fullcountpitch.com

By Gary Armida

Happy Fourth of July FCP readers! July 4th is also the birthday of Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner. Love him or hate him, every fan would kill to have an owner who spends his money. He’s had his share of controversy, but the fact is that the Boss has spent a ton of money to field a winning team over the years. Sadly, his 2008 version are not holding up their end of the bargain. Before you start to have too much barbeque this weekend, let’s take a quick glance at the news and trends of the Baseball World.

• As I just hinted, the Yankees are in a terrible stretch. Last night, Jon Lester through a complete game shutout against the punchless Yankees lineup. Surprisingly, it is the offense that is really hurting the Yankees. Yet, not so surprisingly, it is age finally catching up with a few players. It was bound to happen at some point. Last night, the offense wasn’t the only culprit as Derek Jeter’s throwing error set the tone for the game as well as give Boston a 4th out in the inning. After the game, manager Joe GIrardi had a team meeting in which he reportidly tore them apart. The post-game news conference showed an emotional (as in angry) Girardi. We’ll see if it helps, but it looks like the Yankees may need to do something drastic in order to save their season. Monday’s FCP feature will be all about what ails the Yankees and, of course, the solutions to each issue.
• The C.C. Sabathia rumors are really starting to pick up. The hot rumor now is to the Brewers in exchange for prospect Matt LaPorta. That may be a lot for the Brewers to give up considering Sabathia has almost no chance of signing there long-term. Whatever team Sabathia goes to will be getting a considerable shot in the arm when you look at Sabathia’s numbers since May 15th. He’s 3-3 in 68 innings. In those 68 innings, he’s thrown to a 2.51 ERA and a 1.000 WHIP with a 8.74 strikeouts per nine innings ratio. In other words, he’s a Cy Young candidate on the market. Look for the Indians to get maximum value for him as they usually make good trades (see the Bartolo Colon deal).
• Tim Lincecum continues his Cy Young Award winning season. He now stands at 10-1 with a 2.49 ERA and a 9.49 K’s per 9. The youngster came up last year and did well, but his rise to ace status has gone quicker than expected. While many teams baby their young pitchers, the Giants seem to be letting him pitch, with Lincecum having gone more than 7 innings 10 times this season. If only more teams let their pitchers actually pitch.
•  Following up on the Harry Doyle column about scrappers, it seems that the Blue Jays want to trade David Eckstein with Baltimore having interest. New old manager Cito Gaston has not played Eckstein a whole bunch, instead going with Marco Scutaro at short.
• The Rays lost their short stop, Jason Bartlett, for a couple of weeks when they placed him on the DL with a knee injury. To fill his spot, they called up Reid Brignac, their shortstop of the future. Expect Brignac to fall in line with the rest of the Rays youngsters. He isn’t a true offensive prospect, but he should provide average numbers in the short term.
• The Dodgers sent uber-prospect, Clayton Kershaw to the minors. Kershaw has done a decent job in the majors, going 0-2 in 38.2 innings. He pitched to a 4.42 ERA and had a 7.68 K’s per 9 ratio. While the case could be made that he needed to go back down, the Dodgers look a bit foolish after stating that he would be staying through the All-Star break. The big lefty is a talent so he will be a force either later this season or in 2009.
• Mets’ woes–Luis Castillo was placed on the DL yesterday. Yes, the 4 year contract looks even better. On the plus side, Mike Pelfry won his fourth consecutive start. The Castillo contract will go down as one of the worst deals ever. Pelfry, despite being given a rough time by the media, seems to be evolving into a complete pitcher.
• The Oakland A’s potentially have a woe and a plus too. The woe could be the ultra talented Rich Harden who was throwing 4-5 miles per hour slower during his last start. Harden is having a great season, finally healthy enough to string together starts. He’s among the league leaders in strikeouts so losing Harden would be devastating to the A’s playoff chances. The plus is Justin Duchscherer whose ERA now stands at a major league best 1.96. He was always a good reliever so it should only surprise people that he is already a dominant starter.
• And, finally, the Diamondbacks had a tremendous come from behind win last night against the Brewers. The D-Backs came back from 6 runs down in the ninth without recording a single out. The Brewers have to be thinking about going back to Eric Gagne in the closers role, considering that he threw a scoreless 8th. The D-Backs are a .500 team, but still lead the weak Western Division. Hopefully, this can get them rolling once again.

There’s your 9. Have a great, safe Holiday weekend.