Baseball

National Pastime or Past Its Time?

Crippy Baseball ,

Fantastic post from Black, White & Read. The Louisiana Lightning Picture reminds me of a magazine my Mom bought me when I was a kid. The cover had the same picture with the headline, “The Fall and Rise of Ron Guidry”.

Gee Jordan's avatarBLACK, WHITE & READ ALL OVER

It was about 10:45 pm last night and I just finished watching Around The Horn, Pardon The Interruption and First Take on my DVR when I remembered the MLB All Star game was on.  I quickly turned to the station in time to see Neil Diamond singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ and the crowd singing along with him.  It seemed like a nice moment and I thought they were going to go into a commercial break but then I heard the beginning of Metallica’s, ‘Enter The Sandman’

View original post 495 more words

AL Wins ASG 3-0. Home Field for Tigers?

Crippy Baseball , , , , , , , , ,

The American League will have home field advantage in the 2013 World Series courtesy of their 3-0 win in the All Star Game.

The game was dominated by pitching.  Max Scherzer pitched the first inning and shut the National League down 1-2-3, striking out Cincinnati’s Joey Votto to end the first.

The AL pitchers shut out the NL only allowing three hits.

Miggy scored the game’s first run when he led off the top of the 4th with a double and scored on Jose Bautista’s sacrifice fly.

Notes:

  1. Leyland had Mariano Rivera pitch the bottom of the 8th to make sure he got into the game.  The thinking was that if another pitcher came in a gave up the lead, and the AL failed to tie it or go ahead in the top of the 9th, Rivera would not be able to pitch the bottom of the 9th.
  2. Prince Fielder legged out a lead off triple in the top of the 9th but failed to score even though Nelson Cruz followed him with a ground out to second base.  It didn’t appear that the infield was playing in so I can’t figure out why Fielder didn’t attempt to score.
  3. Jhonny Peralta singled in his only at bat in the 8th
  4. Chicago White Sox’s pitcher, who could be the best pitcher in the American League, pitched the 2nd and 3rd and got the win.
  5. Yankee’s reliever Mariano Rivera was name the ASG MVP.
  6. Miguel Cabrera batted three times, was 1-3, and was replaced by Manny Machado in the bottom of the 6th.

Hopefully the Tigers can parlay this win and take advantage of home field in the World Series.  It would be the first Tigers championship in 29 years.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Home Run Derby…

Crippy Baseball , , , ,

So I watched the home run derby tonight.  I didn’t really care for it.  I’ve never really cared for it, but I didn’t feel like reading and I don’t watch anything but baseball or hockey on television.

I find the derby exhausting to watch and worrying, like it is my problem, that the participants will ruin their swings and have poor second halves.  I know it is irrational, but so is being a semi-professional baseball/hockey fan.  🙂

In case you missed it and care, Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland A’s beat the Washington National’s Bryce Harper to claim the 2013 crown.

Our own Prince Fielder, defending champion, didn’t make it past the first round.  He only hit five, which wasn’t enough to move on to round two.

The thing that struck me the most was the maturity of Bryce Harper.  I don’t know what he’s like personally but I find it astounding that he can be in his second ASG and he’s not even 21.  I guess I can’t imagine having the mental capacity to handle that big of a stage a that young of an age.  But, I guess a lot of guys do it.  There are plenty of 18 and 19 year olds playing in the NHL.

Well, at least we have the ASG tomorrow.  The lack of games makes this the worst week of summer, for me, anyway.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tigers, JV Head Into Break On High Note…

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers ,

with win this afternoon over Texas.

The Tigers took the rubber game of the series 5-0 today.  JV pitched 7 strong, allowing only 1 hit, and striking out 3.

Smyly and Benoit came in and recorded the last 6 outs.

Verlander actually had a no-hitter with two outs in the 6th before Mitch Moreland broke it up with a double in the gap between right and center.

