Same exact release point on five different pitches. You’ve probably seen this gif somewhere on the internet, but it needed added here.
How in the world is anyone supposed to be able to hit this guy?
GIF of the night: Through the five hole
April 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As noted, Yu Darvish came so close to perfection. Marwin Gonzalez? See for yourself. If only Darvish had better waist bend.
H/T to FanGraphs
The Watch List: Yu’s Perfection Yu’s Almost Perfect Game
April 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I started writing this post after Darvish set down the first two hitters on two pitches in the 9th inning. I jinxed the man.
Marwin Gonzalez kept everyone from seeing history tonight. His single in the bottom of the 9th inning was only the second ball that left the infield off Yu Darvish all night long.
The guy was so dominant; I don’t know where to begin. Yes, it was against the Houston Astros lineup which didn’t have many hits in it to begin with after blowing their load on Opening Night, but it was still impressive. This was the first Darvish start that I’ve watched from start to finish. He struck out 14 Astros on the night and featured a fastball that crept up to 97 miles per hour at one point.
The guy has pretty much announced to the world that he’s elite with this start if he hadn’t already prior. My fantasy team thanks Yu (pun).
Now for the stats rundown.
Home Runs: 1 (Ian Kinsler 1)
Strikeouts: 24
Runs: 7
Hits: 14
Errors: 0
Stolen bases: none (still haven’t seen a stolen base live yet, lost art)
Official time watching baseball: 2 hours, 54 minutes
Times taking the dog out to pee: 1
Chores my wife asked me to do during (unofficial): two
Household chores completed that I’ve been asked to do: zero
STATS during the 2000-Inning Quest:
Home Runs: 5
Bryce Harper home runs: 2
Strikeouts: 73
Runs: 23
Hits: 45
Errors: 5
Stolen bases: NONE
Official time watching baseball: 12 hours, 49 minutes
Times taking the dog out to pee: 7
Chores my wife asked me to do during (unofficial): two
Innings left to go: 1,953 (I’m giving myself 7 more innings b/c I watched the Giants/Dodgers game on MLB Network too before finding something else to do)
Opening Night Watch Report
April 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I feel like I was more excited for this season to start than I’ve been for any other previous in my lifetime. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but with the completion of tonight’s Opening Night game, I’m now just 1,991 innings away from completing my goal.
Opening Night 2013 was the Justin Maxwell show. He made a base-hit robbing catch of an Elvis Andrus liner early in the game–it was a trap, mind you–and added a pair of triples including one that drove in the first two runs of the 2013 season. He was named the Chevrolet Player of the Game.
The first home run of the 2000 inning quest and of the season went to an unlikely source: Rick Ankiel. Matt Harrison started off pitching well and struck out nine Astros, but Houston quickly settled in and made their return to the American League a triumphant one. Little Jose Altuve added a couple of knocks. Nelson Cruz as well.
There have certainly been more entertaining Opening Night match-ups. But let’s face it, no one is watching these guys tomorrow. This could very well be the only time during the season that the Astros are on my ‘Watch List’. Now for the meat and potatoes of what this post will include.
STATS during the 2000-Inning Quest:
Home Runs: 1 (Rick Ankiel, 1)
Strikeouts: 20
Runs: 10
Hits: 15
Errors: 1
Stolen bases: zero
Official time watching baseball: 3:00
Times taking the dog out to pee: 2
Chores my wife asked me to do during (unofficial): Zero
Innings left to go: 1,991
2013 Texas Rangers Team Preview
February 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ahhh…good ol’ Texas. More like a country than a state. If there was one state that I would money on to secede, it would be Texas. (unless we sell Alaska to China for some futures in raw bamboo) The Rangers spent 2010 and 2011 losing in the World Series, but couldn’t manage to make it back for a third time. Any many thought they would the way they opened up the 2012 season. But let’s be honest, they were just heading toward Buffalo Bills territory.
Let’s take a closer look at the Rangers.
Major Off-Season Moves:
- Signed Joakim Soria, a reliever who’s arm is possibly still messed up.
- Signed A. J. Pierzynski, who may not have any knee cartilage left after years of playing catcher
The Rangers off-season was mainly defined by what they didn’t do. They didn’t resign aging but still super star Josh Hamilton – instead letting him go to the rival LA Angels. Then, they were unable to replace him with Justin Upton after rumored trade after rumored trade fell through. Who really knows how close they were to getting Upton. But we do know they are a less talented team than they were a year ago.
