The MLB teams started the games in jumping training with a grand gesture in honor of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Meanwhile, the Japanese super-rookie and the new best quarterback in New York caused a sensation. SPOX summarizes the last week in the new format “Spring Training Kompakt”.
Normally, the story of the week is about sports, but for the premiere edition of our Spring Training Kompakt and for the occasion, we look beyond the edge of the field. The terrible shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland/Florida has touched everyone.
This also applies to the teams of the Major League Baseball, who just one week later started playing in the Spring Training. In order to show support and do something for the good cause, the league gave the green light for all players to wear the caps of the high school baseball team of the school on the weekend before the games – with the option of using them instead of the actual team caps also during the games.
Through the bank, every player, manager and coach took this opportunity and wore the cap with the SD logo in the game. And so that it was not just a beautiful gesture for the victims and their relatives, Major League Baseball is now making the used caps and the signatures of the stars available for auction. The proceeds will then go to the Florida Education Fund.
We say: Hats off, Major League Baseball, for this great action!
Admittedly, after one week of jumping training it is still quite pointless to appoint a player of the week. But we are still trying! If you look at the numbers, there can only be one thing: Austin Hedges, the catcher of the San Diego Padres!
Hedges only played three games, but missed the ball rarely. In only 5 at-bats he beat 3 homeruns (5 RBI) and gets a crazy slashline of. 600/. 667/. 2.400, which results in a total of 3.067 OPS. Of course the sample size is microscopic here, but for the start this is impressive.
After a week of jumping training, our German club swingers are still quite calm – just like many other regular players everywhere in the league. He has played three games in the Right Field for the Twins and was 2-9 with an OPS of. 522 – in good German: He beat 2 singles (3 strikeouts).
After he had dismissed the whole Tebow story last year as a PR campaign, Mets-GM Sandy Alderson was surprised with this sentence:”I think he will play in the Major Leagues” Boom! Steep thesis!
But before Tebow can take up his hunt for the Big Leagues, he has to take a short step. The Ex-NFL-QB has somehow managed to step on a sprinkler in practice and twist his ankle. Mockers say that with this injury he has his place in the Mets already surely…
Good improvement also from this place!
The Japanese has arrived in the States and with him the concentrated media hype! No other player already has as many game pictures as the 2-Way-Player of the Angels. Of course, we don’t want to close ourselves off from the hype and briefly recapitulate how it is doing.
First of all, he made his debut on the Mound. In 1 1 1/3 innings he got his first strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brewers, but he also gave a not unobtrusive homerun to Keon Broxton.
A short time later he finally made his debut on the record. Against the San Diego Padres he convinced with two walks and an RBI single. Could the hype be “real”?
Admittedly, you don’t need to search for “stars” in the training complex of the Yankees in Tampa/Florida. This week, however, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson honoured himself – his trademark Second Baseman and recently joined the Yankees. And so the Super Bowl winner was also allowed to prove himself on the training ground and cut a pretty good figure!
As a fielder he already convinced with good hands, then it went to the record to the Batting Practice – amidst the “real” baseball stars Judge, Stanton and Sanchez. In the end,”DangerRussWilson” ended up on a respectable six homeruns – even one more than Sanchez in this session.
The New York media, on the other hand, never tirelessly emphasized that the best quarterback in New York is now a Yankee – send their greetings to the New York Jets and Giants!
“The Freak” is back! Pitcher Tim Lincecum is back in the MLB. The right-hander got a major league deal with the Texas Rangers and will certainly live up to his name again.
Since 2016 we have seen Lincecum, who is not 1.80 years old, no longer on a mound in the MLB – his nine starts at the Angels (9.16 ERA) were too catastrophic. But after a tryout before several MLB scouts, two teams offered him major league contracts.
The Rangers finally outpaced the Dodgers and now only have to clarify whether the freak starts or pitches out of the bullpen. In both roles he was effective at some time in his career.
Welcome back, freak!
The sad highlight of the week was undoubtedly the injury to topays prospect Brent Honeywell. The starter tore the sideband in his elbow after a closer examination. The inevitable consequence: Tommy John Surgery! For the layman, this is the infamous elbow reconstruction, which takes a year of rehabilitation. It will be some time before we see the MVP of the All-Star Futures Game 2017 in the Big Leagues.
Noah Syndergaard made his jumping debut for the Mets and you can say that “Thor” has already regained his form and is physically fit. The proof? In his first inning, he threw pitches at speeds of 100,100,100,100,90,100,97,91,101,101,101 and 92 miles per hour. As an explanation: the two lower 90 were sliders (sic!).
Observers were surprised and reported that he didn’t push, but “nice and easy” brought his throws over the record. Of course, as the god of thunder you can throw harder sometimes!
Normally we would treat a quote in German here now, but in this particular case it would simply lose weight, not to reproduce it in the original….
“Dry humping guys is something I feel strongly about” (Mickey Callaway, manager of the New York Mets)
Does it still need context? No, isn’t it?
But as we want to be halfway serious here, here is the explanation: Dry Humping in this case doesn’t mean what you think, but that relief pitcher in the bullpen are sent to warm up and are not replaced after all. A practice that Callaway wants to avoid more nicely and ideally.
Admittedly, without context, the sentence is much more exciting.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.