For as much as I’ve complained this year, I’m actually pretty satisfied at the break.  The Tigers are 10 games over .500 and have a 3 game lead in the central.

Here’s what I’m hoping for in the second half:

  1. The offense gets more consistent, with better at-bats late in games.
  2. Victor continues his recent pace.
  3. JV looks like the JV of the last two years
  4. Someone else in the bullpen steps up to help Smyly and Benoit
  5. The Tigers end their 29 World Series drought

Is that too much to ask for?

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Lincecum No Hits Padres…

Crippy Baseball ,

San Francisco’s one-time ace, Tim Lincecum, threw his first career no-hitter Saturday, shutting out the San Diego Padres 9-0.

Lincecum, who has struggled for the last season and a half, was un-hittable tonight in San Diego.  He threw 148 pitches, struck out 13, walked 4 and allowed no runs or hits as the Giants beat the Padres tonight 9-0.

I’m happy for Lincecum and I hope this helps him get back to his ACE status.  I just hope they aren’t the Tigers’ opponent again this year in the World Series.

Here‘s a link to the story on MLB.

Tim Lincecum No-Hitter
Tim Lincecum No-Hitter

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Miggy’s Approach…

Crippy Baseball ,

Loyal reader and contributor, and all around good guy, Nebraskaknows, sent me a link to this article about Miguel Cabrera.  It is basically an interview with Miggy regarding his approach to hitting..

For what it is worth, I’ve watched a lot of baseball, I like to say I’m married to baseball but hockey is my girlfriend but I digress, and Miggy is the best hitter I’ve ever seen.  Even though he’s a righty, his swing is still pretty.

This is an opposite field, solo shot, Miggy hit in Tampa Bay, on June 28th of 2012.

Here is a link to My Approach: Miguel Cabrera, the aforementioned article.

Thanks for another solid Nebraska!  You’re aces Pal!

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Rangers Stop Scherzer’s Winning Streak

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , , , , , ,

The Rangers ended Max Scherzer’s 13 game winning streak by handing the Tiger righty his first loss of the season.  Max went 6 innings allowed 4 earned, struck out 6 and walked 2.

It was another lack luster game on this home stand, similar to game 1 of the White Sox series.  The offense didn’t threaten much as Ranger lefty Derek Holland had his back foot slider in full motion tonight.  Holland kept the Tiger hitters off balance all night.

Holland did walk 5 and the Tigers had their chances but this game was really decided in the bottom of the 4th.  The Tigers were trailing 3-0 coming to bat in the 4th. Peralta led off with a single and stole second.  Tui walked which brought Pena to the plate with 2 on and nobody out.  This was not a good time for one of the worst at bats I’ve seen him have.  As usual, Leyland didn’t have Pena bunting but Pena didn’t even look like he was trying to move the runners up.  He swung at the first pitch from Holland, a 92 MPH sinker, and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

I’m not even going to bitch about Leyland not having Pena bunt.  Pena is a professional hitter.  He has to know that at the very least he needs to move the runners over even if is not a true sacrifice.  Nope, he pounds the first pitch he sees into the ground for a rally killing 6-4-3.

There were a few bright spots.  First, rookie second baseman, Hernan Perez, followed Pena’s double play with a single driving in the Tiger’s only run and his first MLB RBI.

The second bright spot was Phil Coke.  He came in to replace Luke Putkonen in the 7th and got A. J. Pierzynski to ground into an inning ending double play.  I was happy for Coke.  He’s been struggling, and it’s nice to see him have a little success that hopefully he can build on for the second half.

Other than that, there wasn’t much to like about tonight’s game.  Alburquerque pitched the 9th and was horrible.  It looks like he’s doing all he can to get back to Toledo.

JV is on the hill for the series and first half finally tomorrow.  I think it is very important to win the game tomorrow.  A win would give them a series win and even their record at 3-3 on this current home stand.  Losing two series in a row, at home, heading into the break, will leave the first half on a down note.  The Tigers really need JV to have a good start and we need better offense than we got tonight.

