Tuesday Recap: Who needs the DH? Yasiel Puig slides into home, Miggy ejected

Quote of the Day

''Each player does what he can when he gets to the plate. Some people jump, some people slide, some people run,'' Puig said through a translator. ''I have a previous teammate in Cuba that jumped and hurt his ankle. So I decided to slide.''

-- Yasiel Puig on sliding at home plate after his walk-off home run, Sunday against the Reds. 

Personally, I don't think it tops this one from Prince Fielder from a few years ago.  

But regardless, Puig really knows how to grind people's gears, while those same people quietly whisper, "But yeah, that was kind of awesome."

Or you can listen to Vin Scully make the call...



Okay, enough Puigmania for the day.  Love him or hate him, you can't help but admit....the guy is entertaining.  Oh and by the way, the Dodgers are playing some pretty good baseball right now, having won nine of their last ten and sit atop the NL West.  Puig for MVP?

It was an exciting week in baseball.  Let's get to it! 

N.L. pitchers give the finger to the DH Rule

On Sunday the NL pitchers batted in the .270s while their DH counterparts in the AL batted below the Mendoza line.  I can't find any articles to link to but I saw it on Sportscenter so it has to be right, right?  Travis Wood led the NL pitchers hit parade, going 2-3 leading many to believe the Orioles were interested in acquiring him as a DH.  

Nostalgic week at Cooperstown for all three (dead) inductees

It's only fitting that the stain of the Biogenesis scandal come a week before a quiet Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown where there were no living HOF inductees.  Several former players in the exclusive club spoke out with mixed reactions.    

Umpire ejects Miguel Cabrera for hurting his feelings

A few days after David Ortiz yelled, "f--- you" to an umpire, threw a piece of gear on the field and smashed the dugout telephone in an away ballpark, Miguel Cabrera turned to the home plate umpire and said, "That's terrible."  He was tossed immediately.  That prompted Jim Leyland to storm out of the dugout and get tossed too.  Plate umpire Chad Fairchild has already tossed eight players this season and his explanation for the Cabrera ejection makes me believe that he was probably the guy who got his lunch money stolen and was given mega-wedgies in gym class.  There were over 40,000 fans at Comerica Park on Sunday and I can promise you that not one of them paid their money to see Fairchild make ball and strike calls.  Plenty though, paid to watch Miguel Cabrera bat.  Jim Leyland had a more explicit take....

The Philadelphia Phillies felt so bad about the situation, they gave the Tigers eight unearned runs in the 6th inning and the Tigers completed the weekend sweep of Philadelphia dropping them 8 1/2 games out of the NL East race.  For all the teams interested in Cliff Lee, YOU"RE FREAKING WELCOME! ~ Tigers Fans.  


Tino Martinez makes Marlin's players do drills right, gets angry and resigns

Marlins hitting coach Tino Martinez stepped down from his position for allegedly shouting and grabbing players for refusing to pick up balls after drills.  It's hard to pick who to side with but it is concerning when a coach has to step down due to these types of issues.  While I doubt that Martinez is a Bobby Knight type, he definitely could be one of those managers that can rub guys the wrong way.  I don't think Tino meant to be malicious but it sounds like a case of an old school manager trying to deal with a new generation of players who are used to being pampered and coddled from high school on up.  Maybe if the Marlins took some of Martinez's advice, they wouldn't be battling the Astros for the title of "worst offensive team in baseball"

Beachy bailed out by Simmons, Braves win

Pitching for the first time in over a year didn't go to well for Brandon Beachy but in the end it didn't matter.   His first start in 13 months after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Beachy struggled giving up seven runs for the first time in his career but his offense picked him up, erasing a five run deficit capped by Andrelton Simmons walk-off triple.  Must be nice to get some run support said Stephen Strasburg and James Shields.  

Jason Giambi beats the White Sox and Father Time  

It took one swing of the bat for pinch-hitter Jason Giambi to turn back the clock and give the Indians their fifth straight win over Chicago.  His batting average stands at .194 but his blast made him the oldest player to mash a walk-off at 42 years old.  The Indians are streaking but fortunately (for me and Tigers fans) so is Detroit.

The Tribe remains three back of the Tigers and when they do collapse, I hope it's soul-crushing.  Tito Francona for manager of the year?  They've got Kazmir throwing shutouts, Giambi hitting walk-offs like it's 2005 all over again.  They'll be a dangerous team but they basically need to win the AL Central to reach the post season.  Keep an eye out for the Tribe and their politically incorrect and offensive mascot.  Turds.  

