Astros on a 11 game winning streak, but to be fair it's mostly vs teams that are below .500. Mariners are now in a tough part of their schedule, just having split with the rSox and have the Yankee's on tap. I couldn't help notice that article on Bryce Harper, the projected 400M man with his next contract...is hitting .219. But has a lot of homers!
I just noticed, Evan Gattis (Astros DH) doesn't wear batting gloves. I don't think there are many players who don't wear batting gloves any more...but Gattis just rubs some dirt on his hand and grabs the bat, which looks like it's taped on the grip though.
When is it not fan interference, last night the Bluejays right fielder made a great catch at the wall, it looks to me like his glove goes past the invisible line that defines the wall and there were 2 fans right there. In fact he sort of stole the ball from the fan with the glove right behind him. So if his glove was technically outside the field, could a fan so positioned have knocked the ball out of his glove without it being fan interference?
Anybody ever seen a play like the Phillies pitcher made yesterday. He's a right hand pitcher and he gets drilled on the arm with a line drive, tosses his glove aside and throw out the runner at first with his left hand.
I saw it on replay. Truly amazing. Similar to a pop foul, I believe that as long as the player's body is inside the field of play when he catches the ball, even if he catches it outside the field of play, it's an out. In that scenario, if the fan knocks the ball out of his glove, I believe it would be it would be fan interference with a legitimate catch.
All Star Rosters are set...Blake Snell is the biggest snub, 12-4 with a 2.09 league leading ERA ...and not on the roster. Matt Kemp of the Dodgers has to be the biggest surprise, not because of his on the field play as he is having an excellent year...it's just most probably figured he was his career was pretty much done before this year. AJ Hinch did a pretty smart thing, he changed the rotation so Verlander would pitch on Sunday and thus be eliminated from having to pitch in the game. Give him some rest and still gets the All Star designation.
OK you just have to watch the video of the last play of the Astros game last night ...a walk off error. Bregman swings and tops the ball it goes foul but there is so much spin on it that it comes back fair and Bregman is just standing there, but when it comes back fair and the A's catcher picks it up to try and tag out Bregman who then jumps back he drops the ball and Bregman takes off for first, the catcher then gets the ball and throws to first but he hits Bregman and it goes into right field. The runner on 2nd is able to score and the Astros win. Video at link https://youtu.be/3IDBslvWCUc?t=1m48s
I saw that, it brought to mind an interesting question I had. I was always under the impression that the runner cannot retreat the line to first, which Bregman clearly did. I guess I was wrong, or somewhere along the way, they changed that rule. Also, was Bregman 100% in the runner's box?
He can retreat towards home as long as he doesn't touch or go beyond home plate. http://www.theoleballgame.com/can-batter-runner-go-back-toward-home-plate-when-fielder-attempts-to-tag-him.html
All Star break is on us, Justin Verlander will pitch tomorrow against his old team the Tigers and that will make him ineligible for the game. AJ Hinch has added teammate and World Series hero Charlie Morton to replace him along with Blake Snell who deserves to be on the squad and only some rules quirks kept him off till Kluber's injury opened the slot. At the half way point the 3 best records in baseball are all in the AL, the rSox, the Yankee's and the Astro's all over .650 with no NL team even over .600 Question is does anybody even care about this game anymore? Alex Bregman has taken the bait and is in the Homerun Derby, which as well all know will kill the next month of the season for him.
I think kids and people who like flashy things still love the All-Star game. Old farts and traditionalists, which I guess I am not both, could care less IMHO.
When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, the NL was a mysterious and fascinating thing. At that time, the leagues were truly separate entities and there was a real rivalry between the leagues. I rarely saw NL games on TV since national broadcasts were only on once a week and alternated between AL and NL games. Thus, an All Star game was a must see event since it provided the only opportunity to see the great players I had rarely seen on TV such as Mays, Aaron, Koufax, Gibson etc play against my heroes from the AL. The downside was that my heroes usually got their asses kicked. I think the combination of cable and internet TV, free agency, and inter league play has pretty much blended the two leagues into a single league and eliminated the unique quality of the ASG .
Small world, one of the guys at my gym played baseball at Baylor, and it turns out he's good friends with Dodger star Max Muncy who he played with at Baylor. Said he'll be at his wedding.
I see that there is now video evidence that Bryce Harper cheated in the HR Derby, the claim is that his dad was throwing pitches before his last HR ball hit the deck...OMG!!
I saw that and said, so what? I doubt that Kyle Schwarber cares. It was Harper's home team crowd. I give him his due for the way he turned it on at the end. It was a thrilling finish, even if my guy lost.