I hope everybody had a happy Mother's Day. Let's now take a look around the Longball League.
Roster Moves
5/6/2013
The AngelsSox dropped C.J. Wilson LAA and up Y. Darvish TEX
Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week
Hitters
Hot: Evan Longoria hit three HRs and drove in 11 runs for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Not: Albert Pujols drove one whole run for the Angels.
Pitchers
Hot: Ubaldo Jimenez won two games and struck out 16 for the Cleveland Indians.
Not: Philip Humber lost two games, (one as a starter, and one out of the bullpen), allowed 13 earned runs on 13 hits and the lost his job. He was designated for assignment by the Houston Astros on Sunday.
This Week's Three Trivial Things
1. At the 33 game mark earlier this week, the Dodgers checked in at 13-20, while the Angels sported a truly ugly 11-22 record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau that is the worst combined start for both Los Angeles area MLB teams ever.
2. You never know what you're gonna see at the ballpark. Last Friday night, Tampa Bay pitcher Alex Cobb had a rather weird top of the third inning v. the San Diego Padres. He struck out four batters in the inning. The first batter Cobb faced was Will Venable who reached base on Cobb's strike three wild pitch. Venable then stole second as Chase Headley struck out. Venable then stole third during Carlos Quentin's at bat. After Quentin struck out, Yander Alonso stepped up to the plate. Cobb then balked, which brought in Venable from third to score. Then, to the end the inning, Alonso struck out. That made Alex Cobb the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out the side and give up a run in the same inning.
3. This past May 10th marked an interesting anniversary of sorts for Hank Aaron. 46 years ago on May 10, 1967 Hammerin' Hank hit the only inside-the-park home run of his illustrious career. He did it in the 8th inning of the first game of a double header off Philadelphia's Jim Bunning.
Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1975 Hostess #s 28-29-30, Bert Campaneris, Pete Rose, and Buddy Bell
As if the moms of America didn't have enough trouble keeping their kids from begging for junk food in the supermarket back in 1975, Hostess added baseball cards to their "Family Sized" boxes of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Cupcakes, and Suzy Q's. The set was issued as three card panels on the bottom of the boxes. The set totaled 150 cards, so you'd need to buy 50 boxes to complete the set. For those of you scoring at home, that would mean you would have to buy:
A. 400 Suzy Q's or Cupcakes (8 per box)
Or
B. 500 Twinkies (10 per box)
Or
C. 600 Ding Dongs (12 per box)
Needless to say, complete sets aren't so easy to find.
Of Salaries and Men
Luci, The GM of the Eclairs, sent me this great link last week. If you ever wanted to check on how your team stacks up against other teams payrolls in MLB, check out this link from the LA Times.
Until next time folks remember that sometimes even the umpires don't know the rules.
-The Commissioner
