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Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
-- Lance Stephenson turned down a 5-year, $44M deal from Indiana; when you're described as a "legitimate knucklehead" by a national sportswriter, I'd be skeptical to think another team is going to offer him a better deal than Indiana.
-- Joe Mauer (oblique) goes on the DL for the struggling Twins.
-- Cardinals hit .330 LY with runners in scoring position; coming into last night's game, they were hitting .243. .330 was an unusually exceptional season.
-- Indians have to be worried about Justin Masterson; they scored 7+ runs in six of his starts this season, but Masterson got the win in only one of those games.
-- Kyle Lowry re-ups with Toronto for four years, $48M, so good for him.
-- New Orleans Saints save $5M thanks to an arbitrator’s decision calling Jimmy Graham a tight end, rather than a wide receiver.
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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Random stuff before a long weekend........
13) Every contender in baseball's pennant races needs help, a reinforcement or two between now and the end of the season; none of the teams are strong enough, as they stand now, to feel secure about themselves as they head towards the second half of the season.
Some teams will get help from injured players returning, but most need help from their front office, even if some of it is merely symbolic, adding a role player, but showing players/fans that they’re trying to help the cause. It perks everyone up when that happens.
12) Look at the Giants; on June 6, they led the Dodgers by 9.5 games; just three weeks later, the lead was gone, it can happen that fast. Every team has at least one flaw; its up to the GM to address and fix those flaws, as best they can.
11) A quick look at the AL West shows the big money Angels/Mariners chasing the small market A’s, who had a terrific first half but could use another starting pitcher to bolster a staff that has been weakened by three injuries.
Someone like Brandon McCarthy or Jorge de la Rosa could give the A’s pitching a jolt and keep them on top of the standings; we’ll see deals like this all thru July. Some will seem smaller than others, but could actually be bigger than they appear.
10) Oakland finished its fifth road trip of the season yesterday; all five were three-city trips, which is unusual, to have so many. Good news is that they don’t have any more three-city trips this season.
9) Lesser teams can improve themselves greatly by trading an aging star for a prospect, if they strike gold with the prospect; in 1987, the Tigers traded for pitcher Doyle Alexander from Atlanta, who helped Detroit make the playoffs. Good deal, right? Well, the prospect they gave Detroit for Alexander turned out to be John Smoltz, so not so much. No one viewed Smoltz as a Hall of Famer back in ’87, but the Braves struck gold on the deal.
8) Rick Porcello’s complete game shutout Tuesday, with no walks/strikeouts, was the first of its kind since Jeff Ballard in 1989. 25 years is a long time.
7) Check out the highlights of Cleveland’s 7-2-4 triple play against the Dodgers Tuesday; line drive to left field is one out, runner gets thrown out at the plate, then Yasiel Puig gets thrown out trying to go to second. Unique play with three outs, two replay reviews and a rally killer for the Dodgers, who trailed 5-3 in the 4th inning at the time- -they wound up losing 10-3.
6) Patty Mills/Manu Ginobili both came up with injuries that will keep out of the World Championships this summer; Mills might miss as much as seven months with a shoulder injury, bad timing for the free agent guard.
5) Virginia Cavaliers are going to have their ninth different starting QB in the last ten seasons; kind of hard to have a solid program when you have instability at the most important position on the field.
4) Buffalo Bills lose LB Kiko Alonso (ACL) for the season, big blow to Buffalo's defense.
3) 51 years ago this week, July 2, 1963, Giants beat the Braves 1-0 in 16 innings. Starting pitchers were two Hall of Famers, Warren Spahn/Juan Marichal-- they both pitched complete games!!!! Vin Scully said that Marichal threw 227 pitches, Spahn 204-- could you imagine that happening today? Me either.
2) I mean a 1-0 game in 16 innings, with Aaron-Mays-McCovey-Cepeda-Matthews all hitting in the game. Spahn was 42 years old at the time. Amazing.
1) ESPN’s basketball coaches’ ranking is nearing the end; really tough choices for the top 5. They went with Rick Pitino #5, Mike Krzyzewski #4, Tom Izzo #3, leaving Calipari-Donovan as the top two. If you rank Coach K #4, don’t see how you put him ahead of Pitino, who I think might be #1 on the list, if I was doing it. That list was a thankless job that was bound to be criticized, but an interesting thing to talk about.
