By DjackWhat a bad week it has been for Noah Syndergaard. He starts the week by missing his original start saying his arm was tired, then he says he could've probably gone, that he feels fine, and he refused to take a MRI. Haven't seen anyone ever refuse a MRI, so when I saw Syndergaard pull this move I instantly feared for his health. The only reason he wouldn't want to make sure there wasn't something seriously wrong with him is because he is scared of what they were going to find. Today, he stepped out to the mound with a lot to prove to the team and fan base. Unfortunately, he proved what we all feared, that he wasn't okay.
The Nationals lit him up in the first inning for 5 runs. He came back out for the second inning, but left after grabbing what at first seemed like his arm, then it looked more like his back. No injury is promising, especially one that forces you to leave a start, but if it's a back injury like a pulled muscle or something along those lines it'll be a lot better in terms of recovery. If it's something with his shoulder or elbow him and the Mets are fucked. They won't be able to survive without their best pitcher and once a pitcher starts getting arm surgery it seems to never bode well for anybody. No one should really be surprised by Thor's injury. The guy throws 98 mph consistently as a starting pitcher with a 95 mph slider, that can't be good for your arm. The fact he also added 15 pounds of muscle this offseason was also a bad move probably, not good to just change your body physique like that in such a short amount of time, probably why he pulled a muscle in his back today during his start. Mets fans say your prays because your season rides on this guy being able to give you a dominant performance every 5th day. Matz and Lugo won't be back for at least another few weeks, so this could put your squad in a really bad position. The Mets can't afford to fall any further behind or catching the Nationals for the division is going to be impossible. By DjackThe worst possible news for Nationals fans, Adam Eaton, is done for the year. Eaton collapsed past first base after running out an infield single, when he started clenching his knee while on the ground is when I knew this was ugly. Initially reports said it was just a strain, nothing too serious. MRI results came back and said differently though, ACL tear, Eaton is done for the season.
The Nationals acquired Eaton this offseason to try to make their lineup more potent. In order to land him they had to give up their top pitching prospect, Lucas Giolito. The trade looked great for the Nationals, 23 games into the season Eaton had put up a ton of production in such a short amount of time. He was a catalyst for this offense, him getting on base for Harper, Zimmerman,and Murphy to drive in was a huge bonus. His speed on the base path was a huge problem for teams, throw in his stellar defense, and the Nationals are losing one of the best all around players on their team. This guy can do it all and do it all pretty well. Huge blow to that Nationals lineup that has been so good to start of this season. The Nationals will be replacing him with Mike Taylor for now. They might look to add someone to fill his position, although I doubt they want to give up anything else after what they had to give up just to get Eaton. Nationals definitley had one of the best lineups in baseball, now that Eaton is done for the year, it takes away a whole extra element from them. Going to be impossible to replace his production with Mike Taylor, they'll just have to try to manage without him. Without him the Nationals are a less of threat, I just feel like he was such an important piece to that offense.As for Eaton's long term health, who knows if it'll effect Eaton's play down the road or how long the recovery will take, but for now the Nationals are going to be right there suffering with Eaton. By DjackAfter a 12-4 win over Baltimore today, the Yankees are alone atop the AL East standings. What a week it has been for the Bronx Bombers, taking 2 games in Boston against their best pitchers, and now showing to Baltimore our bats are just as good as theirs. The Yankees, had minimal expectations going into this season in terms of competing for the division crown, but now that they hold the lead in the division after a month of baseball those expectations have changed. Clearly this Yankees squad is a lot better than they were given credit for at the beginning of the season. Most players are playing to their fullest potential, especially the veterans, which has really elevated our team. After back to back series wins against division opponents it's time to take this Yankee team seriously.