Pujols could be out for the year

The end of maximum contract personified by Albert Pujols took another step when the slugger suffered a tear in his plantar fascia.  Pujols will likely be out of the remainder of the season.   A .258 with 17 homers on the year, which wouldn't be that bad but he looked like a shell of his former self while the Angels sit eight games under .500 and 14 back of the Athletics in the AL West.

When you come to the realization that you're not a contender, it makes it easier to sit a guy like Albert for the rest of the year which I expect them to do.  Hopefully, Pujols comes back 100% next season and hopefully the Angels will still suck.  That'd be the ideal situation for someone like me, who hates everything LA but also like talent like Albert.  Does that make me a bad person?  

Judge allows Biogenesis case to continue; most likely playing a guy that has Peralta and Cruz in his fantasy matchup

In your obligatory Biogenesis news, a Florida judge udge denied a motion to toss out the sport’s civil lawsuit against Biogenesis.  This means that we can expect more testimonies and probably more drama in the investigation.  The real question is will players like Everth Cabrera, Nelson Cruz or Jhonny Peralta be suspended?  If they are suspended, they will then have to decide to appeal and potentially hurt their free agency or start serving their suspension immediately and maybe make it back for October.  It's the ultimate team vs. self scenario that doesn't, you know, like involve simply not taking PEDs.  Stay tuned.  More coming very soon...

MLB Tweet of the Weekend

This weekend, regular favorite Brandon McCarthy shares his hotel experience that didn't go so well, apparently for whatever reason.  But we can only guess with something like this...

Sometimes it seems like hotel pools are nothing but running children and adults yelling at you to put your bathing suit back on.
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) July 29, 2013

That's about all we've got for our Tuesday afternoon recap.  The trade deadline is on Wednesday at 4 ET so expect things to happen from now until then.  And of course, no recap would be complete without our...

LINKS-WRAP-UP-FOR-LAZY-PEOPLE


Today we've got trade rumors and news galore.  

TRADE! TRADE! TRADE! TRADE!

Let's get started....

Giancarlo Stanton to the Red Sox?   Cliff Lee to Red Sox for Xander Bogaerts?   Yankees or Reds for Hunter Pence?   Anyone or anything to the Orioles?   Javier Lopez to the Tigers?   Ervin Santana to anyone?  Mets still think they're a contender apparently?   Chase Utley to no one?   Joe Nathan to the Tigers?

Done Deals

Jose Veras from Angels to Detroit.   Scott Downs from Angels to Atlanta.  Jessie Crain from White Sox to Tampa Bay.    

Ervin Santana reactions to trade rumors...

Kate, what do you think about the MLB Trade Deadline? 

       TRADE DEADLINE







That's why we love you Kate,

See you soon baseball freaks! 

Tuesday Recap: The Legend of Yasiel Puig, Chris Perez: pothead? Munenori Kawasaki: All-Star? And welcome to the show Gerrit Cole

Quote of the Day:

“He's going to have nights where he makes outs”

-- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly when asked about the red-hot Cuban rookie, Yasiel Puig 's "struggles" after an 0-4 night last Wednesday.

Puig turned his first week in The Show into the National League player of the week with a .464 batting average, 4 home runs and 10 RBI.

Welcome back to our scheduled programming.   After a few days off and a rather lengthy, somewhat depressing post about the Biogenesis scandal (that you can catch here) we are back to our recaps.  Which for myself, is a welcome change from being stuck on airplanes with no WiFi while guys are almost throwing no-hitters and Cuban rookies are mashing home runs. 

Today we've got the hottest story in baseball.  Because I have a finite amount of time that I get for a lunch break to blog about baseball today, I'll just show you this: 



Hearing the normally stoic Vin Scully go bananas is also something. 

The only person who hates Yasiel Puig right now is Fidel Castro

The Dodgers outstanding rookie is only a week into his major league career and is already drawing comparisons to Josh Hamilton (the 2010 version of Josh Hamilton, don't worry) and Bryce Harper.  Before we get ahead of ourselves with the kid only a week into his big league career, we should probably also admit that while the Dodgers are just a terrible, terrible franchise to pick out as your favorite team, this Puig guy is pretty special and Don Mattingly seems like a genuinely nice guy that's trapped in a bad situation while Magic Johnson ignores their struggles and watches the NBA playoffs.  He's obviously got talent, he seems to have put any off-field concerns and while he won't bat above .400 the rest of the regular season (unless you're reading a bunch of Dodgers blogs right now...which you shouldn't) he's a fun player to watch right now and more importantly, he's responsible for this shirt: 

Let's all sit back and enjoy the Legend of Yasiel Puig while we can.


LAST WEEK

One more thing about Biogenesis...

