View Franklin Gutierrez’s player page and the offensive numbers will be overshadowed by gaudy UZR and DRS totals that cement his place as one of the finest flycatchers in the game. Not until one downright inspects Gutierrez’s production with the bat does the best kept secret about his game become transparent.

You see, Gutierrez just doesn’t swing that often. To date, he’s actually swinging the bat fewer times – roughly 39% of the time – than ever before. When it comes to swinging on the first pitch, Gutierrez actually is the least aggressive hitter in baseball, tied with David Eckstein. Unlike Eckstein and the usual suspects of the slap-hitting mafia (Brett Gardner and Luis Castillo included), Gutierrez hits for power, which makes him more like Bobby Abreu and Kevin Youkilis, only with more patience:

With that said, mentioning Gutierrez’s career high walk rate is a given. Last year, his first in Seattle, Gutierrez managed to increase his walks while keeping his strikeouts static. That hasn’t been the case this season, with his strikeout rate swelling to over a quarter of his at-bats, but the increase in walks outweighs the shift in punch outs.

In 2008, Gutierrez went the entire month of June with a single walk. Thus far in May 2010, he’s recorded as many walks (15) as hits. Expecting Gutierrez to keep up such a torrid pace of free passes is unreasonable, just as trying to assign how much of this newfound appreciation for the walk can be attributed to a weak supporting cast and how much credit belongs to Gutierrez and his devices.

One thing is for sure: though Gutierrez may be the master of creating outs on defense, he’s anything but at the dish.

Let’s see if we can get through this week without someone making a crack about small sample size.

Maybe we should drug test the third base bag at the Skydome.

Last week, we wrote up Jose Bautista’s power surge in the things we learned in week six. Bautista had been manning third base for the Blue Jays, but has now shifted back to the outfield due to the return of Edwin Encarnacion. After Encarnacion’s week, we may have to begin asking just what kind of magic Toronto has lathered their third base bag with.

In his first week off the DL, Encarnacion managed seven hits in 22 plate appearances. More impressively, six of them left the yard. The Jays have now gotten 17 home runs from their third baseman this year, easily the most in baseball. Their hot corner bats have produced a ridiculous .683 slugging percentage, 90 points ahead of the second place Rays, who have some guy named Evan Longoria playing the position.

The Blue Jays offense was supposed to be pretty miserable, but thanks to some crazy power surges, they’ve managed to keep putting runs on the board. Tune in next week to find out what new marginally useful Toronto player is doing a Babe Ruth impression.

B.J. Upton wants to be like Rickey.

Upton didn’t have a particularly good performance over the last seven days, hitting just .154 in 29 trips to the plate. However, he did do something fairly remarkable – steal five bases despite a paucity of opportunities.

Upton racked up four hits on the week, but one of those was a home run and two were doubles. With just one single and three walks, Upton only earned his way onto first base four times in the whole week. And he still managed five steals.

On May 17th, he walked and stole second. On April 18th, he doubled and stole third. On April 19th, he singled, stole second and then stole third. And on May 22nd, he walked and stole second. Talk about making the most of what you’ve got.

The Twins strike-throwing ways are getting ridiculous.

Everyone knows the Twins have a pitching staff full of guys who just pound the strikezone, but they got even crazier last week. 13 pitchers took the hill for Minnesota in the last seven days, and of those, only Francisco Liriano walked more than one batter. They issued 13 walks in 63 innings pitched, a rate of 1.86 BB/9.

However, being around the plate that much has its downsides, as they allowed 12 home runs, third most in the majors over the last week. Minnesota’s commitment to their philosophy is noble, but it also wouldn’t kill them to waste one out of the zone every once in a while.

By now, you’ve probably read at least one tribute to the Jose Lima, who passed away at the surprisingly young age of 37 on Sunday. You can surely find good accounts of his rather… flamboyant style as a person in and around the major league. Here is a good one. A quote from former teammate Brad Ausmus (whose continued presence in the major leagues is a shocking story in its own right) sums up the feelings many probably had when reflecting on the sad news:

Always in a good mood, loved to sing… We had to listen to his demo tape all the time in the locker room. Now it’s a fond memory. Back then, it was annoying.

