Albert is amazing but when the pressure comes off he is even more amazing. He's a multiple HR hitter in games,so once he figured out the park it became easier. I don't like the analysts, I never cared for AJ when he played and not now in a different role.
I agree about Lynn, you all can't believe that last season (2010) he was struggling in AAA (DK was roommate for awhile), probably a lot due to being young. This year it just all came together for him. I like this role, but I understand most likely will eventually be moved back to starter.
The MLB Network just showed the play at the plate. Hey Karros, the runner was out. There is no excuse for a commentator who has access to video to blame poor umpiring on that call. JMHO!
AJ is a punk! Always has been.
His hair definitely needs a ball cap!
His mouth definitely needs some duct tape!
This whole thing with Albert and the media has been blown way out of proportion. (As has just about every non-story in this Series)
Pujols wouldn't even get honorable mention on the list of the top 1000 "media-unfriendly" pro athletes!
His hair definitely needs a ball cap!
His mouth definitely needs some duct tape!
This whole thing with Albert and the media has been blown way out of proportion. (As has just about every non-story in this Series)
Pujols wouldn't even get honorable mention on the list of the top 1000 "media-unfriendly" pro athletes!
CoachB25 and gitnby,
I have to agree with you about AJ. We supported him when he played for the Twins, but sometimes heard rumors that he caused locker room unrest. We even clapped quietly for him when he was being booed by Twins fans on his return to Minnesota with the White Sox.
But his post-game comments were so self-important... basically he took credit for having said stuff to Albert pre-game which fired him up to hit the 3 HR's. Really, AJ? Wow, I bet Albert was so thankful that you made it possible for him to accomplish that historic feat.
Julie
I have to agree with you about AJ. We supported him when he played for the Twins, but sometimes heard rumors that he caused locker room unrest. We even clapped quietly for him when he was being booed by Twins fans on his return to Minnesota with the White Sox.
But his post-game comments were so self-important... basically he took credit for having said stuff to Albert pre-game which fired him up to hit the 3 HR's. Really, AJ? Wow, I bet Albert was so thankful that you made it possible for him to accomplish that historic feat.
Julie
quote:But his post-game comments were so self-important... basically he took credit for having said stuff to Albert pre-game which fired him up to hit the 3 HR's. Really, AJ? Wow, I bet Albert was so thankful that you made it possible for him to accomplish that historic feat.
That's just like T-plush with the Brewers... did the same thing a week or two ago. Wonder how he's enjoying his vacation?
In the Rams/Cowboy's game, A.J. was a guest. He was asked about "calling out Albert" and took credit for the performance. Although he did laugh when the statement was made, he went on to say that Albert had to be "called out." Albert hit two balls in St. Louis that would have been out in Texas. He hit a one hopper and a line drive to third both very hard. He didn't have a hit but he was driving the ball. Maybe when A.J. does that during the season next year, someone will tell him he must be in a slump. I guarantee you he'd be mad if someone did.
First Eric Karros last night and now on ESPN, both are suggesting that the way they are going to have to deal with Albert is to throw at him. Hold on tight if that is what happens. A major storm might be brewing.
quote:Originally posted by CoachB25:
The MLB Network just showed the play at the plate. Hey Karros, the runner was out. There is no excuse for a commentator who has access to video to blame poor umpiring on that call. JMHO!
What play at the plate? Napoli?
He was out by a mile. He never should have tagged up on that ball but he could have been save with a good slide. He slid right into the tag with no on-deck batter to assist.
He should have scored from second on the prior basehit.
Babe Ruth
Reggie Jackson
Albert Pujols
That's a nice list to be on.
Reggie Jackson
Albert Pujols
That's a nice list to be on.
Albert Pujols
An even better list to be on. He stands on his own after that performance last night...
An even better list to be on. He stands on his own after that performance last night...
quote:Albert Pujols
An even better list to be on. He stands on his own after that performance last night...
Exactly what did he do last to kick Reggie and Babe (who did it twice) off the list?
