This Week in Baseball: May 15th

This week in baseball will be remembered for perfection. And almost for perfection, again. Apologies for the lateness, it has been a busy couple of days.

El Perfecto

Dallas Braden’s Perfect Game

I knew Dallas Braden was good, but I had no idea he was perfect. Everyone has heard about it by now, so instead of re-hashing all the same details you have already heard, let’s try to keep it fresh. The perfect game is a tricky deal. It is baseball history (only 19 have been thrown) and guarantees that even if you do nothing else with your career, you will have that. On the other hand, perfect games do not guarantee a pitcher anything in th elong-term. A perfect game does not translate to success in the majors, so if your guy throws one, he was great that day, it does not mean he will be the next day. All it means is that for one day, you were untouchable.

Here are few fun facts about the game itself. Dallas Braden is from Stockton, CA, which has the area code 209. That day just so happened to be 209 day at Oakland Alameda Country Coliseum (or as it is known, McAfee Coliseum), in honor of Dallas Braden. The man threw a perfect game on a day dedicated to him at the ballpark, on Mothers Day, with his grandma, who raised him, in the stands. How cool is that? Also, granny told A-Rod to “Stick it”, so plenty of people now how a new idol. Good for Dallas Braden. Let’s see if A-Rod runs across “his” mound now.

Friars on Fire

The San Diego Padres are hotter than a brazilian beach (and we’re not talking weather). We could go on about Jon Garland, Wade LeBlanc, Chase Headley or the predictably-good Adrian Gonzalez, but for your mental health, we will not. However, we would be remiss if we did not mention how good the Padres have been. They have been slaughtering the division-rival Giants, and Mat Latos recently made a certain co-founder Padres fan nearly hyper-ventilate in excitement. Mat Latos threw a one-hit shutout on thursday without walking a batter. Yeah, he was one hit from perfection. As we discussed earlier, a perfect game does not mean a ton as far as long-term success, but the Padres have got to be thrilled that their young ace, who has gone 19 innings without allowing a run, has gotten off to such a fast start. Padres fans should be optimistic, but not fly off the handle about him being a 5-time all-star or anything.

“Let them eat Gates”

For those of you who have not been to Kansas City, Gates is a barbecue establishment. If you did not get my veiled Marie Antoinette reference, it was a reference to Trey Hillman, who lost his job yesterday. It seems a bit early to fire a manager, but evidently Kansas City thought they had a chance to win this year (trying to stifle laughter). Hey, KC, Trey Hillman is not your problem. Your starting pitching is the problem. Blame Kyle Davies, Brain Bannister, Gil Meche, or anyone else. Not a lot of hope for KC this year, though I still believe moral victories are possible for the Royals. I am really just not sure why you would fire your manager at this point.

Unexpectedly Classic

Reds Rolling

We talked about the Nationals’ successes last week, and this week it is time to throw some love Cincinnati’s way. They have been playing pretty good baseball and have been more or less doing it without huge contributions from Brandon Phillips or Drew Stubbs. They can thank quality starting pitching, and good bitting by the rest of their guys for their current record. Keep an eye on the Reds, who have a much better roster than you would think, and have a weak division to feast on. Stay tuned to Reds baseball.

What to Watch This Week

That is all we got for this week, but in the upcoming week, see if the Braves can turn their whipping of the Brewers into a bit of a winning streak to get back toward the top of the division. Obvioulsy, you should looka t the Reds, as we just talked about that, but also keep an eye on the Royals to see how little firing Trey Hillman will help them really win games.

This Week in Baseball: April 23rd

In a week where we saw 20 innings of baseball in St. Louis, a no-no for Ubaldo, and more of the same league-wide, this week in baseball will be remembered as the week the Mets died.

20 Innings of Baseball

Would You Mather: sacrifice the game and save the bullpen, or sacrifice the bullpen for one game?

We will not go into too much detail, but wow. I agree with Tony LaRussa throwing Joe Mather and Felipe Lopez if for no other reason than throwing any other pitchers out there really risks fatigue in the long term and it hinders your chances next game. The Cardinals somehow managed 14 hits in that game without pushing a run across until the 19th, which is amazing in itself. It seems so long ago, but it did happen this week.

Ubaldo’s No-No

Ubaldo Jimenez is the real deal. He has always had that explosive fastball, but he has actually turned into a pretty damn good pitcher overall. He followed that historic performance up with another good outing keeping the Rockies in the race despite some early struggles. Usually when something is done for the 264th time it is not historic, but baseball is just different. It has been around for so long that it is still a big deal even though it has been done with such apparent frequency.

Care to guess what was going on in the world when the first no-hitter was recorded? Rutherford B. Hayes defeated samuel Tilden in the Presidential Election, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his invention “the telephone” and Johns Hopkins University was founded. Gotta love 1876.

Movers and Shakers

Might be time to pull an "Old Yeller" with Mr. Met

The Angels put together a few Ws this week, which will alleviate tension in LA, though frankly it may be impossible to drop out of the AL West race. I am liking my predictions for that division perhaps most, though looking back I may have made my optimism about Oakland into more wins for them (I had them at 81). In the NL Central, the Cubs are the story. They suck and just moved carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. I guess that gives him more opportunities to pinch-hit? Yeah, they suck. The Nationals are .500, yup the Nats. I will eat a few words on them at this point, though i did think they would hit, their pitchers not named Jason marquis have thrown very well. I could see maybe 74 wins out of them if they can keep this up. That being said, Jason Marquis has been the disaster I picked him to be, so not eating words there.

The big story for me is the Mets. They are bad. Not just a little bad, really bad. Is a finish behind the Nationals possible? It is a stretch, but not wildly out of the question. At some point Carlos Beltran will get a hit, a 3rd starting pitcher will put something together, and all that talent will look like a baseball team, but it sure has not happened yet. I think it is time to clean house in New York. David Wright, Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Ike Davis, and Jason Bay are the only guys that can stay. Blow it up and start over, and that goes for you too Omar Minaya. I realize it is early, but that team is not going to be on the same level as the Phillies for the foreseeable future and needs a new direction. My suggestion? It would always be to go with pitching, but even more so with their cavernous ballpark. Pitching, defense, and young speedy talent. Take a lesson from the Rays, Big Apple Bottom-Feeders.

The Final Take

My love of the A’s this year has been well-documented, but we have something new to talk about in the Oak-town. Dallas Braden took exception to A-Rod stepping on the pitcher’s mound jogging back to first base, and consequentially confronted him about it. I do not know if you remember this, but during Spring Training of the Rays big year, they got into a fight with the Yankees about a slide into second. The big deal has nothing to do with whether Braden is insane for saying that pitchers are “the center of the universe” when pitching (as heard on Baseball Tonight) or if he actually has a beef. The point is the A’s are not in awe of the pinstriped payroll. They aren’t going to take any… stuff… from anyone and they are ready to prove it. I was hesitant to pick the A’s because they were so young and didn’t seem to have much on offense, but they have shown me otherwise. They may dip a bit, but an AL West crown is not out of reach for any team in that division. By the way, Dallas Braden is really good too, not just some instigator as he got the W over the Yankees that day.

And if you think the A’s would fear a first round potential matchup with the Yankees? Think again.

Step on his mound, and... stuff... is going down.