It has been waaaaay too long since I’ve treated you to a dose of YouTube Friday. So, here for your enjoyment are 5 baseball vids to get you to the weekend. Have fun!

I’ve never seen this happen – and I doubt that I’ll ever see it again!


One of the top prospects out on the Cape this summer was Missouri pitcher Aaron Crow. Here’s some footage of him pitching with the Falmouth Commodores.


Jose Lopez loves dancing…and he doesn’t care who knows it!


Red is THE MAN!


I can barely hit golf balls off a tee – I can’t imagine hitting them like a baseball player…with a golf club! Pretty crazy.

I've said this before and I know I'll say it again...but, Micah Owings is the man!

It's not often that a guy is a team's best pitcher AND best hitter on a given day, but Owings did it today. He took the hill for the Diamondbacks and threw 6.1 scoreless innings against the Pirates. He was only pulled because of a rain delay, as he only threw 83 pitches. But, even more impressive, is the fact that he was 4-for-4 at the plate, with three doubles and three RBI!

What a stud...

UPDATE: I just this on Baseball Tonight - Owings is the 1st pitcher with two 4-hit games in the same season since Whitey Ford in 1953! And, he's the only pitcher in the last 50 years with a 4-hit game in which 3 of the hits were for extra bases - something he's done TWICE in 2007!

Bob Melvin was asked about plaing Owings in the field to get him more ABs and he said, "Don't tempt me."

Tempt him!

Remember last year when I wrote about Grady Sizemore having a chance to hit 50 doubles and 30 HRs? Well, he fell a bit short, but there are several players that could add their names to the illustrious list this year.

Sizemore isn't one of them, but Magglio Ordonez is 3 HRs away. It'll take a monster week, but he has a slim chance. On the other hand, there are three players that have 30 bombs, but need just two more doubles to join the club: Matt Holliday, David Ortiz and Dan Uggla.

Remember, there are currently only 16 players in the history of the game that have hit 50 doubles and 30 HRs in the same season. Here's the list...

-Stan Musial - 53/30 (1953)
-Derrek Lee - 50/46 (2005)
- Chuck Klein 59/40 (1930) and 50/38 (1932)
- Hank Greenberg - 50/41 (1940)
- Juan Gonzalez - 50/45 (1998)
- Alfonso Soriano - 51/39 (2002)
- Frank Robinson - 51/39 (1962)
- Albert Pujols - 51/43 (2003) and 51/46 (2004)
- Lou Gehrig - 52/47 (1927)
- Albert Belle - 52/50 (1995)
- Don Mattingly - 53/31 (1986)
- Alex Rodriguez - 54/36 (1996)
- Todd Helton - 59/42 (2000) and 54/49 (2001) and he came within one double in both 2003 & 2004!
- Lance Berkman - 55/34 (2001)
- Joe “Ducky” Medwick - 56/31 (1937)
- Carlos Delgado - 57/41 (2000)

UPDATE: Add David Ortiz to the list!
UPDATE 2: Matt Holliday, too!

Therapy session
A three game sweep of the A’s in Oakland certainly feels good, and has not happened in four years. All is not well, however. The M’s are now in Anaheim for four games, and frankly I’d be surprised if we win one, especially without Felix on the mound.

What the hell happened to the Mariners’ season? Who is to blame? Why aren’t we all angry? (Some of us are!) What can we do to prevent this from happening again?

These are difficult and subjective questions to which I don’t really have answers, though I will try to share some thoughts on them. The Mariners were 49-36 at the All Star break. Already they were 13 games over .500. On August 1, they were 59-47, still 12 games over. They reached their peak on August 25th at 73-53, or 20 games over .500. That’s when the shit hit the fan and reality began to set in. Either the Mariners played way over their heads during most of the regular season, or something else happened and caught up with them. The fans bought into it, obviously, and began to expect daily miracles, though honestly it never was nearly as much fun as 1995, nor as predictable as 2001. I think those statements would hold true, even if the end of this season had played out differently.

Now, no one can deny that it has been a truly weird season, with several sizeable winning and losing streaks. Mike Hargrove quit suddenly midseason in the midst of a win streak (good riddance!), McLaren took over and brought his best “designated Hargrove” imitation. I firmly believe that there had to have been some sort of a closed door agreement that allowed Ichiro to re-sign. This is the only solution that makes any sense! My understanding was that Ichiro and Hargrove had issues with one another. No doubt! We will likely never know much more about this subject. What in the hell took Mike Hargrove so long to ask Ichiro to move over to CF? Was he intimidated by Ichiro’s strong presence and unquestionable talent? Unbelievably long overdue! Now I wonder how Ichiro likes McLaren, don’t you? He’s probably thinking, “Wow, I could’ve had a V8, and been playing in pinstripes!”

I honestly have never bonded to this team this season. A large part of that was my severe disdain for Mike Hargrove, his boring and repetitive lineups and foolish in-game moves. I only liked 1/5 of the rotation all year. It’s an easy guess which one, and even he’s underperformed. I always have to remind myself that Felix is only 21. Ibañez and Vidro should turn in their gloves, and should never be asked to play defense again. That’s a big problem, as both are signed through next year, and we can only play one at DH. Sexson has taken underachievement to new levels, but still is signed for a ton of money through next year also. The bullpen, our strong suit for most of the season, has been mortal again lately. Please don’t get me started on Parrish and Rick White!

I apologize for rambling, and obviously haven’t definitively answered any of the opening questions. If you’re a seamhead like me, it’s mandatory to agonize over this stuff, though writing these thoughts down in a post is very therapeutic.

