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Surprise teams of the first half: Los Angeles Dodgers

Written by Charlie Saponara on .

Dodgers_leap.jpgWith the All-Star game right around the corner, we’re almost to the unofficial halfway point of the baseball season. As with any given year, the first half of baseball has given us plenty of thrilling moments, introduced us to some exciting young players, and produced some incredible storylines. The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of those storylines, leading all of baseball in wins even with their best player -- and one of the best overall players in baseball -- out of action.

Who needs Matt Kemp when you have the likes of A.J. Ellis (.302/.433/.462. 6 HR), Elian Herrera (.296/.395/.38), and Jerry Hairston (.333/.427/.444) coming up huge? And how about the pitching staff that was seemingly duct taped together with bargain bin veterans? Aaron Harang (3.59 ERA) and Chris Capuano (2.87 ERA), both signed two-year deals, Harang for an average of $6M per season and Capuano for an average of $5M per season. However, in the case of both pitchers, their K/BB ratios are right around league average, which suggests that they might not be able to maintain their current level of performance. Harang is more likely to continue with his comeback season, given his move away from Great American Ballpark and into the expansive fences of Dodger Stadium. His HR/9 has dropped and he’s striking out about one more hitter per nine innings than he did last season. Capuano is still allowing over one home run per nine innings pitched, but he is also striking out almost eight batters per nine innings and has managed to strand 80 percent of his baserunners. That strand rate is about seven percent above the league average and his career average, which means that a regression is very possible and there is a good chance more of his baserunners allowed will come in to score in the second half.

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Dugout Digest - what the hell, Brandon Moss?

Written by Joe Lucia on .

If you're not a diehard baseball fan, you might not know the name Brandon Moss. He was originally drafted by the Red Sox, and traded to the Pirates in the infamous Manny Ramirez/Jason Bay deal. Moss had a mediocre 2009 with the Pirates, and played in just 22 games in the majors over the next two years with the Pirates and Phillies. The A's signed him as a minor league free agent this offseason, and they called him up last week. Since his callup, Moss has played in nine games for the A's, and has a 1.310 OPS thanks to six homers. He's got nine hits on the season, and six have left the yard, the last of which came tonight in the A's 10-2 drubbing of the Padres.. Moss's peripherals are hilarious. He has a 31.3% strikeout rate, just a .214 BABIP...and yet, an OPS that would make Josh Hamilton blush. But the thing is, when over 40% of the flyballs you hit leave the yard....there's something interesting happening here. His success is absolutely not sustainable. Hell, his line drive rate is hovering around the 5% mark, which is the worst I can remember seeing. Moral of the story? Baseball is awesome.

Game of the Night: Dodgers 7, White Sox 6. The White Sox held an early 5-1 lead in this one, and it looked like they'd coast to a victory with Chris Sale on the mound. But then, Sale's sixth inning happen, and Los Angeles took the lead on a nickel and diming, slap hitting barrage of singles and doubles. An Alex Rios homer off of Ronald Belisario in the eighth tied it at sixth, but the Dodgers took the lead again by scoring what would turn out to be the game-winning run on a wild pitch by Matt Thornton. Kenley Jansen slammed the door shut in the ninth, and the Dodgers earned an impressive comeback win over the AL Central leaders.

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Athletics release Manny Ramirez

Written by Joe Lucia on .

The Oakland Athletics have released veteran outfielder Manny Ramirez after he requested to be cut, according to the team's Twitter account

Ramirez was signed this offseason in an attempt to boost Oakland's offense, which looked rather weak coming into the year. In 17 games for AAA Sacramento, Ramirez didn't look like the same player he had been for most of his career, OPSing just .697 without a homer. The 40 year-old served a 50 game suspension to start the year after abruptly retiring in 2011 after testing positive for a banned substance and earning a 100 game suspension.

Despite a few injuries, the A's actually have seemed pretty solid at the DH position this year, with Seth Smith, Jonny Gomes, and Kila Ka'aihue earning most of the playing time at the position. Ka'aihue was designated for assignment last week, leaving the job to Smith and Gomes, who have both been effective (albeit not earth-shattering) at the position.

