2019 MLB Season

booth

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Shadowlight I am lucky to live in the area I do. We can get in the car and go to any classification of minor league game within 2hrs. Single-A through AAA and I hate saying it but it is dominated by Latin players. They are not always the best players but number wise they dominate. I also see more young black Americans now than just 5 yrs ago. White Death is now.
 

Carolina Speed

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When we got our minor league team over 10 years ago Latin players filled the roster. If I remember correctly only the third baseman and pitcher were white. Needless to say, I don't attend any of the games.
 

Carolina Speed

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At the request of a 7 year old fan, Mike Trout went deep last night and hit a double and 3 RBI, 2 runs scored. Despite his mundane start as Shadowlight put it, He still leads the league in OBP, OPS+., BB and IBB.
One stat that has gone down for Trout in a good way is the number of K's. He's only struck out 21 in 113 AB. About 19%. Which is way down from a career 26%.

Meanwhile, on the next coming of Mike Trout news. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went O-4 last night and is now batting .146. With about 25% of the season in the books, Jr. will have to hit 30 HR's, score 129 runs, steal 49 bases, and hit .326 to catch Trout's 20 year old rookie season.
BTW, Trout's WAR was 8.4. Jr's still -.01.
I don't like to kick a man when he's down, but I don't take comparing players to Trout lightly.
It will be awhile before we ever see a 20 year old put up the numbers Trout did.
 
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Trout might be heating up finally. 2 HRs in the last few days. He went 1-2 with 2 walks and a solo HR (#9) last night.

He's also got 5 SB, which puts him on pace for about 20 this year. Not bad, but i'd still like to see him run more often. Of course, that's how he's gotten injured in the past so maybe it's best he doesn't?
 

Bucky

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About a week late on this, but last Tuesday Oakland A's pitcher Mike Fiers threw the 300th no hitter in MLB History!
 

Carolina Speed

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Houston's Alex Bregman has the most HR's in the month of May with 8! It's May 13th!
Trout 3-4 and a runs cored tonight so far.
 
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Trout hits career HR #250 tonight at age 27. #10 on the year - puts him on pace for about 35-40 by year's end, which is about the norm for Trout. Still seems like he really hasn't caught fire yet this year. Let's hope he gets hot and puts up even bigger numbers than normal this summer.
 
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Trout went 1-2 with 2 BB & 3 R scored to go with his 250th HR.

Leads the league in BB, OBP, OPS+, WAR, & IBB

On-Base + Slugging Percentages
1. Springer • HOU 1.067
2. Gallo • TEX 1.054
3. Trout • LAA 1.047
4. Polanco • MIN .995
5. Vogelbach • SEA .986

Total Bases/At Bats or
1. Springer • HOU .665
2. Gallo • TEX .645
3. Vogelbach • SEA .603
4. Polanco • MIN .600
5. Trout • LAA .580
6. La Stella • LAA .579

Wins Above Replacement for position players
1. Trout • LAA 3.1
2. Polanco • MIN 2.8
3. Springer • HOU 2.7
4. Bregman • HOU 2.5
5. Gallo • TEX 2.4
 
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https://deadspin.com/bryce-harper-mashed-a-tater-over-the-damn-batters-eye-1834866994

Bryce Harper Mashed A Tater Over The Damn Batter's Eye

Statcast measured the dinger to have an exit velocity of 114.1 mph—the third-hardest hit homer out of the 137 he’s smashed since 2015, per Daren Willman. The estimated distance on the homer was 466 feet, but that honestly seems to be a light estimate given the reaction from the broadcasters and the fact that it looked like the ball landed more than 60 feet past the center field wall.
 
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https://deadspin.com/ryan-pressley-seals-mlb-record-for-scoreless-appearance-1834863434

Over his last 39 consecutive appearances on the mound, Houston reliever Ryan Pressly’s ERA has been an utterly absurd 0.00. It’s a streak that started back in Aug. 15, 2018 against the Rockies (eat ****, Ley), and officially reached MLB-record heights on Friday against the Boston Red Sox. The scoreless appearance was sealed thanks to some great acrobatics to get the final out of the eighth inning against Rafael Devers.

Up until that point, Craig Kimbrel had held the record for consecutive scoreless appearances with 38
 
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ANAHEIM -- Mike Trout made his 250th career homer a memorable one in a 6-3 win over the Royals on Saturday night, as he absolutely crushed a solo homer in the first inning off Royals right-hander Jakob Junis that traveled a projected 473 feet, per Statcast.

