A. J. Pierzynski

Random Notes For Monday July, 29th 2013

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I just finished watching Monday night baseball on ESPN.  Tonight’s game featured the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Arlington to play the Texas Rangers.  The Rangers ended up winning it in the bottom of the ninth with 2 solo homers to overcome a 3-2 Angels lead.  But that’s not what I’m writing about.  Former Indians manager Manny Acta was a guest announcer.  A. J. Pierzynski led off the inning with a solo shot to tie the game.  Nelson Cruz followed with a single.  This put the winning run at first with nobody out.

Rick Sutcliffe asked Manny, ‘are you bunting here’.  Manny Acta responded and said, I’m paraphrasing, that statistically, a runner a first with nobody out has a much better chance of scoring than a runner a second with one out.  This flies in the face of conventional wisdom and further makes the Money Ball case.  I had no idea.  I was always one of those idiots that subscribed to, ‘get em on, get em over, get em in.’

Sticking with Monday Night Baseball, I can’t stand Rick Sutcliffe as an announcer.  To me he is always pontificating and it’s very annoying.  Today he was bagging on the players accused of using PEDs and had a condescending, holier than thou tone to his voice.  Here is my two cents.  Baseball was willing to look the other way when the steroid boys were rescuing baseball after the 1994 strike.  Now that the game has recovered they want to crucify the same behavior they exploited when they needed it.  Further, I think PEDs should be legal.  I don’t think it is anybody’s business what another person puts in their body.  This is same way I feel about the phony war on drugs.  What MLB could do is put asterisks next to a person’s name and statistics when they test positive for something MLB doesn’t really want them to take.

For those of you in the Metro Detroit area, Rick Sutcliffe reminds me of Pat Caputo on 97.1 The Fan.  I don’t listen to The Fan anymore because every time I turn it on I’m subjected to Caputo’s whiny, ‘I know every thing’, ‘let’s talk about George Zimmerman because I have all the answers to life’s problems’, voice.  97.1 is supposed to be a sports station not the Caputo political show.

On another note, former Tiger Jacob Turner pitched 6 and 1/3 allowing 5 hits and 3 earned runs, his ERA on the season is 2.65.

If a pitcher throws at least 6 innings and gives up 3 runs or less, it is considered a quality start.  But if you do the math, (3 x 9)/6, you get an ERA of 4.5.  That’s a little on the high side, isn’t it?

Atlanta Braves pitcher, Brandon Beachy, pitched for the first time in over a year as he got the start tonight against Colorado.  He only lasted 3 and 2/3.  He allowed 7 earned runs on 8 hits including two home runs.  He struck out 5 and walked 1.  It is an ugly line but it’s good see him back and hopefully, for the Braves, he can return to form.

The Tigers are back at it tomorrow.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Rangers Stop Scherzer’s Winning Streak

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The Rangers ended Max Scherzer’s 13 game winning streak by handing the Tiger righty his first loss of the season.  Max went 6 innings allowed 4 earned, struck out 6 and walked 2.

It was another lack luster game on this home stand, similar to game 1 of the White Sox series.  The offense didn’t threaten much as Ranger lefty Derek Holland had his back foot slider in full motion tonight.  Holland kept the Tiger hitters off balance all night.

Holland did walk 5 and the Tigers had their chances but this game was really decided in the bottom of the 4th.  The Tigers were trailing 3-0 coming to bat in the 4th. Peralta led off with a single and stole second.  Tui walked which brought Pena to the plate with 2 on and nobody out.  This was not a good time for one of the worst at bats I’ve seen him have.  As usual, Leyland didn’t have Pena bunting but Pena didn’t even look like he was trying to move the runners up.  He swung at the first pitch from Holland, a 92 MPH sinker, and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

I’m not even going to bitch about Leyland not having Pena bunt.  Pena is a professional hitter.  He has to know that at the very least he needs to move the runners over even if is not a true sacrifice.  Nope, he pounds the first pitch he sees into the ground for a rally killing 6-4-3.

There were a few bright spots.  First, rookie second baseman, Hernan Perez, followed Pena’s double play with a single driving in the Tiger’s only run and his first MLB RBI.

The second bright spot was Phil Coke.  He came in to replace Luke Putkonen in the 7th and got A. J. Pierzynski to ground into an inning ending double play.  I was happy for Coke.  He’s been struggling, and it’s nice to see him have a little success that hopefully he can build on for the second half.

Other than that, there wasn’t much to like about tonight’s game.  Alburquerque pitched the 9th and was horrible.  It looks like he’s doing all he can to get back to Toledo.

JV is on the hill for the series and first half finally tomorrow.  I think it is very important to win the game tomorrow.  A win would give them a series win and even their record at 3-3 on this current home stand.  Losing two series in a row, at home, heading into the break, will leave the first half on a down note.  The Tigers really need JV to have a good start and we need better offense than we got tonight.

This team is so irritating.

On another note, I was watching part of the Yankee game before the Tiger game.  The announcers were talking about how Joba Chamberlain is a highly prized commodity that a lot of team are interested in.  Really?  I wonder what teams are interested in Joba?  Are the Tigers one of them?  Joba has a 5.24 era this season.  I guess, if you look at his career stats, they’re not bad.  He has a career 3.81 era and 2.57 K/BB ratio but I wouldn’t be willing to give up top prospects for him.  He’s not going to start.  He’s a power arm coming out of the bullpen who has occasional control problems.  I guess he’s probably better than most of the guys in Tiger bullpen.  But what would the Tigers have to give for him and how much would then have to pay him?  Any thoughts?

Did I mention how irritating the Tigers are?

Oh, Sark, I’ve been thinking about what you said about signing Sanchez.  The more I think about it.  The more I agree with you.

Did I mention how irritated I am right now?

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural