Bruette
Well-Known Member
Good evening, y'all. 73 and sticky. It's summertime at the Jersey Shore!
Louis: O's 3-1 over Texas, Bleier the win, Brach the save. Tillman, 6 innings, 95 pitches, 1 Run allowed, 3 Ks. Smith HR. Machado, 3 for 3.
I watched the Nats win this afternoon (6-1), on MLB Net, (MASN DC).
Talk is O's sell, some fan talk sending Britton to DC for prospects. Most O's fans blame Peter Angelos for the mess, and they may be right. Not 4 Nothing, I didn't watch any games Sunday, but the box score wasn't pretty. One name stood out to me, Ubaldo... the rest of the bunch wasn't much better. The cubs couldn't even beat the Mets! At. best, the O's need a new pitching coach, an new hitting coach, and a starter. They need to unload some garbage contracts, and under achievers. What's Chris Davis done all season? Trumbo? Castillo? Machado's hitting ability has gone into hiding, although his fielding is top notch. Tillman? Perhaps he came back too soon, He may as well stayed out for the season. A complete rebuild, isn't necessary, but a new direction is. Buck looks shell shocked every time the camera pans on him... Tonight was better, but has the horse left the barn?
Boris, thank you, it's so nice to hear from a baseball fan with some sense! These talking heads and talk show callers are driving me insane. I really feel bad for Buck.
Your right they are saying trade Britton, but as usual they are like what your hear coming from the white house, people talking about something they know nothing about! We can't trade Britton, he is still recovering and has no value. He is on a 1 year 11.4 million contract. Who is going to pay him that kind of money to be a middle reliever? Even the Yankees have become more frugal than that.
They are also talking about trading Machado, when he is in the midst of his worse season? He value right now is half of what it can be. He is on a pace to hit 30 homeruns, but has been very inconsistent at the plate.
I'm not pleased with Davis or Trumbo, but Davis has suffered a hand/wrist injury and Trumbo is among the team leaders in hits and average with runners in scoring position. Granted Trumbo's power numbers are down. Big swing power hitters are streaky by nature. Davis will do better as his strength returns and Trumbo is giving me reason for hope because he has done a good job of situational hitting and is hitting to the opposite field.
The good news about Ubaldo? It's the last year of his 40+ million dollar contract. I'd pitch him every 5 days too. If nothing else he can give the bullpen a break. I would have him pitch at least 7 innings or 120 pitches every time out. He needs to throw more fastballs. The hitters are sitting on his off speed stuff waiting for him to hang one. Have you noticed how many balls they hit to the opposite field against him? That is a dead giveaway they are not looking for fastballs.
Miley... I don't know how Buck keeps from screaming at him! He gets ahead in the count than throws balls 6+ inches out of the zone, big league hitters won't chase that. Next you know it's 3-2 and he is getting hit hard or walking the hitters.
The Cubs are loaded with talent, I don't know why they are a 500 team. I guess Madden is not a genius. Keep your eye on the Cubs. They have too much talent not to be in the hunt.
Tillman will be ok as long as he doesn't hurt himself more. Remember Palmer in 74? He stunk up the joint but when he fully recovered from his elbow injury he won the Cy Young in 75. I am not saying Tillman is Palmer, but he can be a work horse that wins 60% of his starts.
Stay tuned, it's only July! Speaking of 74, remember the birds were 10 behind the Red Sox and came back to win the division? They lost a closely contested AL championship to the A's 3-1 but the A's were pretty good. They went on to defeated the Dodgers 4-1. With the exception of the Red Sox all of those teams had great pitching.