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Saturday June 24th, 2006
12:01amCWS Championship Weekend
I didn't fall off the face of the earth....I simply fell asleep. For whatever reason Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday night I fell sound asleep on the couch while I was watching games. I'm sure it's a combination of the heat, & me not getting my usual 8 hours/night but still I've never fallen asleep watching baseball on consecutive nights before.
Rice's offense was just flat out non-existent this week....and Oregon State's pitching was excellent. #1-overall seed, Clemson, got bounced before I had a chance to catch one of their ballgames. UNC's pitching carried them straight into the finals where they will match up against Oregon State. The Tar Heels have not lost a ballgame since post-season play started and they stand at a considerable advantage against OSU for the simple fact that they're rested.
You see North Carolina has only needed to play 3 games thus far in Omaha so they've still got their pitching rotation in order and well rested for game one this afternoon. Oregon State on the other hand needed 5 games to get to the championship so they're already on their #3's second start. OSU's #2 guy Jonah Nickerson (who was incredible against Rice) has already thrown twice this week (Monday & Thursday) and shouldered 223 pitches over that 4 day time span. That's crazy.
The best of 3 series kicks off this evening (6pm ESPN) and continues Sunday (6pm ESPN2) and then Monday (6pm ESPN) if necessary. It should be fairly exciting series.
Also on my docket today, besides mowing the yard, is Mark Prior's second start (6pm WGN). Thank goodness for picture-in-picture, right?
We just missed seeing a Prior v. Johan Santana match up as Johan threw yesterday (we also just missed a Santana v. Roger Clemens on Thursday night in Rocket's 1st start of the year).
I promise to get a synopsis of the MLB draft up in some form or fashion....I've been saying that for 3 weeks now, haven't I?
Monday June 19th, 2006
12:019amPrior Gets Shelled
Well, that didn't go well.
Prior gave up 6 runs in a drizzly first inning, including 3 HRs. He struggled locating any of his pitches except his 4-seam fastball, which the Tigers were just sitting on like an elephant.
He threw 39 pitches in what was his worst 1st inning of his career. He was able to get the 8-hole hitter to ground out for the second out then he struck out a very disinterested Kenny Rogers, who was already sitting on a 6-0 lead.
In the second inning he K'ed the leadoff hitter with a couple of really good looking curve balls, then got the 2-hole hitter to ground out to SS, and then hit a batter on a 0-2 count. He got the 4-hole guy to fly out harmlessly to RF. It was as if a different pitcher stepped out onto the rubber. He continued to throw very well until the 4th inning when he gave up 2 out, 2 run HR. That was the last pitch he threw (his 88th of the day).
What made me mad was that he was booed as he walked off the field. Some people are just idiots. This game was essentially like his 5th spring training start of the year.
Roberto Novoa came into the ballgame and was just as bad as Prior giving up 4 long balls himself in 3.1 innings. He really sucks. I just can't get over how much he looks like LaTroy Hawkins out there on the mound. Oh yeah, he gave up a double to Kenny Rogers which was Rogers first career extra base hit....and btw, he's over 40 years old.
There is another Cubs related topic that worries me....Matt Murton. I love the guy but I don't think I've ever seen anyone hit so many dribblers to infielders. I haven't seen many Cubs games in the last month or so but what I have seen I can't remember seeing him hit anything but a squibber to the SS, 2B, or pitcher.
Clearly, something is not right with his swing. You might remember me commenting about him in my Opening Day Notes:
Well that has gone completely to the wayside.In his 52 game big league career he is hitting .331/.396/.545 in 145 ABs. If you extrapolate out his AB/HR ratio over a full 550 AB season he would have 30 HRsAB BA OBP SLG AB/HR G1-G52 145 .331 .396 .545 18.13 G52-G114 200 .255 .324 .345 66.67It is certainly somewhat alarming. I don't know if the league has figured out the book on him and he's struggling to make changes or if there is something wrong with his swing....or maybe both. I just can't imagine someone who has hit at such a high level at every career stop he's made, including the ML level last year, not able to make adjustments.
Sunday June 18th, 2006
11:15amPrior Makes His First Start of 2006
I mentioned it briefly earlier but I wanted to get into a little more detail for you.
