Chacon Goes For His Record Breaking #9
Here we go again with the stupid interleague games - Buddy Boy’s really really lousy invention, or should I say, lousy pandering to the NY, Chicago, LA and SF markets, where the only rivalries actually, like, you know EXIST???
I guess maybe I shouldn’t underplay the years of hatred between the Brewers and the Rays or the White Sox and the Giants, should I?
But fact is that it is a money maker for those 8 teams and that is what matters most to Buddy Boy. It means nothing to him that it completely disrupts any elements of fairness in either league as teams have to play different opponents and different schedules. And it is ludicrous that the Astros have to play more games against our supposedly hated rivals, the Rangers, than the NL East or West. And no, there IS no historic rivalry. Nobody takes the “Silver Boot Trophy” seriously except for Bud and his lackeys. Not that the players don’t want to win, mind - I certainly didn’t mean that. But there is no more significance in beating the Rangers than there is about beating the Mariners or Orioles.
And don’t get me started about how the DH is an abomination against the Church of Baseball (and speaking of a-BOMB-ing-nation, wouldn’t it be the absolutely COOLEST thing EVAH if the Dbax had Micah Owings as the DH?)
Tonight, it is Shawn Chacon vs Sir Sidney Ponson at Arlington, the best hitter’s park in the AL:
This year, Chacon has thrown 50.1 innings (6 of 8 are QS, averaging 6.1 IP/GS) - 47 H, 6 HR, 23 BB, 35 K: 3.53 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a .253 BAA
At Arlington, he’s 3-0 in 2 GS and 1 in relief over 15.1 IP - 12 H, 0 HR, 7 BB, 13 K: 1.57 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and a .214 BAA
VS the Rangers hitters: Frank Catalanotto is 3/16, Milton Bradley is 2/11, Michael Young is 5/11, Ramon Vasquez is 4/6, Hank Blalock is 4/6, Josh Hamilton is 0/1 (but he’s bout the best hitter in the AL, so Shawn best be careful)
I look at this stupid IL game like this - if Chacon manages to break the ML record of starting the year with 9 consecutive no-decisions, the Astros will FINALLY get some national publicity. I mean, why would they waste words on Lance Berkman’s excellence?
Sidney Ponson, RHP, age 31 - yeah, that’s right, he’s only 31, hard to believe.
Anyway, he hasn’t had a good year since his 03 season with the Orioles: 5.30 ERA in 04 over 215 IP, 6.21 IP over 130 IP in 05, 5.24 ERA over 68.2 IP with the Cards and a 10.47 ERA over 10.1 IP with the desperate Yankees in 06, 6.93 ERA over 37.1 IP with the Twins in 07 and so far this year, 2-0 in 4 GS over 25.2 IP - 27 H, 1 HR, 9 BB, 12 K: 3.19 ERA, 1.40 WHIP and a .265 BAA.
This year, in his 4 starts, he gave up 5 runs (1 ER) in 5 IP to the Twins, 1 R/8 IP to the Royals, 1 R/7 IP to the Mariners and 6 R/5.1 IP to the A’s.
In Arlington, he’s 4-1 in 10 GS and 1 in relief over 62.1 IP - 82 H, 5 HR, 18 BB, 34 K: 5.63 ERA, 1.60 WHIP and a .319 BAA. Like I said, Arlington is a serious hitter’s park.
He last faced the Astros 2 years ago when he was with the Cards, and of that team, only Ausmus and Berkman remain.
VS Astros hitters: Cheito Cruz 4/27 with 4 BB, Tejada is 5/22 with 2 doubles and a HR, Carlos is 6/22 with 2 doubles and a HR, Erstad is 5/19 with 2 doubles and a triple, Wiggy is 0/8, Loreta is 3/6 with a double and Lance is 1/3.
Tonight, it’s going to be fairly cool outside, somewhere around 74 or so at game time without much wind, so it is possible the balls won’t travel as much as they usually do, you never know…
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12 Responses to “Chacon Goes For His Record Breaking #9”
May 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I admit I never thought that when this game came around that the Stros would be over .500 and that the Rangers would be within striking distance of .500. Hand it to the Stros - they have been playing great; I guess sometimes what looks good on paper actually is good.
For the Rangers, Kinsler is on a tear, and David Murphy is leading the AL in doubles. Salty figures to get the start at C, which is good for Bourn, since he really sucks defensively. You guys might luck out with no Bradley tonight, as he’s been kind of dinged up and hasn’t played in a few days. Cold hitters: Shelton, Salty, Duran, Boggs. Hamilton has been cool lately and is due for a monster game. Chacon & Ponson are kind of in the same position - retreads who have had pretty good starts.
All signs point to one of those 8-6 games.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Kinda sad (but true) that it’s probably gonna take a worthless thing like a ML record for consecutive no-deicisions for the Astros to get any national pub.
Lance is on a record-setting hot streak, and he still gets nothing more than a passing 30 second mention about 3/4 of the way through Sportscenter or ESPNews.
