Game 76 Open Thread: June 28, 2005

mulder claussen
8-5, 4.75 4-4, 4.07

mark their words: over at SB Nation flagship Athletics Nation, mark mulder's woes elicit (alternately) glee and genuine sorrow. he still has a lotta fans back there. i dropped by there today and got a little conversation going; there also was this thread from last week, crowing about mulder's horrible start against the reds. but some are still pulling for mark: "I don't know how much of Mulder's slide is mental or physical," one person wrote, "but dealing with what happened in the second half of last season, being traded, wondering if he could fix his problems... It's nice that this trade is looking good for the A's. It's great. But I wish it wasn't like this for Mulder."

tell me about it. kinda hard to believe that just two starts ago he went 7 and gave up 4 hits . . . . and we may well get another one of those tonight. game by game with this guy; per this morning's post, he's not going to solve what ails him tomorrow, but you gotta start somewhere and build on it.

a ringing endorsement: baseball prospectus moves the cardinals back atop its ranking of the 30 teams, though without much gusto: "the rotation is showing some wear and tear, with Mark Mulder (9.00 ERA in 20 innings this month) having been hit hard by some mediocre teams and Jason Marquis' K-rate falling through the floor (4.31 per nine innings--down from last year's 6.17--and only one strikeout over his last three starts)."

blog log: cardnilly's reds series preview is up, brought to you by the letter "L" . . . . i reckon bellyscratcher and red hot mama will be at it again tonight. . . . time magazine online this week names SB Nation as one of its 50 best blogs -- read all about it; also the network this week welcomes two new blogs, The Good Phight (phillies) and Bless You Boys (tigers).

there used to be a ballpark right here: finally, here's an affectionate ode to busch stadium that i highly recommend. asks a simple question: "Why are we giving this up?"