Baseball

Steven Tolleson, I'm willing to bet Twins fans have ever even heard the name.  In fact he is so unheard of that Getty Images doesn't even have a photo of the guy.  However, while looking through the Twins stat lines for their minor league affiliates one day I came across an impressive line attached to this name.  The killer part is, he's a shortstop. 

When Randy Johnson got back-to-back strikeouts of Michael Young and Andruw Jones to get out of the first inning, you couldn't help but to feel optimistic about the what lied in store, if you are a San Francisco Giants fan.

After Aaron Rowand led off the home half of the first inning with his seventh home run of the season, you could just feel that it was the Giant's night. 

Before the first pitch, any analytical baseball mind would have predicted a tough evening for the Giants. 

Kenshin Kawakami quietly won the match-up between the former Japanese aces at Fenway Park on Friday night, leading the Braves to an 8-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.

It was quiet from Kawakami's perspective as he recorded his first four outs of the game on strikeouts of Dustin Pedroia, J. D. Drew, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz.

It was anything but quiet while Daisuke Matsuzaka was on the mound.

In the summer leading up to the 2007 Major League Baseball season, the Boston Red Sox put 50 million dollars on the table just to speak to a pitcher from Japan. Reports of a pitch known as the "gyro" ball infatuated every baseball fan from coast to coast.

The deal was completed and Daisuke "Dice-K" Matsuzaka was brought to the Red Sox with open arms from The Nation.

His first season went by looking very average and not close to worth the money.  He went 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA.

"Not only the Bronx, but anywhere, I think anywhere is a possibility..You always have to keep that in the back of your mind because you can’t just be one-sided and think that, ‘Oh I’m going to be in a Red Sox uniform my entire career.’ Because nowadays that is very, very rare. . . .

Derrek Lee hit two homers on the day today, bringing his season total to ten. Anyone who has read this blog at all knows that I am very anti-D-Lee. He had that one great year, and has basically been a good average guy with little power that ends up on the DL a lot. Matches his initials, isn’t that cute? 

He is having a pretty good season, but he hasn’t really been injured yet, and I still would not touch him.  If you have him, I would try to cash in on this time and see if you can trade him for someone a little more safe.

Derrek Lee hit two homers on the day today, bringing his season total to 10. Anyone who has read this blog at all knows that I am very anti-D-Lee. He had that one great year, and has basically been a good average guy with little power that ends up on the DL a lot. Matches his initials, isn't that cute? He is having a pretty good season, but he hasn't really been injured yet, and I still would not touch him. If you have him, I would try to cash in on this time and see if you can trade him for someone a little more safe.

These are not your father's Rockies.

Remember when Billy Beane traded for Matt Holliday? Or when he signed Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra and Orlando Cabrera in an attempt to boost an anemic offense?

Remember when the A's were said to be the darkhorse team in the American League?

With the month of June half over, the A's trail the first place Rangers by nine games. How can a team with Matt Holliday, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Giambi be nine games out of first?

This isn't going to be a game recap because I wasn't there tonight. This is going to be a venting period.

Im tired of watching this team go through the motions every other game. I get the feeling that this team, the defending world champions of baseball, are showing up at the ballpark in Philadelphia expecting the other team to just lay down. I've seen it before.

I play the game, and have for over 15 years, I can tell when a team just expects to win and is not work hard at doing it.