It was a bit of a slow day yesterday, but the MVP was Danny Duffy, who allowed one earned run in 7 innings of play for the Royals, striking out 7.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
MVP of Yesterday (April 30, 2015): Danny Duffy
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Category Archives: Baseball
MVP of Yesterday (April 29, 2015): Josh Collmenter
Well, I didn’t think Josh Collmenter would be the first two-time MVP of Yesterday for the year, but that is the case, as the D-Backs pitcher went 8 IP without a run while giving up just 5 hits and striking out 6.
Standings, as ever, after the jump:
MVP of Yesterday (April 28, 2015): Madison Bumgarner
Madison Bumgarner was great last night, going 8 innings and allowing only 5 hits and one earned run. So, he’s the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
You can learn a lot watching an “empty” game
As you know, the Orioles and White Sox will be playing a game today in front of an empty stadium due to the recent events in Baltimore, with only themselves, journalists, and a skeleton crew of ballpark workers there to see it in person.
While of course the first thoughts should be for everyone in Baltimore in light of the unrest (whether peaceful protest or the violent riots that occurred on Monday), it should be noted that this unusual zero-attendance game will provide a unique look at baseball.
Now, I have, of course by definition, never been to a game with no attendance. But I have been to games that have been very close, with perhaps only a hundred or more fans there, tops. Go to a minor league game on a cold night with a chance of rain and you’ll have a chance to see it (as I have at times), or go to one of the lowest minor leagues, where they play games in large Spring Training facilities in front of crowds far, far smaller than the ballpark is meant to.
It is, in a word that will be said many times today: surreal.
For one thing, there is the fact that almost everything in the stadium is closed. Maybe one or two food stands will be open for the few fans who are there (this won’t be the case for the Orioles game today), and maybe you might still one or two vendors walking around hawking beer, but in general, it is a morgue outside of the seating bowl. They might not even turn on the TVs to show the game to anybody down below.
And yet, much of what the stadium’s PA system and video board play remain the same. They’ll flash out the birthday messages meant for people who probably left during the rain delay in the third innings, they’ll play walk-up music that echoes through the empty stands, they’ll give “fan of the game” awards to people who normally never get the awards because their seats are too expensive, and the mascots are able to give a good chunk of time to every kid in the crowd. Individually.
And, above all else, you can hear almost everything said above a conversational tone. You can hear the players actually call out “I got it, I got it,” and hear them swear after they do something wrong. I don’t know if the mics in Baltimore will be good enough to pick stuff like that up, but if they can, it’ll be a treat (and also NSFW).
Lastly, if it’s possible, baseball with little to no fans there is most definitely connoisseur’s experience. The few people there most definitely want to be there. There are no casual fans. And that is an almost zen-like experience.
Over at Hall of Very Good: Links!
Aside
Over at the Hall of Very Good this week, I have a column full of links! Check it out!
MVP of Yesterday (April 27, 2015): Jason Hammel
Jason Hammel of the Cubs is the MVP of Yesterday, as he went 8 IP while giving up no runs, just four hits and striking out seven.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
MVPs of the Weekend (April 24, 25 and 26, 2015): Felix Hernandez, Rubby De La Rosa, Alex Gordon
Friday’s MVP was Felix Hernandez, who had a complete game shutout against the Twins giving up five hits and striking out nine.
Saturday’s MVP was Rubby De La Rosa, who struck out 8 and gave up just 4 hits in 7 innings of work for Arizona. He ended up with a no-decision.
Sunday’s MVP was Alex Gordon. While he had an alright day at the plate, going 2-4 with a HR and 2 RBIs, the main reason he is MVP is this:
I mean, are you going to argue with that?
Thought not. Standings after the jump:
OOTP International Baseball Competition Part 6: No-Hitter?
Throughout the year, I’ll be posting updates of a simulated league from Out Of The Park Baseball 2016 made up of national “dream teams” to determine what the greatest baseball country on Earth is… or something like that. Previous installments can be found here. This is a long post, so there is a JUMP after the first day. Also, hit any picture to make it bigger and more readable.
April 27
Team USA manager Joe Maddon spoke to his team in the visitor’s locker room of Jamsil Stadium:
“Gentleman, Americans, lend me your ears,” he said, as bench coach Buck Showalter sat silently, “We have played extremely well so far. We have gone 22-2, including games against some quality opponents.”
He paused for a second, “But we are about to enter one of the toughest parts of our schedule. Every game we have from now until May 13 is against a team that is .500 or very close to it. Korea, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Japan, the Dominican. So… go out there and make your country proud.”
He decided not to mention the whole “Babe Ruth ghost” thing.
And so, at 5:05 AM on the East Coast of the USA, Team USA took the field against Korea, a Kershaw-Ryu matchup.
In the top of the second, it looked like Team USA would score. Trout was HBP, Goldschmidt walked. Posey infield-flied, but then Ryu let loose a wild pitch against Tulowitzki that moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd. But then, Tulowitzki flew out to mid-shallow center, and Yong-Kyu Lee was able to unleash a tremendous throw in to get the tagging-up Mike Trout at the plate for the rare 8-2 double-play to end the inning.
And after that, the game was a pitching duel…. until the bottom of the 6th, when Dae-Ho Lee took advantage of a controversial HBP call that allowed Hyun-soo Kim to get to first by hitting a 2-run home run off of Kershaw to make it 2-0. Ho-Joon Lee then got a hit, then got to second after an equally controversial balk call, allowing him to score and make it 3-0 when Jung-Ho Kang was able to bounce one into left. A Jeong Choi double later, and it was 4-0, and Kershaw was yanked for Steve Cishek.
