Archive for June, 2006
AZ 2, Angels 8 - A Walk in the Field
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 24th, 2006 on AZ SnakepitRecord: 36-38. Change on last season: -1
As William K noted, at least we outhit the opposition this time, ten to nine. After a game like this, you are simply left to try and extract comfort where you can, because right from the top of the first inning, it was painfully obvious that this wasn’t Arizona’s night. Starter Enrique Gonzalez - who came in with just six walks in 25 innings of work - walked four Angels hitters in the first frame, including two with the bases loaded.
We were three runs down before coming to bat, and have now been outscored 27-4 in the first innings of games since June 5th. Diamondback fandom, collectively, slumped in their seats and pulled their caps down over their eyes, knowing instinctively what was going to unfold. “Oh, no - not again,” we thought, like a bowl of petunias crashing to earth alongside a very surprised sperm whale. And that’s pretty much what came to pass: variations on a theme called “Defeat”, as played by your 2006 Arizona Diamondbacks. Once more, with feeling.
We had our chances; we had one or more hit in every inning bar the first, and averaged a walk per frame from Santana too. But we left 12 men on base, hit into two double plays in the first three innings, and by that stage, we were 5-0 down. Even after we loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, and Santana then walked Jackson in, putting the tying run on base, Shawn Green popped the ball up, hacking at a 2-0 pitch when Santana was at his wildest, and the chance went begging.
After his hideous first inning, EnGon settled down a bit, though only lasted four frames - largely because it took him more than 40 pitches to get through the opener. He allowed five hits, in addition to the four first-inning walks, but two of those were home runs. [They included a shot up to Friday’s Front Row patio by Mike Napoli, measured at approximately 470 feet, the third-longest in ballpark history.] Greg Aquino relieved EnGon, and Vlad Guerrero greeted him with a homer to left too, but he pitched the rest of the fifth and sixth without further incident.
Valverde’s return to form hit a nasty bump, with three runs scoring on two hits and two walks during the seventh, before Medders and Choate posted zeroes thereafter. Poor Choate can’t get work even when left in for a whole inning: it only took him eight pitches to get through the ninth. In the past ten days, he’s appeared in seven games, but has yet to throw more than fifteen pitches in any of them.
The offense only scored two runs, on a solo homer by Tracy, and the aforementioned based-loaded walk to Jackson. Conor did, at least, reach safely four times, on two hits and two free passes - that’s his first multi-walk game since April 8. Gonzalez and Estrada also had two hits apiece, while DaVanon drew two more walks, and improved his OBP lead over Counsell to forty points.
At the moment, it seems that we can’t even buy a win, and we now find ourselves behind the 2005 pace for the first time since May 23rd. Thanks to Devin, IndyDback and William K for showing up - which is really much more than the Diamondbacks did for the first game in the homestand. Though nobody even noticed that I’d left the Tampa Bay logo up for the gameday thread… It’s fixed now. 
Gameday Thread, #74: 6/23 vs. Angels
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 23rd, 2006 on AZ Snakepit
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A couple of highly-thought of youngsters go up against each other in the opener of this homestand - which I fervently hope goes a bit better than the last one. Y’know like two wins? Santana has the hype, but I’ve been impressed with EnGon’s last couple of starts, and feel that between him, EdGon and possibly the surging Micah Owins, our rotation is already shaping up to be better in 2007.
The question is, will our offense - scorer of just 27 runs in total, over the seven-game roadtrip - come back to Chase? Or is it, as it seems, still circling round a baggage carousel at Atlanta airport? We’ll see… No time to write any more, since it’s almost game time, but it should be an interesting series, since the Angels are struggling a bit lately: 5-8 in the past two weeks, including two losses to the Giants earlier this trip.
AZ 1, Devil Rays 4 - Fleeing Florida
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 22nd, 2006 on AZ SnakepitRecord: 36-37. Change on last season: 0
We suck at home. We suck on the road. Our offense sucks. Our pitching sucks. Our defense sucks. Hmmm…what could this possibly mean? Could it be…we suck? Two wins in seventeen games now. Just in case you’re wondering, the worst streak in franchise history was in 2004, when we had two in twenty-one games (2nd-25th July, or alternatively, 9th July-1st August). That was in the heart of a spell where we went 4-30 and 8-44; nobody is saying we’re that bad…yet. But this road trip, on the heels of the dismal homestand, will hopefully provide sufficient evidence that this is not a contending team.
