Depressing game in San Francisco headed to the bottom of the 9th. Please, Giants...make it worth watching for your fans.

Two homeruns tonight for Big Daddy Vladdy, who looks much more like himself right now than he had been most of the year. The second one put the Angels in the lead (they're trying to wrap it up right now)--and was also Vlad's 400th HR in his career.

Congrats Vladdy!

Grads Vlad! I've always been a huge fan of his. More people need to go gloveless.

Thanks to serious hometown cooking.

But yes, still a great game.

Ha. Rick Porcello with the bodyslam of Kevin Youklis after a decent bench clearer.

Youklis is such a bitch.

This "Mitch Williams" impersonation by Lidge is getting old.

Interesting discussion on MLB Trade Rumors: If Barry Zito were to be claimed, do the Giants just let him go a la Rios?

Logically, for the long term, they would. But, they are in a fight for the WC spot, probably won't have Johnson back as a starter this season, and do not have any internal candidates to fill Zito's role. Zito has been a reliably average to above average NL starter this season -- nothing special, but a guy that gives you a chance to win every five days.

Without any hesitation, you have to for the reasons below (from Cot's Baseball Contracts):

• 10:$18.5M, 11:$18.5M, 12:$19M, 13:$20M, 14:$18M club option ($7M buyout)
• option vests with 200 IP in 2013 or 400 IP in 2012-13 or 600 IP 2011-13
• if 2014 option vests, Zito may opt out & receive $3.5M buyout
• full no-trade clause

That contract is so awful, you have to let it go. Hell, if I were a Giants fan, I'd pray the Dodgers claim him just to screw them over so that poison pill (almost $100M left!) keeps killing for years

SI

Yeah -- I think you'd have to let him go. But, in a tight race, replacing him with a below average starter for 8-10 more starts down the stretch could cost you the postseason. He obviously isn't anywhere near worth the money he is making, but has a fair amount of value for the Giants in their current situation.

But, at the end of the day, it's $100M which is crippling your team for the next 5 years.

SI

Not only do they let him be claimed, they send him on a private jet with a a bottle of fine wine and some cuban cigars for the other team's GM. A handwritten thank you card would be a nice touch as well.

That was so awesome and then Mitch Williams calling out Youk for trying to intimidate a 20 year old. Nice.

The Chisox would probably claim him...

The Brewers suck. Maybe I belong in the drunk thread, but that's the only way I've been able to watch them lately.

- Youkilis, why are you throwing the helmet?
- Porcello, if you can bodyslam him, why are you running away?
- DET infield, where are you when your pitcher is being chased?
- Oh hi Ryan Raburn, nice try, but learn how to judge an angle.
- Youkilis will (and should) be suspended, but anyone trying to say that was unintentional is a joke. Umpires should have issued warnings after Martinez was thrown at in the 1st.
- Edwin Jackson, seriously, relax.

I think the umpires deserve some blame. After what happened the night before, players should have been warned in advance. They kept letting guys get pegged and thrown inside on.

They'd have to let him go. Bumgarner isn't ready yet(and he looks like a stud, but a mid 2010 one). I guess they could pick up a Doug Davis type maybe, and be okay.

And Swaggs...you see how Tabata and Alvarez have been raking lately?

ETA:Next June.

Yeah, it has to be intentional. Just like earlier this year (for reference: see Beckett vs Abreu).

Isn't that former Cubs rookie of the year? He's about ready to make his way back into the majors now?

No, that was Henry Rowengartner.

I thought he sold popcorn?

Looking at the clip from that fight on MLB.com, I actually think the pitch that started the fight was unintentional. You can see Porcello basically look at the sky like "oh, crap" after he let it go but I wasn't watching the game and didn't have the temperature of the situation. Later on in the clip, they show Leyland and Francona talking a lot and I have to think that was a "we didn't do that" tho there's also the possibility that they were essentially negotiating a cease fire. Plus, didn't Porcello already get retallation with Martinez so it would have been the Red Sox turn to respond in kind?

Yeah, and really bitch move, throwing the helmet. But where the hell are you, Detroit catcher? You're supposed to make sure the batter doesn't get to the pitcher.

SI

I wouldn't call it running away, it was actually the very smart move. Backpedaling allows you to counteract all the momentum someone has when they're sprinting at you for 60 feet, which allowed for the eventual hip toss.

Youk looks like a bitch. I'm embarassed to have him on my fantasy team.

I like the old Farnsworth way of handling guys charging at you.

