Item: Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants no-hit the San Diego Padres on Friday.Comment: Sanchez (right) is one of the good young power arms the Giants have accumulated over the past few years, but unlike Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain, he's never quite figured it out.
This game left him with 331 strikeouts in 328 2/3 career innings — and a career ERA of 5.07.
And let's face it: It was the Padres. Team batting average: .232. Sooner or later, somebody was going to no-hit them.
Item: Joe Mauer is going to compete in the Home Run Derby on Monday.
Comment: The National League has four first basemen with big power reps entered: Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols — career total 805 home runs and three home run titles. The AL at this point has Mauer and Brandon Inge committed — 174 HRs total.
Advantage, NL.
We get this every so often — a great hitter without a home run rep entered in the Derby. (Mauer's the great hitter I'm talking about; Inge is something less.) Ichiro and Edgar Martinez come to mind. Generally they come in with their manager talking about the power show they put on in batting practice and leave having lived up to their real-life reputation.
Item: One of the Chicago beat writers was struck hours before game time Friday by the sight of eight Twins taking early bunting practice. Then the Twins used late-inning bunts to score the tie-breaking run in the seventh (Denard Span moving Nick Punto into scoring position in front of Mauer's single) and an insurance run in the eighth (Carlos Gomez with a two-out bunt single to drive in Matt Tolbert).
Comment: Kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?
Just me, but I prefer speed and bunting to be part of our game. It doesn't always work well, but it makes the game more interesting in my mind. I'd prefer to look to the future, move Cuddy and start Young, Gomez and Span and give Lexi a shot to show whether he can mature or not. The approach worked well last year, and I don't like the station-to-station trend in recent weeks. Span should be able to steal second on AJ, even if Joe is batting.
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