“I have to thank the Braves for everything that they did for me,” Hampton said. “They did everything right and I really enjoyed being around all of the guys in that clubhouse. But I wanted to be closer to my family.” That’s why he signed with Houston.
Never has the exploits of one player on the Houston Astros made us all stand up and notice, bringing to the forefront of our memory banks the immortal words of Jack Buck: “I can’t believe what I just saw!” Well okay, we can’t leave out the days of Mitch Melusky dressing up for the Houston nine, but let’s just leave sleeping profanity barking dogs lie, okay. Any way, Hunter Pence, the multi-talent baseball playing happy go lucky right fielder-slash-gripit’nripit-batsman is good for perhaps one, two, three hundred or so reactions from the faithful SnS crowd. He makes people very happy and very sad usually at different times in a game or series. Sometimes the cheers are aplenty for a sustained amount of time and then the boos are just as consistent for about the same amount of time, all in spurts and all just about what everyone now expects from our hero. But there is one occasion this year when the young man managed to reach new heights of making himself really stand out around here… boy howdy, did he!
So in honor of managing to make the SnS have to come up with new creative ways to voice displeasure (“your killin me Pence, killin me!”) and excitement (“Atta boy ThunderPants!”), we bring you the first ever SnS Freaking Fark contest. We intend to dedicate this contest to all Houston Astros players for some awe inspiring on field play and no doubt with such characters as Lance Berkman running the bases, Valverde taking baseballs off the noggin and Carlos Lee bulldozing teammates, we will. But there is just something special about HunterPence that just begs us to consider renaming this contest the “ThunderPants-no-he-didn’t” contest. Just saying.
So here we go, our first ever Fark contest. Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you first the play in question with Mr. Pence, as recorded in this here fine site by our very own recap contributor MusicMan:
As far as Astros “hitting” goes, a run was scratched out on singles by Pence and Blum in the second. Berkman and Lee then won the “it’s about time” award by absolutely unloading on Arroyo for back-to-back homeruns, giving the Astros a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Following Lee’s trot, Pence slashed a single into CF. Unfortunately, the Franchise did not realize that he had hit a routine single into CF and blew right past first, resulting in the look on his face at left.
Sorry about that… I meant, the following look on his face:
We can’t let a classic picture like this just go away this soon, so here we go, the call went out and numerous SnS members answered. The idea was to take the same picture, where Pence is rounding the bases to get easily thrown out by one hundred steps at second base while his teammates look on in horror (none more shocked than first base coach Jose Cruz). Here are the entries
Andyzipp
Pence and Glass Doors
Subnuclear
Pence and Glass Doors, version 2
MikeyBoy
Is that Spiderman in the dugout?
Matt
You know, Pence just maybe was having a panic attack
Lurch
Pitfall Pence
das
Yes. Yes he did!
Noe
Git'er done... git that doggie!
Ty in Tampa
Not sure what changes Ty made to this pic, looks like Pence to me.
Allison
We dare you to figure this one out! We know, but we ain't telling.
Ebby Calvin
Lance fancies himself as a baserunning coach.
Subnucelar
See, someone thinks Lance is just experiencing adult ADD is all.
Trey
Nice reset from a classic 80s movie. Really nice!
Ron Brand
Coach is everywhere!
Allison
"Pence is one cool cat in my book... *meow*"
Ty in Tampa
How do you keep Pence from running? This is one way...
Rueben
... because the typical way doesn't work!
Andyzipp
Baseball IQ? I donn need no steenkin baseball IQ!
Ty in Tampa
This is probably not far off from the real thing uttered by the bench and coach
So there you have it, our nicely done by all our contestants. It will be hard to pick a winner, but a winner we must pick indeed. Tell us what you think and who you want to see win our very first SnS Freaking Fark contest. We’ll consider your opinion ever so slightly in order to make our choice. Until then, take a bow SnS, this was FAN-tastic!
April is drawing to a close in South Texas. Corpus Christi may be playing in front of empty stadiums if the flu outbreak keeps spreading. In the mean time, the Hooks are sitting at 8 -11 and are in a tie for last in the the Texas League north. Their record is also tied for the worst record in the Texas League. Let’s take a look at what the numbers say about the good & bad of the Corpus Christi Hooks as of the 4/29/09 games.
The Good:
The Hitters:
The Hooks are hitting the ball pretty well. They are ranked 3rd in team batting average (.281), slugging (.434), OPS (.817), runs (109), RBI (102), total bases (286) and hits (189). They lead the league in round trippers with 21. They also have the 3rd fewest runners caught stealing (4) but that is tempered by the fact that they have only run 19 times which is the 2nd lowest attempted in the league.
Individually, Andrew Locke is making his mark in AA since being taken in the minor league section of the rule 5 draft. He is hitting .406 on the season that is good enough for 2nd in the league. He is leading the league in RBI (23). He is also second in slugging (.667), and hits (29) . He is tied for 5th in doubles (6) and alone in 5th in OPS (1.093). He is tied for 4th in HR with 4 and is 3rd in total bases (46).
Jimmy Van Ostrand has the second best OBP (.492), 4th in slugging (.640) and 3rd in OPS (1.132). His average (.400) is good for the 3rd best in the league.
Collin DeLome leads the league in HR with 6 and has the 10th best slugging percentage at .566. He is 5th in total bases (43), tied for 9th most RBI (14), and is tied for 3rd most runs scored (18).
Mitch Einertson has the 7th best slugging percentage (.583), and his 4 home runs tie him for 4th most.
Josh Flores has 4 stolen bases on the year which ties him for 9th most in the league.
Wlad Sutil has 4 stolen bases on the year which ties him for 9th most in the league.
The Pitchers:
The games they have won have been close, they are tied for the league lead with 6 saves. They have also plunked only 9 batters which is the 3rd fewest and have walked the fewest batters in the league (52).
