Spooky's last week before vacation diamond sportsbook bonus express

[Spooky]

Monday's six-pack

Jamie Moyer gave up his 500th home run Friday night; here are some more tidbits about Moyer's lengthy big league career, courtesy of the excellent researchers at espn.com

-- Manny Ramirez (10) has hit the most HRs off of Moyer; 10 times Moyer gave up a homer to the game's first batter.

-- Moyer has three 2-hit shutouts; the last one was this month. First one was way back in 1986.

-- Alfonso Soriano (6-24-04) is only batter to hit a walk-off HR against Moyer.

-- Juan Samuel hit the first home run Moyer gave up.

-- No pitcher has hit a homer against Moyer; as we said yesterday, he has given up home runs in 40 different big league ballparks.

-- Moyer allowed Bonds' 11th career HR and Mike Schmidt's 471st.

[Spooky]

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........

13) When Detroit beat Red Sox on a walk-off walk Saturday night, guy who drew the game-winning walk, Ramon Santiago, didn't know he had to go touch first base in order for the run to count. Its funny how guys in the major leagues don't always know the rules.

12) Bad news for TV ratings: Lookin for Lucky won't run in the Belmont Stakes, preventing a rematch of Kentucky Derby/Preakness winners.

11) Dodger-Padres series this weekend drew 126,819 fans, the 6th-most fans to attend a weekend series at Petco Park.

10) Anemic A's scored five runs in last five games; last time they were as impotent in a 5-game stretch was Sept 8-12, 1979; that team was going through the motions at end of a thoroughly depressing 54-108 season.

9) Bob Uecker was once intentionally walked by Sandy Koufax; Uecker was 7-38 in his career vs the Hall of Fame lefty, but had two doubles and a home run, as well as three walks. The 75-year old Uecker showed up at Miller Park Friday and seems to be doing well following heart surgery.

8) David Wright has now struck out at least once in 13 straight games.

7) Phillies' manager Charlie Manuel hit 179 homers as a player over in the Japanese Leagues. Players seem to enjoy playing for him. Manuel hit .198 in 243 major league games, with the Twins and Dodgers.

6) Barry Zito is 6-1, 2.15 and the Giants are a playoff contender.

5) Tampa Bay is 26-11, despite Jason Bartlett hitting .236, Carlos Pena .180 and BJ Upton .225. Pretty soon, Evan Longoria is going to find out how Barry Bonds felt, unless Rays find a hitter to bat behind him.

4) The underrated Dave Campbell was saying on ESPN radio Sunday nite how trainers nowadays want players to strengthen their core, but there are a lot of oblique injuries. Campbell, who played for Detroit/San Diego in the late 60's/70's, points out that players back then didn't have cores as strong as today's players, but no one had strained obliques, either.

3) I've got an idea for a bar; call it The Garage, decorate it like any service station, and have female bartenders dressed like mechanics. Well, kind of like mechanics. Laugh if you want, but this would work.

2) After six weeks of baseball, here are the playoff teams, if the playoffs started Monday morning, which of course, they don't.
AL-- Tampa Bay-Minnesota-Texas-Bronx
NL-- Philadelphia-Cincinnati-San Diego-San Francisco

1) NBA Lottery is Tuesday at 8; all the losing teams send reps to sit in a room and see where they'll be picking in next month's draft. Best part of it is seeing who each team sends to the festivities. When was last time Clips sent someone other than Elgin Baylor or Mike Dunleavy?

[Spooky]

Tuesday's six-pack

-- Pirates took over major league lead in innings pitched by bullpen with 142.2, passing the Mets. Pittsburgh's pitches got pelted by Phillies in a 12-2 beating in Philly. Ryan Howard knocked in six runs.

-- Cardinal starting pitchers (249 IP) have thrown most innings so far this season, with Tampa Bay's starters right behind them.

-- Mets' nitwit owner Jeff Wilpon flew all the way to Atlanta, but did not fire anyone; they just had a 90-minute meeting with all their brass. Have these people ever heard of the conference call?

-- Vijay Singh slipped to 51st in world rankings, first time since 1992 he is out of the top 50; if he doesn't get back into the top 50 this week, he will have to play his way into the US Open at Pebble Beach.

-- Adam Scott shot -11 for 36 holes Sunday to win Texas Open, quite a feat for a guy whose game had been suffering lately. Have to be in good shape to play so well for so long-- 36 holes is a lot of golf in one day.

-- BCS Championship game is January 10 this season? Awful late.

[Spooky]

Tuesday's List of 13 (+1) Ranking the American League teams

14) Orioles-- Nolan Reimold got sent to the minor leagues and then was cut by one of the worst teams in my sons fantasy league, all in 12 hours. If you get cut by the Orioles, its even more insulting than getting released by a fantasy team. Funny thing, he's playing some first base down in minors and could return to Baltimore as a 1B. Another team in our league picked him up this morning. We'll see how that goes.