Our post with the most traffic and hits since the blog's inception, unfortunately happened to be about the ongoing steroids scandal and the Biogenesis clinic.  (Here it is again, if you missed it.)   Since then, there have been conflicting reports and much new information that will no doubt need to be confirmed and corroborated.  But this new piece of information is slightly disturbing:

As many as 90 players have been named in the Biogenesis Clinic records, according to a baseball official that spoke on condition on anonymity.  90 players is a lot any way that you look at it, and it would easily be the biggest steroid scandal in American professional sports.  

Let's hope none of that is true.  Because right now, it's easy to be a cynic.

By the way, have you voted in our poll ? >>>>>>(check it out)>>>>>>

A closer that looks more like a Phish fan than a baseball player gets busted for weed. Surprised?

The outspoken Cleveland reliever was probably told to "chill" after making controversial comments about everything from ownership, to the Cleveland fans, the GM and even the Kansas City Royal, which like, no one, cares about the Kansas City Royals.  Well, Chris Perez is now being accused of taking the "chill" part very literally.  

Perez and his wife were accused last week of marijuana-possession charges after authorities found about a third a pound of weed in a package addressed to his dog.  Yeah, you read that last part right....his dog.  So if there are twenty eight g's in an ounce and there's about five and a third ounces in a third a pound. If we're talking dro and not swag, then the approximate street value of a third a pound of weed is $2,984, right?  Right?  

I think I'm talking too much.  But either someone got an address every wrong, Perez is straight up doping in a non-Biogenesis way, his wife is the Cleveland version of Nancy Botwin or that's the smartest damn dog I've ever seen.  Either way, reports indicate that charges of this nature will carry little more than a fine and possibly an MLB treatment program which would like, have to be the worst thing in the world, right?  

Hey, hey, hey, hey...just chill, Chris Perez.  Just chill.  

Teheran flirts with no-no while yours truly is stuck on a plane

One of the many reasons I decided to go in with MLBTV is because I did not want to miss the season's first no-hitter/perfect game.  Normally when I fly, I try to take advantage of WiFi and shell out the couple of bucks it costs to enjoy a couple hours of in-flight connectivity.  Since I'm both addicted to the Internet and love wasting my discretionary income, this method seems to work out.  

But on Wednesday of last week, Julio Teheran of the Atlanta Braves was mowing down hitter after hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates and was literally in the 6th inning of a no-no when the flight stewardess politely asked me to turn my "electronic device" off.  

There are a few problems with that.  First of all, I really do not believe that electronic devices have anything to do with interfering with plane signals.  I honestly think that every single passenger could be making a phone call at the same time while the plane attempts to land and we would land safely a hundred times out of a hundred times.  I refuse to think that a multi-million dollar aircraft could be brought down because a few people want to use Instagram to take pictures of clouds from their window seat.  

Secondly, I realized that the plane did not have WiFi and for every second I missed, I would also potentially miss the first no-no of 2012 and was at a point in the game where every pitch was pivotal.  Fortunately for me, this happened: 

Just like I envisioned it.  The music was a little weird but watching the standing ovation that Braves fans gave Teheran was pretty cool.  The righty is only 22 years old and I'm guessing that won't be his last no-hit bid as the former top prospect continues to break out this season.  

Timmy Lincecum doesn't suck for once

Former back-to-back Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum took a small step to getting back on track last week against the Blue Jays.  Step #1, get your ERA under 5.00.  Tim was able to do that and more by holding the Jays to just three hits in a home start, going seven strong innings to get his first win since May 15th, not coincidentally his only other good start of the year.  

If the Giants can get Tim out of his funk...that would be pretty good.

Right now the Giants sit two games back in the NL West behind Arizona, who had a crazy rally of their own last night against Puig's Dodgers.  The Dodgers are starting to make a habit of wasting good Clayton Kershaw starts which is not a good way to get back into the race to take the NL West, no matter how many times Yasiel Puig goes yard.  Lincecum's next start comes this evening against the Pirates, which leads us to our next segment...

WELCOME TO THE SHOW, GERRIT COLE 

The Pirates top pitching prospect and the number one draft pick of 2011 will make his MLB debut tonight against the aforementioned Lincecum.  Cole has a towering stature at 6'4 at 200 pounds and went 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA in Triple A, Indianapolis this season.  It couldn't work out better for the Pirates, who are looking for their first playoff berth since...well, can anyone remember without heading to Google?  Cole figures into a injury-depleted rotation and by waiting till June, the Bucs avoid the dreaded Super 2 arbitration status which is apparently a big deal for teams not from New York, Boston or Los Angeles.  Cole is also rumored to be dating the sister of Giant's shortstop Brandon Crawford, so I really hope he beans Crawford his first at-bat and yell, "THATS NOT THE ONLY CRAWFORD I'M GOING TO NAIL TONIGHT!"  

