Maddux Sports Blog

I can’t wait to see Tim Wakefield pitch in the all-star game. He’s a pleasure to watch, and he deserves to be there for the first time. There isn’t a high profile knuckleballer in the NL right now, so it could be fun to see some of these big guys facing a knuckleballer – perhaps for the first time ever. It’s the little stories like this that have to be relied upon to make the all-star game interesting, because as a whole it’s not a great event in my eyes.

(more…)

I was sad to see yesterday that Dontrelle Willis was held out of his next start. Nobody is saying it, but you have to imagine that it will be very hard for him to find his way back into the rotation. He showed some promise in his early starts, but he’s been getting increasingly ineffective since then. He’s clearly not a major league pitcher at this point. It never fails to amaze me to see a guy totally lose his game like that. It’s like what has happened with Fausto Carmona – a couple of years ago he was the next big thing, and now he’s toiling down in class A.

(more…)

I spent most of the morning watching the British Open. It was fascinating, and not much else is going on in the sports world right now, so I thought I would share what is sticking out in my mind halfway through the tournament.

(more…)

The Dodgers look to have a live arm to help with the problems at the bottom of their rotation. They rushed their next phenom, Clayton Kershaw, into the lineup straight from Double-A on Sunday. They needed his arm because they have no others – they cut Esteban Loaiza on Saturday because he couldn’t get it done anymore, and they hadn’t found anyone better. They are pretty desperate right now, too – they play 17 straight without a rest, so they will need five arms to keep the Diamondbacks within sight. Kershaw was the first high schooler chosen in the 2006 draft when he went to the Dodgers seventh overall. He was the national player of the year as a high school senior. The 20 year old was 0-3 in Double-A, but he wasn’t getting much run support. His ERA was only 2.28, and the most eye-opening number was his 47 Ks in 43 innings. He has a solid fastball, a nasty curve that drops more than 20 mph from that fastball, and a circle change. His first appearance in the pros was a decent one. He lasted six innings, striking out seven with just one walk. He allowed five hits and two earned runs. He didn’t get a decision, but his new team did beat the Cards. On Tuesday I’m going to take a look at how to deal with these phenoms as they come along.

(more…)