I Stayed Awake For This?

I'm really glad I missed the 11th inning last night in Arizona. That's right, Yours Truly, officially hit old-fogy status by falling asleep in the middle of an extra-inning game, because dagnabbit, it's just too late! What on Earth is wrong with me? These West Coast games are always fun. It feels a little bit like vacation--a vacation from your early bed time. A fun reason to be tired the next day--but maybe that's just me.

I'll attempt to stay awake once again tonight as the Reds will now try to avoid the sweep, but I've got to tell you, I'm not getting enough baseball right now. Yep, I'm probably watching around 3 games a day and I'm still not getting enough. Thank you, DirecTV.

Loved seeing Josh Hamilton hitting that homer last night. Great story.

Let's do the BSO for Reds/D-Backs:

Balls: Kyle Lohse had a decent start but got crushed on a couple mistake pitches. Can't do that, despite how well he pitched otherwise. On the Chad Tracy bomb, he said he shook off Javier Valentin twice. KL, my man, your catcher calls the pitches for a reason. You're not savvy enough to be shaking him off all day. See the fingers, throw the pitch. Next question.

Todd Coffey is a monster. Next question.

Strikes: I've got the engineer cap and everything for the Josh Hamilton Fan Train. All aboard! What's so amazing about this guy is that he's come so far, wanted to get back so badly, had all this media attention and pressure to perform, and in his first 8 plate appearances, he's had the patience to walk 3 times. As a green rookie. As a baseball stat guy, I love it. Oh, and when Adam Dunn (HR #4), squares a ball, it's mind-(and gravity)shattering.

Out (of the Ordinary): All 5 D-Back runs came with 2 outs. Gotta finish innings. For the Sedona and Black, Orlando Cabrera has looked good this year (.395, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 11 R). His stats have shown some improvement, if only the guy had some power. Yeah, I know 2 HR already, but his PX (Power Rating--see BBHQ) is well below league average. It's just bad. Still, if he can get on base for Arizona, he could help score a lot of runs with his speed and the bats behind him.

_________________

Deal of No Deal?

I'm probably an idiot for not drafting A-Rod in the first round of my fantasy baseball draft. I had pick 6 and took Carl Crawford. CC will be great, but A-Rod is absolutely mashing the ball. Those 6 bombs sure would've looked good on my roster.

Help!

Can you believe this blowout? 57-1! Someone should've stopped the insanity. I can't believe that there wasn't a way to avoid this embarrassment. Surely a team couldn't be that bad. And you'd have to hope that winning team's equipment manager was in by the end--anything to get an out.

And The Thunder Rolls

We'll talk about this on the show, I'm sure, but Hank Aaron sounded off again about how he won't be around when Barry smacks 756. It's going to happen, but don't you wish there was some way it could be stopped? Doesn't Barry realize that pretty much no one wants him to break this record? He can't be that oblivious.

Hank is saying everything that he wants to say with his "non-statements". Gotta wonder how Barry likes being totally snubbed by the Hammer. He says he doesn't care in that article, and I know Barry is a habitual curmudgeon, but I think he cares about public opinion (and certainly peer opinion) way more than he ever lets on.

The good news is that I see this like Bob Knight breaking Dean Smith's all-time wins in men's college basketball. Sure, it's a milestone and credit to Knight, but a lot of fans probably didn't want Knight at the top--and he won't be for long. If you think Coach K won't run him down in a few years, you're out of your mind.

A-Rod's 6th of the season was number 470 for his career. Give A-Rod 7 more years and Barry will #2 again--just like he is right now.