Weekend Ramblings

Had an excellent weekend and it was nice to cap it off with a Reds W this afternoon. I was watching the game and wanted to get food, but decided to wait until the game was over to leave the couch. It's funny how when your team is competitive they tend to have an influence over your schedule, especially when and where you eat your meals. Anyway, I was happy I ignored my stomach and stuck it out because I got to see the Reds rally back to tie the game with one out in the ninth off Nat's closer Matt Capps (who leads the NL in saves with 18). Stubbs doubled over the right-fielder's head, then back-to-back pinch hitters in Gomes and Rolen did the rest (BTW, excellent move Dusty! The Reds' skipper gets criticized for every decision that doesn't work out, but rarely gets credit for moves like these). Hot-hitting Johnny Gomes ripped an RBI double down the line in left to tie the game, then the Reds' veteran third basemen put a hanging curveball 15 rows deep in the left-field bleachers! Awesome, right? WRONG. Both closers managed to blow saves as Coco Cordero allowed Washington to tie the game on an RBI double after walking the lead-off man. And that was when I decided to leave for Subway... Fortunately, I got to hear the Cowboy on the car ride home call the Drew Stubbs RBI single in the 10th which ended up being the game-winner as Nick Masset shut the door in the bottom half of the inning, picking up his first NL save (he previously had only one save for the Chicago White Sox before being traded).

You gotta feel for Bronson Arroyo, who threw a solid eight innings giving up only two earned runs but got the no decision. The Reds' starters continue to throw well and both the young and old bats have come up huge in big spots i.e. Stubbs, Gomes, Rolen, etc. The Reds leave Washington winning the series and avoid facing first-round pick Steven Strasburg, but the real right-handed rookie phenom is Mike Leake, who improved to 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA in the nation's capital. P.S. don't look now, but he's hitting .417! Chris Welsh mentioned this on the air during today's game, but I don't have ESPN Insider; I hear it's an excellent piece by Buster Olney. My buddy text me last night about Leake, "Rookie of the year for sure.... Can u imagine him not in our startin rotation? Thank the lord for him" > Seconded. Another buddy directed me to some Lance McAlister tweets, "Leake: 11 starts now..73 innings. His career high in innings is 142, last year at Arizona St. If he averages 6 innings, over his next 12 starts, he would hit 142 innings around August 17...." (I love Lance, great blog! Check out Mo Egger's blog too) Also loved watching BP play so hard on the field, I don't care what the Nationals say, that's how you play the game.

If you can watch This Week in Baseball, do (sorry I couldn't find the actual video. If you can, send it to me and I'll post it). There is some great stuff about the gold glove combination up the middle in Phillips and Orlando Cabrera plus some really funny clips of Bronson and Leake's BROmance off the field, apparently Bronson took the rook under his wing.

I was wearing my Reds cap and two different random people asked me what the score was/did they win, not to mention the deep convo I had with some random bro outside the men's room at the bar last night. Can you believe the buzz the boys from Cincy are making this year in the MLB? They're 5-1 in extra-innings, No. 4 in the power rankings! Finally a winning product on the field and its obvious the fans appreciate it.

The first annual Ohio University Club Baseball Alumni game was this weekend and I had a blast. The old men were winning around the third inning when we got hit with some serious showers, but I think the current Bobcats would have pulled out a victory. Sorry grads, I'm not giving you a pass. It was great to get such a good turn out, catch up, and party with my former teammates.

--Congrats to FIU's Garrett Wittels, who has hit safely in 56 straight NCAA games--two short of the record.
--The consensus best amateur player in America and likely No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper got tossed in the JuCo World Series. Ya can't argue balls and strikes kid.
--Yanks won, Girardi got tossed, and A-Rod got hurt. Fantasy heads-up, but he's expected to be back in the lineup Tuesday. Orlando Hudson will also be out for a bit.
--Speaking of fantasy, I'm having a very frustrating week. Teixeira has been killing me, A's pitcher Brett Anderson went back on the DL, and Roy Oswalt got blown up yesterday by the Cubs. What's worse is I'm playing the team with the worst record in my league, and even though he's got Pujols and Javier Vazquez (who had a huge week on the hill), Jerry Hairston Jr. starts on his team in the utility spot... gimme a break! I guess he knows something I don't ;) It looks like I'll end up losing the head-to-head 6-4. BLAH. Oh, and I had Matt Capps in and Scott Rolen out since he didn't start. As previously mentioned, Capps blew a save and Rolen had a pinch-hit big fly; that pretty much sums up the week for me.
--Ubaldo Jiminez's 33 scoreless inning-streak was snapped by the D-backs Conor Jackson. Rockies still got the win, Jiminez is 11-1 with an 0.93 ERA. Ridiculous.

You've probably seen this, but how cool is that! I still can't figure out how to do it, but give it a try--you'll bruise a lot more than just your ego, I promise.


This is a bit older too, but remember those MLB 2K10 commercials about pitching a perfect game for a million bucks. No Jim Joyce moments here, that actually happened. The game is good, but God, why can't The Show be sold for XBOX? :P

Here's some good stuff to check out when you're bored:
--Saw this on Lance's blog, see every MLB contract and find out how much Chedda' your favorite player makes.
--Thanks to Andy for sending me links to these blogs:
http://chris-sabos-goggles.com/
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/
http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/cincinnatireds/
http://www.redreporter.com/
http://marksheldon.mlblogs.com/

*Sorry this post is so heavy-handed on the Redlegs stuff, I promise it won't always be that way, but hey they're winning so it's justified!
**Also, watch for me on Twitter. I've finally been convinced to Tweet, so I'll be going over to the dark side sometime this week. I'll keep you posted.