A little follow-up on Nate...

At the end of our last Cardinals post, I mentioned in passing that Nate Robertson:

...got bounced around the yard this evening. Actually, the problem was more that the balls he was throwing were bouncing... in the seats. Nate went exactly 0 innings before he was 'yanked.' He allowed 6 runs, all earned, on 4 hits and 2 walks. Sammy Sosa hit a bases-loaded single, followed by a Victor Diaz grand slam, followed by a Marlon Byrd (of course,) triple. Game over, Nathan. He saw his ERA rise from a decent 4.25 to a frightening 5.07. There's that Texas offense for you.

Well, sadly, the bad news didn't stop there. Against his wishes, the Tigers placed him on the DL with a "tired arm". There are not many times when you have to force a guy to go on the disabled list. He's basically DL'ed with a case of sucking, so lets call it what it is. And Robertson acknowledges as much. "There are no red flags. I'm not hurt." But Robertson hasn't had a quality start in his last 6 outings. His velocity is down. He threw 30 pitches in that last start of his, and not a single pitch was a swinging strike. So something is wrong. But I'll bet it's more a confidence issue. He's not broken. He's just down.

That's a tough break. Rogers is already gone, as is Zumaya. Luckily, Dombrowski has been hoarding starting pitching for about five years now. So whenever a starter goes down, just call up First Round Draft Pick X. The lucky winner this time is Andrew Miller. I shouldn't say lucky, because the guy is really lights out. In his major league debut he held the Cardinals scoreless, (as we've seen, not a tremendous accomplishment, but not a shabby first start either.) He'll be better off for the team right now than Robertson has been, and there's some talk he may be here to stay. Which, quite frankly, is a little bit less plausible than it sounds. Only because the guy was drafted about a year ago. But we'll see.

On the note of drafts; a guy I know from back in the High School days was drafted by the Tigers in the 25th round. His name is Colin Kaline, and he's Al's grandson. He's already playing ball at Florida Southern, but it's still pretty good. Good job.

The Cardinals are trying something new this year - June 5th, 2007
Some pitching meltdowns - June 10th, 2007
Draft ties generations together (MLB.com) - June 8th, 2007

Rich Hill, it appears, is not done yet

At the risk of becoming repetitive - this will be our third pitching post in a row - it seems that Rich Hill got over whatever slump he was in. In 3 outings against the Phillies, Mets, and Padres - totaling 17 innings - he allowed 14 ER. He also walked 9 guys. Not surprisingly, he earned three loses for his efforts. Things were looking bad for Hill, and things were looking bad for the Cubs as well. No worse than usual, as the Cubs, at the time of Hill's last loss, were 20-23. Pretty good for a team that has no business near the top of any division. They're now 26-32, but Hill is doing better. You're right, none of that makes any sense. The bottom line is, the Cubs are a bad team. But Cub Fan will read hope into anything he can find, so we're just going to play around with his emotions a little.

Ah. Back to Mr. Hill. In his last three games, (against LA and ATLx2), he has gone 21 innings, allowing just 2 runs and striking out 20 batters - 11 of them last night. He has issued only 4 walks. This is more like the early season Rich Hill that we saw. Rich Hill is a special guy, because he has a special curveball. You really have to see it. Right when you think the pitch is sailing high, it drops like the Cardinals starting pitching. Rich now has a respectable 2.71 ERA and a 5-4 record. Mark my words - this dude will be something great one day. He just turned 27. When he was 23 or 24 I saw him pitching, and even then he had a knockout curveball. Then, at that moment, I knew he was going to do big things with that curve. And I'm still just as sure.

As for the rest of the Cubs pitching staff, we sadly cannot say the same good things. Just a quick rundown. Carlos Zambrano is NOT having a good year. First off, who really cares about the fights? Dude was pissed, and I can't blame him. The Cubs committed 5 ERRORS on the play that caused that fight, even if only one of them were scored. First, Barrett allowed the ball to get by him. He then made a bad throw. Ramirez made a crappy stab at it. That's three errors. Then the shortstop was WAY late backing up the throw - he should've been running behind third the second the runner took off - four errors. Then, when he finally got his slow ass behind 3rd, he still missed the ball. Thats five errors. Heck, when I played little league ball, we had it down better than that. No wonder Zambrano threw punches. The dude is a walking firebomb, and that play was a cordite flash-fire. Of course he's going to go off on you. Anyway, 5.38 ERA. Not the greatest. Then we've got Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis, decent innings-eater-type starters. Wait. Stop right there. I know what you're thinking - "but wait, Marquis has a 2.84 ERA, he's awesome LOL!" Incorrect. He's Jason Marquis, and he pitches for the Cubs. That ship is going to come crashing back down to earth, just like the Chris Capuano rocketship did earlier this year. Heck, it already has. Marquis hasn't won a game since May 9th. The back end of the rotation is Sean Marshall. Haven't made a decision on him yet, but don't hold your breath. He's 1-2 with a 2.25 ERA in three starts so far, so we'll have to wait and see to be sure.

