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5/6/2008
Billy-Ball Daily
Bill Chuck (Billy-Ball his own self)
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The only spin here is on my screwball
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Top of the 1st
DON’T VOTE NOW
What is the only thing painfully longer than the Democratic Primary process?
You guessed it, MLB’s All-Star voting.
Now, I know in sheer number of months the presidential race has gone on longer, but since you can vote 25 times on-line for the All-Stars, I like to view it that exponentially All-Star balloting is longer.
April 29th was the start date for the balloting for the 79th All-Star Game, which will be held on Tuesday, July 15th, at Yankee Stadium. Not only can you vote on MLB.com, but ballots will be distributed at the 30 major league ballparks, each of which will have 24 home dates for balloting. Every club will begin balloting no later than Friday, May 9th. The in-stadium balloting period will conclude by June 29th and on-line balloting ends Wednesday, July 2nd at 11:59 p.m. (EDT).
Here is a piece of sage advice: DON’T VOTE NOW!
Voting now is like deciding that Jack Bauer is as good as dead when he receives three bullets to the heart in Hour 5 of “24.”
Voting now is like Mike Huckabee naming his Cabinet after the Iowa Primaries.
Voting now is like eating “rare” poultry.
Voting now is like retiring your snow blower for the season in February in Vermont.
Voting now is like putting up a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier.
Voting now is like the Oakland A’s printing playoff tickets today.
Voting now is like choosing the “American Idol” winner during the initial auditions.
Voting now is…well, you get my point; voting now is truly suffering from premature congratulations.
Not only do we have to suffer the incessant encouragement through ads and ballparks to vote now, but fans are actually urged to vote for their home town team players whether they are deserving or not, and in many cases whether they are playing or not.
How many players on the DL are collecting votes right now. Including some who really haven’t played much this season at all?
For a moment lets look at some the pantagruelian (enormous) first basemen who must be currently collecting votes by the thousands despite suffering from batting average anemia. Now, before you tell me that Derrek Lee of the Cubs and Albert Pujols of St. Louis are doing great, I tell you just wait until June. Now its likely that they will both continue as they always have but let’s just remember that Albert is just one bad move away from needing surgery (heaven forbid) and who knows what may happen with Derrick.
But those two aren’t the only ones already receiving votes. What about reigning NL home run champion Prince Fielder of Milwaukee? He has four homers and a .257 batting average. How about Carlos Pena of the Rays? He has seven homers and a .215 batting average. Carlos Delgado is hitting .216. So is Richie Sexson. Tony Clark is hitting .200; Ryan Howard, .169; and Jason Giambi, .150. I can assure in their home parks, vote, vote, vote, vote. They are all getting votes.
I’m willing to wager that David Ortiz will be the leading DH vote getter. I mean he is hitting .225. Jim Thome will be in the top five currently hitting .215 and so will Travis Hafner at .209.
Give me a break!
The monster question of the day is “Why is voting take place so early?”
Could it be because of the Monster.com 2008 All-Star Online Ballot? And that starting rosters will be announced during the 2008 All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevrolet on TBS on July 6? And then, more voting can take place to select the final player on each team via the Monster 2008 All-Star Final Vote at MLB.com?
And the advertising doesn't end there. Fans will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet at the All-Star Game via the Monster 2008 All-Star Game MVP vote at MLB.com.
I guess it’s just a matter of time before the All-Star voting begins on April 1, which actually would be apropos because only a fool votes this early.
Top of the 2nd
WHAT IS MORE PAINFUL?
What is more painful? Watching the price of gas rise or watching Daisuke Matsuzaka’s pitch count go up?
Somehow Dice-K reached 5-0 yesterday against the toothless Detroit Tigers. True, Matsuzaka gave up only one hit in five innings pitched. But it is also true that he walked eight in that same span. The last Red Sox pitcher to walk eight and win was Dennis Oil Can Boyd in 1985.
So far this season, Matsuzaka has pitched 40.2 innings, allowing only 22 hits, but walking 27 (tied for the major league lead with the horrific Tom Gorzelanny, who averages a walk an inning), yet permitting only 11 runs to score for an ERA of 2.43. He has faced 169 batters and thrown 738 pitches, averaging 18.1 pitches per inning.
Jayson Stark adds that the last Red Sox pitcher to win a game in which he walked that many and allowed that few hits was Jim Lonborg in '68, which prompts me to say that Dr. Lonborg could attest that watching a game like that is like pulling teeth.
Add to all this, the incredibly deliberate motion of Dice-K’s and it is always a long night at the ballpark.
