MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ryan Dempster Shuts Out Astros

Well, I guess a sweep was asking a little bit much. I very carefully tried not to point out yesterday, that 5 of the Astros 6 hits were singles and that only 4 balls were hit to the deep OF.

Today, the boys managed 6 singles and 1 walk (by Towles) and couldn’t drive home a single runner with bases loaded. Towles had 3 of the worst swings I’ve ever seen from a position player, Backe was called out on ball 4 (oh yes it was - and I checked gameday, too and that pitch was called a ball every single time) and Kaz popped out.

Backe gave up 2 runs in the first when he couldn’t keep the ball down - in fact he only managed 2 strikes below mid-thigh that inning. But he certainly had the curve, change and slider working for the next few innings - the Cubs were flailing helplessly. In the 5th, Fontenot hit a cheapo homer just next to the RF foul pole on a slider that hung. He gave up a single to The Riot, but then escaped without further trouble.

Of course, it was in the bottom of the 5th that the ump called him out on ball 4 and Backe was upset and jumped up and down a few times. But Backe came back out to start the 6th and did a great job, striking out 2 and giving up a single to left. And the ump didn’t try to get revenge by calling every pitch a ball, neither. Good for him. In the 7th, Fontenot got a IF single that just got by Backe and Tejada couldn’t get to in time. Dempster sac bunted, then The Riot hit a single to left that naturally, Clank didn’t get to very fast and he made a really lousy throw home. If Erstad had been in left, he would have nailed that sucker - it was a pretty shallow hit.

And speaking of Erstad, anyone want to guess how he’s done with the bat since he’s supplanted Bourn? (Since July 12, he’s 2 fer 20 - if you’d rather use July 4, it’s 7 fer 40, not counting 2 pinch hit appearances - worse than the guy he’s replacing.) Yeah, I know. Small sample size. But he’s not making himself look good for the trade market. Which Ed Wade is busy in, so he says. Along with the fact that he doesn’t like talking about “buyers” or “sellers” markets.

Speaking of trades, I figured this is as good a time as any to talk about Billy Beane and the A’s. Over the past year, he has traded every recogniseable star player who isn’t injured to re-stock his club, something he has been doing with increasing frequency over the past 4 years. He seems to want to trade a player after his 3rd year, and if not then, pretty much fer SHER after his 4th year, whether or not he is signed to a longer term contract or is just arb eligible. I know that many believe that fans root for teams, not players, but I think that is tougher to do when you as a fan are fairly sure that regardless of performance, you know it is best not to bother to have a favorite player because you know he’s going to be gone in a year or 2 - not because he is some “greedy FA” who wants to play in NY, but because your team is trying to play as cheaply as possible by playing only young, cheap players.

Seems that the only real recognizeable star of the A’s is Billy Lamar Himself. I don’t know if it is the team, the city or the ballpark, but seems to me that the stands are pretty empty unless one of the ESPN darlings is in town. (And I’m not sure that is going to change in an expensive, small new stadium located quite a ways out of town and quite a ways from public transportation…)

I don’t think Drayton really would want to go that far - I mean, it would be going from root root root for the good guys - to - root root root for the whoevers. There should be some ground between holding on to players waaaaay past their expiration date (Biggio) to getting rid of them as soon as you have to pay them more than minimum wage. Really, right now, the only long term Astros are Berkman, Lee and Oswalt - and as much as I grouse about Clank and his ponderous plodding to the vicinity of baseballs being hit and his spaghetti arm, I would hate to see the team’s players basically completely turned over every 3 years.

Anyway, Monday we get to watch the 2 worst pitchers in the majors, Runs Elvys Hernandez and John Van Benschoten battle it out. I would say - expect one of those football score games except that then fer sher it would turn into a 1-0 pitchers’ duel with both pitchers pitching CG no hitters and the final score of 1-0 which would occur because a guy got on because of a ROE, then a sac-bunt, then a groundout, then a WP.

Wouldn’t that be kewl?

Heck, it might could even get the Astros an actual appearance on the hour-long BBTN. Maybe even before the usual 20 minute discussions of the hangnails of the various Yankee/Red Sox players. Hey, it COULD happen…

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Bandon Backe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.