The Legend Begins

Starling Marte hit a HR last night on the first major league pitch he saw:

The last slugger to manage such a feat?  None other than one-time Nationals pitching prospect (and current Oakland A's starter) Tommy Milone:

Manager as Player Quiz

My favorite manager of all time, Earl Weaver, never played in the major leagues. There are a handful of active managers who also never played in the majors: Buck Showalter, Manny Acta, Joe Maddon, Jim Leyland, Fredi Gonzalez, and Terry Collins. However, most managers had less than illustrious to mediocre (or slightly above average) careers. I’m going to list the teams a manager played for in chronological order, and you need to name the manager.

1. New York Yankees

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

3. Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Devil Rays

4. Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers

5. Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals

6. Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants

7. Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers

8. Houston Astros, New York Mets, San Diego Padres

9. Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays

10. Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s

11. Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs

12. Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers

13. Los Angeles Dodgers, California Angels, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners

14. Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros

15. Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds

Cannonball

Do you hear that splash?

That's the sound of starting pitchers dropping back into the free agent pool. Man, it's rough out there.

Johan Santana, Jair Jurrgens, James McDonald, Trevor Bauer (who went to Triple-A), Travis Wood, and Bud Norris (who is not the man pictured) were hammered in their last start(s) and promptly waived by their fantasy teams.The last one kind of hurts a little.

It's getting ugly in Houston. So ugly, in fact, that the crossword puzzle world is starting to notice. In this week's Inkwell puzzle, ASTRO was the answer to the following clue: "NL player certain to be traded midseason, if he's any good".

Bad Closer/Good Samaritan

Sure, K-Rod and his 1.6 WHIP may no longer be striking fear into the hearts of opposing batters, but just ask yourself: Is it better to be loved or feared?  (On a pop cultural note - Bill Simmons alert! - I found Iron Man's mangling of Machiavelli annoying.)  If last night's walk-off sacrifice fly was any indication, put K-Rod firmly in the 'love' camp:

Kratz not only got to score the winning run, he got to slide right into the arms of K-Rod.  Weird.

Initial Impressions

I was looking through rosters today, and I noticed all the fun initials. So I decided to make a puzzle for you. Based on the initials of players, you figure out the team. To make it more fun, all of the players within each team's clue were born in the same country.

Example:
RAD
DW
ID
CY
LD

Answer:
Mets. R.A. Dickey, David Wright, Ike Davis (who seems like more of a Superego guy to me), Chris Young (who is not a CY contender), and Lucas Duda (who may or may not have a learning disability) all play for the Mets and are all from the United States.

If a player's first name is initials, those are the first two initials of the clue (like R.A. Dickey).

1. RZ, JZ, GG, SS

2. JAH, JDM, WW, BN, BB

3. CG, MS, RB, RH

4. CZ, OI, AS, EM

5. IS, MK (Only two, but that should give you a hint about the country.)

6. DD, SS, JJ, LL, BB

7. JA, JC, AS, WV

One of these things is not like the others

Name	BB%	K%	ISO
Adam Dunn	18.80%	36.70%	0.307
Pedro Alvarez	9.50%	30.80%	0.251
Kirk Nieuwenhuis	8.30%	30.40%	0.131
Carlos Pena	14.60%	30.30%	0.167
Mike Napoli	12.80%	30.10%	0.189
Jordan Schafer	8.80%	29.40%	0.085
Rickie Weeks	13.10%	28.70%	0.145
Danny Espinosa	7.80%	28.20%	0.142
Chris Davis	5.10%	27.90%	0.197
Dan Uggla	15.90%	27.40%	0.17

(from Fangraphs)


Those are some of my favorite players right there. There's even an article about them in this week's Time Magazine (sorry, subscription req'd).

I began following baseball closely in 2001. Coincidentally, that was Adam Dunn's first year in the majors. My life as a fan has been one, long search to find the words to describe his powers. This season, he's taken it to a new level. Every night before I sleep, I pray that he finishes this season with a sub .200 BA and 45 home runs.

I can't help but like this guy, even if I shouldn't.

Isn't it just Gerald Laird's luck to run into the only player fatter than him in the entire league?

Lots of players have the misfortune of playing for TLR, but not all of them embrace it with as much glee as Gerald Laird seemed to last year. In my book, that's just inexcusable. No, give me a player like Brendan Ryan.

On a related note, I'll be rooting for the AL tomorrow night, for the first time in my life.

3TO

I was lucky enough to catch a AAA game in Rochester last weekend. The Red Wings were out of town, but Rochester is also hosting the Empire State Yankees home games this season. That meant I got to see Jack Cust and Russell Branyan hit 4 and 5 in the Yankees lineup.

It was pure bliss.

I don't follow the Yankees very closely, but I imagine both players will get some at bats for the big league club this season (it will be Branyan's 12th different team), and we can guess the type of lines they'll put up.

 Here was Jack Cust's line last Friday night: 1-4 1HR 1BB 3K. Of course he played DH because I'm pretty sure Jack Cust does not own a glove. There's nothing slower than Jack Cust's walk back to the dugout after a strikeout. He stares at his shoes as they drag through the grass, and for those 15 seconds, the earth stops spinning.

Branyan also hit a home run on the first pitch he saw. It was one of the loudest things I've heard.