Friday, June 10, 2005
Down in the Dumps
The Royals can no longer lay undisputed claim to the title of “Worst Team in Baseball.” They have company in their realm of futility thanks to the Devil Rays, who are on their way to another dreadful campaign.
The Devil Rays have “caught” the Royals for last place in the majors in run differential at -82. In the last two weeks, they’ve been outscored by more than 30 runs.
Apparently Lou Pinella has been forced into odd sleep patterns, as he watches another baseball season drift farther and farther into irrelevance. Pinella told reporters before Thursday’s game against Cincinnati that he slept in until noon, but did wake up a few times during the night. Brian Connors Manke of MLB.com asks a legitimate question when he writes, “Losers of five in a row, 10 of their last 11, and owners of a Major League worst 4-26 road record, the Rays continue to struggle mightily. Now, the question is, will Piniella get out of bed at all on Friday?
I don’t know how or when or where it will end for the Rays. And when I say “it,” I mean the whole kit-and-caboodle: the ineptitude that has hung around the neck of this franchise like a noose since its inception. They scored 9, 7 and 5 runs against the Reds this week, very respectable numbers, and lost all three games. They lost two of three to Seattle, and before that got swept by Oakland. These are all beatable teams, all teams that are having mediocre to bad seasons, and Tampa’s having trouble scratching out a win.
All’s Well for Wells
Maybe it was the decision to don the number 3 on that wide back of his, which seemed to just taunt and mimic the Fates. Or maybe it was just because the dude is old and has a creaky back.
Whatever the reason, David Wells’ stint with the Red Sox was pretty inglorious for the first two months of the season. In his first seven starts, which were sandwiched around a trip to the DL, he was 2-4 with a 6.81 ERA. However since the change of that uniform number before the Sunday night game against the Yankees two weeks ago, he was won two games with one ND, and has lowered his ERA to 5.07 in the process. His last three starts:
One of the ways in which he’s combating his ever-decreasing strikeout rate
(4.48 per 9 IP would be the 2nd lowest rate of his career), is that he isn’t allowing any walks. Alright, he’s allowing some, but right now his 7.50 K/BB rate would easily be the best of his career. He’s walked 4 batters in just a tick over 60 innings of work.
He’s not going to make Red Sox fans forget about the rejuvenated Pedro Martinez anytime soon, but at least he’s starting to give them some much-needed quality in their starting rotation.
The NBA: Yes, They Can Still Play Good Basketball
I spent the latter stages of Thursday night watching the only baseball game going on in the majors, Minnesota at Arizona. I also kept an eye on the 2nd half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. If you recall, back in May when the playoffs got underway I vowed to pay as much attention to the NBA’s post-season as I could. For what it’s worth, I watched maybe two or three games in their entirety, and caught glimpses of a quarter here, or a quarter there. I didn’t watch any of the Eastern Conference finals, not one second, and watched maybe a couple halves of the Western finals. To borrow a phrase from one of my friend’s descriptions of the NBA right now: “There’s just nothing there.”
So it’s with a mixture of cynicism, disappointment and indifference, I sat down to watch a little basketball. And I found that at this level, with undoubtably the two best teams in the sport squaring off, it’s still a pretty good game.
Manu Ginobili, who before this post-season I still would’ve labeled as “Role Player,” was dynamic last night, playing a hard-nosed, energetic game. Without regard for his body, or the ineffective Piston frontcourt defense, he made sweeping drive after sweeping drive in the 2nd half, at various junctures putting the Spurs on his back. He shot 9-for-10 in the 2nd half, scoring 26 points in the process. Without question, he is the player this post-season, probably along with Dwayne Wade, who has made the biggest leap into the next level of NBA status.
The Pistons were clearly over-matched by the Spurs’ defense. They came out like a house of fire at the onset, building up a double-digit lead in the 1st quarter. But after that, everything was contested. San Antonio ended the game with eight blocks, and in the crucial moments of the game, early 4th quarter before the Spurs ran away with it, none of Detroit’s main offensive options (Hamilton, Wallace, Prince, Billups) could get anything close to a clean look.
It wasn’t a great game by any stretch. In fact, the Pistons’ point total (69) was the 4th lowest in the history of the Finals, a figure that brings a good amount of ugliness to the proceedings. However, there was plenty of intensity and energy with the game played on about as a high a level as the NBA can go right now. I think I’m hooked for the rest of the series. And besides, it’s the last major championship event (unless you want to throw the remaining golf majors in there) until the cool nights of October.
