Friday, June 03, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
God Bless The Kansas City Royals: Royals 5, Yankees 2
On this one day, anyhow, for sweeping the Yankees at home. Buddy Bell may be a lousy manager with a losing record, but for one glorious day, the Royals can walk in the sun, heads held high."We played well. We beat them," Bell said. "We did everything better than they did. That's the reason we beat them."The Yankees' Carl Pavano gave up all five runs, including solo homers to Matt Stairs, his 200th. Does the new manager in Kaycee have confidence in his players?
"You don't even know if Leo [Nuñez] knows much about Sheffield and you hope that's the case," Bell said.Ah, ignorance is bliss. And of course the Royals came perilously close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory yet again as closer Ambiorix Burgos loaded the bases with two out, only to get a little roller from Reuben Sierra.
A Little League team finally beats the Yanks. It's only the first sweep in the last seventy-nine series for the Royals. Sweep dreams, indeed.
Value For Value Paid: Dodgers 6, Brewers 4
The last couple of years, you've been able to see the Brewers start to put it together in the NL Central. No, they're not going to contend this year, but you can see how next year it could happen if the offensive talent in their minors -- and there's a lot of it -- starts contributing at the major league level. Ben Sheets has acted as an ace for them, though not every day does he pitch like one, and yesterday was one such. The Dodgers were able to get more homers from opposition pitching (3) than was the reverse (0) for once; the guys doing it were Kent and Drew, Drew twice. But if J.D. thinks I'm going to let him off the hook for this one-game outburst, he's nuts; his .285 VORPr (rate of VORP accumulation) puts him in the top third of right fielders, but behind guys like Mike Cameron and barely ahead of Bobby Kielty.Rookie Derek Thompson had the misfortune of drawing the ace for both opposing teams thus far. Hence, he got another no-decision, but don't think that means I'm not grateful he was able to keep the team in the game. You wonder whether the kid's being showcased; there's no place for him on the roster after OP and Dessens come back, but then, if the kid can keep doing this, maybe not. He's pitching better than $12.83M worth of Dodger starting pitching right now (Erickson, Odalis Perez, and Jeff Weaver), though his ability to keep doing this remains a question mark. He hasn't given the Dodgers a reason to boot him back to the minors yet, that's for sure.
Gagné's problems continued; he just doesn't have his old heat back, nor his control quite, and it made a big difference. That 67 mph curve doesn't have the same effect when (a) he can't throw it for strikes, and (b) he can't set it up with the hard heater.
Jay Makes The Bigtime
A Jay Jaffe bobblehead? Next thing, he'll be made an MVP or somethin'...Dotel To Have Surgery
Any talk of Beane waving Octavio Dotel as tradebait now comes to a close as the erstwhile Oakland closer undergoes reconstructive elbow surgery."Octavio does not feel he can pitch with the level of pain he was pitching with," A's trainer Larry Davis said Thursday. "Everybody's tolerance level is different. Octavio feels like he's tried long enough. ... He's been throwing a long time and is tired of recurrent tendinitis."It sounds very much like a Tommy John surgery based on this paragraph:
Dotel is missing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, which Davis said he tore at some point. The surgery will entail removing a tendon from elsewhere in his body and weaving it into the elbow area to alleviate some of the muscle strains he's been having.Dotel's contract expires at the end of 2005. He will rehab in Miami.
U.S.S. Mariner on Seattle Pitching Injuries
Extending the excellent work done by Mariners Wheelhouse on the Mariners' questionable health record with young pitchers, U.S.S. Mariner takes a comprehensive look at the injury records of Seattle's pitchers. It would be very interesting to acquire this kind of data for the Angels and Dodgers.Kendry Morales Biographical Article
A new Daily News biographical article on Kendry Morales today. Sample:He left behind a modest lifestyle where, as Morales related, "We had everything we needed."His father, Rafael, was a construction worker who played semi-pro baseball and instilled in his son a solid work ethic. He gave his son a baseball bat and watched the boy flourish.
When Morales, an only child, was 8, his father died of cancer. That left him and Noevia, a homemaker, to piece together a living with the help of a large extended family.
The constants in his life were his loyalty to Noevia, the memory of his father, and his devotion to baseball. Gifted with a strong and fluid swing from the right side of the plate, Morales began switch-hitting as a 14-year-old and quickly rose to national prominence.
By the time he was 19, Morales was a star for the Industrialists of the Cuban National League. He hit .324 with 24 doubles, 21 home runs and drove in 82 runs in 90 games. He broke the league's 30-year-old RBI record and became the first teenager to play on the Cuban National Team since famed third baseman Omar Linares.
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