Scenery and Fish

• Getting swept sux.


• Losing Doc, even for a week, sucks more.


• Teh 2 r related.


• Sure, if Doc had stayed in there was a chance he would have gone 8 or 9 innings, but if he'd only gone 7, League probably would have pitched the 8th. He probably wouldn't have given up 5 runs, but as wild as he was, I doubt he would have held a lead.


• Dey almost staged a comebak in game 2.


• It would have been the biggest comeback of the year, but it fell short. Of course the failed steal of third didn't help.


• Rios had bin on a roll steeling.


• Yes, but there were two things wrong with that steal. First, Bautista strikes out or walks 42% of the time. That's not enough contact to justify the risk of stealing third, especially when he hits 24% line drives when he does make contact. He has a BABIP of over .360. If he puts the ball in play, it's likely enough to be a hit that it isn't worth the risk. Second, Bautista got out of the way of Baker's throw to third. The batter has the right to the batter's box. Bautista should have made Baker go around him. Considering how close a play it turned out to be, Rios might have been safe. For that matter, maybe the throw would have gone into left field and Rios would have scored without contact.


• Dey had anuther chans to tie it in the 9th, but Wells striked owt.


• Don't forget that Aaron Hill popped up the first pitch.


• Dat lineup shuffl was not so gret aktualy.


• It worked out pretty good for Rios, but he wasn't the problem. A lot of scorn goes Vernon's way, but for this series, you can't just ignore that Lind went 0 for 12 in the cleanup spot where everyone wanted him.


• An Tallet wuz also not so gret on Sunday.


• He's had 7 great and one bad start between his disasters. That's a pretty good rate.


• Anyweyz, deres nobody to replace him wif.


• I don't think Tallet is at the top of the list of starters who might need to be replaced, but that's true.


• After gettun swept by a bad teem deyz playin a gud teem.


• In the past the complaint about this team was that they played poorly against weak teams and well against strong ones. Maybe that will be the case again. Anyways, the last time they had a losing streak the off-day was just what they needed.


• The last taim dey had plade 20 strate days, nawt 4.

The Bush Twins Want You Back

• Jaze winned a rane shortind sereez in Texes.


• Once again, from afar a series win looks great, but after winning the first two and having the rainout, it's a letdown not getting the sweep, especially with how well we pitched.


• Izzat including Janssen?


• Sure. I mean, yes he let the first two baserunners reach, but then he got a ground ball right at an infielder, another ground ball, and a strikeout. That should be 4 outs and no runs scored, not one out, two runs in, and second and third. And then the inherited runner that scored off Frasor was right at Hill too.


• We sed dis abowt doze 4 infeeld singles dat uver start he made. Mebbe da grounders Janssen gives up iz harder hit dan Docs?


• If so-called late movement takes the ball off the barrel of the bat, then I can believe that slightly less movement takes the ball slightly less off the barrel of the bat for a harder hit grounder, but I don't think that's what happened in Janssen's start.


• It definitly wuznt wut hapend in Tallets start.


• It was so good that it's hardly worth talking about. Two hits, seven innings, summer of Tallet.


• An Lind hit three homed runs in 2 gamez. Wud have been nice if hed saved wun fur game 3.


• If only it actually worked that way. Everyone except maybe Chavez had a chance to win this one for the Jays and none of them did.


• An Ricky lukt like he did in hiz furst few starts.


• That's two straight, right? So hopefully he's over that rough patch when he came off the DL.


• Nex sereez is agenst teh tasty fish.


• Doc against Nolasco in the retro unis.


• Itz a waste of Doc to hav him pitch agenst somewun havin as bad a yeer as Nolasco.


• Maybe, but I don't think you hold him back for a tougher matchup, because they might find out and hold Nolasco back too, and then you use Richmond this series instead of Tallet for no good reason.


• Insted Richmond duznt pitch for ovur a week agen.


• And I complained after his previous start that maybe that's why he wasn't effective.


• If hez bad wunce evry 2 weex, is that better or wurse dan getting moar starts fur Doc?


• Touché.


• So, wez only havvin chatz affter evry sereez nao?


• Maybe if something like a trade happens we can discuss it. Feel free to post between chats, though.

Saving the homestand

• Doc wuz ossum.


• It was also nice that the bats showed up early to support him, but when you give up 7 singles and no walks you don't need that much run support.


• An Hill finly got a hit, an it wuz a homed run.


• He also drew only his second walk during his 0-for-25 slump, which is easy not to notice in a world that cares more about batting average than OBP.


• Jaze didnt do much after da third, tho.


• It is alarming when they shut it down after a few innings, even when they have the lead and Doc is on the mound. Also, none of our runes came on hits with RISP.


• Even if Davies wuz throwin gud, it wuz excessiv to have him go the whole game.


• We thought it was stupid when Halladay threw 133 in his previous start, and Davies is no Halladay.


