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Armadillo: Saturday's six-pack
-- Troy Daniels hit a huge 3 with 0:12 left in OT as Houston won at Portland and got to within 2-1 in that series, with road team winning all three games.
-- All three NBA games Friday night were decided by five or less points.
-- Blackhawks won 3-2 in OT at St Louis, fourth OT in five series games.
-- Bryce Harper, Chris Davis left with injuries last night.
-- Curtis Granderson is hitting .141, but he's had walk-off RBI in two of the Mets' 13 wins-- they're 13-10 and appear to be an improved team.
-- Jose Abreu and Albert Pujols are only players in last 100 years to have 27+ RBI before May 1st of their rookie season.
*****
Armadillo: Saturday's List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here..........
13) Here is a case of a team being penalized for playing too well. Read on the Interweb this week that the NFL gave the Seahawks only one primetime home game this season because Seattle has been winning night games at home by too wide a margin, creating one-sided contests that deliver lousy TV ratings- make no mistake about it, the schedule is designed to deliver maximum TV ratings- that’s where the big bucks are.
12) Last February, Houston Astros traded Jed Lowrie to the A’s for Chris Carter, a one-sided deal for the A’s so far; no one has said anything, but apparently Lowrie and the Astros have some issues.
Last Friday, with A’s having scored seven runs in first inning, Lowrie bunted for a hit against a shift Houston put on, in his second AB of the first inning. This ticked off Astro manager Bo Porter bigtime- they threw at Lowrie later that game; Porter and Jose Altuve had words with Lowrie, and then two nights ago, Paul Clemens threw behind Lowrie again— whenever a big-league pitcher throws behind a hitter, there is intent.
11) The question becomes, when do you call off the dogs when playing a game with no clock? Lowrie bunted when it was 7-0, which is normally taboo, but it was still the first inning—that game wound up getting a close as 8-3 in the fifth.
If a team is going to shift to prevent you from getting hits, is it wrong to try and beat the shift? I would defer to those who play/played; Astro announcers spent the latter part of Thursday’s game debating those points and never got to a conclusion. Add in the fact that Lowrie and some Astros may not be best buddies and you have a potential problem, and it didn't cool down Friday night.
Houston hit Brandon Moss twice in the ninth inning, as Oakland again scored seven runs to take over a close game, then Fernando Abad drilled Jason Castro in the bottom of the ninth. There might be a fracas before this all goes away.
10) To me, Bobby Bowden said it best about running up scores, when his Seminoles were at the peak of their explosive power: “Its not my job to hold the score down, its their (other team’s) job.” Amen.
In a couple years, the Astros will be better, they’ll fire Porter and bring in a better manager and they won’t have to worry about getting scores run up on them.
9) San Diego manager Bud Black got creative late in his game at Washington Thursday night; his LF got hurt batting in the 11th inning; he could’ve double-switched, but he wanted to leave his pitcher in for one more hitter, so he used his ace starter Andrew Cashner in LF for one batter, then double-switched and brought in a lefty.
I call it creative; had Cashner gotten hurt, I’d be calling for his damn job, since Cashner is the best pitcher on my fantasy team. With so few bench players available to managers, stuff like this is happening more and more. Still think they should eliminate the DH and create 27-man major league rosters, but that’s just me.
8) World Cup soccer tournament takes a whole month? Media people covering it have to go to Brazil for that long? Long time to spend on a different continent.
7) Golfer Ben Martin was -13 on his first 21 holes at Zurich tournament in New Orleans; I couldn’t go -13 at mini-golf. Windmill holes give me too much trouble.
6) Michigan forward Mitch McGary flunked a drug test during the NCAAs, was going to be suspended for a year, so he just went pro, even though he didn’t play much last season. NCAA reduced the penalty for testing positive two weeks after McGary flunked his test, but they didn't grandfather him in to the lighter sentence, which was a mistake. The NCAA is good at making itself look bad.
5) Peter Gammons had a great stat Friday; nine teams have stranded 15+ runners in a game; eight of those nine teams won that game. I was surprised by that.
4) Has to be difficult for ballplayers who aren’t from this country; Michael Pineda doesn’t have a translator. Why doesn’t he? The Asian players all have translators. The team should provide translators for players; wouldn’t that help the player play better? Shouldn't teams make their players as comfortable as possible?
3) Domantos Sabonis will be playing for Gonzaga next year; his dad is Arvydas Sabonis, maybe the best basketball player no one saw until the very end of his career, when he played for Portland after injuring his Achilles. If this kid is anything like his dad as a player, Gonzaga has a player on its hands.
2) One of the better new college hoop names next year is a kid Michigan State recruited from the Bahamas: Lowrawls Naien. Not much doubt who the parents’ favorite singer is.
1) Back to Michael Pineda for a second; he got suspended for 10 days, but with pay; where is the penalty there? He got a 10-day paid vacation for being caught cheating. That penalizes the team more than the player; then again, maybe that’s their intent, to make teams police this kind of stuff.
