Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Jorge Posada Reaches Milestones Part II

As I posted on June 15, 2010 Jorge Posada had joined an exclusive club among catchers. With his two-homerun day during the inter-league series with the Houston Astros, Posada joined Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk and future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez as the only catchers in MLB history to hit 250 home runs, 1,500 hits and 350 doubles over the course of their career. It is time to add another statistic to that feat.

On July 23rd against the Kansas City Royals, Posada ripped an RBI double down the line. That RBI was the 1,000th RBI for Posada's career. Once again, this places Posada with Bench, Carter, Fisk and Rodriguez as the only catchers who have 250 home runs, 1,500 hits, 350 doubles and 1,000 runs batted in over the course of their career. In addition, Posada became only the 12th New York Yankees player to reach the 1,000 RBI plateau. Posada is further cementing his case for Hall of Fame enshrinement once he decides to hang up his chest protector and mask.

Felicidades Jorge. Keep it up.
FH

For Further Reading:
- Click Here for Tim Britton's article on MLB.com about Posada reaching 1,000 RBI
- Click Here for my June 15, 2010 post about Posada joining Bench, Carter, Fisk and Rodriguez in the 250 HR, 1500 Hits and 350 2B Club

Matt Garza Joins the No-Hit List

Congratulations to Tampa's Matt Garza on his 5-0 no-hit victory against the Detroit Tigers. Garza, a Mexican-American from, Selma California threw the first no-no in the history of the Tampa Bay franchise (Only the New York Mets and San Diego Padres remain as franchises that have never had a no-hitter thrown by one of their pitchers). Garza's performance was simply dominant. (Photo Credit Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Needing 120 pitches to complete his no-hitter, Garza kept the Tigers' hitters on the defensive by just throwing heat. 101 of his 120 pitches were fastballs. Garza faced the minimum 27 batters with his only walk being erased in a double play during the top of the 6th inning. For the game, Garza struck out six Tigers while only walking one. The game was reminiscent of the Chicago Cubs/Chicago White Sox matchup of earlier this season when dual no-hitters were being thrown. Both Garza and Tigers starter Max Scherzer were dueling each other with no-hitters until the bottom of the 6th when Matt Joyce delivered a Grand Slam to put the Rays up 4-0.

Garza's performance seemed to swing the pendulum of the mystical no-hitter in the favor of the Rays. Since the inaugural season of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the franchise has been no-hit four times with two perfect games and a ho-hitter being thrown against them in the 2009-2010 calendar year. Derek Lowe (2002), Mark Buehrle (2009), Dallas Braden and Edwin Jackson (both in 2010) all no-hit the Rays, with Buehrle and Braden pitching perfect games; Braden and Jackson no-hit the Rays this season. The Rays also became the first team to be involved in three official no-hitters in one season since 1917, when the Browns no-hit the White Sox twice, and the White Sox no-hit the Browns once.

Felicidades hermano. Welcome to the club of Latino's that have thrown no-hitters in MLB.

For Further Reading:
- Click Here for my prior post on Latinos that have thrown no-hitters in MLB history
- Click Here for the box score of yesterday's Rays-Tigers game
- Click Here for Bill Chastain's article on MLB.com about Garza's no-hitter

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Latinos in the All-Star Game

Latinos are well represented in the 81st annual All-Star game. In total there are 25 Latinos on the All-Star Roster (this includes the players that have been replaced due to injury. Those are in parenthesis). The breakdown is as follows:

Dominican Republic 16 (Jose Reyes, Yovani Gallardo)
Venezuela 4 (Victor Martinez)
Mexico 3
Puerto Rico 1
Panama 1 (Mariano Rivera)

Of the 20 starters, 6 are Latinos (Robinson Cano, David Ortiz, Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez and Ubaldo Jimenez).

Ubaldo Jimenez is only the 3rd Dominican pitcher to start the All-Star game. Surprisingly, Juan Marichal is not one of the other two. Mario Soto started the game as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in 1983 and Pedro Martinez started the game as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 1999.

Though in the end, Robinson Cano's sacrifice fly and RBI was the only run the American League would generate against the amazing pitching of the National League and an amazing play by the Chicago Cubs' Marlon Byrd in throwing Boston's David Ortiz out in 2nd on the bottom of the 9th, it was good to see our Latino brothers well represented in the Mid-Summer Classic.

FH

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Return to Japan to look at Rami-Chan

I've decided to take a trip back to the "Land of the Rising Sun" (well figuratively, not literally, LOL) to take another look at arguably the best Latino hitter in Japanese Baseball history: Alex Ramirez. In a prior post on April 8, 2010, I said that Ramirez has placed himself in a position to make history in Japan. As it is, he is the 2-time defending Central League MVP and this season he is working on his 3rd straight. (Photo Credit Kyodo Photo)

As of June 30, 2010, Ramirez is batting .280 with 26 Hr, 70 RBI and an OPS of .915 (.599 SLG/.316 OBP) in 71 games played. Ramirez is the 2nd foreign player to hit 20 or more homers for 10 consecutive years (Tuffy Rhodes is the 1st with 307 homers in Japan). Ramirez has also surpassed the 300 HR and 1000 RBI plateau for his career in Japan.

As Ramirez continues to climb the ranks of the NPB record books, he continues to cement himself as one of the best Latino players, if not the best Latino player in Japanese Baseball history. I'll keep you guys posted as the NPB season progress

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Alex Ramirez's webpage
- Click Here for the English Language Japan Times Online Article dated June 30, 2010 for Ramirez's 3-homerun game against the Hiroshima Carp
- Click Here for Jason Coskrey's article dated June 23, 2010 called Consistent Ramirez Reaches a Milestone
- Click Here for the official Nippon Professional Baseball League 2010 season webpage in English with up to date scores and statistics