All Entries Tagged With: "Central"

Tigers Still looking for Bats

As the All-Star break draws near, many teams around the league are looking for upgrades. Your Motor City Kitties are no exception. The Tigers need for a another bat has been well chronicled, and many names have been tossed around the blogosphere. Unfortunately, the Tigers failed to pounce on the one name that I would have liked them to target; Eric Hinske.

On Tuesday June 30, the Pirates made…

The Cardinals, On The Run and the Number 6

In Cardinal Nation, we know that six is a serious number.  The local On The Run Mobile gas stations have had a promotion the past few years that, if the Cardinals scored six runs or more in a game, the next day fountain drinks, coffee, etc. was only a quarter at their stores.  This year, they’ve taken it to new heights with a commercial that, for better or for worse, has been…

The Pendulum Continues To Swing in St. Louis

Joe Morgan would have put the Cardinals on his bad list in June, because they’ve been pretty inconsistent during the month.  A pitching staff that is lit up against the Rockies early in the month settles down to some better pitched games, with hiccups along the way.  An offense maligned as inept is able to put up four double digit scores in 10 games.  What, exactly, are the Cardinals, besides…

Royals Showcase Textbook Bad Baseball

When I last reported on the Royals, the team was sitting just one game out of first place in the American League Central with a respectable 20-18 record.   Sure, Kansas City had dropped seven of their last nine games to get to that mark, but all was still well in the land of blue.   My, my, my, what a difference a month makes.

Over the last twenty-seven games, the Royals have lost…

Why The Trade Deadline May Be Disappointing For Tigers Fans

With just about six weeks remaining until the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline the Detroit Tigers find themselves in first place in the AL Central, albeit with some gaping holes in their roster. Through ineffectiveness or injury the Tigers are struggling to fill the bottom two spots in the starting rotation, are platooning various youngsters in the outfield with mixed results and have little flexibility in the bullpen.

Quality left-handed pitching seems to be lacking, to…

Ryan Hanigan: From Rollins College to the Cincinnati Reds

When the Rollins College baseball team hosted the Cincinnati Reds for a spring training exhibition in 2001, no one could have anticipated that one of the Tars would some day be living the big-league dream as a key member of the Reds. But fast-forward ahead eight years and sure enough in 2009 former Rollins standout Ryan Hanigan is making a huge impact behind the plate for the resurgent Reds.

Hanigan’s road to the majors…

Detroit Tigers June Splits

Every season is a different season, however there are trends in baseball. So today we’ll take a look at the career split stats for the current group of Detroit Tigers for the month of June and see at least on some level, what we might expect.

Let’s start with the hitters. As you would expect Magglio Ordonez and Placido Polanco lead the pack in most categories, as they have the most at-bats…

Reds at 50 (well, 48)

The Reds sit at 26-22 on the last day of May, just 2.5 games out of first place.  This should be a familiar record for the Reds this season.  With their brand of strong starting pitching, team speed, and improved defense, this team will be between three and seven games over .500 for most of the season.  The big question will be how they handle the pressure of September.  Trading…

The Cubs Are Slumping and on the DL

Over the course of a 162 game season, even the best teams have slumps. Particularly in this era of relatively balanced competition even the perennial division winners – teams like the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Angels – run into rough stretches. But the 2009 Chicago Cubs are currently enduring a slump that even the worst teams have to avoid staring directly at. The Cubs current play makes me wonder not when…

The Cardinals Flip Flop in May

I don’t watch horror or suspense movies. I’m not big on being scared or losing control of bodily functions. So I can’t say that this season for St. Louis has been like one of those movies from personal experience, but knowing the general formula for a movie of that type, the analogy seems to fit.

After a promising April, which saw the Cardinals sit at 16-7 and…

Dontrelle Willis Needed This!

He needed to step onto that mound at Comerica Park and feel the evening sun shine upon him, the clouds in retreat, the swirling winds at bay. He needed to kick his right leg high into the air and bring his left arm across his body in perfect plane as the baseball left his fingertips with a sizzle. He needed this, and so did we.

