HOW MANY EXTRA INNING OPPORTUNITIES WILL THE BRAVES EXCRUCIATINGLY BLOW TODAY?!

Growing up, kids want to wear the jersey and number of their favourite player.
Here is a list of the players who have worn #19 in 2014, I wonder if any of them were Tony Gwynn fans?

Jose Bautista TOR
Charlie Blackmon COL
Tony Campana ARI
Chris Davis BAL
Kevin Frandsen WSN
Robbie Grossman HOU
Tony Gwynn PHI
Jon Jay STL
Darin Mastroianni MIN
Efren Navarro LAA
Hector Noesi TEX
Dan Robertson TEX
Seth Rosin TEX
Anibal Sanchez DET
Jerry Sands TBR
Nate Schierholtz CHC
Andrelton Simmons ATL
Chris Stewart PIT
Masahiro Tanaka NYY
Koji Uehara BOS
Danny Valencia KCR
Joey Votto CIN

How bad is the Padres offense?

Going into today, Jedd Gyorko lead the team in runs batted in. He had 24.

Jedd Gyorko is hitting .162. An OPS under 500. Five home runs. And he's been on the DL for two weeks.

The Padres are more than 3 standard deviations below the MLB mean in on base percentage. That is hard to do.

I wonder if any of them were Tony Gwynn fans?

The guy on the Phillies is from Southern California, so I'd bet he is.

Marcus Stoman starting for the Jays tonight at Yankee Stadium.
Stroman grew up on Long Island. Not only is his Dad in attendance tonight, per Jeff Blair's radio show he had about 64 other ticket requests.

Looks like the Royals will be in 1st place after today and will probably sweep the Tigers anyway because #### baseball.

Ryan Howard has a nice first-inning homer. His opposite-field power is coming around.

How about pulling Scherzer?

Because Brad Ausmus is an idiot.

For ####'s sake getting lit up by the Royals is pathetic. I hope Scherzer is able to cash out on that insurance claim. At least we don't have to worry about paying him too much like we are with Verlander now.

Yadier gives the Cardinals a 1-0 lead, with a homerun that barely squeaked over the wall.

On a different note, they posted a stat, Cardinal pitchers haven't allowed a homerun in 75 innings, 2nd is the Indians who have gone 29 innings without allowing a homerun (now that I have mentioned it, I'm sure the Mets will lead off next inning with a homerun)

Ladies and gentlemen, your second place Detroit Tigers!

Jesus. They're not just losing, they're getting their brains kicked in. Every. Single. Night. Verlander? Scherzer? Forget it. These guys can't pitch their way out of moist paper bag.

Oh, well. At least I don't have to watch the Tigers blow it in October again.

It took two innings for the Mets to hit a homerun. Struggling David Wright with a blast to tie the game up at 1 each (both Wright and Yadier have been struggling lately)

This Mike Trout guy, he's homered a second time tonight. He's really, really good.

Here comes Kyle Farnsworth to extend the Nationals' lead, currently 4-1 in the 6th. That should change. EXPECT IT.

The new gameday on mlb.com sucks...

It's basically the same information, but with the information bar at the bottom. The side panes are the same information, but the left one is laid out much better since it doesn't scroll stuff into never-never land where you can't read it. It takes some getting used to, but I'm good with it now.

Dancin' Betances.

What. A. Beast.

It's uglier looking, too blocky, and the scroll option goes too far. (I think instead of being relative to the pane, the scroll is using the same scale as a full web page)

Kolten Wong with a hit.... getting closer to $.50 soda's.

My god...the Kansas City Royals are about to move into first place in the American League Central.

The Kansas. City. Royals.

My head is spinning.

Mets second baseman screwed up. First and third, two outs, Kolten Wong on first and attempts to steal second, throw beats him by a good two steps, but instead of tagging out the runner, the Mets second baseman(Murphy?) worried about the runner on third threw to third.

Daniel Murphy isn't having a good inning, and Anthony Recker wasn't subtle in expressing his displeasure.

The pressure must be getting to Recker. He went bonkers the other night on that called strike 3 in extras, now this. The Nats could use a catcher if the Mets want rid of him. Might soothe his nerves.