To illustrate this point further, I took a look at the eight playoff teams from 2005, to see what their worst similar, two-win streak was:
- Atlanta: eight games [May 11-20]
- Anaheim: eight games [August 21-30]
- St Louis: nine games [Sept 18-28]
- Boston: nine games [July 7-18]
- Chicago White Sox: ten games [August 8-20/12-24]
- New York: twelve games [May 28-June 10]
- Houston: twelve games [May 3-14]
- San Diego: fifteen games [July 17-August 3]
Sure, every team has its ups and downs; that’s part of baseball. But playoff teams, inevitably, will have shorter losing streaks than non-contenders, and rarely go on 2-15 runs. Not even San Diego, who had the fewest wins for a division champion since baseball went to a three-up format. The last NL team to do it were the 1996 Padres: between June 2-20, they lost sixteen out of eighteen, but still took the division with 91 wins. Interestingly, they had a great April and May, going 34-20, sucked in June (9-19), and then rebounded. So, it is possible. Just not likely: that’s one team, of forty who have made the playoffs on the National League side in the past decade.
And, please note, our streak has not necessarily finished yet. Indeed, after another dismal performance with the lumber today - we were three-hit by Kazmir and two relievers - it’s difficult to see how, exactly, it might end. We scored just eight runs in this series, and Estrada and Hudson are now the only everyday starters batting better than .235 for June. Our offense has dried up entirely, with a league-worst runs per game of 3.76. Even in our two wins, we scored a total of seven - and one of those games went to extra innings.
I sympathize with Melvin, since there isn’t much he can do. Our bench is largely sucking as hard as the starters: Easley (.220 in June), Clark (.233) and Andy Green (.143) are hardly what you’d call an upgrade. And the roster being clogged up with “veteran presence” means we can’t even call up some youngsters from Tucson to shake things up and give them experience of the big-leagues. Giving Hairston a shot was a good idea; shame it didn’t work out.
But as we approach the trading deadline, we need to think long and hard about who should remain on the roster. I’m thinking almost exclusively about position players here; the pitching staff has already undergone its Night of the Long Knives, with the dismissals (more or less conscious) of Ortiz, Grimsley and Mulholland. The rotation seems, to me, to be about as good as we can expect it to be, given the staff available. But has the time come to be looking at certain people and saying, “Thank you for your services. All the best in the future?”
Top of the list would be Craig Counsell. He’s a free agent at the end of the year, and his value after the trade deadline is basically zero. Hopefully, we can palm him off to someone who isn’t aware of the fact his performance will decline as the year goes on, as we’re already seeing:
Now might also be a good time to sidle up to Tony Clark and say, “Hey, Tony: remember earlier in the season, when you said you’d be prepared to waive your no-trade clause if it was in the best interests of the team?” The problem is, it is optimistic to think that there’d be much of a market for a backup first-baseman hitting .186 on the season, “clubhouse presence” or not. While we’re at it, let’s continue the process of secularizing the team, and get rid of another avowed Christian, Damion Easley. That’d put a damper on the upcoming Faith Night
[On that topic, I was amused to read that the Nashville Metros soccer team, in response to the Nashville Sounds’ Faith Nights at the baseball park, held Satan Night on June 10th. Said general manager Ken Renner, “We’re going to play Black Sabbath before the game, and our players will wear devil horns on their heads. We’re also going to give away Satan bobbleheads to the first 100 fans through the gate, and some of the coaches will hold a flashlight under their chins during the game.” Mind you, I think I’d rather have the splendid-sounding seven-headed Beast of Revelations bobblehead mentioned as a Faith Night giveway. This may, however, be a joke: Ebay reveals nothing when I search for “revelations bobblehead”]
I would also not be surprised if one or other of our centerfielders, Jeff DaVanon and Eric Byrnes, got dealt. It will probably be the latter, now that we’ve put a link to his official site on our sidebar. We have an unerring knack for cursing people that way: we’ve put two banners for movies up on girlswithguns.org: they were for Catwoman and Aeon Flux. So, if Byrnes gets traded away in the next couple months, it’s my fault.
