Kuzul

Going into Tuesday night’s play, the Boston Red Sox hold last place in the AL East, eight games behind the New York Yankees. With a record of 33-33, the Red Sox don’t appear to be out of the playoff picture, though they do have four teams to climb over for the division lead.

The AL Wild Card picture looks a bit more encouraging, with the Red Sox only four games behind and two bids available this season. But in terms of the scrum, Boston has a bigger crowd to fight through with five teams above them in the standings. Plus, two teams—Detroit and Oakland—are at their heels.

The Red Sox have allowed the third-most runs in the AL this season, so getting some starting pitching help would be the place to begin for an upgrade. And in a development that has plenty of baseball writers rubbing their hands together and smiling, the team that has the most available help for the Red Sox is run by their former general manager.

Chicago Cubs team president Theo Epstein has two extremely appealing trade pieces in Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza. Dempster just went on the disabled list with a lat injury, which obviously hurts his current trade value. But for the Red Sox, that might be irrelevant anyway. Garza is the guy to pursue.

Not only is Garza the more dynamic pitcher, posing more of a strikeout threat than Dempster, but, most importantly, he has experience pitching in the AL East in three years with the Tampa Bay Rays. Garza sees himself as a good fit, too, telling WEEI that the AL East doesn’t scare him a bit. 

Some might think that Epstein would be hesitant to deal with his former team, given how his tenure as Red Sox GM ended last year. But Epstein’s exit certainly wasn’t as contentious as Terry Francona’s. There weren’t any searing Boston Globe pieces that stabbed Epstein in the back once he was gone. Of course, Epstein probably has dirt on the inner workings of the Red Sox’s front office, so it’s best not to upset him. 

However, we did see some latent tension between Epstein and Red Sox ownership last week.

Epstein said he regretted some of his decisions in Boston—such as signing John Lackey to an $83 million contract—saying they were made to feed “the monster” that the Red Sox created. The implication was that ownership pressured him to make a move for the sake of doing something. Red Sox chairman Tom Werner disputed that, saying that Epstein was never pressured to sign a particular player. 

But that’s not highly charged language that indicates deep dislike between the two sides. And even if it was, Epstein wouldn’t refuse to deal with the Cubs because of any grudge toward his former team. Likewise, the Red Sox wouldn’t hold a grudge against their former GM. Business is business, and both sides want to improve their respective teams. 

Besides, how much can Epstein really help the Red Sox? Yes, trading them a top starting pitcher would help their chances at playoff contention. If the AL East race stays close, getting Garza could make the difference for Boston.

But the Red Sox have needed to broom out their clubhouse since last season. Buster Olney’s report that the Boston clubhouse is swimming in dissension confirmed that. (Should it be a surprise that the players disagreed with Olney’s article?)

Epstein isn’t going to help with that. He’s not taking the surly Kevin Youkilis off their hands. He doesn’t want any part of Josh Beckett. And if Epstein regrets signing Carl Crawford the first time, why would he take that contract in Chicago? 

But the Red Sox could help Epstein and the Cubs. Epstein is extremely familiar with Boston’s minor league system, having played a prominent role in drafting and developing most of those prospects.

Writing for ESPN.com, Eric Seidman proposes several deals that the Red Sox and Cubs could make, such as one packaged around Boston’s top pitching prospect, Matt Barnes. Shortstop prospects Xander Bogaerts or Jose Iglesias could be part of a potential deal, too. Throw in another good arm like Brandon Workman and that’s a nice return for Garza. 

Would Epstein be a fool to help the Red Sox at the trade deadline? Absolutely not. He can help himself and the Cubs too much. If anything, Epstein would be a fool not to deal with the Red Sox. He knows the kind of deal GM Ben Cherington and team ownership would want to make. It’s just a matter of putting the right pieces together. 

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With several surprises and disappointments, the 2012 MLB season has been a compelling one to watch thus far. 