Injured Aces: Cueto and Strasburg have terrible lats
The Nats and Reds both put aces back on the DL last week. Stephen Strasburg and Johnny Cueto were placed on the 15-day DL with lat strains. Both had bullpen sessions and neither went well.  While Strasburg's injury history is well documented, Johnny Cueto has already missed a month with the same problem earlier this year.  Both pitchers were having pretty good seasons before last week.  

In 12 starts this year, Strasburg has gone 3-5 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in 74 1/3 innings. Before the injury, he had allowed just four earned runs in his previous five starts and 30 innings.  Cueto has gone 3-0 with a 2.17 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in six starts and 37 1/3 innings this year. 

Anything you can do I can do better: CarGo/Tulo version

Reds pitcher Pedro Villarreal had all of one inning of major league experience before making a spot start for the injured Cueto, who we just talked about.  Troy Tulowitzski welcomed him back to the majors with two home runs.  But not so fast!  Teammate Carlos Gonzalez nailed three (!) of his own by the end of the day as the Rockies routed the Reds. 

In the end, it was 12-4 and the five home runs by the two hitters may wake up the rest of baseball and notice the Rockies that are only two games out of the NL West race and can hit outside of the comfy confines of Coors Field.  When this lineup is on, it can compete with anyone, even if they are pushing out Jon Garland to start.  

Munenori Kawasaki: All-Star?  

We've seen some weird things happen in the past week when it comes to the upcoming MLB All-Star game at CitiField.  From Justin Verlander bidding to get into the home run derby and then allegations of ballot stuffing by Giant's fans.  And then there's the other errors that come with letting fans choose who plays.  Carlos Gonzalez sits at 7th behind an outfield led by Justin Upton who had a hot April but has hit two home runs since then.  

You can head over to MLB.com and vote for the Astro's Rick Ankiel, but will fail to notice that Ankiel was designated for assignment and picked up by the Mets.  Meanwhile Evan Gattis and Gerado Parra (2nd in NL in WAR) can't be found anywhere.  So if we going to go ahead and trust fans that apparently haven't realized that Matt Kemp isn't good this year and couldn't explain WHIP if you spelled out the acronym for them, why not choose Munenori Kawasaki.  I can't give many reasons why a utility guy that's hitting .202 with no home runs and a .272 slugging percentage deserves to be an All-Star except for maybe this one:

Why not? Right?  Do it now before someone that hasn't realized Mark Teixiera has been hurt all year votes to send another Yankee to the ASG.  I'd take a million Kawasaki's over one New York Yankee.  

Miguel Cabrera throws gum at Ryan Raburn after RR breaks up no-no (GIF)

Just because I can.  Screw the Tribe.  

And finally....

No wrap would be complete without the traditional: 

LINKS-WRAP-UP-FOR-PEOPLE-TOO-LAZY-TO-GOOGLE

Today, we've got Miguel Cabrera's best hit of the year   ●   Marlon Byrd ups the Bambino by one   ●   Matt Moore finally loses   ●   Ike Davis: human disaster. Now Vega's problem   ●   Ryan Braun hurt   ●   Kung Fu Panda hurt   ●   Brandon McCarthy Hurt (kinda)  ●   Clay Buchholz hurt   ●   Ian Kinsler still hurt   ●   So is Hanley Ramirez (quit killing my fantasy baseball team)   ●   Solution: Send A-Rod to Japan   ●   And Joe Maddon's ready to rumble with John Lackey   

Thanks for tuning in baseball freaks...since I haven't been with you in a while, here's Kate.  See you later this week:

Tuesday Recap: My name is Munenori Kawasaki! I am from Japan. I'm Japaneeeeeese!

Quote of the Day:

"I don't know what he's saying all the time, but he sure gives a lift to his team."

-- Mark DeRosa on teammate, Munenori Kawasaki, who may have given the best postgame interview not involving the University of Cincinnati, like this.  

Welcome back to the harsh realities of a Tuesday morning that feels eerily like a Monday.  I hope that the Memorial Day weekend was spent reveling in family, barbecue, camouflage baseball caps and your best Arrested Development "chicken dances."   

In today's recap of weekend baseball action, we've got Kawasaki's epic interview (duh), Don Mattingly's last stand, more Miggy, White Sox hit a major mark (not a good one), it's rivalry week and the inevitable Matt Garza/Johnny Cueto celebrity death match.  This and more in today's Full Count weekend recap.  

Let's get it started...

