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.

One Series From Every Division to Look Forward to This Weekend

AL EAST - - Red Sox vs Yankees


The Yankees took the 1st game of the four game series on Thursday.  If the Red Sox were not World Series champs, the nod for AL East series of the weekend would have went to the Blue Jays vs Orioles.  I can't imagine the Red Sox not making the playoffs in 2014 but this weekend could start rubbing the sticks together to start that fire.


AL CENTRAL - - Indians vs White Sox


Remember to the 2012 Baltimore's Orioles and their improbable playoff berth?  That's exactly how I feek about the Cleveland's run to the playoffs last season.  Much like the O's failed to make consecutive post season appearances, the same fate awaits the Tribe. My bold prediction is that the White Sox that will challenge them for 3rd place in the division.  The series began Thursday night with the Sox breaking a 14 game losing streak against the Tribe...a sign of things to come!


AL WEST - - A's vs Mariners


"To the man, you've gotta beat the man" Ric Flair The Mariners lost 2 of 3 in Oakland to the A's and (pardon the exaggerated tone in April) can ill-afford to do the same during this weekend's series at Safeco Field.


NL EAST - - Nationals vs Braves


The sexy pick last season to win the AL East was the Nationals.  The sexy pick to possibly knock the Braves out of first place in 2014 is again the Nationals.  The Nats lost 2 of 3 against the Braves in Washington.  Sure it's their only two losses of the season but feasting on teams like the Miami Marlins and New York Mets only makes you pretenders not contenders.


NL CENTRAL - - Cubs vs Cardinals


The argument here is simple, the Cubs hold the power in the NL Central to decide who wins the division.  The Cardinals play their first three of 19 games versus the Cubbies after seeing the Pittsburgh Pirates took 4 of 6 from Chicago.  If Chicago finds a way to take two games this weekend...who am I kidding!


NL WEST - - Tigers vs Padres


This may not be an inter-divisional game but this series has me wondering, how do the Tigers not sweep the Padres?  Porcello, Verlander, Scherzer pitching in the cavernous Petco Park against a team that has scored only 20 runs in 9 games this season.  If the Padres find a way to take 2 of 3, Royals fans should cry if they don't take 2 of 3 from Twins and make up a game on the Tigers "the easy way".

Right Idea's for the MLB

MLB has a rule, if the original team extends a qualifying offer to an upcoming eligible free agent, then if another team signs them during the off-season (up until the June draft) they have to give up a draft pick as compensation.  The free agents complain about how this restricts their movement...bullfritters!!  The only restriction to free agent movement is ridiculous contract demands.  People live happily on $60,000/year so don't freakin tell me you can't make it by on only a measly $9Million/year!  I'm looking at you Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales.


The owner of a Vancouver bar Score on Davie  has instituted an optional turn in your cell phone for the evening program.  The idea is simple, to bring us back to a simpler time (early 1990's) when an evening out meant talking to whomever you were spending the evening with.  I would love to see an MLB club adopt this optional program.


The San Diego Padres on Saturday March 15th are running a little contest.  The Padres will have 1000 fans take one swing for a homerun at the cavernous Petco Park.  Successful batters will win 2014 season tickets.


First, Ian Kinsler wishes his former team a winless season, now new Brewer Matt Garza expresses the following sentiment toward his former club the Chicago Cubs, ""I wish them the best but I like where I'm at, and I'm going to try to kick their teeth in every time I get a chance.""


What would you do if you were Carl Crawford: go to Australia with your LA Dodger teammates or stay home with "any day now" pregnant girlfriend?  Do the right thing Mr. Crawford, stay home!

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."