Team USA would score a run in the top of the 7th, but that would be all they’d get, as Korea pulled off the 4-1 win. Hyun-Jin Ryu was named the player of the game for his 7 innings of 5-hit ball.
But perhaps, Joe Maddon mused, they should have given the player of the game to Babe Ruth’s ghost. After all, Team USA had lost two of the three games it had played since he’d first shown up.
The other game in Asia that day was Netherlands at Taiwan, and the Dutch continued to struggle, falling 7-6 despite a HR from Wladimir Balentien.
As morning broke in the Western Hemisphere, news already came up that the Mexico-Venezuela game would not be played due to a forecast of bad weather in Caracas:
In Toronto, where weather is no worry thanks to the dome, the Canadians beat Australia 5-2. That was just the start of the bad news for Australia, though, as David Kandilas got hurt in the field and suffered a 2-week elbow contusion and Justin Huber bruised his elbow and would also be out for 2 weeks. In face of this news, Ned Kelly O’Shaughessy ordered a Molson and a Labatt, then poured them both together and mixed them, and then drank. A lot.
The Panama-Puerto Rico game had a short delay in the second inning due to rain, but it didn’t stop the home team Puerto Ricans from beating Panama 12-5 as Carlos Beltran went 3-4 with 2 RBIs.
The night games would be an eclectic mix: Italy and Colombia would be a match-up between two of the teams with the worst records in the league, Japan and Cuba would be a match-up between two of the best. And Dominican-Rest of the World looked like it could be a massive rout.
The Italy-Colombia game, in Colombia, was won by Italy, 7-4, moving them to 3-22 on the year and tying them with Colombia in the standings. Mario Chiarini homered.
Japan beat Cuba 6-3 in Havana, as Seiichi Uchikawa went 2-5 with a triple and a homer, racking up 4 RBIs. Yoshio Itoi also homered, while Masahiro Tanaka went 8 innings.
And, finally, the Dominican hit five home runs as they routed Rest-Of-The-World, 9-3.
GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE:
MVP of Yesterday (April 23, 2015): David Phelps
David Phelps of the Marlins threw 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, so I’m naming him the MVP of Yesterday.
As always, standings after the jump:
So are the Royals being this year’s designated villains a good thing or a bad thing?
Last night, the Kansas City Royals got into a bench-clearer. Again. This time with the White Sox. Who said what and did what will no doubt never be 100% figured out and there most definitely are plenty on both sides who made some very poor decisions.
But this is true: it feels like clockwork so far this year that the Royals are getting into some sort of fracas, whether vocal or physical. There was the whole thing with the Athletics that culminated in Kelvin Herrera appearing to throw at Brett Lawrie‘s head. There was the thing with Mike Trout. The Royals relief corps has probably spent more time running in en masse from the bullpen so far this month than most do in a entire season. Due to injuries in earlier starts and ejections in his most recent ones, Royals’ pitcher Yordano Ventura has yet to be pulled from a game because of managerial decision.
Perhaps it is all coincidence. Perhaps this is just the rest of the team being dragged into a vortex by a small handful of pitchers with chips on their shoulder. Perhaps the Royals will be upstanding citizens for the rest of the season. But, well, it’s probably too late to matter: baseball fandom-at-large has declared that the Royals are villains this year. One article declared them to be the most despised team in the league. They’ve turned to the Dark Side, become heels and taken up the role of bad boys (despite some pleas not to use that phrase).
Again, such labels are for the most part bunk, but the human sports fan loves to label things. It’s why the Yankees are often the “Evil Empire”, why some coaches are called “geniuses” or “slimeballs”, and why there was an entire documentary on why people hate Christian Laettner. It’s our way of projecting fairy tale ideals of good and evil and right and wrong onto what are essentially random events that, unlike the real worlds of politics, business and so on, actually have a score that leaves who won or lost in clear black and white print.
And so, the zeitgeist says that the Royals are the villains. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. But is it a good or bad thing?
Well, one thing is clear: the Royals should stop having bench-clearing brawls and bean-ball wars. And definitely no throwing at heads. Somebody is going to get hurt sooner rather than later if these continue. Maybe it’ll be a Royal. Maybe it’ll be a player on another team. It must stop before it gets to that- there is no reason for people to get hurt over stupid grudges, hurt feelings, and violations of THE UNWRITTEN RULES (TM).
However, what about the emotions and swagger that the Royals are showing? The fist-bumps and exaggerated hand-claps, the shouts and screams of victory? No doubt some of the violations of THE UNWRITTEN RULES (TM) are because of this, and perhaps some of the incidents so far are related to these. And this leads to a bigger question within baseball: how much emotion and expression is too much?
A few days ago, you may have heard, Chris Rock did a monologue for HBO on why baseball no longer had the same hold on youth- especially black youth- as it once did. And while some of what he said was exaggerated for comedic effect, he hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that baseball, more than any other team sport, tries to hold back the public self-expression and emotion of individual players.
And what are the Royals doing? They are showing emotion. They are at times celebrating openly in manners more like basketball players or football players… and, yes, occasionally brawling like hockey players.
And is that bad? Aside from when they reach those tipping points where emotion becomes violence, are the Royals really showing disrespect to the game of baseball? Maybe, maybe not. Likely it depends on any given occurrence.
But perhaps the Royals are a breath of fresh air, a beacon of exuberance in a sea of the mundane. Perhaps the Royals are the villain that Major League Baseball needs, not the one it wants.
But, still… they have to stop getting into fights and beanings. Because there is most definitely such thing as too much emotion, and it’s when people might get hurt.
The Baseball Continuum 