Munenori Kawasaki challenges PSY for Asian web meme of the century 

If you follow baseball and you have an internet connection, you probably saw this...

\

Munenori Kawasaki, or as he's know in Japan as 川﨑 宗則 (I may have misspelled something there), is a career .215 hitter in the show with no career home runs.  But even long after he's gone, he'll be forever immortalized for this interview.  Hopefully he can top it later in the year.  I hear they're making a movie and Tom Cruise is in it playing Mark DeRosa.  It's called the "Last Samurai of Toronto."  

The Embattled Month of Don Mattingly

We touched on it last week, but Don Mattingly is doing everything short of calling Vin Scully a "old punk-ass geezer," to try and get fired.  Benching Andre Ethier, pulling Matt Kemp on a double switch, and his provocative postgame comments suggest a manager at his brink.  Next week, he'll claim that Dodger Dogs taste like mixed cement and that Dodger Stadium is nothing but a dump filled with cholos.  The weird thing?  He's right.  The Dodgers aren't playing with any sort of urgency sitting at 21-28 and would anyone question benching and pulling players with Ethier and Kemp's respective numbers if they went by any other name?  You make the call.  

The Legend of Evan Gattis and "El Oso Blanco"

With $75 million man B.J. Upton and Jason Heyward still in the midst of horrendous slumps, the Braves are looking for Evan Gattis to get at-bats any way they can.  What other player with a 33-8 strikeout to walk ratio and a really bad glove can get songs written about him like this?  And please, click on that last link.  Just do it.  

Speaking of the Atlanta Braves, despite the early season struggles of Heyward, Upton and Dan Uggla and despite no reliable 8th inning man with Jonny Venters and Eric O'Flaherty's Tommy John surgeries and despite the absence of Brandon Beachy, the Braves sit at 30-20 and a comfy 4.5 games ahead of Washington in the NL East.  When the aforementioned guys begin to inevitably progress toward the mean, they'll be even better.  That's the good news; and even the bad news is pretty good.  

Problems like finding El Oso Blanco at-bats and what to do with either Julio Teheran and/or Kris Medlen when Beachy returns are good problems to have.  Gattis' power is simply to good to be relegated to a pinch-hitting role and a surplus of starters is never a bad thing because raise your hand if you're a Braves fan and think that no starter will hit the DL the rest of the season?  That's what I thought.  

Angel Hernandez trolls the @#$% out of Hawk Harrelson

It's been a rough month for umpires as we've pointed out here and here.  And anytime there's a blown call that potentially costs a team the win, it's especially egregious in a season where making or missing the playoffs can literally come down to one win or loss.  

Angel Hernandez was the latest one to mess it up and he's done it before already this season.  But I'm surprisingly not as upset this time.  Yes it was a bad call, but if it leads to Hawk doing this....  



...then I'm all for Angel Hernandez umpiring every single game for the White Sox for the rest of the season.  And in honor of this week's Crosstown Classic, I'll post the video here for you Cubbies fans that indulge on every Hawk rant (MLB.com won't let me embed it).

Classic Hawk.  

Closers in trouble? 

You would have trouble finding better closers last season than Tampa Bay's Fernando Rodney and Baltimore's Jim Johnson after the two of them tore up the AL East to the tune of 48 and 51 saves respectively.  This season, however, Rodney has already blown 5 of 14 opportunities and his last two.  Johnson has blown four saves in the last two weeks and has looked nothing like the MLB saves leader just a year ago.  

While closers and relievers in general are notoriously fickle from season to season, the rate at which both Johnson and Rodney have regressed has been puzzling to some fans and alarming to Orioles and Rays fans...well, at least Orioles fans since I'm still not sure a "Rays fan" is an actual thing.  

Or should it be puzzling?  Johnson has been suffering from a pretty unlucky BABIP but his groundball rate is down and his fly ball rate is up...which means more home runs.  Johnson has already given up as many home runs (3) as he allowed all of last season.  Rodney on the other hand, has always been prone to control issues but after allowing only 15 walks last season, he has a frightening 18 in 19 1/3 innings pitched already.  Some have blamed it on his appearance in the World Baseball Classic this spring but who knows?  Closers are like NFL kickers.  Look for the two to either bounce back or be replaced.  The leash is short and the AL East is too competitive.   

White Sox finally reach... .500?  

This May, the Southside Sox started in the AL Central cellar and have since passed up Minnesota and then Kansas City.  With their sweep over the Marlins, the Sox have now won nine of their last twelve and reached the .500 mark.  They sit five games back of the Tigers in the AL Central and this is still a team that led the Division just a season ago until Detroit caught them in September.  First up this week: the Cubbies.  

