Why ESPN Sucks 2: The Sequel; Featuring ROYs Candidates.
Well, if you never read the first, “Why ESPN sucks” I talked about why ESPN and all its reporters, analysts, etc sucks.
Example one:
Today the Braves beat the Marlins. That means the Braves and Marlins have identical records, and… You know what? Just take a look for yourself…
MLB.com:
Yahoo Sports:
Fox Sports:
ESPN:
You if can’t tell, one of these sites posted the Marlins in second place (hint: Its the one that sucks).
Seriously ESPN? How petty is that?? No, not petty, pathetic, more pathetic than the Braves’ offense. Oh, and thats not fake, look it up (before the Marlins – Braves game on Sunday) though.
Example 2:
ESPN lied to me (and everyone else watching). They told me that I should stick around because Tommy Hanson would be there. What they should have said was, “Stick around, we’re going to show videos of Tommy Hanson and talk about his heavy balls.” They would have told the truth, and generate more viewers.
Example 3:
Jonathan Coachman. General rule of thumb. If it’s not good enough for the WWE, its not good enough for ESPN, or anything for that matter.
Example 4:
They’re need to please everyone. Apparently ESPN figured out that no one outside of the northeast cares about the BoSox-Yanks rivalry. What do they do? Enter Buck Showalter:
“Are you sick and tired of the BoSox Yankees series? We’ll I think they should not play so many games, we should limit the amount of games they play.”
Listen d**chebag, They are both ML baseball teams, and they play in the same divsion, they have to play games against eachother, what people don’t like is the obsession coverage by di**wholes like you.
Not to mention, ESPN only wants them to limit games so as not to oversaturated them. Doing that we’ll get more viewers (i.e. Superbowl vs. MLB World Series).
The American League ROY candidate and most likely winner is Gordon Beckham. Simply because he has no competition, like last years AL ROY winner.
Now the National League, thats different. I see three possible candidates: Randy Wells, Tommy Hanson, JA Happ. All pitchers.
Randy Wells –
Randy has been just dandy for the slumping Chicago Cubs. Having a turblelent begining of the season by going from the minors to the majors, bullpen to rotation, Randy proved he is the only consistant Cubs SP that doesn’t have temper tantrums, doesn’t get injuried by the stupidest thing, and doesn’t suck. How does the Cubs repay him? By giving him no run support. Thus for the 2009 campainge, he has posted a 9 – 6 record, 2.84 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and 74k’s. He should be somewhere around 12 – 3, but you don’t get a ROY award by what you should be.
J.A. Happ –
Happ also had to deal with call ups and send downs until things clicked for him. It was not as hard for Happ to get into the starting rotation than it was for Wells to. Phillies could not pitch, Happ finally could, boom. I have called Happ the “luckiest pitcher in baseball” because of his high strand rate and large amounts of run support. Happ has the most innings pitched than either of the other two. He Currently has the best winning percentage (one more win that Hanson). He has the lowest WHIP and ERA (1.17, 2.59). So why isn’t he largly considered the favorite…?
Tommy Hanson –
…Because of this man. Tommy’s stats may not be as good as Happ’s, but he has the one thing that really matters, hype. Hype is what won Soto the ROY last year, even though Jurrjens clearly deserved it. Tommy Hanson is also the reason Glavine doesn’t have a job, if your unfamilar with what I’m talking about, refer to this link. The AFL MVP award might as well be icing on the cake for Hanson. He is projected to be the #1 starter for the Braves next year. Tommy does have more than hype though, he leads both Randy and Happ in K/9, opposing batting average, and P/IP. Talk about Ace material.
Winner –
We’ll it depends, Wells can throw a perfect game, Happ can throw a no hitter, Hanson can “strike out his age.” Its to early to tell.
Congrats Warner Robins, GA Little League team! Best of luck to “y’all.”
Braves need a win tonight! Here’s to hoping Braves take the series!
Thats all for me folks!
AJC Still Reports On Frenchy; Francoeur Makes Words Come Out Of Hole – Double Whammy!!
This week Carrol Rogers called up the former Atlanta home town hero to hear how his life is going in NY. His answers may shock you, or not.
