Major League Baseball is stepping up to the plate and suspending umpire Fieldin Culbreth.
A monumental mistake was made on Thursday in a game between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Houston Astros.
Last night in Houston, the Astros made a pitching change and replaced reliever Paul Clemens with Wesley Wright. However while Wright was on the mound and throwing his warmup pitches, Astros manager Bo Porter made a pitching change and brought in reliever Hector Ambriz.
We’re coming to the second busiest sports month of the year. April. Where has March gone? I know.
Anyways. It is a huge weekend for the Edmonton Oilers as they will be hosting their two western Canadian foes– the Vancouver Canucks tonight (CBC, 8:00 p.m.) and the Calgary Flames on Easter Monday (Sportsnet, 7:30 p.m.).
With 15 games left on the schedule, the Oilers are three points back of the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot. That means every five games, they will have to pick up a point on the Blues, and hope they are slightly better than three other teams that are in front of them– the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Homer Bailey (Wikimedia Commons)
For the seventh time this season, pitcher has thrown a no-hitter in Major League Baseball. On Friday night, Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds struck out ten and walked one in a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Bailey joins Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox, Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Johan Santana of the New York Mets, Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners and a six pitcher effort by Seattle.
The Reds are one of four teams that have qualified for the postseason. They are joined by the National League East champion Washington Nationals, National League West champion San Francisco Giants and the National League wildcard champion Atlanta Braves.
In other baseball news, the Cleveland Indians have fired manager Manny Acta and named Sandy Alomar Jr. his replacement. The Houston Astros have also named Bo Porter their 2013 manager. Porter is currently the third base coach for the Washington Nationals.
The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders will battle this afternoon at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium (Saturday, TSN, 1pm). Both teams are 3-4 on the year, and are tied for third place in the western division.
The Roughriders got out of the gate quickly, winning their first three games before losing their last four, while the Stampeders haven’t gone on any significant run throughout the season. They haven’t been able to put two consecutive wins together all season long.
The Roughriders meanwhile will try to get revenge on a Stampeders team which came back from a 35-18 deficit to win in overtime 41-38 on July 19 at McMahon Stadium.
Hanley Ramirez (S.D. Dirk, Wikimedia Commons)
The last time the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired a Ramirez it didn’t turn out so well.
In 2008, the Dodgers acquired Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox, and he even though he put up great numbers on the west coast, he was suspended in 2009 for violating baseball’s drug policy.
This week the Dodgers acquired another Ramirez (Hanley from the Marlins, no relation) in an attempt to beat the San Francisco Giants and win the National League West.
Ramirez, who is a natural shortstop, moved over to third base when the Florida Marlins acquired Jose Reyes from the New York Mets in the offseason. The experiment that worked great for the Yankees a few years ago (with the acquisition of shortstop Alex Rodriguez, who moved to third base) didn’t work in Florida.
Ichiro Suzuki (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
The face of the Seattle Mariners for the last decade is now a New York Yankee. On Monday, the Seattle Mariners traded right fielder Ichiro Suzuki to the New York Yankees with cash for pitchers Danny Farquhar and D.J. Mitchell.
Farquhar spent a brief time with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011.
In a remarkable move, the New York Yankees and the Mariners made the deal a couple of hours before the teams played against each other at Safeco Field in Seattle last night. The Yankees won 4-1 and Ichiro had a single and a stolen base.
So far this season, Ichiro has only four home runs and 28 runs batted in with a batting average of .261.
I know Ichiro is in the latter stages of his fine Major League career, but I thought Seattle could have got more for him because he is still outstanding defensively and has speed on the base paths. But there was a need for Ichiro in the Big Apple with Brett Gardner out for the year with elbow surgery.
J.A. Happ (Wikimedia Commons)
You could call it a last ditch effort to save the season. Or can you?
