He has Micah Owings for run support.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/...os=all&minip=0

I have watched baseball for almost 40 years and my favorite three pitchers of all time are:

1. Greg Maddux
2. Tom Seaver
3. Bob Gibson

One of the reasons I have always loved and still love Maddux is that he went the whole month of August without giving up a walk (6 GS).

I frickin love Greg Maddux. He was the reason I adopted the Braves as a second team for awhile... and then dropped them when he left.

I hated Maddux on the braves but have mellowed a bit.

:(

No respect.

The case of Micah Owings just makes me furious about the stupid conventions of pro baseball.

This guy should absolutely be a two-way player. He was an accomplished first baseman and cleanup hitter at the highest level of college baseball and obviously is one of the better hitters on the light-hitting Diamondbacks. At the very LEAST he should be hitting 5th or 6th when he pitches. It only makes sense. Batting him higher up will get him an extra at-bat now and then since as a pitcher he'll usually be out by the sixth or seventh. Arizona SHOULD be aiming for this.

But no. He hits ninth like any other pitcher and otherwise doesn't play. Stupid.

I didn't know who Owings was, but then looked at his stats... that's cool. He can hit pretty good (OBP isn't very high, but his AVG is nice), and is a servicable pitcher.

Dola,

Are there any others like him right now? When was the last time someone was good both ways?

Well, you have to admit, a rally like that is much more impressive against a team whose bullpen doesn't cough up the leads its offense gives it.

Neve Campbell. Wild Things.

Never heard of him, or the team.

Oh.

Milwaukee briefly used Brooks Kieshnick as both a few years ago, but he was pretty bad all around.

Here in New Orleans I watched Owings play college ball. He is certainly not a great hitter at the major league level, but I believe that, right now, if he played full time, he'd hit somewhere around .240 with 20-25 bombs. Not outstanding numbers, but on that team, he's a 6-hole hitter. I just don't understand why they don't take advantage of him, because a genuine two-way threat enables you to keep an extra reliever, which would lessen the burden on your entire bullpen over the course of a season. It's such a waste to just hit him 9th when he pitches and that's that.

Chin Ding Dong...no hitter thru 6.

Chien-Ming Wang... I'm glad it's not on TV I hate watching no-no's in action! :rolleyes:

I must not be watching enough Baseball Tonight this year because I had no idea about Micah Owings. Why not have that guy play some games when he's off? .280, 4 hr, 12 rbi, ops over .900, only ~50 ab's... why not?

Actually, the Nationals bullpen is it's strongpoint. (Just did a quick search and all I can find is that the Nats lead the NL for July)

Owings is a pitcher with pretty solid upside. He's not going to be a star, but should be a very valuable pitcher and at 24 you don't risk injury sending him to the outfield or to the plate more often than you really need to.

Yes, you would get more value out of the roster spot, but the guy would probably put up a line similar to .240/.290/.410 (pulled out of my ass, but it would look something like that at best). No GM in his right mind would risk getting fired trying to stretch out an extra bullpen slot on a guy that would post a .700 OPS

Brooks Kieshnick sucked, if he got hurt no one was losing their job. Its easy to take risks with guys that are borderline major leaguers, but you don't take risks with young pitchers.

Personally I believe if Owings actually worked on his game he would be a pretty good hitter. My guesstimate was based on what he would hit now, having not worked much on hitting over the last two years.

Nevertheless, I realize it's a pretty far-out strategy, and lord knows everybody in baseball is scared shitless about taking a risk. But I do think at the very least he needs to be hitting 5th or 6th for Arizona right now when he pitches.

espn.com with the quality link text:

# Yankees wave magic Wang and sweep Red Sox

That is such a great headline :D. And I hate the Yankees.

Great game, from a baseball fan's view, today with the Mets and Phillies. However, as a Mets fan, what a blow. Howie Rose said it best by saying it was a must win before the game even started, but after erasing leads of 5-0 and 8-5 and taking a 10-8 lead, multiply that "must win" idea by 100.

...The nats bullpen had the best bullpen ERA in the NL in July, that is.

Jeebus - John McLaren is actually making me miss Mike Hargrove. Can we just hire a monkey with brain damage to run the team - I'm not really sure I'd notice the difference...

LOL! Mariners lose their 6th straight on a walkoff walk and they're now tied with the Yankees in the loss column. Yankees have a 1 game lead because they have 2 more wins. The September 3-5 series between the two is going to be huge. Yankees will have Clemens, Wang, and Hughes throwing against the M's and it'll be at Yankee Stadium so hopefully after that series, the Yankees have a little cushion.

Gil Meche was probably the only Royal in the dugout thinking "oh crap" after they thumped the Twins for 9 in a sloppy game 1 of the doubleheader.

SI

Also, since ESPN or no one else wants to report it (except MLB.com), might want to check out Twins/Royals. Meche with quality start number 18 (of 29), provided he gives up no more runs the rest of the way, now that he's in the 7th. Gil, not the story, tho.

SI

Top 8, 1 out, Scott Baker throwing a perfect game for Minny. ESPN broke in just before this last out.

ESPN just switched over from the Washington-Syracuse game.

Man, that pitch to Butler was just wicked.

SI

On the Royals broadcast, Bob Davis has been mentioning the perfect game since the 5th, as if he could singlehandedly jynx it.

SI

I don't really know much about Baker besides his numbers from this year. Was he considered a big time prospect at any time?

He and Garza as well as Liriano have been pretty highly touted for Minny for quite a while as I've heard all 3 names for a couple of years. But a Minnesota fan could tell you more, I'm sure.

SI

Saw he had an 8 inning, 4 H, 0 run game a few weeks ago...

Was considered a pretty solid prospect up until last year or so. He bombed pretty big in the majors last year and was sent back down until a month or so into this year. Still considered pretty decent, but not a top of the rotation guy.

I really wish they were showing us the top of the 9th just for the atmosphere, especially with this shit UW-Cuse game being in a FUCKING CHALLENGE REVIEW.

Here we freakin' go!

Rece Davis is just dying to jinx this thing.

OH, my. Don't go down this way, bud.

Someone's a little tight. Gotta swing away at this 3-0 pitch.

FUCK!

Damn.

Final score prediction:

Royals - 6
Minnesota - 5

That ump needs to call that first pitch a strike, I don't care. That bastard.

Come on double play ball.

It did look pretty good to me.

Fuckin blooper.

Jeez

Mike! In his first AB back in over 2 months. Still, I wanted to see a perfect game...

SI

He's baaack! http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns