Royals hit two grand slams last night, first time the team has done so since 2004.
Cubs get their 2nd consecutive walk-off HR against the lowly Marlins (after pissing away ANOTHER lead in the late innings). WTF is up with the Cub’s 'pen?
Is this question worth answering?
Surely this thread is long enough by now that you can get a sense of what kind of discussion goes on here, and whether it’s the kind of thing you’d want to follow? If you need more, check out the previous month’s thread, linked to at the beginning of this one.
Is it just me or have there been a lot of grand slams recently?
The Blue Jays are a bad team, which everyone expected as they’re kind of starting over with kids, but Socrates Brito is becoming a really baffling case. Brito has a wonderful name, but to say he is a bad baseball player is really an understatement. He is maybe the worst player I’ve ever seen in a Blue Jays uniform. So far this season, Socrates is **3 for 39 **and has already struck out 17 times. Those numbers are NOT the product of bad luck; he is visibly really that bad a hitter. He looks completely lost at the plate. To make up for it, he is also a terrible outfielder. According to WAR, Brito is the sixth worst position player in the AL, and everyone worse than him has played a lot more, except for poor 1-for-35 Daniel Palka, and Palka hit 27 homers last year so you can understand why the White Sox keep sending him out there.
The Blue Jays have, conservatively, at least seven men in the minor leagues who would be better outfielders than Brito. At Buffalo right now they have a guy, Cavan Biggio, who has played some outfield and is hitting .344 with power and more walks than strikeouts. The official team line is that Brito has wonderful tools, and he is certainly very, very fast and very strong, but the guy is 26 years old, and I think even the most casual baseball fan would agree that if at 26 you have not yet demonstrated the ability to convert strength and speed into baseball ability, maybe you should not be working on that in the major leagues.
I gotta go with the A’s Skye Bolt.
RickJay:
Is hemlock on MLB’s list of banned substances?
the dodgers have the best record in MLB? its to oearly for that …the dodgers need to start mediocre to crappy then raise themselves …other wise there gonna go 5-20 in august and blow getting to the playoffs …
It’s a good thing Davey Martinez had the Nats work on fundamentals in spring training. Victor Robles just got picked off second on a walk to the next batter!
Oh Mariners, why do you do me like this?
George Springer, who has had all but one of his plate appearances in the #1 spot in the lineup, is leading the AL in RBI.
I was checking out former Reds/Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill’s stats online when I noticed the Baseball Reference people had a little fun posting his info.
There’s a section at the top of each ballplayer’s listing to note his “handedness”, i.e. Bats: Right /Throws: Right.
O’Neill’s reads: Bats: Left/ Throws: Left/ Kicks: Left
Huh?
As soon as I started to click on the Kicks: Left I realized it was a link to one of my all-time favorite baseball plays, which I saw live back in 1989. 
When O’Neill went into broadcasting, it seemed an unlikely choice. In his playing days he appeared to seethe with rage on a daily basis. To call him intense would have been ridiculous understatement.
I’ve gotten used to him calling games on YES and he’s doing fine. He’s an affable goober, really. Doesn’t have an unkind word for anyone…well, maybe an umpire or two. He made boatloads of cash as a player so I doubt he needs this gig. He must love it because he’s doing the full grind as opposed to someone like David Cone who will do 30 games a season.
Edwin Jackson is only 35 and is going to set the record for number of teams played for if he pitches for the Blue Jays. One more after that he’ll have played for 15 of 30.
I love the 3 man booth of Kay, Cone & O’Neill. With Cone & O’Neill in the booth, Kay is much more restrained. David Cone is a baseball geek and expert on pitching and how to pitch. Paul O’Neill has good insights into hitting & fielding and is the old-hand off the field with lots of Yankees stories from his days. He takes the slot that Murcer & Scooter had previously.
As a Blue Jays fan, I am wistful when fans of other teams talk about their broadcasters. Our color man is Pat Tabler, who never says anything insightful. That’s not an exaggeration; I mean NEVER. “The blue jays could use a hit here” is his level of insight. Tabler played 1202 games over twelve years in the big leagues and was a good player, and yet he seems to have nothing at all to say about the sport.
Anyway, Vladdy Jr. hit his first two dingers last night so I’m happy. And hoo boy, they were monsters. Dinger 1 of hundreds went 439 to dead center, and Dinger 2 of hundreds went 451 to just a tiny left of center.
O’Neill’s a cool dude. I’ve waited on him and his family a couple times in Cincinnati (obviously he played here and is originally from Columbus and grew up a Reds fan) at a restaurant I worked at long ago, and I have run into him and his sons at King’s Island THREE times and I was flattered he remembered me.
He remembered me because the first time I had met him at the restaurant, while he was up front with me waiting for his family to get coats, etc I asked him what it was like to face Randy Johnson, something he’d done recently as this was about a year after he retired.
It was an interesting response due to the velocities Johnson would approach and due to his height and arm angle. He more or less told “It’s weird: you can hear it, but you can’t see it”.
The Ben Zobrist situation just seems to be getting weirder as the rumors fly around. The most common are that he doesn’t want to play with Addison Russell or that he’s getting a divorce.
I assume Maddon knows that for whatever reason, Zobrist’s heart isn’t in the game and this is giving him extended time away. Zobrist is at the end of his career and this may have very well been his last year anyway.
Edit: it’s a divorce
He filed for divorce in Tennessee at the same time as she filed for divorce in Illinois. Illinois has no-fault divorce; Tennessee only allows it if there are no contested issues at all. This sounds like it could be messy.
lawmaker wants to change the rules for rain delays in regards to the fans MSN
Now hws just a city councilman but he makes sense