Archives › Matthew Pouliot
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Sure he’s a two-time All-Star, but maybe Brandon Phillips is feeling a little anonymous in Cincinnati. He certainly increased his profile Saturday as the Reds beat the Giants 5-2 in Game 1 of the NLDS. Let’s run through the highlights: – Phillips opened the scoring in the third with a two-run homer off Matt Cain.…
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The A’s set out to make Justin Verlander work in Game 1 and were partly successful, boosting his pitch count early on. Verlander improved as the outing went on, but those early pitches resulted in his departure after seven, and once the A’s got into the bullpen, they came up just a couple of feet…
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The Indians’ move to hire Terry Francona looks like a coup. Getting a two-time World Series-winning manager to come to Cleveland and take over a team that hasn’t finished over .500 in five years makes for quite the turn of events. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if it does any good. Francona…
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A workhorse submariner who often pitched a couple or three innings at a time, Darren O’Day had a 2.78 ERA in his final three seasons at the University of Florida. And it’s not like he went unnoticed while amassing a 0.87 ERA in 10 1/3 innings before the Gators lost in the finals of the…
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Josh Hamilton, Ron Washington draw blame for the Rangers’ early exit
Oct 6, 2012, 12:12 AM EDT
I maintain that the Rangers are baseball’s most talented team. That they’re done after one wild card game falls mostly on the shoulders of Josh Hamilton and the shortcomings of manager Ron Washington. Hamilton’s struggles are well chronicled. In the Rangers’ final nine games — seven of which proved to be losses — he went…
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Surprisingly enough, Sam Holbrook did talk to the media Friday after his infield-fly rule call that caused the Braves to protest Friday night’s game against the Caridnals. Disappointingly, he defended his call, saying he’d make it again after viewing the replay. He also said that the other five umpires on the field all agreed with…
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The Cardinals won in Atlanta on Friday and will host the Nationals in the NLDS beginning Sunday despite the fact that… – they got outhit but the Braves 12-6 – they had just two extra-base hits to the Braves’ four – their hitters failed to draw even a single walk, while their pitchers gave up…
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MLB wasn’t going to leave the Nationals’ twisting in the wind while debating the Braves’ protest of Friday’s loss to the Cardinals. The league denied the protest within 20 minutes of the game ending. The decision is hardly surprising, and while the Braves will always feel ripped off by Sam Holbrook’s infield-fly call, their protest…
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Future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones just wrapped up one of the better final seasons in major league history, hitting .287/.377/.455 with 14 homers and 62 RBI at age 40. Unfortunately, the all-too-brief postseason wasn’t nearly as kind. Jones botched a double-play ball, contributing to a three-run fourth inning, and went 1-for-5 at the plate…
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As tempting as it is to blame Fredi Gonzalez for managing a winner-take-all game as if it were just another regular-season game or umpire Sam Holbrook for his brutal infield-fly call, the fact that the Braves lost to the Cardinals 6-3 on Friday can be chalked up to poor defense from a team that made…
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First and most obviously, Andrelton Simmons‘ pop to left field was too deep to be calling an infield-fly rule on. That wasn’t a routine play for Pete Kozma. It certainly wasn’t a ball any shortstop would have thought of dropping in an effort to get a double play. It wasn’t an infield fly. That said,…
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David Ross could have been retired twice in his second-inning at-bat against Kyle Lohse on Friday. Fortunately for him, he got a couple of breaks before turning a changeup into a two-run homer, giving the Braves an early 2-0 lead over the Cardinals. Lohse’s 1-1 pitch to Ross was a fastball popped up down the…
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Here are my picks for the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards for each league. Obviously, these are all for fun. I’m not a BBWAA member and do not have ballots for any of these awards. Feel free to flame away. AL MVP 1. Mike Trout 2. Miguel Cabrera 3. Robinson Cano 4.…
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The Charlotte, N.C. reporter who claimed Robinson Cano tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs last month issued an apology Monday on his twitter feed. Tordjman deleted the tweets that stated Cano was about to be suspended for 50 games by MLB. According to the New York Daily News, he’s made a contribution to the Robinson Cano…
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Dodgers liking Hanley Ramirez at shortstop, Luis Cruz at third
Oct 4, 2012, 11:48 PM EDT
When the Dodgers decided to put Hanley Ramirez back at shortstop upon acquiring from the Marlins, it had the looks of a temporary move, what with Dee Gordon set up as a long-term option at the position. However, as things stand now, the Dodgers are leaning towards leaving Ramirez at shortstop in 2013 and going…
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The Dodgers officially sent right-hander Rubby De La Rosa and first baseman-outfielder Jerry Sands to the Red Sox on Thursday, completing the August megadeal that saw Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto shipped to Los Angeles. The Red Sox negotiated for De La Rosa and Sands as part of the deal, but…
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While the Rangers downplayed the idea that anything happened between manager Ron Washington and center fielder Josh Hamilton in the dugout during Wednesday’s season finale, GM Jon Daniels admitted that his former MVP is struggling some at the moment. Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com has the quotes: “It’s easy to pick out one guy, but it’s…
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The Red Sox have a few options as they embark on the hunt for a new manager for the second straight offseason. – They can talk to the Blue Jays about a trade for John Farrell, their former pitching coach who left two years ago to manage in Toronto (I’m not a fan of this…
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With Bobby Valentine officially gone after months of being left dangling on the hook, the focus in Boston has immediately shifted to Blue Jays manager John Farrell. And I’m left to wonder why. Now, Farrell had a sterling reputation in five years as Boston’s pitching coach. But managing a team is a different animal. And…
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Horrible news tonight. A’s reliever Pat Neshek lost his baby son, named Gehrig John, one day after he was born. Neshek left the A’s on Tuesday to be with his wife, Stephanee, as she went into labor and wasn’t with the team as it celebrated its AL West title Wednesday. Stephanee later tweeted a picture…
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By OPS anyway. Adam Dunn and Curtis Granderson both entered Wednesday’s season finales with .800 OPSs. Dunn didn’t play and thus avoided overtaking Mark Reynolds for the single-season strikeout record (he had 222, Reynolds finished with 223 in 2009). Granderson did play and hit two more homers to finish with 43 homers and an .811…
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Thought to be done for the year, Lance Berkman made an appearance as a pinch-hitter in Wednesday’s Cardinals finale and grounded out to end the seventh inning. Berkman got a big ovation from the St. Louis crowd prior to the at-bat, which was his first since Sept. 7. He won’t be included on the Cardinals’…
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Sure, Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown. But that’s only because no one wanted to give Dan Johnson 550 at-bats. Johnson hit his first three homers of the season for the White Sox in a 9-0 win over the Indians on Wednesday. He took David Huff deep in the second and fifth innings and then…
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By losing 4-1 to the Rays, the Orioles settled things in the American League playoff picture this evening. The Yankees will face the wild card winner, either the Orioles or Rangers, in one ALDS and the A’s will get the Tigers in the other. The Orioles will travel to Texas to play a one-game playoff…
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Evan Longoria hit solo homers his first three times up against the Orioles before grounding out in his fourth and final at-bat in the Rays’ 4-1 victory Wednesday. Longoria entered with 14 homers in 73 games this season. He took Chris Tillman deep in the first and fourth innings tonight and then delivered again versus…
