Aug 25th 2008 11:00AM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Brandon Lyon has been unreliable recently for the Diamondbacks, and that’s putting it lightly. Starting with one inning on August 4th, Lyon has compiled an abysmal 16.88 ERA over his past six outings. That’s 16 hits allowed, 10 earned runs allowed, and only three strikeouts over the course of five and a third innings. Granted, his only save opportunity in there was also his only perfect inning. Still, though, Lyon doesn’t have a solid explanation: “It’s just as simple as not making pitches right now,” Lyon said. “Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. I can’t explain it. I just have to keep grinding it out and keep going back out there and get one out at a time.”In light of the Dodgers still only trailing the Snakes by three games, you’d like to be able to have confidence with a close ninth-inning lead if you were in Bob Melvin’s shoes. Reportedly, he was “vague” when questioned about any possible changes to the back end of the bully. There wouldn’t be an ambiguous answer to the closer question if Melvin knew he was sticking with Lyon, which is a sign that he’s at least mulling over a change.Continue Reading

Aug 25th 2008 7:30PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

Somehow, only five weeks remain in the baseball season. Other than injuries, a contending team’s schedule might be the biggest factor in determining which teams get a shot at postseason glory and which spend October on the golf course.

The following is a quick breakdown of what the NL teams still fighting for a playoff spot will face over the season’s final weeks. Brewers

There are plenty of bottom-feeding clubs left on Milwaukee’s schedule. The Brewers will play six against the Pirates and Reds as well as four against the Padres down the stretch. In all, 16 of their final 31 games will be against sub-.500 competition. In addition, they only face the Cardinals — the team chasing them in the wild-card race — two more times.

The Brew Crew still have six games left against the Cubs, including a three-game set to finish the season. Milwaukee might want to lock up the wild card before that final series.

Key Stretch: From Sept. 11-21, Milwaukee will embark on its final road trip of the season. The Brewers will head to Philadelphia for four games and then Wrigley Field for three before ending the trip in Cincinnati. They’ll have a chance to catch the Cubs over the final 2 1/2 weeks of the season, but if they take care of business, the NL Central title should be a point of pride more than anything else.Continue Reading

Aug 3rd 2008 12:17PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)

On Deck is FanHouse’s look at the day’s most intriguing baseball matchups

Did you hear? Manny Ramirez hit a home run last night!He plays for the Dodgers now! He might cut his hair! Manny being Manny hype aside, the Dodgers win last night pulled them to within two games of the Diamondbacks in the NL West. A win today makes it one, while a loss keeps them three back. Since the Manny trade, people have acted like the Dodgers winning the NL West is a foregone conclusion. The Diamondbacks have Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, and Randy Johnson, making it far from a sure thing that they’re going to just hand the division over. None of those guys start today, though, and it’s Doug Davis against Jason Johnson. Davis got shelled in his last outing against the Dodgers, so maybe this thing is about to get a little closer.Continue Reading

Aug 5th 2008 7:45PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
The Arizona Diamondbacks, with Carlos Quentin excepted, have shown a pretty strong proclivity towards cultivating long term talent. Now, Dan Haren, of course, came over via trade, but the Snakes are at least making a strong effort to make sure he hangs around. At least through 2012 anyway, as he agreed to an extension that was announced today.
The Diamondbacks and right-hander Dan Haren have agreed to a $44.75 million contract extension that runs through 2012 and includes a club option for 2013, a deal that will be announced today at a 3 p.m. news conference at Chase Field.

The contract, which nullifies Haren’s previous deal, is worth $41.25 million over the next four seasons and includes a $15.5 million option for 2013 with a $3.5 million buyout.

Haren will be paid $7.5 million in 2009, $8.25 million in ‘10, $12.75 million in ‘11 and $12.75 million in ‘12.
That’s a pretty stout deal, but Haren’s been a pretty stout pitcher this year. And some might say that 12.75 for a 31 and 32 year old pitcher is way too much to pay immediately on the backend, but I’m not one of those people. Probably because I’m unapologetically a Haren backer (see: 2008 MLB predictions I’m not linking to right now).

Point is the Snakes, once they lock up Brandon Webb as well, have a ridiculous 1-2 punch for the next five years.

Aug 9th 2008 9:33PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
The time has come for the Baby Backs to grow up, at least a little bit. Earlier this week, the Diamondbacks handed out a contract extension to co-ace Dan Haren which will keep him in Arizona until at least 2012. Former NL Cy Young winner Brandon Webb is going to be his teammate until 2010, though he has had on-again, off-again extension talks with the club himself.

Throw the resurgent Randy Johnson — who is pitching well enough that he might return next year — in there and Arizona has a formidable front three in its rotation. Webb, Haren and Johnson have combined for 37 wins and the team ranks third in the NL in ERA despite a bullpen that has been shaky at times.

In short, the Diamondbacks have the pitching to win a championship.

And yet, here they sit hovering just above the .500 mark and clinging to their lead in the NL West, with the improved Dodgers bearing down on them and less than 50 games left in the regular season. Arizona is capable of much better, especially with the pitching on hand, and yet it continues to play a frustrating waiting game with its young hitters.Continue Reading

Aug 10th 2008 10:00AM by Mullet (author feed)

Barry Bonds returned to the Giants last night. Somewhat.

