MARCO’S
BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2019: WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE
1/
TRENDING...TRENDING...TRENDING…”THE 80% PREDICTION”
*By 2030 80% of all
major league pitchers will be able to throw a fastball at least
95mph.
*By 2030 80% of
major league clubs will have at least 7 players who hit 20 or more
homers in a season.
*By 2030 80% of
players with at least 500 plate appearances will strike out over 100
times a season.
*By 2030 80% of
major league teams will have a roster made up of 80% players of
Hispanic descent.
And...
*By 2030 at least
one pitcher will have struck out 300+ batters while pitching less
than 200 innings.
2/ CATFISH HUNTER
ONCE SAID…
“The sun
don’t shine on the same dog’s ass all the time.”
Those words were of
course written about the Boston Red Sox and
New York Yankees of 2019.
The Red Sox are
the starkest example. Management very sagely decided to save the
weary arms of their starting staff after the grueling marathon of the
2018 playoffs where all hands were on deck and all arms were pushed
to the Tommy John-ing point. So Sale, Price, Eovaldi, Petrocelli
and Rodriguez
pitched 18,24,21,17,and 20 innings respectively and called it a
Spring. Rest is good. But so is practice. Especially to get your
control zeroed in.
The Sox are now the
proud owners of the worst ERA in baseball. After almost a full month,
they are 7 games back of the Rays and pretty much recent
dogmeat for several modest clubs, including the Orioles and
the Tigers. The Yanks carved them up pretty good too.
If they hadn’t swept the Rays we’d be hearing sirens.
What happened was a
perfect storm of dampening factors:
1/ World
Championship Hangover...(yes, it’s a real thing...hard to get
it up again after you’ve had the ultimate orgasm)
2/ an 11
game season opening road trip out West, where the Sox never do
very good anyway.
3/ the loss of
comfort-animal Sandy Leon to settle the pitching staff. Like I
said last month, Sandy hits .175 but is a great receiver and somehow
soothes those high strung thoroughbred pitchers. He comes out to the
mound and hugs them and he’s so warm and cuddly they get all
sentimental and start throwing nasty sliders in the dirt so they can
watch Sandy block them and record another whiff. They love the Big
Goof. Sometimes you just need your Mommy. Like Yogi Berra
before him and David Ross most recently, Sandy is a Bell Cow-
catcher. The Sox starters just pitch better to Sandy Leon.
Well, this Spring
young catcher Blake Swihart, who’s been waiting for
his chance all these years, finally stayed healthy and started
hitting in the clutch and management thought they’d keep him on the
roster and farm Sandy out to the minors. Instant Disaster. The
Slaughter in Seattle, The Outrage in Oakland, the Agony in Arizona
etc. Hello 2019...how do you like 3-8 to start your championship
defense? Back from the minors comes Leon...pitching instantly
improves.
4/ Mookie Betts
stops twitching. The Mookster is the straw that stirs the drink up in
Bo-town. If he’s hitting, his smile lights up the team and morale
is high. Well last year Mook won the MVP with his fast hands. He was
constantly rocking the bat back and forth on his shoulder and
twitching all over to stay loose and triggered and READY for those
pitches. This year he’s already won everything in sight and is
looking forward to a $400 million free agent payday and he got
relaxed and was just standing there with the bat motionless on his
shoulder while pitchers busted inside fastballs right by him. He
looked bad. And Except for J.D.Martinez, Xander- Bear Bogaerts
and one or two others, the rest of the Sox hitters followed Mookie
into the Tank.
The Yankee’s
disaster really hasn’t been of their own making. The sun went
behind a Big Cloud and their little Doggy Ass got really chilly.
Injuries. Freaky, constant, weekly horrors of an indescribable
nature. It’s no use going over who got hurt how and when, it’s
pretty much the whole roster. 12 or 15 guys on the IL all the time. A
whole team of stars...gone! The thing is….this surfeit of pain may
have ultimately helped the New York club!
What insanity is
this, you ask?
The Yankees have had
to bring up every minor league player of any quality that they have
just to fill up the bench. The 2nd line heroes (LeMahieu,
Gardner, Frazier, Voit) and “Who Dat?” rookies
have come through in
a big way and saved the Yankee season so far. New York has a winning
record and is only just behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the lead
in the AL East. It remains to be seen if the “C” team can keep on
keeping on, especially in the pitching department, while Stanton,
Judge, Tulowitzki, Andujar, Bird, Sanchez, Severino,
Betances etc.etc.etc. heal up.
The Yanks have shown
inspiring character and all those young players will be the better
for it. Congratulations Yankees, I doff my admittedly partisan Red
Sox hat to you.
3/ KNOW
YOUR SANTANAS
We are suddenly
inundated with Santanas. We used to have Johann from
Venezuela who won the AL Cy Young in 2004 and 2006. Great pitcher.
