PREGAME: Today will be a battle of AL Central rookies with Kevin Slowey going up against Andrew Miller.
Miller won’t be fazed by national TV if his start last Sunday was any indication. He pitched 6 shutout innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 walks.
Kevin Slowey will be making his 6th start. He’s allowed 36 hits in 27 1/3 innings. He’s allowed 9 homers already. But he doesn’t walk people with only 6 allowed, and 4 of those came in one outing.
With Gary Sheffield serving his suspension, Sean Casey will bat 3rd and Marcus Thames will DH.
MIN @ DET, Saturday, June 30, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 3:55
Hard to believe this already game 79–two more to the halfway point of the regular season.
So far so good on Miller and ground balls. Three for three. How does a guy who’s throwing almost entirely fastballs get so many groundballs?
This is totally off topic… and maybe it’s already been mentioned. But how about this quote:
“To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to,” Ichiro proclaimed, through an interpreter. “If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”
They just showed the incident that Sheff got suspended and he didn’t throw that bat at the umpire. Those umpires are getting more and more paranoid every day.
The problem is that he had been jawing with the umpire during the at bat. And didn’t he turn his head around and say something to the umpire right before he threw the bat? He’s got to understand his actions are going to be judged in the context of the situation.
Oh, and trying to wrestle his manager to get to the umpire after he was thrown out probably didn’t help his case for an appeal either . . .
No, he threw his bat on the ground behind him in disgust, not at the umpire, and looked at the umpire. When I watched this time the umpire looks like he may have said something and Sheff looked at him but didn’t say anything.
He shouldn’t have been suspended.
Does anyone know what is up with Inge?
Inge had a back spasm yesterday; he plans to play tomorrow
I don’t know what’s wrong today, but yesterday he complained of a sore back so that’s probably a continuation of that. Nice to see Infante in the lineup and Marcus.
As much as I love Mario and Rod, I’m really enjoying listening to the Fox announcers.
It would be nice if Leyland would let Granderson try to steal a base once in a while.
Goodness gracious, Monroe just got a hit.
I wish some of our guys would go deeper into the count. Their pitcher isn’t throwing that many strikes.
So this is what we get after a winning streak? I’d rather never have one then.
Just win them in little bunches, in twos and threes.
That’s enough. I think it’s pretty obvious that at this point in his development, Miller’s a one pitch pitcher. Durbin’s a better than average fifth starter, and judging from Leyland’s comments today and Miller’s performance that Durbin is better off in that role from a performance and health standpoint. Miller could definitely be the shut down reliever that we need while Zumaya’s out, and he’s going to get tired down the stretch anyway if he’s starting.
Whaaat?? Miller’s last three starts: Quality, Lights Out, and Bad. You’re gonna yank him from the rotation after this? THAT is the only way you’re gonna screw with the kid’s head: boot him from the rotation after a crummy start. You wouldn’t do that with any other starter, why would you do it with Miller? He is the fifth starter for gosh sakes. And Durbin’s been great, but look at his career stats. Remember what happened to Miner the 2nd and 3rd time teams got to see him? If Miller struggles three straight times, i can understand pulling him from the rotation, but to pull him now is just crazy talk.
I’m taking the dog out for a walk.
That’s enough. I think it’s pretty obvious that at this point in his development, Jason Grilli is a waste of oxygen.
Bill: i couldn’t agree more.
Outpitched, and outhit.
Yuck.
That’s all I can say about this one.
Just want to re-state that I have been against Miller joining the rotation full time, even when he was shutting down bad NL teams that wouldn’t win 75 games in the American League.
I agree, Miller is going to be great, but a one-pitch pitcher is not going to do well once all the teams have a scouting report on him. I bet he’s not in the rotation in 2 months.
Kathy, the point is that Sheffield clearly went out of his way to show up the umpire by looking back at him while throwing the bat. Fair or unfair, he can’t expect not to get docked a couple games at that point. That’s just a fact of existence in professional sports. It sucks for us, but it’s probably a good thing in the grand scheme of maintaining the proper balance between players and umpires.
I think I’m officially on the give-Monroe’s-spot-to-Thames-for-a-while bandwagon. In fact, I’d propose playing Thames full time and than basically platooning Monroe and Casey (switching Thames between 1B and LF). Monroes’ been plenty good vs. left-handers.
The upcoming series with the Indians is starting to look pretty important leading up to the All-Star break . . .
Kyle, I suggest you take a look at that piece of film again. We can agree to disagree, but I don’t think he did anything to warrant a suspension. The Fox announcers said the same thing.
Two things:
I love Kyle J’s platoon Monroe and Casey for Thames idea.
I think we should let Miller stay in the rotation through the All Star Break. Then let him go back to the minors for the second half to work on another pitch. Then we bring him back for dogfight we’re likely in for in September.
I’m not even sold on Miller needing to work on the breaking ball, more or less just his confidence in it to throw it more often. Even when he didn’t throw it for strikes, the bite on it had guys chasing foolishly. He can get by if he throws his breaking ball more and he could be fine in the 4-5 spot of the rotation, but I’d still prefer him to work on his change-up more in the minors as I’d prefer him to be more Verlander then Bonderman when he does come to the rotation for a full season.