SB Nation - Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior's Decision Likely To Come Before Long

Jeff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:29:02 -0000

Not a whole lot to say on this, but Dave passed along the link, so I might as well post it:

Goldberg [Griffey's agent] said he was scheduled to meet with the Mariners soon and any decision on Griffey's future with the team -- and in baseball -- would be made sooner rather than later.

We'll tackle this story once it's resolved. For now, just something to think about. It's not exactly news, but at this point in the offseason, it might be close enough to qualify.

84-77, Game Notes

Jeff — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:49:43 -0000

More photos » by John Froschauer - AP

Hole In The Wall

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And so we're to that point in the year where it becomes less about wanting to see these guys win at all costs and more about wanting to see them be happy. It's a transition that, I think, makes you more forgiving, and it's with that in mind that I'd like to congratulate Miguel Batista on a job well done. He made that ninth inning look easy.

We've flipped Batista a lot of crap for a long time. It'd be hard to say he didn't deserve it. From his poor performance to his laborious pace to his seeming aloofness and detachment from his teammates, he didn't do a whole lot to win anyone over. He just never really looked like he cared very much, and as a professional athlete, that's a bad attitude to convey. He never endeared himself to the fan base, and the list of people counting down the days until his contract expires would take longer to read off than the time between any two of Miguel's pitches.

But fanhood changes as the summer winds down and you realize you're not playing for anything. When you root for a competiting team, it's all about performance. It has to be. You're cutthroat about it, because you know you need the best performance to bring home a title. When you root for a team that's faded out of it, though, it becomes less about the numbers and more about the actual players. More about finding enjoyment in the fact that the players are still enjoying themselves despite being out of the race. It's a different sort of satisfaction, but a fulfilling one. Smiles and celebrations give us glimpses of personality, and nothing draws us closer to the players than when they come across as people.

After Miguel Batista struck out Taylor Teagarden to end the game, he leapt in the air and pumped his fists in a rare display of emotion. And where a few months ago I might've joked about it, tonight I just feel genuinely happy for him. Miguel Batista is a person. We have no reason to believe that he's a bad person, and a handful of reasons to believe he's a good one. There are any number of explanations for why he's done things the way he's done them, and just because he works slowly or doesn't participate in the bullpen hijinks is no reason to wish him ill. People are different. And Miguel Batista is a 38 year old reliever coming off a couple rough years. This very well could have been the final appearance of his career, and so for him to nail down a save in such dominating fashion...Miguel was able to close out a difficult chapter and perhaps a whole book with a fairytale ending, and no matter how frustrating he's been in the past, you have to feel good that he feels good. Every author knows the power of a strong conclusion.

Tomorrow afternoon, we're going to say goodbye to Ken Griffey Jr. Even if he's not actually going away. He's going to receive a rousing, thunderous ovation twenty years in the making. But while Griffey's will get all the press, there are dozens of stories in that clubhouse, stories at different stages, some building up and some winding down, but all of them changing. Though they're not all best-sellers, every single one of them means the world. Take a moment to recognize as many as you can, if only because every story in there has in some way affected your own.

A strong way for Ryan Rowland-Smith to cap off a year that wound up way better than anyone would've imagined back in May. RRS breezed through the better part of the first six innings, and though he got himself into trouble there in the seventh with the Elvis Andrus ground-rule double, he pitched himself two-thirds of the way out of the jam before letting Shawn Kelley finish the job. I've said it a million times before, but while pitcher wins don't mean much of anything to us, they mean a ton to the pitchers themselves, and so after losing his win late against Toronto the last time out, tonight RRS is probably one part relieved and two parts ecstatic that he was able to come away with win #5. I'm sure he would've rather taken care of the seventh inning himself, but realistically, this is just about how every pitcher wants to close out his season.

In twelve starts a year ago, RRS posted a walk rate of 8.7%. This year he trimmed it to 6.7% while slightly raising his strikeouts. Once the injuries were behind him, he answered every question.