However, something that has made the game less fun to follow is the number of superstar players that have suffered significant injuries. Yes, sometimes new players can emerge when established veterans go on the disabled list. Look at Bryce Harper with the Nationals or Freddy Galvis for the Phillies. (Unfortunately, Galvis has joined the ranks of the injured.) 

Sure, we watch baseball because we love the game, but a big reason we love the game is because we get to see top players perform at an elite level. Superstars provide the game with its flash and sizzle. They compel us to watch. Without its marquee talent on the field, baseball is just a little less exciting.

But the game will be far more exciting to watch in the weeks and months to come once some injured stars get back on the field. Here are 10 excellent players whose return we’re eagerly anticipating.

Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers

He’s the National League’s best player. Why wouldn’t we want to see him back on the field? The Dodgers have maintained their first-place lead while he’s been out with a strained hamstring. But how good could they be once Kemp returns, along with whatever midseason additions the Dodgers might make?

Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies

Losing Utley in spring training was a devastating blow to a Phillies team that was already short-handed. Would the Phillies be in last place if he was in the lineup all season? It doesn’t seem likely, but maybe age and lack of depth has just caught up with this team. Where would this Phillies team be at full strength?

Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies

Ty Wigginton has done well at first base for the Phils, but he’s not the power bat Howard is. As with Utley, how much better would the lineup be with Howard providing some thunder in the middle? Again, we want to see the Phillies at full strength. It’s fun to see the Washington Nationals on top in the NL East. New blood is always exciting. But wouldn’t it be more fun to see the Nats beat the Phillies at their best?

Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies

There are few pitchers in baseball who can shut down a lineup and possibly do something historic every time he takes the mound. Halladay may not have the dazzle factor of Justin Verlander or Clayton Kershaw, but he is definitely one of those pitchers. Taken down by a shoulder injury, baseball isn’t as fun to watch without getting to see Halladay every five days.

Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays are tied for first in the AL East and consistently play some of the best baseball in the majors. But how much better would they be with their best player in their lineup? Without Longoria, the Rays are 20-17. But they’re also hitting just .228 as a team. Their defense at third base is among the lower third in the majors. 

Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox

As with the Phillies, the Red Sox haven’t been able to field their intended roster all season long. That became especially true when Ellsbury, who had an MVP-caliber 201, dislocated his right shoulder in mid-April. Do we want to see a Red Sox team with Marlon Byrd or Scott Podsednik in center field? Or do we want to see Boston win, or be beaten while at full strength?

Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals

Though the Cardinals would obviously be a better team with Carpenter in their starting rotation, the Redbirds seemed to be OK without him in the early stages of the season. Carpenter’s replacement, Lance Lynn, is pitching like a Cy Young Award candidate, but the Cards are slipping in the NL Central. Getting their ace back from his neck troubles would make a huge difference. 

Alex Avila, Detroit Tigers

I’ll admit to some personal bias here. I love watching Avila play. It was fun to watch him develop from a first-time starter into one of the best catchers in baseball last season. The Tigers have been a disappointment thus far, largely due to players like Avila performing below expectations. But there are so few great catchers in the majors that it’s a pleasure to watch the ones that emerge. 

Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels

I realize I’m sort of repeating myself, but don’t we want to see the best players on the field? Weaver is one of the best pitchers in the AL and has established himself as appointment viewing. Baseball misses him taking the mound every five days. Now that the Angels have made the AL West a race again, Weaver’s return could make sure they stay competitive. 

Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers

As disappointing as the Brewers have been this season, Lucroy has been one of the team’s bright spots. With a .345/.387/.583 slash average, Lucroy put himself in the discussion of best catchers in the NL with Yadier Molina, Carlos Ruiz and Buster Posey. Suffering a broken hand when he did was disheartening. Hopefully, Lucroy can resume his great play when he returns.

