OK. It looks like there are some stats that show the Angels bullpen to be the "worst", however the important ones, the Nationals are worse.

Nationals 0-8, 3/9 SV, 5.40 ERA, 11 HR, 47 BB, 91 IP
Angels 1-8, 6/10 SV, 7.69 ERA, 5 HR, 36 BB, 81 IP



http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pag...gular.html&t=0

Washington's bullpen ERA is pretty good compared to their save and win percentages.

Heh, I was wondering when something like that would be said (even though you're kidding and have seen what I meant). K-Rod--might--have saved us last night, where Fuentes was just gawd awful. But Fuentes has been one of the better "bad" arms in the pen so far, and has only blown two saves, I think. No, the pen's problem has been the 6th through 8th innings, where every member not named Darren Oliver (and in particular Shields, Arredondo, Bulger) has stunk to high heaven, giving up runs in bunches and blowing away big leads (The Angels' offense has actually been pretty good, even without Vlad).

Oh, and I never said K-Rod would be easily replaced. I just said he would not be missed with how he pitches at times, especially not for the money he was looking for.

I did say the pen would be fine. Silly me, I forgot to take into account that every pitcher in the pen would suddenly forget how to pitch, yuck. :(

Our bullpen is half good and half bad (and Doug Waechter). The 7th-8th-9th inning map seems pretty easy but it just hasn't been...

Player		G		GS		W		L		SV		BS		HLD		CG		SHO		IP		H		R		ER		HR		BB		K		ERA		WHIP		BAA
Robinson Tejeda		7		0		0		0		0		0		1		0		0		8.2		4		1		1		0		9		13		1.04		1.50		.143
Juan Cruz		9		0		1		0		1		0		3		0		0		10.2		5		2		2		1		4		6		1.69		0.84		.147
Joakim Soria		5		0		0		0		5		0		0		0		0		5.0		4		1		1		0		2		8		1.80		1.20		.200
Jamey Wright		9		0		0		0		0		1		2		0		0		13.0		8		4		3		2		3		9		2.08		0.85		.186
Doug Waechter		3		0		0		0		0		0		0		0		0		4.0		5		2		2		2		1		3		4.50		1.50		.294
Ron Mahay		8		0		1		0		0		0		1		0		0		6.0		8		6		5		1		2		9		7.50		1.67		.308
Kyle Farnsworth		9		0		0		3		0		1		0		0		0		7.1		10		7		7		2		4		7		8.59		1.91		.333
Horacio Ramírez		6		1		0		1		0		0		0		0		0		10.0		15		10		10		2		4		6		9.00		1.90		.349
Total						12		11		6		2		7		2		1		202.0		182		89		85		18		78		176		3.79		1.29		.242

SI

Details on Alex Rodriguez's alleged pitch-tipping with Rangers - MLB - SI.com


i'm so done with this douchebag and glad he's not on my team. he's scum

From what I've read and heard about all of the stuff in this book, I'm embarrassed for Selena Roberts. And her comments yesterday that a couple of people's recollections of him bulking up and bench pressing significantly more weight in high school was "definite proof" that he was taking steroids is so unconvincing and ridiculous that she's almost making ARod a sympathetic figure now. I'm wondering if she's going to add a chapter this weekend blaming him for Swine Flu.

Somewhere along the way, sports journalists lost the distinction between reporting rumors of trades, signings, etc., and legitimate proof of allegations against someone. This stuff may be true, but she doesn't seem to have anything remotely resembling proof. To some extent, ARod has brought this on himself by lying, but it just seems like this book is nothing more than an attempt to profit off of piling on a guy everyone is pre-disposed to not liking or believing. I'll pass.

I don't know what the truth is, but I remember writing about Selena Roberts when the ARod steroid thing first broke, and my impressions of her from her radio interview with Dan Patrick (cast iron you know), as well as trying to go directly to ARod's private residence to speak to him (trying to talk her way past guards), and then walking up to him in the middle of a gym to confront him. It just struck me as wrong.

