The Baseball Thread Titled IX - play fair

If you read SI's leading off section every week, half the stuff seems like it could have come from here.

Could be conicidence, but I'm guessing this site gets read a lot at SI.

 

After Tony Phillips goes 3 for 3 with 2 homers, double and walk for 11 total bases yesterday, he goes 0 for 5 today. Lovely.

 

It should be interesting. The Twins don't have nearly as good a record outside the Hefty Bag Dome. But the Twinkies do have Torii Hunter back, which should help them.

 

According to SportsCenter, David Wright just signed for 6 years, 55 million.

 

And now he'll go into a 3-for-47 slump.

 

Baseball Tonight is showing the top 3 Web Gems from each franchise's history.

 

Back to that Mauer feature in SI ... with all the talk of this soft .370 average, I would've really enjoyed reading quotes from people about that topic, and to break down his .370 average for what it means, what it's worth.

To be honest, I wouldn't give a shit if 120 of his 125 hits were bingos. A hit's a hit. No, he's not a power hitter. Not yet at least. But the story is him being a .370-hitting catcher. There was very little on that aspect.

 

Not because he's on my roto team, but I like John Maine. He fell behind 2-0 to Nunez just now and threw 2 straight moving fastballs, fouled off. Then he punched him out swinging on a change-up. Maine has nice (deceiving) stuff.

 

Xan --
I think the really interesting thing is that he's got a 15-point lead in the BA race and is only eighth in hits.

He's got the best batting eye I've ever seen on a consistent basis.

I honestly don't remember the last time he swung at an obvious ball. I'm sure it was a breaking pitch from a tough lefty, but I don't remember it.

 

Maine just faced Utley, Howard and Burrell and made them look like tissue paper.

If the stats are correct, he's up to 20 straight scoreless innings. Not bad for an unheard-of rook.

 

As of right now, I'd have much more confidence in him starting a Game 3 than El Duque or Trachsel. I'm convinced he's not the mirage Soler was for that string of starts. He just seems to have better stuff and more, for lack of a better word, moxie.

 

Definite moxie.