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After a miserable April in which he batted .217/.265/.304 with no home runs and four RBI, Albert Pujols rebounded in May, looking more like the hitter we’ve been accustomed to seeing in his previous 11 major league seasons.

In 123 plate appearances for May, Pujols hit .263/.309/.491 with eight homers and 24 RBI. With those April numbers dragging him down, his numbers for the season still don’t look impressive overall. But whatever was wrong with Pujols’ swing and timing appears to have been smoothed out now. 

So why risk knocking him off balance again? Why give Pujols something else to contend with mentally as he appears to be regaining his focus at the plate? Why play him at third base during interleague play, as the Los Angeles Angels plan to do this upcoming weekend when the team visits the Colorado Rockies?

According to the Los Angeles Times‘ Mike DiGiovanna, the idea is to keep Kendry Morales’ bat in the lineup by playing him at first base, rather than sit him down when the Angels have to play without a designated hitter at Coors Field. That means Pujols will have to move across the diamond to third base, a position he’s barely played since 2002. 

However, I’m not suggesting that Pujols is some delicate flower whose petals will wilt when he’s asked to do something he normally doesn’t do.

Pujols volunteered to play third base last season with the St. Louis Cardinals to prevent Allen Craig from playing second base and to allow Jon Jay to get into the lineup. The man is a team player, and probably didn’t flinch when Angels manager Mike Scioscia asked Pujols if he would play third. (That’s presuming Pujols didn’t volunteer to play third once again.)

But this isn’t the same Pujols we’ve seen in past seasons. If he was hitting the way he always has, moving to third wouldn’t seem like much of a deal.

However, Pujols is currently in sort of a fragile position when it comes to his hitting. He appears to be getting himself right at this point. Giving him something else to think about while he’s on the field could provide a big distraction.

Baseball players talk all the time about wanting to know what their role is, what they’re expected to do when they get to the ballpark each day. The implication is that players will succeed when they don’t have anything else to think about and can just play baseball. Otherwise, once something else gets in their heads while they’re on the field, they begin fighting themselves mentally. 

Pujols hasn’t played third base that often over the course of his career, manning the position for only 104 of his nearly 1,400 career games in the majors. And when he did play there, he wasn’t very good. Perhaps 296 innings at third in 2002 is a small sample size to go on, but based on Ultimate Zone Rating, he was one of the worst defensive third basemen in baseball that season. 

Look at what moving back to third base did to the Detroit Tigers‘ Miguel Cabrera earlier this season. He went through an 0-for-22 stretch in mid-April, a slump he never experienced last year. Sure, any batter can go cold. But is it a coincidence that Cabrera struggled at the plate while returning to a position he hadn’t played in four years? 

Granted, we’re talking about a six-game span at most for Pujols, as opposed to switching positions for an entire season. This isn’t a long-term commitment for the Angels, so if it’s not going well, Pujols can be quickly switched back. 

But if moving him to third base for even just a couple of games messes with Pujols’ hitting approach at all, the consequences for him and the Angels far outweigh whatever convenience they might enjoy during a week of interleague play. 

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Umpiring just seems to be getting worse throughout Major League Baseball. It feels like we could devote at least one post per day to a blown call, some of which are botched so badly that it’s simply an embarrassment to the sport.

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland has seen all he can stand, blowing up after Monday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers lost the game in large part because of a blown third strike call by home plate umpire Bill Welke. Consequently, instead of getting out of the inning, Detroit went on to allow three runs. In what seemed like a measured, calculated rant, Leyland called upon the media to write more about these terrible calls.

“I mean, you guys need to write something and hold people accountable!” Leyland said to reporters after the game. “You know what? We’re all accountable in this business! All of us are accountable! And when I say all of us, I mean everybody that’s involved in the game needs to be held accountable!”

Given all of the bad umpiring we’ve seen this season, it’s doubtful too many would disagree with Leyland’s take. Well, except umpires. And maybe beat reporters, who are too busy writing about the game at hand and issues surrounding the team to really investigate and attack poor umpiring.

