Down the Stretch

October 2nd, 2009 | by Ray Flowers |

Heading into the weekend of the regular season I thought I would take a quick look around the league and throw out there some interesting tidbits of knowledge, factoids if you will, that would be interesting to read. At least that is the plan.

Jeremy Bonderman was suspended for three games for intentionally throwing at the Twin’s Delmon Young. This is hardly a surprise given the current landscape of the game. However, what was surprising is that the Twins’Jose Mijares, the man who escalated the confrontation between the teams by throwing behind Adam Everett, was only fined. “I don’t know how the person who starts it doesn’t get some sort of penalty too,” Tigers’ GM Dave Dombrowski said. “I’ve expressed that to people in the commissioner’s office.” (1) This is totally ridiculous. If Bonderman is suspended, so must be Mijares. (2) Can you imagine how many times that Bob Gibson would have been sidelined by suspension if he had pitched today? Face it. The game is filled to the brim with wussy’s of all kinds. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Sometimes guys get hit, that’s the game, and if some moron like Mijares does something inflammatory than the “baseball code” dictates a retaliation. Bonderman did that, and he did it properly by throwing his pitch off of Young’s knee and not at his noggin’. Hell, the Twins even understood what was going on. “Trust me, Delmon wasn’t at all upset with the Tigers,” Denard Span said Thursday. “He knew what was going to happen, and he was angry at our teammate.” So, what good does this suspension do? Exactly – it does nothing. Once again baseball screwed something up. What a shock.

Eric Byrnes and Chris Young both had four hits on Friday. Byrnes went deep twice and had five RBI while Young had four runs scored. Too bad it took six months for the D’backs to get a game like this from both of these guys. Too little too late guys, but still a nice outing for those that took a chance on having either one active. At least Young is hitting .287 with six homers over his last 26 games.

You know the Twins new ballpark, scheduled to be ready to go for the start of next season, is an outdoor stadium right? Yes, they are going with an outdoor stadium in Minnesota. I’m no weather man, but that cannot be a good thing can it? It certainly isn’t if you ask Mike Cameron. “Why in the world would they build an outdoor stadium? That will be the worst new park in the league. They’re going to get no players there.” Too bad the Twins didn’t consult Mr. Cameron because I can’t think there are many players who are going to disagree with that sentiment.

Adam Dunn says that he uses a 34.5 inch, 34 ounce bat most of the year, but inexplicably, when others are moving to lighter bats as their bodies grow weary, he goes to a heavier 35 ounce bat late in the year. “Don’t ask me why…It just feels better going up.” Dunn needs to hit two homers this weekend for 40, a total he has reached exactly in each of the past four seasons. Hopefully that bigger stick ‘o lumber will help.

Anyone out there realize that David Ortiz is, rather remarkably, just two homers and three RBIs away from a 30-100 season? If he is able to reach both marks this weekend it will mark the sixth time in six seasons with the Red Sox that he will be part of that club. For a guy who had one homer run and 18 RBI in his first 46 games, that’s more than a quarter of the season folks, that’s a pretty impressive effort

I was watching Jake Peavy’s start against the Tigers on Friday and I had a thought – how does anyone hit him, ever? When you can rush it up there 92-93 with that much movement on your fastball, I just don’t see how anyone squares it up. Add in 2-3 mph that he has when healthy, and count me as one of those people who is shocked when anyone hits a line drive off him.

By Ray Flowers

Tags: Adam Dunn, Bob Gibson, Chris Young, David Ortiz, Delmon Young, Denard Span, Eric Byrnes, Jake Peavy, Jeremy Bonderman, Jose MIjares