July 5, 2013

The Week in Baseball: 7/1-7/5

Frenchy Is Homeless: Over the weekend the Royals did something I did not expcet, they released Jeff Francoeur. I'm mean you shouldn't be surprised Frenchy got cut because he sucks, I'm just surprised the Royals had the balls to do it. Joe Po said his goodbyes to Frenchy and explained why he's gotten so many chances. Beyond the Boxscore compares Frenchy to Yasiel Puig's and comes to the conclusion that despite the fact they're both having the same type of career start, Puig should last longer because he can hit strikes and cover the plate better. I personally hope Puig becomes the next Francoeur because I'm a bitter Giants fan.

Homer Gives Up Nothing: Homer Bailey of the Reds no-hit the Giants on Tuesday night. As a Giants fan I was surprised this hasn't happened yet to the Giants in the past 5 years with how the lineup has been constructed. As for Bailey, this is only his 2nd no-hitter in little less than a year. Not too shabby.



The Rise and Fall of the Brewers: Jonah Keri takes a look at the rise and fall of the Brewers for Grantland and comes to one conclusion: they rose with a great scouting department and fell once those scouts started taking new jobs. The question now is what do the Brewers do now? Do they fall out completely like the Astros and rebuild? Or do they just write off this year and try again next season while Braun is in his prime?


Interleague Isn't That Popular: Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball points out something that should already be known, fans aren't showing up in groves for Interleague games. Oh sure people show up for the "rivalry" interleague games but Orioles fans aren't exactly rushing to the ballpark to watch the Padres. So don't listen to MLB's propaganda that people love Interleauge play.

A Love Story: Buck and Chris: The Love Story.
Because We All Love Position Players Pitching: Last weekend the White Sox were being blown out by the Indians in a double header. Not wanting to waste his entire bullpen White Sox manager Robin Ventura sent outfielder Casper Wells to the mound. Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs takes a look at Casper's scouting report. But many check out that post BECAUSE A POSITION PLAYER WAS PITCHING!

Why Are Baseball Ratings Falling: Steve Lepore of SB Nation tries to explain why baseball ratings have been dropping like a rock. There are the usual explanations like lack of big markets sexiness, baseball is stale, Saturday's are a wasteland. Another reason Lepore explained is the biggest one I buy for the ratings decline. Baseball fans are tribal. People only care about their teams in baseball and don't watch when that team isn't playing.

Another Position Player Pitching: Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus tries to shame the Phillies Carlos Ruiz for taking a pitch in a two strike count with runners on base against Skip Schumaker. I agree with Miller here and wonder why Ruiz would take that pitch???

John Lackey's Resurgence: One of the reasons why the Boston Red Sox are much better this season is because John Lackey is finally healthy and shutting down lefties. BaseballAnalytics.org looks at how Lackey is pitching to left handed hitters.

Games of the Weekend: A look at the best games and pitching matchups of the weekend.

Friday, Dodgers at Giants, Ryu vs. Cain: The Giants are coming off the road trip from hell and have Cain going to the mound. You hate to say that a game/series before the all-star break is important, but this series is important.

Saturday, Orioles at Yankees, Tillman vs Pettite: The Orioles owned the Yankees last weekend in Baltimore and now go to own the Yankees in the Bronx. Chris Tillman surprisingly has been a better pitcher than Pettite this season.

Sunday, Tigers at Indians, Fister vs Kluber: As of right now the Indians are a game and a half back of the Tigers for first. And with the way the Tigers bullpen has been pitching and with no Scherzer going this weekend this is the perfect opportunity for the Tribe to take possession of first place.

2 comments:

  1. Baseball has become what college football was 15 years ago. Territorial. You care about your team and the teams in their division and very little about other teams outside of your region.

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  2. Bear in mind that I've developed a very vocal hatred of football since Super Bowl XXXVII (no "but you're a Raider fan" comments from the peanut gallery, please), but I think the majority of American sports fans are football first fans and fans of everything else as filler for football season.

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