MLB (Non-Phils) News and Notes 2016

[California_Dreamin]

Will always be fascinated by and follow Kelly Dugan's career because A] I always thought he was one of the two best hitters in the organization [Herrera is the best, Dugan was second] and B] the Phillies took so much heat for drafting him with their first pick, were called cheap for it, and yet I always thought they actually knew what they were doing when they selected him.

I also thought, though I understand the rationale, that the team should have found a way to bring him back and that if he can ever stay healthy he will make it to the majors. Someone who knows him posted a few days ago that this off season he bulked up and decided to hit with power. It shows. Right now, in 13 games, he has 5 HR, 15 RBI and an OPS of 1.048.

He is still in AA ball but, as Tommy Joseph as demonstrated, if he you have talent and can stay healthy you will get your chance. I still think Dugan makes it to the majors.

[bkeich]

What did everyone think of the Jays/Rangers fight?

So Bautista had caused bad blood last year with another overly showy bat flip. Gets drilled and then does a late, hard slide into second, which Odor took exception to and popped him one to the jaw.

Honestly, I don't like Bautista and hate the bat flip junk, so I like the payback.

Funny part was watching Adrian Beltre come in and end Bautista's part of the fight by lifting him in the air and carrying him away. Beltre is a lot stronger than I thought he was.

[Philsmania]

What did everyone think of the Jays/Rangers fight?

So Bautista had caused bad blood last year with another overly showy bat flip. Gets drilled and then does a late, hard slide into second, which Odor took exception to and popped him one to the jaw.

Honestly, I don't like Bautista and hate the bat flip junk, so I like the payback.

Funny part was watching Adrian Beltre come in and end Bautista's part of the fight by lifting him in the air and carrying him away. Beltre is a lot stronger than I thought he was.

I hate the bat flip junk, too but punching a guy in the jaw is a goon thing to do and Odor should get a lengthy suspension for it. This isn't the NHL. The bat flip junk will only lead to more crap like this.

Prior to the season, David Murphy had an interesting column about the whole bat flip thing and really went off on Goose Gossage who was very outspoken about it. Murphy essentially said that Gossage is an angry old white man and that more flamboyance is simply a by-product of black and Latino cultures being more expressive emotionally as opposed to traditional American white culture which calls for the stiff upper lip. Not sure I totally agree...and I think this column reeked of the arrogance and intellectual elitism Murphy exudes...but an interesting perspective just the same.

articles.philly.com/2016-04-01/sports/71955366_1_power-rankings-game-trumps-tired-game

[bkeich]

What did everyone think of the Jays/Rangers fight?

So Bautista had caused bad blood last year with another overly showy bat flip. Gets drilled and then does a late, hard slide into second, which Odor took exception to and popped him one to the jaw.

Honestly, I don't like Bautista and hate the bat flip junk, so I like the payback.

Funny part was watching Adrian Beltre come in and end Bautista's part of the fight by lifting him in the air and carrying him away. Beltre is a lot stronger than I thought he was.

I hate the bat flip junk, too but punching a guy in the jaw is a goon thing to do and Odor should get a lengthy suspension for it. This isn't the NHL. The bat flip junk will only lead to more crap like this.

Prior to the season, David Murphy had an interesting column about the whole bat flip thing and really went off on Goose Gossage who was very outspoken about it. Murphy essentially said that Gossage is an angry old white man and that more flamboyance is simply a by-product of black and Latino cultures being more expressive emotionally as opposed to traditional American white culture which calls for the stiff upper lip. Not sure I totally agree...and I think this column reeked of the arrogance and intellectual elitism Murphy exudes...but an interesting perspective just the same.

articles.philly.com/2016-04-01/sports/71955366_1_power-rankings-game-trumps-tired-game

Yea, I agree, Odor will and should be punished, but I also think Bautista should be punished. His slide was not extremely egregious, but it was an instigating factor.

I agree Odor will get multiple games deservedly so. I would guess it ends up about 5 games. I would put Bautista on notice that the bat flip is taunting and will be punished accordingly. If I was a ML pitcher and he did that I would drill him on the next pitch, or maybe even more effectively drill his teammate that came to bat next.

Murphy is frankly offensive. I find the entire "Black and Hispanic people more expressive" argument as a form of racism.

[BostonRoss]

I don't think MLB has to be like the NFL when players celebrate making a tackle when they're down three touchdowns.

But sometimes expressiveness is fine with me. I liked Bautista's bat flip last October. As another example, I don't like Harper much, but I find some of the things he does pretty exciting. I was at one of the first games he played as a National, and he hit a routine ground ball to the pitcher. He busted it down the line so much that the pitcher panicked and threw the ball down the first base line. Harper kept running and slid safely into second. (As it turned out, Harper missed first base and was called out on appeal but that made the whole play that much more interesting to me.) That play showed hustle and trying to play the game right. On the other hand, Harper's not running out balls (like the one Papelbon overreacted to) indicates to me that Harper sometimes feels that he is bigger than the game.

