Philadelphia Rebels ace Roy Halladay was streaking. A decision in every start of the season, including eight straight wins dating back to a 3-1 loss to Brooklyn in mid-April. He hadn’t given up more than three earned runs in any of the victories. So it came as a surprise when the Worcester Eliminators rocked him on June 15…but an even bigger surprise (or no surprise at all, depending on your view point) was yet to come.
After going eight innings against the Pottsylvania Creepers in his previous start, Halladay had a 10-2 record, 1.72 ERA, seven complete games and five shutouts. The front-runner for the Cy Young Award, for sure. But the defending champs weren’t impressed.
Worcester came in with some injuries, but even with Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel on the disabled list they hit like they were facing a AA pitcher. Hanley Ramirez led off the top of the first with a walk (a rare occurrence from Halladay, who had walked just 12 in his first 99.1 IP), and Carl Crawford singled. One out later, Robinson Cano made him pay. Cano launched a no-doubter over the left-center field wall at Citizens Bank Ballpark, a quick 3-0 lead.
Halladay seemed to settle down, throwing perfect second and third innings. Elims starter Wandy Rodriguez, just off the DL, got out of trouble in the third when Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out at home after trying to score from second on a shallow single, and the score stayed 3-0.
Cano led off the fourth and reached on an error by shortstop Elvis Andrus. He scored on Delmon Young’s double to make it 4-0. Chris Johnson struck out, but Nick Swisher walked in front of Russell Martin, who copied Cano’s first-inning feat: a blast to left-center, just a few feet away from the first landing site! Just like that, Halladay and the Rebels were down, 7-0. Ronald Melkonian’s brain trust kept “Doc” in the game for a fly out and single before Jon Rauch was ready to come in. Crawford flew out on the big righty’s first pitch, and after just three and a half innings the hosts seemed in an insurmountable hole.
The Rebels finally got on the board in the fifth. With two out and no one on, Andrus walked and Adrian Gonzalez singled, bringing up Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod joined the three-run blast parade with a shot just inside the foul pole in left, and Philly closed the gap to 7-3.
The Rebels added another run in the sixth, but Mark Teixeira hit a two-run bomb in the seventh to make it 9-4. Even with a rare Andrus home run, the ability of the Eliminator bullpen meant the game was almost assuredly going to the loss column for Philadelphia.
But maybe, juuuuust maybe, the Worcester manager micro-managed too much.
Heath Bell started the bottom of the ninth after getting the last out of the eighth and got a groundout before Adam Jones hit a seeing-eye single to right. Mariano Rivera was brought on, and Miguel Montero greeted him with a single to left. Matt Wieters pinch-hit for Matt Belisle, and Craig Kimbrel was brought on, oddly for Rivera. Maybe the Eliminators were looking for a strikeout. Kimbrel’s first offering, though, was lined the opposite way for a run-scoring single, making the score 9-6. Mike Aviles stepped up and doubled in Montero, with Wieters moving to third.
Brandon Morrow came on and walked Ichiro to load the bases, bringing up Andrus. The scrawny shortstop lined a game-tying single to right-center.
So it was, with runners on first and third base, one out and four runs in to tie the game, that Adrian Gonzalez stepped up. Morrow quickly got two strikes on the powerful lefty, but pitch number three didn’t reach the catcher. Gonzalez hit a high-arching shot towards the right-field bleachers. Nick Swisher took a few steps back, but he realized there was nothing he could do. If he caught it, Ichiro would tag and score to win the game. He wouldn’t have had a chance anyway, as the ball barely cleared the wall (much akin to Juan Uribe’s pennant-winning shot in Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS) for a three-run homer.
It was all over. Halladay was rocked for seven runs (six earned) over 3.2 IP, easily his shortest start of the year. His offense, however, bailed him out at the expense of an astonishing meltdown from arguably the league’s best relief corps, and the Rebels, with a 12-9 win, weren’t pushed back farther in the Central Division.
The next day came the bombshell. Melkonian, wheeling-and-dealing as ever, had traded Halladay, as well as Austin Jackson and Miguel Montero, to New England.
In return, the Yankee Stompers gave Philadelphia catcher J.P. Arencibia, outfielder Torii Hunter, and right-handed starters Dan Haren and Max Scherzer. Why trade the best pitcher in the league, Ron?
“We get a top ace for an ace, a promising young arm in (Scherzer) who is performing extremely well, making our rotation stronger as a whole, we increase our team’s struggling offense with Hunter who should provide immediate help in that department, as well as give us a gold glove in CF, with Ichro in RF and Either in LF, and gives us a more valuable and promising catcher in JP over Montero.”
League observers noted that Jackson and Hunter are very comparable players, with the younger player leaving Philly. Questions are beginning to rise (again) whether Melkonian wants to win, or if he’s just trading for the sake of trading.
Another trade was completed, with Central California sending Anibal Sanchez to the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels. Prospect righty Kyle Gibson and a player to be named go to the .45s.
“We’re happy with this,” said Flying Squirrels GM Andrew Friedman. “We didn’t think Fausto Carmona would be the answer to the fifth spot in our rotation the rest of the season, so to pick up a pitcher as dominant as Sanchez can be is big. We might have mortgaged our future somewhat to do it, but we have some talent in the minors that will soon make up for the guys we traded.”
League historians noted that Sanchez made his BARB debut with the Squirrels in 2006, earning a win and a losing a game with two saves in five appearances.