Reaching the previous record for hits by any player, be it power guy or slap hitter or whatever....
Reaching the previous record for HR's by any player, and surpassed them all in the other categories too
Reaching the previous record for RBI by any player, with more hits, HR's and total bases than the previous RBI record holders amassed
Doing them ALL in the same game while setting a NEW record for Total Bases
I'd say he stands on his own with that kind of performance. I'm not saying they aren't great (because we know they are) but what he did was remarkable.
And let's remember he was 0fer coming into the game
Reaching the previous record for HR's by any player, and surpassed them all in the other categories too
Reaching the previous record for RBI by any player, with more hits, HR's and total bases than the previous RBI record holders amassed
Doing them ALL in the same game while setting a NEW record for Total Bases
I'd say he stands on his own with that kind of performance. I'm not saying they aren't great (because we know they are) but what he did was remarkable.
And let's remember he was 0fer coming into the game
He's also very good at hide-n-seek!
Game 4
Hamilton looks like he's feeling better...you know...down there.
Hamilton looks like he's feeling better...you know...down there.
Quite a bit different game so far..
Ball isn't carrying tonight...cool, still, damp night.
Holland's throwing his best game of the post season.
Holland's throwing his best game of the post season.
Fear the Nap.........
quote:Ball isn't carrying tonight...cool, still, damp night.
Wish that were the case...
There have been about 5-6 balls tonight that would have been HRs last night. Nap's ball would have been an HR at Jerry's world........
quote:Originally posted by Three Bagger:
I agree with LadsDad, Elvis was the difference in this game. When we argue about whether Jeter is a good shortstop or not, Elvis settles the arguement of what MAJOR LEAGUE range is like!
When Andrus wins 5 World Series titles and puts up a career like Jeter, then they can be compared. Andrus a good SS but hasn't won anything yet. Just keepin it real.
quote:Originally posted by biggerpapi:
Babe Ruth
Reggie Jackson
Albert Pujols
That's a nice list to be on.
Would much rather seen the records be held by only Yankees. However, since St.Louis is the second most successful franchise in MLB, I suppose theres room for him.
Absolutely a great game thrown by Holland under pressure.
...and it was nice to have Clark Kent rather than Superman back in the Card uni.
A Sunday sweep in Arlington. Monday night is big..
...and it was nice to have Clark Kent rather than Superman back in the Card uni.
A Sunday sweep in Arlington. Monday night is big..
Awesome performane by Holland!
Great story behind Holland. Unnoticed in High School, summer ball, no D1 offers. Looks like from what I read he attended a showcase in Arizona - (PG?) and got one offer to pitch at a community college and went from pitching in the low 80's there as a freshman to what 95 tonight? He never gave up. His parents believed in him. He was willing to learn/listen/apply.
Excellent story! Drafted in 25th round.
quote:Excellent story! Drafted in 25th round.
and still can't grow a moustache.
Way to step up on the big stage!
The complete story - long but really good!
By BARRY HORN / The Dallas Morning Newsbhorn@dallasnews.com
A few biographical tidbits about the Rangers pitcher teammates call "Wonder Boy." You know, the 22-year-old baby-face who started last season near the bottom of the minor league system and has morphed into one of the most valuable commodities in the organization.
Derek Holland was not a child prodigy, a high school phenom or a big-time college star.
Holland, who has settled nicely into the starting rotation, winning his last three starts, was never even the ace of the high school staff back home in Newark, Ohio, which should not be mistaken for a baseball breeding ground.
When his summer league team reached the Babe Ruth League World Series in 2004, the coach never deemed him worthy to start a game.
When he graduated high school in 2005, not a single four-year college offered a baseball scholarship. He might have liked to go just down the road to Ohio State, whose famed football stadium in Columbus he has calibrated sits 43 miles from his family home, but the Buckeyes were not remotely interested.
It was only after Derek's dad, Rick, an electrician, anted up $1,200 to send his son to an Arizona showcase camp that Derek got a chance to pitch after high school. He wowed the coaches and scouts enough to earn a trip to a community college in relatively obscure Hanceville, Ala.
