By MukDavid Ortiz is 40 years old, turning 41 in November, and he is playing like he's 27 again. Papi just hit his 30th Home Run of the season, and racked up his 10th career 100+ RBI season. This is Papi's last season as we all know, but I can't understand why. I understand he is old, and his body is probably ready to hang it up, along with his family, but he hit 37 dingers last season and 35 the season before, and he is on pace for 35+ again this year. Obviously this season could be the last great one he has in him, if he didn't hang it up, like we saw this season with A-Rod, but Papi is truly KILLING it. He is not just hitting home runs or playing well, he is absolutely crushing the ball, hitting monster homeruns, and in the clutch when the Sox need it, and they very well could make a strong push in the AL, with the tremendous young talent they have on their roster, and they will need every bit of Ortiz's leadership. As a die hard Yankee fan, I hate Papi the player, as he killed us year after year, but damn do I respect him as a human being and his game. Everything he did for Boston over the past 13 years, and the gritty, in your face attitude he did it with, perfectly emulated the city he has lived to represent. Continue to kill it Papi, and go for 40 dingers, why not, but I hope you get boo'ed your last game at Yankee Stadium, because we still remember 2004.
By DjackYankees take two of three from the Mariners behind good starting pitching and El Gary Sanchize. This series could of easily been a sweep but we let one get away from us in the first game. But, overall we got the job done winning another series, we have now won 5 of our last 6 series. Game 1 was a back and forth offensive show, Gary Sanchez and Starlin Castro both hit two bombs but that wasn't enough. Pineda had one of his usual one inning melt downs which inflicted some damage but didn't cripple us, then Schwazack came in and just handed the Mariners the gun to finish us off. We lost 7-5. Game 2, C.C. Sabathia looked like his former self and threw seven innings only allowing one run as Yankees coasted to a 5-1 victory. Game 3, Tanaka pitched a seven inning shutout gem. Gary Sanchez hit his 9th home run of the season, he's only played 21 games... We went onto win 5-0 and won the series like i said we would in my series prediction blog. Back to Gary Sanchez though, talk about having an impact right away, this rookie has turned our entire season around. We were a .500 ball club all season before Sanchez came along, his bat, his glove, and energy have sparked a fire under the Yankees and we are winning way more games because of it. The starting pitching which has been shaky all year has finally started showing up, the last nine games owning a 2.25 ERA, this has also been a major contributor to our recent success. The Yankees look like a whole new team with these young guys in the lineup, with 30 of our last 36 games against the division we have plenty of opportunity to make a playoff push. Most teams ahead of us in the wild card race are teams in our division so this scheduling benefits us heavily if we can take advantage of it. Time for these young Yanks to earn their pinstripes and help us fight our way into the playoffs.
By UppyRHP Jake Thompson was part of the mega-deal that sent Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels, to the Texas Rangers at last year's trade deadline. Almost immediately, Thompson became the Phillies' top pitching prospect. Interestingly enough, three of the other five minor leaguers dealt to Philly for Hamels, Jake Diekman, and CA$H money have quickly become top prospects themselves as Jared Eickhoff has already made it to the Big League Ball Club while OF Nick Williams and C Jorge Alfaro are the 3rd and 4th ranked prospects, respectively.
