Week Ten
(June 6th – June 12th)
“Hats Off!”
There is a crime going on in the baseball world, and I’m not talking players making way too much money for the little production some do. I’m bringing this one to the fans of baseball. You. The consumer and tax payer. The style that has become of buying and wearing hats with team logos that display a franchise the person wearing is not a fan of. What in the world is going on here people? One day a Philly fan is wearing an Angels hat, the next day a Blue Jays hat, followed by a Ranger hat. I couldn’t allow myself to wear a team’s colors that my heart doesn’t belong to. It’s shallow and untrustworthy if you ask my opinion. It’s now become a fashion statement and I do not understand this concept of neutral at all. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Chicago Cubs hat, you know why? I’m a diehard Pittsburgh fan and that would be insulting. I can’t even complement someone on the street wearing a Pirate hat because nowadays it’s just a 40 dollar fashion statement. Hats have become a way to match your daily outfits. Are you kidding me? It’s like those “metro” sexual type bastards who continuously buy shoes or sneakers filling up their closets having more pairs then their female counterpart.
This fad is starting to turn into a situation. Like my buddy Jimmy, a former Carnival Cruise dancer Sensale said a few days ago, “It’s becoming what Starter jackets were back in the early 90s’.” Not that I would normally trust a male Carnival Cruise dancer, but he seems to be a good guy. Back to the point of argument…You know you’ve seen more Charlotte Hornet or Georgetown Hoyas starter jackets around town back then, way more then you knew fans of the two teams. For Gods sakes, Charlotte doesn’t even have a team anymore, but twenty years ago four kids in my 7th grade class wore a hundred dollar jacket with a fucking Hornet dribbling a basketball. The testimony is correct and it all makes me want to puke a bit. There’s no more pride in ones team anymore. There is no more care about winning or losing, because nowadays everyone wins. Jump on the streaky team’s bandwagon and say you’ve been a fan for years. Parading around the streets of New York “sporting” a Seattle Mariners hat or an Arizona Diamondback cap with a shit-bag grin on your face is ridiculous. You look stupid and you’re not a fan of any one team, because you can’t be if you have 14 other team’s logos to share with the world playing dead at home. I’m sure they look cool in your closet. Forty to Fifty bucks each all in a row, staring you back in the face. All while you stand…staring back at them…pissed you can only wear one at a time.
You can like players on other teams, that’s called respect for the game…but if you’re a Yankees fan, you better not be wearing a Boston cap to match your horrible red shoes. I’m sure that’s where the line is drawn for most; however I know you’re out there. Give it a rest you fare-weather fans and do one of two things…support the team you love or just leave baseball in your past. Don’t make everything you do a fashion statement you tweeting freaks.
New York Yankees
(33 - 24)
1st place
Anaheim Angels Series (Won 2-1) The Yankees are known for having a tough time against the Angels in the past, but that comes from a couple bad playoff series against the Halos. That trend of thought continued after the Yankees lost a close one 3-2 to the big man Weaver who pitched as solid as ever picking up his first win since April. He pitched well in May, but couldn’t get the run support needed. Friday night looked to be about the same, but he took matters into his own hands and stopped the Yankees longest winning streak of the season at four.
Paybacks a bitch and the Yankees paid back. In two really well fought games the Yankees edged out the Angels 3-2 in a CC/Santana pitching duel Saturday night. Alex Rodriguez kept a twinkle in Cameron Diaz’s eyes as he blasted a two run shot to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead late in the game. CC was once again great at keeping his pitch count under 100 until the 9th where he got two outs before giving up two hits. Joe Girardi had to bring in Mo for the one out save. They need the win and I needed the save points for fantasy. After one pitch from the greatest closer to ever play the game we were all happy…besides of course the players and managers wearing red and white.
Game three and the last of a ten game road trip out West was just as competitive as the first two in the series. Derek Jeter picked up another base hit getting him only 14 hits away now from the extraordinary 3,000 hit mark. Really though, once again it was the Mark Teixeira show as he hit two more giant bombs for numbers 17 & 18 on the season bringing him to the top of the Majors in the HR category. The Angels tried to fight back against the stumpy Bartolo Colon and almost succeeded, but Robinson and Joba pitched 2.2 scoreless innings in and out of jams to get to Mariano for his second consecutive saves in as many days. It took him one pitch on Saturday to get one out and 13 pitches on Sunday to get three outs. The man is never going to be forgotten and when he does take off his spikes for the final time he win never fully be replaced for years and years to come.