On Friday the Toronto Blue Jays announced they acquired pitchers J.A. Happ and Brandon Lyon from the Houston Astros for reliver Francisco Cordero and outfielder Ben Francisco. Six other players were also involved, but they are all minor leaguers.
My initial reaction after reviewing the deal was wow. It is amazing how much J.A. Happ’s stock has fallen.
Once rumored to be traded for Roy Halladay from Philadelphia to Toronto, Happ was instead in the Roy Oswalt deal and did nothing in Texas for the Astros going a combined 13-18 with an earned run average of 5.35 in 2011.
Something else that puzzles me at the moment is why the Blue Jays are putting Happ in as a reliever when clearly it is starting pitching they need help in?
After getting swept by the New York Yankees, the Blue Jays are now two games below .500 and with a weekend trip to Fenway, don’t seem to be in the American League Wildcard chase for much longer.
A battle of the last two undefeated teams in the Canadian Football League will take to the field today at Mosaic Stadium in Regina.
The 2-0 Saskatchewan Roughriders will host the 2-0 British Columbia Lions (Saturday, 1pm, TSN).
The Roughriders have outscored the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Edmonton Eskimos a combined 60-17, while the Lions have outscored the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers 72-52.
This will be a contest between the Lions offense versus the Roughriders defense. If Geroy Simon and Arland Bruce III are able to expolit Craig Butler and Chris Mackenzie, the Lions should have a good day.
Matt Cain (Wikimedia Commons)
In what is becoming a trend in Major League Baseball, there was another no-hitter on Wednesday night.
This time it was a perfect game for San Francisco Giants’ right hander Matt Cain.
Cain, pitched the 22nd perfect game in baseball history in a 10-0 shutout win over the Houston Astros. It was also the fifth no-hitter this season, following Philip Humber, Jered Weaver, Johan Santana and the six Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
Cain also had a career high 14 strikeouts.
The perfect game came in San Francisco also came on the eve of the 2012 United States Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco–fitting because Cain is an avid golfer.
The ten runs San Francisco scored in the no-hitter was the most since the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles on September 1, 2007 on a no-hitter by Clay Buchholz.
Right fielder Gregor Blanco and first baseman Brandon Belt each had three runs batted in for the Giants, who are now 3.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West. The Giants do however hold the wildcard spot.
The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 in a bizarre no-hitter.
A total of six Mariners combined for the 1-0 last night. Starter Kevin Millwood had to leave after six innings due to a groin injury, and he was relieved by Charlie Furbish, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, former Toronto Blue Jay Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen.
The six Mariners pitchers to throw a no-hitter ties a Major League record set in 2003 by the Houston Astros. On June 11, 2003, Roy Oswalt, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combined for a no-hitter in a 8-0 Houston win over the New York Yankees.
There were two significant similarities in both games. Like Millwood, Oswalt had to leave the game because of an injury (only pitched one inning compared to Millwood’s six), and both games were interleague games.
Pryor got the win for the Mariners Friday night after closing out the seventh by getting Juan Rivera to strike out. The Mariners got their only run on an RBI single by Kyle Seager that scored Ichiro Suzuki.
Michael Bourn (Wikimedia Commons)
With the Major League Baseball trade deadline just over two hours away, expect a lot of action on the trade front.
The Atlanta Braves, with injuries to offensive stars third baseman Chipper Jones and catcher Brian McCann, have acquired outfielder Michael Bourn from the Houston Astros.
With the injury to Nate McLouth, expect Bourn to step right into centerfield right away.
Bourn doesn’t bring much power. He only has twelve career home runs in 663 career games and only one this year in 429 at bats, but makes up for it with his speed. He has 212 career stolen bases, including a National League leading 61 in 2009 and 52 in 2010.
In 2011, he is batting .303, and leads the Astros with 64 runs, 130 hits, seven triples, and 39 stolen bases.