He made a surprise appearance at a celebration of the Giants best outfielders of the last 50 seasons as part of their anniversary season in San Francisco. He made a Schwarzenegger type “I’ll be back” proclamation when he stood at the podium, pointed at Joe Torre and said: “You heard me Torre, I beat you before and I can beat you again. I haven’t retired. Thank you.”

Could Barry Bonds make another surprise appearance at the ballpark today? As a pinch hitter? Somehow, I doubt Torre is worried with the Giants eight and a half behind them.

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Aug 10th 2008 6:53PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
They’re called the dog days of August for a reason. With the trade deadline in the books, major league teams are, barring a waiver trade, stuck with what they’ve got on the roster for the duration of the regular season. That means injuries, like the one suffered by Arizona’s Orlando Hudson in the photo to the right, will shape the pennant races much more than they have over the last four months.

Five teams in the hunt for a playoff spot got bad injury news in the last 24 hours. Here’s a look at who’s hurt and how each team will cope with the absence of a key player over the final seven weeks.

- The speedy Tampa Bay outfielder injured a tendon in his right middle finger on a check swing last night and was placed on the 15-day DL. The Rays are unsure how much time he’ll miss, but a Seattle trainer told him he could miss six-to-eight weeks. If he’s out that long, it could be devastating to their chances of holding off Boston in the AL East.Continue Reading

Aug 11th 2008 2:27PM by Craig Calcaterra (author feed)
You never know what’s gonna happen when you’re a pitcher. You could go on a two-month slump out of nowhere. Steve Blass disease could rear its ugly head. You could suddenly become close personal friends with Dr. James Andrews. There are no sure things, really, but if you’re Cliff Lee or Brandon Webb, you can probably start making space on your shelf for a Cy Young Award.

Webb gave up one run on six hits against the Braves yesterday, boosting his record to 17-4 and lowering his ERA to 2.88. He’s head and shoulders above everyone in the NL in wins and at the moment trails only Tim Lincecum, Jake Peavy, and Johan Santana in the ERA race. But not by much, and more important to the win-crazy BBWAA writers, none of those guys are going to match his win totals when it’s all said and done. What’s more, two of those three are certain to be watching the playoffs from home this October, and Santana’s Mets stand a worse chance of playing in the postseason right now than Webb’s Diamondbacks. Out of all of the challengers I think Linceucm poses the biggest threat in that two stellar months for him might have older voters reminiscing about Steve Carlton wining 27 games for a pathetic Phillies team in 1972, but this is really Webb’s award to lose at this point.

Cliff Lee was even more impressive yesterday, shutting out the Blue Jays over eight innings. Lee is leading the AL in wins ERA, and none of the three guys trailing him in the latter category — Justin Duchscherer, Roy Halladay, or Felix Hernandez — are playing for winning teams, ensuring that only Lee truly has a shot at both titles. Yet somehow Lee seems less of a lock for a Cy Young than Webb does, for the simple reason that Francisco Rodriguez is likely to break the saves record for the best team in baseball. AL voters haven’t given a Cy Young to a closer since Dennis Eckersley got it in 1992 — and the early season K-Rod buzz is certainly dying down — but the save, she is a seductive stat, and to the extent Lee falters down the stretch, the writers have a fallback option in Rodriguez.

But it’s not a smart option, because Lee, as Webb, have been dominant this year. And though it’s only August 11th, we haven’t had a a clearer choice for Cy Young this early in recent memory.Continue Reading

Aug 13th 2008 2:30PM by Mullet (author feed)

The dog days of August are really getting to the Tampa Bay Rays. In addition to losing Evan Longoria, they’ve found out that they’ll probably be without star Carl Crawford for the rest of the regular season with a torn finger tendon. So here’s the question: Will this derail the Rays magical run to the playoffs … especially with the Red Sox having acquired Paul Byrd for the express purpose of not blowing 10-run first inning leads?

Luckily, we have AOL’s own baseball editor Andrew Johnson back for another live MLB chat, where we can discuss your Tampa Bay Rays, Byrd, Adam Dunn, the Mets’ lousy bullpen, or whatever you’d like in the world of baseball. So join us at 3PM eastern for a chatting good time!

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Aug 14th 2008 6:47PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Shortly after the news of the Adam Dunn trade broke last week, word leaked out that one of the players to be named later would be pitcher/slugger Micah Owings. He’s an interesting pickup for the Reds (or anyone, really) because of his varied abilities, but he won’t be with the Reds for a while. If you thought trade waivers were complicated, they get even more complex when an injured player is involved.

Any player on the 40-man roster has to be passed through waivers at this time of year to be traded. Owings would probably make it through with the knowledge that he’s going to be traded to the Reds eventually and the D’Backs would pull him back if anyone tried to claim him. The problem is that he’s injured and injured players can’t be placed on waivers. That means that the Reds may not get him until the season ends.

I have no idea what the Reds’ plans for Owings are, but given the way that he pitched this year I almost think they should just put him in the outfield and see if he can do an Adam Dunn impression as a left-fielder. I’m sure the Reds won’t do that, though, and they’ll hope that Owings can approximate the form on the mound that he showed in April while also providing them with some pinch-hitting duties.