Reds fifth starter

JD has a good post today:

Matt Belisle wants to start and I think that's an excellent idea. Saarloos would be a nice guy to have coming out of the pen, and Belisle has the stuff to start. He's also still only 26 years old, meaning his best years should still be ahead of him. Belisle's health has been an issue, but he pitched all winter and apparently his back has held up fine.

He's the best option right now, from what I can see. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Belisle develop into a number three or four type guy in the next couple of years.

And it's kind of a shame that the Reds think Eric Milton has to start. Harang/Arroyo/Lohse/Belisle/Saarloos (with Bailey waiting in the wings) would be an interesting rotation.

This is a point I've been wanting to make, but he beat me to it. The idea that Milton is just handed a starter's job without earning it is rather annoying. Instead of having everyone battle for a fifth spot, they should be battling for the fourth and fifth spots and Milton and his huge salary would be traded for some cheap talent. There are more deserving candidates, but I also believe Belisle could eventually be a #3 starter. I mean, Milton is #3 so that could mean anything, but Belisle could be legitimate.

Reds cut 2

Brad Salmon & Brian Shackelford are out. It's Brian, right? I think so, anyway. Nobody is using first names. I don't know much about Shack, he seemed alright and we saw him a fair amount last year, so we'll see him again.

I kinda liked Salmon. And not just to eat, either. He seemed to be a pretty decent pitcher, young guy with some good moves. I would like to see him this year and I think that I just might.

Mavericks 92, Pistons 88

Nice to see the Mavs pull off a grinder like yesterday's affair. Granted, the Pistons were playing without Chauncey Billups which definitely could have affected the game, but it was still very good for the Mavs to win. Which they did.

Jason Terry for me was the player of the game, although his stats were very unspectacular. He got 12 points on 5/11 shooting, but almost all of his points came late, and he really distanced the Mavs from the Pistons late in the game, allowing Dallas to pull off the win. He hit two critical jumpers late as well as made two free throws. So his performance was huge in the fourth quarter, and he also contributed a sweet pass to Stackhouse where Stack got fouled and made both of his free throws. Nowitzki led the Mavs with 28 points, many of those coming later in the game. He started very cold again as he has done recently, but really picked it up late. He made a couple incredible shots and kept the Mavs in it late. He also played some pretty good defense, which was nice to see. Josh Howard, while pulling down 9 rebounds, had a pretty bad game. He had 12 points, most of those near the beginning of the game. His defense was solid, but not as good as it usually is, and he just missed a lot of shots, including an airball 3-pointer which would have iced the game. Dampier was a joke on the offensive side of things, but his defense was pretty dang decent in this game. He got called for a flagrant foul that wasn't flagrant whatsoever. He hit the guy's arm and Hamilton just fell down hard and put on a little acting show. It was pretty lame, and at a crucial time in the game. Speaking of Stackhouse, he had 12 points. Devin Harris had a very nice night, scoring 22 points, including 9/10 at the free throw line, meaning he went hard at the basket all game long. His performance was very decent, though his jump shots still need a LOT of work.

For the Pistons, it was pretty even scoring across the board, with Ronald Murray being the leader at 18 points. You could tell they missed Billups. I would like to think the Mavericks would beat the Pistons even with him in the lineup, but they haven't proven that this year. Still a good win though, as things could have gotten bad late but Nowitzki & Terry picked it up to preserve the victory.

Braves 6, Reds 5

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Harang had a weird day. He pitched five innings and took the loss. He gave up 3 earned runs on 8 hits, 2 of which were home runs. That wasn't all that great, but he did strike out 9, which was pretty sweet. Not a big deal, not really as bad of an outing as everyone is making it out to be. Shackelford went next, giving up 2 runs and an earned run in his inning. Weathers, Cormier, and Coffey closed out the game.

Hitting: Lots o' hits today, but a lot of men left on base. Ross was the big hitter of the day and it was about dang time, going 3/3 with an RBI and a double. Alex Gonzalez led off and was 1/2. Hopper was 1/2 with an RBI, Hatteberg 1/3 with an RBI. Adam Dunn was 1/3 (another freakin' single!). Janish was 2/2 with an RBI. Hamilton was 1/4 with a double and 2 K's as his average is simply bottoming out now to an astonishing low of .474. Denorfia had a pinch-hit strikeout.