The release of Ramirez comes the same week that Vladimir Guerrero was released by the Blue Jays. I doubt any team will pick either player up, and it looks like the end of a pair of careers.

Photo courtesy of Daylife.com

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Spotlight Series: Yankees at Nationals (June 15-17)

Written by Joe Lucia on .

When choosing a spotlight series, it's usually a difficult task. Most of the time, I have to choose between a team hovering around the .500 mark taking on a contender, or in some cases, the best matchup involves a team I just wrote about. Well, that's not the case this weekend. I glanced over the schedule, and it took me approximately two milliseconds to decide that this matchup between the Yankees and Nationals would be my spotlight series for the weekend. They're the two hottest teams in baseball, with the Yankees holding a 10-2 record in June, and the Nationals right behind them at 9-2. The Yankees possess the best overall record in the American League, while the Nationals are half a game behind the Dodgers for the best record in the National League. 

Each team's last series was definitive towards telling the country how good they were. The Nationals went into Toronto, and held a powerful Blue Jays offense to a total of seven runs, winning all three games. Last weekend, they marched into Boston and held another great offense to just nine runs. 16 runs allowed over six games to two top six offenses, and they won all six games. That's something special. The Yankees were also impressive, sweeping the Mets and Braves while allowing a total of 13 runs over the six games. The Braves offense is top notch, but the Mets aren't very special. Furthermore, New York's offense showed up, scoring 30 runs over the two sweeps.

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VIDEO: Mark Grace predicts Jason Kubel's homer

Written by Joe Lucia on .

During last night's Diamondbacks-Rangers game, Arizona announcer Mark Grace says "aaaaand Kubel's going to homer here" right as Rangers pitcher Scott Feldman releases a pitch to Jason Kubel. Sure enough, Kubel connects on the pitch from Feldman, and it leaves the park.

OK, now that is pretty awesome. There's no real history for success for Kubel in the Ballpark at Arlington (.668 OPS, four career homers) or against Feldman (.762 OPS, with just one extra base hit - last night's homer), so I guess it just was a lucky guess from Grace. Pretty cool, though.

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Dugout Digest - the Orioles are ready

Written by Joe Lucia on .

The Baltimore Orioles just won't die. They've fallen out of first in the AL East, but are only a half game behind the Yankees for the division lead. However, this isn't Baltimore's fault. They've won five straight games against the National League's pair of teams from Pennsylvania, the Phillies and Pirates. While both wins against the Phillies were walk-off, extra inning wins, the Orioles decimated the Pirates, outscoring them by 14 runs over the three game sweep, including last night's 12-6 drubbing. Now, the Orioles return to facing the NL East, with a road trip taking them to Atlanta and New York, before the O's head home to host their local rivals, the Washington Nationals. This is an absolutely crucial stretch for the Orioles, which will show if they're strong enough to hang out in the second half of the year.

Game of the Night: Royals 4, Brewers 3. Oh, those crafty Royals did it again. Shaun Marcum and Luke Hochevar each had impressive starts, but the Brewers led 3-2 after eight due to a Cody Ransom RBI single in the eighth. Brewers closer John Axford came in for the ninth, and struggled again. There was a bad omen from the start of the inning, when Axford struck out Mitch Maier, but he reached on a wild pitch. Maier moved to second on a groundout, and Jarred Dyson reached on a walk to bring up pinch hitter Brayan Pena with two outs. Pena singled to left to score Maier, and Norichika Aoki threw the ball into the cutoff man (career minor leaguer Edwin Maysonet), who threw it into second for some reason. Rickie Weeks bobbled the throw, and Dyson barreled home to win the game, as Weeks's throw was off the mark. Sometimes, it's just not your year, and I think the Brewers are realizing that after last night's disappointment.

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VIDEO: Carlos Santana levels fan

Written by Joe Lucia on .

During today's Indians-Reds game, newly acquired Indians reliever Esmil Rogers was facing Reds third baseman Todd Frazier in the fifth inning. Frazier popped the ball foul towards the first base line, and Indians first baseman Carlos Santana (who is typically behind the dish as a catcher for Cleveland) barreled towards the stands to catch the pop up. Santana dove into the seats, and completely leveled a large Reds fan in the front row with a Superman-like dive. Santana and the fan were both down for a few seconds before getting up, seemingly unscathed.

