Jake Peavy can instantly bolster anyone’s rotation. But I’m not convinced the White Sox did what would improve the team the most. Their offense—not their pitching—was what needed a boost. And, even though Kenny Williams gets credit for a heck of a deal in landing Peavy, would the Sox have needed to trade for a frontline starter had they kept Javier Vasquez (3.01 ERA, 1.05 WHIP this year for Atlanta) during the offseason?
Things I can do without:
1. The Brewers’ routine of untucking their shirts the minute they win a game at home. Dumb.
2. The latest ad campaign for
G
AT
ORADE.
3. The Yankee announcer who calls home runs this way: “Seeeeeee yah!”
Things I love:
1. The MLB Network. “Quick Pitch” and the “Capital One Plays of the Day,” in particular.
2. Guest announcers Keith Moreland and Scott Sanderson. Both were surprisingly good in the broadcast booth.
I remember when Ryan Theriot saw action for the first time in spring training in 2004. No one (not even Pat Hughes) was quite sure how to pronounce his name. I heard “Tair-ee-ot”; “There-ee-out”; “ Tair-eye-ot.” In a couple years, when another LSU product, D.J. LeMahieu, makes the team (and he will—he’s that good), you’ll know how he pronounces his name. It’s “Le-MAY-hue.”
The St. Louis Cardinals have been winning since they got Matt Holliday, Julio Lugo and Mark DeRosa. But acquiring better starting pitching would have been a smarter move, I’m thinking. Also, from our standpoint, we need to realize the Cubs weren’t in position pull the trigger on any of those player (if they had wanted to) because they didn’t have the goods to offer in trade. The Cards were able to use Chris Perez and Brett Wallace, first round draftees from 2006 and 2008, respectively (as well as Chris Duncan), as trade bait, whereas the Cubs had no one as big league ready and as valuable in trade from their 2006-2008 drafts.
Shooty Babbitt. Razor Shines. Choo Choo Coleman. Mookie Wilson. Van Lingle Mungo. They’re all classic baseball names. But how ’bout these: Josh Outman, Bob Walk and Eric Plunk, who are/were all pitchers, no less.
Speaking of names, here are a few names I wouldn’t want to have: Ethan Faggett, Peter Fatse, Antonio Bastardo.
John Grabow, in the end, will probably turn out to be an average pitcher for the Cubs. But here’s where he’ll really help the team: every inning he takes away from Aaron Heilman.
Why is the word “gamer” always used to describe someone like Koyie Hill or Reed Johnson? Why isn’t it ever used to describe someone like Derrek Lee, a player who, every day, actually is the essence of the game of baseball?
The fact that Koyie Hill is still playing baseball is a medical miracle. And he’s been the iron man behind the plate during Soto’s rehab. But that’s where the discussion should end. By that I mean can we stop referring to the Cubs’ won-loss record (at one time, 43 and 23) when Koyie plays? He’s the Cubs’ equivalent to Craig Krenzel and Kyle Orton—guys with winning records who were just lucky to have a strong team around them.
Don’t look now, but the player-everybody-loves-to-hate, Aaron Miles, might be coming back up soon. He’s hitting .311 in his last ten games for Iowa, bringing his average in Triple A up to .259 for the season. It’d be nice if he’d get anywhere close to .311 for the Cubs; otherwise, he’s useless.
Does anybody read the sports section of the Sunday Chicago Tribune anymore? Is it worth the time? Back in the day, it was packed with news. In the summer, there were multiple columns on baseball, a full page of box scores, and the weekly rankings of batting averages and ERAs for players in both leagues. What used to give me almost an hour’s worth of Sunday morning pleasure is now a ten-minutes-and-into-the-recycling-bin routine.
