OzzieBall2004
08-04-2004, 12:11 AM
Its no secret that our bats are usually silenced by pitchers we havent faced, and we threw that notion out the window today. Also, Contreras showed great stuff, with the exception of a few problems with his control (heck, he only walked one though) and what looked like a lack of communication between him and Davis. He gave up 4 runs, 2 earned mostly due to shotty defense. Ultimately though, we really didn't learn much today because we played a crummy team.
I really think Contreras will turn out to be a big boost for our staff. He had a lot of positive things to say about the team and the change of scenery (LINK:ESPN recap (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=240803107) ), and I think the fact that he has two Spanish speaking quality arms on the team (Garcia and Marte), a majority of the players speak Spanish, a veteran catcher in Alomar that speaks Spanish, and last bust not least a laid back Spanish speaking manager to come out and relay Coops message to him, will really help him work his kinks out. He's too good not too.
It's pivotal we cut this lead down to 3 or hopefully 2 in the next week and a half. Granted Minny didn't do us a favor today by giving it to Anaheim, but we can only control putting W's in our win column. If we can do what we did today against Cleveland and Detroit on a regular basis, we should play our way right back into this thing. Hopefully Frank can be back for September, and hopefully Maggs....oh forget it, thats too damn big a longshot....
Hopefully the waivers will be generous to us as well, and we can add a leadoff guy like Lofton or someone in his mold, another power bat (paging Carl Everett?), and maybe some relief help that is familiar with the concept of throwing strikes.
Its a tall order to expect us to rebound and take this division with the team as is, but it's even more foolish to write them off with 2 whole months of ball left to be played. So lets all sit back, relax, and hopefully enjoy the show.
I really think Contreras will turn out to be a big boost for our staff. He had a lot of positive things to say about the team and the change of scenery (LINK:ESPN recap (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=240803107) ), and I think the fact that he has two Spanish speaking quality arms on the team (Garcia and Marte), a majority of the players speak Spanish, a veteran catcher in Alomar that speaks Spanish, and last bust not least a laid back Spanish speaking manager to come out and relay Coops message to him, will really help him work his kinks out. He's too good not too.
It's pivotal we cut this lead down to 3 or hopefully 2 in the next week and a half. Granted Minny didn't do us a favor today by giving it to Anaheim, but we can only control putting W's in our win column. If we can do what we did today against Cleveland and Detroit on a regular basis, we should play our way right back into this thing. Hopefully Frank can be back for September, and hopefully Maggs....oh forget it, thats too damn big a longshot....
Hopefully the waivers will be generous to us as well, and we can add a leadoff guy like Lofton or someone in his mold, another power bat (paging Carl Everett?), and maybe some relief help that is familiar with the concept of throwing strikes.
Its a tall order to expect us to rebound and take this division with the team as is, but it's even more foolish to write them off with 2 whole months of ball left to be played. So lets all sit back, relax, and hopefully enjoy the show.