Random Collection of Thoughts re April 23 in MLB

The first 9 outs St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha recorded on Wednesday were strikeouts.  As impressive as that is any and every time I read his name here's what instantly goes through my mind "waka, waka, waka"


Dictionary.com defines the word "Pinata" as " a gaily decorated crock or papier-mâché figure filled with toys, candy, etc., and suspended from above...so that children, who are blindfolded, may break it or knock it down with sticks and release the contents." New York Yankees starting pitcher Michael Pineda deserves his own Pinata, so many baseball purists would love to knock the pine tar out of him. 


Internet high five to the Texas Rangers for their sweep three game sweep of the Oakland Athletics.  The A's had not lost back to back games all year and now travel to Houston for a 4 game set.  The A's had just swept the Astros before being whitewashed by the Rangers.  Meanwhile the Rangers head to Seattle for a weekend series, trying to match their season high five game win streak.  During their first five game win streak, three of those wins were against the Mariners.


Speaking of the Seattle Mariners, they are one of three teams that avoided sweeps in their respective series by winning Wednesday night.  Kyle Seager may have earned himself a bobblehead night with a two homerun game with the second one being of the walk-off variety.


The San Francisco Giants, after being outpitched the first two games of the series, decided to try to beat the Colorado Rockies with the long ball.  The Giants hit 6 homeruns with the 6th being a grand slam in the 11th.  Sigh, I stand by my prediction if the Rockies pitching can become mediocre, they will make the playoffs. 


Lastly, the Washington Nationals avoided the sweep to the Los Angeles Angels thanks to 9th inning meltdown in the Angels bullpen.  On paper, the rosters of the Nationals and Angels coulda/shoulda/woulda be World Series bound.  I won't hold my breathe.

Random Collection of Thoughts re April 21 and 22 in MLB

Monday April 21st

The average of the MLB went up drastically!  The Cleveland Indians activated 43 year old Jason Giambi from the DL AND the New York Mets called up 40 year old Bobby Abreu.


A possible nine out of ten teams who finished in the bottom third of the MLB in 2013.  Of those nine teams, only the Miami Marlins would lose.  I know it's an obscure stat but seriously, how many times will the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies each win on the same night?


On this night the Cubs and Astros both beat struggling teams. The Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on the strength of the pitchers BAT!  If ever there was a statement to sum up the D'Backs season thus far, that was it.  The Astros beating Seattle Mariners, that's ho-hum news.  The fact the Astros beat Felix Hernandez **blink blink** no words explain the surprise. 


The Mets and the Phillies blanked their respective opponents on this night, willing to bet a Canadian Beer that feat does not occur again in 2014!!

Tuesday April 22nd

Remember I told you to bet on David Price finding his groove against the Minnesota Twins.  Complete game, 12 strikeout getting his groove on win for Mr. Price.

Coming into the season most "experts" would not so boldly predict that the Colorado Rockies would be led by their offense and if/when the Rox failed it would be due to their pitching.  The Rockies currently lead the MLB in runs scored while their pitching has given up the sixth most runs in the league.  On Tuesday night, for the second time this season, the Rockies outpitched the San Francisco Giants in a pitching duel.  Going back to those "experts", many predicted the Los Angeles Dodgers to walk away with the NL West.  My prediction, if the Colorado Rockies pitching staff can improve to even just mediocre (not in the top 13 in runs allowed), the final series of the 2014 regular season is in LA against those Dodgers and could be for the division title.

Speaking of those Los Angeles Dodgers, they just dropped their second straight game to the Philadelphia Phillies.  If you take away the 7-1 record amassed versus the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers are 5-8 on the season.  I keep asking for the "real" Washington Nationals to stand up so we could learn whether they are "contenders" or "pretenders".  Maybe it's time I start asking that question to the Dodgers.

Speaking of those Washington Nationals, they go into Wednesday's game trying not to get swept by the Anaheim Angels.  Also on "sweep alert", the Oakland Athletics at the hands of the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners at the hands of the Houston Astros.  The last time the Houston Astros swept a series - - September 9-11 against a Robinson Cano-less Seattle Mariner team.