My god...the Kansas City Royals are about to move into first place in the American League Central.

The Kansas. City. Royals.

My head is spinning.

Toronto Blue Jays are also in first place and the Astros don't have the worst record in baseball(The Rays do)

Daniel Murphy isn't having a good inning, and Anthony Recker wasn't subtle in expressing his displeasure.

Cardinal announcers picked up on that, and Rick Horton basically said, "I would rather have a second baseman who hits .300 and makes a few bonehead plays, than a backup catcher who shows up his own teammates".

re: Betances...a few years ago, I thought the Yankees were excessively hard on David Robertson. His numbers were very good, but they (Girardi?) did not trust him. He's now worked himself into some high leverage situations, but he if were to ever stumble, and Betances and Robertson had to swap roles, I think the Yankees would be fine. I don't watch enough Yankees to comment on the mental side, but the numbers and the evidence I've seen suggests Betances is the setup man like Mariano was the setup man for Wetteland.
The Yanks currently have some starting pitching weakness, and an old and scuffling lineup, but the back end of their bullpen is very solid.

The Kansas. City. Royals.

My head is spinning.


Toronto Blue Jays are also in first place and the Astros don't have the worst record in baseball(The Rays do)

It's pretty clear who won the James Shields/Wil Myers trade.

re: Betances...a few years ago, I thought the Yankees were excessively hard on David Robertson. His numbers were very good, but they (Girardi?) did not trust him.

Uhh, no Peg ...

So, Billy Hamilton...

3 for 4 tonight with a 2b, 3 sb, bb, 2 runs and gunned cutch down at home. Not a bad night

Edit: closing in on 100 ops+

Jeter had 2 hits tonight and scored his 1900th run. 600th win for Joe Girardi, too.

Posted from an oceanfront campsite, because modern technology is pretty good.

Hey YC, where you clappin from oceanside, if I may ask? I know of too few places where you can camp beachside, but that's a great way to spend an evening while listening to baseball and enjoying a cool libation.

Some notes:

* The focus has been on Lincecum's slide but Matt Cain is well into year two of his own slide. He's given up a lot of home runs the past two years and his K/BB ratio has returned to early career levels. Tonight he gave up 8 runs in 5 innings with 2 HR to push his ERA up to 4.52. He came into the game allowing 1.4 HR/9.

* The Padres have a .276 team OBP. Oh, hell, they've hit 216/276/341 for a 617 OPS and 77 OPS+. By comparison Derek Jeter at 275/330/325 looks like Paul Molitor. They have 210 runs scored with the next lowest team (CIN) at 252. Yes, it's a pitcher's park, but the offense has still been bad.

* SB Race: Billy Hamilton 28-8 (78%). Dee Gordon (has been caught a bit recently) 36-6 (86%).

* Mike Trout entered the game with a 175 OPS+ to lead the league, following OPS+s of 168 and 179. He went 3-4 with 2 HR and a double and is now at 311/397/610. I'm guessing he's at around a 180-182 OPS+ now.

* Alex Gordon had a HR and a 2B and is now at 288/369/462.

* Tanaka went 6 innings giving up 1 run on 5 hits and was 2-10 in BB-K. His line now reads 99.2 IP, 79 H, 25 R, 22 ER, 10 HR, 16 BB, 113 K (1.99 ERA, came into today's action with a 200 ERA+). On pace for 38 BB and 265 K. I wrote this on April 10th after he had pitched 14 innings:

Tanaka is looking really good for the Yanks. Forget the ERA, which is good. 1 walk and 18 strikeouts in 14 innings is a major positive sign. As we know, pitchers don't strike out a lot of batters by fluke, and BB/K rates stabilize very quickly. The only questions left unanswered are -- no, they're not the silly questions about whether he can "pitch in New York" -- whether he can keep the ball in the park and, to a lesser extent, whether he can keep his hits allowed rate under control. I see no reason to believe that he will allow a lot of home runs, but that metric takes longer to settle. And the pitchers with K/BB rates this good who allow a ton of hits tend to be old power pitchers at the end of the line, like Pedro or Halladay or Smoltz or Oswalt.

Looks like the jury is almost in, if it isn't in already: he's able to control his hits and HR allowed.