How long is it?
It is so long that from the time you go into the ballpark and the time that you leave, the price of gas has risen seven cents.
Top of the 3rd
21-20 VISION
A quick look at the standings shows that a number of teams have reached the 20 mark -
Diamondbacks 21 11 .656 -
Cardinals 21 12 .636
Angels 21 13 .618
Red Sox 21 13 .618
A's 20 14 .588
Rangers 13 20 .394
Reds 13 20 .394 8
Padres 12 20 .375 9
Rockies 12 20 .375 9
Top of the 4th
KEMP STARTS THE NEXT WEEK STRONG
Matt Kemp celebrated his first NL player of the week award with a home run, joining Rafael Furcal and Blake DeWitt who all went deep against Oliver Perez, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Mets, 5-1. The Dodgers won for the ninth time in 10 games.
Kemp is hitting .330 through his first 30 games with three homers and 24 RBIs. Last season he batted .342, the fourth-highest average by a Dodgers player since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. In 2006, he homered four times in his first 10 games in the big leagues.
Willie Randolph is getting himself in deep trouble.
Top of the 5th
SANTANA V. SANTANA
Last night, Ervin Santana (6-0) threw his first complete game since the night he got his first major league victory on May 23, 2005. Ervin allowed four hits and no walks and struck out nine as the Angels beat Kansas City, 4-0 victory. Santana joined teammate Joe Saunders at 6-0, becoming the third and fourth Angels pitchers to open a season 6-0 or better. Since 1920, Saunders and Santana are just the eighth pair of teammates to start 6-0.
For those of you join me in tracking these things, so far this season:
Ervin is 6-0 with a 2.02 ERA, nine walks and 38 strikeouts
Johan is 3-2 with a 2.91 ERA, 12 walks and 47 strikeouts (leads the majors).
Top of the 6th
BILLY-BALL-SITE-OF-THE-DAY
Happy 77th birthday to baseball’s greatest living ballplayer, Willie Mays.
http://www.scioncreative.net/willie_v1/ the official Mays website is our site of the day.
Top of the 7th
PROBABLE PITCHERS
AL
Red Sox (Tim Wakefield) at Tigers (Nate Robertson), 7:05
Indians (Fausto Carmona) at Yankees (Andy Pettitte), 7:05
Rays (Andy Sonnanstine) at Blue Jays (A.J. Burnett), 7:07
Angels (Nick Adenhart) at Royals (Brian Bannister), 8:10
Twins (Nick Blackburn) at White Sox (Gavin Floyd), 8:11
Orioles (Brian Burres) at A's (Justin Duchscherer), 10:05
Rangers (Sidney Ponson) at Mariners (Miguel Batista), 10:10
NL
Padres (Chris Young) at Braves (Jair Jurrjens), 7:00
Giants (Jonathan Sanchez) at Pirates (Zach Duke), 7:05
Cubs (Carlos Zambrano) at Reds (Aaron Harang), 7:10
Brewers (Jeff Suppan) at Marlins (Scott Olsen), 7:10
Nationals (Shawn Hill) at Astros (Shawn Chacon), 8:05
Cardinals (Braden Looper) at Rockies (Mark Redman), 8:35
Phillies (Adam Eaton) at Diamondbacks (Randy Johnson), 9:40
Mets (Nelson Figueroa) at Dodgers (Hiroki Kuroda), 10:10
Top of the 8th
DID YOU KNOW?
Here are some incredible numbers produced by Ryan Howard. In 118 at bats so far this season, he has 20 hits resulting in 41 total bases. He has struck out 46 times. His batting average is .169 but his strikeout average is .389.
Top of the 9th
THEY SAY THE NEON LIGHTS ARE BRIGHT…
If there is any player the Yankees should try to acquire this season it’s Lance Broadway. It’s a natural.
Broadway is currently pitching for the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and is 4-1 with a 1.10 ERA.
“And I won't quit till I'm a star on Broadway.”
Bottom of the 9th
BUY THE BOOK
Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller available now from ACTA Sports.
Autographed first editions are available by contacting, Bill@billy-ball.com or order directly from Acta Sports, http://www.actasports.com/detail.html?&id=3427 or from your favorite bookstore worldwide.
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Information provided in Billy-Ball has been gathered from A.P. reports, espn.com, sportsline.com, mlb.com and numerous other e-sources. Opinions expressed in Billy-Ball are obviously solely the opinions of the author of Billy-Ball and do not reflect those of source material no matter how off the wall they may be.
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