BASEBALL - WEEK 9
And we’re back! The NBA playoffs are in their 3rd month, should wrap up sometime around Labor Day. NHL playoffs looked to be all but over, then Pekka Rinne remembered how to stop a puck. Baseball isn’t quite leading PTI, but we are close! Just kidding, there will be random NFL news to cover I’m sure. Now, a word from our sponsor. Warning, we had to stoop pretty low for this week, but come on, gotta pay the bills.
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Various Team TOB observations:
St. Louis Cardinals: The starting pitching is still hanging on, but the offense has started to come back to earth. Their month long run of success may have been due to their level of competition more than their own abilities. The Cardinals are 12-21 vs teams at or above .500, 14-6 vs losing teams. It’s not atypical for good teams to beat up on bad ones, the problem is the Cardinals appear to be in the latter group. May be time to start infusing some of the younger guys on a regular basis to see what the team has moving forward (DeJong looks solid, Pham should start the rest of the year, Sierra might be a year away from starting). The bullpen needs major help, Matheny has never been good at managing a pen, but at this point it’s difficult to say who to call on. They all stink save for Rosenthal and Oh. Brad Thompson has jokingly said he’s up for a tryout…but he sounded a little too serious.
Washington Nationals: The class of the NL lost Harper for three games because some jackass on the Giants holds grudges like TOB’s aunt. Come on man, let it go, it’s been three years, plus, you won the World Series the year Harper got you. TOB is not a big Harper fan, but in this case, the punishment did not fit the crime. Harper deserved a game or two, Strickland should have gotten 5 times that.
Houston Astros: Already 25 games over .500, the Astros are on a 10 game winning streak. The offense is diverse (three different players lead them in AVG, HR, and RBI) and the starting pitching is back to 2015 form. They have a 13.5 game lead in the division and it’s the first week of June. They could play .500 baseball the rest of the year and end up with 94 wins. That shit cray.
Player X: Rookie season, called up in June – 90 games: .952 OPS / 22 HR / 43 RBI. Second season, started in MLB – 127 games: .834 OPS / 21 HR / 70 RBI. Third and fourth MLB seasons played platoon outfield (poorly) because he was stuck behind an All Star First Baseman – 163 games combined: .695 OPS / 11 HR / 59 RBI. There was no fifth major league season…
Player Y: Rookie season, called up in June – 69 games: .842 OPS / 16 HR / 43 RBI. Second season, started in MLB – 49 games: .638 OPS / 9 HR / 23 RBI. Player has been relegated to platoon outfield (poor outfield defender) due to a .166 BA. Also, stuck behind an All Star First Baseman.
Player X started very hot, had a good second year, and fell quickly out of the league once his weaknesses were exploited. Player Y had a good first year, but may be falling quicker than player X. Player X is Chris Duncan, player Y is Kyle Shwarber. Ouch. Shout out to Dan Ragon for the comp.
Heyward vs. Fowler Update:
Heyward: .729 OPS through 41 games (162 PA). Heyward’s last two seasons were summed up perfectly on Friday. He went one for three with a sacrifice fly. Obnoxious Cubs fan Steve Gerring referred to this as a “Monster Game.” If that’s a monster game, the bar is set very low at this point.
Fowler: .758 OPS through 49 games (207 PA). Still slugging at a high level, but OBP is scuffling. Didn’t anticipate Fowler being on a pace for 25 homeruns, but would sure like to see him getting on base more to spark the offense.
Manfred Mann’s League of The Blind Update:
Silky Johnson’s Player Haters (Cubs, Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Braves Padres): Wins – 161 / Pace – 473. Cubs are letting Silky down, TOB is pleased.
Dexter’s Laboratory (Red Sox, Rangers, Cardinals, Royals, Diamondbacks, Reds): Wins – 165 / Pace – 486. Royals and Reds are struggling. Don’t worry, they’ll make some mid-season moves to improve…j/k, they will likely sell and get worse. There’s always next year! Ah, I missed the times when the Royals were terrible.
Synderhard-on for Kershaw (Dodgers, Mets, Blue Jays, Pirates, Rays, White Sox): Wins – 164 / Pace – 476. Come on Pirates and White Sox! Just need you guys to go .500. The Dodgers are back to what we expected, the Jays are turning it around, and the Mets are flipping off their fans (justifiably).
Blake Street Bombers (Nationals, Giants, Rockies, Orioles, Brewers, Twins): Wins – 178 / Pace – 523. Starting to come back to the pack. Nats are still strong, but those Twins and Brewers won’t keep this up. Don’t start counting money just yet…
Cano Corn (Astros, Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Phillies, Athletics): Wins – 160 / Pace – 473. The Astros are keeping Steve afloat. Unreal, they might win 110 games! Too bad that will be at the expense of the Mariners and A’s.
Best Moment of the Year (to date):
The Tampa Bay Rays haven’t done much this year, aside from destroy TOB’s fantasy team. However, this moment was sent in by longtime TOB reader RJ Agee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHhHP0p1vw4
Amazing, we have a spot for you on the Phi Kap Softball Team once your playing days are over, Steven Souza, Jr.
What’s Annoying TOB this Week:
Mike Trout is going to miss 6-8 weeks due to a hand injury. That is terrible news for all of those Angels fans out there. That would be a tragedy if there were in fact, Angels fans. The bigger tragedy is that he still plays in Anaheim. Get him out of there, post haste. Where are these super rich teams to buy him away? Calling New York and/or Boston.
Best Comment by an Announcer (to date):
Nothing to report, though I’m sure Tim McCarver shoehorned the fact that he played with Bob Gibson into a call at some point.
Raging Bulls Update:
It’s a long season…tough loss to the Tigers this week. Need to get the defense cleaned up and timelier hitting. Starting pitching has been solid, have to find a new power source. Too many runners are being left on base this year. Unfortunately it appears to be a transition year for the Bulls, with some good young talent getting playing time (Berk…and soon Jesus).
Game Blouses Update:
Difficult to say what will happen with the final weekend of the regular season with the rain canceling the last two games today. Game Blouses played the Rack Pack to a nine inning draw (rare in kickball, typical is 7 innings, if there is enough time, most only go 5 or 6). The top 4 seeds are set, so it is likely that Big Balls will just cancel the last few games and hold the playoffs June 11th. Game Blouses will be the favorite, but with 6 of the 14 roster players going on a float trip, could be a rough road in the playoffs.
Donut Shop Talk:
TOB’s father has a donut shop in south St. Louis city, “St. Louis Hills Donut Shop” at the corner of Hampton and Loughborough. Great donuts, not a lot of sports knowledge by the random customers who like to chat about the Cardinals and Blues. Occasionally TOB will hop in for a cup of coffee and a cheese flip, listening to the ramblings of borderline insane people. This section will chronicle some of those conversations.
Piscotty has got to go. Signed the contract and got lazy. In TOB’s father’s defense, this statement was made before finding out Piscotty’s mother has been diagnosed with ALS. Perhaps that is causing his spotty play. Hopefully they can find peace with it and Stephen can continue on with a nice career.
-Tony on Ball