Fielding & such: Nothing to be too pleased about today. 3 errors, on Phillips, Gil, and Machado. While Hopper stole a base, Gonzalez got caught stealing on a bad decision. Shackelford got the first pickoff for a Reds pitcher this year. David Ross also picked off Orr at second base.

Hurricanes 7, Devils 2

I really don't want to get into a review of the game here, so I won't. It was bad. It was clearly awful. The Devils are struggling in the home stretch and are now on the opposite end of an Atlantic Division surge, but this team Pittsburgh is the team to beat. They could very well, and very easily, win the Atlantic. The way the Devils are playing does not please anyone.

Reds 2, Red Sox 1

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Kyle Lohse got on the five-innings board today and pitched extremely well. He got the win with 3 hits, 3 K's, 0 runs. A lot of flyouts, but they were outs so I can handle that. But those could hurt him come season time. He did hit a batter, which he always does. But dang, could this be the Kyle Lohse we've been waiting for? Let's hope so, I'd rather him have the #3 spot over Milton. Don't like Milton. Anyway, Lohse defeated Papelbon, who is being used as a starter this year for Boston. Hermanson had a clean quick inning, Coutlangus not so much but kept it scoreless. Jared Burton got the 8th and gave up a run on 2 hits, a double to Ramierz and an RBI-single to some guy named Scales who knocked in some guy named Ochoa. Victor Santos had another pretty save, K'ing 1.

Hitting: Denorfia finally got himself into the game, hitting a leadoff homer and scoring the other run off of Adam Dunn's RBI single. What's up with Dunn's singles lately? That was the only hit he didn't have last year, now it's all he is hitting. What has Jacoby done? Dunn also walked twice and has remained very good in that respect. Hamilton obviously did not enjoy having some days off and was feeling the rust today, going 0/3 with 2 K's. His average now sits at .500. Phillips was 1/4 with a meaningless triple. Reds hit into 3 DP's, not a great stat.

Fielding & such: No errors today. Denorfia stole his first base.

Mavericks 106, Celtics 101

Yikes, what would have happened if the Mavs lost this one? Thankfully they didn't, and a win by 5 over a terrible team is the same as a win by 35 over a great team, at least in the win column. But still. Can't feel too great about it.

Dallas was trailing by ten points at the half, not what you would expect. Howard was playing well, but Nowitzki was ice cold. Paul Pierce was everywhere. Then the Mavericks slowly closed the gap over the third quarter and then took over late in the fourth quarter. Nowitzki stepped up, scoring 19 in the fourth, and 30 overall, 12/13 at the free throw line. He also pulled down 12 boards. Howard tied Nowitzki with the team lead in points and got 8 rebounds of his own. Terry had 16 and Stackhouse had 11.

Free throws were a big deal, as the Mavs found their way to the line, especially Nowitzki (mentioned above). The Mavericks were 30/33 on the night, with Boston going 19/22 which isn't too shabby, but a lot fewer attempts.

Not much else to see, good to see a win. Just to make sure they can still do it. Gotta keep winning. Without two of their best defenders, George and Buckner, being out.

Injuries & Cuts

Sounds nice, eh?

CUTS

Homer Bailey (yep, it's finally over, but he said he knew it was coming, and so did most people)
Kerry Ligtenberg (could have been a pretty reliable guy, but people were ahead of him)
Brian Meadows
Joey Votto (we'll see him)
Michael Gosling
Dan Conway
Ryan Hanigan

INJURIES

Gary Majewski (won't be ready for a while)
Griffey (not sure if he will start the season)
Billy Bray (better hurry up and get well, son!)
The Lizard (nothing major)
Gordo (duh, but getting closer)
Ryan Freel (minor)

Reds 3, Pirates 2

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Livingston started and went 3.2/3 giving up 2 runs. He gave up 8 hits (!) but if you can limit that to 2 runs, that's pretty decent. He walked 1 and K'ed 4. So pretty well done again by Bobby. Jared Burton closed out his inning and pitched another, giving up a hit and K'ing 2. I like this Burton guy. Cormier, Coffey, and Coutlangus kept it going and Ligtenberg got the save, K'ing 1.

Hitting: Denorfia was 2/4 with a run scored and an RBI. About dang time. Extreme back-up catcher Ryan Jorgenson got the game-winning RBI. Dunn was 2/2. Jay Bruce did not impress, but what the heck is he doing up at camp anyway?

