Baseball Weekend Preview

Somehow, my wife signed up for a 5K run tonight. I don’t know why I agreed to run 3+ miles in 85 degree heat (some genius wanted to start it at dinner time instead of; you know, the normal time of running a race in the morning when it’s only a million degrees and humid rather than a billion.

So if I don’t die, here are five series that I’ll have my eye on this weekend. If I do die, I bequeath my blog to my cousin Joe. I know he’ll neglect it and never manicure like I have, but he has ADHD and I can’t fault him for being the way he is.

1) New York Yankees (37-25) at Washington Nationals (38-23)
In my opinion, the best two teams in baseball are squaring off here for a ‘possible World Series preview’ that won’t ever happen. This is a fun series for baseball fans everywhere. Being that my wife is a Yankees fan she might even let me watch one of these all the way through. If you wondered how long it would take for some writer to take the low-hanging fruit topic of ‘Bryce Harper to the Yankees in 2018’, already done hours ago courtesy of Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York.

2) Chicago White Sox (34-29) at Los Angeles Dodgers (40-24)
It’s kind of cool that the ChiSox will be playing in Dodger Stadium. When you lay down to go to sleep tonight, Vin Scully will be storytelling about the likes of Adam Dunn and Gordon Beckham amongst others. Speaking of storytelling and those guys, a co-worker just gave me a few great stories about those two gentleman that will be in a future post on Diamond Hoggers.

3) Baltimore Orioles (37-26) at Atlanta Braves (34-29)
Back when Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Mussina, and Brady Anderson were Orioles it seemed like one of the big interleague match-ups was the Orioles visiting the ’97 Chipper Jones Braves at Turner Field. Now you’ve got the upstart Orioles back a generation later to do battle. It should be a good competitive series between two hungry teams. Former mega-prospects Jason Heyward and Matt Wieters need to get back on tract right now.

4) Arizona DiamondBacks (31-32) at Anaheim Angels (34-30)
These two teams are playing about how I thought they would right about now. The DBacks are by no means dead. Arizona is 8.5 games out right now. The Angels are surging, and on the strength of Mike Trout and Albert Pujols trail the Rangers by just three games. Keep an eye on Justin Upton this series. He’s shown signs of trying to get hot recently.

5) Boston Red Sox (31-32) at Chicago Cubs (21-42)
Two of baseball’s premiere old teams face off to kick off the weekend with a 2:20 start time at Wrigley today. And I’m pretty sure that there is no better way to kick off a weekend of baseball than being at Wrigley Field or just watching it on television. The afternoon sunshine, you can almost smell the beer and peanuts. I want to live in Wrigleyville, like right now.

Pitching Match-ups to DVR

Friday:
Carlos Zambrano vs. Matt Moore
Chris Sale vs. Clayton Kershaw

Saturday:
Andy Pettitte vs. Jordan Zimmerman
Cliff Lee vs. Ricky Romero

Sunday:
Madison Bumgarner vs. Felix Hernandez

Video of the Week:

Here’s our buddy Batting Stance Guy providing you with a 10-step imitation kit of Bryce Harper. Not only is Batting Stance Guy good at what he does, but he’s timely. He’s probably already working on his Jurickson Profar if I know him at all.

Podcasting:
If you’re bored on Saturday morning and feel like zoning out for a half hour, listen to this before your wife gets on you about starting your chores. I’ve been listening to the ESPN Baseball Today Podcast the past few weeks and it’s pretty good. Plus the topic is Harper, Trout, Bundy, Bauer.