6/8/11 RSS Feed Favorites, with Burnt Popcorn

SMOOCH


Today's pick o' the RSS Feed; when you are forced to use an alternate microwave, you stand the risk of burning some popcorn…and this may or may not be a problem…

BaseballPress.com:
Ten Signs That You May Be Bad at Fantasy Baseball by Dan Port
Humorous! Seriously, just like making your first batch of homebrew, never sign off on your Fantasy Baseball experience based on the disparities of your expectationsyou’re your results the first year to give it a shot. I drafted Brandon Wood last year, you can do it too (but if you did this year…aieeeeeee)

Goat Riders of the Apocalypse:
Is Blake DeWitt better than Darwin Barney? by AJ Walsh
…it’s almost a sure thing he will be if Barney gets picked for the All-Star Team! But, as Mr Walsh illustrates…controversial, yet there is some basis to this thinking. Would you prefer Wilson Betemit? NO!! Brett Jackson hitting lead off? …hmm, perhaps you can fill us in on that one! In the meantime, hey, whether or not you can or can’t agree this…Darwin Barney was in a movie a couple of years ago, and Blake DeWitt is not related to Joyce DeWitt, so there!

Kings of Kauffman:
Feeling a Draft – Who’s Next? by Jeff Herr
The big story was Bubba Starling drafted in the first round…so, who’s next for the Royals?

examiner.com:
Jose Pagan, Puerto Rican pioneer in baseball dies at 76 by Nick Diunte
Very sad to hear of this, Pagan did quite a bit for Puerto Rico, as most of us believe it starts with baseball and becomes so much more…

Old Time Family Baseball:
Bryce Harper Blows Pitcher a Kiss After Hitting Home Run
This was certainly busting up the feeds all over yesterday, but I mention this in today’s post primarily due to the fact that I, too, was wondering why the kiss was more controversial than THE MOUSTACHE!! ewwww!

The Greatest 21 Days: 1990 CMC: by Steve78
Marvin Freeman, Fine Arm - 228
…and a fine head under that hat, to boot!!


Eien no tomodachi,
Stevo-sama

Can't Get Enough of Darwin Barney?

Maybe you’ve had it with the CUBS this year, but just can’t get enough of the scrappy rookie All-Star write-in candidate second baseman Darwin Barney…


Fear not, Cubs fans…here’s something that will put a smile on your face! Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but our little buddy Darwin has been in a movie!!

The movie is the 2009 “indie” sports baseball comedy Calvin Marshall, directed by Gary Lundgren and starring Steve Zahn, Diedrich Bader, Alex Frost, and none other than Darwin Barney as “Murphy,” a small role but a role nonetheless! If you already knew this…good for you! If you didn’t know this, well now you can Google it and find out more, even see a few trailers, etc.

You don’t have to wait long to see him, immediately following the title sequence is the big ‘baseball team tryout’ in which Barney gets a decent amount of camera “face time”…

Steve Zahn as ‘Coach Little’ speaking to the folks trying out for the team…the title character Calvin Marshall is seen at the lower right corner…do you see Darwin Barney?


OK, zooming in a little…and using my magic red circle, do you see him NOW?!?


The camera pans across the faces of the prospective players, here’s a closer shot of Darwin, right before the camera stops on the face of the character Calvin Marshall listening to Coach Little’s typical ‘you aren’t good enough to play on my team’ baseball movie speech…


Oh, yes…because you demand ACTION in your baseball movies, here’s a shot of Darwin Barney as “Murphy,” in the batting cage!


As far as “baseball” movies go, this one really isn’t as bad as most. Do check it out, if for no other reason than to get MORE Darwin Barney in your life!

So this movie has been out since 2009, and lots of people know about it, so why am I bringing this up now?

First reason: It’s currently on Netfilx streaming…and recently so…
This is nice because if you’re one of those whose movie-watching habits have changed at least a little bit since Netflix and the advent of their massive and ever-expanding streaming library, this means you can actually watch just enough of the movie to determine whether or not it’s worth watching the whole thing.

Let’s level-set real quick…it's the truth that most “baseball” movies are nothing but crap. The only thing that I find “good” about any handful of the plus/minus 3 sigma “baseball” movies are the cameo appearances and/or the occasional baseball pop culture references that usually appear in these movies…otherwise, they are usually nothing but junk. It’s nice when new “baseball” movies appear in my queue, because I can flip through enough scenes to find out the difference between the near-gems and the junk. This movie qualifies first because of the cameo appearance (Barney)…but, this was not meant to be a movie review, as I don’t want to start getting into reviewing movies on a baseball blog…

Second reason: It’s DRAFT DAY today…
So fire up MLB Network, enjoy a draft or two of your own, and let’s celebrate the seasonal reoccurrence of the pageant which is the potential future of professional baseball, on parade with agents and former players galore!!

…and hey…”Calvin Marshall” even has a Twitter account!!


Go CUBS!!

HAPPY DRAFT DAY!!!

5/3/11 Chicago Cubs 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 1

Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Game 2 of 3

Buy your Carlos Peña jersey NOW!!! …while he’s HOT!!



The Los Angeles Dodgers, even though nobody seems to care much for them this year, are pretty good at playing baseball. The Cubs not only played well, but a couple of REALLY FANTASTIC things happened during this game:

Carlos Peña hits his first Home Run as a Cub!

Ryan Dempster pitches more than 4 good innings (7 great innings actually!)



