MLB Daily: George Springer's Great Catch; Brewers Win Craig Counsell's Debut; Looking at Albert Belle's Career Numbers

Welcome to MLB where your humble author is 11-29-8 after four weeks in a Yahoo! head-to-head fantasy league. Mostly quick-hitters today (please forgive me) since nothing all that momentous happened over the last 24 hours … 

New car smell: The Brewers won Craig Counsell’s managerial debut, beating Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, no less. Milwaukee chased Kershaw after 7 1/3, getting the game-winner on a single by Ryan Braun off Chris Hatcher. The Brewers are 8-18 and probably still in sell off mode, albeit offering spare parts such as Adam Lind and Kyle Lohse.

Kershaw did make this great play to take away a hit from Elian Herrera. When a pitcher, especially an ace like Kershaw, can field his position, it makes life all that much better.

Right on cue: Fittingly, on Monday, the baseball world feted the Astros for winning 10 straight games. Later that day, Houston lost 2-1 to Texas. George Springer did end up making this nice grab in the loss, the first on the season for the hirsute Dallas Keuchel.

Bummer. I really would have put a lot of money on Houston winning their final 136 games without a defeat.

Funny: This screengrab, and or variants floated around social media over the weekend.

Reminder: sports analysis most times isn’t that complicated. It’s entertainment first and foremost.

Reason No. 341 why the Hall of Fame is dumb: Wound up in a Gchat last night about LSU baseball with Shamburger, which led me to Albert Belle’s Baseball-Reference page. Sure, the writers didn’t like him and he was kind of a crazy person, but gee whiz, he lasted two damn years on the ballot? His 162 game AVERAGES are 40 home runs, 41 Doubles along with a 144 OPS+. In 1995 Belle hit 50 homers with 52 doubles in 143 games.

Sure the 90s were a weird time for baseball — the only time in baseball history where statistical trends are penalized in retrospect, which is odd. Pitchers from the 1960s are hailed and we have no problem with the high batting averages logged in the early 20th century when fielding was much cruder than it is today.

Maybe Belle’s personality would have been overlooked had he kept playing, rather than retiring in 2000 at age 33 because of a hip issue. I know what my eyes saw in the mid-90s. The guy could rake.

THIS & THAT: Nelson Cruz hit home run No. 14, helping Felix Hernandez improve to 5-0. … Hanley Ramirez is day-to-day after hurting his shoulder on a catch during the Red Sox loss to the Rays. … The Cardinals edged the Cubs in a 10-9 slugfest that featured a fan running onto the field and a Mark Reynolds grand slam. … Toronto coach Brook Jacoby was suspended 14 days for an incident with the umpires after a Blue Jays-Red Sox game last week. Details remain very scant. … Minnesota won its fifth straight and is now two games over .500. The Twins offense is, surprisingly, not as terrible as advertised in early April. … Yu Darvish feels the pain of MLB.tv blackout restrictions. … Anthony Rendon is still a ways away from returning for the Nationals. He now is dealing with an oblique strain.

[fill in the blank]