Baseball Etcetera...A-Rod hits 5th HR...Sosa, Bonds slumping

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest Three Consecutive Doubleheaders? It will be interesting to see how major league baseball untangles the mess after bad weather caused the Indians and Mariners to postpone a single game and three doubleheaders last weekend and Monday. The two teams don't play again until the last month of season when Indians visit Seattle the last week of the season. Unless they make up some of the missed games on off days they could possibly have to play three doubleheaders in a row to make up for the lost weekend which is very possible considering the Indians seem to have a chance to win the AL Central title.

Alex Rodriguez hit his fifth homer of the season making him the only Yankee in their long history to have hit 5 homers in the first 6 games. Carl Pavano finally won a game for the Yankees as he gave up 2 runs in 7 innings. His opponent Sidney Ponson may be on the brink of being released or relegated to bullpen duty unless he pitches better in his next start. Ponson allowed the Yankees to score 8 runs and garner 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings and boosting his ERA to 12.71....A.J. Burnett pitched the Blue Jays to a 9-1 win over the Royals allowing only one run and 3 hits in 6 2/3 innings. Alex Gordon who by many is considered the No.1 prospect playing in major this year continues his anemic hitting as he is now hitting .045 with one single in 22 at bats.

Sammy Sosa is being reminded of what he proably already knew....that spring training numbers mean nothing as he is hitting .167 with 4 hits in 24 at bats during the regular season....Jose Contreras posted his first win of the season allowing one run and four hits in 6 innings in the White Sox 4-1 win over the Athletics. Rich Harden pitched good enough to win most games allowing only 2 earned runs while striking out 6 in 6 innings but the A's bats were silent for the most part only having 5 hits in the game....Cole Hamels actually pitched better than his opponent John Maine but the Phillies bullpen took them out of the game. Hamels only allowed 2 earned runs but their bullpen enabled the Mets to post a 11-5 win.

Braden Looper and Ian Snell locked up in a pitching duel as the Cardinals took a 3-0 victory over the Pirates. Looper allowed no runs and two hits in 7 innings while Snell gave up one run and 6 hits in 7 innings but the Pirates bullpen gave up two additional runs in the eighth inning. Cardinals hitters still have not become untracked as they had only one hitter (Chris Duncan) hitting over .300 in yesterday's lineup....After their win over the Cubs yesterday the Astros need to win today to keep from being in last place in NL Central. A win today will give them company in last place with the Cubs owning a share of last place. After 32 at bats Alfonso Soriano has not hit a home run or driven in a run. When a player signs a contract for $136 million the team has every right to expect better numbers than those he has posted so far.

Rockies leadoff hitters are not doing well with Willy Taveras and Steve Finley combining to have only 5 hits in 33 times at bat. This team has too many good hitters in middle of lineup to have leadoff hitters preventing them from having big innings....Jeff Suppan is now 0-2 with Brewers. The Brewers need Suppan, Ben Sheets and Chris Capuano to win consistently for this team to be a force in the NL Central race.

Chris Young and Padres take a 1-0 win over the Giants a game in which both Young and Matt Cain pitched good enough to win but Cain allowed 1 run and 1 hit in 7 innings yet still took the loss. Barry Bonds was 0 for 2 and has only one hit in his last ten trips to the plate as his average tumbled to .200.

Stats Corner

Alex Rodriguez leads majors in home runs and RBI's with 5 and 13 to lead those categories. Orlando Hudson of the Diamondbacks is leading majors in hits with 13. Rodriguez leads in total bases with 27....Surprise leaders in stolen bases are Eric Byrnes and Ryan Freel with 4 each....Anibal Sanchez has given up 18 hits to lead in most hits given up this season but has a 1-0 record....Carlos Zambrano can't be too happy about leading the majors in home runs allowed with 4...not exactly the kind of numbers he would want while hoping to get a contract extension....Hitters are hitting only .142 against Rich Hill making him the leader in that category.

Standings Highlights

Blue Jays, Twins and Angels lead the three AL divisions while in NL the Braves and Diamondbacks lead their divisions while the Pirates and Reds are tied for the NL Central lead. Diamondbacks have longest winning streak with 5 wins. Giants and Nationals have the longest losing streak with 4 consecutive losses. The three worst teams in majors are the Giants, Phillies and Nationals all with 1-6 records.

Mets are highest scoring team with 47 runs while Giants are the lowest scoring team in baseball with only 14 runs in 7 games.

Aaron Not Planning on Booking Flight To Scene If Bonds On Brink of Passing Him

Hank Aaron says he is not planning to to take an airplane flight just to be there if and when Bonds passes him for the all time home run lead. Aaron does say he might send him a telegram in the event Bonds should pass him.

