MVN: Most Valuable Network

Go On BOY!!!

The way he made them feel
He knocked them offn their feet
yeah yeah
Their lonely days are here..

They hate the feelin he's givin them
3 nasty pitches
And they're back on the bench again
He gives them fever from on the mound
They try to hit,
but just have to sit back down

The ump is squeezin him
Somethin fierce
But he just goes out
And Ks Steven Pearce

That curve is cuttin from 12-5
The FB is hoppin, full of life
If they get on,
He gets a double play
They take a pitch but strike out
Anyway

OOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOOOO

The way he made them fee eeeeeeeel
He really turned it onnnnnnn
He knock em offn their feet
yeahyeah

His losin days are gon neee

(apologies to Mr. Glove)

Yessiree, Wandy just had awesome command of that FB AND his emotions. Quintero can't frame pitches for spit - I checked with gameday, just to be sure and yes, EIGHT pitches which were strikes were called balls (and only the very last pitch, which was actually a ball, was called a strike.) Wandy didn't get but 2 pitches on the Black called strikes and he shrugged it of and just went out and flat out DOMINATED. 4 singles, 1 IF squibbler, 1 walk, 2 GIDP and 11 K - 125 pitches, 85 strikes.

He got stronger and stronger as the game went on and his velocity on the FB increased from around 89 to 92-93. Yes, that little itty guy can throw a baseball 93 MPH and there are guys twice his size who can't. He threw first pitch strikes to 21/31 batters (actually, 23 of 31 batters if you look at location of the pitches) and threw the curve for strikes, too. Of his 11 Ks, 9 were on FB, 2 were on curves and 7 were swinging.

There was one bad minute I had in the 9th, when he gave up one of his 5 piddly singles of the day to Delwyn Young with 2 outs and Garrett Jones up. If Coop had pulled Wandy to put in Tim Freaking Byrdak, I think I would have had to reach straight through the TV and strangle one crazy manager. But fortunately, Wandy hadn't given up any runs, and the rule is that Coop doesn't pull you with man on first, 2 out in the 9th as long as you are pitching a shutout. All bets are off if you gave up 1 run, no matter how many runs you are leading by.

Hats off to Miggy, who looked like dog poo yesterday, for making 2 really excellent double plays, especially the second one, on which Matsui threw high and Miggy had to adjust to throw to Lance in time.

Michael Bourn looked a lot better today, going 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. Pence still doesn't look right with his stance/swing and neither does Carlos, who did hit a double barely fair inside the RF line. His swing was early on a ball out of the strike zone and that isn't good hitting. Hope he can get himself fixed during the break.

And Lance? He's hitting .381/.536/.524/1.060 for July and is now .273/.401/.529/.930 for the year. He's been out of his slump for 2 months now.

I'll drink to that...

Bourn is definitely not seeing the ball well, Pence is definitely not seeing the ball well (he looks like he did in the first 2 months of 08) and Carlos is not seeing the ball well. There is no excuse, freaking NONE, for 3 different guys (Pence, Matsui, Keppinger) to swing, on the FIRST pitch, which, by the way, was out of the strike zone and ground into double plays. In freaking excuseable. Maholm isn't exactly an ace, but for some reason, the Astros always make him look like one. Because they don't do &*$^&#%! with MOB!!!! Second inning, 2 outs, Keppinger leaves men on first and second. Third inning, Lance, then Lee leave a man on third. 4th inning, 1 out, Kaz GIDP - AND on a pitch waaaaaayyy out of the zone!!! 6th inning, 2 outs, Pudge leaves a man on first. 7th, 2 out, Lance leaves men... Read more

Mike Hampton has a W in his last 10 decisions against the Pirates. That might could almost be better than Roy's streak against the Reds, because Roy has a bunch of NDs amongst the wins. (I don't guess that I should note that counting the 4 Pirates games, Hampton is 5-5 with a 4.16 ERA/1.35 WHIP and without them, he's 1-5 with a 5.28 ERA and 1.57 WHIP - only 3 of his 7 QS/ 14 GS were not against the Pirates...) And what is most amazing is that the Pirates lineup Hampton faced has only 2 of the same guys on it since the first time he faced their team in April. I mean, that team has almost completely turned over. There is Jack Wilson and Andy LaRoche. Period. I guess their ownership is trying to get rid of any player making more than the minimum, so I guess... Read more

At 3 PM in Houston Texas in mid-July, it is HOT and even with ceiling fans, it is still HOT. So when we sat down to watch the game, we noticed that the fans were wearing jackets and long sleeve jerseys and we just might could have felt a leeeetle envious. So I knew I was gonna hear a bit of grumbling from Husband. I reassured him that Randy Johnson wasn't exactly Tim Lincecum these days and Roy has been rounding into his second half form. And besides, if the Astros got shutout AGAIN, it would be the first time, probably EVAH, that any ML team got swept with 3 shutouts and we'd be the leadoff story on BBTN, even beating out Manny and the other 4 pet teams. And I wasn't even a little surprised to see that Cooper benched Bourn in favor of Jason Michaels, even though Bourn... Read more