13) Royals-- They're 3-1 since firing Trey Hillman; they have this policy that minor leaguers have to play a year at each level. Bad idea; they've got this AA infielder named Moustakas who is hitting around .390. Bring the damn guy up and give the fans some hope. Fans need hope.

12) Mariners-- Seattle decided its hitting coach was the reason for dismal start, so they replaced Alan Cockrell (a former Tennessee QB) with guy named Alonzo Powell, the first American-born hitter to win three batting titles in a row in the Japanese Leagues. Seattle is owned by a Japanese company, so I guess that makes a little more sense.

11) Indians-- Tough times by Lake Erie. The Browns dumped their two QBs, then signed Jake Delhomme for some reason; no one knows if the Cavaliers will disband if Lebron James skips town and the Indians aren't any good........again. At least Carmona is a pretty good pitcher.

10) A's-- 1979 A's were 54-108 and had Mario Guerrero batting cleanup for some of that season; not Pedro or Vladimir, but Mario Geurrero, who had a lifetime batting average of .257 with seven career HRs. I was 19 and trust me, that was not a fun season. One win a week was my goal. Sadly, the 2010 A's don't hit much better than the '79 A's. They do pitch better.

9) White Sox-- Jerry Manuel was 500-471 as manager of the White Sox, finishing first or second in AL Central in five of six seasons, but he got fired and was replaced by Ozzie Guillen, who then won a World Series. Manuel is on this ice with the Mets; latest rash of pitching injuries should seal his fate. Will be interesting to see who the Mets replace him with.

8) Red Sox-- Monday's 11-9 loss, where they gave up five runs in first inning, four runs in the last, was an painful a loss in a meaningless game as I've seen in some time. Four hours of tug-of-war ending with a punch to the stomach. Only the Celtics are keeping Boston from mass depression.

7) Tigers-- RHP Justin Verlander and RHP Jeremy Bonderman switched places in the rotation so manager Jim Leyland could have his ace pitch Tuesday on his normal rest. Now it looks as if Monday's rainout will push them both back a day. Manager Jim Leyland switched Verlander ahead of Bonderman so he could pitch on his normal day. Bonderman pitched an inning of relief Sunday, his normal throwing day, both to help the bullpen and to keep him sharp.

6) Angels-- There were 108 runs scored in 15 games Sunday, the lowest scoring day with a full schedule (7.2 runs/game) this season. April 19 was the only day with less runs/game scored- there were 8 games that day.

5) Rangers-- 47% of big league at-bats last three or less pitches, 65% last four or less; the way for pitchers to go deeper into games is to strike out less hitters. Very rare for a pitcher to face a hitter four times in a game.

4) Blue Jays-- AL East standings: Rays 27-11; Bronx 25-13; Blue Jays 23-17; Boston 19-20; Baltimore 12-27. Weird how Toronto is better now than when they had Roy Halladay. Life doesn't always make sense.

3) Twins-- Canadian Justin Morneau was 1-23 in his first 23 ABs north of the border, but is 13 for his last 43 (.302)-- he hit two homers Monday at Rogers Centre, as Minnesota beat up on the Blue Jays 8-3.

2) Bronx-- 9,299 at Camden Yards Monday night for Royals-Orioles, but I do believe it was a rainy night in Baltimore. Either way, it is the second smallest crowd in Camden Yards history. Bad times in Birdland.

1) Rays-- They've won their last three games in their last at-bat. Enjoy it while you can, Tampa Bay fans; this winter, you'll let Carl Crawford go, the greatest player in franchise history, and a downward spiral will start.

[Spooky]

Wednesday's six-pack

-- Steve Nash, 15th pick, 1996 Phoenix

-- Joe Dumars, 18th pick, 1985 Detroit

-- Carlos Boozer, 35th pick, 2002 Cleveland

-- Monta Ellis, 40th pick, 2005 Golden State

-- Michael Redd, 43rd pick, 2000 Milwaukee

-- Manu Ginobili, 57th pick, 1999 San Antonio

[Spooky]

Wednesday's Dirty Dozen: Nobody asked me, but..........

12) Have to feel bad for (soon-to-be-ex) Cavaliers' coach Mike Brown; if we believe the rumor mill, and these rumors are very strong, then big part of why the Cavaliers seemed to fall in part in the playoffs is because of an affair between Delonte West and Lebron James' mom. Seriously.

11) I mean, these guys (coaches) make a million bucks a year and Brown is going to be fired because that happened; not like he could anything to stop it. Has to be hell of a lot of fun coaching in NBA. Constant drama.

