Tazawa v. Burnett (David/Goliath)

Let's do a blind match up between these two pitchers:
Pitcher A- He has pitched 7 season with over 10 wins and flirting with 20 in one. A playoff veteran that no longer comprehends the concept of pressure.

Pitcher B- A 23 year old righty, thrown into a rotation in desperate need of a solid number 3 and got taken deep, as a relief pitcher, to lose his first outing in a major league uniform.

Got the connection yet?? Good, now let's cut to the chase... he's currently shutting out the juggernauts known as the New York Yankees. While his counterpart, Burnett is getting knocked around like a drunk Phillies fan in a parking lot (too soon?). 7 earned, 6 hits through 2. Don't get me wrong the kid is getting hit pretty hard, several off the monster, but he's getting out of sticky situations. His splitter is falling off the table and his curveball just made A-Rod buckle at the knees and bail out of the box in two consecutive pitches. Both dropped in for strikes. And just K'ed him on a pitch that bent from his eyes to his knees...unbelievable. 4 nasty curves in a row.

As for Goliath? There's a reason why a multi-million dollar stud is looking this bad. Me thinks Jorge Posada and him aren't clicking in the way a pitcher and catcher should. In Burnett's last outing he and Posada had a slight disagreement, that led to him balking in a run and losing 3-0. This is looking very similar to that, he's checking runners that A: Don't need to be checked and B: Are on second base and have stolen third only 2 or 3 times in their career. Needless to say his missing spots and hanging his breaking stuff, so maybe the Sox will try to get their revenge from last night's pummeling.

Tomorrow's probables: Beckett v. Sabathia on ESPN primetime. Should be a goody.

EXTRA NOTE: My man, pots and pans, the Mayor AKA Sean Casey has faith in his boys.

Hiatus

I just got back from a week long trip to visit my sister, brother-in-law and nephew in the UK, that is without a computer or internet access. That's my excuse, not the typical laziness problem. Apparently I missed out on a boat-load of news in the world of sports. Here's a little recap of what I missed/you should have seen in the past week and my reaction...

•Michael Vick signs with the Philadelphia Eagles: Donvan didn't seems too thrilled about this transaction, but he said he knew it was going to happen in a recent press conference. In my opinion let's just leave the guy alone and let him play football. His incident was off not football-related he served his punishment (for the most part) and now he's ready to get on the field, get off his back. Well he's not going to be seeing much playing time...unless it's lined up in receiver slot. Could be interesting.

•Tiger's gone timid: I really despise superstar athletes and Tiger is no exception here, he's childish, he complains and he's hotheaded. Tiger was in the lead at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational after three rounds, then shits the bed and ends up losing to some Japanse guy Y.E. Yang. Good, great, grand, wonderful.

•Stephen Strasburg is finally a National: That does it, I've lost all faith in the Washington Nationals. They folded like a fat guy in a lawn chair under the pressure of Scott Boras and have set a record for a rookie contract. $15.1 mill guaranteed over 4 years, absurd. Don't get me wrong I think this will be great for the franchise hopefully bringing them out of the dumps and the kid is something special. But the kid has never faced a major league hitter, let's just see what happens in his minors stint.

•Brett Favre is going to Minnesota: Whoopee. WCCO-TV of Minnesota reports he's on a plane now to St. Paul, so he can miss more of preseason and all of training camp, the bum. Couldn't care less.

•Usain Bolt breaks World Record: OK, I might have to rescind my prior hatred for superstar athletes because I absolutely love this kid and love to watch him run (in the completely heterosexual manner). Bolt ran the 100 in 9.58 seconds and just spanked the rest of the field, link to video. Maybe it's because he dominated in Bejing and had enough time to slap his chest before crossing the finish line. If you don't remember this cost him the record, he claims, "People have said to me 9.60 but I can't really comment. I wasn't worried about the world record. I didn't know it was a record until I finished my victory lap. My one aim was to be Olympic champion." Nuff said, he's the man, let's just pray he's clean.

Update from work

*Note: Not an image from today's game*

Today I'm doing a day game, pretty much a regular Sunday for me. Marlins are in Philly, it's the corpse versus the hot handed Josh Johnson (10-2 with a sub-3 era) and something strange occurred in the top of the 7th innning. Wes Helms was batting, after a close pitch was called a ball, Ed Rapuano, the home plate umpire, called time and proceeded to eject Shane Victorino all the way out in center field. Now one thing that really annoys me is arguing balls and strikes. It's one thing id the umpire is inconsistent, but there are players that complain at EVERY PITCH, its absurd. I'm getting off topic, so besides how much I loathe the Phillies and Philly fans I really dislike Shane Victorino. There are actually few player on that roster I like, but it was great to see Victorino come sprinting in then , in attempt to get to Rapuano shoved his own teammate, catcher Paul Balko. This ejection is completely unruly and should be reviewed by the Umpires Association. But it was great to see 40,000 plus Phillies fans bitch about their all-star center fielder.

Fantasy Impact: Expect Victorino to be suspend for a game of two.
Real Baseball Impact: Werth filled in for Victorino and booted a single with the bases loaded, allowing 3 runs to score. Turning what should have been one run to three, blowing the doors off this game. Put it in the books Philly, clean sweep. And now are 4 games out in the NL East.

All Hands on Deck!

