Looks like missed another team chaning their uniforms for Memorial Day (hat tip to Uni Watch Blog for spotting it). Anyway the Pirates wore the following uniforms Monday:
I feel that I have been using my baseball blog a little bit too much as a political jumping point recently, so if you want to know my opinion about these uniforms, it still falls within these lines.
No word if profits of these uniforms go anywhere, which adds more to my feelings in the above link.
Part two of our journey as we look into the oddities that the American League will offer this month:
Yankees: As stated yesterday, I love pins and jerseys, and the Yankees are giving away the former:
Tampa Bay Rays: This is just creepy.
Chicago White Sox: The free jerseys in June continue:
Kansas City: Outside of the Taco Bell logo on the side, this is a great looking cap:
Minnesota: More Jerseys in June:
Oakland: SOCKS! And Chia Pets?
Seattle: The Mariners are celebrating Felix Hernandez fans by giving away a bobblehead of Felix wearing one of the fan shirts:
The new look Mets look to return to their winning ways tonight as they take on the Phillies in game 2. After yesterday’s loss, the Mets DFA’d Acosta and placed Turner on the DL thus recalling the contracts of Schwinden and Quintanilla. Anyway, the Mets will send out Hefner to make his second start as he takes on Joe Blanton.
Hefner’s first major league was bizarre. He cruised through the first inning, then had a 68 minute rain delay, and then came back out after the delay. His start last 3.2 innings with 6 ER. Because of the odd nature of this start, it is rather unfair to use it it as a way to judge his ability as a starter. This will be Hefner’s first time facing the Phillies, thus the Phillies have no experience facing Jeremy.
Joe Blanton is 4-4 this season with a 4.55 ERA over 57.1 innings of work. He has faced the Mets once this season totaling 6.2 innings of work allowing 4 ER. In his last two starts he has combined for 8.2 innings and 13 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Joe:
Wright 7-26, 4 2B
Davis 5-14, 2 2B
Torres 2-7, HR
Hairston 3-7, 2B, HR
Murphy 1-6
Let’s Go Mets! Check 213 Miles From Shea!
Memorial Day is behind us, which means summer is here! Schools are letting out, and ballparks are trying to get as many people in as possible. Today we start our three day journey to see what different teams will offer their fans. Today we are going to view the National League:
Miami: As you know, pins and jerseys get me every month. The Marlins are giving out a nice Heath Bell Jersey:
Washington: Same thing as Miami:
Cincinnati: I forgot which team did this last year, but it was awesome. Reds are doing it this year:
St. Louis: June is the month of the free jersey:
Dodgers: Not only is this a cool bobble, its of Mike Scioscia, and Mike’s team is playing the Dodgers that night.
Arizona: Is having a Star Wars day, which is awesome.
Manny Acosta was finally DFA’d today as the Mets made some roster moves.
If you watched today’s game, the writing was on wall for Manny pretty much immediately. He came into the game with the Mets down a run and promptly gave up two hits and then some how struck out a batter. Then he gave up a three run bomb and the Mets were basically out of it from that point on. Acosta leaves the Mets with an ERA in 2012 of 11.86. It seemed that Acosta was going to be on his way out anyway where Beato nearing a return to the majors, but today’s performance expedited his trip.
With Acosta leaving, and the Turner injury, the Mets recalled the contracts of Chris Schwinden and Omar Quintanilla. I’m losing track, but I think this is the third trip up to the majors Schwinden has made to the majors. Rather than disrupting Valdespin again, the Mets with Omar to fill in for Turner who is filling in for Tejada (shades of 2009 right now).
Schwinden is 3-4 right now in the minors over 9 games and 48.2 innings with an ERA of 2.59.
This is Quintanilla’s first trip to the majors as a Met. Right now he’s batting .281 over 153 AB in AAA with 11 2B, 2 3B, and 6 HR.
For the Mets, its a question of when will players get healthy. Schwinden is almost in certain competition right now with Hefner and Egbert for who will go down with Beato and Young come from the minors. The Mets bench picture gets more clear as Tejada, Thole and Bay all come back (although the ETA is still not known). At that point Quintanilla will be on his way down, with one catcher and at least one more bench player.
The Mets play their third day game in a row today as they welcome the Phillies to Queens this afternoon to start a three game set on the holiday. The Mets have played really well in the last three games and have won 5 of their last 6 as they move onto tougher competition. This is a different Phillies team than the one they faced back in April as the Phillies bats have woken up and the bullpen has been bolstered. Jon Niese gets the start for the Mets today as he takes on Cole Hamels.