It's Rivalry Week in Major League Baseball, so why isn't anyone excited?

It should be one of baseball's finest moments when rivals from the same city (White Sox-Cubs, Yankees-Mets, Angels-Dodgers) or rivals from the same state (Indians-Reds, Royals-Cardinals) face off in interleague play.  So why isn't anyone excited?  Is it the overplaying of interleague games so far this season?  Or could it be the fact that there's a good chance one of the teams in the matchups (or both) just simply aren't that good?  At least one person thinks interleague play is boring and says that baseball should realign altogether but that's not entirely realistic.  But I can't think of any real Cubs-White Sox fans that wouldn't love to win the series this week.   Let the hate take over...


Miggy, Miggy, Miggy can't you see, sometimes your bombs just hypnotize me...

Take a cue from the hit Yu Darvish and Justin Verlander gifs from earlier this season, FanGraphs put together another gem showing Miguel Cabrera's "ridiculous plate coverage" and further laying claim that they are perhaps second to only Billy Beane when it comes to mixing technology and baseball for positive things.  Baseball replay take notes.  Also American League pitchers take notes...  

 Yeah, that pretty cool.  We all knew there isn't really a good spot to pitch to Miggy but seeing it is more convincing.  And seeing it all together is even better.  If you want to watch an even neater gif of the same thing, I've got it here too.  

American League pitchers, you may just want to stop taking notes now.  Can you imagine a pitching coaches session in the film room after watching that?  "Um, don't throw him a strike...but don't throw him a ball either...actually, just throw him four wides ones and we'll see if we can get Prince to ground into a fielders choice."  Pun intended.  

Let's get ready to rumble, Dusty Baker style

It's no secret by now that there's no love lost between Cubs pitcher Matt Garza and his counterpart in Cincinnati, Johnny Cueto.  After Sunday's matchup, where Cueto sailed a pitch over the head of David DeJesus in what would end up being a 5-4 Cubs win, Garza postgame said that Cueto needs to "grow the hell up."  

Ironically, it was Garza, not Cueto who hit a batter on Sunday, nailing Todd Frazier in the arm while in the middle of giving up four runs in the fourth inning.  Garza said that he has, "no personal history" with Cueto but Johnny has had problems in the past as part of the Reds/Cardinals scuffle where Cueto was caught kicking Cardinal's catcher Jason LaRue during a benches clearing brawl.  

Of course it was Dusty Baker that offered his hilarious solution: 

"Just put them in a room, let them box and let it be over with. I always said this, let it be like hockey, let them fight, someone hits the ground and it's over with. I'm serious about that."

The Cubs face off against the Reds again on Monday, June 10th.  If anyone has tickets, let me know because the Garza-Cueto fight won't be on Pay-Per-View.  


And before we get to our links for lazy people, we just have to say one more thing...

WELCOME TO THE SHOW, KEVIN GAUSMAN


And you know that no recap would be complete without our traditional...

LINKS-WRAP-UP-FOR-LAZY-PEOPLE

Today's totally irrelevant theme is "Who's on your way too early All-Star Ballot?"

Matt Kemp keeps being a great person   ●   And David Wright is a pretty good person too   ●   The redemption of Carlos Gomez (Twins fans, "I HATE YOU CARLOS GOMEZ")   ●   The Albert Pujols career comes full circle because the Cardinals have a butt-load of prospects   ●   "It's not you, it's me" - Wrigley Field to Cubs   ●   Angels score two runs...on a strikeout?  ●   Verlander back on track, probably never gone   ●   Mockups for Wrigley jumbotron (take that roof owners!)   ●   Aces aren't aces this year...so why?  ●   And this bad-ass Brewers reporter (she's a girl!)   ●


Adios!  Until next time baseball fans.  And since you were so good today, I give you Kate again...

Thursday Wrap: Trout-tastic, Miguel Cabrera is good, James Shields officially hates his teammates and welcome to The Show Jurickson Profar

Quote of the Day:

"I didn't really think about it until about the eighth inning. And when I got on deck, I started feeling it a little bit. To be honest, I thought Josh was going to hit for the cycle after his those first two at-bats. I wasn't thinking about myself."

-- Mike Trout

Happy mid-week baseball freaks, it's that time where I stop by and instead of doing my work because I'm bored in a cubicle use my free time, to recap everything that's been going on in the wide world of baseball.  If you're in Chicago, take a bit of time to see where you're favorite player will be traded (via Tommy's post yesterday).  If you're anywhere else in the world, take time to move to Chicago.  