As suggested in the comments, DaVanon might be worth a long look in the leadoff spot. His on-base percentage is basically the best on the roster, and he has decent instincts on the basepaths. Counsell isn’t getting on base often enough, and a 60% stolen-base percentage is well short of break-even: it’s the second-worst of any National Leaguer with 10+ attempts. [Though a hearty round of ironic applause to Jeff Francoeur of Atlanta: five attempts, five failures so far]
I suppose I should mention today’s game, though let’s be honest - very little that the Diamondbacks did was not already covered adequately in the first half of the opening paragraph. That might be a little unfair to EdGon, who came up from Tucson (Daigle was, indeed, sent back down after 24 hours on the roster) with a decent enough start: six innings, nine hits, but no walks and six K’s. He matched zeroes with Kazmir until the fourth, when a fairless pointless dive by Byrnes knocked the ball from his own glove, and the resulting double came round to score. That was it, until Huff’s two-run homer in the sixth, and the Rays tacked one more on during the inning.
Still, pitching coach Bryan Price was impressed: “He threw a lot of strikes, didn’t walk anybody, pitched inside really well. He was able to change speeds on both his fastball and slider. It was very impressive. Really, I thought, in control. I thought a very, very positive start.” Rays SS Julio Lugo was also complimentary: “He was pitching the ball good. He was hitting his spots. He had good command. He was good. He looked comfortable out there, I’ll tell you.” Aquino and Julio pitched the remaining two innings, each fanning two Rays hitters.
It was the offense that was the main problem, again missing presumed dead. We went 3-for-30, with one of the hits not really a “hit”: a fly-ball by Jackson turned into a double, thanks to confusion in the Rays outfield. Apart from that, all we could muster was a single by Tracy and Estrada’s eighth inning homer. DaVanon was in left, with Andy Green as the DH; the stated reason was that DaVanon had prior experience of Tropicana Field, while with the Angels. Shame this stunning idea didn’t arise earlier, or we might have been spared Gonzalez stumbling around the Astroturf like Blind Pew yesterday.
Speaking of Gonzo, he was given the day off. Said Bob, “It’s not that he can’t hit lefties, it’s just that sometimes you need a mental day. These things kind of mount and just felt like it was a good day to give him a day off.” Yeah, it’s pure coincidence there happened to be a left-hander on the mound. Splits for Luis Gonzalez - “not that he can’t hit lefties,” remember…
BA OBP SLG OPS Career, vs left: .264 .351 .428 .779 vs right: .292 .376 .507 .883 2005, vs left: .198 .303 .302 .605 vs right: .292 .374 .458 .832
Sigh. Pardon me if my sarcasm is a little more scathing than usual today. It’s very difficult to be enthuasiastic about a team that seems themselves to have little or no enthusiasm for playing: I’m sure they’re trying, but there’s no reason the Devil Rays should have the Devil’s Eye on us like they do: we’re now 0-6 against them in franchise history. This is a team without a direction; hell, given how badly we’ve played, I can’t help wondering if Jason Grimsley was the real clubhouse leader. And you can take that, whichever way you want.
Thanks to the brave souls who “enjoyed” the game: Ben (at least his fantasy team, with Kazmir on it, did well out of the three-hitter), William K, Keith, andrewinnewyork and icecoldmo. William asks the interesting question, “How far behind the NL West leaders have the D’Backs to fall, before the management decides to pack it in and look forward to 2007?” Whatever the precise figure is, at the moment it seems something I’m more inclined to anticipate, rather than fear. Heroes and Zeroes for the series to follow later. Or possibly tomorrow.
