Mormon Baseball

Archive for the ‘Weekly Updates’ Category

The last remaining Mormon in the MLB postseason, Bryce Harper, finally started batting like the Harper that fans knew and expected. He started last night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals with a triple off of pitcher Adam Wainwright, driving in his first post-season RBI and setting himself up to score when Ryan Zimmerman hit a home run two pitches later. Then in the third, Harper hit a 92 mile per hour sinker into the stands for his first post season home run and only the second postseason home run by a teenager in major league baseball history.

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Bryce Harper is still mired in a slump that has left him with just one post-season hit in 18 at bats. But while he has had to content himself with his performance in the field, his team, the Washington Nationals, have managed to keep alive, winning yesterday to force a 5th and deciding game with the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m sure that both Harper and his team are thinking this would be a great time for his bat to wake up!

Meanwhile, the other Mormon playing in the MLB postseason, Oakland As backup 2nd baseman Adam Rosales, has been eliminated along with his team. Rosales never got a chance to play in what would have been his first MLB postseason appearance. Perhaps he will get another shot in the future.

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Can we still say “no joy in mudville” if Casey doesn’t get a hit, but also doesn’t strike out? In yesterday’s game against the Cardinals, Bryce Harper didn’t strike out, but he also didn’t get a hit in 5 trips to the plate. His postseason average is down to .067! Perhaps post season pitching is just that much better? too much for a 19-year-old rookie?

At least Harper is getting a chance. The Oakland As backup 2nd baseman, Adam Rosales, still hasn’t reached the plate. For Rosales and the As everything is on the line in tonight’s game against the Tigers; the two teams are tied in their series at 2 games apiece.

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There is yet another Mormon playing in the post season, but most readers of this blog won’t see him play. And, in addition, his first post-season game doesn’t start until October 24th! Mitch Talbot plays for the Samsung Lions of the Korean Major League, and his team has the best record in the regular season. Under the Korean playoffs, the 3rd and 4th place teams have a 5-game playoff series. The winner then faces the 2nd place team in another 5-game series, and that winner then faces the Samsung Lions for the championship series. So Talbot waits.

But the wait is probably worth it. Not only does he go to the championship series well rested, the winner of that series gets to play in the 6-team Asia Series, which includes champions of the professional leagues in Japan, Australia, China, and Taiwan plus the host Lotte Giants of Busan, South Korea. The Asia series runs from November 8-11.

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The playoffs have started, and somehow I haven’t managed to report on the final three days of play of the regular season. But in general, now that I’ve compiled the statistics, there isn’t much to report. Among fielders, the standout was again Bryce Harper, who went 2 for 6 and scored a run. Most of the others were pretty abysmal — Darwin Barney was 0 for 7, John Buck 0 for 4, and Ellsbury 2 for 10.It seems likely that the lack of motivation, since these players had no chance to make the post-season, was likely a factor.

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With the elimination of the Tampa Bay Rays (and a couple of other AL teams) yesterday, the teams that will make the post season are now set (although who will lead the AL East and AL West vs. who will be the AL wild card teams isn’t yet certain). As a result we now know which Mormon players will make the post season this year: Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals and Adam Rosales of the Oakland As.

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The heralded rookie, Bryce Harper, in the penultimate week of the year, has make perhaps the strongest case yet for National League Rookie of the Year. Three home runs, 12 hits in 24 at bats (yes, he hit .500 for the week!) and 7 rbis, raised his totals for the year to a .269 average, 97 runs, 59 rbis and 22 home runs in 527 at bats. I haven’t looked at the other candidates for national league rookie of the year, but Harper’s case seems very strong. He has already passed the record for the most home runs by a teenager playing in the national league and is just two shy of the major league record.

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Jacoby Ellsbury led the Mormons in the majors at the plate this past week, but by the end of the week he was benched with a rumored strain to his lat, which left him day-to-day. But before the injury he hit .467 with 6 rbis and a home run in 15 at bats.

But unlike Ellsbury, several other Mormons were largely kept from the plate by their managers. John Buck, for example, was one of those who struggled to get a shot at the plate—but Buck made the most of 7 at bats this past week, slamming 2 home runs among 3 hits for a .429 average. Unfortunately, Elliot Johnson (1 at bat) and Adam Rosales (3 at bats) didn’t do as well.

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9 for 19, 7 runs and 6 walks. Sounds like a great week, huh? That was Darwin Barney this past week as he helped the Cubs win 4 of 6 against the Astros and Pirates. The week raised his batting average for the year to .263, slightly lower than last year.

But Barney was just the leader of a troika of strong Mormon hitters this past week. Jacoby Ellsbury also was strong, hitting .360 for the week with 2 runs, 2 rbis, 3 walks and 2 stolen bases. And the teenager Bryce Harper continued a now 3-week-long hot streak, hitting .318, scoring 3 runs and walking 3 times while hitting his 19th home run — he now holds the record for the most home runs in the National League by a teenager, 5 behind the major league record of 24.

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The last Mormon playing in the minor league playoffs has been eliminated. Mitch Maier was blanked in 4 at bats, striking out once, leaving his playoff average at .297, still 3rd best on the team, but his team didn’t have enough to stave off the Reno Aces, who beat Maier’s Omaha Storm Chasers 8-2, to win the fourth game of the Pacific Coast League and clinch the series.

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