Baseball Talk

The Cubs beat the Brewers last night! Derrek Lee, whom I recently traded for in Fantasy baseball for Chipper Jones, who just went on the DL, drove in the winning run on an opposite field double in the ninth and they added another run for the final score of 6-4. This puts the Cubs 2 games ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central race and also may turn the tide of momentum that has recently been heavily in the Brew Crew's favor.

Tonight Carlos Zambrano faces Ben Sheets in the most important game of the year since last night. Big Z has thrown 13 innings while allowing 1 earned run in 2 starts this year against Milwaukee, but has a no decision in both due to bullpen implosions. Sheets has gone 11.1 innings in 2 starts against the Cubs, giving up 3 earned runs with a win on April 29th when he gave up the 3 runs in 6 innings. Coincidentally, both were the opening day starters for their clubs on March 31st when neither allowed a run, while each went into the 7th, but the bullpens gave up a combined 7 runs with the Brewers winning in 10 innings. So it seems that the team to get into the opponents bullpen has the distinct advantage.

Teixeira an Angel

In other news, the Braves trade Mark Texiera to the Angels for first baseman Casey Kohman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek. Marek has a 3.66 era in 34 relief appearances with the Double-A Arkansas Travelers, ex-employer of myself and rival of the Tulsa Drillers. Tex has a lower avg than Kotchman, but has hit 8 more hrs and driven in 24 more runs in an almost identical offense, stat wise. I think the trade may help out come post-season, but may not mean much short term as the adjustment factor will probably take a little for Mark. Luckily the Angels are the only Division leader that has successfully pulled away from the other teams they are competing with.

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