Comments on: And That Happened: Sunday's Scores and Highlights

By: Utley's hair

Utley's hair — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:35:17 +0000

They’ve actually been eliminated for several years, but yesterday it became a mathematical formality.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:32:57 +0000

“I don’t see any method.”
Apocalypse Now

By: nps6724

nps6724 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:25:39 +0000

Wow, they were eliminated with a full month to play? That’s gotta suck.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:16:10 +0000

You can’t ignore all that has happened before. If you did and went on August records only the Yankees would be way down the list. My rankings just don’t work that way. Also: the O’s got eliminated yesterday. That’s gotta count for something.

By: Utley's hair

Utley's hair — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:14:13 +0000

The Friars see the Feesch’s three miscues and raise you one.
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And, speaking of high-school-type lines, Craig, where is the obligatory reference to Shane Victorino and his reaction to Hawaii in the LLWS title game?

By: John_Michael

John_Michael — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:13:31 +0000

The Buck Era should put the O’s into the Power Ranking teens. Maybe. But the methodology is pretty voodoo anyway, right?

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:47:14 +0000

There was nothing “lucky” about a comeback win against the Feesh boolpen and fielding mavens. A herd of musk oxen with dysentery couldn’t have stunk up a field as badly as the Feesh did yesterday afternoon. Three errors, three unearned runs, and a boolpen that imploded like a soap bubble in a singularity made a wonderful end-of-summer gift to the Bravos of a game Josh Johnson left after six innings of one unearned run ball leading 6-1. Those Braves hitters in the dugout who saw someone other than Josh come out to pitch the seventh had lean and hungry looks about them – hell, they looked like a bunch of kids waiting at Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth for those first big bowls of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy after skipping lunch. Will Ohman and Leo Nunez rewarded them handsomely by doing their best Kevin Gregg impersonations for two catastrophic innings.
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This was one of the most humiliating losses of this low-rent season for Scrooge McLoria’s K-Mart Kids, who with another loss tonight would be hugging the strange attractor for the twenty second time this season. This team may be mediocre, but at least it’s consistently mediocre.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:26:47 +0000

“Can’t wait to fire up my DVR and check out those couple of Stephen Strasburg starts I missed! That kid is fantastic!”

You forgot to add “Too soon?”

By: APBA Guy

APBA Guy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:34:45 +0000

A few pitching issues for Texas this weekend, as Daric Barton went deep twice, also Kouz. Even Mark Ellis launched one and Kurt “I’m Swingin’ At Everything” Suzuki was 6 for 11. Lots of chatter from the A’s announcers about how much work hittin’ coach (tribute to Texas talkin’) Skaalen has been working with the A’s offense. Colby Lewis just ran out of gas yesterday in the heat, whereas the much slimmer Hialeah Gio Gonzalez seemed ok with the temp and sun. If Texas is going to have pitchers who don’t break down in the heat they maybe should consider hot weather physiology. Big bodies struggle in the heat moreso than slimmer types.
Saturday night Braden threw about a thousand changeups and sweated his way to a shutout. People forget how hot it can be in the 209, where Dallas Braden comes from. Last week it was over 100 there three straight days. So he handled the, wait for it, 95 degree evening start whereas Rich Harden didn’t stick around long enough to feel the heat. Still, Nelson Cruz is back this week and maybe also Ian Kinsler. There’s no way Texas loses this thing.
The A’s take the kid pitchers to New York this week so we’ll get extended highlights on the World-wide leader. They also start both their righthanders after setting up their lefties to neutralize Josh Hamilton (6-9, HR-they neutralized everyone else). The Yankees are a powerful left handed batting team, so I expect some unpleasantness for the A’s staff. The White Rabbit has been one one of the luckiest BABIP pitchers in baseball this year. That kind of luck runs out sometime.

By: dlf

dlf — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:06:21 +0000

“…they’re considering taking out an equity loan on their asses and adding a deck”
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Seems like something that J.Lo should consider.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:11:13 +0000

As I said on Friday…Phillies fans could look at it as “WE SHOULD BE IN FIRST PLACE!!!” or “WE JUST SUCKED ASS FOR 4 GAMES AGAINST THE LOWLY ASTROS AND ONLY LOST 1/2 A GAME!!!” Now we picked up a game, the Braves are fading(lucky win yesterday), and by mid-September, the Phillies will be 5 up in the division.
Welcome back Craig…you were missed.

By: Megary

Megary — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:42:24 +0000

The Reds go up 5! And the Cardinals, um…Flounder! Great way to start the week, Craig.

By: Utley's hair

Utley's hair — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:13:43 +0000

Yup. The Phightins give it up to the Stros for the first four game broom fest in the Bank’s history. So what do they do for an encore? Head west to sweep the NL win leaders in their own house–though the Phils do own the Friars in the rectory (I think they’re 18-4 at Petco, but I might be a bit off).
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And after that BP prompted sweep of the now-red-hot Reds last month, the Cards are doing their best imitation of my Phils by giving it up to the cellar dwellers.
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Welcome back, Craig. You picked a hell of a week to play hooky, Craig.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:10:25 +0000

BTW Welcome back Craig. Missed the ATH.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:06:25 +0000

I’m thinking the Phills were just trying to even out their home record. It was wayyy too lopsided. You know, trying to get your inner Zen back into the yin and yang of things requires such sacrifices. Umm yeah… it’s ashame the Phills haven’t been able to take advantage of the Braves losses with Houston at home, ahhh well. I must admit these Braves are making us nervous with this much moxy late in the season. Reminds me of some other team from the same division and how they played the last few seasons. Ya know all those come from behind wins, and a pretty frequent enough offensive routs on some poor pitching staff from time to time…. Braves fans, regardless of the outcome of this season were treated to one heck of a season, and it’s turned out so far to be a very nice curtain call for Grumpy. The way it’s going now, the Braves can make it even better. One thing for sure, September ball is going to be quite exciting in the NL east. Again…..

By: Kiwicricket

Kiwicricket — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:04:36 +0000

As prompt as always Mr Calcaterra. Excellent.