Actually, I do take issue with one aspect of Leyland’s remarks. Of course, he’s right that umpires need to be held accountable, just as players and managers are. But challenging the media to call umpires out is misguided. 

This has to be addressed by the true authority figure here: MLB. Even before the clamor for wider instant replay as umpires get increasingly dissected and scrutinized on television and online media, baseball coddled its game officials far too much.

MLB suspended Bob Davidson for his conduct in arguing with Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel two weeks ago. His behavior was deemed unsuitable and unprofessional, and he was penalized for it. This needs to happen far more often. 

Why aren’t umpires, for example, forced to take questions from the media in their locker room or during a postgame press conference the way players and managers are? Their actions can affect the outcome of a game just as much, if not more, than any play or decision made.

Yet they rarely have to answer for their mistakes unless a pool reporter gets to talk with them or someone (such as Jim Joyce after blowing Armando Galarraga’s perfect game two years ago) stands up and takes his flogging. 

Why aren’t umpires sent to the minors when they don’t meet major league expectations? New York Mets reliever Manny Acosta was designated for assignment on Monday for allowing 11 runs over his past three outings. Subsequently, he’s no longer in the majors. If an umpire is consistently botching calls, why is he still doing so in the big leagues? 

To be fair, virtually all these calls have to be made on the spot without the benefit of the ideal angle or a slower speed. Of course, if MLB would just expand the parameters of its instant replay system, plays that occur too fast or beyond the sight of an umpire could still be ruled upon correctly with the video technology that’s already in place on most every team’s television broadcast.

Well, give those umpires the best opportunity to succeed then. ESPN’s Jayson Stark recently stated the league was finally ready to expand instant replay. The key component to a new system will be a group of umpires watching from a central location that will ring in when they see a call that needs to be overturned. The right call gets made and the umpiring crew on hand gets the help they increasingly need. 

As an added benefit, such a setup would also allow for umpires consistently making poor calls to be reviewed. Umpires might prefer not to give performance reviews to fellow umpires, but the outline of a system that would say, “OK, this guy keeps missing calls and it needs to be addressed” would be in place.

MLB should take advantage of the opportunity to exert some authority over a facet of the game that is affecting the quality of the on-field product. Players, coaches and fans have to trust that the umpiring crew on the field is going to do no harm to the ballgame at hand. Holding umpires accountable for their actions maintains that standard. 

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Anyone who thinks East Coast teams get too much attention in baseball might want to take a look at the current MLB standings. None of the teams in the AL East nor NL East divisions have a losing record going into Tuesday’s play. 

It’s no surprise to see teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays at .500 or above and competing for a division title or wild-card spot in the American League.

But It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays in playoff contention. And the O’s are tied for first place in the AL East with the Rays, holding the second-best record in the junior circuit through 49 games.

Over in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies are certainly no stranger to playoff contention during the past few seasons. And the Atlanta Braves have been one of the dominant clubs over the past two decades, with 11 division titles and 12 postseason trips in a 15-year span.

Yet right now, both of those teams comprise the bottom of the NL East. It’s the emerging Washington Nationals that lead the division, with the revived New York Mets and Miami Marlins trailing close behind. 

Will the current standings maintain throughout the season, with none of the 10 teams out east finishing with a losing record? It sure doesn’t seem likely. Yet we’re about 50 games through the season with most teams, and that’s the situation we see now.

Both divisions finishing with records of .500 or above isn’t impossible, either. 

Most importantly, having other East Coast markets besides New York, Boston and Philadelphia involved in playoff chases provides a major boost for the game. For instance, how long have the D.C. and Baltimore areas been deprived of pennant races and postseason baseball?

It’s been almost 20 years since the Orioles were one of the AL’s power teams. Baltimore loves the O’s and still has one of the best ballparks in the game. Yet the team has been a doormat throughout the 2000s, disenchanted with an ownership that’s tried to patch holes with money and aging veterans instead of showing it can build a team. 

