Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

That's one of those Fantasy Polygamy moments I'm not sure what to do with myself.

I own Doolittle. And Davis.

 

I saw a walkoff grand slam last year against the Dodgers (ha!), but it was a tie game. Not nearly as cool as being down three.

Amazing.

 

So, after being held scoreless & limited to 1-hit on Monday night in a loss, Cleveland roared back tonight against the Bums: 10-3 was the final score. Now, nothing special or odd about that, right? Wrong!





http://deadspin.com/the-indians-pulled-off-a-damn-impressive-triple-play-1598928379]Cleveland[/url] pulls off a rather bizarre triple play (occurring in the bottom of the 4th inning)


What made that bizarre? It occurred amid 2-replays-one by Francona, the other via Mattingly-, making it the first ever "replay" triple play ever. History, folks!


Also of note: the Bums were rather laughably incompetent (well, impotent) tonight will runners on base... on 3 separate occasions (1st, 2nd, and the 5th innings), the Bums had the bases loaded, but didn't score. Not once! Yikes. If they end up losing the division by a half or full game, it will be this particular "effort" against Cleveland that will stand out in my mind. Also bizarrely, despite presently being at 10 games above .500, a mere half game out of first (and playing some of their best baseball all season in the past 3 weeks), the Bums have yet to win (or lose) more than 3 games in a row thus far. Wow.







On a more serious note, Bobby Castillo (the fellow in the Dodger jacket) passed away Monday-due to cancer-, at just 59 years of age. Along with Mike Brito (the fellow there in the hat, holding the cigar; ex-Dodger scout & fixture for many years behind home plate, radar gun in hand), Castillo played a hugely instrumental role in Fernando Valenzuela's development with the Bums (http://dodgers.mlblogs.com/2014/06/30/remembering-bobby-castillo-1955-2014/#more-2082931][/url] A bit more on that, and about Castillo's his life & career, can be found in this excellent piece by Mark Langill, via the Dodgers Insider blog). Castillo also happened to be a local kid, one who had a stellar (classy) reputation, one who was a frequent fixture here in the L.A. area, representing the Dodgers through charitable events, etc. Also helped (in part) to bring in (well, bring back) the Latino fanbase out here, as many held out/held a grudge against the Dodgers for many years, due to controversies surrounding Dodger Stadium's construction at/in Chavez Ravine (http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/history-of-chavez-ravine.html]You[/url] can read about that here).


Undeniably one of the classiest fellows to ever be a part of the Dodger organization. Rest on, Bobby.

 

Rick Porcello threw a CG shutout today with no walks or strikeouts, which is apparently a very rare thing.

I'm glad to see Raul Ibanez in a Royals uniform again. He was one of the few bright spots as I was growing up, watching terrible team after terrible team, so I'll be happy if he ends up retiring as a Royal. Even hit his first homer as a Royal in 11 years today.

 

Porcello's shutout was yesterday.

 

Was it? Ah.

 

A-Roid has to be the best thing that ever happened to the sports journalism profession:

How MLB let A-Rod use PEDs during '07 season

 

heels1785, Eeth-my-Koth, yankee8255, dp4m, Yanksfan



Of course the cause there if worthy & good, but as Keith Olbermann pointed out on television last night, there's something rather uncouth about there being a Gehrig bobblehead (which were also given out to fans at Yankee Stadium last night) to begin with, considering what ALS does to the body.

 

This is kind of hilarious.

Amazing.

 

Oh wow... talking about being tone deaf.

 

Wow.

That's all I can say.

 

A friend from New York had posted that on facebook yesterday. As I replied there, I assume next year will be charred remains of Thurman Munson post-plane crash bobble head. The Red Sox to follow suit with cryogenically frozen Ted Williams Bobble Head.

 

I'm sure both teams had good intentions... but you know what road is paved with them.

 

With a pre-game flyover, of course.

 

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/11177585/chicago-cubs-trade-jeff-samardzija-jason-hammel-oakland-athletics]Cubs/Athletics[/url] trade: Hammel & Samardzija head to Oakland; prospect Addison Russell, among others, go to Chicago



I love this trade for Oakland.





Also, those hats worn yesterday throughout all of baseball...







Hideous.

 

Adios, Alfonso.

 

All - Star Rosters out.

And yes, Jeter is on it.

 

It's an exciting day of the season, today is the day where Terry Collins becomes so desperate for a win, he overmanages like crazy and caps it off by bringing his closer in for a four-out save. And as happens every year, the save was blown and yet another loss is imminent.

I really need someone to explain why he's still employed.

Amazing.

 

Clearly in part to give you material to post about.








With those stellar numbers, him coming back this year made all the sense in the world!



To be fair, he did do this during last night's game, enabling a double play via a fake-out:


.



And in case you didn't have enough Yankee-related material in this post, here's one more!:





Remember that fellow from an early-April game? http://deadspin.com/yankees-fan-caught-sleeping-in-stands-sues-everyone-for-1601246707]Well[/url], he's suing for defamation.


What a schmuck... he's got more of a chance in playing for the Yankees than in winning that suit.

 

I seriously don't get what all the fuss is about with some of the greatest all time players in baseball who are in their scheduled last year getting voted into an ALL STAR GAME voted on by THE FANS.

Seriously, get over it.

PS - Jeter is still an above average SS (0.6 WAR), already under contract and better than their other option or signing Stephen Drew (Ryan and Drew, both -0.3).

 

No, no, that's not why I posted that... I wanted to needle you (well, any Yankee fan around here) about how "stellar" of a season old Jeets is having. That is all.


My issues with the All-Star game, none of which are all that surprising/"controversial" (as I see it) are as follows: the continuing horrendous "this counts for home field advantage for the World Series!" canard that we've been plagued with for a decade now, too many All-Stars (ie: the whole 'every team has to have a representative' deal)... that leads into the fact that we only get to see the top-of-the top talent for about 2-3 innings. Why can't there just be (save for the pitchers, and perhaps the catchers too) just one damn team of 9 starters? Is that too much to ask for? And perhaps spice up the format in a different way: the U.S. vs. an International squad.

 

Prince Fielder in the ESPN body issue this year...LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!