With his 250th career homer, Trout became the sixth American League player ever to reach that mark before turning 28, joining Alex Rodriguez, Jimmie Foxx, Ken Griffey Jr., Mickey Mantle and Juan Gonzalez. He’s the 13th player overall to reach the mark by his age-27 season.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mike-trout-hits-250th-career-homer
 
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I had no idea Bellinger was this fast or that he was hitting over .400 - with 17 HR!!! And he's only 23 years old!!!!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bellico01.shtml
https://www.mlb.com/news/cody-bellinger-s-speed-is-key-to-his-400-batting-average

A lot of the time, Cody Bellinger gets to jog the bases for free. He has 17 homers now. But you need more than home runs to be a .400 hitter a month and a half into the season. Bellinger has more. One key part of the package: electric speed.

Bellinger being fast isn't exactly a secret. He steals. He's made his first base-to-outfield transition more than capably. But his slugging still makes it too easy to overlook just how fast he is.

Bellinger isn't just fast for a slugger. He's one of the fastest players in the Majors. His sprint speed this season -- that's his average top speed on max-effort runs -- is 29.2 feet per second. The MLB average is 27 ft/sec. Bellinger ranks among baseball's Top 20 fastest runners by sprint speed, out of nearly 400 qualifiers, and he's the Dodgers' fastest player.

It's fun to watch Bellinger fly around the bases, but where he really stands out is the first 90 feet. And his home-to-first speed has had a real impact on that .405 batting average he's carrying into Los Angeles' series opener against the Rays on Tuesday.

If you can get down the first-base line in under four seconds, that's serious speed -- the type of speed that can turn groundouts into infield hits, and make bunting for a hit a weapon at your disposal. Bellinger has that extra dimension. He has the most sub-4 home-to-first times of any player this season.

Most sub-4-second home-to-1st times, 2019
1) Cody Bellinger (LAD): 12
2) Kevin Kiermaier (TB): 8
3-T) Billy Hamilton (KC): 7
3-T) Dee Gordon (SEA): 7
3-T) Delino DeShields (TEX): 7

Five of Bellinger's sub-4 home-to-first times have resulted in infield hits. On two others, he also singled, the ball just happened to get through to the outfield.

On "max-effort" runs -- a player's most competitive plays, where he really has a reason to bust it down the line -- Bellinger's average home-to-first time this season is 3.86 seconds. That's fourth-fastest of any player with at least five qualifying max-effort runs.

Fastest avg. "max-effort" home-to-1st time, 2019
Min. 5 max-effort runs
1) Delino DeShields (TEX): 3.71 sec
2) Harrison Bader (STL): 3.79 sec
3) Garrett Hampson (COL): 3.80 sec
4) Cody Bellinger (LAD): 3.86 sec
5-T) Billy Hamilton (KC): 3.87 sec
5-T) Dee Gordon (SEA): 3.87 sec

Bellinger has bunted for hits. He's beaten out routine grounders into the shift. He's outrun the pitcher covering on a flip from the first baseman. He's spoiled infielders' highlight reels by coming up with hits on balls up the middle that could have turned into web-gem outs against a slower runner.

These are hits made possible by his speed, and all those extra hits add up. Bellinger has nine hits within the infield this season, out of his Major League-leading 66 total; only Jeff McNeil (13) and Jean Segura (10) have more.
 

Shadowlight

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Interesting and well reserached post regarding rising star Cody Bellinger. I think the speed he is displaying is a bit of a surprise considering he played first base in the minor leagues. The Dodgers have him there too but also in RF.

The early scouting reports on Cody was he had great power potential but the concern were his swing and misses. He was considered athletic with some speed. After a tremendous rookie season where he won NL ROY he slipped a bit last season. And he was prone to striking out in the playoffs.

There are basically two running times baseball likes to chart. One is the 60 yard dash. The other is the home to first time. And under four seconds even for left handed batters is considered elite.

At 6'4" he is lithe and obviously very athletic. His build is eerily similar to ex Dodger star Shawn Green. Green had two huge seasons with the Dodgers in 2001 and 2002. Green started off his career in Toronto and had two big seasons there before he landed with LA.