Brad James has the 5th best ERA (2.81) in the league.
Douglas Arguello has the 7th best ERA (2.87)in the league and has the 9th best WHIP (1.28).
Polin Trinidad struck out 17 batters before going on the DL which ranked him tied for 5th.
The Bad
The Hitters:
For all the home runs they are hitting, the doubles aren’t falling. They have hit 30 doubles which is the 3rd fewest in the league. They have also only hit 2 triples which is the fewest in the league. They also have walked the fewest times in the league (57). They have struck out 126 times which ties them for 2nd most in the league. The Hooks have only stolen 14 bases which ranks them next to last in that category.
Andrew Locke has fanned 16 times to tie him for 8th most in the league.
Wlad Sutil has been caught stealing 3 times which ties him for the most in the league.
The Pitchers:
As a team, the Hooks have the next to highest ERA in the league (5.51). They have given up the most hits (120), and the second most runs (115) and earned runs (102). They have also given up more home runs (23) than they have hit (21). They have struck out the fewest batters in the league (106).
Casey Hudspeth has given up 24 hits which is the 5th most in the league. Those hits have ended up in 15 runs scoring which is tied for the most surrendered in the league. Twelve of the runs were earned which is tied for the 5th most allowed.
Polin Trinidad has given up 22 hits which ties the 6th most given up. He has given up 13 runs in the process which is tied for the 10th most in the league. He has also given up 3 home runs which ties him for 4th most allowed.
Sergio Perez has given up 12 earned runs which is tied for the 5th most allowed.
Chris Salamida has surrendered 4 home runs which ties him for 2nd most allowed. He has also plunked 3 batters which ties him for 4th most in the league.
Brad James has given up 11 walks, this is the tied for the 6th most given up.
Eric Abreu has given up 3 home runs which ties him for 4th most allowed.
Lancaster’s debut as an Astros’ affiliate is off to a bumpy start. Lancaster is currently in last in the CAL South at 8-13. They are only a half game out of 3rd. Offensively, the JetHawks are doing pretty well but the pitching is struggling. Let’s take a look at the numbers through April 29th’s games.
The Good:
The Hitters:
Lancaster hitters are doing a pretty good job of putting the ball in play. Their 199 hits as a team is good for 3rd most in the league. Their 40 doubles rank them second and their 20 home runs are tied for 3rd. They are also 3rd in total bases (313) and OPS (.777). The Jethawks have only been caught stealing 4 times which ties them for top ranking. Lancaster ranked 4th in a slew of categories: slugging (.431), average (.274), walks (69), RBI (94), triples (7), and runs (104).
Individually, Christopher Minaker leads the team with his .387 average which is ranked second in the league. Minaker was picked up during spring training as a free agent after being released by the Mariners. He was drafted out of Stanford in the 10th round of the 2006 draft. He was promoted to AA in 07 where he struggled and was demoted to the California League in 08. He is having good success in 09 repeating the high A curcuit. Oh, he is kinda bright too. He graduated from Stanford with his undergrad in 3 years and had finished his Masters Degree in Sociology before being drafted. He turned down a Rhodes Scholarship to play pro baseball.
Brian Pellegrini is tied for the lead with 7 home runs and is tied for 10th with 14 runs scored. He is also tied for 10th in slugging % (.575).
Jonathan Gaston is tied for 4th with 5 home runs and his 13 walks places him with the 7th most in the league.
Jack Shuck’s 40 hits ranks him 4th in the league. His 2 triples ties him for 7th in the league. His 6 stolen bases ties him for 4th most in the league.
David Flores’ 7 doubles ties him for 2nd in the league
Marcos Carbral’s 7 doubles ties him for 2nd in the league. He is tied for 10th in slugging % (.575) and is in 9th place for OPS (.992).
Craig Corrado’s 2 triples ties him for 7th in the league.
The Pitchers
As a team, there is not much to brag about here. They have only issued 59 walks which is the second lowest in the league.
Chia-Jen Lo is the lone bright spot for the JetHawks pitching staff. Though his ERA is 0.61, he hasn’t pitched in enough innings to qualify among the league leaders. He still ranks in a tie for 5th most strike outs with 24 despite only pitching 14 2/3 innings. He is also tied for the league lead in holds with 3.
Jordan Powell has finished 7 games for the JetHawks. That ranks him as 3rd in the league. His 3.12 ERA is the highest ranking amoung the league leaders at #14.
The Bad
The Hitters
As a team, there is no glaring problem. They have struck out the 4th most in the league (159 times in 727 AB). Brian Pellegrini has fanned 23 times (in just 66 AB) which ties him for 3rd most in the league.
The Pitchers
As a team, this is where the struggle is. The team ERA (6.03) is the worst in the league. They have allowed 61 more hits, 31 more runs and 30 more earned runs than any other team. The have also give up the most home runs (28) and have the highest WHIP (1.68).
Shane Wolf has surrendered the most hits in the league (34). His 19 runs all earned rank him in 4th most for runs and tied for second in earned runs. The 5 homers he has surrended are tied for second most.
David Duncan has given up 29 hits which is the 3rd most in the league. His 22 runs are the most given up in the league. The 4 homers he has surrended are tied for 4th most.
Christopher Hicks has given up 27 hits which ranks him 6th highest in the league.
Jose Duran is tied for 7th with 15 runs allowed. Fourteen of those runs are earned which places him with the 6th most. The 5 homers he has surrended are tied for second most.
Sergio Severino is tied for 7th with 15 runs allowed. Twelve of his runs are earned which puts him in a tie for 10th most.
Jeff Icenogle’s 3 homers given up ties him for 10th most. He has hit 4 batters which ties him for 3rd most.
