Well, my Blanton Fast worked, as he rattled off three straight quality starts as soon as I started it. The Blanton Fast is now over.
Seems like a good time to look at the A’s quality start numbers. If you want to see why the A’s have been hot in June, this chart pretty much explains it:
Quality Start Chart
Pitcher April May June Total Zito 2/5 6/6 3/5 11/16 Haren 2/5 4/6 4/5 10/16 Blanton 2/5 3/6 3/4 8/15 Saarloos 0/0 1/5 3/3 4/ 8 Loaiza 1/4 0/0 2/4 3/ 8 Harden 2/5 0/0 0/1 2/ 6 Halsey 0/0 1/6 0/0 1/ 6 Team QS 9/24 15/29 15/22 39/75 Team QS% .375 .517 .681 .520 Team wins 12/24 12/29 17/22 41/75 Wins-QS +3 -3 +2 +2
The entire rotation is performing much better in June, and as a consequence, so is the whole team. All those quality starts in June has enabled the team to hide the fact that the bullpen is still not very deep from all the injuries.
So now that Blanton is repaired, who should I fast now? I’m thinking Eric Chavez. The guy is clearly playing injured. He’s swinging right through all kinds of hittable pitches. It’s probably painful for him to hit, and it’s definitely painful for me to watch. I’m not watching him hit again until he comes up with a multi-hit game which includes at least one extra-base hit.
1. What is your Quality Fast ratio?
2. Well, if we define a Quality Fast as one that lasts less than a month, then my QF percentage is 66.7%.
3. Wow that's similar to June A's.
4. How about an Oakland A's fast? You don't watch them again until they get past the 1st round of the playoffs.
Kind of tough on you, no doubt, but given your obvious powers, how can you not make that sacrifice for the team? And think of what you could do with all the time that frees up.
Meanwhile, this really could become a cooking blog.
5. The playoff failures have nothing to do with me. For the playoffs, we need people named "Buck" to avoid watching them.
There is something to be said, however, for the fact that the A's get hot in the summer right around the time I take a vacation and don't get to watch them for awhile. So good news: there are good times ahead soon.
6. Which reminds me, the news that Fox would only broadcast the World Series is nothing but great news for the A's. That means there would be no Joe Buck broadcasting A's playoff games until the World Series.
7. Loaiza is actually at 3 / 8 total, not 2 / 4. Not a big difference in the ratios...
8. Oops, thanks, Balco...fixed it.