My two main topics this week are going to be rather short, mainly because all my little notes and random bits work out to be long enough.
Can we start though with the ridiculousness (love that word) that is the fines in Major League Baseball?
Bobby Jenks was fined $750 dollars for throwing behind Ian Kinsler.
Not $7,500 or $75,000. No, he was fined $750 dollars.
To Bobby Jenks and most major league players, that is pocket change.
So I ask you, why even fine him if that's all you are going to fine him for? It seems rather pointless.
At least make the fine worth it, something that is a nice chunk of change, because I'm assuming it's like most of the professional sports. All the money received from fines get funneled back into something for a good cause.
What's even crazier about this fine is that not only did Bobby Jenks throw behind Kinsler, he actually admitted he did it on purpose. Wouldn't that be worth even more in the book of finable offenses?
Kerry Wood threw behind B.J. Upton on Sunday, I'll be interested to see if he gets fined for that and if it's as much as what Jenks got. I remember Cliff Lee got suspended a few games for throwing behind Ken Griffey Jr. a few years ago.
Oh and in the same series this past weekend, J.P. Howell threw at Victor Martinez's head.
Why wouldn't you suspend Jenks if anything?
Mysteries that probably won't ever be solved I guess.
$750 dollars is still nothing and pretty pointless either way you look at it though, especially when baseball players get guaranteed contracts and are the highest paid athletes in all of sports.
Did Ian Kinsler insult someone’s mother?
Ian Kinsler was actually involved with another throwing incident last week. Well technically, Jenks' throw behind was the week before last, but the fine occurred last week.
Kinsler was thrown at again on Saturday, this time by John Lackey. He was making his first start of the year, after missing the first month and a half on the disabled list, so obviously Lackey wouldn't be throwing purposely at Kinsler, would he?
Apparently not, at least according to the umpire.
To me it looked like umpire Bob Davidson already decided that he was throwing Lackey before his second pitch even hit Kinsler.
In my opinion, it's bogus. For Lackey to have the intent of throwing at Kinsler, he'd have to be pretty stupid. It was his first start of the year, first batter of the game for the love that is all good. Why on earth would he risk getting thrown out?
Cut Lackey a break. He got wrongfully thrown out of that game if you ask me. Warning or no warning, it isn't the first time a guy had two pitches in a row get away from him and probably not the last.
What's even more is the fact that he was making his first start since recovering from an injury. It's also a burden on the Angels bullpen, as they didn't need that to happen.
I wonder if Lackey will get fined as much as Jenks did.
You can say what you want, but...
You can say what you want, but Toronto just keeps finding pitchers. Brett Cecil turned in yet another great start, Brian Tallet is still pitching well in his spot-starters role, and I just don't understand.
Also I can't argue with them not putting B.J. Ryan back into the closers role, even though I don't agree with it. To me, it doesn't make sense, but right now, it's working for them.<!-- my page break -->
Notebook Scribbles
Here are my thoughts that aren't long-enough to drag out or just too stupid for someone to even think of. They are randomly scribbled notes in my notebook, duh.
— Brian McCann's special glasses are pretty cool. Athletes wearing the sport glasses can pull them off...sometimes.
— A.J. Burnett faced Roy Halladay. Roy Halladay won, proving that mentor knows best. In other Halladay news, he's the MLB wins leader with eight.
— R.I.P. to Justin Upton's 18 game hitting streak. He had nothing on a much larger streak that will be mentioned later.
— What's up with the usually reliable Scot Shields? 7.90 ERA in 13.2 innings this year. He's usually much more consistent and durable than this.
— Luke Hochevar was shelled on Tuesday in his season debut, just two innings and eight runs given up. He pitched again on Sunday and only gave up two earned runs, but only went one and one third inning more than he did on Tuesday.
— Sharon Martis is 5-0 on the season. How did a Nationals' pitcher get to this point?
— On Tuesday Brad Hawpe and Ian Stewart combined for ten of the 12 runs knocked in with five RBI each.
— That wasn't it for the Rockies though. They combined with Houston on a 26-run, 36-hit affair the next night.
— James Loney hit his first home run of the year this week, it was a grand slam. A first baseman without a home run in Mid-May? It didn't sound right, so Loney homered again.
— How about 30-year-old rookie Matt Palmer pitching a complete game against Boston to get to 4-0?
— San Diego is 5-16 on the road, that's not very good. You can thank me for stating the obvious.
— Joe Crede's walk-off grand slam completed a 13 inning game in which the game was blown three times.
— Trevor Hoffman isn't done. He's been perfect so far, nine saves in ten games since coming off the disabled list.
— Go pick up C.J. Wilson in your fantasy leagues. I did, he's going to be the closer and the Rangers are getting hot. Thank me later.
— Luis Vizcaino made his Cleveland Indians debut only to become the fifth pitcher in history to give up a game winning walk-off shot with his first pitch for his new team.
— Joe Mauer, six home runs in 15 games since coming off the disabled list. What is this Joe Mauer and his sudden power burst?
— Dick Stockton and Tim McCarver are pretty bad. I hate complaining about commentators and stuff like that, but they have no excuses for these errors. They both made dumb mistakes on Saturday, calling Kelly Shoppach, "Shelly" and Ben Francisco, "San Francisco." Stockton did it several times.
— Second uniform kind of note for the week. Texas looks real sharp in the red jersey and red hat combo. They better not overdue it or else it will look normal. The Kinsler in the red picture doubles for this note and the fact that he was involved in the two main stories.
