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Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
Odds on first NFL coach to be fired this coming season........
-- 5-2-- Jay Gruden-- Not a lot of stability with the Redskins.
-- 5-1-- Mike Pettine-- Would be shocking if Cleveland fired another coach.
-- 8-1-- Ken Whisenhunt-- Titans are breaking in a rookie QB this year.
-- 10-1-- Sean Payton-- He'd be out of work for about five minutes.
-- 12-1-- Joe Philbin-- Lot of faith in a QB who was a WR for two years in college
-- 15-1-- Gus Bradley-- Jags have to have patience, but he has to show them at least a little progress, to justify the patience.
-- 15-1-- Jim Tomsula-- Poor guy hasn't even coached a game yet.
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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.....
13) Baseball is fascinating because at the end of close games, key decisions can be the difference between winning and losing. Astros TV announcers were shocked when the Rays pitched to Carlos Correa with first base open and two out last night, with winning run on second base-- Jed Lowrie was up next.
Correa won the game with a single to right, the Rays slipped another game behind in the Wild Card race and Tampa Bay manager Cash probably didn't sleep much last night.
12) Despite a 59-61 record, Rays are still only four games behind the Angels in the (sluggish) race for the second Wild Card spot. Lot of mediocrity in the AL.
11) Detroit pitcher Daniel Norris homered in his first MLB at-bat (off Jon Lester, no less) after he smashed a video board during batting practice. Detroit celebrated Miguel Cabrera's return to the lineup by scoring 25 runs in two wins at Wrigley Field.
10) Pedro Florimon got the game-winning triple for the Pirates in the 15th inning late Tuesday night; his reward? He got sent down to AAA Wednesday morning. Now this was probably a decision that had been made before Florimon's heroics, but still it seems terribly unfair. He figures to be back with the club when the rosters expand.
9) Ben Zobrist hit .266 in 67 games for the A's; he missed a bundle of games with a knee injury-- the guy is 34 and played on artificial turf in Tampa Bay for nine years, so a bad knee is not a huge surprise.
Since his trade to the Royals, Zorist is hitting .344 with 12 RBI, 11 runs scored in 17 games, which underlines a problem I have with the Moneyball Ivy League geniuses.
8) Zobrist is 34; has a wife and two kids. He is a free agent after this season, so not only did he know he will be living somewhere new next season he also knew that unless the A's contended this year, he was getting traded this July. Unsettling for a family man, so no way were the A's going to get maximum production from him.
Baseball players aren't robots or Strat-o-Matic cards; they're people with problems just like us, only their problems are mostly better problems, like which city will they have to live in when they make $5.7M a year (Zobrist's salary).
7) Same thing happened with Matt Holliday in '09; he hit .286 in 93 games for the A's, then when he was inevitably traded to St Louis, he hit .353 the rest of the year for the Cardinals. Ballplayers are people too; someone let the numbers guys know!!!!.
6) Mets are 1-8 in Noah Syndergaard's road starts; they scored four or less runs in all nine of those games.
5) Terrible baserunning in Cincinnati last night; Reds are down 3-2 in 5th innng, they have bases loaded and one out. Batter hits a pop-up between the mound and first base line, the infield fly is invoked, so the batter is out no matter what, as long as the ball is fair, which it was. When the Royals didn't catch the ball, chaos ensued.
Jason Bourgeois has been in the big leagues for parts of seven years, for a total of 276 games; he was the runner on third base. When the ball wasn't caught, he takes off for home plate, oblivious to the whole infield fly thing. He got tagged out easily.
Cincinnati TV announcers will criticize the home team when warranted, but this was such an awful mistake, they didn't know where to start, other than to say they had never seen that happen before. Baseball IQ is way down across the major leagues.
4) Once the Raiders have a home exhibition game, the outfield in the O.Co Coliseum gets extremely fast, almost like the old artificial turf. Anything in the gaps gets to the fence, from now until the end of the season. Cost the Dodgers a run yesterday.
3) Carlos Beltran has been in the big leagues since 1998; his first RBI came in a game against Cleveland, on a night when Dwight Gooden started for the Indians.
2) The greedy weasels at Steiner Sports collectibles are selling pictures of Wilmer Flores crying for $70 and up; is there no end to people's greed? Who would buy the picture of a guy crying, after he thought he was traded (he wasn't)?
1) Which reminds me of a story. Giants used to have training camp in Albany; friend of mine's son takes his stripper friend to practice, so players will come over to the fence and he can get some autographs. He wanted Eli Manning's autograph on a mini-helmet he had.
Eli comes to the fence and takes a black Sharpie out to sign the mini-helmet; the kid tries to hand him a silver Sharpie, so the signature shows up better on the Navy blue Giants' helmet, but Eli refuses to sign with the silver Sharpie. Apparently that is how he knows the difference between helmets he signs for free and ones he got paid to sign, by the pen that is used. You'd think he has better things to worry about.