Prior in his AAA start last weekPrior missed all of spring training and the first 2 1/2 months of this season as a result of a strained subscapularis muscle in the right shoulder (which is part of the muscle group in the rotator cuff). He started rehabbing at the end of May and has finally reached the point where he feels comfortable stepping back into a big league rotation.
Prior's Rehab Starts Date Team Class IP H R ER SO/BB HR G/F PC-S GSc 5/29 Peoria A 2.0 4 3 2 3/1 1 0/3 44-28 40 6/03 Peoria A 5.0 3 1 1 5/0 0 2/1 59-43 62 6/08 WTenn AA 5.0 4 3 3 4/2 1 1/9 76- 49 6/13 Iowa AAA 6.1 4 1 0 10/0 0 5/4 90-63 72He will be on a 90 pitch limit because he is slowly building back his stamina since he did not go through all of spring training.
Not only is this game big because of Prior but we are on the verge of being swept by the Tigers. Yep, the Tigers.
Game time is 1:20pm on WGN
Go Cubs!
1:29amOmaha Update Round 1
I got to catch most of the UNC-CSFU game on Friday night and all of the Rice-UGA game on Saturday. Both were fairly fun to watch. I didn't see any of the Clemson-GT game or, thankfully, the 11-1 blowout Miami put on Oregon St. I was actually fairly surprised to see that OSU got thwarted in that one.
UNC-CSFU was supposed to be a pitching match up from heaven with Andrew Miller going against Wes Roemer but neither pitcher threw very well and it turned into a crazy 13 inning affair.
I'll fast forward through most of it to get to the interesting stuff....
It's the 11th inning and the ballgame is tied at 5. CSFU has runners at first and third with only one out and are in a great position to take the lead....but the runner gets picked off at third base! It looked like it was going to be a squeeze but the pitcher threw over to third base on a whim and bam....2 outs runner at first. The kid at the plate then strikes out but the ball goes to the backstop and he is safe at first while the runner from first gets all the way to third. UNC then intentionally walked the next hitter to load the bases and they ended up getting out of the inning completely unscathed.
FIVE runners reached base, not one by way of a hit, and NO runs scored. It was craziness.
The Rice-UGA game was a fun one. However, the strike zone was a joke....it was about the size of a tuna can. Eddie Degerman walked EIGHT guys and UGA's starter, Brooks Brown walked three.
Even with the tiny strike zone Degerman managed to strikeout 9 batters and took a no-hitter into 6th innings. He was relieved after giving up an RBI single (which broke up the no-hitter) because his pitch count was quite high, which is to be expected when you walk 8 and strike out 9.
Joe Savery after scoring in the 4th inningThe real story of the day was my boy, Joe Savery. He had 3 singles including the eventual game winner, a 2-R single in the seventh, to help the Owls match Georgia's 4 run 7th. He also walked once and scored twice.
Joe has gotten red hot at the right time....I present his last 17 games....
AB R H RBI SO/BB ========================== 5/13 UH 5 1 2 1 1/0 HR 5/14 UH 4 1 3 5 0/0 2B, HR 5/16 LSU 4 0 1 0 1/1 5/18 MARS 5 4 2 1 0/2 2B 5/19 MARS 2 2 1 0 0/4 2B 5/20 MARS 4 2 1 0 0/1 CUSA TOURNAMENT 5/24 UAB 2 3 1 0 1/2 TOTALS: 17 G 5/25 SMiss 5 0 2 0 2/0 .426 BA 5/27 MEM 4 1 2 3 0/1 .561 OBP 5/28 UH 4 3 1 2 1/1 HR .704 SLG 24 Runs REGIONALS 20 RBIs 6/02 PV 2 2 2 0 0/2 5 HRs 6/04 BU 4 0 1 2 1/0 SF, SB 6/05 BU 3 1 1 0 1/1 SUPER REGIONALS 6/10 OU 3 0 0 0 1/2 6/11 OU 4 1 2 1 1/0 HR 6/12 OU 3 1 1 3 0/2 HR COLLEGE WORLD SERIES 6/17 UGA 3 2 3 2 0/1Since the NCAA tournament started he is hitting .454/.582/.727 in 22 at-bats. It is safe to say that at the moment he is en fuego.
Tomorrow I'll be flipping back and forth between the 1pm CSFU-GT game and the Cubs game....because Mark Prior will be making his season debut on the mound for my Cubbies.