Tuesday, June 05, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
Roster Notes
- Shea Hillenbrand is no longer the Angels' full-time DH. Ding, dong, the witch is dead, etc.
- Justin Speier will miss his next start. I'm shocked that the Angels don't miss him, frankly.
- Aaaand the Halos are fudging about Bartolo Colon's next start. Maybe Sunday? Maybe you shouldn't have been so quick to option Joe Saunders back to Salt Lake, or leave Bart on the 25-man?
- Takashi Saito's hamstring problems continue, and he will also miss the Padres series. That's the best-case scenario, according to Grady Little.
- Russ Martin is in third place for the NL catching position at the All-Star game. C'mon, guys, you can do better than that...
- Were they happy to get rid of Armando Benitez in San Francisco? Just ask The Onion, er, Grant...
- The A's are thinking about bringing Rich Harden back as a reliever.
UCLA Cleans Up Dirtbags From Postseason
Long Beach State got knocked out of the postseason on Sunday as UCLA beat them 7-4. The Dirtbags won an at-large berth in the regionals after defeating CSUF the weekend before, but a sweep at the hands of UC Riverside's Highlanders eliminated them as conference champs. Congratulations on a very good year, especially considering the number of kids in the lineup.Jonah Keri: NL West The Best Race In Baseball
And much of it is thanks to the Padres' cheap, cheap, cheap acquisitions. Think of them as the next Moneyball team:The Padres, Dodgers and Diamondbacks are in a virtual tie for first, with San Diego and L.A. owning identical 33-23 records and Arizona just a few percentage points back at 34-24.Start with the Padres. Jake Peavy and Chris Young anchor a loaded starting rotation, ranking first and third in the league in ERA. Justin Germano is attempting to prove that an extreme control pitcher can succeed with a Jamie Moyeresque fastball: He's 4-0 with a 1.74 ERA in five starts since being called up from the minors, with just 10 strikeouts in 31 innings. Germano looks like Nolan Ryan compared to Trevor Hoffman. The Padres' 39-year-old closer is just two saves away from 500 for his career. And as Jerry Crasnick recently explained, he's doing it with just the ghost of his old fastball -- and a changeup that can be as unhittable and unpredictable as a perfect knuckleball. Collectively, the Padres own a team ERA of 2.94. Go ahead and adjust for the spacious confines of Petco Park; that's still obscenely good.
Labels: angels, athletics, dirtbags, dodgers, injuries
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