I just want to get this out of the way right now: Chicago Cubs infielder Ryan Theriot is known as "Ryan the Riot" because of the spelling of his name. Use it as you see fit, but as far as the published world is concerned, I coined it.
Now that I'm off my high horse, I wanted to make a few comments about the major league baseball season thus far. First of all, most of my knowledge comes from sifting through various fantasy news. If I miss your favorite player, well, get over it -- or better yet, leave your qualms in the form of a comment at the end of this blog.
How about the start to the season for Chase Utley and Hanley Ramirez?? Utley hit home run #11 on the year tonight, three more than next on the list. A list that includes Ramirez, who also has 9 stolen bases, four behind NL leader Michael Bourn. (Wait, Michael Bourn?? Where did he come from?? By the way, his on-base percentage is .280. If he's on base, he's going to try to steal. But try as you might, he hasn't been caught yet. The big question now: how quickly after this post will he get thrown out. My guess is that it will come on his second attempt to swipe a bag. Stay tuned.)
On the pitching side, Cliff Lee for the Indians has been crazy good. If not for his "low" strikeout total (32, 9 behind leaders Aaron Harang and Felix Hernandez) Lee would be incredibly close to claiming the pitching Triple Crown through one month. Pretty good for a guy whose head was called for by fans, including myself. Hard to argue against it when there are good arms like Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers.
And finally I want to express some love for a guy I hate -- another Philly, Pat Burrell. I hate him because year after year I draft him in fantasy, then he sucks for a month or so until I drop him, then he turns it on until I pick him up, at which point he drops to all-new levels of pathetic-ness. This year I drafted him once again, but only with the motivation that he is in a contract season and looks to make himself a nice paycheck after this season. Here's hoping it's not just another great start for Pat the Bat.
Swing and a Drive...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
OU Baseball vs. Kent St. Gm. 3
What an incredible series for Greg Rohan.
He made his way through game one basically unknown. But his impact was most certainly felt from the middle of game two until the end of the series.
Rohan ended the second game 2-4 with two home runs, one of which was a two-run blast in the bottom of the 8th inning that gave the Golden Flashes a 6-5 lead with just one Ohio at-bat left to keep the game alive. Rohan started out game three with another two-run jack, followed by a solo home run.
The Bobcats, however, refused to give up on the idea of winning the game and the series. Ohio grabbed a 4-3 lead after 4 1/2 before Kent tied the game after 5. Each team would add a run before heading to extra innings, where an error fell into the worst possible situation for the Bobcats in the bottom of the 11th inning with the lead-off hitter Chris Tremblay at the plate. He slapped a single to right and scored Brett Weibley from third to win the ballgame.
The Mid-American Conference awards for this week spelled out the series well. The East Division Player of the Week went to Rohan, whose totals for the series were 5-9, 4 HR, 5 R, 6 RBI, one (essentially) game-winning hit. The East Division Pitcher of the Week was Ohio Junior Chris Rigo, who threw a complete game win on Friday night in the Bobcats' only victory of the series. He allowed two earned runs on nine hits and lowered his season ERA to 4.77. He's also 2nd in the league in strikeouts behind only Chris Carpenter of KSU (who had multiple scouts watching him throw as a starter in Saturday's game).
Bottom line: when Ohio gets good pitching, it wins games. When the bats have to pick up the pitchers, the Bobcats seem to struggle. Not something you would expect from a team that is 3rd in the MAC in batting average (and just one hit from being tied for 2nd).
This is an Ohio team that played really tough on the road with MAC Defending Champs Kent State -- in a series that was back and forth constantly. If the Bobcats can find a way to win the next two home series in the conference -- Bowling Green from May 2-4 and Miami from May 9-11 -- then watch for them to make a move through the Mid-American Conference Tournament in late May.
I'm hoping to have audio files of the weekend's highlights up as soon as tomorrow. Check back often and please leave comments and criticism or drop me an e-mail at kevin.t.hunt@gmail.com.
Swing and a Drive...
He made his way through game one basically unknown. But his impact was most certainly felt from the middle of game two until the end of the series.
Rohan ended the second game 2-4 with two home runs, one of which was a two-run blast in the bottom of the 8th inning that gave the Golden Flashes a 6-5 lead with just one Ohio at-bat left to keep the game alive. Rohan started out game three with another two-run jack, followed by a solo home run.
The Bobcats, however, refused to give up on the idea of winning the game and the series. Ohio grabbed a 4-3 lead after 4 1/2 before Kent tied the game after 5. Each team would add a run before heading to extra innings, where an error fell into the worst possible situation for the Bobcats in the bottom of the 11th inning with the lead-off hitter Chris Tremblay at the plate. He slapped a single to right and scored Brett Weibley from third to win the ballgame.
The Mid-American Conference awards for this week spelled out the series well. The East Division Player of the Week went to Rohan, whose totals for the series were 5-9, 4 HR, 5 R, 6 RBI, one (essentially) game-winning hit. The East Division Pitcher of the Week was Ohio Junior Chris Rigo, who threw a complete game win on Friday night in the Bobcats' only victory of the series. He allowed two earned runs on nine hits and lowered his season ERA to 4.77. He's also 2nd in the league in strikeouts behind only Chris Carpenter of KSU (who had multiple scouts watching him throw as a starter in Saturday's game).
Bottom line: when Ohio gets good pitching, it wins games. When the bats have to pick up the pitchers, the Bobcats seem to struggle. Not something you would expect from a team that is 3rd in the MAC in batting average (and just one hit from being tied for 2nd).
This is an Ohio team that played really tough on the road with MAC Defending Champs Kent State -- in a series that was back and forth constantly. If the Bobcats can find a way to win the next two home series in the conference -- Bowling Green from May 2-4 and Miami from May 9-11 -- then watch for them to make a move through the Mid-American Conference Tournament in late May.
I'm hoping to have audio files of the weekend's highlights up as soon as tomorrow. Check back often and please leave comments and criticism or drop me an e-mail at kevin.t.hunt@gmail.com.
Swing and a Drive...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
OU/Kent State Game Two
The second game of the Bobcats-Golden Flashes series in Kent, Ohio, went the way of KSU, but not until the game was nearly over.
Ohio pushed across 4 runs in the top of the 3rd inning to take a 4-0 lead. The scoring was highlighted by Jeramy Rehak's RBI double down the left-field line. Rehak has been having himself a great series -- he went 3-3 on Friday with a walk and had a similar day going on Saturday when he drilled the two-run double.
Kent State finally woke up the bats and started to figure out Ohio starter Zach Elmer. Bobcats Head Coach Joe Carbone said in the post-game interview that Ohio pitching was falling behind in counts all day long and Elmer was only part of the "problem."
With a 5-4 lead through 7 1/2 innings, Carbone sent pitcher Matt Schlarb into the game for Kevin Mementowski (we relieved Elmer). Schlarb gave up a lead-off walk to start the bottom of the 8th, then fell behind 3-1 in the count to Golden Flashes clean-up hitter Greg Rohan. Rohan proceeded to smack his second home run of the day -- a two-run bomb to left that was the game-winner in a final score 6-5 ball game.
All in all, Kent State had 4 homers on the day -- 2 by Rohan, 1 by lead-off hitter Chris Tremblay, then another by center-fielder Jared Humphreys. It had to be a bittersweet moment for Humphreys, a Jackson High School graduate who didn't get looks to play for Carbone in Athens, about a 45 minutes drive from Jackson, Ohio. Humphreys is in his third year with Kent, something I know only because I worked for WOUB-TV's Gridiron Glory show for 3 years, including the season in which Humphreys was named a GG Player of the Year finalist. In fact, Humphreys even has gone back to Athens in the past and played summer ball with the Southern Ohio Copperheads at Bob Wren Stadium.
It was an interesting day for Ohio, to say the least. Tomorrow's rubber match proves to be huge as the winner grabs the top record in the East Division and an all-important conference victory as the season gets near the end.
Sunday's action is at 1 p.m. and you can listen (in Athens) to WATH on 970 AM. I think there's a link online to listen to the game as well on ohiobobcats.com, though I haven't been able to get the link working in awhile. I'm hoping to post some of the highlights from the games up on this site next week sometime.
Until then, Go Bobcats!! and you can listen to me on 970 WATH and the Citizens Bank Ohio Bobcats Sports Network.
Ohio pushed across 4 runs in the top of the 3rd inning to take a 4-0 lead. The scoring was highlighted by Jeramy Rehak's RBI double down the left-field line. Rehak has been having himself a great series -- he went 3-3 on Friday with a walk and had a similar day going on Saturday when he drilled the two-run double.
Kent State finally woke up the bats and started to figure out Ohio starter Zach Elmer. Bobcats Head Coach Joe Carbone said in the post-game interview that Ohio pitching was falling behind in counts all day long and Elmer was only part of the "problem."
With a 5-4 lead through 7 1/2 innings, Carbone sent pitcher Matt Schlarb into the game for Kevin Mementowski (we relieved Elmer). Schlarb gave up a lead-off walk to start the bottom of the 8th, then fell behind 3-1 in the count to Golden Flashes clean-up hitter Greg Rohan. Rohan proceeded to smack his second home run of the day -- a two-run bomb to left that was the game-winner in a final score 6-5 ball game.
All in all, Kent State had 4 homers on the day -- 2 by Rohan, 1 by lead-off hitter Chris Tremblay, then another by center-fielder Jared Humphreys. It had to be a bittersweet moment for Humphreys, a Jackson High School graduate who didn't get looks to play for Carbone in Athens, about a 45 minutes drive from Jackson, Ohio. Humphreys is in his third year with Kent, something I know only because I worked for WOUB-TV's Gridiron Glory show for 3 years, including the season in which Humphreys was named a GG Player of the Year finalist. In fact, Humphreys even has gone back to Athens in the past and played summer ball with the Southern Ohio Copperheads at Bob Wren Stadium.
It was an interesting day for Ohio, to say the least. Tomorrow's rubber match proves to be huge as the winner grabs the top record in the East Division and an all-important conference victory as the season gets near the end.
Sunday's action is at 1 p.m. and you can listen (in Athens) to WATH on 970 AM. I think there's a link online to listen to the game as well on ohiobobcats.com, though I haven't been able to get the link working in awhile. I'm hoping to post some of the highlights from the games up on this site next week sometime.
Until then, Go Bobcats!! and you can listen to me on 970 WATH and the Citizens Bank Ohio Bobcats Sports Network.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Swing and a Drive
I'm sitting here on a late Friday night in Kent, Ohio, just wondering exactly how I got here. Then I remembered that whole "I need to have resume material to show future employers" thing, sucked it up and got on board.
The Bobcats took a 7-2 win today over Kent State in the first game of a three-game set. This is a crucial series for Ohio in my mind because 1) it decides who takes first place in the MAC East Division, 2) it gives the winner of the series some great momentum heading into the home stretch and 3) Kent is the defending MAC Champion team and, let's be honest, who doesn't want to knock off #1??
Kent started out the scoring with a run in the bottom of the 1st, but the bats went silent for much of the rest of the game. KSU had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 2nd, but Ohio pitcher Chris Rigo did a great job pitching out of the jam. Rigo went on to pitch a complete game win, throwing over 140 pitches. Seems like a lot by today's don't-throw-your-arm-out standards, but even 140 pales in comparison to numbers compiled by some staff aces of bygone days. (The MLB playoff record is 163, held by Boston's Luis Tiant from Game Four of the 1975 World Series.)
I'm hoping to get some audio of these games up here when I get back to Athens because, unfortunately, I can't record it on my own here in Kent. I'm also hoping to post to the blog a little more often -- short things like this instead of longer column-like posts. And let's face it, I'm just better at being shorter.
Swing and a Drive...
The Bobcats took a 7-2 win today over Kent State in the first game of a three-game set. This is a crucial series for Ohio in my mind because 1) it decides who takes first place in the MAC East Division, 2) it gives the winner of the series some great momentum heading into the home stretch and 3) Kent is the defending MAC Champion team and, let's be honest, who doesn't want to knock off #1??
Kent started out the scoring with a run in the bottom of the 1st, but the bats went silent for much of the rest of the game. KSU had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 2nd, but Ohio pitcher Chris Rigo did a great job pitching out of the jam. Rigo went on to pitch a complete game win, throwing over 140 pitches. Seems like a lot by today's don't-throw-your-arm-out standards, but even 140 pales in comparison to numbers compiled by some staff aces of bygone days. (The MLB playoff record is 163, held by Boston's Luis Tiant from Game Four of the 1975 World Series.)
I'm hoping to get some audio of these games up here when I get back to Athens because, unfortunately, I can't record it on my own here in Kent. I'm also hoping to post to the blog a little more often -- short things like this instead of longer column-like posts. And let's face it, I'm just better at being shorter.
Swing and a Drive...
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