At this point I'm pretty sure the team is deliberately ruining its Pythagorean record whenever it gets a chance. Talk about your unorthodox yet needlessly exciting one-run wins.
Biggest Contribution: Raul Ibanez, +16.7%
Biggest Suckfest: Adrian Beltre, -4.6%
Most Important At Bat: Ibanez homer, +17.8%
Most Important Pitch: Fields grand slam, -14.4%
Total Contribution by Pitcher(s): +19.5%
Total Contribution by Position Players: +30.5%
Total Contribution by Opposition: 0.0%
I've never had to do the double bomb-dropper before.
Anyway, Saturday night game + Sunday morning game = a few quick bullet points, per usual.
- Make no mistake: I want Raul Ibanez to hit. While I greatly prefer Adam Jones, as long as Raul's being trotted out there as the everyday LF, I want him to punish the opposition.
So you'd think that I'd be thrilled with his recent run of five home runs in five games. And at the time(s), I was, because each of those home runs improved our odds of winning. However, if you look back at how they happened:
-@Baltimore vs. Steve Trachsel, barely clears left field fence
-@Baltimore vs. Jamie Walker, sails past right field wall
-@Baltimore vs. Rob Bell, straightaway center
-@Chicago vs. Javy Vazquez, barely clears right field wall
-@Chicago vs. Gavin Floyd, barely clears left field wall...you've no choice but to come away fairly unimpressed. All five of his home runs came in hitter-friendly parks, three of them barely made it out, and a fourth was hit against an awful reliever. The bomb against Walker was completely legitimate, but you could make a convincing argument that that was the only true display of Ibanez's longball power.
Every home run counts the same in the box score, and I'm glad Raul has gone deep so often of late. But at the same time, I haven't so much seen an indication that his power's coming back as I've seen him take advantage of extremely favorable conditions. Yes, this is better than what he was giving us before, but it's still pretty far off from what he was doing in 2006.
If John McLaren is going to insist on starting Raul nearly every day - which he almost certainly is - I hope he can keep producing enough runs to help the team and make up for his sack race fielding. But despite these five home runs, I'm still not convinced. Raul has a lot more to prove if he wants to make any kind of case of being a better bet than Adam Jones.
- If you're ever trying to explain to someone the difference between control and command, show him tapes of Miguel Batista.
- Richie Sexson's last four games: six hits. Richie Sexson's last four games: zero home runs. Sexson's being paid to go deep, not hit singles, but it's been two weeks since he last left the yard. Any declaration on McLaren's part that "he's on the way back" speaks to an almost incomprehensible misunderstanding of the kind of player Richie Sexson used to be. Ben Broussard ought to be fuming.
- For the duration of his appearance, Eric O'Flaherty looked terrific against an admittedly awful lineup. However, at the end of the day, he gets charged with two earned runs, thanks to a pair of broken bat singles to lead off the ninth. ERA in general is a misleading statistic, but for relievers, it's practically worthless.
- While no one likes to see JJ make things interesting, it was worth it just to hear Hawk get his hopes up before having them dashed again on live TV. That is a man who deserves the terrible team for which he's announcing.
- The White Sox have put up 11 runs in two days with Jim Thome and Paul Konerko going a combined 0-13. Josh Fields, welcome to the rapidly burgeoning group of Players I Hate Having To Face. If you leave your coat with Curtis Granderson at the door, I'm sure Darin Erstad would love to show you the ropes and introduce you to Reggie Willits, who'll assign you a roommate. For your sake, I hope it isn't John McDonald. I hear he gets the night toots.
Weaver/Danks tomorrow morning at 11:05am PDT. Danks if a lefty, so on the off chance that you haven't already had enough of Richie Sexson...