June 18, 2009

Rock 'N Rolen




There have been many a lame post titles at Sports And The City over the years, and this one might be the weakest of them all. Yet I love it.

Seriously, though. How does one boo Scott Rolen? It's unfathomable.

Clearly, Philadelphia Phillies fans aren't reading enough Ghostrunner on First, where the Rolen love-in - rightfully - continues ...


On a day when three and a half arms - Roy Halladay (1.5 arms), Scott Downs (fucking National League) and Casey Janssen (who's been rather Purcey-like) - hit the disabled list, Scott Richmond went out and threw the game of his life. Like a good Canadian boy would ...


The Sausage King's our new closer. And that's fine by me. (Albeit late, an anonymous commenter came through with one other helluva nickname for Jason Frasor: Jason "Mongolion Destructor" Frasor, as the only difference between Frasor and Ghengis Khan is the horse.) ...


Jeremy Accardo has been emancipated. Here's to him, and to Brad Mills' debut. Looking forward to it. (Afternoon baseball, woo!) ...


Aaron Hill > Dustin Pedroia ...


Marco Scutaro's defence is otherworldly. Only one error so far this season, and how about that double play he started in last night's 4th inning? Instead of a three-run home run, Jayson Worth ran the bases all by his lonesome. Scoots can't possibly get enough credit for what he's brought to the table this season. What a Venezuelan hero ...


The Vernon Wells Hatred Advisory System remains at SEVERE. You tell me, am I being too hard on him? (Not you, Stephen Amell.) ...


Alex Rios is nothing if not wildly entertaining. My boy 40's right; Rios said it best (especially when the Blue Jays are winning, in Interleague play, on the road): "who gives a fuck!?"

17 comments:

Garrett Bauman said...

It's funny how many people will rush to make a judgment on a player by looking at one stat, and without ever having seen him play.

Case in point, Brad Mills. Message boards everywhere are lighting up over his 1-8 record. What they fail to take into account is the relatively low (for that league) number of earned runs he has allowed, or that in 10 of 13 starts, he has allowed 3 or fewer runs.

Sounds like a pretty decent pitcher to me. A won-loss record is indicative of team success, moreso than individual success. But, the armchair message boarders will take that stat and run with it regardless.

Me, I'm looking forward to seeing what the kid can do. This year was supposed to be a building year anyway (how quickly do people forget after a small taste of early success), and I for one am excited to see what the calibre of prospects may be in the Jays' cupboard.

William J. Tasker said...

I think it's a really clever post title. But I love puns anyway. Aaron Hill better than Pedroia? Hmm...interesting. And it may be true. Scutaro has been amazing thus far.

Garrett Bauman makes some excellent comments.

QJays said...

Re: Wells - I can't argue with you Eyebleaf. I would say that 2 days of what is relatively average play only maintains current status. If it gets worse, find another level. It needs to exceed expectations to climb.

Re: Wins-Losses. Certainly among the more useless stats that are recorded in baseball. Richmond last night was amazing, but not far better than Romero a week ago when Romero took the loss. Bring on Mills.

woodpeck said...

if Hill could not have so many Valley's during the season, he'd be up there on the Peak with Dustin!
Mills plus Alcohol plus Afternoon Ballgame = awesome!

Mike D said...

V-dub should still be at SEVERE, no doubt. But at some point, it might not be hatred so much as PITY.

Ian Hunter said...

Mills 1-7 record isn't a true measure of the type of pitcher that he truly is. Let's keep in mind that he pitches in the Pacific Coast League (which is notoriously a hitter's leage) so his ERA is probably bloated just a little bit. I think he'll do just fine today.

Maybe a couple of hits from Vernon this afternoon or a HR warrants a step down to "High", but it's your call EyeB.

Tao of Stieb said...

I might have scaled the VWHAS back to high after a couple of hits late and his RBI single in the first.

But a couple of K's in the later innings, and we're not so sure.

The Ack said...

I don't think Vern gets any slack until he taters. Go deep, Vernon. Please.

Stan the Caddy said...

This has been wildly entertaining series so far. Anyone catch the dialogue b/w Ginger and Fletcher regarding the history of the Philadelphia Athletics and baseball in Philly? Ginger could barely conceal his contempt for Fletcher's lack of knowledge on the subject. Love it.

Norman James said...

He's obviously pretty geeked up to play his beloved Fills.

Jays are the worst base runners in MLB. Minus Marco.

Escaped Lab Rat said...

The boys came through this series with some entertaining baseball and 3 big wins. There's no point in trying to rationalize it; 11 different starters should equal disaster, but we're hanging in there. I believe V-dub will end at the 'elevated' level on your scale. But don't hold me to that.

QJays said...

I'm at a complete loss as to what you do with the VWHAS after that game -- but I prefer big sample sizes, so what do I know?

looshV said...

This was a very intersesting series in how ex-Phillie, ex-Blue Jay hitters, came back to haunt their respective former clubs: Rolen, Barahas(sp?) and Werth. It's really sad to see the Beejs' control go down the shitter however. Does he retire at the end of this contract?

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

And when I said ELEVATED, I really meant HIGH.

Escaped Lab Rat said...

I don't think I can remember the last time the VWHAS was this low.

How about that Scutaro? What a heads-up play, stealing 2nd on a walk. Gotta love that guy.

Bullpen order of trust (high-->low): Frasor (the sausage king's been solid all year)
Accardo (brand new)
Carlson (over his overuse?)
League (alternates between shaky and spectacular)
Camp (ok enough I guess)
Hayhurst (too small a sample size)
BJ (just plain scary)

You've got to write something about TFC's remarkable win tonight. That was some good TV.

the expos said...

We need a post dedicated to Marco Scutaro. I thought it was BS when I heard people call him the team MVP last year, but you can give him anything you want now.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I've linked to a great Scutaro feature from Jordan Bastian in the most recent post, "The Captain." Make sure you check it out. And I agree with you, Scutaro is deserving of some serious love.