You can't blame Aaron for not wanting to be part of a ceremony that would honor a cheater so Balco Barry doesn't deserve to even have Aaron as part of the festivities celebrating him passing Aaron.

Balco Barry doesn't understand that Aaron is from a generation that worked hard for what he achieved and not by being chemically assisted by drugs. Aaron is one the humblest superstars in history of baseball. He never sought to have the spotlight turned on him. The spotlight was turned on him because of his chasing the record of Babe Ruth not because Aaron wanted the attention that Bonds craves.

It was 33 years ago that Aaron broke Babe Ruth's mark of 714 home runs by hitting his 715th home run. I watched it happen on TV that night but if Bonds ties Aaron I have no plans on watching the event because it will have nothing to do with skill but due to how many steroids one man can ingest into his system to inflate his home run totals.

Aaron has too much class to follow Bonds around the country till he passes him. Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that Bonds suddenly found his home run stroke in his mid 30's and has hit more home runs since age of 35 than most players hit in their entire careers.

This situation could have been avoided if baseball commissioner Bud Selig ignored the use of steroids because the home run binge was boosting attendance at games and making his fellow owners richer. So if Selig finds himself in a uncomfortable situation this summer if Bonds does pass Aaron he only has himself to blame.

So hope Hammering Hank will stay home and take it easy at the age of 72 instead of following Balco around the country to see a cheater pass him in career homers.

Below is an article from Atlanta Constitution that explains in detail why Aaron won't be there if Bonds does pass him with many comments after the article complimentary toward Aaron with a few defending Balco Barry.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2007/04/09/aaron_owes_bond.html

Enable Comment Auto-Refresher

Bball3345Draft Pick

984 days ago

Score 2

"Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that Bonds suddenly found his home run stroke in his mid 30's and has hit more home runs since age of 35 than most players hit in their entire careers."

You keep ignoring the fact that Ted Williams and Hank Aaron both had power spikes at the end of their careers.

How do YOU explain that?

Permalink | Reply

Anonymous Fanatic #1

984 days ago

Score -2

beanballs- you should really do some homework!! from age 21 - 32 ted williams hit on average 33 homeruns a year. from age 33 - 42 he hit 25 homeruns a year.

NOT REALLY SURE WHAT POWER SURGE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?!

NOW LOOK AT BONDS--- HAHA, OOPS STEROIDS!!! STEROIDS!!!! STEROIDS!!!

Permalink | Reply

Davis21wylieMVP

984 days ago

Score 3

Ted Williams career splits, pre- and post-Age 32:

year	team	lg	G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	AVG	SLG	ISO
1939	BOS	AL	149	565	185	44	11	31	145	344	0.327	0.609	0.281
1940	BOS	AL	144	561	193	43	14	23	113	333	0.344	0.594	0.250
1941	BOS	AL	143	456	185	33	3	37	120	335	0.406	0.735	0.329
1942	BOS	AL	150	522	186	34	5	36	137	338	0.356	0.648	0.291
1946	BOS	AL	150	514	176	37	8	38	123	343	0.342	0.667	0.325
1947	BOS	AL	156	528	181	40	9	32	114	335	0.343	0.634	0.292
1948	BOS	AL	137	509	188	44	3	25	127	313	0.369	0.615	0.246
1949	BOS	AL	155	566	194	39	3	43	159	368	0.343	0.650	0.307
1950	BOS	AL	89	334	106	24	1	28	97	216	0.317	0.647	0.329
1951	BOS	AL	148	531	169	28	4	30	126	295	0.318	0.556	0.237
1421	5086	1763	366	61	323	1261	3220	0.347	0.633	0.286

1952	BOS	AL	6	10	4	0	1	1	3	9	0.400	0.900	0.500
1953	BOS	AL	37	91	37	6	0	13	34	82	0.407	0.901	0.495
1954	BOS	AL	117	386	133	23	1	29	89	245	0.345	0.635	0.290
1955	BOS	AL	98	320	114	21	3	28	83	225	0.356	0.703	0.347
1956	BOS	AL	136	400	138	28	2	24	82	242	0.345	0.605	0.260
1957	BOS	AL	132	420	163	28	1	38	87	307	0.388	0.731	0.343
1958	BOS	AL	129	411	135	23	2	26	85	240	0.328	0.584	0.255
1959	BOS	AL	103	272	69	15	0	10	43	114	0.254	0.419	0.165
1960	BOS	AL	113	310	98	15	0	29	72	200	0.316	0.645	0.329
871	2620	891	159	10	198	578	1664	0.340	0.635	0.295

Williams had a higher SLG and Isolated Power in the 2nd half of his career.

Baseball Etcetera...A-Rod hits 5th HR...Sosa, Bonds slumping

Baseball Notebook

Contribute

Recent contributors to this page

Embed this on your site