Terry Collins left him in to finish off a no hitter for the
Mets in 2012 and he threw 134 pitches on a cold, wet night. He
got his no-no over the Cardinals but never had a good arm
again. We also had Andres, Edgar, Julio, Marino, Pedro and
Rafael in and out of baseball from the 90’s on into this
century. All from Dominican Republic.
Now the Dominican
Dandies have Santana-ed all of baseball. Let me help you keep them
straight:
Carlos Santana
is the switch hitter who played first for Cleveland until he
went to Philly last year. While in Philly he distinguished
himself with 24 homers and 86 rbis in 2018 and got famous for
destroying a television set in the locker room where the young
tech-heads of the team were addicted to ‘FORTNIGHT’ while in the
midst of a 6-20 slump. Now Carlos is back in Cleveland hitting .338.
They should play ‘Evil Ways’ when he comes to the plate.
Ervin Santana
is the quirky pitcher of the Angels, Royals, Twins, Braves
and White Sox who
is so emotional. He also got suspended for 80 games for PED use in
2015 and threw a no hitter for the Angels. (Have any brothers with
the same surname both thrown no-hitters? Yes...the Forsch
Brothers Bob and
Ken for St. Louis and
Houston respectively back in 78 and 83 for Bob...
yep...two of ‘em... and 1979 for Ken.)
Ever heard of Dennis
Santana? Neither had I but he’s a relief pitcher for the
Dodgers. Weighs 160 pounds and they hope he’s another Pedro
Martinez. (He’s not.)
Danny Santana
is a utility player for the Rangers. Hit .319 for the Twins
in 2014 but had 98 K’s in 430 plate appearances. Yikes. Hitting
.325 this season and playing a lot of second base.
Having a big year
playing for the Seattle Mariners is right
fielder Domingo Santana.
He’s hitting .306
with a league leading 27 ribbies. He used to play for the Brewers
and hit 30 bombs for them in 2017.
So now you know your
Santanas. I’m not sure why, but it seemed important somehow.
4/ AHEAD OF
RUTH’S PACE! (MARIS’ PACE, MCGWIRE’S PACE, BOND’S
PACE etc.)
I always laugh when
pundits trumpet …
‘so and so is
ahead of Ruth’s home run pace!...
‘Christian
Yelich has 13 home runs in April...on pace for 84 this season!’
…
’Cody
Bellinger’s 12 home runs this month give him a shot at Bonds’
record!’
It’s hardly
relevant when you get hot...it’s how long you stay hot, and how
much hotness you generate when the fire is glowing.
Ruth only had 16
homers at the end of May in 1927. But in September he sizzled for 17
dingers and that gave him that magical 60 for the season. (That 154
game season lest we forget!)
Roger Maris
had only 12 4-baggers through May 31, 1961 but rallied for 15 in
June, 13 in July, 11 in August and 9 in September. He hit 1 on Oct. 1
to break the tie with Ruth.
Mark McGwire
had 37 homers through June and hit another 33 the rest of the way. Of
course, McGwire was essentially playing with a Transformer physique
thanks to his PED intake (he insisted it was just for health reasons.
Yep ...everybody needs 25 inch biceps to be truly healthy.)
In 2003 Barry
Bonds blasted 11 taters in April, 17 in May, 11 in June,
only 6 in July but 12 in August and 12 in September. 4 more in
October gave him that fantastic, chemically enhanced 73 homers which
will probably besmirch the record books for many a long year.
So, for instance, if
Christian Yelich were to hit 10 homers a month from here on
out...a great, great performance by any measure, he would still
‘only’ have 63. Christian would essentially have to repeat his
April for five more months...at least 12 a month for the rest of the
year...to tie Bonds.
But I give him
points for predicting he’d hit 50 in that commercial. If he stays
healthy he just might.
As far as punditry
goes...the pace at which you hit your homers is pretty meaningless.
5/ WHERE DID YOU
GO ELLIS VALENTINE?
Take a minute and
paste this youtuber into your browser and watch this guy throw.
(coincidence: you’ll even get a glimpse of previously mentioned Ken
Forsch!)
Expert Baseball
Witnesses Say: list all the greatest outfield arms in baseball
history...Mays, Furillo, Clemente, Dave Parker, Dwight Evans, Vlad
Guerrero, Bo Jackson, Jesse Barfield, Larry Walker, Rick
Ankiel, Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes... and then there’s Ellis
Valentine. Ellis played right field for the Montreal Expos way
back when. In 1978 he won the gold glove with 25 outfield assists.