“More Than a Number”
Gameday Thread, #73: 6/22 vs Devil Rays
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 22nd, 2006 on AZ Snakepit
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Let’s see if we can avoid running our franchise record to 0-6 against our co-expansionees, shall we? But I’m less than optimistic about today. We face the Devil Rays staff ace, while putting up someone who got one major-league hitter out last season, and posted an 0-9 record in 2004. EnGon still represents a step up from Kevin Jarvis, true, but is probably closer to what you’d expect from a team whose best season ever is seventy wins, than from the three-time NL West champions, though by most neutral observers to be serious contenders for years to come. Just not this year.
However, pitching is less likely to be our downfall than the lack of offense. Far too many players appear to be coasting at the present time - and part of the problem is, the replacements in the dugout aren’t much better. I mean, it’s one thing to threaten to bench Luis Gonzalez [.227 in June], but it’s basically an empty threat when he looks over and sees Andy Green [.182 in June] as his replacement. Ditto Jackson and Clark. Or Counsell and Easley.
Even a win tomorrow would leave this a 2-5 roadtrip, and you wonder what it’s going to take to get the players’ attention, and turn this thing around. Another team meeting? A brawl? The removal of Melvin as manager? It may not be too long before the last option is being seriously discussed, with the aim of getting someone in who can deliver the kicks in the backside that certain members obviously need. With that in mind, I still don’t know whether to hope for a win in the series finale or not.
9:15 am first pitch, but I’m aiming to be up early, so I can watch some World Cup action first. I think the game is probably radio-only - most East Coast day games seem to be that way - so I’ll likely be tucked in the office, trying to get the decks cleared.
AZ 2, Devil Rays 3 - Floundering in Florida
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 22nd, 2006 on AZ SnakepitRecord: 36-36. Change on last season: 0
Say “Hello!” to that old friend, .500 baseball, again; our bats stay silent and we sink to 2-14 in the past sixteen games, during which time, we’ve scored a mere 50 runs. This was a mix of bad baseball and bad luck, but being only able to get four hits in seven innings from a pitcher with four career starts in the majors, is simply not getting it done.
We’ll get to all that in a minute, because probably more significant than another loss - even one in an over-sized Florida circus-tent - were the multiple roster changes for Arizona. Firstly, Russ Ortiz was, as expected, waived for the purpose of releasing him: it looks like all the optimistic talk of trading for him came to nothing. He’ll clear waivers, and maybe someone else will take a flier on him for league minimum. We’ll see just how much Ortiz wants to play, or whether he’s happy to cash his bi-monthly Diamondbacks’ checks.
Scott Hairston’s stay with the team proved a fleeting one - he was placed on the 15-day DL, because of his shoulder injury. It’s an interesting decision, rather than simply optioning him to Triple-A, which suggests he may come back to the big-league club. Replacing him will be Casey Daigle, who gets his apparently monthly call-up from Tucson (April 12, May 3, and now June 21). However, this now re-opens the question of who is going to be moved, to make way for Edgar Gonzalez when he starts tomorrow. Daigle may well find his ticket getting stamped straight back down, unless they feel Aquino or Medders would benefit from a spot of Sidewinderism.
Finally, Terry “No, really - it’s an ear infection” Mulholland was, like Ortiz, placed on waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release. I think it’s safe to say that the signings of Mulholland (January 12) and Grimsley (December 14) have been, in their own way, the biggest disasters of the short Josh Byrnes era. Both deals were second-guessed from the moment they took place, as making little sense on a team supposedly building for the future, and they’ve turned out to be as bad as feared. Mulholland was paid $750,000 to pitch just three innings; Grimsley had, at least, to work a little harder for his $825,000 (27.2 innings), but has forever linked the Diamondbacks to performance-enhancing drugs.
The money is, perhaps, less important than the roster spots which the pair of pitching disasters took away. Hindsight is 20/20, naturally: but without them, maybe Dan Uggla, now hitting .313 with 13 HR and 43 RBI - figures which would lead Arizona in all three categories - might still be a Diamondback, rather than being handed as a free gift to the Marlins in the Rule 5 Draft. Add Kevin Jarvis, and the trio of pitchers with a combined age of 118 have this line:
42 IP, 55 H, 14 BB, 17 K, 7 HR, 33 ER, 7.07 ERA
I trust lessons have been learned from the fiasco; like, oh, I dunno - “Don’t hire old and busted pitchers”, maybe? If so, then some good can stil come from this.
