There's a time when a fight suddenly turns serious, going from taunting and shoving to outright fisticuffs. That point is where the Padres find themselves as they begin a three-game series at Colorado that will bring the first half of the 2010 major league baseball season to a close.
The Padres head to Denver after salvaging a win in DC with another Mat Latos gem. However, it has become apparent that Latos is the one stopper they have in a pitching rotation that is otherwise showing signs of fraying following poor starts by Jon Garland and Clayton Richard. Who knows if Kevin Correia's gem against Houston is the start of a trend or just his monthly quality start? Making things more worrisome is that management, for good reason, plans to limit Latos' work in the second half. Should they continue with such plans in the middle of a pennant race? Yes, they're all but obligated to for long-term reasons. But the plan is still a bit scary.
The Rockies are ready for a tumble. They have won eight of their last 10 games and took two of three from the Padres at Petco. You probably read about their amazing comebacks against the Cardinals. Those are the types of games they won during second-half runs the past few seasons. If they're getting into the same mode, watch out.
The series will begin with the Padres ahead by three games. Look at it as the last 30 seconds of a college basketball first half. Your team is leading the entire 19-plus minutes, then the opponents hit a three at the buzzer to tie it up at the break. What a letdown -- and what a pick-me-up for the other team. If the Rox sweep the Friars in Coors Field, it will be a tough All-Star break for the good guys.
The Rockies have gotten their shoves in, made their slurs against the wife and added a spit or two. They also have help lingering in the shadows in the form of the Dodgers. Time for the Padres to start fighting.
---
I'm re-thinking my position on the Jake Peavy trade.
My original thought was you don't trade a true #1 starter for prospects, because the #1 starter is really all you have to build around, and there are fewer of them than there are major league teams. My opinion solidified in the ensuing months as only Richard, of the four pitchers received, showed himself to be a major league contributor. This point hasn't changed, and I see Richard only as a middle-of-the-rotation guy even now (his record is 6-4, but the Friars are just 8-9 in the games he's started).
What has changed is my opinion of Peavy. He was damaged goods when sent to Chicago, another gimpy hurler unloaded on an unsuspecting sucker by former GM Kevin Towers. At least the Padres got for him someone capable of taking the mound every five days. Peavy was DL'd this week with a detached muscle in his shoulder. I'd never wish ill will on this solid person, but better it happen to the White Sox than the Padres. He actually pitched fairly well this season despite a high ERA. He had a pair of three-game winning streaks and was throwing deep into ballgames. But I'm getting a feeling that his injury problems are chronic. Sad for him and the fans who have good memories of his triumphs in San Diego, too bad for the White Sox.
---
The "Stephen Strasburg to the All-Star Game" push was a joke. The game is already tarnished with commercialism. Honestly, despite his struggles of the past week, Luke Gregerson deserves the trip to Anaheim next week over Heath Bell, but the Padres closer is a recognizable name-brand. Bell sells, so he's going and the kid no one north of Highway 76 knows about will rest his tiring arm. The Strasburg thing was all sensationalism.
In fact, I can think of three tender-young pitchers with local connections who deserved to make the team more than Strasburg. Start with Latos of the Padres, who won his 10th game Thursday and has been nearly unhittable the past two months. Then try Mike Leake (Fallbrook High), who is 6-1, 3.38 to help the Reds to the top of the NL Central and go to Trevor Cahill (Vista High), who is 8-3, 3.17 and will be in Anaheim. Since coming off the DL at the end of April, Oakland has won 10 of Cahill's 14 starts. Alas, he is slated to start Sunday and almost certainly will not actually play in the Mid-summer Classic.
What I and so many other people love about Strasburg is the solid head on his shoulders. He seemed to be bewildered about all the All-Star hype himself.
Showing posts with label mike leake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mike leake. Show all posts
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Torrealba's Truth, Leake, Utah
You've got to love a guy who speaks his mind, even when he knows it might cost him in the long run. Yorvit Torrealba is such a man.
After the Padres catcher was suspended for three games for inadvertently making contact with plate umpire Larry Vanover with the bill of his cap on Monday, he went off on the terrible state of officiating at major league baseball games this season.
Torrealba said Vanover was unfair and inconsistent with his strike zone, that umpires are baiting players and that this year has been by far the worst.
"This is the worst umpiring I've ever seen."