So it's not hard to understand how Holland could sit in the Rangers dugout last week, smiling as a steady stream of teammates made "Wonder Arm" and "Wonder Hands" references, and declare, "I never would have dreamed I could be here already ... but I am glad the opportunity arrived."
Pitching "here" over the last month, Holland beat the Mariners, allowing two hits while finishing one out short of a complete game. He shut out the Angels, allowing three hits in nine innings, beat the wild-card rival Red Sox and Thursday helped staunch a two-game losing streak against the Twins. He has allowed three earned runs in his last 21 innings.
Not a bad month's work for a 25th-round draft choice who signed in May 2007. Now his long-overlooked left arm will have to carry a heavy load if the Rangers have any chance at postseason play.
Perhaps only Wendy Holland, who works in the auto claims department for a giant insurance company and has never scouted another pitcher, knew this would happen. She says she could see what all those early coaches and scouts couldn't because of an incident soon after her son was born. She simply couldn't get her nine-pound baby home from the hospital in the "cute outfit" she picked out, because his hands were too big to fit through the sleeves.
"I knew then and there he was going to be famous for his hands," she declared over the telephone from the family home in Newark. "I knew he would throw a baseball or play the piano."
A coach's challenge
Her son smiles when the tale is re-told in the dugout. He doesn't shrug or make a son-thinks-his-mother-is-being-silly face. Instead, he volunteers he will be eternally grateful to his parents for showing faith and support when others did not. His success is their success.
And then Holland quickly added that he has no hard feelings toward those who were less supportive.
RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ / Special to DMN
Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland signed as a 25th-round draft choice in May 2007 but has had a rapid rise through the organization.
"To be honest, I was not very good," he said. "I was a typical lefty. I had two pitches, a fastball that didn't have much speed and a change-up that didn't fool many people."
That fastball traveled in the low 80 mph range, which most certainly would have doomed him to life in baseball's slow lane had he not had the good fortune to be invited to Wallace State Community College, which bills itself as "a power in the Alabama Community College Conference."
Wallace State coach Randy Putman never saw Holland pitch at the showcase camp in Arizona. He wasn't there. But a former player who now scouts for the New York Mets was, and he recommended two pitchers from Ohio. One had the potential to be a star, the scout gushed. The other was Derek Holland.
And so Holland packed all his worldly possessions in an ancient rusted Honda Accord with more than 200,000 miles of service, glided through Columbus, and headed 600 miles south to learn how to pitch.
Putman liked the raw Holland the first time the two met, but it was not so much for his pitching ability. The coach found he had a "yes sir, would do anything kid" who soaked up instruction and applied lessons almost immediately. The coach put Holland on a strength program while pitching coach Chuck Davis concentrated on correcting mechanics. Both preached the importance of challenging hitters. Almost overnight, the pitcher's velocity rose to a more respectable 90 mph.
"His competitive desire and fire were unmatched," Putman said.
But the most important moment in the relationship between coach and pitcher came early in the freshman's 2005 fall season. Holland was in the midst of yet another poor pitching performance when the two visited on the mound.
"I told him I was tired of seeing him pitch like a sissy," Putman recalled over the phone from his office in Hanceville. "Only I didn't say 'sissy.' I said a lot of things I told him he could think about heading back to Ohio. Some folks may say I scared him. I'd say I motivated him."
Holland vividly recalled the moment. He remembered already allowing three runs in the first inning, the site of the game, the time of day and having his manhood challenged.
"He knew I had a little bit of talent and I could pitch if I stopped trying to be too fine and threw the ball," Holland said. "He was just making a point. If it wasn't for him coming out that day and ripping into me, I don't know where I would be now."
By BARRY HORN / The Dallas Morning Newsbhorn@dallasnews.com
A few biographical tidbits about the Rangers pitcher teammates call "Wonder Boy." You know, the 22-year-old baby-face who started last season near the bottom of the minor league system and has morphed into one of the most valuable commodities in the organization.