A great road trip despite a short stumble in Seattle against some great pitching, but 6-3 is a beautiful thing when the traveling is so far.
THIS WEEK
Tuesday – Thursday
Red Sox @ Yankees
7:05pm, 7:05pm, 7:05pm
The Red Sox woke up in May in a big way. The series between these two have also gone in the favor of Boston (1-5), but I’ve seen this before. The situation is this, the Yankees need to send a message on their home field and get these New Yorkers (who continue to foot the 35 dollar parking fees) something grand to cheer about. After a positive road trip and Derek Jeter only 14 hits away from a milestone the Bronx Bombers need to pitch well and fire away. Freddy Garcia takes the mound on Tuesday and we all know that it could go either way, but A.J. needs to step it up against the Boston competition and really show people he is back with vengeance. CC will also stay on his regular four days rest and pitch on Wednesday for the series closer. For their morality they Yankees need to take this series. They have to show themselves they can beat the number one competition all while keeping that underdog status. This should, no doubt be the best of the series so far as both are now 1 & 2 in the AL East.
Friday – Monday
Indians @ Yankees
7:05pm, 1:05pm, 1:05pm, 7:05pm
The Indians are on their way back down to earth folks and making me feel much better about putting them in last place in the preseason issues. They lost 7 out of their last 10 games and are riding a four game losing streak coming into week ten. Maybe they can turn a few things around against Minnesota before flying into New York for a four game series, but really this should be a winning extended week for your pinstripe bruisers. In short I expect nothing less than 3 wins out of the four game series. As it was said best by Tom Yorke of Radiohead, off of the Ok Computer album back in the day, “no alarms and no surprises”, as the end of the week should be free of stress for your New York Yankees. 1st place or not the Indians have been playing way over their heads.
EXTRA NEWS: Talks are beginning to circle about the young Phil Hughes as he is feeling better every day. He threw 22 pitches late last week and reported no problems.
(An extended “weak” long prediction 5 - 2)
________________________________________________________
New York Mets
(28 - 31)
4th place/7 GB
Then came the Tuesday and Wednesday night games that look similar in a few ways. The Mets took control of innings 1 through 6 in both games and then just when you thought the Triple-A Pirates would be handled soundly by the Double-A Mets, a snap of the fingers and a dash of good luck had the Pirates beating up on the Mets bullpen. R.A. went from lights out, to being in the game a couple batters too many, while Capuano the following night did just the same. The Pirates had five infield hits in game three and gave the old Amazin’s a taste of their own medicine. Plus the fact that Willie Harris blows at 3rd base, Angel Pagan could field a sharply hit fly ball and Carlos Beltran’s hobbled knees came up short on a line drive to RF. The Pirates had everything going for them scoring 9 runs in the 7th and 8th innings, outscoring the Mets in three games 15-5 in the last three innings of each game.
Thursday was the perfect final game in a messy looking four game series. The Mets began the day spotting the Pirates 7 runs after two innings and it looked like the Terry Collins speech at the end of game three didn’t work. A move I respect was keeping the struggling Mike Pelfrey out on the mound to pitch out of his own jam. He tired through 5 innings, but held the Pirates somewhat a bay as the Mets slowly crept back. After Beltran’s smack to right field the score closed to 7-3. Then inning by inning Paul Maholm slowly lost his grips and the Mets finished off Thursday afternoon with their biggest comeback since 2001. Down 7-0 to win 9-8. Impressive in many ways and a good pulse to help lead them into a three game set against division rivals Atlanta.
Atlanta Braves Series: (Won 2-1) Let us not talk about game one on Friday night…agreed? Sure, the Braves had there paten late game win with the amazing Jonny Ventures/Craig Kimbrel combo in the win/save situation but I was sickened by it because the Mets just went flat…oh yeah and Chipper “Larry” Jones hit a M-O-N-S-T-E-R bomb to left as well to put fuel on your fire. Maybe he will name his next kid Citi.
Entering game two win heads down the Mets now had to face two really solid pitchers. Double J-man with an ERA still in the ones. Something fantastic category and the oldie-but-goodie Tim Hudson. Jair Jurrjens had (and still has) an ERA under 2.00 coming into Saturday night and he pitched 6 scoreless to continue his 2011 season trend. The problem for Atlanta was the pitching opponent they had to face. Rookie of the Year candidate Dillion Gee was better than the last two starts he made and he won those two games as well. In fact the Mets have won every start Dillion Gee has started this year. After Jurrjens lost his cool after the 7th inning stretch the Mets were off to a 5-0 victory keeping the weekly win/loss record even at 3 and 3. Gee looked great and continues to be very effective at the Major League level. Also, surprise surprise the bullpen held.
