At 10:30 central daylight my friend Ray sent me a text that said, "Today is a rare .500Cut."
Highland, Illinois native Jake OdoriZzi warms in the midst of a partially empty Tropicana Field. Sodden echoes from the PA system give the place a cavernous feel. Cameron Maybin sends a grounder at and off of OdoriZzi, Tim Beckham recovers it but can't get Maybin. Mike Trout stands in: .350 batting average, 14 home runs, 34 RBI, .466 on-base percentage. Maybin is running, Derek Norris throws wide, Maybin to third. That's ten bags for him. Maybe the errant throw isn't all on Norris, the Angels announcers are dinging Rays second baseman Michael Martinez, whom the Rays recently claimed off of waivers from Cleveland.
Simmons, SF, 8. Kiermaier guns for Trout at third and, between you and me, Trout seemed to take a bit of time to gather himself after sliding in safely. Here's Cowboy Kole Calhoun, hitting .215. The stalwarts that are in the stands in St. Pete ring their bells and Odo thrives on the minor din: K. The Angels strand a pair.
A bit later. J.C. Ramírez works to LoMo for the second time. So far this season J.C. has been bad in his first innings and then good thereafter. He needed 25 pitches in today's first inning and then eleven in the second. With two outs in this third inning he has thrown 14 pitches. This game, based on J.C.'s pace, has come to a "screeching halt here". A fastball gets LoMo looking. Valbuena, Simmons, and Kalhoun are due up. What else is going on in the baseball world?
Michael Fulmer deals to Carlos Beltrán in Houston, two outs. High, hard, and out. The Astros lead 1-0 after one inning.
To the Bronx. Enter Michael Pineda, John Sterling, and Suzyn Waldman. I do the YES network video feed but I change the audio feed settings and select WFAN. Alcides Escobar swings at the first pitch whilst blowing a bubble, 9. "I don't know why he swung at that," Suzyn says, "maybe that's why he's hitting .180." Moustakas, 4-3, end of inning.
To Cincy. It's 2-1 Reds over Indians in the top of the sixth. Michael Brantley walks. The Reds will give away an Anthony Desclafini bobblehead on June 3rd. Scott Feldman gets Carlos Santana to ground into a double play on the first pitch. Here's Edwin Encarnacion, 0-for-2 and griping at the ump. He destroys one foul. Wow, just foul. It's eerily quiet at the Great American Ballpark. Feldman goes away, away. A pop foul, into the stands. Edwin looks at a major-league changeup. Inning over.
Back to Florida and the HotCut. With Jefry Marte at bat, Kole Calhoun takes a bag. Derek Norris is a knee-thrower. Ryne Stanek, a St. Louis native, is on the mound. He throws hard—that fastball was 98 mph. Another fastball at 98. But he doesn't throw enough of his pitches over the plate and I haven't seen him induce enough bad swings. Norris takes a Simmons follow-through bat to the mask. Egads, seeing that on a replay makes me cringe. Simmons sends one deep to center but it's an 8. Now Martín Maldonado, whose on-base percentage is around .350 and who has started more games this season at catcher (37) than anyone else. I don't know how his defense rates but he has proven to be a useful player.
Norris—Bud Norris—is on to get four outs and the save in a close 'Cut. In digs Longo, 0-for-3, and not H-O-T. Rays manager Kevin Cash said he was DH-ing Longo tonight "to get him off his feet". It's 2-and-1 to Longo, SouZa Jr on first by way of a base on balls. Longo swings through a cutter at 90. Longo manages a single to the deep hole of short. Simmons fielded it but he was way out on the turf. LoMo now. I liked LoMo as a Florida Marlin. He reminded me of George Brett. His work in 2017 has been his best showing since those Florida days. Do you remember him as a Mariner? Does anyone? A foul ball and Norris has LoMo at 2-and-2. Maldonado to the mound. A pitch low at 95 mph. The runners will be en moción. Foul ball. The "bullpens" are still on the field in St. Pete. Now that the Cubs have gotten their bullpens off the field—LoMo fans—does that leave the Rays as the only team with "en plein" bullpens?
From Jumbo Diaz to Ryne Stanek to Jose Alvarado the Rays are able to roll out some flamethrowers but it's just a tempest on the mound. Alvarado snaps off a wicked breaker, a little inside but Alan Porter liked it. Danny Espinosa cursed—he is on his last breath as a major leaguer. Here's Maybin, perfect on the night. The Rays crowd is balding, giddy, and starting to get a little creepy. Catcalls abound, echoing in the cavernous park like haunted stalactites. Maybin flies out. Here's Mike Trout. He is 0-for-2 with two walks, one of those intentional. The broadcasters pick up on this coyote pack that has let loose in Tropicana, making references to The Nature Boy and a flock of seagulls. "You gotta pass the time somehow." It's 3-and-1 to Mike Trout. Alvarado has overthrown a couple of fastballs but he gets Trout 6-3 to end the inning.
