Through 20 games, Jose Bautista is not reminding anyone of the player who terrorized AL pitchers the past two seasons. I was wondering whether any other players coming off a season like Bautista’s had had such a slow start the following year. And, if they did, was that slow start a harbinger of a really down year?
Let’s find out.
Brandon Inge / PRESSWIRE
Brandon Inge was released by the Tigers and is poised to join the Oakland Athletics. For a while, it looked as if Inge would spend his entire major-league career with the Tigers. At the moment, before he plays a game with another team, you might be surprised to find out where he ranks among players who played for only the Tigers. Continue reading
— Wade Miley held the Marlins hitless into the 6th inning, picked up his third win and dropped his ERA to 1.29. Joining the rotation after Daniel Hudson went down, Miley has not allowed an earned run in two starts totaling 12.1 IP, 3 hits, 3 walks and 13 Ks. Continue reading
Bryce Harper debuted last night, and all things considered, it went fairly well for a super-prospect who made the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16. While his Washington Nationals fell 4-3 to the Dodgers in 11 innings, Harper went 1-for-3 with a double and sacrifice fly and nearly threw out a runner at home. Best case scenario, Harper’s first game proves to be a hint of good to come and his rookie season puts him in league with a handful of other iconic players.
Harper is 19. In baseball history, 20 players have had at least 2 WAR in a season at his age. Fourteen of those players have been pitchers, and of the six batters who’ve done it, three are in the Hall of Fame, and another will be shortly.
On the same night that the 1st overall pick of 2010 made his big-league debut, the 68th pick in that draft, Drew Smyly, earned his first win by holding the Yankees to 1 run on 2 hits in 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts.
First, Ozzie Guillen torched his relationship with Miami’s ethnic Cuban community (among many others).
Then, Bobby Valentine picked an odd time to casually rip one of his team’s best and most beloved players.
Now, this: Delmon Young was arrested in Manhattan on a misdemeanor charge of “aggravated harassment hate crime” during the Thursday/Friday overnight.
Thursday night in Chicago, the BoSox raked Philip Humber for 9 earned runs in 5 IP, saddling him with a 17 Game Score. Is that the worst follow-up to a perfect game?
Here are the next starts for the 17 perfect game pitchers since 1918:
And in the pasture, methinks — a.k.a. center field.
In Thursday’s matinee, rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis started the Mets’ attack with a leadoff triple in the home 1st and scored the game’s first run. It might have remained their only run, but Miami closer Heath Bell had an unprecedented loss of control in the 9th, walking four batters to force in the tying run. And then with 2 out, Nieuwenhuis came up and banged a 1-0 meatball off the wall in RF to win the game with his third hit 0f the day. Continue reading
Paul Konerko‘s 400th HR was a game-tying shot in the 9th inning on the first pitch from Grant Balfour.
It’s the 12th time a Konerko HR in the 9th inning or later has won or tied the game or put his team in front. That’s 3.0% of his career HRs.
What’s your gut feeling on how Konerko’s rate compares to those of contemporary sluggers? The answer is below the jump.
I was the kind of kid who was often starstruck around pro athletes. I got my first autograph at eight or nine from Cory Snyder, and I don’t know if I’d have been more thrilled if it had been Barry Bonds. I once got in trouble at a high school dance because the Sacramento Kings were gathering in the same building, and I kept going up to the team. Even interviewing Jose Canseco a few years ago felt surreal. As a journalist, I’ve learned to be objective talking to players, though part of me still brims with childlike awe whenever I talk to anyone whose baseball card I may have had. Baseball has and will hopefully always hold a certain magic for me, and watching a video online Wednesday night, some feelings came back.
To anyone who hasn’t seen it, Deadspin and a number of other outlets posted a clip of a young boy bawling at a game in Texas last night after losing out on a foul ball to a couple sitting next to him. In the video, the kid who can’t be more than three or four cries and cries while the couple obliviously celebrates. I know that kid’s feeling because I once had a baseball snatched from me at a game. The only difference is that I got it back.