Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Ken: catfish AT zombia d.o.t. com
Ryan: rarmbrust AT gmail d.o.t. com
Philip: kingchimp AT alamedanet d.o.t net
Well, my Blanton Fast worked, as he rattled off three straight quality starts as soon as I started it. The Blanton Fast is now over.
Seems like a good time to look at the A's quality start numbers. If you want to see why the A's have been hot in June, this chart pretty much explains it:
Pitcher April May June Total Zito 2/5 6/6 3/5 11/16 Haren 2/5 4/6 4/5 10/16 Blanton 2/5 3/6 3/4 8/15 Saarloos 0/0 1/5 3/3 4/ 8 Loaiza 1/4 0/0 2/4 3/ 8 Harden 2/5 0/0 0/1 2/ 6 Halsey 0/0 1/6 0/0 1/ 6 Team QS 9/24 15/29 15/22 39/75 Team QS% .375 .517 .681 .520 Team wins 12/24 12/29 17/22 41/75 Wins-QS +3 -3 +2 +2
The entire rotation is performing much better in June, and as a consequence, so is the whole team. All those quality starts in June has enabled the team to hide the fact that the bullpen is still not very deep from all the injuries.
So now that Blanton is repaired, who should I fast now? I'm thinking Eric Chavez. The guy is clearly playing injured. He's swinging right through all kinds of hittable pitches. It's probably painful for him to hit, and it's definitely painful for me to watch. I'm not watching him hit again until he comes up with a multi-hit game which includes at least one extra-base hit.
Kind of tough on you, no doubt, but given your obvious powers, how can you not make that sacrifice for the team? And think of what you could do with all the time that frees up.
Meanwhile, this really could become a cooking blog.
There is something to be said, however, for the fact that the A's get hot in the summer right around the time I take a vacation and don't get to watch them for awhile. So good news: there are good times ahead soon.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.