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7/31/09: Russ Ortiz Gives Up 9 Runs In 2 Innings And Gets Released

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Yes, you read that right. They actually released a Veteran Presence. Never thought I’d see it. (And yes, I’d sure nuff like to see them wave byby to Hampton, another absolutely suckulous, worthless VP) Actually, I thought they’d put Ortiz back in the bullpen, but, noooooooo, they brought up Sammy Gervacio.

I’m actually VERY surprised by that – he has a 5.40 WHIP/1.35 ERA in 35 games over 46.2 IP – 43 H, 20 BB, 48 K, 5 HR: 8.3 H/9; 3.9 BB/9; 9.3 K/9

But unless they want to go with Casey Daigle (they released Brendan Donnelly last month and he’s in the bigs with another club) or one of their AA guys, they have no choice. They already gave Chad Paronto a chance and he flunked.

Since they didn’t either trade for a reliever or keep Russ Ortiz in the pen, I am assuming that they are expecting Norris to take Ortiz’ place in the rotation and that Roy Oswalt will make his scheduled start. I CERTAINLY hope they aren’t thinking of recallilng Felipe Paulino – he only lasted 3 innings in his last start and gave up 5 walks. His mind been messed UP ever since he was tossed between the bullpen and the rotation.

sigh

Cubs just traded Kevin Hart to the Pirates for Gorzellanny and Grabow (who is an Astros killah.) The Pirates aren’t gonna have even one guy on that team earning more than ML minimum by the time this year is over – wouldn’t be surprised if they dump Ryan Doumit, too – and if they want him gone, we should go and get him, seeing as how Coop won’t play Towles anyway.

Tomorrow, it’s Mitchell Boggs, RHP, 5th rounder 2005, vs Moehler

Boggs has started 4 games, beat the Cubs in 5.2 innings, giving up 1 run, pitched 6 vs the Nats, giving up 4 runs, and 2 games vs the Pirates, going 4.1 innings each time and giving up 1 run in each start.

Moehler beat St Louis a couple weeks ago at home, giving up 2 ER/6 IP. He’s only pitched a couple of innings in relief at New Busch, so let’s hope he does fine.

You notice I haven’t talked about the Cubs game today. No need, really. Cuz when you say SUKC, you’ve said it all.

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Posted in Brian Moehler, Russ Ortiz | 3 Comments »

7/26/09: Russ Ortiz Pitches Lousy, Jon Niese Pitches Great And Mets Win

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Russ started off lousy, gave up 3 runs in the first because he couldn’t locate much of anything or keep the ball down. He had a good 2nd, a passable 3rd, a barely tolerable 4th in which he gave up a walk, a single, a GIDP run and then Kd the pitcher.

Fulchino had been warming up and at that time, the Astros were only losing 4-1, and in spite of Niese pitching the way I had expected Santana to, it was still a winnable game.

But Coop sent Ortiz back out there and he got an out, gave up an IF single to 3rd, then a 10 pitch walk to Wright. Goodbye Russ.

Byrdak went in to get the next 2 outs, which he did except for one itsy bitsy snag - which consisted of him going to 3-1 to Francoeur with 2 on and 2 out and THEN, Pudge called for a FB.

Now, just before Byrdak threw the pitch, I said DON’T THROW A FB!!! and J.D. said – he’s sitting dead red. So, how is it that Pudge has NOOOOOOO idea that Francoeur won’t walk and sits dead red????? And why even bother to call for anything in the strike zone at all? He’s supposed to be a veteran and better than that.

And yes, it IS Byrdak’s fault for 1 – not shaking that off, and 2 – throwing it straight down the middle.

But what happened next was unbelieveable – right after the homer, JD said – the one thing that Roger Clemens said was that it was always better to walk a batter, even if he gave up a run, than it was to give into a hitter. Jeez – that is what I always quote Roger as saying. Might could it be that great minds think alike?

I know that a lot of fans are madly in LUUUUVVVV with Pudge because he has a strong arm, but I am not real too in LUUUUVVVV with his inability to block balls well, the fact that he already has FIVE passed balls and his doing really stupid stuff like calling a FB for a hitter who even my kids know sits dead red and can’t hit breaking pitches for spit and won’t walk.

