Bloomberg Sports on Gordon Beckham

Gardner:

Beckham is being less selective at the plate this season. His strikeout rate has risen from 17.2% to 20.1% and his walk rate has fallen from 9.5% to 7.1%. That’s largely due to the fact that he’s swinging at pitches outside the strike zone with greater frequency lately. Last year, he was swinging at 25% of pitches outside the zone. This year, it’s up to 31%.

Still, poor luck has also contributed to a miserable average. His line drive rate is roughly similar to last year, yet he’s hitting just .250 on balls hit into play. According to a calculation of Beckham’s xBABIP, it should be .303, offering hope we might see positive movement in Beckham’s batting average going forward.

Chris Sale makes his professional debut and Terry Doyle throws 7 K

Scoreboard:

Winston-Salem
Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Doyle (W, 4-3)	7.0	3	2	1	1	7	1	3.49
Sale (H, 1)	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.00
Bellamy (S, 4)	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1.28

From the play-by-play:

Potomac Top 8th

• Pitcher Change: Chris Sale replaces Terry Doyle.
• Jose Lozada pops out to shortstop Eduardo Escobar.
• Chris Curran grounds out, pitcher Chris Sale to first baseman Seth Loman.
• Josh Johnson walks.
• Stephen Lombardozzi grounds out, second baseman Andrew Garcia to first baseman Seth Loman.

And Handel @ News-Press:

“It was nuts,” Sale said. “It was awesome. I was warming up in the bullpen and getting anxious and nervous and all that stuff. After that first warmup pitch, I said, ‘It’s go time. Let’s get it going.’ “Pitching before more fans in one game than he did all this season at FGCU, Sale said his goal was to keep the ball low. “When I first got here, I was trying to throw the ball real hard,” he said.

“They said, ‘It’s not how hard to you throw anymore. Put it in the spot you want. When we got in a simulated game, I got over excited and threw as hard as I could and I got hit around. So again, they said, ‘Hey, you got good stuff, put it where you want to.’ “

A first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox, Sale threw 15 pitches in his pro debut. He walked one and struck out none. His fastball ranged between 93 and 94 mph.

Are the Sox in the mix?

Heyman @ SI:

Much of the attention this trading season, and rightfully so, will be on Mariners’ left-handed starter Cliff Lee, and competing teams now say they believe trade talks involving the Seattle star are starting to heat up. One GM estimated “12 to 15 teams” will show interest, and not just the teams that are mentioned most often right now, like the Twins, Mets, Yankees, Rangers, Angels, Cardinals and Dodgers. It also appears the Rays and Phillies are in the mix.

Kenny: no comment.

Draft pick stats: OF Michael Earley (29th round), LHP Robert Young (31st round)

Pick	Round	Player	School	Pos	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	Class
878	29	Earley, Michael	Indiana U	OF	R/R	6’00″	192	1988-03-15	JR
938	31	Young, Robert	Dartmouth Col	LHP	L/L	6’03″	230	1988-06-20	SR

Stats:

OF Michael Earley (29th round):

Year	avg	gp-gs	ab	r	h	2b	3b	hr	rbi	tb	slg%	bb	hbp	so	gdp	ob%	sf	sh	sb-att	po	a	e	fld%
2010	.352	51-49	193	50	68	8	2	13	40	119	.617	20	11	22	1	.442	0	1	15-19	74	3	2	.975
2009	.276	30-10	58	12	16	2	1	1	11	23	.397	2	4	7	4	.344	0	2	4-4	25	3	1	.966
2008	.318	49-34	129	26	41	7	1	4	21	62	.481	12	15	26	2	.436	0	4	4-6	2	0	0	1.000
2007	.320	33-30	97	21	31	6	0	5	15	52	.536	19	3	20	0	.434	3	1	0-3	8	16	4	.857

LHP Robert Young (31st round):

Year	era	w-l	app	gs	cg	sho	sv	ip	h	r	er	bb	so	2b	3b	hr	bf	bavg	wp	hbp	bk	sfa	sha
2007	6.06	1-7	10	7	2	0/0	0	49.0	69	40	33	10	25	20	1	4	227	.333	2	2	0	4	4
2008	5.27	4-2	10	9	2	0/0	0	56.1	83	40	33	8	38	13	2	9	258	.346	1	5	0	0	5
2009	4.63	5-4	12	11	3	0/0	0	68.0	81	39	35	22	42	23	3	3	297	.318	3	11	0	3	6
2010	7.46	3-5	13	11	3	1/0	1	60.1	100	54	50	11	41	22	2	9	289	.376	0	5	0	3	4
TOTAL	5.82	13-18	45	38	10	1/0	1	233.2	333	173	151	51	146	78	8	25	1071	.344	6	23	0	10	19

Smells Like Mascot: Rally Time!

Carl’s latest (Bulls):

http://www.smellslikemascot.com/2010/07/rally-time.html