There was not much “good” to be found for Arizona at Tropicana Field this afternoon. As feared, Shields flummoxed the Diamondbacks with some effective wildness - he walked three batter and hit two more - and a changeup which most of the lineup failed to grasp or understand. Slots 1-6, again, were the culprits, managing a combined 1-for-21 with a walk. Counsell had a particularly miserable day, going 0-for-3, and when he did reach first base - being hit by a pitch to start the game - he was picked off.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez was made to look an idiot in left field again; this time, it seemed like he lost the ball in the ceiling of the dome, and it plopped behind him for a double. A ground-ball to third ricocheted off the bag for an infield single, and then Brandon Webb committed a balk to bring the Devil Rays’ their first run. Webb was also uncharacteristically wild, walking a season-high four batters, in addition to the eight hits given up over six innings, as he lost his third straight decision. Vizcaino, Choate and Lyon followed, striking out four in two innings combined.
Even Bob Melvin getting ejected for the first time this year, couldn’t inject any sense of urgency or life into Arizona. He initially bickered with home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez over the balk call against Webb, then came out again to whinge about balls and strikes, this time saying something which led to his departure. He was replaced by Jay Bell, but the feeble display from our offense continued unabated. DaVanon had two hits and a walk, and was about the only one who seemed to have any real clue at the plate all night; Hudson, batting behind DaVanon, reached safely his first two times up as well.
The defeat sends Arizona to the bottom of the NL West, now 2.5 games behind the Padres. I feel strangely schizophrenic about this team at the moment. Part of me wants them to bomb totally until the trade deadline, so there is no risk of management doing anything monumentally stupid like dealing away prospects for a 2006 pennant run. But there’s part of me which just can’t bring myself to root in that spirit for the opposition. However, this does allow me to deal with the current disastrous run in a psychologically balanced way, without putting my foot through TV sets or household pets.
A sparse but vocal crowd here this afternoon - much like the one in Tropicana Field. VIII, Ben, icecoldmo and William K were the men in question, with the last-named easily the most frequent poster. Though I have to confess, even my enthusiasm for the game was largely muted. I suspect this was perhaps tied in with having got a mere four hours of sleep last night: I was woken at 4:30 am by an ornament falling off the wall and smashing, and that was it for me as far as shuteye was concerned.
Instead, I ended up watching Portugal vs. Mexico in the World Cup, and Belle Starr, a 1941 film about the aftermath of the Civil War…but Morpheus still did not come. Sadly, I remember when four hours of sleep was enough: I am clearly too for that these days. We’ve got another early start tomorrow, with an afternoon game on getaway day, which means a 9:15 am first pitch here. I think I’ll combine that with the crucial USA/Ghana footie game, and make a morning of sport: quick preview to follow, before I go get some shuteye.
Some blessed soul today provided us with real coffee to use in the brewer here in Building 12 at University of Phoenix … it was Peet's Coffee, Major Dickason's Blend. Peet's Coffee is another amazing find in the Pacific Northwest that I discovered in Portland last summer … and that was the same blend I […]
Gameday Thread, #72: 6/21 vs Devil Rays
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 21st, 2006 on AZ Snakepit
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The warm, comfy feeling of guaranteed success we had when Brandon Webb is on the mound, has all but gone now; he is winless since May 26th. It hasn’t always been his fault - in two of the four outings since, he’s allowed one or zero earned runs - but last time out, ten Texas hits led to five runs. I take some comfort from the fact that most of those were bleeders, seeing-eye shots, bloops and so on: this was not a Russ Ortiz, ten-hit outing, where eight of them are doubles.
However, today promises to be a challenge for Webb in a number of ways. Firstly, he relies heavily on his defense behind him, and they will be playing on artificial turf, which is (at the risk of stating the obvious) different from grass. Secondly, the Devil Rays have wheels, and like to use them - only the Mets and Angels have tried more often to swipe a bag than Tampa Bay this year. Webb has improved in this area, but is still definitely stealable on. Keeping the Rays’ top two, Lugo and Crawford, off the basepaths will help. Yesterday, Lugo reached three times on a hit and two walks, and we all know how that turned out.