Anyway, there we are, down 7-1, game over. So if you are going to bring in Chad Paronto, why on earth not bring out all the bench guys to mop up?

sigh

Paronto actually DID pitch 1 inning without giving up any runs, believe it or not. And it looks seriously strange to see him wearing Lidge’s number – really, just as strange as it looks to see Coste wearing Backe’s number.

Speaking of pitchers, it looks as if Sampson is gonna be returning tomorrow, and Paronto will be headed on down. Good thing too, because Arias and Hawkins are lookin mighty tired these days. Wonder when Brocail is coming back – and I guess Wesley will be going back when he is ready.

And Pence is still not hitting well, although he most definitely had much better ABs today – no swinging at sliders outside, more fighting off bad pitches, taking more balls. He hit a high FB off Frankie Rodriguez into the Crawford Boxes. He likes em high, just like Kit Keller.

This afternoon, it’s Moehler vs Livan Hernandez in the rubber game. I think the Mets have gotten more hits here in the past few days than they have in the past few months and yeh, I know that Citi Field seriously depresses homers, but their hitters haven’t been making up for it at other stadiums neither – well, except for ours. I notice them all trying their best to hit balls into the Crawford Boxes. Even their leftys.

Wonder how many people will be watching the games today instead of listening to Jim Ed Rice’s and Rickey’s HOF induction speeches.

Oh yeah -

with Hampton and Ortiz BOTH pitching lousy, does anyone think that any minor league pitcher of ours has even a ghost of a chance to replace them? I mean before September? Felipe Paulino, in case you are curious, has pitched in 2 games since returning to AAA – gave up 3 hits, 4 BB, 1 K and 1 run over 4 IP; gave up 4 H, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 R over 4.2 IP. You notice that this is AAA, he’s not pitching deep and he’s giving up a lot of walks and not getting many Ks…

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Posted in Russ Ortiz, Tim Byrdak | 1 Comment »

7/20/09: Errors And Dodgers Beat Astros Twice

Monday, July 20th, 2009

I looked at last night’s all wrongy (not all righty) lineup foisted on Mike Hampton by Cooper’s nuttiness and thought – no, KNEW, that there was absolutely no way in HECK that the Astros were gonna win THAT one. And yes, I know that Berkman’s leg was hurting and he wasn’t gonna be playing, but there was absolutely ZERO reason to bench Michael Bourn, hitting .293 vs lefties, in favor of Jason Michaels, hitting .212 – and there is no difference in slugging, either.

sigh

Guess Hampton had just bout given up in disgust after Clank tanked a ball in left – bad jump, allowing a “triple” and a run – then Coop instructing him to walk Blake to face Kemp, a MUCH better hitter (and THAT didn’t work real too good, did it?) I mean, it was bad. And stayed bad.

Fortunately for me, Stuff Happened with the kidsssss and so I missed the rest of the game and am not real too sure I want to finish the replay – well, maybe the scene where Hampton is so furious with the suckulousness of his “supporting” cast, that he throws the ball into his glove. Only he misses, and runners advance.

Chris Coste is a TERRIBLE first baseman – not that I blame Coop for not playing Erstad (before his leg strain, I mean).

And now we have Lance with his calf strain, Erstad going on the DL with his hammy, Matsui “needing” to sit again. Guess we’d better call up Matt Kata and Jason Smith again. Because Gawd Knows we need the awesomeness of Erstad and Michaels.

sigh

Poor Russ Ortiz.

Today he pitched VERY well against the Dodgers, only to be undone by the mighty bat of slugger Bradley Awesomeness, who hit TWO doubles to the wall, driving in Matt Kemp TWICE. He must have listened to all the sneers about Brad’s hopelessness and happily thrown the ball straight down the middle, figuring – hey, what could happen? Even the OF were barely back from the IF grass.

But anyway, against the best team in the NL, he went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 walks, 4 K, 2 runs and a GIDP.

And he lost because Alberto Arias went out there and had a total eclipse of the brain. He SHOULD have had 3 easy outs and instead he had 2 unbelieveably stupid errors and a botched sac bunt. Which led to a tie score.

Which led to LaTroy Hawkins coming in with the score tied, and, with 2 out and a 3-2 count, throwing a nice fat meatball down the middle which Matt Kemp promptly deposited in the stands – and therefore, the ballgame.

