BigPapiandManny's 3-4 Punch : CBSSports.com Blogs

Josh Hamilton and the Triple Crown Possibility

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 4:30:48 EDT

Everyone knows how the trade went; Edinson Volquez packed his bags for Cincinnati and is dominating the National League Majors. Josh Hamilton went to Texas, where he currently leads the American League in Homeruns (19), RBI (74), and is 6th in batting average (.315). Both were always highly touted prospects, Hamilton overcoming his own problems and quickly bursting onto the scene in 2008 as a top major league talent with a bat in his hands.

Everyone knows the hitting triple-crown is something we don't see too often. Ted Williams did it twice along with Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb did it with 9 homeruns while leading the league in steals too, and other great names like Mantle, Foxx, Yastrzemski, Robinson, Lajoie, Gehrig, Duffy, Klein, and Medwick did it, and of course Tip O'Neill. Is it at all possible that we see Hamilton's name on that list by the end of this season?

My take on the Sox-Rays Brawl

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:37:08 EDT

A little late, but I don't care. I'll keep it nice and simple, in numbered points:

Bartlett putting his knee down in front of the bag when Crisp was sliding in head first is a shady play. You do that with the intent of hurting the other player somewhere on his body, and putting the knee down could result in something as small as a jammed finger or as big as a broken collarbone. I've seen both, neither are pretty. Legal, yes, shady, absolutely.

Crisp slid hard into second base into Akinori Iwamura. No matter who it was, Crisp was sliding in hard. Retaliation for what he thought was a shady play, that's fine, I have absolutely no problem with it, and have no problem with a hard slide on either end if it's in retaliation for something.

Major League Baseball Should be Ashamed of Itself

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 1:08:23 EDT

Yes, I notice my blog has turned from a place for Power Rankings and whatnot to a haven for rants! Well, here's another one!

Major League Baseball is playing bully in a situation with Little League teams. The situation is, roughly, that the MLB wants Little League teams to have to purchase jerseys with their team names on it (i.e.-Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, etc...) through Majestic Athletic, the official sponsor of all Major League apparal. However, Majestic is much more expensive than the current means used for Little League teams to fund their uniforms.

Now, this is absolutely ridiculous to me. Major League Baseball has naming rights, but this is just stupid. When I was a little kid and played sandlot baseball, one team would always yell out first, "Haha, we're the Yankees!", and the other one would go, "Oh yea, well, we're the Mets!", and then you'd play a game that was all of a sudden turned into a friendly rivalry of sorts! Kids want to play baseball playing for the 'Yankees' and Giants', and whatever closest or favorite Major League team they're near that their Little League has. That's just how it is, they want to play for a Major League team while in little league, it makes it more fun for them. Major League Baseball now is playing the bully, like I said earlier, and demanding that this fun cost more money.

The 2008 New York Mess

Mon, 26 May 2008 4:14:00 EDT

Yes, they're not Mets, they're a mess.

It's no secret that my favorite National League team is the New York Mets. My family is full of Mets fans, born and raised, and of course, living in the New York broadcast market, I got to follow the Mets more as a kid than I could the Red Sox (before Extra Innings and MLB.tv packages and what not). Last season, the Red Sox won the world series, and that was fantastic, but it was still difficult to watch the Mets lose in the way they did. I came into this season with similar expectations I had from last season; the possibility of a repeat of the 1986 World Series. The Mets blew it last year, and this year, they aquired one of the best pitchers in baseball to boost their staff. But what has it got them?

MLB Week 1 Power Rankings

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:15:35 EDT

Well, after the first week of the season, the Orioles, Royals, White Sox, Marlins, and Cardinals either are in first place or hold a share of first place in their respective divisions, but that isn't even the biggest story of the season so far. It's the lowly Detroit Tigers, the only team without a win in baseball.

Since 1903, only 2 teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-5, and none of them went onto the World Series. The Detroit Tigers will look to change that history, but they're not off to a good start.

