April 17-23 Weekly Update

Another interesting week of baseball included a high profile ejection/suspension and the return of a higher profile star. Are we seeing the worst team in baseball history? Is a team that was projected to be bad actually a playoff team? Lets dive into it.

If you read last weeks post, we talked about the incident with Yankees pitcher Domingo German receiving a warning about a sticky substance on his fingers. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli caused a commotion earning an objection while German was able to complete his outing. This week we saw a similar situation resulting in a much different outcome. On 4/19, the Mets were facing the Dodgers with ace Max Scherzer on the bump. After the third inning, the umpire performed the standard substance check of Scherzer's hands and glove for sticky substances. Umpire Phil Cuzzi made the decsion that Scherzer's hand was "too sticky" and decided to eject Scherzer for violation of the sustance rules. Scherzer, never one to shy away from commotion, furiously argued the "concoction" was rosin and sweat and couldn't seem to understand the umpire's skepticism. Mad Max was subsequently hit with a 10 game suspension raising the question, why were two identical situations handled so differently? Sherzer was ejected and suspended for two starts while German simply finsihed his outing. The MLB needs to have a better protocol to ensure the same penalties for the same expected violations.

On a more positive note, Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. played in his first major league game since 2021 due to a number of injuries plus a modest 80 game PED suspension. He tested positive for Clostebol, a banned substance, and conveniently stated he had no idea that it was on the banned substance list. Tatis Jr has long been a rising star but can't break out of his immature ways inlcuding idiotic injuries such as the recent motorcycle accident. His first two games were unimpressive as he slowly gets back into the swing of things. On Saturday, 4/22, he did hit his first home run giving Padres fans hope that he will jump right back into a productive role into what has been a lackluster offensive showing in San Diego.

While the Padres have been struggling, the Pittsburg Pirates have not. They are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball winning seven straight and boosting their record to 16-7 on the year earning the 2nd best record in all of baseball. If you said at the beginning of the year the Pirates would be the team to beat, I would have laughed in your face. The question remains, however, is this Pirates team legit or is this just a hot start? Pittsburgh's pitching is holding strong with Mitch Keller and Roansy Contreras rebounding from rough first outings. Each have been very good in their last 3 starts. Johan Oviedo has been a pleasant surprise in the rotation holding a 2-1 record with an impressive 2.22 ERA. And a strong bullpen has kept this team on the winning end of games. The Pirates offense is hot with a number of guys coming up clutch. Bryan Reynolds, to no surprise, has led the way for this club hitting .294 with 5 HR and 18 RBIs. Andrew McCutchen seems to be back to his 2012 Pirates ways, Connor Joe has been one of the best hitters in baseball this season, and Rodolfo Castro has been solid filling in for the injured superstar Oneil Cruz. This team is having fun, their chemistry is awesome, everyone is getting timely hits when needed, and the pitchers are lights-out when needed in low scoring games. While I do think this pace is unsustainable and the Pirates are not playoff bound, they have proven through the first month of the season to not be just a placemat. I can see Pittsburgh finishing close to .500 and I hope they prove me wrong and keep winning.

On the flip side, the Oakland Athletics have been atrocious. Boy oh boy is this team hard to watch. We all knew the Athletics would be bad, but I don't think anyone expected a 4-18 start with an absurd -103 run differential. That's right, they are a mere 22 games into the season and have a NEGATIVE ONE HUNDRED AND THREE run differential. The A's are dreadful and currently on pace to finish with the 3rd worst record in MLB history. At this rate, the biggest sell for Oakland is the race for the worst record of all time currently held by the 1899 Clevaland Spiders (20-134) and the1890 Pittsburg Alleghenys (23-113). I guess it comes as no surprise that the Athletics have signed a binding purchase agreement for land in, you guessed it, Las Vegas. A change of scenery feels necessary at this point.

-Cyrus Beermann