Random Collection of Thoughts re: April 15 in MLB



"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives" ~Jackie Robinson.

Brett Lawrie of the Toronto Blue Jays hit a grand slam Tuesday versus the Minnesota Twins.  Why is that noteworthy?  The runners on base were all WALKED!  I'm trying to work in a joke about some of the Blue Jay players wearing balaclavas on a night the temperature hovered around 0 degrees Celsius to defend the Twins relief pitcher but I just can't defend back-to-back-to-back walks.


On Monday night during the 8th inning of their game, the Colorado Rockies walked the bases loaded then made two throwing errors to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  On Tuesday night, the Rockies gave up a leadoff single then with two outs walked the bases loaded.  Are the Rockies in the business of giving away wins to the San Diego Padres?  As Buzz Lightyear would say, "NOT TODAY!".  The Rockies held on to win 3-2.


My apologies to the Milwaukee Brewers and specifically relief pitcher Jim Henderson.  In his first appearance since praising him for his good start to 2014, the St. Louis Cardinals would put three up on the board against him.  Makes me nervous to praise Oakland A's relief pitcher Jim Johnson on his second straight win and his 3rd straight solid outing after losing his closer title.


The 10 homerun suspended game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds was played out Tuesday night and won by a RBI single in the 7th from the Pirates catcher Russell Martin.  Well that was anticlimactic!!  The Reds would win the scheduled regular Tuesday night game to even the series.  Going into Wednesday's matinee at Pittsburgh, if the Reds were to lose that would be 5 straight series to start the season which they dropped 2-1 which equals T-R-O-U-B-L-E.


You know the cliché "mama said there would be days like this" Boston Red Sox rookie shortstop Xander Bogaerts had one of those Tuesday night.  0-4 at the plate with a hat-trick in strikeouts and the game ending throwing error giving the Chicago White Sox the win.  The Red Sox fall to 5-9 to start 2014 which is a stark contrast to the 10-4 start they had in 2013. 

Random Collection of Thoughts re April 14 in the MLB

After six innings of play, the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates combined for TEN homeruns.  That is more homeruns than the Baltimore Orioles (9), San Diego Padres (7), Texas Rangers (5), and Kansas City Royals have hit the ENTIRE SEASON. 


When doing research for the above stat I stumbled upon the following - - 16 of 30 teams were hitting under .250 (1 of 4) going into the evening's slate of games.  Last season finished with 13 teams under a .250 team batting average, 12 in 2012, 11 in 2011, 9 in 2010.  Furthermore not since 2008 has the MLB has averaged more than 9 hits per game.  Moral of the stat story, with so much glamor given to the homerun, if nobody is on base, it's just one run. 




A nifty stat was posted by the Oakland Athletics gameday Twitter account: "(Yoenis) Cespedes is 8-for-24 (.333) with runners on compared to 3-for-23 (.130) with the bases empty"  They posted this in the 9th inning trailing the Anaheim Angels by one with a man on first.  Cespedes would fly out but pinch hitter John Jaso would hit a 2 run homerun to give the A's the lead and the win.  Sooner or later the problematic pairing of "sabremetrics" and "moneyball" will fail.  I keep choosing sooner and it keeps becoming later.




16 games, about 1/10 of the season is over for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  A 7-3 loss to the New York Mets keeps the D'Backs at 4 wins on the season.  I feel sorry for the anxiety that must be running through the Kirk Gibson family in regards to his job security and will stop writing about it out of respect for a man with the most memorable homerun trot of my life.


The Colorado Rockies found an improbable way to lose to the San Diego Padres Monday night.  After WALKING THE BASES LOADED, a wild pitch would score the game tying run and an errant throw back to the plate would score the game winning run.  Wow, just wow!

As a wrestling fan I feel obliged to share this link,

 Pirates adopt wrestling champ Daniel Bryan's 'YES!' chant

Random Collection of Thoughts re April 12 in the MLB

Instant replay rules need limits! 