Now on to who is going to take the field this year.
New Astros Uniforms are Hideous; Will be Showcased on Opening Night 2013
January 4, 2013 by 1 Comment
Forgive me for having better things to do (not really), but this is the first look I’ve had at the new Houston Astros uniforms.
This comes with the news that the ‘Stros will be opening up their AL West ‘rivalry’ with the Texas Rangers on baseball’s Opening Night of 2013, coming on March 31st.
Don’t get us wrong, we love Jose Altuve. We’ll be forever indebted to the little guy (and the other 11 owners who didn’t pick him up when we had to drop him due to roster constraints before again adding him for a stretch run) for helping deliver yet another fantasy baseball championship with his average, steals, and runs on a bad team.
But shouldn’t Opening Night belong to a couple of teams that have a bit more pizazz? A little more sparkle? Those new threads are not sparkle. They’re a cross between the Detroit Tigers and a well-sponsored Pony League team. Not a fan.
Welcome to the year 2013. A year in which the Astros will donate some 90-something wins to teams of the American League, beginning with Opening Night.
Wild Card Friday (& Predictions)
October 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
For the first time in the history of this blog (and the sport in general), the postseason kicks off with two Wildcard teams playing a one game play-in the day before the real deal gets going.
National League: St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves
The last time Fredi Gonzalez was in this situation, he didn’t fare so well. He’s not a good manager, and his immensely talented team has brought him back for a chance at redemption despite his attempts to sabotage them all. It’s a testament to the winning culture in Atlanta, and the fact that they want to send their strong leader Chipper Jones out as he deserves; a winner.
The Cardinals had enough magic last season to last them a lifetime. If you were like us, you waited all season long for a Cardinals run that never really came. We have no doubts that the Cardinals will have some great runs in the future under Mike Matheny, and this season was a nice start to his managerial career. But these Cardinals are not made with the same ingredients that made them great at this time last year. They just aren’t.
They’ve still got the ability to score and knock down fences with the best of them, but there’s some smoke and mirrors within their starting rotation. Adam Wainwright has a lot of mileage on his arm, Chris Carpenter missed most of the season, and the wildcard game starter Kyle Lohse had a career year that seems to be an anomaly more than a constant.
The baseball gods will allow the Braves to extract some sweet revenge on the team that stole their spot like a thief in the night a year ago. Fredi and the Braves will win tomorrow night in Atlanta and give Chipper Jones one final crack at a ring that has eluded him since 1995. The Cardinals season ends tomorrow.
Prediction: Braves over Cardinals
American League: Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers
My goodness we love Ron Washington. His speech to his troops before World Series game seven last postseason is the thing that legends are made of. And how about those tricky Orioles? Who in their right mind had Buck Showalter and the Orioles here at this point? No one. Not a damn person outside the Baltimore fan base, and if you try to tell me otherwise you’re lying.
The Orioles have strung together a rag-tag bunch that includes Mark Reynolds, Robert Andino, Nate McLouth, and Chris Davis. Of course they’ll go to the Hellhouse that is the Ballpark in Arlington, to face all of those terrifying hitters and F-bomb dropping Ron Washington and they’ll start a pitcher (Joe Saunders) who I would consider waiver wire garbage. Were they trolling late-night for catfish the night that they found Saunders? He started seven games for the Orioles this season. They haven’t a season like this since I was still searching for my first kiss. And they’re going to let Joe Saunders decide their season? This is who you throw out there to decide the biggest game this team has played in decades? That’s TV I’ve got to see.
But you know what? The baseball gods are a funny thing.
Here are teams on the opposite side of the spectrum. One team is littered with superstars, while the other just appears littered. The Rangers will throw their high-dollar import special Yu Darvish to oppose Saunders. The Rangers have about as much postseason experience up and down the roster as anyone in the field this year. The Orioles have little to none.
Everyone in the world will pick the Rangers tomorrow night. It would probably make sense to do the same. But something in my gut tells me that this Texas team has learned the just how long and impossible the journey seems. They’re jaded. They dropped the World Series two years ago. Last year they climbed back up that tall hill only to see it slip away in the most gut-wrenching fashion possible in sports. If that wasn’t enough to kill the spirits of this team, getting caught by the Oakland Athletics and losing the division title after leading the way for 99% of the season has destroyed this team’s inner conscious. I’m telling you that they’re mentally cooked.