The Indians management had to be holding their breath when seeing Santana make this dive. He missed time in 2010 with a torn ACL after a collision at home plate, and the team recently gave him a five year contract extension. An injury to him would have been catastrophic for the Indians playoff chances.

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The worst All-Star ballot possible

Written by Garrett Wilson on .

Every year fans and media members alike spend a great deal of time wringing their hands over the results of the All-Star voting.  Sure, sometimes someone not 100% deserving gets voted into the game, but we're focusing on the wrong problem here.

The real issue is that the ballot everyone is filling out is littered with players who don't deserve to be on it, much less receive actual votes.  There are so many awful selections available that one, if they were so inclined, could fill out an entire ballot with players that are injured, benched and/or not even in the majors anymore. 

Turns out, I am so inclined.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
C - Salvador Perez: A talented young catcher, but also an injured young catcher who hasn't played all season after getting hurt early in spring training
1B - Daric Barton: Barton currently plays for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats... and he isn't even a starter
2B - Ryan Raburn: Turns out a .420 OPS does not get you on the All-Star team, but it does get you optioned to the minors
3B - Danny Valencia: If the Twins think you're not good enough to be in their lineup much less the big league roster, you're probably not an All-Star
SS - Brendan Ryan: He is currently hitting .157, need I say more?
OF - Peter Bourjos: It is one thing to get benched, it is quite another to get benched in favor of Vernon Wells
OF - Ben Revere: His numbers look good now, but it took two trips to the minors this season to get him there
OF - Eric Thames: He beat out Travis Snider to get the Opening Day spot in left for Toronto and the spot on the All-Star ballot, alas he and Snider are now teammates in Las Vegas
DH - Anyone: Baseball purists are just mad that they even have to vote for a DH at all

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Dugout Digest - well, aside from the perfect game...

Written by Joe Lucia on .

Matt Cain threw a perfect game, and it was awesomely dominant. But hold the phone for a minute. There were two other absolutely amazing pitching performances from last night that are going to get completely shut out of the spotlight because of Cain's efforts. RA Dickey absolutely obliterated the Rays lineup, allowing one unearned run in a complete game (coming in the ninth inning, due to an error and a pair of passed balls) while giving up just one hit and striking out 12 Rays hitters. That one hit is under appeal by the Mets, who felt that an error should be charged to David Wright on the play. And there was also Lance Lynn of the Cardinals, who threw 7 1/3 shutout innings against the White Sox in a 1-0 win, allowing three hits and walking one while striking out 12. Three 12 strikeout performances and one unearned run across three starts. That's amazing.

Game of the Night: Royals 4, Brewers 3 (11 innings). What a crazy game between two subpar central division teams. The Brewers led 2-1 going into the ninth, and added an insurance run went a Carlos Gomez sacrifice attempt led to a throwing error on Brayan Pena, allowing Norichika Aoki to score and give Milwaukee a 3-1 lead. With closer John Axford on the hill, the Breweers looked to lock down a win...but it didn't work that way. Axford walked a pair of batters around a pair of outs, and that brought up light-hitting former Brewer Alcides Escobar...who tripled in the two runners to tie the game. The game went to the 11th, and Kameron Loe allowed the first three hitters to reach base for the Royals before being replaced by Jose Veras...who walked Mike Moustakas on five pitches to bring in the game-winning run for the Royals. Shrimp are running on treadmills in Kansas City tonight.

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VIDEO: Gregor Blanco preserves Matt Cain's perfect game

Written by Joe Lucia on .

Gregor Blanco of the San Francisco Giants had a huge role in helping Matt Cain preserve his perfect game, making this amazing diving catch in the seventh inning on a deep fly ball off the bat of Astros center fielder (and former Blanco teammate in Atlanta) Jordan Schafer. Blanco, playing right field, was shaded towards center field, and the ball hit by Schafer was tailing towards deep left center, and center fielder Angel Pagan was never going to cover enough ground to get to the ball in time with where he was playing. Sure enough, Blanco laid out with a Herculean effort, and made the catch to a rousing ovation from the crowd at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

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