Seattle is Slipping, Last Weekend Before Break Will be Eventful
I’ll be starting my all star break on Saturday, so the Daily Dish will regroup and return on Thursday July 17th.
But, now let’s talk some baseball.
Last season Lou Piniella was managing the highflying Seattle Mariners. Heading into the 2002 all star break Lou had the lead in the AL West, but the A’s and the Angels were showing signs of life.
Lou realized that his team had some trouble on offense and implored his bosses to pick up another big time hitter, preferably a left fielder.
The brass disagreed, leading to an irrevocable split between Lou and his GM.
Lou now resides in Tampa Bay and brings his lowly Devil Rays into Safeco Field this weekend.
This season the Mariners are off to another good start. Guess what? Even though Ichiro is hitting .350 and Bret Boone looks like an MVP so far, they still have trouble on offense.
Tampa Bay is no great shakes either, but Lou’s team will play some close games with the Mariners starting tonight.
The A’s miss Baltimore’s best pitcher Sidney Ponson who added to his top billing by throwing a complete game against Seattle last night.
The Angels get the hapless Twins for the weekend.
This AL West will tighten up very quickly after the break, you watch and see. Seattle is very much the same bunch Lou analyzed very well at the break last year. Great defense, solid pitching, but an offense that won’t put anyone away, and if the pitching slips they become a very catchable team.
Click below for more!Baltimore can hit the ball. Rodrigo Lopez is capable of keeping the O’s in the game tonight against Tim Hudson. The O’s bullpen leaves much to be desired and the A’s like to win their games against leaky bullpens.
The Orioles have team speed, put the ball in play and have the league’s leading hitter in Melvin Mora. Jeff Conine will hit in the clutch and BJ Surhoff is still playing too.
The A’s should be able to play with Pat Hentgen and Jason Johnson, so two of three seems the worst scenario for Oakland this weeeknd.
Detroit’s starters will be tested this weekend with the Red Sox in town. Mike Maroth is capable, but the Boston offense isn’t the White Sox offense either.
While Boston is in the Motor City, the Yankees go up to Toronto to face the skidding Blue Jays. Doug Davis and Jeff Tam are gone and John Wasdin has been called up for tonight’s start from AAA. Wasdin threw a perfect game for Nashville earlier in the season, but NY is a different cup of tea.
If the Blue Jays turn it on at the plate, they can hurt the Yankees and further tighten this race too. Andy Pettitte pitched his best game in a while against Boston his last time out, so let’s see if his arm is strong enough to hold the Blue Jays down. Toronto is due to bust loose, this may be the weeknd.
Runelvys Hernandez returns for KC tonight against Texas who just swept Minnesota. Texas is one under .500 at home and when this weekend is all over I’ll say they will be at .500 or better. John Thomson had another nice game for the Rangers last night, now if they could only find four more starters they might have something.
So while KC bakes in the heat in Arlington, the White Sox try to return form their offensive lull in Cleveland. The Indians are playing slightly better as of late and after taking the series from NY have a good attitude with Chicago coming in.
A couple of years ago the A’s swept Arizona just before the break and carried that sweep immediately into the second half. Chicago needs a series like that this weekend. With Dan Wright facing Brian Anderson tonight runs do seem likely.
If the AL is serious about winning the all star game Mark Mulder should start the game over Esteban Loiaza who has never pitched a big game in his life.
So no Rich Harden until after the break. Seems like there is a real division among the A’s braintrust on when to give Harden his chance. Sometimes you can carry this matchup thing too far, if Halama matches up so well with Anaheim and Baltimore, what are you going to do with Harden when he does get a chance. Just spot him against teams that Halama doesn’t pitch well against?
I’d just pitch him and see what he can do. If he’ll be ready in a week, he’s ready now, I wouldn’t wait.
As it is, the A’s need to play 45-27 ball to get to the magic 96 mark. This is not the time to waste opportunities to get wins, I’d get Harden going right now, assuming he’s coming up anyway in a week or two.
Arizona juggled its rotation to set up Miguel Batista and Jason Schmidt. The Giants can stumble in Colorado and get away with it. The pressure is on Arizona to win this series to close the gap.
