The Week That Was (In GIFs): 4/19/15 – 4/25/15

The Mets kept winning games last week, but they also kept losing players

The Mets kept winning games last week, but they also kept losing players

The Mets continue to impress, but fail to stay healthy in the process. We witnessed the return of Carlos Carrasco, but Joe Nathan didn’t share his luck. Plus, the White Sox engaged in a Royal beatdown. However, two questions have arisen from the events that transpired last week. What kind of production can we expect from Addison Russell this season? Will Josh Hamilton go back to the team where he made his name?

This is The Week That Was.

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Mets Win 11 Straight, Yet Still Keep Losing

It’s absolutely mystifying how the Mets have fielded practically the same 79-win team from last season, and out of nowhere they’ve won 11 games in a row. Winning 11 straight in a sport where the best teams only win 60 percent of the time is no fluke, my friends. They are the real deal…but they soon won’t be if their players continue to drop like flies. Let’s run down the stupidly long list of ailments the Mets are dealing with less than a month into the season:

  • Third baseman David Wright was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a hamstring strain he suffered on April 15.
  • Jenrry Mejia’s PED suspension may not be an injury, but it’s a big blow to the bullpen.
  • Zack Wheeler is still rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery, and his current timetable has him returning late June or early July…next year.
  • Starting pitcher Matt Harvey became sick during his April 19 start against the Marlins and was pulled after 84 pitches over six innings. Harvey is currently now dealing with a foot issue. He’ll keep playing through it, but if it gets tweaked, it’ll easily impact his performance.
  • Reliever Jerry Blevins came in for Harvey, then had his arm fractured thanks to a Dee Gordon line drive. Mind you, Harvey would have still been in the game had he not fallen ill.
  • Catcher Travis d’Arnaud then had his hand fractured by a pitch IN THE SAME GAME. Talk about bad mojo.


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by The Lyrical Elitist

Hey, at least the Mets have quality prospects that they can use to handle the loss of Blevins and d’Arnaud. Kevin Plawecki will fill in at catcher, but d’Arnaud had a slash line of .317/.356/.537, which no one is expecting Plawecki to replicate. Hansel Robles is Blevins’ replacement, but when you factor in how weak their relievers were with Blevins and Mejia present, it can’t leave Mets’ fans feeling very optimistic.

But alas Mets’ followers, a great reason to hold your heads high does exist. Your team has three of baseball’s punching bags, the Phillies, Braves and Marlins, in their division. That means a lot of wins when facing those teams on the schedule, resulting in at least a second-place NL East finish when all is said and done. There are still super prospects Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz waiting in the wings, and both d’Arnaud and David Wright will be back at some point. The team may lack a shortstop or reliable relief pitching right now, but despite all that, they just keep rolling. When the injured guys return and the young bloods get called up, the Mets might just be scarier than anyone would have imagined this season.

Along Came Addison


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by the MLB

If you’ve been living under a rock, or a special part of space-time that blocks out anything baseball-related, then I’m here to tell you that Cubs’ super prospect, Addison Russell, was called up from Triple-A Iowa last Monday. He doesn’t come with the buzz that Kris Bryant had, but he’s already showing flashes of the stellar defense that made him stand out from his Minor League peers. One such flash, was a crazy play where he totally stole a surefire hit away from Billy Hamilton on Friday.

It was the fifth inning when Hamilton hit a grounder toward the middle that was moving so fast, a lesser defender would have let it go straight up to center field. What’s even crazier is that Russell was out of position when the ball came toward him, so with Hamilton’s blazing speed and the placement of both Russell and the ball, it would have to be an easy single, right? WRONG!

Russell reacted very quickly to the ball, took several steps to his right and secured it with a diving backhand. He then shot up and delivered a hard, long shot to first base for the tough out. This won’t happen to Hamilton very often throughout the course of his career, but if you can stop Hamilton, you can stop Cincinnati. In just his first two at-bats on Friday, Hamilton already stole three bases and scored twice. Once Hamilton was retired in the fifth thanks to Russell’s athleticism, the Reds didn’t score again, and the Cubs were able to grab a 7-3 victory in 11 innings.

The only other athlete in the Majors who is capable of pulling off a feat like that is Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons. It takes some special body control to fluidly sweep up the ball and get back on one’s feet in an effortless, seamless motion. It was Ozzie Smith-esque.