In return the Braves are giving up a talented young outfielder in Jordan Schafer, and pitching prospects Paul Clemens, Juan Abreu and Brett Oberholtzer. Schafer is the only one among the four to have seen action at the Major League level in 2011. He is batting .240 with a home run and seven runs batted in over 52 games.
Atlanta currently leads the National League Wildcard by four and a half games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Hunter Pence (William Holtkamp, Wikimedia Commons)
We know the Philadelphia Phillies have great pitching.
On Friday night, they significantly strengthened their offense too. The Phillies acquired outfielder Hunter Pence from the Houston Astros for three of the Phillies top prospects– first baseman Jonathan Singleton and pitchers Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid.
So far in 2011, Pence is batting .308 with 11 home runs and 62 runs batted in.
From 2008-2010, Pence showed exceptional offensive power, recording 25 home runs each season. He had a career high 91 runs batted in in 2010.
Even though Pence’s home run totals have dropped a little, he has made up for it in average, batting twenty-six points higher than he has the last two seasons.
Pence will fit into the Phillies lineup very nicely, hitting around second baseman Chase Utley and first baseman Ryan Howard.
The Phillies are no strangers as of late in acquiring top talent from the Astros. In the last four years, they have acquired starting pitcher Roy Oswalt and reliever Brad Lidge, who both played with Pence in Houston.
Philadelphia currently has the best record in the Major Leagues at 66-39 and have a five game lead on the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.
Ervin Santana (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
For the first time in 27 years, one pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has thrown a no-hitter.
On Wednesday, Ervin Santana pitched a no-hitter in a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians.
Also for the first time since the late Daryl Kile threw a no-hitter for the Houston Astros on September 8, 1993, a pitcher threw a no-hitter by giving up a run.
The Indians’ lone run in the first inning was unearned. Centerfielder Ezequiel Carrera reached on first base after a fielding error by Angels’ shortstop Erick Aybar. Carrera then stole second, advanced to third base on a groundout, and got home on a Santana wild pitch.
Santana also had ten strikeouts and a walk.
The Indians were terrible offensively and defensively. They had five errors in the contest.
Santana’s no-hitter was the third in Major League Baseball this year. Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins no-hit the Chicago White Sox on May 3rd and Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays on May 7th.
Santana is the sixth Angel to throw a no-hitter joining Bo Belinsky, Clyde Wright, Nolan Ryan, Mike Witt and Mark Langston.
Ryan threw four of his record seven no-hitters with the Angels. Even though Langston only contributed to a no-hitter in 1990, he is not officially credited with one. Ironically, it was Mike Witt who came in to throw the final two innings of Langston’s 1990 no-no and threw the last single pitcher no-hitter in Angels’ history in 1984.
Colby Rasmus (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
With the Toronto Blue Jays thirteen games back of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East, it came as absolutely no surprise to me that Blue Jays’ General Manager Alex Anthopoulos made blockbuster deals today.
First, Anthopoulos traded reliever Jason Frasor and pitching prospect Zach Stewart to the Chicago White Sox for Canadian third baseman Mark Teahen and starting pitcher Edwin Jackson.
The Blue Jays then shipped Jackson, outfielder Corey Patterson, pitcher Mark Rzepczynski and possible closer Octavio Dotel to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Colby Rasmus, and pitchers P.J. Walters, and former Blue Jays Brian Tallet and Trever Miller.
Rasmus is the best player the Blue Jays are receiving in the deal. He is batting .246 with 11 home runs and 40 runs batted in after hitting .276 with 23 home runs and 66 runs batted in during 2010. He became expendable a little bit in St. Louis’ lineup who has seen great seasons from Jon Jay, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman.
Teahen, has represented Canada at the World Baseball Classic because his father is from St. Mary’s, Ontario, is struggling significantly offensively (.203, 3 HR, 11 RBIs) with the White Sox this year, and will probably be used in a backup utility role coming off the bench when needed. Teahen, is very versatile, as he has Major League experience through the infield and outfield.
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