Jon Garland takes a DIPS-hit, kills fantasy teams everywhere

I was wondering the same thing.  

How bad was that error he committed out there?  As a former mediocre LF for a very medicore D-3 team, even we were expected to make the hard charge and come up gunning--any bobble on a play like that was inexcusable, even at that level.

Maybe it was Ozzie sending a message?  Maybe he honestly feels Mackowiak is a better defensive player?  Maybe he was injured?  Lots of questions, no answers from me.

As for Garland, it should be noted that he gave up a lot of bloop hits followed by big blasts today.  Like Cheat said, a lot of AB's seemed to drag from 1-2 to 2-2, to 3-2, and finally to a bloop single or big hit.  That's the danger of not being a strikeout pitcher I guess on a windy day.  And from all I heard on the Tiger radio broadcast, they couldn't stop talking about how hard the wind was blowing out--making routine fly balls doubles, and doubles easy HR's.

Usually I enjoy David Cameron's writings over at USS Mariner, however, this little bit of hyperpole annoys me for some reason:

"Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, and Jhonny Peralta anchor one of the best line-ups in baseball. The Indians can flat out hit. Even their bad hitters are not bad hitters.

But it doesn't matter. King Felix is on the hill. The best hitters in baseball don't stand a chance against the Royal Curveball when Felix has even mediocre command. Every night is a possible no hitter, and every batter is a potentially embarrassing strikeout."

Come on Dave, lets at least see a full season from the King before making statements like that.  "The best hitters in baseball don't stand a chance against the Royal Curveball when Felix has even mediocre control"--sure, OK.  I'll take Pujols, Ortiz, AROD and give them a 3-1 count on King Felix and I think they will do OK--let alone have "no chance".

FWIW, the King isn't looking so hot tonight.  I was actually rooting for him to dominate CLE, but it doesn't look that is going to happen.

Haven't seen him around here since...  well...  the start of the series.  I wonder why...?

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I actually became extrememly pissed off tonight.  I was at the Hawks/Wings game, and it was the most agitated I've ever been at a hockey game.

 - It wasn't just that the score was 7-3 Wings; it was more the fans.  But the game got chippy at the end, and I think that's what got me going.

 - These damn Red Wings fans have nicknamed FOR EVERY GOSH-DAMN PLAYER ON THE TEAM!  AND THEY AREN'T EVEN CLEVER NICKNAMES!!!!  "Shanny", "Zetty" -- they take the first syllable of the guys' name and stick a 'y' on it.  I must've heard "Chelly" a million f'n times.

 - They threw the octopus onto our ice.  Onto our ice.

 - At the second intermission, this kid and his mother, both Detroit fans, were trying to reason (and convince) each other that Chauncy Billups (or, Chauncy, like they're on a name-to-name basis with these guys) is a better player than Lebron James.

 - This one Red Wings fan was talking shit THE WHOLE GAME, and he was no bigger than me (5'9, 140), yet he was like 30 years old.  But when this one grizzly looking Hawks fan, 45-ish, big guy, came up to him, he cowered.

Ugh...  I had to vent.  I can't wait to see the Red Wings, again, get their asses handed to them in the playoffs.  They get 24 games, more than a fourth of their schedule, against the Hawks/Blues/Blue Jackets -- three of the bottom six teams in the NHL.  

Gosh damn, they're gonna get EXPOSED.

Sorry, there's my hockey rant for the month.

quickly crunching some numbers. If Garland went the rest of the season (say 190 innings) with a 3.90 ERA (which is about what I thought the "new Garland" was good for) he would end up with an ERA of 4.40, and his critics will be saying "I told you so."

Ha, I seem to have set the tone for random rant night with my King Felix post.  

I've had the displeasure Keith of living in MI all of my 22 years on this planet (hurray college graduation this spring) and the Wings fans I know are pretty cocky.  Furthermore, Detroit--and Michigan in general--is full of bandwagon fans--like everywhere I suppose.  But it seems worse here 'cause I have to deal with it every day being a Bulls and Sox fan.

I must say that I'm not much of a hockey fan, however, "Up and Under" here in Kzoo runs a 15cent wings special every wings and Pistons playoff game--so I root for them only so my college student ass can get some cheap grub in the spring.

Thing is Cheat, it's hard to disagree with critics--at least I think so.  I got into a bit off an argument over on Baseball Musings trying to defend Garland's honor, and I must say I was only in it half-heartedly.  All my sabermetric oriented self tells me last season will be his peak.  I did argue he'd be somewhere between 2004 and 2005 the rest of his career, but I only half believe it.  I tried to sight some of Studes' batted ball info, but even that didn't help Garland's case that much in the face of his DIPS 3.0 numbers, his .254 BABIB average in 2005, and his "runners left on" numbers.

Damn I just jumped out of my chair with a huge thunderstrike here in N. MI.  Spring is so much fun--the energy is everwhere--from the baseball diamond to the back yard.  

Yuck, I'm channeling a drunk and unedited George Will--probably time for bed.  Good victory today though, that makes me sleep easy.

M Thornton 1.90 %
B McCarthy      0.70 %
J Garland      -9.10 %
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T Iguchi       19.40 %
J Dye          16.40 %
J Thome        13.60 %
A Cintron       5.00 %
P Konerko       3.90 %
A Pierzynski    2.20 %
J Crede         2.00 %
B Anderson     -2.90 %
S Podsednik    -3.10 %

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