The Baseball Zealot

Orioles spot Red Sox 9 run lead then bats take over

As hard as it may seem to believe, Rich Hill’s ERA jumped a full point in his start against the Red Sox last night. Hill allowed 9 hits 9 runs in 3 plus innings.

Fortunately for Baltimore, the Oriole bats were working overtime. They achieved the biggest comeback in franchise history saving Hill from being the goat. Baltimore won by the score of 11-10.

It was also the biggest comeback by a last-place team over a first-place team.

George Sherrill the young stopper for Baltimore, got his 17th save of the year.

"One-run saves are tough. I haven’t been part of a winning team yet, so I guess when we get to 83 wins, that will be more exciting. Until then, this is probably one of the biggest."

One-run saves are indeed tough. That’s why the good ones get paid the big bucks.

By the way, I’m don’t follow the Red Sox too closely but why is Julio Lugo leading off and Jacoby Ellsbury batting eighth? Lugo seems to be one of those players that just won’t retire. And I’m not sure if I mean that in a good way or a bad way.

Baseball in Graphs

Sometimes info is easier digested in graphs, at least for me. Check out the website Flip Flop Fly Ball and you’ll see what I mean.

It’s full of neat baseball-related graphs, maps and images that are kinda neat. For my buddy DonS, they even have a video montage of Ichiro Suzuki.

51 runs scored in California League game

Here’s a fun boxscore to look over.

Lake Elsinore	8	3	5	2	4	0	0	6	5		33	32	1
High Desert	1	2	0	3	5	0	0	3	4		18	26	5

Yesterday, High Desert had 8 players with a multi-hit game, four players with four rbis and 5 homeruns for the game… and they lost.

No, it was the Lake Elsinore Storm who defeated High Desert Mavericks 33-18 in a Class A California League matchup. Storm leadoff hitter Brad Chalk had 9 at-bats in the regulation nine inning game. Six Storm players had four or more hits. Matt Clark and Felix Carrasco combined for 11 rbis.

When the eighth inning started, the score was “only” 22-11. The Storm managed to put across eleven more and High Desert weren’t about to give up. However, their seven runs in the last two innings weren’t enough.

Looking at the scoreboard today… no score yet.

Bats must be tired.

Magglio selling his hair for a good cause

Want Magglio Ordonez’ chopped hair clippings? Me neither. But somebody does. Ordonez cut his hair and it’s being sold on Ebay for a good cause.

If you are itchin’ (poor choice of words, I know) to run your fingers through Mags’ locks, be prepared to pony up because the current bid is $5100.

Magglio post-haircut

The proceeds will go to Imerman Angels which is a foundation which in their words “connects a person fighting cancer today ("cancer fighter") with someone who has beaten the same type of cancer ("cancer survivor"). The relationship provides a fighter the opportunity to ask personal questions and receive encouragement from someone who is uniquely familiar with the situation.”

The auction winner also gets 18 tickets in his skybox for the September 15th game plus an autographed bat. Act now! The listing will only be up for 10 days.

Soto tested positive for pot at WBC games

So Geovany Soto has been found tested positive for marijuana earlier this year at the World Baseball Classic.

Great. I drafted a stoner with my first pick in my APBA league last year.

Of course, the media is handling the way they always do. They trot out their trite template they use for articles in these situations. Such articles include the apology from the player (“I fully understand the ramifications of my actions. I have and will accept any and all consequences”.. blah blah), how disappointed the team and league is in the player but they will support him and meaningless accolades in this inappropriate time (Asst GM Randy Bush: "I think he would never make excuses. That’s the kind of guy he is…").

Of course in this situation we can’t neglect the over-analyzation by countless journalists and bloggers of Soto. Jjust maybe this all might have to do with his year long slump, right??.

ESPN’s Nick Friedell seems to think so.

In all seriousness, though, this news is embarrassing for everyone involved, most notably Soto. The Cubs’ catcher is hitting just .228 on the year and looks like a shell of the player that was the NL Rookie of the Year last season. He doesn’t look nearly as powerful, or as fit, as he did when he clubbed 23 homers and 86 RBIs in 2008. In short, he’s been a disappointment, and now with this news being public plenty of fans will wonder if all the adulation got to his head.

A little over two years ago we had a similar situation when then White Sox pitcher Freddie Garcia was found to have been found to have tested positive for pot at the WBC. We all know what happened to Garcia’s effectiveness after that.

Maybe Friedell has a point.

MLB games come to Boxee

Good news for baseball fans who use Boxee. MLB games will be coming to Boxee, the streaming video service.

From the Boxee blog:

We are excited to announce a partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB.com) to offer MLB.TV Premium to boxee users.

MLB.TV Premium on boxee means you can now watch thousands of baseball games, live and on-demand in HD (where available). on top of that, MLB.TV Premium offers DVR functionality to pause and rewind a live game. MLB.com represents a big step for boxee as we hope this is the first of many different live sports offerings we can bring to you. We hope other sports follow MLB.com’s lead of giving fans a choice of how they enjoy watching their favorite teams….

I’ve never used Boxee but if anyone does, I’d love to hear how well this works once it gets up and running.

