10/20/11

Baseball: - Cliff Lee, John Updike on Fenway Park, Yu Darvish, Brooks Robinson, Brad Peacock


Cliff Lee: - Philadelphia Phillies’ Cliff Lee is eying yet another Cy Young Award after he continued to impress the critics with another strong month. In 39.2 innings, Lee gave up only two runs in five starts in August 2011, with an incredible 0.45 ERA. Striking-out 39 batters during the month, Lee held hitters to a 0.173 batting average with a perfect 5-0 record. Improving significantly, he finished the month with an outstanding 2.59 ERA. http://blogs.bettor.com/Top-five-pitchers-in-Major-League-Baseball-for-the-month-of-August-2011-a104911

Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man's Euclidean determinations and Nature's beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28th, as I took a seat behind third base, a uniformed groundkeeper was treading the top of this wall, picking batting-practice home runs out of the screen, like a mushroom gatherer seen in Wordsworthian perspective on the verge of a cliff.... http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-erskine-20111019,0,1908398.column

According to Kyodo News, Yu Darvish will formally ask the Nippon Ham Fighters to make him available for MLB teams this winter. Darvish is under contract through 2014, but Nippon Ham can make him available through the posting process. Under this scenario, teams would need to submit bids in order to secure exclusive negotiating rights. The 25-year-old right-hander went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and 276/36 K/BB ratio over 232 innings this season. He should draw plenty of interest in a weak market for starting pitchers, with the Rangers, Blue Jays and Yankees expected to take part in the bidding. - http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/344343/baseball-headlines?r=1

A statue of Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson will be unveiled this weekend outside Baltimore's Camden Yards. The 9-foot bronze statue being unveiled Saturday depicts Robinson at third base preparing to throw out a runner at first. A 4½-foot pedestal will have panels describing Robinson's career. Robinson played his entire 23-season career with the Orioles, retiring in 1977, and is considered one of the greatest defensive third basemen in history. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7122036/orioles-brooks-robinson-statue-unveiled-baltimore

Brad Peacock RHP WAS (23) – Drafted in the 41st round of the 2006 draft, Washington has to be pleased with a 2011 performance that shoots Peacock up their top prospect list. The right-hander come out of nowhere with a 2.01 ERA and struck out 129 batters in 98.6 innings while maintaining a 6.1% walk rate. There are some questions as to whether he can reproduce these numbers at higher levels because he did so with a painfully low .274 BABIP and in spite of decreasing groundball totals, although his 2.10 FIP shows that ERA to be real. Peacock made it all the way to the show this year and pitched pretty well, giving up one earned run in 12 innings pitched. So it’s clear this kid has a good arm whether he’ll stick in the middle of a rotation or get moved to the bullpen will be determined by his performance and the presence and development of the numerous blue chip prospects in the Nationals stable. Note: From the bullpen, he’s been able to punch his fastball up from 92-94 into 96 mph range. - http://baseballinstinct.com/2011/10/19/touchem-all-eastern-league-top-mlb-prospects-pitchers

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