Big Events:
Braden:
What started as an under-the-radar 26 year-old phenom has turned into a house-hold name and the nineteenth Mr. Perfect ever. I wish I could have told you it was going to lead there, but Dallas Braden surprised absolutely everybody.
Now that that’s covered, let’s look at the rest of the division.
SOD Foreshadow:
The Rangers have continued playing .500+ baseball over the last couple of weeks and still have some bats struggling. I fear that they may run away with this division if their team starts using all possible cylinders.
The struggles of the Angels and Mariners are big stories. Both teams have a chance to take this division if they perform to potential, but they simply cannot put both bats and pitching together on the same day – or if they do, they have neither skill show up the next day…
A Yawn of a Story:
You sleep, I sleep, Griffey Sleeps – deal with it. The story goes that Ken Griffey Jr missed an opportunity to pinch-hit because he was in the clubhouse counting sheep after the fifth inning.
Listen, if you have ever been around a baseball team – little league included – you know when you are going to have a pinch-hitting opportunity. There is either someone in the bullpen who you have a good record against or the righty-lefty match-up is going to be needed, or a hundred other situations. The healthy player who is not in the starting line-up and the Manager are aware of all the scenarios.
Griffey is struggling this season. He is likely in his last season of MLB action. But I really have a hard time believing that the pinch hitting option existed if Griffey was sleeping in the clubhouse. Sure, he’s getting paid to sit his aged posterior on the bench if he is not in the line-up, but if he really has an off day and the team isn’t rushing to wake him up what damage is it really doing?
The “young players” who reported the event to the M’s beat writer are in line for bigger fines from the Kangaroo Court or the actual franchise than Griffey will be/ should be. You know the whole “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” slogan? The same idea exists for major league clubhouses. Teammates are your brothers and if you have to tell on them you tell Manager Mom and not a Tacoma, Washington beat writer.
A team meeting was called to discuss the story-leak-faux-pas and what resulted was a boycott of the Tacoma sports writer and a forgive-and-forget from there. After covering the M’s for 20+ years, you should know that story is going to do more damage than good. I side with the team.
It all comes back to the unwritten rules of the game…
In the Spotlight:
Felix Hernandez as ‘Shaft’:
King Felix has not been living up to potential this season. His record is sub-.500 and his ERA is nearing four. He is supposed to be the ace of a pitcher-dominated team but he hasn’t done his part, entirely, this season.
Then Thursday comes around.
After basically throwing batting practice in his two previous starts (7.2 innings, 12 earned runs, eight walks and eight strikeouts between his previous two starts) Hernandez seemed to remember how to dominate. He threw seven innings of five-hit, seven-K, one-earned-run ball and left with a five run lead.
However, he got the shaft. What should have brought him back to even in wins and losses turned into gem of a no-decision. The Mariners wound up losing the game 6-5.
Somebody’s Gotta Do It:
My favorite player in the big leagues, Ichiro Suzuki, is carrying the Mariners about as far as his 170 pound frame can. He has 18 multi-hit games already this season. He is leading the AL in hits – surprise, surprise – and is in contention for the lead in AL batting average; less than 20 points behind Miguel Cabrera’s .376 mark (as of Sunday).
He hit his first homer of the season on tMay 13 and collected his league leading fifty-fourth hit as I was writing this column. He is well on his way to an unprecedented tenth consecutive season with over 200 hits. That record would make him the most consistent hitter in the history of the game.
Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader (4256), collect 200 or more hits ten times in his 24 season career – Ichiro is likely to do that in each of his first ten.
With no one stepping up for the Mariners’ offense, Ichiro Suzuki has decided to get his bat in gear and start setting the pace for the whole team. It would be great if someone would follow his lead. Franklin Gutierrez is the only other Seattle hitter hitting over .300.
Dallas Uncharacteristic:
I’m going to put Dallas Braden in the Spotlight section for the A’s – surprises all over the place today. However not for the reason you think. Yes, he’s the newest Mr. Perfect. Yes, his effort is going to be documented and exhibitioned in the Hall of Fame for all of sports-eternity. But, it turns out the perfecto was also a turning point in the young lefties career – hopefully in a better way that it was for Mark Buehrle.
