Phoenix.BloggersPub

Woody Williams, RHP (7-4, 3.60)

Brandon Webb, RHP (13-5, 2.99)

Should be a good pitching matchup tonight, with our ace facing Williams, who’s on a three-game winning streak, during which time (21.2 IP) he has an ERA of just 2.49. Probably not who we want to face, when we’ve scored just six runs over the last two games. Though I have probably done my part, and given Woody Williams the kiss of death, by picking him up for my fantasy baseball roster. That should ensure he’s good for six or seven earned runs. And the second inning could be even worse.

Webb has been less than stellar over his past three starts, and if there’s another bad one tonight, then serious thought should be given to shutting him down - there’s no point in him risking any more damage in chasing after what is basically a lost cause [BP now gives us less than a 6% chance of making the playoffs]. He’ll also have an added burden, since his newly-married college friend Jon Hooker was killed in the Lexington plane crash over the weekend. Our sympathies go out there.

This is the last series before the rosters expand, and so we should perhaps be thinking about who to bring up for September. It looks like chasing the 2006 playoffs will be secondary to giving a look to players for next year, and that’s how it should be used. I’ll write more about that tomorrow, I think, and who we’re likely to see coming up later in the week. We do have to bear in mind that Tucson have a great chance at winning the league, which would only be fitting - it would, in some cases, certainly make sense to have players appearing every day for the Sidewinders, rather than sitting on the bench for the Diamondbacks.

Finally, welcome back to veteran contributor Stephen. He hadn’t been heard from since I turned anonymous comments off, in response to the Great Wall of Spam, earlier in the season, but finally got round to registering. Just in time to witness the death throes of our playoff hopes over the weekend…or maybe just in time for the September call-ups, depending on how you want to look at things? Glass half-full or half-empty? Hell, give me a moment alone with the glass and I’ll happily resolve the issue, once and for all. Providing it’s import beer, at least. Comments to follow, and I’d appreciate it if the game doesn’t run too long, since I want to watch Three Days of the Condor later on tonight. I feel sure our hitters will take this request to heart…

Results

AZ SnakePit 3, BBTNG 6
BBTNG booked their playoff spot with the win, but AZ limp towards the last week of the regular season, still not certain of post-season competition. BBTNG poured on 50 RBIs and 48 K’s, but despite a 1.07 WHIP could only manage a 4.84 ERA. Hunter had 4 HR for them, and Ortiz three for AZ; Haren (BBTNG) had a win and 16 K’s, while Padilla (AZ) posted a victory and ten K’s.
Man of the Match: Ramirez (BBTNG) - 7 R, 5 RBI, 2 SB, .400

DFA’ders 9, KarateMonkeyDeathCar 0
DFA came within one win of a clean sweep over Karate, and most of their victories were by wide margins (one save and 4 K’s were about the only close categories). Karate were three men short, with Polanco, Eckstein and Gordon all DL’d. Crede and Jones joined Berkman with 3 HR for DFA - they need four more points than Snakepit in the last week’s match-ups, in order to make the playoffs.
Man of the Match: Berkman (DFA) - 6 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, SB

Uk Dbacks 5, The Fighting Amish 5
UK put up a credible fight against the playoff-bound Amish, holding them to a tie in a contest where no-one ever had a clear upper hand. Amish edged hitting, but a poor pitching performance (6.13 ERA) allowed UK to come back, with Ryan’s two saves and zero ERA crucial in helping them win both categories. Amish and Seals both have hopes of a first-round bye in the playoffs: week 22 will decide it.
Man of the Match: Beltran (Amish) - 10 R, 3 HR, 7 RBI

JByrnesIsMyHomie 9, GregSchulteOverdrive 1
Can anyone stop Byrnes? They ran their record for the year to 18-1-2, with a comprehensive demolition of another playoff rival in Greg. Dye smacked five homers for them - more than Greg’s entire team - and they batted .357, led by Guerrero’s .458. Greg did take ERA, behind Rogers’ two wins and 0.64 ERA, but even a 1.17 WHIP wasn’t enough to withstand the Byrnes juggernaut.
Man of the Match: Smoltz (Byrnes) - 2 W, 17 K, 0.56 ERA

