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Daily Roundup, 06/13/11

Lots of off days today. Not the most interesting of days, either. But we are still here!

– Zach Duke has as many home runs as Derek Jeter and Jason Bay.
— Duke homered off Ricky Nolasco.
— By the end of the fourth inning in Diamondbacks/Marlins, three different pitchers had extra-base hits.

– The Yankees had bases loaded, nobody out in the first inning of their game. They didn’t score.
— They lost 1-0.
— Cleveland is 2-9 in their last 11 games. Both wins were 1-0 Carlos Carrasco wins.
—- This 1-0 pitchers’ duel was the result of a Carlos Carrasco/AJ Burnett matchup, by the way.
—– Florida also had bases loaded, nobody out today, and didn’t score.
—— Chris Perez, Cleveland’s closer, had a 5.0 K/9 coming into tonight’s game. So of course he struck out the side against the Yankees.

– Speaking of shutouts, the only team in baseball that hasn’t been shut out yet is the Astros.
— Speaking of the Astros and closers, Brandon Lyon since April 23: 7 IP, 16 H, 14 ER, 5 BB, 4 K.

– Brandon Wood home run against the Mets, whose pitching has been really good of late.
— Vernon Wells also homered.
— ETA: He just homered again! And he’s playing in Safeco tonight.

– The Tigers had 11 hits, and only two runs.
— They won.

– h/t @truebluela, Andre Ethier has only three home runs in his last 46 games at Dodger Stadium, but is still hitting a very good .305/.389/.425 over those games.

Because of the short slate and roundup tonight, here’s a random link to a pretty cool summary I found of a rather memorable game (don’t click, Mariners fans). And sure, Cleveland in 2001 was no pushover – but they did this against a 116-win team.

Daily Roundup, 06/12/11

– The Red Sox have scored thirty runs in their last two games. I know they have a good offense, but THIRTY! In TWO GAMES!
— They outscored the Blue Jays 35 to 6 and outhit them 46 to 12 in their just-completed sweep.
— Hey, at least Bautista homered again, I guess?

– The Yankees had 18 hits today. None of them were home runs.

– Inside-the-park home run for Evan Longoria.
— Home run, period, for Dan Uggla. Bizarro YCPB.
— James Loney grand slam.
—- That last one was off Ubaldo, to boot.
—– The Rockies scored eight runs against the Dodgers and lost.

– Vin Mazzaro shut out the Angels for seven innings. I know the Angels are not what they were a few years ago, but buhhhh
— He walked five and struck out none, to boot.
— His ERA went down over seven runs.
—- He has a 14/7 BB/K ratio in 18.1 IP this season. Yeah, you read that right.

– The Cubs scored three runs off a Philly starter in the first inning!
— And lost anyway. Okay, okay, sometimes you can predict baseball.

– In the Reds/Giants game, Andres Torres got caught stealing. Then, Miguel Tejada promptly stole a base.
— Miguel Tejada’s still batting second, by the way. And he got IBBed today.
— Nate Schierholtz is batting third, and Aubrey Huff and his 84 OPS+ this year is batting fourth.
—- They won.

– Hey, the Twins aren’t the worst team in baseball any more!!
— Francisco Liriano took another no-hitter into the eighth inning today – after already having a no-hitter this year, in what’s been an overall terrible year for him.
— It ended after a… 35-minute offensive explosion by the Twins.
—- Since June 1, the Twins have gained 7.5 games on the Indians. They’re still nine games back.

Daily Roundup, 06/11/11

– I just turned on Royals/Angels to see a great PA, and a walk, by… Alcides Escobar.

– Mike McCoy – as in the utility infielder on the Blue Jays – pitched a scoreless inning today.
— He had three swinging strikes.
— This inning was against the Red Sox, who scored sixteen runs in today’s game.

– Tim Lincecum struck out the first batter he faced and had a perfect first inning.
— That’s not unpredictable. What was? That batter was the only one he struck out today.
— His line: 4 IP, 7 H, 7 R/ER, 4 BB, 1 K.

