Summer is officially here. The All-Star break and the dog days of summer will be upon us before we now it. Here's the haps in the Longball League.
Roster Moves
6/16/2013
The Tatooine Womp Rats dropped Ryan Braun (MIL) and picked up Prince Fielder (DET)
The Sierra Vista Coachwhips and the Thunder Mountain Lightning dropped Ryan Braun (MIL) and picked up Edwin Encarnacion (TOR).
All moves were injury moves.
Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week
Hitters
Hot: Jay Brice hit seven HRs for the Reds this week.
Not: Josh Hamilton. It seems it's always Josh Hamilton this season.
Pitchers
Hot: Steve Cishek of the Marlins picked up four saves with an ERA of 0.00 in 3.1 IP.
Not: Jonathan Papelbon picked up three blown saves for the Phightin' Phillies.
This Week's Three Trivial Things...
1. He hit the ball through the wall. Well, he almost did. Pittsburgh's Tony Sanchez ended up with a ground rule double v. the Angels on Sunday when launched a line drive into the right field wall at the Big A. Not off the wall, into the wall. The ball hit the wall and stuck like a dart in the out of town scoreboard. Take a look, it's the white dot above the V in MOVING.
2. Josh Hamilton's bad night is now the stuff of legend. In a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Mariners last Tuesday, Hamilton went 0 for 5. He hit into three double plays in his first three at bats, and then struck out his last two times up. Hamilton stranded seven runners on base which is two shy of the team's total for the night. Hamilton's bad night achieved legendary status when it was discovered he's only the second player since 1916 to hit into three double plays and strike out twice in the same game.
3. I've found a new stat to play with. Well, at least new to me. It's called WPA, which stands for Win Probability Added. It measures the percentage by which a player improves or worsens his team's chance to win a game. So, add up all the percentages in a starting lineup and it should give you an idea of how a game will go. I mention this stat because Josh Hamilton's WPA is -.477. That means the rest of the squad needs to overcome his futility. By just being in the lineup, Hamilton diminishes the Halo's chance to win by 47.7 per cent!
Not So Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1987 Topps #321 Mike Laga, and 1987 Donruss #293.
Topps has an awful reputation for airbrushing photos and turning them into horrible cards. Mike Laga's 1987 Topps card is one of the worst ones they ever did.
Why Topps couldn't just get a picture of Laga in a Cardinals uniform is baffling. Donruss got it right.
Oh well, laziness on the part of Topps equals a card that gets an unusual amount of attention. That pink jersey is just goofy.
Two Cool Reads
Pam and Liza have sent me a couple of great articles over the last two weeks. The first one deals from the Washington Post deals with the ritual of batting practice. The second one deals with how Vin Scully almost ended up being the voice of the Yankees.
Until next week folks, remember that a team can't scoreboard watch until they start winning.
-The Commissioner
-The Commissioner
