full season to 14 homers and 60 RBI.
2.67 – seventh best in baseball ERA of Tanner Houck, who has been their best pitcher after the spring training discussion was “should he be a reliever?”
82 – projected RBI total for Ceddanne Rafaela, the second best on the team, despite hitting under .200 for most of the first two months. But he’s come on in June to be up to .245 with numbers that project to 26 doubles, 16 homers and 20 stolen bases. And that doesn’t even take into account his Mookie Betts-like defensive versatility or Jackie Bradley-level play in center field.
78– their surprising stolen bases total that lets them play small ball when runs need to be manufactured, like when they stole a team record nine in a win over the Yanks as team leaders David Hamilton (21) and Duran (20) combined for six steals.
News Item – Alumni Update
Chris Sale – leads NL in wins with 10 against two losses with a 2.91 ERA and 107 k’s in 86 innings.
Kyle Schwarber – with just 17 he’s projecting to hit 35 bombs for Philly.
Mookie Betts – out till August with a broken hand. He went to the DL hitting .304 with 10 homers and 40 RBI.
Xander Bogaerts – being at .219 with four homers and 14 RBI says he’s the latest guy to really miss playing at Fenway.
The Numbers:
4 – after trading for Mikal Bridges last week, the number of players the New York Knicks now have from Villanova’s 2016 national championship team.
10 – after getting five more for Bridges, the total number of first-round draft picks the Nets have now gotten from their trade of Kevin Durant to Phoenix, which also sent Bridges to them 18 months ago.
… Of the Week Awards
Newest All-Name Team Member of the Week – Jhostynxon Garcia: If you can pronounce the first name of the Red Sox Single A outfielder who was on a 7-homers-in-19-games stretch last week you are a better person than me.
Random Thoughts:
I played college basketball with a 6’7” guy named Dean Letourneau. Wonder if he’s any relation to that 6’7” Dean Letourneau guy the Bruins drafted in Round I last week?
Just checked the spelling of our center. So never mind.
Sports 101 Answer: The 100 RBI near All-Star snub was Hank Greenberg because he was competing with two of the greatest first basemen in history for the job in Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.
Final Thought – NBA Draft: First-round picks certainly are looked at differently in the NBA today. They once were treated like gold and teams were loath to trade them. But not so any longer.
For instance I thought including two of them along with Robert Williams and Malcolm Brogdon for Jrue Holiday was an overpay. But he was the final piece for Brad Stevens, so he said go and look at what that meant.
Now come the Knicks giving up five of them (to the crosstown rival Nets no less) for Bridges, who’s never made an All-Star team or been part of a team that has won a thing in the NBA.
He did, however, win at Villanova, which I think figures into the Knicks’ thinking, as along with being a big talent addition with no one coming off the roster they probably like what he’ll add to the team chemistry his three Nova teammates already have created.
So it’s deemed worth the five because he seems like the final piece to make them a major contender for next year’s title. Meanwhile Phoenix, who started it all, was one and done in the playoffs with Durant.
So 3-ball is not the only radical difference in the Association these days.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.