• Dis week will be tuff. Jaze is in Texis wifout Doc.


• And the Red Sox and Yankees are playing each other, so we can't gain on both at once and if we lose we give up a game to one of them.


• Better not luze den.

Richmond/Hill

• Dey gived Hill hiz off day.


• And it was a day game after a night game, so Barajas and Rolen both got off days, which made for a pretty punchless lineup even if Rios and Wells weren't slumping. Bautista batting second is just sad--his OBP against righties is 150 points higher than his slugging, which raises the question of why pitchers are afraid to throw him strikes when he hasn't demonstrated an ability to punish them for it.


• It wuz strange dat John McDonald plade second insted of Inglett.


• I guess they had to get him a start at some point, and he even got a hit. But why does Millar keep getting starts at DH? He's not hitting anyone great, but at least he's hitting lefties better than Overbay which makes him useful as a platoon partner. As an everyday DH he's terrible. I know Inglett's numbers so far haven't been great, but it's not like he's 37. We saw him play basically every day last year, so we know he's going to hit for average if not for power, and if you put him in left and move Lind to DH (where he's been great all year), you improve the defense too.


• Lind's defense wuz fine today.


• A bad bet is still bad if you win. It's reminding me of last year, where releasing Frank Thomas let Shannon Stewart and Matt Stairs play poorly every day.


• I wuznt alive last yeer.


• You didn't miss much. Be happy you don't know what Mencherson means.


• So sins the bottom uv the order hit Hochevar, duz dat mean the top iz still slumping cuz dey cudnt, or dat he got better after giving up the homer to Chavez?


• I think both could be true--the bottom of the order didn't do much after that either.


• An Richmond had wun bad inning agen, but dis time dey didnt let him finish it.


• They skipped his spot completely instead of just sliding everyone but Doc around a five day schedule with the off days, he pitched out of the bullpen once in that time, and they they run him out there expecting him to be sharp. I think it was just a bad idea all around. Maybe he was the fifth starter at the start of the season, but Tallet wasn't a starter at all and Janssen was on the DL and they got to keep their spots in the rotation.


• Also lefteez hit Richmond hard and dere were a bunch in a row.


• Sure, Teahen hit the homer, but it was only for two runs because the righty Guillen had singled. Bloomquist is a righty and he hit a three run triple. Didn't he only have one extra base hit all last year?


• Like I sed--


• It was rhetorical. Anyways, at least they have Doc pitching for the series win and to clinch the winning homestand, but the win against Greinke was a windfall and they gave it right back, and going 3 and 4 in the games in the homestand not started by Halladay is really bad.


• Better'n losing nine inna row.

Please don't let the rest of the AL East do that to you, Zack Greinke

• Jaze beeted Greinke! An Romero wuz pretty gret, aktually.


• Two encouraging signs--the ability to put a bunch of runs on the board against a pretty good pitcher, and Romero looking like he did in his first three starts.


• Dat makes up for losing yesterday.


• Not really--I mean, we could have won yesterday and still won today. In the sense that it makes a 6-3 homestand possible again, you're right, but we should really be aiming higher than that.


• An Scutaro an Rios didnt need a day off after all.


• Rios' 1 for 4 with an RBI double isn't that kind of breakout performance that makes me think that everything that was wrong is better, but a bad day at the plate and a worse night, it has to be a boost to help the team. And Scutaro's three doubles in his first three at-bats really set up the whole game.


• Hill still needz a day off tho.


• Yeah, when you get to 0 for 25, that's mental health day territory.


• Do yu fink Romero wuda got sent down if he hadnt pitched gud?


• I don't think so--Purcey is still walking too many, and the other real candidate for getting called up is Fabio Castro. He started tonight, so if they had called him up he could have taken Romero's spot in the rotation immediately. His line: 3 innings, 1 hit, 3 walks, no strikeouts, no runs. His walk/strikeout ratio isn't great, but his WHIP is a tremendous 1.07 and he's only given up one homer in 46 innings pitching in a hitter's league. All that said, he hadn't pitched in AAA until this year, and if they have to pull him after three innings and 58 pitches in a scoreless one-hitter then I don't see how he's going to go deep into major league games.


• Romero wuznt going deep into games eethur, and he wuz pulled after 90 pitches tonite.


• 3 runs over 7 innings is great, and needing only 90 pitches to go 7 innings is great--I'm sure there's a lot of teams who would love a young guy who can do that. Maybe getting the early hook in his last few starts meant he was tiring sooner than he normally would and that's why he gave up the homers, or maybe they wanted to get innings for some guys who hadn't pitched because of the back to back losses, but I don't see what there is to complain about in this start. And getting back to that point, when their whole strategy with Romero was getting him to trust his stuff, sending him to the minors--and in so doing telling him that the team doesn't trust his stuff--would undo some of the work they'd been doing.


