Young arms will be key in second half
Posted: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 8:36 PM
Two weeks after the All-Star break here are some names making news around the majors.
TIM LINCECUM: He went head-to-head with Brandon Webb last Saturday. Lincecum allowed two runs over seven innings in which he struck out 13 and walked none. This slender right-hander with the slacker look is pure man on the mound. He is 11-3 for a horrid team, has struck out better than one batter per inning (156 strikeouts in 142 innings pitched) and is simply the premier young NL pitcher in the National League. Question: Will the Giants shut him down as he approaches 200 innings?
MIKE PELFREY: Want a shock? The Mets' best pitcher in the last two months has been Pelfrey. The Mets are undefeated in his last nine starts. Pelfrey is 7-0 with a 2.67 ERA over that stretch. Suddenly the Mets are not pitching-poor and they have developed young starters (Pelfrey, John Maine and Oliver Perez) rather than relying on the fading Pedro Martinez and broken-down Orlando Hernandez.
JEFF SAMARDZIJA: Two years ago he was a standout wide receiver at Notre Dame with hopes of playing in the NFL. Last Sunday he stood on the mound at Wrigley Field and earned his first save in the midst of Chicago pennant heat. Baseball should trumpet this story: Notre Dame football player chooses baseball. Indiana kid signs with the Cubs. Saves his first game at Wrigley Field while hitting 99 mph on the radar gun. It’s not “Rudy” but it’s a win for baseball.
JOBA CHAMBERLAIN: Humble bloggers should admit their erroneous thoughts. As Chamberlain outdueled Josh Beckett 1-0 last Friday night, Yankees general maanger Brian Cashman had to smile. His decision to move Chamberlain into the rotation now looks brilliant. Skeptics (yours truly at the front of the line) are silent.
JASON GIAMBI: Confession, part 2. Giambi drove in the lone run last Friday night in the Yankees win over the Red Sox. Some ill-thinking blogger (?) suggested Giambi would be gone from the Yankees by the All-Star break. Instead, he is a mainstay bat, holding a stout .916 OPS (second on the team to Alex Rodriguez).
MANNY RAMIREZ: His Red Sox career seemed to hang in the balance last weekend. Ramirez said his knees hurt. The Red Sox ran tests and found no problem. On the brink of facing severe action, he played last Saturday and Sunday. The first thought is that the Red Sox couldn’t afford to move Ramirez and hope to outlast Tampa Bay and the Yankees in the AL East. Then there are the Mets, who have admired Manny from afar for the last few years. Could it ever happen that he winds up in New York?
RANDY JOHNSON: He stuffed the Giants last Sunday afternoon to earn career win No. 292. At 44 and written off by most after numerous back problems, Johnson seems certain to reach the 300-win mark. From age 35, Johnson has won 142 games, a number surpassed in 20th and 21st century baseball by Phil Niekro, Warren Spahn and Charlie Hough. Johnson has become a key figure in the Arizona’s second half of the season.
MIKE HAMPTON: I saw the highlights! He actually pitched last Saturday in Philadelphia. No injuries warming up, no last-minute stumbles. Hampton actually pitched in a major league game for the first time in three years. Somewhere, sometime, there will be a study conducted about this era and how could such a good pitcher continually break down?
ANDRUW JONES: His performance has deteriorated to the point where questions are asked: Is he really 31? Is he overweight (he has lost the extra pounds he brought to Vero Beach in spring training and is playing at the same weight he carried in his last Atlanta years)? How can Joe Torre continue to play him and maintain any pretense of trying to win the NL West? A statistic that is incomprehensible: Jones has THREE multi-hit games this year.
ANDY MARTE: Once a prized Atlanta prospect, Marte now gets one last chance to save himself from permanent suspect status. Cleveland’s trade of Casey Blake opens an everyday spot at third base and the Indians appear ready to hand Marte his last best opportunity.
FIVE MORE SWINGS:
1. LAST FRIDAY WE ASKED QUESTIONS…and by nightfall the Pirates and Yankees answered them. Pittsburgh general manager Neal Huntington executed his first big trade and he trusted his scouts who watched top Yankees’ prospects but just as important Huntington established a reputation with fellow general managers that he will act decisively. Meanwhile, the Yankees identified need and had the prospects to swing a deal. Credit for that goes to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.
2. HOW BAD IS WASHINGTON? San Francisco just finished a nine-game homestand during which the Giants were swept by Milwaukee and Arizona but they swept Washington. A scuffling Dodgers team, devoid of offense, swept the Nationals. Washington scored nine runs in its six California games and was shutout in three of the last four. Hard to look at the Nationals and see any light.
3. PAUL DEPODESTA IS A BLOGGER…check out itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com. It provides an interesting give and take with serious Padres fans. One example: DePodesta lays out the thought behind dealing Randy Wolf to Houston. Paying performance bonuses on top of Wolf’s remaining salary AND the money to sign the compensatory draft pick if Wolf left via free agency would total $5 million. The Padres, DePodesta wrote, would rather decide how else to use that $5 million. Other general managers voiced that strategy to me a decade ago but it seems odd to hear that in this current climate of player development.
4. ATLANTA BURNS…the Braves had a resounding win last Friday night, scoring five ninth-inning runs off Brad Lidge to break open a close game against the Phillies. Then the Braves blew a six-run lead last Saturday and a five-run lead last Sunday. After losing to St. Louis Tuesday night they were eight and a half games out of the lead in the NL East -- in fourth place and holding no hope to contend. Thus the decision to trade Mark Teixeira to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and a minor league pitcher, Steve Marek. The Braves have raised the white flag on this season.
5. HOW ABOUT THIS NAME?…Four years ago Mark Bellhorn was the second baseman on Boston’s hex-smashing World Champions. Last Friday he was released from Double-A Jacksonville by the Dodgers. His career crashed and he used a connection to a former teammate, Dodgers assistant general manager Bill Mueller, to land work at the Double-A level. Do you think Bellhorn brought his 2004 ring to the ballpark?