Since Buehrle’s perfecto he is 4-12 with an ERA closer to terrible than good. Dallas Braden came back in his first start since his mother’s day gem and one-upped Buehrle. He threw a complete game in that next start.
He took a loss, but he stuck it out for the distance. He went eight innings, striking out five and allowing only seven hits.
Before the perfecto Braden had never thrown a shut-out. He, matter-of-factly, only pitched through the seventh inning 11 times in 54 career starts. He had never pitched through the eighth. Now he has two consecutive complete games.
He’s Back:
Nelson Cruz came back to the streaking Rangers on Friday and immediately reestablished himself as a threat by driving in four runs. A three-run double and a sacrifice fly helped put a stamp on his return – and likely the Rangers’ division contention for the season.
Kendry Can:
First baseman Kendry Morales has recently gone through a bit of a slump and is now only batting .281 (As of Sunday afternoon), but he is still leading the Angels offense in just about everything. He has the most hits, homers, RBI and runs scored in the Angels’ anemic lineup. He is also one of the more underrated defensive First basemen in the league.
If anyone can lead the Angels back into the division fold… Kendry can.
Under the Radar:
Twenty-two year-old Neftali Feliz can light up a radar gun like few in the major leagues can. While he has blown two saves in 11 chances and has an ERA over three, this kid is good; really good.
He can consistently hit 96-99 MPH with his fastball and has only allowed two home runs in 18 appearances – spanning 19 innings. In that time he has struck out twenty hitters meaning more than one of every three outs he gets come by way of strikeout.
Feliz took over for Frank Francisco in mid April. Last season, Francisco recorded 25 of 29 save opportunities despite being injured more than once. His 1.11 WHIP made him an ideal closer for the Rangers. When 2010 began there was no question that if healthy the closer’s job would remain his.
However, when the season began, Francisco promptly went 0/2 in saves/ opportunities and surrendered six earned runs in only three appearances. It was a mess. On April 12, Feliz got his first opportunity and converted the save easily – two ground outs and a strikeout.
Since then he has had two missed opportunities (the same amount that Francisco had in the first five days of the season) and nine saves. …And those two home runs he has surrendered both came in the same game against Detroit no one else has touched him up.
Neftali Feliz is definitely a youngster worth keeping an eye on.
State of the Division:
The Angels and Mariners have continued to struggle and the Rangers have continued to put a hurt on opposing pitchers.
However, the Angels are coming off of a weekend sweep of the A’s due to some timely pitching. While their bats haven’t been all too impressive sometimes a single-dimensional team can still string wins together.
In game two of the Oakland series the Angels tallied 12 runs – that hardly makes them appear single dimensional, but then you realize that that was the first time all season the Angels have scored double-digit runs… They have lost to a team who has scored in double digits five times.
Complete-game shutouts by Joe Saunders and Joel Pineiro in games one and three sealed the series. It was Saunders who beat Dallas Braden in his perfecto-follow-up complete-game loss.
While the sweep of Oakland helped in the division standings, the four-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox was far more telling of how the Angels have been playing. Boston was just coming off of being swept by the Orioles in their previous series. At the time, Baltimore was statistically one of the worst teams in baseball at seven wins and 18 losses.
The four-game sweep of Kansas City, from the sixth to the ninth of May, dramatically helped the Rangers take a lead in the division. The Angels sweep of the Athletics helped create separation.
The poor Mariners are showing signs of getting better, but they still can’t hit. Cliff Lee has been very good since returning from injury and Felix Hernandez is hopefully going to keep heading in the right direction.
Doug Fister is still impressing people with his fantastic command and heavy fastball and Jason Vargas is sitting at 3-2 with a sub-3 ERA in seven starts. With such a talented team bringing up the rear in the division, mid-September may be too soon to call the outcome of the AL West.
Standings:
Texas – 20-18
Oakland – 18-20
LA Angels – 18-21
Seattle – 14-23
