The Scoop

By Dalton Del Don

Jonathan Broxton gave up three runs while pitching in Petco Park during his last appearance, but there hasn’t been a more dominant reliever in baseball this season. How about 65 strikeouts over 39.2 innings? A 14.75 K/9 is positively astronomical. He still walks too many batters, but when you combine that kind of ability to miss bats with a strong 1.65 G/F rate, you’re looking at the best closer in MLB, as long as health cooperates. His xFIP is 1.70.

Speaking of pitchers for the Dodgers, Randy Wolf currently has a 3.49 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and a very solid 2.65 K:BB ratio. While he’s obviously been unlucky with just three wins on the year, especially pitching for a team leading baseball with a 52-30 record, he still looks like a sell-high candidate thanks to fortune in other areas. The improved command is nice, but his current 6.81 K/9 rate is actually his worst since 2004 and the second-lowest of his career. It’s not a terrible mark by any means, but for a pitcher who has posted an ERA lower than 4.23 just once since 2002, missing fewer bats can’t help, no matter the upgrade in home ballparks. Wolf currently sports a .261 BABIP (career .299) and the second-highest LOB% (77.4) of his career. His xFIP is 4.34, so see if you can sell.

Casey McGehee has been a fantastic story this season, posting a .343/.396/.567 line over 134 at-bats. However, this is a 26-year-old rookie who has a career .741 OPS throughout 2,577 minor league ABs. I’m not rooting against him, but with a .385 BABIP, don’t be surprised when the inevitable crash happens.

Derek Lowe hasn’t struck out more than four batters in a game since May 6, and he hasn’t fanned more than five since April 25. More worrisome than that, his GB% (53.8) is by far the lowest of his career (at least since they started recording the stat in 2002), and it’s not even close, as last year’s 60.3% was his second worst, which also points out a discouraging trend. I’m not ready to write off Lowe, but with a 4.72 K/9, 3.04 BB/9 and a lucky 5.1% HR/F rate, he’ll need to start pitching considerably better for that contract not to look like a disaster for Atlanta.

Heading into 2009 with Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden and Max Ramirez on their roster, it seemed like catcher was a position of strength for the Rangers. Instead, all three have been huge disappointments. Salty has fanned 82 times over 220 at-bats, has posted a .671 OPS and has gotten worse over each month this season. Teagarden has countered with an anemic .232/.289/.319 line and is still searching for his first home run of 2009. Ramirez, meanwhile, has a .640 OPS for Oklahoma City in the offensive-heavy PCL league.

With a 7.11 BB/9 mark, I’m beginning to suspect David Price isn’t quite ready to dominate major league hitters just yet. Of course, a 9.47 K/9 also portends a very bright future, so his long-term outlook hasn’t changed much, but after a lackluster performance in the minors earlier this year, his rise to stardom is clearly going to be slower than first anticipated.

I won’t be silly and go nuts over every All-Star selection, but a few comments can’t hurt too much. Yovani Gallardo’s snub was bad, but leaving Javier Vazquez off the roster is downright criminal. He’s been one of the five best pitchers in all of baseball this season. And for anyone arguing against fan voting, that is completely ruined by the laughable Tim Wakefield selection – players/managers/coaches would make just as many mistakes and probably more. And as for the NL fan vote, it comes down to Mark Reynolds vs. Pablo Sandoval. Reynolds may deserve to play in the game, but in this scenario, is it even all that close? Sandoval has a higher batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and in the first two cases by wide margins (63 and 32 points, respectively), while playing in a park that is by far more pitcher friendly than Chase Field, which has ranked as the No. 1 stadium in boosting runs scored according to Park Factors in 2009. Moreover, Sandoval has played better defense than Reynolds, making this a pretty easy call.

Wimbledon has definitely produced two of the better tennis matches in recent memory over the past couple of years, but how inevitable was that Andy Roddick loss? I was definitely rooting for him (not that I’d ever feel sorry for someone going home to this), and his genuine emotion was pretty cool, especially when he gave the smug Federer a perfect response during the end ceremony (thanks for your condolences asshole, but it had to have been a little easier losing last year when you’ve already won five Wimbledon titles). That said, this match wasn’t truly epic like last year’s, because when two power players like this meet up, there are very few rallies. I mean, out of the 30 (30!) games in the final set, I doubt even five made it to a “deuce.” Still, good stuff – and don’t get me started about NBC not airing the semi-final match live.

I may be in the minority, as it seems, but I thought “Public Enemies” was sick. An argument has been a lack of character development – well, John Dillinger became this icon in a 13-month span! Michael Mann executed this perfectly, in my opinion. He was even painstakingly (maybe even too?) detailed. Not a true classic, but a very good movie.