Baseball

With all due respect to Javier Vazquez, I’m tired of hearing about him and his lack of prosperous pitching.

Give him a break—he’ll eventually get to where he needs to be. Well, at least we hope.

The Yankees did have a three-pitcher rotation in the playoffs this past season, and what did we get? A world championship. They can certainly pull this off again if need be, so Vazquez is not of primary concern at the moment.

Look, it’s early but then again it’s not that early. We’re into May and the slash line from Aramis Ramirez looks like a pitcher's (not named Zambrano): .149/.214/.267/.482.

Perhaps as troubling as his struggles at the plate is the word going around that Rami isn’t seeking help from Rudy Jaramillo. He apparently feels he is a professional hitter who can figure things out for himself.

While the stars steal all the headlines in baseball, it’s a team’s backups that steal the bases, steal the hearts of fans and push a team far into the Major League postseason.

More often than not, the big market teams feature the best backups – in many cases, players who could start for half of the other teams in the league (perhaps more).

With the Astros continuing their recent slump and offensive slumber, it’s time to quickly take a look at a few trade options especially if Houston has to begin looking at 2011 rather than making plans for late October.

Big names that are obviously wanted by other clubs include the likes of starting right-handed pitcher Roy Oswalt (who has a no-trade clause), first baseman Lance Berkman (also has a no-trade clause in his contract), and All-Star youngster outfielder Hunter Pence (whom is likely untouchable as a major part of the future of the franchise).

Some other Houston players who ma

Before I get started, I wanted to express my condolences to the Harwell family, to Tigers fans, and to baseball fans in general.

We lost a legend with the passing of Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell.

Thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the game.

Here’s a look at some unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Livan Hernandez, Washington Nationals

The WHIP wasn’t pretty (five hits and five walks in 5.1 IP), but Livan allowed just one earned run to improve to 4-1 with a 0.97 ERA.

There’s something quite odd about Derek Jeter.

I don’t mean the fact that he’s seemingly ageless, or that he’s actually a somewhat-likeable guy despite being the captain of the most evil group of players ever to walk onto a baseball field.

I am referring to the fact that the numbers Jeter has accrued so far this season simply don’t make any sense.

This spring, as the Yankees decided to toss Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen (where he belongs) I kept hearing people being critical of Chamberlain for all the wrong reasons. I heard this phrase over and over again. Over-hyped punk.

Overhyped… That might be true with the “Joba Rules” etc. but can we really blame the kid for that? He’s not the one who decided that he needed to be brought through this disastrous babying system.

The news broke on January 19th of this year that Bengie Molina rejected a two year contract offer from the Mets to sign a one year deal with the San Francisco Giants.

I posted my thoughts about missing out on Molina here.  To summarize:

It only took five starts for Washington Nationals’ RHP Stephen Strasburg to get his first promotion as a professional baseball player.

After going 3-1 with a 1.64 ERA and 27 K’s in 22 IP against Double A batters, the Nationals have promoted Strasburg to Triple A Syracuse. My guess is that if Strasburg impresses at the Triple A level, the Nationals will promote him to the big club by June.

It’s not even close to Halloween, but these performances were scary bad for their teams this week.

1) 3B Chipper Jones, ATL

Braves fans everywhere are shedding a tear for their favorite third baseman. Jones had a terrible week of baseball.

He only had one hit in 20 at-bats, leaving him with a .050 AVG for the week. Since he can’t hit his way to first base, he has been able to force six walks this week.

2) C Victor Martinez, BOS