More people (18) have tried to steal on Webb than any other NL pitcher, though restricting them to a 72% success rate is pretty good. Here are the pitchers with more than 10 attempts against them, in descending order of success rate:
- Chris Young, SD: 16 attempts, 15 successes, 94%
- Derek Lowe, LA, 12/11/92%
- Pedro Martinez, NYM, 11/10/91%
- Brad Penny, LA, 15/13/87%
- Jake Peavy, SD, 14/12/86%
- Gavin Floyd, NYM, 13/11/85%
- Byung-Hung Kim, Col, 11/9/82%
- Jeff Francis, Col, 15/12/80%
- Jamey Wright, SF, 13/10/77%
- Greg Maddux, CHC, 17/13/76%
- Ryan Madsen, Phi, 11/8/73%
- Brandon Webb, AZ, 18/13/72%
- John Thomson, Atl, 14/10/71%
- Aaron Harang, Cin, 12/8/67%
- Orlando Hernandez, NYM, 13/8/62%
- Zach Duke, Pit, 13/5/38%
- Paul Maholm, Pit, 11/4/36%
What this tells us is, be very careful on the basepaths in Pittsburgh: more people have died there than anywhere else in the National League. Overall, St. Louis also has a kill-rate that nails better than 40%+ of attempted perpetrators. We’re a credible 6th, at 31%; dead last (thanks in part to Peavy and Young) are San Diego, at 15%
I don’t know much about James Shields, because he only has four career starts; opponents are hitting .304 off him so far. However, in his June appearances, he has allowed three runs in eighteen innings, with a K/BB ratio of 17:4. This does not augur well for our hitters, who are largely continuing to struggle. Three-quarters of our everyday lineup are now batting .250 or less for the month:
- Jackson: .173/.274/.192
- Tracy: .222/.256/.347
- S.Green: .231/.286/.462
- Gonzalez: .238/.310/.286
- Counsell: .246/.281/.311
- Byrnes: .250/.338/.464
Byrnes and Green are at least showing some power, but you could add Easley (.237), Clark (.240) and Andy Green (.182) off the bench, albeit in a smaller number of at-bats - eleven in Green’s case. Snyder, Estrada and Hudson are the only members of the roster doing better; I guess you should technically count Hairston too, since he went 2-for-4 on Monday… Overall though, our June OPS (.708) is 15th in the league, ahead only of Atlanta (.701).
AZ 5, Devil Rays 8 - Flailing in Florida
Closed Published by Jim McLennan June 21st, 2006 on AZ SnakepitRecord: 36-35. Change on last season: +1
There are times when the L by a pitcher’s name is not justified. But there are others, when it seems entirely appropriate; last night, I think Miguel Batista would be pretty hard pushed to argue he deserved to take the loss. While undeniably squeezed by the home-plate umpire, he gave up eleven hits and three walks in five innings, which led to six earned runs - facing a team who came into the game with the second-lowest tally in the American League. Thanks to a four-run third, they scored six before we got onto the board, and we were always playing catchup thereafter, as the Rays ran their record to 4-0, in the battle of the 1998 expansion teams.
But it would be unfair to blame Batista, alone, for the defeat - there were plenty of areas for improvement, and Melvin held a brief team meeting after the game. According to Batista, “We weren’t ready to play… [Well, duh - two wins in fifteen games? Film at 11.] The skipper wasn’t happy about that. He told us we’ve got to play baseball. He let us know he was very uncomfortable with the way we played. That’s his job.” Our lack of effort was apparent from the first inning, when Gonzalez’s lack of hustle let Baldelli turn a single into a double, and later score the Rays’ first run.
Two words, Luis: contract year. That play reduced the chance of your option being exercised. You’d think that playing in fron of 100 friends and family might have encouraged him, too. He said, “Everybody’s trying to do a little too much. We’ve just got to get back to playing the way we did in spring training. Just having fun out there and playing.” It certainly didn’t look like he was trying to do “too much” on the ball hit his way to Baldelli, and I don’t, personally, give a damn how much “fun” the players have out there. From a fan perspective, winning = fun. Losing = not fun. Losing to the Devil Rays = really not fun at all. I’m surprised I have to explain this.