Their high powered offense is near the bottom of the league in average, slugging, total bases, runs batted in, and runs. Their pitching is near the bottom in ERA, and has allowed the 5th most walks, and only one starter has gone beyond 6 innings, giving their bullpen a lot of work. The offense has looked overly aggressive at the plate, trying to hard and not getting results, while the pitching has looked lost. Their early season woes could be just that, or the Tigers could have been grossly overrated as a team.

14 Team Fantasy Draft

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:26:59 EDT

Hey everyone, I just took my first 14 team fantasy draft. It's a league full of people that know what they're doing, and I'll post my team. I had the 7th pick, which is where I prefer, right in the middle, and I think I drafted fairly well, but definitely need to make a trade or two, although since it's a daily league, my solutions may come internally.

First of all, it's Yahoo H2H, scoring categories on offense are R, HR, RBI, AVG, and SB:

C: Jason Varitek-Round 16

1B: Travis Hafner-Round 3

Boston Red Sox 2008 Season Outlook

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:26:41 EDT

Yea, this is for the Team-by-team Season Preview that CBS is offering. I will do the Boston Red Sox, but I'll also be doing other teams, maybe my National League team, the Mets, or other various teams. Now, onto the defending Champs!

Key Aquisitions: Sean Casey (1 year, $800 thousand), Bartolo Colon (minor league deal), David Aardsma (traded from Chicago White Sox), and the resigning of Mike Lowell, Tim Wakefield, Mike Timlin, Julian Tavarez, and Curt Schilling.

Key Departures: None, really, unless you count Matt Clement and Eric Gagne who did nothing for the Red Sox

Yes, the Red Sox had an extremely quiet offseason, but their biggest solutions have come internally. Firstly, there is the new centerfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, replacing the leather-flashing no-hitting Coco Crisp as the starter. Ellsbury gave Red Sox fans loads of excitement when he showed his hitting ability as a call-up late last season, and helped Boston win their 2nd World Series title in the past 4 years. Ellsbury gives the Red Sox a true leadoff-hitter, and whether or not he will live up to his 40 stolen-base potential is another story in itself, but he gives the Sox a hitter with more potential without losing much on defense.

Hall of Famer? This one's a doozy!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:40:48 EDT

Who is it? Before you look down at the rest of the article, let's take a look at this particular ballplayer's statline, remaining unbiased to start;

.280 career batting average

.386 on-base percentage

.549 slugging average

Tripp Isenhour Needs to be taught a lesson

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:16:21 EDT

Incase you did not hear, Tripp is a professional golfer, and was filming a television show, "Shoot like a pro," when a hawk that was apparantly 300 yards away (that's three football fields), began squaking. Well, Tripp, being the calm and sound minded person he is, drove a cart closer to the bird, and began hitting balls at it. He continued to miss, so he angrily gave up and went back.

Then, the Hawk, apparantly didn't get the memo about the TPS Reports or the one that you can't land on a golf course when Tripp the Almighty is filming, and came withing 75 yards (three fourths of a football field, mind you), and was once again squaking. Tripp became enraged, and once again began hitting golf balls at the bird. The 6th one apparantly came close to the bird's head, and he was said to have become "very excited that it was so close."

What Were They Thinking?!

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:20:20 EDT

For my latest fantasy baseball blog entry, I will be talking trades, but not just your regular trades, the trades that make you raise an eyebrow, tilt your head, drop you jaw and go "Huh?". That's right, the trades to end all trades! The "Who on Earth would do that?" offers, and the "What are they, stupid?" offer accepters. Here they are, 10 of the latest Fantasy Trades, straight out of CBS Fantasy Baseball League player pages, that will make you scratch your head until you're bald in that one spot, and if you look hard enough, you might find some small fantasy tips!