When the bats got cold in Boston the pitching staff stepped up big time. Rick Porcello, reigning AL Cy Young award winner, took the mound against Luis Severino, the young stud for the Yankees. Severino out dueled Porcello going 7 innings strong, allowing no runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, and he struck out 6 along the way. Porcello besides for allowing a home run to Aaron Judge was pretty solid, he went 6 2/3 innings, struck out 9, and he only allowed 3 runs, pretty solid start. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the Yankees pitching staff was lights out, and three runs would be plenty for them as they won the first of a two game series. Game two, Chris Sale, the ace of the Red Sox staff and possibly the best pitcher in all of baseball, faced off against the Yankees ace, Masahiro Tanaka. Well, Sale was nearly untouchable, luckily for the Yankees they were able to scratch together a run off him. That's all the Yankees would need, they added some insurance runs in the 9th, however Tanaka threw a complete game shutout, so he didn't need the insurance. Yankees sweep Boston at Fenway park as the aces of our pitching staff stepped up big time. Yesterday, the pitching was horrendous, C.C. Sabathia started for us and boy was he awful. He should never be allowed to face a lineup like the Orioles, now that he's a finesse pitcher, he just doesn't matchup well against teams with great lineups unless his stuff is literally perfect that day. Which yesterday, it clearly was not even close to that. Yankees were down huge early, the score was 9-1 entering the 6th inning. After a RBI from Didi Gregorious, who returned to the lineup yesterday for the first time this season, Aaron Judge came up and hit a 2 run blast. His second of the game might I add. Yankees were now down 9-4 with only 9 outs to go. In the top of the 7th Bryan Mitchell allowed two more runs extending the Orioles lead to 11-4, that's when I thought game over. Thank god, I enjoy watching this team as much as I do and didn't switch the channel because what was about to happen was pure insanity. Ellsbury comes up in the bottom of the 7th with bases loaded and puts one over the wall for a Grand Slam to cut the deficit big time, Yankees down 11-8 with 6 more outs to go. Certainly doable. Ellsbury grounded into a fielders choice in the 8th scoring a run and then Starlin Castro did his best Reggie Jackson impression while putting a ball over the wall while falling to his knee. The game was now tied, Yankee stadium sounded like it was about to explode, and all momentum in the series had shifted back to the Bronx Bombers. Matt Holliday capped off the comeback with a three run walkoff home run in the 10th to cap off one of the best comebacks I've ever witnessed. Today, wasn't much of a game, the Yankees decided to just slaughter the Orioles from the get go. Pineda pitched well and the whole team played extremely well as unit. Yankees won 12-4 and took over sole possession of first place in the AL East. Aaron Judge has been a huge part of the offense racking up 10 homeruns, 20 plus RBI's, and hitting above .300 in the first month of the season. Throw in the huge production from Castro and Headley and you have three MVP candidates if the season ended today. Obviously, guys can't keep this up all year, but with guys like Didi and Sanchez coming back it gives you hope that when one person goes cold another can get hot. Hopefully, that's how this season works out for us, when Judge gets cold maybe Bird will get hot, when Castro begins to cool down maybe Didi will step up, and so on and so forth. The pitching staff has exceeded all expectations. We knew we had an ace in Tanaka, however the addition of Severino being a productive member of the staff has given us another young ace. Jordan Montgomery continues to look like he can give us solid outings, which is all anyone can ask out of their 5th starter. C.C. and Pineda have both been exceptional, C.C. had his only bad start of the season against the Orioles and Pineda seems to finally have put it all together. As for the bullpen they're the best in all of baseball, so not much to say. This Yankee team is the real deal. I love the energy these guys are playing with, I love the charisma they show in the dugout and on the field, and I think we are watching the beginning of something very special. In the mean time, I'll just continue to kick back and enjoy watching the Yankees play winning baseball. By DjackWhat all Giants fans feared has now become a reality, MadBum will miss the rest of the first half of the season and won't be returning till post all-star break. That means instead of running out a pitcher that almost guarantees your squad a win every 5th game, you have a pitcher that's not even close to his caliber running out there. The San Francisco Giants have struggled mightily already this season, without MadBum for basically half the season it's not going to make it any easier to compete in the much improved NL West. San Fran is in a lot of trouble and fans should be fearing the reality that they're most likely not going to make the playoffs this season.
