Thumbs up:
Minnesota Twins:
Did you happen to catch who moved into first place in the AL Central today? It's the upstart Minnesota Twins, who got six shutout innings from the just-recalled Francisco Liriano, beat the Cleveland Indians 6-2, and opened up a 1/2 game lead on the Chicago White Sox.
The Twins made an interesting call Friday, when they designated Livan Hernandez for assignment to make room on the roster for Liriano. Hernandez was far and away Minnesota's most experienced starter, and his departure leaves the Twins relying on 5 very young starters -- Liriano (24), Scott Baker (26), Kevin Slowey (24), Nick Blackburn (26), and Glen Perkins (25) -- to win them a division title. Not one of them has more than 3 years of MLB experience.
That may seem like a daunting challenge, but it's not a bad decision for a team that's been playing with house money all year. Fans probably won't fault the Twins if they don't make the playoffs -- how could they have expected their team to even be contending after dealing Johan Santana in the offseason? And if they do make the playoffs, their young rotation gets valuable October experience.
So heading into August 4, your AL division leaders are the Rays, Twins, and Angels. And when you remember that many people thought Seattle would win the West this year, every single member of that trio can be considered a surprise. Meanwhile, the teams with the highest payrolls in the East (Yankees) and Central (Tigers) are both in third place, and the team with the second highest payroll in the West (Seattle, trailing the Angels by just $1.5 million) is in last place. How's that for parity?
July acquisitions:
The greatest trade deadline in history has lived up to the billing, as several July acquisitions gave their new clubs big boosts over the weekend:
- Jason Bay: .533 on-base percentage, 6 runs scored in 3 games vs. A's
- Joe Blanton (Sat.): 7-inning, 1-run effort in 2-1 victory over St. Louis
- Ken Griffey, Jr. (Fri.): 2-3, 2 RBIs in 4-2 win over Kansas City
- Jeff Karstens (Fri.): 6 shutout innings against the first-place Cubs
- Xavier Nady: 7-11, 7 RBIs vs. the vaunted Angels' pitching staff
- Manny Ramirez: 8-13, 2 HR in 3 games vs. Arizona
- C.C. Sabathia (Sat.): 8.1 innings, 9 strikeouts 4-2 victory over Atlanta
- Mark Teixeira (Sun.): Go-ahead grand slam in eighth inning against the Yankees
Maybe it's because he doesn't throw 100 MPH, pump his fist, or pitch for the Yankees that Ziegler hasn't attained Joba Chamberlain-esque mega-stardom yet. Nonetheless, the A's rookie reliever certainly deserves a great deal attention for having, statistically, the greatest start to a career ever. After tossing 2 shutout innings Saturday in Fenway Park, the 28-year-old former independent leaguer, who spent parts of 6 seasons in the minors before being called up on May 31, is up to 32 consecutive scoreless innings to begin a career, a new record -- the previous mark of 25.0 frames hadn't been touched for the last 101 years.
And it's not like Ziegler has had an easy go of it, having thrown more than 1 inning in each of his last 5 outings and in 12 of 25 appearances overall. The sidewinder has also faced 6 of the top 13 offenses in all of baseball (1. Texas, 3. Detroit, 4. Boston, 6. Chicago White Sox, 12. Florida, and 13. New York Yankees) and hurled a combined 10.1 shutout innings against them.
Thumbs down:
New York Mets:
Between August 1 and August 26, the Mets were to play a grand total of three games against teams currently with winning records. But in the midst of this golden opportunity to run away with the NL East, the Mets got off to a terrible start, getting swept by the pathetic Houston Astros over the weekend. After deciding against adding a much-needed bullpen arm at the trade deadline, Omar Minaya watched his team pay the price, as reliever Aaron Heilman surrendered a go-ahead grand slam to Mark Loretta in the series opener and closer Billy Wagner blew a 2-run save the following day. And when you consider that the Mets' 5-9 hitters in today's game were Fernando Tatis, Damion Easley, Nick Evans, Robinson Cancel, and the pitcher's spot -- since Minaya also decided against trading for a hitter before July 31 -- it's no wonder they were shutout 4-0 by, of all people, Randy Wolf.
To add a little insult to injury, the Yankees took a not-so-veiled jab at their cross-town rivals during Saturday afternoon's Old-Timers' Day festivities at Yankee Stadium. Among the guests of honor was former Mets manager Willie Randolph, who was introduced by emcee Michael Kay as "once a Yankee, always a Yankee." The Bombers' mainstay second baseman for two championship teams in the late-70's and much of the 80's, Randolph received the loudest ovation of the afternoon and then told reporters, "I've been away for a while, but I think my heart and soul's always been here."
That's the kind of stuff that makes Met fans, who already feel an incredible inferiority complex towards the big-brother Yankees, hurl. All-in-all, it was a downer of a weekend in Queens.
Detroit Tigers:
Did Tiger fans ever think they'd miss Todd Jones? They sure did today against the Rays, when Kyle Farnsworth blew a two-run lead in the 8th inning and Fernando Rodney couldn't protect a one-run lead in the 10th. Rodney surrendered a bases-loaded walk to Carlos Pena that gave Tampa Bay a 6-5 walkoff win and a sweep of the three-game series against Detroit.
Well, so much for those preseason World Series aspirations -- it just might be time to declare the Tigers dead. In the Central race, Detroit and its $138 million payroll are now closer to the division cellar than they are to first. The squad's Wild Card chances, already looking bleak given the logjam of teams ahead of them, took a big hit, as well, as Boston's sweep of Oakland left the Tigers 8.5 back with 51 games to play.
Brett Favre:
Just go away, Brett.
Yankee Review:
At the end of the day, a 2-2 split against the loaded Angels is about all you could ask for as a Yankee fan, particularly after the way the weekend started off. Andy Pettitte, who has always been prone to the occasional dud performance throughout his career (see 2001 World Series, Game 6), picked the wrong time for one Thursday night, yielding 9 earned runs in 5.1 innings. It was a particularly ill-timed performance on Pettitte's part given some of the pitching matchups for the remainder of the weekend (Ponson-Santana, Rasner-Lackey).
As it turned out, the Yankees would actually get an outstanding performance from Sidney Ponson the following evening (7 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs). But the two most befuddling aspects of their season -- their frequent ineptitude on offense and Mariano Rivera's inability to pitch in non-save situations -- reared their ugly heads in a downright frustrating 1-0 loss. As a result, the Yanks got none of the benefits out of a good Ponson start (a victory) and all of the detriments (he earns another start).
Things began to turn in the Yankees' favor, however, when Mike Mussina perfectly played the role of stopper Saturday afternoon, allowing just 2 hits over 7 innings. Couple that performance with the outstanding play of the much-maligned Yankee bench -- Wilson Betemit had a game-tying two-run home run and Jose Molina went 3-3 with 3 runs scored -- and it shaped up to be a nice bounceback, feel-good effort from the Bombers. And in Sunday's series finale, while they did receive a big assist from the Angels in the form of 9 unearned runs, the Yanks still showed some fortitude in overcoming a 5-0 lead against John Lackey and a 9-8 deficit against Scott Shields to win a wild 14-9 affair.
The weekend left the Bombers with an 11-5 mark since the All-Star break; ironically, the only team to have taken a series from the them in that period was the Orioles, also the only sub-.500 team they've played since the break. It's a promising sign as the Yanks head onto a taxing part of their schedule that has them on the road for 16 of the next 19 games.