Another player comes to mind as well and someone I think deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame, former Brave Dale Murphy. A two time NL MVP, Murphy started off with the Braves as a 6'4" rangy catcher in 1976. But because he was so athletic they moved him over to CF in 1980 and after that his career really took off. Like Shawn Green, Murphy could also run making them all around threats. Like Murphy, Bellinger has somewhat changed positions in the majors to take advantage of his tremendous athleticism. By the way Murphy was my favorite player for many years and was one of the nicest men to ever play the game. A real gentleman. Mike Trout is a lot like him in that respect.

Bellinger who will turn 24 in July has the potential to be even better than those two excellent players which is saying something.

I liked Bellinger the minute I saw him arrive on the big stage. Of course Mike Trout is my favorite player and Trea Turner, who is back after an injury, is probably next on my list. But he will now have to share it with Cody.

It is too bad Rockies 2B Garrett Hampson was sent down. Off to a slow start Hampson, listed above, is a true speedster but white baseball speedsters are usually given a short leash so he was sadly sent down to Triple A.

Cody will not end up batting .400. You can put that in the books. But the fact that he is at that number on May 20th is quite an achievement alone. However while he is up there I will be rooting like crazy for him to stay at that level for as long as possible. Will not be easy. All the same I am happy for this young player and budding superstar and I wish nothing but brilliant success for him this season and beyond. And he plays for a team to root for too!!

PS. The last and only time I felt a player had a shot of hitting .400 was the incredible George Brett in 1980. He was hovering around it for the longest time but eventually ended up with a .390 batting average.
 
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Shadowlight

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Below is a very detailed look into Dale Murphy and his Hall Of Fame resume. I am not enamored with all these new fangled analytics that are being used today.

I am very old fashioned. On base percentage is about as radical as I get. WAR and other modern terms are lost on me even though I see them mentioned here at CF as well.

All I know is Dale Murphy was a great all around ball player who at his peak was a superstar. Yes his career took a nosedive for the past six years or so but given who they have put in ( Harold Baines anyone?) I am a strong advocate for Murphy. He goes into details about fielding analytics and sees Murphy coming up short. Hell I watched him play and he won 5 Gold Gloves for a reason. He was stellar out there and I don't need some computer geek to claim otherwise. He was a legitimate 5 tool player.

As I mentioned above he was a big favorite of mine. And remember character plays a role and he aces that test with flying colors. A + on that score. It will make a lot of people happy to see Dale get in. He deserves it in my opinion and so does the writer below but he is a stickler not afraid of bringing up Dale's weak points. Well written thorough piece though.

https://www.cooperstowncred.com/dale-murphy-superstar-from-1980s-still-outside-the-hall-of-fame/

And below is a nice piece on not only a great baseball player but a great man.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/24182944/where-braves-legend-dale-murphy-now
 
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Totally agree on Dale Murphy. He was the best power hitter of his generation, the best of the 80s. You'll notice most white players, like Dale Murphy, have big declines in production in their mid to late 30s, so their career totals suffer. Then you have the cheaters like Barry Bonds who all of a sudden start hitting 70 HRs in their old age and cheat the system.
 

Carolina Speed

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I'm really enjoying the updates on all of these great young players. It's amazing all the young white talent in MLB despite the odds against them. I really like Bellinger as well, but I don't think there's any comparison to Mike Trout just yet. Trout is in a place all by himself, despite having a ho hum season so far. There's no way Bellinger is as fast as Trout either. I'll have to see Bellinger steal 40 or more bases and have an 85% success rate. Not trying to take anything away from Bellinger either, but he has the benefit of hitting behind Pederson, Turner and Muncy....and although Corey Seager is not having a great season, he's a threat hitting behind Bellinger. No one is pitching to Trout either as evident by his league leading 41 walks. BTW, Trout just hit his 11th HR as we speak. 251st HR at just 27!
I liken Bellinger to George Brett with more power and speed, but we'll just have to see over the long haul. I hope he becomes an all time great! Bellinger needs his own thread! Just like Austin Riley who hit his 3rd HR last night and hitting .391!
Another great young talent we haven't discussed is Mets 1B Pete Alonzo who hit his 16th HR tonight. Could be seeing another great one, Again, just like the rest we'll have to see?
On a down note, Bryce Harper is really struggling?
 

Truthteller

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Cleveland Indians All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez has played in 49 games, exceeded 210 plate appearances and is currently hitting .198 with 4 HR's and 16 RBI's. Of all the players in MLB, I've been checking his name in the box scores first (before Bellinger, Harper, Jeff McNeil, Trout, .ect) each day this season. And he's been consistently awful to this point!