10. H2H League: Jonathan Papelbon for Francisco Liriano: Now, this may end up being a great deal, but at this moment, it's stupid, and here's why. Papelbon is one of if not the best closer in baseball, and H2H leagues get 10 points per save and 1 point per strikeout, and Papelbon gets a lot of those, along with not allowing many runs. Papelbon proved last season that his shoulder can hold up an entire season and the playoffs, so Francona will be trusting him in more situations on back-to-back days more often. Not overusing his arm, but he'll get more chances. They gave him up for a pitcher coming back from Tommy John Surgery (before the usual 12 months they say to recover from it), who hasn't thrown a pitch since 2006. And besides that, Liriano has only thrown a few months at the major league level. Not only could he get hurt, but he could completely flop too! There are plenty of pitchers who explode out of the gate and then no one ever hears from them again. Could that be Liriano? Who knows, can't say one way or another until he pitches again, but as of right now, this trade is way too risky considering what was given up.

MLB Power Rankings

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:22:05 EST

It's that time again. The smell of freshly cut grass, peanuts, and beer will soon be in the air across the country, but for now it's located in Arizona and Florida. A lot of teams have made some great offseason moves. We saw three of the games top pitchers traded cross leagues and cross the country. We saw one of the games already best hitters move into a better ballpark with a better offense, which is scary to think of for pitchers in the American League facing the Tigers on any given day.

For now though, there still stands a mountain 29 teams must climb, and that mountain is the Boston Red Sox. They are still the defending champs, and despite losing Curt Schilling for a good chunk of the season (as it stands), they may have very well improved. Replacing Coco Crisp with Jacoby Ellsbury gives the Sox a similar defensive Center Fielder, but an improved bat that gives them a true leadoff man with the average and speed Ellsbury brings.

I hope they're all this good

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:40:47 EST

First official draft of the season today, 5th pick in a 10 team random Yahoo league, H2H scoring, with categories of; R,H,2B,3B,HR,RBI,SB,AVG and for pitchers W,CG,SV,K,ERA,WHIP.

Edit Note: Made my first trade of the season. Got rid of Eric Gagne and packaged him with Torii Hunter for Alex Rios. I expect Hunter to decline a bit and Rios to break out more, so I like the deal. Also, with the free spot, I'm going to attempt to pick up Juan Pierre over the Waiver Wire, and if that doesn't work, then I pick up an extra available closer (Percival or one of the two Wilson's).

My offense:

C: Brian McCann - Round 9

John Rocker, Shut the Hell Up

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:34:27 EST

Credibility is a funny thing, especially in the public eye. Most people have at least some credibility, some have great credibility, others not so much. There are plenty of people with little credibility, and even some with zero credibility, but there are only a select few with negative credibility. John Rocker happens to be one of those few.

I am not disputing anything Rocker said, for all I know it could be 100% true, however, this, coming from a person that denied steroid use for years and years and then admitted to it when his name came up, coming from a man who was suspended over 70 games from the MLB for racial slurs, coming from a man who is quit possibly one of the biggest sleezeballs on the face of the earth, this latest revelation that just happen to come out now for whatever reason holds absolutely no water, whatsoever.

The Greatest Game I Ever Saw

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:59:09 EST

To true fans of a sport, the outcome of a game will not stop them from attesting to its greatness. Fans of the Baltimore Colts couldn't argue the fact that Joe Nameth guaranteed a victory in Super Bowl III for the New York Jets, and delivered. Well, Plaxico Burress may not be the player Nameth was, and is definitely not the playboy Broadway Joe is, but he guaranteed a victory, and the New York Giants delivered.

By the numbers alone, this game should be considered an upset on the level of Super Bowl III. Tom Brady, who some consider the greatest quarterback of all-time, both regular and post-season, looked ill and disoriented from the start of the game, and being sacked 5 times and hit a total of 23 only made his night worse. Laurence Maroney, who powered the Patriots over the San Diego Chargers, was limited to 36 yards on 14 attempts. A quarterback who received nothing but negative comments throughout the regular season, even from his own former teammate, led his team by remaining calm, cool, and collect, and keeping a level head throughout the game, Eli Manning showed his poise and deserved to by Super Bowl XLII's MVP.