I know all yall gonna ask, so I’ll tell you. La Troy has appeared in 40 games. He has 9 holds, 10 saves, 3 BS (but the Astros came back to win all 3) and 4 Losses. 2 of those losses and 1 BS came on a homer in a tie game.

Interesting.

As of right now, I have no idea who will be called up and who will be playing where when we play Uncle and Saint Looie tomorrow. I know we’ve called up Chad Paronto, who has been throwing only 1 inning/game at AAA, and Coop has decided to give him the Brandon Backe treatment (use him differently than he’s been accustomed to, so that he will fail) and use him as a multi-inning reliever.

Peachy.

It’s Moehler vs Kyle Lohse. Lohse is a righty, so Coop won’t feel impelled by evil forces to sit Bourn. Lohse, by the way, pitched a 3 hit shutout against the Astros in April – and yeh, I know that wasn’t nobody hitting the baseball back then.

And in case you want to know how Moehler does against Uncle, all I can say is, please don’t ask because you don’t wanna know.

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Posted in Alberto Arias, Mike Hampton, Russ Ortiz | 11 Comments »

7/10/09: Astros Win One, They Lose One To Nats

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Well, the postponed game was over in a couple of minutes, thanks to Miggy Tejada’s umpteenth error of the season. I must say, however, that I was a bit surprised that Coop put the setup man back in, but I shouldn’t be, because I should be to the point where no matter what he does, I should just shrug.

The regularly scheduled game was more fun because Coop pulled Russ Ortiz after 3 innings, 4 ER. What made it fun is that instead of just grumbling, Ortiz was so angry that he said so ON THE RECORD. And he also said that Coop had told him straight out that he (Ortiz) wasn’t Coop’s “type of pitcher.”

A real manager of men, that Coop.

Ortiz really hadn’t done that badly – a couple of singles, a pitch that Pudge didn’t block, yet another throwing error by Pudge (and he’s had more than a few throws into center that, fortunately for him, weren’t charged as errors because the runner at second didn’t get around to going to third.) And it wan’t a good night for Pudge with the bat, neither – he left 2 men on in both the first and second, and Coop most likely wouldn’t have pulled Ortiz if the score had been tied.

And then of course, Coop couldn’t leave his long man, Fulchino, in to go, like, you know, long. Much smarter to blow through 5 relievers for 1 inning each, seeing as how there is no way he might could need a fresh arm tonight or Sunday.

The Astros got lucky because Lannan is a better pitcher than the guy who showed up last night.

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Posted in Astros baseball, Cecil Cooper, Ivan Rodriguez, Russ Ortiz | 7 Comments »

7/5/09: Lincecum Beats Astros With Pitches AND Bat

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

I do believe Michael Jackson’s PYT is tonight’s song. Putrid Yicky Thwingth…

It was HOT today, a GOOD 100 in the shade, so this year’s BBQ was held at my Mama’s best friend’s house – she has a pool in the backyard (and a bathroom right off the kitchen) AND she has satellite radio. You see, THAT is important because the game was blacked out because of the Saturday afternoon MLB rules. Anyway, HER house, HER sounds…

Therefore, we listened to the game - we got there at the beginning of the second inning – and I wouldn’t agree to turn on KTRH in the car. After the second inning is over, my brother turns to me and said – hey, these announcers are GOOD, what is your PROBLEM??? So I told him – those are the GIANT’S announcers and you are right and they are great. Ours are the absolute worst in the majors (except the Yankees - I’d rather listen to a colicky baby scream at the top of his lungs for 4 hours straight than have to listen to Sterling/Waldman. But I digress…)

Let me put it like this:

Miller & Kuiper: Drayton’s Stooges = Albert Pujols’ batting: my 5 year old son batting.

Aw heck, I’ll even spot you my 9 year old niece batting. But again I digress…

It was interesting to listen to the Giants’ announcers for another reason: they had watched Ortiz for years when he was with them. They noticed a few things: 1 – he pitched the entire game from the stretch, not the windup (interesting because it was when he went to the bullpen that he straightened himself out); 2 – His pitching motion is significantly different than it was before he had his sugery in 07; 3 – he has added a 2 seam FB as well as a slider to his pitching arsenal. They were very impressed with his pitching in spite of his giving up all those runs in the 6th.

