SweetSpot Roundup 9/2

By The Common Man and Bill

Austin’s Astros 290 Blog: Pence, bullpen help themselves to sweep
Austin recaps the red hot Astros’ sweep of the Cardinals.

Disciples of Uecker (Brewers): Gallardo’s Contract and Hernandez, Lester
“The Brewers have Gallardo locked up until 2014 at an extremely team friendly rate, and despite his recent struggles, every indication is that he’s ready to take the step forward and join the young class of pitchers that includes Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester.”

Fungoes (Cardinals): Can Cardinals come back? They did in 2001
“The Cardinals come to September 1 forlorn and facing a season-high seven-game deficit in the standings...All we need to do is reach for a refreshing dose of historical perspective to find whether a dram of hope might not be in order.”

The View From the Bleachers (Cubs): Serenity Now
“Watching the Cubs this year is a lot like watching the final season of “Seinfeld.” You know it’s not very good television, but you’re emotionally invested, so you tune in anyway. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll see something resembling the good old days: a Ramirez homer, a Soriano stolen base, the Bubble Boy, Crazy Joe Davola.”

Dodgers Thoughts: So Noted
Links. We get Links. We get lots and lots of Links.

Bay City Ball (Giants): Major League Chernoff Face
This is Uber-cool: “The idea behind Chernoff Faces it that you can take data and map it to facial features in order to visually present differences in the numbers….What I’ve done for today’s ‘Wednesday Graph’ is to take 10 statistics — wOBA, K%, BB/K, AVG, OBP, ISO, Speed Score, BABIP, BB%, and FIP — and create Chernoff faces for every major league team.”

Mets Today: Should Mets Pick Up Jeremy Hermida?
“Hermida is a big kid with big talent, who still is young enough to turn it around, and will cost nothing. What do the Mets have to lose?”

Nationals Baseball: There’s Zimmermann!
Marveling at the speed of Jordan Zimmermann’s comeback from Tommy John surgery.

Ducksnorts (Padres): Toast
It’s all about perspective: “It’s all about expectations. If you’d told me before the season that the Padres would have 76 wins on September 1, I’d have been thrilled. If you’d told me the same on August 25, when they won their 76th game, not so much.”

Fire Brand of the AL (Red Sox): Manny Delcarmen, Rockie
"Manny Delcarmen was a Hyde Park native, a Jamaica Plain resident, and a West Roxbury High graduate.  He had deeper Boston roots than any player in recent memory, and I’m sure the trade was both a shock and a disappointment to him and to his family.  Still, Delcarmen had been teetering on the edge of a trade or release for years — alternately brilliant and ineffective, he provided the team with value but not with the strong back bullpen arm they needed from him."

Sox Machine (White Sox): White Sox Turn Page Into September
Some fun, interesting notes about Mark Buehrle and Manny Ramirez.

The B-List Indians Blog: B-List Lite -8/31
"The Indians made a furious comeback to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 4-3 loss."

The Daily Fungo (Tigers): Tigers Today: September 1, 2010
Your daily Tiger news and notes. I'm loving the History Lesson.

Royals Authority: On Gordon, the Bullpen & Moose
Four short pieces on four enigmatic things: Yuni ("The Yunigma") Betancourt, the unpredictable Alex Gordon, the bullpen (three awesome guys in the worst bullpen in the league? How does that work?) and the joys of resigning Wilson Betemit.

Nick's Twins Blog: No Ordinary Rookie
In praise of Danny Valencia, written many hours before his walk-off single lifted the Twins over the Tigers.

It's About the Money, Stupid (Yankees): Welcome to September
The Yankees' remaining schedule, and how they might avoid an astoundingly unlikely comeback by Boston.

Pro Ball NW (Mariners): Kelley, Cortes and the 2011 Bullpen
Jon looks at how the Mariners' bullpen is shaping up for next year and, maybe surprisingly, kind of likes what he sees.


Baseball Time In Arlington (Rangers): The Last Trade of the Season
Joey isn't much of a fan of the Jeff Francoeur deal. I wasn't, either, at first. But he really can hit lefties, and if they're smart, that's all he'll get to do (well, that and play decent corner outfield defense) for the next month or two.