The Cubs currently play Russell at second base out of necessity, but he is a shortstop naturally. Once he goes back to his old position, his comfort will enable him to perform at this elite defensive level with supreme regularity. He may not be a special hitter now, and frankly, he may never be an elite hitter in the future. However, his defense right out of the gate is very impressive and it’s easy to see why Chicago was so excited to get this kid in a Cubs’ uni for good. The future is now, Chicago.

Carlos the Warrior

Last Tuesday, Carlos Carrasco put behind him the horrible moment he was pelted by a line drive in the jaw on April 14. The pitch knocked him out for 10 seconds, sent him to the hospital and he must still be reminded of it every time he slowly chews his food in pain. He took that injury against the White Sox, and last Tuesday, he had to face the White Sox again. The thought of going back on the mound against that club likely reeked of “déjà vu,” but Carrasco wouldn’t let that stop him.


-This YouTube video was uploaded by cleveland.com

Melky Cabrera was the one who hit Carrasco with the line drive, but on Tuesday Carrasco struck him out in five pitches on his first at-bat. Jose Abreu did manage to go yard right after Cabrera’s strikeout to put up Chicago 1-0, but that would be the only run Carrasco would allow in five innings.

The Indians drove in runs left and right, giving Carrasco fantastic support throughout. The Tribe held a 6-1 lead over the White Sox once Carrasco (2-1, 2.38 ERA after Tuesday) was relieved. He stepped back up to the mound after just six days rest and only 6 1/3 innings pitched in his last two starts. With extra rest and limited pitching time preceding his time off, Carrasco came out wanting to make these innings count. Anytime you strike out eight men, while walking none in a mere five innings of one-run ball, I’d say you accomplished that mission quite handily. Impressively, 46 of his 60 pitches (77 percent) were strikes, and in 11 career games against the White Sox, Carrasco struck out 53 batters in just 58 2/3 innings. Never doubt the heart of a warrior my friends.


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by the MLB

Say It Ain’t So, Joe

On April 22, Tigers’ closer Joe Nathan was lost for the season after tearing a ligament in his pitching elbow. The ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) was torn while he was pitching in a minor-league game during a rehab stint with Triple-A Toledo. What’s especially unfortunate was that he was pitching in order to show the Tigers that he was ready to come off of the disabled list because his strained flexor pronator was recovering well. Not only did he tear his UCL, but the flexor pronator was also torn.

Nathan, 40, is a six-time All-Star, but had a dreadful 2014 with a 4.84 ERA and seven blown saves. His second Tommy John surgery in the last five years will now leave him unable to make up for how he performed last season, at least until 2016. He’s still keeping his head held high, though. “I’m going to go at this 110 percent, just like I do anything, and I’m going into it with the goal of pitching again in the major leagues,” Nathan said.

The closer makes $10 million this season, but the Tigers are expected to buy out his 2016 option for $1 million, which would put the then-41-year-old in a real bad spot. Next year, he’ll be a pitcher without a team, and wouldn’t be able to participate in spring training.

“I know this is going to be a long grind,” Nathan claimed. “I’ve had Tommy John surgery before, so I know what I’m facing there, but this time I have also torn the flexor, so it is a bigger deal. I’m just going to be patient and do what I need to do.”


-This video was uploaded to YouTube by MLive.com Staff

Royal Rumble

Another day, another Royals’ scuffle. So just several days after Kelvin Herrera threw a pitch that was a little too close to Oakland’s Brett Lawrie‘s noggin, with Yordano Ventura ready to go at it with Mike Trout and his Angels just a few more days before that, “Vex” Ventura was at it again on April 23.

Here you can see him talking smack to Adam Eaton during his comebacker. You can’t hear what he’s saying, but if I had to take a stab at lip-reading, Ventura seemingly utters a phrase that starts with a four-letter “F” word and ends in “you.”


-This Vine was created by Jeff Passan

That spurred on this…


-This GIF can be found on Deadspin.com

Once the blood was spilled, I could say with confidence that none of these men will ever make it as boxers with all those missed punches. After the brawl, the Royals’ players Yordano Ventura, Edinson Volquez, and Lorenzo Cain were ejected, with White Sox players Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija getting ousted as well.

When it was all said and done, Ventura was slapped with a seven-game suspension, Volquez got five games and both Cain and pitcher Kelvin Herrera received two-game suspensions. Sale and Samardzija from the White Sox each got five games. All six suspended players were also fined an undisclosed amount, but White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers was also fined, even though he wasn’t suspended.

Would the Rangers be a Good Fit for Josh Hamilton?

