Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Dodgers brought up 3rd baseman Andy LaRoche, brother of Pirates 1st baseman Adam LaRoche, and Andy has hit in all three games since the call-up. LaRoche could be a good candidate for the NL ROY if he keeps this up (although Josh Hamilton will be a big sentimental favorite this year). Andy and Adam's father is Dave LaRoche who pitched for 14 big-league seasons and is currently the pitching coach for the New Hampshire Fishercats (the AA affiliate for the Blue Jays)... Maybe the person happiest to see Bobby Abreu struggling for the Yankees (.258 BA with just 1 HR) is Andruw Jones. If the Yankees pick up Abreu's option for 2008 - then all three outfield spots for the Yankees are tied up and the Yankees would be out of the bidding for the free agent to be Jones. However, at his current production level - why would the Yankees ever pick up the $16 million option?... Ichiro is now on pace for just 174 hits which would break his string of six straight 200-hit seasons... Only Gary Sheffield (6th pick) and Roberto Hernandez (picked 16th) remain from the class of players drafted in the first round of the 1986 MLB draft. That draft was noteable because all of the top 6 picks actually had productive MLB careers (normally the top picks in the MLB draft are crapshoots). Greg Swindell (123 wins) was picked 2nd by the Indians, Matt Williams (378 HR) was picked 3rd by the Giants, Kevin Brown (211 wins) was picked 4th by the Rangers, and Kent Merker (17-year career) was picked 5th by the Braves. Of the top 6 picks - maybe the least successful was the very first pick - Jeff King - who was picked by the Pirates. But even King had three straight seasons of 20+ HR and 90+ RBI in a career that lasted 11 seasons... Jason Varitek raised his batting average 34 points last night from .250 to .284 with his 4-4 performance against the Blue Jays...