Kuzul

1) Dallas Braden Oak

9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, Win and 0.00 ERA

Dallas Braden tossed only the 19th perfect game in major league baseball history on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Braden is only 63 percent owned in most fantasy leagues actually saw his ownership decrease 8.4 percent.

His 8.4 percent drop rate is likely due to losing his last two starts prior to this week’s perfect game.

Braden currently holds a 4-2 record with twenty-eight strike outs and a 3.33 ERA this season.

2) Jamie Moyer Phi

9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, Win and 0.00 ERA.

Moyer is the oldest player in major league history to record a shutout.

His ownership stock however didn’t rise with his accomplishment as he is only owned by 3 percent and saw a 1.7 percent increase.

3) Jered Weaver LAA

7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, Win and 0.00 ERA

Weaver flirted with a no-hitter until it was broken up by Ken Griffey Jr. in the seventh inning.

Weaver’s stock has gone up considerably since the start of the 2010 season.

He has a 4-1 record, forty-seven strike outs, and a 2.66 ERA for the season.

4) Jon Garland SD

7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, Win and 0.00 ERA.

Garland had a stellar outing making this victory his third straight win.

The San Diego pitcher has a 4-2 record, twenty-five strike outs, and has a 1.71 ERA overall this season

Garland is 56 percent owned and saw a giant jump in ownership with 37 percent increase.

5) Brian Burres Pit

7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, Win and 0.00 ERA,

The Pittsburgh pitcher looks to have earned the fifth spot on the Pirates’ rotation with two impressive outings.

Zero percent ownership is an indication that no one has noticed his recent success. Burres is a risk to pick-up from the free agency due to a high ERA history.

6) David Price TB

7.2 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 6 K, Win, and 0.00 ERA

Price’s overall season has been top notch with a 4-1 record, thirty-three strikeouts, and a 1.91 ERA.

7) Mat Latos SD

8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 9 K, Win, and 0.00 ERA

Latos has a 2-3 record, twenty-six, and a 4.19 overall this season, but it looks like he is turning it around.

Latos is 52 percent owned and saw a 1.5 percent increase with this week’s production.

8) Ubaldo Jimenez Col

7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, Loss, and 1.29 ERA

This week Jimenez was given a loss despite only allowing two hits and one run. His performance on the mound was as good as any this season regardless of the Rockies inability to provide run support.

There isn’t anyone hotter than Ubaldo Jimenez. In April he has been a highlight reel.

This season he has a 6-1 record, 49 strike outs, and a .093 ERA.

He has been dominant and threw the first no-hitter in Colorado history on April 17th .

9) Jon Lester Bos

15 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 12 K, 2 Wins, AND 1.80 ERA

The Boston hurler put in two starts this week and when the dust settled he appeared to be the only reliable Red Sox starter to date.

Lester put in 15 innings on the hill and looked impressive against the Yankees.

10) Adam Wainwright StL

14.0 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 13 ER, Win, AND 1.93 ERA

Wainwright battled with Cole Hamels last week which resulted with a no-decision after an impressive outing.

He earned his fifth win this week giving him a 5-1 overall record with 43 strikeouts and a 2.08 ERA.

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We thought the war of words from Dallas Braden and Alex Rodriguez was a one-time deal. It took a place when that game at Oakland in a few weeks ago ended.

The day after that game, the Yankees carried it on by ripping Braden. Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia called Braden out for being a whiner and a journeyman.

That inspired Braden to call out Rodriguez in an interview on CSN California.com last Thursday.

Rodriguez and Sabathia kept it going by insulting Braden for doing nothing in the majors. Rodriguez talked about not prolonging Braden’s 15 minutes of fame while Sabathia called him stupid basically.

Braden responded by throwing a perfect game Sunday afternoon against the Rays. It was the biggest moment of his career. This was in honor of his late mother on Mother’s Day.

Several Yankees privately mocked Braden for his accomplishment. Most of the Yankees that spoke was disingenuous at best.

Meanwhile, Braden’s grandmother told Rodriguez to go stick it.

From what we learned out of this, it’s stupid to see both parties carry on.

It’s easy to go rip Braden. He deserves it. He shouldn’t have talked the second time around, and he was better off taking care of matters the next time he faced Rodriguez instead of rambling on.

With that said, let’s not make the Yankees look professional in this. They’re not.

It’s funny people use the Yankees for being the voice of reason. How are they any different as Braden? Why is it okay for the Yankees to mouth off while Braden needs to keep his mouth shut?

The double standard is amusing, yet pathetic.

The Yankees are a veteran team. Their players don’t need to respond to a young player losing his self-control. They should be laughing at him privately.