From an analytical perspective, one could say something similar. While bouncing around the majors, Jose Lima was annoying, particularly in seasons like 2004, when he went 13-5 for the Dodgers despite a 5.09 FIP (although he had a 4.19 xFIP, his tERA was 6.64 Yes, that’s Six Point Six Four). But, like his musical aspirations and other clubhouse antics, while his statistically less-than-great pitching was frustrating to explain at the time, now it’s interesting and, yes, sort of fun to look back on. This is a pitcher who, during the FanGraphs WAR Era (2002-present) managed a FIP under FIVE only once over a full season, yet still pitched over 460 innings inthe major leagues over give seasons. Indeed, the 2005 Royals (naturally) sent him out to the mound for 168 innings of 6.34 ERA ball, although to be fair, his FIP was only 5.71, and hey, his xFIP was 5.34!

This is all well known, and today, rather than discussing Lima’s contribution to one of the worst teams in recent memory (and the worst in Royals history, losing 106 games), perhaps it is a more fitting “analytical” tribute to Lima to look at his brief-but-memorable contribution to the 2003 Royals, who somehow won 83 games and stayed in contention for the AL Central past the All-Star break.

That 2003 Kansas City team featured a not-yet-Zombified Mike Sweeney, a great season from Carlos Beltran, and, of course, Rookie-of-the-Year Angel Berroa. But Lima was there, too, and although his 4.91 ERA was less-than-spectacular, he did win seven games in a row, tying David Cone’s franchise record. But Lima’s performance was noteworthy in other ways. For one, his FIP was non-horrible, and actually lower than his ERA, at 4.67. Lima never was great at keeping the ball on the ground, though, and his 37% groundball rate was no exception. The good vibes he brought to the clubhouse might have made a difference, though, as he miraculously kept the ball in the park, with only a 6.2% HR/FB rate. Naturally, xFIP was not impressed, giving him a 5.53. Still, his tERA was 4.89, not good, but not terrible. 2003 was the only season Lima’s tERA was under 5.

What I find truly amazing about Lima’s 2003 wasn’t so much that it happened despite his inability to strike hitters out (3.93 K/9 or his lucky .295 BABIP. Rather, he did all this despite having a horrible defense behind him. While Carlos Beltran was (and is) an outstanding defensive center fielder, and Joe Randa was decent at third base, the 2003 Royals were terrible defensively. Many players “contributed” on defense, but Carlos Febles, Desi Relaford, and Michael Tucker deserve special recognition to a team that overall was about 44 runs below average according to UZR, and 41 runs below average according to Dewan’s Plus/Minus (those days are behind KC now, right?)

Maybe it was a fluke. Today, I prefer to think that 2003 was, indeed, Lima Time. Nosotros Creemos.

It’s no secret that pitching has been a big problem for the Arizona Diamondbacks this season. The MLB club is last in the Majors in ERA (5.75), FIP (5.14), and has allowed the most hits in the Majors (455).

Of the pitchers currently in the starting rotation, Dan Haren, Edwin Jackson, and Ian Kennedy have future value to the organization as starters. Cesar Valdez, Billy Buckner, Kris Benson and Rodrigo Lopez likely do not. The future of former ace Brandon Webb is up in the air due to his recent injury problems.

That leaves one or two starting rotation slots in flux. The organization does not have a lot of money to plug the hole(s) via free agency; the best thing is to look within. Unfortunately, the depth in the upper levels of the system is not good. With that said, there are a few arms in the system that could provide value to the big league club.

Wes Roemer: The right-hander was a supplemental first round pick out of Cal State Fullerton in 2007. He’s moved fairly slowly through the system given his pedigree but Roemer was recently promoted to triple-A after a strong start in double-A. The 23-year-old pitcher made 22 starts in double-A in ’09 and posted a 4.16 FIP with a modest strikeout rate of 6.5 K/9. This season at double-A, he allowed 52 hits in 52.2 innings with 11 walks and 43 strikeouts. Roemer has a modest repertoire (87-91 mph fastball, slider, change-up) but solid control (career 2.4 BB/9) and must keep the ball down to be successful, especially in Phoenix.

