Category Archives: ryan braun

2012 MLB: What We’ve Learned So Far…

If Matt Kemp was the MVP of April, the May award would go to either Giancarlo Stanton, Melky Cabrera, or Carlos Gonzalez. Their bats started to heat up as the degrees raised on the thermometer.

If I had to chose between Stanton, Cabrera, and Gonzalez, I would have to go with Stanton. He hit a grand slam that hit the scoreboard. It made a large portion of the scoreboard go black. If the Miami Marlins want to keep a left-field scoreboard, they may want to move it deeper into the park.

May is a month when teams start getting an idea if their roster needs tweaked. Players start getting called up from the minors and veterans begin to get “designated for assignment.”

Here are some things that we learned in May…

Jamie Moyer is a bad ass. Yes, a middle school pitcher could beat him on the radar gun, but you have to respect what he has done. The Colorado Rockies released him last week, but he set the age records for wins and oldest person to get an RBI. I hope a team gives him an opportunity to pitch at age 50 next season.

– No one can hit Ernesto Frieri. The Los Angeles Angels reliever did not allow a hit during the entire month of May. He has registered 30 strikeouts in 14 innings and saved his first game. He currently shares the role of closer with Scott Downs. I have a feeling that Frieri will have that job by himself if he keeps this up.

– Aroldis Chapman? (see: Ernesto Frieri)

– Matt Kemp’s hamstring pisses him off. He spent nearly the entire month of May on the disabled list. He came back, but re-injured his hamstring and will be out the entire month of June. Kemp was so mad that he had a mini-tirade in the dugout.

– Bryan LaHair falls back down to Earth. He was the only Chicago Cubs offense in April. He looked to have a stranglehold on the first-base job and block Anthony Rizzo from being called up. He is now stuck in a platoon with Jeff Baker and sits when the Cubs face a left-handed starting pitcher.

– Alfonso Soriano found the Fountain of Youth. He reduced his bat weight by an ounce and a quarter and his power has returned. He hit eight home runs in the last 30 days. The Cubs are hoping that he can keep this up so they can finally trade him.

– Justin Smoak can be called “The Smoak Monster” once again. He started the season off horribly, but he had seven home runs and a .280 average in the month of May. He now has a .241 average, which is much better than hitting around the Mendoza line.

Bryce Harper and Mike Trout are really, really good. No one thought they would hit this well so early in their careers. Harper is a ball of energy and is a threat with his bat and his cannon of an arm. Trout looks like he could turn into a 30/30 guy. He will definitely have over 30 stolen bases this season, since he has nine in only 127 at-bats.

Mark Trumbo ate Albert Pujols. Going into the season, analysts had written off Trumbo. They thought that he could end up in a platoon with an outfielder and spell Pujols at first-base. Trumbo currently has a line of 10/27/.331 and Pujols has a line of 8/23/.238. Pujols hit all of those homers in May, so he is headed in the right direction.

Jared Weaver and Roy Halladay are human. Both pitchers started off the year very hot. Weaver pitched a no-hitter earlier this season and Halladay had a few games in which he has no-hitter stuff. They both landed on the disabled-list at the end of May. Weaver will only miss a couple starts, but Halladay’s season is at risk. He is having a second opinion on his shoulder and could need surgery.

– The Pittsburgh Pirates have a talented pitcher? James McDonald came out of nowhere and has been phenomenal. In May, he had 39 K’s in 35 innings with an ERA of 1.54 and a WHIP under 1.00. His BABIP doesn’t do him any favors by showing that he has had a bit of luck. His K/BB is currently at 63/19, a rate that he needs to keep up if he wants to continue his early success.

– The AL East is too close too call. In the month of May, every team in the division were either 15-13, 15-14, or 14-14. You can’t get any closer than that.

– Will Middlebrooks made Kevin Youkilis expendable. Middlebrooks is a younger version of Youk, but with more power. The Boston Red Sox will get a nice return for the “Greek God of Walks”.

– The Chicago White Sox are showing that they could be a playoff team. They went 18-11 with a +34 run differential in the month of May. Davan Viciedo, Alejandro De Aza, Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham, and Paul Konerko all lead a stat category for their position in May. The 2012 roster is almost a mirror image of last year’s team. They are responding to a new message and probably grew tired of Ozzie Guillen’s method. Robin Ventura is getting the most out of the team.

– The NL East is as close as the race in the AL East. The Washington Nationals are currently leading, but only 3.5 games separate them from last place. I can see this race still being a three or four team race at the trading deadline.

– The St. Louis Cardinals are confusing. They have a +52 run differential but are only one game over .500. The Cincinnati Reds are looking like the team to beat, but don’t count out the Pirates. This is definitely a three team race.

–  The NL West will be won by either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Francisco Giants. The Arizona Diamondbacks aren’t getting as many balls fall as they did last year. The pitching staffs for the Dodgers and Giants look dominant. The NL Cy Young winner could be won by a pitcher in this division. Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong, and Madison Bumgarner and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in the discussion.

The following pictures are a monthly treat for my female readers. I’m not a huge fan of this section of the post, but it has been a hit. Female sports fans have been very kind to this site, so here’s a little eye candy for the ladies…I hope you enjoy shirtless photos of Hunter Pence, C.J. Wilson, Ryan Braun, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Lance Berkman. (yeah, sorry about the Berkman photo)

Sorry about that guys! I promised a female reader that I would do this once every month during the baseball season. Shirtless photos are my limit…no one could handle seeing a nude photo of Berkman.