– Well, at least he wasn’t Colby Lewis. 1.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R/ER, 2 BB, 1 K.
— Against the Twins.
— Without Mauer, Morneau, Thome, or Span in the lineup.
—- The Rangers, on the other hand, got five-hit in this game.

– In 2009, Javier Vazquez pitched 219.1 IP of 2.87 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and a 1.8 BB/9. He was excellent by any measure. Since then, he’s pitched 219.2 IP of 5.65 ERA (that is a 74 ERA+) with 6.6 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9. Yeah, he had a lot of innings on his arm and he wasn’t young, and 2009 was likely a career year for him. It’s just kinda sad to see.
— and that doesn’t even count tonight’s 3.2 IP, 7 ER disaster. At least he struck out six I guess?

– Hey, every game today except four had at least one team that scored five runs (and one of those games was the Nationals/Padres game, soooo). Slow clap.

Daily Roundup, 06/10/11

– The Braves scored as many runs tonight as they did over their past five games combined.

– h/t @baseballin140 for pointing this out: last night, Placido Polanco made the error that led to the Cubs’ eventual winning run. Tonight, he hit the grand slam that won it for the Phillies. Baseball is pretty awesome like that.

– There were two outs and no one on in As/White Sox, with the White Sox up 5-3, when this happened:
— Willingham walk. To 2B on defensive indifference. Matsui single, scores Willingham. Daric Barton walk. Kurt Suzuki hit by pitch. SCOTT SIZEMORE BASES-LOADED DOUBLE! Now it’s 7-5, with the As winning.
— the As scored 7 runs! 7!
—- and hey, they won a game!!!

– The Rays were no-hit through 5. Did we hop back a year in a time machine?
— W/L is silly, but Jake Arietta, who did it, is 8-3 on a meh Orioles team with an unspectacular 4.48 ERA.

– As long as we’re talking about the Braves and White Sox, before tonight’s game, Atlanta had a 45% stolen base success rate and Chicago, 48%. In case you don’t know, that’s terrible.

– Chris Narveson pitched eight innings of shutout ball against the Cardinals.
— Kyle Lohse remembered he’s Kyle Lohse and gave up 4 ER in 5 IP with three walks.

– Michael Young was 4-for-39 in June before tonight’s game against Minnesota.
— He went 3-for-3 in tonight’s game.
— This was Texas’ first win in eight games at Target Field.

– All kinds of bullpen grossness tonight. The Rockies led 6-0 going into the top of the ninth against the Dodgers and ended up using Huston Street – who allowed two inherited runners to score and gave up a run of his own, and got a save.
— The Yankees had an 11-2 lead after 7, and had to use four relievers to get the six outs to end the game – including Mariano freaking Rivera.
— Kevin Whelan (a Yankee reliever called up today) gave up no hits but walked four in 0.2 innings. Mariano Rivera walked six batters all of 2008.
—- Grady Sizemore struck out swinging twice against Ivan Nova.
—– Actually, Ivan Nova struck out six in seven innings tonight.
—— Robinson Cano walked!

– The Rockies gave up five runs in the ninth. The Marlins gave up four runs in the seventh. The Yankees gave up four runs in the ninth. The Phillies gave up five runs in the eighth (with Roy Halladay pitching).
— All these teams won.

Daily Roundup, 06/09/11

Player A: .257/.324/.305
Player B: .256/.308/.298

Who Players A & B are will be at the bottom of this roundup.

– Cubs/Phillies…
— the Phillies had a three-run lead early.
— Ryan Madson gave up back-to-back home runs to blow the save. Those were the first home runs allowed by Madson this year.
—- One was by Tyler Colvin, who was in an 0-for-33 skid.
—– That home run was actually overruled.
—— Colvin scored the go-ahead run for the Cubs in the eleventh. He got on base originally on an infield single.

– The Braves swept the Marlins in Florida for the first time since 1995 holy whoah. Has it really been that long? The Braves were a great team for a really long time, and the Marlins had some awful years in there.
— The Braves scored seven runs in this series.
— The Marlins are down to 31-30 after their great start.

