By The Jersey Hitman
League 6
League 17
Holy broken baseball bats, Batman! Mike Piazza retired! I wish I could find a catcher today that could hit the way he could. And I wish the Yankees could find someone that could hit. Something is missing in the Bronx: in the words of Paul Simon, “Where have you gone, Joe Torre?” Well - something like that.
The Good: Mike Piazza
Former catcher, and future Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza announced his retirement earlier this week. Now, I know this does not affect anyone’s fantasy team this season, but he sure helped many teams in years past.
I never saw anyone hit a ball harder than Piazza. The ball would just jump off his bat. A great clutch hitter, the 12-time All-Star hit .308 for his career with 427 home runs, 396 of those home runs coming as a catcher. That is the record, topping Carlton Fisk’s 351.
He is one of only eight catchers to hit at least .300 with 30 or more home runs and 100+ RBIs in a season. He accomplished this six times, while Roy Campanella is the only other catcher to do it more than once with three such seasons.
In the world of fantasy baseball, Mike was a first round pick for the ten year period of 1993-2002. In real life, he was taken in Round 62 by the Dodgers, the 1,390th pick in the draft … and they only drafted him as a favor to his godfather, Tommy Lasorda.
Personally, I will never forget the home run that Mike hit in the first game in New York after the 9/11 tragedy. It is hard to explain how something like a game winning home run can give a city and its surrounding area such a lift at such a terrible time, but somehow that home run did. I guess it just gave us all something good and uplifting to witness and later talk about. With one swing of the bat, you got the feeling that somehow things would be alright.
The Bad: Maple Bats
Have you ever seen so many broken bats? The bats aren’t just breaking on jam shots, either. Hit a ball with the end of the bat, and it breaks; center it on the barrel, and it breaks.
The Commissioner’s Office is looking into it, but it is obvious the reason is the wood. More and more players are turning to bats made of maple wood instead of traditional ash wood. The reason for this is that maple bats are supposed to be harder than ash bats. Yet they continue to shatter all over the field.
Someone will get hurt soon enough - I don’t want to see it, but it will happen. I was watching the Rockies play the Giants Tuesday night, and pitcher Aaron Cook took a bat barrel off the knee. Luckily he was okay, but how long before the luck runs out?
This may seem like it has nothing to do with fantasy baseball, but if a player gets injured with a flying bat barrel it will. And it will be a shame if he got hurt because of something that could have been prevented. The only thing worse than a player getting hurt like that would be a fan getting hurt. Lets hope we never see either.
The Ugly: The New York Yankees
Highest payroll in baseball nowadays gets you last place in the AL East. Honestly, I can’t even watch them sometimes. Jason Giambi is hitting under .200 and throwing the ball all over the place. Robinson Cano has only just got his average above .200, while Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy look like minor league pitchers. And now Hughes on the DL. Aargh!
Mike Mussina shocked everyone with his string of good starts recently. Then, just as some fantasy owners began to pick him up, he came crashing down to earth on Tuesday night when the light-hitting Baltimore Orioles lit him up for seven runs in just 2/3 of an inning. Thanks to a Derek Jeter error, only one run was earned, but Moose couldn’t get past it … giving up 5 hits and two walks. Nice WHIP, Mike.
Whatever happened to the different style of managing Joe Girardi was supposedly going to bring to the Bronx? More of a NL-style with stolen bases and bunting runners over, we were told. Well, I haven’t seen any of it. With A-Rod and Jorge Posada on the DL, you would think that the Yankees would be trying to manufacture some runs, but it’s not happening.
The Yankees have done the same thing the past few seasons: started out slow and then caught fire later on and made the playoffs. As a Yankee fan, I have to tell you, it just seems different this season. How many times can a team do it?
I never thought I would say it … but I think I miss Joe Torre. I wonder if the Steinbrenners feel the same way?