For those who don’t already know, I spent Opening Day weekend in Ohio with my buddy Clint from Diamond Hoggers, where we took in the Reds and White Sox opening day games.  As it turned out, both were two of the weekend’s most exciting games, as the Reds won with a dramatic Ramon Hernandez walk-off, and the White Sox hit the crap out of the ball and put up 15 runs.  Their bullpen implosion is a story I’ll save for another day, however.

When we arrived at Progressive Jacob’s Field, the White Sox were in the midst of batting practice.  Based upon how my boys were crushing the ball during BP, I should have known they were going to put up 15 runs.  Adam Dunn was effortlessly going 15-20 rows deep with each swing and even deposited one in the right field upper deck.  Clint was busy tweeting/texting and almost lost his life after a Dunn line drive skipped off the top of the wall and right past his melon. Alex Rios had the best ball flight of anyone on the team – his blasts were majestic and looked like they were still rising even after they cleared the fence.  I watched Edwin Jackson throw a knuckleball to an unsuspecting John Danks, who had the ball deflect off the palm of his glove and flush into his chest.  The best part: Danks was laughing harder than EJax after it happened.

Continue Reading »

It was probably because he has two first names

Top 1: Allen Craig struck out swinging against Jonathan Sanchez

Top 3: Struck out swinging against Sanchez

Top 6: Grounded out to second against Guillermo Mota

Top 8: Struck out swining against Jeremy Affeldt

Top 10: Struck out swinging against Javier Lopez

Top 12: Grounded out to third against Dan Runzler

When I say this is my first week of fantasy, I don’t mean the first of the season—I mean I’ve never participated in fantasy sports before this year. Previously, I assumed that I would make too big of a time commitment just to be stomped around by guys (and possibly girls) that have done this before and have, you know, strategies and such. When fellow Sombrero contributor Rick Berdelle invited me to his league, “The Sober Valley Lodge,” I thought this was a great opportunity to finally make the plunge into fantasy. The Lodge’s settings look like this:

Continue Reading »

As I mentioned a couple of pieces ago, my 1B in the Denslow Cup this season is Billy Butler.  I currently am using the Towel’s account to watch MLB TV during afternoon and evening lab, so I have been watching a little bit of the middle of the Royals’ order, since Butler is hitting cleanup for KC currently with sparkling results.  The Royals have been hitting Alex Gordon third, and he too has been crushing, starting the season with a 1.000+ OPS in his first 30 or so AB’s of 2011 after a torrential spring in which he slashed .343/.459/.729 in around 90 PA’s.  I am a huge supporter of statistical analysis and its role within player evaluation in baseball, so obviously this month of success does little to help us forget the last few years of Gordon’s career.  Still, something tells me that Gordon might be getting close to reminding us what it was about him, before he was drafted second overall in the 2005 MLB Draft, that made us believe that he was the messiah for which Kansas City had prayed for 20 years.

Continue Reading »

Carlos Quentin: Wow. Is Q locked in at the plate right now or what? The White Sox right fielder has started the season on an absolute tear, hitting the ball hard to all fields and driving in runs like it’s going out of style.  Of his 11 hits thus far, a whopping seven have gone for extra bases – five doubles and two yardballs.  Oh yeah, he’s also driven in 10 runs in five games and currently sports a 1.522 OPS. As a White Sox fan, I don’t want to get my hopes up, but the thought of Quentin having a full, 2008-type season is scary.  It suddenly reminds us of how great of a season he was having before breaking a bone in his wrist and missing the last month.  And considering the White Sox current lineup, Quentin could easily have another 100+ RBI season.  So, will the White Sox outfielder our favorite State Farm Insurance agent continue his torrid production? Or will his fragility once again shorten a promising season?

[poll id=”3″]