The Giants have been struggling mightily ever since the all-star break last year, so it's no surprise that it has carried over into this season with the lack of acquisitions they made this offseason. The pitching staff has under performed, Jeff Samardzija is garbage, Matt Moore is so inconsistent, and Matt Cain has pitched better this year, but needs to maintain this level of performance. If the pitching staff can't keep the opposing team's offense under control, then the Giants have no shot since their offense is decent at best. The bullpen continues to struggle, Melancon was a nice addition, other than that the bullpen is still very weak. Clearly, this team has a lot more issues than MadBum. Although, every 5th day he'd help cover up those blemishes and now he can't. San Francisco can't get too mad at Bumgarner, the guy has done more for that franchise than anyone else has except for maybe Buster Posey. He gets paid at a huge discount and he's willing to put his arm on the line for this team in any big game pushing himself to new heights to lead his team to championships. That's still no excuse for him possibly sabotaging the San Francisco Giants season because of his own personal desires. Leave the extreme sports for the offseason, right now he's working, and his job is to play baseball, not bullshit. Hopefully he learned his lesson and will now have to watch his team fall way back in the playoff race without him availiable for the majority of the season. Hope it was worth it MadBum. By DjackToday, it was reported that Noah Syndergaard would not make his start due to a tired arm. A tired arm in April, bad bad news for the Mets. If this doesn't end up being something worse I'll be shocked, honestly I'm not sure I've ever seen this happen in April with an ace. Just the other day I was saying on the podcast how the Mets need their starters to go deeper into games, meanwhile Syndergaard has left a couple of his starts early due to blisters and his arm is already tired. I'm calling bullshit on his arm being "tired", his arm is hurt he's barely thrown this season.. The guy throws the hardest slider I've ever seen in my life and his average velocity is the fastest in the MLB for a starter, so it's no surprise his arm is shot. Hopefully this turns out to be nothing big, the Mets need Syndergaard if they want to do anything this year, and the last thing a baseball fan wants to see is one of the most entertaining pitchers in all of baseball fall off due to injury. Unfortunately, I'm embracing for the worst with Syndergaard, after all he is a Met meaning this obviously can't end well.
The Syndergaard being scratched from his start debacle is the most recent woe in the Mets difficult start to the 2017 season. The injuries continue to pile on, it all started with David Wright in spring training, then Steven Matz went down, followed by Seth Lugo, Juan Lagares, Yoenis Cespedes, Lucas Duda, Wilmer Flores, and Travis d'Arnaud. Jeurys Familia, the Mets closer, also missed the first 15 games due to suspension, basically same thing as injury since he had to miss time. That's a ridiculous number of key players to go down this early into a season. The Mets have had no consistency in the lineup for years, they've had the same group of guys basically, and still they can'y figure how to configure the batting order. The day to day lineup changes constantly, Terry Collins just doesn't know what to do to get these guys to score runs. When he doesn't start guys like Michael Conforto every night it's hard to defend him, though. Terry Collins, isn't the problem. He's in a shitty fucked up situation, he's got an overload of outfielders that are all good at different things and awful at others. Granderson hits for power, has decent glove, but his average sucks and his age is showing. Conforto is a stud and is the only chance the Mets have at a good #2 hitter for this team, for the love of God start him everyday Terry. Lagares is an outstanding fielder, however at the plate he just hasn't been able to figure it out. Bruce is a beast, a little streakier than I like in my big time hitters, although when he's hot he's as dangerous as anyone in the MLB. Granderson is the odd man out, Lagares is a nice fill in guy that you don't need to bring in everyday, so he can still be valuable off the bench. The same cannot be said for Granderson. Grandy is a great teammate and person, but father time is calling, and no one can avoid father time. The infield is a whole other disaster. Reyes is awful, he's terrible in the field and at the plate. You gotta keep running him out there though. The Mets need Reyes to turn this around to have any chance at making a run. I've said it time and time again this guy is a sparkplug, his energy is contagious, and when he gets on base the offense is a lot more potent. Whatever is messing with Reyes, possibly the off the field issues, need to be left off the field because he really needs to get going. The deeper he falls into the slump the worse it's going to get, these guys need to figure out a way to get him going. Try bunting for a hit, sometimes that's all you need to break out of a slump. Asdrubal Cabrera is a beast, his body just can't seem to keep up with him, if he can stay healthy he'll be just fine