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by wrveres » Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:21 am (5/13) AL Roy: Eric Hosmer (13), Michael Pineda (6), Mark Trumbo (3)
(6/17) AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez (14), Jose Bautista (13)
(6/24) NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay (16), Cole Hamels (9), Cliff Lee (4)
(7/01) NL Roy: Danny Espinosa (11), Brandon Beachy (10), Craig Kimbrel (7)
(7/08) AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (29), Jered Weaver (4), Michael Pineda (3)
(7/15) NL MVP: Matt Kemp (8), Prince Fielder (5), Ryan Braun (5), Jose Reyes (0)
Chris Jaffe: This weekend, Bert Blyleven celebrates his induction into Cooperstown. In honor of that, here’s a look back at his career—some highlights, lowlights, key moments, and random stories about games in which he appeared.
Chris Jaffe: The career highlights include a player's best (and worst) games, most memorable moments, most important games—as well as some oddities and interesting moments he happened to be on hand for, even if he didn't really take a leading role in them. They're all moments from the career of Roberto Alomar
Anniversaries
Cy Young WatchChris Jaffe:* 1909 Ty Cobb steals second, third and home in one inning. It’s the first of four times he’ll do this.
* 1923 Walter Johnson fans his 3,000th batter. He’s the first person to do so. No one else will join him for over 50 years, when Bob Gibson becomes the second member of the club.
* 1942 Red Sox manager Joe Cronin fines Ted Williams $250 for loafing.
* 1979 For the first time in the regular season, George Brett homers three times in one game. He did it once in the playoffs.
* 1986 Cubs fire ball girl Marla Collins for posing in Playboy. image
* 1987 Eddie Murray gets two bases loaded walks in one game, both from the same pitcher: Jose DeLeon.
* 1990 Cal Ripken lays down his first sacrifice hit since Sept. 29, 1982.
* 1994 Jim Thome crushes three homers in one game.
* 1997 Greg Maddux throws a complete game win on 78 pitches for the Braves against the Cubs.
* 1999 Orel Hershiser wins his 200th game (200-140)
* 1999 Mike Hargrove accidentally hands the wrong lineup card to the umpire, causing the Indians to play the game without a DH.
* 2000 Barry Zito makes his big league debut.
* 2005 Jose Guillen of the Nationals personally measures the outfield walls’ distances with tape and declares the numbers on the walls to be incorrect.
Cafe Press.Rob Neyer: Thursday afternoon, Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson both pitched brilliantly, and both improved their Cy Young stock (though Wilson's still a long shot). Thursday evening, CC Sabathia pitched against James Shields and Justin Verlander pitched against the Twins.
Results? Those five guys combined for 39 innings and gave up five runs. The pitching was so tough that Wilson and Sabathia both pitched complete games and lost. Weaver comes out on top, though; he not only lowered his ERA to 1.81, but also won while Sabathia lost. We now have a clear front-runner, and he pitches for Orange County.
Wide World of Waivers, R.J. White: The Diamondbacks finally realized Russell Branyan wasn’t cutting it at the first base position and sent him packing in mid-May. It turned out his replacements weren’t much better. With two quality 1B prospects ready for The Show, Arizona recalled Allen to play first. All he’s done is hit homers in his first two starts, going 1-for-3 in each game. He struggled in his first two trips to the majors over the past two years, but after posting a career best OPS of 1.006 this season in the minors, Allen looks ready. He qualifies only in the outfield in Yahoo right now, but he should be a 1B by the end of the week. If you need CI help, he’s your guy.
Replacing Stephen Drew.Flags Fly Forever, Brandon Gray: You’ll hear comparisons for Eric Hosmer to Joey Votto, which makes any owner excited about the future. As for the rest of 2011 though, Hosmer will likely fall in the 8-12 range for first basemen. But if you have the chance to trade him for a top-six first basemen — one who will hit 35 homers, drive in 115 batters, and hit well over .300 — you jump at the chance. The success of 2010 and 2011 Paul Konerko has been remarkable. Consider it grateful that he doesn’t have a cool name like Ryan Howard that increases the cost on exaggerated production
Eno Sarris: Stephen Drew's ankle injury was gruesome when it happened. And then owners got to their fantasy league waiver wires to look for a replacement shortstop and were once again offended by what they saw. Let's take a look at some possible replacements, tiered by the depth of your leagues.
Mike Axisa: Anyway, Drew was one of fantasy baseball’s better shortstops, a position lacking depth. His .252/.317/.396 batting line is unspectacular, but he had the fourth most RBI (45) among players at the position. It’s safe to drop him off your roster entirely given the nature of his injury and expected timetable, so let’s try to dig up some replacements…
Working The Wire: Searching For Strikeouts: At this point in the season you should have a pretty good idea as to which categories you stand the chance to gain the most ground in. The key is to gain some ground there without hurting yourself in another spot. Otherwise a month from now you’ll be dropping your strikeout guys for more reliable pitchers to bring your ERA back down. Some of the guys I have here can help you in K’s without hurting you in ERA, others you might want to watch your ERA with. That doesn’t mean you don’t add these guys, it just means you pay attention to other categories and not get too focused on just the one.
I mean, at least make them believable.
