Every year more than dozen new baseball books hit the shelf at this time of the year. If you only have time to read one, then let me suggest Ron Darling’s new book entitled “The Complete Game”. The book is a wonderful look into the life of a major league pitcher. Darling includes his own trials and tribulations as well as his triumphs and accomplishments. One of the things...
Read MoreDoes four games provide you with enough data to start spotting trends? Probably not, but I’m going to do it anyway. Here are two very disturbing trends… Pitchers Not Going Deep 1. Johan Santana – 5.2 innings pitched 2, Mike Pelfrey – 5.0 innings pitched 3. Oliver Perez – 4.1 innings pitched 4. John Maine – 5.0 innings pitched 5. Bullpen – 14.2 innings...
Read MoreAfter watching the game last night against the Florida Marlins one could say that the ending was a 2008 re-run. John Maine pitched 5.0 innings, allowing 2 hits, both of which were solo home-runs. He didn’t walk anyone and pitched a total of 83 pitches. After Maine left the 5th inning Bobby Parnell and Sean Green allowed a run each in their respective innings. Watching the game and...
Read MoreA Page Out of 2008 And a bad one at that. Yes, we battled back, and that was great to see, but we should have won this game, not lost 5-4 after coming back twice. We lost because we left 14 men on base, and because every time we needed the big pitching performance from the pen they let us down. Some non-linear thoughts on why we failed tonight: Mainey pitched really well with the exception of a...
Read MoreBuffalo 0, Pawtucket 9 Dillon Gee was absolutely on cruise control through 4, having allowed just 2 hits, striking out 5, but the roof caved in on him during the 5th inning, he allowed 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs in the inning, not even finishing it. Jon Switzer came in and was highly ineffective, allowing 5 runs in the 6th inning, only 1 was earned, due to a Jose Coronado error. Elmer Dessens...
Read MoreThe 4-0 Marlins beat the Mets 5-4 with a walk off hit in the ninth inning by Jorge Cantu off reliever Darren O’Day. You’re not going to win many games when you leave 14 runners on base, and that’s exactly what the Mets did. Maine started and other than letting up two solo homers to Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla, he had a good outing allowing just those two hits and a walk in...
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