Browncoats 1, Random Fandom 7
Browncoats sank to the bottom, following a defeat by Fandom, who still have a long shot at a playoff spot. This was not a good hitting contest, with only six homers, 35 RBIs and no stolen bases between the teams combined. However, Random did enough to win everything bar SBs, and also had the edge in pitching, with Borowski’s three saves giving Brown their sole victory. Guillen scored eight of Random’s runs.
Man of the Match: Myers (Random) - 1 W, 9 K, 0.63 WHIP

7-2 Offsuiters 6, BigLebowski 3
7-2 pipped Big to keep their faint post-season hopes alive. Cabrera had 8 runs and 9 RBIs for them, and wasn’t even their best offensive player this week, as they took all hitting categories save SBs, where Roberts’ three bags gave it to Big. Big also posted a credible 3.50 ERA and 42 K’s (13 each for Hernandez and Pettitte) but Putz’s two saves means 7-2 were not to be denied overall victory.
Man of the Match: Delgado (7-2) - 6 R, 4 HR, 11 RBI, .389

The Loose Seals 5, ¡Chalino Sanchez! 4
Truly a game of two halves, all Seals points coming in hitting, while Chalino dominated pitching almost as much. However, wins were tied at two, and that was enough to give Loose overall victory, though Chalino did enough to move off the bottom. Peavy had 12 K’s for them, while Loose’s Damon was the only player to hit more than a single homer, and scored seven runs as well.
Man of the Match: Reyes (Loose) - 7 R, 5 RBI, 4 SB, .375

Standings

                            W-L-T    GB  *1.  JByrnesIsMyHomie     141-52-17   -  *2.  The Loose Seals      116-74-20  23.5  *3.  The Fighting Amish   116-76-18  24.5  *4.  BBTNG                109-90-11  35   5.  GregSchulteOverdrive 103-91-16  38.5   6.  AZ SnakePit           98-97-15  44   7.  DFA'ders              95-102-13 48   8.  Random Fandom         93-103-14 49.5   9.  7-2 Offsuiters        88-102-20 51.5  10.  Uk Dbacks             85-106-19 55  11.  BigLebowski           81-115-14 61.5  12.  KarateMonkeyDeathCar  81-116-13 62  13.  ¡Chalino Sanchez!     80-119-11 64  14.  Browncoats            74-117-19 66   * = clinched playoff spot

Week 22 Matchups

AZ SnakePit vs. 7-2 Offsuiters
DFA’ders vs. BBTNG
Uk Dbacks vs. KarateMonkeyDeathCar
JByrnesIsMyHomie vs. The Fighting Amish
Browncoats vs. GregSchulteOverdrive
The Loose Seals vs. BigLebowski
¡Chalino Sanchez! vs. Random Fandom

Two playoff spots are still up for grabs, with five teams (Greg, AZ, DFA, Random and 7-2) in the hunt. Greg should seal one with victory over bottom-placed Browncoats, but DFA have a tougher task against 4th-placed BBTNG. Random will need to beat up on Chalino, but AZ face 7-2, and these two sides seem to be going in different directions: AZ down, 7-2 up. Can AZ hold on? Byrnes face Amish in what could be a preview of the playoffs, and UK face Karate in a battle of two teams who won’t make the playoffs but are still able to move up the standings.

The Edge Square is a limited production version of the Edge with extra ligero. I love the Edge maduro (specifically the “Torpedo”) so I wondered if it would benefit from a little extra kick.

I might start reading for LibriVox on my spare time. And if you prefer having your books read to you, then they have a growing list of free, public domain, audio books in podcast format ready for download.

Tag: spare timespare time

I inherited a fish tank at work several days ago and it was originally stocked with a sucker fish, a bright blue and orange fish, and some kind of miniature shark. The morning after I acquired the tank, the shark was floating at the top–I’m attributing this to the previous owner. Thus, I promptly flushed […]

I’ve been in the habit, of late when Andrew goes to bed, of saying things like ‘goodnight sweetheart’. He always protests ‘I’m not sweetheart’. Ok, I can go with that; ‘goodnight honey cheeks’. ‘I’m not honey cheeks’. And so on…

All in good fun and he takes it so.

Last night (Saturday night) he was at Austins place to play poker. I have to admit that when I first learned that they play for money I was a trifle concerned. They were playing for 50 cent stakes on my kitchen table! He’s only fourteen; did we really want him and his mates playing poker for money? But Sonya made a good point; if they’re playing poker we know where they are and what they’re doing. At least they’re not hiding booze under bushes.

Of course she said the same thing about Morgan a few years ago but let’s be charitable.

