I don't understand what the Braves have been doing with Church. He's been sitting a lot. Against lefties, fine, but why against righties? He's sitting tonight against Joe Blanton, in favor of Reid Gorecki, who's basically a scrub that was brought up for depth.
still tied at 1 in the 6th. Bases loaded with no one out and the Phillies couldn't get a run across. Phillies 5th Jair Jurrjens pitching: Raul Ibanez: Strike swinging, Ball, Ball, Ball, Foul, Foul, Ibanez walked. Pedro Feliz: Ball, Strike looking, Ball, Feliz singled to center, Ibanez to second. Carlos Ruiz: Strike looking, Strike looking, Ball, Foul, Ruiz singled to left, Ibanez to third, Feliz to second. Joe Blanton: Strike looking, Foul, Ball, Ball, Blanton lined into double play first, Ruiz out at first. Jimmy Rollins: Rollins grounded out to second.
Giants sign Penny. I'm hoping he is another NL wunderkun like Smoltz and can lead the Giants to the WC, if not the West. The Giants rotation being one of the best in the league, not too mention they've learned how to score runs. Scary in the NL.
Even in his good years with the Dodgers he was garbage after the All-Star break and generally a bit of a crybaby. I still can't beliee we traded LoDuca, Mota and Encarnacion for Penny and Hee-Siop Choi. Disasterous. Thankfully that moneyball idiot GM was promptly fired.
He has a hatred of the Dodgers fueling him this year. Not too mention Smoltz was nothing spectacular last year in the NL either, and now he has been great since coming back.
No Mets threads any more, so I'll use this thread to point out that Keith Hernandez is showing off how stupid he is in the top of the 1st inning of the Mets game. David Wright is wearing the safer helmet after coming back from getting hit in the head, and Hernandez has commented about five times how he'd never wear it, it's so stupid, etc. I think we should get Justin Verlander to throw a 100 MPH fastball at Keith's head and see which helmet he chooses to wear.
A bunch of major leaguers said the same thing. It's not like Keith is necessarily more logical than they are. Kazmir has been almost unhittable tonight in Seattle. Kazmir: 6 innings, 2 hits, no runs, no walks, 8 Ks
Hanley Ramirez got injured last night (hamstring, IIRC) and is not playing tonight. Josh Hamilton left tonight's game with a back injury. Not a very significant injury, IMO. He's missed a good part of the season anyway, and he's been roughly replacement level when in there.
Brad Penny, like John Smoltz, returned to the NL and excelled in his first start. 8 innings, 5 hits, 1 walk, no runs in Philadelphia tonight. Giants won 4-0. John Smoltz: 5 innings, 3 hits, no walks, no runs, 9 Ks in San Diego. 5-2 win 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 run, 6 Ks at home against the Nationals. 3-2 win
That bastard couldn't go more than 5 or 6 all year and goes 8 against one of the NL's best teams? More proof of the disparity between leagues.
The Hall of Fame has requested the helmet Wright wore. He wasn't the first to wear it in game action, though. Ryan Dempster was.
This is great. One more thing to disupt him and keep his mind off what he's doing out there. Baseball fines Papelbon $5,000 Baseball's attempts to speed up the pace of the game have taken some getting used to for Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon -- to the tune of thousands of dollars. Papelbon was fined $5,000 by Major League Baseball for taking too long to deliver his first pitch Tuesday night, according to Boston-area media reports. It was at least the fifth time he's been cited for failure to adhere to baseball's new speed limits for pitchers and Papelbon says he's been fined more than $10,000 total. "After this, I don't know, man," Papelbon said, according to the Boston Herald, which first reported the fine. "I think they're going to call my parole officer and put me away." Baseball put two pitching-related rule changes in place this season to speed up play. The pitcher must throw the first pitch of a half-inning no more than 2 minutes, 20 seconds from the final out of the previous half inning. And pitchers have 12 seconds to throw once a batter settles into the box. Papelbon also had a ball called on him Tuesday night for taking too long between pitches. "It's something I've got to get used to," Papelbon said, according to The Boston Globe. "When I come in from the bullpen, I've got to speed it up." But that doesn't mean Papelbon is happy about paying. "I know it's a new rule and everything and they're trying to enforce it," he said, according to the Herald. "I guess I'm just the one they decided to enforce it on. A rule's a rule. I don't know who else is getting fined. I can't say I'm being picked on. They may be saying the same thing to everyone else. "If I have to get my agent involved and see if there are other guys doing the same thing I'm doing and not getting fined, then I have a case. If I don't, then I don't." http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4445223