In today's Red Sox/Yankees game, karma itself is trying to tell the MLB to keep the reviews to homeruns, home plate calls and diving catches in the outfield.  The MLB has already released their statement saying the umpires should have overturned the call on the field when Dean Anna sliding into second had his foot leave the bag momentarily while the Red Sox shortstop held a tag on him.   How long before they start reviewing throws over to first base too?  All the other leagues have limits with their replays, the NFL doesn't review every pass interference call (those yards are just as important as an extra base in baseball), the NHL doesn't review every goal (they learned their lesson the hard way with this Stanley Cup winning goal which during the regular season would have been disallowed), etcetera etcetra.  As much as the MLB is trying its best to remove the human element from decisions being made in-game STOP IT! 


Being from Alberta, the highest level of baseball is the Western Major Baseball League.  Here's some love to two "graduates" off to a good start in 2014.  Cleveland Indians relief pitcher John Axford pitched a perfect inning today dropping his ERA to 1.69 in 6 appearances this season.  Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Jim Henderson kept his ERA at 0.00 today despite giving up two hits which doubled the amount of hits he had giving up in his previous 5 outings.

Two teams losing the pennant in April, the Kansas City Royals and the Cincinnati Reds.

Being outscored 17-2 in two games against the Minnesota Twins is not changing my mind about the Detroit Tigers winning the AL Central but is making me wonder about the Royals earning the wildcard spot.  Meanwhile in Cincy, the Reds need to win on Sunday to avoid a sweep.  If they avoid the sweep, it will be the fourth consecutive series the Reds have lost 2-1.  Last I checked, a .333 winning percentage will not get you into the playoffs.


After Brock Lesnar'ing Paul Goldschmidt's on base streak with a simple mention in this blog, let's see if I can "Brock Lesnar" the Milwaukee Brewers 8 game winning streak going into Sunday's matinee with the Pirates. 

Random Collection of Thoughts re April 11 in MLB

First off, an apology to Mr. Paul Goldschmidt.  I tried to latch onto him for MLB Beat the Streak contest.  A logical choice because he was on a 31 game on base streak, and now it's over.  I'm sorry I was your Brock Lesnar to your streak.

By gawd, did the baseball lords not read the script going into Friday nights games? 

The Minnesota Twins annihilated the Kansas City Royals - - script says the Royals are suppose to challenge the Tigers for the Division Title.  Those Detroit Tigers got shut out by the San Diego Padres!  The Padres scored 6 runs which translates into 1/3 of the offense they had put up the entire season! 


The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals in extra innings.  The Cards needed a job losing effort from now former Cubs closer Jose Veras just to send it into extra innings.  The script clearly reads that the Cards are the class of the NL Central while the Cubs are there to bring up the rear.


With a loss last night, the Cincinnati Reds fell into sole possession of last place in the NL Central while with a win, the Milwaukee Brewers sit alone atop of the NL Central.  Anybody who tells you they saw this coming likely has a pet unicorn and has people read the script to them!


The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies.  That's fine and dandy.  The win was based in large part to a grand slam BY THE PITCHER!! Some people say baseball is boring, but you can't make this stuff up folks!

Let's see if normalcy returns to the MLB on Saturday.

Random Collection of Thoughts re: April 9 in the MLB

Three "first's" happened today that not many people would not have expected to wait over a week to see (or in the last example, expected at all).  The Kansas City Royals hit their 1st homerun of the season and the Cincinnati Reds speed demon Billy Hamilton stole his first two bases of the season.  Toronto Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro stole his first base since 2009.


Many people likely expected Ervin Santana to have some rust in his pitching debut for the Atlanta Braves.  8 innings played, 0 runs allowed, 3 hits against, no walks allowed, 6 strikeouts.  It doesn't matter that it's against the 4th lowest scoring team in the NL because coming in, Atlanta themselves are the lowest scoring team.  That's the real surprise, Atlanta is barely averaging 2 runs per game heading into Santana's debut.


