- July 1, 2011
- August 6, 2012
- July 31, 2013
- June 24, 2014
- July 30, 2015
- June 12, 2016
Those are the dates throughout Carlos Santana's career in which he hit his 12th home run. As you can see, for a variety of reasons, Santana is vastly ahead of his home run pace in full seasons since his career started back in 2010.
What's really fun with this is that he's only hit clean-up six times, instead, finding his games split almost evenly between the lead-off slot, and hitting fifth behind Mike Napoli. What's equally interesting about that is in those six games hitting clean-up, he's hit three of his home runs, while hitting four and five hitting lead-off and fifth respectively.
I've also seen and heard a bunch of folks discuss Santana's move to the primary DH as the main reason for his supposed increase in Home Run power, but just a cursory look at the numbers disagrees with that take as well. In Santana's 18 games as a first baseman, he has eight home runs, while only four in his 42 games as a DH. Santana has proclaimed a disinterest in DHing over the years, and perhaps we're seeing that mystical believe played out before our very eyes.
Just a couple of other interesting tidbits regarding Santana's home run power. 11 of his homers are as a righthanded hitter, hitting against a left handed pitcher, with only one coming against a righty, as a lefty. Seven of his homers have been solo shots, with seven of his homers being considered Medium Leverage, using the Leverage index. None of his homers have ultimately been considered high leverage, so take that for what it's worth.
Taking all of this into account, Santana's BABIP is exceedingly low, as is his BB%, but his K% is at a career low right now. As could be expected, his isolated power is ridiculously high, and his wRC+ is slightly below normal. Please understand that all of this is a really, REALLY small sample size.
I guess that was the point, right? Santana has a bunch of home runs in only 61 games...LESS THAN 30 HOME RUNS BE DAMNED!
2. Basketball Wifes, Wife, Stephen Curry--If I'm to be fair, I didn't know about this until earlier this morning when fellow EHC alum Steve Orbanek texted me about Ayesha Curry, and her tweet response to LeBron James' response to Klay Thompson's response to Draymond Green's suspension. Did you follow all of that?
I'm not going to post the tweet, but I will quote it. After LeBron said multiple times he was going to take the high road, Ayesha's response? "High Road. invisible bridge used to step over said person when open floor is available left to right."
This is where we're at, I suppose. As I was reading the tweet out loud, my wife, who could care a less about the NBA game, began spouting off names of NBA wifes and girlfriends like it was her business. When I delved into it a little more, I found out there was a show, called Basketball Wives, and a spinoff called Basketball Wives LA. What's even better is that most of these basketball wives are ex-wives and ex-fiancees.
Scintillating.
I thought for sure that I'd see Ayesha Curry on the show, but alas, she wasn't. Good news though. She apparently either has, or is going to have, a show on the Food Network. Man, I can't wait to see the pregame for that.
But I'll take the High Road.
3. Game 5, NBA, NBA Finals--The Cavs are down 3-1 in this series, and while I know it's over,, I can't help but hold out that glimmer of hope that it's not.
I mean, Golden State was down 3-1 against Oklahoma City, and they won, right?
A couple of things here: Cleveland, while down 3-1, has two games in Oakland at Oracle Arena. Golden State, when down 3-1, had two games in Oakland at Oracle Arena. The difference? Obviously, it's their home damn court, and they went 50-3 there this year, including the playoffs.
I know, Draymond Green is out of the game, but I don't think this gives the Cavs all that big of an advantage through Game 5, or the rest of the series.
But...the series isn't over...and it would be a great story. It's just not one I'm buying into as of yet.
4. Cleveland titles, UFC and AHL, Stipe Miocic and the Lake Erie Monsters--Are Cleveland fans that cantankerous enough in our losing, that we have to berate the winning? All damn weekend long, I've been listening to what's real, and what's not real. The fun, for me, has been watching the fans of both the UFC and the AHL, who consider actual championships in actual events...well...actual...completely dive into winning something.
Good onya.
Everybody has to define everything. In doing so, Cleveland has been labeled a town that always loses. We get to see the montage every night, and we get wonderful movies discussing it.
You know what?
Screw that.
The Cavs have been in the NBA Finals for two straight freakin' years. I'm pretty damn sick of the fans that somehow, after watching a really shitty basketball team in Cleveland since LeBron left in 2010, jump on the high horse and BITCH about...I don't know...ANYTHING. Do we lack that much depth?
As for Miocic and the Monsters, thanks for bringing titles home to Cleveland. Obviously, we're hungry for them, and as far as I'm concerned...the dumbass "jinx" is over, if there ever was one.
Of course, it's always fun to bitch about national rhetoric on one hand, and then dive into the national rhetoric on the other.
Awesome.
5. Danny Salazar, SP, Cleveland--I'm saving the best for last. It's not too early to start the Cy Young banter. Salazar's going to win it, so you might as well jump on board now. #CyYoungSalazar.
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