Jon Niese is 3-2 on the season over 9 starts and 50.1 innings with a 4.29 ERA. Niese had a successful bounce back start his last time out as he allowed one earned run in 7.2 innings of work. In two starts against the Phillies this year, Jon has logged 11.o innings allowing only 2 ER. The Phillies have the following numbers on Niese:
Polanco 11-26, 5 2B
Rollins 6-22, 2B
Victorino 6-20, HR
Mayberry 6-19, 2 2B, HR
Pence 2-16
The Mets bats will get another look at Cole Hamels today, who is tied for the league wins at 7 (7-1 record) over 9 starts and 62.1 innings of work with a 2.17 ERA. He has been on in the month of May making 5 starts with a 1.75 ERA so far this month. Back in April he picked up a win against the Mets where he held the Amazin’s to only 2 runs over 7 innings of work. In his career he is 4-10 with a 4.33 ERA against the Mets who have the following numbers against him:
Wright 14-42, 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR
Hairston 9-23, 4 2B, 3 HR
Davis 5-10, HR
Murphy 3-9, 2B, HR
Turner 2-5
Let’s Go Mets!
Check 213 Miles From Shea!
One of the major complaints about the Stars and Stripes hats is they don’t match the uniforms. Well, the Orioles changed their uniform to match the hat (well not really, they changed their uniform to match the shirt they were giving away to match the hat). The new Baltimore Uniform for at least Memorial Day looks like this:
Online there is no word if a portion of these uniform sales go anywhere.
You can guess how I feel about these. If you can’t read this.
With almost two months of baseball played, it is uncanny how similar the two leagues are when they are compared geographically.
First, the tough divisions in both leagues have moved east where (all of these records as of Sunday) every team in an eastern division is at least at .500. The Red Sox have the worst record on the East coast at .500 and everybody else is above it. In addition to that, the American League East is separated by only 5.5 games and the National League East by a meager 4 games!
Plus the first place teams in both divisions come from the Mid Atlantic with the surprising (but not too surprising it was a matter of time) Nationals and the very surprising Orioles.
The central divisions both have a division leader sitting at a 26-20 record coming into Sunday. Both divisions only have one other team sitting above .500.
Both west divisions have a team running away with it as the Rangers and Dodgers are flying through their divisions.
The worst teams in both leagues? Sitting in their respective cellars in the central divisions (Twins and Cubs) with identical 15-31 records and sitting 11.0 games back each.
It is interesting how the numbers are paralleling each other.
The Mets and Padres conclude their four game set this afternoon. Oh, and you may have heard, but its BANNER DAY AT SHEA CITI! Yesterday was just an amazing day as Johan Santana delivered a complete game shut out, plus the Mets bats decided to wake up and knock three balls out of the park. Anyway, in today’s game Dickey will take on Volquez as the Mets try to take the series.
Dickey is 6-1 on the season over 9 games and 57.2 innings of work with a 3.45 ERA. Dickey has made four starts in the month of May with a 3-0 record and a 2.33 ERA. In that time he has pitched 27 innings and struck out 23 batters. Last season RA made two starts against the Padres with a 0-1 record over 12.1 innings with a 4.38 ERA. The Padres have the following numbers against Dickey:
Maybin 4-12
Venable 3-6, 3B, HR
Guzman 1-3
Hundley 1-3
The Mets bats will try to keep building off of yesterday’s offense against Edinson Volquez. Volquez is 2-4 on the season with a 3.49 ERA over 10 starts and 59.1 innings. In his last two starts he has an 0-2 record over 11.0 innings of work and a 6.55 ERA. Last season he pitched one game against the Mets where he allowed 3 ER over 7 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Edinson:
Cedeno 0-8
Wright 1-5
Hairston 0-4
Torres 0-2
Baxter 1-3, HR
Murphy 1-3
Let’s Go Mets! Check 213 Miles From Shea!
At the ballpark today I saw a really strange piece of merchandise from a company called Oyo.
Oyo just launched a special collection of figurines for Sports players. Each figurine comes with a bat, glove, ball, stand and case. The kicker is they look EXACTLY like legos:
Now in the ballpark they only had Murphy, Wright and Davis available. However when you go online you get a ton of players (including Frank Francisco) and special ones (like the 50th Anniversary of the Mets). Link Here. They even have minor league teams.
I just don’t get how this isn’t copyright infringement.