-- Lance Stephenson turned down a 5-year, $44M deal from Indiana; when you're described as a "legitimate knucklehead" by a national sportswriter, I'd be skeptical to think another team is going to offer him a better deal than Indiana.
-- Joe Mauer (oblique) goes on the DL for the struggling Twins.
-- Cardinals hit .330 LY with runners in scoring position; coming into last night's game, they were hitting .243. .330 was an unusually exceptional season.
-- Indians have to be worried about Justin Masterson; they scored 7+ runs in six of his starts this season, but Masterson got the win in only one of those games.
-- Kyle Lowry re-ups with Toronto for four years, $48M, so good for him.
-- New Orleans Saints save $5M thanks to an arbitrator’s decision calling Jimmy Graham a tight end, rather than a wide receiver.
**********
Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Random stuff before a long weekend........
13) Every contender in baseball's pennant races needs help, a reinforcement or two between now and the end of the season; none of the teams are strong enough, as they stand now, to feel secure about themselves as they head towards the second half of the season.
Some teams will get help from injured players returning, but most need help from their front office, even if some of it is merely symbolic, adding a role player, but showing players/fans that they’re trying to help the cause. It perks everyone up when that happens.
12) Look at the Giants; on June 6, they led the Dodgers by 9.5 games; just three weeks later, the lead was gone, it can happen that fast. Every team has at least one flaw; its up to the GM to address and fix those flaws, as best they can.
11) A quick look at the AL West shows the big money Angels/Mariners chasing the small market A’s, who had a terrific first half but could use another starting pitcher to bolster a staff that has been weakened by three injuries.
Someone like Brandon McCarthy or Jorge de la Rosa could give the A’s pitching a jolt and keep them on top of the standings; we’ll see deals like this all thru July. Some will seem smaller than others, but could actually be bigger than they appear.
10) Oakland finished its fifth road trip of the season yesterday; all five were three-city trips, which is unusual, to have so many. Good news is that they don’t have any more three-city trips this season.
9) Lesser teams can improve themselves greatly by trading an aging star for a prospect, if they strike gold with the prospect; in 1987, the Tigers traded for pitcher Doyle Alexander from Atlanta, who helped Detroit make the playoffs. Good deal, right? Well, the prospect they gave Detroit for Alexander turned out to be John Smoltz, so not so much. No one viewed Smoltz as a Hall of Famer back in ’87, but the Braves struck gold on the deal.
8) Rick Porcello’s complete game shutout Tuesday, with no walks/strikeouts, was the first of its kind since Jeff Ballard in 1989. 25 years is a long time.
7) Check out the highlights of Cleveland’s 7-2-4 triple play against the Dodgers Tuesday; line drive to left field is one out, runner gets thrown out at the plate, then Yasiel Puig gets thrown out trying to go to second. Unique play with three outs, two replay reviews and a rally killer for the Dodgers, who trailed 5-3 in the 4th inning at the time- -they wound up losing 10-3.
6) Patty Mills/Manu Ginobili both came up with injuries that will keep out of the World Championships this summer; Mills might miss as much as seven months with a shoulder injury, bad timing for the free agent guard.
5) Virginia Cavaliers are going to have their ninth different starting QB in the last ten seasons; kind of hard to have a solid program when you have instability at the most important position on the field.
4) Buffalo Bills lose LB Kiko Alonso (ACL) for the season, big blow to Buffalo's defense.
3) 51 years ago this week, July 2, 1963, Giants beat the Braves 1-0 in 16 innings. Starting pitchers were two Hall of Famers, Warren Spahn/Juan Marichal-- they both pitched complete games!!!! Vin Scully said that Marichal threw 227 pitches, Spahn 204-- could you imagine that happening today? Me either.
2) I mean a 1-0 game in 16 innings, with Aaron-Mays-McCovey-Cepeda-Matthews all hitting in the game. Spahn was 42 years old at the time. Amazing.
1) ESPN’s basketball coaches’ ranking is nearing the end; really tough choices for the top 5. They went with Rick Pitino #5, Mike Krzyzewski #4, Tom Izzo #3, leaving Calipari-Donovan as the top two. If you rank Coach K #4, don’t see how you put him ahead of Pitino, who I think might be #1 on the list, if I was doing it. That list was a thankless job that was bound to be criticized, but an interesting thing to talk about.
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