serpigination, 8-17-2003
i started off writing about the braves game, but i inevitably change the channel when a commercial comes, and get involved in another game. so i figured i would let my prose infect whatever game was on.

arizona at atlanta

i still love to watch greg maddux pitch. he should do well against this team, because they're contact hitters. control pitchers do better against contact hitters and power pitchers do better against power hitters.

fick made schilling throw 11 pitches.

alex escobar hit his first double. is he any good? if so, the indians are gonna be mashing in a small number of years, like 1.

year  team         lea age   ab   wal   con   pow   pra

2003  Buffalo      AAA  24  439  .052  .697  .355  4.13

2001  Norfolk      AAA  22  397  .081  .632  .346  3.33

2000  Binghamton    AA  21  437  .115  .739  .347  4.99

1998  Capital City   A  19  416  .115  .680  .376  5.57

i wonder if he met the capital city goofball. . . .

he showed promise in 2000 in AA, but had a difficult next year in AAA. that'll happen; it's nothing to base any conclusions on. unfortunately, he tore up his knee in spring 2002, so we still don't know anything. according to rotoworld, the indians don't expect him to be at full speed until 2004, so we'll have to wait until about this time next year to get an accurate read on where he is. by that point, he'll be 25. that's old for a prospect, but if he re-forms the body he had in 2000, he'll have a shot at a nice peak. he's a long way away, though.

so no mashing yet, but it's gonna be them and maybe the royals in 2005.

lots of good pitching matchups today:

                 ab  bb    k  hr   wal   con   pow   pra

maddux,greg     517  28  100  21  .062  .807  .345  5.23

schilling,curt  381  26  146  10  .071  .617  .334  2.70

eaton,adam      410  51  114  14  .122  .722  .340  4.53

beckett,josh    280  37   99   6  .119  .646  .320  2.91

mussina,mike    510  31  160  17  .059  .686  .342  3.57

lopez,rodrigo   310  30   71  13  .112  .771  .351  5.62

zito,barry      536  68  108  18  .120  .799  .333  5.08

halladay,roy    605  26  147  21  .050  .757  .338  4.12

but the fuckin bastards won't show me zito-halladay!

ponson is pitching. that's kind of interesting. against ohka

ohka,tomo       442  41   85  20  .098  .808  .353  6.17

ponson,sidney   511  50  111  11  .096  .783  .312  3.58

joe kennedy is pitching for the rays. against jake westbrook.

kennedy,joe     323  36   61  15  .117  .811  .355  6.58

westbrook,jake  301  42   41   8  .147  .864  .317  5.18

that one's pretty brutal.

juan pierre just scored.

schilling has faced 9 batters through 2.2 innings and struck out 5.

furcal grounded to second. 5 out of 10.

steve finley is 38, but he can still hit.

year  team       lg age   ab   wal   con   pow   pra

2003  Arizona    NL  38  387  .100  .827  .340  5.67

2002  Arizona    NL  37  505  .114  .855  .337  6.08

2001  Arizona    NL  36  495  .087  .865  .325  5.06

2000  Arizona    NL  35  539  .108  .839  .352  6.77

1999  Arizona    NL  34  590  .096  .841  .353  6.68

1998  San Diego  NL  33  619  .068  .834  .328  4.69

1997  San Diego  NL  32  560  .071  .836  .339  5.42

1996  San Diego  NL  31  655  .079  .866  .347  6.49

1995  San Diego  NL  30  562  .095  .890  .312  4.65

1994  Houston    NL  29  373  .070  .861  .323  4.71

1993  Houston    NL  28  545  .049  .881  .308  3.90

1992  Houston    NL  27  607  .087  .896  .312  4.62

1991  Houston    NL  26  596  .066  .891  .313  4.44

1990  Baltimore  AL  25  464  .065  .886  .298  3.53

1989  Baltimore  AL  24  217  .065  .862  .296  3.19

1988  Rochester AAA  23  456  .058  .879  .308  3.98

1987  Newark      A  22  222  .090  .892  .315  4.80

always a contact/speed guy, he had a late power peak in 1999--2000. he'll hit for a few more years. actually, that power has a lot to do with park. san diego is about as tough as it gets these days, and the astrodome was a deathzone to hitters.

wow. with luis gonzalez on second, alex cintron singled to center. andruw jones fielded and threw in a single windmill-like motion, nailing gonzalez at the plate. blanco made a good catch.

new york at baltimore

happy birthday jorge posada! he's 32.

year  team           lg age   ab   wal   con   pow   pra

2003  New York       AL  31  370  .172  .765  .349  6.12

2002  New York       AL  30  511  .137  .720  .355  5.39

2001  New York       AL  29  484  .114  .727  .348  4.87

2000  New York       AL  28  505  .175  .701  .366  6.15

1999  New York       AL  27  379  .123  .760  .330  4.50

1998  New York       AL  26  358  .116  .743  .350  5.25

1997  New York       AL  25  188  .138  .824  .330  5.46

1996  Columbus      AAA  24  354  .182  .757  .343  5.80

1995  Columbus      AAA  23  368  .128  .726  .351  5.16

1994  Columbus      AAA  22  313  .093  .741  .332  4.09

1993  Prince Williams A  21  410  .140  .780  .345  5.78

1992  Greenville      A  20  339  .146  .743  .347  5.41

1991  Oneonta         A  19  217  .190  .774  .313  4.37

still at the height of his powers.

