Bobby Abreu

to something painful, but since the ball made its way to the backstop without taking off a chunk of Bobby Abreu’s face, all’s good in the hood. Let me make a pop culture reference to help you better understand. Remember the scene in Top Gun when Maverick buzzed the tower? Sure, it was dangerous, but since Maverick didn’t actually crash into the tower, it really wasn’t that big of a deal, now was it? Beckett didn’t hit Abreu. He sent a message that loosely translated into “Even though I took forever to deliver the pitch, if you wanted to call timeout, you should have done it before I began my motion. You had plenty of time.” If the bodies that rule baseball decide to disallow the pitchers’ right to brush a guy off the plate, which has been suggested by some, it will have a steroid-like effect. If a batter can stand in the box and hover over the plate with no fear of catching one with their body rather than their bat, offensive numbers will increase in a game where hitting already dominates its counterpart.

Continue reading "Beckett Simply Keeping with Tradition"

en, the group of guys surrounding A-Rod (Jeter, Matsui, Giambi, Damon, Robinson Cano, Jorge Posada, Bobby Abreu) is just as good if not better than Manny's supporting cast.

Next, you have to consider Manny Ramirez's super human streak of flat out ridiculously productive seasons.  For almost 12 years now (with only a little bit of variance), all Manny has done at the plate is hit at least 30 homers a season, drive in 100 runs per year, all while hitting .300(ish) or better and get on base more than 40% of the time.  There was also a ridiculous stretch between 1999 and 2006 where his low mark for OPS (that's on base % plus slugging for those who don't know) was .982, which for 90% of Major League hitters would be a career year.  

Continue reading "Just Hit"