Who's Hot and Who's Not: What's Wrong With Grant Balfour?

Hot-- Coco Crisp: The AL West crown, which looked to be a pipe dream just three weeks ago, is now a very likely reality. And, perhaps the main reason for that is the oxygen mask that resides at the top of the lineup. Coco Crisp's absolutely monster two week stretch has revitalized both the entire lineup, along with a suddenly 2012-level noisy Oakland fanbase.

In his last 12 games, Coco Crisp has been hands down the best hitter in all of baseball. He is hitting .354 with seven homeruns, 10 RBIs, and 14 runs scored. All of this, while batting lead-off and improving his defensive viability in such a way that Chris Young's probably going to have to pick up a couple new hobbies come playoff time. Perhaps card houses or pinochle?

Not--Grant Balfour: Perhaps the self-imposed anxiety which Grant Balfour beats out of his body in every appearance is starting to wear down on the 35-year-old right hander. His last five outings have been biker-back-hairy to say the least. Despite converting four of five save chances, Balfour has been tagged for seven hits and five earned runs over 4 2/3 innings. Add in five walks against only two strikeouts, and Balfour is allowing 2.57 baserunners-per-inning over the past week.

A majority of it is fatigue, as Balfour has readily admitted that the gas tank was over the empty line and the driver was praying during his third game in three days, saving game 2 of the Tampa series. In his last ten outings prior to this rough patch, Balfour was air-tight like good tupperware, giving up just 0.8 baserunners-per-inning over a 10 inning span, walking only four while striking out sixteen.

It may behoove Super Melvin to work in as much rest for Balfour as humanly possible over the first half of September, in order to keep his arm pumping blood for the final division push. Ryan Cook is learning the fine art of tight-roping with antique china in the set-up role, and can definitely be pressed into service in order to give Balfour's rage fairies plenty of time to hype him up into a saliva-speckled frenzy.

NEWS AND NOTES WITH ONE HUNDRED PERCENT MORE FASTBALL! :

* Bartolo Colon (14-5) gets the ball once again tonight at 10:05 PM EST, in game two against the Rangers. He will be opposed by rookie sensation Martin Perez (8-3.) Against Detroit in his last start, Colon's fastball looked to have the tight movement and bite that it had in his stellar sub 2.00 ERA June and July. After a horrid injury-plague August, his controlled five-inning, one run and no walk performance against the Tigers is a sign that positive things, and a solid playoff number one's (re-)emergence, is ahead.

* Michael Choice had his major league debut yesterday in the nine hole, going 0 for 2 with a walk. He gets the call in right field tonight, as Crisp moves to DH to nurse his nagging aches and pains, and Chris Young's amazing-ERA-if-the-decimal point-was-pushed-left-by-two-spots batting average will be camping in center tonight. Hopefully tonight's 0 for 4 from Young comes with a web gem.

I will be back tomorrow night with a full review of the Texas series, and a look ahead at the Green and Gold's final three week run through the dregs of the American League in pursuit of a second straight A.L. West pennant.

Let's go Oakland.

 

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