Was Allen Craig Trying to Get Traded

I've been saying all year that Allen Craig was playing poorly on purpose in an attempt to get traded. He's way too good to perform that badly at the plate. I know he was ticked off that his friend David Freeze got traded (so were a lot of us!), and I don't think he was at all happy about PED-HEAD Peralta joining the team in place of Pete Kozma. And as it turns out, when he's not on steroids Peralta can't hit any better than Kozma. He's hitting just over .250 and only about .180 with runners in scoring position. Kozma always had about a .300 or better RISP and he was a better fielder than Peralta. David Freeze had a slow start and a broken thumb, but he's been really heating up the last six weeks in LA.

The Cardinals as a team have been hitting poorly ever since the departure of Mark McGwire as their hitting coach. For the three years he was in charge, the Cards had the best OBP, the most runs scored, and the second most hits in the National League. His last year in St. Louis, Mac had six Cardinal players hitting right at or over .300 and five of them had twenty or more home runs. Mac had the sweetest swing I ever saw, and there was a period of time where the young guys on the team were looking just like him at the plate, but no more. They look lost up there. Is it Mabry's fault? It may well be. But Allen Craig is so good a hitter that he could be the hitting coach on any team. For him to be looking so bad at the plate, I can only believe that he was simply not trying. Mark my words, he wanted to get traded. So now he's got his wish and will be playing with the Bo-Sox next week. How much you wanna bet he suddenly starts knocking the cover off the ball?

John Mozeliak has been the force behind this mess, trading off one great player after another while bringing cheating scum into the clubhouse. He deserved to get fired for that Peralta move. Trading Freeze was a mistake as well. Trading Joe Kelly will come back to haunt him too. We might as well give up watching the Cards for a few years. There aren't a team anymore. The chemistry is gone. At least we've got Rizzo and Abreu slugging it out in not too far away Chicago, which is right now the best home run rivalry baseball has seen in quite a while.

So long Allen Craig. You were the best thing about this team after Albert left.

Yahoobuckaroo (a discouraged fan)

Come Wander With Me

I heard this song on an old episode of The Twilight Zone the other night and was so taken with it that I googled it and found it on YouTube. From all the hits and thumbs up it got, apparently it's one of those strange eerie songs that affects a lot of people for a reason they don't quite understand. I'll post the original version below that Bonnie Beecher sang on the show and then a more modern soft rock version by Emilie Satt below it that's pretty neat.

Is Jose Abreu the Next Babe Ruth?

The White Sox completely overhauled their team during the last offseason and got rid of a bunch of dead weight while bringing a lot of new talent. The club has done a full about-face now and could even win their division before it's over. Center stage of all this is Cuban defector Jose Abreu.

Abreu is a rookie, but he's no kid at 27. He spent several years playing in the Cuban Serie Nacional league where he regularly hit near .400 and was known for his ability to hit home runs and get RBIs. He hit .453/.597/.986 with 79 runs, 93 RBI and 33 home runs in only 66 games in 2010-2011.

Abreu currently has 29 home runs and is on a pace to surpass both Babe Ruth and Roger Maris' single season records, and he may even do it in less at-bats than either of them. And in his rookie season no less. Ruth had 25 dingers going into July 1927. He had 30 by July 12th. However, the Yankees opening day wasn't until April 12th back then. Had they started April 1st the way we do now, Ruth would have had between 27 or 28 by July 1st. Abreu had 26 homers on July 1st. The White Sox played 10 more games in April than the 27 Yankees did, but Abreu spent 15 days on the DL at the end of May, and the Sox played a game on every one of those days, so by July 1st Abreu played in 5 games less than Ruth did and only had one less home run. Abreu is not only on the same pace as Ruth in 1927—he's ahead of him! Of course Ruth had one hell of a September back in '27, but Abreu has shown over his years in Cuba that he's just as capable. And did I mention that he's also great in the field?

To surpass Ruth and Maris' single season home run records as a rookie seems unimaginable, but I have a feeling this will just be a drop in the bucket compared to what Jose Abreu will do before his career is through. He's quick, strong, smart, friendly, and downright likeable. His teammates call him "Yogi" because of his imposing stature and amiable demeanor. Jose Abreu is the new face of baseball.