Congratulations to Dallas Braden on throwing the 19th perfect game in MLB history. Let's check out some links from around the web..
- Aubrey Huff is playing well defensively, writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- Catcher Buster Posey remains in Triple-A Fresno because Giants officials are not convinced that he is ready to catch in the majors, GM Brian Sabean told Andrew Baggarly of The Mercury News. Sabean insists that the decision has nothing to do with service-time concerns. MLBTR's Luke Adams led a discussion post that touched on the issue over the weekend.
- Jordan Bastian of MLB.com tweets a quote from Fred Lewis, who says that he's happy to be on a team that never quits. Lewis was traded from San Francisco to Toronto roughly three weeks ago.
- Steve at River Ave. Blues takes a look at the Yankees' offseason targets and how they've fared in the early stages of the 2010 season.
- Cue the scary organ music. Jeff Zrebiec tells us that Orioles reliever Jim Johnson was placed on the disabled list with a strained ulnar collateral ligament and is seeking a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews. MLB.com's Britt Ghiroli has comments from O's president Andy MacPhail and manager Dave Trembley.
- According to a team press release, the Mariners have relieved hitting coach Alan Cockrell of his duties. Alonzo Powell has been promoted from Triple-A Tacoma in his place.
- In his latest mailbag, Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News writes that the Reds' next manager will not be a high-priced guy with star power. That includes Lou Piniella, who plans on making Chicago his last stop as a manager.
- David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out that ex-Braves Kelly Johnson and Adam LaRoche are mashing in Arizona.
- Jason Marquis could be as little as two rehab assignments away from rejoining the Nationals, tweets Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. Marquis inked a two-year, $15MM deal with the club this offseason but was sidelined after three outings in April.
- Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post implores the Rockies to make a big trade.
I’m happy for them both
I think it’s great the Johnson and LaRoche are having good starts, especially LaRoche since he usually doesn’t wake up until after the All-Star break… Hopefully Kelly can keep it up, Braves fans know how streaky he can be.
Mark Kiszla is an idiot
That really is a dumb article.
Does the perfect game mean he’s allowed to talk about A-Rod now? I mean sure he pitched a perfect game, but it was ONLY the Rays 😉
Eat that, A-Fraud.
Also: Wasn’t it Kaplar who made the last out of last year’s perfect game, too? Sucks to be on the losing end of perfect games two years running haha.
It was Bartlett.
What does Braden’s perfect game have to do with A-Rod? A-Rod really hasn’t even done anything wrong. What a pointless shot.
Because a-rod said something along the lines of “i’ve never heard of him, he only has a handful of wins,” basically implying that even though Braden was right about arod breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules, he hadn’t accomplished enough in the majors to call out a “super star”. Throwing a perfect game certainly validates Braden as an MLB pitcher, and gives merit to his argument that a-rod is a self absorbed douche-tool who doesn’t respect the game.
Thus,
Eat it, a-rod.
If i was you buddy i would been trying to find the problem why that last to prefect games has been agianst your team and if you figure that out then you can run your mouth like the cry baby braden about one of the games best all around players ever though he did take steroids but he is still producing at his age and doesnt really show decline, And no it would have been fine if he did it with out acting like a manaic and trying to make himself known by excessevly talking to the media about it ,BUT Braden didnt start saying nothing till he was halfway to the dugout and yet he calls arod scared? hmmm
This was the longest sentence I’ve ever read.
Oh sorry about that , should i go back and put my periods in to make it shorter?
I’m sure it is an “unwritten rule” that he broke, but I don’t think the proper conclusion is that he doesn’t respect the game.
Remember, A-Rod is the same player who, a few years ago, shouted “I GOT IT!” to make a third baseman drop a popup thinking his shortstop had called him off. A lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it, but identifying it is simple: Gamesmanship.
And hey, throwing a perfect game is a pretty good way of responding.
Because a-rod said something along the lines of “i’ve never heard of him, he only has a handful of wins,” basically implying that even though Braden was right about arod breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules, he hadn’t accomplished enough in the majors to call out a “super star”. Throwing a perfect game certainly validates Braden as an MLB pitcher, and gives merit to his argument that a-rod is a self absorbed douche-tool who doesn’t respect the game.
Thus,
Eat it, a-rod.
What does Braden’s perfect game have to do with A-Rod? A-Rod really hasn’t even done anything wrong. What a pointless shot.
