Conspiracy theory time; Aaron was secretly a southpaw. Spoiler Actually Topps reversed the negative and never corrected it. I finally added this to my 1957's. I have just over 71% of the set now, all PSA graded 6 or higher. (Major cards I still need are T. Williams, Mantle, B. Robinson rookie, J. Bunning rookie.)
Mike Zunino hit a grand slam that damn near left Safeco. It gives him 7 RBI for the night. 7 GS total across the majors today including Pujols's 600th. And a no hitter. Crazy.
The seed that was Justin Smoak certainly took its sweet-ass time but now grew into a pretty tree that has hit 17 dingers in 57 games. That's three more that's three more homeruns than he hit last year. He's in line to be an all-star And we all were thinking he was a Todd Van Popple-esque bomb. He has a hell of a spray pattern too, I give him that.
Indeed. Although, some guys just seem to hit their stride late. Bautista was a bench player who suddenly hit 50 home runs in a season. David Wells was Toronto's worst starter, he's traded to the Yankees and pitched a perfect game and had great success. Brady Anderson I think never hit more than 10 homeruns in a season, then after he hooked up with a solid and dependable drug dealer he hit 51.
Man, fuck Justin Smoak. Every article I've seen about him recently makes the boxcutter open the vein a bit wider.
Guess who leads MLB in RBI for June? Mike Zunino. Apparently he fixed the huge hole in his swing when they sent him down to AAA. For June he's .385 8 26. Also, a fun little factoid I heard last night: Ted Williams has a lifetime 1.116 OPS. Not a single player in MLB today has had a season OPS that high. Not Trout, not Cabrerra, not Harper....no one.
You'll have to go back to 2004 - 13 years - before you have a season where the OPS leader was greater than 1.116. In fact it was only the period of 1996-2004 where the leader's OPS was higher than 1.116 every year. Take out that 9-year period and going back to 1961 (the year after Williams retired) and there are only four seasons where the leader's OPS was higher than Ted's lifetime average. What's also interesting is that during his 19-year career he only led the majors in OPS 10 times - barely more than half. Makes you wonder how much of a statistical effect WWII had on baseball, and on Ted's career, considering he missed 3 prime years to military service.
He actually missed almost 5. He missed full seasons during WWII('43-'45) and during Korea he basically missed '52 & '53. He played 6 games in '52 and 37 in '53 because he was serving in Korea.
Freddie Freeman was having an MVP season when he broke his wrist earlier this year. I thought, no way he comes back before mid-August. Wrist injuries for big hitters are just killers. Then, somehow the Braves picked up Matt Adams, who has just been doing great. Now, Freddie has been cleared (apparently) to start swinging on Friday. What to do? Well, Freddie volunteered to have a go at third and was taking ground balls there. Why not. The Braves suck anyway, might as well turn it into a circus act to bring fans in. Also, this is why your little league coach told you to always run it out.
Jarrod Dyson's broke up Verlander's perfect game down 4-0 in the 6th. With a bunt. For those not in the know, Dyson's speed has been described as "run from the cops" fast. The amount of salt I saw on Reddit and Twitter made me want to buy stock in Morton's. They went on to score 7 runs in the next two innings and won the game.
Cubs' catcher Miguel Montero called out pitcher Jake Arrieta for being slow to the plate, and thus the reason opponent stole so many bases. Montero is 0 for 31 throwing out runners. After Montero threw Arrieta under the bus, the Cubs DFA'd him. Lesson: don't blame your teammates if you suck at your job. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ny-rizzo-blasts-montero-jake-arrieta-comments