Why my fixation with this diminutive (listed at 5' 9", 165 pounds) Dominican infielder that looks like a miniature David Ortiz, you might ask? Easy, to me, Ramirez is MLB's poster boy for Steroid usage. In my opinion, if baseball ever really clamped down on 'Roid's a significant percentage of Latin players would find themselves in the minors or totally out of pro baseball in fairly short order.

In 335 minor league games over 5 seasons and 1539 plate appearances, Jose Ramirez whacked a total of 13 HR's and had a total of 126 RBI's. Again, that's over 5 seasons in the minors! Fast forward to last season, Ramirez hit 29 HR's, drove in 70 runs and was batting over .300 at the All-Star break. He looked like a certain A.L. MVP finalist and possibly a potential triple-crown winner? Even with sudden drop in his stats last season after the "rumors", he still struck 39 HR's, drove in 105 and hit .270.

So what happened? A few weeks after a MLB insider Blog in the Dominican accurately broke a story that Robinson Cano was going to finally be suspended for steroids (last May), they reported Ramirez would also be busted. It made too much sense: How can one of the smallest corner infielders in baseball, who averaged about 3 HR's a season in the minors, be on pace for a 49 HR and 130 RBI season in 2018 at the age of 25?

But Jose pleaded his innocence and he was never suspended. The DWF's in Ohio jumped for joy, as their little hero was off the hook! The Dominican blog was right about Cano, but wrong about Ramirez the DWF's in Cleveland exclaimed!

But where they really wrong? According to a knowledgeable Cleveland beat writer, players can test positive for Steroids, but not be suspended if they can squirt away on a technicality of some sort and it will never be made public. Is it possible that's what happened to Ramirez?

That is what happened, I believe. He might've skated away on a technicality, but baseball likely informed him they would test him more rigorously and frequently. Considering Ramirez signed a guaranteed $26 million deal at the young age of 24 (when many whites make their debut), he probably ditched the Roids, fearing he'd lose a bundle. Smart move, as Cleveland has to pay him all the remaining cash on that $26 million contract, regardless if he hits .195 with 10 HR's and 47 RBI's this season or .345 with 49 HR's and 130 RBI's.

If I were to guess, I'd say the majority of the players from Latin American are loaded to the Gil's on Steroids. Simply no other way to look at it. Top rated, enormously hyped African American prospects are failing at alarming rates in baseball, but similar black and mulatto's from Latin America are dominating in the sport because they were signed at 16 and trained for a year or two at an "academy", before being assigned to the low minors in the U.S at 17 or (mostly) 18?

Yea, right. Don't buy that excuse at all, remember Steroids are legal in most of Latin America and can be purchased as easily as Pop-Tarts and Candy Bars in the U.S.!


Links regarding Dominican Players and Steroids:
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/domi...aseball-culture-fuels-steroid-use-experts-say
https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/in-dominican-you-buy-steroids-at-local-pharmacy-1.895652
http://dr1.com/articles/steroids.shtml
 

Shadowlight

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The Dominican players and steroids connection is a fertile area of investigation and something I hadn't much thought about until Truthteller's recent posts on the matter. He makes a compelling case and this subject needs to be looked into and pronto. My instincts say his observations are spot on and like in the NFL where it seems to me every black DB is jacked to the heavens, these pro leagues are managing to sweep it under the rug for the most part except for an occasional player who slips up and gets caught.

Like the English Premier League it feels as if overnight MLB has been overrun by non white south of the border players. And following the Premier League pattern where so many "glory" position players like goal scorers are all of a sudden mainly non white players, the same is true in baseball where the majority of whites are nestled on pitching staffs and being driven off as everyday players, especially the speed positions.

If you scan any MLB batting lineup it is remarkable how many non white players you notice these days. The revolution has turned everything upside down.

I am getting so paranoid that I wonder if the umpires are being told to take it easy on all the non white players when it comes to balls and strikes.

MLB has openly admitted they want to force feed African American players down out collective throats. Is it that far fetched to think the game could be rigged in their favor?

MLB has constantly lied to us so there is no reason to trust much of anything. The balls are juiced. They basically had to admit that but they shade the whole conversation by saying they don't know why.

And of course so many Dominican players were lying about their ages claiming to be 2-5 years younger than they really were. Not sure that has been entirely cleaned up either.