10) Coaching in college can be wacky too; Nebraska is getting a new arena in downtown Lincoln, which may be bad news for coach Doc Sadler, who has to be looking at Oregon/Auburn/Virginia, all of whom fired their coach either shortly before/after getting a new arena. When donors give a ton of cash to help build an arena, they want to win, and the sooner the better.

9) For the NFL though, its becoming an issue that fans would rather stay home and watch TV than to pay bigtime money and go to games. Owners have gotten way greedy trying to suck the last pennies out of fans, and it seems like a lot of fans are finally saying "No more." Jets and Jaguars are teams that probably won't sell out all their home games this season.

8) Any team that signs Shaquille O'Neal next year is stupid. He's done, especially for the ludicrous salary he makes.

7) Washington Wizards were big winners in NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday, so they'll get John Wall and Philly will probably grab Evan Turner from Ohio State. Nets were big losers, slipping to the third pick.

6) Lance Stephenson left Cincinnati for the NBA after one OK season at UC; hope he is working on his shooting-- he made 21.9% from 3-point arc last year, and the college arc is closer than the pro line. Thats terrible.

5) Zach Johnson is a really good golfer; he's had stretches of 278 and 184 consecutive holes on Tour without even a 3-putt, which made it shocking when he six-putted the 13th hole at TPC San Antonio last weekend.

4) Red Sox scored 35 runs in Daisuke Matsuzaka's first four starts, but split the four games, not a good omen for him or them.

3) Orioles are only big league team without a HR from a first baseman.

2) We never got this in last week but its a good note: Miguel Olivo of the Rockies went 5-5 with a walkoff HR in a game last week, making him just the third player in 42 years to do that (5-5 with a walkoff HR). Last time was Fred McGriff in 1996; Jim Northrup also did it, back in 1968. Olivo left Tuesday's game with what looked like a concussion after a horrendous head-first slide into second base.

1) Astros have a NY-Penn League over in Troy; the big promotion this summer is Ben Zobrist Bobblehead Night July 12. Zobrist played for the Valley Cats in his first pro season. First 1,200 to the game that night get a bobblehead, one of their better promotions.

[Spooky]

Thursday's six-pack

-- Tampa Bay Rays are now 16-4 on the road.

-- Don't look know, but Toronto is 25-17, 14-6 on road and only a game behind Bronx Bombers in the AL East (and Wild Card race). Posada is out for 3-4 weeks (broken foot).

-- Ian Kennedy has a 1.93 RA in his last four starts.

-- Hanley Ramirez went 3-5 in his return to the Florida lineup, as Fish won 5-1 in St Louis. Cardinals are in a hitting funk.

-- Mets had an inside-the-park HR and had a triple play and still lost. If I'm Jerry Manuel, I send the wife out for some packing boxes.

-- UTEP will host the Conference USA hoop tournament next March, even though UTEP is 1,900 miles from East Carolina, 1,700 miles from Central Florida. Safe to say the Memphis people aren't happy.

[Spooky]

Thursday's List of 13: Tell your statistics to shut up.........

13) Colorado Rockies are the only major league team that hasn't had home run from the #3 spot in its batting order this season.

12) Thru Tuesday's games, here are top three teams as far as on-base % from the leadoff spot: Seattle .402, Tigers .397, Phillies .372. The three worst teams are: San Diego .258, Pittsburgh .266, Atlanta .276.

11) Coco Crisp is off on a rehab assignment; he better get to Oakland in a hurry, since A's leadoff hitters have an on-base %age of just .292.

10) Surprised to see that DHs are hitting a combined .244 this year, with an on-base percentage of .325. Seattle's DH's have been especially putrid, with a batting average of .189 and only 11 RBI in their first 40 games.

9) Rays have 32 RBI from the 9-hole, 11 more than any other team; thats an awful big gap between the first team and the second team.

8) Runs from 7th inning on: Reds 83, Dodgers 76, Brewers 74. Fewest amount of runs from 7th on: Rockies 37, Mariners 39, Astros 41.

7) Detroit's bullpen is 11-4 with 11 saves, with an ERA of 2.49 in 134 IP. Arizona's pen is 4-9, 7.98 with seven saves in 108.1; they're on pace to have the worst bullpen ERA in the last 42 years.

6) Teams are hitting .201 against San Diego's bullpen, .303 against Milwaukee's.

5) Nolan Ryan's Ranger pitchers lead MLB with 19 hit batsmen. Padres are last with 4-- they're managed by a former pitcher, Bud Black.

4) Joe Torre's Dodgers have issued the most intentional walks (20); three teams have issued the fewest (4): Royals-Tigers-Bronx.

3) The average pitches per batter in major leagues is 3.86; this figure is exactly the same in both leagues.

2) Nine teams still don't have a complete game this season.