• I hope hez di gud agenst Texus.


• It'll be a test--that lineup is a whole lot better than Kansas City's.


• But for nao, Ize lookin forward to da sweep.


• I didn't think you looked forward to anything but getting fed.


• Hey, dats cold.

And when he whiffs, he really shows you all he can

• I fink Rios mite need a day off.


• Frankly Hill and Scutaro could use one too. Hill personally killed every rally the Jays had, and Scutaro got a hanging slider on the first pitch with the bases loaded and he popped it up. But Rios's five strikeouts look really bad in the box score, and they looked even worse in action. I don't think strikeouts are that much worse than in play outs, but in Rios's case he was getting nothing but sliders and he couldn't lay off them or make contact with him.


• It shur luks like ur conseeding to Greinke if yu give all 3 an off day agenst him.


• If they can't hit anything anyways at this point then they'd be conceding to Greinke by leaving them in the lineup.


• If only wun uv dem cud hav got wun hit den Lind wud hav hit wif a man on an de Jaze wud hav wun.


• Well if one of them had got one hit when the bases were loaded (and they had a few chances), it would have driven in at least one run and then they wouldn't even have needed Lind to get a hit, but you can't assume that he would have got a hit if he had batted with men on just because he had five with the bases empty. It's the fallacy of the predetermined outcome. Lind's hits were a product of his circumstances. You can't change the circumstances and assume he still would have hit.


• Well hopefly a day off iz enuff to get all dem hitting agen.


• And hopefully the one Wells just got is enough too. It'll be a long night if there's no Scutaro, Hill, or Rios, and Wells still sucks.

Janssen in the Dark

• Dat wun wuz bad in evry way.


• Janssen couldn't get anything down and in or down and away consistently. Everything down was over the heart of the plate, and everything else was up, including most of his sliders.


• But he gotz swingin strikez!


• I think it's pretty telling about the Angels that they only managed one home run off Janssen.


• At leest Camp wuz gud.


• And Carlson's results were bad again, but it seemed like a lot of bad luck. A seeing eye grounder to the hole at shortstop, an error by Rolen, an RBI single that should have been a two outs bases empty single, and then he jams Bobby Abreu and it falls in for a classic Texas League double, gets touched by a fan so it's a ground rule double, and the ump rules the runner at first gets to score anyways. So he doesn't walk anybody and gives up solid contact to one guy and it's three runs.


• Sum uv dem is unernd.


• I think the better way to look at it is that with how bad the bats were, it didn't end up making a difference. Weaver was pitching to the corners, and when he did leave offspeed stuff up in the zone I guess it was when the Jays were expecting a fastball.


• Hed bin tuff on raitees.


• And yet Kevin Millar was in the lineup. Was it his two singles and a walk in 6 plate appearances that earned him that start? I thought we were supposed to have a left field platoon of Bautista and Inglett. Alternatively Inglett could have played second if Cito had decided Hill needed a day off. In the end all three of our hits off Weaver came from lefties, and it might have been four if Overbay had swung on the 3-1 fastball down the middle of the plate instead of taking it and drawing a walk. Wasn't not being agressive on those hittable pitches his problem last year that he was supposed to have fixed?


• Yankeez lost, so deyr still only 2 back in the divijin.


• And they have Tallet pitching for the series win, and he's been pretty consistent. I keep pointing out that the difference between .550 and .600 is one extra win every 20 games, so hopefully this one was part of the .400 instead of the .450.

Too Much Of A Good Thing

• Jaze winned! Doc pitched a compleat game!


• He also set a personal record for strikeouts in a game with 14, but it was completely insane having him start the 8th, let alone the 9th.


• Do yu hate Doc? Why can he not has a personal milestone?


• When has Doc seemed like a guy who cares about personal accomplishments more than the team winning? And if he gets hurt because he threw 133 pitches, that hurts the team's chances of winning, no matter what personal milestone he set.


• But da bullpen blowed da last 2 gamez Doc started.


• On Friday and Saturday, League and Downs were dominant in the last two innings, and with the loss on Sunday and the off day Monday they were well rested. Doesn't it send a bad message to the rest of the team if the ace trusts his own teammates so little that he has to risk injury or ineffectiveness to close out a game himself when he struggled in the 7th? Is Casey Janssen supposed to feel good about League and Downs pitching in his start when Doc doesn't?


• So ur mad at Doc?


• Mostly I'm mad at Cito. Of course Doc is going to say he wants to stay in, but it's Cito's job to protect the team's investment in its players and its chances of winning in the future.


• He keeps hiz players in so they feel confident an play better later.


• After winning a Cy Young award I hope Doc doesn't need to pitch the 8th and 9th after a rough 7th to feel confident as a pitcher. Anwyays, confidence isn't worth much if your arm falls off.


• Nao hooz being melodramatic?