Random Baseball Related (mostly) Thoughts #1

As a Cubs fan, I find it somewhat encouraging that as poorly as they have played, they are only 4 games out of first at present time.

Ryan Dempster appears to be completely back. I’m sorry I panicked.

Carlos Pena should sit against lefties, $10 mil. be damned (Jeff Baker should get these starts, and be sprinkled in wherever else we can get him in).

Tyler Colvin either needs to play or get sent down to Iowa. A platoon with Soriano wouldn’t be a terrible idea, or trade Byrd and slide Fukadome and Johnson to CF.

Justin Verlander might be the best pitcher in the majors. I find it easy to imagine a Halladay type dominance if he were pitching in the NL, but with more K’s.

Matt Garza is a lot better than I gave him credit for.

Mike Fontenot’s splits are very odd(.400/.512/.882 vs lhp and .137/.228/.275 vs rhp), particularly considering he displayed no platoon split in the minors and a normal albeit it not all that pronounced one to date in the majors.. His 3 year averages coming into this year were .241/.292/.345 vs lhp and .272/.341/.425 vs rhp. He has been an abysmal pinch hitter this season, which probably slants his rhp numbers downward. If we take his 0 for 12 in pinch hit appearances out of the mix his overall line of .206/.304/.426 becomes .250/.421/.518 and his line vs rhp becomes .179/.289/.359, which still isn’t great, but one assumes given his career numbers that he should see a bump in production vs rhp, and his lhp always encompasses a smaller sample size, so while regression is expected, it could end up being useful. Just stop pinch hitting him (on a historical side note, he historically bats well hitting 6th or 8th but not nearly as well batting 7th).

Dan Haren is very good at pitching.

Andrew McCutchen has been fairly awful.

Derrek Lee seems done. I’ve always liked him, but he should probably hang it up.

Aramis Ramirez seems like little more than a right handed Todd Helton this year.

How about the Rays since that abysmal start? They have been tearing things up, and James Shields is someone I should have bought into more.

I am not buying the Indians at all.

Who thought the Twins would be this terrible?

Jose Bautista is definitely legit.

Much as I would like it to be the case, I am not sold on Darwin Barney as a .300 hitter.

I never realized how infrequently Robinson Cano walks.

People I expect to see decline significantly: Ryan Howard, Lance Berkman, Michael Young, Todd Helton

People I expect to see pick it up: David Wright, Justin Upton, Jayson Werth, Aubrey Huff

Jair Jurrjens is the era leader?

King Felix and CC Sabathia are people I always thought were not as good as their perceptions would have suggested (especially Sabathia).

I would rather have C.J. Wilson than Sabathia and I would rather have Haren than Felix.

People I expect to see decline significantly, pitching edition: Franscisco Cordero (His whip is 1.08 at the moment, and I think it will be closer to 2 than that number when all is said and done), Fausto Carmona, Justin Masterson, Zach Britton, A.J. Burnett

People I expect to see pick it up, pitching edition: Ryan Dempster (Cheating here, he has already started to), John Danks, Jordan Zimmerman, Ted Lilly

AL Cy Young Predictions: 1st: Justin Verlander, 2nd: Dan Haren, 3rd: James Shields

NL Cy Young Predictions: 1st: Jamie Garcia, 2nd: Tim Lincecum, 3rd: Roy Halladay

AL MVP predictions: 1st: Jose Bautista, 2nd: Ben Zobrist, 3rd: Miguel Cabrerra

NL MVP predictions: 1st: Joey Votto, 2nd: Matt Kemp, 3rd: Ryan Braun

Go Mavs. Let’s get a title.

Ron Paul is running for president again. Does anybody care?

I hate blue dog Democrats.

I like the Daily Show, but let’s stop it with the segments where Jon Stewart raps.

I am really liking Sports Show with Norm Macdonald. Check it out, it’s hilarious.

I would very much like to see Mike Quade get fired. He is a terrible manager, and the Cubs deserve better.

I haven’t talked about Osama’s death, and I am going to keep this short, but while I am glad he’s not going to be planning any other attacks, it’s hard not to be ambivalent when I see people mindlessly cheer death under any circumstances. Seriously? Chanting USA? Let’s react to such things in a thoughtful manner, also let’s stop calling it justice. It’s revenge. It would be justice if it brought back all of the people who were needlessly slaughtered, but it doesn’t.

Sharp aged cheddars are just fantastic.

Thanks for reading. Peace out.

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