Baseball Etcetera: Daisuke wins....Selig paid $14.5 million
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Daisuke Wins First Start: Strikes Out Ten Batters
Daisuke Matsuzaka showed yesterday he is as good as the hype surrounding him during the offseason. He allowed one run in 7 innings while striking out 10 in the Red Sox 4-1 win over the Royals.
Matsuzaka proved in his first game that he can translate success in Japan into success in America. Right now in my book he is the rookie of the year if he can continue pitching like he did yesterday.
Selig Earned $14.5 Million In Fiscal 2005 As Baseball Czar
Bud Selig is not so sure about retiring now and I can't blame him since he made $14.5 million as the commissioner of baseball in fiscal 2005. It is not easy to walk away from that kind of money even when as rich as Selig.
Selig didn't really earn that money to my way of thinking since he has kept Pete Rose out of Hall of Fame because he isn't decisive enough to even make a decision like that. I still think of the All Star Game when they ran out of players and Selig was at a loss at what to do and it showed on his face. When you are paid that kind of money you have to be able to make decisions.
Selig is nothing more than a puppet for the owners which made him the commissioner. It is absurd that the former principal owner of the Brewers would be the commissioner. It would be just as absurd to make Don Fehr the commissioner since he is director of player's union. There will never be fair decisions made when a former owner is making the decisions that affect major league baseball.
The gravest mistake Selig made was his turning his head while steroids raged through baseball in the late 90's knowing those steroids were drawing fans into the stands at amazing numbers at a time when fans had rebelled at the thought of millionaires going on strike in 1994. He made a decision that will forever affect baseball history when he canceled the 1994 World Series. So hope Selig enjoys spending his $14.5 million but he surely hasn't earned it or any other year he has been paid for being an undecisive commissioner except when it came to canceling the World Series. He couldn't wait to do that so he could show the player's union he was boss.
Baseball Daily Digest
A.J. Pierzynski took one for the team yesterday as he was hit by a pitch from Roberto Hernandez that gave the White Sox a 4-3 victory over the Indians. Grady Sizemore hit his major league leading third homer in the loss for the Indians....Devil Rays showed they are capable of beating the Yankees in their 7-6 win with the help of two errors by Derek Jeter. Devil Rays bullpen pitched better than they had in the opening game. Elijah Dukes hit his second homer showing he can hit on the road and it will be interesting to see how Dukes does over the season.
Mike Piazza showed yesterday why the A's signed him by making his first homer and first run batted in count as the homer won the game for the A's in the top of the ninth inning. The win over division rival Angels showed the A's have as much chance to win the AL West as the Angels. Mark Ellis drove in his 8th run of the season two more than anyone else in baseball. Huston Street pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save....Jason Marquis saw a 2-1 lead evaporate after allowing only 1 run and 4 hits in 6 innings. Cubs are not playing as well on the field as well as they looked like they would on paper after spending almost $300 million during the offseason. Now they travel to Milwaukee to play what looks like an improved Brewers team before returning home to Wrigley Field on Monday to play the Astros.
Chuck James may not be making nearly as much as his pitching opponent yesterday Adam Eaton but outpitched him decisively giving up 1 run in 5 innings while his counterpart was allowing the Braves 7 earned runs and 7 hits in 4 2/3 innings and James pitched Braves to an 8-4 win over the Phillies. Kelly Johnson has been off to a slow start hitting .071 but his only hit in 14 times at bat was a homer that drove in 2 runs. Ryan Howard is hitting .182 after the first three games....Nationals outhit the Diamondbacks 11-6 but still came out on the short end of a 4-3 win by the Diamondbacks. Edgar Gonzalez translated his spring training success into a regular season victory striking out 7 in 5 innings....Barry Bonds doubled in the first run of the game for the Giants who won their first game of season behind the pitching of Matt Morris.
Looking at Stats
Miguel Cabrera leads majors in hitting with a .700 average with Placido Polanco second at .600....Grady Sizemore leads in homers with 3....Mark Ellis extended his RBI lead to 8....Eric Byrnes and Vladimir Guerrero lead in hits with 8....Guerrero also leads in total bases with 16....Nick Swisher leads in walks with 6....Adam LaRoche and Troy Tulowitzki share the lead in strikeouts with 7....Felix Hernandez is only pitcher with more than 7 innings pitched to have a perfect 0.00 ERA....Jae Seo of the Devil Rays has allowed the most hits this season (11)....Angels have most hits with 42....Braves lead in homers with 6 but also lead in strikeouts by hitters with 34 after only 3 games....Yankees lead in batting average with .356 mark....Mets lead in team ERA with 0.67 with the Reds second at 2.00....Devil Rays have the worst ERA at 7.94....Nationals lead in walks with 19 after 4 games....Diamondbacks lead in strikeouts with 19.
Looking at Standings
Twins have the only team in AL to not have lost a game with a 3-0 record....In the NL the Braves, Mets and Pirates have yet to lose with all three teams having 3-0 records....Marlins have the most runs scored with 24 while Cardinals are the bottom of the list with 2 runs....Mets have been the stingiest team allowing only 2 runs while Nationals are at bottom with 28 runs allowed.
Today's Matchups
Top matchups today are the Angels- Athletics game with Joe Kennedy starting for A's with rookie Justin Moseley getting the start for Angels. Moseley has pitched only 11 innings in majors and Kennedy pitched badly in the spring except for one great start so this game could be a tossup and probably why Kennedy is pitching today....Braves and Mets is always a good matchup with Oliver Perez starting for Mets and Mark Redman getting the nod for the Braves. Both pitchers have something to prove with Perez wanting he can pitch as well as he did in 2004 for Pirates when he struck out 239 batters while Redman would like to repay the Braves for giving him a shot when he was on the brink of being out of baseball.
