It is that time again for the weekly 3 Up and 3 Down column. As always, thanks for reading and you can contact me through facebook, twitter @gmarchesej, email at gmarchesej@aol.com and under this article.
The three up for this week are the Los Angeles Dodgers, who flexed their financial might, Matt Harvey, as he made his major league debut and one other successful start and Joba Chamberlain, who returned to the big leagues after 14 months away.
3 Up
Los Angeles Dodgers:The Dodgers were sold to a group led by former NBA player Magic Johnson earlier this year. They are ½ a game out of first place in the NL West and they made several moves at Tuesdays trade deadline. They acquired reliever Brandon League from the Mariners. They also acquired Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins and Shane Victorino from the Phillies. Things are looking up in Hollywood for Donnie Baseball and the Dodgers.
Matt Harvey has looked very impressive in his two major league starts with the Mets. In his first start he struck out 11 batters. He struck out seven in his second start, the 11 in his first start were the most by a Mets pitcher in his debut in franchise history. He is 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA.
Joba Chamberlain made his return on Wednesday coming into a blow out game. He didn’t pitch particularly well but he did pitch 1 1/3 innings and get his feet wet. He could be a huge factor down the stretch for the Yankees bullpen. He could become the seventh inning guy and really shorten the game as he, Dave Robertson and Rafael Soriano can close out the games.
3 Down
Josh Hamilton has been going through a tough stretch and finally came out and said he is attempting to quit tobacco and it is really affecting him right now. His numbers have just been awful and it might be because he has struggled with quitting tobacco.
Ivan Nova has really been hit lately and he has been losing a lot more then he has in a long time. Nova got knocked around the other night by the Baltimore Orioles. He gave up nine runs and then said he just pitched in bad luck. It looks like he may need to mature a little more and learn. It may have come to easy to him in the beginning and this is what happens. He is 10-5 with a 4.53 Era this season.
The Miami Marlins are down because they haven’t lived up to expectations and now traded away their team as the trade deadline came. They traded their star Hanley Ramirez. They traded Anibal Sanchez one of their pitchers, Gaby Sanchez and more. They just got their new stadium and they are already tearing their team apart. I don’t know how they expect to sustain a fan base in South Florida.
