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Brewers lock down their ace

April 8th 2010 21:26


Milwaukee's offense is inarguably a powerful force in Major League Baseball. Their pitching staff might be one of the weakest in the majors, and has been for quite some time. So it makes sense that the Brewers would make sure they retain control over the one pitcher on the staff who actually shows some legitimate talent.

The Brewers today signed Yovani Gallardo to a five year contract extension worth a total of $30.1 million. The deal is structured to cover the rest of Gallardo's arbitration eligible years, and the first year in which he would be eligible for free agency. The team also holds an option for a sixth season.

Gallardo burst onto the scene in 2007 with 17 starts in his rookie campaign going 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA. In 2008 he made just four starts before he was lost to injury and last year he went 13-12 with 3.73 earned run average. Gallardo was the Brewers' opening day starter and was handed the loss, giving up three earned runs over seven innings pitched.
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Heroes

Edgar Renteria

Renteria went an impressive 5 for 5 at the plate in the final game of a three game series against the hapless Houston Astros. He also knocked in two runs as San Francisco completed a shockingly easy sweep. It wasn't exactly like Renteria was cold coming into Wednesday's game, as he was already hitting .500 and his five hits in five at-bats raised his season average to a .727 clip.

Ronny Paulino

The Marlins' backup catcher only had one at-bat last night but it was a big one. In the top of the 10th with the game tied against the New York Mets, Paulino singled home Wes Helms, giving his team their first win of the year.

Kelly Johnson


On Wednesday night, Kelly Johnson went 3 for 3 with two home runs and three RBI in the Arizona Diamondbacks' 5-3 win over the Padres. His first home run gave his team a 1-0 lead, and his second blast tied the score at three after Scott Hairston had helped the Padres take a 3-1 lead. All those things would be impressive on their own, but the fact that Johnson had gone 0 for 7 in his first two games makes his performance yesterday all the more impressive.

Chipper Jones

Jones had only one hit yesterday, but it was a biggie. With his team down 2-1 in the 8th inning, Jones took the third pitch he saw from reliever John Grabow and deposited it into the seats for a two-run home run. The Braves went on to win 3-2.

Curtis Granderson

Granderson hit his second home run of the season in the top of the 10th to give his team a 2-1 lead. The Yankees went on to win 3-1. Granderson has now hit two homers for his brand new team, and his homer last night was against the Redsox closer, Jonathan Papelbon.

Kurt Suzuki

Suzuki went 2 for 3 with two RBI against the Seattle Mariners. His first RBI tied the game at five, and his second RBI won the game in the bottom of the ninth. It was the second straight game the A's won in their last at-bat, and the second straight game in which Suzuki played a large part in that victory. On Tuesday, Suzuki's solo home run tied the game, and allowed the A's to win it in the 10th.


Zeroes

Joakim Soria

While the Royals were able to win in extra innings, Soria blew a ninth inning lead and allowed the Tigers to tie the game. It was the second straight game in which the Royals bullpen choked up the lead. Luckily the rest of the bullpen was able to hold the Tigers down, and Kyle Farnsworth eventually got the win.

John Grabow


Coming off a ridiculously bad 16-5 loss, the Chicago Cubs desperately needed a win in game two of the season to get back on the right track. That win appeared within grasp when Grabow came into the game in the eighth inning. The lefty reliever retired the first batter he faced, then gave up a ringing double to Martin Prado, and a two run blast to Chipper Jones coughing up the lead.

Troy Glaus

His team eventually won last night, but it certainly wasn't thanks to Troy. Glaus went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts, including two especially bad showings in which he swung at strike three over his head. Glaus also made what was, at the time, a key error on a soft grounder by Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster. Glaus booted the ball, allowing Dempster to reach base safely, and the Cubs to score the tying run. Chicago scored the go-ahead run one batter later. It's pretty bad when your team is 2-0, and you were still hearing boo birds (at home) when you came to bat.


