Check out Adam Eaton’s play.
Sno-coned it!
Here’s some catcher-on-catcher action, with Yan Gomes juking out Hank Conger.
Anyone’s view of their team(s) change for better or for worse after Week 1?
The Dodgers are off to an unconvincing start, squeaking their way to a 3-3 record today after making a semi-legitimate effort to give away a game they were leading 7-0 with two outs in the 9th inning. Kershaw has been a bit shaky (more in his second start than his first), and the bullpen remains a question mark. Still, there are signs of a steadier offense and better defense already. Plus, you know, Adrian Gonzalez’s week wasn’t half bad.
Meanwhile, the Indians just spent the weekend getting swept in their home opening series by Detroit, surrendering a minimum of 8 runs in each game. Not only is their bullpen now screwed up (although Shaun Marcum was quite good in a lengthy mop-up roll today), but we’ve lost our primary catcher for six to eight weeks.
So…how’s your team looking?
Today’s Jays-Orioles game featured the worst home plate umpiring I’ve seen in ten years. The home plate ump probably blew one third of all ball/strike calls, some of them not at all close. Eventually Russell Martin was called out on a third strike that was not in the strike zone, on which he didn’t even begin to attempt to swing, and which actually hit him. Earlier in the game, one Oriole better had a pitch go right down the middle and yet was called a ball, and then the subsequent pitch was above the opposite batter’s box and was called a strike. It was totally random.
Toronto won 10-7 but the truth is that the entire outcome of the game was determined by the home plate ump, not the players. Maybe 15 to 20 at bats were determined on counts that were just plain wrong. Had the pitches been called correctly the game might have been completely different.
Call balls and strikes with Pitch/FX, please.
A’s have no closers.
Like a defending American League champion ought to - 6 games, 6 wins. Interesting rookie Paulo Orlando, the first Major Leaguer to come from Brazil, has also become the first Major Leaguer to have each of his first three hits be triples.
It will be awesome to prove last year not a fluke. Go Royals!
Not a single player got injured during today’s game…so that’s better than most days so far. Beyond that, I just have to keep repeating “it’s an odd year…it’s an odd year”
I hear you. Yesterday, we went through three different third basemen, losing the first two to (fortunately, very minor) injuries on consecutive plays. That’s got to be fairly rare even in this wacky sport.
Robot Umps Now!
Clay Buchholz giveth, and Clay Buchholz taketh away. Needed every bit of how well he pitched on opening day, just completely and immediately destroy any chance at a very winnable game tonight against a still-shaky Tanaka.
That’s fucked up. The AL Central is fucked up. Two undefeated teams (Tigers too, if you didn’t know). I am not pleased.
Something big is going to happen and both of those teams are going to fall hard.
It’s gotta, right? Otherwise the season is over. Over.
ETA: Tribe has 6 more games against DET and KC this month!!
Buchholz is a great talent from the neck down. Sometimes his head shows up for the game, sometimes it doesn’t. Maddening.
Fun fact: Even when Ellsbury was on the team, he was still not the fastest guy there. Reputedly Buchholz was.
The Angels have pulled all Josh Hamilton merchandise from their team store. I’ll assume it wasn’t selling well , even before Hamilton admitted drinking and drugging yet again.
I’m probably in the minority, but i support Moreno public dissing of Hamilton. Not only was Hamilton a lousy ballplayer in 2014, he delayed his surgery until close to the start of the season.
I realize you absolutely hate Josh Hamilton, but publicly ripping into one of your employees is rarely a classy move. Release the guy or don’t.
I mean, assuming Arte Morneo is not a blithering idiot, he must have known Hamilton had substance abuse issues when he hired the guy. Complaining now that he has substance abuse issues is like buying a nervous dog and acting surprised when it pees on the rug. It’s not that the Angels shouldn’t do something about it, and I won’t even - for the moment - point out that signing Hamilton to the contract they did was insanely stupid. But, seriously, either release him, negotiate a way out, or put him back in the lineup and shut up.
I mean, say what you will about Alex Rodriguez - he’s one of the most personally repulsive superstars in sports today - but at least the Yankees handled his assholery with a degree of resigned professionalism.
There were two earlier Brazilians, catcher Yan Gomes and pitcher Andre Rienzo. That’s pretty bizarre about the triples, though.
Yep. All the criticism sounds too much like embarrassment at being caught holding a fairly predictable bag of crap. And even without drug problems, that contract was always going to be an albatross after a year or two.
Freddy the Pig:
My mistake - he was the first professional baseball player to come from Brazil, but those two made the majors ahead of him.
And the Royals are now the last undefeated team in baseball. Just calm down, boys - we’ve got a long season to draw this out. Though I did get to have the following exchange tonight at the bar for dinner.
Me: Hey Daisy (the bartender), can you see if there’s a game on the MLB Channel? Thanks.
Drunk guy: Baseball? Who’s your team?
(This guy wears Tiger gear pretty often, and he’s a loudmouth even more often. He’s talked shit a number of times, and I wanted to head things off as quickly as I could.)
Me: The Royals.
Drunk guy: Oh, I bet. Been a fan a “real” long time, huh?
Me: Yeah, I know - I’ve just been rooting for them since they made the World Series. But it was a ton of fun, and you can’t feel too bad about a loss like that, especially considering that HOF caliber ace they put up there who just kept mowing them down, plus that unbelievable thirdbaseman.
Drunk guy: Third baseman? You think Sandoval is/was unbelievable?
Me: Sandoval? Oh, no - I was talking about Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. I’ve been rooting for the Royals since 1980.
Our first big losing stretch will have at least one good outcome - maybe Yost will substitute Colon in for Infante, who is really not that good at playing baseball. I’d like to see what Colon can do with better playing time, and Infante could use some pressure behind him.
The triples thing may be true but he is not the first, or even second, Brazilian major leaguer. Yan Gomes was the first, Andre Rienzo the second.
The Reds bullpen outside of Chapman and Tony Cingriani is AWFUL and directly responsible for two out of their three losses when the Reds were winning going into the eighth inning. Just AWFUL.
I’ve already been corrected. He was the first Brazilian professional baseball player, but those two did indeed beat him to the majors.