And Ortiz sailed through the first 4 innings. Then in the 5th, he did the unthinkable – walked the pitcher, which we ALL know is bad BAD luck. (Actually, Ball 3 was Strike 3, but as the announcers correctly noted, the HP ump called ALL pitches at the knees as balls all night…) Rowand singled to left and then Randy Winn hit a niiiice tailor made GIDP ball to Matsui, who lollygagged just enough getting the ball before throwing it to Tejada that by the time Berkman got the ball back, it was too late. Men on first and third, 2 out.

A missed GIDP – and you know that bad fielding is not a good thing. And of course, Sandoval immediately knocked in a run. Then with Molina up, Pudge allowed a passed ball (4th this year in 57 GS) and the ump missed the call at home and Winn was declared safe, even though Ortiz had the plate completely blocked. Molina then singled to center, but Michael Bourn fired a bullet home and Sandoval was a dead duck.

But this meant the Astros were down 2-0 and this is Lincecum pitching and I had a bad BAD feeling.

And sure enough, 6th inning, Ortiz gets 2 quick outs, then Iskikawa, who runs just a leeeeetle faster than Bengie Molina is safe at first because of a bad throw from Tejada, which pulled Lance off the bag. It wasn’t a hit, it was an error. And the floodgates just burst open – single, WALK THE PITCHER!!!!! Oh, and by the way, Dewey goes out to the mound after Ortiz threw 2 pitches not even CLOSE to the strike zone to the PITCHER, and do they pull him? HECK no. First, Rowand sneaks a 2 RBI single thru the drawn in IF. THEN does Coop pull him? Oh no. He waits until Randy Winn drives in THOSE guys with a RBI double to the gap and has Ortiz IBB Sandoval.

In comes Sampson, who gives up one of those funky popup bloops down the RF line that no one gets to in time and another run scores. And then it’s another RBI single up the middle before he gets that last out.

And it’s 8-0 Giants and even though there are a few more innings left to go, it is OVAH.

sigh

Gotta take my hat off to Lincecum. He walked Lance twice, gave up 2 doubles - one to Pudge barely fair down the LF line, one to Lance to left and a single to right. And that was IT.

So now the Astros have been blown out 2 days in a row.

sigh

And Roy hasn’t exactly done very well at Phone Park – he’s 2-5 in 8 GS (he did a little better once Barry Lamar retired) with a 4.96 ERA, 1.68 WHIP and .330 BAA – 45.1 IP – 62 H, 14 BB, 3 HR, 27 K.

Renteria is 8/27 with 2 walks, 2 doubles and 2 homers – .997 OPS

Winn is 7/24 with 2 doubles and a triple

Rich Aurilia is 6/18 with 2 doubles

Fred Lewis is 8/14 with a walk and a double

Bengie Molina is 4/12 and Aaron is 2/8 with 2 walks and 2 doubles.

As Barry Lamar always said – good pitching always beats good hitters every time.

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Posted in Astros baseball, Russ Ortiz | 5 Comments »

6/29/09: Cooper Pulls Ortiz, For No Good Reez, Stros Fans Say PUHLEEEEZE

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Ortiz didn’t deserve what happened. He pitched GREAT, gave up 6 hits – 4 singles, a double and a solo homer – NO walks and 5 K and 2 GIDP and 2 runs. He was cruising in the top of the 8th, got the first out, after cruising through the 7th getting 3 quick outs on 8 pitches. For absolutely no reason I can think of, Coop pulled Ortiz in favor of Tim Byrdak.

WHY???

Ortiz is at 90 pitches, not tired, throwing well. I mean, he just had him hit in the bottom of the 7th, and then pitch to 1 guy in the 8th???

Is this Coop’s usual unspeakably stupid crap about the lefty/righty thingy? Who knows? Why not let Ortiz finish the game? WHY won’t the reporters EVER ask Coop questions like that???

And with 2 out, and a 1-2 count, Valverde decided to replay the Brad Lidge Albert Pujols debacle and goodbye ball game. Yep, Inge sent that ball over the railroad tracks, just like Uncle (proving yet again that you don’t have to be a large man to hit a ML fastball a LONG LONG way…)

So, with no further ado (with apologies to R Kelly) what I think I just might could have heard Mr. Lidge say to Mr Valverde:

“But you are not alone
Though I’m not there with you
Though we’re far apart (Thank God)
And you got took over the tracks
But you are not alone

Earlier tonight
I thought I heard you cry
Oh NOOO, not AGAIN
The second in 3 GAMES
I can hear your prayers
Your burdens I understand

Everyday I sit and ask myself
How did that pitch get away
Let me whisper in your ear and say
Like, dude, you are SOOOO screwing up your trade value
Throwing mid plate belt high FB
They get hit far away
And you’ll be there to stay…”

Of course, I should also note that the Astros were darn lucky to get 3 runs off 6 hits, a sac fly and no walks.

sigh

Valverde has given up 4 homers over 16.1 IP (17 games), saved 6, blown 4 (and lost 2 of those.)