Today we've got the youngest player to hit for the cycle (can you guess who it is? Can you?), tell you why Miguel Cabrera is pretty good, Zack Greinke returns to the 4-1-4, and why James Shields won't be taking his teammates out to dinner anytime soon.  .  

Also on the menu, we've got Jurickson Profar's debut, an injured Giant, Don Mattingly potentially on the hot seat, and why does Barry Bonds need to keep being a d****?  

Let's get it started.  

BREAKING: Mike Trout hits for the cycle at age 21. OTHER NEWS: I haven't done shit with my life

Mike Trout stepped up in his first at-bat against the Seattle Mariners last night and struck out.  It would be the only time in the evening that Trout wasn't simply spectacular.  After a single in the third, a triple in the fourth and a double in the sixth, Mike Trout took a pitch into the rightfield seats for a home run and into the record books as well, making MLB history by hitting for the cycle at age 21... the youngest ever to do it in the history of baseball.  

Trout ended up driving in five runs and pacing the Angels who have now won three straight and get this...it was the first time all season that they gained a whole game on the AL West leading Rangers.  If some of their big names (Pujols, Hamilton) can get their act together, look for the Angels to keep creeping up the standings.  

It's more fun hitting one home run in a win than three in a loss

Miguel Cabrera shined in the national stage, smashing three home runs on ESPN's Sunday Night baseball against Texas.  Even that was not enough to beat the red hot Rangers.  Two nights later, though, Cabrera went deep again against the Indians in a Tiger's win to pull within a game and a half against the just-as-red-hot Tribe.  Boo-ya.

Right now, Cabrera's the talk of the league, thanks to his performance on national television Sunday night.  Miggy has a MLB leading 49 RBI, leads the majors in batting average at .384 and his 12 home runs are second in the AL.  Could another Triple Crown be possible?  Probably not.  No one has ever won the Triple Crown in back-to-back years.  Having said that, though, we are watching possibly the greatest hitter in baseball in the middle of his prime.  If anyone can do it, I would say it's Cabrera.

Sunday night.  Cabrera's second home run is a line shot, straight to dead center.  Here's how fast it got out...3.7 seconds.  

In comparison, let's cut off a clip of a home run after 3.7 seconds of a shot by Mark Trumbo against the Astros...

Pretty wild.  Moving on...

Greinke returns to Milwaukee...Dodgers still suck

The Brewers scored four runs in the fifth inning to beat the reeling Dodgers and handing fresh of the DL, Zack Greinke his first ever loss at Miller Park.  Greinke, who had previously pitched for the Brewers, was 15-0 at home during his Milwaukee career.  

Zack struggled with his command in a very un-Greinke like performance, at one point having thrown 30 balls to 30 strikes on 60 pitches.  Carlos Gomez continues to smoke the ball, hitting a two-run double to pace the Brew Crew. 

What's the best cure for a losing streak? Play the Astros...maybe?

Expectations were sky for the Royals when they basically traded their entire touted farm system for James Shields (I guess when you haven't sniffed the postseason in over a decade, you start to have strange expectations) but entering this week, they had lost three straight and had fell to third in the AL Central.  

Enter the MLB worst Houston Astros.  Just barely keeping above the 1969 Mets pace, the Astros then promptly went out and beat the Royals in the opener.  Losing streak at four.  Then on Tuesday night, the Royals went out and scored seven runs against the atrocious Astros' bullpen, aided by some equally atrocious Astros' defense.  Losing streak snapped!  Yay!  And then last night, they promptly went out and lost to the Stros again with James Shields on the mound.  Shields has now received a total of five runs in his last four starts which is like, terrible.  Shields is now 2-5 with a 2.47 ERA.  Welcome to Kansas City.  Apparently, you lack the will to win.  

Barry Bonds to Miggy: "You ain't as good as me!"

Barry Bonds, who I personally hoped would just leave forever and never resurface as long as I live, is in the headlines again, talking about, who else?  Miguel Cabrera.  Bonds gave Miggy a sort of backhanded compliment in a USA Today Telephone interview:

“He’s definitely the best, it’s not rocket science here.  He’s the best. By far. Without a doubt. The absolute best.”

But then, Bonds goes on to add the caveat...

“I don’t try to compare me to anybody, I was the best on the field. I did more things than he did. My game was different than his game. So comparing him, to me, there’s no comparison.  He doesn’t have my MVPs. He doesn’t have my numbers. Well, not yet, anyways."

Okay Barry Bonds.  You got your piece in, now please go away.  Do we even have to bring up the Balco thing before we talk about your accomplishments?  That's like Bernie Madoff coming out and saying, 

"Yeah, the Ricketts family is rich....but no one made money like I did." 