Since coming over from Texas, Jake Thompson has put up ridiculous numbers in the minors. In 2015, in seven games at AA, JT boasted a 5-1 record with a 1.80 ERA accompanied by 34 K's over 45 IP with a WHIP of 1.00 and an opponent's batting average of .217! Coming off this strong finish, Thompson was invited to 2016 Spring Training and then assigned to the AAA Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. At AAA, he went 11-5 over 21 games striking out 87 over 129.2 IP. He had a respectable ERA of 2.50 and a WHIP of 1.10 and held opposing hitters to .225 AVG. In his last 11 starts at AAA, Thompson went 8-0 with a 1.21 ERA. All of this was good enough to earn Thompson an August 6 call up to the Bigs. Phillies fans were eager to see their new big arm but, since August 6, have been sorely disappointed. In his MLB debut against the Padres (who have South Jersey native and Uppy's high school teammate Brett Kennedy in their farm system, shout out BK!) Thompson couldn't get out of the 5th inning. He gave up three hits, two walks, a wild pitch and four runs in the first inning as the Phillies went on to lose 9-7. We all understood that this was a 22 year old's Major League debut and he was most likely a little nervous, but he has yet to bounce back. Through four starts in the bigs, Thompson has gone 1-3 with a 9.87 ERA (!!), 1.81 WHIP, opponent's AVG of .287 and K:BB ratio of 1. So what has changed since the 8-0 1.21 ERA guy that we were creaming our pants over? We all see that Thompson has the tenacity in him to get guys out, but he appears to be pitching differently. Jake is best known for his powerful sinking fastball, yet he keeps hanging breaking balls to get smacked. I don't know if he has lost his confidence in this majors or if major league hitters are really just that good that they figured him out. Hopefully Pete Mackanin and pitching coach Bob McClure (who owns the filthiest mustache in the league) can fix Thompson's psyche and mold him into the stud he should be. As we all know 2016 was not going to be our year anyway, we can just look forward to the September call ups and watch the real future of JP Crawford and the other fellas from Texas show us what 2017 and on will be. Hopefully that time span will include a dominant staff of Nola, Velasquez, Eickhoff, and Thompson, while praying that Adam Morgan- the Cliff Lee doppelganger- figures his shit out. Until 2017, enjoy the Phillies that we have, and cheer Ryan Howard into the sunset. By DjackThis weeks poll is over and the viewers of Highly Controversial Sports have spoken. The World Series champions according to you guys will be the Chicago Cubs. Am I surprised? Absolutely not, the viewers took the smart safe bet and i can respect that. The thing that was puzzling to me is that second in the voting was "Other" by a wide margin, so who the hell is this sleeper team that y'all think is winning the World Series. Nationals, Giants, Cubs, Red Sox, Indians, and Rangers were all on the poll, if one of those teams isn't winning please tell me who is because I have no idea who y'all are talking about. Leave a comment for who you think will win and why and maybe I'll respect your opinion a little more. There's only one or two teams that aren't on that list that I can think of that have a slim shot, the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. Other than that, I can't see any of those other teams fighting for a wild card spot to win the whole thing. I have to disagree with our viewers though, the Cubs will make the World Series but they won't break the curse. The team that will win the World Series, although it kills me to say this, will be the Boston Red Sox. First, lets point out the obvious, they have the best lineup in baseball and it's not even close. They have five guys with 70+ RBI's the next closest team is three. Secondly, although the starting pitching hasn't been as good as it should've been with the names they have in this rotation, but come October I think they'll be able to give their offense a chance to win. Price we all know is awful in the postseason so I'm actually looking for him to break through for once in his career and help his team win playoff games. Rick Porcello, Drew Pomeranz, and Steven Wright, who should be back by then, will be a good enough tandem to let their bats win games. They've proved all season long with just mediocre pitching they'll win ball games. Lastly, this is Big Papi's last year so the fix is obviously in, we've seen it a million times. For example, Ray Lewis, Michael Strahan, David Robinson, and Peyton Manning, but we've never really had one for baseball. Joe Dimaggio did, but that was like 60 years ago so we need a more recent walk off champion. Who better to be that guy than Big Papi one of the most iconic baseball players of the last 15 years. I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but the Red Sox are a very scary team this year and their only weakness is the bullpen. That could turn out to be a bigger factor in the playoffs , but for now im saying 2016 World Series champions are the Boston Red Sox.