Down I-85, fans in D.C. have been yearning for baseball since the Senators left for Texas in 1971. Going 33 years without the sport can create quite an appetite. But the long wait looks like it’s finally being rewarded with a team that’s not only contending, but should do so for years to come with young stars like Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.

Parity among baseball’s East Coast teams also keeps another country emotionally invested. The Toronto Blue Jays are Canada’s team, by virtue of being the only MLB team north of the border.

Even so, major apathy set in as the Blue Jays became a punching bag for the AL East elite. But savvy trades and revitalized players have finally made the Blue Jays a contender again. 

The Braves have already established a presence as the south’s MLB team, but with the Marlins and the Rays playing like contenders in their respective divisions, baseball is digging in a footprint even further south and getting another region of the country involved in the sport. 

The Marlins, especially, have taken major steps toward becoming a perennial contender in the NL, building a brand-new ballpark and throwing major cash at free-agent talent to build a winner around stars like Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Johnson. 

The Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies have begun to look pretty creaky this season, which might mean they slide down a notch while the other teams in the east catch up to and surpass them.

But does anyone expect that those teams won’t return to prominence? Even that’s presuming they take a step back. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played in 2012, and all three could still be major factors in the postseason. 

Still, with other markets and their fanbases drawn in by the hope and promise of meaningful baseball, the eastern part of the country won’t tune out if the teams we’re used to seeing in October begin to falter.

That’s an excellent development for baseball as it progresses into a new postseason format with two additional teams, a wild-card playoff and league realignment next year. 

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After holding relatively steady for the past couple of weeks, we have some shuffling in the NL Rookie of the Year rankings. 

There’s a change at the top, due to the previous week’s front-runner fighting through a slump. That’s created an opportunity for others to move up, including one guy whose bat has stayed hot.

One reminder, since we clarified the matter last week: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn is not a rookie. He exceeded 45 days in the major leagues last season, thus using up his eligibility. I’m not making this up. It’s been reported by people who cover the team.

With that, here are this week’s top five candidates for NL Rookie of the Year. 

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Have you been filling out any MLB All-Star Game 2012 ballots at the ballpark or online? I suspect that the balloting won’t really pick up until MLB releases some of the voting results shortly after Memorial Day weekend.

Fans will see that their favorites at certain positions aren’t getting much support and will try to pick up the slack. Perhaps an undeserving player or two will be the leading vote-getter due to a larger fanbase, as fans will attempt to give their candidate a push. That seems to be how this usually goes.

The NL ballot actually doesn’t allow a vote for designated hitter, which seems sort of silly since the game is being played in the Kansas City Royals’ Kauffman Stadium, an AL ballpark. And with no one on the ballot to name as a candidate, I won’t speculate as to who the NL manager will pick to man that spot. 

The same goes for the starting pitcher. The top ace in the league doesn’t often get the nod, as it depends on the pitcher’s schedule in his team’s starting rotation. So predicting who gets the start would be a guess, at best.

So here are the eight starters I believe will be selected by the fans for the 2012 MLB All-Star Game—not necessarily who deserves to start at those respective positions. 

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What had been a dream season for the Los Angeles Dodgers thus far took a major blow on Monday, with news that MVP favorite Matt Kemp would be put on the disabled list because of a strained left hamstring. 

Going into Tuesday’s play, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball at 24-11 and the largest first-place margin among the six division leaders. Perhaps that six-game lead over an increasingly weak-looking NL West is enough of a cushion for the Dodgers to withstand two weeks without their best player.

However, even without that cushion, the Dodgers should be able to get by without Kemp in the lineup temporarily. Obviously, they’re a lesser team without him, and no club can enjoy sustained success with their best player on the DL. 