Baltimore Oriole starter Miguel Gonzalez is set to earn $529,000 this season.  New York Yankee starter Masahiro Tanaka just commenced a seven years, $155M contract.  Both have almost identical lines from their meeting against each other, biggest difference, Tanaka was plus 7 in the strikeout category!  The Orioles would win the game in the 9th with Tanaka out of the game and no option to put in Mariano Rivera or his "replacement" David Robertson for the Yankees.


Game of the night honors goes to the Miami Marlins/Washington Nationals!  Marlins surge out to a 5-0 lead after two innings.  After marching back to take a 6-5 lead in the 6th, the Nats leave the bases drunk which naturally means the Marlins tie it the first chance they get.  The tying run came via the first uncontested homerun (first two were reviewed) of the game in the top of the 7th.  Marlins would take the lead in the top of the 8th on an umpire reviewed home plate play.  At this rate of reviews before reacting to anything on the field, you may want a minute or so.


I have professed my affinity for fantasy baseball in previous articles and through that affinity, I have learned that the last adjective to describe relief pitcher Carlos Marmol is reliable.  Now pitching for the Marlins, the game of the night would effectively end when the Nats were able to load the bases against him in the bottom of the 8th and Jayson Werth would empty the bases with a (un-reviewed) grand slam.

Random Collection of Thoughts re: April 8 in MLB

The San Francisco Giants won their game this afternoon.  Professional reporters will tell you it was in part because of a good outing from Tim Hudson and other valid baseball reasons.  I'm telling you they won from the good karma they promoted when they brought back "Batkid" to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.  If you do not know the story of "Batkid", please re-new your faith in humanity by clicking this link


How does Cincinnati Red Joey Votto break out of an 0-13 slump?  He wears a Mountie uniform on the show "Intentional Talk".  Votto was hit by a pitch in his first at bat and hit singles in the 3rd and 5th inning.


The New York Yankees won their home opener then got shellacked today in game two of the series.  Game 3 versus Baltimore features Masahiro Tanaka's 2nd MLB start.  For those fans who want to believe the Yankees will finish higher in the AL East than the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday's game is about as "must win" as the series opener celebrating the home kickoff of Derek Jeter's farewell tour.


The Miami Marlins impressively built a 5-2 record versus two clubs that finished 2013 with 74 wins and 76 wins respectively.  Their first game of 2014 versus an opponent with a winning record from 2013, a 5-0 loss to the Washington Nationals.  If the Marlins get swept by the Nationals during these three games in Washington then again next week in the re-match series in Miami, all playoff prognostications for the Fish should read, "nope, not happening".


Going into this three game series in Colorado, the Chicago White Sox had a 5-1 lifetime record at Coors Field.  The Sox got hammered on Monday but Tuesday night put enough air miles on the baseball to almost fly around the world.  SIX HOMERUNS including Jose Abreu's first two in the Majors.

Random Collection of Thoughts re: April 5th in MLB

Pennants are not won in April, they are lost.  Cincinnati Reds I'm looking at you!  Starting out the season having the St. Louis Cardinals taking two of three from you at home is forgivable. Going into New York and having the Mets take the first two games from you almost inexcusable.  I will assume the Reds can avoid the sweep at the hands of the Mets but going into St. Louis for the next series, the feeling has to be that one out of three won't be enough.




In the dogfight that the NL Central will be for playoff seeding, the Pittsburgh Pirates were gifted two series with the Chicago Cubs with the St Louis Cardinals sandwiched in the middle.  Anything less than 6-3 for the Pirates should be considered a failure to start the season.  I would have waited until then before I extended the contracts of General manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle.


Tonight's pitching lines from the Mariners Felix Hernandez (8.1 IP 6 hits 1 run 8 K's) and the Marlins Jose Fernandez (6.2 IP 3 hits 0 runs 8 K's) make me really hope the two pitchers face off against each other when their respective teams play a three game series April 18 through 20th.


The Boston Red Sox page on MLB.com only allows me to go back to 2000.  This is the first time in the new millennium that the Red Sox have lost their 1st two home games of a season.


The last undefeated team in the MLB is the Detroit Tigers.  That in and of itself is not that shocking.  The fact they are only 4-0 and are the last perfect team is the surprising part.