MLB has taken extra care to nurture south of the border players coddling them when they are young teens and greasing them along quickly into the big leagues. Along with that is their mad desire to cram as many African American players into the farm leagues hoping that someday MLB will have the racial balance of the NBA with the difference being many of the non white players will be foreign as well.

And like football the target is to eliminate whites from speed oriented positions. White pitchers however will always be welcome though. They don't upset the applecart of black supremacy like a white speed player.
 

Carolina Speed

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I didn't realize Texas 3B, Joey Gallo was having such a great year so far: BA: .285, HR, 15, RBI, 35 and leading the league in SLG., .669 and OPS, 1.086!!
His career BA is .213 and has 103 HR's. 25 years old. Still a lot of time to have a great career.

Rookie Pete Alonzo hit his 17th HR last night. Front runner for ROY.
Other HR's from yesterday:
Yelich, 20
Bellinger, 18
Alonso, 17
Rizzo, 14
Story,(2) 13
Freeman 13
Bryant, 12
Hoskins, 12
Swanson, (2) 10
 

Shadowlight

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Astros CF Jake Marisnick falls into the terrific athlete category who has had trouble hitting a baseball. That skill has killed off so many white baseball speedsters I could write a one thousand page book on the subject.

Some of these white athletes would have been better off sticking to football.

Marisnick is off to a good start for a change batting in the .280 range and knocking some home runs, like a key one against Sale and the Red Sox last night in a big win.

Jake has blazing speed and is a top tier CF. Whether this new found hitting prowess will last is a guess at this point. His history suggest it won't last but you never know when a light bulb turns on for so many players. But in a league that is starving for white CF athletes it would be great if Jake can put it all together for such a big contending team. He is only 28 so there is hope.
 

Bucky

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Yelich hit his 21st homer of the year today and he already has 10 Stolen Bases. OF Ben Gamel homered twice and now has 4 on the year. Last but not least, Starting Ace Brandon Woodruff threw a gem of a game. Racking up 10Ks on his way to his 7th win of the season. He also knocked in 2 hits resulting in 2RBIs!
 

Truthteller

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Shadowlight, as far the Dominican players and steroids connection, I could go in several different ways with this response but I would be typing forever. Right now I want to focus on three names in baseball to make three points, dating back to the 70's up to current times: Robin Yount, Rafael Santana and Nick Gordon.

Let me begin with the second name: Rafael Santana was the starting shortstop for the 1986 Mets and was, perhaps, the clubs first impact player from the Dominican. And at 6' 1" he was not small, by any means. During that amazing 108 win 1986 season Santana had 436 plate appearances and only 1 HR. The previous year, 564 plate appearances and only 1 HR. In 1987, the year baseball historians believe the "ball was juiced" (as it likely has been in baseball since the 2015 All-Star break to now), Santana's HR numbers spiked: 470 plate appearances and 5 HR's. So, even though the "ball was juiced", the fairly tall shortstop hit a career high of only 5 dingers? Well, even if the ball is currently "juiced" in baseball why are so many smaller Latin infield types putting up monster power numbers, including players much shorter than Santana? Santana is just one example.

Go back from 1954 (when the first Dominican Ozzie Virgil debuted) to the early 1990's and you'll find most Latin infielders were above-par defenders and mostly slap hitters. Even the superstars like Bert Campaneris, Dave Concepcion, Alfredo Griffen, Tony Fernandez, Cookie Rojas, Luis Aparicio and others. Those six probably played more than 90 years combined, but you can probably count on one finger how often they hit more than 12 HR's in a season. Aparicio's listed height/weight was exactly the same as Jose Ramirez of Cleveland (currently). Ramirez hit more HR's by the age of 25, than Aparicio did during his entire 17 year Hall of Fame career -- he played until age 39. Now, suddenly, just about every 5' 7" to 5' 11" starting Latin infielder can get hit over 21 HR's per season and a lot of these small-fries have little problem getting beyond 30 per? Jose Altuve might actually be a shade over 5' 4", but he can hit 400 foot opposite field HR's just as if he's a modern day Dave Kingman? And, unlike King Kong Kingman types, he can hit for average.