This series will give you an idea of how these teams will battle it out for the rest of the summer. The Giants still have a very good team even with their pitching problems. Arizona is beating the daylights out of everyone around them, now they get to try to close the gap with SF, there is plenty of baseball left, but Schilling, Webb, Williams, Schmidt and Batista will all be interesting to watch over the weekend.
The best matchup may be Barry Bonds and Steve Finley, two guys who have tormented each other’s teams in the past with key homers.
Anyone notice that Pittsburgh has passed Cincinnati and is now only 8 games under .500?
I’m not sure what that means, but it is worth noting.
Funny, but Colorado hasn’t completely gone away yet.
Are the Dodgers going to bring Rickey Henderson in to leadoff?
Matt Morris is still a problem for St. Louis.
Mike Hampton is matched against Mark Prior today. The Braves better hope for rain, that may be the only way to get Prior out of the game.
The Cubs don’t hit much, but they should against Hampton who again isn’t fooling anybody.
Nomo once pitched a no hitter in Colorado. The thin air might help the Dodgers and Shawn Green ( showed signs of life yesterday) get loose.
Randy Wolf against the Mets. Maybe Pat Burrell and David Bell will benefit from seeing the Mets staff.
They say Armando Benitez will be traded any day and Miami is in the mix. Miami needs to go on a nice winning streak before they will spend any more dough this season.
Things will pick up very quickly next Thursday so enjoy the weekend and the break, take a deep breath because the real action starts next week.
See ya then.
0 comments
I am hoping for a sweep of the O’s this weekend to get the A’s into the All-Star break. A big offensive push tonight for Hudson and a rejuvenated Zito on Sunday. Hopefully, his Dad saw something on Tuesday when he pitched. A big series for Piatt and Hatteberg, too.
Rickey to the Dodgers? Why not the A’s ? Still do not understand what is stopping Billy. Rickey comes cheap and is the needed veteran presence. And a big bat will be coming now that Schott said okay to spending $ if Beane can justify it. I see a big 3 way trade with some surprises.
Hey Marty,
I agree with you 100% about the Harden situation. It seems like the decision makers were waiting to see how the series with the Rays turned out. If the A’s lost the series, maybe they would have brought him up then in order to “shake things up”? If that’s the case, then it makes little sense. The A’s obviously have been struggling with their 4th and 5th spots and the offense. It goes beyond an individual series. The team needs to be more solidified now. Thus, they should have brought him up NOW to see if he could help. Who makes the ultimate decision in that? Beane? I think he overanalyzes the matchup thing (his obsession of statistics). Halama was supposed to have good numbers against the Angels and still got rocked. It’s not that reliable, especially if they’re based on a few instances. I have a degree in Political Economy. Does that make me as qualified as Beane to run the team? I’m going to apply for the GM position (sarcasm). Have a great vacation, Marty.
-Mike
Talked with a representative of the Atlantic League today and he told me the Yankees are possibly in the Rickey mix also. I assume the ultimate call on Harden lies with the GM, but all this matchup stuff is what the pitching coach relies on quite heavily on, so who knows? The only people who do know aren’t talking.
Starting on July 19th Shooty Babitt and I will do a new show Inside Baseball Saturday Night on KFRC immediately following Extra Innings every Saturday. We will look at the burning baseball questions of the day as well as analyzing the pennant races with excellent guests. More on this next week.
If you want to comment on things while I’m gone feel free to do it by just posting new comments on this story like we are doing now. I’d like to read them.
Marty
Marty, congratulations on finally getting the after-hours show. I look forward to hearing it.
About Harden (21 years of age), I actually think it’s too late in the season for an appearance. I don’t know if he’s pitched a single big game from high school through his days at Central Arizona JC to Sacramento, and who knows what kind of effect a pennant race would have on him. Harden has electrifying stuff, but if opponents stay patient with him, they’ll see him rack up 100 pitches by five or six innings. Justin Duchscherer, at 25, seems like a better option right now. The pressure won’t be as great as it would be on Harden. Duchscherer already had his big league debut for Texas, and would have a better chance for six or seven.
I think the real question is, will starting every six to ten days disrupt their usual pattern of four days rest? Why not send Lilly to #5 to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near 200 innings, and finally form the “fab five”?
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