Author: The Baseball Zealot

Wow! Vinny Castilla is on a roll. Thursday, he missed a cycle by a base hit. Tonight, he missed it by a triple. He went 3-3 with a double, homerun and 4 rbis.

The grand total for his last two games:
6 for 6 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homeruns, and 8 rbis.

By no coincidence, the Nats won both games.

Anyone with Castilla on their fantasy team have to pretty pleased right now.

John Smoltz is now 0-3 for the Braves. At least he pitched a decent game, allowing only 2 runs in 7 innings.

I have a buddy who thinks it’s career suicide for Smoltz to be put back in the rotation after so much success in the pen. I know it’s early but so far this season’s seem to validate that.

His thinking is that at Smoltz’ age, his arm can only take so much after pitching <100 innings/year. Besides why tinker with what works? Smoltz was dominant as a reliever the past couple years. Time will tell how he does this year as a starter.

Yes, the White Sox defeated the Mariners 2-1 behind the exceptional pitching of Mark Buehrle…

Give Ichiro an at-bat or two more and that outcome might be in question. Ichiro sliced a line drive triple in the 8th and eventually scored the lone Mariner run. He just makes things happen. He was 3 for 4 for the day and is currently hitting .432 this season.

I have a vicarious history with Ichiro. In 2002, the Illowa APBA League (a simulation baseball league I’m in) had both Albert Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki available in the rookie draft. DS is also in the league was all gung ho about picking Ichiro and couldn’t understand why anyone else didn’t feel the same way. I had the first pick in the draft and had my eye on Pujols.

Throughout the off-season, we traded good natured barbs about who was better and when the time came, I picked Pujols and DS picked Ichiro. I should say these barbs were good natured but very pointed.

When the next convention rolled around, DS surprised me with a framed picture of Pujols. That picture is now up in my office wall.

When Ichiro broke the hits record last year, I called DS up on his cell phone to congratulate him. He was out bowling with buddies and had a few drinks but I was able to get the message across and I think it meant something to him that I took the time to call.

That is my connection with Ichiro. Hats off to him and he has my deepest respect as a baseball player. More and more, i understand why DS wanted him so bad.

But I’m still glad I have Pujols ;-)

Santana wins his 16th straight for the Twins despite not having his best stuff.

Speaking of the Twins, Terry Tiffee has been making quite a splash lately. He had another hit and 2 rbis. See what Twins Chatter has to say.

Looks like the Cubs couldn’t hold on to a lead on Friday night against the Buccos. Bobby Hill’s two-run double against Chad Fox in the bottom of the 8th sealed the deal.

When they showed Baker in the dugout after Hill’s double, it looked like he was uttering a few choice words.

Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez is scheduled to have a hernia operation and will miss 4-6 weeks. The normally durable Mags missed most of last season due to a knee injury last season.

This doesn’t bode well for Detroit who I thought actually looked promising for 2005 compared to recent years.

Dang, and I just picked him in my fantasy league, too.

Followup: Folks over at the TigerBlog obviously aren’t too pleased with this development. They hope Bobby Higginson will do what he can to fill the void.

Am I the only who thinks it strange that Tampa Bay has been batting Julio Lugo in the cleanup spot? They did it at least twice this week. Lugo has some pop relative to his position but certainly with hitters like Phelps or Huff, there would certainly be a better option.

Last night, they put him in the #2 spot which makes a little more sense to me and he responded with a double and 2 walks.

If you haven’t gotten started on those tax forms, now might be a good time to start :)