"I've never seen the umpiring so inconsistent."
"There is no strike zone. They make us swing at everything. No one knows what the strike zone is anymore." He went on to say that's the reason why hitters are struggling so much this season.
"I know there are some good umpires, but there are a lot of really, really bad umpires."
Torrealba is appealing his penalty and is wise enough to note that his comments might get his suspension increased, not lessened.
The thing is, he's right. You know. I don't have to go into detail. The blown call at first base that cost Tigers P Andres Galarraga a perfect game was only the tip of the iceberg. I watched a game on TV in April which was the worst home plate umpiring I've ever seen -- aside from an NL playoff game years ago -- confirmed by the pitch tracker graphic on the screen. Things apparently haven't improved since then.
---
That NL playoff game? A 1-0 shutout thrown by Cardinals P John Tudor against the Giants in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. Tudor, a junk artist, consistently threw the ball six inches outside all game long, and plate ump Bob Engel kept calling them strikes. Engel three years later was caught shoplifting baseball cards from two stores in Bakersfield and retired after pleading guilty.
---
Memo to Reds P Mike Leake, entitled: Get With the Program
Mike:
Congratulations on your fine start to your major league baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds. Like other San Diegans involved in America's pastime, we like to see the local kids do well. The Fallbrook HS community has a lot to be proud of.
However,
you don't go around beating everyone else and then losing to the Dodgers. Especially in a game in which LA might take over first place. Your job in such a situation is to beat them. Your six-inning, nine-hit, five-run performance came up rather short in that regard.
Let me make myself clear. You beat the Dodgers from now on. Understand?
Thank you and good luck the rest of the season.
Jim
---
In my view, San Diego State's relative position in the spectrum of collegiate athletics has slightly improved in the past 10 days or so of conference reorganization in which the Mountain West gained Boise State but lost Utah. Until the Pacific-10 invited the Utes to become its 12th member, the Aztecs appeared well on their way to being part of a BCS conference with the Broncos becoming the 10th MWC member. Now they're almost back to where they started, with slight improvements.
1. Boise puts the MWC slightly closer to BCS AQ status than what Utah provided.
2. Boise was successful in overwhelming the WAC year-in and year-out. What happens when the Broncos join in 2011 and finish second? And then come in third in 2012? Does the bloom come off this year's possible Rose Bowl? Utah was in a pretty dominant position as one of the MWC's Big Three. Boise will start at such a level but whether coach Chris Peterson can sustain that success in new digs, like Utah would have, is questionable.
3. Utah is always a threat in mens and womens basketball, while Boise State is not. One easier game for Steve Fisher and Beth Burns. The Broncos men were 15-17 last season with a 5-11 WAC mark that placed them second-to-last. Records the preceding three seasons were 19-13 and 9-7, the high-water mark of 25-7 and 12-4, and 17-14 and 8-8. One good season in four years. The women were 19-12 and 8-8 last season but did have a pair of 20-win seasons recently. Still, they're no Utah.
The next two reasons are potentially huge.
4. I'm not sure the Big 12 can deliver on the TV contract promises that enticed Texas and its loyal followers to remain with the conference. Kansas, K-State and Missouri are possibly in play again a couple of years down the line and you only need three teams to hit the magic 12 mark for a conference championship game. Plus, the Pac-10's quick trigger finger on Utah means if the Big 12 does collapse, there's one more attractive school available for the MWC to snag. That means BCS.
5. Call me crazy on this one but hear (read) me out. The invitation to Utah puts San Diego State a step closer to the decades-long dream of Pac-8 -10 -11 -12 membership. The conference leadership now has no qualms of inviting Mountain West schools to join. A lot of conferences have been talking expansion in order to cash in on the Big Ten model of cable television channel ownership, so getting TV markets is critical. The Pac-10 will probably go down the same route. However, can they really do such a thing with two giant holes in their so-called conference footprint? San Diego and Las Vegas are two of the larger TV markets in the country. Sure, both markets do well in watching Pac-10 football, but they don't really own the market with the hometown schools in another league. Intriguing. Here's to hoping coach Brady Hoke can return the Aztecs to competitiveness quickly.
After the Padres catcher was suspended for three games for inadvertently making contact with plate umpire Larry Vanover with the bill of his cap on Monday, he went off on the terrible state of officiating at major league baseball games this season.