production wise for the Mets. Neil Walker needs to return to last year's form, I don't know what happened, all I know is the Mets are paying him more money than Daniel Murphy for a lot less production. Lucas Duda sucks, get rid of him, keep Jay Bruce at first, and then you can keep Granderson in the outfield. Otherwise, you'll have to get rid of Granderson. It's a pick your poison type of situation, Duda or Granderson. Travis d'Arnaud, has actually looked a lot better this year, he's swinging the bat well, he looks better behind the plate, just needs to get healthy and continue to do what he's doing. A lot of criticism has fallen on the bullpen for good reason. My only defense for them is they have been asked to do a lot. The bullpen just needs to stop throwing so many innings and then when July rolls around they need to add another arm to the pen. The starters need to go deeper, however it seems like their arms can't hold up long enough to do so. Bullpen needs to improve or the Mets have no chance at competing for anything. The Mets have a lot to fix, my biggest thing with them is this clubhouse has always had great chemistry and looked like they were always having fun, now it looks like they're beginning to lose that. That concerns the shit out of me. Mets need to get a win badly because winning cures everything. If the Mets keep this losing trend going they're going to spiral out of control rapidly. The problems on the field are easily fixable, just need to get healthy, and some players just need to step up production, but the clubhouse bond breaking is not fixable, so make sure that doesn't happen. By DjackYankees shipped off to Boston for a middle of the week road trip before they head back home to host a series with the Orioles. This road trip begins a nine game stint in which the Yankees will take on divisional opponents. The first game of this series was supposed to take place on Tuesday, unfortunately mother nature decided it'd be best played later on in the season. Well, today we finally got to see Yankees take on the Red Sox, the best rivalry in sports is back, marking the official beginning of the baseball season.
Aaron Judge, who has been on an absolute tear this season continued that trend tonight. In the second inning with Starlin Castro on base, he blasted a ball to right centerfield for a home run. Yankees jumped out to an early run lead 2-0 behind the power of Judge. That wasn't the only big play Judge would make, he also flashed the leather in the field. He made a Jeter-esque play when he chased down a foul ball leaping in the stands head first to catch it. Laying out into the stands putting your body on the line is a savage move by this young kid, can't say enough about how much he has impressed me thus far. In the 6th inning Yankees tacked on another run when Greg Bird doubled off the green monster and Aaron Judge came around to score. It was now 3-0, Severino was dealing for the Yanks, he was basically untouchable with his stuff tonight. Red Sox really never threatened, Severino went 7 innings, allowing 3 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts. What a night for the young ace, that's right I said it, young ACE. Betances entered the game in the 8th, he shut it down. Does that really surprise anyone. What should surprise you is when Chapman came in for the 9th and almost blew the 3-0 lead. He had no command of his slider or fastball. The more concerning part was that his fastball velocity was way down. He wasn't consistently touching 100 mph like he normally would, I don't know why, although it's most certainly not sitting well with me. He allowed one run, but he had a man of third and first when he allowed a deep fly ball to left field that every Yankee fan watching shit their pants while watching, then it hooked foul. Thank the lord, I thought a Severino gem was about to go to waste, I thought we'd never be able to close out a game against the Red Sox at Fenway ever again, and then Chapman struck out the batter. The Yankees win and all is alright in my world for the moment. Beating the Red Sox in Fenway is my favorite type of win, how could you not enjoy kicking a team's ass while their fans scream your team sucks loud enough to hear on your television set at home, I love this rivalry. Great start to our first divisional stretch of the season. The Yankees face Chris Sale tomorrow, meaning today was a must win if we didn't want to ensure 2 losses in this series. If we win tomorrow that'll be a huge boost for the Yankees and it'll show just how real this team is, although I'm not necessarily expecting that to happen. Regardless, I'm just excited for another 9 innings of the best rivalry in all of sports. 4/26/2017 Eric Thames Continues To Rake, Is Drug Tested Once Again & Drops All-Time Great QuoteRead NowBy MukEric Thames has been the biggest storyline in the MLB throughout this first month of baseball, crushing home-run after home-run, and raising eyebrows and speculations along the way. Thames is on an absolute tear, and has specifically been abusing the Cincinnati Reds, as last night when he blasted his league-leading 11th home-run, it also was the 8th he's hit against the Reds this season in just 6 games against the Reds (game #7 coming tonight, more dingers ahead?).