By: TwitterButtons.com

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

It’s Been Awhile – Part 2

I know the pictures doesn’t fit the blog, but it didn’t with part 1 either. I’ve always thought Lacey Chabert was cute, but then like a couple years ago she got hot, so I like to feel like I was one of the first people on the bus. I need to start a petition online for her to be in more movies. I know she does a lot of voice-over work, but I think she is very nice to look at and seems to be a good actor. That’s my opinion on her and I just wanted to share that.

I haven’t posted since like early July and that is going to change. I’ve been in the middle of starting a new career, moving my corporate office (apartment), and started seeing a new ladyperson, so I guess all those things added up means less nerd time for the blog. I am going to make more time for this since I love writing posts and receiving some pretty creative feedback from readers. Instead of writing a bunch of individual posts about little things, I’m going to have some bulletins on stuff I’ve ran across since my last post.

Before I start posting some small stuff, I have one large thing I’ve noticed. I have had a pretty good month with traffic and I wanted to see where this traffic was coming from. I noticed something a little disturbing and hilarious. A lot of my traffic is coming from search engines when people type in their favorite athlete, but then typing “shirtless” after it. “Ryan Braun shirtless,” “Tim Lincecum shirtless,” and for some odd reason “Josh McRoberts shirtless” is a common phrase to find my website. Maybe I should be shaping my site to cater to male athlete groupies. I know my traffic would double if I had some sort of “Grady Sizemore shirtless” posts…maybe if I just put shirtless in every post this page will rival Perez Hilton. Now, random things…

– Manny Ramirez plaing for the Dodgers makes sense, most L.A. fans don’t show up until the 3rd inning anyways. Sounds like an ideal setting for Manny being Manny.

– Columbus Clippers game can be a lot of fun, especially when guys like Pokey Reese makes a mockery of the sport. I did get to see Ryan Zimmerman during a rehab assignment, he’s going to be very good.

– I enjoy baked goods more than I thought.

– “One Day As A Lion” is very good, Zack De La Rocha and the drummer from Mars Volta will do great things together.

– “Once” is a good movie, even if you’ve seen it more than 10 times.

– “Dark Knight” was the best movie I’ve seen at least 4-5 years.

– I could care less about Brett Favre.

– I kind of want the Bears to get Brett Favre, but I would like ESPN to stop with their hourly “Where In The World Is Brett Favre” segments.

– I hate moving.

– I know more about vinyl fencing than I should. Please go to usavinyl.com for all of your vinyl fencing needs.

– The Cubs are much better against the Brewers than they are against any other team.

– While listening to 1460AM THE FAN in Columbus, OH, turn the station with the “Mid-Day Show” comes on. The show was much better than Chris Spielman was on the program.

– I’m still not a fan of Futurama, but I have a feeling that that could change.

– Last.FM is a pretty nice program

– I am still laughing that someone still thinks Kyle Farnsworth is still worth more than a “player to be named later.”

– Maybe I say “shirtless” a few more times

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Fantasy God – Evan Longoria

Evan Longoria was deemed the savior of the Tampa Bay Rays, much like Jay Bruce is being coined in Cincinnati. Longoria was supposed to be the starting 3rd basemen at the start of the season, but the team wanted to give him a month in the minors to ease him into the league. They saw Longoria as more of a Ryan Bruan-type talent that needed a month in the minors to sharpen up before making his major league debut. This was a smart idea, since the Kansas City Royals had a similar scenario last season with their prospect, Alex Gordon. He ended up struggling his first two months in the Majors, but ended up turning it on towards the end of the season.

Evan Longora was finally brought up the majors in mid-April with much fanfare. He started out hot, but cooled down in May. He has been a monster in June, he has hit over half of his 15 homers so far this month. He has been extraordinarily hot over the past week. He has hit 4 homers, driven in 12 runs and batting .448. Some would suspect that his hot streak is due to inter-league play, but I think it should carry on throughout the rest of the season.

Tampa Bay is off to its best start in franchise history (48-32) and are in contention for both the AL East crown or the Wild-Card spot this season. Longoria, Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, and B.J. Upton arer the thank for their surprisingly great start. If Carlos Pena ever gets back his power stroke and they somehow get Rocco Baldelli back healthy, this team will not only be playoff-worthy this season, but the nucleus is young and should be great for years.

If you have Longoria on any of your fantasy teams, hold on to him. If you are in a keeper league, I would keep him for years to come. I look for Longoria to hit around 33 homers and have around 108 RBI. He is currently hittin .254, but look for a spike in his average once he figures out better pitching. Longoria should end up with a .286 average, give or take a few points.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Ryan Braun Is Milwaukee’s Best

The Milwaukee Brewers should think about starting Ryan Braun’s season in mid-May every season. They called him up last year in mid-May for his rookie season and he hit the cover off the ball for the rest of the season. He won the National League Rookie Of the Year award easily and helped the Brewers to their best record since Robin Yount wore yellow and blue. Braun’s 2008 season wasn’t anything spectacular, until this week. He has hit six homers and batted over .500 over the past week.

As a Cubs fan, this is something I didn’t want to see from Braun. As a fan of the game of baseball, I love it. I think the baseball needs a few more young players that could possibly carry the game like Lebron James and Sidney Crosby does for their sport.

Braun signed an extension this week that will keep him in Milwaukee until Miley Cyrus is cold enough to buy alcohol. I think it is good to see some of the smaller market teams invest in their younger talent, rather than trade them before their contracts end for new prospects. If the Brewers can hang onto their core players from this young team, they will be a force in the National League and could contend make Milwaukee relive their past success with homegrown talent (Paul Molitor and Robin Yount).

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.