Sox/Yanks Rivalry Crossing Sports

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:26:55 EST

The undefeated New England Patriots will bring their 18-0 record into Glendale where they'll face the Wild Card Road Warriors, the New York Giants. While their games have been close, the Patriots have controlled them for the most part, where as the Giants have played their best ball all season and wound up on top of the Buccaneers, and the top two seeded teams of the NFC, the Cowboys and Packers, but it didn't just happen, the Giants have played amazing ball.

In the Bucs game the Giants won by ten, however, the Giants won by a combined seven points against the Cowboys and Packers. These games were closer and very different from one another. The Giants effectively shut down the pass against Dallas, holding Tony Romo to barely over 200 yards, sacking him twice, and nabbing an interception. However, against the cheeseheads, Brett Favre and Donald Driver were picking apart the Giants defense, and Favre was barely pressured, let alone sacked. Against the Cowboys, the Giants stopped doing what they were known for under Tom Coughlin, getting stupid penalties. Against the Packers, well, just ask Sam Madison how he feels about stupid penalties (that penalty did lead to a Packers touchdown). The Giants couldn't stop Marion Barber, the Packers couldn't get anything out of Ryan Grant.

Between Greatness & Mediocrity Stands a 19-yr-old

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:03:08 EST

That 19 year old, of course being Fernando Martinez, an outfield prospect for the New York Mets who has the potential skills to be a very special offensive player. He is the key to any deal if the Mets are looking to acquire Johan Santana from the Twins, but there's more to it than just him.

If the Mets want to acquire Santana, they need to practically empty their farm. We are looking at a 4, possibly 5 for one deal with the Twins and Mets, involving the best pitcher on the planet for, as it stands right now, one year of service. Names that have been thrown around in possible Mets packages are: Fernando Martinez (OF), Deolis Guerra (SP), Carlos Gomez (OF), Kevin Mulvey (SP), Philip Humber (SP), Mike Pelfry (SP), and Jose Reyes (but that ain't happening). Currently, those names involve the top 5 prospecs of the Mets according to topprospectalert.com, and Mike Pelfry, no longer applicable as a prospect, but still a young pitcher with a good amount of upside (not what it once was, though).

Let's discuss the Hall of Fame

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:25:43 EST

Despite Cooperstown being one of the greatest places on the planet to visit, there are so many things about the Hall of Fame that are wrong, I don't know where to start. I won't even mention a certain someone who wore #14, I have other things to discuss.

Firstly, I am more than happy with this year's Hall of Fame voting. I am split down the middle on many of the front-running candidates, but there was one who I have always wanted in the Hall, and that was Rich 'Goose' Gossage. One of the greatest closers of all-time, a dominant mound presence that would strike fear into hitters of all calibur, Gossage is absolutely deserving of his Cooperstown honor. He came so close in 2007, missing by only a few votes, but history still shows that no one has ever received over 70% of the vote and not made it into the Hall eventually. This leads me to the next potential Hall of Famer.

A little catch-up

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 5:53:24 EST

I have to admit, I kind of missed the boards. Anyway, I've had a fractured wrist for the past 3 months, and needless to say, typing hasn't been one of my favorite activities. The spacing between my bones was a bit less than an inch, and I've put off surgery with the hopes that it would heal properly in time, and it has, fortunately. Anyway, now time for a little sports catch-up.

First things first, congrats to the Sox for winning the World Series (yea, it's been that long). What a comeback against the Indians, and a dominant sweep of the Rockies. Great run by both teams in the WS, congrats to both of them. Now, the obvious winners of the off-season are the Detroit Tigers, who got an underrated Shortstop, one of the best hitters in the game, and a pitcher who struggled last year but has unlimited upside. They'll be a force to reckon with in the AL, along with the Red Sox, Indians, and the Angels, who also made a few good deals. Yankees, I'd love to see some competition out of, but the rotation is a questionmark with all the youth behind Pettite and Wang, 1B is a question, there's an overload of declining outfielders next to Melky Cabrera, and they have a rookie manager. Who knows what'll happen?!