Archive for the ‘Link Dump’ Category

You only get one first big league at bat. Each professional baseball player gets but one opportunity to dig in for the very first time or toe the rubber for the first time. It becomes a part of who they are, a story they surely carry with them and tell for the rest of their lives.

Tony Cingrani and Didi Gregorius didn’t actually make their big league debuts last night, both men earning their first taste of the show late last season as members of the Cincinnati Reds. After an off-season trade moved Gregorius to Arizona and an early April injury moved Reds ace Johnny Cueto to the disabled list, last night was the first chance for these players to move into their true roles: Gregorius as a starting shortstop and Cingrani as a starting pitcher.

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Miguel Cabrera might be a good hitter. For the second day in a row, the daily Getting Blanked linked in really drills down to the core of baseball analysis: both Miguel Cabrera and Joe Mauer are good hitters. EXCLUSIVE STUFF.

Miguel Cabrera won the American League MVP last season and the Triple freaking Crown. His team made it all the way to the World Series. He’s very good. He does things most other hitters only dream about.

Last night, in a game at noted bandbox Safeco Field, Miguel Cabrera had himself a day. Cabrera knocked three hits, drove in four runs and posted a .511 WPA. Pretty good. Because he’s Miguel Cabrera, the home run wasn’t your run of the mill yank job down the line. No no, Miguel Cabrera is into the “style points count” stage of his dominant career.

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Zomg! Nine games into the season and the Angels are 2-7. Time to panic! Mike Trout is a bust, Josh Hamilton can’t not strikeout and Albert Pujols moves like a blogger with a fancy new desk chair and a fully stocked kitchen full of snacks at his/her disposal.

The Angels are without Jered Weaver for a while and can’t seem to get anything right. Time to pack up and call it a season, I suppose.

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The fabled creature known only Orioles Magic was thought to have died sometime in late 2012. The magic ran out after the O’s unexpected run to the playoffs, we all assumed. “No luck, just Buck” was cute and all but c’mon, 29-9 in one-run games? 17-2 in extra inning games? Bro, be real bro.

The Orioles seemed to be headed back to Earth in the early days of 2013. Three straight one-run losses? But how? The magic, she is gone.

Until last night, of course. The Orioles staged a somewhat miraculous comeback against Joel Hanrahan and the Boston Red Sox. Orioles magic is back, baby!

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Poor John Axford. John Axford is not a unique pitcher. At this point, after more than 30 years of hyper-specific reliever usage, we’ve seen many John Axford’s make their way through the game.

For his career, John Axford amassed 106 saves. That’s good! Not many people can say they were good enough baseball players to get the call to close our their team’s victories more than 100 times across four seasons. John Axford can.

132 professional baseball players have stuck around for 100 career saves. That isn’t very many either, considering how many professional baseball players make their way through a Major League roster over the span of a season or two.

That John Axford can put “Milwaukee Brewers closer, 2010-2013″ on his resume is an impressive feat for anyone, let alone a mustached dude from Brantford, Ontario. But it looks like he might need to amend it to read “2010-2012″ as his days as the Brewers closer appear all but over.

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