Josh Hamilton, Emil Brown and Mark Reynolds are in the top 4 in the majors in RBI. None of them had more than 62 RBI last year.
Chase Utley and Pat Burrell are 1st and 2nd in the majors in home runs and slugging.
Nate McLouth had hits in the first 18 games of the season. Then he went on an 0 for 15 slump. Then he fired back with 3 homers and 5 RBI in 2 games. He's got on base above .400, a slugging above .600, an OPS above 1.000 and he's a leadoff hitter...for the Pirates.
Micah Owings is 4-0 with a 3.48 ERA. He is also batting .389 (7 for 18) and last year he hit .333 with 4 homers and 15 RBI in only 60 at bats. He should be playing everyday.
And his teammate Brandon Webb should be pitching everyday. If he could. Webb is 6-0 with a 1.98 ERA. That follows season of 16-8 with a 3.10 and 18-10 with a 3.01. Webb is clearly the best pitcher in baseball.
Doink
Brad Penny crossed up Russell Martin and ended up nearly killing the umpire. Martin was expecting a curveball, Penny threw a fastball and it went right past Martin and into Kerwin Danley's face. Danley was knocked out, but he's going to be ok.
This video is also an interesting case study in Vin Scully. I love Scully, my favorite announcer of all-time. But he clearly wasn't watching, thinking the pitch hit the dirt. Second, the guy gets beaned by a pitch and is out cold and Scully is talking about how he's from Arizona, played with Tony Gwynn at SDSU and how his wife makes the best peach cobbler he's ever had.
Poor Aaron Rowand
That's got to be embarrassing in the middle of the game. Announcer Mike Krukow couldn't even hide the humor in his own hilarious misspeak.
Cool Picture the Week
A foul ball into the stands at a Rangers game. It looks like the guy in the red shirt took the ball in the gut, or perhaps the groin. But I always like pictures like this because of the reactions of so many of the people in the crowd. Look at the woman on the left in the plaid jacket who is curled up into the fetal position. And the woman in the blue holding a cup, she looks as if she's about to puke.
I love Vin Scully too .. but he's human and humans make mistakes. I've heard him call players by the wrong names, say the wrong stats, and so forth. It comes with being human and well... being old. Then again ... I wonder what kinda angle he had up in his press box. Like last year ... he called Russell's double-play on the infield an unassisted double-play. I repeated what Vin said, and someone corrected me saying he was assisted (even though Russell did tag out both runners himself). Sadly ... we learn that Vin Scully isn't infallible.
ReplyDeleteOf course he's human and he makes mistakes and I don't mind him thinking the pitch hit the dirt, that's one of the problems of not having another set of eyes in the booth. I was more making fun of his laidback storytelling, right after a guy got knocked the fuck out by a fastball to the jaw.
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