Mark Allen Haverty
Senior Editor Mark Haverty's work has regularly appears in such places as FOX Sports and Sporting News, where Mark is one of TSN's lead minor league analysts. Mark has also been featured in multiple print publications and as a featured guest on multiple radio shows.
View all articles by Mark Allen Haverty
The Two-Timers and the Games to Watch
|
|
Erik Bedard is this week's top two-timer. Don't tell his wife.
|
The Series of the Week –Early Edition
Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees
Two teams that are supposed to be fighting for the playoffs both find themselves instead trying to get into their respective races. In the Central, the Twins find themselves behind both the Twins and Indians, both of whom show no indications whatsoever that they will not be fighting for first two months from now. Meanwhile, in the East, the Yankees find themselves comfortably behind the Red Sox. Heading into this series, the Yankees trail the Sox by 11 games, and are not even in second place, with the Blue Jays a half-game ahead of them. The offense has largely been as good as required, but the pitching certainly has not been. Normally, the pitching staff of the Yankees is among the best in the American League; now, they would not even be amongst the best within their own division.
Monday’s game pits Roger Clemens against yet another pitcher that grew up during his career – Boof Bonser was not even three when Clemens made his major league debut. June was not good to Bonser, as he was 1-3 with a 6.91 ERA in his five starts. Clemens meanwhile looks like an aging pitcher who has hung on one year longer than he should, and that is truly a shame considering that he is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time.
The hitter to watch for the Yankees is Alex Rodriguez. Yes, I know he seems like an obvious one, but his power has gone cold over the last two weeks. Since hitting home runs in back to back games on June 16 and 17, he has hit just one home run in the last twelve games, with six RBI. The average has been there, as he is hitting .395 in that stretch, but it would be nice to see a homer or two with the singles and doubles. Am I being hard on a guy with 28 homers on the year? Darn right, but the long balls from A-Rod are what win games for the Yankees lately, and not much else.
For the Twins, we are going in the completely opposite direction in terms of the player we are spotlighting, and that is by spotlightling Nick Punto. Why Nick Punto? Because the Twins keep giving Punto at-bat after at-bat despite the fact that he finished the month of June with a .150 batting average. That is not in a small amount of at-bats, either, as he picked up 60 in the month. Those hits are not exactly doing much either, as only three of the twelve were for extra bases. He has made his times on base count, as he did score ten runs, but that is about all he did.
Series of the Week – Weekend Edition
Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays
The Indians are fighting for their division while the Jays are fighting just to get back into the Wild Card race. In the arms race, the Blue Jays have a marked advantage, with two of their aces going to open the series. On Friday, it is Roy Halladay, and Shaun Marcum follows him on Saturday. Too many people have not yet figured out how good Marcum really has been since joining the rotation. In his ten starts, Marcum is 3-0 with a 2.06 ERA, with 44 strikeouts and 21 walks in 62 1/3 innings of work. Marcum’s WHIP as a starter is a sweet 0.99.
For the Indians, they will be matching Marcum with Fausto Carmona. Carmona was sensational early on, but he has struggled of late. In his last outing, Carmona tossed just one inning, and in that time he allowed seven hits, two walks, and eight earned runs to the Athletics. That certainly hurt.
The homers have finally started to come around for Travis Hafner, as he knocked out three in the past week. His batting average is still sickly though, and he finished June with a batting average of just .218. If Hafner does not hit, this team is in trouble, period. Hafner has been streaky all year, and maybe this steak can last, but when that streak ends it is a world of pain.
For the Blue Jays, this was supposed to be the breakout year for Alex Rios, and so far so good in that regard. His 17 homers have already tied his career high, and he is on pace for career highs in homers, doubles, runs, and RBI, and his .287 batting average is nothing to sneeze at.
