MLB Daily: Arte Moreno Remains a Jerk; Miguel Cabrera is Back
By Mike Cardillo
Hey, look … it’s week No. 2 of MLB Daily, the freshest, most-original daily baseball post on the Internet! The question moving forward is whether or not this feature can last longer than it takes the Red Sox and Yankees to play a regulation baseball game. Considering their sleep-inducing 19-inning marathon on Friday, Sunday night’s 3:24 running time on ESPN felt like a sprint.
Sports Owners are the Worst Vol. 99,999: The next time Arte Moreno or anyone else in power inside the Los Angeles Angels organization opens their mouths about Josh Hamilton, why not just come out and say, “We don’t want to pay him the $83 million left on his contract.” It couldn’t be much worse than what’s already been said after an arbiter said MLB couldn’t suspend him. Friday the Angels owner spoke with reporters and talked about looking at clauses in Hamilton’s contract that would nullify the deal — the MLBPA quickly dismissed this idea. When asked if Hamilton would play again, Moreno said, “I will not say that.”
The situation is toxic. Angels lefty C.J. Wilson — good for him — said what everyone in baseball is thinking:
"“If Josh was hitting .300 with 35 home runs a year, what’s the situation?” Wilson said Saturday. “Obviously, that’s the player that they want. That’s the player they paid for.”"
A contract is a contract and the Angels took a risk on Hamilton — saying nothing of his addiction struggles — signing him after his age 31 season with Texas to a five-year $125 million deal. A reported one-time relapse is a flimsy excuse for a team to get out of an awful deal, but remember no one forced Moreno to give Hamilton all that money. I tend to doubt Moreno would like it if Fox Sports decided to look through the language of the Angels’ 20-year, $3 billion television contract, looking for an out clause because the team isn’t providing the desired levels of entertainment or ratings.
Owners acting like massive, penny-pinching jerks above all else is one aspect of baseball that has always been around and will never ever change.
Big Man, Back?:
So it would appear Miguel Cabrera’s offseason foot surgery worked out well — although admittedly as a Tigers fan every time he rounds second base at full speed I tend to hold my breath. The former MVP started the year 13-for-29 with a 1.426 OPS. Sunday he homered twice at Progressive Field, helping Detroit start the year 6-0 with a sweep of Cleveland. Cabrera now has 23 lifetime home runs in Cleveland in just 69 games to go along with a .356/.420/.662 line.
Detroit scored 47 runs in the first week with five players posting OPSs over 1.000.
Why preseason predictions are worthless Vol. 219: The aforementioned Indians were Sports Illustrated’s World Series pick. All-in-all it’s not an insane or crazy pick. Of course when you make those kind of picks you don’t foresee Michael Brantley sitting on the bench with a nagging back injury or budding star catcher Yan Gomes spraining his knee via a Rajai Davis slide. Gomes is going to miss 6-8 weeks, a big blow to Terry Francona’s squad.
Once the game moves away from paper, unforeseen things happen to shape the season. We all know this.
Buddies: David Ortiz offered a nice hello to Jacoby Ellsbury that the ESPN cameras picked up Sunday night.
Rodzilla: In his first week back, Alex Rodriguez hit one home run, drove in six and hit .300. He is probably the best batter on the Yankees right now. Baseball is weird, crazy and often can be fun.
Leatherman:
George Springer caught a potential game-winning homer in the 10th inning off the bat of Leonys Martin in Texas at whatever the Ballpark at Arlington is currently named.
Mea culpa: In March I listed Ubaldo Jimenez as the Orioles “Least Valuable Player.” For one night, at least, the righty proved me quite wrong, giving up one hit and one walk over seven innings vs. the Jays. At one point Jimenez retired 17 of 18 batters in a dominant start. Catcher Caleb Joseph told the Baltimore Sun, “He was like a video game out there.”
Not A Fight:
Mike Trout got mad, apparently, at Yordano Ventura for a pitch that was up-and-in during Sunday’s game in Anaheim. The benches cleared. Afterward everyone involved seemed confused. The Royals are 6-0 to start the season either way.
One-hit wonders: Here’s a list of guys with one hit through the first week: Ryan Hanigan, Curtis Granderson, Russell Martin, Mike Napoli, Chris Carter, Manny Machado, Jonathan Lucroy and Adeiny Hechavarria. Cubs infielder Arismendy Alcantara is 0-for-12, while Evan Gattis is 0-for-20 with 12 strikeouts with the Astros.
This & That: Albert Pujols hit home run No. 522 Sunday, as he continues to move up the history charts. … Felix Hernandez left Sunday’s start with tightness in his quad, as a precaution. … Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia tested positive for Winstrol over the weekend and received an 80-game suspension. This article offers some good background on the current state of baseball’s drug testing. … Chris Sale made his season debut in the White Sox win over the Twins on Sunday. If he fell a little bit in a fantasy draft and you wound up with him, consider yourself lucky. … The Braves finally lost, dropping the series finale in Atlanta to the Mets. … If there’s one team off to a slow start worth — maybe — getting concerned about its the 1-5 Marlins, who’ll cross their fingers as Henderson Alvarez gets an MRI on his elbow today. … Derek Holland will miss at least two months, as Texas continues to be hard hit by injuries.
[Yardwork?]