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Power Rankings August 20th – Augus...
August 21 -
Who is Kris Medlen?
August 20 -
White Sox Team Report
August 16 -
Lights Out
August 15
Power Rankings August 20th – ...
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Who is Kris Medlen?
Brian A. Smith | Satellite-Sports Who is Kris Medlen? The Atlanta Braves pitching staff has had their share of ups and downs this season. Right-han...
White Sox Team Report
Austin Hansen | Satellite Sports Veteran Core, Influx of Youth Getting Job Done for White Sox The AL Central leading Chicago White Sox enter today 1...
Lights Out
Brian Smith| Satellite-Sports Step aside Mariano Rivera. Happy trails Billy Wagner and Trevor Hoffman. The new wave of premier, top of the line clo...
Who is Kris Medlen?
Brian A. Smith | Satellite-Sports
Who is Kris Medlen?
The Atlanta Braves pitching staff has had their share of ups and downs this season.
Right-hander Brandon Beachy was leading the league with a 2.00 ERA before he was shelved for the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Jair Jurrjen’s once promising career seems to be in limbo as he is back in the minor leagues. Tommy Hanson has battled location inconsistencies, injury issues, and decreased velocity levels.
One of the major bright spots in the Atlanta rotation has been the work of right-hander, Kris Medlen.
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White Sox Team Report
Austin Hansen | Satellite Sports
Veteran Core, Influx of Youth Getting Job Done for White Sox
The AL Central leading Chicago White Sox enter today 12 games over .500 at 64-52 and sit 2 games above the preseason division favorite Detroit Tigers.
Before the 2012 season began, 8 out of 8 Sports Illustrated MLB experts predicted the Tigers to win the division crown ¹, a valid prediction given the Tiger’s offseason acquisition of perennial slugger Prince Fielder. Similarly, Sports Illustrated predicted the White Sox to finish dead last in the central division with a feeble 67-95 record ², a less valid prediction, but at least semi-warranted given the several question marks the Sox roster had going into the 2012 season.
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Lights Out
Brian Smith| Satellite-Sports
Step aside Mariano Rivera. Happy trails Billy Wagner and Trevor Hoffman. The new wave of premier, top of the line closers have arrived and they both reside in the National League.
Of course, I’m talking about Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman.
This season, Chapman has posted a 4-4 record to go with a very impressive 1.26 ERA. He’s 28 for 32 in save opportunities and batters are hitting just .127 against him. Yet, his achievements go far beyond these numbers.
Chapman has an astounding 106 strikeouts in just 57 innings pitched. Not too mention his control has improved significantly.
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King Felix is Perfect
Brian A. Smith | Satellite-Sports
Felix Hernandez threw the first perfect game in Mariner history today and the twenty-third of all time.
The only run came across in the third after Jesus Montero knocked Brendan Ryan in with an RBI single to give the Mariner’s a 1-0 lead. It was all they needed.
The King joins Philip Humber and Matt Cain in the 2012 Perfection club.
This time, there was no miraculous diving catch or dicey call at the first base bag. John Maddon tried to interrupt Felix’s rhythm, arguing balls and strikes in the 8th and was eventually ejected. Despite delaying the game for a few minutes, the ruse had little impact.
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Time to Panic in Los Angeles?
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have fallen into a downward spiral. Their slump has been mired by a three game losing streak and dropping nine out of their past twelve games. Not to mention, the Angels have free-fallen into fifth place in the American League Wild Card race.
“We just need to continue to push and remember that we’re a pretty good ball club” -first baseman Albert Pujols
That’s easier said than done. The Tampa Bay Rays are once again making a late season surge and LA has twenty-one games left within their division to play. The AL West has been arguably the most competitive division in baseball so far this season.
The question is, how did it come to this?
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Mid-Season Wrap-Up
So a quick recap of the first half, I’d say all A’s fans are satisfied with it. Cespedes has been solid, Reddick has been great and should’ve been an all-star, and the pitching staff has been outstanding, 4th best ERA in the league even with a few injuries. All in all, the A’s were .500 at the break with momentum in their favor.
Start of the second half, A’s sweep the Twins. Magic is in the air and everyone’s talking about buying or selling. We’re flirting with the second wild card spot, along with the Tigers, Rays, Orioles, Indians, Red Sox and Blue Jays. Yes, all these teams are within 2GB of the second wild card spot. Some tough competition there which shifts the question from “buy or sell?” to “who/what do we buy?” Read more →
Braves Need to Move to a Six-Man Rotation
There is a problem in Atlanta and it’s an obvious one. The Braves have yet to find a mix of five consistent pitchers and we are approaching August. There are questions that surround the rotation as a whole, but especially in the back end. Heading into the closing months of the season Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, and Ben Sheets have distanced themselves from the rest of the pack.
At the start of Spring-training analysts, experts, and scouts alike marveled at the depth of quality arms in the Braves organization. Six months later, many of Atlanta’s young arms have failed to live up to the hype: Read more →
Reflecting on the first 86 games of the Bobby V era in Boston
A week ago the Red Sox were hosting the Yankees for a 4 game set that offered up the chance to sweep and close out the 1st half with a 46-40 record, good for 2nd in the AL east and the 2nd wildcard spot. Now of course it didn’t go as planned for the Red Sox, a common theme of the entire season thus far, as they strolled into the all-star weekend 43-43, good for 2.5 back from the newly added 2nd wildcard spot.
The first inclination is to point to the abysmal efforts of the starting pitching and the injuries to key players…so that’s exactly what we’ll do. Flashback to last off-season’s fried chicken and beergate debacle, some had high hopes that the starting rotation would rally with a sense of having something to prove. The only thing they’ve been able to prove so far is that having an ERA in the high 4’s coupled with an offense that produces the 2nd most runs in the MLB allows you to maintain a .500 record. The one thing the Sox starters have on their side is the statistics that their numbers should “return to the mean.” Read more →