The Commish Online www.thecommishonline.com
BLOG ARCHIVE: 06/01/11 - 06/30/11
06/30/11
Certain stats tend to get lost mid-season, but this one deserves mentioning: After three straight shutouts plus a handful of scoreless innings beforehand, Cliff Lee is currently riding a 32-inning scoreless streak on the mound. Granted, he is still three MORE shutouts away from matching Orel Hershiser's record of 59 scoreless innings (set in 1988), but if anyone can at least make it interesting, it's a guy like Lee who will constantly pound the strikezone and force the opposition to put together a string of hits to score a run. So far, that hasn't really happened since way back on June 11.
06/15/11
Have you ever noticed the weird numbers (-220, +190, 8.5, etc) next to the day's baseball schedule and knew they were betting lines but never really understood how to use that information? The latest Hot Corner explains the basics of baseball betting, preparing you for a lifetime of anger when a west coast team scores a meaningless run in the 8th inning, but costing you the "under" in the process. Check it out now!
06/02/11
Before some lucky fantasy baseball owner starts popping off about his team, remind him that NOBODY, including the experts and people who study baseball for a living, would have predicted:
-Jose Bautista would continue his torrid HR pace from last year and threaten to break it.
-Adam Dunn would be hitting below .200 entering June.
-Ubaldo Jimenez would be winless until June despite being healthy.
-The Twins would completely fall apart
In other words, analysis helps, but sometimes it helps to be a little lucky too, and the two shouldn't be confused.
06/01/11
It's June now, so it's getting harder to call teams like Cleveland, Arizona, and even Florida flukes, but I'm still refusing to believe in any of them for the long haul. Florida simply doesn't have a deep enough roster to compete all summer, and with Philadelphia leading the division, the Marlins can only hope for a Wild Card berth anyway. A little help behind Johnson and Sanchez could keep the Marlins in the hunt, but I'm not betting on them.
Arizona actually has a chance in the hitting-free NL West as long as San Francisco fails to add any lumber. I'm not a believer in Cleveland, though, even though their division is mediocre as well. I see nothing but castoffs on the roster and fully expect Detroit and Chicago to play much better in the last 100 games, giving the Indians a race which I don't think they will be able to overcome.
