Baily's Sports & Stuff

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a great team this year. With just one simple move, they got a lot better. According to multiple sources, Pittsburgh acquired Houston Astros' lefty Wandy Rodriguez. Rodriguez is 7-9 with a 3.79 ERA this year, but opponents don't hit well against him. Rodriguez has only walked 32 batters this year, although he has only retired 89 batters on strikes. Pittsburgh has a good rotation, but it is inexperienced. Rodriguez adds depth to the rotation while also adding a pitcher who throws strikes and knows how to force weak contact. With James McDonald already in the rotation, Pittsburgh's rotation just improved a lot. In the deal, Houston received prospects Robbie Grossman, Colton Cain and Rudy Owen. Owen and Cain are pitchers, while Grossman is an outfielder. After selling their stars for a few consecutive years (and getting rid of Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, Carlos Lee, Rodriguez and others in the process), Houston has stockpiled their farm s...

The Rays are in the playoff hunt, and they're looking to make some moves to improve their playoff chances. Luckily for them, they made one. Tampa Bay traded for D-Backs third baseman Ryan Roberts, who will provide depth to the infield. Roberts blasted 19 home runs last year in a breakout season, and while he isn't doing too well this year, he is an upgrade over Brooks Conrad and Sean Rodriguez at third base. Roberts is hitting .250 with six homers and 34 RBI this year. He has a solid .306 OBP, and has only struck out 45 times in 252 at-bats. Roberts has hit a lot of singles this year, but he definitely has some much-needed power. Tampa Bay's offense needs a spark, and Roberts could provide that. As for the D-Backs, they received Tyler Bortnick. Bortnick is a Double-A second baseman who is hitting .253 this year. Bortnick isn't having a good year, although he is fast and hit .306 last year. Arizona probably could've asked for more, but the D-Backs want to build...

When star closer Brian Wilson went down with an elbow injury, Bruce Bochy had a big decision to make. Should he let star reliever Sergio Romo close? Should he let dominant lefty Javier Lopez close? Or should he let the hard-throwing Santiago Casilla close? Bochy chose Casilla, and it looked like he had made the right choice. Then, Casilla started to struggle. Casilla is just 24-of-30 on save opportunities this year, and he has a 3.25 ERA this year. He has blown five of his last nine save opportunities, and he allowed two or more runs in four of those blown saves. San Francisco has lost some games because of Casilla, and they can't afford to let him close any more. Luckily, there could be a solution. San Francisco reportedly has interest in Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez (according to MLBBuzz's Ken Rosenthal). Perez has a 3.06 ERA, but he has also converted 26 of his 28 save opportunities. Perez can pitch well under pressure, unlike Casilla. He doesn't walk...

When the Washington Nationals needed a win most, John Lannan delivered. Washington had been outscored by nine runs in a three-game losing streak which featured a game where the Nats blew a nine-run lead. Lannan allowed two runs in the first inning, and it looked like the Nats would lose their fourth straight game. Then, Lannan recovered. The longtime National didn't allow another run, and pitched seven innings, recording his first win of the season. Thanks to some late run support and some good pitching by Lannan, Washington triumphed 5-2 and took a 2.5 game lead in the NL East. In the first inning, Lannan made some mistakes. He left a few pitches too far over the plate, and that's how the Braves took the lead. Lannan made a few more mistakes, and he allowed five hits on the night. However, Lannan no-hit the Braves through the last 4.1 innings, and he started to strike hitters out. Lannan got ahead of the count and was able to get hitters out by placing his fastball on ...

Some Giants fans, including me, were upset with Bruce Bochy's decision to have Barry Zito pitch before Ryan Vogelsong to open up San Francisco's series against the Braves. Then, Barry Zito pitched a gem. Zito went seven innings and allowed just three hits while shutting out the red-hot Atlanta Braves. San Francisco gave him nine runs of support, so the Giants probably would have won if Vogelsong pitched. However, Zito's gem is a great sign for Giants fans. After watching Zito lose three straight starts in June (he allowed 17 ER in 14.1 IP during that span), most Giants fans expected another lackluster season from Zito. But he bounced back very nicely, delivering three solid performances before the All-Star break. And then, he delivered one great performance after the All-Star break. Even though Zito got into some jams, he did a great job overall. He was hitting his spots and getting ahead of the count with his fastball to set up his curveball and other off-speed p...

When the pressure was higher than ever, San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum stepped up. And he probably delivered his best performance of the season in the Giants' 3-2 win over Houston in 12 innings. And he didn't just step up. He made everyone forget about one terrible half of pitching he's had. Lincecum pitched eight innings of shutout ball while striking out 11 Astros in his first start of the second half Saturday night in San Francisco. The former Cy Young winner lowered his ERA from 6.42 to 5.93, and even though Santiago Casilla blew his fifth save of the year to take the win away from Lincecum, Timmy's performance is what will be remembered from this game. The shaggy-haired pitcher had great command of his fastball, and he had lots late movement on his pitches. Even though he didn't always put the ball where Hector Sanchez put the glove, Lincecum was hard to hit, and his pitches went places where it was nearly impossible to hit the ball. Even though th...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1251593-san-francisco-giants-grading-all-25-giants-at-the-all-star-break I apologize for just adding the link, but this was a long article and I didn't want to copy and paste every slide.