I haven't read anything she wrote, so I don't know if she only has what you're saying or more legit stuff; I can't speak to whether her info is good, or her chain of reasoning is good and well-evidenced. But it's my been my guess for a while now that she will go to some very low lows to get a story, and those type of writers will usually take liberties in their writing as well.

All that said, she popped the steroid thing, and ARod admitted it (at Texas at least). So take it all for what you will.

Roberts also wrote some terrible stuff during the Duke LaCrosse scandal that later turned out to be completely false, but she never owned up to that.

Chan Ho Park and Oliver Perez should get an apartment together.

Then Mets and Phillies fans can combine to blow that shit up.

Manuel should have given Perez a couple of more innings to try to get his shit together, IMO.

lol

As Rob Neyer pointed out in a blog post yesterday, this is par for the course with Oliver Perez. He is who they knew he was when they re-signed him. He's had streches worse than this during the past several seasons. The only difference here is that it's at the beginning of the year, so everyone is harping on it. But's it not like the guy wasn't known for walking way too many batters and having stretches when he would be absolutely brutal. He clearly wasn't worth the money.

I wonder how common that kind of thing still is. It was apparently no big deal in the 60's (per Jim Bouton).

Man. They need to spread this out. Leave some dirt for the rest of his Yankee career.

amen

Verlander has been spectacular today. Hopefully the bullpen can hold it for him.

Getting out of that bases loaded, no out jam was impressive. He seems to be coming around his last few starts. But now Seay, our most reliable reliever, puts two guys on with two outs. Hopefully they get out of this.

Welcome to the AL Central.

Watching the Reds starters do very well is thrilling..... I have never really been able to watch the Reds shut people down... This is a good feeling

Yep. This is a terrible division but all five teams can win it so at least it'll be entertaining.

I understand when a good pitcher has a good game. But, dammit- what is the evil magic that Scott Baker has over the Royals?!?

SI

We just committed highway robbery and stole a series from the Twins, in what's always a house of horrors for us in the Metrodome. Last night, we won an 11th inning game that neither team wanted with a fangraph that looked like a person suffering from a heart attack, it was oscillating so much.

Today, we were getting no-hit through 6 by mediocre pitcher but horrible Royals nemesis Scott Baker. He always makes us look awful. Twins had us at something like an 8% win percentage going into the 7th, down 4-0. Baker then gives up a couple of cheap hits and grooves an 0-2 pitch right into Guillen's zone and suddenly, it's a ball game. By the time the next inning rolls around, Baker had gone from no-hitter to shutout to quality start to loss.

This was just one of those games where as soon as the pitcher loses the rhythm from the no-hitter, he falls apart.

The increasingly less maligned Trey Hillman presses almost all of the right buttons in using a depleted bullpen to hang on for the win, making the best of a lot of bad options. What a series win, stealing 2 of 3 and taking back sole possession of 1st place.

SI

Weird schedules on deck for MLB this week. Almost everyone plays 7 games and they're all in Mon/Tues, Wed/Thurs, Fri/Sat/Sun series. You rarely see two game series for Mon/Tues or Wed/Thurs- it's almost always Tues/Wed with the usual Mon and Thurs off days.

Also, Crawford with 6 SB today?!? WTF

SI

Yeah, that was freaking incredible!!

Also Scott Baker going from almost no-hitter to loss by giving up 5 in the 7th... ouch!!


Oh, and I like C.J. Wilson a lot more now:

Twitter / ISiddiqui: @str8edgeracer Please tell ...

Twitter / C.J. Wilson: @ISiddiqui yes I have. He ...

A baseball player who's read firejoemorgan gets thumbs up in my book :).

Not entirely true. I seem to remember at least one 2 day-2 day-3 day weeks every year, or at least going back for 2-3 years now. I think last year it happened in July, but not sure. Of course, my focus is on the Angels' part of it, so I don't know if it was a league wide thing. But I definitely remember it happening to the Angels, and not the first time.

