When it’s baseball season the first thing I do when I get home from work is turn on the MLB Network and catch up on what happened the night before.
Going into last night all of the talk was about Shohei Otani pitching against the Boston Red Sox. Now humorously there where some stupid people out there who where ready to give Otani the AL CY Young along with the MVP and the Rookie of the Year. The frightening thing about this is the people who are saying he should be given those awards already are a lot of the people who vote for them at the end of the season. Now I was part of the group that wanted to wait and see.
Through 8 games Otani’s hitting has been solid. He’s hitting .367 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI’s There’s nothing wrong with those numbers and Otani himself has asked for more at bats and with the way he’s been hitting he should get them.
Now on the pitching side he had an average first start against the Oakland A’s, but did pick up a win. Otani’s second start was also against the A’s and he was fantastic. He went 7 innings gave up just 1 hit while walking 1 and striking out 12. This outing sent people into a tizzy and they started shooting off their mouths before thinking about what they where saying. Well Otani’s third start was scheduled for Sunday, but the game was postponed; so he made that third start last night. Now this time he wasn’t facing the sub .500 A’s. This outing was against the 13-2 Boston Red Sox.
Otani stepped up I competition and lasted just 2 innings. He threw 66 pitches gave up 3 runs on 4 hits while walking 2nd striking out just 1. Magically during an incredibly poor outing Otani developed a blister on his pitching hand and had to be removed from the game. Otani also got tagged with his first loss.
Now I don’t believe that he’s as bad of a pitcher as he was last night, but I also don’t believe that he’s as good of a pitcher as he was in his second outing against the A’s. Of course I wasn’t stupid enough to go on television and say that Mike Trout was now the second best player on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I also wasn’t handing him the Cy Young after just two starts.
I’ll be interested to see if an outing like this shuts these morons up or if they’ll just jump on the blister excuse and ride that. Now I don’t expect any of them to recant or admit they where stupid by saying some of the things they said, but it would be a nice change of pace if they did.
Is it time for the New York Yankees to move Giancarlo Stanton down in their batting order? Stanton has been hitting 3rd for the Yankees in between Aaron Judge and either Didi Gregorius or Gary Sanchez.
Stanton has played in all 16 games for the Yankees this season and has 66 at bats. Stanton does have 3 home runs and 10 RBI’s through the first 16 games, but he’s hitting just .197 and has struck out 29 times.
The Yankees have the kind of line up where they could comfortably move Stanton down the 5th spot on the and take some of the pressure off of him. Of course with the contract he has there will always be a certain amount of pressure on him. A move down in the order might also help with the fans as they’ve taken to booing Stanton any time he doesn’t come through with a hit.
If the Yankees could find someone else to plug into the two hole Judge could easily slid into the three spot. Judge is off to a good start hitting .339 with 4 home runs and 11 RBI’s. Judge does seem very comfortable hitting second; so maybe the Yankees would be better off leaving him there and moving Gregorius into the three spot. Gregorius is also off to a good start hitting .333 with a team leading 5 home runs and 16 RBI’s. Sanchez is actually off to a worse start than Stanton, but without the strikeouts. In 14 games Sanchez is hitting just .190, but does have 3 home runs and 13 RBI’s. Of course there is a chance that plugging Sanchez in the third spot between Judge and Gregorius it might get him hitting.
This may be the first difficult call that rookie manager Aaron Boone might have to make with the everyday line up. Let me know if you think the Yankees should move Stanton down in the line up.
Last night the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep a playoff series.
Brayden McNabb scored the only goal in the game and Marc Andre-Fleury made it stand up making 31 saves as the Golden Knights won Game 4 1-0 over the Los Angeles Kings. This was Fleury’s second shutout in the series.
The Kings by no means where blown out in this series as every game was decided by one goal. Game 1 was a 1-0 game. Game 2 was a 2-1 overtime game. Game 3 was the highest scoring game in the series as it ended 3-2 and then of course Game 4 last night was another 1-0 game.
With last nights win Fleury passed Dominik Hasek for 11th place on the NHL’s all-time list with his 66th career playoff win. He tied Terry Sawchuk for ninth place with his 12th career playoff shutout.
The Golden Knights will face the winner of the Anaheim Ducks/San Jose Sharks series. San Jose is ahead in that series 3 games to none and have a chance to sweep the Ducks out of the playoff tonight.
San Jose is actually the only other team left that can sweep their 1st round series. Will see if they can get it done tonight at home in Game 4.
Are you surprised that the Golden Knights swept their opening round series? How do you think they’ll do in the next round? Let me know in the comments.
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