There’s no need to worry about him. That team has other issues to worry about. They can start by praying there’s no more injuries. They also have to hope the Rays don’t continue to win every series.

The A’s are not going to be a factor this season. They will finish the season in last place.

This comes down to the Yankees displaying arrogance. They need to show people that they are above anyone else, and they can talk whenever they want being the World Series champions they are.

This team rubbed this critc the wrong way going back to last year. They whine about everything whether it’s getting hit by pitch or someone demeaning them. It starts with their manager, and it rubs off on every player.

It’s hard to believe Girardi meant well when he praised Braden. It came off disingenuous. From listening to him talk about it to the media, it sounded forced at best.

He did not seem comfortable talking about it. He should have spared people, and not even comment.

This is a manager that did not even bother watching the game. He was watching the Celtics play the Cavaliers at the time that game was on.

Girardi likes to talk about how he has no hard feelings. That’s brunch of crock.

This know-it-all manager acts like he invents the game. He takes things too personally. He voices his opinion about what the other teams should do. He creates feuds with other managers.

This is a guy that talks about protecting his team. He believes in taking care of unfinished business if some player plays the game dirty.

Girardi thought Teixeira knocking down Bobby Wilson was a good thing. This was in response to his hitter being plunked by Ervin Santana few weeks ago.

He should stop making all of us laugh when he says there’s no hard feelings, especially when a manager likes to use bulletin board material to get his team fired up.

Rodriguez continues to not keep his mouth shut. He took a shot at Braden again on Sunday. He mentioned how a player should be recognized for what he did on the field.

Why the Yankees star brought that statement up? We rip Braden for carrying on, but Rodriguez comes off as a chump.

It wasn’t just Rodriguez and Girardi that look bad. A.J. Burnett’s comments about Braden’s grandmother being on the mound came off petty at best.

An unnamed Yankee mocked Braden about good things happening to good people. It’s a good bet that Sabathia was the unnamed Yankee. That’s a guy that loves the sound of his voice.

Based on reading how the Yankees conducted themselves in the paper, they’re no better than Braden.

It’s funny the Mike Vaccaroes of the world pontificate Braden for being a nuisance, yet he paints the Yankees in a different light.

Then again, the press corps here tend to admire the Yankees. It shouldn’t be surprising to see Yankee propaganda in our dallies during the baseball season.

For this gentlemen, he is tired and fed up with this.

It would be nice if a sportswriter actually had the courage to call out the Yankees for this.

After all, they are being paid to be objective not to be cheerleaders.

The Yankees are a great ballclub that use their money well to buy players. Give them credit for that.

Just don’t say that team approach themselves in a professional manner.

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After the Oakland Raiders traded for the Washington Redskins’ Jason Campbell, the speculation in the swirling rumors of JaMarcus Russell’s imminent demise was replaced with inevitability.

The big man with the even bigger contract was due $9.45 million in the upcoming season and, by all accounts, nothing about the kid warranted rolling the dice when that kind of money was at stake.

And so the axe fell on May 6th, putting Russell firmly in the running for the title of Biggest Bust in the History of the National Football League.

That’s gotta sting.

The news has been fodder for numerous punchlines and snicker-inducing jabs around the country, but it’s not creating as many laughs in the Bay Area. The city across the Bay from the City is, shall we say, displeased.

So, to hopefully lighten the mood of some very disgruntled Oaktown residents and fans (or at least to give them an outlet for anger), I thought it’d be fun to bring the 510’s success story into the fray—the Oakland Athletics.

More than a few Major League Baseball players have been former college quarterbacks so what if the A’s starting pitchers traded rawhide for pigskin?

What current NFL signal-caller does each mound maestro most closely resemble?

Obviously, we’re not talking looks here—I’m a heterosexual man and everyone knows we don’t make aesthetic distinctions when it comes to our fellow fellas. This is strictly about a mix of on-air personality, body of work, age, and a healthy dose of gray area for the sake of convenience.

Or idiocy—you decide…

Begin Slideshow

In front of dozens of Oakland Athletics fans at the Coliseum, Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in MLB history and second in team history Sunday.

Afterward, Braden was a little annoyed when his teammates ran across the mound to celebrate with him. He attempted to put a velvet rope around the mound before celebrating but was unable to stop his teammates from getting through.

“Stay the f$%k off my mound!” Braden yelled. “Go around and come hug me.”

Thankfully, Braden was able to put his grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, in a hold before she was able to step on the mound, avoiding what could have been a disaster.

“I’m glad I was able to bear-hug her before she stepped on my mound,” Braden said. “I’m not sure I would have been able to forgive her if she did that. Things could have gotten ugly.”

Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki refuses to even step on the dirt when coming to talk to Braden.

“The last time I did that…well, let’s just say this may or may not have been from Braden spearing me,” Suzuki said, motioning to the bandages around his midsection while sitting in front of his locker.

Suzuki has missed the last two weeks with a “ribcage strain.”

Braden is pushing for any mound he pitches from to be removed after each inning he pitches. This would make it so opposing pitchers, catchers, and managers couldn’t step on the mound he was pitching from.

“It’s my mound, dammit,” Braden said. “No one else’s; mine, mine, mine.”

Braden has refused to allow the mound from his perfect game to be sent to Cooperstown to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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We knew Dallas Braden was good. We knew he was tough. We knew he had a bit of fight in him. But just how good he could be was simply astonishing. Who knew he could be perfect?

27 up, and 27 down.

On a perfect Mother’s Day, you really couldn’t ask for more. Sure Braden got some really good help from Kevin Kouzmanoff, and the rest of the Oakland A’s defense, but as Dallas said after the A-Rod debacle “I don’t care if I’m Cy Young or if I’m the 25th man on the roster, if I’ve got that ball in my hand and I’m out there on that mound, that’s not your mound. If you want to run across the mound, go run laps in the bullpen. That’s my mound.”

It certainly was his mound Sunday. As if every pink bat, arm band, and ribbon fired him up; Braden retired batter after batter with spot-on location on each and every throw. Dallas, for the day, was simply un-hittable.

The team refused to let him down too. Kevin Kouzmanoff made several great plays: he snagged a slicer at the third-base line, followed a foul ball into the dugout, and hit a splitting Daric Barton on first after scooping up an exceptionally tough grounder.

Barton would also quickly glove a potential hit in the ninth.  Rajai Davis, Ryan Sweeney, and Eric Patterson devoured everything that came their way in the out field. Cliff Pennington and Adam Rosales walled off the middle infield. And, of course, catcher Landon Powell called an exceptional game.

A whopping 12,228 fans showed up to witness the historic Mother’s Day marvel.

I sense more fan attendance in the A’s future, especially when Braden pitches. I sense jersey sales increasing. I sense a contract extension for a future franchise player.

This guy’s for real, and these A’s are for real.

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When Alex Rodriguez “walked on Dallas Braden’s pitching mound,” Mr. Braden took umbrage because A-Rod broke an unwritten rule. The mound belongs to the pitcher.

Alex responded by referring to Dallas’ handful of wins.

A few days ago, Alex claimed he was not making any more comments because he didn’t want to add any more time to the left-handed pitcher’s 15-minutes of fame.

Alex Rodriguez will probably finish his career with more home runs than Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron, but there is only way that A-Rod can top what Dallas Braden achieved on May 9, 2009.

Nineteen pitchers have pitched perfect games. Dallas Braden is one of them. There are few things in baseball that are more difficult to achieve, and they are not always achieved by the greatest.

Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, and Catfish Hunter have tossed perfect games, but so have Don Larsen, Kenny Rogers, and Mike Witt.

After his perfect game, which was only his 18th career win, Braden spoke.

“Pretty cool,” Braden told reporters in Oakland. “I don’t know what to think about it just yet. There’s definitely a select group. I’d like to have a career more than today.”

Pitching a perfect game and striking out at least 20 batters are probably the most difficult single-game pitching achievements.

Alex Rodriguez will never pitch a perfect game, nor will he ever strike out at least 20 batters in a game.

However, there are two accomplishments that are more rare than even a perfect game that would allow Alex to get to Braden’s level.

Only 15 players have made an unassisted triple play. Of course, that doesn’t compare to pitching a perfect game, since it is a freak play, but there is a play on offense that might be greater than a perfect game.

Only 15 batters have hit four home runs in a game, which may be more difficult for a hitter than pitching a perfect game is for a pitcher. As with perfect games, not all players who hit four home runs in a game were great hitters.

Lou Gehrig, Willie, and Mike Schmidt have done it, but so too have Mike Cameron, Mark Whiten, and Shawn Green.

A-Rod is one of the great players in the game’s history, but he admitted that he used steroids for a three-year period beginning in 2001. Using performance-enhancing drugs is not good.

No one knows if Dallas Braden will become an effective major league pitcher. There is little chance that his ranking among pitchers will come close to A-Rod’s ranking among batters, but when discussing single-game achievements, Alex isn’t even close.

References:

Dallas Braden Perfect Game

Baseball Almanac

A-Rod Admits Steroid Use at ESPN

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“I really don’t want to extend his extra 15 minutes of fame.”

