• Phillies at Reds, 9:35 a.m. PT — Fire up a pot of coffee and sidle on up to the Internet (really, I’d like to see that). Cole Hamels and Bronson Arroyo square off in Monday’s first game. Plus you get a chance to watch Jeff “Offensive Beast” Keppinger in action. Honestly, I always thought that guy could be useful if given the chance, but .435/.480/.826 through the first week? Man, I love small samples. They’ll show you just about anything you want to see.
• Mariners at Orioles, 12:05 p.m. PT — I don’t know that this will be a good game to watch, but it could be interesting. First off, you’ve got Carlos Silva hooking up against Daniel Cabrera on the mound. Are there two more different pitchers in the game today? Bob Tewksbury and Steve Dalkowski have retired, right? The other story line, of course, is Adam Jones facing his former team. I still can’t believe Baltimore had the smarts to make that deal.
• Braves at Rockies, 5:35 p.m. PT — Colorado has stumbled to a 1-5 start in ‘08. Maybe facing 42-year-old Tom Glavine in their home park will help. You know what else would help? Not hitting .209/.281/.333 as a team. You think?

Happy Monday, folks, and happy watching!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Like Linebrink, Dotel was a dominant reliever several years ago. Now he’s mostly just hurt. Here’s what Dotel has done recently:

You’ll notice in the caption that this is Dotel’s record for the past 3 years. Last season he worked 30 2/3 innings, which was the most he’d pitched since 2004. Dotel is 34 years old. Yep, better lock him up to a 2-year deal.

Meanwhile, the White Sox designated an intriguing arm for assignment in the process, right-hander David Aardsma. The latter hasn’t enjoyed much success at the big-league level but has good stuff, is young, and probably won’t cost a whole lot. Someone should give Aardsma a shot. For grins, here’s what he’s done over the past 3 years:

Huh, that looks kind of familiar…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

So I take the wife out shopping today. She shops, I sit in the car and read Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2008, everyone’s happy.

On page 145 of the Annual, I come across an amusing anecdote about a gentleman named Clay Dalrymple:

One July day in Baltimore in 1969, the umpires were faced with a problem. Clay Dalrymple was to catch for Baltimore that evening, but he emerged from the dugout with both a catcher’s mitt (on his hand) and a fielder’s glove (in his back pocket).

“I asked him about it,” reported home plate umpire John Rice. “And he told me he was going to switch to the fielder’s glove if he had a play at the plate.”

The umpires huddled, and though they couldn’t think of a rule that specifically forbade the use of the second glove, they exacted a promise from Dalrymple that he wouldn’t use the glove until a ruling was made by the league office.

Oriole manager Earl Weaver argued, of course. “If nothing covers it in the rules,” offered Earl, “then why rule against the glove? Why not for?”

This incident (which thanks to the magic of Baseball-Reference, we know occurred in a game against the White Sox) led to the addition of Rule 1.12 to the Official Major League Rules Book. Gotta love Earl Weaver.

And Clay Dalrymple…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Orioles at Yankees, 10:05 a.m. PT — Intriguing pitching matchup here between Erik Bedard and Philip Hughes. Over at Mr. Irrelevant, Jamie Mottram ponders Bedard’s chances of reaching 300 strikeouts this season. Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I am a contributor to THT) analyzes Hughes’ delivery and compares it to that of fellow pinstripe prospect Joba Chamberlain.
• Tigers at Indians, 4:05 p.m. PT — The Tigers prevailed in round one of the AL Central showdown. Wednesday sees Fausto Carmona and his improving strikeout trends (tip o’ the Knuckle Curve cap to Vegas Watch’s Jacob for that nugget). On the other side, 21-year-old Jair Jurrjens makes his big-league debut. Baseball America identified Jurrjens as Detroit’s #4 prospect coming into the season. Jeremy Bonderman. Justin Verlander. Andrew Miller. The recently signed Rick Porcello. Jurrjens. That is an alarming amount of young pitching talent. Where does it end for the Tigers?
• Royals at Rangers, 5:35 p.m. PT — And in the cautionary tale department, we have Gil Meche and Vicente Padilla pitching for teams headed nowhere. Meche started the season strong and appeared to be justifying the crazy money Kansas City threw at him this past winter. Since the middle of May, though, he’s gone back to his old tricks (4-9, 5.25 ERA in 16 starts). Padilla, meanwhile, is solidifying his status as Nicaragua’s answer to Chan Ho Park.

National League

• Rockies at Padres, 7:05 p.m. PT — This is the only game in the NL on Wednesday that features two teams with winning records. Young flamethrowing right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez (Rockies #6 prospect entering the season according to BA) hooks up against Chris Young, who despite getting touched up a bit his last time out continues to lead the world in ERA.

Need to choose just one? Tough call. Orioles and Yankees probably features the best pitching matchup, but I’m going to go with the Tigers and Indians due to the playoff implications. Happy watching…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Unfortunately, two of the three games they’re offering on Saturday (12:30 p.m. PT) are complete dogs. Dodgers at Cardinals? Eh, mild playoff implications there. Pirates at Giants. Ooh, the battle for — what’s the opposite of supremacy? — in the NL Central and West, respectively. With luck, you’ll get the Red Sox at Orioles. This still isn’t the best game on tap (that would be Dan Haren and the A’s at Detroit, which counters with Justin Verlander), but at least Josh Beckett is pitching.

My recommendation? The Tigers game doesn’t start until 4:05 p.m. PT, so you still have time to fly to Detroit and see the game in person, assuming it’s not already sold out. Happy watching!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Devil Rays at Tigers, 10:05 a.m. PT — Yeah, the Rays are a crap team going nowhere fast, but they have some terrific young talent, and Scott Kazmir vs Jeremy Bonderman is a fun pitching matchup.

