AccuScore
| Central Arms Race |
|
CC Sabathia won his first start for Milwaukee, but his arrival forced a rival to respond. The Cubs completed a six player deal to bring Rich Harden to the Windy City as the NL Central arms up for the pennant race. Meanwhile, the Mets continued their charge up the standings, while two unlikely pitchers staged a fantastic pitching duel out West.
 CC Sabathia dropped the periods from name (as in no longer C.C.) and then went out and won his first game as a Brewer. His arrival in the NL Central forced the front-running Cubs to respond, and they did it in a big way. Chicago dealt four players, outfielders Matt Murton and Eric Patterson, minor league catcher Sean Donaldson, and pitcher Sean Gallagher to Oakland for pitchers Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin. First, Sabathia. The lefty threw six innings allowing two runs in a 7-3 win against Colorado. He struck out five, but walked five batters as well. Also of note is Eric Gagne pitched his third scoreless outing since returning from injury, this time in the eighth inning. The arrival of Sabathia of course, has created a stir showing that Milwaukee is pushing all of its chips into the middle for this season as he is unlikely to resign with the team (he will be a free agent in the off-season). The trade caused the Cubs to move quickly to strengthen their own team, quickly meaning just one day. Harden replaces Gallagher in the rotation, and allows Chicago to match any NL team’s one-two punch with him and Carlos Zambrano even Milwaukee’s duo of Ben Sheets and Sabathia. Gallagher is a promising youngster at just 22 years old, but he is not nearly the pitcher Harden is right now. Donaldson is still in single-A and Murto and Patterson seemed to have fallen out of favor as prospects with the Chicago brass. Gaudin should also provide another solid reliever to use in the middle innings, and he is also capable of spot starting. The question of course becomes Harden’s health. If he can stay on the field and pitch the Cubs probably become an even bigger favorite in the Central even with Milwaukee improving its team. Harden’s numbers could tick upwards a bit with the move to the weaker league, but it will be hard to improve his already stellar numbers. The Cubs beat the Reds 7-3 Tuesday with Ryan Dempster moving to 10-0 at home. • The Padres found some offense beating the Marlins 10-1. Rookie Chase Headley did most of the damage with three hits and four RBI. It was his first multi-hit since June 20. The average is middling (.266) as expected of the rookie, but the power has also been there. He has five home runs so far in 79 at-bats, a rate of 1 round tripper in a very respectable 16 at-bats. • An unlikely pitching duel went down Tuesday night that very few people likely saw. Justin Duchscherer and Oakland beat Carlos Silva and Seattle 2-0 Tuesday night as both pitchers threw complete games. Silva was very good striking out five in eight innings while allowing two runs. That wasn’t nearly good enough though as Duchscherer, the newly minted All-Star, threw nine shutout innings allowing just hits while striking out four. His season ERA is now just 1.78, and it doesn’t look like he will be going anywhere anytime soon. It would be nearly impossible to get full value for him in a trade, so hold onto him and enjoy a strong second half. • Damaso Marte got another save for Pittsburgh, his third of the year and second in two days. He is officially the man here. • Miguel Cabrera went 4-4 Tuesday and bombed 2 home runs. Fans have been complaining about his sub-par performance thus far, but his numbers look fine to me. For the year, he is hitting .291 with 15 home runs, 53 RBI, and 42 runs. The average is a bit low by his standards, but everything else seems fine. Comerica Park is definitely one of the harder ballparks to hit home runs on so a pace for 30 for the year seems fine. If you can get this guy at a discount still, I would definitely do it. He is still an elite hitter and fantasy option. • Justin Verlander continued his upward swing winning for the fourth time in sixth starts aided by Cabrera’s monster performance. Verlander shut down the Indians for seven innings striking out seven while allowing just two runs. He has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his last 11 starts after giving up 4 or more in 8 of his first 9 outings. This is the Verlander everybody expected before the season. • B.J. Ryan (with periods) got the win Tuesday with a scoreless inning against Baltimore. The closer however has just three saves since the start of June after racking up 10 in May alone. The Blue Jays are simply not winning as many games. They miss Shaun Marcum in the rotation, and Dustin McGowan left the game Tuesday early with discomfort in his shoulder. The J.P. Ricciardi GM watch should begin in earnest. • The Mets have picked up four games in the standings in four days and they are now just 1.5 games behind the Phillies. Mike Pelfrey threw seven scoreless innings while his teammates hit two home runs off of Tim Lincecum in a 7-0 win. Carlos Beltran slammed a three-run homer in the first inning, and Carlos Delgado added a solo shot in the sixth. Delgado has shown that he still can hit for power with 16 home runs and 50 RBI thus far although the .243 average continues a downward trend. He doesn’t connect as often as he used to, but when he does the ball still goes a long way. Delgado is struggling mightily against lefties hitting just .211 with only 3 of his home runs from that side of the plate, something to consider if you have another option at 1B or a UTIL spot.
|
