My weekly opinions, observations and rants about some Canadian baseball stories (Please follow me on Twitter: @kevinglewsports):
It will be a Toronto baseball writer’s worst nightmare when Asher Wojciechowski joins Marc Rzepczynski on the Blue Jays staff. I’m not even sure if Wojciechowski’s name will fit on the back of a jersey.
As the Jays DH yesterday, Corey Patterson had five hits and a game-winning homer. And considering his defence, he probably should remain as the club’s DH. The most baffling thing about watching Patterson is that in each game, it looks as though he’s playing the outfield for the first time, even though he has played outfield in the major leagues for more than a decade.
It looks like Erik Bedard (Navan, Ont.) has finally regained the form that made him one of the American League’s best pitchers in 2007. Over his last five starts, the Mariners southpaw has allowed just four earned runs in 33 innings and has lowered his ERA to 3.48.
Chris Hodgson, the son of ex-Jay Paul Hodgson (Marysville, N.B.), was selected by the B.C. Lions in this year’s CFL draft. A tremendous all-around athlete, the younger Hodgson also played professional hockey in the ECHL from 2004 to 2006.
A sure sign that Jose Bautista has become the talk of the baseball world: Sports Illustrated has highly respected writer Joe Posnanski in Toronto this weekend to pen an article about the Jays slugger.
Condolences go out to the family of ex-Royal Paul Splittorff, who passed away from cancer on May 25. The 6-foot-3 southpaw spent his entire 15-year career with Kansas City, winning 166 games and pitching 17 shutouts. One of those shutouts came against the Jays, whom he beat eight times in 21 appearances against them.
Russell Martin (East York, Ont.) has returned to his all-star form with the Yankees. Heading into Sundays’s game, he has already walloped nine homers in just 44 games this season. He hit just seven homers in 143 contests in 2009 and just five in 97 games last season.
George Kottaras (Scarborough, Ont.) who started this season with the Milwaukee Brewers, is not the only catcher in his family. His younger brother, James, is eligible for this year’s draft.
Glad to see Bautista is getting recognized but you should be writing that article Kevin!!
Thanks. I wish I was enlisted to write that article for Sports Illustrated. Maybe one day.
If you want to bring it up in your next piece: Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Harris died on May 28.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/sports/article/1410730
Thanks, Alex. I just wrote a piece about Billy Harris for the site. Thanks for the link.
Bedard and Harden-amazing if healthy.
Glad to see Russell is doing well. let’s hope they don’t overplay him like they did in LA.
Great job Kevin and yes, you should be writing the Jose article.
Russell is doing really well. I could see him being the All-Star game starter the way he is going. Bedard is an interesting case. Hopefully, he has regained his form. Thanks for the comment.