Barry Enright: Enright was selected shortly after Roemer in the ’07 draft and is a similar pitcher. The right-hander was selected in the second round out of Pepperdine University. Enright, 24, spent all of ’09 in double-A and posted a 4.00 FIP. In 156.0 innings, the durable starter showed excellent control with a walk rate of 2.13 BB/9 but he put a lot of balls in play with a strikeout rate of just 5.94 K/9. Back in double-A for 2010, Enright currently has a 3.40 FIP and has given up just 44 hits and 10 walks in 51.2 innings. He has struck out 40 batters. Like Roemer, he has a modest fastball (87-91 mph fastball) and needs to keep the ball down to be successful. His four-pitch mix also includes a slider, curveball and change-up.

Josh Collmenter: Another ’07 draft pick, the 24-year-old Collmenter has proven to be a solid value as a 15th round pick out of Central Michigan University. Not known as a big-time strikeout pitcher, the right-hander posted a K-rate of 9.41 K/9 in ’09 in high-A ball mainly due to his ability to mix all his pitches. Collmenter also posted a 3.12 FIP. He’s also done a nice job of keeping the ball in the park despite a modest ground-ball rate. This season, Collmenter has pitched at three levels (high-A, double-A, and triple-A). Combined, he’s allowed 36 hits and 15 walks with 44 strikeouts in 45.0 innings of work. His FIP sits at 3.66. His repertoire includes an 86-90 mph fastball with cutting action, curveball, and change-up.

Part of a manager’s job is to determine when his players need a breather. For some players, that might be only once a season. For instance, last year in the AL Robinson Cano, Brandon Inge, and Nick Markakis missed just one game each, while Prince Fielder led the NL by playing in all 162 games. When it comes to catchers, though, the question becomes a bit more difficult. Squatting causes plenty of wear and tear, so if a manager wants to get optimal production from the catching spot he has to recognize when his backstop needs a day off.

After starting Yadier Molina in 11 of the team’s first 12 games, including the entirety of a 20-inning affair, I criticized Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa for working his catcher too hard. While Yadier presented a far, far better option than inexperienced backup Bryan Anderson, he also has his limitations. Playing him too much earlier in the season could mean more fatigue down the road. For a team with a catcher as good as Yadier, that can become a rather large issue later in the season.

While Yadier didn’t see immediate ill effects — he hit .375/.438/.464 in the 64 PA following the 20-inning game — he has fallen off a bit lately. Since a 4 for 5 game against Pittsburgh on May 7 Molina has just seven hits in 50 PA, just one for extra bases. We cannot definitively point to Molina’s excessive playing time as a reason for this slump — slumps happen, after all, even to the best hitters in the league — but the correlation is somewhat troubling. Yadier, after all, has caught a large portion of his team’s innings.

Molina is not alone in catching a large percentage of his team’s innings. Here’s a quick breakdown.

Jason Kendall presents the most interesting case here. He has caught by far the most innings of any catcher in the majors, yet ranks among the worst hitters. His .347 OBP is the only saving grace in his line, which amounts to a .309 wOBA, which ranks 19th out of the 24 MLB catchers with at least 100 PA. Is Brayan Pena really that bad? Another good question: will this change with Ned Yost in charge?

Matt Wieters actually ranks worst in this group in terms of wOBA. This is more understandable, because he’s still a young player trying to find his way in the majors. At 83 percent of his team’s innings he’s catching more than most other catchers, which is a concern, but clearly not as big a concern as someone like Kendall, an older player catching nearly every inning his pitchers throw.

All four catchers on the list rank in the bottom half of catchers. Russell Martin started off hot but has cooled off considerably, especially in terms of power. He currently ranks 16th out of 24 qualifying catchers. Molina has caught a slightly lesser portion of his team’s innings, most likely because of Jason LaRue’s return. Still, maybe the extra work early in the season has taken a toll. He currently ranks 18th among peers in wOBA.

Drawing conclusions from this small a sample does no good. We can see that each of these catchers has caught a disproportionate number of his team’s innings, which intuitively sounds like a bad thing for the long haul. Reading too much into their production, however, will not yield any valuable insights. Every player slumps, and we can’t simply pin the poor play of Kendall, Martin, Molina, and Wieters on their playing time. Too may other factors are at work.

What we can do, and what I will do, is revisit this topic and these players throughout the season. I don’t think we’ll find any definitive connections, but perhaps we can gain an insight or two by seeing whether these catchers continue squatting for this many of their teams’ innings.

