Brian Roberts Concussed Himself?

Baseball has a long and grueling 162 game regular season. It's not unusual for a player to take a trip or two to the 15-day DL. How they get injured, well that's the fun part. Sammy Sosa hit the DL after a sneeze destroyed his back. Clint Barmes, and this might be my favorite, spent some time on the disabled list after falling down a flight of stairs while carrying deer meat. While Brian Roberts didn't make it to the DL to close the season, he's pretty sure he delivered the blow that led to his concussion-esque symptoms...

“I don’t know 100 percent sure, but it was Monday night. In frustration (after a strikeout), I whacked myself on the head with my bat in the ninth. I had my helmet on,” Roberts said. “It’s something I’ve done a million times, but I still can’t tell you for sure if that was it. But that’s the only thing that I can point to because that night and the next morning, I just didn’t feel good. So it’s been going on since then.”

Bo Jackson disapproves of Brian Roberts technique. I just spent a good 10 minutes trying to find a video of Bo Jackson breaking a bat over his head and came up empty. What's up Internet? Are we not cool anymore? Roberts will undergo a CT scan today in hopes to reveal the cause of his head pain. Roberts missed most of the first half with a herniated disk and only made 261 plate appearances. He posted a .278/.354/.391 line which wasn't too far below his career averages.

We hope Brian has a speedy recovery since concussions are all the new medical rage in sports nowadays. And I also bet my retirement fund on the Buck Showalter Express (34-23 this season) finishing above .500 next season. I'm not a wise investor.

Unrelated note: Brian Roberts' wife is hot.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Robert Eenhoorn and he's here because his name is ridiculous and he always looks angry.

The Saints pulled out a win, I partook in a few adult beverages and an ex-girlfriend got engaged last night. Let's take a look at some of yesterday's games while I rethink what I'm doing with my life...

Yankees 8, Rays 6. The Yanks padded their lead in the East to 1.5 games based on Curtis Granderson's monster game. I give Granderson a lot of flak about being a platoon player simply because he can't hit lefties but I really do like him as a person. He occasionally blogs over at the Big League Stew and that's pretty much all it takes to get me to like you. Granderson hit home runs off of Matt Garza and Grant Balfour (both righties), walked twice and swiped a bag. Chad Gaudin gets mentioned here because my buddy went to high school with him.

Angels 7, Rangers 4. My beloved Halos moved to a more reasonable 9.5 games back, giving me a little playoff hope while I pretend this is June. Jered Weaver tossed an ugly 6.2 innings giving up 3 earned on 9 hits and only striking out a pair. Peter Bourjos went 2-4 raising his BA to .205 and Brandon Wood's .159 average drools with jealousy.

Phillies 3, Braves 1. Remember when I was gushing about the Rockies last week? Get ready for an obnoxious amount of Phillies love. Cole Hamels tossed 8 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball and is now 4-0 with a 0.63 ERA in September. That Chase Utley fellow is also tearing up September with a .329/.442/.557 line and I now proclaim him healthy. This could easily be the most dangerous playoff team in baseball.

Twins 9, Indians 3. Danny Valencia hit his 5th homer of the year and is hitting .362/.396/.574 in September. Sure, he could walk a little bit more but he's been a pleasant surprise for the Twins at the hot corner.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Tsuyoshi Shinjo and he's here because I found a picture of his bobblehead. They can't all be winners, folks.

Hey kids, I'm reporting yesterday's event live from super hot Baton Rouge. My neighbor's WiFi seems to be working so let's crank out some highlights before they shut me down...

Giants 10, Dodgers 2. San Francisco took a .5 game lead in the West riding a Jonathan Sanchez 7 inning, 1-run 12 strikeout performance to victory. Blog favorite Buster Posey went 2-5 with his 14th home run of the season. He's really good. I thought I should point that out. You're welcome. Some guy named Russell Mitchell hit his first home run of the season for the Dodgers. His batting average (.059) is sad about his OBP (.056).

