Observations:
- The All-Star rosters came out on Sunday. Here they are with the reserves. If you have an opinion or take about the rosters, feel free to let your voice be heard in the comments.
|STAR| Chosen on the Player Ballot, on the DL
|STAR||STAR| Replacing Victor Martinez
|STAR||STAR||STAR| Replacing Dustin Pedroia
+ Chosen by fans, on the DL
++ Replacing Chase Utley in starting lineup
+++ Replacing Troy Tulowitzki
- The final roster spots will be awarded through the fan vote. Here are the nominees for the AL & NL...
AL: Paul Konerko (CWS), Nick Swisher (NYY), Delmon Young (MIN), Michael Young (TEX), & Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
NL: Heath Bell (SD), Carlos Gonzalez (COL), Joey Votto (CIN), Billy Wagner (ATL), & Ryan Zimmerman (WAS)
- My one and only take on the rosters is that they've become too large.
Notables:
- Cliff Lee struck out 11 and "walked" one in a win over the Tigers. I say "walked" because all 4 pitchers were strikes, but C.B. Bucknor is, you know, incompetent. Bucknor also tried to call Johnny Damon out on 2 strikes in this game. Oh and to top it off, he ejected Jeremy Bonderman and Gerald Laird for arguing with him. Anytime Bucknor wants to eject himself from "umpiring" baseball games would be fine with me. Gotta love that human element of the game. (h/t to Matthew Carruth for the walk link.)
- Phil Hughes & Brandon Morrow both allowed 5 earned runs over 6 innings and took no decisions in the Blue Jays/Yankees game. Hughes struck out 5, walked 2, and gave up 6 hits, while Morrow struck out 7, walked 1, and gave up 9 hits.
- Dewayne Wise had a roller-coaster game for the Blue Jays. He hit a 3-run homer, had a ball get hit over his head in center-field, threw Mark Teixeira out at home plate, lost a routine fly ball in the sun that led to an inside-the-park home run by Brett Gardner, and got a hit off of Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning to tie the game. You probably haven't heard this much about Wise since his crazy catch in Mark Buehrle's perfect game last season.
- Chad Billingsley and Dan Haren also received no decisions, after they each allowed 1 earned run. Billingsley struck out 8 and walked 1 over 6 innings, while Haren struck out 4 and walked 2 over 7 innings. Neither has won a game in their last 4 starts. Haren has been rather unlucky this season as he had a .345 BABIP coming into this start.
- Brian Matusz pitched 7 shutout innings against the Red Sox. He struck out 8, walked 3, and allowed only 2 hits. It was his first win since April 18th.
- James Shields got a win, after he gave up 4 earned runs over 6 innings. He struck out 2, walked 1, and allowed 8 hits. It was his second win in his last 9 starts.
- Josh Hamilton went 1-4 and hit his 20th homer of the season. He's absolutely on fire right now.
- Joel Pineiro pitched 7 shutout innings in a win. He struck out 3, walked 4, and allowed 6 hits. He also induced 16 ground balls, which should come as no surprise as his ground ball percentage is over 50|PERCENT| this season.
- Torii Hunter hit 2 homers and drove in 7 runs. He's now up to 14 home runs and 60 RBI, on the season. Hunter has long been my second favorite player in baseball, behind only Lance Berkman... don't sleep on the Puma.
- Ryan Zimmerman collected 4 RBI in a 3-5 effort. He's one of the players on the Fan Vote for the last NL All-Star roster spot.
- Pedro Alvarez hit his 2nd homer of the season on Sunday. This is now back-to-back games for Alvarez with a homer. He also struck out once, which has become a common occurrence for the rookie (41|PERCENT| strikeout rate).
- Adam Wainwright did it all against the Brewers. He pitched a one-run complete game with 9 strikeouts and hit a three-run double. He walked none, allowed 5 hits, and lowered his ERA to 2.24, which is the 3rd lowest in MLB. The complete game was his 4th of the season.
- Mike Leake allowed 3 earned runs over 6 innings against the Cubs, in a win. He struck out 5, walked 1, and allowed 8 hits. The win, his 6th, is his first in nearly a month. The 1 walk is encouraging for the rookie, but it'd be really nice to see him work deeper into games as he's only pitched past the 6th inning in one of his last 7 starts.
- Drew Stubbs hit 3 of the 9 homers in the Reds/Cubs game. Brandon Phillips, Paul Janish, Jonny Gomes, Corky Miller, and Tyler Colvin combined to hit the other 6. With 11 homers and 16 stolen bases on the season now, Stubbs is a dark horse to reach 20/20.
