Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

April 16th really should be a holiday in the New England states. The anniversary of Tom Brady being drafted by the Patriots and Bill Belichick's birthday. Easily could be a holiday...  If David Ortiz finished the season with 104 RBI - he will have passed Ernie Banks for 29th place on the All-Time RBI list... Climate science is a religion "belief is strong where evidence is weak"... Strange but true - Dan Uggla (who plays for the Nationals) is the highest paid player on the Braves payroll. Atlanta is paying Uggla $12.6 million not to play for them this season... Cool flying squirrel suit video... If David Ortiz finishes the season with 30 HR - he'll have 498 for his career. That would be good for 27th place on the All-Time list just ahead of Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff... Donuts in space!!... Idea for smaller towns - vehicles that are half ambulance and half ice cream truck... Seven things you might not know about Calvin and Hobbes... Someone should republish the Encyclopedia Brown books but replace his sidekick Sally Kimball with Courtney Love... I'm hoping the Red Sox can trade some really good coupons for Cole Hamels... Vinnie Testeverde Private Eye would be a show I'd watch on TV... If I had a bar in Boston or Worcester this photo of Bob Cousy would definitely be hanging on the wall... You know fans at all the Colts road games will be holding up signs that say "GO FOR 9!"...

Dan Uggla for Jason Bay?

Interesting thought - why not replace Jason Bay with Dan Uggla?

I don't like the fact that Uggla is a strikeout machine who averages a K per game (1 SO per 4.4 plate appearance) but that's only slightly worse than Bay. His OPS+ of 114, however, is 17 points worse than Bay's career 131 mark. The interesting split is Uggla's career .847 OPS against righties. Maybe a platoon is in order?

I like this idea but I don't see it as a Plan A or Plan B for the Red Sox. I still think Plan A is to re-sign Jason Bay. This is something to keep in the back of the mind though.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Brad Wilkerson had me fooled. I thought he'd be productive this year. Now he's hitting just .185 in 15 games for Toronto and now I'm thinking that there is probably at least one pitcher on the Blue Jays who could do better than that... There are 15 1st basemen in baseball who had a better OPS than Mark Teixeira going into the night's action, 18 who had more HR, and 8 who had more RBI but it will still be Teixeira who will cash in big at the end of the season... Ex-Red Sox outfielder David Murphy leads the AL in doubles with 19. Thanks Eric Gagne! (Then again - Murphy probably wouldn't have gotten a chance in Boston.)... Dan Uggla may be the most under-rated player in baseball... Only 3 of the top 21 HR hitters in baseball are from the American League so far this season. I wonder why that is?... Johan Santana had only 7 wild pitches all of last season. This year with the Mets he's already matched that number. I'm guessing that's just part of the problem he's running into in New York...