Baseball Reflections

Last Week’s Top Hitters

Written by Peter Schiller on June 30, 2008 – 2:04 pm -

Atlanta’s 1B Mark Teixeira hit 6 HRs last week while driving in 11 runs and hit .429 with an OBP of .571 to take this past week’s top spot for hitter of the week.

The Rays’ rookie sensation had another good week hitting 4 HRs while driving in 12 runs of his own and he hit .424 with a stolen base.

Number three on this list with 3 stolen bases is Yankee OF Bobby Abreu. His complete line was 6/2/9/3/.478/.571 (R/HR/RBI/SB/BA/OBP).

The 4^th & 5^th guys on this list both play for the Sox and had 2 stolen bases. They are Boston’s minuete 2B Dustin Pedroia and White Sox RF Jermaine Dye.

Rounding out the bottom 5 of this top 10 list are Met’s 3B David Wright, Toronto 3B Scott Rolen, Rays’ LF Carl Crawford, Mets’ 1B Carlos Delgado and Boston’s 3B Mike Lowell.

Baseball Link Exchange

Written by Peter Schiller on June 27, 2008 – 8:33 am -

This week’s link goes out to one of my favorite concept blogs, The Nationals Enquirer.

Nice play on words if you ask me.

They claim to be “Your source for uninformed opinion, rumors, and misinformation about the Washington Nationals” (taken from their home page’s Who We Are section).

I honestly can’t say that I read them much, but anyone who likes the Nationals enough to write a blog about them and be so smart about the blog’s name like that deserves a mention…and a link.

MLB Opinion Poll

Written by Peter Schiller on June 26, 2008 – 8:29 am -

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2008 All Star Game @ Yankee Stadium

Written by Peter Schiller on June 25, 2008 – 8:35 am -

Here we are, it’s reader contribution time. I need you, the readers, to post your comments to the following question and I will post the answers as an update on Saturday the 28^th.

Who would you pick to start in the 2008 All Star game in Yankee Stadium? Please also add a closer and if you’d like, feel free to add bench players as well.

The Hottest Hitters of Week 12

Written by Peter Schiller on June 24, 2008 – 2:05 pm -

Due to technical difficulties last night at camp (after being online for 45 minutes I had suddenly lost connection with the network), I was not able to post last week’s top 10 hottest hitters until now. Please excuse the delay.

This past week saw two great hitting performances from White Sox OF Jermaine Dye and Brewers 1B Prince Fielder as both men hit 5 HRs. While Fielder had more runs scored (9) than Dye (7), dye knocked in more RBIs (13) than Fielder (8). Dye also hit for a higher BA (.417), giving him the lead over Fielder this past week.

Rounding out the top 5 hitters from last week are Rockies 2B Jeff Baker, a surprise addition of this list; Marlin 2B Dan Uggla returns for another week and is starting to make a believer out of me. I no longer think that he is about to see a major decline in his average and his power is for real. At number 5, Angel RF/DH Vladimir Guerrero is no stranger to this list, but he is starting to show signs n 2008 of his baody’s failure to keep him at his best.

The last 5 slots on this list belong to White Sox SS Orlando Cabrera, Rockies OF Willy Taveras, Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez who is always a threat to be on this list as is Braves 1B Mark Teixeira and finishing with A’s C Kurt Suzuki having a week like the A’s envisioned him having when they sent away Kendall last year.

MLB Opinion Poll

Written by Peter Schiller on June 24, 2008 – 8:26 am -

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On Vacation

Written by Peter Schiller on June 21, 2008 – 8:33 am -

To the readers of Baseball Reflections,

I will be on vacation from Friday night (6/20) until Friday afternoon (6/27); therefore, posting will be light (done in advance) and I may not be able to respond to any e-mails or comments until I return. However, this post and all others this week were written in advance. Thanks for understanding.

Peter

Injuries and Interleague Play

Written by Peter Schiller on June 20, 2008 – 8:21 am -

Recently I wrote about when pitchers were hitters, too.  Something I did not mention, but in hindsight, I should have, is how AL pitchers run the risk of getting hurt when they pitch against an NL team in an NL park.

Well, as you might have guessed, I’m not on the side of the Steinbrenner’s who have blamed interleague play on the injury to their # 1 starter Chien-Ming Wang. To me that’s just ridicules! They knew interleague play is coming and the coaching staff and the trainers should be giving these AL pitchers ample time to work the necessary muscles and joints that they use when batting and running the bases.

It is my opinion that the fault lies more with the players and the teams rather than the league. After all, hey are athletes aren’t they? Shouldn’t they be athletic enough to run the bases and swing a wooden bat without hurting themselves? One should think so!

By the way, what are the Red Sox claiming the reason for Bartolo Colon’s injury he incurred after swinging too hard? Did they also blame the league or did they blame the pitcher or did they take responsibility for their player’s conditioning? I honestly don’t know and would like someone to inform us all as to their stance on Colon’s injury.

What do you all think?

On the Hot Seat!

Written by Peter Schiller on June 19, 2008 – 12:23 pm -

The first firing of the 2008 season was Reds GM Wayne Krivsky back in April. Then in June we have seen the firing of Seattle GM Bill Bavasi and Mets Manager Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto. Now there’s rumors swelling around that Seattle is going to release 1B Richie Sexton outright.

What or Who’s Next?

Could Padres manager Bud Black be the next manager on the chopping block? After falling out of the Wild Card spot in a one game playoff game last year and the unexpectedly horrid start to the 2008 season up to mid-June you’d have to wonder. Maybe their recent rise out of last place has kept his job alive for a while longer, but if they don’t make a run at first place, he may be next.

Will Griffey or Adam Dunn finish the season as a member of the Reds? Will the Yankees come back to challenge the Rays and the Red Sox for fist place in the AL East?  What do you think?

UPDATE: The Mariners just fired manager John McLaren!