Francoeur
Jurrjens4NLCY
You know the game. But before I go into this, I’d like to say like I have nothing personal against Jeff, he is a nice guy and a devoted christian. However, this is my problem against him.
Moving on…
We got a nice little three-bedroom
apartment out in Long Island City, and [his wife, Catie] has done a good job
making it feel like home.
Thats good to hear. Seriously.
I feel great at the plate. I’ve worked on a few things that have helped a
little bit. Hitting in the fifth hole and being able to come up with some
guys with a chance to score has been nice.
Really?? Your going to play this card? Blaming others for your failures? My youngest cousin does the same thing… and he’s 9.
Every other article written seemed to be something negative. …
You don’t think its because of the bases loaded 1 out GIDP?
I wasn’t
holding up my part of the job. I’ll be the first to admit that,
That is good.
but at the
same time, there are other guys on the team, too.
Ah, the high road.
A lot of the media here asked me about playing in New York, and I said,
“This is going to sound weird, but I feel like I’m going to have less
pressure playing up here than I did in Atlanta.”
Why though? Seriously, its not like we said, “Stop sucking or we’ll murder you!” You had the support from every Braves fan to turn it around. That and time and support, Bobby gave you 2 1/2 years and the famous Bobby support. You hit yourself the hardest for going 0 – 4.
[On his return to Atlanta] There were going to be a couple
yelling boo, but the nice thing was I never left Atlanta on bad terms. It’s
not like I didn’t play hard. I played every day and did the best I could.
True. Very true.
For some reason it wasn’t working out.
*Slaps face with palm*
[After asked if the Braves lost confidence in him after demotion] Yeah. It was never the same after that. I’m sure I wasn’t giving them the
best reason to be [confident], but after that happened, it just was
different.
Really? You are the worst outfielder in MLB in the past 2 years and you have the balls to complain and say the Braves and Bobby Cox (who is ridiculed for over-confidence in players) lost faith in you?
Listen, I’m not going to go up
there and walk 70 times a year.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
So you can either accept me for the player I
am or go get somebody else.
Check.
I had two or three walks last week because I’m
taking what they’re giving me, but if it’s a 2-0 count, there’s a guy on
base and I can drive him in, I’m going to drive him in.
That’s funny because on a 2 – 0 count you only have 5 RBIs
[The Mets] are not there for my on-base percentage. It was great to hear
[manager] Jerry Manuel in a team meeting say, “I don’t care about average. I
care about scoring runs, driving in runs and preventing runs.”
Well that’s worked out wonderfully for the Mets and their 512 runs that they’ve scored (Thats 23rd in the Majors) (And there is only 30 teams in baseball).
[Brian McCann] talked about how I need to get back to what I used to do and that’s
attacking the fastball. If I swing at the slider low and away, so be it,
don’t let that fastball beat you.
Not “so be it.” When you swing at a pitch that ended up in the 1st base dugout, you can’t rationalize with “so be it.” Your not going to drive in many runs on wild pitches.
I am really tired, so I’ll stop it right here. Jeff, I wish you the best of luck, you’ll need it. Here is the full article. And if you have the 45 minutes, this is a good watch.
Dear Bobby Cox Haters,
I’m really sick of people complaining about Bobby Cox. Seriously! When is it going to stop? If anyone of you whiners knew anything about baseball, you would know that deciding when to take out a pitcher and when to leave him in is the hardest thing for a manager. They stress about this all the time, its what keeps Pinella, LaRussa, Cox, Torre, etc. up all night. Furthermore, I believe its wrong for people to critic (although thats putting it lightly, you people are b*tching) something, if they can not to better themselves.
Bobby’s uniqueness entails building up players’ confidence. Do you think taking a pitcher out as soon as he gets in a jam is going to bode well in the long run? No. That player is going to get pissed. You also CAN NOT overuse an already tired bullpen by taking out a pitcher to early. Managers judge whether to let a pitcher get through a jam based on how good his pitches are, not the result of his pitches. If 4 men in a row get 4 cheap singles in the 2 inning, are you going to take him out? Well, you should say no.
If you want to root for a manager that is the anti-Bobby, then become a White Soxs fan and stop making Braves fans look stupid.
