TGFH: Thank God For Hotties!

I'm a bit behind on this one this week, so I appologize (good thing no one reads, right?). Our DH today comes from the Orioles organization.

Thus far this 5'9" tall, 175 lb heavy switch hitter from Durham, North Carolina is hitting 259 with 9 RBIs and 1 home run.



Brian Roberts, Baltimore Orioles 2nd baseman. Whoo.

NL vs. AL

It's almost interleague play season, and that means speculation about the two leagues can once again begin. While there are plus sides to each league, one has to wonder which league is actually easier to play (and win) in.

For the sake of arguement, I'm going to use the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals as my examples. Last year, the NL central and the AL central played against each other in interleague, bringing some very interesting numbers. While Cardinals fans tout the "best team in baseball," one look at their games against the AL central division should lead some to highly doubt that speculation.

In interleague play, no NL central teams had a winning record against their AL central counterparts (the best record was 7 wins from Houston). St. Louis went 5-10, with 4 of those wins coming against the Royals. Barring games against the Royals, the Cardinals were a mere 1-8. That's so bad that not even the Royals can pull that off. Meanwhile, the Royals pulled a 10-8 record (8-4 without the Cards games) with the second best interleague record on the AL side (the Indians posted an 8-10).

What's the big difference between these two leagues? Sure there's the whole 'pitcher hitting vs. designated hitter' but how much can it hurt an NL team when visiting their AL rivals? They've got plenty of guys that they can throw in there that will be an upgrade from the usual 9 spot pitcher. If anything, interleague play should be beneficial to NL teams because the AL teams are the ones having to jump the most hoops!

In my opinion, this is just one of the many proofs that the Cardinals are not all they're cracked up to be and, were they to switch to the American League, they wouldn't have the same track record and would probably lose a good amount of their fair weather fan base.

I wrote this a while back, but would just like to throw a heads up at Chipper Jones' opinion. There's a lot of merit to what he's saying, and I agree that the hometown rivalry is a bit overrated (playing the Cardinals 6 times is more than enough). If interleague is something that is necessary (I think it's a nice break for the Royals to get a few wins in, honestly), keep it in the same divisions to keep the "fairness." Then again, why does this pertain to the Royals and their playoff chances when they've got about a .01% chance of making it? Why do 18 games a season really make that big of a difference? Hell, for all you know, they could help you out!

TGFH: Thank God For Hotties!

Well, this will certainly take my pain away. After a terrible performance by my boys in blue, I'll need it. So, on to cute boys in tight pants!

Tonight's Designated Hottie (ie DH) is a Minnesota boy. Born in St. Paul, he played football and basketball along with baseball during high school and appears to have not changed his hairstyle since then, either. In 2006 he dated Miss USA, Chelsea Cooley, but from what this blogger has heard, he is quite single.

This Minnesota Twin is on the board with 1 homer, 14 RBIs, 3 stolen bases, and an amazing average of .353, especially when you take into consideration that the kid's a catcher.

If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm surprised...but here we go!



It's Joe Mauer! Gadzooks! And now some props for Bat Girl, a Minnesota Twins blog.

The Good, The Bad, The Bullpen

When Zack Greinke is good, he is good. April 5th is a perfect example of the good I'm talking about. A game ERA of 1.29, Greinke struck out 7 while walking only one. He also kept the Boston Red Sox to 1 run from 8 hits.

But when Zack is bad, he is bad. On April 16th, he only made it 2/3 of an inning before he was pulled from the game. He gave up a hit and two walks before facing Pudge Rodriguez, who hit a grand slam. I'm not even going to talk about his last start, in which he gave up 3 two run homers in the course of one inning.

So by placing him in the bullpen, what are we doing? Are we telling him that we still believe in him or that he's not made of the right stuff?

In my opinion, Greinke is going to be fine. Instead of throwing him out there and him trying to get six or seven perfect innings, he only needs to have one. And he even said in an interview that he wants what's best for the team. If that means placing him in the bullpen for a while, then I have no problem. Sure, I may not be able to see my favorite pitcher every five games, but I'd rather see him in a place where he can work on things and become a better pitcher in the long run.

I'm so numb from this season that I don't know how to even go at this than slight apathy. Which is pretty bad. Feel free to sound off in the comments, it'll probably be more exciting than anything I can shovel out.

Oh, and apparently the Yankees signed some tool. Excitement.

What Stage Are You On?

My dad sent this to me over a year ago, and despite the year listed, it's still pretty damn pertinent. It's funny what a (bad) baseball team can do to you. You live and breathe stats, radio programs, and at bats for six months. You eagerly search for news in the off season, you follow spring training religiously. But over it all you hope that tomorrow will be better. That you can't possibly get lower than you already are, that it has to get better after all of this.