Poor Andrew. He’s under much closer surveillance. He’s protested more than once that neither Shelby nor Morgan had to put up with what he has to put up with. I’ll give the kid his due; when we tell him that we don’t want him to become Morgan he understands. I think he’s got a good head on his shoulders.

Last night was British Comedy night. A rare and all too precious oasis. In the gap PBS inflicts between programs I had an evil idea. I asked Sonya to hand up the phone. As she said later, she wondered who the heck I was going to call!

When Andrew answered the phone I said:

‘In case I forget later, goodnight apple dumpling!’

He spluttered. But I could hear the laughter. He’s going to turn out just fine!

I’ve mentioned a few times in the blog that I left school at 15. True enough; 1969 was my last year in full time education.

My move from school to full time work was mostly at the behest of Misery Guts though I can’t deny that the thought of having money was attractive. If I’d known just how badly paid a radio apprentice was in 1970 perhaps I’d have put up more resistance to the idea of leaving school. By the time I’d deducted the cost of my weekly railway ticket and the board I was now expected, as a wage earner, to pay, I had about the same amount of money that I’d been receiving from collecting coke bottles and old newspapers!

But it was done and one has to live with the consequences of ones decisions. Thus began a series of attempts to catch up. Ultimately unsuccessful let me state up front. My official education high point is still merely the Australian Intermediate Certificate which is about equivalent to finishing American High School at the end of ones sophomore year. Um yeah, I did finish my trades certificate.

As for why? Entirely my own fault. The world has always been so damn interesting and I never really learned the art of concentrating on the one thing. When one is immersing oneself in German Romantic Music whilst discovering the fascination of cemeteries, writing ones novel (however bad it might be) and learning, belatedly, about the opposite sex, it’s hard to concentrate on the specifics of passing an exam.

I’ve written a bit about Turtle Video in 1975 and how I was involved in planning and talking about making films. Quite a bit more talk than making though we certainly did enough of that.

At the same time I was enrolled in night school trying to get my HSC (Higher School Certificate). I did English and Music appreciation among other subjects. I can’t even remember the other subjects! Our novel that year was L P Hartleys ‘The Go Between’. I still have my copy from that course. Our Music Appreciation subject was Elgars Cello Concerto.

Oh, and at the same time, I had a full time job to pay the rent. And don’t forget that novel I keep harping on about. Someday I may post a chapter or two but only if you promise not to laugh too uproariously!

As I read that back it feels, even to me, like a litany of excuses but I really can’t think of a better way of expressing it. Life was ‘busy’! So many things to do, to experience, to enjoy!

In the middle of 1978 I became aware that there was the possibility of entering university as a mature age student. Given that I was only 24 at the time methinks the definition of mature was rather loose!

You need to understand that at the time university education in Australia was free except for a student fee of a couple of hundred dollars per year. The rest of the fees were picked up by the taxpayer. Entry was thus totally based on academic potential with little regard to daddy’s pocketbook. The student still had to support him or herself; the state wasn’t *that* generous.

I applied and sat the entrance exam. Easy! One question presented a set of photographs of the San Andreas fault in California and asked for some educated guesses about what would happen if a catastrophic shift occurred.

Another question presented a passage from an essay by George Orwell. Given that I’d read that very essay in its entirety the week before and knew the entire context I had no problem. I wish I could remember which passage and which essay it was!

Having passed that exam it was time for the interviews. Thus I fronted up, sometime in October or November of 1978, at Monash University, Melbourne, to be questioned. I can picture it to this day; academics who I initially mistook for professors (fat chance). Methinks it much more likely they were post graduate students and tutors.

But they’d done their homework and knew my application at least as well as I did. I’d applied for arts/law and they went down that track. A lot of talk about this and that (again I don’t remember the details). And at one point one earnest young woman maybe a decade older than I was asked the killer question.

‘What novel have you read in the last year that most impressed you?’.

She was ill prepared for my answer.

‘Portnoys Complaint[^]’ was my reply (what, you thought I could go a post this long without a link???).

Some embarassed laughter.

I was accepted as a student!

Record: 63-67. Change on last season: +5

Even though we were down 3-0 on Saturday night, I licked my lips in anticipation as I saw Derek Lowe forced to leave the game in the fourth. While reluctant to wish ill on any professional sportsman (and I was glad there was no permananent damage), throwing Los Angeles on to their depleted bullpen for the last five innings was just what was needed. And lo, the Diamondbacks inexorably reeled in the Dodgers, with single runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth to tie the game. Batista pitched eight solid innings as a start, so we had Los Angeles just where we wanted them: reeling and on the ropes with few, if any, arms left in the bullpen.