Training camp is finally here, that means the baseball season is over the July hump of unimportant games and the standings actually mean something. This means we can talk about actual football and not Favre or T.O. or Vick. THANK GOD. Today the Colts, Seahawks, Giants and Panthers all checked into to their respective camps and are getting things rolling. Lets see what going on around camps that are of interest:

- To start let's check the status of the first-rounders and their contracts. Looks like Matthew Stafford getting paid his money, but is it worth starting him over Dante Culpepper? Honestly, I think the Lions shoudl get at least one win under their belt before they go about putting all the pressure on the young QB out of Georgia. Matt Ryan, handled the pressure extremely well and pulled the Falcons into the playoffs. But the pressure of an unheard of 0-16 season may be a little bit too much. So I say bench him until at least one W.

-In more Quarterback news, looks like new head coach Eric Mangini intends on picking one starting QB and sticking with him. Noooo way, so it won't switch week-to-week! Well whether it's going to be Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn, they'll still look like shit with their new uniforms.

- Beanie Wells is injured. This seems to be a common trait with the rookie out of Ohio State. Thats not all of the news out of Cardinals training camp because, oh wait, he just agreed to a 5 year deal. Why does Ohio State produce players that are expected to be so great and just ride the pine due to injury? Greg Oden anybody? I watched this kid play a lot last year, as much as I could handle watching Ohio State struggle with their QB issues. And he is something special, but 30 TDs, over 3,000 yards in three years....oh yeah and no fumbles. Wow, that is pretty impressive. The Cards are going to need him, with the release of Edgerrin James and Tim Hightower as their number one.

A sad day on the homefront

This is not sports-related at all, but a tragic weekend in the Miller-Roberts household. On Wednesday, Dax, our family's cat for 13 years died. I remember picking him up from the pound roughly 13 years ago along with Larry, our other cat (whole other story). Dax put up with a lot of shit from our family, which definitely made him last for so long. This cat was a trooper, he survived a fall onto our spiked fence where he literally was gutted. After the surgery and getting stitched back up, we never got around to removing the stitches removed (thanks to the vet charging a ridiculous amount for the procedure). Dax did amazing things, he ran through his nine lives and then some. Surviving a week on his own, killing squirrels and neighborhood cats that crossed his path and finally diabetes.

This may seem like we treated this cat like garbage, I don't mean for it to sound like that at all. in fact the opposite. My mother treated Dax like an angel, even if he was acting like a whiny punk. Clawing her and begging for food all the time, even with a full dish of food. Hopping into her lap while she was making food. She paid attention to him and loved him. My father, a whole different story, which we won't get into.

Dax was an amazing cat and will be sincerely missed.

RIP

Not such a huge bang

The one weekend I decide to take for myself, is of course the biggest day for MLB during the "down months." This day I ofically deemed the "Hunt for Blue Doc-tober," in light of the Roy Halladay banter (Yes, I know I'm a huge loser). Anyways, thanks to ESPN text message update alerts, it was like I never left my computer lets run over some of the winners and losers of the 2009 MLB trade deadline frenzy.

WINNERS:

Boston Red Sox- Either they have some criminal master mind in the front office calling all the shots or Theo Epstein is the best thing for the team since...well ever . Trading away several young prospects, mainly Justin Masterson (who will, mark my words, be an 18 game winner with time). But in return they picked up Victor Martinez, an important gap is filled with a big bat in the middle of the line-up and a catcher that can throw the ball to second without me cringing every time I watch. Also the Sox picked up Casey Kotchman for Adam LaRoche, straight up. I mean they are pretty much interchangeable hitters, but a drastic improvement in the field, not that I see the mighty Casey starting anytime soon, with the plethora of first basemen the Sox have on their roster.

Chicago White Sox- Wow, Peavy?? Pretty nice, lets just set up his locker and get his jersey ready...oh wait, he's injured?!? What the hell San Diego?! You told me he's good to go for a start next week!! This, of course, is an imaginary conversation that Sox GM Ken Williams has with the Padres. But this is actually huge for the Sox, they need that end of the season boost if they are going to hang with the Red hot Tigers into the fall.

Philadelphia Phillies- Cliff Lee's resurgence from last year has been remarkable, from pitching in AAA ball all they way to 20 wins and a Cy Young. But the real story now is how is going to survive in the NL East? The Phillies fought hard for Halladay but in the end didn't want to give up too much potential for possibly another World Series. Seems kind of silly no? Well they held to their young talent and got a Cy Young winner, who will most likely propel them deep into the Fall. This is especially true if Pedro Martinez comes back strong and if he keeps pitching well in his rehab assignment. Nice job Philly.

Florida Marlins- I'm really going out on a limb here in putting my faith into Nick Johnson, who I despise, but respect in a sense. He is an amazingly patient hitter and sees a ton of pitches and he is having a career season, on pace to hit more than 10 more RBIs and is flirting with batting .300. "OK," you may say, "He seems like a pretty mediocre player, why all the love?" Well I call this the Nationals effect, anyone who can put up big numbers on such a crappy team gets my respect (I put Ryan Zimmerman way up on my third basemen list for this reason). This trade may work out real well for the Marlin or just may crash and burn.

LOSER(S):

Cleveland Indians- If you've read the winners you'll understand why I don't have to justify this.

Pittsburgh Pirates- I mean cooooooome ooooonnnnn. First off, you are on pace to have the longest string of losing seasons, 17. Not just in baseball, mind you, but in all of sports. Then you go off and trade the potential face of the franchise, Nate McLouth, for prospects. Then you think "Ok we can build up from here." Then POOF it's gone in a heartbeat, all of it. Sanchez, Wilson, Morgan and list goes on and on. My theory on the Buccos: The antitrust laws and anti monopolization laws created in the late 19th century are reflected to sports as well, if you have two championship caliber sports teams, the other two have to be mediocre and if you only have one other it has to be the laughing stock of the league. But hey, thanks for J Bay.