Sunday, June 01, 2008

Perpetual .500

June is here, and so remains the .500 record of the Bombers. I guess things are looking up as they are 7-3 the last 10. And even though there is still a game left in the Twins series, I think all eyes are looking toward Tuesday night. My prediction - Joba's line will be 8 IP, 3 Hits, 2 Walks, 1HBP and 10Ks.

Moose Sighting: Mussina is 8-4. A better record than I thought he'd have at this point. According to ESPN's projections, he's still alive and pacing for a 20 plus win season. Sometimes things happen when you least expect them to.

May Day For Wang: After getting exactly zero wins in the Month of May, there may be no other player happier for the summer than Wang. Perhaps I will take this moment to lower my predicted win total for the guy from 24 . . . nope, I"m keeping it.

Hindsight:
If I am the Reds GM, I might be feeling pretty good that I acquired Edinson Volquez in December via a sleeper of a trade. Thus far, he is 7-2 with an ERA of 1.46 - pretty respectable by any standard, and all it cost them was an aging, on the wagon prospect named - Josh Hamilton. . . Who got the better of that one again?

Will it matter? - Pedro returns for the Mets on Tuesday.

MMA on CBS: I"m going to give the whole production a C-. When I tuned in, I thought I was back in the 90s catching a broadcast of WCW Monday Night Nitro. The chick fight I thought was pretty interesting and the most entertaining - the one of them was kind of hot. Crash - I ask you if what CBS showed was the farm system of the UFC? Technical quality of the fighters seemed to be kind of low. To use a boxing analogy, when you have inexperienced fighters, their punches tend to loop in. Which is fine when you are facing another inexperienced fighter with no defense and who doesn't no how to punch back either. The problem happens when they face a ring veteran who knows as soon as they see the loopy punch start to just throw one down the pipe to the chest or jaw, which tends to end the fight pretty quickly. I thought I was watching a lot of inexperienced fighters throwing loopy punches and kicks to other inexperienced fighters with no defense; that can make for moments of excitement, but this was no sweet science here. On a side note, it kind of looked like the league was in the tank for Kimbo. - They seemed to have banked on him as the one to fill the seats. I'll tell you what though, you get him in the ring with someone who knows how to throw a straight punch, or better at grappling, and he's done. Who knows, maybe it'll be better the next time around.

30 comments:

57 said...

ok.. 5 of 7, but still hanging by a root off of the proverbial cliff. Things are starting to click and the team's barometer, Jose Reyes, is in the midst if a 17 game hitting streak and caused a lot of damage on the field this week. Its only a matter of time when this team hits its stride, but Willie is also one series sweep away from humility...so all is not perfect in Queens just yet. Watch for Beltran to turn it up this week as well.

Mid asked if Pedro mattered. Well, it is NO coincidence that the Mets have won 5 of 7 with him back in the clubhouse. He proves to be more important off the mound as he is on. He's the leader of the Mets and will mow down SF tomorrow night.

Good Luck to Joba.. Actually rooting for him to do well so he's brought back down to earth when he faces the Mets at Shea at the end of the month

Jose jose jose jose!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

If Joba can go 8 IP on a 70 pitch count I would amazed. If he strikes out 10 he doesn't make it out of the 5th...just too many pitches.

Mid, the Elite XC is not affiliated with the UFC in any manner. In my opinion the UFC top to bottom has the best fighters in the world. Zuffa is the parent company to the UFC and the WEC. There's a couple of other organizations out there like EliteXc, IFL, and M1 Global (which I think Mark Cuban just bought).

I thought the Elite XC production was very poor. There was no need for fireworks, the wannabe-Nitro Girls, or rappers parading down the aisle in front of fighters. The fights themselves, not great. The first 2 provided some excitement with quick KOs, the womens fight was by far the best fight of the night. The title fight was stopped unnecessarily by Drs and we have already commented on Kimbo.

I think a lot of MMA business people were disappointed and embarrassed by the Elite XC show.

