Around The League: This Week In Baseball

Hey all. Fresh from the land of random information that matters to somebody out there, here are some notes from across the MLB in the past week. You might find some of this interesting.

Aroldis Chapman may have had the most intriguing last few days of any MLB player – as he was involved in two seperate incidents with the law. He was arrested after being clocked at 93 MPH – driving, not pitching. Insert multiple jokes about the fact that he throws faster than he drives. He also found himself on the wrong side of a lawsuit where he stands to lose 18 MM if it actually goes through. He was sued by a Cuban man for supposedly setting him up for an arrest by the Cuban government.

Two of my favorite players from MVP Baseball 2005, Miguel Tejada and Manny Ramirez, are attempting comebacks that are going to be important sooner rather than later. Miguel Tejada and Manny Ramirez are both currently in AAA. Tejada made his debut on Sunday after coming from extended Spring Training with the Norfolk Tides – the ML affiliate for the Orioles. Ramirez is getting some work in Round Rock for the Oakland Athletics, who are stashing him there until his 50-game suspension runs out. Expect to see both of them back in the MLB by June 1st. In other MVP Baseball 2005 news, Scott Podsednik is making his return to the MLB. The Red Sox called him up from Pawtucket. Podsednik led the MLB with 70 steals in 04′ with Milwaukee.

Kerry Wood announced his retirement recently. Of every pitcher who’s ever thrown a thousand innings in the major leagues, Wood owns the third-highest career strikeout rate. He also has a 20-strikeout game to his credit, which is absolutely incredible. Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson are the ONLY other people to ever accomplish that feat. So think about that for a second before you go on about what could have been. I know that he could have been on the best pitchers in baseball history, but he was destined for trouble from the beginning. He started with a big bang – and may not have gone out with a blaze of glory, but there is definitely a ton of respect on my end for the guy. I wish him well.

Stephen Strasburg found a way to make news again by going back to back with Jesus Flores on a ball that barely cleared the wall in Washington for his first MLB HR. He even broke into a home-run trot past second base. Good for him. The Nationals keep winning though…and being a division rival, I can not be too excited about that.

That is the face of a very well-traveled young man in Drew Sutton. On Sunday morning, Sutton was a member of the Atlanta Braves organization but was traded into the Pittsburgh organization. Then, within a day of that trade, he was traded for cash (again) to the Tampa Bay Rays. “In about seven hours I was on three different clubs.” Sutton said.

So yeah. If you guys like this post, I can scour the MLB week by week for random tidbits of information that might be of interest to the world. I am a quirky kind of guy, so I find the little things intriguing. I did miss a few things this week, but this is sort of an inaugural post/test. Anyway, LGM!

Random fact of the week…