Apr 12, 2010 12:29 PM EST
Each NL team is represented below, marked by a not-so-subtle nod to the general managers we focus so much of our site's attention towards and our namesake.
The Brian Sabean
? Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Take Tim Lincecum, who improved to 2-0 and struck out 10, his 20th double-digit strikeout game in 92 big-league starts. He pitched seven innings in a frigid wind following a storm that wiped out the planned 2000 Giants reunion ceremony and delayed the first pitch of the ballpark's 10th-anniversary game by more than four hours. No biggie for Lincecum. He just rode out the delay with a nap and some Golden Tee."
The Ned Colletti
? Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times: "Take away the first three Florida hitters in the fourth inning, and it would be difficult to ask for more from (Charlie Haeger). Haeger had his knuckleball darting all over the place, which is mostly good. He struck out 12 in six innings, walked four and allowed three hits. Whether it was the breeze or the humidity, his knuckleball had plenty of movement. It danced so much that twice he struck out batters on wild pitches that got away from catcher A.J. Ellis and allowed the hitter to reach first. He threw too many pitches (117, 67 for strikes) but knuckleballers are renowned for their rubber arms -- it?s not like they?re throwing 100 mph -- and hopefully Manager Joe Torre will allow him to go deeper into the game in his next start. Torre saw something in Haeger this spring, because he really didn?t do anything to particularly distinguish himself and win the fifth starting spot. He had a nice ERA of 2.20, but not as good as Ramon Ortiz (0.96). Mostly, his major competition (James McDonald, Eric Stults, Josh Towers and Josh Lindblom) pitched themselves out of contention. But if Haeger can continue to pitch like he did Sunday, concerns over the fifth spot will quickly evaporate."
The Dan O'Dowd
? Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: "Where have you gone, Mike Hampton? It has come to this: Jimenez (2-0) goes six innings, leaves with an ERA of 2.25 and we're left with a slight tinge of disappointment. Stuff happens when you hit 100 on the radar gun and have the distinct look of an all-star waiting to happen.. Jimenez wasn't as sharp as he had been in the season opener at Milwaukee, but he battled for 115 pitches. He had traffic jams in the fourth and fifth, allowing a runner to reach third in each inning, before finally being touched for two runs in the sixth."
The Josh Byrnes
? AZ Snakepit: "Edwin Jackson had an "effective" outing, giving up 4 runs in 7 innings on 2 walks and 10 hits, but none after the 3rd -- and got his first win as a Dback (proving, once again, the marginal value of a pitcher's win-loss record)."
The Jed Hoyer
? Geoff Young of Ducksnorts: "The Padres come home after a 2-4 road trip that may tempt some observers to go all Nile Rodgers on the team. I dunno, it?s six games; hard to get too excited one way or the other just yet. Still, a few things bug me: Padres #1 and #2 hitters are batting .091/.123/.109 in 58 PA, with one run scored. The much-ballyhooed aggressiveness on the basepaths has backfired more often than not. Padres hurlers have allowed 11 homers so far, most in the National League."
The Doug Melvin
? Anthony Witrado of the Journal Sentinel: "(Casey) McGehee, who finished this home stand 8 for 23 (.348) with two home runs and four runs batted in, got a Kyle McClellan fastball belt-high and on the inner half. McGehee's controlled swing was plenty to get the ball well into the second deck in left field. "Well, we out-homered 'em," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. The Brewers hit four long balls to St. Louis' three. "That's just huge for Casey and for us. It's probably a little demoralizing had we not come back and won the game. A tough loss on Friday, and to get another one today would have been demoralizing, but the guys kept fighting." "
The Jim Hendry
? Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune: "Alfonso Soriano vs. the wall has been a recurring matchup over his Cubs career. And it has been a one-sided one at that. The wall won again on Sunday, spoiling a strong outing by Tom Gorzelanny and paving the way to a 3-1 loss to the Reds. Soriano dropped a catchable fly ball that led to a seventh-inning run that tied the game, and Esmailin Caridad walked in the go-ahead run in a two-run eighth. Will Piniella have to consider lifting Soriano in the late innings of close games? "I've been doing that," he said. "When you're not scoring runs, you better put your best defense on the field. You can't afford to give up runs when you're not scoring." Would Piniella make a change in left? "We'll see what happens," he said. "I'm going to go home and think about it. It's nice to be going home (Monday). And hopefully we'll start swinging the bats, putting some runs on the board and winning games with a little more frequency." "
The John Mozeliak
? Dan of Viva El Birdos: "Now that he's allowed five home runs (six minus one sold-it Rasmus catch) in two games we've come closer than ever to the most frightening of all Chris Carpenter scenarios, one that lurked in the background of the 2008-2009 offseason and departed pretty quickly after his delayed comeback in late May: that there will come a time when Chris Carpenter is both healthy and ineffective.. The bruising Carpenter sometimes takes on balls in play?and sometimes for several starts at ?a time?seems to me to be an inextricable side-effect of the fineness with which he pitches. His fastball is, at its best, a scout's "92-94", with the kind of movement that gets breaking ball-style flailing strikes, and his curveball is the kind of pitch that, say, Rich Hill lives and dies with. But rather than wasting pitches for low risk strikeout chances he pitches with the aggressive corner-seeking strategy of Tom Glavine, and when the strategy involves putting it where it can almost be hit time after time eventually it's going to be hit, time after time.
