6/23 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Red Sox,
Scouting Youkilis, Northcrafts No-No

Keep it Up, Delgado The Braves won their third in a row behind a stellar outing from Jair Jurrjens on Friday, beating the Red Sox 4-1. I’m not afraid to admit I didn’t see it coming, and neither did 99.99% of the universe. Randall Delgado will look to make it four straight wins as he [...]

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Saturday Rockpile: Wow. 2012 Has Come To Praising
A 6.0 IP, 4ER Outing. It's Really Over.

I didn't hate watching Friday night's loss to the Texas Ranger. For one reason, they're the best in baseball, and it's cool to see a team that you're rooting for until the World Series play your team, regardless of the outcome. I think.

I feel like Roy Oswalt has passed the "Prime" of his career and entered the "Appreciation" point, where you want to go watch him pitch because you don't know if you'll continue having chances to.

Josh Hamilton is continuing to impress baseball fans across leagues, and the better his season, the more intense the intrigue.

For the more bitter fans, you can watch Mike Napoli hit baseballs a long way.

And Yorvit Torrealba. I just miss his face.

Honestly, coming into this series, there's no doubt in my mind that Colorado's going to lose, and potentially get swept. It's not meant to be an overly cynical view of the team, but seriously, it's come so far that I never have that gut feeling of "we could win this game!" I come these days to watch opposing stars and watch our own rotation develop.

I made a tweet last night about how Friedrich looked good despite the 4 runs. Despite 4 runs. It really wasn't that long ago when a 7IP, 2ER outing would get that kind of a comment. Not quite a perfect game, but hey, it was a solid outing. This rotation is so epically bad, our last 2 starts were both over 5IP, and I was ready to pop champagne.

This is the kind of season that can break the backs of the fanbase. Todd Helton's numbers are still painfully skewed away from his trademark AVG/OBP numbers, and one has to wonder if he's going to fade away rather than burn out. Troy Tulowitzki, the team's marquee player in Denver, might be back for September. Players who were traded away for young pitching are having at least competent seasons while the Rockies rotation is celebrating when a pitcher isn't posting an ERA above 9 for a start.

I know, I get it. It's a growing season. A rebuild season. A developmental season. But it's really weird to go back to being a team that looks epically bad, but then get dismissed in a forgiving way: "The Rockies are having a rebuilding year". I mean, this team IS the 2004 Rockies, except the 2012 Rockies are on exact pace to experience their first 100 game season in franchise history. I thought we were past that. This was supposed to be a perennial contender.

I feel like I've just discovered that this "kind of" rebuild is pretty much a full one outside of Tulo, Cargo, and Cuddyer (whose acquisition makes less sense at this point, but hey, hindsight!), and letting Todd Helton play out his sunset seasons in front of the Coors Faithful.

A bit melodramatic for a Saturday, I know, but I guess something about Friday's loss really got into my head. I'm sure brighter days are ahead, but the growing pains are making it harder to enjoy the ride.

Todd Helton: Do Not Retire Just Yet | FanGraphs Baseball

A nice statistical look at Todd Helton's perplexing season, combining super low batting average and really strong power numbers, and how he historically compares to other elite-level players in their declining years.

For Colorado Rockies, no minor-league promotions on the horizon - The Denver Post

Superb.

Rosario learning on the fly, faring quite well | ColoradoRockies.com: News

What do you think the odds are that Rosario gets a strong amount of attention for Rookie of the Year? He's having a pretty ballin' year, but big names like Harper and Cozart are hard to pass up.

Sarah's Take: Rockies struggle with young pitchers | MLB.com: News

Sarah Tells it "Like It Is"!

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Subway Series Shows Steroid Damage is Deep

I left yesterday for a bit of a road trip.  While listening to WFAN, I heard caller after caller[...]

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Mets Flippin' The Bird!