Several things have to go right for the Dodgers to continue winning games while Kemp is out. But these three factors are working in their favor and should keep Don Mattingly’s club on the right path until their MVP returns. 

Pitching’s Been the Key

The Dodgers have been winning on the strength of their starting pitching all season long. Chris Capuano, Ted Lilly and Clayton Kershaw are currently among the top 15 in ERA in the National League. And Chad Billingsley’s 3.32 ERA certainly isn’t bad either. 

In their first game without Kemp on Monday night, Kershaw pitched seven shutout innings with six strikeouts, holding the Arizona Diamondbacks to four hits.

Asking for that kind of performance every night is a bit much (though maybe not from the defending NL Cy Young Award winner). But with that kind of pitching, the Dodgers can still win some games even with a Kemp-less lineup.

Look at the other games in which Kemp hadn’t gotten a hit while trying to play with a sore hamstring.

Billingsley allowed two runs against the San Francisco Giants. In a three-game sweep over the Colorado Rockies, Capuano and Harang each gave up one run. Lilly gave up five (four earned) in his start, but the Dodgers were able to put 11 runs on the board to give him a win.

Teammates Are Picking It Up

No one is suggesting that Bobby Abreu is a suitable replacement for Kemp in the Dodgers’ lineup. But picking him up after he was released by the Los Angeles Angels is looking like a savvy move right now. 

Since joining the Dodgers, Abreu is batting .296/.345/.444 in 29 plate appearances with four doubles and four RBI. When Kemp was taken out of Sunday’s game versus the Rockies, Abreu came in and gave the Dodgers a lead with a three-run double. 

But the batters who were already regulars in the lineup have picked up their game while Kemp struggled.

In the five games during which Kemp was either hitless or out with injury, Andre Ethier hit 9-for-18 with three doubles, two homers and three RBI. Catcher A.J. Ellis went 6-for-13 with a triple, home run and four RBI. James Loney hit 7-for-16. 

Can the other batters in the Dodgers’ lineup keep up that kind of production? Their history says no, but if they can do so while Kemp is out, his absence won’t be quite so glaring. 

Schedule is Favorable

There don’t appear to be many great teams in the NL, so the Dodgers may not have run into one over the next couple of weeks anyway. But the schedule looks pretty kind to them while Kemp is out. After finishing a two-game set with the D-Backs, the Dodgers play a pair against the last-place Padres.

A weekend series versus the St. Louis Cardinals will be a test, but the defending World Series champs have lost four of their past five games and haven’t played much outside the NL Central. Going out west will be a challenged for them, as well. 

Next week, the Dodgers have three more games against the skidding D-Backs, a trio versus the Houston Astros and a four-game series with a Milwaukee Brewers team that’s still trying to find its footing. 

Looking ahead to June, the schedule gets tougher with a 10-game road trip that includes a four-game set with the Philadelphia Phillies. But Kemp should be back in the lineup by then. 

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To channel Tim Kurkjian, one of the reasons we love watching baseball is because the game doesn’t always turn out the way you expect.

Case in point: Stephen Strasburg started for the Washington Nationals against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday afternoon. The Padres came into the game with the second-lowest team hit total in the NL at 269, as well as the second-lowest run total at 120.

That had some people, such as MLB.com Nats beat writer Bill Ladson, thinking that this could be the day for Strasburg to throw a no-hitter. (Check out the responses to his Tweet, which are pretty funny.) 

Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way for Strasburg and the Nats. For one thing, it was Padres starter Anthony Bass who had the no-hitter through three innings. But Strasburg wasn’t sharp at all in the first inning, throwing 39 pitches while allowing three runs, three hits and two walks. 

At the risk of being Captain Obvious, Tuesday’s effort was Strasburg’s worst start of the season.

He lasted four innings, giving up four runs, seven hits (one of them James Darnell’s first homer of the year) and two walks. Strasburg had lasted at least six innings in each of his previous seven starts, never allowing an earned run in five of those games. 