By Nicky D Via sfgate.com
So a day before UFC 202 took place, there was a "brawl" in the A's clubhouse Friday night. The altercation was between teammates Billy Butler and Danny Valencia. Billy Butler has not played the past 2 games so I'm guessing he got fucked up? Idk, no ones releasing any further detail to the story besides that it was over "spikes". From what I've read apparently Billy Butler told someone that Valencia was not wearing the spikes he said he was. So basically Butlers a scumbag and ratted on his teammate. From this story I'm guessing Butler and Valencia were never exactly friends. Both men came onto the team at about the same time, and one has not been playing as expected, can you guess who it is? Billy Butler isn't on the Royals anymore so he sucks, Valencia on the other hand has been a stud since coming to the A's,batting .296,26 homers,and 81 RBIS in 144 games. Billy Butler is 100% sour he's been playing like shit with the A's and decided to be THAT guy and rat on a teammate. By DjackThe Yankees start a three game set against the Mariners tonight. This is their first must win series of the season, the Mariners are three games ahead of the Yankees and now is the perfect time for the Yankees to make up some ground in the wild card race. September is right around the corner so now is the time to start making your push.The Yankees have proved they can be a good team against bad teams this year but now it's time to prove we can beat the competitive teams as well.
Game 1: Michael Pineda takes the mound against Cody Martin in the first game of this series tonight. I expect for Pineda to continue to be the pitcher we have seen of late, especially when returning against his former team. Despite his 4.87 ERA, Pineda has had very good stuff as of late and has proven he can be close to an ace pitcher when his head isn't up his ass. The fact that this series is also in Seattle instead of Yankee stadium will also benefit Pineda against a powerful lineup like the Mariners. Pineda has shown he's susceptible to the long ball this season so taking away the short fence will help his cause. Yankees win tonight behind a strong outing from Pineda. Game 2: C.C. Sabathia looks to bounce back from an awful showing his last time out, he'll be dueling against one of the Mariners best pitchers Hisahsi Iwakuma. Sabathia as much as I've pulled from him all year long expecting him to have bounce back year since he's not an alcoholic anymore, just hasn't happened. He gave us a little tease in the beginning of the year, but that has faded along with the movement on his off speed pitches. Iwakuma is going to shut down a Yankee team that feeds off of unstellar pitching and hitting the long ball. I see the Yankee's bats falling asleep while the Mariners shell C.C., the Mariners win game two of this series. Game 3: Mashiro Tanaka, our ace takes the mound for game three of the series. I couldn't have been happier when i saw this because obviously whenever Tanaka takes the mound it gives us our best odds to win. I don't know who is pitching for the Mariners and frankly I don't care, unless it was King Felix than I'd just forfeit this game. But, thank god it isn't, so right off the bat were looking good for what i predict to be the rubber match of this series. Look for the Yankee bats to explode in this game as we face a mediocre pitcher.Tanaka won't have his most dominate start of the year and might even let up a couple homers. I still think he'll hand off a lead to our bullpen so theycan shut it down. Warren and Clippard sure aren't Miller and Chapman but thy have been very solid at holding leads for Betances. Yankees win the rubber match, take two of three from the Mariners, and pick up ground on a team ahead of them in the wildcard race. It was announced just before via Mark Zuckerman's Twitter that the Nationals have placed Stephen Strasburg on the 15-day DL. This comes as a big blow to a Nats team that always seems to choke every time the playoffs roll around and will surely need their ace. Strasburg has struggled the last 3 starts, giving up 19 runs in a mere 12 innings and has an ERA over 14. That's putrid especially for a guy who started the season 15-1 with a 2.63 ERA. This guy has such talent so I'm really hoping he does not need Tommy John again. That would be a damn shame seeing how he's finally having his first dominate season. This is a smart move for Washington, considering they could really make a run at the pennant this year. The rest he gets will just make him more ready to push his team through the playoffs. I could see him and Max Scherzer being a force for years to come, and if young Steve can stay at his best when he comes back then I see the Nats winning the NL and shocking the Cubs and the entire MLB universe. By BobBy DjackPhoto Via Yankees Twitter Photo Via Yankees Twitter Game one of this series was an impressive 7-0 victory for the Yankees. Tanaka had one of his best starts of the year going 7 2/3 innings striking out 9 on his way to his 10th win of the season. Jacoby Elisbury, one