Holidays with a Bum

As the “Opening Week” emblems start to fade off the foul territories of baseball fields around the league, I thought I better write you a “Valentine” now to make sure that you’re “emotionally as into the game as you used to be.”  Sure there’s the distractions of the nice weather and even after the first ten games of the 2012 baseball season–believe you me–I myself can’t help but think about how the travel writers at Lonely Planet are updating their “Safety Tips” regarding wearing a Che Guevara shirt to the new Marlins Park.  A lonely planet indeed Mr. Guillen, or, si me hace el favor, un planeta solitario.  But lonely is not so lonely when you’re lonely at the top – unless, of course, you’re Team Kitchen’s James “Loney” – as Matt Kemp has continued his storming out of the gate by leading Major League Baseball in runs scored (13), hits (19), RBIs (16) and home runs (6).  What’s more the Los Angeles Dodgers have the best record in the MLB at 9-1 and the New York Mets have taken the 2 of their first 3 series against division rivals–including an opening week sweep of the Atlanta Braves–to find themselves a game behind Washington in the NL East on the third best ERA in all of the MLB at 2.48.  As far as us Bums are concerned, the teams storming out of the gate include Team Kitchen who currently hold the first and third positions in the April Pitching Title and Batting Title races respectively, and Team Carlson who are currently running third for the Pitching Title and second for the Batting Title.  So put down your tax extensions and holiday planners as there’s not only been happy surprises for both the Dodgers and Mets early this season, but we here at ‘Dem Bums have sparked our high octane development team to make your fantasy-baseball-experience-for-the-rest-of-us, well, that much more of a fantasy.

FATHER FIGURES

I admit it–I’m a bad baseball fan.  I grew up on the West Coast undoubtedly a Los Angeles Dodgers fan and even when I moved to San Francisco for grad school in 1997, I stayed “True Blue” even while watching games at the newly-anointed Pac Bell Park.  But that’s not the “bad” part–and I’ll try to keep this short.  I still root for the Dodgers whole-heartedly unless, of course, they play the Mets.  Something about “location, location, location” and being able to see a team play every day.  But the headline story of all of Major League Baseball this first week or so–other than the manager scandals alluded to above–is Matt Kemp whose numbers have already ignited MVP chants in the 50-year old Dodger Stadium and in the blog columns of baseball pundits everywhere.  Sure, it’s early, but for pitchers facing Kemp through these first 10 games “location, location, location” has become a real problem, especially if you’re a pitcher for the San Diego Padres.  All of Kemp’s league leading six home runs have come off of San Diego “Fathers” arms as the Dodgers took 6 of their 7 early matchups against their NL West rival to guide them onto a six-game winning streak after a midweek sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and a walk-off sweep of San Diego over the weekend.  Of course, outside of the “leaving the park” trick that Team Carlson’s Kemp seems to have mastered early on, the Dodgers worked out some top of the ninth triple play magic to vanish the wind from Padre sails on Frankie Robinson Day (and do let Vin seduce you).

NOT THAT OFFENSIVE

For all the fireworks of Team Carlson’s Kemp, however, Team Roberts’ David Wright is actually leading the April Batting title with a .571 AVG on 12 hits in 21 ABs – all with an off-the-field splinted pinky fracture.  But don’t let all of these stars get in your eyes or let all of this offense fool you as the Dodgers and Mets are only 19th and 21st respectively in the MLB in average hits per game.  In fact, home plate has been an increasingly lonely planet since the dawn of what the chatterboxes call the “post-steroid era.”  Last season MLB teams averaged 4.28 runs per game, down from a steroids era peak in 2000 of 5.14 and, perhaps more telling, strikeouts per game broke the 7 per game barrier for the first time in 2010, only to go up to a record 7.09 in 2011–quite a far cry from the 1981 average of 4.75 strikeouts per game.  So far this year, while Kemp and Wright feed the fans baseballs in the outfield, it’s actually the catchers’ gloves that have been making all the noise as the Dodgers rank third in the MLB in strikeouts thrown per game at 9.20 and the Mets sixth with 8.55.  In turn, what might be more impressive than those bombs to stadium seats is the ‘Dem Bums April Pitching race headed by Team Kitchen’s Chad Billingsley with a .063 ERA just above Team Reid’s Johan Santana with a .090 ERA – two players who clearly have aces up their sleeves at the start of the 2012 season.