It took Norris about seven years to find his niche. There was always another club that figured he could start: Baltimore, San Diego, Atlanta, the Dodgers. Norris walks Daniel Robertson and here is Michael Martínez. Tony Parker with dreads? A ball. Then a ball low and away that was called a strike. A foul. A tapper foul. "We'll reset and do it again." Martínez swings at some trash in the dirt. Maldonado has to toss it down to first but the Angels win. It wasn't the World Series but it was the .500Cut. Ramirez gets the win, his fourth. Norris gets his ninth save.
Carlos Marmol. Turk Wendell? I feel like I'm missing the nineties. OK, I looked it up. It's Smith, Sutter, Marmol then Randy Myers, Ryan Dempster, then Hector Rondon. I thought of him but dismissed him quickly. He has 77 saves. Three or four pretty good years as a closer for one team gets you pretty high on that team's all-time saves list. Rod Beck is ninth, Kevin Gregg is tenth. I guess he will not pitch this year. I'm looking that up, too. He didn't pitch last year. That was 2015 that Cincy brought him back. He was with the Cubs in 2013. His career WHIP is 1.39. Joe Borowski is 12th all-time on the Cubs saves list. Kerry Wood is 19th. Turk Wendell is 30th, with 22 saves.
Mike Trout Gets a Shot
B and I were just about to hit the road so I didn't investigate right then but I did think to myself, "I guess that means there are a couple of even-record teams playing each other." Indeed, that is the case. In a matter of moments J.C. Ramírez and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will make their 2017 HotCut debut in St. Petersburg, Florida against Jake OdoriZzi and the Tampa Bay Rays. I imagine that right now in the Angels clubhouse some down-on-his-luck beat blogger is asking Mike Trout, "So how does it feel to play in your first HotCut of the year? Any truth to the rumor that you're miffed about having to wait nearly two months to appear in your first HotCut of the season?"Highland, Illinois native Jake OdoriZzi warms in the midst of a partially empty Tropicana Field. Sodden echoes from the PA system give the place a cavernous feel. Cameron Maybin sends a grounder at and off of OdoriZzi, Tim Beckham recovers it but can't get Maybin. Mike Trout stands in: .350 batting average, 14 home runs, 34 RBI, .466 on-base percentage. Maybin is running, Derek Norris throws wide, Maybin to third. That's ten bags for him. Maybe the errant throw isn't all on Norris, the Angels announcers are dinging Rays second baseman Michael Martinez, whom the Rays recently claimed off of waivers from Cleveland.
If a 'Cut is Played in Tampa, Does Anyone Know it?
Trout walks. Here's Albert Pujols. He is hitting .247 with five home runs and 32 RBI. It's the on-base percentage of .293 that draws my eye when I look at his line. Trout is running, Albert is swinging. It's a pop foul to Daniel Robertson on the third base side, 5 FO. Here's Luis Valbuena. This Angels lineup has a real stars and scrubs feel thus far, Valbuena batting .176 although the on-base percentage is much better at .311. Trout is en moción again but there will be no throw to second because Valbuena has walked. The bags are full for Simmons. C.J. Cron was demoted earlier today.Simmons, SF, 8. Kiermaier guns for Trout at third and, between you and me, Trout seemed to take a bit of time to gather himself after sliding in safely. Here's Cowboy Kole Calhoun, hitting .215. The stalwarts that are in the stands in St. Pete ring their bells and Odo thrives on the minor din: K. The Angels strand a pair.
C-Dick Go Oppo
Here's C-Dick, aka Corey Dickerson, hitting .347 with 11 home runs, 22 RBI, a .397 on-base percentage, and an American League-leading 59 hits. Corey Dickerson has five straight multi-hit games. He goes oppo! Kiermaier gives one a ride, but 7. Here's Evan Longoria, today's designated hitter. Longo is hitting .250. He rolls over one, 5-3. Logan Morrison is next. LoMo has 11 home runs and a .339 on-base percentage. He loses one to right and it's 2-1 Rays. Tim Beckham stands in. He has 23 RBI but a .296 on-base percentage. The clap-track fails to rouse the St. Petersburg faithful. The Anaheim broadcast says J.C.'s slider is flat tonight.A bit later. J.C. Ramírez works to LoMo for the second time. So far this season J.C. has been bad in his first innings and then good thereafter. He needed 25 pitches in today's first inning and then eleven in the second. With two outs in this third inning he has thrown 14 pitches. This game, based on J.C.'s pace, has come to a "screeching halt here". A fastball gets LoMo looking. Valbuena, Simmons, and Kalhoun are due up. What else is going on in the baseball world?
