A week after acquiring Eddie Guardado from the Mariners, Cincinnati attempted once again to patch their leaky bullpen by hooking up with the Nationals to pull off a blockbuster eight player trade that saw Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and former 1^st round draft pick Ryan Wagner go to Washington in exchange for relievers Bill Bray (also a former number one) and Gary Majewski, along with Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris and minor league pitcher Daryl Thompson. 

 

The Reds trail the Cardinals by only 4 games in the NL Central but are just two games over .500 and had lost 8 of 9 in July before last night’s win over the Rockies.  The bullpen (15^th in the NL in ERA) has been largely to blame for the recent slide and both Bray and Majewski (along with Guardado) will be counted on to help bring stability.  Clayton will take Lopez’ spot at short for at least the short term, while Chris Denorfia, re-called to take Kearns’ spot on the roster, will get a shot to win the starting job in right. 

 

Washington gets three players originally acquired for the Reds by current Nationals GM Jim Bowden.  The Nationals will count on Lopez, criticized for his occasionally lackluster defense, and Kearns to provide a spark to an offense that ranks 14^th in the NL in both runs and batting average.  Wagner will begin his Nationals tenure at Triple-A New Orleans. 

 

…and Notes

 

Nomar Garciaparra extended his hitting streak to 22 straight games (32 for 89, .360) with a 3^rd inning 2-run home run on Thursday.  Unfortunately for L.A., that was all they would get, and Jim Edmonds matched Nomar with a 2-run shot of his own to tie it in the 7^th.  That takes us to the 14^th, where Albert Pujols ended it with a walk-off shot against Odalis Perez.  The HR left Prince Albert 10 for 15 with 2 2B, 5 HR and 12 RBI in his career against Perez.

 

John Lackey, in his last 5 starts, is 3-1 with a 0.96 ERA (4 ER, 18 H, 6 BB, 34 K, 37.2 IP).

 

Joel Pineiro, in his last six starts, is 1-3 with an 8.72 ERA (31 ER, 50 H, 14 BB, 15 K, 32 IP).

 

Kip Wells has made four starts since coming off the DL and is 0-4 with a 12.42 ERA (23 ER, 24 H, 10 BB, 7 K, 16.2 IP).

 

Bobby Crosby is just 7 for 44 (.159) with 11 K and 2 BB in July.

 

Josh Barfield has 10 hits in his last 15 AB (.667) and is 18 for 33 (.545) overall in July.

 

Khalil Greene has 8 hits in his last 13 AB (.615) and is 14 for 32 (.438) overall in July.

 

Aubrey Huff has 11 hits in his last 19 AB (.579) with 3 doubles and 3 HR (1.211 SLG). 

 

Aaron Hill has 10 hits in his last 14 AB (.714), raising his average from .275 to .297. 

 

Antonio Perez was 1 for 4 on Thursday to raise his season average to .102 (6 for 59).

 

Michael Barrett has 12 hits in his last 25 AB (.480) and is batting .400 (32 for 80) since June 2.

 

Rafael Furcal is batting .375 (24 for 64) since June 25, hitting safely in 14 of 15 games.

 

Tony Graffanino is 11 for 27 (.407) with 8 runs scored in July.

 

Mark Teahen is batting .311 (37 for 119) with 6 HR and 22 RBI since being recalled from the minors June 3.

 

Chipper Jones has hit safely in 13 straight games, going 26 for 51 (.510) with 4 HR and 15 RBI.

 

Mark Teixeira began the second half with 3 home runs and 7 RBI and he is now batting .342 (13 for 38) and slugging .763 in July.  Hmmm…maybe that’s what I was thinking.

 

Juiced Update – Jose Canseco went 3 for 3 with a double, his first home run, and 4 RBI to help Long Beach beat Fullerton 6-1 and wrap up the first half of the season in second place.  The monster home run was estimated at 462 feet and cleared the scoreboard in left field.  Jose had entered the game 1 for 13 with 11 K.  Golden Baseball League Useless Factoid ~ Former major leaguer Garry Templeton is the skipper of the Fullerton Flyers and among the players he manages is his son, Gary Templeton II. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – The first place Padres (48-40) will kick off the second half tonight against the Atlanta Braves trying to extend their win streak, currently the longest in the majors, to six games.  Chris Young (8-4, 3.12) has been the Padres’ best pitcher this year, and he will take the hill opposed by Tim Hudson (6-8, 4.56).  In his last two starts, Hudson has allowed 19 H and 9 ER in just 10.2 IP and overall, since going 4-1 with a 2.79 ERA in May, Huddy is just 1-5 with a 5.61 ERA (27 ER, 49 H, 43.1 IP, 22 BB, 25 K) in 7 starts.  Young faced Atlanta once earlier this season, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits in just 3 innings.  It was the only start this year in which he didn’t last 5 innings and/or allowed more than 4 runs. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – Ken Griffey hit the 555^th home run of his major league career on Thursday in the Reds 9-7 win over Colorado, pulling him to within 8 of Reggie Jackson for 10^th on the all-time HR list.  The bullpen withstood a 4-run 9^th inning rally by the Rockies – with new closer Eddie Guardado coming on to get the final two outs and pick up his first save with Cincinnati – as the Reds extended the Rockies’ losing streak to 4 games, the longest current streak in the majors. 