The Two-Timers
American League
American League East
Baltimore Orioles: Erik Bedard, at Chicago and at Texas; Daniel Cabrera, at Chicago and at Texas
Boston Red Sox: Kason Gabbard, vs. Texas and at Detroit; Daisuke Matsuzaka, vs. Tampa Bay and at Detroit
New York Yankees: Roger Clemens, vs. Minnesota and Los Angeles; Chien-Ming Wang, vs. Minnesota and Los Angeles
Tampa Bay Devil Rays: Andy Sonnanstine, at Cleveland and at Kansas City; Scott Kazmir, at Boston and at Kansas City
Toronto Blue Jays: Josh Towers, at Oakland and vs. Cleveland
American League Central
Chicago White Sox: Mark Buehrle, vs. Baltimore and vs. Minnesota; Javier Vazquez, vs. Baltimore and vs. Minnesota
Cleveland Indians: Fausto Carmona, vs. Tampa Bay and at Toronto
Detroit Tigers: Nate Robertson, vs. Cleveland and Boston
Kansas City Royals: Gil Meche, vs. Seattle and vs. Tampa Bay
Minnesota Twins: Boof Bonser, at New York and at Chicago; Carlos Silva, at New York and at Chicago
American League West
Los Angeles Angels: Erwin Santana, at Texas and at New York
Oakland Athletics: Lenny DiNardo, vs. Toronto and vs. Seattle; Joe Blanton, vs. Toronto and vs. Seattle
Seattle Mariners: Felix Hernandez, at Kansas City and at Oakland; Ryan Feierabend, at Kansas City and at Oakland
Texas Rangers: Brandon McCarthy, at Boston and vs. Baltimore; Kevin Millwood, vs. Los Angeles and vs. Baltimore
National League
National League East
Atlanta Braves: John Smoltz, at Los Angeles and at San Diego; Kyle Davies, at Los Angeles and at San Diego
Florida Marlins: Sergio Mitre, at San Diego and at Los Angeles; Scott Olsen, at San Diego and at Los Angeles
New York Mets: Tom Glavine, at Colorado and at Houston; Oliver Perez, at Colorado and at Houston
Philadelphia Phillies: Jamie Moyer, at Houston and at Colorado; Adam Eaton, at Houston and at Colorado
Washington Nationals: Jason Simontacchi, vs. Chicago and Milwaukee; Micah Bowie, vs. Chicago and Milwaukee
National League Central
Chicago Cubs: Ted Lilly, at Washington and at Pittsburgh; Carlos Zambrano, at Washington and at Pittsburgh
Cincinnati Reds: Aaron Harang, vs. San Francisco and vs. Arizona
Houston Astros: Woody Williams, vs. Philadelphia and vs. New York; Roy Oswalt, vs. Philadelphia and vs. New York
Milwaukee Brewers: Jeff Suppan, at Pittsburgh and at Washington; Chris Capuano, at Pittsburgh and at Washington
Pittsburgh Pirates: John Van Benschoten, vs. Milwaukee and Chicago; Shawn Chacon, vs. Milwaukee and vs. Chicago
St. Louis Cardinals: Braden Looper, vs. Arizona and San Francisco; Todd Wellemeyer, vs. Arizona and San Francisco
National League West
Arizona Diamondbacks: Brandon Webb, at St. Louis and at Cincinnati; Randy Johnson, at St. Louis and at Cincinnati
Colorado Rockies: Jeff Francis, at Chicago and at Houston; Rodrigo Lopez, at Chicago and at Houston
Los Angeles Dodgers: Derek Lowe, at Arizona and vs. San Diego; Chad Billingsley, at Arizona and vs. San Diego
San Diego Padres: David Wells, vs. Florida and vs. Atlanta; Greg Maddux, vs. Florida and vs. Atlanta
San Francisco Giants: Barry Zito, at Cincinnati and St. Louis
You Want These Guys…
Obvious ones here this week, so let’s just dive into the top five list: 1. Erik Bedard
2. Brandon Webb
3. Derek Lowe
4. John Smoltz
5. Felix Hernandez
Eh, Not So Much…Same deal here – these losers scream, stay away, stay far away…
1. Jason Simontacchi
2. Micah Bowie
3. John Van Benschoten
4. Josh Towers
5. Kason Gabbard
The Schedule Advantages
Detroit, Kansas City, Toronto, Los Angeles in the American League and Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Colorado, and San Francisco are the only teams with a day off this week. All six of Colorado’s are at home, though.
The big advantage this week is Minnesota and Chicago, as the two AL Central rivals play eight, including four against each other. Feel the Midwest hate coming from this one…
Have a question or comment for Mark? Email him at markhaverty@sportsgrumblings.com.
|