Fielding & such: After subduing the errors for a while, the Reds busted out with 3 of them. Castro, of all people, had an errant throw. Bruce misplayed a ball, and Machado had a bad throw. He, being Machado, also stole a dang base.

Devils 3, Hurricanes 2

Nice win. Big win. Important and all that.

It's nice to see Brodeur bounce back with a very great game. You know the guy can play, but when your team has won a few games but allowed a decent amount of goals scored on you, you don't think much about how great Brodeur is, you don't even really think of your goalie at all. But now with that sort of performance, it's like, "Hey, I'm still here." And he was all there, stopping 38 of 40.

Erik Rasmussen of all people got a huge goal in the third period, scoring right away. Sort of like Gomez, who scored right away at the beginning of the game. Parise made it 3-1 and thankfully the Hurricanes would only score one more goal. They had 22 shots in the third period, which is pretty inexcusable from the Devils standpoint, but Brodeur was up to the task, no doubts about it. Buffalo won, so first place is still pretty distant.

Pirates 13, Reds 1

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Saarloos, Stanton, Wilson sucked.

Hitting: Pretty much everybody sucked. Godwin with the RBI FTL?

Fielding & such: Eh........

Slight breeze shatters Ken Griffey Jr.'s femur

From The Onion:

Although Ken Griffey Jr. had nearly recovered from a broken hand sustained while playing with his children in December, his rehabilitation came to a sudden halt yesterday when a gentle 2 mph breeze wafted across his leg, shattering his femur in three places. "I knew it was broken right when that breeze hit me," said Griffey, who was walking from his sports therapist's office to his car in order to drive to his daughter's piano recital at the time of the injury. "These things just happen. If I would have known a breeze like that was coming, I never would have left the house." Reds manager Jerry Narron has stated that, upon Griffey's return to the Reds, he will be fitted with a personalized protective bubble to be worn for the remainder of the season.

Penguins 3, Devils 0

Another huge game, as the Mavs/Suns game was. And another disappointing loss. Not a great night.

This one didn't make any sense. The Devils didn't deserve this one. They might not have been the better team, which would be hard to argue, but I think they were pretty close. They played a very solid game and didn't get anything because of it. Jocelyn Thibault, of ALL PEOPLE, got a shutout. That is inexcusable. But it wasn't for lack of effort. Give the man some credit, he played well. Just very little things went wrong for the Devils at the wrong times. It was annoying and frustrating because it was such a big game, fighting for first place in the Atlantic and first place in the East, but probably only fighting for the division at this point. The #1 seed might be out of reach now, but it's still possibly out there.

Winning the division is the new priority, and I'm not sure if it's a bad thing if they lose it. Try to comprehend my crazy logic. Devils win the division, get the #2 seed. They play the Islanders, who are always tough for NJ. Then they play the winner of Tampa Bay/Atlanta, two teams who can beat the Devils handily. If the Penguins win the Atlantic, the Devils get #4. They play whoever it ends up being, Ottawa probably, and can beat them. Then they play Buffalo and can beat them, it's been shown. Then they play whoever comes out of the other side. That might be the most favorable scenario, oddly enough.

Oh well, we'll see. I don't really feel like talking about this game anymore, so check out In Lou We Trust.

Penguins 3, Devils 0

Another huge game, as the Mavs/Suns game was. And another disappointing loss. Not a great night.

This one didn't make any sense. The Devils didn't deserve this one. They might not have been the better team, which would be hard to argue, but I think they were pretty close. They played a very solid game and didn't get anything because of it. Jocelyn Thibault, of ALL PEOPLE, got a shutout. That is inexcusable. But it wasn't for lack of effort. Give the man some credit, he played well. Just very little things went wrong for the Devils at the wrong times. It was annoying and frustrating because it was such a big game, fighting for first place in the Atlantic and first place in the East, but probably only fighting for the division at this point. The #1 seed might be out of reach now, but it's still possibly out there.

Winning the division is the new priority, and I'm not sure if it's a bad thing if they lose it. Try to comprehend my crazy logic. Devils win the division, get the #2 seed. They play the Islanders, who are always tough for NJ. Then they play the winner of Tampa Bay/Atlanta, two teams who can beat the Devils handily. If the Penguins win the Atlantic, the Devils get #4. They play whoever it ends up being, Ottawa probably, and can beat them. Then they play Buffalo and can beat them, it's been shown. Then they play whoever comes out of the other side. That might be the most favorable scenario, oddly enough.