RRS also happened to turn one of the more unusually impressive double plays I've ever seen. With men on the corners and one down in the top of the sixth, Marlon Byrd hit a comebacker on the ground that RRS fielded in midair, behind his back, and between his legs, before firing to second. It was a powerful reminder of the effectiveness of instant human reaction, which, when considered in conjunction with Jose Lopez's error problem on slower groundballs, causes me to entertain the unexpected possibility that Lopez's problem is that he thinks too much.

Before the game, David Aardsma and Mark Lowe apologized to Jason Vargas for costing him a win last night. Inspired, Alan Cockrell left notes in every pitcher's locker.

Sometime in the early going, Dave Sims mentioned the Mariners' positive record and negative run differential in the same sentence. I know sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but between things like this and all the previous on-air talk about UZR and OOZ and so forth, we have to have one of the more statistically-advanced broadcasts in baseball. I like Sims for always being so genuine and enthusiastic, but I think what I love about our broadcast the most is that it so rarely says anything stupid. Godspeed, Hendu.

Weed used to bother me. It used to bother me a lot, and even though, in my head, I knew that it wasn't meaningfully different from drinking, it still took ages to get over whatever obstacle it was and let my brain's reaction be my body's. With that said, one of my greatest regrets is that, even after five years, I still haven't come to terms with the fact that chasing after bad pitches is just part of Adrian Beltre's overall package. Intellectually, I know it's not a big deal. Every player has flaws, and it's not fair to ask them to be perfect. But for some reason, though I'm perfectly willing to accept, say, RRS' fly balls or Russell Branyan's strikeouts, I still respond to Beltre's fishing exploits the same way I did in 2005. "STOP! JUST STOP AND DON'T DO THAT!!" I don't know what it is about certain players that makes us always want them to be better, but I'm afraid that's a burden that Beltre's going to have to shoulder as long as he plays. Unless he maybe stops swinging at those God damn unhittable pitches.

Andruw Jones was once the premier defensive outfielder in baseball. Now he's a fat DH with the occasional spell at first base. He's 32. The way he bluffed towards third on his fifth inning double looked just like how Yuni used to bluff towards any groundball hit to his left.

Kelley got the job done in the top of the seventh, but realistically, Franklin Gutierrez is the reason Michael Young didn't pick up a three-run double. Young smoked a pitch to deep center field that kept slicing to the right, but Guti read it off the bat immediately, set off in a dead sprint, and arrived so quickly that he actually had to slow down before making the catch. This isn't a play I can do justice with words. There wasn't anything visually spectacular about it. He didn't have to dive or leave his feet or crash into the wall. It was just a display of how perfect instincts and awesome range can make a nigh-impossible play look almost easy. When Gutierrez ran it down, I thought "well I guess that wasn't as difficult a play as I thought," but the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that there aren't many other outfielders in the league who track that ball down. Gutierrez is just that much better than pretty much everyone else. And he has a bad knee.

Griffey's line drive home run just barely had enough to squeak out. Hopefully that means he saved up enough strength to hit another one tomorrow. If I have to watch another Mariner legend end his career with a double play I'm going to be mad as a wet hen.

Quick Math

Jeff — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:31:45 -0000

I'm in a rush and won't be around tonight, but while I have a minute:

Ken Griffey Jr., 2009: .215/.324/.408, .221 BABIP

	BABIP
BIP	2003-2008	2009
Grounder	0.204	0.128
Fly	0.117	0.117
Liner	0.696	0.723

Difference: -9 1B, grounders, +1 1B, liner

Ken Griffey Jr., 2009, adjusted*: .236/.342/.430,.249 BABIP

* assuming no park factors, which isn't right, but this gets close enough

Griffey's speed now is probably lower than his average speed over the six years previous, so maybe I shouldn't regress that grounder BABIP all the way up to .204, but this is more of an approximation than anything else, with the conclusion being that, while Griffey's no world-beater, his true talent at this point is higher than his batting line.