– The Red Sox swept the Yankees in New York for the second time in a month. They’ve won six in a row in the Bronx – that’s the first time they’ve done that since 1912. No seriously.
— CC Sabathia had given up two hits going into the seventh, when he gave up seven runs.

– Alex Avila had two triples in the Tigers game.
— He’s a catcher.

– Don’t look now, but the Twins won again.

– JOSE BAUTISTA STILL HAS NOT HOMERED IN JUNE ALERT ALERT ALERT AOOOOGAHHHHH
— He has been facing Royals pitching too.

A: Juan Pierre
B: Ichiro Suzuki

Daily Roundup, 06/08/11

– Remember when everyone thought Oakland would win the AL West this year? I mean, it’s obviously not too late, but they’ve lost nine in a row.
— The first six were to the Yankees and Red Sox. Fine. These last three have been to the…….. Orioles.

– Carl Pavano went 7 IP with 1 R against Cleveland and got a no decision.
— Matt Capps blew the save for him, giving up a game-tying home run to Jack Hannahan with two out in the ninth inning.
— Who got the win in this game? You guessed it – Matt Capps.
—- The Twins have won six of seven to pull within… eleven and a half games of Cleveland. Oh.

– The Cubs hit back-to-back homers.
— Carlos Quentin and Prince Fielder hit two home runs.
— Quentin’s team lost.
—- Mostly because of Miguel Olivo, who hit a home run and a tiebreaking double in the Mariners’ game against the White Sox. Honestly, I mention this only to point out his home/road splits from last year – .318/.349/.556 at home, .211/.276/.322 away – and his first half/second half splits from then too – .325/.377/.548 in the first half, .193/.225/.313 in the second.

– Matt Cain won today with a complete game where he struck out 11.
— He also had an RBI double.
— The last out of this game was a HBP that the batter swung at and missed, so, strikeout.

– The Mets scored five runs in the top of the eighth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 6-2 advantage.
— They scored a run off Randy Wolf because he balked. This was the first balk in his career.
— Pedro Beato, who was really good at one point this season, gave up a two-run double to Ryan Braun to cut it to 6-4. Jason Isringhausen, making a nice comeback story for himself, gave up Prince Fielder’s second home run of the game to make it 6-6.
—- In the bottom of the ninth, the Brewers walked off. Against the Mets maybe this isn’t SO unpredictable, but the Mets actually haven’t had a walk-off win OR a walk-off loss this year – before this game. Scoring the winning run was Craig Counsell, who had walked to lead off the bottom of the eighth.
—– Oh, and Ronny Paulino went 4-for-4 in this game with a home run, by the way.

– Derek Lowe had a no-hitter through 6.1.
— This isn’t so much surprising as much as it was broken up by Greg Dobbs.

– The Pirates needed fifteen hits over twelve innings to score three runs, and win.
— Against the red-hot Diamondbacks.
— The Pirates are .500! The Pirates are .500!
—- this with Pedro Alvarez, who I had a prospect crush on and who I still think will be really good, actually putting up a negative WAR. On the other hand, their pitching is killing it, so.

Daily Roundup, 06/07/11

Today was not that interesting, sadly. But there was still stuff~

– The Mariners, who were red-hot, have lost the last two games with Pineda and Felix starting.
— They lost to the White Sox.

– Jorge Posada had his first hit off a lefty in 2011.
— Actually, he had two hits off a lefty, and one hit off Jonathan Papelbon, who was throwing 97 MPH. Posada, who hasn’t exactly been known for his BA this year, went 3-for-3.
— Those hits off a lefty were off… Jon Lester.
—- …who has a WHIP of 2.00 in his last thirty innings.
—– one of those hits was an infield hit.
—— Posada didn’t even start the game.
——- Freddy Garcia had the second-shortest start of his entire career tonight. The shortest was last year – against Oakland.

– Making his MLB debut, Brad Hand of the Marlins gave up one hit to the Braves.
— Braves starter Tommy Hanson walked five in six innings.
— You see where this is going. The Marlins lost, and Hand got the loss.