Look back at the other side now, those tricky Orioles. They don’t know what they’re about to embark upon. They haven’t been here. They can say ‘who gives a shit, the whole damn season has been crazy anyways’. They have been starting Mark Reynolds the last few seasons. What do they care? Here’s a situation where I think lack of experience helps a team. In this one game scenario, they can catch some lightning in a bottle because they aren’t able to fully grasp the moment. All the pressure in the world is on our beloved Ron Washington and his Cocaine Cowboys of the West.
Most of all, in this life when everything seems so certain; it isn’t at all. Go the other way with the pick that everyone will go one way with. When they zig, you zag.
Prediction: Orioles over Rangers
Nice to See: Adam Dunn Goes Deep on Opening Day
April 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Adam Dunn tied Frank Robinson and his former teammate Ken Griffey Jr. today when he hit his 8th career Opening Day home run against the Texas Rangers.
The White Sox still lost the game 3-2. But maybe this is the start of a revival for Adam Dunn. After all, he’s not going to have his appendix out again to rattle a hot start. And maybe he’ll have the year he was supposed to have last season.
Same swing, same trot, albeit a few pounds lighter. Same old Dunner. Doing his thing in game one, making you believe at least for a day or so that he could hit 162 long ones. This is one blogger who won’t be surprised one bit to see Adam Dunn get back to his old ways of 35 and 100 even if the Sox end up being a bad team.
Ron Washington’s Game Seven F-Bomb laden Pregame Speech
November 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment
As far as I’m concerned, this is like General Patton firing up his troops before a big battle. This is that good. This makes me want to throw the cleats on, swipe on some eye black and go out for nine more innings regardless of what kind of pain my 29 year old muscles are in. This makes me want to win, battle, scratch, and claw for every last out and zero we can hang on the board.
It sounds like Ron Washington got the troops plenty fired up before game seven.
WARNING: There is extreme use of use of expletives in this sound clip. Do not play this at loud volumes in a condensed area.
God told Josh Hamilton he would hit the dramatic World Series Home Run
November 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The God I believe in told Josh Hamilton that he was going to hit the home run that should have won the Texas Rangers the World Series Championship before he hit it. The baseball Gods had other ideas on the World Title, ironically.
“I would tell y’all something,” he said with a grin, “but y’all wouldn’t believe me.” “The Lord told me it was going to happen before it happened,” Hamilton continued. “‘You hadn’t hit a home run in a while. You’re about to right now.’” [FOX Sports]
The Ups and Downs of an Epic, Last Minute trip to St Louis for Game 7 of the World Series
November 1, 2011 by 73 Comments
How we lost all our money, got in the stadium without a ticket, avoided getting arrested, and had a night we’ll never forget.
Game Six in St. Louis was a classic for All-Time
October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Baseball fans will always remember where they were when they were watching this one. I think that’s how it is for a true watershed event that contains guys who will go on to reach legendary status in this great game we follow–especially when it’s on the biggest and brightest stage.
There was just so much excellence packed in those 11 innings last night, it’s hard to really cover it all.
I am the Editor-in-Chief over at Tomahawk Take on the FanSided Network now, and I decided to have my main scribes about this classic be over there.
I stayed up and watched the entire thing (with my puppy trying to use my arm as a teething toy). I’ll always remember where I was for this one; on the couch with Bentley. Watching David Freese become our era’s Carlton Fisk with still a chance to win it all.
And I thought I saw the at bat that was Pujols’ last as a Cardinal. Once. Twice. A third time. You mean it’s going to end on a measly ground out? Well that was anti-climactic. Well, wouldn’t you know that Pujols gets a huge hit in his possible last at-bat as a Cardinal. You mean they’re going to walk the Great Pujols here, in his last at-bat as a Cardinal? I almost thought Ron Washington would think about pitching to him just because of the situation. It turns out that moment is still out ahead of us.
I thought I saw destiny. Instead it was just a World Series home run by Josh Hamilton. And if the Rangers don’t find a way to win it tonight he’ll someday be going on television and talking about how he thought that was his moment; a defining moment of a career and a lifetime. But it has already been lessened. He can look into the other dugout and thank Lance Berkman for that.
