Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
-- Adrian Beltre had three homers in first four innings Wednesday, hitting two in fourth inning alone, as Texas spanked the Orioles.
-- Brian LaHair his his first homer since All-Star game Wednesday; Cubs should trade him somewhere where he can get ABs next season. Guy was on the All-Star team, now they never play him.
-- People are betting under on Miami's win total for this year; wonder if Hard Knocks has anything to do with it?
-- Mets threw towel in on 2012, shutting down Johan Santana, who was never the same after getting hurt covering first base in a game. Its easy to criticize them for letting him throw 134 pitches in his no-hitter, but it is unclear if that is what caused his decline the last two months.
-- St Louis passed the Pirates in the race for the second NL Wild Card; been a rough road trip for Bucs, who come home this weekend.
-- A's got blindsided by Bartolo Colon's suspension; they never would've sent Dan Straily down if they knew- they can't bring him back for at least 10 days, and they used Blackley in long relief earlier this week. A's had to bring Tyson Ross up to make the emergency start tonight in St Pete.
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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) If I was NFL Commissioner for a day, I’d legalize celebrations, but only after touchdowns; not after first downs or sacks or successful replay challenges. Players work hard; they should be allowed some fun after they score points, but problem is, it got out of hand so the league shut it down. People like the celebrations, I think; it wouldn’t hurt anyone to allow them.
12) Football is one game where the majority of players never touch the ball/puck. Seems obvious, but it never really dawned on me until just now.
11) Toronto’s Randy Romero became just second pitcher in last 20 years (Greg Reynolds, ’08) to walk 8+ batters in a game, without striking anyone out. Romero is 0-10 in his last 11 starts, and Jays were down two runs in 9th inning in the no-decision.
10) Kevin Youkilis hit a grand slam Tuesday, after hitting one for Boston (against the White Sox) earlier this year; Elias Sports Bureau reports that makes Youkilis the first player since 1952 to hit a grand slam for and against the same team in the same season.
9) Free agent-to-be Nick Swisher is going to ask for seven years, $126M? Anyone have Heidi Klum’s phone number? I want to ask her out; I’ve got a better chance of dating her than Swisher does of making $18M a year for seven years. Seriously, thats fantasy land.
8) Felix Hernandez swears he won’t leave Seattle as a free agent; makes sense, quiet city, good pitcher’s park, but if I ran the Mariners, I’d like to get that promise in writing.
7) Oakland shortstops are hitting a combined .188 this year, which explains the Stephen Drew trade; last team to have their SS’s with such a dismal batting average was the ’77 Tigers, with a .177 average.
6) Nationals have now won 12 of their last 17 games against Atlanta, as Davey Johnson cements his bid to be a Hall of Fame manager.
5) Minor league SS Billy Hamilton set all-time minor league stolen base record; he has 147 this season, breaking Vince Coleman’s record. Hamilton is in the Cincinnati farm system.
4) Chris Paul had thumb surgery this week, is out for eight weeks, which puts him on schedule to return about two weeks before the start of the season. Just when the Clippers get a good team, the Lakers go out and get Nash/Howard, reasserting themselves as the basketball boss of LA.
3) Florida State might start four sophomores on its offensive line this year, after finishing 104th in country (out of 120 teams) in rushing yardage LY. Hard to win consistently running ball that poorly.
2) Best part of HBO’s Hard Knocks this week was when Miami coaches told Matt Moore in two different meetings (position coach first, then the head coach) he wasn’t the #1 QB anymore. They’re throwing clichés at him, while Moore is biting his tongue, saying the right things, and trying like hell to get out of the room and out of camera view as fast as possible.
1) Miami’s biggest problem with rookie Taneyhill playing QB is that he might also be their best WR; they’re weak there, and Taneyhill played WR for two years at Texas A&M, before getting moved to QB.