Please do not bring up Farnsworth-Affeldt :(

SI

Sadly, I have to agree. Maybe Youk ran out of gas at the end, but that was pretty sad. If you're going to cost your team 5+ games (maybe more with the helmet toss), you can't deflect off of a skinny 20 year old like he's a brick wall.

While searching for a video of the takedown last night shortly after it happened, I came across this clip which I never heard about it before and figured I'd share in case others were in the same boat. Too bad Porcello isn't a 12 year old.

Yeah, I love me some Jews in baseball :), but Yooook is a little bitch. Plus, it's not like he hovers over the plate with 10 lbs of armor.

I only saw the replay of the incident, but it did look like Porcello didn't mean to hit that bitch Youkilis. I don't know for sure as I didn't watch the game.

The worst part of all this is that the damn Tigers lost another friggin' game to the Sox. Can you guys win one fucking game in Fenway for crying out loud???:banghead:

Don't worry, I'm sure another favorite team of yours will be playing them soon enough.

Yeah probably. Doesn't matter as long as the Blowsox lose.

lol, just saw this.


Everytime I see a baseball "brawl" it convinces me further that there isn't a baseball player out there whose ass I couldn't kick.

except David Wright of course.

Sabathia would just sit on you. Game over.

Nolan Ryan can still kick your ass, ask Robin Ventura :p

So the Red Sox Tarzawa pitched well last night 5 IP 4 hits and 6k. So hopefully between him in the 4 spot, Wake coming back taking the 3 spot and Buckholtz as the #5 we can keep our shit together. I have zero confidence in our Dough Boy Dice K. Anything we get from him is bonus.

I can totally see all of the WC contenders kind of falling over each other down the stretch. It's pretty crazy for the Sox to still be 1.5 up in the WC despite how they've played. They won't have to be all that good to get in.

Bill Hall designated, JJ Hardy optioned, Escobar called up, Bill Castro fired. Like a Soviet Union style purging going on in Milwaukee.

How Jason Kendall was not a part of the purge is beyond me. But all were overdue moves.

I agree. But if the Sox catch fire, they could certainly have a shot at the division.They are 5 1/2 out and if they can gain a game on the Yanks in the next two vs the Tigers and sweep the Yanks in Fenway they will be just a 1 1/2 half out with still 45 to play , we can dream can't we:) I think their only chance of going to the series is winning the East doing that since I do not see them being very competitive in the Yankees' launch pad of a stadium.

The game before Magglio got hit, so Youk was hit. Last night Magglio gets hit again, V-Mart gets thrown at up and in, takes a few steps toward Porcello and the umpires for some reason don't give out warnings to both teams. Next inning Magglio leaves the game to get X-rays on his hand and Youkilis gets hit 1st pitch. I don't condone Youk's pussy helmet throw or leaning over the plate (they really should cut down on the armor allowed), but Porcello had hit 1 batter all year, then just happens to hit Youkilis square in the back 1st pitch? And like you said, it should have been on the Red Sox to make the next move, plus Youk getting hit 2 nights in a row that I suspect provoked the reaction.

It's not just the catcher - look at Raburn coming in from first and whiffing on his intercession attempt.

MikeD - I'll see your Nolan Ryan and raise you an Izzy Alcantara :)

Both Youk and Porcello got 5 games. Youk won't appeal and will start serving suspension tonight.

Here's a thought - if I'm a MLB manager I tell my guys "if you get hit YOU don't rush the mound. if you get hit and it's worth it, we'll send the last guy on our bench running out of the dugout to rush the mound for you."

that way instead of suspending someone like Youk who's really been one of the only players still hitting you suspend some backup who wasn't going to play anyway.

why don't the managers do this?

Well considering there's really no point to rushing the mound, since 99 times out of 100, none of these pussies actually fight...not sure what that would accomplish.

Because only Ozzie Guillen is crazy enough to admit it's premeditated violence.

What Izzy pulled off was the most premeditated, genius move of all time.

The batters need to use the "Juan Marichal" technique.

Wow some dick Cubs fan threw a beer on Victorino as he was catching a fly ball.

Asshole Chicago fans strike again. Classless fuckers.

Really? A guy with the handle "EagleFan" and a fan of all things Philadelphia calling a fanbase classless?

it'd accomplish that your better players don't get stupid suspensions

I doubt the "better players" are thinking straight at the time.

At the cost of getting you and whatever "scrub" you sent out there suspended for a loooooong period of time.

One cool result of the Youkilis ejection - Mike Lowell was the first substitute to have a multi-homer game since Joe Foy in 1967.

