Brandon McCarthy and the Green Scare

McCarthy's new arsenal has batters whispering about the Green Scare. Photo: Blue Canoe

We had a short day on Monday, which is nice for me because I've been running around trying to shore up everything for the new site. Let's do a quick recap of what our lesser owned friends were up to yesterday and poke around at the latest MLB bullpen news.

Josh Willingham (13% owned) went yard off my boy Arthur Rhodes (without my permission). J-Willy is up to five HR now (and two SB). If we started a pool , who do you have leaving first via trade: Willingham, Conor Jackson or David DeJesus?

Kurt Suzuki (47%) hit his third HR of the season (a solo shot off Derek Holland). He's well on his way to a .270 AVG and 15 HR season. Kurt may have lost his spot in the heart of the batting order with the additions of Willingham and Hideki Matsui (who also homered), but the batted ball profile is looking better. He's a Top 12 catcher if you ask me.

Brandon McCarthy (15%) pitched well against the Rangers [6 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 R, 0 ER, 4 K], but the defense let him down. He came away with the no-decision. McCarthy has redefined himself with the move to Oakland. He basically stopped throwing his Changeup and began throwing a Two-seam Fastball. The Changeup helped his strikeout total (12% Whiff% was his second highest percentage from his arsenal), but eliminating it enables him to throw more strikes and the two-seamers induce more ground balls. His BB% has improved and so has the HR/FB%.

Bartolo Colon (30%) struck out seven and walked zero in seven innings against the Tigers. No comment.

Madison Bumgarner (54%) looked great, but was rewarded with his fifth loss (he has zero wins thus far). MadBum had an easy matchup against WAS, which helped the line [7 IP, 4 H, BB, 7 K]. This was his second consecutive strong performance (@PIT, @WAS), he should be safe to deploy.

Tom Gorzelanny (2%) was the one-man wrecking crew who took out MadBum [8 IP, 3 H, 4 K]. Gorz is one the topics on Wednesday's episode of Starbonell Station. We'll save him for later.

David Ross (0%) has hit six Fly Balls and three of them have cleared the fence. That is a 50% HR/FB% for those counting at home. He's on pace to shatter the world record for HR/FB%.

Maicer Izturis (53%) went 3 for 4 with a run scored and a RBI-double. He hit two doubles in the game and pushed his AVG up to .333

Vernon Wells (59%) hit his second HR of the season (off Dan Wheeler). Vernon showed signs of life recently with a four-game hit streak, but they were all one-hit performances. He hasn't posted a good Line Drive percentage since 2003 (21.6% LD%), but this season's 7.4% LD% is downright pathetic. He'll eventually come around... I think.

Derrek Lee (38%) went 3 for 4 with a HR (his 2nd) with a run scored and two RBI. He's hitting .248 though. The strikeouts are up and the power is down. He's officially old.

Lance Berkman is now the No.2 ranked player at Yahoo. Anyone who owns Lance should wear an Elvis jumpsuit to work for the rest of the week. You lucky bastards, I officially hate you all.

Gaby Sanchez (58%) went 2 for 4, hitting his fourth HR of the season (off Kyle Lohse). He had four RBI on the day and pushed his AVG up to .294

James McDonald (4%) finally looked good [6 IP, 5 H, BB, 2 ER, 5 K]. Too bad it was against the Padres at Petco.

Juan Uribe (53%) went 2 for 4 with a run scored and a RBI. He'll move over to 3B while Casey Blake deals with a nasty staph infection (elbow). Those things are disgusting, but I've never seen one of the elbow so I would look at the pictures... maybe. Blake is expected to miss the next four-to-six weeks.

Arthur Rhodes and Darren Oliver each surrendered a Home Run, Oliver gave up the game winner to Godzilla in overtime. The old guys need to pitch in the 7th and 8th innings, they are having trouble staying up late to pitch the 9th. Hurry back Neftali!

Mitchell Boggs pitched the 8th inning of a tied ball game. Does anyone like Tony LaRussa? Anyone? Boggs rewarded us by giving up two hits and a Sac Fly to a Mr. Gregg Dobbs. Thanks buddy.

Sergio Santos saved the day and recorded a one-out Save (struck out Adam Jones- swinging) after Chris Sale coughed up the two-run HR to Derrek Lee. Stuff like this usually solidifies a guy's role as closer.