Just how improbable have these last two wins been? Nine walks Monday ultimately caved the Rockies and Tuesday we win behind Yoslan Hererra, Jason Davis, Sean Burnett as a setup guy, Tyler Yates closing, and Luis Rivas going three for four with three rbis.
Yeah, right. Well, hey, wins are wins are wins, no matter how bizarre.
If I’m the Rockies I find an immediate replacement for Brad Hawpe who can’t play a lick of right field, despite his 3-3 night. He might have added a run or two offensively but he gave up more than that defensively. And what was all that baserunning stuff by the Rockies in the sixth – who is on third, where’s the ball, who wants to run. Then we made a couple miscues of our own – did you see Doumit leave his feet lunging to tag out Stewart? What the heck was that all about?
In the end it didn’t matter – we had scored enough runs to hold on and win.
Brutal baseball. You have to wonder where the Rockies hearts are right now with two very tough losses.
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John Grabow’s stock plummeted in front of a ton of scouts, about the same as Wilson’s has the last little bit while scouts have been watching. Some say the best way to a no-trade is…
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I honestly thought we had a chance of raiding the Angels private farm stock with Bay. I had secretly hoped for a Kotchman package thinking he would be a fabulous upgrade to Anderson. I realize Kotch’s numbers look putrid but don’t think for a moment they would remain there in the NLCD. He’s about a year or so from breaking out huge.
The Braves got a fabulous return for a Teixeira rental as long as Kotch stays healthy.
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Doumit/Grabow… Maybin… ??? Don’t laugh. Maybin has had some trouble lately, especially health questions and Doumit would positively give them +2 wins IF, and a big if here, if he could walk in and handle their staff. No, the Marlins wouldn’t ever do it. Would they?
Drool on that one thinking about McCutchen, Maybin, and Tabata in the outfield down the road. Maybe we could supplement those three with Kotchman (come on Neal, do a Braves deal and get him, LOL), and throw in Alvarez, Ford, and, and.. well, I guess we’d need a shortstop and catcher.
I see Will Carroll’s eyes lighting up like deer in headlights with all the risk there.
But wow. Ok, back to reality.
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Strat-o-matic says we are a .404 winning percentage club after the latest trades and roster moves and with Sanchez and LaRoche both on the DL for more than 15 days in August. That means we should only win 22 games the rest of the year but somehow the way our luck has been going, I’m betting Sean Burnett will win two, Karstens will win no less than five, Osoria will get a couple more, and Ohlendorf will be promoted and win three or four too. Unbelievable year.
So that projects us out winning 72 overall, four better than last year.
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Take a look where opposing teams have been pitching Nate McLouth this year (April 1st to July 28th):
The red dots are balls that were put in play ending an at bat, blue dots are strikes of any kind during the at bat other than balls in play, and the green dots are pitches called a ball. Pretend you are the umpire looking at the pitcher and McLouth is standing in the batters box to the right of the image. The dark red rectangle in the center is McLouth’s strike zone and the width is 17″.
Very, very interesting.
Related posts:
Jake – You need to get over your man crush on Cameron Maybin. I realize that he is only 21 and in AA, similar to Tabata, but he strikes out about one out of three ABs. He’s hitting .268, but he has shown some power and has a good stolen base record.
As far as I am concerned, the jury is way out on him. He has a long way to go, and I think the Tigers found that out when they brought him to Detroit from Erie late last year and then traded him to Florida.
The Pirates don’t need him.
I watched Shelby Ford play in a double header, and I respect the writer’s appreciate of Ford, but I did not see any major league quality attributes in Ford. It was only two games, but I was hoping for more.
Is Doumit to Florida really a possibility? I would not mind it If a top of the rotation starter was coming back. Sure, Maybin could be a superstar, but I would much rather see a pitcher coming back, and a young catching prospect too. Otherwise what do we do at the catcher position in the short term? And the long term? We have nothing remotely close to MLB-ready in the system to replace Doumit. Plus the fans would be outraged. The worst ownership in all of proffessional sports (Nutting and co.) won\’t allow it.
Man 2 in a row aginst a team that crushed us in mile high how sweet would it be to get the sweep. But there were alot of moves made yesterday in the organization Jamie Romack and Jim Negrych were promoted to AA-Altoona and Jason Delany and Luis Cruz were promoted to AAA-Indy wich I belive that all of the promotions were deserved Negrych needs to improve on the glove. Jake did u hear that Sanchez was going on the DL or is that just speculation because if he does get put on the DL who would we call up to replace him?
Too bad about Grabow coming up with “arm fatigue” approaching the trade deadline. Doubly so for LaRoche going on the DL just as he was getting hot. Typical, for this accursed franchise.
If we had Matt Wieters waiting in the wings, I might, just might, be okay with trading Doumit for a Wade Davis plus other prospects. Now? No way.
Do you think we could trade Danny Moskos for Matt Wieters? Yeah, me neither. Thanks, again, Dave Littlefield.
I have low, low expectations for the long-term outcome of the Bucs-Yanks trade. Ohlendorf got shelled last night in his first start for Indianapolis. I just have a feeling Nady will take over right field next season in New York and become entrenched there for the next five years, embraced and beloved by Yankees fans as the next Paul O’Neill, a relatively decent player on the field, as well as a leader and stabilizing force in the clubhouse. And I have a feeling that in a couple years, Marte will inherit Rivera’s closer job, and we’ll be watching Nady and Marte play prominent roles on the Yankees in the postseason for years to come … even as Ohlendorf, McCutcheon and Karstens struggle, and Tabata never reaches the ceiling projected for him as a top-flight prospect.
Maybe, as a Pirates fan, I’m just conditioned to be negative. But that’s how I feel.
The Man-Crush on Casey Kotchman has got to end. I know you like him and know his father but come on Jake. His numbers wouldn\’t be an better in the NLCD than they would in the ALWD. The pitching has gotten so much better in our divison over the past year its not even funny
Doesn’t Grabow have a 1.80 ERA last 8 or so times he has pitched?do you think the Rays will get Bay by tomorrow?Should be an interesting next 36 hours or so.
Bill
You better be bringing back a catcher if you trade Doumit, You think it’s bad now…..just wait… The system has no one even close to being ready. I just don’t see it….
I would deal Doumit asap while he’s platinum and there is a strong market for him as long as we got impact talent back. He’s headed to arb and this club isn’t going to contend the next three years anyway looking at the Reds and Brewers farm systems and the Cubs and Cards money. Deal him.
chris – Negrych and Romak are marginal players – they will never crack our 25-man, imo. As for Sanchez going on the DL, I don’t have any knowledge of that. I was speculating he wouldn’t be in the lineup 15 days in August.
Ray – fans either love or hate Kotch. He’s been under a lot of pressure in LA and now he’s relieved of that. He’ll rake and his power will come back around. Just give him a little time to settle in – he’s not like his pop.
Bill – I’m hearing the Rays have cooled on Bay and might be going in a different direction and Grabow looks like crap right now for any team to offer more than a B to B- prospect. I think we’re about done dealing unless Neal gets blown away. If I had my gathers, and I’m guessing half the arms in Pittsburgh feel the same way, it would be to shake out the lint in our belly button and get rid of Jack Wilson.
drew – Shelby still isn’t 100% from his hip problems.
gunner – you and everyone else seem to feel that way. I’ve seen the kid – he has so much power and such a sweet stroke that all he needs is instruction and time, imo.
bern – I think Olendorf is a tick better than what you might have seen in Indy, but he’s not going to make anyone drool in Pittsburgh either.