Indians 3, Angels 2 (11). *hugs football season*

Cardinals 4, Padres 0. Jake Westbrook threw 8 innings of 6-hit shutout ball while walking and striking out 3. That doesn't excite you? How about David Eckstein going 1-3? Work with me people, there were only 6 games yesterday.

Mets 6, Pirates 2. Um, let's see. The Mets played someone named Lucas Duda in left field. His middle name is Christopher.

Twins 8, White Sox 5. Paul Konerko hit his 37th home run of the season. His .323/.402/.604 line isn't getting much MVP hype which is why I employ Paul Konerko dog.

Dogs wearing hats, get on board.

Diamondbacks 3, Reds 1. I wish I had more pictures of dogs wearing hats. Logan Ondrusek pitched a scoreless inning for the Reds. Chris Young struck out 3 times for the Backs. Someone bought cotton candy and after two cavities and five sticky fingers, regretted that purchase.

Mets 6, Pirates 2. What? We covered this already? I must have been taking a nap.

Austin Jackson's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Austin Jackson is having a much better season than most people expected out of him and he's probably your 2010 AL Rookie of the Year. While his strikeout (149) to walk (43) ratio is fantastic for all the wrong reasons, this is actually Jackson's first Golden Sombrero of the season. The Yankees fliped the young outfielder to the Tigers for Curtis Granderson's inability to hit lefties and the Tigers are winning the trade this year. Jackson is hitting .303/.359/.411 while being dirt cheap and UZR seems to think he at least plays a capable center field. His production should tumble some next season as his .415 BABIP isn't sustainable. Granderson, meanwhile, couldn't hit your mom if you could get her off the couch and teach her to throw lefty.

But on Thursday, Jackson didn't have much to offer at the plate going 0-4 with a walk and four strikeouts. So before we all go patting the Tigers on the back, let's take a look at how the rookie padded his strikeout totals...

Bottom 2nd: Jackson struck out swinging against Gavin Floyd. He did draw a lead-off walk in the 1st inning so I'm willing to cut him a little slack on this one.

Bottom 4th: Jackson struck out swinging against Floyd. He saw 5 pitches and they were all strikes. He used all of his patience on that 1st inning walk.

Bottom 6th: Jackson struck out looking against Gavin. I stand corrected. He took 3 balls before watching strike 3.

Bottom 8th: Jackson struck out swinging against Sergio Santos.

In comparison, Granderson: DNP.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

What can I say about Mark Reynolds? He might be my favorite player. I've tried to reach out on Twitter and Facebook but even if he's there, I'm not sure he would want to be friends with a guy who chronicles his epic moment in striking out. But there is a chance I'm wrong. Reynolds didn't have a Golden Sombrero until June 17th, about two weeks after we started this blog. This is his third Sombrero in two weeks since then. So I'd prefer to think he was just waiting until I got this blog up and running before he went strikeout crazy. I do have a pretty high opinion of myself though.

And any time I get to hand out a Golden Sombrero to Mark Reynolds means the Drunk Donkey gets out of my shed and we go patrolling for babes. By shed, I mean the spare bedroom, he likes pillows and a mattress.

Alright, we've been taking shots of Costco Tequila, so it's time to take a look at Reynolds' strikeouts before the donkey throws up on my couch...

Top 2nd: Reynolds struck out swinging against David Price. That's former No. 1 pick David Price.

Top 5th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Price again.

Top 7th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Price for the MTD Hat Trick. I hope you guys know what that is by now, jerks. I held off on the Price is Right/Wrong jokes but this at least calls for the losing horn...



Top 9th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Rafael Soriano. Did I get a fantasy save? Somebody check my lineup.

Uptons Pack The Trop

Tonight when the Diamondbacks play the Rays, it will be the first time young stars brothers B.J. and Justin Upton will play against each other. B.J. was the second pick overall by the Rays in the 2002 draft. He broke into the bigs in 2004 at 19-years-old. I fell in love with Bossman Junior during the magical summer of 2007. He hit 24 home runs, 82 RBI, 22 steals and had an .894 OPS while playing second base. A star was born and I won a fantasy baseball title. Since 2007, he has 27 home runs, 151 RBI, 109 steals and an average OPS of .733. Sadly, my fantasy teams have still not recovered from the heartbreak.