I haven't decided what I think about the possibility of Griffey coming back in 2010, but should that end up happening, he could fill a role. Outside of the clubhouse.

81-76, Game Notes

Jeff — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:36:12 -0000

More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

This is like taking a picture of the bushes next to Kim Phuc.

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When the meaningful wins are gone, you're left having to celebrate the symbolic ones, but as symbolic ones go, this one was pretty good. We'll have all offseason to reflect on what winning at least 81 games means for the organization. For now, let's just revel in the moment. .500+ was a long time coming. Back in 2007, Rolling Stone's #1 song went to Jay-Z. Spiderman 3 raked in more than three hundred million dollars. Alex Rodriguez led the league in home runs. No other fan base in the world has had to suffer as much as we did while we waited for the M's to return to respectability, and so this - this is bliss. We've earned this. Our long, seemingly endless regional nightmare is over.

And so Felix Hernandez earns his 18th win and slightly lowers his ERA on a night that seldom saw him at his best. That he nearly made it through another eight innings is a testament to both how poorly the A's have been known to hit and how good Felix can still be even when he's not on his game.

The raw numbers do a fine job of conveying just how much Felix struggled with his location. When a guy throw 58% strikes, walks four guys, beans two more, and adds a pair of wild pitches for good measure, no one's going to accuse him of being unusually sharp unless he's Daniel Cabrera. I dunno, maybe it was the weather. It was a cool, indoor game at the Safe, with Gameday marking the temperature at 52 degrees. Sometimes it can be hard to get a good feel for the seams when your fingers are cold, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that that played a part in Felix's struggles. But then, it's also possible that it didn't. Who knows? Maybe Felix's rough go of it was independent of the atmosphere. What matters is that he wasn't particularly sharp, and were it not for a handful of clutch pitches and some good defense, Oakland would've scored more than a deuce.

What's funny is that, where you'd think a start like this would hurt Felix's chances at the Cy Young, the voters will probably eat it up. Guy comes in without his best stuff and toughs it out for 7.2 two-run innings? That's a warrior. It's easy to coast when you're always untouchable like Zack Greinke. Felix had to earn his innings. Or something. I can't tell if this is a joke or serious. I guess that's not a real ringing endorsement of the award.

Those 120 pitches Felix threw, by the way, were a career high. Safe to say we're out of the kid gloves window, as Felix has racked up 232 innings and 26 consecutive starts with 100+ pitches thrown. Wakamatsu has treated him like a workhorse, and he's responded like one. I don't necessarily love that he was out there for 120, especially on a night where he didn't know where the ball was going, but his velocity was fine, and we don't have any real compelling reason to believe that we put his body in grave danger. Every pitcher's unique. Felix seems to be pretty durable. So at this point I support pretty much any endeavor intended to make him happy. Would've been nice to see Felix walk off after a third out, but I guess we'll just have to give him a real ovation on Sunday.

The small crowd tonight should help keep Felix's price tag down come the eventual extension negotiations.

Nero: Felix deserves to be paid at a premium. He's the sort of player fans will pay to come see.
Zduriencik: Oh yeah?

With two on and two down in the top of the seventh, Rajai Davis hit a ball on the ground to the right of second base that Jose Lopez tracked down and threw to first after a little spin. It wasn't a spectacular play, and it won't make any highlight reels, but it was a rangey play, and an effective reminder that, while Lopez will probably always be prone to the occasional boneheaded mistake, he's not a tree. He can move to each side, and he can move pretty well. For now, anyway.

Hopefully this wasn't Ken Griffey Jr.'s final home run in Seattle (by which I mean I'd like to see one in the next five days, and not in 2010), but if it was, at least it was a classic Griffey dinger. Low-inside fastball that he turned on with the usual swing and watched fly to its usual place while completing his usual follow-through. The best part was that the homer was immediately preceded by a meeting on the mound with the catcher and coach and everything. Nothing quite like giving someone advice and then watching him go and achieve the worst possible scenario.