When people talk about Game Six in St. Louis, you should forever know what they were talking about. And there is a part of me that can empathize in a big way with the Texas Rangers and their fans. I’ve been on that side a lot. And when I’ve been on that side in sports, my teams come out and lose tonight. There’s no doubt, they’re sunk and I would be shocked to see them find a way tonight.
Anyone who says baseball is boring is missing games like last night. Those 11 innings went by in a flash and look at the names I just threw out there in this post alone. There is so much star potential in this series that it’s not even funny. Joe Buck even got to honor his legendary father.
Tonight, we get a miraculous game seven to start off a weekend. My only wish is that my team was in this thing. I am so insanely jealous. If I was a Cardinals fan I wouldn’t have went to work today. I would have just soaked it all in.
Baseball; after all this time, really is still magical. This was the second time the nation has been captivated in about a month by something that can be called ‘one of the greatest nights in baseball history’.
Who knows what kind of high drama is even in store tonight. There is only one guarantee, and that is that a new champion will be crowned and the curtain will fall on yet another season in our lives. What a closing act it’s been.
Albert Pujols’ Ruthian Performance in World Series Game Three
October 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment
[ESPN] [CBS Sports] [Viva El Birdos] [Dallas Morning News]
It was if this moment was meant to be part of both time and reality all along and every day that Albert Pujols played and lived were all just unfolding until he got to this moment. When I heard that Pujols had homered three times in Arlington last night to give the Cardinals a 2 to 1 lead in the World Series I started to think about this player’s destiny and the Cardinals unlikely run and where this will place him in history. I also started thinking about all the unlikely events that took place in the Cardinals making this run and getting to this spot so that Pujols had the chance to do this in the first place.
He was already the greatest player of our generation and now again he has proven that he is one of the greatest of all time. He joins Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only men to homer three times in a Fall Classic game.
The performance says so much about this player. It was the Picasso that he’s been slaving over his entire life to paint. He re-instills my belief that all players have a destiny in their life to fulfill and they rightfully reach it be it good, bad, insignificant or legendary. Anyone who has watched The Great Pujols over the course of his transcendent career has to admit that of of course he found a way to etch this feat on his tombstone epitaph of what was already one of the most historic careers of all time.
This act also got me thinking that the Cardinals are going to do this. They’re going to win the World Series and this is going to be one of those years where I didn’t catch greatness or destiny as it was taking place. I turned my head and missed one of the most magical runs in recent history–a run that started when the summer was waning and the days were still longer.
Sometimes in sports it’s easy to miss something like this because we don’t believe in every player following a path he was meant to follow when he was created. I believe that this performance was coded into Pujols’ DNA and was meant to be one more glimpse into what is one of the most incredible careers we have witnessed across any sport.
World Series Game One
October 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment
[C70 At the Bat] [Dallas Morning News] [ESPN Dallas]
I turned the game on last night for a while because baseball history was being made. Everyone remembers a moment from game one of every World Series.
For me, that moment was finding out that Arthur Rhodes was being paid a measly $1,000 dollars by the St. Louis Cardinals and $1.1 million by the Texas Rangers. The same Arthur Rhodes who we hung with in the Diamond Club in Cincinnati. The same Arthur “Bad Man” Rhodes who I told you the Reds would suffer a swoon from the loss of.
Twenty year Major League career, and now here he protecting a one run lead with two down in the 8th inning and Josh Hamilton at the plate. His stuff looked the same to me as it always has–call me crazy but it did. He got Josh Hamilton to fist one into center and he walked off the field in a World Series game for the first time in his life. He would get credit for the hold and I would wonder exactly why the Rangers wouldn’t have hung onto a left-handed lethal weapon like this. Why is a guy like this expendable at any point on a team like the Rangers? Especially when think about the principle that you’re paying his salary to beat you.
The Cardinals kept rolling and I would like to say I was surprised. But I really wasn’t. They’re probably going to win this series and continue to wreck everything I have in the way of predictions this postseason. I would almost bet my life that the Rangers win tonight in St. Louis and even this series at 1-1 heading back to Texas.
I think we’re all having a hard time processing what these Cardinals are. They’re a team with one big time pitcher, a great bullpen, and guys like Allen Craig and Lance Berkman are getting big hits to win the game. They’re built around the greatest player of our generation and a lot of patient hitters who have been taught to let the game come to them instead of being built on trying to make something happen. And we’re talking about this because it’s really working.
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