So said Alex Rodriguez on Friday night, when asked about Dallas Braden’s comments on the unwritten rule of baseball that A-Rod supposedly broke when he ran across Braden’s mound during an A’s vs. Yankees game.

A-Rod wasn’t alone when it came to the cheap shots.

On Pardon the Interruption last week, Michael Wilbon asked J.A. Adande, “Is this a feud you could really care about?”

“No,” Adande responded,  “Because who’s Braden?”

Then, on Sunday, Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game—only the 19^th in baseball history. The MLB has been in existence since 1869, and as I have just completed my AP U.S. history exam, I can tell you with confidence that 1869 was four years after the conclusion of the Civil War.

To put that in perspective, the mother whom you just gave gifts to for mothers day wasn’t born yet, nor was her mother, nor was her mother. There was no basketball, no highways, no iPods, and no XBOX 360.

Crazy stuff.

Braden didn’t pitch a perfect game against mediocre teams such as the Kansas City Royals or the Pittsburgh Pirates either. He accomplished the feat versus the Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the best record in all the majors.

Let’s be honest though. The majority of baseball fans are only happy Braden accomplished the perfect game and took revenge against Rodriguez because A-Rod is on the Yankees, also known as the evil, empirical, revenue-sucking team that is set to appear on ESPN from now until eternity.

If this feud had started between Braden and an average batter on a sub par squad, that story would’ve ended long ago. Heck, no one would even remember why Braden decided to bean the guy the next time they faced off. But that’s what makes this story so unique.

Before Sunday, Dallas Braden was just another pitcher (albeit with a cool name) trying to establish himself as a legitimate threat to opposing batters. He was destined to play for the next six or seven years, peak at age 30, and retire with plenty of interesting stories to tell his grandsons someday.

After Sunday, Braden became something more. He will forever have a place in baseball history, joining an elite list of pitchers who, for one magical, logic-defying day, literally wouldn’t accept anything less than perfection.

And here’s my crazy theory: Braden’s blowup with A-Rod triggered a mental makeover that led to his performance. He wanted to show he was something more than a punch line for sports talkers across the radio waves. He wanted to extend his “15 minutes of fame” indefinitely, and in the process, shut up one of the greatest ball players to ever play the game.

Maybe someday his gem will be looked back on as completely out-of-the-blue, lucky, and an aberration on the list of other perfectionist pitchers. Or maybe Braden’s greatness is here to stay. I predict it’s the latter.

One thing’s for certain: the phrase to be uttered for the next week across every sports talk station, every sports-oriented TV show, and every water cooler conversation will be along the lines of, “I was wrong about Braden.”

“We don’t do much talking in the 209 [Braden’s area code growing up].” That was Dallas Braden’s conclusion to his war of words with Alex Rodriguez at the end of last week. We laughed it off. A-Rod laughed it off. Bud Selig probably laughed it off. But in a strange turn of events, Braden was right—he let his game do the talking. Guess he gets the last laugh now.

For those of you scoring at home, Dallas Braden—1 Alex Rodriguez and America—0.

Note: I feel especially involved in the craziness of Dallas’s perfect game, because I added Braden to my fantasy baseball team 30 minutes before his start on Sunday. I don’t know what made me do it, but I feel pretty darn smart.

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OAKLAND, Calif. Sometimes, things have a way of working out perfectly.

The often-overlooked Oakland Athletics took on the Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the best record in baseball, in the rubber match of the three-game series. Dallas Braden was Oakland’s starting pitcher, it was Mother’s Day, it was the first game of the Dallas Braden 209 promotion, and Braden’s grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, sat in attendance along with 30 of his closest childhood friends.

As if it was not by chance, but by fate, Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in MLB history in the A’s 4-0 victory over the Rays.

“It’s pretty special. I don’t really know what to think of it yet. It’s still very fresh to me,” Braden said. “It’s some very select company and also if you look at those guys, the body of work that those other 18 individuals put together is something I probably would like to have—a little more than just this one day. There’s definitely more to do.”

(continue)

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In “The 209” they call that pitchin’.

The days leading up to Oakland A’s pitcher Dallas Braden’s perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday—the 19th in MLB history and the first for Oakland since Catfish’s 42 years ago—sure had its fair share of talkin’.

The New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez said he didn’t want to extend Braden’s “15 minutes” after continued questions and jawing about the controversy regarding the two players’ baseball etiquette dust-up (mound dirt-up?) last month.

ESPN columnist J.A. Adande essentially called him a nobody on the World Wide Leader’s flagship yammering sports columnist show, “Pardon The Interruption.”

