By Punch N. Judy
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news

The much anticipated return of Kenny Rogers to the Tigers rotation has been nothing short of spectacular. At a time when many teams start trolling the murky waters for pitching help that down the road could prove costly – good morning John Smoltz – the Tigers have been buoyed once again by the forty-something pitching marvel who now sits at 3-0 with a 1.04 era.

“It wasn’t vintage Kenny,” Tiger manager Jim Leyland would say after Rogers turned in 5 1/3 innings of seven hit ball, yielding two runs (one earned), and three walks while striking out three, “but it was certainly good enough.” 

On the contrary, I thought Rogers effort was a sterling example of a crafty veteran who knew his stuff was a little off, yet somehow summoned the wherewithal to give his team a chance to win by at least making it into the sixth frame. Granted he looked a little more like Jamie Moyer than usual – hey there’s nothing wrong with that - but realizing your best fastball isn’t there is sometimes more important than faking that it is.

Having seriously forgotten the last time Craig Monroe’s bat actually touched the ball, it was a welcome site to turn on the TV and see Marcus Thames patrolling leftfield last night. Between Sean Casey and Monroe something’s gotta give here. Yeah they both play defense with aplomb, but at some point the corner positions on the diamond need to produce at the plate. With Casey now hitting with some luster for the first time since the World Series – by that I mean actual driving the ball – it makes sense to get Thames some at bats in left while hopefully delivering a figurative kick in the pants to Monroe who let’s face it, carried the club at times last season.

When Ken Griffey recently belted homer number 585, it made me wonder for about the hundredth time what this guy’s stats would look like if he was even a little healthy over the last ten seasons. Having played under 100 games on five separate occasions, he is without a doubt the best baseball player these tired eyes have ever seen.

If you’re anything like me, it’s Grady Sizemore who gives you a case of the shakes more so than Travis Hafner. Talk about a guy who can do it all on a baseball field. In addition to making about three show stopping grabs in center, Sizemore has also dropped a pair bunt singles, stolen a base and generally wreaked havoc on the Tiger bullpen throughout his stay in Detroit. However I still think Curtis Granderson has the better upside.

At some point the Twins are going to have a decision to make on the future of Johan Santana. With a year left before his contract expires, his agent apparently tried to open negotiations early by floating an asking price of $25 million per year. Sounds steep now but without this guy would the Twins even have been a .500 club the last five years? I’m sure the Yankees won’t blink at that number as they look for a little more star power to christen their new park in 09.’

Clown of the Week – Dennis Hayes, Interim President of the NAACP, who sent MLB a scathing letter in which he berated Bud Selig for not doing enough to help coach and train black youths to “enter the game they love.” For me this is a non-issue revisited. Hopefully he sent a similar letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. I know I’m in the process of sending one to David Stern for the lack of interest the NBA has shown towards Irish Canadians.

Quote of the Week – “I could never play in New York. The first time I got in the bullpen car they told me to lock the door.” Baltimore pitcher Mike Flanagan, quoted in SI back in 1979.

Editor’s note - Baseball and Eggs will appear every Thursday, and serves as a form of self–therapy for this clinically insane baseball fan. The baseball part is self–explanatory. The eggs however, could pertain to just about anything on Punch’s mind from Wednesday to Wednesday. Good day all. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Baseball and Eggs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.