Well, I know- that's why I said rarely. It's happened before but it's weird to see on the calendar because it's not usual.

SI

FWIW.....The Twinkie fans should probably blame the Royals TV announcers. During the bottom of the 5th inning, the play-by-play announcer mentioned how many times he's seen a no-hit attempt that goes into the mid to late innings result in the wheels coming off when it's finally broken. No sooner than it came out of his mouth, it happened exactly as he had predicted.

Another great series win for the Royals. Royals haven't played great over the past week, yet they still went 5-2 against the Blue Jays and Twins.

Btw, I don't think I'd call Baker a "mediocre pitcher".

I dunno- he's a career ERA+ 97 pitcher. That's not awful but it's not great either. That makes him slightly below league average and with him being young, he could put it together and improve over the next couple of years to be good.

But right now, I'd take him as our #4 or #5 but I'd still rather have Davies (105, 98 the last 2 years) as our 3.

SI

27 games in the Jays are 18-9, 1st in the AL and 3rd in the majors (though unfortunately only 2 ahead of Boston).

Their current rotation is Halladay, Richmond, Tallet, Ray, Cecil. Cecil will become the 9th pitcher to start a game for the Jays this season when he toes the rubber on Tuesday.

That's right, a combined 19 games started after Halladay, with 8 of those coming this season. With the demotion of Purcey, Halladay is now the only pitcher on the team to have started more than 4 games this season.

Now I have a lot of faith in Cito, but I'm really hoping the cavalry comes soon and comes back strong (Janssen, Litsch and Romero shouldn't be too far off, but it will be interesting to see how effective they are and if they can stay healthy). The Jays are 68-46 since he came back last season with the interesting caveat that they were missing some key offensive pieces when he took over last season which just got swapped out for missing pitchers this season.

How did this guy go without a job as manager for over 10 years?

He's a fairly young pitcher who had a 118 ERA+ last season.

Johnny Cueto has been lights out. Edinson Volquez said during spring training that he expected Cueto to eventually be the rotation's #1 starter... and so far this year, it is coming true.

The Zack Greinke show makes another appearance tonight to try to make it 6-0. Upper deck seats are $5 tonight. He'll be going up against Colon and the White Sox tonight. His first outing was against the White Sox, where he threw 6 innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 7.

Tallet looks pretty dialed in right now. I may just watch that game or the Royals game, it will be nice to see a pitcher throw some strikes

Nice game by Tallet, tho it was just like Baker yesterday- as soon as the no-hitter was broken up, the wheels fell off the truck.

Zack looking masterful again tonight. 4 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 6 K- all on 47 pitches (31S/16B). He's faced the minimum due to a caught stealing. Also, he's now staked to a 3-0 lead.

SI

Zimmerman is 4-4 with a walk, 3 R, 2 RBI and has brought his average up to .333.

Dukes is 3-5 with 3 RBI (2 SO, 3LOB)

A good night for the Nationals so far -- a 5 run 6th has done the majority of the work to getting a 9-5 lead in the bottom of the 8th. (2 on, 0 out, top of the order waiting to swing)

Oh, and Zimmerman's hitting streak is extended to 22 games. Finally his batting average doesn't make it look like as much as a fluke.

Yep, The Zackinator has just put the final touches on his 3rd complete game and 2nd shutout of the season against the White Sox and once again leads the majors in strikeouts and ERA while reaching 6-0. Another dominating performance.

This is fun to watch. I haven't seen anyone pitch as masterfully as he has the last month since Maddux was at the top of his game. Beautiful.

Just absolutely sick.

Zack got tired- all but 1 of those in the 9th was hit hard- but still got the shutout. 9 IP, 6 H, 10K, 0 R, 0 BB. 104 pitches, 72 strikes. His ERA dropped to 0.40 on the year and he's pitched every bit of that this season- not a fluke at all. It's just sick.