In other BARB action:
AC/BC 6, YUMA 0
WP: Clayton Kershaw (4-4, 2.85)
LP: Matt Cain (5-7, 5.65)
SV: Gregg (1)
Solo home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings gave Kershaw all of the support he would need as he combined with Kevin Gregg on a shutout of the West-leading Firebirds. Cain struck out nine but was charged with four runs over his six-plus innings. Kershaw K’d six over 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and one walk. Gregg earned his first save because he came on in the seventh with a three-run lead before the team scored three more.
YUMA 5, CASSELTON 4
WP: Matt Thornton (1-0, 3.27)
LP: Mike Adams (1-2, 2.78)
Casselton took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth in Yuma, but Mike Adams didn’t record an out as Nick Markakis and Ryan Braun singled before Joey Votto hit a booming, game-ending triple. Adams pitched both the seventh and eighth innings and appeared somewhat fatigued in the ninth, but Horned Toads management stuck with him. Matt Thornton pitched three scoreless innings for the win in relief of starter Tommy Hanson.
CASSELTON 6, SIN CITY 5 (16)
WP: Brad Ziegler (1-1, 3.12)
LP: Jeremy Affeldt (0-4, 6.87)
Jaime Garcia and Gavin Floyd both went seven-plus innings, but they were both in bed and asleep by the time the game finished. The Cowboys tied the game in the ninth on a Ryan Theriot single and briefly took the lead on Jorge Posada’s solo homer in the top of the 16th, but Asdrubal Cabrera and Brandon Phillips knocked back-to-back RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to end the nearly five-hour affair.
POTTSYLVANIA 6, BROOKLYN 1
WP: Jeremy Hellickson (7-5, 3.88)
LP: Justin Verlander (2-5, 5.16)
Aramis Ramirez did damage to Justin Verlander’s ERA, hitting an RBI single and three-run homer off the fastballing righty before the end of the third inning. Ramirez later added another shot off Moabs’ mop-up man Daric Barton (yes, you read that right) for five RBI on the day. Hellickson gave up four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts over eight innings, allowing his only run on a Brian McCann groundout in the second.
8 comments:
didnt write a press release but ill put something up on my blog here pretty soon
Alright i completely changed my blog format as well as posted about this trade with my press release. I put a decent amount of time into this even though i was too lazy to do any of the coding by hand... enjoy!
Players like Roy Halladay are never traded in midseason by contending ballclubs. Never. The only logical conclusion is that the Flyers preseason strategy to contend has been abandoned.....before the All Star break. If so, then various words come to mind: reckless, impatient, impulsive and vainglorious. This could be a "reality" show on cable.
lol Scott I agree, even though im sure you meant the rebels and not the flyers. Obviously if you were in my position you would oblige as well; couldnt help myself.
oops yes I meant the Rebels....I wonder how Yuma feels seeing Doc back in his own division?
I love how everyone EXCEPT my cousin sees the logic in this deal. Just because I trade 1 pitcher doesn't mean I'm changing my strategy. In the deal I got 2 arms for just 1... and Haren, the ace involved, is near as good as Halladay. Haren may not do as many complete games as Halladay, but goes over 200 innings every year, with great stats all around, including a low walk rate and high K rate. So really, Halladay is barely a better arm than Haren, but yet I got Max, who is one of the top arms performing in BARB right now. ALSO, I improved my offense with Hunter who had a good year last year and my offense is lagging right now. ALSO, my defense is further increased, as now I have Ichrio, Hunter, AROD, Gonzalez, Andrus supporting one of the league best defenses. Wieters is ready to take over Miguel's job and is far better at D than Montero, so JP was a great exchange their.
So really it wasn't reckless, impulsive.. etc. People just focus on the name HALLADAY and ignore the fact i got HAREN and MAX and HUNTER, etc..
i shouldnt comment on this since i was involved in the deal but haren has never posted an era under 3 while halladay does it frequently and scherzer was unrproven and holds nearly a 5 run era in the bigs right now but if they both pan out in the long run then its a good deal for you Ron, people are just questioning the timing if anything since you had 2 even better pitchers in latos and hanson before the season that you dealt along with draft picks to acquire halladay in the first place
You're nuts if you think your trade was realistic, or that it improved your team. In order to do THIS deal, you sent out a pitcher with just as much value as Scherzer to ME, a division rival. That simply makes no sense. There are several teams that need pitching that aren't in your division...why help the team that is ten games ahead if you in the 'W' column? Since Scherzer-Nolasco is essentially a wash, and since Halladay is arguably the best pitcher in the league, you can't wave Danny Haren's name around as if that was your answer to your critics. At best, the sum total of your dealing since Draft Day is a big push, and the claim that your strategy hasn't changed rings hollow.
Fact is, the sum total of your deals are a push. You already had strong starting pitching. That wasn't a weak spot before. You still are flirting with the second division. How is adding another starter going to change that? I think you know the answer to that. Again, players of Halladay's stature are not traded in mid-season by contending teams. What you did was fold before you saw the flop....I would like to remind your legion of admirers that you did the same thing last season, prematurely giving up on your original plan. The result? You ended up missing the playoffs by a few games, an enormous blunder on your part, given the weakness of our division. Deja vu all over again. By the way, feel free to promote the green Alvarez to fill the injured A-Rod's slot...nice piece to have for the future, but won't have the impact of a healthy Nolasco in my injury-plagued rotation. Still following the same plan? Ha! Let's see you make up ten games in the 'win' column with that plan. I predict Fire Sale, Part 2 in August.
Post a Comment