It’s looking like a virtual lock right now that Josh Hamilton will be a Texas Ranger in short order. He made a name for himself as a Ranger from 2008-2012 before leaving for Los Angeles in free agency. It’s certain that Hamilton’s days as an Angel are 100 percent over since the Halos no longer want to deal with Hamilton, who relapsed into cocaine and alcohol addiction while rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery.

The Angels rather inhumanely wanted Hamilton to be suspended by the league for his transgressions, but an arbiter ruled that Hamilton could not be suspended under the Joint Drug Agreement, much to the Angels’ and MLB’s dismay. This agreement also means that the Angels would be on the hook for around $68 million of the $80.2 million left on Hamilton’s deal in the event of a trade. Hamiton would give up $6 million since Texas has no state income tax, while the Rangers would only have to be on the hook for a max of a little over $6 million.

The complex financial aspect of the deal is the main issue holding up the process at this point. It’s likely being heavily examined by the players’ union, so it may be held up for several more days, but it might as well be set in stone now.

His five-year, $125 million deal with the Angels was signed in December 2012, but Hamilton followed up that contract by putting up a sad slash line of just .255/.316/.426 with 31 home runs and a low 2.9 WAR in two seasons as an Angel. The Halos had certainly been expecting something like his Rangers’ career slash line of .305/.363/.549, but they received a different Josh Hamilton instead. Not the man who went to the All-Star game five straight times, or the guy who lifted the Rangers to three playoff appearances and two-straight division titles, no. They got a 31-year-old who played just 89 games in 2014 after being hampered by a torn UCL and soreness in his ribs, back and shoulder, with the shoulder issue resulting in offseason surgery.

Knowing that the 1999 first-overall pick has had news about his drug and alcohol abuse out in the open since his February 2001 car wreck, and that failed drug tests prevented him from a playing a single minor-league game from 2003-2005, it’s crazy that Angels still decided to give him that fat contract in the first place. He’s already had two public relapses, with one in August 2009 and the other in February 2012. In short, Hamilton is nothing short of a very gifted hitter, but his mind and body are weak. Knowing this, the Rangers are willing to have him back since the price will be right for them. A healthy Hamilton would crack Texas’ lineup at either left field or DH. He won’t make the Rangers a playoff team, but the Rangers’ organization has a history of showing compassion towards Hamilton, so at the very least, maybe he can finally turn his life around for good.

Below is the best moment of Josh Hamilton’s career. The then-Texas Ranger had the greatest performance in Home Run Derby history. At the time, we all thought he had sobered up and this display epitomized how redemption can bring about success. It brought tears to the eyes of some fans, while symbolizing a triumphant phoenix rising from the ashes! Here’s hoping we will see you rise again, Josh.


-This YouTube video was posted by Centepede Soup

Waino Down the Drain-O

Adam Wainwright had a quick night on Saturday evening with a scary non-contact injury in the fifth inning against the Brewers. The right-handed ace could barely walk coming out of the batter’s box after a pop fly, with his left leg seemingly unable to handle any pressure. At the time of the injury, he was crushing the Brewers with four strikeouts in four innings and just three hits allowed.


-The video was uploaded by MLB Game Recap

It’s a tough break for Waino, who seemed to be on his way to having another stellar season. He won two of his first three starts, and was able to lower his ERA to 1.57 after leaving the Brewers’ game with a 2-0 lead. The injury is to his left ankle according to the team, but it looks like an Achilles’ tear to me. He is scheduled for an MRI on April 27.

Despite missing all of 2011 with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, he has been as good as any pitcher in the league since 2009. In four of the last five seasons, Wainwright has finished with a sub-3.00 ERA, at least 19 wins and 227 innings pitched. Perhaps the club’s top prospect Marco Gonzales will pan out as the best pitching option to fill-in for Wainwright. Gonzales is currently on the seven-day disabled list in Triple-A Memphis, but may be ready to go for Wainwright’s next start on Thursday against the Phillies. Heads up, fantasy owners.

Jonathan Ebanks is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jonathan, check out his archive and follow him @hogz4lyfe.

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Jonathan Ebanks

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Ever since I was 13, I've been a huge fantasy sports junkie. Football, basketball, baseball...I follow them all! Competition is what drives my love behind fantasy. I do have a fondness for sports, but the drive to succeed is really the motivating factor behind that passion. As far as my education and career are concerned, I graduated from Nova Southeastern University with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and currently a Customer Service Specialist for FantasyPros. I also used to write sports articles for a South Florida magazine named "Good News," and I have also been published by FantasySharks, the Delaware North Newsletter, and FantasyPros (before working here).