Cain over Betts (or half a dozen others) is just Royals-nutty, but I think you probably realize that.
For what it’s worth, Fangraphs and B-R both kind of hate Hosmer’s defense and have for several years running; is the perception among Royals fans that he’s not that bad, or is that another tongue-in-cheek rec? I find it hard to get too enthusiastic about any of the AL 1Bs, actually, so I guess I’d probably go with Miggy but won’t be particularly miffed if the Royals internet vote wins out there.
I still have a bit of a sore spot about that contract, for purely personal reasons. I can’t fault him for accepting that much money (if someone offered me that much, you bet your ass I’d accept the deal…after having a lawyer friend of mine pour through all the fine print). But it’s that $2 million at the end that kills me. A quarter of a billion dollars just wasn’t quite enough. They had to throw the extra on there.
And may I amend my statement to “any A-Rod contract after his first supercontract?”
Your starting to sound like one of those uber-annoying Royals fans from last year’s voting. Cain is a nice player, but he shouldn’t be anywhere near the starting outfield. Your omission of Springer, who leads all AL outfielders in war, for Cain, kinda speaks for your Royalness.
Springer, Trout, Betts; game over!
Also, Miggy over Hosmer at 1B. It’s close offensively, but Miggy is the better defender.
That’s the criteria. Players are being rewarded for their first-half productivity. Awards at the season’s conclusion are what full-season productivity rewards.
On an unrelated note, rumor has it that the Cubs may be targeting a trade for Jose Bautista from Toronto, which I’m sure will bring RickJay to orgasm thinking about the players they’d receive if this turns out to be true.
Cubs are also rumored to be interested in Aroldis Chapman, but the Yankees won’t deal until the deadline.
Bautista would be interesting. He’s 35, not having a spectacular season and wants a truckload of money. Sure, if I were Toronto I’d listen to offers. But the Jays are by no means out of the playoff hunt. So they might want a genuine MLB player, not prospects. Maybe some kind of 3 team deal would make sense.
Rumors continue to swirl around the Red Sox and pretty much every starting pitcher who might possibly be available. Will be interesting to see if Dombrowski pulls the trigger.
The Orioles are somehow managing to stay (just) on top of the AL East. They’ve had a bunch of come-from-behind wins over the last month. Last night they thumped the Royals, who have now lost 6 in a row.
I generally like Kansas City, but it was nice to see Ventura get hit around the park last night, because he’s an asshole.
I’d missed Machado’s first at-bat in the game and was really caught off-guard by the plunk and subsequent mound-charging. At any rate, the Orioles have been fun to follow so far this year. Not a bad substitute team for me.
His temper’s gotten a little too hot. Part of me feels bad for the kid. Just a few years ago, he was the hardest throwing starter in the game, on a meteoric trajectory. Something’s happened this year - his velocity is down, his control is worse, and it’s getting into his head. He needs to be sent down to get things in order.
In about half an hour, the wife and i are leaving for AT&T Park to watch the Red Sox and the Giants. It’s Price against Bumgarner. Should be a nice matchup.
And it was, with Bumgarner getting the better of it. All scoring came via 3 solo home runs.
The Sox kind of get screwed by this series. They travel from Boston to SF for a 2 game set, having to face Bumgarner in one, and then back to Minnesota for a series before going home again. I’ve never seen an East Coast team make a West Coast trip that consisted of 2 games.
The Giants got the best of it, but i’m not sure that Bumgarner really did. He only gave up 4 hits and a walk over 6 innings, but he never really seemed comfortable. Quite a few of the hitters he faced went deep into the count, and he hit the 100-pitch mark during the 6th inning. When he left, the game was tied.
By contrast, after six innings Price seemed to be cruising. With the exception of Brandon Belt’s homer and a single to Duffy, he had been getting a lot of quick outs. At the end of the 6th, his pitch count was 68. He struggled in the 7th, with over 20 pitches, but got out of it without conceding a run. Then in the 8th, Mac Williamson’s first Major league homer only cleared the fence by about a foot, with the help of a pretty strong breeze that was blowing out. So Price pitches really well, and ends up with a complete-game loss.
I was happy to see my first ever splash hit at AT&T. Belt’s homer was the first hit into McCovey Cove by a Giant in almost two years. It’s pretty amazing that, in 8 seasons at the park, Barry Bonds put it in the drink 35 times, and all other Giants combined have only done it 34 times in 16 years.
I was amazed at how many Red Sox fans were at the park. I got used to that when i lived in Baltimore, because the teams are in the same division, and Boston is just a short flight or a somewhat longer Amtrak ride away. But even here in San Francisco, there were Red Sox shirts and caps everywhere, and it often seemed that the cheers for Boston were as loud as those for the Giants. There was massive noise from the Boston fans when David Ortiz came in to pinch hit in the 9th.
Like many other ballparks, AT&T has a kiss-cam, where they put couples up on the big screen and get them to kiss for the camera. The last couple found by the camera last night was Joe Montana and his wife, and the local hero was a good sport and kissed for the crowd, which cheered wildly.