Anyway, Griffey hasn't hit a whole lot this year, but he hasn't been a disaster, and he's shown enough flashes of his old self to remind so many people of why they ever fell in love. Honestly, it might be the best case for him that the team is successful but not close to the race, because by being so far out of it, no one feels inclined to blame his mediocre productivity for holding us back. Everyone's who's wanted has just been able to get swept up in the whole thing, and given the impact he's had on the team and the fan base, I don't know that the organization could be any happier about having brought him back. It didn't go perfectly, but nothing's ever perfect.

Bill Hall let another ball drop in front of him today after taking a casual stroll in pursuit. This one, at least, landed in foul territory. Said Dave Sims: "Wow. Full throttle, it wasn't." It can't be laziness. If it were laziness, Wak would've put him on the bench by now. So Hall has to have a pretty good excuse for why he hasn't been running, and that pretty good excuse is his bum quad. Hall can't run at anything close to full speed because he has a bum quad. Sooo...he's still playing. I don't understand.

A couple batters later, Adrian Beltre retreated behind third base for a pop up and made a wave-off motion with his hand before making the catch. Then he smiled.

Says a frequent MLB.tv commercial for a week-long umpire camp: "Become the best umpire you can be." This can be interpreted in three ways:

(1) Nothing about being a successful umpire is so hard that you can't learn it in a week
(2) Camp is the only place where you can learn to be an umpire, and once you leave camp, you'll never improve again, ever
(3) The statement has nothing to do with the camp, and is instead a message of inspiration. "Hey, viewer. Become the best umpire you can be. We believe in you."

I don't know which is correct, but #1 seems most appropriate.

A's clinch! A's clinch! Okay, so it's just for last place and under .500...

Flashfire — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:24:28 -0000

More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

Trevor Cahill tips his cap to the 2009 A's season. We're #4! We're #4! Woohoo!!

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For most of the night this game had that playing-out-the-string feeling to it. Trevor Cahill was having another one of those Houdini-like outings until Ken Griffey Jr. touched him up for a three-run homer in the fifth that gave the Mariners a comfortable 6-1 cushion behind another solid outing by Felix Hernandez, though Oakland would make it interesting late by having chances to tie the game in each of the last two innings before falling by a count of 6-4.

In doing so the A's dropped to 75-82, thus ending their unlikely but entertaining quest to somehow reach .500 by the end of the season, and it assured a last-place finish for the first time since 1998. If the current standings of LAA-TEX-SEA-OAK stays the same (TEX and SEA could still switch places), it will be the first time that has happened since going to the three-division format.

If it's any consolation, the A's DO have the best record of any last-place team and trail their division leader by the least games in comparison to the rest. Put it this way: it took them until game 157 to be assured of last place after how bad things looked earlier in the year. Hey, it's SOMEthing. In spite of that it doesn't seem as bad as that looks as they've played solid baseball in the latter half of the season. The important thing will be seeing how much of it carries over into 2010.

Cahill was unable to get through the fifth tonight, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and two walks with just one strikeout. In comparison, Hernandez threw a season-high 120 pitches and nearly got through eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits with four walks, plus he hit two batters. He wasn't his usual overpowering self, evidenced by only four strikeouts. Sometimes he gets that in two innings. He needed Mark Lowe to bail him out of trouble in the eighth and David Aardsma gave up a couple runs in the ninth on a Kurt Suzuki double before retiring Daric Barton on a fly ball to Ichiro Suzuki that, for the briefest of moments, looked like it might just have a chance to tie things up. Somehow Eric Patterson went 3-for-3 with a walk against Hernandez. I won't try to figure that one out and I suggest you don't either.

A few more things:

* Travis Buck got into the game, had two ABs, AND singled and scored a run.

* we expect full details soon from Chez Nico. It's not Vegas, so what happens there shall be known by all.