Odds on first NFL coach to be fired this coming season........
-- 5-2-- Jay Gruden-- Not a lot of stability with the Redskins.
-- 5-1-- Mike Pettine-- Would be shocking if Cleveland fired another coach.
-- 8-1-- Ken Whisenhunt-- Titans are breaking in a rookie QB this year.
-- 10-1-- Sean Payton-- He'd be out of work for about five minutes.
-- 12-1-- Joe Philbin-- Lot of faith in a QB who was a WR for two years in college
-- 15-1-- Gus Bradley-- Jags have to have patience, but he has to show them at least a little progress, to justify the patience.
-- 15-1-- Jim Tomsula-- Poor guy hasn't even coached a game yet.
**********
Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.....
13) Baseball is fascinating because at the end of close games, key decisions can be the difference between winning and losing. Astros TV announcers were shocked when the Rays pitched to Carlos Correa with first base open and two out last night, with winning run on second base-- Jed Lowrie was up next.
Correa won the game with a single to right, the Rays slipped another game behind in the Wild Card race and Tampa Bay manager Cash probably didn't sleep much last night.
12) Despite a 59-61 record, Rays are still only four games behind the Angels in the (sluggish) race for the second Wild Card spot. Lot of mediocrity in the AL.
11) Detroit pitcher Daniel Norris homered in his first MLB at-bat (off Jon Lester, no less) after he smashed a video board during batting practice. Detroit celebrated Miguel Cabrera's return to the lineup by scoring 25 runs in two wins at Wrigley Field.
10) Pedro Florimon got the game-winning triple for the Pirates in the 15th inning late Tuesday night; his reward? He got sent down to AAA Wednesday morning. Now this was probably a decision that had been made before Florimon's heroics, but still it seems terribly unfair. He figures to be back with the club when the rosters expand.
9) Ben Zobrist hit .266 in 67 games for the A's; he missed a bundle of games with a knee injury-- the guy is 34 and played on artificial turf in Tampa Bay for nine years, so a bad knee is not a huge surprise.
Since his trade to the Royals, Zorist is hitting .344 with 12 RBI, 11 runs scored in 17 games, which underlines a problem I have with the Moneyball Ivy League geniuses.
8) Zobrist is 34; has a wife and two kids. He is a free agent after this season, so not only did he know he will be living somewhere new next season he also knew that unless the A's contended this year, he was getting traded this July. Unsettling for a family man, so no way were the A's going to get maximum production from him.
Baseball players aren't robots or Strat-o-Matic cards; they're people with problems just like us, only their problems are mostly better problems, like which city will they have to live in when they make $5.7M a year (Zobrist's salary).
7) Same thing happened with Matt Holliday in '09; he hit .286 in 93 games for the A's, then when he was inevitably traded to St Louis, he hit .353 the rest of the year for the Cardinals. Ballplayers are people too; someone let the numbers guys know!!!!.
6) Mets are 1-8 in Noah Syndergaard's road starts; they scored four or less runs in all nine of those games.
5) Terrible baserunning in Cincinnati last night; Reds are down 3-2 in 5th innng, they have bases loaded and one out. Batter hits a pop-up between the mound and first base line, the infield fly is invoked, so the batter is out no matter what, as long as the ball is fair, which it was. When the Royals didn't catch the ball, chaos ensued.
Jason Bourgeois has been in the big leagues for parts of seven years, for a total of 276 games; he was the runner on third base. When the ball wasn't caught, he takes off for home plate, oblivious to the whole infield fly thing. He got tagged out easily.
Cincinnati TV announcers will criticize the home team when warranted, but this was such an awful mistake, they didn't know where to start, other than to say they had never seen that happen before. Baseball IQ is way down across the major leagues.
4) Once the Raiders have a home exhibition game, the outfield in the O.Co Coliseum gets extremely fast, almost like the old artificial turf. Anything in the gaps gets to the fence, from now until the end of the season. Cost the Dodgers a run yesterday.
3) Carlos Beltran has been in the big leagues since 1998; his first RBI came in a game against Cleveland, on a night when Dwight Gooden started for the Indians.
2) The greedy weasels at Steiner Sports collectibles are selling pictures of Wilmer Flores crying for $70 and up; is there no end to people's greed? Who would buy the picture of a guy crying, after he thought he was traded (he wasn't)?
1) Which reminds me of a story. Giants used to have training camp in Albany; friend of mine's son takes his stripper friend to practice, so players will come over to the fence and he can get some autographs. He wanted Eli Manning's autograph on a mini-helmet he had.
Eli comes to the fence and takes a black Sharpie out to sign the mini-helmet; the kid tries to hand him a silver Sharpie, so the signature shows up better on the Navy blue Giants' helmet, but Eli refuses to sign with the silver Sharpie. Apparently that is how he knows the difference between helmets he signs for free and ones he got paid to sign, by the pen that is used. You'd think he has better things to worry about.
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