Posts tagged JonGarland at FanHouse

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

I don't know about most of you, but I know that I've grown tired of interleague play in baseball. When MLB implemented it, I loved it and I supported the move as a way to try and bring fans back to the game after the player's strike in 1994.

It's kind of like when you're in a new relationship with a girl and everytime you're hanging up the phone after talking to her you get into that "No I love you more!" debate. It's kind of cute and charming at first, but frankly, after a few months of it you're screaming at her "OKAY I GET IT! YOU LOVE ME MORE! SHUT THE [expletive] UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!"

I've reached that point with interleague play, and I'm ready to get back to some real baseball. Divisional baseball. The games that will actually play a part in deciding who is going to play in October, and who isn't. Three such matchups after the jump.

Our version of "fantasy start'em/sit'em" for one-start pitchers of the week. We hope you assume the Brandon Webbs are auto-starts and the Dave Bushes are auto-sits. Specific lineup questions? Email us!

Five Up

Chad Billingsley -- Only the Nationals have scored less runs in the NL than the Padres, and that ballpark is absolute rape on fly balls. That should help Billingsley, who is somewhat susceptible to the longball. He's been plagued by a lack of run support this season -- and that may continue with Randy Wolf on the opposite bump in that park -- but has been dealing of late. In his past five starts he's compiled a 1.97 ERA in 32 innings while striking out 31. Of course, he's only 2-1 in that stretch. Hopefully the Dodgers can push two across for him Wednesday night, because that should be enough.

Sean Gallagher -- The Braves offense is already much worse on the road, but now it appears Chipper -- the only Brave hitting better than .271 on the road thus far at .371 -- will likely miss the entire series at Wrigley. The young Gallagher has settled decently into the Cubs rotation, going 2-1 with a 3.06 ERA and 17/5 K/BB in 17+ innings during his last three starts.

When the White Sox traded for Orlando Cabrera this off-season, their was some questioning of the move amongst White Sox fans. The biggest problem most Sox fans had with it was that the team had sent it's most consistent starter over the previous few seasons, Jon Garland, to the Angels to get him. The other worrisome part of the trade was that Cabrera was entering the final year of his contract, so basically the Sox gave up their best pitcher for a guy they were probably only going to have for a season.

Well, Jon Garland is still Jon Garland for the Angels, but the Sox pitching staff has performed so well this season that losing him hasn't stung at all. Meanwhile Cabrera is acting like somebody who's more worried about his impending free agency than the fact that his team is in first place. There have already been two instances this season in which Orlando has called the press box to argue about errors that were attributed to him, once in Toronto and once at U.S. Cellular Field.

Never one to keep his opinion to himself, Ozzie Guillen had a little chat with his shortstop about such behavior.

''If things continue to happen, I'm not going to say we're going to have a problem, but I don't think it looks good to his teammates for him to worry about his numbers, especially the way we're playing,'' Guillen said Monday. ''I know I never did that. That's something the manager or coach should do. I'm not going to say don't call up to the box, but it looks kind of bad. When I played, we didn't worry about that. That was for someone else to look at and handle. But the bottom line in all this is whether we win or lose.

With the White Sox starting a four-game series against the Angels in Anaheim tonight, it marks the first time that Angels pitcher Jon Garland will have a chance to face his former team. Garland is scheduled to start against the Sox on Thursday (a day after John Lackey makes his first start of the season), but instead of asking Jon about that, all anybody really wanted to know was how he felt about playing for Ozzie Guillen.

Garland probably had the best approach of anyone in the White Sox clubhouse. Ignore him.

"I'm not surprised by [Guillen's latest antics]," Garland said. "He goes off on something every year. He knows what he's doing. He feeds it."

"For me as a pitcher, it was easy to just tune it out. I didn't deal with him. I worked with Coop (White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper). I knew what was going on.

"I knew there was always something getting stirred up. But I just went about my business and worked with Coop."

It's not exactly a shock that one of Guillen's former players probably wasn't his biggest fan, as even though he never came out and said it, it was somewhat obvious that Garland was never a big fan of Ozzie while he was in Chicago. They once got into it in the dugout when Garland failed to plunk a batter after Ozzie gave him the order too, and Jon's laid-back attitude and approach to life just doesn't mesh well with the manic Guillen.

Still, that being said, Garland still supported Ozzie and the White Sox when asked about the whole blow-up doll incident. Garland feels that whatever happens in the clubhouse should stay in the clubhouse, and that "if you don't like what you see, you don't need to be in here."

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (16-10) vs. Oakland Athletics (16-10) - 10:05PM Est.

The fact that the Angels and Athletics are fighting for the top spot in the AL West isn't exactly a new experience. I mean, they've been doing it for just about the entire 21st century but they weren't supposed to be doing it this season. No, the AL West this season was supposed to be a two-horse race between the Angels and Mariners while the Athletics were supposed to be mired in a rebuilding process and battling with the Rangers for third place.

Yet here we are nearly finished with the first month of the regular season, and Oakland is tied with Los Angeles for the best record in the American League. To make it even more surprising, they're doing it without Eric Chavez and Rich Harden.

Just what the hell is going on here?

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Los Angeles Angels (12-9) at Boston Red Sox (15-7)- 7:05 PM ET
I swear these teams have met like 100 years in a row in the playoffs (OK, it's like twice, or three times, I can't remember), which makes this regular season match up all the more interesting. Well, that and most of the other games tonight are crap.