 

Old Timers Game

 

On Tuesday night in Sioux Falls, Jim Eriotes became the oldest person ever to appear in a professional baseball game when the 83-year-old struck out on four pitchers leading off the Canaries game against Jensen Merle of the St. Joe (Mo) Blacksnakes.  Eriotes, who says he has hit pitches near 100 mph off of a pitching machine, fouled off one of the four pitches he saw before striking out on an 83 mph fastball.  The Canaries won the game 5-3 behind two home runs by former big leaguer Chad Hermansen.

 

Lefty/Righty Splits

 

Today, we’ll take a look at which players have been the best and worst in baseball at hitting right and left handed pitching.  Then of course, we’ll turn it around and see who have been the best pitchers versus both right and left handed batters. 

 

What we found was that the best hitter in baseball facing left handed pitchers so far this season (min 100 plate appearances) has been Jermaine Dye, who has blistered southpaws at a .393 clip with 8 HR and 19 RBI, while drawing 18 walks for a .486 OBP.  Against right handers (min 200 PA), Joe Mauer has been the best in baseball, batting .386 with 7 HR and 33 RBI to go with a .446 OBP. 

 

Looking at pitcher splits, we see that Chris Young has fared the best against left handed hitters (min 100 batters faced), holding them to a .176 batting average and a .291 slugging average, while against right handed batters (min 200 BF), Carlos Zambrano has been simply sick, posting numbers of .151/.231/.267.

 

Understandably, teams have been stacking the lineup with right handers when Randy Johnson takes the hill.  Lefties are only batting .197 against him but he’s faced just 66 of them in his 19 starts. 

 

Young Jared Weaver doesn’t have nearly enough batters faced to qualify, but DN&N is still awfully impressed by his line against RHB - .154/.214/.231.

 

And both Mauer and John Lackey impress DN&N by appearing on both sets of lists.

 

Here is a more complete look at these splits with the top 5 in each category.

 

Vs. Left Handed Pitching (min 100 PA)        Vs. Right Handed Pitching (min 200 PA)

 

1. Jermaine Dye - .393/.486/.750                     1. Joe Mauer - .386/.468/.587

2. Paul Konerko - .379/.463/.709                    2. Ben Broussard - .370/.404/.593

3. Ichiro Suzuki - .366/.427/.462                      3. Robinson Cano - .345/.364/.482

4. Joe Mauer - .361/.402/.433                         4. Miguel Cabrera - .344/.433/.551

5. Eric Byrnes - .354/.410/.563                        5. Nomar Garciaparra - .341/.402/.530

 

Vs. Left Handed Batters (min 100 BF)         Vs. Right Handed Batters (min 200 BF)

 

1. Chris Young - .176/.271/.291                       1. Carlos Zambrano - .151/.231/.267  

2. Mike Mussina - .193/.251/.385                    2. Pedro Martinez - .185/.238/.386

3. Mark Buehrle - .200/.250/.337                     3. John Lackey - .190/.233/.314

4t. Tom Glavine - .202/.272/.308                     4. Francisco Liriano - .198/.258/.300

4t. John Lackey - .202/.303/.293                     5. Vincente Padilla - .199/.241/.289

 

(All statistics through 7/13)

 

On Deck – Friday’s marquee match up pits Jose Contreras (9-0, 3.38) against Randy Johnson (10-7, 5.13) in New York.  Contreras has won a club record 17 consecutive decisions but has posted a 5.19 ERA over his last 8 starts.  Johnson is averaging just 7.66 K/9, his lowest rate since 1990 (7.95).  He will be looking to earn the 274^th win of his career.  He is currently tied with Red Ruffing for 31^st all-time. 

 

Also on tap for Friday, Roger Clemens (1-2, 2.82) looks to win his 343^rd career game and move past Tim Keefe into sole possession of 8^th place on the all-time list when he takes on the Marlins and their prized rookie Anibal Sanchez (1-0, 6.60).  Sanchez, after shutting out the Mets on 7 hits over 5.2 innings in his big league debut, has allowed 11 ER in 9.1 IP over his next two appearances.  Clemens will be making his fifth start of the year and has not allowed more than 2 ER in any of the previous four. 

 

Due to time constraints in the second half of the season, DN&N will be cutting back one day to Tuesday through Friday which means obviously, that we’ll be back next Tuesday rather than on Monday.  Hope you have a great weekend and if you have a chance to get out to the yard, then enjoy the game.  If you’re gonna be in San Francisco on Sunday, stop by AT&T Park and maybe I’ll see you there!

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.