The Royals can no longer lay undisputed claim to the title of “Worst Team in Baseball.” They have company in their realm of futility thanks to the Devil Rays, who are on their way to another dreadful campaign.
The Devil Rays have “caught” the Royals for last place in the majors in run differential at -82. In the last two weeks, they’ve been outscored by more than 30 runs.
Apparently Lou Pinella has been forced into odd sleep patterns, as he watches another baseball season drift farther and farther into irrelevance. Pinella told reporters before Thursday’s game against Cincinnati that he slept in until noon, but did wake up a few times during the night. Brian Connors Manke of MLB.com asks a legitimate question when he writes, “Losers of five in a row, 10 of their last 11, and owners of a Major League worst 4-26 road record, the Rays continue to struggle mightily. Now, the question is, will Piniella get out of bed at all on Friday?
I don’t know how or when or where it will end for the Rays. And when I say “it,” I mean the whole kit-and-caboodle: the ineptitude that has hung around the neck of this franchise like a noose since its inception. They scored 9, 7 and 5 runs against the Reds this week, very respectable numbers, and lost all three games. They lost two of three to Seattle, and before that got swept by Oakland. These are all beatable teams, all teams that are having mediocre to bad seasons, and Tampa’s having trouble scratching out a win.
All’s Well for Wells
Maybe it was the decision to don the number 3 on that wide back of his, which seemed to just taunt and mimic the Fates. Or maybe it was just because the dude is old and has a creaky back.
Whatever the reason, David Wells’ stint with the Red Sox was pretty inglorious for the first two months of the season. In his first seven starts, which were sandwiched around a trip to the DL, he was 2-4 with a 6.81 ERA. However since the change of that uniform number before the Sunday night game against the Yankees two weeks ago, he was won two games with one ND, and has lowered his ERA to 5.07 in the process. His last three starts:
IP H R ER BB K
May 29 at New York 8.1 6 2 2 0 2
June 3 vs. Anaheim 7 9 4 4 0 4
June 8 at St. Louis 8 4 0 0 0 2
One of the ways in which he’s combating his ever-decreasing strikeout rate
(4.48 per 9 IP would be the 2nd lowest rate of his career), is that he isn’t allowing any walks. Alright, he’s allowing some, but right now his 7.50 K/BB rate would easily be the best of his career. He’s walked 4 batters in just a tick over 60 innings of work.
He’s not going to make Red Sox fans forget about the rejuvenated Pedro Martinez anytime soon, but at least he’s starting to give them some much-needed quality in their starting rotation.
The NBA: Yes, They Can Still Play Good Basketball
I spent the latter stages of Thursday night watching the only baseball game going on in the majors, Minnesota at Arizona. I also kept an eye on the 2nd half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. If you recall, back in May when the playoffs got underway I vowed to pay as much attention to the NBA’s post-season as I could. For what it’s worth, I watched maybe two or three games in their entirety, and caught glimpses of a quarter here, or a quarter there. I didn’t watch any of the Eastern Conference finals, not one second, and watched maybe a couple halves of the Western finals. To borrow a phrase from one of my friend’s descriptions of the NBA right now: “There’s just nothing there.”
So it’s with a mixture of cynicism, disappointment and indifference, I sat down to watch a little basketball. And I found that at this level, with undoubtably the two best teams in the sport squaring off, it’s still a pretty good game.
Manu Ginobili, who before this post-season I still would’ve labeled as “Role Player,” was dynamic last night, playing a hard-nosed, energetic game. Without regard for his body, or the ineffective Piston frontcourt defense, he made sweeping drive after sweeping drive in the 2nd half, at various junctures putting the Spurs on his back. He shot 9-for-10 in the 2nd half, scoring 26 points in the process. Without question, he is the player this post-season, probably along with Dwayne Wade, who has made the biggest leap into the next level of NBA status.
The Pistons were clearly over-matched by the Spurs’ defense. They came out like a house of fire at the onset, building up a double-digit lead in the 1st quarter. But after that, everything was contested. San Antonio ended the game with eight blocks, and in the crucial moments of the game, early 4th quarter before the Spurs ran away with it, none of Detroit’s main offensive options (Hamilton, Wallace, Prince, Billups) could get anything close to a clean look.
It wasn’t a great game by any stretch. In fact, the Pistons’ point total (69) was the 4th lowest in the history of the Finals, a figure that brings a good amount of ugliness to the proceedings. However, there was plenty of intensity and energy with the game played on about as a high a level as the NBA can go right now. I think I’m hooked for the rest of the series. And besides, it’s the last major championship event (unless you want to throw the remaining golf majors in there) until the cool nights of October.