Let me move onto Nick Gordon. Gordon, is the son of a very rare African-American MLB pitcher that made some All-Star teams, but is probably best known for having 5 kids with 4 different woman he was never married to. Nick's older (half) brother, Dee, has also made some All-Star teams as speedy lead-off hitter. And despite hitting for little power, Dee was suspended for steroids. Anyhow, Nick Gordon was hyped back in 2014 as a potential generational talent and #1 overall pick. He's a shortstop that saw his stock plunge a bit (went 5th overall), but along with the overrated Byron Buxton was deemed a future MVP candidate for the Minnesota Twins. Fast forward five years (to today), Gordon (who was born is 1995) has finally arrived at AAA, but guess what, he's being blocked for the foreseeable future by another (you guessed it) smaller (5'11") Dominican who has suddenly become a slugger, of sorts? Jorge Polanco was signed as a 16 year old and had a total of 35 HR's in nearly 600 minor league games. He came to the big's prior to his 21st birthday and displayed mediocre power early in his career. Suddenly, Polanco is a five tool player and looks likes a modern day George Brett .... Polanco's signing bonus from the Dominican was "only" $575,000. By contrast, Nick Gordon's bonus was $3,851,000, yet he's miles behind Polanco, who recently signed a 5 year $25 million deal. Regardless how hyped black and mulatto North American players are, they simply can not compete with black and mulatto Latin players, who I believe are loaded to the Gills on Steroids.

I was listening to a Padres game on the radio 2 years ago and the road team announcer noted that Robin Yount was once considered an extreme rarity in baseball because he made the jump from Low A ball, directly to the Majors the next season. I mostly remember Yount from the latter parts of his career and did not realize he was such a "prodigy" as a teenager. Robin was drafted #3 overall in 1973, then after spending a few months in Newark that summer, he started for the Brewers in 1974. Announcer next mentioned how the Padres had 2 very young Latin (Rule 5) players on their roster for the entire 2017 season that made the direct jump from Low A/Rookie ball that season. He then noted that leap was far more common in baseball than ever before. What he didn't say, was the vast majority of those players jumping from Low A to the MLB in the same season year (or next year) were/are Latin. By the way, after being hyped as "future MLB stars", both of the Padres 2017 "prodigies" are currently in the minors -- A ball and AA, respectfully. Who knows how such "talented upsiders"/"future stars" regress so fast?

So, to recap quickly, for the first 40 to 45 years Latin players competed in the Majors, the better smaller/averaged sized infielders and speedy center fielders were mostly slap hitters and defensive stars. Suddenly, even 5'9" infielders are "sluggers" and triple crown threats. Also, they tend to come up way before others and American blacks simply can't compete with their Latin Brothers. Used to be the other way around in the Hank Aaron, Willy Mays, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield and even early Barry Bonds era's? Go figure?

_______________

Finally, on a positive note: While these Steroid loaded Latin players fly up to the Majors in their teens and early 20's, current San Francisco Giants outfielder Michael Yastrzemski finally made it to the show at age 29 this weekend and had three 3 hits Sunday. He is the grandson of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Michael Yastrzemski.....Also, last Friday Cavan Biggio made his MLB debut with the Toronto Blue Jays. The 24 year old that starred at Notre Dame is the son of Houston Astros Hall of Famer Craig Biggio.
 
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Don Wassall

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Totally agree on Dale Murphy. He was the best power hitter of his generation, the best of the 80s. You'll notice most white players, like Dale Murphy, have big declines in production in their mid to late 30s, so their career totals suffer. Then you have the cheaters like Barry Bonds who all of a sudden start hitting 70 HRs in their old age and cheat the system.

Yeah, I've mentioned Murphy's HOF credentials many times. It baffles me how little support he continues to get, even taking the Caste System and the general anti-Whiteness of everything in this society into consideration. He was a five tool player and the best player in the National League for several years.

Went to the Pirates game yesterday vs. the Dodgers, my first game in a few years. Had to laugh to myself when attendance was announced as 25-thousand something in a stadium that holds 38,362. There were no more than 14 or 15 thousand there max, on a Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend. I did enjoy the hitting show put on by the nearly all-White Dodgers en route to an 11-7 win, sweeping the three game series.
 
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white is right

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Bill Buckner died today, he was always blamed for the loss in game 6 of the 1986 World Series but John McNamara was probably more at fault than Buckner as he wrote the lineup and could have substituted the hobbled Buckner late in the game with a defensive replacement. Buckner for years was taunted on the streets from DWF in the New England area and it prompted him to move.

Only after the 2004 World Series win did Boston fans forgive Buckner and he later made an opening day appearance in 2008, Here's an obituary on him......http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26832836/bill-buckner-dies-69-battling-dementia
 
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