Chris Colabello of the Twins only had two hits yesterday, but both of them were home runs and one of them was a grand slam that put Minnesota ahead for good in their game against Houston. Therefore, I’m naming him the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
When announcing lineups, the Rochester Red Wings often play “Love Rollercoaster”. It fits this season, as the AAA Twins affiliate seemed to be on one that had highs, lows, loops, 
corkscrews and no shortage of screaming and yelling. And now, after a blowout 13-3 victory on the final day of the season and a stunning 1-0 extra-inning defeat by the Norfolk Tides (AAA Orioles), the Wings now have made the playoffs for the first time since 2006 by virtue of holding a tie-breaker against Norfolk.
It was by no means a sure thing. Then again, there was very little “sure” about this season. The Wings started 2-11, they were in last place as late as May 29, they were in first later in the year, only to lose both that lead and also seemingly the wild card in a late skid after their best player (Chris Colabello) and best pitcher (Andrew Albers) were called up… and then, finally, at the end, they were able to pick themselves up and get to the playoffs, with a little luck.
(Go below the jump for more)
Michael Cuddyer went 4-4 with a HR, 3 RBIs and a SB yesterday, so I’m naming him the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as usual, under the jump:
Like a giant zombie beast-thing, the Yankees have somehow shambled back into the Wild Card race, again, and have even passed the Orioles, thanks to yesterday’s MVP, Ivan Nova, who threw a 3-hit shutout.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
You may remember the two Marvel giveaway comics, and you may remember how Chris Eliopoulos, who wrote the first comic, had a brief Twitter conversation with me.
Well, a few days ago I heard from another person involved with the comics: Christopher Hill, who helped make the deals that got those comics made in the first place and also did some of the writing. With his permission, I’m putting up what he sent me, with only one edit (removing a link to the comic overview, which I already posted higher up):
A friend just sent me a link to your blog articles on the books we did with Marvel. Thanks for taking the time. Great article.We had fun writing those. Tough to pack so much in to a few pages, but we had a good time doing it. The boy on Hulk’s shoulder is based on my son. My favorite thing I have written! Glad you liked them.We are working on a few new things in MiLB and MLB so I may circle back to borrow some of your ideas for future books! – ChrisPS – For those new things you can find me quietly on twitter @mPrintComics
Two hits. Two homers. Four RBIs. Adrian Gonzalez is the MVP of Yesterday.
(Standings after jump)
(The above link is to Japanese statistics just added to Baseball Reference.)
Jeff Passan has an article on how the Union is worried that the contracts being offered by teams like the Cubs could be a slow march to non-guaranteed contracts on par with the NFL. You can read the article for the full details, but in essence, they are worried that the expansion of the “conversion clause” that allows a team to turn it into a non-guaranteed contract if a player does something. It’s a call-back to the eighties, when everybody was worried about all the cocaine going around, but now-a-days the MLBPA is worried about the implications that teams could not only use the clause to extend it to PEDs, but to, well, anything.
Like, take this snippet apparently from a Cubs contract, meant to list out restricted activities that could allow the Cubs to turn the contact into non-guaranteed if there was an injury. Passan notes that due to the way some parts of the contract were originally written, they could have in theory been able to convert the contract for even the most mild of injuries doing these activities:
“(A)uto racing, motorcycling, piloting, co-piloting, learning to operate, or serving as a crew member of, an aircraft, being a passenger in a single engine airplane or private plane, hot air ballooning, parachuting, skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, horseback riding, horse racing, harness racing, fencing, boxing, wrestling, karate, judo, jujitsu, any other form of martial arts activity, use of an All Terrain Vehicle (‘ATV’), skiing (water or snow), snowmobiling, bobsledding, luging, ice hockey, ice boating, field hockey, squash, spelunking, basketball, football, softball, white water canoeing or rafting, kayaking, jai-alai, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, rodeo, bicycle racing, motor boat racing, polo, rugby, rodeo, handball, volleyball, in-line or other roller skating, surfing, hunting, paddleball, racquetball, archery, wood chopping, mountain climbing, boating, any weightlifting not prescribed by or approved in advance by Club (said approval not to be unreasonably withheld), participation in the ‘Superteams’ or ‘Superstars’ activities (or any like activity) or other made-for-television or made-for-motion picture athletic competitions…”
That’s a big list, and the union was- if I’m reading this right- worried that such a big list and the vague writing of the contract could have allowed the Cubs to NFL-ize the contracts of anybody who, say, had a slight sprain during a pick-up basketball game or had a soccer ball hit them in the nuts. Thankfully, that vague language has been changed, so now the they probably have to actually get shot by a bow-and-arrow or falling down a cliff while mountain climbing for their deal to become non-guaranteed.
Still, even if they WERE in danger of seeing their guaranteed contracts going poof if they got hurt doing those above activities, they still have many activities they still could have done:
…Oh, wait, there is this at the very end:
“…or any other sport, activity, or negligent act involving a reasonably foreseeable substantial risk of personal injury or death.”
Well, there goes those. Good thing the Union was able to get a change in the language of the Cubs contracts, otherwise, they could have ended up with people getting their contracts non-guaranteed after paper-cuts while playing Uno.
There weren’t any true standout performances yesterday, so I’ll go with Daniel Murphy of the Mets, who had four hits last night.
Standings, as usual, under the jump:
Ricky Nolasco is the MVP of Yesterday thanks to his 11-K, 3-H, 8 IP performance yesterday for the Dodgers.
Standings, as usual, under the jump: Continue reading
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