area vs Southern California rivalry.
The most famous and rabid rivalry in all of major league baseball took place at Fenway Park last night.
I wish that every baseball fan could experience a Yankee-Red Sox game. The fans in Boston have been salivating for this game for 6 months. The
adrenaline is flowing. Managers and players get caught up in the excitement. Tim Wakefield threw
a 69 mile an hour fastball and had the Yankee hitters
baffled. The Yankees were not at their best on defense and that cost them 4 runs in the 1st. Manny Ramirez and Scott Williamson added to the drama
Manny Misplayed an easy flyball and Scott walked the next 2 batters. The Yanks have an all-star lineup and will do major damage all season long. David ortiz misplayed a foul ball in the 9th but the Sox dodged a bullet. Round 2 today with Schilling going
against Mussina. I sure wish I had a ticket.
Jerry F
The pen was absolutely brilliant last night for the A’s. What a ballgame. Mecir’s screwball looks fanstastic this season and Rincon’s slider is much better than last season’s too. Ricon seemed to be hanging 50% of his sliders last season. Last night all three of his were superb. Hopefully, the pen’s performance last night is a glimmer of what’s to come all season from those two.
Marty, Macha certainly didn’t seem to have any faith in Harville, even after Harville’s very good spring. Macha deserves some blame for not giving Harville more of a chance and showing what kind of asset he could possibly be for the A’s this season. On that note, Macha doesn’t even seem too comfortable with the Duke. He has only used him once this season. Instead, he has been using Hammond? Why?! Hammond hasn’t shown he can pitch more than one inning effectively. Run Duke out there already. Hopefully, Harden comes around. If not, I hope the A’s dont take too much time in sending him down to Triple A to work on his stuff.
-Mike E.
HELLO MARTY
YOUR BATTER UP COLUMN IS GREAT, I REALLY ENJOY IT AS YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH. YOUR SO RIGHT ABOUT CLOSER TREVOR HOFFMAN, HE IS THROUGH, COOKED, STICK A FORK IN HIM, SHOULD BE RELEASED. A PET PEEVE OF MINE ON SOME MAJOR LEAGUERS,WHEN ON BASE FIRST OR SECOND GETTING A LEAD THEY GET BEHIND THE BASE LINE INSTEAD OF RIGHT ON A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE ADVANCING BASE, NEXT TIME WATCH A RUNNER WHO IS ON SECOND BASE, HE WILL BE ALMOST AS DEEP AS THE SHORT STOP IS PLAYING,
WHY?. WHEN AS RUNNER ON FIRST BASE AND THE FIRST BASEMAN IS NOT HOLDING HIM ON AND IS PLAYING WAY BACK, THE RUNNER SHOULD HAVE THE SAME LEAD OFF FIRST BASE, THIS IS THE ONLY TIME A FIRST BASE COACH EARNS HIS SALARY, WITH IS BACK PARTIALLY FACING THE HITTER HE IS WATCHING THE FIRST BASEMAN IN CASE OF A PICK OFF BETWEEN HIM AND THE CATCHER. AS I WATCH THE GAMES OF TODAY, THE RUNNER HAS A SHORT LEAD, BRUTAL.
REPEAT, YOUR STORIES ARE GREAT, TAKE CARE AND MAY GOD BLESS,
SINCERELY,
RAY C. MALGRADI
a must read is a book on the pcl by mr ray malgradi.
Thanks ray
Jerry f
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