Bill Glassey

Micah Owings of the Diamondbacks has been awesome this year. (Self-promoting reminder: Remember when I interviewed Owings? No? Check it out!) If you just look at Owings as a pitcher, he hasn’t been outstanding. In a season filled with fantastic rookie campaigns, Owings has certainly been out shadowed by the likes of Tim Lincecum, Yovani Gallardo and Clay Buchholz. But last night, the 6’5” righty out of Tulane threw a complete-game shutout against the Giants. Last year, Owings split time between AA Tennessee and AAA Tuscon, where he combined to throw 162 innings, striking out 130 and walking 51. He made one more start in AAA in April of this year before getting called up to the majors, where his numbers have been in line with his minor league performance. Through 155.1 innings in the bigs, Owings has struck out 106 and walked 51. His shutout tonight lowered his ERA to 4.23, slightly better than the NL average of 4.41.


MLB.com

But, it’s not Owings’ pitching that has really impressed me. In his final year at Tulane, Owings hit a ridiculous .355/.470/.719. Prior to that, he hit .318/.394/.549 at Georgia Tech and in 2003, Owings hit .345 in the Cape Cod League for the Bourne Braves after hitting .306/.392/.593 for the Yellow Jackets. The guy can flat-out hit. This year, as a pitcher, Owings is hitting .291/.310/.618. Yes, the standard small-sample-size caveats apply. But, from his performance in college, it’s easy to see that Owings knows what he’s doing with a bat in his hands. In just 55 AB, Owings has four doubles, a triple and four home runs. Sure, the on-base percentage is low, but the power is legit, as 56 percent of Owings’ hits have gone for extra bases. Do I think he’d slug .618 over a full season? Probably not, but do you think he could hit .277/.358/.479? Guess what…that’s the line an average National League left fielder is putting up this year. Owings might not get on base at a .358 clip, but he could probably slug better than .479.


GainsvilleTimes.com

Owings is the poster boy for my case on teams giving two-way players a chance to succeed in the field and on the mound at the Major League level. How valuable would it be to have a league-average starting pitcher (with upside) that you could confidently stick in left field or at first base a few times per week? Sure, there’s a lot to lose, but there’s so much to gain. Having a legitimate two-way player would not only give the team more roster flexibility, but it would allow them to get the most value out of their players. Owings’ potential is being wasted on days when he’s not pitching. I know it’s a very risky move and that baseball is extremely slow to change and try new things, but I honestly believe that it could work. Look at how many players in college succeed on the mound and with the bat – why not give them a chance to do both at the professional level? Why do teams insist on making them give up half of their talent? Yes, I understand that pitchers work a lot on the days when they’re not pitching. They need rest, do stretching and weight training and they have throwing days and bullpen sessions. It would take a lot of work and a lot of commitment for a player to be dedicated to being a pitcher and playing the field a few days a week. In college, guys might pitch on Friday and then play outfield Saturday and Sunday – so it would be a lot different than being a two-way player at the professional level. But, everything is different. Let’s imagine a player pitches on Monday, so he would have Tuesday off to rest. On Wednesday and Thursday, the player would complete his scheduled throwing routine, whether that be long toss or a bullpen session, and would play the field. He would have Friday off to chart and would pitch again on Saturday, starting the cycle over again. So, realistically, in a given week, the player would get 1-2 starts on the mound and 2-3 in the field. And, if the player ends up not being able to cut it playing the field 2-3 times per week, what have you lost? You can still stick him on the mound.

In all honesty, I don’t think this will ever happen. It would take a very gutsy general manager, a field manager that is creative and willing to shuffle the deck and a player with the right tools and willingness. Even though it would have the possibility to be a media frenzy and a marketer’s wet dream, the player’s agent would almost certainly be against it because of injury concerns. But, I would love to see it happen and I think a smart team should start taking advantage of this untapped resource. Add it to the list of many “out-of-the-box” ideas that I think more teams should try. 

Ed note: My dad asked if he could post on my blog and I thought it would be a great idea. So, here is the first of (hopefully) many columns from my father. Enjoy!

I received my request for up front cash from the Mariners for playoff ticket strips two or three weeks ago. Naturally, they would like to hold everyone’s cash for a while. Some of it is even non-refundable. Remember when they were 20 games over .500, and hopes (Hell, expectations) were high? I hesitated a few days to see if they were for real…

And, we all know about the train wreck that ensued. The Mariners just split a four game series with the hapless Devil Rays. As of today, they are 8.5 games behind Anaheim in the West and 6.5 games behind the Yanks (with the Tigers in the way) in the Wild Card, with just 14 games to play. No, they’re not mathematically eliminated yet, but even if they should win all 14 remaining games (what are the chances?), they still might not make the playoffs. McLaren, Niehaus and others are still singing playoff dreams and the Mariners Web site is even still trying to push playoff tickets on people. Who are they kidding?

The Mariners had their chances late in August, but had a horrible series in Texas, dropped all 3 games to the Angels at home, then began another disastrous road trip. It was painful to watch and still painful to talk about. They seem to be regressing to the mean. In March, I predicted they would flirt with .500 all season. I had no idea it would be this dramatic! Ultimately, I was realistic, though I would much rather have been wrong by 20 games.

-Bill Glassey

Cheryl and I went to the game last night with my dad and we decided to make a Rally Fries sign. We were on the Jumbotron and we TiVoed the game to see if we made in on FSN. Sure enough, an hour and 21 minutes in to the game, they showed us holding up the sign before the start of the inning! Sure, the M's are basically out of it, but it was a great pitching duel, the M's won and I had a lot of fun! Here's a picture I took of us on the TV...