Fun game of the day – mix and match collections of first baseman that equal Justin Morneau in value so far this year.

Morneau: +3.6 wins

Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez, and Todd Helton: +3.6 wins
Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and Adam Dunn: +3.6 wins
Kevin Youkilis, Paul Konerko, and Mark Teixeira: +3.6 wins
Joey Votto, Billy Butler, and Ryan Howard: +3.6 wins

No matter who you pick, you’ll need multiple all-stars to put together a group that can match Morneau’s season to date. He’s been that good.

After years of being just a good-not-great hitter, Morneau looks to be doing the same thing that Gonzalez did last year: combining a small power spike with a huge jump in his walk rate. In 2009, Gonzalez drew 45 more walks than he did the year prior, while holding everything else mostly the same, and the result was a wOBA that jumped from the .360 range to over .400, making Gonzalez one of the game’s best players.

Morneau’s career walk rate is just 10.1 percent, as he began his career as a pretty aggressive free swinger, but it’s inched up over the last couple of years. This year, however, his BB% stands at 18.5 percent. He’s tied with The Greek God of Walks for the league lead in bases on balls, and at this pace, he’ll beat his previous career high by more than 50 walks.

At age 29, it appears that Morneau has found the value of being selective at the plate, and it’s paying off in a huge way. He won’t keep hitting .383, of course (that .444 BABIP is as unsustainable as any statistic in baseball), but as we saw with Gonzalez last year, the improvement in his walk rate could be real. While he already has one MVP award under his belt, perhaps this new and improved Justin Morneau will actually deserve one some day.

A mid-90’s fastball. A biting, mid-80’s slider. A sturdy 6-3, 210 pound frame. Since his days as a prized Dodgers prospect, Edwin Jackson has been touted as a potential ace. However, Baseball America’s number four prospect prior to the 2004 season wore out his welcome in L.A. and wallowed in mediocrity as a Tampa Bay Ray.

Shipped to the Tigers in December of 2008, Jackson finally began to break through with a 3.5 WAR season in 2009. He joined his fourth organization this past winter as part of “The Big Trade,” with Jackson and Ian Kennedy going to the Diamondbacks, Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke Detroit-bound and Curtis Granderson headed to the Bronx.

While a healthy, resurgent Kennedy is producing, Jackson’s 2010 season seemingly conjures up memories of his vexing Dodgers and Rays days. After surrendering five runs and getting taken deep twice in 7.2 innings pitched against the Blue Jays on Saturday, the 26-year-old righty owns a 6.28 ERA over his first ten starts. Jackson acquired the “underachiever” label over the years, with his results often falling short of his stuff. But beneath that ugly ERA, he has basically been the same guy who held his own in Detroit last year.

In 61.2 innings, Jackson has struck out 7.74 batters per nine innings, nearly a whiff per nine higher than his 2009 mark (6.77 K/9). He has issued 2.92 BB/9, almost identical to his walk rate with the Tigers (2.94 BB/9). And, after posting a 39.1 percent ground ball rate in ’09, Jackson has induced a grounder 47.3 percent of the time in 2010.

Jackson got a swinging strike 9.8 percent of the time as a Tiger, with a 79.2 percent contact rate. As a D-Back, he has garnered swinging strikes 11 percent and has a 76.1 percent contact rate (the MLB averages are roughly 8.5 percent and 81 percent, respectively). He’s also getting ahead in the count or inducing first pitch contact more, with his first pitch strike percentage rising from 54.5 percent in 2009 to 57.5 percent this season (58 percent MLB average).

Some of these “improvements” are due to Jackson’s switch from the American League to the National League. Derek Carty over at The Hardball Times conducted a study of pitchers switching leagues between 2004-2008 and found that AL pitchers going to the NL improved their K/9 by +0.57, decreased their BB/9 by -0.05 and lowered their RA/9 by -0.42. That helps explain the increase in Jackson’s K rate, swinging strikes and first pitch strikes, as well as his lowered contact rate. At worst, though, we could say he’s pitching as well as in 2009 and perhaps a bit better.

Sadly, that good work has been obscured by a bad luck trifecta of a lower-than-usual rate of stranding base runners, a high batting average on balls in play and an inflated home run per fly ball rate.