National League

• Braves at Mets, 9:10 a.m. PT — As was the case on Wednesday when these two teams hooked up at Shea, we have a game with potential playoff implications and a great matchup. Tim Hudson is pitching better than he has at any point since 2003, the last time he garnered any support for the Cy Young Award, while John Maine has enjoyed a serious coming-out party this year. Did the Orioles really give up this guy to get Kris Benson? Yuck.

Once again, my choice would be Braves and Mets. Yesterday’s game was a dandy, and today should be no different.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — How are the Mariners doing it? Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre, and Jose Guillen all are having decent (not great) seasons on offense. The starting pitching has been okay. The relief pitching has been pretty darned good. They score about as many runs as they give up, and yet, they’re a game out of the AL wild card. Felix Hernandez starts tonight, which is always a good reason to watch. The Orioles, who as usual are going nowhere fast, counter with Jeremy Guthrie, one of the neater success stories of 2007. A former first-round pick of the Cleveland Indians, Guthrie never could stick with the big club, and Baltimore claimed the 27-year-old right-hander off waivers in January. Guthrie now ranks third in the AL in ERA.
• Yankees at Blue Jays, 4:07 p.m. PT — While nobody was paying attention, the Yankees became a serious player in the wild card race. They’re now a half-game back of Detroit. Chien-Ming Wang, who continues to succeed despite his inability to miss bats, starts for New York. A-Rod gets most of the ink out that way, but have you noticed how well Jorge Posada is doing this year (.340/.423/.546)? That’s unbelievable production from a 35-year-old catcher. (Mike Piazza hit .266/.362/.444 at the same age.) Right-hander Roy Halladay gets the call for Toronto.
• Red Sox at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — The teams with the two best records in the AL square off at Anaheim. The pitching matchup (Jon Lester vs Dustin Moseley) is pretty uninspiring, but still. I sometimes wonder just how good the Red Sox would be if they had a legitimate big-league shortstop. The Angels, meanwhile, are unbelievably consistent up and down the lineup. With the exception of Vlad Guerrero and the emerging Casey Kotchman, nobody here really stands out. Well, maybe Chone Figgins. Point is, they’re solid #1 through #9.

National League

• Brewers at Rockies, 12:05 p.m. PT — Two of the younger and more suprising teams in the NL hook up in this one. Top prospect Yovani Gallardo goes for the Brewers, who are clinging to a one-game lead over Chicago in the NL Central. Prince Fielder tops the Senior Circuit with 33 homers, while third baseman Ryan Braun has emerged as the front-runner for Rookie of the Year. Southpaw Jeff Franics gets the start for Colorado. Francis currently sports a 4.01 ERA, no small accomplishment for a guy who works half his games at Coors Field. In one of my more outlandish predictions for the season, I said that Francis would finish in the top 10 in ERA. Right now he’s at #24. In my defense, a lot more pitchers have sub-4.00 ERAs this year (23) than did last season (15).
• Braves at Mets, 4:10 p.m. PT — The top two teams in the NL East do battle in New York, and we’ve got a great pitching matchup. John Smoltz is a future Hall of Famer, while Orlando Hernandez is pitching as well as he has since his rookie season back in ‘98. The Braves are getting production out of some unexpected sources (Matt Diaz? Willie Harris?), which compensates for the fact that Andruw Jones has become the weak link in their outfield. The Mets? Oh, what I wouldn’t do to see that left side of the infield call San Diego home.
• Cubs at Astros, 5:05 p.m. PT — Carlos Zambrano is on fire. Not literally, of course, but he is 9-2 with a 1.43 ERA over his last 12 starts; Zambrano has lowered his season ERA from 5.38 to 3.42 during that stretch. Roy Oswalt? His usual troublesome self. He’s completely dominant at home (2.30 ERA over 14 starts; opponents are batting .239/.293/.339 against him there). For Chicago, one of their big three on offense (Alfonso Soriano) is out with a bad quad. The Astros, meanwhile, get to watch $100 million man Carlos Lee pad his personal stats for a team that is almost certainly out of contention, even in baseball’s weakest division.

If I had to pick one game to watch, it’d be the Braves and Mets. That’s your best combination of pennant race and pitching matchup. Enjoy!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Post from: Knuckle Curve

The Orioles, meanwhile, are talking to former Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi about the vacant position. Girardi, you may recall, led a team with a $15 million payroll to 78 wins last season. That’s a little less than Baltimore is paying Danys Baez, Kris Benson, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker this year.

Girardi gets a lot of credit for the Marlins ‘06 season, as well he should. But let’s not forget that the team had a tremendous amount of young talent thanks to GM Larry Beinfest and the entire front office. Girardi wouldn’t have that working for him in Baltimore. He would have Nick Markakis, Erik Bedard, Adam Loewen, and a boatload of albatrosses.

What is the best this team can hope for in ‘07 — that they finish ahead of Tampa Bay and Toronto? Is the situation likely to improve in the near future? For the sake of Orioles fans everywhere, I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see a lot of cause for optimism here.

Girardi caught in the big leagues for 15 years. In 1996, with the Yankees, he stole 13 bases. If Girardi has anything left in those legs, now would be a good time to start running.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, all three of these guys have deals that run through 2009. Next year, they will cost the Orioles a combined $12.5 million, and the year after that, they’ll cost $13.5 million. And they’ll eat up three spots in the bullpen as well.

The bad news is, Baltimore won’t be able to trade any of these relievers without absorbing some of the cost. (Same with Ramon Hernandez, but as a catcher, he falls under a different subcategory of Truly Awful Ideas). The good news is, Baez isn’t likely to collect the extra $1 million he would earn by being the team leader in Rolaids points.

Post from: Knuckle Curve