So what was the story with the Nats’ ace? It couldn’t have been pitching during the day. Consider a small sample size of nine starts, Strasburg is 3-1 with a 1.28 ERA in day games.

Was it because of the rainy conditions in D.C., which soaked Nationals Park with a quick burst of rain that resulted in an eight-minute rain delay?

Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it was just a bad game. It happens for every pitcher, even the best ones. 

But in post-game interviews with manager Davey Johnson, Nats beat writers found out that something else may have thrown Strasburg off his game. The Washington Post‘s Adam Kilgore shared the information with this Tweet.

Hey now. Some pitchers, such as Roger Clemens, go for that sort of thing. Others, I’m guessing, prefer not to suffer through the discomfort of intense heat from analgesic balm on their unmentionables. 

Upon further investigation, it was determined that this wasn’t a prank. And really, who would be dumb enough to play a prank on the team’s ace when he’s pitching? That would seem like a fast ticket to Class-A Hagerstown. Or maybe China. 

So maybe this was just an accident by Strasburg? Have you ever been cutting jalapenos or some other hot pepper in the kitchen and then absentmindedly rubbed your eye afterwards? (I haven’t, but I hear it stings badly.)

Maybe this is the kind of thing we’re talking about. Something went where it shouldn’t have gone in, er, the heat of the moment. Chalk it up to a bad rub.

Whatever the case was, Strasburg wasn’t revealing anything, with reporters surmising that he wasn’t too pleased with his manager mentioning the apparent blunder to the press. 

He’s probably not thrilled that people are blogging about it, either. 

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Yesterday, the daily chatter got kind of serious around baseball as many of us debated Cole Hamels throwing a pitch at Bryce Harper in Sunday night’s game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals. 

That led to arguments over such topics as whether intentionally throwing at batters was part of the game, what sort of retaliation was justified, how such actions should be disciplined by MLB and if the five-game suspension that Hamels was eventually handed was suitable punishment.

It was all so serious. (And it probably will continue to be for fans of the Phillies and Nats.) I don’t know about you, but I was eager for some good ol’ baseball to be played after all that uproar.

Then on Monday night, Jordany Valdespin reminded us why watching baseball can be so much fun. 

The Phillies and New York Mets were tied 2-2 in the ninth inning when Mike Nickeas (subbing for Josh Thole, who was taken out after a collision at home plate) doubled off Jonathan Papelbon to put runners on second and third with two outs.

Mets manager Terry Collins sent in Valdespin, fresh off the plane from Class AAA Buffalo, to pinch-hit for reliever Tim Byrdak. On his second pitch, Papelbon hung a split-finger pitch down the middle and Valdespin smacked it into the right field seats for a three-run homer.

You can watch the play here.

There couldn’t have been a more unexpected hero. Several Mets reporters recalled Omir Santos’ homer off Papelbon in 2009 at Fenway Park.

Valdespin (whose name sounds like a Harry Potter character) was called up from the minors earlier in the day to replace Ruben Tejada, who was placed on the disabled list with a quad strain. He hadn’t made much of an impression in his first stint with the big league club, going hitless in his first six at bats. 

Valdespin showed some pop in the minors, hitting 17 homers between Class AA and AAA last season. But breaking out the boomstick against an established closer like Papelbon was a shocker. 

(Not getting any work for five days probably didn’t help Papelbon, as Phillies manager Charlie Manuel continues to struggle with his new, big-money closer.) 

Valdespin’s jubilation as he circled the bases following his first major league home run washed away the bluster and outrage from earlier in the day over the Hamels-Harper incident. This was a pure moment of joy (well, maybe not for Phillies fans), the kind of moment every ballplayer surely dreams about experiencing.

Such a moment occurring against a division rival likely made it just a little sweeter.

At the risk of channeling Tim Kurkjian, isn’t this the sort of thing that reminds us why we love baseball in the first place? You just never know who’s going to be a hero.

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