I had the good fortune of watching today's game on WGN's telecast. Comments:- To say that Lohse was awesome is an understatement, but what else can I say? His command seemed almost perfect for most of the night, and the few obvious mistakes that he made he got away with. It was one of those games that could have been very different with only one swing, but fortunately, things always went Lohse's way...
- ...thank goodness, because our offense was hopeless against Ted Lilly. Three baserunners all night? Thank goodness for Phillips' speed and Conine's contact ability, or we wouldn't have scored a thing. I hope Adam Dunn's back spasms subside quickly, because this team borders on anemic without him in the lineup.
- The Reds desperately need both Edwin Encarnacion and Dave Ross to figure something out and start hitting again. Both look really uncomfortable, and have seemed that way just about every game that I've seen them play this season. Those are the right-handed power bats in this lineup.
- Hamilton didn't look so good today, though his last AB was a nice battle--even if he ended up striking out.
- I thought the little video presentation that MLB put out about Jackie Robinson was pretty well done, except for the weird "I am Jackie Robinson" bit near the end. It's a good reminder about what a positive difference integration has made for the competitiveness of this sport (among other benefits). Speaking of which David Gassko has been doing a lot of work adjusting past player performance for competitiveness at THT. Here are links to parts one and two.
- Tonight I broke in my new scorebook. I'm going to give it a full review soon, but here's a link to it--I really like it, huge improvement over my old one. Not without a flaw or two, but it's very, very nice.
That blip in the 6th inning? Yeah, my heart about siezed when Theriot flared that single. And then note the nice slide back down below 50%... :)Photos by AP/Nam Y. Huh
According to game score, Lohse's start yesterday was the best in the NL this season. His score of 85 ranks only behind 2 different starts by Felix Hernandez. That's not a bad list to be on.
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested to hear your review of the new scorebook. I'm constantly looking for a better one.
ReplyDeleteWhen my stockpile ran out last year, I ordered a few of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000C4LUG/002-2060447-4869638
I'm fairly pleased with it, but as I said, I'd switch if I found something better.
Let me try that again:
ReplyDeleteLinky, linky
I wonder how much Edwins new approach has affected his swing. His front leg action is quite different this year from last year. He had more of a high leg action when he would step, now his leg barely comes off the ground.
ReplyDelete@Joel -- Not bad indeed. I really hope that Lohse has a big year for us--which to me would be a low-4's ERA and 200 IP. He's capable of that.
ReplyDelete@Chad, coming right up. :)
@Doug -- That's really interesting, and wasn't something I'd noticed (I'm absolutely not a scout). I wonder if that'd be worth passing on to Trent Rosecrans to see if he can ask someone about it? -j