By this point in the season, Albert Pujols should be flirting with .400 - not sitting below .300 with a gap (.033) between the magic mark and where he's at. He shouldn't be breaking a 100+ (105 at bats and 119 plate appearance) at bat streak without a home run. Is it really the year of the pitcher, or are we ushering in a new crop of offense?
Matt Joyce is currently leading the major leagues in batting average with a .367 mark. If I wouldn't be looking at him in his Rays uniform, I would have no idea who he was, but he seems to be part of the new Tampa Bay outlook and his 8 home runs attests that he's not all singles either.
This is not diminishing Jose Bautista, who is still hitting at a .340 clip with 19 home runs (guess I was really wrong on not believing in his salary bonus), but other than that, there are people with about 10-12 home runs, and they're the usual suspects, but there aren't many big time boppers - save Curtis Granderson and his 16 jacks (and 45 strikeouts in 178 at bats).
Matt Holliday has also been solid with his .349 average and 6 home runs, but for the most part, the bats have been silent this year. Big boppers like Adam Dunn who came to new teams with hope for power are striking out a lot more (60) than they are connecting (5). Mad Mark Reynolds is drifting into worse obscurity (.191) as he racks up his usual misses (49) and falls short on his connections (5). It's an ugly affair really.
So when Carlos Quentin hooks me up fantasy style with 3 jacks and 5 RBIs for my 2nd place fantasy team (the Ephrata Green Dragons), I have to give props (that said, I like the acquisition of Jair Jurrjens as well since he's always been good for me and last night, his 4 Ks and 7.2 scoreless innings brought a much needed win to my team, which has been decimated by injuries to Joe Mauer and Josh Hamilton).
Now that Quentin opened up, he's tied for 3rd place with Ryan Braun, Mark Teixera, and Jay Bruce. Yeah... that Jay Bruce, but that's fantasy points as well, so we can live with that. Looking at the home run leaders... you really wouldn't guess many of them. The same could be said for the free swinging strikeout leaders.
And as I heard it said the other day, it's not 1.12 in 1968, but it's a step away from the steroids era home run boppers of years past.
Showing posts with label Carlos Quentin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carlos Quentin. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tony Larussa
I've never been a fan of Tony Larussa. I'm pretty sure I've said that. He's the National League's version of Terry Francona - that other manager I REALLY don't like - though it should be said that at least he's not just letting Bill Dewit pull his strings; instead, he's a surly dinosaur who tries to be "outside the box" with ideas like batting the pitcher eighth. Really.
If I had to think of a manager that I like, it would have to be Ozzie Guillen, who at least has the heart to call out his players when they need it. He doesn't pull punches, and a lot of the time, his guys get the job done - even though there aren't that many very good to great players on the team (Mark Buehrle, Paul Konerko, Carlos Quentin, Adam Dunn (done for, more like it - he's batting .184 with 3 home runs), and Jake Peavy (remember him?) make up the core of Chicago's 2011 team.
Hell, if you're a White Sox fan (real or pretend, Mr. President), you've got a closer named Sergio Santos. Gavin Floyd and Philip Humber are your star pitchers. You hope Alexi Ramriez makes the transition to the bigs, and you still get happy when AJ Pierzynski is a jerk (but at least he's your jerk - like that ALCS stunt he pulled in 2005).
You rememer names like Minnie Minoso and Shoeless Joe Jackson. You may even remember a player like Eddie Cicotte. You don't really have much to remember lately except Harold Baines.
But nonetheless, at least you have Ozzie... a colorful manager who makes a difference.
In St. Louis and with no harsh feelings regarding our feelings towards him for his mis-management, Larussa has never been a colorful manager. But now that he's currently on medical leave, we come to understand how difficult his life has been lately since he has just been diagnosed with the shingles.
Most people don't know what the shingles are. Actually, they're caused by the herpes zoster virus, which has nothing to do with herpes that a person gets stung with sexually. It actually is a very nasty skin rash that people could get from someone who has it if they didn't get chicken pox as a kid. That said, if your parents made you pal around with the kid who had chicken pox to get this virus out of the way, you might want to thank them for it. As for me, I had chicken pox twice, so I'm a rare and special case, but all the same, I'm glad I don't have to worry about that aspect of it. Nevertheless, there is a way that the chicken pox virus reactivates and causes shingles in people. Apparently, nobody understands how this happens, but it does.
Nevertheless, if you do get them, they're a nasty skin rash that takes quite some time to heal and that can be worse if you're older when you get them. They do have rare complications that can affect a person's vision permanently. Let's hope that Tony doesn't face that.
Here's to a quick recovery and some time to think about how to be nice to Colby Rasmus and to help Albert Pujols regain his swing while getting Chris Carpenter some wins.
If I had to think of a manager that I like, it would have to be Ozzie Guillen, who at least has the heart to call out his players when they need it. He doesn't pull punches, and a lot of the time, his guys get the job done - even though there aren't that many very good to great players on the team (Mark Buehrle, Paul Konerko, Carlos Quentin, Adam Dunn (done for, more like it - he's batting .184 with 3 home runs), and Jake Peavy (remember him?) make up the core of Chicago's 2011 team.
Hell, if you're a White Sox fan (real or pretend, Mr. President), you've got a closer named Sergio Santos. Gavin Floyd and Philip Humber are your star pitchers. You hope Alexi Ramriez makes the transition to the bigs, and you still get happy when AJ Pierzynski is a jerk (but at least he's your jerk - like that ALCS stunt he pulled in 2005).
You rememer names like Minnie Minoso and Shoeless Joe Jackson. You may even remember a player like Eddie Cicotte. You don't really have much to remember lately except Harold Baines.
But nonetheless, at least you have Ozzie... a colorful manager who makes a difference.
In St. Louis and with no harsh feelings regarding our feelings towards him for his mis-management, Larussa has never been a colorful manager. But now that he's currently on medical leave, we come to understand how difficult his life has been lately since he has just been diagnosed with the shingles.Most people don't know what the shingles are. Actually, they're caused by the herpes zoster virus, which has nothing to do with herpes that a person gets stung with sexually. It actually is a very nasty skin rash that people could get from someone who has it if they didn't get chicken pox as a kid. That said, if your parents made you pal around with the kid who had chicken pox to get this virus out of the way, you might want to thank them for it. As for me, I had chicken pox twice, so I'm a rare and special case, but all the same, I'm glad I don't have to worry about that aspect of it. Nevertheless, there is a way that the chicken pox virus reactivates and causes shingles in people. Apparently, nobody understands how this happens, but it does.
Nevertheless, if you do get them, they're a nasty skin rash that takes quite some time to heal and that can be worse if you're older when you get them. They do have rare complications that can affect a person's vision permanently. Let's hope that Tony doesn't face that.
Here's to a quick recovery and some time to think about how to be nice to Colby Rasmus and to help Albert Pujols regain his swing while getting Chris Carpenter some wins.
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