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 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 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 Collections of Thoughts re: April 4th in MLB

My last entry highlighted the New York Yankees, Anaheim Angels, Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies as the teams to watch going into this weekend.  Friday night the four teams won by the average margin of a touchdown!


Masahiro Tanaka gave himself two innings to figure out the MLB then threw five solid innings to guide the Yankees to victory.  All nine starters for the Anaheim Angels collected at least a hit ensuring they did not need to rely on pitching for their victory.  The Miami Marlins have apparently all become hitting machines and led by Charlie Blackmon's 6 for 6 evening the Colorado Rockies dismantled the Arizona Diamondbacks.  I linked Blackmon to his career stats so you wouldn't have to Google him.


Official prediction, if the Arizona Diamondbacks can count their season total of wins on one hand come Jackie Robinson Day, Tuesday April 15, Kirk Gibson will be the first manager fired in 2014.  The D'Backs are currently 1-6.


Pittsburgh 12 St Louis 2.  Six months ago to the day, the Pirates beat the Cards 7-1 in Game 2 of the NLDS.  We all know how that ended.


I have heard all spring that the Los Angeles Dodgers outfield is over-crowded.  I remember reading comments from Matt Kemp saying "he is no fourth outfielder".  Why not trade Yasiel Puig?  Seriously, an upgrade at second base and someone to inherit third base from Juan Uribe is not a ridiculous trade demand for a 24 year old causing more trouble than a wolf in a chicken coop.

4 MLB Teams to Watch Going Into the First Weekend

New York Yankees: If the Yankees aging lineup has any aspirations of making the playoffs, two 25 year olds hold their fate.  Masahiro Tanaka and Micheal Pineda are scheduled to pitch the next two games for the Bronx Bombers.  If both struggle and lose, especially after the Astros took two of three, the focus of many Yankee fans will shift from the marathon the season is to the sprint each individual series becomes.


Anaheim Angels: After allowing the 2nd most runs in baseball during their opening season series, the Angels now face the "built for the future" Houston Astros.  Yes the Astros took two games from the Yankees but if Anaheim drops the first two games and slips to 0-5 to start the season, a mayday should be put out for Manager Mike Sciosica's job.  As in, any day in May he should lose his job.


Miami Marlins:  League leader in runs scored and their ace gets the ball on Saturday.  Chase Headley, aka the straw that stirs the drink for their opponent San Diego Padres, has started out hitting .083.  A Marlins sweep is quite feasible which would move them to 7-1 putting their win total at 11% of what they accomplished all of 2013.


Colorado Rockies: You have a healthy Tulo and CarGo and got outscored almost 2 to 1 (27 to 15) in your first series.  Leading into the season looking at the Rockies schedule, fans had to be excited to see that the first seven series were against teams .500 and lower in 2013.  For a 74 win team, this was as "cupcake" of a schedule as possible.  So far, you're doing it wrong!

Scuffs on the Baseball

 The "Sweet Tweet" column now includes a tweet from Rawlings Sports promoting their gloves but the attention grabber is the shirt worn by Washington Nationals Outfielder Bryce Fielder - - > "PED FREE"




The original tweet was retweeted by "Bleacher Report" where I would find another gem - - Blue Jays Closer Casey Janssen Pulls off Perfect Proposal After Going Skydiving  Bleacher Report writer Kyle Newport just gained a fan.




Speaking of gaining fans, Kansas City Royals Rookie Pitcher Kyle Zimmer has already been taught the words "old guys", won't win him any fans.  The video is more funny than the story but it won't let me send you directly to video.




Staying with the KC Royals, they along with the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres, are the only MLB teams to not have their "MLBlog"-ger on the front page of their website.  Just something I noticed as I went through the teams sites looking for some inside information from almost 3000 KM away.




The two most interesting finds from the "MLBlog"-ers came from Seattle's "Mariners Musings by Greg Johns."  The question to new M's skip was regarding Dustin Ackley playing centerfield. 

"“I doubt it. He’ll probably be in left field the majority of time.”

Why is he best suited for left field?

“Because that’s where I want him,” said McClendon."