Life will keep us apart no more...

  • If you think NBC's taped delayed coverage of Wimbledon is bad in the Eastern time zone, check out what I'm dealing with out West.  I get live coverage on ESPN2 from 4 am to 7 am (Novak Djokovic).  I get NBC's taped delayed coverage at 10 am.  But ESPN2 does not change their coverage for the pacific time zone, so they come on at 10 am as well on the West.  In the East, ESPN2's coverage begins at 1 pm, which is right after NBC's ends.  Since NBC and ESPN2 conflict, they will black out my ESPN2 coverage and I will miss either the Andy Roddick or Andy Murray match.  Thank you very much!
  • Albert Pujols is doing one of two things in 2009.  He's either proving he never took performance-enhancers or he's proving the steroid testing does not work.  I have long suspected Pujols of PED use.  Forgive my cynicism, but he was not a huge prospect, yet he's hit 30+ HR and 100+ RBI from the moment he first dressed for St. Louis.  His power numbers dropped slightly the last two years (69 HR in 07/08 compared to 90 HR in 05/06), but he still hit .357 last season.  In 2009, Mr. Pujols has a respectable 30 homers in just 78 games!!!  Doing some quick math, he's on pace for...a $h!t-ton of homeruns.  If he was ever on steroids, he's back on them.  Otherwise, he's Joe Dimaggio (Pujols has only 32 strikeouts). 
  • While I'm on baseball-reference.com, let's do a fun exercise.  This is Mariano Rivera's worst possible season as a relief pitcher if you take his career-worst in each category: 3.15 ERA (2007), 1.18 WHIP (1997) and 2.12 K/BB ratio (1998).  That's pretty good and all four numbers are from different seasons, so he never had a worst year.  For comparison's sake, here's Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez's record-setting 62 save season from 2008: 2.81 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 2.26 K/BB ratio.  Pretty similar.
  • Jason Marquis did the job last night: 9 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 86 pitches and a 2-RBI single.  He did it against the best team in the National League in Los Angeles.  The Rockies are getting consistent pitching and a lot of Brad Hawpe (.331/13 HR/56 RBI). 
  • I picked the San Francisco Giants to win the NL West...oops.  However, they are starting to get in the Wild Card mix because their pitching staff is wearing down opponents.  Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are a dynamite 1-2 combo.  Barry Zito is 3-1 in June and Randy Johnson is 4-1 this month.  They could benefit from a trade as much as any team in baseball.  Call Oakland for Matt Holiday, the Nats for Adam Dunn or the Padres for Adrian Gonzalez.
  • Josh Johnson will follow in the footsteps of Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett and leave Miami to make big bucks and bigger headlines in the future.  He's a stud.
  • Boston has the best bullpen in baseball, a fact my Red Sox buddy asserts weekly.  Like last night, when he texted me "this is the best staff top to bottom the sox have ever had".  In the next hour, Boston would blow a 10-1 lead to Baltmore and lose 11-10.  It's the kind of thing that 10 years ago would have Red Sox fans at church the next day praying to end the curse, but sadly, they can laugh about all that now.
  • Every Summer comes a day where I get that football feeling in my gut.  It happened yesterday.  I'm ready.  Let's kick it off!