- Jason Hammel pitched no-run ball through 7 innings, but then came the 8th. In the 8th inning, Hammel allowed a solo-shot to Nate Schierholtz and then an inside-the-park homer to Andres Torres. The bullpen then came in and proceeded to let another run score, which tied the game 3-3. The tie lasted until the bottom of the 15th inning, when Todd Helton hit a sac-fly. Back to Hammel, he struck out 8, walked 1, and allowed 7 hits. He's pitched much better since coming off the DL, allowing 12 earned runs over his last 8 games with a 42/13 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
- Dexter Fowler went 3-4 with 4 walks, 2 triples, and 3 runs in the same game. Over the 4 game series with the Giants, Fowler collected 10 hits (5 of which were extra base hits), 7 walks, and 3 stolen bases. There's still room left on the bandwagon, if you hurry.
- Brett Myers allowed 2 earned runs over 6 innings in a no decision. He struck out 2, walked 1, and allowed 4 hits. Myers has a 3.57 ERA and is probably trade bait for a rebuilding Astros team.
- Wade LeBlanc also collected a no decision, after he pitched 6.2 innings of 1 run ball. He struck out 2, walked 3, and allowed 3 hits. LeBlanc has now allowed 2 or less earned runs in 11 of his 15 starts this season, but with a 58/33 strikeout-to-walk ratio, one has to wonder how much longer that can last.
- Ricky Nolasco allowed 2 earned runs over 7 innings and struck out a season high 11 batters, on Sunday in a win over the Braves. He now has a 29/3 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his last 4 games. But, and there always seems to be a but with Nolasco, he also gave up a home run, which gives him 9 over his last 5 starts. That 14.5 hr/fb ratio can't stay that high forever, right?
- Tim Hudson struck out a season high 7 batters and allowed 3 earned runs over 8 innings in a loss. He's now pitched 7 or more innings in 6 straight starts. His 2.44 ERA is 6th lowest in the NL.
Save Chances:
- Rafael Soriano, converted (21). Struck out 2 and allowed 1 hit in a scoreless 9th inning.
- Francisco Rodriguez, converted (20). Struck out 1 in a clean 9th. He came in with a 4-run lead, the tying run on deck, and no outs.
- Octavio Dotel, converted (19). Struck out 1 in a clean 9th.
- Jonathan Broxon, converted (17). Struck out 2 in a clean 9th.
- Andrew Bailey, converted (17). Allowed 1 hit, in an otherwise quiet 9th.
- Leo Nunez, converted (17). Struck out 2 in a clean 9th.
- Matt Thornton, converted (5). Struck out 1 and walked another in a scoreless 9th. No word as to why Bobby Jenks, who came back from the bereavement list earlier this week, wasn't used.
- Mariano Rivera, blown (2). Gave up 1 earned run on 3 hits.
Other Closer Outings:
- Heath Bell got a win after he struck out 1 in a clean 9th inning of a tied game.
- Brian Wilson struck out 2, walked 1, and gave up 2 hits in a scoreless 13th inning of an extra innings game.
- Huston Street struck out 1 and gave up 1 hit over 2 scoreless innings for the Rockies.
- Alfredo Simon walked a batter and struck out another.
- Aaron Heilman came into a tied game in the 8th and promptly gave up a 2-run homer to Matt Kemp. I know this wasn't a save opportunity, but don't be surprised if Kirk Gibson gives Chad Qualls another shot at closing games in the near future.
Non-Closer Outings:
- Hong-Chih Kuo struck out 6 and allowed 1 hit in 2 scoreless innings. That's pretty damn good.
- Evan Meek got a win after he pitched a clean 7th inning a tied game with the Phillies.
- Carlos Villanueva pitched 3.1 scoreless innings and struck out 4 batters in relief of the injured Yovani Gallardo.
- Mike Adams allowed 1 earned run on 2 hits in the 8th inning.
- Brandon League allowed 1 hit and 1 walk in a scoreless 9th.
- Joba Chamberlain struck out 1 and allowed 1 hit in a scoreless 8th.
- J.J. Putz struck out 1 in a clean 8th.
- Fernando Rodney gave up 1 hit in a scoreless 9th.
- Tyler Clippard struck out 3 in 1.1 clean innings.
- Scott Downs struck out 2 in a clean 8th.
- Daniel Schlereth, who was recently called up, gave up 2 hits and allowed a walk in a scoreless 8th.
- Andrew Cashner gave up a homer to Drew Stubbs in a meaningless 9th (the score was 13-3).
- Esmil Rogers threw 4 scoreless innings and struck out 5 batters for the Rockies in their extra-innings win.
- Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, & Alexi Ogando combined for 3 innings of scoreless ball for the Rangers.
Tough Days:
- (Insert great player) was left off of the All-Star Game roster.
- Curtis Granderson went 0-5 with 4 strikeouts and 1 run... A Golden Sombrero on 4th of July is soo un-patriotic.
- Ted Lilly gave up 9 earned runs over 6.2 innings. He got tattooed for 11 hits, 4 of which were homers. I didn't see any of the game, but I have to think the wind was blowing out at Wrigley.