His red hot start has been the talk of the league, and many people want to immediately bring in the PED talk. For some people it's hard to imagine that a guy who hasn't played in the Major Leagues since 2012, and spent the last few seasons in Korea (tearing it up I must add) would be able to come out and get off to such a dominant start, but Thames is not worried. He dropped a great quote last night after he said he was randomly drug-tested for a second time this week: "If people keep thinking I'm on stuff, I'll be here everyday. I have a lot of blood an urine." I love it. This guy is just coming out every night, doing his thing, raking at an all-time pace (on pace for 81 home runs), and could care less if you doubt him. He's been doubted before, and it's all just noise to him, noise that he takes no offense too. Players, fans, analysts, everyone who watches baseball has at least thought to themselves, "he's gotta be on something, right?" and yet here he is, telling you flat out that if you wanna drug test him every day, have at it. I hope that he's clean, because who doesn't love a good comeback story, and guys hitting home runs at the pace he is, and doing it without PED's is what baseball needs again. The steroid-era was the greatest time in baseball history, but as we all know the MLB is doing everything they can to forget, erase, and move on from that period, and a guy like Eric Thames are the perfect poster boy for it. Keep raking Mr. Thames, maybe just show some mercy for those poor Reds'. By DjackDerek Jeter, is going to be a part owner of a MLB franchise. This should come as no surprise, especially if you're an avid reader of this site. I've been all over the Jeb/Jeter trying to buy the Marlins since the rumors of Jeter's name even being mentioned into this conversation occurred. The official purchase price is set at $1.3 Billion. Jeffrey Loria bought the team for $158.5 Million, that means by my calculations he increased his original investment by 800% in 15 years, pretty fucking impressive. Shouldn't come as a surprise though, Loria was part owner of the Expo's, he bought 24% of the team for $12 Million in 1999,within the next 3 years he acquired another 70% of the team, and sold in 2002 for $120 Million. This insane return of investment in such a short amount of time is what set him up to buy the Marlins and make this insane payday. From $12 Million to $1.6 Billion in under 20 years, I don't care how awful an owner Jeffrey Loria was, this dude is a straight thug. Fucking the system this hard, being able to cash the fuck out like this is unfathomable. Genius, dude is an absolute genius.
Jeter and Jeb are going to bring a renaissance to the Miami Marlins organization. The Marlins are a very young franchise, yet they've already been able to get two World Series trophies. After they won the trophies the team's were blown up and a new rebuild began every damn time. No consistency for fans to enjoy and then they wonder why they can't fill seats. Jeter is going to bring in a great staff to help him turn this organization around. I don't know if he'll keep the general manager or even Don Mattingly for that matter, I'm not even sure if Jeter will be calling these shots, although you'd have to assume he's going to be the more active owner. I doubt Jeter bought a baseball team to not be an active leader for the organization, so I think he'll be the one calling the shots as he should. Jeb Bush is the money guy, he's the one with more money invested, but he won't be as involved. This is usually how most businesses are run, which makes this theory that much more plausible. Really excited to see how fans will react to Jeter being an owner, how free agents will now feel about coming to the Marlins, and how the whole thing works out in general. Now, this could all go to shit still. The Owners need to all vote on this move and if it's approved they'll be the new owners. I don't see any reason they wouldn't get approved, so no need to worry about that. For all the bandwagoners in Miami, trust me we know there's plenty of ya, jump on the Marlins train right now because the Jeter effect is about to take over, and you don't want to miss out on the chance to be an early adopter. P.S. Every Yankee fan just found a new favorite NL team to root for, therefore the Marlins are already the second most popular team in all of baseball. Jeter effect already taking over. By DjackThe Angels missed ace Garrett Richards for most of last year and will now miss him for most of this year. After missing nearly an entire season due to a UCL tear, instead of just getting the surgery to repair it Richards opted to just try to rehab it back to full strength, which apparently he did, and then in his first start back he leaves with a bicep injury. Richards has gone down with a horrible knee injury, although that was just a freak thing, a torn UCL that he didn't have Tommy John surgery on, and now he has a strained bicep. Richards will miss two months of the season at the bare minimum, meaning they'll get him back right after the all-star break by my best guesstimation.