In the final game of the series played on Sunday night primetime ESPN, the Queens bunch continued to put on a show for the few fans at Citi Field…or should I say Jose Reyes? This triple-hitting machine had yet another multi-hit game and lead the Mets to a 6-4 win by getting to veteran Tim Hudson quickly. The first three innings the Mets were circling bases at will always having someone on and causing alarm for the Braves defense. The Mets were up 6-0 after five quick innings and the Braves were already into their bullpen…a great bullpen. They did the job by shutting down the Mets the rest of the way giving up only one run in 4 innings. Dickey held of the fighting Braves never really letting them get good wood on his knuckle ball.
Frankie needed to be called in during the 9th inning after R.A. Dickey’s wonderful 8 inning performance was almost erased by the so-far-terrible Acosta. Frankie did his best, but gave up is second long ball in his last two appearances keeping his ERA over 3.00.
Overall 4-3 is a positive week by far, now the Mets need to go on the road and keep it up.
THIS WEEK
Mets @ Brewers
8:10pm, 8:10pm, 2:20pm
The Brew Crew has two things the Mets do not and read with care because this is truth on paper…Pitching and Hitting, or shall I say offense and defense…
The Brewers are 21-7 at home this year and with Gallardo, Greinke and Marcum filling out the top spots in the rotation when all is healthy and kosher this is one team not to be taken lightly. Just like in horseracing the Brew Crew seem to be the odds on favorite in this matchup as they creep their way to the top of the NL Central division and the Mets have to take the roll as a long shot to do anything in this series. With Jose Reyes on fire batting over .400 for the past two weeks one thing is true…when and if he continues to be on base he will make the Brewers have a tougher weekend then they think.
Friday – Monday
Mets @ Pirates
7:05pm, 7:05pm, 1:35pm, 7:05pm
This is the only time I’m completely bias to any New York team and honestly the only time I root against so I’ll keep this short since it is Mets fans that read this section every week…and by god you know I thank you.
The Pirates should have gotten away with 3 out of 4 earlier last week, but the Pitt youngsters fell apart in game four. Thought they would be dead after a loss like that, but they came back this weekend to beat the NL leading (at the time) Phillies two out of three. The Pirates are holding steady with Clint “purple” Hurdle at the helm keeping within two games of .500 this late in the season. These two teams are very evenly matched in the positive and negatives across the board, but in all honesty with the injuries that plague the Mets this year I expect the Pirates to take three even though I predict another split of a four game series. Wish I had more confidence, but being a Pittsburgh fan for the past 20 years I’m usually thinking about the Steelers by now.
EXTRA NEWS: Carlos Beltran bashed a foul ball into his shin last night so he is now day to day. David Wright is still taking test for his back problems and the prognosis has added at least 3 more weeks until he dares to take the field again. Ike Davis has been pushed back to possibly be out until the All Star break. Trade rumors must be brewing and you can only hope Beltran and Rodriguez will be shopped around.
(An extended “weak” long prediction 3 - 4)
_____________________________________________________
Living in a Fantasy 1-2-3:
- Who Killed It? – 1. Texas Rangers can hit the ball, we know this, and Elvis Andrus is a quick SS who packed a punch this week at the plate. He smacked 11 hits (3 doubles, 1 HR), adding 7 RBI's to the 13 he had when the week started. And just to round things out and shoot you some extra points he swiped 4 bases this week. 2. There is a King out West being real quiet again...probably because most of us are counting sheep while he pitches. King Felix Hernandez struck out 11 batters in his last start and picked up his 6th win of the season after starting off slow this year in the wake of his Cy Young award for winning only 13 games last year. It's the K's and the ERA we as fans all see clearly and he finally has his down to 3.04 this year. Right where it should be. 3. I've saved the best for last my friends, as this "machine" has not been mentioned since preseason...Albert "The Machine" Pujols. Honestly this is one of the sickest weeks I've ever seen. This image below is an actual breakdown of what he did and how many points he put up in fantasy this week. I know people have different scoring systems in each league, but the average for a good week out of a starter is between 20-30 points...Albert scored well over that!
