Another beautiful week of baseball, with some more great milestones for star players, like Stanton being the first to hit 40 home runs. You don't need to win the Derby back-to-back to be the best at home runs, as he has proven. Teams like Boston and Washington are moving along in their divisions, while the wild card is important for the Yankees and Rays. As the month goes on, spots may change and teams may get hot at the right times. Ten years ago today, The Indians paid tribute to Larry Doby on his day at what was then called Jacobs Field, by collectively wearing his number 14 on their uniforms. In 1947, the future Hall of Fame outfielder became the first black player in the American League, making his debut in Detroit with Cleveland as a pinch-hitter.
Another week, another update on how the two front runners are doing in the AL and NL. Both maintain their second and third place in the MLB for home runs and get ready to hear a lot about those, because that's what these two love to do. Other than that, they also like to put their names in records that we forgot existed and that makes us even more amazed. Aaron Judge Wed., 8/2 vs. Det: 1-for-4, single 8/4 at Cle: 1-for-2, 2 walks (77, 78) and a single 8/5 at Cle: 1-for-4, single 8/6 at Cle: 1-for-2, three-run home run (35) at 396 ft. Tues., 8/8 at Tor: 0-for-3 Judge was struggling for a long time and is still on the strikeout streak at 25 games, but he's making progress this week and finally broke his home run drought of four games last Sunday. He is hitting .190 in August but he has managed to keep his season average around .297. Even though he is slumping majorly right now, he still has had a great season. His 35th home run made him one of 11 rookies to hit that many and if he hits only 4 more, he can become the second all-time for rookies. Don't be phased by this big slump because it cannot take away from the amazing season he is having. Cody Bellinger Wed., 8/2 at Atl: 2-for-4, solo home run (30) at 434 ft., RBI (71) 8/3 at Atl: 0-for-5 8/4 at NYM: 0-for-4 8/5 at NYM: 1-for-5, two-run home run (31) at 401 ft., 2 RBIs (72, 73) 8/6 at NYM: 1-for-3, two-run home run (32) at 447 ft., 2 RBIs (74, 75), 1 walk (42) Bellinger's latest home run was his longest in his career of 337 at-bats. He's already hit 4 home runs this month which ties his total for all of July. August's batting average sits at a decent .241, considering half of his hits are home runs. Another interesting fact about his home runs are that 16 out of 32 have come in the 7th inning or later, which ties Frank Robinson's rookie record. Hope to see more good things happen here!
If you've heard of some of these rookies before, then great! You can call yourself a savvy baseball fan! If not, there is no shame because there are so many rookies on teams and it would take a long time to get to know all of them! Hunter Renfroe The right fielder for the Padres has steadily improved this month and is hitting .353 in five games. All of his hits this month have come from three two-hit games. Renfroe has 20 home runs and 45 RBIs in 371 at-bats. Previously this year, he was known for landing one at the top of the roof at Petco Park, a difficult place to homer. If he hits 24 or more home runs this season, he will either tie or beat Nate Colbert's record with the Padres in 1969. Right now he ranks fourth among all MLB rookies in home runs. Trey Mancini I hope your August is going nearly as well as Mancini's is right now because he is hitting .333 so far. Part of that average includes his fifth 3-hit game of the season yesterday vs. Detroit. Mancini's three hits involved two singles and 388 ft home run (18) that gave him his 58th RBI of the season. Those three hits have boosted his average back up to .300. Improvement has already happened for the designated hitter in August, where as in July he had an On-Base Percentage of .352 in five games compared to his .429 OBP in these past five games. Ty Blach Blach is solid throughout this season and pitched more innings, 121.0, than all rookie pitchers that are not named Kyle Freeland. He also is the only to have a complete game shut out so far this season. Last Thursday, he marked off a new milestone in his career, his first home run. Madison Bumgarner is not the only Giants pitcher to launch them out in the Bay and Blach's 425 ft. smash proved that as the Giants took that game easily, 11-2, vs. Oakland. Not only did Blach provide the offense in that game, but he also allowed only 2 runs on 6 hits in eight innings. It feels to go to not only earn the win, but to also defeat the team from across the Bay. Next Start: TUESDAY, August 8 vs. Chicago Cubs (9:15 CT). Hey, Chicago, what do you say? Time to face a rookie today! Parker Bridwell Bridwell is a nice suprise this season for a struggling rotation that needed a healthy, dependable arm. Bridwell earned a no-decision on Thursday, which was better for him since he allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in 5.0 innings and did not have his best game. Back on July 29 however, Bridwell pitched a great game and allowed 1 run on only 3 hits in 7.1 innings. His ERA is at a good 3.20, which sits him at fourth in MLB rookie pitchers. Next Start: TUESDAY, vs. Baltimore Orioles (7:07 PT). Let's see if he can get his groove back and win this decision against the team that dumped him for cash! Congrats to Yulieski Gurriel (Houston) and Paul DeJong (St. Louis) on winning July Rookie of the Month!