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Fish Cap: Marlins 5, Blue Jays 12

Source: FanGraphs

Attendance: 22,387
Hero of the Game (Largest WPA): There were no heroes on this day.
Goat of the Game (Lowest WPA): Anibal Sanchez (3.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 SO, -0.283 WPA)
Play of the Game: Jose Bautista singled to right, scoring Brett Lawrie (0.089 WPA for the Blue Jays)

The Marlins returned home bruised and battered after a tough series against the Red Sox, only to find Miami no more hospitable than Boston. The Blue Jays opened up the game early, scoring six runs in the first four innings. The Marlins threatened to compete by scoring a pair of runs, but the game turned into a complete blowout when Ryan Webb threw the worst inning of his major league career.

It was a terrible night for Anibal Sanchez, who continues to struggle mightily in the month of June. Sanchez hasn't had a truly effective outing since facing the Nationals on May 29th. Sanchez has struggled with control, allowing more base-runners than he should. At the very least, he has pitched through six innings in each of his previous June starts. Tonight, Sanchez couldn't survive the fourth, issuing a bases loaded walk to Jose Bautista.

via www.brooksbaseball.net

Sanchez struggled to locate his pitches, walking four batters on the evening. All of his off-speed pitches were particularly problematic. Of 21 sliders Sanchez threw, only 12 were thrown for strikes.

As bad as Sanchez's problems sound, he didn't appear awful at the beginning. He allowed a lead-off triple to Brett Lawrie in the first inning, but then proceeded to retire the next five batters in a row. It wasn't until the third inning that Sanchez seemed to truly struggle. He allowed three more singles and walk, which eventually resulted in two additional runs.

Everything fell apart in the fourth inning, beginning with a single by pitcher Ricky Romero. Brett Lawrie once again reached base on a single. Then Sanchez did the unthinkable and issued two consecutive walks. That was the final straw for manager Ozzie Guillen, who replaced Sanchez with Chad Gaudin. Gaudin performed his innings eater role admirably, pitching an inning and two-thirds of scoreless baseball. Then he was replaced with Ryan Web.

Ryan Webb Crashes, Burns

Ryan Webb has been a steady presence in an otherwise struggling Marlins bullpen. He has a solid 119 ERA+ in 31.1 innings so far this year. Webb is not much of a strikeout pitcher, but he minimizes walks enough to be an effective bullpen arm. He wasn't the same pitcher tonight, however. Webb dashed the team's chances at getting back into the game when he allowed five runs in the sixth inning.

Webb began the inning by walking Brett Lawrie, who is apparently unstoppable. Colby Rasmus did Webb a huge favor by flying out on the first pitch, but Jose Bautista was more patient and drew another walk. Webb then hit Edwin Encarnacion with a pitch, loading the bases. The runners were all driven in on a Kelly Johnson single, a Yunel Escobar sacrifice fly, a Rajai Davis single, and a J.P. Arencibia. Not exactly Murderers' Row.

Marlins Score Not Enough Runs

This home game against the Blue Jays had a remarkably similar tone to the Boston series. While the pitching staff has imploded on the mound, the offense has looked remarkably alive. Giancarlo Stanton, Omar Infante, and Gaby Sanchez each hit home runs tonight, helping to continue the streak of five run games. I am hopeful that the offense will carry this success moving forward. If the bats can maintain some level of consistency and the pitching returns to where it has been, the Marlins move forward in a positive direction.

It's still only June.

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UP FOR GRABS Rickey Henderson 2004 Donruss
Classics

Rickey Henderson 2004 Donruss Classics Another of the many cards that I recently bought ‘On The Blind’.  And this one, while it looks much better than some of the others that I scooped up, just doesn’t do it for me. … Continue reading →

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Read: Gumbs is raw but promising prospect

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The Yankee Beat: prospect interviews, Logan, and
Granderson

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June 23, 2012

June 23, 1963 - In celebration of hitting his 100th career home run, Mets center fielder Jimmy[...]

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http://blog.lovemyteam.com/2012/06/23/june-23-2012/

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Trout caps Angels comeback with go-ahead homer
(Yahoo! Sports)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Rookie sensation Mike Trout has given the Los Angeles Angels everything they could have asked from a 20-year-old phenom – and more.

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