It was Dempster’s 34th birthday and his first start since getting particularly sliced up by the Diamondbacks in his shortest career start ever on 4/29/11. If that isn’t a motivator for the ‘next time around’ I don’t know what is, but we are talking about Ryan Dempster and I know this isn’t the first year I’ve wondered how much gas he has left in his tank as a better than average starting pitcher. 7IP, 6H, 1ER, 2BB, 5K, WP, 27BF, 114 pitches, 75 strikes…that’s a pretty snazzy line for a guy who’s pitching in his mid-30s. If you don’t think so, then just compare it to his line from 4/29/11, and now…how can you disagree? His first Quality Start of the 2011 season. Dempster left with the game tied, however, so Kerry Wood gets the W in relief.

Dempster’s 6 hits and 1 run (earned) will be the only allowed in the game by Cubs’ pitching; Demptser, Wood, and Carlos Marmol combined did not allow any extra base hits.

But HEY…Carlos Peña finally gets his first tater of the season, a solo shot with one out, courtesy of Chad Billingsley, who also pitched very well. The Dodgers can blame this loss on Jonathan Broxton, but by golly…the Cubs did very well today!!

Andre Ethier extends his consecutive game hitting streak to 29.

Congratulations to Darwin Barney, National League Rookie of the Month for April 2011.

Go CUBS.

4/23/11 Los Angeles Dodgers 8, Chicago Cubs 10

Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
Game 2 of 3

You gotta love the top of the order…



Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney (batting #1 and #2 respectively) combine for 6RBI, 7H, 4R, and even 2SB (Barney’s was part of a double steal with Marlon Byrd…it’s so good to see that kind of stuff again!).



Pre-game hype was all about the clash of the TITANS, Ryan Dempster against former Cub Ted Lilly. Meh. Neither were great, neither lasted more than 5.2 innings…they combined for 12ER, 20H, 4BB and 6K facing 52 batters total.

Jeff Baker’s 2RBI double in the 8th capped off a 5-run inning that gave the Cubs the kind of lead they needed to keep on top of the Dodgers for the rest of the game.

What Lilly let go of, Matt Guerrier made it worse for the Dodgers. Sean Marshall did his best Carlos Marmol impression, really leaving us nearly to vomit…shockingly, Jeff Samardzija (YES, that same guy!) came in to pitch a stellar 1.1 innings with 3 consecutive strikeouts on the 8th inning. WHOA!! And then the real Carlos Marmol enters to only freak us out half as much as he usually does, but does very well.

Andre Ethier hits safely in his 20th consecutive game.

Scorekeeper’s Note: in the bottom of the 4th, while attempting to steal second, a pick-off attempt on Darwin Barney by Lilly > James Loney is called “Obstruction” (on Loney, for not clearing the basepath). The obstruction call is subsequently ruled an Error, charged to Loney, on your scoresheet.

Go CUBS.

4/16/11 Chicago Cubs 8, Colorado Rockies 3

Coors Field, Denver, CO
Game 2 of 3



Well, what ELSE could I call this pair after this game?!?

We came into this game mighty fearful (c’mon, you know it’s true!), facing the Rox whilst they sported a formidable 7-game winning streak and enjoying the best W-L record in the MLB. This streak was effectively blasted by the fighting Cubbies…the Rockies went 0-for-12 with RISP, Casey Coleman pitched 5.2 very good innings, and Starlin Castro…really?!?

AJ Walsh is probably not sure why I don’t LOVE Castro yet, but as we joked during this game, I am enjoying this period of lust…I’m afraid if I express my LOVE, the relationship might go ‘foul’ and I am really enjoying this ride a bit too much to break up the party!



Troy Tulowitzki wasn’t exactly reserved but he wasn’t exactly hot either (2-for-4, R, 2 flyouts)…my private tears fell for Ian Stewart, the current lump on my fantasy league roster. Chris Iannetta pwned the Rockies offense today with a solitary 1 out 2-run HR (the Rockies’ only other run driven in by Seth Smith).

Casey Coleman (4H, ER, 3BB, 3K, 2HB, 96 pitches total; 51 strikes, 7 balls in the air, 7 on the ground) was near-deadly during his outing but not exactly lights out…and that’s just fine with me, he challenged the best team in baseball and he WON. With help from the Rockies, who stranded 13 total in the game. And with help from the CUBBIES.

He hit 2 batters, Rockies starting pitcher hit 1 in response. That’s OK, it’s baseball. And the benches didn’t clear. NICE. I love this stuff.

As for this guy, Starlin Castro…if there’s one Cub on the roster that’s going to get me off of my Carlos Marmol Tums Addiction, maybe he really will be the one. Dude went 4-for-5 with a run scored, 3 driven in (on a most excellent 3-run HR), and a groundout in his final plate appearance. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Darwin Barney with back-to-back doubles and Alfonso Soriano with a solo HR! Kosuke Fukudome came up with a dazzling Broken Bat RBI Single. Was I pinching myself? Quite.

I love the CUBS. I really like this team…it’s only April, but you know what…I’ve already began the process of believing that there’s more to Castro than the “Cuban Hustle Crisis,” I have re-acclimated myself to the fact that Carlos Zambrano is a great pitcher, I still believe that Matt Garza is AWESOME, and I don’t find myself caring about Carlos Pena’s Mendoza numbers right now (mostly because I think I didn’t expect them to change). The Cubs are NL Central contenders in April…they weren’t in April last year, so THIS is an improvement. I am still worried about the Cardinals…I am a Cubs fan, that’s the way it goes. This is a marathon.

I just realized I forgot to tally the Pena Shift on my scoresheet; the shift was on in 4 of his 5 plate appearances, but was not effective in his first at-bat, a single to (where else?) the second baseman.

Strike up the band…no doubt about it…the CUBS are on their way.