Oh well, we'll see. I don't really feel like talking about this game anymore, so check out In Lou We Trust.

Suns 129, Mavericks 127 (2 OT)

That was a tough one.

To be honest, I was surprised the Mavs hung around that long. They needed lucky shots and they got them. They just didn't have enough at the end of the game, and it they only lost by two. They didn't really deserve to have the game go this long, and unfortunately, the right team won last night. Phoenix was the better team. What can you say about Steve Nash? The guy, who I miss dearly, is incredibly annoying when playing for another team. And there was simply no answer for Amare Stoudemire. No answer. He was 16/19 for 41 points. It wasn't just the points, it was how easily he racked them. He made 12 straight shots and they were all right by the basket. He was not being challenged whatsoever until it was too late. What a dominating performance. It's scary, because the Suns had no inside presence during last year's playoffs, and if they would have, they very well could have won the series against Dallas and won the Championship. Now they have it, and they played like the better team last night.

Aside from Stackhouse, who just went OFF last night for a season-high 33 points, nobody really impressed me for the Mavs. Sure, Terry hit a big shot and made a few more, but it wasn't enough. Nowitzki had plenty of points, but they seemed pretty empty to me. He had 30 points and 16 rebounds (many in the overtime periods) but I wasn't impressed. Outside of the one-step dunk SLAMDOWN, there wasn't much of his play that excited me. I thought he ran his mouth too much and worried about things that were outside of his control.

Josh Howard in particular did not play well. He had 19 points and 9 rebounds, which surprised me, but he missed many shots. His defense was very solid, though, and when he fouled out, that was a big shift in the game. And then Dampier fouled out. So with those two out, things were going to be hard. Dampier, I was definitely not impressed with whatsoever. He played too recklessly, threw the ball away, consistently missed easy shots. He did go CRAZY on the rebounds, though. And that was huge. But otherwise, he offered nothing.

Here's the big picture: for all the talk about how great the Dallas Mavericks are, for all the talk about one of the greatest regular seasons of all time, all the talk about how the team functions as a team with each player having a role that fits perfectly with everyone else, for all the talk about all the streaks and all the stats they are breaking along the way, the Suns are now only 2.5 games behind Dallas. The Spurs are only 6.5 games behind, which is going to be 6 after they win tonight. So it's not like Dallas is all alone on their little island being the best team, they are one of three incredible teams right now. So they need to dig down and figure some things out and win again. The loss against Golden State, I brushed off, saying they needed to lose because it would be better for them. Not so in this case. This was a tough one.

Reds 2, Devil Rays 1

Reds are hot. And sexy.

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Arroyo had a very nice outing, going the longest any starter has gone with five innings. He K'ed 2 and only allowed 2 hits. Keep in mind that it was against Tampa Bay and keep in mind that it is still Spring Training. Otherwise, awesome. It was good news for him, though. Weathers pitched the sixth and gave up a homer to Rocco Baldelli. Homer Bailey pitched the seventh, surprisingly, and K'ed 1 in his scoreless inning, though he did hit another batter. Seems to be his forté. His ERA is now a meager 19.64. Salmon got the save, K'ing 1. Notice how I changed tense, going from "K'ed" to "K'ing?" This is not how to write a paper, which is probably what I should be doing instead of this.

Hitting: Not much to go on, except Josh Hamilton got another hit, but only went 1/3. Disappointing to say the least. And most. Not much hitting to get excited about. Gonzalez, Castro, and Phillips all went 1/2, Gonzo & Fidel getting doubles. Ross still sucks, going 0/2. Worse were Hatteberg and Crosby at 0/3.

Fielding & such: Phillips stole his first base of the year. And by that, I don't mean first base compared to second base, it's his personal first. It's always something I thought he could do a lot of last year but didn't. And it's something I've been waiting for him to do. And it finally happened. Hopefully more of that. Gil-Bellhorn-Votto turned a double play.

Newly revamped Raiders.com

Check it!

Dirk Nowitzki "Obviously" Watch

Double dose coming atcha!

