0 comments by Joe Lucia on 3/31/2014
Before Monday night’s Mariners-Angels game, former Angels great Vladimir Guerrero threw out the first pitch to new Angels hitting coach (and another former Angels great) Don Baylor. After catching the pitch, Baylor seemingly injured his ankle and needed to be helped off the field. What an odd incident, and hopefully Baylor just sprained his ankle and will be back in the dugout sooner rather than later.
UPDATE: It’s a fractured right femur for Baylor, and he’ll undergo surgery on Tuesday. Awful.
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A bit of a scary moment took place in the second inning of Monday’s Nationals-Mets game at Citi Field. Bryce Harper slid into second base to break up a double play, and ended up taking Eric Young Jr.’s knee to his head. Harper stayed down on the infield for a minute or two before walking off under his own power.
Harper would stay in the game, but my first thought was about Justin Morneau taking a knee to the head back in 2010, causing a concussion that changed his career. Hopefully, the aftermath for Harper is nowhere near as bad as it was for Morneau.
Dodgers GM Ned Colletti on the reported clubhouse meeting between Yasiel Puig and the Dodgers…
“He called it,” Colletti said on SiriusXM. “He wanted to know how he can get better and some of our veteran guys stood up and told him. And they told him how much they love him and how much they want him on the team and like having him here. But here are a couple of things … that we’d like you to be more focused on, get better at.”
[…]
“He’s (Puig) a young guy with maybe two or three months of minor-league experience and there’s still a learning curve,” Colletti said Sunday. “And because he is so good at so many things and he’s got the persona that draws the light to him on every at-bat or every ball hit to right field or every throw that he makes, everything is examined tighter.
“But I think that there has been maturity that has come along. … And I think it continues to be part of the process. But he sought it out the other day. He asked the question. He was searching for his peers to tell him what they thought he needed to do to get better and they did. So I see that as a good sign.”
(via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register)
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Well folks, we’ve finally made it. We’ve survived a long, harsh winter, and reached Opening Day. On Sunday night, ESPN kicked off the season in San Diego, and that’s where we’re going to start. Game of the Night: Padres 3, Dodgers 1. Despite only having a 1-0 lead, the Dodgers looked firmly in control of […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 3/29/2014
So close you can taste it… The season starts in two short days, and we’re just a little excited. Yesterday, we finished up our look at the 2014 season by revealing our season predictions and examining five teams that want a do-over on Spring Training, Also, we brought you Terry Francona being awesome, Giancarlo Stanton killing a […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 3/28/2014
Opening Day is upon us, and what better way to get hyped for the season by looking at largely meaningless predictions by our staff? Last year’s predictions were pretty terrible – none of us had the World Champion Red Sox even making the Postseason. We all had the Nationals and Angels making the playoffs, and […]
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Did you see Otey the @ARTravs new mascot make his TV debut? What do you think? #ARNews pic.twitter.com/NWuy8qwAlX — KARK 4 News (@KARK4News) March 28, 2014
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This spring, MLB and MTV are partnering on a new show called Off the Bat from the MLB Fan Cave. The show debuts this Tuesday, and on the premiere episode, host Melanie Iglesias took Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton to a junkyard for some batting practice. The aftermath is pretty violent, but in all honesty, I expected a lot more carnage.
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This was a cool moment and classic Tito. He tells Blake Wood that he made club as he takes him out a few days ago. pic.twitter.com/XKHVLA875F — Mark Shapiro (@MarkShapiro) March 28, 2014
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Three days left until Opening Day…all that stands between us and the regular season is one short weekend, and we’ll be good to go for 2014. Today, we’re going to finish up our season previews with staff predictions and some other clean-up. Yesterday, we touched on some important topics heading into the season – bold […]
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This shot by Hanley Ramirez is a *bomb*. It was his second solo homer of the night off of Angels starter Hector Santiago, and this puppy went three-quarters of the way up the left center field seats at Dodger Stadium.
By the way, Hanley’s first homer of the night went to right center. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be an MVP candidate for the Dodgers this season.
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 3/27/2014
With the season on the horizon, the TOC staff decided to go out on a limb and make some bold predictions about 2014. Here’s what we’ve come up with. Scott Allen: 1. Pablo Sandoval finishes Top 3 in NL MVP voting. 2. Mark Trumbo has most HR’s in MLB. 3. Mike Trout posts the first 11 […]
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It’s that time of year, where MLB teams reveal their gluttonous new menu items for the 2014 season. ESPN’s Darren Rovell was on the ball, as always, with many of the new additions. Some of these look pretty good, while others look absolutely vile. Not pictured: the angioplasty you’ll need after eating many of these […]
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Topps has continued their domination of the trading card market by releasing the BUNT app for the 2014 MLB season. BUNT is an iOS app that allows users to collect digital cards for free. The app also lets users trade with one another and rates your collection. I played around with the app today, and […]
“I was tough on some of the young players I thought needed to be, not disciplined, but they were walking around like they were 10-year veterans and I was trying to teach them the right way to do things,” Martinez said, on Benigno & Roberts.
He added: “I was trying to teach these guys. These guys had a great opportunity. They didn’t belong in the big leagues. They just happened to be with the right organization that had injuries and got rid of the whole entire team the year before.
“They were not taking advantage of their opportunity and it was bothering me that they weren’t working hard enough and weren’t appreciating what they had. I was just trying to get them to understand, take advantage of this and make yourself a better player. They were very soft. They were very soft and that was the disappointing part, but I thought I was doing my job as a coach to try and get the most out of them.”
-Former Miami Marlins hitting coach Tino Martinez expressing his opinion about the young Marlins hitters that he verbally and physically abused last year, leading to his dismissal. (via South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
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