* the game threads are not safe for anyone except those of strong composition and/or questionable mental states. Wade in at your own peril. Now, those ARE Vegas as far as we're concerned.

* we've learned what a few of the A's rookies wound up in during this year's hazing ritual. Photos must exist somewhere. They will be found by someone.

* this is my last game thread of the season. It was fun. In the words of Denis Leary, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, and..." Wait. Not the game thread. My bad. Go A's in 2010!

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:09:07 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

Mat Gamel is congratulated Mike Cameron and Alcides Escobar after hitting a three-run home run during the sixth inning Sunday. Somehow, I skimmed over 1000 posts on over 300 baseball sites this morning and didn't find a single mention of it.

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Some things to read while getting the baby to smile.

The Brewers have a day off today to reflect on the 2009 home season, which saw them draw 3,037,197 fans, down just 31,000 from last season, despite posting their first losing record at home since 2004. Seth McClung was sad he didn't get to pitch in the last game, but also offered some insight into what the clubhouse is like on the final day at home. And tristarscoop has a photo of the carnage in the final sausage race.

For at least three Brewers, the off day will be an opportunity to see a doctor. Casey McGehee (knee), Mark DiFelice (shoulder) and Mike Burns (shoulder) will all see specialists today in the hope of firming up a prognosis and offseason plan. McGehee isn't sure if he'll need offseason surgery to repair a knee that's been sore for months, DiFelice thinks he'll be fine but wants to make sure, and Burns recently revealed he's had shoulder soreness for several days now.

Has Ken Macha managed his last game at Miller Park? He doesn't seem to think so. If he does return next season he could have a new pitching coach, as the team is reportedly considering making an offer to former A's and Mets coach Rick Peterson (FanShot).

Dave Bush had another rough outing yesterday, including hitting opposing pitcher Joe Blanton with a curveball while Blanton was attempting to bunt. That HBP put him back in the major league lead at 15. That's the fifth highest single season total in Brewer history, which is pretty impressive considering Bush has only pitched 114.1 innings this season. No pitcher has ever plunked more than 16 batters while pitching fewer than 120 innings: Bush will likely get one more start to attempt to become the first.

Josh Butler also pitched in yesterday's game, and his rough outing will be his final Brewer appearance this season. While the team is headed out on the road today, Butler is headed back to Huntsville, then to the Brewers' training facility in Arizona to get ready for the Arizona Fall League.

Speaking of HBPs, Jason Kendall picked up his 247th on Saturday on a pitch from Kyle Kendrick. Plunk Everyone has, among other things, the full list of every player with double initials that has hit Kendall. Unfortunately, plunkings mustn't be weighted very heavily in the Elias rankings, as Kendall is starting to slide down the charts and now sits near the bottom of Type B free agents.

Prince Fielder is up to 42 home runs this season, and Plunk Everyone ranked him third in all of baseball in home run difficulty. Follow the link for an explanation: I think the stat has some merit.

Ryan Braun picked up his 30th home run in dramatic fashion on Saturday night. The Dugout Doctors list him as one of their current players to build a franchise around, but Fake Teams asks if he's getting overhyped.

In the minors:

Project Prospect has ranked pitchers from each level of the minors by out %. In AA, Donovan Hand, Bobby Bramhall and Mike McClendon cracked the top 50, and Dan Meadows, Efrain Nieves, Nick Tyson and Wily Peralta made the top 50 for the Timber Rattlers. No Brevard County Manatees or Nashville Sounds made the lists.
Maverick Lasker (11th) and Max Walla (20th) both appeared on Baseball America's rankings of the top 20 prospects in the Arizona Rookie League this season.

If you're already feeling nostalgic for 2009, Big League Stew has a look back at the Brewers season that was.

Baseball Digest Daily has the Brewers holding steady at #17 in their power rankings.

Around baseball:

Mets: Claimed pitcher Jack Egbert off waivers from the White Sox.