Oh. By the way, the Cards went out and traded for Mark DeRosa, who is REALLY good and can play bout any position except pitcher and catcher. And all they gave up is a crappy middle reliever. We could have offered them Maysonet and Towles, seeing as how Cooper and the Astros regard them as about as good as a bucket of warm spit – something they should be reserving for Michaels and Kata.

Gerry Hunsicker would have been ALL ovah that. Of course, he wouldn’t have been signing/using the likes of Kata and Michaels in the first place, neither.

We’re off to play the Peavy-less Padres and game times will be starting at 9, so no writeups until the next day. Sorry. I GOT to get to bed earlier these days because I got to get up when it is a nice, frosty 75 degrees out to get stuff done because you know you GOT to be back inside before 9 AM.

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Posted in Russ Ortiz, Valverde | 4 Comments »

6/28/09: Paulino Tells Tigers “You Can’t Win”

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Paulino had a lil somethin to say to the Tigahs, sorely missing sluggah Adam Everett:

“You can’t win
You can’t break even
And you can’t get out of the game
Leyland keep sayin’
Things are gonna change
But the pitches look like
They stayin’ the same

You swing at em
way over your head
And you only got yourself to blame
You can’t win Tigahs,
You can’t break even
And you can’t get out of the game

You can’t win
The fastball keeps movin’
And you’re swingin’ far behind
Teammates keep sayin’
Things’ll get better
Just to ease your state of mind

You can’t win,
You can’t win no way
If your story stays the same
You ain’t winnin,
No, no,
But it’s nice to see you
Awfully glad you came)
Bats are cool it ’cause
Paulino ain’t about losin’ “

Well, I asked the boy to Show Me Somethin Goooood (OK, so that one isn’t Michael’s..)

He had a bit of luck on his side because HP ump Tim Welke called accurate strikes and had an extremely consistant strike zone, the SAME strike zone for both pitchers. So he was able to throw the high FB consistently for strikes and he changed speeds and location well. He also had the slider working and threw it for strikes. He gave up 2 singles and a solo homer, NO walks and 9 Ks, 8 swinging.

Fulchino and Wright both pitched a scoreless inning and Wesley pitched to THREE rightys and struck out 2 of them, including Miguel Cabrera, who couldn’t touch his slider.

Will be interesting to see who gets sent down when Hampton comes off the DL. Maysonet, about as used as a splintered bat on this team, has already been sent down in favor of old and awful Matt Kata. That is the trouble with this team – even when they DO manage to create a useful minor leaguer, they throw him away in favor of some icky veteran. ESPECIALLY when the manager has made it MORE than plain that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with rookies (Towles says hello, too…)

Will also be interesting to see what happens with Backe. I know that the fans are very hostile to him after last year’s terrible September and his inability to come out of the bullpen every 8 days and perform well, but fact is that the Organization didn’t prepare him for a role in the pen and didn’t keep him fresh in any way. If he has any sense, he’ll go down to AAA, let the pitching coach straighten him out, and then get his agent to work overtime to wangle a trade.

And kudos to the hitters – everyone got a hit except Keppinger, and even though he did hit into another DP, he did walk twice, drove in one and scored one.

This afternoon, it’s Russ Ortiz vs Edwin Jackson (no relation to Michael)

Edwin was drafted in 01 at age 17 and made the majors at age 19, throwing 22 excellent innings. Trouble was that everyone kind of expected him to be the second coming of Doc Gooden, and he wasn’t. He didn’t do real too good with his callups the next few years, so the Dodgers gave up on him at age 21 and traded him to the Rays for relievers Danys Baez and Lance Carter. He threw a couple of innings in relief, then became a full time starter in 07 and uh, struggled, having a Backe ’08 like year, but the Rays stuck with him and he improved in 08, throwing 31 games over 180 innings with a 101 ERA+, his first good year.