What a week! The deadline ended, a certain player joined the 3,000 club, other players decided to have a multihomer game, and then a mascot got into it with an opposing player. All that is documented here and it happened with Western teams! So, I guess the best entertainment really is out in the West. Happy Friday and welcome to enjoying the day and the weekend ahead! Today's post will focus on helping you get ready for a fun weekend or maybe a relaxing one. Whatever you do, you always need a playlist to get you going. So thanks to mlb.com for being so fan-friendly, we are able to access all teams' walk-up songs! Since I do not know what teams you all want to request, I will put a few together that I scrambled from teams and beyond. Party Like An MVP Take a hit from a list comprised of all the remaining MVPs in the game. With hits ranging from country to hip hop, you are sure to be covered for the day. Young and Free They may be young and new to the MLB, but these rookies definitely know their music. Trust some of the younger population of baseball to guide your playlist and give it some life for a nice, quick pick-me-up this weekend (or week!). Hope that these two playlists will help you this weekend and beyond! More will come in the future, so don't worry!
On this day in 2012, In the span of about an hour, the Upton brothers went deep to both record their 100th career home run on the same night in different ball parks. Justin, who was with Arizona at the time, went yard off at Philadelphia while older sibling B.J. hit one for the Rays at home.
In the last Rookie Report, I promised to update you all on Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger since they were heavily featured on there for weeks and are already the favorites to win the award. Since I do not want to make empty promises, I decided to give a weekly update on them to make it easier for you all to know how they did that week. Aaron Judge Tues. 7/25 vs. Cin: 1-for-3, 1 walk (72) and 1 run 7/27 vs. TB: 1-for-5 7/28 vs. TB: 1-for-4, 1 HR (33) at 387 ft. 7/29 vs. TB: 0-for-3, 1 walk (73) 7/30 vs. TB: 0-for-4, 1 walk (74) 7/31 vs. Det: 1-for-2, 2 runs (82, 83), 1 HR (34) at 408 ft., 1 RBI (75), 2 walks (75, 76) Tues. 8/1 vs. Det: 0-for-4 Weekly AVG.: .160 *Notes: Judge leads the AL with 76 walks and has 31 to go to at least tie Ted Williams' record of 107 walks during his rookie season. There's most definitely no place like home because Judge is about to tie and beat the rookie record for most home runs at home with his 23rd on Monday. He just needs one more to tie Walt Dropo's 24 at Fenway in 1950. A strange thing that happened on 7/27, if you didn't already know, was that Judge celebrated the walk-off win with his teammates but his tooth was chipped in the process. So much for being a nice and supportive teammate... July Batting Avg.: .230 Home Runs: 7 RBI: 13 Hits: 20 Runs: 13 Hopefully he can break out of the July slump that he had because we all enjoy seeing him do so well. Even though this would be considered a slump by his standards, I do think he is still doing well and is helping his team stay in the playoff race. Not everyone can be perfect all the time and this is a perfect learning experience that will make his successes later on feel better. Cody Bellinger Tues. 7/25 vs. Min: 1-for-3, 1 walk (39) 7/26 vs. Min: 0-for-4 7/28 vs. SF: 0-for-4, 7/29 vs. SF: 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, 7/30 vs. SF: 1-for-3, 2 walks (40, 41) Tues. 8/1 vs. Atl: 2-for-4, 1 run (85), 1 HR (29) at 414 ft., 1 RBI (70) Weekly AVG.: .285 *Notes: The Dodgers are 18-0 when Bellinger has 2+ RBIs, like he did on Saturday vs. SF. When the Dodgers' win streak was on the line on 7/24, Bellinger hit a three-run homer in the 8th to seal their third victory in a row at that time and once again was clutch for the team. July Batting Avg.: .263 Home Runs: 4 RBI: 13 Hits: 21 Runs: 9 He has not slowed down as much towards the end of July and continues to be consistent with hitting. He definitely is helping his team out by being the clutch hitter in a few of their close calls and has helped their current 9 game win streak stay intact. Who knows if August will be even better than July for him, because if it was, then the team will be even happier than they are right now and that's extremely happy. |
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