Take A Ride on the Baseball Spinner
Justin Ruggiano goes 6-3 at Wrigley Field, where the San Francisco Giants are up 1-0. The stands were pretty full there, overcast, apparently cool.Michael Fulmer deals to Carlos Beltrán in Houston, two outs. High, hard, and out. The Astros lead 1-0 after one inning.
To the Bronx. Enter Michael Pineda, John Sterling, and Suzyn Waldman. I do the YES network video feed but I change the audio feed settings and select WFAN. Alcides Escobar swings at the first pitch whilst blowing a bubble, 9. "I don't know why he swung at that," Suzyn says, "maybe that's why he's hitting .180." Moustakas, 4-3, end of inning.
To Cincy. It's 2-1 Reds over Indians in the top of the sixth. Michael Brantley walks. The Reds will give away an Anthony Desclafini bobblehead on June 3rd. Scott Feldman gets Carlos Santana to ground into a double play on the first pitch. Here's Edwin Encarnacion, 0-for-2 and griping at the ump. He destroys one foul. Wow, just foul. It's eerily quiet at the Great American Ballpark. Feldman goes away, away. A pop foul, into the stands. Edwin looks at a major-league changeup. Inning over.
Trout vs. The Thing
Back to the HotCut where Cameron Maybin literally loses one in one of the "rigs" aloft above Tropicana Field. Trout looks at a slow curve, then at a fastball for a strike, and he is quickly in the hole at 0-and-2. He fouls one straight back. Trout swings over an 85 mph changeup. Isn't Odo's change dubbed "The Thing"?Swinging on 3-and-0, the Hottest Trend
Back to the Bronx. It's Jason Vargas facing the New York Yankees for the second start in a row. It's 3-2 Yankees, bottom six, no one out, Matt Holliday at second after a double. Jorge Bonifacio in left does indeed resemble his older brother, Emilio. The count is 2-and-0 to Aaron Judge after a Starlin Castro walk. Vargas has thrown 96 pitches and Judge will be sitting on a 3-and-0 offering. Judge swings at a decent pitch, though inside, 7. Here's Aaron Hicks with one out. He goes 8. Didi Gregorius puts a sweet swing on the first pitch, opposite field stroke, but Bonifacio runs it down. Vargas has escaped but he will be done after six innings.The Last Out of the World Series
Back in St. Pete it's 3-2 LAA, bottom 7, two out, make that three. What Michael Martínez is still doing in this league I can't fathom. Were Jimmy Paredes, Omar Infante, and Eugenio Velez not available? Who made the last out of the 2016 World Series? Yeah, that's right. Michael Martínez, 5-3.Spinning from Houston back to Tampa
Chris Devenski deals to Avila 2-and-2, a curve at 81 mph, Avila watches it, strikeout. Commercial break in progress, Jake.Back to Florida and the HotCut. With Jefry Marte at bat, Kole Calhoun takes a bag. Derek Norris is a knee-thrower. Ryne Stanek, a St. Louis native, is on the mound. He throws hard—that fastball was 98 mph. Another fastball at 98. But he doesn't throw enough of his pitches over the plate and I haven't seen him induce enough bad swings. Norris takes a Simmons follow-through bat to the mask. Egads, seeing that on a replay makes me cringe. Simmons sends one deep to center but it's an 8. Now Martín Maldonado, whose on-base percentage is around .350 and who has started more games this season at catcher (37) than anyone else. I don't know how his defense rates but he has proven to be a useful player.
Norris—Bud Norris—is on to get four outs and the save in a close 'Cut. In digs Longo, 0-for-3, and not H-O-T. Rays manager Kevin Cash said he was DH-ing Longo tonight "to get him off his feet". It's 2-and-1 to Longo, SouZa Jr on first by way of a base on balls. Longo swings through a cutter at 90. Longo manages a single to the deep hole of short. Simmons fielded it but he was way out on the turf. LoMo now. I liked LoMo as a Florida Marlin. He reminded me of George Brett. His work in 2017 has been his best showing since those Florida days. Do you remember him as a Mariner? Does anyone? A foul ball and Norris has LoMo at 2-and-2. Maldonado to the mound. A pitch low at 95 mph. The runners will be en moción. Foul ball. The "bullpens" are still on the field in St. Pete. Now that the Cubs have gotten their bullpens off the field—LoMo fans—does that leave the Rays as the only team with "en plein" bullpens?