1) Going into Wednesday's games, Tampa Bay led the AL with an ERA of 2.69; next best ERA in AL was Bronx (3.69); that gap got a little bit wider Wednesday night.

[Spooky]

Friday's six-pack

-- Reds led 8-0 in second inning, 9-3 in ninth, before Atlanta exploded for seven runs in bottom of ninth to stun Cincinnati, 10-9.

-- Mariners scored three in bottom of ninth to nip Toronto, 4-3, a loss that prevents the Blue Jays from tying for the lead in Wild Card race.

-- Seattle has scored two or less runs in 17 of its first 41 games.

-- Phils and Texas lead their divisions by four games each; Rays lead the AL East by five full games.

-- Highest-ranked golfer at Byron Nelson tournament in Dallas is #17 Hunter Mahan; this used to be one of the more prominent PGA stops.

-- Home ice held up as Montreal beat the Flyers 5-1, ending Philly's winning streak at six. Flyers lead series 2-1.

[Spooky]

Friday's List of 13 (+3)....Taking a look at National League teams

16) Astros-- Old nucleus with lousy farm system; top catching prospect Castro is hitting .259 with no HRs in minors. Carl Crawford comes back to his hometown this weekend. Astros need to sign him this winter.

15) Brewers-- As an A's fan, could have told Mr Attanasio that manager Ken Macha is horrible; hiring Willie Randolph as bench coach made it even worse. Plus closer Hoffman allowed 28 baserunners in last 13 IP, is no longer the closer. Been a miserable season so far.

14) Diamondbacks-- On pace to have worst bullpen in the last 42+ years; they're 14-0 when they score 6+ runs, 4-24 when they don't.

13) Pirates-- The main reason the Pirates have been winning close games is a bullpen that leads the majors in wins with eight and strikeouts with 143.

12) Cubs-- On bright side, they're 7-1 when Carlos Silva starts; this is the same guy who was 5-18 in 34 starts the last two years, allowing 254 hits in 183.2 IP. Other than rookie SS Castro, the rest of the news is dismal.

11) Mets-- They put the fun in dysfunction; players don't trust either the trainers or front office, the owner seems like a rich imbecile, but at least in his last 104 IP, Johan Santana hasn't allowed a leadoff walk. He probably wants to beat up his agent for letting him sign on with this circus.

10) Nationals-- They sold 144 Stephen Strasburg t-shirts for $20 each on Wednesday in Rochester, and he played for the road team. Rumor has his big league debut coming June 4 at home against the Reds. So far in three AAA starts, he hasn't allowed a run in 18.1 IP.

9) Rockies-- 8-14 in last 22 road games; they scored 13 runs in their last five games overall. Todd Helton has five doubles, one HR in 119 ABs, but he did get on base five times Thursday. Colorado is still only team not to have a home run from #3 spot in the batting order.

8) Braves-- Jason Heyward struck out 26 times in 75 April ABs; in May, he's fanned four times in 48 ABs. Winning a game when you're down 9-3 in ninth inning can do wonders for a team.

7) Marlins-- Would rank them higher, but owner is Steinbrenner wannabe and fully capable of firing respected manager Gonzalez midstream. They came out of Hanley Ramirez mess smelling like a rose, at least so far.

6) Dodgers-- Won 10 of last 11 games, despite Ethier/Ramirez both being banged up and having to use suspects like Ely/Ortiz/Haeger/Monaserios as starting pitchers. Elsewhere in LA, I had no idea Phil Jackson makes $12M a year. Its good to be dating the owner's daughter.

5) Reds-- Would be on top of NL Central had they held onto 9-3 lead in ninth inning in Atlanta Thursday, just their 8th loss in last 24 games. It'll be interesting to see if they promote Cuban lefty Chapman this summer.

4) Cardinals-- Last year, St Louis had .360 on-base percentage at leadoff spot; this year so far, .304. Redbirds are hitting just .243 with runners in scoring position and two outs. Other than that, most of the hitting stats are pretty much the same as last year's.

3) Giants-- Big gap between top two spots on this list; catching prospect Buster Posey is hitting .338 in AAA, with 22 walks in 26 games. After an ugly loss at Arizona last night, was potentially uglier scene with players/ coaches not very happy with home plate umpire Wegner as game ended.

2) Padres-- All the AL East-obsessed national writers can stop with the Adrian Gonzalez-to-Boston stories; as long as these Padres contend, it is inconceivable that they'll move an affordable contract with very popular player who doesn't become a free agent until after the 2011 season.

1) Phillies-- All they do is win......and now Jimmy Rollins is back; before Angel Pagan homered and started triple play in same game this week, last guy to do it was Ted Kazanski of the '55 Phillies. Kurt Suzuki homered and grounded into a triple play in the same game last month.