The A’s manage to take game 3 and the series (2-1) on a hell of a performance by Dallas Braden to beat Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander yesterday, 5-1. The season series (barring a playoff meeting) ends at 4-2 Tigers.
TGC and Joel Zumaya take exception to the Short Message Service correspondence received from one EdayStat after the game.
GFY, good sir... GFY
Oh yeah… how’d game four in ’06 work out for you?
Clark, Addison, Michigan, Trumbull... Check
Today starts the mid-week series between two APIAS homers in my Tigers and 2SL’s Cubbies. Obviously this is an interesting interleague matchup between 2 historic teams. It is also a rematch of the 1945 World Series, which I’m sure you all remember, was won by Los Tigres 4-3. This was the same Series Cubs’ writer Warren Brown called “The World’s Worst Series.” Seems like there may have also been somewhat of an international conflict going on around then, but who can say for sure?
The 1935 classic was also won by the Tigs (4-2).
You have to go all the way back to 1908 to locate a Cubby win against the boys from Motown. Something sticks out about that year… but I digress.
More interesting these days, however, might be the pitching matchups those in the Chicago and Detroit metro areas (and all of us with MLB.tv) will get to enjoy.
Let’s take a look at what we’re getting this week.
Tonight: Carlos Zambrano, RHP (4-2, 3.44) vs Edwin Jackson, RHP (6-4, 2.39)
Big Z is looking more like his old self after a quick stint on the DL. He’s rocking a 2.20 ERA since rejoining the team. Jackson, on the other hand, continues to be the horse everyone thought he was coming over from Tampa last year, only more impressive. He is currently #1 on the team in ERA and has thrown more innings than Tiger ace Justin Verlander.
Tomorrow: Rich Harden, RHP (4-3, 5.27) vs Rick Porcello, RHP (8-4, 3.54)
This battle of relative newbies should provide plenty of contact but not much scoring. Harden has held his spot nicely since coming over from Oakland and 20 year old Ricky P is doing nothing but validating his enormous signing bonus in 2007. He may wear down sometime toward the late summer (having never pitched above single-A before this year) but don’t tell him, with his 8 wins and sub-4 ERA.
Thursday: Ted Lilly, LHP (7-4, 3.04) vs Armando Galarraga, RHP (3-7, 5.62)
Galarraga is one more bad outing from losing his job in the rotation. The Tigers have hit LHP’s well this year, but Lilly has been consistently solid, with a team-leading 11 quality starts. I’ll take the Cubs to win here, but the story really will be: Can Armando find the 5th inning?
Get ready for some good-time historic baseball this week. I’m a sucker for tradition, so you can bet I’ll be on the porch watching this one.
Surprising no one in the entire world, Brazil beat the USA 3-0 in the Confederations Cup today. The USA had exactly zero shots on goal, while the Brazilians had eight (8!). Two guys who go by only one name scored for the winners. I think I have figured out the problem.
Hmm… a bunch of tiny looking guys, no? What if they looked like this..?
Can you imagine how could LeBron, Kobe and Chris Paul would be on a soccer field? Tayshaun Prince would be the best goalie since… um, I don’t know of any great goalies in soccer history. But, he’d be pretty damn good. I would almost guarantee last year’s Olympic Champion “Redeem Team” could give a better effort than the current USA Soccer “team.” Hell, we might even let Coach K coach them, if they could actually get a shot on goal.
In honor of secondary recruiting violations becoming national news, I would like to remind you that it is only
until the pom-pons fall from the Glocker Haslam Bridge , the checkerboard flowers are planted outside the UC, and the official inaugration of the new First Orange Family.
Now that we are a quarter of the way through the season, I thought it would be fun to take a second and evaluate the Tigers old and new against their free-agent winter prospects. I’m using the 2009 salaries provided by ESPN.com and for a quantitative look at productivity, the ESPN Fantasy Player Rating. Admittedly this is not the most scientific study, but it does provide two comparative data points with which to evaluate Mr. D’s spending habits. (And let’s not forget, we are still in first place.)
Dollar value is calculated by multiplying the players 2009 salary by his current player rating (as of 5-27-09) and then dividing by 100,000 to get a usable number.
(c) TGC MMIX
On first review, the Tigs fall right where you think they should. Namely, Cabrera is worth every penny, Inge and Curt need raises, and Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon are thieving bums.
Look a little closer though and you’ll argue that Dontrelle hasn’t had enough data points this year to accrue a valid rating, making his value an outlier. I would argue that the guy makes $10 Million a year and that the evaluation is accurate.
Everette and Santiago are, as expected, in the middle of the pack and well worth the cost. Josh Anderson has been a nice surprise with a league-minimum salary yet a positive player rating, while Gerald Laird is worth so much more than he’s given credit for here in unmeasureables.