SI

Yeah, it's been a by-product of the new schedule format that includes a lot of 2-game/4-game series than normal. I'm sure there's a logic to it but it baffles me. The Royals got lucky this time around because they get to come home for a two-game series with the White Sox and Mariners before 3 in Anaheim and 2 in Oakland. Last we had an awful road trip that was something like 4 in Oakland, 2 in Seattle and 2 in Anaheim that looked like it really wiped the team.

So glad for Greinke.

And if you're calculating the Greinke Effect ... last Monday the Royals beat the Blue Jays in front of 9,685. Tonight, 21,843 on had.

Makes me wish I had the time and money to go see him pitch in St. Louis for the all-star game. There's your starter right there.

I would love to be back there to catch a couple of his games and feel that electric atmosphere that I had only ever seen there in 2003

SI

Zack was on his way to stealing Kevin "Planet" Appier's nickname because he's just wired a bit differently. They interviewed him on the post-game show and considering the tough times he went though, he genuinely looks and seems happy right now. He had a big grin on his face that you just don't get in sports often enough. He looked like a kid just enjoying what he did. It's a neat feeling, especially with him.

He'll never look at ease doing interviews and sound very exciting. But two years ago you'd see him do an interview and it looked like he just wanted to fall into a hole and never come out. Now, he looks happy. It's cool to see.

Please bump this thread when Greinke is scheduled to pitch next. I'd like to see if I can watch a game of his on TV (whatever the odds of that are here in Canada).

It will be Saturday night, late, at Anaheim. There's the early warning for now :)

SI

fuckin brewers man, so sick of these fuckers.

I think that was 16 in a row, wtf.

I know it's all random stat shit, but they said on the radio tonight that only 3 times in the modern era has a pitcher had more than 10K's and hit a homer in a 1-0 victory.

Impressive outings all weekend, will be interesting if they can keep it up when they aren't facing a AAAA batting team though.

This offense is BAD.

Oh, and if you were Cueto's dad, would you murder Dusty Baker to save your kids career? I'd certainly be entertaining the thought.

The Cards are coming to town in a couple of days, so we'll find out. Pitching did its job again for the Reds last night, but if you only score 2 runs in 14 innings, you're usually going to lose.

Saw a stat last night on Sportscenter. Pitchers who have started the season 6-0 with an ERA under 0.50:

Walter Johnson
Fernando Valenzuela
Zack Greinke

That's pretty good company.

FWIW......Dayton Moore stated that he wanted to build this team through pitching and build a rotation that had 5 good starters. If we can just hurry up and get Hochaver to the big leagues to replace Ponson (Hochaver's now 5-0 with a 1.13 ERA at Omaha), we've got a heckuva chance at winning this division.

Wow- just saw that in the game recap. That's not cool.

SI

They were going bonkers at every turn last night. People were smiling, leaning forward in their seats, party patio in the outfield was packed. This town has a tendancy to assume the wheels will fall off at some point in each season. They may have no choice but to buy in again and hope it doesn't happen. I'm heading out to the stadium tonight with my daughter.

The fabulous thing about Greinke is he's actually quite intimidating, despite his demeanor off the mound. He's now had five straight starts against the Chicago White Sox where he went head hunting. If you crowd the plate against Greinke, you can expect to get a 95 MPH fastball in the helmet earhole. Quintan gave Greinke a dirty look earlier in the season when he threw an inside pitch. Greinke put the next pitch in the middle of his back. The rivalry between Chicago and KC has really heated up over the past couple of years. It reminds me a lot of the Chiefs/Raiders hatred.

Yeah, that was game 2 where he had an 0-2 count, iirc, and Quentin kept crowding so he hit him. That was sandwiched in a 3 K inning where he had pinpoint control. It was no accident and I'm glad to see someone on our team willing to do that.

