Took the Summer Off

Personal things took me away from this blog but lets see about my posts…

Chad Billingsley is leading the Dodgers.  Expect this for years to come.

Jon Niese is pitching for the Mets.  One out of his outings was strong.  He’s young so we’ll see how he works out.  The Mets threw him out there in the middle of a pennant race.  And that can’t be easy.  We’ll see how he adjusts.  I’m guessing that as a lefthander he will be given every chance to succeed.

Dexter Fowler played for the USA in China and did pretty well.  He’s struggling a bit in the majors after being called up.  He still has great potential, however, and will also be given every chance to succeed.

I posted about what you hear in the news not being the whole story…kinda ties to Manny and the screws he put to the Red Sox.  Here’s the problem I have with the whole trade to the Dodgers.  If he had stayed in Boston till the end of the year, the Sox (not Manny) could have exercised an option for next year.  Trading him negates that option and he becomes a free agent at the end of the year.

Well guess what folks, if he had stayed his former agent, Jeff Moorad, would have been paid a commission for next year.  If he is a free agent his new agent, Scott Boras, gets the commission for whatever contract he signs next year.

I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

What I find ironic is that the option was for $20 million and in my opinion will not be worth that amount of money.  The Dodgers, who appear to be early leaders in the Manny sweepstakes, would be insane to pony up more than that for an extended period of time.  He’s 36, he’s Manny and the Dodgers have invested a lot of money in Andruw Jones and others.  To stay within a reasonable budget they will have to cast off a few pitchers such as Lowe.

With him they will win their division this year.  However, I suggest that they’d be better off spending that money on Sabathia or a combination of others to shore up that pitching staff.

Here’s betting they will bite on Manny.  If I had been the only one saying the Dodgers were crazy to spend that amount of money on Andruw Jones, you could say I was full of bs to say it now.  I’m not the only one now saying the Dodgers will be crazy enough to give Manny upwards of $21-$22 million.

Chad Billingsley

Quietly, Chad Billingsley is becoming one of the best pitchers in the National League.  A righthander out of Defiance, Ohio (same as Jon Niese – catching a theme here?), he was the winner in the Angel’s no-hit loss to the Dodgers a few days ago.  Coming up on his 24th birthday later this month, he is slowly starting to put it all together.

Joe Torre told mlb.com that Chad has the stuff in his arm and head to be a number one starter…but this isn’t a rehash of that article.  No, what is prompting this post is whthe reason why he is making progress; better command.

His WHiP (walks and hits per inning) is starting to come down, it is at 1.34 for the season, and more significantly, it is 1.22 in the last 10 games.  This is lower than his career average and much less than the league average.

WHiP is basically, how many men are put on base.  Oh, and one more thing, he has hit more batters this year than years past.  That may indicate that he is pitching more inside (or it may indicate early season, wildness, I don’t know).

If you don’t put men on base, you have a better chance of succeeding.  At 23, he is still learning to pitch.  I predict, and you heard it here first, 2 years from now, starting with year 2010, Billingsley will be consistently in the top 10 for Cy Young for 5 consecutive years.

He’s big, he’s durable, his stuff is great and he’s young.  Add command and you are talking top line, number 1 pitcher for years to come.