The way this team started out this year, if they actually could get to .500 by the All-Star break I will be extremely happy.
Win 3/4, losing either tonight or Sat. Hopefully Backe can turn it around. Wonder what Berkman will do in this series considering he is on fire right now and he absolutely mashes in Cincy.
Yup still don't understand why teams would pay that much money for a stadium and not put a retractrable roof in there. I mean seriously get with the times and save yourselves from double headers...
Because, according to "traditionalists"... rain delays are just as much a part of baseball as anything else. Of course, these traditionalists never watched 81 games in the heat of Houston or Dallas... or endured 20 something rain delays/ppd in Miami... because none of these cities had teams back then. The city that really screwed up is Dallas... they built an open air stadium, in the middle of nowhere, right before the retractable roof technology came out. Watching a day game there in the summer (there aren't many of them) is like going to hell.
The game is under way. WHOOP! Dunn is 0-11 and has 5Ks when Backe pitches to him. EDIT: CRAP! 2 on and no outs. Come on backe! Don't get rocked early AGAIN!
I'm posting this early in the game (so I may be proven wrong)... but the Backe-Chamo combination has got to end. Brad just gets much more out of Brandon, and I still feel he doesn't know enough about pitching (since he's only really been doing it full-time for 3 years) to be out there by himself. You can already tell that Backe is tentative to throw anything in the zone to the dangerous hitters, whereas Brad would have the 'Crash Davis' effect with him and force him to throw it to these guys, and mix it up perfectly to keep them off-balance. The fact that Oswalt, Pettite and Clemens have all RAVED the past two weeks about Brad's ability to call the game (as the main reason for their stellar performances) just convinces me more to this point. Brad is going to be the next Dave Duncan (the Cardinals pitching coach who was actually an ex-catcher).
Chavez should be catching Clemens and Andy. They know how to pitch the best but I know Phil won't do that.
The last time Chavez caught Roger it took an hour to get out of the first inning because Roger had to keep yanking him to the mound to discuss things.
Backe needs to learn some control. He is walking way to many people. 4 walks in one inning is way to many. He just gave away a run.