SI

I'm glad they had the good sense to bring him back, but..yes...it's pretty interesting that no one else hired him over that time. But then, it's baseball and we sure do love our retreads.

I'm cautiously optimistic at what's going on now and I'm appreciative that the squad is even in the conversation. That's better than we've had in past years.

Zack Greinke ERA+ Update: 1173

No, that is not a misprint. I know it's not going to be anywhere near that at season's end and suffers from small sample size. But, holy crap- just look at it.

6-0
0.40 ERA
0.84 WHIP

45 IP
30 H
3 R
2 ER
54K
8 BB
0 HR

10.8 K/9
6.7 K/BB

(and from Rany: "For the season, his BABIP is also .286. The BABIP for the Royals as a team is virtually indistinguishable at .289. In other words, Greinke hasn’t been lucky this season. He comes by that 0.40 ERA honestly. Honestly.")

SI

12:35pm game today! Nothing like a half-day at work and some baseball! Too bad the weather isn't better.

I always thought the way BABIP was used was you needed to compare it to the PITCHER's own career baseline - as in each pitcher has a BABIP that they tend to regress to. Greinke's is .315 for his career, meaning that he is getting a little lucky. Assuming I understand BABIP correctly, of course.

EDIT: Also, has the defense improved greatly? That could explain a change (I know Crisp is solid in CF).

Frankly, I don't buy Rany's argument but he's Rany so I'll give him some benefit of the doubt.

I thought BABIP averages out to something like .320. The outfield defense is improved but the infield is scary- at least the right side. So, I think Zack's been a little lucky. He does seem to dial it up when he gets in trouble- throw that extra little bit he's been saving up- but that's simply anecdotal and holds no water.

SI

Regardless, it's a remarkable start and we can probably agree that he won't keep up THIS pace all season. Still, enjoy it while you've got it.

Exactly- I know the easy question is "what are realistic numbers from here on out"? I just prefer not to think about it and enjoy the ride :)

SI

Its hard to use Greinke's career numbers at this point because his '05 season was far out of character and caries too much weight at this point (.343 BABIP that year). League average is just under .300 most years.

He is pitching lights out right now, but you don't put up a 0.40 ERA and 1173 ERA+ without a sizable amount of luck. The most obvious place he's had luck this year has been zero home runs allowed. Based on his HR/FB rates from the past 2 years he should have allowed 4-5 at this point.

But as both of you said, its best to enjoy the ride. He sure as hell earned any good fortune he's getting now.

Not as I've seen it. There is an average BABIP, but that also depends on having an average defense.

Honestly, luck goes both ways. Chicago got 6 hits last night. Two of the hits were broken bat loopers that just went over the head of the infielders and three other hits went off the gloves of KC's weak infielders. Chicago really only had one good line drive hit the whole night.

Actually, after thinking about it, I think what I was describing is how to use BABIP to judge a hitter's performance. For a pitcher it should be to league average.

I think there are also exceptions for knuckleballers and extreme groundball pitchers- of which Greinke is neither- but I could be mistaken.

SI

I didn't even know what Marcum and McGowan were up to, other than they weren't pitching right now. Had no idea both could miss the season. :(

It depends on both the pitcher and the defense. The average is around .300. For a pitcher who has enough innings, you can start with their career average and adjust for defense/park effects from there.

Last night definitely had to be pouring salt on the Pirates' wounds.

I'm definitely happy that the Brewers have taken the high road so far after that jackass Jeff Karstens threw at Ryan Braun.

Beating them 16 times in a row is definitely better revenge than throwing at a guy.

Good MLB debut by Brett Cecil today, power lefty for Toronto. 6 innings and 6Ks with one earned run. He did hit 3 guys though, not sure what that was about.

lol, the #9 hitter twice.

Had the 6 K's in the first 3 innings as well. Pretty bizarre seeing a 2-1 game through 5, and 3-2 through 6 turn into a 10-6 final with all the extra runs coming in 1 inning.