Torrealba said Vanover was unfair and inconsistent with his strike zone, that umpires are baiting players and that this year has been by far the worst.
"This is the worst umpiring I've ever seen."
"I've never seen the umpiring so inconsistent."
"There is no strike zone. They make us swing at everything. No one knows what the strike zone is anymore." He went on to say that's the reason why hitters are struggling so much this season.
"I know there are some good umpires, but there are a lot of really, really bad umpires."
Torrealba is appealing his penalty and is wise enough to note that his comments might get his suspension increased, not lessened.
The thing is, he's right. You know. I don't have to go into detail. The blown call at first base that cost Tigers P Andres Galarraga a perfect game was only the tip of the iceberg. I watched a game on TV in April which was the worst home plate umpiring I've ever seen -- aside from an NL playoff game years ago -- confirmed by the pitch tracker graphic on the screen. Things apparently haven't improved since then.
---
That NL playoff game? A 1-0 shutout thrown by Cardinals P John Tudor against the Giants in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. Tudor, a junk artist, consistently threw the ball six inches outside all game long, and plate ump Bob Engel kept calling them strikes. Engel three years later was caught shoplifting baseball cards from two stores in Bakersfield and retired after pleading guilty.
---
Memo to Reds P Mike Leake, entitled: Get With the Program
Mike:
Congratulations on your fine start to your major league baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds. Like other San Diegans involved in America's pastime, we like to see the local kids do well. The Fallbrook HS community has a lot to be proud of.
However,
you don't go around beating everyone else and then losing to the Dodgers. Especially in a game in which LA might take over first place. Your job in such a situation is to beat them. Your six-inning, nine-hit, five-run performance came up rather short in that regard.
Let me make myself clear. You beat the Dodgers from now on. Understand?
Thank you and good luck the rest of the season.
Jim
---
In my view, San Diego State's relative position in the spectrum of collegiate athletics has slightly improved in the past 10 days or so of conference reorganization in which the Mountain West gained Boise State but lost Utah. Until the Pacific-10 invited the Utes to become its 12th member, the Aztecs appeared well on their way to being part of a BCS conference with the Broncos becoming the 10th MWC member. Now they're almost back to where they started, with slight improvements.
1. Boise puts the MWC slightly closer to BCS AQ status than what Utah provided.
2. Boise was successful in overwhelming the WAC year-in and year-out. What happens when the Broncos join in 2011 and finish second? And then come in third in 2012? Does the bloom come off this year's possible Rose Bowl? Utah was in a pretty dominant position as one of the MWC's Big Three. Boise will start at such a level but whether coach Chris Peterson can sustain that success in new digs, like Utah would have, is questionable.
3. Utah is always a threat in mens and womens basketball, while Boise State is not. One easier game for Steve Fisher and Beth Burns. The Broncos men were 15-17 last season with a 5-11 WAC mark that placed them second-to-last. Records the preceding three seasons were 19-13 and 9-7, the high-water mark of 25-7 and 12-4, and 17-14 and 8-8. One good season in four years. The women were 19-12 and 8-8 last season but did have a pair of 20-win seasons recently. Still, they're no Utah.
The next two reasons are potentially huge.
4. I'm not sure the Big 12 can deliver on the TV contract promises that enticed Texas and its loyal followers to remain with the conference. Kansas, K-State and Missouri are possibly in play again a couple of years down the line and you only need three teams to hit the magic 12 mark for a conference championship game. Plus, the Pac-10's quick trigger finger on Utah means if the Big 12 does collapse, there's one more attractive school available for the MWC to snag. That means BCS.
5. Call me crazy on this one but hear (read) me out. The invitation to Utah puts San Diego State a step closer to the decades-long dream of Pac-8 -10 -11 -12 membership. The conference leadership now has no qualms of inviting Mountain West schools to join. A lot of conferences have been talking expansion in order to cash in on the Big Ten model of cable television channel ownership, so getting TV markets is critical. The Pac-10 will probably go down the same route. However, can they really do such a thing with two giant holes in their so-called conference footprint? San Diego and Las Vegas are two of the larger TV markets in the country. Sure, both markets do well in watching Pac-10 football, but they don't really own the market with the hometown schools in another league. Intriguing. Here's to hoping coach Brady Hoke can return the Aztecs to competitiveness quickly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)