"Welcome to the Wacky fun house that is the NL Central" - May 28, 2007

Digging up some old Dodger follies

There are many times when I go onto my website visitor stat page and look at the pages you guys are viewing. I can do that. Anyway, I'm often quite entertained. You guys tend to dig up the oldest and funniest stuff on the site. And it cracks me up. Because I have to say, I am probably one of my favorite writers. I don't want to sound cocky or anything, but I really like to read what I have to say. So I'm looking around, and I find this. But I would be remiss for giving myself all the credit on this one, not when teams like the Padres and Dodgers provide me with material like this. Here's a short excerpt.

Bottom of the 9th, the Padres are down 5-0... heading into the 10th, with the score tied 5-5... The Padres win!... for the first time since last Sunday! [7 days prior]

I'll let you guys read the rest. But lets just say, this was one of the saddest games ever.

I don't like the Padres or the Dodgers, but I can't pass this up - April 30th, 2006

I'm sorry, A.J. Burnett

Mr. Burnett,

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to you, on behalf of BHGM and all associated parties, for all libelous claims made prior. We have no excuses, other than to say that at the time of these claims, we were deceived by your career-high 12 wins in 2005. We were upset that you had only started 30+ games once in your then five-year career as a starter, and reacted rashly. It now appears that you are no longer "clowning around," and that Mr. Ricciardi didn't make an $11 million a year mistake when he signed you.

Personally, I have been impressed with your performance in your last seven games. You have brought your ERA down a full point and a half to around 4. Meanwhile, you have struck out 72 batters in just 52 innings. I believe that at this point it is obvious to even the most casual observer that you have truly "stepped up your game" and I commend you. While these stats have not necessarily translated into wins for your team, you have turned in quality starts on all occasions but one. And for $350,000 a start, that's really all we can ask.

However, there still remains the question of your start to the season. Your first six starts contrast strongly with your last seven. During the aforementioned starts, you posted a 5.46 ERA and struck out only 26 batters in 33 innings. I am also concerned about the abundance of home runs that you seem to be serving up. So far this year, 14 guys have "jerked you out of the yard." In the future, I would like to see you improve these numbers. Additionally, a reversion back to your early-season form will result in immediate rescindment of this letter.

Please accept my sincerest regrets for our previous comments.

Good luck!

Sincerely,
Reid Smith
Editor-in-Chief

The Cardinals are trying something new this year

We've talked about the Cardinals a bunch lately. And right now I'm 'watching' the CBS GameCenter of the Reds v. Cardinals, and I have to ask... how much longer are the Cardinals going to try to win games with a 5-man lineup before they decide the experiment has failed? In our 'Welcome to the wacky fun house that is the NL Central' post, we discussed the faults in the Cardinals rotation. Now we're going to talk a little more about that interesting lineup of theirs...

Fun Fact #1 - The only player on the active roster with an average above .300 is Adam Wainwright.
Adam also has a 5.12 ERA. So maybe they should go Rick Ankiel on him. Anyway, the Cardinals' lineup tonight, which I assume to be pretty typical, at least statistically, is as follows: Eckstein, (.288) is leading off, which is where you want your best hitter. Followed by Chris Duncan, Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Spiezio. Then you have Encarnacion (.231), Gary Bennett (.254), Adam Kennedy, (.224), and your pitching spot. That's really a 5 man lineup. And it's one of those things that's just going to roll over itself and get progressively worse. As more and more managers realize that Jim Edmonds/Scott Rolen is no longer as sharp with a bat as he once was, no one will pitch to Albert anymore. It's bad enough already. How much farther can you get from not protecting the best hitter in the game when you put a .244 hitter behind him? Typically, Rolen will hit behind Pujols. He is batting .258 so... no difference.

Fun Fact #2 - The Cardinals offense ranks in the bottom four of 16 NL teams in 10 of 12 categories.
This one is really unbelievable, folks. And it's according to baseball-reference, (which, though I have no way to prove it, is quickly becoming the most frequently cited website in the world.) There are 16 NL teams, so here are all 12 categories and the Cardinals' respective ranking: AB (16th), Runs (15th), 2B (16th), 3B (16th), HR (13th), BB (16th), SO (16th), Avg. (11th), OBP (13th), SLG (15th), SB (16th), SB (16th). Keep in mind that for SO, 16th is technically first place. So they're not striking out a lot, which is good. But they're also never getting on base, which nullifies that. Keep in mind, this is for the entire National League. You know, the same league that the Pirates, Marlins, Red, Nationals, and Rockies play in.

Fun Fact #3 - Apparently, Barry Bonds is a better hitter than Albert Pujols.
And five times better, in fact. Bonds has 20 intentional walks this season. Pujols, with the solid-hitting Scott Rolen batting behind him, has 6 intentional walks. Furthermore, Adam Kennedy - whose OBP (.292) is higher than his SLG (.286) - has 5 IBB. Bonds has better protection. And heck, Kennedy, who is 'protected' by the pitcher's spot, is pretty much the same matchup as the pitcher. So, the first person who can explain this gets a prize.

