For many, Friday represents the end of a long work week that was filled with heavy doses of sludging and drudging. It’s my hope that at the end of every week during the baseball season, during that point of the day on a Friday afternoon when it’s too far away from closing time to leave work early, but too late in the day to start anything new, you’ll join us here to check out some random observations and contribute your own opinions to my ten stray thoughts on a Friday.
So, without further ado:
Major League Baseball has handed down a one game suspension to umpire Bob Davidson for “repeated violations of Commissioner’s Office standards for situation handling.”
The timing of the suspension, the first of which I can remember since Mike Winters was suspended for the Milton Bradley incident, is curious given the outrage that Brett Lawrie’s … uh … outrage caused earlier this week on questionable strike two and three calls from umpire Bill Miller after the young third baseman began his trot to first base before the veteran ump had made a call for ball four.
However, Lawrie’s (allegedly) Red Bull induced temper tantrum only served to hog the spotlight from another umpire being umpire incident that occurred this week between the aforementioned Davidson and Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel.
This is New York Police Department officer Eduardo Cornejo. Officer Cornejo went to a New York Mets game on Wendesday night at Citi Field and did something that I have done at least an unexaggerated 100 times. He snuck down to better seats.
Anytime I’ve gone to a baseball game that wasn’t close to a sell out, I’ve assumed that 15% of those seated in the lower bowl likely paid for a cheaper ticket and then at some point during the game left that seat to get a better view of the action from a seat that would have otherwise been unoccupied. You can delude yourself into suggesting that by taking such a seat, you’re actually helping the team by making it look as though there are more paying customers on television, but in reality, you’re stealing a better product from the team.
The San Diego Padres have designated Orlando Hudson for assignment, with the purpose of releasing the loveable, but offensively inept second baseman.
So far this season, Hudson has been immensely disappointing at the plate, currently ranking dead last in both OPS and wOBA among regular second basemen in the league.
You might wonder if this is the end of a pretty decent career for Hudson, but consider this.
Hudson’s -5.0 batting runs above average would rank as the 4th worst on the San Francisco Giants. That’s pretty bad, but take a look at the three players he ranks ahead of:
Hudson is owed $5.5 million for this season with a $2 million buyout for his $8 million club option for 2013. It’s not likely that any team, even one as desperate as the Giants, will show much interest in acquiring the second baseman until after Hudson clears release waivers.
This is probably the only thing that can save the dying newspaper industry: the fact that people can take pictures of goofy things that have been published and put those goofy things on their Instagram for all of us to see.
Glove slap to Bomani Jones who linked to the pic.
Editorial Note: The latest information graphic from the talented Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Fly Ball shows us exactly what positions offer the most offensive production, and that pinch hitters are the worst that they’ve ever been. Also of interest, to me at least, is the steady decline of the third base position in terms of offense. If attractive graphs aren’t your thing, here is Craig’s collected data. [D.P.].
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