One in a Row

Hey, the Giants actually won a game tonight! That makes 3 of the last 18. Noah Lowry cruised for a few innings and then, characteristically, blew up, but the bullpen kept his 5-4 lead intact. Then, in the top of the ninth, with Tyler Walker getting ready come in for the save for the Giants and the Pecklers, Mike Matheny drove in an insurance run. Fortunately for the Giants but unfortunately for the Pecklers that was followed by Omar Vizquel’s first NL jimmy jack, a two run bomb to left to eliminate the opportunity for a save.

We had a couple of trades this week. The Pounders found a buyer for Furcal, the Lickers, who gave up a $2 Turnbow. This looks like a good trade for both teams. The Lickers can move to 1st or 2nd in steals (they are in 4th, but with big downside), and they keep Furcal off all the other contending teams. Turnbow might be a fine keeper, but the Lickers have both Mesa and Dempster, and they don’t care about keepers! As for the Pounders, as long as Furcal continues to hit .220, that was about the most they’d get for him.

The Cartel swapped Todd Walker for uhm…… huh? OK, Josh Barfield is a prospect, but he’s hitting sort of OK at AAA. Meanwhile, Walker looks like the only non-keeper to pair with Casey to obtain a decent keeper unless you think Sergio Mitre is for real. Here’s what Baseball Prospectus says about him:

Mitre did not fare well during his major league trial, but it’s a blessing to have this sort of organizational depth in a world in which contending teams routinely make deadline deals for people like Paul Abbot. While he doesn’t have the big out pitch he needs to be a star, he does an exceptional job of keeping the ball down, as well as reasonably near the strike zone. PECOTA likes the incremental gains to Mitre’s strikeout rate and thinks that he has some sleeper potential.

So far Mitre’s had 5 starts, 2 ugly and 3 superb. His minor league stats at Iowa this year are a little less impressive: 45 IP, 49 H, 14 BB, 37 K, 4.60 ERA, 1.40 WHIP. Never mind. Remember him next year when someone brings him up at the end of the auction and consider saying “2”.

I had a Kaz Matsui sighting tonight. I actually saw him not only hit a single, but then he stole 2nd base easily on a high and outside throw to the plate. Now that’s $22 well spent!

Russ Ortiz was cruising along in Chicago (AL) tonight with a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the 6th when the wheels fell off. The White Sox put up a ten spot in the 6th, and Ortiz left 5.88 ERA on the season. Remember when he started out the season so hot? Be careful what you see in early April. Sort of like Xavier Nady.

When are we going to get past this stinkin’ interleague play? There’s just too many box scores, too many stats to look at each day. Let’s get back to 8 boxes on half a page of newspaper! Don’t tell me about no Derek Jeter.

I just checked our stats for the day. So far the Pecklers are 6 for 47 at the plate. I guess it's good we got 47 AB's, but that kind of glass is half full thinking is going to have us finish down there with the Rips.