They weren't voted in, but they were picked by the players, managers and coaches as backup. So far, the only OF picked who is an actual CF is Beltran, who is on the DL. We NL fans had better pray that Beltran and Ibanez (also voted in and also on the DL) are replaced by guys who can actually PLAY center, even if they aren't big time HR hitters. And no, I'm not sorry Pudge wasn't picked. He no longer has any business on an All-Star team.... Read more

I do believe Michael Jackson's PYT is tonight's song. Putrid Yicky Thwingth... It was HOT today, a GOOD 100 in the shade, so this year's BBQ was held at my Mama's best friend's house - she has a pool in the backyard (and a bathroom right off the kitchen) AND she has satellite radio. You see, THAT is important because the game was blacked out because of the Saturday afternoon MLB rules. Anyway, HER house, HER sounds... Therefore, we listened to the game - we got there at the beginning of the second inning - and I wouldn't agree to turn on KTRH in the car. After the second inning is over, my brother turns to me and said - hey, these announcers are GOOD, what is your PROBLEM??? So I told him - those are the GIANT'S announcers and you are right and they are great. Ours are the absolute worst... Read more

Husband did NOT want to watch the game last night. He said - we both know that the Astros grab ankles and allow rookies to repeatedly kick their (gluteal muscles) and anyhow, Paulino sucks. Bad attitude. But I had to watch the last 3 of 4 games on replay and I felt like watching a game live so I said FINE, I'll watch it with the Dogsss. (Yes, of course my Dogsss are baseball fans - you should see them fetch balls and sticks... But I digress...) So anyway, here I was, hoping that the Felipe Paulino who actually spotted his FB well and got his slider to move 5 days ago would show up. He sort of showed up for the first batter. He threw a straight FB down the middle, then an inside FB, then a perfectly spotted inside slider, then a Brad Lidge slider which got him... Read more

For the first 3 innings, it seemed as if the Padres young rookie would pitch a perfect game needing less than 80 pitches - swings and misses, weakass grounders (Sliva actually looks like a sinkerballer.) Then stuff happened. When you are a sinkerballer, the worst thing that can happen, besides the sinker not sinking, is that grounders find holes (which is what happens to Sampson, usually, when he gets hit) and singles happen. So in the 4th, Bourn hit a screaming liner to first, then Tejada (thankfully back in the 2-hole instead of Keppinger) and Berkman hit ones that got by, then (although I was dreading the usual GIDP) Carlos singled to right and Tejada scored from second - Lance went to third on the bad throw, which SHOULD have been to the cutoff man. Yes, Evelyn, the cutoff man is a VERY important man. You see, he is supposed... Read more

(with apologies to Rod Temperton) It's close to midnight and Roy Oswalt is dealin on the moundUnder the floodlight, the fans hear only swishing soundsYou try to hit, but that fastball has some wicked movementYou start to freeze as curveballs seem to be right at your eyesYou're paralyzed'Cause this is Roy-O's thriller nightAnd no one's gonna save you from his throwing yet another strikeYou know it's thriller, thriller nightYou're fighting for your hits inside a killer, thriller tonightYou hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to runYou see the slider and wonder if he'll ever hang just oneYou concentrate, and hope that Roy will finally lose itBut all the while, he's getting better by the pitchYou're out of time'Cause this is Roy-O's thriller nightThere ain't no second chance against the curveball you can't hitThriller, thriller nightYou're fighting for your hits inside a killer, thriller tonightDarkness falls on Padre landThe 9th inning is now at handLast chance at comeback has gone todayCuz A-Gon didn't... Read more

Ortiz didn't deserve what happened. He pitched GREAT, gave up 6 hits - 4 singles, a double and a solo homer - NO walks and 5 K and 2 GIDP and 2 runs. He was cruising in the top of the 8th, got the first out, after cruising through the 7th getting 3 quick outs on 8 pitches. For absolutely no reason I can think of, Coop pulled Ortiz in favor of Tim Byrdak. WHY??? Ortiz is at 90 pitches, not tired, throwing well. I mean, he just had him hit in the bottom of the 7th, and then pitch to 1 guy in the 8th??? Is this Coop's usual unspeakably stupid crap about the lefty/righty thingy? Who knows? Why not let Ortiz finish the game? WHY won't the reporters EVER ask Coop questions like that??? And with 2 out, and a 1-2 count, Valverde decided to replay the Brad... Read more

Paulino had a lil somethin to say to the Tigahs, sorely missing sluggah Adam Everett: "You can't winYou can't break evenAnd you can't get out of the gameLeyland keep sayin'Things are gonna changeBut the pitches look likeThey stayin' the same You swing at emway over your headAnd you only got yourself to blameYou can't win Tigahs,You can't break evenAnd you can't get out of the game You can't winThe fastball keeps movin'And you're swingin' far behindTeammates keep sayin'Things'll get betterJust to ease your state of mind You can't win, You can't win no wayIf your story stays the sameYou ain't winnin,No, no,But it's nice to see youAwfully glad you came)Bats are cool it 'causePaulino ain't about losin' " Well, I asked the boy to Show Me Somethin Goooood (OK, so that one isn't Michael's..) He had a bit of luck on his side because HP ump Tim Welke called accurate strikes and... Read more