Then again, asking for your guys' input lately is a downright waste of time. I appreciate the CBox comments, Kaylee and Mark. Definitely appreciate the praise. What is strange is that, on Sunday, we logged 3,157 visits. And 0 comments. So... I'm thinking of shifting to a shorter-post, more frequent model. Which has always been the opposite of what we've been doing here at BHGM for the last 2 years. But I think it may be time to get more concise.

UPDATE: Too soon for another post, but I just couldn't keep this to myself. Nate Robertson got bounced around the yard this evening. Actually, the problem was more that the balls he was throwing were bouncing... in the seats. Nate went exactly 0 innings before he was 'yanked.' He allowed 6 runs, all earned, without getting an out, on 4 hits and 2 walks. Sammy Sosa hit a bases-loaded single, followed by a Victor Diaz grand slam, followed by a Marlon Byrd (of course,) triple. Game over, Nathan. He saw his ERA rise from a decent 4.25 to a frightening 5.07. There's that Texas offense for you.
Also, Carl Crawford is just killing me in this week's fantasy matchup. So far tonight, he's 3-5 with a 1B, 2B, HR, 3RBI, and 3R. That's 13 points against. I'm 9-0 in this head-to-head pay league, and Crawford might ruin it for me. In other news, Andruw Jones is a respectable 0-7 in today's Braves-Marlins doubleheader. Guess that would be a "bad day," huh Andruw?

Welcome to the wacky fun house that is the NL Central - May 28th, 2007
St. Louis Cardinals 2007 Statistics... (Baseball-Reference.com)
Andruw Jones tells us about bad days - May 21, 2007

The funniest tirade, ever

Have to give props to Kevin for pointing this one out to me. Listen - no amount of time you spend on YouTube is going to be 'wasted' time. So, while it still works, check out this video of the Braves AA manager Phillip Wellman just losing it. I'm not sure what happened to prompt this tirade, but... it must have been serious. I especially like how he draws from many of the best explosions. But my favorite is when he does the military crawl through the infield and throws the rosin bag like a grenade - at the umpire, who is hanging out at home "eating sunflower seeds," and then ejects the 3rd base umpire. I'm guessing that this will be the last time we see Phillip in any official capacity. Enough of me. Enjoy.

NL Central, hitting streaks, Mariner's payroll reset

Hey guys. I'm out of town right now on a spur of the moment trip. In fact, I'm in Cincinnati with my grandfather, who explained that "the Reds are so bad, I don't even watch them anymore." And it's true. We talked about this at length in our previous post. Since then, the Cardinals have dropped to only two games up on the still last place Reds. And Pittsburgh is now in 2nd place in the division. They are 23-30.
Here's something I've noticed lately. What about these hitting streaks? So far this year, we've had Torii Hunter go 23 games. Freaking A-Rod was on an 18-game tear. Brandon Philips; 22. Randy Winn; 20. Aaron Rowand; 16. Currently, Kevin Youkilis has a 22-game hitting streak, and just snapped a 9-game multi-hit streak, the 6th longest in the last 50 years. Ichiro is at a Seattle-record 24 games. Furcal just ended a 15-gamer. There have always been hitting streaks in baseball. But I don't remember so many being this long. Thoughts?

I also wanted to comment on a comment that BigFoote made in the Chat box. He said not to get discouraged about the lack of comments. He thinks he's the only reader. Well... sadly enough, that's not the case. I risk offending you here, BigFoote, but that's not my intent. I do appreciate you, loyal reader. But BHGM has been around for 2 years. In fact, the site usually, (on a typical, ok day) gets about 400 hits or so. By my estimate, there are at least 30-40 regular readers, from what I've seen of direct referrals and return visitors from the hit counters. And those are people that come check out the site almost every day. There are at least 15 subscribers to RSS feeds that automatically go to the site whenever a new post is made. So, you guys are out there - you're just not making any noise. I know you have to register to make comments on this blog, but that's why I have the Chatbox to your left - no registration required! Make good use of that tool. Or, do as Monkeypunch did.

'Monkeypunch' made a quality comment on the Mariner's Payroll post. Now, I'll talk about your comment in full when I get home, but for now, let me point out some important things. You mention that Beltre is coming back, he just needs to adjust his mechanics. You're wrong. Beltre had one good year. Like I said, the Mariners have you believing that these players are better than they really are. You can etch this in stone or carve it in wood - Adrian Beltre will never win another HR crown. Right now, his .280 batting average is higher than every season except 2004 and 2000. He is on pace to hit 29 HR's - more than any other season ever, with the exception of 2004. I don't believe he will ever hit more than 30 home runs. However, that was the only logical hole in your post, for the most part. I think you may have misunderstood my main point - that the Mariners have overpaid for these guys. Richie Sexson is not a bad guy to have on your team. But you shouldn't be paying him $15.5 million. You also conceded that the Weaver deal was 'crap' So why would you pay him almost $10 million? Give him a small base salary with incentives, or let another team take the one-year risk, and offer him $15 million - an amount he can't refuse - when he goes into free agency, as no team would ever give him more than a one-year. Anyway, we'll talk more when I get home. But keep up the good, insightful, intelligent comments like those.

The Mariner's Payroll is really $107 Million? - April 24th, 2007