"Obviously not," Nowitzki said. "When we first started off, we were struggling, and nobody really knew if we were going to make it in this league. It's been a great ride, obviously. We both went our ways and kind of improved together, worked on our games together and nobody could really see how far we could take this."

Make that a TRIPLE dose!

"Obviously, everybody saw we were kind of talented and we could make our ways in this league," Nowitzki said.

Reds 6, Yankees 3

Beat the Bronx Bombers twice times this year already. Neither count, but it was fun while it lasted.

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: While not as impressive as Bobby Livingston (and who is, when you get down to it?), Harang pitched a pretty solid game. He picked up the win and almost went five innings, allowing 7 or 8 hits (box scores disagree) and 2 earned runs. No walks and 2 K's. Stanton, Cormier, and Coffey followed with scoreless innings, though Coffey allowed 3 hits in one inning. Not sure how none of those scored, but it seemed to work out pretty well for him as he keeps his masterful 0.00 ERA. Meadows pitched the ninth, giving up a homer and striking out 1.

Hitting: Phillips led off the game with a homer, and finished with no more hits. Otherwise, guess who was the offensive story? Yeah, it's Hamilton again. 2/2 with 2 RBI's including a sac fly, along with a walk. The guy is seriously on fire. Denorfia got a hit in his only at-bat, knocking in a run and scoring himself. David Ross, who has had serious problems, had his worst game going 0/3 with 3 strikeouts. Yuck. This guy needs to turn things around. We already knew we were going to see him perform not as well as last year, but he can't be disastrous. We can't afford that, not with Javy underperforming and the black hole that is Moeller. C'mon, Ross. Get that bat going.

Fielding & such: No errors. Gil & Wise stole some bases. Phillips & Gonzalez picked up another double play, and so did the usual trio of Janish-Gil-Votto. Good stuff.

Warriors 117, Mavericks 100

Whoops.

Well, you knew it had to happen. Against Golden State, though? I mean, the NAME of the team isn't even a place. It's not a city, it's not a state. It's a NICKNAME of a state. That blows. When everybody was counting this as the 18th win for the Mavs, they had to subtract 18 and leave it at 17. Time to start a new streak.

The loss really doesn't bother me. The only thing that bothers me is the number of points allowed, 117 is a ton of points. But all the rest is positive. I think it helps give the team some focus. I mean, they found a lot of stuff to talk about that didn't go well, but you win 17 in a row, even if you try really hard to nitpick and find things that went wrong, it's hard. On a subconscious level, you sort of tune that stuff out of your head. But now, with a sizeable loss, it makes it that much more tangible to fix some problems. And the Mavericks hardly have any problems, but they still need to keep winning, because God knows Phoenix and San Antonio still are.

Well, where to begin? The team that has given Dallas the most struggles lately has been the Warriors, oddly enough. Not the Kings, not the Spurs, not the Suns. Not even the Lakers anymore. It's the Warriors. Hard to figure that out, they just know what they're doing. Or Don Nelson, the old coach of the Mavs, has some insider tricks. Whatever it is, the Mavs better figure this team out, especially if they wind up with the #8 seed in the playoffs.

But, to the Warriors discredit, it was the Mavs that fell apart. I guess you can credit the defense of Golden State, but it was the Mavs' own ineptitude that did them in. A season-high 23 turnovers did not help matters, Nowitzki chipping in 7 of those. The Big 3 saw Jason Terry get 16 points and was clearly the best player on the floor. Nowitzki was well off, getting 13 points on 3/11 shooting. Josh Howard got 11 points. Devin Harris was pretty decent last night, matching Terry's points total with 16, but he was 5/13 with poor shot selection. Nobody really played all that well besides Terry, except Austin Croshere picked up a huge 13 rebounds! It was garbage time, but he was all over the trash can at least. Speaking of rebounds, the Mavs usually win when they out-rebound the other team. And they certainly did that, getting 50 rebounds (a season high) to the Warriors 28. Which is the largest margin of rebound differential, so, of course, the Mavs lose. What the?

Just look at the shooting, though. Poor shot selection or wise shot selection and poor shot, as the Mavs shot 42.3% and the defense was not up to the task at the other end as the Warriors shot 57.1%.

Oh well, the Mavs finally reached double-digit losses. Time to win again. HUGE GAME coming up tomorrow night vs. the Suns. We'll see what they're made of. Suns and Mavs, that is.