– Both the Reds and Cubs had ten hits.
— Reds 8, Cubs 2.
— Miguel Cairo grand slam!!
—- Edinson Volquez didn’t give up a first inning run.

– Edinson Volquez wasn’t the only one making his triumphant return from the DL. Vin Mazzaro did too. He gave up 6 ER in 5 IP and his ERA went down.

– The Tigers and Rangers, who have a very good pitching staff, have played two games. The Tigers have 38 hits.
— They’ve won more series in 2011 than they did in all of 2010.

– Cleveland, who has really struggled lately, scored only one run today…
— and won.
— if it’s against the Twins, does it really count?

A Reflection on Drafts, Sort Of

Today was kind of a dull day, and I feel like doing some draft-related stuff instead of the roundup (summary: John Danks finally got a win, and Jose Bautista still hasn’t homered), so here is a sort of unconventional Daily Roundup. Wootah.

– By the top ten picks in the draft, here’s how many are in the Hall of Fame:
#1: 0 (!!! This will change, though; Griffey, Chipper, and A-Rod were all #1 overall)
#2: 1, Reggie Jackson.
#3: 2, Paul Molitor and Robin Yount.
#4: 1, Dave Winfield. (Barry Larkin was also a #4 overall, however)
#5: 0. Horrible bust JD Drew is only 3 WAR behind Dwight Gooden for best #5 overall pick ever, by the way.
#6: 0 (Derek Jeter and Barry Bonds were both #6 overall. So was Gary Sheffield.)
#7: 0 (though Frank Thomas is just waiting for the call)
#8: 0
#9: 0
#10: 0
So of all the top ten picks overall, in the history of the draft (which “only” goes back to 1965, but that’s still a pretty long time), only four have gone to the Hall of Fame. I feel quite confident saying Jeter, Griffey, and Thomas will almost certainly go in, and the others I mentioned here should too, though they might find some issues with ROIDZ! or what have you. (the already-eliminated-from-the-ballot Kevin Brown was #4 overall too. Mark McGwire was #10.) Even when those guys are voted in, however, those numbers are still shockingly low to me.

Along these lines, a random factoid: The best ever 45th overall pick, by bWAR, is Gerald Laird. By comparison, the picks right by that are pretty good. 46 has Rolen and Rollins. 47, Glavine. 48? Cal Ripken Jr. 49 is Beltran, and 50 has Eckersley, Dunn, and Leiter. But #45? Gerald Laird.

Daily Roundup, 06/05/11

– Jose Bautista has not hit a home run in a week O_O
— Albert Pujols hit another home run today – another walk-off home run, to boot.
— on the first day of June, Pujols was hitting .267/.336/.419. He’s now hitting .278/.353/.473.
—- with Pujols at the plate in the bottom of the tenth and the score tied, the Cubs went to… Rodrigo Lopez. (It did not work.)
—– Pujols still has 16 GIDP to lead MLB, but at least Torii Hunter tied him today.

– The Giants got their first hit in their game against the Rockies in the sixth inning.
— Miguel Tejada got that hit.
— the Giants won.
—- Mostly thanks to Ryan Vogelsong. Juan Marichal never had a run of six straight starts where he gave up one earned run or less. Tim Lincecum hasn’t done it. Vogelsong now has.
—– Vogelsong has enough innings to qualify for stats leaderboards now. His 1.68 ERA trails only Josh Johnson’s.

– Brett Anderson has given up 14 ER in his last two starts.
— Remember how he hadn’t given up XBH to lefties since 2009, prior to his last start? Errr, yeah. Today he gave up home runs to Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.

– Ryan Raburn grand slam.
— That’s actually his third career grand slam.
— This happened in the Tigers/White Sox game, where Jake Peavy threw three perfect innings – then gave up six runs in the fourth.

– The Reds are only one game ahead of the Pirates.
— Maybe because the former gave up twenty runs to the Dodgers in two games.
— Chad Billingsley HR!

– In a four game series with the Rays, who can pitch, the Mariners scored seven, seven, two, and nine runs, and won three of four.

– The Twins swept a four game series! The Twins swept a four game series!!!