Ugly meltdown by Tribe pen...again!

There's a guy pitching for SF named Merkin.

That is all.

He's bush league.

Posada on the DL now. Too bad (teeheehee).

Good enough to K Derrek Lee.

Did he wig out afterwords?

They didn't exchange words that I could see.

I don't really have a problem with a guy throwing at another teams player. Unless it's at the head. A meatball to the back....that's baseball.

Besides, it's not like Karstens throws hard enough to bruise anyways.

I think we basically need to no-hit the Brewers if we want to win one of these games.

Glad things didn't get hairy.

I'd usually agree with you, but I'm not sure what Braun did to deserve it that particular night?

Braun definitely has a reputation for admiring his home runs but I certainly didn't recall any of the Brewers admiring their shots that particular night.

If it is pent up frustration about losing so much to the Brewers, well, who is to blame for that? Win a damn game against them. It seems the past few years the Pirates have had some bad blood for the Brewers (Matt Capps vs. Prince Fielder). From a Brewer fan's perspective, it's akin to a chihuahua nipping at the heels of a rottweiler (based on how the actual outcome of the games have come out).

Padilla is pitching a gem against the Mariners right now.

Curtis Granderson hit 5th today for Detroit with Magglio hitting 6th. Granderson was 1-5 but hit a HR, and the Tigs put up 9 runs in a 9-0 victory over the Twins. Hopefully this stays this way a little bit.

Make it 17 in a row against the Pirates for the Brewers.

LOVE the Yankees' relief staff. Ha!

Honestly... I look at the box score. Who the hell are half of these guys? Actually... who are ALL of these guys? I've heard of a few but for crying out loud, you'd think the Yankees could patch together a relief staff with all the money they have.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox run out Saito as the "other" guy to mop up a 4 run lead so they don't have to use Papelbon.

Good job Mets... bragging rights in Atlanta now (until the next series) :D.

That Delgado drop was beyond awful, though.

LUV IT!!! UNDEFEATED VS. THE EVIL EMPIRE THIS YEAR!

Delgado tried his best to fuck it up :banghead:

Well, if you love irony, Lidge just gave up a home run to Pujols in the ninth inning.

At least the Phillies still have a three-run lead.

Brian Bruney and Damaso Marte are on the DL. I'm guessing you've heard of them.

So they've brought young guys up from the minors who have done well like Melancon and Robertson and Girardi definitely doesn't use them enough. He overuses Veras who is worthless and Albaledjo who has been roughed up of late. I really hope they don't do what all the idiots on ESPN want them to do and move Joba to the bullpen. The pen will be ok when Bruney and Marte are back and the starting rotation gets on track.

Well, yes... but that's over now, and I can refrain from breaking anything ;).

Wow. A suspended game? Bullpens of Houston and Washington alternating implosions before suspension at 10-10 in the 11th.

SI

On the plus side, Phils in first place for the first time this season.

:thumbsup:

Dola - Greinke.

Well, my 2 year old couldn't make it through the whole Royals game last night. We left in the 6th inning after 3(!) hours. I got home and still watched from the 8th inning all the way to the conclusion of the game in the 11th inning. Couldn't believe the number of walks by White Sox pitchers.

As for the new Kauffman Stadium, it's unbelievable. It's hard to believe it's even the same stadium. My daughter rode a few carnival rides, played on the playground, and ate an entire hot dog along with downing a couple of glasses of pop. She loved it. Definitely going to take her back out for some more games this year.

And in case anyone wants to know the going rate for superstar pitchers, Greinke's high school girlfriend/fiance has her own website.......

Emily Kuchar, Miss Daytona Beach USA

Wow. Got into the bottom of the 10th, rain delay. Played into the bottom of the 11th, game suspended. It's going to be completed in Houston in July.

Zimmerman extends his hitting streak to 23 games.