Catcalls and Coyotes in Tropicana Field
Bud Norris has found himself at the back of the Anaheim bullpen. He is actualiZed.From Jumbo Diaz to Ryne Stanek to Jose Alvarado the Rays are able to roll out some flamethrowers but it's just a tempest on the mound. Alvarado snaps off a wicked breaker, a little inside but Alan Porter liked it. Danny Espinosa cursed—he is on his last breath as a major leaguer. Here's Maybin, perfect on the night. The Rays crowd is balding, giddy, and starting to get a little creepy. Catcalls abound, echoing in the cavernous park like haunted stalactites. Maybin flies out. Here's Mike Trout. He is 0-for-2 with two walks, one of those intentional. The broadcasters pick up on this coyote pack that has let loose in Tropicana, making references to The Nature Boy and a flock of seagulls. "You gotta pass the time somehow." It's 3-and-1 to Mike Trout. Alvarado has overthrown a couple of fastballs but he gets Trout 6-3 to end the inning.
The Bud Norris All-Stars
This game is three-and-a-half hours old but it does not feel it. A Bud Norris heater at 95 is wide. It's 1-and-2 to Tim Beckham. He goes 6-3. 96 on the outside corner runs the count full to Colby Rasmus. He strikes out on a slider. Six pitches away and then a tight slider over the heart. Rasmus was probably still a Cardinal when Norris entered the league with Houston and confounded Cardinal bats. Houston was an NL team back then. The Cardinals' inability to touch Norris led you to coin the notion of the Bud Norris All-Stars, a ragtag bunch of has-beens and never-was's that served as the Cardinals' inexplicable kryptonite.It took Norris about seven years to find his niche. There was always another club that figured he could start: Baltimore, San Diego, Atlanta, the Dodgers. Norris walks Daniel Robertson and here is Michael Martínez. Tony Parker with dreads? A ball. Then a ball low and away that was called a strike. A foul. A tapper foul. "We'll reset and do it again." Martínez swings at some trash in the dirt. Maldonado has to toss it down to first but the Angels win. It wasn't the World Series but it was the .500Cut. Ramirez gets the win, his fourth. Norris gets his ninth save.
To the North Side
Melancon. Ten K's to one walk. He has 8 saves but his WHIP is 1.34 so he has been hittable. He was recently on the DL with a mild forearm strain. Addison Russell at bat. A curve in the dirt brings the count to 1-and-2. Russell, 5-3. That took some starch out of this rally-hat crowd. Heyward swinging first pitch sends one deep to center but not deep enough, 8. It's up to Javier Báez. A fastball center-cut and low is a strike. Beauty of a curve at 82, whiff. Damn good curve. Cutter away, foul. Good plate coverage by Báez. Posey sets up away, the pitch catches plenty of plate, Deshaies says it was a cutter, Báez doesn't miss it, single to left. That pitch "leaked" back over the plate. It's Happ...and I don't mean J.A. They are not related. Happ swings at a curve in the dirt. Buster has to throw it down to first but that's an SF winner. The Giants have won 8-of-10 and are doing a Texas Rangers sort of act in the NL West trying to salvage their season as Memorial Day approaches—or as we approach Memorial Day.Desert.
The ScuZzer looks at a 3-0 offering from Dan Jennings. Bases loaded. It's 4-1 Snakes, no one out. This is the only game left and it's on the verge of breaking bad. Rey Fuentes. He used to be called Reymond Fuentes, I believe. A ground ball to Jennings that should go 1-2 doesn't. Narvaez doesn't catch it clean, the ball drops, the bat is there in the dirt too, Narvaez can't pick the ball up. As Jeff Mathis bats someone named Beck will come on. Not Rod, not the singer... Scott Beck, Jeff Beck... Alex treBeck... 5-2-3 double play, ouch. Lovullo wants to look at the play. No review. Greinke bats.Cubs All-time Saves Leaders
Rod Beck, Joe Borowski, Dave Weathers, LaTroy Hawkins. Who are the Cubs all-time saves leaders? Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter? I heard on another broadcast today or yesterday the list of the Cleveland Indians all-time saves leaders and it stymied me. José Mesa—Joe Table—was only fourth. Bob Wickman, Doug Jones, Chris Perez, then Mesa.Carlos Marmol. Turk Wendell? I feel like I'm missing the nineties. OK, I looked it up. It's Smith, Sutter, Marmol then Randy Myers, Ryan Dempster, then Hector Rondon. I thought of him but dismissed him quickly. He has 77 saves. Three or four pretty good years as a closer for one team gets you pretty high on that team's all-time saves list. Rod Beck is ninth, Kevin Gregg is tenth. I guess he will not pitch this year. I'm looking that up, too. He didn't pitch last year. That was 2015 that Cincy brought him back. He was with the Cubs in 2013. His career WHIP is 1.39. Joe Borowski is 12th all-time on the Cubs saves list. Kerry Wood is 19th. Turk Wendell is 30th, with 22 saves.
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