I just saw the Victorino/beer incident, what a moron. I laughed when I saw the Phillie fan throwing popcorn at the Cubs fan being dragged away.

i suppose. but that's why you have a farm system and bench players

Some random scrub out of the dugout probably only makes the league min and isn't likely to want to give up the 25K or so the 10game vacation would cost

eh, so you get creative with his compensation package

And consider the GM probably gets suspended, too.

If a "star" doesn't want to get plunked, fill in the next douche who plunks you and they'll think twice about wanting to be victim number two.

If it was simple as just telling Youk not to charge the mound, then they'd tell him not to charge the mound.

In the heat of the moment, he does something stupid. Even if you had a whole scheme setup where someone else charges the mound, Youk would have just run alongside him, because he was pissed off. He didn't care about the consequences.

Pretty much the best we can hope for from Pedro, however, Hamels needs to get his f'in head on straight for the remainder of the season.

He looked pretty gassed in that 5th inning.

Atlanta is now 19-10 in the post-Frenchy era. It's a shame he wasn't dealt earlier in the season.

To be fair, maybe there wasn't anyone dumb enough to make a favorable trade with until then. Some of the proposed deals I saw before that made it look like we were just gonna get another Francoeur back.

The Royals released Ryan Freel. I'm not sure why the acquired him in the first place. I don't see why you go down that road when you're as bad as the Royals. Let those ABs go to a kid who might develop, which I guess they're doing now with Anderson.

Francouer before the trade: .634 OPS, 32 R's, 35 RBI's, 46 K's in 304 AB's
Francouer after the trade: .814 OPS, 12 R's, 20 RBI's, 13 K's in 111 AB's

Church before the trade: .707 OPS, 26 R's, 22 RBI's, 22 K's in 202 AB's
Church after the trade: .835 OPS, 14 R's, 10 RBI's, 9 K's in 62 AB's

Yeah I can't say I've been disappointed by Francouer. Low expectations of course, but at least he can play everyday.

And lest anyone be confused, I just threw those numbers out there figuring I wasn't the only person who didn't know what they actually looked like versus what they sort of kind of figured they were.

The benefit to the move for the Braves comes not only in the clubhouse but also in the batting order with Church hitting in the bottom of the order while Francouer was still getting AB's nearer the heart of the order. Plus at about the same time the switch from Johnson to Prado really kicked in, so there was more than one thing going on to improve the Braves performance at the time of the trade.

Even though the Braves essentially got a Francouer-ish type player in return, it helped that he was left-handed so we had someone who could platoon with Diaz. Plus, if Anderson needs a spell, we don't lose a lefty bat in the lineup.

btw, did anyone else see Anderson turn on the pitch last night for his HR. His game has slipped, but that batspeed and his wrists were unbelievable.

I'm not above saying I told you so to Braves fans. ;)

I said in April and May that GA doesn't even start to show up until the second half, but once he does, he's generally a pretty productive player. No star or nothing, but not a guy you are pissed at having in the lineup at least.

But, boy, do I know the frustration of watching him play in April and May and waiting until the weatehr heats up.

He's still the laziest looking player I've ever seen, with the most lackadaisical approach to base running & defense. If any player ever needed greenies ...

edit to add: And he's still less productive for the year than the departed Kotchman.

Yeah, that's always been the hang on him, that he is so lazy looking and acting. Biggest regular complaint us Angels fans had about him, which is why the fanbase was always a little ambivalent about GA, even when he was an MVP candidate in the early 2000s.

I haven't looked at the numbers. How are you defining productive? I was at the Dodger game on Sunday and got an eyeball glance at GA's numbers and they topped what I recall Kotch having, but I am talking the basics here, not the saber stuff, and only hitting. But you don't need to tell me about Kotch, I always liked him when he was here. I still don't much understand that trade from either perspective (Braves or Red Sox).

Looking at his numbers for the first time myself, the .315 OBP sticks out to me as unproductive.

Garret Anderson: 97 OPS+
Casey Kotchman: 102 OPS+

So Anderson isn't even above average in production this year.

dola

And Anderson is only 104 OPS+ for his career. That's much lower than I thought.

He isn't that great of a player, but at least he appears decently in the field (I haven't looking at UZR and range factor numbers, so that's a totally subjective opinion).

He's always been limited with respect to sabermetric stats because he's almost aversive to talking walks. He was always a straight contact guy. Fit right in on the Angels of course. Most years, he was lucky to break 30-40 walks, IIRC.