LOOK AROUND YOU

As you may have already noticed–and in the name of perpetual development–the ‘Dem Bums website continues to get more colorful and, hopefully, more engaging.  At the top right of the sidebar is now a monthly “Title Race” status display so all ‘Dem Bums franchises can keep pace with their own pace in either race.  The stats and status here–as well as with the player profiles on the below right–will be updated weekly (or thereabouts after each pitching cycle).  Also, after board meetings with members, each franchises’ player profiles will now–where it obtains–reflect a performance icon in regards to the “hot” or “cold” nature of their current play with the breakdown as follows:

Batters will receive a flame icon for any batting AVG .350 or higher or an ice icon for any batting AVG .225 or lower as the current examples of Wright and Loney reflect:

David Wright .571 AVG Stats

James Loney .148 AVGStats

Pitchers will receive and ace card for an ERA of 2.50 or lower and a meat icon for an ERA of 4.50 or higher as the current examples of Billingsley and Gee reflect:

Chad Billingsley 0.63 ERA Stats

Dillon Gee 5.06 ERA Stats

While these icons will drop in and out of sight as the weekly stat updates take place, there will be a record kept for icon’s received based upon the total end-of-the-month stats for any given month and reflected on the “Rosters” page (which I’m still in the process of updating). In the meantime, hope the icons are iconic and I’ll see you next time with more stats and slander.

Kemper Fi

That “ding-dong” you heard yesterday wasn’t just the 2012 Opening Day of the MLB season ringing at your door but also the sound of Team Carlson’s Matt Kemp picking right up where he left off from his 2011 second-in-MVP-voting-all-star season as he be became the first of ‘Dem Bums to go “yard” and lock in the win for the Dodgers over the Padres.  After what was a relatively quiet offensive early afternoon game between the Mets and Braves–though a victory for the boys of Flushing nonetheless–Kemp came to bat last night in the top of the 8th of the Dodgers’ season opener with nobody out and Team Roberts’ A.J. Ellis on second and dropped a bomb to right field off the arm of San Diego rookie reliever Brad Brach to put the Dodgers up for good 5-3.  While Kemp is clearly the star of Los Angeles’ lineup, there was actually some concern about his 2012 projections–especially Kemp’s own projection of hitting 50 HRs and stealing 50 bases–after a lackluster Spring Training where Matt hit for a .262 AVG with 26 strikeouts in 65 ABs.  On opening night, however, Kemp went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored to jump out to a .400 AVG on the season. While this certainly bodes well for Team Carlson’s chances for the batting title in April–and certainly Kemp will dominate the headlines of opening night hype–Team Parry’s second-batter pick of the Dodgers’ Juan Rivera is out front in overall average in the Dodgers’ lineup with .500 AVG earned on a 2-for-4 night; unless, of course, you take into consideration Team Wanzel’s ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw who is batting 1.000 after hitting a single in the top of the 3rd and reaching 2B after a fielding error.  Having a pitcher win a Batting Title would be a first for ‘Dem Bums – and deserves some kind of special reward – maybe every franchise owes Team Wanzel a beer.

A BIT OF DAY”WRIGHT”

But before we get ahead of ourselves and run too fast to only come up “gimpy” – well, let’s talk the Mets.  In many ways, what you expect from an Opening Day game is a lack of offense as teams put forth their top tier pitchers to get the season started off right, and Team Reid’s Johan Santana looked “solid” – though not necessarily “stellar” – as he threw for 5 strikeouts and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, and no runs through five innings of facing 19 batters.  Of course a major concern with Santana is his shoulder that kept him out of the 2011 season and after getting out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the 5th, Collins’ pulled him after 84 pitches and the Mets’ bullpen of Ramirez, Byrdak, Rauch, and Francisco–with his first save of the year–held the Braves scoreless on 4 hits for the day.  At the plate for New York, both Team Carlson and Team Talley had to be cringing a bit as the “baby bomber” bats of Lucas Duda and Ike Davis went 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts each and left a combined 11 runners on the bags.  But it wasn’t all silence at Citi Field as Team Kitchen’s Thole put up a surprising 2-for-3 performance, Team Reid’s Murphy a 2-for-4 performance, and–to take the lead in the hunt for the ‘Dem Bums‘ April Batting Title–Team Roberts’ David Wright slapped a .667 AVG after batting in the only run of the game in the bottom of the 6th with a single to left field to bring home Torres.

DAYS OF THE “NIEU”

Despite good wins by both clubs and the fact that the Mets built upon their MLB history leading 33-18 record on opening day, the fly in the vaseline is the injury that the Mets’ Andres Torres suffered in center field after trying to chase down a Pastornicky triple that flew into the gap in right.  If there is one thing that the Mets do not have–and there’s certainly more than one “do nots”–it is depth.  While Hairston took over for Torres in center–and will most likely take on the starting role–and the Mets also have Mike Baxter who can patrol the outfield, just as they placed Torres on the DL and shipped him off to Florida for rehab, they also called up 24-year old Kirk Nieuwenhuis who–in addition to having a German-lager rush of a name–has been ranked as the 11th top Mets prospect of 2012 by MLB.com.  Nieuwenhuis had a shot at the starting job early in the off-season, but tore his labrum in his left (non-throwing) shoulder that spurred the Mets to make the move for Torres from San Francisco and kept Nieuwenhuis in Triple-A Buffalo.  However, come Saturday, look for Nieuwenhuis to be in uniform.

Glad the season is here my fellow Bums and keep an eye out for a “Standings” and “League History” page and “Stat” links–not to mention a cleaning up of the “Rosters” page–and now your player faces are in their places on the right.