Before we get to Phil, BRE would like to give a stand-up, hands over their heads clapping Bravo! to Jack Cust.
When he struck out yesterday against the Angels, it was the 19th consecutive game he's done so. It also was his 114th strikeout of the year, one short of the team record for Ks before the All-Star break. C'mon Jack, give me a couple of whiffs today and break that record (remember, Dave Kingman, Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire played for this team).
And Jack's passed the minimum 1000 PAs to now qualify for the all-time TTO list! His 56.5% career mark puts him well ahead of the historical pack! He's well off the prodigious 61.2% that Russell Branyan put up in 2000 for a single season, but 55.2% this year for Jack? Not Bad. Not bad at all.
Now to put this in perspective, in 2004, when Barry Bonds walked 232 times, his TTO that year was 52.5%.
On to Phil.It's Phil's Whispers. You know, that regular column where Phil puts together a hodgepodge of items he found in the game recaps at MLB.com. Journalisme très sérieux.
Let's get started.
Sorry. Not MLB.com. The Detroit News. Hot damn. I can do this shit. Sign me up.
And anybody else think if someone interrupts Leyland's morning poop, he'd be a raging asshole the rest of the day?
The Mariners put Erik Bedard on the disabled list with some tightness in his forearm but still hope to trade him before the July 31 deadline. He hasn't gone more than six innings since May 28, so look for the Mariners to try to get seven-plus innings out of him his next couple of times out. …
The Mariners put Erik Bedard on the disabled list with some tightness in his forearm but still hope to trade him before the July 31 deadline. He hasn't gone more than six innings since May 28, so look for the Mariners to try to get seven-plus innings out of him his next couple of times out. …
Ya think? Don't go out on a limb there, Phil.
Frank Thomas, out since late May with a partial tear in his right quadriceps, has been cleared to start hitting and hopes to get back in Oakland's lineup before the end of the month. …
Phil got his undies all in a bunch over the Blue Jays trading Frank. He screamed, he moaned, he threw himself on the coffin. It's was a full-fledged death-wail.
First, let's get the patent wrongness out of the way. He's not expected back until the beginning of August, not before the end of the month. That's straight from Big Hurt's mouth.
Second, how's that roster move for the Blue Jays lookin' now? He's had 180 PAs so far this year. Let's say he comes back on August 1 and gets 3.5 PA/game over the last 60 games of the season. The A's will be on the hook for $10 million next year as his 2009 option is guaranteed with 1000 PAs over 2007-08...for a 41 year-old who CAN'T play the field and can't stay healthy. Future HOF? Sure. Worth $10 million in 2009. Fuck No.
The Mets are crediting the more relaxed attitude created by new manager Jerry Manuel for their winning 8 of 10 entering the weekend. They had eight consecutive starts with their starters allowing three or fewer runs. …
The Mets are up 86 games in the alternate standings that measure relaxed attitudes.
Ron Mahay just keeps increasing his value for Kansas City. …
More please. And I can't name one middle reliever that helped a team win the World Series in recent memory. Can you? There's been a lot of disasters (see Kyle Farnsworth, Scott Linebrink, Eric Gagne, et al) but I can't name one that really helped.
There's also rumblings that KC might spend a little next off-season. I don't know if he'll really be moved.
Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' 97-year-old PA man, isn't going to make it to Yankee Stadium for the All-Star Game. …
Phil had to go to the bathroom, stopped typing and just moved on to the next whisper.
Geovany Soto made a Futures Game appearance last year before joining the Cubs late in the season. The White Sox could follow that scenario with infielder Chris Getz, who could wind up as Alexei Ramirez's double-play partner in 2009. …
Wait a gosh darn minute here. I thought the White Sox farm system was decimated? They have a couple of guys playing in the Futures Game.
Again, an organization absolutely should build their farm system. But a team in a large market with moderately deep pockets doesn't need 5,000 prospects playing at Triple-A and are near major league-ready. They need two or three each year at key positions. The rest is fodder for trades. Like trading for Nick Swisher (we're getting to that).
Boston and Arizona did talk about signing Barry Bonds, but why not the Angels? Or the Dodgers? Or Minnesota? Somebody should gamble on Bonds, but nobody wants him around. …
Oh JHC! First, didn't he just answer his query. Should but nobody wants him.
And the Angels will NOT sign Bonds! Quit pushing this shit! Please tell me where he fits. Do they trade/release Anderson or Matthews? How is that going to work? Just because a team is bad at hitting home runs doesn't mean they should force-fit a new player known in the past for hitting home runs (among other things to put it mildly) into a lineup.
If anybody is trying to find a Joe Baseball Fan as an example of someone who represents the surge in baseball attendance in the late 90s that thought home runs were pretty and nothing else matters, see Phil Rogers.
Rangers newcomer Chris Davis might be having the best season of anyone in baseball. The 22-year-old first baseman has 28 homers and 84 RBIs in 91 games. …
And he's struck out 87 times while walking only 30 times. He's eight foot tall and has about 12,000 holes in his swing. He was so bad at third and in the outfield, he had to be moved to first to limit his defensive liability. I have more.
He's had a great year so far but screams Dallas McPherson and Brad Eldred to me.
Left-hander Gio Gonzalez, who was sent to Oakland by the Sox in the Nick Swisher trade, is leading the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts. …
Just a wee bit has been omitted here. Phil's still hoping his January hissy fit will somehow hold up. So far, we have Fautino De Los Santos having Tommy John Surgery and Ryan Sweeney losing his starting and platooning job to Matt Murton. Gio's the only one left.
Gonzalez is also 4th in the league in walks and sports a 4.56 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. And that was dramatically improved by a stellar three game stretch (0.86 ERA in 21 IP) where he pitched against three teams that are a combined 26 games below .500 right now. On June 28, he had a 5.51 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.
He's a good pitching prospect that has oodles of issues. The Sox weren't going to get Swisher for free and giving up Gonzalez was right and just. You know what you get with Swisher and he's signed through 2011. With Gonzalez, nothing's guaranteed.
Boston is moving Justin Masterson to the bullpen, which could be a good thing for Waubonsie Valley product Michael Bowden. He entered the weekend 9-4 with a 2.33 ERA in 19 starts for Double-A Portland.
How? How?!
Who's he going to hurdle in the starting rotation? The Red Sox just recalled Buchholz and they have Beckett, Matsusaka, Wakefield, Lester and Colon possibly coming back in August. Unless the Red Sox go to a seven-man rotation, how's he going to pitch in the majors this year? Even with Buchholz's struggles, they wouldn't waste an another option on him. If anything happens to any of the starting pitchers, Masterson is first in line for a spot start. This is basic baseball logic. Cripes!
But he's a local Chicago kid. How could the Red Sox ignore that?
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