Once upon a time Dontrelle Wayne…

The Royals Become Relevant

Unless you are a Kansas City Royals fan or a really, really huge baseball fan in general, chances are you have not given the Royals much thought since about 1994. Even during the 2003 campaign, when Kansas City won sixteen of their first nineteen games and hung in the race until late August, they were not so much relevant as the Royals were simply a team ‘that was due to come…

Indians After Two Months = Disappointing

While the Cleveland Indians are currently on a winning streak at the time of this writing, it is the first time in nearly a month that they have won at least two games in a row. Even though there were no huge expectations coming into this season like there were in 2008 when many, including ESPN’s Buster Olney, picked them to go to the World Series at the beginning of the…

White Sox Reflections 1 ½ Months In

Manager Ozzie Guillen

I’ll let Paul Konerko and Ozzie Guillen sum up the White Sox season (15-18) through the halfway point in May.

“We stink.” – Guillen

“We’re just not good right now, that’s it.” – Konerko

That pretty much sums it up, but let’s take a look at why the Sox are struggling so much.

Offense

The offense has struggled mightily thus far, ranking them near the bottom in the AL in many

categories.

Runs Scored – 14^th (Last)

Batting Average – 13^th

OBP…

Brewers Solid Through 32 Games

At 18-14, and having won 16 of their last 21 games, the Milwaukee Brewers are quickly making their fans forget about their 3-8 start and have them thinking more about a return trip to the post-season.

Brewers Ace Yovani Gallardo

While it shouldn’t be overlooked that this team is 11-12 against teams above .500 and is 5-0 against Pittsburgh, the schedule is not their problem. What was considered a problem in the off-season…

Why I’m high on this Tigers team

Before the season, I wrote that these Tigers would be a bit of a mystery. We didn’t know what to expect. Unlike the “experts,” I didn’t expect the worst. But other than that, I had no idea what we’d see out of the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Well — and knowing full well the dangers in trying to extrapolate too much out of two weeks of baseball — I’ve come to my…

The White Sox at Week 2

We are 2 weeks into the season and I find the White Sox right where I expected them: hanging around and in the mix. Power bats are getting them their runs, and their pitching staff has done a good job. In the AL, only Seattle has allowed less runs than the Sox.

For the Sox on offense, it’s all about the long ball. 4 regulars have slugging percentages over .500:

• Carlos Quentin, .814
• Jermaine…

The Cardinals: Two Weeks in April

While it’s not been the Dickensonian “best of times, worst of times” for the St. Louis Cardinals so far this season, 2009 has already had plenty of high points and low points in the first two weeks.  The Cardinals sit in a virtual tie for first with the hated Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, but have lost two of three going into what became a two-day break due to a Sunday…

Reds Looking for Results in 2009

After spending the last few years rebuilding their minor league system, the Cincinnati Reds are ready to reap some of the rewards for their efforts in 2009.

Though Cincinnati has not posted a winning record since the 2000 season, there is a renewed sense of optimism in 2009 that the decade of disappointment may finally be over.

While early season performance is rarely an accurate measurement for how a team will perform over…

Ahhh, the Astros

Coming off a year in which almost the entire team was overhauled and still were one big hurricane away from carrying a playoff chase into the final days of the season, the Astros were the first team this off-season to plead economic downturn, and it showed. GM Ed Wade, under orders from legendarily hands-on owner Drayton McLane, trimmed a projected 2009 payroll from $120 million to just over $100 million…

The Comings and Goings in Cleveland

Indians Place Dellucci on DL; Recall Crowe from Columbus

With just one week until they open up against the Rangers in Texas, the Cleveland Indians tweaked their opening day roster once again to make sure that it is just right. Their basic moves are that they placed outfielder David Dellucci on the 15-day disabled list where he will be until the middle of April. To fill his spot on the roster, the…

Indians Continue Making Moves

Starting pitcher Aaron Laffey became the most recent Cleveland Indians to be given the news that he wasn’t going to start the season with the big league club when he was optioned to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. At the beginning of camp, many thought that Laffey would be on the roster when the team headed to Cleveland, but he will at least start the year in AAA. The left hander…

Indians Send Some Big Names to Columbus

It’s that time of the year again, when fringe players are told whether they are going to be sent down or they get to stay with the team. On Tuesday, the Cleveland Indians optioned pitcher Jeremy Sowers and catcher Wyatt Toregas to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. The Tribe also assigned many players to the minor league camp. Included in those players are pitchers Greg Aquino and Kirk Saarloos, outfielders Michael Brantley and…

Stadium Review: PNC Park Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates

Even though the Pittsburgh Pirates carry a history that goes back to 1887, they are often forgotten in historical conversations about baseball these days, perhaps because they haven’t really done anything of consequence in decades. This may be the reason, then that their immaculately built stadium seems to be overlooked when discussions about the great modern parks around baseball occur. When compared to most parks built in the last 20 years,…