Ellis was famous for
throwing the ball waist high from the greatest depths of right field
to any base on a laser line in the air. Watch him gun that ball to
catcher Gary Carter ... in the air...to get Davey Conception (an
extremely fast runner expecting to score from second on a double to
the extreme corner of the right field warning track...maybe
315 feet away where Ellis had to dig it out from the base of
the wall) at the plate.
All those other
great players listed above could get it to the plate from great
distance, but they used an arc on their throws. Look at these…
Just about the only
throw that can compare with Valentine’s in my opinion is Jose
Guillen’s so-called mutant throw from the warning track
in Colorado’s Coors right field to nail the runner at third during
a game between the Rocks and Guillen’s Pirates. 335
feet in 3 seconds. But even that throw had a little arc on it. Look
here…
This season a
newcomer has shown up to give these guys a run for their guns. I’m
speaking of Oakland’s center fielder Ramon Laureano.
He just made 3 incredible plays to throw out 3 Red Sox baserunners,
crushing the spirits of the early season Bostonians. But none of
those were his best throw. Watch this…
From the warning
track 321 feet away to first base to double up the runner after a
fine catch? You got to be kidding me. Arc or no arc, that’s some
throw, and Ramon has made about ten more startling rifle throws this
season already.
A great throw from
the outfield is one of the most exciting plays in baseball.
Laureano’s throws are thrilling, and it reminds me of Ellis
Valentine...’The Human Howitzer’.
6/
WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE
I grit my teeth when
I hear the shameless hype surrounding Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s
major league debut.
Give the kid a break
why don’t you? What’s he supposed to do to live up to all this?
It’s not fair, man.
Trout got to
sneak up on us as a 25th draft pick or whatever it was.
Harper had to endure impossibly inflated expectations and it
made him testy and reckless, leading to ejections and injuries. I
appreciate that MLB is trying to pump up the volume on its new
stars...and they are exciting. But let them have some breathing room
to make the inevitable mistakes and golden sombrero performances that
all young players must endure. We got some pretty good pitchers up
here in the Bigs, and they can let the air out of your bubble damn
effectively.
I hope Vladdy hits
.379 like he did in the minors. I mean, God he looks good. But how
good will be good enough if he doesn’t quite make the stadium
spontaneously combust? I hope he keeps a level head like Aaron
Judge did when he started tearing it up two years ago. Aaron
still wears shoes with his rookie batting average (.179) written on
them to maintain his humility.
Willie Mays was
batting .477 (100 points higher than anybody in the league) when the
Giants brought him up from AAA Minneapolis in 1951. He was 20 years
old and a shy kid from Alabama. The buzz on Willie was justifiably
insane. He promptly went 1 for 26 and manager Leo Durocher
found him crying in the dugout after a fruitless performance. Leo
very wisely told him this: “Willie, I don’ t care if you don’t
get a hit all year...you’re still my centerfielder.”
That was the right
medicine for Mays. He homered off Warren Spahn and started
scorching the ball. Spahnny always joked that it was his fault...”If
I hadn’t given up that homer to him, we wouldn’t have had to deal
with Willie all these years.” Leo also had another legendary
quote about his star which I’ve mentioned before in these essays:
“I don’t care
if Jesus Christ came down from heaven to play center field, I’d
still look you in the eye and tell you Willie Mays was better.”
That’s kind of a compliment, wouldn’t you say?
Mickey Mantle
got sent down to Kansas City from the Yankees in his rookie
year, also 1951. He was slumping so bad he called his Dad and said he
was quitting. Father Mutt Mantle drove up from Oklahoma and
started packing Mickey’s suitcase. He told Mick, “I thought I
raised a man. I see now I raised a coward. Come on back to Oklahoma
and work in the mines with me.”
Mickey batted .361
for the rest of his minor league stay and soon was back in New York.
I hope that some
wise old Geezer will have the right thing to say to Vladdy if he
doesn’t live up to the hype right away.
Vlad Guerrero Jr.
, Ronald Acuna Jr. , Juan
Soto, Andrew Benintendi, Victor Robles,
Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Yordan Alvarez, Shohei
Ohtani… ...baseball needs these young stars to shine if the
game is going to continue to prosper. I hope these guys are the new
Willies, Mickeys, Henrys, Robertos, Franks and Sandys.
And then maybe a New
Golden Age of Baseball will be upon us.
7/ Google-Free
Challenge
Before you click
answer me this: 18 players have hit 4 home runs in one game. The
first one to do it was second baseman Bobby Lowe of the
National League Boston Beaneaters in 1894. The most recent was
right fielder J.D.Martinez of the Arizona Diamondbacks
in 2017.
Only 5 of these
18 heroes are in the Hall of Fame. Can you name them? (Hints:
2 first basemen, 2 outfielders, 1 third baseman. 3 Phillies)
Thanks
for reading and stay tuned for more baseball talk coming soon!
--Marco
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