Baseball Betting: Jay’s Ways
by Charles Jay
Peavy almost ready for action; Smoltz, Penny re-born with contenders
Jake Peavy, the former Cy Young winner who was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline, may finally be getting ready to get back on the mound again. Peavy, who's had ankle and elbow injuries that have kept him out of action since early June, then aggravated the elbow in a minor league rehab start, recently threw a bullpen session that was characterized by the Chicago Tribune as "long and strong." The Sox are planning on a start for Peavy that would take place between September 15-18.
Whether it makes any difference whatsoever by that time is another question. The White Sox (+3000 to win the American League pennant at BetUS) are in a desperate situation, as they are eight games behind the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers (+750 for the AL pennant at BetUS) as well as being virtually out of the wild card race.
Now let's move on to the Red Sox (listed at +300 for the AL pennant at BetUS) and their pitching staff. Tim Wakefield made his first start since coming off the disabled list with back troubles when he went six innings against the White Sox. Wakefield gave up four runs and threw 56 strikes in 93 pitches. The team is very concerned about the back problems flaring up between starts, but Wakefield says he fully intends to make his next start on Friday, where the Sox will be hosting the Rays at Fenway Park. Daisuke Matsuzaka will make another rehab start in the minors, probably at the Single-A level. Boston may need a shot in the arm (pardon the pun) in its starting staff, because Josh Beckett is going through a slump, having compiled an 8.88 ERA over his last four starts.
Baseball writer Jon Couture of the New Bedford (MA) Standard-Times made an interesting point in a recent column Somebody in Boston isn't doing something right when it comes to the pitching staff. John Smoltz blows up with the Red Sox, gets released and winds up in St. Louis, with the dean of active pitching coaches, Dave Duncan, and he now has a 2.65 ERA in three starts with the Cardinals (+200 to win the NL pennant at BetUS), as well as a ticket to the playoffs. Brad Penny blows up in Beantown, gets released, heads out to San Francisco, and pitches eight scoreless innings for the Giants (+1000 to win the NL at BetUS) in his first shot out of the box against the Phillies.
Penny makes it a point to complement journeyman catcher Eli Whiteside, going so far as to say, "There's not a guy who's called a better game for me in my career." That's kind of unusual, and I wonder whether it isn't a back-handed stab at catcher Jason Varitek, but young starter Clay Buchholz, who's gotten a chance because of the departure of the two veterans, has heaped praise on catcher Victor Martinez, who was recently acquired. People had better start looking at Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell too, because Penny and Smoltz should have been able to bring more to the table.
Now let's go to a backstop who really IS getting the job done. People are raving about the way catcher Gerald Laird of the Detroit Tigers (+750 to win the American League at BetUS) is able to keep potential base-stealers in check. Manager Jim Leyland has called him "a defensive weapon." Tampa Bay Rays (+2000 at BetUS to win the AL) manager Joe Maddon has said about him, "If you can throw it that fast with accuracy, you're stopping Brock, Wills and Henderson." That's a big statement from the guy whose teams leads the American League in stolen bases.
Laird has nabbed 42% of runners attempting to steal and he's thrown out more of them than anyone in the AL. This is useful stuff to remember as Detroit advances to the playoffs (which they will, in all likelihood). Of course, he had better be good on the defensive end, as he is hitting just .220 with 28 RBI's in 110 games.
Crazy tidbit of the week - of all things, the Georgetown University BASEBALL team has been put on probation by the NCAA, penalized for getting players jobs for which they were paid but did not work. John Thompson (father, not son) could have probably showed them a better way to skirt the rules.
Finally, these three things in one day
Randy Ruiz, a rookie with the Toronto Blue Jays, got nailed square in the face by a pitch in his team's 14-8 win over the Yankees. Ruiz was batting for the second time in the inning when he was nailed by a Josh Towers fastball, but he got up and walked away from it, and expects to be in the Monday lineup.
Also, a young man involved in a game in Chicago's Community League (an adult league) on the South Side was ejected from the dugout after an argument with his coach, then went to his car, retrieved a semi-automatic pistol and shot the coach twice. Thankfully the coach survived, and is listed in fair condition.
Then a British man who was vacationing in Majorca, Spain got in an argument with some locals and was beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Count two of them as luck, one of them not so lucky.
This game is getting more dangerous all the time - even if you're not betting on it.
