David Lee Roth: hero to all (especially high school boys.) Like the Getting Blanked crew, except the opposite. This week’s edition of the Getting Blanked podcast features discussion on umpire Bob Davidson’s suspension, the unbalanced American League and Kerry Wood hanging’em up.
We are later joined by Mr. Ted Berg of SNY.tv and Tedquarters to talk about the surprising Mets. And sandwiches because once you have a gimmick on the internet, it never goes away.
Update: It looks like Kerry Wood might want a victory lap. Reports are circulating that Wood wants to pitch in the game tonight and retire tomorrow! Weird. Whatever, Kerry. Get yours.
Bit of a shocking bit of news as it appears Kerry Wood, one of the most talented pitchers of his generation, will announce his retirement from baseball today. Wood is famous for his twenty strikeout performance for the Cubs in 1998, one of the best pitched games of all time. Wood was one of the game’s premier power pitchers around the turn of the century (lol) but injuries derailed his career, limiting him to just two seasons with more than 30 starts.
Wood eventually remade himself as a relief pitcher, closing for the Cubs and Indians before serving as a setup guy for the Yankees. Poised for a significant payday as a closer for hire, Wood chose instead to return to Chicago in a lessened role.
The big Texan struggled badly in 2012, walking more than twice the batters he struck out in just nine appearances. His velocity dipped but the sheer inability to throw the ball in the zone seemed to spell the end.
What might have been for Kerry Wood? While it is easy to wishcast a long, glorious career with multiple Cy Youngs and World Series appearances, not many people who watched Kerry Wood pitch in his prime will ever forget the overpowering righty. The 20 strikeout game, however aided by a generous strikezone it might have been, will live forever. Congrats on a great career, Kerry.
Well, well well: the Arizona Diamondbacks moved top pitching prospect Trevor Bauer up to AAA Reno less than one year after being made the third pick in the Rule 4 draft. Unfortunately for AA baseball fans, Bauer gets his latest promotion mere hours before an exciting pitching matchup against Mariners prospect Danny Hultzen of Jackson in the Southern League.
After yesterday’s controversial edition of the Getting Blanked Show attracted the attention of Canadian officials for our criticism of Brett Lawrie, today we talk about his punishment and what it means for the Jays (very little.)
We then talk about Adrian Gonzalez’s own challenges with umpires and Yu Darvish’s ongoing dominance. As an added bonus, we spoke with Brandon Morrow this week about his ever-changing arsenal of pitches and how he prepares/scouts his future strikeout victims.
And, of course, it is Thursday so we have another edition of Proposition Hate. This week’s wager is total bases compiled by all American League pitchers with the bat during this weekend’s interleague battles. Go to the Getting Blanked facebook page and vote on the game the loser must watch.
Joey Votto is SO GOOD at baseball that, mere moments from facing one of the premier left-handed pitchers in the game (Johan Santana), he takes time from his on-deck mental preperation to come over and make nice with SNY broadcaster and former Mets great Keith Hernandez. A very wise investment by official Mets broadcaster SNY crew made pays off almost immediately with some TV gold.
And, of course, the classic Canadian politeness comes out when Keith Hernandez informs the pride of Etobicoke that he “looks great” and is “swinging good.” A polite nod and bashful “thank you” before Votto returns to his position in the on-deck circle.
In a futile attempt to stem the tide of hatred coursing through this particular branch of the internet, it is important we, the hardcore baseball nerd, remember what makes the game interesting beyond entrenched partisan bickering: great players doing great things.
Mike Trout hit a really sweet home run last night. The kind of home run that makes scouts drool and fanbases dream about a bright, bright future – to say nothing of the present.
Getting Blanked? More like Getting Fired Up! (Or something.) Today we talk about the Brett Lawrie thing and the David Wright thing and the Stephen Strasburg hot balls thing. Then we talk about how RBIs are not really the thing any more.