His LOB rate of 63.3 percent is well below his career 70.9 mark. Jackson has a .332 BABIP this year, compared to a .311 career average. He’s keeping the ball on the ground more, and grounders do have a higher BABIP than fly balls. It’s also true that Arizona’s infielders aren’t known as defensive wizards: 3B Mark Reynolds (career -7.6 UZR/150), SS Stephen Drew (-9), 2B Kelly Johnson (-5.3) and 1B Adam LaRoche (-3.4) all rate poorly by Ultimate Zone Rating. Even so, balls in play probably won’t continue to elude leather quite so often.

It’s also highly unlikely that Jackson continues to serve up so many homers. When hitters loft the ball, it’s leaving the park 16.4 percent of the time. Jackson’s career HR/FB rate is 10.2 percent, and the MLB average is about 11 percent.

Chase Field has a four-year HR/FB park factor of 106, meaning that closer to 12 percent of fly balls leave the yard in Arizona (taking the Chase HR/FB factor and multiplying it by the rate at which fly balls become home runs, 11 percent). So far, Jackson has been taken deep on eight of his 41 fly balls at home (19.5 HR/FB percentage). If Jackson had a 12 HR/FB percentage at Chase, he would have surrendered three less dingers–five, instead of eight. On the road, Jackson has given up a homer on two of his 20 fly balls (10 HR/FB%, close to the MLB average). While Jackson has served up 1.46 HR/9, that number “should” be about one per nine innings pitched.

While Jackson’s ERA might have Diamondbacks fans ready to label him a bust, he’s pitching as well as he ever has in the majors. His xFIP, based on K’s, walks and a normalized home run/fly ball rate, is 3.87. That ranks in the top 20 among NL starters tossing at least 50 innings. Jackson’s no ace, but he still looks like a solid starter after frustrating talent evaluators for years.

Entering the season, many forecasters, analysts, and other prognosticating types did not foresee either the Oakland Athletics nor the San Francisco Giants figuring into the playoff races of the 2010 season. However, entering the series on Friday, the Athletics sat in second place in the AL West, only four games behind the Texas Rangers and well within striking distance. Even more shocking was the Giants’ start to the season. They entered the series four games above .500 and only a game and a half behind the division leading San Diego Padres and a half game behind the Wild Card leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Shockingly to some, this Bay Area matchup could have a large impact on the playoff races on the west coast.

The series was all Oakland. The Athletics outscored the Giants 10-1 as part of a sweep. Athletics pitchers held Giants batters to a mere 14 hits and 6 walks in 99 plate appearances. Only three of the hits went for extra bases, and none for home runs. Starters Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, and Ben Sheets all went at least 6 innings. Cahill struck out four in 6.2 innings and allowed the only run of the series, Gonzalez struck out five in eight innings while only facing 27 batters, and Sheets struck out eight in six shutout innings in his best start of the year thus far.

Although A’s hitters got to Barry Zito for six runs on nine hits in the first game, they didn’t do much after that. Matt Cain received possibly the toughest luck loss of the year as his threw an eight inning complete game on Saturday, striking out four and only allowing six baserunners. The only run scored on him was unearned – the run scored after a HBP, error, sac bunt, and sac fly. Johnathan Sanchez’s wildness killed him on Sunday. He only allowed three hits, but five walks resulted in two runs, which was enough given the excellent performance of Sheets and the Athletics bullpen.

As a result of the sweep and Texas’s 2-1 series loss to the Chicago Cubs, the A’s now only sit two games out of the AL West lead. On the other side, the Giants dropped two games in the standings to the Padres, who defeated the Seattle Mariners twice over the weekend, as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers, who took two of three from the Detroit Tigers. They now sit 3.5 games out of the division lead and 2.5 out of the wild card, and now only have cushion of half a game over last year’s Wild Card champion, Colorado.

The Athletics are now potentially only a day away from first place, whereas the Giants are only a day away from fourth. This series has changed the complexion of the season for both of these teams – if Oakland finds itself in the playoffs come October and San Francisco is sitting at home, this series should be pointed to as a pivotal moment in both team’s seasons.