Defensively, at his peak, Anderson was always a functionally solid but usnpectacular fielder. Fans around here always suspected he could reach more balls, but that was based on the notion they think he's not giving 100%. No one in baseball seems to think he doesn't give 100%, though, that his "lazy look" is just the way he is, a quiet guy who is very methodical, doesn't start anywhere fast, but he gets there, sorta thing. He played CF pretty well one year when Erstad was hurt most of the season, too. I would presume he's slower now, since he has had some leg problems the past few years (and he's older, of course).

If you throw out sabermetric stats, he doesn't hit well enough to offset it either (career .296 BA).

Hell, Alfonso Soriano doesn't talk walks either, but he's a career 114 OPS+ hitter and has got some speed.

You made me curious, so ...
Garret Anderson Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

He's a bit below league average in RF this year (1.83 to 1.96), but it's been worse in previous seasons & he hasn't been league average since 2003. The Rtot(Fielding Runs Above Average) stat is positive though, so it seems to point to his decreased range being offest by better than average fielding of the balls he does get to.

So to sum it up..

Garret Anderson has the work ethic of Manny Ramirez and the skillset of Dante Bichette

Depends on when you're measuring, I would think. In his early years and since about 2003, GA's been more of a CON guy, less power although he was usually pretty solid driving runs in. But no one from around maybe 1999-2003 would have turned down his production. I would imagine his OPS+ was higher during those years. He probably hit well enough to offset it then, and that's assuming you need to value that (not every baseball personnel guy is a saber guy).

He also almost never missed a game from 1995-2003 or so. It was strange when he became injury prone, because us Angels fans had been so used to his consistency.

Pretty close to the mark. OPS+ above 100 from 1999 through 2004 (104,103,104,127,131,104) but then only above 100 once since then 2007 (114), but remarkably consistent since 2004 (97,94,114,97,97)

What was the big deal with Halladay again? Lee is now 3-0 allowing a whopping total of one earned run a game.

Tired of Snell yet dawgfan?

Way too early to judge him in Seattle. The Yankees make a lot of pitchers look bad, and his last start he was getting jobbed on a regular basis by the umps - check the gameday on MLB.com and see how many strikes were called balls by the umps.

Obviously I want to see better results, but I'm not ready to write him off.

Can't believe the Reds got rid of Gonzales. It won't make any difference this year and the guy they got from the Red Sox probably won't make it to the majors, but at least Jocketty won't pick up his option for 2010.

Now if only the Reds could find a taker for Willy Taveras, I might regain some faith in the front office.

yay we get AGon back!!! He makes me happy.

Nice to see the Pirates playing competitive.

17-2 cubs.

ugh.

MLB really needs to look at scheduling less minor league teams next year.

4th time this season Greinke pitches when the Royals get shut out. He drops his ERA to 2.33 but gets no run support and gets the no decision.

SI

3rd game-winning homer allowed by Rafael Soriano in his last 8 appearances for Atlanta.

Felix Pie hit for the cycle, and felt he had to apologize to Mike Scioscia, who was upset that Pie celebrated. Chris Tillman also picked up in first big league win. Nights like those show hopefully they'll be good.... Eventually.

Eventually will probably be much sooner than you think. The Orioles offense is decent to begin with and will only get better as guys like Wieters and Reimold really put things together. The starting staff will be very good in a couple years with starters like Guthrie, Tillman, Matusz, Hernandez, Arrieta, Erbe and Britton. The future is bright in Baltimore. I think they'll be very good in 2011.

Absolutely, just have to hope they pan out. Bergesen and Hernandez have done good, while Matusz and Tillman have shown they can be good. Brandon Snyder can hopefully take over at 1st next year, and Josh Bell (who they got in the "Flat Breezy" trade) can take over for Mora at some point.

They need to put Pie in left field, trade Luke Scott, and put Reimold at DH.

I think their better with Reimold in left and Pie coming off the bench. I'm not sold on Pie. Snyder will play 1B next year. He's come a long way from a Virginia SS and all those injuries in the low minors. I guess the one thing Baltimore really doesn't have are outfield prospects after Reimold but I guess they're ok with Jones in CF and Markakis in RF. :D The middle infield is kind of barren, too. Ryan Adams is just now putting things together at Frederick.

Crazy 9th inning for the Red Sox/Rangers last night. I still have no idea why Terry Francona would pinch run Buchholz for Varitek both after Varitek got on base and after he had Woodward attempt the bunt. I can understand the pinch running, I just don't understand the placement. But then Francona/Buchholz get bailed out by 5 straight hits with 2 outs. Could be the difference for the Wild Card.

Been seeing stories lately how the Nats still haven't signed Strasburg. What happens if they can't sign him? I probably should know this, but I don't.

/tk

He goes back to the draft next year and Washington gets the #2 pick in the draft next season.