In his interview with Comcast Sports Bay Area’s Mychael Urban four days ago, which re-ignited the A-Rod controversy, Braden said, “We don’t do much talking in the 209.”

Well, today the 26-year-old Stockton native indeed did some walkin’. The best team in baseball, meanwhile, did no walkin’ or hittin’ whatsoever.

In a scenario that would be sappier than a Sandra Bullock movie if it were indeed scripted, Braden accomplished that rarest of baseball feats in front of his grandmother and other family and friends, who were, of course, sitting in Section 209.

The same grandmother who raised Braden after Braden’s mother died of skin cancer while he was still in high school.

Major League Baseball annually raises awareness and money for breast cancer.

Oh yeah, it was also Mother’s Day.

Is it getting dusty yet?

When such moments happen in sports—in real life—they are transcendent. For all those athletes who either disappoint us on the field, or worse, off of it (*cough*Lawrence Taylor*cough*), a story like Braden’s come along to redeem your faith in the enterprise of being a fan.

Hell, maybe it even redeems your faith in humanity and its ability to not only endure, but prevail.

You sit through all those days at the ballpark or arena, watching a disheartening product on the field or court (and, trust me, the A’s have had many of those days the last few years), waiting for a day just like today, one that so overpowers your heart that the long, numbing days you put in to get to that moment fade away and become a distant, irrelevant memory. 

Even putting aside the compelling emotional element of Braden’s accomplishment, his perfecto couldn’t come at a better time. It might be the most important moment for the Oakland Athletics in the Billy Beane Era, bigger even than the record 20-game winning streak in 2002.

A dramatic, top-of-the fold baseball story is just what the Oakland ballclub needs right now. Attendance has petered out to pathetic lows (12,228 was the announced attendance for what would was a lovely day to take mom to the ballpark and, without knowing it, watch history unfold before your eyes).

The A’s are overshadowed by the more successful team across the Bay and winning playoff puck in San Jose. Speaking of San Jose, the Silicon Valley, a Web 2.0 cash-flush suitor, is getting ready to swipe the local professional baseball team away from working-class Oakland, and ownership appears more than happy to give it to them.

In a way, Braden’s comments, perhaps provoked by headline-hungry media, have been valuable in bringing back the rivalry the Yankees and Athletics began to enjoy early last decade. As the A’s playoff appearances dwindled in the latter part of the decade, it was left to teams like the Minnesota Twins and those very same Rays to be the standard bearers for small-market baseball.

Today, though, Braden won another one for the little guy. Maybe, just maybe, that’s enough to develop some momentum that will somehow keep the team in Oakland. Even if that’s a Bay Bridge too far, Braden gave the 510 a late, great memory to take away, courtesy of the 209.

The 12,228 fans at the Coliseum and countless more watching and listening to the game at home can tell their children and grandchildren about the one Mother’s Day when they saw Dallas Braden shut up, put up and simply be perfect. Stockton’s young Dallas showed his arm was equal to the task of his mouth.

27 pinks bats came up. 27 pink bats went down.

Wouldn’t mama be proud?

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Mothers Day was truly happy for A’s SP Dallas Braden.  In his seventh start of the season Braden threw an impressive Perfect Game. What makes his Perfect Game even more spectacular was that he threw it against one of the best hitting teams in the MLB, the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the game against the Rays, Braden completely shut them down. He retired all 27 batters very quickly and rarely had any threats to stopping his perfect game. The only out that was close to a hit was Jason Bartlett’s liner that started the game off for the Rays. Braden than completely closed the door on the game and finished off with six strikeouts and 77 strikes, throughout the game. To end the game, Rays OF Gabe Kapler grounded out to SS Cliff Pennington.

For Braden, this game meant more to him than the Perfect Game he is now known for. Braden was more joyous for the fact that he threw the Perfect Game on Mothers Day. Braden threw this game in honor of his late mother, Jodie Atwood, who died of Cancer when Braden was a high school senior. Jodie Atwood was also the person who Braden pointed up to the sky for, after the game.  

This was also a great family moment for Braden because his grandmother was on-hand to celebrate and watch her grandson throw perfection. His grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, was the woman who raised Braden after his mothers passing away and always has been there to help Braden throughout his life. She was also the first person who Braden looked for after celebrating the historic feat with his teammates.

Before he threw the Perfect Game, Braden was not too well known among baseball fans, but was known for the incident between himself and Alex Rodriguez. On April 22nd, Braden and Rodriguez got into a heated argument when Rodriguez cut across the mound, to get back to first base after making it to third base on the play before. Braden and Rodriguez then went at each other by screaming and Braden eventually got his temper back together and finished off the game with a 4-2 win.

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