The Faber/Pulver fight last night was pretty decent. Faber is the real deal and should be considered one of the best all-around pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

In my opinion the best fighters in the world, pound-for-pound:
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Anderson Silva
3. Fedor Emelianenko
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Urijah Faber

57 said...

Pedro has better numbers tomorrow than Joba. Name 5 tremendous pitchers that left the pen to be starters and have succeded. I cant... sorry. and if you even throw in Braden Luper, you're a sorry, sorry baseball fan.

Anonymous said...

um, John Smoltz

Anonymous said...

Justin Duchscherer...

Anonymous said...

Brett Myers????

Anonymous said...

Ron Guidry started his career in the pen (1975-1977). During the 1977 season he was moved from the bullpen to the rotation. I think he turned out OK. In 1977 he was 16-7 with a 2.82 ERA. In '78 he was pretty good 25-3 1.74 ERA. Won the CY Young. Leader of the staff that won the Yanks back-to-back championship titles in 1977-1978.

This should any debate, so get off my back about moving Joba to the rotation.

Anonymous said...

In 1991 Houston had this pitcher named Curt Schilling...appeared in 56 games, didn't start a single one.

In 1993 the Dodgers had this little kid named Pedro Martinez, appeared in 65 games only started 2. Doesn't he have like 3 CY Youngs and is basically considered one of the most dominant pitchers...ever. Last I check the Mets are pinning all hopes on this bullpen guy turned starter.

57 said...

hey maddux, smoltz started in the rotation and only later in life did he move to the pen and then out again..

I still dont see 5 solid pitchers mentioned.

Case rested. And OJ did not do it.

Anonymous said...

I'm not gay.

57 said...

Wow... send Oliver Perez packing and keep Pelfrey

Anonymous said...

By Farnsworth is sucking. He had a good stretch for a little bit but he is reverting back to the old Farnsworth.

57 I think the Smoltz reference is legit. Yeah he was a starter before, then went to the pen. But Joba was a starter all through college and the minors until right before his call up. A lot of the young bullpen guys now come up as starters through the minors and get put in the pen until the club can figure out how to use them.

In very little time we came up with 4 top tier guys. Give me a day and I could probably come up with a pretty solid list.

Anonymous said...

57 here are more top shelf names:

Steve Carlton: in 1965 he appeared in 15 games, only 2 starts.

Nolan Ryan: In his first four years the Mets didn't know how to use him, he was predominately used out of the pen.

Bob Gibson: His first 2 yeas he split time between rotation and pen. 40 games 21 starts.

I think you have your 5...

Anonymous said...

Fuzzy math

old professor said...

Regarding the issue of Joba in the rotation or not. Every five days he will be sent out with the hopes of winning a game. From the pen he went out every other day an made a great bridge to Mo. We had a small taste of using Farnsworth as the bridge during the Twins series. He choked the chicken. He has been a work in progress for three years and has been unable to be consistently counted on.

So here it is - hope for a win every five days or pretty much lock three games up in the 8th inning over the same time period. Fuzzy math or not, the Yankees are better off with Joba in the pen until they can find someone who can consistently get people out (this pen is starting to look like the pens of the past: Hawkins - wasted signing, Veras - Great stuff, but inconsistent, Farnsworth - enough said. Patterson - Great spring training has not translated into the same stuff either at AAA or in his first appearance versus the Twins. Is there a JB Cox sighting in the future?????).

Anonymous said...

I don't know about JB Cox...but on the Joe Girardi Show Michael Kay mentioned the possibility of Mark Melancon being called up.

If you recall Melancon was injured all last year. Was real good in spring and was deemed "closer of the future". He is tearing up the minor leagues. He's already moved from Tampa to Trenton. He could be in S/WB within a couple of weeks, then called up post All-Star break.

Middle Relief said...

Cox gets called up first, which opens a spot at SWB for Melancon. both will be up prior to year end which means Edwar and Veras are to be packaged for trade bait.

old professor said...