The Rays, overloaded with starters (poor them) traded him to the Tigers for a 24 yo OF who is being used as a 5th guy, sort of like a Maysonet. Jackson has been an absolute ace – he has started 15 games over 101.1 innings, with 79 H, 7 HR, 29 BB and 79 K for a 187 ERA+ and a 2.40 ERA/ 1.06 WHIP.

It’s amazing that we have already taken the series against the Tigres. A sweep would be crazy…

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Posted in Berkman, Felipe Paulino, Michael Bourn, Russ Ortiz | 5 Comments »

6/23/09: Russ Ortiz Pitches His Best Start This Year And Loses

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Russ Ortiz did a GREAT job – threw 7 innings, scattered 2 walks and 5 hits. Unfortunately, he got no help from his teammates OR his manager who started Darin Freaking Erstad instead of Berkman and sent crappy Matt Kata and Jason Michaels up to pinch hit instead of Maysonet, who hasn’t had so much as a PH AB in 8 days. Manager sure has a problem with “young” players, meaning he doesn’t want to play them.

Greinke wasn’t exactly unhittable, but when you have Erstad hitting 6th (you have a guy hitting his season HIGH of .140 hitting 6th, now WHY?????!!!!) it ain’t to hard to pitch out of jams.

sigh

It’s Luke Hochevar (1st pick in the 06 draft) and his 6.61 ERA tomorrow. He’s been extremely erratic – gave up 7 R in 4 IP vs the Dbax last start, but threw a 3 hit CG against the Reds the start before. And I would like to see Roy go all Wandy at home this time.

Oh yeah

TAYLOR JUNGMAN ROOLZ!!!!!

GO TEXAS!!!

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Posted in Russ Ortiz | 4 Comments »

6/12/09: Pence Walks, Puma IBB, Geoff Blum Hits Walk Off Single To Beat Cubs AGAIN

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Second verse, same as the first.

Well, not quiiiiiite the same. Russ Ortiz, like Wandy the night before, pitched very well, giving up 3 walks and 3 singles over 5.1 innings. He probably could have finished up the inning, but after he walked Dempster, gave up a single to Sori and Kd The Riot, Coop decided to do his leftyrighty thingy he luuuuvs so much (in spite of the fact that Ortiz had easily gotten out Fuku the previous 2 times) and called in Byrdak, who, for ONCE, got the job done.

Arias finished that inning and the 7th, then Sampson pitched the 8th. Hawkins, who the Cubs fans just HATE, gave up the tying homer to DLee, so there we were – extra innings.

Hawk managed to squeak out of the 10th, stranding a man on 3rd with 2 outs, then Fulchino came in and slammed the door for 3 innings. Fulchino has been one of Wade’s good moves.

Let me repeat that – Fulchino has been one of Wade’s GOOD moves.

Yes, Fast Eddie and his luuuvvvv for middle relievers looks pretty good with Fulchino, a pickup off the scrap heap for minimum wage.

See, I CAN praise his good moves, and he’s made some.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. Fulchino pitched 3 scoreless and gave up only one single. Shut down the entire C*bs lineup, just as Sampson had done today and yesterday.

Stros hitters had more than a few opportunities to win after Hawk coughed up the tying run:

in the 10th, Kata, pinch hitting, singled!!!! yes, you read that right. He did not make an out!!! WOW!!!! Then, with 2 out, Miggy reached on error, but Pence grounded out on the first pitch;

in the 11th, with 1 out, Lance singled, then Blum singled, then Pudge GIDP.

But finally, bottom of the 13th, Pence drew a walk. See, I TOLD you he had been walking a lot more and that not swinging at pitches out of the strike zone or unhittable pitches is a GOOD thing. Then, with Michaels flailing away at a pitch out of the strike zone for big strike 3, Pence stole second. So, with Lance up, Sweet Lou again figured he’d rather take his chance intentionally walking Berkman, then pitching to Blum. Why he didn’t bring in Sean Marshall, a lefty, to pitch to Blum, who can’t hit for spit righty any more, I don’t know, but Blum got the job done.

Again.

I sure do LUUUUV beating the C*bs, that is fer SHER.