I would also like to add that I really like the White Soxs and have nothing against them expect for Ozzie Guillen.
Thats all for me folks!
Braves Blow 4 Run Lead
Nothing new, what do you expect from Blain Boyer and Jeff Bennett?
Anyways, I’m sure you all know what happened.
Charlie Morton started today lasting only 2.0 innings because of another injury that has depleted the Braves’ rotation. By the 4th inning, the Braves took a 4 – 0 lead by a Mark Teixera grand slam off Mike Pelfrey. Bobby brought Blain Boyer in, and he gave up 4 earned runs to blow the lead, Bobby then had to use Jeff Bennett, so as not to overuse the bullpen. Then Jeff Bennett gave up 5 more runs, thus the Braves lost 9 – 4. Just another day in 2008.
Oh wait. Its not 2008, its 2009. There isn’t any Charlie Mortons, there are no injuries or gland slams or Boyers or Bennetts. There is only Derek Lowe, remember? Our ace. Anyways, he decided it would be fun to make things interesting by letting the Mets try the game, then the defence thought it would be hilarious to let the Mets get 4 more runs. Well they were right, it was one big joke.
8 runs in 1.0 inning?! from a AAA offense?!
I had to stop watching after the Braves failed to score in the 6th, I figured I give the offense one more chance.
Furthermore, Does Derek Lowe ever stop sweating?
Here is to hoping the Braves win the next two! Go Braves!
Thats all for me folks!
So Much To Write About, So Little Time
Umpires:
Sunday and Monday’s games featured some pretty interesting umpires. Sundays umpire was Hunter Wendelstedt, and the way he called strikeouts was pretty entertaining. He raised his right hand and leg at least 3ft. in the air. It looked like he was going to fall over. Mondays games was umpired by Dana DeMuth. He looked like he belonged in “The Matrix.” Not he wasn’t wearing a trench coat, but he called strikes like he was trying to stop bullets.
GA’S HBP:
Garret Anderson took a pitch that hit his… nipple. Now thats what I call the masochistic fetish way to get on. Whatever works for ya! (Ohh! Double entendre!)
Sundays Loss:
It was pretty bad. Bad because if we could have changed 2 pitches, we’d have won. But we didn’t. Vasquez had a pretty good outing, lots of strikeouts.
Mondays Win:
Very Good. Although this didn’t really feel like a game, almost felt like ST, weird. I think it was because of the low attendance and high scoring, don’t know. Max Scherzer is a very impressive young righty, fortunately so is Hanson.
Brian McCann’s Struggles:
PASS!
Well, nevermind. He needs to shape up or ship out of the cleanup spot. The only thing he cleans up is the opposing pitcher’s mess.
Mets Series:
These aren’t the Mets. No David Wright, Jose Reyes, Beltran, or Delgado, or Church. Their offense consists of Jeff Francouer. Seriously, no joke. We need to sweep, however we do face Santana, but we always fair well against Johan.
Go Braves!
Thats all for me folks!
Chipper’s Wish Fulfilled – Baseball Gods Gave Us One
Two years ago, during Christmas, I met Brad Lidge at a casino in Vegas. My family and I were having a little celebration and gift exchanging. I look over at the other table and there was Brad Lidge. Brad must have still been there since the Winter meetings. He looked lonely, so I invited him to join in. 5 minutes before the secret santa, I ran to the gift shop, and got Lidge a MGM Grand T-Shirt and a “Viva Los Vegas” snowglobe. He was surprised and embarrassed because he didn’t get me anything…. Until today.
Ok. Well that didn’t really happen, but Lidge did give Braves fans a huge gift; A win, in the bottom of the 9th.
I’ll be honest, I woke up at 6:00 Atlanta time, so I missed most of the game. I did see a couple of good plays. I was really impressed with Kenshin Kawa-Kick@ss nailing Ibanez at third. That definitly saved a run from scoring.
Chipper got his wish. The Baseball Gods delivered for the Braves tonight. If you missed him call upon the forces, you can see it here.
Nate McLouth re-aggravated his hamstring, something I called yesterday when I saw him run. Usually he runs always looking forward, with his elbows in a 90° angle, arms thrusting. Instead, he was looking back, and had on of his arms down to his side. Big problem.