Derek Holland was not a child prodigy, a high school phenom or a big-time college star.
Holland, who has settled nicely into the starting rotation, winning his last three starts, was never even the ace of the high school staff back home in Newark, Ohio, which should not be mistaken for a baseball breeding ground.
When his summer league team reached the Babe Ruth League World Series in 2004, the coach never deemed him worthy to start a game.
When he graduated high school in 2005, not a single four-year college offered a baseball scholarship. He might have liked to go just down the road to Ohio State, whose famed football stadium in Columbus he has calibrated sits 43 miles from his family home, but the Buckeyes were not remotely interested.
It was only after Derek's dad, Rick, an electrician, anted up $1,200 to send his son to an Arizona showcase camp that Derek got a chance to pitch after high school. He wowed the coaches and scouts enough to earn a trip to a community college in relatively obscure Hanceville, Ala.
So it's not hard to understand how Holland could sit in the Rangers dugout last week, smiling as a steady stream of teammates made "Wonder Arm" and "Wonder Hands" references, and declare, "I never would have dreamed I could be here already ... but I am glad the opportunity arrived."
Pitching "here" over the last month, Holland beat the Mariners, allowing two hits while finishing one out short of a complete game. He shut out the Angels, allowing three hits in nine innings, beat the wild-card rival Red Sox and Thursday helped staunch a two-game losing streak against the Twins. He has allowed three earned runs in his last 21 innings.
Not a bad month's work for a 25th-round draft choice who signed in May 2007. Now his long-overlooked left arm will have to carry a heavy load if the Rangers have any chance at postseason play.
Perhaps only Wendy Holland, who works in the auto claims department for a giant insurance company and has never scouted another pitcher, knew this would happen. She says she could see what all those early coaches and scouts couldn't because of an incident soon after her son was born. She simply couldn't get her nine-pound baby home from the hospital in the "cute outfit" she picked out, because his hands were too big to fit through the sleeves.
"I knew then and there he was going to be famous for his hands," she declared over the telephone from the family home in Newark. "I knew he would throw a baseball or play the piano."
A coach's challenge
Her son smiles when the tale is re-told in the dugout. He doesn't shrug or make a son-thinks-his-mother-is-being-silly face. Instead, he volunteers he will be eternally grateful to his parents for showing faith and support when others did not. His success is their success.
And then Holland quickly added that he has no hard feelings toward those who were less supportive.
RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ / Special to DMN
Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland signed as a 25th-round draft choice in May 2007 but has had a rapid rise through the organization.
"To be honest, I was not very good," he said. "I was a typical lefty. I had two pitches, a fastball that didn't have much speed and a change-up that didn't fool many people."
That fastball traveled in the low 80 mph range, which most certainly would have doomed him to life in baseball's slow lane had he not had the good fortune to be invited to Wallace State Community College, which bills itself as "a power in the Alabama Community College Conference."
Wallace State coach Randy Putman never saw Holland pitch at the showcase camp in Arizona. He wasn't there. But a former player who now scouts for the New York Mets was, and he recommended two pitchers from Ohio. One had the potential to be a star, the scout gushed. The other was Derek Holland.
And so Holland packed all his worldly possessions in an ancient rusted Honda Accord with more than 200,000 miles of service, glided through Columbus, and headed 600 miles south to learn how to pitch.
Putman liked the raw Holland the first time the two met, but it was not so much for his pitching ability. The coach found he had a "yes sir, would do anything kid" who soaked up instruction and applied lessons almost immediately. The coach put Holland on a strength program while pitching coach Chuck Davis concentrated on correcting mechanics. Both preached the importance of challenging hitters. Almost overnight, the pitcher's velocity rose to a more respectable 90 mph.
"His competitive desire and fire were unmatched," Putman said.
But the most important moment in the relationship between coach and pitcher came early in the freshman's 2005 fall season. Holland was in the midst of yet another poor pitching performance when the two visited on the mound.