posada grounded to first.

the braves announcers were praising shea hillenbrand for going back on a fly, but alex cintron would have gotten it easily. he saw shea coming and stayed out of the way.

schilling threw 9 pitches in the fourth, all strikes. the 6th one was the fly ball to hillenbrand, by gary sheffield.

san diego at florida

pierre is on first again. he reached the bag before ryan klesko could recover from a muffed ground ball.

the yankees have 12 games left against baltimore this season. and the red sox play oakland seattle toronto. oh well.

josh beckett is mowing down padres. he struck out the side in the second.

cintron went yard on maddux.

andruw jones struck out to end the 7th. that's 12 for schilling.

these guys work fast: 7 innings in 1 hour 45 minutes.

rick reed is getting his ass handed to him by the royals. ibanez and randa homered back to back.

maddux finished the top of the 8th in five minutes.

schilling has developed some sort of pain. . . . the braves are a pain in the leg!

hideo nomo struck out sammy sosa. that'll happen a lot with those 2.

schilling got javy lopez (ph for blanco), but it went to the wall. he's hobbling around. matt franco hit a liner to right.

he shouldn't be pitching.

miguel cabrera blooped a double to the wall. i'm not kidding. it was low and outside, and he reached down and plunked it, to the wall in right center. that kid is strong.

kent mercker is pitching.

cintron hit a double, his 15th, on a low inside pitch.

barajas knocked him in. so much for that game.

danny bautista is pinch-hitting for schilling.

ch: because he's hurt and shouldn't throw any more god damn pitches!

beckett's still blanking the padres. they've gone 5.

kansas city at minnesota

shannon stewart took darrell may deep.

ok furcal v. matt mantei to start the 9th.

                   ab   wal   con   pow   pra     pav/pob/psl

furcal,rafael     514  .087  .887  .323  5.16  .286/.348/.435

mantei,matt       118  .085  .568  .337  2.46  .191/.260/.314

furcal v mantei (proj) .077  .782  .332  4.32  .260/.317/.416

furcal struck out.

giles has a 3-0 count. walk.

sheffield is up. 'bout to extend his hitting streak. single to right. giles to third. giles totally busted his ass all over third base.

chipper. strikeout. slider.

andruw took a strike. then flailed at 2 sliders. that's a golden sombrero super for andruw.

this is the lineup that just got blanked:

                 ab   wal   con   pow   pra

furcal,rafael   514  .087  .887  .323  5.23

giles,marcus    430  .108  .860  .347  6.80

sheffield,gary  439  .149  .907  .351  8.46

jones,chipper   425  .145  .840  .338  6.24

jones,andruw    451  .098  .787  .353  5.85

fick,robert     318  .094  .890  .331  5.94

derosa,mark     176  .083  .790  .319  3.86

blanco,henry    119  .063  .874  .304  3.70

ponson is blanking the expos through 8 1/3, but he just walked orlando cabrera to load the bases. that's it for him.

miguel cabrera hits against joe roa. strikeout. josh beckett has only thrown 75 pitches through 6 innings. it's shutout day!

it's now mays v. may in the twins-royals game. sorry, that's the most interesting thing i can write about that game.

this kid sosa of the devil rays is throwing 98. repeatedly.

alfonso soriano overslid the bag on a steal and was tagged out by brian roberts.

beckett threw a curve ball that broke so hard it bounced out of play. wild pitch.

the announcers are listing off beckett's career numbers. all are good.

year  team        lg age   ab   wal   con   pow   pra

2003  Florida     NL  23  304  .114  .648  .316  2.74

2002  Florida     NL  22  323  .120  .650  .361  4.52

2001  Florida     NL  21   72  .133  .667  .362  4.93

2001  Portland    AA  21  223  .079  .543  .367  3.01

2001  Brevard Co   A  21  197  .071  .487  .273  0.72

2000  Kane Co      A  20  178  .078  .657  .322  2.72

god bless america is playing on multiple channels.

danys baez dropped a surprise curve ball on marlon anderson for a called third strike.

javier valentin is jose's little brother!

wilkerson beat the giants with a grand slam in the ninth. so much for the shutout.

but mussina is shutting out the orioles through 6 2/3.

that's even more impressive because he ain't got no defense behind him.

mussina finished the 7th with his 8th strikeout.

juan pierre is up against mike matthews.

column over. burritos are here.

tying up loose ends . . . shannon stewart struck out with 2 on in the 7th.

posada walked with the bases loaded in the 8th.

beckett tired out in the 8th. rondell white ended the shutout with a double. he finished the 8th and showered. final line: 8 ip 8 k 2 w 0 hr. the marlins won 11-7 after a wild 9th.

mussina finished his shutout. he struck out 9 and walked 0.

the yankees dropped todd zeile today. it's about time.

nomo and gagne shutout the cubs.

gagne ended a streak of 34 consecutive outs on batters faced. here's a fun gagne stat: k/baserunners = 105/43 = 2.44.

chip caray should shut his mouth while gagne is pitching. there's no need to say anything.
- posted by julien @ 9:52 AM