Oh, well. At least I don't have to watch the Tigers blow it in October again.

A's fans worldwide will breathe a sigh of relief.

I am not sure why people are surprised at the Royals playing so well. They are full of young and talented players - they've been adding in reliable veterans - they're exactly the type of team that leaps into first place.

Derek Norris is making a legitimate bid for the All-Star Team.

I am not sure why people are surprised at the Royals playing so well. They are full of young and talented players - they've been adding in reliable veterans - they're exactly the type of team that leaps into first place.

Because of Dayton Moore.

The bullpen! It's always the bullpen! With a $230m payroll, they should be able to get at least one decent reliever. Ugg.

It's pretty clear who won the James Shields/Wil Myers trade.

What, you think Myers won't hit? But he already has hit.

(Unless that comment was sarcastic.)

I have nothing against Shields -- he's a good pitcher and people were underrating him -- but I'd rather have Myers. Especially given that Shields is about to become a free agent and get very expensive.

Derek Norris is making a legitimate bid for the All-Star Team.

Yes. He's already on the all-beard team.

Gotta love how many catchers the A's put on the field at one time (sometimes Norris, Jaso, and Vogt all in the lineup, plus of course Donaldson).

This clip of Jaso and Vogt both suiting up to replace Norris after he was hit on a non-Machado backswing is hilarious. Chemistry on the A's makes them extra-fun to watch.

Jeter had 2 hits tonight and scored his 1900th run.

I'm reminded what Baseball Prospectus wrote after Eddie Murray got his 500th homer:

"The end is very, very near."

In the original Myers/Shields thread I was one of the few voices that even entertained the idea that it wasn't an awful trade for the Royals. Myers/Odorizzi/etc may still end up providing loads more value to the Rays than Shields/Davis do to the Royals, but it seemed clear to me that the Royals were in fact in a very good position to try and go for it by adding a veteran of Shields' caliber.

Amazing fact about Nick Punto:

Punto has 15.2 career WAR. That's about as many as Adam Dunn (16.8), but in 800 fewer games.

I may be misremembering but wasn't part of the criticism of Moore that Myers was being blocked by Francoeur at the time?

Either way, I like the deal from the Rays' perspective, still.

B-R's fielding numbers on Dunn seem a bit off.

Ok, League was able to avert a meltdown and Triunfel got the run back with a HR. Yeah, Triunfel, the backup to the backup to the backup to the backup to Ramirez.

I may be misremembering but wasn't part of the criticism of Moore that Myers was being blocked by Francoeur at the time?

It was commonly stated. Don't know if Moore really thought that way or not. That would be an epic stupid, of course.

Derek Norris enters the game as a pinch hitter and ends up with 5 RBI.

EDIT: He's the 19th bench player to get at least 5 RBI in 2 PA since 1914.

Toronto Blue Jays are also in first place and the Astros don't have the worst record in baseball(The Rays do)

The chance of seeing Buehrle or Dickey made the decision for me: I'm finally getting out to an A's game this season (instead of just radio), and it's against the Jays AND it's Throwback Thursday (celebrating Rickey!) AND Fireworks from the Field immediately afterwards. This should be a great time.

I'll also fulfill another ambition of long standing by making it a Trans-Bay Doubleheader: Giants' day game, take the ferry over to Oakland, A's night game.

Any of you guys ever try this?

#47. Did it years and years ago, but not by ferry. (Is there a ferry that runs anywhere near the Coliseum?)

Why not just use BART to get to the Coliseum from SF?

2 hits already. What happened to the Jansen who had a .854 WHIP the last two years?

The ferry is flexible, depending on how late the Giants game goes & how nice a day it is. If there's time, and it's nice out, I just think it'd be fun to go that way.

Hey YC, where you clappin from oceanside, if I may ask? I know of too few places where you can camp beachside . . .

Just saw this, so excuse the slow reply. Assateague State Park in Maryland. Along with the adjacent National Park, miles of beach, no buildings & very few people. Technically, I guess I'm on the other side of the dune line from the beach, but just a few steps. Nice place, with some shade would be perfect.

Ahh, yes. Assateague is my old stompin grounds. Just bring a tennis racket for a fly swatter and enjoy!