Hey everyone!
I’ve been busy this weekend having a garage sale in the rain and preparing for a four-legged addition to our family. Regrettably, I haven’t found much chance to sit down and tap out any more baseball stuff to the silent masses few that read PPR. However, I did happen across an interesting suggestion from a fellow card enthusiast that I think would be a nice addition to the site.
My friend suggested that I try to do more follow up on those that are currently in the big leagues making (or not making) an impact. After sifting through the recent articles, I saw that there was a great deal of attention paid to projections of future major league players and not a great deal of hoopla given to those that have already crossed the MLB threshold. Therefore, I will do my best to give a brief daily account of some of the action happening around the league in a new catagory called Rookie of the Day.
Highlights from Sunday (6/19):
Phelps got some good wood off a bad Wood.
Today’s top honors goes to Cleveland Indians 2B Cord Phelps. If you remember right, I happened to snub Phelps in my Coming Soon series, opting to mention his more intriguing teammates Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall instead. Phelps’ AAA numbers were better than his teammates’, thus he was the first to get the call from the Indians. Phelps performed in a big way today slamming a 3-run walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 11th inning off of Pirates reliever Tim Wood. The long ball was Phelps’ first major league homerun and it snapped a 1-14 string at the plate. This was a big hit for the switch-hitting 2008 draftee as Jason Kipnis is swinging a hot bat at Columbus and is a top prospect in the Indians’ farm system.
Other Notable Performances:
- Washington Nationals 2B Danny Espinosa continued his hot hitting by slugging his 13th HR of the season, driving in two. Espinosa has lived up to his expectations as a power/speed candidate, swiping eight bases to go with his baker’s dozen of dingers. Over his last 10 games, Espinosa is hitting .333, which has raised his season average nearly 20 points to .237.
- L.A. Angels RHP Tyler Chatwood evened his record to 4-4 by shutting out the NY Mets over seven innings. The 21 year old surrendered four hits and four walks, while striking out four as well. Chatwood lowered his ERA to under 4.00 again and seems to have shaken off a couple of subpar outings.