Tonight's game is interesting because of the pitching matchup between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Garland. Dice-K's cruising so far at 4-0 with 28 strikeouts in 28 and 2/3 innings and a 3.14 ERA. It makes me wish I told more people about my pre-season premonition that he was going to break out and challenge for the Cy Young this year, but what can I say, I don't like it when people laugh at me. Garland was the Angels big off-season acquisition and with all eyes turned towards him in hopes that he could step up in the absence of Kelvim Escobar and John Lackey, he's been pretty bad, turning in a 4.81 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. The Angels will need him to step it up if they want to avoid the ignominy of losing the division to a team that traded away it's best hitter and pitcher in the off-season.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

St. Louis Cardinals (11-4) vs. Milwaukee Brewers (8-6) - 1:15PM Est.

Okay, a quick raise of hands: How many of you thought that the Cardinals were going to start the season in first place of the NL Central and tied for the best record in all of baseball? LIARS! ALL OF YOU! Nobody saw this coming from the Redbirds, and honestly, I still don't actually believe it's happening. The next thing you'll tell me is that the Marlins are in first place in the NL East, and that the White Sox and Royals are battling atop the AL Central while the Tigers and Indians jockey for position in the basement.

The Cardinals are not only sitting alone atop the division right now, but they're on the cusp of finishing a three-game sweep of the Brewers. They'll be looking to Kyle Lohse to finish the sweep, and considering that Lohse was a pitcher seemingly nobody wanted, and the Cardinals signed out of nothing more than desperation, he's paying off pretty damn nicely for them. He's 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA in three games so far, and didn't give up his first run of the season until his last start against the Giants. He's only 3-3 with a 5.66 ERA in his career against Milwaukee, but in his last three appearances against this current version of the Brew Crew he's 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA.

Manny Parra goes for the Brewers, and although he made two starts against the Cardinals last year he never picked up a decision. He probably wouldn't mind if Prince Fielder ate a cheeseburger or four before the game either, as we still await our favorite vegetarian's first home run of the season.

If you just look at his numbers so far on the season, you probably don't see anything wrong with Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez. In three appearances so far, K-Rod has thrown three innings and allowed only one hit and no runs as he picked up all three save opportunities.

If you look a little closer at Francisco's performances, though, you notice that he's already walked three batters, and that half of the pitches he's thrown have been for balls. The reason for it? Well, K-Rod, like many other Angels pitchers at the moment, is hurting.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez, bothered since last season by a sore left ankle, grimaced repeatedly and appeared to be hobbling during a shaky 19-pitch save Friday. And Manager Mike Scioscia said the pain is now coming from his right ankle, the one he uses to push off the mound.

"He tweaked it a couple of days ago, and we're going to look at it closely," Scioscia said. "But it is a little sore."

Rodriguez says he could have pitched on Sunday had he been needed, but fortunately for him Jon Garland decided to get rocked so Frankie could have the day off. I don't think Rodriguez's sore ankle will turn into a big deal, but considering it's the ankle he uses to push off the mound with, the Angels might be better served to give him a few days off and hope it heals.

Of course, it's a lot easier to say that then do it when they're already without Scot Shields and Chris Bootcheck in the bullpen.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

New York Yankees (0-0) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (0-0) - 7:05PM Est.

The Yankees wanted to kick off the final season at Yankee Stadium yesterday, but ol' Mother Nature wouldn't play along, as she instead chose to try and flood the city of New York on Monday. So that means for Yankees and Blue Jays fans opening day is today, as the two teams try and do it all over again. Aside from the significance of this being the last opening day in Yankee Stadium history, it's also the first time the Yankees will be playing a game at the stadium without Joe Torre in the dugout in 13 years. For the Blue Jays, they've kinda become a darkhorse pick in the AL East this season, and a win tonight against a division powerhouse like the Yankees would be a nice way to start off the season. Both of yesterday's scheduled starters, Chien-Ming Wang and Roy Halladay, will be making the start tonight. Wang will try to put his playoff collapse behind him, but he's not going against a team he's enjoyed much success against. In three starts against Toronto last season, Wang went 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA. Roy Halladay on the other hand is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.77 in his last eight starts against the Bombers, suffering his last loss on September 21st, 2004.

"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.

There was a time when Jose Contreras was probably the best pitcher in all of baseball. For a 12-month period between the 2005 All-Star break through the 2006 All-Star break, Conteras couldn't lose. Literally. He went 17-0 during that span.

Ever since then, though, Jose has been atrocious. Since July 14, 2006, Jose is 14-26, finishing the 2007 season with a record of 10-17 and an ERA of 5.57. Not surprisingly, Jose's slide coincides directly with the slide of the White Sox.

So as the Sox enter the 2008 season with hopes and delusions of competing with the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians in the AL Central, they need Jose Contreras back. Since they sent Jon Garland to the Angels for Orlando Cabrera, there's quite a large void left in the starting rotation. Mark Buehrle and Javier Vazquez are the only two pitchers Chicago has that can be considered reliable. After that it's Contreras, John Danks, and Gavin Floyd.

Danks showed promise last season, but quickly burned out under the heaviest workload of his young career, and anybody who has seen Gavin Floyd pitch knows he's not going to be in the rotation very long. So if the White Sox are going to have any chance of competing for a playoff spot, Jose Contreras is going to have carry the back load of the rotation.

Given the fact that Jose has exhibited the mental strength of a toasted marshmallow in his career, I highly doubt it's going to happen.