Mormon Baseball

Archive for the ‘Weekly Updates’ Category

When the Yankees’ play-by-play radio announcer, John Sterling, says (as he does every game) “You just can’t predict baseball,” I can’t help laughing—because he says it so often. The thing is, though, he’s right.

And in the first week of baseball for 2013 I saw that he is right again. Who would have predicted, even given his strong performance in spring training, that the Mets’ John Buck would have the best batting average among the Mormons in professional baseball? Better than Bryce Harper? Better than Jacoby Ellsbury and Darwin Barney? But here we are, after a week of play, 20 at bats for Buck, he is hitting .400 with 9 rbis and 2 home runs.

Starting the season last week, I thought Harper was the one with the hot bat. He homered in each of his first two at bats for the season (what a hot dog!) and had to endear himself to fans when he checked with his team mates (because he didn’t want to seem cocky) after the second home run to see if it was all right to take a curtain call. Alright? Of course its alright! You just hit back-to-back home runs! when no one else on the team could hit Ricky Nolasco! Yes, Bryce, take the curtain call.

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If I have to pick one Mormon player as the strongest performer during this spring training, there is really little question about who should be picked: Bryce Harper. His performance has simply been stunning. During his last week of the spring, he hit .778! He led all batters (those with at least 30 at bats) in spring training in batting average with .478 and hit 3 home runs, and he did it with a respectable 67 at bats. You almost wanted his coaches to tell him to calm down and save something for the regular season. But Harper isn’t the only Mormon player to perform well in the spring.

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Even though spring training numbers favor hitters, and don’t really mean much, its hard not to be impressed with the batting performances of several Mormon players. In particular the exploits of the Oakland A’s Eric Sogard are stunning. Sogard has hit .600 or more for two weeks in a row, and has an average for the spring of .525. Sogard’s exploits are closely matched by the National’s Bryce Harper, who hit .500 last week and has a .431 average for the Spring. But unlike Sogard, Harper has nothing to prove.

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A Mormon trio has made spring training very interesting for the Oakland Athletics and their fans. Shane Peterson, Adam Rosales and Eric Sogard are all playing outstanding ball, sporting high batting averages and making managerial decisions anything but obvious. Sogard jumped to the front of the group last week, hitting a stunning .692 (9 for 13) for the week, bringing his spring training batting average up to an even .500!

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The hottest Mormon player in baseball, Shane Peterson, remained hot last week, hitting .545 over 11 at bats with a home run and 3 rbis, continuing an impressive spring training for the Oakland Athletics’ prospect. If Peterson keeps this up, its hard to imagine that the Athletics won’t bring him up during the year, or perhaps even make space for him on the starting team. Of course, these decisions have as much to do with the quality and experience of the other outfielders that the Athletics can draw on, so well have to wait and see.

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While it is perhaps not wise to make too much of performance in spring training, especially at the very beginning, the early results from several Mormons in baseball are quite encouraging. And leading the pack is last year’s National League MVP Rookie of the Year, Bryce Harper, who is hitting over .500. But the encouraging results are not just those from Harper, but also from a trio of Mormons who play in the Oakland A’s organization (two of whom were added to our lists just this past week!)

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One time Baltimore Orioles ace Jeremy Guthrie, a returned missionary who served in Spain, has landed a contract with the Kansas City Royals for the next 3 years. The deal, worth $25 million, inline with the contract he signed last year with the Rockies and inline with his career high.

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Next week baseball will announce its major awards, including the MVP, Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards, next week after digesting the results of the 2012 season. And while most Mormons may focus on the possibility that Bryce Harper will be the National League’s Rookie of the Year, the Chicago Cubs’ Darwin Barney has already earned a Gold Glove at 2nd base, which could well leave him the only Mormon awarded for this year’s play.

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Perhaps its just timing. Someone has to lose–and Mitch Talbot’s last few games hasn’t been as strong as his performances earlier in the season. Then there is also the long wait that the Lions faced while the Korean playoffs approached the Korean Series. First the 3rd and 4th place teams played a five game series, then the winner of that series played the 2nd place team in another five game series. Finally, well rested–perhaps too well rested–the first place Lions, Talbot’s team, played the winner of the series with the 2nd place team. And last night, Talbot took the mound for the Lions, lasted 6 innings and gave up 3 runs. And lost.

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Mitch Maier

Even though the post season games are still being played, the post season roster shuffle has already started, and one Mormon player has already suffered a setback. The Kansas City backup outfielder Mitch Maier was released by the Royals on October 5th, leaving Maier looking for a new team. Maier ended the season in the minors, after hitting just .172 at the plate in the majors, down from .263 in 2010.

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