— Welcome back Eric Milton. In his first start since 2007, Milton went four innings. Rich Hill also made his first start since May 2. He might actually be back too as he only walked two.
— Congrats go out to Pudge Rodriguez, who became the seventh catcher in MLB history to hit 300 home runs.
— Detroit did something cool on Sunday, or something rather scary if you are Oakland. After giving up five runs in the first and eventually falling behind six runs total, the Tigers roared back for four runs in the second and third innings each.
— San Francisco scored double digit runs on Monday for the first time since opening day. Hallelujah they can score!
— Holy Jon Miller, speaking of San Francisco. Their game with the Mets was on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and Miller was wearing a bright yellow collard shirt.<!-- my page break -->
These Are My Links, You Shall Click Them
Chris Getz is a highlight machine. MLB's video search isn't working quite right, but if you click Getz's name up there you can see some of his latest works of art against Cleveland. He may be a White Sox, but he's pretty awesome.
Remember how last week I said Adam Rosales was my new favorite player? I actually meant that because he actually does run around the bases on EVERY home run he hits. Check out the full-story.
Micah Owings joins a group of players who've hit game tying or lead erasing home runs in the ninth inning. Some names that haven't? Mark Teixeira, Carlos Lee, Ryan Howard, Paul Konerko, and Carlos Pena.
Did you see the streaker at the Mets game? Well you can now.
Another link from Jayson Stark, who's brought up this idea about disabled list conspiracies. I'd have to agree with some of the executives who spoke out on the issue. It seems like the Tigers might have found a way to creatively get Dontrelle Willis on the disabled list.
Here is the best game note of the week.
"COLORADO'S MATT DALEY LEFT THE GAME IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SEVENTH INNING WITH A FOOT INJURY AFTER BEING STRUCK BY A BAT KICKED BY HOME PLATE UMPIRE BILL WELKE."
Round About of Randomness
Talk about waiting awhile. Max Scherzer picked up his first win in his 14th career start. Robert Ray picked up his first win on Saturday in his fourth career start. To put it mildly, sucks for Scherzer.
Tampa Bay has now stolen a base in 19 consecutive games. That's the longest streak since the New York Yankees did it back in 1914. That's quite the streak and really it's amazing it's been that long.
Stop complaining about umpire Paul Schrieber and his touching of Magglio Ordonez. He basically ushered him away from the area, it wasn't with bad intent or anything like that.
If you want an umpire to complain about, how about the group running the Tampa Bay/Cleveland series this weekend? They missed several calls, including an "out" call after a ball hit by Ryan Garko bounced off the wall and into Carl Crawford's hands/glove.
The umpires ruled it an out because they thought Crawford had it in his glove when he went up to catch it and he basically knocked it to himself. That wasn't the case as you can clearly see here.
That wasn't the only oddity of Sunday's game between Tampa and Cleveland. I'm sure you've heard by now the fact that Andy Sonnanstine hit third in the Rays' lineup. Joe Maddon turned in the wrong scorecard, that had Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist both playing third.
Zobrist took the field in the top of the inning, Eric Wedge brought the error to the umpires’ attention and they took a good 20 minutes talking it over with Wedge, Maddon, and themselves. The Rays lost their designated hitter for the game and Longoria for a few innings.
But, no matter for Tampa, as Sonnanstine hit a run-scoring double thanks to a pulled in outfield.
Here are your crazy box scores for the week: Toronto 11 hits, two runs. They managed to beat Chicago who scored one run off just three hits. St. Louis wasn't as lucky as they scored nil off six hits and lost to Milwaukee who scored one run off two hits.
Adam Wainwright pitched eight strong and gave up just a solo home run to Corey Hart. Again, to put it the best way I can. That sucks.
Talk about crazy box scores? How about crazy games? San Diego and Cincinnati played a doozie on Saturday night/Sunday morning. 15 pitchers used, Jody Gerut and Willy Taveras both went 0-for-7, 30 players had a plate appearance, there was one major league debut, and it ended with Nick Hundley hitting his first career walk-off home run.
Phew. These two teams played an 18 inning game a year ago on Memorial Day, which is, oh look at that, a week away. The Padres won that one as well.
Speaking of walk-off home runs. Tuesday through Sunday saw games end in walk-off shots, now that's a rarity. Maybe Monday will continue that streak.
Johan Santana should give up four runs more often. On Saturday he gave up four earned runs, the most in one game this season for him and he picked up the win. He's pitched games in which he's given up zero earned runs, twice and found himself on the losing end, twice.
I mentioned Justin Upton's 18 game hitting streak coming to an end, but how about Ryan Zimmerman's 30 game streak? That is more than halfway to the historic Joe DiMaggio mark of 56, but still a long ways away.
Things are getting worse for David Ortiz. He went 0-for-7 with three strikeouts and 12 runners left on base against the Angels this past week.
Speaking of good pitching, Zach Duke is one of the NL leaders in wins and Jair Jurrjens is putting together quite the year despite the lack of wins. He's got a 2.06 ERA in eight starts this year. Just a few guys going a little un-noticed this year because of their teams lack of major success.
Finally on the most awesomeness note of the week, Jayson Werth is a man. He stole second, third, and then home base all in one fell swoop on Tuesday. His steal of home wasn't a straight up steal of home either. It was the cool kind where Werth went after the catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher.
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Nino Colla is Talking every Monday of the baseball season, or whenever time needs to be wasted, provided objects don't get thrown.
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