Jose Bautista

2017 Detroit Baseball Dinner

Crippy Baseball , , , , , , , , , , ,

So I’m a little late in writing about this, but with the season fast approaching, I figured better late than never.

Since 2001, The Detroit Baseball Society has been holding an annual dinner. This is the fifth year that I have attended.  Previous dinners were held a the Bloomfield Hills Country Club. This year’s dinner, however, was held at the Amnesia Room on the 16th floor of the MotorCity Casino.

In addition to dinner, drinks and appetizer’s there as a silent, sports memorabilia , auction and a slate of guest speakers.  The guest speakers included Andrew Romine, Brad Ausmus and Steve Chilton.

Romine was awarded the Bill MacAdam Tenth Man Award and gave a very nice speech. He seemed personable and genuinely excited about receiving the award, which I wondered about, given that the award and presenting organization are not widely known.

Brad Ausmus spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions for the audience. If you weren’t a fan of BA before the dinner, you probably were after. He was smart, articulate, and seemed like a good guy, he was pretty funny too.

Worth the price of admission was Steve Chilton.  The first time I heard of Steve was when I saw him at the 2014 dinner. He is a genuine baseball / Tigers fanatic and a fabulous speaker.  In 2014, he spoke about his heartbreak at the Tigers’ playoff loss to the Red Sox.  This year he spoke about a shift in trends in MLB in how teams evaluate and value players.  Apparently, some teams are using advanced, video analysis of players that allows them to better evaluate their defense and runs they are able to save by making the proper defensive play.  He said the these advanced metrics are going to show up in the contracts free agents are offered.  I guess we got a little taste this past off season where Bautista and Encarnacion didn’t find the demand they were expecting.  (Incidentally, Chilton informed us that the advanced metrics  valued Kevin Kiermaier higher than Jose Batista.)

The price of the dinner was $150 and in my opinion, worth every penny.

I picked up a sweet autographed Gordie Howe picture in a baseball uniform.

IMG_3665

 

 

Cheap Shot?

Crippy Baseball, Conniption Shot , , , , ,

Can someone explain how this is a “cheap shot”?

APTOPIX Blue Jays Rangers Baseball
Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista (19) gets hit by Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor (12) after Bautista slid into second in the eighth inning of a baseball game at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, Sunday May 15, 2016. (Richard W. Rodriguez/Star-Telegram via AP)

I’m watching ESPN and they are showing the fight.  I believe Eduardo Perez said, the Blue Jays feel that Odor’s punch was a “cheap shot”.  I’m sorry, WTF, Odor’s right cross was anything but “cheap”. Is any punch that connects, “cheap”.

Addendum: May 16th, 2016.  

Now I’ve heard everything. Christopher Russo of MLB Network has been screaming that Rougy’s bomb on Bautista was a “sucker punch”.  What universe is he living in?  He then proceeds to say that Odor was running away after the punch.  Are we watching the same video?  Actually, I saw it live as well.  Bautista has to be given credit for not being KO’d but Rougy wasn’t running away from anything.  In fact, it looks like he was moving forward, going in for the finish, when Beltre broke it up.  Also, it looks like Rougy was throwing rights at Pillar as well.  I thought these hosts were supposed to be “unbiased”, like the news. 🙂

Rougned Odor | Conniption Shot

Crippy Baseball , , , ,

this is a different type of  conniption shot. This one was off of the chin of Jose Bautista.

 

Rougned connected with a right cross the likes of which you rarely see outside of boxing and MMA. The analysis of the situation on MLB Network, mainly by Eric Burns, is embarrassing.

Burns is clearly a personal friend of Bautista and has tried to make every excuse for his buddy having to eat a solid right cross that buckled his knees.  The punch didn’t put him away, but if Beltre didn’t get in to break it up, it might have been a lot uglier.

Here’s my analysis:

  • Bush hit Bautista on purpose.
  • Bautista went in hard on Odor although I didn’t think the slide was that egregious.
  • Odor may have tried to throw low to give Bautista a haircut as he went into the slide; although I’m not as sure about this as Eric Burns who has done nothing but complain about it for the last half hour.
  • Odor didn’t like Bautista’s slide.
  • Odor was clearly willing and able to fight.  And his definition of fight is not pushing and shoving.  Odor was only too glad to “trade hands”.
  • Odor can definitely handle himself.
  • Bautista wasn’t out but was wobbly.
  • Beltre did Bautista a solid by breaking it up.  He was clearly shaken and Odor looked like he was going in for the knock out, although he never dropped his glove which is a little odd.  In fact, if he had dropped his glove, his follow up left might have put Joey Bats away.
  • Bautista didn’t try to get away from Beltre because he was trying to regain his wits.
  • Someone from the Blue Jays bench came flying in really trying to get at Odor, perhaps Pillar? Whoever it was, it wasn’t for show, he definitely wanted to avenge Bautista.

Apparently, a scout that followed Rougned Odor, wrote in his analysis, “You don’t want to F**K with him.” Perhaps other people in MLB should heed this warning?  Odor definitely looks like he is a wiling combatant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Jays 5 Tigers 3

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

This one may surprise you but I’m not putting this one on Joe Nathan.  I’m not a big fan of his and he did pitch himself into a jam in the 9th but he also pitched well enough to get out of it.  This one belongs to Andrew Romine.

What in the sam hell was he doing on the ground ball Bautista hit?  Can someone please explain why he stutter stepped?  Who did he think was supposed to field the ball.

Tigers fans we have a problem.  The left side of the infield is horrible.  Romine and Castellanos besides not fielding aren’t doing anything at the plate either.

I guess the good news is that Anibal Sanchez has established himself as the ace of this staff.  Over this abominable two week stretch, I think the Tigers have gotten four quality starts.  Three of them are from Sanchez who was absolutely smokin balls!  He shut out the Jays for seven innings?  With the way they’ve been hitting?  He looks like JV did during his Cy Young year.

Joba was good again tonight, but besides him, is there anyone the Tigers can count on out of the pen?

This thing is a mess!

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