MLB 2011 Season

[AntAltMike]

...when does Reddick turn back into a pumpkin? He's hitting .362 and slugging .628 in 94 at-bats. This guy is not a phenom. He hit .230 in Triple A this year and .266 there last year. Players typically hit 30 points LOWER in the majors than they did in Triple A. I'd love to see him keep it up, but if he plays every day, he'll finish the season closer to .280, which is still a big improvement over Nancy Drew.

I'm afraid it has already happened. After hitting .556 in May and .407 in June, he has hit .280 in July and, going into tonight's game, 257 in August, and he is 0 for two tonight. His batting average is down to .310 and sinking like a rock. He is now no better than Nancy.

When do we start speculating on whether Ellsbury is taking PEDs? He has homered in both ends of today's doubleheader and now projects to 29 homers for the season. To put that in historic perspective, Carl Yastrzemski only hit more than 28 homers in a season three times in 23 years.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm afraid it has already happened. After hitting .556 in May and .407 in June, he has hit .280 in July and .going into tonight's game, 257 in August, and he is 0 for two tonight. He is now no better than Nancy.

When do we start speculating on whether Ellsbury is taking PEDs? He has homered in both ends of today's doubleheader.

Explanation .... Reddick came up to the majors where he hit poorly, when he got to the Big club, the lighting is MUCH better and he hit much better than before .... as time went on, his eyes adjusted and he's back to hitting what he did in the minors ...
Someone needs to put him away in a dark room for 24-36 hours and let him play when thats done.

 

[AntAltMike]

I see from ESPN's play-by-play log that the Red Sox pulled an around the horn triple play in the forth inning. I Googled the term and found that coming into this season, there had only been 59 such plays, and Adrian Gonzales was on first base for the most recent two, and both were in second games of double headers.

Other prominent one time Red Sox players who were plaing first for the third out of triple plays were: Cecil Cooper with the Brewers in 1979, Bill Buckner with the Cubs in 1983, Jeff Bagwell with Houston 1991, Mo Vaughn with the Mets in 2002, and Victor Martinez with the Indians in 2007.

Baseball's Triple Plays Around The Horn

 

[Ramy]

I think you can stick a fork in the Reds. They play like they don't want to be there.

 

[SandraC]

News and notes from tonight's notable games...

7:00 PM Arizona at Philadelphia - Battle of first place teams...one likely, one very unlikely. Roy Halladay on the bump against rookie Josh Collmenter...doesn't seem like a fair fight, but that's why you play the game.

Ya see that? The kid Collmenter pitched well, and Halladay, despite striking out the usual 47 batters, blew his own save in the ninth. Had to go pick up my niece last night right after the game, and Philly sports radio fans were fuming that Charlie did not pull Halladay after AZ put runners on first and second with nobody out in the ninth.


Sandra

 

[cybok0]

I think you can stick a fork in the Reds. They play like they don't want to be there.

I hope so. The pirates need all the help they can get to end over 500.

 

[AntAltMike]

ESPN.com is not offering Preview articles of today's MLB games. I hope that is just an abberration. I don't see them saying "For previews, subscribe to ESPN insider" or anything.

If Lackey wins today, he moves back into a tie with Lester for most wins. Is there no justice in the world? Last I heard, he was on pace to set a record for highest ERA of any pitcher who had enough innings to qualify for the "title". And in a similar vain, Adam Dunn was on pace to smash Rob Deer's record for the lowest batting average by a qualifier. Carl Crawford has managed to escape the spotlight for being such a horriffic free signing largely because Adam Dunn and Jason Werth are playing so much worse.

Meanwhile, much ado is being made over the fact that Jim Thome's achievement of hitting 600 home-runs isn't "tained" by any accusatons of steroid use. I call that praise much ado about nothing. Since there was no universal testing over his career, then as far as I'm concerned, there are only two kinds of ballplayers: the ones who got caught cheating, and the ones we don't know about but who probably cheated, because nearly everyone cheated. I mean, I love Griffey Jr., but his body did undergo a late career shape transformation, and I have to suspect that before Bond's steroids, "went to his head", he probably was using a different, prohibited product that did not also change his physical appearance in the way that "the cream" and "the clear" did.

 

[SandraC]

Meanwhile, much ado is being made over the fact that Jim Thome's achievement of hitting 600 home-runs isn't "tained" by any accusatons of steroid use. I call that praise much ado about nothing. Since there was no universal testing over his career, then as far as I'm concerned, there are only two kinds of ballplayers: the ones who got caught cheating, and the ones we don't know about but who probably cheated, because nearly everyone cheated. I mean, I love Griffey Jr., but his body did undergo a late career shape transformation, and I have to suspect that before Bond's steroids, "went to his head", he probably was using a different, prohibited product that did not also change his physical appearance in the way that "the cream" and "the clear" did.

Totally agree


Sandra

 

[AntAltMike]

The vaunted Red Sox offense has collected just three hits in each of its most recent three games, going 9 for 86, for a team batting average of .105

 

[Jimbo]

ESPN.com is not offering Preview articles of today's MLB games. I hope that is just an abberration. I don't see them saying "For previews, subscribe to ESPN insider" or anything.

If Lackey wins today, he moves back into a tie with Lester for most wins. Is there no justice in the world? Last I heard, he was on pace to set a record for highest ERA of any pitcher who had enough innings to qualify for the "title". And in a similar vain, Adam Dunn was on pace to smash Rob Deer's record for the lowest batting average by a qualifier. Carl Crawford has managed to escape the spotlight for being such a horriffic free signing largely because Adam Dunn and Jason Werth are playing so much worse.