The Walt Jocketty
? Tom Groeschen of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Right-hander (Mike) Leake made his major league debut for the Reds, and went 6 2/3 solid innings in a 3-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The San Diego native became only the 21st player since the draft began in 1965 to go straight to the majors without playing in the minors. Leake was the Reds? No. 1 choice (No. 8 overall) in the June 2009 draft, from Arizona State. ?It was a great performance by him,? Reds manager Dusty Baker said. ?It started out rough, but one thing for sure is that he knows how to pitch out of it.? ?He?s got five pitches and he?s not going to overpower you, but most important is his good fastball command around the strike zone,? Hernandez said. ?You come in and get out of that jam like he did, it?s only going to help you.? "
The Ed Wade
? Evan Hochschild of Crawfish Boxes: "In what has to be the most frustrating beginning to any of his professional seasons, Roy Oswalt has lost consecutive starts to the prohibitive NL Cy Young favorites."
The Neal Huntington
? Dejan Kovacevic of the Post-Gazette: "(The Pirates) now are 3-3 and, when they have lost, they have really lost, being outscored, 34-7, in those three games."It just shows, at this level, you have to pitch ahead," outfielder Ryan Church said. "You can't fall behind with offspeed stuff and give them fastballs in hitter's counts. You've got to have strike one." "
The Frank Wren
? Talking Chop: "Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami outpitched Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson last year, among others, to earn the nickname "The Dragon Slayer," and is clearly unintimidated by facing top pitchers. ?And for a while there, it looked like KK was going to slay another dragon. He breezed through the first few innings, retiring the first 11 Giants he faced. Meanwhile, the Braves got to Lincecum early, thanks to a 2-run homer from Brian McCann in the first inning that drove in Eric Hinske.. His final line was 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, and a -0.164 WPA. (I should note that WPA does not make allowances for defensive miscues, so KK is penalized for the run that scored on the error even though it was not his fault. Without that error, his WPA would have been slightly positive.)"
The Omar Minaya
? Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News: "(Johan) Santana (1-1) lasted five innings, allowing five runs and five hits. He walked three and struck out three and a handful of fans booed him after the awful first. Santana, who was working with an extra day's rest, did not have control of his fastball yesterday. It was mostly clocked in the upper 80s, though it rose to 91 when he struck out Dunn, the last batter he faced, to end the fifth. "It was all over the place," Santana said of his fastball. "For some reason, it was cutting and I wasn't able to command it." "
The Ruben Amaro
? David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News: "The Phillies left Houston with a 5-1 record, their best start since 1993. Much of the credit goes to (Roy) Halladay, who threw 111 pitches while allowing seven hits, no walks, and an unearned run in the 50th complete game of his career. Charged with protecting a narrow lead, the righthander displayed his entire arsenal of pitches, using his sinker and cutter to coax mis-hits and groundballs (only seven of the Astros' 25 balls in play left the infield) and set up his changeup and curveball (six of Halladay's eight strikeouts came on his offspeed pitches). He finished with his 150th career victory, improving to 2-0 on the season and lowering his ERA to 0.56. He worked out of the bases-loaded jam in the sixth, then recorded three straight outs after allowing back-to-back singles to start the seventh."
The Larry Beinfest
? Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald: "The Dodgers probably would not have had a 5-3 lead when (Anibal) Sanchez was removed for a pinch-hitter in the sixth had the Marlins played better defense behind him. The Dodgers (2-4) scored four runs off Sanchez in the fourth, but not until after a single to center by Ronnie Belliard bounced off Maybin's glove and past him, allowing two runs to score and Belliard to advance to third. Cody Ross then added to the frustrations in the sixth when he dropped what would have been the second out of the inning, charging in to catch a pop fly that instead loaded the bases."
The Mike Rizzo
? Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post: "On Inside Edge's "report card" for the outing, (Stephen) Strasburg rates only a C+ for "working ahead in count" (he threw only 50 percent first-pitch strikes, and only 50 percent strikes on 1-1 counts). But he got A+ for "finishing off batters" (92 percent of his two-strike at-bats became outs) and "dominance" (swing-and-miss percentage of 21 percent, and 25 percent of at-bats ending in strikeouts of four pitches or fewer). For "command," he warranted a grade of B, with a strike percentage of 65 percent on fastballs and 64 percent with his other pitches, both slightly above average. The overall grade for the outing: B+.. His average fastball velocity was 98, though it dropped to 96 from pitches 46 through 60 (which is when he was primarily pitching from the stretch position with runners on base in the fourth inning)."
Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Click here to follow his Twitter feed.
Via Christopher Reina/RealGM
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