The Week That Was (In GIFs): MLB – 4/5/14 – 4/11/14

Jon Lester and the Cubs had a rocky Opening Night

Jon Lester and the Cubs had a rocky Opening Night

What an interesting opening week this has been! We witnessed some dominant pitching by the Cards on Opening Day, with major power on display from Mr. Dustin Pedroia on Monday. Later on in the week the Marlins had a meltdown, and Trevor Bauer finally looked like what we thought he’d be, while A-Gon and Votto have caught fire!

This is The Week That Was.

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Were the Cubs Prepared for Opening Day?

I’ll tell you right off the bat that I wasn’t prepared for the obnoxious strike zone overlay that was featured throughout the game.

But on the real guys, when you factor in the relative lack of “clutch” the Cubbies had (like being hitless in 13 at-bats with dudes in scoring position), John Lester’s awkward, unsure pickoff attempts and the club’s defensive gaffes, then yeah, it’s like they thought it was still Spring Training. There was even one point where you had three Cubs going after a fly ball in the outfield without any of them calling for it, resulting in one of the defenders stumbling and falling face-first into the dirt amid the confusion. This failure put me in a beer-fueled fit of maniacal laughter as my faithful Cubs’ fan friend leered at his TV and then at me in disgust.

Now let’s throw in some stats to quantify just how bad of an opener it was for the Cubs. Jason Heyward went 3-for-5 with a couple doubles and a swiped bag, making the outfielder the first Cardinal with multiple doubles on Opening Day since Aaron Miles in 2006. The top of the Cards’ lineup (Matt Carpenter, Heyward and Matt Holliday) combined to go 7-for-14 with two doubles, two stolen bases, a walk and three RBI. Lefty pitcher Jon Lester allowed the Cardinals’ left-handed hitters to go 6-for-11 with a walk. The dude allowed three runs and eight hits with a walk in just 4 1/3 innings.


-This Vine was posted by Steve Silva

The Cubs didn’t even draw a walk in the six innings Adam Wainwright was out there, then got demolished by Carlos Martinez, Jordan Walden and Trevor Rosenthal. The Cardinals’ bullpen took out nine of the 11 batters they faced in the final three innings, striking out six. This changeup by Martinez to Miguel Montero in the bottom of the seventh might just be the play of the game for me.


-This GIF can be found on CBSSports.com

With the Steroid Era seemingly winding down, dominant pitching may be set to take over again, especially when the two requirements for making it on a Major League bullpen is having a pulse and throwing a 95 MPH fastball. I know the baseball purists are gonna shoot me for this, but personally I prefer my game of bases and balls with illegal testosterone producing substances. It’s far more exciting that way, but hey, different strokes for different folks, right? #BondsForHOF

On a side note, the state of Cubs’ baseball comes second to this…

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This ain’t beer my friends. Renovations were going on in baseball’s second oldest ballpark, Wrigley Field, closing the bathrooms on the upper deck. This resulted in many fans being forced to relieve themselves in empty beer cups because of freakishly long bathroom lines. After getting Joe Madden and Jon Lester, who knew that the Cubs’ most important acquisition would’ve been port-a-potties?

Powerful Pedroia

The Red Sox didn’t quite defend their 2013 title the way they would’ve hoped for last year, which prompted them to improve drastically this offseason. Boston signed Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval to get some much-needed power in the middle of the lineup. However, the one who really came out to play on Monday wasn’t a new face, but an old friend…good ol’ reliable Dustin Pedroia. He made his presence felt by blasting the very first pitch in the strike zone he saw from Philly ace Cole Hamels into left field.

Peddy even got a second solo dinger on Hamels again in the fifth, and added a single in the seventh inning against Jeanmar Gomez. Pedroia played a huge role in the team’s 8-0 shutout of the Phillies, with his two homers matching his total from last year’s first 58 games. It was also his first multi-home run game since 2011. Pedroia amassed a career-low seven dingers in 2014, but we can expect him to at least double that number in 2015.

Fried Fish

Everything about the Marlins’ first two games of the season could have been featured on FailArmy’s YouTube channel. The first mishap was the awkwardly long Michael Buffer introduction for the Marlins, including the mispronunciation of Christian Yelich’s name (fast forward to 3:45 in the clip below):


-This video was uploaded by the MLB

The second and far more embarrassing issue was the rain delay on Opening Day in a stadium with a retractable roof.

The whole point of the retractable roof is to prevent rain delays, and we Marlins’ fans were promised that we would never have a rain delay ever again. Knowing how unpredictable the summer rains are in South Florida, why wouldn’t you have an in-house meteorologist? Instead, you have three Marlins’ execs who check weather apps on their phones before the game. Team president David Samson took blame for the delay after saying, “I tried to predict the cloud would go north and it went south on..stadium.” Samson then said that when he told team owner Jeff Loria about the delay, Loria said, “I thought we have a roof.” Samson then told Loria “that’s a reasonable answer.” After an offseason where maybe, just maybe, we started to think that the Marlins’ brass wasn’t 100-percent incompetent, their complete ineptitude has now officially been confirmed.

The worst problem for the Marlins was Mat Latos’ historically bad homecoming on Tuesday.


-This video was uploaded by MLB Game Recap

The guy played high school ball in Coconut Creek, FL and played for Broward College in Fort Lauderdale a year before I went to school there. I felt glad about having him back in South Florida once the Marlins signed him, and I still feel good about how much he can help the team win, but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday. The poor Braves’ offense on paper went to town on Latos. He allowed six hits (three of which were doubles), seven earned runs and two walks, while failing to strike out anyone in just 2/3 IP! As expected, Latos was booed off the mound by Marlins’ fans.