There's been so many bad years, I don't know what it's like to have a team that's good. I never followed the team through the better years. I was too young to care, and came two years shy of savoring the miracle run of 2003. I would love to proclaim loyalty to another team, just for a day, to see how it feels. But I don't have the heart for it.

I guess if I had to compare this to something in my own personal life it would be the win-loss record of my high school marching band while I was there. We were undefeated my freshman year, and then quickly went to sucking the next two years. Senior year was rough, and there were only about 18 of us that knew what it was like to be part of a winning team. But we managed to get everyone together, and we made finals at Bands Of America (a feat that we weren't supposed to accomplish). Maybe the Royals are just getting into the rough part of their ballclub history. Maybe next year we'll turn the corner (what a slogan that will be: Royals were Great in 2008!) or maybe we're going to manage .400 baseball this year. Maybe, just maybe, we'll pull it together.

Now that I've rambled on for long enough, what stage are you at? If you're not a big Royals fan, feel free to apply it to another team. I've flown through them pretty quickly. Anger came after our first few 'games we weren't supposed to lose' games. That was quickly followed by bargaining (I'll dye my hair blue if you just manage to get 3 games in a row, I swear!!!) and depression. I'm floating somewhere between depression and acceptance right now; part of me is so distraught from tonight's painful loss that I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. As someone on Royals Review stated, good teams don't give home runs away to Neifi Perez. It just doesn't happen. We didn't even show up offensively until the 8th. Does one, as a fan of a bad team, soak up the depression and hold back from admitting that this year is down the tubes? Or do you just let it go, try to have fun with the season but not get your hopes up?

Yankees Fans are Getting what they Deserve

I have no problem with being annoyed with players on a team. I do it almost everyday! (Todd Wellemeyer, I am staring straight at you) But when you chose one of the best players on your team to rag on, that's when it bugs me.

Alex Rodriguez has spent the past few months as the sports world's red headed step child, getting smacked all over the place for his lack of "clutchiness." Yankee fans have one of the best (if not the best) third basemen on their team, and yet they continued to rag on him and diss on him as if he's Angel Berroa. That makes me angry.

I guess it's made A-Rod angry, too, because he's already hit 14 home runs, accumulated 37 RBI, an OBP of .427 and his SLG is .835. He's doing everything he can to win games for his team, and they are at dead last in their division. Not only that, they've only won 2 more games than the Royals.

Welcome to the club, Yankee fans. Welcome to a team that, despite a few positive contributions, can't put it together. I bet you feel pretty stupid for dissing on him now, right? Because I know I would be. And if you're not feeling stupid and still feel like he's the worst player on your team, just send him our way. He's too good to have fans of his team treating him like shit.

TGFH: Thank God For Hotties!

In what is a somewhat cliche move for the female blog genre, I'd like to welcome you all to the first edition of TGFH. Every Friday, I'll pick a hottie (single or otherwise) that deserves some recognition. No repeating of teams until each team has their first DH (designated hottie), and only one DH per week. So let's go ahead and get started!

Our first Designated Hottie hails from Seattle, Washington. Born Augst 2nd, 1982, this center field hottie knows how to work it in the batter's box: 59 career home runs, 192 RBIs, and a total of 431 hits.

And according to his MLB.com profile, this 6'2 tall southpaw, weighing in at 200 lbs, is on the MLB eligable bachelor list (there's no Lady hanging on his arm...yet). I don't know if this is valid, but I do know that he makes the Cleveland Indians lineup look a lot hotter when he's out doing his thang.

Can you guess who this DH is?



If you guessed Grady Sizemore, you are correct!

Props to Grady's Ladies. Y'all are a classy bunch.

No RISPect

The Royals, despite their lagging 9-19 record, have been getting quite a few men on base. During tonight's game alone, the Boys in Blue recorded 10 hits without getting one man across home plate. Luckily for the Royals Esteban German came through and hit a three run shot to bring in win number 9, but how many games have they been in that have turned from hopeful to heartbreaking as quick as a back to back strikeout of Alex Gordon and Tony Peña Jr?

Of course, that's not to say that Dayton Moore isn't trying. Yesterday brought the Major League Debut of Billy Butler, one of the Royals' top prospects. At a mere 21 years of age, this rookie has shown comfort at the AAA level and is showing a pretty confident level of competence at the plate up in the bigs.

The future has a hopeful glimmer to it (that's barely visible from where I stand). With the way things are going as of right now though, Royals fans have slim pickings for their poison: weak ground outs, fly outs, double plays, and a team favorite: the strikeout.