Tigers Defeat Longhorns

lsu Game one saw LSU overcome five Texas home runs, winning in the 11th inning when Mikie Mahtook singled home D.J. LeMahieu for a 7-6 win. The Longhorns rebounded to win game 2 behind Taylor Jungmann, who pitched a complete game, allowing only 5 hits, & one run, as Texas won 5-1. A five run LSU sixth inning busted open a close game as the Tigers cruised to an 11-4 victory, and the NCAA Baseball Championship.

LSU Tigers drafted were outfielder Jared Mitchell in the 1st round by the White Sox, D.J. LeMahieu a secondbaseman was drafted in the 2nd round by the Cubs, the 152nd player taken was righthanded pitcher Harold Coleman by the Royals, the Blue Jays selected outfielder Ryan Schimpf who was the 160th player taken, the Twins chose outfielder Michael Dean, and firstbaseman Sean Ochinko was taken by the Blue Jays.

Texas Longhorns drafted were Brandon Belt a firstbaseman taken by the Giants and lefthanded pitcher Austin Wood was selected by the Tigers.

2009 Draft: It’s in the Blood

dpt.OCC-Wallach.051409.dl hb2

The bloodlines were strong in this year’s MLB First Year Player Draft, almost 50 players have some blood tie to a former player. Brett Wallach, a righthanded pitcher, was selected in the 3rd round by the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the White Sox are hoping lightning will strike twice as they reached into the bargain basement, selecting the son of Harold Baines, HB2, in the 45th round.

1	BOS	Reymond Fuentes	Carlos Beltran	Cousin
3	LAD	Brett Wallach	Tim Wallach	Father
3	BOS	David Renfroe	Laddie Renfroe	Father
4	OAK	Max Stassi	Myril Hoag	Uncle
6	DET	Daniel Fields	Bruce Fields	Father
6	TOR	Kristopher Hobson	Butch Hobson	Father
6	TEX	Ruben Sierra Jr.	Ruben Sierra	Father
6	SEA	Brian Moran	B.J. Surhoff	Uncle
12	BAL	Steven Bumbry	Al Bumbry	Father
14	TOR	Lance Durham	Leon Durham	Father
16	SD	Griffin Benedict	Bruce Benedict	Father
16	BOS	Luke Bard	Daniel Bard	Brother
18	DET	Eric Roof	Gene Roof	Father
19	NYY	Luke Murton	Matt Murton	Brother
20	DET	James Gulliver	Glenn Gulliver	Father
24	LAA	Taylor Kinzer	Matt Kinzer	Father
29	TOR	Zach Outman	Josh Outman	Brother
30	TEX	Anthony Hutting	Jamie Shields	Cousin
			Aaron Rowand	Cousin
30	TB	Marcus Proctor	Marcus Jensen	Father
32	TEX	Reggie Williams Jr.	Reggie Williams	Father
34	TOR	Jonathan Fernandez	Tony Fernandez	Father
34	WAS	Shane McCatty	Steve McCatty	Father
36	BOS	Mike Yastrzemski	Carl Yastrzemski	Grandfather
40	LAD	Ryan Christenson	Gary Christenson	Father
40	PHI	Robert Amaro	Ruben Amaro	Uncle
41	ARI	Cade Kreuter	Chad Kreuter	Father
42	OAK	Blake Crosby	Bobby Crosby	Brother
43	DET	Andrew Allen	Rod Allen	Father
43	CWS	Tyler Williams	Ken Williams	Father
44	WAS	Hoby Milner	Brian Milner	Father
45	ARI	Beau Amaral	Rich Amaral	Father
45	CWS	Harold Baines, Jr.	Harold Baines	Father
45	BOS	Kyle Arnesberg	Brad Arnesberg	Father
46	LAA	Philip Bando	Chris Bando	Father
			Sal Bando	Uncle
46	WAS	Seth Greene	Tommy Greene	Father
47	SEA	David Holman	Brian Holman	Father
47	CHC	Joseph Jocketty	Walt Jocketty	Father
48	DET	Jake Porcello	Rick Porcello	Brother
48	KC	Kevin Kuntz	Rusty Kuntz	Father
49	COL	Mark Tracy	Chad Tracy	Brother
			Jim Tracy	Father

Tee Ball World Series, if you can believe it

Youth Sports Parents describes a dramatic comeback at the Tee Ball World Series.

T.J. McCants, 7, slugged a home run. This capped a nine-run rally. And in the championship game, Cantonment upended Northeast Pensacola Blue, 31-29. That’s right – 31-29.

My thoughts:

They have a Tee Ball World Series? They have winners and losers? They actually keep score?

That’s a different Tee Ball than the one my kids played.

Either case, congrats to Master McCants and his team. That homerun must have been a sight to see.

Should they walk Pujols with bases loaded?

For those who haven’t noticed, Albert Pujols has done amazingly well with the bases loaded this year. Here are his stats with three runners on.

At this point in the season, Pujols is five for five with 3 homeruns and 16 rbis. Yikes!

If you believe in such stats, some of his other clutch stats are not as juicy, though. Interestingly, he is only 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position with two outs.