His performance was only the seventh in league history where a pitcher lasted for a maximum of an inning, while allowing at least seven runs when making his season debut as a part of the Opening Day rotation. The link shows the other six, and when you compare those statlines with Latos’, it’s very possible that Latos had the worst season-debut in league history. Fortunately, it’s unlikely that Latos will ever have a performance as bad as this one. He’s still a talented pitcher, despite his velocity dip. The Marlins may not have a great pitching staff, but regardless of this outing, he still makes a fine No.3 starter in my book.

Adrian Gonzalez Is Up to Bat…Aaaaand It’s A-Gon!

Gonzo is a blazing inferno right now, and he seems nearly impossible to quench. His Wednesday statline of 4-of-4 with three home runs has become the norm for him in this young season. After Wednesday night, Adrian Gonzalez became the first man in baseball history to hit five dingers in his team’s first three games! He is also the first National Leaguer with at least three hits in each of his first three games since Orlando Cepeda in 1963. If that wasn’t enough, then also consider that this is the 19th time in Dodgers history a player hit three homers in a game.

After his first three games, he was on pace to hit 270 home runs this year. We know very well that he won’t hit a quarter of that number, but it’s still a fun stat. His five homers after Wednesday were three more than what any other player had at that point in the season.  His .769 batting average after Wednesday put him on pace for the National League Triple Crown. The only guy standing in his way of the MLB Triple Crown was Jose Iglesias, with his .857 batting average after going 6-for-7 up through Wednesday. Gonzalez’s slugging percentage was an absurd 2.077 after his home run fest against the Padres. Remember that the record for slugging percentage in a season is only a “paltry” .863, which was set by Barry Bonds in 2001. So I’ve said all this to say…yeah, Gonzo is crushing the heck outta the baseball this season. He obviously cannot sustain this level of production, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he led the Major Leagues in home runs and RBI this season.

Indians Go After Team No-Hitter 

Indians’ pitcher Trevor Bauer likely had the best game of his young career on Thursday night, allowing no hits and striking out a career-high 11 hitters, while walking five in 111 pitches through six innings. Relievers Kyle Crockett and Scott Atchison each pitched a hitless inning, leaving Nick Hagadone to take care of the ninth.  Hagadone began the final inning by striking out Chris Carter, but Jed Lowrie broke up the team’s no-hit bid with a solo shot over the left-center field wall. That home run ended up being Houston’s lone hit. Highlights from this impressive pitching display are below.


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by George Magazine

So the Indians didn’t get their no-hitter, but it’s not like the team would lament that since they got the win anyway and their pitchers played remarkably well, striking out 16 batters. Now here’s a fun little fact…Jed Lowrie’s home run came exactly 50 years after Mickey Mantle hit the first home run inside the Astrodome back in a 1965 exhibition game.

Maybe this game is a sign that 2011’s third-overall draft pick, Bauer, is back on the path that we thought he’d be on circa 2012? Only time will tell, but he looks like he might finally be settling in.

Who’s Bad?


-This Vine was posted by Christopher Eling

Put on the volume for this Vine folks. This is what Joey Votto said during a post-game interview after his double two-run home run effort on Friday. Not only is he correct about himself and officially had the best post-game one liner of all time, but Votto is playing like an MVP once again. He had fueled the Reds’ four-game win streak to start the season with a four-game hitting streak of his own. Considering that he also stole a base in Friday’s 5-4 victory over St. Louis, he became the first player this year to have a game with at least two home runs and a stolen base. Never would’ve thought Votto would be the first guy to accomplish that feat, but he just never ceases to amaze.

After Friday, Adrian Gonzalez and Votto lead the Majors in home runs with five and three, respectively. Before the season, both players were pegged as having a 100-1 shot to lead the league in homers.


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by MLB Game Recaps

Say it Ain’t So, Jenrry

Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia was suspended for 80 games by MLB on Saturday for testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance named Stanozolol. He became the fourth pitcher to be banned for taking PEDs in a mere 16-day span, with Ervin Santana being the biggest name of the lot. Mejia will lose $1,134,426 of his $2,595,000 salary due to the suspension. He started the season as the closer in place of Bobby Parnell, who is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. It may have been very possible that Mejia could have stolen Parnell’s job if he pitched well enough. One has to think that this puts their banged up pitching in further disarray, especially when you consider that Zack Wheeler is recovering from a torn UCL, and reliever Vic Black is banged up as well. The team will undoubtedly struggle in late-game situations due to the state of their relievers now.

Here is Mejia’s statement on the matter:

“I know the rules are the rules and I will accept my punishment, but I can honestly say I have no idea how a banned substance ended up in my system. I have been through a lot in my young career and missed time due to injury. I have worked way too hard to come back and get to where I am, so I would never knowingly put anything in my body that I thought could hold me out further. I’m sorry to the Mets organization, my teammates and the fans, as well as my family. In life, I know God puts certain obstacles in your path and this is something else I know I will overcome.”

Bro, how are you gonna tell us you have no clue how that substance got into your system? What, is your girl cooking Stanozolol pills into your breakfast?

The Mets on paper started off the season on the same level as the Yankees. That means that they have a golden opportunity to finally become the pre-eminent baseball team in New York, but they just can’t seem to get out of their own way.

Jonathan Ebanks is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jonathan, check out his archive and follow him @hogz4lyfe.

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Jonathan Ebanks

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Ever since I was 13, I've been a huge fantasy sports junkie. Football, basketball, baseball...I follow them all! Competition is what drives my love behind fantasy. I do have a fondness for sports, but the drive to succeed is really the motivating factor behind that passion. As far as my education and career are concerned, I graduated from Nova Southeastern University with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and currently a Customer Service Specialist for FantasyPros. I also used to write sports articles for a South Florida magazine named "Good News," and I have also been published by FantasySharks, the Delaware North Newsletter, and FantasyPros (before working here).