So, who did Melvin choose to pitch the ninth? Vizcaino, who walked the bases loaded yesterday and threw only 11 strikes in 26 pitches. Now, while not quite a season high (that would be 28, on two occasions), when he’s pitched that many, he’s almost always not pitched again for four days afterwards. We also had a number of less taxed arms available, such as Juan Cruz - four pitches this homestand - or Jorge Julio, with just nine pitches in the previous week. [It’s not a “save situation”, but none of Jorge’s last four appearances have been]

Sure, it’s hindsight, but Vizcaino would have been at least my third, if not lower, choice for the situation. And what happened? Kent smacked a homer to give the Giants back the lead, and their closer then pounced with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to steal a win. A victory would have put us two games behind Los Angeles, with a chance of the sweep today. Instead, the defeat rolled us back to four games behind the Dodgers once more. And given the crucial nature of this series, I would be putting my best eight position players out there: this does not currently include Clark and Counsell, who went 1-for-7. Bob Melvin, this one’s on you.

And why didn’t we use a little imagination with regard to the roster? The Dodgers pulled up a fresh reliever in Hamaluck from their Triple-A affiliate: he pitched a crucial, perfect sixth inning with two K’s. Arizona certainly could have done with someone like Edgar Gonzalez available [Doug Slaten and his 0.50 ERA would also be possible, but think he’d need to be added to the 40-man roster; good article on him in the AZ Daily Star. Mike Bacsik is another contender, but he’s off with Team USA in the Olympics qualifier]. Let’s face it, EdGon could well be coming up next week anyway when the rosters expand, so it’s only a temporary issue.

Orlando Hudson was the offensive star, with three of our ten hits, but made a couple of horrible mental errors in the fourth that don’t show up in the boxscore. Hudson was slow getting to second on what should have been a ground-out to Counsell - the base-runner reached the bag first, and a run scored from third as a result. He led off our fourth with a double, and should have reached third on Gonzo’s deep flyout to center. Said Hudson, “I thought it was going off the wall, I really did.” He then made the second out when he was caught trying to steal third.

Estrada and Tracy both had two hits each. It was Chad’s bobblehead night at Chase, and - presumably as a result - the crowd of 40,358 was Arizona’s largest at home this season. However, we only managed one walk, to Gonzalez, and I did see Tracy’s eighth-inning at bat, with one out and two men on. It was not a thing of beauty shall we say, and ended with Tracy striking out at ball four, that was so far inside, it almost hit him. I doubt that the 2005 version of Tracy would have been seen swinging wildly at that pitch. Hell, the bobblehead would probably have shown better plate selection.

Great, almost essential outing by Batista: eight innings of four hit ball. He did allow four walks, but the only real problem was a two-run single to Nomar Garciaparra in the third inning. At that point, his pitch count was worryingly high, but he got a couple of quick frames, and so got through eight innings, which was just what the bullpen needed. However, he left with us down 3-2, but since we subsequently tied up the game, he still ended up with his eighth no-decision in the past ten games. Does preserve his unbeaten streak though: he’s now 3-0 since June 20.

Your daily dose of yummy Fangraphs goodness
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Today: Luis the Loser

Today’s game was a more comprehensive drubbing; it would be difficult to point to a particular aspect as especially deficient. Livan Hernandez started off well enough, posting zeroes on the board for the first four innings, and he was holding a 1-0 lead in the fifth. However, he hit trouble in the fifth, and a fateful decision to intentionally walk Martin with a runner on third and one out, in order to get to the opposing pitcher, backfired. The pitcher bunted Martin to second, and then Furcal drove both runners in with a triple.

By the time Livan left, he’d thrown six innings, and allowed five earned runs on eight hits and three walks. That lifts his ERA as a Diamondback to 4.88 in four starts, which is worrying, despite the good start-and-a-half (until the fifth today). In particular, he’s allowed 37 hits in 27.2 innings, definitely a higher figure that you’d want from someone slated as our #3 starter for next year. Looks like the starting pitching is going to be the biggest area of concern over this off-season. Hang on, wasn’t it the biggest area of concern over last off-season too?

