285 pound Kyle Blanks got an inside the park homer against the Cubs. The Cubs are in danger of being swept by the Padres, which would severely damage their playoff hopes. They're teetering on the brink right now. They're 6 behind St. Louis for the division and 5 behind Colorado for the wild card.
Cubs won and avoided the sweep. Also, some news about the Strasburg contract... Stephen Strasburg?s new employer advised the pitching phenom to wait a few weeks ? maybe even a few months ? until he tries to cash the first check of his $7.5 million signing bonus. ?Well, he can try to cash it if he wants,? said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo. ?But the check is going to bounce. I mean, we don?t have that kind of money just sitting around in our account. Are you crazy? We?re the Nationals.? With just minutes before the signing deadline, the Nationals struck a four-year, $15.1 million deal with Strasburg and his agent, Scott Boras. But $7.5 million of the total figure is due in a signing bonus -- $2.5 million immediately. "We got a little desperate as time was running out," said Rizzo. "We didn't think we could deal with the fan outrage if we didn't sign him. So we just decided to agree to whatever they wanted -- while keeping it to ourselves that we couldn't afford near that kind of money, knowing we'd have to write a check that would bounce or give Stephen a bunch of IOUs -- IOUs written on official Washington Nationals stationary, I should add. We are legit." The Nationals insist they're good on the money, just not right now. "Oh, we will pay. People forget that we are a real major league franchise," said Rizzo. "It'll take us a bit to save up the money, but we'll get it. We'll cut some office staff, sell some supplies, sell bats, balls, gloves, players. My neighborhood even has an end-of-summer yard sale I'll take part in to make some extra cash. I'm selling an old record player that I think can bring 30 or 40 bucks." In case Strasburg doesn't heed the team's advise and tries to cash his bonus check immediately, Rizzo thinks he has a a solid backup plan in place. "I came up with this earlier in the year when we misspelled the team name 'Natinals' on a few of our jerseys," he said. "I wrote his name wrong on his bonus check. Like, way wrong. It says 'Pay To The Order Of: Stenny Strappensborg.' No bank is going to cash that." If there's a silver lining to their financial bind, Rizzo says it's this: "Scott Boras isn't going to be getting any money anytime soon either. So that's nice." link :smile:
from Off Base: Randy Wolf had a single, double, and home run in a game this past week. regarding that Angels-Orioles game I mentioned... and Joe Mauer:
Huge Rockies/Giants game in the 14th now. Spent benches, spent bullpens. Lineups: velez winn uribe whiteside Schierholtz medders rowand renteria Ishikawa vs. Fowler barmes carlos gonzalez tulo eaton spilbourghs stewart torrealba atkins Helton, Hawpe, Sandoval, Molina, Garko, and Fred Lewis have all been used (among others). Freddy Sanchez is unavailable, even to PH. You could make a solid lineup out of those guys. Molina C, Helton 1B, Hawpe RF, Sandoval 3B, Garko LF (I guess), Lewis CF, Sanchez 2B
http://player.cumulusstreaming.com/Audioplay.html?KNBR-AM Giants just walked two straight. The second was a pitcher and it forced in a run. 4-2 Giants. Bases loaded for the Rockies in the bottom of the 14th. popout, walk, single, walk, walk
GRAND SLAM WALKOFF WINNER rockies win! rockies win! 6-4 KNBR announcers said this may be the worst loss for the Giants since 2002.
It's a trend. When I come to Colorado, they never seem to lose. That will be tested tonight, because I'm going to tonight's game and it's Josh Fogg against Randy Wolf. Huge disadvantage.
most consecutive starts with 2 ER or fewer last 55 years Adam Wainwright has 12, putting him behind only John Tudor among Cardinals pitches. He just passed Bob Gibson's best streak Among relievers this season, Brad Lidge has blown more saves, has allowed the second most homers, and has the worst ERA all this despite him missing time with injury
Glad the Dodgers won the last two and put an end to that shit. Got out of there with a 4 game lead and don't have to go back to Coors this year. LA has destroyed the Rockies head-to-head this year.
yeah wtf. They lost on Wednesday night with me there. Easiest way to end a hot streak is to start Josh Fogg. Juan Rincon was awesome in relief, though. That got overlooked because they lost.
I was just about to post that.. My giants take the 3 game sweep behind 2 great pitching performances with Zito and Timmy! Now we are even going into the Phillies