Meanwhile, much ado is being made over the fact that Jim Thome's achievement of hitting 600 home-runs isn't "tained" by any accusatons of steroid use. I call that praise much ado about nothing. Since there was no universal testing over his career, then as far as I'm concerned, there are only two kinds of ballplayers: the ones who got caught cheating, and the ones we don't know about but who probably cheated, because nearly everyone cheated. I mean, I love Griffey Jr., but his body did undergo a late career shape transformation, and I have to suspect that before Bond's steroids, "went to his head", he probably was using a different, prohibited product that did not also change his physical appearance in the way that "the cream" and "the clear" did.

Difference being with the older players is the facty that the "Whatever they were using" was not BANNED at the time.

If something is not banned and your using it, your legit,till it is banned.

 

[AntAltMike]

The vaunted Red Sox offense has collected just three hits in each of its most recent three games, going 9 for 86, for a team batting average of .105

"You have to admit it's getting better,
It's getting better all the time."

- Paul McCartney

"It couldn't get much worse."

- John Lennon


But it can get worse... and stay worse. Youkilis is now on the 15 day disabled list with a strained back and Ortiz is still being treated for bursitis of the foot. The Red Sox called up a good hit/no field catcher named Ryan Lavarnway, who has hit 30 homers at Triple A this year, and he will be tonight's DH.

I hate to have to make this comparison, but Youkilis has missed about the same number of games over the last six seasons as has J.D. Drew.

 

[SandraC]

Difference being with the older players is the facty that the "Whatever they were using" was not BANNED at the time.

If something is not banned and your using it, your legit,till it is banned.

Alt Mike said there was no testing. That doesn't mean it wasn't illegal...so it's not legit.


Sandra

 

[cybok0]

First fox Saturday baseball game at PNC park ever, damn these announcers suck.

 

[Jimbo]

Alt Mike said there was no testing. That doesn't mean it wasn't illegal...so it's not legit.


Sandra

I should have said as long as it was legal in the States.

 

[Ramy]

First fox Saturday baseball game at PNC park ever, damn these announcers suck.

Yep the did.

 

[cybok0]

Yep the did.

They should know it's not pronounced TAH-bat-TAH. It's Tabata.

 

[AntAltMike]

The sub-.500 Washington Senators... uh, I mean Nationals... have drawn over 40,000 per game this weekend, but it is sort of like when the Orioles sell out for Red Sox games. Philly fans don't even need to catch the Southwest shuttle like Red Sox fans do.

 

[AntAltMike]

...when does Reddick turn back into a pumpkin? He's hitting .362 and slugging .628 in 94 at-bats. This guy is not a phenom. He hit .230 in Triple A this year and .266 there last year. Players typically hit 30 points LOWER in the majors than they did in Triple A. I'd love to see him keep it up, but if he plays every day, he'll finish the season closer to .280, which is still a big improvement over Nancy Drew.

Today was pumpkin day... the day his batting average dropped below .300, as his 0 for 4 performance against Kansas City brought it down to .298. If he goes hitless in his next start, then I predict that he will never see a regular season, post-April batting average of over .300 for the rest of his career. When Nancy Drew comes off the DL, I expect the right field platoon to become Drew and the right-handed hitting MacDonald, who had three hits including a homer today.

 

[AntAltMike]

Back during spring training, when people were drooling over the Red Sox lineup, I pointed out that replacing Beltre and V-Mart with Gonzales and Crawford was only about a wash, and what made the offense seem prospectively so awesome was the expectation that Pedroia, Ellsbury and Youkilis would be healthy. Well, here is is in August again, and as expected, the cumulative output of the departed Beltre and V-Mart has been at least equal to that of Gonzales and Crawford, and tonight, the Red Sox will trot out a batting order in which seven of the nine spots are filled by players who are probably below average, offensively, at their positions.

M Scutaro SS  .274 .342 .376 
D McDonald RF .193 .270 .385 
A Gonzalez 1B .344 .405 .538 
D Pedroia 2B  .306 .398 .470 
J Lowrie 3B   .264 .309 .391 
R LavarnwayDH .313 .389 .375 
C Crawford LF .251 .287 .385 
J Sltalamch C .245 .306 .457 
J Reddick RF  .298 .347 .497

 

[Jimbo]

Back during spring training, when people were drooling over the Red Sox lineup, I pointed out that replacing Beltre and V-Mart with Gonzales and Crawford was only about a wash, and what made the offense seem prospectively so awesome was the expectation that Pedroia, Ellsbury and Youkilis would be healthy. Well, here is is in August again, and as expected, the cumulative output of the departed Beltre and V-Mart has been at least equal to that of Gonzales and Crawford, and tonight, the Red Sox will trot out a batting order in which seven of the nine spots are filled by players who are probably below average, offensively, at their positions.

M Scutaro SS  .274 .342 .376 
D McDonald RF .193 .270 .385 
A Gonzalez 1B .344 .405 .538 
D Pedroia 2B  .306 .398 .470 
J Lowrie 3B   .264 .309 .391 
R LavarnwayDH .313 .389 .375 
C Crawford LF .251 .287 .385 
J Sltalamch C .245 .306 .457 
J Reddick RF  .298 .347 .497

Did V. Martinez hit this well in Boston ?
.324 Ba, also leads the league in avg. with RISP. Somewhere close to like .375, was over .400 for quite awhile.
If so, why did they let him go ?