The Braves are about to get a thumper back. A Mariners' hurler has tanked the last month. Hint. You should have expected it to happen. A 37 year old DH is performing like he's 29. The best catcher in the NL will get some more rest, PEDs are terrible, and a potential HOFamer is trying to work his way back to the big leagues.
Evan Gattis is back to blasting homers in BP. Seems like he is over his oblique issue. He'll head out on a minor league assignment soon, and could be good to go shortly after the All-Star break. Gattis has absolutely mashed it this season, there is no doubt of that fact. In 163 at-bats he's racked up 14 bombs and 37 RBIs, totals that would give him 43 homers and 113 RBIs over 500 at-bats. He still doesn't have a spot in the daily lineup though. He'll be used enough to be a solid NL-only play, but I have questions about his value in mixed leagues – where will he play? By the way, Brian McCann is batting .294 with 10 homers and 30 RBIs in 170 at-bats, and he's been white hot over his last 10 games with 20 hits, twenty, to raise his average up from .241. What an offensive duo behind the dish.
Hisashi Iwakuma has allowed at least four earned runs in 5-straight starts, and he's been annihilated by the long ball allowing at least two big flies in each of his last four starts (10 overall). What the hell is wrong with him? It's called regression folks. Did you really think he was going to post a 1.79 ERA this season, the mark he had when all this madness started? Let's compare his work last year to his work this season. It should be eye opening for you.
2012: 9-5, 3.16 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 101 Ks, 43 BBs, 17 HRs in 125.1 IP 2013: 7-4, 2.97 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 106 Ks, 18 BBs, 20 HRs in 124.1 IP
He's still pitching better than he did last season.
David Ortiz had four more hits Tuesday night, and he's on a 150 game pace this season of .327-37-125-90. Wow. Do you know how many times in his illustrious career he's reached all four of those numbers in one season? The answer is never. I'm not quite sure how to explain the resurgence of the 37 year old designated hitter, but it's been a stupendous return to prominence. From 2008-10 Ortiz hit .257 with a .854 OPS in his age 32-34 seasons, showing the normal decline that players go through as they age. Somehow though, from 2011-today, the 35-37 yr old hitter has boosted those numbers to .314 and .986. Given that his career marks are .287 and .932 that is utterly remarkable.
Yadier Molina (knee) is likely to get a bit more rest moving forward after starting 79 of the Cards first 85 games. He's not going to sit twice a week so don't worry. The move should enable him to stay stronger longer anyway, which might help him to sustain his torrid pace a bit longer (.344-6-45-37).
I love the female form as much as anyone out there, but this just isn't right, is it?
Manny Ramirez hit a home run at Triple-A last night. He sure took his sweet time going around the bases though (how weird does he look without hair?). He could offer some AL-only value with the Rangers as Lance Berkman is struggling to stay healthy and Nelson Cruz is facing a possible suspension.
Speaking of PEDs... I'm so sick of all that talk. Still don't get how major league baseball is going to suspend players without any positive tests. It's like this. Police could raid my home and find a crap ton of receipts for all the weed I've been peddling from my garage. However, if there was no Mary Jane in the garage, if there were only my records to go on, could they arrest and convict me? A good lawyer could get me off like that (think about the Barry Bonds situation as an example). Where's the evidence? The paper trail? How can you “prove†that what I wrote in my little green book was true? Where is the evidence? It would take a whole lot more than one scumbag to impune my character to the point that I'd be convicted. I'm not saying the players didn't use PEDs. The fact is that I don't know, you don't know, and unless Major League Baseball has some evidence that no one has reported, they don't have the proof either. If they do indeed suspend these guys, including Ryan Braun as the face of the vendetta that MLB has against the players, they had better be prepared for a lengthy and extremely contentious court battle. It could get ugly. By the way, as of now, there has been no word that the players failed any drug tests while in the NFL players fail them all the time. Where's the outrage with the media/public over the fact that NFL players get popped all the time for PEDs --- why does no one care about that?
By Ray Flowers