We are just 22 days away from the end of the regular season in the Longball League. Is your team set up for the stretch drive? Still have a shot at the playoffs? A lot of teams still do and that's what makes it fun.
Roster Moves
8/6/2012
San Pedro Sea Monkeys drop Josh Hamilton (TEX), pick up Mike Trout (LAA)
8/7/2012
Invisible Hands drop Andrew McCutchen (PIT), pick up Miguel Cabrera (DET)
8/10/2012
San Pedro Sea Monkeys drop Matt Cain (SF), pick up Felix Hernandez (SEA)
This Week's Three Trivial Things
1. I don't ever remember seeing this in a game, but it did happen. Last Friday night v. the Mariners, Mike Trout of the Angels came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning. Trout then hit a deep fly to the right field corner for a sacrifice fly that scored Howie Kendrick from third and Erick Aybar from second while the Mariner defense fell asleep on the play. It went down as a 2-RBI sacrifice fly. So, how rare a play was that? There have been only five 2-RBI sacrifice flies in the majors in the last 10 seasons, while there have been 38 triple plays recorded over the same timespan.
2. With all the talk about Washington planning to shut down their ace, Stephen Strasburg after 160 innings pitched this season, I couldn't help thinking about how many innings pitchers used to hurl in a season. Most pitchers from the inception of the professional game through the dead ball era threw an outrageous number of innings, but in the modern era, Wilbur Wood stands out. Wood pitched primarily for the White Sox. He was a knuckleballer who from 1971 through 1974 pitched over 300 innings a year, with a career high 376 innings pitched in 1972.
3. The Houston Astros will be moving over to the American League West next year and the division couldn't get a worse team. I got these facts from Jayson Stark's column at ESPN.com. The Astros have gone 4-34 in their last 38 games. Nobody has been that awful this late in the year since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (They were an NL club then) went 1-40 in their last 41 games of the season. hey are an abysmal road team. The Astros are just 11-46 on the road this season. Gee, what an awful addtion to the AL West they will be.
Baseball Card of The Week
The Houston Astros are so bad, I thought I'd give this week's honor to their manager Brad Mills. I'm also thinking Mills gets fired at the end of the season. He'll be the answer to this trivia question: Who was the last Astros manager before they moved to the American League? Here's Brad on his 2011 Topps Heritage card. It's #12 in the set.
Until next week folks, remember that this is the home stretch of the season!
-The Comissioner
