After a Long Weekend

I believe we’re finally seeing the real Jamey Wright. The Colorado batters last night were thinking “welcome home, amigo.” By the end of July, Brad Hennessey will be ensconced in the rotation in Wright’s place.

Meanwhile, Eliezer Alfonzo has to be one of the great stories of the year. Larry Baer told me about him in March, saying they were sure to call him up at some time this season. He hit numbers 4 and 5 last night. Alfonzo is the real Crash Davis. He spent 9 years in the low minors, and then started to hit a little two years ago. He finally got his call up after 11 years, and he hits as well as he ever has, which is not major league Crash-like. Felipe was quoted in the papers today implying that they won’t send him down when Matheny puts his eyeballs back in his head, and they’ll try him at first base. That’s quite a show of support for Niekro and Sweeney. Hey, why not try him at second like Craig Biggio.

Speaking of Biggio, he’s got 2,881 hits. He should make it early next season. My take: 3,000 hits is an automatic into the hall. I kind of feel the same way about 3,000 strikeouts. There are 26 players in the 3,000 hit club, but only 13 in the 3,000 strikeout club. Here is the strikeout list:

4000+ -- Ryan, Clemens, R. Johnson, Carlton
3000+ -- Blyleven (3,701), Seaver, Sutton, Perry, W. Johnson, Niekro, Jenkins, Gibson, Maddux.

That’s a pretty impressive list. How the hell is Bert Blyleven not in the hall? I think anyone who struck out more guys than Walter Johnson should be an automatic.

Pedro Martinez went on the DL yesterday. The Doc really liked Pedro before the draft, but I was suspicious of his health. He’s an incredible pitcher, but he cannot pitch an entire season, so by definition, he’s going to be overpriced in any auction, particularly one with a lot of inflation.
Speaking of bad health, Eric Gagne, $30. Larry Dot Net has him, along with Barry at $30 or so, and he’s still in 5th place. It shows the benefit of a good keeper list, but it makes our drafting mistakes look small.

The Pickled Pecklers moved out of last place in homers yesterday with 5 homers – all solo shots. Which is why we are still in last place in RBI’s. Thorman, Rolen, Jenkins and Alfonzo twice.

Speaking of Scott Rolen, he’s having a hell of a season, and he’s been on a power surge. His numbers are 13-54-4-.336, which isn’t all that far behind Miguel Cabrera in any category. Keeper at $32.

George cracked 80 points yesterday. He still thinks he won’t win. What a load of… Anyway, last season when 8 teams were still competing hard at this point it was popular to suggest that open FAAB made it a great race. How about this year, when only 4 teams are over about 50 points and the Cappers and Rips have run away and hid? Last year’s race was lucky.

This year, nobody is trying. Ken: “I don’t want to screw up my team for the next 10 years.” Larry: “I can’t get higher than third.”

Well, we’re thinking about trying. We were in last place on July 4. What the hell. Which dumping team wants Webb? Even Barfield, who we traded for today, is available.

Finally, one non-baseball note: yesterday in the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles, Knowles of the Bahamas and Nestor of Canada beat Aspelin of Sweden and Perry of Australia by a score of:

5-7, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 23-21

That’s games, not points in a tie breaker. The match lasted 6 hours, 9 minutes, making it the longest singles or doubles match by time in Wimbledon history -- and the longest doubles match at any Grand Slam tournament. The last set took over 3 hours. Of course, we won’t see any of it on TV, because doubles just isn’t cool. Sorry, but men’s doubles is the coolest thing going. These guys are unbelievable tennis players. Imagine returning a 120 mph serve with a 6’5” guy at the net in the middle of the court and you’re not sure which way he’s going to poach. Pro Men’s Doubles is not tennis, it’s some complete perversion of the game for athletic savants.