MFIKY (Soriano) is apparently injured. I have a hard time believing all these Braves injures. They’re always minor thing. Kelly Johnson’s was definitely fake. He was out of options so FO put him on the DL and gave him “rehab assignments.” Kinda like sending him to AAA.
Just watched the highlights; Garret Anderson made a spectacular catch and Escobar made an even better attempt to get out of his way. Good play.
Here’s to hoping Nate and Raffy have a speedy recovery. Go Braves!!!
Thats all for me folks!
Win The Next 2 & Look For The Wild Card
The Atlanta Braves were victimized by two HRs by Utley, Howard. Of course by favorite, Jair Jurrjens, was, er, how to I out this nicely, screwed over by Victorino. The Flyin’ whatever robbed at least 5 extra base hits and an almost HR by slumping Brian McCann. That, and a misplaced fastball by Jurrjens to Utley that was driven over the right field wall.
Jair gets another no decision, he is still 9 – 8 on the year. Shane Victorino should have been hit with something more than beer. Perhaps a foam tomahawk, another beer, a car, Turner Field scoreboard, Planet X…
….Any of those would have done.
So, what do we do now…
That brings me to the subject. “Win the next 2 and look for the Wild Card.”
That precisely is what should be done. Braves have enough games left within the division leaders to at least make a run at the division title, but they’d need to win almost all those games. While that is unlikely, we should turn our attentions to the wild card.
Atlanta sits 3.5 games back of Colorado, who in my opinion, does not have enough to win the WC. The Giants, now there is another story. San Fran has the best pitching in baseball, reining CY winner ( And likely 2009 CY winner), Tim Lincecum. Florida has a 1.5 game lead on the Braves, and if they want to win the WC or division, they have to bury the Braves quickly. They have just the chance to do that in 7 days.
Tomorrow, The Braves let Kawakami take the mound to oppose Phils former “ace” Cole Hamels. If your going to the game tomorrow, bring a glove, because there should be a lot of meatballs.
Time to make Gonzo the closer again?:
I believe so. Soriano has a 6+ ERA since the All star break. I’m sure you all saw the stat. If you didn’t, you should know Mike Gonzales has a 0.00 ERA.
Another Thing:
People say Jurrjens is great with keeping the ball in the park. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Jair Jurrjens. But he has given up a HR in 7 of his last 11 starts. This has to stop. He has to be great to be lucky enough to not get a loss, so maybe, just maybe, if he become perfect and limited HRs, he could get a no decision or even a win (GASP!).
Good luck Jurrjens, and Go Braves!!
Thats all for me folks!
Phils @ Braves Preview & Why ESPN Sucks
With a partial title of “Why ESPN Sucks” you might think I’m about to talk to you about:
- Jon Miller and Joe Morgan’s awful broadcasts
- The over glamorization of the Yankees – Red Sox rivarly
- Buster Olney’s incredible stupid rumors
- The fact that they only pander to big market teams/names.
I actually going to show you this mind boggling article from ESPN.com. The article will be in bold and my little retorts will be in italic. Here we go.
One thing that has been an obvious cause for the resurgence of the Atlanta Braves recently and for the overall steady play of the Philadelphia Phillies this season — pitching.
Okay, lets stop right here. Resurgence? What are you talking about? I hope you mean on a season to season basis. At first I thought, ‘well maybe they mix up the teams’. Because the Phillies sure as hell have not had overall steady play from their pitching.
And those two pitching staffs will be on display this weekend when the
two teams meet in Atlanta in a series. And be sure, this is an
important series because the Braves are still within arm’s reach in the
NL East.
Ok.
You’ve got some strong matchups, with Joe Blanton vs. Jair Jurrjens (Friday), Cole Hamels vs. Kenshin Kawakami (Saturday) and J.A. Happ vs. Javier Vazquez (Sunday).
What? “Strong Matchups”? Jair Jurrjens is easily the favorite. Cole vs. Kenshin is the only one I’d consider “Strong”, Although they’re both weak. Still equal. Happ and Vasquez is close, but still favors the Braves.
If Atlanta is going to continue to surprise and pull off a true
Cinderella season, it is going to have to match arms with other teams
down the stretch.