Here seems an appropriate place to mention something brought up on Diamondbacks Bullpen - the comments made back in spring training by Gonzalez:
Really? Could have fooled us:
2005 overall: .271/.366/.459 OPS .825, 24 HR, 79 RBI 2005 Post-ASB: .256/.354/.469 OPS .823, 12 HR, 28 RBI 2006 so far: .263/.352/.410 OPS .762, 5 HR, 31 RBI
Even discounting defense charitably described as “average”, Gonzalez is currently on pace for just 11 homers and 71 RBIs. This makes the “bad year” of 2005 - even the “horrible” bit - seem like a golden age of performance in comparison. So, if the second half of 2005 was dreadful, what does that make this season? Answers on a postcard to: “We Should Exercise Your 2007 Option Why, Exactly?”, Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ. I still have a lot of respect for him as a person, but as a player, he has done incredibly little since 2003 to justify a roster spot; even his most-ardent supporters (and we count ourselves among them) are finding their patience taxed.
[As a Gonzo fan, I hesitate to bring the next thing up, but in the interest of full disclosure, feel I must. Though it was actually Mrs. SnakePit who noticed this, so blame her! When I mentioned Gonzalez hadn’t hit a home-run in two months, since April 20th, she asked, “When was Jason Grimsley raided?” “Um, April 19th,” I replied. “Oh,” she said. Our lawyers have advised us to redact the remainder of the conversation from the public record. But, really, it’s hardly surprising, given this, that “whispers” are doing the rounds - even if it is absolutely nothing more than bizarre coincidence, that Gonzo started the longest home-run drought of his career, 24 hours after the Feds grabbed a team-mate. I certainly hope, desperately, it is just chance.]
Yesterday, it wasn’t just the veterans though. In that Rays’ four-run third, Conor Jackson thought he’d called time - but it hadn’t been granted by the umpire, and a baserunner moved up as a result. He was also caught over-running second base in the fifth, taking the steam out of our rally - with three runs already in, what should have been first and second, with one out, became just a man at first with two outs. I appreciate this is Jackson’s first year in the majors, but these aren’t even rookie errors: they’re the kind of things that should be beaten out of you in the minor-leagues. If he was hitting the snot out of the ball, I’d overlook it, but he’s batting .173 in June, with one extra-base hit. I’m seriously contemplating disabling the RotY-meter.
While giving up fifteen hits to the worst-batting team on the Junior Circuit (now hitting .246) is nothing to write home about, there were a couple of positives to take from the game. First, would undoubtedly be the solid performance of Jose Valverde: in an extended appearance, over two innings, he allowed one hit and struck out five hitters [Medders pitched a less-effective ninth, allowing two runs on four hits]. Byrnes reached base four times, on a pair of hits (including a homer, his team-leading twelfth) and two walks, while Counsell, Tracy and Green had a pair each.
But on the whole, it certainly didn’t appear that there was much sign of Monday’s victory being one of those “wins that change a season,” as J-Strada said after the game. But he wasn’t playing, so maybe he meant in a personal sense. We’ll see what today brings. Thanks to Keith (especially for the amusing link regarding fan Rob Szasz, who was getting on Eric Byrnes’ case - we heard him, loud and clear, on the radio, driving to The Sets. Imagine the 9th-inning home-run was an immense disappointment…), Spencer, VIII, Devin, Ben, icecoldmo and suitsmetoATnT for their comments.
It’s been confirmed that EdGon will pitch on Thursday, so we’ll see how that goes. Neither 2004 nor 2005 were exactly kind to him, so we’ll be hoping for better this time around. And an MRI on Scott Hairston’s arm showed no major damage, and it looks like just a bit of swelling on the biceps tendon: he is “day-to-day”, which is good to hear. Mind you, the need to make a roster spot available for Gonzalez will perhaps necessitate a rapid departure back to Tucson; this could be Hairston’s last chance today.