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Casey McGehee has some pop


One of the truly odd scheduling quirks in Major League Baseball is the fact that the day after opening day, most of the league takes the day off. Seven games were played (three in the National League, four in the American) but there were still plenty of heroes and zeroes.

Heroes

Casey McGehee

This 29 year old third baseman burst onto the major league scene last year after languishing in the minor leagues for several seasons. In just 116 games, McGehee hit .301 with 16 home runs in 2009. He seems to have picked up where he left off. After going 2 for 4 in the team's opener, his 2 for 3 performance including a three run homer in the bottom of the first carried the Brewers to their first win of the season. His three run blast gave them a 3-1 lead, and they never trailed after that.

Barry Zito

If last night was any indication of what Barry Zito is going to do this season, the San Francisco Giants are going to run away with the National League West. Zito pitched six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out five against the Astros. It's possible Houston is just terrible offensively, but Zito tonight, and Tim Lincecum last night have now combined for a 13 inning shutout streak for Giants starting pitchers.

Carl Crawford

Crawford had just one hit last night, but it was a game winning, two run single in the bottom of the ninth, so he gets a pass for having a cold start to the game.


Zeroes

Mike Gonzalez


The Orioles new "closer" couldn't close out what would have been a nice season opening win for his team. The Orioles blasted three solo home runs in order to take a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Gonzalez managed to record one out, gave up three hits, and two earned runs while walking a batter. Not exactly a great way to ingratiate yourself to your new teammates.

Rajai Davis

The Oakland Athletics are not going to be very good this season. They just don't have much in the way of offensive fire power. So when the team is tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, has just put together two straight hits to have runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out, you're up to bat, and you're Rajai Davis, you need to at least put the bat on the ball. Instead, Davis struck out, capping a hitless night, and the game went into extra innings. Oakland did win in the 10th, but the fact remains that the game was extended because Davis couldn't get the job done.

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Buehrle's back, BAAAAABY!

An almost full slate of games yesterday means that there are many more heroes and zeroes than Sunday night. I hereby present the biggest heroes, and the biggest zeroes of baseball's true opening day


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Meet the new boss


Some of you may have noticed that Can O' Corn posts have begun popping up on here. That's because the guys who used to run The Baseball Slate are no more, and I, the guy who ran Can O' Corn during it's short existence has been promoted to run this blog


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With just one game played last night, it's not real hard for Can O' Corn to come up with it's very first edition of "Heroes and Zeroes". Boston rallied from a 5-2 deficit to beat the Yankees 9-7 in baseball's opening night


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Opening day night is finally here! In what has become the tradition under one of the worst Commissioners in the history of the sport, baseball will open their season with a single game on Sunday night, before the rest of the league opens up tomorrow afternoon


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Big Puma has a thorn in his paw

March 31st 2010 14:49
Lance Berkman
Lance Berkman sees a spider

It was announced today that the Houston Astros will have to open the regular season with their best player on the Disabled List. How Houston is going to go on with Yorman Bazardo on the opening day roster is beyond me


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No I don't like Hawk Harrelson

March 30th 2010 16:14
In fact I think he does a disservice to the baseball world. However in trying to come up with a catchy title for this baseball blog, that was one that didn't seem to be taken.

So make no mistake, here's the rules I live by


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State of the Tribe address

December 5th 2009 23:44
I did call for Shapiro to go but apparently the Dolans are too loyal to him. I do not feel they will ever be a real good team with him but I could be wrong. This next season, the team is going to be having Manny Acta as the manager of the Tribe. Patience is not going to be easy, then again it never is. For Cleveland, they have not won a World Series since 1948. There are 10 things I think about when it comes to this team.

1. The Dolans are not concerned about winning. In fact, they could care less and isn't going to make that a priority to do whatever they can to get this team to win. It just comes down to feeling on that. For them to sound like making the playoff every five years is as good as it gets shows a sign that they do not care whatsoever. For that to change, they must be more active in looking for investors so that maybe they can have the money and remove the cheap perception


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