Aussie Updates (6 Jul 08)

Grant Balfour picked up another save today (his third for the season), as the Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 3-0. He regularly clocked 95-96mph, and struck out Jose Guillen and Billy Butler. His numbers in recent times are impressive. In his 10 games between 10 Jun and 10 July he has:

• a record of 2-0, with 2 saves
• pitched 15 innings, giving up only 5 hits and 6 walks (WHIP of 0.73)
• he has allowed only 2 earned runs, for an ERA of 1.17 (and those 2 runs were given up back on 5 Jun against the Red Sox, since that game he has not given up an earned run
• he has struck out 23, which is an average of 1.5 per inning.

These numbers speak for themselves. Balf has been hot this year. He was hot during spring training but was unlucky not to make it to the Rays opening day roster. He went to AAA Durham and was nearly unhittable. Since his call up in late May he has worked hard to show he deserves his spot in the pen. He has been versatile; featuring as a long reliever at times, but it seems he has found his calling as a closer, and he is starting to get noticed (at least among fantasy leagues) as a closer with some real potential. This sort of exciting baseball is just the sort of thing that should be making our Australian sports news. Wham-bam, thank you for coming, one inning, 2 strikeouts and a save, lets get out of here. If the free TV networks here cant squeeze that into their bulletins there is a real problem. Anyway, enough of the rant, good work Balf, keep it up.