Hopefully this will be the last time that Barry Bonds is mentioned in this blog until Miguel Cabrera breaks all of his records.  

Moving on...  

Ryan Vogelsong hurt swinging a bat. How do you like the DH rule now, Giants?

Bad news for the Giants as pitcher Ryan Vogelsong fractured his pinky on his pitching hand and underwent surgery this week.  The worst part was how it happened...swinging at an inside pitch.  The ball dislocated Vogelsong's pinky and broke it in two spots.  That means a DL trip for the resurgent right-hander, while the Giants also put reliever Santiago Casilla on the DL with right knee discomfort.  

Casilla was part of the dominant Giants bullpen that helped guide them to a World Series title last season.  He had only pitched twice since May 8.  Chad Gaudin will replace Vogelsong in the rotation while the Giants recalled Sandy Rosario to fill Casilla's spot in the bullpen.  San Fransisco currently sits in a three-way tie with Colorado and Arizona, atop the NL West standings.  Ahead of the Padres and the sucky Dodgers.  

Don Mattingly's seat on the Dodgers bench grows increasingly warm...

And it's not because of the hot temperature in LA.  Speaking of the sucky Dodgers, manager Don Mattingly is sounding more and more like a dead man walking with recent public shots at both Dodgers players and Dodgers management.  Some of the quotes aren't so nice....

THE WISDOM OF DON MATTINGLY

“Too many walks. Too many free runners. And we have to catch the baseball, that’s all there is to it,”-- Mattingly, on Dodgers recent play. 

“Guys in the big leagues make that play all day long.” 

-- Mattingly on Luis Cruz's dropped line drive.

“Matt Kemp's at the plate. Come on, Dee, we've been there. There's no real upside to stealing the base.”

-- Mattingly on Dee Gordon getting thrown out at third on a stolen base attempt (which, c'mon Dee, NEVER be the first or final out at third)

"It’s not just all, ‘Let’s go put an All-Star team out there and play games, and the team with the All-Star team wins.  All grit and no talent is not going to get you there, and all talent and no grit is not going to get you there. There’s got to be a mixture of both.”

-- Mattingly on the roster he was given. 

“If we don’t win, and we’re healthy, they really should look at it. This team has a lot of talent. My job, and my coaches’ job, is to get them to play the game right. If we can’t get them to play the game right, they may have the wrong voice.”

-- Mattingly on his future as Dodgers skipper.

"For me, today, I’m putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be the most competitive and going to compete the hardest.”
-- Mattingly on benching Andre Ethier


“We had guys get away early who seemed to fit,"-- Mattingly on losing veteran relievers because management insisted keeping a surplus of starters.  

From the sounds of it, Don Mattingly's must have a weirder plan to keep his job than Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.  You don't talk that way in public about your team and management unless you want to get fired...which is exactly what one NL executive said: "It sounds like he wants to get fired."  

Look for Mattingly to next say that Matt Kemp never should have given his jersey to that punk ass kid.  

NOW YOU DECIDE BASEBALL FANS:

Is Don Mattingly on his way out as Dodgers manager?

 

Let the Jurickson Profar Show begin! 

Rangers called up the top prospect in baseball when Ian Kinsler went to the DL this week.  While it appears to only be a temporary time in the majors for Profar, you never know when this year's first Trout/Harper rookie will hit the Show.  Fantasy owners be on alert.  

This is actually not the first time that Profar had to come to the rescue after a Kinsler injury when Profar became the 113th player to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat last August.  While he'll probably head back to Triple-A Round Rock when Kinsler comes back, you never know what kind of production guys like this have during their "stints."  It may just be enough to make Ron Washington find a place for the kid.  Keep an eye out and welcome back Jurickson Profar!  



And finally, no Thursday Wrap would be complete without our traditional....

LINKS-WRAP-UP-FOR-LAZY-PEOPLE

Today's theme is "TRADE FOR WHO!?!"  

Let's roll...


Red Sox GM not going to talk to Ellsbury   ●   But Theo might   ●   No offense but Jesus is not good enough (before you gasp, read first)   ●   Chase Utley is scared swinging   ●   One Opening Day starter down, 29 to go (ps - we want Ben Revere back - MN fans)   ●   You know you're struggling when John Danks coming back sounds awesome   ●   Joey Bats does baseball-ish things that are good   ●   Gary Carter Street in Canada sounds good, hopefully sounds better in French   ●   When Max Scherzer is on, he's really f----g on   ●   Stanton takes live batting practice (and knocks satellite out of sky?)   ●   Kuroda will not miss a start, Phil Hughes spot start averted


Thanks for tuning in baseball freaks, catch you this weekend...

Oh and Kate?  

Yeah Kate!