This team is so irritating.

On another note, I was watching part of the Yankee game before the Tiger game.  The announcers were talking about how Joba Chamberlain is a highly prized commodity that a lot of team are interested in.  Really?  I wonder what teams are interested in Joba?  Are the Tigers one of them?  Joba has a 5.24 era this season.  I guess, if you look at his career stats, they’re not bad.  He has a career 3.81 era and 2.57 K/BB ratio but I wouldn’t be willing to give up top prospects for him.  He’s not going to start.  He’s a power arm coming out of the bullpen who has occasional control problems.  I guess he’s probably better than most of the guys in Tiger bullpen.  But what would the Tigers have to give for him and how much would then have to pay him?  Any thoughts?

Did I mention how irritating the Tigers are?

Oh, Sark, I’ve been thinking about what you said about signing Sanchez.  The more I think about it.  The more I agree with you.

Did I mention how irritated I am right now?

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tigers Shanghai Rangers Early…

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , , , , , , , ,

The Tigers scored 7 runs in the first two innings tonight, beat the Rangers, and took the first game of the last series before the 2013 All-Star break.

Doug Fister pitched fairly well, but struggled at times with his control.  He pitched 6 innings, gave up 2 earned, struck out 5, walked two, and threw 106 pitches.

The bullpen looked good, especially Bruce Rondon, who recorded 4 outs on 10 pitches including 2 Ks.

If I can complain or worry about anything, which you know I can, it is that the Tigers didn’t do much offensively after the 2nd inning.  In fact, Joseph Ortiz replaced Russ Grimm and allowed only 1 hit, a Prince Fielder, infield single, in 3 and two thirds.

What made the lack of add on runs troubling is that the Rangers had chances to come back and make a game of it.

In the 4th inning with two runs already in, the Rangers had the bases loaded with two out and were one swing of the bat away from making a game of it, but Fister got David Murphy to strike out to end the threat.  Also, in the 9th, the Rangers had two on with two out but Benoit was able to strike out Nelson Cruz to end the game.

Another thing that vexes me is the this Tui/Dirks platoon.  Why does Dirks come in for Tui late in games when right handers are brought in but not the other way around.  Dirks was 0-4 tonight and didn’t have a decent at-bat or swing the entire night.  With the way Tui has been swinging the bat, and the way Dirks hasn’t, I thought it would be nice to bring Tui in when Ortiz, a lefty, replaced Grimm. It seems like this platoon thing is mostly a one way street and I don’t get it.

Back at it tomorrow.  A series win would be nice.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Words of Wisdom from Jack Morris…

Crippy Baseball , , , ,

This piece is from the FREEP.

Thanks for the solid Nebraska!

Verlander, who turned 30 in February, said he recently discovered that his shoulder angle has been different this year compared to video from 2011.

“The reality is the older you get, the harder you have to work, and it’s hard to do it,” Morris said. “You’ve had success. It came relatively easy at times. I know it has for him, at times.

“Every day from here on out he’s going to have less and less stuff. That’s life. That’s called the circle of life. He’s not going to get stronger. He’s not going to throw 110 (miles per hour) next year. He’s going to have to get by and learn more and be smarter with less stuff than he did when he was younger. That’s the way life is.

Read the entire post here.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

 

Random Thoughts

Crippy Baseball , , , , , ,

Did you know Miggy’s real first name is Jose?  Here‘s a link to his bio on MLB.

Former Tiger prospect Jacob Turner is pitching well for the Marlins.  He has started 8 games.  He is 3-1 with a 2.33 earned run average.

Did anybody else find it comical that Luke Putkonen didn’t look the least bit worried or frightened when Ramirez acted like he was going to charge the mound?

This is the image of Reggie Jackson that in ingrained into my mind.  When I think of Reggie, this is the picture that appears.

Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson Home Run Swing

I’m hoping for a better game tonight against the Rangers.  The White Sox series made me sick.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural