Tuned in to watch Puig, and before I get to see him a brawl erupts and he's ejected. Scully calls a brawl as calmly as a flyout to RF.- Dave Haller (@HallerDave) June 12, 2013 Tuesday's Arizona Diamondbacks-Los Angeles Dodgers game was anything but calm, however, with benches emptying, coaches fighting, punches thrown and multiple suspensions in order.
Another fun and interesting chat session included some heated debates on Mike Trout's defense, Manny Machado's WAR versus Miguel Cabrera's, whether the Rangers are worse than the four best teams in the AL East, the hype over Yasiel Puig, Jason Heyward versus Freddie Freeman, Jose Iglesias versus Andrelton Simmons and when the Cubs will make it back to the playoffs.
We're about a month out from the All-Star Game at Citi Field in New York, so it's a good time to take stock of how the All-Star rosters might be shaping up -- after all, the debate of who goes to the game is usually much more interesting than the game itself.
1965: Reds draft Johnny Bench Back in the first draft, it was still possible to dig up a relatively unknown kid from rural Oklahoma. Bench wasn't selected until the second round -- the 36th player overall -- and seven other catchers went ahead of him.
The evening began with the OTL report that MLB seeks to suspend Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Bartolo Colon and others named in the Biogenesis scandal. But the night turned into a reminder of what makes the sport so great.
It's a fantasy that would certainly appeal to Marlins and Astros fans, or Mariners and Cubs fans, and probably fans of several other franchises: If every player in baseball became a free agent and salaries didn't matter and there was gigantic expansion draft -- in other words, if we just gave this whole thing called Major League Baseball a reboot -- what would happen?
Some thoughts on Sunday's MLB games and other stuff ... It's getting more and more difficult to paint a positive outlook for the Nationals, other than it's still early June. Nate Karns started Sunday, exposing the team's lack of rotation depth, as the Braves won 6-3 to take the series.
When it comes to this year's rookies, as fans I think we sort of came into this season like the kid at Christmas the year after you got the bike and the pony, or the new car and the Red Ryder BB gun.
Haven't done one of these all week, so some quick thoughts on Thursday's games ... I was watching the Detroit Tigers-Pittsburgh Pirates last night but on my laptop I had on the Kansas City Royals-St.
Yesterday, we looked at the last time each American League club drafted a player who became an All-Star -- whether for the franchise or another. The Cleveland Indians had the longest drought: CC Sabathia was the last All-Star they drafted and he was selected way back in 1998.
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