Tuesday, June 01, 2010

06/01 Quickie: Ubaldo, Finals, Bledsoe

We are two months into the baseball season, and I lead today's SN column with a simple but mind-blowing proposition:

As good -- as great -- as Roy Halladay has been in his transfer to the NL (capped by the weekend's Perfect Game), Ubaldo Jimenez has been even better.

Ubaldo helps the cause with his best win yet (yes, even better than his perfect game in mid-April) -- a complete-game shut-out win over Tim Lincecum.

That gave Ubaldo -- who has earned One-Name Status, obviously -- 10 wins through the season's first 2 months (on pace for 30 wins!) and lowered his ERA to sub-0.80. Good gracious.

More you'll find in a loaded, post-three-day-weekend column:

*I keep hammering the Celtics-as-'95-Rockets thing. But I pick the Lakers to win in 6. Andrew Bynum reprises his 2008 role as "Finals X-Factor."

*Is it too early to get obsessed with MLB divisional races in the NL East and Central? No.

*Strasburg. June 8. Weather-permitting.

*Duke's men's LAX title was impressive -- it broke the stranglehold of "UVPrinceHopCuse" -- but Maryland's win over 5X defending women's champ Northwestern was more impressive.

*I couldn't have lower expectations for the NCAA's findings against USC football, coming Friday.

*The Kentucky/Bledsoe scandal -- brewing -- was entirely expected. What is amusing is that it is much more humiliating that Wall-Bledsoe-Patterson-Cousins-Orton failed to get to a Final Four that the NCAA could subsequently strip away than the stripping away of wins itself.

*I am so ready for the World Cup to start next week. Do I buy a US MNT jersey? Did you?

Lots more in there. Check it out here. More later. It's June, y'all. Let's get going.

-- D.S.

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1 comment:

James M said...

Small quibble: Ubaldo Jimenez has "only" pitched a no-hitter, not a perfect game, but I'm enjoying the renaissance of pitching this season. Two perfect games and a no hitter in the first two months, 4 Blue Jay starters have carried no-hitters into the 6+ innings, San Diego has 9 shut-outs already (they had 9 all of last season), and so on.

I personally can't wait for the All-Star game. Who do you start? Ubaldo, Halladay, or Lincecum?