So anyway, nothing too spectacular here as far as shocking information, but it appears that this confirms Dave Dombrowski as a man that knows how to spend a dollar wisely (for the most part cough… Gary Sheff… cough).
Fearless Weekend Predictions is a weekly column running on Friday afternoons where our resident soothsayer (or whoever we can get) locks down what will transpire in the coming 72 hours. It’s better to get these out before the 7-year is open. The crystal ball gets cloudy.
It’s about 10AM on Friday morning as I begin to write this. Yes, I am at work. Yes, I am on the clock. No, I don’t care that I am stealing money. There, I’m glad we got that cleared up. I’d like to clear something else up as well. It is very fun to talk about recruiting rankings, especially now that UK is being talked about as having one of the great recruiting classes of all time, but they don’t a damn thing. The Fab Five from Michigan is hailed as the greatest recruiting class ever; how many NCAA Titles did they win? Zero. Isn’t that what it’s all about? The Fab Five were awesome and they revolutionized basketball, but they never won a title so why do we consider them so great? Let’s look at 2004, another great time for Kentucky recruiting. Tubby Smith (who is lambasted for his “poor” recruiting) landed the top class in the country according to Rivals.com‘s rankings. That class never got past the Elite Eight (which they did as freshmen) and was filled with turmoil the years they were there. Randolph Morris played the Hokey-Pokey (one foot in…one foot out) with the NBA before finally bolting for good and Rajon Rondo was percieved as selfish during his two years in Lexington. The two guys who made it all four years at UK, Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley, were forced to play with lackluster talent after their classmates left for the league and struggled mightily their senior year with new coach Billy Gillispie after Smith left for Minnesota. I’m not trying to be a buzzkill and I think UK’s class this year is totally different, mainly because their won’t be a huge talent dropoff in next year’s recruiting class, but let’s keep our expectations tempered UK fans. Enough with the ranting, let’s do this…
The Lakers will lose two games in Denver. LA is in big, big trouble. They struggled with a Houston team that didn’t have its stars and have been outplayed the first two games against Denver. I know I’m not the first person to say to say this, but their point guard play is awful. Derek Fisher is a shell of the guy who was there earlier this decade. He is absolutely killing them right now. And, somehow, the Nuggets are outplaying them in every facet of the game. Where did the Nuggets come from? I have no idea, but I feel like they’re here to stay… at least for this year.
Lane Kiffin will commit a minor NCAA infraction. I can’t say exactly what it will be this time. Will it be an inappropriate tweet? Will he call out another SEC coach? Will he Superman some ho? Who knows? The only thing I know is that my UT friends are hoping his bark is like his bite… or just that the Vols win some football games this fall. Sidenote: his wife is still smoking hot.
John Calipari will come to your BBQ, shake hands, kiss babies and still not sleep with your girlfriend. This guy is almost invincible and he’s yet to coach a game. He convinced the #1 PG/player in the country to come to UK after he’d already gotten the #3 PG to come (yeah, I know I’m going against my rant above), he sends out about 15 tweets a day to his 75,000+ followers and seems to be a genuine guy. All this comes before he coaches a game. Wait until he finds out what happens when he loses to Gardner-Webb.Yes! Weekend! Long weekend! Pools opening! Go have the greatest weekend and always remember to be better.
The APIAS crew is out of pocket for the weekend. Let’s be honest though, you guys should be out by a pool drinking Coronas or on the golf course anyway. It’s A’s/Tigers this weekend, so pick your Eday/TGC sides now.
If you need me, I’ll be cursing the diety somewhere in central Tennessee.
Have a good weekend you magnificent bastards.
(Maybe if you get lucky, you’ll hear from Smoothron or Bru. If you do, let me know where they’re hiding.)
Holly found video of the announcement earler. I particularly enjoy the profanity and the “gates” joke, thought I’m not sure Miss Miller did.
I need someone more Biblically inclined to explain whether the officials joke is a Jew joke or a blind joke.
Usually when we find and share stories around here, they are somehow sports related. For instance, the story from ESPN.com today about Elijah Dukes (yes that one) getting $500 from a local Washington-area Little League for an appearance in which he signed a few autographs, watched a parade, and jetted.
Not interesting? Okay, well he ended up being late to the game, was fined $500 and suspended by manager Manny Acta.
Still not interesting? Well, the Little League he was visiting PAID HIS FINE FOR HIM!
They held a fundraiser. Of course they did. After all, Dukes is only making $415,500 this year (ESPN). What a guy. Makes me wonder how a guy like that could ever threatened his wife and kids, or impregnate a 17-year old on his grandmother’s couch and throw a Gatorade bottle at her.
As good as that story is today, I actually have one to top it. Follow along after the jump for the headline of the week.
This
guy
is
hitting
the
links
today!
Suck
it
cube-
dwellers
(Tigers
in
first
place
again!)
APIAS 