1. On Monday, Donald Fehr retired from being the chief of the Baseball Player's Union. Many people will remember his reign for making the players a lot of money. But because of when I grew up and when I became interested in baseball, I will simply remember him as a giant obstacle to getting steroids out of baseball.
2. Manny Ramirez was getting ready for coming back from his suspension by playing in the minor leagues. Does any one else find it ridiculous that a suspended player is allowed to play in a MLB sanctioned minor league game? (I also find it humorous that many sports analysts have no idea why a minor league team would name themselves the "Isotopes".)
3. On Tuesday, for basically the first time this season, Mauer is hitting under .400. He's slipping, I say the Twins should trade him.
4. Milwaukee Reliever Mitch Stetter had a streak of 15 strike outs "in a row". However, that just referred to a streak of strike outs against batters who were retired, so other batters got hits amidst those strikeout. Basically, that stat is meaningless and should be put right up there with the 4 strikeout inning and hitting for the cycle. (Also, I'm personally fond of this pitch thrown by Stetter earlier this season.)
5. Notice anything different about Magglio Ordonez? No? Well, this is how he used to look and I guess it had a reverse Sampson effect because that day he did this. It was his first home run in 40 games. (Longest home run drought of his career.)
6. It's always nice when you're wife sings the national anthem and then you do this during the game.
7. If you're the Tigers, how do you not argue this and get it reviewed?
8. Albert Pujols pretty much single-handedly beat the Twins on Saturday with this and this...he's good.
9. Hanley Ramirez nearly single-handedly beat my fantasy team this week with this and this...I lost the RBI category.
10. Something you don't see every day, one historic closer pitching to another historic closer...and he WALKS HIM WITH THE BASES LOADED!? K-Rod should be ashamed of himself. (Also, congrats on number 500, Mariano.)
11. I was going to say that Justin Morneau is officially in a slump, but then he did this on Sunday. He also hit the ball well two other times on Sunday. So maybe he's coming out of his slump? Only time will tell.
12. I suppose I'm should also alert you to this highlight. (If he was a Twin he would have just plowed into the catcher.)
1. Yeah, me too.
ReplyDelete2. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, either. I understand that a suspended player needs some minor league rehab games to get back in the swing of things after 50 games off, but it seems like those games should occur AFTER the 50 game suspension. So a 50 game suspension is actually 50 games plus however many a player misses while he rehabs in the minors.
(And apparently sports analysts need to watch more Simpsons.)
4. Wait, so he had a streak of either giving up a hit, a walk, or striking someone out? That's not a real streak. Lame.
What's your beef with hitting for the cycle? Just curious.
(And I don't think I'll ever get tired of that grand slam...)
7. Wow, yeah, there's no doubt that was at least arguable. Sure as hell looks like a homer to me. Was Leyland napping or something?
10. Heh. Oh, K-Rod, where were your fist pumps and shouts to heaven after that pitch? Overall, I may like the Mets more than the Yankees, but I will always like Mariano over K-Rod. K-Rod just seems...uncouth, especially compared to someone as classy as Mariano. I hold Papelbon, too, in the same regard as K-Rod.
11. I'm glad he's coming out of his slump the week I play you in fantasy baseball. Hopefully the copious amounts of home runs he hits against me this week will factor into the outcome of the game so I won't feel as bad.
12. I'll also never get tired of watching someone steal home.
Do the Twins even know how to slide into home? Or is just a matter of always being slow getting to home on close plays?
Teebore,
ReplyDelete4. It's not that I have anything against the cycle per se. It's just, I feel a player hitting two home runs, a double, and a single is more valuable than a player who hit for the cycle. Yet we keep a meticulous list of who hit for the cycle and we don't care about when a player hits a home run, single, and two triples.
It's like celebrating a no hitter with 8 walks when we forget a one hit performance by a pitcher who face the minimum number of batters.
They're just novelty stats.
11. Right now Morneau has one meaningless home run and zero meaningful home runs. We'll see how the week turns out.
12. And regarding the Twins not sliding, it's definitely not just because they're slow. I know of at least two times this year they ran into the catcher when they had a better chance of scoring by sliding and avoiding the tag.