After his departure, Medders came in and allowed a run on two hits in the seventh inning. However, Valverde had another couple of good frames, throwing nineteen strikes in 24 pitches, as he worked a scoreless eighth and ninth, giving up two hits and fanning two. He seems to be getting stretched out since his return - that’s his fifth straight two-inning appearance, compared to only one before his stint in Tucson. That’s not a bad position to have a pitcher for, and it seems to suit Papa Grande, as the sum tally of all his two inning starts this year is 12 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 18 K, 2 ER.

We jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, on a two-out single by Tracy. Indeed, all our runs came with two-out hits, the other two coming on a double by Luis Gonzalez - tying him for 22nd on the all-time list, alongside Rogers Hornsby with 541 - and a ninth-inning single by Byrnes. That brought the tying run to the plate, in the shape of Orlando Hudson, who already had two hits, but he couldn’t quite come through, and we lost for the eighth time in ten games. Byrnes had three hits, while Tracy joined Hudson in delivering a pair of knocks. Gratifyingly, we actually had more walks than strikeouts, with Hudson and Quentin the only men to K.

But that’s really clutching at straws, in a defeat which, to all intents and purposes, probably put the final nail in the 2006 season for Arizona. The management and players will, I’m sure, continue to say all the right things about how we’re going to keep on competing until we’re mathematically eliminated. But the best thing to do is to treat the remaining 32 games as a test-bed, where we can begin the process of establishing a lineup for next season. We need to find out, for example, whether Hairston would be a credible LF for next year. This should be a ruthless process: management should not care how much any proven veterans may bleat to the press. They had their chance, and they blew it.

Thanks to Englishdback, VIII, npineda, andrewinnewyork, William K and nargel for their comments over the past couple of days. And congratulations to the Tucson Sidewinders who, as noted by William K, captured the Southern Division of the Pacific Coast League today. So there will be some playoff baseball in Arizona this year - just probably not at the major-league level…

Heroes and Zeroes
Series 41: vs Dodgers, at home

Hudson: 9-for-15, 4 RBI, 2 BB
Batista: 8 IP, 4 H, 4 BB, 3 ER
Valverde: 4 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 6 K
—————————–
Hernandez: 6 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 5 ER
Vargas: 4.1 IP, 10 H, 6 ER
Vizcaino: 2 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 ER, Loss

Pitcher-dominated series, but top honours go to Orlando Hudson. Despite a couple of bad mistakes around the infield in Saturday’s game, he’s still hitting like a fiend. This series brought his average for August up to .337 - the third straight month he has hit over .300 - and his season figure to .288. If he keeps this up, it will be very worthwhile hanging on to him, since second basemen with an OPS of over .900 (like O-Dawg’s from June on) don’t grow on trees. As this chart shows, even including his slow start, Hudson still currently ranks 10th for OPS among second basemen in the majors. An .850 OPS would be beaten only by Chase Utley and Ray Durham; I’d take that level of offensive production, and never mind his glove.

Elsewhere, much credit to Mr. No Decision, Miguel Batista, who gave us eight innings when we needed it most - though I think Melvin would have left him out there for eight innings even if Miggy was reduced to tossing the ball towards the plate underhand. That it was a very solid, quality start was merely a bonus. And see above for my notes on Valverde, who appears to be back into the form that he showed early in the year. It’s probably too late to be of much use this year, but if we don’t re-sign Julio - and I’m not convinced we want to - then a strong Valverde will be a crucial part of our 2007 plans.

On the dark side of the force this series, Jar Jar Binks is played by Livan Hernandez. His start today began very well, but the wheels fell off after the intentional walk to Martin, with the sort of speed not seen since Elmer Dessens took the mound. In the role of Grand Moff Tarkin (carpet slippers optional), is Claudio Vargas: he dug us a deep hole against Greg Maddux, from which we were very lucky to recover. And breathing heavily behind the black mask, as Darth Vader, is Luis Vizcaino. He came within an ace of disaster on Friday night, walking the bases loaded after getting the first two outs, then allowed the ninth inning home run to the Dodgers on Saturday. That may well prove to have marked the end of Arizona’s playoff chances.

Frozen food hardly ever makes its way to our dinner table, with the notable exception of frozen creamed spinach.

In anticipation of the new Badly Drawn Boy album, Born in the UK (due on Oct. 17 on Astralwerks), I dusted off his back catalog over the weekend to reacquaint myself.No matter what Badly Drawn Boy (born Damon Gough) does from here forward, he’ll always…