On this date last season, Randy Johnson threw six innings of one run ball to beat the Nationals and earn his 300th career victory. The Big Unit called it career in January with 303 career wins despite having just 64 on his 30th birthday. His 4,875 strikeouts are the second most all time, though his 10.61 career K/9 is the best mark in history.
The four year, $53.4MM deal the Diamondbacks gave Johnson prior to the 1999 season might be the greatest free agent signing of all time. All he gave them in return was 1030 innings, 81 wins, 1,417 strikeouts, four Cy Young Awards and a World Championship. I'd call that one a win.
Here are a few links from around the world wide netweb…
- The Bottom Line wonders if Ken Griffey Jr.'s retirement opens the door for a Mike Lowell to Seattle trade.
- The Friarhood says it's time for the Padres to get serious about adding a middle-of-the-order bat.
- MLB Depth Charts checks in on prospects who were traded this past offseason.
- Bucs Prospects offers up a first hand scouting report on Florida Gulf Coast lefty Chris Sale, who's expected to be a high pick in next week's draft.
- Examiner wonders if the White Sox should trade Mark Buehrle.
- Meanwhile, Midwest Sports Fan suggests the ChiSox could be in for a turn around this month.
- More Hardball offer up a one-third mark of the season All-Star Team.
- Feeling Dodger Blue wonders if John Ely is the National League's second best rookie.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the whitesox will be making a turnaround. It would have to be pretty drastic in order to catch the Twins and I don’t think this team is capable of it.
If the Mariners offered something decent we could use in the future for the bullpen, something like Pineda or Cortes, the sox should eat the majority of the salary and trade
Why would a 22-31 team be buying anything? Especially someone who is pretty much a DH with a .659 OPS? It’s wishful thinking to think you’re getting anything of use for Lowell.
Ely’s been ridiculous. Other than his Citi Field debut, he’s been lights out and other than a couple of games where he had no run support, he’d be 5-0.
And if if`s were fifth`s we would all be drunk. Ely looks good but lets see what he looks like the second time around the league. The same goes for all the talented young rookie pitchers and hitters. I hope Ely continues because the Dodgers sure could use this guy and McCourt has him under control for several years. The padres are no flukes for just that reason. The owner was going thru a brutal divorce and the Padres traded away there veterans for good young players.The rules of Baseball are changing, and there is nothing more valued then a quality young player under team control for several years.
The Buehrle contract has that poison pill in it. Not sure if the White Sox could move it.
HELLOOOOO
Garcia has the second lowest ERA in all of baseball.. The kid can pitch… Everybodys over looking him, and honestly I’m not sure why. His numbers are better than Ely’s and hes playing for a contending team in the Cardinals… If this kid doesn’t at least get considered to be ROTY then the system is rigged.. It seems like very year, the most talked about prospect is the ROTY… Garcia went from contending for the 5th spot in the Cards rotation (even considered to be the long shot for the three way race) and coming back from Tommy John surgery to being the Cards number 3 starter.. and if you ask me… Being number 3 behind Carp and Waino is pretty understandable… The kid deserves it as of right now.. Ask me in a couple months and my answer might change…. But as of right now, I’d vote Garcia.
Like the article said, Heyward is this year’s ROTY. It’s a fight for second now.
By the way, Heyward is in the starting OF for the 1/3 mark all-star team, and he’ll deserve to be in there in July as the National League’s starting RF. The guy is incredible and he can’t even buy alcohol yet.
Actually, if you read the blog it says that he chose based on overall statistics. Meaning, he chose the people that were statistically the best. Which means that nobody’s personal opinion was used in the assembling of 1/3 all-star team, only the statistically best people were chosen.
But, my 2nd paragraph wasn’t meant to correlate to my first. I was simply saying that I think Heyward deserves to be in the All-star game. If I was looking for a frame of reference for his ROY campaign, I would simply break out his OBP and SLG and close the book on any other possible candidates.
Ethier does deserve to be in the all-star game, which is why I voted for him 25 times. You have to remember that the All-star ballot has the OF as one position, so it doesn’t split up LF, CF, and RF. So Heyward and Ethier can both be starting, one of them would just be out of position. I’ve got my OF as Ethier, Heyward, and McCutchen.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the fan voting. I think the writer’s should vote on it, as they do with the MVP awards, ROY, etc..
I mean, Placido Polanco? Come on. He’s not the best 3B in the NL. It’s just a whole bunch of bandwagon Phillies fans voting on their teams players. Jimmy Rollins has been hurt most of the season, and he’s on pace to be the the starting SS. And all he’s done is sit there and watch.
Players like Votto, Rolen, Bautista, Prado, etc.. are getting ripped off because their team didn’t go the the World Series last year and get a whole bunch of bandwagon fans.
“I couldn’t agree with you more about the fan voting. I think the writer’s should vote on it, as they do with the MVP awards, ROY, etc..”
You mean those same writers who consistently vote idiotically just to prove a point? Or those same writers who have given Derek Jeter like six gold gloves?
The All Star game voting is broken, but giving it to the writers isn’t going to fix it. The only way it’ll ever be remotely fair is by taking the human element entirely out of the equation and just having a computer calculate the positions based upon stats and even then, you’re going to have seven different camps yelling at each other based on what stats should be used.
Its never going to be completely fair. But having the writers vote on it would at least take away the incredible fan bias, and would be a much more fair method than the one we have now. There needs to be a panel of judges that actually know what they are doing and pick the BEST players and not the people that play on their team.
Watching this year’s all-star game is going to be like watching just another Phillies VS Yankees game. Good for everyone that likes the Phillies and the Yankees, but nobody else could care less.