And we’re off to play the DBax. They finally put Paulino on the DL, and I guess they are going to be calling Wesley Wright back up. Wesley has pitched 9.1 innings, giving up 7 walks, 4 hits and 8 Ks and 3 ER. Too many walks.

Funny, both Casey Daigle (24 IP – 25 H, 8 BB, 19 K, 5 ER – 1.88 ERA/1.38 WHIP) and Chad Paronto (26.1 IP – 20 H, 6 BB, 21 K, 1 HR, 6 ER – 2.05 ERA/1.05 WHIP) have pitched better, but they are rightys and we all know that rightys can’t get leftys out.

But to me, the real question is, how long are we going to have to put up with the suckulousness of Michaels and Erstad? Kata, I presume, will be sent back down when Kaz comes back of the DL. Also, Backe really needs to be sent to AAA to be put into the regular starting rotation. He isn’t doing a bit of good taking up space on the bench for blowouts.

Today, Mike Hampton faces Danny Haren, the best pitcher this year in the NL. Not by W/L, but by RSAA. Yes, better than Santana. Man, that was a BAD trade the Cards made with the A’s, swapping him for Mulder. And man, that was a bad trade Billy Beane the GEEENYUSSS made, trading Haren for some minor leaguers who haven’t done spit – at least yet.

Oh, and before some of you start telling me that this is why we shouldn’t trade away old guys like Tejada/Hawkins etc, I’ll remind you that Haren was in his 4th year, was age 27 and was signed to a great, cheap contract for the next 3 years. This would be sort of like trading Roy Oswalt in 04.

Dumb.

Tejada and Hawkins are significantly closer to the end of their careers and Tejada’s defense has sunk to 07 levels or below. Time to sell as high as possible because the farm is still pretty empty.

I checked.

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Posted in fulchino, Geoff Blum, Russ Ortiz | 5 Comments »

6/7/09: Russ Ortiz Throws 4.1 Innings Of 63 Pitch Shutout Ball Then Gets Pulled

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Russ Ortiz has been absolutely AWESOME as a long reliever/mopup guy. He’s thrown 17.2 IP, 17 H, 1 ER, 8 BB, 13 K – 1.52 ERA, 1.42 WHIP (too many walks.)

I can’t think of a single good reason for Coop to have pulled him for Tim Byrdak. I was not real too happy that didn’t NONE of the post game people talk about it or ask Coop why he pulled Ortiz. It is ridiculous that no one criticizes managers for stupid moves if the team happens to win in spite of them. And this wasn’t a stupid decision that happened to work.

Even if Byrdak DID find the plate and even IF Fulchino hadn’t let 2 of his runners score, it STILL would have been a stupid move. There is like ZERO reason to pull a pitcher who is throwing great, has a low pitch count and is cruising AND is a guy who is used to throwing 90-100 pitches every 5 days.

No word on what will happen now that Paulino has pulled his groin. I’m not sure it would be real too good an idea to put Backe backe into the rotation as he has had only a couple of innings in relief and has been hit HARD – at least the balls he pitched have been hit HARD. He’s not getting regular work and he’s not getting many innings.

Guess Michaels must have read my entry this orning and got all indignant because he FINALLY managed to like you know HIT the baseball and got a GR double. Erstad pinch ran and scored a run. Kata pinch hit and hit into a FC and he finally came around to score – it was 2 outs and he took off like a streak and ran like crazy and scored on a grounder to second which the fielder bobbled. He cain’t hit for spit, but at least he sure nuff did hustle.

Carlos drove in another run, but fool got caught in a rundown – WHAT is he doing trying to stretch a single into a double with his absence of speed???!!! And he best quit trying to steal bases because those days are OVAH. Even when he’s actually safe (as he was today) if he doesn’t beat the throw or not draw a throw, he gonna get called out. He’s made like 5 unnecessary outs this past like week alone on stupid baserunning stuff like that.

So tomorrow, it’s the C*bs again. There just might could be a few more butts in the seats than there were this weekend, but they’ll be wearing Cubbie blew and making the beer vendors ecstatic.

We’ll start with Moehler vs Lilly and let’s hope that Lilly is in one of his homeriffic states.

But as for now, I’m off to watch the Ex-Stros Bradley Hotness + Randy Wolf vs Eric Bruntlett + Brad Lidge (who is repeating his awful 2006…)

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Posted in Felipe Paulino, Russ Ortiz | 7 Comments »

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