Its like Showatler has never seen the Braves play this season, seriously. They’ve been matching arm since the season began.
The Braves have a chance to do that this weekend at home. I’m sure they know they are lucky to miss Cliff Lee, who pitched — and won again — for the Phillies on Thursday.
Aww. Want a cookie? I have this felling the Braves don’t care if Lee pitched or didn’t because they have a 24 – 16 record against lefty pitchers with a dominant LH lineup.
Being six games back in the loss column to the Phillies here in mid-August tells me that it’s time for the Braves to make their move. A series at
home against the division leaders gives them a great opportunity to do
just that.
Notice the wording, they are only 4 back in the win colum, not a big deal.
It won’t be easy, though, because of that Phillies’ lineup and the way
those bats are rolling coming off a sweep of the Chicago Cubs at
Wrigley.
First, Cubs suck, always have, always will. Secondly, Braves bats have been just as hot the past 7 games. And Atlanta has won 7 of their last 8 including 3 against the then, best team in MLB, the Dodgers.
Philadelphia’s first six hitters might be the toughest first six in baseball. When you have to deal with Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth,
well, that’s just not easy. That’s almost a blueprint at what you want
at each position, and a real grind for any opposing pitching staff.
No argument there.
Despite the fact that there are some unknowns in that rotation, this team has come to terms with the fact that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz aren’t coming through that door.
This is the worst! There is not a single “unknowns” in this rotation, you want to talk about unknows how about Cole Hamels, Pedro Matinez, Joe Blanton? You know guys with 4+ ERAs. And there is not a single Braves fan that is crying over the fact that those legends (are) retired/suck.
The Braves are going about the task of developing young arms from
within the organization, but that takes time. A lot of people forget
that even Maddux and Co. struggled when they were young.
I don’t… I don’t even know what to say.
One good thing they have going for them at home is a pitcher-friendly
park, and I think all that work is now beginning to reap some results.
Changed my mind, this is the worst. There is only ONE GOOD THING you can think of? I can think of at least seven. How about the fact that their the hottest team in Baseball? Or the pitching advantage? Jesus have mercy on Buck Showalter. Please!
The Braves have a lot going for them…
Ok. He realized he made a mistake and gracefu…
…in that no one really expected
much from them this season. That frees them up to go out there and be
aggressive, to just let it fly.
OH! So close. No one expected much from them? Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLBTradeRumors.com said they were a 90 win team. Many picked them for the Divsion champions and even more picked them for the Wild Card. Why would Frank Wren work so hard on trying (and successfully doing so) to build a great pitching rotation, if he thought it was cool to piss it all away?
Bobby Cox has surely built them up a bit. Any time you have a winner
like Cox writing your name on a major-league lineup card, that has to
give you a world of confidence. This group won’t be intimidated at all,
even if it is facing the World Series champions. They’ll play free and
easy.
Ok, that is passable, Mr. Brown Nose…
In fact, there’s more pressure on the Phillies. One of the toughest things in sports is to win when you are expected to. Everybody has expected Philadelphia to compete.
Wrong again! Phils have a 5 game lead. No pressure at all. If the Braves lose (knock on wood) they’ll have to pick up the pieces and start over again.
Not only are the Phillies as good as they were last year, but they might even be better.
This is the only accurate thing said. They are better than last year number wise, this year, they scored more runs, allowed fewer runs, and have a better record.
Right now, their only real red flag is at closer. Brad Lidge
just hasn’t been the same — his ERA is 7.42. That just doesn’t make
the closer a red flag; it makes it a big red flag. It’s an
uncomfortable feeling for a team to wonder every night how many runs
are enough.
They have another red flag in Hamels. Their “ace” has a 4.77 ERA and just when he shows signs of getting back on track, he derails.
All things considered, Atlanta might have an edge this weekend.
Atlanta DOES have the edge.
They have nothing to lose.
Except everything.
Well this should be a good series, and you can sure as hell bet I’ll be listening to Sunday’s game on the radio.
Go Braves!!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn
Thats all for me folks!
The Few, The Proud, The Braves is Coming Back….
And better than ever! More puns and cliches!
Promise….
As soon as I get my laptop back.
A Fellow Lentz Lover
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