Big bang and bigger bucks
Two of baseball’s grandest fascinations collided the other day in Texas, when Nomar Mazara’s bat collided with a pitch. Josh Hamilton was a curious footnote, the fearsome slugger reduced to forgotten man.
Baseball loves its home runs, and its records. Mazara hit the ball so far that the person on the field who moved the most on the play was not one of the Angels’ defenders. It was the Rangers’ third-base coach, according to the MLB Statcast system.
How far did the home run travel? The estimate from Statcast was 491 feet, the longest in the major leagues this season.
The longest in the history of the Rangers’ ballpark? The Rangers could not say for sure, because the way Statcast estimates distance differs from the way the team used to do it.
The Rangers had the record at 490 feet. Hamilton hit it, in his American League MVP season.
That was six years — and six trips to the disabled list — ago. Hamilton is out for the season, expected to undergo surgery on his left knee for the third time in nine months. Mazara, 21, the youngest player in the American League, is staking his claim to a spot in the Rangers’ outfield.
There is no guarantee Hamilton plays again, in Texas or anywhere else. He is 35. He played 151 games three years ago, 89 games two years ago, 50 last year, 0 this year.
In 2014 alone, his injury log read like this: calf, thumb, knee, finger, thigh, shoulder, chest. That was the year the Angels went winless in the playoffs and Hamilton went homerless in his last 55 at-bats.
After the Angels were eliminated — in what turned out to be his last game with the team — we asked Hamilton what might reasonably be expected from him in the following season.
“Who knows?” he said. “What do you think, I'm a fortuneteller?”
The Rangers are getting no production from Hamilton, whose $28-million salary is almost all covered by the Angels. That might not be the worst return on investment in the majors this year, since his time on the disabled list frees the Rangers from having to decide whether to bench the veteran and affords more playing time to a youngster like Mazara.
The Rangers still are paying and playing Prince Fielder (.194 and two HR through Friday, $24 million). The New York Yankees are doing the same with Mark Teixeira (.195, three HR, $22.5 million), as are the Philadelphia Phillies with Ryan Howard (.159, eight HR, $25 million). In the first year of a five-year contract with the Detroit Tigers, Justin Upton is hitting .224 with two home runs for $22 million.
The most alarming production at that salary level? Jason Heyward, in the first year of an eight-year, $184-million contract with the Chicago Cubs, is batting .217 with one home run.
Heyward is 26.
Numbers game
Dodgers phenom Julio Urias made his major league debut on Friday, wearing No. 78.
Since the Dodgers first sported uniform numbers in 1932, only four players have worn a higher number. Can you name them?
Royal stampede?
The first round of American League All-Star voting results will be announced Tuesday, so we’ll find out if fans of the Kansas City Royals are up for another summer of stuffing the ballot box.
At one point last June, the voting leaders for the nine position players were Mike Trout and eight Royals. The lineup eventually elected included four Royals — catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Alcides Escobar and outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon.
The Royals won the World Series last fall, so the enthusiasm has hardly been tempered. Ladies and gentlemen: Paulo Orlando in right field for the AL All-Stars?
The first round of National League results will be announced Wednesday.
Pitching blues
Of the 59 major league pitchers with at least 10 starts through Friday’s games, three had failed to reach the seventh inning even once, according to ESPN. Wily Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers is one.
The other two are more notable. Matt Harvey of the New York Mets is 3-7 — tied for the major league lead in losses — with a 6.08 earnedrun average. Harvey, who was toasted last year when he cast aside his innings restriction to help lead the Mets into the World Series, was roasted when he opted not to talk with the media after his latest loss.
“Silent Matt Harvey confirms he’s the phony Mets have enabled,” screamed the New York Post.
Harvey should have borrowed a trick from Tim Belcher and Dan Haren, each of whom left a note taped to his locker on occasion. In 2014, after an intentionally abbreviated start on the eve of the postseason, Haren showered, dressed and scribbled this quote for reporters: “I felt good. I’m ready for the playoffs.”
Shelby Miller of the Arizona Diamondbacks was put on the disabled list Friday because of what the team called a sprained right finger. Miller had scraped the finger against the ground while pitching six weeks ago; the more pressing concern is his 7.09 ERA, the highest of any starter aside from Jake Peavy of the San Francisco Giants.
The Diamondbacks were roasted last winter for giving up three players for Miller, including the top overall pick in last year’s draft, shortstop Dansby Swanson. The Diamondbacks thought they could win by adding Miller and Zack Greinke atop their starting rotation. Of the four National League teams tanking — er, rebuilding — the Diamondbacks have a worse record than two, the Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies.
Texas tall tales
In Texas, Nolan Ryan remains revered for putting Robin Ventura in a headlock and pummeling him 23 years ago. So there should be no surprise that the Rangers are not backing down from their brawl with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The fight was foreshadowed when Texas pitcher Matt Bush plunked Jose Bautista — intentionally, according to the league, and in apparent retaliation for Bautista’s gaudy bat flip in last year’s playoffs — and triggered when Texas second baseman Rougned Odor punched Bautista after a hard slide.
Odor is serving a seven-game suspension. The Rangers’ double-A Frisco (Texas) affiliate announced it would sell “Rougie’s Red Punch,” an alcoholic drink served in a red cup, decorated with a depiction of the actual punch.
A date with Odor is up for bid in an auction to benefit the family of the late Dallas sportswriter Richard Durrett. Odor is described as “everybody’s favorite Venezuelan second baseman, unless you live in Toronto.”
On Wednesday, thousands of children took a field trip to see the Rangers play the Angels. Before the game, as one of the Rangers’ staffers described baseball terminology to the kids, the term “hit by pitch” was explained this way: “We saw a pretty nice hit by pitch by Matt Bush the other day.”
Trivia answer
The four Dodgers who wore uniform numbers higher than 78: Joe Beimel (97), Onelki Garcia (98), Manny Ramirez (99) and Hyun-Jin Ryu (99).