Oh, hey.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Well, let’s just pretend that I’ve been writing daily since
I was writing daily — you know, exactly two months ago.
Championship season drains me of so much energy, and then I
get out of it. It's just a snowball rolling down a hill, so here I am trying to get back on the horse.
OK, well, Dude and JV are on horses; I’m on a pony — a
three-legged one, at that.
NATIONAL DOMINANCE
The big National League matchup just ended with the Cheese
Steaks doing what they always do — dominate.
With a 13-6-3 win, Cheese takes a 6.5-game lead in the
division, the biggest separation we have seen in weeks.
For Cheese, the bats were monstrous, as he hit .335 with 17
homers, 51 RBIs and 51 runs scored. That
included big weeks by Rhys Hoskins, Scott Kingery, Hunter Pence, Manny Machado
and Francisco Lindor.
Kingery. Man, that’s a tough one to see. I remember vividly
looking at him on the free agent wire a while ago and thinking maybe, just
maybe, I should take a stab at him bouncing back.
I should have.
So should anyone else who thought about it.
Of course, JV did.
And he had to. Guys whom you have owned and kept, but let go
have that special meaning attached to them and you’d hate to see them go
elsewhere and succeed. It’s like Mallex Smith for me, a keeper whom I have dropped twice already. He’s back on my team and hitting .290 over his last 30
games with 14 runs, 3 homers, 14 RBIs and 10 SBs. Now that’s the Mallex Smith I
kept.
So, I know why JV had to jump back in on Kingery long before
he broke out. You just have to trust your initial instincts and make sure someone else isn't benefiting from the player you believed in.
Kingery’s ridiculous 11-for-22 week with 4 homers and 8 RBIs
played a key role in putting a stop to one of the hottest teams in the JLB. The
Dude had just picked up his second 17-3 win of the season. He also had wins of
15-2, 16-5 and 14-6.
It was an easy go of it prior to hitting JV.
The Cheese Steaks’ dominance is all about what he’s done in the division. Right now, he’s 92-42-19 in the National League and it’s starting to look like once again, the
biggest thing JV needs to do is make sure he has a good three weeks in
September to finish off what would be four titles in five years.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW
How’s that for a debut? Masahiro Tanaka tosses a complete-game shutout with 10 strikeouts as Tommy — team name pending — takes his run at the JLB.
Choo predicted he would lose 16-4, and if this fully set
lineup on a Monday is any indication, Choo may be 100-percent right.
LUCKY, UNLUCKY
Parker plays a team that gave up and gets a 14-7-1 win. Crox
fights for his 2019 life against Sam and loses 11-10-1.
That loss is insane considering Crox had 19 homers, 57 RBIs
and 95 strikeouts — all categories he lost that he shouldn’t have.
To compare, had he played Parker last week, the final score
would have been Crox, 16-2.
That’s so tough luck there.
And I can sympathize for sure.
YANK’D FROM THE
LINEUP
Edwin Encarnacion said on Monday, “It’s going to be fun to
be a Yankee.”
That’s what it should be, fun.
But that hasn’t been the case for Clint Frazier who has
really deserved to be in Major League pinstripes for two years now, and he just
hasn’t had the chance to stick around.
When given the chance, he has proved his worth, yet he was
cut from the team and optioned back to Triple-A — presumably to never return
unless as a visitor.
I fully expect Frazier to be dealt here soon. It only makes
sense, and I really hope they do it soon. He deserves the right to accrue major
league experience and move closer to arbitration and free agency.
I also hope the same happens to Kyle Tucker who doesn’t
appear to have a pathway to play for the Astros at all. He should be traded for
a key pitching piece very soon.
This may come down to who do the Giants like more, Tucker or
Frazier. Madison Bumgarner has to be the top arm cherished by both the Yankees
and the Astros, and it really looks like it will come down to who the Giants
would prefer in their outfield this summer and the foreseeable future.
Who would you take? Weigh in on our Slack chat!
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