Before Cox and Melancon, the Yankees may land Brian Fuentes from the Rockies. MLB Rumors have the Yankees making overtures for the reliever.

Besides the bullpen, they may want to look at strengthening the bench. Bettemit is not strong off of the bench and Shelly Duncan has not been able to recreate his success from last year.

I am concerned that we are looking at a team that will finish with 84-86 wins if not finishing at .500. Either way major overhall during the winter.

Oh and 57 you probably were not watching but Smoltz is back in the bullpen in an effort to save his arm. So he went from starter to closer to starter and is now back to the closer role.

Anonymous said...

And I blew my first save...ouch.

Anonymous said...

What a bum draw for Joba, the Jays are starting Roy Halladay. Going off of memory but I think the Yanks traditionally can't hit this guy.

old professor said...

Well, Joba got his first start - 2.1 innings and 61 pitches. Hope he does better in start number 2. Oh and the bullpen imploded in the seventh. So while going to the rotation will be the best for Joba and maybe long-term for the Yankees, the short-term means a bullpen that will be inconsistent and cough-up leads in the 7th, and 8th innings. Mo should enjoy the rest it could be weeks before he sees the 9th inning.

Maybe it is time to clean house in the bullpen and bring up some of the young arms in the minors to see if they can take the bright lights of the big city. It is going to be a long season.

Middle Relief said...

I"m going to post on Joba's start later tonight - I am very pissed about the whole situation.
--
As far as a long season, that's OK, I think I'm still feeling the after glow from the G-Men Super Bowl victory - I'm willing to give my teams the rest of the year "the pass".

Anonymous said...

Veras and Ramirez's combined pitching line: 1/3 IP, 3H, 3BB, 6 ER.

That's ugly.

The Scooter said...

2,416...that's a lot of hits considering how overrated he is, huh Prof?

Congratulations Jetes!

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!!!!!!!!!

Middle Relief said...

Is there room on the Moose band wagon?

old professor said...

I had to take a nitro tablet to stop the heart irregularities that occurred when Mid asked to get on the Moose bandwagon!!!!

If Moose continues to pitch the way he did last night, he may actually be close to winning twenty games for the first time in his career. (Interesting question: if Moose has an all-star year and wants to pitch next year, do the Yankees bring him back?). It must be hard for Mid to look at the statistics and see that Moose is leading his team in wins and is the ace of the staff. Pettitte does not appear to have the energy to go deep into the game and Wang seems to have lost confidence in his ability to pitch. Where is Carl Pavano when you need him, oh forgot four years on the DL.

Good luck to Jorge in catching. It will be good to get his bat back in the lineup.

Anonymous said...

I'm slowly coming around to the fact Mussina has redefined himself and is actually a better pitcher than we have seen the last couple of years.

Farnsworth pitched well last night. He seems to be on again, off again, on again.

Old Prof how about some props for your boy Jeter. Climbing up the hit chart. I certainly don't consider Jeter in the same class as Mantle Ruth or Gehrig, but stats don't lie. He has been consistent with his offensive numbers every year. When he is finished he will be the only Yankee with 3,000 hits.

The Scooter said...

Climb aboard, Mid...all are welcome!

Easy on the nitro, Prof....it doesn't mesh well with the Viagra.

old professor said...

Oh Scooter, I am hurt, Viagra is not even in my vocabulary. By the way, Crash/Mid. For JB Cox to be brought up he will have to be added to the 40 man roster - who goes??

Without going to far off the deep end, it doesn't seem politically correct to mention Jeter in the same way as Gehrig, Ruth and Mantle.

Anonymous said...

I'm not worried with who goes off of the 40 man roster. Personally I think Karstens should be dumped (sorry Mid) I know he's only 25 but he's back in AAA and has an ERA larger than most points spreads in the NFL. I could also see Moeller or Molina being let go now that Posada is back. I can't see a need to carry 2 reserve catchers. Not sure if you can designate someone for assignment if they are on the DL, but if they're not getting anything from Pavano this year that's not a loss, cut him.

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