As Dave Cameron has already noted in these electronic pages, Brooks Conrad’s game-winning grand slam last Thursday was pretty amazing. In fact, a table inserted into Jon Cooper’s recap of the game (where you can also see video of the homer) reveals that “Brooks Conrad’s walk-off grand slam to overcome a three-run deficit was the 23rd in Major League history.”

Scrolling down said table, one sees — second to last — the name Babe Ruth, who ended a game via grand slam on September 24, 1925.

I wondered idly whether it might be possible to find an account of Ruth’s heroics. Sure enough, some able database-ing (coupled with some less able image editing) gives us the following story — written in some of the purplest prose you’d ever care to see — from the September 25th edition of the New York Times. I’ve included some notes after the article, so’s to help the modern reader fight his way through author James B. Harrison’s (now very obscure) references.

It’s very likely that the above story raises some questions for the modern reader. Questions like:

Q. Who the frig is Ralph Henry Barbour?
A. Barbour was, according to Wikipedia, “an American novelist, who wrote popular works of sports fiction for boys.” Among his bibliography, one finds such titles as Double Play: A Story of School and Baseball, Finkler’s Field: A Story of School and Baseball, and the significantly naughtier sounding Partners Three, which I can only assume has kind of a Wild Things vibe to it.

Q. Who the frig are Frank and Dick Merriwell?
A. Once again, thanks to Wikipedia, we find that Frank Merriwell was “the fictional creation of Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish.” The entry continues:

The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury.

Dick, it appears, was the half-brother of Frank.

Q. Who is Stover and what is he doing at Yale?
A. Stover at Yale is a book that, apparently, was actually pretty important at the beginning of the 20th century. For the third time, Wikipedia comes to the rescue, revealing:

Stover at Yale, by Owen Johnson, is a novel describing undergraduate life at Yale at the turn of the 20th century. The book was described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the “textbook of his generation”. Stover at Yale recounts Dink Stover’s navigation through the social structure at Yale and his struggles with social pressure.

Q. What’s that word “Siwash” mean near the end of recap?
A. In this case, the Random House Dictionary (by way of Dictionary.com) delivers the goods, defining it as “a conventional designation for any small, provincial college or for such colleges collectively (often prec. by old): students from old Siwash.”

The term, specifically, comes from “a fictional college of the same name in At Good Old Siwash (1911) and other books by U.S. author George Helgeson Fitch (1877–1915).” (Please do feel free to peruse Fitch’s Wikipedia page here.)

Q. Finally, who is this James B. Harrison character?
A. This is actually kinda hard to say. A cursory Google search reveals that Harrison seems to have written other sporting articles for the Times in and around the mid-1920s; however, there’s little else about the man who witnessed one of the earliest walk-offs of its kind.

Middle relievers need some special attribute, performance, or history to garner attention. Here are two that qualify.

Jonathan Venters LH Atlanta

The Braves selected Venters out of a Florida high school in the 30th round of the 2003 draft. Venters started 20 games before undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing the 2006 season. 94 minor league appearances and 71 starts later, Venters’ minor league numbers were mediocre – 6.6 strikeouts per nine and 4.1 walks. The Braves installed him in their pen as the mop-up man this season and the results have been overwhelming. A groundball rate nearing 60% and a swinging strike rate of 14% are reasons enough to catch attention. A mid-90s fastball and occasional curveball have made Venters a pain to lefties, which, not to typecast every failed lefty starter as a potential LOOGY, but Venters would seemingly fit that role if his minor league numbers are indicative.

John Axford RH Milwaukee

Truthfully, Axford’s Triple-A numbers aren’t even the most impressive thing about him – although striking out 11 batters per nine is pretty nifty. This is a special circumstance where it’s more than just the performances that endear a fan base to a player. It extends well beyond his birthday (April 1st), too. Actually, it’s all about the ‘stache. Various agents of propaganda have stated pitchers of now lack the fortitude of their profession’s ancestors. When Axford pitches, it’s the visual mustachio concerto that the game so desperately needs. That thing will never have a down game. Never. Not ever. Not even when Axford’s mug displays a hangdog look after allowing a game-winning home run. Unfortunately no images exist of the masterpiece, yet.

As for Axford’s pitching … yeah, he’s the garden variety hard-throwing righty with control issues. What the world really needs is a pen with Axford, Dale Thayer, and Clay Zavada.