Regardless of what one thinks of the bat flip, I find it stupid that the Rangers reacted by drilling Bautista, more stupid that Bautista took out Odor, and of course even stupider that Odor punched Bautista. There's something to be said for the players policing themselves, but obviously they didn't do a very good job of it in this case.

[Austinfan]

Well, white players didn't always have stiff upper lips, sometimes they could be outright demonstrative, ask Jackie Robinson.

Common sense suggests bat flips should be limited to HRs off junk ballers, one is taking a chance showing up a pitcher with a short temper and a 95 MPH fastball!

As far as sliding hard into the 2B, I'd plant the relay throw between his eyes, that'll discourage that tactic.
Taking umbrage at someone deliberately trying to hurt you is pretty reasonable, but throwing a punch instead of the ball is a more expensive way to handle it.

[Philsmania]

If I'll say so myself, Manfred is not looking good with the lack of action regarding the Jays-Rangers brawl. You would think an incident like this would call for swift justice. What kind of an "investigation" does MLB need to conduct? It's all on video. Does MLB have to get preapproval from the union?

[EastFallowfield]

Fredi Gonzalez fired, so Pete Mackanin is now the second longest tenured manager in the NL East, says twitter.

[Philsmania]

Fredi Gonzalez fired, so Pete Mackanin is now the second longest tenured manager in the NL East, says twitter.

And only blocked by Brett Brown from being the dean of Philadelphia professional coaches.

[bkeich]

Not a big fan of his, as I think he was very overrated, but Ichiro is now only 51 hits from 3000, may make it this year. It is incredible he did this after years in the Japanese League. I assume he is already over 4000 hits between the two.

Will he be the last? It is very hard to get to that type of number now.

Just as Jamie Moyer will probably be the last pitcher to get to 4000 IP, I wonder if Ichiro may be the last player to get to 3000 hits

[LoneStarPhan]

I'd say he won't be the last. 3000 hits is a difficult number to achieve, but there will be players who play long enough and well enough to get to 3000. Pitching counting stats may be a more difficult task since the way pitchers are used has changed. The five man rotation means fewer starts per season and the 300 inning per year pitcher is probably not going to happen again.

[andyb]

Beltre is at 2,807 hits and Pujols is at 2,697. Both have multiple seasons left and should get there easily. On the other end of the spectrum Trout is at 789 and is still only 24. He has been getting about 180 hits a season. Even if he averaged 150 he would get to 3,000 before he turns 40.

[harrisburghusker]

Miguel Cabrera?

[harrisburghusker]

the one that really surprised me is Starlin Castro

he has 1031 career hits and is 26

it would be a surprise if he makes it past 1750 hits, but I was surprised at his hit total and age

[donaldorc]

Odubel Herrera?

[schillingfan]

Regardless of what one thinks of the bat flip, I find it stupid that the Rangers reacted by drilling Bautista, more stupid that Bautista took out Odor, and of course even stupider that Odor punched Bautista. There's something to be said for the players policing themselves, but obviously they didn't do a very good job of it in this case.

Sounds like how nations go to war. Each action escalates the controversy. MLB needs to come down hard on Odor and Bautista (if the slide appears intentional) as this can lead to real injuries. A bat flip leading to injury is not a good thing.

I'm enough old school that I don't mind drilling a guy for a bat flip. I suspect that such retaliatory acts exist in all kinds of sports, it's just more obvious in baseball. Players have big egos and nobody likes being shown up. Should have ended with the drilling and not be escalated into a potentially harmful take-out slide.

[harrisburghusker]

I loved the flip, but Bautista should have known he was going to get hit, taken his medicine and gone on with life

[LoneStarPhan]

I know it's long been the tradition to get "upset" at numerous trivial behaviors in baseball, but I've wondered what the big deal is about bat flips for more than fifty years. It never seemed like a big deal to me and certainly nothing to compare to the things that have grown common place in the other major professional sports over that time period.

I was shocked at the light punishments handed down yesterday.

[mdougherty12]

Jackie Bradley Jr. is working on a 24 game hitting streak for Boston. He's up to 159 PA in 2016 with a .338/.390/.607 line, following a 2015 2nd half of 220 PA of .267/.352/.539 performance. Huge turnaround from his brutal 2014.

[Philsmania]

Jackie Bradley Jr. is working on a 24 game hitting streak for Boston. He's up to 159 PA in 2016 with a .338/.390/.607 line, following a 2015 2nd half of 220 PA of .267/.352/.539 performance. Huge turnaround from his brutal 2014.

Domonic Brown, June of 2013. For one month, he was the player we thought he would be. Who knows. Red Sox fans have been waiting for Bradley to break out since 2013. Perhaps Bradley is one of those players in the Jose Bautista, Marlon Byrd, Brandon Moss, Chris Davis mold who takes a few seasons and a lot of at bats to finally put it together and the Red Sox will deserve credit for showing patience with him which is now being rewarded (all of those other guys played for multiple organizations first). Or, maybe he's just having a good month. We shall see.