- Jeremy Bonderman pitched 5 innings and allowed 7 earned runs. He also had to deal with CB Bucknor, but Bucknor didn't give up the 9 hits or 2 home runs.
- Craig Stammen pitched 3.1 innings and allowed 7 earned runs. He struck out 3, walked 3, and gave up 8 hits.
- I knew that the Astros offense was bad, but not historically bad. On Sunday they had a runner on second with no outs and failed to score a run. Joe Sheehan described this Astros offense as the worst he'd seen in his lifetime, after said play. When I questioned him about this, he responded that per EqA (equivalent average), yes, this was the worst team he'd ever seen. He followed that the "last team team to go a full season with a team EqA of .231 or less: 1965 Mets. (1981 Blue Jays were .227 in a strike year.)" Joe is full of interesting baseball facts and takes like this. If you haven't signed up for his newsletter yet, you should.
Lineup-ology/Injuries:
- Yovani Gallardo left his start with a right oblique strain. Don't be surprised to see him end up on the DL.
- Clay Buchholz might not make his start for the Red Sox on Tuesday. He's dealing with a hamstring issue and may land on the DL. If so, Felix Doubront may get the spot start.
- Shin-Soo Choo was placed on the DL w/ a sprained thumb. Michael Brantley was recalled and should play everyday going forward. Choo's injury is thought to sideline him for 6-8 weeks.
- Jose Reyes was out of the lineup for the Mets again. He's got an oblique injury and might end up on the DL.
- Aramis Ramirez tweaked his previously injured left thumb. This isn't good news for ailing 3B.
- Dontrelle Willis was designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks. Sad, but not surprising.
- Geoff Blum was placed on the DL w/ loose bodies in his right elbow. No joke, he injured it while putting on his shirt after Thursday night's game. Jason Bourgeois will take his spot on the Astros roster.
- Marcus Thames was activated from the DL and got the game winning hit in the bottom of the 10th for the Yankees.
- Andruw Jones & Gordon Beckham sat in favor of Mark Kotsay & Brent Lillibridge.
- Vernon Wells sat with flu-like symptoms. Teammate Aaron Hill sat with a stomach virus.
- Jorge Posada sprained his left ring finger after he took a ball off of it.
- Casey Kotchman started at 1B and went 3-3 with a 3-run homer. Milton Bradley sat as Russell Branyan hit DH.
- Coco Crisp left Sunday's game with hamstring tightness.
- Mike Stanton did not play for the Marlins. It's hard to strikeout from the bench.
- Gustavo Molina started at catcher for the Red Sox, while Kevin Cash was on the bench.
- Juan Uribe sat in favor of Edgar Renteria and Freddy Sanchez. Uribe is basically the 5th infielder for the Giants.
- Lastings Milledge got another day off on Sunday. Ryan Church got the start, but Milledge should be back in the lineup soon.
- Mike Cameron sat again with an abdomen issue. Darnell McDonald got the start for the Red Sox.
- Conor Jackson sat with some right hamstring tightness. Gabe Gross started for him.
- Greg Dobbs got another start at 3B for the Phillies. He should continue to get at-bats when facing a RHP. Juan Castro & Cody Ransom should share the at-bats when facing a LHP.
- Dayan Viciedo took over for Omar Vizquel at 3B, after Vizquel took a pitch off his left knee. Viciedo should be in the mix for more playing time should Vizquel's injury keep him out.
Chicks Dig the Long Ball:
- Josh Hamilton (20), Corey Hart (19), Kevin Youkilis (17), Dan Uggla (16), Matt Kemp (15), Torii Hunter (13 & 14), Ryan Zimmerman (14), Tyler Colvin (11 & 12), Russell Branyan (12), Drew Stubbs (9, 10, & 11), Brandon Phillips (11), Brian McCann (10), Adam Lind (10), Ike Davis (10), Jonny Gomes (10), Lance Berkman (8), Lyle Overbay (8), Alexei Ramirez (7), Sean Rodriguez (6), Adam Rosales (6), Brett Gardner (5), Andres Torres (4), Chris Iannetta (4), Casey Kotchman (4), Julio Borbon (3), Dane Sardinha (3), Pedro Alvarez (2), Nate Schierholtz (2), Jon Jay (2), Paul Janish (2), Dewayne Wise (1), Corky Miller (1), & Paul McAnulty (1).
Stolen Bases:
- Ichiro Suzuki (22), Andres Torres (16), David Wright (14 & 15), Corey Patterson (15), Franklin Gutierrez (10), Fred Lewis (7), Jose Tabata (6), Mark Ellis (3), Ramiro Pena (3), Emilio Bonifacio (3), & Seth Smith (2).
Caught Stealing:
- Juan Pierre (9), Dexter Fowler (5), Carlos Gonzalez (5), Andres Torres (4), James Loney (4), Delmon Young (3), & Reed Johnson (2).