Justin was the top pick in 2005 and broke in at 19-years-old with the Diamondbacks in 2007. He had 26 home runs while hitting .300/.366/.532 last season. I've never owned him on a fantasy team so I'm fairly indifferent about the younger Upton. He does strikeout quite a bit which makes me happy.

Oh wait, I buried the lede. Upton family and friends will pack Tropicana Field to near capacity tonight for this glorious event...

About 65 friends and relatives of the Uptons will be at Tropicana Field for tonight's first-ever meeting of brothers B.J. and Justin. Most noticeable will be mother Yvonne, who has a special split jersey shirt with both of her sons names and numbers that was made by a family friend.

"This is the easy part," said Manny, their father. "The hard part was making sure everybody got into town.''

Ugh, those jerseys are so tacky. Why can't one parent wear the jersey of their favorite kid and then the other parent has to wear the jersey of the loser kid? We're getting too damn politically correct, America. I hope B.J. doesn't get nervous playing in front of that many people at The Trop. Zing. You might need to put some Neosporin on that burn Tampa Bay fans.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

This is an exciting, special edition of my Golden Sombrero segment. In case you missed it, I reference Mark Reynolds in the description of this post. Mark has missed a few balls the past couple of years. He led the National League in strikeouts in 2008 (204) and 2009 (impressive 223). He's kind of my hero. Tonight was Mark's first Golden Sombrero since we opened this site around a week ago. Shocking, I know.

In honor of this special, frequent occasion, I took four shots of Tres Generationes tequila and hired this donkey wearing a sombrero.

The donkey and I finished the bottle of tequila and are going to pick up some broads after I finish this post. So let's get to it.

Bottom 3rd: Reynolds struck out swinging against Chris Carpenter. Nothing to see here, move along.

Bottom 5th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Carpenter. He swung and missed at three straight. I try to purchase a Mark Reynolds Fathead of him striking out.

Bottom 7th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Dennys Reyes. Mmmm, Dennys.

Bottom 9th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Kyle McClellan. Reynolds was trying to air condition the Diamondbacks stadium all by himself. Who's looking out for ya?

Thank you, Mark Reynolds. I erected a Mark Reynolds statue out of mash potatoes but my drunk donkey ate it. Speaking of which, we're going to find some ladies. I'll post something tomorrow after I post bail.

The Phenom Fights The Tribe

Stephen Strasburg will make the second start of his Hall of Fame career tomorrow against the Cleveland Indians. And just like Custer when he slayed the Indians, I expect Strasburg to do the same. Wait, is that right? I'll get an intern to check my facts on that one. K-Stras™ is coming off an impressive debut where he struck out 14 Pirates with no walks over 7 innings while only throwing 94 pitches. Cynics will claim that it was the perfect match-up because the Pirates are a free-swinging team and I'm sure the same will be said tomorrow after he strikes out 24 Indians. But I'm going to have to agree with Bob Costas on this one and say Strasbrug is the reincarnation of Walter Johnson. Sure, I like hyperbole. What's it to you?

I should probably nerd-up this post before you start to think I'm a complete idiot. It's too late? Oh well. Going into Saturday's games the Pirates had struck out 429 times as a team, only 3 above the league average, though their team OBP of .306 is pretty hilarious. Houston's .288 OBP is just sad. Cleveland is sixth in all of baseball at striking out with 458. Arizona is trying to lap the field, so make sure you tune in if Strasburg pitches against the Diamondbacks.

Cleveland isn't afraid to take a walk, but Strasburg will probably pound the strike zone pretty hard again. Cleveland shouldn't be much of a home run threat either as they are the third worst team at going deep. But I don't think anyone expected Delwyn Young to take Strasburg yard.

Strasburg-mania will be in full effect tomorrow. The Indians sold an additional 8,100 tickets this past week including 2,000 on the day that Strasburg was announced as the starter for tomorrow's game. I'll be watching it live. Feel free to join me on Twitter, we'll take a shot every time he strikes somebody out.