Marlins dominate

Wow, when this team doesn't come to play, it is fairly obvious. This had to be the worst game this season to watch. Actually, the Pirates' game this past Sunday would give last night's game a run for its money. I don't really even know where to begin with last evening's game, the fact that they were fielding with something other than a glove, or that they were at the plate with swiss cheese. There were three official errors handed out, but I counted at least three other plays that normally would have been ruled an error. Weeks' throw to Overbay from 7 feet was totally inexplicable. Hardy booted a tailor-made double play ball that wasn't ruled an error. And Hall brutally let a ball play him at third. I don't care, but I just cringe every time Hall is at the hot corner. I don't know who I'd rather see out there, Wes Helms or Hall. There, I went there.

And now on to the offensive display. After Hardy's single in the third inning, Marlins' pitchers threw MORE than a perfect game against the Brewers. They recorded the last 28 outs in a row. Plus, they totalled 22 strike outs in the game. All I could do was shake my head and try not to throw a brick through my TV.

Here's the box score....cover your eys, hide the women and children, and scroll down at your own risk.

Milwaukee AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Magruder, CF 5 1 1 0 0 2 0 .236 Weeks, 2B 4 1 0 0 1 2 0 .258 Overbay, 1B 5 0 0 0 0 2 2 .275 Lee, LF 5 1 1 0 0 4 0 .269 Jenkins, RF 5 0 1 2 0 1 0 .252 Hall, 3B 3 1 0 0 2 3 0 .272 Obermueller, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 Miller, C 4 0 0 0 1 1 2 .276 Hardy, SS 4 0 1 1 1 3 0 .193 Ohka, P 3 0 0 0 0 3 5 .167 Bottalico, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Santana, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 a-Branyan, PH 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .262 Wise, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Helms, 3B 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .275 Totals 40 4 4 3 5 22 9   a-Struck out for Santana in the 9th. BATTING TB: Magruder; Lee; Jenkins; Hardy. RBI: Jenkins 2 (30), Hardy (19). 2-out RBI: Hardy. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Ohka 3. Team LOB: 5. BASERUNNING SB: Hall (10, 2nd base off Burnett/Lo Duca), Lee (9, 3rd base off Burnett/Lo Duca). FIELDING E: Magruder (2, throw), Hardy (5, fielding), Weeks (5, throw). DP: (Hardy-Weeks-Overbay).		Florida AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Pierre, CF 6 2 2 0 0 0 3 .267 Castillo, 2B 5 0 0 0 0 2 5 .333 Delgado, 1B 4 0 0 1 1 0 2 .291 Cabrera, LF 5 1 2 0 1 0 1 .335 Encarnacion, RF 6 1 3 1 0 1 1 .283 Lo Duca, C 4 0 1 1 0 0 3 .295 Lowell, 3B 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 .224 Gonzalez, SS 5 0 2 0 0 1 0 .281 Burnett, P 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 .083 Mecir, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 a-Easley, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .237 Mota, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 b-Conine, PH 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .262 Jones, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 c-Harris, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .314 De Los Santos, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Totals 45 5 13 3 2 5 19   a-Popped out for Mecir in the 7th. b-Singled for Mota in the 9th. c-Flied out for Jones in the 11th. BATTING 2B: Burnett (1, Ohka), Cabrera (22, Ohka). 3B: Cabrera (2, Ohka), Encarnacion (3, Santana). TB: Pierre 2; Cabrera 5; Encarnacion 5; Lo Duca; Lowell; Gonzalez 2; Burnett 2; Conine. RBI: Delgado (60), Lo Duca (34), Encarnacion (49). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Castillo 2; Lo Duca 2; Delgado. S: Castillo. SF: Delgado; Lo Duca. GIDP: Lowell. Team LOB: 11. BASERUNNING SB: Pierre 2 (24, 2nd base off Wise/Miller, 2nd base off Ohka/Miller).
Milwaukee IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Ohka 6.0 6 2 2 0 3 0 3.66 Bottalico (H, 8) 1.0 2 1 0 0 0 0 3.82 Santana (BS, 2) 1.0 1 1 1 0 0 0 4.25 Wise 2.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 2.23 Obermueller (L, 1-2) 1.1 3 1 1 2 0 0 4.15		Florida IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Burnett 6.0 4 4 4 5 14 0 3.33 Mecir 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.56 Mota 2.0 0 0 0 0 4 0 4.11 Jones 2.0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.22 De Los Santos (W, 1-0) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.50
WP: Burnett. IBB: Delgado (by Obermueller). Pitches-strikes: Ohka 87-60, Bottalico 22-14, Santana 13-9, Wise 26-20, Obermueller 31-13, Burnett 125-74, Mecir 13-7, Mota 36-20, Jones 19-15, De Los Santos 10-7. Ground outs-fly outs: Ohka 4-11, Bottalico 2-1, Santana 0-3, Wise 3-1, Obermueller 1-3, Burnett 4-0, Mecir 2-1, Mota 0-2, Jones 3-0, De Los Santos 2-0. Batters faced: Ohka 24, Bottalico 6, Santana 4, Wise 7, Obermueller 9, Burnett 27, Mecir 3, Mota 6, Jones 6, De Los Santos 3. Umpires: HP: John Hirschbeck. 1B: Kerwin Danley. 2B: Jim Reynolds. 3B: Wally Bell. Weather: 88 degrees, clear. Wind: 10 mph, In from CF. T: 3:37. Att: 17,079.