Could you imagine if A-Rod or Papi was on this kinda of run, helping his team win 11 of 13, hitting game winning clutch hits every other night, batting .550 over the course of the past 3 weeks? Not only would they have it leading off Sportscenter with what happened that day, they would then spend the next 5 mintues in their stupid “roundtable” talking about how great of a player ARod/Papi is and how amazing he’s been playing.
Guess Lance will just have to win the Triple Crown this year. Maybe, just maybe, then he’ll get some national attention.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
COMPLETELY ON POINT as usual…
the DH in baseball is the equivalent of arena football having a shorter field and no out of bounds….
and about the astros getting national publicity because of the no decisions- i completely agree as well
i am fairly certain even the royals get more coverage than we do- and NOBODY likes the royals.
berkman’s streak deserves national following….
but if the astros were considered important on a national media level- i guess we would lose a bit of the underdog title that comes with relative obscurity-
even with the heart of our lineup being nationally known stars- we still dont get respect.
are we the rodney dangerfield of MLB?
May 16th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Sportscenter has been running a spot on Berkman’s tear the last 24 hours in their endless loop of crappy sports coverage, so it’s not like they are completely ignoring the Stros.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
jdollas,
i would say that ol Theo The Geeeenyuss got the short end of the stick on the gagne trade, wouldn’t you?
martin,
like roy said, if lance did what he’s doing but he played for NY/bos he’d be taking up most of the news
the national networks just do NOT want to talk about players who don’t play up there near bristol. it’s hard enuf for them to devote the couple minutes an hour to non-ny/bos/cubs/philly teams that they actually do give
and it doesn’t help that lance is a GOB who is not exactly sexy.
shrug
their loss
and like i keep saying - i don’t get it because seem to me that buddy boy and gang want to try to promote MLB as this wholesome fun sport played by the nice guy/choir boys of the world and unless they know something we don’t, lance is exactly that
May 16th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
tideturns
it was bad enough back in 05 when buck/mccarver had to call games between teams from the 3rd and 4th largest cities in america like it was portland oregon vs lincoln nebraska or something.
then at least they could talk about the black sox from last century and how clemens and pettitte the ex YANKEES brough mystique and aura with them
then national media also keeps insisting how superior the AL is in every way and they gotta keep on finding ways to prove it and it is a nuisance to have to even bother to mention the other league
interesting that they were all the ones screaming about “parity” over the past 10 years and then they decided that only 4 teams are worth mentioning. it is really gonna help create parity of ANY kind when they like to ignore most of the ML teams
BAH
May 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
again, well put.
for the record i would like to praise your blog- ive been a devoted reader for quite a while- and i just have to say that i prefer your insight over richard justice’s insight ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.
(richard justice drives me insane because he’s got a bigger ego than roger clemens- and is extremely inconsistent with his opinions. fairweather fan as a sportswriter= not good)
kudos!
May 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Concur.
While not a long-time reader, I’d have to say that this season your excellent blog has taken the place of chron.com/sports as the first place I go to read about my Astros.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Just read they’re moving Pence to leadoff, and batting Bourn 8th. I’m of the mind that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but I guess we’ll see. A 100-point boost in BA and OBP at the top of the lineup can’t hurt, can it?
May 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Did you notice that the day after I sent that angry letter to Olney’s blog, he led off with a story about Lance and interviewed our hitting coach? Coincidence? Hmmm. :)
Yeah, putting Hunter leadoff is dicey. He’s walking a little more, but he’s still struggling with the slider a bit. He’ll have to get in the leadoff mindset of making the pitcher show all of his pitches, and that is not Hunter’s usual MO — he likes to “see ball-hit ball.”
But you’re right — having that high OBP up there could be interesting. And with the DH, we won’t have a pitcher at the bottom so batting 8th isn’t so bad. We’ll see…
May 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
tideturns,
thank you gf - and, by the way, i like your sign!!! i saw you grrrls on one of the broadcasts. (and nice car too!!)
as for justice, the thing i can’t understand about him is him man-luuuvvv for budzilla. as for his writing - especially in his blog - he’s mostly baiting people to get responses. he actually sounds a LOT different on his radio show - he doesn’t talk like a dumbass there. it’s too bad he can’t write like he talks, but i guess as a “columnist” instead of a baseball beat guy, he has to be a dork.
and i guess he has to prove to espn that he can create controversy instead of talking like a knowledgeable, intelligent guy. espn don’t like that very much.
martin,
i am ALSO a if it ain’t broke don’t fix it kind of thinker, but it might could be that they asked bourn if he would feel more comfortable at #8 for a while. but i am afraid that it is gonna lead to the same kind of screaming about the 7,8,9 guys that we had last year and why people actually think that every guy in a lineup has to hit 300 for a team to win i don’t understand…
- and pence hasn’t been a leadoff hitter and isn’t exactly into patience at the plate. he almost never walks and is a hacker…
shrug…
steve,
olney is on insider. so most of us couldn’t/didn’t read about lance. i mean, seriously, lance should be the BBTN highlight instead of manny acting like his usual buffoon self
- grinning
and i see you are thinking bout the same as me with hunter leading off
May 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am
yeah i specifically avoid his radio show because of his blog…
dont get me wrong- i still read the blog- but out of sheer curiosity.
thanks about that car hahah!
p.s. the sign might be on tv again this week.
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