-- Troy Daniels hit a huge 3 with 0:12 left in OT as Houston won at Portland and got to within 2-1 in that series, with road team winning all three games.
-- All three NBA games Friday night were decided by five or less points.
-- Blackhawks won 3-2 in OT at St Louis, fourth OT in five series games.
-- Bryce Harper, Chris Davis left with injuries last night.
-- Curtis Granderson is hitting .141, but he's had walk-off RBI in two of the Mets' 13 wins-- they're 13-10 and appear to be an improved team.
-- Jose Abreu and Albert Pujols are only players in last 100 years to have 27+ RBI before May 1st of their rookie season.
*****
Armadillo: Saturday's List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here..........
13) Here is a case of a team being penalized for playing too well. Read on the Interweb this week that the NFL gave the Seahawks only one primetime home game this season because Seattle has been winning night games at home by too wide a margin, creating one-sided contests that deliver lousy TV ratings- make no mistake about it, the schedule is designed to deliver maximum TV ratings- that’s where the big bucks are.
12) Last February, Houston Astros traded Jed Lowrie to the A’s for Chris Carter, a one-sided deal for the A’s so far; no one has said anything, but apparently Lowrie and the Astros have some issues.
Last Friday, with A’s having scored seven runs in first inning, Lowrie bunted for a hit against a shift Houston put on, in his second AB of the first inning. This ticked off Astro manager Bo Porter bigtime- they threw at Lowrie later that game; Porter and Jose Altuve had words with Lowrie, and then two nights ago, Paul Clemens threw behind Lowrie again— whenever a big-league pitcher throws behind a hitter, there is intent.
11) The question becomes, when do you call off the dogs when playing a game with no clock? Lowrie bunted when it was 7-0, which is normally taboo, but it was still the first inning—that game wound up getting a close as 8-3 in the fifth.
If a team is going to shift to prevent you from getting hits, is it wrong to try and beat the shift? I would defer to those who play/played; Astro announcers spent the latter part of Thursday’s game debating those points and never got to a conclusion. Add in the fact that Lowrie and some Astros may not be best buddies and you have a potential problem, and it didn't cool down Friday night.
Houston hit Brandon Moss twice in the ninth inning, as Oakland again scored seven runs to take over a close game, then Fernando Abad drilled Jason Castro in the bottom of the ninth. There might be a fracas before this all goes away.
10) To me, Bobby Bowden said it best about running up scores, when his Seminoles were at the peak of their explosive power: “Its not my job to hold the score down, its their (other team’s) job.” Amen.
In a couple years, the Astros will be better, they’ll fire Porter and bring in a better manager and they won’t have to worry about getting scores run up on them.
9) San Diego manager Bud Black got creative late in his game at Washington Thursday night; his LF got hurt batting in the 11th inning; he could’ve double-switched, but he wanted to leave his pitcher in for one more hitter, so he used his ace starter Andrew Cashner in LF for one batter, then double-switched and brought in a lefty.
I call it creative; had Cashner gotten hurt, I’d be calling for his damn job, since Cashner is the best pitcher on my fantasy team. With so few bench players available to managers, stuff like this is happening more and more. Still think they should eliminate the DH and create 27-man major league rosters, but that’s just me.
8) World Cup soccer tournament takes a whole month? Media people covering it have to go to Brazil for that long? Long time to spend on a different continent.
7) Golfer Ben Martin was -13 on his first 21 holes at Zurich tournament in New Orleans; I couldn’t go -13 at mini-golf. Windmill holes give me too much trouble.
6) Michigan forward Mitch McGary flunked a drug test during the NCAAs, was going to be suspended for a year, so he just went pro, even though he didn’t play much last season. NCAA reduced the penalty for testing positive two weeks after McGary flunked his test, but they didn't grandfather him in to the lighter sentence, which was a mistake. The NCAA is good at making itself look bad.
5) Peter Gammons had a great stat Friday; nine teams have stranded 15+ runners in a game; eight of those nine teams won that game. I was surprised by that.
4) Has to be difficult for ballplayers who aren’t from this country; Michael Pineda doesn’t have a translator. Why doesn’t he? The Asian players all have translators. The team should provide translators for players; wouldn’t that help the player play better? Shouldn't teams make their players as comfortable as possible?
3) Domantos Sabonis will be playing for Gonzaga next year; his dad is Arvydas Sabonis, maybe the best basketball player no one saw until the very end of his career, when he played for Portland after injuring his Achilles. If this kid is anything like his dad as a player, Gonzaga has a player on its hands.
2) One of the better new college hoop names next year is a kid Michigan State recruited from the Bahamas: Lowrawls Naien. Not much doubt who the parents’ favorite singer is.
1) Back to Michael Pineda for a second; he got suspended for 10 days, but with pay; where is the penalty there? He got a 10-day paid vacation for being caught cheating. That penalizes the team more than the player; then again, maybe that’s their intent, to make teams police this kind of stuff.
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