Ever wonder what 2009 would have looked like if the Brewers had somehow found a way to hold on to all the pitchers they've discarded over the years? The rotation might have included Justin Lehr, who was getting ready to give up on baseball before the Reds called him up this season. His numbers as a Red haven't been fantastic, but he might actually be an improvement over some of the guys the Brewers have trotted out there this season.

If the Brewers decide not to retain Mike Cameron this offseason, here's another name to add to the list of potential replacements: Oakland's Rajai Davis. A's Nation thinks the Brewers might be a candidate to acquire him, but also thinks they might be willing to give up Brett Lawrie in exchange, and that's absolutely ridiculous. Elsewhere in center field, Rick Ankiel doesn't expect to return to St. Louis. And if the Brewers end up needing another gritty utility infielder to replace Craig Counsell, Omar Vizquel wants to play another year.

If you're already looking ahead to the fall and winter seasons, get your calendar out: The Baseball Zealot has a list of important dates for you.

Or, if you're looking forward to the hot stove season, here's something for you: Circling the Bases has the top ten free agents for this offseason. Ben Sheets, who still hasn't pitched since last September, checks in at #10. Given his extended absence and his history regarding work ethic and rehab, I'm guessing he's going to show up in someone's camp next spring out of shape and/or unable to pitch. In fact, I'll be surprised if he passes a physical.

Speaking of guys who are out of shape, stop back later today for a special surprise. That's all I'm saying about it.

How long can you extend your career, based purely on the ability to get on base? Ken Griffey Jr. is batting .210 this season for the Mariners, but leads the team in walks and drew the 1300th of his career yesterday. That's over 22 miles in walks.

I have two email addresses that get constant emails from MLB.com which I typically delete without reading. It's good to know that's unavoidable: MLB has reportedly been ignoring requests to be removed from their mailing list. That's always a solid business practice.

Finally, after months of rumor and panic, we have a definitive list of the symptoms associated with Royals Fever.

Can you imagine Miller Park being used for this? Seamheads has the story of Milwaukee's Athletic Park being renovated in 1892 to become the home of "The Last Days of Pompeii." Interesting stuff.

Happy birthday today to Brian Banks, who turns 39, and Mike DeJean, who also turns 39.

Oh, and today's Mug probably would have come out ten minutes earlier if Rob Neyer hadn't introduced me to Worldometers.

Drink up.

A Thought

Jeff — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:52:10 -0000

Ken Griffey Jr. has what many consider to be among the finest-looking swings of his generation. It's a swing synonymous with Mariner baseball, a swing smoother than an unfolded emergency survival blanket and a swing after which couples name their children. Through five months of the season, he's hitting .221/.329/.399 with a .322 wOBA.

Mike Sweeney swings like someone just blew an air horn. Through five months of the season, he's hitting .262/.316/.417 with a .315 wOBA.

Having pretty swing mechanics can be useful, but it's separated from actual production by so many levels as to be borderline irrelevant. Provided a guy surpasses a minimum level of acceptability in that regard, it seems to me the only real concern should be the speed with which the bat clears the zone.

Ooh, that Snell. Can't you Smell that Snell?

67MARQUEZ — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:54:03 -0000

More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

2 months ago: Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. hits a two-run home run against the Oakland Athletics in the fifth inning of a baseball game Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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And then there are those games that you wish you could send back and have them cook a little longer...

The A's just couldn't get anything going tonight against Ian Snell, going hitless until Daric Barton's single with two outs in the fifth. Meanwhile, Vin Mazzaro flirted incessantly with danger during his five frames on the hill. The Mariners played along for awhile, stranding eight through the first four innings, a José López homerun leading off the third their only score, and for a brief moment Mazzaro (5IP, 5H, 3R, 4BB, 4K) was duped into thinking he might have a chance.

But the young right-hander got a little too cute for his own good, hitting López with a pitch to start the fifth, before Ken Griffey Jr. put an end to the charade with a no-doubt-about-it blast into the right-field bleachers, the 625th of a career that will ultimately land him in Cooperstown.