That wasn't the only pitcher they sent to the DL, Cam Bedrosian, a young closer for the Angels is also headed to the 10-day DL with a strained groin. He shouldn't miss too much time, although when injuries like this occur it's more likely to happen again, or effect something else. Keep an eye on Bedrosian now, a lot of time the injury bug bites a pitcher and then it's almost impossible to get rid off it. The Angels certainly can't afford to lose any arms in the bullpen, especially not their closer since he's the best and most reliable arm they have. Cam Bedrosian is also new to this closer role, you don't want him losing the great rhythm he had going from his to start the season. The Angels just can't seem to catch any breaks. Garrett Richards missed enough time last year, the fact he's going to miss a huge chunk of the season this year too is really discouraging. The part that really worries me is that his UCL isn't truly healed, so he could easily re-injure that, displacing him from the rotation for another two years. At which point you basically just have to call it quits on the guy. That guy is their ace and they have a lot riding on that ace, so they better pray he gets healthy and stays healthy. As for Bedrosian I really don't think this will be all that big of a deal, and he will hopefully be back in the closer role 10 days from now. Certainly not an easy time for Angels fans, just stick with it, and things will eventually turn around for you guys. You guys do have the best player in the world on your team, so it could be worse. 4/23/2017 Following the Manny Machado-Dustin Pedroia Incident the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles Rivalry has Heated UpRead NowBy DjackOh boy, baseball is really back, when teams are throwing at guys and rivalries are reignited baseball is at it's peak. I've loved everything about the events that have occurred in this weekend's Red Sox-Orioles series, not because players are getting injured, I'm not that much of a dirtbag fan, but because when there's tension and juices flowing during a baseball game, it takes it to a whole new level. Now, Red Sox-Orioles is must watch TV for the rest of the season. For those of you clueless as to what I'm talking about, allow me to explain.
During Friday's opening game of the series Machado was sliding into second when his foot went past the bag and into the back of Dustin Pedroia's leg. Pedroia went down, Machado tried to catch him after knocking him down, but the damage was already done. The slide honestly didn't look dirty whatsoever, regardless if you take out another team's player you can't expect them to be very happy about it. Flash forward to today, Machado was at the dish in the 8th inning, Red Sox were up by 6, and Matt Barnes, pitcher for the Red Sox, throws at Machado's head. Luckily the pitch misses and actually hits Machado's bat for a foul ball. Barnes was ejected, clearly, then Pedroia was yelling over to Machado apologizing saying he had nothing to do with that. Machado didn't seem to give a shit what Pedroia was saying and just pointed at his head signalling that it's fucked up to do that. Okay, let me start off by saying I truly don't believe Machado had malicious intent when sliding into second base and I believe Pedroia knows that. It's baseball shit happens. When something like that happens you have to expect retaliation, that's how baseball has worked for 120 years, the unwritten rules are never going to change. The Red Sox pitcher should've beamed him the back, thigh, or ass, you never throw at someone's head, that should literally be illegal. Classic scumbag Red Sox player having to take it to the next level though. That's what made Machado so upset after the fact, throw at someones head you're attacking their livelihood, obviously that's not going to bode well for anyone. Pedroia yelling out to Machado trying to explain himself was genuine as well, I didn't really care for it because the intent was already there, and I want this rivalry to carry on all season. Hopefully, the Orioles respond when the series goes back to Boston and this thing gets real rowdy real quick. Nothing better than baseball with a hard hatred brewing between the two clubs involved. Want to make baseball fun again, just make the players hate each other, problem solved. |
Details
AuthorDjack- Chief editor Archives
April 2018
Categories |