Don't Look Now.....

.....But James Jerry Hardy is improving at the plate!! (Albeit in baby steps) Everybody knew that J.J. wasn't going to provide much offense this year.  He was brought up basically w/o any Triple-A experience to play Gold Glove caliber defense.  It was widely considered that anything he could do with the bat would be an added bonus.  Take a look at the monthly splits for Hardy so far for this year.

 

Month	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
April	.143	.284	.179	.463
May	.218	.283	.309	.592
June	.188	.304	.313	.617
July	.278	.381	.389	.770

 

While I don't expect him to continue to sport a .770 OPS for the rest of the month, it is obvious that he has slowly but steadily improved at the plate as each month passes.  If you have been watching the majority of the games on TV, you should notice that he is making much more solid contact and is driving the ball with more consistency.  I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility that he could finish the year with a .220/.300/.375/.675 line.  Of course, a lot of it will depend on what sort of playing time he will get as the year progresses.  With Russell Branyan coming back and making his debut last night, it will be tougher for Ned Yost to juggle his lineup to make sure Branyan, Hall, Helms, Hardy, and Cirillo get enough at-bats. 

It should also be pointed out that Bill Hall has also quietly fallen back to earth at the plate.  Over his last 10 games, Billy's numbers have gone from .306/.350/.569/.919 down to .276/.319/.527/.846.  His current numbers are still considered excellent for a middle infielder, but I sure wouldn't pin any hopes to him putting up a similar line at the end of the season.  He'll most likely regress back to his career averages a bit.  I will predict a line of .270/.310/.450/.780 at the end of the season.  Hopefully Yost won't have blinders on and continue to run Hall out to shortstop while letting J.J. rot on the bench.  Here's to hoping....

The Upcoming Month

With baseball's trading deadline approaching fast for players who are not required to clear waivers by July 31st approaching fast, I thought I'd look at who could be headed elsewhere this upcoming month. The team has played well as of late, winning 8 of their past 12, including the first two of a seven game road stretch to reach the All Star break.  It's a delicate situation when determining if a team is either a seller or a buyer when the trade deadline approaches.  To the casual Brewer fan, since the club is only three games under .500 and six games back in the wild card race, those individuals would think GM Doug Melvin should be a buyer and go for it.  Not to mention the fact that they would have to jump in front of the seven teams ahead of them in the wild card standings.  Well, those fans couldn't be further from the truth.  Before the season started, it was blatantly obvious that this team was not going to contend for a playoff berth.  Melvin has his eye on 2006 and beyond, not for the remainder of this essentially worthless season. 

With that said, there are some obvious candidates to be with other teams come four weeks from now.  There aren't as many teams that are going to be having a fire sale of talent at the trade deadline with some of the usual candidates are still hovering around with playoff aspirations, meaning what the Brewers have to offer to other clubs will hopefully net a larger return.

Some of the obvious names that could be moved are in the bullpen.  While the 'pen as a whole has been very effective, it has wavered as of late.  It seems that Ricky Bottalico will be shipped out.  He has the least amount of ties to the club, has a reasonable contract, can provide "veteran leadership" to a contending club as he has been a serviceable closer before, and he will be a free agent when the season is over.  Even after he blew up before my eyes this Sunday with me in the stands, he still has a decent 3.93 ERA.  Ricky has been on record as saying that he would give his right arm to go back to Boston and play for the Red Sox.  Boston could be a likely destination, what with Keith Foulke imploding on a nightly basis.  I wouldn't expect more than a fringe AA prospect or two in return for Bottalico. 

Julio Santana also has been drawing a lot of attention from other teams.  I would actually prefer if the Crew held on to Santana, as he has proved himself to be almost invaluable in the bullpen.  He can consistently throw in the high 90's, and has a plus breaking ball when able to locate it.  He has an amazing strike out rate of 32 K's to 28.2 innings.  Santana also makes at/near the league minimum and would bring back more value in a trade than Bottalico would.  I'd actually prefer that Melvin keep Santana around unless he gets offered a deal that he cannot refuse. 

Derrick Turnbow also could be another candidate, albeit less likely.  T-Bow is just another one of Melvin's nuggets that he got for virtually nothing and turned into a quality, contributing big leaguer.  It is apparent that Turnbow does not have the greatest control in the world, fitting into the term "effectively wild" almost perfectly.  He is 17 for 19 in save opportunities, has an ERA of 2.50, has struck out 33 in 36 innings, and is a very effective ground ball pitcher for someone who throws as hard as he does.  If Melvin does deal Turnbow, it would be another example of buying low and selling high, as would be the case with Santana.  Since some teams overvalue the closer role, Melvin might be able to fleece a team by giving up a top prospect who is major league ready in return. 

Out of the rest of the pitching staff, I think Tomo Ohka has the best chance of being shipped off.  While he has been a pretty decent pitcher over his career, he obviously doesn't fit into the Crew's next winning team.  His style of pitching also is not conducive for Miller Park, as Tomo is an extreme fly ball pitcher and Miller Park is like a band box.  Melvin has already dropped hints that he expects to ship Ohka out before the trading deadline.