Griffey may have benefited from home plate umpire Marty Foster's decision to warn both benches following the López at-bat, taking the inside part of the plate from Mazzaro. So the rook grooved one, and the 21-year veteran deposited it into the cheap seats.

The A's got one back in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Kurt Suzuki, but that was all for the A's, who left their bats back in the Bay Area.

There wasn't even the usual teA'se tonight, unless you count Jack Cust's ground-rule double to lead off the ninth, which brought up the tying run. But Suzuki flied out to right, Ryan Sweeney did the same to left, and Landon Powell struck out to end it, earning Snell (6IP, 4H, 1R, 2BB, 2K) the win, and David Aardsma his 29th save of the season.

Morning Prowl: Porcello's Appeal, Henning's Beef, Zumaya's Surgery, and Thames's Milestone

Ian Casselberry — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:40:18 -0000

Rick Porcello dropped the appeal of his five-game suspension. Factoring into the decision was Armando Galarraga's scratched start last night. Galarraga will now pitch in Porcello's original turn on Sunday, and Kid Rick's next start will be Tuesday night vs. Seattle.

So should we all thank Ken Griffey, Jr. for helping the Tigers maintain their two-game lead over the White Sox in the AL Central? You can do so personally next week, when the Mariners return to Detroit. Griffey's single off Tony Pena in the 14th inning drove home the game-winning (and only) run.

Okay, seriously - who in the Tigers' organization ticked off Lynn Henning? He's been cranky all season, and the second-to-last paragraph of this blog post is his latest example of fist-shaking. Maybe it's Jim Leyland who put out a cigarette in Henning's coffee (figuratively speaking), judging from what's written here.

That's not to say Henning doesn't bring up a good point in asking what really happened on Porcello's pitch to Kevin Youkilis on Tuesday night. But expecting Leyland to potentially call out his rookie pitcher is a bit much. (What ultimately surprises me is that Henning didn't somehow manage to add this to his argument that the Tigers should release Magglio Ordonez.)

Mark your calendars: One week from tomorrow, Joel Zumaya will undergo shoulder surgery. The procedure will take place in Florida, and be performed by one Dr. James Andrews ("the most valuable player in sports").

Jayson Stark has some interesting trivia surrounding the 100th career home run that Marcus Thames hit last weekend. Thames reached that milestone in fewer games than many of baseball's all-time sluggers. However, to join them in home run immortality, he'd have to play a long time. A very long time.

If you missed it yesterday, the Milwaukee Brewers released Bill Hall. (Just over a week ago, some blogger was suggesting the Tigers should try to pick him up.)

Any need for Hall might not be quite as great now, as Brandon Inge seems to be dealing with his knee injury better. And another right-handed hitting outfielder would probably just complicate matters at this point. But we're just saying: he's out there and will probably be cheap.

Wouldn't it be funny if the Tigers were one of the teams that put in a waiver claim on Gary Sheffield? It's a moot point, however, as the Mets pulled Sheff back off waivers, negating any possible trade.

Quick Hits for a Sunday

Eli Greenspan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:17:41 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

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-Matt Holliday has hit .606 since joining the Cardinals and has hit in nine straight games.

-The Brewers are 0-6-2 in their last eight series. They did not win a series in July.

-The Cubs hit 36 home runs in July, leading the NL.

-The Reds have given up at least one run in the first inning 92 times, leading the majors for this dubious distinction.

-Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 622nd home run Saturday. He has hit them off 400 different pitchers in his career.

Today's Bests and Worsts

AL:

Best Team Batting Average: Los Angeles Angels-.288

Worst: Kansas City Royals-.251

Best Team Pitching-.Seatlle Mariners-3.92 ERA

Worst: Cleveland Indians-5.23 ERA

NL:

Best Batting Average-Los Angeles Dodgers-.276

Worst: San Diego Padres-.235

Best Piching-San Francisco Giants-3.51 ERA

Worst: Washington Nationals-5.03 ERA