I know what you're saying.
Who the hell is he?
Oh, he's only leading the league in batting with a .370 average through the end of May. With his home run tonight, he only has 9 home runs for the season in the relative obscurity of Tampa Bay who don't seem to do anything wrong. They get rid of players, and new heroes spring up to take their place. Carl who? Let the fans throw money at Crawford since he seemed to let Boston throw money at him for such a pathetic average and performance until last week's player of the week award (kind of a back-handed compliment of "it's about time" after all of those weeks of crap play). After parts of 3 years in the bigs, Joyce is exploding in year 4.
Sure, there are whiffs, but there are also a lot of doubles, a few triples, and some stolen bases.
There is potential south of the baseball border (because nobody pays attention to baseball in Florida until the teams get it together for the playoffs - see the Marlins for that as well).
And maybe now, Evan Longoria won't have to call out fans for support. Maybe David Price won't have to shoulder the show on his own as he's actually the third best pitcher on the staff this year behind James Shields and Jeremy Hellickson. Maybe it doesn't matter if the Rays have a reliever going into game 1 (because Kyle Farnsworth has come to play). Maybe it's all going to go right as the 3 team scuffle for the AL East gets serious (and it's anyone's race with 3 teams this close).
Maybe we can forget the 0-6 start.
Maybe we can forget Manny Ramirez's downside and focus on Johnny Damon's unwanted self being the upside in Tampa Bay.
Maybe we can see a team struggling to get it together as a long hot summer is surely promised on East Coast. Maybe the Orioles and Blue Jays have a chance too (and maybe I have a chance at the $200million top prize on Powerball on Wednesday).
Showing posts with label Matt Joyce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Joyce. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Carlos Quentin
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.
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.
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