Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - This Day In Baseball: 16 July 2005

This Day In Baseball: 16 July 2005

I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
--- Hank Aaron

Would you believe that the dog ate my homework?

No? How about this - I wrote up a nice TDIB piece for you, and forgot to save it.

Never get old, kids.

Anyway. You all remember the Blue Jays going down to Texas and watching the Toronto pitchers getting the living crap beaten out of them? Maybe that Ranger lineup isn't quite so intimidating when you get them out of Arlington. For the second night in a row, Texas was held without a hit, let alone a run, until the eighth inning.

Or maybe it's just a case of good pitching beating good hitting. Oakland is on fire, folks. They've now won 29 of 40, which is a pretty nifty .725 clip. They've closed to within half a game of the second place Rangers and are three back of Baltimore in the Hunt for the Wild Card.

How is the New Big Three doing? Glad you asked. Since returning from the DL, Rich Harden is 4-1, 1.42 - he's given up zero runs in three of his last five starts. Since the A's turned it around at the end of May, Danny Haren is 6-0, 3.38.

And here is Barry Zito's month-by-month ERA:
April - 6.60
May - 3.49
June - 3.05
July - 1.57

In the fifth inning of last night's Baltimore-Seattle game, Rafael Palmeiro ripped an RBI double for the 3000th hit of his career. He is just the fourth man ever to combine 500 HRs with 3000 hits. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray. Rafael moves in some very fine company. I originally wrote several paragraphs about why Palmeiro was never as powerful an offensive force as Fred McGriff, and while that's still true... never mind. Well done, sir. Cooperstown awaits. You're going to go in standing up, without a throw. As you should.

Here are today's games:

AL
New York (Johnson 9-6, 4.16) at Boston (Clement 10-2, 3.85) 1:20
Chicago (Buehrle 10-3, 2.58) at Cleveland (Westbrook 6-11, 4.67) 1:20
Texas (Rogers 10-4, 2.54) at Oakland (Blanton 5-7, 4.44) 4:05
Tampa Bay (Hendrickson 3-6, 6.33) at Toronto (Towers 6-7, 4.51) 4:07
Kansas City (Carrasco 4-3, 3.57 or Howell 1-3, 8.65) at Detroit (Johnson 5-7, 3.87) 7:05
Los Angeles (Colon 11-5, 3.42) at Minnesota (Santana 7-5, 3.98) 7:10
Baltimore (Chen 7-5, 3.87) at Seattle (Moyer 8-3, 4.64) 10:05

NL
San Francisco (Tomko 6-10, 5.01) at Los Angeles (Perez 4-5, 4.97) 4:05
Pittsburgh (Duke 1-0, 1.93) at Chicago (Maddux 8-6, 4.67) 4:05
Houston (Oswalt 12-7, 2.39) at St.Louis (Marquis 8-6, 3.89) 4:15
Washington (Loaiza 5-5, 3.57) at Milwaukee (Capuano 10-6, 3.63) 7:05
Colorado (Francis 8-6, 5.16) at Cincinnati (Milton 4-10, 6.92) 7:10
Atlanta (Hudson 6-5, 3.78) at New York (Zambrano 4-7, 3.58) 7:10
Arizona (Vargas 3-4, 6.70) at San Diego (Peavy 7-3, 3.14) 10:05

Posted by Magpie on Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 12:20 PM EDT.

This Day In Baseball: 16 July 2005 | 8 comments | Create New Account

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Craig B - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 12:26 PM EDT (#122921) #

So you say you like pitching?

Most of the AL's best pitchers this year are in action today - Clement, Buehrle, Rogers, Santana, Colon... plus for good measure we get Oswalt, Maddux, Peavy and Francis over in the NL. Good times.

John Northey - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 12:38 PM EDT (#122925) #

I just cannot understand how Kenny Rogers can still be pitching. A 20 game suspension that doesn't start until ... when? An appeal process makes sense but c'mon. Everyone in baseball was in Detroit this week, including Rogers. Why couldn't the appeal have been heard the day after the All-Star game, then the suspension put in place immediately after. Baseball _really_ needs to fix this stupidity.

Magpie - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 01:51 PM EDT (#122932) #

Now that the Yankees have seen Tim Redding up close and personal, it's hardly a surprise that Yankees want Leiter ready to start Sunday. Cashman says the deal is almost done: the Yankees send a low-level minor leaguer to Florida and pick up some of the remaining salary.

Craig B - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 01:53 PM EDT (#122934) #

Presumably, the hearing date is set by the consent of the representatives of the player, the club, and MLB - not only do they need time to prepare, but their schedules need to align.

Rogers, the Rangers people, and MLB might have been in Detroit, but there's no reason why their lawyers would have been.

mathesond - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#122937) #

I was under the impression that, since both leagues have franchises based in New York, where the MLB offices are, that appeals were heard when the player's team next visited the Big Apple. Unless, of course, said team had finished the NYC portion of it's schedule. However, I came across that tidbit of information 10, maybe 20 years ago, so I would not be surprised if 1) time has warped my memory, and/or 2) the SYSTEM has changed.

Pistol - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 02:26 PM EDT (#122944) #

Baseball _really_ needs to fix this stupidity.

No kidding. And not only are appeals slow to happen, but suspensions are slow to be given out. David Wells just got suspended from actions in a July 2nd game.

There's no reason why it should take any more than 72 hours to reach a decision, and if a player wants to appeal the suspension it should also be done within a short period of time. It's 2005 - there's no reason why this can't be done quickly.

What I find odd is that given that the suspensions are given in days, why Rogers didn't just start the suspension prior to the AS break where there were 3 days where there were no games.

Jefftown - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 02:46 PM EDT (#122945) #

We might add Joe Blanton into the mix of improved pitchers.

May: 13.25 ERA, struck out 6 batters, gave up 5 HRs.
June: 2.08 ERA.

Also, Kiko Calero, after dominating in April, giving up 9 ERs in 1.0 IP and getting injured in May, came back in June and has since halved his ERA from 8.68 to 4.21.

Considering how Daric Barton's doing in the minors, dealing Mulder is now looking to be another solid move for Beane.

Jefftown - Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 03:04 PM EDT (#122946) #

The White Sox are 19-18 facing non-AL Central teams. 9-4 vs. the East (with 6 of those games vs. TB), and 10-14 vs. the West. The sole reason for their season has been their dominance (28-5) of the Central division.

I predict a decline in August, when they play the Yankees 6 times, Boston 3, Texas for 4, the Jays for 3, the Twins for 6, and the Orioles for 1 (at the beginning of the month). It probably won't be enough to drop them out of playoff contention though.

This Day In Baseball: 16 July 2005 | 8 comments | Create New Account

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