"I told him I was tired of seeing him pitch like a sissy," Putman recalled over the phone from his office in Hanceville. "Only I didn't say 'sissy.' I said a lot of things I told him he could think about heading back to Ohio. Some folks may say I scared him. I'd say I motivated him."
Holland vividly recalled the moment. He remembered already allowing three runs in the first inning, the site of the game, the time of day and having his manhood challenged.
"He knew I had a little bit of talent and I could pitch if I stopped trying to be too fine and threw the ball," Holland said. "He was just making a point. If it wasn't for him coming out that day and ripping into me, I don't know where I would be now."
quote:Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
... and it was nice to have Clark Kent rather than Superman back in the Card uni.
Holland throws an absolute GEM!
GED10DaD
quote:Originally posted by baseball_fever:
The complete story - long but really good!
By BARRY HORN / The Dallas Morning Newsbhorn@dallasnews.com
"He knew I had a little bit of talent and I could pitch if I stopped trying to be too fine and threw the ball," Holland said. "He was just making a point. If it wasn't for him coming out that day and ripping into me, I don't know where I would be now."
Wow, what a great read. Thanks for posting.
Still hoping for 7 games. Also, hoping that Texas takes it.
From a Red Sox fan.
From a Red Sox fan.
.quote:Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
Chalk that run up to the bone-headed 1st base umpire. That call was awful.
Followed by the action of a bone headed manager.
The umpire got straightlined and didn't adjust, bad on him.
Then the manager came out on the call that is second only to the check swing in managers asking the umpire to get help, and, one of the five calls in ball where requesting help is allowed and common and guess what? According to Washington, he DIDN'T ask Kulpa to get help.
That was awful. Who knows how the game would have turned out if the manager did his job right.
That guy wasn't going to accept help if Washington had asked him to. A good ump would look for help if he's blocked out and can't see it. The ump said he saw the tag and it was after the runner touched 1st. The ump blew the call...it was awful...but it happens. That was 2 games ago...move on.
quote:Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
That guy wasn't going to accept help if Washington had asked him to. A good ump would look for help if he's blocked out and can't see it. The ump said he saw the tag and it was after the runner touched 1st. The ump blew the call...it was awful...but it happens. That was 2 games ago...move on.
Wrong. That call, the swipe tag at first and/or the pulled foot at first, in pro ball, requires help if asked.
And, a "good" ump at that level knows he is not to ask for help on that call until it's requested.
Washington admitted he didn't know he could ask for help. It's as much on him as it is the umpire.
The ump is alway right...there, do you feel better? Signing off...I've got tickets to game 5!
Signing off...I've got tickets to game 5!quote:Originally posted by zombywoof:quote:Originally posted by Three Bagger:
I agree with LadsDad, Elvis was the difference in this game. When we argue about whether Jeter is a good shortstop or not, Elvis settles the arguement of what MAJOR LEAGUE range is like!
When Andrus wins 5 World Series titles and puts up a career like Jeter, then they can be compared. Andrus a good SS but hasn't won anything yet. Just keepin it real.
So because Andrus hasn't won 5 World Series he doesn't have better range than Jeter? That is very interesting. I did not know that World Series titles effected range.
So far tonight the Rangers look like the Bad News Bears. With Carpenter on the mound its not a good night to be giving the Cards any help.
Catcher7, I've got to agree, I didn't realize range factor is figured by dividing World Series rings divided by team payroll. I am one of Jeter's biggest fans but I'm a realist--he can only dream of ever having had Andrus's range. That in itself doesn't make Elvis a better overall player or shortstop. My point was that Elvis has top of the line ML range while Jeter never has had that kind of range especially to his left.
For instance, the ground ball Molina hit to lead off the 8th. Way deep in the hole, Andrus got to it, made a very difficult but strong throw on a jump, and the ball beat him easily if only Morehead could have made a pretty routine dig.
GREAT shortstop play!
GREAT shortstop play!
Great series!
Game... Blouses! GED10DaD