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What now must be the most frightening thing for opposing pitchers who worry about Mike Trout and his ever improving ability to launch home runs from pitches located nearly anywhere in the zone, is the reminder that they also have to be on their toes after they release each pitch because Mike Trout looks to also be the very best bunter in all of Major League Baseball.
Not only is that surprise bunt brilliantly executed, but no pitcher anywhere will allow himself to ignore the play on front of millions of viewers. Reputations are on the line. And then it occurs to the pitcher that, holy balls, Trout is also one of the fastest runners in the sport today.
Have some Pitching-Futility-Links:
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Everywhere In Baseball
Happy Thought: Just a reminder. The Deolis Guerra that pitched one inning yesterday, giving up 5 hits, 2 of which were home runs, and 3 earned runs to blow his save opportunity and allow the Brewers to defeat the Angels 4-3, is a Rule 5 draftee out of the Pirates organization. As a Rule 5, ala Taylor Featherston last season, Guerra isn't exactly in the position of having to fight for a job on the 25-man............
LaRoche Clips: Alright. Color me guilty. I thought I would leave this behind us all, but this is just too rich to ignore. There is now a fan troll GoFundMe account on behalf of Adam and Drake LaRoche, and the contributor comments are hilarious. This will probably be worth following for a week or two.........
Tinker, Tailor, Tyler: Tyler Skaggs is almost completely rebuilt, having completed his trial session and now set to pitch a pair of innings against live batters on Thursday..........
Team Tolls: As it turns out, MLB likes revenue from Spring Training gates all too well. This is why ticket prices keep rising, reaching 70 bucks a seat in some cases. And MLB wants to protect that revenue, having created rules concerning rosters for road games. MLB wants fans to expect to see real pro ballplayers with potentially familiar names when they buy their tickets. Of course, teams aren't following along all the time and are picking up teensy-weensy fines here and there. Look at how the Angels are just barely skirting the rule here. They have to have 4 position guys who were regulars, or regularly platooned, last season in order to entice fans in SLC to buy tickets to the upcoming road game. Can you find them?..........
WTF: We already know that C.J. Wilson has suffered a setback from last year's shoulder surgery due to arm soreness. Who knew that this setback was also compounded by Wilson losing tracks of his mechanics, further extending is unavailability? Ok, I can accept human injuries. And surgeries. Pitching is a brutal task on the body. But this dude is supposed to be a professional. We get clips of box jumping all the time that are supposed to lead us to believe how disciplined Wilson is. And the guy lost track of his own mechanics? That should be fundamental stuff. So, hey C.J., let me help you with that. Your mechanics are right here..........
Stopping Short: Our shiny new infield toy, Andrelton Simmons, is going to get a whole week and a half before the season opens to get himself fully back up to game shape. That's the projection now that we get the report that Mike Scioscia is ready to slot him back out as a defender. The kid's primary weapon is his arm, and his arm somehow got tired over the winter and failed to respond to camp opening. Tired arm is a real thing, so sayeth the experts. I have a similar condition in my profession so I cannot complain. Over here, we call it Mondays.........
Good to Know: Spend some time chumming up a little more with G.M. Billy Eppler. Seems like a decent, likable guy. Do as you will, but I am locked into a mindset where I dismiss Eppler's comments about the Luxury Tax as readily as Eppler dismisses the comments from outsiders about Moreno & the Luxury Tax. Moreno was vocal about it when it counted, and didn't start the spin until it was too late to make moves and the public criticism had mounted on a national scale..........
Long Form: Tommy Hanson, R.I.P. I can't help but read this and see a young man who was very fragile inside, something belied by his physical size and outwardly nature. And everyone bought into that physical size and outwardly nature, overlooking all the warning signs of his internal fragility..........
Baseball Biz: Tipped off by HarballTalk, I went over and read the source AP story coming out of MLB in advance of the new CBA negotiations, and we can find why it is that Union boss Tony Clark is happy with player pay. Tony Clark is an ex-baseball player. Tony Clark is not an accountant. As HBT points out, MLB has conned Clark into using numbers based on profit, not revenue, but they only get away with that with the newer (and growing) revenue streams coming out of MLBAM/MLB Network. And that revenue, folks, is pretty damned significant. As far back as 2 years ago, Forbes had already tagged MLBAM as the largest media company most people had not even heard of. Note that the 2014 Forbes article was projecting MLBAM to reach $1billion in 2016. But the latest Forbes study shows that they reached that mark last year, and are on track for $1.2billion this year. That's 20% ahead of the curve! And the numbers are showing "38%-50% growth year-over-year". And let's not forget the coming MLBAM spin-off, BAM tech, which is projected to add billions of dollars worth of revenue on its own. So here's the problem: (a) profit is something that MLB accountants can cook up at will, ala Hollywood. And, (b) pro ballplayers are technically employees of MLB and, as such, ALL of their pay constitutes overhead and is deducted from revenue first before reporting profit. This is how player revenue percentages are calculated on all the traditional revenue streams. Everywhere else, player percetnages are a factor of GROSS REVENUE, not NET PROFIT. MLB is playing a simple shell game with their new revenue streams. Scott Boras knows it. Tony Clark does not. And Tony Clark is about to set a precedent via math error that players will have to live with for years to come...........
Sports Biz: DraftKings and FanDuel have nor formally retreated from operating within the State of New York. That is 19.8 million people or roughly 6% of the entire country, that will now be forced to take 3 extra clicks to proxy their way through the Internet and back to DK/FD in order to get ripped off by insider betting..........
Bat Flips: John F. Kennedy playing pickup baseball. This was, of course, back when Kennedy was still a Senator, and not trying to invade Cuba. Had the CIA only known of the power of baseball back then, like Rob Manfred knows today...........Hambone thinks that he is finally pain free...........Lyle Spencer cannot help himself, uses Chone Figgins to write about heart and grit..........Oh crap. Here we go. Johnny Bench is now grousing at the bat flip clouds, too..........Brewers prospect Rymer Liriano is recovering well from his beaning over the weekend..........The Red Sox are going to be paying Pablo Sandoval $17.6million this year, and Sandoval's sizable behind might end up riding the pine.............Joe Smith might not be much of a fan of Notre Dame basketball right about now..........
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