Thank you, Dallas Braden for helping out my fantasy team.
I dropped Beckham and thought that would be the big news but I dropped him for Braden who gave me first place this week(perfect games Complete games and no-hitters are catogories) I almost kept Beckham!!
I dropped Beckham and thought that would be the big news but I dropped him for Braden who gave me first place this week(perfect games Complete games and no-hitters are catogories) I almost kept Beckham!!
So this leaves Will Ohman as the Orioles closer? >.<
So this leaves Will Ohman as the Orioles closer? >.<
Posey is absolutely crushing pitchers in AAA, why exactly isn’t he ready?
Posey’s offensive ability isn’t at issue, though I’m sure they want him to be swinging with a bit more put. What’s keeping him in the minors, allegedly, is that they want him to get more experience with his receiving and game calling. Sabean has expressed concern that while Posey can catch, he probably isn’t ready to handle a staff with stuff like the Giants’ – in particular, the best fastballs of pitchers like Sanchez and Wilson and Lincecum – so, he’s getting more seasoning in AAA.
Though, if you read the article, Sabean thinks all the best pitchers are in AA, and anybody who can pitch is in the majors. So Posey is getting his experience catching games for pitchers who aren’t very good. It’s typical rookie logic by Bochy and Sabean: they don’t have the skills at the major league level, so they won’t get playing time until they demonstrate that they are capable of playing at the major league level.
No matter where he’s playing, Posey should be catching every day. His value is as an offensive catcher, and the more experience he gets at the position, the better. He’s best served at the moment getting practice receiving in AAA until Bochy and Sabean get over themselves and are ready to admit that his upside is, at the very least, an order of magnitude higher than an aging, slump-prone Bengie Molina whose defense is on the decline.
Might also want to mention that Bengie is hitting .333/.402/.457/.859, that’s a pretty good reason that he’s still in the majors and Posey is not called up.
As nicely as Posey has hit in the minors, it seems like few people seem to know about how the PCL is an extreme hitter’s league nor about MLEs, as good as Posey’s numbers are now, his MLE is only .819 – which will not revolutionize an offense as many think he will – and just 11 days ago, his MLE was only .732.
And people bag on Molina’s defense, but the pitchers are part of the problem in the steals, plus as The Fielding Bible II showed in their study of catchers, Bengie Molina’s handling of catchers add run value that is above average in the majors.
And BA’s discussion of Posey’s defense in this year’s book is not complementary of his defense. Here’s a key quote: “He’s still working to improve his receiving and has problems handling quality fastballs with late life.” And who have that on our staff? Lincecum, Cain, Wilson, Sanchez, etc.
And where better to get practice handling bad pitches but in the minors where the pitchers are not as good as major league pitchers? He is not going to get that type of practice in the majors unless you have a knuckleballer on your staff. And what is wrong with having someone who is ready for the major league level? You would rather have someone not ready thrown up there to flail and fail?
The problem has not been with Sabean but that our position prospects have, for the most part, not been that good. That is because he has focused most of his scarce draft resources (first round picks) on pitching. And pitching, as BP and THT has shown in studies, is what provides competitive advantage in the playoffs – they both found offense to provide no advantage in the playoffs, hitting, homers, power, even stolen bases, do not give an advantage in the playoffs, only pitching and defense.
The thing is, nobody can guarantee what a prospect will do when he comes up, but everyone knows that the more time he gets in the minors, the more ready he will be for the majors. Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster studied this and found that prospects who spent the full year in AAA tend to stick more in the majors when called up than those who start out well and is called up.
In addition, people are forgetting what happened just a year ago: Weiters was the top hitting catching prospect du jour, came up in late May, which everybody thought was crazy because he was ready, and his OPS was mostly under 700 OPS for most of the season until there was two weeks left and he went on a hot streak. And he’s no top hitter this season either, though above average.
I would understand the rancor if Molina was batting below 700 OPS, but he has been one of the best hitters on the team. And, by the way, all the starters swear by him, particularly Lincecum, who made a point about how much he loved working with Molina behind the plate. Maybe you would like to keep your two-time Cy Young winner happy?
Oh great, I’ve been OGC’d.
Write less, especially if you’re not going to make a clear disagreement with me.
Posey is absolutely crushing pitchers in AAA, why exactly isn’t he ready?