Baseball news,history, and opinions

03/03/2020

https://youtu.be/5FShbkDV4Q4

Creator: Mike YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYQAmtjlehktnhVHxJuQrIw Twitter: https://twitter.com/SRSMike Background Music In The Video __________...

02/09/2020

Hinch interview was good, he never refused to answer any questions, he said that saying the title is tainted is a valid argument, and he it didn’t seem like he tried to pass the blame to anyone else.

Now, we can all sit here and say he should’ve told the players to stop, though smashing a monitor with a bat twice seems to send a pretty clear message to me. He should have told them to stop and he deserves the suspension especially since he knew about it.

But the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking would anyone else do the same thing and turn a blind eye to it? We don’t know what the clubhouse was like and may never know for sure; but we do one thing for certain, they were winning and winning will sometimes make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. In another situation where the team was hovering around .500 barely in the playoff hunt he probably would’ve been more direct about it and verbally told them to stop. But when you have the best record in baseball, it becomes a bit harder to put an end to it because who doesn’t want to win?

I have 2 more things to say...

1. I’m not defending Hinch because he should’ve told them to stop and made sure they did stop.
2. In the interview, Verducci says that one of the players had said that if Hinch told them to stop that they would’ve stopped. Maybe that’s true, but it sounds like scapegoating to me. Trying to put all the blame on Hinch and make themselves look slightly less guilty.

02/07/2020

My guesstimation for the 2020 season standings.

AL East

1. N.Y. Yankees 97-65
2. Tampa Bay 93-69
3. Boston 85-77
4. Toronto 80-82
5. Baltimore 60-102

AL Central

1. Chicago White Sox 90-72
2. Cleveland 85-77
3. Minnesota 81-81
4. Kansas City 73-89
5. Detroit 63-99

AL West

1. Oakland 95-67
2. Houston 91-71
3. Anaheim 79-83
4. Texas 69-93
5. Seattle 66-96

NL East

1. Atlanta 93-69
2. Washington 90-72
3. Philadelphia 85-77
4. N.Y. Mets 77-85
5. Miami 68-94

NL Central

1. Milwaukee 95-67
2. St. Louis 89-73
3. Cincinnati 85-77
4. Chicago Cubs 82-80
5. Pittsburgh 65-97

NL West

1. Los Angeles 97-65
2. Arizona 84-78
3. San Diego 81-81
4. Colorado 68-94
5. San Francisco 64-98

01/31/2020

There’s the hall of fame and then there’s the hall of fame in our minds.

When people think of the HOF they go right to the big names Ruth,Mays,Williams,Ryan,Walter Johnson, and so on... but the hall of fame also includes guys like P*e Wee Reese and Phil Rizutto who are a hell of a lot more questionable than Walker,Edgar, and especially more questionable than Andre Dawson!

The hall of fame isn’t just for the guys we immediately think of as hall of fame players, there are tiers even within the hall of fame. That’s the only justifiable reason for the whole first ballot,second ballot,third ballot BS that I can’t stand.

This past HOF election is a great example of that... we had Derek Jeter who was one vote short of becoming the second unanimously elected player for the HOF and we had Larry Walker who was on his final year of eligibility and got in with 1.6% to spare.

Jeter will be looked at as that upper echelon of hall of fame players he’ll be one of the first names that comes to mind when people think of the hall of fame.

Larry Walker on the other hand will be celebrated by those in Colorado,Canada, and all of the analytics people like me; but he won’t be the first guy who comes to mind for most people.

Get in with 100% of the vote or just 75% either way it’s the same hall of fame.

01/02/2020

My 2010s all-decade team.

Starting Position Players and DH.

C Buster Posey
1B Miguel Cabrera
2B Jose Altuve
SS Adrelton Simmons
3B Adrian Beltre
OF Christian Yelich
OF Mike Trout
OF Giancarlo Stanton
DH David Ortiz

Starting Rotation

1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Max Scherzer
3. Justin Verlander
4. Zack Greinkie
5. Madison Bumgardner

Bullpen

CL Craig Kimbrel
SU Wade Davis
RP Andrew Miller
RP Adam Ottavino
RP Zach Britton
RP Aroldis Chapman
RP Brad Hand
RP Fernando Rodney
RP Tony Watson
RP Kenley Jansen
RP Sergio Romo

Reserve Position Players and DH

C Yadier Molina,Brian McCann,J.T. Realumuto
1B Paul Goldschmidt,Joey Votto,Anthony Rizzo
2B Ian Kinsler,Ben Zobrist,Daniel Murphy
SS Fransisco Lindor,Troy Tulowitzski,Elvis Andrus
3B Nolan Arenado,Josh Donaldson,Evan Longoria
OF Lorenzo Cain,Andrew McCutchen,Kevin Kiermaier,Yoenis Cespedes,Justin Upton,Bryce Harper,Mookie Betts,Brett Gardner,Adam Jones
DH J.D. Martinez,Edwin Encarnacion,Albert Pujols

Starting Lineup

1. Jose Altuve 2B
2. Mike Trout CF
3. Miguel Cabrera 1B
4. David Ortiz DH
5. Giancarlo Stanton RF
6. Adrian Beltre 3B
7. Christian Yelich LF
8. Buster Posey C
9. Adrelton Simmons SS

Managers

Bruce Bochy
Joe Maddon
A.J. Hinch
Joe Girardi
Terry Francona
Dave Roberts
Bob Melvin
Ned Yost
John Gibbons
Ron Washington

04/28/2019

In the beginning, there was darkness, then god said let there be light and there was light.

Let there be bats and there were bats.

Let there be balls and gloves to catch them with; and there were balls and there were gloves.

The people said, oh Lord, we have the equipment but no where to play.

The Lord said, than I shall give you a field of grass and upon this field shall be the most beautiful of diamonds.

You shall have 9 innings and during the 7th, the inning of the Lord, you shall stretch as not to cramp.

Finally, god said, let us play ball.

08/08/2018

FYI, I know I haven’t posted a lot this season but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on the page. I really do want to post more I’ve just been having some personal problems and my sister has been had a rough year with her being sick and having a lot of doctors appointments, so I’ve been watching TV with her when she gets home. Trust me, I will be posting more once things get better and I’ll have time to post more about the best sport in the world.

06/26/2018

The All-Time not in the Hall Of Fame team.

For this list I have to actually believe a player is deserving of the HOF and has to have been on the ballot, so no Jeter,Rivera, or Kershaw since they haven’t been on a HOF ballot yet. I will include players who’ve been banned from the Hall Of Fame as well.

C Bill Freehand
1B Fred McGriff
2B Jeff Kent
SS Jack Glasscock
3B Pete Rose
OF Joe Jackson
OF Dale Murphy
OF Dwight Evans
DH Edgar Martinez

Rotation

1. Luis Tiant
2. Curt Schilling
3. Billy Pierce
4. Mike Mussina
5. Will White

Bullpen

LHP Billy Wagner
LHP Sparky Lyle
LHP John Franco
RHP Lee Smith
RHP Kent Tekulve

Manager

Lou Piniella
Billy Martin

06/23/2018

06/19/2018

This a pretty interesting little video.

In all of baseball history, you'd be hard pressed to find a statistically weirder career than Adam Dunn's. The king of the Three True Outcomes, Dunn was both...

06/17/2018

http://cleatgeeks.com/blog/2018/06/17/a-fathers-day-mlb-plea/

This is not my story. I know it says it is mine, and I am the author, but I caught wind of this story, and I fondly remember the fearless player that Ryan Freel was, especially his days with the Ci…