of worst signings in recent memory actually played up to the contract we signed him to for once, he had 3 hits and a home run. Elisbury was one of three Yankees to hit a home run in the fifth inning as we went on to destroy the hopeless Angels. Game two was more of the same, Luis Cessa had a good outing six innings, five strikeouts, three hits, and no runs. The Sanchize hit another home run, the sixth of his very young career, I'm already crowning him the best catcher in baseball and soon enough everyone will agree. Aaron Judge, the other young superstar for the Yankees also drove in two runs on a RBI single. The young guns of the Yankees continued to be the spark plugs for this offense as the Yankees won 5-1 and continued to handle the Angels soundly. Today we were going for the sweep that we really needed, especially if they want to be playing meaningful games in late September. Well, today rolled around and Chad Green took the bump. To my surprise, he had a very solid start, six innings, one earned run, and five strikeouts. The pitching has been good all series which makes me very happy, but today the bats were dead. We scored no runs on six hits and just couldn't capitalize with men on base. It's very irritating to watch the Yankees as they keep toying with our hearts, one day they look like they're ready to get on hot streak and win five in a row, and then the next they just lay an egg like they did today. Up next we got the Mariners, this is a big series for us as they're one of the teams ahead of us in the wild card race. El Gary says that the Yankees are going to make a playoff push and i don't doubt anything he says. The Yanks have to win this upcoming series after missing a chance to sweep a series today that we easily should've.
By Nicky DGet rid of Chase Headley- one way or another find a way to get rid of this guy. He's still signed for another two seasons but he's not worth it, a random minor leaguer would do just as good for 500k a year. I'm not even sure what was the hype about Headley in the first place, this is his 10th year in the big leagues and if you look at his stats he's only had one good year, back in 2012. He's only getting older now and he's for sure not getting any better. Re-sign Chapman- I'm very happy the Yankees didn't sign him to an extension before he was dealt to the Cubs, this makes signing him in the offseason a possibility. In interviews multiple times Chapman has stated that he enjoyed playing for New York. Depending on how the playoffs turn out for the Cubs, the Yankees will be a top team to re-land Chapman. Only sign young players-This team is in the beginning of its rebuilding stages,meaning they should only go for young talent if they decide to sign some people this offseason. Only exceptions would be signing veterans for a role off the bench. Since this offseason free agent market isn't looking too good I doubt they make any moves. Get a good bench player- if you look at the Yankees roster right now they have absolutely no decent bench player they can tell to come up and pinch-hit in key situations. This offseason one player they can take a risk on is Ryan Howard, yes he's old but I think he'd accept a cheap 1 year contract to play off the bench. Ryan Howard at Yankee stadium, I think he'd hit 15-20 homers off the bench,especially with that short porch in right. By CV Nypost.com Okay, I understand that I've been really tough on the Mets this year. After watching mediocre baseball for the better part of 6 years the Mets gave fans something to be exciting about last year. They had one the best starting staffs in the league and their hitting finally came around after the Yoenis Cespedes trade. I came into this season thinking the mets would be a sure playoff team and would have a good shot at returning to the world series. But everything has gone wrong up to this point. Injuries have really hurt this team and the way they've handled Cespedes is horrible. He played almost 20 games with a nagging quad and just didn't produce. If he took the time to actual heal his quad correctly he could of been playing at his normal all star level much sooner. But not all hope is lost and its time to show the Mets some love. They sit at 62-62 after last nights win in San Francisco. It was encouraging to see Synderguard throw 8 scoreless because he had been struggling up to this point. Cespedes has hit 3 home runs in 3 games since coming off the disabled list. At this point, the Mets have no chance of winning the division because the Nationals have played so well this year. But with two wild card spots in each league, a .500 record keeps you alive in the wild card race.After last nights game, the mets sit 4.5 games back in the wild card race behind the Cardinals Pirates and Marlins.If Cespedes stays hot and the Mets can start to hit with runners in scoring position, a wildcard birth is definitely possible. Ya gotta believe.
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AuthorDjack- Chief editor Archives
April 2018
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