tat | Value | Points |
1B | 5 | 5 |
2B | 2 | 4 |
HR | 5 | 20 |
RBI | 10 | 20 |
R | 11 | 22 |
SB | 2 | 4.5 |
BB | 5 | 5 |
KO | 2 | -3 |
HP | 1 | 1 |
Total | 78.5 | |
- Who Thrilled It? – 1. With a HR on Sunday Miguel Cabrera has now had 4 bombs in six games. On Saturday night against the White Sox, but he had a huge hit in his final at-bat. With a runner on third and two down with the game tied at two, the 28-year-old launched the go-ahead homer off reliever Jesse Crain to propel Detroit to the 4-2 win. It was his 12th homerun of the year and third in his last five games helping the Tigers get back over .500 and move closer to the falling Indians. He is the consistent "do-gooder" in the Fantasy World. 2. Milwaukee might be finding a closer, but boy can he make your heart race and your teeth crumble from grinding them in stress. The young mustache wearing John Axford managed to get 3 saves for the Brewers this week while giving up 5 hits and 3 walks in only four innings. I personally dropped him a week ago, but he has been getting the job done having 16 saves total so far in 2011. 3. The Yankees have power, we know, and Mark Teixeria is now on top of the Majors in the HR category with 18 this year. He has managed to hit 9 HRs past 16 games including his 2 on Sunday... great for any Fantasy League.
- Who’s on Deck? – 1. Florida's always known to have some young talent with Hanley Ramirez and Chris Coghlan's Rookie of the Year season 3 seasons back. Now Mike Stanton is finally coming around. Huge prospect that came up for a bit this year and was drafted in the middle of the pack here in 2011. Cheers to the many who stuck with him through the first month of baseball as your patience is beginning to payoff. Stanton has 13 HRs and 33RBIs, but does strikeout a ton. 2. Alexei Ramirez had a very productive week hitting multiple hit games in 4 of 6. He compiled 12 hits for the week and brought home 6 fellow White Sox across the plate, while he scored 7 runs himself. Very hot and cold this year, but when he's hot the skinny bastard scorches. He seems to be a favorite to add on in trade talks in fantasy, but I say keep him close. He can and will produce like this often. 3. Quietly...and I mean extremely quietly Brett Wallace, Houston's 1st baseman has been holding a plus .300 batting average. He has played in 59 of 60 games this year. The production numbers are not explosive, but I'll take 4 HR with 18 RBI's with a 3.14 AVG in his first full season in the "bigs".
Adam Hammer’s Loose Lips
- Chris Berman: “[The Giants] have seven walk off wins this year, most of them at home."
- The Mets had leads in the 7th inning a lot last week and lost just about all of those games. Terry Collins flipped out during a press conference. He wasn't actually mad they blew the lead, but more shocked they had a lead that late in the first place. They've had a harder time closing games than the Colorado police had closing the Jon Benet Ramsey case.
Best Series You Missed – Philadelphia Phillies @ Pittsburgh Pirates
I know Seattle and Arizona have been the two hottest teams in baseball with comeback wins galore and amazing finishes over the past two weeks, but the best series was in Pittsburgh this week. The Pirates took 2 of 3 against their state rival and 1st place Phillies by winning 2-1 in twelve innings on Friday night in a nail-biter and then 6-3 in front of a record breaking crowd on Saturday night. Over 39,000 people came out to see the game and the atmosphere was remarkable. It was standing room only and the biggest crowd since the beautiful PNC Park opened and low-and-behold the Pirates won big. They ended up losing the last game on Sunday to Doc Halladay, but these days who doesn't. It was a great series for baseball and the Pennsylvania Area.
Best Series for you to Catch –
Tigers @ Rangers Monday - Wednesday (Big bats and great pitching)
Red Sox @ Yankees Tuesday - Thursday (I'm not saying a word, cause Boston is up 5-1 this year)
Reds @ Giants Thursday - Sunday (Four games in San Francisco with two Top teams in the National League, there is no going wrong here)
Cardinals @ Brewers Friday - Sunday (1st and 2nd in the NL Central battle it out this weekend. These division rivals only met once this year in St. Louis and they have the lead 2-1 in the series.
And now for your reading pleasure…
***
The Future; According to the Late-Great George Carlin
“A utopian society ruled by women will emerge, and there will be peace and plenty for all. However, many men will still act like macho assholes.”
Last Quip by Doctor KAS – “The trades will be coming soon as June is like a prep month for all those players looking, wishing and hoping to get on to a competitive squad and have a better shot at making the playoffs. Met fans need to pray for no more injuries or it could cost them over 30 million in contract money between Frankie and Carlos alone…would you ever wish to be Sandy Alderson or is that like climbing up the wrong tree in tiger land?”
No comments:
Post a Comment